In geological terms, Iceland is a young Island. It started to form about 20 million years ago from a series of volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where it lies between the North American and Eurasian plates that spread at a rate of approximately 2.5 centimeters per year.
Iceland remained, for a long time, one of the world's last larger islands uninhabited by humans (the others being New Zealand and Madagascar). The exact date that humans first reached the Island is uncertain.
The Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, with eruptions occurring on average roughly every 3 years (in the 20th century 39 volcanic eruptions occurred on and around). The hotspot is partially responsible for the high volcanic activity which has formed the Island of Iceland. The first documented eruption in 939 was the largest flood basalt in historic time. An estimated 18km3 of magma poured out of the earth. Evidence from tree rings from around the Northern Hemisphere indicated that the eruption caused the summer of 940 to be one of the coolest summers in 1,500 years. Summer average temperatures in places as Central Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska, and Central Asia were lower than normal.
The first permanent settler in the Island is usually considered to have been a Norwegian chieftain named Ing'Olfr and his wife, Hall'Veig Fro'Oad'Ottir, together with his brother Hj'Orl'Eif. A medieval Icelandic written work describes in considerable detail the settlement (Land'Nam) of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th CE. The people were primarily of Norwegian, Irish and Scottish origin. Some of the Irish and Scots were slave and servants of the Norse chiefs, according to the sagas of Icelanders, the Land'Nama'Bok, and other documents.
The traditional explanation for the exodus from Norway is that people were fleeing the harsh rule of the Norwegian king Har'Ald Fair'Hair. He reigned from 872 to 930 CE.
The settlers worshipped the Norse gods, among them Odin, Thor, Freyr and Freyja. By the 10th CE, political pressure from Europe to convert to Christianity mounted. In the year 1,000 CE, as a civil war between the religious groups seemed to arouse strongly in debating which religion they should practice: Norse or Christianity, the established assembly (Al'Thing=Al'Pingi) appointed one of the chieftains, Thor'Geir Lj'Osvet'Nin'Gag'Odi (law speaker from 985 to 1001), to decide over the matter. Thor'Geir himself a Norse priest, decided in favor of Christianity after a day and night of silent meditation under a fur blanket. Under the compromise, Norse religion could still be practiced in private and several old customs were retained. After his decision, Thor'Geir himself converted to Christianity. Upon returning to his farm, he is said to have thrown the idols of his gods into a nearby waterfall, for which it is now known in Icelandic as the "waterfall of the gods" (Goda'Foss).
Iceland is unusually suited for waterfalls. The Island has a North Atlantic climate that produces frequent rain and snow and a near-Arctic location that produces large glaciers, whose summer melts feed many rivers. As a result, it is home to a number of large and powerful waterfalls.
Monday, June 25, 2018
Thursday, June 21, 2018
THE BELIEFS OF THE ANCIENT MAYANS.
The Mayans centered their power in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala. They excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar making, mathematics, and astronomical system. They left behind an great amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. They built city-states that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.
The earliest Maya settlements date around 1800 BC. The rise and fall of the civilization lasted over 3,000 years. Maya royalty recorded their history in writing and in imagery carved on monuments. The commoners recorded their own history in a different way, not only their history as a family but also their place in the cosmos.
Anthropologists say they have found evidence indicating that Mayans recorded their family history by burying it within their homes. They regularly ended their homes by razing the walls, burning the floors and placing artifacts and human remains on top before burning them again. The things buried didn't mean that people forgot about them. They buried his people in the exact same spot and removing bones from earlier ancestors to place them in other sacred spots, or removed pieces of them to be kept as mementos. The de-animation and re-animation of the home marked the passage of time and the cyclical nature of life. The arrangements, color and condition of the buried artifacts represented a sacred language of symbolic meaning.
These rituals occurred every 40 or 50 years and marked important dates in the Maya calendar. After termination, the family built a new home on the old foundation, using broken and whole vessels that had a very significant part of the dedication rites, colorful fragments, animal bones and rocks to mark important areas and to provide ballast for a new plaster floor.
Colors, such as red, which represented the East, Life, and Rebirth, were commonly used in burials and were generally found on the East side of the body or group of artifacts. Burial in the homes was common but only a few family members were entombed in there. Other artifacts -including groups of obsidian rocks- were also used in burials representing Mayan belief in the 9 levels of the underworld or the 13 levels of heaven.
Maya rulers and elite class had a basis in the domestic rituals of their subjects. Every royal emperor emerged or developed from domestic practices.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
THE ANCIENT AFRICA.
The ancient name of the African continent is "Al'Kebul'An" meaning "Mother of Mankind." It is the oldest and the only word of indigenous origin that was used by the Moors, Nubians, Carthagenians (Khart-Haddans), and Ethiopians.
The name Africa, adopted by almost everyone today, was given by the Greeks and continued by the Romans. It is recorded from the time when the Roman Empire took occupation of the majority of the continent. The practice in these type of occupation was the complete disconnection of the local people with their own culture, deities and knowledge, by renaming all the icons, thereby disconnecting the significance, meaning, and sacredness from any specific belief.
Africa is distinctly unique among the 7 continents. It is the second-largest (a fifth of the earth's total land mass) continent both in size and population (1 billion). About 15% of the world's population resides in Africa. It is rich in cultural heritage and diversity (people speak over 1,500 different languages), and has an enormous wealth of natural resources.
The longest river in the world, the Nile (6,650 km/4,132 mi), is located in Africa. The world's largest desert, the Sahara, is in Africa too, which is almost the size of the United States. Victoria Falls, in addition, is the largest waterfall in the African continent, it is 355 feet high and one mile wide. The largest island in Africa, also the fourth largest in the world, is Madagascar. Lake Victoria is the largest one in the continent and the second-largest freshwater lake in the world, spanning 26,830 square miles.
The highest point of the continent is Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It rises 5,895 m/19,340 ft above sea level.
According to paleontology, the early hominids evolved in Africa 10 to 5 million years ago. Around 1.8 million years ago, the working man first appeared in the fossil record. They were fairly small brained and used primitive stone tools. The earliest physical evidence of astronomical activity appears to be a lunar calendar found on a bone dated to between 23,000 and 18,000 BC. Around 16,000 BC, from the Red Sea hills to the Northern Ethiopian Highlands, nuts, grasses, and tubers were being collected for food. By 13,000 to 11,000, people began collecting wild grains. Between 10,000 and 8,000 BC, North East Africa was cultivating wheat and barley and raising sheep and cattle. A wet climatic phase turned the Ethiopian Highlands into a mountain forest. Around 7,000BC, the settlers domesticated donkeys. Cushitic speakers, partially turning away from cattle herding, domesticated love-grass (teff) and finger millet between 5,500 and 3,500 BC.
The first major civilization in Africa was Egypt, centered about the Nile River delta, and it truly began around 3,150 BC when the ruler Nemes unified the entire area into a kingdom. They referred to the people West of the Nile, ancestral to the Berbers, as Libyans. The Libyans were agriculturalists like the Mauri of Morocco and the Numidians of Central and Eastern Algeria and Tunis. They were also nomadic, having the horse, and occupied the arid pastures and desert. Berber desert nomads were typically in conflict with Berber coastal agriculturalists.
The ancient history of ancient Africa is inextricable linked to that of the Ancient Near East. Nubia was a major source of copper as well as gold. The use of gold and silver in Egypt dates back to the pre-dynastic period.
The Phoenicians were Mediterranean seamen in constant search for valuable metals such as copper, gold, tin, and lead. They began to populate the North African coast with settlements -trading and mixing with the native Berbers.
In the Horn of Africa, a peninsula in the East, South West of the Red Sea, an ancient kingdom centered in then city of Axum ruled modern-day Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia and the coastal area of the Western part of the Arabian Peninsula. The ancient Egyptians established ties with the Land of Punt, an ancient kingdom, in 2,350 BC. Punt was a trade partner and it was located in modern-day Somalia, Dji'Bouti or Eritrea.
South Africa, the area of the continent that lies South of the Sahara desert, developed independent in those times.
The name Africa, adopted by almost everyone today, was given by the Greeks and continued by the Romans. It is recorded from the time when the Roman Empire took occupation of the majority of the continent. The practice in these type of occupation was the complete disconnection of the local people with their own culture, deities and knowledge, by renaming all the icons, thereby disconnecting the significance, meaning, and sacredness from any specific belief.
Africa is distinctly unique among the 7 continents. It is the second-largest (a fifth of the earth's total land mass) continent both in size and population (1 billion). About 15% of the world's population resides in Africa. It is rich in cultural heritage and diversity (people speak over 1,500 different languages), and has an enormous wealth of natural resources.
The longest river in the world, the Nile (6,650 km/4,132 mi), is located in Africa. The world's largest desert, the Sahara, is in Africa too, which is almost the size of the United States. Victoria Falls, in addition, is the largest waterfall in the African continent, it is 355 feet high and one mile wide. The largest island in Africa, also the fourth largest in the world, is Madagascar. Lake Victoria is the largest one in the continent and the second-largest freshwater lake in the world, spanning 26,830 square miles.
The highest point of the continent is Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It rises 5,895 m/19,340 ft above sea level.
According to paleontology, the early hominids evolved in Africa 10 to 5 million years ago. Around 1.8 million years ago, the working man first appeared in the fossil record. They were fairly small brained and used primitive stone tools. The earliest physical evidence of astronomical activity appears to be a lunar calendar found on a bone dated to between 23,000 and 18,000 BC. Around 16,000 BC, from the Red Sea hills to the Northern Ethiopian Highlands, nuts, grasses, and tubers were being collected for food. By 13,000 to 11,000, people began collecting wild grains. Between 10,000 and 8,000 BC, North East Africa was cultivating wheat and barley and raising sheep and cattle. A wet climatic phase turned the Ethiopian Highlands into a mountain forest. Around 7,000BC, the settlers domesticated donkeys. Cushitic speakers, partially turning away from cattle herding, domesticated love-grass (teff) and finger millet between 5,500 and 3,500 BC.
The first major civilization in Africa was Egypt, centered about the Nile River delta, and it truly began around 3,150 BC when the ruler Nemes unified the entire area into a kingdom. They referred to the people West of the Nile, ancestral to the Berbers, as Libyans. The Libyans were agriculturalists like the Mauri of Morocco and the Numidians of Central and Eastern Algeria and Tunis. They were also nomadic, having the horse, and occupied the arid pastures and desert. Berber desert nomads were typically in conflict with Berber coastal agriculturalists.
The ancient history of ancient Africa is inextricable linked to that of the Ancient Near East. Nubia was a major source of copper as well as gold. The use of gold and silver in Egypt dates back to the pre-dynastic period.
The Phoenicians were Mediterranean seamen in constant search for valuable metals such as copper, gold, tin, and lead. They began to populate the North African coast with settlements -trading and mixing with the native Berbers.
In the Horn of Africa, a peninsula in the East, South West of the Red Sea, an ancient kingdom centered in then city of Axum ruled modern-day Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia and the coastal area of the Western part of the Arabian Peninsula. The ancient Egyptians established ties with the Land of Punt, an ancient kingdom, in 2,350 BC. Punt was a trade partner and it was located in modern-day Somalia, Dji'Bouti or Eritrea.
South Africa, the area of the continent that lies South of the Sahara desert, developed independent in those times.
Monday, June 18, 2018
THE AZTEC WAY OF LIFE.
Religion was extremely important in Aztec life and was part of all levels of their society. The word for priest was "Tlamac'Azqui " meaning "giver of things." The main responsibility of the priesthood was to make sure that the gods were given their due in the form of offerings, ceremonies, and sacrifices. They had a very strict training, and had to live very austere and ethical lives. Additionally they had classes of religious specialists not affiliated with the established priesthood. This included wandering curers, black magicians, and other occultists (most of which they feared) and hermits. Military orders, professions, and wards each operated their own lodge dedicated to their specific god. The heads of these lodges had some ritual and moral duties, that included annually obtaining and training a suitable slave or captive to represent and die as the "image" of their deity in a specific festival.
The Aztec world consisted of three main parts, the earth world on which humans lived, an underworld (Mic'Tlan) which belonged to the dead and the upper plane in the sky. Each world was associated with specific set of deities and astronomical objects.
The earth and the nether world were both open for humans to enter, whereas the upper plane in the sky was impenetrable to humans. Geographical features such as caves and mountains held symbolic value as places of crossing between worlds. Existence was envisioned as being cyclical, straddling the two worlds in a cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. The cardinal directions were connected to the layout of the spiritual world, each direction associated with specific colors and gods.
The upper and nether worlds were both layered. The underworld had 9 layers which were inhabited by different deities and mythical beings. The sky had 13 layers, the highest of which was called "place of duality"(Omey'Ocan) and which held the progenitor dual god Omet'Eotl.
Other places were "the place of Tlal'Oc"(Tlal'Ocan), a verdant spring-like place with abundant water where people who drowned had their afterlife, and a mythical "place of origin of the gods"(Tamoan-Chan).
The Aztecs believed that after death the soul went to one of these three places: Tlal'Ocan, Mic'Tlan, and the sun. For fallen warriors' souls and women who died in childbirth, they were transformed into hummingbirds that would follow the sun on its journey through the sky. Souls of people who died from less glorious causes would go to Mic'Tlan (place of the dead). And those who drowned would go to Tlal'Ocan.
According to tradition, the Major Temple (Templo Mayor) was one of the main temples of the Aztecs in their capital city of Ten'Och'Titlan, which is now Mexico City. It was dedicated simultaneously to two gods, Hui'Zilopoch'Tli, god of war and Tlaloc, god of rain and agriculture, each of which had a shrine at the top of the pyramid with separate staircases. The temple is located on the exact spot where the god Huit'Zilopoch'Tli was born. He emerged from his mother (Coat'Licue) fully grown and fully armed to battle his sister Coyol'Xauhqui and her brothers who intended to kill him and their mother.
Huit'Zilpoch'Tli was victorious, slaying and dismembering his sister. Her body was then thrown to the bottom of the hill. The various levels of the Temple represent the cosmology of the Aztec world. First of all, it is aligned with the cardinal directions with gates that connect to roads leading in these directions. This indicates the place where the plane of the human world in which the human race live in intersect the 13 levels of the heavens, called Topan, and the 9 levels of the underworld, called Mic'Tlan.
It was at the time the largest and most important active ceremonial center.
The Aztec world consisted of three main parts, the earth world on which humans lived, an underworld (Mic'Tlan) which belonged to the dead and the upper plane in the sky. Each world was associated with specific set of deities and astronomical objects.
The earth and the nether world were both open for humans to enter, whereas the upper plane in the sky was impenetrable to humans. Geographical features such as caves and mountains held symbolic value as places of crossing between worlds. Existence was envisioned as being cyclical, straddling the two worlds in a cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. The cardinal directions were connected to the layout of the spiritual world, each direction associated with specific colors and gods.
The upper and nether worlds were both layered. The underworld had 9 layers which were inhabited by different deities and mythical beings. The sky had 13 layers, the highest of which was called "place of duality"(Omey'Ocan) and which held the progenitor dual god Omet'Eotl.
Other places were "the place of Tlal'Oc"(Tlal'Ocan), a verdant spring-like place with abundant water where people who drowned had their afterlife, and a mythical "place of origin of the gods"(Tamoan-Chan).
The Aztecs believed that after death the soul went to one of these three places: Tlal'Ocan, Mic'Tlan, and the sun. For fallen warriors' souls and women who died in childbirth, they were transformed into hummingbirds that would follow the sun on its journey through the sky. Souls of people who died from less glorious causes would go to Mic'Tlan (place of the dead). And those who drowned would go to Tlal'Ocan.
According to tradition, the Major Temple (Templo Mayor) was one of the main temples of the Aztecs in their capital city of Ten'Och'Titlan, which is now Mexico City. It was dedicated simultaneously to two gods, Hui'Zilopoch'Tli, god of war and Tlaloc, god of rain and agriculture, each of which had a shrine at the top of the pyramid with separate staircases. The temple is located on the exact spot where the god Huit'Zilopoch'Tli was born. He emerged from his mother (Coat'Licue) fully grown and fully armed to battle his sister Coyol'Xauhqui and her brothers who intended to kill him and their mother.
Huit'Zilpoch'Tli was victorious, slaying and dismembering his sister. Her body was then thrown to the bottom of the hill. The various levels of the Temple represent the cosmology of the Aztec world. First of all, it is aligned with the cardinal directions with gates that connect to roads leading in these directions. This indicates the place where the plane of the human world in which the human race live in intersect the 13 levels of the heavens, called Topan, and the 9 levels of the underworld, called Mic'Tlan.
It was at the time the largest and most important active ceremonial center.
Monday, March 14, 2016
THE CROWN OF ARAGON
The Crown of Aragon was a composite Monarchy, referred to as a confederation of individual polities or Kingdoms ruled by one King with a personal and Dynastic Union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, at the height of its power, the Crown of Aragon was a state with primarily Maritime Realms, controlling a large portion of present-day Eastern Spain, parts of what is now Southern France, and a Mediterranean Empire which included the Balearic Islands, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, Southern Italy (from 1442) and parts of Greece (until 1338).
The component Realms of the Crown were not united politically except at the level of the King, who ruled over each autonomous polity according to "its own laws." The different lands of the Crown (Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia, Kingdom of Valencia) functioned more as a confederation.
The political center of the Crown was Zaragoza, where the Kings were crowned. The city lies by the Ebro and its tributaries, the Huerva and Gallego, in the center of both Aragon and the Ebro Basin.
The city was called by the ancient Romans "Caesar-Augusta." Augustus founded the city (it is known between 25 to 12BC) and used the same location to settle army veterans from the Cantabrian Wars. The Wars were the final stage of the 200 years long Roman Conquest of Hispania, in what today are the provinces of Cantabria, Asturias, and Leon, in NorthWestern Spain. This Warlike Peoples presented fierce resistance to Roman domination. More than 50,000 soldiers were needed to subdue the Region. The Emperor himself moved to Segi-Sama (modern Sas-Amon, Burgos), to supervise the campaign personally. The major fighting was completed in 19BC, although there were minor rebellions until 16BC and the Romans had to station 2 Legions (X Gemina and IIII Macedonica) there for 70 more years.
Long before the First Punic War (264 to 241BC), one of three wars fought between Ancient Carth-Age and the Roman Republic for the supremacy, primarily on the Mediterranean Island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa, between the 8th and 7th centuries, the Phoenicians (and later the Carthagenians) had already appeared in the Southern part of the Iberian Peninsula as well as in the East, to the South of the Ebro, one of the most important Rivers of the Region and the 2nd longest after the Tagus and the 2nd biggest both by discharge volume and by drainage area after the Duero.
Their numerous commercial settlements based throughout these coastal strips provided an outlet into the Mediterranean commerce for minerals and other resources. This had the indirect effect of the native peninsular cultures adopting Eastern characteristics. Phoenician trade in the Peninsula included articles both coming from and heading to Greece. As a commercial power of the Western Mediterranean, Carth-Age expanded its interests to the island of Sicily and the South of Italy. This growing influence over the Region proved to be an annoyance for Rome. This conflict of commercial interests led to the Punic Wars. A decisive defeat for Carth-Age at Zama wiped the city from the historical scene.
The battle was fought around October 19, 202 BC. A Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Scipio), with crucial support from Numidian leader Masi-Nissa, defeated the Carthaginian Force led by the commander Hannibal, despite Hannibal possessing numerical superiority. This was because many in his army were recent conscripts, and the vaunted Numidian Cavalry (Mercenaries) which Hannibal had employed with great success in Italy had by then switched sides to the Romans.
Despite having vanquished their rival Mediterranean power, the Romans still took another 200 years to bring the entire Peninsula under their control through an expansionist policy that earned the enmity of practically all of the communities of the interior. The abuses to which these people were submitted was the cause for the strong anti-Roman sentiment throughout this nations. They kept their ancestral identification at the same time that they served the Romans.
Other leading cultural, administrative and economic centers of the Crown of Aragon, besides Zaragoza, were the cities of Barcelona and Valencia. Finally, Palma (Majorca) was an additional important city and seaport.
The Crown eventually included the Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia (12th century County of Barcelona), the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Majorca, the Kingdom of Sicily, Malta, the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sardinia. For brief periods it also controlled Montpellier, Provence, Corsica, and the twin Duchy of Athens and Neopatras in Latin Greece.
The countries that are today known as Spain and Portugal spent the Middle Ages after 722 (initial stage of the Islamic Conquest in the 710s and the Fall of Granada) in an intermittent struggle to expanding "Christian Kingdoms" in 1492. It ended immediately before the European landing to the New World which ushered the Era of the Portuguese and Spanish Colonial Empires.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, at the height of its power, the Crown of Aragon was a state with primarily Maritime Realms, controlling a large portion of present-day Eastern Spain, parts of what is now Southern France, and a Mediterranean Empire which included the Balearic Islands, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, Southern Italy (from 1442) and parts of Greece (until 1338).
The component Realms of the Crown were not united politically except at the level of the King, who ruled over each autonomous polity according to "its own laws." The different lands of the Crown (Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia, Kingdom of Valencia) functioned more as a confederation.
The political center of the Crown was Zaragoza, where the Kings were crowned. The city lies by the Ebro and its tributaries, the Huerva and Gallego, in the center of both Aragon and the Ebro Basin.
The city was called by the ancient Romans "Caesar-Augusta." Augustus founded the city (it is known between 25 to 12BC) and used the same location to settle army veterans from the Cantabrian Wars. The Wars were the final stage of the 200 years long Roman Conquest of Hispania, in what today are the provinces of Cantabria, Asturias, and Leon, in NorthWestern Spain. This Warlike Peoples presented fierce resistance to Roman domination. More than 50,000 soldiers were needed to subdue the Region. The Emperor himself moved to Segi-Sama (modern Sas-Amon, Burgos), to supervise the campaign personally. The major fighting was completed in 19BC, although there were minor rebellions until 16BC and the Romans had to station 2 Legions (X Gemina and IIII Macedonica) there for 70 more years.
Long before the First Punic War (264 to 241BC), one of three wars fought between Ancient Carth-Age and the Roman Republic for the supremacy, primarily on the Mediterranean Island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa, between the 8th and 7th centuries, the Phoenicians (and later the Carthagenians) had already appeared in the Southern part of the Iberian Peninsula as well as in the East, to the South of the Ebro, one of the most important Rivers of the Region and the 2nd longest after the Tagus and the 2nd biggest both by discharge volume and by drainage area after the Duero.
Their numerous commercial settlements based throughout these coastal strips provided an outlet into the Mediterranean commerce for minerals and other resources. This had the indirect effect of the native peninsular cultures adopting Eastern characteristics. Phoenician trade in the Peninsula included articles both coming from and heading to Greece. As a commercial power of the Western Mediterranean, Carth-Age expanded its interests to the island of Sicily and the South of Italy. This growing influence over the Region proved to be an annoyance for Rome. This conflict of commercial interests led to the Punic Wars. A decisive defeat for Carth-Age at Zama wiped the city from the historical scene.
The battle was fought around October 19, 202 BC. A Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Scipio), with crucial support from Numidian leader Masi-Nissa, defeated the Carthaginian Force led by the commander Hannibal, despite Hannibal possessing numerical superiority. This was because many in his army were recent conscripts, and the vaunted Numidian Cavalry (Mercenaries) which Hannibal had employed with great success in Italy had by then switched sides to the Romans.
Despite having vanquished their rival Mediterranean power, the Romans still took another 200 years to bring the entire Peninsula under their control through an expansionist policy that earned the enmity of practically all of the communities of the interior. The abuses to which these people were submitted was the cause for the strong anti-Roman sentiment throughout this nations. They kept their ancestral identification at the same time that they served the Romans.
Other leading cultural, administrative and economic centers of the Crown of Aragon, besides Zaragoza, were the cities of Barcelona and Valencia. Finally, Palma (Majorca) was an additional important city and seaport.
The Crown eventually included the Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia (12th century County of Barcelona), the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Majorca, the Kingdom of Sicily, Malta, the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sardinia. For brief periods it also controlled Montpellier, Provence, Corsica, and the twin Duchy of Athens and Neopatras in Latin Greece.
The countries that are today known as Spain and Portugal spent the Middle Ages after 722 (initial stage of the Islamic Conquest in the 710s and the Fall of Granada) in an intermittent struggle to expanding "Christian Kingdoms" in 1492. It ended immediately before the European landing to the New World which ushered the Era of the Portuguese and Spanish Colonial Empires.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
XANADU THE CAPITAL OF KUBKAI-KHAN Part Two
The lament of Toghon-Temur-Khan (Sage-Khan), concerning the loss of Xana-Du in 1368, is recorded in many Mongolian historical Chronicles. The Golden Summary, a 17th century Mongolian Chronicle is translated as follows:
My Xana-Du, straight and wonderfully made of various jewels of different kinds. My 8th-sided white stupa made of various precious objects. My City made of 9 jewels, where I sat holding the reputation of the Great Nation. Jewel Xana-Du was built with many an adornment.
My yellow steppe of Xana-Du, the Summer residence of ancient Khans. My city with no Winter residence to spend the Winter. My Summer residence of Kai-Ping Xana-Du. My pleasant Yellow Steppe. In Kai-Ping Xana-Du, I spent the Summer in peaceful relaxation.
My great square City of Xana-du with 4 Gates, where I sat holding the reputation of the 40 Tumen Mongols. My reputation! My precious Xana-Du, from where I surveyed and observed the Mongols of every place.
An impure bad name has come upon the Sage Khan. A conflicting bad name has come upon the Sage Khan. A circling bad name has come upon the Sage Khan. The awe-inspiring reputation carried by the Lord Khan. The Sage Khan, the reincarnation of all Bodhi-Sattvas.
My cool and pleasant Kai-Ping Xana-du. My dear Xana-Du that I have lost on the Year of the bald Red Rabbit. My dear City of Xana-Du, the Iron Stair has been broken. They besieged and took precious Xana-Du. The dear Xana-Du built by the extraordinary Wise Khan (Kublai). The bejeweled Hearth City, the revered sanctuary of the entire nation.
Your pleasant mist when on early mornings I ascended to the heights! The Cane Palace had been established in sanctity. Kublai the Wise Khan spent his summers there!
Lagan and Ibagu made it known to me, the Sage Khan. My deadly mistake of not heeding the words of Lagan and Ibagu! In full knowledge I let go of dear Xana-Du. I have lost the whole of it - to China. I have lost Kai-Ping Xana-Du entirely - to China. Caught unaware I have lost dear Xana-Du.
Nobles born foolish cared not for their estate. By a hapless error they have been lost - to China.
I was left alone weeping. I became like a calf left behind on its native pastures.
By the destiny willed by Khan-Tengri (King Heaven) has lost dear Xana-Du. Lost the Golden Palace of the Wise Khan (Kublai), who is the reincarnation of all the gods.
Who is the golden seed of Genghis Khan the son of Khan-Tengri (King Heaven). I hid the Jade Seal of the Lord Khan in my sleeve and left (the city). Fighting through a multitude of enemies, I broke through and left. From the fighters may Buqa-Temur Chinsan for ten thousand generations become a Khan in the golden line of the Lord Khan.
When I left home, it was then that the jewel of religion and doctrine was left behind. In the future may wise and enlightened Bodhi-Sattvas take heed and understand. May it go around and establish itself on the Golden Lineage of Genghis Khan.
My Xana-Du, straight and wonderfully made of various jewels of different kinds. My 8th-sided white stupa made of various precious objects. My City made of 9 jewels, where I sat holding the reputation of the Great Nation. Jewel Xana-Du was built with many an adornment.
My yellow steppe of Xana-Du, the Summer residence of ancient Khans. My city with no Winter residence to spend the Winter. My Summer residence of Kai-Ping Xana-Du. My pleasant Yellow Steppe. In Kai-Ping Xana-Du, I spent the Summer in peaceful relaxation.
My great square City of Xana-du with 4 Gates, where I sat holding the reputation of the 40 Tumen Mongols. My reputation! My precious Xana-Du, from where I surveyed and observed the Mongols of every place.
An impure bad name has come upon the Sage Khan. A conflicting bad name has come upon the Sage Khan. A circling bad name has come upon the Sage Khan. The awe-inspiring reputation carried by the Lord Khan. The Sage Khan, the reincarnation of all Bodhi-Sattvas.
My cool and pleasant Kai-Ping Xana-du. My dear Xana-Du that I have lost on the Year of the bald Red Rabbit. My dear City of Xana-Du, the Iron Stair has been broken. They besieged and took precious Xana-Du. The dear Xana-Du built by the extraordinary Wise Khan (Kublai). The bejeweled Hearth City, the revered sanctuary of the entire nation.
Your pleasant mist when on early mornings I ascended to the heights! The Cane Palace had been established in sanctity. Kublai the Wise Khan spent his summers there!
Lagan and Ibagu made it known to me, the Sage Khan. My deadly mistake of not heeding the words of Lagan and Ibagu! In full knowledge I let go of dear Xana-Du. I have lost the whole of it - to China. I have lost Kai-Ping Xana-Du entirely - to China. Caught unaware I have lost dear Xana-Du.
Nobles born foolish cared not for their estate. By a hapless error they have been lost - to China.
I was left alone weeping. I became like a calf left behind on its native pastures.
By the destiny willed by Khan-Tengri (King Heaven) has lost dear Xana-Du. Lost the Golden Palace of the Wise Khan (Kublai), who is the reincarnation of all the gods.
Who is the golden seed of Genghis Khan the son of Khan-Tengri (King Heaven). I hid the Jade Seal of the Lord Khan in my sleeve and left (the city). Fighting through a multitude of enemies, I broke through and left. From the fighters may Buqa-Temur Chinsan for ten thousand generations become a Khan in the golden line of the Lord Khan.
When I left home, it was then that the jewel of religion and doctrine was left behind. In the future may wise and enlightened Bodhi-Sattvas take heed and understand. May it go around and establish itself on the Golden Lineage of Genghis Khan.
Saturday, March 12, 2016
XANADU THE CAPITAL OF KUBLAI KHAN. Part one
Xana-Du, also known as Shang-Du, was the capital of Kublai-Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China, before he decided to move his throne to the Jin Dynasty capital of Zhong-Du ("Middle Capital"), which he renamed Khan-Baliq, present-day Bei-Jing. Xana-Du then became his Summer capital.
The Yuan Dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongolian Borj-Igin clan. Borj-Igin is the last name of the imperial clan of Gengis-Khan and his successors. He placed his father Genghis-Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the Dynasty. The senior Borj-Igids provided ruling princes for Mongolia and Ineer Mongolia until the 20th century. The clan formed the ruling class among the Mongols and some other peoples of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
Although the Mongols had ruled territories including today's North China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kubkai-Khan officially proclaimed the Yuan Dynasty in the traditional Chinese style, imposing the name Great Yuan.
His realm was isolated from other Khan-Ates and controlled most off the present-day China and its surrounding areas, including modern Mongolia and Korea. It was the 1st foreign dynasty to rule all of China and lasted until 1368. The Yuan Dynasty is considered both a successor to the Mongol Empire and as Imperial Chinese Dynasty. In addition to Emperor of China, Kublai-Khan claimed the title of Great-Khan, supreme over the other successors Khan-Ates.
In official Chinese histories, the Yuang Dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven, following the Song Dynasty and preceding the Ming Dynasty. The Mandate of Heaven is an ancient belief that Heaven (Tian) granted emperors the Right to Rule based on their ability to govern well and fairly. Heaven bestowed its mandate to a Just Ruler, the Son of Heaven. It depended on whether an Emperor was sufficiently virtuous to rule. It then would be transferred to those who would rule best. The fact that the ruler was overthrown was taken by itself as an indicator that the ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven. It was also a common belief that natural disasters such as famine and flood were other signs of Heaven's displeasure with the current ruler, so there would often be revolts following major environmental events. The Mandate of Heaven did not required that a legitimate ruler had to be of noble birth, and Dynasties were often founded by people of common birth (Hang and Ming Dynasties). The Mandate had no time limitations, depending instead on the Just and Able Performance of the Ruler and his heirs.
Genghis-Khan united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of the steppes and became Great-Khan in 1206. Under the reign of Genghis' 3rd son, Ogedei-Khan, Kublai, his nephew was offered a position in Xing-Zhou, Hebei. Kubkai was unable to read Chinese but had several Han Chinese teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sor-Ghagh-Tani, a Keraite (one of the 5 dominant Turco-Mongol tribal confederations [Khan-Ates]) princess, married to Tolui, Genghis' youngest son. She became one of the most powerful and competent women in the Mongol Empire. She raised her sons to be leaders, and maneuvered the family politics so that all 4 sons, Mong-Ke-Khan, Hulagu-Khan, Ariq-Boke, and Kublai-Khan, went to inherit the legacy of their grandfathers Genghis-Khan. She was a Christian, spacifically a member of the Church of the East (Nestorian Christianity). As a moving spirit behind the Mongol Empire, Sor-Ghagh- Tani was responsible for much of the trade openings and intellectual exchange made possible by this position, the largest contiguous empire in World History.
Xanadu was located in what is now called Inner Mongolia, 350km/220mi North of Beij-Ing. The layout is roughly square shaped with sides of about 2200m. It consisted of an "outer city" and an "inner city" in the SouthEast of the capital which also had a square layout with sides about 1400m. The palace where Kublai-Khan stayed in Summer, had sides of 550m. At its zenith, over 100,000 people lived within its walls.
The city was designed by Chinese architect Liu Bing-Zhong from 1252 to 1256, implementing a profoundly Chinese scheme for the city's architecture. The city was named Kai-Ping in the beginning and in 1264 was renamed Xana-Du (Shang-Du). In 1369 Xana-Du was occupied by the Ming army and put to the torch and was abandoned for several hundred years. Today, only ruins remain, surrounded by a grassy mound that was once the City Walls.
The Venetian explorer Marco Polo visited Xana-Du in 1275 and dictated the following account: "... There is a very fine marble palace, the rooms are all gilt and painted with figures of men, beasts, and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment. ... Inside the Park there are fountains and rivers and brooks, and beautiful meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (excluding such the ones of ferocious nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there to supply food for his ger-falcons (200 in number) and hawks (in great numbers also), which he keeps there in mew. He rides through the Park with a leopard behind him on his horse's croup; and then he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he slips his leopard at it, and the game when taken is made over to feed the haws in mew. This he does for diversion.
In the Park there is another spot where there is a charming wood and he has another Palace built on cane ... It is gilt all over, and most elaborated finished inside. It is stayed on gilt and lacquered columns, on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the tail of which is attached to the column while the head supports the architrave, and the claws likewise are stretched out right and left to support the architrave.
The roof, like the rest, is formed of canes, covered with a varnish so strong and excellent that no amount of rain will rot them. These canes are a good 3 palms in girth, and 10 to 15 paces in length. They are cut across at each knot, and then the pieces are split so as to form from each 2 hollow tiles, and with these the house is roofed; only every such tile of cane has to be nailed down to prevent the wind from lifting it. In short, the whole Palace is built of these canes, which serve also for a great variety of other useful purposes. The construction of the Palace is so devised that it can be taken down and put up again with great celerity; and it can all be taken to pieces and removed whithersoever the Emperor may command. When erected, it is braced against mishaps from the wind by more than 200 cords of silk. The Khan abides at this Park that belongs to him, dwelling sometimes in the Marble Palace and sometimes in the Cane Palace for 3 months of the year, to wit, June, July and August; preferring this residence because it is by no means hot; in fact it is a very cool place. When the 28th day of [the Moon of] August arrives he takes his departure, and the Cane Palace is taken to pieces. But I must tell you what happens when he goes away from this Palace every year on the 28th of the August [Moon] ..."
In 1614, the English clergyman Samuel Purchas published: "In Xan-Du did Kublai-Khan build a stately Palace, encompassing 16 miles of plain ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meadows, pleasant Springs, delightful streams, and all sort of beasts of chase and game, and in the middle thereof a sumptuous House of Pleasure, which may be moved from place to place."
In 1625 Purch published an expanded edition of his book, recounting the Voyages of Famous Travellers, called "Purchas his Pilgrimes." The 11th volume of this book included a more detailed description of Xana-Du.
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