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As churches emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, a higher number have experienced “more outflow” of attendees compared to “more inflow” or “no change”, according to recently released findings from the State of the Church in Singapore 2022.
Published on October 13 (Thursday), the first-of-its-kind study seeks to provide a picture of the state of the Church here, with data collected between July and August.
Represented in the study are 144 churches and almost 105,000 attendees. In other words, close to a third of the number of Protestants in Singapore.
Notably, this quantitative study is also a collaboration between three local Bible schools – Biblical Graduate School of Theology, Singapore Bible College and Trinity Theological College – and Salt&Light, a Thirst Collective brand.
Lead pastors or their equivalent were surveyed on a range of topics, including how the pandemic has affected the attendance and activities of their church.
In this article, we will focus on the movement of people between churches, which has been highlighted as the single greatest factor that may explain the drop in onsite attendance from pre-pandemic levels.
More significantly, the researchers also found an age connection — churches with a high proportion of young adults tended to receive attendees from other churches and also grow in size.
Here are 3 things we know from the study:
1. Substantial outflow of people from one church to another
As a whole, there was an aggregate of 12,428 of attendees who went on to regularly visit another church’s service onsite (outflow).
This is around 12% of the total number of attendees accounted for by the churches.
On the other hand, participants saw an aggregate of 4,545 regular visitors from other churches attending their services (inflow).
This is also reflected in the number of churches that reported more outflow (65), compared to more inflow (55) and no change (23).
2. Larger churches have more people moving out
The report observed that churches that experienced more outflow than inflow tended to be medium, large and very large churches (>250 attendees).
In fact, very large churches (>2,000) accounted for 9,010 attendees, or almost three-quarters of all outflow.
Very large churches also had an average outflow of 17% — 17 out of every 100 attendees moved elsewhere.
Other churches, in contrast, had an average outflow of 7% — 7 out of every 100 attendees moved elsewhere.
However, the researchers also note that very large churches would have faced the most challenges in accommodating high numbers of attendees due to Safe Management Measures.
3. Young adults are going to churches with a high proportion of young adults
One question that was asked was whether demographics can explain the movements.
The data indeed showed:
- a significant correlation between inflow of young adults and proportion of young adults.
- a significant correlation between the increase in attendees and proportion of young adults.
This pattern of correlations was not observed for all other age groups.
In the report’s concluding remarks, the reality of people changing churches is one of the issues that was highlighted.
“For those who have lost more than gained attendees, an honest reflection on the church’s situation, leading to change, may be called for,” the authors wrote.
“And for those who have gained more than lost attendees, it is worth considering how and why they receive transfers from other churches, knowing that such movements can have adverse impact on other churches.”
The authors also asked a pertinent question: Why are young adults leaving?
“We have observed that some churches have taken in more young adults from other churches; hence some churches are losing young adults,” they said.
“This should be a matter of concern, especially for churches that already have a small proportion of young people and an increasing aged population.”
While this question would certainly require more discussion, there have been some attempts to make sense of these trends by different ones who were involved in the making of this report.
Here are just a few excerpts of their reflections:
The chance for churches to re-align
Dr Samuel Law, Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies, Singapore Bible College
“… the trends of generational leadership change and the departure of young adults in Singapore are part of a global pattern that has spread from the West to the Majority World. What was seen in US two decades ago was seen in Korea a decade ago and is now being seen among the churches in Singapore.
“The trends are closely aligned with the rise of secularism and postmodernity and the beginnings of deglobalisation. These changes have resulted in many churches isolating themselves from the world and looking inward.
“Many self-identified and forgot their role as God’s people in the world (see the Church’s role in John 17). Ministry and outreach became centripetal, inwardly focused, rather than centrifugal, outwardly focused.
“… One group that is most affected by these changes is the young adults, which this study has highlighted as the group with the greatest movement during the pandemic.
“Young adults, a product of globalisation and the most connected of the five living generations, increasingly became strangers in their own church families.
“Hence, when the pandemic hit, untethered from physical relationships and spaces, these digital natives were able to migrate freely through the digital space to arrive at new church homes.”
The importance of community
Priscilla Jamir, Angie Ng and Pastor Amos Pang, Young Adults on the Research Team
“The pandemic has amplified the importance of community. With the limits on size of gatherings, physical services and other activities, many of us missed the fellowship.
“While Safe Management Measures is a significant factor, the fact that small churches were unlikely to experience a decrease in attendance shows the value of stronger and closer interpersonal relationships
“As young adults, we were particularly interested in the net inflow and outflow of young adults. The medium-sized, young adult-heavy churches saw the most increase in attendees, many from other churches.
“We recognise factors such as the churches’ ability to pivot to digital platforms more quickly and the appeal of content that was already catered to the young adults.
“However, it may also be the poignant realities of a consumerist attitude to realise needs which the current church does not satisfy, or an honest search for their own faith through other churches. We could surely do more in terms of the discipleship of young adults.
“As we return to large gatherings and more activities, may we continue to remember our innate desire for community, and consider how we may better create space and time for personal connections and care for one another.”
The full report can be found on saltandlight.sg/sotc2022.
As this is only the first State of the Church in Singapore study, the team also hopes to conduct this on a regular basis so that trends and trajectories can be observed.
Do look out for more stories on Thir.st and Salt&Light in the coming weeks, where we will be publishing more findings and further analysis.
Have a reflection to share? Send it to us at [email protected]!
- Do you feel connected or disconnected to your church family? Why?
- What does church mean to you? How has the pandemic affected the way you view it?
- What is the purpose of church?

domain: sociology


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Great Seljuk Empire
|Religion||Sunni Islam (Hanafi)|
|Government||Vassal under caliphate (de jure)|
Independent sultanate (de facto)
|Tughril III (last)|
• Formation under Tughril
• Supplantation by the Khwarazmian Empire
|1080 est.||3,900,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi)|
The Great Seljuk Empire,[a] or the Seljuk Empire, was a high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of 3.9 million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles) from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to the Hindu Kush in the east, and from Central Asia in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south.
The Seljuk Empire was founded in 1037 by Tughril (990–1063) and his brother Chaghri (989–1060), both of whom co-ruled over its territories; there are indications that the Seljuk leadership otherwise functioned as a triumvirate and thus included Musa Yabghu, the uncle of the aforementioned two. From their homelands near the Aral Sea, the Seljuks advanced first into Khorasan and into the Iranian mainland, where they would become largely based as a Persianate society. They then moved west to conquer Baghdad, filling up the power vacuum that had been caused by struggles between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Iranian Buyid Empire. The subsequent Seljuk expansion into eastern Anatolia triggered the Byzantine–Seljuk wars, with the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 marking a decisive turning point in the conflict in favour of the Seljuks, undermining the authority of the Byzantine Empire in the remaining parts of Anatolia and gradually enabling the region's Turkification. The Seljuk Empire united the fractured political landscape in the non-Arab eastern parts of the Muslim world and played a key role in both the First Crusade and Second Crusade; it also played an important part in the creation and expansion of multiple art forms during the period in which they had influence.
By the 1140s, the Seljuk Empire began to decline in power and influence, and was eventually supplanted by the Khwarazmian Empire in 1194.
The founder of the Seljuq dynasty was an Oghuz Turkic warlord Seljuk. He was reputed to have served in the Khazar army, under whom, the Seljuks migrated to Khwarezm, near the city of Jend, where they converted to Islam in 985. Khwarezm, administered by the Ma'munids, was under the nominal control of the Samanid Empire. By 999 the Samanids fell to the Kara-Khanids in Transoxiana, but the Ghaznavids occupied the lands south of the Oxus. The Seljuks became involved, having supported the last Samanid emir against the Kara-Khanids, in this power struggle in the region before establishing their own independent base.
Main article: Tughril
Oghuz Turks (also known as Turkmens at the time), led by Seljuq's son, Musa and his two nephews, Tughril and Chaghri, were one of several groups of the Oghuz who made their way to Iran between about 1020 and 1040, first moving south to Transoxiana, and then to Khorasan, initially at the invitation of the local rulers, then under alliances and conflicts. However, prior to the arrival of the Seljuks to Khorasan, other Oghuz Turks were already present in the area: that is, the northern slopes of Kopet Dag mountains, which is principally the region stretching from the Caspian Sea to Merv; what is today – Turkmenistan. Contemporary sources mention places such as Dahistan, Farawa and Nasa, as well as Sarakhs, all in present-day Turkmenistan.
Around 1034, Tughril and Chaghri were soundly defeated by the Oghuz Yabghu Ali Tegin and his allies, forcing them to escape from Transoxiana. Initially, Turkmens took refuge in Khwarazm, which served as one of their traditional pastures, but they were also encouraged by the local Ghaznavid governor, Harun, who hoped to utilise Seljuqs for his efforts to seize Khorasan from his sovereign. When Harun was assassinated by Ghaznavid agents in 1035, they again had to flee, this time heading south across the Karakum Desert. First, Turkmens made their way to the important city of Merv, but perhaps due to its strong fortification, they then changed their route westwards to take refuge in Nasa. Finally, they arrived on the edges of Khorasan, the province considered a jewel in the Ghaznavid crown.
After moving into Khorasan, Seljuks under Tughril wrested an empire from the Ghaznavids. Initially the Seljuks were repulsed by Mahmud and retired to Khwarezm, but Tughril and Chaghri led them to capture Merv and Nishapur (1037–1038). Later they repeatedly raided and traded territory with his successor, Mas'ud, across Khorasan and Balkh.
In 1040, at the Battle of Dandanaqan, Seljuqs decisively defeated Mas'ud I of Ghazni, forcing him to abandon most of his western territories. Afterwards, Turkmens employed Khorasanians and set up a Persian bureaucracy to administer their new polity with Toghrul as its nominal overlord. By 1046, Abbasid caliph al-Qa'im had sent Tughril a diploma recognizing Seljuk rule over Khurasan. In 1048–1049, the Seljuk Turks, commanded by Ibrahim Yinal, uterine brother of Tughril, made their first incursion into the Byzantine frontier region of Iberia and clashed with a combined Byzantine-Georgian army of 50,000 at the Battle of Kapetrou on 10 September 1048. The devastation left behind by the Seljuk raid was so fearful that the Byzantine magnate Eustathios Boilas described, in 1051–1052, those lands as "foul and unmanageable... inhabited by snakes, scorpions, and wild beasts." The Arab chronicler Ibn al-Athir reports that Ibrahim brought back 100,000 captives and a vast booty loaded on the backs of ten thousand camels. In 1055, Tughril entered Baghdad and removed the influence of the Buyid dynasty, under a commission from the Abbasid caliph.
Main article: Alp Arslan
Alp Arslan, the son of Chaghri Beg, expanded significantly upon Tughril's holdings by adding Armenia and Georgia in 1064 and invading the Byzantine Empire in 1068, from which he annexed almost all of Anatolia. Arslan's decisive victory at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 effectively neutralized the Byzantine resistance to the Turkish invasion of Anatolia, although the Georgians were able to recover from Alp Arslan's invasion by securing the theme of Iberia. The Byzantine withdrawal from Anatolia brought Georgia in more direct contact with the Seljuks. In 1073 the Seljuk Amirs of Ganja, Dvin and Dmanisi invaded Georgia and were defeated by George II of Georgia, who successfully took the fortress of Kars. A retaliatory strike by the Seljuk Amir Ahmad defeated the Georgians at Kvelistsikhe.
Alp Arslan authorized his Turkoman generals to carve their own principalities out of formerly Byzantine Anatolia, as atabegs loyal to him. Within two years the Turkmens had established control as far as the Aegean Sea under numerous beghliks (modern Turkish beyliks): the Saltukids in Northeastern Anatolia, the Shah-Armens and the Mengujekids in Eastern Anatolia, Artuqids in Southeastern Anatolia, Danishmendis in Central Anatolia, Rum Seljuks (Beghlik of Suleyman, which later moved to Central Anatolia) in Western Anatolia, and the Beylik of Tzachas of Smyrna in İzmir (Smyrna).
Main article: Malik Shah I
Under Alp Arslan's successor, Malik Shah, and his two Persian viziers, Nizām al-Mulk and Tāj al-Mulk, the Seljuk state expanded in various directions, to the former Iranian border of the days before the Arab invasion, so that it soon bordered China in the east and the Byzantines in the west. Malikshāh was the one who moved the capital from Ray to Isfahan. The Iqta military system and the Nizāmīyyah University at Baghdad were established by Nizām al-Mulk, and the reign of Malikshāh was reckoned the golden age of "Great Seljuk". The Abbasid Caliph titled him "The Sultan of the East and West" in 1087. The Assassins (Hashshashin) of Hassan-i Sabāh started to become a force during his era, however, and they assassinated many leading figures in his administration; according to many sources these victims included Nizām al-Mulk.
Internally, the most prominent development of Malik Shah's rule was the continuous increase in the power of the Nizām al-Mulk. Some contemporary chroniclers refer to the period as "al-dawla al-Nizamiyya", the Nizam's state, while modern scholars have mentioned him as "the real ruler of the Seljuq empire". The 14-century biographer Subki claimed that Nizām al-Mulk's vizierate was "not just a vizierate, it was above the sultanate".
Main article: Ahmad Sanjar
Ahmad was the son of Malik Shah I and initially took part in wars of succession against his three brothers and a nephew: Mahmud I, Barkiyaruq, Malik Shah II and Muhammad I Tapar. In 1096, he was tasked to govern the province of Khorasan by his brother Muhammad I. Over the next several years, Ahmad Sanjar became the ruler of most of Iran (Persia), and eventually in 1118, the sole ruler of the Great Seljuk Empire.
In 1141, Ahmad marched to eliminate the threat posed by Kara Khitans and faced them in the vicinity of Samarkand at the Battle of Qatwan. He suffered his first defeat in his long career, and as a result lost all Seljuk territory east of the Syr Darya.
Sanjar's as well as the Seljuks' rule collapsed as a consequence of yet another unexpected defeat, this time at the hands of the Seljuks' own tribe, in 1153. Sanjar was captured during the battle and held in captivity until 1156. It brought chaos to the Empire - a situation later exploited by the victorious Turkmens, whose hordes would overrun Khorasan unopposed, wreaking colossal damage on the province and prestige of Sanjar. Sanjar eventually escaped from captivity in the fall of 1156, but soon died in Merv in 1157. After his death, Turkic rulers, Turkmen tribal forces, and other secondary powers competed for Khorasan, and after a long period of confrontations, the province was finally conquered by Khwarazmians in the early 1200s.
The Tomb of Ahmed Sanjar was destroyed by the Mongols led by Tolui, who sacked the city of Merv in 1221, killing 700,000 people according to contemporary sources during their catastrophic invasion of Khwarazm; however, modern scholarship holds such figures to be exaggerated.
See also: Sultanate of Rum
When Malikshāh I died in 1092, the empire split as his brother and four sons quarrelled over the apportioning of the empire among themselves. Malikshāh I was succeeded in Anatolia by Kilij Arslan I, who founded the Sultanate of Rum, and in Syria by his brother Tutush I. In Persia he was succeeded by his son Mahmud I, whose reign was contested by his other three brothers Barkiyaruq in Iraq, Muhammad I in Baghdad, and Ahmad Sanjar in Khorasan. When Tutush I died, his sons Radwan and Duqaq inherited Aleppo and Damascus respectively and contested with each other as well, further dividing Syria amongst emirs antagonistic towards each other.
In 1118, the third son Ahmad Sanjar took over the empire. His nephew, the son of Muhammad I, did not recognize his claim to the throne, and Mahmud II proclaimed himself Sultan and established a capital in Baghdad, until 1131 when he was finally officially deposed by Ahmad Sanjar.
Elsewhere in nominal Seljuk territory were the Artuqids in northeastern Syria and northern Mesopotamia; they controlled Jerusalem until 1098. The Dānišmand dynasty founded a state in eastern Anatolia and northern Syria and contested land with the Sultanate of Rum, and Kerbogha exercised independence as the atabeg of Mosul.
Main articles: First Crusade and Georgian–Seljuk wars
During the First Crusade, the fractured states of the Seljuks were generally more concerned with consolidating their own territories and gaining control of their neighbours than with cooperating against the crusaders. The Seljuks easily defeated the People's Crusade arriving in 1096, but they could not stop the progress of the army of the subsequent Princes' Crusade, which took important cities such as Nicaea (İznik), Iconium (Konya), Caesarea Mazaca (Kayseri), and Antioch (Antakya) on its march to Jerusalem (Al-Quds). In 1099 the crusaders finally captured the Holy Land and set up the first Crusader states. The Seljuks had already lost Palestine to the Fatimids, who had recaptured it just before its capture by the crusaders.
After pillaging the County of Edessa, Seljukid commander Ilghazi made peace with the Crusaders. In 1121 he went north towards Georgia and with supposedly up to 250 000 – 350 000 troops, including men led by his son-in-law Sadaqah and Sultan Malik of Ganja, he invaded the Kingdom of Georgia. David IV of Georgia gathered 40,000 Georgian warriors, including 5,000 monaspa guards, 15,000 Kipchaks, 300 Alans and 100 French Crusaders to fight against Ilghazi's vast army. At the Battle of Didgori on August 12, 1121, the Seljuks were routed, being run down by pursuing Georgian cavalry for several days afterward. The battle helped the Crusader states, which had been under pressure from Ilghazi's armies. The weakening of the main enemy of the Latin principalities also benefitted the Kingdom of Jerusalem under King Baldwin II.
See also: Second Crusade, Zengid dynasty, and Nur ad-Din (died 1174)
During this time conflict with the Crusader states was also intermittent, and after the First Crusade increasingly independent atabegs would frequently ally with the Crusader states against other atabegs as they vied with each other for territory. At Mosul, Zengi succeeded Kerbogha as atabeg and successfully began the process of consolidating the atabegs of Syria. In 1144 Zengi captured Edessa, as the County of Edessa had allied itself with the Artuqids against him. This event triggered the launch of the Second Crusade. Nur ad-Din, one of Zengi's sons who succeeded him as atabeg of Aleppo, created an alliance in the region to oppose the Second Crusade, which landed in 1147.
Ahmad Sanjar fought to contain the revolts by the Kara-Khanids in Transoxiana, Ghurids in Afghanistan and Qarluks in modern Kyrghyzstan, as well as the nomadic invasion of the Kara-Khitais in the east. The advancing Kara-Khitais first defeated the Eastern Kara-Khanids, then followed up by crushing the Western Kara-Khanids, who were vassals of the Seljuks at Khujand. The Kara-Khanids turned to their Seljuk overlords for assistance, to which Sanjar responded by personally leading an army against the Kara-Khitai. However, Sanjar's army was decisively defeated by the host of Yelu Dashi at the Battle of Qatwan on September 9, 1141. While Sanjar managed to escape with his life, many of his close kin including his wife were taken captive in the battle's aftermath. As a result of Sanjar's failure to deal with the encroaching threat from the east, the Seljuk Empire lost all its eastern provinces up to the river Syr Darya, and vassalage of the Western Kara-Khanids was usurped by the Kara-Khitai, otherwise known as the Western Liao in Chinese historiography.
See also: Saladin, Ayyubids, and Khwarezmid Empire
In 1153, the Ghuzz (Oghuz Turks) rebelled and captured Sanjar. He managed to escape after three years but died a year later. The atabegs, such as the Zengids and Artuqids, were only nominally under the Seljuk Sultan, and generally controlled Syria independently. When Ahmad Sanjar died in 1157, this fractured the empire even further and rendered the atabegs effectively independent.
After the Second Crusade, Nur ad-Din's general Shirkuh, who had established himself in Egypt on Fatimid land, was succeeded by Saladin. In time, Saladin rebelled against Nur ad-Din, and, upon his death, Saladin married his widow and captured most of Syria and created the Ayyubid dynasty.
On other fronts, the Kingdom of Georgia began to become a regional power and extended its borders at the expense of Great Seljuk. The same was true during the revival of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia under Leo II of Armenia in Anatolia. The Abbasid caliph An-Nasir also began to reassert the authority of the caliph and allied himself with the Khwarezmshah Takash.
For a brief period, Togrul III was the Sultan of all Seljuk except for Anatolia. However, Togrul was defeated by Takash, the Shah of Khwarezmid Empire, and the Seljuk Empire finally collapsed in 1194. Of the former Seljuk Empire, only the Sultanate of Rûm in Anatolia remained.
The Khwarazmian Empire took over as the dominant power in the region, but the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire in 1219-1220 finally destroyed it.
The Sultanate of Rûm, the last remnants of the Seljuks in Anatolia, ended too with the Mongol invasions of Anatolia in the 1260s, and it was divided it into small emirates called the Anatolian beyliks. Eventually one of these, the Ottoman, would rise to power and conquer the rest.
Further information: Divan § Seljuks
Seljuk power was indeed at its zenith under Malikshāh I, and both the Qarakhanids and Ghaznavids had to acknowledge the overlordship of the Seljuks. The Seljuk dominion was established over the ancient Sasanian domains, in Iran and Iraq, and included Anatolia, Syria, as well as parts of Central Asia and modern Afghanistan. Seljuk rule was modelled after the tribal organization common among Turkic and Mongol nomads and resembled a 'family federation' or 'appanage state'. Under this organization, the leading member of the paramount family assigned family members portions of his domains as autonomous appanages.
Various emblems and banners have been recorded as having been used by the Seljuks in different periods. Early Seljuks used their traditional emblems, but gradually adopted local Muslim signs and banners. The official flag of the empire was most probably a black flag, similar to that of the Abbasid Caliphate. The flag was decorated with signs, which were either superimposed over it, or placed above the flag.
Seljuks exercised full control over Islamic Central Asia and the Middle East between 1040 and 1157. For most of its history, the empire was split into western and eastern half and did not have a single capital or political center. In the east, the chief seat of Seljuk rule was Marv in present-day Turkmenistan. In the west, various cities, where the Seljuk rulers lived periodically, served as capitals: Rayy, Isfahan, Baghdad, and later Hamadan. These western lands were known as the Sultanate of Iraq.[note 1] Since 1118, the Seljuk rulers of Iraq recognized the suzerainty of the great Seljuk sultan Sanjar, who mostly ruled from Marv, and was known by the title of al-sultān al-a'zam, "the Greatest Sultan". The Seljuk rulers of Iraq were often mentioned as the "Lesser Seljuks".
See also: Central Asian art
Much of the ideological character of the Seljuq Empire was derived from the earlier Samanid and Ghaznavid kingdoms, which had in turn emerged from the Perso-Islamic imperial system of the Abbasid caliphate. This Perso-Islamic tradition was based on pre-Islamic Iranian ideas of kingship molded into an Islamic framework. Little of the public symbolism used by the Seljuks was Turkic, namely the tughra. The populace of the Seljuk Empire would have considered this Perso-Islamic tradition more significant than that of steppe customs.
Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuks also played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition, even exporting Persian culture to Anatolia. Under the Seljuks, Persian was also used for books lecturing about politics in the Mirrors for princes genre, such as the prominent Siyasatnama (Book of Politics) composed by Nizam al-Mulk. During this period, these type of books consciously made use of Islamic and Iranian traditions, such as an ideal government based on the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his successors, or the Sasanian King of Kings Khosrow I (r. 531–579).
In most of their coins, the Seljuk sultans used the Sasanian title of shahanshah (King of Kings), and even used the old Buyid title of "Shahanshah of Islam." The title of malik was used by lesser princes of the Seljuk family. Like the caliphate, the Seljuks relied on a refined Persian bureaucracy. The settlement of Turkic tribes in the northwestern peripheral parts of the empire, for the strategic military purpose of fending off invasions from neighboring states, led to the progressive Turkicization of those areas. According to the 12th-century poet Nizami Aruzi, all of the Seljuk sultans had a liking for poetry, which is also demonstrated by the large compilation of Persian verses written under their patronage. This had already started under Tughril, who was praised in Arabic and Persian by poets such as Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani and Bakharzi, albeit he could not understand the verses. The last Seljuk sultan Tughril III was well known for his Persian poetry. The Saljuq-nama of Zahir al-Din Nishapuri, which was most likely dedicated to Tughril III, indicates that the Seljuk family now used Persian to communicate, and even were taught about the achievements of their forefathers in that language.
Tughril relied on his vizier to translate from Arabic and Persian into Turkic for him, and Oghuz songs were sung at the wedding of Tughril to the caliph's daughter. Later sultans, like Mahmud, could speak Arabic alongside Persian, however, they still used Turkic among themselves. The most significant evidence of the importance of Turkic language is the extensive Turkic–Arabic dictionary, or the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, assembled in Baghdad for Caliph al-Muqtadi by Mahmud al-Kashgari. However, besides the Diwan, no works written in Turkic language survive from the Seljuk Empire. While the Maliknama was compiled from Turkic oral accounts, it was written in Persian and Arabic languages.
Steppe traditions influenced Seljuk marriages, with Tughril marrying his brother Chaghri's widow, a practice despised in Islam. Seljuk ceremonies were based on the Abbasid model, but sometimes ancient Iranian ceremonies were observed. During a night in 1091, all of Baghdad was lit with candles under the orders of Malik-Shah I, which resembled the Zoroastrian ritual of sadhak.
In 985, the Seljuks migrated to the city of Jend where they converted to Islam. The arrival of the Seljuq Turks into Persia, and their patronage of constructing madrassas, allowed for Sunni Islam to become the dominant sect of Islam.
In 1046, Tughril built the madrasa, al-Sultaniya in Nishapur, while Chaghri Beg founded a madrasa in Merv. Tughril and Alp Arslan chose Hanafi qadis and preachers for these madrassas. By 1063, there were twenty-five madrassas scattered throughout Persia and Khorasan, founded by Seljuq princes. In the 12th century there were over thirty madrassas in Baghdad.
In 1056, Tughril built a Friday mosque with a newly constructed quarter in Baghdad which was surrounded by a wall. The new quarter separated the Shia community from the Sunnis, since there had been frequent outbreaks of violence. Through the influence of Tughril's vizier, al-Kunduri, a Hanafi Sunni, the Ash'ari and Ismaili Shi'ites were exiled from Khurasan and cursed at Friday sermons in Seljuq mosques. Al-Kunduri's vizierate persecuted Ash'aris and Sharifis, although this ended with the vizierate of Nizam al-Mulk. It was under the vizierate of al-Kunduri that the Islamic scholar, Al-Juwayni was forced to flee to Mecca and Medina. In 1065, Alp Arslan campaigned against the Kingdom of Georgia, subjugated Tbilisi, and built a mosque in the city.
In 1092, Malik-shah built the Jami al-Sultan Mosque in Baghdad. At the capital, Isfahan, Malik-shah had constructed a madrasa, a citadel and a castle near Dizkuh. Following Malik-Shah's death, the familial civil war drew attention away from religious patronage, slowing the building of madrassas and mosques. Although, in 1130, the Seljuk sultan Sanjar ordered the construction of the Quthamiyya madrasa in Samarkand.
While the Seljuk sultans were prodigious builders of religious houses, Seljuk viziers were no different. The Seljuk vizier, Nazim al-Mulk, founded the first madrasa in Baghdad, in 1063, called the Nizamiya. In the madrassas he built, he patronized Shafi'is. The vizier Taj al-Mulk and Malik-shah's widow, Terken Khatun, patronized the building of a madrasa to compete with Nazim's Nizamiya.
Until the death of Sultan Sanjar, the Seljuks were pious Sunnis, and represented a re-establishment of Sunni Islam in Iraq and western Persia since the 10th century.
The army of the earliest Seljuks was not similar to the renowned Turkic military of the classical 'Abbasid era. Their first invasions were more of a great nomadic migration accompanied by their families and livestock rather than planned military conquests. They were not a professional army; however, warfare was a way of life for nearly all of adult male Turkmens.
According to a Seljuk vizier, Nizam al-Mulk, by the reign of Malik-Shah I, the sovereign had a large army at his disposal. There were Turkmens, mamluks, a standing army, infantry and the sultan's personal guard. Nizam al-Mulk also estimated Malik-Shah's forces at 400,000 men, and often opposed cost-cutting plans (instituted by Taj al-Mulk) to bring these to 70,000.
Vizier Nizam al-Mulk, the greatest advocate of Iranian orientation for the Seljuk empire, admitted the debt dynasty owed to the Turkmens. After the establishment of the Seljuk state, Turkmens continued to be the driving force behind the Seljuk expansion in Anatolia. After the rule of Malik-Shah I, however, there are very few mentions of Turkmens in the Jibali region of the state, especially in their traditional axis of Rayy, Hamadhan and Hulwan.
Turkmens were difficult to manage, and they were susceptible to undisciplined pillaging. The greatest issue, however, was their dependence on pasturelands for their livestock. A great number of regions that constituted the Seljuk state were ecologically ill-suited for supporting a nomadic army. Turkmens' limitations are adeptly described by Arab scholar Sibt ibn al-Jawzi:
The sultan (Tughril I) ordered his soldiers to prepare [themselves] and to send to bring their tents, children and families to Iraq and to head to Syria with him. They said, "This land is ruined, there is neither food nor fodder here and we have no funds left. We cannot stay [indefinitely] on the backs of horses. What if our families, horses and beasts come, but our absence becomes drawn out? We must visit our families, so we are asking for permission to return to them and to go back to the place which is assigned to us."
Long campaigns had to be discontinued due to Turkmens' insistence on returning home, and conquests had to be scheduled to satisfy the demands of Turkmens. The short-term needs of Turkmens made a longer term military plans unachievable.
The alternative to nomadic Turkmen troops was mamluks. While also of Turkic and often nomadic origin, dependence on pasturelands was non-existent for mamluks as they did not live a nomadic life. Previously, mamluks had constituted the later 'Abbasid, the Samanid and the Ghaznavid armies. In fact, the Ghaznavid dynasty was itself of mamluk origin.
The process of mamluk recruitment are well known from other periods in Islamic history, but there is almost no information directly relating to the Seljuks. The chief source of mamluks was most probably forays to the steppe. The alternative to raids was buying them from slave traders and various dealers as evidenced from a slave dispute between a merchant and Muhammad I Tapar.
The Seljuks were educated in the service of Muslim courts as slaves or mercenaries. The dynasty brought revival, energy, and reunion to the Islamic civilization hitherto dominated by Arabs and Persians.
The Seljuks founded universities and were also patrons of art and literature. Their reign is characterized by Persian astronomers such as Omar Khayyám, and the Persian philosopher al-Ghazali. Under the Seljuks, New Persian became the language for historical recording, while the center of Arabic language culture shifted from Baghdad to Cairo.
Main article: List of sultans of the Seljuk Empire
|Rank||Laqab||Throne name||Reign||Marriages||Succession right|
|1||Rukn ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
رکن الدنیا والدین,
|Toghrul-Beg||1037–1063||1) Altun Jan Khatun
(2) Aka Khatun
(3) Fulana Khatun
(daughter of Abu Kalijar)
(4) Seyyidah Khatun
(daughter of Al-Qa'im, Abbasid caliph)
(5) Fulana Khatun
(widow of Chaghri Beg)
|son of Mikail |
(grandson of Seljuk)
|2||Diya ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Adud ad-Dawlah
ضياء الدنيا و الدين عضد الدولة
|Alp Arslan||1063–1072||1) Aka Khatun
(widow of Toghrul I)
(2) Safariyya Khatun
(daughter of Yusuf Qadir Khan, Khagan of Kara-Khanid)
(3) Fulana Khatun
(daughter of Smbat Lorhi)
(4) Fulana Khatun
(daughter of Kurtchu bin Yunus bin Seljuk)
|son of Chaghri|
|3||Muizz ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Jalal ad-Dawlah
معز الدین جلال الدولہ
|Malik-Shah I||1072–1092||1) Turkan Khatun
(daughter of Ibrahim Tamghach Khan, Khagan of Western Kara-Khanid)
(2) Zubeida Khatun
(daughter of Yaquti ibn Chaghri)
(3) Safariyya Khatun
(daughter of Isa Khan, Sultan of Samarkand)
(4) Fulana Khatun
(daughter of Romanos IV Diogenes)
|son of Alp Arslan|
|4||Nasir ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
ناصر الدنیا والدین
|Mahmud I||1092–1094||son of Malik-Shah I|
|5||Rukn ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
رکن الدنیا والدین
|Barkiyaruq||1094–1105||son of Malik-Shah I|
|6||Rukn ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Jalal ad-Dawlah
رکن الدنیا والدین جلال الدولہ
|Malik-Shah II||1105||son of Barkiyaruq|
|7||Ghiyath ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
غیاث الدنیا والدین
|Tapar||1105–1118||1) Nisandar Jihan Khatun
(2) Gouhar Khatun
(daughter of Isma'il bin Yaquti)
(3) Fulana Khatun
(daughter of Aksungur Beg)
|son of Malik-Shah I|
|8||Mughith ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Jalal ad-Dawlah
مُغيث الدنيا و الدين جلال الدولة
|Mahmud II||1118–1131||1) Mah-i Mulk Khatun (died 1130)
(daughter of Sanjar)
(2) Amir Siti Khatun
(daughter of Sanjar)
(3) Ata Khatun
(daughter of Ali bin Faramarz)
|son of Muhammad I|
|9||Muizz ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Adud ad-Dawlah
مُعز الدنيا و الدين جلال الدولة
|Sanjar||1118–1153||1) Turkan Khatun
(daughter of Muhammad Arslan Khan, Khagan of Western Kara-Khanid)
(2) Rusudan Khatun
(daughter of Demetrius I of Georgia)
(3) Gouhar Khatun
(daughter of Isma'il bin Yaquti, widow of Tapar)
(4) Fulana Khatun
(daughter of Arslan Khan, a Qara Khitai prisoner)
|son of Malik-Shah I|
|10||Ghiyath ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
غیاث الدنیا والدین
(daughter of Masud)
|son of Mahmud II|
|11||Rukn ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
رکن الدنیا والدین
|Toghrul II||1132–1135||1) Mumine Khatun
(mother of Arslan-Shah)
(2) Zubeida Khatun
(daughter of Barkiyaruq)
|son of Muhammad I|
|12||Ghiyath ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
غیاث الدنیا والدین
|Masud||1135–1152||1) Gouhar Nasab Khatun
(daughter of Sanjar)
(2) Zubeida Khatun
(daughter of Barkiyaruq, widow of Toghrul II)
(3) Mustazhiriyya Khatun
(daughter of Qawurd)
(4) Sufra Khatun
(daughter of Dubais)
(5) Arab Khatun
(daughter of Al-Muqtafi)
(6) Ummiha Khatun
(daughter of Amid ud-Deula bin Juhair)
(7) Abkhaziyya Khatun
(daughter of David IV of Georgia)
(8) Sultan Khatun
(mother of Malik-Shah III)
|son of Muhammad I|
|13||Muin ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
مُعين الدنيا و الدين
|Malik-Shah III||1152–1153||son of Mahmud II|
|14||Rukn ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
رکن الدنیا والدین
|Muhammad||1153–1159||1) Mahd Rafi Khatun
(daughter of Kirman-Shah)
(2) Gouhar Khatun
(daughter of Masud, widow of Dawud)
(3) Kerman Khatun
(daughter of Al-Muqtafi)
(4) Kirmaniyya Khatun
(daughter of Tughrul Shah, ruler of Kerman)
|son of Mahmud II|
|15||Ghiyath ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
غیاث الدنیا والدین
|Suleiman-Shah||1159–1160||1) Khwarazmi Khatun
(daughter of Muhammad Khwarazm Shah)
(2) Abkhaziyya Khatun
(daughter of David IV of Georgia, widow of Masud)
|son of Muhammad I|
|16||Muizz ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
معز الدنیا والدین
|Arslan-Shah||1160–1176||1) Kerman Khatun
(daughter of Al-Muqtafi, widow of Muhammad II of Great Seljuq)
(2) Sitti Fatima Khatun
(daughter of Ala ad-Daulah)
(3) Kirmaniyya Khatun
(daughter of Tughrul Shah, ruler of Kerman, widow of Muhammad)
(4) Fulana Khatun
(sister of Izz al-Din Hasan Qipchaq)
|son of Toghrul II|
|17||Rukn ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
رکن الدنیا والدین
(daughter of Sunqur-Inanj, ruler of Ray, widow of Toghrul III)
|son of Arslan-Shah|
|18||Muzaffar ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
مظفر الدنیا والدین
|Qizil Arslan||1191||Inanj Khatun
(daughter of Sunqur-Inanj, ruler of Ray, widow of Muhammad ibn Ildeniz)
|son of Ildeniz |
(stepbrother of Arslan-Shah)
|—||Rukn ad-Dunya wa ad-Din
رکن الدنیا والدین
|son of Arslan-Shah|
|The comparative genealogy of the Great Seljuks with their Khwarazm neighbors and the Anatolian Seljuks|
Further information: Seljuk architecture
Various art forms were popularized during the Seljuk period, as evidenced by the vast amount of surviving artifacts. Most Seljuk arts are known to have been produced in what is modern-day Iran. However, the Seljuk sultans also encouraged artists to settle in Anatolia as part of a recolonization and reconstruction process of several cities. Many works of Seljuk art continued to be produced following the decline of the empire in the late 12th century. In this regard, the timeline associated with the production of Seljuk art does not entirely match the political events pertaining to the empire and its eventual fall. Nonetheless, relatively little art can be correctly dated and ascribed to a Great Seljuq context. Much of the material deemed to be Seljuq in world museums in fact belongs to the period A.D. 1150–1250, after the fall of the Great Seljuq Empire, when there seems to have been a sudden burst in artistic production, apparently to a great extent unrelated to court patronage.
Among other ceramics, the manufacture of polychrome ceramic tiles, often used as decor in architecture, were popularized during the Seljuk dynasty. The Seljuks pioneered the use of the Minai technique, a painted and enameled polychrome overglaze for ceramics. The glazes on the Seljuk ceramics produced often ranged from a brilliant turquoise to a very dark blue. The art of Seljuk mosaic tile decorating would continue to dominate the interior of many Anatolian mosques following the period of Seljuk rule. The Seljuks also created ceramic house models, while other ceramic forms in the Seljuk period included pottery figurines, some of them children's toys.
In the realm of architecture, mosques and madrasas were created and embellished during the period of Seljuk control. Congregational mosques were either repaired, re-built, or constructed in their entirety. The Seljuk sultan also commissioned numerous madrasas to promote the teaching of orthodox Islamic sciences. These developments in architectural practice are coherent with the Seljuk dynasty's focus on Islam and the promotion of Muslim orthodoxy, the combining of Sufism and Sunnism.
One architectural form that flourished during the Seljuk dynasty was the muqarnas. Some interpretations maintain that the earliest known examples of muqarnas were constructed during the period of Seljuk hegemony, though it also remains possible that they were being developed at the same time in North Africa. The layering of multiple embellished cells with divergent profiles in muqarnas creates a dome that has a seemingly-insubstantial interior. The play of light on the surface enhances this visual effect. Art historian Oleg Grabar argues that the effect of muqarnas domes embodies Qur'anic water symbolism. Examples of muqarnas also appear in the niches of mosques built during the Seljuk empire. Overall, the architecture attributed to the Seljuk period is characterized by elaborate decoration, much like the other arts produced under Seljuk rule.
Both secular and non-secular manuscripts were produced during the Seljuk period. These pieces are now limited in availability, considering their ultimate susceptibility to damage overtime. But those manuscripts that have survived over the centuries provide insight into the Seljuk's involvement in the arts of the book. Calligraphers and illuminators were responsible for the creation of these manuscripts, though sometimes calligraphers mastered the art of both writing and illustration. By the end of the 10th century, both illuminators and calligraphers were beginning to employ various colors, styles, and writing techniques in the realm of the book arts.
The Qur'an's produced during the period of Seljuk rule evidence developments in calligraphy and other changes in how the holy text was divided. Uniquely, calligraphers during this period frequently combined several scripts on one page of the Qur'an, such as Kufic and New Style. In addition to these changes in the text, the dawn of the Seljuk empire coincided with a newfound increase in the popularity of paper as a replacement for parchment in the Islamic world. The use of durable paper increased the production of compact, single-volume Qur'an's, whereas parchment codexes often contained multiple volumes of Qur'anic text. Despite this development, parchment would remain popular for the production of some Qur'an's, and multi-volume pieces continued to be produced. Illuminated borders continued to distinguish the Qur'ans produced during the Seljuk period and relative consistency was maintained with regard to their structure.
One example of a manuscript created during Seljuk rule is a thirty-volume (juz) Qur'an created c.1050, produced by only one calligrapher and illuminator (Freer Gallery of Art, District of Columbia, F2001.16a-b). As paper had just been introduced to the Islamic world, this piece is an early Islamic paper manuscript. This Qur'an is bound in brown leather, dyed in pink, decorated with gold, and offers an intricate frontispiece. These elements imply the care that went into the production of this text and indications of frequent usage confirm that it was appreciated. It is primarily written in the vertical "New-Style" Arabic script, a sharp, vertical script. The dominant use of New Style in this folio, also referred to as "new Abbasid Script," attests to the shift from the geometric Kufic script to a more legible calligraphic style, which occurred in the 10th century. Scattered remnants of Kufic, used primarily to indicate volume and page number, also appear in the text. The verticality of the paper in this manuscript speaks to the historic shift away from the horizontal use of paper in many Qur'ans, also a 10th-century development.
Another example of a religious manuscript produced closer to the end of the period of Seljuk Rule is the Qarmathian Qur'an (dispersed folio, Arthur M. Stackler Gallery of Art, District of Columbia, S1986.65a-b). This manuscript's folios are illuminated with a gold border and thin, spiraled illustration, featuring vegetal motifs. Despite the generous illumination, the four lines of Qur'anic text on the folio are exceptionally legible. Created between the years 1170–1200, this particular folio demonstrates the evolution of New Style, as both vocalized cursive and diacritical dots appear in this later version of the script. Only during the 13th century would New Style be replaced by the curvier proportional scripts for regular use.
A final example of a Seljuk Qur'an that has entered into scholarship is a manuscript studied in-depth by the late art historian Richard Ettinghausen. This piece was written in 1164 by Mahmud Ibn Al-Husayn and contains the entirety of the Qur'an (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, NEP27). Unlike the two Seljuk Qur'ans discussed prior, this manuscript primarily contains Naskh script, another early Arabic script that replaced Kufic. However, some Kufic calligraphy is embedded in the chapter headings. This aspect speaks to how the inclusion of Kufic in Qur'ans became more of a decorative element overtime, often included in headings as opposed to the main body of text. The manuscript is large, with seventeen lines of text per two-hundred and fifteen sheets of paper. Though not all of the Qur'an is illuminated, both the beginning and the end boast elaborate illustration, with blue, gold, and white hues. Ettinghausen describes the subsequent visual effect as "brilliant." The inscriptions feature detailed rosettes, vines, medallions, and arabesques, some exclusively as decoration and others to indicate the end of particular lines of Qur'anic text.
Manuscript production during the Seljuk period was not limited to religious texts. Beyond these religious manuscripts, scientific, literary, and historical pieces were created. One example of a secular manuscript is the Nusrat al-fatrah, a historiographical and literary account of the Seljuk period written in 1200 by Imād al-Dīn (Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, London). Meanwhile, the scientific manuscripts produced during the Seljuk period oftentimes pertained to geography, physics, mechanics, mathematics, and astronomy. The former Seljuk city of Isfahan not only boasted twelve libraries that contained a total of twelve thousand volumes, but also had an observatory where scholars could record their astrological findings. Secular manuscripts from the Seljuk empire bear illuminations that often relate to the alignment of planets and the zodiac, a couple examples of common themes.
Whether secular or non-secular, Seljuk illuminated manuscripts had enough influence as to inspire other relevant art forms, such as brass or bronze metal objects. For example, the large Qarmathian Qur'an influenced some of the inscriptions on Seljuk ceramic wares. Even mirrors, candlesticks, coins, and jugs manufactured in Anatolia during the Seljuk period would often bear occult astrological images inspired by manuscripts. Occult knowledge persisted in manuscripts produced after the decline in the Seljuk's political power in the late 12th century, as the Seljuk sultanate's influence on the book arts continued in Anatolia.
Historian Andrew Peacock demonstrates an interest in the Seljuks of Anatolia's focus on occult themes and its manifestation in the book arts. Peacock describes this finding as something that challenges the reigning view that the Seljuks were exclusively the "pious defenders of Islam" when it came to larger systems of belief. Some of the occult sciences that the Seljuks took special interest in included geomancy, astrology, alchemy. A relevant occult manuscript from a period of Seljuk influence is the Dustur al-Munajjimin, otherwise known as the "Rules of Astrologers," while another is the Daqa'iq al-Haqa'iq, or the "Fine Points of Eternal Truths." The latter text captures an interest in magic and spells, with a particular focus on calling upon spiritual beings, such as angels, through ritualistic acts (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Persan 174). The text was written by a man who wrote under a pen name, "Nasiri." Interestingly, Nasiri's Daqa'iq al-Haqa'iq challenges prevailing Islamic understandings of God while encouraging piety and invoking both Sufi terms and themes. For example, while incorporating a Sufi poem, the occult text speaks of supernatural bodies and disputes what Islam considers to be the accepted number of names for God.
Similar to architecture, Seljuk fabrics depict inscriptions and decorative forms. These fabrics represent what could be called a "Sasanian renaissance" marking a new dominance of Persian culture. Textiles, along with literary works, are evidence of this. Contrast is the main feature of different techniques and fabric qualities. Stories of the period are told through a variety of inscriptions. At the same time, higher contrasts generate a more abstract approach to the ornaments and figures within the fabric patterns. Seljuk fabrics that were excavated in 1931 are distinguished by the representation of nature, by minimal ornamental details, and by the combination of colorful linens giving an interchangeable color effect to the fabric. Many realistic natural elements characterize the composition of the fabrics, such as animals and plants, forming patterns consisting of arabesque elements.
|History of the Turkic peoples pre–14th century|
In 1194, Togrul III would succumb to the onslaught of the Khwarizmian Turks, who were destined at last to succeed the Seljuks to the empire of the Middle East.
(Isfahan) has served as the political and cultural center of the Persianate world: during the reign of the Seljuks (1038-1194) and that of the Safavids (1501–1722).
Persianate zone (...) The rise of Persianized Turks to administrative control (...) The Turko-Persian tradition developed during the Seljuk period (1040-1118) (...) In the Persianate zone, Turkophones ruled and Iranians administered
In the tenth century, these and other nomadic tribes, often collectively referred to as Turkomans, migrated out of Central Asia and into Iran. Turkish tribes initially served as mercenary soldiers for local rulers but soon set up their own kingdoms in Iran, some of which grew into Empires – most notably the Great Seljuk Empire. In the meantime, many Turkic rulers and tribespeople eventually converted to Islam.
Turkish music completed its transformation into completely makam-based music in the early 11th-century, in the period of the Turko-Persian Seljuk Empire.
A particularly interesting text, which reveals the socio-religious mood of the Turco-Persian world from Seljuk times, is the Abù Muslim romance.
The cultural influence of the Turco-Persian Seljuks long outlasted their political control of Anatolia, and the Turkish principalities that succeeded them starting in the late thirteenth cetury continued to look to that tradition for models of refinement and sociability.
The Seljuk Empire was another Turco-Iranian state, and its creation was unexpected even by the Seljuks themselves.
Under his leadership, the Nezāris mounted a decentralized revolutionary effort against the militarily superior Turko-Persian Saljuq empire.
The Seljuq Empire is nevertheless the foremost example of a Turko-Persian Islamic empire.
Farther east, medieval Turco-Iranian military patronage states, such as those of the Ghaznavids, Seljuks, Timurids, and early Ottomans, appear to have been more directly affected by the banner traditions of the nomadic Turkic and Mongol populations of the Central Asian steppes, who in turn were influenced by the traditions of the various empires and kingdoms that ruled China, Japan, and Korea.
Seljuk(s) medieval Turko-Persian dynasty
The name 'Seljuk is a political rather than ethnic name. It derives from Selčiik, born Toqaq Temir Yally, a war-lord (sil-baši), from the Qiniq tribal grouping of the Oghuz. Seljuk, in the rough and tumble of internal Oghuz politics, fled to Jand, c.985, after falling out with his overlord.
((cite book)): CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
pp 199-200(Eldiguizds or Ildegizds): "The Elgiguzids or Ildegizds were a Turkish Atabeg dynasty who controlled most of Azerbaijan(apart from the region of Maragha held by another Atabeg line, the Ahamadilis), Arran and northern Jibal during the second half the twelfth century when the Great Seljuq Sultane of Western Persia and Iraq was in full decay and unable to prevent the growth of virtually independent powers in the province", pp 199–200: "Eldiguz (Arabic-Persian sources write 'y.l.d.k.z) was originally a Qipchaq military slave", pp199-200: "The historical significance of these Atabegs thus lies in their firm control over most of north-western Persia during the later Seljuq periodand also their role in Transcaucasia as champions of Islamagainst the resurgent Bagtarid Kings". pp 199: "In their last phase, the Eldiguzids were once more local rulers in Azerbaijan and eastern Transcaucasia, hard pressed by the aggressive Georgians, and they did not survive the troubled decades of the thirteenth century".

domain: geography


text:
What is Lemongrass Essential Oil?
This 100% Pure & Organic Lemongrass Essential oil is a member of the Poaceae family. This oil has a fresh, grassy-citrus scent, with an earthy undertone and is classed as a top note. Lemongrass blends well with camphoraceous, citrus, herby, floral, minty, spicy and woodsy oils.
Lemongrass contains analgesic, antidepressant, antimicrobial and antiseptic properties. It is a welcome addition to skincare, a fantastic insect repellent, and highly beneficial to the digestive, immune and nervous systems.
Essential oils can be applied topically once diluted with a carrier oil. They are widely used in Cosmetic goods and Handmade products.
This information provided is for educational purposes only
|Botanical Name||Cymbopogon Flexuosus|
|Scent||Strong, citrusy and herbaceous.|
|Blends With||Camphoraceous, citrus, floral, herby, minty, spicy and woodsy oils.|
- Keep out of reach of children.
- The MHRA has not evaluated any of these statements.
- We do not intend to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
- Do not use this information to replace the advice of your doctor.
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domain: health


text:
In this paper I analyse the complex set of roles assigned to women under socialist ideology, as workers, mothers, and activists. I examine Femeia magazine, using discourse analysis, to understand how these roles were discursively constructed and disseminated in the period 1965-1979. I argue that women’s emancipation was rather a mobilizing movement and ideology imposed from above, but still, there was space for re-negotiating some aspects in women’s lives and forging a new identity.
Women’s Role In “Popular Democracies”. Mobilization Without Emancipation?
Tema:Etnicitate, Migrație, Diversitate, Reprezentare politica si democratizare
11 mai 2017

domain: history


text:
Leading Japanese manufacturer, Oji Holdings Corporation (Oji Holdings), through its New Zealand subsidiary, Oji Fibre Solutions (OjiFS), is investing A$72 million in a new corrugated box manufacturing facility in Queensland. The investment is a boost to the region and will create an initial 55 jobs in the Gold Coast suburb of Yatala.
OjiFS will manage the new automated facility, and will manufacture a range of quality packaging products to meet increasing needs for use with fruit, meat and consumer goods in Queensland, New South Wales and Northern Territory.
In a press release, OjiFS Chief Executive Officer, Dr Jon Ryder, says the investment confirms the company’s commitment to growth in Australia.
‘We believe there is opportunity to take advantage of the increasing demand for corrugated packaging in Queensland and the Yatala project fits our strategy to increase vertical integration across our pulp, paper and packaging businesses.’
OjiFS plans to operate the Yatala facility with a 5/6 Green Star environmental rating, with lower water and electricity consumption and increased construction materials recycling.
The commitment from OjiFS has received support from the Queensland Government as part of the Advance Queensland Industry Attraction Fund. The company expects to create ongoing supply chain opportunities for local businesses, and aims to increase facility jobs to around 77 in the future.
Based in Tokyo, Oji Holdings is the fifth largest pulp and paper company in the world, with 158 consolidated subsidiaries located in 17 countries worldwide.
|A Foreign Affairs release | Nov 29, 2016


text:
Tony Vagneur: Saddle Sore
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado
It was daylight, but before the sun had risen, we bobbed along, my horse Drifter and me, following Topper up the trail. The climb was steep, the air a delicious September cold, and somewhere deep inside, a smile was keeping me warm.
Topper reached the top of the pitch before we did, jumping high in the air to clear a sagebrush bush, just in time to catch the brilliant flash of the sun topping the ridge. Until then, he appeared to be just another dog, slogging up a seldom used cow path, but in that instant, he was transformed into a dial of beauty, sun glistening off his wet chest, droplets of dew reflected in the halo of sunlight surrounding him, his red tongue out to one side, eyes focused with intent.
Drifter picked his head up for a moment as if to say, “Yeah,” and that one instance cemented the three of us together like we hadn’t been earlier.
It’s an undeniable thing about good working dogs or horses; they’ll give you all they have, with total honesty, and if you ask for more, you’ll get it. It comes naturally, from their hearts, an irrefutable thread of instinct that lets us humans in just long enough to offer a bit of coaching here and there.
Topper and I talk to each other most of the day without verbalizing very much of it. He watches me closer than a virgin’s chaperone after midnight and knows, from experience and almost before I do, what his next move is going to be. It’s a curious thing but Drifter, who doesn’t let me in for much unless we’re in the heat of battle with the cows, keeps a sharp eye on Topper.
Animals have a way of communicating that those of us with linguistic capabilities have mostly forgotten but could sorely use. Only in our world of words can we see the husband, frozen in angst as he watches his marriage self-destruct, waiting for the door to slam on everything in the world he loves, including his only child. A thousand thoughts race through his head as he struggles desperately to open his heart, but he can’t think of the words. Stoically, he seals his fate.
Clearly, I remember the names; Stardust, Spades, Snicker, Thunderbird, Wishy, Kiowa, Willie, Donald, Billy and Drifter, and a slew more; horses who have carried me all over these mountains with little complaint, galloping after cows across hillsides so steep a fall might mean serious injury or death, giving it their all without miscue.
Growling, ankle-biting monsters to a herd of cattle, good dogs make life much more enjoyable for cowboys trailing a herd through the mountains and save a horse and cowboy a lot of work. Names like Wolf, Tag, Freckles, Blue, Calvin, Tipper and Topper roll off my tongue, all border collies or Aussie heelers, dogs all gone but Topper, dogs to always be remembered for their contributions to the cause.
In the early-morning chill before a big spring cattle drive or fall roundup, the horses snort and stomp with anticipation, the dogs run back-and-forth sniffing and wagging while the riders, fingering their reins, laugh too easily and anxiously await the cue to move out.
The boss “clucks” his mount out the gate and suddenly it’s all business. The horses walk easy and with purpose; the dogs line out behind their human partners, knowing which horse and which rider they need to listen to, and from any perspective, it’s an interrelated group who enjoys what they do, a page taken straight out of history books worn thin by centuries of loving use.
There are those who say that dogs and horses don’t have souls, that they’re just animals, and if that’s really true, then I’d like to volunteer mine to those creatures I have experienced life with, for God knows, they truly deserve it.
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The past sneaks up on us in the strangest of ways, and I don’t mean bounty hunters flashing those “Wanted: Dead or Alive” posters in our faces.

domain: literature


- Six officials from the authority were arrested by EACC detectives over allegations of flouting procurement laws
- They were accused of irregularities in procurement of renovation services for the authority's stand during ASK show in Nairobi
- The CA chairman dismissed the allegations saying it instead saved taxpayers money
As earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, sleuths nabbed Joyce Nyambache Osinde, Stanley K. Kibe, Leo Kibet Boruett, Vincent Ngundi, Jane Jeptanui Rotich and Philip Kiplangat over allegations of flouting procurement laws.
They were arrested on Thursday, May 16, after Director of Public Prosecution, Noordin Haji, gave consent for their prosecution over renovation of the authority's stand for Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) show.
A press statement issued by the CA chairman Ngene Gituku indicated that in 2014, the agency had invited tenders for renovation of its exhibition stand at the Nairobi ASK show ground.
"The tender committee, in its deliberations, noted that the tender sum for the lowest evaluated bid of KSh 4,474,000 was unreasonably high considering that the authority had undertaken similar works in the previous year," said Ngene.
The tender and procurement of the services were canceled and instead awarded to the authority's advertising agency at KSh 1, 927,572 for repairs of the stand given it had been contracted to provide branding and other associated services during the show.
"By awarding the tender to the advertising agency, the authority made a saving of KSh 2,546,428 (as compared to the initial lowest evaluated bid of KSh 4, 474,000). From the foregoing, it is clear that no public funds were lost; instead public resources were saved," the chairman said.
Other officials wanted by EACC in connection to the matter included former CA director in charge of consumer and public affairs Mutua Muthusi and secretary John Omo as well as Peris Nkonge who are still at large.
Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through firstname.lastname@example.org or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Follow us on Telegram: Tuko news


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The search for effective brain injury treatments has suffered a major setback after a study found no benefits from a supplement, citicoline, which the U.S. military had hoped would help wounded troops. According to an Associated Press news report, the supplement is marketed as a memory booster online and in over-the-counter powders and drinks. Doctors in many other countries use this supplement to treat traumatic brain injuries and strokes. However, so far, evidence on whether it works has been mixed, the article states.
A group of scientists in the United States conducted the study hoping that large doses of the citicoline would help speed up recovery for patients who had suffered brain injuries from car crashes, falls, sports accidents and other causes. However, after much rigorous testing, experts found that the supplement worked “no better than dummy treatments” at reducing brain injury-related issues such as forgetfulness, attention issues and difficulties with focusing.
Hope Scarce for Brain Injury Victims
This study involved 1,213 patients aged 18 and older who were hospitalized with brain injuries at eight of the country’s trauma centers. Their injuries ranged from mild to severe and their symptoms ranged from dizziness to loss of consciousness and even brain bleeding. Also, 73 patients died during the study, which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
This study unfortunately does not offer much hope for the 1 million or more Americans who suffer traumatic brain injuries each year. Of these patients, 53,000 die. Thousands of service members are also affected by traumatic brain injuries each year. There is still no effective treatment that can cure brain injuries. The effects of a traumatic brain injury can last a lifetime. Patients may never be able to return to the life they once had. They may never again be able to go back to work and earn a livelihood for their families. Some may not even be able to perform everyday activities such as caring for themselves.
Compensation in TBI Cases
When a brain injury occurs due to the negligence of someone else, injured victims and their families can seek compensation for damages including, but not limited to, medical expenses, lost wages and benefits, continued treatment costs, rehabilitation, permanent injuries, disabilities, past and future pain and suffering, etc.
If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options. Our skilled attorneys have a proven track record of helping injured victims or their families get fair compensation for their losses. Please contact us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). We can also help with personal injury cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com
Source: The Associated Press
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Simple yet attractive is what rug decor do to your home. Yes it is located under our feet but you should see that the beauty will cheer up the entire room. Is usually the rug is made from wool or other fabric, Elisa Strozyk make a breakthrough by using dyed wood as the main material to the rug.
It appears that the rug design Decor that she create look very fabulous. The geometric patterned rug that lies in your living room already looks fantastic. You can notice the colorful pattern on the triangle bring playful atmosphere to the room. But the fun does not stop there since the beautiful rug Decor does not only look beautiful when it lies plainly on the floor. Yes you usually would hate it if your other rug is crinkle and make a mess. But this stunning rug decor present another beauty when it crinkles.
The dyed wood rug base color is actually white with grey lines create repetitive triangle pattern. The images on the rug create artistic rug decor which will make great impression. Black, red and yellow apparently look very charming when it collaborates in this rug. Unlike other rug which looks like a lump when it crinkles, it turns out that this colorful rug creates small triangle shapes when it crinkles.
It will look perfect as your living room Decor and you also can combine it with fluffy white rug next to it. The irregular rug edges make dynamic room ambience. You can notice the black and pastel tone collaboration turn out to appear beautifully. In any rustic room ambience with concrete flooring and log Decor, the colorful rug Decor becomes very attractive. The combination of red hues to pastel and baby blue to darker blue really make cheerful pattern. It is obvious with beautiful rug design Decor like Elisa’s made will make any room full of cheers.

domain: artistic


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Claire Chretien — Life Site News July 14, 2017
Abortion workers might have delivered babies alive and then killed them in order to harvest their body parts, the House Select Panel on Infant Lives revealed in an interim report on the one-year anniversary of the release of the Center for Medical Progress videos.
The interim report outlined the progress the Panel has made in its investigations into the abortion and fetal tissue procurement industry despite internal obstructions the Panel has faced from its Democratic members, who have “even urged noncompliance with congressional subpoenas.”
“The Panel is concerned with a history of babies being born alive and the sale of baby body parts at some late-term abortion clinics. The Panel’s investigation has revealed that whole baby cadavers of a viable age are transferred from some abortion clinics to researchers,” the report said. “The induction abortion procedure has increased the likelihood that infants will be born alive during abortions, even while the gestational age of viability has lowered due to medical advancements. This intersection, coupled with a profit motive, will be part of the Panel’s focus during the coming months.”
As LifeSiteNews previously reported in June, the Panel announced that abortion facilities and the fetal tissue companies with which they partnered appear to have violated federal patient privacy law and informed consent regulations. The Panel’s interim report details the various ways in which abortion facilities and the fetal tissue companies with which they worked potentially illegally cut corners in order to maximize profits.
At a press conference Thursday morning with fellow members of the Select Panel, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Missouri) said the Panel’s investigation has shined a light on the “sad, dark world” of the fetal tissue industry.
The Panel also “found evidence that some abortion providers altered abortion procedures in a manner that substitutes what is best for the patient with a financial benefit for both the abortion clinic and the procurement business,” its report says. This is consistent with the Center for Medical Progress’ findings and video showing Dr. Deborah Nucatola, a Planned Parenthood abortionist, discussing how she tailors abortion procedures to maximize her chances of obtaining intact fetal organs.
“I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact,” she said over salad and wine.
“Through our investigation we have uncovered evidence that some abortion providers have altered abortion procedures in a manner that substitutes what is best for the patient with a financial benefit for both the abortion clinic and the procurement company,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the Panel chair, said.
The Panel will focus on this subject in coming months, according to the report, as well as launching initiatives to ensure compliance from those it has subpoenaed. Some of the individuals who have received subpoenas from the Panel have “heavily redacted” vital information and others have “refused to comply at all,” often at the instruction of the Panel’s Democrat members.
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisconsin) said he finds the investigation’s lack of support from Democrats and abortion supporters “troubling,” something that he thinks indicates their embarrassment at what the investigation has revealed.
The report synthesized all of the Panel’s findings since its creation. These findings include:
- Evidence that the fetal tissue company StemExpress operated what Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania) and Panel Chairman Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN7) called the “Amazon.com of baby body parts,” with a drop-down menu that allowed researchers to order baby body parts obtained from abortions
- Evidence that StemExpress recruited and then embedded in abortion centers female technicians in order to “facilitate the consent process” with women undergoing abortions
- Evidence that StemExpress paid its employees bonuses for each tissue sample that they collected
- Evidence that StemExpress “paid approximately $55 for each fetal tissue sample or Product of Conception (POC) it obtained from abortion clinics and transferred it to researchers for $595 to $910 per tissue or body part. … A comparison of invoices, attorney-created accounting documents, and productions from multiple StemExpress customers shows that the firm may have made a profit when procuring and transferring fetal tissue. The Panel’s cost analysis shows StemExpress overstated some of its labor costs, and claimed as expenses shipping, supplies, and infectious disease screenings. These were costs charged to researchers.”
- StemExpress has “consistently refused to produce subpoenaed accounting documents that the Panel requires to complete its [cost] analysis”
- An “unclear picture” of the “conduct and income” of Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc (ABR), another fetal tissue company that resells fetal tissue obtained from abortion centers to researchers, based on information it provided to the Panel
- ABR transferred both human fetal tissue and body parts to researchers. Among those body parts were “brains, hearts, eyes, skulls, eyes, spinal cords, spinal columns, and skin,” and many of the babies from whom these body parts were taken were past 20 weeks gestation
- Details about the cozy relationship between The University of New Mexico and Planned Parenthood and Southwestern Women’s Options (SWWO), which involves the University supplying them with abortionists and SWWO supplying the University with fetal tissue
- The details of The University of Minnesota’s relationship with an abortion facility and procurement of fetal tissue from it “merit further investigation”
- The University of Minnesota may have violated state law prohibiting many forms of research on aborted babies
- The University of Minnesota may have violated state law by disposing of fetal remains as “biohazard waste”
- Colorado State University’s relationship with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains merits investigation due to potential discrepancies between the cost of harvesting fetal tissue and how much Planned Parenthood billed CSU
- Historical and scientific information showing that fetal tissue research is outdated technology and “not mainstream science”
- Information showing that the vast majority of vaccines have been able to be developed without the use of cell lines derived from aborted babies
- Evidence showing that StemExpress’ annual revenue went from $156,312 in 2010 to $4.5 million in 2014. The fetal tissue company expanded from working with four abortion facilities to nearly 300
“The Select Panel has uncovered a vast array of questionable, if not outright criminal and illegal, behavior from Planned Parenthood and their allies in the abortion and tissue procurement industry,” Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins said. “These tiny babies are treated with no more dignity than a piece of discarded trash, their mothers deceived into believing their difficult decision will result in some life-saving treatment. The reality is much different. Women have been systematically and purposely betrayed by the abortion industry. Their vulnerability translated into dollars, their children torn apart and sold piece by piece to the highest bidder.”

domain: medical


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The topic of whether professional hair braiders should be licensed to do hair has come up many times in the past, and now, one Utah braider is challenging the State's decision to take food off her table.
“It is ridiculous to force people trying to put food on the table to go into debt just to do so,” said Jestina Clayton, who fled her war-torn home country for a better life in America. “I can understand if the state required us to take some health and sanitation courses, but taking cosmetology classes that don't even involve hair braiding doesn't make any sense.”
Clayton has filed a lawsuit against Utah, claiming the state's requirements to obtain a cosmetology license are irrelevant to her job and an unconstitutional infringement on her right to earn a living.
What are your thoughts? Should hair braiders be required to take full cosmetology courses to braid hair, a service that does not require the use of chemicals?

domain: politics


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Rumsfeld quotes Clinton officials to justify Iraq war
WASHINGTON (AP) Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday joined the Bush administration's attack on Iraq war critics, quoting Clinton administration officials who contended in the late 1990s that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a security threat to the United States and its allies.
At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld noted that Congress in 1998 passed the Iraq Liberation Act, making it U.S. government policy to support efforts to remove the Saddam regime from power. He noted that President Bill Clinton ordered four days of bombing in December 1998.
President Bush on Monday hurled back at Democratic critics the worries they once expressed that Saddam was a grave threat.
"They spoke the truth then and they're speaking politics now," Bush charged.
Rumsfeld continued Bush's assault on war critics, citing the words of Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security adviser.
Rumsfeld quoted Berger as having said of Saddam in 1998, "He will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and some day, some way, I am certain he will use that arsenal again, as he has 10 times since 1983."
Democrats have accused Bush of manipulating and withholding some prewar intelligence and misleading Americans about the rationale for war.
Shortly before Rumsfeld spoke, the Republican-controlled Senate defeated, on a 58-40 vote, a Democratic effort to pressure Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It then overwhelmingly endorsed a weaker, non-binding statement calling on the administration to explain its Iraq policy and declaring that 2006 "should be a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty."
Iraq and a host of other problems, from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina to the indictment of a senior White House official in the CIA leak investigation, have taken a heavy toll on Bush.
Nearing the end of his fifth year in office, Bush has the lowest approval rating of his presidency. In AP-Ipsos polling, a majority of Americans say Bush is not honest and they disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the war on terrorism.
Referring to the current situation, Rumsfeld said, "We are in the midst of a war that threatens free people across the world," as evidenced by terrorist attacks in the United States, London, Madrid and other cities. He said the world must face up to the "dark vision" of a network of "Islamo-fascists" and extremists.
"They seek to build in Iraq what they once had in Afghanistan — a safe haven," he said. "And then to expand throughout the region and beyond."
While noting that many Americans want to know when U.S. troops will leave Iraq, Rumsfeld said it would be a grave mistake to leave prematurely.
"We must be careful not to give terrorists the false hope that if they can simply hold on long enough, they can outlast us," Rumsfeld said.
There are about 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

domain: news


text:
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Finally, we approached Ar. Rakhi Takle, and with the first plan everything fell into place, it felt like all my basic requirements were fulfilled but a lot of additional amenities were provided.
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The team of Neev Designs under Ar. Rakhi, collaborated closely with the contractors to make sure that the house was built with high-quality materials, resolve issues, and to ensure the designs was properly executed.”
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"The experience with Neev Design has been way above expectations and I appreciate Ar. Rakhi's timely execution of projects while keeping in mind the best interests of clients.
I got my office with all Innovative & theme designs in line with my profession.
Neev Designs also gives the best of output with cost-effective measures and with almost zero wastage of materials."
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“We value projects that contribute to the well being of society and in our work we consider all aspects of the project, client, and community.” — Ar.Rakhi Takle
From creating spaces of luxury and elegance to whimsical flights of the imagination, excellence through function, innovation, imagination and conscious design solutions Neev designs create Architecture and interiors with a competitive edge and enhance ecological, social, human, and financial capital through design excellence.
Consultancy Office Address: 'Mangal', MI - 1363, Trimbak Road, Nashik - 422 022, India

domain: design


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I Am Posters
I Am Posters is intensely popular and makes a great wall decoration, the one dimension is 18 x 24 inch and the price is $21.99. If you're trying to hunt for top recommended I Am Posters with penny price, this unit is the faithful deals for you.
Type: Laminated Poster
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If you want to sell your house, then there are many ways to do so. However, if you have an urgent need to sell your house, then the best way to sell it is to a cash house buyer. If your need is urgent, you will find many good reasons why you should sell your house to a cash house buyer. Perhaps your house is facing foreclosure because of missed monthly payments, or maybe you are relocating to another city because of a new job. People who need to sell their house fast have their own special reasons why they need to do so. What are the benefits of selling your house to a cash house buyer?
The first reason is that they buy houses fast for cash. You go through an easy and simple process. You will get cash for your house in a very short amount of time. You will find cash house buyers in your location by searching online and when you have reached their website, you just fill the online form for some basic information that they ask from you. You will receive a visit from a company representative who will do a quick inspection of your home. You will then receive an all-cash offer from the company. All you need to do is to accept their all-cash offer and if you do, then your house is good as sold and you will receive your cash payment in a matter of days. There are no hassles and it is that simple. The paperwork is even accomplished by their own lawyer and all you need to do is to sign the sales papers. Then the money is yours and you can pay your debts and move on, or you can use it to furnish your new home in another city.
Cash house buyers buy houses as is, and this is another great reason why you should sell your house to cash house buyers. this means that whatever the condition of your house is, then they will not require you to make repairs or renovate it. That is their business. Even if your house is dilapidated, they will still buy it. This means that you can save money on repairs. And you don’t have to stage your house like what they do the traditional way. Even ugly houses are bought by cash house buyers.
Cash house buyers don’t collect fees or commissions from the sale. The reason for this is that they are not middlemen but direct buyers. They are the buyers that you are looking for to sell your house to. If you sell your house through an agent, you will be asked for fees and commission on the sales. Real estate agents usually ask for thousands of dollars in commissions. This is not true of cash house buyers. You save a lot with cash house buyers.
The Best Advice on Sales I’ve found
Learning The Secrets About Properties

domain: economics


The Rajasthan Forest Department has issued a shoot at sight order for a leopard that managed to kill 2 people in less than 3 days in the Amreli District, Gujarat.
The warrant was issued earlier today.
According to reports, the leopard killed Vaju Borad in Mota Munjiyasar Village in Bagasara Taluka of Amreli district, Rajasthan, on Thursday.
On Friday, the same leopard attacked a man in the same village.
On Saturday, the same leopard attacked an agricultural laborer from Rajasthan in Munjiyasar at around 3:15 am.
The laborer that was attacked on Saturday succumbed to his injuries later that day.
The Amreli Forest Department has announced that teams have been formed to capture the leopard that has been in a streak for 1 week.
Authorities have also issued a shoot at sight order for the leopard.
The forest department has assigned a special sharpshooter team to kill the leopard.
Nearly 30 cages have been set up near the village just to capture the man-eating leopard.


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The Israeli military sent out helicopter gunships Monday after Palestinian militants detonated a roadside bomb next to a military vehicle in the West Bank, according to the Associated Press.
Members of the Israeli military exchanged fire with a group of Palestinians after the bomb injured seven soldiers, who suffered light to moderate injuries, according to the AP. The soldiers were in the area to perform an arrest, and after engaging for some time in a “massive exchange of fire,” the military called in its gunships. (RELATED: Activists Push ‘No Pride In Apartheid’ Boycott Against Israel, Ignoring Gaza Anti-Gay Laws)
“As the security forces exited the city, a military vehicle was hit by an explosive device, damaging the vehicle,” a military spokesperson said, according to the AP. “[The helicopters] opened fire toward the gunmen in order to assist in extraction of the forces.”
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said that the roadside bomb was “very unusual and dramatic” and that in order to remove their troops from the situation the helicopters were called in, according to the AP. The use of Israeli aircraft in the West Bank is extremely rare and follows months of escalating violence between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants.
Four Palestinians were killed in the exchange and identified by the Palestinian Health Ministry as “Khaled Asasa, 21, Qassam Abu Sariya, 29, Qais Jabarin, 21, and 15-year-old Ahmed Saqr,” with five still in serious condition, according to the AP. Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh released a statement saying that Israel had engaged in “a fierce and open war” and that the Palestinian government would be discussing the situation in an emergency meeting.
In May, Islamic Jihadists launched hundreds of rockets at Israel after the military fired 50 rockets to take out three Islamic Jihad leaders in the West Bank, as well as several terrorist rocket-launching devices.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact email@example.com.


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Ship List | Cards | E-zine | Advertise | Orderbook | Retired Ships | Cruise Ports | About us
Built in the early 60s, in East Germany as the Alexander Pushkin, this ship was one of several sisters, and has undergone numerous substantial modifications during her now very long life. Now she is operated by Cruise and Maritime Voyages, targetting the British Market
Matthew Sudders (January 4, 2011)
The Alexander Pushkin
Built in the early 60s, in East Germany as the Alexander Pushkin, this ship was one of several sisters, and has undergone numerous substantial modifications during her now very long life. Looking at the postcards on Ian Boyle's excellent website, her external profile was most sleek as delivered, when she had a forward superstructure front which reminds me a little of Sagafjord, in being rather curvy. Initially this ship must have been unusual in that she had mostly outside passenger cabins, and even the windowless rooms were on the outer sides of the vessel, rather than in the center.
This is long before Wartsila's All Outside Cruiser (which was eventually built as Royal Princess), was even thought of. Yet despite this, most cabins were initially without bathrooms. To achieve the all outside arrangement, a cabin plan similar to the Bibby cabins on P&O seems to have been employed with cabins in interlocking sets of 4, 2x2 berth and 2x4berth. In the 4 berths, the window wa s reached across the desk where the cabin narrowed to accommodate within it, a 2 berth arrangement.
The ship originally seems to have had enclosed promenades on the Promenade deck, and the forward half of the saloon deck. Her main public rooms consisted of a Music Saloon with dance floor and forward views, 2 cafes, a Cinema, Library, Ladies and Gents Hairdressers, Friendship bar, smoking saloon, and the Rusalka bar by an aft pool which was heated and enclosed by a sliding glass roof (a la France). On the bridge deck there was also a small public space which seems to have been given floor to ceiling glass and is referred to as the Verandah and White Nights bar.
The deckplans show as space outside on the boat deck which is noted as swimming pool on the later plans, and dance floor on the early plans (an outdoor dance floor?). Is this a misprint or was it a forerunner of the solution the Birka Paradise now has with a pool with a retractable dancefloor covering?
Her First Substantial Refit
By the early 80s, she had undergone her first substantial refit, which substantially extended the superstructure forward on the Saloon deck and boat decks. This involved removing some of the forward cabins on boat deck, and according to the literature, created a double height space incorporating the music saloon and lounge. The other major change was to extend the 2 cafes to the full width of the ship, incorporating the forward part of the enclosed promenades.
Fast forward to 1990 and the Alex is in Singapore for a refit when the Soviet Union collapses and the money stops flowing. Enter Gerry Herrod, fresh from selling a luxury cruise line and by 1991 he purchases the vessel and she enters a very very long refit in Piraeus. If the previous refit was substantial, this was revolutionary. Almost the entire cabin accommodation appears to have been scooped out and rebuilt. Gone is the notion of almost all outside, and in its place comes all en suite. The ship re-entered service in Nov 93 as Marco Polo. In the rebuild, the cabins were built out to the side of the ship, eliminating the enclosed promenades once and for all.
The forward double height public room was transformed into a single level theatre and new cabins installed in what would have been the balcony level. Only the area above the stage is now double height. In redesigning this space, unfortunately they eliminated both forward facing public rooms.
The White nights bar and Verandah space aft of the bridge were also given over to cabins and the superstructure extended aft. New spaces astern included Scotts bar on the boat deck, which is the 'night spot' on the ship. A Gym/ Spa above and whirlpools on the deck above that. All topped off by a heli-pad, completing the expedition image.
Down on the Saloon deck, the full transformation also took place. The 2 cafe's were merged into a single full-width bar, now the Captain's club. Aft, the accommodation was extended to the full width of the ship. The Cinema, Smoking room and Friendship bars went, replaced by boutiques and the Palm Garden space. And a Lido restaurant was created in an areas that was once toilets, haridressers and changing rooms around the aft pool. The enclosure was also eliminated, meaning all pools were now outside.
Cruise and Maritime Voyages
Now she is operated by Cruise and Maritime Voyages, targetting the British Market, and here's a few thoughts on the experience. Arriving at Tilbury terminal, was rather like entering 'gods waiting room', with the overwhelming majority of the passengers being the post retirement crowd. We boarded slightly later than expected and after finding our outside cabin, I was impressed. It was well laid out and fitted, with sufficient storage space and no obvious serious wear and tear. The public spaces were similarly well kept, modern without glitz.
Onboard entertainment targetted the British passengers and was provided by British cruise staff. The result was energetic and appropriate and they made full use of the ship. There was a full production show every night. I guess Marco Polo's showlounge was considered state of the art when built but now seems rather dated. It is set up with limited tiering to the seating, and the stage doesn't have any curtains so the case seem to come on from the lounge entrance half the time. Nonetheless, they didn't do badly and whilst not on a par with a megaship, it was more than I expected.
Food and dining generally was where one really noticed the low fares. A crowded dining room, poor quality ingredients, excessive portion control and very limited buffet hours were characteristics.
CMV didn't seem to have put the same effort into making the menus target brits as they had the entertainment. Nothing was inedible, but apart from Fred. Olsen, and MSC, I've had better on every other line.
The Marco sailed throughout on smooth seas but when there were light swells this made me grateful. WIth her sheer and camber there is nary a flat surface on the ship and she seem to roll if too many people breathed in the wrong direction, and pitched extensively whilst we were in open water. Thankfully our cabin was located so that we weren't troubled by this. If choosing a cruise on the Marco, beware of cabins between the aft and midships stairs, wherein there was a very strong smell of Diesel everytime I passed through.
One thing I very much welcomed was the fold out deck plan from the line. On the back was a full potted history of the ship. Unlike some lines, CMV are happy to show their ship had a career before joining them.
All in all this was a very pleasant trip, excellent value but you get what you pay for. Would I travel CMV again - yes, on a short, competitively priced itinerary.
From the left, top: The Warldorf Restaurant, The Columbus Lounge, The Palm Garden, The Library, The Jade Wellness Centre and The Scotts Bar. (Courtesy Cruise and Maritime Voyages)
For further information: Cruise and Maritime Voyages