scholarly journals Columns of Ordeal

1921 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 68-77
Author(s):  
F. W. Hasluck

No self-respecting Cairene dragoman omits to point out to his clients among the curiosities of the mosque of Amr at Fostat two columns near the South door, which are endowed, according to popular superstition, with the miraculous power of discriminating between true Moslems and Unbelievers. Placed at such a short distance apart (some ten inches) that the passage between them can with difficulty be negotiated by a man of average build, the columns none the less allow a true Moslem, however stout, to pass between them, while an Unbeliever, however slim, finds passage impossible. In other words, the space is supernaturally widened if necessary to accommodate the former and contracted to exclude the latter class.The columns actually used for this purpose at Cairo do not seem long to have been associated with the superstition. Visitors to the mosque in the sixties do not mention it, though they refer to the companion marvel of the column miraculously transported from Mecca. The superstition itself, however, is of great antiquity and relatively well documented. The purpose of the rite, a spiritual test, distinguishes it sharply from the many similar ‘passing through’ rituals universally current and generally considered ‘lucky’ acts practised with a view to the healing of disease, etc. Its symbolism, as we shall see, suggests a Christian origin.

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-440
Author(s):  
Martinette Kruger ◽  
Adam Viljoen ◽  
Oghenetejiri Digun-Aweto

Events and festivals, especially those focused on food, showcase the many nuances within a culture and can be seen to be an effective medium to transfer cultural identity or tradition. Cultural phenomena such as food festivals are integral to cultural immersion, especially in multicultural/multiethnic societies such as Nigeria. Emphasizing the importance of investigating the culinary festival market in Nigeria, TasteOff is an example in a developing country that identifies the market segments based on a multisegmentation approach that includes (i) travel motives, (ii) the important "festivalscape" factors, and (iii) future culinary event preferences. This research contributes dually to (i) a better understanding of culinary tourism in Africa, especially since much attention is placed on the South African scenario, and (ii) the needs and preferences of Africa's largest economy, Nigeria.


1963 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 99-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Wainwright

The distribution of Mesolithic sites in Wales is controlled to a great extent by the terrain, for physiographically, Wales is a highland block defined on three sides by the sea and for the greater part of the fourth side by a sharp break of slope. Geologically the Principality is composed almost entirely of Palaeozoic rocks, of which the 600-foot contour encloses more than three quarters of the total area. There are extensive regions above 1,500 feet and 2,000 feet and in the north the peaks of Snowdonia and Cader Idris rise to 3,560 feet and 2,929 feet respectively. Indeed North Wales consists of an inhospitable highland massif, skirted by a lowland plateau and cut deeply by river valleys, providing only limited areas for settlement. The hills and mountains of Snowdonia with their extension at lower altitudes into the Lleyn Peninsula, and the ranges of Moelwyn, Manod Mawr, Arenig Fach and Cader Idris, are discouraging obstacles to penetration, save for a short distance along the river valleys. To the east of these peaks are extensive tracts of upland plateau dissected by rivers, bounded on the west by the vale of the river Conway and cleft by the Vale of Clwyd. To the east of this valley lies the Clwydian Range and further again to the east these uplands descend with milder contours to the Cheshire and Shropshire plains.To the south the district merges into the uplands of Central Wales, which are continuous until they are replaced by the lowland belt of South Wales.


Antiquity ◽  
1928 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 328-336
Author(s):  
F. Wildte

The Scandinavian peoples emerge into the light of history much later than their neighbours in the South and the West, the Teutons on the Continent and in England. It was only through the Viking raids that the Nordic peoples came into touch with the rest of Europe, and were gradually converted to Christianity. Long after the introduction of the Christian faith they preserved many peculiar and archaic traits. Thus the Nordic peoples retained, with great tenacity and conservatism, their ancient judicial system. This system has therefore been the object of considerable interest even outside Scandinavia, although the manuscripts through which it has become known are much later than the corresponding documents of other Teutonic nations.An investigation of the localities where justice was dispensed in former ages is of importance not only for the history of civilization, but also as a complement to the study of oral and written tradition, and thus to the history of law itself. In view of the many points of similarity between the judicial systems of the various Teutonic nations, some notes on the Thing-steads, or places of assembly, in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, may perhaps be of interest to English-speaking readers.


1945 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 267-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Anderson

Formerly there were several surface brine springs in the North-East Coalfield; to-day there are none. From the many accounts of their occurrence nothing has been learned of their exact position, and very little of the composition of their waters. The earliest record, made in 1684, described the Butterby spring (Todd, 1684), and then at various times during the next two centuries brine springs at Framwellgate, Lumley, Birtley, Walker, Wallsend, Hebburn, and Jarrow were noted. In particular the Birtley salt spring is often mentioned, and on the 6-in. Ordnance map, Durham No. 13, 1862 edition, it is sited to the south-east of the village. Although no record has been found there must have been either a brine spring or well at Gateshead, for the name of the present-day suburb, Saltwell, is very old, and brine springs are still active in the coal workings of that area.


Author(s):  
Sefton D. Temkin

This chapter examines the role played by the Israelite in establishing Wise as a leader of American Jewry. The Israelite was a newspaper, of which Wise became the editor in addition to his responsibilities as a preacher. It carried his voice throughout the land, and made some people fear his censure and others curry his favour. It brought him callers and information from all parts. And, as in those days many railways provided free passes for newspaper editors, it gave him the means of undertaking the many journeys to distant congregations which did so much to enhance his influence among the communities of the South and the West.


2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivienne Muller

It has become a commonplace to note that women writers in Australia have historically produced their work in a literary and social context that has largely been regarded as a male domain. Second wave feminism in the wake of the counter-cultural movements of the sixties and seventies, together with the developments in poststructuralist theories have contested this privileged intellectual space and triggered new ways of looking at literary history, the relations between production and consumption, and the significance of gender, race and class in literary analysis (Ferrier 1992:1). This chapter deals with a number of texts written by Queensland women in the latter part of the twentieth century, and thus is concerned principally with the many ‘configurations of female subjectivity’ (Ferrier 1998:210) and self-definition that Elaine Showalter saw as belonging to the third phase of women's writing. However as this is a chapter about women writers writing in and about Queensland, it will also be interested in narrative representations of women's experiences of the local place and culture, in which gendered relationships are always implicated.


1911 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. V. Le Coq

European science is indebted to Dr. M. A. Stein's industry for the remarkable document here published. It is one of the many valuable MSS. which fell to his lot through the partial acquisition in 1907 of an ancient library discovered, by a Chinese priest, in one of the Buddhist cave temples of the “Halls of the Thousand Buddhas” to the south-east of the Tun-huang oasis, as described by him in the Geographical Journal for September, 1909. Its excellent state of preservation, and the fact of its being written in the clear unequivocal letters of the Manichæan alphabet, renders this MS. a most valuable help to all interested in the study of the ancient Turkish speech in which it is edited.


2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prarthana Purkayastha

Uday Shankar's career as a dancer and choreographer has been under frequent inspection by dance historians and scholars in both the South Asian and Euro-American worlds. To date, some articles, books, and biographies have documented various aspects Shankar's life, which provide factual details about his performance career (Banerji 1982; Khokar 1983; Mukhopadhyay 2004; Singha and Massey 1967). While these biographies serve as an important source in their delineation of Shankar's life and his works, there have been few attempts at critical analyses and evaluation of Shankar's body of choreographic works. Scant scholarly interests in Shankar have mostly described him as one of the many exotic “oriental” dancers in Europe.


1967 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 353-371
Author(s):  
J. J. Coulton

About 10 metres south-west of the sixth-century temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora, and nearly due west of the little harbour lies the small courtyard previously known as the ‘Agora’. Since its purpose is not known, it will here be non-committally referred to as the West Court. It was first excavated in 1932, and more fully, under the supervision of J. K. Brock, in 1933, but it was not entirely cleared until 1939, and it was at that time that the Roman house which stood in the middle of the court was demolished. The West Court is discussed briefly (under the name of ‘Agora’) in Perachora 1 and in the preliminary reports of the Perachora excavations. Short supplementary excavations were carried out in 1964 and 1966 to examine certain points of the structure.In shape the West Court is an irregular pentagon, about 24 metres from north to south and the same from east to west (Fig. 1; Plate 91 a, b). It is enclosed on the west, north, and on part, at least, of the east side by a wall of orthostates on an ashlar foundation. For a short distance on either side of the south corner, the court is bounded by a vertically dressed rock face which is extended to the north-east and west by walls of polygonal masonry. At the south-west corner the west orthostate wall butts against the polygonal wall, which continues for about 0·80 m. beyond it and then returns north for about 8 metres behind it.


1998 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Mathews

One of the most distinguishing marks of the American South is that religion is more important for the people who live there than for their fellow citizens in the restof the country. When this trait began to identify the region is surprisingly unclear, but it has begun to attract attention from scholars of religion and society who have hitherto been esteemed as students primarily of areas outside the South. The study of religion in Dixie cannot but benefit from this change. After centuries of obsession with thickly settled, college-proud, and printexpressive New England—an area not noted for excessive modesty in thinking about its place in the New World—students of American religion are turning to a region whose history has sustained a selfconsciousness that makes its place in American religious history unique. For studying the American South begins with a dilemma born of ambiguity: whether to treat it as a place or an idea. Sometimes, to be sure, the South appears to be both; but sometimes it is “place” presented as an idea; and sometimes it is a place whose historical experience should have, according to reflective writers, taught Americans historical and moral lessons they have failed to learn. Confusion results in part from the South's contested history not only between the region and the rest of the United States but also among various competing groups within its permeable and frequently indistinct borders. Differences between region and nation will, however, continue to dominate conversation even though the myth of southern distinctiveness may mislead students as much as the myth of its evangelical homogeneity. If inquiry about religion in the South should be sensitive to the many faith communities there, the history of the South will still by contrast provide insight into the broader “American” society.


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