scholarly journals DERBENT IN CULTURAL AND CIVILIZATION SPACE OF THE MIDDLE AGES: FEATURES AND PECULIARITIES

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-22
Author(s):  
E I Inozemtseva

The article covers the place and role of Derbent in the cultural and civilization space of the Medieval Caucasus. Basing on written sources, the author highlights important features and peculiarities of the town situated at the ‘eternal crossing’, its polyethnic nature was the main structure-forming factor and the cultural environment was a kind of symbiosis based on centuries of interaction of traditions of historically developed ethnic, confessional and social groups of townspeople. A certain negative balance in the historical and cultural process of Medieval Derbent was accounted for the slave trade. Traditionally being one of the transit centers of the slave trade in the Eastern Caucasus, in the 11th-13th centuries Derbent acquired the status of the most well-known and active slave trade market. During the process of Islamization, Dagestan people found themselves under direct influence of the Arab-Muslim civilization. Together with the religion, the rich scientific literature and fiction of the peoples of the Middle East came here and had an entirely fruitful influence on the development of spiritual life of the region. Representatives of the Muslim elite of Derbent were recognized authorities in the field of hadith science and Muslim law. Medieval Derbent was not only a religious but also a major center of spiritual culture, a kind of intellectual base and foundation of the local Muslim spiritual elite. The Arabic language and writing were critical for the formation of the local culture and science. In the comparative historical aspect, the development of Medieval Derbent had a strongly-pronounced specific character conditioned, first of all, by the centuries-old history of the town, which created unique conditions for the formation of the ethno-confessional composition of the town’s population, for the development of economic and social life. As polyethnicity was the main structure-forming factor in Derbent, it should be considered as a specific model of stable long-term interethnic interaction. For many centuries, Derbent was a well-known center of large-scale transit trade in the Eastern Caucasus. Realizing the natural needs of peoples for the exchange of goods, trade was a powerful factor of creation because it stimulated the development of crafts, science, art, development of new territories, and construction of towns. Trade was also an important factor of peace as it required political stability. At the same time, trade was a factor of dialogue culture, the culture of civilized communication, respect for customs and faith of partners in trade. An important feature of Derbent was its unique socio-cultural function: it was the center of not only economic, but also considerable cultural attraction.

1882 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 354-360
Author(s):  
H. F. Tozer

The central peninsula of the three that project from the south of the Peloponnese, which since the Middle Ages has been known as the district of Maina, is one of the wildest parts of Greece owing to its rugged mountains and rocky shores, and has always been the abode of independent and intractable races. The emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus speaks of the Mainotes as having retained their primitive heathenism until the latter half of the ninth century. At the present day they are notorious for their blood-feuds, which are the scourge of the country, and seriously interfere with its social life. On the western shore of this remote district, near a small harbour that runs in from the Messenian gulf, is the town of Vitylo, one of the comparatively few places in the Morea, though these are more numerous on the seaboard than in the interior, which have retained their classical name. It was formerly called and this appellation now appears in the form which accounts for its pronunciation as Vitylo. The modern form of the name is probably the original one, for Ptolemy calls the place Rather more than two centuries ago this town was the scene of a remarkable emigration. At that time the Turks, who had made themselves masters of Crete in 1669, proceeded to attempt the subjugation of Maina. Spon and Wheler, who sailed round cape Matapan on their way to Constantinople in the summer of 1675, were told that the invaders had succeeded in reducing most of the country by means of forts built on the coasts—they seem to have been aided by the treachery of some of the inhabitants—and that part of the population had escaped to Apulia. A few months after these travellers passed by, a number of the inhabitants of Vitylo and its neighbourhood, amounting to about 1000 souls, were persuaded by the Genoese to emigrate under their auspices to Western Europe. They ware led by one of their countrymen, John Stephanopoulos, and were established by their new protectors in Corsica, which was at that time a Genoese possession; and in that island their descendants remain at the present day.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Cook

This policy paper offers a preliminary discussion of an ethnographic language policy project based in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The project focused primarily on the language choices and experiences of the expatriate communities that make up the majority of the population of the city and considered the relationship between those choices and the larger policy goals targeted by the government. The paper draws on narrative data from participants and offers several points of entry for further research and debate, including: the degree to which expatriates are interested in learning Arabic or other languages; the economic and social incentive structures that may impact language decisions; and the connections between work and social life language networks and decisions. The paper argues that these issues are of fundamental importance for policymakers to investigate more closely if they are to move forward with large-scale Arabic language policy initiatives such as Vision 2021 and The Arabic Language Charter, both effectively and ethically.


AJS Review ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 227-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Shatzmiller

It is impossible to discuss the social life or the organization of the Jewish community in the Middle Ages without noting the fact that the synagogue was its center. In many cases the synagogue was the only building owned by the community as such, the only institution that actually was at everyone's disposal. It did not always happen to be a special kind of building constructed or dedicated to the worship of God: sometimes one of the city's houses, or an apartment, or a room, would serve as a synagogue. Thus we hear that in the town of Manosque in Southern France—the location of our episodes—there was in the year 1311 a synagogue located at what had formerly been the house of Macip, one of the community's members.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-151
Author(s):  
K. M. Kapustin

The archives and archaeological materials from excavations in Vyshgorod in 1936 are analysed in the paper. This year the large-scale excavations were conducted on the territory of the old city: near the church of st. Borys and Hlib, two sites in the northeast part of the hillfort and few trenches in different parts of the town. The obtained results correlate with the reports of the narrative sources and indicate the significant development of the city in the period from the 11th to the mid-13th century. The rapid development of the city occurs at that time: the mausoleum of Sts. Borys and Hlib (explored in 1935—1936) becomes the main architectural dominant of the city area. A city square with dwellings and outbuildings were located around the church. The analysis of the archival materials and artefacts from the excavations in 1936 made it possible to clarify and re-examine the allegations established in the works of the mid-20th century. The author proves that discovered objects have different chronology. For example, dwellings, outbuilding, pits and sacral building of the 11th—13th centuries are pit 1 (site 1), the foundations and remains of the walls of the church of Sts. Borys and Hlib (site 1; site W) and oven 1 (site 4). The ones dated by the middle of the 11th and the 12th centuries are building 1 (site 1) and pit 1 (site 4). Structures of the 12th and 13th centuries are pit 2 (site 1) and oven 1 (site 4); of the second half of the 13th—14th centuries are building 1 (site «W»), building 1, pit 2 (site 4). Finally, dated by the 17th—19th centuries are building 2, burials 1, 2 (site 1) and burials 1—19 (site 4). The cultural layers and objects exclusively of Kyiv Rus time were found on the territory of suburbs (pottery furnaces 1 and 2 in a trench at the south of the hillfort; burials 1—3 in trenches on the territory of the Doroshenko estate). In general, the obtained results confirm and at some moments substantially detail our knowledge on the historical development of the city during the Middle Ages and Modern times.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (11) ◽  
pp. 74-83
Author(s):  
K. Gadzhiev

The present article attempts to identify and analyze the complex of those large-scale and profound shifts that have taken place in the most important spheres of public life on a global scale over the past three to four decades (late 20th – early 21st century). Based on the analysis of these and other related trends and processes, it is concluded that the modern world has entered a qualitatively new stage in its development, its radical transformation. The meaning and purpose of this transformation consist in reassessing all the values of democracy, human rights and freedoms, their systemic characteristics, place and role in a modern rapidly changing world, reshaping the paradigm foundations of world outlook, world order and life organization of the modern world. The main focus is on those tectonic shifts that have occurred in the basic infrastructures of the modern world in the last three to four decades in the context of globalization and the information and telecommunication revolution. It has been shown that the revolutions generated by these shifts in the most important spheres of social life erode the very foundations of the modern Western civilization. Thus, the thesis is substantiated that we are witnessing a deep existential change, which is possibly surpassing in its consequences the transition from paganism to new world religions, or the so-called “Great Transformation” – the transition from the Middle Ages to a rationalistic capitalist civilization of the Euro-Atlantic world. These tectonic transformations are viewed through the prism of the axial time theory, the essence of which is to reappraise all the values that have prevailed in the Western capitalist industrial civilization up to the present day. The information and telecommunication revolution has created the conditions for the onset of the twilight of the liberal/unipolar world order and for the formation of foundations of a new polycentric world order.


Author(s):  
Zoltán Kaposi ◽  

This study deals with the industrialisation of the largest market centre of the Southwest Transdanubian Region of Hungary. Nagykanizsa was an agrarian town for a long time; however, a quick increase in trade began from the 1830s. The industry showed small plant traits. The industrialisation started in the 1880s in this region too. Newness was the mass-producing mechanised manufacturing. The manufacturing came into existence in three ways. The first case was when the already existing small plants were developed into factories due to the good trading opportunities. In the second case traders and craftsmen established businesses based on local innovations; therefore, new industries were acclimatised. And the third case was the creation of corporations which presumed large amount of capital. The capital of the large-scale industrial businesses mostly came from previous merchant activity and most of the business founders were merchants before. The evolution of the manufacturing industry was perceptible on every level of contemporary economic and social life. More and more labour migrated from agriculture to industries. Financing the local businesses gave a stable future for the local banks. The increasing number of factories aided local construction industry. Due to the development, industry became the most important sector in the structure of the economy of the town before World War I.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-188
Author(s):  
Brandon Katzir

This article explores the rhetoric of medieval rabbi and philosopher Saadya Gaon, arguing that Saadya typifies what LuMing Mao calls the “interconnectivity” of rhetorical cultures (Mao 46). Suggesting that Saadya makes use of argumentative techniques from Greek-inspired, rationalist Islamic theologians, I show how his rhetoric challenges dominant works of rhetorical historiography by participating in three interconnected cultures: Greek, Jewish, and Islamic. Taking into account recent scholarship on Jewish rhetoric, I argue that Saadya's amalgamation of Jewish rhetorical genres alongside Greco-Islamic genres demonstrates how Jewish and Islamic rhetoric were closely connected in the Middle Ages. Specifically, the article analyzes the rhetorical significance of Saadya's most famous treatise on Jewish philosophy, The Book of Doctrines and Beliefs, which I argue utilizes Greco-Islamic rhetorical strategies in a polemical defense of rabbinical authority. As a tenth-century writer who worked across multiple rhetorical traditions and genres, Saadya challenges the monocultural, Latin-language histories of medieval rhetoric, demonstrating the importance of investigating Arabic-language and Jewish rhetorics of the Middle Ages.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 810-811
Author(s):  
Jayant Pinto

Abstract Decline of the sense of smell with age causes a marked impact on older adults, markedly reducing quality of life. Olfactory dysfunction impairs nutrition, decreases the ability to experience pleasure, and results in depression, among other burdens. Large-scale population studies have identified impaired olfaction as a key heath indicator that predicts the development of decreased physical and mental health, reduced physical activity, weight loss, mild cognitive impairment and dementia, and mortality itself. These data have been generated via analyses of data from several aging cohorts, including the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP); the Beaver Dam cohort; the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities project; the Rush Memory and Aging Project; the Health, Aging, and Body Composition project; the Washington Heights/Inwood Columbia Aging Project; among others. In this presentation, we will review the close connection between olfaction, health, aging, including discussion of insights from these studies. We will also discuss emerging data from NSHAP on the effects of sensory function on cognition, mental health, and social interaction, which demonstrate that sensory function plays a vital role in the lives of older adults. Part of a symposium sponsored by Sensory Health Interest Group.


1928 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 83-115
Author(s):  
Gladys A. Thornton

Clare is situated in the south-west corner of Suffolk, in the valley of the Stour River. At the present day it is only a village, for its market is no longer held; yet its history shows that in earlier times it was of considerable importance, especially during the medieval period, when it was a favourite residence of the Clare lords. The town then had a busy market and a flourishing cloth-making industry; and at one time it seemed possible that Clare might attain full development as a borough, possessing as it did some burghal characteristics. In the following pages it is proposed to study in detail the history of Clare as a seignorial borough during the Middle Ages, and its subsequent development.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Zuzana Pešková

In 2006, the town council of Slany decided to respond to the new trend of regional policy in the Central Bohemia region and focused on the revitalization of the historic core of the town. The large-scale project was assigned to a team of professionals (teachers and graduates of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague), led by Professor Sykora. Team members are to deal with issues of historical centre. The project presented a challenge to test theory, principles and procedures in practical design. The projected area featured Masaryk Square and 22 adjacent streets defined by the existing town walls. The reconstruction project of Vinarickeho Street was the first part of the overall project of revitalization of the historic core of the town chosen to implement. This reconstruction was one of the most technically, organizationally and financially complex works that have been undertaken in Slany recently. Construction started in November 2010 and lasted one year. Although this is a project of smaller scope, thanks to its complexity, sensitive approach and craftsmanship it brought the creators the price Construction of the Year 2012 in the Central Bohemia region and advanced to the second round in the competition Construction of the Year 2012 in Czech Republic.


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