Ribāṭ of Gurjī Khātūn (“the Georgian Lady”)

The Marʿashī Library of Qum owns an unstudied manuscript containing official documents from the Rum Saljuq dynasty. The manuscript includes an Arabic text for the foundation of a ribāṭ. Its patron was unmistakably the Georgian wife of Ghiyāth al-Dīn Kay-Khusraw II (d. 644/1246), the unfortunate sultan beaten by the Mongols at Kösedağ. The building was a caravanserai, most probably located at the stage of Düden, immediately northeast of Antalya. Its construction can be dated to around 636/1238. It was part of a cluster of buildings erected with sultanic patronage on the road from Antalya to Konya. Gurjī Khātūn’s aim in founding the ribāṭ was to establish her son, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Kay-Qubād II, as indisputable heir apparent over the other (and older) offspring of the sultan. Beyond the light it casts on her long-term strategy to become wālida (Tk.valide, queen mother), the text allows us to refine our knowledge of women patrons, a subject that had been tackled so far mostly through the case of Māhparī Khātūn. Finally, the source in which this text was found proves that inscriptions (at least this one) were authored by personnel of the chancery, as supposed by van Berchem and by Redford after him.

Madre y destino en la tragedia griega

A partir de dos tragedias de Eurípides, revisamos la figura de madre mítica en función de paradigma cultural en orden a establecer relaciones históricas. Vinculamos la perspectiva del helenismo del siglo IV y los fenómenos contemporáneos sobre tres claves: el distanciamiento de lo divino y su intento de resignificación a través de una ética horizontal, la generalización de la violencia como estadio de convivencia normalizado, la necesidad de referentes a nivel individual y social. En los textos elegidos, el motivo del destino enfocado desde las consecuencias de la guerra desarrolla tipos contrastantes de heroicidad; entre ellos, Hécuba, la reina madre convertida en viuda y testigo del fin de su descendencia, hace la propuesta distintiva, por medio de la renovación de la idea de justicia y de la revalorización del sufrimiento con sentido trascendente. Eurípides ofrece una alternativa, que cuestiona la idea de civilización ante la crisis de su mundo tradicional -abandono de los dioses, arbitrariedad de los hombres, sojuzgamiento de los inocentes. Si la tragedia propone una actualización del mito de Troya en sede clásica –Atenas de la democracia- su relectura ofrece herramientas de análisis para una contemporaneidad debilitada en su fe trascendente y vulnerada en sus relaciones interpersonales. Abstract Based on two tragedies by Euripides, we review the mythical mother figure as a cultural paradigm in order to establish historical relationships. We link the perspective of 4th century Hellenism and contemporary phenomena on three keys: the distancing from the divine and its attempt of resignification through a horizontal ethics, the generalization of violence as a normalized stage of coexistence, the need of referents at individual and social level. In the chosen texts, the motif of destiny focused from the consequences of war develops contrasting types of heroism; among them, Hecuba, the queen mother turned widow and witness of the end of her offspring, makes the distinctive proposal, through the renewal of the idea of justice and the revaluation of suffering with a transcendent sense. Euripides offers an alternative, which questions the idea of civilization in the face of the crisis of its traditional world -abandonment of the gods, arbitrariness of men, subjugation of the innocent. If the tragedy proposes an update of the myth of Troy in a classical setting -Athens of democracy- its re-reading offers analytical tools for a contemporaneity weakened in its transcendent faith and violated in its interpersonal relationships. Keywords: tragedy, Euripides, Hellenism, Hecuba, heroism.

Eulogising the Dead: A Systemic Functional Exploration of Tributes Delivered by Ghanaian Presidents

Presidents are considered as caring and sensitive fathers of their nations whose words of condolences are usually needed in times of grief. One medium through which they express their condolences is through the delivery of tributes to eulogize the dead and sympathize with bereaved families. There is therefore the need to examine how presidents employ the faculties of language to eulogize the dead in their tributes. Premised on the transitivity framework postulated by Halliday and Matthiessen, the present study investigates the use of transitivity patterns in Ghanaian presidential tributes to unearth various experiences and also unveil the implicit relationships that exist between politicians and traditional rulers. The sample for the study is composed of four tributes delivered by Akuffo Addo, Mahama, Kufour and Rawlings to the late Queen Mother of the Ashanti Kingdom, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Apem II. The data were manually coded using the consensual coding strategy. The results indicate a preponderant use of relational processes to identify the unique qualities possessed by the late Queen Mother which further unveil the varied relationships between her and the presidents. Other process types such as material, mental, verbal and behavioural processes are used to construe the positive actions carried out by the late Queen Mother during her lifetime, activate the minds and emotions of mourners and sympathizers regarding the loss, posthumously project the late Queen Mother as a legend who needs to be modelled after and present a collective purgation of emotions of pain and agony. The study concludes that, despite the apolitical status of traditional rulers, they still have a latent but cordial relationship with politicians. Citation:Mwinwelle, P., Duah, I. and Ernest Mensah, S. (2021). Eulogising the Dead: A Systemic Functional Exploration of Tributes Delivered by Ghanaian Presidents. International Journal of Technology and Management Research (IJTMR), Vol. 6 (2): Pp.38-58. Received: April 15, 2020Accepted: September 1, 2021

Publiczna i prywatna religijność królowej Marii Kazimiery

Public and Private Religiosity and Piety of the Queen Marie Casimire d’Arquien Sobieska In the early modern period, queens were obliged to participate in religious ceremonies and outwardly display their piety through charity. Marie Casimire de la Grange d’Arquien Sobieska met these duties when she was consort of the King John III Sobieski, and later, as a widow residing in Rome. Yet, her prayers were not limited to outward gestures of religiosity at official ceremonies. From her numerous letters, we can learn about her personal piety. In her letters written to Jakub, her eldest son, and his wife, the queen mother often refers to God’s Providence, and expresses her deep devotion and faith in God’s grace and protection. For Queen Marie Casimire, God was the source of comfort in difficult moments. While her outward religiosity is a reflection of the age in which she lived, the queen’s personal faith developed over time and appears to have been deep and sincere.

美人移動，江南到江戶：狩野探幽對中國仕女圖的傳移模寫

<p>明代中國繪畫傳至日本，成為江戶時代重要的創作素材。江戶早期狩野派畫家狩野探幽經多年蒐集和摹寫，繪製了大量以中國古畫為主的縮小摹本，稱作「探幽縮圖」。用於繪畫素材、鑑定筆記及門派傳承等，影響深遠。中國女性是其中重要題材。基於皆川三知關於「縮圖」中多於107幅「唐美人」圖的統計，本文從中日跨文化角度探討「縮圖」中國仕女圖的摹寫方法、來源和運用，並試論日本江戶時代對中國女性題材繪畫及其作偽的受容。發現「縮圖」多擅仕女畫的明代蘇州「吳門」畫家唐寅、仇英款，也有不長於仕女題材的江南名家如元代趙孟頫、趙雍，指出「蘇州片」為其重要來源。再以耕織圖、西王母圖為案例，探討了跨文化背景下中國女性圖像雜糅及重新詮釋問題。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;During the Ming dynasty, Chinese paintings were transmitted to Japan and became an essential visual source for Japanese paintings of the Edo period (1615-1867). Kanō Tan&rsquo;yū (1602-1674), a leading artist of the early Edo Kanō School, spent his lifetime copying numerous earlier Chinese paintings, as well as some Japanese and Korean works. He left thousands of small-sized sketches, called Tan&rsquo;yū Shukuzu [Tan&rsquo;yū&rsquo;s Small Sketches], leaving a lasting impact on the Japanese painting realm. They were made for multiple purposes, as painting models, authentication notes, teaching materials, and a symbol of a painter&rsquo;s status. Sanko Minagawa&rsquo;s research survey indicates the existence of more than 107 sketches of Chinese female images, as one of the major subjects, in Tan&rsquo;yū Shukuzu. </p> <p> This paper focuses on Tan&rsquo;yū&rsquo;s copies of Chinese female-figure paintings (often called tobijinzu, &ldquo;pictures of Chinese beauties,&rdquo; in Japanese) that were largely overlapped with while beyond the scope of the shin&uuml; tu or meiren hua genre (paintings of beautiful ladies) in Chinese art. It discusses the reproduction mechanism of Shukuzu in comparison with the Chinese fenben practice. It also examines the attributed Chinese artists&rsquo; signatures copied by Tan&rsquo;yū in Shukuzu, e.g., Qiu Ying and Tang Yin (famed for beautiful women paintings), Zhao Mengfu and Zhao Yong (no extant authentic female-figure paintings), and it identifies the late Ming Suzhou Pian workshop as an important original Chinese source. It provides a fresh angle to approach the perception of Chinese &ldquo;forgery&rdquo; paintings and the long-term use of Shukuzu in re-making and reinterpreting Chinese paintings in Edo Japan from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Through two case studies from a transcultural perspective, it shows the combination of two Chinese pictorial systems, gengzhi tu (Pictures of Tilling and Weaving) and shin&uuml; tu, in a Kanō School scroll; and the transformation of the Queen Mother of the West, from a powerful female Daoist immortal signified by peaches of immortality to a secularized beautiful lady holding peach blossoms, in Kanō School paintings. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Lady Irene Namaganda

Described as a “woman of character” by her son, Kabaka (King) Sir Edward Mutesa II, Irene Drusilla Namaganda (1896–1957) was the earliest of the three queens who graced 20th-century Buganda. Yet quite independent of her personality, Namaganda was born, educated, and became queen during a momentous period in Buganda’s history. While occupying the office of queen mother following the death of her husband King Daudi Chwa II (1939), Namaganda became sexually involved with and pregnant by Simoni Petero Kigozi, a commoner almost twenty years her junior. For this behavior they were both tried for “An Abominable Crime” in a criminal court and pronounced guilty, and Namaganda was dethroned and sent into an internal exile. In later years, Namaganda converted to the radical Christianity of the Balokole movement. She died of uterus cancer in 1957 leaving behind a legacy of being first on many fronts but, above all, the first rebellious Buganda queen mother to ever be dethroned. Namaganda’s legacy also lies in her unmasking of the colonial misreadings of “native” protest strategies. Neither the colonialists nor the Buganda bureaucracy ever read Namaganda’s choice of becoming pregnant and subsequent strategies as a protest ploy aimed at exposing and ending the colonization of her body and the office she represented. Namaganda’s rebellion was neither a “simple palace matter,” “sad thing,” nor about sex or marriage, as it has been argued. It was about ending one form of patriarchal colonization (her body) and exposing the limitations of another (British).

Asante Queen Mothers in Ghana

The queen mothers of Asante are linked together with chiefs in a dual-gender system of leadership. The symbol of authority and leadership in Asante is a stool (like a throne in England). Throughout the polities of Asante, each queen mother occupies her own stool, and each chief occupies his own stool, representing the authority of chieftaincy in a town or a paramountcy. This political model shapes Asante like a pyramid: queen mothers and chiefs of towns and villages at the base, paramount queen mothers and chiefs at the next level with authority over those of towns and villages, and the king of Asante, the Asantehene, and the queen mother of Asante, the Asantehemaa, at the top ruling over all of Asante. The king of Asante occupies the Golden Stool, the symbol of the Asante nation, which holds the souls of the Asante people according to popular belief. Although the position of queen mother has survived challenges, the relative salience of specific features of her authority has varied. Colonialism ignored queen mothers, and yet Yaa Asantewaa led a war and became a symbol of Asante identity. When the global women’s movement provided inspiration, queen mothers joined together to reclaim their authority.