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410_6 | Wulf abandoned his efforts in 1971. The German government was not interested in moving forward with the idea at that time. The building was in use as a school, and funding was not available. The issue of the memorial was so politically sensitive in Germany that Wulf apparently needed police protection because of threats. Klaus Schütz, then mayor of West Berlin, said he did not want any "macabre cult site".
Death |
410_7 | Wulf committed suicide on 10 October 1974 by jumping from the fifth-floor window of his apartment at Giesebrechtstraße 12, Berlin-Charlottenburg. For three years, he had planned to write a 500-page history of East European Jewry. A publisher's letter accepting his proposal arrived on the day of his death and was found unopened. In his last letter to his son, David, he wrote, "I have published 18 books about the Third Reich and they have had no effect. You can document everything to death for the Germans. There is a democratic regime in Bonn. Yet the mass murderers walk around free, live in their little houses, and grow flowers." |
410_8 | Wulf is buried in Holon on the central coast of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. In early 1974, he had written in an open letter, "Appeal to the German intellectual public", intended for submission to Die Zeit, that he did not want to be buried in Germany: "For a conscious Jew living and working in Europe, how you Christians forget what you have done with Jews over two thousand years, how you Germans forget that you have exterminated six million Jews, only becomes clear on Israeli soil. On Israeli soil, all of Europe seems to be in a sort of Orwellian condition." |
410_9 | Museum
In 1986 the mayor of Berlin, Eberhard Diepgen, announced that a memorial would indeed be built at the Wannsee villa. On 20 January 1992, on the 50th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, the site was finally opened as a Holocaust memorial and museum. In the dining room where the conference was held, photographs and biographies of the participants hang on the wall. The museum also hosts permanent exhibits of texts and photographs that document events of the Holocaust and its planning. The Joseph Wulf Mediothek on the second floor, a reference library, houses over 65,000 books, 10,000 films, 120 journal subscriptions, and materials such as microfilms and original Nazi documents. |
410_10 | Selected works
with Léon Poliakov (1955). Das Dritte Reich und die Juden, Berlin: Arani-Verlag.
A slightly adapted edition was published in Dutch as Het Derde Rijk en de Joden (1956), Amsterdam.
with Léon Poliakov (1956). Das Dritte Reich und seine Diener, Berlin: Arani-Verlag.
with Léon Poliakov (1959). Das Dritte Reich und seine Denker, Berlin: Arani-Verlag.
(1960). Die Nürnberger Gesetze, Berlin.
(1960). Heinrich Himmler, Berlin.
(1961). Das Dritte Reich und seine Vollstrecker. Die Liquidation von 500.000 Juden im Ghetto Warschau, Berlin: Arani-Verlag.
(1962). Martin Bormann: Hitlers Schatten, Gütersloh.
(1963). Aus dem Lexikon der Mörder, Gütersloh.
(1963). Musik im Dritten Reich, Gütersloh.
(1963). Die bildenden Künste im Dritten Reich, Gütersloh.
(1963). Literatur und Dichtung im Dritten Reich, Gütersloh.
(1963). Theater und Film im Dritten Reich, Gütersloh.
(1964). Presse und Funk im Dritten Reich, Gütersloh. |
410_11 | (1968). Raoul Wallenberg: Il fut leur espérance, Paris (first published by Colloquium Verlag, Berlin, 1958). |
410_12 | Sources
Citations
Works cited
External links
"Joseph Wulf". House of the Wannsee Conference.
"Joseph Wulf Library" and "Online catalogue". House of the Wannsee Conference.
1912 births
1974 suicides
20th-century biographers
20th-century German historians
20th-century German male writers
Auschwitz concentration camp survivors
German biographers
20th-century German Jews
German male non-fiction writers
Historians of the Holocaust
Kraków Ghetto inmates
Male biographers
People from Chemnitz
Suicides by jumping in Germany
Polish emigrants to Germany |
411_0 | Roaring Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Columbia County and Montour County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is slightly more than long and flows through Roaring Creek Township, Locust Township, Catawissa Township, Cleveland Township, and Franklin Township in Columbia County and Mayberry Township in Montour County. The watershed of the creek has an area of . It has three named tributaries: South Branch Roaring Creek, Lick Run, and Mill Creek. The creek is not considered to be impaired and is not affected by coal mining. However, its watershed has been impacted by human land use. Claystones, conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones, and shales all occur within the watershed. The creek flows through a gorge in its lower reaches, along the border between Columbia County and Montour County. |
411_1 | Most of the watershed of Roaring Creek is in Columbia County, but small areas are in Montour County, Northumberland County, and Schuylkill County. More than 40 percent of the watershed is forested and nearly 40 percent is agricultural land. State game lands and state forests are also in the watershed. A total of approximately 3,500 people inhabit the watershed, as of 2000. The creek's drainage basin is a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery upstream of Lick Run. Downstream of Lick Run, the main stem is a Trout Stocked Fishery and Migratory Fishery. A reach of the creek above Lick Run is designated as Class A Wild Trout Waters. 31 species of fish were observed at 20 sites in the watershed in 2003 and 2004. |
411_2 | Roaring Creek was historically known as Popemetang, but it was known as Roaring Creek by the late 1700s. Settlers such as Quakers first arrived in the area in the 1770s. In the 19th century, various mills and furnaces were constructed on the creek and several bridges were constructed. Agriculture was also a major industry in the watershed in the early 20th century. More bridges were constructed across the creek in the 20th century. The Roaring Creek Valley Conservation Association formed in February 2006. Part of the creek is navigable by canoe.
Course |
411_3 | Roaring Creek begins on Catawissa Mountain in Roaring Creek Township, Columbia County. It flows west-southwest for a short distance before turning south for a few tenths of a mile. It then turns west for a few miles and flows off Catawissa Mountain before eventually crossing State Route 2003, passing Mill Grove, and entering Locust Township. The creek turns north-northwest for a few tenths of a mile and reenters Roaring Creek Township before turning west and reentering Locust Township. It then flows west-northwest for more than a mile and receives Mill Creek, its first named tributary, from the right, as well as receiving the tributary Lick Run from the left. The creek then turns northwest for more than a mile and enters Slabtown before turning west for several tenths of a mile and crossing Pennsylvania Route 42. After this, it turns northwest for several tenths of a mile before meandering west-southwest for a few miles, passing Queen City, Parrs Mill, and a lake known as Lake Glory. |
411_4 | In this stretch, the creek leaves Locust Township and crosses the border between Catawissa Township and Cleveland Township three or four times before entering Franklin Township. Near Pennsyl's Mill, The creek then meanders northwest for a few miles, crossing Pennsylvania Route 487 and receiving South Branch Roaring Creek, its least named tributary, from the left. Upon reaching the Montour County line, the creek turns north for a few miles, flowing along the border between Franklin Township, Columbia County and Mayberry Township, Montour County. In this reach, it passes through a gorge with Sharp Ridge on the west. After a few miles, the creek leaves the gorge and crosses State Route 3012. A few tenths of a mile further downstream, it reaches its confluence with the Susquehanna River. |
411_5 | Roaring Creek joins the Susquehanna River upriver of its mouth.
Tributaries
Roaring Creek has three named tributaries: South Branch Roaring Creek, Lick Run, and Mill Creek. South Branch Roaring Creek joins Roaring Creek upstream of its mouth. Its watershed has an area of . Lick Run joins Roaring Creek upstream of its mouth. Its watershed has an area of . Mill Creek joins Roaring Creek upstream of its mouth. Its watershed has an area of . |
411_6 | Hydrology
The concentration of alkalinity in Roaring Creek upstream of Lick Run is 9 milligrams per liter. Many nearby watersheds have been rendered nearly devoid of aquatic life due to acid mine drainage caused by coal mining. However, Roaring Creek has not been affected by this, although it has been still impacted by human land use. Sedimentation, siltation, and agricultural impacts occur in the watershed. The only impaired stream in the watershed is a small unnamed tributary that is impaired by siltation. From a chemical standpoint, Roaring Creek is infertile. |
411_7 | The specific conductance of Roraing Creek ranges from 11 micro-siemens per centimeter at site 2 to 127 micro-siemens per centimeter at site 4. In 2003 and 2004, the pH of the creek ranged from 7.0 to 7.2. In a later survey, it was found to be acidic at sites 1 and 2 (6.50 and 6.89, respectively), but alkaline at sites 3 and 4 (7.34 and 8.27, respectively). The concentration of alkalinity in the creek ranges from 5.1 milligrams per liter at site 1 to 32 milligrams per liter at site 2. The concentration of water hardness ranges from 28 milligrams per liter at river mile 4.04 to 44 milligrams per liter at river mile 8.54. The discharge of the creek is 12.2 liters per second at site 1, 243.5 liters per second at site 2, 216.7 liters per second at site 3, and 271.6 liters per second at site 4. |
411_8 | The concentration of nitrogen in Roaring Creek ranges from 956.5 micrograms per liter at site 1 to 2343.1 micrograms per liter at site 2. The phosphorus concentration ranges from 12.6 micrograms per liter at site 1 to 28.6 micrograms per liter at site 2.
Geography, geology, and climate
The elevation near the mouth of Roaring Creek is above sea level. The elevation of the creek's source is between above sea level. From above sea level, the gradient of the creek is 57.1 feet per mile. From above sea level to its mouth, the gradient is 25.7 feet per mile. |
411_9 | The topography at the headwaters of Roaring Creek is mountainous. However, much of the watershed is rough and hilly and the creek flows through a valley surrounded by broken hills. It flows through a narrow gorge for its last . The creek's channel is sinuous. There are cobbly and rocky rapids on some reaches of the creek. In the gorge, the creek flows past cliffs and over ledges and waterfalls. A set of wet limestone ledges known as the Roaring Creek Bluffs are located along the creek in Franklin Township and Montour County. Power lines also cross the creek in this reach. Some strainers occur on the creek upstream of State Route 3012. A ridge known as Sharp Ridge is located near the creek. |
411_10 | Roaring Creek is located in the ridge and valley physiographic province. A dividing ridge separates the creek from the Susquehanna River. One reach of the creek is a mid-sized coldwater stream. Another reach is a large freestone stream. Roaring Creek flows through rock formations consisting of sandstone and shale. Rocks in the watershed include claystones, conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones, and shales from the Devonian and Mississippian. Outcroppings of calcareous beds, limestones, and marine fossils occur in the watershed as well. Some mineable coal is present in the watershed of South Branch Roaring Creek. The Genesee beds appear along the creek and are the lowest beds that are visible above the water line. To the east, they are covered by Chemung beds. A soil known as the Albrights Series is found along the creek. It is a reddish-brown soil that is slightly poorly or moderately well drained and is made from glaciated red shale and sandstone. |
411_11 | Roaring Creek has a 100 year floodplain. The average annual rate of precipitation in the watershed of Roaring Creek ranges from . In July 2003 and June 2004, the water temperature of the creek was found to range from at river mile 10.98 to at river mile 6.02. The air temperature near the creek ranged from at river mile 8.54 to at river mile 6.02.
Watershed |
411_12 | The watershed of Roaring Creek has an area of . The watershed occupies parts of Columbia County, Montour County, Northumberland County, and Schuylkill County. Most of the watershed is in Columbia County and smaller areas are in Montour County and Northumberland County. Only a very small area in its upper reaches is in Schuylkill County. The watershed is in the Lower North Branch Susquehanna drainage basin. The creek's mouth is in the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Danville. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Shumans. The creek also passes through the quadrangle of Catawissa. Other quadrangles that the watershed is in include Shamokin, Ashland, and Mount Carmel. The creek flows in a generally northwesterly direction and serves as the border between Montour County and Columbia County in its last . Roaring Creek is one of three major streams draining the southern part of Columbia County. |
411_13 | More than 40 percent of the watershed of Roaring Creek is on forested land, including evergreen and deciduous forests, as well as mixed forests. A significant portion of the forested land in the watershed is a tract of land along South Branch Roaring Creek. This tract was acquired by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in 2003. A large tract of forested land on a ridge running from Moosic to the Susquehanna River passes through the watershed of Roaring Creek. State forest land occurs along the southern edge of the watershed and Pennsylvania State Game Lands (Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 58) occur along the eastern edge. Nearly 40 percent of the watershed is on agricultural land. This land use occurs in the creek's valley, as does open space. |
411_14 | Upstream of Lick Run, 13 percent of Roaring Creek is on public land that is open to access. The remaining 87 percent is on private land that is closed to access. The remaining reaches of the creek are entirely on private land, but open to access. As of 2000, approximately 3,500 people live in the watershed. In section 01, the population density of the watershed is 18 people per square kilometer as of 2000. In section 02, the population density is 22 people per square kilometer and in section 03, the population density is 16 people per square kilometer. In section 01 of the creek, 50 percent of its length is within 100 meters of a road, 89 percent is within 300 meters, and 91 percent is within 500 meters. In section 02, 28 percent is within 100 meters, 87 percent is within 300 meters, and 100 percent is within 500 meters. In section 03, 96 percent of its length is within 100 meters of a road, 98 percent is within 300 meters of one, and 100 percent is within 500 meters of one. The creek |
411_15 | flows through a remote-seeming farm valley for a substantial part of its length. Major roads in or near the watershed include Pennsylvania Route 487, Pennsylvania Route 54, and Pennsylvania Route 42. |
411_16 | Visual assessment of Roaring Creek was carried out by Roaring Creek Valley Conservation Association volunteers at four locations in October and November 2007. The scores ranged from 15.5 out of 28 (55 percent; the lowest value in the entire watershed) to 23 out of 28 (82 percent).
History and etymology
Roaring Creek was entered into the Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1185166.
Roaring Creek was known to the Lenni Lenape as Popemetang, which means "Roaring Creek" in English. This name likely originates from the waterfalls and rapids on the creek's lower reaches. The creek was known as Popemetang until the late 1700s. However, several maps were referring to it as Roaring Creek as early as 1792. Its name appears as Roaring Creek in even the earliest survey warrants in the area. |
411_17 | The Centre Turnpike was constructed in 1770 and provided access to the valley of Roaring Creek, roughly following the current course of Pennsylvania Route 487 and Pennsylvania Route 54. The Reading Road was later constructed in the watershed and ran in a southeasterly direction. Quakers were living in the valley of the creek by the 1770s and land on the creek was patented to Samuel Shakespeare in 1773. A number of settlers arrived in the valley from the Philadelphia area via the Reading Road. Soon after the end of the American Revolutionary War, farms were appearing along the creek's banks. |
411_18 | The second-oldest mill in what is now Columbia County was built in a gorge on Roaring Creek, near its mouth, in the 1780s. This mill was known as the Cleaver Mill. A second mill, which was similar to the first, was later constructed at the site. John Hauch constructed a furnace on the creek in 1816. It was the first furnace in the area. The first iron furnace in Montour County was built near the creek's mouth in 1839 or 1840. The furnace was known as the Roaring Creek Anthracite Water Power Furnace. It was altered in 1854. In 1856, the furnace produced 2350 tons of iron from ore on Montour Ridge, despite low water. The only post office in Mayberry Township up to 1915 was built at the mouth of the creek in 1895. It was known as Howelsville, after W.B. Howell, its first postmaster. |
411_19 | In the early 1900s, major industries in the watershed of Roaring Creek included agriculture. However, the creek was also used as water power for a small gristmill. During this time period, major communities in the watershed included Roaring Creek and Bear Gap. Their populations were 407 and 124, respectively. In the early 1900s, the only major industries in Franklin Township were gristmills on the creek on the border between it and Cleveland Township. There were historically proposals to use the creek as a water supply for Danville, transferring the water via pipes under the Susquehanna River. Andrew Trone once constructed a hotel on the creek. |
411_20 | Many bridges have been constructed across Roaring Creek and a number of covered bridges can be seen from the creek. The first bridge over the creek was constructed in 1874 at Slabtown for a cost of $1500. It was replaced in 1913 for a cost of $5500. The Davis Covered Bridge was built northwest of Slabtown in 1875 and repaired in 1997. It is long and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Snyder Covered Bridge No. 17 was built over the creek southeast of Slabtown in 1876 and repaired in 2010. It is long and is also on the National Register of Historic Places. The two-span Esther Furnace Covered Bridge was built over the creek in Cleveland Township in 1905. It is long and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. |
411_21 | A steel stringer/multi-beam or girder bridge carrying State Route 2012 was constructed over Roaring Creek in 1908 and repaired in 1996. It is long and is situated east of Mill Grove. A concrete tee beam bridge was built over the creek in 1940 north of Aristes. This bridge is long and carries Pennsylvania Route 42. A two-span steel stringer/multi-beam or girder bridge carrying State Route 3003 was constructed across the creek southwest of Catawissa in 1950 and repaired in 2011. This bridge is long. Two bridges of the same type (but with only one span) were constructed over the creek in Slabtown and Mill Grove in 1956, carrying Creek Road and State Route 2001. Their lengths are and ; the first was repaired in 2011. A prestressed box beam or girders bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 42 over the creek was built in 1959 south of Catawissa. Its length is and it was repaired in 2010. A bridge of a similar type was built over the creek in 1964 for T314. It is long and is situated to |
411_22 | the south of Catawissa. A prestressed stringer/multi-beam or girder bridge carrying State Route 3012 was built across the creek in 1966. It is west of Catawissa and is long. A prestressed box beam or girders bridge was built across the creek in 1974 south of Catawissa. It is long and carries Pennsylvania Route 487. A bridge of the same type, but carrying T468, was built over the creek in 1981. It is situated south of Mill Grove and has a length of . A steel stringer/multi-beam or girder bridge carrying Mill Road was built over the creek in 1985 and repaired in 2012. This bridge is long and is situated southeast of Slabtown. |
411_23 | In 2003, Martin Friday assessed streams in the watershed of Roaring Creek at 37 locations, using the United States Environmental Protection Agency's rapid assessment protocol. In 2004, Robert Wnuk carried out fisheries surveys on every named stream in the watershed. The Roaring Creek Valley Conservation Association formed in February 2006 to conserve the natural and cultural resources of the Roaring Creek watershed. |
411_24 | Biology
Upstream of the tributary Lick Run, the drainage basin of Roaring Creek is designated as a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. From Lick Run downstream to its mouth, the main stem of the creek is a Trout-Stocking Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. Wild trout naturally reproduce in the creek from its headwaters downstream to upstream of its mouth, a distance of . They also naturally reproduce throughout the entire length of every other named tributary of the creek. Roaring Creek is considered by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to be Class A Wild Trout Waters for brown trout from its headwaters downstream to Lick Run, a distance of . |
411_25 | In 2003 and 2004, 31 fish species were found at 20 sites in the watershed of Roaring Creek. Eastern blacknose dace are the most common fish species in the watershed and were observed at 85 percent of the sites. White suckers and brown trout occurred at 80 percent of the sites, longnose dace occurred at 70 percent of the sites, cutlips minnows occurred at 65 percent of the sites, and bluegills occurred at 60 percent of the sites. Fallfish, golden shiners, yellow bullheads, and American eels were all historically observed in the watershed, but were not found during the survey. However, redside dace, creek chubsuckers, green sunfish, and fathead minnows were observed in the watershed for the first time during the 2003/2004 survey. The most common game species was wild brown trout, although smaller numbers of brook trout were observed as well. Other game fish in the creek's drainage basin include rainbow trout. smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and chain pickerel. |
411_26 | The biomass of wild brown trout in section 02 of Roaring Creek was estimated in the early 2000s to be 9.53 kilograms per hectare. There were an estimated 42 brown trout of legal size per kilometer of stream. This equates to an estimated 815 brown trout between in length in that section. The trout in section 02 of the creek are up to approximately in length and some brown trout in the creek can reach lengths of up to .
Waterfowl have been known to inhabit the watershed of Roaring Creek. |
411_27 | Various macroinvertebrate taxa inhabit Roaring Creek. At one site, there is one abundant macroinvertebrate taxon, with 25 to 100 individuals being observed. At this site, there are five common taxa and five present taxa, with 10 to 25 and 3 to 9 individuals being observed, respectively. Eleven taxa are rare, with fewer than three individuals being observed. At another site, there are two abundant taxa, three common taxa, four present taxa, and eight rare taxa. At a third site on the creek, there are three abundant taxa, four common taxa, three present taxa, and seven rare taxa. |
411_28 | Hardwood trees and hemlocks occur on the slopes of the valley of Roaring Creek. Hemlocks also occur in the creek's gorge. The canopy coverage at four sites on the creek ranges from 0 percent to 75 percent. The algal biomass of the creek ranges from 0.01 to 1.21 in terms of chlorophyll a per square centimeter. The Roaring Creek Bluffs are listed on the Columbia County Natural Areas Inventory. Jeweled shooting-star, which is threatened in Pennsylvania, occurs at this site. Other plant species in this area include hydrangea, fragile fern, maidenhair spleenwort, golden saxifrage. However, several weedy plants also grow in the area. |
411_29 | Recreation
It is possible to canoe on of Roaring Creek, from Slabtown to the mouth during fast snowmelt or within three days of heavy rain. The difficulty rating of the creek ranges from 1 to 2+. Edward Gertler's book Keystone Canoeing describes the scenery as being "fair to good". The book describes the creek itself as being "a small and easy-to-overlook wet weather stream". There are two painted canoe gauges on the creek, one at Pennsylvania Route 42 and the other at Pennsylvania Route 487.
Roaring Creek is one of the major fishing area in Columbia County. Knoebels Amusement Park is in the western part of the creek's watershed. In the 1990s, the creek was a candidate for Pennsylvania Scenic Rivers status.
See also
Little Roaring Creek, the next tributary of the Susquehanna River going downriver
Catawissa Creek, the next tributary of the Susquehanna River going upriver
List of rivers of Pennsylvania
References
External links
Roaring Creek Valley Conservation Association |
411_30 | Rivers of Columbia County, Pennsylvania
Rivers of Montour County, Pennsylvania
Tributaries of the Susquehanna River
Rivers of Pennsylvania |
412_0 | The Foundation of Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain's Prize for Poetic Creativity ()
Overview
It was proclaimed in 1989 in Cairo by virtue of an initiative from Abdulaziz Al-Babtain as a private, cultural and non-profit organization that is exclusively concerned with poetry.
Organizational structure
Board of trustees
The foundation's board of trustees comprises the secretary general and at least nine other men of letters, thought and poetry in the Arab world, while trying to represent as many Arab countries as possible. The Board is re-formed every three years.
Th first Board was formed in the year 1991, The second Board was formed in the year 1994, the third in 1998, and the fourth in 2001. The fifth Board was formed on December 2004.
General secretariat |
412_1 | The general secretariat is the foundation's executive apparatus. It includes the executive secretariat, computer department, and the research department, which carries out research proof-reading, editing and following up on the publication process, as well as supervising administrative and financial affairs. The executive apparatus particularly undertakes all preparations pertaining to the meetings of the board of trustees, the advisory body of the «Al-Babtain Encyclopedia of Arab Poets in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries», the encyclopedia editing office, the editing office of the «Al-Babtain Encyclopedia of Contemporary Arab Poets» in its successive editions, the arbitration committees, coordinating the literary works contesting for the prizes and reviewing the same, as far as formalities are concerned. It also directs work to the regional offices. The secretary general shall be commissioned to represent the foundation in many occasions and missions. In addition, the general |
412_2 | secretariat apparatus undertakes the implementation of the plans and policies drawn up by the board of trustees and follows up all the decisions passed by the Board. |
412_3 | The first secretary general of the foundation was poet Adnan Al-Shayji, who served from the beginning of the foundation's establishment in 1989 until July 1991. He planned the arbitration and distribution of the first meeting in May, 1990 at the Marriott Hotel in Cairo. The general secretariat had not been formed at that time, so the foundation relied heavily on the Cairo-based Modern Literature Association, chaired by Dr. Mohammad Abdulmunem Khafaji. Thanks to its support, the association has backed the foundation's efforts in executing its functions from its beginnings.
In August 1991, Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Surayea was chosen to be the secretary general of the foundation. At the time, he was occupying the post of Head of Department of Culture and Arts at the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters. He resigned and assumed his responsibilities as full-time secretary general of the foundation since October 1993. |
412_4 | Offices
Due to the diversity of the foundation's work and the expansion of its activities all over the Arab world, offices were opened in some Arab countries, namely:
Cairo office: It covers the region of Egypt, Sudan and neighboring areas, assisted by delegates in these countries.
Tunisia office: Covers the North African area, assisted by delegates in these countries.
Kuwait office: It covers the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula region. It is run directly by the general secretary as part of the general secretariat's work, assisted by the apparatus and delegates from Arab States of the Persian Gulf, in addition to roving delegates from abroad, such as Asia, Europe, Australia, North and South America and Africa. |
412_5 | Delegates
In addition to its regional offices, the foundation appointed a number of men of letters who are well informed about cultural and poetic affairs in their countries, in order to assist the foundation in executing its project and meet its needs in their respective countries.
History
Sessions |
412_6 | First Session Cairo, 17 May 1990.
The prize distributing ceremony during the first meeting was held at the Marriott hotel in Cairo under the auspices of the Egyptian Minister of Culture, Mr. Farouq Hosni. The ceremony was attended by a large number of dignitaries who are interested in poetic, cultural and literary activities.
Initially, the value of the prize was EP 43,000 (Egyptian Pounds forty three thousand), it was then doubled during the ceremony to EP 86,000 (Egyptian Pounds eighty six thousand). The prizes were awarded as follows:-
The Poetic Creativity Prize, valued at EP 30,000 (Egyptian Pounds thirty thousand), was jointly won by the Kuwaiti poet Mohammed Al-Fayez for his complete poetic works and the Egyptian poet Ibrahim Eisa for his book of verse entitled: Habibi Aneed «My Darling is Stubborn». |
412_7 | The Poetry Criticism Creativity Prize, valued at EP 30,000 (Egyptian Pounds thirty thousand), was jointly won by the Egyptian critic Dr. Mohammed Zaki Al-Ashmawi for his book «Literary Criticism Issues» and the Egyptian critic Mr. Mustafa Abdullateef Al-Saharti for his book «The Contemporary Poetry in Light of Modern Criticism».
The Excellence in Poetry Prize, valued at EP 20,000 (Egyptian Pounds twenty thousand), was won jointly by the Iraqi poet Mohammed Jawad Al-Ghaban for his collection of poems: Inty Ahla «You are Prettier» and the Egyptian poet Khalil Fawaz for his collection of poems: Qalbi «My Heart».
The Best Poem Prize, valued at EP 6,000 (Egyptian Pounds six thousand), was won jointly by the Egyptian poet Olayya Al-Jaar for her poem «Do not Worry» and the Moroccan poet Mohammed Al-Halwi for his poem Fi Rihab Sibta «In the Vast Space of Ceuta». |
412_8 | Second Session Cairo, 17 October 1991.
The prize-giving ceremony was held at the Opera House in Cairo under the auspices of the Egyptian Minister of Culture Mr. Farouq Hosni. A large number of poets, writers, critics, as well as press and media men attended the ceremony.
The prizes were awarded as follows: |
412_9 | The Poetic Creativity Prize, valued at EP 60,000 (Egyptian Pounds sixty thousand), was won by the Egyptian poet Abdulaleem Al-Qabbani for his complete poetic works.
The Poetry Criticism Prize, valued at EP 60,000 (Egyptian Pound sixty thousand), was won jointly by the Egyptian critics Dr. Mohammed Fattouh Ahmed and Dr. Mohammed Abdulmottaleb for their complete critical works.
Classical Poetry Excellence Prize, valued at EP 20,000 (Egyptian Pounds twenty thousand), was won jointly by the Egyptian poet Shawki Haikal for his book of verse «A Passage to Two Eyes» and the Egyptian poet Ismael Oqab for his collection «She and the Sea».
The Excellence in Free Rhyme Poetry Prize, valued at EP 20,000 (Egyptian Pounds twenty thousand), was won by the Syrian poet Hassan Attwan for his poetry collection «Blood Baptism». |
412_10 | The Best Poem Prize, valued at EP 20,000 (Egyptian Pounds twenty thousand), was won jointly by the Saudi poet Habib Bin Moalla Al-Motairi for his poem «With no Title» and the Egyptian poet Rabeh Lotfi Juma for his poem «Kuwait’s Liberation». |
412_11 | The value of the prize in the second session was more than twice that of the first session. The value of the prizes totaled EP 180,000 (Egyptian Pounds one hundred and eighty thousand.)
Third Session Mahmoud Sami Al-Baroudi - Cairo, Egypt, 12–14 December 1992.
The board of trustees considered a way to develop the work so that the ceremony was not restricted to awarding prizes. Therefore, the Board decided to dedicate each session to a great Arab poet in order to commemorate them and to launch an intellectual seminar about such poets. So, the Board decided to name the third session after the poet Mahmoud Sami Al-Baroudi, the pioneer of Arab poetry revival. The ceremony, in which the prizes were awarded, was held at the Opera House in Cairo, under the auspices of the Egyptian Minister of Culture Mr. Farouq Hosni. A large number of Arab poets and writers attended the ceremony. |
412_12 | Fourth Session Abu Al-Qassem Al-Shabi – Fes, Morocco, 10–12 October 1994.
The board of trustees issued a decision stipulating that the prize shall be awarded during a ceremony held biannually to provide the committees and participating researchers with adequate time to prepare and write their researches and to issue publications about the selected poets of the meetings and their creative work. The board of trustees’ decision also highlighted the importance of expanding the circle of important poets so that the chosen poet comes from a country different from that in which the ceremony is being held. As Al-Shabi comes from Tunisia, it was decided that the ceremony was to be held in Morocco in order to show the importance of the Arab Maghreb poets and their poetic prestige in the Arab world. |
412_13 | As Fez was the Moroccan cultural capital, it was chosen to host the ceremony, under the auspices of King Hassan II and in the presence of King Mohammed VI, who was then Crown Prince. The ceremony, organized by the foundation in cooperation with «Fez Saiss» Moroccan Society, was attended by a large number of guests from various Arab countries, which exceeded two hundred poets, critics and personalities interested in Arabic culture. |
412_14 | Fifth Session Ahmed Mishari Al-Adwani - Abu Dhabi, 28–31 October 1996.
This meeting was named after the prominent Kuwaiti poet Ahmed Mishari Al-Adwani and the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi was chosen as the host for this ceremonial event, with which the U.A.E. Cultural Society contributed a great deal. The prize awarding ceremony was under the auspices of His Highness Sheikh Zayed ben Sultan Al-Nahyan, President of the U.A.E. A large number of poets, writers and critics from different Arab countries attended the event.
Sixth Session Al-Akhtal Al-Saghir - Beirut, Lebanon, 14–17 October 1998.
This meeting was held in Beirut under the auspices of Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri. It hosted a large number of poets, writers, critics and others interested in the poetic movement from the Arab world |
412_15 | Seventh Session Abu Firas Al-Hamdani, Algeria, 31 Oct - 3 Nov, 2000.
This meeting was hosted in the Algerian capital, Algiers to celebrate the two Princes of Poetry; Abu Firas Al-Hamdani or Abu Firas Al-Jamadoma and Abdulqader Al-Jazaeri under the patronage of President Abdulaziz Boutefliqa, in cooperation and coordination with the Algerian Ministry of Communications and Culture and the Writers’ Union. In attendance were a large number of poets, writers and dignitaries interested in the poetic movement of various Arab countries. |
412_16 | Eighth Session Ali Bin Al-Moqarrab Al-Ayouni, Manama, Bahrain, 1–3 October 2002.
This Session named after the poet «Ali Bin Al-Moqarrab Al-Ayouni», who never acquired his entitled appreciation. He was not under the spot lights of the large capitals as he lived in the eastern area of the Arab peninsula in a tumultuous period, which did not receive its due concern.
Poet «Ibrahim Touqan» was chosen as an alternative poet in this session because he expressed the meaning of the Palestinian wounds, the outcry of martyrdom to the ears of the Arab peoples and made poetry a substitute for the rifle. His choice came as a reiteration of the Arab integration with the Palestinian Revolution, which is fighting its fiercest battles. |
412_17 | The foundation decided to convene this session in the Kingdom of Bahrain as it witnessed a new era of openness and democracy under the rule of King Hamad Bin Eisa Al-Khalifa. It was under his patronage that the ceremony was inaugurated with the attendance of a large number of poets, critics and cultured personalities from different Arab countries. |
412_18 | Ninth Session Ibn Zaydoun, Cordoba, Spain, 4–8 October 2004. |
412_19 | The board of trustees of the Foundation of Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain's Prize for Poetic Creativity approved naming this meeting after the great Andalusia poet Ahmed Ibn Zaydoun and decided to hold it in Cordoba, Spain between the 4th and 8 October 2004. This was the first time the foundation held a meeting outside the Arab world and it was aimed at clarifying the true civilization, intellectual and cultural Arab and Muslim image after some opposing parties portrayed a distorted image of them in the wake of the September 2001 attacks. Choosing Cordoba as a host stemmed from the long historical relations between the Arabs and Spain and Portugal (the Iberian Peninsula). All the meeting's activities were carried out under the auspices of King Juan Carlos and his eldest daughter Princess Elena, who attended the opening ceremony. |
412_20 | The foundation had invited more than four hundred opinionated leaders, ministers, officials, specialized professors, critics, poets, intellectuals and media men belonging to different religions from the Arab world, Europe and America.
On 4 October 2004, the foundation organized a tour of the city of Cordoba for its guests. |
412_21 | Tenth Session Shawqi and Lamartine - Paris, France, 31 Oct - 3 Nov, 2006.
This session bears the names of the two poets; Ahmed Shawqi - the Prince of Arab poets - and Alphonse Lamartine - the great French poet. Ahmed Shawqi was chosen because he was a prominent Arab poet and one of the most prolific and diverse. In 1927 the Arab poets chose him unanimously as their Laureate. He was familiar with French culture as he had studied law at Montpellier University and graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Paris. He then spent some time in the French capital studying French literature. |
412_22 | Eleventh Session Al-Babtain's Encyclopedia of Arab Poets in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Kuwait, 27–30 October 2008.
During a meeting held on 25/12/2006, the board of trustees decided to base the forthcoming session on one of the foundation's most important projects; «Al-Babtain’s Encyclopedia of Arab Poets in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries». It was set to be held in Kuwait, the country from which this great piece of work has emerged. This publication took 11 years of hard work and team effort to complete and contains biographies of more than eight thousand deceased poets from the years 1801 to 2008. This great Encyclopedia contains biographies and poetic samples of 8,039 poets, in addition to 1479 poets who never received sufficient documentation. Furthermore, this was the first session that took place in Kuwait and was aimed at enriching Kuwait's cultural heritage. |
412_23 | On November 28, 2007, the chairman of the board of trustees issued a resolution to form the senior organizing committee, under his chairmanship and the membership of a number of specialized persons. The first meeting was held in Kuwait on 14-16-2007 and issued the following resolutions:
Declaration upon completion of Al-Babtain's Encyclopedia of Arab Poets in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries and the issuing of its 25 volumes. |
412_24 | Twelfth Session Khalil Mutran & Mohammad Ali/Mak Dizdar – Sarajevo, Bosnia, 19–21 October 2010. |
412_25 | This was the twelfth session to be organized and funded completely by the Foundation of Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain's Prize for Poetic Creativity and like the foundation's previous sessions; that carry the names of a great poets. This one bears the name of the two late poets, Khalil Mutran (Arabic) and Mohammad Ali/Mak Dizdar (Bosnian) in appreciation for their efforts in serving culture and literature. It also includes two symposiums; the first is a symposium related to culture and inter-faith dialogue, entitled “Dialogue of Civilizations in a Different World Order: Contrast and Harmony” with contributions from four Arabic researchers and four foreign researchers. The second is a literary symposium about the two poets with fourteen researches by many Arabic and Bosnian researchers. The cultural activities will include evenings of poetry by Arabic poets attending this session. There will also be a musical ceremony by the Lebanese singer Ghada Shubair, in addition to a Folklore |
412_26 | performance from Bosnia and Herzegovina. This session will be under the patronage of President Haris Silajdžić and hundreds of intellectuals, politicians, men of religion, thinkers and media men from all over the world have been invited to participate. Many satellites and Television stations will cover this session. |
412_27 | Forums
First Forum Mohammed Ben Laaboun, Kuwait, 27–30 October 1997.
The Foundation of Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain's Prize for Poetic Creativity organized the «Mohammed Ben Laaboun» Forum in Nabati poetry on 27–30 October 1997 in Kuwait.
The board of trustees took a decision to organize this meeting with the aim of shedding light on the unknown epoch of this area's history in its social, cultural and political aspects since the area was almost isolated from the outer world.
The activities of this meeting started with a visit financed by the foundation's chairman to the Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah at Bayan Palace on Monday 27/10/1997, accompanied by the Amirs, Sheikhs, Poets, and guests of the meeting.
The Crown Prince and Prime Minister Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah welcomed the visitors and held a breakfast party at Al-Shaab Palace on Thursday 30/10/1997 for the chairman of the board of trustees and a number of the foundation's guests. |
412_28 | Second Forum Saadi Al-Shirazi, Tehran, Shiraz, Iran, 3–5 July 2000.
The chairman of the board of trustees decided to form the organizing committee of the meeting comprising members from both Arab and Iranian Parties. The committee's secretariat general persistently followed up preparations for the venue that the meeting is convening in. The committee sent delegations to Tehran to take the decision to hold the meeting on 3-5/7/2000.
Third Forum Al-Raheel & Al-Milad: Part of the Foundation's Contributions in Celebrating the Choosing of Kuwait as the Capital of Arabic Culture in 2001.
This celebration involved year-round activities. |
412_29 | Fourth Forum Kuwait's First Forum of Arabic Poetry in Iraq - Kuwait, 7–9 May 2005.
Under the patronage of the Kuwaiti Prime Minister, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (later Amir of Kuwait), the Foundation of Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain's Prize for Poetic Creativity organized «Kuwait’s First Meeting of Arabic Poetry in Iraq» from 07-9 May 2005.
The meeting followed a long absence which due to the Iraqi invasion.
Fifth Forum Mohammad Abdulmunem Khafaji and Adnan Al-Shayji Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Foundation of Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain's Prize for Poetic Creativity from 1989 - 2009.
References
- An Overview of Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain, Compiled by Abdulaziz M. Juma’a, Kuwait Ninth Edition,
September 2010.
External links
Al-babtain Foundation
Poetry awards |
413_0 | Events from the year 1862 in art.
Events
May 1–November 1 – 1862 International Exhibition held at South Kensington in London. Notable artistic displays include a large picture gallery; work shown by William Morris's decorative arts firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company; and an exhibit from Japan influential in the development of Anglo-Japanese style. Morris designs his first wallpaper, Trellis.
Claude Monet becomes a student of Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he meets Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley, sharing new approaches to painting en plein air.
Awards
Works |
413_1 | Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry – The Pearl and the Wave
Albert Bierstadt
The Fishing Fleet
Guerrilla Warfare, Civil War
Herman Wilhelm Bissen – Isted Lion (bronze)
George Price Boyce – At Binsey, near Oxford
William Burges - Great Bookcase
Gustave Courbet – Femme nue couchée
Thomas Crawford (posthumous) – Statue of Freedom (bronze for dome of United States Capitol)
Eugène Delacroix – Ovid among the Scythians (second version)
Augustus Egg – The Travelling Companions
Anselm Feuerbach – Iphigenia (first version)
William Powell Frith – The Railway Station
Walter Greaves – Hammersmith Bridge on Boat-Race Day
Arthur Hughes – Home from Sea (reworking of The Mother's Grave)
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres – The Turkish Bath (original form)
Eastman Johnson – A Ride for Liberty – The Fugitive Slaves
Edward Lear – Philæ and Beachy Head (pair of paintings)
Édouard Manet
Music in the Tuileries (National Gallery, London)
Lola de Valence (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)
The Old Musician |
413_2 | Mlle. Victorine Meurent in the Costume of an Espada (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
The Street Singer (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Robert Braithwaite Martineau – The Last Day in the Old Home
Jan Matejko – Stańczyk
Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier – Napoleon I in 1814
Jean-François Millet – L'homme à la houe ("The Man With the Hoe")
William Morris – Tristram and Isoude stained glass panels
Moritz Daniel Oppenheim – The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
Moritz von Schwind – The Honeymoon
James Tissot – The Return of the Prodigal Son
G. F. Watts – approximate date
Lady Margaret Beaumont and her Daughter
Sisters
Edith Villiers
James McNeill Whistler
The Last of Old Westminster
Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl |
413_3 | Births
March 17 – Charles Laval, French painter (died 1894)
March 24 – Frank Weston Benson, American Impressionist painter (died 1951)
April 26 – Edmund C. Tarbell, American Impressionist painter (died 1938)
June 14 – Herbert Dicksee, English painter (died 1942)
July 10 – Helene Schjerfbeck, Finnish painter (died 1946)
July 14 – Gustav Klimt, Austrian Symbolist painter (died 1918)
July 29 – Robert Reid, American Impressionist painter (died 1928)
August 15 – Adam Emory Albright, American painter of figures in landscapes (died 1957)
September 12 – Carl Eytel, German American artist (died 1925)
October 26 – Hilma af Klint, Swedish abstract painter and mystic (died 1944)
November 25 – Katharine Adams, English bookbinder (died 1952)
December 3 – Charles Grafly, American sculptor (died 1929) |
413_4 | Deaths
January 3 – Matthew Cotes Wyatt, English painter and sculptor (born 1777)
February 11 – Elizabeth Siddal, English Pre-Raphaelite artists' model, painter and poet, wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, overdose of laudanum (born 1829)
February 15 – Heinrich Adam, German painter (born 1787)
March 18 – Charles Bird King, American portrait artist who notably painted Native American delegates visiting Washington, D.C. (born 1785)
March 19 – Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, German Romantic painter (born 1789)
May – Alexandre-François Caminade, French religious and portrait painter (born 1783)
May 14 – Karl Joseph Brodtmann, Swiss artist, lithographer, printmaker, publisher and bookseller (born 1787)
July 7 – Friedrich Gauermann, Austrian painter (born 1807)
July 17 – Étienne Bouhot, French painter and art teacher (born 1780)
August 7 – William Turner of Oxford, English topographical watercolourist (born 1789)
August 10 – Erin Corr, Irish engraver (born 1793) |
413_5 | August 28 – Albrecht Adam, German painter of battles and horses (born 1786)
September 20 – Peter Andreas Brandt, Norwegian painter and illustrator (born 1792)
October 29 – John Cox Dillman Engleheart, English miniaturist (born 1784)
Undated – Jean-Pierre Montagny, French medallist and coiner (born 1789) |
413_6 | References
Years of the 19th century in art
1860s in art |
414_0 | The Rihla, formal title A Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, is the travelogue written by Ibn Battuta, documenting his lifetime of travel and exploration, which according to his description covered about 70,000 miles (110,000 km). Rihla is the Arabic word for a journey or the travelogue that documents it.
Battuta's travels
Ibn Battuta may have travelled farther than any other person in history up to his time; certainly his account describes more travel than any other pre-jet age explorer on record. |
414_1 | It all started in the year 1325, in Morocco, when the 21 year old set out on his hajj, the religious pilgrimage to Mecca expected of all followers of Islam. This trip could take a year to a year and a half. But Ibn Battuta found he loved travel, and also encountered a Sufi wise man who told him that he would eventually visit the entire Islamic world. Battuta spent the next two decades doing just that kind of exploring, and then finally returned home to write about it.
The Haj
He travelled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast across the sultanates of Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid. He took a bride in the town of Sfax, the first in a series of marriages that would feature in his travels. |
414_2 | In the early spring of 1326, after a journey of over , Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Alexandria, at the time part of the Bahri Mamluk empire. He met two ascetic pious men in Alexandria. One was Sheikh Burhanuddin who is supposed to have foretold the destiny of Ibn Battuta as a world traveller saying "It seems to me that you are fond of foreign travel. You will visit my brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin in Sind and Burhanuddin in China. Convey my greetings to them". Another pious man Sheikh Murshidi interpreted the meaning of a dream of Ibn Battuta that he was meant to be a world traveller. |
414_3 | At this point, he began a lifelong habit of making side-trips instead of getting where he was going. He spent several weeks visiting sites in the area, and then headed inland to Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate and an important city. Of the three usual routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-travelled, which involved a journey up the Nile valley, then east to the Red Sea port of Aydhab. Upon approaching the town, however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back.
He returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus. He described travelling on a complicated zig-zag route across Palestine in which he visited more than twenty cities. |
414_4 | After spending the Muslim month of Ramadan in Damascus, he joined a caravan travelling the south to Medina, site of the Mosque of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. After four days in the town, he journeyed on to Mecca, where upon completing his pilgrimage he took the honorific status of El-Hajji. Rather than returning home, Ibn Battuta decided to continue traveling, choosing as his next destination the Ilkhanate, a Mongol Khanate, to the northeast.
Ibn Battuta then started back toward Iraq, but got diverted on a six-month detour that took him into Persia. Finally, he returned across to Baghdad, arriving there in 1327.
In Baghdad, he found Abu Sa'id, the last Mongol ruler of the unified Ilkhanate, leaving the city and heading north with a large retinue. Ibn Battuta joined the royal caravan for a while, then turned north on the Silk Road to Tabriz.
Second pilgrimage to Mecca |
414_5 | Ibn Battuta left again for Baghdad, probably in July, but first took an excursion northwards along the river Tigris. He visited Mosul, where he was the guest of the Ilkhanate governor, and then the towns of Cizre (Jazirat ibn 'Umar) and Mardin in modern-day Turkey. At a hermitage on a mountain near Sinjar, he met a Kurdish mystic who gave him some silver coins. Once back in Mosul, he joined a "feeder" caravan of pilgrims heading south to Baghdad, where they would meet up with the main caravan that crossed the Arabian Desert to Mecca. Ill with diarrhoea, he arrived in the city weak and exhausted for his second hajj.
From Aden, Ibn Battuta embarked on a ship heading for Zeila on the coast of Somalia. Later he would visit Mogadishu, the then pre-eminent city of the "Land of the Berbers" (بلد البربر Balad al-Barbar, the medieval Arabic term for the Horn of Africa). |
414_6 | Ibn Battuta arrived in Mogadishu in 1331, at the zenith of its prosperity. He described it as "an exceedingly large city" with many rich merchants, noted for its high-quality fabric that was exported to other countries, including Egypt. Ibn Battuta added that the city was ruled by a Somali Sultan, Abu Bakr ibn Sayx 'Umar, who was originally from Berbera in northern Somalia and spoke both Somali (referred to by Battuta as Mogadishan, the Benadir dialect of Somali) and Arabic with equal fluency. The Sultan also had a retinue of wazirs (ministers), legal experts, commanders, royal eunuchs, and assorted hangers-on at his beck and call. |
414_7 | Ibn Battuta continued by ship south to the Swahili Coast, a region then known in Arabic as the Bilad al-Zanj ("Land of the Zanj"), with an overnight stop at the island town of Mombasa. Although relatively small at the time, Mombasa would become important in the following century. After a journey along the coast, Ibn Battuta next arrived in the island town of Kilwa in present-day Tanzania, which had become an important transit centre of the gold trade. He described the city as "one of the finest and most beautifully built towns; all the buildings are of wood, and the houses are roofed with dīs reeds".
Byzantium
After his third pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta decided to seek employment with the Muslim Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq. In the autumn of 1330 (or 1332), he set off for the Seljuk controlled territory of Anatolia with the intention of taking an overland route to India. |
414_8 | From this point the itinerary across Anatolia in the Rihla is confused. Ibn Battuta describes travelling westwards from Eğirdir to Milas and then skipping eastward past Eğirdir to Konya. He then continues travelling in an easterly direction, reaching Erzurum from where he skips back to Birgi which lies north of Milas. Historians believe that Ibn Battuta visited a number of towns in central Anatolia, but not in the order that he describes.
When they reached Astrakhan, Öz Beg Khan had just given permission for one of his pregnant wives, Princess Bayalun, a daughter of Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, to return to her home city of Constantinople to give birth. Ibn Battuta talked his way into this expedition, which would be his first beyond the boundaries of the Islamic world. |
414_9 | Arriving in Constantinople towards the end of 1332 (or 1334), he met the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos. He visited the great church of Hagia Sophia and spoke with an Eastern Orthodox priest about his travels in the city of Jerusalem. After a month in the city, Ibn Battuta returned to Astrakhan, then arrived in the capital city Sarai al-Jadid and reported the accounts of his travels to Sultan Öz Beg Khan (r. 1313–1341). Then he continued past the Caspian and Aral Seas to Bukhara and Samarkand, where he visited the court of another Mongolian king, Tarmashirin (r. 1331–1334) of the Chagatai Khanate. From there, he journeyed south to Afghanistan, then crossed into India via the mountain passes of the Hindu Kush. In the Rihla, he mentions these mountains and the history of the range in slave trading. He wrote, |
414_10 | India
Ibn Battuta and his party reached the Indus River on 12 September 1333. From there, he made his way to Delhi and became acquainted with the sultan, Muhammad bin Tughluq.
On the strength of his years of study in Mecca, Ibn Battuta was appointed a qadi, or judge, by the sultan. However, he found it difficult to enforce Islamic law beyond the sultan's court in Delhi, due to lack of Islamic appeal in India.
The Sultan was erratic even by the standards of the time and for six years Ibn Battuta veered between living the high life of a trusted subordinate and falling under suspicion of treason for a variety of offences. His plan to leave on the pretext of taking another hajj was stymied by the Sultan. The opportunity for Battuta to leave Delhi finally arose in 1341 when an embassy arrived from Yuan dynasty China asking for permission to rebuild a Himalayan Buddhist temple popular with Chinese pilgrims. |
414_11 | China
Ibn Battuta was given charge of the embassy but en route to the coast at the start of the journey to China, he and his large retinue were attacked by a group of bandits. Separated from his companions, he was robbed and nearly lost his life. Despite this setback, within ten days he had caught up with his group and continued on to Khambhat in the Indian state of Gujarat. From there, they sailed to Calicut (now known as Kozhikode), where Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama would land two centuries later. While in Calicut, Battuta was the guest of the ruling Zamorin. While Ibn Battuta visited a mosque on shore, a storm arose and one of the ships of his expedition sank. The other ship then sailed without him only to be seized by a local Sumatran king a few months later. |
414_12 | In 1345, Ibn Battuta travelled on to Samudra Pasai Sultanate in present-day Aceh, Northern Sumatra, where he notes in his travel log that the ruler of Samudra Pasai was a pious Muslim named Sultan Al-Malik Al-Zahir Jamal-ad-Din, who performed his religious duties with utmost zeal and often waged campaigns against animists in the region. The island of Sumatra, according to Ibn Battuta, was rich in camphor, areca nut, cloves, and tin.
The madh'hab he observed was Imam Al-Shafi‘i, whose customs were similar to those he had previously seen in coastal India, especially among the Mappila Muslims, who were also followers of Imam Al-Shafi‘i. At that time Samudra Pasai marked the end of Dar al-Islam, because no territory east of this was ruled by a Muslim. Here he stayed for about two weeks in the wooden walled town as a guest of the sultan, and then the sultan provided him with supplies and sent him on his way on one of his own junks to China. |
414_13 | Ibn Battuta first sailed to Malacca on the Malay Peninsula which he called "Mul Jawi". He met the ruler of Malacca and stayed as a guest for three days.
In the year 1345 Ibn Battuta arrived at Quanzhou in China's Fujian province, then under the rule of the Mongols. One of the first things he noted was that Muslims referred to the city as "Zaitun" (meaning olive), but Ibn Battuta could not find any olives anywhere. He mentioned local artists and their mastery in making portraits of newly arrived foreigners; these were for security purposes. Ibn Battuta praised the craftsmen and their silk and porcelain; as well as fruits such as plums and watermelons and the advantages of paper money.
He then travelled south along the Chinese coast to Guangzhou, where he lodged for two weeks with one of the city's wealthy merchants. |
414_14 | Ibn Battuta travelled from Beijing to Hangzhou, and then proceeded to Fuzhou. Upon his return to Quanzhou, he soon boarded a Chinese junk owned by the Sultan of Samudera Pasai Sultanate heading for Southeast Asia, whereupon Ibn Battuta was unfairly charged a hefty sum by the crew and lost much of what he had collected during his stay in China.
Al-Andalus / Spain
After a few days in Tangier, Ibn Battuta set out for a trip to the Muslim-controlled territory of al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula. King Alfonso XI of Castile and León had threatened to attack Gibraltar, so in 1350, Ibn Battuta joined a group of Muslims leaving Tangier with the intention of defending the port. By the time he arrived, the Black Death had killed Alfonso and the threat of invasion had receded, so he turned the trip into a sight-seeing tour, travelling through Valencia and ending up in Granada. |
414_15 | After his departure from al-Andalus he decided to travel through Morocco. On his return home, he stopped for a while in Marrakech, which was almost a ghost town following the recent plague and the transfer of the capital to Fez.
In the autumn of 1351, Ibn Battuta left Fez and made his way to the town of Sijilmasa on the northern edge of the Sahara in present-day Morocco. There he bought a number of camels and stayed for four months. He set out again with a caravan in February 1352 and after 25 days arrived at the dry salt lake bed of Taghaza with its salt mines. All of the local buildings were made from slabs of salt by the slaves of the Masufa tribe, who cut the salt in thick slabs for transport by camel. Taghaza was a commercial centre and awash with Malian gold, though Ibn Battuta did not form a favourable impression of the place, recording that it was plagued by flies and the water was brackish. |
414_16 | Mali Empire
After a ten-day stay in Taghaza, the caravan set out for the oasis of Tasarahla (probably Bir al-Ksaib) where it stopped for three days in preparation for the last and most difficult leg of the journey across the vast desert. From Tasarahla, a Masufa scout was sent ahead to the oasis town of Oualata, where he arranged for water to be transported a distance of four days travel where it would meet the thirsty caravan. Oualata was the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade route and had recently become part of the Mali Empire. Altogether, the caravan took two months to cross the of desert from Sijilmasa. |
414_17 | From there, Ibn Battuta travelled southwest along a river he believed to be the Nile (it was actually the river Niger), until he reached the capital of the Mali Empire. There he met Mansa Suleyman, king since 1341. Ibn Battuta disapproved of the fact that female slaves, servants and even the daughters of the sultan went about exposing parts of their bodies not befitting a Muslim. He left the capital in February accompanied by a local Malian merchant and journeyed overland by camel to Timbuktu. Though in the next two centuries it would become the most important city in the region, at that time it was a small city and relatively unimportant. It was during this journey that Ibn Battuta first encountered a hippopotamus. The animals were feared by the local boatmen and hunted with lances to which strong cords were attached. After a short stay in Timbuktu, Ibn Battuta journeyed down the Niger to Gao in a canoe carved from a single tree. At the time Gao was an important commercial center. |
414_18 | After spending a month in Gao, Ibn Battuta set off with a large caravan for the oasis of Takedda. On his journey across the desert, he received a message from the Sultan of Morocco commanding him to return home. He set off for Sijilmasa in September 1353, accompanying a large caravan transporting 600 female slaves, and arrived back in Morocco early in 1354.
Ibn Battuta's itinerary gives scholars a glimpse as to when Islam first began to spread into the heart of west Africa.
The travelogue |
414_19 | After returning home from his travels in 1354, and at the suggestion of the Marinid ruler of Morocco, Abu Inan Faris, Ibn Battuta dictated an account in Arabic of his journeys to Ibn Juzayy, a scholar whom he had previously met in Granada. The account is the only source for Ibn Battuta's adventures. The full title of the manuscript may be translated as A Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling (, Tuḥfat an-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār). However, it is often simply referred to as TheTravels (, Rihla), in reference to a standard form of Arabic literature. |
414_20 | There is no indication that Ibn Battuta made any notes or had any journal during his twenty-nine years of travelling. When he came to dictate an account of his experiences he had to rely on memory and manuscripts produced by earlier travellers. Ibn Juzayy did not acknowledge his sources and presented some of the earlier descriptions as Ibn Battuta's own observations. When describing Damascus, Mecca, Medina and some other places in the Middle East, he clearly copied passages from the account by the Andalusian Ibn Jubayr which had been written more than 150 years earlier. Similarly, most of Ibn Juzayy's descriptions of places in Palestine were copied from an account by the 13th-century traveller Muhammad al-Abdari. |
414_21 | Many scholars of the Oriental studies do not believe that Ibn Battuta visited all the places he described, arguing that in order to provide a comprehensive description of places in the Muslim world, he relied at least in part on hearsay evidence, making use of accounts by earlier travellers. For example, it is considered very unlikely that Ibn Battuta made a trip up the Volga River from New Sarai to visit Bolghar, and there are serious doubts about a number of other journeys such as his trip to Sana'a in Yemen, his journey from Balkh to Bistam in Khorasan and his trip around Anatolia.
Ibn Battuta's claim that a Maghrebian called "Abu'l Barakat the Berber" converted the Maldives to Islam is contradicted by an entirely different story which says that the Maldives were converted to Islam after miracles were performed by a Tabrizi named Maulana Shaikh Yusuf Shams-ud-din according to the Tarikh, the official history of the Maldives. |
414_22 | Some scholars have also questioned whether he really visited China. Ibn Battuta may have plagiarized entire sections of his descriptions of China lifted from works by other authors like "Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar" by Shihab al-Umari, Sulaiman al-Tajir, and possibly from Al Juwayni, Rashid-al-Din Hamadani and an Alexander romance. Furthermore, Ibn Battuta's description and Marco Polo's writings share extremely similar sections and themes, with some of the same commentary, e.g. it is unlikely that the 3rd Caliph Uthman ibn Affan had someone with the exact identical name in China who was encountered by Ibn Battuta. |
414_23 | However, even if the Rihla is not fully based on what its author personally witnessed, it provides an important account of much of the 14th-century world. Concubines were used by Ibn Battuta such as in Delhi. He wedded several women, divorced at least some of them, and in Damascus, Malabar, Delhi, Bukhara, and the Maldives had children by them or by concubines. Ibn Battuta insulted Greeks as "enemies of Allah", drunkards and "swine eaters", while at the same time in Ephesus he purchased and used a Greek girl who was one of his many slave girls in his "harem" through Byzantium, Khorasan, Africa, and Palestine. It was two decades before he again returned to find out what happened to one of his wives and child in Damascus. |
414_24 | Ibn Battuta often experienced culture shock in regions he visited where the local customs of recently converted peoples did not fit in with his orthodox Muslim background. Among the Turks and Mongols, he was astonished at the freedom and respect enjoyed by women and remarked that on seeing a Turkish couple in a bazaar one might assume that the man was the woman's servant when he was in fact her husband. He also felt that dress customs in the Maldives, and some sub-Saharan regions in Africa were too revealing.
Little is known about Ibn Battuta's life after completion of his Rihla in 1355. He was appointed a judge in Morocco and died in 1368 or 1369. |
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