title: Godzilla (franchise)

text: Steven Spielberg cited "Godzilla" as an inspiration for "Jurassic Park" (1993), specifically "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" (1956), which he grew up watching. During its production, Spielberg described "Godzilla" as "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening." "Godzilla" also influenced the Spielberg film "Jaws" (1975). "Godzilla" has also been cited as an inspiration by actor Tim Allen and filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton.


title: Godzilla (franchise)

text: Godzilla toy sales in Japan earned Toho annual royalties of during the late 1970s. Godzilla licensed merchandise generated in annual sales during the late 1970s, adding up to approximately merchandise sales between 1975 and 1979.


title: Godzilla (franchise)

text: "The Return of Godzilla" generated Japanese merchandise sales of in 1984, earning Toho more than in rights and royalties. In 1985, "Godzilla" merchandise sold in Japan, with Doug Mason of "Chicago Tribune" referring to Godzilla as "Japan's Mickey Mouse." "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II" generated from sales of books and merchandise between 1993 and 1994.""


title: Godzilla (franchise)

text: American toy companies such as Mattel and Trendmasters were selling Godzilla toys annually in the United States during the mid-1990s, with Trendmasters alone selling more than Godzilla toys between 1994 and 1995. United Productions of America (UPA), the American distributor for Toho's "Godzilla" films in the 1990s, sold Godzilla toys within nine months between 1994 and 1995.


title: Godzilla (franchise)

text: "Godzilla" (1998) generated more than in North American merchandise sales. Godzilla licensed merchandise in Japan sold () in 2005, () in 2016, and () in 2017. Combined, "Godzilla" generated at least more than in known merchandise sales revenue (equivalent to at least more than adjusted for inflation in 2021).


title: Godzilla (franchise)

text: (*) In 1996 Godzilla received an award for Lifetime Achievement at the MTV Movie Awards. Creator and producer Shōgo Tomiyama accepted on his behalf via satellite and was joined by "Godzilla" himself.


title: Godzilla (franchise)

text: "-zilla" is a well-known slang suffix, used to imply some form of excess to a person, object or theme; some examples being the reality TV show "Bridezillas" and the Netscape-derived web browser Mozilla Firefox.


title: Sarah Chalke

text: Sarah Louise Christine Chalke (; born August 27, 1976) is a Canadian actress and model. She is known for portraying Elliot Reid on the NBC/ABC comedy series "Scrubs", the second Becky Conner on the ABC sitcom "Roseanne", Stella Zinman on the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother", and Beth Smith on Adult Swim's adult animated science-fiction series "Rick and Morty". She also had a recurring role on the third season of the ABC/TBS sitcom "Cougar Town". She has done voice acting for the Netflix series "Paradise PD" and was a star cast member in "Firefly Lane", which premiered on Netflix in February 2021. As of November 2021, Chalke voices Stella, the tactical officer in the Netflix series "Dogs in Space".


title: Sarah Chalke

text: Chalke was born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital on August 27, 1976, in Ottawa, Ontario, and was raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the middle of three daughters born to Douglas and Angela Chalke (née Piper).


title: Sarah Chalke

text: Her mother is from Rostock, Germany. According to a "Scrubs" commentary track, she used to attend the German school in her hometown twice a week. Her first language is English, but she speaks German fluently and French "fairly well". This was incorporated into her "Scrubs" character, Elliot Reid, who spoke German and French at the same levels. Chalke graduated from Handsworth Secondary School in North Vancouver in 1994.


title: Sarah Chalke

text: Chalke's acting career began at age eight when she began appearing in musical theatre productions. At 12, she became a reporter on the Canadian children's show "KidZone". In 1993, she took over the role of Rebecca Conner-Healy on "Roseanne" after Lecy Goranson left the series; Chalke made a cameo appearance as a different character in the "Roseanne" episode "Halloween: The Final Chapter" (#178, originally aired October 31, 1995) after Goranson returned. Chalke later returned to the role of Becky after Goranson departed for a second time. After the show ended, Chalke returned briefly to Canada, where she starred in the CBC Television drama "Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy" (1998–1999).


title: Sarah Chalke

text: In 2001, she was cast as Dr. Elliot Reid in the NBC comedy series "Scrubs" and she would be a cast member for all nine seasons until the series ended its run in 2010. She has appeared in several feature films, including "Ernest Goes to School" and "Cake".


title: Sarah Chalke

text: She appeared in Channel 101's "The 'Bu" with The Lonely Island, a parody of the hit show "The O.C.", but was credited as "Pamela Fenton". In 2007, she appeared as a supporting character in "Chaos Theory", which starred fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds. In 2008, Chalke became the spokesperson for a line of women's underwear by Hanes that included a series of commercials directed by her "Scrubs" co-star Zach Braff. In 2008 and 2009, she made appearances in the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" as Stella Zinman. In early 2011, she starred in the CBS television series "Mad Love", a romantic comedy which debuted as a midseason replacement and was cancelled after only one season was produced.


title: Sarah Chalke

text: Chalke was signed by former "Scrubs" executive producer Bill Lawrence to play the love interest of Bobby Cobb in the series "Cougar Town". She appeared in multiple episodes in the third season. Chalke starred in the ABC comedy series "How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)", which premiered April 3, 2013, and which was cancelled one month later. She played Polly, a single and very uptight divorced mother who found herself moving back in with her parents (Elizabeth Perkins and Brad Garrett) because of the economic downturn. Also in 2013, she played a frantic mother named Casey Hedges in the "Grey's Anatomy" season 9 episode "Can't Fight This Feeling". Chalke also voices Beth on the show Rick and Morty.


title: Sarah Chalke

text: On April 28, 2017, it was announced that a revival of "Roseanne" was in the works, and that most of the original cast and some of the producers would return for the revival series. On May 16, 2017, it was confirmed that eight episodes of the show were greenlit by ABC and would air mid-season in 2018 with Chalke returning, but playing a role other than Becky Conner. Following its cancellation, she later returned for a guest appearance in its spinoff series, "The Conners".


title: Sarah Chalke

text: In February 2021, Chalke co-starred alongside Katherine Heigl in the role of Kate Mularkey for the Netflix series "Firefly Lane."


title: Sarah Chalke

text: In December 2006, Chalke became engaged to Canadian lawyer Jamie Afifi, after three years of dating. In September 2022, Chalke announced that they had called off the engagement and "separated some time ago". They have two children together, a son born in December 2009, and a daughter born in May 2016. Her son was diagnosed at two-years-old with Kawasaki disease.


title: Sarah Chalke

text: Chalke's aunt and grandmother died from breast cancer that was undiagnosed while in its early stages. She has since encouraged breast cancer detection and prevention, and starred in the Lifetime movie "Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy". She is an ambassador for the Audrey Hepburn Children's Foundation. Chalke also made an appearance in a short video parodying a National Organization for Marriage's advertisement opposing same-sex marriage, "Gathering Storm". She was the 2009 ambassador for the Susan G. Komen Passionately Pink for the Cure program, for which she also designed a T-shirt.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Amado Carrillo Fuentes (; December 17, 1956 – July 7, 1997) was a Mexican drug lord who seized control of the Juárez Cartel after assassinating his boss Rafael Aguilar Guajardo. Amado Carrillo became known as ""El Señor de Los Cielos"" ("The Lord of the Skies"), because of the large fleet of jets he used to transport drugs. He was also known for laundering money via Colombia, to finance this fleet.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: He died in July 1997, in a Mexican hospital, after undergoing extensive plastic surgery to change his appearance. In his final days, Carrillo was being tracked by Mexican and U.S. authorities.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Amado Carrillo Fuentes was assessed to be worth around $25 billion (about $40 billion by the present appraisals) at the hour of death. A Mexican drug ruler held onto control of the Juárez Cartel after killing his supervisor Rafael Aguilar Guajardo. Amado Carrillo got known as ‘The Lord of the Skies’ due to the massive armada of planes he used to ship drugs.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Carrillo was born to Walter Vicente Carrillo Vega and Aurora Fuentes in Guamuchilito, Navolato, Sinaloa, Mexico. He had eleven siblings.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Carrillo was the nephew of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, also known as "Don Neto", the Guadalajara Cartel leader. Amado got his start in the drug business under the tutelage of his uncle Ernesto and later brought in his brothers, and eventually his son Vicente José Carrillo Leyva.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Carrillo's father died in April 1986. Carrillo's brother, Cipriano Carrillo Fuentes, died in 1989 under mysterious circumstances.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Initially, Carrillo was part of the Guadalajara Cartel, sent to Ojinaga, Chihuahua to oversee the cocaine shipments of his uncle, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo ("Don Neto"), and to learn about border operations from Pablo Acosta Villarreal ("El Zorro de Ojinaga"; "The Ojinaga Fox") and Rafael Aguilar Guajardo. Later, Carrillo worked with Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel smuggling drugs from Colombia to Mexico and the United States. He also worked with "El Chapo" (Joaquin Guzman Loera), the Arellano Felix family, and the Beltran Leyva organization.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: During his tenure, Carrillo reportedly built a multibillion-dollar drug empire. It was estimated that he may have made over $25 billion in revenue over the course of his career.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: The pressure to capture Carrillo intensified among U.S. and Mexican authorities after people in Morelos state began silent marches against governor Jorge Carrillo Olea and his presumed complacency with drug-related violence. Carrillo Fuentes owned a house three blocks from the governor's official residence and regularly held narco-fiestas in the municipality of Tetecala. Governor Carrillo Olea was forced to resign and was arrested; this type of pressure may have convinced Carrillo Fuentes to undergo facial plastic surgery and abdominal surgery liposuction to change his appearance on July 4, 1997, at Santa Mónica Hospital in Mexico City. However, during the operation, he died of complications apparently caused either by a certain medication or a malfunctioning respirator (there is very little paperwork regarding his death).


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Two of Carrillo Fuentes's bodyguards were in the operating room during the procedure. On November 7, 1997, the two surgeons who performed Carrillo's surgery were found dead, encased in concrete inside steel drums, with their bodies showing signs of torture.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: On the night of August 3, 1997, at around 9:30 p.m., four drug traffickers walked into a restaurant in Ciudad Juárez, pulled out their guns, and opened fire on five diners, killing them instantly. Police estimated that more than 100 bullet casings were found at the crime scene. According to a report issued by the "Los Angeles Times", four men went to the restaurant carrying at least two AK-47 automatic rifles while others stood at the doorstep.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: On their way out, the gunmen claimed another victim, Armando Olague, a prison official and off-duty law enforcement officer who was gunned down outside the restaurant after he had walked from a nearby bar to investigate the shooting. Reportedly, Olague had run into the restaurant from across the street with a gun in his hand to check out the commotion. It was later determined that Olague was also a known lieutenant of the Juarez Cartel.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Mexican authorities declined to comment on the motives behind the killing, stating the shootout was not linked to Carrillo's death. Nonetheless, it was later stated that the perpetrators were gunmen of the Tijuana Cartel.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Although confrontations between "narcotraficantes" were common in Ciudad Juárez, they rarely occurred in public places. What happened in the restaurant threatened to usher in a new era of border crime in the city.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: In Ciudad Juárez, the Office of the Mexican Attorney-General () seized warehouses that they believed the cartel used to store weapons and cocaine. They also seized over 60 properties all over Mexico belonging to Carrillo and began an investigation into his dealings with police and government officials. Officials also froze bank accounts amounting to $10 billion belonging to Carrillo. In April 2009, Mexican authorities arrested Carillo's son, Vicente Carrillo Leyva.


title: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

text: Carrillo was given a large and lavish, expensive funeral in Guamuchilito, Sinaloa. In 2006, Governor Eduardo Bours asked the federal government to tear down Carrillo's mansion in Hermosillo, Sonora.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his "Discworld" series of 41 novels.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's first novel, "The Carpet People", was published in 1971. The first "Discworld" novel, "The Colour of Magic", was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final "Discworld" novel, "The Shepherd's Crown", was published in August 2015, five months after his death.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: With more than 85 million books sold worldwide in 37 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents", the first "Discworld" book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In December 2007, Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed a television programme chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron for ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, aged 66.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett was born on 28 April 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David (1921–2006), a mechanic, and Eileen Pratchett (1922–2010), a secretary, of Hay-on-Wye. His maternal grandparents came from Ireland. Pratchett attended Holtspur School, where he was bullied for his speech impediments. He was bothered by the head teacher, who, he said, thought "he could tell how successful you were going to be in later life by how well you could read or write at the age of six".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset, briefly in 1957. He passed his eleven plus exam in 1959, earning a place at High Wycombe Technical High School, where he was a key member of the debating society and wrote stories for the school magazine. Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript" student and, in his "Who's Who" entry, credited his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's early interests included astronomy. He collected Brooke Bond tea cards about space, owned a telescope and wanted to be an astronomer, but lacked the necessary mathematical skills. He developed an interest in science fiction and attended science fiction conventions from about 1963–1964, but stopped a few years later when he got his first job as a trainee journalist at the local paper. His early reading included the works of H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and "every book you really ought to read", which he later regarded as "getting an education".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett published his first short story, "Business Rivals", in the High Wycombe Technical School magazine in 1962. It is the tale of a man named Crucible who finds the Devil in his flat in a cloud of sulphurous smoke. "The Hades Business", which was published in the school magazine when he was 13, was published commercially when he was 15.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett earned five O-levels and started A-level courses in Art, English and History. His initial career choice was journalism and he left school at 17, in 1965, to start an apprenticeship with Arthur Church, the editor of the "Bucks Free Press". In this position he wrote, among other things, over 80 stories for the "Children's Circle" section under the name Uncle Jim. Two of the stories contain characters found in his novel "The Carpet People" (1971). While on day release from his apprenticeship, Pratchett finished his A-Level in English and took the National Council for the Training of Journalists proficiency course.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In 1968, Pratchett interviewed Peter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company, Colin Smythe Ltd. Pratchett mentioned he had written a manuscript, "The Carpet People". Colin Smythe Ltd published the book in 1971, with illustrations by Pratchett. It received strong, although few, reviews and was followed by the science fiction novels "The Dark Side of the Sun" (10 May 1976) and "Strata" (15 June 1981).


title: Terry Pratchett

text: After various positions in journalism, in 1980 Pratchett became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) in an area that covered four nuclear power stations. He later joked that he had demonstrated "impeccable timing" by making this career change so soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, US, and said he would "write a book about my experiences, if I thought anyone would believe it".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: The first "Discworld" novel, "The Colour of Magic", was published in hardback by Colin Smythe Ltd in 1983. The paperback edition was published by Corgi, an imprint of Transworld, in 1985. Pratchett's popularity increased when the BBC's "Woman's Hour" broadcast "The Colour of Magic" as a serial in six parts, and later "Equal Rites". Subsequently, the hardback rights were taken by the publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd, which remained Pratchett's publisher until 1997, Colin Smythe having become Pratchett's agent. Pratchett was the first fantasy author published by Gollancz.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett gave up working for the CEGB to make his living through writing in 1987, after finishing the fourth "Discworld" novel, "Mort". His sales increased quickly and many of his books occupied top places on the best-seller list; he was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. According to "The Times", Pratchett was the top-selling and highest earning UK author in 1996. Some of his books have been published by Doubleday, another Transworld imprint. In the US, Pratchett is published by HarperCollins.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: According to the "Bookseller's Pocket Yearbook" (2005), in 2003 Pratchett's UK sales amounted to 3.4% of the fiction market by hardback sales and 3.8% by value, putting him in second place behind J. K. Rowling (6% and 5.6%, respectively), while in the paperback sales list Pratchett came 5th with 1.2% and 1.3% by value (behind James Patterson (1.9% and 1.7%), Alexander McCall Smith, John Grisham, and J. R. R. Tolkien). He has UK sales of more than 2.5 million copies a year. His 2011 "Discworld" novel "Snuff" became the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In August 2007, Pratchett was misdiagnosed as having had a minor stroke a few years before, which doctors believed had damaged the right side of his brain. In December 2007, he announced that he had been newly diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which had been responsible for the "stroke". He had a rare form of posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a disease in which areas at the back of the brain begin to shrink and shrivel.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Describing the diagnosis as an "embuggerance" in a radio interview, Pratchett appealed to people to "keep things cheerful" and proclaimed that "we are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism." He stated he felt he had time for "at least a few more books yet", and added that while he understood the impulse to ask "is there anything I can do?", in this case he would only entertain such offers from "very high-end experts in brain chemistry." Discussing his diagnosis at the Bath Literature Festival in early 2008, Pratchett revealed that by then he found it too difficult to write dedications when signing books. In his later years Pratchett wrote by dictating to his assistant, Rob Wilkins, or by using speech recognition software.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In March 2008, Pratchett announced he would donate US$1,000,000 (about £494,000) to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, and that he was shocked "to find out that funding for Alzheimer's research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures." He said: "I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along."


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In April 2008, Pratchett worked with the BBC to make a two-part documentary series about his illness, "Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's". The first part was broadcast on BBC Two on 4 February 2009, drawing 2.6 million viewers and a 10.4% audience share. The second, broadcast on 11 February 2009, drew 1.72 million viewers and a 6.8% audience share. The documentary won a BAFTA award in the Factual Series category.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: On 26 November 2008, Pratchett met the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and asked for an increase in dementia research funding. Pratchett tested a prototype device to address his condition. The ability of the device to alter the course of the illness has been met with skepticism from Alzheimer's researchers.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In an article published 2009, Pratchett stated that he wished to die by assisted suicide, a term he disliked, before his disease progressed to a critical point. He later said he felt "it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer". Pratchett was selected to give the 2010 BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture, "Shaking Hands With Death", broadcast on 1 February 2010. Pratchett introduced his lecture on the topic of assisted death, but the main text was read by his friend Tony Robinson because his condition made it difficult for him to read. In June 2011, Pratchett presented a BBC television documentary, "," about assisted suicide. It won the Best Documentary award at the Scottish BAFTAs in November 2011.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In September 2012, Pratchett told an interviewer: "I have to tell you that I thought I'd be a lot worse than this by now, and so did my specialist." In the same interview, he said that the cognitive part of his mind was "untouched" and his symptoms were physical (normal for PCA). However, in July 2014, he cancelled his appearance at the biennial International Discworld Convention, citing his condition and "other age-related ailments".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett died at his home on the morning of 12 March 2015 from Alzheimer's. "The Telegraph" reported an unidentified source as saying that despite his previous discussion of assisted suicide, his death had been natural. After Pratchett's death, his assistant, Rob Wilkins, wrote from the official Terry Pratchett Twitter account:


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Public figures who paid tribute include British Prime Minister David Cameron, comedian Ricky Gervais, and authors Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Brooks, Margaret Atwood, George R. R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman. Pratchett was memorialised in graffiti in East London. The video game companies Frontier Developments and Valve added elements to their games named after him. Users of the social news site Reddit organised a tribute by which an HTTP header, "codice_1", was added to web sites' responses, a reference to the "Discworld" novel "Going Postal", in which "the clacks" (a semaphore system, used as "Discworld" equivalent to a telegraph) are programmed to repeat the name of its creator's deceased son; the sentiment in the novel is that no one is ever forgotten as long as their name is still spoken. A June 2015 web server survey reported that approximately 84,000 websites had been configured with the header.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett married Lyn Purves at the Congregational Church, Gerrards Cross, on 5 October 1968. They moved to Rowberrow, Somerset, in 1970. Their daughter Rhianna Pratchett, also a writer, was born there in 1976. In 1993, the family moved to Broad Chalke, a village west of Salisbury, Wiltshire.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett was the patron of the Friends of High Wycombe Library. In 2013, he gave a talk at Beaconsfield Library, which he had visited as a child, and donated the income from the event to it. He also visited his former school to speak to the students.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett often wore large, black hats, a style described as "more that of urban cowboy than city gent". Concern for the future of civilisation prompted him to install five kilowatts of photovoltaic cells (for solar energy) at his house.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett started to use computers for writing as soon as they were available to him. His first computer was a Sinclair ZX81; the first computer he used properly for writing was an Amstrad CPC 464, later replaced by a PC. Pratchett was one of the first authors to routinely use the Internet to communicate with fans, and was a contributor to the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett from 1992. However, he did not consider the Internet a hobby, just another "thing to use". He had many computers in his house, with a bank of six monitors to ease writing. When he travelled, he always took a portable computer with him to write.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In a 1995 interview with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Pratchett expressed concern about the potential spread of misinformation online. He felt that there was a "kind of parity of esteem of information" on the internet, and gave the example of holocaust denial being presented on the same terms as peer-reviewed research, with no easy way to gauge reliability. Gates disagreed, saying that online authorities would index and check facts and sources in a much more sophisticated way than in print. The interview was rediscovered in 2019, and seen by Pratchett's biographer as prescient of fake news.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett was a video game player, and collaborated in the creation of a number of game adaptations of his books. He favoured games that are "intelligent and have some depth", citing "Half-Life 2" (2004) and fan missions for "Thief" as examples. The red army in "Interesting Times" prompted comparisons to the 1991 puzzle game "Lemmings". When asked about this connection, Pratchett said: "Merely because the red army can fight, dig, march and climb and is controlled by little icons? Can't imagine how anyone thought that ... Not only did I wipe "Lemmings" from my hard disk, I overwrote it so I couldn't get it back." He described "" (2006) as his favourite video game, and said he used many of its non-combat-oriented fan-made mods.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett had a fascination with natural history that he referred to many times, and he owned a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants. He described them in the biographical notes on the dust jackets of some of his books, and elsewhere, as "not as interesting as people think". By "Carpe Jugulum" the account had become that "he used to grow carnivorous plants, but now they've taken over the greenhouse and he avoids going in."


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In 1995, a fossil sea-turtle from the Eocene epoch of New Zealand was named "Psephophorus terrypratchetti" in his honour by the palaeontologist Richard Köhler.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In 2016, Pratchett fans petitioned the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) to name chemical element 117, temporarily called "ununseptium", as "octarine" with the proposed symbol Oc (pronounced "ook"). The final name chosen for element 117 was "tennessine" with the symbol Ts.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett was a trustee for Orangutan Foundation but was pessimistic about the future of orangutans. His activities included visiting Borneo with a Channel 4 film crew to make an episode of "Jungle Quest" in 1995, seeing orangutans in their natural habitat. Following Pratchett's lead, fan events such as the Discworld Conventions have adopted Orangutan Foundation as their nominated charity, which has been acknowledged by the foundation. One of Pratchett's most popular fictional characters, the Librarian, is a wizard who was transformed into an orangutan in a magical accident and decides to remain in that condition as it is so convenient for his work.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett had an observatory built in his back garden and was a keen astronomer from childhood. He made an appearance on the BBC programme "The Sky at Night".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett sponsored a biennial award for unpublished science fiction novelists, the Terry Pratchett First Novel Award. The prize is a publishing contract with his publishers Transworld. In 2011 the award was won jointly by David Logan for "Half Sick of Shadows" and Michael Logan for "Apocalypse Cow". In 2013 the award was won by Alexander Maskill for "The Hive".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In 2015, Pratchett's estate announced an in-perpetuity endowment to the University of South Australia. The Sir Terry Pratchett Memorial Scholarship supports a Masters scholarship at the university's Hawke Research Institute.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett, who was brought up in a Church of England family, described himself as atheist and a humanist. He was a Distinguished Supporter of Humanists UK (formerly known as the British Humanist Association) and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett wrote that he read the Old Testament as a child and "was horrified", but liked the New Testament and thought that Jesus "had a lot of good things to say ... But I could never see the two testaments as one coherent narrative." He then read "On" "the Origin of Species", which "all made perfect sense ... Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account." He said he had never disliked religion and thought it had a purpose in human evolution. In his novel "Nation", the protagonist says "It is better to build a seismograph than to worship the volcano", a statement Pratchett said he agreed with.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett told the "Times" in 2008: "I believe in the same God that Einstein did ... And it is just possible that once you have got past all the gods that we have created with big beards and many human traits, just beyond all that on the other side of physics, there just may be the ordered structure from which everything flows." In an interview on "Front Row," he described an experience hearing his deceased father's voice and feeling a sense of peace. Commentators took these statements to mean Pratchett had become religious; Pratchett responded in an article published in the "Daily Mail" in which he denied that he had found God, and clarified that he believed the voice had come from a memory of his father and sense of personal elation.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett received a knighthood for "services to literature" in the 2009 UK New Year Honours list. He was previously appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, also for "services to literature", in 1998. He formally received the accolade at Buckingham Palace on 18 February 2009. Pratchett commented in the "Ansible" science fiction/fan newsletter, "I suspect the 'services to literature' consisted of refraining from trying to write any," but added, "Still, I cannot help feeling mightily chuffed about it." On 31 December 2008, it was announced that Pratchett would be knighted (as a Knight Bachelor) in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours. Afterwards he said, "You can't ask a fantasy writer not to want a knighthood. You know, for two pins I'd get myself a horse and a sword."


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In 2003, BBC conducted The Big Read to identify the "Nation's Best-loved Novel" and finally published a ranked list of the "Top 200". Pratchett's highest-ranking novel was "Mort", number 65, but he and Charles Dickens were the only authors with five in the Top 100 (four of his were from the "Discworld" series). He also led all authors with fifteen novels in the Top 200.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett received the NESFA Skylark Award in 2009 and the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010. In 2011 he won Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association, a lifetime honour for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". The librarians cited nine "Discworld" novels published from 1983 to 2004 and observed that "Pratchett's tales of Discworld have won over generations of teen readers with intelligence, heart, and undeniable wit. Comic adventures that fondly mock the fantasy genre, the Discworld novels expose the hypocrisies of contemporary society in an intricate, ever-expanding universe. With satisfyingly multilayered plots, Pratchett's humor honors the intelligence of the reader. Teens eagerly lose themselves in a universe with no maps."


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett was awarded ten honorary doctorates: University of Warwick in 1999, the University of Portsmouth in 2001, the University of Bath in 2003, the University of Bristol in 2004, Buckinghamshire New University in 2008, the University of Dublin in 2008, Bradford University in 2009, University of Winchester in 2009, The Open University in 2013 for his contribution to Public Service and his last, from the University of South Australia, in May 2014.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett was made an adjunct Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin in 2010, with a role in postgraduate education in creative writing and popular literature.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett won the British Science Fiction Award in 1989 for his novel "Pyramids", and a Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2008 for "Making Money". He won the 2001 Carnegie Medal from the British librarians, which recognised "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" as the year's best children's book published in the UK. "Night Watch" won the 2003 Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel. Four of the five "Discworld" novels that centre on the trainee witch Tiffany Aching won the annual Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2016. In 2005, "Going Postal" was shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel; however, Pratchett recused himself, stating that stress over the award would mar his enjoyment of Worldcon.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: "I Shall Wear Midnight" won the 2010 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) as a part of the Nebula Award ceremony. In 2016, SFWA announced that Sir Terry would be the recipient of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award, presented at the 2016 SFWA Nebula Conference.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: An asteroid (127005 Pratchett) is named after Pratchett. In 2013, Pratchett was named Humanist of the Year by the British Humanist Association for his campaign to fund research into Alzheimers, his contribution to the right to die public debate and his Humanist values.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's "Discworld" novels have led to dedicated conventions, the first in Manchester in 1996, then worldwide, often with the author as guest of honour. Publication of a new novel was sometimes accompanied by an international book signing tour; queues were known to stretch outside the bookshop as the author continued to sign books well after the intended finishing time. His fans were not restricted by age or gender, and he received a large amount of fan mail from them. Pratchett enjoyed meeting fans and hearing what they think about his books, saying that since he was well paid for his novels, his fans were "everything" to him.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett said that to write, you must read extensively, both inside and outside your chosen genre and to the point of "overflow". He advised that writing is hard work, and that writers must "make grammar, punctuation and spelling a part of your life." However, Pratchett enjoyed writing, regarding its monetary rewards as "an unavoidable consequence" rather than the reason for writing.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Although during his early career he wrote for the sci-fi and horror genres, Pratchett later focused almost entirely on fantasy, and said: "It is easier to bend the universe around the story." In the acceptance speech for his Carnegie Medal, he said: "Fantasy isn't just about wizards and silly wands. It's about seeing the world from new directions", pointing to the "Harry Potter" novels and "The Lord of the Rings". In the same speech, he acknowledged benefits of these works for the genre.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett believed he owed "a debt to the science fiction/fantasy genre which he grew up out of" and disliked the term "magical realism" which, he said, is "like a polite way of saying you write fantasy and is more acceptable to certain people". He expressed annoyance that fantasy is "unregarded as a literary form", arguing that it "is the oldest form of fiction"; he said he was infuriated when novels containing science fiction or fantasy ideas were not regarded as part of those genres. He debated this issue with novelist A. S. Byatt and critic Terry Eagleton, arguing that fantasy is fundamental to the way we understand the world and therefore an integral aspect of all fiction.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: On 31 July 2005, Pratchett criticised media coverage of the "Harry Potter" author J. K. Rowling, commenting that certain members of the media seemed to think that "the continued elevation of J. K. Rowling can be achieved only at the expense of other writers". Pratchett later denied claims that this was a swipe at Rowling, and said that he was not making claims of plagiarism, but was pointing out the "shared heritage" of the fantasy genre. Pratchett also posted on the "Harry Potter" newsgroup about a media-covered exchange of views with her.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett is known for a distinctive writing style that included a number of characteristic hallmarks. One example is his use of footnotes, which usually involve a comic departure from the narrative or a commentary on the narrative, and occasionally have footnotes of their own.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's earliest "Discworld" novels were written largely to parody classic sword-and-sorcery fiction (and occasionally science fiction); as the series progressed, Pratchett dispensed with parody almost entirely, and the "Discworld" series evolved into straightforward (though still comedic) satire.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett had a tendency to avoid using chapters, arguing in a Book Sense interview that "life does not happen in regular chapters, nor do movies, and Homer did not write in chapters", adding "I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults". However, there were exceptions; "Going Postal" and "Making Money" and several of his books for younger readers are divided into chapters. Pratchett he said that he used chapters in the young adult novels because "[his] editor screams until [he] does", but otherwise felt that they were an unnecessary "stopping point" that got in the way of the narrative.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Characters, place names, and titles in Pratchett's books often contain puns, allusions and cultural references. Some characters are parodies of well-known characters: for example, Pratchett's character Cohen the Barbarian, also called Ghengiz Cohen, is a parody of Conan the Barbarian and Genghis Khan, and his character Leonard of Quirm is a parody of Leonardo da Vinci.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Another hallmark of his writing was the use of dialogue in small capitals without quotation marks, used to indicate the character of Death communicating telepathically into a character's mind. Other characters or types of characters were given similarly distinctive ways of speaking, such as the auditors of reality not having quotation marks around the words they speak, Ankh-Morpork grocers never using punctuation correctly, and Golems capitalising each word in their speech. Also, common spelling mistakes were used to indicate a person's level of literacy.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: "Discworld" novels often included a modern innovation and its introduction to the world's medieval setting, such as a public police force ("Guards! Guards!"), guns ("Men at Arms"), submarines ("Jingo"), cinema ("Moving Pictures"), investigative journalism ("The Truth"), the postage stamp ("Going Postal"), modern banking ("Making Money"), and the steam engine ("Raising Steam"). The "clacks", the tower-to-tower semaphore system that sprang up in later novels, is a mechanical optical telegraph (as created by the Chappe brothers and employed during the French revolution) before wired electric telegraph chains, with all the change and turmoil that such an advancement implies. The resulting social upheaval driven by these changes serves as the setting for the main story.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett made no secret of outside influences on his work: they were a major source of his humour. He imported numerous characters from classic literature, popular culture and ancient history, always adding an unexpected twist. Pratchett was a crime novel fan, which was reflected in frequent appearances of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in the "Discworld" series. Pratchett was an only child, and his characters are often without siblings. Pratchett explained, "In fiction, only-children are the interesting ones".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's earliest inspirations were "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, and the works of H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. His literary influences were P.G. Wodehouse, Tom Sharpe, Jerome K. Jerome, Roy Lewis, Alan Coren, G. K. Chesterton, and Mark Twain.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: While Pratchett's UK publishing history remained quite stable, his relationships with international publishers were turbulent (especially in America). He changed German publishers after an advertisement for Maggi soup appeared in the middle of the German-language version of "Pyramids".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett began writing the "Discworld" series in 1983 to "have fun with some of the cliches" and it is a humorous and often satirical sequence of stories set in the colourful fantasy Discworld universe. The series contains various story arcs (or sub-series), and a number of free-standing stories. All are set in an abundance of locations in the same detailed and unified world, such as the Unseen University and 'The Drum/Broken Drum/Mended Drum' public house in the twin city Ankh-Morpork, or places in the various continents, regions and countries on the Disc. Characters and locations reappear throughout the series, variously taking major and minor roles.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: The Discworld is a large disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants, all supported by the giant turtle Great A'Tuin as it swims its way through space. The books are essentially in chronological order, and advancements can be seen in the development of the Discworld civilisations, such as the creation of paper money in Ankh-Morpork.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Many of the novels in Pratchett's "Discworld" series parody real-world subjects such as film making, newspaper publishing, rock and roll music, religion, philosophy, Ancient Greece, Egyptian history, the Gulf War, Australia, university politics, trade unions, and the financial world. Pratchett also included further parody as a feature within the stories, including such subjects as Ingmar Bergman films, numerous fiction, science fiction, and fantasy characters, and various bureaucratic and ruling systems.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett wrote four "Science of Discworld" books in collaboration with Professor of mathematics Ian Stewart and reproductive biologist Jack Cohen, both of the University of Warwick: "The Science of Discworld" (1999), "" (2002), "" (2005), and "" (2013).


title: Terry Pratchett

text: All four books have chapters that alternate between fiction and non-fiction: the fictional chapters are set within the Discworld universe, where characters observe, and experiment on, a universe with the same physics as ours. The non-fiction chapters (written by Stewart and Cohen) explain the science behind the fictional events.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In 1999, Pratchett appointed both Cohen and Stewart as "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick awarded him an honorary degree.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett collaborated with the folklorist Dr Jacqueline Simpson on "The Folklore of Discworld" (2008), a study of the relationship between many of the persons, places and events described in the "Discworld" books and their counterparts in myths, legends, fairy tales and folk customs on Earth.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's first two adult novels, "The Dark Side of the Sun" (1976) and "Strata" (1981), were both science fiction, the latter taking place partly on a disc-shaped world. Subsequent to these, Pratchett mostly concentrated on his "Discworld" series and novels for children, with two exceptions: "Good Omens" (1990), a collaboration with Neil Gaiman (which was nominated for both Locus and World Fantasy Awards in 1991), a humorous story about the Apocalypse set on Earth, and "Nation" (2008), a book for young adults.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: After writing "Good Omens", Pratchett brainstormed with Larry Niven on a story that would become the short novel "Rainbow Mars". Niven eventually completed the story on his own, but states in the afterword that a number of Pratchett's ideas remained in the finished version.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett also collaborated with British science fiction author Stephen Baxter on a parallel earth series. The first novel, entitled "The Long Earth" was released on 21 June 2012. A second novel, "The Long War", was released on 18 June 2013. "The Long Mars" was published in 2014. The fourth book in the series, "The Long Utopia", was published in June 2015, and the fifth, "The Long Cosmos", in June 2016.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In 2012, the first volume of Pratchett's collected short fiction was published under the title "A Blink of the Screen". In 2014, a similar collection was published of Pratchett's non-fiction, entitled "A Slip of the Keyboard".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett wrote dialogue for a mod for the game "" (2006), which added a Nord companion named Vilja. He also worked on a similar mod for "" (2011), which featured Vilja's great-great-granddaughter.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's first children's novel was also his first published novel: "The Carpet People" in 1971, which Pratchett substantially rewrote and re-released in 1992. The next, "Truckers" (1988), was the first in "The Nome Trilogy" of novels for young readers (also known as "The Bromeliad Trilogy"), about small gnome-like creatures called "Nomes", and the trilogy continued in "Diggers" (1990) and "Wings" (1990). Subsequently, Pratchett wrote the "Johnny Maxwell" trilogy, about the adventures of a boy called Johnny Maxwell and his friends, comprising "Only You Can Save Mankind" (1992), "Johnny and the Dead" (1993) and "Johnny and the Bomb" (1996).


title: Terry Pratchett

text: "Nation" (2008) marked his return to the non-"Discworld" children's novel, and this was followed in 2012 by "Dodger", a children's novel set in Victorian London. On 21 November 2013 Doubleday Children's released Pratchett's "Jack Dodger's Guide to London".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett also wrote a popular five-book children's series featuring trainee witch Tiffany Aching and taking place in his "Discworld" universe, beginning with The Wee Free Men in 2003.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In September 2014 a collection of children's stories, "Dragons at Crumbling Castle", written by Pratchett, and illustrated by Mark Beech, was published. This was followed by another collection, "The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner", also illustrated by Mark Beech, in 2016. A third volume, "Father Christmas's Fake Beard", was released in 2017. A fourth and final collection, "The Time-travelling Caveman", was released in September 2020.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: According to Pratchett's assistant Rob Wilkins, Pratchett left "an awful lot" of unfinished writing, "10 titles I know of and fragments from many other bits and pieces." Pratchett had mentioned two new texts, "Scouting for Trolls" and a "Discworld" novel centering on a new character. The notes left behind outline ideas about "how the old folk of the Twilight Canyons solve the mystery of a missing treasure and defeat the rise of a Dark Lord despite their failing memories", "the secret of the crystal cave and the carnivorous plants in the Dark Incontinent", about Constable Feeney of the Watch, first introduced in "Snuff", involving how he "solves a whodunnit among the congenitally decent and honest goblins", and on a second book about Amazing Maurice from "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: Pratchett's daughter, writer Rhianna Pratchett, is the custodian of the "Discworld" franchise. She has said she has no plans to publish her father's unfinished work or continue the "Discworld" series. Pratchett told Neil Gaiman that anything that he had been working on at the time of his death should be put in the middle of a road and then destroyed by a steamroller. On 25 August 2017, Wilkins fulfilled this wish by crushing Pratchett's hard drive under a steamroller at the Great Dorset Steam Fair.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: A collection of essays about his writings is compiled in the book "Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature", edited by Andrew M. Butler, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, published by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000 (). A second, expanded edition was published by Old Earth Books in 2004 (). Andrew M. Butler wrote the "Pocket Essentials Guide to Terry Pratchett" published in 2001 (). "Writers Uncovered: Terry Pratchett" is a biography for young readers by Vic Parker, published by Heinemann Library in 2006 ().


title: Terry Pratchett

text: A BBC docudrama based on Pratchett's life. "Terry Pratchett: Back In Black" was broadcast in February 2017 and starred Paul Kaye as Pratchett. Neil Gaiman was involved with the project which used Pratchett's own words. Terry's long term assistant Rob Wilkins stated that Terry was working on this documentary before he died, and according to the BBC, finishing it would "show the author was still having the last laugh".


title: Terry Pratchett

text: English author, critic and performer Marc Burrows wrote an unofficial biography of Pratchett, "The Magic of Terry Pratchett", published by Pen & Sword on 6 July 2020 (). Though it was not endorsed by the Pratchett estate, prior to its publication they did wish Burrows "all the best" regarding the book through the official Pratchett Twitter account. "The Magic of Terry Pratchett" met with generally favourable reviews, and won the 2021 Locus Award for Non-Fiction.


title: Terry Pratchett

text: In 2022, Wilkins himself wrote "Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes" which is subtitled "The Official Biography". The biography was well-received: in The Daily Telegraph, Tristram Fane Saunders wrote that "The joy of this biography by Wilkins is that it spins magic from mundanity in precisely the way Pratchett himself did."


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honorific title al-Siddiq by Sunni Muslims.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr became one of the first converts to Islam and extensively contributed his wealth in support of Muhammad's work. He was among Muhammad's closest companions, accompanying him on his migration to Medina and being present at a number of his military conflicts, such as the battles of Badr and Uhud.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Following Muhammad's death in 632, Abu Bakr succeeded the leadership of the Muslim community as the first Rashidun Caliph. During his reign, he overcame a number of uprisings, collectively known as the Ridda Wars, as a result of which he was able to consolidate and expand the rule of the Muslim state over the entire Arabian Peninsula. He also commanded the initial incursions into the neighbouring Sassanian and Byzantine empires, which in the years following his death, would eventually result in the Muslim conquests of Persia and the Levant. Abu Bakr died of illness after a reign of 2 years, 2 months and 14 days, the only Rashidun caliph to die of natural causes.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr's full name was Abdullah ibn Abi Quhafa ibn Amir ibn Amr ibn Ka'b ibn Sa'd ibn Taym ibn Murrah ibn Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In Arabic, the name "Abd Allah" means "servant of Allah". One of his early titles, preceding his conversion to Islam, was "Ateeq", meaning "saved one". Muhammad later restated this title when he said that Abu Bakr is the "Ateeq". He was called "Al-Siddiq" (the truthful) by Muhammad after he believed him in the event of Isra and Mi'raj when other people didn't, and Ali confirmed that title several times. He was also reportedly referred to in the Quran as the "second of the two in the cave" in reference to the event of hijra, where with Muhammad he hid in the cave in Jabal Thawr from the Meccan party that was sent after them.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr was born in Mecca sometime in 573 CE, to a rich family in the Banu Taym tribe of the Quraysh tribal confederacy. His father's name was Uthman and given the kunya "Abu Quhafa", and his mother was Salma bint Sakhar who was given the laqab of "Umm ul-Khair".


title: Abu Bakr

text: He spent his early childhood like other Arab children of the time, among the Bedouins who called themselves "Ahl-i-Ba'eer"- the people of the camel, and developed a particular fondness for camels. In his early years he played with the camel calves and goats, and his love for camels earned him the nickname ("kunya") ""Abu Bakr"", the father of the camel's calf.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Like other children of the rich Meccan merchant families, Abu Bakr was literate and developed a fondness for poetry. He used to attend the annual fair at Ukaz, and participate in poetical symposia. He had a very good memory and had a good knowledge of the genealogy of the Arab tribes, their stories and their politics.


title: Abu Bakr

text: A story is preserved that once when he was a child, his father took him to the Kaaba, and asked him to pray before the idols. His father went away to attend to some other business, and Abu Bakr was left alone. Addressing an idol, Abu Bakr said "O my God, I am in need of beautiful clothes; bestow them on me". The idol remained indifferent. Then he addressed another idol, saying, "O God, give me some delicious food. See that I am so hungry". The idol remained cold. That exhausted the patience of young Abu Bakr. He lifted a stone, and, addressing an idol, said, "Here I am aiming a stone; if you are a god protect yourself". Abu Bakr hurled the stone at the idol and left the Kaaba. Regardless, it recorded that prior to converting to Islam, Abu Bakr practiced as a "hanif" and never worshipped idols.


title: Abu Bakr

text: On his return from a business trip in Yemen, friends informed him that in his absence, Muhammad had declared himself the messenger of God and proclaimed a new religion. The historian Al-Tabari, in his "Tarikh al-Tabari", quotes from Muhammad ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, who said:


title: Abu Bakr

text: Some Sunni and all the Shi'a believe that the second person to publicly accept Muhammed as the messenger of God was Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first being Muhammad's wife Khadija. Ibn Kathir, in his "Al Bidaya Wal Nihayah", disregards this. He stated that the first woman to embrace Islam was Khadijah. Zayd ibn Harithah was the first freed slave to embrace Islam. Ali ibn Abi Talib was the first child to embrace Islam, for he has not even reached the age of puberty at that time, while Abu Bakr was the first free man to embrace Islam.


title: Abu Bakr

text: His wife Qutaylah bint Abd-al-Uzza did not accept Islam and he divorced her. His other wife, Um Ruman, became a Muslim. All his children accepted Islam except Abd al-Rahman, from whom Abu Bakr disassociated himself. His conversion also brought many people to Islam. He persuaded his intimate friends to convert, and presented Islam to other friends in such a way that many of them also accepted the faith. Those who converted to Islam at the insistence of Abu Bakr were:


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr's acceptance proved to be a milestone in Muhammad's mission. Slavery was common in Mecca, and many slaves accepted Islam. When an ordinary free man accepted Islam, despite opposition, he would enjoy the protection of his tribe. For slaves, however, there was no such protection and they commonly experienced persecution. Abu Bakr felt compassion for slaves, so he purchased eight (four men and four women) and then freed them, paying 40,000 dinar for their freedom.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Most of the slaves liberated by Abu Bakr were either women or old and frail men. When the father of Abu Bakr asked him why he didn't liberate strong and young slaves, who could be a source of strength for him, Abu Bakr replied that he was freeing the slaves for the sake of God, and not for his own sake.


title: Abu Bakr

text: For three years after the birth of Islam, Muslims kept their faith private. In 613, according to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was commanded by God to call people to Islam openly. The first public address inviting people to offer allegiance to Muhammad was delivered by Abu Bakr. In a fit of fury, the young men of the Quraysh tribe rushed at Abu Bakr and beat him until he lost consciousness. Following this incident, Abu Bakr's mother converted to Islam. Abu Bakr was persecuted many times by the Quraysh. Though Abu Bakr's beliefs would have been defended by his own clan, it would not be so for the entire Quraysh tribe.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 617, the Quraysh enforced a boycott against the Banu Hashim. Muhammad along with his supporters from Banu Hashim, were cut off in a pass away from Mecca. All social relations with the Banu Hashim were cut off and their state was that of imprisonment. Before it many Muslims migrated to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Abu Bakr, feeling distressed, set out for Yemen and then to Abyssinia from there. He met a friend of his named Ad-Dughna (chief of the Qarah tribe) outside Mecca, who invited Abu Bakr to seek his protection against the Quraysh. Abu Bakr went back to Mecca, it was a relief for him, but soon due to the pressure of Quraysh, Ad-Dughna was forced to renounce his protection. Once again the Quraysh were free to persecute Abu Bakr.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 620, Muhammad's uncle and protector, Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib, and Muhammad's wife Khadija died. Abu Bakr's daughter Aisha was betrothed to Muhammad; however, it was decided that the actual marriage ceremony would be held later. In 620 Abu Bakr was the first person to testify to Muhammad's Isra and Mi'raj (Night Journey).


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 622, on the invitation of the Muslims of Medina, Muhammad ordered Muslims to migrate to Medina. The migration began in batches. Ali was the last to remain in Mecca, entrusted with responsibility for settling any loans the Muslims had taken out, and famously slept in the bed of Muhammad when the Quraysh, led by Ikrima, attempted to murder Muhammad as he slept. Meanwhile, Abu Bakr accompanied Muhammad to Medina. Due to the danger posed by the Quraysh, they did not take the road, but moved in the opposite direction, taking refuge in a cave in Jabal Thawr, some five miles south of Mecca. Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr, the son of Abu Bakr, would listen to the plans and discussions of the Quraysh, and at night he would carry the news to the fugitives in the cave. Asma bint Abi Bakr, the daughter of Abu Bakr, brought them meals every day. Aamir, a servant of Abu Bakr, would bring a flock of goats to the mouth of the cave every night, where they were milked. The Quraysh sent search parties in all directions. One party came close to the entrance to the cave, but was unable to see them. Due to this, Quranic verse was revealed. Aisha, Abu Saʽid al-Khudri and Abd Allah ibn Abbas in interpreting this verse said that Abu Bakr was the companion who stayed with Muhammad in the cave.


title: Abu Bakr

text: After staying at the cave for three days and three nights, Abu Bakr and Muhammad proceed to Medina, staying for some time at Quba, a suburb of Medina.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In Medina, Muhammad decided to construct a mosque. A piece of land was chosen and the price of the land was paid for by Abu Bakr. The Muslims, including Abu Bakr, constructed a mosque named Al-Masjid al-Nabawi at the site. Abu Bakr was paired with Khaarijah bin Zaid Ansari (who was from Medina) as a brother in faith. Abu Bakr's relationship with Khaarijah was most cordial, which was further strengthened when Abu Bakr married Habiba, a daughter of Khaarijah. Khaarijah bin Zaid Ansari lived at Sunh, a suburb of Medina, and Abu Bakr also settled there. After Abu Bakr's family arrived in Medina, he bought another house near Muhammad's.


title: Abu Bakr

text: While the climate of Mecca was dry, the climate of Medina was damp and because of this, most of the migrants fell sick on arrival. Abu Bakr contracted a fever for several days, during which time he was attended to by Khaarijah and his family. In Mecca, Abu Bakr was a wholesale trader in cloth and he started the same business in Medina. He opened his new store at Sunh, and from there cloth was supplied to the market at Medina. Soon his business flourished. Early in 623, Abu Bakr's daughter Aisha, who was already married to Muhammad, was sent on to Muhammad's house after a simple marriage ceremony, further strengthening relations between Abu Bakr and Muhammad.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 624, Abu Bakr was involved in the first battle between the Muslims and the Quraysh of Mecca, known as the Battle of Badr, but did not fight, instead acting as one of the guards of Muhammad's tent. In relation to this, Ali allegedly later asked his associates as to who they thought was the bravest among men. Everyone stated that Ali was the bravest of all men. Ali then replied:


title: Abu Bakr

text: In Sunni accounts, during one such attack, two discs from Abu Bakr's shield penetrated into Muhammad's cheeks. Abu Bakr went forward with the intention of extracting these discs but Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah requested he leave the matter to him, losing his two incisors during the process. In these stories subsequently Abu Bakr, along with other companions, led Muhammad to a place of safety.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 625, he participated in the Battle of Uhud, in which the majority of the Muslims were routed and he himself was wounded. Before the battle had begun, his son Abd al-Rahman, at that time still non-Muslim and fighting on the side of the Quraysh, came forward and threw down a challenge for a duel. Abu Bakr accepted the challenge but was stopped by Muhammad. Later, Abd al-Rahman approached his father and said to him "You were exposed to me as a target, but I turned away from you and did not kill you." To this Abu Bakr replied "However, if you had been exposed to me as a target I would not have turned away from you."


title: Abu Bakr

text: In the second phase of the battle, Khalid ibn al-Walid's cavalry attacked the Muslims from behind, changing a Muslim victory to defeat. Many fled from the battlefield, including Abu Bakr. However, according to his own account, he was "the first to return".


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 627 he participated in the Battle of the Trench and also in the Invasion of Banu Qurayza. In the Battle of the Trench, Muhammad divided the ditch into a number of sectors and a contingent was posted to guard each sector. One of these contingents was under the command of Abu Bakr. The enemy made frequent assaults in an attempt to cross the ditch, all of which were repulsed. To commemorate this event a mosque, later known as 'Masjid-i-Siddiq', was constructed at the site where Abu Bakr had repulsed the charges of the enemy.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr took part in the Battle of Khaybar. Khaybar had eight fortresses, the strongest and most well-guarded of which was called Al-Qamus. Muhammad sent Abu Bakr with a group of warriors to attempt to take it, but they were unable to do so. Muhammad also sent Umar with a group of warriors, but Umar could not conquer Al-Qamus either. Some other Muslims also attempted to capture the fort, but they were unsuccessful as well. Finally, Muhammad sent Ali, who defeated the enemy leader, Marhab.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 629 Muhammad sent 'Amr ibn al-'As to Zaat-ul-Sallasal, followed by Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah in response to a call for reinforcements. Abu Bakr and Umar commanded an army under al-Jarrah, and they attacked and defeated the enemy.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 630, when the Muslims conquered Mecca, Abu Bakr was part of the army. Before the conquest of Mecca his father Abu Quhafa converted to Islam.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 630, the Muslim army was ambushed by archers from the local tribes as it passed through the valley of Hunayn, some eleven miles northeast of Mecca. Taken unaware, the advance guard of the Muslim army fled in panic. There was considerable confusion, and the camels, horses and men ran into one another in an attempt to seek cover. Muhammad, however, stood firm. Only nine companions remained around him, including Abu Bakr. Under Muhammad's instruction, his uncle Abbas shouted at the top of his voice, "O Muslims, come to the Prophet of Allah". The call was heard by the Muslim soldiers and they gathered beside Muhammad. When the Muslims had gathered in sufficient number, Muhammad ordered a charge against the enemy. In the hand-to-hand fight that followed the tribes were routed and they fled to Autas.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Muhammad posted a contingent to guard the Hunayn pass and led the main army to Autas. In the confrontation at Autas the tribes could not withstand the Muslim onslaught. Believing continued resistance useless, the tribes broke camp and retired to Ta'if.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr was commissioned by Muhammad to lead the attack against Ta'if. The tribes shut themselves in the fort and refused to come out in the open. The Muslims employed catapults, but without tangible result. The Muslims attempted to use a testudo formation, in which a group of soldiers shielded by a cover of cowhide advanced to set fire to the gate. However, the enemy threw red hot scraps of iron on the testudo, rendering it ineffective.


title: Abu Bakr

text: The siege dragged on for two weeks, and still there was no sign of weakness in the fort. Muhammad held a council of war. Abu Bakr advised that the siege might be raised and that God make arrangements for the fall of the fort. The advice was accepted, and in February 630, the siege of Ta'if was raised and the Muslim army returned to Mecca. A few days later Malik bin Auf, the commander, came to Mecca and became a Muslim.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 631 AD, Muhammad sent from Medina a delegation of three hundred Muslims to perform the Hajj according to the new Islamic way and appointed Abu Bakr as the leader of the delegation. The day after Abu Bakr and his party had left for the Hajj, Muhammad received a new revelation: Surah Tawbah, the ninth chapter of the Quran. It is related that when this revelation came, someone suggested to Muhammad that he should send news of it to Abu Bakr. Muhammad said that only a man of his house could proclaim the revelation.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Muhammad summoned Ali, and asked him to proclaim a portion of Surah Tawbah to the people on the day of sacrifice when they assembled at Mina. Ali went forth on Muhammad's slit-eared camel, and overtook Abu Bakr. When Ali joined the party, Abu Bakr wanted to know whether he had come to give orders or to convey them. Ali said that he had not come to replace Abu Bakr as Amir-ul-Hajj, and that his only mission was to convey a special message to the people on behalf of Muhammad.


title: Abu Bakr

text: At Mecca, Abu Bakr presided at the Hajj ceremony, and Ali read the proclamation on behalf of Muhammad. The main points of the proclamation were:


title: Abu Bakr

text: From the day this proclamation was made a new era dawned, and Islam alone was to be supreme in Arabia.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr led one military expedition, the Expedition of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, which took place in Najd, in July 628 (third month 7AH in the Islamic calendar). Abu Bakr led a large company in Nejd on the order of Muhammad. Many were killed and taken prisoner. The Sunni Hadith collection "Sunan Abu Dawud" mentions the event.


title: Abu Bakr

text: In 632, during the final weeks of his life, Muhammad ordered an expedition into Syria to avenge the defeat of the Muslims in the Battle of Mu'tah some years previously. Leading the campaign was Usama ibn Zayd, whose father, Muhammad's erstwhile adopted son Zayd ibn Harithah, had been killed in the earlier conflict. No more than twenty years old, inexperienced and untested, Usama's appointment was controversial, becoming especially problematic when veterans such as Abu Bakr, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah and Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas were placed under his command. Nevertheless, the expedition was dispatched, though soon after setting off, news was received of Muhammad's death, forcing the army to return to Medina. The campaign was not reengaged until after Abu Bakr's ascension to the caliphate, at which point he chose to reaffirm Usama's command, which ultimately led to its success.


title: Abu Bakr

text: There are a number of traditions regarding Muhammad's final days which have been used to reinforce the idea of the great friendship and trust which is said to have existed between him and Abu Bakr. In one such episode, as Muhammad was nearing death, he found himself unable to lead prayers as he usually would. He instructed Abu Bakr to take his place, ignoring concerns from Aisha that her father was too emotionally delicate for the role. Abu Bakr subsequently took up the position, and when Muhammad entered the prayer hall one morning during Fajr prayers, Abu Bakr attempted to step back to let him to take up his normal place and lead. Muhammad, however, allowed him to continue. In a related incident, around this time, Muhammad ascended the pulpit and addressed the congregation, saying, "God has given his servant the choice between this world and that which is with God and he has chosen the latter." Abu Bakr, understanding this to mean that Muhammad did not have long to live, responded "Nay, we and our children will be your ransom." Muhammad consoled his friend and ordered that all the doors leading to the mosque be closed aside from that which led from Abu Bakr's house, "for I know no one who is a better friend to me than he."


title: Abu Bakr

text: Upon Muhammad's death, the Muslim community was unprepared for the loss of its leader and many experienced a profound shock. Umar was particularly affected, instead declaring that Muhammad had gone to consult with God and would soon return, threatening anyone who would say that Muhammad was dead. Abu Bakr, having returned to Medina, calmed Umar by showing him Muhammad's body, convincing him of his death. He then addressed those who had gathered at the mosque, saying, "If anyone worships Muhammad, Muhammad is dead. If anyone worships God, God is alive, immortal", thus putting an end to any idolising impulse in the population. He then concluded with verses from the Quran: "(O Muhammad) Verily you will die, and they also will die." (), "Muhammad is no more than an Apostle; and indeed many Apostles have passed away, before him, If he dies Or is killed, will you then Turn back on your heels? And he who turns back On his heels, not the least Harm will he do to Allah And Allah will give reward to those Who are grateful." ()


title: Abu Bakr

text: In the immediate aftermath of the death of Muhammad, a gathering of the Ansar (natives of Medina) took place in the "Saqifah" (courtyard) of the Banu Sa'ida clan. The general belief at the time was that the purpose of the meeting was for the Ansar to decide on a new leader of the Muslim community among themselves, with the intentional exclusion of the Muhajirun (migrants from Mecca), though this has later become the subject of debate.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Nevertheless, Abu Bakr and Umar, upon learning of the meeting, became concerned of a potential coup and hastened to the gathering. Upon arriving, Abu Bakr addressed the assembled men with a warning that an attempt to elect a leader outside of Muhammad's own tribe, the Quraysh, would likely result in dissension, as only they can command the necessary respect among the community. He then took Umar and Abu Ubaidah, by the hand and offered them to the Ansar as potential choices. Habab ibn Mundhir, a veteran from the battle of Badr, countered with his own suggestion that the Quraysh and the Ansar choose a leader each from among themselves, who would then rule jointly. The group grew heated upon hearing this proposal and began to argue amongst themselves. The orientalist William Muir gives the following observation of the situation:


title: Abu Bakr

text: Umar hastily took Abu Bakr's hand and swore his own allegiance to the latter, an example followed by the gathered men. The meeting broke up when a violent scuffle erupted between Umar and the chief of the Banu Sa'ida, Sa'd ibn Ubadah. This may indicate that the choice of Abu Bakr may not have been unanimous, with emotions running high as a result of the disagreement.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr was near-universally accepted as head of the Muslim community (under the title of Caliph) as a result of Saqifah, though he did face contention because of the rushed nature of the event. Several companions, most prominent among them being Ali ibn Abi Talib, initially refused to acknowledge his authority. Among Shi'ites, it is also argued that Ali had previously been appointed as Muhammad's heir, with the election being seen as in contravention to the latter's wishes. Abu Bakr later sent Umar to confront Ali, resulting in an altercation which may have involved violence. However, after six months the group made peace with Abu Bakr and Ali offered him his allegiance.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr's reign lasted for 27 months, during which he crushed the rebellion of the Arab tribes throughout the Arabian Peninsula in the successful Ridda Wars. In the last months of his rule, he sent Khalid ibn al-Walid on conquests against the Sassanid Empire in Mesopotamia and against the Byzantine Empire in Syria. This would set in motion a historical trajectory (continued later on by Umar and Uthman ibn Affan) that in just a few short decades would lead to one of the largest empires in history. He had little time to pay attention to the administration of state, though state affairs remained stable during his Caliphate. On the advice of Umar and Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, he agreed to draw a salary from the state treasury and discontinue his cloth trade.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Troubles emerged soon after Abu Bakr's succession, with several Arab tribes launching revolts, threatening the unity and stability of the new community and state. These insurgencies and the caliphate's responses to them are collectively referred to as the Ridda wars ("Wars of Apostasy").


title: Abu Bakr

text: The opposition movements came in two forms. One type challenged the political power of the nascent caliphate as well as the religious authority of Islam with the acclamation of rival ideologies, headed by political leaders who claimed the mantle of prophethood in the manner that Muhammad had done. These rebellions include:


title: Abu Bakr

text: The second form of opposition movement was more strictly political in character. Some of the revolts of this type took the form of tax rebellions in Najd among tribes such as the Banu Fazara and Banu Tamim. Other dissenters, while initially allied to the Muslims, used Muhammad's death as an opportunity to attempt to restrict the growth of the new Islamic state. They include some of the Rabīʿa in Bahrayn, the Azd in Oman, as well as among the Kindah and Khawlan in Yemen.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr, likely understanding that maintaining firm control over the disparate tribes of Arabia was crucial to ensuring the survival of the state, suppressed the insurrections with military force. He dispatched Khalid ibn Walid and a body of troops to subdue the uprisings in Najd as well as that of Musaylimah, who posed the most serious threat. Concurrent to this, Shurahbil ibn Hasana and Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami were sent to Bahrayn, while Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl, Hudhayfah al-Bariqi and Arfaja al-Bariqi were instructed to conquer Oman. Finally, Al-Muhajir ibn Abi Umayya and Khalid ibn Asid were sent to Yemen to aid the local governor in re-establishing control. Abu Bakr also made use of diplomatic means in addition to military measures. Like Muhammad before him, he used marriage alliances and financial incentives to bind former enemies to the caliphate. For instance, a member of the Banu Hanifa who had sided with the Muslims was rewarded with the granting of a land estate. Similarly, a Kindah rebel named Al-Ash'ath ibn Qays, after repenting and re-joining Islam, was later given land in Medina as well as the hand of Abu Bakr's sister Umm Farwa in marriage.


title: Abu Bakr

text: At their heart, the Ridda movements were challenges to the political and religious supremacy of the Islamic state. Through his success in suppressing the insurrections, Abu Bakr had in effect continued the political consolidation which had begun under Muhammad's leadership with relatively little interruption. By wars' end, he had established an Islamic hegemony over the entirety of the Arabian Peninsula.


title: Abu Bakr

text: With Arabia having united under a single centralised state with a formidable military, the region could now be viewed as a potential threat to the neighbouring Byzantine and Sasanian empires. It may be that Abu Bakr, reasoning that it was inevitable that one of these powers would launch a pre-emptive strike against the youthful caliphate, decided that it was better to deliver the first blow himself. Regardless of the caliph's motivations, in 633, small forces were dispatched into Iraq and Palestine, capturing several towns. Though the Byzantines and Sassanians were certain to retaliate, Abu Bakr had reason to be confident; the two empires were militarily exhausted after centuries of war against each other, making it likely that any forces sent to Arabia would be diminished and weakened.


title: Abu Bakr

text: A more pressing advantage though was the effectiveness of the Muslim fighters as well as their zeal, the latter of which was partially based on their certainty of the righteousness of their cause. Additionally, the general belief among the Muslims was that the community must be defended at all costs. Historian Theodor Nöldeke gives the somewhat controversial opinion that this religious fervour was intentionally used to maintain the enthusiasm and momentum of the "ummah":


title: Abu Bakr

text: Though Abu Bakr had started these initial conflicts which eventually resulted in the Islamic conquests of Persia and the Levant, he did not live to see those regions conquered by Islam, instead leaving the task to his successors.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr was instrumental in preserving the Quran in written form. It is said that after the hard-won victory over Musaylimah in the Battle of Yamama in 632, Umar saw that some five hundred of the Muslims who had memorised the Quran had been killed. Fearing that it may become lost or corrupted, Umar requested that Abu Bakr authorise the compilation and preservation of the scriptures in written format. The caliph was initially hesitant, being quoted as saying, "how can we do that which the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless and keep him, did not himself do?" He eventually relented, however, and appointed Zayd ibn Thabit, who had previously served as one of the scribes of Muhammad, for the task of gathering the scattered verses. The fragments were recovered from every quarter, including from the ribs of palm branches, scraps of leather, stone tablets and "from the hearts of men". The collected work was transcribed onto sheets and verified through comparison with Quran memorisers. The finished codex, termed the "Mus'haf", was presented to Abu Bakr, who prior to his death, bequeathed it to his successor Umar. Upon Umar's own death, the "Mus'haf" was left to his daughter Hafsa, who had been one of the wives of Muhammad. It was this volume, borrowed from Hafsa, which formed the basis of Uthman's legendary prototype, which became the definitive text of the Quran. All later editions are derived from this original.


title: Abu Bakr

text: On 23 August 634, Abu Bakr fell sick and did not recover. He developed a high fever and was confined to bed. His illness was prolonged, and when his condition worsened, he felt that his end was near. Realising this, he sent for Ali and requested him to perform his ghusl since Ali had also done it for Muhammad.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr felt that he should nominate his successor so that the issue should not be a cause of dissension among the Muslims after his death, though there was already controversy over Ali not having been appointed. He appointed Umar for this role after discussing the matter with some companions. Some of them favoured the nomination and others disliked it, due to the tough nature of Umar.


title: Abu Bakr

text: The historian Al-Tabari, in regards to Abu Bakr's appearance, records the following interaction between Aisha and her paternal nephew, Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr:


title: Abu Bakr

text: When she was in her howdah and saw a man from among the Arabs passing by, she said, "I have not seen a man more like Abu Bakr than this one." We said to her, "Describe Abu Bakr." She said, "A slight, white man, thin-bearded and bowed. His waist wrapper would not hold but would fall down around his loins. He had a lean face, sunken eyes, a bulging forehead, and trembling knuckles."


title: Abu Bakr

text: Referencing another source, Al-Tabari further describes him as being "white mixed with yellowness, of good build, slight,


title: Abu Bakr

text: bowed, thin, tall like a male palm tree, hook-nosed, lean-faced, sunken-eyed, thin-shanked, and strong-thighed. He used to dye himself with henna and black dye."


title: Abu Bakr

text: Though the period of his caliphate covers only two years, two months and fifteen days, it included successful invasions of the two most powerful empires of the time: the Sassanid Empire and Byzantine Empire.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Abu Bakr had the distinction of being the first Caliph in the history of Islam and also the first Caliph to nominate a successor. He was the only Caliph in the history of Islam who refunded to the state treasury at the time of his death the entire amount of the allowance that he had drawn during the period of his caliphate. He has the distinction of purchasing the land for Al-Masjid al-Nabawi.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Sunni Muslims view Abu Bakr as one of the best men of all the human beings after the prophets. They also consider Abu Bakr as one of the Ten Promised Paradise ("al-‘Ashara al-Mubashshara") whom Muhammad had testified were destined for Paradise. He is regarded as the "Successor of Allah's Messenger" ("Khalifa Rasulullah"), and first of the Rightly Guided Caliphs—i.e. Rashidun—and as the rightful successor to Muhammad. Abu Bakr had always been the closest friend and confidant of Muhammad throughout his life, being beside Muhammad at every major event. It was Abu Bakr's wisdom that Muhammad always honored. Abu Bakr is regarded among the best of Muhammad's followers; as Umar ibn al-Khattab stated, "If the faith of Abu Bakr was weighed against the faith of the people of the earth, the faith of Abu Bakr would outweigh the others."


title: Abu Bakr

text: Shia Muslims believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib was supposed to assume the leadership, and that he had been publicly and unambiguously appointed by Muhammad as his successor at Ghadir Khumm. It is also believed that Abu Bakr and Umar conspired to take over power in the Muslim nation after Muhammad's death, in a coup d'état against Ali.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Most Twelver Shia (as the main branch of Shia Islam, with 85% of all Shias) have a negative view of Abu Bakr because, after Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr refused to grant Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah, the lands of the village of Fadak which she claimed her father had given to her as a gift before his death. He refused to accept the testimony of her witnesses, so she claimed the land would still belong to her as inheritance from her deceased father. However, Abu Bakr replied by saying that Muhammad had told him that the prophets of God do not leave as inheritance any worldly possessions and on this basis he refused to give her the lands of Fadak. However, as Sayed Ali Asgher Razwy notes in his book "A Restatement of the History of Islam & Muslims", Muhammad inherited a maid servant, five camels, and ten sheep. Shia Muslims believe that prophets can receive inheritance, and can pass on inheritance to others as well. In addition, Shias claim that Muhammad had given Fadak to Fatimah during his lifetime, and Fadak was therefore a gift to Fatimah, not inheritance. This view has also been supported by the Abbasid ruler Al-Ma'mun.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Twelvers also accuse Abu Bakr of participating in the burning of the house of Ali and Fatima. The Twelver Shia believe that Abu Bakr sent Khalid ibn Walid to crush those who were in favour of Ali's caliphate ("see Ridda wars"). The Twelver Shia strongly refute the idea that Abu Bakr or Umar were instrumental in the collection or preservation of the "Quran", claiming that they should have accepted the copy of the book in the possession of Ali.


title: Abu Bakr

text: However, Sunnis argue that Ali and Abu Bakr were not enemies and that Ali named his sons Abi Bakr in honor of Abu Bakr. After the death of Abu Bakr, Ali raised Abu Bakr's son Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. The Twelver Shia view Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as one of the greatest companions of Ali. When Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr was killed by the Umayyads, Aisha, the third wife of Muhammad, raised and taught her nephew Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr's mother was from Ali's family and Qasim's daughter Farwah bint al-Qasim was married to Muhammad al-Baqir and was the mother of Jafar al-Sadiq. Therefore, Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr was the grandson of Abu Bakr and the grandfather of Jafar al-Sadiq.


title: Abu Bakr

text: Zaydi Shias, the largest group amongst the Shia before the Safavid dynasty and currently the second-largest group (although its population is only about 5% of all Shia Muslims), believe that on the last hour of Zayd ibn Ali (the uncle of Jafar al-Sadiq), he was betrayed by the people in Kufa who said to him: "May God have mercy on you! What do you have to say on the matter of Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab?" Zayd ibn Ali said, "I have not heard anyone in my family renouncing them both nor saying anything but good about them...when they were entrusted with government they behaved justly with the people and acted according to the Quran and the Sunnah".


title: Neurodiversity

text: Neurodiversity refers to diversity in the human brain and cognition, for instance in sociability, learning, attention, mood and other mental functions.


title: Neurodiversity

text: It was coined in 1998 by sociologist Judy Singer, who helped popularize the concept along with journalist Harvey Blume, and situates human cognitive variation in the context of biodiversity and the politics of minority groups. This view arose out of the autism rights movement, as a challenge to prevailing views that certain things currently classified as neurodevelopmental disorders are inherently pathological. It builds on the social model of disability, in which disability arises out of societal barriers interacting with individual differences, rather than people being disabled simply as a result of having impairments.


title: Neurodiversity

text: Some neurodiversity advocates and researchers, notably Judy Singer and Patrick Dwyer, argue that the neurodiversity paradigm is the middle ground between strong medical model and strong social model.


title: Neurodiversity

text: The subsequent neurodiversity paradigm has been controversial among disability advocates, with opponents arguing it risks downplaying the suffering associated with some disabilities, and calls for the acceptance of things some would wish to see treated.


title: Neurodiversity

text: Autistic self-advocate and researcher Ari Ne'eman, one of the major advocates in the neurodiversity movement, suggested a trait-based approach, meaning that elements of the medical (or pathology) model can be applied in treating certain traits, behaviors, or conditions that are intrinsically harmful (e.g. self-injury behaviors, speech-language impairments, or other co-occurring health conditions), whereas neurodiversity approaches can be applied to non-harmful or adaptive autistic traits (e.g. stimming, intense interests) of the same individual. Furthermore, in recent years, there have been developments of neurodiversity-affirming interventions and reforms of some interventions.


title: Neurodiversity

text: The word neurodiversity is attributed to Judy Singer, a social scientist who has described herself as "likely somewhere on the autistic spectrum." She used the term in her sociology honours thesis published in 1999, drawing on discussions on the InLv mailing list with others including American journalist and writer Harvey Blume, whose September 30, 1998, article in "The Atlantic" was the first to use the term in print. The term represented a move away from previous "mother-blaming" theories about the cause of autism.


title: Neurodiversity

text: Some authors also credit the earlier work of autistic advocate Jim Sinclair in advancing the concept of neurodiversity. Sinclair was a principal early organizer of the international online autism community. Sinclair's 1993 speech, "Don't mourn for us", emphasized autism as a way of being: "It is not possible to separate the person from the autism." In a "New York Times" piece written by Blume on June 30, 1997, Blume described the foundation of neurodiversity using the term "neurological pluralism". Blume was an early advocate who predicted the role the Internet would play in fostering the international neurodiversity movement.


title: Neurodiversity

text: In recent years the concept of neurodiversity is increasingly being taken on board by scientists, recognising that autism researchers have sometimes been too ready to interpret differences as deficits, that there are ethical risks and may be practical risks in reducing or suppressing autistic traits in interventions. Some researchers are concerned about uncertain and possible risks that some interventions may promote excessive camouflaging (e.g. imitating neurotypical traits and behaviors, masking autistic traits), as higher levels of camouflaging are generally associated with poorer mental health outcomes among autistic people in numerous recent studies, and perhaps even suicidality. Also, some advocates and researchers argue that a medicalising approach can contribute to stigma and that the persistent focus on biological research in autism is at odds with the priorities of those in the autism community.


title: Neurodiversity

text: The neurodiversity paradigm was developed and embraced first by autistic people. Subsequently, it was applied to other neurodevelopmental and/or neuropsychiatric conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability and Tourette syndrome. Broader conceptualizations include mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and, somewhat more controversially, personality disorders such as antisocial personality disorder. Neurodiversity advocates denounce the framing of neurodevelopmental disorders as requiring medical intervention to "cure" or "fix" them, and instead promote support systems such as inclusion-focused services, accommodations, communication and assistive technologies, occupational training, and independent living support. The intention is for individuals to receive support that honours authentic forms of human diversity, self-expression, and being, rather than treatment which coerces or forces them to adopt normative ideas of normality, or to conform to a clinical ideal.


title: Neurodiversity

text: Proponents of neurodiversity strive to reconceptualize autism and related conditions in society by the following measures: acknowledging that neurodiversity does not require a cure; changing the language from the current "condition, disease, disorder, or illness"-based nomenclature; "broadening the understanding of healthy or independent living"; acknowledging new types of autonomy; and giving non-neurotypical individuals more control over their treatment, including the type, timing, and whether there should be treatment at all.


title: Neurodiversity

text: A 2009 study separated 27 students (with autism, dyslexia, developmental coordination disorder, ADHD, and stroke), into two categories of self-view: "A 'difference' view—where neurodiversity was seen as a difference incorporating a set of strengths and weaknesses, or a 'medical/deficit' view—where neurodiversity was seen as a disadvantageous medical condition." They found that, although all of the students reported uniformly difficult schooling careers involving exclusion, abuse, and bullying, those who viewed themselves from a different view (41% of the study cohort) "Indicated higher academic self-esteem and confidence in their abilities and many (73%) expressed considerable career ambitions with positive and clear goals." Many of these students reported gaining this view of themselves through contact with neurodiversity advocates in online support groups.


title: Neurodiversity

text: A 2013 online survey, which aimed to assess conceptions of autism and neurodiversity, found that "A deficit-as-difference conception of autism suggests the importance of harnessing autistic traits in developmentally beneficial ways, transcending a false dichotomy between celebrating differences and ameliorating deficit."


title: Neurodiversity

text: Neurodiverse individuals are subjected to bias when applying and interviewing for job positions. Specifically, neurodiverse individuals can have their social engagement style compared to neurotypical individuals, and it can affect their ability to obtain a job position. Neurodiversity stigmas, especially against autistic individuals, and cognition challenges in social situations can hinder an individual's ability to perform well in a traditional job interview.


title: Neurodiversity

text: Once in the workplace, neurodiverse employees continue to run into barriers. In a systematic review that considered developmental dyslexia (DD) as "an expression of neurodiversity," it was suggested that neurodiversity is not yet an established concept in the workplace, and therefore, support from social relationships and work accommodations is minimal. Furthermore, another systematic review that focused on intervention studies for supporting adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) discovered that there were few workplace-based intervention studies. The covered studies mainly assessed pharmacological and combined (pharmacological and psychosocial) interventions. Additional research needs to be conducted to figure out how to best support neurodiverse employees in the workplace.