title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule, and it was under his leadership that the first Muslim-Byzantine skirmishes took place in response to Byzantine incursions. Just a few months after Heraclius and the Persian general Shahrbaraz agreed on terms for the withdrawal of Persian troops from occupied Byzantine eastern provinces in 629, Arab and Byzantine troops confronted each other at the Battle of Mu'tah as a result of Byzantine vassals murdering a Muslim emissary. Muhammad died in 632 and was succeeded by Abu Bakr, the first Caliph with undisputed control of the entire Arab peninsula after the successful Ridda Wars, which resulted in the consolidation of a powerful Muslim state throughout the peninsula.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Byzantine sources, such as the Short History written by Nikephoros, claim that the Arab invasion came about as a result of restrictions imposed on Arab traders curtailing their ability to trade within Byzantine territory, and to send the profits of their trade out of Byzantine territory. As a result, the Arabs murdered a Byzantine official named Sergius whom they held responsible for convincing the Emperor Heraclius to impose the trade restrictions. Nikephoros relates that:


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The Saracens, having flayed a camel, enclosed him in the hide and sewed it up. As the skin hardened, the man who was left inside also withered and so perished in a painful manner. The charge against him was that he had persuaded Heraclius not to allow the Saracens to trade from the Roman country and send out of the Roman state the thirty pounds of gold which they normally received by way of commercial gain; and for this reason they began to lay waste the Roman land.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Some scholars assert that this is the same Sergius, called "the Candidatus", who was "killed by the Saracens" as related in the 7th century Doctrina Jacobi document.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In Arabia, swords from India were greatly esteemed as being made of the finest steel, and were the favorite weapons of the "Mujahideen". The Arab sword known as the "" closely resembled the Roman "gladius". Swords and spears were the major weapons of the Muslims and armour was either mail or leather. In northern Arabia, Roman influence predominated, in eastern Arabia, Persian influence predominated and in Yemen, Indian influence was felt. As the caliphate spread, the Muslims were influenced by the peoples they conquered—the Turks in Central Asia, the Persians, and the Romans in Syria. The Bedouin tribes of Arabia favored archery, though, contrary to popular belief, Bedouin archers usually fought on foot instead of horseback. The Arabs usually fought defensive battles with their archers placed on both flanks. By the Umayyad period, the caliphate had a standing army, including the elite "Ahl al-Sham" ("people of Syria"), raised from the Arabs who settled in Syria. The caliphate was divided into a number of "jund", or regional armies, stationed in the provinces being made of mostly Arab tribes who were paid monthly by the "Diwan al-Jaysh" (War Ministry).


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The infantry of the Roman Army continued to be recruited from within the empire, but much of the cavalry were either recruited from "martial" peoples in the Balkans or in Asia Minor, or, alternatively, were Germanic mercenaries. Most of the Roman troops in Syria were "indigenae" (local) and it seems that at the time of the Muslim conquest, the Roman forces in Syria were Arabs. In response to the loss of Syria, the Romans developed the "phylarch" system of using Armenian and Christian Arab auxiliaries living on the frontier to provide a "shield" to counter raiding by the Muslims into the empire. Overall, the Roman Army remained a small, but professional force of "foederati". Unlike the "foederati" who were sent where they were needed, the "stradioti" lived in the frontier provinces.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: During the last decades of the Sasanian empire, the frequent use of royal titles by Persian governors in Central Asia, especially in what is now Afghanistan, indicates a weakening of the power of the "Shahinshah" (King of Kings), suggesting the empire was already breaking down at the time of the Muslim conquest. Persian society was rigidly divided into castes with the nobility being of supposed "Aryan" descent, and this division of Persian society along caste lines was reflected in the military. The "azatan" aristocracy provided the cavalry, the "paighan" infantry came from the peasantry and most of the greater Persian nobility had slave soldiers, this last being based on the Persian example. Much of the Persian army consisted of tribal mercenaries recruited from the plains south of the Caspian Sea and from what is now Afghanistan. The Persian tactics were cavalry based with the Persian forces usually divided into a center, based upon a hill, and two wings of cavalry on either side.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Little is known about the military forces of the Christian state of Ethiopia other than that they were divided into ' professional troops and the ' auxiliaries. The Ethiopians made much use of camels and elephants.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The Berber peoples of North Africa had often served as a "" (auxiliaries) to the Roman Army. The Berber forces were based around the horse and camel, but seemed to have hampered by a lack of weapons or protection with both Roman and Arab sources mentioning the Berbers lacked armour and helmets. The Berbers went to war with their entire communities and the presence of women and children both slowed down the Berber armies and tied down Berber tribesmen who tried to protect their families.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The British historian David Nicolle called the Turkish peoples of Central Asia the "most formidable foes" faced by the Muslims. The Jewish Turkish Khazar khanate, based in what is now southern Russia and Ukraine, had a powerful heavy cavalry. The Turkish heartland of Central Asia was divided into five khanates whose khans variously recognized the shahs of Iran or the emperors of China as their overlords. Turkish society was feudal with the khans only being "pater primus" among the aristocracy of ' who lived in castles in the countryside, with the rest of Turkish forces being divided into ' (farmers), ' (servants) and ' (clients). The heavily armored Turkish cavalry were to play a great role in influencing subsequent Muslim tactics and weapons; the Turks, who were mostly Buddhists at the time of the Islamic conquest, later converted to Islam and, ironically, the Turks came to be regarded as the foremost Muslim warriors, to the extent of replacing the Arabs as the dominant peoples in the "Dar-al-Islam" (House of Islam).


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: During the migration period, the Germanic Visigoths had traveled from their homeland north of the Danube to settle in the Roman province of Hispania, creating a kingdom upon the wreckage of the Western Roman empire. The Visigothic state in Iberia was based around forces raised by the nobility whom the king could call out in the event of war. The king had his ' and ' loyal to himself, while the nobility had their "". The Visigoths favored cavalry with their favorite tactics being to repeatedly charge a foe combined with feigned retreats. The Muslim conquest of most of Iberia in less than a decade does suggest serious deficiencies with the Visigothic kingdom, though the limited sources make it difficult to discern the precise reasons for the collapse of the Visigoths.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Another Germanic people who founded a state upon the ruins of the Western Roman empire were the Franks who settled in Gaul, which came to be known afterwards as France. Like the Visigoths, the Frankish cavalry played a "significant part" in their wars. The Frankish kings expected all of their male subjects to perform three months of military service every year, and all serving under the king's banner were paid a regular salary. Those called up for service had to provide their own weapons and horses, which contributed to the "militarisation of Frankish society". At least part of the reason for the victories of Charles Martel was he could call up a force of experienced warriors when faced with Muslim raids.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The province of Syria was the first to be wrested from Byzantine control. Arab-Muslim raids that followed the Ridda wars prompted the Byzantines to send a major expedition into southern Palestine, which was defeated by the Arab forces under command of Khalid ibn al-Walid at the Battle of Ajnadayn (634). Ibn al-Walid, had converted to Islam around 627, becoming one of Muhammad's most successful generals. Ibn al-Walid had been fighting in Iraq against the Persians when he led his force on a trek across the deserts to Syria to attack the Romans from the rear. In the "Battle of the Mud" fought outside of Pella in the Jordan river valley in January 635 the Arabs won another victory. After a siege of six months the Arabs took Damascus, but Emperor Heraclius later retook it. At the battle of Yarmuk between 16–20 August 636, the Arabs were victorious, defeating Heraclius. Ibn al-Walid appears to have been the "real military leader" at Yarmuk "under the nominal command of others". Syria was ordered to be abandoned to the Muslims with Heraclius reportedly saying: "Peace be with you Syria; what a beautiful land you will be for your enemy". On the heels of their victory, the Arab armies took Damascus again in 636, with Baalbek, Homs, and Hama to follow soon afterwards. However, other fortified towns continued to resist despite the rout of the imperial army and had to be conquered individually. Jerusalem fell in 638, Caesarea in 640, while others held out until 641.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: After a two-year siege, the garrison of Jerusalem surrendered rather than starve to death; under the terms of the surrender Caliph Umar promised to tolerate the Christians of Jerusalem and not to turn churches into mosques. True to his word, the Caliph Umar allowed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to remain, with the caliph praying on a prayer rug outside of the church. The loss to the Muslims of Jerusalem, the holiest city to Christians, proved to be the source of much resentment in Christendom. The city of Caesarea Maritima continued to withstand the Muslim siege—as it could be supplied by sea—until it was taken by assault in 640.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In the mountains of Asia Minor, the Muslims enjoyed less success, with the Romans adopting the tactic of "shadowing warfare" — refusing to give battle to the Muslims, while the people retreated into castles and fortified towns when the Muslims invaded; instead, Roman forces ambushed Muslim raiders as they returned to Syria carrying plunder and people they had enslaved. In the frontier area where Anatolia met Syria, the Roman state evacuated the entire population and laid waste to the countryside, creating a "no-man's land" where any invading army would find no food. For decades afterwards, a guerrilla war was waged by Christians in the hilly countryside of north-western Syria supported by the Romans. At the same time, the Romans began a policy of launching raids via sea on the coast of the caliphate with the aim of forcing the Muslims to keep at least some of their forces to defend their coastlines, thus limiting the number of troops available for an invasion of Anatolia. Unlike Syria with its plains and deserts — which favored the offensive — the mountainous terrain of Anatolia favored the defensive, and for centuries afterwards, the line between Christian and Muslim lands ran along the border between Anatolia and Syria.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. The Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639. The majority of the Roman forces in Egypt were locally-raised Coptic forces, intended to serve more as a police force; since the vast majority of Egyptians lived in the Nile river valley, surrounded on both the eastern and western sides by desert, Egypt was felt to be a relatively secure province. In December 639, al-'As entered the Sinai with a large force and took Pelusium, on the edge of the Nile river valley, and then defeated a Roman counter-attack at Bibays. Contrary to expectations, the Arabs did not head for Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, but instead for a major fortress known as Babylon located at what is now Cairo. Al-'As was planning to divide the Nile river valley in two. The Arab forces won a major victory at the Battle of Heliopolis (640), but they found it difficult to advance further because major cities in the Nile Delta were protected by water and because al-'As lacked the machinery to break down city fortifications. The Arabs laid siege to Babylon, and its starving garrison surrendered on 9 April 641. Nevertheless, the province was scarcely urbanized and the defenders lost hope of receiving reinforcements from Constantinople when the emperor Heraclius died in 641. Afterwards, the Arabs turned north into the Nile delta and laid siege to Alexandria. The last major center to fall into Arab hands was Alexandria, which capitulated in September 642. According to Hugh Kennedy, "Of all the early Muslim conquests, that of Egypt was the swiftest and most complete. [...] Seldom in history can so massive a political change have happened so swiftly and been so long lasting." In 644, the Arabs suffered a major defeat by the Caspian Sea when an invading Muslim army was almost wiped out by the cavalry of the Khazar Khanate, and, seeing a chance to take back Egypt, the Romans launched an amphibious attack which took back Alexandria for a short period of time. Though most of Egypt is desert, the Nile river valley has some of the most productive and fertile farmland in the entire world, which had made Egypt the "granary" of the Roman empire. Control of Egypt meant that the caliphate could weather droughts without the fear of famine, laying the basis for the future prosperity of the caliphate.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The Roman empire had traditionally dominated the Mediterranean and the Black Sea with major naval bases at Constantinople, Acre, Alexandria and Carthage. In 652, the Arabs won their first victory at sea off Alexandria, which was followed by the temporary Muslim conquest of Cyprus. As Yemen had been a center of maritime trade, Yemeni sailors were brought to Alexandria to start building an Islamic fleet for the Mediterranean. The Muslim fleet was based in Alexandria and used Acre, Tyre and Beirut as its forward bases. The core of the fleet's sailors were Yemeni, but the shipwrights who built the ships were Iranian and Iraqi. In the "Battle of the Masts" off Cape Chelidonia in Anatolia in 655, the Muslims defeated the Roman fleet in a series of boarding actions. As a result, the Romans began a major expansion of their navy, which was matched by the Arabs, leading to a naval arms race. From the early 8th century onward, the Muslim fleet would launch annual raids on the coastline on the Roman empire in Anatolia and Greece.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: As part of the arms race, both sides sought new technology to improve their warships. The Muslim warships had a larger forecastle, which was used to mount a stone-throwing engine. The Romans invented "Greek fire", an incendiary weapon that led the Muslims to cover their ships with water-soaked cotton. A major problem for the Muslim fleet was the shortage of timber, which led the Muslims to seek qualitative instead of quantitative superiority by building bigger warships. To save money, the Muslim shipwrights switched from the hull-first method of building ships to the frame-first method.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: After an Arab incursion into Sasanian territories, the energetic "shah" (king) Yazdgerd III, who had just ascended the Persian throne, raised an army to resist the conquerors. Many of the "marzbans" refused to come out to help the "shahinshah". However, the Persians suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. Little is known about the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah other than it lasted for several days by the banks of the river Euphrates in what is now Iraq and ended with the Persian force being annihilated. Abolishing the Lakhmid Arab buffer state had forced the Persians to take over the desert defense themselves, leaving them overextended.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: As a result of al-Qadisiyyah, the Arab-Muslims gained control over the whole of Iraq, including Ctesiphon, the capital city of the Sassanids. The Persians lacked sufficient forces to make use of the Zagros mountains to stop the Arabs, having lost the prime of their army at al-Qadisiyyah. The Persian forces withdrew over the Zagros mountains and the Arab army pursued them across the Iranian plateau, where the fate of the Sasanian empire was sealed at the Battle of Nahavand (642). The crushing Muslim victory at Nahavand is known in the Muslim world as the "Victory of Victories".


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: After Nahavand, the Persian state collapsed with Yezdegird fleeing further east and various "marzbans" bending their knees in submission to the Arabs. As the conquerors slowly covered the vast distances of Iran punctuated by hostile towns and fortresses, Yazdgerd III retreated, finally taking refuge in Khorasan, where he was assassinated by a local satrap in 651. In the aftermath of their victory over the imperial army, the Muslims still had to contend with a collection of militarily weak but geographically inaccessible principalities of Persia. It took decades to bring them all under control of the caliphate. In what is now Afghanistan—a region where the authority of the "shah" was always disputed—the Muslims met fierce guerrilla resistance from the militant Buddhist tribes of the region. Ironically, despite the complete Muslim triumph over Iran as compared to the only partial defeat of the Roman empire, the Muslims borrowed far more from the vanished Sassanian state than they ever did from the Romans. However, for the Persians the defeat remained bitter. Some 400 years later, the Persian poet Ferdowsi wrote in his popular poem "Shahnameh" ("Book of Kings"):


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Right from the start of the caliphate, it was realized that there was a need to write down the sayings and story of Muhammad, which had been memorized by his followers before they all died. Most people in Arabia were illiterate and the Arabs had a strong culture of remembering history orally. To preserve the story of Muhammad and to prevent any corruptions from entering the oral history, the Caliph 'Abu Bakr had ordered scribes to write down the story of Muhammad as told to them by his followers, which was the origin of the Quran. Disputes had emerged over which version of the Quran was the correct one and, by 644, different versions of the Quran were accepted in Damascus, Basra, Hims, and Kufa. To settle the dispute, the Caliph 'Uthman had proclaimed the version of the Quran possessed by one of Muhammad's widows, Hafsa, to be the definitive and correct version, which offended some Muslims who held to the rival versions. This, together with the favoritism shown by 'Uthman to his own clan, the Banu Umayya, in government appointments, led to a mutiny in Medina in 656 and 'Uthman's murder.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: 'Uthman's successor as Caliph, Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, was faced with a civil war, known to Muslims as the "fitna", when the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya Ibn Abi Sufyan, revolted against him. During this time, the first period of Muslim conquests stopped, as the armies of Islam turned against one another. A fundamentalist group known as the "Kharaji" decided to end the civil war by assassinating the leaders of both sides. However, the "fitna" ended in January 661 when the Caliph Ali was killed by a "Kharaji" assassin, allowing Mu'awiya to become Caliph and found the Umayyad dynasty. The "fitna" also marked the beginning of the split between Shia Muslims, who supported Ali, and Sunni Muslims, who opposed him. Mu'awiya moved the capital of the caliphate from Medina to Damascus, which had a major effect on the politics and culture of the caliphate. Mu'awiya followed the conquest of Iran by invading Central Asia and trying to finish off the Roman Empire by taking Constantinople. In 670, a Muslim fleet seized Rhodes and then laid siege to Constantinople. Nicolle wrote the siege of Constantinople from 670 to 677 was "more accurately" a blockade rather than a siege proper, which ended in failure as the "mighty" walls built by the Emperor Theodosius II in the 5th century AD proved their worth.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The majority of the people in Syria remained Christian, and a substantial Jewish minority remained, as well; both communities were to teach the Arabs much about science, trade and the arts. The Umayyad caliphs are well-remembered for sponsoring a cultural "golden age" in Islamic history—for example, by building the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and for making Damascus into the capital of a "superpower" that stretched from Portugal to Central Asia, covering the vast territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the borders of China.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The rapidity of the early conquests has received various explanations. Contemporary Christian writers conceived them as God's punishment visited on their fellow Christians for their sins. Early Muslim historians viewed them as a reflection of the religious zeal of the conquerors and evidence of divine favor. The theory that the conquests are explainable as an Arab migration triggered by economic pressures enjoyed popularity early in the 20th century, but has largely fallen out of favor among historians, especially those who distinguish the migration from the conquests that preceded and enabled it.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: There are indications that the conquests started as initially disorganized pillaging raids launched partly by non-Muslim Arab tribes in the aftermath of the Ridda wars, and were soon extended into a war of conquest by the Rashidun caliphs, although other scholars argue that the conquests were a planned military venture already underway during Muhammad's lifetime. Fred Donner writes that the advent of Islam "revolutionized both the ideological bases and the political structures of the Arabian society, giving rise for the first time to a state capable of an expansionist movement." According to Chase F. Robinson, it is likely that Muslim forces were often outnumbered, but, unlike their opponents, they were fast, well coordinated and highly motivated.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Another key reason was the weakness of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, caused by the wars they had waged against each other in the preceding decades with alternating success. It was aggravated by a plague that had struck densely populated areas and impeded conscription of new imperial troops, while the Arab armies could draw recruits from nomadic populations. The Sasanian empire, which had lost the latest round of hostilities with the Byzantines, was also affected by a crisis of confidence, and its elites suspected that the ruling dynasty had forfeited the favor of the gods. The Arab military advantage was increased when Christianized Arab tribes who had served imperial armies as regular or auxiliary troops switched sides and joined the West Arabian coalition. Arab commanders also made liberal use of agreements to spare lives and property of inhabitants in case of surrender and extended exemptions from paying tribute to groups who provided military services to the conquerors. Additionally, the Byzantine persecution of Christians opposed to the Chalcedonian creed in Syria and Egypt alienated elements of those communities and made them more open to accommodation with the Arabs once it became clear that the latter would let them practice their faith undisturbed as long as they paid tribute.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The conquests were further secured by the subsequent large-scale migration of Arabian peoples into the conquered lands. Robert Hoyland argues that the failure of the Sasanian empire to recover was due in large part to the geographically and politically disconnected nature of Persia, which made coordinated action difficult once the established Sasanian rule collapsed. Similarly, the difficult terrain of Anatolia made it difficult for the Byzantines to mount a large-scale attack to recover the lost lands, and their offensive action was largely limited to organizing guerrilla operations against the Arabs in the Levant.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Although there were sporadic incursions by Arab generals in the direction of India in the 660s and a small Arab garrison was established in the arid region of Makran in the 670s, the first large-scale Arab campaign in the Indus valley occurred when the general Muhammad bin Qasim invaded Sindh in 711 after a coastal march through Makran. Three years later the Arabs controlled all of the lower Indus valley. Most of the towns seem to have submitted to Arab rule under peace treaties, although there was fierce resistance in other areas, including by the forces of Raja Dahir at the capital city Debal. Arab incursions southward from Sindh were repulsed by the armies of Gurjara and Chalukya kingdoms, and further Islamic expansion was checked by the Rashtrakuta empire, which gained control of the region shortly after.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Arab forces began launching sporadic raiding expeditions into Cyrenaica (modern northeast Libya) and beyond soon after their conquest of Egypt. Byzantine rule in northwest Africa at the time was largely confined to the coastal plains, while autonomous Berber polities controlled the rest. In 670 Arabs founded the settlement of Qayrawan, which gave them a forward base for further expansion. Muslim historians credit the general Uqba ibn Nafi with subsequent conquest of lands extending to the Atlantic coast, although it appears to have been a temporary incursion. The Berber chief Kusayla and an enigmatic leader referred to as "Kahina" (prophetess or priestess) seem to have mounted effective, if short-lived resistance to Muslim rule at the end of the 7th century, but the sources do not give a clear picture of these events. Arab forces were able to capture Carthage in 698 and Tangiers by 708. After the fall of Tangiers, many Berbers joined the Muslim army. In 740 Umayyad rule in the region was shaken by a major Berber revolt, which also involved Berber Kharijite Muslims. After a series of defeats, the caliphate was finally able to crush the rebellion in 742, although local Berber dynasties continued to drift away from imperial control from that time on.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The Muslim conquest of Iberia is notable for the brevity and unreliability of the available sources. After the Visigothic king of Spain Wittiza died in 710, the kingdom experienced a period of political division. The Visigothic nobility was divided between the followers of Wittiza and the new king Roderic. Akhila, Wittiza's son, had fled to Morocco after losing the succession struggle and Muslim tradition states that he asked the Muslims to invade Spain. Starting in the summer of 710, the Muslim forces in Morocco had launched several successful raids into Spain, which demonstrated the weakness of the Visigothic state.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Taking advantage of the situation, the Muslim Berber commander, Tariq ibn Ziyad, who was stationed in Tangiers at the time, crossed the straits with an army of Arabs and Berbers in 711. Most of the invasion force of 15,000 were Berbers, with the Arabs serving as an "elite" force. Ziyad landed on the Rock of Gibraltar on 29 April 711. After defeating the forces of king Roderic at the river Guaddalete on 19 July 711, Muslim forces advanced, capturing cities of the Gothic kingdom one after another. The capital of Toledo surrendered peacefully. Some of the cities surrendered with agreements to pay tribute and local aristocracy retained a measure of former influence. The Spanish Jewish community welcomed the Muslims as liberators from the oppression of the Catholic Visigothic kings.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In 712, another larger force of 18,000 from Morocco, led by Musa Ibn Nusayr, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar to link up with Ziyad's force at Talavera. The invasion seemed to have entirely on the initiative of Tariq ibn Ziyad: the caliph, al-Walid, in Damascus reacted as if it was a surprise to him. By 713 Iberia was almost entirely under Muslim control. In 714, al-Walid summoned Ziyad to Damascus to explain his campaign in Spain, but Ziyad took his time travelling through North Africa and Palestine, and was finally imprisoned when he arrived in Damascus. The events of the subsequent ten years, the details of which are obscure, included the capture of Barcelona and Narbonne, and a raid against Toulouse, followed by an expedition into Burgundy in 725. The last large-scale raid to the north ended with a Muslim defeat at the Battle of Tours at the hands of the Franks in 732. The victory of the Franks, led by Charles Martel, over 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi has often been misrepresented as the decisive battle that stopped the Muslim conquest of France, but the Umayyad force had been raiding Aquitaine with a particular interest in sacking churches and monasteries, not seeking its conquest. The battle itself is a shadowy affair with the few sources describing it in poetic terms that are frustrating for the historian. The battle occurred between 18–25 October 732 with the climax being an attack on the Muslim camp led by Martel that ended with al-Ghafiqi being killed and the Muslims withdrawing when night fell. Martel's victory ended whatever plans there may have been to conquer France, but a series of Berber revolts in North Africa and in Spain against Arab rule may have played a greater role in ruling out conquests north of the Pyrenees.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Transoxiana is the region northeast of Iran beyond the Amu Darya or Oxus River roughly corresponding with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Kazakhstan. Initial incursions across the Oxus river were aimed at Bukhara (673) and Samarqand (675) and their results were limited to promises of tribute payments. In 674, a Muslim force led by Ubaidullah Ibn Zayyad attacked Bukhara, the capital of Soghdia, which ended with the Sogdians agreeing to recognize the Umayadd caliph Mu'awiaya as their overlord and to pay tribute. In general, the campaigns in Central Asia were "hard fought" with the Buddhist Turkic peoples fiercely resisting efforts to incorporate them into the caliphate. China, which saw Central Asia as its own sphere of influence, particularly due to the economic importance of the Silk Road, supported the Turkic defenders. Further advances were hindered for a quarter century by political upheavals within the Umayyad caliphate. This was followed by a decade of rapid military progress under the leadership of the new governor of Khurasan, Qutayba ibn Muslim, which included the conquest of Bukhara and Samarqand in 706–712. The expansion lost its momentum when Qutayba was killed during an army mutiny and the Arabs were placed on the defensive by an alliance of Sogdian and Türgesh forces with support from Tang China. However, reinforcements from Syria helped turn the tide and most of the lost lands were reconquered by 741. Muslim rule over Transoxania was consolidated a decade later when a Chinese-led army was defeated at the Battle of Talas (751).


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Medieveal Islamic scholars divided the area of modern-day Afghanistan into two regions – the provinces of Khorasan and Sistan. Khorasan was the eastern satrapy of the Sasanian Empire, containing Balkh and Herat. Sistan included a number of Afghan cities and regions, including Ghazna, Zarang, Bost, Qandahar (also called al-Rukhkhaj or Zamindawar), Kabul, Kabulistan and Zabulistan.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Before Muslim rule, the regions of Balkh (Bactria or "Tokharistan"), Herat and Sistan were under Sasanian rule. Further south in the Balkh region, in Bamiyan, indication of Sasanian authority diminishes, with a local dynasty apparently ruling from late antiquity, probably Hepthalites subject to the Yabgu of the Western Turkic Khaganate. While Herat was controlled by the Sasanians, its hinterlands were controlled by northern Hepthalites who continued to rule the Ghurid mountains and river valleys well into the Islamic era. Sistan was under Sasanian administration but Qandahar remained out of Arab hands. Kabul and Zabulistan housed Indic religions, with the Zunbils and Kabul Shahis (for the most part) offering stiff resistance to Muslim rule for two centuries until the Saffarid and Ghaznavid conquests. The Arab Umayyads regularly claimed nominal overlordship over the Zunbils and Kabul Shahis, and in 711 Qutayba ibn Muslim managed to force them to pay tribute.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In 646 a Byzantine naval expedition was able to briefly recapture Alexandria. The same year Mu'awiya, the governor of Syria and future founder of the Umayyad dynasty, ordered construction of a fleet. Three years later it was put to use in a pillaging raid of Cyprus, soon followed by a second raid in 650 that concluded with a treaty under which Cypriots surrendered many of their riches and slaves. In 688 the island was made into a joint dominion of the caliphate and the Byzantine empire under a pact which was to last for almost 300 years.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In 639–640 Arab forces began to make advances into Armenia, which had been partitioned into a Byzantine province and a Sasanian province. There is considerable disagreement among ancient and modern historians about events of the following years, and nominal control of the region may have passed several times between Arabs and Byzantines. Although Muslim dominion was finally established by the time the Umayyads acceded to power in 661, it was not able to implant itself solidly in the country, and Armenia experienced a national and literary efflorescence over the next century. As with Armenia, Arab advances into other lands of the Caucasus region, including Georgia, had as their end assurances of tribute payment and these principalities retained a large degree of autonomy. This period also saw a series of clashes with the Khazar kingdom whose center of power was in the lower Volga steppes, and which vied with the caliphate over control of the Caucasus.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Other Muslim military ventures were met with outright failure. Despite a naval victory over the Byzantines in 654 at the Battle of the Masts, the subsequent attempt to besiege Constantinople was frustrated by a storm which damaged the Arab fleet. Later sieges of Constantinople in 668–669 (674–78 according to other estimates) and 717–718 were thwarted with the help of the recently invented Greek fire. In the east, although Arabs were able to establish control over most Sasanian-controlled areas of modern Afghanistan after the fall of Persia, the Kabul region resisted repeated attempts at invasion and would continue to do so until it was conquered by the Saffarids three centuries later.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: By the time of the Abbasid revolution in the middle of the 8th century, Muslim armies had come against a combination of natural barriers and powerful states that impeded any further military progress. The wars produced diminishing returns in personal gains and fighters increasingly left the army for civilian occupations. The priorities of the rulers also shifted from conquest of new lands to administration of the acquired empire. Although the Abbasid era witnessed some new territorial gains, such as the conquests of Sicily and Crete, the period of rapid centralized expansion would now give way to an era when further spread of Islam would be slow and accomplished through the efforts of local dynasties, missionaries, and traders.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Nicolle wrote that the series of Islamic conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries was "one of the most significant events in world history", leading to the creation of "a new civilisation", the Islamicised and Arabised Middle East. Islam, which had previously been confined to Arabia, became a major world religion, while the synthesis of Arab, Roman, and Persian elements led to distinctive new styles of art and architecture emerging in the Middle East.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The military victories of armies from the Arabian Peninsula heralded the expansion of the Arabs' culture and religion. The conquests were followed by a large-scale migration of families and whole tribes from Arabia into the lands of the Middle East. The conquering Arabs had already possessed a complex and sophisticated society. Emigrants from Yemen brought with them agricultural, urban, and monarchical traditions; members of the Ghassanid and Lakhmid tribal confederations had experience collaborating with the empires. The rank and file of the armies was drawn from both nomadic and sedentary tribes, while the leadership came mainly from the merchant class of the Hejaz.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Two fundamental policies were implemented during the reign of the second caliph Umar (634–44): the bedouins would not be allowed to damage agricultural production of the conquered lands and the leadership would cooperate with the local elites. To that end, the Arab-Muslim armies were settled in segregated quarters or new garrison towns such as Basra, Kufa and Fustat. The latter two became the new administrative centers of Iraq and Egypt, respectively. Soldiers were paid a stipend and prohibited from seizing lands. Arab governors supervised collection and distribution of taxes, but otherwise left the old religious and social order intact. At first, many provinces retained a large degree of autonomy under the terms of agreements made with Arab commanders.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: As the time passed, the conquerors sought to increase their control over local affairs and make existing administrative machinery work for the new regime. This involved several types of reorganization. In the Mediterranean region, city-states which traditionally governed themselves and their surrounding areas were replaced by a territorial bureaucracy separating town and rural administration. In Egypt, fiscally independent estates and municipalities were abolished in favor of a simplified administrative system. In the early eighth century, Syrian Arabs began to replace Coptic functionaries and communal levies gave way to individual taxation. In Iran, the administrative reorganization and construction of protective walls prompted agglomeration of quarters and villages into large cities such as Isfahan, Qazvin, and Qum. Local notables of Iran, who at first had almost complete autonomy, were incorporated into the central bureaucracy by the ʿAbbasid period. The similarity of Egyptian and Khurasanian official paperwork at the time of the caliph al-Mansur (754–75) suggests a highly centralized empire-wide administration.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The society of new Arab settlements gradually became stratified into classes based on wealth and power. It was also reorganized into new communal units that preserved clan and tribal names but were in fact only loosely based around old kinship bonds. Arab settlers turned to civilian occupations and in eastern regions established themselves as a landed aristocracy. At the same time, distinctions between the conquerors and local populations began to blur. In Iran, the Arabs largely assimilated into local culture, adopting the Persian language and customs, and marrying Persian women. In Iraq, non-Arab settlers flocked to garrison towns. Soldiers and administrators of the old regime came to seek their fortunes with the new masters, while slaves, laborers and peasants fled there seeking to escape the harsh conditions of life in the countryside. Non-Arab converts to Islam were absorbed into the Arab-Muslim society through an adaptation of the tribal Arabian institution of clientage, in which protection of the powerful was exchanged for loyalty of the subordinates. The clients ("mawali") and their heirs were regarded as virtual members of the clan. The clans became increasingly economically and socially stratified. For example, while the noble clans of the Tamim tribe acquired Persian cavalry units as their mawali, other clans of the same tribe had slave laborers as theirs. Slaves often became mawali of their former masters when they were freed.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Contrary to the belief of earlier historians, there is no evidence of mass conversions to Islam in the immediate aftermath of the conquests. The first groups to convert were Christian Arab tribes, although some of them retained their religion into the Abbasid era even while serving as troops of the caliphate. They were followed by former elites of the Sasanian empire, whose conversion ratified their old privileges. With time, the weakening of non-Muslim elites facilitated the breakdown of old communal ties and reinforced the incentives of conversion which promised economic advantages and social mobility. By the beginning of the eighth century, conversions became a policy issue for the caliphate. They were favored by religious activists, and many Arabs accepted the equality of Arabs and non-Arabs. However, conversion was associated with economic and political advantages, and Muslim elites were reluctant to see their privileges diluted. Public policy towards converts varied depending on the region and was changed by successive Umayyad caliphs. These circumstances provoked opposition from non-Arab converts, whose ranks included many active soldiers, and helped set the stage for the civil war which ended with the fall of the Umayyad dynasty.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The Arab-Muslim conquests followed a general pattern of nomadic conquests of settled regions, whereby the conquering peoples became the new military elite and reached a compromise with the old elites by allowing them to retain local political, religious, and financial authority. Peasants, workers, and merchants paid taxes, while members of the old and new elites collected them. Payment of taxes, which for peasants often reached half of the value of their produce, was not only an economic burden, but also a mark of social inferiority. Scholars differ in their assessment of relative tax burdens before and after the conquests. John Esposito states that in effect this meant lower taxes. According to Bernard Lewis, available evidence suggests that the change from Byzantine to Arab rule was "welcomed by many among the subject peoples, who found the new yoke far lighter than the old, both in taxation and in other matters". In contrast, Norman Stillman writes that although the tax burden of the Jews under early Islamic rule was comparable to that under previous rulers, Christians of the Byzantine Empire (though not Christians of the Persian empire, whose status was similar to that of the Jews) and Zoroastrians of Iran shouldered a considerably heavier burden in the immediate aftermath of the conquests.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In the wake of the early conquests taxes could be levied on individuals, on the land, or as collective tribute. During the first century of Islamic expansion, the words "jizya" and "kharaj" were used in all three senses, with context distinguishing between individual and land taxes. Regional variations in taxation at first reflected the diversity of previous systems. The Sasanian Empire had a general tax on land and a poll tax having several rates based on wealth, with an exemption for aristocracy. This poll tax was adapted by Arab rulers, so that the aristocracy exemption was assumed by the new Arab-Muslim elite and shared by local aristocracy who converted to Islam. The nature of Byzantine taxation remains partly unclear, but it appears to have been levied as a collective tribute on population centers and this practice was generally followed under the Arab rule in former Byzantine provinces. Collection of taxes was delegated to autonomous local communities on the condition that the burden be divided among its members in the most equitable manner. In most of Iran and Central Asia local rulers paid a fixed tribute and maintained their autonomy in tax collection.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Difficulties in tax collection soon appeared. Egyptian Copts, who had been skilled in tax evasion since Roman times, were able to avoid paying the taxes by entering monasteries, which were initially exempt from taxation, or simply by leaving the district where they were registered. This prompted imposition of taxes on monks and introduction of movement controls. In Iraq, many peasants who had fallen behind with their tax payments converted to Islam and abandoned their land for Arab garrison towns in hope of escaping taxation. Faced with a decline in agriculture and a treasury shortfall, the governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj, forced peasant converts to return to their lands and subjected them to the taxes again, effectively forbidding them from converting to Islam. In Khorasan, a similar phenomenon forced the native aristocracy to compensate for the shortfall in tax collection out of their own pockets, and they responded by persecuting peasant converts and imposing heavier taxes on poor Muslims.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The situation where conversion to Islam was penalized in an Islamic state could not last, and the devout Umayyad caliph Umar II (717–720) has been credited with changing the taxation system. Modern historians doubt this account, although details of the transition to the system of taxation elaborated by Abbasid-era jurists are still unclear. Umar II ordered governors to cease collection of taxes from Muslim converts, but his successors obstructed this policy and some governors sought to stem the tide of conversions by introducing additional requirements such as circumcision and the ability to recite passages from the Quran. Taxation-related grievances of non-Arab Muslims contributed to the opposition movements which resulted in the Abbasid revolution. Under the new system that was eventually established, kharaj came to be regarded as a tax levied on the land, regardless of the taxpayer's religion. The poll-tax was no longer levied on Muslims, but the treasury did not necessarily suffer and converts did not gain as a result, since they had to pay zakat, which was probably instituted as a compulsory tax on Muslims around 730. The terminology became specialized during the Abbasid era, so that "kharaj" no longer meant anything more than land tax, while the term "jizya" was restricted to the poll-tax on dhimmis.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The influence of jizya on conversion has been a subject of scholarly debate. Julius Wellhausen held that the poll tax amounted to so little that exemption from it did not constitute sufficient economic motive for conversion. Similarly, Thomas Arnold states that jizya was "too moderate" to constitute a burden, "seeing that it released them from the compulsory military service that was incumbent on their Muslim fellow subjects." He further adds that converts escaping taxation would have to pay the legal alms, zakat, that is annually levied on most kinds of movable and immovable property. Other early 20th century scholars suggested that non-Muslims converted to Islam "en masse" in order to escape the poll tax, but this theory has been challenged by more recent research. Daniel Dennett has shown that other factors, such as desire to retain social status, had greater influence on this choice in the early Islamic period.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The Arab conquerors did not repeat the mistakes which had been made by the governments of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, which had tried and failed to impose an official religion on subject populations, which had caused resentments that made the Muslim conquests more acceptable to them. Instead, the rulers of the new empire generally respected the traditional middle-Eastern pattern of religious pluralism, which was not one of equality but rather of dominance by one group over the others. After the end of military operations, which involved sacking of some monasteries and confiscation of Zoroastrian fire temples in Syria and Iraq, the early caliphate was characterized by religious tolerance and peoples of all ethnicities and religions blended in public life. Before Muslims were ready to build mosques in Syria, they accepted Christian churches as holy places and shared them with local Christians. In Iraq and Egypt, Muslim authorities cooperated with Christian religious leaders. Numerous churches were repaired and new ones built during the Umayyad era.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: The first Umayyad caliph Muawiyah made deliberate efforts to convince those whom he had conquered that he was not opposed to their religion, and tried to enlist support from Christian Arab elites. There is no evidence for public display of Islam by the state before the reign of Abd al-Malik (685–705), when Quranic verses and references to Muhammad suddenly became prominent on coins and official documents. This change was motivated by a desire to unify the Muslim community after the second civil war and rally them against their chief common enemy, the Byzantine empire.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: A further change of policy occurred during the reign of Umar II (717–720). The disastrous failure of the siege of Constantinople in 718 which was accompanied by massive Arab casualties led to a spike of popular animosity among Muslims toward Byzantium and Christians in general. At the same time, many Arab soldiers left the army for civilian occupations and they wished to emphasize their high social status among the conquered peoples. These events prompted introduction of restrictions on non-Muslims, which, according to Hoyland, were modeled both on Byzantine curbs on Jews, starting with the Theodosian Code and later codes, which contained prohibitions against building new synagogues and giving testimony against Christians, and on Sassanid regulations that prescribed distinctive attire for different social classes.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In the following decades Islamic jurists elaborated a legal framework in which other religions would have a protected but subordinate status. Islamic law followed the Byzantine precedent of classifying subjects of the state according to their religion, in contrast to the Sasanian model which put more weight on social than on religious distinctions. In theory, like the Byzantine empire, the caliphate placed severe restrictions on paganism, but in practice most non-Abrahamic communities of the former Sasanian territories were classified as possessors of a scripture ("ahl al-kitab") and granted protected ("dhimmi") status.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: In Islam, Christians and Jews are seen as "Peoples of the Book" as the Muslims accept both Jesus Christ and the Jewish prophets as their own prophets, which accorded them a respect that was not reserved to the "heathen" peoples of Iran, Central Asia and India. In places like the Levant and Egypt, both Christians and Jews were allowed to maintain their churches and synagogues and keep their own religious organizations in exchange for paying the "jizya" tax. At times, the caliphs engaged in triumphalist gestures, like building the famous Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem from 690–692 on the site of the Jewish Second Temple, which had been destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD—though the use of Roman and Sassanian symbols of power in the mosque suggests its purpose was partly to celebrate the Arab victories over the two empires.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Those Christians out of favor with the prevailing orthodoxy in the Roman empire often preferred to live under Muslim rule as it meant the end of persecution. As both the Jewish and Christian communities of the Levant and North Africa were better educated than their conquerors, they were often employed as civil servants in the early years of the caliphate. However, a reported saying of Muhammad that "Two religions may not dwell together in Arabia" led to different policies being pursued in Arabia with conversion to Islam being imposed rather than merely encouraged. With the notable exception of Yemen, where a large Jewish community existed right up until the middle of the 20th century, all of the Christian and Jewish communities in Arabia "completely disappeared". The Jewish community of Yemen seems to have survived as Yemen was not regarded as part of Arabia proper in the same way that the Hejaz and the Nejd were.


title: Early Muslim conquests

text: Mark R. Cohen writes that the jizya paid by Jews under Islamic rule provided a "surer guarantee of protection from non-Jewish hostility" than that possessed by Jews in the Latin West, where Jews "paid numerous and often unreasonably high and arbitrary taxes" in return for official protection, and where treatment of Jews was governed by charters which new rulers could alter at will upon accession or refuse to renew altogether. The Pact of Umar, which stipulated that Muslims must "do battle to guard" the dhimmis and "put no burden on them greater than they can bear", was not always upheld, but it remained "a steadfast cornerstone of Islamic policy" into early modern times.


title: Violent Night

text: Violent Night is a 2022 American Christmas action-comedy film starring David Harbour as Santa Claus, who fights mercenaries who have taken a wealthy family hostage in their home. It is directed by Tommy Wirkola, written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, and also starring John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson, Cam Gigandet, Leah Brady, and Beverly D'Angelo.


title: Violent Night

text: "Violent Night" had its world premiere at the New York Comic Con on October 7, 2022. Universal Pictures released the film in theaters in the United States and Canada on December 2, 2022. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $55 million worldwide.


title: Violent Night

text: On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus drinks at a Bristol pub and laments that children have become increasingly materialistic in a world unaware he actually exists. Flying off with his reindeer and sleigh, he accidentally vomits on the barwoman.


title: Violent Night

text: In Greenwich, Connecticut, Jason Lightstone, his estranged wife Linda, and their daughter Trudy visit his mother Gertrude's mansion to celebrate Christmas with his alcoholic sister Alva, her new boyfriend and wannabe-action star Morgan Steel, and Alva's online streamer son Bertrude. Finding an old walkie-talkie for Trudy to "talk to Santa", Jason and Linda overhear her only wish: to become a family again.


title: Violent Night

text: Drunkenly delivering gifts, Santa arrives at the Lightstone estate where the caterers reveal themselves to be mercenaries with Christmas-themed codenames. Led by "Mr. Scrooge", they slaughter the staff and take the family hostage. Santa is discovered by one of the henchmen, whose gunfire scares away the reindeer, and they fight until Santa knocks him out of a window to his death. Stranded, Santa decides to save Trudy and her family from Scrooge, who demands the $300 million in cash from the mansion's vault. Santa kills another henchman and takes his radio, coming across Trudy's channel, and finds the mercenaries on his magical naughty list.


title: Violent Night

text: When Trudy's walkie-talkie is discovered, Jason tells their captors that she is simply playing make-believe and declares that Santa is not real, causing her to run and hide in the attic. Santa reassures Trudy over the radio, revealing that he was once Nikamund the Red, a bloodthirsty Viking warrior and finds comfort in his 1,100 years of marriage to Mrs. Claus. Mr. Scrooge's lead henchman Krampus forces the family to present their gifts to Gertude, who is surprised by a card from Jason. Wounded, Santa is captured by Scrooge who bears a childhood grudge against Christmas. Santa's knowledge of their real identities convinces henchmen Gingerbread and Candy Cane that he is real, and he uses his magic to escape through the chimney.


title: Violent Night

text: Gertrude's private "kill squad" led by Commander Thorp arrives, but are in league with Scrooge and kill Morgan when he tries to escape. Finding the vault empty, Scrooge threatens Linda and Jason confesses that he stole the money and was planning to flee with his wife and daughter which he explained in his card to his mother. He reveals the money hidden in a nativity scene outside and Gertrude forgives his treachery as a Lightstone rite of passage. Retreating to a shed, Santa finds a sledgehammer and brutally slaughters the kill squad. Trudy creates traps inspired by "Home Alone", resulting in Gingerbread's death and Candy Cane prepares to shoot her but is killed by Santa. Scrooge gives the order to kill the hostages, but Alva, Linda, and Bert manage to kill Krampus instead.


title: Violent Night

text: Scrooge and Thorp flee into the woods with the money and a captive Gertrude, pursued by Santa. Linda kills the last mercenary and Trudy sees her parents reunite with a kiss. Lured by Scrooge, Santa crashes into a cabin and Scrooge finds himself on the naughty list and acknowledges Santa is real, but is determined to kill him and end Christmas. They fight, and Scrooge gains the upper hand, but is instantly killed when Santa uses his magic to drag him up the cabin's chimney, crushing and eviscerating him. Santa is fatally shot by Thorp, who is killed by Gertrude, and Jason burns some of the money to keep him warm, but Santa succumbs to his wounds.


title: Violent Night

text: Trudy inspires her family to all declare their belief in Santa, and he is revived, admitting that he still does not really understand how Christmas magic works. His reindeer return, and Santa bids goodbye to Trudy before flying off to finish delivering gifts, his faith in Christmas renewed.


title: Violent Night

text: In March 2020, Universal Pictures announced that it acquired the original screenplay to "Violent Night" by Pat Casey and Josh Miller and that 87North Productions would produce. In November 2021, David Harbour was cast in the lead role, with Tommy Wirkola set to direct. Wirkola was hired to direct after he sent an early cut of his prior film "The Trip" to producers at 87North, and after enjoying it, they sent him the "Violent Night" script. In early 2022, John Leguizamo, Beverly D'Angelo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson, Cam Gigandet, and André Eriksen were confirmed to star. The shooting of the film took place from January–March 2022, and had commenced by February 2022 in Winnipeg.


title: Violent Night

text: "Violent Night" had its world premiere at the New York Comic Con on October 7, 2022. Universal Pictures released the film in the United States and Canada on December 2, 2022, and it was projected to gross around $10 million from 3,200 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $4.9 million on its first day, including $1.1 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $13.5 million, finishing in second behind holdover "". Opening weekend audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 76%. The film fell 37% in its sophomore weekend to $8.7 million, remaining in second.


title: Violent Night

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes said critics did not find the film "as wildly entertaining as its concept might suggest" but that it may be enjoyable "for those seeking harder-edged holiday fare". The website assessed that 73% of 190 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10. Metacritic sampled 37 reviews and assessed 20 as positive, 11 as mixed, and 6 as negative. It gave the film a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Violent Night

text: "MovieWeb" wrote, "The first reviews... heap praise on David Harbour’s savage Santa Claus." "Syfy" wrote that "critics hail what might be a new holiday classic that more than earns its R-rating by turning every conceivable Christmas item into a deadly weapon" and that Harbour "steals the show". "Total Film" wrote that reviews were mixed, "Some critics are calling Tommy Wirkola’s movie a fun riff on the festive genre, while others are critical of its plot and length." "GoldDerby" said the film received "mixed-positive reviews", and "Box Office Mojo" said, "Critics mostly like it."


title: Violent Night

text: Violent Night made $4.86 million on its first day. It went on to debut to a $13.45 million weekend. It grossed $1.02 million on fourth day. It finished the first week at around $17.99 million at US Domestic Box office. After the second week it grossed $29.34 million. After the end of third weekend it's total collection reaches around $34.96 million.


title: Violent Night

text: In November 2022, Harbour mentioned that there were discussions of Mrs. Claus appearing in a potential sequel during production of the first film. The actor expressed interest in seeing Charlize Theron in the role. In December of the same year, Wirkola confirmed that there have been ongoing discussions between him and the writers; with potential for Mrs. Claus, the North Pole, and the elves factoring into the story. The filmmaker stated that the realization of a follow-up movie depends on the success of the first film. Later that month, producer Kelly McCormick confirmed that all creatives involved intend to make a sequel with work on the project commencing in "the next few weeks".


title: Annulment

text: Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place (though some jurisdictions provide that the marriage is only void from the date of the annulment; for example, this is the case in section 12 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 in England and Wales). In legal terminology, an annulment makes a void marriage or a voidable marriage null.


title: Annulment

text: A void marriage is a marriage that was not legally valid under the laws of the jurisdiction where the marriage occurred, and is void "ab initio". Although the marriage is void as a matter of law, in some jurisdictions an annulment is required to establish that the marriage is void or may be sought in order to obtain formal documentation that the marriage was voided. Under the laws of most nations, children born during a void marriage are considered legitimate. Depending upon the jurisdiction, reasons for why a marriage may be legally void may include consanguinity (incestual marriage), bigamy, group marriage, or child marriage.


title: Annulment

text: A voidable marriage is a marriage that can be canceled at the option of one of the parties. The marriage is valid, but may be annulled if contested in court by one of the parties to the marriage. The petition to void the marriage must be brought by one of the parties to the marriage, and a voidable marriage thus cannot be annulled after the death of one of the parties. A marriage may be voidable for a variety of reasons, depending on jurisdiction. Common reasons for allowing a party to void a marriage include entry into the marriage as a result of threat or coercion. Some jurisdictions have a distinction between legal age of majority and legal age of marriage; in this case, it is usually the custom that the marriage can proceed with parental or guardian consent, and the marital parties being able to ratify or void the marriage upon reaching the age of majority. These are also considered voidable marriages.


title: Annulment

text: The principal difference between a void and voidable marriage is that, as a void marriage is invalid from the beginning, no legal action is required to set the marriage aside. A marriage may be challenged as void by a third party, for example in probate proceedings during which a party to the void marriage is claiming inheritance rights as a spouse. In contrast, a voidable marriage may be ended only through the judgment of a court, and may be voided only upon the petition of one of the parties to the marriage or, if a party is under a legal disability, by a third party representative such as a parent or legal guardian.


title: Annulment

text: The legal distinction between void and voidable marriages can be significant in relation to forced marriage. In a jurisdiction that classifies forced marriages as void, then the state can cancel the marriage even against the will of the spouses. In contrast, if the law provides that a forced marriage is voidable then, even if it can be proved that the marriage was forced, the state cannot act to end the marriage in the absence of an application by a spouse.


title: Annulment

text: In the canon law of the Catholic Church, an annulment is properly called a "Declaration of Nullity", because according to Catholic doctrine, the marriage of baptized persons is a sacrament and, once consummated and thereby confirmed, cannot be dissolved as long as the parties to it are alive. A "Declaration of Nullity" is not dissolution of a marriage, but merely the legal finding that a valid marriage was never contracted. This is analogous to a finding that a contract of sale is invalid, and hence, that the property for sale must be considered to have never been legally transferred into another's ownership. A divorce, on the other hand, is viewed as returning the property after a consummated sale.


title: Annulment

text: The Pope may dispense from a marriage "ratum sed non consummatum" since, having been ratified ("ratum") but not consummated ("sed non-consummatum"), it is not absolutely unbreakable. A valid natural marriage is not regarded as a sacrament if at least one of the parties is not baptized. In certain circumstances it can be dissolved in cases of Pauline privilege and Petrine privilege, but only for the sake of the higher good of the spiritual welfare of one of the parties.


title: Annulment

text: Although an annulment is thus a declaration that "the marriage never existed", the Church recognizes that the relationship was a putative marriage, which gives rise to "natural obligations". In canon law, children conceived or born of either a valid or a putative marriage are considered legitimate, and illegitimate children are legitimized by a putative marriage of their parents, as by a valid marriage.


title: Annulment

text: Certain conditions are necessary for the marriage contract to be valid in canon law. Lack of any of these conditions makes a marriage invalid and constitutes legal grounds for a declaration of nullity. Accordingly, apart from the question of diriment impediments dealt with below, there is a fourfold classification of contractual defects: defect of form, defect of contract, defect of willingness, defect of capacity. For annulment, proof is required of the existence of one of these defects, since canon law presumes all marriages are valid until proven otherwise.


title: Annulment

text: Canon law stipulates canonical impediments to marriage. A diriment impediment prevents a marriage from being validly contracted at all and renders the union a putative marriage, while a "prohibitory" impediment renders a marriage valid but not licit. The union resulting is called a putative marriage. An invalid marriage may be subsequently convalidated, either by simple convalidation (renewal of consent that replaces invalid consent) or by "sanatio in radice" ("healing in the root", the retroactive dispensation from a diriment impediment). Some impediments may be dispensed from, while those "de jure divino" (of divine law) may not be dispensed.


title: Annulment

text: In some countries, such as Italy, in which Catholic Church marriages are automatically transcribed to the civil records, a Church declaration of nullity may be granted the exequatur and treated as the equivalent of a civil divorce.


title: Annulment

text: The Church of England, the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, historically had the right to grant annulments, while divorces were "only available through an Act of Parliament." Examples in which annulments were granted by the Anglican Church included being under age, having committed fraud, using force, and lunacy.


title: Annulment

text: "Faskh" means "to annul" in Islam. It is a Sharia-granted procedure to judicially rescind a marriage.


title: Annulment

text: A man does not need grounds to divorce his wife in Islam. To divorce, he can simply invoke "Talaq" and part with the dower he gave her before marriage; alternatively, he can invoke the "Lian" doctrine in case of adultery, either by bringing four witnesses who saw the wife committing adultery or by self-testifying and swearing by Allah four times. Sharia law then requires the court to grant the divorce requested by the man. "Talaq" is controversial, though it is a widely held belief, the Qu'ran insists counseling between two parties is necessary first before considering divorce when there is dissention/contention between spouses (Qu'ran 4:35). It is also important to note that the marriage contract clauses agreed upon must be honored when divorce is invoked.


title: Annulment

text: Also, Sharia does grant a Muslim woman simple ways to end her marital relationship and without declaring the reason. "Faskh" or (kholo) (annulment) doctrine specifies certain situations when a Sharia court can grant her request and annul the marriage.


title: Annulment

text: Grounds for Faskh are: (a) irregular marriage ("fasid"), (b) forbidden marriage ("batil"), (c) the marriage was contracted by non-Muslim husband who adopted Islam "after" marriage, (d) the husband or wife became an apostate after marriage, (e) husband is unable to consummate the marriage. In each of these cases, the wife must provide four independent witnesses acceptable to the "Qadi" (religious judge), who has the discretion to declare the evidence unacceptable.


title: Annulment

text: In Sunni Maliki school of jurisprudence (fiqh), cruelty, disease, life-threatening ailment and desertion are additional Sharia approved grounds for the wife or the husband to seek annulment of the marriage. In these cases too, the wife must provide two male witnesses or one male and two female witnesses or in some cases four witnesses, acceptable to the "Qadi" (religious judge), who has the discretion to declare the evidence unacceptable.


title: Annulment

text: In certain circumstances, an unrelated Muslim can petition a "Qadi" to void (faskh) the marriage of a Muslim couple who may not want the marriage to end. For example, in case the third party detects apostasy from Islam by either husband or wife (through blasphemy, failure to respect Sharia, or conversion of husband or wife or both from Islam to Christianity, etc.). In cases of apostasy, in addition to annulment of the marriage, the apostate may face additional penalties such as death sentence, imprisonment and civil penalties unless they repent and return to Islam.


title: Annulment

text: In the United States, the laws governing annulment are different in each state. Although the grounds for seeking an annulment differ, as can factors that may disqualify a person for an annulment, common grounds for annulment include the following:


title: Annulment

text: For some grounds of annulment, such as concealment of infertility, if after discovering the potential basis for an annulment a couple continues to live together as a married couple, that reason may be deemed forgiven. For underage marriages, annulment must typically be sought while the underage spouse remains a minor, or shortly after that spouse reaches the age of majority, or the issue is deemed waived.


title: Annulment

text: In Arizona, a "voidable" marriage is one in which there is "an undissolved prior marriage, one party being underage, a blood relationship, the absence of mental or physical capacity, intoxication, the absence of a valid license, duress, refusal of intercourse, fraud, and misrepresentation as to religion."


title: Annulment

text: In Illinois, an annulment is a judicial determination that a valid marriage never existed. One of the parties must file with the court a petition for invalidity of marriage. There are four grounds for annulment in Illinois:


title: Annulment

text: In Nevada, annulment is available when: a marriage that was void at the time performed (such as blood relatives, bigamy), lacked consent (such as, underage, intoxication, insanity), or is based on some kind of dishonesty.


title: Annulment

text: A couple who was married in Nevada will qualify to file for annulment in that state, no matter where they live at the time of filing. Those who were married outside Nevada must establish residency by living there for a minimum of six weeks before filing.


title: Annulment

text: The cause of action for annulment of a voidable marriage in New York State is generally fraud (DRL §140 (e)). There are other arguments. Fraud generally means the intentional deception of the Plaintiff by the Defendant in order to induce the Plaintiff to marry. The misrepresentation must be substantial in nature, and the Plaintiff's consent to the marriage predicated on the Defendant's statement. The perpetration of the fraud (prior to the marriage), and the discovery of the fraud (subsequent to the marriage) must be proven by corroboration of a witness or other external proof, even if the Defendant admits guilt (DRL §144). The time limit is three years (not one year). This does not run from the date of the marriage, but the date the fraud was discovered, or could reasonably have been discovered.


title: Annulment

text: Annulments may also be granted to a spouse under the age of 18, where marriage occurred without lawful parental consent or court approval, where a party lacked the mental capacity to consent to marriage, where one of the parties lacked the physical capacity to consummate the marriage and the other was not aware of that disability at the time of marriage, or for incurable mental illness for a period of five years or more.


title: Annulment

text: A bigamous marriage (one where one party was still married at the time of the second marriage) as well as an incestuous marriage is "void ab initio" (not legal from its inception). However, there is still the need for an "Action to Declare the Nullity of a Void Marriage" (DRL §140 (a)), upon which the Court, after proper pleadings, renders a judgment that the marriage is void. There may be effects of marriage such as a property settlement and even maintenance if the court finds it equitable to order such relief.


title: Annulment

text: In Wisconsin, the possible requirements for annulment include: bigamy, incest, or inducing the bride to be married under duress (see Shotgun marriage). Marriages may also be nullified due to one or more of the parties being: underage, intoxicated, or being mentally unsound.


title: Annulment

text: Marriages may also be nullified due to fraud from one or more of three categories: defendant, marriage witness(es), or marriage officiant. Any misrepresentation by those three parties, including but not limited to lying about: status as officiant, ability to perform the ceremony, age of the participants or witnesses, felony status or current marriage status of either member of the married couple can be grounds for an annulment on the basis of fraud. Fraud in this cases is prosecuted under Wisconsin Law 943.39 as a Class H felony.


title: Annulment

text: Section 13 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 provides for certain restrictions in regard to the possibility of annulling voidable marriages, including where the petitioner knew of the "defect" and of the possibility of annulment, but induced the respondent to believe that the petitioner would not seek an annulment; or where it would be "unjust" to the respondent to grant the decree of nullity. There is usually a time limit of three years from the date of the marriage in order to institute the proceedings.


title: Annulment

text: Since 1975, Australian law provides only for void marriages. Before 1975, there were both void and voidable marriages. Today, under the "Family Law Act 1975" (Cth.) a decree of nullity can only be made if a marriage is void.


title: Annulment

text: In France, a country of Roman Catholic tradition, annulment features prominently in law, and can be obtained for many reasons. The law provides for both void and voidable marriages. (see articles 180 to 202, and articles 144, 145, 146, 146–1, 147, 148, 161, 162, 163, and 164 of the French Civil Code)


title: Annulment

text: Henry VIII of England had three of his six marriages annulled. These marriages were to Catherine of Aragon (on the grounds that she had already been married to his brother—although this annulment is not recognized by the Catholic Church); Anne Boleyn (on the grounds that she had allegedly seduced him with witchcraft and was unfaithful—not wishing to execute his legal wife, he offered her an easy death if she would agree to an annulment); and Anne of Cleves (on the grounds of non-consummation of the marriage and the fact that she had previously been engaged to someone else). Catherine Howard never had her marriage annulled. She had committed adultery with Thomas Culpeper during the marriage, and she had flirted with members of his court. Because of this, on November 22, 1541, it was proclaimed at Hampton Court that she had "forfeited the honour and title of Queen," and was from then on to be known only as the Lady Catherine Howard. Under this title she was executed for high treason three months later.


title: Annulment

text: The grounds of annulment in regard to a voidable marriage, and indeed the concept of a voidable marriage itself, have become controversial in recent years. According to a paper in "Singapore Academy of Law Journal":


title: Tiger (zodiac)

text: The Tiger (虎) is the third of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Tiger is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 寅.


title: Tiger (zodiac)

text: People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Tiger", while bearing the following elemental sign:


title: Tiger (zodiac)

text: The Year of the Tiger does not exactly correspond with years of the commonly used Gregorian calendar. For the 2022–2023 Gregorian time period, the Year of the Tiger begins on 1 February 2022 and ends on 21 January 2023. This is a year of the Water Tiger. Classical nomenclature uses the stem-branch reckoning for this year, "rén-yín" (壬寅) of the sexagenary cycle.


title: Crataegus

text: Crataegus (), commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, Mayflower, or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. The name "hawthorn" was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe, especially the common hawthorn "C. monogyna", and the unmodified name is often so used in Britain and Ireland. The name is now also applied to the entire genus and to the related Asian genus "Rhaphiolepis".


title: Crataegus

text: The generic epithet, "Crataegus", is derived from the Greek "strength" because of the great strength of the wood and "sharp", referring to the thorns of some species. The name haw, originally an Old English term for hedge (from the Anglo-Saxon term , "a fence with thorns"), also applies to the fruit.


title: Crataegus

text: "Crataegus" species are shrubs or small trees, mostly growing to tall, with small pome fruit and (usually) thorny branches. The most common type of bark is smooth grey in young individuals, developing shallow longitudinal fissures with narrow ridges in older trees. The thorns are small sharp-tipped branches that arise either from other branches or from the trunk, and are typically long (recorded as up to in one case). The leaves grow spirally arranged on long shoots, and in clusters on spur shoots on the branches or twigs. The leaves of most species have lobed or serrated margins and are somewhat variable in shape. The fruit, sometimes known as a "haw", is berry-like but structurally a pome containing from one to five pyrenes that resemble the "stones" of plums, peaches, etc., which are drupaceous fruit in the same subfamily.


title: Crataegus

text: The number of species in the genus depends on taxonomic interpretation. Some botanists in the past recognised 1000 or more species, many of which are apomictic microspecies. A reasonable number is estimated to be 200 species. The genus likely first appeared in the Eocene, with the ancestral area likely being Eastern North America and in Europe, which at that time remained closely linked due to the North Atlantic Land Bridge. The earliest known leaves of the genus from the Eocene of North America, with the earliest leaves from Europe being from the Oligocene.


title: Crataegus

text: The genus is classified into sections which are further divided into series. Series "Montaninsulae" has not yet been assigned to a section. The sections are:


title: Crataegus

text: Hawthorns provide food and shelter for many species of birds and mammals, and the flowers are important for many nectar-feeding insects. Hawthorns are also used as food plants by the larvae of a large number of Lepidoptera species, such as the small eggar moth, "E. lanestris". Haws are important for wildlife in winter, particularly thrushes and waxwings; these birds eat the haws and disperse the seeds in their droppings.


title: Crataegus

text: The "haws" or fruits of the common hawthorn, "C. monogyna", are edible. In the United Kingdom, they are sometimes used to make a jelly or homemade wine. The leaves are edible, and if picked in spring when still young, are tender enough to be used in salads. The young leaves and flower buds, which are also edible, are known as "bread and cheese" in rural England. In the southern United States, fruits of three native species are collectively known as mayhaws and are made into jellies which are considered a delicacy. The Kutenai people of northwestern North America used red and black hawthorn fruit for food.


title: Crataegus

text: On Manitoulin Island, Ontario, some red-fruited species are called hawberries. During colonization, European settlers ate these fruits during the winter as the only remaining food supply. People born on the island are now called "haweaters".


title: Crataegus

text: The fruits of "Crataegus mexicana" are known in Mexico as "tejocotes" and are eaten raw, cooked, or in jam during the winter. They are stuffed in the "piñatas" broken during the traditional pre-Christmas celebration known as "Las Posadas". They are also cooked with other fruits to prepare a Christmas punch. The mixture of "tejocote" paste, sugar, and chili powder produces a popular Mexican candy called "rielitos", which is manufactured by several brands.


title: Crataegus

text: The 4 cm fruits of the species "Crataegus pinnatifida" (Chinese hawthorn) are tart, bright red, and resemble small crabapple fruits. They are used to make many kinds of Chinese snacks, including haw flakes and being coated in sugar syrup and put on a stick "tanghulu". The fruits, which are called 山楂 "shān zhā" in Chinese, are also used to produce jams, jellies, juices, alcoholic beverages, and other drinks; these could in turn be used in other dishes (for instance, many older recipes for Cantonese sweet and sour sauce call for "shānzhā" jam). In South Korea, a liquor called "sansachun" (산사춘) is made from the fruits.


title: Crataegus

text: In Iran, the fruits of "Crataegus" (including "Crataegus azarolus" var. "aronia", as well as other species) are known as "zâlzâlak" and eaten raw as a snack, or made into a jam known by the same name.


title: Crataegus

text: A 2008 Cochrane Collaboration meta-analysis of previous studies concluded that evidence exists of "a significant benefit in symptom control and physiologic outcomes" for an extract of hawthorn used as an adjuvant in treating chronic heart failure. A 2010 review concluded that "Crataegus [hawthorn] preparations hold significant potential as a useful remedy in the treatment of cardiovascular disease". The review indicated the need for further study of the best dosages and concluded that although "many different theoretical interactions between "Crataegus" and orthodox medications have been postulated ... none have [yet] been substantiated.


title: Crataegus

text: Phytochemicals found in hawthorn include tannins, flavonoids, oligomeric proanthocyanidins, and phenolic acids.


title: Crataegus

text: Several species of hawthorn have been used in traditional medicine. The products used are often derived from "C. monogyna", "C. laevigata", or related "Crataegus" species, "collectively known as hawthorn", not necessarily distinguishing between these species. The dried fruits of "Crataegus pinnatifida" (called "shān zhā" in Chinese) are used in traditional Chinese medicine, primarily as a digestive aid. A closely related species, "Crataegus cuneata" (Japanese hawthorn, called "sanzashi" in Japanese) is used in a similar manner. Other species (especially "Crataegus laevigata") are used in herbal medicine where the plant is believed to strengthen cardiovascular function.


title: Crataegus

text: The Kutenai people of northwestern North America used black hawthorn fruit (Kutenai language: kaǂa; approximate pronunciation: "kasha") for food, and red hawthorn fruit (Kutenai language: ǂupǂi; approximate pronunciation: "shupshi") in traditional medicine.


title: Crataegus

text: Overdose can cause cardiac arrhythmia and low blood pressure, while milder side effects include nausea and dizziness. Patients taking digoxin should avoid taking hawthorn.


title: Crataegus

text: Many species and hybrids are used as ornamental and street trees. The common hawthorn is extensively used in Europe as a hedge plant. During the British Agricultural Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, hawthorn saplings were mass propagated in nurseries to create the new field boundaries required by the Inclosure Acts. Several cultivars of the Midland hawthorn "C. laevigata" have been selected for their pink or red flowers. Hawthorns are among the trees most recommended for water conservation landscapes.


title: Crataegus

text: Hawthorn can be used as a rootstock in the practice of grafting. It is graft-compatible with "Mespilus" (medlar), and with pear, and makes a hardier rootstock than quince, but the thorny suckering habit of the hawthorn can be problematic.


title: Crataegus

text: Seedlings of "Crataegus monogyna" have been used to graft multiple species on the same trunk, such as pink hawthorn, pear tree, and medlar, the result being trees which give pink and white flowers in May and fruits during the summer. "Chip budding" has also been performed on hawthorn trunks to have branches of several varieties on the same tree. Such trees can be seen in Vigo, Spain, and in the northwest of France (mainly in Brittany).


title: Crataegus

text: Many species of Hawthorn make excellent bonsai trees. They are grown and enjoyed for their display of flowers.


title: Crataegus

text: The wood of some "Crataegus" species is hard and resistant to rot. In rural North America, it was prized for use as tool handles and fence posts. First Nations people of western Canada used the thorns for durable fish hooks and minor skin surgeries.


title: Crataegus

text: The Scots saying "Ne'er cast a cloot til Mey's oot" conveys a warning not to shed any cloots (clothes) before the summer has fully arrived and the Mayflowers (hawthorn blossoms) are in full bloom.


title: Crataegus

text: The custom of employing the flowering branches for decorative purposes on 1 May is of very early origin, but since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the tree has rarely been in full bloom in England before the second week of that month. In the Scottish Highlands, the flowers may be seen as late as the middle of June. The hawthorn has been regarded as the emblem of hope, and its branches are stated to have been carried by the ancient Greeks in wedding processions, and to have been used by them to deck the altar of Hymenaios. The supposition that the tree was the source of Jesus's crown of thorns doubtless gave rise to the tradition among the French peasantry (current as late as 1911) that it utters groans and cries on Good Friday, and probably also to the old popular superstition in Great Britain and Ireland that ill luck attended the uprooting of hawthorns. Branches of Glastonbury thorn ("C. monogyna" 'Biflora', sometimes called "C. oxyacantha" var. "praecox"), which flowers both in December and in spring, were formerly highly valued in England, on account of the legend that the tree was originally the staff of Joseph of Arimathea.


title: Crataegus

text: Robert Graves, in his book "The White Goddess", traces and reinterprets many European legends and myths in which the whitethorn (hawthorn), also called the May-tree, is central.


title: Crataegus

text: In Celtic lore, the hawthorn plant was used commonly for inscriptions along with yew and apple. It was once said to heal the broken heart. In Ireland, the red fruit is, or was, called the Johnny MacGorey or Magory.


title: Crataegus

text: Serbian folklore that spread across Balkan notes that hawthorn (Serbian "глог" or "glog") is essential to kill vampires, and stakes used for their slaying must be made from the wood of the thorn tree.


title: Crataegus

text: In Gaelic folklore, hawthorn (in Scottish Gaelic, "sgitheach" and in Irish, "sceach") 'marks the entrance to the otherworld' and is strongly associated with the fairies. Lore has it that it is very unlucky to cut the tree at any time other than when it is in bloom; however, during this time, it is commonly cut and decorated as a May bush (see Beltane). This warning persists to modern times; it has been questioned by folklorist Bob Curran whether the ill luck of the DeLorean Motor Company was associated with the destruction of a fairy thorn to make way for a production facility.


title: Crataegus

text: The superstitious dread of harming hawthorn trees prevalent in the British Isles may also be connected to an old belief that hawthorns, and more especially 'lone thorns' (self-seeded specimens standing in isolation from other trees) originate from lightning or thunderbolts and give protection from lightning strikes.


title: Crataegus

text: Hawthorn trees are often found beside clootie wells; at these types of holy wells, they are sometimes known as rag trees, for the strips of cloth which are tied to them as part of healing rituals. 'When all fruit fails, welcome haws' was once a common expression in Ireland.


title: Crataegus

text: According to a medieval legend, the Glastonbury thorn, "C. monogyna" 'Biflora', which flowers twice annually, was supposed to have miraculously grown from a walking stick planted by Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury in Somerset, England. The original tree was destroyed in the sixteenth century during the English Reformation, but several cultivars have survived. Since the reign of King James I, it has been a Christmas custom to send a sprig of Glastonbury thorn flowers to the Sovereign, which is used to decorate the royal family's dinner table.


title: Crataegus

text: The hawthorn – species unspecified – is the state flower of Missouri. The legislation designating it as such was introduced by Sarah Lucille Turner, one of the first two women to serve in the Missouri House of Representatives.


title: Crataegus

text: Although it is commonly stated that hawthorns can be propagated by cutting, this is difficult to achieve with rootless stem pieces. Small plants or suckers are often transplanted from the wild. Seeds require stratification and take one or two years to germinate. Seed germination is improved if the pyrenes that contain the seed are subjected to extensive drying at room temperature, before stratification. Uncommon forms can be grafted onto seedlings of other species.


title: Fez, Morocco

text: Fez or Fes (; ; ; ) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fès-Meknès administrative region. It is the second largest city in Morocco, with a population of 1.11 million according to the 2014 census. Located to the north west of the Atlas Mountains, Fez is linked to several important cities of different regions; it is from Tangier to the northwest, from Casablanca, from Rabat to the west, and from Marrakesh to the southwest. It is surrounded by hills and the old city is centered around the Fez River ("Oued Fes") flowing from west to east.


title: Fez, Morocco

text: Fez was founded under Idrisid rule during the 8th-9th centuries CE. It initially consisted of two autonomous and competing settlements. Successive waves of mainly Arab immigrants from Ifriqiya (Tunisia) and al-Andalus (Spain/Portugal) in the early 9th century gave the nascent city its Arab character. After the downfall of the Idrisid dynasty, other empires came and went until the 11th century when the Almoravid Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin united the two settlements into what is today's Fes el-Bali quarter. Under Almoravid rule, the city gained a reputation for religious scholarship and mercantile activity.


title: Fez, Morocco

text: Fez reached its zenith in the Marinid era (13th-15th centuries), regaining its status as political capital. Numerous new madrasas and mosques were constructed, many of which survive today, while other structures were restored. These buildings are counted among the hallmarks of Moorish and Moroccan architectural styles. In 1276 the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub also founded the royal administrative district of Fes Jdid, where the Royal Palace (Dar al-Makhzen) is still located today, to which extensive gardens were later added. During this period the Jewish population of the city grew and the Mellah (Jewish quarter) was formed on the south side of this new district. After the overthrow of the Marinid dynasty, Fez declined and subsequently competed with Marrakesh for political and cultural influence. It became the capital again under the 'Alawi (Alaouite) dynasty up until 1912.


title: Fez, Morocco

text: Today, the city consists of two old medina quarters, Fes el-Bali and Fes Jdid, and the much larger modern urban area founded during the French colonial era. The medina of Fez is listed as a World Heritage Site and is thought to be one of the world's largest urban pedestrian zones (car-free areas). It contains the University of Al-Qarawiyyin which was founded in 857 and is considered by some to be the oldest continuously functioning institute of higher education in the world. It also contains the Chouara Tannery from the 11th century, one of the oldest tanneries in the world. The city has been called the "Mecca of the West" and the "Athens of Africa." It is also considered the spiritual and cultural capital of Morocco.


title: Fez, Morocco

text: Fez (American English), Fes (British English), Fès (French) or Fas (Direct translation) was derived from the Arabic word "Faʾs" which means pickaxe. Various different legends have been reported to explain this etymology. One myth tells the story of a gold pickaxe on site during the city's construction, while another claims that Idris I used a silver and gold pickaxe to dig alongside his workers. Another account reported by Ibn Abi Zar claims that an ancient city named "Sef" had previously existed on the site and that Idris I reversed the letters of this name to create the name "Fes".


title: Fez, Morocco

text: During the rule of the Idrisid dynasty (788 to 974), Fez consisted of two cities: "Fas", founded by Idris I, and "al-ʿĀliyá", founded by his son, Idris II. During this period the capital city was known as al-ʿĀliyá, with the name Fas being reserved for the separate site on the other side of the river; no Idrisid coins have been found with the name Fez, only al-ʿĀliyá and "al-ʿĀliyá Madinat Idris". It is not known whether the name al-ʿĀliyá ever referred to both urban areas. The two cities were united in 1070 and the name Fas was used for the combined site.


title: Fez, Morocco

text: The city was first founded in 789 as "Madinat Fas" on the southeast bank of the Jawhar River (now known as the Fez River) by Idris I, founder of the Idrisid dynasty. His son, Idris II, built a settlement called "Al-'Aliya" on the opposing river bank in 809 and moved his capital here from Walili (Volubilis). The early population was composed mostly of Berbers, along with hundreds of Arab warriors from Kairouan who made up Idris II's entourage.


title: Fez, Morocco

text: Arab emigration to Fez increased afterwards. Andalusi families of mixed Arab and Iberian descent, who were expelled from Córdoba after a rebellion in 817–818 against al-Hakam I, were one major component of this. These families mainly settled in "Madinat Fas". Additionally, Arab families banned from Kairouan (in present-day Tunisia) after a rebellion there in around 825 also arrived and were settled in "Al-'Aliya". These two waves of immigrants gave the city its Arabic character and would subsequently give their name to the districts of and . The city also had a strong Jewish community, probably consisting of Zenata Berbers who had previously converted to Judaism, as well as a small remaining Christian population for a time. The Jews were especially concentrated in a northeastern district of "Al-'Aliya", known as "Funduq el-Yihoudi" (near the present-day Bab Guissa gate).