title: Lotus-eaters

text: In episode 3 of the first season of the Showtime series "Californication", Hank Moody refers to LA or California as the land of the lotus eaters, reflecting on how the place lets one languish, lose track of time, and neglect relationships.


title: Lotus-eaters

text: “Good morning, Hell-A. In the land of the lotus-eaters, time plays tricks on you. One day you’re dreaming, the next, your dream has become your reality. It was the best of times. If only someone had told me. Mistakes were made, hearts were broken, harsh lessons learned. My family goes on without me, while I drown in a sea of pointless pussy. I don’t know how I got here. But here I am, rotting away in the warm California sun. There are things I need to figure out, for her sake, at least. The clock is ticking. The gap is widening. She won’t always love me “no matter what.” A song called “Lotus Eater” appears on the Foster The People album “Sacred Hearts Club”.


title: Lotus-eaters

text: In the 2011 movie "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", based on the 1974 spy novel by John Le Carre, when being described what happened to Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) on his return to England after capture by the Russians. Jim was given an Alvis car, money, and was just a Lotus Eater now.


title: Moe (slang)

text: , sometimes romanized as moé, is a Japanese word that refers to feelings of strong affection mainly towards characters in anime, manga, video games, and other media directed at the "otaku" market. "Moe", however, has also gained usage to refer to feelings of affection towards any subject.


title: Moe (slang)

text: "Moe" is related to neoteny and the feeling of "cuteness" a character can evoke. The word "moe" originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Japan and is of uncertain origin, although there are several theories on how it came into use. "Moe" characters have expanded through Japanese media, and the concept has been commercialised. Contests, both online and in the real world, exist for "moe"-styled things, including one run by one of the Japanese game rating boards. Various notable commentators such as Tamaki Saitō, Hiroki Azuma, and Kazuya Tsurumaki have also given their take on "moe" and its meaning.


title: Moe (slang)

text: "Moe" used in slang refers to feelings of affection, adoration, devotion, and excitement felt towards characters that appear in manga, anime, video games, and other media (usually Japanese). Characters that elicit feelings of "moe" are called ""moe" characters". The word has also evolved to be used regarding all kinds of topics. Included in the meaning of the word is the idea that "deep feelings felt towards a particular subject" is used in cases where a simple "like" is not enough to express the feeling. The common feature in all feelings of "moe" is that the subject of such feelings is something that one cannot possibly have a real relationship with, like a fictional character, a pop idol, or an inorganic substance. It can be considered a kind of "pseudo-romance", but it is not always seen to be the same as "romance".


title: Moe (slang)

text: The term's origin and etymology are unknown. Anime columnist John Oppliger has outlined several popular theories describing how the term would have stemmed from the name of anime heroines, such as Hotaru Tomoe from "Sailor Moon" (Tomoe is written as , relevant kanji is the same) or Moe Sagisawa from the 1993 anime "Kyōryū Wakusei". The term first became popular in 1993-94 among users of Japanese bulletin board systems.


title: Moe (slang)

text: Psychologist Tamaki Saitō identifies it as coming from the Japanese word for "budding", . Ken Kitabayashi of the Nomura Research Institute has defined "moe" as "being strongly attracted to one's ideals". Kitabayashi has identified the word "moe" to be a pun with the Japanese godan verb for 'to sprout', , and its homophone 'to burn', . Along the same line of thought, Kitabayashi has identified it to be a pun with the Japanese ichidan verb for 'to sprout' and its homophone 'to burn' , which mean 'to burn' (in the sense of one's heart burning, or burning with passion).


title: Moe (slang)

text: Anthropologist Patrick Galbraith cites Morikawa Kaichirō, who argues that the term came from internet message boards such as NIFTY-Serve and Tokyo BBS in the 1990s, from fans discussing "bishõjo" (beautiful girl) characters. Galbraith argues that "moe" has its roots in the development of "bishõjo" characters in Japanese subcultures in the 1970s and 80s. This was exemplified in the "lolicon" boom of the 1980s, a "fertile ground" for the "budding desire for fictional characters".


title: Moe (slang)

text: Comiket organiser Ichikawa Koichi has described Lum from "Urusei Yatsura" as being both the source of "moe" and the first "tsundere". The character of Clarisse from Hayao Miyazaki's "The Castle of Cagliostro" (1979) has also been cited as a potential ancestral example., with Lupin acting like an older brother to Clarisse and taunting the Count for marrying someone half his age. According to culture critic Hiroki Azuma, as Rei Ayanami became a more prominent character among fans, she "changed the rules" governing what people regarded as "moe"-inspiring. The industry has since created many characters which share her traits of pale skin, blue hair and a "quiet personality".


title: Moe (slang)

text: "Moe" characters have expanded within the Japanese media market. In 2003, the market for "moe" media such as printed media, video, and games was worth 88 billion yen; roughly one-third of the estimated 290 billion yen "otaku" market in Japan. In 2009, Brad Rice, editor-in-chief of "Japanator", said that "moe has literally become an economic force" saying that more products use some element of "moe" in order to sell better. Rice also goes on to say that "moe" is used to get anime and manga works out to "hardcore fans who buy excessive amounts of items related to the character of their desire."


title: Moe (slang)

text: John Oppliger from AnimeNation traced the first decade of the 2000s as the time when "moe" became increasingly popular and recognized. Commercialization was a result of interest that followed, and "moe" evolved from being a non-sexual desire to being a sexually sublimated fascination with cuteness. Oppliger goes on to say that "moe" shifted entirely from an interchange between character and viewer, to a focused fetish of viewers. Examples used by Oppliger include the series; "K-On", "Lucky Star", and "Moetan" where he points out they are "revolved around adorable, whimsical, clumsy, early-adolescent girl characters in order to evoke, enflame, and manipulate the interests and affections of viewers." Rather than evoking "moe" feelings, they were literally "moe" characters that had defining characteristics of the "moe" style. Oppliger referred to these girl characters as "adorably cute, just a bit sexually appealing, and self-conscious but not yet cynical" going on to say that they demand notice and adoration, rather than passively earning it.


title: Moe (slang)

text: With "moe" anthropomorphism, "moe" characteristics are applied to give human elements to non-human objects. The "Gradius" video game series features a spaceship named "Vic Viper". For a spin-off game, "moe" is applied to "Vic Viper" to create "Otomedius".


title: Moe (slang)

text: Sometimes feelings of "moe" towards fictional characters include "sexual excitement", or are understood in the context where "lots of beautiful girls and boobs appear." In these cases, feelings of pure affection that gradually become stronger over time can lead to these feelings of eroticism.


title: Moe (slang)

text: "Moe", however, is also considered to be distinct from pure lust. While small amounts of lust is generally considered "moe", a feeling that focuses too heavily on lust is considered outside the scope of "moe". In a light novel by Nagaru Tanigawa, one of the characters mentions that the distinction between "moe" and pure lust can be made based on whether one can still maintain feelings of affection even after one has indulged in masturbation. According to commentator, who considers "moe" to be "romance within one's head", the ideal kind of love within "moe" is "romantic love".


title: Moe (slang)

text: Several informal contests or rankings for characters considered to be "moe" exist on the internet. One such contest is the "Anime Saimoe Tournament", organized by members of the textboard 2channel, which ran every year from 2002, until its cancellation after the 2014 contest due to declining interest. "Moe" characters from the fiscal year starting 1 July and ending 30 June the following year were eligible. Each tournament had at least 280 "moe" characters. Spin-offs of the Saimoe Tournament include RPG Saimoe, which has video game characters, and SaiGAR, a competition between the "manliest men of anime". In 2006 and 2007, the Saimoe Tournament became an increasingly international event; 2channel users obliged foreign "otaku" by putting up an English version of their rules page. The International Saimoe League, also known as ISML, is another online "moe" popularity contest that is for a worldwide audience. The contest started in 2008 and was held annually. Initially, only female characters were eligible, a male exhibition tournament was added in 2011, which would take place after the end of the main tournament. It was made into an official tournament alongside the female characters in 2015.


title: Moe (slang)

text: Moe contests also exist in magazine publications, and in the real world. The Moe Game Awards are given annually to bishōjo games published that year in various categories, such as background music, character design, fandisc, graphics, and erotic content. They were started in 2006 as the Bishōjo Game Awards, but their name was changed to Moe Game Awards in 2009. It is sponsored by the Japanese game rating board Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS) and is described by them as "an R18 game industry version of the Academy Awards". Magazines that have "moe" contests in them include the Japanese magazine "Dengeki Moeoh" which runs a column called and features the top 10 "moe" characters of the month, as determined by reader votes.


title: Moe (slang)

text: There are various interpretations of the concept of "moe", and the subject has been heavily discussed. Psychologist Tamaki Saitō considers the "moe" used by "otaku" to be the embodiment of their particular kind of sexuality. Saitō points out that while "otaku" creations fulfill an abnormal impression of sexuality, few "otaku" actually apply this impression to real life. He thus argues that "moe" is something that sustains the otaku's sexuality within a fictional world, with the fiction itself being their subject of desire and having no need for reality.


title: Moe (slang)

text: On the other hand, critic Hiroki Azuma rejects Saitō's argument as "too complicated." Azuma argues that "to "moe"" is simply the act of analyzing each of the character's "moe" characteristics and expanding on those characteristics within the mind, and thus differs from mere feelings of empathy. These characteristics can be physical ones, such as cat ears or a maid costume, or a personality archetype, such as that of the character Rei Ayanami. Azuma sees this process as an "otaku"'s act of satisfying their desires among their limited relations, and considers it to be part of a broader trend of "animalization," or the fulfillment of small desires isolated from the context of a grand narrative. Azuma, therefore, simplifies Saitō's idea of "moe" into the idea of attaining signals of sexual excitement within an isolated environment, similar to the act of training an animal.


title: Moe (slang)

text: In contrast, Tōru Honda argues against the idea that "moe" is simply "the act of arousal in response to signals, and thus animalization" and argues that this interpretation does not allow one to recall the essence of "moe". Honda considers "moe" to be the act of remembering ideals among the background signals, an act of necessity that arose as the romance rejected by religion continued to be supported by materialism, and thus interprets it as a mental activity relevant to the contexts of mythology and religion. Furthermore, Honda asserts that this "animalization" phenomenon only arose after the "economic bubble" period of Japan, when people consumed real romance- and sex-like products, and says that since "moe" is commonly interpreted to be in competition with the act of searching for romance in real life, it is thus the antithesis of male-dominant machoism. Also, while Saitō doesn't distinguish "moe" from more violent types of sexual abnormalities and speaks of "moe" in the context of "sentō bishōjo" (beautiful fighting girl), Honda on the other hand treats "moe" as the polar opposite of the hunter-ish kind of sexuality featuring in more fiendish works like those by Henry Darger.


title: Moe (slang)

text: Anime director Kazuya Tsurumaki defines "moe" to be "the act of filling in missing information about characters on one's own." Accepting this view, writer explains that characters are born from human instinct, which is the exact reason why one can be charmed by them much more than one could by real people. Toshio Okada says that while he himself has not fully understood "moe", he defines it as not simply being stirred emotionally by beautiful girls, but also as the meta-viewpoint of seeing oneself falling into such a state.


title: Moe (slang)

text: In "The Moe Manifesto", anthropologist Patrick Galbraith defines "moe" as an affective response to fictional characters or representations of them. The applications of this definition are widespread to political, economic, and cultural discourses. For an example in practice, Matthew Brummer describes how Japan's Self Defense Force utilizes popular culture and the "moe" that it engenders to shape public perceptions of the military establishment: The Manga Military.


title: Mary in Islam

text: Maryam bint Imran () is revered in Islam as the only woman named in the Quran, which refers to her seventy times and explicitly identifies her as the greatest woman to have ever lived. In the Quran, her story is related in three Meccan surahs (19, 21, 23) and four Medinan surahs (3, 4, 5, 66). The nineteenth Surah, Maryam, is named after her. The Quran refers to Mary more often than the Bible.


title: Mary in Islam

text: According to the Quran, Mary's parents had been praying for a child. Their request was eventually accepted by God, and Mary's mother became pregnant. Her father Imran had died before the child was born. After her birth, she was taken care of by her maternal uncle Zechariah. According to the Quran, Mary received messages from God through the archangel Gabriel. God informed Mary that she had miraculously conceived a child through the intervention of the divine spirit, though she was still a virgin. The name of her child is chosen by God, being Isa (Jesus), who would be the "anointed one", the Promised Messiah. As such, orthodox Islamic belief has upheld the virgin birth of Jesus, and although the classical Islamic thinkers never dwelt on the question of the perpetual virginity of Mary, it was generally agreed in traditional Islam that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life, with the Quran's mention of Mary's purification “from the touch of men” implying perpetual virginity in the minds of many of the most prominent Islamic fathers.


title: Mary in Islam

text: Mary is believed to have been chosen by God, above all "the women of the worlds" in Islam. She is referred to by various titles in the Quran, with the most prominent being "al-Qānitah".


title: Mary in Islam

text: The Quran calls Mary "the daughter of Imran" and it mentions that people called her a "sister of Aaron (Harun)". Her mother, mentioned in the Quran only as the wife of Imran, prayed for a child and eventually conceived. According to al-Tabari, Mary's mother was named Hannah (), and Imran (), her husband, died before the child was born. Expecting the child to be male, Hannah vowed to dedicate him to isolation and service in the Temple. However, Hannah bore a daughter instead, and named her Maryam.


title: Mary in Islam

text: Mary is mentioned frequently in the Quran, and her narrative occurs consistently from the earliest chapters, revealed in Mecca, to the latest verses, revealed in Medina.


title: Mary in Islam

text: The birth of Mary is narrated in the Quran with references to her father as well as her mother. Mary's father is called "Imran". He is the equivalent of Joachim in Christian tradition. Her mother, according to al-Tabari, is called "Hannah", which is the same name as in Christian tradition (Saint Anne). Muslim literature narrates that Imran and his wife were old and childless and that, one day, the sight of a bird in a tree feeding her young aroused Anne's desire for a child. She prayed to God to fulfill her desire and vowed, if her prayer was accepted, that her child would be dedicated to the service of God.


title: Mary in Islam

text: According to Iraqi scholar and translator, N.J. Dawood, the Quran confuses Mary mother of Jesus with Mary the sister of Moses, when it refers to the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as Imran, which is the Arabic version of Amram, who is shown to be the father of Moses in Exodus 6:20. Dawood, in a note to , where Mary the Mother of Jesus is referred to as the "Sister of Aaron", and Aaron was the brother of Mary sister of Moses, states: "It Appears that Miriam, Aaron's sister, and Maryam (Mary), mother of Jesus, were according to the Koran, one and the same person." Although Islamic studies of the beginning of the 20th century tended to see this as a mistake in genealogy, in more recent Islamic Studies of the 21st century the general consensus is, according to Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai & Michael Marx, that the Quran does not make a genealogical error but instead makes use of Typology. This is, following Wensincks conclusion, supported by the figurative speech of the Quran and the Islamic tradition: Similarly, Stowasser concludes that "to confuse Mary the mother of Jesus with Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron in Torah is completely wrong and in contradiction to the sound Hadith and the Qur'anic text as we have established".


title: Mary in Islam

text: The Quranic account of Mary's birth does not affirm an Immaculate Conception for Mary as Islam does not accept the doctrine of original sin, or an inherited fault in humans, as it is found in Christianity.


title: Mary in Islam

text: The Quran does not, specifically, point to the fact that Mary lived and grew up in a temple as the word miḥ'rāb in in its literal meaning refers to a private chamber or a public/private prayer chamber. The definitive idea of Mary growing up in a temple derived via external literature (i.e. see the narration below by Ja'far al-Sadiq). She was placed under the care of the prophet Zakariya, the husband of Hannah's sister and Mary's maternal uncle and caretaker. As often as Zechariah entered Mary's prayer chamber, he found her provided with food and he would ask her where she received it from, to which she would reply that God provides to whom He wills. Scholars have debated as to whether this refers to miraculous food that Mary received from God or whether it was normal food. Those in favor of the former view state that it had to be miraculous food, as Zechariah being a prophet, would have known that God is the provider of all sustenance and thus would not have questioned Mary, if it was normal food.


title: Mary in Islam

text: Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq narrates that when Maryam was grown, she would go into the mihrab and put on a covering so no one saw her. Zechariah went into the mihrab and found that she had summer fruit in the winter and winter fruit in the summer. He asked "From whence is this?" She said, "It is from Allah. Indeed, Allah provides for whom He wills without account"[3:37].


title: Mary in Islam

text: The virgin birth of Jesus is supremely important in Islam, as one of the most important miracles of God. The first explicit mention of an annunciation foreshadowing the birth of Jesus is in where Mary asks Gabriel (Jibril) how she will be able to conceive, when no man has touched her. Gabriel's reply assures Mary that for God all things are easy and that Jesus's virgin birth will be a sign for mankind. The birth is later referred in , where the Quran states that Mary remained "pure", while God allowed a life to shape itself in Mary's womb. A third mention of the annunciation is in , where Mary is also given the glad tidings that she has been chosen above all the women of creation.


title: Mary in Islam

text: Commentators on the Quran remark on the last verse that Mary was as close to a perfect woman as there could be, and she was devoid of almost all failings. Although Islam honors numerous women, including Hawwa, Hagar, Sarah, Asiya, Khadijah, Fatimah, Ayesha, Hafsa many commentators followed this verse in the absolute sense, and agreed that Mary was the greatest woman of all time. Other commentators, however, while maintaining that Mary was the "queen of the saints", interpreted this verse to mean that Mary was the greatest woman of that time and that Fatimah, Khadijah and Asiya were equally great. According to exegesis and literature, Gabriel appeared to Mary, who was still young in age, in the form of a well-made man with a "shining face" and announced to her the birth of Jesus. After her immediate astonishment, she was reassured by the angel's answer that God has the power to do anything. The details of the conception are not discussed during these angelic visits, but elsewhere the Quran states () and 66:12) that God breathed "His Spirit" into Mary while she was chaste.


title: Mary in Islam

text: According to the Quran, Mary was chosen twice by the Lord: "O Mary! Verily Allah has chosen you and puriﬁed you and chosen you above the women of the worlds" (); and the first choosing was her selection with glad tidings given to Imran. The second was that she became pregnant without a man, so in this regard, she was chosen over all other women in the world.


title: Mary in Islam

text: The Quran narrates the virgin birth of Jesus numerous times. In chapter 19 (Maryam), verses ("ayat") 17–21, the annunciation is given, followed by the virgin birth in due course. In Islam, Jesus is called the "spirit of God" because he was through the action of the spirit, but that belief does not include the doctrine of his pre-existence, as it does in Christianity. also supports the virginity of Mary, revealing that "no man has touched [her]". states that Jesus was born when the spirit of God breathed upon Mary, whose body was chaste.


title: Mary in Islam

text: According to the Quran, the following conversation transpired between the angel Gabriel and Mary when he appeared to her in the form of a man:


title: Mary in Islam

text: And mention, [O Muhammad], in the Book [the story of] Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen. Then We sent to her Our spirit, and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man. She said, "Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, [so leave me], if you should be fearing of Allah." He said, "I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you a pure boy." She said, "How can I have a boy while no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?" He said, "Thus [it will be]; your Lord says, 'It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter [already] decreed.'[19:16-21]


title: Mary in Islam

text: The Quran's narrative of the virgin birth is somewhat different from that in the New Testament. The Quran states that when the pains of childbirth came upon Mary, she held onto a nearby palm tree, at which point a voice came from "beneath the (palm-tree)" or "beneath her", which said " "Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee; "And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: It will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee." The Quran goes on to describe that Mary vowed not to speak to any man on that day, as God was to make Jesus, who Muslims believe spoke in the cradle, perform his first miracle. The Quran goes on to narrate that Mary then brought Jesus to the temple, where immediately she began to be taunted by all the men, excluding Zechariah, who believed in the virgin birth. The Israelites questioned Mary how she came to be with child whilst unmarried, to which Mary pointed to the baby Jesus. It was then that, according to the Quran, the infant Jesus began to speak in the cradle, and spoke of his prophecy for the first time.


title: Mary in Islam

text: According to Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, Jesus the son of Mary used to cry intensely as a child, so that Mary was at wits end regarding his profuse crying. He said to her, "Get some of the bark of that tree, make a tonic from it and feed me with it." When he drank it, he cried intensely. Mary said, "What sort of prescription did you give me?" He said, "Oh my mother! Knowledge of prophet-hood and weakness of childhood."


title: Mary in Islam

text: The Fatimid Ismaili jurist Qadi al-Nu’man holds that the virgin birth of Jesus is meant to be interpreted symbolically. In his interpretation, Mary was the follower ("lāḥiq"), of the Imam Joachim (‘Imran). However, when Joachim realized that she was not suited for the "Imamah", he passed it to Zechariah, who then passed it to John the Baptist. Meanwhile, Mary received spiritual inspiration ("mādda") from God, revealing that he would invite a man [to the faith] who would become an exalted Speaker ("nāṭiq") of a revealed religion ("sharīʿa"). According to al-Nu’man, the verses “She said: Lord! How can I have a child when no man has touched me?” (Quran 3:47) and “neither have I been unchaste” (Quran 19:20) are symbolic of Mary's saying, “How can I conduct the invitation ("daʿwa") when the Imam of the Time has not given me permission to do so?” and “Nor shall I be unfaithful by acting against his command”, respectively. To this, a celestial hierarch replies “Such is God. He creates [i.e., causes to pass] what he wills” (Quran 3:47).


title: Mary in Islam

text: Mary is one of the most honored figures in Islamic theology, with Muslims viewing her as one of the most righteous women to have lived as per the Quranic verse, with reference to the angelic salutation during the annunciation, "O Mary, God has chosen you, and purified you; He has chosen you above all the women of creation.". A minority of Muslims also view her as a prophet. Muslim women look upon her as an example and are known to visit both Muslim and Christian shrines. Muslim tradition, like Christian, honors her memory at Matariyyah near Cairo, and in Jerusalem. Muslims also visit the "Bath of Mary" in Jerusalem, where Muslim tradition recounts Mary once bathed, and this location was visited at times by women who were seeking a cure for barrenness. Some plants have also been named after Mary, such as "Maryammiah", which, as tradition recounts, acquired its sweet scent when Mary wiped her forehead with its leaves. Another plant is "Kaff Maryam" ("Anastatica"), which was used by some Muslim women to help in pregnancy, and the water of this plant was given to women to drink while praying.


title: Mary in Islam

text: Islamic literature does not recount many instances from Mary's later life, and her assumption is not present in any Muslim records. Nevertheless, some contemporary Muslim scholars, an example being Martin Lings, accepted the assumption as being a historical event from Mary's life. One of the lesser-known events which are recorded in Muslim literature is that of Mary visiting Rome with John and Thaddeus (Jude), the disciples ("al-Hawāriyūn") of Jesus, during the reign of Nero.


title: Mary in Islam

text: Qadi al-Nu'man, the twelfth century Ismaili Muslim jurist and luminary, in his book on the esoteric interpretation of faith, "Asās al-Ta'wīl", talks about the spiritual birth ("milad al-bātin") of Jesus, as an interpretation of his story of physical birth ("milad al-zāhir"). He says that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a metaphor for someone who nurtured and instructed Jesus, rather than physically giving birth to him. He also pointed out that Zachariah (The Imam of the Time) appointed Mary as one of his proofs (sing. "hujja").


title: Mary in Islam

text: Many other names of Mary can be found in various other books and religious collections. In Hadith, she has been referred to by names such as "Batul", "Adhraa"' ("Ascetic Virgin"), and "Marhumah" ("Enveloped in God's Mercy").


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: Around the World in 80 Days is a 2004 American action adventure comedy film based on Jules Verne's 1873 novel of the same name and remake of the movie of the same name of 1956. It stars Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Cécile de France. The film is set in the nineteenth century and centers on Phileas Fogg (Coogan), here reimagined as an eccentric inventor, and his efforts to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. During the trip, he is accompanied by his Chinese valet, Passepartout (Chan). For comedic reasons, the film intentionally deviated wildly from the novel and included a number of anachronistic elements. With production costs of about $110 million and estimated marketing costs of $30 million, it earned $24 million at the U.S. box office and $48 million worldwide, making it a box office failure.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: Lau Xing robs the Bank of England and hides in Phileas Fogg's house, giving his name as "Passport...too". Fogg hears "Passepartout" and hires him as valet. Passepartout helps Fogg break the speed barrier. At the Royal Academy of Science, Fogg is insulted by Baron Kelvin. Fogg bets that he can travel around the world in 80 days. If he wins, he will replace Kelvin as Minister of Science. If not, he will be ruined. Fogg and Passepartout take a carriage out of London after a confrontation with corrupt Inspector Fix, hired by Kelvin.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: Passepartout and Fogg journey to Paris, where Passepartout must evade General Fang's warriors. Fang wants the jade Buddha previously given to Lord Kelvin but stolen by Passepartout. Pretending to take Fogg to see Thomas Edison, Passepartout leads him to impressionist painting student Monique La Roche. Passepartout fights the warriors while his boss discusses impressionism. The two men and Monique depart in a hot-air balloon, chased by Fang's warriors.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: The trio continue their journey by train. However, in Istanbul, they are forced to become guests of Prince Hapi's banquet. Whilst initially hospitable, he soon orders the men to leave while Monique must become his seventh wife. The men convince Hapi to release Monique or they will damage his personal statue of "The Thinker", which is accidentally smashed. With Hapi in pursuit, the three travelers then escape.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: Kelvin learns about the bank robbery. He orders the British-colonial authorities in India to arrest both men. Passepartout sees notice of the price on his head and warns his companions. Disguised as women they are attacked by Fang's warriors. Using Inspector Fix and a sextant as weapons, Fogg and Passepartout defeat their assailants and flee to China.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: In a Chinese village where Lau Xing had came from, Lanzhou, they are welcomed by Lau's family members. However, they are captured by the Black Scorpions. Recognized, Lau Xing challenges the leader of the group to a fight. At first, he fights alone and is defeated; moments later, he is joined by his fellow "Ten Tigers of Canton" to defeat the Black Scorpions. The jade Buddha is returned to the village temple.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: Fogg desires to continue alone, disappointed and feeling used by his companions after finding out that through a picture of Lau and his family members in the village. He travels to San Francisco and is tricked out of his money. He is found destitute by Lau Xing and Monique who have followed him. In the Western desert, they find the Wright brothers who discuss their prototype flying machine. Fogg suggests a few changes, which are eagerly taken.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: In New York City, a jubilant crowd prevents them from their ship. A policeman leads them to an ambush in a workshop. The three friends fight Fang and her warriors and win. Though Fogg could have gotten to the boat, he misses it to help Lau Xing. Fogg feels that he has lost, but the other two say that they may still make it if they catch the next ship.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: They board an old ship and Fogg builds a plane out of the ship's old wood, promising a new ship to the captain. The ship's crew builds a catapult to launch it. The three fly to London and crash-land at the Royal Academy. Kelvin sends police to hinder them, and the clock strikes noon, ending the wager.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: Kelvin proclaims himself the victor. Monique, Fix and other ministers attest to Kelvin's unfair methods. Kelvin insults Queen Victoria who overhears the insult which leads to Kelvin’s arrest. She then reveals that she has bet money on Fogg winning and congratulates him for making it back a day early. Though Lau and Monique are confused, Fogg eventually realizes that they forgot to take the International Date Line into account: they themselves experienced 80 days, but London only experienced 79 days. He ascends the stairs of the Academy and kisses Monique, victorious in his bet.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: Warner Bros., who owned the rights to the 1956 adaptation, planned their own remake with Stephen Sommers directing and Brendan Fraser starring, after the success of "The Mummy". Stan Chervin wrote the script for this utilization of the film. Around the same time, 20th Century Fox and Good Machine were developing their own version with Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner writing the screenplay. Ang Lee and Stephen Herek were considered to direct.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: When Frank Coraci got involved, he went back to read the original novel and watch the 1956 film, where he realized that the story didn't really have a driving lead character. So he decided to rework the plot considerably, which involved giving Phileas Fogg an arc. Coraci's first choice for Fogg was Johnny Depp, but studio executives at the time didn't think Depp in a family movie would ever work (this was before the release of ). Jackie Chan was announced to play Passepartout in June 2002. He was paid about $18 million for the role. After Chan was cast, the filmmakers settled on lesser known character actor Steve Coogan for Fogg. Walden Media was in charge of investing the film while Summit Entertainment handled foreign sales. Paramount Pictures acquired domestic distribution rights, and set a release date for November 21, 2003. However, the studio stepped out at the start of the year, with concerns over the high budget and bankability of the cast.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: Principal photography began on March 13, 2003 in Thailand, followed by a 3-month shoot at Babelsberg Studio in Berlin. Before Disney had picked the film up for distribution, it was one of the highest-budget films produced without a distributor attached.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: "Around the World in 80 Days" premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on June 13, 2004 and was released in theaters on June 16, 2004 by Walt Disney Pictures. It was also released on DVD and VHS on November 2, 2004 by Walt Disney Home Entertainment.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: "Around the World in 80 Days" was met with mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 32% approval rating, based on 128 reviews, with an average score of 4.79/10, with the site's consensus stating: "Hit-and-miss family fare that bears only the slightest resemblance to Verne's novel." Metacritic gives the film a weighted score of 49 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: "The Guardian" critic Rob Mackie, criticized it for having little to no resemblance to the novel it is based on. Roger Ebert praised it for its visual style and for being "goofy fun". Todd McCarthy of "Variety" wrote: "Takes plenty of liberties with the material and never generates much genuine excitement, but provides an agreeable ride without overloading it with contemporary filmmaking mannerisms."


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: In 2014, the "Los Angeles Times" listed the film as one of the most expensive box office flops of all time.


title: Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)

text: The film was nominated for two Razzie Awards - Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Supporting Actor (Arnold Schwarzenegger).


title: Miss World 2022

text: Miss World 2022 will be the 71st edition of the Miss World pageant. Karolina Bielawska of Poland will crown her successor at the end of the event. This edition will also mark the first to be co-owned by Nepali-born British businessman Dipendra Gurung apart from the Morley family.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (; NATO reporting name: Farmer) is a Soviet second generation, single-seat, twinjet fighter aircraft, the world's first mass-produced supersonic aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S. "Century Series" fighter was the North American F-100 Super Sabre, although the MiG-19 primarily fought against the more modern McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Republic F-105 Thunderchief over North Vietnam. This aircraft was originally used by the Soviet Union but it was later used by the People's Liberation Army Air Force.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: In 1950 the Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) design bureau (also known as OKB-155) began work on a new fighter aircraft, intended to have a greater range than the existing MiG-15 and MiG-17 aircraft, and capable of reaching supersonic speeds in level flight. MiG chose to use two of the new Mikulin AM-5 axial jet engines (a scaled-down version of the Mikulin AM-3 that powered the Tupolev Tu-16 bomber) for its new fighter. As a test bed for the new engine, OKB-155 was authorised on 20 April 1951 to convert one of the prototype MiG-17s, replacing the single Klimov VK-1 engine with two AM-5s (later replaced by AM-5As), with the testbed, designated SM-1 (or I-340), flying late in 1951. While the SM-1 was a useful testbed, its performance was less than expected, and first resulted in an afterburner being designed for the AM-5, resulting in the AM-5F (reaching with reheat).


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: While the SM-1 was a test bed, the SM-2 (or I-360) was intended as the required supersonic escort fighter, with work authorised on 10 August 1951. The SM-2 was a twin-engined, mid-winged aircraft. Its thin wings, which had been designed at TsAGI, the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, for supersonic flight were swept back at an angle of 55 degrees and had a single wing fence on each side. Unusually, a T-tail was fitted. Armament was two Nudelman N-37 37-mm cannon located in the leading edge of the aircraft's wings, near the wing roots - the guns had been moved compared to those in the MiG-15 and -17 to avoid ingestion of gun blast gases causing surging of the aircraft's engines. The first SM-2, the SM-2/1 was sent to the "Letno-Issledovatel'skiy Institut" (en:flight research institute) (LII) in April 1952 for testing, and was flown for the first time on 24 May 1952, with test pilot G. A. Sedov at the aircraft's controls. With the un-reheated AM-5A engines, the SM-2 could not exceed the speed of sound in level flight, so reheated AM-5F engines were substituted. While the new engines improved performance, the aircraft was found to have handling problems, particularly at high angles of attack, where the aircraft was prone to spinning. To solve these problems the aircraft's horizontal tail was lowered, with other changes including moving the aircraft's airbrakes and deepening the wing fences, with the modifications causing the aircraft to be redesignated SM-2A and then SM-2B.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: The AM-5F still generated inadequate thrust and so the Mikulin engine design bureau developed a new engine to replace it, the AM-9B (later re-designed the Tumansky RD-9), rated at dry and with reheat. When fitted with the new engines, the SM-2B became the SM-9, first flying in this form on 5 January 1954. The SM-9's performance impressed the Soviet authorities, and it was ordered into production as the MiG-19 on 17 February 1954, despite the fact that factory testing had only just started.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: The rush to get the MiG-19 into service resulted in initial production aircraft having a number of serious problems. The type suffered a number of in-flight explosions, eventually traced to poor insulation between the aircraft's engines and fuel tanks in the rear fuselage - overheating of these tanks could cause fuel explosions. This was eventually partly solved by fitting a metal heat shield between the engines and the tanks. The aircraft's elevators proved ineffective at supersonic speeds, and an all-moving slab tail was tested by the second and third SM-9 prototypes, and later included in the major production type, the MiG-19S, which also featured an improved armament.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: At the same time that the daylight escort fighter was developed from the SM-2 and SM-9 into the MiG-19 and MiG-19S, work went on in parallel to design and build a radar-equipped all-weather fighter, with the first prototype SM-7/1 flying for the first time on 28 August 1954. This prototype had a similar airframe to the first SM-9, including the conventional fixed horizontal tail, with the second and third SM-7s introducing similar changes to those tested on the SM-9 prototypes, including the slab tail. The all weather fighter entered production as the MiG-19P in 1955. Major differences from the MiG-19S included RP-1 "Izumrud" radar in the aircraft's nose, with small radomes in the centre and on the top lip of the air intake and an armament of two cannon in the aircraft's wing roots. From 1957, production of all weather fighters switched to the missile equipped MiG-19PM, with an armament of four K-5M air-to-air missiles, with the cannon removed.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: In 1955, following American introduction of high-altitude reconnaissance balloons and overflights by British Canberra aircraft, which could not be intercepted by existing aircraft, together with intelligence reports of the development of the Lockheed U-2 with an even greater ceiling, development began on a specialist high-altitude version of the MiG-19, the MiG-19SV, which entered limited production. This had more powerful engines and was lightened, with seatback armour and one of the guns removed, while flap settings were adjusted to give greater lift at higher altitudes and a new pressure suit was introduced. These changes increased the aircraft's ceiling from to . The prototype MiG-19SV was further modified (as the MiG-19SVK) with increased wingspan, giving a ceiling of , but this was still inadequate to deal with the U-2, and effort was switched to adding rocket boosters.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: Deliveries of the new fighter to the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) began in June 1955, with the type being publicly unveiled on 3 July that year, when 48 MiG-19s took part in a flypast during an airshow at Tushino Airfield, Moscow.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: During their service with Soviet Anti-Air Defense and in East Germany, MiG-19s were involved in multiple interceptions of Western reconnaissance aircraft. The first documented encounter with a Lockheed U-2 took place in the autumn of 1957. The MiG-19 pilot reported seeing the aircraft, but could not make up the difference in altitude. When Francis Gary Powers's U-2 was shot down in the 1960 incident, one pursuing MiG-19P was also hit by the salvo of S-75 Dvina (NATO: SA-2 "Guideline") missiles, killing the pilot Sergei Safronov. In a highly controversial incident, on 1 July 1960, a MiG-19 shot down an RB-47H (S/N 53-4281) reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Arctic Circle with four of the crew killed and two captured by the Soviets (they were released in 1961). In another incident, on 28 January 1964, a MiG-19 shot down a T-39 Sabreliner which had strayed into East German airspace while on a training mission; all three crewmembers were killed.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: The first use and loss of a U.S. fighter to a MiG-19 (J-6) was in 1965 when a USAF Lockheed F-104 Starfighter piloted by Captain Philip E. Smith was attacked by a PLAAF aircraft over Hainan Island. His Starfighter took cannon fire which damaged a portion of his wing and missile mount. Smith gave chase and did receive missile tone on the MiG but, within a millisecond of pressing his missile firing button, his Starfighter lost all power. He ejected and was captured. Smith was held prisoner until released on 15 March 1973, due to improving US-China relations following U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: The Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) began receiving the MiG-19 at the end of Operation Rolling Thunder, which ended in 1968. Despite their limited numbers, MiG-19s were involved in extensive combat during Operations Linebacker and Linebacker 2. The VPAF claimed seven victories over U.S. aircraft using the MiG-19, all of which were F-4 Phantom IIs. The MiG-19 was tested by U.S. pilots in the United States in 1969 after receiving an F-6 (J-6 export model) from Pakistan. In addition to finding the aircraft to have a good canopy allowing good visibility for the pilot, along with three hard-hitting 30mm cannons, U.S. pilots found the MiG-19 (J-6/F-6) to be an excellent fighter, "like the MiG-17, it could easily out-turn the Phantom...and could out-accelerate the F-4 out to Mach 1.2, but was slower than the MiG-21.". However, the MiG-19's strongest fault was its extremely short range, as one U.S. test pilot remarked, "after going in full after-burner at low altitude for five minutes, the MiG driver will be looking for a place to land!" This, combined with the aircraft's twin engines, which were difficult to maintain, made the MiG-19 unpopular with North Vietnamese pilots.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: The North Vietnamese government decided in early 1969 to strengthen its air defenses by creating a third jet fighter unit; the 925th Fighter Regiment. This unit would consist of late model MiG-17s and the newly acquired MiG-19s (nearly all of which were Shenyang J-6s from the People's Republic of China (PRC)). The regiment was established at Yen Bai, and by April 1969, nine combat-rated MiG-19 pilots were posted for combat duty. While some of North Vietnam's MiG-17s and all of their MiG-21s were supplied by the Soviet Union, the MiG-19s (J-6 models) were supplied by the PRC, which seldom exceeded 54 MiG-19s in number.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: The MiG-19 lacked mounts for air-to-air missiles but it had the one advantage over the early model F-4 Phantom II: it was armed with cannons. VPAF MiG-19s had three 30 mm cannons which "were notable for their large muzzle flash" when fired. The aircraft were loaded with 90 rounds per cannon, giving approximately six seconds of firing time. A single two second burst of 90 shells could impact a US aircraft with of metal. This contrasted to a U.S. 20 mm cannon such as the M61 Vulcan which would deliver of metal.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: US sources claim that 10 VPAF MiG-19s were lost in aerial combat. On 2 June 1972 a MiG-19 was the first recorded jet fighter to be shot down in aerial combat by cannon fire at supersonic speeds, by a USAF F-4 Phantom flown by Phil Handley. According to the VPAF, from 1965 to 1972, North Vietnamese MiG-19s shot down 13 enemy aircraft and helicopters, while five MiG-19s were lost (four shot down by enemy aircraft and one by friendly fire) and one pilot was killed.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: The following are Chinese and Vietnamese air-to-air kills, confirmed by US sources; all were achieved with 30 mm cannon shells.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: One of the first Egyptian MiG-19 units was the 15th Air Brigade, consisting of Nos 20 and 21 Squadrons, which became operational at Fayid with a forward location at Milayz in the early 1960s.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: In 1962, Egyptian MiG-19s saw some action in the ground-attack role during the North Yemen Civil War. The first reported air combat in the Middle East with the MiG-19 happened on 29 November 1966 when an Israeli Air Force (IAF) Dassault Mirage III shot down two Egyptian MiG-19s which were trying to intercept an Israeli reconnaissance Piper J-3 Cub in Israeli airspace. The first MiG was destroyed with a R.530 radar-guided missile fired from less than a mile away, marking the first aerial kill for the French-made missile. The second MiG-19 was dispatched with cannon fire.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: Around 80 MiG-19s were in service with Egypt during the Six-Day War in June 1967, but more than half of them were destroyed on the ground during the opening Israeli airstrikes of Operation Focus. Israeli pilots, however, did find the MiG-19 a potentially dangerous adversary because of its performance, maneuverability, and heavy armament.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: Following the war, the Egyptians reorganized their surviving MiG-19 fleet, and assigned them to the air defense of Egypt's interior. The Soviet Union did not supply Egypt with any additional MiG-19s as replacements for those destroyed in the Six-Day War, but Egypt might have received some from Syria and Iraq, so that by the end of 1968 there were more than 80 MiG-19s in service with the Egyptian Air Force. The aircraft also saw combat during the War of Attrition; in one engagement on 19 May 1969, a MiG-19 engaged two Israeli Mirages, shooting down one with cannon fire while the other escaped. Egypt had around 60 MiG-19s in service during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 in which they served as close air support aircraft.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: Iraq obtained some MiG-19S fighters in the early 1960s, but later sold most of them (a couple remaining in local museums), though a few remaining airframes did see some action against the Kurds in the 1960s.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: North Korea received an unknown number of MiG-19S from the Soviet Union following the signing of a mutual assistance treaty in 1961. Thirty of these aircraft may have been sold to Iraq in 1983. At least 100 F-6s were acquired from China in 1988–89. As of April 2002, the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force was reportedly operating about 100 Shenyang J-6 and/or MiG 19s.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

text: This only includes Soviet-built MiG-19s. For information on operators of Chinese-built aircraft refer to Shenyang J-6.


title: First Boer War

text: The First Boer War (, literally "First Freedom War"), 1880–1881, also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British administration). The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic.


title: First Boer War

text: In the 19th century a series of events occurred in the southern part of the African continent, with the British from time to time attempting to set up a single unified state there, while at other times wanting to control less territory. Three prime factors fuelled British expansion into Southern Africa:


title: First Boer War

text: The British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 represented one of their biggest incursions into Southern Africa, but other expansions also occurred. In 1868 the British Empire annexed Basutoland (modern Lesotho in the Drakensberg mountains, surrounded by the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and Natal), following an appeal from Moshoeshoe, the leader of a mixed group of mostly Sotho-speaking refugees from the Difaqane who sought British protection against both the Boers and the Zulus. In the 1880s, the Tswana country became an object of dispute between the Germans to the west, the Boers to the east, and the British in the Cape Colony to the south. Although the Tswana country had at the time almost no economic value, the "Missionaries Road" passed through it toward territory farther north. After the Germans annexed Damaraland and Namaqualand (modern Namibia) in 1884, the British annexed Bechuanaland in two parts in 1885: the Bechuanaland Protectorate (modern Botswana) and British Bechuanaland (later part of the Cape Colony).


title: First Boer War

text: Following the Battle of Blaauwberg (1806) Britain had officially acquired the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa from the Dutch in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars. Certain groups of Dutch-speaking settler farmers ("Boers") resented British rule, even though British control brought some economic benefits. Successive waves of migrations of Boer farmers (known as "Trekboers" which literally means "travelling farmers"), probed first east along the coast away from the Cape toward Natal, and thereafter north toward the interior, eventually establishing the republics that came to be known as the Orange Free State and the Transvaal (literally "across/beyond the Vaal River").


title: First Boer War

text: The British did not try to stop the Trekboers from moving away from the Cape. The Trekboers functioned as pioneers, opening up the interior for those who followed, and the British gradually extended their control outwards from the Cape along the coast toward the east, eventually annexing Natal in 1843.


title: First Boer War

text: The Trekboers were farmers, gradually extending their range and territory with no overall agenda. The formal abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834 led to more organised groups of Boer settlers attempting to escape British rule, some travelling as far north as modern-day Mozambique. This became known as the Great Trek, and those who took part in it are called Voortrekkers.


title: First Boer War

text: Indeed, the British subsequently acknowledged two new Boer Republics in a pair of treaties: the Sand River Convention of 1852 recognised the independence of the Transvaal Republic, and the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854 recognised the independence of the Orange Free State. However, British colonial expansion, from the 1830s, featured skirmishes and wars against both Boers and native African tribes for most of the remainder of the century.


title: First Boer War

text: The discovery of diamonds in 1867 near the Vaal River, some northeast of Cape Town, ended the isolation of the Boers in the interior and changed South African history. The discovery triggered a diamond rush that attracted people from all over the world, turning Kimberley into a town of 50,000 within five years and drawing the attention of British imperial interests. In the 1870s the British annexed West Griqualand, site of the Kimberley diamond-discoveries.


title: First Boer War

text: In 1875 the Earl of Carnarvon, the British Colonial Secretary, in an attempt to extend British influence, approached the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic and tried to organise a federation of the British and Boer territories modelled on the 1867 federation of the French and English provinces of Canada. However the cultural and historical context differed entirely, and the Boer leaders turned him down. Successive British annexations, and in particular the annexation of West Griqualand, caused a climate of simmering unease in the Boer republics. In 1877, the British annexed the Transvaal, which was bankrupt, and under threat from the Zulu. The president of the Transvaal Republic from 1872 to 1877 was T.F. Burgers. The Transvaal Republic was in serious financial trouble because the government had fallen behind on tax collection and a war with the Pedi under the leadership of Sekhukhune in the North-East Transvaal had commenced.


title: First Boer War

text: Sir Theophilus Shepstone was sent by Lord Carnarvon (British Secretary of the Colonies) as a special commissioner to the Transvaal. Shepstone did not initially disclose his true intentions to the Transvaal government, but at the end of January 1877 Shepstone admitted to Burgers that Britain was going to annex the Transvaal Republic. Burgers' response was to convince the Transvaal government to act in a more serious manner, but the Transvaal government refused to see the urgency of their predicament. Lord Carnarvon thought that the annexation of the Transvaal would be the first step in creating a British confederation.


title: First Boer War

text: On 12th April 1877, a proclamation of the annexation of the Transvaal Republic was made in Church Square, Pretoria, the capital city of the Transvaal. The Transvaal Republic was now known as the British Colony of the Transvaal. A Transvaal government delegation comprising Paul Kruger and E. J. P. Jorrisen went to London in 1877 to present their case on behalf of the Transvaal to Lord Carnarvon, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The Transvaal Volksraad (People's Council) asked Transvaal citizens not to commit acts of violence, as this would create a negative image of the Transvaal in Britain. In April 1880, the Liberal Party was elected as the new government in Britain and the feeling in the Transvaal was that it would lead to the return of sovereignty to the Transvaal. However, the new British Prime Minister, W.E. Gladstone reiterated British control of the Transvaal. In October 1880, a newspaper from Paarl in the Cape Colony reported: "Passive resistance is now becoming futile".


title: First Boer War

text: With the defeat of the Zulus, and the Pedi, the Transvaal Boers were able to give voice to the growing resentment against the 1877 British annexation of the Transvaal and complained that it had been a violation of the Sand River Convention of 1852, and the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854.


title: First Boer War

text: Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley, after returning briefly to India, finally took over as Governor of Natal, Transvaal, High Commissioner of SE Africa and Military Commander in July 1880. Multiple commitments prevented Colley from visiting the Transvaal where he knew many of the senior Boers. Instead he relied on reports from the Administrator, Sir Owen Lanyon, who had no understanding of the Boer mood or capability. Belatedly Lanyon asked for troop reinforcements in December 1880 but was overtaken by events.


title: First Boer War

text: The Boers revolted on 16 December 1880 and took action at Bronkhorstspruit against a British column of the 94th Foot who were returning to reinforce Pretoria.


title: First Boer War

text: The trigger for the war came when a Boer named Piet Bezuidenhout (see Gerhardminnebron) refused to pay an illegally inflated tax. Government officials seized his wagon and attempted to auction it off to pay the tax on 11 November 1880, but a hundred armed Boers disrupted the auction, assaulted the presiding sheriff, and reclaimed the wagon. The first shots of the war were fired when this group fought back against government troops who were sent after them.


title: First Boer War

text: After the Transvaal formally declared independence from the United Kingdom, the war began on 16 December 1880 with shots fired by Transvaal Boers at Potchefstroom. During this skirmish, the Boer "commando" was led by General Piet Cronjé. This led to the action at Bronkhorstspruit on 20 December 1880, where the Boers ambushed and destroyed a British Army convoy. From 22 December 1880 to 6 January 1881, British army garrisons all over the Transvaal became besieged.


title: First Boer War

text: Although generally called a war, the actual engagements were of a relatively minor nature considering the few men involved on both sides and the short duration of the combat, lasting some ten weeks.


title: First Boer War

text: The fiercely independent Boers had no regular army; when danger threatened, all the men in a district would form a militia organised into military units called commandos and would elect officers. Commandos being civilian militia, each man wore what he wished, usually everyday dark-grey, neutral-coloured, or earthtone khaki farming clothes such as a jacket, trousers and slouch hat. Each man brought his own weapon, usually a hunting rifle, and his own horses. The average Boer citizens who made up their commandos were farmers who had spent almost all their working lives in the saddle, and, because they had to depend on both their horses and their rifles for almost all of their meat, they were skilled hunters and expert marksmen.


title: First Boer War

text: Most of the Boers had single-shot breech-loading rifle, primarily the .450 Westley Richards, a falling-block, single-action, breech-loading rifle, with accuracy up to 600 yards.


title: First Boer War

text: J. Lehmann's "The First Boer War", 1972, comments "Employing chiefly the very fine breech-loading Westley Richards - calibre 45; paper cartridge; percussion-cap replaced on the nipple manually - they made it exceedingly dangerous for the British to expose themselves on the skyline". Other rifles included the Martini-Henry and the Snider–Enfield. Only a few had repeaters like the Winchester or the Swiss Vetterli. As hunters they had learned to fire from cover, from a prone position and to make the first shot count, knowing that if they missed, in the time it took to reload, the game would be long gone. At community gatherings, they often held target shooting competitions using targets such as hens' eggs perched on posts over 100 yards away. The Boer commandos made for expert light cavalry, able to use every scrap of cover from which they could pour accurate and destructive fire at the British.


title: First Boer War

text: The British infantry uniforms at that date were red jackets, dark blue trousers with red piping on the side, white pith helmets and pipe clayed equipment, a stark contrast to the African landscape. The Highlanders wore the kilt, and khaki uniforms (They had just been involved in the Second Afghan War). The standard infantry weapon was the Martini-Henry single-shot breech-loading rifle with a long sword bayonet. Gunners of the Royal Artillery wore blue jackets. The Boer marksmen could easily snipe at British troops from a distance. The Boers carried no bayonets, leaving them at a substantial disadvantage in close combat, which they avoided as often as possible. Drawing on years of experience of fighting frontier skirmishes with numerous and indigenous African tribes, they relied more on mobility, stealth, marksmanship and initiative while the British emphasised the traditional military values of command, discipline, formation and synchronised firepower. The average British soldier was not trained to be a marksman and got little target practice. What shooting training British soldiers had was mainly as a unit firing in volleys on command.


title: First Boer War

text: At the first battle at Bronkhorstspruit on 20 December 1880, Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Robert Anstruther and 120 men of the 94th Foot (Connaught Rangers) were killed or wounded by Boer fire within minutes of the first shots. Boer losses totalled two killed and five wounded. This mainly Irish regiment was marching westward toward Pretoria, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Anstruther, when halted by a Boer commando group. They were halted when they approached a small stream called the Bronkhorstspruit, 38 miles from Pretoria. Its leader, Commandant Frans Joubert, (brother of General Piet Joubert), ordered Anstruther and the column to turn back, stating that the territory was now again a Boer Republic and therefore any further advance by the British would be deemed an act of war. Anstruther refused and ordered that ammunition be distributed. The Boers opened fire and the ambushed British troops were annihilated. In the ensuing engagement, the column lost 56 men dead and 92 wounded. With the majority of his troops dead or wounded, the dying Anstruther ordered surrender.


title: First Boer War

text: The Boer uprising caught the six small British forts scattered around the Transvaal by surprise. They housed some 2,000 troops between them, including irregulars with as few as fifty soldiers at Lydenburg in the east which Anstruther had just left. Being isolated, and with so few men, all the forts could do was prepare for a siege, and wait to be relieved. By 6 January 1881, Boers had begun to besiege Lydenburg. The other five forts, with a minimum of fifty miles between any two, were at Wakkerstroom and Standerton in the south, Marabastad in the north and Potchefstroom and Rustenburg in the west. Boers begun to besiege Marabastad fort on 29 December 1880.


title: First Boer War

text: The three main engagements of the war were all within about sixteen miles of each other, centred on the Battles of Laing's Nek (28 January 1881), Ingogo River (8 February 1881) and the rout at Majuba Hill (27 February 1881). These battles were the result of Colley's attempts to relieve the besieged forts. Although he had requested reinforcements, these would not reach him until mid-February. Colley was, however, convinced that the garrisons would not survive until then. Consequently, at Newcastle, near the Transvaal border, he mustered a relief column (the Natal Field Force) of available men, although this amounted to only 1,200 troops. Colley's force was further weakened in that few were mounted, a serious disadvantage in the terrain and for that type of warfare. Most Boers were mounted and good riders. Nonetheless, Colley's force set out on 24 January 1881 northward for Laing's Nek "en route" to relieve Wakkerstroom and Standerton, the nearest forts.


title: First Boer War

text: In a display of diplomacy before the beginning of the Battle, British commander Sir George Colley sent a message on 23 January 1881 to the Commandant-General of the Boers, Piet Joubert, calling on him to disband his forces or face the full might of Imperial Britain. He wrote "The men who follow you are, many of them ignorant, and know and understood a little of anything outside their own country. But you, who are well educated and have travelled, cannot but be aware how hopeless is the struggle you have embarked upon, and how little any accidental success gained can affect the ultimate result".


title: First Boer War

text: Without waiting for a reply, Colley led his Natal Field Force – consisting of 1,400 men, an 80-strong Naval brigade, artillery and Gatling guns – to a strategic pass in the hills on the Natal-Transvaal border called Laing's Nek.


title: First Boer War

text: At the battle of Laing's Nek on 28 January 1881, the Natal Field Force under Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley attempted with cavalry and infantry attacks to break through the Boer positions on the Drakensberg mountain range to relieve their garrisons. The British were repelled with heavy losses by the Boers under the command of Piet Joubert. Of the 480 British troops who made the charges, 150 never returned. Furthermore, sharpshooting Boers had killed or wounded many senior officers.


title: First Boer War

text: At the battle of Schuinshoogte (also known as Battle of the Carrots) on 8 February 1881, another British force barely escaped destruction. General Colley had sought refuge with the Natal Field Force at Mount Prospect, three miles to the south, to await reinforcements. However, Colley was soon back in action. On 7 February, a mail escort on its way to Newcastle had been attacked by the Boers and forced back to Mount Prospect. The next day Colley, determined to keep his supplies and communication route open, escorted the mail wagon personally and this time with a larger escort. The Boers attacked the convoy at the Ingogo River crossing, but with a stronger force of some 400 men. The firepower was not matched and the fight continued for several hours, but the Boer marksmen dominated the action until darkness when a storm permitted Colley and the remainder of his troops to retreat back to Mount Prospect. In this engagement, the British lost 139 officers and troops, half the original force that had set out to escort the mail convoy.


title: First Boer War

text: Colley had been forced to leave behind many of the wounded to die of exposure. In the space of ten days, he had lost one-quarter of his field force, either dead or wounded. "One or two Pyrrhic victories like this and we shan't have an army left at all", Lieutenant Percival Marling wrote at the time.


title: First Boer War

text: On February 12, Colley received reinforcements consisting of the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot, and the 15th (The King's Hussar's), with the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons, the 83rd (Country of Dublin) Regiment under the command of Sir Evelyn Wood, on the way.


title: First Boer War

text: On 14 February hostilities were suspended, awaiting the outcome of peace negotiations initiated by an offer from Paul Kruger. During this time, Colley's promised reinforcements arrived, with more to follow. The British government in the meantime had offered a Royal Commission investigation and possible troop withdrawal and their attitude toward the Boers was conciliatory. Colley was critical of this stance and, while waiting for Kruger's final agreement, decided to attack again with a view to enabling the British government to negotiate from a position of strength. This resulted in the disaster of the Battle of Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881, the greatest defeat for the British. The British, though they had the superior numbers, were slaughtered.


title: First Boer War

text: On 26 February 1881, Colley led a night march of some 400 men from the 92nd Highlanders, the 58th Regiment, and the Natal Brigade. They reached the top of Majuba Hill, which overlooked the main Boer position. The troops took no artillery with them. At first light, a group of Highlanders advertised their presence by standing on the skyline, shaking their fists, and yelling at the Boers below. The Boers saw the British occupying the summit and stormed the mountain using dead ground. Shooting accurately and using all available natural cover, the Boers advanced toward the British position. Several Boer groups stormed the hill and drove the British off. As panic took hold, terrified British soldiers sprinted for the rear, then fled down the hillside.


title: First Boer War

text: The British suffered heavy losses, with 92 killed, 134 injured, and 59 men were taken prisoner. Major-General Colley was among the dead; he was fatally shot in the head when trying to rally his men. Of the Boers, one was killed and six were wounded, one fatally. Within 30 minutes the British were swept off the summit.


title: First Boer War

text: For the British the shame of Majuba was even more intense than that of Isandlwana. Elite units like the 92nd Highlanders had cut and run in the face of Boer irregulars. This defeat had such an impact that during the Second Boer War, one of the British slogans was "Remember Majuba."


title: First Boer War

text: Hostilities continued until 6 March 1881, when a truce was declared, ironically on the same terms that Colley had disparaged. The Transvaal forts had endured, contrary to Colley's forecast, with the sieges being generally uneventful, the Boers content to wait for hunger and sickness to take their toll. The forts had suffered only light casualties as an outcome of sporadic engagements, except at Potchefstroom, where twenty-four were killed, and seventeen at Pretoria, in each case resulting from occasional raids on Boer positions.


title: First Boer War

text: Although the Boers exploited their advantages to the full, their unconventional tactics, marksmanship and mobility do not fully explain the heavy British losses. Like the Boers, British soldiers were equipped with breech-loading rifles (the Martini-Henry), but they (unlike the Boers) were professionals, and the British Army had previously fought campaigns in difficult terrain and against an elusive enemy, such as the tribesmen of the Northern Territories in modern-day Afghanistan. Historians lay much of the blame at the feet of the British command, in particular Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley, although poor intelligence and bad communications also contributed to their losses. At Laing's Nek it seems that Colley not only underestimated the Boer capabilities, but had been misinformed of, and was surprised by, the strength of the Boer forces. The confrontation at Ingogo Nek was perhaps rash, given that reserves were being sent, and Colley had by then experienced the Boer strength and capabilities. Indeed, strategists have speculated as to whether the convoy should have proceeded at all when it was known to be vulnerable to attack, and whether it was necessary for Colley himself to take command of the British guard.


title: First Boer War

text: Colley's decision to initiate the attack at Majuba Hill when truce discussions were already underway appears to have been foolhardy, particularly as there was limited strategic value. The Boer positions were also out of rifle range from the summit. Once the Battle of Majuba Hill had begun, Colley's command and understanding of the dire situation seemed to deteriorate as the day went on, as he sent conflicting signals to the British forces at Mount Prospect by heliograph, first requesting reinforcements and then stating that the Boers were retreating. The poor leadership, intelligence and communications resulted in the deaths of many British soldiers and Colley himself.


title: First Boer War

text: The First Boer War was the first conflict since the American War of Independence in which the British had been decisively defeated and forced to sign a peace treaty under unfavourable terms. The Battle of Laing's Nek would be the last occasion where a British regiment carried its official regimental colours into battle.


title: First Boer War

text: The British government, under Prime Minister William Gladstone, was conciliatory since it realised that any further action would require substantial troop reinforcements, and it was likely that the war would be costly, messy and protracted. Unwilling to get bogged down in a distant war, the British government ordered a truce.


title: First Boer War

text: Sir Evelyn Wood (Colley's replacement) signed an armistice to end the war on 6 March, and subsequently a peace treaty was signed with Kruger at O'Neil's Cottage on 23 March 1881, bringing the war to an official end. In the final peace treaty, the Pretoria Convention, negotiated by a three-man Royal Commission, the British agreed to complete Boer self-government in the Transvaal under British suzerainty. The Boers accepted the Queen's nominal rule and British control over external relations, African affairs, and native districts.


title: First Boer War

text: The Pretoria Convention was signed on 3 August 1881 and ratified on 25 October by the Transvaal Volksraad (parliament). The agreement did not reinstate fully the independence of the Transvaal but kept the state under British suzerainty. British troops withdrew and in 1884, the Pretoria Convention was superseded in 1884 by the London Convention, which provided for full independence and self-government although still with British control of foreign relations.


title: First Boer War

text: When in 1886 a second major mineral find was made at an outcrop on a large ridge some south of the Boer capital at Pretoria, it reignited British imperial interests. The ridge, known locally as the "Witwatersrand" (literally "white water ridge" – a watershed), contained the world's largest deposit of gold-bearing ore. This discovery made the Transvaal, which had been a struggling Boer republic, potentially a political and economic threat to British supremacy in South Africa at a time when Britain was engaged in the scramble for African colonies with France and Germany.


title: First Boer War

text: In 1896, Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, attempted to overthrow the government of Paul Kruger who was then president of the South African Republic or the Transvaal, The so-called Jameson Raid failed.


title: First Boer War

text: By 1899, tensions erupted into the Second Boer War, caused partly by the rejection of an ultimatum by the British. The Transvaal ultimatum had demanded that all disputes between the Orange Free State and the Transvaal (allied since 1897) be settled by arbitration and that British troops should leave. The lure of gold made it worth committing the vast resources of the British Empire and incurring the huge costs required to win that war. However, the sharp lessons the British had learned during the First Boer War – which included Boer marksmanship, tactical flexibility and good use of ground – had largely been forgotten when the second war broke out 18 years later. Heavy casualties, as well as many setbacks, were incurred before the British were ultimately victorious.


title: Child marriage

text: Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child under a certain age – typically 18 years – and an adult or another child. The vast majority of child marriages are between a female child and male adult, and are rooted in gender inequality.


title: Child marriage

text: Although the age of majority (legal adulthood) and marriageable age are usually designated at age 18, both vary across countries, and therefore the marriageable age may be older or younger in a given country. Even where the age is set at 18 years, cultural traditions may override legislation and many jurisdictions permit earlier marriage with parental consent or in special circumstances, such as teenage pregnancy.


title: Child marriage

text: Child marriage violates the rights of children and has long-term consequences for both child brides and child grooms. For child brides, in addition to mental health issues and lack of access to education and career opportunities, these include adverse health effects as a result of early pregnancy and childbirth. Effects on child grooms include being ill-prepared for certain responsibilities such as providing for the family, early fatherhood, and a lack of access to education and career opportunities. Child marriage is part of the practice of child betrothal, which often includes civil cohabitation and a court-approval of the engagement Causes of child marriages include poverty, bride price, dowries, cultural traditions, religious and social pressures, regional customs, fear of the child remaining unmarried into adulthood, illiteracy, and perceived inability of women to work for money. Research indicates that comprehensive sex education can help to prevent child marriage.


title: Child marriage

text: Child marriages have been common throughout history and continue to be widespread, particularly in developing countries such as parts of Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. However, even in developed countries, legal exceptions still allow child marriage, including exceptions in 44 US states.


title: Child marriage

text: The incidence of child marriage has been falling in most parts of the world. 2018 data from UNICEF showed that about 21 percent of young women worldwide (aged 20 to 24) were married as children, a 25 percent decrease from 10 years ago. The countries with the highest observed rates of child marriages (below the age of 18) were Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Nepal, all of which had rates above 50%. Niger, Chad, Bangladesh, Mali, and Ethiopia were the countries with child marriage rates greater than 20% below the age of 15, according to multiple 2003–2009 surveys. Each year, an estimated 12 million girls globally become married under the age of 18.


title: Child marriage

text: Before the industrial revolution, in many parts of the world, including India, China, and Eastern Europe, women tended to marry immediately after reaching puberty. These practices carried well into the 19th century in societies with largely rural populations. Men tended to marry later in societies where a married couple was expected to establish a household of their own. That usually meant that men remained unmarried until they accumulated sufficient wealth to support a new home, and were married in their mature age to adolescent girls.


title: Child marriage

text: In ancient and medieval societies, it was common for girls to be betrothed at or even before the age of puberty. According to Mordechai A. Friedman, "arranging and contracting the marriage of a young girl were the undisputed prerogatives of her father in ancient Israel." Most girls were married before the age of 15, often at the start of their puberty. In the Middle Ages, the age at marriage seems to have been around puberty throughout the Jewish world.


title: Child marriage

text: Ruth Lamdan writes: "The numerous references to child marriage in the 16th-century Responsa literature and other sources, shows that child marriage was so common, it was virtually the norm. In this context, it is important to remember that in halakha, the term "minor" refers to a girl under twelve years and a day. A girl aged twelve and a half was already considered an adult in all respects."


title: Child marriage

text: In Ancient Greece, early marriage and teenage motherhood for girls existed. Boys were expected to marry in their teens, as well. In the Roman Empire, girls were married from age of 12 and boys from age 14. In the Middle Ages, under English civil laws derived from Roman laws, marriages before the age of 16 existed. In Imperial China, child marriage was the norm.


title: Child marriage

text: In contrast to other pre-modern societies – and for reasons that are subject to debate – Northwest Europe was characterized by relatively late marriages for both men and women, with both sexes commonly delaying marriage until their mid-20s or even 30s. The data available for England suggest this was the case by the 14th century. The pattern was reflected in English common law, which was the first in Western Europe to establish statutory rape laws and ages of consent for marriage. In 1275, sexual relations with girls under either 12 or 14 (depending on interpretation of the sources) were criminalized; a second law was made with more severe punishments for under the age of 10 in 1576. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the British colonial administration introduced marriage age restrictions for Hindu and Muslim girls on the Indian subcontinent.


title: Child marriage

text: A Scottish physician living in the 18th century Syria reported that locals tried to contract marriages for their children at a young age, but the marriage was not consummated until the girl "had come of age". Evidence from 19th century Palestine suggests that husbands sometimes initiated sexual relations before their wives reached puberty, but that it was a rare occurrence, condemned socially and censured by sharia courts. Writing in the 1830s, Edward William Lane observed that few Egyptian girls remained single by the age of 16, but socio-economic transformation, educational reforms and modernity brought significant changes, and by 1920 fewer than 10% of Egyptian women married before the age of 20. In 1923, Egypt's parliament set the minimum age of marriage at 16 for women and 18 for men.


title: Child marriage

text: Most of the religions known in history have established a minimum age for marriage in one way or another. Christian canon law forbade the marriage of a girl before the onset of puberty, and the Hindu holy book, the Vedas, proclaimed marriage after the age of puberty. In the Vedas, marriage is shown to be between two adult persons after the Brahmacharya stage. The Vedas, specifically the Rigveda and Atharvaveda, have verses that indicate that during the Vedic period, girls married well after attaining puberty and were of a mature age. The early Dharmaśāstra (Dharmasutras) also states that girls should be married after they have attained puberty while some texts extend the marriageable age to before puberty. In the Manusmriti, which was not implemented as law, a father is considered to have wronged his daughter if he fails to marry her before puberty and if the girl is not married in less than three years after reaching puberty, she can search for the husband herself.


title: Child marriage

text: Jewish scholars and rabbis strongly discouraged marriages before the onset of puberty, but at the same time, in exceptional cases, girls ages 3 through 12 (the legal age of consent according to halakha) might be given in marriage by their fathers. By Judaism, the minimum girl age, for marriage, was 12 years and one day, "na'arah", as mentioned in the ancient Talmud Mishnah books (compiled between 536 BCE – 70 CE, redacted in the 3rd century CE), Order Nashim Masechet Kiddushin 41 a & b.


title: Child marriage

text: According to halakha, girls should not marry until they are 12 years and six months old, "bogeret". Although Moses Maimonides mentions in the Talmud "Mishneh Torah" (compiled between 1170 and 1180 CE) that in exceptional cases girls ages 3 through 12 might be given in marriage by their fathers, he also clarifies in verse 3:19 of the same chapter that: "Although a father has the option of consecrating his daughter to anyone he desires while she is a minor or while she is a maiden, it is not proper for him to act in this manner."


title: Child marriage

text: According to the 1907 "Catholic Encyclopedia", apocryphal accounts that, at the time of her betrothal to Joseph, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was 12–14 years old.


title: Child marriage

text: However the site warn readers that it isn't reliable. To quote what the site said itself: "the apocryphal literature is full of details, the non-admittance of these works into the Canon of the Sacred Books casts a strong suspicion upon their contents" Apocryphal is spurious", "of questionable authenticity"


title: Child marriage

text: Historically within the Catholic Church, before the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the minimum age for a dissoluble betrothal ("") was seven years in the s. The minimum age for a valid marriage was puberty, or nominally 14 for males and 12 for females. The 1917 Code of Canon Law raised the minimum age for a valid marriage at 16 for males and 14 for females. The 1983 Code of Canon Law maintained the minimum age for a valid marriage at 16 for males and 14 for females.


title: Child marriage

text: There is no minimum marriage age defined in traditional Islamic law, and the legal discussion of this topic centered primarily on women's physical maturity. Classical Sunni jurisprudence allows a father to contract a marriage for his underaged daughter. The appropriate age for consummating the marriage, which could occur several years after signing the marriage contract, was to be determined by the bride, groom, and the bride's guardian since medieval jurists held that the age of fitness for intercourse was too variable for legislation. This was based in part on the precedent set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as described in the hadith collections considered to be authentic by Muslims. According to these sources, Muhammad married Aisha, his third wife, when she was about six, and consummated the marriage when she was about nine. Some modern Muslim authors and Islamic scholars, such as Ali Gomaa, who served as the Grand Mufti of Egypt, doubt the traditionally accepted narrative and believe based on other evidence that Aisha was in her late teens at the time of her marriage. As a general rule, intercourse was prohibited for girls "not able to undergo it," on the grounds of potential physical harm. Disputes regarding physical maturity between the involved parties were to be resolved by a judge, potentially after examination by a female expert witness. The 1917 Codification of Islamic Family Law in the Ottoman empire distinguished between the age of competence for marriage, which was set at 18 for boys and 17 for girls, and the minimum age for marriage, set at 12 for boys and nine for girls. Marriage below the age of competence was permissible only if proof of sexual maturity was accepted in court, while marriage under the minimum age was forbidden. During the 20th century, sharia-based legislation in most countries in the Middle East followed the Ottoman precedent in defining the age of competence, while raising the minimum age to 15 or 16 for boys and 13 to 16 for girls. In 2019, Saudi Arabia raised the age of marriage to 18.


title: Child marriage

text: Although by the beginning of the 21st century, the laws of most countries established the general minimum age for marriage at 18 years, in many countries some exceptions allow marriage before this age with the consent of the parents and/or by court decision. In some countries, a religious marriage is still recognized by the state authorities along with a secular marriage or even instead of it, in others, a registered civil marriage is mandatory.


title: Child marriage

text: Child marriage has lasting consequences on girls, from their health (mental and physical), education and social development perspectives. These consequences last well beyond adolescence. One of the most common causes of death for girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries was pregnancy and childbirth. In Niger, which is estimated to have the highest rate of child marriage in the world, about 3 in 4 girls marry before their 18th birthday.


title: Child marriage

text: Boys are sometimes married as children, almost always to a female minor. UNICEF states that "girls [are] disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one-sixth that among girls." Research on the effects of child marriage on underage boys is scant, which researchers state is likely because child marriage involving boys is less common and boys do not face the adverse health effects as a result of early pregnancy and childbirth. The effects of child marriage on boys include being ill-prepared for certain responsibilities such as providing for the family, early fatherhood, and a lack of access to education and career opportunities. , 156 million living men were married as underage boys.


title: Child marriage

text: In its first in-depth analysis of child grooms, UNICEF revealed that an estimated 115 million boys and men around the world were married as children. Of these, 1 in 5, or 23 million, boys were married before the age of 15. According to the data, the Central African Republic has the highest prevalence of child marriage among males (28%), followed by Nicaragua (19%) and Madagascar (13%). The estimates bring the total number of child brides and child grooms to 765 million. Girls remain disproportionately affected, with 1 in 5 young women aged 20 to 24 years old married before their 18th birthday, compared to 1 in 30 young men.


title: Child marriage

text: According to UNFPA, factors that promote and reinforce child marriage include poverty and economic survival strategies; gender inequality; sealing land or property deals or settling disputes; control over sexuality and protecting family honor; tradition and culture; and insecurity, particularly during war, famine or epidemics. Other factors include family ties in which marriage is a means of consolidating powerful relations between families.


title: Child marriage

text: Providing a girl with a dowry at her marriage is an ancient practice which continues in some parts of the world, especially in the Indian subcontinent. Parents bestow property on the marriage of a daughter as a dowry, which is often an economic challenge for many families. The difficulty to save and preserve wealth for dowry was common, particularly in times of economic hardship, or persecution, or unpredictable seizure of property and savings. These difficulties pressed families to betroth their girls, irrespective of her age, as soon as they had the resources to pay the dowry. Thus, Goitein notes that European Jews would marry their girls early, once they had collected the expected amount of dowry.


title: Child marriage

text: A bride price is the amount paid by the groom to the parents of a bride for them to consent to him marrying their daughter. In some countries, the younger the bride, the higher the bride price. This practice creates an economic incentive where girls are sought and married early by her family to the highest bidder. Child marriages of girls is a way out of desperate economic conditions, or simply a source of income to the parents. Bride price is another cause of child marriage and child trafficking.


title: Child marriage

text: Bride kidnapping, also known as bridenapping, marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice in which a male abducts the female he wishes to marry. Bride kidnapping has been practiced around the world and throughout history. It continues to occur in countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus region, and parts of Africa, and among people as diverse as the Hmong in Southeast Asia, the Tzeltal in Mexico, and the Romani in Europe.


title: Child marriage

text: In most nations, bride kidnapping is considered a crime rather than a valid form of marriage. Some types of it may also be seen as falling along the continuum between forced marriage and arranged marriage. However, even when the practice is against the law, judicial enforcement remains lax in some areas. Bride kidnapping occurs in various parts of the world, but it is most common in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Bride kidnapping is often a form of child marriage. It may be connected to the practice of bride price, and the inability or unwillingness to pay it.


title: Child marriage

text: Money marriage refers to a marriage where a girl, usually, is married off to a man to settle debts owed by her parents.


title: Child marriage

text: Social upheavals such as wars, major military campaigns, forced religious conversion, taking natives as prisoners of war and converting them into slaves, arrest and forced migrations of people often made a suitable groom a rare commodity. Bride's families would seek out any available bachelors and marry them to their daughters before events beyond their control moved the boy away. Persecution and displacement of Roma and Jewish people in Europe, colonial campaigns to get slaves from various ethnic groups in West Africa across the Atlantic for plantations, Islamic campaigns to get Hindu slaves from India across Afghanistan's Hindu Kush as property and for work, were some of the historical events that increased the practice of child marriage before the 19th century.


title: Child marriage

text: Among Sephardi Jewish communities, child marriages became frequent from the 10th to 13th centuries, especially in Muslim Spain. This practice intensified after the Jewish community was expelled from Spain, and resettled in the Ottoman Empire. Child marriages among the Eastern Sephardic Jews continued through the 18th century in Islamic majority regions.


title: Child marriage

text: A sense of social insecurity has been a cause of child marriages across the world. For example, in Nepal, parents fear likely social stigma if adult daughters (past 18 years) stay at home. Other fear of crime such as rape, which not only would be traumatic but may lead to less acceptance of the girl if she becomes a victim of a crime. For example, girls may not be seen as eligible for marriage if they are not virgins. In other cultures, the fear is that an unmarried girl may engage in illicit relationships, or elope causing a permanent social blemish to her siblings, or that the impoverished family may be unable to find bachelors for grown-up girls in their socioeconomic group. Such fears and social pressures have been proposed as causes that lead to child marriages. Insofar as child marriage is a social norm in practicing communities, the elimination of child marriage must come through a changing of those social norms. The mindset of the communities, and what is believed to be the proper outcome for a child bride, must be shifted to bring about a change in the prevalence of child marriage.


title: Child marriage

text: Extreme poverty may make daughters an economic burden on the family, which may be relieved by their early marriage, to the benefit of the family as well as the girl herself. Poor parents may have few alternatives they can afford for the girls in the family; they often view marriage as a means to ensure their daughter's financial security and to reduce the economic burden of a growing adult on the family. Child marriage can also be seen as means of ensuring a girl's economic security, particularly if she lacks family members to provide for her. In reviews of Jewish community history, scholars claim poverty, shortage of grooms, uncertain social and economic conditions were a cause of frequent child marriages.


title: Child marriage

text: An additional factor causing child marriage is the parental belief that early marriage offers protection. Parents feel that marriage provides their daughter with a sense of protection from sexual promiscuity and safe from sexually transmitted infections. However, in reality, young girls tend to marry older men, placing them at an increased risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection.


title: Child marriage

text: Protection through marriage may play a specific role in conflict settings. Families may have their young daughters marry members of an armed group or military in hopes that they will be better protected. Girls may also be taken by armed groups and forced into marriages.