title: Taxila

text: Much of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, is a conversation between Vaishampayana (a pupil of the sage, Vyasa) and King Janamejaya. It is traditionally believed that the story was first recited by Vaishampayana at the behest of Vyasa during the snake sacrifice performed by Janamejaya at Takshashila. The audience also included Ugrashravas, an itinerant bard, who would later recite the story to a group of priests at an ashram in the Naimisha Forest from where the story was further disseminated. The Kuru Kingdom's heir, Parikshit (grandson of Arjuna) is said to have been enthroned at Takshashila.


title: Taxila

text: The Ramayana describes Takshashila as a magnificent city famed for its wealth which was founded by Bharata, the younger brother of Rama. Bharata, who also founded nearby Pushkalavati, installed his two sons, Taksha and Pushkala, as the rulers of the two cities.


title: Taxila

text: In the Buddhist Jatakas, Taxila is described as the capital of the kingdom of Gandhara and a great centre of learning with world-famous teachers. The Takkasila Jataka, more commonly known as the Telapatta Jataka, tells the tale of a prince of Benares who is told that he would become the king of Takkasila if he could reach the city within seven days without falling prey to the yakshinis who waylaid travellers in the forest. According to the Dipavamsa, one of Taxila's early kings was a Kshatriya named Dipankara who was succeeded by twelve sons and grandsons. , mentioned in the Avadanakalpalata, is another king associated with the city.


title: Taxila

text: In the Jain tradition, it is said that Rishabha, the first of the Tirthankaras, visited Taxila millions of years ago. His footprints were subsequently consecrated by Bahubali who erected a throne and a dharmachakra ('wheel of the law') over them several miles in height and circumference.


title: Taxila

text: The region around Taxila was settled by the neolithic era, with some ruins at Taxila dating to 1000 BCE. Ruins dating from the Early Harappan period around 1300 BCE have also been discovered in the Taxila area, though the area was eventually abandoned after the collapse of the Indus Valley civilisation.


title: Taxila

text: The earliest settled occupation in Taxila Valley was found at Sarai Khola, located 2 km to the south-west of Taxila Museum, where three radiocarbon dates from Period I suggest the site was first occupied between the late 4th and early 3rd millennium BCE, with deposits of polished stone celts, chert blades and a distinctive type of highly burnished pottery that shows clear signs of the use of woven baskets in the manufacturing process and the application of a slurry to the exterior surface. Periods IA and II at Sarai Khola seem to show continuity from Period I, with the appearance of red burnished wares. However, Kot Diji-style wares were found in greater numbers, and the Kot Diji-style forms show signs of having been wheel-thrown, marking a clear technological change from the Period I material. Seven radiocarbon dates were also taken from the earlier and later Period II/Kot Diji, and seem to show this phase dates from the mid-late 3rd to early 2nd millennium BCE.


title: Taxila

text: Later on, the first major settlement at Taxila, in Hathial mound, was established around 1000 BCE. By 900 BCE, the city was already involved in regional commerce, as discovered pottery shards reveal trading ties between the city and Puṣkalāvatī.


title: Taxila

text: Later, Taxila was inhabited at Bhir Mound, dated to some time around the period 800-525 BCE with these early layers bearing grooved red burnished ware.


title: Taxila

text: Archaeological excavations show that the city may have grown significantly during the rule of the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE. In 516 BCE, Darius I embarked on a campaign to conquer Central Asia, "Ariana" and "Bactria", before marching onto what is now Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Emperor Darius spent the winter of 516-515 BCE in the Gandhara region surrounding Taxila, and prepared to conquer the Indus Valley, which he did in 515 BCE, after which he appointed Scylax of Caryanda to explore the Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Indus to the Suez. Darius then returned to Persia via the Bolan Pass. The region continued under Achaemenid suzerainty under the reign of Xerxes I, and continued under Achaemenid rule for over a century.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila was sometimes ruled as part of the Gandhara kingdom (whose capital was Pushkalavati), particularly after the Achaemenid period, but Taxila sometimes formed its own independent district or city-state.


title: Taxila

text: During his invasion of the Indus Valley, Alexander the Great was able to gain control of Taxila () in 326 BCE without a battle, as the city was surrendered by its ruler, king Omphis (Āmbhi). Greek historians accompanying Alexander described Taxila as "wealthy, prosperous, and well governed". Arrian writes that Alexander was welcomed by the citizens of the city, and he offered sacrifices and celebrated a gymnastic and equestrian contest there.


title: Taxila

text: By 317 BCE, the Greek satraps left by Alexander were driven out, and Taxila came under the control of Chandragupta Maurya, who turned Taxila into a regional capital. His advisor, Kautilya/Chanakya, was said to have taught at Taxila's university. Under the reign of Ashoka the Great, Chandragupta's grandson, the city was made a great seat of Buddhist learning, though the city was home to a minor rebellion during this time.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila was founded in a strategic location along the ancient "Royal Highway" that connected the Mauryan capital at Pataliputra in Bihar, with ancient Peshawar, Puṣkalāvatī, and onwards towards Central Asia via Kashmir, Bactria, and Kāpiśa. Taxila thus changed hands many times over the centuries, with many empires vying for its control.


title: Taxila

text: In the 2nd century BCE, Taxila was annexed by the Indo-Greek kingdom of Bactria. Indo-Greeks built a new capital, Sirkap, on the opposite bank of the river from Taxila. During this new period of Bactrian Greek rule, several dynasties (like Antialcidas) likely ruled from the city as their capital. During lulls in Greek rule, the city managed profitably on its own, to independently control several local trade guilds, who also minted most of the city's autonomous coinage. In about the 1st century BCE or 1st century CE, an Indo-Scythian king named Azilises had three mints, one of which was at Taxila, and struck coins with obverse legends in Greek and Kharoṣṭhī.


title: Taxila

text: The last Greek king of Taxila was overthrown by the Indo-Scythian chief Maues around 90 BCE. Gondophares, founder of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom, conquered Taxila around 20 BCE, and made Taxila his capital. According to early Christian legend, Thomas the Apostle visited Gondophares IV around 46 CE, possibly at Taxila given that city was Gondophares' capital city.


title: Taxila

text: Around the year 50 CE, the Greek Neopythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana allegedly visited Taxila, which was described by his biographer, Philostratus, writing some 200 years later, as a fortified city laid out on a symmetrical plan, similar in size to Nineveh"." Modern archaeology confirms this description. Inscriptions dating to 76 CE demonstrate that the city had come under Kushan rule by that time, after the city was captured from the Parthians by Kujula Kadphises, founder of the Kushan Empire. The great Kushan ruler Kanishka later founded Sirsukh, the most recent of the ancient settlements at Taxila.


title: Taxila

text: In the mid-fourth century CE, the Gupta Empire occupied the territories in Eastern Gandhara, establishing a Kumaratya's post at Taxila. The city became well known for its trade links, including silk, sandalwood, horses, cotton, silverware, pearls, and spices. It is during this time that the city heavily features in classical Indian literature – both as a centre of culture as well as a militarised border city.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila's university remained in existence during the travels of Chinese pilgrim Faxian, who visited Taxila around 400 CE. He wrote that Taxila's name translated as "the Severed Head", and was the site of a story in the life of Buddha "where he gave his head to a man".


title: Taxila

text: The Kidarites, vassals of the Hephthalite Empire are known to have invaded Taxila in c. 450 CE. Though repelled by the Gupta Emperor Skandagupta, the city would not recover- probably on account of the strong Hunnic presence in the area, breakdown of trade as well as the three-way war between Persia, the Kidarite State, and the Huns in Western Gandhara.


title: Taxila

text: The White Huns and Alchon Huns swept over Gandhāra and Punjab around 470 CE, causing widespread devastation and destruction of Taxila's famous Buddhist monasteries and stupas, a blow from which the city would never recover. From 500 CE to 540 CE, the city languished after falling under the control of the Hunnic Empire ruled by Mihirakula. A patron of Hindu Shaivism, Mihirakula presided over some destruction of Buddhist sites and monasteries across northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent.


title: Taxila

text: Xuanzang visited India between 629 and 645 CE. Taxila which was desolate and half-ruined was visited by him in 630 CE, and found most of its sangharamas still ruined and desolate. Only a few monks remained there. He adds that the kingdom had become a dependency of Kashmir with the local leaders fighting amongst themselves for power. He noted that it had some time previously been a subject of Kapisa. By the ninth century, it became a dependency of the Kabul Shahis. The Turki Shahi dynasty of Kabul was replaced by the Hindu Shahi dynasty which was overthrown by Mahmud of Ghazni with the defeat of Trilochanpala.


title: Taxila

text: Al-Usaifan's king during the reign of Al-Mu'tasim is said to have converted to Islam by Al-Biladhuri and abandoned his old faith due to the death of his son despite having priests of a temple pray for his recovery. Said to be located between Kashmir, Multan and Kabul, al-Usaifan is identified with kingdom of Taxila by some authors.


title: Taxila

text: By some accounts, Taxila was considered to be one of the earliest (or the earliest) universities in the world. Others do not consider it a university in the modern sense, in that the teachers living there may not have had official membership of particular colleges, and there did not seem to have existed purpose-built lecture halls and residential quarters in Taxila, in contrast to the later Nalanda university in eastern India.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila became a noted centre of learning (including the religious teachings of Buddhism) at least several centuries BCE, and continued to attract students from around the old world until the destruction of the city in the 5th century. It has been suggested that at its height, Taxila exerted a sort of "intellectual suzerainty" over other centres of learning in India and its primary concern was not with elementary, but higher education. Generally, a student entered Taxila at the age of sixteen. The ancient and the most revered scriptures, and the Eighteen "Silpas" or Arts, which included skills such as archery, hunting, and elephant lore, were taught, in addition to its law school, medical school, and school of military science. Students came to Taxila from far-off places such as Kashi, Kosala and Magadha, in spite of the long and arduous journey they had to undergo, on account of the excellence of the learned teachers there, all recognised as authorities on their respective subjects.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila had great influence on Hindu culture and the Sanskrit language. It is perhaps best known for its association with Chanakya, also known as Kautilya, the strategist who guided Chandragupta Maurya and assisted in the founding of the Mauryan empire. Chanakya's "Arthashastra" ("The knowledge of Economics") is said to have been composed in Taxila. The Ayurvedic healer Charaka also studied at Taxila. He also started teaching at Taxila in the later period. Pāṇini, the grammarian who codified the rules that would define Classical Sanskrit, has also been part of the community at Taxila.


title: Taxila

text: The institution is significant in Buddhist tradition since it is believed that the Mahāyāna branch of Buddhism took shape there. Jīvaka, the court physician of the Magadha emperor Bimbisara who once cured the Buddha, and the Buddhism-supporting ruler of Kosala, Prasenajit, are some important personalities mentioned in Pali texts who studied at Taxila.


title: Taxila

text: No external authorities like kings or local leaders subjected the scholastic activities at Taxila to their control. Each teacher formed his own institution, enjoying complete autonomy in work, teaching as many students as he liked and teaching subjects he liked without conforming to any centralised syllabus. Study terminated when the teacher was satisfied with the student's level of achievement. In general, specialisation in a subject took around eight years, though this could be lengthened or shortened in accordance with the intellectual abilities and dedication of the student in question. In most cases the "schools" were located within the teachers' private houses, and at times students were advised to quit their studies if they were unable to fit into the social, intellectual and moral atmosphere there.


title: Taxila

text: Knowledge was considered too sacred to be bartered for money, and hence any stipulation that fees ought to be paid was vigorously condemned. Financial support came from the society at large, as well as from rich merchants and wealthy parents. Though the number of students studying under a single Guru sometimes numbered in the hundreds, teachers did not deny education even if the student was poor; free boarding and lodging was provided, and students had to do manual work in the household. Paying students, such as princes, were taught during the day, while non-paying ones were taught at night. Gurudakshina was usually expected at the completion of a student's studies, but it was essentially a mere token of respect and gratitude - many times being nothing more than a turban, a pair of sandals, or an umbrella. In cases of poor students being unable to afford even that, they could approach the king, who would then step in and provide something. Not providing a poor student a means to supply his Guru's Dakshina was considered the greatest slur on a King's reputation.


title: Taxila

text: Examinations were treated as superfluous, and not considered part of the requirements to complete one's studies. The process of teaching was critical and thorough- unless one unit was mastered completely, the student was not allowed to proceed to the next. No convocations were held upon completion, and no written "degrees" were awarded, since it was believed that knowledge was its own reward. Using knowledge for earning a living or for any selfish end was considered sacrilegious.


title: Taxila

text: Students arriving at Taxila usually had completed their primary education at home (until the age of eight), and their secondary education in the Ashrams (between the ages of eight and twelve), and therefore came to Taxila chiefly to reach the ends of knowledge in specific disciplines.


title: Taxila

text: Marshall loves to Taxila revealed from his close friend AD Siddque who was assistance to Sir John Marshall, he remember Taxila while writing letter to AD Siddique. AD Siddiqui Khan Sahib (Ahmed din Siddiqui (5 May 1892, Sailkot – 5 May 1963, Taxila) was a Pakistani archaeologist and provided assistant to Sir John Marshall who was Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928.[1] He oversaw the excavations of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, and Taxila three of the main cities that comprise the Indus Valley civilization. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=973000060223920&set=pb.100025418053839.-2207520000..&type=3


title: Taxila

text: For More Information about Sir John Marshall Interest in Taxila and Original letter correspondence please visit to Front office of Gandhara Cultural Center at Taxila is a project of Center for Culture and Development (C2D) www.c2d.org.pk https://www.facebook.com/GandharaResourceCenter


title: Taxila

text: The sites of a number of important cities noted in ancient Indian texts were identified by scholars early in the 19th century. The lost city of Taxila, however, was not identified until later, in 1863-64. Its identification was made difficult partly due to errors in the distances recorded by Pliny in his Naturalis Historia which pointed to a location somewhere on the Haro river, two days march from the Indus. Alexander Cunningham, the founder and the first director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India, noticed that this position did not agree with the descriptions provided in the itineraries of Chinese pilgrims and in particular, that of Xuanzang, the 7th-century Buddhist monk. Unlike Pliny, these sources noted that the journey to Taxila from the Indus took three days and not two. Cunningham's subsequent explorations in 1863–64 of a site at Shah-dheri convinced him that his hypothesis was correct.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila's archaeological sites lie near modern Taxila about northwest of the city of Rawalpindi. The sites were first excavated by John Marshall, who worked at Taxila over a period of twenty years from 1913.


title: Taxila

text: The vast archaeological site includes neolithic remains dating to 3360 BCE, and Early Harappan remains dating to 2900–2600 BCE at "Sarai Kala". Taxila, however, is most famous for ruins of several settlements, the earliest dating from around 1000 BCE. It is also known for its collection of Buddhist religious monuments, including the Dharmarajika stupa, the Jaulian monastery, and the Mohra Muradu monastery.


title: Taxila

text: The main ruins of Taxila include four major cities, each belonging to a distinct time period, at three different sites. The earliest settlement at Taxila is found in the Hathial section, which yielded pottery shards that date from as early as the late 2nd millennium BCE to the 6th century BCE. The Bhir Mound ruins at the site date from the 6th century BCE, and are adjacent to Hathial. The ruins of Sirkap date to the 2nd century BCE, and were built by the region's Greco-Bactrian kings who ruled in the region following Alexander the Great's invasion of the region in 326 BCE. The third and most recent settlement is that of Sirsukh, which was built by rulers of the Kushan empire, who ruled from nearby Purushapura (modern Peshawar).


title: Taxila

text: Taxila was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 in particular for the ruins of the four settlement sites which "reveal the pattern of urban evolution on the Indian subcontinent through more than five centuries". The serial site includes a number of monuments and other historical places of note in the area besides the four settlements at Bhir, Saraikala, Sirkap, and Sirsukh. They number 18 in all:


title: Taxila

text: In a 2010 report, Global Heritage Fund identified Taxila as one of 12 worldwide sites most "on the Verge" of irreparable loss and damage, citing insufficient management, development pressure, looting, and war and conflict as primary threats. In 2017, it was announced that Thailand would assist in conservation efforts at Taxila, as well as at Buddhist sites in the Swat Valley.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila is located north-west of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. The city is located approximately above sea level.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila is one of northern Pakistan's most important tourist destinations and is home to the Taxila Museum which holds a large number of artifacts from Taxila's excavations. Though the number of foreign visitors to the site drastically declined following the start of an Islamist insurgency in Pakistan in 2007, visitor numbers began to noticeably improve by 2017, after the law and order situation in the region had greatly improved following the start of the 2014 "Zarb-e-Azb" campaign launched by the Pakistani Army against radical Islamist militants.


title: Taxila

text: In 2017, the Pakistani government announced its intention to develop Taxila into a site for Buddhist religious pilgrimage. As part of the efforts, it announced that an exhibition on the Buddhist heritage of the region would be held in Thailand, and that the Thai government would assist in conservation efforts at the site. Relics from Taxila were also sent to Sri Lanka for the 2017 "Vesak" holiday as part of an effort to showcase the region's Buddhist heritage. The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation also announced in 2017 that a tour bus service would be launched between the Taxila Museum and Islamabad.


title: Taxila

text: In addition to the ruins of ancient Taxila, relics of Mughal gardens and vestiges of historical Grand Trunk Road are also found in Taxila. Nicholson's Obelisk, named in honor of Brigadier John Nicholson who died during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, is a monument from the British era that welcomes travelers arriving from Rawalpindi/Islamabad.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila is home to Heavy Industries Taxila, a major Pakistani defence, military contractor, engineering conglomerate. The city's economy is also closely linked to the large Pakistan Ordnance Factories at nearby Wah Cantt, which employs 27,000 people. Cottage and household industries include stoneware, pottery and footwear. Heavy Mechanical Complex is also located in Taxila city.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila is served by the Taxila Cantonment Junction railway station. Taxila Junction is served by the Karachi–Peshawar Railway Line, and is the southern terminus of the Khunjerab Railway, which connects Taxila to the Havelian railway station. A planned extension of the railway will eventually connect Taxila to China's Southern Xinjiang Railway in Kashgar, as part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.


title: Taxila

text: The ancient Grand Trunk Road is designated as N-5 National Highway, and connects the city to the Afghan border, and northern Punjab. The Karakoram Highway's southern terminus is in nearby Hasan Abdal, and connects Taxila to the Chinese border near the Hunza Valley.


title: Taxila

text: The city is linked to Peshawar and Islamabad by the M-1 Motorway, which in turn offers wider motorway access to Lahore via the M-2 Motorway, and Faisalabad via the M-4 Motorway.


title: Taxila

text: The nearest airport to Taxila is Islamabad International Airport located 36.5 kilometers away. Peshawar's Bacha Khan International Airport is 155 kilometers away.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila is home to many secondary educational institutes including CIIT Wah Campus, and HITEC University. The University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila was established in 1975 as a campus of the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore,


title: Taxila

text: The Ruins of Taxila include four major cities, each belonging to a distinct time period, at three different sites. The earliest settlement at Taxila is found in the Hathial section, which yielded pottery shards that date from as early as the late 2nd millennium BCE to the 6th century BCE. The Bhir Mound ruins at the site date from the 6th century BCE, and are adjacent to "Hathial". The ruins of Sirkap date to the 2nd century BCE, and were built by the region's Greco-Bactrian kings who ruled in the region following Alexander the Great's invasion of the region in 326 BCE. The third and most recent settlement is that of Sirsukh, which was built by rulers of the Kushan empire, who ruled from nearby "Purushapura" (modern Peshawar).


title: Taxila

text: Modern Taxila is a mix of relatively wealthy urban, and poorer rural environs. Urban residential areas are general in the form of planned housing colonies populated by workers of the heavy mechanical complex & heavy industries, educational institutes and hospitals that are located in the area.


title: Taxila

text: Taxila Museum has one of the most significant and comprehensive collections of stone Buddhist sculpture from the first to the seventh centuries in Pakistan (known as Gandharan art. The core of the collection comes from excavated sites in the Taxila Valley, particularly the excavations of Sir John Marshall. Other objects come from excavated sites elsewhere in Gandhara, from donations such as the Ram Das Collection, or from material confiscated by the police and customs authorities.


title: Fenian

text: The word Fenian () served as an umbrella term for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood, secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic. In 1867 they sought to coordinate raids into Canada from the United States with a rising in Ireland. In the 1916 Easter Rising and the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence, the IRB led the republican struggle.


title: Fenian

text: Fenianism (), according to O'Mahony, embodied two principles: firstly, that Ireland had a natural right to independence, and secondly, that this right could be won only by an armed revolution. The name originated with the Fianna of Irish mythology – groups of legendary warrior-bands associated with Fionn mac Cumhail. Mythological tales of the Fianna became known as the Fenian Cycle.


title: Fenian

text: In the 1860s, opponents of Irish nationalism within the English political establishment sometimes used the term "Fenianism" to refer to any form of mobilisation among the Irish or to those who expressed any Irish nationalist sentiments, or questioned the Protestant Ascendancy (such as by advocating for the rights of tenant farmers). The political establishment often applied the term in this sense – inaccurately – to the unrelated Tenant Right League, the Irish National Land League and the Irish Parliamentary Party, who did not advocate explicitly for an independent Irish Republic or for the use of force. The establishment warned people about a perceived threat to turn what they saw as "decent civilised" society on its head by movements such as trade unionism seeking to change the existing social order in the United Kingdom.


title: Fenian

text: James Stephens, one of the "Men of 1848", (a participant in the 1848 revolt) had established himself in Paris, and was in correspondence with John O'Mahony in the United States and other advanced nationalists at home and abroad. This would include the "Phoenix National and Literary Society", with Jeremiah O'Donovan (afterwards known as O'Donovan Rossa) among its more prominent members, which had been formed recently at Skibbereen.


title: Fenian

text: Along with Thomas Clarke Luby, John O'Leary and Charles Kickham he founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood on 17 March 1858 in Lombard Street, Dublin.


title: Fenian

text: The Fenian Rising in 1867 proved to be a "doomed rebellion", poorly organised and with minimal public support. Most of the Irish-American officers who landed at Cork, in the expectation of commanding an army against England, were imprisoned; sporadic disturbances around the country were easily suppressed by the police, army and local militias. In the aftermath, Fenian assassination circles were active in Cork and in Dublin and were responsible for shooting two officers of the Dublin Metropolitan Police on duty in October 1867.


title: Fenian

text: In 1882, a breakaway IRB faction calling itself the Irish National Invincibles assassinated the British Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish and his Permanent Under-secretary (chief civil servant), in an incident known as the Phoenix Park Murders.


title: Fenian

text: The Fenian Brotherhood, the Irish Republican Brotherhood's US branch, was founded by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny, both of whom had been "out" (participating in the Young Irelander's rising) in 1848. In the face of nativist suspicion, it quickly established an independent existence, although it still worked to gain Irish American support for armed rebellion in Ireland. Initially, O'Mahony ran operations in the US, sending funds to Stephens and the IRB in Ireland.


title: Fenian

text: In 1865, O'Mahony's leadership was challenged and the movement was split by a faction led by William B. Roberts, a wealthy New York City dry-goods merchant, more closely allied with the Democratic-Party machine. It was Roberts’ faction that sponsored the plan to invade Canada and hold it hostage for the liberation of Ireland. In 1867 there was a further challenge to O'Mahony from the new IRB exile David Bell, and his weekly the "Irish Republic". In contrast to Roberts, Bell, committed to black suffrage and to Reconstruction, was allied to the Republicans and was calling a "cleansing" of the spirits of the Irish in America: "Let our people fling off the scales of bigotry and declare that all men are entitled to 'life, liberty, and happiness.'"


title: Fenian

text: John Devoy records that, in the course of 1866, various conferences to reunite the various factions were held. Their efforts were to elect James Stephens as president of a united organisation. Stephens had escaped the round-up of the I.R.B. leadership in Dublin the previous year, but still promised that "The Irish flag – the flag of the Irish Republic – will float in an Irish breeze before New Year's Day, 1867." At the close of 1866, a conference of the refugees of the I.R.B. and many of the American officers who had been in Ireland was held in New York and presided over by Stephens, at which the decision was taken that the fight should be made early in 1867. Some thousands of rifles were afterwards sent to Ireland, but arrived too late to be of any use in the Rising.


title: Fenian

text: In Canada, "Fenian" is used to designate a group of Irish radicals, a.k.a. the American branch of the Fenian Brotherhood in the 1860s. They made several attempts to invade some parts of the British colonies of New Brunswick (i.e., Campobello Island) and Canada (present-day Southern Ontario and Missisquoi County), with the raids continuing after these colonies had been confederated. The ultimate goal of the Fenian raids was to hold Canada hostage and therefore be in a position to blackmail the United Kingdom to give Ireland its independence. Because of the invasion attempts, support or collaboration for the Fenians in Canada became very rare even among the Irish.


title: Fenian

text: Francis Bernard McNamee, the man who started the Fenian movement in Montreal (and who was later suspected of being a government spy), was a case in point. In public, he proclaimed his loyalty to the queen and called for an Irish militia company to defend Canada against the Fenians. In private, he wrote that the real purpose of an Irish militia company would be to assist the Fenian invasion, adding for good measure that if the government denied his request he would raise the cry of anti-Irish Catholic discrimination and bring more of his aggrieved countrymen into the Fenian Brotherhood.


title: Fenian

text: A suspected Fenian, Patrick J. Whelan, was hanged in Ottawa for the assassination of Irish Canadian politician, Thomas D'Arcy McGee in 1868, who had been a member of the Irish Confederation in the 1840s.


title: Fenian

text: The danger posed by the Fenian raids was an important element in motivating the British North America colonies to consider a more centralised defence for mutual protection, ultimately realised through Canadian Confederation.


title: Fenian

text: The Fenians in England and the British Empire were a major threat to political stability. In the late 1860s, the IRB control centre was in Lancashire. In 1868, the Supreme Council of the IRB, the provisional government of the Irish Republic, was restructured. The four Irish provinces (Connacht, Leinster, Ulster and Munster), along with Scotland, the north and south of England and London, had representatives on the council. Later four honorary members were co-opted. The Council elected three members to the executive. The President was chairman, the Treasurer managed recruitment and finance, and the Secretary was director of operations. There were IRB Circles in every major city in England.


title: Fenian

text: On 23 November 1867, three Fenians, William Philip Allen, Michael O'Brian, and Michael Larkin, known as the Manchester Martyrs, were executed in Salford for their attack on a police van to release Fenians held captive earlier that year.


title: Fenian

text: On 13 December 1867, the Fenians exploded a bomb in attempt to free one of their members being held on remand at Clerkenwell Prison in London. The explosion damaged nearby houses, killed 12 people and caused 120 injuries. None of the prisoners escaped. The bombing was later described as the most infamous action carried out by the Fenians in Great Britain in the 19th century. It enraged the public, causing a backlash of hostility in Britain which undermined efforts to establish home rule or independence for Ireland.


title: Fenian

text: In 1868 an Irishman, Henry James O’Farrell attempted to assassinate the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria, who was visiting Sydney. O’Farrell claimed to be a Fenian but was probably a lone actor. He was hanged on 21 April 1868. The Duke recovered but the attack was used by politician Henry Parkes to wage a sectarian campaign against Catholics and people of Irish origin.


title: Fenian

text: Later in 1868 the "Hougoumont", the last convict ship to Australia, arrived in Western Australia carrying 62 Fenian prisoners convicted in England. Over the next decade, most were released and many chose to go to America. By 1876 only six remained in custody, and in that year they were freed in a daring rescue mission organised by the IRB in the United States. The ship "Catalpa" was sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Fremantle, Western Australia, a distance of some 12,000 miles, and took the men back to the United States. The rescue caused a worldwide sensation and sparked several ballads.


title: Fenian

text: In Northern Ireland, "Fenian" is used by some as a derogatory word for Irish Catholics; in 2012, British National Party leader Nick Griffin was criticised by Unionists and Republicans for tweeting the term while attending an Ulster Covenant event at Stormont, Belfast; Griffin referred to Lambeg drums, saying "the can't match the lambeg, you Fenian bastards".


title: Fenian

text: The term "Fenian" is used similarly in Scotland. During Scottish football matches, it is often aimed in a sectarian manner at supporters of Celtic F.C. Celtic has its roots in Glasgow's immigrant Catholic Irish population and the club has thus been associated with Irish nationalism, symbolised by the almost universal flying of the Irish Tricolour during matches. Other Scottish clubs that have Irish roots, such as Hibernian and Dundee United, do not tend to have the term applied to them, however. The term is now firmly rooted within the Old Firm rivalry between Celtic and Rangers. Use of the term as a religious slur carried criminal penalties in some contexts under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012, before its repeal in January 2018.


title: Fenian

text: In Australia, "Fenian" is used as a pejorative term for those members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) who have Australian Republican views similar to those who support Irish unification. In a speech given at the ALP Convention in Adelaide on 15 October 2006, Michael Atkinson, Attorney-General of South Australia, spoke of those members of the ALP who wished to remove the title Queen's Counsel and other references to the crown as "Fenians and Bolsheviks". Atkinson made a further mention of Fenianism when the title of Queen's Counsel was abolished. The title of Queen's Counsel was re-instated by the South Australian government in 2019.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: The Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid was a successful bid by Qatar to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. With a population of 2 million people, Qatar will be the first Arab state to host the World Cup. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, son of Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani the then Emir of Qatar, was the chairman of the bid committee.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: Qatar promoted their hosting of the tournament as representing the Arab World, and has drawn support from across the member states of the Arab League. They also positioned their bid as an opportunity to bridge the gap between the Arab World and the West.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: President of FIFA Sepp Blatter endorsed the idea of having a World Cup in the Arab World, saying in April 2010: "The Arabic world deserves a World Cup. They have 22 countries and have not had any opportunity to organize the tournament". Blatter also praised Qatar's progress: "When I was first in Qatar there were 400,000 people here and now there are 1.6 million. In terms of infrastructure, when you are able to organise the Asian Games (in 2006) with more than 30 events for men and women, then that is not in question". On the 2nd of December 2010, it was announced that Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: Working against the Qatar bid was the extreme temperature in the desert country. The World Cup always takes place during the European off-season in June and July. During this period the average daytime high in most of Qatar exceeds 40 °C (104 °F), the average daily low temperatures not dropping below 30 °C (86 °F). In response to this issue, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the 2022 Qatar bid chairman, has stated, "the event has to be organized in June or July. We will have to take the help of technology to counter the harsh weather. We have already set in motion the process. A stadium with controlled temperature is the answer to the problem. We have other plans up our sleeves as well".


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: The first five proposed stadiums for the World Cup were unveiled at the beginning of March 2010. The stadium will employ cooling technology capable of reducing temperatures within the stadium by up to 20°C (36°F), and the upper tiers of the stadium will be disassembled after the World Cup and donated to countries with less developed sports infrastructure. All of the five stadium projects launched have been designed by German architect Albert Speer & Partners.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: The Air Conditioning in the stadiums for both the players and spectators will be solar powered, carbon neutral and provided by Arup of England.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: The Al-Khor Stadium is planned for Al-Khor city, located 50 kilometres north of Doha. The stadium will have a total capacity of 45,330, with 19,830 of the seats forming part of a temporary modular upper tier. The Al-Wakrah stadium, to be located in Al-Wakrah city in southern Qatar, will have a total capacity of 45,120 seats. The stadium will also contain a temporary upper tier of 25,500 seats. The stadium will be surrounded by large solar panels and will be decorated with Islamic art. The Al-Wakrah and Al-Khor stadiums would have been built regardless of whether Qatar was awarded the World Cup, according to the bid committee. However, the temporary upper-tier sections would not have been added if Qatar had lost the right to host the tournament.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: During May 2011, bribery on the part of two members of the FIFA Executive Committee were tabled by Lord Triesman of the English FA. These allegations were based on information from a whistleblower involved with the Qatari bid. FIFA has since opened an internal inquiry into the matter, and would consider a revote on the 2022 World Cup if the allegations were proven. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter conceded in 2011 that there was widespread support to re-hold the 2022 vote won by Qatar.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: In testimony to a UK parliamentary inquiry board in May 2011 Lord Triesman alleged that Trinidad and Tobago's Jack Warner demanded $4 million for an education center in his country and Paraguay's Nicolás Léoz asked for an honorary knighthood in exchange for their votes. Also, two "Sunday Times" reporters testified that they had been told that Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast and Issa Hayatou of Cameroon were each paid $1.5 million to support Qatar's bid for the tournament. All four have denied the allegations. Mohammed bin Hammam, who played a key role in securing the games for Qatar, withdrew as a candidate for president of FIFA in May 2011 after being accused of bribing 25 FIFA officials to vote for his candidacy. Both Bin Hammam and Warner were suspended by FIFA in wake of these allegations, with Warner reacting to his suspension by questioning Blatter's conduct and adding that FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke had also told him that Qatar had bought the 2022 World Cup. Valcke subsequently issued a statement denying he had suggested it was bribery, saying instead that the country had "used its financial muscle to lobby for support".


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: Qatar officials denied any impropriety and insist that the corruption allegations are being driven by envy and mistrust by those who do not want the World Cup staged in Qatar. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker gave an interview to German media in June 2014 stating that "The country is not getting the respect it deserves over its efforts to hold the World Cup and that the Qatari Emir strictly punishes and forbids instances of corruption and bribery with a zero-tolerance policy".


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: According to leaked documents seen by "The Sunday Times", Qatari state-owned television channel Al Jazeera (now beIN Sport) secretly offered $400 million to FIFA, for broadcasting rights, just 21 days before FIFA announced that Qatar will hold the 2022 World Cup. The contract also documented a secret TV deal between FIFA and Qatar's state run media broadcast Al Jazeera that $100 million will also be paid into a designated FIFA account only if Qatar wins the World Cup ballot in 2010. An additional $480 million was also offered by the State of Qatar government, three years after the initial offer, which brings the amount to $880 million offered by Qatar to host the 2022 world cup. The documents are now part of the bribery inquiry by Swiss Police. FIFA refused to comment on the inquiry and responded to The Sunday Times in an email and wrote “allegations linked to the Fifa World Cup 2022 bid have already been extensively commented by Fifa, who in June 2017 published the Garcia report in full on Fifa.com. Furthermore, please note that Fifa lodged a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, which is still pending. Fifa is and will continue to cooperate with the authorities.” A beIN spokesman said in a statement that the company would not “respond to unsubstantiated or wildly speculative allegations.”


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: A major element of controversy pertaining to the 2022 FIFA World Cup has been the use of migrant labor in constructing Qatar's several new stadiums for the tournament. Human rights organization Amnesty International has criticized Qatar's treatment of migrant workers and argued in a 56-page report that Qatar has failed to investigate, remedy and prevent the deaths of these workers, subjecting them to inhumane, unhealthy and dangerous conditions while also underpaying them and in some cases preventing them to leave.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: The football associations of several countries qualified for the tournament have taken stands against these alleged human rights violations, and teams such as the Netherlands and Germany have made symbolic protest actions to show their disapproval.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: Responding to the allegation that as many as 6,500 migrant workers may have died as the result of inhumane labor conditions, representatives from Qatar's labor ministry have stated that "no other country has come so far on labour reform in such a short amount of time, but we acknowledge that there is more work to be done".


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: The World Cup is usually held in the northern hemisphere summer. During this season in Qatar, the temperature can get to . Qatar says that this will not be a problem for it hosting the World Cup. A section from Qatar 2022 Bid official site explains:


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: An example of this occurred during the 2018 World Cup qualifier with China under air conditioning, which happened on 8 October 2015.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: Such cooling techniques will be able to reduce temperatures from , which would be comfortable for players and spectators during matches, the bid also proposes these cooling technologies to be used in fan-zones, training pitches and walkways between Metro stations and stadia.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: But if anyone enters an area without this technology, they may still be exposed to extreme levels of heat.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: Qatar declared their intention to change the dates of the World Cup to winter immediately upon being award the Cup because of all the controversy surrounding the topic.


title: Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

text: Alcohol can currently be consumed legally in hotel bars and clubs by showing a passport for reporting and a special permit to attend the club. The question of whether alcohol was allowed to be consumed in additional areas and at the games themselves was asked, Hassan Abdullah al Thawed, chief executive of the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid, said the Muslim state would also permit alcohol consumption during the World Cup. Qatar's bid promised that beer would be permitted at stadia, but this promise was reneged just days before the first game. A few specific fan-zones were set up during the event, that would provide alcohol for sale. Also certain bars were developed for all the tourists coming to support their chosen teams in the World Cup.


title: 2023 Polish parliamentary election

text: Parliamentary elections will be held in Poland in autumn 2023 to elect members of the Sejm and Senate, although they can be held sooner if a snap election is called, which last occurred in 2007. The most recent election, in 2019, resulted in the re-election of a majority Law and Justice government, albeit without a majority in the Senate.


title: 2023 Polish parliamentary election

text: The process of election for the Sejm is through party-list proportional representation via the D'hondt method in multi-seat constituencies, with a 5% threshold for single parties and 8% threshold for coalitions (with the requirements waived for national minorities).


title: 2023 Polish parliamentary election

text: The date of the election will be set by the President of Poland (consistent with constitutional requirements, whereby the election may be held 30 days before the fourth anniversary of the beginning the current convocation of Parliament, on a non-working day, including public holidays).


title: 2023 Polish parliamentary election

text: Should the opposition parties win government, they would require a three-fifths majority of MPs to overturn a presidential veto.


title: Silla

text: Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of Korea.


title: Silla

text: Founded by Hyeokgeose of Silla, of the Park family, the Korean dynasty was ruled by the Gyeongju Gim (Kim) (김, 金) clan for 586 years, the Miryang Bak (Park) (박, 朴) clan for 232 years and the Wolseong Seok (석, 昔) clan for 172 years. It began as a chiefdom in the Samhan confederacies, once allied with Sui China and then Tang China, until it eventually conquered the other two kingdoms, Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668. Thereafter, Unified Silla occupied most of the Korean Peninsula, while the northern part re-emerged as Balhae, a successor-state of Goguryeo. After nearly 1,000 years of rule, Silla fragmented into the brief Later Three Kingdoms of Silla, Later Baekje, and Taebong, handing over power to Goryeo in 935.


title: Silla

text: Until its founding as a full-fledged kingdom, Silla was recorded using several hanja combinations to phonetically approximate its native Korean name, including 斯盧 (사로, Saro), 斯羅 (사라, Sara), 徐那(伐) (서나[벌], Seona[beol]), 徐耶(伐) (서야[벌], Seoya[beol]), 徐羅(伐) (서라[벌], Seora[beol]), and 徐伐 (서벌, Seobeol).


title: Silla

text: In 504, Jijeung of Silla standardized the characters into 新羅 (신라), which in Modern Korean is pronounced "Silla".


title: Silla

text: One etymological hypothesis suggests that the name "Seorabeol" might have been the origin of the word "Seoul", meaning "capital city", and also the name of the present capital of South Korea, which was previously known as Hansung or Hanyang. The name of the Silla capital may have changed into its Late Middle Korean form "Syeo-beul" (셔블), meaning "royal capital city," which might have changed to "Syeo-ul" (셔울) soon after, and finally resulted in "Seoul" (서울 "seo-ul") in the Modern Korean language.


title: Silla

text: The name of either Silla or its capital Seorabeol was widely used throughout Northeast Asia as the ethnonym for the people of Silla, appearing as Shiragi in Japanese and as Solgo or Solho in the language of the medieval Jurchens and their later descendants, the Manchus, respectively. In the modern Mongolian language, Korea and Koreans are still known as "Солонгос" ("Solongos)", which seems to be an alteration of "Silla" influenced by the Mongolian word for "rainbow" ("солонго" "solongo").


title: Silla

text: Silla was also referred to as Gyerim (鷄林, 계림), literally "chicken forest," a name that has its origins in the forest near the Silla capital. Legend has it that the state's founder was born in the same forest, hatched from the egg of a cockatrice (Korean: "gyeryong", 雞龍, 계룡, literally "chicken-dragon").


title: Silla

text: During the Proto–Three Kingdoms period, central and southern Korea consisted of three confederacies called the Samhan. Silla began as Saro-guk, a statelet within the 12-member confederacy known as Jinhan. Saro-guk consisted of six clans later known as the Six Clans of Jinhan (Korean: 진한 6부, Hanja: 辰韓六部 from Gojoseon.


title: Silla

text: According to Korean records, Silla was founded by Bak Hyeokgeose of Silla in 57 BCE, around present-day Gyeongju. Hyeokgeose is said to have been hatched from an egg laid from a white horse, and when he turned 13, six clans submitted to him as king and established Saro-guk (also called Seona).


title: Silla

text: In various inscriptions on archaeological founding such as personal gravestones and monuments, it is recorded that Silla royals considered themselves having Xiongnu ancestry through the Xiongnu prince Kim Il-je, also known as Jin Midi in Chinese sources. According to several historians, it is possible that this unknown tribe was originally of Koreanic origin in the Korean peninsula and joined the Xiongnu confederation. Later the tribes ruling family returned to Korea from Liaodong peninsula where they thrive, and after coming back to the peninsula they got married into the royal family of Silla. There are also some Korean researchers that point out that the grave goods of Silla and of the eastern Xiongnu are alike, and some researchers insist that the Silla king is descended from Xiongnu. Nonetheless, this hypothesis in respect to the origins of Silla royalty are not accepted in mainstream academia, but rather stand as a minor opinion. Considering the situation of the era when the Monument of King Munmu was created, it is presumed to be propaganda created for friendship with China and northerner and the legitimacy of the dynasty.


title: Silla

text: Nihon Shoki and Kojiki also mentions Silla as the place where the Japanese god, Susanoo first descended from the heavens after his banishment in a place called "Soshimori (曽尸茂梨)". Up until the liberation of Korea in 1945, Meiji era Japanese historians claimed that Susanoo had ruled over Silla and that the Koreans were the descendants of him, thus finding justification and legitimizing the Japanese occupation of Korea through the use of Nissen dōsoron. However, many modern historians dismiss this claim as it lacks any historical facts and also due to its contradicting statements that coincide with Dangun, the mythical founder of Korea's first kingdom, Gojoseon.


title: Silla

text: In its early days, Silla started off as a city-state by the name of Saro (Korean: 사로국, Hanja: 斯盧國), initially founded by Yemaek refugees from Gojoseon. It has also accepted dispersed people fleeing from the Lelang Commandery after Goguryeo's invasion, while later on incorporating native Jin people in the vicinity and Ye people to the North.


title: Silla

text: Talhae of Silla (57–80) was the son-in-law of Namhae of Silla (4–24). According to the Samguk Sagi, Seoktalhae was the prince of Yongseongguk(龍成國) or Dapana(多婆那國), located 1,000-ri(里), northeast of Japan. Following the will of Namhae of Silla, he became the fourth king of Silla. One day, he found a low peak next to Mt. Toham(吐含山) and packed it with his own house, and he buried charcoal next to the house of a Japonic official named Hogong(瓠公), who lived there, and deceived him that his ancestors were blacksmiths, but the Hogong family took their home. Hogong was tricked into handing over his house and property to the Seoktalhae. During this period, Kim Al-ji, the ancestor of Gyeongju Kim, was adopted by Talhae of Silla.


title: Silla

text: The territory outside the capital was greatly conquered during the period of Pasa of Silla (80–112). As soon as he ascended the throne, he ordered officials to encourage agriculture, silkworm farming and train soldiers. There was a territorial dispute between the Eumjipbeol and Siljikgok, and the two countries first asked Pasa of Silla to mediate, pasa of Silla was handed over to King Suro of Gimhae, who was the local leader at the time. King Suro instead resolved the territorial issue and ruled in favor of Eumjipbeol. However, King Suro sent an assassin to kill the head of the six Silla divisions, who hid in the Eumjipbeol while the assassin was escaping, and King Tachugan(陀鄒干) protected the assassin. In response, Pasa of Silla invaded Eumjipbeol in 102 and Tachugan surrendered, and the Siljikgok and Apdok, which were frightened by Silla, also surrendered. Six years later, it entered the inland area and attacked and merged Dabulguk, Bijigukuk, and Chopalguk.


title: Silla

text: During the Naehae of Silla period (196–230), the Eight Port Kingdoms War(浦上八國 亂) broke out to determine hegemony in the southern part of the peninsula. In 209, when the eight small nations(浦上八國) in the Nakdong River basin attacked the Silla-friendly Alla-guk, the prince of Alla-guk asked Silla for a rescue army, and the king ordered Crown Prince Seok Uro to gather his troops and attack the eight kingdoms. Crown Prince Seok uro saved Alla-guk and rescued 6,000 of the pro-Silla Gaya people who had been captured and returned to their homeland. Three years later, three countries among Eight Kingdoms(浦上八國), Golpo-Guk, Chilpo-Guk, and Gosapo-guk, will launch counterattacks against Silla. A battle took place in Yeomhae, the southeastern part of the capital, and the war ended when the Silla king came out to fight against it, and the soldiers of the three kingdoms were defeated.


title: Silla

text: By the 2nd century, Silla existed as a distinct state in the southeastern area of the Korean peninsula. It expanded its influence over neighboring Jinhan chiefdoms, but through the 3rd century was probably no more than the strongest city-state in a loose federation.


title: Silla

text: To the west, Baekje had centralized into a kingdom by about 250, overtaking the Mahan confederacy. To the southwest, Byeonhan was being replaced by the Gaya confederacy. In northern Korea, Goguryeo, a kingdom by about 50 CE, destroyed the last Chinese commandery in 313 and had grown into a threatening regional power.


title: Silla

text: Naemul of Silla (356–402) of the Gim clan established a hereditary monarchy and took the royal title of "Maripgan" (麻立干; 마립간). However, in Samguk Sagi, Naemul of Silla still appears as a title of "Isageum" (泥師今; 이사금). He is considered by many historians as the starting point of the Gyeongju Gim (Kim) dynasty, which lasted more than 550 years. However, even when Gim monopolized the throne for more than 500 years, the worship of the founder Bak Hyeokgeose continued.


title: Silla

text: In 377, Silla sent emissaries to China and established relations with Goguryeo. Facing pressure from Baekje in the west and Japan in the south, in the later part of the 4th century, Silla allied with Goguryeo. However, after King Gwanggaeto's campaign, Silla lost its status as a subordinate country. when Goguryeo began to expand its territory southward, moving its capital to Pyongyang in 427, Nulji of Silla was forced to ally with Baekje.


title: Silla

text: By the time of Beopheung of Silla (514–540), Silla was a full-fledged kingdom, with Buddhism as state religion, and its own Korean era name. Silla absorbed the Gaya confederacy during the Gaya–Silla Wars, annexing Geumgwan Gaya in 532 and conquering Daegaya in 562, thereby expanding its borders to the Nakdong River basin.


title: Silla

text: Jinheung of Silla (540–576) established a strong military force. Silla helped Baekje drive Goguryeo out of the Han River (Seoul) area, and then wrested control of the entire strategic region from Baekje in 553, breaching the 120-year Baekje-Silla alliance. Also, King Jinheung established the Hwarang.


title: Silla

text: The early period ended with the death of Jindeok of Silla and the demise of the "hallowed bone" (Hangul: 성골 "seonggol") rank system.


title: Silla

text: The royal title "Maripgan" (Hangul: 마립간) is analyzed into two elements in many popular explanations, with the first element alleged to be from the Korean root


title: Silla

text: or from a word related to Middle Korean "marh" meaning "stake, post, pile, picket, peg, pin (of a tent)".


title: Silla

text: The second element, "gan" (Hangul: 간), is generally believed to be related to the Middle Korean word "han" (Hangul: 한) meaning "great, grand, many, much", which was previously used for ruling princes in southern Korea, and may have some relationship with the Mongol/Turkic title Khan.


title: Silla

text: In the 7th century Silla allied itself with the Chinese Tang dynasty. In 660, under Muyeol of Silla (654-661), the Silla–Tang alliance subjugated Baekje after the Baekje–Tang War. In 668, under King Munmu of Silla (King Muyeol's successor) and General Gim Yu-sin, the Silla–Tang alliance conquered Goguryeo to its north after the Goguryeo–Tang War. Silla then fought against the Tang dynasty for nearly a decade to expel Chinese forces on the peninsula intent on creating Tang colonies there to finally establish a unified kingdom as far north as modern Pyongyang. The northern region of the defunct Goguryeo state later reemerged as Balhae.


title: Silla

text: Silla's middle period is characterized by the rising power of the monarchy at the expense of the "jingol" nobility. This was made possible by the new wealth and prestige garnered as a result of Silla's unification of the peninsula, as well as the monarchy's successful suppression of several armed aristocratic revolts following early upon unification, which afforded the king the opportunity of purging the most powerful families and rivals to central authority. Further, for a brief period of about a century from the late 7th to late 8th centuries the monarchy made an attempt to divest aristocratic officialdom of their landed base by instituting a system of salary payments, or office land ("jikjeon", 직전, 職田), in lieu of the former system whereby aristocratic officials were given grants of land to exploit as salary (the so–called tax villages, or "nog-eup", 녹읍, 祿邑).


title: Silla

text: By the late 8th century, however, these royal initiatives had failed to check the power of the entrenched aristocracy. The mid to late 8th century saw renewed revolts led by branches of the Gim clan which effectively limited royal authority. Most prominent of these was a revolt led by Gim Daegong that persisted for three years. One key evidence of the erosion of kingly authority was the rescinding of the office land system and the re-institution of the former tax village system as salary land for aristocratic officialdom in 757.


title: Silla

text: In Jinjin and Silla, the king was referred to as Gan, and during the Unified Silla Period, the title "Gan" was also used as Chungji Jagan and Agan.


title: Silla

text: The middle period of Silla came to an end with the assassination of Hyegong of Silla in 780, terminating the kingly line of succession of Muyeol of Silla, the architect of Silla's unification of the peninsula. Hyegong's demise was a bloody one, the culmination of an extended civil war involving most of the kingdom's high–ranking noble families. With Hyegong's death, during the remaining years of Silla, the king was reduced to little more than a figurehead as powerful aristocratic families became increasingly independent of central control.


title: Silla

text: Thereafter the Silla kingship was fixed in the house of Wonseong of Silla (785–798), though the office itself was continually contested among various branches of the Gim lineage.


title: Silla

text: Nevertheless, the middle period of Silla witnessed the state at its zenith, the brief consolidation of royal power, and the attempt to institute a Chinese style bureaucratic system.


title: Silla

text: The final century and a half of the Silla state was one of nearly constant upheaval and civil war as the king was reduced to little more than a figurehead and powerful aristocratic families rose to actual dominance outside the capital and royal court.


title: Silla

text: The tail end of this period, called the Later Three Kingdoms period, briefly saw the emergence of the kingdoms of Later Baekje and Taebong, which were really composed of military forces capitalizing on their respective region's historical background, and Silla's submission to the Goryeo dynasty.


title: Silla

text: From at least the 6th century, when Silla acquired a detailed system of law and governance, social status and official advancement were dictated by the bone rank system. This rigid lineage-based system also dictated clothing, house size, and the permitted range of marriage.


title: Silla

text: Since its emergence as a centralized polity Silla society had been characterized by its strict aristocratic makeup. Silla had two royal classes: "sacred bone" ("seonggol", 성골, 聖骨) and "true bone" ("jingol", 진골, 眞骨). Up until the reign of King Muyeol this aristocracy had been divided into "sacred bone" and "true bone" aristocrats, with the former differentiated by their eligibility to attain the kingship. This duality had ended when Queen Jindeok, the last ruler from the "sacred bone" class, died in 654. The numbers of "sacred bone" aristocrats had been decreasing for generations, as the title was only conferred to those whose parents were both "sacred bones", whereas children of a "sacred" and a "true bone" parent were considered as "true bones". There were also many ways for a "sacred bone" to be demoted to a "true bone", thus making the entire system even more likely to collapse eventually.


title: Silla

text: The king (or queen) theoretically was an absolute monarch, but royal powers were somewhat constrained by a strong aristocracy.


title: Silla

text: The "Hwabaek" (화백,和白) served as royal council with decision-making authorities on some vital issues like succession to the throne or declarations of war. The Hwabaek was headed by a person (Sangdaedeung) chosen from the "sacred bone" rank. One of the key decisions of this royal council was the adoption of Buddhism as state religion.


title: Silla

text: Following unification Silla began to rely more upon Chinese models of bureaucracy to administer its greatly expanded territory. This was a marked change from pre-unification days when the Silla monarchy stressed Buddhism, and the Silla monarch's role as a "Buddha-king". Another salient factor in post-unification politics were the increasing tensions between the Korean monarchy and aristocracy.


title: Silla

text: The early Silla military was built around a small number of Silla royal guards designed to protect royalty and nobility and in times of war served as the primary military force if needed. Due to the frequency of conflicts between Baekje and Goguryeo as well as Yamato Japan, Silla created six local garrisons one for each district. The royal guards eventually morphed into "sworn banner" or Sodang units. In 625 another group of Sodang was created. Garrison soldiers were responsible for local defense and also served as a police force.


title: Silla

text: A number of Silla's greatest generals and military leaders were Hwarang (equivalent to the Western knights or chevaliers). Originally a social group, due to the continuous military rivalry between the Three Kingdoms of Korea, they eventually transformed from a group of elite male aristocratic youth into soldiers and military leaders. Hwarang were key in the fall of Goguryeo (which resulted in the unification of the Korean Peninsula under Unified Silla) and the Silla–Tang Wars, which expelled Tang forces in the other two Korean kingdoms.


title: Silla

text: Silla is known to have operated crossbows called the Cheonbono (천보노) that was said to have had a range of one thousand steps and a special pike unit called the Jangchang-Dang (장창당) to counter enemy cavalry. In particular, Silla's crossbows were prized by Tang China due to its excellent functions and durability. Silla would later employ special crossbow units against its Korean counterparts such as Goguryeo and Baekje, as well as the Tang Dynasty during the Silla-Tang War. The pike unit, called Changchangdang that would later be known as the Bigeum Legion (비금서당) as part of the Nine Legions (구서당) and which was consisted of Silla folks, had a special purpose to counter the Göktürks cavalries operated by the Tang army during the Silla-Tang War.


title: Silla

text: In addition, Silla's central army, the Nine Legions (구서당), were consisted of Silla, Goguryeo, Baekje, and Mohe people. These nine legions aimed at defending the capital became complete in formation and compilation after Silla unified the Three Kingdoms. Each Legions were known for their representative colors marked on their collars and were constituted by different groups. The Golden, Red, and Dark Blue Legion employed Goguryeoans while the Blue and White Legion accepted Baekje folks into their ranks. The Bigeum (also Red in color), Green, and Purple Legion were formed by Sillan people whilst the Black Legion took dispersed Mohe refugees into their fold that came along with Goguryeo refugees after the Fall of Goguryeo.


title: Silla

text: Silla is also known for its maritime prowess shown by the navy backed with master shipbuilding and seamanship. The boats employed were usually called 'Shillaseon(신라선)', which had an international reputation for its solid durability and effective capabilities that were said to 'enable men surf across the biggest of waves' amongst the Chinese and Japanese according to the Shoku Nihon Koki. During the Silla-Tang War, the Silla navy under the command of general Shideuk defeated the Tang Navy 22 times out of 23 engagements in Gibeolpo, today's Seocheon County. Jang Bogo, a prominent maritime figure of Silla, was also famous for his navy based on the Cheonghaejin Garrison.


title: Silla

text: A significant number of Silla tombs can still be found in Gyeongju, the capital of Silla. Silla tombs consist of a stone chamber surrounded by a soil mound. The historic area around Gyeongju was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2000. Much of it is also protected as part of Gyeongju National Park. Additionally, two villages near Gyeongju named Hahoe and Yangdong Folk Village were submitted for UNESCO heritages in 2008 or later by related cities and the South Korean government. Since the tombs were harder to break into than those of Baekje, a larger number of objects has been preserved. Notable amongst these are Silla's elaborate gold crowns and jewelry.


title: Silla

text: The massive Bronze Bell of King Seongdeok the Great of Silla is known to produce a distinctive sound. Cheomseongdae near Gyeongju is the oldest extant astronomical observatory in East Asia but some disagree on its exact functions. It was built during the reign of Queen Seondeok (632–647).


title: Silla

text: Muslim traders brought the name "Silla" to the world outside the traditional East Asian sphere through the Silk Road. Geographers of the Arab and Persian world, including ibn Khurdadhbih, al-Masudi, Dimashiki, Al-Nuwayri, and al-Maqrizi, left records about Silla.


title: Silla

text: The current descendants to the Silla dynasty fall under the Park name. Family records since the last ruler have been provided, but these records have yet to be fully verified.


title: Silla

text: Centuries after Buddhism originated in India, the Mahayana Buddhism arrived in China through the Silk Route in 1st century CE via Tibet, then to Korea peninsula in 3rd century during the Three Kingdoms Period from where it transmitted to Japan. In Korea, it was adopted as the state religion of 3 constituent polities of the Three Kingdoms Period, first by the Goguryeo (Gaya) in 372 CE, by the Silla in 528 CE, and by the Baekje in 552 CE. Buddhism was introduced to Silla in 528. Silla had been exposed to the religion for over a century during which the faith had certainly made inroads into the native populace. The Buddhist monk Ado introduced Silla to Buddhism when he arrived to proselytize in the mid 5th century. The Samguk yusa and Samguk sagi record following 3 monks among the first to bring Buddhist teaching, or Dharma, to Korea: Malananta (late 4th century) - an Indian Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to King Baekje of Baekje in the southern Korean peninsula in 384, Sundo - a Chinese Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to Goguryeo in northern Korea in 372, and Ado - a Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to Silla in central Korea. However, according to legend, the Silla monarchy was convinced to adopt the faith by the martyrdom of the Silla court noble Ichadon, who was executed for his Buddhist faith by the Silla king in 527 only to have his blood flow the color of milk.


title: Silla

text: The importance of Buddhism in Silla society of the late early period is difficult to exaggerate. From King Beopheung and for the following six reigns Silla kings adopted Buddhist names and came to portray themselves as Buddhist–kings.


title: Silla

text: By the time of the 7th century, Buddhism in Korea reached its golden age with the advent of prominent, elite scholar-monks such as Wonhyo, Uisang, and Jajang that influenced East Asian philosophy and played pivotal roles in laying key ideas within East Asian Buddhism like Essence-Function. With the support of the government, massive temples like the Temple of the Golden Dragon, Temple of the Buddhist Realms and hermitages like Seokguram were built across the nation. Buddhist ideals and practices permeated the people's daily lives regardless of class and the court, as well as the government, actively promoted Buddhism as a symbol of patriotism in times of invasions. The main assessment is that relics and temple ruins related to Silla found today were ahead of their time and surpassed those of Goryeo and Joseon in terms of size and extravagancy. Many Sillan monks whom were part of the elite caste chose to expand their experience and knowledge by studying abroad in Tang China or travelling far west to India. Hyecho, known for his travelogue ""An Account of Travel to the Five Indian Kingdoms"", was one of the many Korean monks that ventured to territories west to China yet to be visited by Koreans at that time.


title: Silla

text: Silla's strong Buddhist nature is also reflected by the thousands of remnant Buddhist stone figures and carvings, mostly importantly on Namsan. The international influence of the Tang Dynasty on these figures and carvings can be witnessed in the hallmarks of a round full form, a stern expression of the face, and drapery that clings to the body, but stylistic elements of native Korean culture can still be identified.


title: Silla

text: Korea's and Iran's long-running relationship started with cultural exchanges date back to the Three Kingdoms of Korea era, more than 1600 years ago by the way of the Silk Road. A dark blue glass was found in the Cheonmachong Tomb, one of Silla's royal tombs unearthed in Gyeongju. An exotic golden sword was found in Gyerim-ro, a street also located in Gyeongju. These are all relics that are presumed to be sent to Silla from ancient Iran or Persia through the Silk Road. Other items uncovered during the excavation include a silver bowl engraved with an image of the Persian goddess Anahita; a golden dagger from Persia; clay busts; and figurines portraying Middle Eastern merchants.


title: Silla

text: It was only during the Goryeo Dynasty during King HyeonJong's reign when trade with Persia was officially recorded in Korean history. But in academic circles, it is presumed that both countries had active cultural exchanges during the 7th century Silla era which means the relationship between Korea and Iran began more than 1,500 years ago. "In a history book written by the Persian scholar Khurdadbid, it states that Silla is located at the eastern end of China and reads 'In this beautiful country Silla, there is much gold, majestetic cities and hardworking people. Their culture is comparable with Persia'. "Samguk Sagi"— the official chronicle of the Three Kingdoms era, compiled in 1145—contains further descriptions of commercial items sold by Middle Eastern merchants and widely used in Silla society. The influence of Iranian culture was profoundly felt in other ways as well, most notably in the fields of music, visual arts, and literature. The popularity of Iranian designs in Korea can be seen in the widespread use of pearl-studded roundels and symmetrical, zoomorphic patterns.


title: Silla

text: An ancient Persian epic poem, the Kushnameh, contains detailed descriptions of Silla. Former South Korean president Park Geun-hye said during a festival celebrating Iran and Korea's 1,500 years of shared cultural ties, "The Kushnameh, that tells of a Persian prince who went to Silla in the seventh century and got married with a Korean princess, thus forming a royal marriage.”


title: Silla

text: Silla was also a place of interest by the Japanese as the Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki both claim that the Japanese god, Susanoo (brother of Amaterasu) first emerged from the kingdom of Silla after being banished from the heavens, but soon left the peninsula for the Japanese archipelago after being dissastisfied with the land. He was also used as a means of spreading propaganda through Nissen dōsoron that Susanoo once reigned over Silla and that the modern Koreans are his descendants (in turn the Japanese), ultimately using him to justify the Japanese occupation of Korea.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Belle Gunness, born Brynhild Paulsdatter Størset (November 11, 1859 – possibly April 28, 1908), nicknamed "Hell's Belle", was a Norwegian-American serial killer who was active in Illinois and Indiana between 1884 and 1908. Gunness is thought to have killed at least fourteen people, most of whom were men she enticed to visit her rural Indiana property on the promise of marriage, while some sources speculate her involvement in as many as forty murders. Gunness seemingly died in a fire in 1908, but it is popularly believed that she faked her death. Her actual fate is unconfirmed.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth (Belle Gunness) was born in Selbu, Norway on November 11, 1859 to Paul and Berit Størseth; she was the youngest of eight children. She was confirmed at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1874. At age 14, she began working for neighboring farms by milking and herding cattle to save enough money for passage to New York. She moved to the United States in 1881. When she was processed by immigration at Castle Garden, she changed her first name to Belle, then travelled to Chicago to join her sister, Nellie who had immigrated several years earlier.


title: Belle Gunness

text: In Chicago, while living with her sister and brother-in-law, she worked as a domestic servant, then got a job at a butcher's shop cutting up animal carcasses, until her first marriage in 1884. She was at least 5'7" (170 cm) and weighed around 95 - 113 kg (210 - 250 lbs) and was physically strong and masculine in appearance.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Belle Gunness married Mads Sorenson in 1884. Sorenson and Gunness owned a candy store which burned to the ground. The couple’s home had also burned down, and both instances granted the couple insurance payouts.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Two babies in their home died from inflammation of the large intestine, which can result from poisoning. Belle had insured both of the children and collected a large insurance check after each death. Neighbors gossiped about the babies, since Belle never appeared to be pregnant.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Sorenson had purchased two life insurance policies. On July 30, 1900, both policies were active at the same time, as one would expire that day, and the other began. Sorenson died of cerebral hemorrhage that day. Gunness explained he had come home with a headache and she provided him with quinine powder for the pain; she later checked on him and he was dead. Gunness collected money from both the expiring life insurance policy, and the one that went into effect that day, making a total of $5,000. With the insurance money, she moved to La Porte, Indiana, and bought a pig farm.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Belle married Peter Gunness on April 1, 1902. The following week, while Peter was out of the house, his infant daughter died of unknown causes in Belle's care.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Peter died eight months later due to a skull injury. Belle explained that Peter reached for something on a high shelf and a meat grinder fell on him, smashing his skull. The district coroner convened a coroner's jury, suspecting murder, but nothing came of the case. Belle collected $3000 insurance money for Peter's death.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Gunness began placing marriage ads in Chicago newspapers in 1905. One of her ads was answered by a Wisconsin farmhand, Henry Gurholt. After travelling to La Porte, Gurholt wrote his family, saying that he liked the farm, was in good health, and requesting that they send him seed potatoes. When they failed to hear from him after that, the family contacted Gunness. She told them Gurholt had gone off with horse traders to Chicago. She kept his trunk and fur overcoat.


title: Belle Gunness

text: John Moe of Minnesota answered Gunness's ad in 1906. After they had corresponded for several months, Moe travelled to La Porte and withdrew a large amount of cash. Although no one ever saw Moe again, a carpenter who did occasional work for Gunness observed that Moe's trunk remained in her house, along with more than a dozen others.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Her criminal activities came to light in April 1908, when the Gunness farmhouse in La Porte, Indiana burned to


title: Belle Gunness

text: the ground. In the ruins, authorities found the bodies of a headless adult woman, initially identified as Belle Gunness, and her three children. Further investigation unearthed the partial remains of at least 11 additional people on the Gunness property.


title: Belle Gunness

text: After the fire at the Gunness homestead led to the discovery of bodies believed to be Gunness and her children, La Porte police authorities were contacted by Asle Helgelien, who had found correspondence between his brother, Andrew Helgelien, and Gunness; the letters included petitions for him to relocate to La Porte, to bring money, and to keep the move a secret. A visit by Asle Helgelien to the Gunness farm with a former hired hand led to attention being paid to "soft depressions" in what had been made into a pen for hogs; after briefly digging one of the depressions in the lot, a gunny sack was found that contained "two hands, two feet, and one head", which Helgelien recognized to be those of his brother.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Immediate inspection of the site revealed that there were dozens of such "slumped depressions" in the Gunness yard, and further digging and investigation at the site yielded multiple burlap sacks containing "torsos and hands, arms hacked from the shoulders down, masses of human bone wrapped in loose flesh that dripped like jelly", from trash-covered depressions that proved to be graves. In each case, the body had been butchered in the same manner—the body decapitated, the arms removed at the shoulders, and the legs severed at the knees. Blunt trauma and gashes characterized the skulls that were found that had been separated from the bodies. Lucas Reilly, quoting "The Chicago Inter Ocean" in "Mental Floss", noted thatThe bones had been crushed on the ends, as though they had been... struck with hammers after they were dismembered... [and that] Quicklime had been scattered over the faces and stuffed in the ears. After finding the parts of five bodies on the first day, and an additional six on the second—some in shallow graves under the original hog pen, others near an outhouse or a lake—"the police stopped counting". With these discoveries, the perceptions of Belle Gunness, as reported in newspaper descriptions of a praiseworthy woman—dying in the fire that consumed her house, "in a desperate attempt to save her children"—were reassessed. Despite the initial success with the identification of Andrew Helgelien, and despite the fact that widening news coverage of the mass murders invited inquiries from families with men that had gone missing, "[m]ost of the remains could not be identified."


title: Belle Gunness

text: Ray Lamphere was Gunness' hired hand and on-and-off lover. In November 1908, Lamphere was convicted of arson in connection with the fire at Gunness' house. Lamphere later confessed that Gunness had placed advertisements seeking male companionship, only to murder and rob the men who responded and subsequently visited her on the farm. Lamphere stated that Gunness asked him to burn down the farmhouse with her children inside. Lamphere also asserted that the body thought to be Gunness's was in fact a murder victim, chosen and planted to mislead investigators. The brother of one victim had warned Gunness that he might arrive at the farm shortly to investigate his brother's disappearance. According to Lamphere, this impending visit motivated Gunness to destroy her house, fake her own death, and flee. When Lamphere was arrested, he was wearing John Moe's overcoat and Henry Gurholt's watch.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Edward Bechly, a journalist, was given a secret assignment to acquire access to a confession and publish it, thus bringing a second, inconsistent Lamphere account to light. The second account is based on the report that Lamphere contacted a Reverend Edwin Schell and provided him with a verbal confession that Schell transcribed and had Lamphere sign, a document that Schell kept sealed in his personal safe. Bechly attempted to convince Schell to allow him to publish this later confession, but was denied by both Schell and Schell's wife. However, a separate newspaper published a story with speculation regarding the second Lamphere confession. Described as worried as to the peace of the families of the victims, Schell offered the confession to Bechly, which was later published. The Bechly narrative, entitled "Lanphere's Confession" ["sic"], contains this summary from Bechly: In the confession, Lanphere ["sic"] said that he had killed Mrs. Gunness and children with an ax, sprinkled the bodies with kerosene and set fire to them and the house. It gave details of the slaying, and told of his part in the former murders which occurred at the Gunness farm, his task usually being the burying of the bodies in the garden. The essential fact, however, was that the murderess was not alive as a fugitive. The publication of Lamphere's confession resulted in the subsequent arrest of his accomplice Elisabeth Smith. The inconsistencies between the two confessions, including the matter of the survival of Belle Gunness, remain historical issues that are not fully resolved.


title: Belle Gunness

text: Belle Gunness was pronounced dead, even though the doctor who performed the postmortem testified that the headless body was five inches shorter and about fifty pounds lighter than Gunness. No explanation was provided for what happened to the body's head. Whether Gunness died in the fire or escaped remained uncertain, although the sheriff blamed a "Chicago American" reporter for inventing the "escaped" story. Reported "sightings" of Gunness in the Chicago area continued long after she was declared dead. At the time, police looked into reports of women suspected to be Belle, none of which led to her apprehension. In 2008, DNA tests were performed on the headless corpse in an attempt to compare the DNA in the corpse against a sample from a letter Gunness had sent to one of her victims, but due to its age the sample was not able to be properly tested.


title: Belle Gunness

text: After Gunness' crimes came to light, the Gunness farm became a tourist attraction. Spectators came from across the country to see the mass graves, and concessions and souvenirs were sold. Moreover, the crime became an acknowledged part of area history: the La Porte County Historical Society Museum has a permanent "Belle Gunness" exhibit.


title: Belle Gunness

text: "Method", a 2004 film starring Elizabeth Hurley as Rebecca who is portraying Gunness in a film within the film, being shot in Romania.


title: Belle Gunness

text: In 2017, true crime podcast "My Favorite Murder" performed and later released a live episode detailing Gunness' crimes.


title: Belle Gunness

text: "Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men" is a 2018 novel by Harold Schechter based on the life of Belle Gunness.


title: Belle Gunness

text: "In the Garden of Spite: A Novel of the Black Widow of LaPorte" is a 2021 novel by Camilla Bruce with elements of "Norwegian noir and true crime" based on the life of Belle Gunness.


title: Chris Fehn

text: Christopher Fehn (born February 24, 1973) is an American musician. He was a percussionist and backing vocalist for the heavy metal band Slipknot from 1998 to 2019, in which he was designated #3. He was also the bassist for Will Haven from 2010 to 2012.


title: Chris Fehn

text: Fehn grew up in Ankeny, Iowa. Prior to joining Slipknot, he played as a kicker on the Wayne State University football team. Fehn joined the band around August (or September) 1998, replacing percussionist Brandon Darner.


title: Chris Fehn

text: As well as lending his percussion talents to the band, Fehn has also sung backing vocals on a number of songs Slipknot has both recorded and performed live. Fehn describes himself as a "big fan of the band" and says of Slipknot, "the world needed something like this."


title: Chris Fehn

text: In an interview with Face Culture, Fehn stated that the band members gave him a hard time during his early years with the band. He described that his time during the self-titled album era was his "hazing period."


title: Chris Fehn

text: Slipknot bassist Paul Gray stated in an interview that Fehn "often brings humor to the band." and that they "definitely need that guy." Fehn would wear a Pinocchio-style mask and would frequently stroke the nose as if he was masturbating. Prior to joining Slipknot in 1998, Fehn was close friends with Slipknot's percussionist Shawn Crahan. According to Fehn, he had originally asked Crahan if he could be drummer Joey Jordison's drum tech. Shortly after his request was made, Fehn was given an offer to play percussion in the band. Fehn was then given a rough demo that contained all of Slipknot's songs. Fehn has said that "Spit It Out" was the song that stood out to him the most. Fehn then tried out on percussion and was subsequently made part of Slipknot. Of the nine members, Fehn was the eighth to join the band.


title: Chris Fehn

text: On March 14, 2019, Fehn filed a lawsuit against Slipknot, citing payment being held back. Fehn specifically accused Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan for what he felt was questionable business dealings.


title: Chris Fehn

text: On March 18, 2019, Fehn officially split with Slipknot following the filing of his lawsuit. However, a few days later, the message was removed from the website and according to Fehn's lawyer, the percussionist's employment status with the band had not changed since his initial filing.


title: Chris Fehn

text: In the early years of Slipknot before their signing with Roadrunner Records, Fehn was an electrician.


title: Chris Fehn

text: Outside Slipknot, Fehn is a very keen golfer, and shown on an interview he did on the band's 2006 DVD, "", where he is interviewed at a golf course.


title: Sleeper agent

text: A sleeper agent, also called sleeper cell, is a spy who is placed in a target country or organization not to undertake an immediate mission but to act as a potential asset if activated. Even if unactivated, the "sleeper agent" is still an asset and can still play an active role in sedition, espionage or possibly treason by virtue of agreeing to act if activated. Sleeper agents may also work in groups of a Clandestine cell system with other agents.


title: Sleeper agent

text: In espionage, a sleeper agent is one who has infiltrated into the target country and has "gone to sleep", sometimes for many years. The agent does nothing to communicate with the sponsor or any existing agents or to obtain information beyond what is in public sources. The agent acquires jobs and identities, ideally ones that will prove useful in the future, and attempts to blend into everyday life as a normal citizen. Counter-espionage agencies in the target country cannot, in practice, closely watch all those who may possibly have been recruited some time before.


title: Sleeper agent

text: In a sense, the best sleeper agents are those who do not need to be paid by the sponsor, as they are able to earn enough money to finance themselves, averting any possibly traceable payments from abroad. In such cases, it is possible for the sleeper agent to be successful enough to become what is sometimes termed an "agent of influence".


title: Sleeper agent

text: Sleeper agents who have been discovered have often been natives of the target country who moved elsewhere in early life and were co-opted (perhaps for ideological or ethnic reasons) before returning to the target country. That is valuable to the sponsor as the sleeper's language and other skills can be those of a native and thus less likely to trigger domestic suspicion.


title: Sleeper agent

text: Choosing and inserting sleeper agents has often been difficult, as it is uncertain that the target will be appropriate some years in the future. If the sponsor government and its policies change after the sleeper has been inserted, the sleeper may be found to have been planted in the wrong target.


title: Sleeper agent

text: Sleeper agents are popular plot devices in fiction, particularly in espionage fiction and science fiction. This common use in fiction is directly related to and results from repeated instances of real-life "sleeper agents" participating in spying, espionage, sedition, treason, and assassinations.


title: Sleeper agent

text: In fictional portrayals, sleeper agents are sometimes unaware that they are sleepers. They are brainwashed, hypnotized, or otherwise conditioned to be unaware of their secret mission until activated. Examples of such stories are:


title: Sharps rifle

text: Sharps rifles are a series of large-bore, single-shot, falling-block, breech-loading rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848 and ceasing production in 1881. They were renowned for long-range accuracy. By 1874 the rifle was available in a variety of calibers, and it was one of the few designs to be successfully adapted to metallic cartridge use. The Sharps rifles became icons of the American Old West with their appearances in many Western-genre films and books. Perhaps as a result, several rifle companies offer reproductions of the Sharps rifle.


title: Sharps rifle

text: Sharps' initial rifle was patented September 12, 1848, and manufactured by A. S. Nippes at Mill Creek in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1850.


title: Sharps rifle

text: The second model used the Maynard tape primer, and surviving examples are marked "Edward Maynard - Patentee 1845". In 1851, the second model was brought to the Robbins & Lawrence Company (R&L) of Windsor, Vermont, where the Model 1851 was developed for mass production. Rollin White of R&L invented the knife-edge breech block and self-cocking device for the "box-lock" Model 1851. This is referred to as the "first contract", which was for 10,000 Model 1851 carbines, of which approximately 1,650 were produced by R&L in Windsor.


title: Sharps rifle

text: In 1851, the "second contract" was made, for 15,000 rifles, and the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company was organized as a holding company with $1,000 in capital and with John C. Palmer as president, Christian Sharps as engineer, and Richard S. Lawrence as master armorer and superintendent of manufacturing. Sharps was to be paid a royalty of $1 per firearm, and the factory was built on R&L's property in Hartford, Connecticut.


title: Sharps rifle

text: The Model 1851 was replaced in production by the Model 1853. Christian Sharps left the company in 1855 to form his own manufacturing company called "C. Sharps & Company" in Philadelphia; Lawrence continued as the chief armorer until 1872 and developed the various Sharps models and their improvements that made the rifle famous. In 1874, the company was reorganized and renamed the "Sharps Rifle Company," and it remained in Hartford until 1876, whereupon it relocated to Bridgeport, Connecticut.


title: Sharps rifle

text: The Sharps rifle played a prominent role in the Bleeding Kansas conflict during the 1850s, particularly in the hands of anti-slavery forces. The Sharps rifles supplied to anti-slavery factions earned the name "Beecher's Bibles", after the famed abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher.


title: Sharps rifle

text: The 1874-pattern Sharps was a particularly popular rifle that led to the introduction of several derivatives in quick succession. It handled a large number of .40- to .50-caliber cartridges in a variety of loadings and barrel lengths. Hugo Borchardt designed the Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878, the last rifle made by the Sharps Rifle Co. before its closing in 1881.


title: Sharps rifle

text: Reproductions of the paper cartridge Sharps M1859 and M1863 rifle and carbine, the metallic-cartridge 1874 Sharps rifle, and Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878 have been manufactured for use in Civil War re-enacting, hunting and target shooting.


title: Sharps rifle

text: The military Sharps rifle was produced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company and is a falling-block rifle used during and after the American Civil War in multiple variations. Along with being able to use a standard percussion cap, the Sharps has an unusual pellet primer feed. This is a device which holds a stack of pelleted primers and flips one over the nipple each time the trigger is pulled and the hammer falls—making it much easier to fire a Sharps from horseback than a gun employing individually loaded percussion caps.


title: Sharps rifle

text: It was used in the Civil War by multiple Union units, most famously by the U.S. Army marksmen known popularly as "Berdan's Sharpshooters" in honor of their leader, Hiram Berdan. The Sharps rifle made a superior sniper weapon of greater accuracy than the more commonly issued muzzle-loading rifled muskets. This was attributed to the higher rate of fire of the breech loading mechanism and superior quality of manufacture, as well as the ease with which it could be reloaded from a kneeling or prone position.


title: Sharps rifle

text: At this time however, many officers were distrustful of breech-loading weapons on the grounds that they would encourage men to waste ammunition. In addition, the Sharps rifle was expensive to manufacture (three times the cost of a muzzle-loading Springfield rifle) and so only 11,000 of the Model 1859s were produced. Most were unissued or given to sharpshooters, but the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (which still carried the old-fashioned designation of a "rifle regiment") carried them until being mustered out in 1864.


title: Sharps rifle

text: The carbine version was very popular with the cavalry of both the Union and Confederate armies and was issued in much larger numbers than other carbines of the war and was top in production in front of the Spencer or Burnside carbine. The falling-block action lent itself to conversion to the new metallic cartridges developed in the late 1860s, and many of these converted carbines in .50-70 Government were used during the Indian Wars in the decades immediately following the Civil War.


title: Sharps rifle

text: Some Civil War–issue carbines have an unusual feature: a hand-cranked grinder in the stock. Although long thought to be a coffee mill, experimentation with some of the few survivors suggests the grinder is ill-suited for coffee. The modern consensus is that its true purpose was for grinding corn or wheat or, more appropriately, for grinding charcoal needed in the production of black powder.


title: Sharps rifle

text: Unlike the Sharps rifle, the carbine was very popular, and almost 90,000 were produced. By 1863, it was the most common weapon carried by Union cavalry regiments, although in 1864 many were replaced by seven-shot Spencer carbines. Some Sharps clones were produced by the Confederates in Richmond. Quality was generally poorer, and they normally used brass fittings instead of iron.


title: Sharps rifle

text: The British purchased 1,000 Model 1852 carbines in 1855 which were later used in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.