title: Nicolaism

text: Eusebius of Caesarea speaks directly about the Nicolaitans and Nicolas (in his "Church History" iii, 29), saying "At this time the so-called sect of the Nicolaitans made its appearance and lasted for a very short time. Mention is made of it in the Apocalypse of John. They boasted that the author of their sect was Nicolaus, one of the deacons who, with Stephen, were appointed by the apostles for the purpose of ministering to the poor."


title: Nicolaism

text: Eusebius repeats Clement's story about Nicolas and his wife and holds that those he decries as heretics are claiming his name for their sect because they misunderstand the context of his presentation of his wife to the apostles and are "imitating blindly and foolishly that which was done and said, [in order to] commit fornication without shame. But I understand that Nicolaus had to do with no other woman than her to whom he was married, and that, so far as his children are concerned, his daughters continued in a state of virginity until old age, and his son remained uncorrupt. If this is so, when he brought his wife, whom he jealously loved, into the midst of the apostles, he was evidently renouncing his passion; and when he used the expression, 'to abuse the flesh,' he was inculcating self-control in the face of those pleasures that are eagerly pursued. For I suppose that, in accordance with the command of the Savior, he did not wish to serve two masters, pleasure and the Lord [Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13]. ...So much concerning those who then attempted to pervert the truth, but in less time than it has taken to tell it became entirely extinct."


title: Nicolaism

text: Eusebius (in his "Church History", iv, 7) held that as Satan was shut off from using persecution against Christians "he devised all sorts of plans, and employed other methods in his conflict with the church, using base and deceitful men as instruments for the ruin of souls and as ministers of destruction. Instigated by him, impostors and deceivers, assuming the name of our religion, brought to the depth of ruin such of the believers as they could win over, and at the same time, by means of the deeds which they practiced, turned away from the path which leads to the word of salvation those who were ignorant of the faith." He traces heresy from the biblical figure of Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-29) through Menander to both Saturnius of Antioch and Basilides of Alexandria. Following Irenaeus, Eusebius says "Basilides, under the pretext of unspeakable mysteries, invented monstrous fables, and carried the fictions of his impious heresy quite beyond bounds." He reports that Christian author Agrippa Castor "While exposing his mysteries he says that Basilides wrote twenty-four books upon the Gospel, and that he invented prophets for himself named Barcabbas and Barcoph, and others that had no existence, and that he gave them barbarous names in order to amaze those who marvel at such things; that he taught also that the eating of meat offered to idols and the unguarded renunciation of the faith in times of persecution were matters of indifference; and that he enjoined upon his followers, like Pythagoras, a silence of five years. ...Thus it came to pass that the malignant demon, making use of these ministers, on the one hand enslaved those that were so pitiably led astray by them to their own destruction, while on the other hand he furnished to the unbelieving heathen abundant opportunities for slandering the divine word, inasmuch as the reputation of these men brought infamy upon the whole race of Christians. In this way, therefore, it came to pass that there was spread abroad in regard to us among the unbelievers of that age, the infamous and most absurd suspicion that we practiced unlawful commerce with mothers and sisters, and enjoyed impious feasts." Here a doctrine of indifference concerning eating meat sacrificed to idols is put forward along with a doctrine of licentious sex, but no mention of Nicolaitanes is made nor blame assigned to Nicolas.


title: Nicolaism

text: Among later critics, Cotelerius seems to lean towards the favourable view of the character of Nicolas in a note on "Constit. Apost." vi. 8, after reciting the various authorities. Edward Burton was of opinion that the origin of the term Nicolaitans is uncertain, and that, "though Nicolas the deacon has been mentioned as their founder, the evidence is extremely slight which would convict that person himself of any immoralities."


title: Nicolaism

text: Tillemont was possibly influenced by the fact that no honour is paid to the memory of Nicolas by any branch of the church. He allows more weight to the testimony against him, and peremptorily rejects Cassian's statement (to which Neander adheres) that some other Nicolas was the founder of the sect. Tillemont concludes that, if not the actual founder, he was so unfortunate as to give occasion to the formation of the sect by his indiscreet speaking. Grotius' view is given in a note on Revelation 2:6 and is substantially the same as that of Tillemont.


title: Nicolaism

text: Other scholars think that the group's name was not based upon an individual's name, but as a compound descriptive word. "Nico-" means "victory" in Greek, and "laos" means "people" or, more specifically, "the laity". Hence they take the word to mean "lay conquerors" or "conquerors of the lay people".


title: Nicolaism

text: The name Balaam is perhaps capable of being interpreted as a Hebrew equivalent of the Greek Nicolas. Some commentators think that John alludes to this in Revelation 2:14; and C. Vitringa argues forcibly in support of this opinion. However, Albert Barnes notes:


title: Europa-Park

text: Europa-Park is the largest theme park in Germany, and the second most popular theme park in Europe, after Disneyland Paris. Europa-Park is located in Rust, south-western Germany, between Freiburg im Breisgau and Strasbourg (in neighbouring France).


title: Europa-Park

text: The park is home to 13 roller coasters, the oldest, which opened in 1984, is the Alpenexpress Enzian, which is a powered coaster that speeds through a diamond mine. Europa-Park has very high capacity roller coasters and attractions, meaning the park can accommodate approximately 60,000 guests per day. The park counted 5.75 million visitors in 2019.


title: Europa-Park

text: The resort (park, parking lot, hotels and back stages) occupies roughly 95 hectares. It hosts six hotels, one campground, and one movie theater.


title: Europa-Park

text: In November 2019, Europa-Park's "Rulantica" water park opened, along with the Museum-Themed Hotel, "Krønasår".


title: Europa-Park

text: Europa-Park is run by the Mack family, which has produced vehicles since 1780, circus wagons since 1880, and roller coasters since 1921.


title: Europa-Park

text: Franz Mack (1921–2010) in 1958 took over the family firm, "Mack GmbH & Co. KG" (now "Mack Rides"), together with his brothers. Along with his son Roland (b. 1949), he visited the US in 1972 and was inspired to open a theme park in Germany as an exhibition site for his company's products.


title: Europa-Park

text: At first, the park was planned to be located in Breisach. It was named "Europa-Park" after Breisach's nearby "Europaweiher", a small artificial lake which commemorates a historical pilot poll held in Breisach in 1950, in which 95.6% of voters were in favour of European unification. The Breisach site was deemed unsuitable because of flooding hazard, and the project moved some further north, where the Macks bought the park of the historical "Balthasar" castle in Rust.


title: Europa-Park

text: The park opened in 1975 with an area of . It counted 250,000 visitors in the first year; 700,000 in the second; and passed the million mark in 1978.


title: Europa-Park

text: The first country-themed section was "Italy", which opened in 1982. Like most of the original themed areas at Europa-Park, it was designed by Ulrich Damrau. The "Alpenexpress "Enzian"" and "Schweizer Bobbahn" rides opened in 1984 and 1985, respectively. The "Europe" theme was pursued further with the opening of "Holland" (1984), "England" (1988), "France" (1990), "Scandinavia" (1992), and "Spain" (1994) sections.


title: Europa-Park

text: The visitor count passed the 2 million mark in 1991. The development of hotel resorts began in 1995 with "El Andaluz", followed by "Castillo Alcazar" in 1999.


title: Europa-Park

text: By the year 2001, the number of visitors had risen to 3.1 million, and the hotels had been booked to nearly 98% of their capacity. The park opened during the winter season for the first time in 2001/2002. The current logo was registered in 2003.


title: Europa-Park

text: In 2011, there were 4.5 million visitors, and by 2012 the park encompassed an area of 90 hectares, featuring eleven roller-coasters, five themed hotels with a turnover of close to EUR 300 million and more than 3,000 employees. In 2012, Roland Mack announced investments in excess of EUR 60 million, the largest yearly investment in the park's history. The total sum invested in the park until 2011 is estimated to be close to EUR 700 million.


title: Europa-Park

text: On 3 June 2017, Europa-Park opened the 'Voletarium' attraction. The attraction is the biggest flight motion simulator theater in Europe. It features a queue line with multiple pre-show elements culminating in the main ride section: a film showcasing European landmarks which lasts for 4 minutes and 30 seconds. The ride is the most expensive single ride investment to date at the park and also features catering outlets, a shop, and toilet facilities in the accompanying plaza.


title: Europa-Park

text: On 26 May 2018, a fire broke out in a building complex, near to the park's "Holland" and "Scandinavia" areas. The guests and staff inside this building were immediately ushered outside, and the remainder of the park's (roughly) 25,000 guests were instructed to make their way to the main exits, as the fire was quickly growing in intensity. The core section of this building complex is home to the boat-ride/dark ride attraction "The Pirates of Batavia" as well as a theatre, a restaurant, and an employee costume shop. Despite the efforts of the fire department, the building was destroyed, along with parts of the neighboring Scandinavia section. Due to its location within the Scandinavian area (and overall proximity to the fire), the fjørd-rafting attraction was affected by debris from fallen, burning building façades. According to the operators, the incident resulted in tens of millions of Euros in property damage. No visitors or employees were injured, but seven firefighters suffered minor injuries during firefighting operations. With the exception of a few hot spots, the fire was mostly extinguished and the park reopened regularly the very next morning. Only the destroyed "Pirates of Batavia" ride, restaurant, theatre, a few shops, the fjørd ride, as well as the neighboring attraction "Koffiekopjes", remained closed for refurbishment.


title: Europa-Park

text: Initially "Vindjammer", a giant swinging ship ride, was also closed; one of its two entry ques ran across the fire-destroyed Scandinavian area. Nevertheless, after briefly closing this que to make adjustments to the second entrance, the ride was swiftly in operation again. The attraction "Koffiekopjes" reopened four days later. On 9 June 2018, after the collection of evidence to determine the cause of the fire (and the clearing of rubble from the canal), the fjørd water ride would also be reopened. Initially, it was suspected that a warehouse near the "Pirates" attraction was the location where the fire broke out.


title: Europa-Park

text: After eleven days, on 6 June 2018, the Offenburg police stated that they believed the fire actually broke out due to a technical failure in the fjørd water ride. However, the investigation was still incomplete. The Scandinavian village area and "Pirates" were both rebuilt based on their original designs, with some updates. Both reopened in July 2020.


title: Europa-Park

text: In November 2019, Europa-Park's "Rulantica" water park opened, in addition to a new themed hotel "Krønasår" in May 2019. Rulantica has 13 themed areas, and includes 30 water slides. Other attractions include a wave pool, a surf simulator, and a wild river. There is an indoor part of and an outdoor part of .


title: Europa-Park

text: In 2017, Europa-Park acknowledged allegations of racial/cultural insensitivities; some attractions featured potentially offensive portrayals of African people as "tribal" (with white characters featured as colonial rulers and safari hunters) in the "Adventureland" themed area. However, the park doubled-down and rejected these accusations of racial discrimination up until 2021; workers made only small adjustments in response, such as renaming "Colonial Food Station" to "Adventure Food Station". In January 2022, it was announced that the "Jungle Rafts" ride would be closed until the start of the 2023 season, to be completely renovated and rethemed as a new part of the "Austria" area. No further detail was given on the other rides and attractions of "Adventureland" that may have come under scrutiny.


title: Europa-Park

text: In March of 2022, the Jungle Rafts ride reopened under the new name "Josefina’s Magical Imperial Journey" (now themed to the adjacent Austrian-themed area), with all references to colonial Africa removed.


title: Europa-Park

text: There are three different railway systems that also double as rides: The E.P. Express, the Monorail train, and the Panoramabahn. Additionally, a moving walkway called Express Lane was installed in 2015 in the parking lot.


title: Europa-Park

text: Among other features, in 1995 the park installed a monorail system, the EP-Express, with three monorail trains reassigned after the 1988 World Expo in Brisbane. It was partially extended in 2016 in order to provide additional space for development in 2017.


title: Europa-Park

text: Among the systems of transportation are the Monorail, another monorail system built in 1990, and the Panoramabahn, a miniature train ride.


title: Europa-Park

text: The Panoramabahn has been installed since the opening of the park in 1975. At first, it served as a sightseeing train which departed and arrived near the entrance of the park in Germany. Today the train also stops at train stations in England, Spain, and Russia. The Europa-Park owns five type C. P. Huntington trains manufactured by the US-American company Chance Morgan. From the 2019/2020 winter season onwards, the locomotives have been converted to run on electricity using a system designed by SEW-EURODRIVE.


title: Europa-Park

text: The monorail was put into operation in 1990 and was originally intended for sightseeing only, with its starting and finishing point inside the Historama in Luxembourg. In 2009, the monorail was extended by an additional stop in Iceland allowing passengers to use it as a means of transportation.


title: Europa-Park

text: The E.P. Express was built by AEG and Roll and has always been intended for transportation purposes besides its function as a panorama railway. It is a monorail modelled after a type of Alweg-monorail with closed, air-conditioned carriages, and it reaches a maximum speed of 20  km/h on a 2,5  km circuit at an average height of 6 meters. Inaugurated together with the Hotel 'El Andaluz' in 1995, one of the purposes of the E.P. Express of the Europa-Park was to connect the hotel to the main entrance. Over the course of time, the stops 'Greece' and 'Europa-Park Hotel Resort' were added to the existing 'Alexanderplatz' (main entrance) and 'Spain' stations.


title: Europa-Park

text: Europa-Park offers about a dozen different shows, including figure skating, variety shows, and Flamenco, as well as a puppet theatre and junior club studios, the last being an interactive show in which children can experience the world of filmmaking. One of the shows is the rotary theater-multimediashow "Zeitreise". In the center is a circular theater, divided into six sectors, that the seats circle around, each audience member being shown one sector after another. For the 35th anniversary of the Europa-Park, on the 12th of July 2010, the theater was remodeled and got a new show name, "Europa-Park Historama - die Show". It showed the 35-year-old history of the Europa-Park with spectacular 4D-effects and a 180 degree-view. Since the summer season of 2018, the rotary theater has been used as a "preview center" for the waterpark Rulantica. In the baroque theater Europa-Park Teatro, which is located in the Italian-themed-area, the musical "Spook Me!" was performed many times a day during the Halloween season of 2014 to 2017. In the summer seasons of 2018 and 2019, "Rulantica-The Musical" was performed there. Both musicals were composed by Hendrik Schwarzer. In the summer season the park shows the magic show "It´s Magic!", in which the magician Peter Valance appears, among others. The annual thematically changing dinner show "Cirque d'Europe" takes place here in winter as well.


title: Europa-Park

text: The arena in the Spanish-themed area, which holds up to 2,000 spectators, hosts medieval knight games.


title: Europa-Park

text: Until the 2007 season, the ice stadium was part of the Swiss themed area. Today, it has a Greek façade and is led by Ian Jenkins. In the 2018 summer season, the park presented the show ‘’Paddington on Ice’’ there.


title: Europa-Park

text: Several times a day, the park’s 4D cinema called "Magic Cinema" screens a 15-minute short film. In the 2018/19 winter season, the 4D short film called "Ed & Edda: Nachts im Park" was shown and in the 2020 summer season, the 11-minute 2D film called "Aufbruch nach Batavia" was screened three times a day. The "Magic Cinema" holds 448 spectators and its screen is 19 by 9 meters large. In the evening, after the park closes, you can watch the latest films there, often with additional 4D effects.


title: Europa-Park

text: The Europa-Park has gained more and more importance as a media centre. Channels, such as BR, Sat.1, SWR, ZDF, Nickelodeon and Prosieben, all produce shows in the park. Each year since the summer of 1995, SWR has been airing its show called "Immer wieder sonntags", which is moderated by Stefan Mross, live from the IWS-Arena in the Europa-Park. Among other tickets, there are also combination tickets, which allow you to visit the park and see the show in one day.


title: Europa-Park

text: Euro Dance Festival, located annually at Europa-Park since 2007, is best known for its wide range of music and dancing styles. These are Ballroom Dance, Argentine Tango, Swing Dance, Hip hop and Breakdance. A combination of dancing classes and shows and a trade fair caters for the needs of both beginners and professionals, including dance instructors and choreographers. Since its founding, it has taken place for four days every year in early spring.


title: Europa-Park

text: Europa-Park hosts dozens of events throughout the summer season. The biggest of these include the Midsummer Party when the theme park hosts a fireworks display and is open until midnight. Horror Nights take place through October evenings and feature a range of Halloween horror mazes, rides and shows. For the last week of the main season, the park hosts a daily firework show and music production.


title: Europa-Park

text: Every February, when the amusement park is closed during the winter break, the Euro Dance Festival takes place. Dance enthusiasts from all over the world gather at the park to learn new steps and techniques in over 200 workshops taught by some of the best and most well-known international dancers. Amongst others, star guests like Detlef D! Soost, William Pino, Alessandra Bucharelli, Isabel Edvardsson, Franco Formica, Oliver Wessel-Therhorn, Kristina & Peter Stokkebroe, Luis Vasquez & Melissa Fernandez have taught there previously.


title: Europa-Park

text: The Ladies Only Festival takes place on one weekend between the months of January and March, when the park is closed for a winter break. On this occasion, the festival connects elements of fitness, dance, health, beauty and wellness. More than 200 workshops and seminars held by roughly 80 coaches are spread out over four days.


title: Europa-Park

text: Since 2002, the official election of Miss Germany has taken place every February in the Europa-Park Dome, arranged by the Miss Germany Corporation from Oldenburg. The collaboration was so successful that in 2010 it was extended for another decade.


title: Europa-Park

text: The Europa-Park offers a variety of dinner events on several nights of the year after the amusement park closes. There are several different events you can choose from. For example, the Dinner Show, the Baden Medieval Banquet as well as the Dinner & Movie.


title: Europa-Park

text: For several days every May and October, the park offers Science Days for younger and older schoolchildren, respectively. The Science Days are the oldest science festival in Germany, featuring science talks and shows, as well as exhibitors from the industrial sector, schools, hospitals, and universities.


title: Europa-Park

text: Formerly known as WebHostingDays, CloudFest is an annual conference in March about cloud computing aimed at commercial organizations. CloudFest 2022 had 150 exhibitors, 250 speakers, and was attended by 7,200 visitors.


title: Europa-Park

text: Europa-Park has been celebrating Halloween since 1998. Every year from the end of September until the beginning of November, visitors find themselves in a creepy environment, surrounded by hay bales, corn stalks, skeletons, and countless pumpkins of all colours. Numerous attractions, shows, and food and beverage facilities adopt a Halloween theme every year, as does the daily parade. In the 2014 season, Europa-Park premiered their independently produced Halloween musical, "Spook Me!"


title: Europa-Park

text: Between 2007 – 2011, the park's Terenzi Horror Nights were organised in the month of October in cooperation with Marc Terenzi. Visitors were able to go on night-time walks through the Italian and French themed areas in 2007–2008 and through the Greek and Swiss themed areas in 2009, where they would be chased and spooked by actors dressed as various horror-themed monsters such as zombies. The event was again included in Europa-Park's yearly program between 2010 and 2016, billed as Horror Nights starring Marc Terenzi. Between 2013 and 2015 it was simply called Horror Nights, as it took place without Marc Terenzi during that period.


title: Europa-Park

text: In 2017, the Horror Nights were replaced by the Traumatica event. It takes place in the evenings, partly in the Greek-themed area and partly outside of the theme park's territory. Visitors are taken into a post-apocalyptic world in which five different groups fight for dominance. The group members are played by live actors and are set up in haunted houses with special effects as their main quarters, which can be attended by visitors.


title: Europa-Park

text: Every other year from 2011 through 2016, the park's festival grounds were home to the Halloween show Mysteria, offering live music, artistic performances, pyrotechnics, and lighting effects. During off years, 30-minute concerts by the Swiss DJ BoBo took the place of the show. Starting in 2011, the show was set in a ghostly castle, with the title Mysteria: Castillo Mystico. In 2013, the park introduced an entirely new story revolving around two enemy gangs in a shantytown on the outskirts of the city.


title: Europa-Park

text: In 2017, the show was replaced by the fountain and fire show Hellfire Fountains, offered multiple times every evening in the last week of the season.


title: Europa-Park

text: In 2001, Europa-Park opened for its first winter season. That year, approximately 180,000 visitors attended during the winter; as of 2012, that number had grown to 500,000. In the winter, the park opens an ice rink, a skibob track, the Big Wheel Bellevue and adds festive decor. The park is also home to an annual Christmas market. Since 2002, the park has been hosting an annual Weihnachtsmann-Treffen ("English: Santa Claus Convention"). Visitors who enter the park wearing a Santa Claus costume can purchase their tickets at a discount. During winter, most outdoor and/or water rides are closed: the African Queen, Atlantica SuperSplash, Fjord-Rafting, Poseidon, and the cable ferry.


title: Europa-Park

text: The theme park offers a mixture of rides, themed areas and parks. One of the main attractions is the roller coaster ‘Silver Star’ which was planned by the Swiss engineering office Bolliger & Mabillard Ingénieurs Conseils SA and constructed in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz. ‘Silver Star’ was the fastest roller coaster until the beginning of 2006 and, until 2012, it was also the highest one in Europe. The waiting area guides the visitors through a museum, which was equipped by Mercedes-Benz, showing touring cars and Formula One racing cars. Another ride is called ‘Poseidon’, the first water roller coaster in Europe.


title: Europa-Park

text: The roller coaster ‘Euro-Mir’ has rotatable gondolas, so the ride is temporarily backwards. The ride in ‘Eurosat’ takes place in a big sphere which is designed with special effects that create a space-like atmosphere. In 2006, the sphere was laminated with hand-painted foils which made it look like a football following the Football World Cup. During Halloween, the roller coaster is disguised as the biggest pumpkin in the world. From the end of the 2017 summer season until the middle of the 2018 summer season, 'Eurosat' was closed for reconstructions. The now called ‘Eurosat CanCan Coaster’ was inspired by the style of the famous Moulin Rouge. The ‘Blue Fire Megacoaster’ is located in the Icelandic themed area. It is the first high-speed roller coaster in the Europa-Park, including a linear motor start and rollover elements, namely one looping, two corkscrews and one heartline roll. This roller coaster accelerates from 0 to in 2.5 seconds, reaches a maximum velocity of , is 38 m high and 1,056 m long. The Europaparks' first wooden rollercoaster, the Wodan - Timburcoaster, opened its doors to the public in 2012 and is a part of the Icelandic themed area. A special feature of this roller coaster is that it crosses paths with the Blue Fire Megacoaster and the Atlantic Supersplash coaster. Wodan is 1,050 m long and can be up to fast.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in the late 13th century before entering Europe in the mid 14th century with the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars. In the mid 15th century, the Serbian–Ottoman wars and the Albanian-Turkish wars were waged by Serbia and Albania respectively against the Ottoman Turks. Much of this period was characterized by Ottoman expansion into the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire made further inroads into Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, culminating in the peak of Ottoman territorial claims in Europe.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Ottoman–Venetian wars spanned four centuries, starting in 1423 and lasting until 1718. This period witnessed the fall of Negroponte in 1470, the fall of Famagusta (Cyprus) in 1571, the defeat of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 (at that time the largest naval battle in history), the fall of Candia (Crete) in 1669, the Venetian reconquest of Morea (Peloponnese) in the 1680s and its loss again in 1715. The island of Corfu under Venetian rule remained the only Greek island not conquered by the Ottomans.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In the late seventeenth century, European powers began to consolidate against the Ottomans and formed the Holy League, reversing a number of Ottoman land gains during the Great Turkish War of 1683–99. Nevertheless, Ottoman armies were able to hold their own against their European rivals until the second half of the eighteenth century.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In the nineteenth century the Ottomans were confronted with insurrection from their Serbian (1804–1817) and Greek (1821–1832) subjects. This occurred in tandem with the Russo-Turkish wars, which further destabilized the empire. The final retreat of Ottoman rule came with the First Balkan War (1912–1913), followed by the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres at the close of World War I.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: After striking a blow to the weakened Byzantine Empire in 1356 (or in 1358 - disputable due to a change in the Byzantine calendar), (see Süleyman Pasha) which provided it with Gallipoli as a basis for operations in Europe, the Ottoman Empire started its westward expansion into the European continent in the middle of the 14th century.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The remaining Greek states fell in 1461 (Despotate of the Morea and Empire of Trebizond) (see: Ottoman Greece).


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In the latter half of the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire proceeded to advance north and west in the Balkans, completely subordinating Thrace and much of Macedonia after the Battle of Maritsa in 1371. Sofia fell in 1382, followed by the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire Tarnovgrad in 1393, and the northwest remnants of the state after the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: A significant opponent of the Ottomans, the young Serbian Empire, was worn down by a series of campaigns, notably in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, in which the leaders of both armies were killed, and which gained a central role in Serbian folklore as an epic battle and as the beginning of the end for medieval Serbia. Much of Serbia fell to the Ottomans by 1459, the Kingdom of Hungary made a partial reconquest in 1480, but it fell again by 1499. Territories of Serbian Empire were divided between Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Hungary, with remaining territories being in some sort of a vassal status towards Hungary, until its own conquest.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The papacy regularly offered crusade privileges from the 1360s generating no significant military response against Muslims in the Mediterranean. The first revival of activity was a 1390 Genoese plan to seize the Tunisian port of Al-Mahdiya. Both the Roman and Avignon popes awarded indulgences and the French king's uncle, Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, was the leader. There is little evidence of cross taking, and the exercise was more of a chivalric promenade by a small force. After a disease-ridden, nine-week siege, the Tunis crusade agreed to withdraw. After their victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Ottomans had conquered most of the Balkans and had reduced Byzantine influence to the area immediately surrounding Constantinople, which they later besieged. In 1393, the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Shishman lost Nicopolis to the Ottomans. In 1394, Pope Boniface IX proclaimed a new Crusade against the Turks, although the Western Schism had split the papacy. Sigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary, led this Crusade which involved several French nobles including John the Fearless, the son of the Duke of Burgundy, who became the Crusade's military leader. Sigismund advised the Crusaders to focus on defence when they reached the Danube, but they besieged the city of Nicopolis. The Ottomans defeated them in the Battle of Nicopolis on 25September, capturing 3,000 prisoners.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: As the Ottomans pressed westward, Sultan Murad II destroyed the last Papal-funded Crusade at Varna on the Black Sea in 1444 and four years later crushed the last Hungarian expedition. John Hunyadi and Giovanni da Capistrano organised a 1456 Crusade to lift the Siege of Belgrade. Æneas Sylvius and John of Capistrano preached the Crusade, the princes of the Holy Roman Empire in the Diets of Ratisbon and Frankfurt promised assistance, and a league was formed between Venice, Florence and Milan, but nothing came of it. Venice was the only polity to continue to pose a significant threat to the Ottomans in the Mediterranean, but it pursued the "Crusade" mostly for its commercial interests, leading to the protracted Ottoman–Venetian Wars, which continued, with interruptions, until 1718. The end of the Crusades, in at least a nominal effort of Catholic Europe against Muslim incursion, came in the 16thcentury, when the Franco-Imperial wars assumed continental proportions. Francis I of France sought allies from all quarters, including from German Protestant princes and Muslims. Amongst these, he entered into one of the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire with Suleiman the Magnificent while making common cause with Hayreddin Barbarossa and a number of the Sultan's North African vassals.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The defeat in 1456 at the siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) held up Ottoman expansion into Catholic Europe for 70 years, though for one year (1480–1481) the Italian port of Otranto was taken, and in 1493 the Ottoman army successfully raided Croatia and Styria.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Ottomans took much of Albania in the 1385 Battle of Savra. The 1444 League of Lezhë briefly restored one part of Albania, until Ottomans captured complete territory of Albania after capture of Shkodër in 1479 and Durrës in 1501.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Ottomans faced resistance from Albanians who gathered around their leader, Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, son of a feudal Albanian Nobleman, Gjon Kastrioti who also fought against the Ottomans in the Albanian revolt of 1432–1436 led by Gjergj Arianiti. Skanderbeg managed to fend off Ottoman attacks for more than 25 years, culminating at the siege of Shkodra in 1478–79. During this period, many Albanian victories were achieved like the Battle of Torvioll, Battle of Otonetë, siege of Krujë, Battle of Polog, Battle of Ohrid, Battle of Mokra, Battle of Oranik 1456 and many other battles, culminating in the Battle of Albulena in 1457 where the Albanian Army under Skanderbeg won a decisive victory over the Ottomans. In 1465 Ballaban's Campaign against Skanderbeg took place. Its goal was to crush the Albanian Resistance, but it was not successful and it ended in an Albanian victory. With the death of Skanderbeg on the 17th of January 1468, the Albanian Resistance began to fall. After the death of Skanderbeg, the Albanian Resistance was led by Lekë Dukagjini from 1468 until 1479, but it didn't have the same success as before. Merely two years after the collapse of the Albanian resistance in 1479, Sultan Mehmet II launched an Italian campaign, which failed thanks to Christian recapture of Otranto and Sultan's death in 1481.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Ottoman Empire first reached Bosnia in 1388 where they were defeated by Bosnian forces in the Battle of Bileća and then were forced to retreat. After the fall of Serbia in 1389 Battle of Kosovo, where the Bosnians participated through Vlatko Vuković, the Turks began various offensives against the Kingdom of Bosnia. The Bosnians defended themselves but without much success. The Bosnians resisted strongly in the Bosnian Royal castle of Jajce (the siege of Jajce), where the last Bosnian king Stjepan Tomašević tried to repel the Turks. The Ottoman army conquered Jajce after a few months in 1463 and executed the last King of Bosnia, ending Medieval Bosnia.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The House of Kosača held Herzegovina until 1482. It took another four decades for the Ottomans to defeat the Hungarian garrison at Jajce Fortress in 1527. Bihać and the westernmost areas of Bosnia were finally conquered by the Ottomans in 1592.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: After the fall of the Kingdom of Bosnia into Ottoman hands in 1463, the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Croatia remained unprotected, the defense of which was left to Croatian gentry who kept smaller troops in the fortified border areas at their own expense. The Ottomans meanwhile reached the river Neretva and, having conquered Herzegovina (Rama) in 1482, they encroached upon Croatia, skillfully avoiding the fortified border towns. A decisive Ottoman victory at the Battle of Krbava Field shook all of Croatia. However, it did not dissuade the Croats from making persistent attempts at defending themselves against the attacks of the superior Ottoman forces. After almost two hundred years of Croatian resistance against the Ottoman Empire, victory in the Battle of Sisak marked the end of Ottoman rule and the Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War. The Viceroy's army, chasing the fleeing remnants at Petrinja in 1595, sealed the decisive Croatian victory.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Kingdom of Hungary, which at the time spanned the area from Croatia in the west to Transylvania in the east, was also gravely threatened by Ottoman advances. The origins of such a deterioration can be traced back to the fall of the Árpád ruling dynasty and their subsequent replacement with the Angevin and Jagiellonian kings. After a series of inconclusive wars over the course of 176 years, the kingdom finally crumbled in the Battle of Mohács of 1526, after which most of it was either conquered or brought under Ottoman suzerainty.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: As a result of heavy losses inflicted by the Ottomans in the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, the Serbian Empire had dissolved into several principalities. In the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Serbian forces were again annihilated. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, constant struggles took place between various Serbian kingdoms and the Ottoman Empire. The turning point was the fall of Constantinople to the Turks. In 1459, following the siege, the temporary Serbian capital of Smederevo fell. Zeta was overrun by 1499. Belgrade was the last major Balkan city to endure Ottoman forces. Serbs, Hungarians, and European crusaders defeated the Turkish army in the siege of Belgrade in 1456. After repelling Ottoman attacks for over 70 years, Belgrade finally fell in 1521, along with the greater part of the Kingdom of Hungary. The rebellion of Serbian military commander Jovan Nenad between 1526 and 1528 led to the proclamation of the Second Serbian Empire in modern-day Serbian province of Vojvodina, which was among the last Serbian territories to resist the Ottomans. The Serbian Despotate fell in 1459, thus marking the two-century-long Ottoman conquest of Serbian principalities.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The wars with the Republic of Venice began in 1463. A favorable peace treaty was signed in 1479 after the lengthy siege of Shkodra (1478–79). In 1480, now no longer hampered by the Venetian fleet, the Ottomans besieged Rhodes and captured Otranto. War with Venice resumed from 1499 to 1503. In 1500, a Spanish–Venetian army commanded by Gonzalo de Córdoba took Kefalonia, temporarily stopping the Ottoman offensive on eastern Venetian territories. The offensive resumed after the Ottoman victory of Preveza (1538), fought between an Ottoman fleet commanded by Hayreddin Barbarossa and that of a Christian alliance assembled by Pope Paul III.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In 1462, Mehmed II was driven back by Wallachian prince Vlad III Dracula in the Night Attack at Târgovişte. However, the latter was imprisoned by Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. This caused outrage among many influential Hungarian figures and Western admirers of Vlad's success in the battle against the Ottoman Empire (and his early recognition of the threat it posed), including high-ranking members of the Vatican. Because of this, Matthias granted him the status of distinguished prisoner. Eventually, Dracula was freed in late 1475 and was sent with an army of Hungarian and Serbian soldiers to recover Bosnia from the Ottomans. There he defeated Ottoman forces for the first time. Upon this victory, Ottoman forces entered Wallachia in 1476 under the command of Mehmed II. Vlad was killed and, according to some sources, his head was sent to Constantinople to discourage the other rebellions. (Bosnia was completely added to Ottoman lands in 1482.)


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Turkish advance was temporarily halted after Stephen the Great of Moldavia defeated the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II at the Battle of Vaslui in 1475, one of the greatest defeats of the Ottoman Empire until that time. Stephen was defeated the next year at Războieni (Battle of Valea Albă), but the Ottomans had to retreat after they failed to take any significant castle (see siege of Neamț Citadel) as a plague started to spread in the Ottoman army. Stephen's search for European assistance against the Turks met with little success, even though he had "cut off the pagan's right-hand", as he put it in a letter.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: After the Ottoman victory in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, only the southwestern part of the Kingdom of Hungary was actually conquered. The Ottoman campaign continued between 1526 and 1556 with small campaigns and major summer invasions – troops would return south of the Balkan Mountains before winter. In 1529, they mounted their first major attack on the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, attempting to conquer the city of Vienna (siege of Vienna). In 1532, another attack on Vienna with 60,000 troops in the main army was held up by the small fort (800 defenders) of "Kőszeg" in western Hungary, fighting a suicidal battle. The invading troops were held up until winter was close and the Habsburg Empire had assembled a force of 80,000 at Vienna. The Ottoman troops returned home through Styria, laying waste to the country.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In the meantime, in 1538, the Ottoman Empire invaded Moldavia. In 1541, another campaign in Hungary took Buda and Pest (which today together form the Hungarian capital Budapest) with a largely bloodless trick: after concluding peace talks with an agreement, troops stormed the open gates of Buda in the night. In retaliation for a failed Austrian counter-attack in 1542, the conquest of the western half of central Hungary was finished in the 1543 campaign that took both the most important royal ex-capital, Székesfehérvár, and the ex-seat of the cardinal, Esztergom. However, the army of 35–40,000 men was not enough for Suleiman to mount another attack on Vienna. A temporary truce was signed between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires in 1547, which was soon disregarded by the Habsburgs.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In the major but moderately successful campaign of 1552, two armies took the eastern part of central Hungary, pushing the borders of the Ottoman Empire to the second (inner) line of northern "végvár"s (border castles), which Hungary originally built as defence against an expected second Mongol invasion—hence, afterwards, borders on this front changed little. For Hungarians, the 1552 campaign was a series of tragic losses and some heroic (but pyrrhic) victories, which entered folklore—most notably the fall of "Drégely" (a small fort defended to the last man by just 146 men, and the siege of Eger. The latter was a major "végvár" with more than 2,000 men, without outside help. They faced two Ottoman armies, which were surprisingly unable to take the castle within five weeks. (The fort was later taken in 1596.) Finally, the 1556 campaign secured Ottoman influence over Transylvania (which had fallen under Habsburg control for a time), while failing to gain any ground on the western front, being tied down in the second (after 1555) unsuccessful siege of the southwestern Hungarian border castle of Szigetvár.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Ottoman Empire conducted another major war against the Habsburgs and their Hungarian territories between 1566 and 1568. The 1566 siege of Szigetvár, the third siege in which the fort was finally taken, but the aged Sultan died, deterring that year's push for Vienna.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: Ottoman forces invaded and captured the island of Rhodes in 1522, after two previous failed attempts (see Siege of Rhodes (1522)). The Knights of Saint John were banished to Malta, which was in turn besieged in 1565.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: After a siege of three months, the Ottoman army failed to control all of the Maltese forts. Delaying the Ottomans until bad weather conditions and the arrival of Sicilian reinforcements, made Ottoman commander Kızılahmedli Mustafa Pasha quit the siege. Around 22,000 to 48,000 Ottoman troops against 6,000 to 8,500 Maltese troops, the Ottomans failed to conquer Malta, sustaining more than 25,000 losses, including one of the greatest Muslim corsair generals of the time, Dragut, and were repulsed. Had Malta fallen, Sicily and mainland Italy could have fallen under the threat of an Ottoman invasion. The victory of Malta during this event, which is nowadays known as the Great Siege of Malta, turned the tide and gave Europe hopes and motivation. It also marked the importance of the Knights of Saint John and their relevant presence in Malta to aid Christendom in its defence against the Muslim conquest.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Ottoman naval victories of this period were in the Battle of Preveza (1538) and the Battle of Djerba (1560).


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Mediterranean campaign, which lasted from 1570 to 1573, resulted in the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus. A Holy League of Venice, the Papal States, Spain, the Knights of Saint John in Malta and initially Portugal was formed against the Ottoman Empire during this period. The League's victory in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) briefly ended Ottoman predominance at sea.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In the summer of 1570, the Turks struck again, but this time with a full-scale invasion rather than a raid. About 60,000 troops, including cavalry and artillery, under the command of Lala Mustafa Pasha landed unopposed near Limassol on July 2, 1570, and laid siege to Nicosia. In an orgy of victory on the day that the city fell—September 9, every public building and palace was looted. Word of the superior Ottoman numbers spread, and a few days later Mustafa took Kyrenia without having to fire a shot. Famagusta, however, resisted and put up a defense that lasted from September 1570 until August 1571.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The fall of Famagusta marked the beginning of the Ottoman period in Cyprus. Two months later, the naval forces of the Holy League, composed mainly of Venetian, Spanish, and Papal ships under the command of Don John of Austria, defeated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in one of the decisive battles of world history. The victory over the Turks, however, came too late to help Cyprus, and the island remained under Ottoman rule for the next three centuries.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In 1570, the Ottoman Empire first conquered Cyprus, and Lala Mustafa Pasha became the first Ottoman governor of Cyprus, challenging the claims of Venice. Simultaneously, the Pope formed a coalition between the Papal States, Malta, Spain, Venice and several other Italian states, with no real result. In 1573 the Venetians left, removing the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: Wars fought over Moldavia. The Polish army advanced into Moldavia and was defeated in the Battle of Ţuţora. The Next year, the Poles repelled the Turkish invasion in the Battle of Khotyn. Another conflict started in 1633 but was soon settled.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: Transylvania, the Eastern part of the former Hungarian Kingdom, gained semi-independence in 1526, while paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire. In 1657, Transylvania felt strong enough to attack the Tatars to the East (then the Empire's vassals), and later the Ottoman Empire itself, which had come to the Tatars' defence. The war lasted until 1662, ending in defeat for the Hungarians. The Western part of the Hungarian Kingdom ("Partium") was annexed and placed under direct Ottoman control. At the same time, there was another campaign against Austria between 1663 and 1664. Despite being defeated in the Battle of Saint Gotthard on 1 August 1664 by Raimondo Montecuccoli, the Ottomans secured recognition of their conquest of Nové Zámky in the Peace of Vasvár with Austria, marking the greatest territorial extent of Ottoman rule in the former Hungarian Kingdom.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Polish–Ottoman War (1672–1676) ended with the Treaty of Żurawno, in which the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ceded control of most of its Ukrainian territories to the empire. The war showed the increasing weakness and disorder of the Commonwealth, who by the second half of the 17th century had started its gradual decline that would culminate a century later with the partitions of Poland.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Great Turkish War started in 1683, with a grand invasion force of 140,000 men marching on Vienna, supported by Protestant Hungarian noblemen rebelling against Habsburg rule. To stop the invasion, another Holy League was formed, composed of Austria and Poland (notably in the Battle of Vienna), Venetians and the Russian Empire, Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle marked the first time the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans, and it is often seen as a turning point in history, after which "the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world".


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: After winning the Battle of Vienna, the Holy League gained the upper hand and reconquered Hungary (Buda and Pest were retaken in 1686, the former under the command of a Swiss-born convert to Islam). At the same time, the Venetians launched an expedition into Greece, which conquered the Peloponnese. During the 1687 Venetian attack on the city of Athens (conquered by the Ottomans), the Ottomans turned the ancient Parthenon into an ammunitions storehouse. A Venetian mortar hit the Parthenon, detonating the Ottoman gunpowder stored inside, partially destroying it.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The war ended with the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Prince Eugene of Savoy first distinguished himself in 1683 and remained the most important Austrian commander until 1718.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The second Russo-Turkish War took place 1710–1711 near Prut. It was instigated by Charles XII of Sweden after the defeat at the Battle of Poltava, in order to tie down Russia with the Ottoman Empire and gain some breathing space in the increasingly unsuccessful Great Northern War. The Russians were severely beaten but not annihilated, and after the Treaty of Prut was signed the Ottoman Empire disengaged, allowing Russia to refocus its energies on the defeat of Sweden.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Ottoman–Venetian War started in 1714. It overlapped with the Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718), in which Austria conquered the remaining areas of the former Hungarian Kingdom, ending with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: A war erupted again with Russia in 1735 and Austria in 1737. It lasted until 1739 when the Treaty of Belgrade was signed with Austria and the Treaty of Niš with Russia.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: Another war with Russia started in 1787 and a concurrent war with Austria followed in 1788; the Austrian war ended with the 1791 Treaty of Sistova, and the Russian war ended with the 1792 Treaty of Jassy.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: An invasion of Egypt and Syria by Napoleon I of France took place in 1798–99, but ended due to British intervention.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: Napoleon's capture of Malta on his way to Egypt resulted in the unusual alliance of Russia and the Ottomans resulting in a joint naval expedition to the Ionian Islands. Their successful capture of these islands led to the setting up of the Septinsular Republic.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The First Serbian Uprising took place in 1804, followed by the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815; Serbia was fully liberated by 1867. Officially recognized independence followed in 1878.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The sixth Russo-Turkish War began in 1806 and ended in May 1812, just 13 days before Napoleon's invasion of Russia.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The Greek War of Independence, taking place from 1821 to 1832, in which the Great Powers intervened from 1827, including Russia (seventh Russo-Turkish war, 1828–1829), achieved independence for Greece; the Treaty of Adrianople ended the war.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: Eighth Russo-Turkish war 1853–1856, Crimean War, in which the United Kingdom and France joined the war on the side of the Ottoman Empire. Ended with the Treaty of Paris.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: The ninth and final Russo-Turkish War started in 1877, the same year the Ottomans withdrew from the Constantinople Conference. Romania then declared its independence and waged war on Turkey, joined by Serbians and Bulgarians and finally the Russians (see also History of Russia (1855–92)). Austria occupied Bosnia in 1878. The Russians and the Ottomans signed the Treaty of San Stefano in early 1878. After deliberations at the Congress of Berlin, which was attended by all the Great Powers of the time, the Treaty of Berlin (1878) recognized several territorial changes.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: Eastern Rumelia was granted some autonomy in 1878, but then rebelled and joined Bulgaria in 1885. Thessaly was ceded to Greece in 1881, but after Greece attacked the Ottoman Empire to help the Second Cretan Uprising in 1897, Greece was defeated in Thessaly. Crete would gain autonomy in 1898 after the Cretan Revolt (1897–1898).


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: In 1911, Italy invaded Ottoman Tripolitania (During the colonisation of Africa, Tripolitania became Libya), which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The war ended with the Italian annexation of the Tripolitania.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: Two Balkan Wars, in 1912 and 1913, entailed further action against the Ottoman Empire in Europe. The Balkan League first conquered Macedonia and most of Thrace from the Ottoman Empire, and then fell out over the division of the spoils. Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, after several rebellions and uprisings. This reduced Turkey's possessions in Europe (Rumelia) to their present borders in Eastern Thrace.


title: Ottoman wars in Europe

text: World War I (1914–1918) became the ultimate cause of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, which formally ended in 1922. However, during wartime operations the Empire prevented the British Royal Navy from reaching Constantinople, stopping an Entente invasion in the Battle of Gallipoli (1915–1916). Nevertheless, under the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) the Empire ultimately fell.


title: Reticular formation

text: The reticular formation is a set of interconnected nuclei that are located throughout the brainstem. It is not anatomically well defined, because it includes neurons located in different parts of the brain. The neurons of the reticular formation make up a complex set of networks in the core of the brainstem that extend from the upper part of the midbrain to the lower part of the medulla oblongata. The reticular formation includes ascending pathways to the cortex in the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) and descending pathways to the spinal cord via the reticulospinal tracts.


title: Reticular formation

text: Neurons of the reticular formation, particularly those of the ascending reticular activating system, play a crucial role in maintaining behavioral arousal and consciousness. The overall functions of the reticular formation are modulatory and premotor,


title: Reticular formation

text: involving somatic motor control, cardiovascular control, pain modulation, sleep and consciousness, and habituation. The modulatory functions are primarily found in the rostral sector of the reticular formation and the premotor functions are localized in the neurons in more caudal regions.


title: Reticular formation

text: The reticular formation is divided into three columns: raphe nuclei (median), gigantocellular reticular nuclei (medial zone), and parvocellular reticular nuclei (lateral zone). The raphe nuclei are the place of synthesis of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which plays an important role in mood regulation. The gigantocellular nuclei are involved in motor coordination. The parvocellular nuclei regulate exhalation.


title: Reticular formation

text: The reticular formation is essential for governing some of the basic functions of higher organisms and is one of the phylogenetically oldest portions of the brain.


title: Reticular formation

text: The human reticular formation is composed of almost 100 brain nuclei and contains many projections into the forebrain, brainstem, and cerebellum, among other regions. It includes the reticular nuclei,


title: Reticular formation

text: reticulothalamic projection fibers, diffuse thalamocortical projections, ascending cholinergic projections, descending non-cholinergic projections, and descending reticulospinal projections. The reticular formation also contains two major neural subsystems, the ascending reticular activating system and descending reticulospinal tracts, which mediate distinct cognitive and physiological processes. It has been functionally cleaved both sagittally and coronally.


title: Reticular formation

text: The original functional differentiation was a division of caudal and rostral. This was based upon the observation that the lesioning of the rostral reticular formation induces a hypersomnia in the cat brain. In contrast, lesioning of the more caudal portion of the reticular formation produces insomnia in cats. This study has led to the idea that the caudal portion inhibits the rostral portion of the reticular formation.


title: Reticular formation

text: Sagittal division reveals more morphological distinctions. The raphe nuclei form a ridge in the middle of the reticular formation, and, directly to its periphery, there is a division called the medial reticular formation. The medial RF is large and has long ascending and descending fibers, and is surrounded by the lateral reticular formation. The lateral RF is close to the motor nuclei of the cranial nerves, and mostly mediates their function.


title: Reticular formation

text: The medial reticular formation and lateral reticular formation are two columns of nuclei with ill-defined boundaries that send projections through the medulla and into the midbrain. The nuclei can be differentiated by function, cell type, and projections of efferent or afferent nerves. Moving caudally from the rostral midbrain, at the site of the rostral pons and the midbrain, the medial RF becomes less prominent, and the lateral RF becomes more prominent.


title: Reticular formation

text: Existing on the sides of the medial reticular formation is its lateral cousin, which is particularly pronounced in the rostral medulla and caudal pons. Out from this area spring the cranial nerves, including the very important vagus nerve. The lateral RF is known for its ganglions and areas of interneurons around the cranial nerves, which serve to mediate their characteristic reflexes and functions.


title: Reticular formation

text: The reticular formation consists of more than 100 small neural networks, with varied functions including the following:


title: Reticular formation

text: The ascending reticular activating system (ARAS), also known as the "extrathalamic control modulatory system" or simply the "reticular activating system" (RAS), is a set of connected nuclei in the brains of vertebrates that is responsible for regulating wakefulness and sleep-wake transitions. The ARAS is a part of the reticular formation and is mostly composed of various nuclei in the thalamus and a number of dopaminergic, noradrenergic, serotonergic, histaminergic, cholinergic, and glutamatergic brain nuclei.


title: Reticular formation

text: The ARAS is composed of several neural circuits connecting the dorsal part of the posterior midbrain and anterior pons to the cerebral cortex via distinct pathways that project through the thalamus and hypothalamus. The ARAS is a collection of different nuclei – more than 20 on each side in the upper brainstem, the pons, medulla, and posterior hypothalamus. The neurotransmitters that these neurons release include dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, histamine, acetylcholine, and glutamate. They exert cortical influence through direct axonal projections and indirect projections through thalamic relays.


title: Reticular formation

text: The thalamic pathway consists primarily of cholinergic neurons in the pontine tegmentum, whereas the hypothalamic pathway is composed primarily of neurons that release monoamine neurotransmitters, namely dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and histamine. The glutamate-releasing neurons in the ARAS were identified much more recently relative to the monoaminergic and cholinergic nuclei; the glutamatergic component of the ARAS includes one nucleus in the hypothalamus and various brainstem nuclei. The orexin neurons of the lateral hypothalamus innervate every component of the ascending reticular activating system and coordinate activity within the entire system.


title: Reticular formation

text: The ARAS consists of evolutionarily ancient areas of the brain, which are crucial to the animal's survival and protected during adverse periods, such as during inhibitory periods of Totsellreflex, aka, "animal hypnosis".


title: Reticular formation

text: The ascending reticular activating system which sends neuromodulatory projections to the cortex - mainly connects to the prefrontal cortex. There seems to be low connectivity to the motor areas of the cortex.


title: Reticular formation

text: The ascending reticular activating system is an important enabling factor for the state of consciousness. The ascending system is seen to contribute to wakefulness as characterised by cortical and behavioural arousal.


title: Reticular formation

text: The main function of the ARAS is to modify and potentiate thalamic and cortical function such that electroencephalogram (EEG) desynchronization ensues. There are distinct differences in the brain's electrical activity during periods of wakefulness and sleep: Low voltage fast burst brain waves (EEG desynchronization) are associated with wakefulness and REM sleep (which are electrophysiologically similar); high voltage slow waves are found during non-REM sleep. Generally speaking, when thalamic relay neurons are in burst mode the EEG is synchronized and when they are in tonic mode it is desynchronized. Stimulation of the ARAS produces EEG desynchronization by suppressing slow cortical waves (0.3–1 Hz), delta waves (1–4 Hz), and spindle wave oscillations (11–14 Hz) and by promoting gamma band (20–40 Hz) oscillations.


title: Reticular formation

text: The physiological change from a state of deep sleep to wakefulness is reversible and mediated by the ARAS. The ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO) of the hypothalamus inhibits the neural circuits responsible for the awake state, and VLPO activation contributes to the sleep onset. During sleep, neurons in the ARAS will have a much lower firing rate; conversely, they will have a higher activity level during the waking state. In order that the brain may sleep, there must be a reduction in ascending afferent activity reaching the cortex by suppression of the ARAS.


title: Reticular formation

text: The ARAS also helps mediate transitions from relaxed wakefulness to periods of high attention. There is increased regional blood flow (presumably indicating an increased measure of neuronal activity) in the midbrain reticular formation (MRF) and thalamic intralaminar nuclei during tasks requiring increased alertness and attention.


title: Reticular formation

text: Mass lesions in brainstem ARAS nuclei can cause severe alterations in level of consciousness (e.g., coma). Bilateral damage to the reticular formation of the midbrain may lead to coma or death.


title: Reticular formation

text: Direct electrical stimulation of the ARAS produces pain responses in cats and elicits verbal reports of pain in humans. Ascending reticular activation in cats can produce mydriasis, which can result from prolonged pain. These results suggest some relationship between ARAS circuits and physiological pain pathways.


title: Reticular formation

text: Some pathologies of the ARAS may be attributed to age, as there appears to be a general decline in reactivity of the ARAS with advancing years. Changes in electrical coupling have been suggested to account for some changes in ARAS activity: if coupling were down-regulated, there would be a corresponding decrease in higher-frequency synchronization (gamma band). Conversely, up-regulated electrical coupling would increase synchronization of fast rhythms that could lead to increased arousal and REM sleep drive. Specifically, disruption of the ARAS has been implicated in the following disorders:


title: Reticular formation

text: There are several potential factors that may adversely influence the development of the ascending reticular activating system:


title: Reticular formation

text: The reticulospinal tracts, also known as the descending or anterior reticulospinal tracts, are extrapyramidal motor tracts that descend from the reticular formation in two tracts to act on the motor neurons supplying the trunk and proximal limb flexors and extensors. The reticulospinal tracts are involved mainly in locomotion and postural control, although they do have other functions as well. The descending reticulospinal tracts are one of four major cortical pathways to the spinal cord for musculoskeletal activity. The reticulospinal tracts works with the other three pathways to give a coordinated control of movement, including delicate manipulations. The four pathways can be grouped into two main system pathways – a medial system and a lateral system. The medial system includes the reticulospinal pathway and the vestibulospinal pathway, and this system provides control of posture. The corticospinal and the rubrospinal tract pathways belong to the lateral system which provides fine control of movement.


title: Reticular formation

text: This descending tract is divided into two parts, the medial (or pontine) and lateral (or medullary) reticulospinal tracts (MRST and LRST).


title: Reticular formation

text: The ascending sensory tract conveying information in the opposite direction is known as the spinoreticular tract.


title: Reticular formation

text: The reticulospinal tracts provide a pathway by which the hypothalamus can control sympathetic thoracolumbar outflow and parasympathetic sacral outflow.


title: Reticular formation

text: Two major descending systems carrying signals from the brainstem and cerebellum to the spinal cord can trigger automatic postural response for balance and orientation: vestibulospinal tracts from the vestibular nuclei and reticulospinal tracts from the pons and medulla. Lesions of these tracts result in profound ataxia and postural instability.


title: Reticular formation

text: Physical or vascular damage to the brainstem disconnecting the red nucleus (midbrain) and the vestibular nuclei (pons) may cause decerebrate rigidity, which has the neurological sign of increased muscle tone and hyperactive stretch reflexes. Responding to a startling or painful stimulus, both arms and legs extend and turn internally. The cause is the tonic activity of lateral vestibulospinal and reticulospinal tracts stimulating extensor motoneurons without the inhibitions from rubrospinal tract.


title: Reticular formation

text: Brainstem damage above the red nucleus level may cause decorticate rigidity. Responding to a startling or painful stimulus, the arms flex and the legs extend. The cause is the red nucleus, via the rubrospinal tract, counteracting the extensor motorneuron's excitation from the lateral vestibulospinal and reticulospinal tracts. Because the rubrospinal tract only extends to the cervical spinal cord, it mostly acts on the arms by exciting the flexor muscles and inhibiting the extensors, rather than the legs.


title: Reticular formation

text: Damage to the medulla below the vestibular nuclei may cause flaccid paralysis, hypotonia, loss of respiratory drive, and quadriplegia. There are no reflexes resembling early stages of spinal shock because of complete loss of activity in the motorneurons, as there is no longer any tonic activity arising from the lateral vestibulospinal and reticulospinal tracts.


title: Reticular formation

text: The term "reticular formation" was coined in the late 19th century by Otto Deiters, coinciding with Ramon y Cajal's "neuron doctrine". Allan Hobson states in his book "The Reticular Formation Revisited" that the name is an etymological vestige from the fallen era of the aggregate field theory in the neural sciences. The term "reticulum" means "netlike structure", which is what the reticular formation resembles at first glance. It has been described as being either too complex to study or an undifferentiated part of the brain with no organization at all. Eric Kandel describes the reticular formation as being organized in a similar manner to the intermediate gray matter of the spinal cord. This chaotic, loose, and intricate form of organization is what has turned off many researchers from looking farther into this particular area of the brain. The cells lack clear ganglionic boundaries, but do have clear functional organization and distinct cell types. The term "reticular formation" is seldom used anymore except to speak in generalities. Modern scientists usually refer to the individual nuclei that compose the reticular formation.


title: Reticular formation

text: Moruzzi and Magoun first investigated the neural components regulating the brain's sleep-wake mechanisms in 1949. Physiologists had proposed that some structure deep within the brain controlled mental wakefulness and alertness. It had been thought that wakefulness depended only on the direct reception of afferent (sensory) stimuli at the cerebral cortex.


title: Reticular formation

text: As direct electrical stimulation of the brain could simulate electrocortical relays, Magoun used this principle to demonstrate, on two separate areas of the brainstem of a cat, how to produce wakefulness from sleep. He first stimulated the ascending somatic and auditory paths; second, a series of "ascending relays from the reticular formation of the lower brain stem through the midbrain tegmentum, subthalamus and hypothalamus to the internal capsule." The latter was of particular interest, as this series of relays did not correspond to any known anatomical pathways for the wakefulness signal transduction and was coined the "ascending reticular activating system" (ARAS).


title: Reticular formation

text: Next, the significance of this newly identified relay system was evaluated by placing lesions in the medial and lateral portions of the front of the midbrain. Cats with mesencephalic interruptions to the ARAS entered into a deep sleep and displayed corresponding brain waves. In alternative fashion, cats with similarly placed interruptions to ascending auditory and somatic pathways exhibited normal sleeping and wakefulness, and could be awakened with physical stimuli. Because these external stimuli would be blocked on their way to the cortex by the interruptions, this indicated that the ascending transmission must travel through the newly discovered ARAS.


title: Reticular formation

text: Finally, Magoun recorded potentials within the medial portion of the brain stem and discovered that auditory stimuli directly fired portions of the reticular activating system. Furthermore, single-shock stimulation of the sciatic nerve also activated the medial reticular formation, hypothalamus, and thalamus. Excitation of the ARAS did not depend on further signal propagation through the cerebellar circuits, as the same results were obtained following decerebellation and decortication. The researchers proposed that a column of cells surrounding the midbrain reticular formation received input from all the ascending tracts of the brain stem and relayed these afferents to the cortex and therefore regulated wakefulness.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: The Alawi dynasty () – also rendered in English as Alaouite, Alawid, or Alawite – is the current Moroccan royal family and reigning dynasty. They are an Arab sharifian dynasty and claim descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandson, Hasan ibn Ali. Their ancestors originally migrated to the Tafilalt region, in present-day Morocco, from Yanbu on the coast of the Hejaz in the 12th or 13th century.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: The dynasty rose to power in the 17th century, beginning with Mawlay al-Sharif who was declared sultan of the Tafilalt in 1631. His son Al-Rashid, ruling from 1664 to 1672, was able to unite and pacify the country after a long period of regional divisions caused by the weakening of the Saadi Dynasty. His brother Isma'il presided over a period of strong central rule between 1672 and 1727, one of the longest reigns of any Moroccan sultan. After Isma'il's death the country was plunged into disarray as his sons fought over his succession, but order was re-established under the long reign of Muhammad ibn Abdallah in the second half of the 18th century. The 19th century was marked by the growing influence of European powers.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: The 'Alawis ruled as sovereign sultans up until 1912, when the French protectorate and Spanish protectorate were imposed on Morocco. They were retained as symbolic sultans under colonial rule. When the country regained its independence in 1956, Mohammed V, who had supported the nationalist cause, resumed the 'Alawi role as independent head of state. Shortly afterwards, in 1957, he adopted the title of "King" instead of "Sultan". His successors, Hassan II and Mohammed VI (the current reigning monarch), have continued the dynasty's rule under the same title. Today, the Moroccan government is officially a constitutional monarchy, but the king retains strong authoritarian power over the state and public affairs, despite some political reforms in recent decades.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: The dynasty claims descent from Muhammad via Hasan, the son of Ali. The name "'Alawi" () stems either from the name of Ali (the father of Hasan), from which the dynasty ultimately traces its descent, or from the name of the dynasty's early founder Ali al-Sharif of the Tafilalt. The honorific title "mawlay" (also transliterated as "mulay" or "moulay"), meaning "my lord", was also commonly used in conjunction with the names of sultans.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: The state and empire ruled by the 'Alawis was also known in some periods as the "Sharifian Empire" (الإيالة الشريفة in Arabic) or "Empire Chérifien" in French according to the Treaty of Fes). This name was still in official usage until 1956 (when Morocco regained its independence from colonial rule), and is also used by historians to refer to the preceding Saadian state, which was also ruled by a sharifian dynasty.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: The 'Alawis were a family of sharifian religious notables (or "shurafa") who claimed descent from Muhammad via his grandson Hasan, the son of Ali and of Muhammad's daughter Fatimah. Like the Sa'di dynasty before them, the 'Alawis originally came from the village of Yanbu al-Nakhil in the Hejaz region of Arabia. According to the dynasty's official historians, the family migrated from the Hijaz to the Tafilalt during the 12th or 13th century at the request of the locals who hoped that the presence of a sharifian family would benefit the region. It is possible that the 'Alawis were merely one of many Arab families who moved westwards to Morocco during this period. The Tafilalt was an oasis region in the Ziz Valley in eastern Morocco and the site of Sijilmasa, historically an important terminus of the trans-Saharan trade routes.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Little is known of 'Alawi history prior to the 17th century. In the early 15th century they appear to have had a reputation as holy warriors, but did not yet have a political status. This was the example of one family member, Ali al-Sharif (not to be confused with the later 'Alawi by the same name below), who participated in battles against the Portuguese and Spanish in Ceuta (Sebta) and Tangier and who was also invited by the Nasrids of Granada to fight against Castile on the Iberian Peninsula. By the 17th century, however, they had evidently become the main leaders of the Tafilalt.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Their status as "shurafa" (descendants of Muhammad) was part of the reason for their success, as in this era many communities in Morocco increasingly saw sharifian status as the best claim to political legitimacy. The Saadian dynasty, which ruled Morocco in the 16th century and early 17th century prior to the rise of the 'Alawis, was also a sharifian dynasty and played an important role in establishing this model of political-religious legitimacy.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: The family's rise to power took place in the context of early-to-mid-17th century Morocco, when the power of the Saadian sultans of Marrakesh was in serious decline and multiple regional factions fought for control of the country. Among the most powerful of these factions were the Dala'iyya (also spelled Dila'iyya or Dilaites), a federation of Amazigh (Berbers) in the Middle Atlas who increasingly dominated central Morocco at this time, reaching the peak of their power in the 1640s. Another, was 'Ali Abu Hassun al-Semlali (or Abu Hassun), who had become leader of the Sous valley since 1614. When Abu Hassun extended his control to the Tafilalt region in 1631, the Dala'iyya in turn sent forces to enforce their own influence in the area. The local inhabitants chose as their leader the 'Alawi family head, Muhammad al-Sharif – known as Mawlay Ali al-Sharif, Mawlay al-Sharif, or Muhammad I – recognizing him as emir. Mawlay al-Sharif led an attack against Abu Hassun's garrison at Tabu'samt in 1635 or 1636 (1045 AH) but failed to expel them. Abu Hassun forced him to go into exile to the Sous valley, but also treated him well; among other things, Abu Hassun gifted him a slave concubine who later gave birth to one of his sons, Mawlay Isma'il.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: While their father remained in exile, al-Sharif's sons took up the struggle. His son Sidi Mohammed (or Muhammad II), became the leader after 1635 and successfully led another rebellion which expelled Abu Hassun's forces in 1640 or 1641 (1050 AH). With this success, he was proclaimed sultan in place of his father who relinquished the throne to him. However, the Dala'iyya invaded the region again in 1646 and following their victory at Al Qa'a forced him to acknowledge their control over all the territory west and south of Sijilmasa. Unable to oppose them, Sidi Mohammed instead decided to expand in the opposite direction, to the northeast. In 1647, he won the loyalty of several Arab tribes of the Banu Ma'qil in this region, and conquered Oujda. As Oujda was an imperial city, he became Sultan of Tafilalt upon his conquest. He advanced as far as al-Aghwat and Tlemcen in Algeria (which was part of the Ottoman Empire at the time) in 1650. His forays into Ottoman Algeria provoked a response from the Ottomans, who sent an army that chased him back to Sijilmasa. In negotiations with an Ottoman legation from Algiers, Sidi Mohammed agreed not to cross into Ottoman territory again and the Tafna River was set as their northern border. In 1645 and again in 1652, Sidi Mohammed annexed the Emirate of Tuat to his Sultanate.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Despite some territorial setbacks, the 'Alawis' influence slowly grew, partly thanks to their continued alliance with certain Arab tribes of the region. In June 1650, the leaders of Fez (or more specifically Fes el-Bali, the old city), with the support of the local Arab tribes, rejected the authority of the Dala'iyya and invited Sidi Mohammed to join them. Soon after he arrived, however, the Dala'iyya army approached the city and the local leaders, realizing they did not have enough strength to oppose them, stopped their uprising and asked Sidi Mohmmed to leave.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Mawlay Sharif died in 1659, and Sidi Mohammed was once again proclaimed sovereign. However, this provoked a succession clash between Sidi Mohammed and one of his younger half-brothers, Al-Rashid. Details of this conflict are lengthy, but ultimately Al-Rashid appears to have fled Sijilmasa in fear of his brother and took refuge with the Dala'iyya in the Middle Atlas. He then moved around northern Morocco, spending time in Fez, before settling in Angad (northeastern Morocco today). He managed to secure an alliance with the same Banu Ma'qil Arab tribes who had previously supported his brother and also with the Ait Yaznasin (Beni Snassen), a Zenata Amazigh tribe. These groups recognized him as sultan in 1664, while around the same time Sidi Mohammed made a new base for himself as far west as Azrou. The power of the Dala'iyya was in decline, and both brothers sought to take advantage of this, but both stood in each other's way. When Sidi Mohammed attacked Angad to force his rebellious brother's submission on August 2, 1664, he was instead unexpectedly killed and his armies defeated.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: By this time, the Dala'iyya's realm, which once extended over Fez and most of central Morocco, had largely receded to their original home in the Middle Atlas. Al-Rashid was left in control of the 'Alawi forces and in less than a decade he managed to extend 'Alawi control over almost all of Morocco, reuniting the country under a new sharifian dynasty. Early on, he won over more rural Arab tribes to his side and integrated them into his military system. Also known as "guich" tribes ("Army" tribes, also transliterated as "gish"), they became one of his most important means of imposing control over regions and cities. In 1664 he had taken control of Taza, but Fez rejected his authority and a siege of the city in 1665 failed. After further campaigning in the Rif region, where he won more support, Al-Rashid returned and secured the city's surrender in June 1666. He made the city his capital, but settled his military tribes in other lands and in a new kasbah outside the city (Kasbah Cherarda today) to head off complaints from the city's inhabitants about their behaviour. He then defeated the remnants of the Dala'iyya by invading and destroying their capital in the Middle Atlas in June 1668. In July he captured Marrakesh from Abu Bakr ben Abdul Karim Al-Shabani, the son of the usurper who had ruled the city since assassinating his nephew Ahmad al-Abbas, the last Saadian sultan. Al-Rashid's forces took the Sous valley and the Anti-Atlas in the south, forced Salé and its pirate republic to acknowledge his authority, while in the north, except for the European enclaves, he was in control of all the Rif comprising Ksar al-Kebir, Tetouan and Oujda in the northeast. Al-Rashid had thus succeeded in reuniting the country under one rule. He was not able to enjoy this success for very long, however, and died young in 1672 while in Marrakesh.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Upon Al-Rashid's death his younger half-brother Mawlay Isma'il became sultan. As sultan, Isma'il's 55-year reign was one of longest in Moroccan history. He distinguished himself as a ruler who wished to establish a unified Moroccan state as the absolute authority in the land, independent of any particular group within Morocco – in contrast to previous dynasties which relied on certain tribes or regions as the base of their power. He succeeded in part by creating a new army composed of Black slaves (the "Abid al-Bukhari") from Sub-Saharan Africa (or descendants of previously imported slaves), many of them Muslims, whose loyalty was to him alone. Mawlay Isma'il himself was half Black, his mother having been a Black slave concubine of Mawlay Sharif. This standing army also made effective use of modern artillery. He continuously led military campaigns against rebels, rivals, and European positions along the Moroccan coast. In practice, he still had to rely on various groups to control outlying areas, but he nonetheless succeeded in retaking many coastal cities occupied by England and Spain and managed to enforce direct order and heavy taxation throughout his territories. He put a definitive end to Ottoman attempts to gain influence in Morocco and established Morocco on more equal diplomatic footing with European powers in part by forcing them to ransom Christian captives at his court. These Christians were mostly captured by Moroccan pirate fleets which he heavily sponsored as a means of both revenue and warfare. While in captivity, prisoners were often forced into labour on his construction projects. All of these activities and policies gave him a reputation for ruthlessness and cruelty among European writers and a mixed reputation among Moroccan historians as well, though he is credited with unifying Morocco under strong (but brutal) leadership.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: He also moved the capital from Fez to Meknes, where he built a vast imperial kasbah, a fortified palace-city whose construction continued throughout his reign. He also built fortifications across the country, especially along its eastern frontier, which many of his "Abid" troops garrisoned. This was partly a response to continued Ottoman interference in Morocco, which Isma'il managed to stop after many difficulties and rebellions. Al-Khadr Ghaylan, a former leader in northern Morocco who fled to Ottoman Algiers during Al-Rashid's advance, returned to Tetouan at the beginning of Isma'il's reign with Ottoman help and led a rebellion in the north which was joined by the people of Fez. He recognized Isma'il's nephew, Ahmad ibn Mahriz, as sultan, who in turn had managed to take control of Marrakesh and was recognized also by the tribes of the Sous valley. Ghaylan was defeated and killed in 1673, and a month later Fez was brought back under control. Ahmad ibn Mahriz was only defeated and killed in 1686 near Taroudant. Meanwhile, the Ottomans supported further dissidents via Ahmad al-Dala'i, the grandson of Muhammad al-Hajj who had led the Dala'iyya to dominion over a large part of Morocco earlier that century, prior to Al-Rashid's rise. The Dala'is had been expelled to Tlemcen but and they returned to the Middle Atlas at the instigation of the Ottomans and under Ahmad's leadership in 1677. They managed to defeat Isma'il's forces and control Tadla for a time, but were defeated in April 1678 near Wadi al-'Abid. Ahmad al-Dala'i escaped and eventually died in early 1680. After the defeat of the Dala'is and of his nephew, Isma'il was finally able to impose his rule without serious challenge over all of Morocco and was able to push back against Ottoman influence. After Ghaylan's defeat he sent raids and military expeditions into Ottoman Algeria in 1679, 1682, and 1695–96. A final expedition in 1701 ended poorly. Afterwards, peace was re-established and the Ottomans agreed to recognize Morocco's eastern frontier near Oujda.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Isma'il also sought to project renewed Moroccan power abroad and in former territories. Following the decline of central rule in the late Saadian period earlier that century, the Pashalik of Timbuktu, created after Ahmad al-Mansur's invasion of the Songhay Empire, had become de facto independent and the trans-Saharan trade routes fell into decline. The 'Alawis became masters over Tuat (oasis in present-day Algeria) in 1645, they rebelled many times after this initial conquest but Isma'il established direct control there from 1676 onwards. In 1678–79 he organized a major military expedition to the south, forcing the Emirates of Trarza and Brakna to become his vassals and extending his overlordship up to the Senegal River. In 1694 he appointed a "qadi" to control in Taghaza (present-day northern Mali) on behalf of Morocco. Later, in 1724, he sent an army to support the amir of Trarza (present-day Mauritania) against the French presence in Senegal and also used the opportunity to appoint his own governor in Shinqit (Chinguetti). Despite this reassertion of control, trans-Saharan trade did not resume in the long-term on the same levels it existed before the 17th century.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: In 1662 Portuguese-controlled Tangier was transferred to English control as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry to Charles II. Mawlay Isma'il besieged the city unsuccessfully in 1679, but this pressure, along with attacks from local Muslim "mujahidin" (also known as the "Army of the Rif"), persuaded the English to evacuate Tangier in 1684. Mawlay Isma'il immediately claimed the city and sponsored its Muslim resettlement, but granted local authority to 'Ali ar-Rifi, the governor of Tetouan who had played an active part in besieging the city and became the chieftain of northern Morocco around this time. Isma'il also conquered Spanish-controlled Mahdiya in 1681, Al-Ara'ish (Larache) in 1689, and Asilah in 1691. Moreover, he sponsored Moroccan pirates which preyed on European merchant ships. Despite this, he also allowed Europeans merchants to trade inside Morocco, but he strictly regulated their activities and forced them to negotiate with his government for permission, allowing him to efficiently collect taxes on trade. Isma'il also allowed European countries, often through the proxy of Spanish Franciscan friars, to negotiate ransoms for the release of Christians captured by pirates or in battle. He also pursued relations with Louis XIV of France starting in 1682, hoping to secure an alliance against Spain, but France was less interested in this idea and relations eventually collapsed after 1718.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: After Mawlay Isma'il's death, Morocco was plunged into one of its greatest periods of turmoil between 1727 and 1757, with Isma'il's sons fighting for control of the sultanate and never holding onto power for long. Isma'il had left hundreds of sons who were theoretically eligible for the throne. Conflict between his sons was compounded by rebellions against the heavily taxing and autocratic government which Isma'il had previously imposed. Furthermore, the "Abid" of Isma'il's reign came to wield enormous power and were able to install or depose sultans according to their interests throughout this period, though they also had to compete with the "guich" tribes and some of the Amazigh (Berber) tribes. Meknes remained the capital and the scene of most of these political changes, but Fez was also a key player. Ahmad adh-Dhahabi was the first to succeed his father but was immediately contested and ruled twice only briefly before his death in 1729, with his brother Abd al-Malik ruling in between his reigns in 1728. After this his brother Abdallah ruled for most of the period between 1729 and 1757 but was deposed four times. Abdallah was initially supported by the "Abid" but eventually made enemies of them after 1733. Eventually he was able to gain advantage over them by forming an alliance with the Amazigh tribe of Ait Idrasin, the Oudaya "guich" tribe, and the leaders of Fez (whom he alienated early on but later reconciled with). This alliance steadily wore down the "Abid"s power and paved the way for their submission in the later part of the 18th century.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: In this period, the north of Morocco also became virtually independent of the central government, being ruled instead by Ahmad ibn 'Ali ar-Rifi, the son of 'Ali al-Hamami ar-Rifi whom Mawlay Isma'il had granted local authority in the region of Tangier. Ahmad al-Hamami ar-Rifi used Tangier as the capital of his territory and profited from an arms trade with the English at Gibraltar, with whom he also established diplomatic relations. Sultan Ahmad al-Dahabi had tried to appoint his own governor in Tetouan to undermine Ar-Rifi's power in 1727, but without success. Ahmad ar-Rifi was initially uninterested in the politics playing out in Meknes, but became embroiled due to an alliance he formed with al-Mustadi', one of the ephemeral sultans installed by the 'Abid installed in May 1738. When Al-Mustadi' was in turn deposed in January 1740 to accommodate Mawlay Abdallah's return to power, Ar-Rifi opposed the latter and invaded Fez in 1741. Mawlay Abdallah's alliance of factions was able to finally defeat and kill him on the battlefield in 1743, and soon after the sultan's authority was re-established along the coastal cities of Morocco. In 1647, Sultan Mawlay Abdallah strategically established his two sons "Khalifa" (Viceroy) in politically important cities. His eldest Mawlay Ahmed was appointed "Khalifa" of Rabat and his youngest Sidi Mohammed, "Khalifa" of Marrakesh. His eldest son would die before him in 1750. After 9 years of uninterrupted reign, Mawlay Abdallah died at Dar Dbibegh November 10, 1757. His only surviving son, Sidi Mohammed, succeeded him.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Order and control was firmly re-established only under Abdallah's son, Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdallah (Mohammed III), who became Sultan in 1757 after a decade as viceroy in Marrakesh. Many of the 'Abid had by then deserted their contingents and joined the common population of the country, and Sidi Mohammed III was able to reorganize those who remained into his own elite military corps. The Oudaya, who had supported his father but had been a burden on the population of Fez where they lived, became the main challenge to the new sultan's power. In 1760 he was forced to march with an army to Fez where he arrested their leaders and destroyed their contingents, killing many of their soldiers. In the aftermath the sultan created a new, much smaller, Oudaya regiment which was given new commanders and garrisoned in Meknes instead. Later, in 1775, he tried to distance the "Abid" from power by ordering their transfer from Meknes to Tangier in the north. The "Abid" resisted him and attempted to proclaim his son Yazid (the later Mawlay Yazid) as sultan, but the latter soon changed his mind and was reconciled with his father. After this, Sidi Mohammed III dispersed the "Abid" contingents to garrisons in Tangier, Larache, Rabat, Marrakesh and the Sous, where they continued to cause trouble until 1782. These disturbances were compounded by drought and severe famine between 1776 and 1782 and an outbreak of plague in 1779–1780, which killed many Moroccans and forced the sultan to import wheat, reduce taxes, and distribute food and funds to locals and tribal leaders in order to alleviate the suffering. By now, however, the improved authority of the sultan allowed the central government to weather these difficulties and crises.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdallah maintained the peace in part through a relatively more decentralized regime and lighter taxes, relying instead on greater trade with Europe to make up the revenues. In line with this policy, in 1764 he founded Essaouira, a new port city through which he funnelled European trade with Marrakesh. The last Portuguese outpost on the Moroccan coast, Mazagan (al-Jadida today), was taken by Morocco in 1729, leaving only the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as the remaining European outposts in Morocco. Muhammad also signed a Treaty of Friendship with the United States in 1787 after becoming the first head of state to recognize the new country. He was interested in scholarly pursuits and also cultivated a productive relationship with the "ulama", or Muslim religious scholars, who supported some of his initiatives and reforms.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Sidi Mohammed's opening of Morocco to international trade was not welcomed by some, however. After his death in 1790, his son and successor Mawlay Yazid ruled with more xenophobia and violence, punished Jewish communities, and launched an ill-fated attack against Spanish-held Ceuta in 1792 in which he was mortally wounded. After his death, he was succeeded by his brother Suleyman (or Mawlay Slimane), though the latter had to defeat two more brothers who contested the throne: Maslama in the north and Hisham in Marrakesh to the south. Suleyman brought trade with Europe nearly to a halt. Although less violent and bigoted than Yazid, was still portrayed by European sources as xenophobic. Some of this lack of engagement with Europe was likely a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars, during which England blockaded parts of Europe and both France and Spain threatened Morocco into not taking any side. After 1811 Suleyman also pushed a fundamentalist Wahhabist ideology at home and attempted to suppress local Sufi orders and brotherhoods, in spite of their popularity and despite his own membership in the Tijaniyya order.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: Suleyman's successor, Abd al-Rahman (or Abderrahmane; ruled 1822–1859), tried to reinforce national unity by recruiting local elites of the country and orchestrating military campaigns designed to bolster his image as a defender of Islam against encroaching European powers. The French conquest of Algeria in 1830, however, destabilized the region and put the sultan in a very difficult position. Wide popular support for the Algerians against the French led Morocco to allow the flow of aid and arms to the resistance movement led by Emir Abd al-Qadir, while the Moroccan "ulama" delivered a fatwa for a supporting jihad in 1837. On the other hand, Abd al-Rahman was reluctant to provide the French with a clear reason to attack Morocco if he ever intervened. He managed to maintain the appearance of neutrality until 1844, when he was compelled to provide refuge to Abd al-Qadir in Morocco. The French, led by the marshall Bugeaud, pursued him and thoroughly routed the Moroccan army at the Battle of Isly, near Oujda, on August 14. At the same time, the French navy bombarded Tangiers on August 6 and bombarded Mogador (Essaouira) on August 16. In the aftermath, Morocco signed the Convention of Lalla Maghnia on March 18, 1845. The treaty made the superior power of France clear and forced the sultan to recognize French authority over Algeria. Abd al-Qadir turned rebel against the sultan and took refuge in the Rif region until his surrender to the French in 1848.


title: 'Alawi dynasty

text: The next confrontation, the Hispano-Moroccan War, took place from 1859 to 1860, and the subsequent Treaty of Wad Ras led the Moroccan government to take a massive British loan larger than its national reserves to pay off its war debt to Spain.