title: Daniel Burnham

text: In 1904, Burnham accepted a commission from Philippines Governor-General William Howard Taft. He had the opportunity to redesign Manila and plan a summer capital to be constructed in Baguio. Due to the Philippines status as a territory, Burnham was able to pursue his vision without having to win local approval. Altogether the project took six months to design, with only six weeks spent in the Philippines. During his time there, Burnham did not interact with Filipino locals concerning the project. After his plans were approved by William Cameron Forbes, Commissioner of Commerce and Police in the Philippines, Burnham was allowed to choose the principal architect, William E. Parsons. Burnham then departed to keep tabs on the project from the mainland. Burnham's plans emphasized improved sanitation, a cohesive aesthetic (Mission Revival), and visual reminders of government authority. In Manila, wide boulevards radiated out from the capital building, while in Baguio government structures loomed from the cliffs above the town. The land for the Baguio project, in total, was seized from local Igorots with approval of the Philippine Supreme Court. In Manila, neighborhoods ravaged by the war for independence were left untouched while a luxury hotel, casino, and boat clubs were designed for visiting mainland dignitaries.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: Initiated in 1906 and published in 1909, Burnham and his co-author Edward H. Bennett prepared a "Plan of Chicago" which laid out plans for the future of the city. It was the first comprehensive plan for the controlled growth of an American city and an outgrowth of the City Beautiful movement. The plan included ambitious proposals for the lakefront and river. It also asserted that every citizen should be within walking distance of a park. Sponsored by the Commercial Club of Chicago, Burnham donated his services in hopes of furthering his own cause.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: Building off plans and conceptual designs from the World's Fair for the south lakefront, Burnham envisioned Chicago as a "Paris on the Prairie". French-inspired public works constructions, fountains and boulevards radiating from a central, domed municipal palace became Chicago's new backdrop. Though only parts of the plan were actually implemented, it set the standard for urban design, anticipating the future need to control urban growth and continuing to influence the development of Chicago long after Burnham's death.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: Burnham's city planning projects did not stop at Chicago. Burnham had previously contributed to plans for cities such as Cleveland (the 1903 Group Plan), San Francisco (1905), Manila (1905), and Baguio in the Philippines, details of which appear in the 1909 "Plan of Chicago" publication. His plans for the redesign of San Francisco were delivered to the Board of Supervisors in September 1905, but in the haste to rebuild the city after the 1906 earthquake and fires Burnham's plans were ultimately ignored. In the Philippines, Burnham's Plan for Manila never materialized due to the outbreak of World War II and the relocation of the capital to another city after the war. Some components of the plan, however, did come into fruition including the shore road which became Dewey Boulevard (now known as Roxas Boulevard) and the various neoclassical government buildings around Luneta Park, which very much resemble a miniature version of Washington, D.C., in their arrangement.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: In Washington, D.C., Burnham did much to shape the 1901 McMillan Plan which led to the completion of the overall design of the National Mall. The Senate Park Commission, or McMillan Commission established by Michigan Senator James McMillan, brought together Burnham and three of his colleagues from the World's Columbian Exposition: architect Charles Follen McKim, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Going well beyond Pierre L'Enfant's original vision for the city, the plan provided for the extension of the Mall beyond the Washington Monument to a new Lincoln Memorial and a "pantheon" that eventually materialized as the Jefferson Memorial. This plan involved significant reclamation of land from swamp and the Potomac River and the relocation of an existing railroad station, which was replaced by Burnham's design for Union Station. As a result of his service on the McMillan Commission, in 1910 Burnham was appointed a member and first chairman of the United States Commission of Fine Arts helping to ensure implementation of the McMillan Plan's vision. Burnham served on the commission until his death in 1912.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: In his career after the fair, Burnham became one of the country's most prominent advocates for the Beaux-Arts movement as well as the revival of Neo-classical architecture which began with the fair. Much of Burhham's work was based on the classical style of Greece and Rome. In his 1924 autobiography, Louis Sullivan, one of the leading architects of the Chicago School, but one who had a difficult relationship with Burnham over an extended period of time, criticized Burnham for what Sullivan viewed as his lack of original expression and dependence on classicism. Sullivan went on to claim that "the damage wrought by the World's Fair will last for half a century from its date, if not longer" – a sentiment edged with bitterness, as corporate America of the early 20th century had demonstrated a strong preference for Burnham's architectural style over Sullivan's.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: Burnham is famously quoted as saying, "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized." This slogan has been taken to capture the essence of Burnham's spirit.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: A man of influence, Burnham was considered the pre-eminent architect in America at the start of the 20th century. He held many positions during his lifetime, including the presidency of the American Institute of Architects. Other notable architects began their careers under his aegis, such as Joseph W. McCarthy. Several of his descendants have worked as influential architects and planners in the United States, including his son, Daniel Burnham Jr., and grandchildren Burnham Kelly and Margaret Burnham Geddes.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: Burnham married Margaret Sherman, the daughter of his first major client, John B. Sherman, on January 20, 1876. They first met on the construction site of her father's house. Her father had a house built for the couple to live in. During their courtship, there was a scandal in which Burnham's older brother was accused of having forged checks. Burnham immediately went to John Sherman and offered to break the engagement as a matter of honor but Sherman rejected the offer, saying "There is a black sheep in every family." However, Sherman remained wary of his son-in-law, who he thought drank too much.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: Burnham and Margaret remained married for the rest of his life. They had five children, two daughters and three sons, including Daniel Burnham Jr. born in February 1886, who became an architect and urban planner like his father. He worked in his father's firm until 1917, and served as the Director of Public Works for the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, known as the "Century of Progress".


title: Daniel Burnham

text: The Burnham family lived in Chicago until 1886, when he purchased a 16-room farmhouse and estate on Lake Michigan in the suburb of Evanston, Illinois. Burnham had become wary of Chicago which he felt was becoming dirtier and more dangerous as its population increased. Burnham explained to his mother, whom he did not tell of the move in advance, "I did it, because I can no longer bear to have my children on the streets of Chicago..." When Burnham moved into "the shanty" in Jackson Park to better supervise construction of the fair, his wife, Margaret and their children remained in Evanston.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: Burnham was an early environmentalist, writing: "Up to our time, strict economy in the use of natural resources has not been practiced, but it must be henceforth unless we are immoral enough to impair conditions in which our children are to live," although he also believed the automobile would be a positive environmental factor, with the end of horse-based transportation bringing "a real step in civilization... With no smoke, no gases, no litter of horses, your air and streets will be clean and pure. This means, does it not, that the health and spirits of men will be better?" Like many men of his time, he also showed an interest in the supernatural, saying "If I were able to take the time, I believe that I could prove the continuation of life beyond the grave, reasoning from the necessity, philosophically speaking, of a belief in an absolute and universal power."


title: Daniel Burnham

text: When Burnham was in his fifties, his health began to decline. He developed colitis and in 1909 was diagnosed with diabetes, which affected his circulatory system and led to an infection in his foot which was to continue for the remainder of his life.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: On April 14, 1912, Burnham and his wife were aboard the RMS" Olympic" of the White Star Line, traveling to Europe to tour Heidelberg, Germany. When he attempted to send a telegram to his friend Frank Millet who was traveling the opposite direction, from Europe to the United States, on the RMS" Titanic", he learned that the ship had sunk in an accident and Millet did not survive. Burnham died only 47 days later from colitis complicated by his diabetes and food poisoning from a meal eaten in Heidelberg.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: At the time of his death, D.H. Burnham and Co. was the world's largest architectural firm. Even legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, although strongly critical of Burnham's Beaux Arts European influences, still admired him as a man and eulogized him, saying: "[Burnham] made masterful use of the methods and men of his time...[As] an enthusiastic promoter of great construction enterprises...his powerful personality was supreme." The successor firm to Burnham's practice was Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, which continued in some form until 2006. Burnham was interred at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: Tributes to Burnham include Burnham Park and Daniel Burnham Court in Chicago, Burnham Park in Baguio in the Philippines, Daniel Burnham Court in San Francisco (formerly Hemlock Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street), the annual "Daniel Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan" (run by the American Planning Association), and the "Burnham Memorial Competition" which was held in 2009 to create a memorial to Burnham and his Plan of Chicago. Collections of Burnham's personal and professional papers, photographs, and other archival materials are held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago.


title: Daniel Burnham

text: In addition, the Reliance Building in Chicago which was designed by Burnham and Root, is now the Hotel Burnham, although Root was the primary architect before his death in 1891.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (; May 624 CE – October/November 692), was the leader of a caliphate based in Mecca that rivaled the Umayyads from 683 until his death.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: The son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Asma bint Abi Bakr, Ibn al-Zubayr belonged to the Quraysh, the leading tribe of the nascent Muslim community, and was the first child born to the Muhajirun, Islam's earliest converts. As a youth, he participated in the early Muslim conquests alongside his father in Syria and Egypt, and later played a role in the Muslim conquests of North Africa and northern Iran in 647 and 650, respectively. During the First Muslim Civil War, he fought on the side of his aunt A'isha against Caliph Ali (). Though little is heard of Ibn al-Zubayr during the subsequent reign of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I (), it was known that he opposed the latter's designation of his son, Yazid I, as his successor. Ibn al-Zubayr, along with many of the Quraysh and the Ansar, the leading Muslim groups of the Hejaz (western Arabia), opposed the caliphate becoming an inheritable institution of the Umayyads.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Ibn al-Zubayr established himself in Mecca where he rallied opposition to Yazid (), before proclaiming himself caliph in the wake of Yazid's death in 683, marking the beginning of the Second Muslim Civil War. Meanwhile, Yazid's son and successor died weeks into his reign, precipitating the collapse of Umayyad authority across the Caliphate, most of whose provinces subsequently accepted the suzerainty of Ibn al-Zubayr. Though widely recognized as caliph, his authority was largely nominal outside of the Hejaz. By 685, the Umayyad Caliphate had been reconstituted under Marwan I in Syria and Egypt, while Zubayrid authority was being challenged in Iraq and Arabia by pro-Alid and Kharijite forces. Ibn al-Zubayr's brother Mus'ab reasserted Ibn al-Zubayr's suzerainty in Iraq by 687, but was defeated and killed by Marwan's successor Abd al-Malik in 691. The Umayyad commander al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf proceeded to besiege Ibn al-Zubayr in his Meccan stronghold, where he was ultimately slain in 692.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Through the prestige of his family ties and social links with the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his strong association with the holy city of Mecca, Ibn al-Zubayr was able to lead the influential, disaffected Muslim factions opposed to Umayyad rule. He sought to reestablish the Hejaz as the political center of the Caliphate. However, his refusal to leave Mecca precluded him from exercising power in the more populous provinces where he depended on his brother Mus'ab and other loyalists, who ruled with virtual independence. He thus played a minor active role in the struggle carried out in his name.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr was born in Medina in the Hejaz (western Arabia) in May 624. He was the eldest son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a "ṣaḥābī" (companion) of Muhammad and a leading Muslim figure. He belonged to the Banu Asad clan of the Quraysh, the dominant tribe of Mecca, a trade center in the Hejaz and location of the Ka'aba, the holiest sanctuary in Islam. Ibn al-Zubayr's paternal grandmother was Safiyya bint Abd al-Muttalib, the paternal aunt of Muhammad, and his mother was Asma, a daughter of the first caliph, Abu Bakr (), and sister of A'isha, a wife of Muhammad. According to the 9th-century historians Ibn Habib and Ibn Qutayba, Ibn al-Zubayr was the first child born to the Muhajirun, the earliest converts to Islam who had been exiled from Mecca to Medina. These early social, kinship and religious links to Muhammad, his family and the first Muslims all boosted Ibn al-Zubayr's reputation in adulthood.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Ibn al-Zubayr had a number of wives and children. His first wife was Tumadir bint Manzur ibn Zabban ibn Sayyar ibn Amr of the Banu Fazara. She bore him his eldest son Khubayb, hence Ibn al-Zubayr's "kunya" (epithet) "Abu Khubayb", and other sons Hamza, Abbad, al-Zubayr and Thabit. She or another of Ibn al-Zubayr's wives, Umm al-Hasan Nafisa, a daughter of Hasan, son of the fourth caliph Ali () and grandson of Muhammad, bore his daughter Ruqayya. Tumadir's sister Zajla was at one point married to Ibn al-Zubayr. He was also married to A'isha, a daughter of the third caliph Uthman ibn Affan (). A'isha or Nafisa mothered Ibn al-Zubayr's son Bakr, of whom little is reported in the traditional sources. Ibn al-Zubayr divorced A'isha following the birth of their son. From another wife, Hantama bint Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham, Ibn al-Zubayr had his son 'Amir.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: As a child, during the reign of Caliph Umar in 636, Ibn al-Zubayr may have been present with his father at the Battle of Yarmouk against the Byzantines in Syria. He was also present with his father in Amr ibn al-As's campaign against Byzantine Egypt in 640. In 647, Ibn al-Zubayr distinguished himself in the Muslim conquest of Ifriqiya (North Africa) under the commander Abd Allah ibn Sa'd. During that campaign, Ibn al-Zubayr discovered a vulnerable point in the battle lines of the Byzantine defenders and slew their patrician, Gregory. He was lauded by Caliph Uthman and issued a victory speech, well known for its eloquence, upon his return to Medina. Later, he joined Sa'id ibn al-As in the latter's offensive in northern Iran in 650.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Uthman appointed Ibn al-Zubayr to the commission charged with the recension of the Qur'an. During the rebel siege of Uthman's house in June 656, the caliph put Ibn al-Zubayr in charge of his defense and he was reportedly wounded in the fighting. In the aftermath of Uthman's assassination, Ibn al-Zubayr fought alongside his father and his aunt A'isha against the partisans of Uthman's successor, Caliph Ali, at the Battle of the Camel in Basra in December. Al-Zubayr was killed, while Ibn al-Zubayr was wounded sparring with one of Ali's commanders, Malik al-Ashtar. Ali was victorious and Ibn al-Zubayr returned with A'isha to Medina, later taking part in the arbitration to end the First Fitna (Muslim civil war) in Adhruh or Dumat al-Jandal. During the talks, he counseled Abd Allah ibn Umar to pay for the support of Amr ibn al-As. Ibn al-Zubayr inherited a significant fortune from his father.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Ibn al-Zubayr did not oppose Mu'awiya I's accession to the caliphate in 661 and remained largely inactive during the course of his reign. However, he refused to recognize Mu'awiya's nomination of his son Yazid I as his successor in 676. When Yazid acceded following his father's death in 680, Ibn al-Zubayr again rejected his legitimacy, despite Yazid having the backing of the Arab tribesmen of Syria who formed the core of the Umayyad military. In response, Yazid charged al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of Medina, with gaining Ibn al-Zubayr's submission, but he evaded the authorities and escaped to Mecca. He was joined there by Ali's son Husayn, who too had refused submission to Yazid. Husayn and his supporters made a stand against the Umayyads in Karbala in 680, but were killed and Husayn was slain.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Following Husayn's death, Ibn al-Zubayr began clandestinely recruiting supporters. By September 683, he had taken control of Mecca. He referred to himself as "al-ʿaʾidh biʾl bayt" (the fugitive at the sanctuary, "viz.", the Ka'aba), adopted the slogan "lā ḥukma illā li-ʾllāh" (judgement belongs to God alone), but made no claim to the caliphate. Yazid ordered the governor of Medina, Amr ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, to arrest Ibn al-Zubayr. The governor, in turn, instructed Ibn al-Zubayr's estranged brother, the head of Medina's "shūrṭā" (security forces), Amr, to lead the expedition. However, the Umayyad force was ambushed and Amr was captured and subsequently killed while in captivity. Ibn al-Zubayr declared the illegitimacy of Yazid's caliphate and allied himself with the Ansar of Medina, led by Abd Allah ibn Hanzala, who had withdrawn support for Yazid due to his alleged improprieties. Ibn al-Zubayr also gained the support of the Kharijite movement in Basra and Bahrayn (eastern Arabia); the Kharijites were early opponents of the Umayyads who had defected from Caliph Ali because of his participation in the 657 arbitration.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: In response to growing opposition throughout Arabia, Yazid dispatched a Syrian Arab expeditionary force led by Muslim ibn Uqba to suppress Ibn al-Zubayr and the Ansar. The Ansar were routed at the Battle of al-Harrah in the summer of 683, and Ibn Hanzala was slain. The army continued toward Mecca, but Ibn Uqba died en route and command passed to his deputy Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni. The latter besieged the city on 24 September after Ibn al-Zubayr refused to surrender. The Ka'aba was severely damaged during al-Sakuni's bombardment. During the siege, two potential Qurashi candidates for the caliphate, Mus'ab ibn Abd al-Rahman and al-Miswar ibn Makhrama, were killed or died of natural causes. In November, news of Yazid's death prompted al-Sakuni to negotiate with Ibn al-Zubayr. Al-Sakuni proposed to recognize him as caliph on the condition that he would rule from Syria, the center of the Umayyad military and administration. Ibn al-Zubayr rejected this and the army withdrew to Syria, leaving him in control of Mecca.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Yazid's death and the subsequent withdrawal of the Umayyad army from the Hejaz afforded Ibn al-Zubayr the opportunity to realize his aspirations for the caliphate. He immediately declared himself "amīr al-muʾminīn" (commander of the faithful), a title traditionally reserved for the caliph, and called for all Muslims to give him their oaths of allegiance. With the other potential Hejazi candidates dead, Ibn al-Zubayr remained the last contender for the caliphate among the anti-Umayyad factions in Mecca and Medina and most of these groups recognized him as their leader. An exception were the Banu Hashim clan to which Muhammad and the Alids belonged and whose support Ibn al-Zubayr deemed important for his own legitimacy as caliph. The leading representatives of the clan in the Hejaz, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, the half-brother of Husayn ibn Ali, and their cousin Abd Allah ibn Abbas, withheld their oaths citing the need for a stronger consensus in the wider Muslim community. Irritated, Ibn al-Zubayr besieged the clan's neighborhood in Mecca and imprisoned Ibn al-Hanafiyya to pressure the Banu Hashim. Meanwhile, the Kharijites under Najda ibn Amir al-Hanafi in the Yamama (central Arabia) abandoned Ibn al-Zubayr once he forwarded his claim to the caliphate, an institution they rejected, and Ibn al-Zubayr refused to embrace their doctrine.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: In the Umayyad capital Damascus, Yazid was succeeded by his young son Mu'awiya II, but Mu'awiya II wielded virtually no authority and died from illness only months after his accession. This left a leadership void in Syria as there were no suitable successors among Mu'awiya I's Sufyanid house. In the ensuing chaos, Umayyad authority collapsed across the caliphate and Ibn al-Zubayr gained wide recognition. Most of the Islamic provinces offered their allegiance, including Egypt, Kufa, Yemen and the Qaysi tribes of northern Syria. Likewise, in Khurasan, the "de facto" governor Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami offered his recognition. Ibn al-Zubayr appointed his brother Mus'ab as governor of Basra and its dependencies. In a testament to the extent of Ibn al-Zubayr's sovereignty, coins were minted in his name as far as the districts of Kerman and Fars in modern-day Iran; both were dependencies of Basra at that time. Nonetheless, his authority outside of the Hejaz was largely nominal.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Most of the Arab tribes in central and southern Syria remained loyal to the Umayyads and selected the non-Sufyanid Marwan ibn al-Hakam from Medina to succeed Mu'awiya II. The proclamation of Marwan as caliph in Damascus marked a turning point for Ibn al-Zubayr. Marwan's partisans, led by Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, decisively defeated the pro-Zubayrid Qaysi tribes, led by al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, at the Battle of Marj Rahit in July 684. The surviving Qaysi tribesmen fled to the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) under the leadership of Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi, who maintained his recognition of Ibn al-Zubayr's suzerainty. However, in March 685, Ibn al-Zubayr lost the economically important province of Egypt to Marwan.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Meanwhile, negotiations collapsed between Ibn al-Zubayr and the Kufan strongman al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, who afterward took up the cause of the Alid family. He declared Ibn al-Hanafiyya caliph and, unprecedentedly in Islamic history, the "mahdī". Al-Mukhtar's partisans drove out the Zubayrid authorities from Kufa in October 685. Al-Mukhtar later dispatched a Kufan force to the Hejaz and freed Ibn al-Hanafiyya. Mus'ab's authority in Basra and Khurasan was also beginning to waver, but was ultimately secured after he gained the backing of the powerful Azdi chieftain and military leader of Khurasan, al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra. Mus'ab also gained the defections of thousands of Kufan tribesmen and together they defeated and killed al-Mukhtar in April 687. Ibn al-Zubayr subsequently dismissed Mus'ab from office in 686/87 and appointed his own son Hamza as governor of Basra. The latter dispatched a force under Abd Allah ibn Umayr al-Laythi to drive out the Najdiyya Kharijites from Bahrayn after they overran the province, but the Zubayrids were repulsed. Hamza proved incompetent in his administration of Iraq and, following his failure to deliver the provincial revenues to the state treasury in Mecca, he was dismissed and allegedly imprisoned by his father. Mus'ab was reinstated shortly after, in 687/688. By that time, the Najdiyya Kharijites conquered Yemen and Hadhramawt, while in 689, they occupied Ta'if, Mecca's southern neighbour.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: The defeat of al-Mukhtar, who had opposed the Zubayrids and the Umayyads, left Ibn al-Zubayr and Marwan's son and successor Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) as the two main contenders for the caliphate. However, Kharijite gains in Arabia had isolated Ibn al-Zubayr in the Hejaz, cutting him off from loyalists in other parts of the caliphate. In 691, Abd al-Malik secured the support of Zufar and the Qays of Jazira, removing the principal obstacle between his Syrian army and Zubayrid Iraq. Later that year, his forces conquered Iraq and killed Mus'ab in the Battle of Maskin. Al-Muhallab, who was leading the fight against the Kharijites in Fars and Ahwaz, subsequently switched his allegiance to Abd al-Malik.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: After asserting Umayyad authority in Iraq, Abd al-Malik dispatched one of his commanders, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr. Al-Hajjaj besieged and bombarded Mecca for six months, by which point, most of Ibn al-Zubayr's partisans and his sons Khubayb and Hamza surrendered upon offers of pardons. Ibn al-Zubayr remained defiant and, acting on his mother's counsel, entered the battlefield where he was ultimately slain on 3 October or 4 November 692.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: In an anecdote recorded by 9th-century historian al-Tabari, when al-Hajjaj and his lieutenant commander, Tariq ibn Amr, stood over Ibn al-Zubayr's body, Tariq said of the latter: "Women have borne none manlier than he ... He had no defensive trench, no fortress, no stronghold; yet he held his own against us an equal, and even got the better of us whenever we met with him". Al-Hajjaj posted Ibn al-Zubayr's body on a gibbet where it remained until Abd al-Malik allowed Ibn al-Zubayr's mother to retrieve it. His body was subsequently buried in the house of his paternal grandmother Safiyya in Medina. The Umayyad victory and Ibn al-Zubayr's death marked the end of the Second Fitna.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Following his victory, Abd al-Malik confiscated the estates of Ibn al-Zubayr in Medina and elsewhere in the Hejaz. The caliph later restored some of the properties to Ibn al-Zubayr's sons after a request by Thabit. His eldest son, Khubayb, was flogged to death in Medina by its governor Umar II during the reign of Caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715). Thabit, meanwhile, had gained particular favor from al-Walid's successor, Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 715–717), who agreed to return the remainder of the confiscated estates to Ibn al-Zubayr's sons. Under the Abbasid caliphs al-Mahdi (r. 775–785) and Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), several descendants of Ibn al-Zubayr attained senior administrative posts, including his great-grandson Abd Allah ibn Mus'ab and the latter's son Bakkar ibn Abd Allah, who successively served as governors of Medina.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Ibn al-Zubayr adamantly opposed the caliphate becoming an Umayyad inheritance. Instead, he advocated that the caliph should be chosen by "shūrā" (consultation) among the Quraysh as a whole. The Quraysh opposed the monopolization of power by the Banu Umayya and insisted power be distributed among all the Qurayshi clans. However, other than this conviction, Ibn al-Zubayr did not sponsor any religious doctrine or political program, unlike the contemporary Alid and Kharijite movements. By the time he made his claim to the caliphate, he had emerged as the leader of the disaffected Quraysh. According to historian H. A. R. Gibb, Qurayshi resentment towards the Banu Umayya is evident as an underlying theme in the Islamic traditions about Ibn al-Zubayr's conflict with the Umayyads and Ibn al-Zubayr was the "principal representative" of the second generation of the Hejaz's elite Muslim families who chafed at the "gulf of power" between them and the ruling Umayyad house. Though Gibb describes Ibn al-Zubayr as "brave, but fundamentally self-seeking and self-indulgent", the hostility to the Umayyads in traditional Muslim sources led to a general description of him as a "model of piety". Nonetheless, a number of Muslim sources condemned him as jealous and harsh and particularly criticized the fatal abuse of his brother 'Amr and his imprisonment of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Ibn al-Zubayr rallied opposition to the Umayyads in the Hejaz from his base in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, and through his prestige as a first-generation Muslim with family ties to Muhammad. He aimed to restore the Hejaz to its former political prominence; after the assassination of Uthman, the region's position as the political center of the Caliphate had been lost first to Kufa under Ali and then to Damascus under Mu'awiya I. To that end, Ibn al-Zubayr developed a strong association with Mecca and its Ka'aba, which, combined with his control of Islam's second holiest city of Medina, furthered his prestige and gave his caliphate a holy character.


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Ibn al-Zubayr rejected the offer of support from the caliphate's Syria-based army partly because it would have obliged him to relocate to Damascus. Indeed, while other cities were available to him, Ibn al-Zubayr opted to remain in Mecca, from which he issued directives to his supporters elsewhere in the Caliphate. However, this restricted him from exercising direct influence in the larger, more populated provinces, particularly Iraq, where his more worldly brother ruled with virtual independence. In Arabia, Ibn al-Zubayr's power had been largely confined to the Hejaz with the Kharijite leader Najda holding more influence in the greater part of the peninsula. Thus, Ibn al-Zubayr had virtually rendered himself a background figure in the movement that was launched in his name; in the words of historian Julius Wellhausen, "the struggle turned round him [Ibn al-Zubayr] nominally, but he took no part in it and it was decided without him".


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: During his rule, Ibn al-Zubayr made significant alterations to the Ka'aba's structure, claiming that the changes were in line with the authority of Muhammad. He called himself the "fugitive at the sanctuary [Ka'aba]" while his Umayyad detractors referred to him as "the evil-doer at Mecca".


title: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Three Umayyad caliphs reigned during the twelve years of Ibn al-Zubayr's caliphate between 680 and 692. The short terms indicated in the upper plot in light blue and yellow correspond to the tenures of Mu'awiya II and Marwan I, respectively. (Note that a caliph's succession does not necessarily occur on the first day of the new year.)


title: Crows Zero

text: , also known as Crows: Episode 0, is a 2007 Japanese action film based on the manga "Crows" by Hiroshi Takahashi. The film was directed by Takashi Miike with a screenplay by Shōgo Mutō, and stars Shun Oguri, Kyōsuke Yabe, Meisa Kuroki, and Takayuki Yamada. The plot serves as a prequel to the manga, and focuses on the power struggle between gangs of students at Suzuran All-Boys High School. The film was released in Japan on October 27, 2007. It has spawned two sequels, "Crows Zero 2" and "Crows Explode", as well as a manga adaptation released November 13, 2008.


title: Crows Zero

text: Newly transferred high school senior Genji Takiya (Shun Oguri) arrives at Suzuran All-Boys High School, an institution infamous for its population of violent delinquents. During the freshman orientation assembly, yakuza arrive at the school seeking vengeance on third-year Serizawa Tamao (Takayuki Yamada) for assaulting some members of their gang. The thugs mistake Genji for their target and a brawl ensues on the school field. Meanwhile, Serizawa is visiting his best friend Tatsukawa Tokio (Kenta Kiritani), who has just been discharged from a hospital. Upon returning to the school, Serizawa witnesses Genji defeat the last of the yakuza.


title: Crows Zero

text: That night, Genji goes to a nightclub he frequents and meets R&B singer Aizawa Ruka (Meisa Kuroki). He then goes to see his father, yakuza boss Takiya Hideo (Goro Kishitani), to whom he proclaims his ambition to conquer Suzuran, a feat which Hideo himself had attempted in his youth, but failed. Genji makes Hideo promise to acknowledge him as his successor should he succeed. The next day, Genji challenges Serizawa to a fight, but is halted by Tokio. He tells Genji that if he really wants to make an impression he should begin by defeating Rindaman, a legendary fighter at the school. After Rindaman refuses his challenge, Genji encounters Katagiri Ken (Kyosuke Yabe), one of the yakuza who'd come to the school the previous day. He attacks Genji in retaliation for getting his gang arrested, but is taken down with a single punch. Humbled, Ken goes with Genji to the club where they discuss the latter's plans for Suzuran.


title: Crows Zero

text: Following advice from Ken, Genji begins building his army, called "Genji Perfect Seiha" (a.k.a. "GPS"). Anticipating the brewing conflict, Serizawa also begins recruiting factions for his own cause. Genji succeeds in rallying several strong members, including Tamura Chūta, Makise Takashi, and Izaki Shun. Serizawa is alarmed by Genji's rapid rise to power, but chooses not to take action. One of Serizawa's lieutenants, Tokaji Yūji, is not so ambivalent and begins covertly attacking members of the GPS, severely beating Chūta and putting Izaki in the hospital. The provocations cause tensions between the two armies to rise drastically, but Genji is prevented from acting by Makise. One night, Tokio and Serizawa visit the nightclub and encounter Genji. As Tokio runs interference between the opposing leaders, he suffers a seizure and is rushed to a hospital, where he learns that he has a cerebral aneurysm which requires surgery. Despite initial hesitation about the procedure's 30% success rate, Tokio agrees to the operation.


title: Crows Zero

text: Tokaji approaches Bandō Hideto, leader of "The Front of Armament" biker gang, with a plan to kidnap Ruka and further aggravate Genji. Elsewhere, yakuza boss Yazaki Jōji orders Ken to kill Genji, disregarding the fact that doing so will incite a war between the yakuza organizations. The task proves to be too much for Ken, who has grown fond of Genji and begins lamenting his decision to become a yakuza in the first place. He decides to inform Takiya Hideo of the plot to kill his son. Genji gets a call from Ruka, who tells him that she is being held hostage by men with skulls on their jackets, and that her captors mentioned the name "Bandō". Surmising that her captors are The Armament, Genji gathers the GPS and proceeds to the biker gang's headquarters. A fight ensues, but Genji soon realizes that the men they are fighting are missing their trademark skull patches. Bandō demands an end to fight, revealing that he'd ordered the skulls be removed after part of The Armament aligned with Tokaji. After locating Tokaji and saving Ruka, Genji decides it's finally time for war against Serizawa. They decide to fight at 5:00pm the following day, at the same time that Tokio will undergo his operation, with Serizawa believing it will allow him to fight alongside Tokio.


title: Crows Zero

text: The next day, as the battle begins, the tide seems to be in Serizawa's favor, but after Bandō's faction of The Armament arrives and joins the GPS, the odds are evened out. The fighting continues until only Serizawa and Genji are left standing. Meanwhile, Ken is taken to the harbor to be executed for disobeying the order to kill Genji. Yazaki gives Ken his coat as a parting gift before shooting him in the back. He falls into the water and begins to sink. Genji and Serizawa fight well into the night, and though injured and exhausted, Genji eventually gains the upper hand and triumphs. Clinging to consciousness, Serizawa receives a call from the hospital informing him that Tokio's operation was a success. Back at the docks, Ken suddenly recovers and swims to the surface. He discovers that the coat Yazaki had given to him was bulletproof, and that his "execution" was a ploy to allow him to leave the organization and live a different life.


title: Crows Zero

text: Several days later, Genji again challenges Rindaman, the final obstacle on his path to ruling Suzuran. Rindaman expresses his belief that Suzuran can never be truly conquered, and that there will always be someone left to fight. The film ends as the skirmish between Genji and Rindaman begins.


title: Crows Zero

text: The film was released in Japan on October 27, 2007. It was also screened internationally in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong throughout 2008. The film was released on DVD in the United States on March 31, 2009.


title: Crows Zero

text: Reviews of the film have been average. Najib Zulfikar of "Total Film" gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, stating, "Miike amps it all up to 11 in his inimitable style, as impossibly coiffured pretty boys duke it out and the Yakuza take an interest in the outcome. Sadly, the story’s so overpopulated it’s hard to care who’ll survive to graduate." Similarly, David Brook of "Blueprint Review" gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars indicating, "Teenage boys will lap up every minute of it (other than the songs which probably won’t appeal to many Westerners) and the lack of obviously ‘bad’ and ‘good’ guys means the conclusion wasn't always going to be clear cut (after an hour or so you can see where its heading though)."


title: Crows Zero

text: The film was followed by two sequels: "Crows Zero 2" (also directed by Miike) in 2009 and "Crows Explode" in 2014. It was also adapted into a manga illustrated by Kenichirō Naitō and published in "Monthly Shōnen Champion" magazine.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Timnit Gebru (; born 1983/1984) is an American computer scientist who works on algorithmic bias and data mining. She is an advocate for diversity in technology and co-founder of Black in AI, a community of Black researchers working in artificial intelligence (AI). She is the founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR).


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In December 2020, Gebru was the center of a public controversy stemming from her abrupt and contentious departure from Google as technical co-lead of the Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team. Higher management had requested she withdraw an as-yet-unpublished paper or remove the names of all Google coauthors, and said that the paper ignored recent research. She requested insight into the decision, and warned that non-compliance would result in her negotiating her departure. Google terminated her employment immediately, stating they were accepting her resignation.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Gebru has been recognized widely for her expertise in technology and artificial intelligence. She was named one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders by "Fortune" and one of "Nature"'s ten people who shaped science in 2021, and in 2022, one of "Time"'s most influential people.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Gebru was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her father, an electrical engineer with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), died when she was five years old, and she was raised by her mother, an economist. Both her parents are from Eritrea. When Gebru was 15, during the Eritrean–Ethiopian War, she fled Ethiopia after some of her family was deported to Eritrea and compelled to fight in the war. She was initially denied a US visa and briefly lived in Ireland, but she eventually received political asylum in the US, an experience she said was "miserable". Gebru settled in Somerville, Massachusetts to attend high school, where she says she immediately started to experience racially-based discrimination, with some teachers refusing to allow her to take certain Advanced Placement courses, despite being a high-achiever.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: After completing high school, an encounter with the police set Gebru on a course toward a focus on ethics in technology. A friend of hers, a Black woman, was assaulted in a bar, and Gebru called the police to report it. She says that instead of filing the assault report, her friend was arrested and remanded to a cell. Gebru called it a pivotal moment and a "blatant example of systemic racism".


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In 2001, Gebru was accepted at Stanford University. There she earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering and her PhD in computer vision in 2017. Gebru was advised during her PhD program by Fei-Fei Li.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Gebru presented her doctoral research at the 2017 LDV Capital Vision Summit competition, where computer vision scientists present their work to members of industry and venture capitalists. Gebru won the competition, starting a series of collaborations with other entrepreneurs and investors.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Both during her PhD program in 2016 and in 2018, Gebru returned to Ethiopia with Jelani Nelson's programming campaign AddisCoder.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: While working on her PhD, Gebru authored a paper that was never published about her concern over the future of AI. She wrote of the dangers of the lack of diversity in the field, centered on her experiences with the police and on a ProPublica investigation into predictive policing, which revealed a projection of human biases in machine learning. In the paper, she scathed the "boy's club culture," reflecting on her experiences at conference gatherings of drunken male attendees sexually harassing her, and criticized the hero worship of the field's celebrities.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Gebru joined Apple as an intern while at Stanford, working in their hardware division making circuitry for audio components, and was offered a full-time position the following year. Of her work as an audio engineer, her manager told "Wired" she was "fearless," and well-liked by her colleagues. During her tenure at Apple, Gebru became more interested in building software, namely computer vision that could detect human figures. She went on to develop signal processing algorithms for the first iPad. At the time, she said she did not consider the potential use for surveillance, saying "I just found it technically interesting."


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Long after leaving the company, during the #AppleToo movement in the summer of 2021, which was led by Apple engineer Cher Scarlett, who consulted with Gebru, Gebru revealed she experienced "so many egregious things" and "always wondered how they manage[d] to get out of the spotlight." She said that accountability at Apple was long overdue, and warned they could not continue to fly under the radar for much longer. Gebru also criticized the way the media covers Apple and other tech giants, saying that the press helps shield such companies from public scrutiny.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In 2013, Gebru joined Fei-Fei Li's lab at Stanford. She used data mining of publicly available images. She was interested in the amount of money spent by governmental and non-governmental organisations trying to collect information about communities. To investigate alternatives, Gebru combined deep learning with Google Street View to estimate the demographics of United States neighbourhoods, showing that socioeconomic attributes such as voting patterns, income, race, and education can be inferred from observations of cars. If the number of pickup trucks outnumbers the number of sedans, the community is more likely to vote for the Republican party. They analysed over 15 million images from the 200 most populated US cities. The work was extensively covered in the media, being picked up by BBC News, "Newsweek", "The Economist", and "The New York Times".


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In 2015, Gebru attended the field's top conference, Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), in Montreal, Canada. Out of 3,700 attendees, she noted she was one of only a few Black researchers. When she attended again the following year, she kept a tally, and noted that there were only five Black men, and that she was the only Black woman out of 8,500 delegates. Together with her colleague Dr. Rediet Abebe, Gebru founded "Black in AI", a community of Black researchers working in artificial intelligence.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In the summer of 2017, Gebru joined Microsoft as a postdoctoral researcher in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency and Ethics in AI (FATE) lab. In 2017, Gebru spoke at the Fairness and Transparency conference, where "MIT Technology Review" interviewed her about biases that exist in AI systems and how adding diversity in AI teams can fix that issue. In her interview with Jackie Snow, Snow asked Gebru, "How does the lack of diversity distort artificial intelligence and specifically computer vision?" and Gebru pointed out that there are biases that exist in the software developers. While at Microsoft, Gebru co-authored a research paper called "Gender Shades", which became the namesake of a project of a broader Massachusetts Institute of Technology project led by co-author Dr. Joy Buolamwini. The pair investigated facial recognition software; finding that Black women were 35% less likely to be recognised than White men.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Gebru joined Google in 2018, where she co-led a team on the ethics of artificial intelligence with Dr. Margaret Mitchell. She studied the implications of artificial intelligence, looking to improve the ability of technology to do social good.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In 2019, Gebru and other artificial intelligence researchers "signed a letter calling on Amazon to stop selling its facial-recognition technology to law enforcement agencies because it is biased against women and people of color", citing a study that was conducted by MIT researchers showing that Amazon's facial recognition system had more trouble identifying darker-skinned females than any other technology company's facial recognition software. In a "New York Times" interview, Gebru has further expressed that she believes facial recognition is too dangerous to be used for law enforcement and security purposes at present.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: By the end of her career at Google in 2020, Gebru had determined that publishing research papers was more effective at bringing forth the ethical change she was focused on than pressing her superiors in the company. She and five others coauthored a research paper, ""On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?"", that covered the risks of very large language models, regarding their environmental and financial costs, inscrutability leading to unknown dangerous biases, the inability of the models to understand the concepts underlying what they learn, and the potential for using them to deceive people.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In December 2020, her employment with Google ended after higher Google managers asked her to either withdraw the as-yet-unpublished paper, or remove the names of all the Google employees from that paper (that is, five of the six coauthors, leaving only Emily M. Bender). In a six-page mail sent to an internal collaboration list, Gebru describes how she was summoned to a meeting at short notice where she was asked to withdraw the paper and she requested to know the names and reasons of everyone who made that decision, along with advice for how to revise it to Google's liking. She said she would work with Google on an employment end date after an appropriate amount of time if not provided with that information. Google did not meet her request and terminated her employment immediately, declaring that they accepted her resignation. Dr. Jeff Dean, Google's head of AI research, replied with an email saying that they made the decision because the paper ignored too much relevant recent research on ways to mitigate some of the problems described in it, about environmental impact and bias of these models.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Dean went on to publish his internal email regarding Gebru's departure, and his thoughts on the matter, defending Google's research paper process to "tackle ambitious problems, but to do so responsibly". Gebru and others blame this initial publication, and Dean's subsequent silence on the matter, to have both catalyzed and enabled harassment that followed close behind his response. Gebru was serially harassed by a number of sock puppet accounts and internet trolls on Twitter, making racist and obscene comments. Gebru and her supporters alleged some of the harassment to be from machine learning researcher Pedro Domingos and businessman Michael Lissack, who had said that her work was "advocacy disguised as science". Of Domingos, Gebru said he "hide[s] behind civility and enable[s] the trolls". Lissack also allegedly harassed Mitchell and Bender, along with other colleagues on Gebru's former team. Twitter permanently suspended Lissack's account access on 1 February 2020.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Gebru has repeatedly maintained that she was fired, and close to 2,700 Google employees and more than 4,300 academics and civil society supporters signed a letter condemning Gebru's alleged firing. Nine members of Congress sent a letter to Google asking it to clarify the circumstances around Timnit Gebru's exit. Gebru's former team demanded that Vice President Megan Kacholia be removed from the team's management chain. Kacholia had allegedly fired Gebru without notifying Gebru's direct manager Dr. Samy Bengio first, and demanded Kacholia and Dean apologize for how Gebru was treated. Mitchell took to Twitter to criticize Google's treatment of employees working to eliminate bias and toxicity in AI, including its alleged dismissal of Gebru. Mitchell was later terminated.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Following the negative publicity over the circumstances of her exit, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company, publicly apologized on Twitter without clarifying whether she was terminated or resigned, and initiated a months-long investigation into the incident. Upon conclusion of the review, Dean announced Google would be changing its "approach for handling how certain employees leave the company," but still did not clarify whether or not Gebru's leaving Google was voluntary. Additionally, Dean said there would be changes to how research papers with "sensitive" topics would be reviewed, and diversity, equity, and inclusion goals would be reported to Alphabet's board of directors quarterly. Gebru wrote on Twitter that she "expected nothing more" from Google, and pointed out that the changes were due to the requests she was allegedly terminated for, but that no one was held accountable for it. In the aftermath, two Google employees resigned from their positions at the company.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Following her departure, Google held a forum to discuss experiences with racism at the company, and employees reported to "NBC News" that half of it was spent discrediting Gebru, which they took as the company making an example of her for speaking out. The town hall was followed up with a group psychotherapy session for Google's Black employees with a licensed therapist, which the employees said was dismissive over the harm they felt Gebru's alleged termination had caused.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In November 2021, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, partnered with Open MIC and endorsed by Color of Change, filed a shareholder proposal calling for a "racial equity audit," to analyze its "adverse impact" on "Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities". The proposal also requests investigation into whether or not Google retaliated against minority employees who raised concerns of discrimination, citing Gebru's firing, her previous urge for Google to hire more BIPOC, and her research into racially-based biases in Google's technology. The proposal followed a less formal request from a group of Senate Democratic Caucus members led by Cory Booker from earlier that year, also citing Gebru's separation from the company and her work.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In December 2021, "Reuters" reported that Google was under investigation by California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) for its treatment of Black women, after numerous formal complaints of discrimination and harassment by current and former workers. The probe comes after Gebru, and other BIPOC employees, reported that when they brought up their experiences with racism and sexism to Human Resources, they were advised to take medical leave and therapy through the company's Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Gebru, and others, believe that her alleged dismissal was retaliatory and evidence that Google is institutionally racist. Google said that it "continue[s] to focus on this important work and thoroughly investigate[s] any concerns, to make sure [Google] is representative and equitable".


title: Timnit Gebru

text: In June 2021, Gebru announced that she was raising money to "launch an independent research institute modeled on her work on Google's Ethical AI team and her experience in "Black in AI"".


title: Timnit Gebru

text: On 2 December 2021 she launched the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR), which is expected to document the effect of artificial intelligence on marginalized groups, with a focus on Africa and African immigrants in the United States. One of the organization's initial projects plans to analyze satellite imagery of townships in South Africa with AI to better understand legacies of apartheid.


title: Timnit Gebru

text: Gebru, Buolamwini, and Inioluwa Deborah Raji won "VentureBeat"s 2019 AI Innovations Award in the category "AI for Good" for their research highlighting the significant problem of algorithmic bias in facial recognition. Gebru was named one of the world's 50 greatest leaders by "Fortune" in 2021. Gebru was included in a list of ten scientists who had had important roles in scientific developments in 2021 compiled by the scientific journal "Nature".


title: 2023–24 AFC Cup

text: The 2023–24 AFC Cup will be the 20th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).


title: 2023–24 AFC Cup

text: This is the first ever AFC Cup season to have a two-year (autumn-to-spring) schedule, instead of an all-year-round (spring-to-autumn) schedule.


title: 2023–24 AFC Cup

text: The winners of the tournament will automatically qualify for the 2024–25 AFC Champions League, entering the qualifying play-offs, if they have not qualified through their domestic performance.


title: 2023–24 AFC Cup

text: The 47 AFC member associations are ranked based on their club's performance over the last four years in AFC competitions (their national team's FIFA World Rankings are no longer considered). The slots are allocated by the following criteria according to the Entry Manual:


title: 2023–24 AFC Cup

text: For the 2023–24 AFC Cup, the associations are allocated slots according to their club competitions ranking which was published on 24 November 2021, which takes into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup in 2018, 2019 and 2021.


title: 2023–24 AFC Cup

text: Teams in "italics" will play in the AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs, and will play in the AFC Cup group stage if they fail to advance to the AFC Champions League group stage. Should they advance to the AFC Champions League group stage, they will not play in the AFC Cup, and will be replaced by the standby team from their association if such team is available.


title: Swedish Chef

text: The Swedish Chef is a Muppet character that appeared on "The Muppet Show". He was originally performed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz simultaneously, with Henson performing the head and voice and Oz performing the character with real hands. The Swedish Chef is currently performed by Bill Barretta. He is best known for his ridiculous cooking methods and the phrase "Bork, bork, bork!".


title: Swedish Chef

text: A parody of television chefs, the Swedish Chef wears a "toque blanche", has a thick brown moustache and has bushy eyebrows that completely obscure his eyes. He was one of the few Muppets to employ an actual puppeteer's visible hands, which extended from the ends of his sleeves and facilitated handling food and utensils. Frank Oz originally provided the character's hands.


title: Swedish Chef

text: Nearly all Swedish Chef sketches on "The Muppet Show" feature him in a kitchen, waving some utensils while singing an introductory song in a mock language – a semi-comprehensible gibberish supposedly mimicking Swedish phonology and prosody. The song's lyrics vary slightly from one episode to the next, but always end with "Bork, bork, bork!" as the Chef throws the utensils aside, occasionally knocking items off a shelf or the back wall in the process.


title: Swedish Chef

text: After this introduction, the Chef begins to prepare a recipe while giving a gibberish explanation of what he is doing. His commentary is spiced with the occasional English word to clue in the viewer to what he is attempting. These hints are necessary as he frequently uses unorthodox culinary equipment (firearms, sports equipment, hand tools, etc.) to prepare his dishes. (E.g. "See de moofin? Und here de boom-a-shootin" before tossing an English muffin into the air and blowing a hole through it with a blunderbuss to make a doughnut.) The sketch typically degenerates into a slapstick finale where the equipment or ingredients (often a live animal he is attempting to cook) get the better of him.


title: Swedish Chef

text: The Chef is referred to by name in one episode, in which Danny Kaye plays his uncle. Kaye reels off a very long name but adds, "But we call him Tom" – much to the Chef's amusement. In 2010, the Chef was seen wearing a wedding ring, implying that the character is married.


title: Swedish Chef

text: Some claim that the Swedish Chef was inspired by a real-life chef. One example is Friedman Paul Erhardt, a German American television chef known as "Chef Tell". Another example is Lars "Kuprik" Bäckman, a real-life Swedish chef. Bäckman claims that his rather unsuccessful appearance on an early edition of "Good Morning America" caught the attention of Jim Henson, who later bought the rights to the recording and created Bäckman's Muppet alter ego. Bäckman's Dalecarlian accent would explain the chef's strange pronunciation. Muppet writer Jerry Juhl denied Bäckman's story and insisted the character had no real-world counterpart: "I wrote, rehearsed, rewrote, brainstormed, and giggled uncontrollably a thousand times with Jim Henson as we dealt with the Swedish Chef, and I never once heard him mention an actual Swedish chef..."


title: Swedish Chef

text: According to Brian Henson, in one of his introductions for "The Muppet Show", "[Jim Henson] had this tape that he used to play which was 'How to Speak Mock Swedish'. And he used to drive to work and I used to ride with him a lot. And he would drive to work trying to make a chicken sandwich in mock Swedish or make a turkey casserole in mock Swedish. It was the most ridiculous thing you had ever seen. And people at traffic lights used to stop and sort of look at him a little crazy. But that was the roots of the character that would eventually become the Swedish Chef."


title: Swedish Chef

text: When interviewed on the subject in Swedish magazine "Expressen" in 1985, Jim Henson claimed that "one of my writers came up with the idea that the chef should sound like the Swedish actors in Ingmar Bergman films".


title: Swedish Chef

text: The Swedish Chef is a variation of a live-hand Muppet. The Chef's lead performer, originally Jim Henson, uses their dominant hand to perform the character's head and mouth, and provides his mock Swedish dialogue. Both hands of a second puppeteer, originally Frank Oz, serve as those of the Chef, which, in a twist on the formula, are actual human hands instead of puppet gloves, allowing him to better interact with the food he prepares.


title: Swedish Chef

text: In recent years, the Chef has been sometimes seen wearing a wedding ring, one belonging to Steve Whitmire, who usually performed his hands during the majority of Bill Barretta's tenure as the character (since Whitmire's departure from The Muppets, Peter Linz has served as the Chef's hands).


title: Swedish Chef

text: The Muppets have not had the same cultural impact in Sweden as in the United States. In Sweden, the Swedish Chef's name was translated as "Svenske kocken", meaning the "Swedish cook". A 2012 "Slate" article stated that "the fact that his nonsense words are so widely interpreted as Swedish-sounding is bewildering and annoying to Swedes" and argued that Swedes don't find the character funny at all; the author quoted his wife who said the character "doesn't sound Swedish, doesn’t act Swedish, and there’s nothing Swedish about him. He’s not funny." The linguist Tomas Riad said “it’s not funny for us to laugh at. It’s funny for other people to laugh at.”


title: Swedish Chef

text: In the German-dubbed version of "The Muppet Show", the Chef is Danish rather than Swedish, and his name is "Smørrebrød Skagerrak".


title: Swedish Chef

text: Besides appearances in "The Muppet Show", the chef also appears in "The Muppet Movie" (1979), "The Great Muppet Caper" (1981), "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1984), "" (1986), "A Muppet Family Christmas" (1987), "Muppet*Vision 3D" (1991), an attraction found at Disney's Hollywood Studios, "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992), "Muppet Treasure Island" (1996), "Muppets From Space" (1999), "It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie" (2002), "" (2008), a sketch for the cast of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" and an episode with "Hannah Montana" star Jason Earles and "Cory in the House" star Jason Dolley, the Muppet viral video "Popcorn" (2010), "The Muppets" (2011), "Muppets Most Wanted" (2014), a regular role on "The Muppets" (2015), and also appearing as a guest alongside Miss Piggy on the 5th season of "MasterChef Junior" (2017). A younger version of the Swedish Chef appeared on the Disney Junior series "Muppet Babies" where he was referred to simply as Chef. The Swedish Chef has also appeared in a 2013 "This is SportsCenter" commercial with Robert Flores, Henrik Lundqvist, Steve Levy, and Linda Cohn. He appears in "Muppets Now" on the segment "Økėÿ Døkęÿ Køøkïñ" in which he competes against celebrity chefs.


title: Images and Words

text: Images and Words is the second studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released on July 7, 1992, through Atco Records. It is the first Dream Theater release to feature James LaBrie on vocals. Since its release, the album has maintained its position as the band's most commercially successful studio album, and the song "Pull Me Under" has the distinction of being the only Top 10 hit (radio or otherwise) the band has had to date. This particular song has also had more recent success as it has appeared in the 2008 video game "Guitar Hero World Tour".


title: Images and Words

text: After Charlie Dominici's departure from Dream Theater, the band auditioned nearly 200 individuals across the nation, until James LaBrie, who at that point was part of Canadian glam metal band Winter Rose, sent the band an audition tape. After a short jam session, he was named Dream Theater's new lead singer, and has remained with them ever since.


title: Images and Words

text: With LaBrie as the new vocalist, the band was signed to a seven-album contract by Atco Records, and shortly thereafter, they began recording their new album in late 1991. The album's production was marred with tensions, as the band clashed with producer David Prater, including incidents where Prater would lock the band out of the studio while infamously forcing drummer Mike Portnoy to use triggered snare and bass drum samples, with the snare sample being the exact one used on FireHouse's 1992 album "Hold Your Fire", another album Prater produced around the same time.


title: Images and Words

text: The lead single, "Pull Me Under", gained the band considerable commercial success with its airplay on MTV and radio, garnering them a top 10 hit on "Billboard"'s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. When the album was released, it sold at a steady pace, helped by an extensive world tour.


title: Images and Words

text: Dream Theater originally intended to release a double album, but that plan was rejected by ATCO, causing several songs to be omitted from the album. One of these songs, "A Change of Seasons", would later be re-recorded by the band and released on an EP of the same name in 1995.


title: Images and Words

text: The song "Take the Time" includes samples from Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rappin'" ("Hold it now"), Frank Zappa's "Dancin' Fool" ("Wait a minute"), and Public Enemy's "Power to the People", ("Come on"). The song also features a quote from Giuseppe Tornatore's movie Cinema Paradiso: "Ora che ho perso la vista, ci vedo di più" ("Now that I have lost my sight, I see more"), sung and paraphrased by LaBrie shortly before in the song ("I see clearer now, I'm blind"). LaBrie had appeared as a guest vocalist on Fates Warning's 1991 album "Parallels", for which the band was credited as "Dream Theatre" in the "special thanks" of the album's credits. Dream Theater responded by thanking "Fatez Warning" in the credits of "Images and Words".


title: Images and Words

text: "Images and Words" was played in its entirety on several occasions during the European leg of the 2007 "Chaos in Motion" tour, in celebration of its 15th anniversary. On July 7, 2012, at a concert in Austin, Texas, the songs "Pull Me Under", "Another Day", and "Metropolis" were performed as an encore to celebrate the album's 20th anniversary; additionally, "Surrounded" was performed during the main set. In 2017, Dream Theater celebrated the 25th anniversary of the album on the "Images, Words & Beyond" tour in Europe, which started on January 30 at the Auditorium Parco Della Musica in Rome, Italy.


title: Images and Words

text: In a 2019 interview with Greg Prato in SongFacts, LaBrie listed "Images and Words" as the Dream Theater album he is most proud of, because "that established what Dream Theater really is. I think it's a phenomenal album from beginning to end."


title: Images and Words

text: The album has received acclaim from music critics since its release. The German magazine "Rock Hard" elected "Images and Words" Album of the Month and lauded Dream Theater, using "the old [1970s] term 'supergroup; according to the reviewer, they set "standards and still perfect them, although they hardly appear to do so" and, even considering the many influences in their music, the "versatility, the linking of different grooves and melody elements within each songs" shows how Dream Theater are "style-transcending like no other band." In another contemporary review, "Select" gave the album a lower rating, referring to the album as "elaborate, layered prog-metal" and stated that "if this was a book, it'd be for the coffee-table, glossy but not essential." Phil Carter of AllMusic was taken by the band members' "impressive ability on their respective instruments" and by LaBrie's vocal range, writing also that the album is an "excellent mix of progressive metal stylings with heartfelt vocals and thought-provoking lyrics". Metal Storm reviewer calls "Images and Words" "a masterpiece and also a historical album", because it "brought something totally new to the scene, this famous progressive metal sound that would become Dream Theater's signature". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff in his "Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal" praised the band's musicianship and "the tricky arrangements", but was not thrilled by the album, which he found "a bit too self-aware and calculated to be in the true spirit of progressive rock."


title: Images and Words

text: "Images and Words" was a moderate commercial hit, reaching number 61 on the US "Billboard" 200 chart. It is also Dream Theater's only album to be certified gold by the RIAA, and remains their best-selling album to date, selling more than six hundred thousand copies.


title: Images and Words

text: On April 9, 2013, "Images and Words" won "Loudwire"'s fan-voted March Metal Madness award for best metal album of all time.


title: Images and Words

text: In October 2011, "Images and Words" was ranked number 7 on "Guitar World" magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1992.


title: Images and Words

text: In 2015, the album was ranked first on the website Prog Report's list of the top 50 progressive rock albums of 1990–2015. Four other Dream Theater albums made the list: "" (third), "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" (14th), "Awake" (18th), and "Train of Thought" (38th).


title: Images and Words

text: In 2017, it was ranked 95th at "Rolling Stone"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Nélson Cabral Semedo (born 16 November 1993) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Portugal national team.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Semedo began his career at Sintrense before joining Benfica in 2012. After spending a season on loan at Fátima, he initially appeared for Benfica B before making his first-team debut in 2015 and going on to win back-to-back Primeira Liga titles, among other honours. In July 2017, he signed with Barcelona, winning La Liga in his first two seasons of a three-year stay. In September 2020, Semedo moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers on a three-year contract (with an option of two further years).


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Semedo made his senior debut for Portugal in October 2015 and represented the nation at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, the 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals and UEFA Euro 2020, winning the 2019 tournament on home soil.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Born in Lisbon, Semedo came through the youth system at Sintrense, making his debut for the first team at age 17. On 12 January 2012, he and Manuel Liz signed five-year contracts with Benfica which were made effective on 1 July 2012. Both then spent one season on loan at Fátima in the third division.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Semedo returned to Benfica in the 2013 off-season, being assigned to the B-side in the Segunda Liga and making his professional debut on 10 August in a 0–0 away draw against Trofense. After nearly 60 appearances for the reserves, he was touted as a future replacement for long-time first-team incumbent Maxi Pereira.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: After Pereira's departure, Semedo extended his contract until 2021 and joined the first team on their pre-season tour in North America in July 2015. On 9 August 2015, he made his debut for the main squad in the 0–1 loss against Sporting CP for the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira. A week later, he scored his first goal for them, against Estoril in the Primeira Liga in a 4–0 home win.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: After establishing himself in the starting 11, Semedo suffered a setback in October 2015 when he sustained an injury while with the Portugal national team. The ailment to his right knee required surgery, with him being expected to miss two months. He returned to action in early January, but could not reproduce his previous form and lost his place to André Almeida. Semedo finished the campaign in the reserve team.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: In 2016–17, Semedo regained his starting position and went on to be Benfica's third-most used player in the club's historic fourth-straight league title. He scored once in the league in a 2–1 win on the road over Arouca and once in the UEFA Champions League in a 3–3 group stage draw to Beşiktaş.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: In the final of the Taça de Portugal, played on 28 May 2017, Semedo assisted Eduardo Salvio for the second goal, with Benfica lifting the trophy after defeating Vitória de Guimarães 2–1. For his performances throughout the season, he won the Breakthrough Player of the Year award from the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: On 13 July 2017, Barcelona announced an agreement with Benfica for Semedo's signing, pending medical tests. He signed a five-year contract the following day, with the Portuguese club receiving €30.5 million plus another potential €5 million for every 50 matches he appeared in for his new team. He made his debut on 16 August in second leg of the Supercopa de España against Real Madrid, losing 0–2 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Semedo made his Champions League debut for the club on 13 September 2017 and was praised for his performance during the 3–0 group stage win over Juventus. He scored his first competitive goal for the Catalans – and in La Liga – on 27 January 2019 in a 2–0 away victory against Girona.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: On 23 September 2020, Semedo moved to English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers in a three-year contract (with an option of two further years) for an initial transfer fee of €30 million (approx. £27.5 million, with a potential further £9.2 million in add-ons) paid by Wolves.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Semedo made his debut for Wolves and his first appearance in the Premier League in a 4–0 defeat away to West Ham United on 27 September 2020. He made his debut Molineux appearance for Wolves in the team's next Premier League match, a 1–0 victory over Fulham on 4 October 2020. He scored his first Wolves goal in head coach Nuno Espírito Santo's final game in charge, the final game of the 2020–21 Premier League season, a 1–2 home defeat to Manchester United on 23 May 2021.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Semedo suffered a hamstring injury in Wolves's game away to Arsenal in the Premier League on 24 February 2022; it was subsequently evaluated that the injury would keep him from returning to action for between four and eight weeks. He had played in 23 of Wolves's 25 Premier League games in the 2021–22 season at the point he sustained this injury. Semedo ultimately returned to first-team action on 24 April 2022 in a Premier League game at Burnley, playing the full 90 minutes plus stoppage time.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Of Cape Verdean descent, Semedo was called-up to play for the Portugal national team on 2 October 2015 for UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying matches against Denmark and Serbia. He earned his first cap in the latter match, playing the entirety of a 2–1 win at the Partizan Stadium in Belgrade.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Semedo was selected for Portugal's 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup squad. He played the last match of the group stage, a 4–0 win against New Zealand. He also appeared in the third-place playoff against Mexico, being sent-off in the 106th minute as his team won the bronze medal.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: Semedo was named in Portugal's preliminary 35-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. However, he was not selected for Portugal's final 23-man squad for tournament.


title: Nélson Semedo

text: In October 2022, he was named in Portugal's preliminary 55-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.


title: Blue Bloods (season 11)

text: The eleventh season of "Blue Bloods", a police procedural drama series created by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, premiered on CBS December 4, 2020. Due to production schedules being shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the season is reduced to 16 episodes, with the two hour season finale having aired May 14.


title: Blue Bloods (season 11)

text: Donnie Wahlberg (Danny Reagan), Bridget Moynahan (Erin Reagan), Will Estes (Jamie Reagan), and Len Cariou (Henry Reagan) are first credited. Tom Selleck (Frank Reagan) receives an "and" billing at the close of the main title sequence. This marks the first time since season 4 that Sami Gayle is not in the opening credits; she made one guest appearance in season 11.


title: Blue Bloods (season 11)

text: Marisa Ramirez, as Danny's partner Detective Maria Baez, and Vanessa Ray, as Jamie's former partner (now wife) Eddie Janko-Reagan, continue to receive "also starring" billing for season 11. Gregory Jbara as Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Garrett Moore, Robert Clohessy as Lt. Sidney Gormley, Abigail Hawk as Detective Abigail Baker, Frank's primary aide, and Steve Schirripa as DA investigator Det. Anthony Abetemarco appear regularly and receive "special guest star" billing.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Slavery has been called "deeply rooted" in the structure of the northwestern African country of Mauritania, and "closely tied" to the ethnic composition of the country, despite the ending of slavery across other African countries and colonial owners banning it in 1905.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The French colonial administration declared an end to slavery in Mauritania in 1905, but the size of Mauritania prevented enforcement. In 1981, Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery, when a presidential decree abolished the practice. However, no criminal laws were passed to enforce the ban. In 2007, "under international pressure", the government passed a law allowing slaveholders to be prosecuted.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Despite this, in 2018 Global Slavery Index estimated the number living in slavery in the country to be 90,000 (or 2.1% of the population), which is a reduction from the 140,000 in slavery figure which the same organisation reported in 2013, while in 2017 the BBC reported a figure of 600,000 living in bondage.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: A November 2009 United Nations mission, headed by UN Special Rapporteur Gulnara Shahinian, evaluated slavery practices in the country. In an August 2010 report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) it concluded that "despite laws, programmes and difference of opinion with regard to the existence of slavery in Mauritania... de-facto slavery continues to exist in Mauritania". According to the Global Slavery Index 2014 compiled by Walk Free Foundation, there are an estimated 155,600 enslaved people in Mauritania, ranking it 31st of 167 countries by absolute number of slaves, and 1st by prevalence, with 4% of the population. The Government ranks 121 of 167 in its response to combating all forms of modern slavery.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Sociologist Kevin Bales and Global Slavery Index estimate that Mauritania has the highest proportion of people in slavery of any country in the world. While other countries in the region have people in "slavelike conditions", the situation in Mauritania is "unusually severe", according to African history professor Bruce Hall, and consists largely of the black Mauritanian population enslaved by Arab masters.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The position of the government of Mauritania is that slavery is "totally finished... all people are free", and that talk of it "suggests manipulation by the West, an act of enmity toward Islam, or influence from the worldwide Jewish conspiracy." According to some human rights groups, the country might have jailed more anti-slavery activists than slave owners.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: One person, Oumoulmoumnine Mint Bakar Vall, has been prosecuted for owning slaves. She was sentenced to six months in jail in January 2011.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Two academics, Ahmed Meiloud and Mohamed El Mokhtar Sidi Haiba, have criticized statements on slavery in Mauritania by anti-slavery organizations and writers for alleged exaggeration, lack of statistical sources and factual errors.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Slave status has been passed down through the generations. The descendants of black Africans captured during historical slave raids now live in Mauritania as "Black Moors" or "haratin"; some of them still serve as slaves to the lighter-skinned "White Moors" or "beydan" ("Whites") (which are Berbers or mixed Berber-Arabs, descendants of slave-owners known collectively as "al-beydan"). According to Global Slavery Index, slavery of adults and children in Mauritania "primarily takes the form of chattel slavery" (i.e. the slaves and their descendants "are the full property of their masters"). Slaves "may be bought and sold, rented out and given away as gifts". Slavery in Mauritania is "prevalent in both rural and urban areas", but women are reportedly "disproportionately affected" by slavery. Female slaves "usually work within the domestic sphere", caring for children and doing domestic chores, but "may also herd animals and farm". Female slaves "are subject to sexual assault by their masters". Because slave status is matrilineal, slaves typically serve the same families that their mothers and grandmothers did. They usually sleep and eat in the same quarters as the animals of their owning families. Slaves are "not restrained by chains" but by "economic" and "psychological" factors. They are denied education in secular fields that provide job skills, and taught that "questioning slavery is tantamount to questioning Islam". There is also a "grey area" or "a continuum" between slavery and freedom in Mauritania—referred to politely as the "vestiges of slavery"—where sharecroppers and workers are exploited by Beydane landowners and bosses. According to Ahmed Vall Ould Dine of Mauritanian Human Rights Watch, "Slaves tend to develop very close relations with their masters; the freed ones, who are poor and have inherited nothing from their parents, chose to remain under the auspices of their ex-masters as they provide them with basic necessities of life."


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: ...mistreatment of detainees and prisoners; security force impunity; lengthy pretrial detention; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrests; limits on freedom of the press and assembly; corruption; discrimination against women; female genital mutilation (FGM); child marriage; political marginalization of southern-based ethnic groups; racial and ethnic discrimination; slavery and slavery-related practices; and child labor.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The 2010 report continued: "Government efforts were not sufficient to enforce the antislavery law. No cases have been successfully prosecuted under the antislavery law despite the fact that 'de facto' slavery exists in Mauritania."


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Child labor also remains prevalent throughout Mauritania. The Mauritanian government conducted a raid in Nouakchott in November 2017 and rescued forty-two child slaves who were held by Koranic instructors. According to the United States Department of Labor, violation of child slavery laws is rarely punished. The Special Brigade for Minors investigated 406 cases of child exploitation; however, it is unclear whether the Mauritanian legal system further investigated or punished anyone involved in those particular cases. Child slavery continues to be an issue in Mauritania because the status is passed down maternally, from mother to child.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The French colonized Mauritania in 1904 during the Scramble for Africa. Mauritania and other territories the French owned were referred to as "sociétés esclavagistes" or "slave societies" because slavery was a tradition that they interacted with. The French reshaped slavery socially because "French administrators and French missionaries created a role for themselves... that was, for the most part, compatible with local cultural customs". However, there was not that great of an economic impact; the prices were not raised high enough to promote a greater supply of slaves.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: There were several interpretations of the impact that colonialism had on African societies. Mahmood Madani believed that colonialism let the chief's power go unchecked because of the authority that backed them. However, other scholars believed that there was not a change of African institutions because Europeans were simply consumers. Either way, the French made themselves a part of an already existing slave trade in Mauritania.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The French controlled their territories by the use of African employees from those territories. Mauritanian employees worked low-level positions and the "colonial hierarchy operated on the assumption that its African employees would act as transparent, unthinking conduits who would link white colonial authorities to black African colonial subjects". The African employees were not seen as a threat despite the fact that they had the ability to control the flow of information between the Mauritanians and the French because of the language barrier.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The French implemented abolitionist policies after their territories failed to comply with a law freeing all slaves. Mauritanian administrators told the French that slavery was a custom in Mauritania, and they could not simply abolish it without societal distress, so they enforced certain policies but still allowed slavery. Slaves in Mauritania were returned to their masters and treated as runaway children. Also, African men who were recruited into the French army, or , were allowed to take slave wives, but they had to have been free before they were married, and had to stay in the colony. Tirailleurs could claim their children by proving they were not illegitimate; but if they were not, they were slaves.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The French established ("liberty villages") so that slaves would have an area to be free in Mauritania. They could take refuge there and be taxed by the French. However, within three months the slave could be reclaimed by their masters, and the villages had few resources.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Although the French liberated their other territories successfully, because Islam was so intertwined with slavery the French believed it would go against tradition to enforce abolition in Mauritania. The French also believed that “"laves themselves were simply 'not ready' to be wrenched from their social security, to do so would be to 'sow social disorder. Consequently, domestic slavery as well as colonial slavery was still permitted in Mauritania.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Islam is by far the largest religion in Mauritania, with the Maliki school of Sunni Islam as the dominant form. Maliki Islam in pre-colonial West Africa campaigned hard against the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but in the 19th and 20th centuries many Malikis justified continued slavery inside Mauritania, in some or all of its forms. Still today, the dominant majority of Mauritanians believe that former slaves (irrespective of the status of their manumission) cannot be full and equal citizens, let alone become imams.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Attempts to end slavery in colonial Mauritania largely failed because abolitionism was molded by Orientalism, or the ideology that Africans were "exotic, intellectually retarded, emotionally sensual, governmentally despotic, culturally passive, and politically penetrable".


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Certain aspects of religion might have had an impact in the preservation of slavery-based structures. Concubinage, for example, was admitted in Islam and quite common. Concubines were expected to be treated humanely. Impressions of freedom were molded by notions of social order, and the belief that God would forgive the sins of slaves if they behaved obediently towards their masters.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: After 1980, Mauritania's ulama (clerical scholarly community) came to the consensus that no slaves had been acquired through jihad so there was no (however questionable) sharia-based legitimacy to continue enslavement.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The government of Mauritania (which is dominated by Beydanes) denies that slavery exists in the country. According to Abdel Nasser Ould Ethmane, a political adviser to the African Union and a cofounder of the abolitionist group SOS Slaves, the Mauritanian government officially says: "Slavery no longer exists, and talk of it suggests manipulation by the West, an act of enmity toward Islam, or influence from the worldwide Jewish conspiracy."


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: Responding to accusations of human rights abuse, in 2012 the Mauritanian Minister of rural development, Brahim Ould M'Bareck Ould Med El Moctar, stated:


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: In March 2013, the President established an agency to "combat slavery", known as the "National Agency to Fight against the Vestiges of Slavery, Integration, and Fight against Poverty". The director, Hamdi Ould Mahjoub, a Beydane, told "The New Yorker" author Alexis Okeowo, "Slavery as an institution, as something accepted by society, does not exist" in Mauritania, and that his agency was working on a program to help farmers and others to build clinics and improve access to water.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: According to the Mauritanian government, it has taken action to end all forms of slavery. In 2015, the government expanded the definition of slavery to include child labor, although they have difficulty enforcing anti-slavery laws. The government is underfunded and ill-equipped to deal with slavery.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: In November 2016, an appeals court in Mauritania overturned the jail convictions of three anti-slavery activists and reduced the sentences of seven others to time served leaving three in custody, for their alleged role in a riot in June, as reported by Amnesty International. Another court had originally sentenced the 13 human rights activists and members of the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) to 15 years in prison.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: As a result of Mauritania's failing to curb slavery, in January 2018, the African Union officially reprimanded the Mauritanian government. The ruling was based on a case involving two brothers, Said Salem and Yarg Ould Salem, who were slaves since birth. The African Union ordered Mauritania to compensate the two brothers, causing activists to claim that the ruling would lay the groundwork enforcing anti-slavery laws within the country. In 2015, the Mauritanian government expanded the definition of slavery to include child labor. Extreme poverty and Islamic norms discourage many slaves from attempting to escape. Racial and ethnic division plays a role in Mauritanian government and society, as most slaves in Mauritania are black Mauritanians while members of the ruling class tend to be Arab.


title: Slavery in Mauritania

text: The international community is increasingly pressuring Mauritania to enforce its anti-slavery laws. Along with the African Union's recent ruling, the United States is considering downgrading its trade relations with Mauritania because of its poor record on enforcing its anti-slavery laws.


title: New World vulture

text: The New World vulture or condor family, Cathartidae, contains seven extant species in five genera. It includes five extant vultures and two extant condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas. The "New World" vultures were widespread in both the Old World and North America during the Neogene.


title: New World vulture

text: Old World vultures and New World vultures do not form a single clade, but the two groups are similar in appearance due to convergent evolution.


title: New World vulture

text: Vultures are scavenging birds, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals without apparent ill effects. Bacteria in the food source, pathogenic to other vertebrates, dominate the vulture's gut flora, and vultures benefit from the bacterial breakdown of carrion tissue. Some species of New World vulture have a good sense of smell, whereas Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight. A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald head, devoid of feathers.


title: New World vulture

text: The New World vultures comprise seven species in five genera. The genera are "Coragyps", "Cathartes", "Gymnogyps", "Sarcoramphus", and "Vultur". Of these, only "Cathartes" is not monotypic. The family's scientific name, Cathartidae, comes from "cathartes", Greek for "purifier". Although New World vultures have many resemblances to Old World vultures they are not very closely related. Rather, they resemble Old World vultures because of convergent evolution. Phylogenetic analyses including all Cathartidae species found two primary clades: (1) black vulture ("Coragyps atratus") together with the three "Cathartes" species (lesser "C. burrovianus" and greater "C. melambrotus" yellow-headed vultures, and turkey vulture "C. aura"), and (2) king vulture ("Sarcoramphus papa"), California ("Gymnogyps californianus") and Andean ("Vultur gryphus") condors.


title: New World vulture

text: New World vultures were traditionally placed in a family of their own in the Falconiformes. However, in the late 20th century some ornithologists argued that they are more closely related to storks on the basis of karyotype, morphological, and behavioral data. Thus some authorities placed them in the Ciconiiformes with storks and herons; Sibley and Monroe (1990) even considered them a subfamily of the storks. This was criticized, and an early DNA sequence study was based on erroneous data and subsequently retracted. There was then an attempt to raise the New World vultures to the rank of an independent order, Cathartiformes not closely associated with either the birds of prey or the storks and herons.


title: New World vulture

text: However, recent multi-locus DNA studies on the evolutionary relationships between bird groups indicate that New World vultures are related to the other birds of prey, excluding the Falconidae which are distantly related to other raptors, and are not close to storks. In this analysis, the New World vultures should be part of a new order Accipitriformes instead, or perhaps as part of an order (Cathartiformes) closely related to, but distinct from, other birds of prey (besides falcons). New World vultures are a sister group to Accipitriformes when the latter is viewed as a group consisting of Accipitridae, the osprey and secretarybird. Both groups are basal members of the recently recognized clade Afroaves.


title: New World vulture

text: The fossil history of the Cathartidae is complex, and many taxa that may possibly have been New World vultures have at some stage been treated as early representatives of the family. There is no unequivocal European record from the Neogene.


title: New World vulture

text: It is clear that the Cathartidae had a much higher diversity in the Plio-Pleistocene, rivalling the current diversity of Old World vultures and their relatives in shapes, sizes, and ecological niches. Extinct taxa include:


title: New World vulture

text: New World vultures are generally large, ranging in length from the lesser yellow-headed vulture at 56–61 centimeters (22–24 inches) up to the California and Andean condors, both of which can reach 120 centimeters (48 inches) in length and weigh 12 or more kilograms (26 or more pounds). Plumage is predominantly black or brown, and is sometimes marked with white. All species have featherless heads and necks. In some, this skin is brightly colored, and in the king vulture it is developed into colorful wattles and outgrowths.


title: New World vulture

text: All New World vultures have long, broad wings and a stiff tail, suitable for soaring. They are the best adapted to soaring of all land birds. The feet are clawed but weak and not adapted to grasping. The front toes are long with small webs at their bases. No New World vulture possesses a syrinx, the vocal organ of birds. Therefore, the voice is limited to infrequent grunts and hisses.


title: New World vulture

text: The beak is slightly hooked and is relatively weak compared with those of other birds of prey. This is because it is adapted to tear the weak flesh of partially rotted carrion, rather than fresh meat. The nostrils are oval and are set in a soft cere. The nasal passage is "perforate", not divided by a septum, so that when looking from the side, one can see through the beak. The eyes are prominent, and, unlike those of eagles, hawks, and falcons, they are not shaded by a brow bone. Members of "Coragyps" and "Cathartes" have a single incomplete row of eyelashes on the upper lid and two rows on the lower lid, while "Gymnogyps", "Vultur", and "Sarcoramphus" lack eyelashes altogether.


title: New World vulture

text: New World vultures have the unusual habit of urohidrosis, or defecating on their legs to cool them evaporatively. As this behavior is also present in storks, it is one of the arguments for a close relationship between the two groups.


title: New World vulture

text: New World vultures are restricted to the western hemisphere. They can be found from southern Canada to South America. Most species are mainly resident, but the turkey vulture populations breeding in Canada and the northern US migrate south in the northern winter. New World vultures inhabit a large variety of habitats and ecosystems, ranging from deserts to tropical rainforests and at heights of sea level to mountain ranges, using their highly adapted sense of smell to locate carrion. These species of birds are also occasionally seen in human settlements, perhaps emerging to feed upon the food sources provided from roadkills.