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Lion's Blood
''Lion's Blood'' is a 2002 alternate history novel by American writer Steven Barnes. The book won the 2003 Endeavour Award. It is followed by the sequel '' Zulu Heart''. The novel presents an alternate world where an Islamic Africa is the center of technological progress and learning while Europe remains largely tribal and backward. Throughout the novel, both the Gregorian calendar and the Islamic Hijri calendar are used. The title draws its name from Abu Ali's sacred knife, which is called Lion's Blood (or "Nasab Asad" in Arabic), which was carried into battle by members of Abu Ali's family for ten generations. It is made of "razor-sharp steel and bone…Its hilt was crafted of black rhino horn, bolted to the tang with six heavy steel rivets. Legend held that the steel blade was smelted from a fallen meteorite by Benin smiths, its white-hot length quenched in the living blood of a lion". Plot The story begins with Aidan O'Dere, a White European child growing up in a primiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Barnes
Steven Barnes (born March 1, 1952) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He has written novels, short fiction, screen plays for television, scripts for comic books, animation, newspaper copy, and magazine articles. Early life and education Barnes, was born on March 1, 1952, in Los Angeles, California. He has had a varied education, including a secondary education at Los Angeles High School. He continued at Pepperdine University, majoring in communication arts.''Steven Barnes: White & Black''. Locus Magazine; vol/issue 50/3 062003. Pages 84-86.excerpts Career Barnes wrote several episodes of ''The Outer Limits'' and ''Baywatch''. His " A Stitch In Time" episode of ''The Outer Limits'' won an Emmy Award. He also wrote the episode "Brief Candle" for ''Stargate SG-1'' and the '' Andromeda'' episode "The Sum of Its Parts". Barnes's first published piece of fiction, the 1979 novelette "The Locusts", was written with Larry Niven, and was a Hugo Award nom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slaves
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person (see ). Many historical cases of enslavement occurred as a result of breaking the law, becoming indebted, suffering a military defeat, or exploitation for cheaper labor; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as Racism, race or sex. Slaves would be kept in bondage for life, or for a fixed period of time after which they would be Manumission, granted freedom. Although slavery is usually involuntary and involves coercion, there are also cases where people voluntary slavery, voluntarily enter into slavery to pay a debt or earn money due to poverty. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zulu People
Zulu people (; ) are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni people, Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest Ethnic groups in South Africa, ethnic group and nation in South Africa, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. They originated from Nguni communities who took part in the Bantu migrations over millennia. As the clans integrated, the rulership of Shaka brought success to the Zulu nation due to his improved military tactics and organization. Zulus take pride in their ceremonies such as the Umhlanga (ceremony)#South Africa, Umhlanga, or Reed Dance, and their various forms of beadwork. The art and skill of beadwork take part in the identification of Zulu people and act as a form of communication and dedication to the nation and specific traditions. Today, the Zulu people are predominantly Christian, but have created a Religious syncretism, syncretic religion that is combined with the Zulu's prior belief systems. History of the people of Zulu Origins Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sufism
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" (from , ), and historically typically belonged to "orders" known as (pl. ) — congregations formed around a grand (saint) who would be the last in a Silsilah, chain of successive teachers linking back to Muhammad, with the goal of undergoing (self purification) and the hope of reaching the Maqam (Sufism), spiritual station of . The ultimate aim of Sufis is to seek the pleasure of God by endeavoring to return to their original state of purity and natural disposition, known as . Sufism emerged early on in Islamic history, partly as a reaction against the expansion of the early Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) and mainly under the tutelage of Hasan al-Basri. Although Sufis were opposed to dry legalism, they strictly obs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek People
Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Anatolia, parts of Italy and Egypt, and to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. They also form a significant diaspora (), with many Greek communities established around the world.. Greek colonies and communities have been historically established on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea, but the Greek people themselves have always been centered on the Aegean and Ionian seas, where the Greek language has been spoken since the Bronze Age.. Until the early 20th century, Greeks were distributed between the Greek peninsula, the western coast of Asia Minor, the Black Sea coast, Cappadocia in central Anatolia, Egypt, the Balkans, Cyprus, and Constantinople. Many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of ancient Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andalusian People
The Andalusians () are the people of Andalusia, an Autonomous Community, autonomous community in southern Spain. Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia, Andalusia's statute of autonomy defines Andalusians as the Spanish citizens who reside in any of the municipalities of Andalusia, as well as those Spaniards who reside abroad and had their last Spanish residence in Andalusia, and their descendants. Since reform in 2007, the Andalusian statute of autonomy identifies the territory as a ''historic nationality'' in the preamble. The Royal Spanish Academy, Spanish Language Academy recognizes Andalusian Spanish as a set of diverse dialect, dialects. Andalusian nationalism is the belief that Andalusians are a nation separate from other ethnicities within Spain. History and culture In Antiquity, Andalusian people used to trade with Phoenicia, Phoenicians and Jews some thousand years before Christ, and they were called as Tarshish or Tartessos in the Old Testament and Greek texts. The gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Slavery
White slavery (also white slave trade or white slave trafficking) refers to the enslavement of any of the world's European ethnic groups throughout human history, whether perpetrated by non-Europeans or by other Europeans. Slavery in ancient Rome was frequently dependent on a person's socio-economic status and national affiliation, and thus included European slaves. It was also common for European people to be enslaved and traded in the Muslim world; European women, in particular, were highly sought-after to be concubines in the harems of many Muslim rulers. Examples of such slavery conducted in Islamic empires include the Trans-Saharan slave trade, the Barbary slave trade, the Ottoman slave trade, and the Black Sea slave trade, among others. Many different types of white people were enslaved. On the European continent under feudalism, there were various forms of status applying to people (such as serf, bordar, villein, vagabond, and slave) who were indentured or forced to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, opium, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, fruits, rubber trees and forest trees. Protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations are located. In modern use, the term usually refers only to large-scale estates. Before about 1860, it was the usual term for a farm of any size in the southern parts of British North America, with, as Noah Webster noted, "farm" becoming the usual term from about Maryland northward. The enslavement of people was the norm in Maryland and states southward. The plantations there were forced-labor farms. The term "plantation" was used in most British colonies but very rarely in the United Kingdom itself i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wakil
Vekil or Vakil was the term used for the deputies and ''de facto'' prime ministers of the Mughal Emperor in Mughal administration. He was considered the most powerful person after Emperor in the Mughal Empire. ''Vakil'' was one of the highest positions in the hierarchy of Safavid Iran, denoting the viceroy in the administrative and some religious affairs of the realm. While in the Ottoman Empire, the viziers were considered "absolute delegates" (vekil-i mutlak) of the Ottoman Sultan. Etymology Vakel or Vakil was the Arabic term used in the meaning of "representative" or "proxy". Wakil In Islamic law, a wakīl (), in older literature vakeel, is a deputy, delegate or agent who acts on behalf of a principal. It can refer to an attorney, a diplomat or the custodian of a mosque or religious order. ''Wakīl'' is also one of the names of God in Islam Names of God in Islam () are 99 names that each contain Attributes of God in Islam, which are implied by the respective names. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maidservant
A handmaiden (nowadays less commonly handmaid or maidservant) is a personal maid or female servant. The term is also used metaphorically for something whose primary role is to serve or assist. Depending on culture or historical period, a handmaiden may be of enslaved status or may be simply an employee. The terms ''handmaiden'' and ''handmaid'' are synonyms. Depictions in Abrahamic texts In the King James translation of the Hebrew Bible, the term handmaid is applied to a female servant who serves her mistress, as in the case of Hagar being described as Sarah's handmaid, Zilpah being Leah's handmaid and Bilhah as Rachel's handmaid. In each of these cases, the mistress "gave" their handmaid to their husbands "to wife", to bear his "seed" (children). The use in the Torah of the prefix "to", as in "gave ''to'' wife", may indicate that the wife is a concubine or inferior wife. The text repeats that these people remain handmaids of their mistress though they are also the concubine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slave Auction
A slave market is a place where slaves are bought and sold. These markets are a key phenomenon in the history of slavery. Asia Central Asia Since antiquity, cities along the Silk Road, Silk road of Central Asia, had been centers of slave trade. In the early middle ages, Central Asia was a transit area for European slaves sold by the Vikings in Russia to slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate via the slave markets of the Central Asia. The slave trade in the Mongol Empire created a network of connected slave markets between Asia and Europe. In the 19th century, the Khivan slave trade, slave markets of Khiva and Bukhara slave trade, Bukhara were still among the biggest slave markets in the world. In Bukhara, Samarkand, Karakul, Karshi, and Charju, mainly Persians, Russians, and some Kalmyks, Kalmyk slaves, were traded by Turkmens, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz. From the 17th to 19th centuries, Khivan slave trade, Khiva was a notorious slave market for captured Persian and Russian slaves. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans sold for enslavement were forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods (first side of the triangle), which were then traded for captive Africans. Slave ships transported the African captives across the Atlantic (second side of the triangle). The proceeds from selling these enslaved people were then used to buy products such as furs and hides, tobacco, sugar, rum, and raw materials, which would be transported back to Europe (third side of the triangle, completing it). The First Passage was the forced march of Africans from their inland homes, where they had been captured for enslavement by rulers of other African states or members of their own ethnic group, to African ports. Here they were imprisoned until they were sold and loaded onto a ship. The Final Passage was the journey from the port of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
