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Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of local protection and control over land and agriculture, the Mafia gradually evolved into a powerful criminal network. By the mid-20th century, it had infiltrated politics, construction, and finance, later expanding into drug trafficking, money laundering, and other crimes. At its core, the Mafia engages in protection racketeering, arbitrating disputes between criminals, and organizing and overseeing illegal agreements and transactions. The basic group is known as a "Crime family, family", "clan", or ''cosca''. Each family claims sovereignty over a territory, usually a town, village or neighborhood (''borgata'') of a larger city, in which it operates its Racketeering, rackets. Its members call themselves "Made man, men of honour", although ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4.7 million inhabitants, including 1.2 million in and around the capital city of Palermo, it is both the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean Sea. Sicily is named after the Sicels, who inhabited the eastern part of the island during the Iron Age. Sicily has a rich and unique culture in #Art and architecture, arts, Music of Sicily, music, #Literature, literature, Sicilian cuisine, cuisine, and Sicilian Baroque, architecture. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, and one of the most active in the world, currently high. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate. It is separated from Calabria by the Strait of Messina. It is one of the five Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosca
A ''cosca'' (; pl. ''cosche'' in Italian and ''coschi'' in Sicilian), in Sicily, is a clan or Sicilian Mafia crime family led by a '' capo''. The equivalent in the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria is the 'ndrina. Etymology A ''cosca'' is the crown of spiny, closely folded leaves on plants such as the artichoke or the thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterized by leaves with sharp spikes on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. T ..., which symbolizes the tightness of relationships between mafiosi. References * Blok, Anton (1974/1988). ''The Mafia of a Sicilian village 1860-1960. A study of violent peasant entrepreneurs'', Long Grove (IL): Waveland Press. . * Dickie, John (2004). Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia', London: Coronet. . * Servadio, Gaia (1976). ''Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day'', L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saracen
upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Petraea and Arabia Deserta. The term's meaning evolved during its history of usage. During the Early Middle Ages, the term came to be associated with the tribes of Arabia. The oldest known source mentioning "Saracens" in relation to Islam dates back to the 7th century, in the Greek-language Christian tract '' Doctrina Jacobi''. Among other major events, the tract discusses the Muslim conquest of the Levant, which occurred after the rise of the Rashidun Caliphate following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Roman Catholic Church and European Christian leaders used the term during the Middle Ages to refer to Muslims. By the 12th century, "Saracen" developed various overlapping definitions, generally conflatin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jizya
Jizya (), or jizyah, is a type of taxation levied on non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Sharia, Islamic law. The Quran and hadiths mention jizya without specifying its rate or amount,Sabet, Amr (2006), ''The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences'' 24:4, Oxford; pp. 99–100. and the application of jizya varied in the course of Islamic history. However, scholars largely agree that early Muslim rulers adapted some of the existing systems of taxation and modified them according to Islamic religious law.online Historically, the jizya tax has been understood in Islam as a fee for protection provided by the Muslim ruler to non-Muslims, for the exemption from military service for non-Muslims, for the permission to practice a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state, and as material proof of the non-Muslims' allegiance to the Muslim state and its laws. The majority of Muslim jurists required adult, free, sane men, males among the dhimma community to pay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emirate Of Sicily
The island of SicilyIn Arabic, the island was known as (). was under Islam, Islamic rule from the late ninth to the late eleventh centuries. It became a prosperous and influential commercial power in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, with its capital of Palermo serving as a major cultural and political center of the Muslim world. Sicily was a peripheral part of the Byzantine Empire when Muslim forces from Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia) began launching raids in 652. During the reign of the Aghlabid dynasty of Ifriqiya, a Muslim conquest of Sicily, prolonged series of conflicts from 827 to 902 resulted in the gradual conquest of the entire island, with only the stronghold of Rometta, in the far northeast, Siege of Rometta, holding out until 965. The Fatimid Caliphate replaced Aghlabid rule after 909. From 948 onwards, the island was governed by the Kalbid dynasty, who ruled as autonomous emirs while formally acknowledging Fatimid authority. Under Muslim rule, Sicily ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marsala
Marsala (, ; ) is an Italian comune located in the Province of Trapani in the westernmost part of Sicily. Marsala is the most populated town in its province and the fifth largest in Sicily.The town is famous for the docking of Giuseppe Garibaldi on 11 May 1860 (the ''Expedition of the Thousand'') and for its Marsala wine. A feature of the area is the Stagnone Lagoon Natural Reserve – a marine area with salt ponds. Marsala is built on the ruins of the ancient Carthaginian city of Lilybaeum, and includes in its territory the archaeological site of the island of Motya, an ancient Phoenician town. The modern name likely derived from the Arabic (''marsā ʿaliyy'', "Ali's harbor"), or possibly (''marsā llāh'', "God's harbor"). Geography Situated at the extreme western point of Sicily, the town was founded on Lilibeo Cape from where the Aegadian Islands and the Stagnone Lagoon can be seen. Territory The territory of Marsala, , has a rich cultural and landscape heritage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trapani
Trapani ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') with 54,887 inhabitants, on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands. Historically, Trapani developed a thriving economy based on the extraction and trade of salt, benefiting from its strategic position projecting into the Mediterranean Sea, and from its port, which was once the commercial gateway for the ancient city of Eryx (Sicily), Eryx (modern-day Erice), situated atop the mountain that overlooks it. Today, its economy relies primarily on the service sector, fishing (historically tuna fishing using traditional methods known as ''mattanza''), marble quarrying and exportation, commercial activities, and tourism. The urban agglomeration includes approximately 80,000 residents, as it also encompasses the populous district of Casa Santa, administratively belonging to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Books
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mostly of writing and images. Modern books are typically composed of many pages Bookbinding, bound together and protected by a Book cover, cover, what is known as the ''codex'' format; older formats include the scroll and the Clay tablet, tablet. As a conceptual object, a ''book'' often refers to a written work of substantial length by one or more authors, which may also be distributed digitally as an electronic book (ebook). These kinds of works can be broadly Library classification, classified into fiction (containing invented content, often narratives) and non-fiction (containing content intended as factual truth). But a physical book may not contain a written work: for example, it may contain ''only'' drawings, engravings, photographs, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diego Gambetta
Diego Gambetta (; born 1952) is an Italian-born social scientist. He is a Carlo Alberto Chair at the Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin. He is well known for his vivid and unconventional applications of economic theory and a rational choice theory approach to understanding a variety of social phenomena. He has made important analytical contributions to the concept of trust by using game theory and signalling theory. Career In 1983 Gambetta received his PhD in social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge, where his doctoral supervisor was the late social statistician Cathie Marsh. He was first junior and then senior research fellow at King's College, Cambridge, from 1984 to 1991. From 1995 until 2003 he was reader in sociology at the University of Oxford and fellow of All Souls College. In 2002, he was awarded a title of distinction as professor of sociology and in 2003 he became an official fellow of Nuffield College. From 2012 to 2018, he was a professor of so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bravado , American professional wrestling tag team
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Bravado may refer to: * '' The Bravados'', a 1958 western film * ''Bravado'' (EP), 2008 debut extended play by Australian electronic band Miami Horror * ''Bravado'' (Kirin J. Callinan album), 2017 * "Bravado" (song), 2013 song by Lorde * "Bravado", a song by Rush from their 1991 album ''Roll the Bones'' * The Bravado Brothers The Bravado Brothers were an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of real-life brothers Andre Chase, Harlem Bravado (born Chance Barrow on April 22, 1989) and Lancelot Bravado (born Houston Barrow on September 16, 1985). The duo hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swagger
A swagger or swagga is a swaggering gait. Swagger also may refer to: * Swagger or swagman, a transient labourer in Australia and New Zealand * Swagger (software), a specification for defining the interface of a REST web service * Swagger Creek, a river in the United States * Swagger stick, a riding crop carried by a uniformed person as a symbol of authority * Bob Lee Swagger, fictional character created by Stephen Hunter * Jack Swagger (born 1982), American professional wrestler * ''Swagger'' (TV series), an American drama television series Musical works * ''Swagger'' (No-Man EP) (1989), EP by No Man Is an Island * ''Swagger'' (Gun album) (1994), by Gun * ''Swagger'' (Flogging Molly album) (2000) * "Swagga Like Us" (2008), a song by four hip-hop performers * ''Swagger'' (Lucie Idlout album) (2009) * "Swagger Jagger" (2011) song by Cher Lloyd See also * Swag (other) * Radio station " WRZE Swagga 94.1 & 105.9" * "The Swagga", a storyline in the science fictio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicilian Language
Sicilian (, ; ) is a Romance languages, Romance language that is spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands. It belongs to the broader Extreme Southern Italian language group (in Italian ). ''Ethnologue'' (see #Ethnologue report, below for more detail) describes Sicilian as being "distinct enough from Italian language, Standard Italian to be considered a separate language", and it is recognized as a minority language by UNESCO. It has been referred to as a language by the Sicilian Region. It has the oldest literary tradition of the Italo-Dalmatian languages, Italo-Romance languages. A version of the ''UNESCO Courier'' is also available in Sicilian. Status Sicilian is spoken by most inhabitants of Sicily and by emigrant populations around the world. The latter are found in the countries that attracted large numbers of Sicilians, Sicilian immigrants during the course of the past century or so, especially the United States (specifically in the Gravesend, Brooklyn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
