Why did Nader Shah try to unite Shia and Sunnis?

 

Nader Shah wasn’t exactly trying to unite the Shia and Sunnis. He was trying to re-align Iran with Sunni Islam once more. Remember that, unlike the Safavids, he ruled over large population which were predominantly Sunni Muslims. This required ending the hostility between and improving the relations between the Shia and Sunni groups.

Nader Shah, the Afsharid Shah of Iran

After ascending to the throne, Nader Shah tried to promote the Jaʽfari school of thought as the official religion of Iran. Jaʽfari sect is one of the sects of Shia Islam. This is named after Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam. This was to replace the previous ideologies of Shia Islam that had been greatly promoted by the Safavid Dynasty.

Nader Shah wanted to reform the religion of Iran itself. He wanted to realign Iran with Sunni Islam. To do so he planned on promoting Jaʽfari as the official faith of Iran. He was in talks with the Ottoman Caliph Mahmud I. Nader Shah proposed to the Ottoman Caliph to have Jaʽfari accepted as the fifth school of jurisprudence in Sunni Islam. It was to join the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools. It would become known as the Jaʽfari Mazhab. The core of this school of thought would be formed around the teachings of Ja'far al-Sadiq. By accepting Jaʽfari as the fifth school of Sunni Islam, Iran would be brought back to the world of Sunni Islam.

In return for acceptance into the Sunni fold, Nader Shah was willing to ban certain practices within Shia Islam from the Safavid era which offended the Ottomans and the Sunni population. An example being the practices such as Sabb which was the cursing of the first three Rashidun Caliphs. The Ottomans in return were to build a fifth pillar in the Holy Kaaba to mark this event. Nader Shah also wanted the Ottomans to allow Persians to go on the Hajj once more. A Persian Amir ul-Hajj would be appointed in charge of the pilgrims from Persia.

There are several reasons behind Nader Shah’s decision to re-align Iran with Sunni Islam and trying to end the sectarianism. Here are the main ones:

• Stability of the empire - Religion was one of the major reasons that led to the collapse of the Safavid Empire. The promotion of Shia Islam within its territory and persecution of the Sunni population. The persecution of the Sunni Afghans in Kandahar resulted in a rebellion led by Mirwais Hotak Khan. A rebellion that resulted in an all out war which ended up destroying the Safavid Empire.
  
  Nader Shah seems to have realized that as long as Iran was aligned with Shia Islam, its expansion would be limited. The Sunni Muslims of Afghanistan and Central Asia would never accept his rule. By re-aligning Persia with Sunni Islam, he believed that he would be able to conquer and expand his influence much further. Acceptance into the Sunni world would allow him to conquer much further and with greater ease.

Map of the Afsharid Empire. The Uzbek Khanates of Bukhara and Khiva were also vassals of Nader Shah. Atleast half of the population of the empire would have been Sunni Muslims.

• Legacy of the Safavid Dynasty - Remember that the Safavids had legitimized their own rule using Shia Islam as a tool. The Safavid legitimacy had been based on being the defenders and promoters of Shia Islam.
  
  Nader Shah’s move away from Shia Islam was to counter the legacy of the Safavids. He used this as a way of countering the support and influence of the Safavid. It was also a way of legitimizing his own rule. Any legitimacy Nader Shah would have to gain would not be based on Shia Islam, as that was where the support for the Safavid came from. Remember that the Chief Mullah, Mirza Abol-Hasan, continued to support the Safavid and promised that evil would come to any that usurped their power. Nader Shah had to have the man strangled to shut him up.

Nader Shah’s personal standard. He avoided the use of the color green, which had become associated with the Safavid Dynasty and Shia Islam, in both his personal and Afsharid imperial flags.

• Diverse military force - Nader Shah’s army was more diverse in origin than the Safavid army had been. The Afsharid forces consisted on different Sunni and Shia groups. For example, the Shia Qizilbash and the Sunni Afghans. He needed to reduce the tension between the two groups and prevent infighting.
• Economic reasons - The Safavid economy had been in crisis since following the death of Shah Abbas the Great. This only worsened with time. Part of this was because of their poor relations and limited trade with their Sunni neighboring states.
  
  Nader Shah was extremely interested in the Ottomans allowing Persians to travel to perform Hajj once more. This, along with the appointment of the Persian Amir ol-Hajj, allowed Nader Shah control over the revenues that would come from the Holy Pilgrimage. This re-alignment could also improve trade with neighboring states and economy of Iran.

• Limiting power of the clerics - It is well known that Nader Shah was not too fond of the religious classes. In Iran, these usually came in the form of Shia clerics. A religious class that had long been associated with the Safavids.
  
  Nader Shah tried to reduce the power of the religious class or clerics. He did have part of the lands and wealth under the control of the religious clerics confiscated and contributed it to his war efforts and military machine.
• Personal religious beliefs - No one really knows what religion or sect Nader Shah believed in. That is if he believed in any religion at all. Some foreigners present in the region seem to have indicated that Nader Shah did not really believe in any religion and may have been something like an atheist.
  
  Unlike the Safavids, who had both a personal and political affinity towards Shia Islam, Nader Shah felt no real personal or political relation with Shia Islam. Nader Shah did not seem to have really understood or cared for religion. He had a skeptical and cynical attitude towards religion. He was a master of using religion as a tool to achieve his own objectives. Dissociating from Shia Islam as the state religion and promoting greater unity between the two sects may have been based on pragmatism. Since he seems to have had no personal affinity for either.

Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid Empire. Both Shah Ismail and Shah Tahmasp I had a personal and political affinity towards Shia Islam. It made sense for them to promote it as the state religion. The same was not true for Nader Shah.

What does this maths proof mean to you

 

Who is the most notorious mad genius of all time?

How about instead of notorious we focus on an evil genius that should be more notorious? Nazi scientists always get all the focus but what if I told you Japan had their own version of an evil scientist and he was an absolute monster.

Meet Shirō Ishii - a serious piece of sh%t

This guy was a Doctor and microbiologist- and a rather smart one at that. He was regarded as a brilliant person for nearly his entire life. He was well educated and joined the army as a doctor. While there he caught the eyes of his superiors and was sent for further education at Kyoto Imperial University.

During WW2 he was placed in charge of Unit 731 and this is what he was known for.

What was unit 731? Well, they were a scientific unit that conducted experiments and thought up new ways to win the war. Some examples of things they did include

• Imprisoning women, raping them until they got pregnant, and then running horrid painful experiments on them just so they could see how certain poisons affected pregnant women.
• They would infect people with syphilis and then cut them open (while alive and awake) so they could see what their bodies did as the infection progressed. Women, men, and even children were forcibly infected
• This is called vivisection- its the practice of cutting someone open while alive to see what their body is doing and its typically done when experimenting on animals. In unit 731 they did it to people without anesthesia- always resulting in a slow agonizing death for the person.
• Injected people with animal blood to see what happens (bad way to die)
• Placed people in centrifuges and spun it until they died
• Deprived prisoners of food and water to see how long it was until they died
• Placed people in low-pressure chambers until their eyes popped out
• Burned people alive to see how long they would live
• Injected people with saltwater to see what would happen
• Poisoned people to see the effects
• gave people radiation poisoning to see the effects
• Leave 3-day old babies in the cold just to see how long it took them to freeze to death
• Tested flamethrowers on live people
• Tested grenades on live people
• Removed organs for fun. For instance, they would remove someone's stomach and attach their esophagus to their intestines directly.
• Tested hundreds of diseases and biological weapons on people

In all, around 10,000 prisoners were killed by Unit 731 and as many as 20,000 were tested on. The biological weapons produced by this unit were used to kill as many as 500,000 civilians

On a side note not even the Nazis used chemical weapons in WW2 (they only did in concentration camps). The ONLY nation to employ chemical weapons against civilian and military targets in WW2 was Japan.

You may wonder what happened to Shirō. I mean we caught him and put him on trial for war crimes right?

Nope

He was given full immunity in exchange for full disclosure of his tests. American microbiologists stated that Shirō’s findings were extremely valuable and impossible to replicate unless the experiments were done again.

Shirō lived out the remainder of his life a free man and died in 1959.

 

By Alex Man, an Historian

"The oldest golden treasure in the world”

The oldest golden treasure in the world excavated only in 1972, has not been found in Mesopotamia or Egypt, the earliest written civilizations in human history. To everyone's surprise, it was discovered in northeastern Bulgaria, near the attractive, modern city of Varna and is more than 6,000 years old.

It was found in the Chalcolithic necropolis in Varna. It dates back to the end of the 5th - beginning of the 4th millennium BC. The Varna Gold finds are considered to be the oldest technologically processed gold in Europe and the world.

Assigned to the so-called Cultural Varna (4400 - 4100 BC). 294 tombs from the Chalcolithic (Eneolithic) have been discovered. It has been excavated and studied for 15 years by Archaeologist Ivan Ivanov. Several graves are distinguished by exceptional finds of gold objects. This fact shows that in this early era of mastering metalworking, the Balkans already had the beginnings of state formation and the emergence of the royal institution. 850 gold items were found: tiara, earrings, necklace, breastplate, bracelets, belt, gold hammer, scepter, gold boomerang or sickle pattern, two gold plates representing animal figurines, 30 stylized horned animal heads, gold astragalus (ashik). The so-called symbolic burials of a king-priest who is a magician-blacksmith.

The objects were covered with a gold-woven blanket, decorated at the ends with gold appliques in the form of ram's or goat's horns. Tools are laid - awl and chisel. It also contains clay "masks" of human faces, whose elements are marked with gold - eyes, mouth, teeth and nose. The "faces" are richly decorated with tiaras, earrings, necklaces, and the whole face is covered with a gold-woven veil decorated with small gold beads.

These symbolic burials are considered "female" and are interpreted as an image of the Mother Goddess. It is probably a ritual of "sacred marriage" between the king and the mother goddess. These 6 symbolic tombs are the core of the Chalcolithic necropolis and were probably laid at the beginning of its existence. The symbolism explains the role of the blacksmith in the process of transformation - the ore turns into metal and the metal into an object (weapons, ornaments). It is the mediator between the two worlds, namely nature - culture. Therefore, it is believed that the role of the blacksmith is closely related to the sacred sphere, because myths say that metals originate from other worlds (water, cave) and only the blacksmith has access to them. He is the one who is familiar with the secret and is responsible for its protection. He was even worshiped as a god (a Thracian tribe worships the fallen Hephaestus as such).

The found gold is a real sensation. The finds are known all over the world as the "Treasure of the Varna Chalcolithic Necropolis", and the civilization to which it belonged is "Cultural Varna". This is the largest amount of processed gold since the 5th millennium BC. worldwide. 7,500 square meters were excavated and 294 graves with over 3,000 gold ornaments with a total weight of over 6.5 kg were found in them. This is the Late Stone Age. Until the discovery of the treasure, it was believed that the first metal processed by man was copper, but after these discoveries it turns out that gold was actually used with copper and has been a symbol of power and might since ancient times.

One of the latest studies shows that the Varna treasure is the first evidence of human thought on our planet. As incredible as it sounds, the civilization that lived in our lands knew the golden ratio Phi and the number Pi. Two golden bulls of different sizes were found in one of the many graves. The smaller bull has 45 points, and the larger one has 56. These numbers, multiplied by the height of the larger one, which is 58.17 mm, give the height of the great Pyramid of Cheops - 146.5 m. 

 

Posted by Silvia Serra

 

How did makeup make Ryan Reynolds unrecognizable?

Ryan Reynolds went from handsome to scary with the help of special effects makeup.

His hair was firmly glued under a bald cap, and then all the graphic details like veins and lesions were painted over.

The makeup team revealed that the secret to making this look realistic was all the layers that added depth to the design. He used nine silicone implants, just in the head.By Anderson Duorado, former movie appreciator

What is the most visually interesting amphibian species?

Caecillian, it ain’t pretty but it is interesting . It has the skin of a worm the ribbing of a snake.

it has eyes but they are useless .

It lays tadpole style eggs , and has teeth more similar to a snake or shark then a frog. Also like a frog it has external gills at birth but unlike a frog quickly looses them

Now they are all interesting in my opinion as they all seem so alien yet so similar to the frogs, and toads we commonly think of. By Alan

What army was more brutal, the Assyrians or the Mongols?

 

The Mongols certainly. an estimated 11% of the entire world’s population (40–60 million + dead) over the course of their rampage across China, Asia, the Middle east and South Eastern Europe. It is said they single handedly reduced the carbon footprint of humanity by killing so many people based on carbon levels trapped in ice cores and examined by modern scientists.

One of the keys to Mongold success was the reputation for complete extermination of those who would oppose them. Any city-state or nation that dared oppose them militarily were exterminated. Every man, woman and child were killed without mercy. Those who found a Mongol envoy at their castle gates were sure to consider carefully their response based on the reputation that preceded the Mongol hordes.

The Assyrians were strong, with well-trained professional armies and could be quite destructive as well, annihilating whole cities out of revenge or as scorched-earth policy while retreating etc. But never as wide-spread or to the level of ferocity the Mongolian Horde.

Mongol 1258 Siege of Baghdad, An estimated 200,000 to 800,000 civilians were slaughtered, the city razed:

Is Mike Tyson the most tragic figure in Sports?

 Mike Tyson is not remotely close to being the most tragic figure in Sports.

Mike is alive, well, financially comfortable, and seems happy.

That is more than Salvador Sanchez, who died at 23, or Ezzard Charles, or Matthew Saud Muhammad, who both died penniless and paralyzed with ALS, spending their last years of life suffering…

CREDIT PICTURE MAGAZINE CANTEEN

Mike Tyson never fulfilled the gigantic promise he had as a young fighter. But he is hale, hearty, financially comfortable, and happy.

That is more than Ezzard Charles had.

Ezzard Charles have it rough from he who flung the chunk.

Ezzard Mack Charles, known as the Cincinnati Cobra was born July 7, 1921 in Lawrenceville, Georgia. His early youth was tumultuous, and perhaps a sign of things to come.

William Dettloff’s outstanding book on Charles, titled Ezzard Charles: A Boxing Life was the first attempt to explain the Cincinnati Cobra, and show where he came from.

Ezzard Charles came from such a dirt poor family that they were unable to pay for his birth, and in return for his services, the Doctor’s name was given the baby. It was all his parents had to offer.

Ezzard’s father, an itinerant laborer, left the family when he was five, not to reappear until his son became a famous boxer twenty plus years later. (Surprise, he wanted money)

His Mother disappeared from his life as well, and at 7, Ezzard was sent to live with his grandmother and great-grandmother in a falling down house in the very worst and poorest part of Cincinnati.

Dettloff says that Ezzard Charles was a timid and shy youngster, picked on by school bullies, and the shy quiet Charles, to survive, became a locally celebrated street fighter, participating in brutal backyard boxing matches from the age of eight as he stood up to the local bullies. Ezzard Charles was known as a quiet and decent Christian youth, yet increasingly feared for his incredible fighting ability.

Dietloff recounts that even then, Charles was a truly humble and decent kid, a ferocious fighter because life forced him to be, but he would say in later years:

“I wish I had never had to hurt anybody. I hated it, in the ring and out, but I wanted my Grandma to have a better life, and yes, me too.”

If not the greatest of all time among boxers, Charles is surely among the top three or four…

Ezzard Charles was very clearly one of the greatest fighters who ever lived. Certainly virtually all human experts rate him the best light heavyweight who ever lived, and a number, rate him as the best pound for pound fighter ever.

In the words of William Dettloff, taken from his great book, Ezzard Charles: A Boxing Life:

“Ezzard Charles was a marvellous pugilist who wreaked havoc in the ring”

But starting in the early to mid 1950’s, Charles began to lose feeling in his fingers, and then began to lose his marvelous reflexes.

It just got worse with time.

Finally, in 1968, Charles was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. The disease left him completely disabled. A fund raiser was held to assist Charles and many of his former opponents spoke on his behalf. Rocky Marciano, who had become a close friend, called Charles the bravest man he ever fought. The former boxer spent his final days in a nursing home, despite wanting to die at home, because his wife could no longer care for him.

Now that is tragedy.

Or Salvador Sanchez…

Salvador Sanchez, one of the most haunting “What Might Have Been” stories in sports history…

To the best of my knowledge, Salvador Sanchez is the only member of the Hall of Fame whose career ended at 23.

Like almost all great fighters, Sanchez came from poverty.

Sanchez was one of 11 children born into a poor family in the small Mexican city of Santiago Tianguistenco on January 26, 1959.

The family was dirt poor, literally struggling to get food to eat.

Boxing writer Jack Slack said it best:

“The potential of Salvador Sanchez might be boxing's most maddening and tragic enigma.”

Three weeks after the car crash that took his life, Sanchez was due to meet #1 contender Juan La Porte in a rematch for the title. It is hard to see the solid La Porte beating his close-friend, the great Sanchez. After that, Salvador was planning on moving up to Super-featherweight and challenging Bazooka Limon.

44–1–1 at the time of his death, Sanchez’s only defeat had come when weight drained from making bantamweight, he lost by split decision to Antonio Becerra when he was just 18 and still learning the fight game. Sanchez never lost again, and generations of fight fans have grown up wondering “what if” he had lived, and moved up to face such luminaries as Julio Chavez, who was 3 years younger, but would have been rising when Sanchez was active in his division, had he lived.

The Associated Press named Sanchez the third greatest featherweight of the 20th century in 1999.

Monte Cox sums up Sanchez’s place in boxing history:

“Sanchez easily rates among the top 10 Featherweights of all time and is arguably among the top 3.”

Now having your head cut off in a car accident at 23 when you are on the brink of super-stardom, that is tragedy.

Or Matthew Saud Muhammad?

Matthew Saud Muhammad, who was born as Maxwell Antonio Loach on June 16, 1954, was a professional boxer and trainer who life was a series of tragedies, but who nonetheless never gave in to despair.

The tragedy of his life and childhood is only matched or bettered by the suffering of Sonny Liston, yet it never changed the smile with which he greeted the world.

Matthew Saad Muhammad's mother died shortly after he was born, and he and his elder brother were sent to live with an aunt. Unfortunately, when he was five years old, his aunt decided she did not have the money to raise both he and his brother, so she told the older brother to get rid of Matthew.

His brother took Matthew to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, and left him there while he ran away. In 2014, shortly before his death, he remembered that day:

“They (My brother) took me out in the city, where I wouldn't know where I was or how to find my way home, and ran away from me, I tried to run after him. I ran as fast as I could. I was 5 years old and I was running for my life."

Hall of Fame boxer Matthew Saad Muhammad dies at 59

Saad Muhammad was discovered wandering around, and since he could not tell the police where he lived, he was turned over to Catholic Social Services.

Catholic social services was run by nuns, who gave him the name Matthew Franklin, after Saint Matthew and the Franklin Parkway where he was abandoned. Matthew lived in various foster homes, until a couple from Philadelphia adopted him.

Matthew was happy with his new family, but being abandoned and what he had endured bothered him his entire life. He yearned to know who he was, where he was from, and why he had been abandoned.

Asked by a reporter about his upbringing, Saud Muhammad said:

“They just didn't have enough money to take care of me, so they got rid of me,"

When he became famous, Saud Muhammad offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who could tell him who he really was. Through tips, he was finally able to discover the truth, sadly, he discovered that his Aunt was only interested in the $10,000, not him. Nonetheless, Saud Muhammad said:

“I’m still in shock. I had almost given up hope. I’d always wondered, where’d I come from? I just wanted to know. Now, at last, I don’t have to search anymore.”

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After all that, Matthew discovered his relatives only wanted money from him.

Like so many former athletes, Saud Muhammad fell victim to drinking and substance abuse. In July 2010, Saad Muhammad was homeless and living in a homeless shelter in Philadelphia. Once again Saud Muhammad overcame tragedy and by the next year was living independently thanks to the help of Kevin Roberts, the editor of One Step Away, a newspaper that covers homelessness issues.

Matthew later became involved in charity work in the Philadelphia area, some of which focused on raising money for the homeless.

From Champion Boxer to Down and Out: Matthew Saad Muhammad's Story - Page 4 of 5 - Philadelphia Magazine

But life had one last mean trick to play on Matthew Saud Muhammad…

But fate was not done with Saud Muhammad. Like Ezzard Charles, he had been experiencing numbness in his extremities, and he developed ALS. Though he fought as hard as he could, he died at a hospital in Philadelphia on May 25, 2014 from complications of ALS.

Matthew Saad Muhammad, Boxing Champion, Is Dead (Published 2014)

When Saud Muhammad died, he didn’t have enough money to pay for his funeral, let alone a headstone. The Muslim community in Philadelphia buried him, and then friends like Philly boxing historian John DiSanto, founder and editor of Home - PHILLY BOXING HISTORY. quietly raised money for a headstone.

Now that is tragedy…

I could go on, Marcel Cerdan dying in a plane crash, the Rock dying 3 months before he was planning to tour the US with Ali to promote harmony, Sonny Liston hitched to a plow as a child, and horribly treated his whole life…but these three, Charles, Sanchez, and Saud Muhammad, are particularly heart wrenching…

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CREDIT TO:

Boxrec for all records and statistics

Ezzard Charles: A Boxing Life by William Dettloff for facts and quotes

From Champion Boxer to Down and Out: Matthew Saad Muhammad's Story - Page 4 of 5 - Philadelphia Magazine

Matthew Saad Muhammad

Matthew Saad Muhammad, a Philly warrior, gets his gravestone

Matthew Saad Muhammad always brought his 'A' game - The Ring

Matthew Saad Muhammad, Boxing Champion, Is Dead (Published 2014)

The Fighters of My Youth

The Tragic Enigma of Salvador Sanchez

The Sweet Science by A. J. Liebling