Experimental Blog # 222

Quotations from "What the Qur'an Meant - And Why It Matters" by Garry Wills

"... the Qur'an < > is a series of disjunct revelations made to Muhammad, as recorded by his followers on pottery shards or other handy surfaces. These were transferred to paper, then arranged by believers after Muhammad's death, not in chronological order but, < > according to length{longer ones earlier, shorter ones toward the end}."
"The oral traditions about Jesus and Muhammad did not take the forms we know for several decades after their death."

"A Desert Book"
"The Qur'an is haunted by < > the Arabian desert. < > One finds it in the yearning, everywhere, toward water < > Water as God's blessing. Water as miracle. Water creating oases. Water as reward. < > Water as the condition of happiness. Water as heaven."

"The Perpetual Stream of Prophets"
"People who have not read the Qur'an might be surprised at how much of it is devoted to prophets other than Muhammad. Over two dozen men{only men} are called prophets in the book. Each received a revelation from Allah, which he proclaimed by his preaching and his actions. From the time of Adam, these show a record of continual contact with all humankind..."

"... Muslims honor Mary, the mother of Jesus. < > She is the most honored women in the Qur'an - indeed she is the only woman named in the book."

"The Right Path{Shari'ah}"
"The word "shari'ah" occurs only once in the Qur'an, and there it does not mean "law". It is Allah's reassurance to Muhammad that he is traveling on the right "path"{shari'ah}. < > But the Qur'an does not furnish one with minute legal guidance."

"The economic world reflected in the Qur'an is not agrarian or industrial but commercial. Mecca < > dealt with merchant caravans coming and going, which involved the promises of payment < > and investment < > the instructions on Muslim business dealings show a hands-on expertise."
"God is a great accountant."
"The model for the true believers in Allah is the honest merchant."

"Muhammad < > did have thirteen wives{two marriages were unconsummated} and two concubines, and various women slaves. < > Like some Western monarchs, he had no male heirs < > and he had to rely on his own marriages and those of his four daughters to secure a legacy ..."

"Torah, Gospel, and Qur'an are all patriarchal, and therefore misogynist - as were the societies in which they took shape. But misogynism is not all that all of them are. In all three of them there are traces of dignity and worth intended by the Creator when he made women."
"Belief in women's inferiority is a long and disheartening part of each tradition's story."

"Reading the Qur'an is not initially an easy task. < > What is easy is to sense the overall tenor and priorities of the book. A few verses endlessly cited have to do with violence."
"The overall tenor is one of mercy and forgiveness, which are evoked everywhere, almost obsessively."

Experimental Blog # 221

Quotations and notes from "Lost Kingdom" - The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation - From 1470 to the Present, by Serhii Plokhy

"Despite what one reads < > and hears in official pronouncements, Russia < > is a relatively young state. Its history as an independent polity begins < > in the 1470s, when Ivan III, the first ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow < > challenged the suzerainty of the Mongol khans."
"By 1480, Ivan had successfully established his sovereignty over the lands of Mongol Rus' < > By 1490, Ivan's chancellery had begun to use the Kyivan descent of Muscovite princes as grounds to extend his claim < > to Kyiv itself."

More chronology:
"The Time of Troubles came to an end in 1613, when the Assembly of the Land elected the sixteen-year-old Mikhail Romanov to the Muscovite throne."
"During Catherine's long reign of almost thirty-five years{1762-1796}, the formation of the imperial Russian nation begun under Peter I and Elizabeth took on new impetus and new characteristics."
"What seemed to be the end of Russia in September 1812 - the surrender of Moscow to the French army - turned out to be the beginning of the end of Napoleon's empire."

"Nicholas's Easter 1915 visit to Galicia was filmed by a Russian crew < > It was a symbolic high point in the long campaign of Russian nationalists to gather the lands of the former Kyivan Rus', construct a big Russian nation, including Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, and bring together monarchy, religion, and nation in the service of the state." However:
"In May 1915, barely a month after the tsar's triumphal entrance into Lviv, the Germans < > began their attack on the Russian armies in Galicia < > By the end of September the Russian armies had lost most of Galicia, a good part of Volhynia, all of Poland, western Belarus, and most of the Baltic provinces."

{by} "February 1917 < > The socialists created a soviet{council} that became the real power in the city{Petrograd}, making the tsarist government all but irrelevant."
"The most confusing aspect of the term "Russian Revolution" is that it obscures what actually took place in the multiethnic Russian Empire - a revolution of nations, of which the Russians were only one."

"The road to the formation of the Soviet Union began in April 1922..."  An international conference took place in Genoa, Italy. "It was a major coup for the Bolshevik government, which had now been recognized for the first time as the legitimate successor to what remained of the Russian Empire. Diplomatic recognition would follow, starting with Britain and France in 1924; the United States didn't follow suit until 1933."

"Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953. < > He was mourned not just as the head of government but also as the leader of working people throughout the world."