It is unwise to incur the wrath of a powerful man if such a situation may be avoided. Sometimes it can; other times it cannot. Even being in the proximity of power can be perilous, as authority has a way of coloring everything in its field of vision with suspicion. An illustration of this principle appears in Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary on the life of the court official (wazir) Abu Ayyub Al Muryani, who served the second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur.
I haven’t seen many movies since my last roundup post here, but I did catch a few. Here are the details. The overall results are good, with one misfire starring George Clooney.
Last week I was excited to have delivered to my office Delta2Alpha’s premier folding blade, the H2 Sierra. My first impression after unpacking it was this: this is an impressive, serious blade. What I mean is that you can just tell this knife was made by serious people, for serious people. It is not some “just good enough” type of thing you’d find in your standard megastore. It’s not even the kind of thing you’d find in your standard sporting-goods or outdoors store.
Veterans of the Vietnam War have strong opinions of the fighting qualities of their adversaries. Some of them are open in their admiration for the enemy; other less so, even to the point of contempt. Some veterans consider them to be masters of deception, discipline, and skill; others scorn such talk as propaganda fueled by a hostile press and an ignorant public. The truth may be somewhere between these extremes. The VC and NVA may not have been the supermen legend made them out to be, but it cannot be denied that they won the war. Clearly they must have been doing something right.
The minister Al Rabi’ Ibn Yunus (الربيع بن يونس) lived from about A.D. 730 to 785 and served the Abbasid caliphs Al Mansur and his successor Al Mahdi. Amusing and instructive anecdotes have come down to us from the medieval Arabic historians about the interactions of the minister with his sovereigns. We will relate two of them here, acknowledging our debt to Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary (وفيات الأعيان وأنباء أبناء الزمان). The stories illustrate the importance of honoring one’s word as well as the power of Fate.
He was from youth a strong-willed and charismatic man, certain of the correctness of his ideas and the importance of his mission. It is probably true that in the beginning he genuinely wanted the best for his country, and he was possessed of a burning desire to right the wrongs he saw all around him. Cuba under his predecessors was little more than a huge plantation, exploited at will by corrupt elites and foreign powers. His certitude gave him a charisma which the credulity of the commons mistook for leadership.
We deal with two related subjects in this podcast. One is the topic of homesickness. What is it? How can it be dealt with? We also discuss the elusive concept of saudade, and how it can be a powerful emotional force.
On the subject of the results of the Crusades, much has been written. The effects were profound and stimulating, practically too numerous to be mentioned here. At that time, Europe was behind the East in arts, knowledge, and refinement. Edward Gibbon tells us:
Several days ago I received a warm email from a young guy in Brooklyn who had read one of my recent articles here. The story, told in the form of a fable, underscored the importance of taking the initiative in matters of love. His questions were these: How do I know when to take the initiative? How can I develop my “initiative-taking” spirit?
At one point in the Gothic War during the reign of Justinian, the Romans (or as we would now call them, “Byzantines”) under Belisarius were besieging a Gothic garrison at the town of Osimo in Italy. The blockade of the town was very effective, and the inhabitants had been reduced to eating almost anything to stay alive. But they were hoping to get some relief from the siege; their plan was to beg the Gothic commander Vittigis at the city of Ravenna to come to their aid.
Quintus Curtius 
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