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How did Sir Isaac Newton, the most important figure of the Scientific Revolution, believe in literal fulfillment of the biblical prophecies on the end-times? What did he say about the foretold Antichrist? What Paul really taught in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 on the revelation of the man of lawlessness? Will Rapture precede that or vice versa? How and why did Princess Diana think that her husband Charles, the Prince of Wales, was a murderer? How and why did she think that there was a conspiracy against her and that he would murder also her in a staged "car accident"? How does this relate to the biblical prophecies on the foretold Antichrist? Why so many students of the Bible prophecy have taught sin...
This book is a sweeping historical survey of the origins, development and nature of state power. It demonstrates that Eurasia is home to a dominant tradition of arbitrary rule mediated through military, civil and ecclesiastical servants and a marginal tradition of representative and responsible government through autonomous institutions. The former tradition finds expression in hierarchically organized and ideologically legitimated continental bureaucratic states while the latter manifests itself in the state of laws. In recent times, the marginal tradition has gained in popularity and has led to continental bureaucratic states attempting to introduce democratic and constitutional reforms. T...
A boom in the production and export of cotton turned Iran into the richest region of the Islamic caliphate in the ninth and tenth centuries. Yet in the eleventh century, Iran's primacy ended as its agricultural economy entered a steep decline. Richard W. Bulliet advances several provocative explanations, for example that the boom in cotton production paralleled the spread of Islam and that Iran's agricultural decline stemmed from a significant cooling of the climate that lasted more than a century. Substantiating his argument with innovative quantitative research and scientific discoveries, Bulliet first establishes the relationship between Iran's cotton industry and Islam and then outlines the evidence for what he terms the "Big Chill." He then focuses on a lucrative but temperature-sensitive industry of cross-breeding one-humped and two-humped camels, concluding with an unusual concatenation of events that had a profound and long-lasting impact not just on the history of Iran but on the development of the world.
"Although the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s has been much studied, Ahmadi is opening new avenues by examining the social history of the Iranian border province of Khuzistan. One of the oldest and richest provinces in Iran, its invasion by Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist forces in 1980 triggered the war, but the contested region has a deeper history that sheds light on questions of citizenship, migration, and smuggling vital to the two countries' relationship in the 20th century. Through archival work and oral histories, Ahmadi investigates how border dwellers, provincial leaders, and migrants in the region affected Iran and Iraq's history before, during, and after the war, while studying broader iss...
Turning toward Edification discusses foreigners in Korea from before the founding of Chosŏn in 1392 until the mid-nineteenth century. Although it has been common to describe Chosŏn Korea as a monocultural and homogeneous state, Adam Bohnet reveals the considerable presence of foreigners and people of foreign ancestry in Chosŏn Korea as well as the importance to the Chosŏn monarchy of engagement with the outside world. These foreigners included Jurchens and Japanese from border polities that formed diplomatic relations with Chosŏn prior to 1592, Ming Chinese and Japanese deserters who settled in Chosŏn during the Japanese invasion between 1592 and 1598, Chinese and Jurchen refugees who ...
The eighteenth century was a crucial era in modern Iranian history, but up to now it has been little studied outside Iran. In Crisis, Collapse, Militarism and Civil War, Michael Axworthy has gathered leading experts on this period from around the world to provide a multifaceted account of this fascinating, dramatic, and turbulent era. The volume covers economics, intellectual history, military developments, politics, and the visual arts. In the 1720s, after the collapse of Safavid rule in 1722, it seemed that Iran might disappear altogether, partitioned between her neighbors. Within a few years the country surged back to make a bid for regional dominance under Nader Shah, but lapsed again in...
This book is a study of the representation of the Persian empire in English drama across the early modern period, from the 1530s to the 1690s. The wide focus of this book, encompassing thirteen dramatic entertainments, both canonical and little-known, allow it to trace the changes and developments in the dramatic use of Persia and its people across one and a half centuries. It explores what Persia signified to English playwrights and audiences in this period; the ideas and associations conjured up by mention of ‘Persia’; and where information about Persia came from. It also considers how ideas about Persia changed with the development of global travel and trade, as English people came into people with Persians for the first time. In addressing these issues, this book provides an examination not only of the representation of Persia in dramatic material, but of the broader relationship between travel, politics and the theatre in early modern England.