title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 7)

text: The cast was announced on April 13, 2022, and included eight past winners returning to the competition. The winning queen received a cash prize of $200,000. The season consisted of twelve episodes, with the first two airing on the same day, and featured an "" aftershow.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 7)

text: The season featured a new format twist: throughout the season, no one was eliminated. Instead, each week, two top All Stars were awarded a "Legendary Legend Star". The top 2 competed in a Lip Sync For Your Legacy; the winner earned a cash tip and the power to block one of her fellow queens from receiving a star the next week. In the finale, the four queens with the most stars participated in a Lip Sync Smackdown to determine the winner, who received a cash prize of $200,000 and the title "Queen of All Queens". The other four queens participated in a parallel Lip Sync Smackdown for a cash prize of $50,000 and the title of "Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses".


title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 7)

text: Jinkx Monsoon won the season and the title of "Queen of All Queens". Monét X Change was the runner-up. Raja won the "Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses" title.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengalis (singular Bengali ), also rendered as Bangalee or the Bengali people, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of South Asia. The current population is divided between the independent country Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and parts of Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur. Most of them speak Bengali, a language from the Indo-Aryan language family.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengalis are the third-largest ethnic group in the world, after the Han Chinese and Arabs. Thus, they are the largest ethnic group within the Indo-Europeans and the largest ethnic group in South Asia. Apart from Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Manipur, and Assam's Barak Valley, Bengali-majority populations also reside in India's union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with significant populations in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand as well as Nepal's Province No. 1. The global Bengali diaspora (Bangladeshi Bengalis and Indian Bengalis) have well-established communities in the Middle East, Pakistan, Myanmar, the United Kingdom, the United States, Malaysia, Italy, Singapore, Maldives, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengalis are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. Today, approximately 67% are adherents of Islam with a large Hindu minority and sizable communities of Christians and Buddhists. Bengali Muslims, who live mainly in Bangladesh, primarily belong to the Sunni denomination. Bengali Hindus, who live primarily in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam's Barak Valley, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, generally follow Shaktism or Vaishnavism, in addition to worshipping regional deities.<ref name="Frawley https://books.google.com/books/about/What_Is_Hinduism.html?id=5x9vDwAAQBAJ&PA26 26"></ref> There also exist small numbers of Bengali Christians, a large number of whom are descendants of Portuguese voyagers, as well as Bengali Buddhists, the bulk of whom belong to the Bengali-speaking Baruas in Chittagong and Rakhine (who should not be confused with other Buddhists of Bangladesh that belong to different ethnic groups).


title: Bengalis

text: Like every large culture group in history, Bengalis have greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields, notably the arts and architecture, language, folklore, literature, politics, military, business, science and technology.


title: Bengalis

text: The term Bengali is generally used to refer to someone whose linguistic, cultural or ancestral origins are from Bengal. The Indo-Aryan Bengalis are ethnically differentiated from the non-Indo-Aryan tribes inhabiting Bengal. Their ethnonym, "Bangali", along with the native name of the language and region "Bangla", are both derived from "Bangālah", the Persian word for the region. Prior to Muslim expansion, there was no unitary territory by this name as the region was instead divided into numerous geopolitical divisions. The most prominent of these were Vaṅga (from which "Bangālah" is thought to ultimately derive from) in the south, Rāṛha in the west, Puṇḍravardhana and Varendra in the north, and Samataṭa and Harikela in the east. In ancient times, the people of this region identified themselves with respect to these divisions. Vedic texts such as the "Mahābhārata" makes mention of the Puṇḍra people.


title: Bengalis

text: The historic land of Vaṅga ("bôngô" in Bengali), situated in present-day Barisal, is considered by early historians of the Abrahamic and Dharmic traditions to have originated from a man who had settled in the area though it is often dismissed as legend. Early Abrahamic genealogists had suggested that this man was "Bang", a son of Hind who was the son of Ham (son of Noah). In contrast, the Mahabharata, Puranas and the Harivamsha state that Vaṅga was the founder of the Vaṅga Kingdom and one of the adopted sons of King Vali. The land of Vaṅga later came to be known as Vaṅgāla ("Bôngal") and its earliest reference is in the Nesari plates (805 CE) of Govinda III which speak of Dharmapāla as its king. The records of Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty, who invaded Bengal in the 11th century, speak of Govindachandra as the ruler of "Vaṅgāladeśa" (a Sanskrit cognate to the word Bangladesh, which was historically a synonymous endonym of Bengal). 16th-century historian Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak mentions in his "ʿAin-i-Akbarī" that the addition of the suffix ""al"" came from the fact that the ancient rajahs of the land raised mounds of earth 10 feet high and 20 in breadth in lowlands at the foot of the hills which were called "al". This is also mentioned in Ghulam Husain Salim's Riyāz us-Salāṭīn.


title: Bengalis

text: In 1352 CE, a Muslim nobleman by the name of Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah united the region into a single political entity known as the Bengal Sultanate. Proclaiming himself as "Shāh-i-Bangālīyān", it was in this period that the Bengali language also gained state patronage and corroborated literary development. Thus, Ilyas Shah had effectively formalised the socio-linguistic identity of the region's inhabitants as "Bengali", by state, culture and language.


title: Bengalis

text: Archaeologists have discovered remnants of a 4,000-year-old Chalcolithic civilisation in the greater Bengal region, and believe the finds are one of the earliest signs of settlement in the region. However, evidence of much older Palaeolithic human habitations were found in the form of a stone implement and a hand axe in Rangamati and Feni districts of Bangladesh.


title: Bengalis

text: Artefacts suggest that the Wari-Bateshwar civilisation, which flourished in present-day Narsingdi, date as far back as 1100 BC. Not far from the rivers, the port city was believed to have been engaged in foreign trade with Ancient Rome, Southeast Asia and other regions. The people of this civilisation live in bricked homes, walked on wide roads, used silver coins and iron weaponry among many other things. It is thought to be the oldest city in Bengal and in the eastern part of the subcontinent as a whole.


title: Bengalis

text: It is thought that a man named Vanga settled in the area around 1000 BCE founding the Vanga Kingdom in southern Bengal. The "Atharvaveda" and the Hindu epic Mahabharata mentions this kingdom, along with the Pundra Kingdom in northern Bengal. The spread of Mauryan territory and promotion of Buddhism by its emperor Ashoka cultivated a growing Buddhist society among the people of present-day Bengal from the 2nd century BCE. Mauryan monuments as far as the Great Stupa of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh mentioned the people of this region as adherents of Buddhism. The Buddhists of the Bengal region built and used dozens of monasteries, and were recognised for their religious commitments as far as Nagarjunakonda in South India.


title: Bengalis

text: One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land ruled by the king Xandrammes named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BCE. The word is speculated to have come from "Gangahrd" ('Land with the Ganges in its heart') in reference to an area in Bengal. Later from the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.


title: Bengalis

text: One of the first recorded independent kings of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around the early 7th century, who is generally thought to have originated from Magadha, Bihar, just west of Bengal. After a period of anarchy, a native ruler called Gopala came into power in 750 CE. He originated from Varendra in northern Bengal, and founded the Buddhist Pala Empire. Atiśa, a renowned Buddhist teacher from eastern Bengal, was instrumental in the revival of Buddhism in Tibet and also held the position of Abbot at the Vikramashila monastery in Bihar.


title: Bengalis

text: The Pala Empire enjoyed relations with the Srivijaya Empire, the Tibetan Empire, and the Arab Abbasid Caliphate. Islam first appeared in Bengal during Pala rule, as a result of increased trade between Bengal and the Middle East. The people of Samatata, in southeastern Bengal, during the 10th century were of various religious backgrounds. Tilopa was a prominent Hindu priest from modern-day Chittagong, though Samatata was ruled by the Buddhist Chandra dynasty. During this time, the Arab geographer Al-Masudi and author of The Meadows of Gold, travelled to the region where he noticed a Muslim community of inhabitants residing in the region. In addition to trade, Islam was also being introduced to the people of Bengal through the migration of Sufi missionaries prior to conquest. The earliest known Sufi missionaries were Syed Shah Surkhul Antia and his students, most notably Shah Sultan Rumi, in the 11th century. Rumi settled in present-day Netrokona, Mymensingh where he influenced the local ruler and population to embrace Islam.


title: Bengalis

text: The Pala dynasty was later followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena Empire. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region. Bakhtiyar Khalji, a Turkic general, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Bengal Sultanate for the next few hundred years. Many of the people of Bengal began accepting Islam through the influx of missionaries following the initial conquest. Sultan Balkhi and Shah Makhdum Rupos settled in the present-day Rajshahi Division in northern Bengal, preaching to the communities there. A community of 13 Muslim families headed by Burhanuddin also existed in the northeastern Hindu city of Srihatta (Sylhet), claiming their descendants to have arrived from Chittagong. By 1303, hundreds of Sufi preachers led by Shah Jalal, who some biographers claim was a Turkistan-born Bengali, aided the Muslim rulers in Bengal to conquer Sylhet, turning the town into Jalal's headquarters for religious activities. Following the conquest, Jalal disseminated his followers across different parts of Bengal to spread Islam, and became a household name among Bengali Muslims.


title: Bengalis

text: The establishment of a single united Bengal Sultanate in 1352 by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah finally gave rise to a ""Bengali"" socio-linguistic identity. The Ilyas Shahi dynasty acknowledged Muslim scholarship, and this transcended ethnic background. Usman Serajuddin, also known as "Akhi Siraj Bengali", was a native of Gaur in western Bengal and became the Sultanate's court scholar during Ilyas Shah's reign. Alongside Persian and Arabic, the sovereign Sunni Muslim nation-state also enabled the language of the Bengali people to gain patronage and support, contrary to previous states which exclusively favoured Sanskrit, Pali and Persian. The born-Hindu Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah funded the construction of Islamic institutions as far as Mecca and Madina in the Middle East. The people of Arabia came to know these institutions as al-Madaris al-Bangaliyyah ("Bengali madrasas").


title: Bengalis

text: The Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the 16th century, ending the independent Sultanate of Bengal and defeating Bengal's rebellion Baro-Bhuiyan chieftains. Mughal general Man Singh conquered parts of Bengal including Dhaka during the time of Emperor Akbar and a few Rajput tribes from his army permanently settled around Dhaka and surrounding lands, integrating into Bengali society. Akbar's preaching of the syncretic Din-i Ilahi, was described as a blasphemy by the Qadi of Bengal, which caused huge controversies in South Asia. In the 16th century, many "Ulama" of the Bengali Muslim intelligentsia migrated to other parts of the subcontinent as teachers and instructors of Islamic knowledge such as Ali Sher Bengali to Ahmedabad, Shah Manjhan to Sarangpur, Usman Bengali to Sambhal and Yusuf Bengali to Burhanpur.


title: Bengalis

text: By the early 17th century, Islam Khan I had conquered all of Bengal and was integrated into a province known as the Bengal Subah. It was the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire, as it also encompassed parts of Bihar and Odisha, between the 16th and 18th centuries. Described by some as the "Paradise of Nations" and the "Golden Age of Bengal", Bengalis enjoyed some of the highest living standards and real wages in the world at the time. Singlehandedly accounting for 40% of Dutch imports outside the European continent, eastern Bengal was globally prominent in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding, and was a major exporter of silk and cotton textiles, steel, saltpeter, and agricultural and industrial produce in the world.


title: Bengalis

text: Mughal Bengal eventually became a quasi-independent monarchy state ruled by the Nawabs of Bengal in 1717. Already observing the proto-industrialization, it made direct significant contribution to the first Industrial Revolution (substantially textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution).


title: Bengalis

text: Bengal became the basis of the Anglo-Mughal War. After the weakening of the Mughal Empire with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, Bengal was ruled independently by three dynasties of Nawabs until 1757, when the region was annexed by the East India Company after the Battle of Plassey.


title: Bengalis

text: In Bengal, effective political and military power was transferred from the Afshar regime to the British East India Company around 1757–65. Company rule in India began under the Bengal Presidency. Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The presidency was run by a military-civil administration, including the Bengal Army, and had the world's sixth earliest railway network. Great Bengal famines struck several times during colonial rule, notably the Great Bengal famine of 1770 and Bengal famine of 1943, each killing millions of Bengalis.


title: Bengalis

text: Under British rule, Bengal experienced deindustrialisation. Discontent with the situation, numerous rebellions and revolts were attempted by the Bengali people. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was initiated on the outskirts of Calcutta, and spread to Dhaka, Jalpaiguri and Agartala, in solidarity with revolts in North India. Havildar Rajab Ali commanded the rebels in Chittagong as far as Sylhet and Manipur. The failure of the rebellion led to the abolishment of the Mughal court completely and direct rule by the British Raj.


title: Bengalis

text: Many Bengali laborers were taken as coolies to the British colonies in the Caribbean during the 1830s. Workers from Bengal were chosen because they could easily assimilate to the climate of British Guyana, which was similar to that of Bengal.


title: Bengalis

text: Swami Vivekananda is considered a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America, and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, and bringing Hinduism to the status of a world religion during the 1800s. On the other hand, Ram Mohan Roy led a socio-Hindu reformist movement known as Brahmoism which called for the abolishment of sati (widow sacrifice), child marriage, polytheism and idol worship. In 1804, he wrote the Persian book "Tuḥfat al-Muwaḥḥidīn" (A Gift to the Monotheists) and spent the next two decades attacking the Kulin Brahmin bastions of Bengal.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups such as Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were dominant. Many of the early proponents of the independence struggle, and subsequent leaders in the movement were Bengalis such as Shamsher Gazi, Abu Torab, Hada Miah and Mada Miah, the Pagal Panthis led by Karim Shah and Tipu Shah, Haji Shariatullah and Dudu Miyan of the Faraizi movement, Titumir, Ali Muhammad Shibli, Alimuddin Ahmad, Prafulla Chaki, Surendranath Banerjee, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Bagha Jatin, Khudiram Bose, Sarojini Naidu, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rashbehari Bose, and Sachindranath Sanyal.


title: Bengalis

text: Leaders such as Subhas Chandra Bose did not subscribe to the view that non-violent civil disobedience was the best way to achieve independence, and were instrumental in armed resistance against the British. Bose was the co-founder and leader of the Japanese-aligned Indian National Army (distinct from the army of British India) that challenged British forces in several parts of India. He was also the head of state of a parallel regime, the Azad Hind. A number of Bengalis died during the independence movement and many were imprisoned in the notorious Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands.


title: Bengalis

text: The first partition in 1905 divided the Bengal region in British India into two provinces for administrative and development purposes. However, the partition stoked Hindu nationalism. This in turn led to the formation of the All India Muslim League in Dhaka in 1906 to represent the growing aspirations of the Muslim population. The partition was annulled in 1912 after protests by the Indian National Congress and Hindu Mahasabha.


title: Bengalis

text: The breakdown of Hindu-Muslim unity in India drove the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolution in 1943, calling the creation of "independent states" in eastern and northwestern British India. The resolution paved the way for the Partition of British India based on the Radcliffe Line in 1947, despite attempts to form a United Bengal state that was opposed by many people.


title: Bengalis

text: The rise of self-determination and Bengali nationalism movements in East Bengal, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Eventually, Pakistanis wishing to integrate Bengal further into Pakistan and wishing to get rid of Hindu Bengalis launched Operation Searchlight. Eventually, it turned from the killings of Hindus to Bengalis in general. This eventually culminated in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against the Pakistani military junta. Upwards of an estimated 300,000 to 3,000,000 people died in the conflict, particularly as a result of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. The war caused millions of East Bengali refugees to take shelter in neighboring India, especially the Indian state of West Bengal, with Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal, becoming the capital-in-exile of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh. The Mukti Bahini guerrilla forces waged a nine-month war against the Pakistani military. The conflict ended after the Indian Armed Forces intervened on the side of Bangladeshi forces in the final two weeks of the war, which ended with the Surrender of Pakistan and the liberation of Dhaka on 16 December 1971. Thus, the newly independent People's Republic of Bangladesh was born from what was previously the East Pakistan province of Pakistan.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengalis constitute the largest ethnic group in Bangladesh, at approximately 98% of the nation's inhabitants. The Census of India does not recognise racial or ethnic groups within India, the CIA Factbook estimated that there are 100 million Bengalis in India constituting 7% of the country's total population. In addition to West Bengal, Bengalis form the demographic majority in Assam's Barak Valley and Lower region as well as parts of Manipur. The state of Tripura as well as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory, which lies in the Bay of Bengal, are also home to a Bengali-majority population, most of whom are descendants of Hindus from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) that migrated there following the 1947 Partition of India. Bengali migration to the latter archipelago was also boosted by subsequent state-funded "Colonisation Schemes" by the Government of India.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengali ethnic descent and emigrant communities are found primarily in other parts of the subcontinent, the Middle East and the Western World. Substantial populations descended from Bengali immigrants exist in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Kingdom where they form established communities of over 1 million people. The majority of the overseas Bengali diaspora are Muslims as the act of seafaring was traditionally prohibited in Hinduism; a taboo known as kala pani (black/dirty water).


title: Bengalis

text: The introduction of Islam to the Bengali people has generated a connection to the Arabian Peninsula, as Muslims are required to visit the land once in their lifetime to complete the Hajj pilgrimage. Several Bengali sultans funded Islamic institutions in the Hejaz, which popularly became known by the Arabs as Bangali Madaris. It is unknown when Bengalis began settling in Arab lands though an early example is that of Haji Shariatullah's teacher "Mawlana Murad", who was permanently residing in the city of Mecca in the early 1800s. Notable people of Bengali-origin that live in the Middle East include Zohurul Hoque, a translator of the Qur'an who lives in Oman, as well as the family of Princess Sarvath al-Hassan, who is the wife of Jordanian prince Hassan bin Talal.


title: Bengalis

text: Earliest records of Bengalis in the European continent date back to the reign of King George III of England during the 16th century. One such example is I'tisam-ud-Din, a Bengali Muslim cleric from Nadia in western Bengal, who arrived to Europe in 1765 with his servant Muhammad Muqim as a diplomat for the Mughal Empire. Another example during this period is of James Achilles Kirkpatrick's "hookah-bardar" (hookah servant/preparer) who was said to have robbed and cheated Kirkpatrick, making his way to England and stylising himself as the "Prince of Sylhet". The man, presumably from Sylhet in eastern Bengal, was waited upon by the Prime Minister of Great Britain William Pitt the Younger, and then dined with the Duke of York before presenting himself in front of the King. Today, the British Bangladeshis are a naturalised community in the United Kingdom, running 90% of all South Asian cuisine restaurants and having established numerous ethnic enclaves across the country – most prominent of which is Banglatown in East London.


title: Bengalis

text: An important and unifying characteristic of Bengalis is that most of them use Bengali as their native tongue, believed to belong to the Indo-Iranian language family. With about 226 million native and about 300 million total speakers worldwide, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages, ranked sixth in the world, and is also used a lingua franca among other ethnic groups and tribes living within and around the Bengal region. Bengali is generally written using the Bengali script and evolved circa 1000–1200 CE from Magadhi Prakrit, thus bearing similarities to ancient languages such as Pali. Its closest modern relatives may include other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages such as Assamese, Odia and the Bihari languages. Though Bengali may have a historic legacy of borrowing vocabulary from languages such as Persian and Sanskrit, modern borrowings primarily come from the English language.


title: Bengalis

text: Various forms of the language are in use today and provide an important force for Bengali cohesion. These distinct forms can be sorted into three categories. The first is "Classical Bengali" ( "Śadhu Bhaśa"), which was a historical form restricted to literary usage up until the late British period. The second is "Standard Bengali" ( "Čôlitô Bhaśa" or "Śuddho Bhaśa"), which is the modern literary form, and is based upon the dialects of the divided Nadia region (partitioned between Nadia and Kushtia). It is used today in writing and in formal speaking, for example, prepared speeches, some radio broadcasts, and non-entertainment content. The third and largest category by speakers would be "Colloquial Bengali" ( "Añčôlik Bhaśa" or "Kôththô Bhaśa"). These refer to informal spoken language that varies by dialect from region to region.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengali people may be broadly classified into sub-groups predominantly based on dialect but also other aspects of culture:


title: Bengalis

text: Bengalis Hindus are socially stratified into four castes, called "chôturbôrṇô". The caste system derived from Hindu system of bôrṇô (type, order, colour or class) and jāti (clan, tribe, community or sub-community), which divides people into four colours: White, Red, Yellow and Black. White people are Brahmôṇ, who are destined to be priests, teachers and preachers; Red people are Kkhôtriyô, who are destined to be kings, governors, warriors and soldiers; Yellow people are Bôiśśô, who are born to be cattle herders, ploughmen, artisans and merchants; and Black people are Shūdrô, who are born to be labourers and servants to the people of twice-born caste. People from all caste denominations exist among Bengali Hindus. Ram Mohan Roy, who was born Hindu, founded the Brahmo Samaj which attempted to abolish the practices of casteism, sati and child marriage among Hindus.


title: Bengalis

text: The largest religions practiced in Bengal are Islam and Hinduism. Among all Bengalis, more than two-thirds are Muslims. The vast majority follow the Sunni denomination though there are also a small minority of Shias. The Bengali Muslims form a 90.4% majority in Bangladesh, and a 30% minority among the ethnic Bengalis in whole India. In West Bengal, Bengali Muslims form a 66.88% majority in Murshidabad district, the former seat of the Shia Nawabs of Bengal, a 51.27% majority in Malda, which contains the erstwhile capitals of the Sunni Bengal Sultanate, and they also number over 5,487,759 in the 24 Parganas.


title: Bengalis

text: Just less than a third of all Bengalis are Hindus (predominantly, the Shaktas and Vaishnavists), and as per as 2011 census report, they form a 70.54% majority in West Bengal, 50% plurality in Southern Assam's Barak Valley region, 60% majority in the India's North Eastern state of Tripura, 30% plurality in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 9% significance population in India's Eastern state of Jharkhand and an 8.54% minority in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Hindus are mostly concentrated in Sylhet Division where they constitute 17.8% of the population, and are mostly populated in Chittagong Division where they number over 3 million. Hindus form a 56.41% majority in Dacope Upazila, a 51.69% majority in Kotalipara Upazila and a 51.22% majority in Sullah Upazila. In terms of population, Bangladesh is the third largest Hindu populated country of the world, just after India and Nepal. The total Hindu population in Bangladesh exceeds the population of many Muslim majority countries like Yemen, Jordan, Tajikistan, Syria, Tunisia, Oman, and others. Also the total Hindu population in Bangladesh is roughly equal to the total population of Greece and Belgium. Bengali Hindus also worship regional deities.


title: Bengalis

text: Other religious groups include Buddhists (comprising around 1% of the population in Bangladesh) and Bengali Christians. A large number of the Bengali Christians are descendants of Portuguese voyagers. The bulk of Bengali Buddhists belong to the Bengali-speaking Baruas who reside in Chittagong and Rakhine.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengalis commemorate the Islamic holidays or Hindu festivals depending on their religion. People are dressed in their new traditional clothing. During the major Islamic holidays Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr, charity is distributed. Children are given clothes or money. Relatives, friends, and neighbors visit and exchange food and sweets.


title: Bengalis

text: Significant cultural events or celebrations are also celebrated by the community annually. Pohela Boishakh is a celebration of the new year and arrival of summer in the Bengali calendar and is celebrated in April. It features a funfair, music and dance displays on stages, with people dressed in colourful traditional clothes, parading through the streets. Festivals like Pahela Falgun (spring) are also celebrated regardless of their faith. The Bengalis of Dhaka celebrate Shakrain, an annual kite festival. The Nabanna is a Bengali celebration akin to the harvest festivals in the Western world.


title: Bengalis

text: The recorded history of art in Bengal can be traced to the 3rd century BCE, when terracotta sculptures were made in the region. The architecture of the Bengal Sultanate saw a distinct style of domed mosques with complex niche pillars that had no minarets. Ivory, pottery and brass were also widely used in Bengali art.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengali attire is shares similarities with North Indian attire. In rural areas, older women wear the "shari" while the younger generation wear the selwar kamiz, both with simple designs. In urban areas, the "selwar kamiz" is more popular, and has distinct fashionable designs. Traditionally Bengali men wore the "jama", though the costumes such as the "panjabi" with "selwar" or "pyjama" have become more popular within the past three centuries. The popularity of the "fotua", a shorter upper garment, is undeniable among Bengalis in casual environments. The lungi and gamcha are a common combination for rural Bengali men. Islamic clothing is also very common in the region. During special occasions, Bengali women commonly wear either "shari"s, selwar kamizes or abayas, covering their hair with hijab or orna; and men wear a "panjabi", also covering their hair with a tupi, toqi, pagri or rumal.


title: Bengalis

text: Mughal Bengal's most celebrated artistic tradition was the weaving of Jamdani motifs on fine muslin, which is now classified by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage. Jamdani motifs were similar to Iranian textile art (buta motifs) and Western textile art (paisley). The Jamdani weavers in Dhaka received imperial patronage.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengal has an extremely rich heritage of performing arts dating back to antiquity. It includes narrative forms, songs and dances, performance with scroll paintings, puppet theatre and the processional forms like the Jatra and cinema. Performing of plays and Jatras were mentioned in Charyapada, written in between the 8th and 12th centuries. Chhau dance is a unique martial, tribal and folk art of Bengal. Wearing an earthy and theatrical Chhau mask, the dance is performed to highlight the folklore and episodes from "Shaktism", "Ramayana" – "Mahabharata" and other abstract themes. In 2010 the Chhau dance was inscribed in the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengali film is a glorious part of the history of world cinema. Hiralal Sen, who is considered a stalwart of Victorian era cinema, sowed the first seeds of Bengali cinema. In 1898, Sen founded the first film production company, named Royal Bioscope Company in Bengal, and possibly the first in India. Along with Nemai Ghosh, Tapan Sinha and others, the golden age of Bengali cinema begins with the hands of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Rittwik Ghatak. Chinnamul was recognized as the first neo-realist film in India that deals with the partition of India. Ray's first cinema "Pather Panchali" (1955) achieved the highest-ranking Indian film on any Sight & Sound poll at number 6 in the 1992 Critics' Poll. It also topped the British Film Institute's user poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time in 2002. In the same year, Titash Ekti Nadir Naam, directed by Ritwik Ghatak with the joint production of India and Bangladesh, got the honor of "best Bangladeshi films" in the audience and critics' polls conducted by the British Film Institute.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengali cuisine is the culinary style of the Bengali people. It has the only traditionally developed multi-course tradition from South Asia that is analogous in structure to the modern service à la russe style of French cuisine, with food served course-wise rather than all at once. The dishes of Bengal are often centuries old and reflect the rich history of trade in Bengal through spices, herbs, and foods. With an emphasis on fish and vegetables served with rice as a staple diet, Bengali cuisine is known for its subtle flavours, and its huge spread of confectioneries and milk-based desserts. One will find the following items in most dishes; mustard oil, fish, panch phoron, lamb, onion, rice, cardamom, yogurt and spices. The food is often served in plates which have a distinct flowery pattern often in blue or pink. Common beverages include shorbot, borhani, ghol, matha, lachhi, falooda, Rooh Afza, natural juices like Akher rosh, Khejur rosh, Aamrosh, Dudh cha, Taler rosh, Masala cha, as well as basil seed or tukma-based drinks.


title: Bengalis

text: East and West Bengali cuisines have many similarities, but also many unique traditions at the same time. These kitchens have been influenced by the history of the respective regions. The kitchens can be further divided into the urban and rural kitchens. Urban kitchens in eastern Bengal consist of native dishes with foreign Mughal influence, for example the Haji biryani and Chevron Biryani of Old Dhaka.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengali literature denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language, which has developed over the course of roughly 13 centuries. The earliest extant work in Bengali literature can be found within the Charyapada, a collection of Buddhist mystic hymns dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries. They were discovered in the Royal Court Library of Nepal by Hara Prasad Shastri in 1907. The timeline of Bengali literature is divided into three periods − ancient (650–1200), medieval (1200–1800) and modern (after 1800). Medieval Bengali literature consists of various poetic genres, including Islamic epics by the likes of Abdul Hakim and Syed Sultan, secular texts by Muslim poets like Alaol and Vaishnava texts by the followers of Krishna Chaitanya. Bengali writers began exploring different themes through narratives and epics such as religion, culture, cosmology, love and history. Royal courts such as that of the Bengal Sultanate and the Kingdom of Mrauk U gave patronage to numerous Bengali writers such as Shah Muhammad Saghir, Daulat Qazi and Dawlat Wazir Bahram Khan.


title: Bengalis

text: The Bengali Renaissance refers to a socio-religious reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, centered around the city of Calcutta and predominantly led by upper-caste Bengali Hindus under the patronage of the British Raj who had created a reformed religion known as the Brahmo Samaj. Historian Nitish Sengupta describes the Bengal renaissance as having begun with Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1775–1833) and ended with Asia's first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941).


title: Bengalis

text: Though the Bengal Renaissance was predominantly representative to the Hindu community due to their relationship with British colonisers, there were, nevertheless, examples of modern Muslim littérateurs in this period. Mir Mosharraf Hossain (1847–1911) was the first major writer in the modern era to emerge from the Bengali Muslim society, and one of the finest prose writers in the Bengali language. His magnum opus Bishad Shindhu is a popular classic among Bengali readership. Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976), notable for his activism and anti-British literature, was described as the Rebel Poet and is now recognised as the National poet of Bangladesh. Begum Rokeya (1880–1932) was the leading female Bengali author of this period, best known for writing Sultana's Dream which was subsequently translated into numerous languages.


title: Bengalis

text: A marriage among Bengalis often consists of multiple events rather than just one wedding. Arranged marriages are arguably the most common form of marriage among Bengalis and are considered traditional in society. Marriage is seen as a union between two families rather than just two people, and they play a large part in developing and maintaining social ties between families and villages. The two families are facilitated by "Ghotok"s (mutual matchmakers), and the first event is known as the "Paka Dekha"/"Dekhadekhi" where all those involved are familiarised with each other over a meal at the bride's home. The first main event is the "Paan-Chini"/"Chini-Paan", hosted by the bride's family. Gifts are received from the groom's family and the marriage date is fixed in this event. An "adda" takes place between the families as they consume a traditional Bengali banquet of food, "paan", tea and "mishti". The next event is the "mehndi" (henna) evening also known as the "gaye holud" (turmeric on the body). This is normally followed by the main event, the "walima", hosting thousands of guests. An aqd (vow) takes place, where a contract of marriage ("Kabin nama") and is signed. A "qazi" or "imam" is usually present here and would also recite the "Qur'an" and make "dua" for the couple. The groom is required to pay "mohor" (dowry) to the bride. The "Phirajatra"/"Phirakhaowa" consists of the return of the bride with her husband to her home, which then becomes referred to as "Naiyor", and payesh and milk are served. Other post-marriage ceremonies include the "Bou Bhat" which takes place in the groom's home.


title: Bengalis

text: Arranged marriages are arguably the most common form of marriage among Bengalis and are considered traditional in society. Though polygamy is rarity among Bengalis today, it was historically prevalent among both Muslims and Hindus prior to British colonisation and was a sign of prosperity.


title: Bengalis

text: The contribution of Bengalis to modern science is pathbreaking in the world's context. Qazi Azizul Haque was an inventor who is credited for devising the mathematical basis behind a fingerprint classification system that continued to be used up until the 1990s for criminal investigations. Abdus Suttar Khan invented more than forty different alloys for commercial application in space shuttles, jet engines, train engines and industrial gas turbines. In 2006, Abul Hussam invented the Sono arsenic filter and subsequently became the recipient of the 2007 Grainger challenge Prize for Sustainability. Another biomedical scientist, Parvez Haris, was listed among the top 1% of 100,000 scientists in the world by Stanford University.


title: Bengalis

text: Fazlur Rahman Khan was a structural engineer responsible for making many important advancements in high rise designs. He was the designer of Willis Tower, the tallest building in the world until 1998. Khan's seminal work of developing tall building structural systems are still used today as the starting point when considering design options for tall buildings.


title: Bengalis

text: Jagadish Chandra Bose was a polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, and writer of science fiction who pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the subcontinent. He is considered one of the fathers of radio science, and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He first practicalised the wireless radio transmission but Guglielmo Marconi got recognition for it due to European proximity. Bose also described for the first time that ""plants can respond"", by demonstrating with his crescograph and recording the impulse caused by bromination of plant tissue.


title: Bengalis

text: Satyendra Nath Bose was a physicist, specialising in mathematical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. He is honoured as the namesake of the boson. He made first calculations to initiate Statistical Mechanics. He first hypothesised a "physically tangible" idea of photon. Bose's contemporary was Meghnad Saha, an astrophysicist and politician who contributed to the theorisation of thermal ionization. The Saha ionization equation, which was named after him, is used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars. His work allowed astronomers to accurately relate the spectral classes of stars to their actual temperatures.


title: Bengalis

text: Several Bengali Economists and entrepreneurs have made pioneering contributions in economic theories and practices supporting poverty alleviation. Amartya Sen is an economist and philosopher, who has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economic and social justice, economic theories of famines, decision theory, development economics, public health, and measures of well-being of countries. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 and India's Bharat Ratna in 1999 for his work in welfare economics. Muhammad Yunus is a social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. Abhijit Banerjee is an economist who shared the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".


title: Bengalis

text: Traditional Bengali sports consisted of various martial arts and various racing sports, though the British-introduced sports of cricket and football are now most popular amongst Bengalis.


title: Bengalis

text: Lathi khela (stick-fighting) was historically a method of duelling as a way to protect or take land and others' possessions. The Zamindars of Bengal would hire "lathial"s (trained stick-fighters) as a form of security and a means to forcefully collect tax from tenants. Nationwide "lathi khela" competitions used to take place annually in Kushtia up until 1989, though its practice is now diminishing and being restricted to certain festivals and celebrations. "Chamdi" is a variant of "lathi khela" popular in North Bengal. Kushti (wrestling) is also another popular fighting sport and it has developed regional forms such as "boli khela", which was introduced in 1889 by Zamindar Qadir Bakhsh of Chittagong. A merchant known as Abdul Jabbar Saodagar adapted the sport in 1907 with the intention of cultivating a sport that would prepare Bengalis in fighting against British colonials. In 1972, a popular contact team sport called Kabadi was made the national sport of Bangladesh. It is a regulated version of the rural Hadudu sport which had no fixed rules. The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of Bangladesh was formed in 1973. Butthan, a 20th-century Bengali martial arts invented by Grandmaster Mak Yuree, is now practiced in different parts of the world under the International Butthan Federation.


title: Bengalis

text: The Nouka Baich is a Bengali boat racing competition which takes place during and after the rainy season when much of the land goes under water. The long canoes were referred to as "khel nao" (meaning playing boats) and the use of cymbals to accompany the singing was common. Different types of boats are used in different parts of Bengal. Horse racing was patronised most notably by the Dighapatia Rajas in Natore, and their Chalanbeel Horse Races have continued to take place annually for centuries.


title: Bengalis

text: The oldest native football clubs of Bengal was Mohun Bagan A.C., which was founded in 1889, and Mohammedan SC, founded in 1891. Mohun Bagan's first major victory was in 1911, when the team defeated an English club known as the Yorkshire Regiment to win the IFA Shield. Since then, more and more clubs emerged in West Bengal, such as Mohun Bagan's main rival SC East Bengal, a team of East Bengali Hindus who had migrated to West Bengal following the 1947 Partition of India. The rivalry also portrayed the societal problems at that time as many of the Mohun Bagan fans were Ghotis who hated the East Bengali immigrants, though Hindu. Mohammed Salim of Calcutta became the first South Asian to play for a European football club in 1936. In his two appearances for Celtic F.C., he played the entire matches barefoot and scored several goals. In 2015, Hamza Choudhury became the first Bengali to play in the Premier League and is predicted to be the first British Asian to play for the England national football team.


title: Bengalis

text: Bengalis are very competitive when it comes to board and home games such as Pachisi and its modern counterpart Ludo, as well as Latim, Carrom Board, Chor-Pulish, Kanamachi and Chess. Rani Hamid is one of the most successful chess players in the world, winning championships in Asia and Europe multiple times. Ramnath Biswas was a revolutionary soldier who embarked on three world tours on a bicycle in the 19th century.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and promoting intertribal unity. Even though his efforts to unite Native Americans ended with his death in the War of 1812, he became an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian popular history.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh was born in what is now Ohio, at a time when the far-flung Shawnees were reuniting in their Ohio Country homeland. During his childhood, the Shawnees lost territory to the expanding American colonies in a series of border conflicts. Tecumseh's father was killed in battle against American colonists in 1774. Tecumseh was thereafter mentored by his older brother Cheeseekau, a noted war chief who died fighting Americans in 1792. As a young war leader, Tecumseh joined Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket's armed struggle against further American encroachment, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and with the loss of most of Ohio in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.


title: Tecumseh

text: In 1805, Tecumseh's younger brother Tenskwatawa, who came to be known as the Shawnee Prophet, founded a religious movement that called upon Native Americans to reject European influences and return to a more traditional lifestyle. In 1808, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa established Prophetstown, a village in present-day Indiana, that grew into a large, multi-tribal community. Tecumseh traveled constantly, spreading the Prophet's message and eclipsing his brother in prominence. Tecumseh proclaimed that Native Americans owned their lands in common and urged tribes not to cede more territory unless all agreed. His message alarmed American leaders as well as Native leaders who sought accommodation with the United States. In 1811, when Tecumseh was in the South recruiting allies, Americans under William Henry Harrison defeated Tenskwatawa at the Battle of Tippecanoe and destroyed Prophetstown.


title: Tecumseh

text: In the War of 1812, Tecumseh joined his cause with the British, recruited warriors, and helped capture Detroit in August 1812. The following year he led an unsuccessful campaign against the United States in Ohio and Indiana. When U.S. naval forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, Tecumseh reluctantly retreated with the British into Upper Canada, where American forces engaged them at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, in which Tecumseh was killed. His death caused his confederacy to collapse. The lands he had fought to defend were eventually ceded to the U.S. government. His legacy as one of the most celebrated Native Americans in history grew in the years after his death, although details of his life have often been obscured by mythology.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh was born in Shawnee territory in what is now Xenia, Ohio between 1764 and 1771. The best evidence suggests a birthdate of around March 1768.


title: Tecumseh

text: The Shawnee pronunciation of his name has traditionally been rendered by non-Shawnee sources as "Tecumthé". He was born into the Panther clan of the Kispoko division of the Shawnee tribe. Like most Shawnees, his name indicated his clan: translations of his name from the Shawnee language include "I Cross the Way", and "Shooting Star", references to a meteor associated with the Panther clan.


title: Tecumseh

text: Later stories claimed that Tecumseh was named after a shooting star that appeared at his birth, although his father and most of his siblings, as members of the Panther clan, were named after the same meteor.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh was likely born in the Shawnee town of Chillicothe, in the Scioto River valley, near present-day Chillicothe, Ohio, or in a nearby Kispoko village. Tecumseh's father, Puckeshinwau, was a Shawnee war chief of the Kispoko division. Tecumseh's mother, Methoataaskee, probably belonged to the Pekowi division and the Turtle clan, although some traditions maintain that she was Muscogee. His mother may have been a blood relative of William Weatherford. Tecumseh was the fifth of eight children. His parents met and married in what is now Alabama, where many Shawnees had settled after being driven out of the Ohio Country by the Iroquois in the 17th-century Beaver Wars. Around 1759, Puckeshinwau and Methoataaskee moved to the Ohio Country as part of a Shawnee effort to reunite in their traditional homeland.


title: Tecumseh

text: In 1763, the British Empire laid claim to the Ohio Country following its victory in the French and Indian War. That year,Cheeseekau took part in Pontiac's War, a pan-tribal effort to counter British control of the region. Tecumseh was born in the peaceful decade after Pontiac's War, a time when Puckeshinwau likely became the chief of the Kispoko town on the Scioto. In a 1768 treaty, the Iroquois ceded land south of the Ohio River (including present-day Kentucky) to the British, a region the Shawnee and other tribes used for hunting. Shawnees attempted to organize further resistance against colonial occupation of the region, culminating in the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant, in which Puckeshinwau was killed. After the battle, Shawnees ceded Kentucky to the colonists.


title: Tecumseh

text: When the American Revolutionary War between the British and their American colonies began in 1775, many Shawnees allied themselves with the British, raiding into Kentucky with the aim of driving out American settlers. Tecumseh, too young to fight, was among those forced to relocate in the face of American counterraids. In 1777, his family moved from the Scioto River to a Kispoko town on the Mad River, near present-day Springfield, Ohio. General George Rogers Clark, commander of the Kentucky militia, led a major expedition into Shawnee territory in 1780. Tecumseh may have witnessed the ensuing Battle of Piqua on August 8. After the Shawnees retreated, Clark burned their villages and crops. The Shawnees relocated to the northwest, along the Great Miami River, but Clark returned in 1782 and destroyed those villages as well, forcing the Shawnees to retreat further north, near present-day Bellefontaine, Ohio.


title: Tecumseh

text: After the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the United States claimed the lands north of the Ohio River by right of conquest; Britain had renounced its claims to the area in the Treaty of Paris. In response, Indians convened a great intertribal conference at Lower Sandusky in the summer of 1783. Speakers, most notably Joseph Brant of the Mohawk, argued that Indians must unite to hold onto their lands. They put forth a doctrine that Indian lands were held in common by all tribes, and so no further land should be ceded to the United States without the consent of all the tribes. This idea made a strong impression on Tecumseh, just fifteen years old when he attended the conference. As an adult, he would become such a well-known advocate of this policy that some mistakenly thought it had originated with him. The United States, however, insisted on dealing with the tribes individually, getting each to sign separate land treaties. In January 1786, Moluntha, civil chief of the Mekoche Shawnee division, signed the Treaty of Fort Finney, surrendering most of Ohio to the Americans. Later that year, Moluntha was murdered by a Kentucky militiaman, initiating a new border war.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh, now about eighteen years old, became a warrior under the tutelage of his older brother Cheeseekau, who emerged as a noted war chief. Tecumseh participated in attacks on flatboats traveling down the Ohio River, carrying waves of immigrants into lands the Shawnees had lost. He was disturbed by the sight of prisoners being cruelly treated by the Shawnees, an early indication of his lifelong aversion to torture and cruelty for which he would later be celebrated. In 1788, Tecumseh, Cheeseekau and their family moved westward, relocating near Cape Girardeau, Missouri. They hoped to be free of American settlers, only to find colonists moving there as well, so they did not stay long.


title: Tecumseh

text: In late 1789 or early 1790, Tecumseh traveled south with Cheeseekau to live with the Chickamauga Cherokees near Lookout Mountain in what is now Tennessee. Some Shawnees already lived among the Chickamaugas, who were fierce opponents of U.S. expansion. Cheeseekau led about forty Shawnees in raids against colonists; Tecumseh was presumably among them. During his nearly two years among the Chickamaugas, Tecumseh probably had a daughter with a Cherokee woman; the relationship was brief, and the child remained with her mother.


title: Tecumseh

text: In 1791, Tecumseh returned to the Ohio Country to take part in the Northwest Indian War as a minor leader. The Native confederacy that had been formed to fight the war was led by the Shawnee Blue Jacket, and would provide a model for the confederacy Tecumseh created years later. He led a band of eight followers, including his younger brother Lalawéthika, later known as Tenskwatawa. Tecumseh missed fighting in a major Indian victory (St. Clair's defeat) on November 4 because he was hunting or scouting at the time. The following year he participated in other skirmishes before rejoining Cheeseekau in Tennessee. Tecumseh was with Cheeseekau when he was killed in an unsuccessful attack on Buchanan's Station near Nashville in 1792. Tecumseh probably sought revenge for his brother's death, but the details are unknown.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh returned to the Ohio Country at the end of 1792 and fought in several more skirmishes. In 1794, he fought in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, a bitter defeat for the Indians. The Native confederacy fell apart, especially after Blue Jacket agreed to make peace with the Americans. Tecumseh did not attend the signing of the Treaty of Greenville (1795), in which about two-thirds of Ohio and portions of present-day Indiana were ceded to the United States.


title: Tecumseh

text: By 1796, Tecumseh was both the civil and war chief of a Kispoko band of about 50 warriors and 250 people. His sister Tecumapease was the band's principal female chief. Tecumseh took a wife, Mamate, and had a son, Paukeesaa, born about 1796. Their marriage did not last, and Tecumapease raised Paukeesaa from the age of seven or eight. Tecumseh's band moved to various locations before settling in 1798 close to Delaware Indians, along the White River near present-day Anderson, Indiana, where he lived for the next eight years. He married twice more during this time. His third marriage, to White Wing, lasted until 1807.


title: Tecumseh

text: While Tecumseh lived along the White River, Native Americans in the region were troubled by sickness, alcoholism, poverty, the loss of land, depopulation, and the decline of their traditional way of life. Several religious prophets emerged, each offering explanations and remedies for the crisis. Among these was Tecumseh's younger brother Lalawéthika, a healer in Tecumseh's village. Until this time, Lalawéthika had been regarded as a misfit with little promise. In 1805, he began preaching, drawing upon ideas espoused by earlier prophets, particularly the Delaware prophet Neolin. Lalawéthika urged listeners to reject European influences, stop drinking alcohol, and discard their traditional medicine bags. Tecumseh followed his brother's teachings by eating only Native food, wearing traditional Shawnee clothing, and not drinking alcohol.


title: Tecumseh

text: In 1806, Tecumseh and Lalawéthika, now known as the Shawnee Prophet, established a new town near the ruins of Fort Greenville (present-day Greenville, Ohio), where the 1795 Treaty of Greenville had been signed. The Prophet's message spread widely, attracting visitors and converts from multiple tribes. The brothers hoped to reunite the scattered Shawnees at Greenville, but they were opposed by Black Hoof, a Mekoche chief regarded by Americans as the "principal chief" of the Shawnees. Black Hoof and other leaders around the Shawnee town of Wapakoneta urged Shawnees to accommodate the United States by adopting some American customs, with the goal of creating a Shawnee homeland with secure borders in northern Ohio. The Prophet's movement represented a challenge to the Shawnee chiefs who sat on the tribal council at Wapakoneta. Most Ohio Shawnees followed Black Hoof's path and rejected the Prophet's movement. Important converts who joined the movement at Greenville were Blue Jacket, the famed Shawnee war leader, and Roundhead, who became Tecumseh's close friend and ally.


title: Tecumseh

text: American settlers grew uneasy as Indians flocked to Greenville. In 1806 and 1807, Tecumseh and Blue Jacket traveled to Chillicothe, the capital of the new U.S. state of Ohio, to reassure the governor that Greenville posed no threat. Rumors of war between the United States and Great Britain followed the "Chesapeake" incident of June 1807. To escape the rising tensions, Tecumseh and the Prophet decided to move west to a more secure location, farther from American forts and closer to potential western Indian allies.


title: Tecumseh

text: In 1808, Tecumseh and the Prophet established a village Americans would call Prophetstown, north of present-day Lafayette, Indiana. The Prophet adopted a new name, Tenskwatawa ("The Open Door"), meaning he was the door through which followers could reach salvation. Like Greenville, Prophetstown attracted numerous followers, comprising Shawnees, Potawatomis, Kickapoos, Winnebagos, Sauks, Ottawas, Wyandots, and Iowas, an unprecedented variety of Natives living together. Perhaps 6,000 people settled in the area, making it larger than any American city in the region. Jortner (2011) argues that Prophetstown was effectively an independent city-state.


title: Tecumseh

text: At Prophetstown, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa initially worked to maintain a peaceful coexistence with the United States. A major turning point came in September 1809, when William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, negotiated the Treaty of Fort Wayne, purchasing of land in what is present-day Indiana and Illinois. Although many Indian leaders signed the treaty, others who used the land were deliberately excluded from the negotiations. The treaty created widespread outrage among Indians, and, according to historian John Sugden, "put Tecumseh on the road to war" with the United States.


title: Tecumseh

text: Before the Treaty of Fort Wayne, Tecumseh was relatively unknown to outsiders, who usually referred to him as "the Prophet's brother." Afterwards he emerged as a prominent figure as he built an intertribal confederacy to counter U.S. expansion. In August 1810, Tecumseh met with William Henry Harrison at Vincennes, capital of the Indiana Territory, a standoff that became legendary. Tecumseh demanded that Harrison rescind the Fort Wayne cession, and said he would oppose American settlement on the disputed lands. He said the chiefs who had signed the treaty would be punished, and that he was uniting the tribes to prevent further cessions. Harrison insisted the land had been purchased fairly and that Tecumseh had no right to object because Native Americans did not own land in common. Harrison said he would send Tecumseh's demands to President James Madison, but did not expect the president to accept them. As the meeting concluded, Tecumseh said that if Madison did not rescind the Fort Wayne treaty, "you and I will have to fight it out."


title: Tecumseh

text: After the confrontation with Harrison, Tecumseh traveled widely to build his confederacy. He went westward to recruit allies among the Potawatomis, Winnebagos, Sauks, Foxes, Kickapoos, and Missouri Shawnees. In November 1810, he visited Fort Malden in Upper Canada to ask British officials for assistance in the coming war, but the British were noncommittal, urging restraint. In May 1811, Tecumseh visited Ohio to recruit warriors among the Shawnees, Wyandots, and Senecas. After returning to Prophetstown, he sent a delegation to the Iroquois in New York.


title: Tecumseh

text: In July 1811, Tecumseh again met Harrison at Vincennes. He told the governor he had amassed a confederacy of northern tribes and was heading south to do the same. For the next six months, Tecumseh traveled some in the south and west to recruit allies. The documentary evidence of this journey is fragmentary, and was exaggerated in folklore, but he probably met with Chickasaws, Choctaws, Muscogee, Osages, western Shawnees and Delawares, Iowas, Sauks, Foxes, Sioux, Kickapoos, and Potawatomis. He was aided in his efforts by two extraordinary events: the Great Comet of 1811 and the New Madrid earthquake, which he and other Native Americans interpreted as omens that his confederacy should be supported. Many rejected his overtures, especially in the south, most notably the Choctaws and Chickasaws; his most receptive southern listeners were among the Muscogee. A faction among the Muscogee, who became known as the Red Sticks, responded to Tecumseh's call to arms, contributing to the coming of the Creek War.


title: Tecumseh

text: According to Sugden (1997), Tecumseh had made a "serious mistake" by informing Harrison he would be absent from Prophetstown for an extended time. Harrison wrote that Tecumseh's absence "affords a most favorable opportunity for breaking up his Confederacy." In September 1811, Harrison marched toward Prophetstown with about 1,000 men. In the pre-dawn hours on November 7, warriors from Prophetstown launched a surprise attack on Harrison's camp, initiating the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison's men held their ground, after which the Prophet's warriors withdrew and evacuated Prophetstown. The Americans burned the village the following day and returned to Vincennes.


title: Tecumseh

text: Historians have traditionally viewed the Battle of Tippecanoe as a devastating blow to Tecumseh's confederacy. According to a story recorded by Benjamin Drake ten years after the battle, Tecumseh was furious with Tenskwatawa after the battle and threatened to kill him. Afterwards, it was said, the Prophet played little part in the confederacy's leadership. Modern scholarship has cast doubt on this interpretation. Dowd (1992), Cave (2002), and Jortner (2011) argued that stories of Tenskwatawa's disgrace originated with Harrison's allies and are not supported by other sources. According to this view, the battle was a setback for Tenskwatawa, but he continued to serve as the confederacy's spiritual leader, with Tecumseh as its diplomat and military leader.


title: Tecumseh

text: Harrison hoped his preemptive strike would subdue Tecumseh's confederacy, but a wave of frontier violence erupted after the battle. Native Americans, many who had fought at Tippecanoe, sought revenge, killing as many as 46 Americans. Tecumseh sought to restrain warriors from premature action while preparing the confederacy for future hostilities. By the time the United States declared war on Great Britain in June 1812, as many as 800 warriors had gathered around the rebuilt Prophetstown. Tecumseh's Native American allies throughout the Northwest Territory numbered around 3,500 warriors.


title: Tecumseh

text: In June 1812, Tecumseh arrived at Fort Malden in Amherstburg to join his cause with the British in the War of 1812. The British had few troops and scant resources in the west, so Native allies were essential to the defense of Upper Canada. The British quickly recognized Tecumseh as the most influential of their Indian allies and relied upon him to direct the Native forces. He and his warriors scouted and probed enemy positions as American General William Hull crossed into Canada and threatened to take Fort Malden. On July 25, Tecumseh's warriors skirmished with Americans north of Amherstburg, inflicting the first American fatalities of the war.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh turned his attention to cutting off Hull's supply and communication lines on the U.S. side of the border, south of Detroit. On August 5, he led 25 warriors in two successive ambushes, scattering a far superior force. Tecumseh captured Hull's outgoing mail, which revealed that the general was fearful of being cut off. On August 9, Tecumseh joined with British soldiers at the Battle of Maguaga, successfully thwarting Hull's attempt to reopen his line of communications. Two days later, Hull pulled the last of his men from Amherstburg, ending his attempt to invade Canada.


title: Tecumseh

text: On August 14, Major-General Isaac Brock, British commander of Upper Canada, arrived at Fort Malden and began preparations for attacking Hull at Fort Detroit. Tecumseh, upon hearing of Brock's plans, reportedly turned to his companions and said, "This is a man!" Tecumseh and Brock "formed an immediate friendship that served to cement the alliance." Brock's high esteem for Tecumseh likely contributed to a popular belief that Tecumseh was appointed a brigadier general in the British Army, though this is a myth.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh led about 530 warriors in the Siege of Detroit. According to one account, Tecumseh had his men repeatedly pass through an opening in the woods to create the impression that thousands of Native Americans were outside the fort, a story that may be apocryphal. To almost everyone's astonishment, Hull decided to surrender on August 16.


title: Tecumseh

text: Afterwards, Brock wrote of Tecumseh:He who attracted most of my attention was a Shawnee chief, Tecumset ["sic"], brother to the Prophet, who for the last two years has carried on, contrary to our remonstrances, an active warfare against the United States. A more sagacious or a more gallant warrior does not I believe exist. He was the admiration of every one who conversed with him.


title: Tecumseh

text: Brock likely assured Tecumseh that the British would support Native American land claims. He wrote his superiors that restoration of land "fraudulently usurped" from the Native Americans should be considered in any peace treaty. News of Detroit's capture revived British discussion of creating of an Indian barrier state to ensure the security of Upper Canada. After his short stay in the area, Brock returned to the Niagara frontier, where he was killed in action several weeks later. Meanwhile, the British had negotiated a temporary armistice and called off further offensives. Tecumseh was frustrated by the unexpected British-American armistice, which came at a time when his confederacy was attacking other American forts and needed British support. In September 1812, he and Roundhead led 600 warriors to assist in an attack on Fort Wayne, but the siege failed before they arrived. Another siege against Fort Harrison also failed. Tecumseh stayed in the Prophetstown region for the remainder of 1812, coordinating Native American war efforts.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh returned to Amherstburg in April 1813. Meanwhile, the Americans, having suffered defeat at the Battle of Frenchtown in January 1813, were pushing back toward Detroit under the command of William Henry Harrison. Tecumseh and Roundhead led about 1,200 warriors to Fort Meigs, a recently constructed American fort along the Maumee River in Ohio. The Indians initially saw little action while British forces under General Henry Procter laid siege to the fort. Fighting outside the fort began on May 5 after the arrival of American reinforcements, who attacked the British gun batteries. Tecumseh led an attack on an American sortie from the fort, then crossed the river to help defeat a regiment of Kentucky militia. The British and Native Americans had inflicted heavy casualties on the Americans outside the fort, but failed to capture it. Procter's Canadian militia and many of Tecumseh's warriors left after the battle, so Procter was compelled to lift the siege.


title: Tecumseh

text: One of the most famous incidents in Tecumseh's life occurred after the battle. American prisoners had been taken to the nearby ruins of Fort Miami. When a group of Indians began killing prisoners, Tecumseh rushed in and stopped the slaughter. According to Sugden (1997), "Tecumseh's defense of the American prisoners became a cornerstone of his legend, the ultimate proof of his inherent nobility." Some accounts said Tecumseh rebuked General Procter for failing to protect the prisoners, though this might not have happened.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh and Procter returned to Fort Meigs in July 1813, Tecumseh with 2,501 warriors, the largest contingent he would ever lead. They had little hope of taking the strongly defended fort, but Tecumseh sought to draw the Americans into open battle. He staged a mock battle within earshot of the fort, hoping the Americans would ride out to assist. The ruse failed and the second siege of Fort Meigs was lifted. Procter then led a detachment to attack Fort Stephenson on the Sandusky River, while Tecumseh went west to intercept potential American advances. Procter's attack failed and the expedition returned to Amherstburg.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh hoped further offensives were forthcoming, but after the American naval victory in the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, Procter decided to retreat from Amherstburg. Tecumseh pleaded with Procter to stay and fight: "Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it is his will, we wish to leave our bones upon them." Procter insisted the defense of Amherstburg was untenable now that the Americans controlled Lake Erie, but he promised to make a stand at Chatham, along the Thames River. Tecumseh reluctantly agreed. The British burned Fort Malden and public buildings in Amherstburg, then began the retreat, with William Henry Harrison's army in pursuit.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh arrived at Chatham to find that Procter had retreated even further upriver. Procter sent word that he had chosen to make a stand near Moraviantown. Tecumseh was angered by the change in plans, but he led a rearguard action at Chatham to slow the American advance, and was slightly wounded in the arm. Many of Tecumseh's despairing allies deserted during the retreat, leaving him 500 warriors. Procter and Tecumseh, outnumbered more than three-to-one, faced the Americans at the Battle of the Thames on October 5. Tecumseh positioned his men in a line of trees along the right, hoping to flank the Americans. The left, commanded by Procter, collapsed almost immediately, and Procter fled the battlefield. Colonel Richard Mentor Johnson led the American charge against the Indians. Tecumseh was killed in the fierce fighting, and the Indians dispersed. The Americans had won a decisive victory.


title: Tecumseh

text: After the battle, American soldiers stripped and scalped Tecumseh's body. The next day, when Tecumseh's body had been positively identified, others peeled off some skin as souvenirs. The location of his remains are unknown. The earliest account stated that his body had been taken by Canadians and buried at Sandwich. Later stories said he was buried at the battlefield, or that his body was secretly removed and buried elsewhere. According to another tradition, an Ojibwe named Oshahwahnoo, who had fought at Moraviantown, exhumed Tecumseh's body in the 1860s and buried him on St. Anne Island on the St. Clair River. In 1931, these bones were examined. Tecumseh had broken a thighbone in a riding accident as a youth and thereafter walked with a limp, but neither thigh of this skeleton had been broken. Nevertheless, in 1941 the remains were buried on nearby Walpole Island in a ceremony honoring Tecumseh. St-Denis (2005), in a book-length investigation of the topic, concluded that Tecumseh was likely buried on the battlefield and his remains have been lost.


title: Tecumseh

text: Initial published accounts identified Richard Mentor Johnson as having killed Tecumseh. In 1816, another account claimed a different soldier had fired the fatal shot. The matter became controversial in the 1830s when Johnson was a candidate for Vice President of the United States to Martin Van Buren. Johnson's supporters promoted him as Tecumseh's killer, employing slogans such as "Rumpsey dumpsey, rumpsey dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh." Johnson's opponents collected testimony contradicting this claim; numerous other possibilities were named. Sugden (1985) presented the evidence and argued that Johnson's claim was the strongest, though not conclusive. Johnson became Vice President in 1837, his fame largely based on his claim to have killed Tecumseh.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh's death led to the collapse of his confederacy; except in the southern Creek War, most of his followers did little more fighting. In the negotiations that ended the War of 1812, the British attempted to honor promises made to Tecumseh by insisting upon the creation of a Native American barrier state in the Old Northwest. The Americans refused and the matter was dropped. The Treaty of Ghent (1814) called for Native American lands to be restored to their 1811 boundaries, something the United States had no intention of doing. By the end of the 1830s, the U.S. government had compelled Shawnees still living in Ohio to sign removal treaties and move west of the Mississippi River.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh was widely admired in his lifetime, even by Americans who had fought against him. His primary American foe, William Henry Harrison, described Tecumseh as "one of those uncommon geniuses, which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the established order of things." After his death, he became an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian history. For many Native Americans in the United States and First Nations people in Canada, he became a hero who transcends tribal identity. Tecumseh's stature grew over the decades after his death, often at the expense of Tenskwatawa, whose religious views white writers found alien and unappealing. White writers tended to turn Tecumseh into a "secular" leader who only used his brother's religious movement for political reasons. For many Europeans and white North Americans, he became the foremost example of the "noble savage" stereotype.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh is honored in Canada as a hero who played a major role in Canada's defense in the War of 1812, joining Sir Isaac Brock and Laura Secord as the best-remembered people of that war. John Richardson, an important early Canadian novelist, had served with Tecumseh and idolized him. His 1828 epic poem "Tecumseh; or, The Warrior of the West" was intended to "preserve the memory of one of the noblest and most gallant spirits" in history. Canadian writers such as Charles Mair ("Tecumseh: A Drama", 1886) celebrated Tecumseh as a Canadian patriot, an idea reflected in numerous subsequent biographies written for Canadian school children. The portrayal of Tecumseh as a Canadian patriot has been criticized for obscuring his true aim of protecting Native homelands outside of Canada. Among the many things named for Tecumseh in Canada are the naval reserve unit HMCS "Tecumseh" and Tecumseh, Ontario. In 1931, the Canadian government designated Tecumseh as a person of national historic significance.


title: Tecumseh

text: Tecumseh has long been admired in Germany, especially due to popular novels by Fritz Steuben, beginning with "The Flying Arrow" (1930). Steuben used Tecumseh to promote Nazi ideology, though later editions of his novels removed the Nazi elements. An East German film, "Tecumseh", was released in 1972.


title: Tecumseh

text: In the United States, Tecumseh became a legendary figure, the historical details of his life shrouded in mythology. According to Edmunds (2007), "the real Tecumseh has been overshadowed by a folk hero whose exploits combine the best of fact and fiction." Only in the late 20th century did academic historians begin to unravel fact from fiction. The fictional Tecumseh has been featured in numerous poems, plays, and novels, as well as several movies and outdoor dramas. Examples include George Jones's "Tecumseh; or, The Prophet of the West" (1844 play), Mary Catherine Crowley's "Love Thrives in War" (1903 novel), "Brave Warrior" (1952 film), and Allan W. Eckert's "A Sorrow in Our Hearts: The Life of Tecumseh" (1992 novel). James Alexander Thom's 1989 novel "Panther in the Sky" was made into a TV movie, "Tecumseh: The Last Warrior" (1995). The outdoor drama "Tecumseh!" has been performed near Chillicothe, Ohio, since 1973. Written by Allan Eckert, the story features a fictional, doomed romance between Tecumseh and a white settler woman, an example of the "vanishing Indian" scenario popular with white Americans.


title: Tecumseh

text: William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union general during the American Civil War, who advocated targeting non-combatants and genocide during operations against the Sioux, was named after Tecumseh.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release, "The Unforgettable Fire", the band aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures on "The Joshua Tree". The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and through sociopolitically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery, it contrasts the group's antipathy for the "real America" with their fascination with the "mythical America".


title: The Joshua Tree

text: Inspired by American experiences, literature, and politics, U2 chose America as a theme for the album. Recording began in January 1986 in Ireland, and to foster a relaxed, creative atmosphere, the group primarily recorded in two houses. Several events during the sessions helped shape the conscious tone of the album, including the band's participation in the Conspiracy of Hope benefit concerts for Amnesty International, the death of roadie Greg Carroll, and lead vocalist Bono's travels to Central America. Recording was completed in November 1986; additional production continued into January 1987. Throughout the sessions, U2 sought a "cinematic" quality for the record, one that would evoke a sense of location, in particular, the open spaces of the United States. They represented this in the sleeve photography depicting them in American desert landscapes.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: "The Joshua Tree" received critical acclaim, topped the charts in over 20 countries, and became the fastest-selling album in British history. According to "Rolling Stone", the album increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars". It produced the hit singles "With or Without You", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "Where the Streets Have No Name", the first two of which became the group's only number-one singles in the US. The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988. The group supported the record with the Joshua Tree Tour throughout 1987, during which they began to perform in stadiums for the first time in their career.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: Frequently listed among the greatest albums of all time, "The Joshua Tree" is one of the world's best-selling albums, with over 25 million copies sold. U2 commemorated the record's 20th anniversary with a remastered re-release, and its 30th anniversary with concert tours and a reissue. In 2014, "The Joshua Tree" was selected for preservation in the US National Recording Registry, having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: Prior to "The Joshua Tree", U2 had released four studio albums and were an internationally successful band, particularly as a live act having toured every year in the 1980s. The group's stature and the public's anticipation for a new album grew following their 1984 record "The Unforgettable Fire", their subsequent tour, and their participation in Live Aid in 1985. U2 began writing new material in mid-1985 following the Unforgettable Fire Tour.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: U2's manager Paul McGuinness recounted that "The Joshua Tree" originated from the band's "great romance" with the United States, as the group had toured the country for up to five months per year in the first half of the 1980s. Leading up to the album sessions, lead vocalist Bono read the works of American writers such as Norman Mailer, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Carver so as to understand, in the words of "Hot Press" editor Niall Stokes, "those on the fringes of the promised land, cut off from the American dream". Following a September–October 1985 humanitarian visit to Egypt and Ethiopia with his wife Ali, Bono said: "Spending time in Africa and seeing people in the pits of poverty, I still saw a very strong spirit in the people, a richness of spirit I didn't see when I came home... I saw the spoiled child of the Western world. I started thinking, 'They may have a physical desert, but we've got other kinds of deserts.' And that's what attracted me to the desert as a symbol of some sort."


title: The Joshua Tree

text: After recording vocals for Steven Van Zandt's anti-apartheid project "Sun City" in August 1985, Bono made an additional contribution to the album in October that was inspired by his burgeoning interest in roots music. While in New York, he spent time with musicians Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who played him blues and country music. Bono was embarrassed by his lack of familiarity with the genres, as most of U2's musical knowledge began with punk rock in their youth in the mid-1970s. He realised that U2 "had no tradition" and felt as if they "were from outer space". This inspired him to write the blues-influenced song "Silver and Gold", which he recorded with Richards and Ronnie Wood and convinced Van Zandt to add to "Sun City". Until that time, U2 had been apathetic towards roots music, but after spending time with the Waterboys and fellow Irish band Hothouse Flowers, they felt a sense of indigenous Irish music blending with American folk music. Nascent friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Richards encouraged Bono to look back to rock's roots and to focus on building his skills as a songwriter and lyricist. He explained: "I used to think that writing words was old-fashioned, so I sketched. I wrote words on the microphone. For "The Joshua Tree", I felt the time had come to write words that meant something, out of my experience." Dylan told Bono about his own debt to Irish music, while Bono further demonstrated his interest in music traditions in his duet with Irish Celtic and folk group Clannad on the track "In a Lifetime".


title: The Joshua Tree

text: U2 wanted to build on the textures of "The Unforgettable Fire", but in contrast to that record's often out-of-focus experimentation, they sought a harder-hitting sound within the limitations of conventional song structures. The group referred to this approach as working within the "primary colours" of rock music—guitar, bass, and drums. Guitarist the Edge was more interested in the European atmospherics of "The Unforgettable Fire" and was initially reluctant to follow Bono's lead to seek a more American sound. The Edge was eventually convinced otherwise after discovering blues and country artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell on American public radio stations during the Unforgettable Fire Tour. Despite lacking a consensus on their musical direction, the group members agreed that they felt disconnected from the dominant synthpop and new wave music of the time, and they wanted to continue making music that contrasted with these genres.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: In November 1985, U2 moved into drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s newly purchased home to work on material written during the Unforgettable Fire Tour. This included demos that would evolve into "With or Without You", "Red Hill Mining Town", and "Trip Through Your Wires", as well as a song called "Womanfish". The Edge recalled it as a difficult period with a sense of "going nowhere", although Bono was set on America as a theme for the album. Supplementary recording sessions at STS Studios in Dublin with producer Paul Barrett saw the development of "With or Without You" and the genesis of "Bullet the Blue Sky".


title: The Joshua Tree

text: Based on their success with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois on "The Unforgettable Fire", U2 wanted the duo to produce their new album. Mullen was excited about working with them again, as he felt the pair, Lanois in particular, were the band's first producers who "really [took] an interest in the rhythm section". Mark "Flood" Ellis was selected to be the recording engineer for the sessions, marking the first time he worked with U2. The band were impressed by his work with Nick Cave, and Bono's friend Gavin Friday recommended Flood based on their work experiences together when Friday was a member of the Virgin Prunes. U2 asked Flood for a sound that was "very open... ambient... with a real sense of space of the environment you were in", which he thought was a very unusual request at that time.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: Intending to release an album in late 1986, U2 set up a studio in January of that year in Danesmoate House, a Georgian house in Rathfarnham, Ireland, in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains. The Edge had viewed the residence months prior while househunting with his wife and convinced the owner to rent it to the band. Their plan was to find inspiration from the converted recording space and use it to musically create atmosphere, much like they did with Slane Castle for "The Unforgettable Fire" sessions in 1984.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: A makeshift control room with tape machines, a mixing console, and other outboard equipment was set up in Danesmoate's dining room, with the adjacent drawing room used for recording and performing. The large doors separating the rooms were replaced with a glass screen, and to maintain a relaxed "non-studio" atmosphere for the sessions, the control room was dubbed the "lyric room" and the recording space was called the "band room". Lanois' strategy was to encourage the band members to have their parts worked out in advance and to capture as much of the essence of a live band take as possible, without having the possibility of subsequent overdubbing on which to fall back. This was a change for U2, who previously recorded each instrument separately and then layered them into the mix. To support his approach of having all the band members recording in a room together, Lanois eschewed having them wear headphones in favour of using monitor speakers due to their power; Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton used two each. To aid in sound isolation, gobos were built in the drawing room, although the production staff still faced issues with audio spill from the monitor speakers. Lanois said that due to the setup, "you have to make a commitment to what you put down and either use it or throw it all away." This recording setup was duplicated at subsequent locations during the album sessions.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: U2's initial time at Danesmoate was spent recording and refining "extensive demos" that the Edge anticipated could turn into final backing tracks. They began with their usual songwriting methods of sorting through tapes from soundcheck jams, working through Bono's lyric book, and recording jam sessions. The sessions saw the group's songwriting beginning to evolve; not all material was being worked out as a band, but rather Bono and the Edge often brought basic song ideas to Mullen and Clayton. The group were first joined at Danesmoate by Eno, with Flood and fellow engineer Dave Meegan recording their jams. Meegan said of Eno's involvement: "Usually he was in first every morning and he'd start some dodgy sequence on his DX-7 [synthesiser]—it would be just like a cello line with no intentions of ever staying forever, just something to inspire people when they walked into the room." One of the first songs worked on was "Heartland", which originated during "The Unforgettable Fire" sessions and was later released on the band's 1988 album, "Rattle and Hum". The arrangements for "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" were completed early in the Danesmoate sessions, giving the band the confidence to experiment. Eno and Lanois intentionally worked with the band at alternate times—one producer for a week or two, followed by the other. The producers encouraged an interest in older songs, especially American roots music. More contemporary references included the textural guitar work of the Smiths and My Bloody Valentine. The band's musical vocabulary had improved after their previous album, facilitating communication and collaboration with the production team.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: The band found Danesmoate to have a very creative atmosphere, but according to the Edge, they "just couldn't settle in". The large drawing room, with a tall ceiling and wooden floors, created an "ear-splitting" drum sound that caused issues for the group. Lanois had a higher opinion of the house, saying: "It was loud, but it was really good loud, real dense, very musical. In my opinion it was the most rock and roll room of the lot." According to him, "the Danesmoate sessions were the backbone of the tonality of the record—we got a lot of the drums done in there." He thought that the house sounded better than Slane Castle, and he was particularly impressed with the drawing room's "low mid-range ... where the music lives", a property that he believes was a major factor in the success of "The Joshua Tree".


title: The Joshua Tree

text: Over the course of recording "The Joshua Tree", the band twice paused to participate in benefit concerts. On 17 May 1986, U2 performed at Self Aid in Dublin. Intended to help alleviate Ireland's unemployment crisis by raising funds and job pledges, the event was harshly criticised in the media for taking pressure off the Irish government to resist Margaret Thatcher's economic policies. The band in particular were labelled hypocrites for their participation. Their appearance included a cover of Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm", reinterpreted as a criticism of Thatcher. "Hot Press" Niall Stokes called their performance "the blackest and most ferocious set of their entire career". In June 1986, U2 embarked on the six-show Conspiracy of Hope tour for Amnesty International, halting the album's recording sessions for about two months. Rather than distract the band, the tour invigourated their new music and provided extra focus on what they wanted to say. For Clayton, the tour validated the "rawness of content" and their attempts to capture the "bleakness and greed of America under Ronald Reagan". The band used soundchecks on the tour to test out various guitar compositions they had. Meegan believed that U2's time with the other artists on the tour affected their own sound: "Their musical heroes were bleeding into the music and they weren't embarrassed by it, which gave them a lot of space to work in."


title: The Joshua Tree

text: On 3 July, the band experienced a tragedy when Greg Carroll, their roadie and Bono's personal assistant, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. The 26-year-old's death overwhelmed the U2 organisation, and the band travelled to his native New Zealand to attend his traditional Māori funeral; the experience inspired the lyrics to "One Tree Hill". After the funeral, Bono and his wife visited Nicaragua and El Salvador, where they saw firsthand the distress of peasants affected by political conflicts and US military intervention, experiences which formed the basis of the lyrics for "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared".


title: The Joshua Tree

text: On 1 August 1986, U2 regrouped in Dublin to resume work on the album and begin the recording stage proper. During this more intense phase of the sessions, the group began to work at the Edge's newly purchased house, Melbeach, in seaside Monkstown. Lanois said of Melbeach, "That was less of a rock 'n' roll room but we made it work. I think there were a lot of headaches, isolating people and having to build baffles around the place." The Edge called the house "more sombre" but said it had a "solid unpretentious quality that seemed to hold the energy in". "Mothers of the Disappeared" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" were among the songs that evolved at Melbeach. Lanois said that most of the record was done there, and that it was the preferred location for mixing. Writing and recording alternated between the two houses and Windmill Lane Studios. In late August during Hurricane Charley, U2 were visited at Danesmoate by Robbie Robertson, the former guitarist of the Band. Robertson was in Ireland to complete his self-titled debut solo album that he had begun with Lanois. Together, U2 and Robertson recorded the tracks "Sweet Fire of Love" and "Testimony", both of which appear on Robertson's album.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: As the sessions progressed, U2 attempted to record a suitable take of the song "Where the Streets Have No Name", which began as a demo that the Edge had composed by himself. However, the group struggled with the chord and time signature shifts, forcing significant "screwdriver work" to fix a recorded version of the song. Eno estimated approximately 40% of the time spent on "The Joshua Tree" was dedicated to that song alone. During takes, Lanois used a pointer and a chalkboard to help walk the band through the song's changes. In an attempt to force the group to start anew, Eno intended to "stage an accident" whereby the song's tapes would be erased. According to Flood, engineer Pat McCarthy had to restrain Eno to prevent this from happening. Ultimately, the erasure never occurred. Another aspect of the album that required re-work was Bono's lyrics. The vocalist had another set of lyrics for most of the record, but the other group members were dissatisfied with them, forcing rewrites. Lanois said the production team extensively screened Bono's lyrics and offered suggestions, as many lines did not sound as good when sang against a backing track as they did when written down. Bono's revised lyrics were described as "absolutely stunning" by Meegan, who believed that the insecurity the singer felt from having his work critiqued further motivated him.


title: The Joshua Tree

text: After a creative spurt in October resulted in new song ideas, Bono proposed that the group release a double album. The Edge said: "There would have been two records, depending on which songs we decided to finish. There was this one album, the 'blues' album that Bono was talking about, and another, much more 'European', which is kind of the way I was led." Eno cautioned the group about pursuing the material, telling the Edge: "I know that any one of these new ideas is good enough to make the record, but we have to draw the line somewhere. If we even consider any of them we'll still be here in three months time." U2 relented, shelving the new songs to avoid missing their deadline to complete the album. Recording for "The Joshua Tree" wrapped up in November 1986. Rough mixes had been created throughout the sessions after each song was recorded to, in Lanois' words, take "snapshots along the way ... because sometimes you go too far". The Edge explained that the arrangement and production of each song was approached individually and that while there was a strong uniform direction, they were prepared to "sacrifice some continuity to get the rewards of following each song to a conclusion".


title: The Joshua Tree

text: The final weeks were a frantic rush to finish, with the band and production crew all suffering from exhaustion. Eno and Flood had minimal involvement with the final mixes, as they had other commitments. Facing understaffing, in late December, U2 hired Steve Lillywhite, producer of their first three albums, to remix the potential singles and make them more appealing to commercial radio. His eleventh-hour presence and changes caused discontent among the production crew, including Eno and Lanois. Of the approximately 30 songs that were created during the album's sessions, 11 were selected for the final track listing. Lillywhite mixed four songs with engineer Mark Wallis on an SSL desk at Windmill Lane Studios. At the same time, Lanois, McCarthy, and Meegan mixed seven songs at Melbeach on a 24-track AMEK 2500 mixing desk; all three were required to operate the console due to the lack of mix automation.