Etymology.

The "Oxford English Dictionary" states that the word "clitoris" likely has its origin in the Ancient Greek, "kleitoris", perhaps derived from the verb, "kleiein", "to shut". "Clitoris" is also Greek for the word "key", "indicating that the ancient anatomists considered it the key" to female sexuality. In addition to "key," the "Online Etymology Dictionary" suggests other Greek candidates for the word's etymology include a noun meaning "latch" or "hook"; a verb meaning "to touch or titillate lasciviously", "to tickle" (one German synonym for the clitoris is

Structure.

Development.

In mammals, sexual differentiation is determined by the sperm that carries either an X or a Y (male) chromosome. The Y chromosome contains a sex-determining gene (SRY) that encodes a transcription factor for the protein TDF (testis determining factor) and triggers the creation of testosterone and Anti-Müllerian hormone for the embryo's development into a male. This differentiation begins about eight or nine weeks after conception. Some sources state that it continues until the twelfth week, while others state that it is clearly evident by the thirteenth week and that the sex organs are fully developed by the sixteenth week.  The clitoris develops from a phallic outgrowth in the embryo called the genital tubercle. Initially undifferentiated, the tubercle develops into either a clitoris

Gross anatomy and histology.

General.

The clitoris contains external and internal components. It consists of the glans, the body (which is composed of two erectile structures known as the corpora cavernosa), and two crura ("legs"). It has a hood formed by the labia minora (inner lips). It also has vestibular or clitoral bulbs. The frenulum of clitoris is a frenulum on the under-surface of the glans and is created by the two medial parts of the labia minora. The clitoral body may be referred to as the shaft (or internal shaft), while the length of the clitoris between the glans and the body may also be referred to as the shaft. The shaft supports the glans, and its shape can be seen and felt through the clitoral hood.  Research indicates that clitoral tissue extends into the vagina's anterior wall. Şenaylı et al. said that the histological evaluation of the clitoris,

Glans and body.

Highly innervated, the glans exists at the tip of the clitoral body as a fibro-vascular cap, and is usually the size and shape of a pea, although it is sometimes much larger or smaller. The clitoral glans, or the entire clitoris, is estimated to have about 8,000 sensory nerve endings. Research conflicts on whether or not the glans is composed of erectile or non-erectile tissue. Although the clitoral body becomes engorged with blood upon sexual arousal, erecting the clitoral glans, some sources describe the clitoral glans and labia minora as composed of non-erectile tissue; this is especially the case for the glans.

Hood.

The clitoral hood projects at the front of the labia commissure, where the edges of the labia majora (outer lips) meet at the base of the pubic mound; it is partially formed by fusion of the upper part

Bulbs.

The vestibular bulbs are more closely related to the clitoris than the vestibule because of the similarity of the trabecular and erectile tissue within the clitoris and bulbs, and the absence of trabecular tissue in other genital organs, with the erectile tissue's trabecular nature allowing engorgement and expansion during sexual arousal. The vestibular bulbs are typically described as lying close to the crura on either side of the vaginal opening; internally, they are beneath the labia majora. When engorged with blood, they cuff the vaginal opening and cause the vulva to expand outward. Although a number of texts state that they surround the vaginal opening, Ginger et al. state that this does not appear to be the case and tunica albuginea does not envelop the erectile tissue of the bulbs. In Yang et al.'s assessment of the bulbs' anatomy, they conclude that the bulbs "arch over the distal urethra, outlining what might be appropriately called the 'bulbar urethra' in women."

Homology.

The clitoris and penis are generally the same anatomical structure, although the distal portion (or opening) of the urethra is absent in the clitoris of humans and most other animals. The idea that males have clitorises was suggested in 1987 by researcher Josephine Lowndes Sevely, who theorized that the male corpora cavernosa (a pair of sponge-like regions of erectile tissue which contain most of the blood in the penis during penile erection) are the true counterpart of the clitoris. She argued that "the male clitoris" is directly beneath the rim of

Function.

Sexual activity.

General.

The clitoris has an abundance of nerve endings, and is the human female's most sensitive erogenous zone and generally the primary anatomical source of human female sexual pleasure. When sexually stimulated, it may incite female sexual arousal. Sexual stimulation, including arousal, may result from mental stimulation, foreplay with a sexual partner, or masturbation, and may lead to orgasm. The most effective sexual stimulation of the organ is usually manually or orally (cunnilingus), which is often referred to as direct clitoral stimulation; in cases involving sexual penetration, these activities may also be referred to as additional or assisted clitoral stimulation.  Direct clitoral stimulation involves physical stimulation to the external anatomy of the clitoris – glans, hood and the external shaft. Stimulation of the labia minora

Clitoral and vaginal orgasmic factors.

General statistics indicate that 70–80 percent of women require direct clitoral stimulation (consistent manual, oral or other concentrated friction against the external parts of the clitoris) to reach orgasm. Indirect clitoral stimulation (for example, via vaginal penetration) may also be sufficient for female orgasm. The area near the entrance of the vagina (the lower third) contains nearly 90 percent of the vaginal nerve endings, and there are areas in the anterior vaginal wall and between the top junction of the labia minora and the urethra that are especially sensitive, but intense sexual pleasure, including orgasm, solely from vaginal stimulation is occasional or otherwise absent because the vagina has significantly fewer nerve endings than the clitoris.  Prominent debate over the quantity of vaginal nerve endings began with Alfred Kinsey. Although Sigmund Freud's theory that clitoral orgasms are a prepubertal or adolescent phenomenon and that vaginal (or G-spot) orgasms are something that only physically mature females experience had been criticized before, Kinsey was the first researcher to harshly criticize the theory. Through his observations of female masturbation and interviews with thousands of women, Kinsey found that most of the women he observed and surveyed could not have vaginal orgasms, a finding that was also supported by his knowledge of sex organ anatomy. Scholar Janice M. Irvine stated that he "criticized Freud and other theorists for projecting male constructs of sexuality onto women" and "viewed the clitoris as the main center of sexual response". He considered the vagina to be "relatively unimportant" for sexual satisfaction, relaying that "few women inserted fingers or objects into their vaginas when they masturbated". Believing that vaginal orgasms are "a physiological impossibility" because the vagina has insufficient nerve endings for sexual pleasure or climax, he "concluded that satisfaction from penile penetration [is] mainly psychological or perhaps the result of referred sensation".  Masters and Johnson's research, as well as Shere Hite's, generally supported Kinsey's findings about the female orgasm. Masters and Johnson were the first researchers to determine that the clitoral structures surround and extend along and within the labia. They observed that both clitoral and vaginal orgasms have the same stages of physical response, and found that the majority of their subjects could only achieve clitoral orgasms, while a minority achieved vaginal orgasms. On that basis, they argued that clitoral stimulation is the source of both kinds of orgasms, reasoning that the clitoris is stimulated during penetration by friction against its hood. The research came at the time of the second-wave feminist movement, which inspired feminists to reject the distinction made between clitoral and vaginal orgasms. Feminist Anne Koedt argued that because men "have orgasms essentially by friction with the vagina" and not the clitoral area, this is why women's biology had not been properly analyzed. "Today, with extensive knowledge of anatomy, with [C. Lombard Kelly], Kinsey, and Masters and Johnson, to mention just a few sources, there is no ignorance on the subject [of the female orgasm]," she stated in her 1970 article "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm." She added, "There are, however, social reasons why this knowledge has not been popularized. We are living in a male society which has not sought change in women's role."  Supporting an anatomical relationship between the clitoris and vagina is a study published in 2005, which investigated the size of the clitoris;

Vestigiality, adaptionist and reproductive views.

Whether the clitoris is vestigial, an adaptation, or serves a reproductive function has also been debated. Geoffrey Miller stated that Helen Fisher, Meredith Small and Sarah Blaffer Hrdy "have viewed the clitoral orgasm as a legitimate adaptation in its own right, with major implications for female sexual behavior and sexual evolution". Like Lynn Margulis and Natalie Angier, Miller believes, "The human clitoris shows no apparent signs of having evolved directly through male mate choice. It is not especially large, brightly colored, specifically shaped or selectively displayed during courtship." He contrasts this with other female species

Clinical significance.

Modification.

Modifications to the clitoris can be intentional or unintentional. They include female genital mutilation (FGM), sex reassignment surgery (for trans men as part transitioning, which may also include clitoris enlargement), intersex surgery, and genital piercings. Use of anabolic steroids by bodybuilders and other athletes can result in significant enlargement of the clitoris in concert with other masculinizing effects on their bodies. Abnormal enlargement of the clitoris may also be referred to as "clitoromegaly", but clitoromegaly is more commonly seen as a congenital anomaly of the genitalia.  Those taking hormones or other medications as part of a transgender transition usually experience dramatic clitoral growth; individual desires and the difficulties of phalloplasty (construction of a penis) often result in

Sexual disorders.

Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) results in a spontaneous, persistent, and uncontrollable genital arousal in women, unrelated to any feelings of sexual desire. Clitoral priapism, also known as clitorism, is a rare, potentially painful medical condition and is sometimes described as an aspect of PGAD. With PGAD, arousal lasts for an unusually extended period of time (ranging from hours to days); it can also be associated with morphometric and vascular modifications of the clitoris.  Drugs may cause or affect clitoral priapism. The drug trazodone is known to

Society and culture.

Ancient Greek–16th century knowledge and vernacular.

With regard to historical and modern perceptions of the clitoris, the clitoris and the penis were considered equivalent by scholars for more than 2,500 years in all respects except their arrangement. Due to it being frequently omitted from, or misrepresented, in historical and contemporary anatomical texts, it was also subject to a continual cycle of male scholars claiming to have discovered it. The ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, and Greek and Roman generations up to and throughout the Renaissance, were aware that male and female sex organs are anatomically similar, but prominent anatomists such as Galen (129 – c. 200 AD) and Vesalius (1514–1564) regarded the vagina as the structural equivalent of the penis, except for being inverted; Vesalius argued against the existence of the clitoris in normal women, and his anatomical model described how the penis corresponds with the vagina, without a role for the clitoris.

17th century–present day knowledge and vernacular.

Caspar Bartholin, a 17th-century Danish anatomist, dismissed Colombo's and Falloppio's claims that they discovered the clitoris, arguing that the clitoris had been widely known to medical science since the second century. Although 17th-century midwives recommended to men and women that women should aspire to achieve orgasms to help them get pregnant for general health and well-being and to keep their relationships healthy, debate about the importance of the clitoris persisted, notably in the work of Regnier de Graaf in the 17th century and Georg Ludwig Kobelt in the 19th.  Like Falloppio and Bartholin, De Graaf criticized Colombo's claim of having discovered the clitoris; his work appears to have provided the first comprehensive account of clitoral anatomy. "We are extremely surprised that some anatomists make no more mention of this part than if it did not exist at all in the universe of nature," he stated. "In every cadaver we have so far dissected we have found it quite perceptible to sight and touch." De Graaf stressed the need to distinguish "nympha" from "clitoris", choosing to "always give [the clitoris] the name clitoris" to

Contemporary art.

In 2012, New York artist Sophia Wallace started work on a multimedia project to challenge misconceptions about the clitoris. Based on O'Connell's 1998 research, Wallace's work emphasizes the sheer scope and size of the human clitoris. She says that ignorance of this still seems to be pervasive in modern society. "It is a curious dilemma to observe the paradox that on the one hand the female body is the primary metaphor for sexuality, its use saturates advertising, art and the mainstream erotic imaginary," she said. "Yet, the clitoris, the true female sexual organ, is virtually invisible." The project is called "Cliteracy" and it includes a "clit rodeo", which is an interactive, climb-on model of a giant golden clitoris, including its

Influence on female genital mutilation.

Significant controversy surrounds female genital mutilation (FGM), with the World Health Organization (WHO) being one of many health organizations that have campaigned against the procedures on behalf of human rights, stating that "FGM has no health benefits" and that it is "a violation of the human rights of girls and women" and "reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes". The practice has existed at one point or another in almost all human civilizations, most commonly to exert control over the sexual behavior, including masturbation, of girls and women, but also to change the clitoris's appearance. Custom and tradition are the most frequently cited reasons for FGM, with some cultures believing that not performing it has the possibility of disrupting the cohesiveness of their social and political systems, such as FGM also being a part of a girl's initiation into adulthood. Often, a girl is not considered an adult in a FGM-practicing society

Other animals.

General.

Although the clitoris exists in all mammal species, few detailed studies of the anatomy of the clitoris in non-humans exist. The clitoris is especially developed in fossas, apes, lemurs, moles, and, like the penis in many non-human placental mammals, often contains a small bone. In females, this bone is known as the os clitoridis. The clitoris exists in turtles, ostriches, crocodiles, and in species of birds in

Non-human primates.

In spider monkeys, the clitoris is especially developed and has an interior passage, or urethra, that makes it almost identical to the penis, and it retains and distributes urine droplets as the female spider monkey moves around. Scholar Alan F. Dixson stated that this urine "is voided at the bases of the clitoris, flows down the shallow groove on its perineal surface, and is held by the skin folds on each side of the groove". Because spider monkeys of South America have pendulous and erectile clitorises long enough to be mistaken for a penis, researchers and observers of the species look for a scrotum to determine the animal's sex; a similar approach is to identify scent-marking glands that may also be present on the clitoris.  The clitoris erects in squirrel monkeys during dominance displays, which indirectly influences the squirrel monkeys' reproductive success.  The clitoris of bonobos is larger and more externalized than in most mammals; Natalie Angier said that a young adolescent "female bonobo is maybe half the weight of a human teenager, but her clitoris is three times bigger than the human equivalent, and visible enough to waggle unmistakably as she walks". Female bonobos often engage in the practice of genital-genital (GG) rubbing, which is

Spotted hyenas.

While female spotted hyenas are sometimes referred to as hermaphrodites or as intersex, and scientists of ancient and later historical times believed that they were hermaphrodites, modern scientists do not refer to them as such. That designation is typically reserved for those who simultaneously exhibit features of both sexes; the genetic makeup of female spotted hyenas "are clearly distinct" from male spotted hyenas.  Female spotted hyenas have a clitoris 90 percent as long and the same diameter as a male penis (171 millimeters long and 22 millimeters in diameter), and this pseudo-penis's formation seems largely androgen-independent because it appears in the female fetus before differentiation of the fetal ovary and adrenal gland. The spotted hyenas have a highly erectile clitoris, complete with a false scrotum; author John C. Wingfield stated that "the resemblance to male genitalia is so close that sex can be determined with confidence only by palpation of the scrotum". The pseudo-penis can also be distinguished from the males' genitalia by its greater thickness and more rounded glans. The female possesses no external vagina, as the labia are fused to form a pseudo-scrotum. In the females, this scrotum consists of soft adipose tissue. Like male spotted hyenas with regard to their penises, the female spotted hyenas have small penile spines on the head of their clitorises, which scholar Catherine Blackledge said makes "the clitoris tip feel like soft sandpaper". She added that the clitoris "extends away from the body in a sleek and slender arc, measuring, on average, over 17 cm from root to tip. Just like a penis, [it] is fully erectile, raising its head in hyena greeting ceremonies, social displays, games of rough and tumble or when sniffing out peers".  Due to their higher levels of androgen exposure during fetal development, the female

Moles.

Many species of Talpid moles exhibit peniform clitorises that are tunneled by the urethra and are found to have erectile tissue, most notably species from the "Talpa" genus found in Europe. Unique to this clade are the presence of ovotestes, wherein the female ovary also is mostly made up of sterile testicular tissue that secretes testosterone with only a small portion of the gonad containing ovarian tissue. Genetic studies have revealed that females have an XX genotype and do not have any translocated Y-linked genes. Detailed developmental studies of "Talpa occidentalis" have revealed that the female gonads

Cats, sheep and mice.

Researchers studying the peripheral and central afferent pathways from the feline clitoris concluded that "afferent neurons projecting to the clitoris of the cat were identified by WGA-HRP tracing in the S1 and S2 dorsal root ganglia. An average of 433 cells were identified on each side of the animal. 85 percent and 15 percent of the labeled cells were located in the S1 and S2 dorsal root ganglia, respectively. The average cross sectional area of clitoral afferent neuron profiles was 1.479±627 μm2." They also stated that light "constant pressure on the clitoris produced an initial burst of single unit firing (maximum frequencies 170–255 Hz) followed by rapid adaptation and a sustained firing (maximum 40 Hz), which was maintained during the stimulation" and that further examination of tonic firing "indicate that the

The clitoris ( or ) is a female sex organ present in mammals, ostriches and a limited number of other animals. In humans, the visible portion – the glans – is at the front junction of the labia minora (inner lips), above the opening of the urethra. Unlike the penis, the male homologue (equivalent) to the clitoris, it usually does not contain the distal portion (or opening) of the urethra and is therefore not used for urination. The clitoris also usually lacks a reproductive function. While few animals urinate through the clitoris or use it reproductively, the spotted hyena, which has an especially large clitoris, urinates, mates, and gives birth via the organ. Some other mammals, such as lemurs and spider monkeys, also have a large clitoris.

阴蒂(英语:Clitoris,又称阴核),是一个位于哺乳类和鸵鸟等动物身上的雌性性器官。人类阴蒂的肉眼可见部分(阴蒂头)形似按钮,且位于小阴唇前方会合处附近、尿道口之上。阴蒂不像同源的阴茎般包含用以排尿的尿道末端构造,且其一般没有生殖上的功能;不过少数动物能透过阴蒂排尿或辅助生殖——斑点鬣狗便是其中之一,其阴蒂相对较大,且能透过其来排尿、交配和分娩。像狐猴和蜘蛛猴般的哺乳动物的阴蒂亦相对较大。


Etymology.

There are many opinions among different investigators, as to the origin of the word "Karbala". Some have pointed out that "Karbala" has a connection to the "Karbalato" language, while others attempt to derive the meaning of word "Karbala" by analyzing its spelling and language. They conclude that it originates from the Arabic word "Kar Babel" which was a group of ancient Babylonian villages that included Nainawa, Al-Ghadiriyya, Karbella (Karb Illu. as in Arba Illu [Arbil]), Al-Nawaweess, and Al-Heer. This last name is today known as Al-Hair and is where Husayn ibn Ali's grave is located.  The investigator Yaqut al-Hamawi had pointed out that the meaning of "Karbala" could have several explanations, one of which is that the place where Husayn ibn Ali was martyred is made of soft earth—"Al-Karbalat".  According to Shi'ite belief, the archangel Gabriel narrated the true meaning of the name "Karbalā’" to Muhammad: a combination of "karb" (, the land which will cause many agonies) and "balā’" (, afflictions)."

Climate.

Karbala experiences a hot desert climate ("BWh" in the Koeppen climate classification) with extremely hot, long, dry summers and mild winters. Almost all of the yearly precipitation is received between November and April, though no month is wet.

History.

Battle of Karbala.

The Battle of Karbala was fought on the bare deserts on the way to Kufa on October 10, 680 (10 Muharram 61 AH). Both Husayn ibn Ali and his brother Abbas ibn Ali were buried by the local Banī Asad tribe, at what later became known as the "Mashhad Al-Husayn". The battle itself occurred as a result of Husain's refusal of Yazid I's demand for allegiance to his caliphate. The Kufan governor, Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad, sent thirty thousand horsemen against Husayn as he traveled to Kufa. The horsemen, under 'Umar ibn Sa'd, were ordered to deny Husayn and his followers water in order to force Husayn to agree to give an oath of allegiance. On the 9th of Muharram, Husayn refused, and asked to be given the night to pray. On 10 Muharram, Husayn ibn Ali prayed the morning prayer and led his troops into battle along with his brother Abbas. Many of Husayn's followers, including all of his present sons Ali Akbar, Ali Asghar (six months old) and his nephews Qassim, Aun and Muhammad were killed.  In 63 AH (682 ), Yazid ibn Mu'awiya released the surviving members of Husayn's family from prison. On their way to Mecca, they stopped at the site of the battle. There is record of Sulayman ibn Surad going on pilgrimage to the site as early as 65 AH (685 CE). The city began as a tomb and shrine to Husayn and grew as a city in order to meet the needs of pilgrims. The city and tombs were greatly expanded by successive Muslim rulers, but suffered repeated destruction from attacking armies. The original shrine was destroyed by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil in 850 but was rebuilt in its present form around 979, only to be partly destroyed by fire in 1086 and rebuilt yet again.

Early modern.

Like Najaf, the city suffered from severe water shortages that were only resolved in the early 18th century by building a dam at the head of the Husayniyya Canal. In 1737, the city replaced Isfahan in Iran as the main centre of Shia scholarship. In the mid-eighteenth century it was dominated by the dean of scholarship, Yusuf Al Bahrani, a key proponent of the Akhbari tradition of Shia thought, until his death in 1772, after which the more state-centric Usuli school became more influential.  The Wahhabi sack of Karbala occurred in 21 April 1802 (1216 Hijri) (1801), under the rule of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad the second ruler of the First Saudi State, when 12,000 Wahhabi Muslims from Najd attacked the city of Karbala. The attack was coincident with the anniversary of Ghadir Khum event, or 10 Muharram. This fight left 3,000–5,000 deaths and the dome of the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali bin Abi Talib, was destroyed. The fight lasted for 8 hours.  After the First Saudi State invasion, the city enjoyed semi-autonomy during Ottoman rule, governed by a group of gangs and mafia variously allied with members of the 'ulama. In order to reassert their authority, the Ottoman army laid siege to the city. On January 13, 1843 Ottoman troops entered the city. Many of the city leaders fled leaving defense of the city largely to tradespeople. About 3,000 Arabs were killed in the city, and another 2,000 outside the walls (this represented about 15% of the city's normal population). The Turks lost 400 men. This prompted many students and scholars to move to Najaf, which became the main Shia religious centre. Between 1850 and 1903, Karbala enjoyed a generous influx of money through the Oudh Bequest. The Shia-ruled Indian Province of Awadh, known by the British as Oudh, had always sent money and pilgrims to the holy city. The Oudh money, 10 million rupees, originated in 1825 from the Awadh Nawab Ghazi-ud-Din Haider. One third was to go to his wives, and the other two-thirds went to holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. When his wives died in 1850, the money piled up with interest in the hands of the British East India Company. The EIC sent the money to Karbala and Najaf per the wives' wishes, in the hopes of influencing the Ulama in Britain's favor. This effort to curry favor is generally considered to have been a failure.  In 1915, Karbala was the scene of an uprising against the Ottoman Empire.  Defense of the City Hall in Karbala - a series of skirmishes fought from April 3 to April 6, 2004 between the Iraqi rebels of the Mahdi Army trying to conquer the city hall (in the memories of Polish soldiers referred to as City Hall) in the center of Karbala, and the defending Polish and Bulgarian soldiers Multinational Division Center-South.  In 2003 following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Karbala town council attempted to elected United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lopez as Mayor. Ostensibly so that his marines, contractors, and funds couldn't leave.  On April 14, 2007, a car bomb exploded about from the shrine, killing 47 and wounding over 150.  On January 19, 2008, 2 million Iraqi Shia pilgrims marched through Karbala city, Iraq to commemorate Ashura. 20,000 Iraqi troops and police guarded the event amid tensions due to clashes between Iraqi troops and Shia which left 263 people dead (in Basra and Nasiriya).

Religious tourism.

Karbala, alongside Najaf, is considered a thriving tourist destination for Shia Muslims and the tourism industry in the city boomed after the end of Saddam Hussein's rule. Some religious tourism attractions include:

Airports.

Airports in Karbala include:

Religious beliefs.

Mesopotamia in the Quran.

Some Shi'ites consider this verse of the Quran to refer to Iraq, land of the Shi'ite sacred sites of Kufah, Najaf, Karbala, Kadhimiyyah and Samarra, since the Monotheistic preachers Ibrāhīm (Abraham) and Lūṭ (Lot), who are regarded as Prophets in Islam, are believed to have lived in the ancient Iraqi city of Kutha Rabba, before going to "The Blessed Land".  Aside from the story of Abraham and Lot in Polytheistic Mesopotamia, there are passages in the Quran about Mount Judi, Babil ("Babylon") and "Qaryat Yunus" ("Town of Jonah").

Hadith.

There are many Shia traditions which narrate the status of Karbala:  Thus the tomb of the martyred Imam has acquired this great significance in Shi'ite tradition because the Imam and his fellow martyrs are seen as models of jihad in the way of God. Shi'ites believe that Karbala is one of the holiest places on Earth according to the following traditions (among others):

Culture.

Sports.

Karbalaa FC is a football club based in Karbala.

Media.

There are many references in books in films to "Karbala", generally referring to Husayn's death at the Battle of Karbala. Husayn is often depicted on a white horse impaled by arrows. There are films and documentaries about the events of Karbala in both animated and realistic form (see external links "Karbala: When the Skies Wept Blood"; "Safar-e-Karbala").  Video footage of the actual city exists in a British documentary entitled "Saddam's Killing Fields." The documentary shows the March 1991 destruction of the city by Saddam's army through the video camera of two brothers who lived in the city.

University.

Hawza are the Islamic education institutions that are run collectively by mujtahid or Allamas to teach Shia Muslims and guide them through the rigorous journey of becoming and Alim. In terms of the hawaz in Karbala, After the death of a renowned Alama, the Sayyid Muhammad, the leadership in terms of teacher shifted to taqlid to mujtahid. This was a significant factor that lead to the leadership of Ulama to reside in Karbala and as well as Najaf. Initially Karbala's hawza (Islamic education institution) consisted mostly of Iranians and Turkish Ulama. After the death of Sharif-ul-Ulama Mazandarani in 1830 and the repression of the shia population by the Ottomans in 1843 both played an important role in the relocation of many Ulamas and thus Najaf becoming the center of Shia Islamic leadership in education.  As of now, there are two universities in Karbala. University of Karbala, which was inaugurated on March 1, 2002, is one of the top most universities in Iraq regarding academic administration, human resources, and scientific research. The Ahl Al Bayt University was founded in September 2003 by Dr. Mohsen Baqir Mohammed-Salih Al-Qazwini. The university has six major colleges: College of Law, Arts, Islamic Sciences, Medical & Health Technology, Pharmacy and Dentistry.  Warith al-Anbiya University in Karbala, has recently been established under a project of Husayn Holy Shrine, having the faculties of engineering, administration, economics, law and pathology, which is ready to receive students for the first academic year 2017–2018.

Indian subcontinent.

In the Indian subcontinent, "Karbala", apart from meaning the city of Karbala (which is usually referred to as "Karbala-e-Mualla" meaning Karbala the exalted), also means local grounds where commemorative processions end and/or "ta'zīya" are buried during Ashura or Arba'een, usually such grounds will have "shabeeh" (copy) of "Rauza" or some other structures.  In South Asia where "ta'zīya" refer to specifically to the miniature mausoleums used in processions held in Muharram. It all started from the fact that the great distance of India from Karbala prevented Indian Shi'is being buried near the tomb of Husayn or making frequent pilgrimages (ziyarat) to the tomb. This is the reason why Indian Shi'is established local karbalas on the subcontinent by bringing soil from Karbala and sprinkling it on lots designated as future cemeteries. Once the karbalas were established on the subcontinent, the next step was to bring Husayn's tomb-shrine to India. This was established by building replicas of Husayn's mausoleum called "ta'zīya" to be carried in Muharram processions. Thousands of "ta'zīyas" in various shapes and sizes are made every year for the months of mourning of Muharram and Safar; and are carried in processions and may be buried at the end of Ashura or Arbain.

Karbala or Kerbala (,, ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few dozen miles east of Lake Milh. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 700,000 people (2015).

卡尔巴拉()是伊拉克的城市,位于首都巴格达西南100公里,座标,是卡尔巴拉省的首府,2003年人口572,300,是什叶派的圣城之一,地位仅在麦加、麦地那和纳杰夫之后。卡尔巴拉是伊拉克最富有的城市之一,经济收入来自朝觐的游客和农产品,城市划分为宗教中心的旧城区和住宅区的新城区,城内有超过100所清真寺和23间宗教学校。


Terminology.

The term "gas station" is widely used in the United States, Canada and the Anglophone Caribbean, where the fuel is known as "gasoline" or "gas" as in "gas pump". In some regions of Canada, the term "gas bar" is used. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, mainly in the Commonwealth, the fuel is known as "petrol", and the term "petrol

History.

The first filling station was the city pharmacy in Wiesloch, Germany, where Bertha Benz refilled the tank of the first automobile on its maiden trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim back in 1888. Shortly thereafter other pharmacies sold gasoline as a side business. Since 2008 the Bertha Benz Memorial Route commemorates this event.

Brazil.

The first "posto de gasolina" of South America was opened in Santos, Brazil, in 1920. It was located on Ana

United States.

The increase in automobile ownership after Henry Ford started to sell automobiles that the middle class could afford resulted in an increased demand for filling stations. The world's first purpose-built gas station was constructed in St. Louis, Missouri in 1905 at 420 South Theresa Avenue. The second gas station was constructed in 1907 by Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) in Seattle, Washington, at what is now Pier 32. Reighard's Gas Station in Altoona, Pennsylvania, claims that it dates from 1909 and is the oldest existing gas station in the United States.

Russia.

In Russia, the first filling stations appeared in 1911, when the Imperial Automobile Society signed an agreement with the partnership "Br. Nobel". By 1914 about 440 filling stations functioned in major cities across the country.  In the mid-1960s in Moscow there were about 250 stations. A significant boost in retail network development occurred with the

Design and function.

Most filling stations are built in a similar manner, with most of the fueling installation underground, pump machines in the forecourt and a point of service inside a building. Single or multiple fuel tanks are usually deployed underground. Local regulations and environmental concerns may require a different method, with some stations storing their fuel in container tanks, entrenched surface tanks or unprotected fuel tanks deployed on the surface. Fuel is usually offloaded from a tanker truck into the tanks through a separate valve, located on the filling station's perimeter. Fuel from the tanks travels to the dispenser pumps through underground pipes. For every fuel tank, direct access must be available at all times. Most tanks can be accessed through a service canal directly from the forecourt.  Older stations tend to use a separate pipe for every kind of available fuel and for every dispenser. Newer stations may employ a single pipe for every dispenser. This pipe houses a number of smaller pipes for the individual fuel types. Fuel tanks, dispenser and nozzles used to fill car tanks employ vapor recovery systems, which prevents releases of vapor into the atmosphere with a system of pipes. The exhausts are placed as high as possible. A vapor recovery system may be employed at the exhaust pipe. This system collects the vapors, liquifies them and releases them back into the lowest grade fuel tank available.  The forecourt is the part of a filling station where vehicles are refueled. Fuel dispensers are placed on concrete plinths, as a precautionary measure against collision by motor vehicles. Additional elements may be employed, including metal barriers. The area around the fuel dispensers must have a drainage system. Since fuel sometimes spills on the ground, as little of it as possible should penetrate the soil. Any liquids present on the forecourt will flow into a channel drain before it enters a petrol interceptor which is designed to capture any hydrocarbon pollutants and filter these from rainwater which may then proceed to a foul sewer, stormwater drain or to ground.  If a filling station allows customers to pay at the register, the data from the dispensers may be transmitted via RS232, RS485 or Ethernet to the point of sale, usually inside the filling station's building, and fed into the station's cash register operating system. The cash register system gives a limited control over the fuel dispenser, and is usually limited to allowing the clerks to turn the pumps on and off. A separate system is used to monitor the fuel tank's status and quantities of fuel. With sensors directly in the fuel tank, the data is fed to a terminal in the back room, where it can be downloaded or printed out. Sometimes this method is bypassed, with the fuel tank data transmitted directly into an external database.

Marketing.

North America.

In the United States and Canada, there are generally two marketing types of filling stations: premium brands and discount brands.

Premium brands.

Filling stations with "premium brands" sell well-recognized and often international brands of gasoline, including Exxon and its Esso brand, Phillips 66/Conoco/76, Chevron, Mobil, Shell, Husky Energy, Sunoco (US), BP, Valero and Texaco. Non-international premium brands include Petrobras, Petro-Canada (owned by Suncor Energy Canada), QuikTrip, Hess, Sinclair, and Pemex. Premium

Discount brands.

Discount brands are often smaller, regional chains or independent stations, offering lower prices on gasoline. Most purchase wholesale commodity gasoline from independent suppliers or from the major petroleum companies. Lower-priced gas stations are also found at some supermarkets (Albertsons, Kroger, Ingles, Lowes Foods, Giant, Weis Markets, Safeway, Hy-Vee, Vons, Meijer, Loblaws/Real Canadian Superstore, and Giant Eagle), convenience stores (7-Eleven, Circle K, Cumberland Farms, Quick Chek, Road Ranger, Sheetz and Wawa), discount stores (Walmart, Canadian Tire) and warehouse clubs (Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's

State-controlled stations.

Some countries have only one brand of filling station. In Mexico, where the oil industry is state-owned and prices are regulated, the country's main operator of filling stations is Pemex. In Malaysia,

Global and local branding.

Some companies, such as Shell, use their brand worldwide, however, Chevron uses its inherited brand Caltex in Asia Pacific, Australia and Africa, and its Texaco brand in Europe and Latin America. ExxonMobil uses its Exxon and Mobil brands but is still known as Esso (the forerunner company name, Standard Oil or S.O.) in many places, most noticeably in Canada. In Brazil, the main operators are Petrobras Distribuidora and Ipiranga, but Esso and Shell are also present. In the United Kingdom,

Payment methods.

Canada.

In British Columbia and Alberta, it is a legal requirement that customers either pre-pay for the fuel or pay at the pump. The law is called "Grant's Law" and is

Ireland.

In the Republic of Ireland, most filling stations

Australia and New Zealand.

Most service stations allow the customer to pump the fuel before paying; this is particularly the case in the smaller towns and cities in ANZ. In recent years, some service stations have required customers to purchase their fuel first. It is quite common for customers to hand the cash

United Kingdom.

A large majority of stations allow customers to pay with a chip and pin payment

United States.

Pre-payment is the norm in the US and customers may typically pay either at the pump or inside the gas station. Modern gas stations have pay-at-the-pump functions: in

Types of service.

Filling stations typically offer one of three types of service to their customers: full service, minimum service or self-service.

Brazil.

In Brazil, self-service fuel filling is illegal, due to a federal law enacted in

Japan.

Before 1998, filling stations in Japan were entirely full-service stations. Self-service filling stations were legalised in Japan in 1998 following the abolishment of the Special Petroleum Law, which led to the deregulation of

United States and Canada.

In the past, filling stations in the United States offered a choice between "full service" and "self service". Before 1970, full service was the norm, and self-service was rare. Today, few stations advertise or provide full service. Full service stations are more common in wealthy and upscale areas. The cost of full service is usually assessed as a fixed amount per US gallon.  The first self-service station in the United States was in Los Angeles, opened in 1947 by Frank Urich. In Canada, the first self-service station opened in

Other goods and services commonly available.

Many stations provide toilet facilities for customer use, as well as squeegees and paper towels for customers to clean their vehicle's windows. Discount stations may not provide these amenities in some countries.  Stations typically have an air compressor, typically with a built-in or provided handheld tire-pressure gauge, to inflate tires and a hose to add water to vehicle radiators. Some air compressor machines are free of charge, while others charge a small fee to use (typically 50 cents to a dollar in North America). In US states, such as California, state law requires that paying customers must be provided with free air compressor service and radiator water.  Many filling stations have integrated convenience stores which sell food, beverages, and often cigarettes, lottery tickets, motor oil, and auto parts. Prices for these items tend

Fuel prices.

Europe.

In European Union member states, petrol prices are much higher than in North America due to higher fuel excise or taxation, although the base price is also higher than in the US. Occasionally, price rises trigger national protests. In the UK, a large-scale protest in August and September 2000, known as 'The Fuel Crisis', caused wide-scale havoc not only across the UK, but also in some other EU countries. The UK Government eventually backed down by indefinitely postponing a planned increase in fuel duty. This was partially reversed during December 2006 when then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown raised fuel duty by 1.25 pence per litre.  Since 2007, petrol prices in the UK rose by nearly

North America.

Nearly all filling stations in North America advertise their prices on large signs outside the stations. Some locations have laws requiring such signage.  In Canada and the United States, federal, state or provincial, and local sales taxes are usually included in the price, although tax details are often posted at the pump and some stations may provide details on sales receipts. Gas taxes are often ring-fenced (dedicated) to fund transportation projects such as the maintenance of existing roads and the

Rest of the world.

In other energy-importing countries such as Japan, gasoline and petroleum product prices are higher than in the United States because of fuel transportation costs and taxes.  On the other hand, some of the major oil-producing countries such as the Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, and Venezuela provide subsidized fuel at well-below world market prices. This practice tends

Service stations.

A service station or "servo" is the terminology predominantly used in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, a "servo" is commonly used to describe any facility where motorists can refuel their cars.  In New Zealand a filling station is often referred to as a service station, garage, or petrol station, even though the filling station may not offer mechanical repairs or assistance with dispensing fuel. Levels of service available include full service, for which assistance in dispensing fuel is offered, as well as offers to check tyre pressure or clean vehicle windscreens. This type of service is becoming uncommon in New Zealand, particularly Auckland. Further south of Auckland, many filling stations offer full service. There is also help service or assisted service, for which customers must request assistance before it is given, and

Highway service centre.

This arrangement occurs on many toll roads and some interstate freeways and is called an oasis or service plaza. In many cases, these centres might have a food court or restaurants. In the United Kingdom and Ireland these are called Motorway service areas.  Often, the state government maintains public rest areas directly connected to freeways, but does not rent out space to private businesses, as this is specifically prohibited by law via the Interstate Highway Act of 1956 which created the national Interstate Highway System, except sites on freeways built before January 1, 1960, and toll highways that are self-supporting but have Interstate designation, under a grandfather clause. As a result, such areas often provide only minimal services such as restrooms and vending machines.  Private entrepreneurs develop additional facilities, such as truck stops or travel

Octane.

In Australia, gasoline is unleaded, and available in 91, 95, 98 and 100 octane (names of various petrols differ from brand to brand). Fuel additives for use in cars designed for leaded fuel are available at most filling stations.  In Canada, the most commonly found octane grades are 87 (regular), 89 (mid grade) and 91 (premium), using the same "(R+M)/2 Method" used in the US (see below).  In China, the most commonly found octane grade is RON 91 (regular), 93 (mid grade) and 97 (premium). Almost all of the fuel has been unleaded since 2000. In some premium gas stations in large cities, such as Petrol China and SinoPec, RON 98 gas is sold for racing cars.  In Europe, gasoline is unleaded and available in 95 RON ("Eurosuper") and, in nearly all countries, 98 RON ("Super Plus") octanes; in some countries 91 RON octane gasoline is offered as well. In addition, 100 RON petrol is offered in some countries in continental Europe (Shell markets this as "V-Power Racing"). Some

Differences in fuel dispensers.

In Europe and Australia, the customer selects one of several color-coded nozzles depending on the type of fuel required. The filler pipe of unleaded fuel is smaller than the one for fuels for engines designed to take leaded fuel. The tank filler opening has a corresponding diameter; this prevents inadvertently using leaded fuel in an engine not designed for it, which can damage a catalytic converter. In most stations in Canada and the US, the pump has a single nozzle and the customer selects the desired octane grade by pushing a button. Some pumps require the customer to pick up the nozzle first, then lift a lever underneath it; others are designed so that lifting the nozzle automatically releases a switch.

Legislation.

In most countries, petrol stations are subjected to guidelines and regulations which exist to minimise the potential of fires, and increase safety.  It is prohibited to use open flames and, in some places, mobile phones on the forecourt of a filling station because of the risk of igniting gasoline vapor. In the US the fire marshal is responsible for regulations at the gas pump. Most localities ban smoking, open flames and running engines. Since the increased occurrence of static-related fires many stations have warnings about leaving the refueling point.  Cars can build up static charge by driving on dry road surfaces. However many tire compounds contain enough carbon black to provide an electrical ground which prevents charge build-up. Newer "high mileage" tires use more silica and can increase the buildup of static. A driver who does not discharge static by contacting a conductive part of the car will carry it to the insulated handle of the nozzle and the static potential will eventually be discharged when this purposely-grounded arrangement is put into contact with the metallic filler neck of the vehicle. Ordinarily, vapor concentrations in the area of this filling operation are below the lower explosive limit (LEL) of the product being dispensed, so the static discharge causes no problem. The problem with ungrounded gas cans results from a combination of vehicular static charge, the potential between the container and the vehicle, and the loose fit between the grounded nozzle and the gas can. This last condition causes a rich vapor concentration in the ullage (the unfilled volume) of the gas can, and a discharge from the can to the grounded hanging hardware (the nozzle, hose, swivels and break-a-ways) can thus occur at a most inopportune point. The Petroleum Equipment Institute has recorded incidents of static-related ignition at refueling sites since early 2000.  Although urban legends persist that a mobile phone can cause sparks, this has not been duplicated under any controlled condition. Nevertheless, mobile phone manufacturers and gas stations ask users to switch off their phones. One suggested origin of this myth is said to have been started by gas station companies because the cell phone signal would interfere with the fuel counter on some older model fuel pumps causing it to give a lower reading. In the MythBusters episode "Cell Phone Destruction", investigators concluded that explosions attributed to cell phones could be caused by static discharges from clothing instead and also observed that such incidents seem to involve women more often than men.  The US National Fire Protection Association does most of the research and code writing to address the potential for explosions of gasoline vapor. The customer fueling area, up to above the surface, normally does not have explosive concentrations of vapors, but may from time to time. Above this height, where most fuel filler necks are located, there is no expectation of an explosive concentration of gasoline vapor in normal operating conditions. Electrical equipment in the fueling area may be specially certified for use around gasoline vapors.

A filling station is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s are gasoline ("gasoline" or "gas" in the United States and Canada, generally "petrol" elsewhere) and diesel fuel. A filling station that sells only electric energy is also known as a charging station, while a typical filling station can also be known as a fueling or gas station (United States and Canada), gasbar (Canada), gasoline stand or SS (Japan), petrol pump or petrol bunk (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), garage, petrol station (Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom and Ireland), service station (Australia, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and United Kingdom and Ireland), servo (Australia), or fuel station (Northern Europe and Israel).

加油站又称油站,为供车辆及船只补充油料之站点或建筑设施。油料存在油库(或油槽、油池)里,通过管道连接到加油机器,通过加油枪加到车辆的油箱里。


Biography.

Stirner was born in Bayreuth, Bavaria. What little is known of his life is mostly due to the Scottish-born German writer John Henry Mackay, who wrote a biography of Stirner ("Max Stirner – sein Leben und sein Werk"), published in German in 1898 (enlarged 1910, 1914) and translated into English in 2005. Stirner was the only child of Albert Christian Heinrich Schmidt (1769–1807) and Sophia Elenora Reinlein (1778–1839). His father died of tuberculosis on 19 April 1807 at the age of 37. In 1809, his mother remarried to Heinrich Ballerstedt (a pharmacist) and settled in West Prussian Kulm (now Chełmno, Poland). When Stirner turned 20, he attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philology, philosophy and theology. He attended the lectures of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who was to become a source of inspiration for his thinking. He attended Hegel's lectures on the history of philosophy, the philosophy of religion and the subjective spirit. Stirner then moved to the University of Erlangen, which he attended at the same time as Ludwig Feuerbach.  Stirner returned to Berlin and obtained a teaching certificate, but he was unable to obtain a full-time teaching post from the Prussian government. While in Berlin in 1841, Stirner participated in discussions with a group of young philosophers called "Die Freien" (The Free Ones) and whom historians have subsequently categorized as the Young Hegelians. Some of the best known names in 19th century literature and philosophy were involved with this group, including Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Bruno Bauer and Arnold Ruge. Contrary to popular belief, Feuerbach was not a member of "Die Freien", although he was heavily involved in Young Hegelian discourse. While some of the Young Hegelians were eager subscribers to Hegel's dialectical method and attempted to apply dialectical approaches to Hegel's conclusions, the left-wing members of the group broke with Hegel. Feuerbach and Bauer led this charge.  Frequently the debates would take place at Hippel's, a wine bar in Friedrichstraße, attended by among others Marx and Engels, who were both adherents of Feuerbach at the time. Stirner met with Engels many times and Engels even recalled that they were "great friends", but it is still unclear whether Marx and Stirner ever met. It does not appear that Stirner contributed much to the discussions, but he was a faithful member of the club and an attentive listener. The most-often reproduced portrait of Stirner is a cartoon by Engels, drawn forty years later from memory at biographer Mackay's request. It is highly likely that this and the group sketch of "Die Freien" at Hippel's are the only firsthand images of Stirner. Stirner worked as a teacher in a school for young girls owned by Madame Gropius when he wrote his major work, "The Ego and Its Own", which in part is a polemic against Feuerbach and Bauer, but also against communists such as Wilhelm Weitling and the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. He resigned from his teaching position in anticipation of controversy from this work's publication in October 1844.  Stirner married twice. His first wife was Agnes Burtz (1815–1838), the daughter of his landlady, whom he married on 12 December 1837. However, she died from complications with pregnancy in 1838. In 1843, he married Marie Dähnhardt, an intellectual associated with "Die Freien". They divorced in 1846. "The Ego and Its Own" was dedicated "to my sweetheart Marie Dähnhardt". Marie later converted to Catholicism and died in 1902 in London.  After "The Ego and Its Own", Stirner wrote "Stirner's Critics" and translated Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" and Jean-Baptiste Say's "Traite d'Economie Politique" into German to little financial gain. He also wrote a compilation of texts titled "History of Reaction" in 1852. Stirner died in 1856 in Berlin from an infected insect bite and it is said that Bruno Bauer was the only Young Hegelian present at his funeral, held at the Friedhof II der Sophiengemeinde Berlin.

Philosophy.

The philosophy of Stirner is credited as a major influence in the development of nihilism, existentialism and post-modernism as well as individualist anarchism, post-anarchism and post-left anarchy. Stirner's main philosophical work was "The Ego and Its Own".

Egoism.

Stirner's Egoism is purely descriptive, and is an attempt to surpass the very idea of 'ought' itself. To try to fit Stirner into the contemporary mindset misses the point.  Stirner argues that individuals are impossible to fully comprehend. All mere concepts of the self will always be inadequate to fully describe the nature of our experience. Stirner has been broadly understood as descriptive of both psychological egoism and rational egoism.  Hence this self-interest is necessarily subjective, allowing both selfish and altruistic normative claims to be included. Individual self-realization rests on each individual's desire to fulfill their egoism. The difference between an unwilling and a willing egoist is that the former will be possessed by an "empty idea" and believe that they are fulfilling a higher cause, but usually being unaware that they are only fulfilling their own desires to be happy or secure; and in contrast the latter will be a person that is able to freely choose its actions, fully aware that they are only fulfilling individual desires as stated by Stirner:  The contrast is also expressed in terms of the difference between the voluntary egoist being the possessor of his concepts as opposed to being possessed. Only when one realizes that all sacred truths such as law, right, morality, religion and so on are nothing other than artificial concepts—and not to be obeyed—can one act freely. For Stirner, to be free is to be both one's own "creature" (in the sense of creation) and one's own "creator" (dislocating the traditional role assigned to the gods). To Stirner, power is the method of egoism—it is the only justified method of gaining property.

Anarchism.

Stirner proposes that most commonly accepted social institutions—including the notion of state, property as a right, natural rights in general and the very notion of society—were mere illusions, "spooks" or ghosts in the mind. He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism in which individuals would unite in Unions of egoists only when it was in their self-interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might, saying: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property. [...] What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing". He adds that "I do not step shyly back from your property, but look upon it always as my property, in which I respect nothing. Pray do the like with what you call my property!". Stirner considers the world and everything in it, including other persons, available to one's taking or use without moral constraint and that rights do not exist in regard to objects and people at all. He sees no rationality in taking the interests of others into account unless doing so furthers one's self-interest, which he believes is the only legitimate reason for acting. He denies society as being an actual entity, calling society a "spook" and that "the individuals are its reality" ("The Ego and Its Own").  Despite being labeled as anarchist, Stirner was not necessarily one. Separation of Stirner and egoism from anarchism was first done by Dora Marsden in her debate with Benjamin Tucker in 1914 in her journals, "The New Freewoman" and "The Egoist""." The idea of "egoist anarchism" was also expounded by various other egoists, mainly Malfew Seklew and Sidney E. Parker

Union of egoists.

Stirner's idea of the Union of egoists was first expounded in "The Ego and Its Own". The Union is understood as a non-systematic association, which Stirner proposed in contradistinction to the state. Unlike a "community" in which individuals are obliged to participate, Stirner's suggested Union would be voluntary and instrumental under which individuals would freely associate insofar as others within the Union remain useful to each constituent individual. The Union relation between egoists is continually renewed by all parties' support through an act of will. Some, like Svein Olav Nyberg, argue that the Union requires that all parties participate out of a conscious egoism, while others, like Sydney E. Parker, regard the union as a "change of attitude", rejecting its previous conception as an institution.

Revolution.

Stirner criticizes conventional notions of revolution, arguing that social movements aimed at overturning established ideals are tacitly idealist because they are implicitly aimed at the establishment of a new ideal thereafter.

Hegel's possible influence.

Scholar Lawrence Stepelevich argues that G. W. F. Hegel was a major influence on "The Ego and Its Own". While the latter has an "un-Hegelian structure and tone" on the whole and is hostile to Hegel's conclusions about the self and the world, Stepelevich argues that Stirner's work is best understood as answering Hegel's question of the role of consciousness after it has contemplated "untrue knowledge" and become "absolute knowledge". Stepelevich concludes that Stirner presents the consequences of the rediscovering one's self-consciousness after realizing self-determination.  Scholars such as Douglas Moggach and Widukind De Ridder have argued that Stirner was obviously a student of Hegel, like his contemporaries Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer, but this does not necessarily make him an Hegelian. Contrary to the Young Hegelians, Stirner scorned all attempts at an immanent critique of Hegel and the Enlightenment and renounced Bauer and Feuerbach's emancipatory claims as well. Contrary to Hegel, who considered the given as an inadequate embodiment of rationality, Stirner leaves the given intact by considering it a mere object, not of transformation, but of enjoyment and consumption ("His Own"). According to Moggach, Stirner does not go beyond Hegel, but in fact leaves the domain of philosophy in its entirety:

Works.

"The False Principle of Our Education".

In 1842, "The False Principle of Our Education" ("Das unwahre Prinzip unserer Erziehung") was published in "Rheinische Zeitung", which was edited by Marx at the time. Written as a reaction to Otto Friedrich Theodor Heinsius' treatise "Humanism vs. Realism", Stirner explains that education in either the classical humanist method or the practical realist method still lacks true value. Education is therefore fulfilled in aiding the individual in becoming an individual.

"Art and Religion".

"Art and Religion" ("Kunst und Religion") was also published in Rheinische Zeitung on 14 June 1842. It addresses Bruno Bauer and his publication against Hegel called "Hegel's Doctrine of Religion and Art Judged From the Standpoint of Faith". Bauer had inverted Hegel's relation between "Art and Religion" by claiming that Art was much more closely related to Philosophy than Religion, based on their shared determinacy and clarity, and a common ethical root. However, Stirner went beyond both Hegel and Bauer's criticism by asserting that Art rather created an object for Religion and could thus by no means be related to what Stirner considered—in opposition with Hegel and Bauer—to be Philosophy, saying:  Stirner deliberately left Philosophy out of the dialectical triad (Art–Religion–Philosophy) by claiming that Philosophy "doesn't bother itself with objects" (Religion), nor does it "make an object" (Art). In Stirner's account, Philosophy was in fact indifferent towards both Art and Religion. Stirner thus mocked and radicalised Bauer's criticism of religion.

"The Ego and Its Own".

Stirner's main work is "The Ego and Its Own" ("Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum"), which appeared in Leipzig in October 1844, with as year of publication mentioned 1845. In "The Ego And Its Own", Stirner launches a radical anti-authoritarian and individualist critique of contemporary Prussian society and modern western society as such. He offers an approach to human existence in which he depicts himself as "the unique one", a "creative nothing", beyond the ability of language to fully express:  The book proclaims that all religions and ideologies rest on empty concepts. The same holds true for society's institutions that claim authority over the individual, be it the state, legislation, the church, or the systems of education such as universities.  Stirner's argument explores and extends the limits of criticism, aiming his critique especially at those of his contemporaries, particularly Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer; and at popular ideologies, including religion, liberalism and humanism (which he regarded as analogous to religion with the abstract Man or humanity as the supreme being), nationalism, statism, capitalism, socialism and communism:

"Stirner's Critics".

"Stirner's Critics" ("Recensenten Stirners") was published in September 1845 in "Wigands Vierteljahrsschrift". It is a response in which Stirner refers to himself in the third-person to three critical reviews of "The Ego and its Own" by Moses Hess in "Die letzten Philosophen" ("The Last Philosophers"), by a certain Szeliga (alias of an adherent of Bruno Bauer) in an article in the journal "Norddeutsche Blätter", and by Ludwig Feuerbach anonymously in an article called "On 'The Essence of Christianity' in Relation to Stirner's 'The Ego and its Own"' ("Über 'Das Wesen des Christentums' in Beziehung auf Stirners 'Der Einzige und sein Eigentum'") in "Wigands Vierteljahrsschrift".

"The Philosophical Reactionaries".

"The Philosophical Reactionaries" ("Die Philosophischen Reactionäre") was published in 1847 in "Die Epigonen", a journal edited by Otto Wigand from Leipzig. At the time, Wigand had already published "The Ego and Its Own" and was about to finish the publication of Stirner's translations of Adam Smith and Jean-Baptiste Say. As the subtitle indicates, "The Philosophical Reactionaries" was written in response to a 1847 article by Kuno Fischer (1824–1907) entitled "The Modern Soliphist" ("Die Moderne Sophisten"). The article was signed G. Edward and its authorship has been disputed ever since John Henry Mackay "cautiously" attributed it to Stirner and included it in his collection of Stirner's lesser writings. It was first translated into English in 2011 and the introductory note explains:  The majority of the text deals with Kuno Fischer's definition of sophism. With much wit, the self-contradictory nature of Fischer's criticism of sophism is exposed. Fischer had made a sharp distinction between sophism and philosophy while at the same time considering it as the "mirror image of philosophy". The sophists breathe "philosophical air" and were "dialectically inspired to a formal volubility". Stirner's answer is striking:  Looking back on "The Ego and Its Own", Stirner claims:

"History of Reaction".

"History of Reaction" ("Geschichte der Reaktion") was published in two volumes in 1851 by Allgemeine Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt and immediately banned in Austria. It was written in the context of the recent 1848 revolutions in German states and is mainly a collection of the works of others selected and translated by Stirner. The introduction and some additional passages were Stirner's work. Edmund Burke and Auguste Comte are quoted to show two opposing views of revolution.

Critical reception.

Stirner's work did not go unnoticed among his contemporaries. Stirner's attacks on ideology—in particular Feuerbach's humanism—forced Feuerbach into print. Moses Hess (at that time close to Marx) and Szeliga (pseudonym of Franz Zychlin von Zychlinski, an adherent of Bruno Bauer) also replied to Stirner, who answered the criticism in a German periodical in the September 1845 article "Stirner's Critics" ("Recensenten Stirners"), which clarifies several points of interest to readers of the book—especially in relation to Feuerbach.  While Marx's "Saint Max" ("Sankt Max"), a large part of "The German Ideology" ("Die Deutsche Ideologie"), was not published until 1932 and thus assured "The Ego and Its Own" a place of curious interest among Marxist readers, Marx's ridicule of Stirner has played a significant role in the preservation of Stirner's work in popular and academic discourse despite lacking mainstream popularity.

Comments by contemporaries.

Twenty years after the appearance of Stirner's book, the author Friedrich Albert Lange wrote the following:  Some people believe that in a sense a "second positive part" was soon to be added, though not by Stirner, but by Friedrich Nietzsche. The relationship between Nietzsche and Stirner seems to be much more complicated. According to George J. Stack's "Lange and Nietzsche", Nietzsche read Lange's "History of Materialism" "again and again" and was therefore very familiar with the passage regarding Stirner.

Influence.

While "Der Einzige" was a critical success and attracted much reaction from famous philosophers after publication, it was out of print and the notoriety that it had provoked had faded many years before Stirner's death. Stirner had a destructive impact on left-Hegelianism, but his philosophy was a significant influence on Marx and his magnum opus became a founding text of individualist anarchism. Edmund Husserl once warned a small audience about the "seducing power" of "Der Einzige", but he never mentioned it in his writing. As the art critic and Stirner admirer Herbert Read observed, the book has remained "stuck in the gizzard" of Western culture since it first appeared.  Many thinkers have read and been affected by "The Ego and Its Own" in their youth including Rudolf Steiner, Gustav Landauer, Victor Serge, Carl Schmitt and Jürgen Habermas. Few openly admit any influence on their own thinking. Ernst Jünger's book "Eumeswil", had the character of the Anarch, based on Stirner's Einzige. Several other authors, philosophers and artists have cited, quoted or otherwise referred to Max Stirner. They include Albert Camus in "The Rebel" (the section on Stirner is omitted from the majority of English editions including Penguin's), Benjamin Tucker, James Huneker, Dora Marsden, Renzo Novatore, Emma Goldman, Georg Brandes, John Cowper Powys, Martin Buber, Sidney Hook, Robert Anton Wilson, Horst Matthai, Frank Brand, Marcel Duchamp, several writers of the Situationist International including Raoul Vaneigem and Max Ernst. Oscar Wilde's "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" has caused some historians to speculate that Wilde (who could read German) was familiar with the book.  Since its appearance in 1844, "The Ego and Its Own" has seen periodic revivals of popular, political and academic interest based around widely divergent translations and interpretations—some psychological, others political in their emphasis. Today, many ideas associated with post-left anarchy's criticism of ideology and uncompromising individualism are clearly related to Stirner's. His ideas were also adopted by post-anarchism, with Saul Newman largely in agreement with many of Stirner's criticisms of classical anarchism, including his rejection of revolution and essentialism.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Friedrich Engels commented on Stirner in poetry at the time of "Die Freien":  Engels once even recalled at how they were "great friends" ("Duzbrüder"). In November 1844, Engels wrote a letter to Karl Marx in which he first reported a visit to Moses Hess in Cologne and then went on to note that during this visit Hess had given him a press copy of a new book by Stirner, "The Ego and Its Own". In his letter to Marx, Engels promised to send a copy of the book to him, for it certainly deserved their attention as Stirner "had obviously, among the 'Free Ones', the most talent, independence and diligence". To begin with, Engels was enthusiastic about the book and expressed his opinions freely in letters to Marx:  Later, Marx and Engels wrote a major criticism of Stirner's work. The number of pages Marx and Engels devote to attacking Stirner in the unexpurgated text of "The German Ideology" exceeds the total of Stirner's written works. In the book Stirner is derided as "Sankt Max" (Saint Max) and as "Sancho" (a reference to Cervantes’ Sancho Panza). As Isaiah Berlin has described it, Stirner "is pursued through five hundred pages of heavy-handed mockery and insult". The book was written in 1845–1846, but it was not published until 1932. Marx's lengthy ferocious polemic against Stirner has since been considered an important turning point in Marx's intellectual development from idealism to materialism. It has been argued that historical materialism was Marx's method of reconciling communism with a Stirnerite rejection of morality.

Stirner and post-structuralism.

In his book "Specters of Marx", influential French poststructuralist thinker Jacques Derrida dealt with Stirner and his relationship with Marx while also analysing Stirner's concept of "specters" or "spooks". Gilles Deleuze, another key thinker associated with post-structuralism, mentions Stirner briefly in his book "The Logic of Sense". Saul Newman calls Stirner a proto-poststructuralist who on the one hand had essentially anticipated modern post-structuralists such as Foucault, Lacan, Deleuze and Derrida, but on the other had already transcended them, thus providing what they were unable to—i.e. a ground for a non-essentialist critique of present liberal capitalist society. This is particularly evident in Stirner's identification of the self with a "creative nothing", a thing that cannot be bound by ideology, inaccessible to representation in language.

Possible influence on Friedrich Nietzsche.

The ideas of Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche have often been compared and many authors have discussed apparent similarities in their writings, sometimes raising the question of influence. During the early years of Nietzsche's emergence as a well-known figure in Germany, the only thinker discussed in connection with his ideas more often than Stirner was Arthur Schopenhauer. It is certain that Nietzsche read about "The Ego and Its Own", which was mentioned in Friedrich Albert Lange's "History of Materialism" and Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann's "Philosophy of the Unconscious", both of which Nietzsche knew well. However, there is no indication that he actually read it as no mention of Stirner is known to exist anywhere in Nietzsche's publications, papers or correspondence. In 2002, a biographical discovery revealed it is probable that Nietzsche had encountered Stirner's ideas before he read Hartmann and Lange in October 1865, when he met with Eduard Mushacke, an old friend of Stirner's during the 1840s.  Yet as soon as Nietzsche's work began to reach a wider audience, the question of whether he owed a debt of influence to Stirner was raised. As early as 1891 when Nietzsche was still alive, though incapacitated by mental illness, Hartmann went so far as to suggest that he had plagiarized Stirner. By the turn of the century, the belief that Nietzsche had been influenced by Stirner was so widespread that it became something of a commonplace at least in Germany, prompting one observer to note in 1907 that "Stirner's influence in modern Germany has assumed astonishing proportions, and moves in general parallel with that of Nietzsche. The two thinkers are regarded as exponents of essentially the same philosophy".  From the beginning of what was characterized as "great debate" regarding Stirner's possible positive influence on Nietzsche, serious problems with the idea were nonetheless noted. By the middle of the 20th century, if Stirner was mentioned at all in works on Nietzsche, the idea of influence was often dismissed outright or abandoned as unanswerable.  However, the idea that Nietzsche was influenced in some way by Stirner continues to attract a significant minority, perhaps because it seems necessary to explain the oft-noted (though arguably superficial) similarities in their writings. In any case, the most significant problems with the theory of possible Stirner influence on Nietzsche are not limited to the difficulty in establishing whether the one man knew of or read the other. They also consist in determining if Stirner in particular might have been a meaningful influence on a man as widely read as Nietzsche.

Rudolf Steiner.

The individualist-anarchist orientation of Rudolf Steiner's early philosophy—before he turned to theosophy around 1900—has strong parallels to and was admittedly influenced by Stirner's conception of the ego, for which Steiner claimed to have provided a philosophical foundation.

Anarchism.

Stirner's philosophy was important in the development of modern anarchist thought, particularly individualist anarchism and egoist anarchism. Although Stirner is usually associated with individualist anarchism, he was influential to many social anarchists such as anarcha-feminists Emma Goldman and Federica Montseny. In European individualist anarchism, he influenced its major proponents after him such as Émile Armand, Han Ryner, Renzo Novatore, John Henry Mackay, Miguel Giménez Igualada and Lev Chernyi.  In American individualist anarchism, he found adherence in Benjamin Tucker and his magazine "Liberty" while these abandoned natural rights positions for egoism. Several periodicals "were undoubtedly influenced by "Liberty"'s presentation of egoism". They included "I", published by Clarence Lee Swartz and edited by William Walstein Gordak and J. William Lloyd (all associates of "Liberty"); and "The Ego and The Egoist", both of which were edited by Edward H. Fulton. Among the egoist papers that Tucker followed, there were the German "Der Eigene", edited by Adolf Brand; and "The Eagle and The Serpent", issued from London. The latter, the most prominent English-language egoist journal, was published from 1898 to 1900 with the subtitle "A Journal of Egoistic Philosophy and Sociology". Other American egoist anarchists around the early 20th century include James L. Walker, George Schumm, John Beverley Robinson, Steven T. Byington and Edward H. Fulton.  In the United Kingdom, Herbert Read was influenced by Stirner and noted the closeness of Stirner's egoism to existentialism (see existentialist anarchism). Later in the 1960s, Daniel Guérin says in "Anarchism: From Theory to Practice" that Stirner "rehabilitated the individual at a time when the philosophical field was dominated by Hegelian anti-individualism and most reformers in the social field had been led by the misdeeds of bourgeois egotism to stress its opposite" and pointed to "the boldness and scope of his thought". In the 1970s, an American Situationist collective called For Ourselves published a book called "" in which they advocate a "communist egoism" basing themselves on Stirner.  Later in the United States, it emerged the tendency of post-left anarchy which was influenced profoundly by Stirner in aspects such as the critique of ideology. Jason McQuinn says that "when I (and other anti-ideological anarchists) criticize ideology, it is always from a specifically critical, anarchist perspective rooted in both the skeptical, individualist-anarchist philosophy of Max Stirner". Bob Black and Feral Faun/Wolfi Landstreicher strongly adhere to Stirnerist egoism. In the hybrid of post-structuralism and anarchism called post-anarchism, Saul Newman has written on Stirner and his similarities to post-structuralism. Insurrectionary anarchism also has an important relationship with Stirner as can be seen in the work of Wolfi Landstreicher and Alfredo Bonanno who has also written on him in works such as "Max Stirner" and "Max Stirner and Anarchism".

Free love, homosexuals and feminists.

German Stirnerist Adolf Brand produced the homosexual periodical "Der Eigene" in 1896. This was the first ongoing homosexual publication in the world and ran until 1931. The name was taken from the writings of Stirner (who had greatly influenced the young Brand) and refers to Stirner's concept of "self-ownership" of the individual. Another early homosexual activist influenced by Stirner was John Henry Mackay. Feminists influenced by Stirner include Dora Marsden who edited the journals "The Freewoman" and "The New Freewoman" and anarchist Emma Goldman. Stirner also influenced free love and polyamory propagandist Émile Armand in the context of French individualist anarchism of the early 20th century which is known for "[t]he call of nudist naturism, the strong defense of birth control methods, the idea of "unions of egoists" with the sole justification of sexual practices".

Johann Kaspar Schmidt (25 October 1806 – 26 June 1856), better known as Max Stirner, was a German philosopher who is often seen as one of the forerunners of nihilism, existentialism, psychoanalytic theory, postmodernism and individualist anarchism. Stirner's main work "The Ego and Its Own", literally known as "The Unique And Its Property", or more colloquially "The Individual and His Property", was first published in 1845 in Leipzig and has since appeared in numerous editions and translations.

麦克斯·施蒂纳(,1806年-10月25日-1856年-6月26日),本名是约翰·卡斯帕·施密特(Johann Kaspar Schmidt)。比他本名更有名之笔名,乃源自于他小时候的额头很高,在学校被同学起了的外号--德文的「前额」就是「Stirn」。他是德国的哲学家,其著作影响着后来的虚无主义、存在主义、后现代主义及无政府主义,特别是个人无政府主义。


Buddhism.

A retreat can either be a time of solitude or a community experience. Some retreats are held in silence, and on others there may be a great deal of conversation, depending on the understanding and accepted practices of the host facility and/or the participant(s). Retreats are often conducted at rural or remote locations, either privately, or at a retreat centre such as a monastery. Some retreats for advanced practitioners may be undertaken in darkness, a form of retreat that is common as an advanced Dzogchen practice in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.  Spiritual retreats allow time for reflection, prayer, or meditation. They are considered essential in Buddhism, having been a common practice since the Vassa, or rainy season retreat, was established by the founder of Buddhism, Gotama Buddha. In Zen Buddhism retreats are known as sesshin.

Christianity.

The Christian retreat can be defined most simply as a definite time (from a few hours in length to a month) spent away from one's normal life for the purpose of reconnecting, usually in prayer, with God. Although the practice of leaving one's everyday life to connect on a deeper level with God, be that in the desert (as with the Desert Fathers), or in a monastery, is as old as Christianity itself, the practice of spending a specific time away with God is a more modern phenomenon, dating from the 1520s and St. Ignatius of Loyola's composition of the Spiritual Exercises. The fasting of Jesus in the desert for forty days is used as a biblical justification of retreats.  The retreat was popularised in Roman Catholicism by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), whose founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, as a layman began, in the 1520s, directing others in making (participating in) the exercises. Another form the Exercises came in, which became known as the nineteenth "Observation", 'allowed continuing one's ordinary occupations with the proviso of setting aside a few hours a day for this special purpose.' The spiritual exercises were intended for people wanting to live closer to God's will for their life. In the 17th century, retreats became much more widespread in the Catholic Church.  Retreats were not originally seen as suitable for women, but in 1674 Catherine de Francheville (), supported by the Breton Jesuit Vincent Huby (), founded a retreat house for women in Vannes. This developed into a community of laywomen, who also founded a daughter house in Quimper, but were dispersed by the French Revolution. Some however came together to found schools, and additional communities were established in England, and later in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. These developed in the course of the 19th century, under the name of "La Retraite" (), into a religious Congregation of nuns. The active involvement of the sisters in retreats was curtailed later in the 19th century, but blossomed again after the Second Vatican Council, involving among other activity an extension of the community into Chile, South Africa, Cameroon and Mali.  Spiritual retreats were introduced to the Church of England by priests of the Anglo-Catholic Society of the Holy Cross in 1856, first for clergy, and then also for laity. These retreats lasted five days. The Society of the Holy Cross's first retreats were held in secrecy. The practice was spread by Anglo-Catholic priests such as Francis Henry Murray, Alexander Forbes, and Thomas Thellusson Carter. The Oxford Movement further spread the practice of retreats to many devout men and women, borrowing upon Catholic practices. Their retreats were typically 3-4 days, and featured much silence and prayer.  At the end of the 19th century, and in the first years of the 20th century, retreats began to spread among the working classes and beyond those of notable devotion. These retreats were less ascetic in character, and included more conversation and leisure. They typically lasted 1-3 days.  Spiritual retreats may have various themes that reinforce Christian values, principles, and scriptural understanding. They may be individual or involve a group. Retreats for Christian youth groups are common, as are getaways for Sunday School classes, men's and women's Bible study groups, and Christian school field trips. Common locations for Christian retreats include churches and retreat centers. Retreat centers typically offer overnight accommodations (such as in a cabin or dormitory), meals, activities, meeting rooms, and chapel space.  Following the growth of the Cursillo movement in Spain in the 20th century, similar retreats have become popular, either using licensed Cursillo material or independent material loosely based on its concepts, leading to the development of the three day movement.

Sufi retreats or spiritual khalwa.

The translation of khalwa from Arabic is seclusion or separation, but it has a different connotation in Sufi terminology. In Sufi terminology, khalwa is the act of total self-abandonment in desire for the Divine Presence. In complete seclusion, the Sufi continuously repeats the name of God as a highest form of remembrance of God meditation. In his book, Journey to the Lord of Power, Muhiyid-Did ibn Arabi (1165-1240 A.D.) discussed the stages through which the Sufi passes in his khalwa.  Ibn Arabi suggested: "The Sufi should shut his door against the world for forty days and occupy himself with remembrance of Allah, that is to keep repeating, "Allah, Allah..." Then, "Almighty God will spread before him the degrees of the kingdom as a test. First, He will discover the secrets of the mineral world. If he occupies himself with dthikr, He (God) will unveil to the secrets of the vegetable world, then the secrets of the animal world, then the infusion of the world of life-force into lives, then the "surface sign" (the light of the Divine Names, according to Abdul-Karim al-Jeeli, the book's translator), then the degrees of speculative sciences, then the world of formation and adornment and beauty, then the degrees of the qutb (the soul or pivot of the universe-see #16) Then he will be given the divine wisdom and the power of symbols and authority over the veil and the unveiling. The degree of the Divine Presence is made clear to him, the garden (of Eden) and Hell are revealed to him, then the original forms of the son of Adam, the Throne of Mercy. If it is appropriate, he will know his destination. Then he will reveal to him the Pen, the First Intellect (as it is called by Sufi philosophers), then the Mover of the Pen, the right hand of the Truth. (The "Truth" as defined by al-Jeeli is that by which everything is created, none other than God most High.)  The practice of khalwah is regularly followed by the Sufis, with the permission and the supervision of a Sufi authority.  The Sufis base the assigning of forty days of khalwa period on the forty days Allah had appointed for Musa (Moses) as a fasting period before speaking to him, as mentioned in different chapters in the Qur'an. One of them is from surat al-Baqarah.  Khalwa is still practiced today amongst authorized Sheikhs, such as Mawlana Sheikh Nazim Al-Haqqani, Lefka, Cyprus.

Meditation.

Meditation courses or retreats, either in a group or solo, are a common part of many meditation traditions.

Yoga.

In modern Yoga a retreat is often a recreational holiday, where everyday business is left for a few days (weekend-retreat) up to weeks. The goal is to let go of daily stress and problems by doing Asanas rather than pure meditation. Sometimes retreats are offered as organised travels abroad.

The meaning of a spiritual retreat can be different for different religious communities. Spiritual retreats are an integral part of many Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Sufi (Islamic) communities.

基督教的退修会(英语:Retreat;又称为避静)可解释为:基督徒面对俗世之价值观或事物(庶务)对信仰之价值观产生冲击、混淆,而择一宁静平和的环境,专注身、心、灵在信仰的建造,回复与上帝有合宜的关系。一如圣经新约中福音书所提,耶稣会避开人群,独自或带着门徒去亲近神。