Tennis career.

Junior career.

In 2002, Kirilenko became one of the youngest winners of the junior tournaments at the Canadian Open and US Open.

Professional career.

2003–2006.

In 2002, Kirilenko started participating in WTA events. She began moving up the rankings in 2004, but was set back by an injury. At the 2004 French Open, Kirilenko took the first set off Serena Williams before losing in three sets. She was the runner-up to Nicole Pratt at the Hyderabad Open.  At the end of 2005, she climbed back up the rankings and won her first title in Beijing. On 12 June 2006, she broke into the world's top 20 for the first time. At the US Open, Kirilenko was seeded 20th and reached the third round, before losing to Aravane Rezaï.  Kirilenko made her debut for Russia at the Fed Cup tournament in April 2006. In the World Group quarterfinal tie against Belgium, she lost her singles match against 2005 US Open champion Kim Clijsters, but partnering with Dinara Safina, won her doubles match against Justine Henin and Clijsters. However, Russia ended up losing, 2–3.

2007.

In January 2007, she advanced to the third round of the Australian Open, before being defeated by third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. She then competed in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where she advanced to the second round, upsetting world No. 15 Shahar Pe'er of Israel, before being defeated by Ai Sugiyama. She then competed in the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she reached the second round, before losing in a close match to Daniela Hantuchová.  At the Acura Classic in San Diego, California, Kirilenko upset second seeded Jelena Janković to advance to the quarterfinals, before losing to fellow Russian Elena Dementieva. At the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles, she upset sixth seed Marion Bartoli in straight sets before losing to eventual champion Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals. Unseeded at the US Open, she defeated Martina Müller and 22nd seed Katarina Srebotnik. She then lost to unseeded Julia Vakulenko. After the US Open, she appeared in the Sunfeast Open. There, Kirilenko won her second WTA Tour singles title, defeating unseeded Mariya Koryttseva in straight sets. The next week at a tournament in Seoul, Kirilenko, as the fourth seed also reached the finals, but lost to top seed Venus Williams.

2008.

At the Australian Open, Kirilenko reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career, beating sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze. Her next opponent was Daniela Hantuchová, to whom she lost, 6–1, 4–6, 4–6, after leading 6–1, 3–1.  Kirilenko then reached the second round of a Tier-I event in Doha, beating Ekaterina Makarova, before losing to Anabel Medina Garrigues in three sets. Kirilenko then lost four matches in a row at Dubai, Bangalore, Indian Wells, and Miami. However, as the second seed, she reached the final of a Tier-IV event at Estoril, where she defeated Iveta Benešová in straight sets. She also won the doubles title there, partnering with Flavia Pennetta. Kirilenko also won in Barcelona, defeating Martinez-Sanchez for her fourth career WTA title and the second of the year.  Kirilenko played at the Tier-III tournament in Cincinnati in August, where she was third seed. She reached the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion Nadia Petrova. She partnered with Petrova as the second-seed doubles team and beat the top-seed pair of Hsieh Su-wei and Yaroslava Shvedova in the finals.

2009.

Kirilenko was seeded 27th at the Australian Open, but lost to future top five player Sara Errani in the first round.  In the Dubai doubles tournament, Kirilenko partnered with Agnieszka Radwańska, and even though they were unseeded, they reached the final, eventually losing to Liezel Huber and Cara Black, the world No. 1 doubles pairing at that time.  At the 2009 French Open, Kirilenko was unseeded in the singles tournament, and lost to Olivia Rogowska of Australia in the first round. In the doubles tournament, Kirilenko and doubles partner Flavia Pennetta of Italy were seeded eighth. They made it to the third round, before losing to 11th seeded Anna-Lena Grönefeld of Germany and Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.  Kirilenko was unseeded at Wimbledon and made it to the second round, losing to ninth seeded Caroline Wozniacki.  At the US Open, she made it to the third round, defeating her doubles partner Radwańska before losing to Li Na. She then competed in the Korea Open in Seoul, where she was the defending champion, but lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Kimiko Date-Krumm.

2010: First Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Kirilenko began the year by competing in the ASB Classic, where she reached the quarterfinals but lost to Shahar Pe'er. With a ranking at that time of No. 58, Kirilenko was unseeded at the Australian Open, where in the first round she upset her friend, former doubles partner, 2008 champion and 14th seed Maria Sharapova, 7–6, 3–6, 6–4, in a 3-hour 22-minute marathon. It was the second-longest women's match in Australian Open history (only behind the 2011 fourth-round match between Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova). She advanced to the quarterfinals, losing to Zheng Jie, who was also unseeded for this tournament. In the doubles portion, she and her partner, Agnieszka Radwańska, were seeded 15th and advanced to the semifinals, losing there to the world No. 1 pairing of Cara Black and Liezel Huber in three sets.  Kirilenko entered as 32nd seed at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. She made it to the third round, losing there to second seeded Caroline Wozniacki. Kirilenko participated in the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami as 32nd seed. Like Indian Wells, she advanced to the third round, again losing to Wozniacki.  Kirilenko played in Rome in the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, where she was unseeded. She advanced to the quarterfinals, where she lost to world No. 1 Serena Williams.  Kirilenko entered the French Open as 30th seed where she advanced to the round of 16 for the first time in her career, before losing to 17th seed and eventual champion Francesca Schiavone, having defeated defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova en route. In the doubles draw, Kirilenko and Radwańska were seeded 11th. They reached the quarterfinals, before losing to the eventual champions Serena and Venus Williams in straight sets.  At Wimbledon, she was 27th seed in the singles draw. She advanced to the third round, losing to eighth seed Kim Clijsters. Kirilenko also paired up with Agnieszka Radwańska in the doubles draw, where they were seeded 10th.  Kirilenko made the quarterfinals of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California before losing to Radwańska. She entered in the doubles tournament with Victoria Azarenka, they ended in the semifinals.  She then reached the second rounds of Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open and the Rogers Cup, losing to Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka, respectively. At the Pilot Pen Tennis, she reached the semifinals, losing to Nadia Petrova.  She reached the third round of the US Open losing to 11th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.  She then reached the second rounds of Korea Open, losing to former world No. 1 Dinara Safina, and Toray Pan Pacific Open, losing to Flavia Pennetta. At the last Premier-Mandatory event of the year, the China Open, she lost in the third round to eventual finalist and compatriot Vera Zvonareva. In the HP Open, she retired in the second round due to a hip injury against Chang Kai-chen, after losing the first set 4–6. Kirilenko reached the final of the Kremlin Cup where she fell to Victoria Azarenka.  Kirilenko ended the 2010 season ranked No. 20 in the world.

2011: Steady ranking.

She competed at the Hong Kong Tennis Classic and won the Gold Group Championship with her compatriots Vera Zvonareva and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. At the Australian Open, she failed to defend her quarterfinal points by being knocked out in the second round. However, in the doubles competition, she reached the final, partnered with Victoria Azarenka, but lost to Pennetta and Dulko. She then fell early in the Pattaya Open and Dubai Tennis Championships. She then reached the third round of both BNP Paribas Open and Sony Ericsson Open losing to Agnieszka Radwańska on both occasions. She then suffered three losses in a row in the second round of Family Circle Cup, and the first rounds of Mutua Madrid Open and Internazionali BNL d'Italia. However, she won doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open with Victoria Azarenka. At the French Open, she reached the fourth round losing to Andrea Petkovic in three sets.  She then fell in the first round of UNICEF Open to Kimiko Date-Krumm, However, she rebounded by reaching the third round of the Wimbledon Championships, eventually being stopped by the seventh-seeded Serena Williams. She then failed to win back-to-back matches falling in the second rounds of Bank of the West Classic, Mercury Insurance Open, first round of Rogers Cup, and the second rounds of Western & Southern Open and Bank of the West Classic. She then rebounded at the US Open, losing to eventual champion Samantha Stosur 2–6, 7–6, 3–6 in the fourth round. The second set tie-break score of 15–17 was the longest in any major in the history of women's tennis.  She reached her first semifinal of the year at the Guangzhou International Women's Open, losing to Chanelle Scheepers 5–7, 7–5, 4–6. She then played at the Pan Pacific Open and the China Open, where she defeated Samantha Stosur in three sets in both occasions in the second round; she also fell in the quarterfinals on both events losing to Vera Zvonareva and Monica Niculescu, respectively. She played her last tournament of the year at the BGL Luxembourg Open, where she had to withdrew in the second round due to an ankle injury.

2012: 4th place at 2012 Olympics.

Kirilenko began her 2012 season at the Apia International Sydney in Sydney. She lost in the second round of qualifying to Sofia Arvidsson. Seeded twenty-seventh at the Australian Open, Kirilenko retired during her third-round match against second seed Petra Kvitová due to an upper left leg injury.  Seeded fourth at the PTT Pattaya Open, Kirilenko reached the final where she was defeated by third seed Daniela Hantuchová. In Doha at the Qatar Total Open, Kirilenko lost in the second round to fourteenth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. At the Dubai Tennis Championships, Kirilenko was defeated in the second round by Ana Ivanovic. Seeded twentieth at the BNP Paribas Open, Kirilenko advanced to the quarterfinal where she lost to second seed Maria Sharapova. Seeded twenty-second in Miami at the Sony Ericsson Open, Kirilenko was defeated in the fourth round by seventh seed Marion Bartoli.  Kirilenko began her clay-court season at the Estoril Open. Seeded second, she lost in the second round to qualifier Karin Knapp. Seeded sixteenth at the Mutua Madrid Open, Kirilenko was defeated in the second round by Ekaterina Makarova. Seeded sixteenth in Rome at the Italian Open, Kirilenko lost in the first round to Flavia Pennetta. Seeded third at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, Kirilenko retired during her first-round match against Sloane Stephens due to a right ankle injury. Seeded sixteenth at the French Open, Kirilenko was defeated in the second round by Klára Zakopalová.  Kirilenko played only one tournament before Wimbledon which was the UNICEF Open. Seeded fifth, she lost in the first round to Francesca Schiavone. Kirilenko then played at the Wimbledon Championships where she was the seventeenth seed. She had sudden success reaching the round of 16 for the first time with easy wins over Alexandra Cadanțu, Lourdes Domínguez Lino and Sorana Cîrstea. She had officially reached the second week of all four majors. She defeated thirtieth seed Peng Shuai to reach her second Grand Slam quarterfinal and her first at Wimbledon. After almost three hours of play, three rain delays and switching courts, she eventually lost in a very close and tough quarterfinal to third seed and eventual finalist Agnieszka Radwańska.  Playing for Russia at the Summer Olympics, Kirilenko reached the semifinal upsetting sixth seed Petra Kvitová in her quarterfinal match. She lost the semifinal match to eventual silver medalist Maria Sharapova. Despite the loss, she still had a chance to win the bronze medal. In the bronze medal match, she was defeated by Victoria Azarenka to end u being in 4th place. However, she won a bronze medal in women's doubles with Nadia Petrova by beating the No. 1 ranked team of Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond.  Kirilenko started her preparation for the US Open at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. Seeded twelfth, she lost in the first round to Venus Williams. She bounced back into form at the Premier level New Haven Open at Yale. Seeded seventh, Kirilenko reached her second final of the year where she was defeated by second seed Petra Kvitová. Seeded fourteenth at the US Open, Kirilenko suffered a third-round upset at the hands of Andrea Hlaváčková. In doubles, Kirilenko and Petrova upset the Williams sisters in the third round before losing in the quarterfinal to eighth seeds Nuria Llagostera Vives/María José Martínez Sánchez.  Seeded second at the Korea Open, Kirilenko retired from her first-round match against Lee So-ra due to a back injury. Competing as the thirteenth seed at the China Open, Kirilenko lost in the first round to Ekaterina Makarova. Seeded seventh at the Kremlin Cup, Kirilenko was defeated in the semifinal by Sofia Arvidsson. Seeded third at the Qatar Airways Tournament of Champions, Kirilenko lost her first match to second seed Nadia Petrova, but she won her second one over eighth seed Tsvetana Pironkova. She withdrew from her third match against sixth seed Jie Zheng due to an upper respiratory illness. Kirilenko played her final tournament of the season at the WTA Tour Championships. She and Petrova won the doubles title beating Andrea Hlaváčková/Lucie Hradecká in the final.  Kirilenko ended the year ranked 14 in singles and 7 in doubles.

2013: World No. 10 & injuries.

Beginning her season at the Apia International Sydney, Kirilenko lost in the second round to third seed Sara Errani. Seeded fourteenth at the Australian Open, Kirilenko made it to the fourth round where she lost to third seed Serena Williams.  Seeded second at the PTT Pattaya Open, Kirilenko won the tournament defeating fifth seed Sabine Lisicki in the final. During the Fed Cup tie versus Japan, Kirilenko played one match and beat Kimiko Date-Krumm. Russia won the tie 3-2 to advance to the semifinal. Seeded twelfth at the Qatar Total Open, Kirilenko retired from her first-round match versus qualifier Ekaterina Bychkova due to a shoulder injury. Seeded thirteenth at the BNP Paribas Open, Kirilenko reached the semifinal after wins over Christina McHale, qualifier Mallory Burdette, third seed Agnieszka Radwańska, and fifth seed Petra Kvitová. She was defeated in her semifinal match by second seed and eventual champion Maria Sharapova. Seeded fourteenth at the Sony Open Tennis, Kirilenko lost in the third round to twenty-first seed Klára Zakopalová. Seeded third in Mexico at the Monterrey Open, Kirilenko made it to the semifinal where she was defeated by top seed and eventual finalist Angelique Kerber. In the Fed Cup semifinal tie versus Slovakia, Kirilenko lost her first match to Daniela Hantuchová but beat Dominika Cibulková in her final match. Russia won 3-2 to advance to the final in November versus Italy.  Kirilenko began her preparation for the French Open at the Mutua Madrid Open. Seeded thirteenth, she was defeated in the third round by top seed, defending champion, and eventual champion Serena Williams. Seeded twelfth at the Italian Open, Kirilenko retired during her third-round match against seventh seed Sara Errani due to a left knee injury. Seeded twelfth at the French Open, Kirilenko defeated Nina Bratchikova, Ashleigh Barty to advance to the third round where she defeated Stefanie Vögele. In the fourth round, she defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands to reach her first quarterfinal at the French Open. She subsequently lost her quarterfinal match to her former doubles partner and third seed Victoria Azarenka. Her run in Paris catapulted her into the top 10 for the first time.  Seeded sixth at the Aegon International, Kirilenko was suffering from a knee injury, but she still made it through to the quarterfinal where she was defeated by Yanina Wickmayer. Seeded tenth at the Wimbledon Championships, Kirilenko suffered a first-round upset at the hands of home crowd favorite Laura Robson. As a result, Kirilenko dropped to No. 12 in the world rankings due to the fact that she was defending a quarterfinal appearance from 2012.  Kirilenko started her US Open series at the Rogers Cup. Seeded eleventh, she lost in the second round to Alizé Cornet. Seeded sixteenth at the Western & Southern Open, Kirilenko was defeated in the second round by Mona Barthel. Seeded fourteenth at the US Open, Kirilenko lost in the third round to twenty-first seed Simona Halep.  Kirilenko started the Asian swing at the Korea Open. Seeded second, she was defeated in the second round by Kimiko Date-Krumm. In Beijing at the China Open, Kirilenko lost in the third round to top seed and eventual champion Serena Williams. Seeded third at the Kremlin Cup, Kirilenko was defeated in the second round by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Injury ended her season at the Garanti Koza WTA Tournament of Champions in Sofia with a 0–5 retirement loss to Alizé Cornet.  Kirilenko ended the year ranked 19.

2014: Last season.

Kirilenko was not listed on any entry lists for 2014 tournaments, still recovering from the knee injury suffered in the Tournament of Champions in Sofia. She also missed the Australian Open due to the injury.  After missing the pair of Premier Mandatory events at Indian Wells and Miami, Kirilenko made her comeback at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston. Seeded tenth, she was upset in the first round by qualifier Belinda Bencic, who eventually reached her first WTA semifinal. At the Mutua Madrid Open, Kirilenko defeated qualifier Kristina Mladenovic in the first round to recorded her first victory of the year. She withdrew from her second-round match against qualifier Caroline Garcia due to a left wrist injury. In Rome at the Italian Open, Kirilenko lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round. Kirilenko exited in the first round at the French Open, winning three games against Johanna Larsson. As a result, her ranking plunged 44 places down to 88 after failing to defend quarterfinal points.  Kirilenko played the pre-Wimbledon tournament in Rosmalen at the Topshelf Open but lost to Mona Barthel in the first round. Kirilenko entered the Wimbledon Championships ranked 109, her lowest ranking in five years. She caused an upset by defeating eighteenth seed and the previous year's quarterfinalist Sloane Stephens in the first round. She was defeated in the second round by Peng Shuai.  After a month-long break, Kirilenko entered the US Open unseeded and drew fifth seed and 2006 champion Maria Sharapova in the first round. She lost the match in straight sets.  In Seoul, South Korea at the Korea Open, Kirilenko participated as a wildcard. She reached her first quarterfinal in 15 months by defeating Donna Vekić and third seed Klára Koukalová in her first two matches. She then defeated sixth seed Kaia Kanepi for a place in the semifinals. Her run came to an end in the hands of second seed and eventual champion Karolína Plíšková. Kirilenko played her final tournament of the season at the China Open. She was defeated in the first round by qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova.  Kirilenko ended the year ranked 186.

2015–present.

Between 2015 and 2017, Kirilenko gave birth to two children, and has since not returned to professional tennis; it is not known for certain whether or not Kirilenko will return to the game, as she has not competed professionally since 2014, and at present she is not ranked by the WTA.

Fashion.

In 2006, Kirilenko was selected to be the face of Adidas by Stella McCartney tennis range, designed by noted British fashion designer Stella McCartney and has played exclusively in the gear since the Australian Open. In 2009, she was replaced by Caroline Wozniacki following the US Open.  She appeared in the 2009 "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition" alongside Daniela Hantuchová and Tatiana Golovin in a pictorial entitled "Volley of the Dolls".

Personal life.

Kirilenko dated fellow Russian tennis player Igor Andreev for several years. They split in 2011.  In November 2011, Russian ice-hockey player Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals identified Kirilenko as his girlfriend on his Twitter account. On 31 December 2012, Ovechkin confirmed the rumors that he and Kirilenko were engaged. In July 2014, she called off her planned wedding saying in comments distributed by the Russian Tennis Federation that there were "a lot of reasons" behind her decision. Ovechkin had faced questions from Russian media about the relationship when he did not accompany Kirilenko to Wimbledon in June.  On 24 January 2015, Kirilenko got married but the name of her husband was not revealed until a few days later: she married Alexei Stepanov, reported to be the head of the Committee of Public Services in Moscow.  In July 2015, following a ten-month absence from professional tennis, it was reported that Kirilenko had given birth to a baby boy. In July 2017, Kirilenko gave birth to a baby girl.

Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko-Stepanova (; born 25 January 1987) is a former professional tennis player from Russia. She won the 2002 US Open Girls' Singles, and won her first title on the WTA Tour in 2005, defeating Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the China Open. She reached three Grand Slam singles quarterfinals, at the 2010 Australian Open, the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2013 French Open. In women's doubles, she reached two Grand Slam finals, at the 2011 Australian Open and the 2012 French Open, won the 2012 WTA Tour Championships and was a bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics. In June 2013, Kirilenko reached her career-high ranking of world No. 10. In September 2014, she played her last WTA event in Beijing.

Maria Kirilenko, née le à Moscou, est une joueuse de tennis russe, professionnelle depuis le 2001. Elle compte à ce jour six titres WTA en simple à son palmarès, dont l'Open de Chine décroché en 2005 face à Grönefeld en finale.


Life.

The oldest of ten children, he refused to exercise the right of the first-born son to the majority of his parents' wealth. He served under Jean Baptiste Kléber in the army of Sambre-et-Meuse, losing his left leg to a cannonball on December 17, 1795, but continuing in the army with a wooden leg, and joined Kléber on the Egyptian campaign.  Accompanying Napoleon on the French invasion of Egypt, he was present when Napoleon landed at Valletta to occupy Malta on 12 June 1798. Like the other French generals, he was impressed by its defences, saying to Napoleon, "Upon my word, General, it is lucky there is someone in the town to open the gates for us!" A saying arose about him among the expeditionary troops in France: "Caffa doesn't give a damn what happens; he's always sure to have one foot in France." He was elected a member of the Institut d'Égypte's political economy section on February 13, 1796, in the class of moral and political science, and formed part of the commission for drafting the Institute's regulations. He also accompanied Napoleon on the surveys to trace the route of what later become the Suez Canal.  He then had to have his right arm amputated when his elbow was smashed by a bullet during a new assault on Acre on April 9, 1799. He was just starting to learn to write with his left hand when gangrene struck, causing a fever that killed him. Napoleon wrote of him in the order of the day: "Our universal regrets accompany General Caffarelli to the grave; the army is losing one of its bravest leaders, Egypt one of its legislators, France one of its best citizens, and science, an illustrious scholar." He is the hero of Youssef Chahine's film "Adieu Bonaparte".

Louis-Marie-Joseph Maximilian Caffarelli du Falga (February 13, 1756 – 27 April 1799) was a French commander and scholar. His younger brothers Marie-François Auguste de Caffarelli du Falga (1766–1849) and Louis-Marie Joseph Caffarelli (1760–1845) were also generals.

Louis Marie Maximilien de Caffarelli du Falga, dit "Maximilien Caffarelli", né le au château du Falga (Haute-Garonne) et mort le au siège de Saint-Jean-d’Acre, est un général de brigade de la Révolution française, connu pour sa témérité, qui lui valut de nombreuses blessures, avant de mourir au combat.


Mariinsky Theatre.

In 1887 Cecchetti performed in St. Petersburg where Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of the Mariinsky Theatre saw him perform. He was so impressed with Cecchetti that he immediately hired Cecchetti as a principal dancer for the theatre. This was extremely rare at the time because normally dancers would be asked to join a company on a lower level.  With the introduction of the pointe shoe in the early 19th century, ballet was dominated by female performers using pointe technique. In many ways male technique had been reduced to the role of an actor whose responsibilities as a dancer were relegated to a servant who partnered the ballerina. Cecchetti immediately began transforming the traditionally conservative roles for the male dancer, making drastic changes to the choreography of the male variations featured in the works of the Imperial Ballet's repertory. In 1890, Cecchetti performed in the ground-breaking production of "The Sleeping Beauty", where his performance as the Bluebird caused a sensation in the auditorium of the Mariinsky Theatre. The choreography of the Bluebird has challenged male dancers even to the present day.  Cecchetti left the Imperial ballet in 1902 to accept the directorship of the Imperial Ballet School in Warsaw, Poland. His farewell gala at the Mariinsky Theatre featured all of the leading ballerinas of the day, many of whom were his students. In order to have everyone pay him homage, the "Paquita" Grand pas classique was performed with the inclusion of the favorite solos of all of the participating ballerinas. This led to the tradition of including a long suite of variations for several ballerinas.  In 1919 Cecchetti performed at the inaugural performance of the ballet "La Boutique fantasque" in London, appearing in the role of the shopkeeper.

Teaching.

In the tradition of classical ballet, techniques and parts are taught directly, person to person. The technique was passed on directly to Enrico Cecchetti, as he was taught by Giovanni Lepri, who in turn was taught by Carlo Blasis and the line can be traced back to Beauchamp the first ballet master at the court of Louis XIV. So, too, the Cecchetti method has been passed on directly by his former pupils such as Laura Wilson.  Cecchetti died in Milan on 13 November 1928.

Cecchetti Method.

Cecchetti created a ballet technique that is now known as the Cecchetti method. This technique is popular with past and present ballet teachers, remaining fresh and contemporary. After Cecchetti's death, Cyril Beaumont, Stanislas Idzikowsky, Margaret Craske and Derra de Moroda decided to codify Cecchetti's method so it could continue to be used by ballet teachers to perfect the technique of ballet dancers. Under the Cecchetti Method, dancers follow strict routines and daily exercises to develop all-around skills to support learning and performance of every kind of dance. This training method is used by many ballet companies around the world, including The National Ballet of Canada and Mont Albert Ballet School in Melbourne, Australia.

Enrico Cecchetti (; 21 June 1850 in Rome – 13 November 1928 in Milan) was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the "Teatro Tordinona" in Rome. After an illustrious career as a dancer in Europe, he went to dance for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he further honed his skills. Cecchetti was praised for his agility and strength in his performances, as well as his technical abilities in dance. By 1888, he was widely accepted as the greatest ballet virtuoso in the world.

Enrico Cecchetti (prononcer "tʃeketti") est un danseur, mime, chorégraphe, maître de ballet et pédagogue italien né à Rome le et mort à Milan le. Il est également connu pour être à l'origine de la méthode d'enseignement de la danse qui porte son nom. Cecchetti était connu pour sa puissance, son agilité et ses capacités techniques. Dès 1888, on le considère comme le danseur le plus "virtuose" au monde.


Biography.

Born in Paris into a Roman Catholic family originally from Burgundy, Gilson attended the minor seminary at Notre-Dame-des-Champs, then finished his secondary education at the Lycée Henri IV. After finishing his military service, during which he began to read René Descartes, he studied for his "licence" (bachelor's degree), focusing on the influence of scholasticism on Cartesian thought. After studying at the Sorbonne under Victor Delbos (1862–1916), and Lucien Lévy-Bruhl and at the Collège de France under Henri Bergson, he finished his degree in Philosophy in 1906. In 1908, he married Thérèse Ravisé of Melun, and he taught in the high schools of Bourg-en-Bresse, Rochefort, Tours, Saint-Quentin and Angers.  In 1913, while employed in teaching at the University of Lille, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Paris on "Liberty in Descartes and Theology". His career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, as he was drafted into the French Army as a sergeant. He served on the front and took part in the battle of Verdun as second lieutenant. He was captured in February 1916 and spent two years in captivity. During this time he devoted himself to new areas of study, including the Russian language and St. Bonaventure. He was later awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery in action.  In 1919, he became professor of the history of Philosophy at the University of Strasbourg. From 1921 to 1932, he taught the history of medieval philosophy at the University of Paris. As an internationally renowned thinker, Gilson was first, along with Jacques Maritain, to receive an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas ("Angelicum") in 1930.  He also taught for three years at Harvard. At the invitation of the Congregation of St. Basil, he set up the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto in conjunction with St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, which hosts an annual Étienne Gilson Lecture. He was elected to the Académie française in 1946.  With the death of his wife, Thérèse Ravisé, on 12 November 1949 Gilson endured a considerable emotional shock.  In 1951, he relinquished his chair to Martial Gueroult at the Collège de France to devote himself completely to the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies until 1968. He knew the Jesuit theologian and cardinal Henri de Lubac. Their correspondence has been published. Although Gilson was primarily a historian of philosophy, he was also at the forefront of the 20th century revival of Thomism, along with Jacques Maritain. His work has received critical praise from Richard McKeon.

Work.

Gilson undertook to analyze Thomism from a historical perspective. To Gilson, Thomism is certainly not identical with scholasticism in the pejorative sense, but indeed rather a revolt against it. Gilson considered the philosophy of his own era to be deteriorating into a science which would signal humanity's abdication of the right to judge and rule nature, humanity made a mere part of nature, which in turn would give the green light for the most reckless of social adventures to play havoc with human lives and institutions. Against "systems" of philosophy, Gilson was convinced that it was the revival of the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas that opens the way out of that danger zone.  In his time, Gilson was the leading scholar of the history of medieval philosophy as well as a highly regarded philosopher in his own right. His works continue to be reprinted and studied today — perhaps alone among "Thomist" philosophers, his work and reputation have not suffered from the general decline of interest in and regard for medieval philosophy since the 1960s.  Gilson's "Painting and Reality" (1957), was also published in English.

Étienne Henri Gilson (; 13 June 1884 – 19 September 1978) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy. A scholar of medieval philosophy, he originally specialised in the thought of Descartes, yet also philosophized in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas, although he did not consider himself a Neo-Thomist philosopher. In 1946 he attained the distinction of being elected an "Immortal" (member) of the Académie française. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Étienne Henry Gilson, né le à Paris () et mort le à Auxerre (Yonne), est un philosophe et historien français.


Biography.

Clerke started studying at the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth when he was 13. During the Seven Years' War he served aboard HMS "Dorsetshire " and HMS "Bellona". He was in the mizzen-top of HMS Bellona when the mast was shot away in 1761 and he became the only survivor of those who consequently fell overboard.  In June 1764 he joined Captain John Byron, aboard HMS "Dolphin", on Byron's expedition to explore the Pacific. The Dolphin returned in May 1766. Its circumnavigation of 22 months was the shortest up to that point. Upon his return Clerke published an account of encountering Patagonian giants, a hoax which the Dictionary of Canadian Biography attributed to his high spirits.  Clerke's last three voyages were all under the command of Captain James Cook. He started the first voyage aboard HM Bark "Endeavour" (1768–1771) as a master's mate. Cook promoted him to acting lieutenant in 1771, and he was officially confirmed in that rank on 31 July 1771. He was HMS "Resolution"'s second lieutenant on Cook's second voyage (1772–1775).  While ashore between Cook's 2nd and 3rd voyages Clerke agreed to serve time in the King's Bench debtor's prison for a debt one of his brothers, Sir John Clerke had incurred. While in debtor's prison he was infected with the tuberculosis that eventually killed him.  For Cook's third expedition, Clerke was placed in command of HMS "Discovery", receiving this command on 26 August 1775. When Cook was killed in a skirmish with Hawaiians on 14 February 1779, Clerke took command of the expedition and of HMS "Resolution". He continued the expedition's exploration of the Northern Pacific coast, searching for a navigable Northwest Passage. The expedition then proceeded to the Pacific coast of Siberia. Lieutenant James King, one of his subordinates, wrote that Clerke's illness had reduced him to skeletal thinness. On 10 August 1779, Clerke wrote in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks that, "The disorder I was attacked with in the King's bench prison has proved consumptive, with which I have battled with various [unclear] although without one single days health since I took leave of you... it has now so far got the better of me that I am not able to turn myself in bed, so that my stay in this world must be of very short duration." Clerke died from tuberculosis on his 38th birthday (22 August 1779) en route to Kamchatka from the Bering Strait. He was buried in Kamchatka on 29 August 1779. Clerke's second in command, Lieutenant John Gore took command of the expedition as captain of "Resolution," appointing King as captain of "Discovery." The expedition then sailed via China and the Sunda Strait to Cape Town, returning to England in August 1780.  In 1913, the British Admiralty erected a small obelisk in Clerke's honour at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia, with an inscription in English.

Captain Charles Clerke (22 August 1741 – 22 August 1779) was an officer in the Royal Navy who sailed on four voyages of exploration, three with Captain James Cook. When Cook was killed during his 3rd expedition to the Pacific, Clerke took command but died later in the voyage from tuberculosis.

Charles Clerke, né en 1741 et mort en 1779, est un navigateur britannique, qui participa aux trois expéditions dans le Pacifique du capitaine James Cook. Lors de la (1776-1779), il commanda le "Discovery".


Life and career.

Hermant was born in Paris, the son of an architect. He received a degree from the École Normale Supérieure in 1880, and published his first volume of verse in 1883, "The Contempt". After several youthful novels, he moved to ironic analysis of the popular mores of the Belle Époque and achieved popular success. His first semi-autobiographical novel, "Monsieur Rabosson" of 1884, established his reputation as a satirical social observer. Its follow-up "Le Cavalier Miserey" of 1887, dealt with the issue of homosexuals in the military.  Between 1901 and 1937 Hermant embarked on a series of 20 linked novels with the general title "Memoirs to Serve for a History of Society", but his contributions to literature included many popular plays, drama criticism for "Le Figaro" and "Gil Blas", and a series of grammarian articles for "Le Temps" under the name "Lancelot" defending the purity of the French language.  By 1899 Hermant was well-connected in society; for instance he was the guest of Anna de Noailles at Évian-les-Bains, where he became friends with Marcel Proust. After a number of tries Hermant was elected to the Académie française on 30 June 1927.  During World War II Hermant's contributions to Jean Luchaire's pro-Nazi evening daily newspaper "Les Nouveaux Temps", beginning in 1940, his open support of the Vichy regime, and his criticisms of the French Army, marked him as a collaborator. At over 80 years of age, he was sentenced to life in prison on 15 December 1945. Hermant achieved the negative distinction of being one of the four "immortals" removed from the Académie française after World War II for collaboration with Germany. Hermant and Abel Bonnard were expelled outright, in disgrace; Charles Maurras of Action Française and Marshal Philippe Pétain had their seats declared vacant and were not replaced until their deaths.  Pardoned and released in 1948, Abel Hermant tried to justify his conduct during the Occupation in his "Thirteenth Notebook". He died shortly thereafter.

Abel Hermant (3 February 1862 – 29 September 1950) was a French novelist, playwright, essayist and writer, and member of the Académie française.

Abel Hermant, né le à Paris et mort le à Chantilly, est un écrivain et dramaturge français. Son œuvre est abondante et comporte plus de 150 romans, 11 pièces de théâtre, de nombreux essais et de très nombreux articles parus dans les journaux comme "Le Figaro", "Le Temps", "Paris-Midi" ou "Le Matin".


Story.

Madoc's purported father, Owain Gwynedd, was a real king of Gwynedd during the 12th century and is widely considered one of the greatest Welsh rulers of the Middle Ages. His reign was fraught with battles with other Welsh princes and with Henry II of England. At his death in 1170, a bloody dispute broke out between his heir, Hywel the Poet-Prince, and Owain's younger sons, Maelgwn, Rhodri, and led by Dafydd, two the children of the Princess-Dowager Cristen ferch Gronwy and one the child of Gwladus ferch Llywarch. Owain had at least 13 children from his two wives and several more children born out of wedlock but legally acknowledged under Welsh tradition. According to the legend, Madoc and his brother (Rhirid or Rhiryd) were among them, though no contemporary record attests to this.  The 1584 "Historie of Cambria" by David Powel says that Madoc was disheartened by this family fighting, and that he and Rhirid set sail from Llandrillo (Rhos-on-Sea) in the cantref of Rhos to explore the western ocean with a number of ships. They purportedly discovered a distant and abundant land in 1170 where about one hundred men, women and children disembarked to form a colony. According to Humphrey Llwyd's 1559 "Cronica Walliae", Madoc and some others returned to Wales to recruit additional settlers. After gathering several ships of men, women and children, the Prince and his recruiters sailed west a second time to "that Westerne countrie" and ported in "Mexico", never to return to Wales again.  Madoc's landing place has also been suggested to be "Mobile, Alabama; Florida; Newfoundland; Newport, Rhode Island; Yarmouth, Nova Scotia; Virginia; points in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean including the mouth of the Mississippi River; the Yucatan; the isthmus of Tehuantepec, Panama; the Caribbean coast of South America; various islands in the West Indies and the Bahamas along with Bermuda; and the mouth of the Amazon River". Although the folklore tradition acknowledges that no witness ever returned from the second colonial expedition to report this, the story continues that Madoc's colonists travelled up the vast river systems of North America, raising structures and encountering friendly and unfriendly tribes of Native Americans before finally settling down somewhere in the Midwest or the Great Plains. They are reported to be the founders of various civilisations such as the Aztec, the Maya and the Inca.

Sources.

The Madoc story evidently originated in medieval romance. There are allusions to what may have been a sea voyage tale akin to "The Voyage of Saint Brendan", but no detailed version of it survives.  The earliest certain reference to a seafaring Madoc or Madog appears in a "cywydd" by the Welsh poet Maredudd ap Rhys ("fl." 1450–83) of Powys, which mentions a Madog who is a son or descendant of Owain Gwynedd and who voyaged to the sea. The poem is addressed to a local squire, thanking him for a fishing net on a patron's behalf. Madog is referred to as "Splendid Madog... / Of Owain Gwynedd's line, / He desired not land... / Or worldy wealth but the sea."  A Flemish writer called Willem, in around 1250 to 1255, identifies himself in his poem "Van den Vos Reinaerde" as "Willem die Madoc maecte" (Willem, the author of Madoc, known as "Willem the Minstrel"). Though no copies of "Madoc" survive, Gwyn Williams tells us that "In the seventeenth century a fragment of a reputed copy of the work is said to have been found in Poitiers". It provides no topographical details relating to North America, but mentions a sea that may be the Sargasso Sea and says that Madoc (not related to Owain in the fragment according to Gwyn Williams) discovered an island paradise, where he intended "to launch a new kingdom of love and music". There are also claims that the Welsh poet and genealogist Gutun Owain wrote about Madoc before 1492. Gwyn Williams in "Madoc, the Making of a Myth", makes it clear that Madoc is not mentioned in any of Owain's surviving manuscripts.  The Madoc legend attained its greatest prominence during the Elizabethan era, when Welsh and English writers used it to bolster British claims in the New World versus those of Spain. The earliest surviving full account of Madoc's voyage, the first to make the claim that Madoc had come to America before Columbus, appears in Humphrey Llwyd's "Cronica Walliae" (published in 1559), an English adaptation of the "Brut y Tywysogion".  John Dee used Llwyd's manuscript when he submitted the treatise "Title Royal" to Queen Elizabeth in 1580, which stated that "The Lord Madoc, sonne to Owen Gwynned, Prince of Gwynedd, led a Colonie and inhabited in Terra Florida or thereabouts" in 1170. The story was first published by George Peckham's as "A True Report of the late Discoveries of the Newfound Landes" (1583), and like Dee it was used to support English claims to the Americas. It was picked up in David Powel's "Historie of Cambria" (1584), and Richard Hakluyt's "The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation" (1589). Dee went so far as to assert that Brutus of Troy and King Arthur as well as Madoc had conquered lands in the Americas and therefore their heir Elizabeth I of England had a priority claim there.  Thomas Herbert popularised the stories told by Dee and Powel, adding more detail from sources unknown, suggesting that Madoc may have landed in Canada, Florida, or even Mexico, and reporting that Mexican sources stated that they used currachs.  The "Welsh Indians" were not claimed until later. Morgan Jones's tract is the first account, and was printed by "The Gentleman's Magazine", launching a slew of publications on the subject. There is no genetic or archaeological evidence that the Mandan are related to the Welsh, however, and John Evans and Lewis and Clark reported they had found no Welsh Indians. The Mandan are still alive today; the tribe was decimated by a smallpox epidemic in 1837–1838 and banded with the nearby Hidatsa and Arikara into the Three Affiliated Tribes.  The Welsh Indian legend was revived in the 1840s and 1850s; this time the Zunis, Hopis, and Navajo were claimed to be of Welsh descent by George Ruxton (Hopis, 1846), P. G. S. Ten Broeck (Zunis, 1854), and Abbé Emmanuel Domenach (Zunis, 1860), among others. Brigham Young became interested in the supposed Hopi-Welsh connection: in 1858 Young sent a Welshman with Jacob Hamblin to the Hopi mesas to check for Welsh-speakers there. None was found, but in 1863 Hamblin brought three Hopi men to Salt Lake City, where they were "besieged by Welshmen wanting them to utter Celtic words", to no avail.  Llewellyn Harris, a Welsh-American Mormon missionary who visited the Zuni in 1878, wrote that they had many Welsh words in their language, and that they claimed their descent from the "Cambaraga"—white men who had come by sea 300 years before the Spanish. However, Harris's claims have never been independently verified.

Welsh Indians.

On 26 November 1608, Peter Wynne, a member of Captain Christopher Newport's exploration party to the villages of the Monacan people, Virginia Siouan speakers above the falls of the James River in Virginia, wrote a letter to John Egerton, informing him that some members of Newport's party believed the pronunciation of the Monacans' language resembled "Welch", which Wynne spoke, and asked Wynne to act as interpreter. The Monacan were among those non-Algonquian tribes collectively referred to by the Algonquians as "Mandoag".  Another early settler to claim an encounter with a Welsh-speaking Indian was the Reverend Morgan Jones, who told Thomas Lloyd, William Penn's deputy, that he had been captured in 1669 in North Carolina by members of tribe identified as the Doeg, who were said to be a part of the Tuscarora. (However, there is no evidence that the Doeg proper were part of the Tuscarora.) According to Jones, the chief spared his life when he heard Jones speak Welsh, a tongue he understood. Jones' report says that he then lived with the Doeg for several months preaching the Gospel in Welsh and then returned to the British Colonies where he recorded his adventure in 1686. The historian Gwyn A. Williams comments, "This is a complete farrago and may have been intended as a hoax". Folk tradition has long claimed that a site called "Devil's Backbone" at Rose Island, about fourteen miles upstream from Louisville, Kentucky, was once home to a colony of Welsh-speaking Indians. The eighteenth-century Missouri River explorer John Evans of Waunfawr in Wales took up his journey in part to find the Welsh-descended "Padoucas" or "Madogwys" tribes.  Early visitors referred to a rock formation on Fort Mountain in Georgia as a fort, speculating that it was built by Hernando de Soto to defend against the Muscogee around 1540. This theory was contradicted as early as 1917, as a historian pointed out that de Soto was in the area for less than two weeks. Archaeologists believe the stones were placed there by indigenous peoples. There is also a theory that the "Welsh Caves" in DeSoto State Park, northeastern Alabama, were built by Madoc's party, since local native tribes were not known to have ever practised such stonework or excavation as was found on the site.  In 1810, John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, wrote to his friend Major Amos Stoddard about a conversation he had in 1782 with the old Cherokee chief Oconostota concerning ancient fortifications built along the Alabama River. The chief allegedly told him that the forts were built by a white people called "Welsh", as protection against the ancestors of the Cherokee, who eventually drove them from the region. Sevier had also written in 1799 of the alleged discovery of six skeletons in brass armour bearing the Welsh coat-of-arms. He claims that Madoc and the Welsh were first in Alabama.  In 1824, Thomas S. Hinde wrote a letter to John S. Williams, editor of The American Pioneer, regarding the Madoc Tradition. In the letter, Hinde claimed to have gathered testimony from numerous sources that stated Welsh people under Owen Ap Zuinch had come to America in the twelfth century, over three hundred years before Christopher Columbus. Hinde claimed that in 1799, six soldiers had been dug up near Jeffersonville, Indiana, on the Ohio River with breastplates that contained Welsh coats-of-arms.

Encounters with Welsh Indians.

Thomas Jefferson had heard of Welsh-speaking Indian tribes. In a letter written to Meriwether Lewis by Jefferson on 22 January 1804, he speaks of searching for the Welsh Indians "said to be up the Missouri". The historian Stephen E. Ambrose writes in his history book "Undaunted Courage" that Thomas Jefferson believed the "Madoc story" to be true and instructed the Lewis and Clark Expedition to find the descendants of the Madoc Welsh Indians.

Mandans.

In all, at least thirteen real tribes, five unidentified tribes, and three unnamed tribes have been suggested as "Welsh Indians." Eventually, the legend settled on identifying the Welsh Indians with the Mandan people, who were said to differ from their neighbours in culture, language, and appearance. The painter George Catlin suggested the Mandans were descendants of Madoc and his fellow voyagers in "North American Indians" (1841); he found the round Mandan Bull Boat similar to the Welsh coracle, and he thought the advanced architecture of Mandan villages must have been learned from Europeans (advanced North American societies such as the Mississippian and Hopewell traditions were not well known in Catlin's time). Supporters of this claim have drawn links between Madoc and the Mandan mythological figure "Lone Man", who, according to one tale, protected some villagers from a flooding river with a wooden corral.

Later writings.

Several attempts to confirm Madoc's historicity have been made, but historians of early America, notably Samuel Eliot Morison, regard the story as a myth. Madoc's legend has been a notable subject for poets, however. The most famous account in English is Robert Southey's long 1805 poem "Madoc", which uses the story to explore the poet's freethinking and egalitarian ideals. Fittingly, Southey wrote "Madoc" to help finance a trip of his own to America, where he and Samuel Taylor Coleridge hoped to establish a Utopian state they called a "Pantisocracy". Southey's poem in turn inspired the twentieth-century poet Paul Muldoon to write "Madoc: A Mystery", which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1992. It explores what may have happened if Southey and Coleridge had succeeded in coming to America to found their "ideal state". In Russian, the noted poet Alexander S. Pushkin composed a short poem "Madoc in Wales" (Медок в Уаллах, 1829) on the topic.  John Smith, historian of Virginia, wrote in 1624 of the "Chronicles of Wales" reports Madoc went to the New World in 1170 A.D. (over 300 years before Columbus) with some men and women. Smith says the "Chronicles" say Madoc then went back to Wales to get more people and made a second trip back to the New World.

Legacy.

The township of Madoc, Ontario, and the nearby village of Madoc are both named in the prince's memory, as are several local guest houses and pubs throughout North America and the United Kingdom. The Welsh town of Porthmadog (meaning "Madoc's Port" in English) and the village of Tremadog ("Madoc's Town") in the county of Gwynedd are actually named after the industrialist and Member of Parliament William Alexander Madocks, their principal developer, and additionally influenced by the legendary son of Owain Gwynedd, Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd.  The "Prince Madog", a research vessel owned by the University of Wales and P&O Maritime, set sail on 26 July 2001, on her maiden voyage.  A plaque at Fort Mountain State Park in Georgia recounts a nineteenth-century interpretation of the ancient stone wall that gives the site its name. The plaque repeats Tennessee governor John Sevier's statement that the Cherokees believed "a people called Welsh" had built a fort on the mountain long ago to repel Indian attacks. The plaque has been changed, leaving no reference to Madoc or the Welsh.  In 1953, the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a plaque at Fort Morgan on the shores of Mobile Bay, Alabama, reading:  The plaque was removed by the Alabama Parks Service in 2008 and put in storage. Since then there has been much controversy over efforts to get the plaque reinstalled.

Madoc, also spelled Madog, ab Owain Gwynedd was, according to folklore, a Welsh prince who sailed to America in 1170, over three hundred years before Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492. According to the story, he was a son of Owain Gwynedd, and took to the sea to flee internecine violence at home. The "Madoc story" legend evidently evolved out of a medieval tradition about a Welsh hero's sea voyage, to which only allusions survive. However, it attained its greatest prominence during the Elizabethan era, when English and Welsh writers wrote of the claim that Madoc had come to the Americas as an assertion of prior discovery, and hence legal possession, of North America by the Kingdom of England.

Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd (également connu sous les noms de Madog ou encore Madawg) était un prince gallois qui aurait découvert l'Amérique en 1170, soit trois cents ans avant Christophe Colomb. Il y a eu beaucoup de spéculations d'historiens sur Madoc, mais la plupart pensent qu'il n'a jamais fait ce voyage, et certains affirment qu'il est possible que Madoc n’ait même pas existé.


Early life.

Abu Hurayrah was from the Arab tribe of Banu Daws and was born in the region of Bani Daws which was in Asir at that time. His father had died, leaving him with only his mother and no other relatives.

His name.

His name is disputed among Muslim scholars. His name is said to be "Abd al-Rahman Ibn Sakhr","Abul Rahman Ibn Ghnam", abd al rehman ibn e yaqub"Abd Ibn Ghnam", "abd Nahm Ibn 'Amir", "Abd Shams Ibn 'Amir", "'Omir Ibn 'Amir", "Abd Shams Ibn Sakhr", "'Amir Ibn Abd Ghnam", "Sikin Ibn Mal", "Sikin Ibn Hana'", "'Amr Ibn Abd Shams", "Amr Ibd Abd Nihm", "Sikin Ibn Jabir", "Yazid Ibn 'Ashrqah", "Abdullah Ibn 'Aith", "Sikin Ibn Wathmah", "Borir Ibn 'Ashraqah" or "Saeed Ibn Al-Haryth". His birth name is also disputed among Muslim scholars, his birth name is said to be "Abd Shams", "Abdallah", "Sikin", "'Amir", "Borir", "Amr", "Saeed", "Abd Amr", "Abd Ghnam", "Abd Yalil" or "Abd Tim".

Life as a Muslim.

Abu Hurairah embraced Islam through Tufayl ibn Amr, the chieftain of his tribe. Tufayl had returned to his village after meeting Muhammad and become a Muslim in the early years of his mission. Abu Hurairah was one of the first to respond to his call, unlike the majority of Tufayl's tribesmen, who embraced Islam later. Abu Hurairah accompanied Tufayl to Mecca to meet Muhammad who renamed him Abd al-Rahman ("servant of the Merciful"). Abu Hurairah then returned to his tribe to live for many years.

Military campaigns during Muhammad's era.

He was present during the Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa‘. Some scholars claim, the expedition took place in the Najd, a large area of tableland in the Arabian Peninsula in Rabi‘ II or Jumada al-awwal, 4 AH (or the beginning of 5 AH). They substantiate their claim by saying that it was strategically necessary to carry out this campaign in order to quell the rebellious bedouins in order to meet the exigencies of the agreed upon encounter with the polytheists, i.e. minor Badr Battle in Sha‘ban, 4 A.H. Muhammed received the news that certain tribes of the Ghatafan were assembling at Dhat al-Riqa‘ with suspicious purposes.  Muhammad proceeded towards Najd at the head of 400 or 700 men. In his absence, he mandated the affairs of Medina to Abu Dhar al-Ghifari (or according to Umayyad tradition, Uthman ibn Affan). The Muslim fighters penetrated deep into their land until they reached a spot called Nakhla, where they came across some bedouins of Ghatfan.  However, the opinion according to Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri in his "The Sealed Nectar", is that the Dhat ar-Riqa‘ campaign took place after the fall of Khaybar and not as part of the invasion of the Najd. This is supported by the fact that Abu Hurayrah and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari witnessed the battle. Abu Hurairah embraced Islam only some days before Khaibar, and Abu Musa Al-Ash‘ari came back from Abyssinia and joined Muhammad at Khaybar. The rules relating to the prayer of fear which Muhammad observed at Dhat Ar-Riqa‘ campaign, were revealed at the Invasion of the 'Asfan and this, scholars say, took place after the Battle of the Trench.

Death and legacy.

Following the death of Muhammad, Abu Hurayrah spent the rest of his life teaching hadith in Medina, except for a short period as governor of Eastern Arabia (then called "Bahrayn") during the reign of Umar, and when he was the governor of Medina during the early Umayyad Caliphate. Abu Hurayrah died in 681CE (59AH) at the age of 78 and was buried at al-Baqi'.

Other views.

According to the Richard Gottheil and Hartwig Hirschfeld, Abu Hurairah was one of the close disciples of Ka'ab al-Ahbar.

Reliability as Hadith Source.

Although credited with over 5000 hadith (A. Kevin Reinhart states that 5,374 hadith have been attributed to Abu Hurairah), Al-Bukhari's biography of the Prophet Muhammad noted that Abu Hurairah was a minor companion and a late convert to Islam who only spent approximately 2 years and 3 months in the company of the Prophet. In contrast to Hurairah, Prophet Muhammad's closest companions are credited with far less hadith; Abu Bakr is credited with 142 hadith, Uthman ibn Affan with 146, Umar ibn Khattab with 537, and Ali ibn Abi Talib with no more than 586 hadith. This discrepancy between attributed hadith and Abu Hurairah's minor role and limited time with the Prophet has been called into question by a number of scholars who argue that Abu Hurairah's accounts are unreliable sources of hadith. Scholar Abdullah Saeed on this occasion points out that Umar bin Khattab, during his tenure as a caliph, threatened Abu Hurairah on a number of occasions with banishment due to his frequent misquoting of the Prophet's words. During his lifetime, Abu Hurairah was noted as a blatant self-promoter who often made up hadith based on his limited interaction with the prophet. However, later jurists had often taken Abu Hurairah's word seriously and frequently used them uncritically in later rulings. A Shia Islam source (Islamquest, Porch of Wisdom Institute) quotes hadith saying that Umar ibn Khattab had Abu Hurairah whipped as well as threatened with banishment.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Sakhr Ad-Dausi ( ; 603–681), better known as Abu Hurairah, was one of the sahabah (companions) of Muhammad and, according to Sunni Islam, the most prolific narrator of hadith. He was known by the "kunyah" Abu Hurayrah "Father of a Kitten", in reference to his attachment to cats, and he was a member of Ashab al-Suffa. It is unclear as to what his real name is, the most popular opinion being that it was ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣakhr (). Abu Hurayrah spent 2 years 3 months approximately in the company of Muhammad and went on expeditions and journeys with him. He is credited with narrating at least 5374 Ahadith.

'Abd al-Rahman ibn Sakhr ad-Dawsi (en ), ou Abu Hurayra, né entre 601 et 604 et mort entre 676 et 679, est un célèbre sahabi, ou compagnon du prophète de Dieu, Mahomet. Il est le principal rapporteur de hadith ("Muhaddith") cité dans l'isnad des hadith rapportés par les musulmans. Il fréquenta Mahomet moins de quatre ans, et on estime qu'il a transmis.


Early life.

Theodahad was a nephew of Theodoric the Great through his mother Amalafrida. He is probably the son of Amalafrida's first husband because her second marriage was about 500 AD. His sister was Amalaberga.  He may have arrived in Italy with Theodoric and was elderly at the time of his accession. Massimiliano Vitiello states the name "Theodahad" is a compound of 'people' and 'conflict'.  Before becoming king, his kinswoman Amalaswintha ruled. During her rule, potential enemies were murdered or humiliated. Theodahad was accused of land grabbing and forced to return land he had supposedly stolen.

King.

He arrested his first cousin Amalaswintha, former regent of the Ostrogoths from 526 to October 534, while they co-ruled as queen and king. He imprisoned her in the spring of 535 on an island in Lake Bolsena. When Amalaswintha was assassinated while in custody, his enemies claimed he acquiesced to her murder. Since her assassination would likely separate him from her power base, this was unlikely.  Political instability within the kingdom served as a pretext for Byzantine general Belisarius to intervene in Sicily and Italy, in the service of Emperor Justinian, causing the Gothic Wars.  When his ineffectiveness in the war caused Theodahad to lose control, Witiges sent Optaris to retrieve him dead or alive, and Witigis became king.  He was notable for his adoration for Neoplatonic philosophy and poetry over martial prowess. His focus on erudition instead of bellicosity, in a time when Italy was consumed by turmoil, is claimed to be a reason for his downfall.

In fiction.

Theodahad (as "Thiudahad") appears as a character in the alternate history novel "Lest Darkness Fall", by L. Sprague de Camp.

Theodahad, also known as Thiudahad (; born 480 AD in Tauresium – December 536) was king of the Ostrogoths from 534 to 536.

Théodat ou Theudahat (Thiudahad, en gotique ) (vers 480- 536), neveu de Théodoric le Grand par sa sœur Amalafrède, est roi des Ostrogoths de 534 à 536.


History.

1991: Formation.

Prior to the formation of Rosenstolz, native Berliner AnNa R. had ambitions of becoming a bar singer, whereas Plate was a member of a short-lived band while living in Braunschweig. The duo first met shortly after Plate had moved to Berlin in December 1990. They were put in contact with each other by the landlord of Plate's flat, who knew that singer AnNa R. was looking for a pianist and that keyboard player Plate needed a singer. The duo first met in AnNa R.'s flat and went on to Plate's flat the same evening, where they recorded a song together.  The duo began to meet regularly to work on new songs despite their different music tastes – AnNa R. had a preference for singing chanson, while Plate's interests lay in making English-language pop music. They initially attempted to work with English songs, but they were not satisfied with the results and consequently turned to German, their mother tongue. Within about 4 months, they had enough material to produce their first cassette and were eager to give their first concert. They considered various possibilities for the name of their band, one of the early favourites being "A & P", but eventually settled on "Rosenstolz", a made-up name which somehow occurred to them and which immediately appealed to them.  The first Rosenstolz concert took place on 4 October 1991 in Berlin at the Galerie Bellevue, where most of the people present were friends of the duo. The next concert at the SchwuZ gay club in Berlin on 7 December 1991 was in front of an audience of 400 people. However, the members of the audience, who were waiting for the main act, became restless after Rosenstolz had played a few songs and eventually shouted at the duo.

1992–1995: "Soubrette werd' ich nie", "Nur einmal noch" and "Mittwoch is' er fällig".

Rosenstolz continued to perform live following the initial concerts and was soon discovered by record producer Tom Müller, who had previously worked with German singer Nina Hagen. Recording began on the band's debut album, "Soubrette werd' ich nie", which was released towards the end of 1992 by indie label Pool. However, the album received little attention and was not a commercial success. Müller was not concerned whether the album would be a hit or not and provided AnNa R. and Plate with temporary financial support so that they could devote more time to writing new songs for the next Rosenstolz album and to performing live.  Eventually, Rosenstolz was giving around 10 concerts per month, mostly in the eastern states of Germany. By 1993, the band was able to hold – according to Plate – its first proper concert, which took place at the WABE culture centre in Berlin and had 600 fans attending. Two years later, the band's planned concert at the Metropol in Berlin quickly sold out, resulting in the band deciding to hold an additional concert at the same venue. The audience of 1500 people at the Metropol was the band's largest to date.  An article in Berlin newspaper "Berliner Zeitung" gave a preview of the Metropol concerts, one of the comments being:""Ihre Musik lebt von wohldosierten Stilbrüchen – von perlendem Sopran zu Synthesizerklängen, von Elektropopgedudel zu Texten von milder Melancholie und von AnNa R.s Rollenspielen zwischen göttlicher Garbo und Großstadtschlampe."" ("Their music lives on well measured changes in style – from sparkling soprano to synthesizer sounds, from electropop racket to lyrics of mild melancholy, and on AnNa R.'s role plays from divine Garbo to big-city tart.")  Rosenstolz also recorded two further studio albums: "Nur einmal noch" (1994) and "Mittwoch is' er fällig" (1995). Both were released by Traumton Records, a small record label to which the band had moved following a disagreement with Pool. The first single from "Nur einmal noch", also of the same name, received frequent airplay on local radio in Berlin, helping to give the band more exposure. At the same time, the discos in Berlin started to play Rosenstolz's music.

1996–1999: "Objekt der Begierde", "Die Schlampen sind müde" and "Zucker".

By the mid-nineties, major record labels were starting to show an interest in Rosenstolz. After considering various offers, AnNa R. and Plate decided to switch to Polydor Records, where they were able to retain their artistic independence. The move to a major label meant that the costs of producing Rosenstolz's albums were no longer borne by Müller, but instead by the record label. In addition, more resources were now available to Rosenstolz, such as the use of a 20-piece string ensemble for the production of the song"Der Moment". The song was part of Rosenstolz's next studio album, "Objekt der Begierde", which was released in 1996 and coincided with a tour that took place between May and December, with a break for the summer. During the tour, Rosenstolz saw increased audience numbers in the western states of Germany and performed in front of over 4000 people at the final concert in Berlin.  In 1997, Rosenstolz was invited by the Goethe-Institut to perform at a concert in Novosibirsk, Russia. The audience of about 10,000 people was the band's largest so far. Towards the end of the year, Rosenstolz went on a concert tour and entered the German charts for the first time with "Die Schlampen sind müde", the band's fifth studio album. Despite the lack of airplay, the album remained in the charts for several weeks, peaking at No. 31.  Rosenstolz gained more exposure in 1998 by participating in the televised competition to find Germany's next representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. Although Rosenstolz did not win and came second, the song performed by the band, "Herzensschöner", was the first Rosenstolz song to enter the German singles chart, peaking at No. 34. "Herzensschöner"was included in the Rosenstolz compilation album "Alles Gute", which was released in April 1998 and directly followed by a concert tour. The album itself reached No. 10 in the German albums chart.  Also in 1998, Rosenstolz parted ways with Müller. Rosenstolz's next studio album, "Zucker", was produced by Plate and released in 1999. It charted more highly than the band's previous album, entering the charts at No. 2. Rosenstolz toured the same year and released the band's first live album, "Zuckerschlampen:live", which also charted highly, entering the charts at No. 5.  Rosenstolz additionally released the song "Ja, ich will" in 1999, which was in support of the introduction of same-sex marriage. At the time, Germany had not yet legalized registered partnerships for same-sex couples. The song was a collaboration with German comedian Hella von Sinnen, who sang a duet with Plate in the song.

2000–2004: "Kassengift", "Macht Liebe" and "Herz".

The start of the new millennium saw Rosenstolz topping the German albums chart for the first time with "Kassengift", the band's seventh studio album. Released in September 2000, "Kassengift" was the first Rosenstolz album to credit Ulf Leo Sommer, Plate's partner since 1990, as both co-songwriter and co-producer. The release of the album coincided with Rosenstolz starting to receive airplay on music television stations through the music video for "Amo Vitam", a song from the album sung entirely in Latin. Immediately following the release of "Kassengift", Rosenstolz went on a concert tour which included four concerts in the Columbiahalle in Berlin.  Two songs from "Kassengift" – "Total Eclipse"and"Die schwarze Witwe" – were re-recorded with guest singers Marc Almond and Nina Hagen, respectively, and released as a double single in March 2001. Later that year, Rosenstolz went on another concert tour and released the single "Es könnt' ein Anfang sein", which became the band's first top 10 hit in the German singles chart.  Rosenstolz's next studio album, "Macht Liebe", came out in September 2002 and differed from earlier albums by featuring songs with electronic sounds reminiscent of the Neue Deutsche Welle. "Macht Liebe" reached No. 3 in the German albums chart, and the accompanying concert tour was a sell-out, including seven sold-out concerts in the Columbiahalle in Berlin. At the concerts, Rosenstolz performed "Laut", an anti-war protest song which preceded the 2003 invasion of Iraq.  The summer of 2003 saw the release of Rosenstolz's second live album and first live DVD album. Both were titled "Live aus Berlin" and recorded during the Macht Liebe tour. Rosenstolz's first open-air concert tour also took place that summer, ending in Berlin in front of an audience of 17,000 people at the Kindl-Bühne Wuhlheide.  In March 2004, Rosenstolz's ninth studio album, "Herz", was released, featuring a mix of ballads and pop and rock songs. "Herz" reached gold status after one week and then platinum status shortly afterwards. It also went to No. 1 in the German albums chart. The singles "Liebe ist alles", "Ich will mich verlieben"and"Willkommen" from the album were top 10 hits in the German singles chart, and over 150,000 fans attended the concert tour following the album's release. The last concert of the tour, which took place outdoors at the Kindl-Bühne Wuhlheide in Berlin, was recorded and released as the live DVD album "Willkommen in unserer Welt" (2004). The song"Liebe ist alles"was later covered by singers Melanie C and Grégory Lemarchal: their versions of the song are titled"Let There Be Love"(2011) and"Je Deviens Moi"(2005), respectively.

2005–2011: "Das große Leben", "Die Suche geht weiter" and "Wir sind am Leben".

During the whole of 2005, Rosenstolz took a break from public appearances and worked on "Das große Leben", the band's tenth studio album, which was released in March 2006. Consisting mostly of ballads, the album was the most successful in the band's history, staying at No. 1 in the German albums chart for four consecutive weeks and selling over one million copies. It was also the band's first album to top the Austrian albums chart and to enter the top 10 of the Swiss albums chart. All the singles from the album entered the German top 20: "Ich bin ich (Wir sind wir)", "Nichts von alledem (tut mir leid)", "Ich geh in Flammen auf", "Auch im Regen"and"Aus Liebe wollt ich alles wissen". The accompanying concert tour encompassed 36 concerts and concluded in Berlin with three sold-out open-air concerts at the Kindl-Bühne Wuhlheide in Berlin. One of the concerts from the tour was recorded and released as "Das große Leben live" (2006), a live album made available in both CD and DVD format.  In August 2008, Rosenstolz topped the German singles chart for the first time with "Gib mir Sonne". The song was from the band's eleventh studio album, "Die Suche geht weiter", which was more reflective than earlier albums and written following the death of Sommer's mother. The album itself went to No. 1 in Germany and Austria and No. 2 in Switzerland. Two further singles from the album, "Wie weit ist vorbei"and"Blaue Flecken", reached the top 10 of the German singles chart. In November 2008, Rosenstolz began its 2008/2009 Bist du dabei tour, which ended prematurely in Hamburg in January 2009. It was later announced that Plate was suffering from burnout and that all future tour dates were cancelled. During the band's forced break, Rosenstolz released another live CD/DVD album, "Die Suche geht weiter live" (2009), which was recorded during the tour in Munich.  After a break of nearly three years, Rosenstolz returned to public attention in September 2011 with the release of the single "Wir sind am Leben"and a new studio album of the same name. "Wir sind am Leben" was well received by fans, reaching No. 1 in the German and Austrian albums charts and No. 3 in the Swiss albums chart. 2011 was also Rosenstolz's 20th anniversary. To mark this occasion, German broadcaster ARD broadcast the one-hour documentary "Rosenstolz – Wir sind Wir! – Die Erfolgsgeschichte eines Popduos" by Marc Boettcher.

2012: Indefinite break.

In February 2012, there were rumours in the media of Rosenstolz splitting up. These rumours were fuelled by cancellations of appearances on a television show and at the 2012 ECHO awards. However, the band's record label said the cancellations were due to illness.  At the end of 2012, AnNa R. and Plate posted a message on the official Rosenstolz website and on Facebook and Twitter to announce that they would be taking a break from Rosenstolz for an indefinite period of time. After many years together, the duo felt now was the best time to give each other some space and to go their separate ways. In 2013, the duo announced their new music projects, with Plate releasing a solo album and AnNa R. becoming a member of Gleis 8, a newly formed four-piece band.

Musical style.

In terms of music genres, Rosenstolz's music fluctuated stylistically between pop, chanson and rock according to the press release for the 2011 biographical documentary "Rosenstolz – Wir sind Wir! – Die Erfolgsgeschichte eines Popduos". Ernst Hofacker, editor of German music magazine "Musikexpress", commented in 2002 that Rosenstolz's music flowed between chanson, German songs from the twenties, schlager and modern pop music. Other journalists also saw elements of pop, chanson and schlager in Rosenstolz's music. However, comparisons with schlager were strongly disputed by Rosenstolz, who expressed a dislike of that particular genre of music. In a 2008 interview, Plate refused to pigeonhole Rosenstolz's music and AnNa R. defined Rosenstolz simply as a pop group because of the broad definition of pop.  The early years of Rosenstolz saw the German media create the term "Mondänpop" to refer to the band's music because it was unlike other music. The term was invented by a journalist who remarked that AnNa R. looked "mondän" (chic) in a photo of her wearing a hat. Writing in 1995, Regina Kerner of "Berliner Zeitung" described "Mondänpop" as ""freche Texte über Erotik und Musik ohne Angst vor Kitsch mit Schlagerelementen"" ("impudent lyrics dealing with eroticism and music which does shy away from kitsch and features elements of schlager"). A further explanation was given by Tanja Stidinger, also of "Berliner Zeitung", in 1996: ""Beherzt klauen die beiden das Beste aus Schlager, Chanson und Neuer Deutsche Welle, rühren kräftig um, würzen das Ganze ab mit Diva-Allüren und Synthesizerklängen."" ("The duo courageously lift the best bits from schlager, chanson and Neue Deutsche Welle, stir thoroughly, and season the whole thing with diva affectations and synthesizer sounds.")  Rosenstolz's range of song styles was summarized by Björn Döring in his review of the band's sixth studio album, "Zucker" (1999), in "Berliner Zeitung":  "Rosenstolz bedienen sich der Songmodelle, die sie auf ihren vorhergehenden Platten erfolgreich formuliert haben. Da gibt es den exaltierten, jauchzenden Popsong und die streichergeschwängerten Balladen. Da trällert Anna R. manchmal grandios im Belcanto herum oder begibt sich in die Tiefen ihrer Trauer. Die Keyboards geben den Ton an, auf Strophe folgt Refrain, auf angedeutete Experimente folgt eine Ballade in alter Form."  Rosenstolz changed musically over the years: in its biography of the band, German music magazine "laut.de" indicated that the term "Mondänpop" did not apply to the later years, as the band had become part of the mainstream. Critics contrasted Rosenstolz's later albums with earlier recordings by the band. In his review of "Das große Leben" (2006) in German newspaper "Die Welt", Harald Peters found that Rosenstolz had dispensed with the (in his opinion) disagreeable musical and vocal elements from earlier years, focusing instead on mid-tempo piano-saturated guitar pop. While writing about "Die Suche geht weiter" (2008), Stefan Rother of German newspaper "Badische Zeitung" commented that the over-the-top vocals of AnNa R. were no longer to be heard and that Rosenstolz now dealt with more serious issues. In an interview in 2008, Plate stated that there were two phases of Rosenstolz, the first one ending with "Macht Liebe" (2002) and the second one starting with "Herz" (2004).  In a 1999 interview, AnNa R. explained that the Rosenstolz songwriting process usually involved the music first being composed by Plate, followed by the lyrics being co-written by the duo. She further stated that ""Die Ideen kommen immer aus dem Leben, aus dem, was man sieht, was man fühlt oder träumt"" ("The ideas always come from life experiences, from what one sees, what one feels or dreams"). Common themes in Rosenstolz songs were sex, love and emotions.

Charity work.

Rosenstolz was active in raising money for AIDS charities. At the band's concerts, donations were collected for Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (German AIDS aid) and the issue of AIDS was highlighted.  In 1993, Rosenstolz released the limited edition CD "Sanfte Verführer" and donated the proceeds to Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe. In 1997, Rosenstolz raised money for Berliner AIDS-Hilfe (Berliner AIDS aid) by releasing the charity CD "Rot ist die Liebe" in collaboration with other artists and then holding a benefit concert in the Theater des Westens (Theatre of the west) in Berlin.  In March 2007, Rosenstolz released the charity single "Aus Liebe wollt ich alles wissen", with all proceeds going to the Deutsche AIDS-Stiftung (German AIDS foundation). Rosenstolz then held a benefit concert on 18 June 2007 in the Columbiahalle in Berlin, where the duo presented a cheque for 100,000 euros to the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, who accepted it on behalf of the Deutsche AIDS-Stiftung.  Rosenstolz received two official awards in recognition of the band's efforts in the fight against AIDS. The first was the "Sächsische Ehrenmedaille »Für herausragende Leistungen im Kampf gegen HIV und Aids"" (Saxon medal of honour "for outstanding achievements in the fight against HIV and AIDS"), which was awarded on World AIDS Day 2009. The second was the "Bundesverdienstkreuz" (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany), which was awarded on 31 August 2011.

Music awards.

Various German music awards were awarded to Rosenstolz during the band's career. These included a Goldene Stimmgabel (six times), an ECHO award (five times) and a Comet award (two times). Multiple awards were won in 2003 and 2007. In 2003, the band won three awards. These were an ECHO award for best website by an artist, a Comet award for best national music video ("Es tut immer noch weh"), and a Goldene Stimmgabel for best German pop duo.  A few years later in 2007, Rosenstolz received six awards. The band won a Goldene Kamera for best national pop act, an ECHO award for best national rock/pop group, and two DIVA awards, one for best artist and the other for best album. In addition, the band was awarded the Fred-Jay-Preis for song writing and Plate received the Paul-Lincke-Ring in recognition of his contribution to music.

Discography.

Studio albums

Rosenstolz () was a German pop duo from Berlin that was active between 1991 and 2012 and had chart hits in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The duo consisted of singer AnNa R. and musician Peter Plate, who occasionally provided vocals. Rosenstolz achieved major chart success after the nineties, with five studio albums going to No. 1 in the German albums chart. Although the duo split up to pursue separate music careers, they left open the possibility of a future reunion.

Rosenstolz est un groupe de rock allemand, originaire de Berlin. Il est formé de la chanteuse de l'ex-Berlin-Est, AnNa R., et du compositeur et chanteur de l'ex-Allemagne de l'Ouest (RFA), Peter Plate. Les titres chantés en allemand proposent un mélange de pop et de rock, avec des textes pouvant être mélancoliques, mais aussi assez crus, voire érotiques. On qualifie souvent le style musical de Rosenstolz de "Mondänpop" (la pop mondaine).


History.

He received extensive bomb training in Afghanistan. He authored the JI bomb manual, used in the Bali bombing and the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing. He also planned the 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing and was implicated in the 2005 Bali bombings. Prior to his death, he was one of the most wanted men in Indonesia along with Noordin Mohammed Top.  In July 2004, Husin and Noordin narrowly escaped a police raid on a rented house west of Jakarta, where forensic experts later found traces of explosives used in the embassy bombing. Neighbours described both as reclusive men who left the property only to pray at a nearby mosque; and they said that before the bombing, they saw the duo loading heavy boxes into a white delivery van which is the same type used in that attack.  Before the Marriott Hotel bombing, Husin is known to have stayed with Asmar Latin Sani, the suspected Marriott suicide bomber, at his home in Bengkulu on the island of Sumatra.  Both men were close associates of Jemaah Islamiyah's former operational chief, Riduan Isamuddin (better known as Hambali), who was captured in Thailand in 2003.

Death.

On 9 November 2005, Indonesian police, acting on a tip-off, located Husin. They conducted a raid on one of his hideouts in Batu, near Malang in East Java with Detachment 88 operators sent to assist regular police officers. Three suspected jihadist terrorists barricaded themselves inside a house and they put up stiff resistance, throwing grenades and firing bullets at the police outside. This was followed by a series of explosions, one of which was a suicide blast by his assistant setting off his bomb vest. Police identified the intact corpse of Azahari, with a bullet wound in his chest. Husin was shot and killed by a police sniper, after which one of his disciples blew himself up to prevent him from being taken alive.

Dr. Azahari bin Husin (14 September 1957 – 9 November 2005), also Azahari Husin, Azhari Husin, was a Malaysian who was believed to be the technical mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombing. He was killed in a police raid on his hideout in Indonesia in 2005. He was nicknamed the "Demolition Man".

Azahari Husin ( - ) est un ingénieur malaisien. Il aurait pris part à la confection des explosifs utilisés dans les attentats de Bali (le plus important commis dans la région, avec 202 morts, le, ainsi que celui du ), de l'hôtel Marriott à Djakarta () et de l'ambassade australienne en Indonésie ().


Layout.

The tomb consists of a sloping descending passageway, a staircase, and another descending passage. The passage ends in a room with a single central column and a small chamber adjoining it. The walls are well cut and ready to receive plaster if plastering was intended.

Discovery and contents.

The tomb was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817. He found a brick wall at the end of the first section of passageway; it had been broken through in antiquity. In the larger room Belzoni found two naked female mummies with long hair; he notes how easily the hair of one of the mummies pulled out when he tugged at it. The smaller chamber contained pottery and alabaster sherds. A complete large ceramic jar was found at the top of the stairs.  James Burton, who mapped it in 1825, called it a "clean new tomb - the water not having got into it."  The tomb was re-investigated in 1989 by Donald Ryan. He found the entrance buried under flood debris; water had penetrated the tomb as evidenced by the 'tide-line' on the wall of the burial chamber which indicated it had been filled with several inches of water. The once well-preserved mummies were found in scattered pieces, the white-washed jars in the side chamber had been smashed with large rocks, and a large graffito on one of the tombs walls proclaimed "ME 1826." The presence of bat guano indicated that the tomb had been open for some time after Belzoni and Burton had visited.

Mummies.

Ryan's re-excavation of the tomb found that the two female mummies had been badly damaged some time after the initial report by Belzoni. The head and torso of one mummy was found in the first corridor. Other pieces were scattered on the stairs, but the majority of the remains were still in the burial chamber; a pile of snapped-off hands and feet were located here. The head of one mummy was missing, Ryan suggests that it was taken as a souvenir. Mark Papworth gave a preliminary description of both mummies some time after Ryan had collected them. CT scanning and DNA analysis was conducted on both mummies in the 2010s.

KV21A.

This mummy is headless and poorly preserved. The back half of the torso is present and the abdominal cavity contains linen embalming packs and stones. The left shoulder and arm are missing; the left hand is clenched, indicating the 'queenly' pose. Sections of the spine are missing. Both legs are present but are no longer articulated with the body. The left and right feet are severely clubbed. Her height in life is estimated at approximately and her age is estimated to be no older than 21 based on the degree of epiphyseal union.  The results of the DNA analysis announced in 2010 suggests that this mummy is the mother of the two mummified foetuses from the tomb of Tutankhamun, but not enough data was obtained to make a definitive identification. This mummy may be Ankhesenamun, the Great Royal Wife of Tutankhamun, and daughter of Nefertiti.

KV21B.

This mummy is the one that was found in the upper corridor. The upper frontal part of the skull is missing but her left eye socket remains. The teeth that are present show moderate wear. Dark hair is present on the nape of the neck. Much of the chest wall is missing; the torso contains linen embalming packs. The left arm is broken but was once flexed across the chest in the 'queenly' pose; the left hand is clenched. Degenerative changes to the spine are present across multiple vertebrae. Most of both legs are present, but the front parts of both feet are missing. Her height in life is estimated to be approximately while her age is estimated at 45 years based on degenerative bone changes. This mummy is a candidate for the mummy of Nefertiti. This is based on her association with the possible body of Ankhesenamun; as was seen in KV35, a mother (KV35 Elder Lady, now known to be Tiye) was found lying next to her daughter (the Younger Lady).  DNA analysis did not yield enough data to make an firm identification but tied her to the late Eighteenth Dynasty royal line.

Tomb KV21 is located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It contains the mummies of two women, thought to be Eighteenth Dynasty queens. In 2010, a team headed by Zahi Hawass used DNA evidence to tentatively identify one mummy, KV21A, as the biological mother of the two fetuses preserved in the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

Le tombeau KV 21 est situé dans la vallée des rois, dans la nécropole thébaine sur la rive ouest du Nil face à Louxor en Égypte. Il contient les momies de deux femmes supposées être des reines de la.


Tour and performances.

Noted for being a mercurial and temperamental live performer, during this short period of time in 1973, Morrison went on one of his most diligent tours in years. With his eleven-piece band, The Caledonia Soul Orchestra, which included a horn and string section, he has often been said to have been at his live performing peak.  Morrison said about touring during this period: I am getting more into performing. It's incredible. When I played Carnegie Hall in the fall something just happened. All of a sudden I felt like 'you're back into performing' and it just happened like that...A lot of times in the past I've done gigs and it was rough to get through them. But now the combination seems to be right and it's been clicking a lot. Evidence of his newly invigorated joy in performing was on display during the ending of the over-ten-minute-long dynamic performance of "Cyprus Avenue". When an audience member shouts out, "Turn it on!", Morrison good-naturedly replies, "It's turned on already." At the very end he finished the concert with a final heartfelt, "It's too late to stop now!" giving the album its title (this line first appeared on the song "Into the Mystic").  The concert performances were described by Erik Hage as "sequences of a young soul lion whipping the crowd into a frenzy and then stopping on a dime—teasing out anticipation, rushing, receding, and coaxing every drop out of his band."  Guitarist John Platania says "He had a funeral for a lot of his old songs on stage. With Caledonia, he really got off on performing. There was definitely joy getting onstage at that point. That was a wonderful time for everybody. It was really like a family. Ordinarily, with rock 'n' rollers, jazzers and classical musicians in the band, you'd think it was a three-headed serpent but everybody got along famously."  The performances on the live album were from tapes made at the beginning of the tour in Los Angeles and also in Santa Monica and London. Marco Bario, who attended the opening night concert at The Troubadour, said in "Playgirl": "he was exceptional. The mood was right, the audience was receptive, and the music left no comparisons to be made. It was the finest opening night performance by a consummate musician that I have ever witnessed." The London concerts were the first time he had appeared in that city since performing with Them, six years earlier. The two concerts at the Rainbow Theatre in London were referred to as "the rock event of the year" by critics according to Ritchie Yorke in his biography. The 24 July 1973 London Rainbow concert was the first BBC simulcast broadcast simultaneously on BBC 2 television and Radio 2 stereo so that viewers with strategically sited loudspeakers could enjoy "stereo TV". The broadcast took place on 27 May 1974.

Music and production.

A mixture of songs that inspired his own musical development, together with some of his own compositions, allied to a backing band and orchestra (The Caledonia Soul Orchestra) and several performances (as noted in the album's liner notes) that were recorded in concerts at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, California (24–27 May 1973), the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (29 June 1973) and The Rainbow (23–24 July 1973) in London. These performance result in what Myles Palmer of the "Times" reviewed as demolishing "all barriers between the soul, blues, jazz and rock genres". The songs chosen went back to his days with Them with versions of "Gloria" and "Here Comes the Night". His first solo hit "Brown Eyed Girl" was performed but not included on the album until the reissue in 2008. M. Mark called the album "an intelligent selection of songs that draws on six of Morrison's records and five of the musicians he learned from." These musicians were Bobby Bland ("Ain't Nothing You Can Do"), Ray Charles ("I Believe to My Soul"), Sam Cooke ("Bring It On Home to Me"), two songs by Sonny Boy Williamson II ("Help Me" and "Take Your Hands Out of My Pocket") and a cover of a Willie Dixon song, "I Just Want to Make Love to You", which was popularized by Muddy Waters.  Unlike most live rock albums, there was no studio overdubbing allowed by Morrison, which resulted in the exclusion of "Moondance" from the album due to one wrong guitar note. Morrison strictly adhered to his concept of authenticity in presenting the live performance but his musical perfectionism prevented him from including "Moondance". "It's common practice to go back and fix things, but not with Van," bass player David Hayes said, "I think that's what makes it one of the best ever." It is thought to be one of the first live albums with no overdubs and the first live album to have string players.

Release and reception.

According to "Elmore Magazine"s Mike Jurkovic, when "It's Too Late To Stop Now" was first released in 1974, "everyone—and I do mean everyone—tripped over themselves to hail the two-LP set as one of the greatest live renderings of the rock era." Reviewing the album in "Creem", Robert Christgau hailed it as Morrison's best since "Moondance" (1970) while writing, "Songs that wore poorly or were just lame in the first place have more force and tightness here than in their studio versions". Ken Emerson was somewhat less impressed in "Rolling Stone": "On "It's Too Late" Morrison's voice is in fine form, but much else is not...The other musicians, most of whom have played with Morrison many times before, never detract, but Morrison could be better served...But the power of Morrison's vocals overcomes these drawbacks." At the end of 1974, "It's Too Late to Stop Now" was voted the 20th best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics, published by "The Village Voice". Ellen Willis, Greil Marcus, and Christgau ranked it 2nd, 6th, and 18th, respectively, in their ballots for the poll.  Three months after the concerts for the "Too Late to Stop Now" tour, Morrison had disbanded The Caledonia Soul Orchestra and went on a vacation tour of Ireland for three weeks that resulted in the album "Veedon Fleece".  In a retrospective review, Jason Ankenny from AllMusic regarded the album as "an engaging, warm portrait of the man at the peak of his powers", while Morrison biographer John Collis called it "one of the most impressive of all attempts to squeeze the stage excitement of a rock performer on to vinyl." Fellow biographer Johnny Rogan said that "Morrison was in the midst of what was arguably his greatest phase as a performer." Chris Jones of the BBC wrote: "In a live setting all the hyperbole about Morrison's blend of genres into one Celtic, mystic vision makes perfect sense. This is soul music in a very real sense." Hal Horowitz with "American Songwriter", on reviewing the 2008 remasters of some of Morrison's albums, said, "The classic is 1974’s double live "It’s Too Late"..., rightfully on anyone’s shortlist of finest concert albums. Van typically blows hot and cold on stage, but when he ignites on the oldies and choice blues covers here, few can touch him for pure blue-eyed soul passion." "It's Too Late to Stop Now" has been on lists of greatest live albums of all time.  A remastered version of the album was released on 29 January 2008 containing a live take of "Brown Eyed Girl" not included on the original release., This version was then not included on the 2016 reissue and is not currently available; a recording of the song from a different night was included on Volume II of the 2016 issues.  On 10 June 2016, a box set containing the three complete Los Angeles (23 May 1973), Santa Monica (29 May 1973), and London (23/24 July 1973) shows, along with a DVD of the BBC footage from the 24 July show, was released as "..It's Too Late To Stop Now Vol. II, III, IV & DVD".

Track listing.

"The compact disc version places sides one and two on disc one with sides three and four with the bonus track on disc two."

It's Too Late to Stop Now is a 1974 live double album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It features performances that were recorded in concerts at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, California; the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and the Rainbow in London, during Morrison's three-month tour with his eleven-piece band, the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, from May to July 1973. Frequently named as one of the best live albums ever, "It's Too Late to Stop Now" was recorded during what has often been said to be the singer's greatest phase as a live performer.

It's Too Late to Stop Now est un double album de Van Morrison enregistré en public, et sorti en février 1974.