When Studying History, Both In A Professional And Academic Essays

When studying history, both in a professional and academic sense, we try to make connections between civilizations and time periods. Historians have attempted to discover universal constants of human nature, a bond that forms from continent to continent, human being to human being. Is there a constant quality that all peoples posses, and is reflected in all civilizations? Indeed, it is extremely difficult to make generalizations about centuries of modern history. To say that something is true of all of history is virtually impossible, as a counter-example exists for just about anything that can be said of any group of civilizations. To say that all religions are spread by violence is equally unfair and untrue - because contrasted religions has been spread in exceedingly diverse regions of the world, by vastly different cultures. Islam, as a prime example, has been characterized inequitably by historians and the media as a religion of violence. To put it bluntly, as this article does, "Islam was mainly spread through Arab territorial conquests (Sudo, 4)." However, upon examination, it is not fair to make the generalization that Islam is a religion of violence, and one notices when looking at world religion on a whole, one finds that Islam was no more violent than any other religion. In fact, not only is Islam not a fundamentally violent philosophy, but we can also see that many other religions normally considered "non-violent," such as Christianity or Hinduism, have been spread through bloody conquest. Thus, in searching for a universal constant of history, we ought not fall into the "fallacy of abstractions," as Sydney J. Harris keenly puts it, and assume that because of isolated incidents and conflicts of territorial ambitions, that all religions have violent tendencies. Islam has, throughout the centuries, been somewhat a victim of circumstance - indeed it has been perceived by many as oppressive and cruel. This belief originated over a thousand years ago, when Islamic peoples first threatened the western world. As they slowly undermined Byzantine authority, Christians became terrified of their presence, resulting in widespread animosity and aversion. Hindus and Buddhists of the South Asian subcontinent lived under Islamic law for hundreds of years (Ahmad, et. al., 186), and eventually, in the twentieth century, split the region into angry factions (Ahmad, et. al., 207). Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, was a great warrior. This invariably lead defeated peoples to believe that he begot a cult of war and violence. Over the centuries, it also has developed the ability to instill a sense of holy purpose onto its believers and soldiers, where they go into a battle of certain death for their faith in the jihad, or holy war. Even today, the jihad is still a potent source of conflict and aversion, as the many of the problems in the Middle East center around the issue of Islamic Fundamentalism and the jihads. Originally, Islam was perceived by western historians as a religion of violence and conquest; "by preying on the caravans of the Quraish, [Mohammed] weakened them to the point of submission (Mohammed and Islam, 1)." In fact, Mohammed was a warrior, aristocrat, and brilliant strategist - a stark contrast to many other holy men of history. He was forced to both defend his cities and force submission, as the passage had shown, because of the strong military powers of his religious predecessors and oppressors, the pagans of the Middle East. Islam means "submission" according to the Islam discussion in class - and one might assume that the submission was attained through military and forceful means. In fact, while Mohammed preached peace from 610 to 622 AD, he attracted few converts and was persecuted by the current ruling paganistic regime. After the visions of 622 AD, he realized that his cause was even more urgent than before, and only at that point did he begin to utilize his military skills (Class Discussion). However, despite the more violent nature that his quest took, even after the revelations by Gabriel in 622 AD, "by reciting his revelations aloud, Mohammed made many converts, (Mohammed and Islam,1)." Mohammed was not a purely violent man, but also a great speaker and demagogue (Mueller, 2). He did not solely attack the pagans of the Middle East, he also attracted a great deal of converts by the truths he spoke. "If he could be ruthless, he was more often gentle, kind, generous, magnanimous. He could be Christ-like in his sympathy for the poor (Mueller,2 )." Another non-violent way of spreading Islamic culture was through the merchant system which developed around its new centers of trade and culture in both Mecca and Medina

Alexander Surname Meaning and Origin

Alexander Surname Meaning and Origin The Alexander surname means repulser of the enemy or defender of men. It derives from the personal name Alexander, derived from the Greek AÃŽ »ÃŽ µÃŽ ¾ÃŽ ±vÃŽ ´poÏ‚ (Alexandros),  made up of alexin, meaning to defend and andros, meaning man. Although derived from a personal name of  Greek origin, the Alexander surname is most commonly found in Scotland as an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name MacAlasdair.  MACALLISTER is a common derivation. Alexander is the  104th most popular surname in Scotland, just dropping out of the top 100 during the past decade.   Surname Origin:  Scottish, English, Dutch, German Alternate Surname Spellings:  ALEXANDRE, ALESANDER, ALESANDRE, ALAXANDAIR, ALASDAIR, ALEXANDAR, ALEKSANDER, MACALEXANDER Where in the World is the ALEXANDER Surname Found? Perhaps surprising, but the Alexander surname is found in the greatest frequency in the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, where one in 52 people bears the surname. According to Forebears, it also ranks among the top 20 surnames in several other Caribbean countries, including St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Alexander is also popular in Scotland and the United States; it ranks just out of the top 100 surnames in both countries. WorldNames PublicProfiler  highlights Alexander as an especially popular surname in Australia and New Zealand, followed by the United States and Great Britain. Within Scotland, Alexander is found most frequently in South Ayrshire.   Famous People with the Last Name ALEXANDER Harold Alexander -  British commander who fought in both World WarsNathaniel Alexander - inventor of the folding chairJason Alexander - American film, theater and television actor, most well known for his role as George in Seinfeld.Archibald Alexander - Protestant clergyman and educator Genealogy Resources for the Surname ALEXANDER Clan Alexander and North AmericaA history of Clan Alexander and its ties to North America by Lord Stirling, the current clan chief. Alexander Surname Y-DNA ProjectOver 340 members belong to this Y-DNA surname project at FamilyTreeDNA, organized to connect individuals with the Alexander surname interested in DNA testing. Alexander Family Genealogy ForumSearch this popular genealogy forum for the Alexander surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Alexander query. FamilySearch - ALEXANDER GenealogyExplore over 3.5 million historical records and lineage-linked family trees posted for the Alexander surname and its variations on the free FamilySearch website. ALEXANDER Surname Family Mailing ListsRootsWeb hosts several free mailing lists for researchers of the Alexander surname. DistantCousin.com - ALEXANDER Genealogy Family HistoryFree databases and genealogy links for the last name Alexander. The Alexander Genealogy and Family Tree PageBrowse genealogy records and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the popular last name Alexander from the website of Genealogy Today. Looking for the meaning of a given name? Check out First Name Meanings Cant find your last name listed? Suggest a surname to be added to the Glossary of Surname Meanings Origins. - References: Surname Meanings Origins Cottle, Basil. Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967. Menk, Lars. A Dictionary of German Jewish Surnames. Avotaynu, 2005. Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia. Avotaynu, 2004. Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989. Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003. Smith, Elsdon C. American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997. Back to Glossary of Surname Meanings Origins

Formal Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Formal - Lab Report Example As often is the case, plants obtain oxygen and carbon from the air via the openings in the leaf. These openings are often referred to as the stomata. Additionally, the plants obtain all the other nutrients from the soil through their roots hairs from the soil. In attempts to understand the factors that affect growth and development of plants, an experiment was set to investigate the effect of nutrients deficiency on the growth of rye (Secale cereal) and barley (Hordeum vulgare). Introduction. For decades, the agricultural practice has been used to serve various functions. It is worth noting that the activity of crop production has been extensively been in use since 2000 years ago. Generally, agriculture has been experiencing many challenges around the globe with other places requiring production for purposes of the acquisition electronic components, which requires expansion to give out sufficient food for the growing population (Kasai 3). This implied that the current levels of produ ction need to be maintained in order to establish the appropriate balance between environmental concerns and intensive agriculture (Gonzalez-Reyes 3). The production of barley and rye is an area that requires much attention given that this field has involved the efforts of the agricultural scientists’ who are out to obtain attention in implementing and, innovating the improvised boosting yield methods (Heinonen 2). This becomes accomplished through the use of appropriate nutrition, high variety of yield, and measures of plant protection (Darley 2). It is also is responsible for the improvement of the practices of agronomics, creating source-sink relationships, and maintaining internal balance of hormones. This implies that the verge of getting to the ever-green era revolution, demands a detailed investigation concerning the nutrients application (Carystinos 2). This field has, however, been ignored by prior researchers. This implies that there exist a voluminous body of work on nutrients, yet the application is extremely limited. For this reason, this experiment was set to investigate the effect of nutrients to the growth of plants. Objectives of the experiment. The aim of the study was to develop the skills for planning and carrying out a scientific investigation, as well as establishing the effect of nutrients on the growth of plants. Research Questions. The following are the research questions: What are the steps taken in ensuring the reliability of the results? What is the effect of different treatments of nutrients on the growth of plants? How should soil be fertilized in order to enhance the growth of food crops? Hypothesis. H0: Increasing nutrients in plants does not increase the rate of growth of the plants. H1: Increasing nutrients in plants increases the rate of growth of the plants. Methodology. Apparatus. The materials and treatments used in this study include full complement of nutrients (N, P, K, S Ca, Mg, I, Fe), N-deficient (full complem ent minus N), and aged water. Procedure. Rye or Barley was grown in one of the three given solution treatments. The first treatment was the full compliment nutrients, the second treatment was the N-deficient treatment whereas the third was a