title: Three Kingdoms

text: The following table shows the severe decrease of population during that period. From the late Eastern Han to the Western Jin dynasty, despite the length of about 125 years, the peak population only equaled 35.3% of the peak population during the Eastern Han dynasty. From the Western Jin dynasty to the Sui dynasty, the population never recovered. High militarization of the population was common. For example, the population of Shu was 900,000, but the military numbered over 100,000. The "Records of the Three Kingdoms" contains population figures for the Three Kingdoms. As with many Chinese historical population figures, these numbers are likely to be less than the actual populations, since census and tax records went hand in hand, and tax evaders were often not on records.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: During the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD), a number of statuses intermediate between freedom and slavery developed, but none of them are thought to have exceeded 1 percent of the population.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: While it is clear that warfare undoubtedly took many lives during this period, the census figures do not support the idea that tens of millions were wiped out solely from warfare. Other factors such as mass famines and infectious diseases, due to the collapse of sustaining governance and migrations out of China must be taken into account.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: In the late Eastern Han dynasty, due to natural disasters and social unrest, the economy was badly depressed, leading to the massive waste of farmland. Some local landlords and aristocracy established their own strongholds to defend themselves and developed agriculture, which gradually evolved into a self-sufficient manorial system. The system of strongholds and manors also had effects on the economical mode of following dynasties. In addition, because of the collapse of the imperial court, those worn copper coins were not melted and reminted and many privately minted coins appeared. In the Three Kingdoms period, newly minted coins never made their way into currency. Due to the collapse of the coinage, Cao Wei officially declared silk cloth and grains as the main currencies in 221.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: In economic terms the division of the Three Kingdoms reflected a reality that long endured. Even during the Northern Song dynasty, 700 years after the Three Kingdoms period, it was possible to think of China as being composed of three great regional markets. (The status of the northwest was slightly ambivalent, as it had links with the northern region and Sichuan). These geographical divisions are underscored by the fact that the main communication routes between the three main regions were all man-made: the Grand Canal linking north and south, the hauling-way through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River linking southern China with Sichuan and the gallery roads joining Sichuan with the northwest. The break into three separate entities was quite natural and even anticipated by such political foresight as that of Zhuge Liang (see Longzhong Plan).


title: Three Kingdoms

text: Cao Cao, the founder of the Wei kingdom and his four sons were influential poets, especially Cao Zhi (192–232) and Cao Pi (187–226). Cao Pi wrote the earliest work of literary criticism, the "Essay on Literature". Cao Zhi, together with Xu Gan, sponsored a resurgence of the Jian'an style of lyric poetry. Cao Zhi is considered by most modern critics to be the most important Chinese writer between Qu Yuan and Tao Yuanming.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: The standard history of the period is the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", compiled by the Western Jin historian Chen Shou in the third century AD. The work synthesizes the histories of the rival states of Cao Wei, Shu Han and Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms period into a single compiled text. An expanded version of the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" was published by the Liu Song historian Pei Songzhi in 429, whose "Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms" supplemented the original with sizable excerpts of texts unused by Chen Shou and provided commentaries. The resulting work nearly doubled the size of the original "Records", and the composite work of Chen and Pei are canonized as official history (正史).


title: Three Kingdoms

text: In addition to the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", the years 189 to 220 are also covered by the previous standard history "Book of the Later Han" by Fan Ye (a contemporary of Pei Songzhi), which mainly draws from documents of the Han court. For the later years, biographies of the Jin dynasty progenitors Sima Yi, Sima Shi, and Sima Zhao are only found in the following standard history "Book of Jin" by the Tang dynasty historian Fang Xuanling.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: Traditional Chinese political thought is concerned with the concept of the "Mandate of Heaven", from which a ruler derives legitimacy to rule all under heaven. In the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu all laid claim to the Mandate by virtue of their founders declaring themselves as emperors. Later historians would disagree on which of the Three Kingdoms (primarily between Wei and Shu) should be considered the sole legitimate successor to the Han dynasty.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: Chen Shou, the compiler of the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", hailed from Shu Han and became an official of the Western Jin dynasty when he was working on the "Records". As Western Jin succeeded Cao Wei, Chen was careful in his compilation to imply Cao Wei was the legitimate state. Despite the description of events being mostly balanced and fair, Chen Shou legitimized Wei by placing the Wei annals first, using the era names from Wei's calendar, and reserving regal nomenclature for the leaders of Wei. Specifically, emperors of Cao Wei are referred to by their imperial posthumous names (eg. Cao Pi is referred to as the "Civil Emperor" 文帝), while the Shu and Wu emperors are mere "rulers" (eg. Liu Bei is referred to as the "First Ruler" 先主 and Sun Quan as "Ruler of Wu" 吳主). Chen Shou, as a subject of Jin, could not write in a way that implies Jin as illegitimate by denying Cao Wei's claim to the mandate, despite what sympathies he might have had toward his home state of Shu.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: Chen Shou's treatment of the legitimacy issue was generally accepted through to the Northern Song dynasty. Despite maintaining that none of the three states truly held the Mandate of Heaven since they all failed to unify China, Song historian Sima Guang used Wei's era names and thus affirmed the legitimacy of Wei's succession to Han in his universal history "Zizhi Tongjian". Sima Guang explained that his choice was merely out of convenience, and he was "not honouring one and treating another with contempt, nor making distinction between orthodox and intercalary positions." Nonetheless, the influential Neo-Confucian moralist Zhu Xi criticized Sima Guang's choice, taking the position that Shu Han was the true successor to the Han dynasty since Liu Bei was related to the imperial Liu clan by blood, and thus used Shu's calendar in his rewrite of Sima Guang's work, the "Zizhi Tongjian Gangmu". This position, first argued by Xi Zuochi in the fourth century, found support in Zhu Xi's time since the Song dynasty found itself in a similar situation as Shu Han, as it was forced out of north China by the Jurchens in 1127 and became known as the Southern Song. The revisionist private histories of the time emphasized "humane governence" (仁政) as a mark of legitimate dynastic succession, and saw Liu Bei as an idealized Confucian monarch. The pro-Shu bias then found its way into popular forms of entertainment such as "pinghua" tales and "zaju" performances, and was eventually codified in the 14th century historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".


title: Three Kingdoms

text: Numerous people and affairs from the period later became Chinese legends. The most complete and influential example is the historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", written by Luo Guanzhong during the Ming dynasty. Possibly due to the popularity of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the Three Kingdoms era is one of the most well-known non-modern Chinese eras in terms of iconic characters, deeds and exploits. This is reflected in the way that fictional accounts of the Three Kingdoms, mostly based on the novel, play a significant role in East Asian popular culture. Books, television dramas, films, cartoons, anime, games, and music on the topic are still regularly produced in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Southeast Asia.


title: Three Kingdoms

text: Japanese video game developer Koei (later merged with Tecmo to form Koei Tecmo) introduced multiple generations of young gamers in the West to the Three Kingdoms era through its highly-romanticised, streamlined, and simplified retelling of the history across its long, expansive, and successful series of Dynasty Warriors games. The games evoked a fascination with the period among many Western players, similar to the interest stoked among East Asians by local pop culture and media, albeit to a less prevalent and intense extent in the West.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Jay Robert "J. B." Pritzker (born January 19, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman, philanthropist, and politician serving as the 43rd governor of Illinois since 2019. A member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the worldwide hotel chain Hyatt, Pritzker is based in Chicago and has started several venture capital and investment startups like the Pritzker Group, where he is a managing partner. His estimated personal net worth is $3.6 billion.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker has been a longtime financial supporter and active member of the Democratic Party. He became the Democratic nominee for governor of Illinois in the 2018 gubernatorial election after winning a crowded primary election. He defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner in the general election on November 6, 2018, and took office on January 14, 2019. Pritzker was reelected in 2022.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker was born and raised in Atherton, California, a member of the Pritzker family, a Jewish family prominent in business and philanthropy during the late 20th century. The Pritzkers have consistently been near the top of the "Forbes" "America's Richest Families" list since its 1982 inception. One of three children of Sue (née Sandel) and Donald Pritzker, his elder siblings are Penny Pritzker, former United States Secretary of Commerce, and Anthony Pritzker. Pritzker is named after both of his father's brothers, Jay and Bob. His grandfather Abe Pritzker was a business lawyer. Pritzker has said that certain overseas trusts, for which he was the designated beneficiary, were set up by his grandfather and used only for charitable contributions, without any personal benefit to him.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker attended Milton Academy, a boarding school in Milton, Massachusetts, and graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. In 1993, he earned his Juris Doctor from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He is an attorney and a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker served as chairman of ChicagoNEXT, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's council on innovation and technology, and he founded 1871, a nonprofit digital start-up incubator (named for the year of the Great Chicago Fire). He played an important role in the creation of the Illinois Venture Capital Association and the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. He also co-founded Chicago Ventures and funded the start-up of Techstars Chicago and Built in Chicago.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: With his brother Tony, Pritzker co-founded Pritzker Group Private Capital, which owns and operates middle-market companies. The group includes a growing family of companies including pallet rental leader PECO Pallet and medical device maker Clinical Innovations. In 2008, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce gave Pritzker its Entrepreneurial Champion Award for his efforts to promote economic development and job creation.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In 1998, Pritzker ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois's 9th congressional district, spending $500,000 from his personal fortune on TV ads in the Chicago market. He finished third among five candidates in the Democratic primary, with 20.48% of the vote to then State Representative Jan Schakowsky's 45.14% and State Senator Howard W. Carroll's 34.40%.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker founded Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, a national organization dedicated to attracting voters under the age of 40 to the Democratic Party. He also served on the Washington, D.C., legislative staffs of U.S. Senator Terry Sanford, U.S. Senator Alan J. Dixon, and U.S. Representative Tom Lantos, for whom he handled multiple domestic and international issues.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In the 2008 presidential election, Pritzker served as national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign. He was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and the 2016 Democratic National Convention. He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 general election and helped bring the Clinton and Obama campaigns in Illinois together.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In May 2017, the "Chicago Tribune" published an 11-minute FBI wiretap of Pritzker and then-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2008 discussing campaign contributions and options for Pritzker to be appointed to statewide office. At the time, Pritzker was described as a "businessman with political ambitions". On the tapes, Blagojevich asked Pritzker if he would like to be appointed state treasurer, to which Pritzker, who has a background in finance, responded, "Yeah, that's the one I would want." Pritzker's general election opponent GOP Governor Bruce Rauner and Pritzker's Democratic primary opponents took issue with his conduct. Pritzker responded to the allegations: "I've not been accused of any wrongdoing. I have not done anything wrong." Law enforcement made no allegations of wrongdoing against Pritzker, and he has said: "over decades of my life, I have been doing public service, and the opportunity to continue to do public service as treasurer of the state was something that had been brought up, and so there was a conversation about that."


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker later apologized for a number of controversial and incendiary comments he made in that conversation. He and Blagojevich discussed filling Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat, with Pritzker saying that appointing then-Secretary of State Jesse White would "cover you on the African-American thing" and that he was the "least offensive" candidate.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On April 6, 2017, Pritzker announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Illinois. He was endorsed by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Illinois Congressman Luis Gutiérrez, former Illinois Congressman Glenn Poshard, more than a dozen members of the Illinois General Assembly, 21 local labor unions, and the Illinois AFL–CIO.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On August 10, 2017, Pritzker announced that his running mate would be freshman State Representative and fellow Chicago resident Juliana Stratton. By December 2017, Pritzker had spent $42million of his own money on his campaign, without significant fundraising from any other source. On March 20, 2018, he won the primary, handily beating each of his opponents by more than 20%. In the November general election, Pritzker defeated incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner with 54% of the vote to Rauner's 39%. Pritzker was well ahead of Rauner in most polls from the summer of 2018 onward, and won by the largest margin in a gubernatorial race since 1994.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker spent $171.5 million of his own money on his campaign, primarily on digital outreach, television advertising, and staff.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker ran for reelection in the 2022 Illinois gubernatorial election, with Stratton once again as his running mate. He won the June 28 Democratic primary and faced Republican nominee Darren Bailey in the general election. He won reelection to a second term.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On June 5, 2019, Pritzker signed a bipartisan $40 billion balanced budget for the 2019–20 fiscal year. The budget included, among many other things, $29 million in additional funding for efforts to encourage participation in the U.S. Census. Public spending increases were paid for by tax increases. A separate bill Pritzker signed imposed sales taxes on online retailers, a tax on insurance companies, and decoupled the Illinois state income tax from a federal tax cut for companies that bring their foreign profits to the U.S. The budget neglected any potential revenue that might be collected from the legalization of recreational marijuana. In addition, people who owed taxes from between June 30, 2011, and July 1, 2018, were able to take advantage of a "tax amnesty" program that allowed them to pay without penalty. The governor's office had expected a $150 million surplus, which it planned to use to pay down the state's $6 billion backlog of unpaid bills.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In June 2019, Pritzker signed into law Senate Bill 25, or the Reproductive Health Act. The act repealed the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975, which penalized doctors for performing abortions considered "unnecessary", and the "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act". This new bill ensured the "fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about one's own reproductive health", specifically the right to choose whether to carry a pregnancy to term or to terminate it, and denies a zygote, an embryo, or a fetus "independent rights under the law" of the State of Illinois. Pritzker encouraged states that have passed restrictions on abortion to reconsider their positions and added that women from other states can seek refuge in his.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On May 31, 2019, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act legalizing and regulating the production, consumption, and sale of adult-use cannabis. On June 25, 2019, Pritzker signed the legislation into law, which went into effect on January 1, 2020. Illinois was the 11th U.S. state to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Criminal records of individuals caught possessing less than 30 grams were cleared. Tax revenue collected from marijuana sales is used to invest in impoverished communities affected by the War on Drugs and in drug rehabilitation programs. After the first month of legalization, marijuana sales generated approximately $10.4 million in tax revenue. By July 2020, it had generated over $52 million.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On December 31, 2019, Pritzker pardoned approximately 11,000 people for low-level marijuana convictions.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In the balanced budget for the 2019–20 fiscal year, worth $40 billion, the State of Illinois authorized more spending on education, including grade schools, community colleges, and state universities. Funding for grade schools rose by nearly $379 million, more than the $29 million required by the new state funding for education formula passed the previous year. Funding for community colleges increased by $14 million, for public universities by $53 million. Grants for low-income students received a $50 million bump. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, facing financial pressure, received $80 million for hiring new staff and improving services.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On top of that, the Rebuild Illinois capital plan spent some $3.2 billion for public colleges and universities over six years. $78 million of that money was allocated to emergency repairs and delayed maintenance. For years, public institutions of higher learning in Illinois had struggled financially and lobbied for increased funding without much success. Budget cuts and ballooning costs had driven Illinois residents out of state. Tuition fees, room and board had doubled in virtually every state college or university since the 2003–04 academic year. According to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, in 2017, 48.4% of Illinois public high school graduates went on to attend out-of-state institutions. That number was 46.6% in 2016, and 29.3% in 2002. Moreover, data show that Illinoisans chose not just colleges and universities from nearby states such as Iowa and Indiana, but also as far away as Alabama and Utah, lured by financial aid and scholarship packages.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In addition, community colleges statewide received a total of $1,032,800,000 while private colleges and universities got $400 million for capital projects. AIM High, a merit-based scholarship program for Illinoisans, saw its funding rise to $35 million, up $10 million.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker created the College Student Credit Card Marketing and Debt Task Force (House Bill 1581), whose task it is to look for ways to help students reduce their credit card debts after graduating from an institution of higher education in the state. The task force was to report its findings to the General Assembly by December 4, 2019.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker created a job training program for community colleges funded based on the percentage of low-income students attending. It launched in 2020.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In July 2019, Pritzker signed House Bill 2512. Approved unanimously by both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly, it requires state universities to report what students pay in tuition fees to the Illinois Board of Higher Education. This is intended to increase transparency in the costs of higher education.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker joined the U.S. Climate Alliance, which was made after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On March 13, 2020, Pritzker declared that public and private schools in Illinois would be closed from March 17 through March 31. On March 15, he announced that all bars and restaurants must close until March 30. Restaurant businesses with delivery and takeout options would still be able to serve.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On March 16, 2020, Pritzker issued an executive order limiting permitted crowd sizes to 50 people. Despite pressure from Chicago election officials, he refused to postpone the state's March 17 primary elections, since it was not something that he had the authority to do.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On March 20, 2020, Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order to take effect the next day. Under this order, all non-essential businesses were required to close while essential businesses such as grocery stores, gas stations, hospitals, pharmacies remained open. The order originally ended on April 8. The state government coordinated a public health response. The State of Illinois worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Wal-Mart, and Walgreens to provide testing sites in Illinois's hardest-hit communities. By June, amid unrest by some municipalities unhappy with Pritzker's lockdown orders, Mayor Keith Pekau of Orland Park, a suburb southwest of Chicago, and a local restaurateur sued Pritzker in federal court, alleging that the lockdown orders violated state law and the state constitution. U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood ruled against the plaintiffs, allowing the lockdown orders to stay in place. In her ruling, she cited "Jacobson v Massachusetts", a 1905 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the authority of U.S. states to compel people to get vaccinations.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On March 25, 2020, Pritzker announced the extension of Illinois's tax filing deadline from April 15 to July 15. He also announced three new emergency assistance programs that allowed small businesses to access more than $90 million in aid.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On April 23, 2020, Pritzker extended the stay-at-home order through May 29 with some modifications. Churches were prohibited from holding meetings that had more than 10 people in attendance. Some churches defied Pritzker, held meetings, and filed federal lawsuits.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On May 5, 2020, Pritzker announced his reopening plan, "Restore Illinois". The plan had five phases and split the state's 11 existing Emergency Medical Services Regions into four reopening regions. The regions could reopen independently of one another. All regions were then in Phase Two, which allowed retail curbside pickup and delivery along with outdoor activities such as golf, boating, and fishing. Phase Three would allow manufacturing, offices, retail, barbershops, and salons to reopen with capacity limits, along with gatherings of fewer than 10 people. In Phase 4, gatherings of up to 50 people were allowed, restaurants and bars could reopen, travel resumed, and child care and schools reopened under guidance from the IDPH. In Phase 5, the economy fully reopened. Conventions, festivals and large events were permitted, and all businesses, schools, and places of recreation could be fully open.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On July 15, 2020, Pritzker announced a new COVID-19 mitigation plan in the event of a resurgence of COVID-19. The metrics that would be used to determine whether COVID-19's spread in a region required additional mitigations were a sustained increase in 7-day rolling average (7 out of 10 days) in the positivity rate and one of the following: a sustained 7-day increase in hospital admissions for a COVID-19 or the reduction in hospital capacity. Another metric was three consecutive days averaging greater than or equal to 8% positivity rate.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On December 4, 2020, Pritzker announced that Illinois would receive 109,000 initial doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On February 26, 2021, Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and the Biden administration announced that eligible Illinoisans could get vaccinated starting March 10 at a new mass vaccination site at the United Center.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On July 29, 2021, Pritzker announced that everyone who enters a state building was required to wear a face mask regardless of vaccination status.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On August 5, 2021, Pritzker announced that face masks must be worn at all times while inside P-12 schools, daycares, and long-term care facilities regardless of vaccination status. He also announced that face masks were required for all P-12 indoor sports, and that all state employees in congregate facilities must be vaccinated by October 4.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On August 26, 2021, Pritzker announced that a statewide indoor mask mandate would be reimposed to handle the surge caused by the Delta variant beginning on August 30. He also announced a vaccine mandate for all education employees in P-12 and higher education statewide and for all higher education students and healthcare workers. Pritzker announced that anyone who did not get a COVID-19 vaccine by September 5 would have to do weekly COVID testing.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On September 19, 2021, Pritzker began imposing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for college students, educators and most health care workers.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On February 28, 2022, Pritzker lifted most of Illinois's COVID-19 restrictions, including the statewide mask mandate, which came just a few days after the CDC issued new, more relaxed masking guidance.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On July 14, 2022, Pritzker announced the lifting of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for college students that initially went into effect on September 19, 2021.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker signed into law the Senate Bill 1890, whose goal is to crack down on human trafficking. It requires hospitality business owners to train their employees to recognize victims of trafficking and to teach them the protocols of reporting to authorities. It also establishes penalties for human trafficking, including a fine of up to $100,000 and a Class 1 Felony charge.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: While serving in the Illinois Senate, Barack Obama sponsored an initiative that would collect data on traffic stops. This was codified when Pritzker signed House Bill 1613 into law. It creates a task force to collect and analyze data on traffic stops to address racial disparities. The task force was to report to the governor and the General Assembly by March 1, 2022, and every three years thereafter.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: According to the governor's office, the 2019–20 budget funded two classes of Illinois State Police cadets.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In July 2019, Pritzker signed a bill that increases penalties for drivers who got involved in a road incident with injuries while texting. Under this bill, a person who causes serious injuries due to driving while texting could be fined at least $1,000 and have their driver's license suspended for a year. The law took effect immediately. In the same month, he signed House Bill 2045, ending the practice of collecting a $5 copay for offsite medical and dental treatments from people detained at a juvenile correction facility. This took effect in January 2020.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On December 31, 2020, Pritzker announced the expungement of approximately 500,000 non-felony cannabis-related arrest records.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On February 22, 2021, Pritzker signed a criminal justice reform bill that, among other things, makes Illinois the first U.S. state to eliminate cash bail. The provision will go into effect in January 2023.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: To help pay for his 2019 capital spending bill, Pritzker expanded gambling, allowing more casinos and legalized sports betting. This did not mean new casinos could be built and sports betting could begin right away: granting licenses for such activities is the job of the Illinois Gaming Board, and the process is a complex one, lasting several months or more and involving extensive criminal background checks, among other requirements. According to the governor's office, gambling will bring an additional $350 million in revenue each year. This gambling expansion bill extends to Chicago, something the city wanted. Mayor Lightfoot emphasized economic development in the city's South and West sides during her campaign. She has argued that a new casino, privately owned, and associated hospitality and entertainment venues will bring money into the city.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On May 5, 2022, Lightfoot announced that she had selected Bally's Corporation's bid to construct a casino resort near the Chicago River.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On January 17, 2019, Pritzker signed a bill requiring state certification for gun dealers, which passed during the tenure of his predecessor, Bruce Rauner. It also requires gun dealers to ensure the physical security of their stores, to keep a detailed list of items on sale, and employees of such stores to undergo annual training. These requirements come on top of the mandatory federal license issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Proponents say Senate Bill 337 prevents guns from falling "into the wrong hands" while opponents argue it creates additional bureaucracy, imposes a financial burden on gun business owners, and will neither enhance public safety nor reduce crime. The Illinois State Rifle Association argued that the bill violates the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution because it interferes with the right to bear arms, and filed a lawsuit alongside eight gun dealers.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On May 25, 2022, in response to Texas governor Greg Abbott's comments in the aftermath of the Robb Elementary School shooting that Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City crime proves harsher gun laws are not a solution, Pritzker said that a "majority of guns used in Chicago shootings come from states with lax gun laws". Other city and state officials, including Mayor Lightfoot and Attorney General Kwame Raoul, also criticized Abbott's comments. UIC professor of political science Alexandra Filindra, described as an expert on gun policy, said preventing gun violence must be done on the federal level, that gun rights can coexist with restrictive laws, and that acquisition of weapons in general became easier after the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision "District of Columbia v. Heller".


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In 2019, Pritzker approved a tax on private insurance that will go into the state's Medicaid program.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On January 24, 2019, Pritzker signed an executive order expanding access to Illinois welcome centers for immigrants and refugees. Welcome centers help guide immigrants on a path to citizenship and refugees with access to health care, education, jobs, and legal services.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On June 21, 2019, Pritzker signed a bill banning the operation of private immigration detention centers in Illinois. Another bill forbids state and local police to cooperate with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) to deport illegal immigrants. College students who are undocumented immigrants or identify as transgender may apply for state financial aid for college. (Federal aid requires proof of citizenship and those who were assigned male at birth to register for the draft.)


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker erased the drug conviction of an Army veteran in August 2019. Miguel Perez Jr. suffered a brain injury while serving in Afghanistan and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He was deported to Mexico in 2018 after spending seven years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to a drug crime and held a green card as a permanent U.S. resident. Perez's supporters hope the pardon will help him return to the U.S.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In late June 2019, Pritzker signed the bipartisan capital bill named Rebuild Illinois, worth $45 billion to be spent in six years and estimated to create 540,000 jobs. It was the first capital spending bill in Illinois in 10 years. The plan includes $33.2 billion for transportation projects, including $25 billion for road upgrades, with local governments deciding which roads they want to prioritize, $3.5 billion for public and private schools and universities, $1 billion for environmental protection, $420 million for expanding broadband Internet service to rural Illinois, $465 million for health care and human services facilities, and $1.8 billion for libraries, museums, and minority-owned businesses. Financing for this plan will come from multiple sources. The gas tax was set to match inflation since the last gas tax increase in 1990, increasing from 19 cents per gallon to 38 cents; the special fuel tax on diesel, liquefied natural gas, and propane increased to 7.5 cents per gallon. Fuel taxes will be indexed to inflation. Vehicle registration fees increased by $50. The state's bonding authority will increase from $22.6 billion to $60.8 billion. Newly authorized casinos are expected to create thousands of jobs and deliver hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for construction projects. Cook County municipalities may raise their own gas taxes by up to three cents per gallon, though Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she opposed raising the gas tax in her city and increasing Chicago Transit Authority fares. The capital bill also stipulates the creation of an apprenticeship program in the construction industry to provide part of the labor force necessary.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Transportation spending includes money for mass transit and pedestrian paths, with hundreds of millions going to projects involving Chicago. Some major projects are the reconstruction and capacity enhancement of the Kennedy Expressway ($561 million), expanding an Amtrak service between Chicago and Rockford ($275 million), and upgrades for the Pace suburban bus service ($220 million). Millions of dollars will be spent on improving the Chicago–St. Louis higher-speed railway, and moving passenger and rail traffic in Springfield to one set of tracks, eliminating a physical barrier.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: As justification for the multi-billion-dollar spending bill and the accompanying tax hikes, Pritzker said that Illinois had not had a major infrastructure plan for two decades and asserted that improved infrastructure would help drivers on repairs.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In June 2019, Pritzker deployed 200 Illinois National Guardsmen to combat flooding across central and southern Illinois. The troops were tasked with sandbagging, protecting levees and keeping evacuation routes open. In August 2019, he officially requested a federal disaster declaration for 32 Illinois counties due to flooding since February 2019. The request came after the state's disaster assessment was concluded.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On February 19, 2019, Pritzker signed into law a bill that raises the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, making Illinois the fifth state in the nation and first state in the Midwest to do so. The bill includes a tax credit for small businesses to help them deal with higher costs of labor and maintains the ability of restaurant owners to count tips toward pay.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On April 12, 2019, Pritzker signed the Collective Bargaining Freedom Act, which protects the right of employers, employees, and their labor organizations to collectively bargain, ensuring that Illinois complies with the National Labor Relations Act. On May 17, 2019, Pritzker signed legislation to help workers exposed to toxic substances.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker signed the House 2028 bill, which passed both the Senate and House of Illinois unanimously. This bill doubles the compensation rate for families of officers of the law and firefighters killed in the line of duty from $10,000 to $20,000.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker refused to take on the City of Chicago's pension liabilities, believing that would jeopardize Illinois's credit rating. Moody's raised it to one level above "junk" after Illinois passed a balanced budget in 2019. But Pritzker did not reject the possibility of allowing Chicago to pool its pension funds with other parts of the state, and created a task force to find ways to tackle municipalities' ballooning pension debts.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In June 2019, Pritzker signed an executive order requiring schools across the state to be "affirming and inclusive" of transgender and non-binary students. He also asked the State Board of Education to take a lead on LGBT rights by making relevant resources easily accessible.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On the same day as the 2019–20 state budget, Pritzker also signed the "Fair Tax" law, which offered a constitutional amendment to voters in the November 2020 election to replace Illinois's flat tax with graduated rates. He promised that income taxes would not increase for Illinoisans who make $250,000 a year or less, who are 97% of the state's wage earners. Pritzker and his supporters said changing income tax laws was the first step toward comprehensive state tax reform. The proposed graduated income tax rates were:


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: According to the governor's office, under this proposal, families and couples would see tax cuts across the board. For example, a family of four making $61,000 a year would pay $41 less in income tax before any other tax exemptions or deductions. Moreover, there would be a tax credit of up to $100 per child for individuals making less than $80,000 and joint filers earning under $100,000. The corporate tax rate would rise from 7% to 7.95%, equal to the highest personal rate. In addition, Pritzker wanted to increase the property tax credit to 6% from 5%.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker donated over $55 million to "Vote Yes for Fairness", a committee that supported the tax change. The tax change set up a fight between Pritzker and Ken Griffin, who donated over $50 million to a group opposing it. Griffin called Pritzker "spineless", accusing him of trying "to sell a trick disguised as a solution", and pointed to Pritzker's offshore trusts and personal tax avoidance schemes as hypocritical.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker claimed that his income tax proposal would bring $3.4 billion in tax revenue. As of 2019, Illinois had $8.5 billion of unpaid bills and $134 billion of pension liabilities.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: The gas tax that funds the 2019 infrastructure plan, 38 cents per gallon and indexed to inflation, took effect on July 1, 2019. As of 2019, Illinois had one of the highest fuel taxes in the U.S.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: The 2019–20 budget spent $230 million on a new Quincy Veterans Home, and $21 million on the Chicago Veterans Home.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In July 2019, Pritzker signed House Bill 3343, creating a food program for the elderly, the disabled, and the homeless. Such individuals may collect their benefits from a private business that has a contract with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) to provide meals with discounts. This is the state implementation of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The IDHS was to initiate this program no later than January 1, 2020.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker is pro-choice and a vocal supporter of reproductive rights. During the 2018 gubernatorial Democratic primaries, Planned Parenthood supported Pritzker, along with Kennedy and Biss.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On January 22, 2019, Pritzker signed an executive order giving state employees and women covered under Illinois state health insurance expanded reproductive coverage, including abortion. Planned Parenthood officials praised the move and attended the signing event.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On January 23, 2019, Pritzker committed Illinois to the U.S. Climate Alliance, which aims to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by over 26% by 2025.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker supports Syrian refugees, and criticized the Trump administration and Rauner for "turning a blind eye on them". He also supports enhancing funding for immigrant and refugee services, increasing health care options for undocumented immigrants, improving the U-Visa certification process for victims of violent crimes, and providing access to financial aid for undocumented students such as DACA recipients. He has said he would sign the "Illinois Trust Act", a pro-immigration bill.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker has been a longtime advocate of LGBT rights, and has actively participated in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade. As part of his 2018 gubernatorial race, he said his administration would address anti-LGBT hate crimes, expand LGBT access to health care, and oppose any anti-LGBT legislation.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker supports expanding the state's medical marijuana program and legalizing recreational cannabis in Illinois. In June 2019, he signed the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act into law, which effectively legalized the possession and regulated sale of marijuana for recreational purposes starting in 2020.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: As a candidate for governor, Pritzker campaigned on raising the minimum wage in Illinois to $15 an hour.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker supports net neutrality, and wrote on his gubernatorial campaign website: "As governor, I will ensure that all internet traffic is treated equally, so that everyone can continue to use the internet to grow their businesses, further their education, and enjoy the freedom of expression."


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: As president of the Pritzker Family Foundation, Pritzker funds research and programs focused on children in poverty. Under the leadership of economist James Heckman, he supported the creation of the Pritzker Consortium on Early Childhood Development at the University of Chicago. With the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, the Irving Harris Foundation, and the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Pritzker Family Foundation is a founding supporter of the First Five Years Fund, an organization focusing nationwide attention and resources on comprehensive, quality early care and learning programs for children from birth to age five. In 2013, Pritzker teamed with Goldman Sachs to fund the first-ever social impact bond for early childhood education.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: As chairman of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, which opened in 2009, Pritzker successfully led the capital campaign and planning to build an international institution in the Midwest dedicated to teaching the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides. He is the principal funder of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, the most significant online source for news and commentaries on the international criminal tribunal created to bring to justice the perpetrators of Pol Pot-era acts of genocide. He chaired the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and was succeeded by former White House counsel and Federal Judge Abner J. Mikva. In 2013, Pritzker received the Survivors' Legacy Award for his leadership in the creation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In 2007, Pritzker and his wife donated $5 million to the University of South Dakota to build the Theodore R. and Karen K. Muenster University Center in honor of his wife's parents. In 2011, Milton Academy dedicated the Pritzker Science Center for which Pritzker provided the lead gift. Pritzker is a trustee and serves on the investment committee of Northwestern University. He is a member of the Board of Governors of Northwestern University School of Law. He is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Commercial Club of Chicago. He joined the Duke University Board of Trustees in 2017; his term expires in 2023.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: On October 22, 2015, Northwestern University School of Law announced that Pritzker and his wife, M. K. Pritzker, had made a $100 million gift to the school in honor of Pritzker's great-grandfather, Nicholas J. Pritzker. The 156-year-old school was renamed the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: Pritzker received the Spirit of Erikson Institute Award for his creation of the Children's Initiative.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: The Better Government Association, an Illinois watchdog, has criticized Pritzker's charitable giving practices, saying he funneled the funds he gave to charity from offshore tax havens. "The result is that Pritzker's philanthropy, and any accolades that go with it, have been bankrolled with what is essentially found money. He did little to earn the proceeds and paid no taxes on the bulk of it before giving it away", the BGA wrote.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: In 1993, Pritzker married Mary Kathryn "M. K." Muenster, whom he had met in Washington, D.C., when she worked as an aide to U.S. Senator Tom Daschle. She is one of three children of Theodore and Karen Muenster. Her father unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1990. They live in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood with their two children.


title: J. B. Pritzker

text: The "Chicago Sun-Times" reported that Pritzker had purposely caused a mansion he had purchased next door to his home to become uninhabitable by removing its toilets. He then appealed his original property tax assessment because the newly built property was uninhabitable; the Cook County assessor reduced the home's value from $6.25 million to about $1.1 million, which granted Pritzker an 83% property tax reduction, equal to about $230,000 per annum. Federal prosecutors are investigating the matter.


title: Bedouin

text: The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and Arabian Desert but spread across the rest of the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa after the spread of Islam. The English word "bedouin" comes from the Arabic "badawī", which means "desert dweller", and is traditionally contrasted with "ḥāḍir", the term for sedentary people. Bedouin territory stretches from the vast deserts of North Africa to the rocky sands of the Middle East. They are traditionally divided into tribes, or clans (known in Arabic as "ʿašāʾir"; or "qabāʾil" ), and historically share a common culture of herding camels and goats. The vast majority of Bedouins adhere to Islam, although there are some fewer numbers of Christian Bedouins present in the Fertile Crescent.


title: Bedouin

text: Bedouins have been referred to by various names throughout history, including "Arabaa" by the Assyrians ("ar-ba-ea") being a nisba of the noun "Arab", a name still used for Bedouins today). They are referred to as the "ʾAʿrāb" () in Arabic. While many Bedouins have abandoned their nomadic and tribal traditions for a modern urban lifestyle, others retain traditional Bedouin culture such as the traditional "ʿašāʾir" clan structure, traditional music, poetry, dances (such as "saas"), and many other cultural practices and concepts. Urbanized Bedouins often organise cultural festivals, usually held several times a year, in which they gather with other Bedouins to partake in and learn about various Bedouin traditions—from poetry recitation and traditional sword dances to playing traditional instruments and even classes teaching traditional tent knitting. Traditions like camel riding and camping in the deserts are still popular leisure activities for urban Bedouins who live in close proximity to deserts or other wilderness areas.


title: Bedouin

text: A widely quoted Bedouin apothegm is "I am against my brother, my brother and I are against my cousin, my cousin and I are against the stranger" sometimes quoted as "I and my brother are against my cousin, I and my cousin are against the stranger." This saying signifies a hierarchy of loyalties based on the proximity of some person to oneself, beginning with the self, and proceeding through the nuclear family as defined by male kinship, and then, in principle at least, to an entire genetic or linguistic group (which is perceived as akin to kinship in the Middle East and North Africa generally). Disputes are settled, interests are pursued, and justice and order are dispensed and maintained by means of this framework, organized according to an ethic of self-help and collective responsibility (Andersen 14). The individual family unit (known as a tent or "gio" "") typically consisted traditionally of three or four adults (a married couple plus siblings or parents) and any number of children.


title: Bedouin

text: The Bedouins’ ethos comprised courage, hospitality, loyalty to family and pride of ancestry. Bedouin tribes were not controlled by a central power, like a government or emperor, but rather were led by tribal chiefs. Some chiefs exercised their power from oases, where merchants would organise trade through the territory controlled by the tribe. The structure of Bedouin tribes were held together more so by shared feelings of common ancestry rather than a tribal chief atop the hierarchy.


title: Bedouin

text: When resources were plentiful, several tents would travel together as a "goum". While these groups were sometimes linked by patriarchal lineage, others were just as likely linked by marriage alliances (new wives were especially likely to have close male relatives join them). Sometimes, the association was based on acquaintance and familiarity, or even no clearly defined relation except for simple shared membership within a tribe.The next scale of interaction within groups was the "" (cousin, or literally "son of an uncle") or descent group, commonly of three to five generations. These were often linked to goums, but where a goum would generally consist of people all with the same herd type, descent groups were frequently split up over several economic activities, thus allowing a degree of 'risk management'; should one group of members of a descent group suffer economically, the other members of the descent group would be able to support them. Whilst the phrase "descent group" suggests purely a lineage-based arrangement, in reality these groups were fluid and adapted their genealogies to take in new members.


title: Bedouin

text: The largest scale of tribal interactions is the tribe as a whole, led by a "Sheikh" ( "", literally, "old man"), though the title refers to leaders in varying contexts. The tribe often claims descent from one common ancestor—as mentioned above. The tribal level is the level that mediated between the Bedouin and the outside governments and organizations. Distinct structure of the Bedouin society leads to long-lasting rivalries between different clans.


title: Bedouin

text: Bedouin traditionally had strong honor codes, and traditional systems of justice dispensation in Bedouin society typically revolved around such codes. The "bisha'a," or ordeal by fire, is a well-known Bedouin practice of lie detection. See also: Honor codes of the Bedouin, Bedouin systems of justice.


title: Bedouin

text: Livestock and herding, principally of goats, sheep and dromedary camels comprised the traditional livelihoods of Bedouins. These were used for meat, dairy products, and wool. Most of the staple foods that made up the Bedouins' diet were dairy products.


title: Bedouin

text: Camels, in particular, had numerous cultural and functional uses. Having been regarded as a "gift from God", they were the main food source and method of transportation for many Bedouins. In addition to their extraordinary milking potentials under harsh desert conditions, their meat was occasionally consumed by Bedouins. As a cultural tradition, camel races were organized during celebratory occasions, such as weddings or religious festivals.


title: Bedouin

text: Some Bedouin societies live in arid regions. In areas where rainfall is very unpredictable, a camp will be moved irregularly, depending on the availability of green pasture. Where winter rainfall is more predictable in regions further south, some Bedouin people plant grain along their migration routes. This proves a resource for the livestock throughout the winter. In regions such as western Africa, where there is more predictable rainfall, the Bedouin practice transhumance. They plant crops near permanent homes in the valleys where there is more rain and move their livestock to the highland pastures.


title: Bedouin

text: Oral poetry is the most popular art form among Bedouins. Having a poet in one's tribe was highly regarded in society. In addition to serving as a form of art, poetry was used as a means of conveying information and social control. Bedouin poetry, also known as nabati poetry, is often recited in the vernacular dialect. In contrast, the more common forms of Arabic poetry are often in Modern Standard Arabic.


title: Bedouin

text: The well-regulated traditional habit of Bedouin tribes of raiding other tribes, caravans, or settlements is known in Arabic as "ghazw".


title: Bedouin

text: Historically, the Bedouin engaged in nomadic herding, agriculture and sometimes fishing in the Syrian steppe since 6000 BCE. By about 850 BCE, a complex network of settlements and camps was established. The earliest Arab tribes emerged from Bedouins. A major source of income for these people was the taxation of caravans, and tributes collected from non-Bedouin settlements. They also earned income by transporting goods and people in caravans pulled by domesticated camels across the desert. Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly.


title: Bedouin

text: The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported that in 1326 on the route to Gaza, the Egyptian authorities had a customs post at Qatya on the north coast of Sinai. Here Bedouin were being used to guard the road and track down those trying to cross the border without permission.


title: Bedouin

text: The Early Medieval grammarians and scholars seeking to develop a system of standardizing the contemporary Classical Arabic for maximal intelligibility across the Arabophone areas, believed that the Bedouin spoke the purest, most conservative variety of the language. To solve irregularities of pronunciation, the Bedouin were asked to recite certain poems, whereafter consensus was relied on to decide the pronunciation and spelling of a given word.


title: Bedouin

text: A plunder and massacre of the Hajj caravan by Bedouin tribesmen occurred in 1757, led by Qa'dan Al - Fayez of the Bani Sakhr tribe (Modern-day Jordan) in his vengeance against the Ottomans for failing to pay his tribe for their help protecting the pilgrims. An estimated 20,000 pilgrims were either killed in the raid or died of hunger or thirst as a result including relatives of the Sultan and Musa Pasha. Although Bedouin raids on Hajj caravans were fairly common, the 1757 raid represented the peak of such attacks which was also likely prompted by the major drought of 1756.


title: Bedouin

text: Under the Tanzimat reforms in 1858 a new Ottoman Land Law was issued, which offered legal grounds for the displacement of the Bedouin (Turkish: Bedeviler). As the Ottoman Empire gradually lost power, this law instituted an unprecedented land registration process that was also meant to boost the empire's tax base. Few Bedouin opted to register their lands with the Ottoman Tapu, due to lack of enforcement by the Ottomans, illiteracy, refusal to pay taxes and lack of relevance of written documentation of ownership to the Bedouin way of life at that time.


title: Bedouin

text: At the end of the 19th century Sultan Abdülhamid II settled Muslim populations (Circassians) from the Balkan and Caucasus among areas predominantly populated by the nomads in the regions of modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel, and also created several permanent Bedouin settlements, although the majority of them did not remain. The settlement of non Arabs in the traditionally Bedouin areas was a big cause of discontent. This became even severe because every Arab tribe, including the settled ones, have ancestry as a Bedouin.


title: Bedouin

text: Ottoman authorities also initiated private acquisition of large plots of state land offered by the sultan to the absentee landowners (effendis). Numerous tenants were brought in order to cultivate the newly acquired lands. Often it came at the expense of the Bedouin lands.


title: Bedouin

text: In the late 19th century, many Bedouin began transition to a semi-nomadic lifestyle. One of the factors was the influence of the Ottoman empire authorities who started a forced sedentarization of the Bedouin living on its territory. The Ottoman authorities viewed the Bedouin as a threat to the state's control and worked hard on establishing law and order in the Negev. During the First World War, the Negev Bedouin initially fought with the Ottomans against the British. However, under the influence of British agent T. E. Lawrence, the Bedouins switched side and fought against the Ottomans. Hamad Pasha al-Sufi (died 1923), Sheikh of the Nijmat sub-tribe of the Tarabin, led a force of 1,500 men who joined the Ottoman raid on the Suez Canal.


title: Bedouin

text: In Orientalist historiography, the Negev Bedouin have been described as remaining largely unaffected by changes in the outside world until recently. Their society was often considered a "world without time." Recent scholars have challenged the notion of the Bedouin as 'fossilized,' or 'stagnant' reflections of an unchanging desert culture. Emanuel Marx has shown that Bedouin were engaged in a constantly dynamic reciprocal relation with urban centers. Bedouin scholar Michael Meeker explains that "the city was to be found in their midst."


title: Bedouin

text: At the time of World War I, a Qays Bedouin tribe from Harran, not far from Urfa, settled in Lüleburgaz in East Thrace under their last Sheikh Salih Abdullah. It is said that this tribe was originally from Tihamah


title: Bedouin

text: Ghazzu was still relevant to the Bedouin lifestyle in the early 20th century. After a 1925 stay with Sheikh Mithqal Al-Fayez of the Bani Sakher, William Seabrook wrote about his experience of a ghazzu from the Sardieh tribe on Mithqal's 500 Hejin racing camels. The ghazzu was intercepted by Mithqal when he was notified about the Sardieh tribe's intentions from a man from the Bani Hassan tribe, who rode continuously for over 30 hours to reach Mithqal before their plot matured. Mithqal, using the information, prepared a trap for them, which resulted in the imprisonment of one of the Sardieh warriors. William notes that although the warrior was a prisoner, he was nonchalant and was not treated aggressively, and that the ghazzu wasn't a war, but a game in which camels and goats were the prizes.


title: Bedouin

text: In the 1950s and 1960s, large numbers of Bedouin throughout Midwest Asia started to leave the traditional, nomadic life to settle in the cities of Midwest Asia, especially as hot ranges shrank and populations grew. For example, in Syria, the Bedouin way of life effectively ended during a severe drought from 1958 to 1961, which forced many Bedouin to abandon herding for standard jobs. Similarly, governmental policies in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia, oil-producing Arab states of the Persian Gulf and Libya, as well as a desire for improved standards of living, effectively led most Bedouin to become settled citizens of various nations, rather than stateless nomadic herders.


title: Bedouin

text: Governmental policies pressing the Bedouin have in some cases been executed in an attempt to provide service (schools, health care, law enforcement and so on—see Chatty 1986 for examples), but in others have been based on the desire to seize land traditionally roved and controlled by the Bedouin. In recent years, some Bedouin have adopted the pastime of raising and breeding white doves, while others have rejuvenated the traditional practice of falconry.


title: Bedouin

text: The Arabian Peninsula was one of the original homes of the Bedouin. From there, they started to spread out to surrounding deserts, forced out by the lack of water and food. According to tradition, Arabian Bedouin tribes are descendants of two groups: Qahtanis, also known as Yaman, who originate from the mountains of Southwestern Arabia, and claim descent from a semi-legendary ancestral figure, Qahtan (often linked to the biblical Joktan), and Adnanis, also known as Qays, who originate in North-Central Arabia and claimed descent from Adnan, a descendant of the Biblical Ishmael.


title: Bedouin

text: A number of Bedouin tribes reside in Saudi Arabia. Among them are Anazzah, Juhaynah, Shammar, al-Murrah, Mahra, Dawasir, Harb, Ghamid, Mutayr, Subay', 'Utayba, Bani khalid, Qahtan, Rashaida, and Banu Yam. In Arabia and the adjacent deserts there are around 100 large tribes of 1,000 members or more. Some tribes number up to 20,000 and a few of the larger tribes may have up to 100,000 members. Inside Saudi Arabia the Bedouin remained the majority of the population during the first half of the 20th century. Saudi Arabia pursued a policy of sedentarization in the early 20th century, which was initially linked with the establishment of the Ikhwan. As a result of this policy and subsequent modernization, the number of bedouin that retain their nomadic lifestyle has decreased rapidly.


title: Bedouin

text: According to Ali Al-Naimi, the Bedouin, or Bedu, would travel in family and tribal groups, across the Arabian Peninsula in groups of fifty to a hundred. A clan was composed of a number of families, while a number of clans formed a tribe. Tribes would have areas reserved for their livestock called , which included wells for their exclusive use. They lived in black goat-hair tents called bayt al-shar, divided by cloth curtains into rug-floor areas for males, family and cooking. In Hofuf, they bartered their sheep, goats and camels, including milk and wool, for grain and other staples. Al-Naimi also quotes Paul Harrison's observation of the Bedouin, "There seems to be no limit at all to their endurance."


title: Bedouin

text: The Syrian Desert was the original homeland of the Arab Bedouin tribes which have been mentioned as far back as the Neo-Assyrian era where they're referred to by Tiglath-Pileser III as being among the Syrians integrated into the Assyrian administrative system. Today there are over a million Bedouin living in Syria, making a living herding sheep and goats. The largest Bedouin clan in Syria is called Ruwallah who are part of the 'Anizzah' tribe. Another famous branch of the Anizzah tribe is the two distinct groups of Hasana and S'baa who largely arrived from the Arabian peninsula in the 18th century.


title: Bedouin

text: Herding among the Bedouin was common until the late 1950s, when it effectively ended during a severe drought from 1958 to 1961. Due to the drought, many Bedouin were forced to give up herding for standard jobs. Another factor was the formal annulling of the Bedouin tribes' legal status in Syrian law in 1958, along with attempts of the ruling Ba'ath Party regime to wipe out tribalism. Preferences for customary law ('urf) in contrast to state law (qanun) have been informally acknowledged and tolerated by the state in order to avoid having its authority tested in the tribal territories. In 1982 the al-Assad family turned to the Bedouin tribe leaders for assistance during the Muslim Brotherhood uprising against al-Assad government (see 1982 Hama massacre). The Bedouin sheikhs' decision to support Hafez al-Assad led to a change in attitude on the part of the government that permitted the Bedouin leadership to manage and transform critical state development efforts supporting their own status, customs and leadership.


title: Bedouin

text: As a result of the Syrian Civil War some Bedouins became refugees and found shelter in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and other states.


title: Bedouin

text: Palestinian Bedouins were originally from the Negev Desert. In the course of the 1948 Palestine war, they fled or were displaced from their land. Other Bedouins were expelled from the Negev in 1953 and had relocated to the West Bank, which at the time belonged to Jordan. Today, there are 40,000 Bedouins in the whole of the West Bank, including 27,000 people under Israeli military control in Area C. Unlike Negev Bedouins, West Bank Bedouins are not Israeli citizens. Bedouin communities in the West bank have been targeted with forcible relocations to townships to accommodate the growth of Israeli settlements on the outskirts of East Jerusalem. Bedouins also live in the Gaza strip, including 5,000 in Om al-Nasr. However, the number of nomadic Bedouins is shrinking and many are now settled.


title: Bedouin

text: Prior to the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence, an estimated 65,000–90,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev desert. According to "Encyclopedia Judaica", 15,000 Bedouin remained in the Negev after 1948; other sources put the number as low as 11,000. Another source states that in 1999 110,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev, 50,000 in the Galilee and 10,000 in the central region of Israel. All of the Bedouins residing in Israel were granted Israeli citizenship in 1954.


title: Bedouin

text: As of 2020, there are 210,000 Bedouins in Israel: 150,000 in the Negev, 50,000 in Galilee and the Jezreel Valley, and 10,000 in the central region of Israel.


title: Bedouin

text: Galilee Bedouins have been living in the northern part of Israel for four centuries. Today, they live in 28 settlements in the north. They also live in mixed villages with other non-Bedouin Arabs.


title: Bedouin

text: The Bedouin who remained in the Negev belonged to the Tiaha confederation as well as some smaller groups such as the 'Azazme and the Jahalin. After 1948, some Negev Bedouins were displaced. The Jahalin tribe, for instance, lived in the Tel Arad region of the Negev prior to the 1950s. In the early 1950s, the Jahalin were among the tribes that, according to Emanuel Marx, "moved or were removed by the military government". They ended up in the so-called E1 area East of Jerusalem.


title: Bedouin

text: About 1,600 Bedouin serve as volunteers in the Israel Defense Forces, many as trackers in the IDF's elite tracking units.


title: Bedouin

text: Famously, Bedouin shepherds were the first to discover the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts from antiquity, in the Judean caves of Qumran in 1946. Of great religious, cultural, historical and linguistic significance, 972 texts were found over the following decade, many of which were discovered by Bedouins. Successive Israeli administrations tried to demolish Bedouins villages in the Negev. Between 1967 and 1989, Israel built seven legal townships in the north-east of the Negev, with Tel as-Sabi or Tel Sheva the first. The largest, city of Rahat, has a population of over 58,700 (as of December 2013); as such it is the largest Bedouin settlement in the world. Another well-known township out of the seven of them that the Israeli government built, is Hura. According to the Israel Land Administration (2007), some 60 per cent of the Negev Bedouin live in urban areas. The rest live in so-called unrecognized villages, which are not officially recognized by the state due to general planning issues and other political reasons. They were built chaotically without taking into consideration local infrastructure. These communities are scattered all over the Northern Negev and often are situated in inappropriate places, such as military fire zones, natural reserves, landfills, etc. On 29 September 2003, Israeli government adapted a new "Abu Basma Plan" (Resolution 881), according to which a new regional council was formed, unifying a number of unrecognized Bedouin settlements—Abu Basma Regional Council. This resolution also regarded the need to establish seven new Bedouin settlements in the Negev, literally meaning the official recognition of unrecognized settlements, providing them with a municipal status and consequently with all the basic services and infrastructure. The council was established by the Interior Ministry on 28 January 2004.


title: Bedouin

text: Israel is currently building or enlarging some 13 towns and cities in the Negev. According to the general planning, all of them will be fully equipped with the relevant infrastructure: schools, medical clinics, postal offices, etc. and they also will have electricity, running water and waste control. Several new industrial zones meant to fight unemployment are planned, some are already being constructed, like Idan HaNegev in the suburbs of Rahat. It will have a hospital and a new campus inside. The Bedouins of Israel receive free education and medical services from the state. They are allotted child cash benefits, which has contributed to the high birth rate among the Bedouin of 5% per year. But unemployment rate remains very high, and few obtain a high school degree (4%), and even fewer graduate from university (0.6%).


title: Bedouin

text: In September 2011, the Israeli government approved a five-year economic development plan called the "Prawer plan". One of its implications is a relocation of some 30.000-40.000 Negev Bedouin from areas not recognized by the government to government-approved townships. In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament called for the withdrawal of the Prawer plan and respect for the rights of the Bedouin people. In September 2014, Yair Shamir, who heads the Israeli government's ministerial committee on Bedouin resettlement arrangements, stated that the government was examining ways to lower the birthrate of the Bedouin community in order to improve its standard of living. Shamir claimed that without intervention, the Bedouin population could exceed half a million by 2035.


title: Bedouin

text: In May 2015, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees have combined forces. Both organizations called on Israel to stop its plans to relocate Bedouin communities currently living in the West Bank to land outside of Jerusalem for better access to infrastructure, health, and education. Officials stated that a "forcible transfer" of over 7000 Bedouin people would "destroy their culture and livelihoods."


title: Bedouin

text: Most of the Bedouin tribes migrated from the Arabian Peninsula to what is Jordan today between the 14th and 18th centuries. Often they are referred to as a backbone of the Kingdom, since Bedouin clans traditionally support the monarchy.


title: Bedouin

text: Most of Jordan's Bedouin live in the vast wasteland that extends east from the Desert Highway. The eastern Bedouin are camel breeders and herders, while the western Bedouin herd sheep and goats. Some Bedouin in Jordan are semi-nomads, they adopt a nomadic existence during part of the year but return to their lands and homes in time to practice agriculture.


title: Bedouin

text: The largest nomadic groups of Jordan are the Bani Hasan (Mafraq, Zarqa, Jarash, Ajloun and parts of Amman) Bani Ṣakher (Amman and Madaba) Banū Laith (Petra, and Banū al-Ḥuwayṭāt (they reside in Wadi Rum). There are numerous lesser groups, such as the al-Sirḥān, Banū Khālid, Hawazim, ʿAṭiyyah, and Sharafāt. The Ruwālah (Rwala) tribe, which is not indigenous, passes through Jordan in its yearly wandering from Syria to Saudi Arabia.


title: Bedouin

text: The Jordanian government provides the Bedouin with different services such as education, housing and health clinics. However, some Bedouins give it up and prefer their traditional nomadic lifestyle.


title: Bedouin

text: In the recent years there is a growing discontent of the Bedouin with the ruling monarch Abdullah II of Jordan. In August 2007, police clashed with some 200 Bedouins who were blocking the main highway between Amman and the port of Aqaba. Livestock herders were protesting the government's lack of support in the face of the steeply rising cost of animal feed and expressed resentment about government assistance to refugees.


title: Bedouin

text: Arab Spring events in 2011 led to demonstrations in Jordan, and Bedouins took part in them. But the Hashemites did not see a revolt similar to turbulence in other Arab states. The main reasons for that are the high respect to the monarch and contradictory interests of different groups of the Jordanian society. The King Abdullah II maintains his distance from the complaints by allowing blame to fall on government ministers, whom he replaces at will.


title: Bedouin

text: In the 11th century, the Bedouin tribes of Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym, who originated from central and north Arabia respectively, living at the time in a desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, moved westward into the Maghreb areas and were joined by the Bedouin tribe of Ma'qil, which had its roots in South Arabia, as well as other Arab tribes. The vizier of the caliph of Cairo chose to let go of the Maghreb and obtained the agreement of his sovereign. They set off with women, children, camping equipment, some stopping on the way, especially in Cyrenaica, where they are still one of the essential elements of the settlement, but most arrived in Ifriqiya by the Gabes region; Berber armies were defeated in trying to protect the walls of Kairouan.


title: Bedouin

text: The Zirids abandoned Kairouan to take refuge on the coast where they survived for a century. Ifriqiya, the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym spread is on the high plains of Constantine where they gradually choked the Qal'a of Banu Hammad, as they had done Kairouan few decades ago. From there, they gradually gained the upper Algiers and Oran plains, some were taken to the Moulouya valley and in Doukkala plains by the Caliph of Marrakesh in the second half of the 12th century.


title: Bedouin

text: Ibn Khaldun, a Muslim historian wrote: "Similar to an army of locusts, they destroy everything in their path."


title: Bedouin

text: The Maghrebi Bedouin dialects, often called Hilalian dialects, are used in the regions of Morocco Atlantic Coast, in regions of High Plains and Sahara in Algeria, in regions of Tunisian Sahel and in regions of Tripolitania. The Bedouin dialects has four major varieties:


title: Bedouin

text: In Morocco, Bedouin Arabic dialects are spoken in plains and in recently founded cities such as Casablanca. Thus, the city Arabic dialect shares with the Bedouin dialects "gal" 'to say' (qala); they also represent the bulk of modern urban dialects (Koinés), such as those of Oran and Algiers.


title: Bedouin

text: Bedouins in Egypt mostly reside in the Sinai peninsula and in the suburbs of the Egyptian capital of Cairo. The past few decades have been difficult for traditional Bedouin culture due to changing surroundings and the establishment of new resort towns on the Red Sea coast, such as Sharm el-Sheikh. Bedouins in Egypt are facing a number of challenges: the erosion of traditional values, unemployment, and various land issues. With urbanization and new education opportunities, Bedouins started to marry outside their tribe, a practice that once was completely inappropriate.


title: Bedouin

text: Bedouins living in the Sinai peninsula did not benefit much from employment in the initial construction boom due to low wages offered. Sudanese and Egyptian workers were brought there as construction labourers instead. When the tourist industry started to bloom, local Bedouins increasingly moved into new service positions such as cab drivers, tour guides, campgrounds or cafe managers. However, the competition is very high, and many Sinai Bedouins are unemployed. Since there are not enough employment opportunities, Tarabin Bedouins, as well as other Bedouin tribes living along the border between Egypt and Israel, are involved in inter-border smuggling of drugs and weapons, as well as infiltration of prostitutes and African labour workers.


title: Bedouin

text: In most countries in the Middle East, the Bedouin have no land rights, only users' privileges, and it is especially true for Egypt. Since the mid-1980s, the Bedouins who held desirable coastal property have lost control of much of their land as it was sold by the Egyptian government to hotel operators. The Egyptian government did not see the land as belonging to Bedouin tribes, but rather as state property.


title: Bedouin

text: In the summer of 1999, the latest dispossession of the land took place when the army bulldozed Bedouin-run tourist campgrounds north of Nuweiba as part of the final phase of hotel development in the sector, overseen by the Tourist Development Agency (TDA). The director of the Tourist Development Agency dismissed Bedouin rights to most of the land, saying that they had not lived on the coast prior to 1982. Their traditional semi-nomadic culture has left Bedouins vulnerable to such claims.


title: Bedouin

text: The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 brought more freedom to the Sinai Bedouin, but since it was deeply involved in drug smuggling into Gaza after a number of terror attacks on the Egypt-Israel border a new Egyptian government has started a military operation in Sinai in the summer-fall of 2012. The Egyptian army has demolished over 120 tunnels leading from Egypt to Gaza that were used as smuggling channels and gave profit to the Bedouin families on the Egyptian side, as well as the Palestinian clans on the other side of the border. Thus the army has delivered a threatening message to local Bedouin, compelling them to cooperate with state troops and officials. After negotiations, the military campaign ended up with a new agreement between the Bedouin and Egyptian authorities.


title: Bedouin

text: There are a number of Bedouin tribes, but the total population is often difficult to determine, especially as many Bedouin have ceased to lead nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyles. Below is a partial list of Bedouin tribes and their historic place of origin.


title: Burbank, California

text: Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who established a sheep ranch there in 1867.


title: Burbank, California

text: Billed as the "Media Capital of the World" and only a few miles northeast of Hollywood, numerous media and entertainment companies are headquartered or have significant production facilities in Burbank, including Warner Bros. Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, The Burbank Studios, Cartoon Network Studios with the West Coast branch of Cartoon Network, and Insomniac Games. The broadcast network The CW is also headquartered in Burbank. The Hollywood Burbank Airport was the location of Lockheed's Skunk Works, which produced some of the most secret and technologically advanced airplanes, including the U-2 spy planes that uncovered Soviet Union missile components in Cuba in October 1962. In addition, the city contains the largest IKEA in the U.S.


title: Burbank, California

text: Burbank consists of two distinct areas: a downtown/foothill section, in the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains, and the flatland section. The city was referred to as "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", as both shows were taped at NBC's former studios. The public pool at Verdugo Recreation Center is very noted.


title: Burbank, California

text: The city of Burbank occupies land that was previously part of two Spanish and Mexican-era colonial land grants, the Rancho San Rafael, granted to Jose Maria Verdugo by the Spanish Bourbon government in 1784, and the Rancho Providencia created in 1821. This area was the scene of a military skirmish which resulted in the unseating of the Spanish Governor of California, and his replacement by the Mexican leader Pio Pico.


title: Burbank, California

text: Dr. David Burbank purchased over of the former Verdugo holding and another of the Rancho Providencia in 1867 and built a ranch house and began to raise sheep and grow wheat on the ranch. By 1876, the San Fernando Valley became the largest wheat-raising area in Los Angeles County. But the droughts of the 1860s and 1870s underlined the need for steady water supplies.


title: Burbank, California

text: A professionally trained dentist, Burbank began his career in Waterville, Maine. He joined the great migration westward in the early 1850s and, by 1853 was living in San Francisco. At the time the American Civil War broke out, he was again well established in his profession as a dentist in Pueblo de Los Angeles. In 1867, he purchased Rancho La Providencia from David W. Alexander and Francis Mellus, and he purchased the western portion of the Rancho San Rafael (4,603 acres) from Jonathan R. Scott. Burbank's property reached nearly at a cost of $9,000. Burbank would not acquire full titles to both properties until after a court decision known as the "Great Partition" was made in 1871 dissolving the Rancho San Rafael. He eventually became known as one of the largest and most successful sheep raisers in southern California, and as a result, he closed his dentistry practice and invested heavily in real estate in Los Angeles.


title: Burbank, California

text: Burbank also later owned the Burbank Theatre, which opened on November 27, 1893, at a cost of $150,000. It struggled for many years and by August 1900 had its thirteenth manager. The new manager's name was Oliver Morosco, who was already known as a successful theatrical impresario. He put the theater on the path to prosperity for many years. Though the theater was intended to be an opera house, instead it staged plays and became known nationally. The theatre featured leading actors of the day, such as Fay Bainter and Marjorie Rambeau, until it deteriorated into a burlesque house.


title: Burbank, California

text: When the area that became Burbank was settled in the 1870s and 1880s, the streets were aligned along what is now Olive Avenue, the road to the Cahuenga Pass and downtown Los Angeles. These were largely the roads the Native Americans traveled and the early settlers took their produce down to Los Angeles to sell and to buy supplies along these routes.


title: Burbank, California

text: At the time, the primary long-distance transportation methods available to San Fernando Valley residents were stagecoach and train. Stagecoaching between Los Angeles and San Francisco through the Valley began in 1858. The Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in the Valley in 1876, completing the route connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles.


title: Burbank, California

text: A shrewd businessman, foreseeing the value of rail transport, Burbank sold Southern Pacific Railroad a right-of-way through the property for one dollar. The first train passed through Burbank on April 5, 1874. A boom created by a rate war between the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific brought people streaming into California shortly thereafter, and a group of speculators purchased much of Burbank's land holdings in 1886 for $250,000. One account suggests Burbank may have sold his property because of a severe drought that year, which caused a shortage of water and grass for his livestock. Approximately 1,000 of his sheep died due to the drought conditions.


title: Burbank, California

text: The group of speculators who bought the acreage formed the Providencia Land, Water, and Development Company and began developing the land, calling the new town Burbank after its founder, and began offering farm lots on May 1, 1887. The townsite had Burbank Boulevard/Walnut Avenue as the northern boundary, Grandview Avenue as the southern boundary, the edge of the Verdugo Mountains as the eastern boundary, and Clybourn Avenue as the western border. The establishment of a water system in 1887 allowed farmers to irrigate their orchards and provided a stronger base for agricultural development. The original plot of the new townsite of Burbank extended from what is now Burbank Boulevard on the north, to Grandview Avenue in Glendale, California on the south, and from the top of the Verdugo Hills on the east to what is now known as Clybourn Avenue on the west.


title: Burbank, California

text: At the same time, the arrival of the railroad provided immediate access for the farmers to bring crops to market. Packing houses and warehouses were built along the railroad corridors. The railroads also provided access to the county for tourists and immigrants alike. A Southern Pacific Railroad depot in Burbank was completed in 1887.


title: Burbank, California

text: The boom lifting real estate values in the Los Angeles area proved to be a speculative frenzy that collapsed abruptly in 1889. Much of the newly created wealthy went broke. Many of the lots in Burbank ended up getting sold for taxes. Vast numbers of people would leave the region before it all ended.


title: Burbank, California

text: By 1904, Burbank received international attention for having world heavyweight boxing champion James J. Jeffries become a major landowner in the town. Jeffries bought to build a ranch on Victory Boulevard. He eventually raised cattle and sold them in Mexico and South America, becoming one of the first citizens to engage in foreign trade. He eventually built a large ranch home and barn near where Victory and Buena Vista Street now intersect. The barn was later removed and reassembled at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.


title: Burbank, California

text: Burbank's first telephone exchange, or telephone switch, was established in August 1900, becoming the first in the San Fernando Valley. Within 5 years, there were several telephone exchanges in the Valley and became known as the San Fernando Valley Home Telephone Company, based in Glendale. Home Telephone competed with Tropico, and in 1918 both were taken over by Pacific Telephone Company. At this time, there were an estimated 300 hand-cranked telephones in Burbank.


title: Burbank, California

text: The town's first bank was formed in 1908 when Burbank State Bank opened its doors near the corner of Olive Avenue and San Fernando Blvd. On the first day, the bank collected $30,000 worth of deposits, and at the time the town had a population of 300 residents. In 1911, the bank was dissolved; it would then become the Burbank branch of the Security Trust & Savings Bank.


title: Burbank, California

text: In 1911, wealthy farmer Joseph Fawkes grew apricots and owned a house on West Olive Avenue. He was also fascinated with machinery, and soon began developing what became known as the "Fawkes Folly" aerial trolley. He and his wife Ellen C. Fawkes secured two patents for the nation's first monorail. The two formed the Aerial Trolley Car Company and set about building a prototype they believed would revolutionize transportation.


title: Burbank, California

text: Joseph Fawkes called the trolley his Aerial Swallow, a cigar-shaped, suspended monorail driven by a propeller that he promised would carry passengers from Burbank to downtown Los Angeles in 10 minutes. The first open car accommodated about 20 passengers and was suspended from an overhead track and supported by wooden beams. In 1911, the monorail car made its first and only run through his Burbank ranch, with a line between Lake and Flower Streets. The monorail was considered a failure after gliding just a foot or so and falling to pieces. Nobody was injured but Joseph Fawkes' pride was badly hurt as Aerial Swallow became known as "Fawkes' Folly." City officials viewed his test run as a failure and focused on getting a Pacific Electric Streetcar line into Burbank.


title: Burbank, California

text: Laid out and surveyed with a modern business district surrounded by residential lots, wide boulevards were carved out as the "Los Angeles Express" printed:


title: Burbank, California

text: "Burbank, the town, being built in the midst of the new farming community, has been laid out in such a manner as to make it by and by an unusually pretty town. The streets and avenues are wide and, all have been handsomely graded. All improvements being made would do credit to a city ... Everything done at Burbank has been done right."


title: Burbank, California

text: The citizens of Burbank had to put up a $48,000 subsidy to get the reluctant Pacific Electric Streetcar officials to agree to extend the line from Glendale to Burbank. The first Red Car rolled into Burbank on September 6, 1911, with a tremendous celebration. That was about two months after the town became a city. The "Burbank Review" newspaper ran a special edition that day advising all local residents that:


title: Burbank, California

text: "On Wednesday, the first electric car running on a regular passenger-carrying schedule left the Pacific Electric station at Sixth and Main streets, Los Angeles, for Burbank at 6:30 a.m. and the first car from Burbank to Los Angeles left at 6:20 a.m. the same day. Upon arrival of this car on its maiden trip, many citizens gave evidence of their great joy by ringing bells and discharging firearms. A big crowd of both men and women boarded the first car and rode to Glendale and there changed to a second car coming from Los Angeles and rode home again. Every face was an expression of happiness and satisfaction."


title: Burbank, California

text: The Burbank Line was completed through to Cypress Avenue in Burbank, and by mid-1925 this line was extended about a mile further along Glenoaks Boulevard to Eton Drive. A small wooden station was erected in Burbank in 1911 at Orange Grove Avenue with a small storage yard in its rear. This depot was destroyed by fire in 1942 and in 1947 a small passenger shelter was constructed.


title: Burbank, California

text: On May 26, 1942, the California State Railroad Commission proposed an extension of the Burbank Line to the Lockheed plant. The proposal called for a double-track line from Arden Junction along Glenoaks to San Fernando Boulevard and Empire Way, just northeast of Lockheed's main facility. But this extension never materialized and the commission moved on to other projects in the San Fernando Valley. The Red Car line in Burbank was abandoned and the tracks removed in 1956.


title: Burbank, California

text: The city marshal's office was changed to the Burbank Police Department in 1923. The first police chief was George Cole, who later became a U.S. Treasury prohibition officer.


title: Burbank, California

text: In 1928, Burbank was one of the first 13 cities to join the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, one of the largest suppliers of water in the world. This contrasted with other San Fernando Valley communities that obtained water through political annexation to Los Angeles. By 1937, the first power from Hoover Dam was distributed over Burbank's own electricity lines. The city purchases about 55% of its water from the MWD.


title: Burbank, California

text: The town grew steadily, weathering the drought and depression that hit Los Angeles in the 1890s and in 20 years, the community had a bank, newspaper, high school and a thriving business district with a hardware store, livery stable, dry goods store, general store, and bicycle repair shop. The city's first newspaper, "Burbank Review", was established in 1906.


title: Burbank, California

text: The populace petitioned the State Legislature to incorporate as a city on July 8, 1911, with businessman Thomas Story as the mayor. Voters approved incorporation by a vote of 81 to 51. At the time, the Board of Trustees governed the community which numbered 500 residents. With the action of the Legislature, Burbank thus became the first independent city in the San Fernando Valley.


title: Burbank, California

text: The first city seal adopted by Burbank featured a cantaloupe, which was a crop that helped save the town's life when the land boom collapsed. In 1931, the original city seal was replaced and in 1978 the modern seal was adopted. The new seal shows City Hall beneath a banner. An airplane symbolizes the city's aircraft industry, the strip of film and stage light represent motion picture production. The bottom portion depicts the sun rising over the Verdugo Mountains.


title: Burbank, California

text: In 1915, major sections of the valley were annexed, helping Los Angeles to more than double its size that year. But Burbank was among a handful of towns with their own water wells and remained independent. By 1916, Burbank had 1,500 residents. In 1922, the Burbank Chamber of Commerce was organized. In 1923, the United States Postal Service reclassified the city from the rural "village mail delivery" to "city postal delivery service". Burbank's population had grown significantly, from less than 500 people in 1908 to over 3,000 citizens. The city's business district grew on the west side of San Fernando Blvd. and stretched from Verdugo to Cypress avenues, and on the east side to Palm Avenue. In 1927, five miles (8 km) of paved streets had increased to .


title: Burbank, California

text: The Wall Street Crash of 1929 set off a period of hardship for Burbank where business and residential growth paused. The effects of the Depression also caused tight credit conditions and halted home building throughout the area, including the city's Magnolia Park development. Around this time, major employers began to cut payrolls and some plants closed their doors.


title: Burbank, California

text: The Burbank City Council responded by slashing 10% of the wages of city workers. Money was put into an Employee Relief Department to help the unemployed. Local civic and religious groups sprang into action and contributed with food as homeless camps began to form along the city's Southern Pacific railroad tracks. Hundreds began to participate in self-help cooperatives, trading skills such as barbering, tailoring, plumbing or carpentry, for food and other services.


title: Burbank, California

text: By 1930, as First National Studios, Andrew Jergens Company, The Lockheed Company, McNeill and Libby Canning Company, the Moreland Company, and Northrop Aircraft Corporation opened facilities in Burbank and the population jumped to 16,662.


title: Burbank, California

text: In the 1930s, Burbank and Glendale prevented the Civilian Conservation Corps from stationing African American workers in a local park, citing sundown town ordinances that both cities had adopted.


title: Burbank, California

text: Following a San Fernando Valley land bust during the Depression, real estate began to bounce back in the mid-1930s. In Burbank, a 100-home construction project began in 1934. By 1936, property values in the city exceeded pre-Depression levels. By 1950, the population had reached 78,577. From 1967 to 1989, a six-block stretch of San Fernando Blvd. was pedestrianized as the "Golden Mall".


title: Burbank, California

text: In 1887, the Burbank Furniture Manufacturing Company was the town's first factory. In 1917, the arrival of the Moreland Motor Truck Company changed the town and resulted in growing a manufacturing and industrial workforce. Within a few years, Moreland trucks were seen bearing the label, "Made in Burbank." Watt Moreland, its owner, had relocated his plant to Burbank from Los Angeles. He selected at San Fernando Blvd. and Alameda Avenue. Moreland invested $1 million in the factory and machinery and employed 500 people. It was the largest truck maker west of the Mississippi.


title: Burbank, California

text: Within the next several decades, factories would dot the area landscape. What had mainly been an agricultural and ranching area would get replaced with a variety of manufacturing industries. Moreland operated from 1917 to 1937. Aerospace supplier Menasco Manufacturing Company would later purchase the property. Menasco's Burbank landing gear factory closed in 1994 due to slow commercial and military orders, affecting 310 people. Within months of Moreland's arrival, Community Manufacturing Company, a $3 million tractor company, arrived in Burbank.