title: Harrison Bergeron

text: A dystopian society similar to that of "Harrison Bergeron" appears in Vonnegut's 1959 novel "The Sirens of Titan". When the Space Wanderer returns to Earth he finds a society in which handicaps are used to make all people equal, eradicating the supposedly ruinous effects of blind luck on human society. The narrator claims that now "the weakest and the meekest were bound to admit, at last, that the race of life was fair".


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: The strong are burdened with "handicaps" (consisting of "bags of lead shot" hung from various parts of the body) and the beautiful hide their advantageous appearance through "frumpish clothes, bad posture, chewing gum and a ghoulish use of cosmetics". Unlike in "Harrison Bergeron", however, the citizens in "The Sirens of Titan" choose to wear these handicaps voluntarily as an act of faith towards "the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent", although it is suggested that not to do so would invite social condemnation. There are no handicaps for above-average intelligence mentioned in "The Sirens of Titan". The society of "Harrison Bergeron" addresses differences in intellectual and cognitive ability and their entailing advantages.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: In 2005, the story was quoted by attorneys in a brief before the Kansas Supreme Court. Vonnegut was quoted as saying that while he did not mind the story being used in the suit, he disagreed with the lawyers' interpretation of it. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia quoted the story in "PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin". A 2013 academic paper criticizing the new hyperandrogenism policies of the International Association of Athletics Federations and the International Olympic Committee was entitled "The Harrison Bergeron Olympics" and several non-academics had similar criticisms.


title: Toe

text: Toes are the digits (fingers) of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being "digitigrade". Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being "plantigrade"; "unguligrade" animals are those that walk on hooves at the tips of their toes.


title: Toe

text: There are normally five toes present on each human foot. Each toe consists of three phalanx bones, the proximal, middle, and distal, with the exception of the big toe (). For a minority of people, the little toe also is missing a middle bone. The hallux only contains two phalanx bones, the proximal and distal. The joints between each phalanx are the interphalangeal joints. The proximal phalanx bone of each toe articulates with the metatarsal bone of the foot at the metatarsophalangeal joint. Each toe is surrounded by skin, and present on all five toes is a toenail.


title: Toe

text: Toe movement is generally flexion and extension (movement toward the sole or the back of the foot, resp.) via muscular tendons that attach to the toes on the anterior and superior surfaces of the phalanx bones.


title: Toe

text: With the exception of the hallux, toe movement is generally governed by action of the flexor digitorum brevis and extensor digitorum brevis muscles. These attach to the sides of the bones, making it impossible to move individual toes independently. Muscles between the toes on their top and bottom also help to abduct and adduct the toes. The hallux and little toe have unique muscles:


title: Toe

text: The toes receive blood from the digital branches of the plantar metatarsal arteries and drain blood into the dorsal venous arch of the foot.


title: Toe

text: Sensation to the skin of the toes is provided by five nerves. The superficial fibular nerve supplies sensation to the top of the toes, except between the hallux and second toe, which is supplied by the deep fibular nerve, and the outer surface of the fifth toe, supplied by the sural nerve. Sensation to the bottom of the toes is supplied by the medial plantar nerve, which supplies sensation to the great toe and inner three-and-a-half toes, and the lateral plantar nerve, which supplies sensation to the little toe and half of the sensation of the fourth toe.


title: Toe

text: In humans, the hallux is usually longer than the second toe, but in some individuals, it may not be the longest toe. There is an inherited trait in humans, where the dominant gene causes a longer second toe ("Morton's toe" or "Greek foot") while the homozygous recessive genotype presents with the more common trait: a longer hallux. People with the rare genetic disease fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva characteristically have a short hallux which appears to turn inward, or medially, in relation to the foot.


title: Toe

text: Humans usually have five toes on each foot. When more than five toes are present, this is known as polydactyly. Other variants may include syndactyly or arachnodactyly. Forefoot shape, including toe shape, exhibits significant variation among people; these differences can be measured and have been statistically correlated with ethnicity. Such deviations may affect comfort and fit for various shoe types. Research conducted for the U.S. Army indicated that larger feet may still have smaller arches, toe length, and toe-breadth.


title: Toe

text: The human foot consists of multiple bones and soft tissues which support the weight of the upright human. Specifically, the toes assist the human while walking, providing balance, weight-bearing, and thrust during gait.


title: Toe

text: A sprain or strain to the small interphalangeal joints of the toe is commonly called a stubbed toe. A sprain or strain where the toe joins to the foot is called turf toe.


title: Toe

text: Long-term use of improperly sized shoes can cause misalignment of toes, as well as other orthopedic problems.


title: Toe

text: Morton's neuroma commonly results in pain and numbness between the third and fourth toes of the sufferer, due to it affecting the nerve between the third and fourth metatarsal bones.


title: Toe

text: The big toe is also the most common locus of ingrown nails, and its proximal phalanx joint is the most common locus for gout attacks.


title: Toe

text: Deformities of the foot include hammer toe, trigger toe, and claw toe. Hammer toe can be described as an abnormal contraction or “buckling” of a toe. This is done by a partial or complete dislocation of one of the joints, which form the toes. Since the toes are deformed further, these may press against a shoe and cause pain. Deformities of the foot can also be caused by rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes mellitus. Deformities may predispose to ulcers and pain, especially when shoe-wearing.


title: Toe

text: A common problem involving the big toe is the formation of bunions. These are structural deformities of the bones and the joint between the foot and big toe, and may be painful. Similar deformity involving the fifth toe is described as tailor's bunion or bunionette.


title: Toe

text: A favourable option for the reconstruction of missing adjacent fingers/multiple digit amputations, i.e. such as a metacarpal hand reconstruction, is to have a combined second and third toe transplantation. Third and fourth toe transplantation to the hand in replacing lost fingers is also a viable option.


title: Toe

text: The Old English term for "toe" is "tā" (plural "tān"). This is a contraction of "tāhe", and derives from Proto-Germanic *"taihwǭ" (cognates: Old Norse "tá", Old Frisian "tāne", Middle Dutch "tee", Dutch "teen" (perhaps originally a plural), Old High German "zēha", German "Zehe"). Perhaps originally meaning "fingers" as well (many Indo-European languages use one word to mean both fingers and toes, e.g. "digit"), and thus from PIE root *"deyḱ-" — "to show".


title: Toe

text: In classical Latin "hallex", "allex", "hallus" and "allus", with genitive "(h)allicis" and "(h)alli", are used to refer to the big toe. The form "hallux" (genitive, "hallucis") currently in use is however a blend word of the aforementioned forms. Compare pollex, the equivalent term for the thumb.


title: Toe

text: In birds with anisodactyl or heterodactyl feet, the hallux is opposed or directed backwards and allows for grasping and perching.


title: Toe

text: While the thumb is often mentioned as one of the signature characteristics in humans, this manual digit remains partially primitive and is actually present in all primates. In humans, the most derived digital feature is the hallux.


title: Marc Mero

text: Marc Mero (born July 9, 1960) is an American former amateur boxer and professional wrestler, as well as a motivational speaker. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) under his real name and with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and NWA Total Nonstop Action (NWA TNA) under the ring name Johnny B. Badd. Today, Marc Mero contributes much of his time to the nonprofit organization he founded in 2007, Champion of Choices.


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero was heavily pushed as a mid-carder as "Johnny B. Badd" in WCW during the early 1990s. He won the WCW World Television Championship three times during the course of his career before departing the company due to creative differences in 1996. He would then compete in WWF under his real name, making his debut at WrestleMania XII and going on to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. He would then feud with his wife Sable before departing in 1999. Mero's last mainstream appearance was in NWA TNA, where he wrestled sporadically in the mid-2000s.


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero was born in Buffalo, New York. His parents divorced when he was eight years old, with his mother supporting him and his two siblings by working two jobs. At the age of 12, Mero began playing hockey, eventually becoming his league's Most Valuable Player. In 1973, Mero's family relocated to Liverpool, New York, where Mero played for the Mid State Youth Hockey League. At age 15, Mero began playing for the Syracuse Stars Junior Hockey Team.


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero began playing football in his senior year at Liverpool High School, with his team winning the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Title under the tutelage of future University of Central Florida coach George O'Leary. In the same year, Mero began training as a boxer under Golden Gloves coach Ray Rinaldi. Mero went on to win four New York State titles, including the New York Golden Gloves tournament. Mero intended to become a professional boxer, but his career was sidelined after his nose was broken in an accident. He briefly pursued a bodybuilding career, placing third in the Mr. New York State bodybuilding contest.


title: Marc Mero

text: In 1990, Mero decided to become a wrestler, traveling to Tampa, Florida to train under the Malenkos. He debuted in 1991 in the Floridian Sun Coast Professional Wrestling promotion.


title: Marc Mero

text: Several months after his FSCPW debut, Mero attended a World Championship Wrestling television taping and was given a tryout, losing to Doom in a squash match. Mero appeared with WCW as an enhancement talent for several months. Mero competed in his first match on the May 1, 1991 episode of "WorldWide", where he was defeated by Sid Vicious. He was eventually signed to a contract by booker Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes repackaged Mero with the ring name Johnny B. Badd (as a nod to the Chuck Berry song "Johnny B. Goode") and he was given the character of a flamboyant Little Richard look-alike. He was initially a villain and managed by Teddy Long. He debuted at the inaugural SuperBrawl pay-per-view, on May 19, 1991, where he was introduced as Long's newest client. He made his televised in-ring debut on the June 1 episode of "World Championship Wrestling" against enhancement talent Kip Abee. Badd made his pay-per-view debut at The Great American Bash, where he lost to The Yellow Dog by disqualification after Long tried to remove Yellow Dog's mask.


title: Marc Mero

text: Badd was heavily pushed upon his debut, being placed in the rankings of the top ten contenders for the World Heavyweight Championship due to a dominant undefeated streak. He put his lip stickers on the faces of his defeated opponents after matches. On August 25, he participated in a tournament for the vacated United States Heavyweight Championship, where he faced Yellow Dog to a no contest in the quarter-final. As a result, both men were eliminated from the tournament. Badd suffered his first pinfall loss on television on the September 5 "", where he was pinned by the United States Heavyweight Champion Sting. Badd continued his dominance with a win over Jimmy Garvin at Halloween Havoc and unsuccessfully challenged Brian Pillman for the Light Heavyweight Championship on the November 19 "Clash of the Champions XVII".


title: Marc Mero

text: On the December 22 episode of "Main Event", Badd teamed with Diamond Studd to take on Tom Zenk and P. N. News in a tag team match, which Badd's team lost. After the match, Badd was attacked by Studd and Diamond Dallas Page until Zenk and News came to his rescue. As a result, Badd turned into a fan favorite. Badd made his first appearance at the company's flagship event Starrcade, where he was randomly placed with Arachnaman in a Lethal Lottery tag team match against Scott Steiner and Firebreaker Chip. Badd's team lost. Shortly after, he began using "Badd Blaster", a confetti gun that he would fire before his matches. Badd continued to rack up wins against the likes of Richard Morton and Tracy Smothers in the first half of 1992. He feuded with Page and his teammate Scotty Flamingo and the two competed in a series of televised and non-televised matches throughout 1992, including a boxing match on the November 18 "Clash of the Champions XXI", which Flamingo won in the third round after Page filled Flamingo's boxing glove with water.


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero got involved in a rivalry with Cactus Jack after the two were randomly placed as tag team partners via Lethal Lottery for Starrcade but failed to get along. The duo teamed for the first time on the December 26 episode of "Saturday Night", where they defeated Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce. They had a confrontation after the match, during which Jack delivered a double underhook DDT. At Starrcade, Mero's team lost in their Lethal Lottery match after Mero knocked Jack out with a "Tutti Frutti". Mero faced Jack in a match on the January 13, 1993 "Clash of the Champions XXII", where he lost. Badd began his next major program with Maxx Payne after Payne injured him with a "Payne Killer" on February 9. During this rivalry, Payne stole the Badd Blaster and Badd attempted to reclaim his gun. Badd lost a match to Payne by forfeit on the June 16 "Clash of the Champions XXIII" after Payne took him out with the Badd Blaster. Badd donned a mask due to the sustained injuries and faced Payne in a series of matches. He defeated Payne at the Beach Blast pay-per-view but lost to him in a no disqualification match on the July 31 episode of "Saturday Night". Badd defeated Payne in a mask versus guitar match on the August 18 "Clash of the Champions XXIV", to claim Payne's guitar. The two ended their feud on the October 30 episode of "Saturday Night", where both men shook hands and buried the hatchet after a confrontation with Paul Orndorff.


title: Marc Mero

text: Badd unsuccessfully challenged Lord Steven Regal for the WCW World Television Championship on the November 10 "Clash of the Champions XXV". He was randomly paired with Brian Knobbs in a Lethal Lottery at the Battlebowl pay-per-view, where Badd's team won to qualify for the Battlebowl battle royal. He eliminated Rip Rogers before being eliminated by Paul Orndorff.


title: Marc Mero

text: Badd received his first world championship opportunity on the February 12, 1994, episode of "Saturday Night", where he challenged Rick Rude for the International World Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort. During this time, Badd formed a tag team with Michael Hayes and began a feud with Harlem Heat. Hayes turned on Badd during a no disqualification match against Harlem Heat on the February 19 episode of "Saturday Night". As a result, Badd would be facing Hayes, the following night at SuperBrawl IV, where Hayes was replaced by Jimmy Garvin, whom Badd defeated. Badd began pursuing the United States Heavyweight Championship after he lost a tuxedo match against champion Steve Austin on the May 7 episode of "WorldWide", after Col. Robert Parker pulled off Badd's pants. Badd faced Austin for the title in a losing effort at Slamboree Badd received another title shot on the June 23 "Clash of the Champions XXVII", where Austin initially retained the title by pinning Badd after hitting him with a foreign object, but the referee reversed the decision, during which Badd pinned Austin. However, due to the controversial finish, Austin retained the title.


title: Marc Mero

text: Badd substituted for the injured Sting as Lord Steven Regal's challenger for the World Television Championship at Bash at the Beach, where he failed to win the title. However, Badd remained in the title contention. Mero was booked to beat Regal for the title at Fall Brawl to gain his first singles championship in WCW. Badd made his first successful title defense against Bobby Eaton on the October 1 episode of "WorldWide". He retained the title in major title defenses against The Honky Tonk Man at Halloween Havoc and the November 16 "Clash of the Champions XXIX". Badd was scheduled to defend the title against Honky for a third time at Starrcade but Honky left the company before the event and was replaced by Arn Anderson, whom Badd defeated to retain the title. Badd dropped the title to Anderson on the January 8, 1995, episode of "Main Event". Badd failed to win the title in subsequent rematches on the January 25 "Clash of the Champions XXX", February 18 episode of "Saturday Night" and February 19 episode of "Main Event". Badd defeated Anderson in a boxer-versus-wrestler match at Uncensored to end the rivalry.


title: Marc Mero

text: Badd competed in the mid-card throughout 1995, until he defeated Brian Pillman to become the #1 contender for the United States Heavyweight Championship at Fall Brawl. Badd received his title shot on the September 30 episode of "Saturday Night" against Sting, but failed to appear as he had been attacked by the Television Champion Diamond Dallas Page. Badd faced and defeated Page to win his second World Television Championship at Halloween Havoc. Badd defended the title against Page at the inaugural World War 3 pay-per-view, with the stipulation that if Badd won, he would gain Page's Diamond Doll as his valet. Badd defeated Page to retain the title and won the services of Kimberly, but he freed her. She continued to be in Badd's corner and the rivalry with Page continued. Badd defeated Page to retain the title at SuperBrawl VI in 1996. Badd lost the World Television Championship to Lex Luger during a house show on February 17, but defeated Luger to regain the title on February 18. He lost the title to Luger again on the March 9 episode of "Saturday Night", after Page delivered a "Diamond Cutter" to Badd on the floor. This was Badd's final appearance in WCW. He left the company because he strongly objected to the ongoing angle with Kimberly Page.


title: Marc Mero

text: After leaving WCW, he immediately signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he began competing under his real name because WCW acquired the rights to the Johnny B. Badd name. He debuted in WWF as a fan favorite at WrestleMania XII, on March 31, 1996, where he rescued his wife, Rena "Sable" Mero from Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Mero made his in-ring debut, the following night on "Monday Night Raw", where he defeated Isaac Yankem DDS. The following night after his in-ring debut on Action Zone, he partnered with Ahmed Johnson to take on Camp Cornette at the San Diego Sports Arena. Beginning with the April 15 episode of "Raw", Sable began accompanying Mero to the ring during his matches with various outfits and whips and he adopted the nickname and a Jungle Gimmick called "Wildman", Both Mero and Sable adopted the nickname World Wrestling Federation's 1 2 Punch . Mero defeated Helmsley in his pay-per-view debut at . Mero qualified for the King of the Ring tournament by defeating Skip on the June 10 episode of "Raw". He defeated Owen Hart in the quarter-final, the following week on "Raw", but lost to eventual winner Stone Cold Steve Austin in the semi-final at King of the Ring. Mero began a rivalry with Goldust after Goldust won a match between the pair on the July 1 episode of "Raw". Mero faced Goldust in a losing effort at the SummerSlam pay-per-view.


title: Marc Mero

text: On the September 6 episode of "Raw", Mero participated in a tournament for the Intercontinental Championship, which was vacated by Ahmed Johnson due to injury. Mero defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin, Owen Hart and Faarooq to win the title on September 23 episode of "Raw". Mero successfully defended the title against Goldust, with the assistance of Mr. Perfect at . He dropped the title to rival Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the following night on "Raw" after Perfect goaded Mero into defending the title against Helmsley and hit him with a steel chair. Mero led a team of Jake Roberts, The Stalker and newcomer Rocky Maivia against Helmsley, Crush, Goldust and Jerry Lawler in a four-on-four elimination tag team match at Survivor Series. Mero was eliminated by Crush but his team won the match. Mero faced Helmsley for the Intercontinental Championship at , where Mero won by count-out.


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero participated in the 1997 Royal Rumble match as the #16 entrant. He was eliminated by the eventual winner Stone Cold Steve Austin. On the February 3 episode of "Raw", Mero received his last opportunity for the Intercontinental Championship against Hunter Hearst Helmsley, where he failed to win the title. Later that month, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and spent six months rehabilitating.


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero returned to WWF television on the October 6 episode of "Raw is War", where he was repackaged as a boxer-turned-wrestler and got a new nickname "Marvelous". He debuted a new finishing move, "TKO" to win his match against Miguel Pérez, Jr. Mero began a slow turn as a villain after becoming jealous of the fan following Sable had acquired in his absence and wanting her out of the WWF. During this time, he faced boxer Butterbean in a toughman contest at , which he lost by disqualification.


title: Marc Mero

text: As 1998 began, Mero's obsession with Sable continued, which led to a temporary alliance with Goldust and his valet, Luna Vachon, in which the three humiliated Sable during matches, but it turned into a short feud when Goldust became physical with Sable. At WrestleMania XIV, Mero and Sable defeated Goldust and Luna in a mixed tag team match. The storyline was resolved in a match between Mero and Sable at , in which Mero feigned remorse, offering to lie down and allow her to pin him, before defeating Sable with an inside cradle, which resulted in her leaving the WWF for a short time and Mero completed his villainous turn. After he dropped Sable as his valet, Jacqueline became his manager. However, his association with Jacqueline did not prove to be successful as he failed to qualify for the King of the Ring tournament against Jeff Jarrett on the June 22 episode of "Raw is War" and competed in the Brawl for All on the following week's episode of "Raw is War", where he was defeated by Steve Blackman in the first round. Mero and Jacqueline faced Sable and newcomer Edge in a mixed tag team match at SummerSlam, which Mero lost after Edge dropped Sable on him to pin him for the victory. Mero's misfortunes continued when he failed to regain the Intercontinental Championship after losing to Val Venis in a tournament in October. Jacqueline's interventions in matches soon ended up costing Mero several victories and he ultimately fired her after losing to Big Boss Man on the November 22 episode of "Sunday Night Heat".


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero's last appearance on WWF television in the United States was on the November 30 episode of "Raw is War", where he faced Light Heavyweight Champion Duane Gill. He promised to retire if he did not win the match. Gill won the match with the help of The J.O.B. Squad. He wrestled one final time at the United Kingdom-exclusive pay-per-view Capital Carnage, where he teamed with Jacqueline as a reluctant partner against Sable and Christian in a losing effort. In 1999, both Mero and Sable left the WWF. At the time, Mero had three years remaining on his contract, with a guaranteed salary of $350,000. Mero subsequently did not wrestle for 18 months due to various nagging injuries and a shoulder surgery.


title: Marc Mero

text: On April 26, 2000, Mero returned to World Championship Wrestling, appearing with his trainer, Ray Rinaldi, in the audience on an episode of "WCW Thunder" and confronting Tank Abbott. Mero opted not to return to WCW on a full-time basis due to his physical condition at the time.


title: Marc Mero

text: In 2001, Mero returned to wrestling in the short-lived X Wrestling Federation (XWF) along with Rena Mero. They remained with the company until its closure in 2002.


title: Marc Mero

text: In 2004, Mero began wrestling for NWA Total Nonstop Action (NWA TNA) reprising his Johnny B. Badd character. He debuted in TNA on the October 2, 2004 episode of "Xplosion", where he participated as a fan favorite in a tag team match with Russ Rollins against Rod Steele and Bruce Steele, which Badd's team won. After the match, Badd smashed Jeff Jarrett's guitar on Rollins' head, thus turning into a villain. However, his villainous turn was short-lived as he turned back into a fan favorite during his "Impact!" debut on November 5, where he defeated Vito Thomaselli. He appeared with the company sporadically throughout late 2004 and early 2005. He competed at the company's first monthly pay-per-view Victory Road, where he participated in an eight-man tag team match, which his team won. Badd's most notable moment during his TNA career took place on the November 19 episode of "Impact!", when he defeated Raven, with the help of Diamond Dallas Page. Badd then appeared at the Turning Point pay-per-view in December, where he teamed with Pat Kenney against Glen Gilberti and Johnny Swinger in a tag team match, which Mero's team won. His last televised match in TNA was a six-man tag team match on the December 31 episode of "Impact!", where his team was victorious. He made his last appearance in TNA at the pre-show of the Final Resolution pay-per-view on January 16, 2005, where he was paired with Sonny Siaki in a tag team match against The Naturals, which Naturals won.


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero retired from in-ring competition in 2006, opening and operating the "Marc Mero Body Slam Training Institute" in Altamonte Springs, Florida.


title: Marc Mero

text: In 1994, Mero married Rena "Sable" Greek, adopting her daughter from a previous marriage. The couple separated in mid-2003 and divorced amicably in 2004. Marc married for the second time in 2009, to Darlene Spezzi; the couple divorced in 2019. Mero is a Christian.


title: Marc Mero

text: In July 2007, Mero stated that he required a heart valve transplant. Mero had announced that he was prepared to undergo heart surgery in November 2014, however tests revealed that his enlarged heart had shrunk. Mero claims that doctors believe he will still need surgery someday.


title: Marc Mero

text: In June and July 2007, Mero commented on the Chris Benoit murder-suicide, appearing on numerous cable news programs and criticizing both the wrestling industry and World Wrestling Entertainment. In an interview with WFTV, Mero admitted to using both anabolic steroids and recreational drugs over a period of seven years and claimed that steroids had contributed to the early deaths of many wrestlers. In interviews, Mero produced a list of 25 (later expanded to 31) wrestlers with whom he had wrestled and who had since died, calling for greater regulation of the wrestling industry.


title: Marc Mero

text: Mero's comments attracted criticism from WWE employees such as Mr. Kennedy, who labelled him a "goof" and a "silly bastard", and Dave "Fit" Finlay, who claimed Mero had "nothing to do with this business". On July 15, 2007, Mero attended the memorials of Nancy and Daniel Benoit in Daytona Beach, Florida. Following his comments, Mero began making appearances at schools in Central Florida and lecturing on the dangers of drug abuse and bullying; he also promotes a similar-interests website with which he is affiliated. As of April 2, 2009, he has had many appearances in schools and community colleges across The United States.


title: Jizya

text: Jizya ( / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. The Quran and hadiths mention jizya without specifying its rate or amount, and the application of jizya varied in the course of Islamic history. However, scholars largely agree that early Muslim rulers adapted existing systems of taxation and tribute that were established under previous rulers of the conquered lands, such as those of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. Initially, Jizyah was only applied onto the Jews and Christians while pagans were not covered under the dhimmi system. As Islam spread to the Indian subcontinent, jizya was applied onto the Hindus as well.


title: Jizya

text: Together with kharāj, a term that was sometimes used interchangeably with jizya, taxes levied on non-Muslim subjects were among the main sources of revenues collected by some Islamic polities, such as the Ottoman Empire and Indian Muslim Sultanates. Jizya rate was usually a fixed annual amount depending on the financial capability of the payer. Sources comparing taxes levied on Muslims and jizya differ as to their relative burden depending on time, place, specific taxes under consideration, and other factors.


title: Jizya

text: Muslim jurists required adult, free, sane males among the dhimma community to pay the jizya, while exempting women, children, elders, handicapped, the ill, the insane, monks, hermits, slaves, and musta'mins—non-Muslim foreigners who only temporarily reside in Muslim lands. Dhimmis who chose to join military service were also exempted from payment, as were those who could not afford to pay. According to Islamic law, elders, handicapped etc, must be given pensions, and they must not go into begging.


title: Jizya

text: Historically, the jizya tax has been understood in Islam as a fee for protection provided by the Muslim ruler to non-Muslims, for the exemption from military service for non-Muslims, for the permission to practice a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state, and as material proof of the non-Muslims' submission to the Muslim state and its laws, Jizya has also been understood by some as a badge or state of humiliation of the non-Muslims in a Muslim state for not converting to Islam, (the Quran calling for unbelievers to pay jizyah "willingly while they are humbled" Q.9:29), a substantial source of revenue for at least some times and places (such as the Umayyad era); while others argue that if it were meant to be a punishment for the dhimmis' unbelief then monks and the clergy wouldn't have been exempted.


title: Jizya

text: The term appears in the Quran referring to a tax or tribute from "People of the Book," specifically Jews and Christians.


title: Jizya

text: Followers of other religions like Zoroastrians and Hindus too were later integrated into the category of "dhimmis" and required to pay jizya. In the Indian Subcontinent the practice was eradicated by the 18th century. It almost vanished during the 20th century with disappearance of Islamic states and spread of religious tolerance. The tax is no longer imposed by nation states in the Islamic world, although there are reported cases of organizations such as the Pakistani Taliban and ISIS attempting to revive the practice.


title: Jizya

text: Some modern Islamic scholars have argued that jizya should be paid by non-Muslim subjects of an Islamic state, offering different rationales. For example, Sayyid Qutb saw it as punishment for "polytheism", while Abdul Rahman Doi viewed it as a counterpart of the zakat tax paid by Muslims.


title: Jizya

text: Commentators disagree on the definition and derivation of the word "jizya". Ann Lambton writes that the origins of "jizya" are extremely complex, regarded by some jurists as "compensation paid by non-Muslims for being spared from death" and by others as "compensation for living in Muslim lands."


title: Jizya

text: Shakir's English translations of the Qur'an render "jizya" as 'tax', while Pickthall and Arberry translate it as "tribute". Yusuf Ali prefers to transliterate the term as "jizyah". Yusuf Ali considered the root meaning of "jizya" to be "compensation," whereas Muhammad Asad considered it to be "satisfaction."


title: Jizya

text: Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (d. 1108), a classical Muslim lexicographer, writes that "jizya" is a "tax that is levied on Dhimmis, and it is so named because it is in return for the protection they are guaranteed." He points out that derivatives of the word appear in some Qurʾānic verses as well, such as:


title: Jizya

text: Muhammad Abdel-Haleem states that the term poll tax does not translate the Arabic word "jizya", being also inaccurate in light of the exemptions granted to children, women, etc., unlike a poll tax, which by definition is levied on every individual (poll = head) regardless of gender, age, or ability to pay. He further adds that the root verb of "jizya" is j-z-y, which means 'to reward somebody for something', 'to pay what is due in return for something' and adds that it is in return for the protection of the Muslim state with all the accruing benefits and exemption from military service, and such taxes on Muslims as "zakat".


title: Jizya

text: Historian al-Tabari and the hadith scholar al-Bayhaqi relate that some members of the Christian community asked ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab if they could refer to the "jizya" as "sadaqah", literally 'charity', which he agreed to. Based on this historical event, the majority of jurists from Shāfiʿīs, Ḥanafīs and Ḥanbalīs state that it is lawful to take the "jizya" from "ahl al-dhimmah" by name of "zakāt" or "ṣadaqah", meaning it is not necessary to call the tax that is taken from them by jizya, and also based on the known legal maxim that states, "consideration is granted to objectives and meanings and not to terms and specific wordings."


title: Jizya

text: According to "Lane's Lexicon", "jizya" is the tax that is taken from the free non-Muslim subjects of an Islamic government, whereby they ratify the pact that ensures them protection.


title: Jizya

text: Michael G. Morony states that:[The emergence of] protected status and the definition of "jizya" as the poll tax on non-Muslim subjects appears to have been achieved only by the early eighth century. This came as a result of growing suspicions about the loyalty of the non-Muslim population during the second civil war and of the literalist interpretation of the Quran by pious Muslims.Jane Dammen McAuliffe states that "jizya", in early Islamic texts, was an annual tribute expected from non-Muslims, and not a poll tax. Similarly, Thomas Walker Arnold writes that "jizya" originally denoted tribute of any type paid by the non-Muslim subjects of the Arab empire, but that it came later on to be used for the capitation-tax, "as the fiscal system of the new rulers became fixed."


title: Jizya

text: Arthur Stanley Tritton states that both "jizya" in west, and "kharaj" in the east Arabia meant 'tribute'. It was also called "jawali" in Jerusalem. Shemesh says that Abu Yusuf, Abu Ubayd, Qudama, Khatib, and Yahya used the terms "Jizya", "Kharaj", "Ushr" and "Tasq" as synonyms.


title: Jizya

text: According to Abou Al-Fadl and other scholars, classical Muslim jurists and scholars regard the jizya as a special payment collected from certain non-Muslims in return for the responsibility of protection fulfilled by Muslims against any type of aggression, as well as for non-Muslims being exempt from military service, and in exchange for the aid provided to poor dhimmis. In a treaty made by Khalid with some towns in the neighborhood of Hirah, he writes: "If we protect you, then jizya is due to us; but if we do not, then it is not due." Early Hanafi jurist Abu Yusuf writes:


title: Jizya

text: 1. "Fight those who believe not in God and the Last Day" ("qātilū-lladhīna lā yuʾminūna bi-llāhi wa-lā bi-l-yawmi-l-ākhir")


title: Jizya

text: Commenting on this verse, Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti says:[T]he verse commands "qitāl" () and not "qatl" (), and it is known that there is a big distinction between these two words... For you say "qataltu" () so-and-so if you initiated the fighting, while you say "qātaltu" () him if you resisted his effort to fight you by a reciprocal fight, or if you forestalled him in that so that he would not get at you unawares.Muhammad Abdel-Haleem writes that there is nothing in the Qur'an to say that not believing in God and the Last Day is in itself grounds for fighting anyone. Whereas Abū Ḥayyān states "they are so described because their way [of acting] is the way of those who do not believe in God," Ahmad Al-Maraghī comments:[F]ight those mentioned when the conditions which necessitate fighting are present, namely, aggression against you or your country, oppression and persecution against you on account of your faith, or threatening your safety and security, as was committed against you by the Byzantines, which was what led to Tabuk.


title: Jizya

text: 2. "Do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden" ("wa-lā yuḥarrimūna mā ḥarrama-llāhu wa-rasūluh")


title: Jizya

text: The closest and most viable cause must relate to "jizya", that is, unlawfully consuming what belongs to the Muslim state, which, al-Bayḍāwī explains, "it has been decided that they should give," since their own scriptures and prophets forbid breaking agreements and not paying what is due to others. His Messenger in this verse has been interpreted by exegetes as referring to Muḥammad or the People of the Book's own earlier messengers, Moses or Jesus. According to Abdel-Haleem, the latter must be the correct interpretation as it is already assumed that the People of the Book did not believe in Muḥammad or forbid what he forbade, so that they are condemned for not obeying their own prophet, who told them to honour their agreements.


title: Jizya

text: 3. "Who do not embrace the true faith" or "behave according to the rule of justice" ("wa-lā yadīnūna dīna'l-ḥaqq")


title: Jizya

text: A number of translators have rendered the text as "those who do not embrace the true faith/follow the religion of truth" or some variation thereof. Muhammad Abdel-Haleem argues against this translation, preferring instead to render "dīna'l-ḥaqq" as 'rule of justice'.


title: Jizya

text: The main meaning of the Arabic "dāna" is 'he obeyed', and one of the many meanings of "dīn" is 'behaviour' ("al-sīra wa'l-ʿāda"). The famous Arabic lexicographer Fayrūzabādī (d. 817/1415), gives more than twelve meanings for the word "dīn", placing the meaning 'worship of God, religion' lower in the list. "Al-Muʿjam al-wasīṭ" gives the following definition: "'dāna' is to be in the habit of doing something good or bad; 'dāna bi- something' is to take it as a religion and worship God through it." Thus, when the verb "dāna" is used in the sense of 'to believe' or 'to practise a religion', it takes the preposition "bi"- after it (e.g. "dāna bi'l-Islām") and this is the only usage in which the word means religion. The jizya verse does not say "lā yadīnūna bi-dīni'l-ḥaqq", but rather "lā yadīnūna dīna'l-ḥaqq". Abdel-Haleem thus concludes that the meaning that fits the jizya verse is thus 'those who do not follow the way of justice ("al-ḥaqq")', i.e. by breaking their agreement and refusing to pay what is due.


title: Jizya

text: Here "ʿan yad" (from/for/at hand), is interpreted by some to mean that they should pay directly, without intermediary and without delay. Others say that it refers to its reception by Muslims and means "generously" as in "with an open hand," since the taking of the jizya is a form of munificence that averted a state of conflict. al-Ṭabarī gives only one explanation: that 'it means "from their hands to the hands of the receiver" just as we say "I spoke to him mouth to mouth", we also say, "I gave it to him hand to hand"'. M.J. Kister understands "'an yad" to be a reference to the "ability and sufficient means" of the "dhimmi". Similarly, Rashid Rida takes the word "Yad" in a metaphorical sense and relates the phrase to the financial ability of the person liable to pay jizya.


title: Jizya

text: Mark R. Cohen writes that 'while they are subdued' was interpreted by many to mean the "humiliated state of the non-Muslims". According to Ziauddin Ahmed, in the view of the majority of "Fuqahā" (Islamic jurists), the jizya was levied on non-Muslims in order to humiliate them for their unbelief. In contrast, Abdel-Haleem writes that this notion of humiliation runs contrary to verses such as, "Do not dispute with the People of the Book except in the best manner" (Q 29:46), and the Prophetic "ḥadīth", 'May God have mercy on the man who is liberal and easy-going ("samḥ") when he buys, when he sells, and when he demands what is due to him'. Al-Shafi'i, the founder of the Shafi'i school of law, wrote that a number of scholars explained this last expression to mean that "Islamic rulings are enforced on them." This understanding is reiterated by the Hanbali jurist Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, who interprets "wa-hum ṣāghirūn" as making all subjects of the state obey the law and, in the case of the People of the Book, pay the jizya.


title: Jizya

text: Rules for liability and exemptions of jizya formulated by jurists in the early Abbasid period appear to have remained generally valid thereafter.


title: Jizya

text: Islamic jurists required adult, free, sane, able-bodied males of military age with no religious functions among the dhimma community to pay the jizya, while exempting women, children, elders, handicapped, monks, hermits, the poor, the ill, the insane, slaves, as well as musta'mins (non-Muslim foreigners who only temporarily reside in Muslim lands) and converts to Islam. Dhimmis who chose to join military service were exempted from payment. If anyone could not afford this tax, they would not have to pay anything. Sometimes a dhimmi was exempted from jizya if he rendered some valuable services to the state.


title: Jizya

text: The Hanafi scholar Abu Yusuf wrote, "slaves, women, children, the old, the sick, monks, hermits, the insane, the blind and the poor, were exempt from the tax" and states that jizya should not be collected from those who have neither income nor any property, but survive by begging and from alms. The Hanbali jurist al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā states, "there is no jizya upon the poor, the old, and the chronically ill". Historical reports tell of exemptions granted by the second caliph 'Umar to an old blind Jew and others like him. The Maliki scholar Al-Qurtubi writes that, "there is a consensus amongst Islamic scholars that jizya is to be taken only from heads of free men past puberty, who are the ones fighting, but not from women, the children, the slaves, the insane, and the dying old." The 13th century Shafi'i scholar Al-Nawawī wrote that a "woman, a hermaphrodite, a slave even when partially enfranchised, a minor and a lunatic are exempt from "jizya"." The 14th century Hanbali scholar Ibn Qayyim wrote, "And there is no Jizya upon the aged, one suffering from chronic disease, the blind, and the patient who has no hope of recovery and has despaired of his health, even if they have enough." Ibn Qayyim adds, referring to the four Sunni maddhabs: "There is no Jizya on the kids, women and the insane. This is the view of the four imams and their followers. Ibn Mundhir said, 'I do not know anyone to have differed with them.' Ibn Qudama said in al-Mughni, 'We do not know of any difference of opinion among the learned on this issue." In contrast, the Shāfi'ī jurist Al-Nawawī wrote: "Our school insists upon the payment of the poll-tax by sickly persons, old men, even if decrepit, blind men, monks, workmen, and poor persons incapable of exercising a trade. As for people who seem to be insolvent at the end of the year, the sum of the poll tax remained as debt to their account until they should become solvent." Abu Hanifa, in one of his opinions, and Abu Yusuf held that monks were subject to jizya if they worked. Ibn Qayyim stated that the "dhahir" opinion of Ibn Hanbal is that peasants and cultivators were also exempted from jizya.


title: Jizya

text: Though "jizya" was mandated initially for People of the Book (Judaism, Christianity, Sabianism), it was extended by Islamic jurists to all non-Muslims. Thus Muslim rulers in India, with the exception of Akbar, collected "jizya" from Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs under their rule. While early Islamic scholars like Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf stated that jizya should be imposed on all non-Muslims without distinction, some later and more extremist jurists do not permit jizya for idolators and instead only allowed the choice of conversion to avoid death.


title: Jizya

text: The sources of jizya and the practices varied significantly over Islamic history. Shelomo Dov Goitein states that the exemptions for the indigent, the invalids and the old were no longer observed in the milieu reflected by the Cairo Geniza and were discarded even in theory by the Shāfi'ī jurists who were influential in Egypt at the time. According to Kristen A. Stilt, historical sources indicate that in Mamluk Egypt, poverty did "not necessarily excuse" the dhimmi from paying the tax, and boys as young as nine years old could be considered adults for tax purposes, making the tax particularly burdensome for large, poor families. Ashtor and Bornstein-Makovetsky infer from Geniza documents that jizya was also collected in Egypt from the age of nine in the 11th century.


title: Jizya

text: By the time of Mohammed, the jiyza rate was one dinar per year imposed on male dhimmis in Medina, Mecca, Khaibar, Yemen, and Nejran. According to Muhammad Hamidullah, the rate was ten dirhams per year "in the time of the Prophet", but this amounted to only "the expenses of an average family for ten days". Abu Yusuf, the chief qadhi of the caliph Harun al-Rashid, states that there was no amount permanently fixed for the tax, though the payment usually depended on wealth: the "Kitab al-Kharaj" of Abu Yusuf sets the amounts at 48 dirhams for the richest (e.g. moneychangers), 24 for those of moderate wealth, and 12 for craftsmen and manual laborers. Moreover, it could be paid in kind if desired; cattle, merchandise, household effects, even needles were to be accepted in lieu of specie (coins), but not pigs, wine, or dead animals.


title: Jizya

text: The jizya varied in accordance with the affluence of the people of the region and their ability to pay. In this regard, Abu Ubayd ibn Sallam comments that the Prophet imposed 1 dinar (then worth 10 or 12 dirhams) upon each adult in Yemen. This was less than what Umar imposed upon the people of Syria and Iraq, the higher rate being due to the Yemenis greater affluence and ability to pay.


title: Jizya

text: The rate of jizya that were fixed and implemented by the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, namely 'Umar bin al-Khattab, during the period of his Khilafah, were small amounts: four dirhams from the rich, two dirhams from the middle class and only one dirham from the active poor who earned by working on wages, or by making or vending things.


title: Jizya

text: The 13th-century scholar Al-Nawawī writes, "The minimum amount of the jizya is one dinar per person per annum; but it is commendable to raise the amount, if it be possible to two dinars, for those possessed of moderate means, and to four for rich persons." Abu 'Ubayd insists that the "dhimmis" must not be burdened beyond their capacity, nor must they be caused to suffer.


title: Jizya

text: Scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 17 March 1406) states that jizya has fixed limits that cannot be exceeded. In the classical manual of Shafi'i fiqh "Reliance of the Traveller" it is stated that, "[t]he minimum non-Muslim poll tax is one dinar (n: 4.235 grams of gold) per person (A: per year). The maximum is whatever both sides agree upon."


title: Jizya

text: Ann Lambton states that the jizya was to be paid "in humiliating conditions". Ennaji and other scholars state that some jurists required the jizya to be paid by each in person, by presenting himself, arriving on foot not horseback, by hand, in order to confirm that he lowers himself to being a subjected one, and willingly pays. According to Mark R. Cohen, the Quran itself does not prescribe humiliating treatment for the dhimmi when paying Jizya, but some later Muslims interpreted it to contain "an equivocal warrant for debasing the dhimmi (non-Muslim) through a degrading method of remission". In contrast, the 13th century hadith scholar and Shafi'ite jurist Al-Nawawī, comments on those who would impose a humiliation along with the paying of the jizya, stating, "As for this aforementioned practice, I know of no sound support for it in this respect, and it is only mentioned by the scholars of Khurasan. The majority of scholars say that the jizya is to be taken with gentleness, as one would receive a debt. The reliably correct opinion is that this practice is invalid and those who devised it should be refuted. It is not related that the Prophet or any of the rightly-guided caliphs did any such thing when collecting the jizya." Ibn Qudamah also rejected this practice and noted that Muhammad and the Rashidun caliphs encouraged that jizya be collected with gentleness and kindness.


title: Jizya

text: The Maliki scholar Al-Qurtubi states, "their punishment in case of non-payment [of jizya] while they were able [to do so] is permitted; however, if their inability to pay it was clear then it isn't lawful to punish them, since, if one isn't able to pay the jizya, then he is exempted". According to Abu Yusuf, jurist of the fifth Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, those who didn't pay jizya should be imprisoned and not be let out of custody until payment; however, the collectors of the jizya were instructed to show leniency and avoid corporal punishment in case of non-payment. If someone had agreed to pay jizya, leaving Muslim territory for enemy land was, in theory, punishable by enslavement if they were ever captured. This punishment did not apply if the person had suffered injustices from Muslims.


title: Jizya

text: Failure to pay the jizya was commonly punished by house arrest and some legal authorities allowed enslavement of dhimmis for non-payment of taxes. In South Asia, for example, seizure of dhimmi families upon their failure to pay annual jizya was one of the two significant sources of slaves sold in the slave markets of Delhi Sultanate and Mughal era.


title: Jizya

text: Jizya was considered one of the basic tax revenues for the early Islamic state along with zakat, kharaj, and others, and was collected by the Bayt al-Mal (public treasury). Holger Weiss states that four-fifths of the "fay" revenue, that is jizya and kharaj, goes to the public treasury according to the Shafi'i madhhab, whereas the Hanafi and Maliki madhhabs state that the entire "fay" goes to the public treasury.


title: Jizya

text: In theory, jizya funds were distributed as salaries for officials, pensions to the army and charity. Cahen states, "But under this pretext it was often paid into the Prince's "khass", "private" treasury." In later times, jizya revenues were commonly allocated to Islamic scholars so that they would not have to accept money from sultans whose wealth came to be regarded as tainted.


title: Jizya

text: Sources disagree about expenditure of jizya funds on non-Muslims. Ann Lambton states that non-Muslims had no share in the benefits from the public treasury derived from jizya. In contrast, according to several Muslim scholars, Islamic tradition records a number of episodes in which the second caliph Umar stipulated that needy and infirm dhimmis be supported from the Bayt al-Mal, which some authors hold to be representative of Islam. Evidence of jizya benefitting non-residents and temporary residents of an Islamic state is found in the treaty Khalid bin al-Walid concluded with the people of Al-Hirah of Iraq, wherein any aged person who was weak, had lost his or her ability to work, fallen ill, or who had been rich but became poor, would be exempt from jiyza and his or livelihood and the livelihood of his or her dependents, who were not living permanently in the Islamic state, would be met by Bayt al-Mal. Hasan Shah states that non-Muslim women, children, indigent, slaves, aren't only exempted from the payment of jizya, but they are also helped by stipends from the public treasury when necessary.


title: Jizya

text: At least in the early Islamic era of the Umayyad the levy of Jizya was sufficiently onerous for non-Muslims and its revenue sufficiently significant for rulers that there were more than a few accounts of non-Muslims seeking to convert to avoid paying it and revenue conscious authorities denying them this opportunity. Robert Hoyland mentions repeated complaints by fiscal agents of revenues diminishing as conquered people converting to Islam, of peasants attempting to convert and join the military but being rounded up and sent back to the countryside to pay taxes, and governors circumventing the exemption on jizya for converts by requiring recitation of the Quran and circumcision.


title: Jizya

text: Patricia Seed describes the purpose of jizya as "a personal form of ritual humiliation directed at those defeated by a superior Islam" quoting the Quranic verse calling for jizya: "Fight those who believe not in Allah ... nor acknowledge the religion of truth ... until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued" (noting that the word translated as "subdued" -- "ṣāghirūn"—comes from the root ṣ-gh-r (small, little, belittled, or humbled)). Seed calls the idea that jizya was a contribution to help pay for the "military defense" of those who paid not a rationale but a rationalization, one often found in societies were the conquered paid tribute to conquerors.


title: Jizya

text: William Montgomery Watt traces its origin to a pre-Islamic practice among the Arabian nomads wherein a powerful tribe would agree to protect its weaker neighbors in exchange for a tribute, which would be refunded if the protection proved ineffectual. Robert Hoyland describes it as a poll tax originally paid by "the conquered people" to the mostly Arab conquerors, but which later became a "religious tax, payable only by non-Muslims".


title: Jizya

text: Jews and Christians in some southern and eastern areas of the Arabian peninsula began to pay tribute, called "jizya", to the Islamic state during Muhammad's lifetime. It was not originally the poll tax it was to become later, but rather an annual percentage of produce and a fixed quantity of goods.


title: Jizya

text: During the Tabuk campaign of 630 Muhammad sent letters to four towns in the northern Hejaz and Palestine urging them to relinquish maintenance of a military force and rely on Muslims to ensure their security in return for payment of taxes. Moshe Gil argues that these texts represent the paradigm of letters of security that would be issued by Muslim leaders during the subsequent early conquests, including the use of the word jizya, which would later take on the meaning of poll tax.


title: Jizya

text: Jizya received divine sanction in 630 when the term was mentioned in a Quranic verse (9:29). Max Bravmann argues that the Quranic usage of the word jizya develops a pre-Islamic common-law principle which states that reward must necessarily follow a discretional good deed into a principle mandating that the life of all prisoners of war belonging to a certain category must be spared provided they grant the "reward" (jizya) to be expected for an act of pardon.


title: Jizya

text: In 632 jizya in the form of a poll tax was first mentioned in a document reportedly sent by Muhammad to Yemen. W. Montgomery Watt has argued that this document was tampered with by early Muslim historians to reflect a later practice, while Norman Stillman holds it to be authentic.


title: Jizya

text: Taxes levied on local populations in the wake of early Islamic conquests could be of three types, based on whether they were levied on individuals, on the land, or as collective tribute. During the first century of Islamic expansion, the words "jizya" and "kharaj" were used in all these three senses, with context distinguishing between individual and land taxes ("kharaj on the head," "jizya on land," and vice versa). In the words of Dennett, "since we are talking in terms of history, not in terms of philology, the problem is not what the taxes were called, but what we know they were." Regional variations in taxation at first reflected the diversity of previous systems. The Sasanian Empire had a general tax on land and a poll tax having several rates based on wealth, with an exemption for aristocracy. In Iraq, which was conquered mainly by force, Arabs controlled taxation through local administrators, keeping the graded poll tax, and likely increasing its rates to 1, 2 and 4 dinars. The aristocracy exemption was assumed by the new Arab-Muslim elite and shared by local aristocracy by means of conversion. The nature of Byzantine taxation remains partly unclear, but it appears to have involved taxes computed in proportion to agricultural production or number of working inhabitants in population centers. In Syria and upper Mesopotamia, which largely surrendered under treaties, taxes were calculated in proportion to the number of inhabitants at a fixed rate (generally 1 dinar per head). They were levied as collective tribute in population centers which preserved their autonomy and as a personal tax on large abandoned estates, often paid by peasants in produce. In post-conquest Egypt, most communities were taxed using a system which combined a land tax with a poll tax of 2 dinars per head. Collection of both was delegated to the community on the condition that the burden be divided among its members in the most equitable manner. In most of Iran and Central Asia local rulers paid a fixed tribute and maintained their autonomy in tax collection, using the Sasanian dual tax system in regions like Khorasan.


title: Jizya

text: Difficulties in tax collection soon appeared. Egyptian Copts, who had been skilled in tax evasion since Roman times, were able to avoid paying the taxes by entering monasteries, which were initially exempt from taxation, or simply by leaving the district where they were registered. This prompted imposition of taxes on monks and introduction of movement controls. In Iraq, many peasants who had fallen behind with their tax payments, converted to Islam and abandoned their land for Arab garrison cities in hope of escaping taxation. Faced with a decline in agriculture and a treasury shortfall, the governor of Iraq al-Hajjaj forced peasant converts to return to their lands and subjected them to the taxes again, effectively forbidding peasants to convert to Islam. In Khorasan, a similar phenomenon forced the native aristocracy to compensate for the shortfall in tax collection out of their own pockets, and they responded by persecuting peasant converts and imposing heavier taxes on poor Muslims.


title: Jizya

text: The situation where conversion to Islam was penalized in an Islamic state could not last, and the devout Umayyad caliph Umar II has been credited with changing the taxation system. Modern historians doubt this account, although details of the transition to the system of taxation elaborated by Abbasid-era jurists are still unclear. Umar II ordered governors to cease collection of taxes from Muslim converts, but his successors obstructed this policy. Some governors sought to stem the tide of conversions by introducing additional requirements such as undergoing circumcision and the ability to recite passages from the Quran. According to Hoyland, taxation-related grievances of non-Arab Muslims contributed to the opposition movements which resulted in the Abbasid revolution. In contrast, Dennett states that it is incorrect to postulate an economic interpretation of the Abbasid revolution. The notion of an Iranian population staggering under a burden of taxation and ready to revolt at the first opportunity, as imagined by Gerlof van Vloten, "will not bear the light of careful investigation", he continues.


title: Jizya

text: Under the new system that was eventually established, kharaj came to be regarded as a tax levied on the land, regardless of the taxpayer's religion. The poll-tax was no longer levied on Muslims, but treasury did not necessarily suffer and converts did not gain as a result, since they had to pay zakat, which was instituted as a compulsory tax on Muslims around 730. The terminology became specialized during the Abbasid era, so that "kharaj" no longer meant anything more than land tax, while the term "jizya" was restricted to the poll-tax on dhimmis.


title: Jizya

text: In India, Islamic rulers imposed "jizya" on non-Muslims starting with the 11th century. The taxation practice included "jizya" and "kharaj" taxes. These terms were sometimes used interchangeably to mean poll tax and collective tribute, or just called "kharaj-o-jizya".


title: Jizya

text: Jizya expanded with Delhi Sultanate. Alauddin Khilji, legalized the enslavement of the jizya and kharaj defaulters. His officials seized and sold these slaves in growing Sultanate cities where there was a great demand of slave labour. The Muslim court historian Ziauddin Barani recorded that Qazi Mughisuddin of Bayanah advised Alā' al-Dīn that Islam requires imposition of jizya on Hindus, to show contempt and to humiliate the Hindus, and imposing jizya is a religious duty of the Sultan.


title: Jizya

text: During the early 14th century reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, expensive invasions across India and his order to attack China by sending a portion of his army over the Himalayas, emptied the precious metal in Sultanate's treasury. He ordered minting of coins from base metals with face value of precious metals. This economic experiment failed because Hindus in his Sultanate minted counterfeit coins from base metal in their homes, which they then used for paying jizya. In the late 14th century, mentions the memoir of Tughlaq dynasty's Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq, his predecessor taxed all Hindus but had exempted all Hindu Brahmins from jizya; Firoz Shah extended it to also include the Brahmins at a reduced rate. He also announced that any Hindus who converted to Islam would become exempt from taxes and jizya as well as receive gifts from him. On those who chose to remain Hindus, he raised jizya tax rate.


title: Jizya

text: In Kashmir, Sikandar Butshikan levied jizya on those who objected to the abolition of hereditary "varnas", allegedly at the behest of his neo-convert minister Suhabhatta. Ahmad Shah (1411-1442), a ruler of Gujarat, introduced the Jizyah in 1414 and collected it with such strictness that many people converted to Islam to evade it.


title: Jizya

text: Jizya was later abolished by the third Mughal emperor Akbar, in 1579. However, in 1679, Aurangzeb chose to re-impose jizya on non-Muslim subjects in lieu of military service, a move that was sharply critiqued by many Hindu rulers and Mughal court-officials. The specific amount varied with the socioeconomic status of a subject and tax-collection were often waived for regions hit by calamities; also, monks, musta'mins, women, children, elders, the handicapped, the unemployed, the ill, and the insane were all perpetually exempted. The collectors were mandated to be Muslims. In some areas revolts led to its periodic suspension such as the 1704 AD suspension of jizya in Deccan region of India by Aurangzeb.


title: Jizya

text: After the Norman conquest of Sicily, taxes imposed on the Muslim minority were also called the "jizya" (locally spelled "gisia"). This poll tax was a continuation of the jizya imposed on non-Muslims in the Emirate of Sicily and Bari by Islamic rulers of the southern Italy, before the Norman conquest.


title: Jizya

text: Jizya collected from Christian and Jewish communities was among the main sources of tax income of the Ottoman treasury. In some regions, such as Lebanon and Egypt, jizya was payable collectively by the Christian or the Jewish community, and was referred to as "maqtu"—in these cases the individual rate of jizya tax would vary, as the community would pitch in for those who could not afford to pay.


title: Jizya

text: In Persia, "jizya" was paid by Zoroastrian minority until 1884, when it was removed by pressure on the Qajar government from the Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund.


title: Jizya

text: The "jizya" was eliminated in Algeria and Tunisia in the 19th century, but continued to be collected in Morocco until the first decade of the 20th century (these three dates coincide with the French colonization of these countries).


title: Jizya

text: The Ottoman Empire abolished the "jizya" in 1856. It was replaced with a new tax, which non-Muslims paid in lieu of military service. It was called "baddal-askari" (lit. 'military substitution'), a tax exempting Jews and Christians from military service. The Jews of Kurdistan, according to the scholar Mordechai Zaken, preferred to pay the "baddal" tax in order to redeem themselves from military service. Only those incapable of paying the tax were drafted into the army. Zaken says that paying the tax was possible to an extent also during the war and some Jews paid 50 gold liras every year during World War I. According to Zaken, "in spite of the forceful conscription campaigns, some of the Jews were able to buy their exemption from conscription duty." Zaken states that the payment of the "baddal askari" during the war was a form of bribe that bought them at most a one-year deferment."


title: Jizya

text: The jizya is no longer imposed by Muslim states. Nevertheless, there have been reports of non-Muslims in areas controlled by the Pakistani Taliban and ISIS being forced to pay the jizya.


title: Jizya

text: In 2009, officials in the Peshawar region of Pakistan claimed that members of the Taliban forced the payment of "jizya" from Pakistan's minority Sikh community after occupying some of their homes and kidnapping a Sikh leader. In 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) announced that it intended to extract jizya from Christians in the city of Raqqa, Syria, which it controlled. Christians who refused to pay the tax would have to either convert to Islam or die. Wealthy Christians would have to pay the equivalent of USD $664 twice a year; poorer ones would be charged one-fourth that amount. In June, the Institute for the Study of War reported that ISIL claims to have collected the "fay", i.e. jizya and kharaj.


title: Jizya

text: The late Islamic scholar Abul A'la Maududi, of Pakistan, said that Jizya should be re-imposed on non-Muslims in a Muslim nation. Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Egypt also held that position in the mid-1980s, however he later reconsidered his legal opinion on this point, stating: "[n]owadays, after military conscription has become compulsory for all citizens—Muslims and non-Muslims—there is no longer room for any payment, whether by name of jizya or any other." According to Khaled Abou El Fadl, moderate Muslims generally reject the dhimma system, which encompasses jizya, as inappropriate for the age of nation-states and democracies.


title: Jizya

text: Some authors have characterized the complex of land and poll taxes in the pre-Abbasid era and implementation of the jizya poll tax in early modern South Asia as discriminatory and/or oppressive, and the majority of Islamic scholars, amongst whom are Al-Nawawi and Ibn Qudamah, have criticized humiliating aspects of its collection as contrary to Islamic principles. Discriminatory regulations were utilized by many pre-modern polities. However, W. Cleveland and M. Bunton assert that dhimma status represented "an unusually tolerant attitude for the era and stood in marked contrast to the practices of the Byzantine Empire". They add that the change from the Byzantine and Persian rule to Arab rule lowered taxes and allowed dhimmis to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy. According to Bernard Lewis, available evidence suggests that the change from Byzantine to Arab rule was "welcomed by many among the subject peoples, who found the new yoke far lighter than the old, both in taxation and in other matters".


title: Jizya

text: Ira Lapidus writes that the Arab-Muslim conquests followed a general pattern of nomadic conquests of settled regions, whereby conquering peoples became the new military elite and reached a compromise with the old elites by allowing them to retain local political, religious, and financial authority. Peasants, workers, and merchants paid taxes, while members of the old and new elites collected them. Payment of various taxes, the total of which for peasants often reached half of the value of their produce, was not only an economic burden, but also a mark of social inferiority.


title: Jizya

text: Norman Stillman writes that although the tax burden of the Jews under early Islamic rule was comparable to that under previous rulers, Christians of the Byzantine Empire (though not Christians of the Persian empire, whose status was similar to that of the Jews) and Zoroastrians of Iran shouldered a considerably heavier burden in the immediate aftermath of the Arab conquests. He writes that escape from oppressive taxation and social inferiority was a "great inducement" to conversion and flight from villages to Arab garrison towns, and many converts to Islam "were sorely disappointed when they discovered that they were not to be permitted to go from being tribute bearers to pension receivers by the ruling Arab military elite," before their numbers forced an overhaul of the economic system in the 8th century.


title: Jizya

text: The influence of jizya on conversion has been a subject of scholarly debate. Julius Wellhausen held that the poll tax amounted to so little that exemption from it did not constitute sufficient economic motive for conversion. Similarly, Thomas Arnold states that jizya was "too moderate" to constitute a burden, "seeing that it released them from the compulsory military service that was incumbent on their Muslim fellow subjects." He further adds that converts escaping taxation would have to pay the legal alms, zakat, that is annually levied on most kinds of movable and immovable property. Other early 20th century scholars suggested that non-Muslims converted to Islam "en masse" in order to escape the poll tax, but this theory has been challenged by more recent research. Daniel Dennett has shown that other factors, such as desire to retain social status, had greater influence on this choice in the early Islamic period. According to Halil İnalcık, the wish to avoid paying the jizya was an important incentive for conversion to Islam in the Balkans, though Anton Minkov has argued that it was only one among several motivating factors.


title: Jizya

text: Mark R. Cohen writes that despite the humiliating connotations and the financial burden, the jizya paid by Jews under Islamic rule provided a "surer guarantee of protection from non-Jewish hostility" than that possessed by Jews in the Latin West, where Jews "paid numerous and often unreasonably high and arbitrary taxes" in return for official protection, and where treatment of Jews was governed by charters which new rulers could alter at will upon accession or refuse to renew altogether. The Pact of Umar, which stipulated that Muslims must "do battle to guard" the dhimmis and "put no burden on them greater than they can bear", was not always upheld, but it remained "a steadfast cornerstone of Islamic policy" into early modern times.


title: Jizya

text: Yaser Ellethy states that the "insignificant amount" of the jizya, as well as its progressive structure and exemptions leave no doubt that it was not imposed to persecute people or force them to convert. Niaz A. Shah states that "jizya" is "partly symbolic and partly commutation for military service. As the amount is insignificant and exemptions are many, the symbolic nature predominates." Muhammad Abdel-Haleem states, "[t]he jizya is a very clear example of the acceptance of a multiplicity of cultures within the Islamic system, which allowed people of different faiths to live according to their own faiths, all contributing to the well-being of the state, Muslims through "zakāt", and the "ahl al-dhimma" through "jizya"."


title: Jizya

text: In 2016, Muslim scholars from more than 100 countries signed the Marrakesh Declaration, a document that called for a new Islamic jurisprudence based on modern nation-based notions of citizenship, the opposite of what is written in the Qur'an, recognizing that the dhimmī system is obsolete in the modern era.


title: Cefdinir

text: Cefdinir, sold under the brand name Omnicef among others, is an antibiotic used to treat pneumonia, otitis media, strep throat, and cellulitis. It is a less preferred option for pneumonia, otitis media, and strep throat which may be used in those with a severe allergy to penicillin. It is taken by mouth.


title: Cefdinir

text: Common side effects include diarrhea, nausea, and a skin rash. Serious side effects may include "Clostridioides difficile" infection, anaphylaxis, and Stevens–Johnson syndrome. Use in pregnancy and breastfeeding is believed to be safe but has not been well studied. It is a third-generation cephalosporin and works by interfering with a bacteria's ability to make a cell wall resulting in its death.


title: Cefdinir

text: It was patented in 1979 and approved for medical use in 1991. It is available as a generic medication. In 2020, it was the 228th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2million prescriptions.


title: Cefdinir

text: Therapeutic uses of cefdinir include otitis media, soft tissue infections, and respiratory tract infections, including sinusitis, strep throat (note: no documented resistance of Group A Streptococcus to penicillin has ever been reported, and penicillin or amoxicillin is preferred except in penicillin allergic patients), community-acquired pneumonia, and acute exacerbations of bronchitis.


title: Cefdinir

text: Cefdinir is a bactericidal antibiotic of the cephalosporin class of antibiotics. It can be used to treat infections caused by several Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.


title: Cefdinir

text: Cefdinir is a broad-spectrum antibiotic and has been used to treat infections of the respiratory tract including pneumonia, sinusitis, and bronchitis. The following represents MIC susceptibility data for a few medically significant microorganisms.


title: Cefdinir

text: Side effects include diarrhea, vaginal infections or inflammation, nausea, headache, and abdominal pain."


title: Cefdinir

text: It is also one of the medications that can cause toxic epidermal necrolysis or Stevens–Johnson syndrome.


title: Cefdinir

text: The pediatric version of cefdinir can bind to iron in the digestive tract; in rare cases, this causes a rust or red discoloration of the stool. Blood typically appears dark brown or black in stool, and testing may confirm which is present. If the reddish stool is accompanied by abdominal pain, weight loss, diarrhea, etc., a "Clostridioides difficile" infection caused by the antibiotic could be signified.


title: Cefdinir

text: As of 2008, cefdinir was the highest-selling cephalosporin antibiotic in the United States, with more than US$585 million in retail sales of its generic versions.


title: Cefdinir

text: Cefdinir is administered orally. It is available as capsules and a suspension. Dosage, schedule, and duration of therapy varies according to the type of infection.


title: Cefdinir

text: Warner-Lambert licensed this cephalosporin for marketing in US from Fujisawa. Abbott obtained U.S. marketing rights to Omnicef (cefdinir) in December 1998 through an agreement with Warner-Lambert Company. It was approved by FDA on December 4, 1997. It is available in US as Omnicef by Abbott Laboratories and in India as Cednir by Abbott, Kefnir by Glenmark, Cefdair by Xalra Pharma and Cefdiel by Ranbaxy.


title: Cefdinir

text: Acylation of the primary amine 1 with 4-bromo-3-oxobutanoyl bromide (2) leads to the amide (3). The active methylene group in that product is then nitrosated with sodium nitrite; the initial product spontaneously tautomerizes to afford the oxime (4). The bromoketone array in that intermediate constitutes a classical starting function for construction of thiazoles. Reaction of 4 with thiourea thus leads to formation of an aminothiazole moiety. Thus there is obtained the antibiotic cefdinir (5).


title: Fragging

text: Fragging is the deliberate or attempted killing by a soldier of a fellow soldier, usually a superior. U.S. military personnel coined the word during the Vietnam War, when such killings were most often attempted with a fragmentation grenade, sometimes making it appear that the killing was accidental or during combat with the enemy. The term fragging now encompasses any deliberate killing of military colleagues.


title: Fragging

text: The high number of fragging incidents in the latter years of the Vietnam War was symptomatic of the unpopularity of the war with the American public and the breakdown of discipline in the U.S. Armed Forces. Documented and suspected fragging incidents totalled nearly nine hundred from 1969 to 1972.


title: Fragging

text: Fragging should not be confused with the unintentional killing and/or wounding of comrades and/or allied personnel; such incidents are referred to as friendly fire.


title: Fragging

text: Soldiers have killed colleagues since the beginning of armed conflict, with many documented instances throughout history. However, the practice of fragging seems to have been relatively uncommon in the U.S. military until the Vietnam War. The prevalence of fragging was partially based on the ready availability of explosive weapons such as fragmentation hand grenades. Grenades were untraceable to an owner and did not leave any ballistic evidence. M18 Claymore mines and other explosives were also occasionally used in fragging, as were firearms, although the term, as defined by the military during the Vietnam War, applied only to the use of explosives to kill fellow soldiers. Most fragging incidents were in the Army and Marine Corps. Fragging was rare among Navy and Air Force personnel, who had less access to grenades and weapons than did soldiers and Marines.


title: Fragging

text: The first known incidents of fragging in South Vietnam took place in 1966, but events in 1968 appear to have catalyzed an increase in fragging. After the Tet Offensive in January and February 1968, the Vietnam War became increasingly unpopular in the United States and among American soldiers in Vietnam, many of them conscripts. Secondly, racial tensions between white and black soldiers and marines increased after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968. With troops reluctant to risk their lives in what was perceived as a lost war, fragging was seen by some enlisted men "as the most effective way to discourage their superiors from showing enthusiasm for combat."


title: Fragging

text: Morale plummeted among soldiers and marines. By 1971, a USMC colonel declared in the "Armed Forces Journal" that "The morale, discipline, and battle worthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at any time in this century and possibly in the history of the United States."


title: Fragging

text: The U.S. military reflected social problems and issues in the U.S. such as racism, drug abuse, and resentment toward authoritarian leaders. As the U.S. began to withdraw its military forces from Vietnam, some American enlisted men and young officers lost their sense of purpose for being in Vietnam, and the hierarchical relationship between enlisted men and their officers deteriorated. The resentment directed from enlisted men toward older officers was exacerbated by generational gaps, as well as different perceptions of how the military should conduct itself. Enforcement of military regulations, especially if done overzealously, led to complaints and sometimes threats of physical violence directed toward officers.


title: Fragging

text: A number of factors may have influenced the incidence of fragging. The demand for manpower for the war in Vietnam caused the armed forces to lower their standards for inducting both officers and enlisted men. The rapid rotation of personnel, especially of officers who served (on average) less than six months in command roles, decreased the stability and cohesion of military units. Most important of all, perhaps, was the loss of purpose in fighting the war, as it became apparent to all that the United States was withdrawing from the war without having achieved any sort of victory. Morale and discipline deteriorated.


title: Fragging

text: Most fragging was perpetrated by enlisted men against officers. Enlisted men, in the words of one company commander, "...feared they would get stuck with a lieutenant or platoon sergeant who would want to carry out all kinds of crazy John Wayne tactics, who would use their lives in an effort to win the war single-handedly, win the big medal, and get his picture in the hometown paper." Harassment of subordinates by a superior was another frequent motive. The stereotypical fragging incident was of "an aggressive career officer being assaulted by disillusioned subordinates." Several fragging incidents resulted from alleged racism between black and white soldiers. Attempts by officers to control drug use caused others. Most known fragging incidents were carried out by soldiers in support units rather than soldiers in combat units.


title: Fragging

text: Soldiers sometimes used non-lethal smoke and tear-gas grenades to warn superiors that they were in more serious danger if they did not change their behavior. A few instances occurred—and many more were rumored—in which enlisted men collected "bounties" on particular officers or non-commissioned officers to reward soldiers for fragging them.


title: Fragging

text: According to author George Lepre, the total number of known and suspected fragging cases by explosives in Vietnam from 1969 to 1972 totalled nearly 900, with 99 deaths and many injuries. This total is incomplete, as some cases were not reported, nor were statistics kept before 1969 (although several incidents from 1966 to 1968 are known). Most of the victims or intended victims were officers or non-commissioned officers. The number of fraggings increased in 1970 and 1971 even though the U.S. military was withdrawing and the number of U.S. military personnel in Vietnam was declining.


title: Fragging

text: An earlier calculation by authors Richard A. Gabriel and Paul L. Savage, estimated that up to 1,017 fragging incidents may have taken place in Vietnam, causing 86 deaths and 714 injuries of U.S. military personnel, the majority officers and NCOs.


title: Fragging

text: Fragging statistics include only incidents involving explosives, most commonly grenades. Several hundred murders of U.S. soldiers by firearms occurred in Vietnam but most were of enlisted men killing other enlisted men of nearly equal rank. Fewer than ten officers are known to have been murdered by firearms. However, rumors and claims abound of the deliberate killing of officers and non-commissioned officers by enlisted men under battlefield conditions. The frequency and number of these fraggings, indistinguishable from combat deaths, cannot be quantified.


title: Fragging

text: The U.S. military's responses to fragging incidents included greater restrictions on access to weapons, especially grenades, for soldiers in non-combat units and post-fragging "lockdowns" in which a whole unit was isolated until after an investigation. For example, in May 1971, the U.S. Army in Vietnam temporarily halted the issuance of grenades to nearly all units and soldiers in Vietnam, inventoried stocks of weapons, and searched soldiers' quarters, confiscating weapons, ammunition, grenades, and knives. This, however, failed to reduce fragging incidents as soldiers could easily obtain weapons in a flourishing black market among nearby Vietnamese communities. The U.S. military also attempted to diminish adverse publicity concerning fragging and the security measures it was taking to reduce it.


title: Fragging

text: Only a few fraggers were identified and prosecuted. It was often difficult to distinguish between fragging and enemy action. A grenade thrown into a foxhole or tent could be a fragging, or the action of an enemy infiltrator or saboteur. Enlisted men were often close-mouthed in fragging investigations, refusing to inform on their colleagues out of fear or solidarity. Sentences for fragging convictions were severe—but the few men convicted often served fairly brief prison sentences. Ten fraggers were convicted of murder and served sentences from ten months to forty years with a mean prison time of about nine years.


title: Fragging

text: In the Vietnam War, the threat of fragging caused many officers and NCOs to go armed in rear areas and to change their sleeping arrangements as fragging often consisted of throwing a grenade into a tent where the target was sleeping. For fear of being fragged, some leaders turned a blind eye to drug use and other indiscipline among the men in their charge. Fragging, the threat of fragging, and investigations of fragging sometimes disrupted or delayed tactical combat operations. Officers were sometimes forced to negotiate with their enlisted men to obtain their consent before undertaking dangerous patrols.


title: Fragging

text: The breakdown of discipline, including fragging, was an important influence on the U.S. change to an all-volunteer military in place of conscription. The last conscript was inducted into the army in 1973. The volunteer military moderated some of the coercive methods of discipline previously used to maintain order in military ranks.


title: Soundtrack 1

text: Soundtrack #1 () is a South Korean streaming television series starring Park Hyung-sik and Han So-hee. It was released on March 23, 2022, exclusively on Disney+ in selected territories.


title: Soundtrack 1

text: A man and a woman who have been best friends for 20 years, get to know each other while staying in the same house for two weeks.


title: Soundtrack 1

text: "Soundtrack #1" was ranked first among the most-watched series on Disney+ in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, during the week of March 26, 2022.


title: Soundtrack 1

text: Ayushi Agrawal of "Pinkvilla" found the series reassuring and homely, stating that while it does not bring something new, the show manages to be a convincing love story, and praised the performances of Park Hyung-sik and Han So-hee. Tanu I. Raj of "New Musical Express" rated the series 4 out of 5 stars and found it to be "one of the most sublime offerings of this summer." Raj called the relationship between the lead characters intimate, realistic, and sensitive, and praised the dialogues and the visuals, while complimenting the performances of the actors.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Rajesh "Raj" Ramayan Koothrappali, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the CBS television series "The Big Bang Theory", portrayed by British actor Kunal Nayyar. He is one of four characters in the show, alongside Howard Wolowitz, Sheldon Cooper, and Leonard Hofstadter, to appear in every episode of "The Big Bang Theory". Raj is based on a computer programmer that the show's co-creator, Bill Prady, knew back when he himself was a programmer.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Raj works as an astrophysicist in the Physics Department at Caltech. It was revealed in "The Monster Isolation" that Raj did at least part of his higher education at the University of Cambridge, where he discovered his interest in astrophysics.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: He had selective mutism, which did not allow him to talk to women outside of his family unless he was under the influence of alcohol (or medication), until the season 6 finale.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Rajesh, who is normally called Raj or just by his surname Koothrappali, is from New Delhi, India and of Malayali descent. However, he despises Indian food, and his knowledge about Indian culture and Hinduism is often rebuked by Sheldon, who is seen to speak better Hindi than him (although this is contradicted by earlier episodes, in which Raj is shown speaking Hindi to the incomprehension of his friends, Sheldon included).


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: He was born into a wealthy family and has five siblings, one of whom is Priya, a former on-off girlfriend of Leonard. Raj is normally seen wearing a layered combination of a printed shirt and sweater vest under a track top-style windbreaker with khakis or cargo pants and skate shoes. White briefs are Raj's underpants of choice. Raj wore a red cap in the pilot episode, but has not worn any headgear on a regular basis for the rest of the series' run. Between seasons two and eleven, Raj styled his naturally curly hair with hair straighteners and hair gel "while trying to blend in" (although citing Howard as his main influence).


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: While in general Raj is more patient and tolerant of Sheldon than Leonard, Penny or Howard, Sheldon is completely oblivious to this and even casually cuts him off as a friend on one occasion in order to accommodate a friendship with Barry Kripke.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Another recurring joke is his metrosexuality, which manifests itself in his appreciation for media generally associated with female patrons, such as the novel "Eat, Pray, Love", the TV series "Sex and the City" and films featuring Sandra Bullock. This has led those close to him to opine that he is somewhat feminine (as in "The Closure Alternative"), and others to mistakenly conclude that he is homosexual (a theory his sister mentioned in "The Herb Garden Germination" that had been held by members of their family), which he typically denies (even asserting his metrosexuality in "The Transporter Malfunction"), but which Howard often teases him over.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: One of Raj's biggest personality quirks is his tendency to speak or act inappropriately, often landing him in trouble or leading to an angry reaction from whomever he has upset. This was particularly pronounced when he was under the influence of alcohol, which could cause a catch-22, since for years he needed alcohol to even speak to a woman, but the alcohol led to him saying the wrong things. On one occasion, just as Leonard and Penny are about to have sex in their hotel room, Raj enters and obliviously proceeds to climb into Sheldon's recently vacated bed, completely unaware of what he has interrupted. On another occasion, he openly discussed having had crushes on Penny and Bernadette directly in front of them, and unwittingly hurting Amy's feelings when he admits that he never had a crush on her after she asks (despite Penny and Bernadette's best efforts to alert him to this fact).


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: When socializing with his friends, despite his Indian accent, Raj is noted for using slang and using the word "dude", although on some occasions he appears to not understand American slang. He speaks fluent Hindi, but according to Sheldon, his mother tongue is English. When Raj offers to teach Sheldon Hindi in order to give him a challenge, and Sheldon in turn demonstrates his Hindi skills which he learnt aged eight, Raj admits that he never learned Hindi.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Raj can play the guitar and has formed a filk band called "Footprints on the Moon" with Howard (and later Bert). They wrote songs about various fictional characters, such as « Thor and Doctor Jones », which tells the story of an imaginary encounter between Thor and Indiana Jones.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Until the season six finale, Raj's principal characteristic was his inability to speak to or around unrelated women, a medical condition known as selective mutism. In the show this was alluded to by Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, Leonard's mother. Raj also stated he has selective mutism in the episode "The Cornhusker Vortex". Raj was able to speak in the presence of women only when they were part of a crowd, if he had been drinking alcoholic beverages (or thinks he has been), if he was under influence of other drugs, if he was unaware of their presence, or if the woman is deaf. He observed that this was an improvement over his previous affliction, in which the presence of women caused him to lose bladder control. He had no problem speaking to his mother, sisters, or other female relatives.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Until the end of the sixth season, Raj remained silent when Penny was present. Penny occasionally taunted him about this, saying such things as "Yo, Raj, talk to me". Raj sometimes whispered what he wanted to say to Howard or Leonard, who then repeated his words or responded to his question out loud. However, Howard sometimes used the situation to amuse himself—for example, when he "confessed" on Raj's behalf that Raj had stalked Penny with binoculars, or when Sheldon called Penny over to their table to silence Raj; Howard then refused to act as a mouthpiece and told Raj, "No no no, he won; Suck it up." In "The Dumpling Paradox", Leonard jokingly suggests cutting Raj in half so the group can play video games without Howard while Penny is in the room: Raj turns to Leonard (facing away from Penny) and responds, "Oh, sure, cut the foreigner in half. There's a billion more where he came from." Later, in "The Bat Jar Conjecture", Raj accidentally utters the words "good story", much to the surprise of his friends, but he immediately realizes Penny is there and covers his mouth with both hands. A recurring gag was for Raj to find himself left alone when his friends, in the company of Penny or another woman, make plans to go somewhere and Raj's mutism prevents him from speaking up to join in.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: In "The Grasshopper Experiment", Penny (who was practicing mixing cocktails in order to obtain a bartending shift) inadvertently discovered that Raj's mutism could be suppressed by consuming alcohol: even a tiny amount (such as a bite of rum cake in "The Apology Insufficiency") enabled him to have prolonged conversations with women; however, this also tends to make him loud and obnoxious. When the main characters take a train to an academic conference in San Francisco, Raj can talk to series guest Summer Glau (playing herself) while drinking beer: when Leonard inadvertently reveals the beer is non-alcoholic and that Raj is under a placebo effect, Howard uses this to his advantage and Raj is returned to his usual mute self. In some episodes, Raj took to carrying a hip flask with him to counter his problem, while in other episodes that required him to speak with Penny or other women present, he was usually shown doing so with a beer or wine glass near him to indicate he had consumed alcohol (such as "The Santa Simulation"). After coming down with a cold, Raj discovered that can overcome his mutism by taking NyQuil.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Raj experimented with medications that suppressed social anxiety, but they tended to have side effects. When Sheldon's sister Missy visited, Raj took medicine that enabled him to speak to her, but it resulted in involuntary repetitive hand motions. In the episode "The Wildebeest Implementation", Raj was worried that an experimental drug he was considering might affect his rationality, but Sheldon encouraged him to take it anyway: however, Raj's worries were realized while speaking to a woman in a coffee shop when he completely lost all inhibitions and removed all of his clothing.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: At the end of the Season 6 finale "The Bon Voyage Reaction", Raj's girlfriend Lucy breaks up with him. The subsequent trauma apparently cures his mutism, and he finds he can talk to Penny, Amy, and Bernadette while completely sober. However, he talks so much that the women become bored and irritated and "start" drinking in order to put up with him. In Season 12, after agreeing to enter into an arranged marriage with Anu and her proposal that they sleep together in anticipation, his mutism briefly returns due to pressure.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Raj regularly communicates with his parents, Dr. V. M. and Mrs. Koothrappali back in India via webcam. Raj is the only one of the guys whose father has been revealed on the show until the ninth season, as Sheldon's father is deceased, Howard's father abandoned him when he was eleven, and Leonard's father didn't make an appearance until season 9, where he appeared when Leonard was again marrying Penny. When they become meddling or judgmental, he "brings his parents" into Leonard and Sheldon's apartment via his laptop. In the season 2 finale, Mrs. Koothrappali and Mrs. Wolowitz have an argument because the latter does not believe that there is not a single Outback Steakhouse restaurant in India.


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: A running gag in the series is Raj portraying himself as having come from humble origins and growing up in poverty in India, only for his friends to remind him that his father is a gynaecologist, drives a Bentley (which he protests was a "lease"), and had servants (although he protests on one occasion that there were only four servants, and that two of them were children). In the episode "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst", Sheldon reveals that Raj's family is wealthier than he lets on. He observes that they are "Richie Rich rich", which he explains is "halfway between Bruce Wayne and Scrooge McDuck".


title: Raj Koothrappali

text: Raj's cousin Sanjay (or, as he says his friends know him, "Dave from AT&T Customer Service") works in a call centre and is mentioned in a number of episodes. In one episode, Raj tries to avoid returning to India for his cousin's wedding, as Raj's parents have arranged a date for him.