title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: In 1552, Las Casas published "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies". This book, written a decade earlier and sent to the attention of then-prince Philip II of Spain, contained accounts of the abuses committed by some Spaniards against Native Americans during the early stages of colonization. In 1555 his old Franciscan adversary Toribio de Benavente Motolinia wrote a letter in which he described Las Casas as an ignorant, arrogant troublemaker. Benavente described indignantly how Las Casas had once denied baptism to an aging Indian who had walked many leagues to receive it, only on the grounds that he did not believe that the man had received sufficient doctrinal instruction. This letter, which reinvoked the old conflict over the requirements for the sacrament of baptism between the two orders, was intended to bring Las Casas in disfavour. However, it did not succeed.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Having resigned the Bishopric of Chiapas, Las Casas spent the rest of his life working closely with the imperial court in matters relating to the Indies. In 1551 he rented a cell at the College of San Gregorio, where he lived with his assistant and friend Fray Rodrigo de Ladrada. He continued working as a kind of procurator for the natives of the Indies, many of whom directed petitions to him to speak to the emperor on their behalf. Sometimes indigenous nobility even related their cases to him in Spain, for example, the Nahua noble Francisco Tenamaztle from Nochistlán. His influence at court was so great that some even considered that he had the final word in choosing the members of the Council of the Indies.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: One matter in which he invested much effort was the political situation of the Viceroyalty of Peru. In Peru, power struggles between conquistadors and the viceroy became an open civil war in which the conquistadors led by Gonzalo Pizarro rebelled against the New Laws and defeated and executed the viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela in 1546. The emperor sent Pedro de la Gasca, a friend of Las Casas, to reinstate the rule of law, and he in turn defeated Pizarro. To restabilize the political situation the encomenderos started pushing not only for the repeal of the New Laws, but for turning the encomiendas into perpetual patrimony of the encomenderos – the worst possible outcome from Las Casas's point of view. The encomenderos offered to buy the rights to the encomiendas from the Crown, and Charles V was inclined to accept since his wars had left him in deep economic troubles. Las Casas worked hard to convince the emperor that it would be a bad economic decision, that it would return the viceroyalty to the brink of open rebellion, and could result in the Crown losing the colony entirely. The emperor, probably because of the doubts caused by Las Casas's arguments, never took a final decision on the issue of the encomiendas.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: In 1561, he finished his "Historia de las Indias" and signed it over to the College of San Gregorio, stipulating that it could not be published until after forty years. In fact it was not published for 314 years, until 1875. He also had to repeatedly defend himself against accusations of treason: someone, possibly Sepúlveda, denounced him to the Spanish Inquisition, but nothing came from the case. Las Casas also appeared as a witness in the case of the Inquisition for his friend Archbishop Bartolomé Carranza de Miranda, who had been falsely accused of heresy. In 1565 he wrote his last will, signing over his immense library to the college. Bartolomé de Las Casas died on 18 July 1566, in Madrid.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The text, written 1516, starts by describing its purpose: to present "The remedies that seem necessary in order that the evil and harm that exists in the Indies cease, and that God and our Lord the Prince may draw greater benefits than hitherto, and that the republic may be better preserved and consoled."


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas's first proposed remedy was a complete moratorium on the use of Indian labor in the Indies until such time as better regulations of it were set in place. This was meant simply to halt the decimation of the Indian population and to give the surviving Indians time to reconstitute themselves. Las Casas feared that at the rate the exploitation was proceeding it would be too late to hinder their annihilation unless action were taken rapidly. The second was a change in the labor policy so that instead of a colonist owning the labor of specific Indians, he would have a right to man-hours, to be carried out by no specific persons. This required the establishment of self-governing Indian communities on the land of colonists – who would themselves organize to provide the labor for their patron. The colonist would only have rights to a certain portion of the total labor, so that a part of the Indians were always resting and taking care of the sick. He proposed 12 other remedies, all having the specific aim of improving the situation for the Indians and limiting the powers that colonists were able to exercise over them.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The second part of the "Memorial" described suggestions for the social and political organization of Indian communities relative to colonial ones. Las Casas advocated the dismantlement of the city of Asunción and the subsequent gathering of Indians into communities of about 1,000 Indians to be situated as satellites of Spanish towns or mining areas. Here, Las Casas argued, Indians could be better governed, better taught and indoctrinated in the Christian faith, and would be easier to protect from abuse than if they were in scattered settlements. Each town would have a royal hospital built with four wings in the shape of a cross, where up to 200 sick Indians could be cared for at a time. He described in detail social arrangements, distribution of work, how provisions would be divided and even how table manners were to be introduced. Regarding expenses, he argued that "this should not seem expensive or difficult, because after all, everything comes from them [the Indians] and they work for it and it is theirs." He even drew up a budget of each pueblo's expenses to cover wages for administrators, clerics, Bachelors of Latin, doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, advocates, ranchers, miners, muleteers, hospitalers, pig herders, fishermen, etc.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" () is an account written in 1542 (published in Seville in 1552) about the mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in colonial times and sent to then-Prince Philip II of Spain.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: One of the stated purposes for writing the account was Las Casas's fear of Spain coming under divine punishment and his concern for the souls of the native peoples. The account was one of the first attempts by a Spanish writer of the colonial era to depict the unfair treatment that the indigenous people endured during the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the Greater Antilles, particularly the island of Hispaniola. Las Casas's point of view can be described as being heavily against some of the Spanish methods of colonization, which, as he described them, inflicted great losses on the indigenous occupants of the islands. In addition, his critique towards the colonizers served to bring awareness to his audience on the true meaning of Christianity, to dismantle any misconceptions on evangelization. His account was largely responsible for the adoption of the New Laws of 1542, which abolished native slavery for the first time in European colonial history and led to the Valladolid debate.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The book became an important element in the creation and propagation of the so-called Black Legend – the tradition of describing the Spanish empire as exceptionally morally corrupt and violent. It was republished several times by groups that were critical of the Spanish realm for political or religious reasons. The first edition in translation was published in Dutch in 1578, during the religious persecution of Dutch Protestants by the Spanish crown, followed by editions in French (1578), English (1583), and German (1599) – all countries where religious wars were raging. The first edition published in Spain after Las Casas's death appeared in Barcelona during the Catalan Revolt of 1646. The book was banned by the Aragonese inquisition in 1659.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The images described by Las Casas were later depicted by Theodore de Bry in copper plate engravings that served as a medium of the Black Legend against Spain.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The "Apologetic Summary History of the People of These Indies" () was first written as the 68th chapter of the "General History of the Indies", but Las Casas changed it into a volume of its own, recognizing that the material was not historical. The material contained in the "Apologetic History" is primarily ethnographic accounts of the indigenous cultures of the Indies – the Taíno, the Ciboney, and the Guanahatabey, but it also contains descriptions of many of the other indigenous cultures that Las Casas learned about through his travels and readings. The history is apologetic because it is written as a defense of the cultural level of the Indians, arguing throughout that indigenous peoples of the Americas were just as civilized as the Roman, Greek and Egyptian civilizationsand more civilized than some European civilizations. It was in essence a comparative ethnography comparing practices and customs of European and American cultures and evaluating them according to whether they were good or bad, seen from a Christian viewpoint.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: He wrote: "I have declared and demonstrated openly and concluded, from chapter 22 to the end of this whole book, that all people of these our Indies are human, so far as is possible by the natural and human way and without the light of faith – had their republics, places, towns, and cities most abundant and well provided for, and did not lack anything to live politically and socially, and attain and enjoy civil happiness... And they equaled many nations of this world that are renowned and considered civilized, and they surpassed many others, and to none were they inferior. Among those they equaled were the Greeks and the Romans, and they surpassed them by many good and better customs. They surpassed also the English and the French and some of the people of our own Spain; and they were incomparably superior to countless others, in having good customs and lacking many evil ones." This work in which Las Casas combined his own ethnographic observations with those of other writers, and compared customs and cultures between different peoples, has been characterized as an early beginning of the discipline of anthropology.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The "History of the Indies" is a three-volume work begun in 1527 while Las Casas was in the Convent of Puerto de Plata. It found its final form in 1561, when he was working in the Colegio de San Gregorio. Originally planned as a six-volume work, each volume describes a decade of the history of the Indies from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 to 1520, and most of it is an eye-witness account. It was in the "History of the Indies" that Las Casas finally regretted his advocacy for African slavery, and included a sincere apology, writing, "I soon repented and judged myself guilty of ignorance. I came to realize that black slavery was as unjust as Indian slavery... and I was not sure that my ignorance and good faith would secure me in the eyes of God." (Vol II, p. 257)


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: "History of the Indies" has never been fully translated into English. The only translations into English are the 1971 partial translation by Andrée M. Collard, and partial translations by Cynthia L. Chamberlin, Nigel Griffin, Michael Hammer and Blair Sullivan in UCLA's "Repertorium Columbianum" (Volumes VI, VII and XI).


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: De Las Casas copied Columbus' diary from his 1492 voyage to modern-day Bahamas. His copy is notable because Columbus' diary itself was lost.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas's legacy has been highly controversial. In the years following his death, his ideas became taboo in the Spanish realm, and he was seen as a nearly heretical extremist. The accounts written by his enemies Lopez de Gómara and Oviedo were widely read and published in Europe. As the influence of the Spanish Empire was displaced by that of other European powers, Las Casas's accounts were utilized as political tools to justify incursions into Spanish colonies. This historiographic phenomenon has been referred to by some historians as the "Black Legend", a tendency by mostly Protestant authors to portray Spanish Catholicism and colonialism in the worst possible light.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Opposition to Las Casas reached its climax in historiography with Spanish right-wing, nationalist historians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries constructing a pro-Spanish White Legend, arguing that the Spanish Empire was benevolent and just and denying any adverse consequences of Spanish colonialism. Spanish pro-imperial historians such as Menéndez y Pelayo, Menéndez Pidal, and J. Pérez de Barrada depicted Las Casas as a madman, describing him as a "paranoic" and a monomaniac given to exaggeration, and as a traitor towards his own nation. Menéndez Pelayo also accused Las Casas of having been instrumental in suppressing the publication of Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda's "Democrates Alter" (also called "Democrates Secundus") out of spite, but other historians find that to be unlikely since it was rejected by the theologians of both Alcalá and Salamanca, who were unlikely to be influenced by Las Casas.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas has also often been accused of exaggerating the atrocities he described in the Indies, some scholars holding that the initial population figures given by him were too high, which would make the population decline look worse than it actually was, and that epidemics of European disease were the prime cause of the population decline, not violence and exploitation. Demographic studies such as those of colonial Mexico by Sherburne F. Cook in the mid-20th century suggested that the decline in the first years of the conquest was indeed drastic, ranging between 80 and 90%, due to many different causes but all ultimately traceable to the arrival of the Europeans. The overwhelming main cause was disease introduced by the Europeans. It has also been noted by historians that exaggeration and inflation of numbers was the norm in writing in 16th-century accounts, and both contemporary detractors and supporters of Las Casas were guilty of similar exaggerations.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The Dominican friars Antonio de Montesinos and Pedro de Córdoba had reported extensive violence already in the first decade of the colonization of the Americas, and throughout the conquest of the Americas, there were reports of abuse of the natives from friars and priests and ordinary citizens, and many massacres of indigenous people were reported in full by those who perpetrated them. Even some of Las Casas's enemies, such as Toribio de Benavente Motolinia, reported many gruesome atrocities committed against the Indians by the colonizers. All in all, modern historians tend to disregard the numerical figures given by Las Casas, but they maintain that his general picture of a violent and abusive conquest represented reality.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: One persistent point of criticism has been Las Casas's repeated suggestions of replacing Indian with African slave labor. Even though he repented that position later in his life and included an apology in his "History of the Indies", some later criticism held him responsible for the institution of the transatlantic slave trade. One detractor, the abolitionist David Walker, called Las Casas a "wretch... stimulated by sordid avarice only," holding him responsible for the enslavement of thousands of Africans. Other historians, such as John Fiske writing in 1900, denied that Las Casas's suggestions affected the development of the slave trade. Benjamin Keen likewise did not consider Las Casas to have had any substantial impact on the slave trade, which was well in place before he began writing. That view is contradicted by Sylvia Wynter, who argued that Las Casas's 1516 Memorial was the direct cause of Charles V granting permission in 1518 to transport the first 4,000 African slaves to Jamaica.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: A growing "corpus" of scholarship has sought to deconstruct and reassess the role of Las Casas in Spanish colonialism. Daniel Castro, in his "Another Face of Empire" (2007), takes on such a task. He argues that he was more of a politician than a humanitarian and that his liberation policies were always combined with schemes to make colonial extraction of resources from the natives more efficient. He also argues that Las Casas failed to realize that by seeking to replace indigenous spirituality with Christianity, he was undertaking a religious colonialism that was more intrusive than the physical one. The responses to his work are varied. Some claim that Castro's portrayal of Las Casas had an air of anachronism. Others have agreed with Castro's deconstruction of Las Casas as a nuanced and contradictory historical figure.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: In 1848, Ciudad de San Cristóbal, then the capital of the Mexican state of Chiapas, was renamed San Cristóbal de Las Casas in honor of its first bishop. His work is a particular inspiration behind the work of the Las Casas Institute at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. He is also often cited as a predecessor of the liberation theology movement. Bartolomé is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 20 July, on 18 July, and at the Evangelical Lutheran Church on 17 July. In the Catholic Church, the Dominicans introduced his cause for canonization in 1976. In 2002 the church began the process for his beatification.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: He was among the first to develop a view of unity among humankind in the New World, stating that "All people of the world are humans," and that they had a natural right to liberty – a combination of Thomist rights philosophy with Augustinian political theology. In this capacity, an ecumenical human rights institute located in San Cristóbal de las Casas, the Centro Fray Bartolomé de las Casas de Derechos Humanos, was established by Bishop Samuel Ruiz in 1989.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: He is a central character in the H. R. Hays historical novel "The Takers of the City", published in 1946.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: He is the subject of the poetic sequence "Homage to Bartolomé de Las Casas" by the American poet Daniel Tobin, which appears in his book "Double Life".


title: Maya Harris

text: Maya Lakshmi Harris (born January 30, 1967) is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, and writer. Harris was one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign's policy agenda and she also served as chair of the 2020 presidential campaign of her sister, Kamala Harris.


title: Maya Harris

text: Harris was born in Champaign–Urbana, Illinois, and was educated at Bishop O'Dowd High School, the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University. She was involved with PolicyLink, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for American Progress.


title: Maya Harris

text: Maya Lakshmi Harris was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and Montreal, Quebec. She is a daughter of Shyamala Gopalan Harris (1938–2009), a breast cancer researcher who emigrated from Chennai (formerly Madras), India in 1960; and Donald Harris, a Jamaican-born Stanford University economics professor, now emeritus. Her maternal grandfather, P. V. Gopalan was a career civil servant with federal Government of India. She and her older sister, Kamala, were raised with beliefs from Baptist and Hindu faiths. At 17, she gave birth to her only child, Meena Harris. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. That year, she enrolled in Stanford Law School. While at Stanford, she was an editor of the Stanford Law Review, and active with the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, serving as Co-Coordinator of the Domestic Violence Clinic and Co-Chair of the Student Steering Committee. She received her J.D. degree in 1992 "with distinction."


title: Maya Harris

text: After receiving her J.D. degree from Stanford Law School, Harris served as a law clerk for United States District Court Judge James Ware in the Northern District of California. In 1994, Harris joined the San Francisco law firm of Jackson Tufts Cole & Black, LLP, working in civil and criminal litigation.


title: Maya Harris

text: Harris served as an adjunct law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She also taught gender discrimination at U.C. Hastings College of the Law and contract law at New College of California School of Law and was Dean at Lincoln Law School of San Jose.


title: Maya Harris

text: She was later appointed Dean and Chief Executive Officer of Lincoln Law School of San Jose. At 29, she was one of the youngest law school deans ever in the United States, and the only Black woman at the time.


title: Maya Harris

text: Harris was a Senior Associate at PolicyLink, a national research and action institute dedicated to advancing economic and social equity. In that capacity, she organized conferences around police-community relations and advocated for police reform, authoring two national publications.


title: Maya Harris

text: Harris served as Executive Director of the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union. She was the first Jamaican American to lead the ACLU of Northern California and the first South Asian executive director of an ACLU affiliate. In her role as the head of the largest affiliate office of the ACLU, Harris directed and coordinated litigation, media relations, lobbying, and grassroots organizing work. She earlier served as the affiliate's Racial Justice Project Director, establishing priorities including eliminating racial disparities in the criminal justice system and achieving educational equity in California public schools. In 2003, Harris was the Northern California director for No on 54, the successful campaign to defeat Proposition 54, which sought to ban state agencies from collecting racial and ethnic data. In 2006, she was the lead attorney in "League of Women Voters of California v. McPherson", a case which restored voting rights to over 100,000 Californians in county jails on probation from felony convictions.


title: Maya Harris

text: In 2008, Harris was appointed Vice President for Democracy, Rights and Justice at the Ford Foundation. The program focused on promoting effective governance, increasing democratic participation, and protecting and advancing human rights worldwide, and she led a global team in making grants of over $150 million annually.


title: Maya Harris

text: Harris was a Senior Associate at PolicyLink. From 2008 until 2013, Harris was Vice President for Democracy, Rights and Justice at the Ford Foundation. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, she served as the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, the largest ACLU affiliate in the country. Harris was formerly a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School. She was a political and legal analyst for MSNBC from 2017 until 2018,


title: Maya Harris

text: As Clinton's campaign representative to the Democratic Party Platform Committee, Harris helped draft the 2016 platform. Harris served as campaign chairwoman for her sister's 2020 campaign for president until the campaign's suspension.


title: Maya Harris

text: Harris authored the essay "Fostering Accountable Community-Centered Policing", which appeared in the 2006 book "The Covenant with Black America". She was also a contributing author to "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Pushes Back from the Brink", publishing the essay "The Gender Wage Gap: A Civil Rights Issue for Our Time."


title: Maya Harris

text: Harris has authored publications which include, "Community-Centered Policing: A Force for Change", a report highlighting community-centered policing practices nationwide, and "Organized for Change: The Activist's Guide to Police Reform", an advocacy manual for police reform. In 2008, Harris published "Making Every Vote Count: Reforming Felony Disenfranchisement Policies and Practices in California". In 2014, she authored "Women of Color: A Growing Force in the American Electorate".


title: Maya Harris

text: In 2020, Harris wrote in "The Atlantic" and "Women's Health Magazine" about living with the chronic illness lupus.


title: Maya Harris

text: In 1997, the Young Lawyers Division of the National Bar Association honored her with the Junius W. Williams Young Lawyer of the Year Award. The following year, she was named one of the Top 20 Up and Coming Lawyers Under 40 by the "San Francisco Daily Journal".


title: Maya Harris

text: In 2006, Harris was named one of 10 notable Desis of the year. She was awarded the Women Who Dare Award from Girls, Inc. in 2008. In 2009, Harris was named to the first class of The Root 100, celebrating the "leadership, service and excellence of African-American men and women whose passion, dedication and innovative work have set them apart." She was presented with the Champion of Justice Award from Equal Rights Advocates in 2014, an award given annually to a hero in the movement for gender equality.


title: Maya Harris

text: Harris has been married to Tony West since July 1998. Maya and Tony were both in the class of 1992 at Stanford Law School, where they became friends but did not start a relationship until after graduation. Her daughter Meena Harris graduated from Stanford in 2006 and from Harvard Law School in 2012. Her sister Kamala Harris is the Vice President of the United States.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Raymond Sackler (February 16, 1920 – July 17, 2017) was an American physician and businessman. He acquired Purdue Pharma together with his brothers Arthur M. Sackler and Mortimer Sackler. Purdue Pharma is the developer of OxyContin, the drug at the center of the opioid epidemic in the United States.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Sackler and his family have been linked to the rise of direct pharmaceutical marketing and the opioid crisis. The Sackler family's philanthropy has been characterized as reputation laundering from profits acquired from the selling of opiates.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1920 to a Jewish family, Sackler was educated at Erasmus High School and attended New York University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1938. Due to Jewish quotas imposed by the major U.S. medical schools during that era, he started his medical education at Anderson College of Medicine in Glasgow, Scotland, which he attended from 1938 to 1940.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: When World War II began, he stayed in Scotland and volunteered in the British Home Guard, and he also served as a plane spotter. He returned to the U.S. and completed his studies at Middlesex University School of Medicine (a school on the site of the present-day Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts), where he received his MD degree in 1944.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Sackler married Beverly Feldman in 1944. They had two sons, Richard S. Sackler and Jonathan D. Sackler. Beverly Sackler died on October 15, 2019, at the age of 95.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Sackler was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (P) in 1957, and was a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Sackler, with his two brothers, Arthur and Mortimer, co-founded the Creedmoor Institute for Psychobiological Studies in New York City, where they engaged in research in the psycho-biology of schizophrenia and manic depressive psychosis.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: They received two awards from the Medical Society of the State of New York: the First Award for Scientific Research; and one year later, Honorable Mention for Scientific Research. In 1998, Sackler was awarded a Doctor of Law Honoris Causa from the University of Cambridge.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: With lessons learned in research, Sackler and his brother Mortimer transitioned into the development of numerous pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and research companies, Sackler being closely associated with the now global reach of Purdue Pharma in the United States and Canada and Mundipharma, Ltd. in Europe, Asia, and Africa.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Purdue Pharma, which is 100% privately owned and operated by the families of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, researched, developed, markets and distributes the opiate drug Oxycontin and related compounds.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: A year prior to his death, Sackler was estimated by "Forbes" to have a net worth of around $13 billion.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: On October 30, 2017, "The New Yorker" published a multi-page exposé on Raymond Sackler, Purdue Pharma, and the Sackler family. The article links Raymond and Arthur Sackler's business acumen with the rise of direct pharmaceutical marketing and eventually to the rise of addiction to OxyContin in the United States. The article implies that Raymond Sackler bears moral responsibility for the opioid epidemic in the United States.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: In 2019, the "New York Times" revealed that Sackler had told company officials in 2008 to "measure our performance by Rx’s by strength, giving higher measures to higher strengths." This was verified by legally obtained documents tied to a new lawsuit filed in June 2018 by the Massachusetts attorney general, Maura Healey. The lawsuit claims that Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family knew that putting patients on high dosages of OxyContin for long periods increased the risks of serious side effects, including addiction. Nonetheless, they promoted higher dosages because stronger pain pills brought the company and the Sacklers the most profit. On February 1, 2019, Healey released unredacted documents showing that the Sacklers directed doctors to overprescribe the drug and listed doctors (under the code name "Region Zero") who overprescribed Oxycontin for the Sackler family's profit rather than patients' health.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Sackler and his wife, Beverly, directly and through the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundations, initiated and sustained major research programs in the biomedical, biological, physical and engineering sciences through endowments. In support of the arts, the Sacklers were recognized by the British Museum (Raymond and Beverly Sackler Wing, the Ancient Near East and Egypt), the Louvre, and, together with his two brothers, the Sackler Wing (former) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, which houses the Temple of Dendur and study centers for Chinese and Japanese Art History. Many institutions have since distanced themselves from the family.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Together with his brothers, in 1980 Sackler established doctoral educational programs at two US Universities: Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University and Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at New York University School of Medicine. He and his wife Beverly established the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Medical Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, School of Clinical Medicine (UK) and were sponsors at that medical school of the MB/PhD Program and a new cancer research program.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: The Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, sponsored conjointly with Sackler's two brothers in 1964, includes the Sackler School of Medicine, the Maurice and Gabriel Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine and the Sackler Institute of Molecular Medicine.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: Tel Aviv University also serves as the institutional sponsor of two prizes endowed by Sackler and his wife Beverly: The International Prize in Physical Sciences and The International Prize in Biophysics.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: At Leiden University in the Netherlands Sackler supported the Laboratory for Astrophysics named after him.{fact}} He also gave Leiden University an endowment for the establishment of the Raymond and Beverly Chair of American History. Sackler was the moving force, one of the founders, and oversaw the implementation of the Sackler School of Medicine New York State / American Program chartered by the New York State Board of Regents that provides a four-year medical education program for American students at the Sackler School of Medicine of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: In 2010, The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation Science Fund in honor of Ralph J. Cicerone, at the National Academy of Sciences (USA) was established to provide support of scientific programs independent of governmental requests/funding.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: In 2011, The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture Series in Neuroscience was established at Cardiff University.


title: Raymond Sackler

text: On December 9, 2021 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, along with the Sackler family, announced the removal of the Sackler family name from seven named galleries, including the wing that houses the iconic Temple of Dendur. In 2022, the British Museum announced that it would rename the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Rooms and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Wing, as part of "development of the new masterplan", and that it "made this decision together through collaborative discussions" with the Sackler Foundation.


title: Arameans

text: The Arameans (; ; ) are an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean homeland was known as the land of Aram and encompassed central regions of modern Syria. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, a number of Aramean states were established throughout the western regions of the ancient Near East. The most notable was the Kingdom of Aram-Damascus, which reached its height in the second half of the 9th century BCE during the reign of king Hazael. A distinctive Aramaic alphabet was developed and used to write the Old Aramaic language.


title: Arameans

text: During the 8th century BCE, local Aramean kingdoms were gradually conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The policy of population displacement and relocation that was applied throughout Assyrian domains also affected Arameans, many of whom were resettled by Assyrian authorities. This caused wider dispersion of Aramean communities throughout various regions of the Near East, and the range of Aramaic language also widened, gradually gaining significance and eventually becoming the common language of public life and administration, particularly during the periods of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BCE) and the later Achaemenid Empire (539–330 BCE). As a result of linguistic "aramization", a wider Aramaic-speaking area was created throughout the central regions of the Near East, exceeding the boundaries of Aramean ethnic communities. During the later Hellenistic and Roman periods, minor Aramean states emerged, the most notable of them being the Kingdom of Osroene, centered in Edessa, the birthplace of Edessan Aramaic, that later came to be known as "Classical Syriac" language.


title: Arameans

text: From the 1st century CE onward, Christianization began throughout the ancient Near East and encompassed various Aramaic-speaking communities, including ethnic Arameans, thus resulting in the creation of Aramean Christianity, represented by prominent Christian leaders and authors. These writers, the most notable of them being Saint Ephrem of Edessa (d. 373), created theological and literary works in Aramaic. In the following period, two trends have affected Christian Arameans. First, during the 5th century, the ancient Greek custom of using Syrian/Syriac labels for Arameans and their language started to gain acceptance among Aramean literary and ecclesiastical elites. Second, the Arab conquest in the 7th century was followed by Islamization and gradual Arabization of Aramean communities throughout the Near East, ultimately resulting in their fragmentation and acculturation. Remaining communities of Christian Arameans continued to decline throughout the medieval period, divided internally along denominational lines, with the majority adhering to Oriental Orthodoxy and thus belonging to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, which later came to be known as the "Syriac Orthodox Church".


title: Arameans

text: During the Early Modern period, study of Aramaic languages (both ancient and modern) was initiated among western scholars, leading to the formation of Aramaic studies as a wider multidisciplinary field that also includes the study of cultural and historical heritage of Arameans. Linguistic and historical aspects of Aramean studies have been widened since the 19th century by archaeological excavations of ancient Aramean sites in the Near East.


title: Arameans

text: The toponym "A-ra-mu" appears in an inscription at the East Semitic speaking kingdom of Ebla listing geographical names, and the term "Armi", which is the Eblaite term for nearby Idlib, occurs frequently in the Ebla tablets (c. 2300 BCE). One of the annals of Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2250 BCE) mentions that he captured "Dubul, the ensí of "A-ra-me"" ("Arame" is seemingly a genitive form), in the course of a campaign against Simurrum in the northern mountains. Other early references to a place or people of "Aram" have appeared at the archives of Mari (c. 1900 BCE) and at Ugarit (c. 1300 BCE). However, there are no historical, archaeological or linguistic evidences that those early uses of the terms "Aramu", "Armi" or "Arame" were actually referring to the Arameans. The earliest "undisputed" historical attestation of Arameans as a people appears much later, in the inscriptions of Tiglath Pileser I (c. 1100 BCE).


title: Arameans

text: Nomadic pastoralists have long played a prominent role in the history and economy of the Middle East, but their numbers seem to vary according to climatic conditions and the force of neighbouring states inducing permanent settlement. The period of the Late Bronze Age seems to have coincided with increasing aridity, which weakened neighbouring states and induced transhumance pastoralists to spend longer and longer periods with their flocks. Urban settlements (hitherto largely Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Ugarite inhabited) in The Levant diminished in size, until eventually fully nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate much of the region. These highly mobile, competitive tribesmen with their sudden raids continually threatened long-distance trade and interfered with the collection of taxes and tribute.


title: Arameans

text: The people who had long been the prominent population within what is today Syria (called the "Land of the Amurru" during their tenure) were the Amorites, a Northwest Semitic-speaking people who had appeared during the 25th century BCE, destroying the hitherto dominant East Semitic speaking state of Ebla, founding the powerful state of Mari in the Levant, and during the 19th century BCE founding Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia. However, they seem to have been displaced or wholly absorbed by the appearance of a people called the Ahlamu by the 13th century BCE, disappearing from history. Ahlamû appears to be a generic term for Semitic wanderers and nomads of varying origins who appeared during the 13th century BCE across the ancient Near East, Arabian Peninsula, Asia Minor, and Egypt.


title: Arameans

text: The Arameans would appear to be one part of the larger generic Ahlamû group rather than synonymous with the Ahlamu. The presence of the Ahlamû is attested during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BCE), which already ruled many of the lands in which the Ahlamû arose, in the Babylonian city of Nippur and even at Dilmun (modern Bahrain). Shalmaneser I (1274–1245 BCE) is recorded as having defeated Shattuara, King of the Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries. In the following century, the Ahlamû cut the road from Babylon to Hattusas, and Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BCE) conquered Mari, Hanigalbat and Rapiqum on the Euphrates and "the mountain of the Ahlamû", apparently the region of Jebel Bishri in northern Syria.


title: Arameans

text: The emergence of the Arameans occurred during the Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE), which saw great upheavals and mass movements of peoples across the Middle East, Asia Minor, The Caucasus, East Mediterranean, North Africa, Ancient Iran, Ancient Greece and Balkans, leading to the genesis of new peoples and polities across these regions.


title: Arameans

text: The first certain reference to the Arameans appears in an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BCE), which refers to subjugating the "Ahlamû-Arameans" ("Ahlame Armaia"). Shortly after, the Ahlamû disappear from Assyrian annals, to be replaced by the Arameans ("Aramu, Arimi"). This indicates that the Arameans had risen to dominance amongst the nomads. Among scholars, the relationship between the Akhlame and the Arameans is a matter of conjecture. By the late 12th century BCE, the Arameans were firmly established in Syria; however, they were conquered by the Middle Assyrian Empire, as had been the Amorites and Ahlamu before them.


title: Arameans

text: The Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BCE), which had dominated the Near East and Asia Minor since the first half of the 14th century BCE, began to shrink rapidly after the death of Ashur-bel-kala, its last great ruler in 1056 BCE, and the Assyrian withdrawal allowed the Arameans and others to gain independence and take firm control of what was then Eber-Nari (and is today Syria) during the late 11th century BCE. It is from this point that the region was called Aramea.


title: Arameans

text: Some of the major Aramean speaking kingdoms included: Aram-Damascus, Hamath, Bet-Adini, Bet-Bagyan, Bit-Hadipe, Aram-Bet Rehob, Aram-Zobah, Bet-Zamani, Bet-Halupe, and Aram-Ma'akah, as well as the Aramean tribal polities of the Gambulu, Litau and Puqudu.


title: Arameans

text: Later Biblical sources tell us that Saul, David and Solomon (late 11th to 10th centuries) fought against the small Aramean kingdoms ranged across the northern frontier of Israel: Aram-Sôvah in the Beqaa, Aram-Bêt-Rehob (Rehov) and Aram-Ma'akah around Mount Hermon, Geshur in the Hauran, and Aram-Damascus. An Aramean king's account dating at least two centuries later, the Tel Dan Stele, was discovered in northern Israel, and is famous for being perhaps the earliest non-Israelite extra-biblical historical reference to the Israelite royal dynasty, the House of David. In the early 11th century BCE, much of Israel came under foreign rule for eight years according to the Biblical Book of Judges, until Othniel defeated the forces led by Cushan-Rishathaim, who was titled in the Bible as ruler of Aram-Naharaim.


title: Arameans

text: Further north, the Arameans gained possession of Post-Hittite Hamath on the Orontes and were soon to become strong enough to dissociate with the Indo-European speaking Post-Hittite states.


title: Arameans

text: During the 11th and the 10th centuries BCE, the Arameans conquered Sam'al (modern Zenjirli), also known as Yaudi, the region from Arpad to Aleppo, which they renamed Bît-Agushi, and Til Barsip, which became the chief town of Bît-Adini, also known as Beth Eden. North of Sam'al was the Aramean state of Bit Gabbari, which was sandwiched between the Post-Hittite states of Carchemish, Gurgum, Khattina, Unqi and the Georgian state of Tabal.


title: Arameans

text: At the same time, Arameans moved to the east of the Euphrates, where they settled in such numbers that, for a time, the whole region became known as Aram-Naharaim or "Aram of the two rivers". Eastern Aramean tribes spread into Babylonia and an Aramean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name of Adad-apal-iddin. One of their earliest semi-independent kingdoms in northern Mesopotamia was Bît-Bahiâni (Tell Halaf).


title: Arameans

text: Assyrian annals from the end of the Middle Assyrian Empire c. 1050 BCE and the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 911 BCE contain numerous descriptions of battles between Arameans and the Assyrian army. The Assyrians would launch repeated raids into Aramea, Babylonia, Ancient Iran, Elam, Asia Minor, and even as far as the Mediterranean, in order to keep its trade routes open. The Aramean kingdoms, like much of the Near East and Asia Minor, were subjugated by the Neo Assyrian Empire (911–605 BCE), beginning with the reign of Adad-nirari II in 911 BCE, who cleared Arameans and other tribal peoples from the borders of Assyria, and began to expand in all directions (See Assyrian conquest of Aram). This process was continued by Ashurnasirpal II, and his son Shalmaneser III, who between them destroyed many of the small Aramean tribes, and conquered the whole of Aramea (modern Syria) for the Assyrians. In 732 BCE Aram-Damascus fell and was conquered by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III. The Assyrians named their Aramean colonies Eber Nari, whilst still using the term Aramean to describe many of its peoples. The Assyrians conducted forced deportations of hundreds of thousands Arameans into both Assyria and Babylonia (where a migrant population already existed). Conversely, the Aramaic language was adopted as the "lingua franca" of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BCE, and the native Assyrians and Babylonians began to make a gradual language shift towards Aramaic as the most common language of public life and administration.


title: Arameans

text: The Neo Assyrian Empire descended into a bitter series of brutal internal wars from 626 BCE, weakening it greatly. This allowed a coalition of many its former subject peoples; the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Parthians, Scythians, Sagartians and Cimmerians to attack Assyria in 616 BCE, sacking Nineveh in 612 BCE, and finally defeating it between 605 and 599 BCE. During the war against Assyria, hordes of horse borne Scythian and Cimmerian marauders ravaged through Aramea and all the way into Egypt.


title: Arameans

text: As a result of migratory processes, various Aramean groups were settled throughout the Ancient Near East, and their presence is recorded in the regions of Assyria, Babylonia, Anatolia, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and Northern Arabia.


title: Arameans

text: Population transfers, conducted during the Neo-Assyrian Empire and followed by gradual linguistic "aramization" of non-Aramean populations, created a specific situation in the regions of Assyria proper, among ancient Assyrians, who originally spoke ancient Assyrian language (a dialect of Akkadian), but later accepted Aramaic language.


title: Arameans

text: Aramea/Eber-Nari was then ruled by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BCE), initially headed by a short lived Chaldean dynasty. The Aramean regions became a battleground between the Babylonians and the Egyptian 26th Dynasty, which had been installed by the Assyrians as vassals after they had conquered Egypt, ejected the previous Nubian dynasty and destroyed the Kushite Empire. The Egyptians, having entered the region in a belated attempt to aid their former Assyrian masters, fought the Babylonians (initially with the help of remnants of the Assyrian army) in the region for decades before being finally vanquished.


title: Arameans

text: The Babylonians remained masters of the Aramean lands only until 539 BCE, when the Persian Achaemenid Empire overthrew Nabonidus, the Assyrian born last king of Babylon, who had himself previously overthrown the Chaldean dynasty in 556 BCE.


title: Arameans

text: The Arameans were later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire (539–332 BCE). However, little changed from the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times, as the Persians, seeing themselves as successors of previous empires, maintained Imperial Aramaic language as the main language of public life and administration. Provincial administrative structures also remained the same, and the name Eber Nari still applied to the region.


title: Arameans

text: Conquests of Alexander the Great (336-323 BCE) marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the entire Near East, including regions inhabited by Arameans. By the end of the 4th century BCE, two newly created Hellenistic states emerged as main pretenders for regional supremacy: the Seleucid Empire (305–64 BCE), and the Ptolemaic Empire (305–30 BCE). Several conflicts, known in historiography as the Syrian Wars, were fought during the 3rd and the 2nd century BCE between those two powers, over the control of regions that came to be known as "Coele Syria" (meaning: the whole Syria), a term derived from an older Aramean designation (the whole Aram). Since earlier times, ancient Greeks were commonly using "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and heir lands, but is during the Hellenistic (Seleucid-Ptolemaic) period that the term Syria was finally defined, as designation for regions western of Euphrates, as opposed to the term Assyria, that designated regions further to the east.


title: Arameans

text: During the 3rd century BCE, various narratives related to the history of earlier Aramean kingdoms became accessible to wider audiences after the translation of Hebrew Bible into Greek language. Known as Septuagint, the translation was created in Alexandria, capital city of Ptolemaic Egypt, that was the most important city of the Hellenistic world, and also one of the main centers of Hellenization. Influenced by Greek terminology, translators decided to adopt ancient Greek custom of using "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and their lands, thus abandoning endonymic (native) terms, that were used in the Hebrew Bible. In the Greek translation (Septuagint), the region of Aram was commonly labeled as "Syria", while Arameans were labeled as "Syrians". Such promotion of exonymic (foreign) terms had far-reaching influence on later terminology.


title: Arameans

text: Reflecting on traditional influences of Greek terminology on English translations of the Septuagint, American orientalist Robert W. Rogers (d. 1930) noted in 1921: ""it is most unfortunate that Syria and Syrians ever came into the English versions. It should always be Aram and the Aramaeans"".


title: Arameans

text: After the establishment of Roman rule in the region of Syria proper (western of Euphrates) during the 1st century BCE, Aramean lands became the frontier region between two empires, Roman and Parthian, and later between their successor states, Byzantine and Sasanid empires. Several minor states also existed in frontier regions, most notable of them being the Kingdom of Osroene, centered in the city of Edessa, known in Aramaic language as Urhay.


title: Arameans

text: Greek geographer and historian Strabo (d. in 24 CE) wrote about contemporary Arameans, mentioning them on several instances in his ""Geography"". Showing particular interest for names of peoples, Strabo recorded that Arameans are using term "Aramaians" (their native name) as a self-designation, and also noted that Greeks are commonly labeling them as ""Syrians"". He stated that ""those whom we call Syrians are called Aramaians by the Syrians themselves"", also recognizing ""Syrians as the Arimians, now called the Aramaians"", and mentioning ""Syria itself, for those there are Aramaians"".


title: Arameans

text: Between the 1st and the 3rd centuries AD, ancient Arameans adopted Christianity, thus replacing the old polytheistic Aramean religion. In the same time, Christian Bible was translated into Aramaic, and by the 4th century local Aramaic dialect of Edessa (Urhay) developed into a literary language, known as Edessan Aramaic ("Urhaya").


title: Arameans

text: One of the most prominent Christian authors from that period was saint Ephrem of Edessa (d. 373), whose works contain several endonymic (native) references to his language ("Aramaic"), homeland ("Aram") and people ("Arameans"). He was thus praised, by theologian Jacob of Serugh (d. 521), as the "crown" or "wreath" of the "Arameans" (), and the same praises were repeated in liturgical texts.


title: Arameans

text: During the Late Antiquity, and the Early Middle Ages, two consecutive processes: Syrianization and Arabization, were initiated among Arameans, affecting their self-identification, and ethnolinguistic identity.


title: Arameans

text: First process ("Syrianization") was initiated during the 5th century, when ancient Greek custom of using "Syrian" labels for Arameans and their language, started to gain acceptance among Aramean literary and ecclesiastical elites. The practice of using "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and their language was very common among ancient Greeks, and under their influence it also became common among Romans and Byzantines.


title: Arameans

text: The initial vessel of "Syrianization" was the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), later accompanied by Greek books of the New Testament, that also used "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and their land (Aram). By the beginning of the 5th century, that practice also started to affect terminology of Aramean ecclesiastical and literary elites, and "Syrian" labels started to gain frequency and acceptance not only in Aramean translations of Greek works, but also in original works of Aramean writers. Following the example of their elites, it became common among Arameans to use not only endonymic (native), but also exonymic (foreign) designations, thus creating a specific duality that persisted throughout the Middle Ages, as attested in works of prominent writers, who used both designations, Aramean/Aramaic and Syrian/Syriac.


title: Arameans

text: Since Edessan Aramaic language (Urhaya) was the main liturgical language of Aramaic Christianity, it also became known as "Edessan Syriac", later defined by western scholars as Classical Syriac, thus creating a base for the term Syriac Christianity.


title: Arameans

text: The second process ("Arabization") was initiated after the Arab conquest in the 7th century. In the religious sphere of life, Christian Arameans were exposed to Islamization, that created a base for gradual acceptance of Arabic language, not only as the dominant language of Islamic prayer and worship, but also as a common language of public and domestic life. Acceptance of Arabic language became the main vessel of gradual Arabization of Aramean communities throughout the Near East, ultimately resulting in their fragmentation and acculturation. Those processes affected not only Islamized Arameans, but also some of those who remained Christians, thus creating local communities of Arabic-speaking Christians of Aramean origin, who spoke Arabic in their public and domestic life, but continued to belong to Churches that used liturgical Aramaic/Syriac language.


title: Arameans

text: Since the Arab conquest of the Near East in the 7th century, remaining communities of Christian Arameans converged around local ecclesiastical institutions, that were by that time already divided along denominational lines. Among those in western regions, including Syria and Palestine, majority adhered to the Oriental Orthodoxy, under jurisdiction of the Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, while minority belonged to the Eastern Orthodoxy, under jurisdiction of local patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem. In spite of the fact that Eastern Orthodox patriarchates were dominated by Greek episcopate and Greek linguistic and cultural traditions, the use of Aramaic language in liturgical and literary life persisted throughout the Middle Ages, up to the 14th century, embodied in the use of a specific regional dialect known as the Christian Palestinian Aramaic language. On the other side, within the Oriental Orthodox community, dominant liturgical and literary language was Edessan Aramaic, that later became known as Classical Syriac, and the Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch itself came to be known as the Syriac Orthodox Church.


title: Arameans

text: During the 10th century, Byzantine Empire gradually reconquered much of northern Syria and upper Mesopotamia, including the cities of Melitene (934) and Antioch (969), thus liberating local Aramaic-speaking Christian communities from the Muslim rule. Byzantines favored Eastern Orthodoxy, but leadership of the Antiochian Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate succeeded in reaching agreement with the Byzantine authorities, thus securing religious tolerance. Byzantines extended their rule up to Edessa (1031), but were forced into a general retreat from Syria during the course of the 11th century, pushed back by the newly arrived Seljuk Turks, who took Antioch (1084). Later establishment of Crusader states (1098), the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa, created new challenges for local Aramaic-speaking Christians, both Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox.


title: Arameans

text: Among the ecclesiastical and literary elites of the Antiochian Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate, traditions related to the Aramean identity and heritage persisted throughout the medieval period. The use of native (endonymic) designations for "Aramaic language" (Aramaya/Oromoyo) and Aramean people in general (Aramaye/Oromoye) continued along with the acquired use of Syrian/Syriac designations (Suryaya/Suryoyo), as attested by the works of prominent writers.


title: Arameans

text: When referring to their people, authors of the Chronicle of Zuqnin (8th century) used the term "Suryaye" (Syriacs), and also "Aramaye" (Arameans) as a synonym, defining their people as ""sons of Aram"", or ""children of Aram"". Commenting on those data, professor Amir Harrak, a prominent Assyrian scholar and supporter of Assyrian continuity, noted as editor of the chronicle:


title: Arameans

text: One of the most notable medieval writers among Eastern Christians of the Near East, Oriental Orthodox Patriarch Michael of Antioch (d. 1199), recorded in the appendix of his major historiographical work:


title: Arameans

text: During the course of time, exonymic designations for Aramaic language, based on Syrian/Syriac labels, became more common, developing into several dialectal variants (Suryoyo/Suryaya, Sūrayṯ/Sūreṯ, Sūryān). By the 16th century, when the entire Near East fel under the Turkish rule, Syrian/Syriac designations were already dominant, and the term "Suryoye" thus became the principal term of self-identification.


title: Arameans

text: Legacy of ancient Arameans became of particular interest for scholars during the Early Modern period, resulting in the emergence of Aramaic studies, as a distinctive field dedicated to the study of Aramaic language and Aramean cultural heritage in general. By the 19th century, the "Aramean question" was formulated, and several scholarly theses were proposed regarding the development of Aramaic language, and the history of Arameans.


title: Arameans

text: Some of those questions were focused on contemporary issues, related to the uses of Aramean/Aramaic, Syrian/Syriac, Assyrian and Chaldean designations. In 1875, Henry Van-Lennep (d. 1889), who was working as an American missionary among Eastern Christians in the Ottoman Near East, stated that Arameans are "better known as the Syrians, the Assyrians, and the Chaldeans", and also added: "The name Aramean is generally applied to all the inhabitants of the country which extends from the eastern boundary of Assyria to the Mediterranean, exclusive of Asia Minor proper and Palestine". Van-Lennep also stated that Arameans are divided in two branches, eastern ("the Eastern Arameans, or Assyrians, now called Chaldeans"), and western ("the Western Arameans, or modern Syrians").


title: Arameans

text: Some of those pan-Aramean views were later accepted by other western researchers, who also held that modern Syrians are descendants of Arameans. In 1888, British anthropologist George T. Bettany (d. 1891) thus noted that "The modern Semitic people occupying Syria are most accurately termed Aramaeans". In 1919, Irish orientalist Edmond Power (d. 1953) pointed to several questions related to Christian Arameans in modern Syria, noting that "It is in Northern Mesopotamia and Western Syria that the more ancient Aramean element is best preserved owing to the survival of Christianity in these districts".


title: Arameans

text: During the 20th century, the notion of Aramean continuity clashed with the notion of Assyrian continuity, resulting in a series of disputes that remain unresolved. In modern times, Aramean identity is mainly held by a number of Syriac Christians in southeastern Turkey, parts of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, and in the Aramean diaspora, especially in Germany and Sweden. In 2014, Israel officially recognized Arameans as a distinctive minority. Questions related to minority rights of Arameans in some other countries were also brought to international attention.


title: Arameans

text: Arameans were mostly defined by their use of the West Semitic Old Aramaic language (1100 BCE – 200 CE), first written using the Phoenician alphabet, over time modified to a specifically-Aramaic alphabet.


title: Arameans

text: As early as the 8th century BCE, Aramaic competed with the East Semitic Akkadian language and script in Assyria and Babylonia, and it spread then throughout the Near East in various dialects. By around 800 BCE, Aramaic had become the "lingua franca" of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, continuing during the Achaemenid period as Imperial Aramaic. Although marginalized by Greek in the Hellenistic period, Aramaic in its varying dialects remained unchallenged as the common language of all Semitic peoples of the region until the Arab Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia in the 7th century AD, when it became gradually superseded by Arabic.


title: Arameans

text: The late Old Aramaic language of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire and Achaemenid Persian Empire developed into the Middle Aramaic Syriac language of Persian Assyria, which would become the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity. The descendant dialects of this branch of Eastern Aramaic, which still retains Akkadian loanwords, still survive as the spoken and written language of the Assyrian people. It is found mostly in northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, southeastern Turkey and northeastern Syria and, to a lesser degree, in migrant communities in Armenia, Georgia, southern Russia, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Azerbaijan as well as in diaspora communities in the West, particularly the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, Australia and Germany. A small number of Israeli Jews, particularly those originating from Iraq and, to a lesser degree, Iran and eastern Turkey, still speak Eastern Aramaic, but it is largely being eroded by Hebrew, especially within the Israeli-born generations.


title: Arameans

text: The Western Aramaic dialect is now only spoken by Muslims and Christians in Ma'loula, Jubb'adin and Bakhah. Mandaic is spoken by up to 75,000 speakers of the ethnically-Mesopotamian Gnostic Mandaean sect, mainly in Iraq and Iran.


title: Arameans

text: It appears from their inscriptions as well as from their names that Arameans worshipped Mesopotamian gods such as Haddad (Adad), Sin, Ishtar (whom they called Astarte), Shamash, Tammuz, Bel and Nergal, and Canaanite-Phoenician deities such as the storm-god, El, the supreme deity of Canaan, in addition to Anat (‘Atta) and others.


title: Arameans

text: The Arameans who lived outside their homelands apparently followed the traditions of the country where they settled. The King of Damascus, for instance, employed Phoenician sculptors and ivory-carvers. In Tell Halaf-Guzana, the palace of Kapara, an Aramean ruler (9th century BCE), was decorated with orthostates and with statues that display a mixture of Mesopotamian, Hittite, and Hurrian influences.


title: Arameans

text: Between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, the Arameans began to adopt Christianity in place of the polytheist Aramean religion, and the regions of the Levant and Mesopotamia became an important centre of Syriac Christianity, along with the Aramean kingdom Osroene to the east from where the Syriac language and Syriac script emerged.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: Villainous () is a Mexican animated television web series produced by A.I. Animation Studios for Cartoon Network and HBO Max. It was created by Alan Ituriel, a veteran of the animation industry in Mexico. It is based on a 2012 web series of the same name which Ituriel had previously created and was initially picked up by Cartoon Network Latin America as a miniseries of ten one-minute episodes for the Cartoon Network Anything app (further episodes, along with a series of specials, were released later). The series is co-produced by Cartoon Network (through its Latin America Original Production unit) and A.I. Animation Studios.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: On October 11, 2021, Ituriel's A.I. Animation Studios revealed that the series would be released on HBO Max Latin America and Cartoon Network Mexico, and premiered on both platforms on October 29, 2021.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: "Villainous" is the story of Black Hat Org., run by the evil mastermind Black Hat (whose name is a synonym for villain, a reference to black-hatted evil cowboys from western movies), and his team of three less-villainous aides. Black Hat Org's mission is to assist other villains to solve their heroic problems. They sell evil inventions created by Dr. Flug and offer various services, such as advice on how to defeat the hero or take care of the hero themselves. However, things usually end up going wrong as the brilliant innovations and plans tend to have small and often comical flaws.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: The original "Villainous" webisodes were written, animated, and voiced by Alan Ituriel in 2012 for ThatPlaceToHangOut.com, an art website he jointly worked on. He had to use royalty-free music and voice all characters. He later said he was inspired by Guillermo del Toro and Captain Hook in Peter Pan. During the production of the new series, Cartoon Network was able to sign on YouTuber and popular Internet gamer Markiplier as the voice of 5.0.5. and attached a professional composer, Kevin Manthei, both upon request by Ituriel, to the project. Ituriel remained in control over most aspects as director, writer, storyboard artist, animator and voice of Black Hat. The English version is initially recorded first at TRACKS Productions using an Atlanta-based cast (with the exception of Ituriel and Markiplier) while the Spanish version was dubbed afterward at Dubbing House in Mexico. Apart from Ituriel, Markiplier, and Manthei, Carolina Paez was an animator, as was Kevin Martínez, and Diego Valenzuela wrote various episodes. A teaser trailer was also released on September 8, 2018.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: The "Villainous" concept was pitched by Alan Ituriel at a contest run at the Pixelatl Festival in Cuernavaca, called IdeaToon Summit, in 2014. He met some Cartoon Network executives there and the concept was judged to fit the 6-11 year old demographic for CN Anything original content. "Villainous" has garnered very positive reception on Cartoon Network's online platforms, like the Cartoon Network's Anything application in 2016, leading CN to decide to continue their own "Pitch Me" competition through at least 2017 in an aim to find more web original shows. "Villainous" is the first of what CN hopes to be many successful short projects for their app and YouTube channel.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: A TV pilot was released on June 8, 2019, with the Spanish-language version released seven days earlier, while a full-length series is currently in development. Ituriel later confirmed that season one is currently in production, while also announcing a new character, with a backdoor pilot later debuting as the "Victor and Valentino" episode "Villainy In Monte Macabre." Unlike the shorts, due to Warner Bros. merger with Discovery and the Covid-19 pandemic, while simultaneously produced in both languages (with scripts still written in English), the series was recorded in Spanish first at SDI Media in Mexico and dubbed in English afterwards replacing most of the original cast with a Miami-based cast at VOA Studios Miami, released on November 24, 2022.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: On October 11, 2021, it was revealed that the series would be released on HBO Max Latin America and Cartoon Network Mexico, and it premiered on both platforms on October 29, 2021.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: "Villainous" does not take place in any existing city. The main setting is in a city on Hat Island, where the Black Hat mansion is located, which is Black Hat's residence and the headquarters of the Black Hat Organization. In each chapter the protagonists are sent to a different city or location to fulfill a mission that can occur within a single place, such as an abandoned mansion or in outer space. In the pilot of the series, "The Dreadful Dawn", they are sent to a city called Atreno City for a Penumbra contract to defeat a hero named Sunblast. In episode 6, "The Heedeous Heart", they travel to the city where Miss Heed is, possibly called Cosmopolis.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: The title of episode 3, "THE VVV", refers to the Mexican wrestling films of the 60s (mostly starring El Santo). On that occasion Black Hat Organization was renamed "Sombrero Negro, S.A." (the names of Mexican companies commonly end in S.A., for "Sociedad Anónima") and the protagonists are sent to a Mexican wrestling arena located in a city called Guadalajarra (reference to the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco). At the end they are teleported to a desert by Black Hat. The characters visit places in Mexico that refer to this as the National Museum of Anthropology, the city of Acapulco, Guerrero; the city of Papantla, Veracruz and Xochimilco in Mexico City.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: The first wave of Spanish-language shorts which were released on a video on the Cartoon Network Latin America YouTube channel.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: This is a series of 10-to-11-minute Spanish-language specials that feature Black Hat and Dr. Flug criticizing villains from other Cartoon Network shows (which is take place in the timelines of history). The Q&A special is an exception, at 14 minutes and without a focus on a particular villain.


title: Villainous (TV series)

text: The reception of the series has been relatively positive. In June 2017, Victor Pineda Trujillo said that the mini-shorts had "a touch of humor from the 90's cartoons," is about overcoming demons of your life, has wonderful artwork, and a great message. In 2019, E.M. Lee reviewed the show's pilot, noting the enormous fanbase of the series, said the pilot was worth waiting for, and argues that the episode is very creative, having "highly entertaining" characters, which have an interesting dynamic with each other. Lee also praised the animation and argued that it introduces the "core set pieces" of the series, giving the audience "enough to get them interested in the rest of the series." Other reviewers said that Villainous is suited for fans of "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy" and "Invader Zim" while some said it gained online popularity for "lampooning popular Cartoon Network Shows." In March 2018, Catherine Lencione of "Michigan Journal", a student publication of the University of Michigan–Dearborn, called the show unique and fun, with "colorful animation and character designs," saying it has the possibility of evolving "into something great."


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: The AgustaWestland Apache is a licence-built version of the Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter for the British Army Air Corps. The first eight helicopters were built by Boeing; the remaining 59 were assembled by Westland Helicopters (later AgustaWestland) at Yeovil, Somerset in England from Boeing-supplied kits. Changes from the AH-64D include Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322 engines, a new electronic defensive aids suite and a folding blade mechanism allowing the British version to operate from ships. The helicopter was initially designated WAH-64 by Westland Helicopters and was later given the designation Apache AH Mk 1 (also written as "Apache AH1") by the Ministry of Defence.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: The Apache was a valued form of close air support in the conflict in Afghanistan, being deployed to the region in 2006. Naval trials and temporary deployments at sea have proven the aircraft as an able platform to operate from the decks of ships, which is a unique application of the Apache amongst its operators. British Apaches also served in the NATO 2011 military intervention in Libya operating from Royal Navy ships. The Apache AH1 is to reach its out of service date in 2024 and be replaced by the AH-64E.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: The requirement for a new attack helicopter was identified by the British government in the early 1990s. In 1993, invitations to bid were issued. Bids received included the Eurocopter Tiger, a modernised Bell AH-1 SuperCobra, the AH-64 Apache, the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche, and the Agusta A129 Mangusta. Both the Tiger and upgraded Cobra variant required more development, and thus risk, while the Apache was combat proven, though its performance in the First Gulf War was criticised by competitors. Westland and the Apache was selected in July 1995, and a contract for 67 helicopters was signed in 1996.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: In September 1998, Westland produced the first prototype WAH-64 Apache under licence from Boeing. The first nine Apache AH1s were authorised for service by the director of British Army Aviation on 16 January 2001. The 67th and final Apache was handed over to the British Army in July 2004. The helicopter fleet's cost was around £3.1 billion, with a total acquisition cost of £4.1 billion.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: Reliability had been questioned by US Apache operations, the entire fleet in the Balkans had been grounded due to serious tail rotor failures in 1999. In 1998, the AN/APG-78 Longbow radar's development ran into problems regarding its weight, impact upon overall agility, and data transfer abilities. These problems with key aircraft components, and fleet's high cost, led to calls for its cancellation in 1999.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: When the requirement for the Apache had been formalised in the early 1990s, military doctrine assumed that a large conventional armoured assault from the Eastern Bloc was Britain's main threat. Following the collapse and break-up of the Soviet Union, the concepts of flexibility and rapid response took precedence. The UK's Strategic Defence Review called for Apaches to undertake amphibious attack missions, operating from the helicopter carrier , the aircraft carriers (all since retired) and their successors, the aircraft carriers, and possibly the amphibious assault vessels and . Each squadron equipped with the Apache should have eight operational aircraft.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: The Westland Apache experienced delays in entering service due to complications with the modifications made for British service. Prior to the Apache entering service in 2004, several development problems were noted, including a lack of the ability to securely communicate with other helicopters and a risk of damage to the tail rotor and airframe from firing its Hellfire missiles. The problem with using the Hellfire was debris generated by the firing of missiles, both the Hellfire and CRV7 rockets, could strike the body of the aircraft and cause damage; resolving this issue created a delay to training programmes. These problems were corrected prior to entering service, a secure communications suite was installed and Hellfire missiles are routinely fired by Apaches. In 2002, government sources stated that full operational capability was set to be achieved by 2010.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: In 2005, an out-of-service date for the Apache was forecast at 2030. Various options were considered for maintaining the capability:


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: In August 2015, the UK requested the upgrade of 50 of its Apaches to AH-64E standard through a US Foreign Military Sale. The order was confirmed in 2016, with the contract for remanufacturing of the first 38 awarded in 2017 and the remaining 12 in 2019. Leonardo Helicopters will continue to lead the support the existing Apache AH1s until they are retired from service in 2023–24. The Apache AH1 is to be retired and replaced by AH-64E Version 6 aircraft.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: Several deviations were made to the standard Apache design used by the US and those exported to other countries. One major difference is the use of a pair of Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322 01/12 engines, replacing the original General Electric T700-GE-701C engines. The Rolls-Royce engine produces vs. for the GE T700C engine. Compared to many helicopters used by coalition forces in Afghanistan, the Apache required less modification to serve in the region due to special filters incorporated into the engine design. Another change is the folding blade mechanism to stow the helicopters in confined spaces; the rotor blades also have anti-ice protection to allow operations in Arctic environments.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: There were changes made to the sensor and avionics outfitting the craft as well; connectivity with the BOWMAN secure communications system to interact with other British military units being a significant one. The Leonardo (formerly Selex ES) Helicopter Integrated Defensive Aids System (HIDAS) was also fitted. The HIDAS system was retrofitted onto the aircraft in mid-2004 just prior to entering service, along with several redesigned composite bodywork components.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: Instead of the American Hydra 70 rocket pods, the Westland Apache can carry up to 76 CRV7 rockets. The CRV7 uses a modular warhead: "a high explosive, semi-armour piercing warhead for attacks on unarmoured targets and a kinetic energy penetrator, which contains no explosive, for attacks on armoured targets". There used to be a third type of warhead: the Multi-Purpose Sub Munition (MPSM), which was a controversial weapon as it has been classified as a cluster bomb; each rocket contained nine M73 submunitions. In May 2008, several senior officers, such as General David Ramsbotham spoke out against British plans to keep the weapon. In the same month, Britain, as one of the 111 participating nations, agreed to ban cluster bombs on humanitarian grounds. Britain destroyed the last of its CRV7 MPSMs in July 2009.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: Like the US AH-64D Apache Longbow, the Apache AH1 carries an AN/APG-78 Longbow fire-control radar (FCR) and Radar Frequency Interferometer (RFI), providing an integrated surveillance and attack system. The 'Longbow' radar is the bulbous unit over the rotor hub assembly; radar placement above the rotors allows the Apache to hover behind cover scanning for targets, with only the radar unit exposed. Additionally, the Longbow radar can monitor traffic in the Apache's airspace. The radar can also be used for surveillance and terrain profiling. A modem is interfaced into the Longbow radar and other sensor systems to relay information to other aircraft, this allows other Apaches to fire on targets identified by only a single helicopter.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: AgustaWestland have since made several upgrades to Britain's Apache fleet. In May 2005, a $212 million contract was awarded to equip all the Mk1 helicopters with the Apache Arrowhead sensor system upgrade, to be completed by 2010. In 2009, it was announced that AgustaWestland was also integrating new external fuel tanks with ballistic protection. The magazine can be replaced with an Integrated Ammunition and Fuel unit, which reduces the ammunition capacity but increases loitering time. It has been suggested that advanced rotor blades and additional controls to improve the agility of the aircraft may be fitted in a mid-life update of the fleet.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: In May 2005, the first Apache-equipped regiment achieved operational status. The Westland Apache has replaced the Westland Lynx AH7 as the British Army's tactical attack helicopter. The Apache is currently operated by two regiments of the Army Air Corps (3 Regt AAC and 4 Regt AAC) as part of 1st Aviation Brigade (United Kingdom). The Apache is intended to operate in the armed reconnaissance and attack roles, similar to the US usage of Apaches during the 1991 Gulf War. Unlike US versions, the Westland Apache has been partially navalised and now serves aboard Royal Navy ships in addition to its land-based role. It achieved maritime certification in December 2005 aboard HMS "Ocean". On 17 November 2006, HMS "Ark Royal" became the first aircraft carrier to land an Apache AH1.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: They first appeared in combat as part of Operation Herrick in Afghanistan in May 2006. In August 2006, the intense usage of Apaches in Afghanistan led to British commanders admitting that weapons and spare parts were being used at a far greater rate, and subsequently a greater cost, than anticipated. On 11 November 2007, it was reported that half of the Apache gunships in British service had been grounded as they had fallen below the level considered "fit for purpose", along with several other British Helicopters such as the Chinook and Merlin HC3. By November 2008, the situation had further declined, out of 67 aircraft only 20 were available for combat operations. In 2009, AgustaWestland was awarded a contract for support services for the Apache and many components such as the Longbow radar; in the following months senior officers noted that the support change had resulted in higher availability. In June 2011, civilian maintainers of the Apache at Wattisham Airfield threatened industrial action over a pay dispute.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: In October 2008 it was announced that Prince Harry had begun the process of qualifying to become an Apache pilot. In May 2010, the terrorist organisation Al Qaeda threatened to abduct the prince if he piloted an Apache in Afghanistan. In April 2011, Prince Harry was promoted to captain following his completion of Apache conversion training. In June 2011, sections of the media reported that Prince Harry was to deploy to Afghanistan as an Apache pilot in 2012. He subsequently deployed to Afghanistan as part of 662 Squadron in September 2012.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: Three Apaches were deployed to Bardufoss Air Station in Norway in January 2019. The deployment, known as "Exercise Clockwork", represented the aircraft's first cold weather training within the Arctic Circle.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: The Apache's first operational tour was as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade in Afghanistan; there were eight Apache AH1s deployed in Afghanistan in February 2007. These were drawn from No. 656 Squadron and No. 664 Squadron of 9 Regiment AAC, based at Dishforth Airfield. Unlike their American counterparts in Afghanistan, the Apache AH1 is deployed with its Longbow Fire Control Radar to enable the pilot to better manage traffic in their airspace. Initially pilots had to often fly for 16–18 hours at a time due to the low number of Apaches in the theatre; typically each Apache would be stationed in Afghanistan for eight weeks before returning to Britain for roughly eight weeks of maintenance. On 22 May 2006, a UK Apache operating in Afghanistan's Helmand province used a Hellfire missile to destroy an abandoned French vehicle to protect sensitive equipment.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: The Apache quickly became a highly valued tool against insurgents, able to rapidly respond to Taliban forces on the ground. Major Huw Williams, second in command of 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, stated that: "We're really impressed [with the Apache]. It's a very effective beast." It has been noted that Taliban forces refer to the aircraft as the "Mosquito".


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: On 13 January 2007, a 200-strong British force, led by Royal Marines, launched an operation to attack Jugroom Fort, a major Taliban base in southern Helmand Province. After several hours of intense fighting, the Marines regrouped and it was discovered that Lance Corporal Mathew Ford of 45 Commando Royal Marines was missing. A rescue mission was launched using four volunteers, Royal Marines and a Royal Engineer, strapped to the stub-wings of two Apaches. The helicopters could not travel above 50 mph to ensure the safety of the extra passengers from rotor downwash. The Apaches landed under fire inside the compound, after which the rescuers dismounted and recovered the body of LCpl Ford. Ford's body was flown out in the same manner that the soldiers arrived. Another Apache hovered above, providing suppressive fire throughout. None of the rescuers were injured in the recovery mission and they were later hailed for their bravery.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: In May and June 2008, British and Afghan National Army forces conducted Operation Eagle's Eye, aimed at disrupting Taliban activities to the south of Musa Qaleh; a key portion of which was a major night-time helicopter raid, rapidly deploying members of 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment into the town. In June 2008, a British Apache fired a thermobaric Hellfire missile; the controversial usage of such weapons was approved after extensive legal and ethical evaluations within the MoD. In June 2008, a Taliban leader and several cell members were killed in Helmand Province by a Hellfire missile launched by an Apache of the 664 Army Air Corps. There was a friendly fire incident in July 2008, in which an Apache fired upon a position thought to be held by enemy forces, but instead hit members of a British patrol; this was the first time that a British aircraft had been involved in a blue-on-blue incident in Afghanistan. In September 2008, an Apache was seriously damaged by a crash shortly after takeoff in Helmand province; no loss of life occurred but the airframe was written off.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: In early to mid-2009, several narcotics and bomb-making facilities were raided by British forces, supported by Apaches. During the summer of 2009, British Apaches were an integral component of Operation Panther's Claw, which was aimed at pushing insurgents out of civilian areas in the runup to the 2009 Afghan Elections. During this major offensive, Apaches from the UK routinely flew alongside US Cobra helicopters to provide air support to soldiers of 3rd Battalion Black Watch and the Royal Marines conducting ground operations. During the Summer 2009 operations, a senior Taliban leader, Mullah Mansur, and several accomplices were killed in a precision strike launched by an Apache.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: On 25 July 2011, the MoD announced that during a combat operation in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand province, several Afghan children had been injured from crossfire by an Apache; they were flown to Camp Bastion for medical treatment.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: From 2006 to April 2014, British Apache helicopters flew 50,000 hours in Afghanistan, representing one-third of all UK Apache flying. The UK ended combat operations in Afghanistan in October 2014.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: In May 2011, the MoD announced that the Apache fleet had reached 100,000 hours flying time, and describing it as a "vital battlefield tool in Afghanistan". The Apache was also recognised as having established a "limited maritime strike capability" and were deploying on vessels such as HMS "Ocean". On 17 May 2011, the Apache tested its Hellfire missiles against sea targets for the first time, 9 missiles were fired with a 100% success rate.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: On 27 May 2011, military officials announced that Apaches would be deployed as part of Operation Ellamy, the ongoing military intervention in Libya. The helicopters operated from the flight deck of HMS "Ocean" in conjunction with French Eurocopter Tiger helicopters over Misrata. The Apaches were also to assist in Operation Unified Protector, the enforcement of an embargo and no-fly zone upon Libya. On 14 June 2011, reports of British preparation to evacuate Yemen emerged, involving Apache and Merlin helicopters operating from Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels off the coast.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: On 4 June 2011, Apaches struck targets within Libya for the first time, destroying a radar site and an armed checkpoint near the town of Brega. Further precision strikes were launched by Apaches, typical targets were mobile air defenses, and were occasionally engaged by AK-47 fire from ground troops. In early June, Apaches conducted attacks on Gaddafi loyalists assaulting the town of Misrata. On 13 June, British Apaches destroyed several inflatable boats with 30 mm cannon fire, believed to be Libyan Special Forces, before engaging and destroying multiple vehicles along the coastline, including an anti-aircraft system. On 25 June, in coordination with RAF Tornado strikes, Apaches attacked loyalist infantry and vehicles around Brega and its airfield. On 1 July, British Apaches were reportedly involved in a 'fierce' battle at the town of Khoms. On 2 July, Apaches destroyed several tanks and a bunker at a military camp near Zawiya. On 5 August, Apaches participated in the rebel push for the town of Zliten was reported.


title: AgustaWestland Apache

text: By 21 June 2011, the Libyan government had dubiously claimed to have successfully shot down dozens of aircraft, including five Apaches; NATO denied these claims and no Apache losses have been acknowledged to date. On 8 July 2011, the MoD released information on the first month of Apache combat operations over Libya; noting that Apaches had engaged targets within Libya on 39 occasions. Apache operations over Libya have been heavily influenced and supported by NATO reconnaissance flights and intelligence missions; information is continually relayed to update target information, assess the threat of Surface to Air missiles (SAM), and the presence of civilians, enabling real time changes to mission profiles. On 6 August, Apaches struck a military communications facility and troops at Al Watiyah. Both the Apache and the Typhoon were withdrawn from Libyan operations in September 2011 as operational demands decreased.


title: Iphigenia

text: In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (; , , ) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae.


title: Iphigenia

text: In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by hunting and killing one of Artemis' sacred stags. She retaliates by preventing the Greek troops from reaching Troy unless Agamemnon kills his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, at Aulis as a human sacrifice. In some versions, Iphigenia dies at Aulis, and in others, Artemis rescues her. In the version where she is saved, she goes to the Taurians and meets her brother Orestes.


title: Iphigenia

text: "Iphigenia" means "strong-born," "born to strength," or "she who causes the birth of strong offspring."


title: Iphigenia

text: Iphianassa () is the name of one of Agamemnon's three daughters in Homer's "Iliad" (ix.145, 287) The name Iphianassa may be simply an older variant of the name Iphigenia. "Not all poets took Iphigenia and Iphianassa to be two names for the same heroine," Kerenyi remarks, "though it is certain that to begin with they served indifferently to address the same divine being, who had not belonged from all time to the family of Agamemnon."


title: Iphigenia

text: In Greek mythology, Iphigenia appears as the Greek fleet gathers in Aulis to prepare for war against Troy. Here, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, hunts and then kills a deer in a grove sacred to the goddess Artemis. Artemis punishes Agamemnon by acting upon the winds, so that Agamemnon's fleet cannot sail to Troy. Calchas the seer tells Agamemnon that to appease Artemis, he must sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia. At first he refuses but, pressured by the other commanders, agrees.


title: Iphigenia

text: Iphigenia and her mother Clytemnestra are brought to Aulis, under the pretext that Achilles will marry the girl. They discover the truth. In some versions of the story, Iphigenia remains unaware of her imminent sacrifice until the last moment. She believes until the moment of her death that she is being led to the altar to be married.


title: Iphigenia

text: In some versions, such as Hyginus' "Fabulae", Iphigenia is not sacrificed. Some sources claim that Iphigenia was taken by Artemis to Tauris (in Crimea) at the moment of the sacrifice, the goddess having left a deer in her stead, or else a goat (actually the god Pan) in her place.


title: Iphigenia

text: Euripides' description of her sacrifice is as follows: “…we brought your child to the place where the Greek army had gathers, all together and all at once. When King Agamemnon saw his daughter proceeding to the alter to her death, he heaved a deep sigh and turned his head to one side and wept. He covered his eyes with his robe. But the young girl stood beside her father who had given her life and said: ‘Fathers, as you bid me, I am here. I give my body, freely on behalf of my country, for all the land of Greece. Lead me to the alter. There, if that is the gods’ will, sacrifice me. May this gift from me bring you success. May you win the crown of victory and win thereafter a glorious homecoming. And no, do not let any man lay his hands upon me. In peace and in good heart I offer you my throat.’ So she spoke, and all stood by in wonder at the courage, yes, the virtue of her words. Then Talthybius, for so he was commanded, stood before the assembled army and ordered them to watch and keep holy silence. The Calchas, the prophet, took from its sheath a sharp knife and put it in a basket studded with gold. And upon the young girl’s head he put a garland. Achilles, son of Peleus, circled the alter of the goddess, basket in hand, and upon her he sprinkled holy water and he said, ‘Artemis, daughter of Zeus, slayer of wild beasts, you that spin the silver light at night, receive this sacrifice which we offer to you. We the Greek army and King Agamemnon offer to you the pure blood that flows from a virgin’s throat. Grant our ships an untroubled journey. Grant that our spears will sack the towers of Troy.’ The priest seized the knife and offered a prayer as he looked for a place to plunge the knife’s point. My soul was deeply troubled and in pain. I stood by, head lowered. Suddenly, it was a miracle: everyone had heard the sound of the knife – but no one could see where in the world the young maiden had disappeared to. The priest cried out. The army echoed his cry, and then they saw the miracle, impossible to believe even as it happened before their eyes. There on the ground lay a deer, gasping for breath. She was a full-grown deer, beautiful, and the altar of the goddess was dripping with her blood. Then Calchas spoke – imagine the joy! – ‘Leaders of this the Greek army, do you see this victim that the goddess has laid upon her own alter? This mountain deer? She accepts this offering with greater gladness than the child. For her altar will not now be stained with noble blood. She rejoices in the sacrifice. And she grants us fair sailing and success at Troy. Therefore, courage! To arms, to the ships! For on this day we must leave the hallow bay of Aulis and cross the Aegean Sea.’ When the carcass had been reduced to ashes in Hephaestus’s fire, Calchas offered a prayer for the safe homecoming of the army. Agamemnon sent me to tell you these things, to tell you of the good fortune he has received from the gods, and of the fame that is now his and will not die, I tell you what I saw. For I was there. There is no doubt your child has been taken to live amongst the gods.”The Hesiodic "Catalogue of Women" called her Iphimede () and told that Artemis transformed her into the goddess Hecate. Antoninus Liberalis said that Iphigenia was transported to the island of Leuke, where she was wedded to immortalized Achilles under the name Orsilochia.


title: Iphigenia

text: In Aeschylus's "Agamemnon", the first play in the "Oresteia", the sacrifice of Iphigenia is given as one reason for Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus to plan to murder Agamemnon.


title: Iphigenia

text: In Euripides’ "Iphigenia at Aulis", it is Menelaus who convinces Agamemnon to heed the seer Calchas's advice. After Agamemnon sends a message to Clytemnestra informing her of Iphigenia's supposed marriage, he immediately regrets his decision and tries to send another letter telling them not to come. Menelaus intercepts the letter and he and Agamemnon argue. Menelaus insists that it is Agamemnon's duty to do all he can to aid the Greeks. Clytemnestra arrives at Aulis with Iphigenia and the infant Orestes. Agamemnon tries to convince Clytemnestra to go back to Argos, but Clytemnestra insists on staying for the wedding. When she sees Achilles, Clytemnestra mentions the marriage; Achilles, however, appears to be unaware of it, and she and Iphigenia gradually learn the truth. Achilles, angry that Agamemnon has used him in his plot, vows to help prevent the murder of Iphigenia. Iphigenia and Clytemnestra plead with Agamemnon to spare his daughter's life. Achilles informs them that the Greek army, eager for war, has learned of the seer's advice and now demand that Iphigenia be sacrificed. If Agamemnon refuses, it is likely they will turn on him and kill him and his family. Iphigenia, knowing she is doomed, decides to be sacrificed willingly, reasoning that as a mere mortal, she cannot go against the will of a goddess. She also believes that her death will be heroic, as it is for the good of all Greeks. Iphigenia exits, and the sacrifice takes place offstage. Later, Clytemnestra is told of her daughter's purported death—and how at the last moment, the gods spared Iphigenia and whisked her away, replacing her with a deer.