title: Personality psychology

text: In the 1930s, John Dollard and Neal Elgar Miller met at Yale University, and began an attempt to integrate drives (see Drive theory), into a theory of personality, basing themselves on the work of Clark Hull. They began with the premise that personality could be equated with the habitual responses exhibited by an individual – their habits. From there, they determined that these habitual responses were built on secondary, or acquired drives.


title: Personality psychology

text: Secondary drives are internal needs directing the behaviour of an individual that results from learning. Acquired drives are learned, by and large in the manner described by classical conditioning. When we are in a certain environment and experience a strong response to a stimulus, we internalize cues from the said environment. When we find ourselves in an environment with similar cues, we begin to act in anticipation of a similar stimulus. Thus, we are likely to experience anxiety in an environment with cues similar to one where we have experienced pain or fear – such as the dentist's office.


title: Personality psychology

text: Secondary drives are built on primary drives, which are biologically driven, and motivate us to act with no prior learning process – such as hunger, thirst or the need for sexual activity. However, secondary drives are thought to represent more specific elaborations of primary drives, behind which the functions of the original primary drive continue to exist. Thus, the primary drives of fear and pain exist behind the acquired drive of anxiety. Secondary drives can be based on multiple primary drives and even in other secondary drives. This is said to give them strength and persistence. Examples include the need for money, which was conceptualized as arising from multiple primary drives such as the drive for food and warmth, as well as from secondary drives such as imitativeness (the drive to do as others do) and anxiety.


title: Personality psychology

text: Secondary drives vary based on the social conditions under which they were learned – such as culture. Dollard and Miller used the example of food, stating that the primary drive of hunger manifested itself behind the learned secondary drive of an appetite for a specific type of food, which was dependent on the culture of the individual.


title: Personality psychology

text: Secondary drives are also explicitly social, representing a manner in which we convey our primary drives to others. Indeed, many primary drives are actively repressed by society (such as the sexual drive). Dollard and Miller believed that the acquisition of secondary drives was essential to childhood development. As children develop, they learn not to act on their primary drives, such as hunger but acquire secondary drives through reinforcement. Friedman and Schustack describe an example of such developmental changes, stating that if an infant engaging in an active orientation towards others brings about the fulfillment of primary drives, such as being fed or having their diaper changed, they will develop a secondary drive to pursue similar interactions with others – perhaps leading to an individual being more gregarious. Dollard and Miller's belief in the importance of acquired drives led them to reconceive Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development. They found themselves to be in agreement with the timing Freud used but believed that these periods corresponded to the successful learning of certain secondary drives.


title: Personality psychology

text: Dollard and Miller gave many examples of how secondary drives impact our habitual responses – and by extension our personalities, including anger, social conformity, imitativeness or anxiety, to name a few. In the case of anxiety, Dollard and Miller note that people who generalize the situation in which they experience the anxiety drive will experience anxiety far more than they should. These people are often anxious all the time, and anxiety becomes part of their personality. This example shows how drive theory can have ties with other theories of personality – many of them look at the trait of neuroticism or emotional stability in people, which is strongly linked to anxiety.


title: Personality psychology

text: "Projective tests" assume personality is primarily unconscious and assess individuals by how they respond to an ambiguous stimulus, such as an ink blot. Projective tests have been in use for about 60 years and continue to be used today. Examples of such tests include the Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test.


title: Personality psychology

text: The Rorschach Test involves showing an individual a series of note cards with ambiguous ink blots on them. The individual being tested is asked to provide interpretations of the blots on the cards by stating everything that the ink blot may resemble based on their personal interpretation. The therapist then analyzes their responses. Rules for scoring the test have been covered in manuals that cover a wide variety of characteristics such as content, originality of response, location of "perceived images" and several other factors. Using these specific scoring methods, the therapist will then attempt to relate test responses to attributes of the individual's personality and their unique characteristics. The idea is that unconscious needs will come out in the person's response, e.g. an aggressive person may see images of destruction.


title: Personality psychology

text: The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) involves presenting individuals with vague pictures/scenes and asking them to tell a story based on what they see. Common examples of these "scenes" include images that may suggest family relationships or specific situations, such as a father and son or a man and a woman in a bedroom. Responses are analyzed for common themes. Responses unique to an individual are theoretically meant to indicate underlying thoughts, processes, and potentially conflicts present within the individual. Responses are believed to be directly linked to unconscious motives. There is very little empirical evidence available to support these methods.


title: Personality psychology

text: "Objective tests" assume personality is consciously accessible and that it can be measured by self-report questionnaires. Research on psychological assessment has generally found objective tests to be more valid and reliable than projective tests. Critics have pointed to the Forer effect to suggest some of these appear to be more accurate and discriminating than they really are. Issues with these tests include false reporting because there is no way to tell if an individual is answering a question honestly or accurately.


title: Personality psychology

text: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (also known as the MBTI) is self-reporting questionnaire based on Carl Jung's Type theory. However, the MBTI modified Jung's theory into their own by disregarding certain processes held in the unconscious mind and the impact these have on personality.


title: Personality psychology

text: Psychology has traditionally defined personality through its behavioral patterns, and more recently with neuroscientific studies of the brain. In recent years, some psychologists have turned to the study of inner experiences for insight into personality as well as individuality. Inner experiences are the thoughts and feelings to an immediate phenomenon. Another term used to define inner experiences is qualia. Being able to understand inner experiences assists in understanding how humans behave, act, and respond. Defining personality using inner experiences has been expanding due to the fact that solely relying on behavioral principles to explain one's character may seem incomplete. Behavioral methods allow the subject to be observed by an observer, whereas with inner experiences the subject is its own observer.


title: Personality psychology

text: Descriptive experience sampling (DES): Developed by psychologist Russel Hurlburt. This is an idiographic method that is used to help examine inner experiences. This method relies on an introspective technique that allows an individual's inner experiences and characteristics to be described and measured. A beep notifies the subject to record their experience at that exact moment and 24 hours later an interview is given based on all the experiences recorded. DES has been used in subjects that have been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression. It has also been crucial to studying the inner experiences of those who have been diagnosed with common psychiatric diseases.


title: Personality psychology

text: Articulated thoughts in stimulated situations (ATSS): ATSS is a paradigm which was created as an alternative to the TA (think aloud) method. This method assumes that people have continuous internal dialogues that can be naturally attended to. ATSS also assesses a person's inner thoughts as they verbalize their cognitions. In this procedure, subjects listen to a scenario via a video or audio player and are asked to imagine that they are in that specific situation. Later, they are asked to articulate their thoughts as they occur in reaction to the playing scenario. This method is useful in studying emotional experience given that the scenarios used can influence specific emotions. Most importantly, the method has contributed to the study of personality. In a study conducted by Rayburn and Davison (2002), subjects' thoughts and empathy toward anti-gay hate crimes were evaluated. The researchers found that participants showed more aggressive intentions towards the offender in scenarios which mimicked hate crimes.


title: Personality psychology

text: Experimental method: This method is an experimental paradigm used to study human experiences involved in the studies of sensation and perception, learning and memory, motivation, and biological psychology. The experimental psychologist usually deals with intact organisms although studies are often conducted with organisms modified by surgery, radiation, drug treatment, or long-standing deprivations of various kinds or with organisms that naturally present organic abnormalities or emotional disorders. Economists and psychologists have developed a variety of experimental methodologies to elicit and assess individual attitudes where each emotion differs for each individual. The results are then gathered and quantified to conclude if specific experiences have any common factors. This method is used to seek clarity of the experience and remove any biases to help understand the meaning behind the experience to see if it can be generalized. The experimental method does have some complications though. If researchers are manipulating a variable, it's possible this change will affect a different variable, which in turn will change the measured result (not the original manipulated condition), introducing uncertainty. This method, in personality research, often requires deception, so the ethics of experiments are also brought into question.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: The Secret of Kells is a 2009 animated fantasy film about the making of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript from the 9th Century.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: The film is an Irish-French-Belgian co-production animated by Cartoon Saloon, which premiered on 8 February 2009 at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. It went into wide release in Belgium and France on 11 February, and Ireland on 3 March. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's "Up".


title: The Secret of Kells

text: It was directed by Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey, produced by Paul Young, Didier Brunner and Vivian Van Fleteren, written by Fabrice Ziolkowski, distributed by Gébéka Films, Kinepolis Film Distribution, Buena Vista International, edited by Fabienne Alvarez-Giro and music composed by Bruno Coulais and Kíla. It stars Evan McGuire, Brendan Gleeson, Christen Mooney, Mick Lally (in his final film role), Michael McGrath, Liam Hourican, Paul Tylak and Paul Young. The film is the first installment in Moore's "Irish Folklore Trilogy", preceding the films "Song of the Sea" (2014) and "Wolfwalkers" (2020).


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Set in 9th century Ireland, during the age of Viking expansion, the film’s protagonist is Brendan, a curious and brave boy living in the tightly knit Abbey of Kells under the care of his stern uncle, Abbot Cellach, who is obsessed with building a wall around the Abbey to prevent Viking attacks.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Apprenticed in the scriptorium of the monastery, Brendan hears the other monks talk of Brother Aidan, creator of the "Book of Iona", and becomes curious about the mysterious illuminator and the book that "turns darkness into light" (the unfinished "Book of Kells"). Aidan arrives in Kells, accompanied by his white cat, Pangur Bán, after his monastery at Iona is destroyed by a raid. After eavesdropping on a discussion between Cellach and Aidan, Brendan wanders into the scriptorium and finds the still-to-be-completed book guarded by Pangur Bán. Aidan arrives, and tells Brendan about the book.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Seeing Brendan as a suitable apprentice, Aidan sends him and Pangur Bán into the woods to obtain gall nuts to make ink. Cornered by a hungry pack of wolves, Brendan is saved by the fairy Aisling, who overcomes her initial suspicion and accepts Brendan after he reveals his intentions of helping to create the book.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: After a close encounter with Crom Cruach, a deity of death and destruction of whom Aisling is deeply afraid, Brendan and Aisling return to the outskirts of the forest, and she assures him that he can return any time.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: At the monastery, Brendan is reprimanded by Cellach, who forbids him to leave again. Continuing to work with Aidan, Brendan learns that the work is endangered by the loss of the ‘Eye of Colm Cille’, a special magnifying lens captured from Crom Cruach. When Brendan tries to visit Crom's cave to obtain another ‘Eye’, Cellach confines him to his room.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Freed by Pangur Bán and Aisling, Brendan runs into the heart of the woods, where a shocked Aisling begs him not to confront the dark deity, warning that Crom Cruach will kill him just as it killed her mother and the rest of her people. Declaring that the book will never be completed without the ‘Eye’, Brendan persuades Aisling to help him enter Crom’s cave, narrowly escaping death in the process. Brendan duels with Crom and seizes the Eye, blinding Crom and causing the deity to consume itself, becoming an ouroboros. Returning to the cave entrance, Brendan finds the forest covered in white flowers.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Brendan returns to the abbey and continues to assist Aidan in secret, watched excitedly by the brothers of the monastery. A messenger from outside warns Cellach that the Vikings are on their way. In a fit of anger and frustration, Cellach locks Brendan and Aidan in the scriptorium, but not before ripping out a page Brendan had created. The Vikings invade Kells and breach the wooden gate, to Cellach’s horror. Cellach is wounded by an arrow, then by a Viking blade, as the Vikings swarm Kells. Still locked in the burning scriptorium, Brendan and Aidan escape using green smoke from the gallberry ink, confusing the raiders. The wooden staircase to the abbey’s central tower becomes overloaded with panicked villagers and collapses, and the village and abbey below are set ablaze.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Unable to help Cellach, Brendan and Aidan flee to the forest with Pangur Bán as the Vikings breach the main church and attack the monks and villagers hiding within. Vikings in the forest find Brendan and Aidan and take the bejeweled cover, scattering the pages of the book, but Aisling’s wolves arrive and either scare away or kill the Vikings. As Brendan finds the final page of the book, he comes face to face for a moment with a white wolf, who may be Aisling.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Kells has been sacked and burnt, with few survivors, and Cellach severely injured (although he survives). Brendan and Aidan travel across Ireland and, after many years, complete the book. Aidan entrusts the book to Brendan and then dies, and the now-adult Brendan returns to Kells with Pangur Bán, guided by a white wolf (revealed to be Aisling). Brendan reunites with the aged, guilt-ridden Cellach, and shows him the completed "Book of Kells". The film closes with an animated rendition of the Chi-Rho page, featuring its intense detail.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: The film is based on the story of the origin of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament located in Dublin, Ireland. It also draws upon Celtic mythology; examples include its inclusion of Crom Cruach, a pre-Christian Irish deity and the reference to the poetic genre of Aislings, in which a poet is confronted by a dream or vision of a seeress, in the naming of the forest sprite encountered by Brendan. Wider mythological similarities have also been commented upon, such as parallels between Brendan's metaphysical battle with Crom Cruach and Beowulf's underwater encounter with Grendel's mother. "The Secret of Kells" began development in 1999, when Tomm Moore and several of his friends were inspired by Richard Williams's "The Thief and the Cobbler", Disney's "Mulan", Gustav Klimt's paintings, John Bauer's illustrations and the works of Hayao Miyazaki, which based their visual style on the respective traditional art of the cultures featured in each film. They decided to do something similar to Studio Ghibli's films but with Irish art. Tomm Moore explained that the visual style was inspired by Celtic and medieval art, being 'flat, with false perspective and lots of colour'. Even the clean up was planned to 'obtain the stained glass effect of thicker outer lines'.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: The film was very well received by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 90% based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. Rotten Tomatoes critics concluded that the film was "Beautifully drawn and refreshingly calm, "The Secret of Kells" hearkens back to animation's golden age with an enchanting tale inspired by Irish mythology." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 20 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Some critics compared the film to Hayao Miyazaki's works such as "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away". Joe Morgenstern of the "Wall Street Journal" said that "it pays homage to Celtic culture and design, together with techniques and motifs that evoke Matisse, Miyazaki and the minimalist cartoons of UPA".


title: The Secret of Kells

text: Gary Thompson of the "Philadelphia Daily News" said "The Secret of Kells" "is noteworthy for its unique, ornate design, its moments of silence... and gorgeous music". Leslie Felperin of "Variety Magazine" praised the film as "Refreshingly different" and "absolutely luscious to behold". Jeremy W. Kaufmann of Ain't It Cool News called its animation "absolutely brilliant", and reviewers at "Starlog" called it "one of the greatest hand drawn independent animated movies of all time". Writing for the "Los Angeles Times", Charles Solomon ranked the film the tenth best anime on his "Top 10". On Oscar weekend it was released at the IFC Center in New York City and was then released in other venues and cities in the United States, where it grossed $667,441.


title: The Secret of Kells

text: According to Paul Young, CEO of Cartoon Saloon, "Kells came out and it didn’t really make much of an impact in Ireland... It made more waves in the US. It got picked up by GKIDS Films, which was the first time they had theatrically distributed a movie".


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, known in Japan as , is a 2001 Japanese anime science fiction action film based on the 1998 anime series "Cowboy Bebop" created by Hajime Yatate. Multiple staff from the original series worked on the film, including director Shinichirō Watanabe; writer Keiko Nobumoto; character designer/animation director Toshihiro Kawamoto; and composer Yoko Kanno. Both the original Japanese and English voice cast also reprised their roles.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" is set between episodes 22 and 23 of the original series. The plot centers on a mysterious terrorist planning to destroy the human population on Mars using an unknown pathogen. The bounty hunter crew of the spaceship "Bebop" work to find the terrorist and discover the pathogen's source before the attack can take place.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: The film was conceived by Watanabe as an extension of his work on the television series, which he treated as a series of miniature films. So as not to alienate fans of the series, a large amount of aesthetic material was incorporated, while also adjusting it to make it accessible to newcomers. Increased budget and production facilities enabled the use of filming styles associated with live action films and a higher animation quality than the series. Arabic thematic elements were incorporated to contrast against the series, which entailed Watanabe traveling to Morocco for research. The Arabic atmosphere was also used in Kanno's music.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: The film was produced by studios Sunrise, which had previously developed the original series; Bones, a later studio founded by former Sunrise staff; and Bandai Visual. "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" was released to theaters in Japan on September 1, 2001, and in the United States on August 11, 2002. It went on to gross over $3 million worldwide, and when released on DVD, it ranked high on Japanese and US charts. The film received generally positive reviews from mainstream and anime critics, and was nominated for the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Animated Film.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: On Mars in 2071, it's been 49 years after Earth was mostly abandoned after a catastrophe. Humanity has settled on other planets and moons in the solar system. The film's protagonists are legalized bounty hunters who travel together on the spaceship "Bebop". They are Spike Spiegel, a former associate of the Red Dragon crime syndicate; Jet Black, a former police officer and owner of the "Bebop"; Faye Valentine, a woman who was once a fugitive from bounty hunters; Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (Ed for short), a bubbly, energetic girl with genius computer skills; and Ein, an artificially enhanced "data dog" with human-level intelligence. Days before Halloween, a man explodes a truck in Mars' capital city, spreading what is assumed to be a new pathogen that kills or sickens over 300 people. In response, the Mars government issues a record bounty of 300 million woolong for the culprit's capture.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: Faye, who was pursuing Lee Sampson, a hacker who was apparently driving the truck, sees the terrorist and the "Bebop" crew decide to take on the bounty. Each follows different lines of inquiry. Ed, using a tattoo on the attacker's wrist, manages to identify him as Vincent Volaju, a former member of a military squad apparently killed in the Titan War. In reality, Vincent was the only survivor of a test involving the pathogen, having been immunized with a test vaccine: left with dissociative amnesia and hallucinations of glowing butterflies, his inability to tell dreams from reality eventually drove him insane. Jet learns that the truck was the property of Cherious Medical Pharmaceutical Company, who illegally manufactured the pathogen as a biological weapon. Looking for information on the pathogen, Spike is given a sample by a man named Rashid, who was the former lead on its development.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: Spike also encounters Elektra Ovilo, an agent of Cherious Medical. Upon examination, the "pathogen" proves to be a type of protein-based nanomachine that mimics human lymphocytes then breaks down into protein after death, making it undetectable. Attempting to infiltrate Cherious Medical, Spike fights with Elektra, planting a listening device on her. Elektra, who is sent by Cherious Medical to kill Vincent, is tailed by Spike, who attempts to take down Vincent on a train.Vincent easily defeats Spike, severely wounding him and throwing him from the train before releasing another cloud of the nanomachines: everyone in the train dies except Elektra, who was unknowingly immunized when she had been in a relationship with Vincent prior to the test on Titan. Elektra secretly gives a friend in the company a sample of her blood to prepare a stock of vaccine.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: During this time, Faye relocates Sampson, who has been working with Vincent, but fails to catch him. Ein and Ed manage to find him again, but the two run off before Faye can get there. She arrives just as Vincent breaks one of the nanomachine containers with him, killing Sampson. Although Faye is also infected, Vincent gives her some of his blood through a kiss, immunizing her. After Spike recovers and has a final talk with Rashid, he and Elektra are captured by Cherious Medical, who want to suppress all knowledge of the nanomachines' existence. The two escape from Cherious Medical, grabbing the newly produced vaccine on the way. In turn, Faye escapes after Vincent goes to trigger an attack on the city that will eventually kill everyone on Mars. After the group reunites, it is determined that Vincent will spread the nanomachines by exploding the giant jack-o'-lantern balloons used in the Halloween parade.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: Jet has a troop of old crop dusters spread the vaccine over the city while Faye heads for the weather control center and causes it to rain on the city, aiding the spread of the vaccine. Spike and Elektra separately head to confront Vincent. Spike arrives first and the two battle to a standstill, then the nanomachines are released and Spike is temporarily weakened by them (before he gets cured with the vaccine). As Vincent prepares to kill Spike, Elektra arrives and shoots Vincent. Having wanted to die since Titan, Vincent does not defend himself and thanks Elektra for their time together before dying.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" was first announced in September 1999: the majority of the series' staff were carried over along with Watanabe, including producer Masahiko Minami, character designer/animation director Toshihiro Kawamoto, and writer Keiko Nobumoto. The original Japanese cast also returned. The writing process was finished and production began in July 2000. It was produced by the studios Sunrise, Bones and Bandai Visual. While Sunrise worked on the original series, Bones was founded in 1998 after the series' completion by Minami, Kawamoto and Hiroshi Ōsaka. The length of the film's production allowed the team to ensure its high quality.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: The idea for a film was in the mind of director Shinichirō Watanabe during the development of the original "Cowboy Bebop" series, which he had originally envisioned as a film. Watanabe treated each episode of the series as a miniature film, so to progress onto a feature-length film seemed natural to him. So as not to disappoint fans, the film incorporated as much of the series as possible while making it accessible to newcomers. He had thought up some of the story and the character of Vincent during the production of the series. After the series ended and there was demand for a continuation from both fans and sponsors so the decision was made by the series creators to make a film. Watanabe said "When the original 26-episode series concluded, a lot of fans and sponsors wanted me to continue. That's why I made this movie."


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: Watanabe was aiming towards a live-action look for the film despite its medium, using camera tricks, visual effects and character expression impossible in the series while keeping "the "Bebop" flavor". According to Kōichi Yamadera, the Japanese voice actor for Spike, the only real changes made by the team in the portrayal were to show off the characters, including Spike, in different ways: Spike, in particular, displayed more of his inner thoughts and showed a gentler side than he did in the series, as there was more time available to express such details. Watanabe personally chose the voice actors for Elektra and Vincent. Vincent was partially intended as a type of villain that could not be done in the series, even though Watanabe felt he was not "particularly unique".


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: Because of increased running time, budget and facilities, the team were able to include more cels in animations, as well as longer and more intricate action sequences. The film included difficult sequences that Watanabe could not do along with the rest of the film, so two guest directors were brought in for them: Hiroyuki Okiura, who handled the opening sequence, and Tensai Okamura, who created a cinematic Western shown at a drive-in theater during the film. Watanabe wanted to give the film an Arabic feel, in contrast to the series which often used New York and Hong Kong for inspiration. To this end, Watanabe went on a research trip to Morocco. The character Rashid was based on the guide who had shown the research team round the city. Working on the film was different for Watanabe when compared to the series in a positive way: while he had to put the entire story in a twenty-minute episode for the series, the team were able to create a longer, more detailed narrative.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: The music for "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" was composed by Yoko Kanno, composer for the original series, and performed by her band Seatbelts. She used the same mixture of music genres (western, opera, jazz) as with the TV series, but also added Arabic elements in keeping with the film's thematic feel. She used Arabic and English for the music lyrics. Alongside these, the soundtrack made use of a large number of rock instruments. Five tracks from the film were released on the Seatbelts mini-album "Ask DNA", released on July 25, 2001. The soundtrack's official release, "Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door OST Future Blues", was released on August 22, 2001. Both these albums were reissued in December 2012.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" was first released in cinemas in Japan on September 1, 2001. After the film's international release, this date was subject to debate in the western fanbase due to its proximity to the September 11 attacks. It was first shown to the west at the 2002 AnimeCon, where it was announced that the original English cast would reprise their roles. Its Japanese subtitle, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", was changed for the western release due to sharing its name with the 1973 Bob Dylan song of the same name. Instead of creating a new subtitle, the team settled with using ""The Movie"", though a November 2018 rerelease of the film by Funimation features the original subtitle. It was jointly released in the United States by Sony Pictures through their Destination Films label and Samuel Goldwyn Films and internationally by Tristar Pictures. During its initial screening at the event, it sold out completely, prompting a second screening later in the event. The film received a limited theatrical release in the United States, opening on April 4, 2003. During its opening weekend, it reached 19th place in the box office chart, bringing in $12,338 per screening. The film's total gross in America was $1,000,045. Its worldwide gross totals $3,007,903.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: The film was released on DVD in Japan on February 7, 2002, immediately reaching the top of the DVD/VHS charts. Sunrise and Bandai Visual underestimated the possible sales, with the first print being used up soon after release, prompting a second print for mid-February. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released it on DVD in the United States on June 24, 2003. In 2006, it was ranked as the sixth best-selling anime DVD in the United States. It did not receive a theatrical release in the United Kingdom, instead being released as a direct-to-DVD feature. It was released in the UK on June 27, 2003. The film was later released on Blu-ray disc in Japan on July 25, 2008. It was released in North America by Image Entertainment on June 28, 2011.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: In celebration for the series's 20th anniversary in 2018, the film was shown in United States theaters by Funimation Films on August 15 (with Japanese audio and English subtitles) and on August 16 (with the English dub).


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 66% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "This may be strictly for anime junkies, but they'll find much to like about "Cowboy Bebop"s casual violence and cool dialogue." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews". The film was nominated at the Online Film Critics Society Awards 2003 in the Best Animated Film category, though it lost the award to "Finding Nemo". Helen McCarthy in "500 Essential Anime Movies" praised the music of the movie, calling it "the show's secret weapon", and stated that "the movie's only real fault is that it's about half an hour too long".


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: Critic reviews have generally been positive. Andy Patrizio of IGN gave the film a score of 9 of 10, saying that the developers "did a superb job of fleshing out the story", as well as praising it for "not succumbing to melodrama like many of its live-action counterparts". He also commented that the film's subject matter of terrorism in the face of the September 11 attacks "smacked way too close to home". The music also received praise. Mike Crandol of Anime News Network echoed many of these sentiments. His main criticism stemmed from the fact that Jet, Faye and Ed were relegated to supporting roles, and that it was difficult getting them all into the story. He also said that the team had outdone themselves with the animation quality in a few scenes, such as the final fight between Spike and Vincent. Robert Koehler of "Variety", reviewing an undubbed subtitled release, praised the visuals and writing, although he found some sections a little long. Charles Solomon writing in the "Los Angeles Times" however praised the film for its running time, saying it gave screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto time to explore the characters.


title: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

text: Other reviews were more mixed. Lawrence van Gelder of "The New York Times" gave the film a mixed review, saying that he enjoyed the experience, but found it a little frivolous when compared to both its subject matter and events at the time. His ultimate impression from the English-dubbed version was that the film could easily have been set in present-day New York. Peter Bradshaw writing in "The Guardian" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and praised the film's visuals, but said that the plot wasn't very interesting and failed to keep him interested. Jamie Russell, writing for the BBC, gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying it was "good enough to deserve mention in the same breath as "Akira", "Ghost in the Shell", and "Spirited Away"". The most praise went to the use of live-action camera angles. Though he found the film's story sometimes slowed noticeably, the soundtrack and visual references to other notable action films made it "an example of anime at its very best." Other newspapers of the time including the "Toronto Star", "Chicago Tribune" and generally shared opinions with other reviewers: several praised the plot and animation, while others were mixed. Others, including the "Toronto Star" and "Newark Star-Ledger", noted its connection to science fiction films.


title: Ken Starr

text: Kenneth Winston Starr (July 21, 1946 – September 13, 2022) was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, known as the Whitewater controversy, from 1994 to 1998. Starr previously served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1989 and as the U.S. solicitor general from 1989 to 1993 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr received the most public attention for his tenure as independent counsel while Bill Clinton was U.S. president. Starr was initially appointed to investigate the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater real estate investments of Clinton. The three-judge panel charged with administering the Ethics in Government Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous areas including suspected perjury about Clinton's sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky. After more than four years of investigation, Starr filed the Starr Report, which alleged that Clinton lied about the existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation led to the impeachment of Clinton and the five-year suspension of his law license.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr served as the dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law. He was later both the president and the chancellor of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, from June 2010 until May and June 2016, respectively, and at the same time the Louise L. Morrison chair of constitutional law at Baylor Law School. On May 26, 2016, following an investigation into the mishandling by Starr of several sexual assaults at the school, Baylor University's board of regents announced that Starr's tenure as university president would end on May 31. The board said he would continue as chancellor, but on June 1, Starr resigned that position with immediate effect. On August 19, 2016, Starr announced he would also resign from his tenured professor position at Baylor Law School, completely severing his ties with the university in a "mutually agreed separation", following accusations that he ignored allegations of sexual assault on campus.


title: Ken Starr

text: On January 17, 2020, Starr joined President Donald Trump's legal team during his first impeachment trial.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr was born near Vernon, Texas, the son of Vannie Maude (Trimble) and Willie D. Starr, and was raised in Centerville, Texas. His father was a minister in the Churches of Christ who also worked as a barber. Starr attended Sam Houston High School in San Antonio and was a popular, straight‑A student. His classmates voted him most likely to succeed. In 1970, Starr married Alice Mendell, who was raised Jewish but converted to Christianity. They had three children.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr attended the Churches of Christ–affiliated Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, where he was an honor student, a member of the Young Democrats, and a vocal supporter of Vietnam protesters. He later transferred to George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history, in 1968. While there, he became a member of Delta Phi Epsilon.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr was not drafted for military service during the Vietnam War, as he was classified 4‑F, because he had psoriasis. He worked in the Southwestern Advantage entrepreneurial program and later attended Brown University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in 1969. Starr then attended the Duke University School of Law, where he was an editor of the "Duke Law Journal" and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1973.


title: Ken Starr

text: After he graduated from law school, Starr was a law clerk to judge David W. Dyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1973 to 1974. From 1975 to 1977, he clerked for chief justice Warren Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court.


title: Ken Starr

text: In 1977, Starr joined the Washington, D.C., office of the Los Angeles–based law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (now Gibson Dunn). In 1981 he was appointed counselor to U.S. attorney general William French Smith.


title: Ken Starr

text: On September 13, 1983, he was nominated by Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by George MacKinnon. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 20, 1983, and received his commission on September 20, 1983. His service terminated on May 26, 1989, due to resignation.


title: Ken Starr

text: When the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics needed someone to review Republican senator Bob Packwood's diaries, the committee chose Starr. In 1990, Starr was the leading candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court nomination after William Brennan's retirement. He encountered strong resistance from the Department of Justice leadership, which feared Starr might not be as reliably conservative as a Supreme Court justice. George H. W. Bush nominated David Souter instead of Starr.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr also considered running for the United States Senate, from Virginia in 1994, against incumbent Chuck Robb, but opted against opposing Oliver North for the Republican nomination.


title: Ken Starr

text: In August 1994, pursuant to the newly reauthorized Ethics in Government Act (), Starr was appointed by a special three-judge division of the D.C. Circuit to continue the Whitewater investigation. He replaced Robert B. Fiske, a moderate Republican who had been appointed by attorney general Janet Reno.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr took the position part-time and remained active with his law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, as this was permitted by statute and was also the norm with previous independent counsel investigations. As time went on, he was increasingly criticized for alleged conflicts of interest stemming from his continuing association with Kirkland & Ellis. Kirkland, like several other major law firms, was representing clients in litigation with the government, including tobacco companies and auto manufacturers. The firm itself was being sued by the Resolution Trust Corporation, a government agency involved in the Whitewater matter. Additionally, Starr's own actions were challenged because Starr had, on one occasion, talked with lawyers for Paula Jones, who was suing Bill Clinton over an alleged sexual harassment. Starr had explained to them why he believed that sitting U.S. Presidents are not immune to civil suit. When this constitutional question ultimately reached the Supreme Court, the justices unanimously agreed.


title: Ken Starr

text: On October 10, 1997, Starr's report on the death of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, drafted largely by Starr's deputy Brett Kavanaugh, was released to the public by the Special Division. The complete report is 137 pages long and includes an appendix added to the Report by the Special Division over Starr's objection. The report agrees with the findings of previous independent counsel Robert B. Fiske that Foster committed suicide at Fort Marcy Park, in Virginia, and that his suicide was caused primarily by undiagnosed and untreated depression. As CNN explained on February 28, 1997, "The [Starr] report refutes claims by conservative political organizations that Foster was the victim of a murder plot and coverup," but "despite those findings, right-wing political groups have continued to allege that there was more to the death and that the president and first lady tried to cover it up." CNN also noted that organizations pushing the murder theory included the "Pittsburgh Tribune-Review", owned by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, and Accuracy in Media, supported in part by Scaife's foundation. Scaife's reporter on the Whitewater matter, Christopher Ruddy, was a frequent critic of Starr's handling of the case.


title: Ken Starr

text: The law conferred broad investigative powers on Starr and the other independent counsels named to investigate the administration, including the right to subpoena nearly anyone who might have information relevant to the particular investigation. Starr would later receive authority to conduct additional investigations, including the firing of White House Travel Office personnel, potential political abuse of confidential FBI files, Madison Guaranty, Rose Law Firm, Paula Jones lawsuit and, most notoriously, possible perjury and obstruction of justice to cover up President Clinton's sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. The Lewinsky portion of the investigation included the secret taping of conversations between Lewinsky and coworker Linda Tripp, requests by Starr to tape Lewinsky's conversations with Clinton, and requests by Starr to compel Secret Service agents to testify about what they might have seen while guarding Clinton. With the investigation of Clinton's possible adultery, critics of Starr believed that he had crossed a line and was acting more as a political hit man than as a prosecutor.


title: Ken Starr

text: In his deposition for the Paula Jones lawsuit, Clinton denied having "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky. On the basis of the evidence provided by Monica Lewinsky, a blue dress stained with Clinton's semen, Ken Starr concluded that this sworn testimony was false and perjurious.


title: Ken Starr

text: During the deposition in the Jones case, Clinton was asked, "Have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, as that term is defined in Deposition Exhibit 1, as modified by the Court?" The definition included contact with the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of a person with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of that person, any contact of the genitals or anus of another person, or contact of one's genitals or anus and any part of another person's body either directly or through clothing. The judge ordered that Clinton be given an opportunity to review the agreed definition. Clinton flatly denied having sexual relations with Lewinsky. Later, at the Starr grand jury, Clinton stated that he believed the definition of "sexual relations" agreed upon for the Jones deposition excluded his receiving oral sex.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr's investigation eventually led to the impeachment of President Clinton, with whom Starr shared "Time"s Man of the Year designation for 1998. Following his impeachment, the president was acquitted in the subsequent trial before the United States Senate as all 45 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to acquit.


title: Ken Starr

text: In 2004, Starr expressed regret for ever having asked the Department of Justice to assign him to oversee the Lewinsky investigation personally, saying, "the most fundamental thing that could have been done differently" would have been for somebody else to have investigated the matter.


title: Ken Starr

text: As with many controversial figures, Kenneth Starr was the subject of political satire. Both the book, "And the Horse He Rode in On", by James Carville, and the stage play, "Starr’s on Broadway", by Eric Zaccar, attempt to add a comedic, arguably negative light to Mr. Starr’s time as special prosecutor. In addition, some opposing media contended that that Mr. Starr’s own lengthy and detailed Starr Report, that chronicled his investigation of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, was one of the most extensive and tasteless jokes ever perpetrated on the American people.


title: Ken Starr

text: After five years as independent counsel, Starr resigned and returned to private practice as an appellate lawyer and a visiting professor at New York University, the Chapman University School of Law, and the George Mason University School of Law. Starr worked as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, specializing in litigation. He was one of the lead attorneys in a class-action lawsuit filed by a coalition of liberal and conservative groups (including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association) against the regulations created by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known informally as McCain-Feingold Act.


title: Ken Starr

text: On April 6, 2004, he was appointed dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law. He originally accepted a position at Pepperdine as the first dean of the newly created School of Public Policy in 1996. He withdrew from the appointment in 1998, several months after the Lewinsky controversy erupted. Critics charged that there was a conflict of interest due to substantial donations to Pepperdine from billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, a Clinton critic who funded many media outlets attacking the president. In 2004, some five years after President Clinton's impeachment, Starr was again offered a Pepperdine position at the School of Law and this time accepted it.


title: Ken Starr

text: In 2005, Starr worked to overturn the death sentence of Robin Lovitt, who was on Virginia's death row for murdering a man during a robbery in 1998. Starr provided his services to Lovitt pro bono. On October 3, 2005, the Supreme Court denied certiorari.


title: Ken Starr

text: On January 26, 2006, the defense team of convicted murderer Michael Morales (which included Starr) sent letters to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger requesting clemency for Morales. Letters purporting to be from the jurors who determined Morales's death sentence were included in the package sent to Schwarzenegger. Prosecutors alleged that the documents were forgeries, and accused investigator and anti-death penalty activist Kathleen Culhane of falsifying the documents. Lead defense attorney David Senior and his team soon withdrew the documents. Ultimately, clemency was denied, but the falsified documents were not used in the rationale. Eventually, Culhane was criminally charged with forging the documents and, under a plea agreement, was sentenced to five years in prison.


title: Ken Starr

text: On May 4, 2006, Starr announced that he would represent the school board of Juneau, Alaska, in its appeal to the United States Supreme Court in a case brought by a former student, Joseph Frederick. A high school student at that time, Joseph Frederick unfurled a banner at a school-sponsored event saying "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic torch was passing through Juneau, before arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the 2002 Winter Olympics. The board decided to suspend the student. The student then sued and won at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which stated that the board violated the student's first amendment right to free speech. On August 28, 2006, Starr filed a writ of certiorari for a hearing with the Supreme Court. On June 21, 2007, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, the court ruled in favor of Starr's client, finding that "a principal may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use."


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr represented Blackwater in a case involving the deaths of four unarmed civilians killed by Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, in March 2004.


title: Ken Starr

text: On December 19, 2008, Proposition 8 supporters named Starr to represent them in post-election lawsuits to be heard by the Supreme Court of California. Opponents of the measure sought to overturn it as a violation of fundamental rights, while supporters sought to invalidate the 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in the state before Proposition 8 passed. Oral arguments took place on March 5, 2009, in San Francisco.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr argued that "Prop. 8 was a modest measure that left the rights of same-sex couples undisturbed under California's domestic-partner laws and other statutes banning discrimination based on sexual orientation," to the agreement of most of the judges. The main issue that arose during the oral argument included the meaning of the word "inalienable," and to which extent this word goes when used in Article I of the Californian Constitution. Christopher Krueger of the attorney general's office said that inalienable rights may not be stripped away by the initiative process. Starr countered that "rights are important, but they don't go to structure ... rights are ultimately defined by the people."


title: Ken Starr

text: The court ultimately held that the measure was valid and effective, but would not be applied retroactively to marriages performed prior to its enactment.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr was an advisory board member for the anti-LGBTQ Christian nationalist legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom.


title: Ken Starr

text: In 2007, Starr joined the legal team defending Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of the statutory rape of numerous underage high school students. Epstein would later plea bargain to plead guilty to several charges of soliciting and trafficking of underage girls, serve 13 months on work release in a private wing of the Palm Beach jail, and register as a sex offender. Starr said he was "in the room" when then-US attorney Alex Acosta made the deal that yielded the plea bargain for Epstein and later described Acosta as "a person of complete integrity," adding that "everyone was satisfied" with the agreement.


title: Ken Starr

text: On January 16, 2020, Starr was announced as a member of then-President Donald Trump's legal team for his Senate impeachment trial. He argued before the Senate on Trump's behalf on January 27, 2020. Slate journalist Jeremy Stahl pointed out that as he was urging the Senate not to remove Trump as president, Starr contradicted various arguments he used in 1998 to justify Clinton's impeachment. In defending Trump, Starr also claimed he was wrong to have called for impeachment against Clinton for abuse of executive privilege and efforts to obstruct Congress and also stated that the House Judiciary Committee was right in 1998 to have rejected one of the planks for impeachment he had advocated for. He also invoked a 1999 "Hofstra Law Review" article by Yale law professor Akhil Amar, who argued that the Clinton impeachment proved just how impeachment and removal causes "grave disruption" to a national election.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr was called as a witness by Sen. Ron Johnson on a senate hearing concerning electoral fraud amidst Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. When Trump was impeached for a second time in 2021, Starr condemned the impeachment as "dangerous" and "unconstitutional".


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr was the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean and Professor of Law at Pepperdine University, when on February 15, 2010, Baylor University announced that it would introduce Starr as its newest president. Starr became Baylor's 14th president, replacing John Lilley who was ousted in mid‑2008. Starr was introduced as the new president on June 1, 2010.


title: Ken Starr

text: His inauguration was held on September 17, 2010, where Stephen L. Carter was the keynote speaker. Within his first two weeks in office, Starr was "leading the charge" to keep the university in the Big 12 Conference for athletics. Starr was additionally named chancellor of Baylor in November 2013, a post that had been vacant since 2005. He became the first person to hold the positions of president and chancellor at Baylor at the same time.


title: Ken Starr

text: In September 2015, Baylor's Board of Regents initiated an external review of the university's response to reports of sexual violence to be conducted by the Pepper Hamilton law firm. Baylor had been accused of failing to respond to reports of rape and sexual assault filed by at least six female students from 2009 to 2016. Former football player Tevin Elliot was convicted of rape. Elliot is currently serving a 20-year sentence after his conviction in January 2014. Another student, Sam Ukwuachu, was convicted but has since had that conviction overturned and was retried, only to see it reinstated by the Texas Court of Appeals in 2018. Pepper Hamilton reported their findings to the regents on May 13, and on May 26, the regents announced Starr's removal as university president, effective May 31.


title: Ken Starr

text: The May 26, 2016, announcement of personnel changes by the Board of Regents said Starr was to have continued as Chancellor and also as a faculty member at Baylor Law School. Starr announced his resignation as Chancellor on June 1, effective immediately. He told an interviewer that he took that action "as a matter of conscience." He said he "willingly accepted responsibility" and "The captain goes down with the ship." He resigned his position as the Louise L. Morrison Chair of Constitutional Law in Baylor Law School on August 19, 2016.


title: Ken Starr

text: Starr died at the Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston from complications from surgery on September 13, 2022, at the age of 76.


title: 1993 in film

text: The year 1993 in film involved many significant films, including the blockbuster hits "Jurassic Park", "The Fugitive" and "The Firm". (For more about films in foreign languages, check sources in those languages.)


title: Erick Avari

text: Erick Avari (born Nariman Eruch Avari; 13 April 1952) is an Indian-American retired actor whose roles in science-fiction and action productions include "Stargate" (1994), "Independence Day" (1996), and "The Mummy" (1999).


title: Erick Avari

text: Erick Avari was born on 13 April 1952 in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, into a Parsi Zoroastrian family. His father, Eruch Avari, ran two movie theatres, the Capital and the Rink. His early education was at the North Point School, which he attended as a day-scholar. He later studied at the College of Charleston.


title: Erick Avari

text: Avari is a member of the Avari-Madan family of Darjeeling and Calcutta. His great-great-grandfather was Jamshedji Framji Madan, one of the pioneers of Indian cinema.


title: Erick Avari

text: Avari has appeared in the films "The Beast" (1988), "Encino Man" (1992), "Stargate" (1994), "Independence Day" (1996), "The Mummy" (1999), "Planet of the Apes" (2001), "Home Alone 4" (2002), "Mr. Deeds" (2002), "Daredevil" (2003), and "" (2007). He is one of only two actors, along with Alexis Cruz, to appear in both the original "Stargate" movie and the spin-off series "Stargate SG-1" (three episodes). Before arriving in Los Angeles in 1991, his extensive work onstage garnered him praise from theater critics across America, most notably as Vasquez, in "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" with Val Kilmer at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, and as Sir Richard at The Guthrie Theater's memorable production of "The Screens".


title: Erick Avari

text: He has made guest appearances on "Castle", "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", "Heroes", "Hope & Faith", "Law & Order", "Burn Notice", "Lie to Me", "Party Down", "", "seaQuest DSV", "", "", "The West Wing", "The X-Files", "Dharma & Greg", "Babylon 5", "Alias", "The O.C.", "The Sarah Silverman Program", "Leverage", "", "Covert Affairs", and "Human Target". He appeared in cameo roles in "JAG"; "Living People"; "NYPD Blue"; "Cheers"; "Murder, She Wrote"; "Roseanne"; "Judging Amy"; "NCIS"; and "Everwood". In the video game "Zork Grand Inquisitor", he played Grand Inquisitor Mir Yannick, a ruthless dictator who serves as the game's main villain. He also appeared in "".


title: Erick Avari

text: Beginning in the autumn of 2006, a photograph of Avari and a recording of his voice have been used in the role of Chandra Suresh in "Heroes". He did not appear onscreen until the episode "Seven Minutes to Midnight", as his character is part of the backstory and had died before the events of the pilot. When his character does appear, it is only in flashbacks until the episode "Six Months Ago", when the story centers on six months before the events of the pilot episode. In this episode, Suresh moves to New York and contacts people on "the list" he generated of those he believes to have special genetic aberrations.


title: Erick Avari

text: Over the course of his career, Avari has portrayed representatives of more than 24 ethnicities. As of November 2006, he has appeared in 33 feature films and over 70 television episodes. Avari has appeared with Brent Spiner in three different productions: "" (1987), "Independence Day" (1996), and "The Master of Disguise" (2002). He performed opposite Richard Gere in a drama film based on a true story: "", in which he played Jasjeet, an Indian hot dog vendor.


title: Erick Avari

text: Avari was scheduled to reprise in his role as Kasuf in the "Stargate SG-1" Season Six finale "Full Circle", but was unable to do so due to his commitment to "Dragnet" (2003).


title: Erick Avari

text: In January 2009, he played a mobile-phone salesman in "", and in October 2009, he was cast as Omar on "Days of Our Lives".


title: Erick Avari

text: In 2017, Avari was seen in both the U.S conspiracy thriller "Project Eden: Vol. I" and, in 2019, as Nicodemus in the television historical series "The Chosen" where it was based on the life of Jesus Christ.


title: Akinator

text: Akinator is a video game developed by French company Elokence. During gameplay, it attempts to determine what fictional or real-life character, object, or animal the player is thinking of by asking a series of questions (similar to the game "Twenty Questions"). It uses an artificial intelligence program that learns the best questions to ask through its experience with players.


title: Akinator

text: Before beginning the questionnaire, the players must think of an character, object, or animal. Akinator initiates a series of questions, with "Yes", "No", "Probably", "Probably not" and "Don't know" as possible answers, to narrow down the potential item. If the answer is narrowed down to a single likely option before 25 questions are asked, the program will automatically ask whether the item it chose is correct. If it is guessed wrong a few times in a row, the game will prompt the user to input the item's name to expand its database of choices.


title: Akinator

text: The game is based on the Limule program made by Elokence, and runs on an internally designed algorithm.


title: Akinator

text: "L'Express" rated Akinator a 5 out of 5 on their list of iPhone Apps of the Week for September 9, 2009. "Excite France" stated that Akinator is just that interactive. "It is revolutionary, attractive, and entertaining."


title: Tina Onassis Niarchos

text: Athina Mary "Tina" Onassis Niarchos (; , ; 19 March 1929 – 10 October 1974) was an English-born Greek-French socialite and shipping heiress, the second daughter of the Greek shipping magnate Stavros Livanos and Arietta Zafiraki. She was best known as the first wife of Aristotle Onassis, but she later married her older sister Eugenia's widower, Stavros Niarchos. She was also the elder sister of George Stavros Livanos.


title: Tina Onassis Niarchos

text: After her divorce from Aristotle Onassis, she dropped her married name and resumed her maiden name, Livanos, until her marriage to Spencer-Churchill.


title: Tina Onassis Niarchos

text: Her son with Onassis, Alexander Onassis, died at the age of 24 in January 1973, as a result of injuries sustained during an airplane crash in Athens.


title: Tina Onassis Niarchos

text: Athina Niarchos died on 10 October 1974 in the Hôtel de Chanaleilles, the Parisian mansion that she shared with her husband. Her death was officially ruled by pathologists as having resulted from an acute edema of the lung, but has also been attributed to her suffering a drug overdose. She was buried next to her sister at the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery in Lausanne, Switzerland.


title: Tina Onassis Niarchos

text: Her daughter, Christina Onassis, sued Stavros Niarchos, her mother's widower, for her mother's estimated US$250 million (in 1974 dollars) estate claiming the marriage should be annulled under Greek law. Christina later dropped the lawsuit and Niarchos returned all of his wife's money as well as her jewelry, artwork and other personal effects to Christina.


title: Joel Glazer

text: Joel Glazer (born March 31, 1967) is an American businessman and sports team owner. He is part of the Glazer family, who control First Allied Corporation and HRG Group, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL), and Manchester United Football Club of the Premier League. The family is based in Florida.


title: Joel Glazer

text: Glazer was born to Linda and Malcolm Glazer, a businessman and billionaire. He grew up in Rochester, New York, and attended the American University in Washington, D.C., receiving a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. He has a wife, Angela, and two daughters, Dylan and Zoey Glazer.


title: Joel Glazer

text: After working alongside his father Malcolm to successfully acquire the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise in 1995, Glazer worked in conjunction with his brother, Bryan, to build a community consensus for local approval of what would become Raymond James Stadium. Thereafter, in 2002, he helped lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the franchise first Super Bowl victory vs. the Oakland Raiders on January 26, 2003. In 2021, The Buccaneers became the first team to play in a Super Bowl at their home stadium, and would go on to win Super Bowl LV, giving the Glazer family their second title.


title: Joel Glazer

text: Glazer, the franchise's co-chairman, represents the franchise at all league meetings since 1995 and is very active in a wide range of NFL matters. During the 2019 offseason, Glazer was appointed chairman of the International Committee by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. He also continues his responsibilities on the league's Finance, Media, and Legalized Sports Betting committees.


title: Joel Glazer

text: Glazer also serves as co-chairman of Manchester United Football Club, which has won five Premier League titles (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013), one Champions League title (2008), four League Cups (2006, 2009, 2010, 2017), one FA Cup (2016), and one Europa League title (2017) during his tenure. His work with the club led to his naming in 2007 as one of the Top 10 most influential Americans in the United Kingdom by "The Telegraph".


title: Joel Glazer

text: Glazer has been active in the Tampa Bay community through the Glazer Family Foundation, which is dedicated to helping children in the Tampa Bay area through charity initiatives. The Foundation donated $5 million toward the construction of the Glazer Children's Museum, in downtown Tampa, which opened in 2010 and was named one of the Top Ten Family Museums in the country by Women's Day Magazine. For its wide-reaching charitable efforts, the Tampa Bay Sports Commission named the Glazer Family Foundation the Foundation of the Year at the inaugural Sneaker Soiree held in 2011.


title: Joel Glazer

text: In 2021, Glazer played a leading role in the attempt to set up a breakaway European Super League which would end the European football pyramid system and replace it with a close league without relegation and promotion. After a strong backlash, Glazer and the other individuals involved backed away from the project.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: Antonee Robinson (born August 8, 1997), nicknamed Jedi, is an American professional soccer player who plays as a left-back for Premier League club Fulham and the United States national team.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: Born in Milton Keynes, England, Robinson came through Everton's academy, having been with the academy since the age of 11. In June 2013, he signed a scholarship with the club, becoming a full-time player.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: While with Everton's U18 side, Robinson suffered injuries that saw him sidelined most of the time. He appeared for the U21 side toward the end of the 2014–15 season. As a result, he was awarded the club's Under-18 Players' Player of the Season. At the end of the 2014–15 season, he signed his first professional contract with the club after being offered a new contract.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: However, Robinson spent the most of the 2015–16 season sidelined by torn cartilage under his kneecap, resulting in knee surgery. Despite this, he signed a one-year contract extension on July 15, 2016. Robinson then played all three matches in the EFL Trophy, which saw Everton U23s eliminated in the Group stage. He also became a regular for the U23 side. At the end of the 2016–17 season, Robinson signed a two-year contract extension with the club.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: On August 4, 2017, it was announced that Antonee Robinson had signed on loan with Bolton Wanderers until January 2018.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: Five days after joining the club, on August 9, 2017, he made his debut in a 2–1 League Cup win at Crewe Alexandra. Two weeks later, on August 22, 2017, he set up a goal for Jem Karacan to score the club's third goal in a 3–2 win over Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup. He made his league debut for the side on September 9, 2017, in a 3–0 loss against Middlesbrough, playing the full 90 minutes. Robinson then established himself in the left-back position, beating out competition from Andrew Taylor. It was announced on January 5, 2018, that Robinson had agreed to stay at Bolton for the remainder of the season.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: On July 15, 2019, Robinson joined Wigan Athletic on a permanent three-year contract. He made his debut for Wigan against Rotherham United and scored his first goal for the club in a 2–2 draw at Millwall on November 26, 2019.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: After impressing for Wigan in the EFL Championship as one of the league's top left backs, Robinson was set to sign with Serie A side A.C. Milan for $13 million before the transfer deadline of January 31, 2020. However, the deal fell through when Robinson's medical examination at Milan revealed a heart rhythm irregularity for which further testing could not be completed before the deadline, and for which he would undergo an ablation procedure as treatment.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: Following Wigan's relegation from the Championship, Robinson moved to Premier League club Fulham on August 20, 2020, for £2 million.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: He made his debut for the club in a league cup game against Ipswich Town on September 16 in a Fulham win. He then played in the next round on September 23 against Sheffield Wednesday in 2–0 win. He played in the 3–0 loss to Brentford in the league cup on October 1. He made his Premier League debut on October 4 against Wolverhampton. He scored his first goal for the club in an EFL Cup tie against Birmingham City on August 24, 2021.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: Robinson was eligible for both England and the United States. He was born and raised in Milton Keynes, England. His father was born in England but raised in White Plains, New York and gained American citizenship. Robinson is also of Jamaican descent through his paternal grandmother.


title: Antonee Robinson

text: Robinson was first capped at under-18 level with the United States. He was also called into the United States under-20 side, although was not capped. In March 2018, Robinson was invited to both the United States senior and England under-21 camps, and accepted the United States senior call for a friendly against Paraguay in which he was named to the bench. He made his United States senior debut on May 28, 2018, playing the full 90 minutes in a 3–0 friendly win against Bolivia and recording an assist.


title: Khidr

text: Al-Khidr () (), also transcribed as al-Khadir, Khader, Khidr, Khizr, Khazer, Khadr, Khedher, Khizir, Khizar, is a figure described but not mentioned by name in the Quran as a righteous servant of God possessing great wisdom or mystic knowledge. In various Islamic and non-Islamic traditions, Khidr is described as a messenger, prophet or wali, who guards the sea, teaches secret knowledge and aids those in distress. He prominently figures as patron of the Islamic saint ibn Arabi. The figure of al-Khidr has been syncretized over time with various other figures including Dūraoša and Sorūsh in Iran, Sargis the General and Saint George in Asia Minor and the Levant, Samael (the divine prosecutor) in Judaism, Elijah among the Druze, John the Baptist in Armenia, and Jhulelal in Sindh and Punjab in South Asia.


title: Khidr

text: Though not mentioned by name in the Quran, he is named by Islamic scholars as the figure described in as a servant of God who has been given "knowledge" and who is accompanied and questioned by the prophet Musa (Moses) about the many seemingly unjust or inappropriate actions he (Al-Khidr) takes (sinking a ship, killing a young man, repaying inhospitality by repairing a wall). At the end of the story Khidr explains the circumstances unknown to Moses that made each of the actions just and/or appropriate.


title: Khidr

text: Many mystics and some scholars, who give credence to Abu Ishaq's narration of a hadith about Khidr's meeting with Dajjal, believe that Khidr is still alive, whereas for others there are contradictory, more reliable narrations and ayahs.


title: Khidr

text: The name "al-Khiḍr" shares exactly the same triliteral root as the Arabic "al-akhḍar" or "al-khaḍra", a root found in several Semitic languages meaning "green" or "verdant" (as in "al-Qubbah al-Khaḍrā’" or the Green Dome). Therefore, the meaning of the name has traditionally been taken to be "the Green One" or "the Verdant One". Some contemporary scholars have disagreed with this assessment; however some others point to a possible reference to the Mesopotamian figure Utnapishtim from the Epic of Gilgamesh through the Arabization of his nickname, "Hasisatra". According to another view, the name Khidr is not an Arabic variant or an abbreviation of Hasisatra, but it may have been derived from the name of the Canaanite god Kothar-wa-Khasis and later it may have been assimilated to the Arabic 'al-akhḍar'. Finally, it has been suggested that the name of Khidr is derived from Arabic 'hadara', a verb meaning 'to be present' or 'be in the presence', and it was explained over time by a similar Arabic word meaning 'green', ("al-akhḍar") 'to be green' in Arabic.


title: Khidr

text: In the , Moses meets the Servant of God, referred to in the Quran as "one of our slaves whom We had granted mercy from Us and whom We had taught knowledge from Ourselves". Muslim scholars identify him as Khiḍr, although he is not explicitly named in the Quran and there is no reference to him being immortal or being especially associated with esoteric knowledge or fertility. These associations come in later scholarship on al-Khiḍr.


title: Khidr

text: The Quran states that they meet at the junction of two seas, where a fish that Moses and his servant had intended to eat has escaped. Moses asks for permission to accompany the Servant of God so Moses can learn "right knowledge of what [he has] been taught". The Servant informs him that "surely you [Moses] cannot have patience with me. And how canst thou have patience about things about which thy understanding is not complete?" Moses promises to be patient and obey him unquestioningly, and they set out together. After they board a ship, the Servant of God damages the vessel. Forgetting his oath, Moses says, "Have you made a hole in it to drown its inmates? Certainly you have done a grievous thing." The Servant reminds Moses of his warning, "Did I not say that you will not be able to have patience with me?" and Moses pleads not to be rebuked.


title: Khidr

text: Next, the Servant of God kills a young man. Moses again cries out in astonishment and dismay, and again the Servant reminds Moses of his warning, and Moses promises that he will not violate his oath again, and that if he does he will excuse himself from the Servant's presence. They then proceed to a town where they are denied hospitality. This time, instead of harming anyone or anything, the Servant of God restores a decrepit wall in the village. Yet again Moses is amazed and violates his oath for the third and last time, asking why the Servant did not at least exact "some recompense for it."


title: Khidr

text: The Servant of God replies, "This shall be separation between me and you; now I will inform you of the significance of that with which you could not have patience. Many acts which seem to be evil, malicious or somber, actually are merciful. The boat was damaged to prevent its owners from falling into the hands of a king who seized every boat by force. And as for the boy, his parents were believers and we feared lest he should make disobedience and ingratitude to come upon them. God will replace the child with one better in purity, affection and obedience. As for the restored wall, the Servant explained that underneath the wall was a treasure belonging to two helpless orphans whose father was a righteous man. As God's envoy, the Servant restored the wall, showing God's kindness by rewarding the piety of the orphans' father, and so that when the wall becomes weak again and collapses, the orphans will be older and stronger and will take the treasure that belongs to them."


title: Khidr

text: Among the strongest transmitted proofs about the life of al-Khiḍr are two reports, one narrated by Ahmad ibn Hanbal in "Al-Zuhd" whereby Muhammad is said to have stated that the prophet Elijah (Ilyas) and al-Khiḍr meet every year and spend the month of Ramadan in Jerusalem and the other narrated by Ya'qub ibn Sufyan from Umar II whereby a man he was seen walking with was actually al-Khiḍr. Ibn Hajar declared the claim of the first fair and that of the second sound in "Fath al-Bari" (1959 ed. 6:435). He goes on to cite another sound report narrated by ibn Asakir from Abu Zur’a al-Razi whereby the latter met al-Khiḍr twice, once in his youth, the other in old age, but al-Khiḍr himself had not changed.


title: Khidr

text: The Islamic scholar Said Nursî also contends that Khidr is alive, but that there are five degrees of life; Khidr is at the second degree of life, thus some religious scholars have been doubtful about it. Khidr and Ilyas are free to an extent. That is to say, they can be present in numerous places at the same time. They are not permanently restricted by the requirements of humanity like. They can eat and drink when they want to, but are not compelled to. The saints are those who uncover and witness the realities of creation, and the reports of their adventures with Khidr are unanimous and elucidate and point to this level of life. There is even one degree of sainthood which is called 'the degree of Khidr.' A saint who reaches this degree receives instruction from Khidr and meets with him. But sometimes the one at that degree is mistaken to be Khidr himself.


title: Khidr

text: al-Khiḍr is believed to be a man who has the appearance of a young adult but a long, white beard. According to some authors like Abdul Haq Vidhyarthi, al-Khiḍr is Xerxes (a 6th-century Sasanian prince, not to be confused with Xerxes I), who disappeared after being in the lake regions of Sistan that comprise the wetlands of the Irano-Afghan border today, and after finding the fountain of life, sought to live his entire remaining life in service of God and to help those in their path/journey to Him.


title: Khidr

text: Muhammad al-Bukhari reports that al-Khiḍr got his name after he was present over the surface of some ground that became green as a result of his presence there. There are reports from al-Bayhaqi that al-Khiḍr was present at the funeral of Muhammad and was recognized only by Ali from amongst the rest of the companions, and where he came to show his grief and sadness at the death of Muhammad. Al-Khiḍr's appearance at Muhammad's funeral is related as follows: "A powerful-looking, fine-featured, handsome man with a white beard came leaping over the backs of the people till he reached where the sacred body lay. Weeping bitterly, he turned toward the Companions and paid his condolences. Ali said that he was Khiḍr".


title: Khidr

text: In another narration al-Khiḍr met with Ali by the Kaaba and instructed him about a supplication that is very meritorious when recited after the obligatory prayers. It is reported by Imam Muslim that during the time when the false Messiah appears and as he approaches at the outskirts of the city of Medina, a believer would challenge him, whom the false Messiah will slice into two pieces and rejoin, making it appear that he caused him to die and be resurrected, to which this man would proclaim the falsehood of the Dajjal who would try again to kill him (or make show of it) but would fail and thus his weakness and inability being made revealed. According to the commentators and transmitters of this narration, the person who will challenge the Antichrist and humiliate him will be al-Khiḍr.


title: Khidr

text: Ja'far al-Sadiq narrates in Kitab al-Kafi that after entering the sacred Mosque in Mecca, Ali, Hasan ibn Ali, and Husayn ibn Ali were visited by a good looking, well dressed man who asked them a series of questions. Hasan answered the questions and upon this, the man testified to the prophet-hood of Muhammad followed by testifying that Ali and his Ahl al-Bayt are the successors and heir to his message. Ali asked Hasan to track the whereabouts of the visitor, but when he could not, Ali revealed the identity of the man to be Khidr.


title: Khidr

text: Persian scholar, historian and exegete of the Qur'an Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, writes about Khidr in a chapter of his "The History of al-Tabari", called "The Tale of al-Khiḍr and His History; and the History of Moses and His Servant Joshua." Al-Tabari describes several versions of the traditional story surrounding al-Khiḍr. At the beginning of the chapter, al-Tabari explains that in some variations, al-Khiḍr is a contemporary of the mythical Persian king Afridun, who was a contemporary of Abraham, and lived before the days of Moses. Al-Khiḍr is also said to have been appointed to be over the vanguard of the king Dhul-Qarnayn the Elder, who in this version is identified as the king Afridun. In this specific version, al-Khiḍr comes across the River of Life and, unaware of its properties, drinks from it and becomes immortal. Al-Tabari also recounts that al-Khiḍr is said to have been the son of a man who believed in Abraham, and who emigrated with Abraham when he left Babylon.


title: Khidr

text: Al-Khiḍr is also commonly associated with Elijah, even equated with him, and al-Tabari makes a distinction in the next account in which al-Khiḍr is Persian and Elijah is an Israelite. According to this version of al-Khiḍr's story, al-Khiḍr and Elijah meet every year during the annual festival season.


title: Khidr

text: Al-Tabari seems more inclined to believe that al-Khiḍr lived during the time of Afridun before Moses, rather than traveled as Abraham's companion and drank the water of life. He does not state clearly why he has this preference, but rather seems to prefer the chain of sources (the "isnad") of the former story rather than the latter.


title: Khidr

text: The various versions in al-Tabari's "History" more or less parallel each other and the account in the Quran. However, in the stories al-Tabari recounts, Moses claims to be the most knowledgeable man on earth, and God corrects him by telling him to seek out al-Khiḍr. Moses is told to bring a salted fish, and once he found the fish to be missing, he would then find al-Khiḍr. Moses sets out with a travel companion, and once they reach a certain rock, the fish comes to life, jumps into the water, and swims away. It is at this point that Moses and his companion meet al-Khiḍr.


title: Khidr

text: Al-Tabari also adds to lore surrounding the origins of al-Khiḍr's name. He refers to a saying of Muhammad that al-Khiḍr ("the Green" or "the Verdant") was named because he sat on a white fur and it shimmered green with him.


title: Khidr

text: Some Shia Muslims amongst the laity believe al-Khiḍr accompanied Muhammad al-Mahdi in meeting one Sheikh Hassan ibn Muthlih Jamkarani, on 22 February 984 CE (17 Ramadan 373 A.H.) and instructing him to build Jamkaran Mosque at that site of their meeting. The site, six kilometers east of Qom, Iran, has been a pilgrimage destination for the Shia for some time.


title: Khidr

text: In Ismailism, al-Khiḍr is considered one of the 'permanent Imams'; that is, those who have guided people throughout history.


title: Khidr

text: To Sufis, al-Khiḍr holds a distinguished position. Although amongst the Sunni scholars there is a difference of opinion whether he still lives, amongst Sunni Sufis there is almost a consensus that al-Khiḍr is alive, with many respected figures, shaykhs, and prominent leaders claiming to have had personal encounters with him. Examples of those who have claimed this are Abdul-Qadir Gilani, al-Nawawi, Ibn Arabi, Sidi Abdul Aziz ad-Dabbagh and Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi. Ibn Ata Allah's "Lata'if al-Minan" (1:84-98) states that there is consensus among the Sufis that al-Khiḍr is alive. In fact there are orders that claim origin with al-Khiḍr himself, or that al-Khiḍr was part of their chain, for example some of the Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufi Order, the Muhammadiyah, the Idrisiyya, and the Senussi are tariqat that had al-Khiḍr as one of the central figures connecting them to the spiritual outflow of Muhammad.


title: Khidr

text: In Sufi tradition, al-Khiḍr has come to be known as one of those who receive illumination direct from God without human mediation. He is the hidden initiator of those who walk the mystical path, like some of those from the Uwaisi tariqa. Uwaisis are those who enter the mystical path without being initiated by a living master. Instead they begin their mystical journey either by following the guiding light of the teachings of the earlier masters or by being initiated by the mysterious prophet-saint al-Khiḍr.


title: Khidr

text: Al-Khiḍr has had thus gained enormous reputation and popularity in the Sufi tradition due to his role as an initiator. Through this way come several Sufi orders which claim initiation through al-Khiḍr and consider him their master. Al-Khiḍr had thus come to symbolize access to the divine mystery ("ghayb") itself. In the writings of Abd al-Karim al-Jili, al-Khiḍr rules over ‘the Men of the Unseen' ("rijalu’l-ghayb")— the exalted saints and angels. Al-Khiḍr is also included among what in classical Sufism are called the ‘’abdāl’’ (‘those who take turns’). In Sufi hierarchy, ‘’abdāl’’ is a mysterious rank. It is thought in Sufism that God decides who will be abdal for a decade before an abdal is born. Adbals are thought as the gainers of mysterious power that is knowing the future also called Ilm-e-ladunni. They are deployed to protect Islam from some unwanted evil activities that threaten the existence of Islam. In a divinely-instituted hierarchy of such saints, al-Khiḍr holds the rank of their spiritual head.


title: Khidr

text: The Sri Lankan Sufi Bawa Muhaiyaddeen gives a unique account of al-Khiḍr. Al-Khiḍr was on a long search for God, until God, out of his mercy, sends the Archangel Gabriel to guide him. Gabriel appears to al-Khiḍr as a wise human sage, and al-Khiḍr accepts him as his teacher. Gabriel teaches al-Khiḍr much in the same way as al-Khiḍr later teaches Moses in the Quran, by carrying out seemingly unjust actions. Al-Khiḍr repeatedly breaks his oath not to speak out against Gabriel's actions, and is still unaware that the human teacher is actually Gabriel. Gabriel then explains his actions, and reveals his true angelic form to al-Khiḍr. Al-Khiḍr recognises him as the Archangel Gabriel, and then Gabriel bestows a spiritual title upon al-Khiḍr, by calling him "Hayat Nabi", the Eternal Life Prophet.


title: Khidr

text: The French scholar of Sufism, Henry Corbin, interprets al-Khiḍr as the mysterious prophet, the eternal wanderer. The function of al-Khiḍr as a 'person-archetype' is to reveal each disciple to himself, to lead each disciple to his own theophany, because that theophany corresponds to his own 'inner heaven,' to the form of his own being, to his eternal individuality. Accordingly, al-Khiḍr is Moses' spiritual guide, who initiates Moses into the divine sciences, and reveals to him the secret mystic truth.


title: Khidr

text: A Moroccan Sufi, Abdul Aziz ad-Dabbagh, insists that al-Khiḍr is a wali and not a prophet. As he describes, Al-Khiḍr was given the right to sainthood from the beginning and he achieved so without traveling the path of Sufism. Al-Khiḍr acts in the guidance of divine revelation (wahy) as do other saints, without this requiring prophethood. Moreover, the lack of Moses' knowledge about the reasons behind worldly events demonstrates Moses's superior rank compared to Al-Khiḍr, similarly to how a servant that sees only the king is superior to another servant who travels for the king, in terms of dearness to the king, with the king representing God. Ad-Dabbagh finishes his statement saying that in comparison to other saints, God gave al-Khiḍr the powers and the knowledge of the highest ranking saint (al-ghawth), such as the power of free disposal reaching far beyond the Arsh and having all God-sent scriptures in memory.


title: Khidr

text: Ahmadi exegeses of the Quran tend to identify the "Servant of God" whom Moses met to be the symbolic representation of Muhammad himself. Ahmadis believe that the Quranic passage of Moses' encounter with the "Servant of God" is closely linked, contextually, to the subject matter of surah Al Kahf in which his story is cited. According to Ahmadi commentaries, Moses' journey towards, and his meeting with the "servant of God" was a visionary experience similar to the Mi'raj (ascension) of Muhammad whom Moses had desired to see and was shown in this vision. The nature of the dialogue between Moses and the "Servant of God" and the relationship between them is seen as indicative of the personal characteristics of Moses and Muhammad as well as those of their respective followers; Khiḍr's seemingly inappropriate actions and the wisdom behind them are understood with reference to salient features of Muhammad's life and teachings; and the entire Quranic narrative is understood as being expressive of Muhammad's spiritual superiority over Moses and the supersession of the Judaic dispensation by the Islamic one.


title: Khidr

text: Druze venerate Elijah, and he is considered a central figure in Druzism. The Druze regard the Cave of Elijah as holy, and the identify Elijah as "El-Khidr", the green prophet who symbolizes water and life, a miracle who cures the sick. Druze, believe that Elijah ("El-Khidr") came back as John the Baptist, or as Saint George, since they belief in reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul, Druze believe that El Khidr and John the Baptist are Saint George are one and the same.


title: Khidr

text: Saint George is described as a prophetic figure in Druze sources; and in some sources he is identified with Elijah (Mar Elias), and in others as al-Khidr. The Druze version of the story of al-khidr was syncretized with the story of Saint George and the Dragon.


title: Khidr

text: There are many figures in Iran whose place Khidr took by the Islamization process. One of them is paradoxically a female figure, Anahita. The most popular shrine in Yazd is dedicated to Anahita. Among the Zoroastrians, for the pilgrims to Yazd, the most important of the six "pir" is Pir-e Sabz ("the green shrine"). The name of the shrine derives from the greenness of the foliage growing around the sanctuary. It is still a functional temple and the holiest site for present-day Zoroastrians living in Iran.


title: Khidr

text: Each year from 14–18 June, many thousands of Zoroastrians from Iran, India and other countries make a pilgrimage to Yazd in Iran to worship at a hillside grotto containing the sacred spring dedicated to "Pir-e Sabz". Here the worshippers pray for the fertilising rain and celebrate the greening of nature and the renewal of life.


title: Khidr

text: As Babayan says, "Khizr is related to the Zoroastrian water goddess Anahita, and some of her former sanctuaries in Iran were rededicated to him (Pir-i Sabz)".


title: Khidr

text: The source of the Quranic episode of Moses's journey with Khiḍr has been the subject of different opinions of various scholars. Like some other scholars, Brannon M. Wheeler notes that the story does not appear to have any direct Christian or Jewish antecedent. But a very recent study has shown that the Qur'anic story is full of Jewish symbols, even if we cannot historically identify its likely original form.


title: Khidr

text: In one of the most influential hypotheses on the source of the Khiḍr story, the early twentieth-century Dutch historian argued that the tale was derived from a Jewish legend involving the Talmudic rabbi Joshua ben Levi and the Biblical prophet Elijah. As with Moses and Khiḍr, Ben Levi asks to follow Elijah, who agrees under the condition that the former not question any actions he may take. One night, Ben Levi and Elijah are hosted by a poor man who owns only a cow, which Elijah slaughters. The next day, they are refused hospitality by a rich man, but the prophet fixes the man's wall without receiving pay. Finally, the two are refused hospitality by people at a rich synagogue but hosted by a group of poor people. Elijah prays to God to turn everyone in the rich synagogue into rulers, but says that only one person out of the latter should rule. When Ben Levi questions the prophet, the prophet explains that he killed the cow as a replacement for the soul of the man's wife, who was due to die that day; that he fixed the wall because there was treasure underneath it that the rich man would otherwise have found while fixing it himself; and that his prayer was because a land under a single ruler is preferable to one with multiple ones. Wensinck believed that the author of the Quran had taken the Khiḍr story directly from this Jewish source but had confused the names of the characters involved.


title: Khidr

text: This Jewish legend is first attested in an Arabic work by the eleventh-century Tunisian Jewish scholar Nissim ben Jacob, some four hundred years after the composition of the Quran. argued as early as in 1960 that the story appeared to be "utterly dependent upon the Koranic text", with even the language more akin to typical Classical Arabic than to other stories by Ben Jacob with clear Talmudic origins. Noting that Ben Jacob's compilation includes other stories with clear Islamic antecedents, Wheeler also suggests that the Jewish story of Elijah was created under Islamic influence, remarking that its parallels with the story of Khiḍr align more closely to the elaborations of later Islamic commentaries rather than the concise narrative of the Quran itself. For example, the Jewish story involves Ben Levi purposely seeking out Elijah just as God tells Moses to seek out Khiḍr in the Islamic commentaries, whereas the Quran itself never states whether the meeting between Moses and Khiḍr is intentional or accidental. A close association between Elijah and Khiḍr is also first attested from a number of early Islamic sources. Ben Jacob may have changed the character of the faulty disciple from Moses to Joshua ben Levi because he was wary of attributing negative qualities to the Jewish prophet and because Ben Levi was already a familiar recurrent character in Jewish literature.


title: Khidr

text: Another early story similar to the tale of Khiḍr is of Christian provenance. A damaged and non-standard thirteenth-century Greek manuscript of the "Leimōn Pneumatikos", a hagiographical work by the pre-Islamic Byzantine monk John Moschus, includes the conclusion of a narrative involving an angel and a monk, in which the angel explains certain strange actions he had presumably taken in earlier, now lost sections of the narrative. The angel had stolen a cup from a generous host, because he knew that the cup was stolen and that their host would be unwittingly sinning if he continued to possess it. He had killed the son of another generous host, because he knew that the boy would grow to be a sinner if he reached adulthood but would go to heaven if he died before committing his sins. Finally, the angel had repaired the wall of a man who had refused them hospitality, because he knew that there was treasure underneath that the man would otherwise have found. The tale of the angel and the monk is part of a wider Late Antique Christian tradition of theodicy, which may have influenced the author of the Quran.French historian Roger Paret points out that the Moschus story is much more closely aligned to the Quranic episode than the Jewish legend; for instance, the angel in the Greek story and the "servant of God" in the Quran are both anonymous and vaguely defined, in contrast to the named figures of the Jewish Elijah or Khiḍr in Islamic exegesis. Gabriel Said Reynolds, a scholar of Islamic theology, has regarded the Moschus tale as the likely source of the Quranic narrative.


title: Khidr

text: Schwarzbaum has argued that the Quranic narrative originated in a Late Antique context in which Christian theodicy legends involving monks were popular, with being the equivalent of the Christian pneumatic with knowledge derived directly from the Divine. and that the story probably reached Muhammad "through the intermediary of some Christian informant, presumably some monk well-versed in the numerous old Christian legends of anchorites and hermits." Schwarzbaum also speculated of an ultimately Jewish prototype for Khiḍr, possibly a legend involving Moses becoming a disciple of the future Rabbi Akiva, compiler of the Oral Torah. While agreeing that the Quranic story "combines disparate elements from motifs current in late antiquity", Wheeler rejects Schwarzbaum's connection between Rabbi Akiva and Khiḍr.


title: Khidr

text: In the Quranic narrative which immediately precedes Moses's encounter with Khiḍr, a fish that Moses and his servant had intended to eat escapes into the sea, and the prophet encounters Khiḍr when he returns to the place where the fish escaped. The episode of the fish is generally thought to derive from an episode in the "Alexander Romance" of Late Antiquity in which Alexander's cook discovers the Fountain of Life while washing a dead fish in it, which then comes to life and escapes. The "Alexander Romance" is partly derived from the ancient "Epic of Gilgamesh", which means that the Quranic narrative is ultimately related to the story of Gilgamesh.