title: Harrison Ruffin Tyler

text: Tyler is a chemical engineer and businessperson. After graduation, he worked as a project manager for Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corporation where he led a plant in Charleston, South Carolina. Tyler became familiar with soft water and learned how to treat hard water when he worked as a start-up engineer for a plant in Cincinnati. He received a patent in water treatment pertaining to shiny aluminum. In 1963, Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corporation was acquired by Mobil. The change in corporate culture prompted Tyler to found ChemTreat, Inc., with partner William P. Simmons. The water treatment company was headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia. He used chemistry to address problems with industrial water cooling systems. The company worked with hospitals and the paper and pulp sector. In 2000, Tyler led an employee stock ownership program at his company. ChemTreat was acquired by the Danaher Corporation in 2007.


title: Harrison Ruffin Tyler

text: Tyler and Frances Payne Bouknight of Mulberry Hill Plantation, Johnston, South Carolina announced their engagement in 1957. The couple were married from July 1957 until her death on February 8, 2019, and had three children: Julia Gardiner Tyler Samaniego (born 1958), Harrison Ruffin Tyler Jr. (born 1960), and William Bouknight Tyler (born 1961). They resided in Richmond, Virginia.


title: Harrison Ruffin Tyler

text: Tyler has identified as conservative and pro-business. Tyler is a preservationist. His family purchased the Sherwood Forest Plantation from relatives in 1975 and oversaw its restoration. Tyler spoke publicly of his family's history. In 1996, he purchased and financially supported the preservation of Fort Pocahontas. Beginning in 1997, Tyler sponsored annual American Civil War reenactments at Wilson's Wharf. In 1997, he collaborated with the William & Mary Center for Archaeological Research to assess and research Fort Pocahontas. In 2001, he donated $5 million and 22,000 books and documents from his father to the College of William & Mary department of history. In 2021, the college renamed the department the Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History in his honor.


title: Harrison Ruffin Tyler

text: Tyler had a series of mini-strokes starting in 2012 and now has dementia. He lives in a Virginia nursing home and his son William oversees the Sherwood Forest Plantation. His grandfather is the earliest former President of the United States with a living grandchild.


title: Harran

text: Harran (), historically known as Carrhae (), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border crossing with Syria at Akçakale.


title: Harran

text: Harran was founded at some point between the 25th and 20th centuries BC as a merchant colony by Sumerian traders from Ur. Over the course of its early history, Harran rapidly grew into a major Mesopotamian cultural, commercial and religious center. It was made a religiously and politically influential city through its association with the moon-god Sin; many prominent Mesopotamian rulers consulted with and renovated the moon-temple of Ekhulkhul in Harran. Harran came under Assyrian rule under Adad-nirari I ( BC) and became a provincial capital often second in importance only to the Assyrian capital of Assur itself. During the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, Harran briefly served as the final capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 612–609 BC.


title: Harran

text: The city continued to be prominent after the fall of Assyria and experienced varying degrees of foreign cultural influence during its time under the Neo-Babylonian (609–539 BC), Achaemenid (539–330 BC), Macedonian (330–312 BC) and Seleucid (312–132 BC) empires. During classical antiquity Harran was often contested between the Roman and Parthian (later Sasanian) empires. In 53 BC Harran was the site of the Battle of Carrhae, one of the worst military defeats in Roman history. The Harranian moon cult of Sin proved to be enduring and lasted long into the Middle Ages, known to have existed as late as the 11th century AD. Harran was captured by the Rashidun Caliphate in 640 and remained an important city in the Islamic period. It flourished as a center of science and learning and was the site of both the first Islamic university (the Harran University) and the oldest mosque in Anatolia (the ). Harran twice served as a capital city in the Middle Ages, first briefly under the Umayyad Caliphate 744–750 and later under the Numayrid Emirate 990–1081.


title: Harran

text: The city was conquered by the Mongol Empire in 1260 but was largely destroyed and left abandoned in 1271. Although Harran was kept as a military outpost under some later regimes, it has over the last five centuries mainly been used as a temporary settlement by local nomadic societies. Harran retransitioned into a semi-permanent village settlement in the 1840s but has only recently grown into a permanent town through advancements in local irrigation and agriculture. Harran was a Turkish district until 1946, after when it was downgraded to a sub-district of the Akçakale district. It regained its status as a district in 1987. Today, it is a major local tourist spot. The town is particularly famous for its unique beehive houses, which are reminiscent of buildings that were already present at Harran in ancient Mesopotamian times.


title: Harran

text: The name Harran is recorded for the city from the earliest documents mentioning it and has remained in continuous use and largely unchanged since ancient times. Harran is mentioned in early cuneiform records of the Sumerians and Hittites as 𒌷𒊮𒆜 (), sometimes shortened to 𒆜 (), transliterated as "Ḫarrānu"("m"). "Ḫarrānu" literally means "journey", "caravan" or "crossroad". It is often interpreted as "caravan path" or "intersection of routes and travel". Harran is rendered as ܚܳܪܳܢ ("hrn") in Aramaic, حَرَّان ("Ḥarrân") in Arabic, حران ("Harrān") in Ottoman Turkish, and "Harran" in modern Turkish.


title: Harran

text: The ancient Assyrians called the city "Huzirina". "Ḫarrānu" was Hellenised to "Kárrhai" (Kάρραι) in the Hellenistic period. The Romans later Latinised the Greek name into "Carrhae". Due to the prominence of both Harran and Carrhae in historical literary sources, some scholars use the compound name "Carrhae-Harran" for the ancient city. Under the Byzantine Empire, the city continued to be called Carrhae (Kάρραι) but was also sometimes referred to as "Hellenopolis" (Eλληνóπoλις), "city of the [pagan] Greeks", in reference to the strong pagan traditions there.


title: Harran

text: Harran is situated at an important geographical crossroad, both between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and at the border between the ancient Mesopotamian and Anatolian cultures. The earliest known settlements in the region surrounding Harran date to 10000–8000 BC and settlements in its close vicinity are known to have existed by 6000 BC. The region initially shifted between the control of the Sumerians and Hittites before being occupied by ancient Semitic-speaking people around 2750 BC. The earliest written records concerning Harran suggest that the city itself was founded 2500–2000 BC as a merchant outpost by traders from the Sumerian city of Ur.


title: Harran

text: Harran was from early on associated with the Mesopotamian moon-god Nanna (later known as Sin) and soon became regarded as a sacred city of the moon. The Ekhulkhul ("Temple of Rejoicing"), Harran's great moon temple, was already present in the city by 2000 BC. Sin was a major deity in Ur, which also housed his main temple, but Harran's devotion to the moon can perhaps also be explained by its geography and climate. According to Donald Frew, the sun was a natural enemy in the hot and desolate landscape surrounding Harran whereas the night (and thus the moon) were more comforting. The sun-god Shamash is however also thought to have had a temple in Harran. Another prominent deity in the city was Sin's son Nusku, the god of light.


title: Harran

text: Although next to nothing is known of the architecture and layout of Harran prior to the Middle Ages, the city is believed to have been designed according to a vaguely moon-shaped plan since Medieval sources allude to this. What kind of moon shape is meant by the sources is not clear.


title: Harran

text: The religious authorities of Harran, speaking on behalf of Sin, were considered suitable guarantors and signatories in political treaties. Already 2000 BC, a peace treaty was sealed in the Ekhulkhul between Mari and the Bene-iamina, an Amorite tribe. Further treaties signed that invoke Sin of Harran include a 14th-century BC treaty between Šuppiluliuma I of the Hittites and Shattiwaza of Mitanni, and a 8th-century BC treaty between the Assyrian king Ashur-nirari V and Mati'ilu of Arpad.


title: Harran

text: Harran grew into a major Mesopotamian cultural, commercial and religious center. In addition to its religious importance, Harran was also important due to its strategic placement on an intersection of trade routes. Because Harran had an abundance of goods that passed through its region, it often became a target for raids. In the 19th century BC, the lands surrounding Harran were occupied by confederations of semi-nomadic tribes. In the following century the Amorite king Shamshi-Adad I ( BC) is recorded to have launched an expedition to conquer the region around Harran and secure the trade routes there from hostile forces. After the fall of Shamsi-Adad's kingdom in the early 18th century BC, Harran was an independent city-state for a time; archives from Mari from the time of Zimri-Lim () record that Harran in his time was ruled by a king named Asdi-Takim. Harran was later incorporated into the Mitanni kingdom in the 16th century BC.


title: Harran

text: Harran was conquered from Mitanni by the Assyrian king Adad-nirari I ( BC). The city would not be firmly incorporated into Middle Assyrian Empire until the 1100s BC, before which it was often occupied by Arameans. Under Assyria, Harran grew into a fortified provincial capital second in importance only to the capital of Assur itself. In the 10th century, Harran was one of the few cities, along with Assur, to be exempt from needing to pay tribute to the Assyrian king and in the 9th and 8th centuries BC, Harran was made the seat of the "turtanu", the Assyrian commander-in-chief.


title: Harran

text: Since Harran was the sacred city of the moon-god, many Mesopotamian kings travelled there to receive the blessing and confirmation of their rule from the city's religious officials and in turn renovated and expanded Harran and its temples. The Ekhulkhul was renovated twice in the Neo-Assyrian period, by the kings Shalmaneser III ( BC) and Ashurbanipal ( BC). Prophecies made by prophets and oracles of the moon cult of Harran were held in high regard; in the 670s BC the Harranians correctly prophesied that Esarhaddon ( BC) would conquer Egypt and Sasi, a usurper proclaimed king by an oracle from Harran, managed to rally widespread support in the empire before he was defeated. The reign of Esarhaddon in particular marked the rise of the Ekhulkhul into one of the most prominent religious sanctuaries in the ancient Near East, a position it would retain for centuries.


title: Harran

text: The Assyrian Empire was defeated in the late 7th century BC by the newly established Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Medes. The Assyrian capital Nineveh fell in 612 BC but the remnants of the Assyrian army, led by the crown prince Ashur-uballit II, rallied at Harran. Harran is therefore typically regarded as the short-lived final capital of ancient Assyria. Ashur-uballit underwent a coronation ceremony at Harran, being invested with rulership by Sin. After a long siege lasting from the winter of 610 BC to early 609 BC, Harran was captured by the Babylonians and Medes, ending the Assyrian Empire. The Ekhulkhul was destroyed by the Medes at this time and was neglected for many years but was eventually restored by the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus ( BC), who was from Harran. The city itself was also significantly revitalised in Nabonidus's reign.


title: Harran

text: After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC, Harran was successively under the control of the Achaemenid (539–330 BC), Macedonian (330–312 BC) and Seleucid (312–132 BC) empires. Under the Seleucids, Harran largely functioned as a military colony and from the time of the Macedonian conquest onwards, many Greeks settled in Harran. Under the centuries of Hellenic control, Harran gradually underwent some Hellenization of its culture. After the collapse of the Seleucid Empire, Harran became part of the Kingdom of Osroene in 132 BC, ruled by the Nabatean Arab Abgarid dynasty and most frequently a vassal state of the Parthian Empire. Abgarid rule may have encouraged the local moon cult; the moon was important in both the ancient Bedouin and Nabatean Arab religions.


title: Harran

text: From the first century BC until the end of antiquity, Harran was typically located near or on the border of the Roman (later Byzantine) and Parthian (later Sasanian) empires. Harran frequently changed hands between the two empires but was in practice often more or less independent. In 53 BC, the city was the site of the Battle of Carrhae between the Romans and Parthians, in which the Parthian general Surena defeated and killed the Roman triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of the worst military defeats in Roman history. Osroene (and thus also Harran) first came under Roman control as a result of the wars of Lucius Verus and Avidius Cassius in 162–166 AD. Harran gained colonial status under Emperor Septimius Severus in 195. Sources from Roman times describe Harran as a fortified garrison town. In 217, the Roman emperor Caracalla was murdered in Harran while visiting the temple of Sin. Harran, along with the nearby cities of Nisibis and Hatra, were captured by the Sasanian king Ardashir I in 238–240 but was swiftly retaken by Emperor Gordian III. Later in 296, Harran was also the site of a battle where the future emperor Galerius suffered a crushing defeat against the Sasanian king Narseh. In the writings of Ammianus Marcellinus (359), it is noted that the walls of Harran were in poor condition. This issue was not rectified until repairs conducted in the reign of Justinian I ().


title: Harran

text: From the time of the Christianization of Mesopotamia and Syria until long into the Middle Ages, Harran developed a rivalry with the nearby city of Edessa due to the cities having polarised attitudes concerning Christianity. Whereas Edessa adopted the new religion very early, Harran remained a pagan stronghold for centuries and became the largest center of pagan cults in eastern Syria. Harran was still overwhelmingly pagan in the 4th century, to the degree that the bishop appointed to Harran in 361 refused to reside in the city and instead lived in Edessa. Despite its paganism, Harran was a site of interest to Christians since the city is mentioned in the Book of Genesis as the town where Abraham and his family stopped on their way from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan.


title: Harran

text: The last pagan Roman emperor, Julian () intentionally avoided the Christian Edessa and instead stopped at Harran in 363 to consult the oracles of the moon temple on his upcoming Persian campaign. Although it is known that Sin was still worshipped at Harran in this time Julian is curiously stated to have consulted the female moon deity Luna. The oracles warned the emperor of impending disaster but Julian proceeded anyway and was killed in the war. Harran was the only city in the Roman Empire to declare citywide mourning after Julian's death. Later sources indicate that the deities worshipped by the pagans of Harran in late antiquity included Sin, Bat-Nikkal (consort of Sin; a different name from his ancient consort Ningal), the "lord with his dogs" (identified as a localised version of the god Nergal), Tar'atha (identified with the Syrian goddess Atargatis), Gadlat (an Arbian goddess), and perhaps Shamash. Though Sin had in the past been the only major deity in Harran, he was by this point only the most important of several different ancient gods.


title: Harran

text: The pagans of Harran became an issue in the increasingly Christianised late Roman Empire. As late as the early 5th century, the theologian Theodoret wrote that Harran was "a barbarous place, full of the thorns of paganism". At the Second Council of Ephesus (449), the Bishop of Harran, Stephen, was accused of accepting bribes from pagans to let them practice their rituals in peace. Harran was briefly captured by the Sasanian king Khosrow I in 549, who exempted the city from paying the tribute he demanded from Edessa on account of Harran not being Christian like his enemies but rather a stronghold of the "old religion". The endurance of paganism at Harran in the Christian late Roman Empire is likely only explainable through the pagans there offering regular bribes to church officials and civil administrators in the region. In 590, Emperor Maurice () ordered the Bishop of Harran, Stephen, to persecute the pagans of Harran. Many who refused to convert to Christianity, including the governor Acindynus, were executed. By this time, the Christians and pagans of Harran lived in separate quarters of the city.


title: Harran

text: Maurice's persecution of the pagans of Harran had little effect on the strength of the pagan community and Harran remained a largely pagan city. When the armies of the Rashidun Caliphate, led by the general Iyad ibn Ghanm, besieged Harran in the winter of 639–640 it was the pagans of the city who negotiated its peaceful surrender. Ghanm is recorded to have given the pagans of Harran a new moon temple after the capture of the city. Harran under Islamic rule became one of the most important settlements in the Diyar Mudar district. In 657, Caliph Ali asked the Harranians to aid him against Mu'awiya I, the first Umayyad caliph, but the Harranians instead sided with Mu'awiya at the Battle of Siffin in the same year. In response, it is said that Ali enacted a brutal massacre in Harran, exterminating most of the inhabitants.


title: Harran

text: Under the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), Harran was renovated and prospered once more. In 717, Caliph Umar II founded the first Muslim university at Harran, bringing many scholars from other cities in the caliphate (including Alexandria) and installing them in Harran. Harran was made the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate under its last caliph, Marwan II, from 744 to 750. The reason for Marwan moving his court to Harran is not known, but might be either to better monitor the troublesome eastern provinces of the caliphate or due to the anti-Christian sentiment of the city's pagan population, who had never been disloyal to the Umayyads. The move of the capital to Harran caused some outrage; the Banu Kalb tribe saw it as an abandonment of Syria and under Yazid ibn Khalid al-Qasri besieged the former capital of Damascus before being suppressed. Harran did not continue to function as a capital under the succeeding Abbasid Caliphate, though the city enjoyed some special privileges. When Al-Mansur () ordered the destruction of the walls of all cities in northern Mesopotamia, Harran was a notable exception.


title: Harran

text: The Harran University underwent its golden age in the 8th century, particularly under the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (). Many prominent scholars of this time were educated at the university in subjects such as mathematics, philosophy, medicine and astrology. The university was also an important site for translations of documents from Syriac and Greek into Arabic and Harran flourished as a center of science and learning. Al-Rashid furthermore supplied Harran with a new water supply, constructing a canal from the Balikh River. At some point, Neoplatonism was introduced to Harranian intellectuals, though the precise timing is not clear. It might have been brought to Harran by the scholar Thābit ibn Qurra in the late 9th century, who could have learnt Neoplatonism in Baghdad. Alternatively, Neoplatonism might have been brought to Harran as early as the 6th century by Neoplatonists such as Simplicius of Cilicia, who fled persecution in the Byzantine Empire.


title: Harran

text: The local Harranian religion continued to develop as a blend of ancient Mesopotamian religion and Neoplatonism and Harran remained notorious for its strong pagan traditions long into the Islamic period. The city retained a highly heterogenous population that practiced many different religions. Some adopted syncretistic faiths tolerable by the Muslims, others continued to honor the old deities of ancient Mesopotamia and Syria, and some primarily worshipped the stars and planets. The Harranian pagans considered themselves the heirs of ancient star-worshipping civilizations such as Babylonia, Greece, India, Persia and Egypt. In addition to pagans, Harran was also home to Muslims, Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Zoroastrians, Manicheans, and other groups.


title: Harran

text: In 830, Harun al-Rashid's son Al-Ma'mun () asked contemporary Chaldeans if they were people of the Book. They were told by Muslim scholars to say that they were Sabians (people of Sheba), a mysterious religious group also protected according to the Quran. Upon being inquired who their prophet was, the Harranians claimed that their prophet was the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus. Other Islamic writers did not support the claims of Harranians and still considered them to be pagans and not Sabians, and thus lacking any special right to toleration or protection. In 933, the Harranian pagans were ordered through a decree to convert to Islam, but a visitor to the city in the following year found that there were still pagan religious leaders operating a remaining public temple. Toleration of the pagans at Harran appears to have been renewed in the late 10th century.


title: Harran

text: The power of the Abbasid Caliphate and its vassals in the region around Harran (the Hamdanid dynasty) declined at the end of the 10th century. A new local Arab dynasty emerged during this time, the Numayrid dynasty, who ruled a small realm with Harran as its capital from 990 to 1081. The toleration of paganism at Harran was at last revoked for the final time under the Numayrids in the 11th century and the last moon temples were closed and destroyed. The precise date when this happened and the events surrounding it are unknown, perhaps coinciding with the city falling under the control of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1038 through the submission of the Numayrid ruler Shabīb ibn Waththāb in 1038, or with a failed rebellion in 1083. In 1059, the Harran Castle, presumably constructed in Byzantine times, was rebuilt and strengthened by the Numayrid ruler Manīʿ ibn Shabīb. By the 1180s, Harran was fully devoted to Islam with little to no traces of its former moon cult.


title: Harran

text: In the late 11th and early 12th century, political control in northern Mesopotamia and Syria was fragmented. Harran was an important city to the various local Muslim rulers as a counterweight to the nearby crusader states. Numayrid control of Harran came to an end in 1081 when the city was captured by the Uqaylid dynasty. It was then under the control of various Turkish princes; first Jikirmish of Mosul (1102–1106), then the Artuqids of Mardin (1106–1127) and then the Zengid dynasty, which captured Harran under Imad al-Din Zengi in 1127.


title: Harran

text: In the 12th century, Harran at times fell under the influence of the County of Edessa, a short-lived crusader state. There is no record of the crusaders ever conquering Harran but the Harran Castle preserves remnants of a Christian chapel with distinct crusader architecture, perhaps suggesting a peaceful crusader presence. The growth of Edessa under Christian rule contributed to the decline of Harran. Edessa is higher up the water table than Harran and as more wells were constructed in Edessa, those in Harran gradually dried up. Harran was in the 12th century still renowned for its ancient origins; a now lost work by Hammad al-Harrani made the claim that Harran had been the first city founded after the great flood.Despite the threat of water scarcity, Harran continued to be an important town under the rule of the Ayyubid Sultanate, which followed the Zengids. Saladin () at some point enlarged Harran's and thereafter granted Harran to his brother Al-Adil I (later sultan 1200–1218). Al-Adil later gave Harran to his son Al-Kamil (later sultan 1218–1238). Harran was then under the rule of Al-Kamil's brother Al-Ashraf Musa 1202–1228/1229, after whose death the city steadily declined in importance. Harran was captured by Khwarazmians in 1237, driven from their homeland following the fall of the Khwarazmian Empire, but the castle was retained and fortified by the Ayyubid ruler As-Salih Ayyub though he soon had to give it up to broker a deal with the Khwarazmians for military aid against Badr al-Din Lu'lu' of Mosul. Harran was later regained from the Khwarazmians by the Ayyubids in 1240 by An-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo.


title: Harran

text: Harran was captured by the Mongol Empire under Hulagu Khan in 1259 or 1260 through the peaceful surrender of its governor. The Harran Castle, as was traditional placed under a different governor, continued to resist for some time until one of the towers were breached. Under the Mongols, Harran continued to flourish for a few years as a major urban center. Mongol control of Harran was immediately contested by the Sultanate of Rum and the Mamluk Sultanate. The Mongols decided to abandon Harran in 1271, deporting the population to the nearby cities of Mardin and Mosul. Accounts differ concerning the reason for the abandonment and the state in which the city was left. One account states that the city had been damaged in a battle against the Turks in the year prior, motivating the abandonment, whereas another states that the Mongols themselves caused the damage during the abandonment. The Mongols are also variously stated to either have simply walled up the gates but otherwise left what remained intact or to have pillaged the city for building materials before burning down the remnants. One major reason for the abandonment was likely the decreasing water supply. It was impossible to sustain the population size of Harran with its water storage systems in disrepair and its wells no longer producing enough water. Another possible reason for the abandonment was the difficulty to retain and defend Harran and the little strategic value offered by the city in return.


title: Harran

text: Harran was regained from the Mongols by the Mamluk Sultanate later in the 1270s. The Mamluks repaired the castle at some point, most likely in the 1330s or 1340s, and it became the seat of a local military governor, but there was otherwise little effort spent on trying to revive the city. By this point Harran was no longer on any of the major trade routes. A small village-sized settlement sprung up at the site, probably in the immediate vicinity of the castle. The space within Harran's city walls gradually filled up with dirt and sand through natural means. Over the centuries, few structures remained above the soil; the castle survived owing to its position on a hill and its continued usage and the remnants of the mosque were also kept clear due to its religious and historical significance.


title: Harran

text: Under the Ottoman Empire, which captured the region in the early 16th century, Harran was the capital of a nahiyah (a local administrative unit composed of a group of villages). The demolished Harran University was repaired under the Ottoman sultan Selim I () though it again declined in importance after his reign. The Ottomans continued to use the castle, and also built a new smaller mosque in the southern part of the city, but Harran gradually declined over the course of Ottoman rule and was eventually entirely abandoned as a permanent settlement.


title: Harran

text: Harran has over the last five hundred years mainly been used as a temporary settlement by local nomadic societies. One of the major semi-nomadic tribes that have continuously lived in and around Harran since the Middle Ages and still today are the "Nmēr", descendants of the medieval Numayrid lords of the city. By the 1840s, Harran had once more become a semi-permanent village settlement, although the inhabitants spent the summer months encamped outside the village to avoid vermin in their houses. By the middle of the 20th century, Harran comprised about a hundred houses, inhabited by semi-settled nomadic Arabs, most of whom still did not stay at the site for the duration of the entire year. The city's ancient water systems had long fallen into disrepair and Harran in the 20th century had only a single source of drinking water, Jacob's Well, about 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) west of its walls. Although six wells were still operational within the ancient walls they only produced brackish water and were thus only useful for providing water to animals. The water at Harran had perhaps been contaminated from seeping saltpeter from its ancient ruins.


title: Harran

text: Since the middle of the 20th century, Harran has retransitioned into a permanently inhabited settlement due to local advancements in irrigation and agriculture. Particularly important in this development was the Turkish Southeastern Anatolia Project, launched in the 1970s, which through irrigation efforts transformed the formerly dry desert plains surrounding Harran into productive agricultural fields. Harran received its own plan for future development in 1992. The ruins of the ancient city were placed on the Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey in 2000. Accelerated economic and demographic growth in Harran is expected to in the future once more transform Harran into an important local center. Economic issues caused by the Syrian civil war across the nearby Syrian border has recently caused many Harranian families to migrate elsewhere for work, such as to the cities Urfa (ancient Edessa), Adıyaman and Gaziantep.


title: Harran

text: The Harran Castle is a large brick fortress of unknown date, though ancient Greek inscriptions found at one of its gates suggest that it was founded at some point during Byzantine rule (4th–7th centuries). It is also possible that it was built under Muslim rule in the 9th century. If it was not built in the 9th century, it is likely to at least have been expanded in the early Islamic period. Before its fall into ruin, the castle was a three-story structure. It was probably initially a palace but was converted into a more castle-like militaristic building in the 11–13th centuries when the region surrounding Harran experienced considerable political turmoil. The castle has recently been partially excavated and reconstructed with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.


title: Harran

text: Harran was the site of the oldest mosque built in Anatolia, known as the Grand Mosque or Paradise Mosque. The mosque was built by the Umayyad caliph Marwan II in 744–750, at the time the city was his capital. The masonry of the mosque indicates that it was restored several times throughout its history. Measuring 104×107 metres (341×351 feet) at its height, the mosque has fallen into ruin over the centuries and little of it remains standing today. Remaining portions include the eastern wall, the mihrab, a fountain, and the 33.3-metre (108 feet) tall minaret.


title: Harran

text: Another important historical monument in Harran is its ancient burial mound, spread over a large area and partially surviving intact at the center of the city's archaeological site. The burial mound preserves inscriptions and architectural elements from several different cultures and appears to have been in continuous use from the 3rd century BC to the 13th century AD. The burial mound may be older than Harran itself since ceramic dated to 5000 BC has been found at the site.


title: Harran

text: The precise location of the ancient great Ekhulkhul temple is unknown and no certain archaeological evidence of it has yet been found. It is likely that one of the major medieval buildings of Harran displaced the Elkhulkhul and were constructed on top of it, either the Harran Castle or the Grand Mosque. Writings from the Islamic period contradictingly claim that the castle or the mosque were the converted moon temple. The castle being on the site of the ancient temple is further supported by its higher elevation whereas the mosque is further supported by the finds of Babylonian inscriptions and four stelae of Nabonidus among its ruins. These inscriptions and stelae directly mention the Elkhulkhul. Additionally, the remains of an ancient altar with moon iconography have also been recovered from the ruins of the mosque. As a result, the mosque enjoys more scholarly support as the most likely site of the ancient temple.


title: Harran

text: The old town of Harran is still largely surrounded by Harran's ancient city walls. Though they are in generally poor condition, some stretches are well-preserved in good condition and give an idea of how the settlement once looked. The exact date of the current walls and which of the many cultures that have inhabited Harran constructed them is not known. The walls were most likely constructed under either Roman or Byzantine rule. Inscriptions in both Greek and Syriac have been discovered during excavations of parts of the walls.


title: Harran

text: The walls of Harran resemble those of the nearby Edessa, though are slightly smaller. They are vaguely elliptical in layout, normally around 3 metres (10 feet) thick and approximately 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles) long and 5 metres (16 feet) high. Before they fell into ruin, the walls had 187 bastions and 6–8 gates, most of which are in ruined condition today. Only one of the medieval gates of Harran, the Aleppo Gate, remain standing today. The walls were once surrounded by a great moat filled with water.


title: Harran

text: Harran mainly attracts attention today due to the distinctive vernacular architecture of the houses in its old town, known as beehive houses ("kümbets"). This building type is not seen elsewhere in Turkey and is rare in the rest of the world. Houses similar to the modern beehive houses have long been present in Harran; the earliest known buildings from Harran appear to have been circular and Assyrian reliefs from the 7th century BC depict domed buildings architecturally similar to the present beehive houses. They have not been consistently present on the site, instead being built, ruined, forgotten and rebuilt multiple times throughout Harran's history. Beehive houses were recorded at Harran by the 12th-century explorer Ibn Jubayr but not by the 17th-century explorer Evliya Çelebi.


title: Harran

text: The majority of the present beehive houses in Harran date to the early twentieth century and none have been standing for longer than since the mid-19th century. The architecture of the beehive houses has subtly changed since the twentieth century; photographs from that time show the houses erected on the grounds like tents whereas the present conical domes are built on larger cubical bases.


title: Harran

text: Since wood is rare in the region around Harran owing to its climate, locals have traditionally built houses from materials they could easily gather such as stone, brick and mud. The modern beehive houses were constructed by locals who learnt how to build them by examining excavated ancient buildings and used bricks gathered from the ruins as building material. The beehive houses were compatible with the nomadic lifestyle of the locals since they can be built and dismantled rapidly, like a tent, but also efficiently resist both heat and cold. Because of the weak materials used for plastering the beehive houses require repair every 1–3 years. Their walls are usually 50–60 centimetres thick and their domes are about 20–30 centimetres thick. The domes have an opening at the top which provides natural air circulation and ventilation. This feature, combined with the thick walls, provide relatively good indoor conditions throughout the year, even in the extreme summer heat.


title: Harran

text: As of a count conducted in 2002, Harran had 2760 beehive houses though the number in the old town has since declined to a few dozen. Some of the beehive houses remained inhabited until the 1980s but they are today mainly used as store houses and barns and have been under conservation since 1979. One of the oldest extant buildings in Harran is a beehive complex that today serves as the Harran Culture House ("Harran Kültür Evi"), a local museum and restaurant. The Culture House building was originally built 1800 but fell into ruins at some point and was rebuilt for tourism purposes in 1999. The museum showcases artefacts as well as traditional jewelry and clothes from the region surrounding Harran.


title: Harran

text: Since prohibitions relating to conservation of historical monuments has hindered locals from gathering building materials from the ancient ruins since the 1950s, newer houses constructed in Harran are mostly concrete structures with no architectural relation to the beehive houses. Concrete houses have been built both alongside beehive houses and outside the ancient city walls. The majority of the population of Harran today live in a more newly constructed village about 2 kilometres (1.25 miles) from the old city center.


title: Harran

text: Harran is located in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa. Harran is situated 360 metres (1180 feet) above sea level, which is the lowest point in the surrounding lowland region.


title: Harran

text: Harran has a hot and dry climate. The precipitation rate is rarely more than 40 centimetres. During the summer, Harran experiences significant temperature differences between the days and nights.


title: Harran

text: In its most prosperous periods in ancient and medieval history Harran was probably home to around 10,000–20,000 residents.


title: Harran

text: As a result of Harran's retransition into a permanent settlement over the course of the late 20th century and early 21st century, the city and surrounding district has experienced a rapid population increase. Despite this, Harran retains predominantly rural characteristics. As of 2017, central Harran had a population of 9,653 and the total population of the surrounding district was 84,554. The Harran district ranks 857th among 872 districts in Turkey, and last among the districts of the Şanlıurfa Province, by socioeconomic development. As of 2009, Harran has a low unemployment rate (2.73 %; 753rd among all districts), a low literacy rate (55.16 %; 865th among all districts) and a high population increase rate (64.23 %; 7th among all districts). Harran's possibilities for development are subject to several limiting factors, including the amount of productive land and the relatively limited area reserved for urban development.


title: Harran

text: In his seyahatnâme from the 17th century, Evliya Çelebi mentioned that the vicinity of Harran was inhabited by Bedouins of Qays and Mawali tribes. The local culture is predominantly Arabic in terms of lifestyle, clothing and food. Harran has close social, cultural, commercial and urban relations with Urfa, the capital of the Şanlıurfa Province. Vast majority of the district is composed of tribal Arabs.


title: Harran

text: According to the census conducted by Turkey in 1927, 88.0% of the population spoke Arabic as their mother tongue; 6.8% Kurdish, and 5.2% Turkish. Today, the majority of the population of Harran speaks Turkish; approximately 19% speak Arabic and 10% Kurdish.


title: Harran

text: The ancient ruins at Harran function like an open-air museum and the town is a popular local tourist attraction, often visited as a day trip from Urfa. Popular attractions include the Harran Culture House and the ruins of the castle and mosque. Prior to 2015, Harran had around two million visitors a year, according to a local tour guide. The Syrian civil war has reduced this to almost zero.


title: Harran

text: Harran was established as a district in 1987 and divided into three neighbourhoods. Harran first participated in the Turkish local elections in 1989, though there were no mayoral candidates at that time. The 1989 election was a close election between three parties; the True Path Party (DYP) received 36.1 % of the vote, the Motherland Party (ANAP) received 35.8 % and the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) received 28.1 %.


title: Harran

text: İbrahim Özyavuz of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and later the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) served as Mayor of Harran for three terms from 1994 to 2009, achieving victory in the local elections of 1994, 1999 and 2004. İbrahim Özyavuz was defeated in the local elections of March 2009, beaten by Mehmet Özyavuz of AKP who achieved 54.2 % of the vote. Mehmet Özyavuz retained his position as mayor for a second term winning the local elections of March 2014, receiving 55.5 % of the vote.


title: Harran

text: Since 31 March 2019, the Mayor of Harran is Mahmut Özyavuz of the MHP, who won in the local elections of March 2019 with 54.9 % of the vote, defeating the incumbent Mehmet Özyavuz of the AKP. Mahmut Özyavuz is the son of İbrahim Özyavuz.


title: Harran

text: Although Harran was of great interest to historians due to its association with the ancient moon cult and its abundant appearances in Mesopotamian, Roman and Arab historical writings, the site itself did not receive significant archaelogical attention until the 19th century owing to its geographical remoteness. Harran first garnered attention in 1850 when it was visited by some members of Francis Rawdon Chesney's Euphrates Expedition. Harran was also visited by the missionary George Percy Badger in 1852 and by Eduard Sachau in 1879, who sketched some of the ruins. In 1911, Conrad Preusser published a brief but accurate study of the ruins of the Harran Castle and K. A. C. Creswell included a detailed survey of the remains of the Grand Mosque in his 1932 book "Early Muslim Architecture" Volume I. Harran was also visited and photographed by T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"). None of these early visitors conducted excavations and instead only observed the ruins and remnants visible on the surface.


title: Harran

text: Seton Lloyd, William C. Brice and C. J. Gadd led a three-week archaeological expedition at Harran in the summer of 1950. Results from a further archaelogical survey conducted by R. Storm Rice were also published in 1952. Lloyd, Brice, Gadd and Rice mainly confined themselves to surveying Harran and clearing rubble. Rice's work did however reveal the extent of the original city walls and their gates. During later digs in 1956 and 1959, Rice also excavated the ruins of the Grand Mosque. The site was later visited by H.J.W. Drijvers (who authored "Cults and Beliefs at Edessa") in the 1970s and by Tamara Green (who authored "The City of the Moon God") in 1977, but both only observed previously reported discoveries and did not dig for any new material. Excavations at Harran have thus continued to be very limited, partly due to its remote and at times politically tumultuous location and partly due to the difficulty for foreign archaeologists to work in Turkey.


title: Harran

text: In 2012 and 2013, the Şanlıurfa Museum Directorate, with Mehmet Önal acting as consultant, carried out more extensive excavations at Harran, focusing on the walls, burial mound and castle. The excavations were mainly for restoration purposes on the western part of the city wall and uncovered the walls, towers and bastions. In excavations in the northern part of the castle, a gallery and crenellated corridor were discovered on the west side, with several artefacts of interest. In 2014, following a decision of the Council of Ministers and courtesy of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, further excavation work was conducted, again under the direction of Önal. This round of excavations uncovered a bathhouse, a bazaar, public toilets, a perfumery shop and workshop. In 2016, further excavations were carried out on the city wall, revealing new parts of the wall and leading to the discovery of a broken statue of a woman with a Syriac inscription and a male relief, both used as spolia in the wall. Excavations of the west side of the castle carried out in 2014–2016 uncovered a crenellated corridor belonging to a second defense system adjacent to the wall of the castle and further excavations in 2017–2018 in the southern part of the castle located remnants of a bathhouse.


title: Johnny Harris (journalist)

text: Johnny Harris (born 28 May 1988) is an American filmmaker, journalist, and YouTuber, currently based in Washington, D.C. Harris produced and hosted the "Borders" series for American news and opinion website "Vox." He also created three videos for "The New York Times". Harris launched the company Bright Trip in 2019, which offers video-based travel courses.


title: Johnny Harris (journalist)

text: Harris was raised in a Mormon family, living in a small town in Oregon. He graduated from Ashland High School, in Ashland, Oregon. He served a two-year mission for the LDS Church in Tijuana, Mexico, but has since left the church.


title: Johnny Harris (journalist)

text: Harris holds a B.A. in International Relations and Affairs from Brigham Young University (2013) and an M.A. in international peace and conflict resolution from American University (2016). He is fluent in Spanish, has a good command of French, speaks some Persian and is currently learning Italian.


title: Johnny Harris (journalist)

text: From 2017 to 2019, Harris produced and hosted "Borders", a documentary short film series on "Vox" that profiled sociopolitical issues in various border regions worldwide. It was twice nominated for an Emmy Award. The series was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the George Floyd protests.


title: Johnny Harris (journalist)

text: Harris's YouTube channel was set up in June 2011. Since the cancellation of "Borders", Harris has continued to produce videos on international affairs, history, and geography with creative visual graphics, which he has published on his own channel. He also produced videos with "The New York Times." Harris has 3.07 million YouTube subscribers. Some of his notable videos tackle topics such as wars, foreign relations, and history of colonization in the United States, the Middle East, and the Pacific islands.


title: Johnny Harris (journalist)

text: On November 9, 2021, Harris was credited as video producer on an opinion piece published to "The New York Times", titled "Blue States, You're the Problem". It later won an Emmy Award.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Sabbatai Zevi (; August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, Sabbatai Zvi, and "Sabetay Sevi" in Turkish, was a Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). A kabbalist of Romaniote or Sephardic origin, Zevi, who was active throughout the Ottoman Empire, claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Sabbatean movement, whose followers subsequently came to be known as Dönme (converts) or crypto-Jews.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Upon arriving in Constantinople in February 1666, Sabbatai was imprisoned on the order of the grand vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha; in September of that same year, after being moved from different prisons around the capital to Adrianople, (modern Edirne, the imperial court's then seat) to be judged on accusations of fomenting sedition, Sabbatai was given the choice of either facing death by some type of ordeal, or of converting to Islam by the Grand Vizier representing the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed IV. Sabbatai seems to have chosen the latter course, donning a turban from that time on. The heads of the Ottoman state then rewarded him with a generous pension for complying with their political and religious plans.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: About 300 families who followed Tzvi also converted to Islam and became known as Dönme (converts). Subsequently, the Ottomans banished him twice, first to Constantinople, and, when he was heard singing Psalms with the Jews, to a small town known today as Ulcinj in present-day Montenegro. He later died in isolation.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Sabbatai Zevi was born in the Ottoman city of Smyrna, supposedly on Tisha B'Av 1626, the Jewish holy day of mourning. In Hebrew Sabbatai means Saturn, and in Jewish tradition "the reign of Sabbatai", the highest planet, was often linked to the advent of the Messiah. Zevi's family were Romaniote Jews from Patras; his father, Mordecai, was a poultry dealer in the Morea. During the war between Turkey and Venice, Smyrna became the center of Levantine trade and Mordecai became the Smyrna agent of an English trading house, achieving some wealth in the process.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: In accordance with the prevailing Jewish custom of the time, Sabbatai's father had him study the Talmud. He attended a yeshiva under the rabbi of Smyrna, Joseph Escapa. Studies in halakha, or Jewish law, did not appeal to him, but apparently Zevi did attain proficiency in the Talmud. At the same time, he was fascinated by mysticism and the Kabbalah and was influenced by Isaac Luria. The practical Kabbalah, whose devotees used asceticism to communicate with God and the angels, to predict the future and perform all sorts of miracles, was especially appealing to him. As well as Luria's writings, he read the "Zohar" and practiced asceticism and purification exercises called "tikkunim".


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: During the first half of the 17th century, millenarian ideas about the approach of the messianic time were popular. They included ideas about the redemption of the Jews and their return to the land of Israel, with independent sovereignty. The apocalyptic year was identified by Christian authors as 1666 and millenarianism was widespread in England. This belief was so prevalent that Manasseh ben Israel, in his letter to Oliver Cromwell and the Rump Parliament, appealed to it as a reason to re-admit Jews into England, saying, "[T]he opinions of many Christians and mine do concur herein, that we both believe that the restoring time of our Nation into their native country is very near at hand."


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: As he was the agent for an English trading house in Smyrna, Sabbatai's father must have had business contact with English people and it's possible that his son learned something about Western millenarian expectations at home. Scholars are still assessing how much influence English and Dutch Calvinist millenarianism had on the messianic movement that developed around Zevi's activities.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Along with general messianic beliefs, there was another computation, based on a passage in the "Zohar" (a famous Jewish mystical text), that Israel would be redeemed by the long-awaited Jewish Messiah in 1648.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: In 1648, Sabbatai announced to his followers in Smyrna that he was the anticipated messianic redeemer. To prove this, he started to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, an act which Judaism prohibited to all but the high priest in the Temple in Jerusalem on the Day of Atonement. For scholars acquainted with rabbinical and Kabbalistic literature, this act was therefore highly symbolic. Sabbatai also claimed that he could fly, but told his followers that he couldn't do so in public because they were 'not worthy enough' to witness such a sight. He also claimed to have visions of God. Sabbatai revealed his claim to being the Messiah early on to Isaac Silveyra and Moses Pinheiro, the latter a brother-in-law of the Italian rabbi and Kabbalist Joseph Ergas.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: However, at a mere twenty-two, Sabbatai was still too young to be thought of as an established rabbinic authority; his influence on the local community was limited. Even though he had led the pious life of a mystic in Smyrna for several years, the older, more established rabbinic leadership was suspicious of his activities and the local college of rabbis. Headed by his teacher, Joseph Escapa, they kept a watchful eye on him. When his messianic pretensions became too bold, he and his followers were subjected to an edict of "cherem", a type of excommunication in Judaism.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: In about 1651 (according to others, 1654), the rabbis banished Sabbatai and his disciples from Smyrna. It is uncertain where he went from there, but by 1658, he surfaced in Constantinople. There, he met a preacher, Abraham Yachini (a disciple of the Talmudic scholar Joseph di Trani), who confirmed his messianic mission. Yachini is said to have forged a manuscript in archaic characters which bore testimony to Sabbatai's claim to being the Messiah. It was entitled "The Great Wisdom of Solomon", and began:


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: "I, Abraham, was confined in a cave for forty years, and I wondered greatly that the time of miracles did not arrive. Then was heard a voice proclaiming, 'A son will be born in the Hebrew year 5386 <nowiki>[</nowiki>the year 1626 CE<nowiki>]</nowiki> to Mordecai Zevi; and he will be called Shabbethai. He will humble the great dragon; ... he, the true Messiah, will sit upon My throne."


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Armed with this document, Sabbatai chose Salonica, at that time a center of Kabbalism, as his base. Proclaiming himself the Messiah or "anointed one," he gained a large following and put on all sorts of mystical events—e.g., the celebration of his marriage as the "One Without End" (the "Ein Sof") with the Torah, preparing a solemn festival to which he invited his friends. But the rabbis of Salonica, headed by Rabbi Hiyya Abraham Di Boton, banished him from the city and sources differ as to the route he then took, with Alexandria, Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Smyrna mentioned as temporary bases. Eventually he settled in Cairo, where he lived for about two years (1660–1662).


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: There he befriended Raphael Joseph Halabi (of Aleppo), a wealthy and influential Jew who held the high position of mint-master and tax-farmer in Cairo under the Ottoman government. Raphael Joseph led an ascetic life, which included fasting, bathing in cold water, and scourging himself at night, and used his great wealth for charity, supporting poor Talmudists and Kabbalists, fifty of whom reportedly dined at his table regularly. He became a supporter and promoter of Sabbati's messianic claims.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: In about 1663 Sabbatai moved on to Jerusalem where he resumed his former ascetic practice of frequent fasting and other penances. Many saw this as proof of his extraordinary piety. He was said to have a good voice, and attracted large audiences when he sang psalms all night long, or Spanish love-songs to which he gave mystical interpretations. At other times he prayed and cried at the graves of pious men and women or distributed sweetmeats to children on the streets. Gradually he gathered a larger circle of adherents.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: At the time the Jewish community in Jerusalem was in dire need of money to pay the heavy taxes levied by the Ottoman government. Known as the favourite of the rich and powerful Raphael Joseph Halabi in Cairo, Sabbatai was chosen to appeal to him for money and support and his success in getting the funds to pay off the Turks raised his prestige. His followers dated his public career from this journey to Cairo.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Another event that took place during his second stay in Cairo helped spread Sabbatai's fame in the Jewish world. During the Chmielnicki massacres in Poland, a young Jewish orphan named Sarah was found by Christians and sent to a convent to be cared for. After ten years, aged about sixteen, she escaped (she claimed through a miracle), and made her way to Amsterdam and then to Livorno where, according to reports, she led a life of prostitution while also conceiving the notion that she would become the bride of the Messiah, whose appearance was thought to be imminent.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: When a report of her adventures reached Cairo, Sabbatai claimed that such a consort had been promised to him in a dream because he, as the Messiah, was bound to fall in love with an unchaste woman. He reportedly sent messengers to Livorno to bring Sarah to him, and they were married at Halabi's house. Her beauty and eccentricity reportedly helped him gain new followers. Through her a new romantic and licentious element entered Sabbatai's career. The overturning of her past life was interpreted by Sabbatai's followers as further confirmation of his messiahship, following the biblical story of the prophet Hosea, who had also been commanded to take a "wife of whoredom" as the first symbolic act of his calling.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: With Halabi's financial and political backing, a charming wife, and many additional followers, Sabbatai returned to Jerusalem in triumph. Passing through the city of Gaza, which at the time had an important Jewish community, he met Nathan Benjamin Levi, known since as Nathan of Gaza (נתן העזתי "Nathan Ha'Azzati"), who became very active in Sabbatai's messianic career, serving as his right-hand man and declaring himself to be the risen Elijah, who, it was predicted, would proclaim the arrival of the Messiah. In 1665, Nathan announced that the Messianic age would begin in 1666 with the conquest of the world without bloodshed. The Messiah would lead the Ten Lost Tribes back to the Holy Land, "riding on a lion with a seven-headed dragon in its jaws".


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: The rabbis of Jerusalem viewed Sabbatai's movement with great suspicion, and threatened its followers with excommunication. Acknowledging that Jerusalem was not be the best place to carry out his plans, Sabbatai left for his native Smyrna, and Nathan proclaimed that henceforth Gaza rather than Jerusalem would be the sacred city. On his way from Jerusalem to Smyrna, Sabbatai was greeted enthusiastically in Aleppo. In Smyrna, which he reached in the autumn of 1665, great homage was paid to him. After some hesitation, he declared himself to be the expected Messiah during the Jewish New Year in 1665; his declaration was made in the synagogue, with the blowing of horns, and shouts of "Long live our King, our Messiah!"


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: His followers then began to refer to him with the title AMIRAH, a Hebrew acronym for the phrase "Our Lord and King, his Majesty be exalted" ("Adoneinu Malkeinu Yarum Hodo").


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Assisted by his wife, Sabbatai became the leader of the community and used his power to crush any opposition. He deposed the existing rabbi of Smyrna, Aaron Lapapa, and appointed Chaim Benveniste in his place. His fame began to extend far and wide. Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands were already centres of his messianic movement, and the Jews of Hamburg and Amsterdam learned of the events in Smyrna from trustworthy Christians. Henry Oldenburg, a distinguished German savant who became the first secretary of the Royal Society, wrote to Baruch Spinoza ("Spinozae Epistolae" No 33): "All the world here is talking of a rumour of the return of the Israelites ... to their own country. ... Should the news be confirmed, it may bring about a revolution in all things."


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Sabbatai's followers soon included many prominent rabbis, such as Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, Moses Raphael de Aguilar, Moses Galante, Moses Zacuto, and Chaim Benveniste. Dionysius Musaphia, an adherent of Spinoza, also became a follower. Meanwhile fantastic reports circulated and were widely believed. For example, it was said, "In the north of Scotland a ship had appeared with silken sails and ropes, manned by sailors who spoke Hebrew. The flag bore the inscription 'The Twelve Tribes of Israel'." The Jewish community of Avignon, France prepared to emigrate to the new kingdom in the spring of 1666.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Jewish readiness to believe Sabbatai Zevi's messianic claims may largely be explained by the desperate state of European Jewry in the mid-17th century. The bloody pogroms of Bohdan Khmelnytsky had wiped out an estimated 100,000 Jews in Eastern Europe (about one third of Europe's Jewish population at the time) and destroyed many centres of Jewish learning and communal life. For most of the Jews of Europe, therefore, this was a propitious moment for the messiah to deliver the promised salvation.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Probably with his consent, Sabbatai's adherents planned to abolish many ritualistic observances because, according to a minority opinion in the Talmud, in the messianic time there would no longer be holy obligations. The fast of the Tenth of Tevet became a day of feasting and rejoicing. Samuel Primo, who became Sabbatai's secretary when he went to Smyrna, directed the following circular to all of the Jews in the name of the Messiah:


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: "The first-begotten Son of God, Shabbethai Tebi, Messiah and Redeemer of the people of Israel, to all the sons of Israel, Peace! Since ye have been deemed worthy to behold the great day and the fulfilment of God's word by the Prophets, your lament and sorrow must be changed into joy, and your fasting into merriment; for ye shall weep no more. Rejoice with song and melody, and change the day formerly spent in sadness and sorrow into a day of jubilee, because I have appeared."


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Primo's message was considered blasphemous, as Sabbatai wanted to celebrate his own birthday rather than the holy day. There was outrage and dissension in the communities, while many of the leaders who had been sympathetic to the movement were shocked by such radical innovations. Solomon Algazi, a prominent Talmudist of Smyrna, and other members of the rabbinate who opposed the abolition of the fast, narrowly escaped death at the hands of Sabbatai's followers.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: At the beginning of 1666, Sabbatai left Smyrna for Constantinople (İstanbul in present-day Turkey), possibly forced out by city officials. Since Nathan of Gaza had prophesied that, once in Constantinople, Sabbatai would place the sultan's crown on his own head, the grand vizier, Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, ordered his immediate arrest and had him imprisoned, maybe to avoid any doubts as to the power still wielded by the Turkish Sultanate. However, his imprisonment discouraged neither Sabbatai nor his followers. He was treated well in prison, perhaps because of bribes which seems to have strengthened his followers' belief in him. Meanwhile Nathan of Gaza, Abraham Yachini and others circulated fabulous reports about the miraculous deeds "the Messiah" was supposedly performing in the Turkish capital, and the messianic expectations in the Jewish diasporas continued to rise.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: After two months' imprisonment in Constantinople, Sabbatai was moved to the state prison-castle at Abydos accompanied by some of his friends. The Sabbataians then renamed the fortress "Migdal Oz" (Tower [of] Strength). As Sabbatai had arrived on the day preceding Passover, he slew a paschal lamb for himself and his followers, and ate it with its fat, a violation of Jewish Law. He is said to have pronounced over it the benediction: "Blessed be God who hath restored again that which was forbidden."


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: The immense sums sent to him by his rich followers, the charms of the queenly Sarah, and the cooperation shown by the Turkish officials and others enabled Sabbatai to show off almost royal splendour in the prison at Abydos. Accounts of his life there were exaggerated and spread among Jews in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in some parts of Europe, Jews began to unroof their houses and prepare for a new "exodus". In almost every synagogue, Sabbatai's initials were posted, and prayers for him were inserted in the following form: "Bless our Lord and King, the holy and righteous Sabbatai Zevi, the Messiah of the God of Jacob." In Hamburg, the council introduced the custom of praying for Sabbatai not only on Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), but also on Monday and Thursday; unbelievers were compelled to remain in the synagogue and join in the prayer with a loud "Amen". Sabbatai's picture was printed together with that of King David in most of the prayer-books, along with his Kabbalistic formulas and penances.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Such innovations caused great commotion in some communities. In Moravia excitement reached such a pitch that the government had to intervene, while at Sale, Morocco, the emir ordered a persecution of the Jews. During this period Sabbatai declared the fasts of the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av (his birthday) would henceforth be feast-days, and contemplated converting the Day of Atonement to one of celebration.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: While Sabbatai was in Abydos prison an incident occurred which ultimately led to his downfall. Two prominent Polish Talmudists from Lwów, Lesser Poland, who were among his prison visitors, informed Sabbatai that in their native country a prophet, Nehemiah ha-Kohen, had announced the coming of the Messiah. Sabbatai ordered the prophet to appear before him (see "Jew. Encyc." ix. 212a, s.v. Nehemiah ha-Kohen). Nehemiah obeyed, reaching Abydos after a journey of three months at the beginning of September, 1666. The meeting did not go well, and some Sabbataians are said to have contemplated murdering the rival.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Nehemiah, however, escaped to Constantinople, where he pretended to embrace Islam to get an audience with the "kaymakam" to tell him of Sabbatai's ambitions. The "kaymakam" informed Sultan Mehmed IV and Sabbatai was removed from Abydos to taken to Adrianople, where the vizier gave him three choices; subject himself to a trial of his divinity in the form of a volley of arrows (should the archers miss, his divinity would be proven); be impaled; or convert to Islam.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: On the following day (September 16, 1666) Zevi appeared before the sultan, cast off his Jewish garb and put a Turkish turban on his head, thereby accomplishing his conversion to Islam. Satisfied, the sultan rewarded Sabbatai by conferring on him the title (Mahmed) "Effendi", and appointing him as his doorkeeper on a generous salary. Sarah and approximately 300 families among his followers also converted to Islam. Thereafter these new Muslims were known as Dönme. Sabbatai was ordered to take a second wife to confirm his conversion. Some days afterwards, he wrote to the community in Smyrna: "God has made me an Ishmaelite; He commanded, and it was done. The ninth day of my regeneration."


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Sabbatai's conversion devastated his followers, and Muslims and Christians alike ridiculed them. In spite of his apostasy, many of his adherents still clung to their belief in him, claiming that his conversion was a part of the messianic scheme. Those such as Nathan of Gaza and Primo who were interested in maintaining the movement encouraged such belief. In many communities, the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av were still observed as feast-days in spite of bans and excommunications by the rabbis.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: At times Sabbatai assumed the role of a pious Muslim and reviled Judaism; at others he associated with Jews as one of their own faith. In March, 1668, he announced that he had been filled with the "Holy Spirit" at Passover, and had received a "revelation."


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Either Sabbatai or one of his followers published a mystical work claiming he was the true Messiah in spite of his conversion and that his goal was to bring thousands of Muslims to Judaism. However, he told the sultan that he was trying to convert Jews to Islam, and the sultan permitted him to associate with other Jews and preach in their synagogues.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Gradually the Turks tired of Sabbatai's antics, ending his doorkeeper's salary. At the beginning of 1673, the sultan had Zevi exiled to Ulcinj ("Dulcigno", ) where his wife died in 1674. Zevi then married Esther, the daughter of rabbi Joseph Filosoff of Thessaloniki.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: In August 1676, Sabbatai wrote to the Jewish Community in Berat, Albania, requesting religious books. Shortly afterwards he died in isolation, according to some accounts on September 17, 1676, the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur. Upon his death, his widow, brother and children by his first wife moved to Thessaloniki.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: His tomb was believed for a long time to have been in Berat, at a "tekke" built in the yard of the Imperial Mosque (), where a tomb stood until 1967. However, more recent research done in 1985 has suggested that he was actually buried in Dulcigno. His biographer Gershom Scholem mentions that his tomb was visited by Dönme pilgrims from Salonika until the early 20th century.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: "By the 1680s, the Dönme had congregated in Salonica, the cosmopolitan and majority-Jewish city in Ottoman Greece. For the next 250 years, they would lead an independent communal life—intermarrying, doing business together, maintaining their own shrines, and handing down their secret traditions."


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: By the 19th century, the Dönme had become prominent in the tobacco and textile trades. They established progressive schools and some members became politically active. Some joined the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), the revolutionary party known as the Young Turks. With independence, in the 1910s, Greece expelled the Muslims, including the Dönme, from its territory. Most migrated to Turkey, where by the mid-20th century they were becoming highly assimilated.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: Although little is known about them, various groups called Dönme continue to follow Sabbatai Zevi today, mostly in Turkey. Estimates of the numbers vary. Many sources claim that there are fewer than 100,000 although some claim there are several hundred thousand in Turkey. They have been described as presenting themselves as Muslim in public whilst practising their own forms of messianic/mystical Jewish beliefs in private.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: The Dönme eventually split into three sects, each with quite different beliefs, as Ottoman Jewish scholars Abraham Danon, and Joseph Néhama pointed out in French-language Jewish Studies journal articles over a hundred years ago. In the 1930s a comprehensive study on the history of the sects was also published in French by Abraham Galanté. More recently, Professor Cengiz Şişman has published a new study called "The Burden of Silence". According to a review published in the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post, the branch known as Karakaş follow Sufi-influenced practices, while the Kapancıs have not been influenced by Islam at all and are now completely secular.


title: Sabbatai Zevi

text: A house in the centre of İzmir close to the Agora has long been associated with Sabbetai Zevi. In ruins as recently as 2015, it has since been restored.


title: Amorites

text: The Amorites (; ; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; ; ) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied large parts of southern Mesopotamia from the 21st century BC to the end of the 17th century BC, where they established several prominent city-states in existing locations, such as Isin, Larsa and later notably Babylon, which was raised from a small town to an independent state and a major city. The term in Akkadian and Sumerian texts refers to the Amorites, their principal deity and an Amorite kingdom.


title: Amorites

text: The Amorites are also mentioned in the Bible as inhabitants of Canaan both before and after the conquest of the land under Joshua.


title: Amorites

text: In the earliest Sumerian sources concerning the Amorites, beginning about 2400 BC, the land of the Amorites ("the "Mar.tu" land") is associated not with Mesopotamia but with the lands to the west of the Euphrates, including Canaan and what was to become Syria by the 3rd century BC, then known as "The land of the Amurru", and later as Aram and Eber-Nari.


title: Amorites

text: They appear as an uncivilized and nomadic people in early Mesopotamian writings from Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria, to the west of the Euphrates. The ethnic terms "Mar.tu" ("Westerners"), "Amurru" (suggested in 2007 to be derived from "aburru", "pasture") and "Amor" were used for them in Sumerian, Akkadian, and Ancient Egyptian respectively. From the 21st century BC, possibly triggered by a long major drought starting about 2200 BC, a large-scale migration of Amorite tribes infiltrated southern Mesopotamia. They were one of the instruments of the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and Amorite dynasties not only usurped the long-extant native city-states such as Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, and Kish, but also established new ones, the most famous of which was to become Babylon, although it was initially a minor state.


title: Amorites

text: Known Amorites wrote in a dialect of Akkadian found on tablets at Mari dating from 1800–1750 BC. Since the language shows northwest Semitic forms, words and constructions, the Amorite language is a Northwest Semitic language, and possibly one of the Canaanite languages. The main sources for the extremely limited extant knowledge of the Amorite language are the proper names, not Akkadian in style, that are preserved in such texts. The Akkadian language of the native Semitic states, cities and polities of Mesopotamia (Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Isin, Kish, Larsa, Ur, Nippur, Uruk, Eridu, Adab, Akshak, Eshnunna, Nuzi, Ekallatum, etc.), was from the east Semitic, as was the Eblaite of the northern Levant.


title: Amorites

text: There are a wide range of views regarding the Amorite homeland. One extreme is the view that /"māt amurrim" covered the whole area between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Peninsula included. The most common view is that the "homeland" of the Amorites was a limited area in central Syria identified with the mountainous region of Jebel Bishri. Since the Amorite language is closely related to the better-studied Canaanite languages, both being branches of the Northwestern Semitic languages, as opposed to the South Semitic languages found in the Arabian Peninsula, they are usually considered native to the region around Syria and Transjordan.


title: Amorites

text: In the earliest Sumerian texts, all western lands beyond the Euphrates, including the modern Levant, were known as "the land of the (Amorites)". The term appears in "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta", which describes it in the time of Enmerkar as one of the regions inhabited by speakers of a different language. Another text known as "Lugalbanda and the Anzud bird" describes how, 50 years into Enmerkar's reign, the Martu people arose in Sumer and Akkad (southern Mesopotamia), necessitating the building of a wall to protect Uruk.


title: Amorites

text: There are also sparse mentions about Amorites in tablets from the East Semitic-speaking kingdom of Ebla, dating from 2500 BC to the destruction of the city in BC: from the perspective of the Eblaites, the Amorites were a rural group living in the narrow basin of the middle and upper Euphrates in northern Syria. For the Akkadian kings of central Mesopotamia was one of the "Four Quarters" surrounding Akkad, along with Subartu/Assyria, Sumer, and Elam. Naram-Sin of Akkad records successful campaigns against them in northern Syria BC, and his successor, Shar-Kali-Sharri, followed suit.


title: Amorites

text: By the time of the last days of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the immigrating Amorites had become such a force that kings such as Shu-Sin were obliged to construct a wall from the Tigris to the Euphrates to hold them off. The Amorites appear as nomadic tribes under chiefs, who forced themselves into lands they needed to graze their herds. Some of the Akkadian literature of this era speaks disparagingly of the Amorites and implies that the Akkadian- and Sumerian-speakers of Mesopotamia viewed their nomadic and primitive way of life with disgust and contempt:


title: Amorites

text: "They have prepared wheat and "gú-nunuz" (grain) as a confection, but an Amorite will eat it without even recognizing what it contains!"


title: Amorites

text: As the centralized structure of the Third Dynasty slowly collapsed, the component regions, such as Assyria in the north and the city-states of the south such as Isin, Larsa and Eshnunna, began to reassert their former independence, and the areas in southern Mesopotamia with Amorites were no exception. Elsewhere, the armies of Elam, in southern Iran, were attacking and weakening the empire, making it vulnerable.


title: Amorites

text: Many Amorite chieftains in southern Mesopotamia aggressively took advantage of the failing empire to seize power for themselves. There was not an Amorite invasion of southern Mesopotamia as such, but Amorites ascended to power in many locations, especially during the reign of the last king of the Neo-Sumerian Empire, Ibbi-Sin. Leaders with Amorite names assumed power in various places, usurping native Akkadian rulers, including in Isin, Eshnunna and Larsa. The small town of Babylon, unimportant both politically and militarily, was raised to the status of a minor independent city-state, under Sumu-abum in 1894 BC.


title: Amorites

text: The Elamites finally sacked Ur in BC. Some time later, the Old Assyrian Empire (1750 BC) became the most powerful entity in Mesopotamia immediately preceding the rise of the Amorite king Hammurabi of Babylon. The new Assyrian monarchic line was founded by BC; their kings repelled attempted Amorite incursions, and may have countered their influence in the south as well under Erishum I, Ilu-shuma and Sargon I. However, even Assyria eventually found its throne usurped by an Amorite in 1809 BC: the last two rulers of the Old Assyrian Empire period, Shamshi-Adad I and Ishme-Dagan, were Amorites who originated in Terqa (now in northeastern Syria).


title: Amorites

text: Amorite presence in Egypt was inevitable since at least the First Intermediate Period. The Levantine-blooded Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt, centered in the Nile Delta, had rulers bearing Amorite names, such as Yakbmu. Furthermore, increasing evidence suggests that the succeeding Hyksos of Egypt were an amalgam of Asiatic peoples from Syria, of which the Amorites were also part of. Based on temple architecture, Manfred Bietak argues for strong parallels between the religious practices of the Hyksos at Avaris with those of the area around Byblos, Ugarit, Alalakh, and Tell Brak, defining the "spiritual home" of the Hyksos as "in northernmost Syria and northern Mesopotamia", areas typically associated with Amorites at the time. In 1650 BC, the Hyksos went on to establish the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt and rule most of Lower and Middle Egypt contemporaneously with the Sixteenth and Seventeenth dynasties of Thebes.


title: Amorites

text: The era ended in northern Mesopotamia, with the defeat and expulsion of the Amorites and Amorite-dominated Babylonians from Assyria by Puzur-Sin and king Adasi between 1740 and 1735 BC, and in the far south, by the rise of the native Sealand Dynasty BC. The Amorites clung on in a once-more small and weak Babylon until the Hittites' sack of Babylon ( BC), which ended the Amorite presence, and brought new ethnic groups, particularly the Kassites, to the forefront in southern Mesopotamia. From the 15th century BC onward, the term "Amurru" is usually applied to the region extending north of Canaan as far as Kadesh on the Orontes River in northern Syria.


title: Amorites

text: Amorite presence in Egypt was supplanted by Ahmose I, the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, when he kicked out the wider group of Asiatic Hyksos back into the Levant in 1550 BC, putting an end to Levantine political influence in Egypt.


title: Amorites

text: After their expulsion from Mesopotamia, the Amorites of Syria came under the domination of first the Hittites and, from the 14th century BC, the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050). They appear to have been displaced or absorbed by a new wave of semi-nomadic West Semitic-speaking peoples, known collectively as the Ahlamu during the Late Bronze Age collapse. The Arameans rose to be the prominent group amongst the Ahlamu, and from c. 1200 BC on, the Amorites disappeared from the pages of history. From then on, the region that they had inhabited became known as Aram ("Aramea") and Eber-Nari.


title: Amorites

text: The language was first attested in the 21st-20th centuries BC as an archaic Northwest Semitic language and was found to be closely related to Canaanite, Aramaic and Sam'alian languages. The language is found in the proper names recorded by scribes from the era of Amorite rulership in Babylonia, during the end of the 3rd millennium BC, and occasionally in ancient Egyptian writings. The Amorite kings communicated with other rulers through the Akkadian language. During the 15th-14th centuries BC, the Amorite city of Qatna received deep influence from the Hurrian language, as scribes of the city incorporated Hurrian elements into their texts. In the 2nd millennium BC, the Ugaritic language is said to be an Amorite dialect, but the exact classification remains uncertain.


title: Amorites

text: The Amurru share the name with their patron deity, Amurru or Martu (also known as "Ilu Amurru", MAR.TU), a storm and weather deity and husband to Asherah. Amorites often had their god's name within their own.


title: Amorites

text: The term "Amorites" is used in the Bible to refer to certain highland mountaineers who inhabited the land of Canaan, described in Genesis as descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham (). They are described as a powerful people of great stature "like the height of the cedars" () who had occupied the land east and west of the Jordan. The height and strength mentioned in Amos 2:9 has led some Christian scholars, including Orville J. Nave, who wrote the Nave's Topical Bible, to refer to the Amorites as "giants".


title: Amorites

text: In Deuteronomy, the Amorite king, Og, was described as the last "of the remnant of the Rephaim" (). The terms Amorite and Canaanite seem to be used more or less interchangeably, Canaan being more general and Amorite a specific component among the Canaanites who inhabited the land.


title: Amorites

text: The Biblical Amorites seem to have originally occupied the region stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea () to Hebron (), embracing "all Gilead and all Bashan" (), with the Jordan valley on the east of the river (), the land of the "two kings of the Amorites", Sihon and Og ( and ). Sihon and Og were independent kings whose people were displaced from their land in battle with the Israelites () - though in the case of the war led by Og/Bashan it appears none of them survived and the land became part of Israel (). The Amorites seem to have been linked to the Jerusalem region, and the Jebusites may have been a subgroup of them (). The southern slopes of the mountains of Judea are called the "mount of the Amorites" ().


title: Amorites

text: The Book of Joshua speaks of the five kings of the Amorites were first defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (). Then, more Amorite kings were defeated at the waters of Merom by Joshua (). It is mentioned that in the days of Samuel, there was peace between them and the Israelites (). The Gibeonites were said to be their descendants, being an offshoot of the Amorites who made a covenant with the Hebrews (). When Saul later broke that vow and killed some of the Gibeonites, God is said to have sent a famine to Israel ().


title: Amorites

text: Skourtanioti et al. (2020) conducted ancient DNA analysis on 28 human remains dating to the Middle and Late Bronze Age from Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, a city which was founded by Amorites and contained a Hurrian minority later on, which the authors called an Amorite cultural assemblage. The analysis found that the inhabitants of Alalakh were a mixture of Copper age Levantines and Mesopotamians, and were genetically similar to contemporary Levantines from Syria (Ebla) and Lebanon (Sidon).


title: Amorites

text: The view that Amorites were fierce, tall nomads led to an anachronistic theory among some racialist writers in the 19th century that they were a tribe of "Aryan" warriors who at one point dominated the Israelites. The theory originated with Felix von Luschan, and did fit then-current models of Indo-European migrations; Luschan later abandoned this theory. Houston Stewart Chamberlain claimed that King David and Jesus were both Aryans of Amorite extraction. The argument was repeated by the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg.


title: Amorites

text: However, the Amorites certainly spoke exclusively a Semitic language, followed Semitic religions of the Near East and had distinctly Semitic personal names. Their origins were believed to have been the lands immediately to the west of Mesopotamia, in the Levant (modern Syria), and so they are regarded as one of the Semitic peoples.


title: Jules Kroll

text: Jules B. Kroll (born May 18, 1941) is an American businessman whose company, Kroll, Inc., is credited with founding the modern corporate investigations industry in 1972. In 2004, Kroll was sold to Marsh & McLennan Companies for $1.9 billion.


title: Jules Kroll

text: In 2009, Kroll founded two successor firms, Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) and K2 Intelligence. K2 Intelligence, run by Kroll's son Jeremy Kroll, continues the family's work in asset recovery, due diligence, litigation support, and a range of corporate investigations.


title: Jules Kroll

text: Jules Kroll was born to a Jewish family on May 18, 1941, in Bayside, Queens, the son of Florence Yondorf and Herman Kroll. His father ran a printing business that was subject to graft and demands for kickbacks from purchasing agents. Kroll attended Cornell University, where he was a member of Quill and Dagger, and Georgetown University Law Center.


title: Jules Kroll

text: In 1968, he worked for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in Queens before becoming an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan. When his father fell ill, Kroll took a leave of absence to run the family business, which eventually became a three-year introduction to business corruption.


title: Jules Kroll

text: In 1972 he launched J. Kroll Associates, which eventually turned into Kroll, Inc. The business found corruption in companies which used printers with Kroll keeping a percentage of the savings. A deal with Marvel Comics proved so profitable to both sides that Marvel switched to paying a retainer.


title: Jules Kroll

text: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 generated new lines of business in auditing and compliance, so Kroll opened offices in Paris, Moscow, São Paulo, Tokyo, Singapore, and Manila. The firm also provided political risk and executive protection services abroad.


title: Jules Kroll

text: Kroll forayed into banking and warehousing and built a reputation for pursuing financial crime across international borders by tracing and recovering assets. Clients included law firms like Skadden, Arps and investment banks like Drexel Burnham Lambert (which hired Kroll in 1982 to perform due diligence on persons and companies that it was underwriting). It first helped Nokia and Motorola find $2.7 billion that had been invested with Turkey's Cem Uzan. It was also hired to recover wealth that had been plundered by dictators, including the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos and Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier. In 1991 the government of Kuwait hired it to trace Saddam Hussein's corporate holdings around the world, including Hachette in France.


title: Jules Kroll

text: In June 2008, Kroll left his company and unsuccessfully tried to buy it back from MMC. In 2010 he launched Kroll Bond Rating Agency and K2 Global Consulting with his son Jeremy Kroll. In 2012, K2 Global became K2 Intelligence. Kroll Bond Rating Agency was started with capital from Jeff Keswin, Michael F. Price, Frederick R. Adler, William L. Mack, and James Robinson III; Bessemer Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, and New Markets Venture Partners also invested $24 million.


title: Jules Kroll

text: K2 Intelligence has offices in New York, London, Madrid, and Bahrain. In 2010, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany engaged K2 Global Consulting to investigate the theft of $42.5 million.


title: Jules Kroll

text: He is married to Lynn Korda, who served as the vice chairwoman of the UJA-Federation of New York. They have two sons, Jeremy and actor/comedian Nick Kroll, and two daughters, Dana Kroll and Vanessa Kroll Bennett. Vanessa is married to British-American soccer journalist Roger Bennett.


title: Jin Ki-joo

text: Jin Ki-joo (born January 26, 1989) is a South Korean actress. She made a breakthrough in 2018, landing her first lead role in a television series with "Come and Hug Me" after she acted in that year's acclaimed series "Misty" and film "Little Forest".


title: Jin Ki-joo

text: Jin Ki-joo was previously an employee of Samsung SDS and then worked as reporter for SBS regional affiliate G1 before starting her acting career. After Jin won a prize in the 23rd Supermodel Contest, the organizer introduced her to some management companies for actors. Her acting debut was in tvN's 2015 romantic comedy television series "Second 20s".


title: Jin Ki-joo

text: 2018 was Jin's breakthrough year. She got nominated and won several major film awards with her role as a snarky and playful country girl who yearns for the big city in "Little Forest". Her standout role as the protagonist's rival in JTBC's melodrama mystery "Misty" paved the way for Jin to be cast in a leading role for the first time in MBC's melodrama thriller "Come and Hug Me".


title: Jin Ki-joo

text: In 2022 Jin accepted two series offers, MBC's supernatural fantasy "From Now On, Showtime!" and KBS2's time travel mystery "Run Into You".


title: Viola Davis on screen and stage

text: Viola Davis is an American actress and producer who has appeared in film, television, and on stage. She received her equity card with her stage debut in 1988 with August Wilson's "The Pittsburgh Cycle" play "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" production of Trinity Repertory Company. After graduating from Juilliard School in 1993, Davis went on to perform several roles on stage in the 1990s, earning Theater World Award for her role in "Seven Guitars" (1996). In the same year, Davis guest-starred in the procedural drama series "NYPD Blue", and made her film debut with a brief one-day role alongside Timothy Hutton in "The Substance of Fire". In 1998, she appeared in Richard Benjamin's television movie "The Pentagon Wars", and Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight", before returning to the stage with an Obie Award winning titular performance in Off-Broadway "Everybody's Ruby" (1999).


title: Viola Davis on screen and stage

text: Davis established herself as a leading actress of Broadway in the 2000s. She starred in her first recurring role in the 2000 medical drama "City of Angels", before winning Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as a wife of ex-con in "King Hedley II" (2001), the ninth play of Wilson's "The Pittsburgh Cycle". She received further acclaim for her role as a black seamstress in "Intimate Apparel" (2004) that won her the Drama Desk Award. Four years later, a supporting role in the period drama "Doubt" (2008) proved to be a breakthrough for Davis and she received Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nominations for it. Davis starred opposite Denzel Washington as a dutiful yet strong minded wife Rose Maxson, in a revival of Wilson's play "Fences" (2010), that earned her Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The same year she played Julia Roberts' best friend in romantic-comedy "Eat Pray Love".


title: Viola Davis on screen and stage

text: In 2011, Davis's role in an ensemble drama as a housemaid in "The Help" earned her Best Actress Oscar nomination, among other accolades. Her performances in school drama "Won't Back Down" (2012), thriller "Prisoners" (2013), and biopic "Get on Up" (2014), added further acclaim to her career. Davis became the first black woman to win Emmy Award for Best Actress, for her role as criminal defense attorney Annalise Keating in television series "How to Get Away with Murder" (2014). In 2015, she starred and served as an executive producer in vigilante thriller "Lila & Eve", and courtroom drama "Custody" the following year, both films received a mixed reception overall. She appeared as an antagonist Amanda Waller in superhero film "Suicide Squad" (2016), her biggest commercial success till date. In the same year, she and Washington reprised their role in the film-adaption of "Fences", for which Davis received Best Supporting Actress honors at the BAFTAs, SAG Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Academy Awards. Following her Oscar win, she became the first black actor to win Triple Crown of Acting. Davis co-founded the JuVee Productions with her husband Julius Tennon in 2012.


title: James Hoffmann

text: James Alexander Hoffmann (born 11 December 1979) is an English barista, YouTuber, entrepreneur, coffee consultant, and author. Hoffmann first came to prominence after winning the World Barista Championship in 2007 and has since been credited as a pioneer of Britain's third-wave coffee movement. Hoffmann has published three books, including "The World Atlas of Coffee", amassed a significant following on YouTube, started several businesses including the specialty coffee roaster Square Mile Coffee Roasters, and consulted for a number of coffee ventures.


title: James Hoffmann

text: Born in 1979, in Stafford, Staffordshire, Hoffmann grew up in the Lake District in North West England. He is a graduate of Durham University.


title: James Hoffmann

text: In 2003, Hoffmann released an EP under the stage name "King Seven" which featured "bell chimes, panned-and-swirling acoustic guitars and careful, sometimes glitchy percussion choices." He also worked as a croupier in a Leeds casino and in the wine industry before entering the coffee industry.


title: James Hoffmann

text: One of Hoffmann's first jobs after joining the coffee industry in the early 2000s was working as an espresso machine salesman for Gaggia in the high-end department store Selfridges. While working there, a chance encounter with a television producer led to him featuring on "Trick or Treat", hosted by Derren Brown. In 2004, Hoffmann started his popular blog "Jimseven". Hoffmann later moved to another espresso machine manufacturer, La Spaziale, as the national training manager for the UK.


title: James Hoffmann

text: Hoffmann first started competing in the UK Barista Championship in 2005, winning the competition in 2006 and qualifying to compete in the World Barista Championship (WBC). He placed fifth at the WBC in 2006. He became the UK Barista Champion again in 2007 before going on to become the World Barista Champion in Tokyo in 2007. His winning signature drink involved a "flavour marriage" of tobacco and almonds. Since becoming the World Barista Champion, Hoffmann has come to be regarded as a pioneer in the third-wave coffee movement in the UK, with "The Globe and Mail" describing him as "the godfather of London's coffee revolution".


title: James Hoffmann

text: After leaving his job at La Spaziale in May 2007, Hoffmann co-founded Square Mile Coffee Roasters with his business partner Anette Moldvaer in 2008, a London-based specialty coffee company and roaster. It was one of the first wholesale specialty coffee companies in London, and later became the largest. The 2008 World Barista champion, Stephen Morrissey, was sponsored by Square Mile, and in 2009 the winning beans also came from Square Mile. The company was based in Cambridge Heath in Bethnal Green in 2009 and Hackney by June 2014, before moving to their current location in Walthamstow in late 2018.


title: James Hoffmann

text: Hoffmann, with his business partner Tim Williams, temporarily opened a coffee bar called "Penny University" in 2010 through Square Mile. The café was open in Shoreditch from May 22 to July 30 and featured no espresso drinks, opting to serve Hario V60 pour overs, flannel drip, and siphon coffee. Square Mile took over Prufrock Coffee, a café in London, in 2017.


title: James Hoffmann

text: Square Mile hosted the 2010 World AeroPress Championships, which took place alongside the 2010 World Barista Championship in London, and the 2015 English Aeropress Championships. Hoffmann competed in the 2010 Aeropress Championship.


title: James Hoffmann

text: Square Mile hosted a pop-up coffee shop during the 2016 London Coffee Festival. The pop-up included two stands, one of which taught attendees how to make good espresso and filter coffee at home, and the other which offered a tasting experience of food and drink that highlighted coffee as an ingredient.


title: James Hoffmann

text: In 2022, Square Mile collaborated with Cometeer to produce flash frozen pucks of concentrated coffee, which are then diluted in hot water as an alternative to instant coffee. This was the first time Square Mile's coffee was available in the US. This was followed in September 2022, when Square Mile and American specialty coffee company Fellow announced the roaster would partner with them for the September 13 "Fellow Drop", a weekly, text-based coffee ordering service. Fellow had collaborated with US Barista Champion and fellow YouTuber Morgan Eckroth the month prior.


title: James Hoffmann

text: On October 23, 2014, Hoffmann published "The World Atlas of Coffee" through Octopus Book Publishing Group. The book explores coffee history, varieties, growing methods, roasting, and preparation with a focus on origin, cataloguing the coffees grown in 29 countries. The book was a commercial success, selling 320,000 copies, including a second edition in 2018 and translation editions in eight languages. The book was also critically well-received, with "The Guardian" describing the book as "high geekery made palatable by the evident love pulsing through every sentence."


title: James Hoffmann

text: In 2017, Hoffmann self-published his second book, "Best of Jimseven", funded through an Indiegogo campaign. The book was a compilation of Hoffmann's popular blog "Jimseven".


title: James Hoffmann

text: In 2022, Hoffmann published his third book, "How to Make the Best Coffee at Home" through Mitchell Beazley, a part of Octopus Book Publishing Group.