title: Israeli Jews

text: On the other hand, among the religious and Orthodox groups in Israel, many individuals chose to part from the religious lifestyle and embrace a secular lifestyle (they are referred to as Yotz'im bish'ela). A research conducted in 2011 estimated that about 30 percent of the national religious youth from the religious lifestyle embrace a secular lifestyle, but 75 percent of them go back to religion after a formation process of their self-identity, which usually lasts until age 28. The percentage from those who grew up in Chassidic homes, is even higher than that. Contrary to Baalei teshuva, the Orthodox Jews whom wish to embrace a secular lifestyle have very few organizations whom assist them in parting from the Haredi world, and often they end up finding themselves destitute or struggling to complete the educational and social gaps. The most prominent organizations whom assist Yotz'im bish'ela are the NGO organizations Hillel and Dror.


title: Israeli Jews

text: Education is a core value in Jewish culture and in Israeli society at large with many Israeli parents sacrificing their own personal comforts and financial resources to provide their children with the highest standards of education possible. Much of the Israeli Jewish population seek education as a passport to a decent job and a middle class paycheck in the country's competitive high-tech economy. Jewish parents especially mothers take great responsibility to inculcate the value of education in their children at a young age. Striving for high academic achievement and educational success is stressed in many modern Jewish Israeli households as parents make sure that their children are well educated adequately in order to gain the necessary technological skills needed for employment success to compete in Israel's modern high-tech job market. Israelis see competency with in demand job skills such as literacy in math and science as especially necessary for employment success in Israel's competitive 21st-century high-tech economy. Israel's Jewish population maintains a relatively high level of educational attainment where just under half of all Israeli Jews (46%) hold post-secondary degrees. This figure has remained stable in their already high levels of educational attainment over recent generations. Israeli Jews (among those ages 25 and older) have an average of 11.6 years of schooling making them one of the most highly educated of all major religious groups in the world. The Israeli government regulates and finances most of the schools operating in the country, including the majority of those run by private organizations. The national school system has two major branches—a Hebrew-speaking branch and an Arabic-speaking branch. The core curricula for the two systems are almost identical in mathematics, sciences, and English. It is different in humanities (history, literature, etc.). While Hebrew is taught as a second language in Arab schools since the third grade and obligatory for Arabic-speaking schools' matriculation exams, only basic knowledge of Arabic is taught in Hebrew-speaking schools, usually from the 7th to the 9th grade. Arabic is not obligatory for Hebrew-speaking schools' matriculation exams.


title: Israeli Jews

text: The movement for the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language was particularly popular among new Jewish Zionist immigrants who came to Palestine since the 1880s. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (born in the Russian Empire) and his followers created the first Hebrew-speaking schools, newspapers, and other Hebrew-language institutions. After his immigration to Israel, and due to the impetus of the Second Aliyah (1905–1914), Hebrew prevailed as the single official and spoken language of the Jewish community of mandatory Palestine. When the State of Israel was formed in 1948, the government viewed Hebrew as the "de facto" official language and initiated a melting pot policy, where every immigrant was required to study Hebrew and often to adopt a Hebrew surname. Use of Yiddish, which was the main competitor prior to World War II, was discouraged, and the number of Yiddish speakers declined as the older generations died out, though Yiddish is still commonly used in Ashkenazi haredi communities.


title: Israeli Jews

text: Modern Hebrew is also the primary official language of the modern State of Israel and almost all Israeli Jews are native Hebrew-speakers and speak Hebrew as their primary language. A variety of other languages are still spoken within some Israeli Jewish communities, communities that are representative of the various Jewish ethnic divisions from around the world that have come together to make up Israel's Jewish population.


title: Israeli Jews

text: Even though the majority of Israeli Jews are native Hebrew speakers, many Jewish immigrants still continue to speak their former languages—many immigrants from the Soviet Union continue to speak primarily Russian at home and many immigrants from Ethiopia continue to speak primarily Amharic at home.


title: Israeli Jews

text: Classical Hebrew is the language of most Jewish religious literature, such as the Tanakh (Bible) and Siddur (prayerbook).


title: Israeli Jews

text: Some prominent Israeli politicians such as David Ben-Gurion tried to learn Arabic, and the Mizrahi Jews spoke Judeo-Arabic although most of their descendants in Israel today only speak Hebrew.


title: Israeli Jews

text: Israel was established as a homeland for the Jewish people and is often referred to as the Jewish state. Israel's Declaration of Independence specifically called for the establishment of a Jewish state with equality of social and political rights, irrespective of religion, race, or sex. The notion that Israel should be constituted in the name of and maintain a special relationship with a particular group of people, the Jewish people, has drawn much controversy vis-à-vis minority groups living in Israel—the large number of Muslim and Christian Palestinians residing in Israel. Nevertheless, through the years many Israeli Jewish nationalists have based the legitimacy of Israel being a Jewish state on the Balfour Declaration and ancient historical ties to the land, asserting that both play particular roles as evidence under international law, as well as a fear that a hostile Arab world might be disrespectful of a Jewish minority—alleging a variety of possible harms up to and including genocide—were Israel to become a post-national "state for all its citizens".


title: Israeli Jews

text: Through the years, as Israel's continued existence as a "Jewish State" has relied upon the maintenance of a Jewish demographic majority, Israeli demographers, politicians and bureaucrats have treated Jewish population growth promotion as a central question in their research and policymaking.


title: Israeli Jews

text: The Law of Return is an Israeli legislation that grants all Jews and those of Jewish lineage the right to gain an Israeli citizenship and to settle in Israel. It was enacted by the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, on 5 July 1950, and the related Law of Citizenship in 1952. These two pieces of legislation contain expressions pertaining to religion, history and nationalism, as well as to democracy, in a combination unique to Israel. Together, they grant preferential treatment to Jews returning to their ancestral homeland.


title: Israeli Jews

text: The Law of Return declares that Israel constitutes a home not only for the inhabitants of the State, but also for all members of the Jewish people everywhere, be they living in poverty and fear of persecution or be they living in affluence and safety. The law declares to the Jewish people and to the world that the State of Israel welcomes the Jews of the world to return to their ancient homeland.


title: Israeli Jews

text: Currently, all the marriages and divorces in Israel (as well as within the Jewish community) are recognized by the Israeli Interior Ministry only if performed under an official recognized religious authority and only between a man and a woman of the same religion. The Jewish marriage and divorce in Israel are under the jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which defines a person's Jewish status strictly according to "halakha".


title: Israeli Jews

text: Civilian marriages are only officially sanctioned if performed abroad. As a result, it is not uncommon for couples who may for some reason not be able (or chose not) to get married in Israel to travel overseas to get married.


title: Israeli Jews

text: During its time of existence the legal settlement that gives the rabbinical courts the monopoly on conducting the marriages and divorces of the entire Israeli Jewish population has been a source of great criticism from the secular public in Israel, but also to the ardent support from the religious public. The main argument of the supporters of the law is that its cancellation will divide the Jewish people in Israel between the Jews who would marry and divorce each other within the Jewish religious authorities and the Jews who would marry and divorce each other within the civil marriages—which would not be registered or inspected by the religious authorities, and thus their children would be considered illegitimate to marry the children of the couples married within the religious court, from fear of them being considered Mamzer. Opponents of the law see it as a severe offense to the human civil rights made by the state of Israel.


title: Israeli Jews

text: However, common-law marriage is recognized by Israeli law, without restriction of ethnicity, religion or sex (that is, both for inter-sex and same-sex couples, and between a Jew and a non-Jew). Once, the status of common law marriage is proven and obtained, it gives a legal status almost equal to marriage.


title: Israeli Jews

text: National military service is mandatory for any Israeli over the age of 18, with the exception of the Arab Muslim and Christian population (currently estimated at around 20% of the Israeli population) and many ultra-Orthodox Jews (currently estimated at around 8% of the Israeli Jewish population and rising steeply). Druze and Circassian men are liable, by agreement with their community leaders. Members of the exempted groups can still volunteer, but very few do, except for the Bedouin where a relatively large number of men have tended to volunteer. The Israeli Jewish population and especially the secular Israeli Jewish population, is currently the only population group in Israel that has a mandatory military conscription for both men and women—a fact that has caused much resentment from within the Jewish community towards the non-serving population, some of which are demanding that all the Israeli citizens share an equal amount of responsibilities, whether in the Israeli army or as part of Sherut Leumi.


title: Israeli Jews

text: In addition, in the recent decades a growing minority from within the Israeli Jewish conscripts have denounced the mandatory enrollment and refused to serve, claiming that due to financial insecurities they feel that they need to be spending their time more productively pursuing their chosen studies or career paths. Some individual resentment may also be compounded by the typically low wages paid to conscripts—the current Israeli policies see National Service as a duty rendered to the country and its citizens, and therefore the Israeli army does not pay any wages to conscripts, but instead grants a low monthly allowance to the full-time national service personnel, depending on the type of their duty.


title: Israeli Jews

text: The Jewish National Fund is a private organization established in 1901 to buy and develop land in the Land of Israel for Jewish settlement; land purchases were funded by donations from world Jewry exclusively for that purpose. The JNF currently owns 13% of the land in Israel, while 79.5% is owned by the government (this land is leased on a non-discriminatory basis) and the rest, around 6.5%, is evenly divided between private Arab and Jewish owners. Thus, the Israel Land Administration (ILA) administers 93.5% of the land in Israel (Government Press Office, Israel, 22 May 1997). A significant portion of JNF lands were originally properties left behind by Palestinian "absentees" and as a result the legitimacy of some JNF land ownership has been a matter of dispute. The JNF purchased these lands from the State of Israel between 1949 and 1953, after the state took control of them according to the Absentee Properties Law. While the JNF charter specifies the land is for the use of the Jewish People, land has been leased to Bedouin herders. Nevertheless, JNF land policy has been criticized as discrimination. When the Israel Land Administration leased JNF land to Arabs, it took control of the land in question and compensated the JNF with an equivalent amount of land in areas not designated for development (generally in the Galilee and the Negev), thus ensuring that the total amount of land owned by the JNF remains the same. This was a complicated and controversial mechanism, and in 2004 use of it was suspended. After Supreme Court discussions and a directive by the Attorney General instructing the ILA to lease JNF land to Arabs and Jews alike, in September 2007 the JNF suggested reinstating the land-exchange mechanism.


title: Israeli Jews

text: While the JNF and the ILA view an exchange of lands as a long-term solution, opponents say that such maneuvers privatize municipal lands and preserve a situation in which significant lands in Israel are not available for use by all of its citizens. As of 2007, the High Court delayed ruling on JNF policy regarding leasing lands to non-Jews, and changes to the ILA-JNF relationship were up in the air. Adalah and other organizations furthermore express concern that proposed severance of the relation between the ILA and JNF, as suggested by Ami Ayalon, would leave the JNF free to retain the same proportion of lands for Jewish uses as it seeks to settle hundreds of thousands of Jews in areas with a tenuous Jewish demographic majority (in particular, 100,000 Jews in existing Galilee communities and 250,000 Jews in new Negev communities via the Blueprint Negev).


title: Israeli Jews

text: The main language used for communication among Israeli citizens and among the Israeli Jews is Modern Hebrew, a language that emerged in the late 19th century, based on different dialects of ancient Hebrew and influenced by Yiddish, Arabic, Slavic languages, and German.


title: Israeli Jews

text: Hebrew and Arabic are currently official languages of Israel. Government ministries publish all material intended for the public in Hebrew, with selected material translated into Arabic, English, Russian, and other languages spoken in Israel.


title: Israeli Jews

text: The country's laws are published in Hebrew, and eventually English and Arabic translations are published. Publishing the law in Hebrew in the official gazette ("Reshumot") is enough to make it valid. Unavailability of an Arabic translation can be regarded as a legal defense only if the defendant proves he could not understand the meaning of the law in any conceivable way. Following appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court, the use of Arabic on street signs and labels increased dramatically. In response to one of the appeals presented by Arab Israeli organizations, the Supreme Court ruled that although second to Hebrew, Arabic is an official language of the State of Israel, and should be used extensively. Today most highway signage is trilingual (Hebrew, Arabic, and English).


title: Israeli Jews

text: Hebrew is the standard language of communication at places of work except inside the Arab community, and among recent immigrants, foreign workers, and with tourists. The state's schools in Arab communities teach in Arabic according to a specially adapted curriculum. This curriculum includes mandatory lessons of Hebrew as foreign language from the 3rd grade onwards. Arabic is taught in Hebrew-speaking schools, but only the basic level is mandatory.


title: Israeli Jews

text: Critics of Israel as a Jewish nation state have suggested that it should adopt more inclusive and neutral symbolism for the national flag and anthem arguing that they exclude the non-Jewish citizens of Israel from their narrative of a national identity. Defenders of the flag say that many flags in Europe bear crosses (such as the flags of Sweden, Finland, Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Greece), while flags in predominantly Muslim countries bear distinctive Muslim symbols (such as Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Saudi Arabia).


title: Israeli Jews

text: Through the years some Israeli-Arab politicians have requested a reevaluation of the Israeli flag and Israeli national anthem, arguing that they cannot represent all citizens of Israel, including the Arab citizens of Israel. Although the proposals to change the flag have never been discussed in the state institutions, they do occasionally get to a public discussion, as part of the discussion on whether Israel is, as defined by the , "A Jewish and Democratic State", or if it must become, as demanded by certain circles, "a state of all its citizens". The demand to change the flag is seen among many Israelis as a threat to the very essence of the state. In relation to this, in 2001 the Israeli Minister of Education Limor Livnat ordered the enforcement of the flag amendment she initiated, and ordered the raising of the flag in the front of all schools in Israel, even those serving the Arab population.


title: Israeli Jews

text: As part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, over the years, various Palestinian terrorists have carried out attacks against Israeli Jews. Statistics from Btselem state that 3,500 Israelis have been killed and 25,000 have been wounded as a result of Palestinian violence since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. These figures include soldiers as well as civilians, including those killed in exchanges of gunfire. Israeli statistics listing 'hostile terrorist attacks' also include incidents which stones are thrown. Suicide bombings constituted just 0.5% of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the first two years of the Al Aqsa Intifada, though this percentage accounted for half of the Israelis killed in that period. According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were 56 terrorist attacks against Israelis from 1952 to 1967.


title: Israeli Jews

text: During the 1970s, numerous attacks against Israeli civilians were carried out by Palestinians from Lebanon. Notable incidents include the Coastal Road Massacre (25 adults and 13 children killed, 71 injured), the Avivim school bus massacre (3 adults and 9 children killed, 25 injured), the Kiryat Shmona massacre (9 adults and 9 children killed, 15 injured), the Lod Airport massacre (26 killed, 79 injured), and the Ma'alot massacre (8 adults and 23 children killed, 70 injured).


title: Israeli Jews

text: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists 96 fatal terror attacks against Israelis from September 1993 to September 2000, of which 16 were bombing attacks, resulting in 269 deaths.


title: Israeli Jews

text: During the Second Intifada, a period of increased violence from September 2000 to 2005, Palestinians carried out 152 suicide bombings and attempted to carry out over 650 more. Other methods of attack include launching Qassam rockets and mortars into Israel, kidnapping of both soldiers and civilians, including children, shootings, assassination, stabbings, stonings, and lynchings. As of November 2012, over 15,000 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that of the 1,010 Israelis killed between September 2000 and January 2005, 78 percent were civilians. Another 8,341 were injured in what the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to as terrorist attacks between 2000 and 2007.


title: Israeli Jews

text: In 2010, Israel honored the memory of all 3,971 Israeli civilian victims whom have been killed through Israel's history, as part of political violence, Palestinian political violence, and terrorism in general.


title: Israeli Jews

text: There are significant tensions between Arab citizens and their Jewish counterparts. Polls differ considerably in their findings regarding intercommunal relations.


title: Israeli Jews

text: On 29 April 2007 Haaretz reported that an "Israeli Democracy Institute" (IDI) poll of 507 people showed that 75% of "Israeli Arabs would support a constitution that maintained Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic state while guaranteeing equal rights for minorities, while 23% said they would oppose such a definition."


title: Israeli Jews

text: In contrast, a 2006 poll commissioned by "The Center Against Racism," showed negative attitudes towards Arabs, based on questions asked to 500 Jewish residents of Israel representing all levels of Jewish society. The poll found that: 63% of Jews believe Arabs are a security threat; 68% of Jews would refuse to live in the same building as an Arab; 34% of Jews believe that Arab culture is inferior to Israeli culture. Additionally, support for segregation between Jewish and Arab citizens was found to be higher among Jews of Middle Eastern origin than those of European origin. A more recent poll by the "Center Against Racism" (2008) found a worsening of Jewish citizens' perceptions of their Arab counterparts:


title: Israeli Jews

text: A 2007 poll conducted by Sami Smooha, a sociologist at Haifa University, in the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon War, found that:


title: Israeli Jews

text: Surveys in 2009 found a radicalization in the positions of Israeli Arabs towards the State of Israel, with 41% of Israeli Arabs recognizing Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state (down from 65.6% in 2003), and 53.7% believing Israel has a right to exist as an independent country (down from 81.1% in 2003). Polls also showed that 40% of Arab citizens engaged in Holocaust denial.


title: Israeli Jews

text: A 2010 Arab Jewish Relations Survey, compiled by Prof. Sami Smoocha in collaboration with the Jewish-Arab Center at the University of Haifa shows that:


title: Israeli Jews

text: A range of politicians, rabbis, journalists, and historians commonly refer to the 20–25% minority of Arabs in Israel as being a "fifth column" inside the state of Israel.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The history of Saudi Arabia as a nation state began with the emergence of the Al Saud dynasty in central Arabia in 1727 and the subsequent establishment of the Emirate of Diriyah. Pre-Islamic Arabia, the territory that constitutes modern Saudi Arabia, was the site of several ancient cultures and civilizations; the prehistory of Saudi Arabia shows some of the earliest traces of human activity in the world.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The world's second-largest religion, Islam, emerged in modern-day Saudi Arabia. In the early 7th century, the Islamic prophet Muhammad united the population of Arabia and created a single Islamic religious polity. Following his death in 632, his followers rapidly expanded the territory under Muslim rule beyond Arabia, conquering huge and unprecedented swathes of territory (from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to modern-day Pakistan in the east) in a matter of decades. Arab dynasties originating from modern-day Saudi Arabia founded the Rashidun (632–661), Umayyad (661–750), Abbasid (750–1517), and Fatimid (909–1171) caliphates, as well as numerous other dynasties in Asia, Africa, and Europe.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of mainly four distinct historical regions: Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia (Al-Ahsa), and Southern Arabia ('Asir). The modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, known in the West as Ibn Saud. Abdulaziz united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family. Saudi Arabia has since been an absolute monarchy governed along Islamist lines. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called "the Land of the Two Holy Mosques", in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca) and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the world's second largest oil producer (behind the US) and the world's largest oil exporter, controlling the world's second largest oil reserves and the sixth largest gas reserves.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: From 1902 until his death in 1953, Saudi Arabia's founding father, Abdulaziz, ruled the Emirate of Riyadh (1902–1913), the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa (1913–1921), the Sultanate of Nejd (1921–1926), the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (1926–1932), and as the King of Saudi Arabia (1932–1953).


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Salman's son and current crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, effectively controls the government. Mohammed has been responsible for the controversial Saudi intervention in the Yemeni Civil War. He has overseen a number of legal and social reforms in the country, while also seeking to diversify the economy with Saudi Vision 2030.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 63,000 years ago. Nevertheless, stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic age, along with fossils of other animals discovered at Ti's al Ghadah, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, might imply that hominids migrated through a "Green Arabia" between 300,000 and 500,000 years ago.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Archaeology has revealed some early settled civilizations: the Dilmun civilization on the east of the Arabian Peninsula, the Thamūd north of the Hejaz, the Kingdom of Kinda in the centre, and the Al-Magar civilization in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The earliest known events in Arabian history are migrations from the peninsula into neighbouring areas.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: There is also evidence from Timna (Israel) and (Jordan) that the local Qurayya/Midianite pottery originated within the Hejaz region of northwestern Saudi Arabia, which suggests that the biblical Midianites originally came from the Hejaz region of the peninsula, before expanding into Jordan and southern Israel.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: On 9 June 2020, the discovery of a 35-metre-long triangular megalithic monument in Dumat al-Jandal, dated back to the seventh millennium BC, presumably dedicated to ritual practices, was published in the journal "Antiquity". Archaeological researchers from France, Saudi Arabia, and Italy, headed by Olivia Munoz, believe that these findings illuminate a pastoralist nomadic lifestyle and a ritual used in prehistoric Arabia.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: In May 2021, archaeologists announced that a 350,000-year-old Acheulean site named An Nasim in the Hail region could be the oldest human habitation site in northern Saudi Arabia. The site was first discovered in 2015 using remote sensing and palaeohydrological modelling. It contains paleolake deposits related to Middle Pleistocene materials. 354 artefacts discovered by researchers, including hand axes, stone tools, and flakes, provide information about tool-making traditions of the earliest living humans inhabiting southwestern Asia. Besides, Paleolithic artefacts are similar to material remains uncovered at the Acheulean sites in the Nefud Desert.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was born in Mecca in about 570 and first began preaching in the city in 610, before migrating to Medina in 622. From there, he and his companions united the tribes of Arabia under the banner of Islam and created a single Arab Muslim religious polity in the Arabian Peninsula.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Following Muhammad's death in 632, Abu Bakr became leader of the Muslims as the first Caliph. After putting down a rebellion by the Arab tribes (known as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy"), Abu Bakr attacked the Byzantine Empire. On his death in 634, he was succeeded by Umar as caliph, followed by Uthman ibn al-Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib. The period of these first four caliphs is known as the Rashidun or "rightly guided" Caliphate ("al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn"). Under the Rashidun Caliphs, and, from 661, their Umayyad successors, the Arabs rapidly expanded the territory under Muslim control outside of Arabia. In a matter of decades, Muslim armies decisively defeated the Byzantine army and destroyed the Persian Empire, conquering huge swathes of territory from the Iberian peninsula to India. The political focus of the Muslim world then shifted to the newly conquered territories.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Nevertheless, Mecca and Medina remained the spiritually most important places in the Muslim world. The Quran requires every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it, as one of the five pillars of Islam, to make a pilgrimage, or Hajj, to Mecca during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah, at least once in his or her lifetime. The Masjid al-Haram (the Grand Mosque) in Mecca is the location of the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, and the Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet's Mosque) in Medina is the location of Muhammad's tomb; as a result, from the 7th century, Mecca and Medina became pilgrimage destinations for large numbers of Muslims from across the Muslim world.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: After the fall of the Umayyad empire in 750 CE, most of what was to become Saudi Arabia reverted to traditional tribal rule soon after the initial Muslim conquests, and remained a shifting patchwork of tribes and tribal emirates and confederations of varying durability.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Muawiyah I, the first Umayyad caliph, took an interest in his native Mecca, erecting buildings and digging wells. Under his Marwanid successors, Mecca became the abode of poets and musicians. Even then, Medina eclipsed Mecca in importance for much of the Umayyad period, as it was home to the new Muslim aristocracy. Under Yazid I, the revolt of Abd Allah bin al-Zubair brought Syrian troops to Mecca. An accident led to a fire that destroyed the Kaaba, which was later rebuilt by Ibn al-Zubair. In 747, a Kharidjit rebel from Yemen seized Mecca unopposed, but he was soon defeated by Marwan II. In 750, Mecca, along with the rest of the caliphate, passed to the Abbasids.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: From the 10th century (and, in fact, until the 20th century) the Hashemite Sharifs of Mecca maintained a state in the most developed part of the region, the Hejaz. Their domain originally comprised only the holy cities of Mecca and Medina but in the 13th century, it was extended to include the rest of the Hejaz. Although the Sharifs exercised at most times independent authority in the Hejaz, they were usually subject to the suzerainty of one of the major Islamic empires of the time. In the Middle Ages, these included the Abbasids of Baghdad, and the Fatimids, Ayyubids, and Mamluks of Egypt.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Beginning with Selim I's acquisition of Medina and Mecca in 1517, the Ottomans, in the 16th century, added to their empire the Hejaz and Asir regions along the Red Sea and the al-Hasa region on the Persian Gulf coast, these being the most populous parts of what was to become Saudi Arabia. They also laid claim to the interior, although this remained a rather nominal suzerainty. The degree of control over these lands varied over the next four centuries, with the fluctuating strength or weakness of the empire's central authority. In the Hejaz, the Sharifs of Mecca were largely left in control of their territory (although there would often be an Ottoman governor and garrison in Mecca). On the eastern side of the country, the Ottomans lost control of the al-Hasa region to Arab tribes in the 17th century but regained it again in the 19th century. Throughout the period, the interior remained under the rule of a large number of petty tribal rulers in much the same way as it had in previous centuries.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The emergence of the Saudi dynasty began in central Arabia in 1727. In 1744, Muhammad ibn Saud, the tribal ruler of the town of Ad-Dir'iyyah near Riyadh, joined forces with the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabi movement. This alliance, formed in the 18th century, provided the ideological impetus to Saudi expansion and remains the basis of Saudi Arabian dynastic rule today. Over the next 150 years, the fortunes of the Saud family rose and fell several times as Saudi rulers contended with Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and other Arabian families for control of the peninsula.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The First Saudi State was established in 1727 in the area around Riyadh and briefly controlled most of the present-day territory of Saudi Arabia through conquests made between 1786 and 1816; these included Mecca and Medina.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Concerned at the growing power of the Saudis, the Ottoman Sultan Mustafa IV instructed his viceroy in Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha, to reconquer the area. Ali sent his sons Tusun Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha, who were eventually successful in routing the Saudi forces in 1818, and destroyed the power of the Al Saud.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The Al Saud returned to power in 1824, but their area of control was mainly restricted to the Saudi heartland of the Najd region, known as the Second Saudi State. However, their rule in Najd was soon contested by new rivals, the Rashidis of Ha'il. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the Al Saud and the Al Rashid fought for control of the interior of what was to become Saudi Arabia. By 1891, the Al Saud were conclusively defeated by the Al Rashid, who drove the Saudis into exile in Kuwait.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Meanwhile, in the Hejaz, following the defeat of the First Saudi State, the Egyptians continued to occupy the area until 1840. After they left, the Sharifs of Mecca reasserted their authority, albeit with the presence of an Ottoman governor and garrison.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: By the early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire continued to control or have suzerainty (albeit nominal) over most of the peninsula. Subject to this suzerainty, Arabia was ruled by a patchwork of tribal rulers (including the Al Saud who had returned from exile in 1902—see below) with the Sharif of Mecca having preeminence and ruling the Hejaz.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: In 1916, with the encouragement and support of Britain and France (which were fighting the Ottomans in the First World War), the sharif of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali, led a pan-Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, with the aim of securing Arab independence and creating a single unified Arab state spanning the Arab territories from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in Yemen.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The Arab army comprised bedouin and others from across the peninsula, but not the Al Saud and their allied tribes, who did not participate in the revolt partly because of a long-standing rivalry with the Sharifs of Mecca and partly because their priority was to defeat the Al Rashid for control of the interior. Nevertheless, the revolt played a part in the Middle-Eastern Front and tied down thousands of Ottoman troops, thereby contributing to the Ottomans' World War I defeat in 1918.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: However, with the subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, the British and French reneged on promises to Hussein to support a pan-Arab state. Although Hussein was acknowledged as King of the Hejaz, Britain later shifted support to the Al Saud, leaving him diplomatically and militarily isolated. The revolt, therefore, failed in its objective to create a pan-Arab state, but Arabia was freed from Ottoman suzerainty and control.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: In 1902, Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, leader of the Al Saud, returned from exile in Kuwait to resume the conflict with the Al Rashid, and seized Riyadh—the first of a series of conquests creating the Third Saudi State, and ultimately leading to the creation of the modern state of Saudi Arabia in 1930. The main weapon for achieving these conquests was the Ikhwan, the Wahhabist-Bedouin tribal army led by Sultan bin Bajad Al-Otaibi and Faisal al-Duwaish.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: By 1906, Abdulaziz had driven the Al Rashid out of Najd, and the Ottomans recognized him as their client in Najd. His next major acquisition was Al-Hasa, which he took from the Ottomans in 1913, bringing him control of the Persian Gulf coast and what would become Saudi Arabia's vast oil reserves. He avoided involvement in the Arab Revolt, having acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty in 1914, and instead continued his struggle with the Al Rashid in northern Arabia. In 1920, the Ikhwan's attention turned to the southwest, when they seized Asir, the region between the Hejaz and Yemen. In the following year, Abdul-Aziz finally defeated the Al Rashid and annexed all of northern Arabia.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Prior to 1923, Abdulaziz had not risked invading the Hejaz because Hussein bin Ali, King of the Hejaz, was supported by Britain. However, in that year, the British withdrew their support. At a conference in Riyadh in July 1924, complaints were stated against the Hejaz: principally, that pilgrimage from Najd was prevented. The Hejaz boycotted the implementation of certain public policy in contravention of "shari'a". Ikhwan units were massed on a large scale for the first time, and under Khalid bin Lu'ayy and Sultan bin Bajad, rapidly advanced on Mecca, laying waste symbols of "heathen" practices. The Ikhwan completed their conquest of the Hejaz by the end of 1925. On 10 January 1926, Abdulaziz declared himself King of the Hejaz and on 27 January 1927, he took the title King of Najd (his previous title was Sultan). The use of the Ikhwan to effect the conquest had important consequences for the Hejaz: the old cosmopolitan society was uprooted, and a version of Wahhabi culture was imposed as a new compulsory social order.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: By the Treaty of Jeddah, signed on 20 May 1927, the United Kingdom recognized the independence of Abdul-Aziz's realm (then known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Najd). After the conquest of the Hejaz, Ikhwan leaders wanted to continue the expansion of the Wahhabist realm into the British protectorates of Transjordan, Mandatory Iraq, and Kuwait. Abdul-Aziz, however, refused to agree to this, recognizing the danger of a direct conflict with the British. The Ikhwan therefore revolted but were defeated in the Battle of Sabilla in 1929, and the Ikhwan leadership were massacred.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: In 1932, the two kingdoms of the Hejaz and Najd were united as the "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia". Boundaries with Transjordan, Mandatory Iraq, and Kuwait were established by a series of treaties negotiated in the 1920s, with two "neutral zones" created, one with Iraq and the other with Kuwait. The country's southern boundary with Yemen was partially defined by the 1934 Treaty of Ta'if, which ended a brief border war between the two states.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Abdulaziz's military and political successes were not mirrored economically until vast reserves of oil were discovered in 1938 in the Al-Hasa region, along the Persian Gulf coast. Development began in 1941 and by 1949, production was in full swing.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: In February 1945, King Abdul Aziz met President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard the USS "Quincy" in the Suez Canal. A historic handshake agreeing on supplying oil to the United States in exchange for guaranteed protection to the Saudi regime is still in force today. It has survived seven Saudi kings and twelve US presidents.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Abdulaziz died in 1953. King Saud succeeded to the throne on his father's death in 1953. Oil provided Saudi Arabia with economic prosperity and a great deal of political leverage in the international community. At the same time, the government became increasingly wasteful and lavish. Despite the new wealth, extravagant spending led to governmental deficits and foreign borrowing in the 1950s.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: However, by the early 1960s, an intense rivalry between the King and his half-brother, Prince Faisal, emerged, fueled by doubts in the royal family over Saud's competence. As a consequence, Saud was deposed in favor of Faisal in 1964.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: The mid-1960s saw external pressures generated by Saudi-Egyptian differences over Yemen. When civil war broke out in 1962 between Yemeni royalists and republicans, Egyptian forces entered Yemen to support the new republican government, while Saudi Arabia backed the royalists. It is estimated that between 1962 and 1970, the monarchy in Saudi Arabia faced one of the gravest threats to its survival from Yemen. Meanwhile, Ahmad Shukeiri was relieved from his post as representative of Saudi Arabia at the UN after praising the fascist far-right organization Tacuara, and this embarrassed Arabs and caused Latin American objections.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Days before his dismissal, Hutchinson News reported that Arab diplomats, who claimed to be in close touch with the Saudi Arabian government, became so annoyed at Shukairy for his rash speech that they spoke of urging Saudi Prince Faisal to recall him. This case was not the first time they disapproved of his views and rhetoric.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Tensions with Yemen subsided only after 1967, when Egypt withdrew its troops from the country. Saudi forces did not participate in the Six-Day (Arab–Israeli) War of June 1967, but the government later provided annual subsidies to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to support their economies.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Saudi Arabia participated in the Arab oil boycott of the United States and other Western allies of Israel. A founding member of OPEC, Saudi Arabia voted in favor of the group's decision to moderate oil price increases beginning in 1971. After the 1973 war, the price of oil rose substantially, increasing Saudi Arabia's wealth and political influence.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Faisal was assassinated in 1975 by his nephew, Prince Faisal bin Musaid, and was succeeded by his half-brother King Khalid, during whose reign economic and social development continued at an extremely rapid rate, revolutionizing the infrastructure and educational system of the country; in foreign policy, close ties with the US resumed.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: In 1979, two events occurred that the Al Saud perceived as threatening the regime, and had a long-term influence on Saudi foreign and domestic policy. The first was the Iranian Islamic revolution. There were several anti-government riots in the region in 1979 and 1980. The second event was the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Islamist extremists. The militants involved were in part angered by what they considered to be the corruption and un-Islamic nature of the Saudi regime. Part of the response of the royal family was to enforce a much stricter observance of Islamic and traditional Saudi norms. Islamism continued to grow in strength.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: King Khalid died in June 1982 and was succeeded by his brother King Fahd in 1982. Fahd maintained Saudi Arabia's foreign policy of close cooperation with the United States and increased purchases of sophisticated military equipment from the US and Britain.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia joined the anti-Iraq coalition. King Fahd, fearing an attack from Iraq, invited soldiers from the US and 32 other countries to Saudi Arabia. Saudi and coalition forces also repelled Iraqi forces when they breached the Kuwaiti-Saudi border in 1991.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: In 1995, Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke and his half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, assumed day-to-day responsibility for the government. In 2003, Saudi Arabia refused to support the US and its allies in the invasion of Iraq. Terrorist activity within Saudi Arabia increased dramatically in 2003, with the Riyadh compound bombings and other attacks, which prompted the government to take more stringent action against terrorism. Abdullah, already regent, officially ascended to the throne upon the death of Fahd in 2005. Despite growing calls for change, King Abdullah continued the policy of moderate reform. He pursued a policy of limited deregulation, privatization, and seeking foreign investment. In December 2005, following twelve years of talks, the World Trade Organization gave the green light to Saudi Arabia's membership.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: As the Arab Spring unrest and protests began to spread across the Arab world in early 2011, King Abdullah announced an increase in welfare spending. No political reforms were announced as part of the package. At the same time, Saudi troops were sent to participate in the crackdown on unrest in Bahrain. King Abdullah gave asylum to deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and telephoned President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (prior to his deposition) to offer support. Abdullah also granted women the right to vote in municipal elections.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: King Abdullah died in 2015 and his half-brother Salman became king. The new king reorganized the government, abolishing several bureaucratic departments. King Salman involved Saudi Arabia in the Second Yemeni Civil War. Salman named his son Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince in 2017, and Mohammed has been assisting his father in the government ever since. Shortly after becoming crown prince, he detained 200 princes and businessmen in the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, stating that this was a move to prevent corruption in Saudi Arabia.


title: History of Saudi Arabia

text: Mohammed bin Salman has led Saudi Vision 2030, a plan to diversify the country's economy and move Saudi Arabia away from a dependence on oil revenues. He has also weakened the powers of the Saudi religious police and granted a number of rights to women in the country. For instance, Saudi women were given the right to drive in 2017 and in 2018, they were allowed to open their own business without the permission of a male guardian and to maintain custody of their children following a divorce. But Mohammed has also gained criticism for, among other things, his involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and human rights violations under his rule.


title: Three Witches

text: The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" (c. 1603–1607). The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise, and they hold a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology. Their origin lies in Holinshed's "Chronicles" (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland. Other possible sources, aside from Shakespeare, include British folklore, contemporary treatises on witchcraft as King James VI of Scotland's "Daemonologie", the Witch of Endor from the Bible, the Norns of Norse mythology, and ancient classical myths of the Fates: the Greek Moirai and the Roman Parcae.


title: Three Witches

text: Shakespeare's witches are prophets who hail Macbeth early in the play, and predict his ascent to kingship. Upon killing the king and gaining the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears them ambiguously predict his eventual downfall. The witches, and their "filthy" trappings and supernatural activities, set an ominous tone for the play.


title: Three Witches

text: Artists in the eighteenth century, including Henry Fuseli and William Rimmer, depicted the witches variously, as have many directors since. Some have exaggerated or sensationalised the hags, or have adapted them to different cultures, as in Orson Welles's rendition of the weird sisters as voodoo priestesses.


title: Three Witches

text: The name "weird sisters" is found in most modern editions of "Macbeth." However, the First Folio's text reads:


title: Three Witches

text: In later scenes in the First Folio, the witches are described as "weyward", but never "weird". The modern appellation "weird sisters" derives from Holinshed's original "Chronicles". However, modern English spelling was only starting to become fixed by Shakespeare's time and also the word "weird" (from Old English "wyrd", fate) had connotations beyond the modern common connotation of "eerie".


title: Three Witches

text: One of Shakespeare's principal sources is the Holinshed (1587) account of King Duncan. Holinshed described the future King Macbeth of Scotland and his companion Banquo encountering


title: Three Witches

text: Another principal source was the "Daemonologie" of King James published in 1597 which included a news pamphlet titled "Newes from Scotland" that detailed the infamous North Berwick witch trials of 1590. Not only had this trial taken place in Scotland, witches involved confessed to attempt the use of witchcraft to raise a tempest and sabotage the very boat King James and Queen Anne were on board during their return trip from Denmark. The three witches discuss the raising of winds at sea in the opening lines of Act 1, scene 3.


title: Three Witches

text: The concept of the Three Witches themselves may have been influenced by an Old Norse skaldic poem, in which twelve valkyries weave and choose who is to be slain at the Battle of Clontarf (fought outside Dublin in 1014).


title: Three Witches

text: Shakespeare's creation of the Three Witches may have also been influenced by an anti-witchcraft law passed by King James nine years previously, a law that was to stay untouched for over 130 years. His characters' "chappy fingers", "skinny lips", and "beards", for example, are not found in Holinshed.


title: Three Witches

text: Macbeth's Hillock near Brodie, between Forres and Nairn in Scotland, has long been identified as the mythical meeting place of Macbeth and the witches. Traditionally, Forres is believed to have been the home of both Duncan and Macbeth.


title: Three Witches

text: However, Coleridge proposed that the three weird sisters should be seen as ambiguous figures, never actually calling themselves 'witches', nor are they called 'witches' by other characters in the play. Moreover, they were depicted as more fair than foul both in Holinshed's account and in the description of a contemporary play-goer Simon Forman.


title: Three Witches

text: The Three Witches first appear in act 1, sc 1, where they agree to meet later with Macbeth. In act 1, sc 3, they greet Macbeth with a prophecy that he shall be king, and his companion, Banquo, with a prophecy that he shall generate a line of kings. The prophecies have great impact upon Macbeth. As the audience later learns, he has considered usurping the throne of Scotland.


title: Three Witches

text: Several non-Shakespearean moments are thought to have been intruded into "Macbeth" sometime ; these include all of act 3, sc 5 and act 4, sc 1, ℓℓ 39–43 and ℓℓ 125–132, as well as two songs.


title: Three Witches

text: In act 4, sc 1, the Witches gather and produce a series of ominous visions for Macbeth that herald his downfall. The meeting ends with a "show" of Banquo and his royal descendants. The Witches then vanish.


title: Three Witches

text: The Three Witches represent evil, darkness, chaos, and conflict, while their role is as agents and witnesses. They appear to have a warped sense of morality, deeming seemingly terrible acts to be moral, kind or right, such as helping one another to ruin the journey of a sailor. Their presence communicates treason and impending doom. During Shakespeare's day, witches were seen as worse than rebels, "the most notorious traitor and rebel that can be". They were not only political traitors, but spiritual traitors as well. Much of the confusion that springs from them comes from their ability to straddle the play's borders between reality and the supernatural. They are so deeply entrenched in both worlds that it is unclear whether they control fate, or whether they are merely its agents. They defy logic, not being subject to the rules of the real world.


title: Three Witches

text: are often said to set the tone for the remainder of the play by establishing a sense of moral confusion. Indeed, the play is filled with situations in which evil is depicted as good, while good is rendered evil. The line "Double, double toil and trouble," (often sensationalised to a point that it loses meaning), communicates the witches' intent clearly: they seek only to increase trouble for the mortals around them.


title: Three Witches

text: Though the witches do not directly tell Macbeth to kill King Duncan, they use a subtle form of temptation when they inform Macbeth that he is destined to be king. By placing this thought in his mind, they effectively guide him on the path to his own destruction. This follows the pattern of temptation attributed to the Devil in the contemporary imagination: the Devil was believed to be a thought in a person's mind, which he or she might either indulge or reject. Macbeth indulges the temptation, while Banquo rejects it.


title: Three Witches

text: In a version of "Macbeth" by William Davenant (1606–1668) a scene was added in which the witches tell Macduff and his wife of their future as well as several lines for the two before Macbeth's entrance in act 4. Most of these lines were taken directly from Thomas Middleton's play "The Witch". David Garrick kept these added scenes in his eighteenth-century version.


title: Three Witches

text: Horace Walpole created a parody of "Macbeth" in 1742 entitled "The Dear Witches" in response to political problems of his time. The witches in his play are played by three everyday women who manipulate political events in England through marriage and patronage, and manipulate elections to have Macbeth made Treasurer and Earl of Bath. In the final scene, the witches gather around a cauldron and chant "Double, double, Toil and Trouble / parties burn and Nonsense bubble." Into their concoction they throw such things as "Judgment of a Beardless Youth" and "Liver of a Renegade". The entire play is a commentary on the political corruption and irrationality surrounding the period.


title: Three Witches

text: Orson Welles' stage production of "Macbeth" sets the play in Haiti, and casts the witches as voodoo priestesses. As with earlier versions, the women are bystanders to the murder of Banquo, as well as Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene. Their role in each of these scenes suggests they were behind Macbeth's fall in a more direct way than Shakespeare's original portrays. The witches encroach further and further into his domain as the play progresses, appearing in the forest in the first scene and in the castle itself by the end. Directors often have difficulty keeping the witches from being exaggerated and overly-sensational.


title: Three Witches

text: Charles Marowitz created "A Macbeth" in 1969, a streamlined version of the play which requires only eleven actors. The production strongly suggests that Lady Macbeth is in league with the witches. One scene shows her leading the three to a firelight incantation.


title: Three Witches

text: In Eugène Ionesco's satirical version of the play "Macbett" (1972), one of the witches removes a costume to reveal that she is, in fact, Lady Duncan, and wants to be Macbeth's mistress. Once Macbeth is King and they are married, however, she abandons him, revealing that she was not Lady Duncan all along, but a witch. The real Lady Duncan appears and denounces Macbeth as a traitor.


title: Three Witches

text: The Spanish poet and playwright León Felipe wrote a version of Shakespeare's play in Spanish which significantly changes the witches' role, especially in the final scene. After Macbeth's death, the Three Witches reappear in the midst of wind and storm, which they have been associated with throughout the play, to claim his corpse. They carry it to a ravine and shout, "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! / We have an appointment with you in Hell!"


title: Three Witches

text: In the play, they also connect themselves to a painting by Francisco Goya called "Volaverunt", in which three mysterious figures are flying through the air and supporting a more discernible royal female figure.


title: Three Witches

text: Drawings contained in "Holinshed's Chronicles", one of the sources Shakespeare used when creating the characters, portray them as members of the upper class. They are wearing elaborate dresses and hairstyles and appear to be noblewomen as Macbeth and Banquo approach. Shakespeare seems to have diverted quite a bit from this image, making the witches (as Banquo says):


title: Three Witches

text: The Three Witches of "Macbeth" have inspired several painters over the years who have sought to capture the supernatural darkness surrounding Macbeth's encounters with them. For example, by the eighteenth century, belief in witches had waned in the United Kingdom. Such things were thought to be the simple stories of foreigners, farmers, and superstitious Catholics. However art depicting supernatural subjects was very popular.


title: Three Witches

text: John Runciman, as one of the first artists to use Shakespearean characters in his work, created an ink-on-paper drawing entitled "The Three Witches" in 1767–68. In it, three ancient figures are shown in close consultation, their heads together and their bodies unshown. Runciman's brother created another drawing of the witches called "The Witches show Macbeth The Apparitions" painted circa 1771–1772, portraying Macbeth's reaction to the power of the witches' conjured vision. Both brothers' work influenced many later artists by removing the characters from the familiar theatrical setting and placing them in the world of the story.


title: Three Witches

text: Henry Fuseli would later create one of the more famous portrayals of the Three Witches in 1783, entitled "The Weird Sisters or The Three Witches". In it, the witches are lined up and dramatically pointing at something all at once, their faces in profile. This painting was parodied by James Gillray in 1791 in "Weird Sisters; Ministers of Darkness; Minions of the Moon". Three figures are lined up with their faces in profile in a way similar to Fuseli's painting. However, the three figures are recognisable as Lord Dundas (the home secretary at the time), William Pitt (prime minister), and Lord Thurlow (Lord Chancellor). The three of them are facing a moon, which contains the profiled faces of George III and Queen Charlotte. The drawing is intended to highlight the insanity of King George and the unusual alliance of the three politicians.


title: Three Witches

text: Fuseli created two other works depicting the Three Witches for a Dublin art gallery in 1794. The first, entitled "Macbeth, Banquo and the Three Witches" was a frustration for him. His earlier paintings of Shakespearean scenes had been done on horizontal canvases, giving the viewer a picture of the scene that was similar to what would have been seen on stage. Woodmason requested vertical paintings, shrinking the space Fuseli had to work with. In this particular painting he uses lightning and other dramatic effects to separated Macbeth and Banquo from the witches more clearly and communicate how unnatural their meeting is. Macbeth and Banquo are both visibly terrified, while the witches are confidently perched atop a mound. Silhouettes of the victorious army of Macbeth can be seen celebrating in the background, but lack of space necessitates the removal of the barren, open landscape seen in Fuseli's earlier paintings for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery of the same scene.


title: Three Witches

text: Fuseli's other Macbeth Woodmason painting "Macbeth and the Armed Head" depicts a later scene in which Macbeth is shown MacDuff and warned to be wary of him. Fuseli evidently intended the two paintings to be juxtaposed. He said, "when Macbeth meets with the witches on the heath, it is terrible, because he did not expect the supernatural visitation; but when he goes to the cave to ascertain his fate, it is no longer a subject of terror." Fuseli chose to make MacDuff a near-likeness of Macbeth himself, and considered the painting one of his most poetic in that sense, asking,


title: Three Witches

text: At least fifteen operas have been based on "Macbeth", but only one is regularly performed today. This is "Macbeth", composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and premièred in Florence in 1847. In the opera, the Three Witches became a chorus of at least eighteen singers, divided into three groups. Each group enters separately at the start of the opera for the scene with Macbeth and Banquo; after the men's departure, they have a chorus of triumph which does not derive from Shakespeare. They reappear in act 3, when they conjure up the three apparitions and the procession of kings. When Verdi revised the opera for performance in Paris in 1865, he added a ballet (rarely performed nowadays) to this scene. In it, Hecate, a non-dancing character, mimes instructions to the witches before a final dance and Macbeth's arrival.


title: Three Witches

text: In Henry Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas" with libretto by Nahum Tate, the Sorceress addresses the two Enchantresses as "Wayward Sisters," identifying the three of them with the fates, as well as with the malevolent witches of Shakespeare's "Macbeth".


title: Three Witches

text: In "Dracula", three vampire women who live within in Dracula's castle are often dubbed the "Weird Sisters" by Johnathan Harker and van Helsing, though it's unknown if Bram Stoker intended them to be intentionally quoting Shakespeare. Most media these days just refer to them as the Brides of Dracula, likely to differentiate the characters.


title: Three Witches

text: In "Wyrd Sisters", a "Discworld" fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett these three witches and the Globe Theater now named "The Disc" are featured.


title: Three Witches

text: Orson Welles created a film version of the play in 1948, sometimes called the "Übermensch Macbeth", which altered the witches' roles by having them create a voodoo doll of Macbeth in the first scene. Critics take this as a sign that they control his actions completely throughout the film. Their voices are heard, but their faces are never seen, and they carry forked staves as dark parallels to the Celtic cross. Welles' voiceover in the prologue calls them "agents of chaos, priests of hell and magic". At the end of the film, when their work with Macbeth is finished, they cut off the head of his voodoo doll.


title: Three Witches

text: "Throne of Blood", a Japanese version filmed in 1958 by Akira Kurosawa, replaces the Three Witches with the Forest Spirit, an old hag who sits at her spinning wheel, symbolically entrapping Macbeth's equivalent, Washizu, in the web of his own ambition. She lives outside "The Castle of the Spider's Web", another reference to Macbeth's entanglement in her trap. Behind her hut, Washizu finds piles of rotting bones. The hag, the spinning wheel, and the piles of bones are direct references to the Noh play Adachigahara (also called Kurozuka), one of many artistic elements Kurosawa borrowed from Noh theatre for the film.


title: Three Witches

text: Roman Polanski's 1971 film version of "Macbeth" contained many parallels to his personal life in its graphic and violent depictions. His wife Sharon Tate had been murdered two years earlier by Charles Manson and three women. Many critics saw this as a clear parallel to Macbeth's murders at the urging of the Three Witches within the film.


title: Three Witches

text: "Scotland, PA", a 2001 parody film directed by Billy Morrissette, sets the play in a restaurant in 1970s Pennsylvania. The witches are replaced by three hippies who give Joe McBeth drug-induced suggestions and prophecies throughout the film using a Magic 8-Ball. After McBeth has killed his boss, Norm Duncan, one of them suggests, "I've got it! Mac should kill McDuff's entire family!" Another hippie sarcastically responds, "Oh, that'll work! Maybe a thousand years ago. You can't go around killing everybody."


title: Three Witches

text: In Joel Coen's 2021 film "The Tragedy of Macbeth", British actress Kathryn Hunter plays all three witches. Though mostly depicted as three personalities inside a single body, there are several instances where the witch divides into three distinct figures. Hunter worked extensively with Coen to develop a physicality for the witches, describing them as intermediate forms, in between human women and crows (crows are also frequently shown flying through scenes in the film).


title: Three Witches

text: The "Doctor Who" episode "The Shakespeare Code" (2007) features the inspiration for the three witches, members of an alien species called the Carrionites. Unlike humans or Time Lords, Carrionite science is based on words instead of numbers, thus their "witchcraft" is actually advanced technology.


title: Three Witches

text: The 2010s Netflix series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" depicts three teenage witches named Prudence, Agatha, and Dorcas, who are referred to as the Weird Sisters.


title: Three Witches

text: In the computer game "" (2015), the "Three Crones of Crookback Bog" make an appearance, referred to as the "ladies of the wood" or "the good ladies", called Whispess, Brewess and Weavess. Portrayed as old, grossly deformed women who wield ancient, powerful magic, they are malicious characters, able to shapeshift, and pose challenges to the game's protagonists. Within the first half of the game, they confront the titular figure with a prophecy about his ill fate, hinting at the outcome of the game if the player fails at the overarching quest.


title: Three Witches

text: "Come and Go", a short play written in 1965 by Samuel Beckett, recalls the Three Witches. The play features only three characters, all women, named Flo, Vi, and Ru. The opening line: “When did we three last meet?” recalls the “When shall we three meet again?” of "Macbeth" act 1, sc 1.


title: Three Witches

text: "The Third Witch", a 2001 novel written by Rebecca Reisert, tells the story of the play through the eyes of a young girl named Gilly – one of the witches. Gilly seeks Macbeth's death out of revenge for killing her father.


title: Three Witches

text: J. K. Rowling has cited the Three Witches as an influence in her "Harry Potter" series. In an interview with The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet, when asked, "What if [Voldemort] never heard the prophecy?", she said, "It's the 'Macbeth' idea. I absolutely adore 'Macbeth'. It is possibly my favourite Shakespeare play. And that's the question isn't it? If Macbeth hadn't met the witches, would he have killed Duncan? Would any of it have happened? Is it fated or did he make it happen? I believe he made it happen." On her website, she referred to "Macbeth" again in discussing the prophecy: "the prophecy (like the one the witches make to Macbeth, if anyone has read the play of the same name) becomes the catalyst for a situation that would never have occurred if it had not been made."


title: Patrick Labyorteaux

text: Patrick Francis Labyorteaux (born July 22, 1965) is an American actor, television producer and television writer. In many of his earlier credits, his last name is spelled as "Laborteaux". He is best known for his roles of Andrew "Andy" Garvey on the NBC series "Little House on the Prairie" as well as Bud Roberts on the CBS series "JAG" and "NCIS".


title: Patrick Labyorteaux

text: Labyorteaux was born on July 22, 1965, in Los Angeles, California to unknown biological parents. He was adopted by Ronald "Ron" Labyorteaux (1930–1992), a talent agent, and Frances Mae "Frankie" Labyorteaux (1927–2012), an actress who used the stage name Frances Marshall, at the age of nine months. Little is known of his personal life before he was adopted, though his adoptive mother commented that when they first met Labyorteaux, he was suffering from malnutrition and had been labeled "unadoptable" by social workers. His brother, Matthew Labyorteaux, was adopted by Ronald and Frances in 1967, when he was 10 months old, and his sister, Jane Labyorteaux, at an unknown date.


title: Patrick Labyorteaux

text: Labyorteaux, also credited as Patrick Laborteaux in his early career, starred on television and in film. His well-known TV roles are on the hit NBC series "Little House on the Prairie" as Andrew "Andy" Garvey from 1977–1981, and on the CBS hit series "JAG" as Lt. Cmdr. Bud Roberts from 1995 to 2005, a role he reprised in three episodes of "JAG"'s spin-off, "NCIS". Other TV shows on which he has made guest appearances include "Starsky & Hutch", "21 Jump Street", "Living Single", "Yes, Dear", "", "The Love Boat", "Ghost Whisperer", and "iCarly".


title: Patrick Labyorteaux

text: He starred in films as well. He played Patrick, great-nephew of Lucille Ball's character in the 1974 film "Mame". One of his well-known roles is in the 1987 comedy film "Summer School" as football player Kevin Winchester alongside future "JAG"/"NCIS" costar Mark Harmon. He appeared in the 1988 cult film "Heathers" as Ram Sweeney. He voices cartoons such as "Spider-Man: The Animated Series", "" and others.


title: Patrick Labyorteaux

text: Labyorteaux has been married to Tina Albanese, a TV producer, since 1998. Together, they have one child, a son named Jeau Bennett Labyorteaux (b. 2001).


title: Chris Raab

text: Christian Joseph Raab (born ), better known by his stage name Raab Himself, is an American television personality known as a former member of the CKY crew featured in the MTV series "Viva La Bam" and "Jackass".


title: Chris Raab

text: Raab was born in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The nickname "Raab Himself" was bestowed upon him by fellow CKY crew member Chris Aspite.


title: Chris Raab

text: Raab battled drug addiction and alcoholism, and was able to find sobriety later in life. He has since focused on other film projects, such as "Hotdog Casserole" and "Borrowed Happiness". Raab also appeared on Loudwire's "Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?" In 2018, he launched his own podcast, titled "Bathroom Break Podcast". Raab also launched his own video production company named Green Gate Entertainment.


title: Simon McBurney

text: Simon Montagu McBurney (born 25 August 1957) is an English actor, playwright, and theatrical director. He is the founder and artistic director of the Théâtre de Complicité, London. He has had roles in the films "The Manchurian Candidate", "Friends with Money", "The Last King of Scotland", "The Golden Compass", "The Duchess", "Robin Hood", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1", "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "Magic in the Moonlight", "The Theory of Everything", and "". He plays Cecil the choirmaster in BBC's "The Vicar of Dibley".


title: Simon McBurney

text: McBurney was born in Cambridge, England. His father, Charles McBurney, was an American archaeologist and academic of Scottish descent. His paternal great-grandfather was American surgeon Charles McBurney, who was credited with describing the medical sign McBurney's point. Simon McBurney's mother, Anne Francis Edmondstone (née Charles), was a British secretary of English, Scottish and Irish ancestry. His parents were distant cousins who met during World War II. His older brother is composer and writer Gerard McBurney.


title: Simon McBurney

text: He studied English literature at Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduating in 1980. After his father died, he moved to Paris and trained for the theatre at the Jacques Lecoq Institute.


title: Simon McBurney

text: McBurney is a founder and artistic director of the UK-based theatre company Complicite, which performs throughout the world. He directed their productions of "Street of Crocodiles" (1992); "The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol" (1994), which was adapted from the John Berger trilogy "Into Their Labors"; "To the Wedding" (another Berger collaboration); "Mnemonic" (1999); "The Elephant Vanishes" (2003); "A Disappearing Number" (2007); "A Dog's Heart" (2010); "The Master and Margarita" (2011), and "The Kid Stays in the Picture" (2017).


title: Simon McBurney

text: "A Disappearing Number" was a devised piece conceived and directed by McBurney, taking as its inspiration the story of the collaboration between two of the 20th century's most remarkable pure mathematicians, the Indian genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, and Cambridge don G.H. Hardy. It played at the Barbican in autumn 2008 and toured internationally. In February 2009, McBurney directed the Complicite production "Shun-kin", based on two texts by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. It was produced in London and Tokyo in 2010.


title: Simon McBurney

text: On a freelance basis, McBurney directed the following: "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" and "All My Sons" (2008) (both in New York City), and live comedy shows, including Lenny Henry's "So Much Things To Say" and French and Saunders' "Live in 2000".


title: Simon McBurney

text: McBurney is an established screen actor. He played the recurring role of Cecil the choirmaster in "The Vicar of Dibley", CIA computer whiz Garland in "Body of Lies", Dr. Atticus Noyle in "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004), British diplomat Nigel Stone in "The Last King of Scotland", the metrosexual husband Aaron in "Friends with Money", Fra Pavel in "The Golden Compass", Charles James Fox in "The Duchess", and Oliver Lacon in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". He also wrote the story and was an executive producer for "Mr. Bean's Holiday".


title: Simon McBurney

text: From 2010 to 2014, he appeared in the BBC comedy television series "Rev.", portraying the role of Archdeacon Robert. McBurney provided the voice of Kreacher in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" (2010). In the series "The Borgias", he portrayed the canon law expert Johannes Burchart. He is the Artiste Associé of the 66th Festival d'Avignon (2012). He starred in "The Encounter", about photographer Loren McIntyre becoming lost in the Javari Valley in Brazil and his experiences with locals, which premiered at the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival. In July 2015, he starred as Atlee, the director of MI6 in the film "", and in 2016, he portrayed paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse in the horror film sequel "The Conjuring 2".


title: Simon McBurney

text: In September 2019, the Complicité production of "The Encounter" was ranked by "The Guardian" writers as the 13th best theatre show since 2000.


title: Simon McBurney

text: In 2007, he met concert pianist Cassandra "Cassie" Yukawa. They have since married, and reside in Stroud, Gloucestershire, with their three children, having previously lived in north London. His sister-in-law is violinist Diane Yukawa.


title: Simon McBurney

text: In the 2005 New Year Honours, McBurney was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to Drama". He is an Ambassador for Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples' rights.


title: Noose

text: A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot tightens under load and can be loosened without untying the knot.


title: Noose

text: The knot can be used to secure a rope to a post, pole, or animal but only where the end is in a position that the loop can be passed over.


title: Noose

text: The knot is tied by forming a turn in the end of a rope, and then passing a bight in the standing part through. The noose knot is a slipped version of the overhand knot.


title: Noose

text: The knot most closely associated with execution is the hangman's knot, which is also known as the "hangman's noose".


title: Noose

text: Tying is similar to the original noose, but many turns are wrapped around the loop. The reason for this was to make the hanging more humane, as it would break the person's neck, killing the person instantly, rather than strangling them to death. A similar method is also commonly used for suicide. Search engines such as Google provide the number of a suicide helpline if a search for "how to tie a noose" is made.


title: Noose

text: In the United States, a noose is sometimes left as a message in order to intimidate people, as it was the main object used in segregation era lynchings. In 2020, a bill to make lynching a federal hate crime was introduced. It is illegal to display a noose in a threatening manner in Virginia, New York and Connecticut.


title: Noose

text: Austin Reed Edenfield, a former student of the University of Mississippi, pled guilty in 2016 to a federal civil-rights crime, acknowledging that he and Graeme Phillip Harris had tied a noose and a Confederate flag around the neck of a statue honoring James Meredith, the university's first African-American student. Harris was sentenced to prison and Edenfield to probation and community service.


title: Noose

text: In September 2019, Andrew M. Smith, a University of Illinois student, was arrested for placing a noose in a campus elevator. "The incident comes just months after black employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the campus, alleging they faced racial harassment and were exposed to threats of racial violence, such as nooses, swastikas, KKK garb, racist graffiti, and confederate flags." He was sentenced to supervision, public service, and a $75 fine.


title: Noose

text: In July 2020 a garage assigned to African-American NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace had been found to contain a "garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose". After the discovery, which was made by a crew member for Richard Petty Motorsports at the Alabama racetrack, NASCAR was alerted and contacted the FBI, which sent 15 agents to the track to investigate. After the FBI investigation the authorities said the rope had been hanging there since last fall and thus was not a hate crime targeting Wallace. The agencies said no crime was committed and the evidence did not support federal charges. The actions of NASCAR, especially NASCAR president Steve Phelps's claim of it being a hate crime without investigation have been criticized. Holman W. Jenkins Jr. on The Wall Street Journal claimed the controversy and media furor concerning the incident could have been prevented by not contacting FBI and NASCAR authorities quickly checking the video surveillance by themselves, since NASCAR already tightly controls and surveils access to its garages. In November 2022, a noose was found on an Obama Presidental Center construction site.


title: Dynasty (Kiss album)

text: Dynasty is the seventh studio album by American hard rock band Kiss, produced by Vini Poncia and released by Casablanca Records on May 23, 1979. It was the first time that the four original members of Kiss did not all perform together for the entire album.


title: Dynasty (Kiss album)

text: The album and the following tour were billed as the "Return of Kiss", as the band had not released a studio album since "Love Gun" in 1977. Instead, the band released their second live album, "Alive II", that same year, and each member had recorded eponymous solo albums, which were simultaneously released on September 18, 1978.


title: Dynasty (Kiss album)

text: Criss's disco influenced demo of his song "Dirty Livin'" (written in 1971) set the direction for the album project and Simmons and Stanley were briefly in contact with disco producer Giorgio Moroder, a friend of the band's manager Bill Aucoin before deciding on Vini Poncia.


title: Dynasty (Kiss album)

text: After pre-production and rehearsals were completed, Poncia (who had produced "Peter Criss") decided that Criss' drumming was substandard, an opinion shared by Stanley and Simmons. Criss was hindered by injuries to his hands that he had suffered in a 1978 car accident. Kiss hired the South African-born studio drummer Anton Fig, who played on "Ace Frehley", to play on the "Dynasty" sessions. "On "Dynasty", Peter was pretty much out of commission through drugs and alcohol, and he was not being nice to most people. I wouldn't point to it as a classic Kiss album." Except for his song "Dirty Livin' " (a rewrite of a song of the same title demoed during his pre-Kiss days in Lips), Criss does not play drums on the album, and he did not perform on another Kiss album until Simmons and Stanley allowed him to play on one song on "Psycho Circus" in 1998. Fig was again hired to replace Criss during recording sessions for the following album, "Unmasked". Eric Carr was hired as Criss' permanent replacement before the Unmasked Tour began.


title: Dynasty (Kiss album)

text: Frehley, who himself left the band three years later, played a more important role than Simmons on "Dynasty", singing three songs, "Hard Times", "Save Your Love" and a cover version of the Rolling Stones' song "2000 Man". Frehley is the only Kiss member to appear on those three songs, except for occasional backing vocals by Stanley. Although Frehley had frequently sung backing vocals and had written the Kiss classics "Cold Gin" and "Parasite", he had only previously been lead singer on his songs "Shock Me" on "Love Gun", and "Rocket Ride" on the studio side of "Alive II", as he lacked confidence in his ability as a lead singer.


title: Dynasty (Kiss album)

text: Stanley's "I Was Made for Lovin' You" was one of the band's most successful singles, peaking at No. 11 on the American "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. In eleven countries around the world, it reached the No. 1 or No. 2 spot. It was the first Kiss single to have a disco remix, as a 7-minute and 54-second version was released on a 12-inch single. He also sang on "Sure Know Something" and "Magic Touch". In contrast, Simmons sings lead vocals on only two songs: "Charisma" (which became a minor hit in Mexico) and "X-Ray Eyes".


title: Dynasty (Kiss album)

text: The album includes a colorful jacket cover which is a collage of photos taken from the photo session and not a group shot as it appears. The label shows a portrait of all four members instead of the usual Casablanca label. Inserts included a merchandise order form and a full-color poster.


title: Abhay (TV series)

text: Abhay is a ZEE5 Original Indian Hindi-language psychological crime thriller web series. Produced by B. P. Singh under Fiction Factory Productions, and directed by Ken Ghosh, the series marks the digital debut of Bollywood actor Kunal Khemu, who stars alongside , Sandeepa Dhar and Namit Das. The series revolves around officer Abhay Pratap Singh, an investigating officer with the mind of a criminal, who can go to any extent to solve a case. The first season comprised eight episodes and was released on ZEE5 on 7 February 2019.


title: Abhay (TV series)

text: Abhay 2 saw returning as the protagonist while Ram Kapoor and Chunky Pandey were seen playing the antagonist in the series. Besides them, the second season also stars Bidita Bag, Raghav Juyal, Indraneil Sengupta and Asheema Vadaan. Abhay 2 is produced by B.P. Singh, and directed by Ghosh was released on the same OTT platform on 14 August 2020.


title: Abhay (TV series)

text: Abhay Season 3, which released on ZEE5 on 8 April 2022, sees the stakes getting higher with Abhay facing a new unknown threat. Kunal Kemmu plays Abhay Pratap Singh with admirable composure in the eight-part crime thriller.


title: Abhay (TV series)

text: The story revolves around the life of SP Abhay Pratap Singh who solves different cases along with his team which includes Inspector Komal and some other officers. He has a son named Saahil towards whom Abhay is overprotective due to Abhay's past which includes officer Natasha and her informer Govind. Govind is back to take his revenge from Abhay who was the reason behind Govind's family's death. Will Abhay be able to solve all the cases? Or will he lose to Govind's quest for vengeance?


title: Abhay (TV series)

text: Set within a year after the events of the first season, Abhay continues to hunt vile murderers and monster with his trademark ingenuity, and novel deductions until an enigmatic criminal mastermind, with no name or past, turns his world upside down and traps him along with everyone else in a maze that will test the very fibre of Abhay's morality. He plays the villain's game better than the villain could have expected but still the game does what it is meant to. The Villain lies & tries to corrupt Abhay. It starts getting to Abhay, the pressure of saving the kids and his past secrets make him vulnerable, but even by the end he remains incorruptible


title: Abhay (TV series)

text: Abhay (Season 3) about Abhay facing a new unknown threat, a dark force capable of exploiting anyone in the name of a twisted belief. Abhay must now crackdown on more than just criminality. Abhay is in a mess of his own life and cannot forget the setbacks he has endured. Abhay Pratap Singh is the hunter and hunted in his third coming. This makes him even more fascinating.


title: Abhay (TV series)

text: The Abhay 2 web series, starring Kunal Khemu in the lead, became a controversial one for showing Indian Bengali freedom fighter Khudiram Bose, as a ‘criminal’ in one of its episode.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: Piyush Mishra (born as Priyakant Sharma; 13 January 1963) is an Indian actor, lyricist, playwright, musician and screenwriter.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: Mishra grew up in Gwalior, and graduated from National School of Drama, Delhi in 1986. Thereafter, he started his career in Hindi theatre in Delhi. Over the next decade, he established himself as a theatre director, actor, lyricist and singer. He moved to Mumbai in 2002, receiving acclaim for his acting in "Maqbool" (2003) and "Gangs of Wasseypur" (2012).


title: Piyush Mishra

text: As a film lyricist and singer, he is noted for his songs "Arre Ruk Ja Re Bandeh" in "Black Friday", (2004), "Aarambh Hai Prachand" in "Gulaal" (2009), "Ik Bagal" in "Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1", (2012), and "Husna" in "MTV Coke Studio", (2012).


title: Piyush Mishra

text: Mishra was born on 13 January 1963 in a Brahmin family in Gwalior to Pratap Kumar Sharma. He grew up as Priyakant Sharma and was adopted by his father's eldest sister Taradevi Mishra, who had no children. Later, his family moved into his aunt's house to ease financial burden. His parents admitted him to Carmel Convent School, Gwalior thinking that his education in a convent will help him excel in academics but it was activities like singing, painting and acting which appealed to him. Piyush later moved to Gwalior's JC Mills Higher Secondary School. However, living in the authoritative household of his aunt, developed a rebellious streak in him, which showed up in his first poem, "Zinda ho haan tum koi shak nahin" (Yes you are alive; of this there is no doubt), he wrote in class 8th. Later, while studying in class 10, he even filed an affidavit in the district court and changed his name to one his choice to Piyush Mishra.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: Around this time, he began to be drawn to theatre – it was at places like Kala Mandir and Rangshri Little Ballet Troupe in Gwalior that his talent for the medium was first identified. In spite of the appreciation he was beginning to receive in the theatre circles, his family kept insisting he concentrate on his studies. He took the entrance test to the National School of Drama, New Delhi in 1983, not with any particular desire to study but to get out of Gwalior. Thereafter he moved to Delhi, and joined National School of Drama, graduating in 1986. While at NSD, he got a chance to compose his first music score for a student play, "Mashreeki Hoor". His acting breakthrough came in his second year at NSD, when German director, Fritz Bennewitz (1926–95), directed him in the title role in "Hamlet" and introduced him to acting technique.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: After his graduation from NSD in 1986, Piyush Mishra started his career as a theatre actor in Delhi, and in 1990, helped start the theatre group Act One, with founder-director N. K. Sharma and stage actors like Manoj Bajpai, Gajraj Rao and Ashish Vidyarthi. In the following years he wrote and directed several plays as a part of Act One Theatre Group, including the acclaimed play, "Gagan Damama Bajiyo" (The Sky Resounds with the Call to Arms), based on freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, which was first performed in 1994, and upon publishing, sold its first edition in just seven days. In 1996 he joined Asmita Theatre Group, and performed his popular one-man shows "An Evening with Piyush Mishra". He wrote the lyrics for Asmita's popular plays. Piyush acted as "Maniac" in operation three star (an adaptation of Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist). Piyush is also known for his performance in Swadesh Deepak's "Court Martial" as Suraj Singh, first with Ranjeet Kapoor (1991) and later under the direction of Arvind Gaur (1996).


title: Piyush Mishra

text: By then, he had established himself as a theatre director and directed "Comedy of Terror" play for Shriram Centre Repertory Company, and also presented his solo act play at the National School of Drama's Annual Theatre Festival, Bharat Rang Mahotsav in 1999. Mishra briefly moved to Mumbai, as he acted in a television series, "Rajdhani" (1989), directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia for Star TV, and Shyam Benegal's "Bharat Ek Khoj" (1988) and horror TV serial "Kile ka Rahasya" (1989), though he returned to Delhi thereafter.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: Mishra made his debut as a film actor with Mani Ratnam's "Dil Se.." in 1998, he portrayed as C.B.I Investigation Officer. though he continued to stay in Delhi to pursue theatre. His transition from playwright to screenwriter happened when he wrote the dialogues for Rajkumar Santoshi's 2001 film "The Legend of Bhagat Singh", which was inspired in part by Mishra's critically acclaimed play on Bhagat Singh – "Gagan Damama Bajyo". It won him the Zee Cine Award for Best Dialogue (2003). Meanwhile, he moved to Mumbai in November 2002, where he went on to establish a career as a film lyricist, screenwriter and as an actor. He started writing lyrics with the film, "Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar" in 2002, and subsequently wrote for "Black Friday" (2004), "Aaja Nachle" and "Tashan".


title: Piyush Mishra

text: Mishra won accolades for his performance as Kaka in Vishal Bhardwaj's 2003 film "Maqbool", an adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth". He wrote his own dialogues for his performance as Hafeez (Huffy) Bhai in "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" (2007), and delivered them in poetry style.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: Mishra again appeared in Anurag Kashyap's 2009 movie "Gulaal", a movie based on Indian youth, politics, caste-prejudice, and other such social topics. He played Prithvi, the poet brother of Dukey Bana (played by Kay Kay Menon), in the movie. This was a role he executed with aplomb. He also wrote the lyrics for the songs in the movie, and sung few of them as well and was also the music director of the film. He has acted in Rockstar alongside Ranbir Kapoor and was known as the 'Image is everything...everything is Image' guy. He acted and wrote lyrics of some songs for the movie "Gangs of Wasseypur". His songs are very high on poetic content and have received critical appreciation from all sections of audiences and critics.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: In 2014, he acted in the film "The Shaukeens", along with Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor, Lisa Haydon in the lead role, which had Akshay Kumar in an extended cameo. Piyush also appeared in The Kapil Sharma Show to promote the film with Anupam Kher and Annu Kapoor. Although the film was a remake of the 1982 film " Shaukeen" directed by Basu Chatterjee, it was well appreciated by audience and was voted the best comedy film of 2014.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: In its pure essence, Ballimaaraan is Piyush Mishra's homage to "Mirza Ghalib" in musical form. They perform Piyush's songs from his theatre days and are known to do a superb rendition of ‘Aarambh Hai Pranchand’, ‘Husna’, ‘Ghar’, and ‘Ik Bagal Mein Chand’. Ballimaaraan have been performing all over India in numerous literature festivals and college concerts for the last 4 years. Their USPs are thought-provoking lyrics, catchy percussions and soul-stirring themes.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: Ballimaaraan is the name of Mirza Ghalib's street in Delhi. Piyush Mishra is a big fan of his work and has spent a lot of time in Delhi and that's why he wanted to name the band Ballimaaraan. Initially they had even thought of 'Inquilab' but then decided to go for Ballimaaraan.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: He used to perform these songs during his theatre days in Delhi. The songs started becoming pretty famous and it struck a chord with the youngsters. It all started because of a fanboy in Chandigarh Nishant Agarwal, who Piyush had met about 6 years ago in a literature festival singing Piyush Mishra's compositions for him. That's where the entire idea of forming a band came up and Piyush asked Nishant, the guitar player to move to Mumbai about 4 years ago to begin the journey of 'Ballimaaraan'. That's when found 'Jayant Patnaik' who handles the responsibility to the rhythm section of the band playing Tabla, Cajon, Dholak, Pakhawaj, etc. and Lubhanu Priy who plays the keyboard/piano for the band. The backbone of the band remains the manager & 'SFX Singer' Mr. Rahul Gandhi.


title: Piyush Mishra

text: He married Priya Narayanan in 1995, whom he met in 1992 while directing a play at the School of Planning and Architecture. He lives in Goregaon East, Mumbai with his wife, who is an architect and two sons Josh who is studying at Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Mumbai and Jai.


title: Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

text: Raiden () is a fictional character in the "Mortal Kombat" fighting game series by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. Based on the Japanese deity Raijin, he is depicted as the god of thunder who possesses control over lightning. He debuted in the original 1992 game and has appeared as a playable character in every main installment except "Mortal Kombat 3" (1995) and its first update.


title: Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

text: In the storyline of the games, Raiden is the protector of Earthrealm. He fulfills his duty by selecting and training the warriors who defend Earthrealm from various threats, while also participating directly in the realm's defense. Raiden generally serves as a mentor figure to the franchise's heroes, although he sometimes assumes a darker role in the story, which sees him become more ruthless in his protection of the realm.


title: Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

text: One of the franchise's central characters, Raiden has appeared in various related media outside of the "Mortal Kombat" games, including guest appearances in "NBA Jam Tournament Edition" (1995), "NFL Blitz" (1997), "" (2005), and "Injustice 2" (2017). He has received a positive reception and is among the series' most popular characters.


title: Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

text: When Earthrealm was young, Raiden was its protector. He fought the rogue Elder God Shinnok, who wished to overthrow his fellow gods, in a war that threatened to destroy Earthrealm. With the aid of the Elder Gods, Raiden managed to defeat Shinnok, then banished him to the Netherealm and secured his amulet of power in a secret location — a Temple of the Elements tucked away in Nepal's highest mountains. Raiden charged four gods with guarding the amulet — the gods of Wind, Fire, Earth, and Water. When Bi-Han, the elder Sub-Zero, stole Shinnok's amulet from the temple for the sorcerer Quan Chi several millennia later, Raiden appeared before the Lin Kuei warrior and ordered him to enter the Netherealm to steal it back as his powers do not work there, lest Shinnok use it to free himself. Sub-Zero's mission was a success and Shinnok's threat was averted for a time. However, it was later revealed that Quan Chi had acquired the real amulet and gave Sub-Zero a counterfeit, which Raiden never realized.


title: Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

text: In the original "Mortal Kombat", Raiden is invited to compete in the titular tournament by its grandmaster sorcerer Shang Tsung. Raiden accepts and takes on a human form to compete. In "Mortal Kombat II", watching events unfold from above, Raiden realizes Outworld emperor Shao Kahn's intentions. He warns the surviving members of the original tournament, Liu Kang and Kung Lao, of Shao Kahn's threat before venturing to Outworld. Despite Shao Kahn taking every soul on Earth as his own, Raiden was able to protect the souls of Liu Kang and other chosen warriors. Initially unable to participate due to the merger of Outworld and Earthrealm, Raiden sacrifices his immortality in order to help his chances against the Kahn after the Elder Gods refuse to assist him in "Mortal Kombat Trilogy". In the end, Shao Kahn's forces are defeated and Earthrealm is restored to its original state.


title: Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

text: In "Mortal Kombat 4", following Outworld's failed invasion, Shinnok, with the aid of Quan Chi, again sought to rise from the Netherealm and conquer the other realms. However, with Liu Kang again uniting Earthrealm's warriors, Raiden's Forces of Light emerge successful. Now granted the status of Elder God, Raiden turns over his position as Earthrealm's protector to his brother, the wind god Fujin.


title: Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

text: In "", Raiden could not interfere when the titular alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi kill Liu Kang due to his Elder God status. Disgusted by his fellow Elder Gods for their refusal to intervene, Raiden relinquishes his position and gathers Kung Lao, Sub-Zero, Jax Briggs, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, and Kitana to stop the sorcerers. However, Raiden's allies except Sub-Zero are all slain.