title: Merlot

text: While Merlot is made across the globe, there tend to be two main styles. The "International style" favored by many New World wine regions tends to emphasize late harvesting to gain physiological ripeness and produce inky, purple colored wines that are full in body with high alcohol and lush, velvety tannins with intense, plum and blackberry fruit. While this international style is practiced by many Bordeaux wine producers, the traditional "Bordeaux style" of Merlot involves harvesting Merlot earlier. This maintains the acidity and produces more medium-bodied wines with moderate alcohol levels that have fresh, red fruit flavors (raspberries, strawberries) and potentially leafy, vegetal notes.


title: Merlot

text: The earliest recorded mention of Merlot (under the synonym of "Merlau") was in the notes of a local Bordeaux official who in 1784 labeled wine made from the grape in the Libournais region as one of the area's best. In 1824, the word "Merlot" itself appeared in an article on Médoc wine where it was described that the grape was named after the local black bird (called "merlau" in the local variant of Occitan language, "merle" in standard) who liked eating the ripe grapes on the vine. Other descriptions of the grape from the 19th century called the variety "lou seme doù flube" (meaning "the seedling from the river") with the grape thought to have originated on one of the islands found along the Garonne river.


title: Merlot

text: By the 19th century it was being regularly planted in the Médoc on the "Left Bank" of the Gironde. After a series of setbacks that includes a severe frost in 1956 and several vintages in the 1960s lost to rot, French authorities in Bordeaux banned new plantings of Merlot vines between 1970 and 1975.


title: Merlot

text: It was first recorded in Italy around Venice under the synonym "Bordò" in 1855. The grape was introduced to the Swiss, from Bordeaux, sometime in the 19th century and was recorded in the Swiss canton of Ticino between 1905 and 1910. In the 1990s, Merlot saw an upswing of popularity in the United States. Red wine consumption, in general, increased in the US following the airing of the "60 Minutes" report on the French Paradox and the potential health benefits of wine and, possibly, the chemical resveratrol. The popularity of Merlot stemmed in part from the relative ease in pronouncing the name of the wine as well as its softer, fruity profile that made it more approachable to some wine drinkers.


title: Merlot

text: In the late 1990s, researchers at University of California, Davis, showed that Merlot is an offspring of Cabernet Franc and is a half-sibling of Carménère, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. The identity of the second parent of Merlot wouldn't be discovered till the late 2000s when an obscure and unnamed variety, first sampled in 1996 from vines growing in an abandoned vineyard in Saint-Suliac in Brittany, was shown by DNA analysis to be the mother of Merlot.


title: Merlot

text: This grape, later discovered in front of houses as a decorative vine in the villages of Figers, Mainxe, Saint-Savinien and Tanzac in the Poitou-Charentes, was colloquially known as "Madeleina" or "Raisin de La Madeleine" due to its propensity to be fully ripe and ready for harvest around the July 22nd feast day of Mary Magdalene. As the connection to Merlot became known, the grape was formally registered under the name Magdeleine Noire des Charentes. Through its relationship with Magdeleine Noire des Charentes, Merlot is related to the Southwest France wine grape Abouriou, though the exact nature of that relationship (with Abouriou potentially being either a parent of Magdeleine Noire or an offspring) is not yet known.


title: Merlot

text: Grape breeders have used Merlot crossed with other grapes to create several new varieties including Carmine (an Olmo grape made by crossing a Carignan x Cabernet Sauvignon cross with Merlot), Ederena (with Abouriou), Evmolpia (with Mavrud), Fertilia (with Raboso Veronese), Mamaia (a Romanian wine grape made by crossing a Muscat Ottonel x Babeasca negra cross with Merlot), Nigra (with Barbera), Prodest (with Barbera) and Rebo (with Teroldego).


title: Merlot

text: Over the years, Merlot has spawned a color mutation that is used commercially, a pink-skinned variety known as "Merlot gris". However, unlike the relationship between Grenache noir and Grenache blanc or Pinot noir and Pinot blanc, the variety known as Merlot blanc is not a color mutation but rather an offspring variety of Merlot crossing with Folle blanche.


title: Merlot

text: Merlot grapes are identified by their loose bunches of large berries. The color has less of a blue/black hue than Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and with a thinner skin and fewer tannins per unit volume. It normally ripens up to two weeks earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon. Also compared to Cabernet, Merlot grapes tend to have a higher sugar content and lower malic acid. Ampelographer J.M. Boursiquot has noted that Merlot has seemed to inherit some of the best characteristics from its parent varieties—its fertility and easy ripening ability from Magdeleine Noire des Charentes and its color, tannin and flavor phenolic potential from Cabernet Franc.


title: Merlot

text: Merlot thrives in cold soil, particularly ferrous clay. The vine tends to bud early which gives it some risk to cold frost and its thinner skin increases its susceptibility to the viticultural hazard of Botrytis bunch rot. If bad weather occurs during flowering, the Merlot vine is prone to develop coulure. The vine can also be susceptible to downy mildew (though it has better resistance to powdery mildew than other Bordeaux varieties) and to infection by leafhopper insect varieties.


title: Merlot

text: Water stress is important to the vine with it thriving in well-drained soil more so than at base of a slope. Pruning is a major component to the quality of the wine that is produced with some producing believing it is best to prune the vine "short" (cutting back to only a few buds). Wine consultant Michel Rolland is a major proponent of reducing the yields of Merlot grapes to improve quality. The age of the vine is also important, with older vines contributing character to the resulting wine.


title: Merlot

text: A characteristic of the Merlot grape is the propensity to quickly overripen once it hits its initial ripeness level, sometimes in a matter of a few days. There are two schools of thought on the right time to harvest Merlot. The wine makers of Château Pétrus favor early picking to best maintain the wine's acidity and finesse as well as its potential for aging. Others, such as Rolland, favor late picking and the added fruit body that comes with a little bit of over-ripeness.


title: Merlot

text: Merlot is one of the world's most widely planted grape variety with plantings of the vine outpacing even the more well-known Cabernet Sauvignon in many regions, including the grape's homeland of France. Here, France is home to nearly two thirds of the world's total plantings of Merlot. Beyond France it is also grown in Italy (where it is the country's 5th most planted grape), Algeria, California, Romania, Australia, Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Greece, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Slovenia, Mexico and other parts of the United States such as Washington, Virginia and Long Island. It grows in many regions that also grow Cabernet Sauvignon but tends to be cultivated in the cooler portions of those areas. In areas that are too warm, Merlot will ripen too early.


title: Merlot

text: In places like Israel, Merlot is the second most widely planted grape variety after Cabernet Sauvignon with in cultivation, making very "New World-style" wines. The grape can also be found in Turkey with in 2010 as well as Malta and Cyprus.


title: Merlot

text: Merlot is the most commonly grown grape variety in France. In 2004, total French plantations stood at . By 2017, that number had dropped slightly to . It is most prominent in Southwest France in regions like Bordeaux, Bergerac and Cahors where it is often blended with Malbec. The largest recent increase in Merlot plantations has occurred in the south of France, such as Languedoc-Roussillon, where it is often made under the designation of "Vin de Pays" wine. Here, Merlot accounted for , more than doubling the devoted to Cabernet Sauvignon in the Languedoc.


title: Merlot

text: In the traditional Bordeaux blend, Merlot's role is to add body and softness. Despite accounting for 50-60% of overall plantings in Bordeaux, the grape tends to account for an average of 25% of the blends—especially in the Bordeaux wine regions of Graves and Médoc. Of these Left Bank regions, the commune of St-Estephe uses the highest percentage of Merlot in the blends. However, Merlot is much more prominent on the Right Bank of the Gironde in the regions of Pomerol and Saint-Émilion, where it will commonly comprise the majority of the blend. One of the most famous and rare wines in the world, Château Pétrus, is almost all Merlot. In Pomerol, where Merlot usually accounts for around 80% of the blend, the iron-clay soils of the region give Merlot more of a tannic backbone than what is found in other Bordeaux regions. It was in Pomerol that the "garagistes" movement began with small-scale production of highly sought after Merlot-based wines. In the sandy, clay-limestone-based soils of Saint-Émilion, Merlot accounts for around 60% of the blend and is usually blended with Cabernet Franc. In limestone, Merlot tends to develop more perfume notes while in sandy soils the wines are generally softer than Merlot grown in clay dominant soils. Merlot can also be found in significant quantities in Provence, Loire Valley, Savoie, Ardèche, Charente, Corrèze, Drôme, Isère and Vienne.


title: Merlot

text: In Italy, there were of the grape planted in 2000 with more than two-thirds of Italian Merlot being used in "Indicazione geografica tipica" (IGT) blends (such as the so-called "Super Tuscans") versus being used in classified "Denominazione di origine controllata" (DOC) or "Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita" (DOCG) wines. A large portion of Merlot is planted in the Friuli wine region where it is made as a varietal or sometimes blended with Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc. In other parts of Italy, such as the Maremma coast in Tuscany, it is often blended with Sangiovese to give the wine a similar softening effect as the Bordeaux blends.


title: Merlot

text: Italian Merlots are often characterized by their light bodies and herbal notes. Merlot's low acidity serves as a balance for the higher acidity in many Italian wine grapes with the grape often being used in blends in the Veneto, Alto Adige and Umbria. Global warming is potentially having an influence on Italian Merlot as more cooler-climate regions in northern Italy are being able to ripen the grape successfully while other regions already planted are encountering issues with over-ripeness.


title: Merlot

text: According to Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, some of the higher quality Italian Merlots are often from vineyards planted with cuttings sourced from France. Robinson describes the style of Fruili Merlots from regarded estates as having potentially a "Pomerol-quality" to them while Merlots from the warm plains of the Veneto can often be over-ripe with high yields giving them a "sweet and sour" quality. Robinson notes that the Merlots from Trentino-Alto-Adige can fall somewhere between those of Friuli and the Veneto. The "Strada del Merlot" is a popular tourist route through Italian Merlot regions along the Isonzo river.


title: Merlot

text: In the hot continental climate of many of Spain's major wine regions, Merlot is less valued than it is in the damp maritime climate of Bordeaux or the warm Mediterranean climate of the Tuscan coast. But as the popularity of international varieties continue to grow on the world wine market, Spanish wine producers have been experimenting with the variety with even winemakers in Rioja petitioning authorities to allow Merlot to be a permitted grape to be blended with Tempranillo in the red wines of the region.


title: Merlot

text: In 2008, there were of Merlot, a significant increase from the that were being cultivated in the country only 4 years earlier. In 2015, this had dropped slightly to , making Merlot the eighth most planted red grape variety in Spain. The largest concentration of the grape is in the Mediterranean climate of Catalonia and the continental climate of Castilla–La Mancha, with significant plantings also in Navarra and Aragon. In Costers del Segre, the grape is often used in Bordeaux-style blends while in Aragon, Navarra, and Castilla-La Mancha it is sometimes blended with Tempranillo and other local Spanish wine grape varieties.


title: Merlot

text: In Germany, there were of Merlot growing in 2008 with the grape mostly planted in the warmer German wine regions of the Palatinate and Rheinhessen.


title: Merlot

text: In Switzerland, Merlot accounts for nearly 85% of the wine production in Ticino where it is often made in a pale "white Merlot" style. In 2009, there were plantings of Swiss Merlot.


title: Merlot

text: Plantings of Merlot have increased in recent years in the Austrian wine region of Burgenland where vineyards previously growing Welschriesling are being uprooted to make room for more plantings. The grape still lags behind its parent variety, Cabernet Franc, with in cultivation in 2008. Outside of Burgenland, nearly half of all Austrian Merlot plantings are found in Lower Austria.


title: Merlot

text: In the Eastern European countries of Bulgaria, Moldova, Croatia and Romania, Merlot is often produced as a full bodied wine that can be very similar to Cabernet Sauvignon. In Bulgaria, plantings of Merlot lag slightly behind Cabernet Sauvignon with in 2009 while Croatia had . In the Czech Republic, most of the country's were found in Moravia while Moldova had in 2009.


title: Merlot

text: In Slovenia, Merlot was the most widely planted grape variety of any color in the Vipava Valley in the Slovene Littoral and the second most widely planted variety in the Gorizia Hills located across the Italian border from Friuli. In the Slovene Littoral, collectively, Merlot accounts for around 15% of total vineyard plantings with of Merlot in cultivation across Slovenia in 2009.


title: Merlot

text: In Hungary, Merlot complements Kékfrankos, Kékoportó and Kadarka as a component in Bull's Blood. It is also made into varietal wine known as "Egri Médoc Noir" which is noted for its balanced acid levels and sweet taste. In 2009, there were of Merlot planted across Hungary. Most of these hectares can be found in the wine regions of Szekszárd and Villány on the warm Pannonian Basin with significant plantings also found in Kunság, Eger and Balaton.


title: Merlot

text: In Romania, Merlot is the most widely exported red wine grape variety with in cultivation in 2008. Most of these plantings are found along the Black Sea in Dobruja, further inland in the Muntenia region of Dealu Mare and in the western Romanian wine region of Drăgășani. Here the grape is often made a varietal but is sometimes blended with other international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and with local grape varieties such as Fetească neagră.


title: Merlot

text: Portugal, has only a very limited amount of Merlot compared to the abundance of native Portuguese grape varieties with planted in 2010, mostly in the Portuguese wine regions along the Tagus river.


title: Merlot

text: In Greece, Merlot is one of the top six grape varieties planted in the eastern wine regions of Macedonia ()and Western Thrace (). In central Greece, there were of Merlot in cultivation as of 2012.


title: Merlot

text: Merlot is grown across the United States—as of 2015, it is the fourth most planted wine grape—with California and Washington growing the most. Other regions producing significant quantities of Merlot include New York State with in 2006 with most of it in the maritime climate of the Long Island AVA and multiple regions in Ohio. In Texas, Merlot is the second most widely planted red wine grape after Cabernet Sauvignon with . In Virginia, the grape was the most widely planted red variety with in 2010, most of it in the Monticello AVA and Shenandoah Valley AVA, while Oregon had in 2008 with most planted in the Rogue Valley AVA.


title: Merlot

text: In the early history of California wine, Merlot was used primarily as a 100% varietal wine until winemaker Warren Winiarski encouraged taking the grape back to its blending roots with Bordeaux style blends. Others saw its potential as a stand-alone labeled varietal: The first wineries to market Merlot as a varietal in the post WWII period were Louis M. Martini winery, which made a non-vintage dated Merlot, a blend of the 1968 and 1970 vintages, and Sterling Vineyards, which issued the first Merlot with a vintage, 1969 —Sterling's winemaker, Ric Forman, was an early advocate of Merlot as a varietal bottling. Following the "Merlot wine craze" of the 1990s, sparked by "60 Minutes" French Paradox report, sales of Merlot spiked, with the grape plantings of over in 2004. The 2004 movie "Sideways", where the lead character is a Pinot noir fan who expresses his disdain of Merlot, has been connected with declining Merlot sales in the US after its release (and an even larger spike of interest in Pinot noir). By 2010, plantings of California Merlot had dropped slightly to . Following that dip, Merlot plantings rebounded, totaling approximately 39,000 acres in 2020.


title: Merlot

text: In California, Merlot can range from very fruity simple wines (sometimes referred to by critics as a "red Chardonnay") to more serious, barrel aged examples. It can also be used as a primary component in Meritage blends.


title: Merlot

text: While Merlot is grown throughout the state, it is particularly prominent in Napa, Monterey and Sonoma County. In Napa, examples from Los Carneros, Mount Veeder, Oakville and Rutherford tend to show ripe blackberry and black raspberry notes. Sonoma Merlots from Alexander Valley, Carneros and Dry Creek Valley tend to show plum, tea leaf and black cherry notes.


title: Merlot

text: In the 1980s, Merlot helped put the Washington wine industry on the world's wine map. Prior to this period there was a general perception that the climate of Washington State was too cold to produce red wine varietals. Merlots from Leonetti Cellar, Andrew Will, Columbia Crest and Chateau Ste. Michelle demonstrated that areas of the Eastern Washington were warm enough for red wine production. Today it is the second most widely grown red wine grape in the state (after Cabernet Sauvignon), following many years of being the most widely planted variety, and accounts for nearly one fifth of the state's entire production. In 2011, there were of Washington Merlot in cultivation.


title: Merlot

text: It is widely planted throughout the Columbia Valley AVA but has earned particular notice from plantings grown in Walla Walla, Red Mountain and the Horse Heaven Hills. Washington Merlots are noted for their deep color and balanced acidity. The state's climate lends itself towards long days and hours of sunshine with cool nights that contributes to a significant diurnal temperature variation and produces wines with New World fruitiness and Old World structure.


title: Merlot

text: In Canada, Merlot can be found across the country from Ontario, where there were of the grape in 2008, to British Columbia, where the grape is the most widely planted wine grape variety of either color at . Here Merlot accounts for almost a third of all red wine grape plantings and is used for both varietal and Bordeaux-style blends.


title: Merlot

text: In Mexico, Merlot is cultivated primarily in the Valle de Guadalupe of Baja California, the country's main wine-producing area. Plantings have increased substantially since the 1980s, and cultivation has spread into the nearby areas of Ojos Negros and Santo Tomás. The grape can also be found in the north eastern Mexican wine region of Coahuila, across the border from Texas.


title: Merlot

text: In Chile, Merlot thrives in the Apalta region of Colchagua Province. It is also grown in significant quantities in Curicó, Casablanca and the Maipo Valley. Until the early 1990s, the Chilean wine industry mistakenly sold a large quantity of wine made from the Carménère grape as Merlot. Following the discovery that many Chilean vineyards thought to be planted with Sauvignon blanc was actually Sauvignonasse, the owners of the Chilean winery Domaine Paul Bruno (who previously worked with Château Margaux and Château Cos d'Estournel) invited ampelographers to comb through their vineyards to make sure that their wines were properly identified. Genetic studies discovered that much of what had been grown as Merlot was actually Carménère, an old French variety that had gone largely extinct in France due to its poor resistance to phylloxera. While the vines, leaves and grapes look very similar, both grapes produce wines with distinct characteristics—Carménère being more strongly flavored with green pepper notes and Merlot having softer fruit with chocolate notes.


title: Merlot

text: Today, "true" Merlot is the third most widely planted grape variety in Chile after Cabernet Sauvignon and Listán Prieto with in 2009. Most of these planting are in the Central Valley with Colchagua leading the way with followed by Maule Valley with and Curicó with .


title: Merlot

text: In Uruguay, Merlot is often blended with Tannat and is the 2nd most widely planted red grape variety, representing around 10% of total vineyard plantings. More widely planted than Cabernet Sauvignon, there were of the grape in cultivation in 2009. Brazil is home to of Merlot (as of 2007) with most of them in the Rio Grande do Sul region that is across the border with Uruguay. Other South American wine regions growing Merlot include Bolivia with as of 2012 and Peru.


title: Merlot

text: In Argentina, Merlot plantings have been increasing in the Mendoza region with the grape showing an affinity to the Tupungato region of the Uco Valley. Argentine Merlots grown in the higher elevations of Tunpungato have shown a balance of ripe fruit, tannic structure and acidity. The grape is not as widely planted here due to the natural fruity and fleshiness of the popular Malbec and Douce noir/Bonarda grapes that often don't need to be "mellowed" by Merlot as Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc may benefit from. In 2008, there were of Merlot growing in Argentina, most of it in the Mendoza region and in the San Juan Province.


title: Merlot

text: In New Zealand, plantings of Merlot have increased in the Hawke's Bay region, particularly in Gimblett Gravels where the grape has shown the ability to produce Bordeaux-style wine. The grape has been growing in favor among New Zealand producers due to its ability to ripen better, with less green flavors, than Cabernet Sauvignon. Other regions with significant plantings include Auckland, Marlborough and Martinborough. In 2008, Merlot was the second most widely red grape variety (after Pinot noir) in New Zealand and accounted for nearly 5% of all the country's plantings with in cultivation.


title: Merlot

text: In Australia, some vineyards labeled as "Merlot" were discovered to actually be Cabernet Franc. Merlot vines can also be found growing in the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Wrattonbully in South Australia. In 2008, it was the third most widely planted red grape variety after Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon with . As in California, the global "Merlot craze" spurred an increase of plantings, most of it in the warm, irrigated regions of Murray Darling, Riverina and Riverland where the grape variety could be mass-produced. Recent plantings, such as those in the Margaret River area of Western Australia have been focusing on making more Bordeaux-style blends.


title: Merlot

text: In South Africa, plantings of Merlot have focused on cooler sites within the Paarl and Stellenbosch regions. Here the grape is the third most widely planted red grape variety, accounting for nearly 15% of all red wine grape plantings, with of Merlot in cultivation in 2008. The majority of these plantings are found in the Stellenbosch region with and Paarl with . According to wine expert Jancis Robinson, South African Merlot tend to be made as a varietal in a "chocolately, glossy California style".


title: Merlot

text: In Asia, Merlot is planted in emerging wine regions in India. It can also be found in Japan with in 2009 and in China with .


title: Merlot

text: As a varietal wine, Merlot can make soft, velvety wines with plum flavors. While Merlot wines tend to mature faster than Cabernet Sauvignon, some examples can continue to develop in the bottle for decades. There are three main styles of Merlot—a soft, fruity, smooth wine with very little tannins; a fruity wine with more tannic structure; and, finally, a brawny, highly tannic style made in the profile of Cabernet Sauvignon. Some of the fruit notes commonly associated with Merlot include cassis, black and red cherries, blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, mulberry, ollalieberry and plum. Vegetable and earthy notes include black and green olives, cola nut, bell pepper, fennel, humus, leather, mushrooms, rhubarb and tobacco. Floral and herbal notes commonly associated with Merlot include green and black tea, eucalyptus, laurel, mint, oregano, pine, rosemary, sage, sarsaparilla and thyme. When Merlot has spent significant time in oak, the wine may show notes of caramel, chocolate, coconut, coffee bean, dill weed, mocha, molasses, smoke, vanilla and walnut.


title: Merlot

text: White Merlot is made the same way as White Zinfandel. The grapes are crushed, and after very brief skin contact, the resulting pink juice is run off the must and is then fermented. It normally has a hint of raspberry. White Merlot was reputedly first marketed in the late 1990s. In Switzerland, a type of White Merlot is made in the Ticino region but has been considered more a rosé.


title: Merlot

text: White Merlot should not be confused with the grape variety Merlot blanc, which is a cross between Merlot and Folle blanche that was discovered in 1891, nor should it be confused with the white mutant variety of the Merlot grape.


title: Merlot

text: In food and wine pairings, the diversity of Merlot can lend itself to a wide array of matching options. Cabernet-like Merlots pair well with many of the same things that Cabernet Sauvignon would pair well with, such as grilled and charred meats. Softer, fruitier Merlots (particularly those with higher acidity from cooler climate regions like Washington State and Northeastern Italy) share many of the same food-pairing affinities with Pinot noir and go well with dishes like salmon, mushroom-based dishes and greens like chard and radicchio. Light-bodied Merlots can go well with shellfish like prawns or scallops, especially if wrapped in a protein-rich food such as bacon or prosciutto. Merlot tends not to go well with strong and blue-veined cheeses that can overwhelm the fruit flavors of the wine. The capsaicins of spicy foods can accentuate the perception of alcohol in Merlot and make it taste more tannic and bitter.


title: Merlot

text: Over the years, Merlot has been known under many synonyms across the globe, including Bégney, Bidal, Bidalhe, Bigney, Bigney rouge, Bini, Bini Ruzh, Bioney, Bordeleza belcha, Crabutet, Crabutet noir, Crabutet noir merlau, Hebigney, Higney, Higney rouge, Langon, Lecchumskij, Médoc noir, Merlau, Merlaut, Merlaut noir, Merle, Merle Petite, Merleau, Merlô, Merlot noir, Merlot black, Merlot blauer, Merlot crni, Merlot nero, Merlott, Merlou, Odzalesi, Odzhaleshi, Odzhaleshi Legkhumskii, Petit Merle, Picard, Pikard, Plan medre, Planet Medok, Plant du Médoc, Plant Médoc, Saint-Macaire, Same de la Canan, Same dou Flaube, Sème de la Canau, Sème Dou Flube, Semilhon rouge, Semilhoum rouge, Semilhoun rouge, Sémillon rouge, Sud des Graves, Vidal, Vini Ticinesi, Vitrai and Vitraille.


title: Good and evil

text: In religion, ethics, philosophy, and psychology "good and evil" is a very common dichotomy. In cultures with Manichaean and Abrahamic religious influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic antagonistic opposite of good, in which good should prevail and evil should be defeated. In cultures with Buddhist spiritual influence, both good and evil are perceived as part of an antagonistic duality that itself must be overcome through achieving "Śūnyatā" meaning emptiness in the sense of recognition of good and evil being two opposing principles but not a reality, emptying the duality of them, and achieving a oneness.


title: Good and evil

text: Evil is often used to denote profound immorality. Evil has also been described as a supernatural force. Definitions of evil vary, as does the analysis of its motives. However, elements that are commonly associated with evil involve unbalanced behavior involving expediency, selfishness, ignorance, or neglect.


title: Good and evil

text: The modern philosophical questions regarding good and evil are subsumed into three major areas of study: meta-ethics concerning the nature of good and evil, normative ethics concerning how we ought to behave, and applied ethics concerning particular moral issues.


title: Good and evil

text: Every language has a word expressing "good" in the sense of "having the right or desirable quality" (ἀρετή) and "bad" in the sense "undesirable". A sense of moral judgment and a distinction "right and wrong, good and bad" are cultural universals.


title: Good and evil

text: The philosopher Zoroaster simplified the pantheon of early Iranian gods into two opposing forces: Ahura Mazda (Illuminating Wisdom) and Angra Mainyu (Destructive Spirit) which were in conflict.


title: Good and evil

text: This idea developed into a religion which spawned many sects, some of which embraced an extreme dualistic belief that the material world should be shunned and the spiritual world should be embraced. Gnostic ideas influenced many ancient religions which teach that "gnosis" (variously interpreted as enlightenment, salvation, emancipation or 'oneness with God') may be reached by practising philanthropy to the point of personal poverty, sexual abstinence (as far as possible for "hearers", total for "initiates") and diligently searching for wisdom by helping others.


title: Good and evil

text: Similarly, in ancient Egypt, there were the concepts of Ma'at, the principle of justice, order, and cohesion, and Isfet, the principle of chaos, disorder, and decay, with the former being the power and principles which society sought to embody where the latter was such that undermined society. This correspondence can also be seen reflected in ancient Mesopotamian religion as well in the conflict between Marduk and Tiamat.


title: Good and evil

text: In Western civilisation, the basic meanings of κακός and ἀγαθός are "bad, cowardly" and "good, brave, capable", and their absolute sense emerges only around 400 BC, with pre-Socratic philosophy, in particular Democritus. Morality in this absolute sense solidifies in the dialogues of Plato, together with the emergence of monotheistic thought (notably in "Euthyphro", which ponders the concept of piety (τὸ ὅσιον) as a moral absolute). The idea was further developed in Late Antiquity by Neoplatonists, Gnostics, and Church Fathers.


title: Good and evil

text: This development from the relative or habitual to the absolute is also evident in the terms "ethics" and "morality" both being derived from terms for "regional custom", Greek ήθος and Latin "mores", respectively (see also "siðr").


title: Good and evil

text: According to the classical definition of Augustine of Hippo, sin is "a word, deed, or desire in opposition to the eternal law of God."


title: Good and evil

text: Many medieval Christian theologians both broadened and narrowed the basic concept of "Good and evil" until it came to have several, sometimes complex definitions such as:


title: Good and evil

text: The modern English word "evil" (Old English ) and its cognates such as the German and Dutch are widely considered to come from a Proto-Germanic reconstructed form of "*ubilaz", comparable to the Hittite "huwapp-" ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European form and suffixed zero-grade form . Other later Germanic forms include Middle English , , , Old Frisian (adjective and noun), Old Saxon , Old High German , and Gothic .


title: Good and evil

text: The nature of "being good" has been given many treatments; one is that the good is based on the natural love, bonding, and affection that begins at the earliest stages of personal development; another is that goodness is a product of knowing truth. Differing views also exist as to why evil might arise. Many religious and philosophical traditions claim that evil behavior is an "aberration" that results from the imperfect human condition (e.g. "The Fall of Man"). Sometimes, evil is attributed to the existence of free will and human agency. Some argue that evil itself is ultimately based in an ignorance of truth (i.e., human value, sanctity, divinity). A variety of thinkers have alleged the opposite, by suggesting that evil is learned as a consequence of tyrannical social structures.


title: Good and evil

text: In Confucianism and Taoism, there is no direct analogue to the way good and evil are opposed, although references to demonic influence is common in Chinese folk religion. Confucianism's primary concern is with correct social relationships and the behavior appropriate to the learned or superior man. Evil would thus correspond to wrong behavior. Still less does it map into Taoism, in spite of the centrality of dualism in that system, but the opposite of the basic virtues of Taoism (compassion, moderation, and humility) can be inferred to be the analogue of evil in it.


title: Good and evil

text: Pyrrhonism holds that good and evil do not exist by nature, meaning that good and evil do not exist within the things themselves. All judgments of good and evil are relative to the one doing the judging.


title: Good and evil

text: Spinoza assumes a quasi-mathematical style and states these further propositions which he purports to prove or demonstrate from the above definitions in part IV of his "Ethics" :


title: Good and evil

text: Friedrich Nietzsche, in a rejection of Judeo-Christian morality, addresses this in two books, "Beyond Good and Evil" and "On the Genealogy of Morals". In these works, he states that the natural, functional, "non-good" has been socially transformed into the religious concept of evil by the "slave mentality" of the masses, who resent their "masters", the strong. He also critiques morality by saying that many who consider themselves to be moral are simply acting out of cowardice – wanting to do evil but afraid of the repercussions.


title: Good and evil

text: Carl Jung, in his book "Answer to Job" and elsewhere, depicted evil as the "dark side of the Devil". People tend to believe evil is something external to them, because they project their shadow onto others. Jung interpreted the story of Jesus as an account of God facing his own shadow.


title: Good and evil

text: In 2007, Philip Zimbardo suggested that people may act in evil ways as a result of a collective identity. This hypothesis, based on his previous experience from the Stanford prison experiment, was published in the book "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil".


title: Good and evil

text: The Baháʼí Faith asserts that evil is non-existent and that it is a concept for the lacking of good, just as cold is the state of no heat, darkness is the state of no light, forgetfulness the lacking of memory, ignorance the lacking of knowledge. All of these are states of lacking and have no real existence.


title: Good and evil

text: Thus, evil does not exist, and is relative to man. `Abdu'l-Bahá, son of the founder of the religion, in Some Answered Questions states:


title: Good and evil

text: "Nevertheless, a doubt occurs to the mind—that is, scorpions and serpents are poisonous. Are they good or evil, for they are existing beings? Yes, a scorpion is evil in relation to man; a serpent is evil in relation to man; but in relation to themselves they are not evil, for their poison is their weapon, and by their sting they defend themselves."


title: Good and evil

text: Thus, evil is more of an intellectual concept than a true reality. Since God is good, and upon creating creation he confirmed it by saying it is Good (Genesis 1:31) evil cannot have a true reality.


title: Good and evil

text: Christian theology draws its concept of evil from the Old and New Testaments. The Christian Bible exercises “the dominant influence upon ideas about God and evil in the Western world.” In the Old Testament, evil is understood to be an opposition to God as well as something unsuitable or inferior such as the leader of the fallen angels Satan. In the New Testament the Greek word "poneros" is used to indicate unsuitability, while "kakos" is used to refer to opposition to God in the human realm. Officially, the Catholic Church extracts its understanding of evil from its canonical antiquity and the Dominican theologian, Thomas Aquinas, who in "Summa Theologica" defines evil as the absence or privation of good. French-American theologian Henri Blocher describes evil, when viewed as a theological concept, as an "unjustifiable reality. In common parlance, evil is 'something' that occurs in experience that "ought not to be"."


title: Good and evil

text: In Mormonism, mortal life is viewed as a test of faith, where one's choices are central to the Plan of Salvation. See Agency (LDS Church). Evil is that which keeps one from discovering the nature of God. It is believed that one must choose not to be evil to return to God.


title: Good and evil

text: Christian Science believes that evil arises from a misunderstanding of the goodness of nature, which is understood as being inherently perfect if viewed from the correct (spiritual) perspective. Misunderstanding God's reality leads to incorrect choices, which are termed evil. This has led to the rejection of any separate power being the source of evil, or of God as being the source of evil; instead, the appearance of evil is the result of a mistaken concept of good. Christian Scientists argue that even the most "evil" person does not pursue evil for its own sake, but from the mistaken viewpoint that he or she will achieve some kind of good thereby.


title: Good and evil

text: There is no concept of absolute evil in Islam, as a fundamental universal principle that is independent from and equal with good in a dualistic sense. Within Islam, it is considered essential to believe that all comes from God, whether it is perceived as good or bad by individuals; and things that are perceived as "evil" or "bad" are either natural events (natural disasters or illnesses) or caused by humanity's free will to disobey God's orders.


title: Good and evil

text: According to the Ahmadiyya understanding of Islam, evil does not have a positive existence in itself and is merely the lack of good, just as darkness is the result of lack of light.


title: Good and evil

text: In Judaism, "yetzer hara" is the congenital inclination to do evil, by violating the will of God. The term is drawn from the phrase "the imagination of the heart of man [is] evil" (, "yetzer lev-ha-adam ra"), which occurs twice at the beginning of the Torah. Genesis 6:5 and 8:21. The Hebrew word "yetzer" having appeared twice in Genesis occurs again at the end of the Torah: "I knew their devisings that they do". Thus from beginning to end the heart's "yetzer" is continually bent on evil, a profoundly pessimistic view of the human being. However, the Torah which began with blessing anticipates future blessing which will come as a result of God circumcising the heart in the latter days.


title: Good and evil

text: In traditional Judaism, the "yetzer hara" is not a demonic force, but rather man's misuse of things the physical body needs to survive. Thus, the need for food becomes gluttony due to the "yetzer hara". The need for procreation becomes promiscuity, and so on. The "yetzer hara" could thus be best described as one's baser instincts.


title: Good and evil

text: According to the Talmudic tractate Avot de-Rabbi Natan, a boy's evil inclination is greater than his good inclination until he turns 13 (bar mitzvah), at which point the good inclination is "born" and able to control his behavior. Moreover, the rabbis have stated: "The greater the man, the greater his [evil] inclination."


title: Good and evil

text: Buddhist ethics are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the enlightened perspective of the Buddha, or other enlightened beings such as Bodhisattvas. The Indian term for ethics or morality used in Buddhism is "Śīla" or "sīla" (Pāli). "Śīla" in Buddhism is one of three sections of the Noble Eightfold Path, and is a code of conduct that embraces a commitment to harmony and self-restraint with the principal motivation being nonviolence, or freedom from causing harm. It has been variously described as virtue, moral discipline and precept.


title: Good and evil

text: "Sīla" is an internal, aware, and intentional ethical behavior, according to one's commitment to the path of liberation. It is an ethical compass within self and relationships, rather than what is associated with the English word "morality" (i.e., obedience, a sense of obligation, and external constraint).


title: Good and evil

text: "Sīla" is one of the three practices foundational to Buddhism and the non-sectarian Vipassana movement; "sīla," "samādhi", and "paññā" as well as the Theravadin foundations of "sīla", "dāna", and "bhavana". It is also the second "pāramitā". "Sīla" is also wholehearted commitment to what is wholesome. Two aspects of "sīla" are essential to the training: right "performance" ("caritta"), and right "avoidance" ("varitta"). Honoring the precepts of "sīla" is considered a "great gift" (mahadana) to others, because it creates an atmosphere of trust, respect, and security. It means the practitioner poses no threat to another person's life, property, family, rights, or well-being.


title: Good and evil

text: Moral instructions are included in Buddhist scriptures or handed down through tradition. Most scholars of Buddhist ethics thus rely on the examination of Buddhist scriptures, and the use of anthropological evidence from traditional Buddhist societies, to justify claims about the nature of Buddhist ethics.


title: Good and evil

text: In Hinduism the concept of dharma or righteousness clearly divides the world into good and evil, and clearly explains that wars have to be waged sometimes to establish and protect dharma, this war is called Dharmayuddha. This division of good and evil is of major importance in both the Hindu epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. However, the main emphasis in Hinduism is on bad action, rather than bad people. The Hindu holy text, the Bhagavad Gita, speaks of the balance of good and evil. When this balance goes off, divine incarnations come to help to restore this balance.


title: Good and evil

text: In adherence to the core principle of spiritual evolution, the Sikh idea of evil changes depending on one's position on the path to liberation. At the beginning stages of spiritual growth, good and evil may seem neatly separated. However, once one's spirit evolves to the point where it sees most clearly, the idea of evil vanishes and the truth is revealed. In his writings Guru Arjan explains that, because God is the source of all things, what we believe to be evil must too come from God. And because God is ultimately a source of absolute good, nothing truly evil can originate from God.


title: Good and evil

text: Nevertheless, Sikhism, like many other religions, does incorporate a list of "vices" from which suffering, corruption, and abject negativity arise. These are known as the Five Thieves, called such due to their propensity to cloud the mind and lead one astray from the prosecution of righteous action. These are:


title: Good and evil

text: One who gives in to the temptations of the Five Thieves is known as "Manmukh", or someone who lives selfishly and without virtue. Inversely, the "Gurmukh, who thrive in their reverence toward divine knowledge, rise above vice via the practice of the high virtues of Sikhism. These are:


title: Good and evil

text: In the originally Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, the world is a battle ground between the god Ahura Mazda (also called Ormazd) and the malignant spirit Angra Mainyu (also called Ahriman). The final resolution of the struggle between good and evil was supposed to occur on a day of Judgement, in which all beings that have lived will be led across a bridge of fire, and those who are evil will be cast down forever. In Afghan belief, angels and saints are beings sent to help us achieve the path towards goodness.


title: Good and evil

text: It is possible to treat the essential theories of value by the use of a philosophical and academic approach. In properly analyzing theories of value, everyday beliefs are not only carefully "catalogued" and "described", but also rigorously "analyzed" and "judged".


title: Good and evil

text: There are at least two basic ways of presenting a theory of value, based on two different kinds of questions:


title: Good and evil

text: The two questions are subtly different. One may answer the first question by researching the world by use of social science, and examining the preferences that people assert. However, one may answer the second question by use of reasoning, introspection, prescription, and generalization. The former kind of method of analysis is called "descriptive", because it attempts to describe what people actually view as good or evil; while the latter is called "normative", because it tries to actively prohibit evils and cherish goods. These descriptive and normative approaches can be complementary. For example, tracking the decline of the popularity of slavery across cultures is the work of descriptive ethics, while advising that slavery be avoided is normative.


title: Good and evil

text: Meta-ethics is the study of the fundamental questions concerning the nature and origins of the good and the evil, including inquiry into the nature of good and evil, as well as the meaning of evaluative language. In this respect, meta-ethics is not necessarily tied to investigations into how others see the good, or of asserting what is good.


title: Good and evil

text: A satisfying formulation of goodness is valuable because it might allow one to construct a good life or society by reliable processes of deduction, elaboration, or prioritization. One could answer the ancient question, "How should we then live?" among many other important related questions. It has long been thought that this question can best be answered by examining what it is that necessarily makes a thing valuable, or in what the source of value consists.


title: Good and evil

text: One attempt to define goodness describes it as a property of the world with Platonic idealism. According to this claim, to talk about the good is to talk about something real that exists in the object itself, independent of the perception of it. Plato advocated this view, in his expression that there is such a thing as an eternal realm of forms or ideas, and that the greatest of the ideas and the essence of being was goodness, or The good. The good was defined by many ancient Greeks and other ancient philosophers as a perfect and eternal idea, or blueprint. The good is the right relation between all that exists, and this exists in the mind of the Divine, or some heavenly realm. The good is the harmony of a just political community, love, friendship, the ordered human soul of virtues, and the right relation to the Divine and to Nature. The characters in Plato's dialogues mention the many virtues of a philosopher, or a lover of wisdom.


title: Good and evil

text: A theist is a person who believes that the Supreme Being exists or gods exist (monotheism or polytheism). A theist may, therefore, claim that the universe has a purpose and value according to the will of such creator(s) that lies partially beyond human understanding. For instance, Thomas Aquinas—a proponent of this view—believed he had proven the existence of God, and the right relations that humans ought to have to the divine first cause.


title: Good and evil

text: Monotheists might also hope for infinite universal love. Such hope is often translated as "faith", and wisdom itself is largely defined within some religious doctrines as "a knowledge and understanding of innate goodness." The concepts of innocence, spiritual purity, and salvation are likewise related to a concept of being in, or returning to, a state of "goodness"—one that, according to various teachings of "enlightenment", approaches a state of "holiness" (or "Godliness").


title: Good and evil

text: Aristotle believed that virtues consisted of realization of potentials unique to humanity, such as the use of reason. This type of view, called perfectionism, has been recently defended in modern form by Thomas Hurka.


title: Good and evil

text: An entirely different form of perfectionism has arisen in response to rapid technological change. Some techno-optimists, especially transhumanists, avow a form of perfectionism in which the capacity to determine good and trade off fundamental values, is expressed not by humans but by software, genetic engineering of humans, artificial intelligence. Skeptics assert that rather than perfect goodness, it would be only the appearance of perfect goodness, reinforced by persuasion technology and probably brute force of violent technological escalation, which would cause people to accept such rulers or rules authored by them.


title: Good and evil

text: Welfarist theories of value say things that are good are such because of their positive effects on human well-being.


title: Good and evil

text: It is difficult to figure out where an immaterial trait such as "goodness" could reside in the world. A counterproposal is to locate values inside people. Some philosophers go so far as to say that if some state of affairs does not tend to arouse a desirable subjective state in self-aware beings, then it cannot be good.


title: Good and evil

text: Most philosophers that think goods have to create desirable mental states also say that goods are experiences of self-aware beings. These philosophers often distinguish the experience, which they call an intrinsic good, from the things that seem to cause the experience, which they call "inherent" goods.


title: Good and evil

text: Some theories describe no higher collective value than that of maximizing "pleasure" for individual(s). Some even define goodness and intrinsic value as the experience of pleasure, and bad as the experience of pain. This view is called hedonism, a "monistic theory of value". It has two main varieties: simple, and Epicurean.


title: Good and evil

text: "Simple hedonism" is the view that physical pleasure is the ultimate good. However, the ancient philosopher Epicurus used the word 'pleasure' in a more general sense that encompassed a range of states from bliss to contentment to relief. Contrary to popular caricature, he valued pleasures of the mind to bodily pleasures, and advocated moderation as the surest path to happiness.


title: Good and evil

text: Jeremy Bentham's book "The Principles of Morals and Legislation" prioritized goods by considering pleasure, pain and consequences. This theory had a wide effect on public affairs, up to and including the present day. A similar system was later named Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. More broadly, utilitarian theories are examples of Consequentialism. All utilitarian theories are based upon the "maxim of utility", which states that "good" is whatever provides "the greatest happiness for the greatest number". It follows from this principle that what brings happiness to the greatest number of people, is good.


title: Good and evil

text: A benefit of tracing good to pleasure and pain is that both are easily understandable, both in oneself and to an extent in others. For the hedonist, the explanation for helping behaviour may come in the form of "empathy"—the ability of a being to "feel" another's pain. People tend to value the lives of gorillas more than those of mosquitoes because the gorilla lives and feels, making it easier to empathize with them. This idea is carried forward in the ethical relationship view and has given rise to the animal rights movement and parts of the peace movement. The impact of sympathy on human behaviour is compatible with Enlightenment views, including David Hume's stances that the idea of a self with unique identity is illusory, and that morality ultimately comes down to sympathy and fellow feeling for others, or the exercise of approval underlying moral judgments.


title: Good and evil

text: A view adopted by James Griffin attempts to find a subjective alternative to hedonism as an intrinsic value. He argues that the satisfaction of one's informed desires constitutes well-being, whether or not these desires actually bring the agent happiness. Moreover, these preferences must be life-relevant, that is, contribute to the success of a person's life overall.


title: Good and evil

text: Desire satisfaction may occur without the agent's awareness of the satisfaction of the desire. For example, if a man wishes for his legal will to be enacted after his death, and it is, then his desire has been satisfied even though he will never experience or know of it.


title: Good and evil

text: Meher Baba proposed that it is not the satisfaction of desires that motivates the agent but rather "a desire to be free from the limitation of all desires. Those experiences and actions which increase the fetters of desire are bad, and those experiences and actions which tend to emancipate the mind from limiting desires are good." It is through good actions, then, that the agent becomes free from selfish desires and achieves a state of well-being: "The good is the main link between selfishness thriving and dying. Selfishness, which in the beginning is the father of evil tendencies, becomes through good deeds the hero of its own defeat. When the evil tendencies are completely replaced by good tendencies, selfishness is transformed into selflessness, i.e., individual selfishness loses itself in universal interest."


title: Good and evil

text: The idea that the ultimate good exists and is not orderable but is globally measurable is reflected in various ways in economic (classical economics, green economics, welfare economics, gross national happiness) and scientific (positive psychology, the science of morality) well-being measuring theories, all of which focus on various ways of assessing progress towards that goal, a so-called genuine progress indicator. Modern economics thus reflects very ancient philosophy, but a calculation or quantitative or other process based on cardinality and statistics replaces the simple ordering of values.


title: Good and evil

text: For example, in both economics and in folk wisdom, the value of something seems to rise so long as it is relatively scarce. However, if it becomes too scarce, it leads often to a conflict, and can reduce collective value.


title: Good and evil

text: In the classical political economy of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and in its critique by Karl Marx, "human labour" is seen as the ultimate source of all new economic value. This is an "objective" theory of value, which attributes value to real production-costs, and ultimately expenditures of human labour-time (see law of value). It contrasts with marginal utility theory, which argues that the value of labour depends on subjective preferences by consumers, which may however also be objectively studied.


title: Good and evil

text: The economic value of labour may be assessed technically in terms of its use-value or utility or commercially in terms of its exchange-value, price or production cost (see labour power). But its value may also be socially assessed in terms of its contribution to the wealth and well-being of a society.


title: Good and evil

text: In non-market societies, labour may be valued primarily in terms of skill, time, and output, as well as moral or social criteria and legal obligations. In market societies, labour is valued economically primarily through the labour market. The price of labour may then be set by supply and demand, by strike action or legislation, or by legal or professional entry-requirements into occupations.


title: Good and evil

text: Conceptual metaphor theories argue against both subjective and objective conceptions of value and meaning, and focus on the relationships between body and other essential elements of human life. In effect, conceptual metaphor theories treat ethics as an ontology problem and the issue of how to work-out values as a negotiation of these metaphors, not the application of some abstraction or a strict standoff between parties who have no way to understand each other's views.


title: Good and evil

text: A fundamental question is whether there is a universal, transcendent definition of evil, or whether evil is determined by one's social or cultural background. C. S. Lewis, in "The Abolition of Man", maintained that there are certain acts that are universally considered evil, such as rape and murder. However, the numerous instances in which rape or murder is morally affected by social context call this into question. Up until the mid-19th century, many countries practiced forms of slavery. As is often the case, those transgressing moral boundaries stood to profit from that exercise. Arguably, slavery has always been the same and objectively evil, but individuals with a motivation to transgress will justify that action.


title: Good and evil

text: The Nazis, during World War II, considered genocide to be acceptable, as did the Hutu Interahamwe in the Rwandan genocide. One might point out, though, that the actual perpetrators of those atrocities probably avoided calling their actions genocide, since the objective meaning of any act accurately described by that word is to wrongfully kill a selected group of people, which is an action that at least their victims will understand to be evil. Universalists consider evil independent of culture, and wholly related to acts or intents.


title: Good and evil

text: Plato wrote that there are relatively few ways to do good, but there are countless ways to do evil, which can therefore have a much greater impact on our lives, and the lives of other beings capable of suffering.


title: Good and evil

text: Psychologist Albert Ellis, in his school of psychology called Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, says the root of anger and the desire to harm someone is almost always related to variations of implicit or explicit philosophical beliefs about other human beings. He further claims that without holding variants of those covert or overt belief and assumptions, the tendency to resort to violence in most cases is less likely.


title: Good and evil

text: American psychiatrist M. Scott Peck on the other hand, describes evil as "militant ignorance". The original Judeo-Christian concept of "sin" is as a process that leads one to "miss the mark" and not achieve perfection. Peck argues that while most people are conscious of this at least on some level, those that are evil actively and militantly refuse this consciousness. Peck describes evil as a malignant type of self-righteousness which results in a projection of evil onto selected specific innocent victims (often children or other people in relatively powerless positions). Peck considers those he calls evil to be attempting to escape and hide from their own conscience (through self-deception) and views this as being quite distinct from the apparent absence of conscience evident in sociopaths.


title: Good and evil

text: He also considers certain institutions may be evil, as his discussion of the My Lai Massacre and its attempted coverup illustrate. By this definition, acts of criminal and state terrorism would also be considered evil.


title: Good and evil

text: Martin Luther argued that there are cases where a little evil is a positive good. He wrote, "Seek out the society of your boon companions, drink, play, talk bawdy, and amuse yourself. One must sometimes commit a sin out of hate and contempt for the Devil, so as not to give him the chance to make one scrupulous over mere nothings... ."


title: Good and evil

text: The necessary evil approach to politics was put forth by Niccolò Machiavelli, a 16th-century Florentine writer who advised tyrants that "it is far safer to be feared than loved." Treachery, deceit, eliminating political rivals, and the usage of fear are offered as methods of stabilizing the prince's security and power.


title: Good and evil

text: The international relations theories of realism and neorealism, sometimes called "realpolitik" advise politicians to explicitly ban absolute moral and ethical considerations from international politics, and to focus on self-interest, political survival, and power politics, which they hold to be more accurate in explaining a world they view as explicitly amoral and dangerous. Political realists usually justify their perspectives by laying claim to a "higher moral duty" specific to political leaders, under which the greatest evil is seen to be the failure of the state to protect itself and its citizens. Machiavelli wrote: "...there will be traits considered good that, if followed, will lead to ruin, while other traits, considered vices which if practiced achieve security and well being for the Prince."


title: Good and evil

text: Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, was a materialist and claimed that evil is actually good. He was responding to the common practice of describing sexuality or disbelief as evil, and his claim was that when the word "evil" is used to describe the natural pleasures and instincts of men and women, or the skepticism of an inquiring mind, the things called evil are really good.


title: Good and evil

text: John Rawls' book "A Theory of Justice" prioritized social arrangements and goods based on their contribution to justice. Rawls defined justice as "fairness", especially in distributing social goods, defined fairness in terms of procedures, and attempted to prove that just institutions and lives are good, if rational individuals' goods are considered fairly. Rawls's crucial invention was the original position, a procedure in which one tries to make objective moral decisions by refusing to let personal facts about oneself enter one's moral calculations. Immanuel Kant, a great influence for Rawls, similarly applies a lot of procedural practice within the practical application of "The Categorical Imperative", however, this is indeed not based solely on 'fairness'.


title: Good and evil

text: Many views value "unity" as a good: to go beyond eudaimonia by saying that an individual person's flourishing is valuable only as a means to the flourishing of society as a whole. In other words, a single person's life is, ultimately, not important or worthwhile in itself, but is good only as a means to the success of society as a whole. Some elements of Confucianism are an example of this, encouraging the view that people ought to conform as individuals to demands of a peaceful and ordered society.


title: Good and evil

text: According to the naturalistic view, the flourishing of society is not, or not the only, intrinsically good thing. Defenses of this notion are often formulated by reference to biology, and observations that living things compete more with their own kind than with other kinds. Rather, what is of intrinsic good is the flourishing of all sentient life, extending to those animals that have some level of similar sentience, such as Great Ape personhood. Others go farther, declaring that life itself is of intrinsic value.


title: Good and evil

text: By another approach, one achieves peace and agreement by focusing, not on one's peers (who may be rivals or competitors), but on the common environment. The reasoning: As living beings it is clearly and objectively good that we are surrounded by an ecosystem that supports life. Indeed, if we weren't, we could neither discuss that good nor even recognize it. The anthropic principle in cosmology recognizes this view.


title: Good and evil

text: Under materialism or even embodiment values, or in any system that recognizes the validity of ecology as a scientific study of limits and potentials, an ecosystem is a fundamental good. To all who investigate, it seems that goodness, or value, exists within an ecosystem, Earth. Creatures within that ecosystem and wholly dependent on it, evaluate good relative to what else could be achieved there. In other words, good is situated in a particular place and one does not dismiss everything that is not available there (such as very low gravity or absolutely abundant sugar candy) as "not good enough", one works within its constraints. Transcending them and learning to be satisfied with them, is thus another sort of value, perhaps called satisfaction.


title: Good and evil

text: Values and the people that hold them seem necessarily subordinate to the ecosystem. If this is so, then what kind of being could validly apply the word "good" to an ecosystem as a whole? Who would have the power to assess and judge an ecosystem as good or bad? By what criteria? And by what criteria would ecosystems be modified, especially larger ones such as the atmosphere (climate change) or oceans (extinction) or forests (deforestation)?


title: Good and evil

text: "Remaining on Earth" as the most basic value. While green ethicists have been most forthright about it, and have developed theories of Gaia philosophy, biophilia, bioregionalism that reflect it, the questions are now universally recognized as central in determining value, e.g. the economic "value of Earth" to humans as a whole, or the "value of life" that is neither whole-Earth nor human. Many have come to the conclusion that without assuming ecosystem continuation as a universal good, with attendant virtues like biodiversity and ecological wisdom it is impossible to justify such operational requirements as sustainability of human activity on Earth.


title: Good and evil

text: One response is that humans are not necessarily confined to Earth, and could use it and move on. A counter-argument is that only a tiny fraction of humans could do this—and they would be self-selected by ability to do technological escalation on others (for instance, the ability to create large spacecraft to flee the planet in, and simultaneously fend off others who seek to prevent them). Another counter-argument is that extraterrestrial life would encounter the fleeing humans and destroy them as a locust species. A third is that if there are no other worlds fit to support life (and no extraterrestrials who compete with humans to occupy them) it is both futile to flee, and foolish to imagine that it would take less energy and skill to protect the Earth as a habitat than it would take to construct some new habitat.


title: Good and evil

text: Accordingly, remaining on Earth, as a living being surrounded by a working ecosystem, is a fair statement of the most basic values and goodness to any being we are able to communicate with. A moral system without this axiom seems simply not actionable.


title: Good and evil

text: However, most religious systems acknowledge an afterlife and improving this is seen as an even more basic good. In many other moral systems, also, remaining on Earth in a state that lacks honor or power over self is less desirable—consider seppuku in bushido, kamikazes or the role of suicide attacks in Jihadi rhetoric. In all these systems, remaining on Earth is perhaps no higher than a third-place value.


title: Good and evil

text: Radical values environmentalism can be seen as either a very old or a very new view: that the only intrinsically good thing is a flourishing ecosystem; individuals and societies are merely instrumentally valuable, good only as means to having a flourishing ecosystem. The Gaia philosophy is the most detailed expression of this overall thought but it strongly influenced deep ecology and the modern Green Parties.


title: Good and evil

text: It is often claimed that aboriginal peoples never lost this sort of view. Anthropological linguistics studies links between their languages and the ecosystems they lived in, which gave rise to their knowledge distinctions. Very often, environmental cognition and moral cognition were not distinguished in these languages. Offenses to nature were like those to other people, and Animism reinforced this by giving nature "personality" via myth. Anthropological theories of value explore these questions.


title: Good and evil

text: Most people in the world reject older situated ethics and localized religious views. However small-community-based and ecology-centric views have gained some popularity in recent years. In part, this has been attributed to the desire for ethical certainties. Such a deeply rooted definition of goodness would be valuable because it might allow one to construct a good life or society by reliable processes of deduction, elaboration or prioritisation. Ones that relied only on local referents one could verify for oneself, creating more certainty and therefore less investment in protection, hedging and insuring against consequences of loss of the value.


title: Good and evil

text: An event is often seen as being of value simply because of its "novelty" in fashion and art. By contrast, cultural history and other antiques are sometimes seen as of value in and of themselves due to their "age". Philosopher-historians Will and Ariel Durant spoke as much with the quote, "As the sanity of the individual lies in the continuity of his memories, so the sanity of the group lies in the continuity of its traditions; in either case a break in the chain invites a neurotic reaction" (The Lessons of History, 72).


title: Good and evil

text: Assessment of the value of old or historical artifacts takes into consideration, especially but not exclusively: the value placed on having a detailed knowledge of the past, the desire to have tangible ties to ancestral history, or the increased market value scarce items traditionally hold.


title: Good and evil

text: Creativity and innovation and invention are sometimes upheld as fundamentally good especially in Western industrial society—all imply newness, and even opportunity to profit from novelty. Bertrand Russell was notably pessimistic about creativity and thought that knowledge expanding faster than wisdom necessarily was fatal.


title: Good and evil

text: The issue of good and evil in the human visuality, often associated with morality, is regarded by some biologists (notably Edward O. Wilson, Jeremy Griffith, David Sloan Wilson and Frans de Waal) as an important question to be addressed by the field of biology.


title: Manya Surve

text: Manohar Arjun Surve (8 August 1944 – 11 January 1982), popularly known as Manya Surve, was an Indian Underworld Don in Bombay. He was one of the educated gangsters who graduated from college and very well known for challenging and defeating existing Gangs.


title: Manya Surve

text: Surve was known for his daredevilry and strategic planning. As a young man and graduate of Kirti College, Surve was implicated in a murder that he did not commit and was sentenced to imprisonment in Yerwada Jail. Within just two years of activity, his crew rose to such prominence that the Pathans, who had ruled the underworld for over two decades, sought his help in murdering the Konkani-speaking Kaskar brothers, Dawood and Shabbir, the leaders of their archrival gang, D-Company.


title: Manya Surve

text: Following the murder of Shabir Ibrahim, Surve's fellow accomplices began to fall off one by one. Noticing this, Surve laid low. Meanwhile, local law enforcement was preparing operations to reduce persistent mob violence with an onslaught of targeted assassinations. Inspectors Isaque Bagwan and Raja Tambhat, with Senior Inspector Y. D. Bhide, was put in charge of taking down Surve. Surve was killed in 1982 by the Maharashtra police which is regarded as Mumbai's first encounter killing.


title: Manya Surve

text: Manohar Arjun Surve was born in 1944 in the village of Ranpar in the Konkan region, located in the Central Deccan Division of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, British Indian Empire. The village is now a part of Ratnagiri Taluka, Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra, India. Surve moved to Bombay with his mother and stepfather in 1952. For years, he lived in different chawls in Elphinstone Road and Lower Parel. He was a Chemistry graduate from Kirti M. Doongursee College, Mumbai, achieving a high score of 78%. He then fell into street life, eventually forming a crew consisting of former classmates. During these years, he was introduced to his best friend and associate Sumesh Desai through his stepbrother Bhargav Dada. Dada was a feared criminal from Agar Bazar in Dadar. In 1969, Surve, Dada and associate Manya Podhkar were all charged in the homicide and gang assault of a man named Dandekar. The trio were soon caught by Police Inspector E. S. Dabholkar and sentenced to life imprisonment.


title: Manya Surve

text: While incarcerated at the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune, Surve developed a fierce rivalry with gangster Suhas ("Potya Bhai") Bhatkar. Annoyed by Surve's terror tactics, the prison authorities had him transferred to Ratnagiri jail. There, he took part in a hunger strike and lost almost 20  kg before being transferred to the local civil hospital. Surve utilized this opportunity to escape on 14 November 1979 and returned to the streets of Mumbai, having served over nine years of his sentence.


title: Manya Surve

text: After he returned to Mumbai, Surve formed another outfit and recruited his two trusted lieutenants, Sheikh Munir from Dharavi and Vishnu Patil from Dombivli. They were soon joined by another gangster, Uday Shetty, in March 1980.


title: Manya Surve

text: The group's first robbery took place on 5 April 1980, in which they stole an Ambassador car. The vehicle was later used to loot Rs 5,700 from the Laxmi Trading Company near Currey Road. On 15 April, Surve and his associates brutally assaulted and nearly killed Sheikh Aziz, an enemy of Sheikh Munir, near Kala Killa in the Dharavi slum. On 30 April, they stabbed a police constable when he was escorting rival Vijay Ghadge to a police station in Dadar.


title: Manya Surve

text: Borrowing the plot from a James Hadley Chase novel, which he had read in prison, Surve decided to loot money from the government milk scheme in a bid to gain money as well as recognition from the Mumbai underworld. The group, with the addition of Dayanand, Parshuram Katkar, and Kishore Sawant, stole a car near Badal Bijlee Barkha in Mahim and went on to execute a heist of Rs 1.26 lakh near Govandi. The stolen vehicle was later found abandoned near National College in Bandra, exactly as penned in the Chase novel.


title: Manya Surve

text: Another famous robbery undertaken by Surve's group included Rs 1.6 lakh from Canara Bank's branch on Sion-Trombay road and Duke and Sons Company at Deonar. Surve's criminal activities were not confined to heists and robberies. He was also involved in narcotics trafficking, as he saw that the profits derived from it were considerable.


title: Manya Surve

text: The group's various successful heists and robberies brought a tremendous amount of attention. As a result, the police were put under great pressure to deal with Surve, and they launched Operation Manya Surve to capture and curb his criminal activities.


title: Manya Surve

text: On 22 June 1981, Sheikh Munir was picked up from a chemical company near Kalyan. A few days later, Dayanand and Parshuram Katkar were arrested at a lodge in Goregoan. Anticipating his capture, Surve slipped into an aide's hideout in Bhiwandi but quickly fled on 19 November 1981. When police finally broke into the apartment, they recovered a hand grenade, a country-made revolver, and live ammunition.


title: Manya Surve

text: Surve was finished after systematic police operations led to a crackdown of his criminal enterprise. After the arrest of his cohort Uday, he was the only remaining member of the group who was not in prison.


title: Manya Surve

text: On 11 January 1982, Surve took a taxi to the Ambedkar College junction in Wadala. It is believed Mumbai police received a tip from Dawood Ibrahim that Surve would be arriving at a beauty parlor near the Ambedkar College junction there. It is also theorized that his girlfriend Vidya revealed his whereabouts at that time, as was shown in the movie "Shootout at Wadala". At around 1:30 pm, 18 Crime Branch officers split into three teams and waited for him to arrive. After twenty minutes, Surve was spotted exiting a taxi to pick up his girlfriend Vidya.


title: Manya Surve

text: After noticing several men closing in on him and taking positions, Surve pulled out his Webley & Scott revolver. However, before he could fire a shot, police officers Raja Tambat and Isaque Bagwan fired five bullets into his chest and shoulder.


title: Manya Surve

text: Surve was dragged from the scene and put in an ambulance. This encounter was the end of Surve's spree of urban crime. This happened due to his involvement in the murder of Dawood's brother Shabbir.


title: Manya Surve

text: Surve's death became known as Mumbai's first recorded encounter killing. The rate of encounter killings increased in the late 1980s and further rose after the 1993 Mumbai bombings; a total of 622 alleged criminals were killed in police encounters from 1982 to 2004.


title: Manya Surve

text: The life of Manya Surve inspired and provided the basis for the 1990 Bollywood blockbuster movie, Agneepath. The movie's main character, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan (played by Amitabh Bachchan) was heavily based on Surve. The film earned Amitabh Bachchan a National Award for Best Actor. This film was remade with the same name Agneepath. in 2012.


title: Manya Surve

text: The life of Surve is portrayed in the 2013 Bollywood film "Shootout at Wadala", starring John Abraham as Surve.


title: Southern cassowary

text: The southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius), also known as double-wattled cassowary, Australian cassowary or two-wattled cassowary, is a large flightless black bird. It is one of the three living species of cassowary, alongside the dwarf cassowary and the northern cassowary. It is a ratite and therefore related to the emu, ostriches, rheas and kiwis.


title: Southern cassowary

text: Presently, most authorities consider the southern cassowary monotypic, but several subspecies have been described. It has proven very difficult to confirm the validity of these due to individual variations, age-related variations, the relatively few available specimens (and the bright skin of the head and neck – the basis upon which several subspecies have been described – fades in specimens), and that locals are known to have traded live cassowaries for hundreds, if not thousands of years, some of which are likely to have escaped/been deliberately introduced to regions away from their origin.


title: Southern cassowary

text: Cassowaries are closely related to the kiwis, both families diverging from a common ancestor approximately 40 million years ago.


title: Southern cassowary

text: The binomial name "Casuarius casuarius" is derived from its Malay name "kesuari". The southern cassowary was first described by Carl Linnaeus, in his 18th-century work "Systema Naturae", as "Struthio casuarius", from a specimen from Seram, in 1758. It is now the type species of the genus "Casuarius".


title: Southern cassowary

text: The southern cassowary has been described under a large number of scientific names, all of which are now considered taxonomic synonyms for the species.


title: Southern cassowary

text: The southern cassowary has stiff, bristly black plumage, a blue face and a long neck, red on the cape and two red wattles measuring around in length hanging down around its throat. A horn-like brown casque, measuring high, sits atop the head. The bill can range from . The three-toed feet are thick and powerful, equipped with a lethal dagger-like claw up to on the inner toe. The plumage is sexually monomorphic, but the female is dominant and larger with a longer casque, larger bill and brighter-coloured bare parts. The juveniles have brown longitudinal striped plumage. It is perhaps the largest member of the cassowary family and is tied as the third heaviest bird on earth (after the Somali ostrich and the common ostrich), at a maximum size estimated at and tall. Normally, this species ranges from in length. The height is normally ; females average , while males average . The northern cassowary is about the same size on average and is perhaps very mildly less sexually dimorphic than the southern. Most adult birds will weigh between . It is technically the largest Asian bird (since the extinction of the Arabian ostrich) and the largest Australian bird (though the emu may be slightly taller).


title: Southern cassowary

text: The southern cassowary is distributed in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and northeastern Australia. It mainly inhabits tropical rainforests but may make use of nearby savannah forests or mangroves stands. The species prefers elevations below in Australia, and on New Guinea.


title: Southern cassowary

text: Southern cassowaries forage on the forest floor for fallen fruit and are capable of safely digesting some fruits toxic to other animals. They also eat fungi, and some insects and small vertebrates. Inspection of the feces reveals that commonly ingested fruits are Davidsonia pruriens, Acemena divaricata and members of the laurel family (Lauraceae).


title: Southern cassowary

text: The southern cassowary is a solitary bird, which pairs only in breeding season, in late winter or spring. The male builds a nest on the ground, a mattress of herbaceous plant material thick and up to wide. This is thick enough to let moisture drain away from the eggs. The male also incubates the eggs and raises the chicks alone. A clutch of three or four eggs are laid measuring . They have a granulated surface and are initially bright pea-green in colour although they fade with age. Southern cassowaries make a thunderous call during mating season and hissing and rumblings otherwise. Chicks will make frequent high-pitched contact whistles and chirps to call the male.


title: Southern cassowary

text: Southern cassowaries have a reputation for being dangerous to humans and animals, and are often regarded as aggressive. The birds can jump quite high and kick powerfully with their blade-like claws. However, deadly encounters with southern cassowaries are rare. Only two human deaths have been reported since 1900. A 2003 historical study of 221 southern cassowary attacks showed that 150 had been against humans: 75% of these had been from southern cassowaries that had been fed by people, 71% of the time the bird had chased or charged the victim, 15% of the time they kicked. Of the attacks, 73% involved the birds expecting or snatching food, 5% involved defending their natural food sources, 15% involved defending themselves from attack, and 7% involved defending their chicks or eggs. Only one human death was reported among those 150 attacks.


title: Southern cassowary

text: The first documented human death caused by a southern cassowary was on April 6, 1926. In Australia, 16-year-old Phillip McClean and his brother, age 13, came across a southern cassowary on their property and decided to try and kill it by striking it with clubs. The bird kicked the younger boy, who fell and ran away as his older brother struck the bird. The older McClean then tripped and fell to the ground. While he was on the ground, the cassowary kicked him in the neck, opening a 1.25 cm (0.5 in) wound that may have severed his jugular vein. The boy died of his injuries shortly thereafter.


title: Southern cassowary

text: Another human death due to a southern cassowary was recorded in Florida on April 12, 2019. The bird's owner, a 75-year-old man who had raised the animal, was apparently clawed to death after he fell to the ground.


title: Southern cassowary

text: Being fed by people tempts southern cassowaries into closer associations with human-inhabited areas, increasing the already high risk of vehicle strikes - a major cause of southern cassowary mortality - and increasing the likelihood of encounters with humans. Many "aggressive" birds are simply responding to having been fed by humans in the past. Unfortunately the poor reputation of this species leads to confusion and misinformation among the public, which hampers conservation efforts of this shy bird.


title: Southern cassowary

text: In a 2017 "Australian Birdlife" article, Karl Brandt suggested Aboriginal encounters with the southern cassowary may have inspired the myth of the bunyip.


title: Southern cassowary

text: Although subject to ongoing habitat loss, limited range, and overhunting in some areas, the southern cassowary as of 2017 evaluated as Least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The Australian population is listed as Endangered under Federal and Queensland State legislation. Some threats are habitat loss (logging), feral animals eating their eggs, hunting, and roadkill. Road building, feral animals and hunting are the worst of these threats. It has an occurrence range of , and between 10,000 and 20,000 birds were estimated in a 2002 study, with between 1,500 and 2,500 in Australia. Southern cassowaries have been bred in many zoos around the world, like at White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida, United States.


title: Karbala

text: Karbala or Kerbala ( , , ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 1,218,732 people (2018).


title: Karbala

text: The city, best known as the location of the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD, or for the shrines of Husayn ibn Ali and Abbas ibn Ali, is considered a holy city for Shia Muslims, in the same way as Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Tens of millions of Shi'ite Muslims visit the site twice a year, rivaling Mecca and Mashhad by the number of pilgrims annually. The martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali is commemorated annually by millions of Shi'ites.


title: Karbala

text: Up to 8 million pilgrims visit the city to observe "ʿĀshūrāʾ" (the tenth day of the month of Muharram), which marks the anniversary of Husayn's death, but the main event is the "Arbaʿīn" (the 40th day after 'Ashura'), where up to 30 million visit the graves. Most of the pilgrims travel on foot from all around Iraq and more than 56 countries.


title: Karbala

text: There are many opinions among different investigators, as to the origin of the word "Karbala". Some have pointed out that "Karbala" has a connection to the "Karbalato" language, while others attempt to derive the meaning of word "Karbala" by analyzing its spelling and language. They conclude that it originates from the Arabic word "Kar Babel" which was a group of ancient Babylonian villages that included Nainawa, Al-Ghadiriyya, Karbella (Karb Illu. as in Arba Illu [Arbil]), Al-Nawaweess, and Al-Heer. This last name is today known as Al-Hair and is where Husayn ibn Ali's grave is located.


title: Karbala

text: The investigator Yaqut al-Hamawi had pointed out that the meaning of "Karbala" could have several explanations, one of which is that the place where Husayn ibn Ali was martyred is made of soft earth—"Al-Karbalat".


title: Karbala

text: According to Shia's belief, the archangel Gabriel narrated the true meaning of the name "Karbalā" to Muhammad: a combination of "karb" (, the land which will cause many agonies) and "balā" (, afflictions)."


title: Karbala

text: Karbala experiences a hot desert climate ("BWh" in the Köppen climate classification) with extremely hot, long, dry summers and mild winters. Almost all of the yearly precipitation is received between November and April, though no month is wet.


title: Karbala

text: The Battle of Karbala was fought on the bare deserts on the way to Kufa on October 10, AD 680 (10 Muharram 61 AH). Both Husayn ibn Ali and his brother Abbas ibn Ali were buried by the local Banī Asad tribe, at what later became known as the "Mashhad Al-Husayn". The battle itself occurred as a result of Husain's refusal of Yazid I's demand for allegiance to his caliphate. The Kufan governor, Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad, sent thirty thousand horsemen against Husayn as he traveled to Kufa. Husayn had no army, he was with his family and few friends who joined them, so there were around 73 men, including a 6-month-old Ali Asghar, son of Imam Husayn, in total. The horsemen, under 'Umar ibn Sa'd, were ordered to deny Husayn and his followers water in order to force Husayn to agree to give an oath of allegiance. On the 9th of Muharram, Husayn refused, and asked to be given the night to pray. On 10 Muharram, Husayn ibn Ali prayed the morning prayer and led his troops into battle along with his brother Abbas. Many of Husayn's followers, including all of his present sons Ali Akbar, Ali Asghar (six months old) and his nephews Qassim, Aun and Muhammad were killed.


title: Karbala

text: In 63 AH (AD AD), Yazid ibn Mu'awiya released the surviving members of Husayn's family from prison as there was a threat of uprisings and some of the people in his court were unaware of who the battle was with, when they got to know that the descendants of Muhammad were killed, they were horrified. On their way to Mecca, they stopped at the site of the battle. There is record of Sulayman ibn Surad going on pilgrimage to the site as early as 65 AH (685 AD). The city began as a tomb and shrine to Husayn and grew as a city in order to meet the needs of pilgrims. The city and tombs were greatly expanded by successive Muslim rulers, but suffered repeated destruction from attacking armies. The original shrine was destroyed by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil in 850 but was rebuilt in its present form around 979, only to be partly destroyed by fire in 1086 and rebuilt yet again.


title: Karbala

text: Like Najaf, the city suffered from severe water shortages that were only resolved in the early 18th century by building a dam at the head of the Husayniyya Canal. In 1737, the city replaced Isfahan in Iran as the main centre of Shia scholarship. In the mid-eighteenth century it was dominated by the dean of scholarship, Yusuf Al Bahrani, a key proponent of the Akhbari tradition of Shia thought, until his death in 1772, after which the more state-centric Usuli school became more influential.


title: Karbala

text: The Wahhabi sack of Karbala occurred on 21 April 1802 (1216 Hijri) (1801), under the rule of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad the second ruler of the First Saudi State, when 12,000 Wahhabi Muslims from Najd attacked the city of Karbala. The attack was coincident with the anniversary of Ghadir Khum event, or 10 Muharram. This fight left 3,000–5,000 deaths and the dome of the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, was destroyed. The fight lasted for 8 hours.


title: Karbala

text: After the First Saudi State invasion, the city enjoyed semi-autonomy during Ottoman rule, governed by a group of gangs and mafia variously allied with members of the 'ulama. In order to reassert their authority, the Ottoman army laid siege to the city. On January 13, 1843, Ottoman troops entered the city. Many of the city leaders fled leaving defense of the city largely to tradespeople. About 3,000 Arabs were killed in the city, and another 2,000 outside the walls (this represented about 15% of the city's normal population). The Turks lost 400 men. This prompted many students and scholars to move to Najaf, which became the main Shia religious centre. Between 1850 and 1903, Karbala enjoyed a generous influx of money through the Oudh Bequest. The Shia-ruled Indian Province of Awadh, known by the British as Oudh, had always sent money and pilgrims to the holy city. The Oudh money, 10 million rupees, originated in 1825 from the Awadh Nawab Ghazi-ud-Din Haider. One third was to go to his wives, and the other two-thirds went to holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. When his wives died in 1850, the money piled up with interest in the hands of the British East India Company. The EIC sent the money to Karbala and Najaf per the wives' wishes, in the hopes of influencing the Ulama in Britain's favor. This effort to curry favor is generally considered to have been a failure.


title: Karbala

text: In 1928, an important drainage project was carried out to relieve the city of unhealthy swamps, formed between Hussainiya and the Bani Hassan Canals on the Euphrates.


title: Karbala

text: Defense of the City Hall in Karbala – a series of skirmishes fought from April 3 to April 6, 2004, between the Iraqi rebels of the Mahdi Army trying to conquer the city hall and the defending Polish and Bulgarian soldiers from the Multinational Division Central-South


title: Karbala

text: In 2003 following the US invasion of Iraq, the Karbala town council attempted to elect United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lopez as mayor. Ostensibly so that his marines, contractors, and funds couldn't leave.


title: Karbala

text: On January 19, 2008, 2 million Iraqi Shia pilgrims marched through Karbala city, Iraq to commemorate Ashura. 20,000 Iraqi troops and police guarded the event amid tensions due to clashes between Iraqi troops and Shia which left 263 people dead (in Basra and Nasiriya).


title: Karbala

text: Karbala, alongside Najaf, is considered a thriving tourist destination for Shia Muslims and the tourism industry in the city boomed after the end of Saddam Hussein's rule. Some religious tourism attractions include:


title: Karbala

text: Some Shi'ites consider this verse of the Quran to refer to Iraq, land of the Shi'ite sacred sites of Kufah, Najaf, Karbala, Kadhimiyyah and Samarra, since the Monotheistic preachers Ibrāhīm (Abraham) and Lūṭ (Lot), who are regarded as Prophets in Islam, are believed to have lived in the ancient Iraqi city of Kutha Rabba, before going to "The Blessed Land".


title: Karbala

text: Aside from the story of Abraham and Lot in Polytheistic Mesopotamia, there are passages in the Quran about Mount Judi, Babil ("Babylon") and "Qaryat Yunus" ("Town of Jonah").


title: Karbala

text: Thus the tomb of the martyred Imam has acquired this great significance in Shi'ite tradition because the Imam and his fellow martyrs are seen as models of jihad in the way of God. Shi'ites believe that Karbala is one of the holiest places on Earth according to the following traditions (among others):


title: Karbala

text: There are many references in books in films to "Karbala", generally referring to Husayn's death at the Battle of Karbala. Husayn is often depicted on a white horse impaled by arrows. There are films and documentaries about the events of Karbala in both animated and realistic form


title: Karbala

text: Hawza are the Islamic education institutions that are run collectively by mujtahid or Allamas to teach Shia Muslims and guide them through the rigorous journey of becoming an Alim. In terms of the hawaz in Karbala, After the death of a renowned Alama, the Sayyid Muhammad, the leadership in terms of teacher shifted to taqlid to mujtahid. This was a significant factor that lead to the leadership of Ulama to reside in Karbala and as well as Najaf. Initially Karbala's hawza (Islamic education institution) consisted mostly of Iranians and Turkish Ulama. After the death of Sharif-ul-Ulama Mazandarani in 1830 and the repression of the shia population by the Ottomans in 1843 both played an important role in the relocation of many Ulamas and thus Najaf becoming the center of Shia Islamic leadership in education.


title: Karbala

text: As of now, there are two universities in Karbala. University of Karbala, which was inaugurated on March 1, 2002, is one of the top most universities in Iraq regarding academic administration, human resources, and scientific research. The Ahl Al Bayt University was founded in September 2003 by Dr. Mohsen Baqir Mohammed-Salih Al-Qazwini. The university has six major colleges: College of Law, Arts, Islamic Sciences, Medical & Health Technology, Pharmacy and Dentistry.


title: Karbala

text: Warith al-Anbiya University in Karbala, has recently been established under a project of Husayn Holy Shrine, having the faculties of engineering, administration, economics, law and pathology, which is ready to receive students for the first academic year 2017–2018.


title: Karbala

text: In the Indian subcontinent, "Karbala", apart from meaning the city of Karbala (which is usually referred to as "Karbala-e-Mualla" meaning Karbala the exalted), also means local grounds where commemorative processions end and/or "ta'zīya" are buried during Ashura or Arba'een, usually such grounds will have "shabeeh" (copy) of "Rauza" or some other structures.


title: Karbala

text: In South Asia where "ta'zīya" refer to specifically to the miniature mausoleums used in processions held in Muharram. It all started from the fact that the great distance of India from Karbala prevented Indian Shi'is being buried near the tomb of Husayn or making frequent pilgrimages (ziyarat) to the tomb. This is the reason why Indian Shi'is established local karbalas on the subcontinent by bringing soil from Karbala and sprinkling it on lots designated as future cemeteries. Once the karbalas were established on the subcontinent, the next step was to bring Husayn's tomb-shrine to India. This was established by building replicas of Husayn's mausoleum called "ta'zīya" to be carried in Muharram processions. Thousands of "ta'zīyas" in various shapes and sizes are made every year for the months of mourning of Muharram and Safar; and are carried in processions and may be buried at the end of Ashura or Arba'een.


title: Marsala wine

text: Marsala is a fortified wine, dry or sweet, produced in the region surrounding the Italian city of Marsala in Sicily. Marsala first received "Denominazione di Origine Controllata" (DOC) status in 1969.


title: Marsala wine

text: The European Union grants Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status to Marsala, and most other countries limit the use of the term "Marsala" to products from the Marsala area.


title: Marsala wine

text: While unfortified wine is also produced in the Marsala region, it does not qualify for the Marsala DOC.