title: Islamic art

text: The early developments of Islamic art were influenced by Roman art, Early Christian art (particularly Byzantine art), and Sassanian art, with later influences from Central Asian nomadic traditions. Chinese art had a significant influence on Islamic painting, pottery, and textiles. From its beginnings, Islamic art has been based on the written version of the Quran and other seminal religious works, which is reflected by the important role of calligraphy, representing the word as the medium of divine revelation.


title: Islamic art

text: Religious Islamic art has been typically characterized by the absence of figures and extensive use of calligraphic, geometric and abstract floral patterns. In secular art of the Muslim world, representations of human and animal forms historically flourished in nearly all Islamic cultures, although, partly because of opposing religious sentiments, living beings in paintings were often stylized, giving rise to a variety of decorative figural designs.


title: Islamic art

text: Both religious and secular art objects often exhibit the same references, styles and forms. These include calligraphy, architecture, textiles and furnishings, such as carpets and woodwork. Secular arts and crafts include the production of textiles, such as clothing, carpets or tents, as well as household objects, made from metal, wood or other materials. Further, figurative miniature paintings have a rich tradition, especially in Persian, Mughal and Ottoman painting. These pictures were often meant to illustrate well-known historical or poetic stories. Some interpretations of Islam, however, include a ban of depiction of animate beings, also known as aniconism. Islamic aniconism stems in part from the prohibition of idolatry and in part from the belief that creation of living forms is God's prerogative.


title: Islamic art

text: Although the concept of "Islamic art" has been put into question by some modern art historians as a construct of Western cultural views, the similarities between art produced at widely different times and places in the Muslim world, especially in the Islamic Golden Age, have been sufficient to keep the term in wide use as a useful classification since the late 19th century. Scholars such as Jacelyn K. Kerner have drawn attention to its wide-ranging scope referring to more than 40 nations and to the growing public interest both in Western as well as, more recently, in Muslim societies. Further, the List of Islamic museums bears witness to this art historical term having found wide acceptance.


title: Islamic art

text: The Encyclopædia Britannica defines "Islamic arts" as including visual arts, literature, performing arts and music that "virtually defies any comprehensive definition". In a strict sense, the term might only refer to artistic manifestations that are closely related to religious practice. Most often, however, it is meant to include "all of the arts produced by Muslim peoples, whether connected with their religion or not."


title: Islamic art

text: Calligraphic design is omnipresent in Islamic art, where, as in Europe in the Middle Ages, religious exhortations, including Qur'anic verses, may be included in secular objects, especially coins, tiles and metalwork, and most painted miniatures include some script, as do many buildings. Use of Islamic calligraphy in architecture extended significantly outside of Islamic territories; one notable example is the use of Chinese calligraphy of Arabic verses from the "Qur'an" in the Great Mosque of Xi'an. Other inscriptions include verses of poetry, and inscriptions recording ownership or donation. Two of the main scripts involved are the symbolic "kufic" and "naskh" scripts, which can be found adorning and enhancing the visual appeal of the walls and domes of buildings, the sides of minbars, and metalwork. Islamic calligraphy in the form of painting or sculptures is sometimes referred to as "Quranic art".


title: Islamic art

text: The various forms of traditional Arabic calligraphy and decoration of the manuscripts used for written versions of the "Qur'an" represent a central tradition of Islamic visual art. The arabesque is often used to symbolize the transcendent, indivisible and infinite nature of God. Mistakes in repetitions may be intentionally introduced as a show of humility by artists who believe only God can produce perfection, although this theory has also been disputed.


title: Islamic art

text: East Persian pottery from the 9th to 11th centuries, decorated only with highly stylised inscriptions and called "epigraphic ware", has been described as "probably the most refined and sensitive of all Persian pottery". Large inscriptions made from tiles, sometimes with the letters raised in relief, or the background cut away, are found on the interiors and exteriors of many important buildings. Complex carved calligraphy also decorates buildings. For most of the Islamic period the majority of coins only showed lettering, which are often very elegant despite their small size and nature of production. The tughra or monogram of an Ottoman sultan was used extensively on official documents, with very elaborate decoration for important ones. Other single sheets of calligraphy, designed for albums, might contain short poems, Qur'anic verses, or other texts.


title: Islamic art

text: The main languages, all using Arabic script, are Arabic, always used for Qur'anic verses, Persian in the Persianate world, especially for poetry, and Turkish, with Urdu appearing in later centuries. Calligraphers usually had a higher status than other artists.


title: Islamic art

text: While not condemned in the Quran, making images of human beings and animals is frowned upon in many Islamic cultures and connected with laws against idolatry common to all Abrahamic religions. Abdullaah ibn Mas'ood reported Muhammad said, "Those who will be most severely punished by Allah on the Day of Resurrection will be the image-makers" (reported by al-Bukhaari). However, this rule has been interpreted in different ways by different scholars and in different historical periods, and there are examples of paintings of both animals and humans in Mughal, Persian, and Turkish art. Siyah Qalam (Black Pen), frequently depicts demonic creatures ("div") from Islamic narratives, but seem of Central Asian origin. The existence of this aversion to creating images of animate beings has been used to explain the prevalence of calligraphy, tessellation, and pattern as key aspects of Islamic artistic culture.


title: Islamic art

text: Although there has been a tradition of wall-paintings, especially in the Persianate world, the best-surviving and highest developed form of painting in the Islamic world is the miniature in illuminated manuscripts, or later as a single page for inclusion in a "muraqqa" or bound album of miniatures and calligraphy. The tradition of the Persian miniature has been dominant since about the 13th century, strongly influencing the Ottoman miniature of Turkey and the Mughal miniature in India. Miniatures were especially an art of the court, and because they were not seen in public, it has been argued that constraints on the depiction of the human figure were much more relaxed, and indeed miniatures often contain great numbers of small figures, and from the 16th century portraits of single ones. Although surviving early examples are now uncommon, human figurative art was a continuous tradition in Islamic lands in secular contexts, notably several of the Umayyad Desert Castles (c. 660-750), and during the Abbasid Caliphate (c. 749–1258).


title: Islamic art

text: The largest commissions of illustrated books were usually classics of Persian poetry such as the epic "Shahnameh", although the Mughals and Ottomans both produced lavish manuscripts of more recent history with the autobiographies of the Mughal emperors, and more purely military chronicles of Turkish conquests. Portraits of rulers developed in the 16th century, and later in Persia, then becoming very popular. Mughal portraits, normally in profile, are very finely drawn in a realist style, while the best Ottoman ones are vigorously stylized. Album miniatures typically featured picnic scenes, portraits of individuals or (in India especially) animals, or idealized youthful beauties of either sex.


title: Islamic art

text: Chinese influences included the early adoption of the vertical format natural to a book, which led to the development of a birds-eye view where a very carefully depicted background of hilly landscape or palace buildings rises up to leave only a small area of sky. The figures are arranged in different planes on the background, with recession (distance from the viewer) indicated by placing more distant figures higher up in the space, but at essentially the same size. The colours, which are often very well preserved, are strongly contrasting, bright and clear. The tradition reached a climax in the 16th and early 17th centuries, but continued until the early 19th century, and has been revived in the 20th.


title: Islamic art

text: Since the mid-20th Century following the departure of the Dutch colonialists, several Indonesian painters combined Abstract Expressionism with geometric forms, Indonesian symbols and Islamic calligraphy, creating religiously influenced Abstract Art. The spiritual centre of this movement is the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), with leading teachers such as A.D. Pirous, Ahmad Sadali, Mochtar Apin and Umi Dachlan as their main representatives.


title: Islamic art

text: No Islamic artistic product has become better known outside the Islamic world than the pile carpet, more commonly referred to as the "Oriental carpet" (oriental rug). Their versatility is utilized in everyday Islamic and Muslim life, from floor coverings to architectural enrichment, from cushions to bolsters to bags and sacks of all shapes and sizes, and to religious objects (such as a prayer rug, which would provide a clean place to pray). They have been a major export to other areas since the late Middle Ages, used to cover not only floors but tables, for long a widespread European practice that is now common only in the Netherlands. Carpet weaving is a rich and deeply embedded tradition in Islamic societies, and the practice is seen in large city factories as well as in rural communities and nomadic encampments. In earlier periods, special establishments and workshops were in existence that functioned directly under court patronage.


title: Islamic art

text: Very early Islamic carpets, i.e. those before the 16th century, are extremely rare. More have survived in the West and oriental carpets in Renaissance painting from Europe are a major source of information on them, as they were valuable imports that were painted accurately. The most natural and easy designs for a carpet weaver to produce consist of straight lines and edges, and the earliest Islamic carpets to survive or be shown in paintings have geometric designs, or centre on very stylized animals, made up in this way. Since the flowing loops and curves of the arabesque are central to Islamic art, the interaction and tension between these two styles was long a major feature of carpet design.


title: Islamic art

text: There are a few survivals of the grand Egyptian 16th century carpets, including one almost as good as new discovered in the attic of the Pitti Palace in Florence, whose complex patterns of octagon roundels and stars, in just a few colours, shimmer before the viewer. Production of this style of carpet began under the Mamluks but continued after the Ottomans conquered Egypt. The other sophisticated tradition was the Persian carpet which reached its peak in the 16th and early 17th century in works like the Ardabil Carpet and Coronation Carpet; during this century the Ottoman and Mughal courts also began to sponsor the making in their domains of large formal carpets, evidently with the involvement of designers used to the latest court style in the general Persian tradition. These use a design style shared with non-figurative Islamic illumination and other media, often with a large central "gul" motif, and always with wide and strongly demarcated borders. The grand designs of the workshops patronized by the court spread out to smaller carpets for the merely wealthy and for export, and designs close to those of the 16th and 17th centuries are still produced in large numbers today. The description of older carpets has tended to use the names of carpet-making centres as labels, but often derived from the design rather than any actual evidence that they originated from around that centre. Research has clarified that designs were by no means always restricted to the centre they are traditionally associated with, and the origin of many carpets remains unclear.


title: Islamic art

text: As well as the major Persian, Turkish and Arab centres, carpets were also made across Central Asia, in India, and in Spain and the Balkans. Spanish carpets, which sometimes interrupted typical Islamic patterns to include coats of arms, enjoyed high prestige in Europe, being commissioned by royalty and for the Papal Palace, Avignon, and the industry continued after the Reconquista. Armenian carpet-weaving is mentioned by many early sources, and may account for a much larger proportion of East Turkish and Caucasian production than traditionally thought. The Berber carpets of North Africa have a distinct design tradition. Apart from the products of city workshops, in touch with trading networks that might carry the carpets to markets far away, there was also a large and widespread village and nomadic industry producing work that stayed closer to traditional local designs. As well as pile carpets, kelims and other types of flat-weave or embroidered textiles were produced, for use on both floors and walls. Figurative designs, sometimes with large human figures, are very popular in Islamic countries but relatively rarely exported to the West, where abstract designs are generally what the market expects.


title: Islamic art

text: Early Islamic columns followed the style seen in the classic period of the Mediterranean. Classic columns can be seen in earlier mosques such as the Great Mosque of Damascus and Córdoba. These columns can vary in form from being completely smooth, and having vertical or twisting fluting. In the 7th and 8th century, the Mosque of the Prophet Medina, was rebuilt using a style known as hypostyle. Hypostyle mosques usually entail multiple columns that support a smooth and even wall. In India, traditionally Indian stone columns of different shapes such a circles, squares and octagons, were incorporated into some mosques. Finally, engaged columns were introduced into decorate Islamic buildings.


title: Islamic art

text: Islamic arches, similar to columns, followed a style similar to Roman architecture. Arches became quite prominent to Islamic architecture during the 8th-10th centuries. There are three distinct shapes of Islamic arches which include horseshoe, keel, and polylobuled. However, in ancient India, Islamic arches take shape after being pointed, lobed, or ogee.


title: Islamic art

text: Islamic art has very notable achievements in ceramics, both in pottery and tiles for walls, which in the absence of wall-paintings were taken to heights unmatched by other cultures. Early pottery is often unglazed, but tin-opacified glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by the Islamic potters. The first Islamic opaque glazes can be found as blue-painted ware in Basra, dating to around the 8th century. Another significant contribution was the development of stonepaste ceramics, originating from 9th century Iraq. The first industrial complex for glass and pottery production was built in Raqqa, Syria, in the 8th century. Other centers for innovative pottery in the Islamic world included Fustat (from 975 to 1075), Damascus (from 1100 to around 1600) and Tabriz (from 1470 to 1550). Lusterwares with iridescent colours may have continued pre-Islamic Roman and Byzantine techniques, but were either invented or considerably developed on pottery and glass in Persia and Syria from the 9th century onwards.


title: Islamic art

text: Islamic pottery was often influenced by Chinese ceramics, whose achievements were greatly admired and emulated. This was especially the case in the periods after the Mongol invasions and those of the Timurids. Techniques, shapes and decorative motifs were all affected. Until the Early Modern period Western ceramics had very little influence, but Islamic pottery was very sought after in Europe, and often copied. An example of this is the albarello, a type of maiolica earthenware jar originally designed to hold apothecaries' ointments and dry drugs. The development of this type of pharmacy jar had its roots in the Islamic Middle East. Hispano-Moresque examples were exported to Italy, stimulating the earliest Italian examples, from 15th century Florence.


title: Islamic art

text: The Hispano-Moresque style emerged in Al-Andaluz or Muslim Spain in the 8th century, under Egyptian influence, but most of the best production was much later, by potters presumed to have been largely Muslim but working in areas reconquered by the Christian kingdoms. It mixed Islamic and European elements in its designs, and much was exported across neighbouring European countries. It had introduced two ceramic techniques to Europe: glazing with an opaque white tin-glaze, and painting in metallic lusters. Ottoman İznik pottery produced most of the best work in the 16th century, in tiles and large vessels boldly decorated with floral motifs influenced, once again, by Chinese Yuan and Ming ceramics. These were still in earthenware; there was no porcelain made in Islamic countries until modern times, though Chinese porcelain was imported and admired.


title: Islamic art

text: The medieval Islamic world also had pottery with painted animal and human imagery. Examples are found throughout the medieval Islamic world, particularly in Persia and Egypt.


title: Islamic art

text: The earliest grand Islamic buildings, like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, had interior walls decorated with mosaics in the Byzantine style, but without human figures. From the 9th century onwards the distinctive Islamic tradition of glazed and brightly coloured tiling for interior and exterior walls and domes developed. Some earlier schemes create designs using mixtures of tiles each of a single colour that are either cut to shape or are small and of a few shapes, used to create abstract geometric patterns. Later large painted schemes use tiles painted before firing with a part of the scheme – a technique requiring confidence in the consistent results of firing.


title: Islamic art

text: Some elements, especially the letters of inscriptions, may be moulded in three-dimensional relief, and in especially in Persia certain tiles in a design may have figurative painting of animals or single human figures. These were often part of designs mostly made up of tiles in plain colours, but with larger fully painted tiles at intervals. The larger tiles are often shaped as eight-pointed stars, and may show animals or a human head or bust, or plant or other motifs. The geometric patterns, such as modern North African zellige work, made of small tiles each of a single colour but different and regular shapes, are often referred to as "mosaic", which is not strictly correct.


title: Islamic art

text: The Mughals made much less use of tiling, preferring (and being able to afford) "parchin kari", a type of pietra dura decoration from inlaid panels of semi-precious stones, with jewels in some cases. This can be seen at the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and other imperial commissions. The motifs are usually floral, in a simpler and more realistic style than Persian or Turkish work, relating to plants in Mughal miniatures.


title: Islamic art

text: For most of the Middle Ages Islamic glass was the most sophisticated in Eurasia, exported to both Europe and China. Islam took over much of the traditional glass-producing territory of Sassanian and Ancient Roman glass, and since figurative decoration played a small part in pre-Islamic glass, the change in style is not abrupt, except that the whole area initially formed a political whole, and, for example, Persian innovations were now almost immediately taken up in Egypt. For this reason it is often impossible to distinguish between the various centres of production, of which Egypt, Syria and Persia were the most important, except by scientific analysis of the material, which itself has difficulties. From various documentary references glassmaking and glass trading seems to have been a speciality of the Jewish minority in several centres.


title: Islamic art

text: Between the 8th and early 11th centuries the emphasis in luxury glass is on effects achieved by "manipulating the surface" of the glass, initially by incising into the glass on a wheel, and later by cutting away the background to leave a design in relief. The very massive Hedwig glasses, only found in Europe, but normally considered Islamic (or possibly from Muslim craftsmen in Norman Sicily), are an example of this, though puzzlingly late in date. These and other glass pieces probably represented cheaper versions of vessels of carved rock crystal (clear quartz), themselves influenced by earlier glass vessels, and there is some evidence that at this period glass cutting and hardstone carving were regarded as the same craft. From the 12th century the industry in Persia and Mesopotamia appears to decline, and the main production of luxury glass shifts to Egypt and Syria, and decorative effects of colour on smooth surfaced glass. Throughout the period local centres made simpler wares such as Hebron glass in Palestine.


title: Islamic art

text: Lustre painting, by techniques similar to lustreware in pottery, dates back to the 8th century in Egypt, and became widespread in the 12th century. Another technique was decoration with threads of glass of a different colour, worked into the main surface, and sometimes manipulated by combing and other effects. Gilded, painted and enamelled glass were added to the repertoire, and shapes and motifs borrowed from other media, such as pottery and metalwork. Some of the finest work was in mosque lamps donated by a ruler or wealthy man. As decoration grew more elaborate, the quality of the basic glass decreased, and it "often has a brownish-yellow tinge, and is rarely free from bubbles". Aleppo seems to have ceased to be a major centre after the Mongol invasion of 1260, and Timur appears to have ended the Syrian industry about 1400 by carrying off the skilled workers to Samarkand. By about 1500 the Venetians were receiving large orders for mosque lamps.


title: Islamic art

text: Medieval Islamic metalwork offers a complete contrast to its European equivalent, which is dominated by modelled figures and brightly coloured decoration in enamel, some pieces entirely in precious metals. In contrast surviving Islamic metalwork consists of practical objects mostly in brass, bronze, and steel, with simple, but often monumental shapes, and surfaces highly decorated with dense decoration in a variety of techniques, but colour mostly restricted to inlays of gold, silver, copper or black niello. The most abundant survivals from medieval periods are fine brass objects, handsome enough to preserve, but not valuable enough to be melted down. The abundant local sources of zinc, compared to tin, explains the rarity of bronze. Household items, such as ewers or water pitchers, were made of one or more pieces of sheet brass, soldered together and subsequently worked and inlaid.


title: Islamic art

text: The use of drinking and eating vessels in gold and silver, the ideal in ancient Rome and Persia as well as medieval Christian societies, is prohibited by the Hadiths, as was the wearing of gold rings. Islamic metalworkers shared with their European counterparts a relatively high social status, compared to other artists and craftsmen, and many larger pieces are signed.


title: Islamic art

text: Islamic metalwork includes some three-dimensional animal figures, such as fountainheads or aquamaniles, but only one significant enamelled object of Byzantine cloisonné technique is known. The Pisa Griffin is the largest surviving bronze animal, probably from 11th century al-Andaluz. More common objects with elaborate decoration include massive low candlesticks and lamp-stands, lantern lights, bowls, dishes, basins, buckets (these probably for the bath), and ewers, as well as caskets, pen-cases and plaques. Ewers and basins were brought for hand-washing before and after each meal, and so are often lavishly treated display pieces. A typical 13th century ewer from Khorasan is decorated with foliage, animals and the Signs of the Zodiac in silver and copper, and carries a blessing. Specialized objects include knives, arms and armour (always of high interest to the elite) and scientific instruments such as astrolabes, as well as jewellery. Decoration is typically densely packed and very often includes arabesques and calligraphy, sometimes naming an owner and giving a date.


title: Islamic art

text: High levels of achievement were reached in other materials, including hardstone carvings and jewellery, ivory carving, textiles and leatherwork. During the Middle Ages, Islamic work in these fields was highly valued in other parts of the world and often traded outside the Islamic zone. Apart from miniature painting and calligraphy, other arts of the book are decorative illumination, the only type found in Qur'an manuscripts, and Islamic book covers, which are often highly decorative in luxury manuscripts, using either the geometric motifs found in illumination, or sometimes figurative images probably drawn for the craftsmen by miniature painters. Materials include coloured, tooled and stamped leather and lacquer over paint.


title: Islamic art

text: Egyptian carving of rock crystal into vessels appears in the late 10th century, and virtually disappears after about 1040 C.E. There are a number of these vessels in the West, which apparently came on the market after the Cairo palace of the Fatimid Caliph was looted by his mercenaries in 1062, and were snapped up by European buyers, mostly ending up in church treasuries. From later periods, especially the hugely wealthy Ottoman and Mughal courts, there are a considerable number of lavish objects carved in semi-precious stones, with little surface decoration, but inset with jewels. Such objects may have been made in earlier periods, but few have survived.


title: Islamic art

text: Older wood carving is typically relief or pierced work on flat objects for architectural use, such as screens, doors, roofs, beams and friezes. An important exception are the complex muqarnas and mocárabe designs giving roofs and other architectural elements a stalactite-like appearance. These are often in wood, sometimes painted on the wood, but often plastered over before painting; the examples at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain are among the best known. Traditional Islamic furniture, except for chests, tended to be covered with cushions, with cupboards rather than cabinets for storage, but there are some pieces, including a low round (strictly twelve-sided) table of about 1560 from the Ottoman court, with marquetry inlays in light wood, and a single huge ceramic tile or plaque on the tabletop. The fine inlays typical of Ottoman court furniture may have developed from styles and techniques used in weapons and musical instruments, for which the finest craftsmanship available was used. There are also intricately decorated caskets and chests from various periods. A spectacular and famous (and far from flat) roof was one of the Islamic components of the 12th century Norman Cappella Palatina in Palermo, which picked from the finest elements of Catholic, Byzantine and Islamic art. Other famous wooden roofs are in the Alhambra in Granada.


title: Islamic art

text: Ivory carving centred on the Mediterranean, spreading from Egypt, where a thriving Coptic industry had been inherited; Persian ivory is rare. The normal style was a deep relief with an even surface; some pieces were painted. Spain specialized in caskets and round boxes, which were probably used to keep jewels and perfumes. They were produced mainly in the approximate period of 930–1050, and widely exported. Many pieces are signed and dated, and on court pieces the name of the owner is often inscribed; they were typically gifts from a ruler. As well as a court workshop, Cordoba had commercial workshops producing goods of slightly lower quality. In the 12th and 13th century workshops in Norman Sicily produced caskets, apparently then migrating to Granada and elsewhere after persecution. Egyptian work tended to be in flat panels and friezes, for insertion into woodwork and probably furniture – most are now detached from their settings. Many were calligraphic, and others continued Byzantine traditions of hunting scenes, with backgrounds of arabesques and foliage in both cases.


title: Islamic art

text: Despite "Hadith" sayings prohibiting the wearing of silk, the Byzantine and Sassanian traditions of grand figured silk woven cloth continued under Muslim rule. Some designs are calligraphic, especially when made for palls to cover a tomb, but more are surprisingly conservative versions of the earlier traditions, with many large figures of animals, especially majestic symbols of power like the lion and eagle. These are often enclosed in roundels, as found in the pre-Islamic traditions. The majority of early silks have been recovered from tombs, and in Europe reliquaries, where the relics were often wrapped in silk. European clergy and nobility were keen buyers of Islamic silk from an early date and, for example, the body of an early bishop of Toul in France was wrapped in a silk from the Bukhara area in modern Uzbekistan, probably when the body was reburied in 820. The Shroud of St Josse is a famous samite cloth from East Persia, which originally had a carpet-like design with two pairs of confronted elephants, surrounded by borders including rows of camels and an inscription in Kufic script, from which the date appears to be before 961. Other silks were used for clothes, hangings, altarcloths, and church vestments, which have nearly all been lost, except for some vestments.


title: Islamic art

text: Ottoman silks were less exported, and the many surviving royal kaftans have simpler geometric patterns, many featuring stylized "tiger-stripes" below three balls or circles. Other silks have foliage designs comparable to those on Iznik pottery or carpets, with bands forming ogival compartments a popular motif. Some designs begin to show Italian influence. By the 16th century Persian silk was using smaller patterns, many of which showed relaxed garden scenes of beautiful boys and girls from the same world as those in contemporary album miniatures, and sometimes identifiable scenes from Persian poetry. A 16th-century circular ceiling for a tent, 97 cm across, shows a continuous and crowded hunting scene; it was apparently looted by the army of Suleiman the Magnificent in his invasion of Persia in 1543–45, before being taken by a Polish general at the Siege of Vienna in 1683. Mughal silks incorporate many Indian elements, and often feature relatively realistic "portraits" of plants, as found in other media.


title: Islamic art

text: The development and refinement of Indonesian "batik" cloth was closely linked to Islam. The Islamic prohibition on certain images encouraged "batik" design to become more abstract and intricate. Realistic depictions of animals and humans are rare on traditional "batik". However, mythical serpents, humans with exaggerated features and the Garuda of pre-Islamic mythology are common motifs.


title: Islamic art

text: Although its existence pre-dates Islam, "batik" reached its zenith in royal Muslim courts such as Mataram and Yogyakarta, whose sultans encouraged and patronised "batik" production. Today, "batik" is undergoing a revival, and cloths are used for additional purposes such as wrapping the Quran.


title: Islamic art

text: The period of a rapid expansion of the Islamic era forms a reasonably accurate beginning for the label of Islamic art. Early geographical boundaries of the Islamic culture were in present-day Syria. It is quite difficult to distinguish the earliest Islamic objects from their predecessors in Persian or Sasanian and Byzantine art, and the conversion of the mass of the population, including artists, took a significant period, sometimes centuries, after the initial spread of Islam. There was, notably, a significant production of unglazed ceramics, witnessed by a famous small bowl preserved in the Louvre, whose inscription assures its attribution to the Islamic period. Plant motifs were the most important in these early productions.


title: Islamic art

text: Influences from the Sassanian artistic tradition include the image of the king as a warrior and the lion as a symbol of nobility and virility. Bedouin tribal traditions mixed with the more sophisticated styles of the conquered territories. For an initial period coins had human figures in the Byzantine and Sassanian style, perhaps to reassure users of their continued value, before the Islamic style with lettering only took over.


title: Islamic art

text: Religious and civic architecture were developed under the Umayyad Caliphates (661–750), when new concepts and new plans were put into practice.


title: Islamic art

text: The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is one of the most important buildings in all of Islamic architecture, marked by a strong Byzantine influence (mosaic against a gold ground, and a central plan that recalls that of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), but already bearing purely Islamic elements, such as the great epigraphic frieze. The desert palaces in Jordan and Syria (for example, Mshatta, Qusayr 'Amra, and Hisham's Palace) served the caliphs as living quarters, reception halls, and baths, and were decorated, including some wall-paintings, to promote an image of royal luxury.


title: Islamic art

text: Work in ceramics was still somewhat primitive and unglazed during this period. Some metal objects have survived from this time, but it remains rather difficult to distinguish these objects from those of the pre-Islamic period.


title: Islamic art

text: 'Abd al-Malik introduced standard coinage that featured Arabic inscriptions, instead of images of the monarch. The quick development of a localized coinage around the time of the Dome of the Rock's construction demonstrates the reorientation of Umayyad acculturation. This period saw the genesis of a particularly Islamic art.


title: Islamic art

text: In this period, Umayyad artists and artisans did not invent a new vocabulary, but began to prefer those received from Mediterranean and Iranian late antiquity, which they adapted to their own artistic conceptions. For example, the mosaics in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus are based on Byzantine models but replace the figurative elements with images of trees and cities. The desert palaces also bear witness to these influences. By combining the various traditions that they had inherited, and by readapting motifs and architectural elements, artists created little by little a typically Muslim art, particularly discernible in the aesthetic of the arabesque, which appears both on monuments and in illuminated Qurans.


title: Islamic art

text: The Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258) witnessed the movement of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad, and then from Baghdad to Samarra. The shift to Baghdad influenced politics, culture, and art. Art historian Robert Hillenbrand (1999) likens the movement to the foundation of an "Islamic Rome", because the meeting of Eastern influences from Iranian, Eurasian steppe, Chinese, and Indian sources created a new paradigm for Islamic art. Classical forms inherited from Byzantine Europe and Greco-Roman sources were discarded in favor of those drawn from the new Islamic hub. Even the design of the city of Baghdad placed it in the "navel of the world", as 9th-century historian al-Ya'qubi wrote.


title: Islamic art

text: The ancient city of Baghdad cannot be excavated well, as it lies beneath the modern city. However, Abbasid Samarra, which was largely abandoned, has been well studied, and is known for its surviving examples of stucco reliefs, in which the prehistory of the arabesque can be traced. Motifs known from the stucco at Samarra permit the dating of structures built elsewhere, and are furthermore found on portable objects, particular in wood, from Egypt through to Iran.


title: Islamic art

text: Samarra witnessed the "coming of age" of Islamic art. Polychrome painted stucco allowed for experimentation in new styles of moulding and carving. The Abbasid period also coincided with two major innovations in the ceramic arts: the invention of faience, and of metallic lusterware. Hadithic prohibition of the use of golden or silver vessels led to the development of metallic lusterware in pottery, which was made by mixing sulphur and metallic oxides to ochre and vinegar, painted onto an already glazed vessel and then fired a second time. It was expensive, and difficult to manage the second round through the kiln, but the wish to exceed fine Chinese porcelain led to the development of this technique.


title: Islamic art

text: Though the common perception of Abbasid artistic production focuses largely on pottery, the greatest development of the Abbasid period was in textiles. Government-run workshops known as "tiraz" produced silks bearing the name of the monarch, allowing for aristocrats to demonstrate their loyalty to the ruler. Other silks were pictorial. The utility of silk-ware in wall decor, entrance adornment, and room separation was not as important as its cash value along the Silk Road.


title: Islamic art

text: Islamic calligraphy began to be used in surface decoration on pottery during this period. Illuminated qur'ans gained attention, letter-forms now more complex and stylized to the point of slowing down the recognition of the words themselves.


title: Islamic art

text: Beginning in the ninth century, Abbasid sovereignty was contested in the provinces furthest removed from the Iraqi center. The creation of an Ismaʻili Shiʻi dynasty, that of the North African Fatimid Caliphate, followed by the Caliphate of Córdoba in the Iberian Peninsula, gave force to this opposition, as well as small dynasties and autonomous governors in Iran.


title: Islamic art

text: The first Islamic dynasty to establish itself in Iberia, known in Arabic as al-Andalus, was the Umayyads, descended from the great Umayyad Caliphate of Syria. After their fall, they were replaced by various autonomous kingdoms, the taifas (1031–91), but the artistic production from this period does not differ significantly from that of the Umayyads. At the end of the 11th century, two Berber tribes, the Almoravids and the Almohads, captured the head of the Maghreb and Spain, successively, bringing Maghrebi influences into art. A series of military victories by Christian monarchs had reduced Islamic Spain by the end of the 14th century to the city of Granada, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty, who managed to maintain their hold until 1492.


title: Islamic art

text: Al-Andalus was a great cultural center of the Middle Ages. Besides the great universities, which taught philosophies and sciences yet unknown in Christendom (such as those of Averroes), the territory was an equally vital center for art.


title: Islamic art

text: Many techniques were employed in the manufacture of objects. Ivory was used extensively for the manufacture of boxes and caskets. The pyxis of al-Mughira is a masterwork of the genre. In metalwork, large sculptures in the round, normally rather scarce in the Islamic world, served as elaborate receptacles for water or as fountain spouts. A great number of textiles, most notably silks, were exported: many are found in the church treasuries of Christendom, where they served as covering for saints' reliquaries. From the periods of Maghrebi rule one may also note a taste for painted and sculpted woodwork.


title: Islamic art

text: The art of north Africa is not as well studied. The Almoravid and Almohad dynasties are characterized by a tendency toward austerity, for example in mosques with bare walls. Nevertheless, luxury arts continued to be produced in great quantity. The Marinid and Hafsid dynasties developed an important, but poorly understood, architecture, and a significant amount of painted and sculpted woodwork.


title: Islamic art

text: The Fatimid Caliphate, which reigned in Egypt from 909 and 1171, introduced crafts and knowledge from politically-troubled Baghdad to their capital of Cairo.


title: Islamic art

text: By 1070, the Seljuq Empire emerged as the dominant political force in the Muslim world after they liberated Baghdad and defeated the Byzantines at Manzikert. During the rule of Malik-Shah I, the Seljuks excelled in architecture at the same time in Syria, the atabegs (governors of Seljuk princes) assumed power. Quite independent, they capitalized on conflicts with the Frankish crusaders. In 1171, Saladin seized Fatimid Egypt, and installed the transitory Ayyubid dynasty on the throne. This period is notable for innovations in metallurgy and the widespread manufacture of the Damascus steel swords and daggers and the production ceramics, glass and metalwork of a high quality were produced without interruption, and enamelled glass became another important craft.


title: Islamic art

text: In 1250, Mamluks seized control of Egypt from the Ayyubids as the Mamluk Sultanate, and by 1261 had managed to assert themselves in Syria as well their most famous ruler was Baibars. The Mamluks were not, strictly speaking, a dynasty, as they did not maintain a patrilineal mode of succession; in fact, Mamluks were freed Turkish and Caucasian slaves, who (in theory) passed the power to others of like station. This mode of government persevered for three centuries, until 1517, and gave rise to abundant architectural projects; many thousands of buildings were constructed during this period. Patronage of luxury arts favored primarily enamelled glass and metalwork and is remembered as the golden age of medieval Egypt. The Baptistère de Saint Louis in the Louvre is an example of the very high quality of metalwork at this period.


title: Islamic art

text: Iran and the north of India, the Tahirids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, and Ghurids struggled for power in the 10th century, and art was a vital element of this competition. Great cities were built, such as Nishapur and Ghazni, and the construction of the Great Mosque of Isfahan (which would continue, in fits and starts, over several centuries) was initiated. Funerary architecture was also cultivated, while potters developed quite individual styles: kaleidoscopic ornament on a yellow ground; or marbled decorations created by allowing colored glazes to run; or painting with multiple layers of slip under the glaze.


title: Islamic art

text: The Seljuqs, nomads of Turkic origin from present-day Mongolia, appeared on the stage of Islamic history toward the end of the 10th century. They seized Baghdad in 1048, before dying out in 1194 in Iran, although the production of "Seljuq" works continued through the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century under the auspices of smaller, independent sovereigns and patrons. During their time, the center of culture, politics and art production shifted from Damascus and Baghdad to Merv, Nishapur, Rayy, and Isfahan, all in Iran.


title: Islamic art

text: Popular patronage expanded because of a growing economy and new urban wealth. Inscriptions in architecture tended to focus more on the patrons of the piece. For example, sultans, viziers or lower ranking officials would receive often mention in inscriptions on mosques. Meanwhile, growth in mass market production and sale of art made it more commonplace and accessible to merchants and professionals. Because of increased production, many relics have survived from the Seljuk era and can be easily dated. In contrast, the dating of earlier works is more ambiguous. It is, therefore, easy to mistake Seljuk art as new developments rather than inheritance from classical Iranian and Turkic sources.


title: Islamic art

text: Innovations in ceramics from this period include the production of minai ware and the manufacture of vessels, not out of clay, but out of a silicon paste ("fritware"), while metalworkers began to encrust bronze with precious metals. Across the Seljuk era, from Iran to Iraq, a unification of book painting can be seen. These paintings have animalistic figures that convey strong symbolic meaning of fidelity, treachery, and courage.


title: Islamic art

text: During the 13th century, the Mongols under the leadership of Genghis Khan swept through the Islamic world. After his death, his empire was divided among his sons, forming many dynasties: the Yuan in China, the Ilkhanids in Iran and the Golden Horde in northern Iran and southern Russia.


title: Islamic art

text: A rich civilization developed under these "little khans", who were originally subservient to the Yuan emperor, but rapidly became independent. Architectural activity intensified as the Mongols became sedentary, and retained traces of their nomadic origins, such as the north–south orientation of the buildings. At the same time a process of "iranisation" took place, and construction according to previously established types, such as the "Iranian plan" mosques, was resumed. The art of the Persian book was also born under this dynasty, and was encouraged by aristocratic patronage of large manuscripts such as the "Jami' al-tawarikh" by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani. New techniques in ceramics appeared, such as the lajvardina (a variation on luster-ware), and Chinese influence is perceptible in all arts.


title: Islamic art

text: The early arts of the nomads of the Golden Horde are poorly understood. Research is only beginning, and evidence for town planning and architecture has been discovered. There was also a significant production of works in gold, which often show a strong Chinese influence. Much of this work is preserved today in the Hermitage.


title: Islamic art

text: The beginning of the third great period of medieval Iranian art, that of the Timurids, was marked by the invasion of a third group of nomads, under the direction of Timur. During the 15th century this dynasty gave rise to a golden age in Persian manuscript painting, including renowned painters such as Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād, but also a multitude of workshops and patrons.


title: Islamic art

text: The Seljuq Turks pushed beyond Iran into Anatolia, winning a victory over the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Manzikert (1071), and setting up a sultanate independent of the Iranian branch of the dynasty. Their power seems largely to have waned following the Mongol invasions in 1243, but coins were struck under their name until 1304. Architecture and objects synthesized various styles, both Iranian and Syrian, sometimes rendering precise attributions difficult. The art of woodworking was cultivated, and at least one illustrated manuscript dates to this period.


title: Islamic art

text: Caravanserais dotted the major trade routes across the region, placed at intervals of a day's travel. The construction of these caravanserai inns improved in scale, fortification, and replicability. Also, they began to contain central mosques.


title: Islamic art

text: The Turkmen were nomads who settled in the area of Lake Van. They were responsible for a number of mosques, such as the Blue Mosque in Tabriz, and they had a decisive influence after the fall of the Anatolian Seljuqs. Starting in the 13th century, Anatolia was dominated by small Turkmen dynasties, which progressively chipped away at Byzantine territory. Little by little a major dynasty emerged, that of the Ottomans, who, after 1450, are referred to as the "first Ottomans". Turkmen artworks can be seen as the forerunners of Ottoman art, in particular the "Milet" ceramics and the first blue-and-white Anatolian works.


title: Islamic art

text: Islamic book painting witnessed its first golden age in the thirteenth century, mostly from Syria and Iraq. Influence from Byzantine visual vocabulary (blue and gold coloring, angelic and victorious motifs, symbology of drapery) combined with Mongoloid facial types in 12th-century book frontispieces.


title: Islamic art

text: Earlier coinage necessarily featured Arabic epigraphs, but as Ayyubid society became more cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, coinage began to feature astrological, figural (featuring a variety of Greek, Seleucid, Byzantine, Sasanian, and contemporary Turkish rulers' busts), and animal images.


title: Islamic art

text: Hillenbrand suggests that the medieval Islamic texts called "Maqamat", copied and illustrated by Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti were some of the earliest "coffee table books". They were among the first texts to hold up a mirror to daily life in Islamic art, portraying humorous stories and showing little to no inheritance of pictorial tradition.


title: Islamic art

text: The Indian subcontinent, some northern parts of which conquered by the Ghaznavids and Ghurids in the 9th century, did not become autonomous until 1206, when the Muizzi, or slave-kings, seized power, marking the birth of the Delhi Sultanate. Later other competing sultanates were founded in Bengal, Kashmir, Gujarat, Jaunpur, Malwa, and in the north Deccan (the Bahmanids). They separated themselves little by little from Persian traditions, giving birth to an original approach to architecture and urbanism, marked in particular by interaction with Hindu art. Study of the production of objects has hardly begun, but a lively art of manuscript illumination is known. The period of the sultanates ended with the arrival of the Mughals, who progressively seized their territories.


title: Islamic art

text: The Ottoman Empire, whose origins lie in the 14th century, continued in existence until shortly after World War I. This impressive longevity, combined with an immense territory (stretching from Anatolia to Tunisia), led naturally to a vital and distinctive art, including plentiful architecture, mass production of ceramics for both tiles and vessels, most notably Iznik ware, important metalwork and jewellery, Turkish paper marbling Ebru, Turkish carpets as well as tapestries and exceptional Ottoman miniatures and decorative Ottoman illumination.


title: Islamic art

text: Masterpieces of Ottoman manuscript illustration include the two "books of festivals" (Surname-I Hümayun), one dating from the end of the 16th century, and the other from the era of Sultan Murad III. These books contain numerous illustrations and exhibit a strong Safavid influence; thus they may have been inspired by books captured in the course of the Ottoman-Safavid wars of the 16th century.


title: Islamic art

text: The Ottomans are also known for their development of a bright red pigment, "Iznik red", in ceramics, which reached their height in the 16th century, both in tile-work and pottery, using floral motifs that were considerably transformed from their Chinese and Persian models. From the 18th century, Ottoman art came under considerable European influence, the Turks adopting versions of Rococo which had a lasting and not very beneficial effect, leading to over-fussy decoration. European-style painting was slow to be adopted, with Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910) for long a somewhat solitary figure. He was a member of the Ottoman administrative elite who trained in Paris, and painted throughout his long career as a senior administrator and curator in Turkey. Many of his works represent Orientalism from the inside, as it were.


title: Islamic art

text: The Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent lasted from 1526 until (technically) 1858, although from the late 17th century power flowed away from the emperors to local rulers, and later European powers, above all the British Raj, who were the main power in India by the late 18th century. The period is most notable for luxury arts of the court, and Mughal styles heavily influenced local Hindu and later Sikh rulers as well. The Mughal miniature began by importing Persian artists, especially a group brought back by Humayun when in exile in Safavid Persia, but soon local artists, many Hindu, were trained in the style. Realistic portraiture, and images of animals and plants, was developed in Mughal art beyond what the Persians had so far achieved, and the size of miniatures increased, sometimes onto canvas. The Mughal court had access to European prints and other art, and these had increasing influence, shown in the gradual introduction of aspects of Western graphical perspective, and a wider range of poses in the human figure. Some Western images were directly copied or borrowed from. As the courts of local Nawabs developed, distinct provincial styles with stronger influence from traditional Indian painting developed in both Muslim and Hindu princely courts.


title: Islamic art

text: The arts of jewelry and hardstone carving of gemstones, such as jasper, jade, adorned with rubies, diamonds and emeralds are mentioned by the Mughal chronicler Abu'l Fazl, and a range of examples survive; the series of hard stone daggers in the form of horses' heads is particularly impressive.


title: Islamic art

text: The Mughals were also fine metallurgists they introduced Damascus steel and refined the locally produced Wootz steel, the Mughals also introduced the "bidri" technique of metalwork in which silver motifs are pressed against a black background. Famous Mughal metallurgists like Ali Kashmiri and Muhammed Salih Thatawi created the seamless celestial globes.


title: Islamic art

text: The Iranian Safavids, a dynasty stretching from 1501 to 1786, is distinguished from the Mughal and Ottoman Empires, and earlier Persian rulers, in part through the Shi'a faith of its shahs, which they succeeded in making the majority denomination in Persia. Ceramic arts are marked by the strong influence of Chinese porcelain, often executed in blue and white. Architecture flourished, attaining a high point with the building program of Shah Abbas in Isfahan, which included numerous gardens, palaces (such as Ali Qapu), an immense bazaar, and a large imperial mosque.


title: Islamic art

text: The art of manuscript illumination also achieved new heights, in particular in the Shah Tahmasp Shahnameh, an immense copy of Ferdowsi's poem containing more than 250 paintings. In the 17th century a new type of painting develops, based around the album (muraqqa). The albums were the creations of connoisseurs who bound together single sheets containing paintings, drawings, or calligraphy by various artists, sometimes excised from earlier books, and other times created as independent works. The paintings of Reza Abbasi figure largely in this new art of the book, depicting one or two larger figures, typically idealized beauties in a garden setting, often using the grisaille techniques previously used for border paintings for the background.


title: Islamic art

text: After the fall of the Safavids, the Qajars, a Turkmen tribe established from centuries on the banks of the Caspian Sea, assumed power. Qajar art displays an increasing European influence, as in the large oil paintings portraying the Qajar shahs. Steelwork also assumed a new importance. Like the Ottomans, the Qajar dynasty survived until 1925, a few years after the First World War.


title: Islamic art

text: From the 15th century, the number of smaller Islamic courts began to fall, as the Ottoman Empire, and later the Safavids and European powers, swallowed them up; this had an effect on Islamic art, which was usually strongly led by the patronage of the court. From at least the 18th century onwards, elite Islamic art was increasingly influenced by European styles, and in the applied arts either largely adopted Western styles, or ceased to develop, retaining whatever style was prevalent at some point in the late 18th or early 19th centuries. Many industries with very long histories, such as pottery in Iran, largely closed, while others, like metalwork in brass, became generally frozen in style, with much of their production going to tourists or exported as oriental exotica.


title: Islamic art

text: The carpet industry has remained large, but mostly uses designs that originated before 1700, and competes with machine-made imitations both locally and around the world. Arts and crafts with a broader social base, like the zellige mosaic tiles of the Maghreb, have often survived better. Islamic countries have developed modern and contemporary art, with very vigorous art worlds in some countries, but the degree to which these should be grouped in a special category as "Islamic art" is questionable, although many artists deal with Islam-related themes, and use traditional elements such as calligraphy. Especially in the oil-rich parts of the Islamic world, much modern architecture and interior decoration makes use of motifs and elements drawn from the heritage of Islamic art.


title: Scream (Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson song)

text: "Scream" is the lead single from Michael Jackson's ninth studio album, "" (1995). It is a duet with his younger sister Janet, and was released as a double A-side with "Childhood", a solo song by Michael. The single was released on May 29, 1995.


text: "Scream" is an aggressive, retaliatory song directed at the tabloid media and their coverage of the child sexual abuse accusations made against Michael Jackson in 1993. It was written, composed and produced by Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson; Michael played many of the instruments. It incorporates elements of pop, R&B, electrorock, dance-pop, and funk. Recording for Scream took place at the Hit Factory in New York City in October 1994 and at Flyte Tyme Studios in Edina, Minnesota in December 1994. The song was leaked to radio stations early, despite Epic Records' attempt to keep it off air until the release date.


text: Generally well received amongst critics, it has been compared favorably to other songs by Michael Jackson. The corresponding music video remains one of his most critically acclaimed; it won three MTV Video Music Awards and the Grammy Award for Best Music Video. At a cost of $7 million, it was listed in the "Guinness World Records" as the most expensive music video ever made; however, director Mark Romanek has refuted the claim, saying that there were two other music videos from the same era which cost "millions more" than the video for "Scream".


text: "Scream" would become the first single in the 37-year history of "Billboard" to debut at number five on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, where it peaked. Elsewhere, it topped the charts in Italy, New Zealand, and Spain while reaching the top five in Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Michael performed "Scream" on his 1996–1997 HIStory World Tour. Following his death in 2009, Janet performed the song at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and on her 2011 Number Ones, Up Close and Personal as a tribute to him, the 2015–2016 Unbreakable World Tour, and on several dates of her 2017–2018 State of the World Tour.


text: "Scream" is a song primarily directed at the tabloid press. As far back as the late 1980s, Jackson and the press had a difficult relationship. In 1986, the tabloids ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process; he was pictured lying down in a glass box. When Jackson bought a pet chimpanzee called Bubbles, it was reported as evidence of increasing detachment from reality. It was reported that Jackson had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (the "elephant man"). However, Jackson stated the story is untrue in both an interview with Oprah and an interview with Martin Bashir in "Take Two - The Footage You Were Never Meant To See". Still, these stories inspired the pejorative nickname "Wacko Jacko", which Jackson acquired the following year and would come to despise. He stopped leaking untruths to the press, so the media began making up their own stories.


text: In 1989, Jackson released the song and music video "Leave Me Alone", a song about his perceived victimization at the hands of the press. The video shows Jackson poking fun not only at the press but also the situation he was in. In the video, there are images of shrines to his friend Elizabeth Taylor, newspapers with bizarre headlines, Jackson dancing with the bones of The Elephant Man, and an animated nose with a scalpel chasing it across the screen.


text: In 1993, the relationship between Jackson and the press came to a head when he was accused of child sexual abuse. Although never charged with a crime, Jackson was subject to intense media scrutiny while the criminal investigation took place. Complaints about the coverage and media included using sensational headlines to draw in readers and viewers when the content itself did not support the headline, accepting stories of Jackson's alleged criminal activity in return for money, accepting confidential, leaked material from the police investigation in return for money paid, deliberately using pictures of Jackson's appearance at its worst, a lack of objectivity and using headlines that strongly implied Jackson's guilt. At the time, Jackson said of the media reaction, "I will say I am particularly upset by the handling of the matter by the incredible, terrible mass media. At every opportunity, the media has dissected and manipulated these allegations to reach their own conclusions."


text: The singer began taking painkillers Valium, Xanax, and Ativan to deal with the stress of the allegations made against him. Jackson's health had deteriorated to the extent that he canceled the remainder of his tour and went into rehabilitation. Jackson booked the whole fourth floor of a clinic and was put on Valium IV to wean him from painkillers. A few months after the allegations became news, Jackson had lost approximately 10 lb (4.5 kg) in weight and had stopped eating. The singer's spokesperson told reporters that Jackson was "barely able to function adequately on an intellectual level". While in the clinic, Jackson took part in group and one-on-one therapy sessions.


text: When Jackson left the U.S. to go into rehabilitation, the media showed him little sympathy. The "Daily Mirror" held a "Spot the Jacko" contest, offering readers a trip to Disney World if they could correctly predict where the entertainer would appear next. A "Daily Express" headline read, "Drug Treatment Star Faces Life on the Run", while a "News of the World" headline accused Jackson of being a fugitive. These tabloids also falsely alleged that Jackson had traveled to Europe to have cosmetic surgery that would make him unrecognizable on his return. Geraldo Rivera set up a mock trial, with a jury made up of audience members, even though Jackson had not been charged with a crime.


text: "Scream"/"Childhood" and "HIStory" were Jackson's first releases since the allegations, and the press was waiting to see if the album would sell well. One analyst for SoundScan expressed the opinion that the press were out of touch with the public when it came to Jackson; the public liked him, while the press did not. He believed that "naysayers" in the media would be left surprised with the commercial reception to the "HIStory" campaign.


text: "Scream (David Morales Remix)" was released as a single in the United Kingdom on June 24, 1995, peaking at number 43 and dropping to number 57 a week later. It remained on the charts for only two weeks.


text: In the "HIStory" album booklet there is an image of Gottfried Helnwein's 1981 watercolor "Das Lied / The Song" which is an image of a distressed child huddled in the corner of a room, screaming up at the ceiling. Jackson's handwritten lyrics to "Scream" were scrawled on the wall beside the child. Towards the end of the booklet is a copy of a child's letter to the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, asking him to end war, pollution, and to stop the negative press reports about Jackson.


text: Janet Jackson wanted to be involved with the project as a show of sibling support. It was the first time they had worked together since 1984, when Michael provided backing vocals on "Don't Stand Another Chance". Janet said that it was "very fun" working with her brother again and that seeing her brother's work was "interesting". "Scream" was written, composed and produced by the Jackson siblings, with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.


text: It was the first time Michael Jackson had worked with Jam and Lewis, although Janet had worked with them successfully on numerous occasions. The album was created with the intention of following half R&B and half pop/rock themes, the same themes that brought Jackson success on his prior album, "Dangerous". Jackson was credited for playing instruments such as keyboard, synthesizer, guitar, drums and percussion on the single and album.


text: In the song, Jackson tells the media to stop pressuring him and to stop misrepresenting the truth. Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" observed, "fear has turned to aggression. The music has polarized; it's either clipped, choppy and electronic or glossy and sumptuous, only occasionally trying to combine the two. Most of the time, Jackson sounds as if he's singing through clenched teeth, spitting out words in defiance of any and all persecutors". He believed that "Scream" had a similar sound to the music of Janet's acclaimed "Rhythm Nation". The media noted that "Scream" and other songs from the album contained obscenities absent from previous albums. "Scream" incorporates elements of pop, R&B, hip-hop, funk and rock.


text: Two weeks before the official release of "Scream", Jackson happened to hear it on a Los Angeles radio station. The station was playing "Scream" once an hour until served with a cease and desist order from Epic Records. Two other stations in Philadelphia also received similar orders. All involved denied that Epic leaked them the song early. The song had been a closely guarded secret by the label and most staff members were not allowed access to a copy.


text: Though they potentially faced legal action, the Los Angeles radio station programmer noted that, "some things are more important... The record company was furious, lawyers were involved and the situation got hairy... But on a release as big as Michael Jackson's, there's no way we're going to wait if we receive a leak. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because his security is really insane."


text: Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic expressed the opinion that the song "improved on the slamming beats of his earlier single 'Jam,'" a song that received critical acclaim in its own right, as the recipient of two Grammy nominations: Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. Deepika Reddy of "The Daily Collegian" wrote, "The lyrics to the album's debut single and video 'Scream' are for the first time in Jackson's convoluted career, painfully direct. He sings 'Stop pressuring me/Stop pressuring me/It makes me want to scream' with a force and resentment that's new and surpassing." "'Scream' and 'Tabloid Junkie' have a raw aspect that Jackson hasn't approached since a near-miss with 'Billie Jean.'"


text: "Music & Media" noted "the sound of radio interference and frenzied swingbeat." Tim Jeffery from "Music Week"'s "RM" Dance Update gave it four out of five, stating that it is "obviously a chart hit". Another editor, James Hamilton deemed it a "typically yelped and for once genuine pain filled jitterer duetted with sister Janet." James Hunter of "Rolling Stone" said that, "the excellent current single 'Scream' or the first-rate R&B ballad 'You Are Not Alone' – manage to link the incidents of Jackson's infamous recent past to universal concepts like injustice or isolation. When he bases his music in the bluntness of hip-hop, Jackson sketches funky scenarios denouncing greed, blanket unreliability and false accusation." He went on to say of "Scream" and "Tabloid Junkie", "[these] two adventurous Jam and Lewis thumpers work completely: Jackson's slippery voice is caught in mammoth funk-rock constructions. They're reminiscent of Janet Jackson's hits, in which Jam and Lewis allow space for lush vocal harmonies taken from the "Triumph"-era Jacksons; the choruses of 'Tabloid Junkie' in particular sing out with quick-voiced warnings about the failings of media truth."


text: Patrick MacDonald of "The Seattle Times" called "Scream" the best song on the album. He continued, "The refrain of "Stop pressurin' me!" is compelling, and he spits out the lyrics with drama and purpose. The song has bite and infectious energy." MacDonald did, however, consider the use of profanity unnecessary. Richard Harrington of "The Washington Post", however, called it "dull and musically uninvolved." He was also of the opinion that it sounded like "Jam" from 1991, thus dated. "Scream" was nominated for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" at the 1996 American Music Awards, and shortly afterward it gained a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals".


text: "Scream" was a worldwide hit. In the U.S. it was the first song in the 37-year history of "Billboard" to debut at number five; however it would peak there. The single was certified platinum by the RIAA and sold 700,000 copies domestically. It reached number one in Italy, Spain, and New Zealand, number two in Australia and Norway and number three in the UK. It became a top five hit in every major music market. A remix of "Scream" was also issued in the UK which charted at number 43 and in 2009 re-entered the UK charts at number 70.


text: The 4:46 minute music video for "Scream" was choreographed by Travis Payne, LaVelle Smith Jnr, Tina Landon and Sacha Lucashenko in May 1995, and Sean Cheesman, directed by Mark Romanek, with the production being designed by Tom Foden. Jackson did not create the "concept" for the video, which he had often done in the past, but left it to Romanek. Jackson later described the making of "Scream" as a collaborative effort. The song and its accompanying video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the media in 1993.


text: Foden commented, "Mark had written the treatment and the general idea was that Michael and Janet were on this large spacecraft. And they were alone... They were getting away from Earth, and the different sets were the different environments on the spacecraft where they could have a little bit of fun and where they could relax." Production of the music video's 13-piece set was restricted to a one-month period and was produced by Foden and art directors Richard Berg, Jeff Hall, and Martin Mervel. Foden described the assignment as a "military operation" explaining, "The idea was to give each of the art directors three sets: a complicated one, a not-so-complicated one, and one of the smaller, easier vignettes."


text: Typography in the video was designed by P. Scott Makela. Jackson was happy to work with his sister again, explaining that as they still had a passion for dancing it reminded him of "old times." Janet Jackson revealed on her 2022 self-titled documentary film that the two worked separately on set (Michael working nights and Janet working days) and that his team limited her access to the soundstage when Michael was filming which she attributed to an effort to keep things competitive between them. She also stated the video was supposed to be filmed over three days, and was "supposed to cost a lot less."


text: In the video, Janet Jackson takes on a darker persona, previously unseen in her own music videos. Jim Farber of the "New York Daily News" described her as "Sporting a thick thatch of wig hair, and eyes darkened by coal-black makeup... sullen and arty... Janet, however, never looked tougher, or more in control." The video has influences of Japanese sci-fi anime; in the background screens, several clips can be seen of the television series "Zillion" (1987) and "Babel II" (OVA, 1992), and the films "Vampire Hunter D" (1985) and "Akira" (1988). The version of the video included on "Michael Jackson's Vision" is uncut and contains the "Stop fucking with me" lyric, which was censored in "HIStory on Film, Volume II".


text: The video begins with a sign showing the siblings' names which splits away to reveal a logo of the song's title. The scene then changes to a spacecraft traveling past Earth before the camera zooms in inside. The lights come on and reveal Michael and Janet inside individual capsules. During this sequence, the song's intro, a soundtrack of noise music with heavy sub-bass, uncharacteristic for the song's style, is heard. Suddenly, the spacecraft zooms out through the outer part of the galaxy, sending them screaming, and the song starts when the screaming Michael pounds his hands on the capsule lid, shattering it.


text: In the first verse, Michael is seen in the room where he is floating in zero gravity. Then, Michael is shown in a room with several guitars where he breaks one while Janet sings the next verse. Then, it shows Michael dancing on the wall while Janet looks at her nails before playing a game of tag. Then, it shows Michael and Janet in a room where they are using a remote control to switch between pictures of Andy Warhol, art paintings, statues, etc. Next, it shows both Michael and Janet in the media room where they are playing a video game which Michael wins. Then, Janet sports a skimpy bikini in some scenes while at the core of the craft, grabs at her breasts, gives the camera a middle finger, and simulates male urination. Michael is shown taking controls into some kind of Observation. (In the out-takes, there is a still color photograph of Michael also giving the camera a middle finger.)


text: Michael is then seen in a white room while wearing a black robe where he is meditating before screaming which breaks the glass above him. The scene then shifts, showing Michael and Janet performing a dance breakdown. Then, it cuts back to the media room where Janet is dancing with Michael being seen on the television screen while Janet does the same thing with Michael. Then, Michael is seen playing a tennis game where he is using a robotic orb to break jars.


text: The video premiered in the summer of 1995, on MTV and BET and the next evening on ABC-TV's "Primetime Live" during Diane Sawyer's interview with Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley. The interview was broadcast to approximately 64 million viewers. The video is one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed. Heather Phares of Allmusic described the video as a "stylish, interstellar clip." James Hunter of "Rolling Stone" called it a contemporary video, "in which Michael and his sister Janet jump around like '90s fashion kids trapped in a spaceship stolen from a "Barbarella" film set." Jim Farber called it a "supercool black-and-white clip... The clip's great allure is that neither of the siblings looks quite real. While the visuals hold barely any connection to the lyric, and seem to have no clear point, the weird look captivates." He was of the opinion that while Michael Jackson outshines his sister in the vocals, it is Janet Jackson who gives the better performance in the music video.


text: In 1995, "Scream" gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won "Best Dance Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Art Direction". In reaction, Jackson stated that he was "very honored", explaining that he had worked "very hard" and was "very happy" with the reception up to that point. It was also given a "Billboard" Music Award for best Pop/Rock video. A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterward "Guinness World Records" listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million, although it was later refuted by the director. In 2001, VH1 placed "Scream" at number nine on their list of the 100 greatest music videos.


text: In 1997, "Scream" was remixed as "Scream Louder (Flyte Tyme Remix)" for Michael Jackson's remix album . The remix used elements from the Sly & The Family Stone song Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again). Another official remix was produced by Naughty by Nature and was called, "Scream (Naughty Remix)" and has a new urban R&B instrumental beat & a rap verse by Treach of Naughty by Nature.


text: "Scream" was a creative influence on other music videos such as the 1999 release of the award-winning "No Scrubs" by TLC. This influence was also present on the 2008 release of "Shawty Get Loose" by Lil Mama and Chris Brown. Reacting to the comparisons made between the videos, Mama explained, "I feel honored, because that was one of the initial goals, and I feel that it was executed well." She adding that the emulation was intentional and that Brown was the only logical choice to step into Michael Jackson's role. Ciara and Nicki Minaj's music video for their single "I'm Out" was heavily influenced by the video by referencing the all-white scenery and attire. Tyga's 2018 released music video "Dip" featuring Nicki Minaj is also heavily influenced by the video.


text: In September 2009, Janet Jackson performed "Scream" on the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards as part of a medley tribute to Michael Jackson, who died three months earlier. MTV General Manager Stephen Friedman stated "[t]his is not something that just came together—we've been in talks with [Janet] for a while... We felt there was no one better than Janet to anchor it and send a really powerful message." She worked with several world-renowned choreographers, including Dave Scott, Cris Judd, Brian Friedman, Wade Robson, Tyce Diorio, Travis Payne, Jeri Slaughter, Laurie Ann Gibson, Mia Michaels and Tina Landon, with her personal creative director, Gil Duldulao, coordinating the performance.


text: Gil Kaufman of MTV commented "[w]earing a black-and-white, skintight leather dress with matching pants, Janet busted some of her and Michael's signature moves, flawlessly re-creating her late brother's steps as they were projected on the screen behind her." Michael Slezak of "Entertainment Weekly" commented, "she worked that stage harder than an underpaid assistant doin' overtime, and as tributes go, this was as energetic as it was heartfelt."


text: After its release, "Scream" debuted at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It became the first song in history to enter the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart from the Top 5 and broke a historical record.


text: In 1995, "Scream" gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won "Best Dance Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Art Direction." Reacting to this, Jackson stated that he was "very honored", explaining that he had worked "very hard" and he was "very happy" with the reception up to that point. It was also given a "Billboard" Music Award for best Pop/Rock video. A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterward "Guinness World Records" listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million, although this was later refuted by the director. In 2001, VH1 placed "Scream" at number nine on their list of the 100 greatest music videos.


text: Despite being known as "Scary Movie" throughout its production, the 1996 film "Scream", directed by Wes Craven, changed its name to "Scream" after Harvey Weinstein heard Jackson’s song on the radio.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Bill Kurtis (born William Horton Kuretich; September 21, 1940), is an American television journalist, television producer, narrator, and news anchor.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis was studying to become a lawyer in the 1960s, when he was asked to fill in on a temporary news assignment at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas. His reporting on a devastating tornado outbreak led to an on air news reporter and later a very successful news anchor position in Chicago. He has been noted for his sonorous voice throughout his career. In the early 1980s, he anchored "The CBS Morning News" in New York City and became especially interested in investigative in-depth reports and documentaries. When he returned to Chicago and for a time resumed his anchor duties, he also founded a production company, Kurtis Productions.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis hosted or produced a number of crime and news documentary shows, including "Investigative Reports", "American Justice", and "Cold Case Files". Kurtis is currently the scorekeeper/announcer for National Public Radio (NPR)'s news comedy/quiz show "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!", as well as serving as the host of "Through the Decades", a documentary-style news magazine seen on Decades.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: William Horton Kuretich was born on September 21, 1940 in Pensacola, Florida, to Wilma Mary Horton (1911–2002) and William A. Kuretich (Croatian: Kuretić), of Croatian origin (1914–2001), a United States Marine Corps brigadier general and decorated veteran of World War II. His father's military career included extensive travel for his family. Upon his retirement, the family settled in Independence, Kansas.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: At age 16, Kurtis began working as an announcer for KIND, a radio station in Independence. He graduated from Independence High School in 1958, the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism in 1962 and he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Washburn University School of Law in 1966. While in law school he worked part-time at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas. After passing the Kansas bar examination and accepting a job with a Wichita, Kansas law firm, Kurtis discussed his options with Harry Colmery and Bob McClure of Colmery and Russell and decided not to pursue a career in law.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis served as an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps Reserve (Topeka, Kansas 1962–1966). He was commissioned a lieutenant (j.g.) in the United States Navy Reserve (Chicago, 1966–1969).


title: Bill Kurtis

text: On the evening of June 8, 1966, Kurtis left a bar review class at Washburn to fill in for a friend at WIBW-TV to anchor the 6 o'clock news. Severe weather was approaching Topeka, so Kurtis stayed to update some weather reports. At 7:00 p.m., while on the air, a tornado was sighted by WIBW cameraman Ed Rutherford southwest of the city. Within 15 seconds another sighting came in: "It's wiped out an apartment complex." Kurtis's warning – "For God's sake, take cover" – became synonymous with the Tornado outbreak sequence of June 1966 that left 16 dead and injured hundreds more. Kurtis and the WIBW broadcast team remained on the air for 24 straight hours to cover the initial tornado and its aftermath. As the only television station in town and one of the few radio stations left undamaged, WIBW became a communications hub for emergency operations. The experience changed Kurtis's career path from law to broadcast news. Within three months, after seeing his work covering the tornado, WBBM-TV in Chicago hired Kurtis and set the stage for a 30-year career with CBS.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: The year 1966 in Chicago was the beginning of a tumultuous four years, and as a reporter and anchor Kurtis was in the middle of historic events. He covered the neighborhood fires that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and again when Robert F. Kennedy was shot. The protests against the Vietnam War dominated the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which Kurtis covered. In 1969, Kurtis produced a documentary about Iva Toguri D'Aquino, "Tokyo Rose", the first interview after her conviction for treason in 1949. His reporting, along with Ron Yates of the Chicago Tribune, helped persuade President Gerald Ford to pardon her in 1977. His legal education came into play when he covered the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial in 1969, which led to a job with CBS News in Los Angeles as correspondent. One of his first assignments was covering the Charles Manson murder trial for 10 months. He also covered the murder trials of Angela Davis and Juan Corona and the Pentagon Papers trial of Daniel Ellsberg.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: In 1973, Kurtis returned to Chicago to co-anchor with Walter Jacobson at WBBM-TV. In 1978, his investigative focus unit broke the Agent Orange story, U.S. veterans who were sprayed by the defoliant in Vietnam. After a dramatic screening of the documentary in Washington, D.C., the Veterans Administration issued guidelines to diagnose and compensate those veterans affected by Agent Orange. Kurtis returned to Vietnam in 1980 to cover the Vietnamese side of the story and, while there, discovered some 15,000 Vietnamese children conceived and left behind by Americans when the U.S. left in 1975. A story Kurtis wrote for "The New York Times Magazine" was instrumental in obtaining special status for the children to enter the United States, where they live today.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: In 1982, Kurtis joined Diane Sawyer on "The CBS Morning News", the network broadcast from New York City. The two were also on the "CBS Early Morning News", which aired an hour earlier on most CBS stations. He also anchored three "CBS Reports": "The Plane That Fell from the Sky", "The Golden Leaf", and "The Gift of Life".


title: Bill Kurtis

text: He returned to WBBM-TV in 1985. In 1986, Kurtis hosted a four-part science series on PBS called "The Miracle Planet" as well as a four-part series in 1987 on the Central Intelligence Agency. He formed his own documentary production company, Kurtis Productions, in 1988, the same year he produced "Return to Chernobyl" for the PBS series "Nova". Kurtis narrated nearly 1,000 documentaries, and Kurtis Productions produced nearly 500 documentaries for series like "The New Explorers" on PBS; "Investigative Reports" and "Cold Case Files" for the A&E; and Investigating History for the History Channel. He also hosted "American Justice", produced by Towers Productions. For CNBC, the company has produced nearly 100 episodes of "American Greed".


title: Bill Kurtis

text: In 1994, Kurtis obtained a videotape showing Richard Speck, convicted of murdering eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966, having jailhouse sex and using drugs within the maximum security facility known as Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois. He aired a report on WBBM-TV, Chicago, and produced a documentary for A&E Network that shocked the nation. It resulted in the most sweeping changes to the Illinois penal system in its history.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis has received two Peabody Awards, numerous Emmy Awards, awards from the Overseas Press Club, a DuPont Award, and has been inducted into the Illinois and Kansas Halls of Fame. In 1998, he was awarded the University of Kansas William Allen White citation.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: He is the narrator of a multimedia book by Joe Garner, "We Interrupt This Broadcast", with a foreword by Walter Cronkite and an epilogue by Brian Williams which was a sequel to the Edward R. Murrow record album "I Can Hear It Now". Kurtis has authored three books: "On Assignment" (1984), "Death Penalty on Trial" (2004), and "Prairie Table Cookbook" (2008).


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Since June 2015, just as the Decades network officially launched, Kurtis serves as the lead host of "Through the Decades", a daily news magazine that covers historical events from that particular day since the advent of television. Kurtis' co-hosts are reporters Kerry Sayers and Ellee Pai Hong.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis narrated the 2010 documentary film "Carbon Nation" by Peter Byck and was the narrator in the 2004 film starring Will Ferrell, "" and its sequel "" (2013).


title: Bill Kurtis

text: On several occasions starting in 2009, Kurtis appeared on NPR's news quiz show "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!", filling in for regular announcer Carl Kasell. He replaced Kasell on a permanent basis on May 24, 2014. One segment of the show has Kurtis reading out three news-related limericks with the last word or phrase missing for contestants to fill in.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: A 1972 report by Bill Kurtis, while a correspondent for CBS News in Los Angeles, was used as the introduction to Dr. Dre's album "Compton".


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Author Randy Shilts decided to write his seminal 1987 book "And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and The AIDS Epidemic" after attending an awards ceremony in 1983. As described in the book, Kurtis gave the keynote address and told a joke: "What's the hardest part about having AIDS? Trying to convince your wife that you're Haitian." Shilts believed the joke exemplified the "business as usual" treatment of AIDS in government and media.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: In the animated series "South Park", Eric Cartman owns a board game called "Investigative Reports with Bill Kurtis", featuring a talking Bill Kurtis bust. The boys can be seen playing the game in South Park's season four episode "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" (2000) and season eight episode "Up the Down Steroid" (2004). The game can also be seen on the shelf of a hobby store in the episode "Cock Magic" (2014).


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis also contributed a spoken-word introduction to The Dandy Warhols' 2005 album "Odditorium or Warlords of Mars".


title: Bill Kurtis

text: The Shrine of Christ's Passion, an interactive half-mile winding pathway of 40 life-size bronze statues depicting the Stations of the Cross that opened in June 2008, features a description of each scene and a short meditation recorded by Kurtis.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis and his wife, Helen, had two children, a daughter and a son. Mary Kristen was born in 1966, and Scott in 1970.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis's wife Helen died at age 36 of breast cancer on June 11, 1977, in Omaha, Nebraska. He married his partner of 40 years, former Chicago TV news producer Donna La Pietra, on December 13, 2017. La Pietra was a partner with Kurtis in his Kurtis Productions company. Kurtis has homes in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and in Mettawa, Illinois.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis and his sister, Jean Schodorf, inherited the historic site of the "Little House on the Prairie" as designated by the State of Kansas. It is now a not-for-profit museum with their grandmother's one-room schoolhouse, a tiny post office from Wayside, Kansas, a homesteader's farmhouse, and attendant farm buildings.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: Kurtis' son, Scott, died on July 20, 2009, at age 38 at the Kansas cattle ranch owned by his father. Scott Kurtis was known to have suffered from paranoid schizophrenia since his mid-teens.


title: Bill Kurtis

text: In 2005, Kurtis founded Tallgrass Beef Company, which raised and distributed grass-fed, hormone-free organic beef. Some of the beef sold came from cattle raised on Kurtis's ranch in Sedan, Kansas. On July 15, 2013, Tallgrass Beef Company, LLC forfeited its registration with the Kansas Secretary of State to do business in the state of Kansas.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Caspar Willard Weinberger (August 18, 1917 – March 28, 2006) was an American statesman and businessman. As a prominent Republican, he served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades, including chairman of the California Republican Party, 1962–1968. Most notably he was Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Weinberger was born in San Francisco, California. He served in the 41st Infantry Division in the Pacific theater of World War II. Weinberger's entry into politics was as a California State Assemblyman from 1953 to 1959, and he would go on to serve as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. An accomplished private sector businessman, he later became vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and still later Chairman of "Forbes" magazine.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Weinberger's tenure as Secretary of Defense was marked by his hard line against the Soviet Union, in disagreement with the State Department. He promoted the Strategic Defense Initiative. He was indicted on charges lying to Congress and obstructing government investigations as part of the Iran–Contra investigation but was pardoned prior to going to trial. Weinberger was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987 and an honorary British knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Weinberger was born in San Francisco, California, the younger of two sons of Herman Weinberger (1886-1944), an attorney, and Cerise Carpenter Weinberger née Hampson (1886-1975), a music teacher, both natives of Denver, Colorado. His father was of Jewish descent from Austro-Hungary, while his maternal grandparents were from Wisconsin. Weinberger was named "Caspar" for a friend of his mother's; his father began calling him "Cap", a nickname that stuck into adulthood.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Weinberger was a first cousin of the nationally broadcast radio personality Don McNeill of "Don McNeill's Breakfast Club". Caspar Weinberger's father, Herman, was the younger brother of Luella Weinberger McNeill, mother of Don McNeill. The 1910 Census shows Herman and Luella living in the household of Nathan Weinberger, the grandfather of Caspar Weinberger.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Weinberger's paternal grandparents had left Judaism over a religious dispute while living in Bohemia. He was raised in a home with no denominational ties, though with a socially Christian orientation. Weinberger would later become an active Episcopalian and often expressed his faith in God. Weinberger had stated that his mother's Episcopal religion was "an enormous influence and comfort all my life".


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Weinberger attended San Francisco Polytechnic High School. He was academically gifted and gained admission to Harvard University.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: When he enrolled at Harvard College, his mother rented an apartment nearby for the first semester that Weinberger and his older brother, Peter, attended Harvard. She then returned to her husband in San Francisco. Weinberger received his Bachelor of Arts in government, "magna cum laude", in 1938 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1941, both from Harvard. He served as president of the Harvard student newspaper, "The Harvard Crimson", and recalls in his memoirs entitled "In the Arena: A Memoir of the 20th Century" two specific interviews of which he was most pleased: one with the highly decorated soldier Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and another with Alabama-born actress Tallulah Bankhead.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Prior to commencing studies at Harvard Law School, Weinberger had been offered a scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: He entered the United States Army as a private in 1941, was commissioned as a second lieutenant at the United States Army Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning, Georgia, and served with the 41st Infantry Division in the Pacific. At the end of the war he was a captain on General Douglas MacArthur's intelligence staff. Early in life, he developed an interest in politics and history, and, during the war years, a special admiration for Winston Churchill, whom he would later cite as an important influence in his life. From 1945–1947, Weinberger worked as a law clerk for a federal judge before joining a San Francisco law firm.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: In 1952, Weinberger entered the race for California's 21st State Assembly district in the San Francisco Bay area as a Republican at the persuasion of his wife, Jane Weinberger, who also served as his campaign manager. He won and was reelected in 1954 and 1956. As the chairman of the Assembly Government Organization Committee, Weinberger was responsible for the creation of the California Department of Water Resources and was instrumental in the creation of the California State Water Project. Weinberger also unsuccessfully opposed the construction of the Embarcadero Freeway, saying it would ruin the view of the Bay and damage property values. Weinberger felt vindicated when the freeway was removed after the 1989 earthquake. Although unsuccessful in his 1958 campaign for California Attorney General, Weinberger continued to be active in politics and was chosen by Nixon in 1962 to become chairman of the California Republican Party.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: Governor Ronald Reagan named him chairman of the Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy in 1967 and appointed him State director of finance early in 1968. Weinberger moved to Washington in January 1970 to become chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. He is credited for having revitalized the FTC by enforcing consumer protection.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: He subsequently served under President Richard Nixon as deputy director (1970–1972) and director (1972–1973) of the Office of Management and Budget and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (1973–1975). While serving in the Office of Management and Budget, Weinberger earned the nickname "Cap the Knife" for his cost-cutting ability. For the next five years, Weinberger was vice president and general counsel of the Bechtel Corporation in California.


title: Caspar Weinberger

text: In 1973, the Southern Poverty Law Center named Weinberger as a defendant in a case that sought restitution for the forced non-consensual sterilization and medical experimentation on three young Black American girls, Minnie Lee, Mary Alice, and Katie Relf in Montgomery, Alabama. An employee of Montgomery’s federally-funded Community Action organization took the Relf sisters to a family planning clinic under the pretext of needing “shots.” Staff gave Katie Relf a then-experimental birth control shot as well as inserted a contraceptive IUD device without parental knowledge or consent. On a separate occasion, doctors surgically sterilized Minnie Lee and Mary Alice who were twelve and fourteen years old respectively. At the time of the suit, the Office of Economic Opportunity was preparing to hand over funding and control of its associated family planning clinics to Weinberger’s Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.