title: Methyl group

text: Certain methyl groups can be deprotonated. For example, the acidity of the methyl groups in acetone () is about 10 times more acidic than methane. The resulting carbanions are key intermediates in many reactions in organic synthesis and biosynthesis. Fatty acids are produced in this way.


title: Methyl group

text: When placed in benzylic or allylic positions, the strength of the C–H bond is decreased, and the reactivity of the methyl group increases. One manifestation of this enhanced reactivity is the photochemical chlorination of the methyl group in toluene to give benzyl chloride.


title: Methyl group

text: In the special case where one hydrogen is replaced by deuterium (D) and another hydrogen by tritium (T), the methyl substituent becomes chiral. Methods exist to produce optically pure methyl compounds, e.g., chiral acetic acid (). Through the use of chiral methyl groups, the stereochemical course of several biochemical transformations have been analyzed.


title: Methyl group

text: A methyl group may rotate around the R–C axis. This is a free rotation only in the simplest cases like gaseous methyl chloride . In most molecules, the remainder R breaks the "C" symmetry of the R–C axis and creates a potential "V"("φ") that restricts the free motion of the three protons. For the model case of ethane , this is discussed under the name ethane barrier.


title: Methyl group

text: In condensed phases, neighbour molecules also contribute to the potential. Methyl group rotation can be experimentally studied using quasielastic neutron scattering.


title: Methyl group

text: French chemists Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Eugene Peligot, after determining methanol's chemical structure, introduced "methylene" from the Greek "methy" "wine" and "hȳlē" "wood, patch of trees" with the intention of highlighting its origins, "alcohol made from wood (substance)". The term "methyl" was derived in about 1840 by back-formation from "methylene", and was then applied to describe "methyl alcohol" (which since 1892 is called "methanol").


title: Methyl group

text: "Methyl" is the IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry term for an alkane (or alkyl) molecule, using the prefix "meth-" to indicate the presence of a single carbon.


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: In artificial neural networks, attention is a technique that is meant to mimic cognitive attention. The effect enhances some parts of the input data while diminishing other parts — the motivation being that the network should devote more focus to the small, but important, parts of the data. Learning which part of the data is more important than another depends on the context, and this is trained by gradient descent.


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: Attention-like mechanisms were introduced in the 1990s under names like multiplicative modules, sigma pi units, and hypernetworks. Its flexibility comes from its role as "soft weights" that can change during runtime, in contrast to standard weights that must remain fixed at runtime. Uses of attention include memory in neural Turing machines, reasoning tasks in differentiable neural computers, language processing in transformers, and multi-sensory data processing (sound, images, video, and text) in perceivers.


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: Given a sequence of tokens formula_1 labeled by the index formula_2, a neural network computes a soft weight formula_3 for each formula_1 with the property that formula_3 is nonnegative and formula_6. Each formula_1 is assigned a value vector formula_8 which is computed from the word embedding of the formula_2th token. The weighted average formula_10 is the output of the attention mechanism.


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: The query-key mechanism computes the soft weights. From the word embedding of each token it computes its corresponding query vector formula_11 and key vector formula_12. The weights are obtained by taking the softmax function of the dot product formula_13 where formula_2 represents the current token and formula_15 represents the token that's being attended to.


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: In some architectures, there are multiple heads of attention, each operating independently with their own queries, keys and values.


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: To build a machine that translates English to French, one takes the basic Encoder-Decoder and graft an attention unit to it (diagram below). In the simplest case, the attention unit consists of dot products of the recurrent encoder states and does not need training. In practice, the attention unit consists of 3 fully-connected neural network layers called query-key-value that need to be trained. See the Variants section below.


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: Viewed as a matrix, the attention weights show how the network adjusts its focus according to context.


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: This view of the attention weights addresses the "explainability" problem that neural networks are criticized for. Networks that perform verbatim translation without regard to word order would have a diagonally dominant matrix if they were analyzable in these terms. The off-diagonal dominance shows that the attention mechanism is more nuanced. On the first pass through the decoder, 94% of the attention weight is on the first English word "I", so the network offers the word "je". On the second pass of the decoder, 88% of the attention weight is on the third English word "you", so it offers "t'". On the last pass, 95% of the attention weight is on the second English word "love", so it offers "aime".


title: Attention (machine learning)

text: There are many variants of attention: dot product, query-key-value, hard, soft, self, cross, Luong, and Bahdanau to name a few. These variants recombine the encoder-side inputs to redistribute those effects to each target output. Often, a correlation-style matrix of dot products provides the re-weighting coefficients (see legend).


title: Andy Partridge

text: Andrew John Partridge (born 11 November 1953) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who founded the rock band XTC. He and Colin Moulding each acted as a songwriter and frontman for XTC, with Partridge writing and singing about two-thirds of the group's material. While the band were a formative punk group, Partridge's music drew heavily from 1960s songwriters, and his style gradually shifted to more traditional pop, often with pastoral themes. The band's only UK top 10 hit, "Senses Working Overtime" (1982), was written by Partridge.


title: Andy Partridge

text: Partridge is sometimes regarded as the "godfather" of Britpop. Since the 1980s, he has worked, written with, or produced for many other recording artists—efforts which include collaborative albums with Peter Blegvad, Harold Budd and Robyn Hitchcock. From 2002 to 2006, Partridge's APE House record label released several volumes of his demos and songs as part of the "Fuzzy Warbles" album series. Beyond music, he is a graphic illustrator, toy soldier hobbyist, and designer of board games.


title: Andy Partridge

text: Andrew John Partridge was born 11 November 1953 at Mtarfa Royal Navy Hospital in Mtarfa, Malta to English parents. He grew up on Penhill council estate in Swindon. and was an only child. His father John was a navy signalman, and his mother Vera a shop assistant in a retail chemists. When Partridge entered adolescence, it was discovered that his father was having an extramarital affair, and his mother consequently had a nervous breakdown, leading to her being institutionalised. She "verbally disowned" her son once he started growing his hair long.


title: Andy Partridge

text: As a teenager, Partridge was a fan of contemporary pop groups like the Beatles, but was intimidated by the process of learning guitar. When the Monkees grew popular, he became interested in joining a music group. He recalled watching local guitarist Dave Gregory performing Jimi Hendrix-style songs at churches and youth clubs: "Sort of acid-skiffle. I thought, 'Ah, one day I'll play guitar!' But I didn't think I would be in the same band as this kid on the stage." He was particularly fond of psychedelic records such as Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play" (1967), Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle" (1967), and the Moles' "We Are the Moles" (1968). The first records he ever bought were "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967) and "The Monkees" (1966).


title: Andy Partridge

text: Partridge eventually obtained a guitar, taught himself how to play it with no formal training, and immediately took to writing songs. He submitted a caricature of Micky Dolenz to "Monkees Monthly"s Draw a Monkee competition and won, using the £10 prize to buy a Grundig tape recorder. At the age of 15, he wrote his first song, titled "Please Help Me", and while in Swindon College, attracted the nickname "Rocky" for his early guitar mastery of the Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon" (1968). He also dropped out of school and formed the first of several "loud and horrid" rock bands with the purpose of meeting girls.


title: Andy Partridge

text: By the early 1970s, his music tastes had accordingly transitioned "from the Monkees to having a big binge on this Euro-avant-garde stuff. I got really in deep." One of his first bands was called "Stiff Beach", formed in August 1970. In early 1972, Partridge's constantly evolving group settled into a four-piece called "Star Park". By then, he had found a job at a record shop and was engrossed with bands such as the Stooges, the New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, and Pink Fairies.


title: Andy Partridge

text: In late 1972, Partridge's Star Park was joined by bassist Colin Moulding and drummer Terry Chambers. The band became known as XTC in 1975 and signed to Virgin Records in 1977. Partridge wrote the majority of XTC's songs, was the band's frontman and de facto leader, and in Moulding's view, typically acted as an "executive producer" for their albums. His early XTC songs were marked by his distinct singing style, something he jokingly described as a "walrus" or "seal bark", but otherwise an amalgamation of Buddy Holly's "hiccup", Elvis Presley's vibrato, and "the howled mannerisms of Steve Harley." He later dismissed most of his initial output as premature songs "built around this electric wordplay stuff".


title: Andy Partridge

text: While XTC were a formative punk group, Partridge's music drew heavily from British Invasion songwriters, and his style gradually shifted to more traditional pop, often with pastoral themes. Music critic John Harris said that Partridge exemplified "a very English genre: rock music uprooted from the glamour and dazzle of the city, and recast as the soundtrack to life in suburbs, small towns, and the kind of places – like Swindon – that may be more sizeable, but are still held up as bywords for broken hopes and limited horizons." He cited Partridge's 1981 song "Respectable Street" as one of the "most evocative items" in his catalog. Partridge stated that his favourite XTC album was "Nonsuch" (1992) and considered "Rook" (1992), "Wrapped in Grey" (1992) and "Easter Theatre" (1999) to be the "perfect songs" of his career. For many years, he also regarded "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her" (1984) as his finest song.


title: Andy Partridge

text: In 1982, as XTC were about to headline a series of US performances in support of the album "English Settlement", they permanently withdrew from concert touring and remained a studio-only band from then on. For a period afterward, it was rumoured among fans and industry insiders that the group stopped performing because Partridge had died, and some American bands put on XTC tribute shows in his remembrance. The group ran into more problems once it was discovered that poor management led to them incurring hundreds of thousands in unpaid value-added taxes. Partridge said that he was eventually left with "about £300 in the bank, which is really heavy when you've got a family and everyone thinks you're 'Mr Rich and Famous'."


title: Andy Partridge

text: In December 1984, Partridge formed the Dukes of Stratosphear, an XTC offshoot he envisioned as a simulacrum of "your favourite bands from 1967". They recorded only two albums: "25 O'Clock" (1985) and "Psonic Psunspot" (1987), both of which outsold XTC's newest albums in the UK: "The Big Express" (1984) and "Skylarking" (1986). Around this time, Partridge established himself as a producer of other artists. However, Virgin Records refused to allow XTC to act as their own producers, which sometimes caused tensions between Partridge and whoever was assigned to produce the band. According to Partridge, he generally got along with the band's producers, except for Todd Rundgren on "Skylarking" and Gus Dudgeon on 1992's "Nonsuch".


title: Andy Partridge

text: In the 1990s, Partridge became regarded as "godfather" to the nascent Britpop movement due to his earlier work with XTC. They released several more albums on Virgin and two more on their own label, Idea Records, before going on hiatus in 2006. In July 2008, Partridge wrote in the "Swindon Advertiser" that he believed his "musical partnership with Colin Moulding has come to an end. For reasons too personal and varied to go into here, but we had a good run as they say and produced some real good work."


title: Andy Partridge

text: Since XTC's breakup, Partridge has acted as curator to the band's legacy, overseeing reissues and remasters, and maintaining a web presence. The official XTC Twitter account @xtcfans (now defunct) was originally managed by writer Todd Bernhardt. According to Partridge, after some time, "I sort of took it over, because I thought it was weird that there was another person in the way." In 2016, Partridge and Bernhardt released a book, "Complicated Game: Inside the Songs of XTC", that contains discussions between the two about 29 XTC songs, one Partridge solo track, and an overview of his approach to songwriting. It was published by Jawbone Press.


title: Andy Partridge

text: Since the 1980s, Partridge has worked, written with, or produced many other musicians and bands, including Peter Blegvad, the Lilac Time, the Nines, Miles Kane, David Yazbek, Voice of the Beehive, the Woodentops, the Wallflowers, Perennial Divide, the Raiders, and Charlotte Hatherley.


title: Andy Partridge

text: In 1980, Partridge, in collaboration with producer John Leckie, released a collection of XTC dub recordings on Virgin Records called "Take Away / The Lure of Salvage". It was credited to "Mr. Partridge". Even though no other XTC member was involved with the album's making, he does not personally consider it a solo effort. Virgin Records rejected his request to issue it under the XTC banner as it would have counted toward their record contract. In Japan, the record was hailed as a work of "electronic genius" and outsold all other XTC albums.


title: Andy Partridge

text: Partridge's first job producing another artist was Peter Blegvad's 1983 album "The Naked Shakespeare". He said that his services were requested partly because Blegvad heard a rumour that he had died in 1982.


title: Andy Partridge

text: In 1992, Partridge produced unreleased recordings for Blur's album "Modern Life Is Rubbish" (1993). He was replaced by Stephen Street at the insistence of their record label, Food. According to Partridge he was unpaid for the expenses and received his session payment only. Three of the tracks he produced were later released on the 2012 boxed set "Blur 21".


title: Andy Partridge

text: In 1993, Partridge recorded and produced an album with Martin Newell, "The Greatest Living Englishman". When released in Japan, it was credited as a duo album. The album was well received by critics and ultimately became the most acclaimed of Newell's career. Partridge also wrote four songs for Disney's version of "James and the Giant Peach" (1996), but was replaced by Randy Newman due to creative differences between director Henry Selick and Disney regarding the choice of soundtrack composer and the fact that Disney wanted to own the copyright to the songs for perpetuity.


title: Andy Partridge

text: Partridge took on less work as a music producer after the 1990s. He stated in a 2007 interview: "I got asked regularly to produce people, but I said no to everybody; after a while, people just stopped asking. I got sick of the social-worker aspect of it. I found it had very little to do with music ... I also think it's kind of odd that everyone wants to sound like 1979 again."


title: Andy Partridge

text: From 2002 to 2006, Partridge released demos of his songs under his own name as part of the "Fuzzy Warbles" album series on his APE House record label. Eight volumes of "Fuzzy Warbles" were made available, as well as "The Official Fuzzy Warbles Collector's Album", which includes a bonus ninth disc "Hinges". Partridge said that the impetus for the project was the proliferation of bootleggers who were selling low-quality copies of the material. He added that the "Fuzzy Warbles" set earned him more money than XTC's back catalog on Virgin.


title: Andy Partridge

text: In 2007, Partridge released music as part of a trio known as Monstrance, made up of Partridge on guitar, Barry Andrews (an early member of XTC) on keyboards, and Martyn Barker on drums. The group has released an album of the same name, as well as a download-only EP known as "Fine Wires Humming a New Song". That same year, he collaborated once again with Andrews on the Shriekback album "Glory Bumps".


title: Andy Partridge

text: In 2010, Partridge released a limited edition CD of music inspired by science fiction illustrator Richard M. Powers' art titled "Powers". In 2012, he contributed eight co-written songs to Mike Keneally's album "Wing Beat Fantastic". In 2016, he wrote a song "You Bring the Summer" for the Monkees' reunion album "Good Times!"; the 2018 follow-up, "Christmas Party", included his "Unwrap You at Christmas". He became involved with the reunion project through the band's manager, a former journalist who sought to repay Partridge for an interview conducted decades earlier.


title: Andy Partridge

text: In 2019, Partridge and Robyn Hitchcock completed the 13-years-in-the-making EP "Planet England". In September, it was reported that the project would later be followed with a full-length LP of songs inspired by the Beatles. As of 2020, Partridge was working on recording versions of "hundreds of songs" that he originally wrote for other artists over the years. He said he would release them as "a series of records tentatively titled "My Failed Songwriting Career"".


title: Andy Partridge

text: On July 23, 2021, Partridge released Volume 1 of 'My Failed Songwriting Career' through Burning Shed Records. Tracks included on the EP were 'Ghost Train', 'Great Day', 'Maid Of Stars' and 'The Mating Dance'. In October 2022, he released 'My Failed Christmas Career', a collection of seasonal songs written for other artists. That same month, Partridge gave a rare interview in which he stated he has retired from writing new music.


title: Andy Partridge

text: Many of the XTC record sleeves were designed by Partridge and at one point he considered a career as a graphic illustrator. He remembered having an intense interest in comic books and the cover illustrations of science fiction novels as a child, particularly those drawn by Richard M. Powers. Until the late 1970s, he owned a large American comic book collection that he had to sell off due to a mouse infestation at his home. Some of his songs are based on characters from DC Comics, namely Sgt. Rock for "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" (1980), Supergirl for "That's Really Super, Supergirl" (1986) and Brainiac for "Brainiac's Daughter" (1987).


title: Andy Partridge

text: Beyond music, Partridge is an avid collector, sculptor, and painter of toy soldiers, an "obsession" he credits to his mother throwing away his toys as a child. In a 1990 interview, he estimated owning thousands of figures since he started collecting them in 1979, and he reported having recently contributed World War I-era designs to an unspecified "firm that makes these war game figures in North England". He has also designed board games, such as one called "Dam and Blast".


title: Andy Partridge

text: During the mid-1980s, Partridge was a regular performer on BBC Radio 1. He has had acting roles, including a character named "Agony Andy", a spoof aunt on the Janice Long show, and he was a regular panelist on "Roundtable". In 1987, he filmed a pilot for an ITV children's quiz show, "Matchmakers". In 2004, he contributed the theme song to the Fox television series "Wonderfalls".


title: Andy Partridge

text: Partridge was married to Marianne Wyborn from 1979 to 1994. Together, they had two children: Holly and Harry. Harry is an independent web animator who created the comedic short "Saturday Morning Watchmen" (2009). After his divorce, Partridge entered into a long-term relationship with American singer Erica Wexler. Some songs written by Partridge, including "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her" (1984) and "Another Satellite" (1986), have been attributed by Partridge to aspects of their ongoing relationship. Partridge met Wexler in the early 1980s; they began dating shortly after she split from artist Roy Lichtenstein in 1994.


title: Andy Partridge

text: The subject matter of Partridge's songs frequently touch upon politics, religion, his hometown of Swindon, financial shortage, factory work, insects, comic book characters, seafaring, war, and ancient rituals. He said he did not become interested in politics until , when he voted for Margaret Thatcher "purely because she was a woman. I was that naive. Now I'm very left." He also identifies as an atheist. On the back of the "Apple Venus Volume 1" (1999) record sleeve is the Wiccan Rede, "Do what you will but harm none." He stated that he only had "a smattering of knowledge" on Wiccan topics and added that he was "interested in the pre-Christian appreciation of the land and the spirit of things, spirits in animate things and inanimate things."


title: Andy Partridge

text: XTC's 1986 song "Dear God", written by Partridge, was seen as controversial at the time for its anti-religious message. Partridge stated that the song failed to represent his true feelings on religion, as human belief is "such a "vast" subject". Although he is an atheist, he believes that heaven and hell exist metaphorically. Another of his songs, "Season Cycle" (1986), included the couplet "Everybody says, Join our religion, get to heaven / I say, no thanks, why bless my soul, I'm already there!" Explaining the lyric "do what you want to do / just don't hurt nobody" from his 1989 song "Garden of Earthly Delights", he said: "I'm sure .. what heaven is, really ... is not hurting anyone."


title: Andy Partridge

text: Partridge experiences auditory synesthesia, which he uses in his songwriting process. In later interviews, he stated he identifies as being on the autistic spectrum. At the age of 12, he was professionally diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Valium. He later formed a dependency on the drug that was exacerbated by the pressures of his music career. After disposing of the drug in 1981, he experienced severe withdrawal effects that led to XTC's withdrawal from touring.


title: Andy Partridge

text: In 1992, Partridge had an ear infection that left him temporarily deaf, and in 2006, during one of the sessions for "Monstrance", some of his hearing was destroyed following a studio mishap, which caused him to develop severe and permanent tinnitus. He later stated that he had "contemplated suicide, just to stop it [the tinnitus]."


title: 7.62 mm caliber

text: The 7.62 mm caliber is a nominal caliber used for a number of different cartridges. Historically, this class of cartridge was commonly known as .30 caliber, the imperial unit and customary unit equivalent, and was most commonly used for indicating a class of full-power military main battle rifle (MBR) cartridges. The measurement equals 0.30 inches or three decimal lines, written .3″ and read as three-line.


title: 7.62 mm caliber

text: The 7.62 mm designation refers to the internal diameter of the barrel at the lands (the raised helical ridges in rifled gun barrels). The actual bullet caliber is often , although Soviet weapons commonly use a bullet, as do older British (.303 British) and Japanese (7.7×58mm Arisaka) cartridges.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian II (1 July 1481 – 25 January 1559) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union who reigned as King of Denmark and Norway, from 1513 until 1523, and Sweden from 1520 until 1521. From 1513 to 1523, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig and Holstein in joint rule with his uncle Frederick.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: As king, Christian tried to maintain the Kalmar Union between the Scandinavian countries which brought him to war with Sweden, lasting between 1518 and 1523. Though he captured the country in 1520, the subsequent slaughter of leading Swedish nobility, churchmen, and others, known as the Stockholm Bloodbath, caused the Swedes to rise against his rule. He was deposed in a rebellion led by the nobleman and later king of Sweden Gustav Vasa. He attempted to bring in a radical reform of the Danish state in 1521–22, which would have strengthened the rights of commoners at the expense of the nobles and clergy. The nobility rose against him in 1523, and he was exiled to the Netherlands, ceding the Danish throne to his uncle Frederick. After attempting to reclaim the thrones in 1531, he was arrested and held in captivity for the rest of his life, first in Sønderborg Castle and later at Kalundborg Castle. Supporters tried to restore him to power both during his exile and his imprisonment but they were defeated decisively during the Count's Feud in 1536. Christian died at Kalundborg in 1559.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian married Isabella of Austria, granddaughter of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1515. Isabella died in 1526, after which her family took Christian's three children from him. His relationship with his mistress, Dyveke Sigbritsdatter, pre-dated his marriage and continued until her death in 1517. Christian's persecution of her supposed murderer contributed to his political isolation and downfall. Dyveke's mother, Sigbrit Willoms, became an influential councillor and followed Christian into exile.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Until 1521 Christian's regime was strongly allied, financed and dependent on Pope Leo X and Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (he was also his Duke of Holstein) in a plan to take control of Sweden politically and economically.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: In the background was an economic power struggle over the mining and metal industry in Bergslagen (the main mining area of Sweden in the 16th century) which added much greater financial resources to military capacity, but also strong dependencies, to a conflict that already lasted for decades over the Kalmar Union. An economic struggle, where the parties were financed and stood between:


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: The planned conquest of Sweden by Christian II, with Fugger's intended takeover of the industry in Bergslagen, was financed with a very large dowry, for Christian II's wife, financed by Fugger. Fugger later withdrew from the project in 1521 after losing to Gustav Vasa’s rebellion of the Swedish War of Liberation in the Battle of Västerås (and the control over shipping from Bergslagen). Thus, Fuggers former ally Christian II, lost the resources to win the war against Gustav Vasa, but also lost the resources to maintain his position in Denmark (against Frederick I of Denmark 1523).


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: The sharp increase in funding and financial dependence meant that at times the parties could keep up with larger amounts of expensive hired mercenaries, which explains the swinging of power and quickly changes of the situation, during the course of the proceedings. The costs were significant and after Christian III's victory with Gustav Vasa's Sweden as ally 1536 in Count's Feud in Scania and Denmark, the money was gone, Christian II, the Catholic Church's and the Hanseatic League's influence in the Nordic countries was over.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Followed by the Reformation in Denmark-Norway and the Reformation in Sweden, the nationalization of the Catholic Church with the Lutheran clergy under royal governmental payroll as civil servants, that financed the regimes of the new much more independent sovereigns.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian was born at Nyborg Castle in 1481 as the son of John, King of Denmark and his wife, Christina of Saxony. Christian descended, through Valdemar I of Sweden, from the House of Eric, and from Catherine, daughter of Inge I of Sweden, as well as from Ingrid Ylva, granddaughter of Sverker I of Sweden. His rival Gustav I of Sweden descended only from Sverker II of Sweden and the House of Sverker.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian took part in his father's conquest of Sweden in 1497 and in the Dano-Swedish War (1501–1512). He was appointed viceroy of Norway in 1506, and succeeded in maintaining control of the country. During his administration in Norway, he attempted to deprive the Norwegian nobility of its traditional influence exercised through the "Rigsraadet" privy council, leading to controversy with the latter.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: In 1513, he succeeded his father as king of Denmark and Norway. Christian's succession to the throne was confirmed at the "Herredag" assembly of notables from the three northern kingdoms, which met at Copenhagen in 1513. The Swedish delegates said, "We have the choice between peace at home and strife here, or peace here and civil war at home, and we prefer the former." A decision as to the Swedish succession was therefore postponed. Christian's coronation as king of Denmark and Norway took place in 1514.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Whilst visiting Bergen in 1507 or 1509, Christian fell in love with a Norwegian girl of Dutch heritage, named Dyveke Sigbritsdatter. She became his mistress and remained with him until Dyveke's death. Their relationship was not interrupted by Christian's marriage to Isabella of Austria, the granddaughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. They married by proxy on 11 June 1514 in Bruxelles. Isabella was brought to Copenhagen a year later, and the marriage was ratified on 12 August 1515 at Copenhagen Castle, in a ceremony conducted by Birger Gunnersen, Archbishop of Lund.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Dyveke died in 1517, and Christian was led to believe that the magnate Torben Oxe had poisoned her. Oxe's status meant that he should have been tried by the Council of State, but instead he was brought to trial by a common jury at Solbjerg outside Copenhagen. He was found guilty and executed in November 1517. This act precipitated the division between the king and aristocracy that ultimately led to Christian's deposition.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian's chief counsellor was Dyveke's mother, Sigbrit Willoms. Christian appointed her controller of the Sound Dues of Øresund, and took her advice on all financial matters. A bourgeoise herself, she acted to extend the influence of the middle classes, and formed an inner council, which competed with the "Rigsraadet" for power. Her influence was resented by the aristocracy, who blamed her for the king's favouring the working classes.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian was meanwhile preparing for the inevitable war with Sweden. The anti-Danish faction, headed by the regent Sten Sture the Younger, was opposed by the pro-Danish party led by Archbishop Gustav Trolle. In 1517 Christian dispatched ships and soldiers to the relief of the archbishop's fortress of Stäket, but was defeated by Sture and his peasant levies at Vedila. A second attempt the following year was also frustrated by Sture's victory at the Battle of Brännkyrka.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: A third attempt made in 1520 with a large army of French, German and Scottish mercenaries proved successful. Sture was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund on 19 January, and the remaining rebel forces were suppressed in April at the bloody Battle of Uppsala. Under the leadership of Sture's widow Christina Gyllenstierna, Stockholm held out until September 1520. Ultimately Christian was crowned by Trolle in November, with the agreement of the Swedish Privy Council ("Riksråd"), who had, however, extracted an indemnity for the past and guarantee that Sweden should be ruled according to Swedish laws and custom.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Three days after the coronation, Archbishop Trolle accused the followers of Sture of heresy for their part in the rising against him. Gyllenstierna used the fact that the Swedish Diet had made a 'swearing in common' "(sammansvärjning)" in 1517, which had bound the nobles to Sture's cause, in defence of her husband's followers. However, Christian seized on this as an opportunity to cement his control over Sweden by removing his opponents. He convened an ecclesiastical court which condemned all parties to the swearing in common. On 8 and 9 November eighty-two Swedish noblemen were executed at Stockholm castle, including the bishops of Skara and Strängnäs. As well as Sture's supporters, who had formed Trolle's original list, Christian's suspicious nature led him to even execute supporters of the Kalmar Union. The bodies of Sten Sture and his child were dug up and burnt. Gyllenstierna and other noble Swedish ladies were sent as prisoners to Denmark.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: The bloodbath, rather than cementing Christian's control of the Swedish throne, lead in short order to Sweden's secession from the Kalmar Union. Didrik Slagheck, whom Christian appointed to the bishopric of Skara and as one of the three regents of Sweden, proved brutal and inept. The remaining Swedish nobility, appalled by the bloodbath, rose against Christian and the Swedish Diet elected Gustav Vasa regent and subsequently King of Sweden. On account of the massacre Christian is remembered in Sweden as "Christian the Tyrant" ("Kristian Tyrann").


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: In June 1521, the Danish king paid a visit to Charles V in the Netherlands, where he remained for some months. He visited most of the large cities, made the personal acquaintance of Quentin Matsys and Albrecht Dürer, and met Erasmus, with whom he discussed the Protestant Reformation. Directly upon his return to Denmark in September 1521 Christian issued two bodies of laws – the Town Law and the Land Law – which governed respectively trade and the behaviour of the clergy. The Town Law strengthened the rights of tradesmen and peasants at the expense of the nobility. Trade was reorganised and was to be conducted solely through market towns, which were to be governed by officials appointed by the king. Trading in peasants was forbidden, and peasants were given the right to negotiate the terms of their tenure with the nobility. The Land Law permitted clergy to marry, and gave some control of the church over to the state. The new laws were radical, progressive, and perceived by the nobility and bishops as an existential threat.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: By 1522, Christian was running out of allies. In an attempt to set up a Danish-centered trading company in direct competition with the Hanseatic League, Christian had raised the sound tolls, which affected trade between Sweden and the Hanseatic towns. As a consequence, Lübeck and Danzig joined the newly independent Sweden in war against Denmark. Domestic rebellion against Christian started in Jutland. On 20 January 1523, the "herredag" at Viborg offered the Danish crown to Christian's uncle, Duke Frederick of Holstein. Frederick's army gained control over most of Denmark during the spring, and in April 1523 Christian left Denmark to seek help abroad. On 1 May, he landed at Veere in Zeeland.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: In exile Christian led a humble life in the city of Lier in the Netherlands (now in Belgium), waiting for military help from his brother-in-law Charles V. Christian corresponded with Martin Luther and he became a Lutheran for some time; he even commissioned a translation of the New Testament into Danish. Isabella died in January 1526, and Christian's children were taken by her family so as not to be raised as heretics. Popular agitation against Fredrick I in Denmark centered on Søren Norby, who gathered an army of peasants in Scania, but was defeated in 1525.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: By 1531, Christian had reverted to Catholicism and reconciled with the Emperor. He took a fleet to Norway, and landed in Oslo to popular acclaim in November 1531. Christian failed to subdue the fortresses of northern Norway, however, and accepted a promise of safe conduct from Fredrick I.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Frederick did not keep his promise, and Christian was kept prisoner for the next 27 years, first in Sønderborg Castle until 1549, and afterwards at the castle of Kalundborg. Stories of solitary confinement in small dark chambers are inaccurate; King Christian was treated like a nobleman, particularly in his old age, and he was allowed to host parties, go hunting, and wander freely as long as he did not go beyond the Kalundborg town boundaries.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Fredrick I died in April 1533, and the Danish Council of State was at first unable to choose a successor. The mayor of Lübeck, Jürgen Wullenwever, took advantage of the resulting interregnum to conspire for the restoration of Christian II to the throne of Denmark. He formed an alliance with two prominent nobles, Ambrosius Bogbinder and Jørgen Kock, mayor of Malmö. With Christopher, Count of Oldenburg as his military commander he succeeded in seizing Scania and Zeeland in the name of Christian II in a conflict known as the Count's Feud. However, Fredrick's eldest son, also named Christian, raised an army in Holstein which, led by Johann Rantzau, took in turn Holstein, Jutland and Zeeland in a series of brilliant military manoeuvers. He formed an alliance with Gustav Vasa, who subdued Scania, and took the throne as Christian III of Denmark. Christian II remained in prison in Kalundborg.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian II died in January 1559, a few days after Christian III. The new king, Frederick II, ordered that a royal funeral be held in his memory. He is buried in Odense next to his wife, parents, and son John, who died in the summer of 1532.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian II is one of the most discussed of all Danish kings. He has been regarded as both a hypocritical tyrant and a progressive despot, who wanted to create an absolute monarchy based upon "free citizens". His psychological weaknesses have caught the interest of historians, especially his frequently mentioned irresolution, which as years passed seemed to dominate his acts. Christian clearly made too many enemies. Furthermore, the Danish middle class was still not strong enough to support royal power. However some of his ambitions were fulfilled by the victory of absolutism in 1660.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian den Anden (Christian II) is a 1889 play by Jenny Blicher-Clausen which was performed at Copenhagen's Dagmar Theatre.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Jean Sibelius composed in 1898 incidental music "King Christian II" to a play about the king, and derived from it a suite.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: "The Fall of the King" (), a novel by the Danish author and Nobel Prize Laureate Johannes V. Jensen, published in three parts from 1900 to 1901, is considered a major work of modern Danish literature. It relates the tangled history of Christian II reign and downfall as seen by the (fictional) Mikkel Thøgersen, a loyal follower of king.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: "The Corridors of Time" by Danish-American science fiction writer Poul Anderson includes a section where a modern American travels in time to 16th Century Denmark, arriving there shortly after Christian II's downfall - where he meets and befriends a diehard follower of the deposed King, and the two of them share various adventures.


title: Christian II of Denmark

text: Christian II had six children by his wife, Isabella of Austria (1501–1526), only three of whom survived infancy and two reached adulthood. They were:


title: Jalebi (film)

text: Jalebi (also known as Jalebi: The Everlasting Taste of Love) is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic drama film directed by Pushpdeep Bhardwaj. It's an official remake of the Bengali film "Praktan" (2016) and stars Rhea Chakraborty, debutant Varun Mitra and Digangana Suryavanshi in lead roles.


title: Jalebi (film)

text: Aisha (Rhea Chakraborty) is a budding writer and an independent, progressive woman from Mumbai who visits Delhi with her friend to research for her upcoming book. She meets a local guide, Dev (Varun Mitra) and falls in love with him. She later proposes to him and they get married. After a few months, Aisha learns that she is pregnant. Dev is extremely happy but Aisha is reluctant as she feels she isn't ready for motherhood. Dev convinces her and they both settle into happiness, feeling that they might have a baby girl whomm they will name Disha, a portmanteau of Dev and Aisha's names.


title: Jalebi (film)

text: Unfortunately, Aisha has a miscarriage and Dev's mother blames Aisha for it. Aisha feels humiliated and insulted and leaves Dev. A few days later, Dev and his family try to bring her back but she doesn't return. She asks Dev to meet her in Kashmir if he really loves her, but Dev does not come.


title: Jalebi (film)

text: Seven years later, Aisha calls off her second wedding as she is still in love with Dev. She decides to face her problems and travels to Delhi. On her way, she meets a woman named Anu and her daughter, Pulti, and discovers that Anu is Dev's second wife. She also meets Dev in the same train. During the journey, she reminisces about her marriage with him. She also finds out that Pulti's given name is Disha, and feels upset, chiding Dev for naming her that. Anu reveals that Pulti is not Dev's child and was sired by Anu's boyfriend. Dev lifted at the very next moment he saw Pulti and before marriage he had a single condition that she should be named Disha.


title: Jalebi (film)

text: The train reaches Dev's station. While leaving, Anu thanks Aisha for giving her Dev and tells her that she knows that Aisha is Dev's love and first wife. Dev disembarks the train, but Anu encourages Dev to reveal the truth to Aisha that he had come to meet her that day in Kashmir but realised that she wouldn't be happy with him. His world is different from hers and he wanted to see her living her life happily and fulfilling her dreams. He reveals that it was because of this that he hurried through their divorce proceedings, and appeared as a bad person before her. He also tells her that he had read her novel many times. Both cry and hug each other. She says that although their destinations are different, their love remains intact. Dev tells Aisha that he will wait for her next novel, and they part ways, to live two different lives and two different destinies.


title: Jalebi (film)

text: The poster in which the lead pair is seen engaged in a passionate kiss through the window of a train is a clear reflection of the 1950 photograph by Frank Brown. The iconic photograph basically symbolised the distress wrought by the Korean War.


title: Jalebi (film)

text: The film's soundtrack was released on 21 September 2018. Jeet Gannguli, Tanishk Bagchi, Javed-Mohsin, Abhishek Mishra and Samuel–Akanksha composed the soundtrack of the film. Music Produced By Dj Phukan, Samuel Shetty & Akanksha Nandrekar, Chandan Saxena, Krishna Kishore. The lyrics are written by Rashmi Virag, Prashant Ingole, Manoj Kumarnath, Arafat Mehmood and Kunaal Vermaa.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Eddie Charles Jones (born October 20, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player who played for five teams in his 14-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career. Jones played college basketball at Temple University and was the 1993–94 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. He led the "Owls" to the Elite 8 in the NCAA tournament. The three-time NBA All-Star was selected 10th overall in the 1994 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Jones played college basketball for Temple from 1991 to 1994. In his junior season, he led them to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, and in his final season with the Owls he averaged 19.2 points. In 1994, he was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Year.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: The Los Angeles Lakers selected Jones with the 10th overall selection in the 1994 NBA draft. Lakers general manager Jerry West stated, "We wanted the best pure athlete available, and Eddie was too good to pass up".


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: In his rookie season Jones averaged 14.0 points per game and 2.05 steals per game as he played in 64 games, 58 of which he started. He also led the NBA in steal/turnover ratio (1.75), placed 4th in the NBA Rookie of the Year ballot, and was on the 1994–95 NBA All-Rookie First Team. In the 94–95 All-Star weekend Rookie Challenge he won the MVP, posting a game-high 25 points, 6 steals, and 4 rebounds. With his combination of size, athleticism, and defense, Jones began to draw favorable comparisons to another former Lakers great, Michael Cooper. (Cooper himself said that looking at Jones on the court was like "looking in a mirror.") Jones would become an integral part of the Lakers squad, along with Nick Van Exel and Cedric Ceballos as the Lakers made the playoffs and upset the Seattle SuperSonics in the first round 3–1 before facing the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs led by league MVP David Robinson. The younger Lakers managed to push the Spurs to six games before losing the series, with Jones averaging 8.7 points off the bench in his first playoff run.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: The following year featured Jones solidifying his position as the team's starting shooting guard, as Jones started 66 of 70 games and averaged 12.8 points a game for the season. The Lakers improved their total record to 53 wins, bolstered by the midseason return of franchise legend Magic Johnson out of retirement. The Lakers made the playoffs again, but could not defeat the defending NBA champion Houston Rockets, who defeated the Lakers 3–1 in the first round. Jones averaged 17.3 points in the series.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: After his second season, Jones switched from number 25 to 6, as the Lakers had retired 25 for Gail Goodrich. He selected 6 as growing up he was a fan of Julius Erving. In the off-season, the team acquired superstar center Shaquille O'Neal, and traded Vlade Divac to the Hornets for rookie guard Kobe Bryant. Jones played and started in 80 games, placing second in the team in scoring with 17.2 points and fourth in the league in steals with 2.4 a game. He also played in his first NBA All-Star Game, scoring 10 points in 17 minutes in the 1997 NBA All-Star Game. Led by O'Neal, the Lakers won 56 games before defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs, but fell to the top-seeded Utah Jazz in five games in the conference semifinals. Jones struggled in the playoffs, as his scoring average fell to 11.2 in the postseason.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: In the 1997–98 season, Jones averaged 16.9 points with 2 steals a game, and scored 15 points with 11 rebounds in the 1998 NBA All-Star Game. His pesky defense also earned him a selection to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team. The Lakers won 61 games and defeated Portland and Seattle in the first and second round of the playoffs. The team failed to win a game in the conference finals against the Jazz, however, as the veteran team swept the Lakers. Jones averaged 17 points with 2 steals in 13 playoff games.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: The following season would be shortened to 50 games due to a league lockout, with Jones starting the first 20 games of the season before he and Elden Campbell were traded to the Charlotte Hornets for Glen Rice, J. R. Reid, and B. J. Armstrong on March 10, 1999. Jones started in 30 games for the remainder of the season with the Hornets, who did not make the playoffs, but Jones placed second in the league in steals with 2.5 a game and made the All-Defensive team for the second straight year.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Jones's following campaign with the Hornets, the 1999–2000 season, was his finest statistically, as he averaged 20.1 points, led the league in total steals (192) and steals per game (2.7) along with 4.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game. Jones was also voted to start at guard for the Eastern Conference in the 2000 NBA All-Star Game and scored 10 points in 21 minutes. The Hornets won 49 games and made the playoffs, losing in the first round to the Philadelphia 76ers in four games. At the end of the season, Jones was named to the All-NBA Third Team for the first time and was named to his third straight All-Defensive second team.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Jones became a free agent after the 2000 season, and talked with the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic, but wanted to play for his hometown of Miami.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: After re-signing with the Hornets, he was traded with Anthony Mason to the Miami Heat for Jamal Mashburn and PJ Brown. The acquisition of Jones was an attempt by Heat coach Pat Riley to improve his team into a title contender. Before the start of the 2000–01 season however, the team's star center Alonzo Mourning was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease, meaning Jones would have to carry the team's offensive load even more than originally intended. He would go on to play consistently at both ends of the floor, however, averaging 17.4 points a game and leading the team in scoring despite only playing in 63 games for the season. Jones and Mason led the team to 50 wins, and Mourning returned in late March, but the Heat were swept in the first round of the playoffs to the sixth-seeded Hornets, despite Jones averaging 19 points in the three game series.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Mourning returned to full action in the 2001–02 season, and Jones started 81 games for the team and led in scoring again with 18.3 points a game. The Heat failed to make the playoffs however, and with Mourning's disease returning he would be left out of the entire 2002–03 season, forcing Miami to enter a rebuilding phase. Jones only played in 47 contests in the 2003 season due to his own injuries, but once again led the team in scoring with 18.5 points a game. In the off-season, Riley revamped the roster, as Mourning left to join the New Jersey Nets while Miami drafted Dwyane Wade and acquired Lamar Odom from the Los Angeles Clippers to join Jones and second year player Caron Butler. Riley also stepped down as coach just before the season started, with longtime assistant Stan Van Gundy taking the helm.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Despite starting the season 0–7, the 2003–04 season proved to be a success for Miami, with Jones sharing a balanced offensive attack with Wade, Butler and Odom but still leading the team in overall scoring with 17.3 points a game. Jones finished 3rd in the league in total three point field goals, and Miami finished the season with a 42–40 record to make the playoffs with the fourth seed in the East. The Heat would go on to defeat the New Orleans Hornets in a difficult 7 game series in the first round in which the home team won each game, before losing in six games to the top-seeded Indiana Pacers in the conference semifinals. Jones averaged 13.2 in the postseason.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: In the off-season prior to the 2004–05 season, Miami made major roster changes, trading Odom and Butler along with center Brian Grant for Shaquille O'Neal, Jones's old Lakers teammate. Although Jones started the season at the shooting guard position, he would move to the small forward position with Wade taking over as the team's starting shooting guard. The result was a blossoming season for Wade combined with the dominating presence of O'Neal. Jones saw his scoring output dip to 12.7 points a game, but he remained a crucial 3 point shooting option for Miami as the team won 59 games and the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Near the end of the season the Heat also brought back Alonzo Mourning, and the team would sweep New Jersey and the Washington Wizards in the playoffs before facing the defending NBA champion Detroit Pistons. The Heat took a 3–2 series lead after five games, but faced difficulties with an injury to Wade, and the Pistons rallied to win game 6 in Detroit and game 7 in Miami. Jones averaged 13.7 points throughout the playoffs.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Miami was disappointed to have just missed a chance to make the NBA Finals, and Riley decided to part ways with Jones after five seasons as he was dealt to the Memphis Grizzlies for James Posey and Jason Williams on August 2, 2005 in a record five-team, thirteen-player trade. In Memphis, Jones started in 75 games, averaging 11.8 points with 1.7 steals a game as the Grizzlies made the playoffs but were swept in the first round by the Dallas Mavericks. Jones started in 14 of 29 games the following year for the Grizzlies, before getting waived by the team on January 30, 2007.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: On February 1, 2007, Jones signed a minimum contract for his second stint with the Miami Heat, playing increasing minutes after Wade's shoulder injury. The Heat had won the NBA title the previous year, but struggled throughout the season with injuries to Wade, as Miami fell in a four-game sweep to the Chicago Bulls in the first round.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: After the 2006–07 season ended, Jones became an unrestricted free agent. On August 3, 2007, Jones agreed to a two-year deal with the Dallas Mavericks.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: On October 10, 2008, Jones was traded to the Indiana Pacers. After being traded to the Pacers, Jones had his contract renegotiated which enabled him to pursue playing for another team or retire. On October 16, 2008, he was released from the Pacers in order for them to free up cap room.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Jones appeared in a comical Taco Bell commercial that features several people who were related to the Lakers organization at the time. The commercial focuses on Shaquille O'Neal suffering from Taco Neck Syndrome. Along with Michael Finley, Jones appeared in a commercial for the Air Jordan XVI.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Jones was the cover athlete for the 989 Sports basketball game "NBA ShootOut '97". He was also one of the original players chosen to endorse Air Jordan, and wear the "Jordan XI". Jones appeared on the sitcom "In the House".


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: On June 8, 2009, Jones was featured in the Spike TV show called "Pros vs. Joes". As one of the pros, he was teamed with his former Miami Heat teammates Alonzo Mourning and Antoine Walker.


title: Eddie Jones (basketball)

text: Jones and his wife Trina have three children together. Jones is the cousin of Jalen Suggs of the Orlando Magic and Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for "The Woman in White" (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for "The Moonstone" (1868), which has been proposed as the first modern English detective novel.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Born to the London painter William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian and French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After "Antonina", his first novel, appeared in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some of his work appeared in Dickens's journals "Household Words" and "All the Year Round". They also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins gained financial stability and an international following by the 1860s, but became addicted to the opium he took for his gout, so that his health and writing quality declined in the 1870s and 1880s.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Collins criticised the institution of marriage: he split his time between widow Caroline Graves – living with her for most of his life, treating her daughter as his – and the younger Martha Rudd, by whom he had three children.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Collins was born at 11 New Cavendish Street, London, the son of William Collins, a well-known Royal Academician landscape painter, and his wife, Harriet Geddes. Named after his father, he was soon known by his middle name, which honoured his godfather, David Wilkie. The family moved to Pond Street, Hampstead, in 1826. In 1828 Collins's brother Charles Allston Collins was born. Between 1829 and 1830, the Collins family moved twice, first to Hampstead Square and then to Porchester Terrace, Bayswater. Wilkie and Charles received their early education from their mother at home. The Collins family were deeply religious, and Collins's mother enforced strict church attendance on her sons, which Wilkie disliked.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: In 1835, Collins began attending school at the Maida Vale academy. From 1836 to 1838, he lived with his parents in Italy and France, which made a great impression on him. He learned Italian while the family was in Italy and began learning French, in which he would eventually become fluent. From 1838 to 1840, he attended the Reverend Cole's private boarding school in Highbury, where he was bullied. One boy forced Collins to tell him a story every night before allowing him to go to sleep. "It was this brute who first awakened in me, his poor little victim, a power of which but for him I might never have been aware... When I left school I continued story telling for my own pleasure," Collins later said.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: In 1840 the family moved to 85 Oxford Terrace, Bayswater. In late 1840, Collins left school at the age of nearly 17 and was apprenticed as a clerk to the firm of tea merchants Antrobus & Co, owned by a friend of Wilkie's father. He disliked his clerical work but worked for the company for more than five years.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Collins started writing and published his first story, "The Last Stage Coachman", in the "Illuminated Magazine" in August 1843. In 1844 he travelled to Paris with Charles Ward. That same year he wrote his first novel, "Iolani, or Tahiti as It Was; a Romance", which was submitted to Chapman and Hall but rejected in 1845. The novel remained unpublished during his lifetime. Collins said of it: "My youthful imagination ran riot among the noble savages, in scenes which caused the respectable British publisher to declare that it was impossible to put his name on the title page of such a novel." While Collins was writing this novel, his father first learned that his son would not follow him in becoming a painter.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: William Collins had intended his first son to become a clergyman and was disappointed in his son's lack of interest. At his father's insistence, Collins instead entered Lincoln's Inn in 1846, to study law; his father wanted him to have a steady income. Collins showed only a slight interest in law and spent most of his time with friends and on working on a second novel, "Antonina, or the Fall of Rome". After his father's death in 1847, Collins produced his first published book, "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R. A.", published in 1848.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: The family moved to 38 Blandford Square soon afterwards, where they used their drawing room for amateur theatricals. In 1849, Collins exhibited a painting, "The Smugglers' Retreat", at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. "Antonina" was published by Richard Bentley in February 1850. Collins went on a walking tour of Cornwall with artist Henry Brandling in July and August 1850. He managed to complete his legal studies and was called to the bar in 1851. Though he never formally practised, he used his legal knowledge in many of his novels.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: An instrumental event in his career was an introduction in March 1851 to Charles Dickens by a mutual friend, the painter Augustus Egg. They became lifelong friends and collaborators. In May of that year, Collins acted with Dickens in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's play "". Among the audience were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Collins's story "A Terribly Strange Bed", his first contribution to Dickens's journal "Household Words", was published in April 1852. In May 1852 he went on tour with Dickens's company of amateur actors, again performing "Not So Bad As We Seem", but with a more substantial role.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Collins's novel "Basil" was published by Bentley in November. During the writing of "Hide and Seek", in early 1853, Collins suffered what was probably his first attack of gout, which would plague him for the rest of his life. He was ill from April to early July. After that he stayed with Dickens in Boulogne from July to September 1853, then toured Switzerland and Italy with Dickens and Egg from October to December. Collins published "Hide and Seek" in June 1854.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: During this period Collins extended the variety of his writing, publishing articles in George Henry Lewes's paper "The Leader," short stories and essays for "Bentley's Miscellany," as well as dramatic criticism and the travel book "Rambles Beyond Railways." His first play, "The Lighthouse", was performed by Dickens's theatrical company at Tavistock House, in 1855. His first collection of short stories, "After Dark", was published by Smith, Elder in February 1856. His novel "A Rogue's Life" was serialised in "Household Words" in March 1856. Around then, Collins began using laudanum regularly to treat his gout. He became addicted and struggled with that problem later in life.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Collins joined the staff of "Household Words" in October 1856. In 1856–57 he collaborated closely with Dickens on a play, "The Frozen Deep", first performed in Tavistock. Collins's novel "The Dead Secret" was serialised in "Household Words" from January to June 1857, before being published in volume form by Bradbury and Evans. Collins's play "The Lighthouse" was performed at the Olympic Theatre in August. His account, "The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices," based on Dickens's and Collins's walking tour in the north of England, was serialised in "Household Words" in October 1857. In 1858 Collins collaborated with Dickens and other writers on the story "A House to Let".


title: Wilkie Collins

text: The novels Collins published in the 1860s are the best and most enduring of his career. "The Woman in White", "No Name", "Armadale", and "The Moonstone", written in less than a decade, show Collins not just as a master of his craft, but as an innovater and provocateur. These four works, which secured him an international reputation, and sold in large numbers, ensured his financial stability, and allowed him to support many others.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: "The Woman in White" was serialised in "All the Year Round" from November 1859 to August 1860 to great success. The novel was published in book form soon after and reached an eighth edition by November 1860. His rising success as a writer allowed Collins to resign his post with "All the Year Round" in 1862 and focus on his novels. While planning his next novel, "No Name", he continued to suffer from gout, which began to affect his eyes. Serial publication of "No Name" began in early 1862 and finished in 1863. By that time Collins was having difficulty controlling the amount of laudanum he was taking for his continual gout and became addicted.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: At the beginning of 1863, he travelled with Caroline Graves to German spas and Italy for his health. In 1864, he began work on his novel "Armadale", travelling in August to the Norfolk Broads and the village of Winterton-on-Sea to do research for it. It was published serially in "The Cornhill Magazine" in 1864–1866.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: His play "No Thoroughfare", co-written with Dickens, was published as the 1867 Christmas number of "All the Year Round" and dramatised at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End on 26 December. It enjoyed a run of 200 nights before being taken on tour. "The Moonstone" was serialised in "All the Year Round" from January to August 1868. His mother, Harriet Collins, died in that year.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: In 1870, his novel "Man and Wife" was published. That year Charles Dickens died, which caused him great sadness. He said of the friends' early days together, "We saw each other every day, and were as fond of each other as men could be."


title: Wilkie Collins

text: "The Woman in White" was dramatised and produced at the Olympic Theatre in October 1871. Collins's novel "Poor Miss Finch" was serialised in "Cassell's Magazine" from October to March 1872. His short novel "Miss or Mrs?" was published in the 1872 Christmas number of the "Graphic". His novel "The New Magdalen" was serialised from October 1872 to July 1873. His younger brother, Charles Allston Collins, died later in 1873 at the age of 45. Charles had married Dickens's younger daughter, Kate.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: In 1873–74, Collins toured the United States and Canada, giving readings of his work. The American writers he met included Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and Mark Twain. He began a friendship with photographer Napoleon Sarony, who took several portraits of him.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: His novel "The Law and the Lady", serialised in the "Graphic" from September to March 1875, was followed by a short novel, "The Haunted Hotel", which was serialised from June to November 1878. His later novels include "Jezebel's Daughter" (1880), "The Black Robe" (1881), "Heart and Science" (1883), and "The Evil Genius" (1886). In 1884, Collins was elected Vice-President of the Society of Authors, which had been founded by his friend and fellow novelist Walter Besant.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: The inconsistent quality of Collins's dramatic and fictional works in the last decade of his life was accompanied by a general decline in his health, including diminished eyesight. He was often unable to leave home and had difficulty writing. During these last years, he focused on mentoring younger writers, including the novelist Hall Caine. He also used his legal background to help protect other writers from copyright infringement of their works. His writing became a way for him to fight his illness without allowing it to keep him bedridden. His step-daughter Harriet also served as an amanuensis for several years. His last novel, "Blind Love", was finished posthumously by Walter Besant.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Collins died on 23 September 1889, at 65 Wimpole Street, following a paralytic stroke. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, West London. His headstone describes him as the author of "The Woman in White". Caroline Graves died in 1895 and was buried with Collins. Martha Rudd died in 1919.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: In 1858 Collins began living with Caroline Graves and her daughter Harriet. Caroline came from a humble family, having married young, had a child, and been widowed. Collins lived close to the small shop kept by Caroline, and the two may have met in the neighbourhood in the mid–1850s. He treated Harriet, whom he called Carrie, as his own daughter, and helped to provide for her education. Excepting one short separation, they lived together for the rest of Collins's life. Collins disliked the institution of marriage, but remained dedicated to Caroline and Harriet, considering them to be his family.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Caroline had wanted to marry Collins. She left him while he wrote "The Moonstone" and was suffering an attack of acute gout. She married a younger man named Joseph Clow, but after two years, she returned to Collins.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: In 1868, Collins met Martha Rudd in Winterton-on-Sea in Norfolk, and the two began a liaison. She was 19 years old and from a large, poor family. A few years later, she moved to London to be closer to him. Their daughter Marian was born in 1869; their second daughter, Harriet Constance, in 1871; and their son, William Charles, in 1874. When he was with Martha, Collins assumed the name William Dawson, and she and their children used the last name of Dawson themselves.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: For the last 20 years of his life Collins divided his time between Caroline, who lived with him at his home in Gloucester Place, and Martha, who was nearby.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Collins's works were classified at the time as "sensation novels", a genre seen nowadays as the precursor to detective and suspense fiction. He also wrote penetratingly on the plight of women and on the social and domestic issues of his time. For example, his 1854 "Hide and Seek" contained one of the first portrayals of a deaf character in English literature. As did many writers of his time, Collins first published most of his novels as serials in magazines such as Dickens's "All the Year Round", and was known as a master of the form, creating just the right degree of suspense to keep his audience reading from week to week.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: "The Lighthouse" was a melodrama loosely based on Collins's 1853 short story, "Gabriel's Marriage", but set in the Eddystone Lighthouse of December 1748. In May 1855, Collins sent the finished play to Dickens, who enthusiastically took over the production. Dickens played Aaron Gurnock, the head lightkeeper, and arranged for Clarkson Stanfield to paint the backdrop. Other parts were taken by Collins, Augustus Egg, Mark Lemon, Mary Dickens and Georgina Hogarth. The production ran for four nights at Tavistock House, from 16 June 1855, followed by a single performance on 10 July at Campden House, Kensington. It was staged at the Royal Olympic Theatre from 10 August to 17 October 1857, as Collins's first professional production. Robson played Aaron Gurnock and George Vining read the Prologue. An American version opened at the New Theatre, New York, on 21 January 1858. There was an amateur production with Palgrave Simpson on 3 May 1865 at the Royal Bijou Theatre (Lambeth School of Art) and further revivals at Shelley's Boscombe Theatre in the 1870s and 1880s. "The Lighthouse" was translated into French by Emile Forgues.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: Collins enjoyed ten years of success after publishing "The Woman in White" in 1859. His next novel, "No Name" combined social commentary – the absurdity of the law as applied to children of unmarried parents (see Illegitimacy in fiction) – with a densely plotted revenge thriller. "Armadale," the first and only one of Collins's major novels of the 1860s to be serialised in a magazine other than "All the Year Round," provoked strong criticism. Reviewers found its villainess Lydia Gwilt to be transgressive, and were further provoked by Collins's typically confrontational preface. The novel was simultaneously a financial coup for its author and a comparative commercial failure: the sum paid by "Cornhill" for the serialisation rights was exceptional, eclipsing by a substantial margin the prices paid for the vast majority of similar novels, yet the novel failed to recoup its publisher's investment.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: "The Moonstone," published in 1868, and the last novel of what is generally regarded as the most successful decade of its author's career, was, despite a somewhat cool reception from both Dickens and the critics, a significant return to form. It re-established the market value of an author whose success on the competitive Victorian literary market had been waning in the wake of his first perceived masterpiece. Viewed by many as the advent of the detective story within the tradition of the English novel, "The Moonstone" remains one of Collins's most acclaimed works. It was described later by T. S. Eliot as "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels... in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe." Noted mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers later referred to it as "probably the very finest detective story ever written".


title: Wilkie Collins

text: After "The Moonstone," Collins's novels contained fewer thriller elements and more social commentary. The subject matter continued to be sensational, but his popularity declined. The poet Algernon Charles Swinburne commented: "What brought good Wilkie's genius nigh perdition? / Some demon whispered—'Wilkie! have a mission." Factors most often cited in Collins's decline have been the death of Dickens in 1870, and with it the loss of his literary mentoring, Collins's increased dependence upon laudanum, and his penchant for using his fiction to rail against social injustices.


title: Wilkie Collins

text: "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone" share an unusual narrative structure, somewhat resembling an epistolary novel, in which different portions of the book have different narrators, each with a distinct narrative voice. "Armadale" has this to a lesser extent through the correspondence between some characters.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) was the second Abbasid caliph, reigning from 136 AH to 158 AH (754 CE – 775 CE) succeeding his brother al-Saffah (). He is known for founding the 'Round City' of Madinat al-Salam, which was to become the core of imperial Baghdad.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Modern historians regard Al-Mansur as the real founder of the Abbasid Caliphate, one of the largest polities in world history, for his role in stabilizing and institutionalizing the dynasty.


title: Al-Mansur

text: According to Al-Suyuti's "History of the Caliphs", Al-Mansur lived 95 AH – 158 AH (714 CE – 6 October 775 CE). Al-Mansur was born at the home of the Abbasid family in Humeima (modern-day Jordan) after their emigration from the Hejaz in 714 (95 AH). His mother was Sallamah, a Berber slave woman. Al-Mansur was a brother of Saffah. Both were named Abd Allah, and to distinguish between them, Saffah was referred to by his "kunya" Abu al-Abbas.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Mansur was a great-grandson of Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, an uncle of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Al-Mansur's brother Saffah began asserting his claim to become caliph in the 740s and became particularly active in Khorasan, an area where non-Arab Muslims lived. After the death of the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik in 743 a period of instability followed. Saffah led the Abbasid Revolution in 747 and his claim to power was supported throughout Iraq by Muslims. He became the first caliph of the Abbasid caliphate in 750 after defeating his rivals.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Shortly before the overthrow of the Umayyads by an army of rebels from Khorasan that were influenced by propaganda spread by the Abbasids, the last Umayyad Caliph Marwan II, arrested the head of the Abbasid family, Al Mansur's other brother Ibrahim. Al-Mansur fled with the rest of his family to Kufa where some of the Khorasanian rebel leaders gave their allegiance to his brother Saffah. Ibrahim died in captivity and Saffah became the first Abbasid Caliph. During his brother's reign, Al-Mansur led an army to Mesopotamia where he received a submission from the governor after informing him of the last Umayyad Caliph's death. The last Umayyad governor had taken refuge in Iraq in a garrison town. He was promised a safe-conduct by Al-Mansur and the Caliph Saffah, but after surrendering the town, he was executed with a number of his followers.


title: Al-Mansur

text: According to "The Meadows of Gold", a history book in Arabic written around 947 CE, Al-Mansur's dislike of the Umayyad dynasty is well documented and he has been reported saying:


title: Al-Mansur

text: "The Umayyads held the government which had been given to them with a firm hand, protecting, preserving and guarding the gift granted them by God. But then their power passed to their effeminate sons, whose only ambition was the satisfaction of their desires and who chased after pleasures forbidden by Almighty God...Then God stripped them of their power, covered them with shame and deprived them of their worldly goods".


title: Al-Mansur

text: Mansur's first wife was a Yemeni woman from a royal family; his second was a descendant of a hero of the early Muslim conquests; his third was an Iranian servant. He also had a minimum of three concubines: an Arab, a Byzantine, nicknamed the “restless butterfly," and a Kurd.


title: Al-Mansur

text: As-Saffah died after a short five-year reign and Al-Mansur took on the responsibility of establishing the Abbasid caliphate by holding on to power for nearly 22 years, from Dhu al-Hijjah 136 AH until Dhu al-Hijjah 158 AH (754 – 775). Al-Mansur was proclaimed Caliph on his way to Mecca in the year 753 (136 AH) and was inaugurated the following year. Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad took the name Al-Mansur ("the victorious") and agreed to make his nephew Isa ibn Musa his successor to the Abbasid caliphate. This agreement was supposed to resolve rivalries in the Abbasid family, but Al-Mansur's right to accession was particularly challenged by his uncle Abdullah ibn Ali. Once in power, caliph Al-Mansur had his uncle imprisoned in 754 and killed in 764.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Fearing the power of the Abbasid army general Abu Muslim, who gained in popularity among the people, Al-Mansur carefully planned his assassination. Abu Muslim was conversing with the Caliph when, at an appointed signal, four (some sources say five) of his guards rushed in and fatally wounded the general. John Aikin, in his work "General Biography", narrates that Mansur, not content with the assassination, committed "outrages on the dead body, and kept it several days in order to glut his eyes with the spectacle."


title: Al-Mansur

text: The Execution of Abu Muslim caused uproars throughout the province of Khorasan. In 755 Sunpadh an Iranian nobleman from the House of Karen, led a revolt against Al-Mansur, taking the cities of Nishapur, Qumis, and Ray. In Ray, he seized the treasuries of Abu Muslim. He gained many supporters from Jibal and Tabaristan, including the Dabuyid ruler, Khurshid, who was paid with money from the treasures. Al-Mansur ordered a force of 10,000 under Abbasid commander Jahwar ibn Marrar al-lijli to march without delay to Khorasan to fight the rebellion. Sunpadh was defeated and Khorasan reclaimed by the Abbasids.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Mansur sent an official to take inventory of the spoils collected from the battle as a precautionary measure against acquisition by his army. Angered by Al-Mansur's avarice, general Jahwar gained support from his troops for his plans to split the treasures evenly, and revolted against the caliph. This raised alarm in the caliph's court and Al-Mansur ordered Mohammad ibn Ashar to march towards Khorasan. Jahwar, knowing his troops were at a disadvantage, retired to Isfahan and fortified in preparation. Mohammad's army pressed the rebel forces and Jahwar fled to Azerbaijan. Jahwar's forces were defeated, but he escaped Mohammad's pursuit. This campaign lasted from 756 to 762 CE (138 to 144 AH).


title: Al-Mansur

text: After relieving former vizier ibn Attiya al-Bahili, Al-Mansur transferred his duties to Abu Ayyub al-Muriyani from Khuzestan. Abu Ayyub was previously a secretary to Sulayman ibn Habib ibn al-Muhallab, who in the past, had condemned Al-Mansur to be whipped and flogged to pieces. Abu Ayyub had rescued Al-Mansur from this punishment. Nevertheless, after appointing him as vizier, Al-Mansur suspected Abu Ayyub of various crimes, including extortion and treachery, which led to the latter's assassination. The vacant secretary role was granted to Aban ibn Sadaqa until the death of the caliph Al-Mansur.


title: Al-Mansur

text: In 757 CE Al-Mansur sent a large army to Cappadocia which fortified the city of Malatya. In this same year, he confronted a group of the Rawandiyya from the region of Greater Khorasan that were performing circumambulation around his palace as an act of worship. When in 758/9 the people of Khorasan rioted against Al-Mansur in the battle of Al Hashimiya, Ma'n ibn Za'ida al-Shaybani, a general from the Shayban tribe and companion of Yazid ibn Umar al-Fazari, the Umayyad governor of Iraq, appeared at the scene of the uprising completely masked, and threw himself between the crowd and Mansur, driving the insurgents away. Ma'n reveals himself to Al-Mansur as "he whom you have been searching" and upon hearing this, Al-Mansur granted him rewards, robes of honor, rank, and amnesty from previously serving the Umayyad dynasty.


title: Al-Mansur

text: In 762 two descendants of Hasan ibn Ali rebelled in Medina and Basra. Al-Mansur's troops defeated the rebels first in Medina and then in Basra. This would be the last major uprising against the caliph Al-Mansur.


title: Al-Mansur

text: To consolidate his power Al-Mansur founded the new imperial residence and palace city Madinat as-Salam (the city of peace), which became the core of the Imperial capital Baghdad. Al-Mansur laid the foundations of Baghdad near the old capital of Madain, on the western bank of the Tigris River, a location acceptable to him and his commanders. The circular city of about 2.4 km diameter was enclosed by a double-thick defensive wall with four gates named Kufa, Syria, Khorasan, and Basra. In the center of the city Al-Mansur erected the caliph's palace and the main mosque. Al-Mansur had built Baghdad in response to a growing concern from the chief towns in Iraq, Basra, and Kufa that there was lack of solidity within the regime after the death of Abu'l 'Abbas (later known as as-Saffah). Another reason for the construction of the new capital was the growing need to house and provide stability for a rapidly developing Abbasid bureaucracy forged under the influence of Iranian ideals. The medieval historians Al-Tabari and Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi would later claim that Al-Mansur had ordered the demolition of the Khosrow palace in Ctesiphon so that the material could be used for the construction of the "city of peace".


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Mansur pursued his vision of a powerful centralized caliphate in the new Muslim imperial capital of Baghdad. The city was populated with men and women of different faiths and cultures from all over the Islamic world. The Baghdad populace included Christian, Zoroastrian and Jewish minorities and communicated in Arabic. Al-Mansur pursued Islamization by staffing his administration with Muslims of varied backgrounds. Baghdad became one of Al-Mansur's lasting achievements. His rule was largely peaceful as he focused on internal reforms, agriculture and patronage of the sciences, thus he paved the way for Baghdad to become a global center of learning and science under the rule of the seventh Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun.


title: Al-Mansur

text: In 764 Al-Mansur's son Al-Mahdi was made the designated heir to the caliphate, taking precedence over Al-Mansur's nephew Isa ibn Musa, who had been named the designated successor when Al-Mansur was crowned caliph. This change in succession was opposed by parts of the Abbasid family and some allies of Isa ibn Musa in Khurasan, but was supported by the Abbasid army. Al-Mansur had cultivated support for his son's accession since 754, while undermining Isa ibn Musa's position within the Abbasid military.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Tabari writes in his "History of Prophets and Kings": "Abu Ja'far had a mirror in which he could descry his enemy from his friend." Al-Mansur's secret service extended to remote regions of his empire, and were cognizant of everything from social unrest to the price of figs, making Mansur very knowledgeable of his domains. He rose at dawn, worked until evening prayer. He set the example for his son and heir. According to historic sources Al-Mansur advised his son: “put not off the work of today until tomorrow and attend in person to the affairs of state. Sleep not, for thy father has not slept since he came to the caliphate. For when sleep fell upon his eyes, his spirit remained awake.” Notably frugal, Al-Mansur was nicknamed Abu al-Duwaneek (“the Father of Small Change”), kept close tabs on his tax collectors, and made sure public spending was carefully monitored. He is reported as having said “he who has no money has no men, and he who has no men watches as his enemies grow great.”


title: Al-Mansur

text: The Alids, a group descended from Muhammad's closest male relative and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, had fought with the Abbasids against the Umayyads. They wanted the power to be given to the Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, a great-grandson of Ali and one of the most influential scholars in Islamic jurisprudence at the time. When it became clear that the Abbasid family had no intention of handing the power to an Alid, groups loyal to Ali moved into opposition. When Al-Mansur came to power as second Abbasid caliph he started to suppress what he perceived as extreme elements in the broad Muslim coalition that had supported the Abbasid Revolution. He would be the first Abbasid caliph to uphold Islamic orthodoxy as a matter of public policy. While Al-Mansur's regime did not intrude into the private realm of elites, orthodoxy was promoted in public worship, for example through the organization of pilgrim caravans. Al-Mansur's harsh treatment towards the Alids led to a revolt in 762–763, but they were eventually defeated.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq became the victim of harassment by the Abbasid family and in response to his growing popularity among the people was eventually poisoned on the orders of the caliph in the tenth year of Al-Mansur's reign. According to a number of sources, Abu Hanifa an-Nu'man, who founded a school of jurisprudence, was imprisoned by Al-Mansur. Malik ibn Anas, the founder of another school, was flogged during his rule, but Al-Mansur himself did not condone this. Al-Mansur's cousin, the governor of Madinah at the time, had ordered the flogging and was punished for doing so. Muhammad and Ibrahim ibn Abdallah, the grandsons of Imam Hassan ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad, were persecuted by Al-Mansur after rebelling against his reign. They escaped his persecution, but Al-Mansur's anger fell upon their father Abdallah ibn Hassan and others of his family. Abdallah's sons were later defeated and killed.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Mansur was the first Abbasid caliph to sponsor the Translation Movement. Al-Mansur was particularly interested in sponsoring the translations of texts on astronomy and astrology. Al-Mansur called scientists to his court and became noted as patron of astronomers. When Al-Mansur's Baghdad court was presented with the "Zij al-Sindhind", an Indian astronomical handbook that included tables to calculate celestial positions, Al-Mansur ordered for this major Indian work on astronomy to be translated from Sanskrit to Arabic. The astronomical tables in the Arabic translation of "Zij al-Sindhind" became widely adopted by Muslim scholars. During Al-Mansur reign Greek works were also translated, such Ptolemy's "Almagest" and Euclid's "Elements".


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Mansur had Persian books on astronomy, mathematics, medicine, philosophy and other sciences translated in a systematic campaign to collect knowledge. The translation of Persian books was part of a growing interest in ancient Iranian heritage and a Persian revivalist movement which Al-Mansur sponsored. The translation and study of works in Pahlavi, a pre-Islamic language of Persia, became fashionable among intellectuals and authors who supported the Abbasid caliphate. Government secretaries of Persian descent in Al-Mansur's administration sponsored translations of Pahlavi texts on the history and principles of royal administration. Popular Arabic translations were produced by Ibn al-Muqaffa of texts that documented the systems and hierarchies of the Sasanian Empire.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Mansur was greatly interested in the quality of the translation and paid Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar to translate Euclid's "Elements" twice. Al-Mansur paid for the physician Jabril ibn Bukhtishu to write Arabic translations of medical books, while the first Arabic translations of medical texts written by Galen and Hippocrates were done by Al-Mansur's official translator. In 765 Al-Mansur suffered from a stomach ailment and called the Christian Syriac-speaking physician Jurjis ibn Bukhtishu from Gundeshapur to Baghdad for medical treatment. In doing so Al-Mansur started the tradition among Abbasid caliphs, who would pay physicians of the Nestorian Christian Bukhtishu family to attend to their needs and to write original Arabic medical treatises, as well as translate medical texts into Arabic.


title: Al-Mansur

text: In 751 the first Abbasid caliph As-Saffah had defeated the Chinese Tang dynasty in the Battle of Talas. Chinese sources record that Al-Mansur sent his diplomatic delegations regularly to China. Al-Mansur's delegations were known in China as "Heiyi Dashi" ("Black Clothed Arabs"). In 756 Al-Mansur sent 3,000 mercenaries to assist Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in the An Lushan rebellion.A massacre of foreign Arab and Persian Muslim merchants by former Yan rebel general Tian Shengong happened during the An Lushan rebellion in the Yangzhou massacre (760),


title: Al-Mansur

text: The Byzantine emperor Constantine V had used the weakness of the Umayyad caliphate to regain land from Muslim rulers. After the Umayyad caliphate was defeated by Al-Mansur's predecessor As-Saffah, Constantine V invaded Armenia and occupied parts of it throughout 751 and 752. Under Al-Mansur's rule Muslim armies conducted raids on Byzantine territory. Al-Mansur was the first Abbasid caliph to hold a ransom meeting with the Byzantine Empire. Diplomats in the service of Constantine V and Al-Mansur first negotiated the exchange of prisoners in 756.


title: Al-Mansur

text: In 763 Al-Mansur sent his troops to conquer Al-Andalus for the Abbasid empire. But the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Rahman I successfully defended his territory. Al-Mansur withdrew and thereafter focused his troops of holding the eastern part of his empire on lands that were once part of Persia.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Some historians credit Al-Mansur with starting the Abbasid–Carolingian alliance. In fact, it was the first Carolingian king Pippin III who initiated a new era of Franconian diplomacy by sending diplomatic envoys to Al-Mansur's Baghdad court in 765. It is probable that Pippin III sought an alliance with Al-Mansur against their common enemies, the Emirate of Córdoba. In 768 the envoys of Pippin III returned to Francia along with caliph Al-Mansur's ambassadors. Pippin III received Al-Mansur's delegation in Aquitaine and gifts were exchanged as a sign of the new alliance. This alliance was solidified when between 797 and 807 king Charlemagne and caliph Harun Al-Rashid established embassies.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Mansur's treatment of his Christian subjects was severe; he "collected from them capitation with much vigor and impressed upon them marks of slavery."


title: Al-Mansur

text: kings of Himyar. Her father was Mansur al-Himyari. She had a brother named Yazid. She had two sons, Muhammad (future Caliph Al-Mahdi) and Ja'far. She died in 764. Another wife was Hammadah. Her father was Isa, one of Al-Mansur's uncles. She died during Al-Mansur's caliphate. Another wife was Fatimah. Her father was Muhammad, one of the descendants of Talhah ibn Ubaydullah. She had three sons, Sulayman, Isa, and Ya'qub. One of his concubines was a Kurdish woman. She was the mother of Al-Mansur's son Ja'far. Another concubine was Qali-al Farrashah. She was a Greek, and was the mother of Al-Mansur's son Salih al-Miskin. Another concubine was Umm al-Qasim, whose son Al-Qasim died at aged ten. Al-Masnur's only daughter Aliyah was born to an Umayyad woman. She married Ishaq ibn Sulayman.


title: Al-Mansur

text: Al-Masudi writes that Mansur died on Saturday 6, Dhu al-Hijja 158 AH/775 CE. There are varying accounts of the location and circumstances of Al-Mansur's death. One account narrates that Al-Mansur was on a pilgrimage to Mecca and had nearly reached, when death overtook him at a location called the Garden of the Bani Amir on the high road to Iraq at the age of sixty-three. According to this narration, he was buried in Mecca with his face uncovered because he was wearing the ihram clothing. 100 graves were dug around Mecca with the intention to thwart any attempt to find and violate his bones.


title: Al-Mansur

text: A different narration from Fadl ibn Rabi'ah, who claimed to have been with Mansur at his time of death, states that he died at al-Batha' near the Well of Maimun in which he would have been buried at al-Hajun at sixty-five years of age. In this narration, Mansur was sitting in a domed room hallucinating about ill-omen writings on the wall. When Al-Rabiah replied "I see nothing written on the wall. Its surface is clean and white," Al-Mansur replied, "my soul is warned that she may prepare for her near departure." After reaching the Well of Maimun, he reportedly said "God be praised" and succumbed to death that very day.


title: Al-Mansur

text: When al-Mansur died, the caliphate's treasury contained 600,000,000 dirhams and fourteen million dinars. On his deathbed, Mansur said, “We have sacrificed the life to come for a mere dream!”


title: Tees Maar Khan (2010 film)

text: Tees maar khan is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language heist comedy film directed by Farah Khan. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Akshaye Khanna and Katrina Kaif. Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor make special appearances.


title: Tees Maar Khan (2010 film)

text: "Tees Maar Khan" was released worldwide on 24 December 2010, during Christmas. The film was a commercial success at the box office, and is today primarily remembered for Kaif's dance number Sheila Ki Jawani. The theatrical trailer and title song of the film were released on UTV Motion Pictures' YouTube channel on 4 August 2010 for promotional purposes. The trailer was premiered in theatres with Vipul Amrutlal Shah's romantic comedy "Action Replayy", also starring Kumar, and Rohit Shetty's action comedy "Golmaal 3" on 5 November 2010. The film, written by Kunder and his brother Ashmith, is an official remake of the 1966 Italian film "After the Fox", directed by Vittorio De Sica and written by Neil Simon and Cesare Zavattini.


title: Tees Maar Khan (2010 film)

text: During the olden days, the title of Tees Maar Khan actually refers to the 6th Nizam - Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, who during his time had killed 33 Tigers and was popularly referred to as "Tees Maar Khan".


title: Tees Maar Khan (2010 film)

text: "Tees Maar Khan" revolves around the titular character, the conman "Tees Maar Khan" a.k.a. TMK, who is an international criminal and has been a thief ever since birth.


title: Tees Maar Khan (2010 film)

text: Commissioner Khadak Singh is addressing an assembly of police officers, among whom is his junior accomplice, Inspector Jagtap, over an occasion to celebrate the recovery of antique artifacts. Singh has his suspicion set on the Johri brothers, two Siamese twins, who have been in the eyes of the Interpol. However, as he explains, while Singh has the responsibility of transporting these artifacts to Delhi without any interruptions, he is clear that the Johri brothers will desperately find a way out, but each of the possible talented con artists and thieves they might choose has been ruled out through Singh's efforts, and at that moment, he receives and spreads the word that the third and final con artist, wanted criminal Tabrez Mirza Khan a.k.a. Tees Maar Khan a.k.a. TMK, has been arrested at an airport in Paris, and is being brought to India.


title: Tees Maar Khan (2010 film)

text: While in the process of being deported back to India for him to be produced before the police and ultimately be sent to prison, Tabrez, completely handcuffed, is picked up by CBI officers Chatterjee and Mukherjee, who warns him that he won't be able to escape from prison a 26th time around, but he laughs it off, claiming that he will go home and not to prison. Aboard the flight is aviation minister Pankaj Shukla's daughter Malavika, who gets into an argument with one of the flight attendants over the issue of her pet, Penny. The chief pilot tries to intervene but fails to settle the friction between the two. Tabrez uses this to his advantage by first jacking the cockpit on the pretext of using the washroom and later pushing an asleep Chatterjee's leg out of the seat, which results in the attendant unwittingly losing control and spilling a drink over Penny, causing Malavika to burst into anger, while the pilots come out to resolve the dispute, and discover, to the horror of both themselves and unwittingly the passengers as well, that the flight has been left in autopilot mode, and since the door is jammed, the flight could possibly crash land. The ensuing commotion results in a middle-aged woman aboard the flight seeking out Chatterjee and Mukherjee for help, but in the officers' audacity to refuse, Chatterjee ends up unwittingly exclaiming loudly that Tabrez can open the lock. However, when Tabrez initially rebuffs the requests of the passengers, they, in all ire, free Tabrez from the two officers, and he, in turn, manages to open the cockpit for the pilots, thereby becoming a hero in the eyes of the passengers and is able to trick the police by poising, all dressed up, as a rich man.