title: Abbas the Great

text: By 1595, Allahverdi Khan, a Georgian, had become one of the most powerful men in the Safavid state when he was appointed the Governor-General of Fars, one of the richest provinces in Persia. His power reached its peak in 1598, when he became the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces. Not only did the ghulam system allowed the shah to control and manage the rival Qizilbash Turks and Persians, it also resolved budgetary problems, in the short term at least, as by restoring the Shah's complete control of the provinces formerly governed by the Qizilbash chiefs, the provinces' revenues now supplemented the royal treasury. From now on, government officials collected the taxes and remitted them directly to the royal treasury. In the harem, the Circassians and Georgians rapidly replaced the Turcoman factions and, as a result, gained a significant direct influence on the meritocratic Safavid bureaucracy and the court of the Safavid state.


title: Abbas the Great

text: The increasing numbers of Georgians and Circassians in the Safavid bureaucracy and the court of the Safavid state vied with the Qizilbash for power and as a result also became involved in court intrigues. This competition for influence saw queens (and their supporters in the harem, court and bureaucracy) compete against each other in order to get their own sons on the throne. This competition increased under Abbas and his successors which weakened the dynasty considerably. Abbas' own son and crown prince, Mohammad Baqer Mirza, was caught in the court intrigue involving several leading Circassians, which eventually led to him being executed under Abbas' orders.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Though the "ghulam" system did not work as well as it had after the Safavids, the "third force" would continue to play a crucial role during the rest of the Safavid era and later until the fall of the Qajar dynasty.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas needed ten years to get his army into shape so that he could effectively confront his Ottoman and Uzbek enemies. During this period, the Uzbeks and the Ottomans took swaths of territory from Iran. He also used military reorganisation as another way of side-lining the Qizilbash. He created a standing army of many thousands of "ghulams" (always conscripted from ethnic Georgians and Circassians), and to a much lesser extent Iranians, to fight alongside the traditional, feudal force provided by the Qizilbash. The new army regiments' loyalty was to the Shah. The new army consisted of 10,000 to 15,000 cavalry or squires (conscripted Caucasian "ghulams") armed with muskets and other weapons (then the largest cavalry in the world), a corps of musketeers, or "tufangchiyan", (12,000 strong) and a corp of artillery, called "tupchiyan" (also 12,000 strong). In addition Abbas had a personal bodyguard, composed of Caucasian ghulams, that was increased to 3,000. This force amounted to about 40,000 soldiers paid for and beholden to the Shah.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas greatly increased the number of cannon at his disposal so that he could field 500 cannon in a single battle. Ruthless discipline was enforced and looting was severely punished. Abbas was also able to draw on military advice from a number of European envoys, particularly the English adventurers Sir Anthony Shirley and his brother Robert Shirley, who arrived in 1598 as envoys from the Earl of Essex on an unofficial mission to persuade Persia to enter into an anti-Ottoman alliance.


title: Abbas the Great

text: From 1600 onwards, the Safavid statesman Allāhverdī Khan, in conjunction with Robert Shirley, undertook further reorganizations of the army, which led to a further increase in the number of "ghulams" to 25,000.


title: Abbas the Great

text: During the 1590s, Abbas moved to depose the provincial rulers of Persia. He started with Khan Ahmad Khan, the ruler of Gilan, who had disobeyed Abbas' orders when he requested that Khan Ahmad Khan's daughter Yakhan Begum marry Abbas' son, Mohammad Baqer Mirza, since Khan Ahmad Khan had no male successor. Khan Ahmad Khan disagreed due to the age of his daughter. This resulted in a Safavid invasion of Gilan in 1591 under the leadership of one of Abbas' favourites, Farhad Khan Qaramanlu. In 1593–94, Jahangir III, the Paduspanid ruler of Nur, travelled to the court of the Abbas, where he handed over his domains to him, and spend the rest of his life on an estate at Saveh, which Abbas had given to him. In 1597, Abbas deposed the Khorshidi ruler of Lar. One year later, Jahangir IV, the Paduspanid ruler of Kojur, killed two prominent Safavid nobles during a festival in Qazvin. In response, in 1598 Abbas invaded his domains and besieged Kojur. Jahangir managed to flee, but was captured and killed by a pro-Safavid Paduspanid named Hasan Lavasani.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas' first campaign with his reformed army was against the Uzbeks who had seized Khorasan and were ravaging the province. In April 1598 he went on the attack. One of the two main cities of the province, Mashhad, was easily recaptured but the Uzbek leader Din Mohammed Khan was safely behind the walls of the other chief city, Herat. Abbas managed to lure the Uzbek army out of the town by feigning a retreat. A bloody battle ensued on 9 August 1598, in the course of which the Uzbek khan was wounded and his troops retreated (the khan was murdered by his own men during the retreat). However, during the battle, Farhad Khan had fled after being wounded and was later accused of fleeing due to cowardice. He was nevertheless forgiven by Abbas, who wanted to appoint him as the governor of Herat, which Farhad Khan refused. According to Oruch Beg, Farhad Khan's refusal made Abbas feel that he had been insulted. Due to Farhad Khan's arrogant behaviour and his suspected treason, he was seen as a threat to Abbas, so Abbas had him executed. Abbas then converted Gilan and Mazandaran into the crown domain ("khasseh"), and appointed Allahverdi Khan as the new commander-in-chief of the Safavid army.


title: Abbas the Great

text: By 1599, Abbas had conquered not only Herat and Mashhad, but had moved as far east as Balkh. This would be a short-lived victory and he would eventually have to settle on controlling only some of this conquest after the new ruler of the Khanate of Khiva, Baqi Muhammad Khan attempted to retake Balkh and Abbas found his troops were still no match for the Uzbeks. By 1603, the battle lines had stabilized, albeit with the loss of the majority of the Persian artillery. Abbas was able to hold onto most of Khorassan, including Herat, Sabzevar, Farah, and Nisa.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas' north-east frontier was now safe for the time being and he could turn his attention to the Ottomans in the west. After defeating the Uzbeks, he moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan.


title: Abbas the Great

text: The Safavids had not yet beaten their archrival, the Ottomans, in battle. After a particularly arrogant series of demands from the Ottoman ambassador, the Shah had him seized, had his beard shaved and sent it to his master, the sultan, in Constantinople. This was effectively a declaration of war. In the resulting conflict, Abbas first recaptured Nahavand and destroyed the fortress in the city, which the Ottomans had planned to use as an advance base for attacks on Iran. The next year, Abbas pretended he was setting off on a hunting expedition to Mazandaran with his men. This was merely a ruse to deceive the Ottoman spies in his court – his real target was Azerbaijan. He changed course for Qazvin where he assembled a large army and set off to retake Tabriz, which had been in Ottoman hands for some time.


title: Abbas the Great

text: For the first time, the Iranians made great use of their artillery and the town – which had been ruined by Ottoman occupation – soon fell. Abbas set off to besiege Yerevan, a town that had become one of the main Ottoman strongholds in the Caucasus since the Safavids had ceded it in 1590. It finally fell in June 1604 and with it the Ottomans lost the support of most Armenians, Georgians and other Caucasians. But Abbas was unsure how the new Sultan Ahmed I, would respond and withdrew from the region using scorched earth tactics. For a year, neither side made a move, but in 1605, Abbas sent his general Allahverdi Khan to meet Ottoman forces on the shores of Lake Van. On 6 November 1605 the Iranians, led by Abbas, scored a decisive victory over the Ottomans at Sufiyan, near Tabriz. In the Caucasus, during the war Abbas also managed to capture what is now Kabardino-Balkaria. The Persian victory was recognised in the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha in 1612, effectively granting them back suzerainty over most of the Caucasus.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Several years of peace followed as the Ottomans carefully planned their response. But their secret training manoeuvres were observed by Iranian spies. Abbas learnt that the Ottoman plan was to invade Iran via Azerbaijan, take Tabriz then move on to Ardabil and Qazvin, which they could use as bargaining chips in exchange for other territories. The shah decided to lay a trap. He would allow the Ottomans to enter the country, then destroy them. He had Tabriz evacuated of its inhabitants while he waited at Ardabil with his army. In 1618, an Ottoman army of 100,000 led by the Grand Vizier Damat Halil Pasha invaded and easily seized Tabriz. The vizier sent an ambassador to the shah demanding he make peace and return the lands taken since 1602. Abbas refused and pretended he was ready to set fire to Ardabil and retreat further inland rather than face the Ottoman army. When Halil Pasha heard the news, he decided to march on Ardabil right away. This was just what Abbas wanted. His army of 40,000 was hiding at a crossroads on the way and they ambushed the Ottoman army in a battle, which ended in complete victory for the Iranians.


title: Abbas the Great

text: In 1623, Abbas decided to take back Mesopotamia, which had been lost by his grandfather Tahmasp through the Ottoman-Safavid War (1532–1555). Profiting from the confusion surrounding the accession of the new Ottoman Sultan Murad IV, he pretended to be making a pilgrimage to the Shi'ite shrines of Kerbala and Najaf, but used his army to seize Baghdad. However, Abbas was then distracted by a rebellion in Georgia in 1624 led by Giorgi Saakadze thus allowing an Ottoman force to besiege Baghdad, but the Shah came to its relief the next year and crushed the Turkish army decisively. In 1638, however, after Abbas' death, the Ottomans retook Baghdad, and the Iranian–Ottoman border was finalised to be roughly the same as the current Iran–Turkey and Iran–Iraq borders.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Between 1614 and 1616, during the Ottoman-Safavid War, Abbas suppressed a rebellion led by his formerly loyal Georgian subjects Luarsab II and Teimuraz I (also known as "Tahmuras Khan") in the Kingdom of Kakheti.


title: Abbas the Great

text: In 1606, Abbas had appointed these Georgians onto the thrones of Safavid vassals Kartli and Kakheti, at the behest of Kartlian nobles and Teimuraz's mother Ketevan; both seemed like malleable youths. However, tensions soon arose between the Shah and the Georgian kings. In 1613, when the Shah summoned them to join him on a hunting expedition in Mazandaran, they did not appear as they feared that they would be either imprisoned or killed. At this point war broke out, Iranian armies invaded the two territories in March 1614, and the two allied kings subsequently sought refuge in the Ottoman vassal Imeretia. Abbas, as reported by the Safavid court historian Iskander Beg Munshi, was infuriated by what was perceived as the defection of two of his most trusted subjects and "gholams". He deported 30,000 Kakhetian peasants to Iran, and appointed a grandson of Alexander II of Imereti to the throne of Kartli, Jesse of Kakheti (also known as "Isā Khān"). Raised up at the court in Isfahan and a Muslim, he was perceived as fully loyal to the Shah.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas threatened Imeretia with devastation if they did not give up the fugitive kings; the Imeretian, Mingrelian and Gurian rulers jointly refused his demand. Luarsab, however, surrendered voluntarily to the Shah; Abbas initially treated him well but when he learned that Luarsab and Teimuraz had offered an alliance with the Ottomans he demanded that Luarsab accept Islam. When Luarsab refused, he was thrown in prison.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Teimuraz returned to eastern Georgia in 1615, taking advantage of a resurgence in Ottoman-Safavid hostilities, and there he defeated a Safavid force. However, when the Ottoman army postponed its invasion of the Safavids, Abbas was able to briefly send an army back to defeat Teimuraz, and redoubled his invasion after brokering a truce with the Ottomans. Now Iranian rule was fully restored over eastern Georgia. Subsequently, the Shah marched on Kutaisi, the capital of Imereti, and punished its peoples for harbouring the defectors. In a punitive expedition to Kakhetia, his army then killed perhaps 60–70,000 or 100,000 Georgians, with twice as many more being deported to Iran, removing about two-thirds of the Kakhetian population. More refugees were rounded up in 1617. In 1619 Abbas appointed the loyal Simon II (or "Semayun Khan") as a puppet ruler of Kakheti, while placing a series of his own governors to rule over districts where the rebellious inhabitants were mostly located.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Having momentarily secured the region, Abbas took further acts of revenge for the recalcitrance of Teimuraz and Luarsab. He castrated Teimuraz's sons, who both died shortly afterwards. He executed Luarsab in 1622, and in 1624 he had Ketevan, who had been sent to the Shah as a negotiator, tortured to death when she refused to renounce Christianity. Teimuraz, meanwhile, sought aid from the Ottomans and Russia.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas was then warned of another imminent Kakhetian uprising, so he returned to Georgia in early 1625. He lured Kakhetian soldiers on a false pretext and then began executing them. He also had plans to execute all armed Kartlians, including his own general Giorgi Saakadze; however Saakadze intercepted a courier and uncovered the plot. Saakadze then defected to the Georgians, and led a new rebellion which succeeded in throwing the Persians out of Kartli and Kakheti while crowning Teimuraz as king of both territories. Abbas counterattacked in June, won the subsequent war and dethroned Teimuraz, but lost half his army at the hands of the Georgians and was forced to accept Kartli and Kakheti only as vassal states while abandoning his plans to eliminate Christians from the area.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Even then, Saakadze and Teimuraz launched another rebellion in 1626, and were effective in clearing Iranian forces from most of the region. Thus, the Georgian territories continued to resist Safavid encroachments until Abbas' death.


title: Abbas the Great

text: The Safavids were traditionally allied with the Mughals in India against the Uzbeks, who coveted the province of Khorasan. The Mughal emperor Humayun had given Abbas' grandfather, Shah Tahmasp, the province of Kandahar as a reward for helping him regain his throne. In 1590, profiting from the confusion in Iran, Humayun's successor Akbar seized Kandahar. Abbas continued to maintain cordial relations with the Mughals, even though he pursued the return of Kandahar. Finally, in 1620, a diplomatic incident, in which the Iranian ambassador refused to bow down in front of the Emperor Jahangir, led to war. India was embroiled in civil turmoil and Abbas realized that he needed just a lightning raid to take back the far easternmost town of Kandahar in 1622.


title: Abbas the Great

text: After the conquest, he was very conciliatory to Jahangir, claiming he had only taken back what was rightly his and disavowing any further territorial ambitions. Jahangir was not appeased but he was unable to recapture the province. A childhood friend of Abbas, named Ganj Ali Khan, was then appointed as the governor of the city, which he would govern until his death in 1624/5.


title: Abbas the Great

text: During the 16th century, the Portuguese had established bases in the Persian Gulf. In 1602, the Iranian army under the command of Imam-Quli Khan Undiladze managed to expel the Portuguese from Bahrain. In 1622, with the help of four English ships, Abbas retook Hormuz from the Portuguese. He replaced it as a trading centre with a new port, Bandar Abbas, nearby on the mainland, but it never became successful.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas moved his capital from Qazvin to the more central city of Isfahan in 1598. Embellished by a magnificent series of new mosques, baths, colleges, and caravansarais, Isfahan became one of the most beautiful cities in the world. As Roger Savory writes, "Not since the development of Baghdad in the eighth century A.D. by the Caliph al-Mansur had there been such a comprehensive example of town-planning in the Islamic world, and the scope and layout of the city centre clearly reflect its status as the capital of an empire." Isfahan became the centre of Safavid architectural achievement, with the mosques Masjed-e Shah and the Masjed-e Sheykh Lotfollah and other monuments including the Ali Qapu, the Chehel Sotoun palace and the Naghsh-i Jahan Square.


title: Abbas the Great

text: In making Isfahan the centre of Safavid Empire, Abbas utilized the Armenian people, whom he had forcibly relocated to Isfahan from their Armenian homelands. Once they were settled, he allowed them considerable freedom and encouraged them to continue in their silk trade. Silk was an integral part of the economy and considered to be the best form of hard currency available. The Armenians had already established trade networks that allowed Abbas to strengthen Iran's economy.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas' painting studios (of the Isfahan school established under his patronage) created some of the finest art in modern Iranian history, by such illustrious painters as Reza Abbasi and Muhammad Qasim. Despite the ascetic roots of the Ṣafavid dynasty and the religious injunctions restricting the pleasures lawful to the faithful, the art of Abbas' time denoted a certain relaxation of the strictures. The portrait by Muhammad Qasim suggests that the Muslim prohibition against the consumption of wine, as well as that against male intimacy, "were more honoured in the breach than in the observance". Abbas brought in 300 Chinese potters to Iran to enhance local production of Chinese-style ceramics.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Under Abbas' reign, carpet weaving increased its role as an important part of Persian industry and culture, as wealthy Europeans started importing Persian rugs. Silk production became a monopoly of the crown, and manuscripts, bookbinding, and ceramics were also important exports.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Like almost all other Safavid monarchs, Abbas was a Shi'ite Muslim. He had a particular veneration for Imam Hussein. In 1601, he made a pilgrimage on foot from Isfahan to Mashhad, site of the shrine of Imam Reza, which he restored (it had been despoiled by the Uzbeks). Since Sunni Islam was the religion of Iran's main rival, the Ottoman Empire, Abbas often treated Sunnis living in western border provinces harshly.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas was usually tolerant of Christianity. The Italian traveller Pietro della Valle was astonished at the Shah's knowledge of Christian history and theology and establishing diplomatic links with European Christian states was a vital part of the shah's foreign policy. Christian Armenia was a key Safavid province bordering the Ottoman Empire. From 1604 Abbas implemented a "scorched earth" policy in the region to protect his north-western frontier against any invading Ottoman forces, a policy that involved the forced resettlement of up to 300,000 Armenians from their homelands. The Armenians came primarily from the wealthy Armenian merchant town of Jugha (also known as Jolfa). Many were transferred to New Julfa, a town the shah had built for the Armenians primarily meant for these Armenians from Jugha ("Old Julfa"), near his capital Isfahan. Thousands of Armenians died on the journey. Those who survived enjoyed considerable religious freedom in New Julfa, where the shah built them a new cathedral. Abbas' aim was to boost the Iranian economy by encouraging the Armenian merchants who had moved to New Julfa. As well as religious liberties, he also offered them interest-free loans and allowed the town to elect its own mayor ("kalantar"). Other Armenians were transferred to the provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran. These were less lucky. Abbas wanted to establish a second capital in Mazandaran, Farahabad, but the climate was unhealthy and malarial. Many settlers died and others gradually abandoned the city.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas was more intolerant of Christians in Georgia, where the threat of rebellion loomed larger. Abbas frequently demanded that nobles convert to Shia Islam, and had Ketevan the Martyr tortured to death when she refused. Abbas's anger at Georgian rebelliousness also generated his plan to deport or exterminate eastern Georgia's Christians and replace them with Turkmens, which has been described as "genocidal".


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas' tolerance towards most Christians was part of his policy of establishing diplomatic links with European powers to try to enlist their help in the fight against their common enemy, the Ottoman Empire. The idea of such an anti-Ottoman alliance was not a new one – over a century before, Uzun Hassan, then ruler of part of Iran, had asked the Venetians for military aid – but none of the Safavids had made diplomatic overtures to Europe and Abbas' attitude was in marked contrast to that of his grandfather, Tahmasp I, who had expelled the English traveller Anthony Jenkinson from his court upon hearing he was a Christian. For his part, Abbas declared that he "preferred the dust from the shoe soles of the lowest Christian to the highest Ottoman personage".


title: Abbas the Great

text: In 1599, Abbas sent his first diplomatic mission to Europe. The group crossed the Caspian Sea and spent the winter in Moscow, before proceeding through Norway, Germany (where it was received by Emperor Rudolf II) to Rome where Pope Clement VIII gave the travellers a long audience. They finally arrived at the court of Philip III of Spain in 1602. Although the expedition never managed to return to Iran, being shipwrecked on the journey around Africa, it marked an important new step in contacts between Iran and Europe and Europeans began to be fascinated by the Iranians and their culture – Shakespeare's 1601–02 "Twelfth Night", for example, makes two references (at II.5 and III.4) to 'the Sophy', then the English term for the Shahs of Iran. Persian fashions—such as shoes with heels, for men—were enthusiastically adopted by European aristocrats. Henceforward, the number of diplomatic missions to and fro greatly increased.


title: Abbas the Great

text: The shah had set great store on an alliance with Spain, the chief opponent of the Ottomans in Europe. Abbas offered trading rights and the chance to preach Christianity in Iran in return for help against the Ottomans. But the stumbling block of Hormuz remained, a port that had fallen into Spanish hands when the King of Spain inherited the throne of Portugal in 1580. The Spanish demanded Abbas break off relations with the English East India Company before they would consider relinquishing the town. Abbas was unable to comply. Eventually Abbas became frustrated with Spain, as he did with the Holy Roman Empire, which wanted him to make his 400,000+ Armenian subjects swear allegiance to the Pope but did not trouble to inform the shah when the Emperor Rudolf signed a peace treaty with the Ottomans. Contacts with the Pope, Poland and Muscovy were no more fruitful.


title: Abbas the Great

text: More came of Abbas' contacts with the English, although England had little interest in fighting against the Ottomans. The Shirley brothers arrived in 1598 and helped reorganise the Iranian army, which proved to be pivotal for the Safavid victory in the Ottoman-Safavid War (1603–1618) and the first Safavid victory in battle over their neighbouring Ottoman archrivals. One of the Shirley brothers, Robert Shirley, led Abbas' second diplomatic mission to Europe between 1609–1615. The English East India Company also began to take an interest in Iran and in 1622 four of its ships helped Abbas retake Hormuz from the Portuguese. The capture of Ormuz gave the opportunity for the Company to develop trade with Persia, attempting to trade English cloth and other commodities for silk, with did not become very profitable due to the lack of Persian interest and small quantity of English goods.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Of Abbas' five sons, three had survived past childhood, so the Safavid succession seemed secure. He was on good terms with the crown prince, Mohammed Baqir Mirza (born 1587; better known in the West as Safi Mirza). In 1614, however, during a campaign in Georgia, the shah heard rumours that the prince was conspiring against him with a leading Circassian, Farhad Beg Cherkes. Shortly after, Mohammed Baqir broke protocol during a hunt by killing a boar before the shah had a chance to put his spear in the animal. This seemed to confirm Abbas' suspicions and he sunk into melancholy; he no longer trusted any of his three sons. In 1615, he decided he had no choice but to have Mohammed killed. A Circassian named Behbud Beg executed the Shah's orders and the prince was murdered in a hammam in the city of Resht. The shah almost immediately regretted his action and was plunged into grief.


title: Abbas the Great

text: In 1621, Abbas fell seriously ill. His heir, Mohammed Khodabanda, thought he was on his deathbed and began to celebrate his accession to the throne with his Qizilbash supporters. But the shah recovered and punished his son by blinding him, which would disqualify him from ever taking the throne. The blinding was only partially successful and the prince's followers planned to smuggle him out of the country to safety with the Mughals whose aid they would use to overthrow Abbas and install Mohammed on the throne. But the plot was betrayed, the prince's followers were executed and the prince himself imprisoned in the fortress of Alamut where he would later be murdered by Abbas' successor, Shah Safi.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Imam Qoli Mirza, the third and last son, then became the crown prince. Abbas groomed him carefully for the throne but, for some reason, in 1627, he had him partially blinded and imprisoned in Alamut.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Unexpectedly, Abbas now chose as heir the son of Mohammed Baqir Mirza, Sam Mirza, a cruel and introverted character who was said to loathe his grandfather because of his father's murder. Nevertheless, he did succeed Shah Abbas at the age of 17 in 1629, taking the name Shah Safi. Abbas's health was poor from 1621 onwards. He died at his palace in Farahabad on the Caspian coast in 1629 and was buried in Kashan.


title: Abbas the Great

text: According to Roger Savory: "Shah Abbas I possessed in abundance qualities which entitle him to be styled 'the Great'. He was a brilliant strategist and tactician whose chief characteristic was prudence. He preferred to obtain his ends by diplomacy rather than war, and showed immense patience in pursuing his objectives." In Michael Axworthy's view, Abbas "was a talented administrator and military leader, and a ruthless autocrat. His reign was the outstanding creative period of the Safavid era. But the civil wars and troubles of his childhood (when many of his relatives were murdered) left him with a dark twist of suspicion and brutality at the centre of his personality." Donald Rayfield described him as "exceptionally perspicacious and active," but also "a murderous paranoiac when aroused."


title: Abbas the Great

text: "The Cambridge History of Iran" rejects the view that the death of Abbas marked the beginning of the decline of the Safavid dynasty as Iran continued to prosper throughout the 17th century, but blames him for the poor statesmanship of the later Safavid shahs: "The elimination of royal princes, whether by blinding or immuring them in the harem, their exclusion from the affairs of state and from contact with the leading aristocracy of the empire and the generals, all the abuses of the princes' education, which were nothing new but which became the normal practice with Abbas at the court of Isfahan, effectively put a stop to the training of competent successors, that is to say, efficient princes prepared to meet the demands of ruling as kings."


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas was fluent in the Turkic dialect used by the Turkoman portion of the multi-ethnic Qizilbash organization, although he was equally at ease speaking Persian, which was the language of the administration and culture, of the majority of the population, as well as of the court when Isfahan became the capital under his reign (1598). According to García de Silva Figueroa, the Spanish ambassador to the Safavid court during Abbas' later reign, he heard Abbas speak Georgian, which he had doubtlessly acquired from his Georgian "gholams" and concubines.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas gained strong support from the common people. Sources report him spending much of his time among them, personally visiting bazaars and other public places in Isfahan. Short in stature but physically strong until his health declined in his final years, Abbas could go for long periods without needing to sleep or eat and could ride great distances. At the age of 19, Abbas shaved off his beard, keeping only his moustache, thus setting a fashion in Iran.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas was also an charismatic orator who could persuade and influence people with his eloquence. Classic Turkmen poet Magtymguly, who lived a century after Abbas, mentioned him in the poem (Not a jewel) with the following verses:


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Installation (or setup) of a computer program (including device drivers and plugins), is the act of making the program ready for execution. Installation refers to the particular configuration of a software or hardware with a view to making it usable with the computer. A soft or digital copy of the piece of software (program) is needed to install it. There are different processes of installing a piece of software (program). Because the process varies for each program and each computer, programs (including operating systems) often come with an "installer", a specialised program responsible for doing whatever is needed (see below) for the installation. Installation may be part of a larger software deployment process.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Installation typically involves code (program) being copied/generated from the installation files to new files on the local computer for easier access by the operating system, creating necessary directories, registering environment variables, providing separate program for un-installation etc. Because code is generally copied/generated in multiple locations, uninstallation usually involves more than just erasing the program folder. For example, registry files and other system code may need to be modified or deleted for a complete uninstallation.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Some computer programs can be executed by simply copying them into a folder stored on a computer and executing them. Other programs are supplied in a form unsuitable for immediate execution and therefore need an installation procedure. Once installed, the program can be executed again and again, without the need to reinstall before each execution.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: These operations may require some charges or be free of charge. In case of payment, installation costs means the costs connected and relevant to or incurred as a result of installing the drivers or the equipment in the customers' premises.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Some installers may attempt to trick users into installing junkware such as various forms of adware, toolbars, trialware or software of partnering companies. To prevent this, extra caution on what exactly is being asked to be installed is needed. The installation of additional software then can simply be skipped or unchecked (this may require the user to use the "custom", "detailed" or "expert" version of the installation procedure).Such malicious conduct is not necessarily a decision by the software developers or their company but can also be an issue of external installers such as the Download.com installer by CNET.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: As mentioned earlier, some computer programs need no installation. This was once usual for many programs which run on DOS, the classic Mac OS, Atari TOS and AmigaOS. As computing environments grew more complex and fixed hard drives replaced floppy disks, the need for tangible installation presented itself. For example Commodore released the Installer for Amiga.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: A class of modern applications that do not need installation are known as "portable applications", as they may be roamed around onto different computers and run. Similarly, there are "live operating systems", which do not need installation and can be run directly from a bootable CD, DVD, USB flash drive or loaded over the network as with thin clients. Examples are AmigaOS 4.0, various Linux distributions, MorphOS or Mac OS versions 1.0 through 9.0. (See live CD and live USB.) Finally, web applications, which run inside a web browser, do not need installation.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: A custom installation allows the installer to choose to select components or parts that are required to be installed.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: This is sometimes preferred as opposed to installing the full suite of software components. Some situations that require


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: the need for a custom install might be where only the basic components are required which are smaller in size instead of the


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: On Windows systems, this is the most common form of installation. An installation process usually needs a user who attend it to make choices, such as accepting or declining an end-user license agreement (EULA), specifying preferences such as the installation location, supplying passwords or assisting in product activation. In graphical environments, installers that offer a wizard-based interface are common. Attended installers may ask users to help mitigate the errors. For instance, if the disk in which the computer program is being installed was full, the installer may ask the user to specify another target path or clear enough space in the disk. A common misconception is unarchivation, which is not considered an installation action because it does not include user choices, such as accepting or declining EULA.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: A "silent installation" is an installation that does not display messages or windows during its progress. "Silent installation" is not the same as "unattended installation" (see below): All silent installations are unattended but not all unattended installations are silent. The reason behind a silent installation may be convenience or subterfuge. Malware and viruses can be installed silently when a person clicks on a link while working at a business they think is real but is a hacker's program download. For normal users silent installation is not of much use, but in bigger organizations where thousands of users work, deploying the applications becomes a typical task and for that reason silent installation is performed so that the application is installed in the background without affecting the work of the user. Silent parameters can vary from software to software; if a software/application has silent parameters, it can be checked by " <software.exe> /? " or " <software.exe> /help " or " <software.exe> -help ".


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Silently installing a software program can be used to deploy a program on networks in educational institutions, including primary and secondary education and universities, in addition to business, government, and corporate networks. The person managing the silent installation can choose to add a desktop shortcut, for example, to silently install Google Drive with a desktop shortcut:


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Installation that is performed without user interaction during its progress or with no user present at all. One of the reasons to use this approach is to automate the installation of a large number of systems. An unattended installation either does not require the user to supply anything or has received all necessary input prior to the start of installation. Such input may be in the form of command line switches or an "answer file", a file that contains all the necessary parameters. Windows XP and most Linux distributions are examples of operating systems that can be installed with an answer file. In unattended installation, it is assumed that there is no user to help mitigate errors. For instance, if the installation medium was faulty, the installer should fail the installation, as there is no user to fix the fault or replace the medium. Unattended installers may record errors in a computer log for later review.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Installation performed without using a computer monitor connected. In attended forms of headless installation, another machine connects to the target machine (for instance, via a local area network) and takes over the display output. Since a headless installation does not need a user at the location of the target computer, unattended headless installers may be used to install a program on multiple machines at the same time.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: An installation process that runs on a preset time or when a predefined condition transpires, as opposed to an installation process that starts explicitly on a user's command. For instance, a system administrator willing to install a later version of a computer program that is being used can schedule that installation to occur when that program is not running. An operating system may automatically install a device driver for a device that the user connects. (See plug and play.) Malware may also be installed automatically. For example, the infamous Conficker was installed when the user plugged an infected device to their computer.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: A clean installation is one that is done in the absence of any interfering elements such as old versions of the computer program being installed or leftovers from a previous installation. In particular, the clean installation of an operating system is an installation in which the target disk partition is erased before installation. Since the interfering elements are absent, a clean installation may succeed where an unclean installation may fail or may take significantly longer.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Network installation, shortened netinstall, is an installation of a program from a shared network resource that may be done by installing a minimal system before proceeding to download further packages over the network. This may simply be a copy of the original media but software publishers which offer site licenses for institutional customers may provide a version intended for installation over a network.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: An "installation program" or "installer" is a computer program that installs files, such as applications, drivers, or other software, onto a computer. Some installers are specifically made to install the files they contain; other installers are general-purpose and work by reading the contents of the software package to be installed.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: They exist both as "standalone installer" (or "offline installer") and "web installer" (or "online installer"), where the former allows for offline installation as it contains all installation files, whereas the latter needs to download files necessary for installation from the web at the time of installation.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: During an installation of a computer program, it is sometimes necessary to update the installer or package manager itself. To make this possible, a technique called bootstrapping is used. The common pattern for this is to use small executable files which update the installer and starts the real installation after the update. This small executable is called bootstrapper. Sometimes the bootstrapper installs other prerequisites for the software during the bootstrapping process too.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Cross-platform installer builders produce installers that run on Windows, macOS and Linux. An example is InstallAnywhere by Flexera Software.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: Windows NT family includes an installation API and an associated service called Windows Installer. Microsoft provides a minimum level of tools required to create installers using Windows Installer in the freely available Windows SDK, instead focusing on the API to allow developers and third parties to leverage it in creating custom installers. Third party tools may supporting create installers using this API to speed the process. Examples include InstallShield (Flexera Software) and WiX (Outercurve Foundation). Installation authoring tools that do not rely on Windows Installer include Wise Installation Studio (Wise Solutions, Inc.), Installer VISE (MindVision Software), Visual Installer (SamLogic), NSIS, Clickteam, InnoSetup and InstallSimple.


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: macOS includes Installer, a native package manager. macOS also includes a separate software updating application, Software Update but only supports Apple and system software. Included in the dock as of 10.6.6, the Mac App Store shares many attributes with the successful App Store for iOS devices, such as a similar app approval process, the use of Apple ID for purchases, and automatic installation and updating. Although this is Apple's preferred delivery method for macOS, previously purchased licenses can not be transferred to the Mac App Store for downloading or automatic updating. Commercial applications for macOS may also use a third-party installer, such as Mac version of Installer VISE (MindVision Software) or InstallerMaker (StuffIt).


title: Installation (computer programs)

text: A "system installer" is the software that is used to set up and install an operating system onto a device. Examples of system installers on Linux are Ubiquity and Wubi for Ubuntu, Anaconda for CentOS and Fedora, Debian-Installer for Debian-based versions of Linux, and YaST for SUSE-based projects. Another example is found in the Haiku operating system, which uses a utility called Haiku Installer to install itself onto a device after booting from a live CD or live USB.


title: Daishō

text: The —literally "big-little"—is a Japanese term for a matched pair of traditionally made Japanese swords worn by the samurai class in feudal Japan.


title: Daishō

text: The etymology of the word "daishō" becomes apparent when the terms "daitō", meaning long sword, and "shōtō", meaning short sword, are used; daitō" + shōtō" = "daishō". A "daishō" is typically depicted as a "katana" and "wakizashi" (or a "tantō") mounted in matching "koshirae", but originally the "daishō" was the wearing of any long and short "katana" together. The "katana/wakizashi" pairing is not the only "daishō" combination as generally any longer sword paired with a "tantō" is considered to be a "daishō". "Daishō" eventually came to mean two swords having a . A "daishō" could also have matching blades made by the same swordsmith, but this was in fact uncommon and not necessary for two swords to be considered to be a "daishō", as it would have been more expensive for a samurai.


title: Daishō

text: The concept of the "daisho" originated with the pairing of a short sword with whatever long sword was being worn during a particular time period. The "tachi" would be paired with a "tantō", and later the "katana" would be paired with another shorter katana called a "chiisagatana". With the advent of the "katana", the "wakizashi" eventually was chosen by samurai as the short sword over the "tantō". Kanzan Satō, in his book titled "The Japanese Sword", notes that there did not seem to be any particular need for the "wakizashi" and suggests that the "wakizashi" may have become more popular than the "tantō" as the "wakizashi" was more suited for indoor fighting. He mentions the custom of leaving the "katana" at the door of a castle or palace when entering while continuing to wear the "wakizashi" inside.


title: Daishō

text: "Daishō" may have become popular around the end of the Muromachi period (1336 to 1573) as several early examples date from the late 16th century. An edict in 1629 defining the duties of a samurai required that "daishō" be worn when on official duty.


title: Daishō

text: Wearing "daishō" was limited to the "samurai" class in 1683, and became a symbol of their rank Samurai could wear decorative swords in daily life, but the Tokugawa shogunate regulated the appearance of swords for formal attire such as when samurai came to a castle. The daisho for formal attire was limited to the scabbard in solid black, the hilt winding thread and the hilt wrapped with white ray skin.


title: Daishō

text: According to most traditional "kenjutsu" schools, only one sword of the "daisho" would have been used in combat. However, in the first half of the 17th century, the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi promoted the use of a one-handed grip, which allowed both swords to be used simultaneously. This technique, called "nitōken", is a main element of the "Niten Ichi-ryū" style of swordsmanship that Musashi founded.


title: Daishō

text: During the Meiji period an edict was passed in 1871 abolishing the requirement that "daishō" be worn by samurai, and in 1876 wearing swords in public by most of Japan's population was banned; thus ended the use of the "daishō" as the symbol of the samurai. The samurai class was abolished soon after the sword ban.


title: Mutillidae

text: The Mutillidae are a family of more than 7,000 species of wasps whose wingless females resemble large, hairy ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their dense pile of hair, which most often is bright scarlet or orange, but may also be black, white, silver, or gold. Their bright colors serve as aposematic signals. They are known for their extremely painful stings, (the sting of the species "Dasymutilla klugii" rated a 3 on the Schmidt pain index and lasts up to 30 minutes), and has resulted in the common name "cow killer" or "cow ant" being applied to the species "Dasymutilla occidentalis." However, mutillids are not aggressive and sting only in defense. In addition, the actual toxicity of their venom is much lower than that of honey bees or harvester ants. Unlike true ants, they are solitary, and lack complex social systems.


title: Mutillidae

text: Mutillidae can be found worldwide with about 230 genera or subgenera and around 8,000 species worldwide. Over 400 species occur in the North American Southwest.


title: Mutillidae

text: North American Mutillidae have eight phenotypically distinct and geographically limited Müllerian mimicry rings (Desert, Eastern, Madrean, Texan, Red-headed "Timulla", Black-headed "Timulla", Tropical, and Western) making up one of the largest Müllerian mimicry complexes on the planet. These mimicry rings are the result of repeated convergent evolution of aposematic traits between co-occurring velvet ant species, rather than shared phylogenetic history. Through the evolution of aposematic traits in velvet ant species in the same ring, local predators have learned to avoid these well-defended wasps.


title: Mutillidae

text: The exoskeleton of all velvet ants is unusually tough (to the point that some entomologists have reported difficulty piercing them with steel pins when attempting to mount them for display in cabinets). This characteristic allows them to successfully invade the nests of their prey and also helps them retain moisture. Mutillids exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism. As in some related families in the Vespoidea, males have wings, but females are wingless. The males and females are so distinct in their morphology that entomologists often find it very hard to determine whether a given male and female belong to the same species, unless they are captured while mating. In some species, the male carries the smaller female aloft while mating, which is also seen in the related family Thynnidae.


title: Mutillidae

text: As is the case for all aculeates, only female mutillids are capable of inflicting a sting. The stinger is a modified female organ called an ovipositor, which is unusually long and maneuverable in mutillids. In both sexes, a structure called a stridulitrum on the metasoma is used to produce a squeaking or chirping sound when alarmed. Both sexes of mutillids also bear hair-lined grooves on the side of the metasoma called felt lines. Only two other vespoid families (Bradynobaenidae and Chyphotidae) have felt lines, but the females of these families have a distinct pronotum, with a transverse suture separating it from the mesonotum; in female mutillids, these two thoracic segments are completely fused. Members of the family Myrmosidae, formerly classified as a subfamily of mutillids, also have a distinct pronotum in females, but lack felt lines in both sexes.


title: Mutillidae

text: Adult mutillids feed on nectar. Although some species are strictly nocturnal, females are often active during the day. Females of "Tricholabiodes thisbe" are sometimes active up to two hours before sunset. Guido Nonveiller (1963) hypothesized the Mutillidae are generally stenothermic and thermophilic; they may not avoid light, but rather are active during temperatures that usually occur only after sunset.


title: Mutillidae

text: Predation is one of the strongest forces natural selection uses to drive the evolution of an organism’s morphology, physiology, and behavior. During this coevolution, the prey either being consumed by the predator or escaping has resulted in a plethora of impressive defensive strategies in prey species to improve the likelihood of escape. Velvet ants avoid predation using the following defense mechanisms: a venomous sting (if female), aposematic coloration, a stridulatory organ in their abdomen, an alarm secretion from their mandibular gland, and a durable exoskeleton. This array of defenses has contributed to the velvet ants being attributed the title of "the indestructible insect." This title was bestowed on them after experimental interactions between velvet ants and their potential predators that resulted in the survival of the ant and the ultimate avoidance by the predator.


title: Mutillidae

text: The venom that velvet ants inject through their stinger has an unknown composition. According to one researcher, the painfulness of the sting of "Dasymutilla klugii" outscored 58 other species of stinging insects tested; the only species this researcher rated as having a more painful sting were the "Paraponera clavata" (bullet ant), "Synoeca septentrionalis" (warrior wasp), and "Pepsis" spp. and "Hemipepsis" spp. (tarantula hawks). In an experimental setting, only two lizard species (one whiptail and one side-blotched lizard) attacked a velvet ant it was exposed to. In both cases the velvet ants were exhibiting rapid lateral and vertical movements to ward off an attack. Once the attack occurred the velvet ants would immediately sting the lizards. This sting resulted in the dropping of the ants in both cases and avoidance for the remainder of the trial. The side-blotched lizard was found dead in its tank 24 hours later. The side-blotched lizard is a natural predator of velvet ants, while the whiptail is not.


title: Mutillidae

text: The aposematic coloration of velvet ants often corresponds to a specific Müllerian mimicry ring consisting of dozens of species. This offers protection because many local predators have learned to avoid prey with this same coloration. To test the aposematic coloration on birds, mealworms were painted to resemble a velvet ant. During these trials, none of the painted mealworms were consumed, while all the control mealworms were consumed immediately. However, the painted mealworms were attacked by the birds, but the birds immediately ceased the attack. These experiments provide evidence that the aposematic coloration of velvet ants causes their predators to hesitate, acting as a visual defense mechanism.


title: Mutillidae

text: The stridulatory organ that velvet ants possess produces an audible squeaking when the abdomen is contracted. This mechanism is an auditory cue warning predators that are about to attack to stay away. In one experiment, every time a shrew got within 1 meter of a velvet ant, the velvet ant would begin stridulating. Stridulations became more frequent as the predator moved closer to the velvet ant, and the shrew never attempted to attack the velvet ant. However, different scenarios with shrews have shown that the velvet ant would also stridulate after the shrew attacked it. Every time this occurred the shrew dropped the wasp.


title: Mutillidae

text: The exoskeleton of the velvet ant is remarkably strong. It required 11 times more force to crush than that of the honeybee. As well as being durable, the exoskeleton is also round, making it more difficult for predators to pierce it with attempted stings or bites. During all the trials that led to the fracture of a velvet ant’s exoskeleton, a total of 4 times resulted in the death of that velvet ant within 24 hours. Aside from protection from predators, the exoskeleton also helps control moisture.


title: Mutillidae

text: Due to these strong defense mechanisms, local predators generally avoid the velvet ants, so it has been difficult to determine their predators. One study found tropical and subtropical iguanian lizards ("Dactyloidae") to be a local predator of velvet ants in the Black-headed "Timulla" and Tropical mimicry rings.


title: Mutillidae

text: Male mutillids fly in search of females; after mating, the female enters a host insect nest, typically a ground-nesting bee or wasp burrow, and deposits one egg near each larva or pupa. Only a few species are known to parasitize other types of hosts; exceptions include the European velvet ant, "Mutilla europaea", one of the only species that attacks social bees (e.g., "Bombus"), and the genus "Pappognatha", whose hosts are tree-dwelling orchid bees. The mutillid larvae then develop as idiobiont ectoparasitoids, eventually killing their immobile larval/pupal hosts within a week or two. Velvet ants exhibit haplodiploid sex determination, as do other members of the superfamily Vespoidea.


title: Dangerous Liaisons (TV series)

text: Dangerous Liaisons is an American period drama television series, based upon the novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It premiered on Starz on November 6, 2022. Ahead of its premiere, the series was renewed for a second season. In December 2022, the series was canceled, reversing the early renewal. It was also reported that the executive producers are currently shopping the series elsewhere.


title: Dangerous Liaisons (TV series)

text: In November 2013, it was announced Christopher Hampton would adapt "Dangerous Liaisons" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, with Colin Callender and Tony Krantz set to serve as executive producers, with BBC set to distribute in the United Kingdom. In July 2019, it was announced Starz had ordered and greenlit the series, with Harriet Warner set to serve as showrunner and writer, with BBC no longer attached, and Hampton no longer attached as writer, and only as executive producer. In November 2022, Starz renewed the series for a second season. The following month, Starz canceled the series. However, the remaining episodes of the first season will air as scheduled. It was also reported that the executive producers are currently shopping the series elsewhere.


title: Dangerous Liaisons (TV series)

text: In May 2021, Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton joined the cast of the series. In June 2021, Lesley Manville, Carice van Houten, Paloma Faith, Michael McElhatton, Kosar Ali, Nathanael Saleh, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Hilton Pelser, Mia Therapleton, Colette Dalal Tchantcho, Lucy Cohu, Fisayo Akinade, Maria Friedman and Clare Higgins joined the cast of the series.


title: Dangerous Liaisons (TV series)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 50% approval rating with an average rating of 6.3/10, based on 14 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton make for a convincingly dangerous duo, this prequel to the esteemed novel feels too calculated to stir up a ton of heat." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 57 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Peter Hyams

text: Peter Hyams (born July 26, 1943) is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer known for directing "Capricorn One" (which he also wrote), the 1981 science fiction-thriller "Outland", the 1984 science fiction film "" (a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's ""), the 1986 action/comedy "Running Scared", the comic book adaptation "Timecop", the action film "Sudden Death" (both starring Jean-Claude Van Damme), and the horror films "The Relic" and "End of Days".


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Ruth Hurok and Barry Hyams, who was a theatrical producer and publicist on Broadway. His maternal grandfather was Sol Hurok, the Russian Jewish impresario. His stepfather was blacklisted conductor Arthur Lief. His sister is casting director Nessa Hyams. His son John Hyams is also a film director.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams studied art and music at Hunter College and Syracuse University, before working as a producer/anchorman for WHDH-TV. During 1966 while working for a CBS owned station in New York, he served three months as a news correspondent in Vietnam. He worked in Boston then in January 1968 he joined WBBM-TV as an anchorman and reporter to replace Fahey Flynn. A contemporary report described him as a "glamor type".


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams moved to Los Angeles in 1970 where he sold his first screenplay, "T.R. Baskin", to Paramount Pictures in 1971. Herbert Ross directed the film and Hyams produced.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams made his directorial debut with an ABC Movie of the Week for Aaron Spelling, "Rolling Man" (1972) starring Dennis Weaver. Hymans worked on it solely as director, with the script being written by the producers.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams followed it directing another TV movie which he also wrote, "Goodnight, My Love" (1972), about a private eye and a dwarf. The film was very acclaimed.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams optioned a novel "Going All the Way" which he intended to adapt and direct but it was not made.


title: Peter Hyams

text: The praise for "Goodnight My Love" meant Hyams was able to get finance for his debut feature as writer-director, "Busting" (1974), a buddy cop movie starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake. He followed it with "Our Time" (1974), a romance with Pamela Sue Martin, which he directed only.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams made "Peeper" (1975), for the producers of "Busting" with Michael Caine and Natalie Wood. It was a financial failure and Hyams' career was at a low ebb. He wrote the script "Hanover Street" which he could have sold outright but Hyams insisted on directing. He wrote the screenplay for the Charles Bronson thriller "Telefon" (1977), doing a draft for Richard Lester (who ended up not directing the film). It was rewritten extensively.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams had written the script for "Capricorn One" (1978), a number of years earlier. It was a conspiracy thriller about a faked mission to Mars. Paul Lazarus managed to raise finance with Hyams as director and the film was his first hit.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams did a rewrite of Ted Leighton's screenplay for the Steve McQueen film "The Hunter" (1980) which he was to direct. However he dropped out after clashes with McQueen.


title: Peter Hyams

text: He wanted to do a Western but was unable to get financing so he then wrote and directed the science fiction cult classic "Outland" (1981), which starred Sean Connery in a 'High Noon' scenario set on Io, one of Jupiter's moons.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams directed the thriller "The Star Chamber" (1983), starring Michael Douglas, also rewriting the script.


title: Peter Hyams

text: For MGM Hyams produced, directed, and wrote the screenplay for "2010" (1984), collaborating closely with author Arthur C. Clarke ("").


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams also co-authored with Clarke "The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010", published 1985, a collection of their email correspondence which illustrates their fascination with the then pioneering medium, and its use for them to communicate on an almost daily basis while planning and producing the film.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams had a hit with a buddy cop film, "Running Scared" (1986) at MGM with Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal.


title: Peter Hyams

text: He followed it with "The Presidio" (1988), another buddy action film, starring Sean Connery and Mark Harmon. In between he executive produced the 1980s cult kids movie "The Monster Squad" (1987).


title: Peter Hyams

text: Less popular was "Narrow Margin" (1990), a remake of the 1952 film, and the comedy "Stay Tuned" (1992).


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams had a big hit with the Jean-Claude Van Damme film "Timecop" (1994). The director and actor subsequently reteamed on "Sudden Death" (1995) which did less well.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams did a horror monster movie called "The Relic" (1997) which received mixed reviews and grossed $48 million at the box office.


title: Peter Hyams

text: The blockbuster "End of Days" (1999) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is the highest-grossing film in Hyams' career, grossing over $200 million at the worldwide box-office but was met with negative critical reception.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams followed with "The Musketeer" (2001), a new version of the novel by Alexandre Dumas, which was a minor box office success.


title: Peter Hyams

text: However, his next film, "A Sound of Thunder" (2005), a science-fiction movie, had serious difficulties during its production (including the bankruptcy of the original production company during post-production), performed particularly badly at the box office worldwide and was poorly received by critics.


title: Peter Hyams

text: In 2007, it was reported that he would direct the remake of his own "Capricorn One"; instead he directed the remake of the 1956 film noir "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" starring Michael Douglas, which was released in 2009, was a box office flop, and panned by critics.


title: Peter Hyams

text: He also contributed the cinematography to his son John's effort, "", the third official "Universal Soldier" sequel starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams directed the thriller "Enemies Closer" which began filming in late 2012. It marked his fourth (third directorial) collaboration with Jean-Claude Van Damme.


title: Peter Hyams

text: Hyams was interviewed by Ezra Edelman in the latter's documentary "", which touched on Hyams' former friendship with O. J. Simpson, whom he had directed in "Capricorn One". In his interview, Hyams revealed his initial belief that Simpson was innocent of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, but began to have doubts following the revelation of DNA evidence that suggested otherwise. Hyams said he felt particularly betrayed when Simpson continued to insist that he was innocent when Hyams' friend also began to voice his doubts about Simpson's innocence. Following Simpson's acquittal, Hyams stated that he found the African-American celebration of the acquittal to be particularly offensive and hurtful, and later severed his ties with Simpson.


title: Peter Hyams

text: On December 19, 1964, he married George-Ann Spota, with whom he has three sons. His first son Chris Hyams is the CEO of the job search website Indeed. His second son John Hyams is also a film director; Peter performed cinematography duties on his son's film "". His third son Nick Hyams works as a battle rap promoter and host under the name Lush One.


title: Peter Hyams

text: As a reference to his wife's family, there is a minor character named Spota in many of his films, including those which he only wrote (such as 1980's "The Hunter"); the exceptions being "A Sound of Thunder" (although there was a market called "Spota's"), "End of Days" (although there was a bar called "Spota's"), "Narrow Margin", "Running Scared", "2010", "Hanover Street" and "Peeper".


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John (), is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza San Giovanni, across from Florence Cathedral and the Campanile di Giotto.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The Baptistery is one of the oldest buildings in the city, constructed between 1059 and 1128 in the Florentine Romanesque style. Although the Florentine style did not spread across Italy as widely as the Pisan Romanesque or Lombard styles, its influence was decisive for the subsequent development of architecture, as it formed the basis from which Francesco Talenti, Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, and other master architects of their time created Renaissance architecture. In the case of the Florentine Romanesque, one can speak of "proto-renaissance", but at the same time an extreme survival of the late antique architectural tradition in Italy, as in the cases of the Basilica of San Salvatore, Spoleto, the Temple of Clitumnus, and the church of Sant'Alessandro in Lucca.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The Baptistery is renowned for its three sets of artistically important bronze doors with relief sculptures. The south doors were created by Andrea Pisano and the north and east doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti. Michelangelo dubbed the east doors the "Gates of Paradise".


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The Italian poet Dante Alighieri and many other notable Renaissance figures, including members of the Medici family, were baptized in this baptistery.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: It was once believed that the Baptistery was originally a Roman temple dedicated to Mars, the tutelary god of the old Florence. The chronicler Giovanni Villani reported this medieval Florentine legend in his 14th-century "Nuova Cronica" on the history of Florence. Excavations in the 20th century have shown that there was a 1st-century Roman wall running through the piazza with the Baptistery, which may have been built on the remains of a Roman guard tower on the corner of this wall, or possibly another Roman building including a second-century house which was restored in the late 4th or early 5th century. It is certain that an initial octagonal baptistery was erected here in the late 4th or early 5th century. It was replaced or altered by another early Christian baptistery in the 6th century. Its construction is attributed to Theodolinda, queen of the Lombards (570–628), to seal the conversion of her husband, King Authari.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The octagon had been a common shape for baptisteries for many centuries since early Christian times. Other early examples are the Lateran Baptistery (440) that provided a model for others throughout Italy, the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus (527–536) in Constantinople and the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna (548).


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The earlier baptistery was the city's second basilica after San Lorenzo, outside the northern city wall, and predates the church Santa Reparata. It was first recorded as such on 4 March 897, when the Count Palatine and envoy of the Holy Roman Emperor sat there to administer justice. The granite pilasters were probably taken from the Roman forum sited at the location of the present Piazza della Repubblica. At that time, the baptistery was surrounded by a cemetery with Roman sarcophagi, used by important Florentine families as tombs (now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo).


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The present much bigger Baptistery was built in Romanesque style around 1059, evidence of the growing economic and political importance of Florence. It was reconsecrated on 6 November 1059 by Pope Nicholas II, a Florentine. According to legend, the marbles were brought from Fiesole, conquered by Florence in 1078. Other marble came from ancient structures. The construction was finished in 1128.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: An octagonal lantern was added to the pavilion roof around 1150. It was enlarged with a rectangular entrance porch in 1202, leading into the original western entrance of the building, that in the 15th century became an apse, after the opening of the eastern door facing the western door of the cathedral by Lorenzo Ghiberti. On the corners, under the roof, are monstrous lion heads with a human head under their claws. They are early representations of Marzocco, the heraldic Florentine lion (the symbol of Mars, the god of war, the original male protector of Florentia, protecting a lily or iris, the symbol of the original female patron of the town, Flora, the fertile agricultural earth goddess).


title: Florence Baptistery

text: Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, three bronze double doors were added, with bronze and marble statues above them. This gives an indication that the Baptistery, at that time, was at least equal to the neighbouring cathedral in importance.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The Baptistery has eight equal sides with a "scarsella", an apse expanding out of the west side. The sides, originally constructed in sandstone, are clad in geometrically patterned, colored marble, white Carrara with green Prato marble inlay, reworked in Romanesque style between 1059 and 1128. The style of this church would serve as a prototype, influencing many architects, such as Leone Battista Alberti, in their design of Renaissance churches in Tuscany.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The exterior is also ornamented with a number of artistically significant statues by Andrea Sansovino (above the "Gates of Paradise"), Giovan Francesco Rustici, Vincenzo Danti (above the south doors) and others.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The design work on the sides is arranged in groupings of three, starting with three distinct horizontal sections. The middle section features three blind arches on each side, each arch containing a window. These have alternate, pointed and semicircular tympani. Below each window is a stylized arch design. In the upper fascia, there are also three small windows, each one in the center block of a three-panel design.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: As recommended by Giotto to the "Arte di Calimala" (Cloth Merchants Guild), the guild who had the patronage of the Baptistry, Andrea Pisano was awarded the commission to design the first set of doors in 1329. An antetype for the doors was probably the "San Ranieri Gate" of the Pisa Cathedral, done by Bonanno Pisano around 1180. The wax model and the gilding at the end was the work of Andrea Pisano, whereas the bronze-casting was executed by Venetian masters, for whom these monumental doors nevertheless were a difficult challenge; it took six years to complete the doors. The gate wings consist of 28 quatrefoil panels altogether, with twenty top panels depicting scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist. The eight lower panels represent the eight virtues of hope, faith, charity (the three theological virtues), humility, fortitude, temperance, justice and prudence (the four cardinal virtues). The south doors were originally installed in 1336 on the east side, facing the Duomo, and were transferred to their present location in 1452. Lorenzo Ghiberti moulded reliefs for the adjusted doorcase. There is a Latin inscription on top of the door: "Andreas Ugolini Nini de Pisis me fecit A.D. MCCCXXX" ("Andrea Pisano made me in 1330").


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The group of bronze statues above the gate depict "The Beheading of St John the Baptist". It is the masterwork of Vincenzo Danti from 1571.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: In 1401, a competition was announced by the "Arte di Calimala" to design the doors of the east side of the baptistery facing the cathedral, which lasted there for 25 years, before they would eventually be moved to the north side and to be replaced by Ghiberti's second commission, known as the "Gates of Paradise".


title: Florence Baptistery

text: These north doors would serve as a votive offering to celebrate the sparing of Florence from relatively recent scourges such as the Black Death in 1348. Many artists competed for this commission and a jury selected seven semi-finalists. These finalists include Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi and Jacopo della Quercia, with 21-year-old Ghiberti winning the commission. At the time of judging, only Ghiberti and Brunelleschi were finalists, and when the judges could not decide, they were assigned to work together on them. Brunelleschi's pride got in the way, and he went to Rome to study architecture leaving Ghiberti to work on the doors himself. Ghiberti's autobiography, however, claimed that he had won, "without a single dissenting voice." The original designs of "The Sacrifice of Isaac" by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi are on display in the museum of the Bargello.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: It took Ghiberti 21 years to complete these doors. These gilded bronze doors consist of twenty-eight panels, with twenty panels depicting the life of Christ from the New Testament. The eight lower panels show the four evangelists and the Church Fathers Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory and Saint Augustine. The panels are surrounded by a framework of foliage in the door case and gilded busts of prophets and sibyls at the intersections of the panels. Originally installed on the east side, in place of Pisano's doors, they were later moved to the north side. They are described by the art historian Antonio Paolucci as "the most important event in the history of Florentine art in the first quarter of the 15th century".


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The bronze statues over the northern gate depict "John the Baptist preaching to a Pharisee and Sadducee". They were sculpted by Francesco Rustici and are superior to any sculpture he did before. Leonardo da Vinci is said not only to have given him technical advice, Leonardo never left him during the whole process from the modelling to the casting; the pose of John the Baptist resembles that of Leonardo's depiction of the prophet.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: Ghiberti was now widely recognized as a celebrity and the top artist in this field. He was showered with commissions, even from the pope. In 1424 he received a second commission, this time for the east doors of the baptistery, on which he and his workshop (including Michelozzo and Benozzo Gozzoli) toiled for 27 years, excelling themselves. These had ten panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament, and were in turn installed on the east side. The panels are large rectangles and are no longer embedded in the traditional Gothic quatrefoil, as in the previous doors. Ghiberti employed the recently discovered principles of perspective to give depth to his compositions. Each panel depicts more than one episode. In "The Story of Joseph" is portrayed the narrative scheme of "Joseph Cast by His Brethren into the Well", "Joseph Sold to the Merchants", "The merchants delivering Joseph to the pharaoh", "Joseph Interpreting the Pharaoh's dream", "The Pharaoh Paying him Honour", "Jacob Sends His Sons to Egypt" and "Joseph Recognizes His Brothers and Returns Home". According to Vasari's "Lives", this panel was the most difficult and also the most beautiful. The figures are distributed in very low relief in a perspective space (a technique invented by Donatello and called "rilievo schiacciato", which literally means "flattened relief"). Ghiberti uses different sculptural techniques, from incised lines to almost free-standing figure sculpture, within the panels, further accentuating the sense of space.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The panels are included in a richly decorated gilt framework of foliage and fruit, many statuettes of prophets and 24 busts. The two central busts are portraits of the artist and of his father, Bartolomeo Ghiberti.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: Although the overall quality of the casting is exquisite, some mistakes have been made. For example, in panel 15 of the north doors ("Flagellation") the casting of the second column in the front row has been mistakenly overlaid over an arm, so that one of the flagellators looks trapped in stone, with his hand sticking out of it.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: Michelangelo referred to these doors as fit to be the "Gates of Paradise" (), and they are still invariably referred to by this name. Giorgio Vasari described them a century later as "undeniably perfect in every way and must rank as the finest masterpiece ever created". Ghiberti himself said they were "the most singular work that I have ever made".


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The "Gates of Paradise" situated in the Baptistery are a copy of the originals, substituted in 1990 to preserve the panels after over five hundred years of exposure and damage. To protect the original panels for the future, the panels are being restored and kept in a dry environment in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, the museum of the Duomo's art and sculpture. Some of the original panels are on view in the museum; the remaining original panels are being restored and cleaned using lasers in lieu of potentially damaging chemical baths. Three original panels made a US tour in 2007-2008, and then were reunited in a frame and hermetically sealed with the intention of making the panels appear in the context of the doors for public viewing.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: Several copies of the doors are held throughout the world. One such copy is held at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Another copy, made in the 1940s, is installed in Grace Cathedral, in San Francisco; copies of the doors are also crafted for the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia; the Harris Museum in Preston, United Kingdom; and in 2017 for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The two porphyry columns on each side of the "Gates of Paradise" were plundered by the Pisans in Majorca and given in gratitude to the Florentines in 1114 for protecting their city against Lucca while the Pisan fleet was conquering the island.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The "Gates of Paradise" are surmounted by a (copy of a) group of statues portraying the "Baptism of Christ" by Andrea Sansovino. The originals are in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. He then left for Rome to work on a new commission, leaving these statues unfinished. Work on these statues was continued much later in 1569 by Vincenzo Danti, a sculptor from the school of Michelangelo. At his death in 1576 the group was almost finished. The group was finally completed with the addition of an angel by Innocenzo Spinazzi in 1792.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The interior, which is rather dark, is divided into a lower part with columns and pilasters and an upper part with a walkway. The Florentines spared neither trouble nor expense in decorating the baptistery. The interior walls are clad in dark green and white marble with inlaid geometrical patterns. The niches are separated by monolithic columns of Sardinian granite. The marble revetment of the interior was begun in the second half of the eleventh century.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The building contains the monumental tomb of Antipope John XXIII by Donatello and Michelozzo Michelozzi. A gilt statue, with the face turned to the spectator, reposes on a deathbed, supported by two lions, under a canopy of gilt drapery. He had bequeathed several relics and his great wealth to this baptistery. Such a monument with a baldachin was a first in the Renaissance.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The mosaic marble pavement was begun in 1209. The geometric patterns in the floor are complex. Some show us oriental zodiac motifs, such as the slab of the astrologer Strozzo Strozzi. There was an octagonal font, its base still clearly visible in the middle of the floor. This font, which once stood in the church of Santa Reparata, was installed here in 1128. Dante is said to have broken one of the lower basins while rescuing a child from drowning. The font was removed in 1571 on orders from the grand duke Francesco I de' Medici. The present, and much smaller, octagonal font stands near the south entrance. It was installed in 1658 but is probably much older. The reliefs are attributed to Andrea Pisano or his school.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The Baptistery is crowned by a magnificent mosaic ceiling. It was created over the course of a century in several different phases. The oldest parts are the upper zone of the dome with the hierarchy of angels (2,3), the Last Judgment on the three western segments of the dome (1) and the mosaic above the rectangular chapel on the western side. An inscription in the mosaic above the western rectangular chapel states the date of the beginning of the work and the name of the artist. According to this inscription, work on the mosaic began in 1225 by the Franciscan friar Jacobus. The artist was previously falsely identified to be the Roman mosaicist Jacopo Torriti, who was active around 1300. In accordance with his style, Jacobus was trained in Venice and strongly influenced by the Byzantine art of the early to mid-thirteenth century. Since the inscription also names Emperor Frederick II, the inscription and the completion of the first phase of mosaics must fall within the Ghibelline phase of Florentine rule between 1238 and 1250.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: "The Last Judgment", created by Jacobus and his workshop, was the largest and most important spiritual image created in the Baptistery. It shows a gigantic majestic Christ and angels with the instruments of the passion at each side (formerly attributed to the painter Coppo di Marcovaldo), the rewards of the saved leaving their tomb in joy (at Christ's right hand), and the punishments of the damned (at Christ's left hand). This last part is particularly famous: evil doers are burnt by fire, roasted on spits, crushed with stones, bitten by snakes, gnawed and chewed by hideous beasts.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: The other scenes on the lower zones of the five eastern sections of the dome depict different stories in horizontal tiers of mosaic: (starting at the top) stories from the Book of Genesis; stories of Joseph; stories of Mary and the Christ and finally in the lower tier, stories of Saint John the Baptist, patron saint of the church. A total of sixty pictures originated in the last decade of the thirteenth century. The key artists employed were Corso di Buono and Cimabue. It is the most important narrative cycle of Florentine art before Giotto.


title: Florence Baptistery

text: In the drum under the dome many heads of prophets are depicted. Some chapels of the gallery are also decorated with mosaic. These parts were executed around 1330 by mosaicists from Siena.


title: Oradour-sur-Glane

text: Oradour-sur-Glane (; ) was a commune in the Haute-Vienne department, New Aquitaine, west central France, as well as the name of the main village within the commune.


title: Oradour-sur-Glane

text: The original village was destroyed on 10 June 1944, four days after D-Day, when 643 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a company of troops belonging to the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich", a Waffen-SS unit of the military forces of Nazi Germany in World War II. A new village was built after the war on a nearby site, but on the orders of president Charles de Gaulle, the original has been maintained as a permanent memorial. The Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour museum is located beside the historic site.


title: Oradour-sur-Glane

text: The municipality borders with Javerdat, Cieux, Peyrilhac, Veyrac, Saint-Victurnien and Saint-Brice-sur-Vienne.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval. The museum administers collections containing over 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin. The various classes of artwork include sculpture, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, armor, and decorative arts.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The Philadelphia Museum of Art administers several annexes including the Rodin Museum, also located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, which is located across the street just north of the main building. The Perelman Building, which opened in 2007, houses more than 150,000 prints, drawings and photographs, along with 30,000 costume and textile pieces, and over 1,000 modern and contemporary design objects including furniture, ceramics and glasswork. The museum also administers the historic colonial-era houses of Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, both located in Fairmount Park. The main museum building and its annexes are owned by the City of Philadelphia and administered by a registered nonprofit corporation.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Several special exhibitions are held in the museum every year, including touring exhibitions arranged with other museums in the United States and abroad. The museum had 437,348 visitors in 2021, making it the 65th most-visited art museum worldwide.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Philadelphia celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with the Centennial Exposition in 1876. Memorial Hall, which contained the art gallery, was intended to outlast the Exposition and house a permanent museum. Following the example of London's South Kensington Museum, the new museum was to focus on applied art and science, and provide a school to train craftsmen in drawing, painting, modeling, and designing.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art opened on May 10, 1877. (The school became independent of the museum in 1964 and is now part of the University of the Arts). The museum's collection began with objects from the Exposition and gifts from the public impressed with the Exposition's ideals of good design and craftsmanship. European and Japanese fine and decorative art objects and books for the museum's library were among the first donations. The location outside of Center City, Philadelphia, however, was fairly distant from many of the city's inhabitants. Admission was charged until 1881, then was dropped until 1962.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Starting in 1882, Clara Jessup Moore donated a remarkable collection of antique furniture, enamels, carved ivory, jewelry, metalwork, glass, ceramics, books, textiles and paintings. The Countess de Brazza's lace collection was acquired in 1894 forming the nucleus of the lace collection. In 1892 Anna H. Wilstach bequeathed a large painting collection, including many American paintings, and an endowment of half a million dollars for additional purchases. Works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and George Inness were purchased within a few years and Henry Ossawa Tanner's "The Annunciation" was bought in 1899.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The City Council of Philadelphia funded a competition in 1895 to design a new museum building, but it was not until 1907 that plans were first made to construct it on Fairmount, a rocky hill topped by the city's main reservoir. The Fairmount Parkway (renamed Benjamin Franklin Parkway), a grand boulevard that cut diagonally across the grid of city streets, was designed to terminate at the foot of the hill. But there were conflicting views about whether to erect a single museum building, or a number of buildings to house individual collections. The architectural firms of Horace Trumbauer and Zantzinger, Borie and Medary collaborated for more than a decade to resolve these issues. The final design is mostly credited to two architects in Trumbauer's firm: Howell Lewis Shay for the building's plan and massing, and Julian Abele for the detail work and perspective drawings. In 1902, Abele had become the first African-American student to be graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Architecture, which is presently known as Penn's School of Design. Abele adapted classical Greek temple columns for the design of the museum entrances, and was responsible for the colors of both the building stone and the figures added to one of the pediments.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Construction of the main building began in 1919, when Mayor Thomas B. Smith laid the cornerstone in a Masonic ceremony. Because of shortages caused by World War I and other delays, the new building was not completed until 1928. The building was constructed with dolomite quarried in Minnesota. The wings were intentionally built first, to help assure the continued funding for the completion of the design. Once the building's exterior was completed, twenty second-floor galleries containing English and American art opened to the public on March 26, 1928, though a large amount of interior work was incomplete.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The building's eight pediments were intended to be adorned with sculpture groups. The only pediment that has been completed, "Western Civilization" (1933) by C. Paul Jennewein, colored by Leon V. Solon, features polychrome sculptures of painted terra-cotta figures depicting Greek deities and mythological figures. The sculpture group was awarded the Medal of Honor of the Architectural League of New York.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The building is also adorned by a collection of bronze griffins, which were later adopted as the symbol of the museum in the 1970s.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: In the early 1900s, the museum started an education program for the general public, as well as a membership program. Fiske Kimball was the museum director during the rapid growth of the mid- to late-1920s, which included one million visitors in 1928—the new building's first year. The museum enlarged its print collection in 1928 with about 5,000 Old Master prints and drawings from the gift of Charles M. Lea, including French, German, Italian, and Netherlandish engravings. Major exhibitions of the 1930s included works by Eakins, Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, van Gogh, and Degas. In the 1940s, the museum's major gifts and acquisitions included the collections of John D. McIlhenny (Oriental carpets), George Grey Barnard (sculpture), and Alfred Stieglitz (photography).


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Early modern art dominated the growth of the collections in the 1950s, with acquisitions of the Louise and Walter Arensberg and the A.E. Gallatin collections. The gift of Philadelphian Grace Kelly's wedding dress is perhaps the best known gift of the 1950s.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Extensive renovation of the building lasted from the 1960s through 1976. Major acquisitions included the Carroll S. Tyson, Jr. and Samuel S. White III and Vera White collections, 71 objects from designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and Marcel Duchamp's "Étant donnés". In 1976 there were celebrations and special exhibitions for the centennial of the museum and the bicentennial of the nation. During the last three decades major acquisitions have included "After the Bath" by Edgar Degas and "Fifty Days at Iliam" by Cy Twombly.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Due to high attendance and overflowing collections, the museum announced in October 2006 that Frank Gehry would design a building expansion. The gallery will be built entirely underground behind the east entrance stairs and will not alter any of the museum's existing Greek revival facade. The construction was initially projected to last a decade and cost $500 million. It will increase the museum's available display space by sixty percent and house mostly contemporary sculpture, Asian art, and special exhibitions.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Uncertainty was cast on the plans by the 2008 death of Anne d'Harnoncourt, but new director Timothy Rub, who had initiated a $350 million expansion at the Cleveland Museum of Art, will be carrying out the plans as scheduled. In 2010, Gehry attended the groundbreaking for the second phase of the expansion, due to be completed in 2012. In that phase, a new art handling facility was created on the south side of the building, enabling the museum to reclaim a street level entrance, closed since the mid-1970s, which leads to a -long vaulted walkway that extends across the museum and is original to the 1928 building. The north entrance will be reopened to the public as a part of the "core project", which is scheduled for completion in 2020. The core project also focuses on the interior of the current building and will add of public space, including of new gallery space for American art and contemporary art. In addition, a new space called the forum will be created, along with dining and retail spaces. Said Gehry: "When it's done, people coming to this museum will have an experience that's as big as Bilbao. It won't be apparent from the outside, but it will knock their socks off inside."


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: In March 2017 the museum announced a $525 million campaign. The core project is budgeted at $196 million and will be funded through the campaign. The museum also announced that more than 62 percent of the campaign goal has been met, as of March 30, 2017.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The most controversial part of the Gehry design remains a proposed window and amphitheater to be cut into the east entrance stairs. Others have criticized the design as too tame. The Gehry expansion is projected to be completed by 2028.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The Philadelphia Museum of Art houses more than 240,000 objects, highlighting the creative achievements of the Western world and those of Asia, in more than 200 galleries spanning 2,000 years. The museum's collections of Egyptian and Roman art, as well as many of its Pre-Columbian works, were relocated to the Penn Museum after an exchange agreement was made whereby the museum houses the university's collection of Chinese porcelain.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Highlights of the Asian collections include paintings and sculpture from China, Japan, and India; furniture and decorative arts, including major collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ceramics; a large and distinguished group of Persian and Turkish carpets; and rare and authentic architectural assemblages such as a Chinese palace hall, a Japanese teahouse, and a 16th-century Indian temple hall.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The European collections, dating from the medieval era to the present, encompass Italian and Flemish early-Renaissance masterworks; strong representations of later European paintings, including French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism; sculpture, with a special concentration in the works of Auguste Rodin; decorative arts; tapestries; furniture; the second-largest collection of arms and armor in the United States; and period rooms and architectural settings ranging from the facade of a medieval church in Burgundy to a superbly decorated English drawing room by Robert Adam.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The museum's American collections, surveying more than three centuries of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, are among the finest in the United States, with outstanding strengths in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia furniture and silver, Pennsylvania German art, rural Pennsylvania furniture and ceramics, and the paintings of Thomas Eakins. The museum houses the most important Eakins collection in the world.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: Modern artwork includes works by Pablo Picasso, Jean Metzinger, Antonio Rotta, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí and Constantin Brâncuși, as well as American modernists. The expanding collection of contemporary art includes major works by Agnes Martin, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Sol LeWitt, among many others.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The museum houses encyclopedic holdings of costume and textiles, as well as prints, drawings, and photographs that are displayed in rotation for reasons of preservation.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: The museum also houses the armor collection of Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch. The Von Kienbusch collection was bequeathed by the celebrated collector to the museum in 1976, the Bicentennial Anniversary of the American Revolution. The Von Kienbusch holdings are comprehensive and include European and Southwest Asian arms and armor spanning several centuries.


title: Philadelphia Museum of Art

text: On May 30, 2000, the museum and the State Art Collections in Dresden, Germany ("Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden"), announced an agreement for the return of five pieces of armor stolen from Dresden during World War II. In 1953, Von Kienbusch had unsuspectingly purchased the armor, which was part of his 1976 bequest. Von Kienbusch published catalogs of his collection, which eventually led Dresden authorities to bring the matter up with the museum.