title: Religious pluralism

text: The primary sources that guide Islam, namely Quran and Sunnahs, may be interpreted as promoting the fundamental right to practice an individual's belief. However, the acceptability of religious pluralism within Islam remains a topic of active debate, though the vast majority of Islamic scholars and historical evidences reveal Islam's commitment to no coercion in religion, supporting pluralism in the context of relative toleration. Hamed Kazemzadeh, a pluralist orientalist argues that cultural absolutism of ours is, of course, today under heavy pressure, a double pressure of defining and semi-bankrupt imperialism and surprisingly strong counter assertive challenge that changed the mentality of Muslims to have a pluralist identity. Then he highlights the policy method of Islam Messenger in the early Islamic civilization toward other religions.


title: Religious pluralism

text: In several Surah, Quran asks Muslims to remain steadfast with Islam, and not yield to the vain desires of other religions and unbelievers. These verses have been interpreted to imply pluralism in religions. For example, Surah Al-Ma'idah verses 47 through 49 state:


title: Religious pluralism

text: Several verses of the Quran state that Islam rejects religious pluralism. For example, Surah Al-Tawba verse 1 through 5 seems to command the Muslim to slay the pagans (with verse 9.5 called the 'sword verse'):


title: Religious pluralism

text: Bernard Lewis presents some of his conclusions about Islamic culture, Sharia law, jihad, and the modern day phenomenon of terrorism in his text, "Islam: The Religion and the People". He writes of jihad as a distinct "religious obligation", but suggests that "it is a pity" that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:


title: Religious pluralism

text: In Surah Al-Tawba, verse 29 demands Muslims to fight all those who do not believe in Islam, including Christians and Jews (People of the Book), until they pay the Jizya, a tax, with willing submission.


title: Religious pluralism

text: Some people have concluded from verse 9:29, that Muslims are commanded to attack all non-Muslims until they pay money, but Shaykh Jalal Abualrub writes:


title: Religious pluralism

text: In Surah Al-Nisa, verse 89 has been misquoted to seem that it says to slay the apostates. In actuality, it only commands Muslims to fight those who practice oppression or persecution, or attack the Muslims.


title: Religious pluralism

text: The Sufis were practitioners of the esoteric mystic traditions within an Islam at a certain point. Sufism is defined by the Sufi master or Pir (Sufism) or fakeer or Wali in the language of the people by dancing and singing and incorporating various philosophies, theologies, ideologies and religions together (e.g., Christianity, Judaism, Paganism, Platonism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and so forth with time). Famous Sufi masters are Rumi, Shadhili, Sheikh Farid, Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Shams Tabrizi, Waris Shah, al-Ghazali, Mian Mir, Attar of Nishapur, Amir Khusrow, Salim Chishti. See many more famous Sufis at the List of Sufis. The Sufis were considered by many to have divine revelations with messages of peace, tolerance, equality, pluralism, love for all and hate for no one, humanitarians, philosophers, psychologists and much more. Many had the teaching if you want to change the world, change yourself and you will change the whole world. The views of the Sufi poets, philosophers and theologians have inspired multiple forms of modern-day academia as well as philosophers of other religions. See also Blind men and an elephant. But undoubtedly, the most influential Sufi scholar to have embraced the world is Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi. He was born in 1207 AD in a northern province of Afghanistan, however, he later had to seek refuge in Turkey following the invasion of Afghanistan by Mongols. Rumi, through his poetry and teachings, propagated inter-faith harmony like none other. He served as a uniting figure for people of different faiths and his followers included Muslims, Christians and Jews. Even today, Rumi's popularity does not cease to exist within the Sufi Muslim community and his message of peace and harmony transcends religious and geographical boundaries.


title: Religious pluralism

text: I looked for God. I went to a temple, and I didn't find him there. Then I went to a church, and I didn't find him there. And then I went to a mosque, and I didn't find him there. And then finally I looked in my heart, and there he was.


title: Religious pluralism

text: Ahmadis recognize many founders of world religions to be from God, who all brought teaching and guidance from God to all peoples. According to the Ahmadiyya understanding of the Quran, every nation in the history of mankind has been sent a prophet, as the Quran states: "And there is a guide for every people". Though the Quran mentions only 24 prophets, the founder of Islam, Muhammad states that the world has seen 124,000 prophets. Thus other than the prophets mentioned in the Quran, Ahmadis, with support from theological study also recognize Buddha, Krishna, founders of Chinese religions to be divinely appointed individuals.


title: Religious pluralism

text: "According to this teaching there has not been a single people at any time in history or anywhere in the world who have not had a warner from God, a teacher, a prophet. According to the Quran there have been prophets at all times and in all countries. India, China, Russia, Afghanistan, parts of Africa, Europe, America—all had prophets according to the theory of divine guidance taught by the Quran. When, therefore, Muslims hear about prophets of other peoples or other countries, they do not deny them. They do not brand them as liars. Muslims believe that other peoples have had their teachers. If other peoples have had prophets, books, and laws, these constitute no difficulty for Islam."


title: Religious pluralism

text: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community wrote in his book "A Message of Peace":


title: Religious pluralism

text: "Our God has never discriminated between one people and another. This is illustrated by the fact that all the potentials and capabilities (Prophets) which have been granted to the Aryans (Hindus) have also been granted to the races inhabiting Arabia, Persia, Syria, China, Japan, Europe and America."


title: Religious pluralism

text: Religious pluralism is a contested issue in modern Islamic countries. Twenty three (23) Islamic countries have laws, as of 2014, which make it a crime, punishable with death penalty or prison, for a Muslim, by birth or conversion, to leave Islam or convert to another religion. In Muslim countries such as Algeria, it is illegal to preach, persuade or attempt to convert a Muslim to another religion. Saudi Arabia and several Islamic nations have strict laws against the construction of Christian churches, Jewish synagogues, Hindu temples and Buddhist stupas anywhere inside the country, by anyone including minorities working there. Brunei in southeast Asia adopted Sharia law in 2013 that prescribes a death penalty for any Muslim who converts from Islam to another religion. Other Islamic scholars state Sharia does not allow non-Muslim minorities to enjoy religious freedoms in a Muslim-majority nation, but other scholars disagree.


title: Religious pluralism

text: "Anekāntavāda", the principle of relative pluralism, is one of the basic principles of Jainism. In this view, the truth or the reality is perceived differently from different points of view, and no single point of view is the complete truth. Jain doctrine states that an object has infinite modes of existence and qualities and they cannot be completely perceived in all its aspects and manifestations, due to inherent limitations of the humans. Only the Kevalins—the omniscient beings—can comprehend the object in all its aspects and manifestations, and all others are capable of knowing only a part of it. Consequently, no one view can claim to represent the absolute truth—only relative truths. Jains compare all attempts to proclaim absolute truth with " andhgajnyaya " or the "maxim of the blind men and elephant", wherein all the blind men claimed to explain the true appearance of the elephant, but could only partly succeed due to their narrow perspective. For Jains, the problem with the blind men is not that they claim to explain the true appearance of the elephant; the problem is doing so to the exclusion of all other claims. Since absolute truth is many-sided, embracing any truth to the exclusion of others is to commit the error of "ekānta" (one-sidedness). Openness to the truths of others is one way in which Jainism embodies religious pluralism.


title: Religious pluralism

text: The Sikh gurus have propagated the message of "many paths" leading to the one God and ultimate salvation for all souls who treading on the path of righteousness. They have supported the view that proponents of all faiths, by doing good and virtuous deeds and by remembering the Lord, can certainly achieve salvation. Sikhs are told to accept all leading faiths as possible vehicles for attaining spiritual enlightenment, provided the faithful study, ponder and practice the teachings of their prophets and leaders. Sikhism had many interactions with Sufism as well as Hinduism, influenced them and was influenced by them.


title: Religious pluralism

text: Some call the Lord "Ram, Ram", and some "Khuda". Some serve Him as "Gusain", others as "Allah". He is the Cause of causes, and Generous. He showers His Grace and Mercy upon us. Some pilgrims bathe at sacred shrines, others go on Hajj to Mecca. Some do devotional worship, whilst others bow their heads in prayer. Some read the Vedas, and some the Koran. Some wear blue robes, and some wear white. Some call themselves Muslim, and some call themselves Hindu. Some yearn for paradise, and others long for heaven. Says Nanak, one who realizes the Hukam of God's Will, knows the secrets of his Lord Master. (Sri Guru Granth Sahib Page:885)


title: Religious pluralism

text: One who recognizes that all spiritual paths lead to the One shall be emancipated. One who speaks lies shall fall into hell and burn. In all the world, the most blessed and sanctified are those who remain absorbed in Truth. (SGGS Ang 142)


title: Religious pluralism

text: The seconds, minutes, and hours, days, weeks and months and various seasons originate from One Sun; O nanak, in just the same way, the many forms originate from the Creator. (Guru Granth Sahib page 12,13)


title: Religious pluralism

text: The Guru Granth Sahib also says that Bhagat Namdev and Bhagat Kabir, who were both believed to be Hindus, both attained salvation though they were born before Sikhism took root and were clearly not Sikhs. This highlights and reinforces the Guru's saying that "peoples of other faiths" can join with God as true and also at the same time signify that Sikhism is not the exclusive path for liberation.


title: Religious pluralism

text: First, Allah (God) created the Light; then, by His Creative Power, He made all mortal beings. From the One Light, the entire universe welled up. So who is good, and who is bad? ||1||


title: Religious pluralism

text: Naam Dayv the printer, and Kabeer the weaver, obtained salvation through the Perfect Guru. Those who know God and recognize His Shabad ("word") lose their ego and class consciousness. (Guru Granth Sahib page 67)


title: Religious pluralism

text: Most of the 15 Sikh Bhagats who are mentioned in their holy book were non-Sikhs and belonged to Hindu and Muslim faiths, which were the most prevalent religions of this region.


title: Religious pluralism

text: The pluralistic dialogue of Sikhism began with the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak after becoming enlightened saying the words "Na koi hindu na koi musalman" - "There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim". He recognised that religious labels held no value and it is the deeds of human that will be judged in the hereafter what we call ourselves religiously holds no value.


title: Religious pluralism

text: Sikhs have been considered eager exponents of interfaith dialogue and not only accept the right of others to practice their faith but have in the past fought and laid down their lives to protect this right for others; the Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadar, who on the pleas of a pandit of the Kashmiris, agreed to fight against a tyrannic Moghul Empire (that was forcing them to convert to Islam) in order that they might gain the freedom to practice their religion, which differed from his own.


title: Religious pluralism

text: The concept of religious pluralism is also relevant to human service professions, such as psychology and social work, as well as medicine and nursing, in which trained professionals may interact with clients from diverse faith traditions. For example, psychologist Kenneth Pargament has described four possible stances toward client religious and spiritual beliefs, which he called "rejectionist", "exclusivist", "constructivist", and "pluralist". Unlike the constructivist stance, the pluralist stance:


title: Religious pluralism

text: Importantly, "the pluralistic therapist can hold personal religious beliefs while appreciating those of a client with different religious beliefs. The pluralist recognizes that religious value differences can and will exist between counselors and clients without adversely affecting therapy" (p. 168). The stances implied by these four helping orientations on several key issues, such as "should religious issues be discussed in counseling?", have also been presented in tabular form (p. 362, Table 12.1).


title: Religious pluralism

text: The profession of chaplaincy, a religious profession, must also deal with issues of pluralism and the relevance of a pluralistic stance. For example, Friberg argues: "With growing populations of immigrants and adherents of religions not previously seen in significant numbers in North America, spiritual care must take religion and diversity seriously. Utmost respect for the residents' spiritual and religious histories and orientations is imperative" (p. 182).


title: Religious pluralism

text: The argument from inconsistent revelations is an argument that aims to show that one cannot choose one religion over another since their revelations are inconsistent with each other and that any two religions cannot be true. The argument appears, among other places, in Voltaire's "Candide" and "Philosophical Dictionary". It is also manifested in Denis Diderot's statement in response to Pascal's Wager that, whatever proofs are offered for the existence of God in Christianity or any other religion, "an Imam can reason the same way". Also in response to Pascal's Wager, J. L. Mackie said "the church within which alone salvation is to be found is not necessarily the Church of Rome, but perhaps that of the Anabaptists or the Mormons or the Muslim Sunnis or the worshippers of Kali or of Odin".


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen, also known by his alter ego The Flash, is a fictional character in The CW's Arrowverse franchise, first introduced in the 2013 episode "The Scientist" of the television series "Arrow", and later starring in "The Flash". The character is based on the DC Comics character of the same name, created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino and was adapted for television in 2013 by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns. Barry Allen has been continually portrayed by Grant Gustin, with Logan Williams and Liam Hughes portraying younger versions.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In the series, Barry is 26 and portrayed as a smart, goofy and tardy character, who works at the Central City Police Department as a forensic chemist. When he was younger, he witnessed the murder of his mother by The Reverse Flash, which resulted in the false imprisonment of his father for the crime. Later in life, while working at the Central City Police Department he is struck by lightning created by the explosion of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator sending him to a nine-month coma. After waking up he finds himself in S.T.A.R. Labs and develops metahuman powers; the power of speed and he becomes friends with Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow. Throughout the series, he is constantly training to lead to him becoming the Fastest speedster across the multiverse. Barry uses his powers, along with his team's help, to fight criminals and other metahumans who have misused their powers. He is a friend and frequent ally of Star City-based vigilante archer Green Arrow and Kryptonian superheroine Supergirl. The three together are known as “The Trinity”.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Gustin has appeared as Barry Allen and his superhero persona in crossovers on the television series "Arrow", "Legends of Tomorrow", "Supergirl", and the animated web series "Vixen", all set within the Arrowverse. The character has also appeared in a digital comic book series. Gustin has received critical acclaim for his performance and has won an IGN award.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Crime-scene investigator Barry Allen was introduced in the second season of "Arrow", in which he arrives in Starling City to personally investigate a superhuman-related crime. He is a fan of the Arrow's exploits and learns Oliver Queen is the vigilante; they become friends. Sometime after Barry returns to Central City, he is struck in his laboratory by lightning which was affected by dark matter from the explosion of the S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In "The Flash", Barry awakens from a nine-month coma at S.T.A.R Labs and finds himself with superhuman speed. He uses his new powers to fight crime and hunt other metahumans in Central City as the Flash, a masked superhero, with the assistance of Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow and Harrison Wells, while he tries to identify his mother's murderer. When he was a child, his mother was murdered and his father, Henry Allen, was incorrectly sentenced for the crime. Barry was fostered by detective Joe West, the father of his friend and childhood crush Iris.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In season one, Barry discovers that "Wells" is Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash in disguise and that he killed Nora Allen after his plan to travel back in time to kill Barry as a child was foiled by the Flash of his timeline, unintentionally severing his own Speed Force connection and leaving him stranded in the present day. After capturing him with the assistance of his allies, Barry is given the opportunity to rescue his mother by helping Eobard return to his time. Although he initially decides to go through with Eobard's offer, Barry decides not to at the last minute, after he is warned by his older self not to interfere, and instead returns to the present and fights with Eobard, stopping him from returning to the future. Barry is almost killed, but Eddie Thawne sacrifices himself to destroy Eobard.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In season two, after a singularity event occurs, the Flash is recognized as Central City's hero. However, the event brings a new threat from a parallel earth in the form of the speedster Zoom, who seeks to eliminate all speedsters throughout the multiverse. Barry discovers a recording of Eobard's confession of Nora's murder that clears his father of all charges, with Barry inheriting Harrison Wells' fortune and resources from Eobard. Though rich, Barry chooses to continue working for the Central City Police Department while using Wells' money to fund his and his allies' activities. After Zoom kills Barry's father, Barry defeats Zoom and travels back in time to save his mother's life.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In season three, by changing his past, Barry alters the timeline, resulting in the alternate timeline "Flashpoint". Though he is somewhat able to restore the timeline, this creates new threats, including the emergence of Savitar, a god-like speedster with a grudge against Barry. When Barry accidentally travels to the future and sees Iris killed by Savitar, he becomes desperate to change the future to prevent that from happening. He learns the identity of Savitar is a clone of a future version of himself. After saving Iris and defeating Savitar, Barry takes his place in the Speed Force in order to repent for his creation of Flashpoint.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In season four, after being stranded in the Speed Force for six months, Barry is freed by Team Flash. The team later encounters Clifford DeVoe / Thinker, an adversary with the fastest mind alive, who has orchestrated Barry's return from the Speed Force as well as the creation of the bus metas. However, DeVoe frames Barry for murder shortly afterwards; not wanting to risk compromising his loved ones and allies by revealing his secrets, Barry allows himself to be sentenced to life imprisonment. A month later, private detective Ralph Dibny, who joins the Flash's team, uses his new shapeshifting power to impersonate DeVoe and help clear Barry of all charges. Following the Thinker's defeat, the team is approached by Barry and Iris' daughter from the future, Nora West-Allen.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In season five, Nora arrives from the future, wanting to change the events that lead to Barry's disappearance in the future. However, Nora's presence has altered the timeline and unleashed Cicada, a serial killer bent on killing metahumans. Futhermore, the team eventually learn of her allegiance with Eobard, who orchestrated Nora's arrival and Cicada. Barry and Nora succeed in subduing Eobard, but are forced to let him go and Nora is erased from the timeline.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In season six, Barry and Iris learn that the date of the crisis in which Barry disappears has moved up from April 2024 to December 2019, and that in order to save billions, the Flash must die. Meanwhile, Ramsey Rosso has discovered a way to cure people through dark matter, only to turn himself into a metahuman with a violent bloodthirst. Following Rosso's defeat, Barry surviving the crisis, and the multiverse's destruction and rebirth, Team Flash try to navigate the world post-crisis all while the secret organization Black Hole and quantum engineer Eva McCulloch move forward with their mysterious plans. Barry later discovers that Oliver enhancing his speed during the crisis has damaged the Speed Force. As a result, the Speed Force dies and all speedsters will permanently lose their speed. Barry gets the idea to create an artificial Speed Force to save his speed.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In the season one episode "Worlds Finest" of "Supergirl", Barry accidentally enters the universe of Kara Danvers / Supergirl and Clark Kent / Superman after passing through an extradimensional breach while testing a tachyon accelerator. He teams up with Kara in order to take down Livewire and Silver Banshee, after which Kara assists him in returning to his universe.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In the crossover "Crisis on Earth-X", Barry and Iris' friends come to Central City for their wedding, only to be interrupted when villains from Earth-X disrupt the proceedings. After defeating the invaders from Earth-X, Barry and Iris are married by John Diggle.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In the crossover "Elseworlds", Arkham Asylum doctor John Deegan rewrites reality, which results in Barry and Oliver swapping lives. In the new reality, they are the only ones that know that they are in the wrong lives and have each other's powers, which results in them going to Gotham City with Kara Danvers / Supergirl to confront Deegan.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: In the crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", the Monitor recruits Barry, Oliver, Kara, Kate Kane / Batwoman, Sara Lance / White Canary, Ray Palmer / Atom, and several others from throughout the multiverse to stop the Anti-Monitor from destroying reality. Barry's fate during the crisis is altered by the intervention of Earth-90's Flash, who sacrifices himself in Barry's place. Following Oliver's sacrifice and the Anti-Monitor's defeat, Barry leads a new group of heroes who agree to work together to protect their new world, dubbed Earth-Prime, in memory of Oliver.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Barry's suit is altered and upgraded every season. The suit is designed by Cisco Ramon and its original design was intended as a uniform for firefighters. The suit was a modernised version of the traditional flash suit with a matching dark maroon colored helmet, which features the same maroon emblem and gold lightning symbol as the suit does. The second season suit made minor changes to the suit, the alteration being the background color of the emblem is now white with a gold lightning symbol which is more true to the comics. Besides the alteration of the emblem in season 2, there appears to only minor changes made throughout the three seasons. The suit in season 4 appears to be a brighter red, with added leather paddings and golden accents. The fifth season made one of the most significant changes, that is the removal of the chin strap and switching the fabric softer more body fitting look, created by Ryan Choi, in the future. The sixth season suit is fairly similar to the season 5 suit though now with gold piping along the torso and an entirely new cowl which features the return of the chinstrap as well as modified ear pieces designed to look more like the classic Hermes wings from the comics.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Barry and Iris's relationship has often been compared to Superman and Lois Lane, she is introduced as his one true love. Barry and Iris were close friends since they were 10 years old, this friendship escalates after Barry's mother is murdered and Barry was adopted by Iris's father Joe West, becoming her adoptive brother. It is revealed in the first season that Barry is in love with Iris while Iris still sees him as a brother. It is later shown that a newspaper article is written by Iris West-Allen in 2024, thus indicating their future romance and marriage. Iris and Barry's relationship changes due to alterations of the timeline when Barry time travels, however, their love seems to always prevail and they are eventually married, Barry says in his wedding vows "That's you. You’ve always been there, as a friend, as a partner, as the love of my life. You’re my home, Iris, and that's one thing that will never change.". The end of season four reveals that, in one timeline, Iris and Barry have 2 children named Nora and Bart in the future.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Barry dates Linda Park briefly in the first season, who is both friends and colleagues at the Central City Picture News with Iris West. Their relationship slowly dies out as she suspects him to still be in love with Iris, they eventually break up and decide that they are better off as friends.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Barry and Patty Spivot begin dating in the second season, she was much like Barry with her quirky personality and sad past, which has caused them to dedicate their lives and careers to avenging and seeking the truth about their parents. Patty made the decision to end the relationship because Barry was pushing her away emotionally, and she needed to attend Midway City University and study to become a CSI agent, which meant she had to leave Central City and consequently him. Before leaving she had one final case with Barry, in which she tells Barry "I know you’re upset but I was hoping it wouldn't be like this between us".


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Gustin also portrays Savitar (voiced by Tobin Bell in his exosuit which is performed by stuntman Andre Tricoteux), an evil and scarred future version of his character who is season three's main antagonist. Savitar is essentially Barry with no loved ones and embracing his dark side. Savitar's origins are a predestination paradox; he is a temporal duplicate of the Flash's future self using time travel in order to defeat Savitar. Although Savitar is ultimately defeated, the time remnant is spared but shunned by the rest of his friends and family for being an aberration. As a result, he goes back in time to set in motion the events that led to his own creation, including the death of Iris. Savitar's presence is "chronologically" the multiverse's first metahuman with speed. Naming himself after the Hindu god of motion, he is worshipped by his own cult. Long-held myths referenced Savitar throughout the multiverse with even Jay believing these stories, and with Savitar regarded as a worse nemesis than the Reverse-Flash, Zoom and the Thinker. From his prison, Savitar manipulates Julian Albert into acquiring the Philosopher's Stone, through which Doctor Alchemy can re-empower metahumans from the Flashpoint timeline. After manipulating Kid Flash into freeing him from his prison, Savitar next convinces Killer Frost to be his personal enforcer. When Savitar reveals his true identity to Barry, it forces his younger self to confront his own dark impulses and temptations that plagued him. Savitar's plan of Iris' murder before Barry (which would lead to his own creation), however, is ruined with the sacrifice of Earth-19's H.R. Wells by impersonating Iris. To save himself, Savitar manipulates Vibe to fragment himself throughout all of time and then goad his original self to give in to dark impulses as Savitar himself. However, both efforts are foiled by Team Flash and Savitar is erased from existence after being shot by Iris. In season five, Savitar has a cameo appearance when Barry and Nora time travel to season three and observe his final battle.


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Regarding Gustin's debut as Barry Allen in "Arrow" and the potential for a series, IGN's Jesse Schedeen stated his concern: "Gustin doesn't come across as leading man material. His awkward bumbling intertwining with Felicity's was cute, but rarely did I get the impression that this character could or should be given his own spinoff series." Schedeen eventually warmed up to the character, however, once the "dorkiness and social awkwardness" were downplayed a bit and the emphasis was placed on "his keen scientific mind".


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Grant Gustin as Barry Allen has received positive reviews by both fans and critics, with "The Flash" being the most watched show in The CW history. Since the premiere of "The Flash", Gustin has been nominated for 20 awards for his role as Barry Allen and had won a total of 5 of them. In 2015, Gustin won the Teen Choice Award for "Breakout Star", in that same year he won the Saturn Award for "Breakthrough Performance" and was nominated for "Best Actor on Television". In the following year Gustin won the Teen Choice Awards for "Choice TV Actor: Sci-fi/Fantasy" and in 2017 and 2018 he took home the Teen Choice Awards for "Choice TV Actor: Action".


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: Gustin's Barry Allen has been said to be the better Flash, compared to Ezra Miller who starred in the Warner Bros. "Justice League". According to Nick Mangione from Geek.com, "By the time Ezra Miller made his brief cameo appearance in "Batman v. Superman," we had already seen the perfect Barry Allen". He goes on to say "More than heart, more than a perfect embodiment of the character from the comics, Grant Gustin is the one true Barry Allen because his show allows him to be. At least at this point, the same can't be said for Miller and the DCEU."


title: Barry Allen (Arrowverse)

text: While the first season received a large number of positive reviews, the latter seasons received more mixed reviews. Erik Kain a senior contributor on Forbes indicated that "The first season of 'The Flash' on the CW remains one of my very favourite seasons of a superhero show. I maintain that it's among the best ever made, with great characters and one of the most intriguing villains on TV.". Kain, however, also states that the show has gone downhill and that "Miller's Barry Allen is better in almost every way than Gustin's, though that's largely because he's not weighed down by CW melodrama.".


title: Canaletto

text: Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.


title: Canaletto

text: Painter of city views or "vedute", of Venice, Rome, and London, he also painted imaginary views (referred to as capricci), although the demarcation in his works between the real and the imaginary is never quite clearcut. He was further an important printmaker using the etching technique. In the period from 1746 to 1756 he worked in England where he painted many views of London and other sites including Warwick Castle and Alnwick Castle. He was highly successful in England, thanks to the British merchant and connoisseur Joseph "Consul" Smith, whose large collection of Canaletto's works was sold to King George III in 1762.


title: Canaletto

text: He was born in Venice as the son of the painter Bernardo Canal, hence his mononym "Canaletto" ("little Canal"), and Artemisia Barbieri. Canaletto served an apprenticeship with his father and his brother of a theatrical scene painter. Having already taken part in designing sets for operas by Fortunato Chelleri, Giovanni Porto, and Antonio Vivaldi, in 1718 Canaletto travelled to Rome. During his time in Rome he worked with his father producing the scenery for two operas by the composer Alessandro Scarlatti, "Tito Sempronio Greco" and "Turno Aricino" which were performed at the Teatro Catranica during the carnival season of 1720.


title: Canaletto

text: Canaletto was inspired by the Roman "vedutista" Giovanni Paolo Pannini, and started painting the daily life of the city and its people.


title: Canaletto

text: After returning from Rome in 1719, he began painting in his topographical style. His first known signed and dated work is "Architectural Capriccio" (1723, Milan, in a private collection). Studying with the older Luca Carlevarijs, a well-regarded painter of urban cityscapes, he rapidly became his master's equal.


title: Canaletto

text: In 1725, the painter Alessandro Marchesini, who was also the buyer for the Lucchese art collector Stefano Conti, had inquired about buying two more 'views of Venice', when the agent urged him to consider instead the work of "Antonio Canale... it is like Carlevaris, but you can see the sun shining in it."


title: Canaletto

text: Much of Canaletto's early artwork was painted "from nature", differing from the then customary practice of completing paintings in the studio. Some of his later works do revert to this custom, as suggested by the tendency for distant figures to be painted as blobs of colour – an effect possibly produced by using a camera obscura, which blurs farther-away objects.


title: Canaletto

text: Also, his paintings are always notable for their accuracy, an example being his recording of the seasonal submerging of Venice in water and ice.


title: Canaletto

text: In particular his precise use of correct perspective has led experts in the past to believe that much of the detail in his paintings had been achieved by tracing the image off a camera obscura.


title: Canaletto

text: It is known that Canaletto owned a camera obscura, but several experts today are of the opinion that he may have taken some inspiration from it, rather than actually using it for accurate photorealistic tracing in preparation for his paintings.


title: Canaletto

text: Canaletto's early works remain his most coveted and, according to many authorities, his best. One of his early pieces is "The Stonemason's Yard" (, the National Gallery, London) which depicts a humble working area of the city. It is regarded one of his finest works and was presented by Sir George Beaumont in 1823 and 1828.


title: Canaletto

text: Later Canaletto painted grand scenes of the canals of Venice and the Doge's Palace. His large-scale landscapes portrayed the city's pageantry and waning traditions, making innovative use of atmospheric effects and strong local colours. For these qualities, his works may be said to have anticipated Impressionism.


title: Canaletto

text: Many of his pictures were sold to Englishmen on their Grand Tour, first through the agency of Owen Swiny and later the banker Joseph Smith. It was Swiny in the late 1720s who encouraged the artist to paint small topographical views of Venice with a commercial appeal for tourists and foreign visitors to the city. Sometime before 1728, Canaletto began his association with Smith, an English businessman and collector living in Venice who was appointed British Consul in Venice in 1744. Smith later became the artist's principal agent and patron, acquiring nearly fifty paintings, one hundred fifty drawings, and fifteen rare etchings from Canaletto, the largest and finest single group of the artist's works, which he sold to King George III in 1763.


title: Canaletto

text: In the 1740s Canaletto's market was disrupted when the War of the Austrian Succession led to a reduction in the number of British visitors to Venice. Smith also arranged for the publication of a series of etchings of "capricci" (or architectural phantasies) ("capriccio" Italian for fancy) in his "vedute ideali", but the returns were not high enough, and in 1746 Canaletto moved to London, to be closer to his market.


title: Canaletto

text: Whilst in England, between 1749 and 1752 Canaletto lived at number 41 Beak Street in London's Soho district.


title: Canaletto

text: He remained in England until 1755, producing views of London (including several of the new Westminster Bridge, which was completed during his stay) and of his patrons' houses and castles. These included Northumberland House for Sir Hugh Smithson, Bt., who by marriage later became the 2nd Earl of Northumberland; and Warwick Castle for Lord Brooke, later 1st Earl of Warwick. Smithson was one of the commissioners of Westminster Bridge, and it is "not impossible" that he had encouraged Canaletto to come to England and record the beginning of the bridge's life. His 1754 painting of Old Walton Bridge includes an image of Canaletto himself.


title: Canaletto

text: He was often expected to paint England in the fashion with which he had painted his native city. Canaletto's painting began to suffer from repetitiveness, losing its fluidity, and becoming mechanical to the point that the English art critic George Vertue suggested that the man painting under the name 'Canaletto' was an impostor. This may have been because Canaletto's nephew, Bernardo Bellotto, was also using his uncle's nickname; or more likely because the story had been spread by unscrupulous art dealers who had been passing off copies of Canaletto's own work and were anxious to see him return to Venice. Historian Michael Levey described his work from this period as "inhibited".


title: Canaletto

text: In order to refute this claim the artist, through an advertisement in a newspaper, invited "any Gentleman" to inspect his latest painting of St. James's Park at his studio in Silver Street (now Beak Street) off Golden Square; however, his reputation never fully recovered in his lifetime.


title: Canaletto

text: After his return to Venice, Canaletto was elected to the Venetian Academy in 1763 and appointed prior of the "Collegio dei Pittori". He continued to paint until his death in 1768. In his later years he often worked from old sketches, but he sometimes produced surprising new compositions. He was willing to make subtle alterations to topography for artistic effect.


title: Canaletto

text: His students included his nephew Bernardo Bellotto, Francesco Guardi, Michele Marieschi, Gabriele Bella, and Giuseppe Moretti. The painter, Giuseppe Bernardino Bison was a follower of his style.


title: Canaletto

text: Joseph Smith sold much of his collection to George III, creating the bulk of the large collection of works by Canaletto owned by the Royal Collection. In 1762, George III paid £20,000 for Consul Smith's collection of 50 paintings and 142 drawings. There are many examples of his work in other British collections, including several (19) at the Wallace Collection and a set of 24 in the dining room at Woburn Abbey. A large set of Canaletto works was also part of the collection of the Earls of Carlisle, however many were lost at the 1940 fire of Castle Howard and others were sold over the last century. Among those formerly at the Carlisle collection are "The Bacino di San Marco: looking East", now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (sold in 1939) and the pair "Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Molo, Venice" and "The Square of Saint Mark's, Venice", now at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (sold in 1938). The last important venetian "veduta" at Castle Howard was by Bernardo Bellotto, "A View of the Grand Canal Looking South from the Palazzo Foscari", which was sold at Sotheby's in July 2015 for £2.6 million.


title: Canaletto

text: Canaletto's views always fetched high prices, and as early as the 18th century Catherine the Great and other European monarchs vied for his grandest paintings. The record price paid at auction for a Canaletto is £18.6 million for "View of the Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto", set at Sotheby's in London in July 2005.


title: Id – Invaded

text: , styled as I⊃：INVΛ⊃≡⊃, is a Japanese anime television series produced by NAZ, directed by Ei Aoki and written by Ōtarō Maijō. It was broadcast from January to March 2020. A manga sequel by Yūki Kodama was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's "seinen" manga magazine "Young Ace" from October 2019 to November 2020.


title: Id – Invaded

text: The story follows the investigations of Narihisago, a renowned detective now in prison, who is tasked with diving into the id wells of various serial killers. Two years prior to the current events, Narihisago's daughter Muku was brutally murdered by a serial killer, leading Narihisago's wife to commit suicide. These deaths prompted him to hunt down and murder the killer, earning him his prison sentence. He is still depressed and haunted by his wife and daughter's deaths, but also uses this as motivation to take his work seriously and help stop serial killers; however, as a result of the deaths of his family, he bears a grudge against all serial killers, which occasionally manifests as an uncontrollable urge to kill. Despite this however, it is shown that the majority of Narihisago's colleagues have great respect for his work.


title: Id – Invaded

text: Rookie field analyst Hondomachi becomes an important character during the series after having a brush with death in a serial killer case.


title: Id – Invaded

text: Events take place in a world where investigators have the power to tap into a killer's unconscious and see fragmented parts of their psyche. This is referred to as an "id well", a mental plane that can be digitally entered to collect clues regarding a killer's victims, crime scenes, and motives. As one traverses through an id well, their sights and actions appear as digital projections in the real world for investigators to analyze in real-time. Since a person's unconscious thoughts are rarely organized, everything within an id, including people and locations will appear in a fractured or symbolic state and can only be temporarily put together by someone investigating the id well. Additionally, id wells can only be entered by victims or other killers. While it is possible to get hurt or die in an id well, the Well traveler can simply be removed and re-injected into the Well again, though all previous memories from their time in there will be lost.


title: Id – Invaded

text: Field analysts assist Well investigators using a tool called ""Wakumusubi "", a sort of handheld radar gun that detects and collects delicate "cognition particles", given off by a person's intent to kill. The scanner can be programmed to collect the killing intent of a specific criminal and add that information to their id well. This helps flesh out the killer's Well for a more thorough investigation. Additionally, the memories of victims encountered in id wells can also add important information to the environment.


title: Id – Invaded

text: On July 4, 2019, Kadokawa announced a new original anime television series directed by Ei Aoki and written by novelist Ōtarō Maijō. Atsushi Ikariya is designing the characters, while Atsushi Umebori and Slavek Kowalewski are composing the series' music under the artist collective U/S. NAZ is animating the series. The series premiered from January 5 to March 22, 2020 on Tokyo MX, BS11, TVA, KBS, and SUN, with the first episode listed as a one-hour special. Sou performed the show opening theme song and Miyavi performed the series' ending theme song "Other Side". His songs "UP", "Samurai 45", and "Butterfly" were also included in the first, fourth, twelfth, and thirteenth episodes, respectively (with "UP" being used again as the ending credit in episode thirteen). The anime also contains several insert songs throughout the series, including "Eternal Rail" from Kenmochi Hidefumi of Wednesday Campanella in the sixth episode, a song from Kazuya Nagami in the ninth episode, and the song "Memories of Love" composed by Hiroshi Suenami & Soundbreakers and sang by Liz Sarria II in the tenth episode.


title: Id – Invaded

text: The first two episodes were given special preview screenings on December 15, 2019 on Funimation, Hulu, and Wakanim, and on December 16, 2019 on AnimeLab due to time differences. Funimation has licensed the series for a simuldub. It ran for 13 episodes.


title: Id – Invaded

text: A manga sequel by Yūki Kodama, titled "ID:Invaded #Brake Broken", was serialized in Kadokawa's "Young Ace" magazine from October 4, 2019 to November 4, 2020 and collected into three volumes. Yen Press licensed the manga for a North American release.


title: Lama

text: Lama (; "chief") is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term "guru", meaning "heavy one", endowed with qualities the student will eventually embody. The Tibetan word "lama" means "highest principle", and less literally "highest mother" or "highest parent" to show close relationship between teacher and student.


title: Lama

text: Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries. Today the title can be used as an honorific title conferred on a monk, nun or a lay person (especially in the Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya schools) advanced tantric practitioner to designate a level of spiritual attainment and authority to teach, or may be part of a title such as Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama applied to a lineage of reincarnate lamas (Tulkus).


title: Lama

text: Perhaps due to misunderstandings by early western scholars attempting to understand Tibetan Buddhism, the term "lama" has historically been erroneously applied to Tibetan monks in general. Similarly, Tibetan Buddhism was referred to as "Lamaism" by early western scholars and travelers who perhaps did not understand that what they were witnessing was a form of Buddhism; they may also have been unaware of the distinction between Tibetan Buddhism and Bön. The term Lamaism is now considered by some to be derogatory.


title: Lama

text: In the Vajrayana path of Tibetan Buddhism, the lama is often the tantric spiritual guide, the guru to the aspiring Buddhist "yogi" or "yogini". As such, the lama will then appear as one of the Three Roots (a variant of the Three Jewels), alongside the "yidam" and protector (who may be a "dakini", "dharmapala" or other Buddhist deity figure). The mind of the lama is considered Buddha – one's highest potential, the lama's speech is dharma, and the lama's body is one's guide and companion on the way to enlightenment, meaning the lama is the perfect embodiment of the sangha. Another expression of lama can be expressed through the 3 Kayas.


title: Fascism in North America

text: Fascism in North America refers to revolutionary political movements in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean that are variants of fascism. Fascist movements in North America never gained power, unlike their counterparts in Europe.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In Canada, fascism was divided between two main political parties. The Winnipeg-based Canadian Union of Fascists was modelled after the British Union of Fascists and led by Chuck Crate. The Parti national social chrétien, later renamed the Canadian National Socialist Unity Party, was founded by Adrien Arcand and inspired by Nazism. The Canadian Union of Fascists in English Canada never reached the level of popularity that the Parti national social chrétien enjoyed in Quebec. The Canadian Union of Fascists focused on economic issues while the Parti national social chrétien concentrated on racist themes. The influence of the Canadian fascist movement reached its height during the Great Depression and declined from then on.


title: Fascism in North America

text: The dominance of right-wing politics in Central America by populism and the military has meant that there has been little space for the development of proper fascist movements.


title: Fascism in North America

text: As a minor movement, the Nazi Party was active among German immigrants in El Salvador, where the government cracked down on activity, and Guatemala, which outlawed the Nazi Party and the Hitler Youth in May 1939, among others. They also organised in Nicaragua although Falangism was more important, especially in the Colegio Centro América in Managua where this brand of fascism flourished in the 1930s.


title: Fascism in North America

text: The existence of figures sympathetic to Nazism in high political positions has been pointed out in the administrations of León Cortés Castro and Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia. Cortés in particular (who spent some time in Nazi Germany) was famous as sympathizer since he was a presidential candidate.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In the 1930s, a movement sympathetic to Nazism developed among the large community of German origin. Supporters of Nazism used to meet in the German Club.


title: Fascism in North America

text: Since the declaration of war on the Third Reich by Costa Rica during Calderón Guardia's presidency, many citizens and residents of German and Italian origin were imprisoned and their properties nationalized, even though the vast majority had no links with Nazism or Fascism. The doctrinal origins of racism and the allegations of European racial superiority in Costa Rica had previous origins, as for example among the racist writings of Costa Rican scientist Clodomiro Picado Twight.


title: Fascism in North America

text: The Central American leader who came closest to being an important domestic fascist was Arnulfo Arias of Panama who, during the 1940s, became a strong admirer of Italian fascism and advocated it following his ascension to the presidency in 1940.


title: Fascism in North America

text: Fascism was rare in Caribbean politics, not only for the same reasons as those in Central America but also due to the continuation of colonialism into the 1950s. However Falangist movements have been active in Cuba, notably under Antonio Avendaño and Alfonso Serrano Vilariño from 1936 to 1940. A Cuban Nazi party was also active but this group, which attempted to change its name to the 'Fifth Column Party' was banned in 1941. As in Cuba, Falangist groups have been active in Puerto Rico, especially during World War II, when an 8000 strong branch came under FBI scrutiny.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In 1922, the Mexican Fascist Party was founded by Gustavo Sáenz de Sicilia. The party was viewed with dismay by Italian fascists, and in 1923, the Italian ambassador stated that "This party was not anything else than a bad imitation of ours".


title: Fascism in North America

text: The National Synarchist Union was founded in 1937 by José Antonio Urquiza. The group espoused some of the aspects of the palingenetic ultranationalism which is at the core of fascism because it sought a rebirth of society away from the anarchism, communism, socialism, liberalism, Freemasonry, secularism and Americanism which it believed were dominating Mexico. However, it differed from European fascism because it was very Roman Catholic in nature. Although supportive of corporatism the National Synarchist Union was arguably too counterrevolutionary to be considered truly fascist.


title: Fascism in North America

text: A similar group, the Gold Shirts, founded in 1933 by Nicolás Rodríguez Carrasco, also bore some of the hallmarks of fascism.


title: Fascism in North America

text: A "Falange Española Tradicionalista" was also formed in Mexico by Spanish merchants who were based there and opposed the consistent level of support which was given to the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War by Lázaro Cárdenas. However, the group was peripheral because it did not seek to acquire any amount of influence outside this immigrant population. A "Partido Nacional Socialista Mexicano" was also active, with most of its 15,000 members being of German background.


title: Fascism in North America

text: A more modern group, the Nationalist Front of Mexico was founded in San Luis Potosí in 2006 by Juan Carlos López Lee. It has strongly promoted the Reconquista ideology.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In the 1920s, American intellectuals paid a considerable amount of attention to Mussolini's early Fascist movement in Italy, but few of them became his supporters. However, he was initially very popular in the Italian American community. During the 1930s, Virgil Effinger led the paramilitary Black Legion, a violent offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan that sought to establish fascism in the United States by launching a revolution. Although it was responsible for a number of attacks, the Black Legion was only a peripheral band of militants.


title: Fascism in North America

text: According to Noam Chomsky, while the rise of fascism raised concerns in the U.S. during the interwar period, it was largely viewed in a positive light by the U.S. government, the corporate community, and a significant portion of the elite. According to Chomsky, fascism was viewed in a positive light in the United States because it allowed "extensive Western economic penetration and it also destroyed the much-feared labor movements and the left". William Philips, the American ambassador to Italy from 1936 to 1941, was "greatly impressed by the efforts of Benito Mussolini to improve the conditions of the masses" and he also found "much evidence" in support of the fascists' view that "they represent a true democracy in as much as the welfare of the people is their principal objective." He found Mussolini's achievements "astounding [and] a source of constant amazement", and greatly admired his "great human qualities." According to Chomsky, the United States Department of State enthusiastically agreed, praising Mussolini for having "brought order out of chaos, discipline out of license, and solvency out of bankruptcy" as well as "magnificent" achievements in Ethiopia.


title: Fascism in North America

text: The German American Bund, was the most prominent and well-organized fascist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1936, following the model of Hitler's Nazi Germany. It appeared shortly after the founding of several smaller groups, including the Friends of New Germany (1933) and the Silver Legion of America, founded in 1933 by William Dudley Pelley and the Free Society of Teutonia. Membership in the German-American Bund was only open to American citizens of German descent. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany.


title: Fascism in North America

text: The Bund was very active. Its members were issued uniforms and they also attended training camps. The Bund held rallies with Nazi insignia and procedures such as the Hitler salute. Its leaders denounced the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jewish-American groups, Communism, "Moscow-directed" trade unions and American boycotts of German goods. They claimed that George Washington was "the first Fascist" because he did not believe that democracy would work.


title: Fascism in North America

text: The high point of the Bund's activities was the rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on February 20, 1939. Some 20,000 people attended, The anti-Semetic Speakers repeatedly referred to President Roosevelt "Frank D. Rosenfeld", calling his New Deal the "Jew Deal", and denouncing the Bolshevik-Jewish American leadership. The rally ended with violence between protesters and Bund "storm-troopers". In 1939, America's top fascist, the leader of the Bund, Fritz Julius Kuhn, was investigated by the city of New York and found to be embezzling Bund funds for his own use. He was arrested, his citizenship was revoked, and he was deported. After the War, he was arrested and imprisoned again.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In 1940, the U.S. Army organized a draft in an attempt to bring citizens into military service. The Bund advised its members not to submit to the draft. On this basis, the Bund was outlawed by the U.S. government, and its leader fled to Mexico.


title: Fascism in North America

text: Father Charles Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest who hosted a very popular radio program in the late 1930s, on which he often ventured into politics. in 1932 he endorsed the election of President Franklin Roosevelt, but he gradually turned against Roosevelt and became a harsh critic of him. His radio program and his newspaper, "Social Justice", denounced Roosevelt, the big banks, and the Jews. When the United States entered World War II, the U.S. government took his radio broadcasts off the air and blocked his newspaper from the mail. He abandoned politics but he continued to be a parish priest until his death in 1979.


title: Fascism in North America

text: The future American architect Philip Johnson was a correspondent in Germany for Coughlin's newspaper between 1934 and 1940, before he began his architectural career. He wrote articles which were favorable to the Nazis and critical of the Jews, and he also took part in a Nazi-sponsored press tour in which he covered the invasion of Poland in 1939. He quit the newspaper in 1940, was investigated by the FBI and was eventually cleared for army service in World War II. Years later he would refer to these activities as "the stupidest thing I ever did... [which] I never can atone for".


title: Fascism in North America

text: The American poet Ezra Pound moved from the United States to Italy in 1924, and he became a staunch supporter of Benito Mussolini, the founder of a fascist state. He wrote articles and made radio broadcasts which were critical of the United States, international bankers, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Jews. His propaganda was not well received in the U.S. After 1945, he was taken to the United States, where he was imprisoned for his actions on behalf of fascism. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital for twelve years, but in 1958, he was finally released after a campaign was launched on his behalf by American writers. He returned to Italy, where he died in 1972.


title: Fascism in North America

text: During World War II, first Canada and then the United States battled the Axis powers to the death. As part of the war effort, they suppressed the fascist movements within their borders, which were already weakened by the widespread public perception that they were fifth columns. This suppression consisted of the internment of fascist leaders, the disbanding of fascist organizations, the censorship of fascist propaganda, and pervasive government propaganda against fascism.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In the US, this campaign of suppression culminated in November 1944 in "The Great Sedition Trial", in which George Sylvester Viereck, Lawrence Dennis, Elizabeth Dilling, William Dudley Pelley, Joe McWilliams, Robert Edward Edmondson, Gerald Winrod, William Griffin, and, in absentia, Ulrich Fleischhauer were all put on trial for aiding the Nazi cause, supporting fascism and isolationism. After the death of the judge, however, a mistrial was declared and all of the charges were dropped.


title: Fascism in North America

text: The American Nazi Party was founded in 1959 by George Lincoln Rockwell, a former U.S. Navy commander, who was dismissed from the Navy for his fascist political views. On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was shot and killed in Arlington by John Patler, a former party member who had previously been expelled by Rockwell for his alleged "Bolshevik leanings". The Party was dissolved in 1983.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In the view of philosopher Jason Stanley, white supremacy in the United States is an example of the fascist politics of hierarchy, because it "demands and implies a perpetual hierarchy" in which whites dominate and control non-whites.


title: Fascism in North America

text: A growing number of scholars have argued that the political style of Donald Trump resembles the political style of fascist leaders, beginning with the Trump 2016 presidential campaign, continuing over the course of the Trump presidency as he appeared to court far-right extremists, including his attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election after losing to Joe Biden, and culminating in the 2021 United States Capitol attack. As these events have unfolded, some commentators who had initially resisted applying the label to Trump came out in favor of it, including conservative legal scholar Steven G. Calabresi and conservative commentator Michael Gerson. After the attack on the Capitol, the historian of fascism Robert O. Paxton went so far as to state that Trump is a fascist, despite his earlier objection to using the term in this way. In "Trump and the Legacy of a Menacing Past", Henry Giroux wrote: "The inability to learn from the past takes on a new meaning as a growing number of authoritarian regimes emerge across the globe. This essay argues that central to understanding the rise of a fascist politics in the United States is the necessity to address the power of language and the intersection of the social media and the public spectacle as central elements in the rise of a formative culture that produces the ideologies and agents necessary for an American-style fascism." Other historians of fascism such as Richard J. Evans, Roger Griffin, and Stanley Payne continue to disagree that fascism is an appropriate term to describe Trump's politics. The 2021 book "" by Lehigh University professor Anthony R. Dimaggio includes a chapter called, "The Bridge – How Donald Trump Normalized Neofascistic Politics", discussing what the author describes as "Trump's neofascistic politics via his failed efforts to execute a rolling coup through judicial, state legislative, congressional, and insurrectionist attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election."


title: Fascism in North America

text: In 2017, the Hamburg, Germany-based magazine "Stern" depicted Trump giving a Nazi salute and referred to neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. As reported by "The Guardian" in July 2021, the book "Frankly, We Did Win This Election", authored by Michael C. Bender of "The Wall Street Journal", recounts that White House Chief of Staff, John F. Kelly, was reportedly shocked by an alleged statement made by Trump that "Hitler did a lot of good things." Liz Harrington, Trump spokesperson, denied the claim, saying: "This is totally false. President Trump never said this. It is made-up fake news, probably by a general who was incompetent and was fired." Kelly further stated in his book that Trump had asked him why his generals could not be loyal like Hitler's generals. According to the "Ohio Capital Journal", quoting his roommate, then-Republican candidate and senator-elect from Ohio, J.D. Vance, was said to have wondered whether Trump was "America's Hitler". Harvard University professor of government Daniel Ziblatt also drew similarities between Hitler's rise and Trump's.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In a July 2021 piece for "The Atlantic", former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote that "Trump's no Hitler, obviously. But they share some ways of thinking. The past never repeats itself. But it offers warnings. It's time to start using the F-word again, not to defame—but to diagnose." For "The Guardian", Nicholas Cohen wrote: "If Trump looks like a fascist and acts like a fascist, then maybe he is one. The F-word is one we are rightly wary of using, but how else to describe the disgraced president?" "New York Magazine" asked, "Is It Finally Time to Begin Calling Trumpism Fascist?" Dana Milbank also believed the insurrection qualified as fascist, writing in "The Washington Post", "To call a person who endorses violence against the duly elected government a 'Republican' is itself Orwellian. More accurate words exist for such a person. One of them is 'fascist.'" Dylan Matthews writing in "Vox" quoted Sheri Berman as saying, "I saw Paxton's essay and of course respect him as an eminent scholar of fascism. But I can't agree with him on the fascism label."


title: Fascism in North America

text: "The Guardian" further reported on Trump's "stand back and stand by" directive during the 2020 United States presidential debates to the Proud Boys and it also made a note of the fact that he had made "positive remarks about far-right and white supremacist groups." During the 2020 debate, Biden asked Trump to condemn white supremacist groups, specifically the Proud Boys. Trump's response was interpreted by some as a call to arms. The United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack public hearings explored the relationships which existed between the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and Trump's allies, with evidence of coordination in the run-up to the capitol attack.


title: Fascism in North America

text: In August 2022, President Biden referred to the "extreme MAGA agenda" as "semi-fascism". In the Battle for the Soul of the Nation speech September 1, Biden criticized the "extremism" and "blind loyalty" of Trump supporters, calling them a threat to democracy. He added that he did not consider a majority of Republicans to be MAGA Republicans.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: Gerald Armond Gallego (July 17, 1946 – July 18, 2002) and Charlene Adell Gallego (née Williams; born October 10, 1956) are two American serial killers who terrorized Sacramento, California between 1978 and 1980. They murdered ten victims, mostly teenagers, often kept as sex slaves before killing them.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: Gerald Armond Gallego (a.k.a. "Stephen Feil" or "Stephen Styles") was born on 17 July 1946 in Sacramento, California. His mother was a sex worker, while his estranged father was a criminal who in 1955 became the first man executed in the Mississippi gas chamber, for the killing of a police officer during a prison escape. Gallego began his criminal career at age thirteen, when he sexually abused a six-year-old girl. He had 23 arrests and served prison time after being convicted of robbery prior to his murders.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: Gallego worked as a bartender and truck driver. He was married a total of seven times, including two marriages to the same woman. He was still married to a previous wife when he married Charlene Williams.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: Charlene Adell Gallego (née Williams) was born on 10 October 1956 in Stockton, California. She was a smart, shy child from a supportive home. The trajectory of her life began to change when, as a young adult, she started using drugs and alcohol. She was married twice before meeting Gallego.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: On 11 September 1978, two teenagers – 17-year-old Rhonda Scheffler and 16-year-old Kippi Vaught – disappeared from a mall in Sacramento. Charlene lured them to a nearby van, leading to their abduction by the couple. Gerald used a handgun to threaten the girls and tied them up. They drove to Baxter, where Gerald raped and then murdered the girls, each with a single shot to the back of their heads.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: On 24 June 1979, 14-year-old Brenda Judd and 13-year-old Sandra Colley were abducted from the Washoe County Fair in Reno, Nevada. Charlene later testified that Gerald beat the girls to death with a shovel or hammer. Their remains were not found and identified until twenty years later.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: Similarly, on 24 April 1980, 17 year-old Stacy Ann Redican and 17 year-old Karen Chipman-Twiggs went missing from a Sacramento mall. They were found in July, sexually abused and bludgeoned to death.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: While hitchhiking on June 6, 1980, 21-year-old Linda Teresa Aguilar (who was pregnant at the time) was abducted, murdered with a blunt object, and buried in a shallow grave, outside of Gold Beach, Oregon. She is buried in the Vineland Cemetery in Clarkston, Washington.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: On July 17, 1980, 31-year-old Virginia Mochel was abducted from the parking lot of a West Sacramento tavern, where she worked as a bartender. Her skeletal remains, still bound with nylon fishing line, were found three months later outside of Clarksburg. Loops of cord from the victim's neck were admitted as proof of death by strangulation.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: While leaving a fraternity party on 1 November 1980, 22-year-old Craig Miller and his fiancée, 21-year-old Mary Elizabeth Sowers, were forced into the Gallegos’ car at gunpoint. Miller was ordered out of the car and shot; his body was found near Bass Lake, California. The couple returned to their apartment with Sowers, where Gerald sexually abused her before taking her to a field in Placer County, California, where he then murdered her.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: A friend of Miller and Sowers witnessed their abduction and reported the car's license plate number. Police used this information to track down and arrest the Gallegos at a Western Union office. Charlene's parents were in the process of wiring her money. Gerald and Charlene pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and murder. Charlene's attorneys were eventually able to convince prosecutors in several states/counties to allow Charlene to testify against Gerald for a plea deal that reduced her prison sentence to 16 years and eight months.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: In June 1983 Gerald was sentenced to death in California for the murders of Mary Beth Sowers and Craig Miller. In June 1984 Gerald was convicted in Nevada for the murders of Karen Twiggs and Stacey Redican, and subsequently sentenced to death. The Nevada death sentence was overturned in 1997.


title: Gerald and Charlene Gallego

text: In July 1997, Charlene completed her sentence and was released. While in prison, she extensively studied psychology, business and Icelandic literature. During an interview, Charlene claimed that she was also a victim when she said, "There were victims who died, and there were victims who lived. It's taken me a hell of a long time to realize that I'm one of the ones who lived." She also claimed that she "tried to save some of their lives."


title: Post-mortem photography

text: Post-mortem photography is the practice of photographing the recently deceased. Various cultures use and have used this practice, though the best-studied area of post-mortem photography is that of Europe and America. There can be considerable dispute as to whether individual early photographs actually show a dead person or not, often sharpened by commercial considerations. The form continued the tradition of earlier painted mourning portraits. Today post-mortem photography is most common in the contexts of police and pathology work.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: The invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 made portraiture commonplace, as many of those who were unable to afford the commission of a painted portrait could afford to sit for a photography session.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: This also provided the middle class with a way to remember dead loved ones. Before this, post-mortem portraiture was restricted to the upper class, who continued to commemorate the deceased with this new method. Post-mortem photography was common in the nineteenth century. As photography was a new medium, it is plausible that many daguerreotype post-mortem portraits, especially those of infants and young children, were probably the only photographs ever made of the sitters. The long exposure time made deceased subjects easy to photograph. The problem of long exposure times also led to the phenomenon of hidden mother photography, where the mother was hidden in-frame to calm a young child and keep them still.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: Post-mortem photography flourished in photography's early decades, among those who preferred to capture an image of the deceased. This helped many photographic businesses in the nineteenth century. The later invention of the carte de visite, which allowed multiple prints to be made from a single negative, meant that copies of the image could be mailed to relatives. Approaching the 20th century, cameras became more accessible and more people began to be able to take photographs for themselves. Post-mortem photography as early as the 1970s was taken up by artists, and continues today. Presently, it is largely private, except for photos of stillborn children on the website "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep."


title: Post-mortem photography

text: A common pose of the deceased is called the 'Last Sleep', where the deceased's eyes are closed and they lie as though in repose. Another popular arrangement was to have the deceased presented seated in a chair or arranged in a portrait to mimic life, because these photographs would serve as their last social presence. In the Victorian era it was common to photograph deceased young children or newborns in the arms of their mother.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: Some images, especially tintypes and ambrotypes have a rosy tint added to the cheeks of the corpse. Later photographs show the subject in a coffin, sometimes with a large group of funeral attendees. This was especially popular in Europe and less common in the United States. Photographs, especially depicting persons who were considered to be very holy lying in their coffins, are still circulated among faithful Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: In America, post-mortem photography became an increasingly private practice by the mid-to-late nineteenth century, with discussion moving out of trade journals and public discussion. There was a resurgence in mourning tableaux, where the living were photographed surrounding the coffin of the deceased, sometimes having them visible. This practice continued until the 1960s.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: Post-mortem photography in the Nordic countries was most popular in the early 1900s, but later died out around 1940, transferring mainly to amateur photography for personal use. When examining Iceland's culture surrounding death, it is concluded that the nation held death as an important and significant companion. Throughout much of the nineteenth century, the country's infant mortality rate was higher than that of European countries. Consequently, death was a public topic that was considerably seen through Icelanders' religious lenses. There are many that believe Iceland's attitudes about post-mortem photography can be deduced from its earlier expressions in poetry of the above-average death rates.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: In the early 1900s, detailed information regarding an individual's death could be commonly found in a newspaper's obituary section. This was indicative of the community's role in death, before societal norms shifted the experience of death to be much more personal and private. In 1940, photographs of the deceased, their casket, or grave stone with documentation of the funeral and wake are rare. By 1960, there is almost no record of community-based professional post-mortem photography in Nordic society with some amateur photographs remaining for the purpose of the family of the deceased.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: How post-mortem photography began in Iceland remains uncertain, but these photographs can be traced to the late nineteenth century. The practice of post-mortem photography in Iceland and the Nordic countries was also in European countries. As for Iceland, the role of visual art was minimal with a select few examples dating back to medieval manuscript illustrations or memorial tablets of the 1700s. These examples were mainly restricted to experts, rather than the greater community. As the practice of handling and caring for the dead transferred from the responsibility of the family to that of the hospital staff, the style of photographs changed as well. It is customary for a hospital staff member to take a photograph of a deceased child for the grieving family. Most photographs of the deceased were taken of them up close lying down on a bed or chest and mainly consisted of children, teenagers, and some elderly persons.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: A large regional collection of professional and private post-mortem photographs are contained in the Reykjavík Museum of Photography while others are displayed in the National Museum of Iceland. These displays are primarily composed of photographs of funerals and wakes rather than the deceased.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: As far back as the fifteenth century, it was customary to portray the deceased through paintings and drawings. This originated in Western Europe and quickly spread through Europe. These portraits were mainly restricted to the upper classes. Upon the emergence of photography, post mortem photography became available to many people.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: Post-mortem photography was particularly popular in Victorian Britain. From 1860 to 1910, these post-mortem portraits were much like American portraits in style, focusing on the deceased either displayed as asleep or with the family; often these images were placed in family albums. The study has often been mixed with American traditions, because they are similar. Post-mortem photography continued in the inter-war years.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: The extent of the popularity of postmortem-photography is difficult to ascertain. This is partially due to the fact that many instances are privatized within family albums as well as the role of changes in the social and cultural attitudes surrounding death. This could have resulted in the disposal or destruction of existing portraiture.


title: Post-mortem photography

text: In India, people believe that if their deceased loved one is burned in Varanasi at the burning ghats or funeral pyres, their soul will be transported to heaven and escape the cycle of rebirth. Varanasi is the only city in India that has pyres burning 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an average of 300 bodies are burned per day. Death photographers come to Varanasi daily to take photos of the recently deceased, which serve as mementos for the family, or as proof of death.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas I (; 27 January 157119 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas the Great (), was the 5th Safavid Shah (king) of Iran, and is generally considered one of the greatest rulers of Iranian history and the Safavid dynasty. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Although Abbas would preside over the apex of Safavid Iran's military, political and economic power, he came to the throne during a troubled time for the country. Under the ineffective rule of his father, the country was riven with discord between the different factions of the Qizilbash army, who killed Abbas' mother and elder brother. Meanwhile, Iran's enemies, the Ottoman Empire (its archrival) and the Uzbeks, exploited this political chaos to seize territory for themselves. In 1588, one of the Qizilbash leaders, Murshid Qoli Khan, overthrew Shah Mohammed in a coup and placed the 16-year-old Abbas on the throne. However, Abbas soon seized power for himself.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Under his leadership, Iran developed the ghilman system where thousands of Circassian, Georgian, and Armenian slave-soldiers joined the civil administration and the military. With the help of these newly created layers in Iranian society (initiated by his predecessors but significantly expanded during his rule), Abbas managed to eclipse the power of the Qizilbash in the civil administration, the royal house, and the military. These actions, as well as his reforms of the Iranian army, enabled him to fight the Ottomans and Uzbeks and reconquer Iran's lost provinces, including Kakheti whose people he subjected to widescale massacres and deportations. By the end of the 1603–1618 Ottoman War, Abbas had regained possession over Transcaucasia and Dagestan, as well as swaths of Eastern Anatolia and Mesopotamia. He also took back land from the Portuguese and the Mughals and expanded Iranian rule and influence in the North Caucasus, beyond the traditional territories of Dagestan.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas was a great builder and moved his kingdom's capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, making the city the pinnacle of Safavid architecture. In his later years, following a court intrigue involving several leading Circassians, Abbas became suspicious of his own sons and had them killed or blinded.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Born in 27 January 1571 in Herat, Abbas was the third son of Mohammad Khodabanda and his wife, Khayr al-Nisa Begum. His father was the firstborn son of Tahmasp I, the second Shah of Safavid Iran. He chose the name Abbas for the infant. Abbas' father, Mohammad Khodabanda, was the governor of Herat, the capital city of the major province of Khorasan. Mohammad Khodanbanda was disqualified from succeeding his father because an eye disease had left him almost completely blind. The Safavid court chronicler, Iskandar Beg Monshi, describes Mohammad Khodabanda as ‘a pious, ascetic and gentle soul’. Abbas' mother, Khayr al-Nisa Begum, was the daughter of Mir Abdollah II, a local ruler in the province of Mazandaran from the Mar'ashi dynasty who claimed descant from the fourth Shi'ia imam, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin. She and Mohammad Khodabanda had already two children before Abbas— Hassan and Hamza, and she birthed two more sons later— Abu Taleb and Tahmasp.


title: Abbas the Great

text: When Abbas was barely eighteen months old, he was separated from his family, namely, his father and his mother, who were transferred by Tahmasp to govern the city of Shiraz. The nominal governorship of Herat was handed over to Abbas. At first, Tahmasp intended to make Hamza the governor of Herat, but Khayr al-Nisa Begum was unwilling to be separated from Hamza, who was her favourite son. So she persuaded the king to appoint Abbas instead. The fact that Abbas was still a baby was not considered an obstacle, as Tahmasp himself had been appointed titular governor of Khorasan at the age of two.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Shah Qoli Sultan Ustajlu, an "amir" from one of the Qizilbash tribes called the Ustajlu tribe, was appointed as the actual governor and as Abbas’s "lala" (guardian). Abbas’s Qizilbash guardians and their wives became substitute parents for him. He never saw his mother again and only saw his father fifteen years later. Abbas learnt the necessary skills of a soldier from his Qizilbash guardians. He played polo and went frequently to hunt. Like most of the Iranian kings, he developed a passion for hunting, which was regarded as a form of military training. Abbas was educated alongside household ‘slaves’, or ghulams, who would have become his childhood companions. Some or perhaps most of them are likely to have been Georgians, Armenians or Circassians.


title: Abbas the Great

text: In 1576, Tahmasp I died without a designed heir, leading the realm to descend into civil war. At first, the former shah's favourite son, Haydar Mirza, proclaimed himself king with the support of the Ustajlu tribe and the powerful court Georgians. However, he was soon overthrown by the "qurchis" (the royal bodyguards). After his death, with the support of the majority of the Qizilbash tribes and the endorsement of Tahmasp's influential daughter, Pari Khan Khanum, Ismail Mirza, who was imprisoned by his father for twenty years, was crowned king as Ismail II. The new king's reign turned out to be short and murderous. The long years of imprisonment had left him suffering from paranoia, with the result that he saw enemies everywhere who had to be eliminated. First and foremost, he began mass murdering the members of Ustajlu tribe regardless of whether or not they had supported Haydar Mirza. He also executed people whose only crime was having a position during Tahmasp's reign. The young Abbas was directly affected by his uncle's purge when a group of horsemen rushed into his guardian's house, Shah Qoli Sultan, and killed him.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Ismail then turned to his family. He ordered the execution of many of his half-brothers, cousins and nephews. He spared Mohammad Khodabandae, possibly because they were full-brothers and perhaps because Mohammad Khodabanda was already blind and disqualified as a possible claimant to the throne. In November 1577, however, Ismail dispatched Ali-Qoli Khan from the Shamlu tribe to Herat to kill the young Abbas. Ali-Qoli delayed Abbas' execution, giving as a reason that it would be "inappropriate" to execute an "innocent" descendant of a seyed on holy days ("Qadr Night" and "Eid al-Fitr"). This lingering saved Abbas' life, for in 24 November, Ismail II died from consuming poisoned opium, and Ali-Qoli Khan assumed the governorship of Herat and the role of the new guardian for Abbas.


title: Abbas the Great

text: On 11 or 13 February 1577, Mohammad Khodabanda was chosen by the Qizilbash as the new shah. The new shah appeared weak, indifferent, and incompetent. In these circumstances power soon passed into other hands. Abbas' mother, Khayr al-Nisa Begum, was a strong-willed woman. She took complete charge of the administration and made all the decisions, even in military matters. The Qizilbash were not happy to see her taking power. The divisions in the Safavid court encouraged rebellions in various parts of the country and the old Qizilbash rivalries rose again, with the Ustajlu and Shamlu tribes immediately confronting each other. Mohammad Khodabanda and the queen asked Ali-Qoli Khan to bring Abbas to Qazvin, in fear that Ali-Qoli Khan was conspiring to enthrone Abbas, but the Qizilbash amirs of Khorasan argued that with the threat of the Uzbeks of Bukhara raiding along Herat, the presence of a prince in the city was necessary.


title: Abbas the Great

text: The weak state of the realm led to the Ottoman Empire to declare war against Iran in 1578. The Safavid armies suffered several defeats before Khayr al-Nisa Begum sought a counteroffensive. Together with her son, Hamza Mirza and the grand vizier, Mirza Salman Jaberi, she led an army north to confront the Ottoman and Tatar forces in Shirvan. But her attempt to dictate the campaign strategy angered the Qizilbash amirs. Eventually, on 26 July 1579, the Qizilbash stormed into the harem, where the queen resided, and strangled Khayr al-Nisa Begum. Although Abbas was still only a boy and barely knew his mother, her murder at the hands of the Qizilbash made a deep impression on him. From that time, he probably begun this belief that the power of the Qizilbash had to be broken.


title: Abbas the Great

text: After the queen's death, Hamza Mirza, aged eleven, was proclaimed crown prince. The Qizilbash found no reason to fear a child and so, assumed ultimate power over the disturbed state of the realm and fought among themselves to gain more. The conflict was most intense at the court in Qazvin and in Khorasan, where Ali-Qoli Khan Shamlu, and his principal ally, Murshid Qoli Khan Ustajlu, had for some time been at war with the Turkman governor of Mashhad, Morteza Quli Khan Pornak. The Takkalu tribe eventually seized the power in Qazvin and proceeded to purge a number of prominent Shamlu members, among them being mother and father of Ali-Qoli Khan. This angered Ali-Qoli Khan and, just as the queen had predicted, in 1581, he took arms against the crown and made his ward, the ten-years-old Abbas, the figurehead of a rebellion in Khorasan by proclaiming him Shah of Iran. Ali-Qoli and Murshid Qoli Khan took control of Nishapur; there, they struck coins and read "khutba" in Abbas' name.


title: Abbas the Great

text: In the following year, an army from Western Iran advanced into Khorasan to resolve the situation. This army laid siege on Torbat-e Heydarieh, where Murshid Qoli held control, and on Herat, where both Ali-Qoli Khan and Abbas resided. Both attempts proved futile. Upon hearing the news of another Ottoman attack on the northwest Iran, the leading ministers of the campaign hurriedly reached an agreement with Ali-Qoli Khan. The former rebel paid no repercussions and only had to pledge loyalty to Hamza Mirza as the heir apparent. He remained as the governor and as Abbas' guardian and even received a reward from the shah. Mohammad Khodabanda removed Ali-Qoli Khan's old enemy, Morteza Quli Khan Pornak, from his position as governor of Mashhad and replace him with an Ustajlu amir. According to Iskandar Beg Monshi, many came to believe Abbas Mirza's claim would eventually prevail Hamza Mirza.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Meanwhile, Hamza Mirza was preoccupied with pushing Ottomans out of Tabriz. However, he caught up in the rivalries between the Qizilabsh tribes and angered his officers by executing the Qizilbash governor of Azerbaijan. Thus, in 5 December 1586, he was assassinated by his personal barber, who may have had been in bribed by a group of Qizilbash conspirators. This assassination carved the way for Abbas' ascension.


title: Abbas the Great

text: In the meantime, in Khorasan, Murshid Qoli Khan emerged as a rival to Ali-Qoli. He successfully seized Mashhad and abducted Abbas from Ali-Qoli's possession. An Uzbek invasion advanced through Khorasan and laid siege on Herat. This threatened Murshid Qoli's position who realised it was his last chance to enthrone Abbas. Many of the Qizilbash amirs gave assurance of their support for placing Abbas on the throne, and after learning that Mohammad Khodabanda had left Qazvin to confront rebels in the south, Murshid Qoli Khan decided to strike. Thus, on the first ten days of Ramadan 1586, Abbas and his guardian and a small escort, not more than a few hundred horsemen, decided to ride towards Qazvin. As they rode through the Silk Road, Qizilbash amirs from the powerful Takkalu, Afshar and Zul al-Qadr tribes, who controlled many of the key towns on the way, came to pledge their allegiance. By the time they approached Qazvin, their small force had increased to 2,000 armed horsemen. The lord mayor of Qazvin and the Qizilbash amirs inside the city at first urged resistance. But they gave up when crowds of citizens and soldiers, anxious to avoid fighting, came out onto the streets and voiced their support for Abbas, who rode into the capital beside Murshid Qoli Khan on a late September day in 1587.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Mohammad Khodabanda and his heir apparent, Abu Taleb Mirza, and their entourage of Ustajlu and Shamlu amirs, were camped in 200 miles away in the city of Qom. When the news reached them, the amirs decided to abandon the shah and his heir for Abbas Mirza. Mohammad Khodabanda found no choice but to abdicate. On 1 October 1588, at a ceremony in the palace in Qazvin, he placed his crown on the head of his seventeen-year-old son, who ascended the throne as Abbas I. Murshid Qoli Khan, to whom Abbas owed the crown, was rewarded with the title of "vakil" (viceroy).


title: Abbas the Great

text: The kingdom Abbas inherited was in a desperate state. The Ottomans had seized vast territories in the west and the north-west (including the major city of Tabriz) and the Uzbeks had overrun half of Khorasan in the north-east. Iran itself was riven by fighting between the various factions of the Qizilbash, who had mocked royal authority by killing the queen in 1579 and the grand vizier Mirza Salman Jabiri in 1583.


title: Abbas the Great

text: First, Abbas settled his score with his mother's killers, executing three of the ringleaders of the plot and exiling four others. His next task was to free himself from the power of Murshid Qoli Khan. Murshid made Abbas marry Hamza's widow and a Safavid cousin, and began distributing important government posts among his own friends, gradually confining Abbas to the palace. Meanwhile, the Uzbeks continued their conquest of Khorasan. When Abbas heard they were besieging his old friend Ali Qoli Khan Shamlu in Herat, he pleaded with Murshid to take action. Fearing a rival, Murshid did nothing until the news came that Herat had fallen and the Uzbeks had slaughtered the entire population. Only then did he set out on campaign to Khorasan. But Abbas planned to avenge the death of Ali Qoli Khan, and he arranged for four Qizilbash leaders to kill Murshid after a banquet on 23 July 1589. With Murshid gone, Abbas could now rule Iran in his own right.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Abbas decided he must re-establish order within Iran before he took on the foreign invaders. To this end he made a humiliating peace treaty – known as the Treaty of Istanbul – with the Ottomans in 1590, ceding to them the provinces of Azerbaijan, Karabagh, Ganja, Dagestan, and Qarajadagh, as well as parts of Georgia, Luristan and Kurdistan. This demeaning treaty even ceded the previous capital of Tabriz to the Ottomans.


title: Abbas the Great

text: The Qizilbash had provided the backbone of the Safavid army from the very beginning of Safavid rule and they also occupied many posts in the government. As a result, effective power in the state in the early days of the dynasty was held by the Qizilbash, leaving the shah often powerless. To counterbalance their power and as a decisive answer to this problem, Abbas turned to the newly introduced members of Iranian society (an initiative put in place by Shah Tahmasp I) the "ghulams" (a word literally meaning "slaves"). From these newly introduced slaves, the Shah created a gunpowder force, reaching numbers up to 37,000 soldiers, completely funded by the Crown. This weakened the power that the Qizilbash had against the crown significantly as they no longer had a "military monopoly" in Persia. Like the janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, these "ghulams" were mainly Georgians, Circassians and Armenians who had been brought into Iran "en masse" (by conquest and slave trade), had converted or had been converted to Islam, and had taken up service in the army, royal household or the civil administration, and were loyal only to the shah. Under Abbas' leadership this new grouping in Iranian society (also called the "third force") grew in influence and power, with many thousands of ethnic Georgians, Circassians and Armenians becoming an integral part of Iranian society and taking up key government, royal household and military positions.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Tahmasp I, the second Safavid shah, had realised, by looking at his own empire and that of the neighbouring Ottomans, that he faced ongoing threats from dangerous rival factions and internal family rivalries that were a threat to him as the head of state. If not properly managed, these rivalries represented a serious threat to the ruler or could lead to unnecessary court intrigues. For Tahmasp, the problem revolved around the military tribal elite of the empire, the Qezelbāš, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune and material advancement.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Therefore, between 1540 and 1555, Tahmasp conducted a series of invasions of the Caucasus region which provided battle experience for his soldiers, as well as leading to the capture of large numbers of Christian Circassian and Georgian slaves (30,000 just in these four raids). These slaves would form the basis of an Safavid military slave system. These slaves would serve a similar role in their formation, implementation and use to the janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire. Their arrival in such large numbers led to the formation of a new grouping in Iranian society solely composed of ethnic Caucasians. Although the first slave soldiers would not be organized until Abbas' reign, during Tahmasp's time Caucasians would already become important members of the royal household, the harem and in the civil and military administration.


title: Abbas the Great

text: Learning from his grandfather, Abbas (who had been used by the vying Qizilbash factions during his youth) decided to encourage this new (Caucasian) grouping in Iranian society, as he realized that he must impose his authority on the Qezelbāš or remain their tool. So Abbas single-handedly encouraged the growth in influence and power of this new grouping, also called the "third force". It is estimated that during Abbas' reign alone some 130,000 to 200,000 Georgians, tens of thousands of Circassians, and around 300,000 Armenians were deported from the Caucasus to Persia's heartland, with a significant number gaining responsibilities and roles in Iranian society, including some of the highest positions of the state, including the "ghulam" corps. Many of those deported from the Caucasus settled in various regions of Iran and became craftsmen, farmers, cattle breeders, traders, soldiers, generals, governors and peasants within Iranian society.


title: Abbas the Great

text: As part of the ghulam slave system, Abbas greatly expanded the ghulam military corps (also known as "ḡolāmān-e ḵāṣṣa-ye-e šarifa", tr. as "crown servants") from just a few hundred during Tahmasp's era, to 15,000 highly trained cavalrymen, as part of a whole army division of 40,000 Caucasian ghulams. Abbas then reduced the number of Qizilbash provincial governorships and systematically moved Qizilbash governors to other districts, thus disrupting their ties with the local community and reducing their power. Most were eventually replaced by ghulams, whose loyalty was to the shah.