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Ajmer-Merwara

Ajmer-Merwara (also known as Ajmir Province, and Ajmer-Merwara-Kekri) was a former province of British India in the historical Ajmer region. The territory was ceded to the British by Daulat Rao Sindhia by a treaty on 25 June 1818. It was under the Bengal Presidency until 1861 when it became part of the North-Western Provinces. Finally on 1 April 1871, it became a separate province as Ajmer-Merwara-Kekri. It became a part of independent India on 15 August 1947 when the British left India.

The province consisted of the districts of Ajmer and Merwar, which were physically separated from the rest of British India forming an enclave amidst the many princely states of Rajputana. Unlike these states, which were ruled by local nobles who acknowledged British suzerainty, Ajmer-Merwara was administered directly by the British.

In 1842, the two districts were under a single commissioner, then they were separated in 1856 and were administered by the East India Company. Finally, after 1858, by a chief commissioner who was subordinate to the Governor-General of India's agent for the Rajputana Agency.

Extent and geography
The area of the province was 2710 sqmi. The plateau, on whose centre stands the town of Ajmer, may be considered as the highest point in the plains of North India; from the circle of hills which hem it in, the country slopes away on every side - towards river valleys on the east, south, west and towards the Thar Desert region on the north. The Aravalli Range is the distinguishing feature of the district. The range of hills which runs between Ajmer and Nasirabad marks the watershed of the continent of India. The rain which falls on the southeastern slopes drains into the Chambal, and so into the Bay of Bengal; that which falls on the northwest side into the Luni River, which discharges itself into the Rann of Kutch.

The province is on the border of what may be called the arid zone; it is the debatable land between the north-eastern and south-western monsoons, and beyond the influence of either. The south-west monsoon sweeps up the Narmada valley from Bombay and crossing the tableland at Neemuch gives copious supplies to Malwa, Jhalawar and Kota and the countries which lie in the course of the Chambal River.

The clouds which strike Kathiawar and Kutch are deprived of a great deal of their moisture by the hills in those countries (now the majority of this region is in Gujarat state within independent India), and the greater part of the remainder is deposited on Mount Abu and the higher slopes of the Aravalli Range, leaving but little for Merwara, where the hills are lower, and still less for Ajmer. It is only when the monsoon is in considerable force that Merwara gets a plentiful supply from it. The north-eastern monsoon sweeps up the valley of the Ganges from the Bay of Bengal and waters the northern part of Rajasthan, but hardly penetrates farther west than the longitude of Ajmer. The rainfall of the district depends on the varying strength of these two monsoons. The agriculturist of Ajmer-Merwara could never rely upon two good harvests in succession.

British rule
Part of the Ajmer region, the territory of the future province was ceded to the British by Daulat Rao Sindhia of Gwalior State as part of a treaty dated 25 June 1818. Then in May 1823 the Merwara (Mewar) part was ceded to Britain by Udaipur State. Thereafter Ajmer-Merwara was administered directly by the British East India Company. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, in 1858 the powers of the company were transferred to the British Crown and the Governor-General of India. His administration of Ajmer-Merwara was controlled by a chief commissioner who was subordinate to the British agent for the Rajputana Agency.

Superintendents for Ajmer

 * 9 Jul 1818 – 17 Jul 1818 Nixon
 * 18 Jul 1818 – 15 Dec 1824 Francis Boyle Shannon Wilder       (1785–1849)
 * 16 Dec 1824 – 21 Apr 1825 Richard Moore (1st time)
 * 22 Apr 1825 – 23 Oct 1827 Henry Middleton
 * 24 Oct 1827 – 28 Nov 1831 Richard Cavendish
 * 29 Nov 1831 – 1 Jul 1832 Richard Moore (2nd time)
 * 2 Jul 1832 – 16 Apr 1834 Alexander Speirs
 * 17 Apr 1834 – 30 Jun 1836 George Frederick Edmonstone        (1813–1864)
 * 1 Jul 1836 – 25 Jul 1837 Charles E. Trevelyan               (1807–1886)
 * 26 Jul 1837 – Feb 1842    J.D. Macnaghten

Superintendents for Merwara (from Feb 1842, Ajmer-Merwara)

 * 1823 – 1836               Henry Hall                         (1789–1875)
 * 1836 – 1857               Charles George Dixon               (died 1857)

Agents of the Governors-general for the Rajputana agency

 * 1832 – 29 Nov 1833        Abraham Lockett                    (1781–1834)
 * 29 Nov 1833 – Jun 1834    Alexander Speirs
 * Jun 1834 – 1 Feb 1839    Nathaniel Alves
 * 1 Feb 1839 – 1839        John Ludlow (acting)               (1788–1880)
 * Apr 1839 – Dec 1847       James Sutherland                   (died 1848)
 * Jan 1844 – Oct 1846       Charles Thoresby                   (died 1862) (acting for Sutherland)
 * Dec 1847 – Jan 1853       John Low                           (1788–1880)
 * 25 Jun 1848 – 19 Nov 1848 Showers (acting for Low)
 * 8 Sep 1851 – 1 Dec 1851 D.A. Malcolm (acting for Low)
 * 1852 – 1853               George St. Patrick Lawrence        (1804–1884) (1st time)
 * 5 Mar 1853 – Feb 1857    Henry Montgomery Lawrence          (1806–1857)
 * 15 Mar 1857 – Apr 1864    George St. Patrick Lawrence        (s.a.)  (2nd time)
 * 10 Apr 1859 – 24 Nov 1860 William Frederick Eden             (1814–1867) (acting for Lawrence)
 * Apr 1864 – 1867           William Frederick Eden             (s.a.)
 * 1867 – 1870               Richard Harte Keatinge             (1825–1904)
 * 15 Jun 1870 – 1 Apr 1871 John Cheap Brooke                  (1818–1899) (acting for Keatinge)

Chief Commissioners

 * 1 Apr 1871 – 21 Jun 1873 Richard Harte Keatinge             (s.a.)
 * 1 Apr 1871 – 21 Jun 1873 John Cheape Brooke                 (s.a.)  (acting for Keatinge)
 * 21 Jun 1873 – 6 Apr 1874 Sir Lewis Pelly (1st time)         (1825–1892)  (acting to 6 Feb 1874)
 * 6 Apr 1874 – 6 Jul 1874 William H. Beynon (acting)         (c. 1826 – 1903)
 * 6 Jul 1874 – 12 Nov 1874 Sir Lewis Pelly (2nd time)         (s.a.)
 * 12 Nov 1874 – 18 Aug 1876 Alfred Comyns Lyall (acting)       (1835–1911)
 * 18 Aug 1876 – 5 Mar 1877 Charles Kenneth Mackenzie Walter   (1833–1892)  (1st time)(acting)
 * 5 Mar 1877 – 12 Dec 1878 Sir Lewis Pelly (3rd time)         (s.a.)
 * 12 Dec 1878 – 27 Mar 1887 Edward Ridley Colborne Bradford    (1836–1911)  (1st time)
 * 17 Mar 1881 – 28 Nov 1882 Charles Kenneth Mackenzie Walter   (s.a.)  (2nd time) (acting)
 * 28 Nov 1882 – 27 Mar 1887 Edward Ridley Colborne Bradford    (s.a.) (2nd time)
 * 27 Mar 1887 – 20 Mar 1890 Charles Kenneth Mackenzie Walter   (1833–1892) (3rd time)(acting to 1 Apr 1887)
 * 20 Mar 1890 – 27 Aug 1891 George Herbert Trevor (1st time)   (1840–1927)
 * 27 Aug 1891 – 2 Dec 1891 P.W. Powlett (acting)
 * 2 Dec 1891 – 22 Nov 1893 George Herbert Trevor (2nd time)   (s.a.)
 * 22 Nov 1893 – 11 Jan 1894 William Francis Prideaux (acting)  (1840–1914)
 * 11 Jan 1895 – 20 Mar 1895 George Herbert Trevor (3rd time)   (s.a.)
 * 20 Mar 1895 – 10 Mar 1898 Robert Joseph Crosthwaite          (1841–1917)
 * 10 Mar 1898 – 1 May 1900 Arthur Henry Temple Martindale     (1854–1942) (1st time)
 * 1 May 1900 – 1 Apr 1901 William Hutt Curzon Wyllie (acting)(1848–1909)
 * 1 Apr 1901 – 3 Feb 1902 A.P. Thornton (acting)
 * 3 Feb 1902 – 1 Apr 1905 Arthur Henry Temple Martindale     (s.a.) (2nd time)
 * 1 Apr 1905 – 4 Jan 1918 Elliot Graham Colvin               (1861–1940)
 * 4 Jan 1918 – 22 Dec 1919 John Manners Smith                 (1864–1920)
 * 22 Dec 1919 – 7 Aug 1925 Robert Erskine Holland             (1873–1965)
 * 7 Aug 1925 – 18 Mar 1927 Stewart Blakeley Agnew Patterson   (1872–1942)
 * 18 Mar 1927 – 14 Oct 1932 Leonard William Reynolds           (1874–1946)
 * 14 Oct 1932 – 28 Oct 1937 George Drummond Ogilvie            (1882–1966)
 * 28 Oct 1937 – 1 Dec 1944 Arthur Cunningham Lothian          (1887–1962)
 * May 1939 – Oct 1939       Conrad Corfield                    (1893–1980) (acting for Lothian)
 * 1 Dec 1944 – 15 Aug 1947 Hiranand Rupchand Shivdasani       (1904–1949)

Post-independence
From the date of partition and independence in 1947 until 1950, Ajmer-Merwara remained a province of the new Dominion of India. In 1950 it became Ajmer State, which on 1 November 1956, was merged into the state of Rajasthan.

The Rajasthan Land Reforms and Resumption of Jagirs Act, 1952 was the landmark in the legal history of land reforms in Rajasthan which was followed by Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955 that became applicable to the whole of Rajasthan. The overriding effect of this Act provided relief to the existing tenants and the rights accrued to tenants accordingly. Now the Jats are major land holders in the region.

title: Ajmer-Merwara


text:
Abatement of debts and legacies

Abatement of debts and legacies is a common law doctrine of wills that holds that when the equitable assets of a deceased person are not sufficient to satisfy fully all the creditors, their debts must abate proportionately, and they must accept a dividend.

Also, in the case of legacies when the funds or assets out of which they are payable are not sufficient to pay them in full, the legacies abate in proportion, unless there is a priority given specially to any particular legacy. Annuities are also subject to the same rule as general legacies.

The order of abatement is usually: Non-probate property—i.e., life insurance policies—do not abate.
 * 1) Intestate property
 * 2) The residuary of the estate
 * 3) General Devises—i.e., cash gifts
 * 4) Demonstrative Devises—i.e., cash gifts from a specific account, stocks, bonds, securities, etc.
 * 5) Specific Devises—i.e., specified items of personal property, real property, etc.

Definitions
A specific devise, is a specific gift in a will to a specific person other than an amount of money. For example, if James's will states that he is leaving his $500,000 yacht to his brother Mike, the yacht would be a specific devise.

A general devise, is a monetary gift to a specific person to be satisfied out of the overall estate. For example, if James's will states that he is leaving $500,000 to his son Sam then the money would be a general devise.

A demonstrative devise, is money given from a particular account. For example, "$10,000 to be paid from the sale of my GM stock."

A residual devise is one left to a devisee after all specific and general devices have been made. For example, James's will might say: "I give all the rest, residue and remainder of my estate to my daughter Lilly." Lilly would be the residual devisee and entitled to James's residuary estate.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Abatement of debts and legacies


text:
Talk:Affidavit

Untitled
''From an old 1911 Encyclopedia. Needs to be edited, updated and merged with the main Affidavit article.''

Affidavit  (Med. Lat. for he has declared upon oath, from affidare, fides, faith), a written statement sworn or affirmed to before some person who has authority to administer an oath or affirmation. Evidence is chiefly taken by means of affidavits in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice in England on a petition, summons or motion. Interlocutory proceedings before trial are conducted by affidavits, e.g. for discovery of documents, hence called affidavit of documents. Affidavits are sometimes necessary as certificates that certain formalities have been duly and legally performed (such as service of proceedings, &c.). They are extensively used in bankruptcy practice, in the administration of the revenue and in the inferior and county courts. In testamentary causes, all documents of any kind, such as wills, codicils, drafts or instructions of same must be filed in the form of affidavits (termed affidavits of scripts.) In Scotland the testimony of witnesses by affidavit is almost unknown, except in a few non-contentious cases as prima facie evidence. In the rules of the Supreme Court (R.S.C. Ord. Xxxviii.) certain formal requirements are laid down for all affidavits and affirmations in causes or matters depending in the High Court. An affidavit must consist of title, body or statement and jurat. It must be written or printed on foolscap, bookwise, in the first person; give correctly the names of the parties to the action; and the description and true place of abode of the deponent. An affidavit is confined, except on interlocutory motions, to such facts as the witness is able of his own knowledge to prove. The signature of the deponent must be written opposite to the jurat, which must contain the place, date and time of swearing, and this signed by the officer or magistrate before whom the affidavit is sworn. An affidavit sworn on a Sunday is not invalid. Quakers, Moravians and Separatists were first privileged to make a solemn declaration or affirmation, and by the Common Law Procedure Act 1852 and other statutes all persons prevented by religious belief from taking an oath were allowed to affirm; and, finally, by the Oaths Act 1888, every person who objects to be sworn is allowed to affirm in all places and for all purposes where an oath is required by law. By an act of 1835 justices are permitted to take affidavits in any matter by declaration, and a person making a false affidavit in this way is liable to punishment. The same act prohibited justices of peace from administering oaths in any matter in which they had not jurisdiction as judges, except when an oath was specially authorized by statute, as in the bankruptcy law, and excepting criminal inquiries, parliamentary proceedings and instances where oaths are required to give validity to documents abroad. Scottish justices can act in England and vice versa. The Oaths Act 1888 and the Commissioner of Oaths Act 1889 consolidated all previous enactments relating to oaths and gave the lord chancellor power to appoint commissioners for oaths to take affidavits for all purposes (see Oath.) Under the Debtors Act 1869 a plaintiff may file an affidavit for the arrest of a debtor (affidavit to hold to bail) when the debt amounts to L. 50 or upwards, where it can be shown that the debtor's absence from the kingdom would materially prejudice the prosecution of the action.

Affidavits may be made abroad before any British ambassador, envoy, minister, charge d'affaires, secretary of embassy or legation, consul or consular agent.

In the United States affidavit has the same meaning as in England and its general uses are the same, but it is not substituted for oral evidence in court to anything like the extent to which that is done in the English courts of chancery. The statutes of each state designate the persons before whom affidavits may be made outside the state, and special commissioners are appointed for that purpose by each state. Affidavits made abroad must be made before such commissioners or persons so designated, who are usually diplomatic and consular officials, justices, notaries public or mayors. Affidavit of documents is not generally used in the United States; discovery is procured by motion.

The use of the above article in relation to how affidavits are used in the courts of England and Wales would be highly misleading. I propose that it is not incorporated into the article. Although the way in which affidavits are sworn is correct, the use described is almost redundant since the implementation of the Civil Procedure Rules in 1998. There are still a limited number of applications where an affidavit must be used. These include applications for freezing injunctions and search orders and before the introduction of the CPR they were used for placing evidence before the court in final matters, especially in the chancery court, but this function has largely been replaced by the use of witness statements. A witness statement is very similar except it is not a sworn statement and does not need to be attested to by a commissioner of oaths. The witness simply signs a statement of truth at the end of the witness statement. It is the usual practice of the civil courts in England and Wales for the witness statement to stand as evidence-in-chief and only calling live witnesses for cross-examination.
 * See also : Affidavit

External link
the link doesn't really contain any affidavits and is just a legal form web page. I see no reason it should be here and will delete it if no one can give a good reasion it should be kept (other than it was helpful)Harlock jds 22:03, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

 * looking at the user lawpro's editing history he seems to be adding this link to promote the website. I'm going to go ahead and delete it (as it has been deleted from many other pages it has been added to for the same reason) Harlock jds 22:13, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Where else have you found that site linked from? I can't find any other pages that had anything from lawpro (there isn't even a userpage for it), or the site in question, linked from it? In any event, I have found that page extremely useful over the last few months. I'm a paralegal, and finding affidavits and other legal forms linked from one site is helpful. I don't know what other reason a site is added to the external links section of a page on Wikipedia other than it is helpful in context to the article's content. Isn't that what they should be? I'm putting it back on here until someone can tell me why a site that actually points users to the affidavits for every state isn't helpful. --I changed the text of the link to better reflect what it really points to, let me know.

 * see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Lawpro for lawpro's contributions (which are mostly that link) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Lawpro to see him be warned for spam. additionally reference External links (the page in question violates at least 3,5 and 13) and i can find little to no information about affidavits on the page (or many of the pages it links to. This is how i first found the problem because i was looking for information). I think the reason you don't find this link on the other pages is because it's been deleted because it's not something suitable for wikipedia. Harlock jds 19:33, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I moderately agree with numbers 3 and 13 on that page, but not #5. I really don't see it as an 'objectionable amounts of advertising'. But, that's just me. Anyone else have anything to say about this?

 * 5 is debateable (i consider it a lot but others may not) but 3 and 13 alone are enoughHarlock jds 19:44, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

A note on the part of the page that deals with affidavits sworn in Ireland, it says that they are not signed by the deponent. I work in a law office in Ireland and have never seen an affidavit used that was not signed by the deponent. Perhaps there are instances where they need not be signed, but the vast majority are signed by the deponent and witnessed by a Commissioner for Oaths, Peace Commissioner or Practising Solicitor. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.47.157.57 (talk) 16:39, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

England and Wales
The ONLY mention of England (and Wales) is in the section on Ireland: "Affidavits are made in a similar way as to England and Wales..." which would be an awful lot more helpful if the article explicitly covered what the situation was in England and Wales, rather than leaving readers to guess. DrArsenal (talk) 23:39, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

Australian issues
The section about "Australia" cites United States law as the reference... I think some edits ought to be made. :) 2601:C2:8406:33A9:C9DD:77F3:2D6F:9297 (talk) 02:54, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

I should also note that its not clear if the ruling about the ACT law only applies to Canbera (ACT), federal law, or applies to all the states. 49.255.218.102 (talk) 07:27, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Affidavit


text:
Affection

Affection or fondness is a "disposition or state of mind or body" commonly linked to a feeling or type of love. It has led to multiple branches in philosophy and psychology that discuss emotion, disease, influence, and state of being. Often, "affection" denotes more than mere goodwill or friendship. Writers on ethics generally use the word to refer to distinct states of feeling, both lasting and temporary. Some contrast it with passion as being free from the distinctively sensual element.

Affection can elicit diverse emotional reactions such as embarrassment, disgust, pleasure, and annoyance. The emotional and physical effect of affection also varies between the giver and the receiver.

Restricted definition

Sometimes the term is restricted to emotional states directed towards living entities, including humans and animals. Affection is often compared with passion, stemming from the Greek word. Consequently, references to affection are found in the works of philosophers such as René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and early British ethicists. Despite these associations, it is commonly differentiated from passion on various grounds. Some definitions of affection exclude feelings of anxiety or heightened excitement, elements typically linked to passion. In this narrower context, the term holds significance in ethical frameworks, particularly concerning social or parental affections, forming a facet of moral duties and virtue. Ethical perspectives may hinge on whether affection is perceived as voluntary.

Expression
Affection can be communicated by looks, words, gestures, or touches. It conveys love and social connection. The five love languages explains how couples can communicate affections to each other. Affectionate behavior may have evolved from parental nurturing behavior due to its associations with hormonal rewards. Such affection has been shown to influence brain development in infants, especially their biochemical systems and prefrontal development.

Affectionate gestures can become undesirable if they insinuate potential harm to one's welfare. However, when welcomed, such behavior can offer several health benefits. Some theories suggest that positive sentiments enhance individuals' inclination to engage socially, and the sense of closeness fostered by affection contributes to nurturing positive sentiments among them.

Benefits of affection
Affection exchange is an adaptive human behavior that benefits well-being. Expressing affection brings emotional, physical, and relational gains for people and their close connections. Sharing positive emotions yields health advantages like reduced stress hormones, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and a stronger immune system. Expressing affection, not merely feeling affection, is internally rewarding. Even if not reciprocated, givers still experience its effects.

Parental relationships
Affectionate behavior is frequently considered an outcome of parental nurturing, tied to hormonal rewards. Both positive and negative parental actions may health issues in later life. Neglect and abuse result in poorer well-being and mental health, contrasting with affection's positive effects. A 2013 study highlighted the impact of early child abuse and lack of affection on physical health.

Affectionism
Affectionism is a school of thought that considers affections to be of central importance. Although it is not found in mainstream Western philosophy, it does exist in Indian philosophy.

title: Affection


text:
Affiliation (family law)

In law, affiliation (from Latin affiliare, "to adopt as a son") was previously the term to describe legal establishment of paternity. The following description, for the most part, was written in the early 20th century, and it should be understood as a historical document.

Affiliation procedures in England
In England a number of statutes on the subject have been passed, the chief being the Bastardy Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 10), and the Bastardy Laws Amendment Acts 1872 and 1873.

The mother of a bastard may summon the putative father to petty sessions within 12 months of the birth (or at any later time if he is proved to have contributed to the child's support within 12 months after the birth), and the justices, after hearing evidence on both sides, may, if the mother's evidence be corroborated in some material particular, adjudge the man to be the putative father of the child, and order him to pay a sum not exceeding five shillings a week for its maintenance, together with a sum for expenses incidental to the birth, or the funeral expenses, if it has died before the date of order, and the costs of the proceedings. An order ceases to be valid after the child reaches the age of 13, but the justices (also referred to as Gold writers under these circumstances) may in the order direct the payments to be continued until the child is 16 years of age.

An appeal to quarter sessions is open to the defendant, and a further appeal on questions of law to the King's Bench by rule nisi or certiorari. Should the child afterwards become chargeable to the parish, the sum due by the father may be received by the parish officer. When a bastard child, whose mother has not obtained an order, becomes chargeable to the parish, the guardians may proceed against the putative father for a contribution.

Any woman who is single, a widow, or a married woman living apart from her husband, may make an application for a summons, and it is immaterial where the child is begotten, provided it is born in England. An application for a summons may be made before the birth of the child, but in this case, the statement of the mother must be in the form of a sworn deposition. The defendant must be over 14 years of age. No agreement on the part of the woman to take a sum down in a discharge of the liability of the father is a bar to the making of an affiliation order. In the case of twins, it is usual to make separate applications and obtain separate summonses.

The Summary Jurisdiction Act 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 49) makes due provision for the enforcement of an order of affiliation. In the case of soldiers an affiliation order cannot be enforced in the usual way, but by the Army Act 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c. 58), if an order has been made against a soldier of the regular forces, and a copy of such order be sent to the secretary of state, he may order a portion of the soldier's pay to be retained. There is no such special legislation with regard to sailors in the Royal Navy.

Affiliation procedures in other countries
In the British colonies, and in the states of the United States (except for California, Idaho, Missouri, Oregon, Texas and Utah), there is some procedure (usually termed filiation) akin to that described above, by means of which a mother can obtain a contribution to the support of her illegitimate child from the putative father. The amount ordered to be paid may subsequently be increased or diminished (1905; 94 N.Y. Supplt. 372).

On the continent of Europe, however, the legislation of the various countries differs rather widely. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, Serbia and the Canton of Geneva provide no means of inquiry into the paternity of an illegitimate child, and consequently all support of the child falls upon the mother; on the other hand, Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the majority of the Swiss cantons provide for an inquiry into the paternity of illegitimate children, and the law casts a certain amount of responsibility upon the father.

Affiliation, in France, is a term applied to a species of adoption by which the person adopted succeeds equally with other heirs to the acquired, but not to the inherited, property of the deceased.

In India, affiliation cases are decided by section 125 of Criminal Procedure Code. According to this section - among other things - if a person having sufficient means neglects or refuses to maintain his illegitimate child, a magistrate of the first class may, upon proof of such neglect or refusal, order such person to make a monthly allowance for the maintenance of such child.

title: Affiliation (family law)


text:
Affinity

Affinity may refer to:

Commerce, finance and law

 * Affinity (law), kinship by marriage
 * Affinity analysis, a market research and business management technique
 * Affinity Credit Union, a Saskatchewan-based credit union
 * Affinity Equity Partners, an Asian private equity firm
 * Affinity fraud, a type of scam targeting a specific demographic
 * Affinity marketing, a method of extending market reach by forming partnerships and cross-selling relationships
 * Affinity Partners, an American private equity firm

Religion and belief

 * Affinity (canon law), a kinship arising from the sexual intercourse of a man and a woman
 * Affinity (Christian organisation), network of conservative evangelical churches and Christian agencies
 * Affinity group, a private, non-commercial and non-governmental organisation formed around a shared interest or goal

Science and technology

 * Affinity, the UK's first road-legal solar car, built by Cambridge University Eco Racing
 * Affinity (mathematics), an affine transformation preserving collinearity
 * Affinity (pharmacology), a characterisation of protein-ligand binding strength
 * Affinity (sociology), a shared interest and commitment between persons in groups and/or willingness to associate
 * Affinity (taxonomy), a suggestion of common descent or type
 * Affinity chromatography, method of separating a biomolecule from a mixture
 * Affinity electrophoresis, general name for many analytical methods used in biochemistry and biotechnology
 * Affinity laws, laws used in hydraulics to express relationships between variables involved in fan or pump performance
 * Binding affinity, a measure of the interaction of ligands with their binding sites
 * Chemical affinity, used to describe or characterise elements' or compounds' readiness to form bonds
 * Electron affinity, energy released on formation of anions
 * Processor affinity, a computing term for the assignment of a task to a given core of a multicore CPU
 * Serif Europe's Affinity series of programs
 * Affinity Designer, a vector illustration editor
 * Affinity Photo, a raster graphics editor
 * Affinity Publisher, a desktop publishing application

Music

 * Affinity (band), a jazz/rock band
 * Affinity (Affinity album)
 * Affinity (Bill Evans album)
 * Affinity (Haken album)
 * Affinity (Oscar Peterson album)
 * Affinity (EP), a 2013 EP by the English band Press to Meco
 * Johnny Alegre A, a jazz collective based in Manila

Other media

 * Affinity (novel), a 1999 novel by Sarah Waters
 * Affinity (film), a 2008 feature film based on the novel

 * "Affinity" (Stargate SG-1), an episode from season 8 of the TV sci-fi spin-off series Stargate SG-1
 * Elective Affinities, a novel by Goethe

Other uses

 * Affinity (medieval), late medieval retainers of a monarch in "bastard feudalism"
 * Affinity, West Virginia

title: Affinity


text:
Affray

In many legal jurisdictions related to English common law, affray is a public order offence consisting of the fighting of one or more persons in a public place to the terror (in à l'effroi) of ordinary people. Depending on their actions, and the laws of the prevailing jurisdiction, those engaged in an affray may also render themselves liable to prosecution for assault, unlawful assembly, or riot; if so, it is for one of these offences that they are usually charged.

England and Wales
The common law offence of affray was abolished for England and Wales on 1 April 1987. Affray is now a statutory offence that is triable either way. It is created by section 3 of the Public Order Act 1986 which provides: "(1) A person is guilty of affray if he uses or threatens unlawful violence towards another and his conduct is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for his personal safety.

(2) Where 2 or more persons use or threaten the unlawful violence, it is the conduct of them taken together that must be considered for the purposes of subsection (1).

(3) For the purposes of this section a threat cannot be made by the use of words alone.

(4) No person of reasonable firmness need actually be, or be likely to be, present at the scene.

(5) Affray may be committed in private as well as in public places.

(6) ... [Repealed]

(7) A person guilty of affray is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or a fine or both, or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both."

The term "violence" is defined by section 8.

Section 3(6) once provided that a constable could arrest without warrant anyone he reasonably suspected to be committing affray, but that subsection was repealed by paragraph 26(2) of Schedule 7 to, and Schedule 17 to, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, which includes more general provisions for police to make arrests without warrant.

The mens rea of affray is that person is guilty of affray only if he intends to use or threaten violence or is aware that his conduct may be violent or threaten violence.

The offence of affray has been used by HM Government to address the problem of drunken or violent individuals who cause serious trouble on airliners.

In R v Childs & Price (2015), the Court of Appeal quashed a murder verdict and replaced it with affray, having dismissed an allegation of common purpose.

Northern Ireland
Affray is a serious offence for the purposes of Chapter 3 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008.

Australia
In New South Wales, section 93C of Crimes Act 1900 defines that a person will be guilty of affray if he or she threatens unlawful violence towards another and his or her conduct is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for his or her personal safety. A person will only be guilty of affray if the person intends to use or threaten violence or is aware that his or her conduct may be violent or threaten violence. The maximum penalty for an offence of affray contrary to section 93C is a period of imprisonment of 10 years.

In Queensland, section 72 of the Criminal Code of 1899 defines affray as taking part in a fight in a public highway or taking part in a fight of such a nature as to alarm the public in any other place to which the public have access. This definition is taken from that in the English Criminal Code Bill of 1880, cl. 96. Section 72 says "Any person who takes part in a fight in a public place, or takes part in a fight of such a nature as to alarm the public in any other place to which the public have access, commits a misdemeanour. Maximum penalty—1 year’s imprisonment."

In Victoria, Affray was a common law offence until 2017, when it was abolished and was replaced with the statutory offence that can be found under section 195H of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). The section defines Affray as the use or threat of unlawful violence by a person in a manner that would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to be terrified. However, a person who commits this conduct may only be found guilty of Affray if the use or threat of violence was intended, or if the person was reckless as to whether the conduct involves the use or threat of violence. If found guilty, the maximum penalty that may be imposed for Affray is imprisonment for 5 years or, if at the time of committing the offence the person was wearing a face covering used primarily to conceal their identity or to protect them from the effects of crowd-controlling substances, imprisonment for 7 years.

India
The Indian Penal Code (sect. 159) adopts the old English common law definition of affray, with the substitution of "actual disturbance of the peace for causing terror to the lieges".

New Zealand
In New Zealand affray has been codified as "fighting in a public place" by section 7 of the Summary Offences Act 1981.

South Africa
Under the Roman-Dutch law in force in South Africa affray falls within the definition of vis publica.

United States
In the United States, the English common law as to affray applies, subject to certain modifications by the statutes of particular states.

title: Affray


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Afghan Turkestan

Afghan Turkestan, also known as Southern Turkestan, is a region in northern Afghanistan, on the border with the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. In the 19th century, there was a province in Afghanistan named Turkestan with Mazar-e Sharif as provincial capital. The province incorporated the territories of the present-day provinces of Balkh, Kunduz, Jowzjan, Sar-e Pol, and Faryab. In 1890, Qataghan-Badakhshan Province was separated from Turkestan Province. It was later abolished by Abdur Rahman.

The whole territory of Afghan Turkestan, from the junction of the Kokcha river with the Amu Darya on the north-east to the province of Herat on the south-west, was some 500 mi in length, with an average width from the Russian frontier to the Hindu Kush of 183 km. It thus comprised about 57,000 sqmi or roughly two-ninths of the former Kingdom of Afghanistan.

Geography
The area is agriculturally poor except in the river valleys, being rough and mountainous towards the south, but subsiding into undulating wastes and pasture-lands towards the Karakum Desert.

The province included the khanates of Kunduz, Tashkurgan, Balkh, and Akcha in the east and the four khanates or Chahar Wilayat ("four domains") of Saripul, Shibarghan, Andkhoy (city), and Maymana in the west.

Demographics
The bulk of the people are Uzbeks and Turkmens with large concentrations of Hazaras, Qizilbashs, Tajiks, and Pashtuns.

History
Ancient Balkh or Bactria was an integral part of Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, and was occupied by Indo-Iranians. In the 5th century BCE, it became a province of the Achaemenian Empire and later became part of the Seleucid Empire. About 250 BC Diodotus (Theodotus), governor of Bactria under the Seleucidae, declared his independence, and commenced the history of the Greco-Bactrian dynasties, which succumbed to Parthian and nomadic movements about 126 BC. After this came a Buddhist era which has left its traces in the gigantic sculptures at Bamian and the rock-cut topes of Haibak. The district was devastated by Genghis Khan, and has never since fully recovered its prosperity. For about a century it belonged to the Delhi empire, and then fell into Uzbek hands. In the 18th century it formed part of the dominion of Ahmad Shah Durrani, and so remained under his son Timur. But under the fratricidal wars of Timur's sons the separate khanates fell back under the independent rule of various Uzbek chiefs. At the beginning of the 19th century they belonged to Bukhara; but under the emir Dost Mohammad, the Afghans recovered Balkh and Tashkurgan in 1850, Akcha and the four western khanates in 1855, and Kunduz in 1859. Dost Mohammad's earliest campaigns begin in the 1830's in the Afghan Turkestan Campaign of 1838-39. The sovereignty over Andkhoy, Shibarghan, Saripul, and Maymana was in dispute between Bukhara and Kabul until settled by the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1873 in favour of the Afghan claim. Under the strong rule of Abdur Rahman these outlying territories were closely welded to Kabul; but after the accession of Habibullah the bonds once more relaxed. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, many ethnic Pashtuns either voluntarily or involuntarily settled in Afghan Turkestan.

In 1890, the district of Qataghan and Badakhshan was divided from Afghan Turkestan and made into the Qataghan-Badakhshan Province. Administration of the province was assigned to the Northern Bureau in Kabul.

title: Afghan Turkestan


text:
Afyonkarahisar

Afyonkarahisar (, afyon 'poppy, opium', kara 'black', hisar 'fortress' ) is a city in western Turkey. It is the administrative centre of Afyonkarahisar Province and Afyonkarahisar District. Its population is 251,799 (2021). Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, 250 km south-west of Ankara along the Akarçay River. In Turkey, Afyonkarahisar stands out as a capital city of hot springs and spas, an important junction of railway, highway and air traffic in West-Turkey, and the place where independence was won. In addition, Afyonkarahisar is one of the top leading provinces in agriculture, globally renowned for its marble and is the world's largest producer of pharmaceutical opium. In antiquity the city was called Akroinon and it is the site of Afyonkarahisar Castle.

Etymology
The name Afyon Kara Hisar literally means opium black fortress in Turkish, since opium was widely grown here and there is a castle on a black rock. Also known simply as Afyon. Older spellings include Karahisar-i Sahip, Afium-Kara-hissar and Afyon Karahisar. The city was known as Afyon (opium), until the name was changed to Afyonkarahisar by the Turkish Parliament in 2004.

Ancient times
The top of the rock in Afyon has been fortified for a long time. It was known to the Hittites as Hapanuwa, and was later occupied by Phrygians, Lydians and Achaemenid Persians until it was conquered by Alexander the Great. After the death of Alexander the city (now known as Akroinοn (Ακροϊνόν) or Nikopolis (Νικόπολις) in Ancient Greek), was ruled by the Seleucids and the kings of Pergamon, then Rome and Byzantium.

Medieval period
Akroinοn became an important fortress in the Armeniakon theme due to its strategic location and natural defences and was first mentioned in Byzantine history when it was attacked in 716 and 732 by Arabs invaders. The Byzantine emperor Leo III renamed the city Nicopolis (Greek for "city of victory") after his victory over Arab besiegers under Abdallah al-Battal (who would become the famous Turkish literature figure of Battal Gazi) in 740. Since the 10th century it was also a bishopric of Phrygia Salutaris.

After 1071 the town became part of the frontier zone between the Byzantine Empire and the invading Turks. The city was still held by the former in 1112 but was lost to the Sultanate of Rum at some time before 1146 when Manuel I Komnenos won a victory here. The Turks were unable to firmly control the city until around 1210, renaming it to Kara Hissar ("black castle") after the ancient fortress situated upon a volcanic rock 201 meters above the town. Following the dispersal of the Seljuqs the town was occupied by the Sâhib Ata and then the Germiyanids.

The castle was finally conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid I in 1392 but was lost after the invasion of Timur Lenk in 1402. It was recaptured in 1428 or 1429.

Modern times
The area thrived during the Ottoman Empire, as the centre of opium production and Afyon became a wealthy city. From 1867 until 1922, Afyon was part of the Hüdavendigâr vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. In 1902, a fire burning for 32 hours destroyed parts of the city. During the 1st World War British prisoners of war who had been captured at Gallipoli were housed here in an empty Armenian church at the foot of the rock. During the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) campaign (part of the Turkish War of Independence) Afyon and the surrounding hills were occupied by Greek forces. However, it was recovered on 27 August 1922, a key moment in the Turkish counter-attack in the Aegean region. After 1923 Afyon became a part of the Republic of Turkey.

The region was a major producer of raw opium (hence the name Afyon) until the late 1960s when under international pressure, from the US in particular, the fields were burnt and production ceased. Now poppies are grown under a strict licensing regimen. They do not produce raw opium any more but derive Morphine and other opiates using the poppy straw method of extraction.

Afyon was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 50 lira banknote of 1927–1938.

Economy
The economy of Afyonkarahisar is based on agriculture, industries and thermal tourism. Especially its agriculture is strongly developed from the fact, a large part of its population living in the countrysides. Which stimulated agricultural activities greatly.

Marble

Afyonkarahisar produces an important chunk of Turkish processed marbles, it ranks second on processed marble exports and fourth on travertine. Afyon holds an important share of Turkish marble reserves, with some 12,2% of total Turkish reserves.

Historically marble from Afyon was generally referred to as "Docimeaen marble" due to the place where it was mined, Docimium. Afyon has unique marble types and colors, which were historically very renown and are unique to Afyon such as "Afyon white", historically known as "Synnadic white", "Afyon Menekse", historically known as "Pavonazzetto", and "Afyon kaplan postu", a less popular type.

Docimian marble was highly admired and valued for its unique colors and fine grained quality by ancient people such as the Romans. When the Romans took control over Docimaean quarries, they were impressed by the beautiful color combinations of the Docimaean Pavonazzetto, which is a type of white marble with purple veins. Emperors such as Augustus, Trajan and Hadrian made extensive use of Docimaean marble to many of their major building projects. These include the Pantheon, Trajan's Forum   and the Basilica Aemilia.

Thermal sector
The geography of Afyon has great geothermal activity. Hence, the place has plenty of thermal springs. There are five main springs and all of them have high mineral content with temperatures ranging between 40 and 100 °C. The waters have strong healing properties to some diseases. As a result, plenty of thermal facilities formed over time.

In time, Afyon has developed its thermal sector with more capacity, comfort and innovation. Afyon combined the traditional bath houses with 5-star resorts, the health benefits of the natural springs have put the thermal resorts further then a mere attraction. Hospitals and universities have come in association with thermal resorts, to utilize the full health potentials of the thermals. As such, Afyon Kocatepe University Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Hospital opened for that purpose. Afyon now has the largest residence capacity of thermal resorts, of which a large part are 5-star thermal hotels which give medical care with qualified personnel.

Spa water
Kızılay, was the first mineral water factory in Turkey which opened in Afyon, in 1926 by Atatürk. After the mineral water from Gazligöl springs, healed Atatürk's kidneys and proved its health benefits. Since its foundation, "Kızılay Mineral Water" grew as the biggest mineral water distributor in Turkey, Middle-East and Balkans.

Pharmaceuticals and morphine
Almost a third of all the morphine produced in the world derives from alkaloids factory in Afyon, named as "Afyon Alkaloids". this large capacity is the byproduct of Afyon's poppy plantations. The pharmaceuticals derive from the opium of the poppy capsules. "Afyon Alkaloids" factory is the largest of its kind in the world, with high capacity processing ability and modern laboratories. The raw opium is put through a chain of biochemical processes, resulting into several types of morphine.

In the Alkaloid Extraction Unit only base morphine is produced. In the adjacent Derivatives Unit half of the morphine extracted is converted to morphine hydrochloride, codeine, codeine phosphate, codeine sulphate, codeine hydrochloride, morphine sulphate, ethylmorphine hydrochloride.

Agriculture
Livestocks Afyon breeds a large amount of livestock, its landscape and demography is suitable for this field. As such it ranks in the top 10 within Turkey in terms of amounts of sheep and cattle it has.

Meat and meat products As a result of being an important source of livestock, related sectors such as meat and meat products are also very productive in Afyon. Its one of the leading provinces in red meat production  and has very prestigious brand marks of sausages, such as "Cumhuriyet Sausages".

Eggs Afyon is the sole leader in egg production within Turkey. It has the largest amount of laying hens, with a figure of 12,7 million. And produces a record amount of 6 million eggs per day.

Cherries and sour cherries Sour cherries are cultivated in Afyon in very large numbers, so much so that it became very iconic to Afyon. Every year, a sour cherry festival takes place in the Cay district. It is the largest producer of sour cherries in Turkey. The sour cherries grown in Afyon are of excellent quality because of the ideal climate they're grown in. For the same reason Afyon is also an ideal place for cherry cultivation. First quality cherries known as "Napolyon Cherries" are grown in abundance, its one of the top 5 leading provinces. Poppy One of the iconic agricultural practices of Afyon is the cultivation of poppy. Afyon's climate is ideal for the cultivation of this plant, hence a large amount of poppy plantation occurs in this region. Though, a strong limitation came some decades ago from international laws, cause of the opium content of poppy plants peels. Nevertheless, Afyon is the largest producer of poppy in Turkey and accounts for a large amount of global production.

Potatoes and sugar-beets Afyon has a durable reputation in potato production, it produces around 8% of Turkish potato requirement. It ranks in the top 5 in potato, sugar-beets, cucumber and barley production.

Climate
Afyonkarahisar has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) under the Köppen classification and an oceanic climate with a hot summer and a cool winter (Doak) under the Trewartha classification. The winters are cool and the summers are warm and dry with cool nights. Rainfall occurs mostly during the spring and autumn.

Highest recorded temperature:39.8 C on 29 July 2000 Lowest recorded temperature:-27.0 C on 28 January 1954

Transport
Afyon is also an important rail junction between İzmir, Konya, Ankara and Istanbul. Afyon is on the route of the planned high-speed rail line between Ankara and Izmir.Zafer Airport, located 60 km from city center, serves Afyonkarahisar. Four flights per week to Istanbul, and seasonal flights to international destinations are available.

Afyon today
Afyon is the centre of an agricultural area and the city has a country town feel to it. There is little in the way of bars, cafes, live music or other cultural amenities, and the standards of education are low for a city in the west of Turkey. Nonetheless, the city does host one seat of higher education, Afyon Kocatepe University.

Afyon is known for its marble (in 2005 there were 355 marble quarries in the province of Afyon producing high quality white stone), its sucuk (spiced sausages), its kaymak (meaning either cream or a white Turkish delight) and various handmade weavings. There is also a large cement factory.

This is a natural crossroads, the routes from Ankara to İzmir and from Istanbul to Antalya intersect here and Afyon is a popular stopping-place on these journeys. There are a number of well-established roadside restaurants for travellers to breakfast on the local cuisine. Some of these places are modern well-equipped hotels and spas; the mineral waters of Afyon are renowned for their healing qualities. There is also a long string of roadside kiosks selling the local Turkish delight.

Courses

 * sucuk - the famed local speciality, a spicy beef sausage, eaten fried or grilled. The best known brands include Cumhuriyet, Ahmet İpek, İkbal, İtimat and Danet but only 2 brands has the geographical indication and these are Cumhuriyet & Danet (Vahdet Et).
 * ağzaçık or bükme - filo-style pastry stuffed with cheese or lentils.
 * keşkek - boiled wheat and chick peas stewed with meat.

Sweets

 * local cream kaymak eaten with honey, with a bread pudding ekmek kadayıfı, or with pumpkin simmered in syrup. Best eaten at the famous Ikbal restaurants (either the old one in the town centre or the big place on the main road).
 * Turkish delight.
 * helva - sweetened ground sesame

Main sights

 * Afyonkarahisar Castle
 * Victory Museum (Zafer Müzesi), a national military and war museum, which was used as headquarters by then Commander-in-Chief Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk), his chief general staff and army commanders before the Great Offensive in August 1922. In the very city center, across the fortress, featuring maps, uniforms, photos, guns from the Greco-Turkish War.
 * The partly ruined fortress which has given the city its name. To reach at the top, eight hundred stairs need to be climbed.
 * The Afyonkarahisar Archaeological Museum which houses thousands of Hellenic, Frigian, Hittite, Roman, Ottoman finds.
 * Afyon Grand Mosque
 * Altıgöz Bridge, like the Ulu Camii built by the Seljuqs in the 13th century.
 * Afyon mansion (Afyon konağı) situated on a hill overlooking the panoramic plain.
 * the White Elephant - Afyon is twinned with the town of Hamm in Germany, and now has a large statue of Hamm's symbolic white elephant.

With its rich architectural heritage, the city is a member of the European Association of Historic Towns and Regions.

Twin towns – sister cities

 * 🇭🇺 Nyíregyháza, Hungary, since 1992
 * 🇬🇷 Greece, Athens, since 1999
 * 🇰🇿 Turkistan, Kazakhstan
 * 🇩🇪 Hamm, Germany, since 2005
 * Peć, Kosovo, since 2008
 * 🇨🇳 Yunfu, China, since 2007
 * Latakia, Syria, since 2009

Notable natives
Following list is alphabetically sorted after family name.
 * Mihran Mesrobian (1889–1975), architect and decorated Ottoman soldier
 * İlker Başbuğ (born 1943), former Chief of the General Staff of Turkey
 * Ali Çetinkaya (1879–1949), Ottoman Army officer and Turkish politician
 * Fikret Emek (born 1963), retired military personnel of the Special Forces Command
 * Veysel Eroğlu (born 1948), Turkish politician
 * Bülent İplikçioğlu (born 1952), historian
 * Ahmed Karahisari (1468–1566), Ottoman calligrapher
 * Gülcan Mıngır (born 1989), middle-distance runner
 * Ahmet Necdet Sezer (born 1941), former President of Turkey
 * Sibel Özkan (born 1988), Olympic medalist female weightlifter
 * Nurgül Yeşilçay (born 1976), actress
 * Gunay Uslu (born 1972), Dutch cultural historian and politician

title: Afyonkarahisar


text:
Abba Arikha

Rav Abba bar Aybo (175–247 CE), commonly known as Abba Arikha or simply as Rav, was a Jewish amora of the 3rd century. He was born and lived in Kafri, Asoristan, in the Sasanian Empire.

In Sura, Arikha established the systematic study of the rabbinic traditions, which, using the Mishnah as a foundational text, led to the compilation of the Talmud. With him began the long period of ascendancy of the prestigious Talmudic academies in Babylonia around the year 220. In the Talmud, he is frequently associated with Samuel of Nehardea, a fellow amora with whom he debated many issues.

Biography
His surname, Arikha (English: the Tall), he owed to his height, which exceeded that of his contemporaries. Others, reading Arekha, consider it an honorary title, "Lecturer". In the traditional literature he is referred to almost exclusively as Rav, "the Master", (both his contemporaries and posterity recognizing in him a master), just as his teacher, Judah HaNasi, was known simply as Rabbi. He is called Rabbi Abba only in the tannaitic literature, where a number of his sayings are preserved. He occupies a middle position between the Tannaim and the Amoraim, and is accorded the right, rarely conceded to one who is only an amora, of disputing the opinion of a tanna.

Rav was a descendant of a distinguished Babylonian family which claimed to trace its origin to Shimei, brother of King David. His father, Aibo, was a brother of Hiyya the Great who lived in Palestine, and was a highly esteemed scholar in the collegiate circle of the patriarch Judah haNasi. From his associations in the house of his uncle, and later as his uncle's disciple and as a member of the academy at Sepphoris, Rav acquired such knowledge of the tradition as to make him its foremost exponent in Babylonia. While Judah haNasi was still living, Rav, having been ordained as teacher (with certain restrictions ), returned to Asoristan, referred to as "Babylonia" in Jewish writings, where he at once began a career that was destined to mark an epoch in the development of Babylonian Judaism.

In the annals of the Babylonian schools, the year of his arrival is recorded as the starting-point in the chronology of the Talmudic age. It was the 530th year of the Seleucid era and the 219th year of the Common Era. As the scene of his activity, Rav first chose Nehardea, where the exilarch appointed him agoranomos, or market-master, and Rabbi Shela made him lecturer (amora) of his college. Then he moved to Sura, on the Euphrates, where he established a school of his own, which soon became the intellectual center of the Babylonian Jews. As a renowned teacher of the Law and with hosts of disciples, who came from all sections of the Jewish world, Rav lived and worked in Sura until his death. Samuel of Nehardea, another disciple of Judah haNasi, at the same time brought to the academy at Nehardea a high degree of prosperity; in fact, it was at the school of Rav that Jewish learning in Babylonia found its permanent home and center. Rav's activity made Babylonia independent of Palestine, and gave it that predominant position which it was destined to occupy for several centuries.

Little is known of Rav's personal life. That he was rich seems probable; for he appears to have occupied himself for a time with commerce and afterward with agriculture. He is referred to as the son of noblemen, but it is not clear if this is an affectionate term or a true description of his status. Rashi does tell us that he is being described as the son of great men. He was highly respected by the Gentiles as well as by the Jews of Babylonia, as shown by the friendship which existed between him and the last Parthian emperor, Artabanus IV. He was deeply affected by the death of Artaban in 226 and the downfall of the Parthian rulers, and does not appear to have sought the friendship of Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian Empire, although Samuel of Nehardea probably did so.

Rav became closely related, through the marriage of one of his daughters, to the family of the exilarch. Her sons, Mar Ukban and Nehemiah, were considered types of the highest aristocracy. Rav had many sons, several of whom are mentioned in the Talmud, the most distinguished being the eldest, Chiyya. Chiyya did not, however, succeed his father as head of the academy: this post fell to Rav's disciple Rav Huna. Two of his grandsons occupied in succession the office of exilarch.

Rav died at an advanced age, deeply mourned by numerous disciples and the entire Babylonian Jewry, which he had raised from comparative insignificance to the leading position in Judaism.

Legacy
The method of treatment of the traditional material to which the Talmud owes its origin was established in Babylonia by Rav. That method takes the Mishnah of Judah haNasi as a text or foundation, adding to it the other tannaitic traditions, and deriving from all of them the theoretical explanations and practical applications of the religious Law. The legal and ritual opinions recorded in Rav's name and his disputes with Samuel constitute the main body of the Babylonian Talmud. His numerous disciples—some of whom were very influential and who, for the most part, were also disciples of Samuel—amplified and, in their capacity as instructors and by their discussions, continued the work of Rav. In the Babylonian schools, Rav was rightly referred to as "our great master." Rav also exercised a great influence for good upon the moral and religious conditions of his native land, not only indirectly through his disciples, but directly by reason of the strictness with which he repressed abuses in matters of marriage and divorce, and denounced ignorance and negligence in matters of ritual observance.

Rav, says tradition, found an open, neglected field and fenced it in.

Teachings
He gave special attention to the liturgy of the synagogue. The Aleinu prayer first appeared in the manuscript of the Rosh Hashana liturgy by Rav. He included it in the Rosh Hashana mussaf service as a prologue to the Kingship portion of the Amidah. For that reason some attribute to Rav the authorship, or at least the revising, of Aleinu. In this noble prayer are evinced profound religious feeling and exalted thought, as well as ability to use the Hebrew language in a natural, expressive, and classical manner.

The many homiletic and ethical sayings recorded of him show similar ability. The greatest aggadist among Babylonian Amoraim, he is the only one of them whose aggadic utterances approach in number and contents those of the Palestinian haggadists. The Jerusalem Talmud has preserved a large number of his halakhic and aggadic utterances; and the Palestinian Midrashim also contain many of his aggadot. Rav delivered homiletic discourses, both in the beit midrash and in the synagogues. He especially loved to discuss in his homilies the events and personages of Biblical history; and many beautiful and genuinely poetic embellishments of the Biblical record, which have become common possession of the aggadah, are his creations. His aggadah is particularly rich in thoughts concerning the moral life and the relations of human beings to one another. A few of these teachings may be quoted here:
 * "The commandments of the Torah were only given to purify men's morals"
 * "Whatever may not properly be done in public is forbidden even in the most secret chamber"
 * "In the future, a person will give a judgement and accounting over everything that his eye saw and he did not eat."
 * "Whoever lacks pity for his fellow man is no child of Abraham"
 * "Better to cast oneself into a fiery furnace than to publicly shame one's fellow man."
 * "One should never betroth himself to a woman without having seen her; one might subsequently discover in her a blemish because of which one might loathe her and thus transgress the commandment: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself'"
 * "A father should never prefer one child above another; the example of Joseph shows what evil consequences may result."
 * "While the dates are still in the borders of your skirt, run off with them to the distillery!" [Meaning, before one wastes what he has, let him convert it into something more productive]
 * "Receive the payment. Deliver the goods!" [i.e. do not sell on credit]
 * "[Better to come] under the displeasure of Ishmael (i.e. the Arabs) than [the displeasure of] Rome; [better to come] under the displeasure of Rome than [the displeasure of] a Persian; [better to come] under the displeasure of a Persian than [the displeasure of] a disciple of the Sages; [better to come] under the displeasure of a disciple of the Sages than [the displeasure of] an orphan and widow."
 * "A man ought always to occupy himself in the words of the Law, and in the commandments, even if it were not for their own sake. For eventually he will do it for their own sake"
 * "A man ought always to look about in search of a [good] city whose settlement is only of late, considering that since its settlement is [relatively] new, its iniquities are also few."
 * "A disciple of the Sages ought to have in him one-eighth of one-eighth of pride, [and no more]."

Rav loved the Book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), and warned his disciple Hamnuna Saba against unjustifiable asceticism by quoting its advice that considering the transitoriness of human life, one should not despise the good things of this world.

To the celestial joys of the future he was accustomed to refer in the following poetic words: "Nothing on earth compares with the future life. In the world to come there shall be neither eating nor drinking, neither trading nor toil, neither hatred nor envy; but the righteous shall sit with crowns upon their heads, and rejoice in the radiance of the Divine Presence."

Rav also devoted much attention to mystical and transcendental speculations regarding Maaseh Bereshit, Maaseh Merkabah, and the Divine Name. Many of his important utterances testify to his tendency in this direction.

title: Abba Arikha


text:
Abbahu

Rabbi Abbahu (אבהו) was a Jew and Talmudist of the Talmudic Academies in Syria Palaestina from about 279 to 320 CE and is counted a member of the third generation of Amoraim. He is sometimes cited as Rabbi Abbahu of Kisrin (Caesarea Maritima).

Biography
His rabbinical education was acquired mainly at Tiberias in the academy presided over by Johanan bar Nappaha, with whom his relationship was almost that of a son. He frequently made pilgrimages to Tiberias even after he had become well known as rector of the Caesarean academy.

Abbahu was an authority on weights and measures. He encouraged the study of Koine Greek by Jews. He learned Greek in order to become useful to his people, then under the Roman proconsuls, that language having become, to a considerable extent, the rival of Hebrew even in prayer. In spite of the bitter protests of Shimon bar Abba, he also taught his daughters Greek. Indeed, it was said of Abbahu that he was a living illustration of the biblical maxim: "It is good that you should take hold of this [the study of the Law]; yea, also from that [other branches of knowledge] withdraw not your hand: for he that fears God shall come forth of them all".

Rector in Caesarea
Being wise, handsome, and wealthy, Abbahu became not only popular with his coreligionists, but also influential with the proconsular government. On one occasion, when his senior colleagues, Hiyya bar Abba, Rabbi Ammi, and Rabbi Assi, had punished a certain woman, and feared the wrath of the proconsul, Abbahu was deputed to intercede for them. He had, however, anticipated the rabbis' request, and wrote to them that he had appeased the informers but not the accuser. The witty enigmatic letter describing this incident, preserved in the Talmud, is in the main pure Hebrew, and even includes Hebrew translations of Greek proper names, to avoid the danger of possible exposure should the letter have fallen into the hands of enemies and informers.

After his ordination he declined a teacher's position, recommending in his stead a more needy friend, Abba of Acre, as worthier than himself. He thereby illustrated his own doctrine that it is a divine virtue to sympathise with a friend in his troubles as well as to partake of his joys. Later he assumed the office of rector in Caesarea, the former seat of Hoshaiah Rabbah, and established himself at the so-called Kenishta Maradta (Insurrectionary Synagogue); from which some of the most prominent teachers of the next generation issued. In Caesarea he originated several ritual rules, one of which (regulating the sounding of the shofar) has since been universally adopted, and is referred to by rishonim as "the Enactment of R. Abbahu".

He did not confine his activity to Caesarea, but also visited and taught in many other Jewish towns. On these journeys, Abbahu gathered so many halakhot that scholars turned to him for information on mooted questions. In the course of these travels he made a point of complying with all local enactments, even where such compliance laid him open to the charge of inconsistency. On the other hand, where circumstances required it, he did not spare even the princes of his people. Where, however, the rigorous exposition of laws created hardship for the common people, he did not scruple to modify the decisions of his colleagues for the benefit of the community. As for himself, he was very strict in the observance of the laws. Once he ordered some Samaritan wine, but subsequently heard that the Samaritans no longer strictly observed the dietary laws. With the assistance of his colleagues (Hiyya bar Abba, Rabbi Ammi, and Rabbi Assi) he investigated the report and, ascertaining it to be well founded, ruled the Samaritans to be equivalent to Gentiles for all ritual purposes.

Abbahu and Hiyya bar Abba
Abbahu's chief characteristic seems to have been modesty. While lecturing in different towns, he met R. Hiyya bar Abba, who was lecturing on intricate halakhic themes. As Abbahu delivered popular sermons, the peopole naturally crowded to hear him, and deserted the halakhist. At this apparent slight, Hiyya manifested chagrin, and Abbahu hastened to comfort him by comparing himself to the peddler of glittering fineries that always attracted the eyes of the masses, while his rival was a trader in precious stones, the virtues and values of which were appreciated only by the connoisseur. This speech not having the desired effect, R. Abbahu showed special respect for his slighted colleague by following him for the remainder of that day. "What," said Abbahu, "is my modesty as compared with that of Abba of Acre, who does not even remonstrate with his interpreter for interpolating his own comments in the lecturer's expositions." When his wife reported to him that his interpreter's wife had boasted of her own husband's greatness, Abbahu simply said, "What difference does it make which of us is really the greater, so long as through both of us heaven is glorified?" His principle of life he expressed in the maxim, "Let man ever be of the persecuted, and not of the persecutors; for there are none among the birds more persecuted than turtle-doves and pigeons, and the Scriptures declare them worthy of the altar."

Later years
Abbahu had two sons, Zeira and Hanina. Some writers ascribe to him a third son, Abimi. Abbahu sent Hanina to the academy at Tiberias, where he had studied, but the youth occupied himself with the burial of the dead, and on hearing of this, the father sent him a reproachful message in this laconic style: "Is it because there are no graves in Caesarea that I have sent you off to Tiberias? Study must precede practice". Abbahu left behind him a number of disciples, the most prominent among whom were the leaders of the 4th amoraic generation, R. Jonah and R. Jose. At Abbahu's death the mourning was so great that it was said "even the statues of Caesarea shed tears".

Against the Christians
R. Abbahu, although eminent as a halakhist, was more distinguished as an aggadist and controversialist. He had many interesting disputes with the Christians of his day. Sometimes these disputes were of a humorous nature. Thus, a heretic bearing the name of Sason (=Joy) once remarked to him, "In the next world your people will have to draw water for me; for thus it is written in the Bible, 'With joy shall ye draw water.'" To this R. Abbahu replied, "Had the Bible said 'for joy' [le-sason], it would mean as you say, but since it says 'with joy' [be-sason], it means that we shall make bottles of your skin and fill them with water". These controversies, although forced on him, provoked resentment, and it was even related that his physician, Jacob the Schismatic (Minaah), was slowly poisoning him, but Rabbi Ammi and Rabbi Assi discovered the crime in time.

A Christian (Minaah) once asked Abbahu "When does your Messiah come?" in a tone of mockery. Abbahu replied: "When you will be wrapped in darkness, for it says, 'Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the nations; then shall the Lord rise upon you and His glory shall be seen on you'." A Christian came to Abbahu with the quibbling question: "How could your God in His priestly holiness bury Moses without providing for purificatory rites, yet oceans are declared insufficient?" Abbahu replied: "Does it not say, 'The Lord comes with fire'? Fire is the true element of purification, according to Numbers 31:23." Another question of the same character: "Why the boastful claim, 'What nation on earth is like Your people Israel', since we read, 'All the nations are as nothing before Him'?" Abbahu replied: "Do we not read of Israel, he 'shall not be reckoned among the nations'?"

Abbahu made a notable exception with reference to the Tosefta's statement that the Gilyonim (Gospels) and other books of the heretics (Minnin) are not to be saved from a fire on Shabbat: "the books of those [written by Minnin for the purpose of debating with Jews] at Abidan may or may not be saved." In regard to the line "Barukh Shem Kevod Malkhuto" (Blessed be the Name of His glorious Kingdom) recited after the Shema, Abbahu says that in Palestine, where the Christians look for points of controversy, the words should be recited aloud (lest the Jews be accused of silently tampering with the unity of God proclaimed in the Shema), whereas in the Babylonian city of Nehardea, where there are no Christians, the words are recited with a low voice. Preaching directly against the Christian dogma, Abbahu says: "A king of flesh and blood may have a father, a brother, or a son to share in or dispute his sovereignty, but the Lord says, 'I am the Lord your God! I am the first - that is, I have no father; and I am the last - that is, I have no brother; and besides me there is no God - that is, I have no son'". His comment on Numbers 23:19 has a still more polemical tone: "God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent; if a man says: 'I am God,' he is a liar; if he says: 'I am a son of man,' he will have cause to regret it; and if he says, 'I will go up to heaven,' he has said [something] but will not keep his word".

Some of his controversies on Christian theological subjects, as on Adam, on Enoch, and on the resurrection, are less clear and direct.

Other Abbahus
There are several other Abbahus mentioned in the Talmudim and Midrashim, prominent among whom is Abbahu (Abuha, Aibut) b. Ihi (Ittai), a Babylonian halakhist, contemporary of Samuel and Anan, and brother of Minyamin (Benjamin) bar Ihi. While this Abbahu repeatedly applied to Samuel for information, Samuel in return learned many halakhot from him.

title: Abbahu


text:
Abbreviator

An abbreviator (plural "abbreviators" in English, abbreviatores in Latin) or breviator was a writer of the Papal Chancery who adumbrated and prepared in correct form Papal bulls, briefs, and consistorial decrees before these were written out in extenso by the scriptores.

They are first mentioned in the Papal bull Extravagantes of Pope John XXII and in a Papal bull of Pope Benedict XII.

After the protonotaries left the adumbration of the minutes to the Abbreviators, those de Parco majori of the dignity of prelate were the most important officers of the Papal Chancery. By the pontificate of Pope Martin V their signature was essential to the validity of the acts of the Chancery. Over time they obtained many important privileges.

Roman lay origin
Abbreviators make an abridgment or abstract of a long writing or discourse by contracting the parts, i. e., the words and sentences; an abbreviated form of writing common among the ancient Romans. Abbreviations were of two kinds: the use of a single letter for a single word and the use of a sign, note, or mark for a word or phrase. The Emperor Justinian forbade the use of abbreviations in the compilation of the Digest and afterward extended his prohibition to all other writings. This prohibition was not universally obeyed. The Abbreviators found it convenient to use the abbreviated form, and this was especially the case in Rome. The early Christians practised the abbreviated mode, no doubt as an easy and safe way of communicating with one another and safeguarding their secrets from enemies and false brethren.

Ecclesiastical abbreviatores
In course of time the Papal Chancery adopted this mode of writing as the "curial" style, still further abridging by omitting the diphthongs "ae" and "oe", and likewise all lines and marks of punctuation. The Abbreviatores were officials of the Roman Curia.

The scope of its labour, as well as the number of its officials, varied over time. Up to the twelfth or thirteenth century, the duty of the Apostolic—or Roman—Chancery was to prepare and expedite the Papal letters and writs for collation of ecclesiastical dignitaries and other matters of grave importance which were discussed and decided in Papal consistory. About the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the Popes, then residing in Avignon, France, began to reserve the collation of a great many benefices, so that all the benefices, especially the greater ones, were to be conferred through the Roman Curia (Lega, Praelectiones Jur. Can., 1, 2, 287). As a consequence, the labour was immensely augmented, and the number of Abbreviatores necessarily increased. To regulate the proper expedition of these reserved benefices, Pope John XXII instituted the rules of chancery to determine the competency and mode of procedure of the Chancery. Afterwards the establishment of the Dataria Apostolica and the Secretariate of Briefs lightened the work of the Chancery and led to a reduction in the number of Abbreviatores.

According to Ciampini (Lib. de abbreviatorum de parco majore etc., Cap. 1) the institution of curial abbreviators was very ancient, succeeding after the persecutions to the notaries who recorded the acts of the martyrs. Other authors reject this early institution and ascribe it to Pope John XXII in 1316. It is certain that he uses the name "abbreviatores", but speaks as if they had existed before his time, and had, by over-taxation of their labour, caused much complaint and protest. He (Extravag. Joan., Tit. 13, "Cum ad Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae") prescribed their work, determined how much they could charge for their labour, fixed a certain tax for an abstract or abridgment of twenty-five words or their equivalent at 150 letters, forbade them to charge more, even though the abstract was over twenty-five words but less than fifty words, enacted that the basis of the tax was the labour employed in writing, expediting, etc. the bulls, and by no means the emoluments that accrued to the recipient of the favour or benefice conferred by the bull, and declared that whoever charged more than the tax fixed by him was suspended for six months from office, and upon a second violation of the law, was deprived of it altogether, and if the delinquent was an abbreviator, he was excommunicated. Should a large letter have to be rewritten, owing to the inexact copy of the abbreviator, the abbreviator and not the receiver of the bull had to pay the extra charge for the extra labour to the Apostolic writer.

Whatever may be the date of the institution of the office of abbreviator, it is certain that it became of greater importance and more highly privileged upon its erection into a college of prelates. Pope Martin V (Constit. 3 "In Apostolicae", 2 and 5) fixed the manner for their examination and approbation and also the tax they could demand for their labour and the punishment for overcharge. He also assigned to them certain remunerations. The Abbreviators of the lower, or lesser, were to be promoted to the higher, or greater, bar or presidency. Their offices were compatible with other offices, i. e. they could hold two benefices or offices simultaneously, some conferred by the Cardinal Vice Chancellor, others by the Pope.

Institution of the College of Abbreviators
In the pontificate of Pope Pius II, their number, which had been fixed at twenty-four, had overgrown to such an extent as to diminish considerably the individual remuneration, and, as a consequence, competent men no longer sought the office, and hence the old style of writing and expediting the bulls was no longer used, to the great injury of justice, the interested parties, and the dignity of the Apostolic See. To remedy this and to restore the old established chancery style, the Pope selected out of the many then living Abbreviators seventy, and formed them into a college of prelates denominated the "College of Abbreviators", and decreed that their office should be perpetual, that certain remunerations should be attached to it, and granted certain privileges to the possessors of the same. He ordained further that some should be called "Abbreviators of the Upper Bar" (Abbreviatores de Parco Majori; the name derived from a place in the Chancery that was surrounded by a grating, in which the officials sat, which is called higher or lower (major or minor) according to the proximity of the seats to that of the Vice Chancellor ), the others of the Lower Bar (Abbreviatores de Parco Minori); that the former should sit upon a slightly raised portion of the chamber, separated from the rest of the chamber by lattice work, assist the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, subscribe the letters and have the principal part in examining, revising, and expediting the Apostolic letters to be issued with the leaden seal; that the latter, however, should sit among the Apostolic writers upon benches in the lower part of the chamber, and their duty was to carry the signed schedules or supplications to the prelates of the Upper Bar. Then one of the prelates of the Upper Bar made an abstract, and another prelate of the same bar revised it. Prelates of the Upper Bar formed a quasi-tribunal, in which as a college they decided all doubts that might arise about the form and quality of the letters, of the clauses and decrees to be adjoined to the Apostolic letters, and sometimes about the payment of the remunerations and other contingencies. Their opinion about questions concerning Chancery business was held in the highest estimation by all the Roman tribunals.

Pope Paul II suppressed the college; but Pope Sixtus IV (Constitutio 16, "Divina") re-instituted it. He appointed seventy-two abbreviators, of whom twelve were of the upper, or greater, and twenty-two of the lower, or lesser, presidency ("parco"), and thirty-eight examiners on first appearance of letters. They were bound to be in attendance on certain days under penalty of fine, and sign letters and diplomas. Ciampini mentions a decree of the Vice Chancellor by which absentees were mulcted in the loss of their share of the remuneration of the following session of the Chancery. The same Pope also granted many privileges to the College of Abbreviators, but especially to the members of the greater presidency.

Pope Pius VII suppressed many of the offices of the Chancery, and so the Tribunal of Correctors and the Abbreviators of the lower presidency disappeared. Of the Tribunal of Correctors, a substitute-corrector alone remains. Bouix (Curia Romana, edit. 1859) chronicled the suppression of the lower presidency and put the number of Abbreviators at that date at eleven. Later the College consisted of seventeen prelates, six substitutes, and one sub-substitute, all of whom, except the prelates, were clerics or laity. Although the duty of Abbreviators was originally to make abstracts and abridgments of the Apostolic letters, diplomas, et cetera, using the legal abbreviations, clauses, and formularies, in course of time, as their office grew in importance they delegated that part of their office to their substitute and confined themselves to overseeing the proper expedition of the Apostolic letters. Prior to 1878, all Apostolic letters and briefs requiring for their validity the leaden seal were engrossed upon rough parchment in Gothic characters or round letters, also called "Gallicum" and commonly "Bollatico", but in Italy "Teutonic", without lines, diphthongs, or marks of punctuation. Bulls engrossed on a different parchment, or in different characters with lines and punctuation marks, or without the accustomed abbreviations, clauses, and formularies, were rejected as spurious. Pope Leo XIII in his Constitutio Universae Eccles. of 29 December 1878 ordained that they should be written henceforth in ordinary Latin characters upon ordinary parchment and that no abbreviations were to be used except those easily understood.

Titles and privileges
Many great privileges were conferred upon Abbreviators. By decree of Pope Leo X they were elevated as Papal nobles, ranking as Comes palatinus ("Count Palatine"), familiars and members of the Papal household, so that they might enjoy all the privileges of domestic prelates and of prelates in actual attendance on the Pope, as regards plurality of benefices as well as expectatives. They and their clerics and their properties were exempt from all jurisdiction except the immediate jurisdiction of the Pope, and they were not subject to the judgments of the Auditor of Causes or the Cardinal Vicar. He also empowered them to confer, later within strict limitations, the degree of Doctor, with all university privileges, institute notaries (later abrogated), legitimize children so as to make them eligible to receive benefices vacated by their fathers (later revoked), also to ennoble three persons and to make Knights of the Order of St. Sylvester (Militiae Aureae), the same to enjoy and to wear the insignia of nobility. Pope Gregory XVI rescinded this privilege and reserved to the Pope the right of institution of such knights (Acta Pont. Greg. XVI, Vol. 3, 178-179-180).

Pope Paul V, who in early manhood was a member of the college (Const. 2, "Romani"), made them Referendaries of Favours, and after three years of service, Referendaries of Justice, enjoying the privileges of Referendaries and permitting one to assist in the signatures before the Pope, giving all a right to a portion in the Papal palace and exempting them from the registration of favours as required by Pope Pius IV (Const., 98) with regard to matters pertaining to the Apostolic Chamber.

They followed immediately after the twelve voting members of the Signature in capella. Abbreviators of the greater presidency were permitted to wear the purple cassock and cappa, as also rochet in capella. Abbreviators of the lower presidency before their suppression were simple clerics, and according to permission granted by Pope Sixtus IV (loc. cit.) might be even married.

These offices becoming vacant by death of the Abbreviator, no matter where the death occurred, were reserved to the Roman Curia. The prelates could resign their office in favour of others. Formerly these offices as well as those of the other Chancery officers from the Regent down were occasions of venality, until Popes, especially Pope Benedict XIV and Pope Pius VII, gradually abolished that. Pope Leo XIII in a motu proprio of 4 July 1898 most solemnly decreed the abolition of all venality in the transfer or collation of the said offices.

As domestic prelates, prelates of the Roman Curia, they had personal preeminence in every diocese of the world. They were addressed as "Reverendissimus", "Right Reverend", and "Monsignor". As prelates, and therefore possessing the legal dignity, they were competent to receive and execute Papal commands. Pope Benedict XIV (Const. 3, "Maximo") granted prelates of the greater presidency the privilege of wearing a hat with a purple band, which right they held even after they ceased to be abbreviators.

Suppression
Pope Pius X abrogated the College in 1908 and their obligations were transferred to the protonotarii apostolici participantes.

title: Abbreviator


text:
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi

ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī (عبداللطيف البغدادي, 1162 Baghdad–1231 Baghdad), short for Muwaffaq al-Dīn Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī (موفق الدين محمد عبد اللطيف بن يوسف البغدادي), was a physician, philosopher, historian, Arabic grammarian and traveller, and one of the most voluminous writers of his time.

Biography
Many details of ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī's life are known from his autobiography as presented in Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah's literary history of medicine. As a young man, he studied grammar, law, tradition, medicine, alchemy and philosophy. He focused his studies on ancient authors, in particular Aristotle, after first adopting Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) as his philosophical mentor at the suggestion of a wandering scholar from the Maghreb. He travelled extensively and resided in Mosul (in 1189) where he studied the works of al-Suhrawardi before travelling on to Damascus (1190) and the camp of Saladin outside Acre (1191). It was at this last location that he met Baha al-Din ibn Shaddad and Imad al-Din al-Isfahani and acquired the Qadi al-Fadil's patronage. He went on to Cairo, where he met Abu'l-Qasim al-Shari'i, who introduced him to the works of al-Farabi, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and Themistius and (according to al-Latif) turned him away from Avicenna and alchemy.

In 1192 he met Saladin in Jerusalem and enjoyed his patronage, then went to Damascus again before returning to Cairo. He journeyed to Jerusalem and to Damascus in 1207-8, and eventually made his way via Aleppo to Erzindjan, where he remained at the court of the Mengujekid Ala’-al-Din Da’ud (Dāwūd Shāh) until the city was conquered by the Rūm Seljuk ruler Kayqubād II (Kayqubād Ibn Kaykhusraw). ‘Abd al-Latif returned to Baghdad in 1229, travelling back via Erzerum, Kamakh, Divriği and Malatya. He died in Baghdad two years later.

Account of Egypt
ʿAbd al-Laṭīf was a man of great knowledge and of an inquisitive and penetrating mind. Of the numerous works (mostly on medicine) which Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah ascribes to him, one only, his graphic and detailed Account of Egypt (in two parts), appeared to be known in Europe.

In addition to measuring the structure, alongside the other pyramids at Giza, al-Baghdadi also writes that the structures were surely tombs, although he thought the Great Pyramid was used for the burial of Agathodaimon or Hermes. Al-Baghdadi ponders whether the pyramid pre-dated the Great flood as described in Genesis, and even briefly entertained the idea that it was a pre-Adamic construction.

Archeology
ʿAbd al-Laṭīf was well aware of the value of ancient monuments. He praised some Muslim rulers for preserving and protecting pre-Islamic artefacts and monuments, but he also criticized others for failing to do so. He noted that the preservation of antiquities presented a number of benefits for Muslims:
 * "monuments are useful historical evidence for chronologies";
 * "they furnish evidence for Holy Scriptures, since the Qur'an mentions them and their people";
 * "they are reminders of human endurance and fate";
 * "they show, to a degree, the politics and history of ancestors, the richness of their sciences, and the genius of their thought".

While discussing the profession of treasure hunting, he notes that poorer treasure hunters were often sponsored by rich businessmen to go on archeological expeditions. In some cases, an expedition could turn out to be fraudulent, with the treasure hunter disappearing with large amounts of money extracted from sponsors.

Egyptology
His manuscript was one of the earliest works on Egyptology. It contains a vivid description of a famine which occurred during the author's residence in Egypt. The famine was caused by the Nile failing to overflow its banks and according to ‘Abd al-Latif's detailed account, the food situation became so dire that many people turned to cannibalism. He also wrote detailed descriptions on ancient Egyptian monuments.

Autopsy
Al-Baghdādī wrote that during the famine in Egypt in 597 AH (1200 AD), he had the opportunity to observe and examine a large number of skeletons, through which he came to the view that Galen was incorrect regarding the formation of the bones of the lower jaw [mandible], coccyx and sacrum.

Translation
Al-Baghdādī's Arabic manuscript was discovered in 1665 by the English orientalist Edward Pococke and is preserved in the Bodleian Library. Pococke published the Arabic manuscript in the 1680s. His son, Edward Pococke the Younger, translated the work into Latin, although he was only able to publish less than half of his work. Thomas Hunt attempted to publish Pococke's complete translation in 1746, although his attempt was unsuccessful. Pococke's complete Latin translation was eventually published by Joseph White of Oxford in 1800. The work was then translated into French, with valuable notes, by Silvestre de Sacy in 1810.

Philosophy
As far as philosophy is concerned, one may adduce that ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī regarded philosophers as paragons of real virtue and therefore he refused to accept as a true philosopher one lacking not only true insight, but also a truly moral personality as true philosophy was in the service of religion, verifying both belief and action. Apart from this he regarded the philosophers’ ambitions as vain (Endress, in Martini Bonadeo, Philosophical journey, xi). ʿAbd al-Laṭīf composed several philosophical works, among which is an important and original commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics (Kitāb fī ʿilm mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa). This is a critical work in the process of the Arabic assimilation of Greek thought, demonstrating its author's acquaintance with the most important Greek metaphysical doctrines, as set out in the writings of al-Kindī (d. circa 185-252/801-66) and al-Fārābī (d. 339/950). The philosophical section of his Book of the Two Pieces of Advice (Kitāb al-Naṣīḥatayn) contains an interesting and challenging defence of philosophy and illustrates the vibrancy of philosophical debate in the Islamic colleges. It moreover emphasises the idea that Islamic philosophy did not decline after the twelfth century CE (Martini Bonadeo, Philosophical journey; Gutas). ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī may therefore well be an exponent of what Gutas calls the “golden age of Arabic philosophy” (Gutas, 20).

Alchemy
ʿAbd al-Laṭīf also penned two passionate and somewhat grotesque pamphlets against the art of alchemy in all its facets. Although he engaged in alchemy for a short while, he later abandoned the art completely by rejecting not only its practice, but also its theory. In ʿAbd al-Laṭīf's view alchemy could not be placed in the system of the sciences, and its false presumptions and pretensions must be distinguished from true scientific knowledge, which can be given a rational basis (Joosse, Rebellious intellectual, 29–62; Joosse, Unmasking the craft, 301–17; Martini Bonadeo, Philosophical journey, 5-6 and 203–5; Stern, 66–7; Allemann).

Spiritualism
During the years following the First World War, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī's name reappeared within the spiritualistic movement in the United Kingdom. He was introduced to the public by the Irish medium Eileen J. Garrett, the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the spiritualist R.H. Saunders and became known by the name Abduhl Latif, the great Arab physician. He is said to have acted as a control of mediums until the mid 1960s (Joosse, Geest, 221–9). The Bodleian Library (MS Pococke 230) and the interpretation of the Videans (Zand-Videan, 8–9) may also have prompted the whimsical short-story ‘Ghost Writer’, as told to Tim Mackintosh-Smith, in which ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī speaks in the first person.

title: Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi