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Fallen angel

Fallen angels are angels who were expelled from Heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" does not appear in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven or angels who sinned. Such angels often tempt humans to sin.

The idea of fallen angels is derived from the Book of Enoch, a Jewish pseudepigraphic apocalyptic religious text, or the assumption that the "sons of God" mentioned in Genesis 6:1–4 are angels. In the period immediately preceding the composition of the New Testament, some sects of Second Temple Judaism identified these same "sons of God" as fallen angels. During the late Second Temple period the Nephilim were considered the monstrous offspring of fallen angels and human women. In such accounts, God sends the Great Deluge to purge the world of these creatures; their bodies are destroyed, yet their peculiar souls survive, thereafter roaming the earth as demons. Rabbinic Judaism and Christian authorities after the third century rejected the Enochian writings and the notion of an illicit union between angels and women producing hybrids. Christian theology indicates the sins of fallen angels occur before the beginning of human history. Accordingly, fallen angels became identified with those led by Lucifer in rebellion against God, also equated with demons.

In Islam, belief in fallen angels is disputed. In early Quranic exegesis (tafsīr) there are two distinct opinions in regards of the obedience of angels, often revolving around the nature of Iblis (Satan in Islam). According to the viewpoint of ibn Abbas (619–687), Iblis was an angel created from fire (nār as-samūm), while according to Hasan of Basra (642–728), he was the progenitor of the jinn. Hasan al-Basri argued that angels are unable to sin. To eliminate the possibilities for fallen angels, he further interpretates Harut and Marut, mentioned in 2:102, as malikayn (kings) instead of malā'ikah (angels). Ibn Abbas, on the other hand, asserts that the verse in Surah 18:50 "except Iblis, he was one of the jinn", means "he was one of the inhabitants of paradise" and generally allows the concept of fallen angels within Islamic tradition.

Historians have discussed the relationship between Quranic jinn and fallen angels in Christian theology. Some of the primary issues for such a relationship is that the former are not identified as "angels" and that, unlike angels, they are described as ascending to the sky where they eavesdrop on heavenly secrets. In classical Islamic traditions, the jinn are often thought of as a race of Pre-Adamites, who dwelt on earth.

Second Temple period
The concept of fallen angels derives mostly from works dated to the Second Temple period between 530 BC and 70 AD: in the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees and the Qumran Book of Giants; and perhaps in Genesis 6:1–4. A reference to heavenly beings called "Watchers" originates in Daniel 4, in which there are three mentions, twice in the singular (v. 13, 23), once in the plural (v. 17), of "watchers, holy ones". The Ancient Greek word for watchers is ἐγρήγοροι (, plural of ), literally translated as "wakeful". Some scholars consider it most likely that the Jewish tradition of fallen angels predates, even in written form, the composition of Gen 6:1–4. In the Book of Enoch, these Watchers "fell" after they became "enamored" with human women. The Second Book of Enoch (Slavonic Enoch) refers to the same beings of the (First) Book of Enoch, now called Grigori in the Greek transcription. Compared to the other Books of Enoch, fallen angels play a less significant role in 3 Enoch. 3 Enoch mentions only three fallen angels called Azazel, Azza and Uzza. Similar to The first Book of Enoch, they taught sorcery on earth, causing corruption. Unlike the first Book of Enoch, there is no mention of the reason for their fall and, according to 3 Enoch 4.6, they also later appear in heaven objecting to the presence of Enoch.

1 Enoch

According to 1 Enoch 7.2, the Watchers become "enamoured" with human women and have intercourse with them. The offspring of these unions, and the knowledge they were giving, corrupt human beings and the earth (1 Enoch 10.11–12). Eminent among these angels are Samyaza and Azazel. Like many other fallen angels mentioned in 1 Enoch 8.1–9, Azazel introduces men to "forbidden arts", and it is Azazel who is rebuked by Enoch himself for illicit instruction, as stated in 1 Enoch 13.1. According to 1 Enoch 10.6, God sends the archangel Raphael to chain Azazel in the desert Dudael as punishment. Further, Azazel is blamed for the corruption of earth:"1 Enoch 10:12: 'All the earth has been corrupted by the effects of the teaching of Azazyel. To him therefore ascribe the whole crime.'"

An etiological interpretation of 1 Enoch deals with the origin of evil. By shifting the origin of mankind's sin and their misdeeds to illicit angel instruction, evil is attributed to something supernatural from without. This motif, in 1 Enoch, differs from that of later Jewish and Christian theology; in the latter evil is something from within. According to a paradigmatic interpretation, 1 Enoch might deal with illicit marriages between priests and women. As evident from Leviticus 21:1–15, priests were prohibited to marry impure women. Accordingly, the fallen angels in 1 Enoch are the priests counterpart, who defile themselves by marriage. Just like the angels are expelled from heaven, the priests are excluded from their service at the altar. Unlike most other apocalyptic writings, 1 Enoch reflects a growing dissatisfaction with the priestly establishments in Jerusalem in the 3rd century BC. The paradigmatic interpretation parallels the Adamic myth in regard of the origin of evil: In both cases, transcending one's own limitations inherent in their own nature causes their fall. This contrasts the etiological interpretation, which implies another power besides God, in heaven. The latter solution therefore poorly fits into monotheistic thought. Otherwise, the introduction to illicit knowledge might reflect a rejection of foreign Hellenistic culture. Accordingly, the fallen angels represent creatures of Greek mythology, which introduced forbidden arts, used by Hellenistic kings and generals, resulting in oppression of Jews.

2 Enoch
The concept of fallen angels is also in the Second Book of Enoch. It tells about Enoch's ascent through the layers of heaven. During his journey, he encounters fallen angels imprisoned in the 2nd heaven. At first, he decides to pray for them, but refuses to do so, since he himself as merely human, would not be worthy to pray for angels. In the 5th heaven however, he meets other rebellious angels, here called Grigori, remaining in grief, not joining the heavenly hosts in song. Enoch tries to cheer them up by telling about his prayers for their fellow angels and thereupon they join the heavenly liturgy.

Strikingly, the text refers to the leader of the Grigori as Satanail and not as Azael or Shemyaza, as in the other Books of Enoch. But the Grigori are identified with the Watchers of 1 Enoch.

The narration of the Grigori in 2 Enoch 18:1–7, who went down on to earth, married women and "befouled the earth with their deeds", resulting in their confinement under the earth, shows that the author of 2 Enoch knew about the stories in 1 Enoch. The longer recension of 2 Enoch, chapter 29 refers to angels who were "thrown out from the height" when their leader tried to become equal in rank with the Lord's power (2 Enoch 29:1–4), an idea probably taken from Ancient Canaanite religion about Attar, trying to rule the throne of Baal.

Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish religious work, accepted as canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Beta Israel, refers to the Watchers, who are among the angels created on the first day. However, unlike the (first) Book of Enoch, the Watchers are commanded by God to descend to earth and to instruct humanity. It is only after they copulate with human women that they transgress the laws of God. These illicit unions result in demonic offspring, who battle each other until they die, while the Watchers are bound in the depths of the earth as punishment. In Jubilees 10:1, another angel called Mastema appears as the leader of the evil spirits. He asks God to spare some of the demons, so he might use their aid to lead humankind into sin. Afterwards, he becomes their leader:

Both the (first) Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees include the motif of angels introducing evil to humans. However, unlike the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees does not hold that evil was caused by the fall of angels in the first place, although their introduction to sin is affirmed. Further, while the fallen angels in the Book of Enoch are acting against God's will, the fallen angels and demons in the Book of Jubilees seem to have no power independent from God but only act within his power.

Early Rabbinic literature
Although the concept of fallen angels developed from Judaism during the Second Temple period, rabbis from the second century onward turned against the Enochian writings, probably in order to prevent fellow Jews from worship and veneration of angels. Thus, while many angels were individualized and sometimes venerated during the Second Temple period, the status of angels was degraded to a class of creatures on the same level of humans, thereby emphasizing the omnipresence of God. The 2nd-century rabbi Shimon bar Yochai cursed everyone who explained the term sons of God as angels. He stated sons of God were actually sons of judges or sons of nobles. Evil was no longer attributed to heavenly forces, now it was dealt as an "evil inclination" (yetzer hara) within humans. In some Midrashic works, the "evil inclination" is attributed to Samael, who is in charge of several satans in order to test humanity. Nevertheless, these angels are still subordinate to God; the reacceptance of rebel angels in Midrashic discourse was posterior and probably influenced by the role of fallen angels in Islamic and Christian lore.

Post-Talmudic works
The idea of rebel angels in Judaism reappears in the Aggadic-Midrashic work Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, which shows not one, but two falls of angels. The first one is attributed to Samael, who refuses to worship Adam and objects to God favoring Adam over the angels, ultimately descending onto Adam and Eve to tempt them into sin. This seems rooted in the motif of the fall of Iblis in the Quran and the fall of Satan in the Cave of Treasures. The second fall echoes the Enochian narratives. Again, the "sons of God" mentioned in Gen 6:1–4 are depicted as angels. During their fall, their "strength and stature became like the sons of man" and again, they give existence to the giants by intercourse with human women.

Kabbalah
Although not strictly speaking fallen, evil angels reappear in Kabbalah. Some of them are named after angels taken from the Enochian writings, such as Samael. According to the Zohar, just as angels can be created by virtue, evil angels are an incarnation of human vices, which derive from the qlippoth, the representation of impure forces.

However, the Zohar also recalls a narration of two angels in a fallen state, called Aza and Azael. These angels are cast down from the heaven after mistrusting Adam for his inclination towards sin. Once on Earth, they complete the Enochian narrative by teaching magic to humans and producing offspring with them, as well as consorting with Lilith (hailed as "the sinner"). In the narrative, the Zohar affirms but simultaneously prohibits magical practices. As a punishment, God puts the angels in chains, but they still copulate with the demoness Naamah, who gives birth to demons, evil spirits and witches.

Bible
Luke 10:18 refers to "Satan falling from heaven" and Matthew 25:41 mentions "the Devil and his angels", who will be thrown into hell. All Synoptic Gospels identify Satan as the leader of demons. Paul the Apostle (c. 5 or 67) states in 1 Corinthians 6:3 that there are angels who will be judged, implying the existence of wicked angels. 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6 refer paraenetically to angels who have sinned against God and await punishment on Judgement Day. The Book of Revelation, chapter 12, speaks of Satan as a great red dragon whose "tail swept a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth". In verses 7–9, Satan is defeated in the War in Heaven against Michael and his angels: "the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him". Nowhere within the New Testament writings are fallen angels identified with demons, but by combining the references to Satan, demons and angels, early Christian exegetes equated fallen angels with demons, for which Satan was regarded as the leader.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians in 11:10, according to the early Church Father Tertullian, references fallen angels; Tertullian taught that protection from the lust of the fallen angels was the reason for Saint Paul's directive to Christian women to wear a headcovering (veil). Tertullian referenced a woman who was touched on the neck by a fallen angel "who found her to be a temptation".

Origen and other Christian writers linked the fallen morning star of Isaiah 14:12 of the Old Testament to Jesus' statement in Luke 10:18 that he "saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven", as well as a passage about the fall of Satan in Revelation 12:8–9. The Latin word lucifer, as introduced in the late 4th-century AD Vulgate, gave rise to the name for a fallen angel.

Christian tradition has associated Satan not only with the image of the morning star in Isaiah 14:12, but also with the denouncing in Ezekiel 28:11–19 of the king of Tyre, who is spoken of as having been a "cherub". The Church Fathers saw these two passages as in some ways parallel, an interpretation also testified in apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works. However, "no modern evangelical commentary on Isaiah or Ezekiel sees Isaiah 14 or Ezekiel 28 as providing information about the fall of Satan".

Early Christianity
During the period immediately before the rise of Christianity, the intercourse between the Watchers and human women was often seen as the first fall of the angels. Christianity stuck to the Enochian writings at least until the third century. Many Church Fathers such as Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria and Lactantius accepted the association of the angelic descent to the sons of God passage in Genesis 6:1–4. However, some ascetics, such as Origen (c. 184), rejected this interpretation. According to the Church Fathers who rejected the doctrine by Origen, these angels were guilty of having transgressed the limits of their nature and of desiring to leave their heavenly abode to experience sensual experiences. Irenaeus referred to fallen angels as apostates, who will be punished by an everlasting fire. Justin Martyr (c. 100) identified pagan deities as fallen angels or their demonic offspring in disguise. Justin also held them responsible for Christian persecution during the first centuries. Tertullian and Origen also referred to fallen angels as teachers of astrology.

The Babylonian king, who is described as a fallen "morning star" in Isaiah 14:1–17, was probably the first time identified with a fallen angel by Origen. This description was interpreted typologically both as an angel and a human king. The image of the fallen morning star or angel was thereby applied to Satan by early Christian writers, following the equation of Lucifer to Satan in the pre-Christian century.

Catholicism
The subject of fallen angels is covered in a number of catechisms, including Rev. George Hay's in which he answers the question What was the sin by which they fell?: "It was pride, arising from the great beauty and sublime graces which God had bestowed upon them. For, seeing themselves such glorious beings, they fell in love with themselves, and, forgetting the God that made them, wished to be on an equality with their Creator." The consequence of this fall being that, "they were immediately deprived of all their supernatural graces and heavenly beauty: they were changed from glorious angels into hideous devils; they were banished out of heaven, and condemned to the torments of hell, which was prepared to receive them."

In terms of the history of fallen angel theology it is thought to be rooted in Enochian literature, which Christians began to reject by the third century. The sons of God came to be identified merely with righteous men, more precisely with descendants of Seth who had been seduced by women descended from Cain. The cause of evil was shifted from the superior powers of angels, to humans themselves, and to the very beginning of history; the expulsion of Satan and his angels on the one hand and the original sin of humans on the other hand. However, the Book of Watchers, which identified the sons of God with fallen angels, was not rejected by Syriac Christians or the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Augustine of Hippo's work Civitas Dei (5th century) became the major opinion of Western demonology and for the Catholic Church. He rejected the Enochian writings and stated that the sole origin of fallen angels was the rebellion of Satan. As a result, fallen angels came to be equated with demons and depicted as non-sexual spiritual entities. The exact nature of their spiritual bodies became another topic of dispute during the Middle Ages. Augustine based his descriptions of demons on his perception of the Greek Daimon. The Daimon was thought to be a spiritual being, composed of ethereal matter, a notion also used for fallen angels by Augustine. However, these angels received their ethereal body only after their fall. Later scholars tried to explain the details of their spiritual nature, asserting that the ethereal body is a mixture of fire and air, but that they are still composed of material elements. Others denied any physical relation to material elements, depicting the fallen angels as purely spiritual entities. But even those who believed the fallen angels had ethereal bodies did not believe that they could produce any offspring.

Augustine, in his Civitas Dei describes two cities (Civitates) distinct from each other and opposed to each other like light and darkness. The earthly city is caused by the act of rebellion of the fallen angels and is inhabited by wicked men and demons (fallen angels) led by Satan. On the other hand, the heavenly city is inhabited by righteous men and the angels led by God. Although, his ontological division into two different kingdoms shows resemblance of Manichean dualism, Augustine differs in regard of the origin and power of evil. In Augustine works, evil originates from free will. Augustine always emphasized the sovereignty of God over the fallen angels. Accordingly, the inhabitants of the earthly city can only operate within their God-given framework. The rebellion of angels is also a result of the God-given freedom of choice. The obedient angels are endowed with grace, giving them a deeper understanding of God's nature and the order of the cosmos. Illuminated by God-given grace, they became incapable of feeling any desire for sin. The other angels, however, are not blessed with grace, thus they remain capable of sin. After these angels decide to sin, they fall from heaven and become demons. In Augustine's view of angels, they cannot be guilty of carnal desires since they lack flesh, but they can be guilty of sins that are rooted in spirit and intellect such as pride and envy. However, after they have made their decision to rebel against God, they cannot turn back. The Catechism of the Catholic Church understands the fall of angels as radical and irrevocable rejection of God and his reign by some angels who, though created as good beings, freely chose evil, their sin being unforgivable because of the irrevocable character of their choice, not because of any defect in infinite divine mercy. Present-day Catholicism rejects Apocatastasis, the reconciliation with God suggested by the Church Father Origen.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Like Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity shares the basic belief in fallen angels as spiritual beings who rebel against God. Unlike Catholicism, however, there is no established doctrine about the exact nature of fallen angels, but Eastern Orthodox Christianity unanimously agrees that the power of fallen angels is always inferior to God. Therefore, belief in fallen angels can always be assimilated with local lore, as long it does not break basic principles and is in line with the Bible. Historically, some theologians even tend to suggest that fallen angels could be rehabilitated in the world to come. Fallen angels, just like angels, play a significant role in the spiritual life of believers. As in Catholicism, fallen angels tempt and incite people into sin, but mental illness is also linked to fallen angels. Those who have reached an advanced degree of spirituality are even thought to be able to envision them. Rituals and sacraments performed by Eastern Orthodoxy are thought to weaken such demonic influences.

Ethiopian Church
Unlike most other Churches, the Ethiopian Church accepts 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees as canonical. As a result, the Church believes that human sin does not originate in Adam's transgression alone, but also from Satan and other fallen angels. Together with demons, they continue to cause sin and corruption on earth.

Neutral angels
In Christian folklore tales about encounters between men and spirits, the spirits were often explained as fallen angels. They would have been cast out of heaven, damned to roam the world as demons, but were not so evil that they were sentenced to hell, like Lucifer and his devils. Yet they were still not as good to remain in heaven. Therefore, they would live between heaven and hell among humans in liminal spaces.

Caesarius of Heisterbach's (c. 1180) asserted that not all fallen angels are equally bad. Some fallen angels would be banished for not actively defending God against Lucifer, but since they did not side with the devils, would not be sentenced to hell. They remain loyal to God on earth, do good deeds, and bearing some resemblances to saints, as seen in the Dialogus Miraculorum, in which a knight is guided by a fallen angel to lead him back on the path of piety. In another tale, a neutral fallen angel became an assistant of a noble knight. However, when the knight learned that his best assistant was actually a demon, he dismissed him. When the knight wants to pay the demon for his service, the demon asserted that the knight should spend the money on a new bell for the church, instead.

According to The Brendan Voyage, during the Medieval Age, Brendan meets a group of angels referred to as "wandering spirits". On holy days, they were embodied as white birds, symbols usually used for purity and the holy spirit. In later versions, such as the 15th Century Dutch and German variant, the fallen angels are much more depicted as akin to grotesque demons. Although they would not have supported Lucifer in his evil schemes, they would have been passive and not fighting for good, thus turned into animal-like creatures cast out of heaven.

Such earthly fallen angels were used as a possible origin of fairies in Irish and Scandinavian folk-tales. Depending on the place they fell, they will remain as spirits of the specific element, but are usually benevolent and harmless. If such fairies were identified with the Biblical fallen angels, their salvation after Judgement Day was usually denied, since the fallen angels could not return to heaven. Later Protestant thinkers increasingly dismissed belief in fairies and neutral angels as part of either fairy-tales or a delusion cast by Satan.

Protestantism
Like Catholicism, Protestantism continues with the concept of fallen angels as spiritual entities unrelated to flesh, but it rejects the angelology established by Catholicism. Martin Luther's (1483–1546) sermons of the angels merely recount the exploits of the fallen angels, and does not deal with an angelic hierarchy. Satan and his fallen angels are responsible for some misfortune in the world, but Luther always believed that the power of the good angels exceeds those of the fallen ones. The Italian Protestant theologian Girolamo Zanchi (1516–1590) offered further explanations for the reason behind the fall of the angels. According to Zanchi, the angels rebelled when the incarnation of Christ was revealed to them in incomplete form. While Mainline Protestants are much less concerned with the cause of angelic fall, arguing that it is neither useful nor necessary to know, other Protestant churches do have fallen angels as more of a focus.

Philosophy
In Western philosophy, the devil was understood as a personal identity of evil in opposition to good. Its conception as a fallen angel, in contrast to Manichaeistic absolute evil, allowed to avoid two separate ontological principles.

Theodicy, the question of how evil can exist simultaneously with the existence of an all-powerful and all-good God, may utilize the concept of fallen angels to explain natural evil. Accordingly, the angels would have great power, and by exercising havoc over the earth, they cause suffering and misery, manifesting in natural disasters. Accordingly, natural evil can be traced back to free-will (in that case of super-human agents). Opponents argue that this implies that fallen angels have supernatural powers to influence the world, powers left unproven, thus falling into a devil of the gaps.

Islam
The concept of fallen angels is debated in Islam. Opposition to the possibility of erring angels can be attested as early as the influential Islamic ascetic Hasan of Basra (642–728). On the other hand, evidence for the belief in fallen angels among Muslims can be traced back to reports attributed to some of the companions of Muhammad, such as Ibn Abbas (619–687) and Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud (594–653). To support the doctrine of infallible angels, Hasan of Basra pointed at verses stressing out the piety of angels, while simultaneously reinterpreting verses which might imply acknowledgement of fallen angels. For that reason, he read the term mala'ikah (angels) in reference to Harut and Marut, two possible fallen angels mentioned in 2:102, as malikayn (kings) instead of malā'ikah (angels), depicting them as ordinary men and advocated the belief that Iblis was a jinn and had never been an angel before. However, none of these verses declare angels as immune from sin.

Contemporary Muslim scholars have argued, even if fallen angels are considered, they are conceptually different from the fallen angels in Christianity, since they remain at the service of God and do not become God's enemies. It has been stated that "(...) according to Christianity, the devils are fallen angels who renounced their loyalty to God, in Islam it is God who dismissed the fallen angels".

The Quran mentions the fall of Iblis in several Surahs. Surah al-Anbiya states that angels claiming divine honors were to be punished with hell. Further, Surah 2:102 implies that a pair of fallen angels introduces magic to humanity. According to the Isma'ilism work Umm al-Kitab, Azazil, the first angel created by God, boasts about himself being superior to God until he is thrown into lower celestial spheres and ends up on earth. Iblis is often described as being chained in the lowest pit of hell (Sijjin) and commands, according to Al-Tha'labi (961–1038), his host of rebel angels (shayāṭīn) and the fiercest jinn (ifrit) from there. In a Shia narrative from Ja'far al-Sadiq (700 or 702–765), Idris (Enoch) meets an angel, which the wrath of God falls upon, and his wings and hair are cut off; after Idris prays for him to God, his wings and hair are restored. In return they become friends and at his request the angel takes Idris to the heavens to meet the angel of death. In a similar stroy, a cherub called Fuṭrus (فطرس) was cast out from heaven and fell to the earth. When Muhammad intercedes for the angel and God restores his wings after he touches al-Husayn's cradle.

Some recent non-Islamic scholars suggest Uzair, who is according to Surah 9:30 called a son of God by Jews, originally referred to a fallen angel. While exegetes almost unanimously identified Uzair as Ezra, there is no historical evidence that the Jews called him son of God. Thus, the Quran may refer not to the earthly Ezra, but to the heavenly Ezra, identifying him with the heavenly Enoch, who in turn became identified with the angel Metatron (also called lesser YHWH) in merkabah mysticism.

Iblis
The Quran repeatedly tells about the fall of Iblis. According to Quran 2:30, the angels object to God's intention to create a human, because they will cause corruption and shed blood, echoing the account of 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. This happens after the angels observe men causing unrighteousness. However, after God demonstrates the superiority of Adam's knowledge in comparison to the angels, He orders them to prostrate themselves. Only Iblis refuses to follow the instruction. When God asks for the reason behind Iblis' refusal, he boasts about himself being superior to Adam, because he is made of fire. Thereupon God expels him from heaven. In the early Meccan period, Iblis appears as a degraded angel. But since he is called a jinni in Surah 18:50, some scholars argue that Iblis is actually not an angel. This is the position of the tradition from Hasan al-Basri, who argued that Iblis is not an angel, but an entity apart, and the father of the jinn. Therefore, they reject the concept of fallen angels and emphasize the nobility of angels by quoting certain Quranic verses like 66:6 and 16:49, distinguishing between infallible angels and jinn capable of sin.

On the other hand, the tradition from ibn Abbas allows the concept of fallen angels. According to Ibn Abbas, angels who guard the jinan (here: heavens) are called Jinni, just as humans who were from Mecca are called Mecci (nisba), but they are not related to the jinn-race. This tradition asserts that Iblis and his angels are made from "poisonous fire" (nār as-samūm), the rest of the angels from "light" (Nūr), and the jinn mentioned in the Quran were created from "a mixture of fire" (mārijin min nār). Other scholars assert that a jinn is everything hidden from human eye, both angels and other invisible creatures, thus including Iblis to a group of angels.

In Surah 15:36, God grants Iblis' request to prove the unworthiness of humans. Surah 38:82 also confirms that Iblis' intrigues to lead humans astray are permitted by God's power. However, as mentioned in Surah 17:65, Iblis' attempts to mislead God's servants are destined to fail. The Quranic episode of Iblis parallels another wicked angel in the earlier Books of Jubilees: Like Iblis, Mastema requests God's permission to tempt humanity, and both are limited in their power, that is, not able to deceive God's servants. However, the motif of Iblis' disobedience derives not from the Watcher mythology, but can be traced back to the Cave of Treasures, a work that probably holds the standard explanation in Proto-orthodox Christianity for the angelic fall of Satan. According to this explanation, Satan refuses to prostrate himself before Adam, because he is "fire and spirit" and thereupon Satan is banished from heaven. Unlike the majority opinion in later Christianity, the idea that Iblis tries to usurp the throne of God is alien to Islam and due to its strict monotheism unthinkable.

Harut and Marut
Harut and Marut are a pair of angels mentioned in Surah 2:102 teaching magic. Although the reason behind their stay on earth is not mentioned in the Quran, the following narration became canonized in Islamic tradition. The Quran exegete Tabari attributed this story to Ibn Masud and Ibn Abbas and is also attested by Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Briefly summarized, the angels complain about the mischievousness of mankind and make a request to destroy them. Consequently, God offers a test to determine whether or not the angels would do better than humans for long: the angels are endowed with human-like urges and Satan has power over them. The angels choose two (or in some accounts three) among themselves. However, on Earth, these angels entertain and act upon sexual desires and become guilty of idol worship, whereupon they even kill an innocent witness of their actions. For their deeds, they are not allowed to ascend to heaven again.

Probably the names Harut and Marut are of Zoroastrian origin and derived from two Amesha Spentas called Haurvatat and Ameretat. Although the Quran gave these fallen angels Iranian names, mufassirs recognized them as from the Book of Watchers. In accordance with 3 Enoch, al-Kalbi (737 AD – 819 AD) named three angels descending to earth, and he even gave them their Enochian names. He explained that one of them returned to heaven and the other two changed their names to Harut and Marut. However, like in the story of Iblis, the story of Harut and Marut does not contain any trace of angelic revolt. Rather, the stories about fallen angels are related to a rivalry between humans and angels. As the Quran affirms, Harut and Marut are sent by God and, unlike the Watchers, they only instruct humans to witchcraft by God's permission, just as Iblis can just tempt humans by God's permission.

Literature and popular culture
In the Divine Comedy (1308–1320) by Dante Alighieri, fallen angels guard the City of Dis surrounding the lower circles of hell. They mark a transition: While in previous circles, the sinners are condemned for sins they just could not resist, later on, the circles of hell are filled with sinners who deliberately rebel against God, such as fallen angels or Christian heretics.

In John Milton's 17th-century epic poem Paradise Lost, both obedient and fallen angels play an important role. They appear as rational individuals: their personality is similar to that of humans. The fallen angels are named after entities from both Christian and Pagan mythology, such as Moloch, Chemosh, Dagon, Belial, Beelzebub and Satan himself. Following the canonical Christian narrative, Satan convinces other angels to live free from the laws of God, thereupon they are cast out of heaven. The epic poem starts with the fallen angels in hell. The first portrayal of God in the book is given by fallen angels, who describe him as a questionable tyrant and blame him for their fall. Outcast from heaven, the fallen angels establish their own kingdom in the depths of hell, with a capital called Pandæmonium. Unlike most earlier Christian representations of hell, it is not the primary place for God to torture the sinners, but the fallen angels' own kingdom. The fallen angels even build a palace, play music and freely debate. Nevertheless, without divine guidance, the fallen angels themselves turn hell into a place of suffering.

The idea of fallen angels plays a significant role in the various poems of Alfred de Vigny. In Le Déluge (1823), the son of an angel and a mortal woman learns from the stars about the great deluge. He seeks refuge with his beloved on Mount Ararat, hoping that his angelic father will save them. But since he does not appear, they are caught by the flood. Éloa (1824) is about a female angel created by the tears of Jesus. She hears about a male angel, expelled from heaven, whereupon she seeks to comfort him, but goes to perdition as a consequence.

The Turkish horror film Semum (2008 ), produced and directed by Hasan Karacadağ, is about a shayṭān who has been summoned from hell to torment a woman named Canan. The movie is based on the ibn Abbas interpretation of the Quran and depicts the devil as a fallen angel who seeks revenge on humans for being abandoned by God (Allah). The devil accepts ʿAzāzīl as his new deity, who is praised as the ruler of hell and supporting his minions against God's new creation (humans). However, at the end, the movie affirms in accordance with Islamic teachings, that ʿAzāzīl has no real power but only to seduce people to follow him. When the shayṭān battles a human priest (Hoca) in hell, it is God who intervenes on behalf of humanity while ʿAzāzīl has forsaken his servant. By that, the movie further rejects dualism in favor of Islamic tawḥīd, emphazising that even hell is under God's control.

title: Fallen angel


text:
1989 Irish general election

The 1989 Irish general election to the 26th Dáil was held on Thursday, 15 June, three weeks after the dissolution of the 25th Dáil on 25 May by President Patrick Hillery, on the request of Taoiseach Charles Haughey. The general election took place in 41 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas, on the same day as the European Parliament election.

The 26th Dáil met at Leinster House on 29 June to nominate the Taoiseach for appointment by the president and to approve the appointment of a new government of Ireland. No government was formed on that date, but on 12 July, Haughey was re-appointed Taoiseach, forming the 21st government of Ireland, a coalition government of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.

Campaign
The general election of 1989 was precipitated by the defeat of the minority Fianna Fáil government in a private members motion regarding the provision of funds for AIDS sufferers (haemophiliacs who had been infected with contaminated blood products by the health service). While a general election was not necessary – the motion was not a vote of confidence, and therefore defeat was merely an embarrassment for the government – Charles Haughey, the Fianna Fáil leader, sought a dissolution of the Dáil.

Opinion polls had shown that the party's strong performance in government had increased their popularity and an overall majority for Fianna Fáil could be a possibility. Also, rumours were current that the general election was called so that certain Fianna Fáil members could raise money privately for themselves. While these rumours were dismissed at the time, it was revealed more than ten years later that Ray Burke, Pádraig Flynn and Haughey himself had received substantial personal donations during the campaign.

While it was thought that the general election would catch the opposition parties unprepared, they co-ordinated themselves and co-operated very quickly. Further cuts in spending, particularly in the health service, became the dominant issue. Alan Dukes was fighting his first (and as events would prove, his only) general election as leader of Fine Gael. His Tallaght Strategy had kept Fianna Fáil in power, governing as a minority, since 1987.

The general election was held on the same day as the election to the European Parliament, and turnout was 68.5%.

Results

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Independents include Independent Fianna Fáil (6,961 votes, 1 seat), Army Wives (6,966 votes) and Gay candidates (517 votes).

No by-elections had taken place during the previous Dáil. Two seats were vacant at the dissolution of the 25th Dáil: in Sligo–Leitrim, caused by the resignation of the Fianna Fáil member Ray MacSharry, and in Dublin South-Central, caused by the death of Frank Cluskey.

While Fianna Fáil had hoped to achieve an overall majority, the party lost seats. The result was a disaster for Fianna Fáil, particularly when the election was so unnecessary. Fine Gael made a small gain, but nothing substantial. The Progressive Democrats did badly, losing over half their deputies. The Labour Party and the Workers' Party gained working-class votes from Fianna Fáil but failed to make the big breakthrough, while Sinn Féin polled worse than its 1987 result. The Green Party won its first seat when Roger Garland was elected for Dublin South.

Government formation
Forming a government proved to be extremely difficult. Many in Fianna Fáil had hoped that the minority government could continue where it left off, particularly if the Tallaght Strategy continued. However, Fine Gael refused to support the government and so a deadlock developed. The prospect of forming a government seemed remote, so much so that Charles Haughey was forced to formally resign as Taoiseach. For the first time in Irish history a Taoiseach and a government had not been appointed when the new Dáil met. However, twenty-seven days after the general election, Fianna Fáil entered into a coalition for the first time in its history – with the Progressive Democrats, forming the 21st Government of Ireland, led by Haughey as Taoiseach. In February 1992, Haughey resigned and was succeeded as Taoiseach by Albert Reynolds, forming the 22nd Government of Ireland, continuing in coalition with the Progressive Democrats.

Dáil membership changes
The following changes took place as a result of the election:
 * 14 outgoing TDs retired
 * 1 vacant seat at election time
 * 150 outgoing TDs stood for re-election (also Seán Treacy, the outgoing Ceann Comhairle who was automatically returned)
 * 124 of those were re-elected
 * 26 failed to be re-elected
 * 41 successor TDs were elected
 * 32 were elected for the first time
 * 9 had previously been TDs
 * There were 4 successor female TDs, replacing 5 outgoing, thus reducing the total by 1 to 13
 * There were changes in 30 of the 41 constituencies contested

Where more than one change took place in a constituency the concept of successor is an approximation for presentation only.

Seanad election
The Dáil election was followed by the election to the 19th Seanad.

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

title: 1989 Irish general election


text:
Orphanage

An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusive. There may be substance abuse or mental illness in the biological home, or the parent may simply be unwilling to care for the child. The legal responsibility for the support of abandoned children differs from country to country, and within countries. Government-run orphanages have been phased out in most developed countries during the latter half of the 20th century but continue to operate in many other regions internationally. It is now generally accepted that orphanages are detrimental to the emotional wellbeing of children, and government support goes instead towards supporting the family unit.

A few large international charities continue to fund orphanages, but most are still commonly founded by smaller charities and religious groups. Especially in developing countries, orphanages may prey on vulnerable families at risk of breakdown and actively recruit children to ensure continued funding. Orphanages in developing countries are rarely run by the state. However, not all orphanages that are state-run are less corrupted; the Romanian orphanages, like those in Bucharest, were founded due to the soaring population numbers catalyzed by dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who banned abortion and birth control and incentivized procreation in order to increase the Romanian workforce.

Today's residential institutions for children, also described as congregate care, include group homes, residential child care communities, children's homes, refuges, rehabilitation centers, night shelters, and youth treatment centers.

History

The Romans formed their first orphanages around 400 AD. Jewish law prescribed care for the widow and the orphan, and Athenian law supported all orphans of those killed in military service until the age of eighteen. Plato (Laws, 927) says: "Orphans should be placed under the care of public guardians. Men should have a fear of the loneliness of orphans and of the souls of their departed parents. A man should love the unfortunate orphan of whom he is guardian as if he were his own child. He should be as careful and as diligent in the management of the orphan's property as of his own or even more careful still." The care of orphans was referred to bishops and, during the Middle Ages, to monasteries. As soon as they were old enough, children were often given as apprentices to households to ensure their support and to learn an occupation.

In medieval Europe, care for orphans tended to reside with the Church. The Elizabethan Poor Laws were enacted at the time of the Reformation and placed public responsibility on individual parishes to care for the indigent poor.

Foundling Hospitals
The growth of sentimental philanthropy in the 18th century led to the establishment of the first charitable institutions that would cater to orphans. The Foundling Hospital was founded in 1741 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram in London, England, as a children's home for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The first children were admitted into a temporary house located in Hatton Garden. At first, no questions were asked about child or parent, but a distinguishing token was put on each child by the parent.

On reception, children were sent to wet nurses in the countryside, where they stayed until they were about four or five years old. At sixteen, girls were generally apprenticed as servants for four years; at fourteen, boys were apprenticed into a variety of occupations, typically for seven years. There was a small benevolent fund for adults.

In 1756, the House of Commons resolved that all children offered should be received, that local receiving places should be appointed all over the country, and that the funds should be publicly guaranteed. A basket was accordingly hung outside the hospital; the maximum age for admission was raised from two months to twelve, and a flood of children poured in from country workhouses. Parliament soon came to the conclusion that the indiscriminate admission should be discontinued. The hospital adopted a system of receiving children only with considerable sums. This practice was finally stopped in 1801, and it henceforth became a fundamental rule that no money was to be received.

19th century

By the early nineteenth century, the problem of abandoned children in urban areas, especially London, began to reach alarming proportions. The workhouse system, instituted in 1834, although often brutal, was an attempt at the time to house orphans as well as other vulnerable people in society who could not support themselves in exchange for work. Conditions, especially for the women and children, were so bad as to cause an outcry among the social reform–minded middle-class; some of Charles Dickens' most famous novels, including Oliver Twist, highlighted the plight of the vulnerable and the often abusive conditions that were prevalent in the London orphanages.

Clamour for change led to the birth of the orphanage movement. In England, the movement really took off in the mid-19th century although orphanages such as the Orphan Working Home in 1758 and the Bristol Asylum for Poor Orphan Girls in 1795, had been set up earlier. Private orphanages were founded by private benefactors; these often received royal patronage and government oversight. Ragged schools, founded by John Pounds and the Lord Shaftesbury were also set up to provide pauper children with basic education.

Orphanages were also set up in the United States from the early 19th century; for example, in 1806, the first private orphanage in New York (the Orphan Asylum Society, now Graham Windham) was co-founded by Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, widow of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Under the influence of Charles Loring Brace, foster care became a popular alternative from the mid-19th century. Later, the Social Security Act of 1935 improved conditions by authorizing Aid to Families with Dependent Children as a form of social security.

A very influential philanthropist of the era was Thomas John Barnardo, the founder of the charity Barnardos. Becoming aware of the great numbers of homeless and destitute children adrift in the cities of England and encouraged by the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury and the 1st Earl Cairns, he opened the first of the "Dr. Barnardo’s Homes" in 1870. By his death in 1905, he had established 112 district homes, which searched for and received waifs and strays, to feed, clothe and educate them. The system under which the institution was carried on is broad as follows: the infants and younger girls and boys were chiefly "boarded out" in rural districts; girls above fourteen years of age were sent to the industrial training homes, to be taught useful domestic occupations; boys above seventeen years of age were first tested in labor homes and then placed in employment at home, sent to sea, or emigrated; boys of between thirteen and seventeen years of age were trained for the various trades for which they might be mentally or physically fitted.

Deinstitutionalization
Evidence from a variety of studies supports the vital importance of attachment security and later development of children. Deinstitutionalization of orphanages and children's homes program in the United States began in the 1950s, after a series of scandals involving the coercion of birth parents and abuse of orphans (notably at Georgia Tann's Tennessee Children's Home Society). In Romania, a decree was established that aggressively promoted population growth, banning contraception and abortions for women with fewer than four children, despite the wretched poverty of most families. After Ceausescu was overthrown, he left a society unable and unwilling to take care of its children. Researchers conducted a study to see what the implications of this early childhood neglect were on development. Typically reared Romanian children showed high rates of secure attachment. Whereas the institutionally raised children showed huge rates of disorganized attachment. Many countries accepted the need to de-institutionalize the care of vulnerable children—that is, close down orphanages in favor of foster care and accelerated adoption.

Foster care operates by taking in children from their homes due to the lack of care or abuse of their parents, where orphanages take in children with no parents or children whose parents have dropped them off for a better life, typically due to income. Major charities are increasingly focusing their efforts on the re-integration of orphans in order to keep them with their parents or extended family and communities. Orphanages are no longer common in the European Community, and Romania, in particular, has struggled greatly to reduce the visibility of its children's institutions to meet conditions of its entry into the European Union.

Some have stated it is important to understand the reasons for child abandonment, then set up targeted alternative services to support vulnerable families at risk of separation such as mother and baby units and day care centres.

Comparison to alternatives
Research from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) is often cited as demonstrating that residential institutions negatively impact the wellbeing of children. The BEIP selected orphanages in Bucharest, Romania that raised abandoned children in socially and emotionally deprived environments in order to study the changes in development of infants and children after they had been placed with specially trained foster families in the local community. This study demonstrated how the loving attention typically provided to children by their parents or caregivers is pivotal for optimal human development, specifically of the brain; adequate nutrition is not enough. Further research of children who were adopted from institutions in Eastern European countries to the US demonstrated that for every 3.5 months that an infant spent in the institution, they lagged behind their peers in growth by 1 month. Further, a meta-analysis of research on the IQs of children in orphanages found lower IQs among the children in many institutions, but this result was not found in the low-income country setting. Worldwide, residential institutions like orphanages can often be detrimental to the psychological development of affected children. In countries where orphanages are no longer in use, the long-term care of unwarded children by the state has been transitioned to a domestic environment, with an emphasis on replicating a family home. Many of these countries, such as the United States, utilize a system of monetary stipends paid to foster parents to incentivize and subsidize the care of state wards in private homes. A distinction must be made between foster care and adoption, as adoption would remove the child from the care of the state and transfer the legal responsibility for that child's care to the adoptive parent completely and irrevocably, whereas, in the case of foster care, the child would remain a ward of the state with the foster parent acting only as a caregiver. Orphanages, especially larger ones, have had some well publicised examples of poor care. In large institutions children, but particularly babies, may not receive enough eye contact, physical contact, and stimulation to promote proper physical, social or cognitive development. In the worst cases, orphanages can be dangerous and unregulated places where children are subject to abuse and neglect. Children living in orphanages for prolonged periods get behind in development goals, and have worse mental health. Orphanage children are not included in statistics making it easy to traffic them or abuse them in other ways. There are campaigns to include orphanage children and street children in progress statistics.

Foster care
The benefit of foster care over orphanages is disputed. One significant study carried out by Duke University concluded that institutional care in America in the 20th century produced the same health, emotional, intellectual, mental, and physical outcomes as care by relatives, and better than care in the homes of strangers. One explanation for this is the prevalence of permanent temporary foster care. This is the name for a long string of short stays with different foster care families. Permanent temporary foster care is highly disruptive to the child and prevents the child from developing a sense of security or belonging. Placement in the home of a relative maintains and usually improves the child's connection to family members. Experts and child advocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm children's development by separating them from their families and that it would be more effective and cheaper to aid close relatives who want to take in the orphans.

Group homes
Another alternative is group homes which are used for short-term placements. They may be residential treatment centers, and they frequently specialize in a particular population with psychiatric or behavioral problems, e.g., a group home for children and teens with autism, eating disorders, or substance abuse problems or child soldiers undergoing decommissioning.

Kinship care
Most children who live in orphanages are not orphans; four out of five children in orphanages have at least one living parent and most having some extended family. Developing countries and their governments rely on kinship care to aid in the orphan crisis because it is cheaper to financially help extended families in taking in an orphaned child than it is to institutionalize them.

Commercial orphanages
While many orphanages are run as not for profit institutions, some orphanages are run as for profit ventures. This has been criticized as incentivizing against the welfare of the orphans.

Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty. It is speculated that flush with money, orphanages are increasing and push for children to join even though demographic data show that even the poorest extended families usually take in children whose parents have died. Visitors to developing countries can be taken in by orphanage scams, which can include orphanages set up as a front to get foreigners to pay school fees of orphanage directors' extended families. Alternatively the children whose upkeep is being funded by foreigners may be sent to work, not to school, the exact opposite of what the donor is expecting. The worst even sell children. In Cambodia, from 2005 to 2017, the number of orphanages increased by 75%, with many of these orphanages renting children from poor families for $25/month. Families are promised that their children can get free education and food here, but what really happens is that they are used as props to garner donations. Some are also bought from their parents for very little and passed on to westerners who pay a large fee to adopt them. This also happens in China. In Nepal, orphanages can be used as a way to remove a child from their parents before placing them for adoption overseas, which is equally lucrative to the owners who receive a number of official and unofficial payments and "donations". In other countries, such as Indonesia, orphanages are run as businesses, which will attract donations and make the owners rich; often the conditions orphans are kept in will deliberately be poor to attract more donations.

Worldwide
Developing nations are lacking in child welfare and their well-being because of a lack of resources. Research that is being collected in the developing world shows that these countries focus purely on survival indicators instead of a combination of their survival and other positive indicators like a developed nation would do.

Europe
The orphanages and institutions remaining in Europe tend to be in Eastern Europe and are generally state-funded.

Albania
There are estimated to be about 31,000 orphans (0–14 years old) in Albanian orphanages. (2012 statistics) In most cases they were abandoned by their parents. At 14 they are required, by law, to leave their orphanage and live on their own. There are approximately 10 small orphanages in Albania; each one having only 12-40 children residing there. The larger ones would be state-run.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
SOS Children's Villages giving support to 240 orphaned children.

Bulgaria
The Bulgarian government has shown interest in strengthening children's rights.

In 2010, Bulgaria adopted a national strategic plan for the period 2010–2025 to improve the living standards of the country's children. Bulgaria is working hard to get all institutions closed within the next few years and find alternative ways to take care of the children.

"Support is sporadically given to poor families and work during daytime; correspondingly, different kinds of day centers have started up, though the quality of care in these centers is poorly measured and difficult to monitor. A smaller number of children have also been able to be relocated into foster families".

There are 7000 children living in Bulgarian orphanages wrongly classified as orphaned. Only 10 percent of these are orphans, with the rest of the children placed in orphanages for temporary periods when the family is in crisis.

Estonia
As of 2009, there are 35 different orphanages.

Hungary
A comprehensive national strategy for strengthening the rights of children was adopted by Parliament in 2007 and will run until 2032.

Child flow to orphanages has been stopped and children are now protected by social services. Violation of children's rights leads to litigation.

Lithuania
In Lithuania there are 105 institutions. 41 percent of the institutions each have more than 60 children. Lithuania has the highest number of orphaned children in Northern Europe.

Poland
Children's rights enjoy relatively strong protection in Poland. Orphaned children are now protected by social services.

Social Workers' opportunities have increased by establishing more foster homes and aggressive family members can now be forced away from home, instead of replacing the child/children.

Moldova
More than 8800 children are being raised in state institutions, but only three percent of them are orphans.

Romania
The Romanian child welfare system is in the process of being revised and has reduced the flow of infants into orphanages.

According to Baroness Emma Nicholson, in some counties Romania now has "a completely new, world class, state of the art, child health development policy." Dickensian orphanages remain in Romania, but Romania seeks to replace institutions by family care services, as children in need will be protected by social services. As of 2018, there were 17,718 children in old-style residential centers, a significant decrease from about 100,000 in 1990.

Serbia
There are many state orphanages "where several thousand children are kept and which are still part of an outdated child care system". The conditions for them are bad because the government does not pay enough attention in improving the living standards for disabled children in Serbia's orphanages and medical institutions.

Slovakia
The committee made recommendations, such as proposals for the adoption of a new "national 14" action plan for children for at least the next five years, and the creation of an independent institution for the protection of child rights.

Sweden
One of the first orphanages in Sweden was the Stora Barnhuset (1633-1922) in Stockholm, which remained the biggest orphanage in Sweden for centuries. In 1785, however, a reform by Gustav III of Sweden stipulated that orphans should first and foremost always be placed in foster homes when that was possible.

In Sweden, there are 5,000 children in the care of the state. None of them are currently living in an orphanage, because there is a social service law which requires that the children reside in a family home.

United Kingdom
During the Victorian era, child abandonment was rampant, and orphanages were set up to reduce infant mortality. Such places were often so full of children that nurses often administered Godfrey's Cordial, a special concoction of opium and treacle, to soothe baby colic.

Orphaned children were placed in either prisons or the poorhouse/workhouse, as there were so few places in orphanages, or else they were left to fend for themselves on the street. Such openings in orphanages as were available could only be obtained by collecting votes for admission, placing them out of reach of poor families.

Known orphanages are:

Sub-Saharan Africa
The majority of African orphanages (especially in Sub-Saharan Africa) appear to be funded by donors, often from Western nations, rather than by domestic governments.

Ethiopia
"For example, in the Jerusalem Association Children's Home (JACH), only 160 children remain of the 785 who were in JACH's three orphanages." / "Attitudes regarding the institutional care of children have shifted dramatically in recent years in Ethiopia. There appears to be a general recognition by MOLSA and the NGOs with which Pact is working that such care is, at best, a last resort and that serious problems arise with the social reintegration of children who grow up in institutions, and deinstitutionalization through family reunification and independent living are being emphasized."

Ghana
A 2007 survey sponsored by OAfrica (previously OrphanAid Africa) and carried out by the Department of Social Welfare came up with the figure of 4,800 children in institutional care in 148 orphanages. The government is currently attempting to phase out the use of orphanages in favor of foster care placements and adoption. At least eighty-eight homes have been closed since the passage of the National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children. The website www.ovcghana.org details these reforms.

Kenya
A 1999 survey of 36,000 orphans found the following number in institutional care: 64 in registered institutions and 164 in unregistered institutions.

Malawi
There are about 101 orphanages in Malawi. There is a UNICEF/Government driven program on de-institutionalization, but few orphanages are yet involved in the program.

Rwanda
Out of 400,000 orphans, 5,000 are living in orphanages. The Government of Rwanda are working with Hope and Homes for Children to close the first institution and develop a model for community-based childcare which can be used across the country and ultimately Africa

Tanzania
"Currently, there are 52 orphanages in Tanzania caring for about 3,000 orphans and vulnerable children." A world bank document on Tanzania showed it was six times more expensive to institutionalize a child there than to help the family become functional and support the child themselves.

Nigeria
In Nigeria, a rapid assessment of orphans and vulnerable children conducted in 2004 with UNICEF support revealed that there were about seven million orphans in 2003 and that 800,000 more orphans were added during that same year. Out of this total number, about 1.8 million are orphaned by HIV/AIDS. With the spread of HIV/AIDS, the number of orphans is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years to 8.2 million by 2010.

South Africa
Since 2000, South Africa does not license orphanages any more but they continue to be set up unregulated and potentially more harmful. Theoretically, the policy supports community-based family homes but this is not always the case. One example is the homes operated by Thokomala.

Zambia
A 1996 national survey of orphans revealed no evidence of orphanage care. The breakdown of care was as follows: 38% grandparents, 55% extended family, 1% older orphan, 6% non-relative. Recently a group of students started a fundraising website for an orphanage in Zambia.

Zimbabwe
There are 39 privately run children's charity homes, or orphanages, in the country, and the government operates eight of its own. Privately run Orphanages can accommodate an average of 2000 children, though some are very small and located in very remote areas, hence can take in less than 150 children. Statistics on the total number of children in orphanages nationwide are unavailable, but caregivers say their facilities were becoming unmanageably overwhelmed almost on a daily basis. Between 1994 and 1998, the number of orphans in Zimbabwe more than doubled from 200,000 to 543,000, and in five years, the number is expected to reach 900,000. (Unfortunately, there is no room for these children.)

Togo
In Togo, there were an estimated 280,000 orphans under 18 years of age in 2005, 88,000 of them orphaned by AIDS. Ninety-six thousand orphans in Togo attend school.

Sierra Leone

 * Children (0–17 years) orphaned by AIDS, 2005, estimate 31,000
 * Children (0–17 years) orphaned due to all causes, 2005, estimate 340,000
 * Orphan school attendance ratio, 1999–2005 71,000

Senegal

 * Children (0–17 years) orphaned by AIDS, 2005, estimate 25,000
 * Children (0–17 years) orphaned due to all causes, 2005, estimate 560,000
 * Orphan school attendance ratio, 1999–2005 74,000

Nepal
There are at least 602 child care homes housing 15,095 children in Nepal "Orphanages have turned into a Nepalese industry there is rampant abuse and a great need for intervention." Many do not require adequate checks of their volunteers, leaving children open to abuse.

Afghanistan
"At Kabul's two main orphanages, Alauddin and Tahia Maskan, the number of children enrolled has increased almost 80 percent since last January, from 700 to over 1,200 children. Almost half of these come from families who have at least one parent, but who can't support their children." The non-governmental organisation Mahboba's promise assists orphans in contemporary Afghanistan. Nowadays the number of orphanages had changed. There are approximately 19 orphanages only in Kabul.

Bangladesh
"There are no statistics regarding the actual number of children in welfare institutions in Bangladesh. The Department of Social Services, under the Ministry of Social Welfare, has a major program named Child Welfare and Child Development in order to provide access to food, shelter, basic education, health services and other basic opportunities for hapless children." (The following numbers mention capacity only, not actual numbers of orphans at present.)

9,500 – State institutions 250 – babies in three available "baby homes" 400 – Destitute Children's Rehabilitation Centre 100 – Vocational Training Centre for Orphans and Destitute Children 1,400 -Sixty-five Welfare and Rehabilitation Programmes for Children with Disability

The private welfare institutions are mostly known as orphanages and madrassahs. The authorities of most of these orphanages put more emphasis on religion and religious studies. One example follows: 400 – Approximately – Nawab Sir Salimullah Muslim Orphanage.

Maldives
Orphans, Children (0–17 years) orphaned due to all causes, 2010, estimate 51.

India
India is in the top 10 and also has a very large number of orphans as well as a destitute child population. Orphanages operated by the state are generally known as juvenile homes. In addition, there is a vast number of privately run orphanages running into thousands spread across the country. These are run by various trusts, religious groups, individual citizens, citizens groups, NGO's, etc. While some of these places endeavor to place the children for adoption a vast majority just care and educate them till they are of legal majority age and help place them back on their feet. Prominent organizations in this field include BOYS TOWN, SOS children's villages, etc. There have been scandals especially with regard to adoption. Since government rules restrict funds unless there are a certain number of residents, some orphanages make sure the resident numbers remain high at the cost of adoption.

Pakistan
According to a UNICEF report in 2016, there are around 4.2 million orphaned children in Pakistan. Pakistan has had sizable economic growth from 1950 to 1999 yet they aren't performing well in multiple social indicators like education and health, and this is mainly due to the corrupt and unstable government. Pakistan heavily relies on the nonprofit sector and zakat to finance social issues such as aid for orphans. Zakat is a financial obligation on Muslims which requires one to donate 2.5% of the family's income to charity, and it is specifically mentioned in the Quran to take care of orphans. With the new use of zakat money from donations to investments it has a lot of potential in benefiting the development as well as the ultimate goal of poverty alleviation. The Pakistan government relies on this public sector on taking care of local issues so that they do not have the burden. Furthermore, only 6 percent of cash revenues are contributed to non-profits in Pakistan, and they are heavily favored by the government because it saves them money as non-profits are taking care of issues such as orphan care.

Taiwan
The number of orphanages and orphans drastically dropped from 15 institutions and 2,216 persons in 1971 to 9 institutions and 638 persons by the end of 2001.

Thailand
There are still a substantial number of NGOs and informal Orphanages in Thailand, particularly in Northern Thailand near the borders of Laos and Myanmar, e.g. around Chiang Rai. Very few of the children in these establishments are orphans, most have living parents. They attract funding from well-meaning tourists. Often protecting the children from trafficking/abuse is cited but the names and photographs of the children are published in marketing material to attract more funding. The reality is that the safest environment for these children is almost always with their parents or in their villages with familial connections where strangers are rarely seen and immediately recognized. A very few of these orphanages, go so far as to abduct or forcibly remove children from their homes, often across the border in Myanmar. The parents in local hill tribes may be encouraged to "buy a place" in the orphanage for vast sums, being told their child will have a better future. Some children's homes claim to always try to repatriate children with their families, but the local managers & director of the homes know of no such procedures or processes.

Vietnam
There are approximately 2 million highly vulnerable children in Vietnam with an estimated 500,000 orphaned or abandoned children. There are a number of orphanages present in the country including the Vinh Son Montagnard Orphanage, however these are generally privately funded. There are very few government run institutions.

South Korea
According to the Los Angeles Times, "There are now 17,000 children in public orphanages throughout the country and untold numbers at private institutions."

Japan
Approximately 39,000 children live in orphanages in Japan out of the 45,000 (2018 statistics) who are not able to live with their birth parents.

However, as of 2016, Japanese orphanages are severely underfunded, relying heavily on volunteer work. There are 602 foster homes across Japan, each with 30 to 100 children. A large portion of children in these orphanages are not actually orphans but victims of domestic abuse or neglect.

Cambodia
As of 2010, 11,945 children lived in 269 residential care facilities in Cambodia. About 44% were placed there by a parent. However it is estimated that there are 553,000 orphans in the country. Most of these children are cared for by their extended family or community.

China
There are currently over 600,000 abandoned orphans living in China (some would put the figure as high as 1 million ). Of these, 98% have special needs.

Laos
"It is stated that there are 20,000 orphaned children in Laos." However the figure generally remains unknown as about 30% of children are never registered with the government and remain invisible. In Laos nearly 50 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line and many children are involved in child labor. There are six orphanages that are run by SOS Children's Village that help with this problem.

Egypt
"The [Mosques of Charity] orphanage houses about 120 children in Giza, Menoufiya and Qalyubiya." "We [Dar Al-Iwaa] provide free education and accommodation for over 200 girls and boys." "Dar Al-Mu'assassa Al-Iwaa'iya (Shelter Association), a government association affiliated with the Ministry of Social Affairs, was established in 1992. It houses about 44 children." There are also 192 children at The Awlady, 30 at Sayeda Zeinab orphanage, and 300 at My Children Orphanage.

Note: There are about 185 orphanages in Egypt. The above information was taken from the following articles: "Other families" by Amany Abdel-Moneim. Al-Ahram Weekly (5/1999). "Ramadan brings a charity to Egypt's orphans". Shanghai Star (13 December 2001). "A Child by Any Other Name" by Réhab El-Bakry. Egypt Today (11/2001).

Orphanage Project in Egypt—www.littlestlamb.org

Sudan
There is still at least one orphanage in Sudan although the conditions there have been reported as very poor.

South Sudan
The number of orphans is expected to be 5,000 in 2023 in South Sudan. And in 2018, the UN Children Fund (UNICEF) reported that about 15,000 children in South Sudan had become separated from their families or were missing due to conflict.

Bahrain
The "Royal Charity Organization" is a Bahraini governmental charity organization founded in 2001 by King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah to sponsor all helpless Bahraini orphans and widows. Since then almost 7,000 Bahraini families are granted monthly payments, annual school bags, and a number of university scholarships. Graduation ceremonies, various social and educational activities, and occasional contests are held each year by the organization for the benefit of orphans and widows sponsored by the organization.

Iraq
UNICEF maintains the same number at present. "While the number of state homes for orphans in the whole of Iraq was 25 in 1990 (serving 1,190 children); both the number of homes and the number of beneficiaries has declined. The quality of services has also declined."

A 1999 study by UNICEF "recommended the rebuilding of national capacity for the rehabilitation of orphans." The new project "will benefit all the 1,190 children placed in orphanages."

Palestinian Territory
"In 1999, the number of children living in orphanages witnessed a considerable drop as compared to 1998. The number dropped from 1,980 to 1,714 orphans. This is due to the policy of child re-integration in their household adopted by the Ministry of Social Affairs."

Former Soviet Union

In the post-Soviet countries, orphanages are better known as "children's homes" (Детскиe домa). After reaching school age, all children enroll at internats (Школа-интернат) (boarding schools).

Russia
In 2021 it was recorded that there were 406,138 orphans living in orphan homes and families in Russia. UNICEF estimates that 95% of these children are "social orphans", meaning that they have at least one living parent who has given them up to the state. In 2011 Russian authorities registered 88,522 children who became orphans that year (down from 114,715 in 2009).

There are few webpages for Russian orphanages in English. "Of a total of more than 600,000 children classified as being 'without parental care' (most of them live with other relatives and fosters), as many as one-third reside in institutions."

In 2011, there were 1344 institutions for orphans in Russia, including 1094 orphanages ("children's homes") and 207 special ("corrective") orphanages for children with serious health issues.

Azerbaijan
It is estimated that more than 10,000 children are living in 44 orphanages. In general, "many children are abandoned due to extreme poverty and harsh living conditions. Some may be raised by family members or neighbors but the majority live in crowded orphanages until the age of fifteen when they are sent into the community to make a living for themselves."

Belarus
Approximate total – 1,773 (1993 statistics for "all types of orphanages")

Kyrgyzstan
Partial information: 85 – Ivanovka Orphanage

Tajikistan
There are 4 orphanages in the major cities and 64 boarding schools in Tajikistan, where 8275 children are being educated. Those four orphanages raise 185 children up to 3 years old. In total there are 160 orphans. This small number is likely due to the popularity of adopting.

Ukraine
Before the Russian invasion of 2022, there were an estimated 100,000 orphans in Ukraine's state-run facilities. Of this number about 80 percent are described as "social orphans", because the parents are either financially destitute, abusive, or addicted to drugs or alcohol and thus are unable to raise them. Due to a lack of funding and overcrowding the conditions at these orphanages are often poor, especially for disabled children.

Since 2012 the number of children adopted by foreigners has gradually been reducing. By 2016, the number of children adopted by foreigners had been reduced to around 200 from about 2,000 in 2012. A bit more than a thousand children were adopted by Ukrainians in 2016. During 2019 1,419 children were adopted. In 2020 2,047 children were adopted, in 1,890 cases the adoption was carried out by citizens of Ukraine.

Other information:
 * thousands – Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
 * 150 – Kyiv State Baby Orphanage
 * 30 – Beregena Orphanage
 * 120 – Dom Invalid Orphanage

Uzbekistan
Partial Information: 80 – Takhtakupar Orphanage

Australia
Orphanages in Australia mostly closed after World War II and up to the 1970s. Instead, children are mainly put in either Kinship, Residential or Foster care. Notable former orphanages include the Melbourne Orphanage and the St. John's Orphanage in Goulburn, New South Wales.

Indonesia
No verifiable information for the number of children actually in orphanages. The number of orphaned and abandoned children is approximately 500,000.

Fiji
Orphans, children (0–17 years) orphaned due to all causes, 2005, estimate 25,000

Haiti
Haitians and expatriate childcare professionals are careful to make it clear that Haitian orphanages and children's homes are not orphanages in the North American sense, but instead shelters for vulnerable children, often housing children whose parent(s) are poor as well as those who are abandoned, neglected or abused by family guardians. Neither the number of children or the number of institutions is officially known, but Chambre de L'Enfance Necessiteusse Haitienne (CENH) indicated that it has received requests for assistance from nearly 200 orphanages from around the country for more than 200,000 children. Although not all are orphans, many are vulnerable or originate in vulnerable families that "hoped to increase their children's opportunities by sending them to orphanages. Catholic Relief Services provides assistance to 120 orphanages with 9,000 children in the Ouest, Sud, Sud-Est and Grand'Anse, but these include only orphanages that meet their criteria. They estimate receiving ten requests per week for assistance from additional orphanages and children's homes, but some of these are repeat requests."

In 2007, UNICEF estimated there were 380,000 orphans in Haiti, which has a population of just over 9 million, according to the CIA World Factbook. However, since the January 2010 earthquake, the number of orphans has skyrocketed, and the living conditions for orphans have seriously deteriorated. Official numbers are hard to find due to the general state of chaos in the country.

Jamaica
A large amount of children on the island of Jamaica grow up without a parental relationship as a result of their parents' death. An example of places for these lone children to go to are SOS children's villages, The Maxfield Park Children's Home and the Missionaries of the Poor facilities.

Mexico
There are over 700 public and privates orphanages in Mexico which house over 30,000 children. In 2018 it was estimated that 400,000 children lacked parents. Of these 100,000 are thought to be homeless.

Some notable orphanages include:
 * Casa Hogar Jeruel Orphanage in Chihuahua City, Mexico
 * Casa Hogar Alegría

United States

While the term "orphanage" is no longer typically used in the United States, nearly every US state continues to operate residential group homes for children in need of a safe place to live and in which to be supported in their educational and life-skills pursuits. Homes like the Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania, Mooseheart in Illinois and the Crossnore School and Children's Home in North Carolina continue to provide care and support for children in need. While a place like the Milton Hershey School houses nearly 2,000 children, each child lives in a small group-home environment with "house parents" who often live many years in that home. Children who grow up in these residential homes have higher rates of high school and college graduation than those who spend equivalent numbers of years in the US Foster Care system, wherein only 44 to 66 percent of children graduate from high school.

Some private orphanages still exist in the United States apart from governmental child protective services processes. Following World War II, most orphanages in the U.S. began closing or converting to boarding schools or different kinds of group homes. Also, the term "children's home" became more common for those still existing. Over the past few decades, orphanages in the U.S. have been replaced with smaller institutions that try to provide a group home or boarding school environment. Most children who would have been in orphanages are in these residential treatment centers (RTC), residential child care communities, or with foster families. Adopting from RTCs, group homes, or foster families does not require working with an adoption agency, and in many areas, fostering to adopt is highly encouraged.

Guatemala
"...currently there are about 200,000 children in orphanages."

Peru
It is estimated that 550,000 children grow up without parents in Peru. Many of the children in orphanages are considered “social orphans”.

Significant charities that help orphans
Prior to the establishment of state care for orphans in First World countries, private charities existed to take care of destitute orphans, over time other charities have found other ways to care for children.
 * The Orphaned Starfish Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in New York City that focuses on developing vocational schools for orphans, victims of abuse and at-risk youth. It runs fifty computer centers in twenty-five countries, serving over 10,000 children worldwide
 * Lumos works to replace institutions with community-based services that provide children with access to health, education, and social care tailored to their individual needs.
 * Hope and Homes for Children are working with governments to deinstitutionalize their child care systems.
 * Stockwell Home and later Birchington, started by Charles H Spurgeon, is now Spurgeons after the last orphanage closed in 1979. Spurgeons Children's Charity provides support to vulnerable and disadvantaged children and families across England.
 * SOS Children's Villages is the world's largest non-governmental, non-denominational child welfare organization that provides loving family homes for orphaned and abandoned children.
 * Dr. Barnardo's Homes are now simply Barnardo's after closing their last orphanage in 1989.
 * OAfrica, previously OrphanAid Africa, has been working in Ghana since 2002, to get children out of orphanages and into families, in partnership with the government and as the only private implementing partner of the National Plan of Action.
 * Joint Council on International Children's Services is a nonprofit child advocacy organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. It is the largest association of international adoption agencies in America, and in addition to working in 51 countries, advocates for ethical practices in American adoption agencies

title: Orphanage


text:
Talk:Center City/old

In December 2003 this page (it was located at Center City at the time) was merged into Central business district. It now exists to provide attribution. Jenks24 (talk) 08:44, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Center City/old


text:
User:Wally

Greetings!

I'm a student in Washington, in the District of Columbia, and a former, legal and seasonal resident of St. Petersburg, Florida (yes, there is a relation to the one in Russia). I originally hail from Stamford, Connecticut.

My hobbies on Wikipedia include the peerage, political science in general, history of all sorts (especially military, American, European, and British). This, I suppose, reflects a Western bias I have growing up in a Western country. I endeavor to rise above this, however.

Additionally, I owe Wikipedia my interest in a good many areas to which I was not previously introduced; these include sociology, constitutional law, voting systems and the politics of Australia, Canada, Ireland and France. A sincere thank you is needed to all those who have contributed to the various articles in these sections, as you've done a smashing job.

Any questions or comments you'd like to toss at me can be dropped on my talk page. I highly doubt you'll have to compete for space; despite several months residence I seem to be enough of a newbie to still have UtherSRG's "Shit that needs fixing" page. In the highly-unlikely event I become someone important whose Midas touch on a page is requested, that can be sent to the talk page, too. I can additionally be contacted there for any concerns regarding requests for advocate services, should they be needed.

Articles which I've written or to which I've contributed substantially

 * ORP Blyskawica (under my IP, 4.64.4.16) (3 December 2003)
 * Siege of Vienna (under my IP, 4.64.4.16) (4 December 2003)
 * Leo Ryan (18 December 2003)
 * Unification of Sweden (15 January 2004)
 * Army of the Shenandoah (29 February 2004)
 * U.S. Republican Party presidential nomination, 2004 (4 March 2004)
 * Assassin (throughout March & April 2004)
 * Grammatical conjugation (24 March 2004)
 * Norodom Sihanouk (21 February & 28 March)
 * Baron Ellenborough (2 May 2004)
 * Thomas Daniel Knox, 6th Earl of Ranfurly (17 June 2004)
 * Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (26 June 2004)
 * Cyril Newall, 1st Baron Newall (22 December 2004)
 * Hearts of Iron 2 (25 December 2004)
 * Marquess Townshend (27 December 2004)
 * Fascism (ongoing, from 27 December 2004)
 * Baron Ravensworth (30 December 2004)
 * Battle of Long Island (1 January 2005)
 * Brideshead Revisited (3 January 2005)
 * Baron Portal of Hungerford (17 February 2005)
 * Peter Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith (24 April 2005)
 * Francis Newall, 2nd Baron Newall (24 April 2005)
 * Viscount Chaplin (19 June 2005)
 * Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 (24 June 2005)

title: User:Wally


text:
David A. Gross

David A. Gross is an American lawyer and former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.

He is currently a partner in the communications practice of Wiley Rein LLP where he assists U.S. companies seeking to enter or expand international businesses, as well as non-U.S. companies and organizations seeking to invest in, monitor, and understand the U.S. market. Gross also advises foreign companies on non-U.S. countries and opportunities and informs clients regarding the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and other international bodies.

Department of State
Prior to joining Wiley Rein, Gross served as the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs from 2001 to 2009. He was responsible for the formulation and advocacy of international communications policy for the United States. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the rank of Ambassador.

While at the Department of State, Gross led U.S. delegations to several major international telecommunications conferences, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference (2002, 2006), ITU World Telecommunication Development Conferences (2002, 2006) and ITU World Telecommunication Standardization Assemblies (2004, 2008). He also led U.S. delegations to three APEC Ministerial Meetings in Shanghai, Lima, and Bangkok.

Gross was the head U.S. government negotiator and head of the delegation for the multilateral preparatory conferences for both phases of the United Nations' "Heads of State" World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and was a member of the UN Information and Communications Technologies Task Force and co-led the U.S. delegation to the formal Summits in Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005). Gross also led interagency telecommunications delegations to many countries, conducted bilateral discussions at senior levels with representatives from more than 70 countries and provided commercial and policy advocacy on behalf of U.S. companies in markets around the world.

Other positions
Gross was the National Executive Director of Lawyers for the 2000 Bush-Cheney presidential campaign and served as Washington Counsel for AirTouch Communications (1994–2000), acquired by Vodafone in 1999. From 1979-1993, he was in private practice at the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan.

Personal
Gross received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and received his Juris Doctor (J.D) from Columbia University Law School. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. For many years, he has been active with various bar associations, including the Federal Communications Bar Association (in which he serves as President, has twice been elected as an officer, and has often served as co-chair of various committees) and the International Bar Association (in which he has been vice-chair of the Communications Committee).

David Gross father, Robert A. Gross (physicist), was a physicist who led the department of mechanical engineering at Columbia University. From 1982 to 1990, Robert Gross served as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. David Gross resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife and nearby son.

title: David A. Gross


text:
North Woolwich

North Woolwich is an area in the London Borough of Newham in East London, England, on the northern bank of the River Thames, across the river from Woolwich. It is connected to Woolwich by the Woolwich Ferry and Woolwich foot tunnel.

Despite lying on the northern, Essex, side of the Thames, the area was within the historic county of Kent. It was part of the parish of Woolwich in the Blackheath hundred, but since 1965 has been in Greater London. Its position within Kent was an arrangement most likely imposed in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England from 1066.

Toponymy
The placename North Woolwich was probably taken from North Woolwich railway station which opened in 1847 and closed in 2006; before that, the area was referred to by terms such as "Woolwich in Essex", "Kent in Essex" and "detached Woolwich".

Local government
The area now called North Woolwich was originally in the eastern part of the Manor of Ham, in the Becontree hundred of Essex; a territory that was subsequently divided into the more familiar West and East Ham, sometime in the 12th century. North Woolwich appears to have been separated a century or so before that time, following the Norman conquest.

Having defeated the English, William the Conqueror rewarded his followers and consolidated his rule, by dividing the lands of his new Kingdom between them. Amongst the foremost of these was Hamo, Steward to the king and Sheriff of Kent, who was given manors in Essex, Kent and Surrey.

The Domesday Book of 1086 shows Hamo as holding land on both sides of the river as part of the manor of Woolwich. The widely-held view is that the upheaval of the conquest gave Hamo an opportunity to attach some of his land in Essex to his manor of Woolwich and by extension to his Sheriffdom of Kent. In so doing he became both lord of the manor and Sheriff on both sides of the ferry crossing, an arrangement that allowed him to more effectively tax the revenues of the ferry. This enhanced control of the crossing may also have given him personal military and political advantages.

The parish of Woolwich developed from the manor, and administered North Woolwich until 1889 when it was replaced by the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich and made part of the new County of London. The neighbouring areas' local authorities of East Ham, West Ham and Barking, while also heavily urbanised, were excluded from the new London authority to remain in Essex; and so North Woolwich remained an anomaly at county level.

Local administration changed again in 1965, with the creation of the London Borough of Newham as part of a new Greater London area. North Woolwich joined West Ham, East Ham and other areas between the rivers Lea, Thames and Roding to form an authority which effectively reestablished the old area of Ham.

The administrative association with Woolwich ended at that time, and Woolwich itself became part of a new London Borough of Greenwich, whereas North Woolwich became part of the London Borough of Newham.

Urban development
It appears that a hamlet in the area was destroyed by medieval floods and the area remained uninhabited from that time until the 19th century.

The area was formerly the site of industries including the cable works of W. T. Henley (later Associated Electrical Industries) and the Western Electric Company (later Standard Telephones and Cables) on the river to the west of the ferry, and a large Harland & Wolff ship building and repair shop at Gallions Point to the south of the King George V Dock entrance lock (not to be confused with their works at the western end of the dock). Often on the day of launch of a new ship, the company would invite children from the local primary school (Storey Street, now closed) to witness the event.

The population peaked just before the First World War, and reduced substantially in the Second World War when it was heavily bombed.

In the last decade, North Woolwich has seen major redevelopment as part of wider urban regeneration across the Royal Docks, including the ongoing redevelopment of the former North Woolwich railway station site to provide 348 homes, as well as 75 new homes at Woolwich Reach and 163 apartments at Stories Wharf, in the vicinity of the Woolwich ferry terminal.

Geography
Unlike many areas of London, North Woolwich had formally-defined boundaries by which it comprised two separate tracts of riverside land. The smaller and more westerly part, containing 68 acre, extended west for about 1/2 mi from North Woolwich station. The larger detached part, further fragmented by dock facilities, extended east from the Royal Victoria Gardens. However as in many areas of London, informal local definitions of districts are more nuanced

Most of Pier Road and the Royal Victoria Gardens, as well as King George V DLR station, are, strictly speaking, in a finger of East Ham surrounded by North Woolwich. However, as is so often the case in London, formal boundaries have not proved the deciding factor in defining local areas, and this part of East Ham has also long been regarded as being part of North Woolwich.

Conversely, the area of the eastern part that lies north of the docks – an area of employment land, infrastructure facilities and post-industrial dereliction, with very few residents – is more usually seen as being part of Beckton, an area that has never had any formal definition.

In summary, the area now commonly considered as North Woolwich differs markedly from the two areas which formerly had the association with Woolwich, covering a smaller area but with a higher population. It could now be said to consist of the area to the south of King George V Dock and Lock, east of the boundary with the Silvertown area of West Ham.

Nearby places
The nearest Docklands Light Railway station is King George V.
 * Woolwich
 * Silvertown
 * Custom House
 * Beckton

Transport
The King George V DLR station is North Woolwich's principal public transport asset, offering direct links to the City, Canary Wharf (via Poplar), Stratford and Woolwich.

The extension of the Docklands Light Railway to the area opened in December 2005. Until 2009, this terminated at King George V; a further extension under the river to Woolwich Arsenal opened in 2009.

The disused North Woolwich railway station, which was closed in preparation for future transport developments which will use sections of the line, is situated adjacent to the ferry terminal. This situation means that North Woolwich now sports two old station buildings. The closed North London Line station is adjacent to an earlier station which closed in 1979; this housed the Old Station Museum from 1984 until it closed in 2008, which was devoted to the history of the Great Eastern and London and North Eastern railways.

North Woolwich is also linked to Woolwich, to its south, by the Woolwich Free Ferry (which connects the North Circular and South Circular roads) and the Woolwich foot tunnel.

title: North Woolwich