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Talk:Dardania (Balkans)

The following sentence makes no sense, I have no idea where it comes from but there is no such word as 'producted' in English...: During the Aurelian Dardanorum and Trajan, in Dardanian mines was producted Metalli Vlpiani and Metalli Dardanici. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.220.101.142 (talk) 19:59, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

For a taste of the level of discussion concerning the renaming of Kosovo, see this bulletin board: http://pub18.ezboard.com/fbalkansfrm35.showMessage?topicID=188.topic

--Wetman, 19:13, 27 Feb 2004

It is not true that Kosovars want to use the ancient name of Dardania to lay claim to western Macedonia. Such statements become even more bizarre when one suggests that Kosovars want to claim northern Albania. This it total nonsense.

If you think otherwise that's no problem. You have the right to your opinion, but that’s just an opinion, not a proven fact. Hence, if you think that the above nonsense should be included in the article, you must first prove this to others (including myself). Please do not waste time if your only source is some anti-Albanian, anti-Kosovar site. There is a lot of rubbish in many pro-Serb, pro-Macedonian or pro-Greek sites and I am having none of it.

By proof, I mean an official document of an international institution or an organisation with international reputation for being neutral and impartial. --Kosovar 03:05, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The Land where Pear-trees Abound
Will we ever be able to verify whether pear-trees actually do "abound in the area"? And did they "abound in the area" in ancient times? Needs more verification. Alexander 007 10:34, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

The story about pear trees are naive. There is no evidence whatsoever that pear trees were cultivated in Dardania. Pear tree haven't come to Europe before expedition of Lucullus (I cen. before Christ) and the name Dardania should be older? And, after all, we haven't got reference to that paraetimology? --Manojlo 11:22, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

And another thing. There is Dardania in Asia Minor (nort western part). Does that name have something to do with Albanian word pear? --Manojlo 18:10, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Hi. I am a registered user, but I don't feel like logging in. I am skeptical of the Albanian etymology of Dardania as I am skeptical of most of these very hypothetical etymologies; but I never implied that it is pseudo-linguistics or outdated linguistics (it might be as of 2006, I don't know). My understanding was that some specialists in the field consider or formerly considered such an etymology. In a book, The Illyrians, by a British archaeologist John Wilkes, the Albanian etymology of Dardania (from dardhë, "pear") is mentioned without comment on its veracity on page 85 of the first printing. Also, it is my understaning that the word does also mean "cheese", besides "pear". If so, this could offer another explanation of the original meaning. 69.224.116.250 22:45, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Hi User who is registered but doesn't feel like logging in, hypothetical are all ancient etymologies. But one should try to interprete them with the language of the local inhabitants, to see any connection. And clearly there is. I am not sure the same word can mean both pear and cheese. Does not make senseIlir pz 22:53, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, I don't know. It may be a freak of memory. But if someone does verify the additional meaning, see this quote "References to Dardanian cheese, a famous and widely exported product, also testify to a large shepherding population." However, interpreting ancient toponyms through languages currently spoken in the area is in fact very hazardous, and has led to numerous folk etymologies, such as those Illyrian toponyms interpreted through Serbian or Croatian, or ancient Macedonian or Paionian through Slavic. Even apparently "clear" cases may be completely wrong, as in the case of Ljubljana in Slovenia; most linguists reject the popular Slavic etymology (from ljubiti, etc.). 69.224.116.250 23:21, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Interpretations, interpretations...never ending argument. True that folk etymologies are inevitable in this case. It is true that there are several sources that show the population in Dardania were good at making cheese, but we are talking about the name Dardania itself. That is what I was saying earlier. Not sure how familiar you are with Albanian language, but the name "Dardhë" does mean pear, and usually adjectives in Albanian are made using the "ria" ending, and typically of northern dialect "nia", so the name becomes "Dardhania" (as it refers to northern Albanians). I can see a connection at least.Ilir pz 23:29, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Kosovo-Dardania
What is this connection (that has been brought only recently) between Kosovo and Dardania? --HolyRomanEmperor 20:37, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
 * HRE this connection has not been brought recently. Of course it is recent for you, if you have read only Serbian history. For the comment below, simple answer, lying and speculating is a lame characteristic. About Kosovo will its people decide how they want to call it. Cheers, HRE. Ilir pz 14:25, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, future name and Kosovo/discussion should not be the issue here. It is ancient land, and it shouldn't be connected with present day politics. I am urging Ilirpz (and his alter ego, Telex) to refrain from nationalistic interpretations of ancient history. --Manojlo 11:24, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

 * No, no, you misunderstood me. I was refering to why is this strange romantic nationalistic "Dardanism". I have seen loads of Albanian users lik "Dardanv" and there's even a WikiProject:Dardania instead of Kosovo. It reminds me of the Illyrian movement or the Aryan movement. Why is this age arising, I meant to ask? --HolyRomanEmperor 13:06, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Dardan is a popular name in Kosovo, HRE, just like my name Ilir, or Artan, or Alban, or Teuta,...these are all names of people. Not any kind of strange romantic or nationalistic thing. Just as Sers proudly say they are Slavs, Albanians are explaining their roots in the region. I don't see any nationalism here. No need to speculate. Ilir pz 14:08, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Uhh, Ilir, "romantic nationalism" is the era of dreams, writing poetry, acting world's most famous dramas and composing the greatest omnibi of the History of Music - Classism... --HolyRomanEmperor 16:32, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

 * What is strange about it then?Ilir pz 09:08, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

History of modern state and regions as ir/relevant point for Dardania article?
I think it is irrelevant. Check Category:Ancient Roman Provinces.

--Manojlo 18:06, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Compromise?
I just edited text with compromise changes.

Noel Malcom can't be cited on pears issue, because reference is only to amazon.com.

And, that is my second bigger edit, Roman provinces are not to be part of history of modern states, provinces, regions, nations. Category reffering to History of Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, etc. were deleted. As I stressed above that is the principle carried through every other Roman province in the Wikipedia.

I kept A. Bue reffering to link between pears and Dardania, despite I hold that irrelevant. I kept it because I see it is very important for some users. It is also my personal try to settle things down.

--Manojlo 12:50, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

 * That is a book, Manojlo, I have it. If you wanna buy it, get it from Amazon. You are not trying to settle anything down, but trying any Albanian (or Kosovo)related article to make it sound Serbian. That is not very kind of you, thus intolerable. Ilir pz 13:28, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

You should make reference to relevant text and not to book sellers advertisment. --Manojlo 13:39, 30 April 2006 (UTC) And Noel Malcom is not etymologist, isn't he? --Manojlo 13:42, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Noel Malcolm wrote a book on Kosovo, no matter what he is. And he is a respected writer. You cannot publish a book in Internet. So you have to buy it if you care. Feel free to read reviews if you are interested. 13:43, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

I am not happy that you are rejecting any compromise. Noel Malcom is a journalist, his opinion is hardly relevant. For instance, he thinks that the name Dardania comes from special kind of chees. http://www.rastko.org.yu/kosovo/istorija/malkolm/djankovic-facts.html

So we have pears in Dardania article, how about some chees? --Manojlo 16:51, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

 * hehehehheheh now that is called a special type of vandalism, ironizing to extremes. Not pear but cheese. You are going too far man/woman. Your source is obvious, and can be seen from the airplane that is pro-Serbian, and as such is made for exactly the purpose you are using wikipedia, to make albanian-related articles as "serbianated" as possible. Not gonna work, not as long as my fingers can type here. Ilir pz 18:42, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

You got me all wrong. Noel Malcom has a theory about connection with chees and Dardania. I don't appreciate him very much, after all he is just a journalist, but if you thnik that his oppinion is relevant,

(1) what is your specific reason to disbelieve his oppinion about cheese? (2) and on the another hand, what is your specific reason to believe in his pears theory?

--Manojlo 18:48, 30 April 2006 (UTC) edit: --Manojlo 22:13, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

A Boue
Who is A. Boue? --Manojlo 18:53, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

French savant Ami Boue. So you reverted again ha? nice, counting towards the necessary number to block you. Go ahead.Ilir pz 19:01, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

What does it mean savant Ami Boue? Can you tell me more? Any reference of work, biography, biblography, etc. And, please stick to the point. (I don't wish you to be blockaded). --Manojlo 22:08, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

 * See Ami Boué. Telex 22:10, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't understand. Ami Boue was geologist? Why is (s)he relevant for Dardania question, specialy for the pears issue? --Manojlo 22:18, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Horrible revert war. You people should learn to talk. Leshkuq 00:29, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Ilir's note...
...because it is the 21st century and highly unusual to do such things. --HolyRomanEmperor 10:12, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Dardania means special kind of cheese
According to Noel Malckom, the name of Dardania comes from special kind of cheese. Reference added here http://www.rastko.org.yu/kosovo/istorija/malkolm/djankovic-facts.html and in the text.

In the case of Roman provinces, history of modern regions or states as categories, are unusual. See, for instace, other provinces, such as: Pontus, Galatia Caria. Neither has category History of Turkey. So, Dardania should't have Category History of Serbia, or History of Kosovo.

--Manojlo 13:55, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

HolyRomanEmperor and Manojlo your propagander agains everythig wat is albanians is a big argument for the albanians--Ejte 06:13, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Material

 * http://historia.shqiperia.com/iliret/mbreteria_dardanise.php
 * http://www.raremaps.com/maps/big/12003.jpgEjte 02:40, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * http://www.euratlas.com/big/big0300.htm
 * http://www.euratlas.com/big/big1600.htm And the serbs call as "turk" hahaha
 * Wach this http://www.euratlas.com/big/big1800.htm he was independent
 * Nice map Ejte. Do you think you can get the copyrights, to publish them here? Ilir pz 10:14, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

In "Travels in European Turkey" (London, 1850): E. Spencer gives an account of the Illyrian Empire:

...The Illyrians founded an immense empire extending from Epirus ... to the Danube and the Black Sea and comprehending the whole of the maritime coast of Hungary to Venice and Triest, with Istria, Carnolia, Carinthia, Styria, and Friuli... History and tradition affords us many interesting details of the battles of the Illyrians with the ancient Greeks and the Romans... Napoleon was well versed in the history of these people when he flattered their national pride...(Vol. I, pp. 93-94)

As indicated by E. Spencer, the Illyrians fought, in fact, for a long time against the Romans, who eventually conquered the whole of Illyria in A.D. 9. Many Illyrian soldiers, who susbsequently served in the Roman army rose to high positions. Some became emperors and viceroys: Claudius II, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian, Maximilian, Constantius, Valens, and Valentinian. Mention should also be made of Saint Jerome, one of the greatest scholars of his time. The Illyrians gave to Byzantium three of its greatest emperors: Constantine, who officially accepted Christianity; Justinius, who built Saint Sophia; and Justinianus, famous for his Code of Laws. The philologist Paul Kretschmer went so far as to maintain that the Illyrians actually founded Byzantium.

Proud of what they considered their heritage (see E. Spencer, Travels... I, p. 94), the South Slavs became eager to recreate ancient Illyria by forming a union among themselves.

Albania was at that time a domain of the Turkish Empire comprising four vilayets or provinces: Shkodra - which included the Dukagjini Plateau (Metohija), Monastir (presently Bitolja), Janina, and Shkup (Skopje), presently in Macedonia. This latter province was more readily called Kosova by the Turks in memory of the victory of a battle on the Plain of Kossovo, the "Campo dei Merli" of old Venetian maps. The capital of this province had at times been Priština.6

6. According to A. Boue, the "battles" that took place were not fought on the plain, but on its "plates-formes" at Gasimestan, "one and a half hours north of Pristina;" the name of Kossovo, he explained, was applied later to the Plain of Sitnica and the surrounding territory (A. Boue, op. cit., I, p. 142).

Owing to the efforts of the committee headed by A. Frasheri,7  80 delegates representing all four provinces convened at the city of Prizren, in the Vilayet of Shkup (Kosova) in June 1878, three days prior to the opening of the Congress of Berlin, whose purpose was to reconsider the decision reached by San Stefano's preliminary Peace Treaty. The assembly of these delegates was henceforth called The League of Prizren. Its task was to defend Albania's rights.

Kosova became thus for the Albanians the center of their resistance and they have ever since regarded this territory as a symbol of their struggle for independence.

7. An Albanian patriot of broad culture (1839-1894). His younger brother, Sami, wrote in Turkish as well as in Albanian. Greatly admired for his Universal Dictionary of History and Geography (a six-volume encyclopedia) and for other writings, he is considered in Turkey as one of its most prominent poets. Having fought for Albania’s rights, he spent five years in prison. The sec.ond of the three brothers, Naim, is the most popular South Albanian poet.

As soon as the Serbs occupied the ceded territories, the Albanians were asked to evacuate them. With respect to the Albanians inhabiting those areas, Mr. Gould, Consul of Great Britain in Belgrade, wrote to the Marquis of Salisbury, Secretary of the Foreign Office of Great Britain, on Nov. 26, 1878:

I hear that the Servian Government has behaved with great and unnecessary harshness, not to say cruelty, toward the Albanians in the recently ceded districts. If my information is correct, and I have every reason to believe it to be so, the peaceful and industrious inhabitants of over 100 Albanian villages in the Toplitza and Vranja Valley were ruthlessly driven forth from their homesteads by the Servians in the early part of this year. These wretched people have ever since been wandering about in a starving condition in the wild country beyond the Servian frontier. They have not been allowed to gather in their crops on their own lands, which were reaped by the Servian soldiery... I ... casually stated to his Excellency (Ristic) that these facts had come to my knowledge, and that should they be confirmed I felt certain Her Majesty's Government and the majority of the Great Powers would call the Servian Government to account, and insist upon strict justice being done to these unfortunate people, whose only crime was their belonging to an alien race and another creed...10

10. EM., Accounts and Papers (38); 1878-9; LXXIX 79, 574-575. Letter reproduced by Rizaj in op. cit. pp. 24 1-242.

As to the number of the Albanians inhabiting those territories, various statistics and extant documents give contradictory figures. According to a note of the administrative divisions dating from 1873, the district of the Sandjak of Niš had about 100 000 Albanians. As regards the number of refugees, the figures given by Prof. J. Cvijic for those who settled in Kosova is 30 000, that furnished by English documents, 100 000. According to Turkish sources, the number of the Albanians who were forced to leave the region amounted to 300 000.

On June 3, 1978, Rilindja (p.7), published a letter addressed by these miserable people (who were deprived of all means and many of whom were sick) to the European Powers requesting that at least a commission be set up to look into their serious problem.11

Leaving these helpless refugees to their sad fate, the Serbs colonized the region with astounding rapidity. Referring to the colonization of the area by the Serbs, V. Cubrilovic stated in his "Memorandum" (about which more will be told later) that "Toplica and Kosanica, once Albanian regions of ill-repute, gave Serbia the finest regiment in the wars of 1912-1918".

11. For the data concerning the Albanians of these territories, see E. PlIana, "Les raisons et Ia maniere de Ia migration des refugies albanais du territoire du Sandjak de Nish a Kosova (1877-1878)," Gjurmime Albanologjike IX 1979, Prishtine, 1980, pp. 129-156. Cf. also R. MarmullakuAlbania and the Albanians, London, 1975, p. 24 (does not contain details).

The Great Powers eventually left the Balkans in the hands of Austria and Russia. The influence of the latter, however, grew stronger as time went by.

In regard to Kosova, Russia sent priests to Serbian monasteries situated in the region exalting, together with the Orthodox faith, heroes and deeds pertaining to Serbian legends.18 They opened schools which were hotbeds of Slav propaganda. Clearly, her purpose was to colonize the province where the Serbs were but an insignificant minority.

The West knew little at that time about the Balkan states. In fact, the ignorance was such that some missionaries who went to Macedonia to support the Bulgarian cause confessed that formerly they had been ignorant of the fact that there were Bulgarians in the Peninsula; they had thought that only Greeks lived there. Practically nothing was known, of course, relative to the Albanians; those unfamiliar with the question could be told anything. Thus, when two Russian consuls in Kosova and Monastir were killed by Albanians (who acted in self-defense), these acts were described as being committed by 'Moslem fanatics'. The two propaganda agents were presented as martyrs; their funerals were grandiose. Since Christianity was equated with civilization and Islam with backwardness, the Christians were regarded as the allies of the Great Powers. Thus the Catholic Albanians who are animated by patriotic feelings were ignored by design. The Albanians were depicted merely as backward Moslems and as allies of the Turks.

18. "It seemed sheer folly to make a large and costly Serb theological school in a Moslem Albanian town and to import masters and students, when funds are so urgently needed to develop free Serb land" (ME. Durham,High Albania, London, 1909, p. 275). Even E. Noel-Buxton, of the Balkan Committee, whose attitude was pro-Slav, had to admit that "The spirit of chauvinism is but thinly veiled under the garb of churchmanship. Religion is degraded to the level of pretext for exciting national zeal" (Noel-Buxton, op. cit. p. 50).

Many books and articles were published by the South Slavs for the purpose of showing the ferocity of the Albanians, their backwardness, their despicable behavior, their lack of discipline, etc. Vladan Djordjevic, former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia, went even so far as to claim that until "as late as the 19th century", there had been Albanians with tail in their rear! Djordjevic even referred the reader to J.G. Von Hahn's scholarly work, Albanesische Studien, where, he asserted, he had found the information.19

19. V. Djordjevic,Les Albanais et les Grandes Puissances, 1913 p. 8. No information of this kind is contained in von Hahn’s work.

The purpose of all these writings was, of course, to draw a picture that gives to the non-specialist a very poor idea of the Albanians so that these, by dint of being despised by others may, in their innermost soul, start to despise themselves.20

20. According to Felix Adler, "The vice of vices is when we are held cheap by others sod then in our innermost soul start to think cheaply of ourselves." Protic, Gopcevic, Zupanic, Tomic, Djordjevic are some of the Slav authors who criticized the Albanians in a particularly uncivil way. Many others may be cited.

To be sure, there are established scholars - be they geographers, historians, anthropologists, or serious travelers and explorers - who have expressed opinions of a very different kind: H.N. Brailsford went even so far as to maintain that "from Byron's day downward it would be hard to find a Western European who has learned to know the Albanians without admiring them" (The New Republic, March 1, 1919). In fact those who had nice words on behalf of the Albanians were so numerous that the Serb S. Protic (Balkanicus) considered the tendency to praise the Albanians as highly ethical individuals and to describe them as "unusually gifted", to have become a fashion.21

21. 5. Protic,Das Albanesische Problem und die Beziehungen zwischen Oestereich- Ungarn, Leipzig, 1913, p. 19.

The fact remains, however, that the latter writings were not accessible to many. The influential French daily Le Temps, published merely articles favoring the Slavs and Greeks, for France was then Russia's ally.22

22. "Le journal parisien Le Temps avait mis ses colonnes a Ia disposition de ces detracteurs comme il les avait ouvertes pour les Grecs.. .," — "The Parisian daily Le Temps was at the disposal of these calumniators [i.e., of the Slays] as it was also at the disposal of the Greeks (Lumo Skendo, Albanais et Slaves, Lausanne, 1919, p. 3).

In order to achieve national unity with a delimited territory, the League had requested the Porte, in July 1878, to turn Albania into one vilayet. The request had not been granted. As a consequence, the Albanians, under their gallant leader Isa Boletini, a native of Kosova, openly took a stand against the Turks. All their activities were centered in the Kosova region, which became the cradle of their national struggle and thus acquired a special meaning for them.23

In 1912, when the Albanians seized Shkup (Skopje) and were about to enter Monastir (Bitolja), the Turks called a truce and granted them autonomy uniting the vilayets of Shkodra, Janina, Kosova, and part of Monastir. As a result of this Albanian victory, the government of the chauvinistic Young Turks Party was overthrown. The weakness of Turkey became thus evident.

The Albanians had administered a heavy blow to the Turks and rightly hoped for approval and sympathy, for, as Lord Goschen had rightly pointed out back in 1880, if the Turks lost Albania, they would lose their cause in Europe. Instead, the Albanian victory triggered the Balkan wars, the purpose of which was the annexation of Albanian-inhabited territories that were under Turkish rule.

At that time, Montenegro had been free from Ottoman rule for over forty years; Serbia and Greece for over eighty. These states, being independent, had their regular armies. When attacked on all sides (by the Greeks, the Montenegrins, and, of course, by the Serbs, who entered Kosova), the Albanians, aware of the great danger, hastened to raise their flag and declared their neutrality.

23. SeeR. Marmullaku Albania and the Albanians, Hurst and Co., London, 1975, pp. 23-24.

The atrocities perpetrated by the Serbo-Montenegrins during the Balkan wars on the Albanian population were acknowledged by the Serbian socialist Dimitrije Tucovic (1881-1914) in his book Srbija i Albanija (published in 1946):

The bourgeois clamored for a merciless extermination and the army executed the orders. The Albanian villages, from which the people had made a timely flight, were burned down. There were at the same time barbaric crematoria in which hundreds of women and children were burned alive...24

24. Cited by R. Marmullaku, op. cit., p. 137.

Brutalities committed by the Serbo-Montenegrins are also described in the Carnegie report. They may be best summed up in two short paragraphs taken from Mary Edith Durham's Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle (1920):

No Turks ever treated Armenians worse than did the two Serb peoples treat the Albanians in the name of the Holy Orthodox Church (p.235).25

25. Cf. also Aubrey Herbert, M.P.: "Very little was known about Albania. The general opinion was that the Albanians were another branch of the Armenian family, and indeed, as far as massacres were concerned, this was most understandable . . ." (A. Herbert, Ben Kenilim,

London, 1924, P. 24). According to ME. Durham, the slaughters of the Armenians were nothing compared to those of the Albanians: "The massacres of Adana and the resultant misery pale before the scarlet horrors committed wholesale in cold blood by the so-called followers of Christ" (Durham, Struggle for Scutari, London, 1914, p. 303).

About these slaughters see 1. Albaniens Golgotha, Anklageacten gegen die Vernichter des Albanervolkes, gesammelt und herausgegeben von L. Freundlich, Vienna, 1913. — 2. Enquete dans les Balkans, Rapport de Ia Commission d’enquete de Ia Dotation Carnegie pour Ia Paix internationale, Paris, 1914.

As for the Balkan Slav and his vaunted Christianity, it seems to me all civilization should rise and restrain him from further brutality (p.238).26

26. What surprised ME. Durham quite specially was the religious fanaticism of the Serbs:

"It was not astonishing that the Serbs hated Islam, but that they should fiercely hate every other Christian church, I had not expected. The Catholic was hated the most." According to Durham, the Moslem was to the Serbs "a lesser evil than the Catholic," (Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle, London, 1920, p. 52). "The hatred of the Serb Orthodox for the Catholics was shown in 1913 in the Balkan war, when the Montenegrin troops, whose object was said to be to liberate Christians, fell upon the little church of Mazreku, trampled the Host underfoot, dressed up in the priestly vestments, danced about, and amused themselves by cutting noses from images of the saints and firing bullets into the crufix" (Some Tribal Origins ... p. 28).

In 1913, a number of soldiers led by a bandit clad as an Orthodox priest stripped and bayonetted to death Luigj Palici, an Albanian Franciscan from Gjakova, because he refused to cross himself in the Orthodox manner. "Austria intervened sharply. Had she not done so, in the words of a Catholic refugee, there would not have been a Catholic left" (E.C. Helmreich, The Diplomacy of the Balkan Wars, Harvard U.P., 1938, p. 317).

In 1919, a treaty concerning minorities was signed at Saint-Germain-en- Laye whereby the Yugoslav Government pledged to protect all citizens without discrimination as to race, nationality, and creed. Yet the persecutions against the Catholic Kosovars continued. Mother Teresa’s father, a native of Shkup (Skopje), and a noted Albanian patriot, was poisoned by the Serbs, as reported by his son Lazer Bojaxhiu in an interview published in Gente (Dec. 1979 andJan. 1980). Mother Teresa’s family was obliged to move to Tirana, where her mother and sister died (the former in 1974; the latter in 1976).

In 1929, was executed Father Shtjefen Gjecovi, a Franciscan, greatly respected by all the Albanians for his erudition and his righteousness. As a result, on May 5, 1930, three Catholic priests, obliged to leave the region, addressed the "League of Nations" a memorandum concerning the tragic plight of the Albanians in Yugoslavia (see H. Kokalari, Kosova, Rome, 1962, p. 165).

It should be reiterated that the unbelievable massacres were in no way committed as a result of a struggle between Christians and Moslems, as it was at that time believed by Gladstone and stressed in his speeches.27 They were solely motivated by the desire to decimate the Albanian race. Not only Kosova was coveted, but all of North Albania

27. Cf. E. Noel-Buxton: "Mr. Gladstone said, the Christian, who retained his faith at the price of slavery, when by recanting he could obtain every favour, is entitled to the name of martyr and to him Europe owes the gratitude" (op. cit., p. 27).— That the conversions of the Albanians would be taken as a pretext to expand territory was already pointed out by A. Boue who was for the freedom of all nations and had little respect for those who "for sheer purposes of invasion consider themselves chosen by God to exterminate the Moslems and make people happy." (". . . chez ceux, qui s’intitulent, par pure politique d’envahissement, les elus du Tres-Haut pour l’extermination des Musulmans et le bonheur du genre humain," Boue, Recueil d’itineraires dans Ia Torquie dEurope, 1854, I, "Avant-Propos."

During World War I, Albania's neutrality was not respected and mass massacres continued.

At the turn of the century, the reports of the Ohio journalist J.A.Mac Cahan concerning the Bulgarian uprising, had shocked the West; as known, Russia used these accounts as a pretext to march against the Turks. By contrast, the Albanian cause did not benefit from the Carnegie report, nor by the frequent and moving declarations of philanthropists and journalists who, like M.E. Durham, were eyewitnesses to mass massacres of women and children, simply because it was not in the interest of the Great Powers to take Albania's defense.28

28. No study is available on ME. Durham, except for that of Sh. Shaqiri, "ME. Durham dhe Shqiptar&,"Nentori, Oct. 1981, pp. 149-164. A talented painter and writer,a good historian and an excellent anthropologist (her diaries and other papers are available at the "Royal Anthropological Institute of Gr. Br. and Ireland," London, of which she was a member and to whose journal, Man, she contributed many articles), she also worked as a volunteer in Montenegrin hospitals as well as for the "Macedonia Relief Fund." Her first book was devoted to the Serbs (Through the Land of the Serbs, London, 1904). But, as pointed out by Aubrey Herbert, it was only their revolting cruelty that turned her affection into dislike" (A. Herbert, Ben Kendim, p. 220). Her later attitude toward the Serbo-Montenegrins is conveyed by a passage contained in Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle: "On arriving in London I packed up the Gold Medal given me by King Nikola and returned it to him stating that I had often expressed surprise at persons, who accepted decorations from Abdul Hamid, and that now I knew that he and his subjects were even more cruel than the Turk, I would not keep his blood-stained medal any longer. I communicated this to the English and Austrian press. The order of Saint Sava given me by King Petar of Serbia, I decided to keep a little longer till some pecularly flagrant case" (p. 25).

The well-known Swiss geographer H. Hauser, rightly pointed out that the principle of nationality, like all other principles, cannot be applied in a strict and equitable manner given the fact that most places constitute, with respect to the population inhabiting them, a mosaic.29

29. H. Hauser, "Le principe des nationalites," (30-page pamphlet, reprint fromRevuepolitique internationale, March-April, 1916). See also A. van Gennep,Traite des nationalites, 1922, p. 24.

In 1878, Lord Goschen and Lord Fitzmaurice had been in favor of a large Albania comprising the Albanian-inhabited territories of the four vilayets.30 But, at the Congress of Berlin it was decided -as already pointed out - that territories indisputably Albanian be handed over to Montenegro and to Serbia. Places connected with Albanian history and national pride, like Janina, Arta, Preveza, were allotted to the Greeks, who within a relatively short period of time were to exterminate the overwhelming Albanian population inhabiting them. No system of guarantees was applied. Albanians, numbering hundreds of thousands were to be forcibly sent to Turkey.

The manner in which Albanian territories were ceded to neighboring states clearly indicates how arbitrary decisions that make history may be. And one cannot but agree with Mircea Eliade (The Myth of the Eternal Return), who, with respect to the theory that valorizes historical events, to which the 19th century attached so much importance, pertinently remarked that such a theory could have been established only by thinkers who know nothing about injustices and miseries caused by history.

30. A. Herbert, op. cit., p. 216 and M.E. Durham, Twenty-Years p. 83.

Albanian population lived, remained outside the borders assigned to her.31 As Lord Fitzsimmons rightly remarked, "Albania was to start her career as a state mutilated from her birth". Indeed, as a nation humiliated in her pride, she had no place among her sister nations. She was doomed to poverty, bitterness, and complete isolation.

In regard to Kosova, a territory where Albanians displayed their most important activities for the independence of their nation and a region which, as some scholars contend, is the cradle of the Albanian people, the principles of ethnicity and self determination were not observed. Nor had they been taken into account when districts indisputably Albanian had been allotted to Montenegro and Serbia by the Treaty of Berlin. At that time, the principle of history had been ignored as well.

31. The tragic fate of many of these Albanians, who remained outside the borders assigned to the state of Albania, was to populate Asia Minor. As indicated (p. 10), the guarantees stipulated by the Treaty of Berlin were not honored by Serbia. Likewise, over 300,000 Albanians inhabiting the regions ceded to Greece were expelled by the Greek Government and obliged to settle in Turkey as a result of an exchange treaty of the Turkish and the Greek Governments (see, among others, A.A. Pallis, "The exchange of populations in the Balkans," Nineteenth Century, March, 1925, pp. 376-387). Pallis begins his article by saying that ‘the exchanges of populations, as a method of settling the problems of minorities, has been condemned in many quarters as a barbarous and dangerous innovation in internal politics." The Greek delegate at the Lausanne Conference had, in fact, declared that ‘Greece agrees that the compulsory exchanges shall not be applicable to her Moslem subjects of Albanian origin." However, the Greeks declared the Moslems of Tchameria as being "merely Albanophones," but in reality Greeks, and on this basis forced them to emigrate (Pallis art. cit.). Pallis argued that they emigrated of their own accord and that they were pleased in Turkey. This, however, is not the opinion of Ruth Pennington who returned to England in 1927 after ten months of work with the immigrants, ‘In Turkey the are 300,000 Albanian-speaking immigrants. Of these at least 10% would willingly shift their quarters and move again seeking for better land, to rejoin cousins and friends, who have already moved. Turkey does not wish for any further depopulation, but in spite of official prohibition, for the next 10 to 20 years there will be a constant leakage. . ." (Near East and India, Sept. 15, 1927, p. 333).

Although in 1913, the population of the south Albanian region ceded to Greece was over 90% Albanian, no Albanian schools or newspapers were ever allowed. This population has been almost extirpated on account of the harsh treatment to which it was subjected.

When, following World War I, the Dalmatian question was discussed, the fact that the West Adriatic coast had previously belonged to the Venetians, Austrians, Hungarians, and - in parts - to the Turks, and that, moreover, Slav colonization of the Coast was a relatively recent event in history (for, although the Slavs had settled in some parts of the Coast already in the 7th century, colonization was still going on as late as the beginning of the 20th century),32 did not have an adverse effect relating to the claims of the South Slavs. According to M.R. Vesnic, ...except for historical arguments... no present day consideration would authorize Italy to spell out such pretentions. Economically, geographically, and from the point of view of morale, these shores are inseparable from the hinterland which is Yugoslavia.33

32. Austria supported the Slavs against the Italians. Cf. M.E. Durham: "The Slavizing process in Dalmatia visibly progressed until the German-Austrians began to realize that they were warming a viper and feel nervous" (Twenty Years p. 13); cC. also U. Biscottini, Sull italianita della Dalmazia, 1930, p. 55.

33. MR. Vesnic, Les aspirations nationales de Ia Serbie (no date) p. 16.

Thus, disregarding historical considerations, Yugoslavia was allotted territories that were vast beyond her wildest dreams: to her devolved the beautiful Dalmatian Coast, where the Slavs had not ruled before, except for brief periods of time (a claim contested by the Hungarians) on some portions of it; to her was ceded Macedonia where the Serb population was insignificant and to which the Serbs had no claims before 1885;34 to her was allotted the Vojvodina (Banat) where a certain number of Serbs had been hospitably allowed to settle in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The newly created state of Yugoslavia also retained territories which, regardless of the principles of ethnicity and self-determination had been previously granted to Serbia and Montenegro by the Treaty of Berlin and forcibly annexed by them.

34. In 1880, the French consul in Scutari, when describing Macedonia in an "Aperiu geographique" of Albania, prepared by him for the French Government, did not even mention the Serbs: ‘La Macedonie est en effet partagee entre les Albanais, les Grecs, les KutzoValaques et les Bulgares," — Macedonia is divided between Albanians, Greeks, Vlachs, and Bulgarians," (unpublished document contained in Albanie, Dossier I, "Archives de la Defense," Chateau de Vincennes, Paris). Cf. also M.E. Durham, The Serajevo Crime (London, 1925): "When I was living in Ochrida in the winter of 1903-4, a Serb schoolmaster had but just arrived. The largest school in town was the Bulgar one. The Greeks made a bad second. In spite of all his efforts, the Serb only succeeded in scraping up about 50 persons including his own family, the Greek priest and myself, to celebrate Saint Sava’s day. The majority were poor school children picked up in the town. In those days anyone who said that the Serbs would one day own Ochrida would have been thought insane" (p. 27). II ‘Dr. Milovanovich admitted in 1898 that the Serbs did not begin to think about Macedonia till 1885" (E. Noel-Buxton, Balkan Problems and European Peace, London, 1919, P. 27). /1 In regard to Macedonia, A. van Gennep, citing the Carnegie Report, criticized the Serb scholars Belic and Cvijic, attributing no scientific value to their research, because their sole purpose, according to the Carnegie report, was "to support the political claims of Serbia" (Van Gennep, Traitet? &s nationalites, Paris, ed. Payot, 1922, P. 202).

Faust, when translating the New Testament into his mother tongue, rendered with "action" the meaning of "logos", thus writing: "at the beginning was action".35 As prototype of modern man, Faust did not believe in the fascination and power of the word, as traditional doctrines do. Since then, however, sociologists and anthropologists, especially Frazer, have pointed out the magic that not merely traditional doctrines, but also the so-called primitive peoples attach to certain words and names, the use they make of them in myths, and how these myths affect them. In his turn, Freud has rightly remarked that the primitive mind is contained in all of us. We are impressed by words. Indeed, the suggestive power emanating from some particular words and names that affect our unconscious, especially when used in myths, surpasses action. More exactly, words may become dynamic symbols; they automatically generate action owing to the very magic contained in them.

In fact, Old Serbia acquired for the Serbs a magic power similar to that contained in Illyria.

a. It was asserted that Stara Srbija was the cradle of the Nemanjis, the Serbian kings. Special emphasis, in this regard, was laid on the Glorious Empire of Stefan Dušan.

b. Of foremost importance was considered the Battle of 1389 against the Turks on the Field of Kosova. It was somehow implied in various writings that Czar Dušan's Empire was sacrificed on that battle which was said to have been fought by the Serbs alone to protect Europe.

c. The Serbs who wanted to prove that the Albanian-inhabited region had formerly been ethnically Serb, underscored and proclaimed widely what it became known as the Serbian Exodus or the Emigration of the Serbs to Hungary. It was stressed that the Serbs, as a result of the Austro-Turkish wars of 1690 and 1735, had been obliged to evacuate the region and emigrate to Hungary under the leadership of their bishop, Arsenije III Crnojevic. And that, subsequently, the land, once vacant, had been colonized by the ferocious Albanians assisted by the Turks. The Albanians inhabiting Kosova were thus considered as recent settlers who had no right to be there.

These important issues which played a paramount role in the delimitation of the Albanian borders shall be discussed in PartII.

33. MR. Vesnic, Les aspirations nationales de Ia Serbie (no date) p. 16.

Now is History of Kosovo

YES, YET YOU SEEM TO LEAVE OUT THE FACTS THAT THE REGIONS YOU MENTION HAD ALWAYS BEEN INHABITED BY SLAVS. THERE IS NO MENTION, NO RECORDING, NO ACCOUNT OF ANY ALBANIAN STATE ANYWHERE. YOU CLAIM ILLYRIAN ANCESTRY, AS IF TO JUSTIFY ALBANIA'S TERRITORIAL, TERRORISTIC, AGRRESSIVE WAR-MONGERING. NOT JUST SERBIA, BUT MACEDONIA AND EVEN NORTHERN GREECE. YOU SEEM TO FORGET THAT KOSOVO WAS THE CRADLE OF SLAVIC CIVILISATION IN THE BALKANS, NOT ALBANIAN. FROM THE 5TH CENTURY SLAVS SETTLED THERE AND MIXED WITH THE ILLYRIANS, THIS IS WRITTEN IN THE CHRONICLES OF THE BYZANTINE EMPERORS. THE ONLY STATES THAT EXISTED THERE WERE SLAVIC (1ST BULGARIAN, THEN SERB). WHAT ALBANIAN STATE EVER EXISTED IN KOSOV0, OR ANYWHERE FOR THAT MATTER ?. REFER TO THE HISTORY OF ALBANIANS HERE ON WIKI, IT IS SCANT- 2 PARAGRAPHS. YOU FORGET THAT CRUCIAL POINT THAT, WHEREVER THE ALBANIANS CAME FROM, THEY WERE A SCATTERED, SHEPHERDING PEOPLE WITH NO STATE. IT WAS ONLY DURING OTTOMAN TIMES THAT THEY BECAME THE MAJORITY IN KOSOVO. WHY? BECUASE OVER 90 % CONVERTED TO ISLAM AND HELPED THE TURKS PURGE THE CHRISTIANS. NATURALLY, FROM THE MOUNTAINS IN ALBANIA THEY MOVED INTO THE PASTURES OF KOSOVO, DISPLACING THE SERBS. THIS IS YOUR TRUTH. ALSO, REFER TO THE 1911 BRITANNICA ENCYCLOPEDIA, DIRECT QUOTE - "ALBANIANS WERE REFERRED TO AS THE SCURGE OF EUROPE". ENOUGH SAID.

Etymology, again
I've removed the WP:OR claim about the Greek mythological figure "Dardanos" as the alleged etymology of "Dardania"/"Dardanoi". It was completely unsourced, and the claim that it is the "most likely" origin is obviously POV. In fact, it's most probably nonsense. All ancient tribes had eponymic founder figures in Greek mythology (from "Hellen" and his various sons representing the Greek tribes (Dorus, Aeolus etc.), to Thrax, Illyrius, Pelasgus, Aegyptus, Libya and so on so forth. Obviously, all those countries were not named after the legendary figures, but the legendary figures after the countries. Fut.Perf. ☼ 20:03, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

 * That was introduced into the article by User:Dardanos 6th January 2007, no citation. Lisa the Sociopath 20:08, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Phew! And I was about to update the etymology of the state of Malacca after that well known Greek hero... or was it the soft cheese? Well, you learning something every day :-) Politis 20:27, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Not to mention the eponymic founder of Pustec... Fut.Perf. ☼ 20:33, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Many names the Greeks gave to tribes and peoples were exonyms.For example Aegyptus was a mythological charakter but Aegypt was not called Aegypt by its people.Megistias (talk) 13:27, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Map is not proper

 * The map given is of the roman provinces......Megistias (talk) 13:09, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dardania (Balkans)


text: Template:Sargo class submarine

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

title: Template:Sargo class submarine


text:
Boston Lyric Opera

Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) is an American opera company based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1976. BLO is the largest and longest-lived opera company in New England. BLO employs nearly 350 artists and creative professionals annually—vocalists, artisans, stagehands, costumers, and scenic designers—many of whom are members of the Boston community.

Productions
Each season, BLO produces four mainstage productions in the Greater-Boston area, one of which is a featured new work. BLO receives partial funding from a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. BLO regularly invests in co-productions with other U.S. companies including New York City Opera, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera.

BLO's community work has included participation in the "Egypt in Boston" thematic season that celebrated Egypt at several of Boston's leading cultural institutions in 1999–2000. In the summer of 2002, BLO produced "Carmen on the Common", a community-outreach initiative of a summer-long education series which culminated in two free, fully staged outdoor performances of Bizet's Carmen on Boston Common. Similar plans were scheduled for Verdi's Aida in the 2005–2006 season, but were cancelled because of insufficient financial support.

Creative personnel
The conductor John Balme served as general director from 1979 to 1989. Janice Mancini Del Sesto was general director of BLO from 1992 to 2008, while Stephen Lord was BLO music director from 1991 to 2008. During that time, the company's budget grew from $800,000 (USD) to $6 million (USD). Since 2008, BLO's general and artistic director of BLO is Esther Nelson. In June 2010, BLO announced the appointment of David Angus as the company's next music director, as of the 2010–2011 season, and he continues to lead musically the company.

In 2009, John Conklin joined BLO as an artistic advisor and in 2012 Julia Noulin-Mérat joined as the associate producer. As of 2019, John Conklin has set designed 15 productions and Julia Noulin-Mérat has set designed 10 productions.

In 2010, BLO commissioned a work from composer Richard Beaudoin to precede its February 2011 performances of Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Beaudoin responded with a 20-minute work for singers and chamber ensemble.

In 2021, Esther Nelson and Julia Noulin-Mérat departed from Boston Lyric Opera.

title: Boston Lyric Opera


text:
Tur Abdin

Tur Abdin (طور عبدين; Tor; Turabdium; or  ) is a hilly region situated in southeast Turkey, including the eastern half of the Mardin Province, and Şırnak Province west of the Tigris, on the border with Syria and famed since Late Antiquity for its Christian monasteries on the border of the Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire. The area is a low plateau in the Anti-Taurus Mountains stretching from Mardin in the west to the Tigris in the east and delimited by the Mesopotamian plains to the south. The Tur Abdin is populated by more than 80 villages and nearly 70 monastery buildings and was mostly Syriac Orthodox until the early 20th century. The earliest surviving Christian buildings date from the 6th century.

The name "Tur Abdin" is. Tur Abdin is of great importance to the Syriac Orthodox Assyrians, for whom the region used to be a monastic and cultural heartland. The Assyrian/Syriac community of Tur Abdin call themselves Suryoye, and traditionally speak a central Neo-Aramaic dialect called Turoyo.

Settlements
The town of Midyat and the villages of Hah, Bequsyone, Dayro da-Slibo, Saleh (with the old monastery of Mor Yaqub), Iwardo (with Mor Huschabo), Anhel, Kafro, Arkah (Harabale, with Dayro Mor Malke), Beth Sbirino, Miden (Middo), Kerburan, Binkelbe with Mor Samun Zayte and Beth Zabday (Azech) were all important Syriac Orthodox settlements among with countless other villages. Hah, today called Anıtlı, has the ancient 'Idto d'Yoldath-Aloho, the Church of the Mother of God.

Antiquity
The Assyrian king Adad-nirari II, who came to throne in the late 10th century BCE, removed the Arameans from political power in the Kashiari mountains (Tur Abdin). In the 9th century BCE the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II described crossing the plateau of Tur Abdin (which he calls "Kashyari") on his way to attack the region of Nairi, more than once. He erected a monument in Matiate, modern-day Midyat in Tur Abdin, which remains to be found. His successor, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, also crossed Tur Abdin.

Most ancient monuments in Tur Abdin are Christian, but as attested by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, the area has a pre-Christian history. Older names of the area indicate that the people living here worshipped Assyrian deities. Arches on the north side of the churches in Zaz and Saleh suggest pre-Christian buildings originally stood on the sites. Ancient Assyro-Babylonian religion is believed to have survived in the region until as late as the 18th century.

In 586 B.C. the prophet Ezekiel mentions the famed wine of Izlo, on the southern edge of the plateau of Tur Abdin, in his prophecy against Tyre.

The Mor Gabriel Monastery, the oldest Syriac Orthodox church in the world, was founded in 397 by the ascetic Mor Shmu'el (Samuel) and his student Mor Shem'un (Simon). According to tradition, Shem'un had a dream in which an Angel commanded him to build a House of Prayer in a location marked with three large stone blocks. When Shem'un awoke, he took his teacher to the place and found the stone the angel had placed. At this spot Mor Gabriel Monastery was built.

In Late Antiquity, the area was part of the Roman Empire's province of Mesopotamia and an important centre of Roman Christianity, called in Mons Masius or Izla. The Tur Abdin was fortified by the emperor Constantius II ((r. 337 – 361)), who constructed the fortress of Rhabdion to defend it during the Roman–Persian Wars. After the failure of Julian's Persian War in 363, the Tur Abdin became part of the Sasanian Empire along with the remaining territory of the five Transtigritine provinces and the nearby strongholds of Nisibis and Bezabde. The numerous monasteries of the Tur Abdin eventually became part of the Church of the East organized at the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 410. They mainly took the Miaphysite position of non-Chalcedonian Christianity after the Council of Chalcedon of 451. After a period of persecution by the Chalcedonian state church of the Roman Empire and during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the monasteries of the Tur Abdin enjoyed a particular prosperity under Arab rule in the latter 7th century.

The fortress of Rhabdion was mentioned by the 6th-century Greek historian Procopius, while the 6th-century Notitia Antiochena and the work of the 7th-century Greek geographer George of Cyprus both attest that Turabdium was an episcopal see. The bishop of Turabdium's seat was probably the village of Hah, in which were, besides the functioning 6th-century monastery, several ruined churches including the cathedral. The Tur Abdin became part of the Rashidun Caliphate in 640, during the Muslim conquest of the Levant. The Syriac Orthodox communities flourished under early Islamic rule; nearly 30 structures are known to have been wholly built or rebuilt in the following 150 years, during which most of the villages' churches were built.

After the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, the Syriac Orthodox Church split from the Greek-speaking Byzantine mainstream. They were then "severely persecuted as heretical Monophysites by the Byzantine Emperors", according to William Dalrymple, which led the Syrian Orthodox Church hierarchy to retreat to the "inaccessible shelter of the barren hills of the Tur Abdin."

Modern
Gaunt has estimated the Assyrian population at between 500,000 and 600,000 just before the outbreak of World War I, significantly higher than reported on Ottoman census figures. Midyat, in Diyarbekir vilayet, was the only town in the Ottoman Empire with an Assyrian majority, although divided between Syriac Orthodox, Chaldeans, and Protestants. Syriac Orthodox Christians were concentrated in the hilly rural areas around Midyat, known as Tur Abdin, where they populated almost 100 villages and worked in agriculture or crafts. Syriac Orthodox culture was centered in two monasteries near Mardin (west of Tur Abdin), Mor Gabriel and Deyrulzafaran. Outside of the area of core Syriac settlement, there were also sizable populations in the towns of Diyarbakır, Urfa, Harput, and Adiyaman as well as villages. Unlike the Syriac population of Tur Abdin, many of these Syriacs spoke other languages.

During World War I, 300,000 Assyrian/Syriac Christians were killed in the Ottoman Empire's Genocide in Syriac called Sayfo, or 'the sword'). In the last few decades, caught between Turkish assimilation policies against Kurds, and Kurdish resistance, many Assyrians/Syriacs have fled the region or been killed. Today there are only 5,000, a quarter of the Christian population thirty years ago. Most have fled to Syria (where the city of Qamishli was built by them), Europe (particularly Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands), Australia and the United States. In the past few years, a few families have returned to Tur Abdin.

Due to migration, the Syriacs' main residential area in Turkey today is Istanbul, where between 12,000 to 18,000 lives there. As of 2019, an estimated between 2,000 to 3,000 of the country's 25,000 Assyrians live in Tur Abdin, and they are spread among 30 villages, hamlets, and towns. Some of these locations are dominated by Syriacs while others are dominated by the Kurds. As part of a return movement, some Syriac Orthodox Christians returned to Tur Abdin villages from Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.

Christian resistance in Tur Abdin during WW1
The Syriacs of Diyarbekir Vilayet made significant resistance. Their strongest stand was at the villages of Azakh, Iwardo, and Basibrin. For months, Kurdish tribes and Turkish soldiers commanded by Ömer Naci Bey were unable to subdue the mostly Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic villagers who were joined by Armenian and other refugees from surrounding villages. The leaders of the Azakh fedayeen swore "We all have to die sometime, do not die in shame and humiliation" and lived up to their fighting words.

Recent conflicts
On 10 February 2006 and the following day, large demonstrations took place in the city of Midyat in Tur Abdin. Muslims angry about the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons gathered in Estel, the new part of the city, and started to march towards the old part of Midyat (6 kilometers away), where the Assyrians/Syriacs live. The mob was stopped by the police before reaching old Midyat.

In 2008 a series of legal challenges were made against the monastery of Mor Gabriel. Some local Kurdish villages sought to claim land on which the monastery had paid taxes since the 1930s as belonging to the villages, and made other accusations against the monastery. This led to considerable diplomatic and human rights action throughout Europe and within Turkey.

Monasteries

The most important Syriac Orthodox centre in Tur Abdin is the monastery of Dayro d-Mor Hananyo, 6 km south east of Mardin, in the west of the region. Built from yellow rock, the monastery is affectionately known as Dayro d Kurkmo in Syriac, Dayr al-Zafaran in Arabic, or Deyrülzafarân in Turkish: the Safron Monastery. Founded in AD 493, the monastery was the residence of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch from 1160 to 1932. Although the patriarch now lives in Damascus the monastery still contains the patriarchal throne and tombs of seven patriarchs and metropolitans. Today the monastery is led by a bishop and a monk and some lay assistants, and is a school for orphans. The bishop of Mor Hananyo is also the patriarchal vicar of Mardin. His goal is to rebuild the monastery and to preserve the history of the Syriac Orthodox church. The Dayro d-Mor Hananyo is part of the UNESCO world cultural heritage and was visited by numerous celebrities including the UK's King Charles III, when Prince of Wales.

In the centre of the Tur Abdin region, a few miles south of Midyat, is Dayro d-Mor Gabriel. Built in AD 397, Mor Gabriel monastery, is the oldest functioning Syriac Orthodox monastery on earth. It is the residence of the Metropolitan Bishop of Tur Abdin, seven nuns, four monks and a host of guests, assistants and students. The monastery is charged with keeping the flame of Syriac Orthodox faith alive in Tur Abdin, for which it is as much a fortress as a church.

The Saffron and Mor Gabriel monasteries are the most important of the region, existing along with six or seven other active monasteries:
 * The Mor Augin Monastery, located on the southern slope of Mt. Izla, has only been recently revived. It has a historical significance to the region. As evidence of that, a Syriac Orthodox Bishop in the Netherlands took the name Augin in respect for the founder of the monastery.
 * The Mor Abroham Monastery is located less than a mile east of Midyat, and it is known for having a large amount of farmland, some of which they donated to house Syrian refugees. Directly adjacent to the monastery lies the Turabdin Hotel and winery, which uses the monasteries vineyards to produce unique Syriac wines endemic to the region.
 * The St. Meryemana (Mary) Monastery, located next to the village of Anıtlı, functions as the religious center for the remaining Christians of the village, and has a school for Syriac children.
 * The Mor Yakup (Jacob) Monastery is located next to the village of Baristepe, and, like the St Mary Monastery, functions as the religious center for the remaining Christians of the village.
 * A second Mor Yakup Monastery is located in the village of Dibek (Syriac Badibe), having been rebuilt and occupied in 2013.
 * The Mor Malke Monastery is located on the northern slope of Mount Izla and is a few miles south of the village of Üçköy; it is connected by road to the village. Mor Malke is one of the newer monasteries of the region in terms of architecture, as it was rebuilt in the 30s. The monastery has a school, a church, and some farmlands.
 * One Monastery known as Mor Aho Monastery was abandoned during the 1900s, but was later turned into a small walled village, when two dozen or so Syriac villagers built houses in the courtyard of the Monastery because its high walls allowed for better security and defense than what their nearby village provided. The Monastery has one Nun, but as it has no monks or consistent liturgy held in its church it is technically not a monastery.

Notable people

 * Ibrahim Baylan (b. 1972), Swedish politician of Assyrian/Syriac descent
 * Shamoun Hanna Haydo (1870–1964), Assyrian/Syriac leader in the early 20th century
 * Nuri Kino, Swedish-Assyrian/Syriac descent journalist

title: Tur Abdin


text:
Christen Sørensen Longomontanus

Christen Sørensen Longomontanus (also as Longberg or Severin) (4 October 1562 – 8 October 1647) was a Danish astronomer.

The name Longomontanus was a Latinized form of the name of the village of Lomborg, Jutland, Denmark, where he was born. His father, a laborer called Søren, or Severin, died when Christen was eight years old. An uncle took charge of the child, and had him educated at Lemvig; but after three years sent him back to his mother, who needed his help to work the fields. She agreed that he could study during the winter months with the clergyman of the parish; this arrangement continued until 1577, when the ill-will of some of his relatives and his own desire for knowledge caused him to run away to Viborg.

There he attended the grammar school, working as a labourer to pay his expenses, and in 1588 went to Copenhagen with a high reputation for learning and ability. Engaged by Tycho Brahe in 1589 as his assistant in his great astronomical observatory of Uraniborg, he rendered invaluable service for eight years. He held Tycho Brahe in the highest regard and always supported his system and tried to improve upon it throughout his life. However, he did disagree with the Tycho Brahe's system in some regards, he believed that the earth rotated unlike his master's theory that it was immobile. During this time, Kepler joined the two in trying to come up with a theory on how to predict longitude at oppositions with complete accuracy. Longomontanus used Mars as a model for this. Having left the island of Hven with his master, he obtained his discharge at Copenhagen on 1 June 1597, in order to study at some German universities. He rejoined Tycho at Prague in January 1600, and having completed the Tychonic lunar theory, turned homeward again in August. Soon after this, Tycho Brahe’s untimely demise happened. After Tycho managed to become a mathematician that served the Emperor Rudolph II, he died in October 1601. The Emperor had to appoint a new Mathematician. When doing so, the expected choice would have been Longomontanus since he was Tycho’s preferred choice. However, Longomontanus was gone during this time in Denmark and Johannes Kepler was there, so he was anointed.

He visited Frauenburg, where Copernicus had made his observations, took a master's degree at Rostock, and at Copenhagen found a patron in Christian Friis, chancellor of Denmark, who employed him in his household. Appointed in 1603 rector of the school of Viborg, he was elected two years later to a professorship in the University of Copenhagen, and his promotion to the chair of mathematics ensued in 1607. This post was held by Longomontanus till his death in 1647.

Longomontanus was not an advanced thinker. He adhered to Tycho's erroneous views about refraction, believed that comets were messengers of evil, and imagined that he had squared the circle. He found that the circle whose diameter is 43 has for its circumference the square root of 18252 which gives 3.14185... for the value of π. John Pell and others tried in vain to convince him of his error. In 1632 he started the construction of the Rundetårn (a stately astronomical tower in Copenhagen), but did not live to witness its completion. King Christian IV of Denmark, to whom he dedicated his Astronomia Danica, an exposition of the Tychonic system of the universe, conferred upon him the canonry of Lunden in Schleswig.

Longomontanus's major contribution to science was to develop Tycho's geoheliocentric model of the universe empirically and publicly to common acceptance. When Tycho died in 1601, his program for the restoration of astronomy was unfinished. The observational aspects were complete, but two important tasks remained, namely the selection and integration of the data into accounts of the motions of the planets, and the presentation of the results on the entire program in the form of a systematic treatise. Longomontanus assumed the responsibility and fulfilled both tasks in his voluminous Astronomia Danica (1622). Regarded as the testament of Tycho, the work was eagerly received in seventeenth-century astronomical literature. The book was highly accredited and many famous owners included Chrstopher Wren, Christiaan Huygens as well as the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England. The book mainly compared the three world systems of the time, these included the Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Ptolemy schools of thought. But unlike Tycho's, the geoheliocentric model of Longomontanus gave the Earth a proper daily rotation (as in the models of Ursus and Roslin). It is therefore sometimes called the 'semi-Tychonic' system. The book was reprinted in 1640 and 1663, which indicates its popularity and the interest in the semi-Tychonic system in this period.

Having originally worked on calculating the Martian orbit for Tycho with Kepler, he had already modelled its orbit in his geoheliocentric model to an error in longitude of under 2 arcminutes when Kepler had still only achieved 8 arcminutes error in his heliocentric system, as he had not yet used elliptical orbits.

Some historians claim Kepler’s 1627 Rudolphine Tables, based on Tycho Brahe’s observations, were more accurate than any previous tables. But nobody has ever demonstrated they were more accurate than Longomontanus’s 1622 Danish Astronomy tables, also based upon Tycho’s observations.

Publications

His major works in mathematics and astronomy were:
 * Systematis Mathematici, etc. (1611)
 * Cyclometria e Lunulis reciproce demonstrata, etc. (1612)
 * Disputatio de Eclipsibus (1616)
 * Astronomia Danica, etc. (1622)
 * Disputationes quatuor Astrologicae (1622)
 * Pentas Problematum Philosophiae (1623)
 * De Chronolabio Historico, seu de Tempore Disputationes tres (1627)
 * Geometriae quaesita XIII. de Cyclometria rationali et vera (1631)
 * Inventio Quadraturae Circuli (1634)
 * Disputatio de Matheseos Indole (1636)
 * Coronis Problematica ex Mysteriis trium Numerorum (1637)
 * Problemata duo Geometrica (1638)
 * Problema contra Paulum Guldinum de Circuli Mensura (1638)
 * Introductio in Theatrum Astronomicum (1639)
 * Rotundi in Plano, etc. (1644)
 * Admiranda Operatio trium Numerorum 6, 7, 8, etc. (1645)
 * Caput tertium Libri primi de absoluta Mensura Rotundi plani, etc. (1646)
 * Caput tertium Libri primi de absoluta Mensura Rotundi plani, etc. (1646)

Eponymy

 * The lunar crater Longomontanus was named after him. It is located near the Tycho crater.

title: Christen Sørensen Longomontanus


text:
John Pell (mathematician)

John Pell (1 March 1611 – 12 December 1685) was an English mathematician and political agent abroad. He was made Royal Chair of Mathematics at Orange College by the Prince of Orange, and was under the patronage of Sir Charles Cavendish. He was also a compeer and correspondent of René Descartes and Thomas Hobbes.

Early life
He was born at Southwick in West Sussex, England. His father, also named John Pell, was from Southwick, and his mother was Mary Holland, from Halden in Kent. The second of two sons, Pell's older brother was Thomas Pell. By the time he was six, they were orphans, their father dying in 1616 and their mother the following year. John Pell the elder had a fine library, which proved valuable to the young Pell as he grew up. He was educated at Steyning Grammar School and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of 13.

During his university career he became an accomplished linguist; even before taking a B.A. degree in 1629, he corresponded with Henry Briggs and other mathematicians. He was promoted by seniority to M.A. in 1630 and taught in the short-lived Chichester Academy set up by Samuel Hartlib. On 3 July 1632 he married Ithamaria Reginald (also rendered as Ithamara or Ithumaria, with the surname Reginolles), sister of the writer and polymath Bathsua Makin. They had four sons and four daughters. Ithumaria died in 1661. Some time before 1669 Pell remarried.

Pell spent much of the 1630s working under Hartlib's influence, on topics in the area of pedagogy, encyclopedism and pansophy, combinatorics, and the legacy of Trithemius. By 1638 he had formulated a proposal for a universal language. In mathematics, he concentrated on expanding the scope of algebra in the theory of equations, and on mathematical tables. As part of a joint lobbying effort with Hartlib to find himself support to continue as a researcher, he had his short Idea of Mathematics printed in October 1638. It brought interested responses from Johann Moriaen and Marin Mersenne.

Academic and diplomat
His reputation and the influence of Sir William Boswell, the English resident, with the States-General procured his election in 1644 to the chair of mathematics in Amsterdam, after an earlier attempt immediately after Martin van den Hove left for Leiden had failed. From 1644 he worked on a polemical work, against Longomontanus. For this he put in a large effort soliciting help and testimonials: from Bonaventura Cavalieri, his patron Sir Charles Cavendish, René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Mersenne, Claude Mydorge, and Gilles de Roberval. It finally appeared as Controversy with Longomontanus concerning the Quadrature of the Circle (1647).

In 1646, on the invitation of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, Pell accepted a professorship at the new Orange College at Breda, where he taught until 1652. He realised that war between the English and the Dutch was imminent and that he would be in an extremely difficult position in Breda, so returned to England before the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War in July 1652. After his return, Oliver Cromwell appointed Pell to a post teaching mathematics in London.

From 1654 to 1658 Pell acted as Cromwell's political agent in Zürich to the Protestant cantons of Switzerland; he cooperated with Samuel Morland, the English resident at Geneva. Pell was described in Zürich by the English traveller Sir John Reresby in about 1656 as "a strange unknown person, not unsuiting the people he was sent to, nor the master [Cromwell] he came from. They are here so strict in their religion, they suffer not the Venetian ambassador to hear mass in his own house." Cromwell wanted to split the Protestant cantons of Switzerland off to join a Protestant League, with England at its head. However Pell's negotiations were long drawn out and he returned to England to deliver his report only shortly before Cromwell's death. He was unable to report as he waited in vain for an audience with the ailing Cromwell. A mathematical pupil and disciple in Switzerland, from 1657, was Johann Heinrich Rahn, known as Rhonius. Rahn is credited with the invention of the division sign (÷) from one of the classic symbols for Obelus; it has also been attributed to Pell, who taught Rahn a three-column spreadsheet-style technique of tabulation of calculations, and acted as editor for Rahn's 1659 book Teutsche Algebra in which it appeared. This book by Rahn also contained what would become known as the "Pell equation". Diophantine equations was a favourite subject with Pell; he lectured on them at Amsterdam. He is now best remembered, if perhaps erroneously, for the indeterminate equation

 * $$ax^2+1=y^2,$$

which is known as Pell's equation. This problem was in fact proposed by Pierre de Fermat first to Bernard Frénicle de Bessy, and in 1657 to all mathematicians. Pell's connection with the problem is through Rahn. It consisted of publication of the solutions of John Wallis and Lord Brouncker in his edition of Thomas Branker's Translation of Rhonius's Algebra (1668); added to his earlier editorial contributions, whatever they were, to the 1659 algebra book written by Rahn (i.e. Rhonius). This new edition by Pell of what was essentially Rahn's work included a great deal of additional material on number theory, amounting to a reply to the 1657 book Exercitationes mathematicae by Frans van Schooten. It is also notable for its inclusion of a Table of Incomposits, an early large factor table.

After the Restoration
After his return to England, Pell took orders and in 1661 became rector of Fobbing in Essex. In 1663 he was given an honorary D. D. (Lambeth degree) and was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. At the same time he was presented by Bishop Gilbert Sheldon to the rectory of Laindon, Essex; Sheldon expected him to treat the positions as sinecures. He spent time visiting William Brereton, 3rd Baron Brereton, at Brereton Hall in Cheshire, having taught him mathematics at Breda, and after Brereton died in 1680 John Aubrey reported a very close friendship between the two men.

In 1673 Pell met Leibniz in London, and was able to inform him that some of his mathematical work had been anticipated by François Regnaud and Gabriel Mouton. His devotion to mathematics seems to have interfered with his advancement in the Church and with his private life. For a time he was confined as a debtor in the King's Bench Prison. He lived, on the invitation of Dr Daniel Whistler, for a short time in 1682 at the College of Physicians, but died at the house of Mr Cothorne, reader of the church of St Giles-in-the Fields.

Works
Many of Pell's manuscripts fell into the hands of Richard Busby, master of Westminster School, and afterwards came into the possession of the Royal Society; they are still preserved in nearly forty folio volumes in the British Library, which contain, not only Pell's own memoirs, but much of his correspondence with the mathematicians of his time.

His chief works are:
 * Astronomical History of Observations of Heavenly Motions and Appearances (1634)
 * Ecliptica prognostica (1634)
 * An Idea of Mathematicks (1638)
 * Controversy with Longomontanus concerning the Quadrature of the Circle (1646?)
 * A Table of Ten Thousand Square Numbers (fol.; 1672).

The Idea was a short manifesto. It made three suggestions: a mathematical encyclopedia and bibliography; a complete mathematics research library and collection of instruments, with state sponsorship; and a three-volume comprehensive set of mathematical textbooks, able to convey the state of the art to any scholar.

Family
John Pell's brother, Thomas Pell (1612/3–1669), was a physician who emigrated to New England in the 1630s. In 1654, Thomas Pell signed a treaty with Chief Wampage and other Siwanoy Indian tribal members that granted him 50000 acre of tribal land, including all or part of the Bronx and land to the west along Long Island Sound in what is now Westchester County, extending west to the Hutchinson River and north to Mamaroneck. Having no children, he left his estate to his nephew Sir John Pell (1643–1702), one of the mathematician's four sons, who travelled from England to New York and took up residence there as the first Lord of the Manor of Pelham. His descendants have continued to be prominent in American polity, including Ambassador and U.S. Representative Herbert Pell and U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell. Philip Pell II built Pelhamdale at Pelham Manor, New York about 1750, and another descendant, Stephen Hyatt Pell, restored Fort Ticonderoga, New York in 1909 and formally opened it to the public. (William Ferris Pell had bought the Fort and surrounding lands in 1820, and used the property as a summer retreat. )

Yet another of John Pell's American descendants, Morris Birkbeck Pell, graduated as senior wrangler in mathematics at Cambridge University in 1849 and emigrated to Australia in 1852 to become the first professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at the newly inaugurated University of Sydney.

title: John Pell (mathematician)


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Iskandar (name)

Iskandar, Iskander, Skander, Askander, Eskinder, or Scandar (إسكندر ( Eskandar or سکندر Skandar), is a variant of the given name Alexander in cultures such as Iran (Persia), Arabia and others throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Caucasus and Central Asia. In Egypt, its bearers are mostly of Christian (Coptic) descent. Originally referring to Alexander the Great, it was transmitted through works such as the Iskandarnameh and the Sirr al-Asrar, and became a popular name for rulers in the medieval period.

The Arabic version may also add the definite-article prefix al-, giving al-ʾiskandar (الاسكندر,الإِسْكَنْدَر). al-Iskandarīyah ("of Alexander") is the Arabic name of the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

Iskandar

 * Sultan Iskandar (disambiguation), names of several Muslim rulers who share the same title and name
 * Iskandar-i Shaykhi (died 1403), ruler of the Afrasiyab dynasty from 1393 to 1403. He was the son and successor of Kiya Afrasiyab
 * Iskandar (Timurid dynasty), ruler of Persia
 * Iskandar Dzhalilov (born 1992), Tajikistani footballer
 * Iskandar Ghanem (1911–2005), Lebanese army general
 * Iskandar Jalil (born 1940), Singaporean ceramist
 * Iskandar Khatloni (1954–2000), Tajikistani journalist
 * Iskandar Muda (c. 1583), sultan of Aceh
 * Iskandar bin Rahmat (born 1979), convicted murderer in Singapore
 * Iskandar Ramis (born 1946), vice governor of Bengkulu
 * Iskandar Safa (born 1955), French businessman
 * Iskandar Thani (1610–1641), sultan of Aceh
 * Jalal al-Dawla Iskandar (died 1359), ruler of the Paduspanid dynasty
 * Muhammad Iskandar bin Sa'at, Singaporean criminal

Iskander

 * Iskander Hachicha (born 1972), Tunisian judoka
 * Iskander Mirza (1899–1969), first President of the Republic of Pakistan
 * Ibrahim Iskander ll was the sultan of the Maldives
 * Sultan Iskander Mastura Kudarat III (died 1938) was the last sultan of the Sultanate of Maguindanao
 * Sultan Iskander Kudarat II (died 1853 or 1854) sultan of the Sultanate of Maguindanao

Iskinder

 * Iskinder Desta (1934–1974), member of the Ethiopian Imperial family and naval officer.

Eskandar

 * Eskandar Shora, Iranian boxer

Eskender

 * Eskender Mustafaiev (1981-), Russian-Ukrainian paralympic swimmer.
 * Eskender (Kwestantinos II or Constantine II) (1471–1494), Emperor of Ethiopia.

Eskinder

 * Eskinder Nega (1969-), Ethiopian journalist.

Scandar

 * Scandar Copti (born 1975), Palestinian Israeli filmmaker

Skandar

 * Skandar Keynes (born 1991), English political advisor and former actor

Others

 * Skanderbeg (1405–1468), 15th century war lord and national hero of Albania

Iskandar

 * Afifa Iskandar (1921–2012), Iraqi singer
 * Anang Iskandar (born 1956), Indonesian police officer
 * Azri Iskandar, Malaysian actor
 * Charbel Iskandar (born 1966), Lebanese actor
 * Djoko Iskandar (born 1950), Indonesian zoologist
 * Irawati Iskandar (born 1969), Indonesian tennis player
 * Layla Iskandar (born 2002), Lebanese footballer
 * Mohd Azlan Iskandar (born 1982), Malaysian squash player
 * Muhaimin Iskandar (born 1966), Indonesian politician and government minister
 * Noer Muhammad Iskandar (1955–2020), Indonesian Islamic cleric
 * Nouri Iskandar (born 1938), Syrian musicologist and composer
 * Nur Iskandar (born 1986), Indonesian footballer
 * Samih Abdel Fattah Iskandar, Jordanian scout official
 * Syaiful Iskandar (born 1985), Singaporean footballer

Iskander

 * Amin Iskander (born 1952), Egyptian politician, writer and activist
 * Fazil Iskander (1929–2016), Soviet Russian novelist
 * Laila Iskander, Egyptian entrepreneur and politician
 * Magda Iskander, Egyptian entrepreneur
 * Maryana Iskander (born 1975), CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation
 * Qara Iskander, ruler of the Kara Koyunlu
 * Willem Iskander (1840–1876), Indonesian writer, nationalist, teacher and educator

Military

 * 9K720 Iskander, a Russian missile system.

title: Iskandar (name)


text:
Opera Boston

Opera Boston was an opera company in Boston, Massachusetts. It specialized in less-frequently heard repertoire as well as modern works or opera premieres, along with opera education and outreach programs designed to bring opera education to children both in schools and after-school programs throughout the Boston area.

After eight years, it was announced on 23 December 2011 that Opera Boston would cease operations on 1 January 2012. Board chairman Winifred Gray and president Gregory Bulger cited "an insurmountable budget deficit" as the reason.

Its home base was the Cutler Majestic Theatre, a 1903 Beaux-Arts opera house designed by architect John Galen Howard.

In addition to its regular season the company mounted an "Opera Unlimited Festival" which presented 20th and 21st century chamber opera in an outdoor setting, free of charge. The Festival also commissioned new works.

Productions
Dates in parentheses are the dates of the Opera Boston production. The list is limited to only those works which are not part of the standard repertory.

 * June 2003 Opera Unlimited
 * Powder Her Face by Thomas Adès
 * Full Moon in March by John Harbison
 * Touissaint Before the Spirits by Elena Ruehr
 * The Cask of Amontillado by Daniel Pinkham
 * Garden Party by Daniel Pinkham
 * 2003–2004 Season
 * Candide by Leonard Bernstein (November 2003)
 * Nixon in China by John Adams (March 2004)
 * Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi (April–May 2004)
 * 2004–2005 Season
 * La Vie parisienne by Jacques Offenbach (October 2004)
 * Alceste by Christoph Wilibald Gluck (January 2005)
 * The Crucible by Robert Ward (April 2005)
 * 2005–2006 Season
 * The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti (October 2005)
 * L'étoile by Emmanuel Chabrier (March 2006)
 * Lucrezia Borgia by Gaetano Donizetti (April–May 2006)

 * June 2006 Opera Unlimited
 * Angels in America by Péter Eötvös (North American premiere)
 * 2006–2007 Season
 * La clemenza di Tito by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (October 2006)
 * The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill (February 2007)
 * The Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet (May 2007)
 * 2007–2008 Season
 * Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov (October 2007)
 * Semele by George Frideric Handel (February 2008)
 * Ernani by Giuseppe Verdi (May 2008)
 * 2008–2009 Season
 * Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber (October 2008)
 * The Nose by Dmitri Shostakovich (February 2009)
 * 2009–2010 Season
 * Tancredi by Giocchino Rossini (October 2009)
 * Madame White Snake by Zhou Long (February 2010) (world premiere)
 * La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein by Jacques Offenbach (April–May 2010)

title: Opera Boston


text:
Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt

Wettin is a small town belonging to the municipality of Wettin-Löbejün in the Saale District of Saxony-Anhalt (Saxony-Ascania), Germany. It is situated on the River Saale, just north of Halle. It is known for Wettin Castle (German: Burg or Schloss Wettin), the ancestral seat of the House of Wettin, the former ruling dynasty of Saxony, Poland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Bulgaria. The town and its name are of Slavic origin.

Geography
Wettin lies in the Saalekreis (Saale District) of the eastern German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Saale, which flows into the Elbe further north. Wettin belongs to the municipality of Wettin-Löbejün which borders Saxony-Anhalt's most populous city of Halle-on-the-Saale in the southeast. It further borders Petersberg and Salzatal in the Saale District, Gerbstedt in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz (Mansfield-Southern Harz), Könnern in the Salzlandkreis (Saltland District), and Südliches Anhalt in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld (Ascania-Bitterfield). The Saale District (German: Saalekreis), which Wettin-Löbejün is a part of, surrounds the city of Halle. The nearest international airport is Leipzig/Halle Airport in Schkeuditz, southeast of Halle. The municipality of Wettin-Löbejün further consists of the villages of Brachwitz, Döblitz, Domnitz, Gimritz, Löbejün, Nauendorf, Neutz-Lettewitz, Plötz, and Rothenburg. Most of these villages are of Slavic origin.

History
Wettin was first documented as Vitin civitas in a 961 deed issued by German king Otto I. The settlement thereafter was a burgward within the Saxon Eastern March, held by Dietrich I von Wettin, the progenitor of the dynasty. His descendants became Margraves of Lusatia in 1032 and of Meissen in 1123. In 1288 Wettin was acquired by the Magdeburg archbishop Eric of Brandenburg.

 * Mücheln: The small village of Mücheln (not to be confused with the larger Mücheln near Merseburg) became part of Wettin and includes the restored old chapel of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Knights Templar).

 * Lützkendorf: As bombing targets of the Oil Campaign of World War II, the Lützkendorf oil facilities 2 miles East of Mücheln included
 * a small Wintershall AG crude oil refinery (100,000 tons/yr),
 * a Bergius process hydrogenation unit (125,000 tons/yr) for blending gasolines,
 * a Fischer-Tropsch plant (80,000 tons/yr) to process heavier gasoline cuts from synthesized oil, and
 * tankage for about 75,000 metric tons.
 * The Lützkendorf Grube supplied lignite from the south end of the mine to the two interconnected plants ("Lutzkendorf" and "Lutzkendorf-Mücheln") at 51.28333°N, 11.86667°W, and the facility also used tar for Low Temperature Carbonization.

title: Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt