Saladin, Noble Prince of Islam [ 957 ]

Islam Heroes for strugle against Christianity

Saladin, Hero and Noble Prince of Islam

Saladin , Arabic Salah ad-Din, 1137?-1193, Muslim warrior and Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, the great opponent of the Crusaders, b. Mesopotamia, of Kurdish descent. He lived for 10 years in Damascus at the court of Nur ad-Din , where he distinguished himself by his interest in Sunni theology.

He accompanied his uncle, Shirkuh (or Shirkoh), a lieutenant of Nur ad-Din, on campaigns (1164, 1167, 1168) against the Fatimid rulers of Egypt. Shirkuh became vizier there and on his death (1169) was succeeded by Saladin. Saladin later caused the name of the Shiite Fatimid caliph to be dropped from the Friday prayer, thus deposing him.

After the death of Nur ad-Din, who was planning to campaign against his too powerful subordinate, Saladin proclaimed himself sultan of Egypt, thus beginning the Ayyubid dynasty. He spread his conquests westward on the northern shores of Africa as far as Qabis and also conquered Yemen.

He took over Damascus after Nur ad-Din's death and undertook to subdue all of Syria and Palestine. He had already come into conflict with the Crusaders , and he put the rulers of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem on the steadily weakening defensive.
He was unsuccessful in his efforts to conquer the Assassins in their mountain strongholds, but he took Mosul, Aleppo, and wide areas from rival Muslim rulers and became the principal warrior of Islam.

Gathering a large force of Muslims of various groups—but all called Saracens by the Christians—he set out to attack the Christians.
Raymond of Tripoli was at first his ally, but then joined the other Crusaders, and the great battle of Hattin (near Tiberias) in 1187 found Christians matched against Muslims. Saladin won brilliantly, capturing Guy of Lusignan and Reginald of Châtillon .

The city of Jerusalem also fell to him. The Third Crusade was gathered (1189) and came to the Holy Land to try to recover the Holy City.
Thus it was that Richard I of England and Saladin met in the conflict that was to be celebrated in later chivalric romance.
The reputation that Saladin had among the Christians for generosity and chivalry does not seem to have been a legend, and there seems no doubt that Saladin admired Richard as a worthy opponent.

The Crusaders, however, failed in their purpose and succeeded only in capturing Akko. In 1192, Saladin came to agreement with the Crusaders upon the Peace of Ramla, which left the Latin Kingdom only a strip along the coast from Tyre to Yafo.
The Christians were never to recover from their defeat.

El Cid Campeador, National Hero of Spain..[ 956 ]

White European heros of the struggle against Islam!

EL CID, THE NATIONAL HERO OF SPAIN

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Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1040 – July 10, 1099), known as El Cid Campeador, was a Castilian nobleman, a military leader and diplomat who, after being exiled, conquered and governed the city of Valencia. Rodrigo Díaz was educated in the royal court of Castile and became the alférez, or chief general, of Alfonso VI, and his most valuable asset in the fight against the Moors. He is considered the national hero of Spain.

The name "El Cid" comes from the Spanish article el (meaning "the"), and the dialectal Arabic word سيد sîdi or sayyid, which means "Lord" or "The Master".
The title Campeador is the Old Spanish version of the Latin campi doctor or campi doctus; the term can be found in writings of late Latinity (4th – 5th century) and can be found in some inscriptions of that era. After that period it became rare, although still sometimes found in the writings of the less educated writers of the Middle Ages. The literal significance of the expression campi doctor is "master of the military arts", and its use in the period of the late Roman Empire appears to have signified only one who instructed new military recruits. But it was in current usage when El Cid was still alive, and was applied to Rodrigo by a member of his circle in an official document promulgated in his name in 1098. Overall, then, El Cid Campeador

translates as "The lord, master of military arts", or more directly, "The Champion."

El Cid's signature: Ego Ruderico, "I, Rodrigo".

In 1084, he defeated Sancho of Aragon atthe battle of Morella. In 1086, the great Almoravid invasion of the Iberian Peninsula through and around Gibraltar began. The Almoravids, Berber residents of present-day Morocco and Algeria, led by Yusuf Ibn Tashifin, were asked to help defend the Moors from Alfonso. The great battle of Sagrajas took place on Friday, October 23, 1086, near Bafajoz.

The Moorish Andalusians, including the armies of Badajoz, Málaga, Granada and Seville, defeated a combined army of León, Aragón and Castile.

Terrified after his crushing defeat, Alfonso recalled the best Christian general from exile — El Cid. It has been shown that the Cid was at court on July 1087; however, what happened after that is unclear.

Conquest of Valencia

Around this time, the Cid, with a combined Christian and Moorish army, began maneuvering in order to create his own fiefdom in the Moorish Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia. Several obstacles lay in his way. First was Berenguer Ramón II, who ruled nearby Barcelona. In May 1090, the Cid defeated and captured Berenguer in the Battle of Tébar. Berenguer was later ransomed and his nephew Ramón Berenguer III married the Cid's youngest daughter Maria to ward against future conflicts.

Along the way to Valencia, El Cid also conquered other towns, many of which were near Valencia, like Castejón and Alucidia.

El Cid gradually came to have more influence on Valencia, then ruled by al-Qadir. In October 1092 an uprising occurred in Valencia inspired by the city's chief judge Ibn Jahhaf and the Almoravids. The Cid began a siege of Valencia. A December 1093 attempt to break failed. By the time the siege ended in May 1094 the Cid had carved out his own principality on the coast of the Mediterranean. Officially the Cid ruled in the name of Alfonso; in reality, the Cid was fully independent. The city was both Christian and Muslim, and both Moors and Christians served in the army and as administrators.

El Cid died peacefully at Valencia in 1099. His wife, Jimena ruled in his place for three years until the Almoravids besieged the city. Unable to hold it, she abandoned the city. Alfonso ordered the city burned to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Almoravids. Valencia was captured by Masdali on May 5, 1102 and would not become a Christian city again for over 125 years. Jimena fled to Burgos with her husband's body. Originally buried in Castile in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña, his body now lies at the center of the Burgos Cathedral.

Warrior and general,Battle tactics

During his campaigns, the Cid often ordered that books by classic Roman and Greek authors on military themes be read in high-pitched, loud voices to him and his troops, both for entertainment and inspiration before battle. El Cid's army had a novel approach to planning strategy as well, holding what might be called brainstorming sessions before each battle to discuss tactics. They frequently used unexpected strategies, engaging in what modern generals would call psychological warfare—waiting for the enemy to be paralyzed with terror and then attacking them suddenly, distracting the enemy with a small group of soldiers, etc. (El Cid used this distraction in capturing the town of Castejón as depicted in Cantar del Mio Cid (The Song of my Cid). El Cid accepted or included suggestions from his troops. In The Song the man who served him as his closest adviser was his vassal and kinsman, Álvar Fáñez "Minaya" (meaning "My brother", a compound word of Spanish possessive Mi (My) and Anaia, basque word for brother), although the historical Álvar Fáñez remained in Castile with Alfonso VI.

Taken together, these practices imply an educated and intelligent commander who was able to attract and inspire good subordinates, and who would have attracted considerable loyalty from his followers including those who were not Christian. It is these qualities, coupled with El Cid's legendary martial abilities, which have fueled his reputation as an outstanding battlefield commander.

Babieca

Tomb of Babieca at the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña.

Babieca or Bavieca was El Cid's warhorse. Several stories exist about the Cid and Babieca. One well-known legend about the Cid describes how he acquired the stallion.

According to this story, Rodrigo's godfather, Pedro El Grande, was a monk at a Carthusian monastery. Pedro's coming-of-age gift to El Cid was his pick of a horse from an Andalusian herd. El Cid picked a horse that his godfather thought was a weak, poor choice, causing the monk to exclaim "Babieca!" (stupid!) Hence, it became the name of El Cid's horse.

Another legend states that in a competition of battle to become King Sancho's "Campeador", or champion, a knight on horseback wished to challenge the Cid. The King wished a fair fight and gave the Cid his finest horse, Babieca, or Bavieca.

This version says Babieca was raised in the royal stables of Seville and was a highly trained and loyal war horse, not a foolish stallion. The name in this instance could suggest that the horse came from the Babia region in León, Spain. In the poem Carmen Campidoctoris, Babieca appears as a gift from "a barbarian" to the Cid, so its name could also be derived from "Barbieca", or "horse of the barbarian".

In either case, Babieca became a great warhorse, famous to the Christians, feared by El Cid's enemies, and loved by the Cid, who allegedly requested that Babieca be buried with him in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña.^{[citation needed]} His name is mentioned in several tales and historical documents about El Cid, including The Lay of the Cid.

Swords

Tizona

A weapon traditionally identified as El Cid's sword, Tizona, used to be displayed in the Army Museum (Museo del Ejército) in Toledo. In 1999, a small sample of the blade underwent metallurgical analysis which confirmed that the blade was made in Moorish Córdoba in the eleventh century and contained amounts of Damascus steel.

In 2007 the Autonomous Community of Castile and León bought the sword for 1.6 million Euros, and it is currently on display at the Museum of Burgos.

El Cid also had a sword called Colada.

"Goldman Sachs" ,charged with fraud..[ 955 ]

Goldman Sachs charged with fraud by SEC

Jonathan Stempel and Steve Eder

NEW YORK

Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:32pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters, April 16th, 2010) -

Goldman Sachs Group Inc was charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its marketing of a subprime mortgage product designed to fail.

The civil lawsuit is the biggest crisis in years for Goldman, which emerged from the global financial meltdown as Wall Street's most influential bank.

It is also a huge test for Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, who has faced a firestorm of criticism over the bank's pay and business practices, and it comes as lawmakers in Washington debate sweeping reform of financial industry regulation.

The case has also ensnared John Paulson, a hedge fund investor whose firm Paulson & Co made billions of dollars by betting the nation's housing market would crash. This included an estimated $1 billion from the transaction detailed in the SEC lawsuit, which the agency said cost other investors more than $1 billion.

Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman vice president who the SEC said was mainly responsible for creating the questionable mortgage product, known as ABACUS, was also charged with fraud.

MORE SEVERE THAN EXPECTED

Goldman vowed to defend itself.

"The SEC's charges are completely unfounded in law and fact," it said. "We will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation."

In its lawsuit, the SEC alleged that Goldman structured and marketed ABACUS, a synthetic collateralized debt obligation that hinged on the performance of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities.

It alleged that Goldman did not tell investors "vital information" about ABACUS, including that Paulson & Co was involved in choosing which securities would be part of the portfolio.

It also alleged that Paulson took a short position against the CDO in a bet that its value would fall.

Paulson & Co said it did buy credit protection from Goldman on securities issued in the ABACUS program, but did not market the product. Tourre was not immediately available for comment.

Shares of Goldman fell as much as 15.6 percent, and dragged broad U.S. stock indexes lower.

"These charges are far more severe than anyone had imagined," and suggest Goldman teamed with "the leading short-seller in the industry to design a portfolio of securities that would crash," said John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia Law School in New York.

"The greatest penalty for Goldman is not the financial damages -- Goldman is enormously wealthy -- but the reputational damage," he said, adding that "it's not impossible" to contemplate that the case could lead to criminal charges. Coffee spoke on Reuters Insider.

Goldman had not disclosed that the SEC was considering a lawsuit but had known charges were possible and had urged the SEC not to file them, people familiar with the situation said on Friday. The sources requested anonymity because the probe was not public.

COMING OUT SWINGING

The lawsuit is a regulatory and public relations nightmare for Blankfein, who has spent 18 months fending off complaints that Goldman is an unfair beneficiary of taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street. He became chief executive less than a year before the product challenged by the SEC was created.

"This could be the beginning of a period where you have a regulatory cloud over Goldman Sachs, and perhaps even the entire investment banking industry," said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Trust Co in Philadelphia.

John Paulson is not related to Henry "Hank" Paulson, who was Blankfein's predecessor as Goldman CEO and later become U.S. Treasury secretary.

The SEC lawsuit represents an aggressive expansion of regulatory efforts to hold people and companies responsible for the nation's financial crises. It could help the SEC rehabilitate its reputation after missing other high-profile cases, including Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

"The SEC has come out swinging," said Cary Leahey, senior managing director of Decision Economics in New York.

Robert Khuzami, head of the SEC's enforcement division, said John Paulson was not charged because it was Goldman that made misrepresentations to investors, not Paulson.

Still, Khuzami called Paulson's firm "a hedge fund that had a particular interest in the securities performing poorly."

It is unlikely that criminal charges will be brought, a person close to the matter said. Representatives for the Justice Department declined to comment.

In afternoon trading, Goldman shares sank $23.82, or 12.9 percent, to $160.45 on the New York Stock Exchange, after earlier falling to $155.57. The perceived risk of owning Goldman debt, as measured by credit default swaps, increased.

China quake,,,(updated)... [ 954 ]

China quake death toll 'passes 1,000'

BBC,Friday, 16 April 2010 18:27 UK The number of people known to have been killed by a massive quake in China's Qinghai province has risen to 1,144, officials say. Another 417 are still missing in the remote mountainous region and 11,744 have been injured, a rescue spokesman told the Xinhua news agency. Thousands have been left homeless, with many having to sleep outdoors in freezing temperatures. Premier Wen Jiabao has promised "all-out effort" to rebuild the area. Heavy lifting equipment began arriving on Friday in the remote Himalayan region by road from hundreds of kilometres away. Food, tents and medical supplies are arriving too but rescue workers say there is a critical need for further supplies. An estimated 15,000 houses have been destroyed in Yushu county, leaving thousands of people homeless people and casualties waiting for help. Rescue joy Soldiers, civilian rescue workers and Buddhist monks have been using pickaxes, shovels and their bare hands to pick through the rubble for survivors. In pictures: Aid effort "For us monks, the most important thing is life," said Danchujiasi, a monk who travelled to the scene from neighbouring Sichuan province. "We have come here to help rescue people. So many people have died, and we want to save the ones still living." A teacher at a school in Yushu county said he and other staff members had been digging students out of the rubble with their bare hands. "We didn't have any kind of tools. We couldn't lift the bigger rocks so we found some ropes and pulled them," Chen Guangming told the Associated Press news agency. "This way we were able to pull out five. Three of them are still alive." BBC's Damian Grammaticas: 'A huge cheer as they dug out a young girl' Tens of thousands of people were injured in the quake, and one doctor in Jiegu said he had lost track of how many people he had treated. "They just keep coming one after the other," said Myima Jiaba, working at a makeshift hospital in the town's sports stadium. "Right now, what we need is a lot of medicine. We need antiseptics and antibiotics. And overall, we need more tents and food, and sanitation." Power down The monks have also been helping to collect bodies and prepare them for funerals. At a foothill under the main monastery of Jiegu township, monks chanted Tibetan Buddhist mantras in front of piles of dead, Reuters news agency said. "I'd say we've collected a thousand or more bodies here," said Lopu, a monk. "Many of the bodies you see here don't have families or their families haven't come looking for them, so it's our job to take good care of them." Rescuers in Yushu, which lies at about 4,000m (13,000ft), are facing freezing weather and high altitude. Ninety-seven percent of Yushu's population is ethnic Tibetan, and state media said that 500 interpreters were being sent to aid rescuers. The quake, which struck on Wednesday morning at the shallow depth of 10km (six miles), knocked out phone and power lines, and triggered landslides, blocking vital roads. Premier Wen Jiabao visited the affected area on Thursday and Friday, promising "all-out efforts" to rebuild the devastated region. He said the people would "overcome the disaster and improve national unity in fighting the calamity".

El Greco - Icon...[ 953 ]

The Holy Trinity by El Greco (Domenikos Theotocopoulos) (1541 – 1614).
Paint on canvas, 1577
300 x 179 cm (118 1/8 x 70 1/2″)
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

See also:

• The Coronation of the Virgin by El Greco
• The collection of art & paintings on this site