It may not be always daytime, but it will either rain or go dark before morning...

................lets break down day.......

Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Look up day in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Water, Rabbit, and Deer: three of the 20 day symbols in the Aztec calendar, from the Aztec calendar stone.

A day (symbol d) is a unit of time equivalent to approximately 24 hours. It is not an SI unit but it is accepted for use with SI.^[1] The SI unit of time is the second.

The word 'day' can also refer to the (roughly) half of the day that is not night, also known as 'daytime'. Both refer to a length of time. Within these meanings, several definitions can be distinguished. 'Day' may also refer to a day of the week or to a calendar date, as in answer to the question "On which day?".

The term comes from the Old English dæg, with similar terms common in all other Indo-European languages, such as Tag in German, dies in Latin, dydd in Welsh or dive in Sanskrit.

[edit] International System of Units (SI)

A day is defined as 86,400 seconds.

A day on the UTC time scale can include a negative or positive leap second, and can therefore have a length of 86,399 or 86,401 seconds.

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) currently defines a second as

… the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.^[2]

This makes the SI-based day last exactly 794,243,384,928,000 of those periods.

In the 19th century it had also been suggested to make a decimal fraction (¹⁄_10,000 or ¹⁄_100,000) of an astronomic day the base unit of time. This was an afterglow of decimal time and calendar, which had been given up already.

[edit] Astronomy

A day of exactly 86,400 SI seconds is the fundamental unit of time in astronomy.^{[dubious – discuss]}

For a given planet, there are two types of day defined in astronomy:

In astronomy, the sidereal day is also used; it is about 3 minutes 56 seconds shorter than the solar day, and close to the actual rotation period of the Earth, as opposed to the Sun's apparent motion. In fact, the Earth spins 366 times about its axis during a 365-day year, because the Earth's revolution about the Sun removes one apparent turn of the Sun about the Earth.

[edit] Colloquial

The word refers to various relatedly defined ideas, including the following:

• 24 hours (exactly)
• the period of light when the Sun is above the local horizon (i.e., the time period from sunrise to sunset);
• the full day covering a dark and a light period, beginning from the beginning of the dark period or from a point near the middle of the dark period;
• a full dark and light period, sometimes called a nychthemeron in English, from the Greek for night-day;
• the time period from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM or 9:00 PM or some other fixed clock period overlapping or set off from other time periods such as "morning", "evening", or "night".

Dagr, the Norse god of the day, rides his horse in this 19th century painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo.

[edit] Introduction

The word day is used for several different units of time based on the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The most important one follows the apparent motion of the Sun across the sky (solar day). The reason for this apparent motion is the rotation of the Earth around its axis, as well as the revolution of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun.

A day, as opposed to night, is commonly defined as the period during which sunlight directly reaches the ground, assuming that there are no local obstacles. Two effects make days on average longer than nights. The Sun is not a point, but has an apparent size of about 32 minutes of arc. Additionally, the atmosphere refracts sunlight in such a way that some of it reaches the ground even when the Sun is below the horizon by about 34 minutes of arc. So the first light reaches the ground when the centre of the Sun is still below the horizon by about 50 minutes of arc. The difference in time depends on the angle at which the Sun rises and sets (itself a function of latitude), but amounts to almost seven minutes at least.

Ancient custom has a new day start at either the rising or setting of the Sun on the local horizon (Italian reckoning, for example) The exact moment of, and the interval between, two sunrises or two sunsets depends on the geographical position (longitude as well as latitude), and the time of year. This is the time as indicated by ancient hemispherical sundials.

A more constant day can be defined by the Sun passing through the local meridian, which happens at local noon (upper culmination) or midnight (lower culmination). The exact moment is dependent on the geographical longitude, and to a lesser extent on the time of the year. The length of such a day is nearly constant (24 hours ± 30 seconds). This is the time as indicated by modern sundials.

A further improvement defines a fictitious mean Sun that moves with constant speed along the celestial equator; the speed is the same as the average speed of the real Sun, but this removes the variation over a year as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun (due to both its velocity and its axial tilt).

The Earth's day has increased in length over time. The original length of one day, when the Earth was new about 4.5 billion years ago, was about six hours as determined by computer simulation. It was 21.9 hours 620 million years ago as recorded by rhythmites (alternating layers in sandstone). This phenomenon is due to tides raised by the Moon which slow Earth's rotation. Because of the way the second is defined, the mean length of a day is now about 86,400.002 seconds, and is increasing by about 1.7 milliseconds per century (an average over the last 2,700 years). See tidal acceleration for details.

[edit] Civil day

For civil purposes a common clock time has been defined for an entire region based on the mean local solar time at some central meridian. Such time zones began to be adopted about the middle of the 19th century when railroads with regular schedules came into use, with most major countries having adopted them by 1929. For the whole world, 40 such time zones are now in use. The main one is "world time" or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The present common convention has the civil day starting at midnight, which is near the time of the lower culmination of the mean Sun on the central meridian of the time zone. A day is commonly divided into 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds each.

[edit] Leap seconds

To keep the civil day aligned with the apparent movement of the Sun, positive or negative leap seconds may be inserted.

A civil clock day is typically 86,400 SI seconds long, but will be 86,401 s or 86,399 s long in the event of a leap second.

Leap seconds are announced in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service which measures the Earth's rotation and determines whether a leap second is necessary. Leap seconds occur only at the end of a UTC month, and have only ever been inserted at the end of June 30 or December 31.

[edit] Boundaries of the day

For most diurnal animals, the day naturally begins at dawn and ends at sunset. Humans, with our cultural norms and scientific knowledge, have supplanted Nature with several different conceptions of the day's boundaries. The Jewish day begins at either sunset or at nightfall (when three second-magnitude stars appear). Medieval Europe followed this tradition, known as Florentine reckoning: in this system, a reference like "two hours into the day" meant two hours after sunset and thus times during the evening need to be shifted back one calendar day in modern reckoning. Days such as Christmas Eve, Halloween, and the Eve of Saint Agnes are the remnants of the older pattern when holidays began the evening before. Present common convention is for the civil day to begin at midnight, that is 00:00 (inclusive), and last a full twenty-four hours until 24:00 (exclusive).

The bible defines day as either "light" or as "Evening and morning were the first day"(Gen 1:5). In ancient Egypt, the day was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise. Muslims fast from daybreak to sunset each day of the month of Ramadan. The "Damascus Document", copies of which were also found among the Dead Sea scrolls, states regarding Sabbath observance that "No one is to do any work on Friday from the moment that the sun's disk stands distant from the horizon by the length of its own diameter," presumably indicating that the monastic community responsible for producing this work counted the day as ending shortly before the sun had begun to set.

In the United States, nights are named after the previous day, e.g. "Friday night" usually means the entire night between Friday and Saturday. This is the opposite of the Jewish pattern. This difference from the civil day often leads to confusion. Events starting at midnight are often announced as occurring the day before. TV-guides tend to list nightly programs at the previous day, although programming a VCR requires the strict logic of starting the new day at 00:00 (to further confuse the issue, VCRs set to the 12-hour clock notation will label this "12:00 AM"). Expressions like "today", "yesterday" and "tomorrow" become ambiguous during the night.

Validity of tickets, passes, etc., for a day or a number of days may end at midnight, or closing time, when that is earlier. However, if a service (e.g. public transport) operates from e.g. 6:00 to 1:00 the next day (which may be noted as 25:00), the last hour may well count as being part of the previous day (also for the arrangement of the timetable). For services depending on the day ("closed on Sundays", "does not run on Fridays", etc.) there is a risk of ambiguity. As an example, for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), a day ticket is valid 28 hours, from 0:00 to 28:00 (i.e. 4:00 the next day). To give another example, the validity of a pass on London Regional Transport services is until the end of the "transport day" -- that is to say, until 4:30 am on the day after the "expiry" date stamped on the pass.

[edit] Metaphorical days

In the Bible, as a way to describe that time is immaterial to God, one day is described as being like one thousand years (Psalms 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8) to him. Also in 2 Peter 3:8, one thousand years is described as being like one day. However, some Bible experts interpret this more literally as a way to understand some prophecies like those in Book of Daniel and others (like the Book of Revelation) where are mentioned days in form of weeks and years.

[edit] 24 hours vs daytime

To distinguish between a full day and daytime, the English word nychthemeron may be used for the former, or more colloquially the term 24 hours. In other languages, the latter is also often used. Other languages also have a separate word for a full day, such as in Hebrew, dygn in Swedish, etmaal in Dutch and in Russian. In Spanish, singladura is used, but only as a marine unit of length, being the distance covered in 24 hours.^[3]

[edit] See also

• 1 E4 s, Times from 10 kiloseconds to 100 kiloseconds
• Calculating the day of the week
• Dagr
• Evening
• Daylight
• Daylight saving time
• Season, for a discussion of daylight and darkness near the poles and the equator and places in-between
• Week

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ NISI Guide to the SI
2. ^ Resolution 1 of the 13th meeting of the CGPM (1967/68)
3. ^ "singladura - Definición". WordReference.com. http://www.wordreference.com/definicion/singladura. Retrieved on 2009-03-22. 

[edit] External links

• Definitions of day, night, twilight (USA navy site)
• Formulas to calculate the length of day and night
• Sunrise and sunset, all year long, anywhere
• Show where it is daytime at the moment

............now lets go deeper....

Daytime (astronomy)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Daylight. (Discuss)

Earth daylight 13:00 UTC

On Earth, daytime is roughly the period on any given point of the planet's surface during which it experiences natural illumination from indirect or (especially) direct sunlight.

Other planets that rotate in relation to a luminous primary, such as a local star, also experience daytime of a sort, but this article primarily discusses daytime on Earth.

Contents [hide] 1 Characteristics 2 Daytime variations with latitude and seasons 2.1 At the Equator 2.2 In the tropics 2.3 Near the poles 2.4 Middle latitudes 2.5 Variations in solar noon 3 See also

[edit] Characteristics

Approximately half of the Earth is illuminated at any given time by sunlight. The area subjected to direct illumination is almost exactly half the planet; but because of atmospheric and other effects that extend the reach of indirect illumination, the area of the planet covered by either direct or indirect illumination amounts to slightly more than half the surface.

The hemisphere of the Earth experiencing daytime at any given instant changes continuously as the planet rotates on its own axis. The axis of the Earth's rotation is not exactly perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the Sun (which is parallel with the direction of sunlight), and so the length of the daytime period varies from one point on the planet to another. Additionally, since the axis of rotation is relatively fixed in comparison to the stars, it moves with respect to the Sun as the planet orbits the star. This creates seasonal variations in the length of the daytime period at most points on the planet's surface.

The period of daytime from the standpoint of a surface observer is roughly defined as the period between sunrise, when the Earth's rotation towards the east first causes the Sun's disc to appear above the horizon, to sunset, when the continuing rotation of the Earth causes the Sun's disc to disappear below the horizon to the west. Because the Sun' is a luminous disc as seen from the Earth, rather than a point source of light, sunrise and sunset are not instantaneous and the exact definition of both can vary with context. Additionally, the Earth's atmosphere further diffuses light from the Sun and lengthens the period of sunrise and sunset. For a certain period after sunset and before sunrise, indirect light from the Sun lightens the sky on Earth; this period is often referred to as twilight. Certain groups, such as Earthly astronomers, do not consider daytime to be truly ended until the Sun's disc is actually well below the Earth's horizon, because of this indirect illumination.

[edit] Daytime variations with latitude and seasons

Earth daylight Northern summer

Given that the Earth's own axis of rotation is inclined by about 23.5 degrees from the perpendicular (as compared to its orbital plane), the length of the daytime period varies with seasons on the planet's surface, depending on the observer's latitude. Areas experiencing summer are tilted toward the sun. Their tilt toward the sun leads to over half of the day being in daylight and warmer temperatures due to the increased directness of the sun's rays. While increased daylight can have some effect on the increased temperature in the summer, most of the increase in temperature is due to the directness of the sun, not the increased daylight. The high (near 90 degrees) angles of the sun is what causes the tropics to be warm while low (barely above the horizon) angles at the poles is what causes then to be cold. Hours of daylight having little effect on temperature can can be seen with the poles still being cold in their respective summers despite 24 hours of daylight, while the equator is warm with only 12 hours of daylight.

Although the length of the daytime period is always twelve hours at the Equator, in all seasons, at all other latitudes the length varies with the season. During the winter, the daytime period is shorter than twelve hours; during the summer, it is longer than 12 hours. When it is winter north of the Equator, it is summer south of the Equator, and vice versa.

Earth daylight Northern winter

[edit] At the Equator

At the Equator, the daytime period is always almost twelve hours in length, no matter what the season. The sun always rises nearly perpendicular to the horizon. During the summer months it rises a bit north of east, and sets a bit north of west. During the winter months it rises a bit south of east and sets a bit south of west. The path of the Sun lies entirely in the northern half of the sky for the summer half of the year and is entirely in the southern half in the winter part of the year, with the Sun passing directly overhead at noon on the equinoxes.

The fact that the Sun is always so close to the vertical at noon on the Equator (never being more than 23.5 degrees north or south) explains why equatorial regions are the hottest regions on the planet overall. Additionally, sunrise and sunset always occur very quickly at the Equator, because the Sun's path across the sky is so nearly vertical with respect to the horizon; at the equinox, the Sun requires only two minutes to traverse the horizon at sunrise and sunset.

[edit] In the tropics

The tropics occupy a band of the Earth's surface between 23.5° north latitude and 23.5° south latitude. Within this band, the Sun will pass almost directly overhead on at least one day per year. The line of 23.5° north latitude is called the Tropic of Cancer, because the Sun passes overhead at the time of year when it is roughly within the zodiac sign of Cancer. The equivalent line of south latitude is called the Tropic of Capricorn, for similar reasons.

On the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the Sun is directly overhead only once per year, on the corresponding solstice. At latitudes closer to the Equator and on the Equator itself, it will be overhead twice per year (on the equinoxes in the case of the Equator). Outside the tropics, the Sun never passes directly overhead.

[edit] Near the poles

Near the poles, which coincide with the rotational axis of the Earth as it passes through the surface, the seasonal variations in the length of daytime are extreme. In fact, within 23.5° latitude of the poles, there will be at least some days each year during which the sun never goes below the horizon. In there will be days where the sun never rises above the horizon. This number will be fewer, but close to the number of days in the summer where the sun doesn't set (for example the sunrise is usually a few days before the spring equinox and extends a few days past the fall equinox, even WITHOUT accounting for twilight). This phenomenon of more daylight than night is not unique to the poles. In fact, at any given time slightly more than half of the earth is in daylight. The 24 hours of summer daylight is known as the “Midnight Sun” that is famous in some northern and southern countries. To the north, the Arctic Circle marks this 23.5° boundary. To the south, the Antarctic Circle marks the boundary. These boundaries correspond to 66.5° north or south latitude, respectively. Because the Sun's disc itself is about half a degree in diameter and is very bright, truly dark days during which the sun never seems to rise are only seen beyond 67° north or south latitude.

At and near the poles, the sun never rises very far above the horizon, even in summer, which is why these regions of the world are consistently cold in all seasons. Even at the summer solstice, when the sun reaches its highest point above the horizon at noon, it is still only 23.5° above the horizon at the poles. Additionally, as one approaches the poles, the apparent path of the Sun through the sky each day diverges more and more from the vertical, and more and more closely resembles an inclined circle. As summer approaches, the Sun rises more and more to the northeast, and sets more and more to the northwest; at the poles, the path of the Sun is indeed a circle, which is roughly equidistant above the horizon for the entire duration of the daytime period on any given day. The circle gradually sinks below the horizon as winter approaches, and gradually rises above it as summer approaches. At the poles, then, “sunrise” and “sunset” may last for several days.

[edit] Middle latitudes

At middle latitudes, far from both the Equator and the North and South Poles, variations in the length of daytime are moderate. At high middle latitudes, such as those of Montréal or Paris, the difference in the length of the day from summer to winter can be very noticeable: the sky may still be lit at 10 PM in summer, but may be dark at 5 PM in winter. At low middle latitudes, such as southern California or Egypt, the seasonal difference may be quite small and only slightly noticeable to the locals.

In middle latitudes, the seasonal climate variations produced by changes in the length of daytime are the most marked, with very distinct periods of cold and heat, and other secondary seasonal changes such as snow and ice in winter that disappear in summer, and so on. At high latitudes, it is cold most of the time, with constant snow and ice, so the seasons are less obvious; and in the tropics, it is hot most of the time, with no snow or ice at all, so again the seasons are less obvious.

[edit] Variations in solar noon

The exact instant of solar noon, when the sun reaches its highest elevation in the sky, varies with the seasons everywhere except at the poles and on the Equator. This variation is called the equation of time, and the magnitude of the variation is usually in the range of minutes over the course of a year, depending on the observer's latitude.

 

..................for if we remain in motion........is it still impossible for us to remain clear of deaths shadow....

..................for what is the natural boundary of light once we leave the surface.....????..?

............and lets "imagine" that we did evolve...........was it from 

 something......?.....or ........ourselves???????

I don't know why, but this is kind of entertaining.

Can't put my finger on it.

I've always liked that joke!

these are only words

This has quite a few religious vibes...

"I shall not judge, for I wish not to be judged"?  that's from the Bible (not word for word, but the meaning, anyway)

The Path?

The Beginning?

"Unaware" and "Aware"?

The beginning of this thread really feels like a religious thread to me.  Reminiscient of the Buddhistic beliefs and Hinduistic beliefs, esp the Eightfold Path.

the "aware" thing definitely reminds me of the crusades, when disillusioned christian warriors went on conquest to bring "awareness" by sword.  I'm not saying you have to do with them, just that that's what the different parts remind me of.

but in this last post... it just seems like someone going off his/her rocker.

It's just a whole bunch of spam. Ignore it.

YOU ignore it. 

Do i think it's all weird jargon... yes... but I personally CHOSE to come and look at it.  Just the same as others can CHOOSE to not look at it.

Easy as that.

..........welcome........as you by now know............ here in the minds eye.....................

we hold no allegiance  .................. only abide.......... for that is the truth.......

....................here in the mental..............we are able to detach from worldly pursuit....

and view from a out of body perspective.... I defend not; for all I see needs no defense...

and I share with you....."reader".... out of desire to understand... for I see all as equal....

even thought my conscience would only preach other wise....

Crusade vs Jihad

June 15, 2006
By Ibn Iblis

There are three common misconceptions that permeate modern perceptions of the Crusades. First, that a crusade is the doctrinal equivalent to jihad; second, that the crusades were nothing more than Western Christianity's first attempt at colonial imperialism, thrust upon a peaceful, tolerant culture who did nothing to instigate them; and third, that Muslims' long historical memory, particularly with regards to the crusades, plays a huge roll in how Muslims view their relationship with Western, so-called Judeo-Christian powers.

There are no doctrinal similarities between a crusade and jihad. First of all, the word "crusade" has nothing to do with warfare, and "crusader" does not denote warrior or soldier. It comes from the Latin crucesignati, or "those signed by the cross". There is nothing in the Bible that calls Christians to fight in the name of God. In reality, the opposite is true. Christ's message was that of love, peace, and pacification, without exception. Christ condemned violence even in self-defence, which, in essence, was the driving force behind The Call. Certain verses, most notably Matthew 16:24 and 19:29, give vague calls for Christians to abandon their homes and families to take up the cross, but the question these verses beg to ask is, take up the cross and do what? Certainly not take up the sword for Christ, especially considering that Christ tought to resist not him that is evil ¹, that they that take up the sword shall perish by the sword ².

Jihad, on the other hand, has a totally different doctrinal meaning in Islam. It is true that, like crucesignati, the Arabic definition of jihad has nothing to do with warfare. But jihad as defined in the Qur'an and the sunnah is almost exclusively characterized by conquering, killing, pillaging, enslavement, and rape; or, more simply, warfare against non-Muslims until Allah's word and law reign superior on earth. Christ never took to crusading - he never commanded an army, and, as cited in the Biblical verse above, forbade his followers from taking up the sword even in his own defense. Muhammad, particularly after the hegira to Medina, lived for jihad. He was sending his warriors off on jihad even on his death bed. And his followers, the Rightly Guided - those Caliphs who served Muhammad while he was alive - vigorously and enthusiastically persued jihad and spread the Islamic empire at a speed unprecedented in history.

The quest for land, wealth and resources may have been viable reasons for later crusades, but the initial catalyst for The Call was self defense and reparation for past injustices. Few accounts of the Crusades make mention of the build-up to The Call given by Pope Urban II, or if they do, the reference is only in passing. Muslims had taken, by conquest, three quarters of what was then known as Christendom - not exactly a single empire defined by a single entity but similiar to the Dar al-Islam: lands under control and dominated by Christians. This conquest extended from Spain through North Africa to Palestine, Syria, and up into the Caucasis and a great deal of Asia Minor. The Christian population of those lands were systematically wiped out and persecuted. By the time the Seljuk Turks conquered Jerusalem in 1071, much of this conquest had waned, and the Turks were shocked to see Christian churches and monestaries flourishing in Muslim lands. They destroyed churches, murdered clergy, and seized pilgrims. All of this played a roll in motivating Crusaders.

It was Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) who first made serious plans to raise an army against the Turks, as early as 1074. This was not to be cast as a holy war, but an errand of mercy and charity towards their Christian brothers in the East, who had so much of their land and wealth seized by Muslims. These plans were thwarted by what came to be known as the Investiture Controversy, and it was not until 1095 that, after the Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus sent an envoy requesting aid against the Turks, another Pope, Urban II, revived Gregory's vision.

Urban knew that saving Constantinople from the Turks would not be enough to spur Christians to leave their lands and march thousands of miles, even if it were in the service of Christ. The focal point was shifted to the Holy Land: the "Soldiers of St Peter" would not only cleanse Asia Minor from the Turks but move on to liberate the very lands Christ and his disciples lived and died in. The goal thus became Jerusalem.

In this sense the First Crusade could be characterized as merely an armed pilgrimage. Each crusader took a vow to make pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher, the very place where Christ was believed to have died and been reserrected. Crusaders usually referred to themselves as "pilgrims" or "cross bearers". They would journey to Jerusalem, liberating the lands they traversed along the way, thereby making the holy city safe for future Christian pilgrims.

Marxist revisionists, who believed that economic factors drove history, recast the Crusades as a venture to adapt to the growth of the European population and subsequent scarcity of resources, and other historians in the West began accepting this argument. ³ Suddenly, rather than being a romantic tale of chivalrous knights marching off to save the Holy Land from barbarian hordes, the Crusades became the seed of a thousand years of Western imperialism and aggression; a vile, vicious assault by ignorant barbarians against poor, helpless and peaceful Muslim victims, and this "history" became part of what we in the West think is part of Muslims' long historical memory. In essence, their "memory" of the Crusades is far nearer than the actual events.

Ironically, Marxist revisionism used to condemn the Crusades sounds similar to jihad apologists and deniers seeking to excuse the explosion of the Islamic empire. Historian Philip Hitti claimed that Not fanaticism but economic necessity drove the Bedouin hordes. However, historian Moshe Gil explains that, while resource scarcity may have played a role in the Islamic expansion, without the conceptual system known as Islam, [these] developements would have remained outside the realm of possibility. This he attributes to the religious fervor [that] turned the Muslim into a courageous fighter, contemptuous of death ⁴. The prophet and their god specifically commanded this expansion take place, and it did; no objective observer can ignore the correlation.

Today, the Crusades are used as an effective tool for Muslim propaganda against the West, as well as apologetic deflections against modern jihad terrorism, but the truth is the average Muslim had no idea about the Crusades until Western colonialists re-educated them in the years after WWI. As late as the seventeenth century, the Crusades were virtually unknown in the Muslim world. They were small, fruitless attempts to halt the inevitable Islamic expansion. The Crusaders conquered Palestine, Muslims drove the infidels out. That was all. With Palestine given to the British and Syria given to the French in the aftermath of WWI, it was difficult to avoid the notion that the final chapter of the Crusades had been written. Indeed, as British general Sir Edmund Allenby marched into Jerusalem in 1917 he declared, "Today the wars of the Crusaders are completed," and a London magazine celebrated with a political cartoon of Richard the Lionheart watching proudly as the British entered Jerusalem, saying, "At last, my dream come true." ⁵ French general Henri Gourad, upon entering Syria, boasted, "Behold, Saladin, we have returned." ⁶

The Crusades were, on the whole, belated, limited, and unsuccessful. Almost all of its early conquests were subsequently lost to Muslim counter-offenses, and, as was mentioned, until Western colonial influence in post-WWI Muslim lands, Muslims either cared little about or more likely knew nothing about the Crusades. The Arabic term for the Crusaders, harb al-saib, was not introduced until the mid-nineteenth century, and the first Arabic history of the Crusades was not written until 1899. Saladin, the great Muslim Sultan who recaptured Jerusalem for Islam, was virtually unknown in the Muslim world until the Twentieth Century. He was given far more prominence in the West: Richard the Lionheart was an admirer, and stories of Saladin being knighted and secretly being converted to Christianty spread. Sir Walter Scott lionized him in his novel The Talismen, in which he transformed Saladin into a man of courtesy, mercy and wisdom. He stood in contrast to Richard the Lionheart, who Scott portrayed as an ignorant barbarian, much like the rest of his Crusader brethren.

There is no greater example of Western respect for Saladin, contrasted with the Muslim world's ignorance of him, than Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who, in 1899, visited Saladin's tomb in Damascus and was shocked to find it neglected and in complete disrepair. He funded a new mausoleum with a bronze wreath inscribed, "From one great emperor to another." ⁷

As we have seen, Umar and Uthman had conquered Syria, Palestine, North Africa, and Armenia - all Christian lands. Later Islam would spread through the whole of North Africa and across the straight of Gibraltar into Spain - all Christian lands. This betrays the ahistorical assessments of apologists such as John Espisito, who ridiculously claimed that Five centuries of peaceful coexistence elapsed before political events and an imperial-papal power play led to centuries-long series of so-called holy wars that pitted Christendom against Islam and left an enduring legacy of misunderstanding and distrust. Historian Bat Ye'or correctly refutes Espisito's historical revisionism:

...historical negationism, consisting of suppressing or sketching in a page or a paragraph, one thousand years of jihad which is presented as a peaceful conquest, generally welcomed by the vanquished populations; the omission of Christian and, in particular, Muslim sources describing the actual methods of these conquests: pillage, enslavement, deportation, massacres, and so on; the mythical historical conversion of "centuries" of "peaceful coexistence", masking the processes which transformed majorities into minorities, constantly at risk of extinction; an obligatory self-incrimination for the Crusades⁸.

Often it is the conduct of the Crusaders themselves that fall under criticism. Indeed, several thousand Jews were slaughtered in the Rhineland by Crusaders en rout to Constantinople. The slaughter of Jerusalem's inhabitants, irrespective of age or sex, is a gross exaggeration. By the standards of the time, practiced by Christian and Muslim alike, the Crusaders would have been completely justified in putting the population to the sword, as many Muslim conquerors had done previously, but this is not what happened. It is true that in the initial flood of soldiers entering Jerusalem, many Jews and Muslims were killed. Yet in the aftermath many were allowed to purchase their freedom, or were simply deported. Stories of knee-high rivers of blood running through the streets of Jerusalem were never meant to be taken seriously. Unfortunately modern scholarship has been all too eager to accept as fact a tale medieval people knew to be an impossibility.

None of this could be justified by Christian text. Unlike Islam, Christianity had no well-defined concept of holy war before the Middle Ages. Only after the conversion of Constantine did Christianity come into contact with statecraft and warfare. Christians in government found themselves faced with questions of life, death, war and peace, questions their religion had never dealt with before. In the fifth century, Augustine outlined the necessary conditions for a Christian leader to wage a just war, but he was quick to insist that, unlike Muslims, the faithful not engage in wars of religious conversion or for the sake of destroying heresies or pagans. Warfare was a necessary evil sometimes forced upon a good leader - it was not to be used as a tool of the church.

This stands in stark contrast to jihad, perhaps most aptly defined by the footnote to Qur'an 2.190 ⁹:

Al-Jihâd (holy fighting) in Allâh’s Cause (with full force of numbers and weaponry) is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars (on which it stands). By Jihâd Islam is established, Allâh’s Word is made superior (His Word being Lâ ilaha illallâh which means none has the right to be worshipped but Allâh), and His religion (Islam) is propagated. By abandoning Jihâd (may Allâh protect us from that) Islam is destroyed and the Muslims fall into an inferior position; their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihâd is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim, and he who tries to escape from this duty, or does not in his innermost heart wish to fulfill this duty, dies with one of the qualities of a hypocrite.

...........We shall move forward and show why speaking of such things only leads to

a ................... mindstate.......... and because our fellow traveler has brought up

very valid points,,,,, we must for the unaware bring this topic in a little closer....

................as haard as it seems....... I know that there are many of us who are

only for the first time even beginning to break the surface of this thread... and the

next bit of information my become more than one is ready to deal with at this

moment.... so I will ask the new to go back and practice your breathing

exercise....and by the time you return..... your foundation for the next level will

start to settle...

........................There is food for those hungry....and a place to rest for

those in need.............we deal in the universal math... all things are from

1.................so why would a few destroy the many???????

 

Surah 6, Al-Anam, The Cattle

6:154 Moreover, We gave Moses the Book, completing (Our favor) to those who would do right, and explaining all things in detail, and a guide and a mercy, that they might believe in the meeting with their Lord.

Surah 32, As-Sajdah, The Prostration 3

2:23 We did indeed aforetime give the Book to Moses: be not then in doubt of its reaching (thee): and We made it a guide to the Children of Israel.

32:24 And We appointed, from among them, Leaders, giving guidance under Our command, so long as they persevered with patience and continued to have faith in Our Signs.

Surah 17, Al-Isra, The Children of Israel

17:2 We gave Moses the Book, and made it a Guide to the Children of Israel, (commanding): "Take not other than Me as a Disposer of (your) affairs."

Surah 5, Al-Maidah, The Table Spread

5:47 It was We who revealed the law (to Moses); therein was guidance and light. By its standard have been judged the Jews, by the Prophet who bowed (as in Islam) to God's will, by the Rabbis and the doctors of Law: for to them was entrusted the protection of God's Book, and they were witnesses thereto: therefore fear not men, but fear Me, and sell not My Signs for a miserable price. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what God hath revealed, they are (no better than) unbelievers.

Surah 3, Al-Imran, The Family of Imram (the Father of Moses)

3:2 God! there is no god but He, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, Eternal. 3:3 It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down Law (Of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the Criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).

Surah 2, Al-Baqarah, The Cow

2:113 The Jews say: "The Christians have naught (to stand) upon"; and the Christians say: "The Jews have naught (to stand) upon." Yet they (profess to) study the (same) Book. Like unto their word is what those say who know not, but God will judge between them in their quarrel on the Day of Judgment.

Surah 2, Al-Baqarah, The Cow

2:136 Say ye: "We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord, we make no difference between one and another of them, and we bow to God (in Islam)."

 

Surah 5, Al-Maidah, The Table Spread5:68 If only the people of the Book had believed and been righteous, We should indeed have blotted out their iniquities and admitted them to gardens of Bliss.

5:69 If only they had stood fast by the Law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that was sent to them from their Lord, they would have enjoyed happiness from every side. There is from among them a party on the right course; but many of them follow a course that is evil.

......I can see that we have reached a cross road.... a point

were we all meet on the level.......even in knowledge.... for we

have reached the land of believe.......leaving behind "make

believe".............for it is free will that leads to freedom...

i have passed the point of no return.... for I see no need in

doing so..............we share for the sole purpose of giving....or

we cheat our own nature.... for what do we gain if we only 

give ...to lose ourselves?? ??..........."for they say a candle

consumes itself to shead light for others?.............but are you

aware of your gift???

I do not wish to fight, so that I may be at peace....for how can

we divide against ourselves.......

.......do we not learn from what we have accomplished.......and

can we expect a different outcome if we scatter the

pieces..........................It is time to harvest my fellow

travelers, under one comman goal................... for it is only

in this mind state that the religious may share

intellectually across the board with the scientific....the believer

along side the non................. the aware with the un.....

......................go in peace and overstand that everything

that has ever happened, ...............has lead up to now.... and

more importantly than how it affected the past....but what

place does it now occupy...............let it become a free space

with a strong foundation in which to further build...........

.......knowing that there is........

8.12 And he said do unto others as they would do unto you - only do it first...

Let's get into wikipedia...

oh noes!

these are still only words (and a smiley)

edit: the word to look up btw was "these" not words