Subject:
All Disciplines Arts & Humanities Biology & Life Sciences Business & Economics Chemistry & Materials Science Computer Science & Mathematics Engineering Environmental & Earth Sciences Medicine & Pharmacology Physical Sciences Public Health & Healthcare Social Sciences
Sort:
Hottest Latest Alphabetical (A-Z) Alphabetical (Z-A)
Type:
All Topic Review Biography
Topic Review
Avesta
The Avesta (/əˈvɛstə/) is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the liturgical group is the Yasna, which takes its name from the Yasna ceremony, Zoroastrianism's primary act of worship, and at which the Yasna text is recited. The most important portion of the Yasna texts are the five Gathas, consisting of seventeen hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. These hymns, together with five other short Old Avestan texts that are also part of the Yasna, are in the Old (or 'Gathic') Avestan language. The remainder of the Yasna's texts are in Younger Avestan, which is not only from a later stage of the language, but also from a different geographic region. Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the texts of the Vendidad and the Visperad. The Visperad extensions consist mainly of additional invocations of the divinities (yazatas), while the Vendidad is a mixed collection of prose texts mostly dealing with purity laws. Even today, the Vendidad is the only liturgical text that is not recited entirely from memory. Some of the materials of the extended Yasna are from the Yashts, which are hymns to the individual yazatas. Unlike the Yasna, Visperad and Vendidad, the Yashts and the other lesser texts of the Avesta are no longer used liturgically in high rituals. Aside from the Yashts, these other lesser texts include the Nyayesh texts, the Gah texts, the Siroza, and various other fragments. Together, these lesser texts are conventionally called Khordeh Avesta or "Little Avesta" texts. When the first Khordeh Avesta editions were printed in the 19th century, these texts (together with some non-Avestan language prayers) became a book of common prayer for lay people. The term Avesta is from the 9th/10th-century works of Zoroastrian tradition in which the word appears as Zoroastrian Middle Persian abestāg, Book Pahlavi ʾp(y)stʾkʼ. In that context, abestāg texts are portrayed as received knowledge, and are distinguished from the exegetical commentaries (the zand) thereof. The literal meaning of the word abestāg is uncertain; it is generally acknowledged to be a learned borrowing from Avestan, but none of the suggested etymologies have been universally accepted. The widely repeated derivation from *upa-stavaka is from Christian Bartholomae (Altiranisches Wörterbuch, 1904), who interpreted abestāg as a descendant of a hypothetical reconstructed Old Iranian word for "praise-song" (Bartholomae: Lobgesang); but this word is not actually attested in any text.
  • 1.4K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Catholic Church and Politics
Catholic Church and politics aims to cover subjects of where the Catholic Church and politics share common ground.
  • 947
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Allegory in the Middle Ages
Allegory in the Middle Ages was a vital element in the synthesis of biblical and classical traditions into what would become recognizable as medieval culture. People of the Middle Ages consciously drew from the cultural legacies of the ancient world in shaping their institutions and ideas, and so allegory in medieval literature and medieval art was a prime mover for the synthesis and transformational continuity between the ancient world and the "new" Christian world. People of the Middle Ages did not see the same break between themselves and their classical predecessors that modern observers see; rather, they saw continuity with themselves and the ancient world, using allegory as a synthesizing agent that brings together a whole image.
  • 1.5K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Shafa'ah
Shafa'ah (Arabic: شفاعه, "intercession"; Turkish: şefaat; Urdu: shafaat‎), in Islam is the act of pleading to God by an intimate friend of God (Muslim saint) for forgiveness. Shafa' a close meaning to Tawassul, which is the act of resorting to intimate friends of God to ask forgiveness. The word Shafa'ah is taken from shaf (شَّفْعُ) which means even as opposed to odd. The interceder, therefore, adds his own recommendation to that of petitioner so that the number of pleaders becomes even. Meaning the weak plea of the petitioner become strong by the prestige of the intercessor. Accordingly, Shafa'ah is a form of prayer to request God by the sake of those who are near to Him in order that as a member of the believing community one could hope for the intercession of the intercessors and hence deliverance from eternal damnation though not necessarily from temporary one. Shafa'ah has lately come to be among the most controversial concepts within Islamic thought. This is because some verses of the Quran negate it, if taken into consideration alone, stating that no intercession would be accepted in the day of resurrection. However, some other verses confirm it declaring that only God has the right to intercede in the next life. Finally, a third kind of verses state that some people have the authority to intercede by permission of God. Wahhabies, taking the first two kinds of these verses as true, believe that there is no intercessor but Allah, and say that whoever believes in intercession of anyone other than God is not a Muslim, rather is a polytheist (heretic). Others believe that while intercession should not be a means of emboldening people to committing sins, it should be considered as a ray of hope which lead sinners to the right path after they have wronged themselves. Belief in the intercession of Muhammad developed after his death by both Sunnis and Shiites, however among the Shiite the idea of mediation was extended to include The Twelve Imams and other intimate friends of God too.
  • 2.5K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Proto-Romanian Language
Proto-Romanian (also known as "Common Romanian", româna comună or "Ancient Romanian", străromâna, Balkan Latin) is a hypothetical and unattested Romance language evolved from Vulgar Latin and considered to have been spoken by the ancestors of today's Romanians and related Balkan Latin peoples (Vlachs) before c. 900 (7th–11th century AD). In the 9th century Proto-Romanian already had a structure very distinct from the other Romance languages, with major differences in grammar, morphology and phonology and already was a member of the Balkan language area. Most of its features can be found in the modern Balkan Romance languages. It already contained around a hundred loans from Slavic languages, including words such as trup (body, flesh), as well as some Greek language loans via Vulgar Latin, but no Hungarian and Turkish words as these nations had yet to arrive in the region. According to the Romanian theory, it evolved into the following modern languages and their dialects: The first language that broke the unity was Aromanian, in the 9th century, followed shortly after by Megleno-Romanian. Istro-Romanian was the last to break the link with Daco-Romanian in the 11th century. The place where Proto-Romanian formed is still under debate; most historians put it just to the north of the Jireček Line. See: Origin of Romanians. The Roman occupation led to a Roman-Thracian syncretism, and similar to the case of other conquered civilisation (see Gallo-Roman culture developed in Roman Gaul), had as final result the Latinization of many Thracian tribes which were on the edge of the sphere of Latin influence, eventually resulting in the possible extinction of the Daco-Thracian language (unless, of course, Albanian is its descendant), but traces of it are still preserved in the Eastern Romance substratum. From the 2nd century AD, the Latin spoken in the Danubian provinces starts to display its own distinctive features, separate from the rest of the Romance languages, including those of western Balkans (Dalmatian). The Thraco-Roman period of the Romanian language is usually delimited between the 2nd century (or earlier via cultural influence and economic ties) and the 6th or the 7th century. It is divided, in turn, into two periods, with the division falling roughly in the 3rd to 4th century. The Romanian Academy considers the 5th century as the latest time that the differences between Balkan Latin and western Latin could have appeared, and that between the 5th and 8th centuries, the new language, Romanian, switched from Latin speech, to a vernacular Romance idiom, called Română comună.
  • 2.8K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Biography
Robert Lawrence Kuhn
Robert Lawrence Kuhn[1] (born 1944) is a public intellectual, international corporate strategist and investment banker. He has a doctorate in neuroscience and is the author and editor of over 25 books. He is a recipient of the China Reform Friendship Medal, China's highest award; he is a long-time adviser to China's leaders and the Chinese government, to multinational corporations on China strat
  • 1.8K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Biography
Etty Hillesum
Esther "Etty" Hillesum (15 January 1914 – 30 November 1943) was the Dutch author of confessional letters and diaries which describe both her religious awakening and the persecutions of Jewish people in Amsterdam during the German occupation. In 1943 she was deported and killed in Auschwitz concentration camp.[1] Hillesum c. 1940. https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1114473
  • 675
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Internet Challenge
On the internet, a challenge is a genre of videos in which users record themselves performing an action and then dare others to repeat it. They play a role in internet meme culture, with many challenges spreading through such memes. Examples include the ALS Ice Bucket challenge, which went viral in mid-2014 and the TrashTag Challenge which went viral in 2019. An internet challenge is similar to the common children's dare game in which they dare each other to perform an action that one would not normally do. Some challenges/talks predate the internet; some periodically resurface in a somewhat different form. The popularity of internet challenges is explained by people's, especially teenagers', need to gain attention and be liked.
  • 648
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Multiverse (Religion)
The concept of a multiverse is explored in various religious cosmologies that propose that the totality of existence comprises multiple or infinitely many universes, including our own. Usually, such beliefs include a creation myth, a history, a worldview and a prediction of the eventual fate or destiny of the world. The worldview discusses the current organizational form of our universe and may contain references to other supernatural world or worlds. These references have aided several esoteric practices, including contacts with spirit worlds, and activities concerning personal or inner spiritual development. Many of these worlds include an afterlife existence, which may be very different from existence in the physical plane or the world of the living; common afterlife realms include heaven, hell, and realm of the dead. Eschatological scenarios may include a new, different world after the end time of the current world. For example, Hindu cosmology includes the idea of an infinite cycle of births and deaths and an infinite number of universes with each cycle lasting 8.64 billion years. The cosmological ideas in various religious traditions have clearly evolved in time due to the introduction of new concepts and the exchange of ideas with other cultures. Nevertheless, perennial philosophers believe that these traditions all share a single supernatural truth or origin.
  • 12.7K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Biography
Edith Balfour Lyttelton
Dame Edith Sophy Lyttelton GBE JP (née Balfour; 4 April 1865 – 2 September 1948) was a British novelist, playwright, World War I-era activist and spiritualist.[1] Dame Edith was born in Saint Petersburg, the eldest daughter of Archibald Balfour, a London businessman and merchant in the Russian Empire, and Sophia "Sophy" Weguelin, daughter of MP Thomas Matthias Weguelin. Edith was educated
  • 402
  • 21 Nov 2022
  • Page
  • of
  • 134
Featured Entry Collections
>>

Featured Books

>>
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences
Encyclopedia of COVID-19
Encyclopedia of Fungi
Encyclopedia of Digital Society, Industry 5.0 and Smart City
Video Production Service
Feedback