Islamic art and architecture from the seventh to the thirteenth Essay

Islamic art and architecture from the seventh to the thirteenth century - Essay Example Islam’s influence and presence in Spain dates back to the 9th century, when Muslims emigrated to the west. In 1492, most Muslims were expelled and the few who managed to stay back publicly proclaimed Catholicism to avoid expulsion. (Spain, Demographics, Euro-Islam info. Country profiles, euro-islam.info/pages/spain.html) The powerful Muslim armies in their quest for expansion began invading countries that stretched from the Western borders of India, across Persia and Northern Africa, to Spain and Southern France. In order to establish their faith in these countries, they constructed Mosques and prayer halls of architectural brilliance. They remained for 800 years in Europe until in 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella over-rode them. During their reign, the Muslims perceived the need to establish artistically styled monuments to help expand their faith and compete with other religions. Their success in this endeavor led to the presence of today’s remarkable Arts & Architectures (The development of Islamic art: Graeco-Roman, Lesson 5 Art part: Islamic art, www.dartmouth.edu) 2.0 Executive Summary Art was predominant during the 7th to 13th century Europe. With the arrival of the Muslims, art was not just artistic, but it was purposeful as well. However, not all Islamic art had a specific religious purpose, unique to the Islamic faith. One of the most distinguishing features of Islamic art is the absence of an image of religious context. Idolatry is considered a grave sin. It is believed that any form of human worship is profane to the idea of Allah as the only God. This clearly distinguishes Islamic art from Christian and/or other religious arts. In architecture, painting, and carpet-weaving, Muslims limit their portrayals of humans or animals. To Muslims, decoration meant use of calligraphy, flowers and leaves. Geometrical and floral patterns also adorned Islamic art and architecture (The Islamic World to 1600, www.ucalgary.ca)3. This research paper will strive to identify the influences and brilliance of different Muslim art and architectural in Spain, and its impact on non-Muslim Spanish people. The paper also looks at the various centers of art in Spain. 3.0 Islamic Art and Architecture With the use of colors and balance between design and form, Islamic art creates a visual impact. Such is its artistic appeal that it transcends distance in time and space, as well as differences in language, culture, and creed. Islamic art not only invites a closer look but also beckons the viewer to learn more. Spain, along with other European countries like France, Germany, and Austria became targets for Muslim expansionism. The army brought with them their cultural and spiritual ideology. Their most important building was the mosque, followed by the royal palace. Early mosques were square in shape. Gradually with expansion in size and strength, this requirement led to larger and more elaborate prayer halls. In the late 8th century, Spain saw the construction of the Mosque of Cordoba, with a courtyard in the centre, roofed arcades, and minarets; towers that extend vertically. This mosque had a spacious hall to accommodate more worshippers, a definite move to encourage more and more worshippers and spread Islam. They were built solid to withstand external influences, a contrast to their palaces, which were built from unbaked bricks and/or plaster. The Muslim rulers were not too keen on permanent structures, preferring to abandon them later. The purpose to spread their religion led them to construct significant architectural marvels that would leave a lasting impression on the people. A few of these are mentioned herein:

Critically discuss this statement with reference to decided cases and Essay

Critically discuss this statement with reference to decided cases and academic opinion - Essay Example Such liability is not directly applicable, as the liability of Community institutions and the liability of the Member States are not always comparable.4 An instance of this is to be found in the Brasserie decision. In Brasserie, the ECJ extended the right of individuals to claim such damages, from any organ of the Member State whose act or omission had resulted in the damage.5 This makes it reasonable to presume that the liability case law, with regard to Member States, is relevant to damages claims for breach of EC law public procurement rules.6 Such course of action is with regard to contracting authorities that are public bodies. However, the term State tends to be vague, even within the realm of Member State liability. There is considerable disagreement as to whether the definition of State aid, provided in the ruling in Foster,7 as being emergent from the State should be acknowledged. All the same, the case law makes it very clear that the term State, in the context of liability cases, has a wider connotation and includes in its ambit, the decentralized bodies and authorities. 8 Hence, there is substantial common ground between a contracting authority and State entity under liability, despite these concepts being incongruent to each other. This contention is restricted to the intersection, wherein the contracting authority is in reality a State body. The public procurement law requires an action for liability to be brought against the contracting authority. However, it is up to the internal system of the national law to identify the State instance against which the action for liability is to be made. 9 This discretion accorded to the national law, while identifying State liability issues, results in grave injustice to the individual. This is because an aggrieved person has the right of direct effect only against a State and its emanations. Moreover, in this case, the ECJ ruled that the liability arising from the damage undergone by individuals, on account of a breach of Community law, was analogous to the liability of the Community under similar circumstances. This holds good, as long as there is no specific justification for the breach of the Community law. 10 This principle was echoed in the decision in Bergaderm.11 Furthermore, in the Brasserie case, 12 the conditions resulting in the liability of a Member State were described. These are; first infringement of rules of the Community that are aimed at providing individual rights; second, the existence of a breach of sufficient gravity; and third, a causal relationship between the breach and the damage sustained.13 This ruling however, failed to address all the issues involved. For instance, the issue of seriousness of the breach of Community law was left unresolved. Moreover, the ECJ had differentiated between areas of sparse and wide discretion, during its attempt to determine whether there were grounds for State liability, as well as the precise nature of these conditions. 14 Mor eover, the breach of Community law by a Member State, which caused damage to an individual, placed that Member State under an obligation to make good the loss. This principle was enunciated in the Francovich decision by the ECJ. 15 In addition, in the Francovich case, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the

Transitive unaccusative1 verb constructions in Mandarin Essay

Transitive unaccusative1 verb constructions in Mandarin - Essay Example 1. Perlmutter (1978) and Bwzio (1986) suggested that the class of intransitive verbs is non-homogenous, and it is composed of two subclasses: unaccusative and unergative verbs. This paper focuses on unaccusative verbs. The cases of unergative verbs are different with unaccusative, which will be discussed in Section 4. In Mandarin, there also exits an alternation of unaccusative verbs into transitive verbs (here we do not limit it to causative verbs, because we do not know its syntactic representation yet) without inserting a verb. We make a hypothesis that the syntactic configurational approach to event structures for the transitivity alternation in English (Hale and Keyser 1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999) can apply to the structure of transitive unaccusative verb constructions in Mandarin. Next, we will give the reason for this hypothesis, and check our hypothesis by Mandarin data. The body of research created by Hale and Keyser (1991, 1993, 1997, 1999) implies that relevant syntactic configurations predetermine event structures the event structures of VPs and NPs’ thematic status inside them. Hale & Keyser state that deriving of English deadjectivals and denominals subjected to complex syntactic structures; thereby, the rules of UG, such as ECP, affect the relevant derivations. Basically, Hale & Keyser’s assumption implies that syntactic means affect derivation of lexical units, while syntactic operations insure derivation of the argument structures. Hale &Keyser virtually exc

SUCCESS FACTORS IN DATA WAREHOUSE PROJECTS Essay

SUCCESS FACTORS IN DATA WAREHOUSE PROJECTS - Essay Example Why organizations need to bring data together from different working systems? Obviously, the answer is, to be more beneficial, to be more competitive, or to grow by adding value for customers. This can be achieved by mounting the pace and flexibility of decision making, developing business processes effectively, or gaining a clearer idea of customer activities. The data warehouse is a huge collection of the past and current business data that analyze the old business data for offering special discounts and trend assessment in the past business. These systems also facilitate decision makers to retrieve data as many times as they need without disturbing the performance of the core working systems. A data warehouse merges data that are scattered all over the different working systems and makes them readily accessible for decision support applications (Laudon & Laudon, 1999, p. 247; Inmon, 2002, p. 3; Hoffer, Prescott, & McFadden, 2007, p. 47). There are many factors that play a signific ant role in the implementation of a data warehouse. This essay presents a detailed analysis of the critical success factors in the implementation of data warehouse projects. Data Warehouse: An overview A data warehouse is a large size subject-oriented database that is designed and implemented with organization-wide access in mind. Additionally, a data warehouse collects and process a mountain of data from a number of sources and the basic purpose of this data collection and processing is to allow its users to be familiar with the data and information they want for decision making and get access to that information by making use of easy to use applications and tools. In addition, data warehouse encompasses a wide variety of tools and technologies such as multidimensional and relational databases, graphical user interfaces, client/server architecture and many more. In the context of a data warehouse system, all these components work with the purpose of combining raw data and facts fro m a variety of sources into a particular and reliable warehouse that provides an excellent support for decision making and analysis inside a particular domain of the business. In this scenario, the majority of large size business organizations develop data warehouse systems as a key element of their main information systems environment (Alshboul, 2012; Swalker, 2011). Data Warehouse Projects A few years ago, it was a serious challenge for the business organizations to actually make use of the covered data and information and facts stored in the functional systems for management and decision tasks. In this scenario, data management is seen in the sense of data as a significant asset belonging to the entire business organization for management and decision tasks, and not only as the belongings of specific tools and applications, personnel or business areas. Basically, this data collected from a variety of sources is supplied to a managerial part, which is responsible for transforming collected data into understandable and useful information for instance high-class subject orientated information will be accessible just in due course. In view of the fact that data can play a significant role in supporting functioning tasks very competently, hence it does not repeatedly make available information that can transform knowledge and improve the efficiency of business processes efficiency. In the past, these operational data were not accessible in a way that end users could straightforwardly recognize and utilize. In this scenario, in the form of a theoretical framework in the direction of contemporary information processing system a data warehouse was developed for a useful and well-organized practice of the

My Mothers Breast Cancer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

My Mothers Breast Cancer - Essay Example When I first learned that my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer I was in shock. This was, without question, the most intensely emotional moment in my life. By moment, I refer not to subsequent events, but to my immediate reaction and state of mind. How does a young adult, still dependent and searching for her way in life, react to the news that her mother has cancer There is nothing but shock, a desperate sense of disbelief, and a subsequent search for answers that may not even be worth asking about. My initial reaction was shock. A heavy stillness enveloped me and I found it hard to even move my mouth. My hands fell listlessly to my sides, the very breath inside of me seemed to escape, and I was at a complete loss for words. My entire being was devastated, sunk, and I felt unable to offer any aid or comfort to my mother. I was in shock and helpless. More, I knew at this moment that I was helpless. I wanted to say something to reassure my mother that everything would be fine in the end.

Ethical consideration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical consideration - Essay Example se is, to have a correct ethical decision such that the resources of the foundation will not be put to waste and that the employee will be compensated accordingly. If I were to make a decision, I would look for the average market value or the average compensation given to major gifts officers of various foundations like ours and base the compensation that we will give, if there is no existing policy or rule in the foundation. To avoid the scenario where the employee will not be able to do the job is a little more difficult to ensure but this will not be dealt with using the commission option. Instead, he will be subject to a quarterly review against the set objectives/goals and his performance will be the basis for renewing his services or not. In this case, proper compensation is given and the objective to generate funds will be ensured because of the performance review. Government officials are prohibited to accept gifts because of various sources one being the fact that they may affect the decisions of the officials especially when the giver is currently transacting a business with the government office to which the official is connected. An extensive do’s and don’ts are listed along with the conditions is put forth by the US Department Ethics Office (1999) which can be made as basis for making my decision on what to do with the other $25,000 given to me along with the other $25,000 for the foundation. One condition in the ethics pamphlet states that the gift may be received provided that the act of giving is prompted by personal relations, such as friendship. In this case, my friendship with Jones for 15 years has probably prompted him to send me such gift, considering that he has no family and probably limited friends. Initially, I would gladly accept the gift and look at it as a token of gratitude. In the first place, I know that there is probably no string attached to his gift being the fact that we have known each other for more than a decade

You could put any topic you think is necessary Essay

You could put any topic you think is necessary - Essay Example Capital punishment began as early as in the 14th century B. C. under the Hittite code. They were also in used by Romans in the 5th century B. C., in Athens under the Draconian code in the 7th century B. C. as well as in Babylon in the 18th century B. C. during the reign of King Hammurabi. Criminals were mostly burnt alive, beaten to death, crucified or beheaded. In Britain, the most commonly used methods for execution were hanging, boiling alive or beheading. In the 16th century A. D, more than 70,000 people were executed in the country during the time of Henry VIII. Crimes included theft, getting married to Jews, treason and many other crimes that added up to 222 by the 17th century A. D. In the mid 18th century A. D., the crimes that were punishable by death were reduced to 120 (Banner (2002). Many nations have abolished capital punishment, but some are still practicing it, with China leading the group of 58 countries, having executed 5000 capital offenders in 2008. Iran and Saudi Arabia were also ranked among the countries with the highest executions though they came after China by far at 348 and 102 respectively. In the United States, 37 offenders were executed. Japan, Indonesia, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia are also applying capital punishment (Hands off Cain, 2008). Abolitionists are still campaigning against death penalty. Brown (2010) observes that the bible, which is used in many criminal justice systems for swearing convicts and witnesses has many verses such as â€Å"Genesis 9:5-6, Numbers 35:30, Num. 35:30 and Num. 35:33-34† among others that support death penalty for various crimes including murder, adultery and incest among others. There are offences in these passages that can only be punished through capital punishment. Some countries such as the US use these verses to justify the application of capital punishment. However, there are usually controversies concerning the sixth commandment that cautions against