ايمان الله
2011-04-25, 18:27
Unit One: Exploring the Past
Civilisations
Topic01:
Modern civilization has kept changing at a fast pace. Discuss.
Typical Essay:
A century ago, people were able to live in better conditions than their parents thanks to the progress made in science and technology. But in practice, the outcome of this progress was slow to materialise. For instance, most people still used to travel long distances on foot or by stage coach. And as mechanization was not introduced significantly in daily activities, household chores still had to be done manually, and were therefore time consuming.
On the other hand, community life was still an asset for social cohesion, since people had more opportunities to meet and interact. So they were able to chat with neighbours at shops or in clubs and have a cup of coffee with friends or relatives and tell stories and jokes. Likewise, family visits were frequent and kept the folklore alive, with the grandparents who used to tell traditional tales or sing lullabies or folk songs to their grandchildren. Unfortunately, with the development of audiovisual means such as the cinema, radio, television and then personal appliances like the computer, CD-ROMs and DVDs, the chances of socialization are dwindling and the lack of interaction between people may increase stress, loneliness and anxiety.
Could we then complain that we are missing out on some ingredients in life which used to make our great grandparents happier? This is probably so, since closer contacts among neighbours, friends and families had to be beneficial for communal harmony. However, scientific progress in all fields, particularly in medicine, modes of transportation and communication, and agribusiness can only show that our lives are today quite fulfilling and , if anything, more comfortable than a century ago.
Topic02:
Algeria was the cradle of many ancient civilizations. Discuss.
Typical Essay:
Algeria is a huge country in Northern Africa. It covers 920,000 square miles (2,380,000 sq. km), making it more than three times the size of Texas, and the 11th largest nation on Earth. It shares borders with Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia, and Western Sahara, and has coastline on the Mediterranean.
People have been living in the region that is now Algeria, and the surrounding Maghreb, for more than 200,000 years. The first civilizations sprang up between 4000 and 8000 years ago, eventually forming a cohesive population, usually referred to collective as the Berber culture.
From about 900 BCE Algeria has been invaded repeatedly by various peoples, mostly from across the Mediterranean. First the Phoenicians came, trading along the coast and eventually establishing Carthage in nearby Tunisia and various outposts in Algeria. Then came the Romans, who conquered the Berbers more-or-less completely by 24 AD. By the 4th century Algeria had been converted to Christianity.
Beginning in the 8th century Algeria, and the greater Maghreb, became a strategic target for the expanding Islamic world. By the end of the first decade of the 8th century the Umayyads had conquered all of North Africa, including Algeria. Over the next few centuries Algeria converted to Islam and was Arabized dramatically.
In the 16th century Algeria came under the control of the Ottoman Empire, and became a center for Mediterranean piracy and privateering. It was in Algeria that the infamous pirate Red Beard (neé Barbarossa) eventually was based, as a provincial governor. During this period both Arabs and native Berbers saw their roles diminished, as Turkish became the national ******** and Turks became entrenched in most positions of power. Piracy continued to spread and become institutionalized in Algeria, as well as its neighbors, in a confederacy known as the Barbary States. In addition to capturing the wealth of European traders, these pirates also began capturing Christians as slaves, a turn of events that eventually led the young United States to enter into two of its earliest wars against the Barbary Coast.
In the early 19th century Algeria was conquered by the French, who began to settle and develop the region. Although infrastructure developed under French control, to the majority of the Muslim inhabitants of Algeria, France was seen as a harsh colonial power. Resistance and open revolt continued throughout all of the French occupation, but it began to grow substantially and develop during the 1930s. Although relatively peaceful attempts were made for a Constitution and more equality in the mid-1940s, these were met with no support by the French government.
By 1954 the situation had gotten bad enough that the citizenry revolted on a massive scale. The National Liberation Front was the main body of revolt, launching a full-scale civil war that would last for eight years. In that time nearly two million Algerians would die, and another two to three million were relocated. Independence was finally achieved in 1962, after one of the longest, bloodiest wars for independence in modern history.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-should-i-know-about-algeria.htm
Topic03:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the ancient Greek civilization.
Typical Essay:
The Greeks were very interested in science as a way of organizing the world and making order out of chaos, and having power over some very powerful things like oceans and weather. From about 600 BC, a lot of Greek men spent time observing the planets and the sun and trying to figure out how astronomy worked. They must have gotten their first lessons from the Babylonians, who were very good at astronomy and also very interested in it.
By the 400's BC, Pythagoras was interested in finding the patterns and rules in mathematics and music, and invented the idea of a mathematical proof. Although Greek women usually were not allowed to study science, Pythagoras did have some women among his students. Socrates, a little bit later, developed logical methods for deciding whether something was true or not.
In the 300's BC, Aristotle and other philosophers at the Lyceum and the Academy in Athens worked on observing plants and animals, and organizing the different kinds of plants and animals into types. Again, this is a way of creating order out of chaos.
After Aristotle, using his ideas and also ideas from Egypt and the Persians and Indians, Hippocrates and other Greek doctors wrote important medical texts that were used for hundreds of years.
Topic04:
Write a composition on the ancient Egyptian civilization.
Typical Essay:
Egypt is one of the most fertile areas of Africa, and one of the most fertile of the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. Because it is so fertile, people came to live in Egypt earlier than in most places, probably around 40,000 years ago. At first there were not very many people, but gradually Egypt became more crowded, so there was more need for a unified government. Around 3000 BC (5000 years ago), Egypt was first unified under one ruler, who was called the Pharaoh.
The pharaoh’s government guaranteed both external and internal security to the people of Egypt. As a consequence, the Egyptians grew very proud of their country and became so fond of the pharaoh hat they worshipped him as a god-king. This national pride and identification with the pharaoh kept the unity of ancient Egypt and made its civilization prosper for many centuries
From that time until around 525 BC, when Egypt was conquered by the Persians, Egypt's history is divided into six different time periods. These are called the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediate Period, the Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom, and the Third Intermediate Period.
But the economy of ancient Egypt was ruined by all the resources that the pharaohs put into the building of pyramids and the gradual decline and fall of ancient Egyptian civilization.
Topic05:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
Typical Essay:
Egyptian scientists were generally most interested in observing nature and practical engineering, and they were very good at both of these things. The pyramids and temples, for example, show good knowledge of geometry and engineering. Egyptian engineers used the Pythagorean Theorem, thousands of years before Pythagoras was born.
Because the Nile flood was so important to Egyptian farming, scientists also worked out good ways to measure how high the flood was going each year, and kept accurate records and good calendars. You can see here how the Egyptian wrote down numbers. The device they used to measure the height of the Nile flood is called a Nilometer.
They also worked out good ways to move water from the Nile to outlying farms in the desert, using hand-powered irrigation pumps (shadufs) and canals.
It may also have been Egyptian scientists who first figured out how to make yeast-rising bread.
Topic06:
Write a composition on the achievements of the ancient Egyptian civilization in architecture.
Typical Essay:
People tend to think that Egyptian building styles stayed the same for the whole period of Egyptian history, from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the end of the New Kingdom two thousand years later, but that's not true. The Egyptians built different kinds of buildings at different times, just like any other group of people.
In the early part of the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians built mainly mastabas, a kind of tomb with a flat roof like a house. Then throughout most of the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians built the pyramid tombs which are now so famous. Of course they also built smaller buildings like houses and butcher shops.
In the Middle Kingdom, the mastaba tomb came back again, although in a more elaborate form for the Pharaohs. They didn't build any more pyramids. Then in the New Kingdom there was a lot of building that was not tombs: temples for the gods especially, but also palaces for the Pharaohs.
Topic07:
Write a composition on the ancient Sumerian civilization and its achievements.
Typical Essay:
The people who settled down and began to develop a civilization, in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers , are known as the Sumerians. About a thousand years later, the Babylonians took over in the south, and the Assyrians took over in the north, but the Sumerian culture lived on.
The Sumerian civilization probably began around 5000 BCE. In the beginning, they were an agricultural community. They grew crops and stored food for times of need.
The ancient Sumerians were very smart. They invented, amongst other things, the wheel, the sailboat, and the first written ********, frying pans, razors, cosmetic sets, shepherd’s pipes, harps, kilns to **** bricks and pottery, bronze hand tools like hammers and axes, the plow, the plow seeder, and the first superhero, Gilgamesh.
They invented a system of mathematics based on the number 60. Today, we divide an hour into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds. That comes from the ancient Mesopotamians.
Some Mesopotamian words are still in use today. Words like crocus, which is a flower, and saffron, which is a spice, are words borrowed from the ancient Mesopotamians.
The ancient Mesopotamians created a government that was a combination of monarchy and democracy. Kings ruled the people. Elected officials who served in the Assembly also ruled the people. Even kings had to ask the Assembly for permission to do certain things.
Law held a special place in their civilization. In Babylonian times, laws were actually written down. But there were always laws. The laws clearly said how you had to behave and what your punishment would be if you did not behave correctly. And the laws that were later written down, for the most part, were laws created by the ancient Sumerians.
Ancient Sumer was a bustling place of three or four hundred people. The ancient Sumerians built many cities along the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. Archaeologists believe that their largest city, the city of Ur, had a population of around 24,000 residents!
Topic08:
Write a composition on the ancient Phoenician civilization.
Typical Essay:
Another great race of people descended from the Babylonian or Semitic stock were the Phoenicians. They inherited the intellectual and adventurous side of Babylonian life, and through them the use of the alphabet, or written ********, was spread abroad over all the world.
The Phoenicians were earth's first-known sailors and explorers. In tiny barks, such as we of today would think scarcely safe for navigating a river, they coasted the entire Mediterranean Sea and even ventured far along the shores of the tempestuous Atlantic. They went not as traders in the ordinary sense, but as bold adventurers, eager to see new things, resolute to confront and conquer whatever sudden, unknown danger leaped upon them.
Their home lay along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, adjoining Palestine, the home of the Hebrews. There they built mighty cities--Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, celebrated in song and story, the richest, most strongly guarded towns of their day. From these, the daring little ships sped forth ready to traffic or to plunder--for the Phoenicians were ever pirates where piracy seemed most profitable--ready to turn miners and dig in the tin mines of England, or become herders and raise flocks in the fertile valleys of Spain. They were, as the Greeks called them, a "red people," ruddy of face and probably of hair. The whole world knew and liked and feared these red Phoenicians, these first ready-witted searchers of the globe.
Topic09:
Write a composition on the achievements of the ancient Indus valley civilization in architecture and art.
Typical Essay:
The earliest big buildings in India were built by the Harappan people in the Indus River valley, about 2500 BC. The Harappan buildings included high brick walls around their cities to keep out enemies. Most of the buildings were ordinary houses, with rooms arranged around a small courtyard. Probably some families owned a whole house (and lived in it with their slaves), while others rented only one room in a house, and the whole family lived together in the one room. The rulers built bigger buildings, like this public bathing house and a town warehouse for storing wheat and barley, also out of mud-brick and baked brick. Like the houses, these bigger buildings were square or rectangular, with small courtyards in the middle. They used arches, but, like the Sumerians and the Egyptians, they only used them underground, as drains or foundations for buildings.
The major themes of Indian art seem to begin emerging as early as the Harappan period, about 2500 BC. Although we're still not sure, some Harappan images look like later images of Vishnu and Shiva, and the tradition may start this early. With the arrival of the Indo-Europeans (or Aryans) around 1500 BC, came new artistic ideas.
Around 500 BC, the conversion to Buddhism of a large part of the population of India brought with it some new artistic themes. But at first nobody made images of the Buddha - only stupas (STOO-pahs), symbolic representations that didn't look like a person.
Then the conquests of Alexander the Great, in the 320's BC, also had an important impact on Indian art. Alexander left colonies of Greek veteran soldiers in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and these soldiers attracted Greek sculptors (maybe some of the soldiers were sculptors). Their Greek-style carvings attracted attention in India - the first life-size stone statues in India date to the 200's BC, just after Alexander. During the Guptan period, about 500 AD, the great cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora were carved. Scenes from the life of the Buddha became popular, and statues of the Buddha.
Finally, the arrival of the Islamic faith and Islamic conquerors about 1000 AD brought iconoclasm to India, and a love of varied and complex patterning derived from Arabic and Persian models. This affected even Hindu artists who had not converted to Islam. Small Persian-style miniature paintings also became popular.
Topic10:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the ancient Indus valley civilization?
Typical Essay:
From the time of the Harappans to the time of the Islamic conquests, Indian scientists and mathematicians were leaders in many different fields. They especially stood out in mathematics and engineering.
The Harappans in 2500 BC had a sewage system at their city of Mohenjo-Daro, and carefully laid out, straight streets. So even though we can't read their writing, we know that the Harappans understood a lot of geometry.
A severe climate change halted development at Harappa around 2000 BC. The Aryan invasion of 1500 BC also seems to have stopped scientific advances for a while, but it did bring military advances to India in the form of horse-drawn war chariots. Around 800 BC, when the Aryans in northern India learned to smelt iron from the Assyrians in West Asia, this gave them another military advantage.
Around 500 BC, thanks to Persian influence, the city of Taxila (in modern Pakistan) became a great scientific center. Atreya, a great botanist (plant specialist) and doctor, was working at Taxila about this time. Around the 300's BC, Indian farmers seem to have been using water wheels to lift water for irrigation - the earliest water wheels in the world.
By 250 or 200 BC, under Mauryan rule, Indian scientists were the first in the world to be smelting iron with carbon to make steel.
In the 600's AD, Indian mathematicians may have been responsible for inventing the numeral zero, and the decimal (or place) system (or it is possible that they got this idea from Chinese mathematicians). This made it a lot easier to add and multiply than it had been before. Indian mathematical ideas soon spread to West Asia and from there to Africa and Europe.
Indian advances in iron-working led to some new ideas in the 1000's and 1100's AD. First, Indian architects were the first to use iron beams to replace wooden beams for building big temples. Second, Indian blacksmiths discovered a kind of iron that made a very strong and flexible kind of steel, called wootz steel.
Topic11:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the Roman civilization?
Typical Essay:
Roman scientific achievements are mostly in the areas of medicine and engineering. The Romans invented a lot of new ways to mine for ****ls like silver and gold and lead. They developed water mills as well for grinding grain. And they were the first people to really use concrete for major building projects. The use of concrete helped them to develop the dome and the barrel vault and the cross vault. They used their vaults to build aqueducts to carry fresh water to towns, and they used their engineering skills to build sewage systems to keep their towns clean and healthy.
Roman subjects in Phoenicia also invented blown glass, and mold-made pottery and oil lamps were also first made in the Roman period.
In medicine, Galen wrote during the Roman Empire, and he was the first to describe many symptoms and treatments. His medical textbook was the standard for over a thousand years. The Romans didn't do that much work in mathematics, but they did develop their own way of writing numbers.
Topic12:
Write a composition on the achievements of the Roman civilization in architecture?
Typical Essay:
One of the things the Romans are most famous for is their architecture. The Romans brought a lot of new ideas to architecture, of which the three most important are the arch, the baked brick, and the use of cement and concrete.
Around 700 BC the Etruscans brought West Asian ideas about architecture to Italy, and they taught these ideas to the Romans. We don't have much Etruscan architecture left, but a lot of their underground tombs do survive, and some traces of their temples.
In the Republican period, the Romans built temples and basilicas, but also they made a lot of improvements to their city: aqueducts and roads and sewers. The Forum began to take shape. Outside of Rome, people began to build stone amphitheaters for gladiatorial games.
The first Roman emperor, Augustus, made more changes: he built a lot of brick and marble buildings, including a big Altar of Peace and a big tomb for his family, and a big stone theater for plays. Augustus' stepson Tiberius rebuilt the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman forum. Augustus' great-great-grandson Nero also did a lot of building in Rome, including his Golden House.
Then in 69 AD Vespasian tore down some of the Golden House to build the Colosseum. Vespasian's son Titus built a great triumphal arch, and his other son Domitian built a great palace for himself on the Palatine hill.
Even though Domitian was assassinated in 96 AD, later architects continued to use the techniques that had been developed for his palace, just as later emperors continued to live in Domitian’s palace. Trajan’s architect used brick and concrete arches to build a new forum with a big column in it and an elaborate market building that is the source of modern shopping malls. Trajan also built the first major public bath building in Rome. It may have been the same architect who later designed Hadrian’s Pantheon, a temple to all the gods, which used brick and concrete to build a huge dome. Nobody would build a bigger dome for more than a thousand years.
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/architecture/romarch.htm
Topic13:
Write a composition on the ancient Roman system of government.
Typical Essay:
From 500 BC to nearly 1500 AD, for two thousand years, Roman government had more or less the same system. Of course there were some changes over that time too.
When the Roman Republic was first set up, in 500 BC, the people in charge were two men called consuls. The consuls controlled the army, and they decided whether to start a war and how much taxes to collect and what the laws were. There were also prefects in Rome, whose job was to run the city – some heard court cases, some ran the vegetable markets or the meat markets or the port. Finally, there was also an Assembly of all the men (not women) who were grownup and free and had Roman citizenship.
Once the Romans began conquering other places, far away from the city of Rome, they also had a system of provincial governors – men who took charge of a province of the Empire, and who heard court cases there. They were also in charge of the army while it was conquering places.
By about 50 BC, the time of Julius Caesar, these generals had begun to take over the government and not pay any attention to the consuls or the Senate anymore, and just do as they pleased. They could do that, because they had the army with them.
Augustus, in 31 BC, was one of these generals. But he realized that people didn’t like this pushing people around, and so he set up a different system keeping the Senate and the consuls This system kept on going for the next 1500 years, more or less.
Topic14:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the ancient Chinese civilization.
Typical Essay:
In early and medieval China, as in the Roman Empire, science seems to have been oriented mainly towards engineering and practical inventions, and not so much towards theoretical ideas about how the natural world worked. It was in Han Dynasty China that paper was first invented, and about the same time that the magnetic compass, for telling north from south, was also invented there. Scientists in China also invented gunpowder.
Chinese scholars also conducted scientific observations of plants and animals, and also of astronomy (the stars and planets). The many detailed and careful drawings of flowers and other plants, and star charts, from China show this interest.
The influence of Confucius made China a place where logical thought was also highly valued. Mathematics was taught in the schools, through the use of a math textbook called the Nine Chapters, which may have been written as early as the Han Dynasty in the 200's AD (but nobody knows for sure).
By around 850 AD, under the Tang Dynasty, Chinese printers were experimenting with block printing, and around the year 1000 they invented moveable type.
Topic15:
Write a composition on the ancient Islamic civilization.
Typical Essay:
People first came to the Arabian Peninsula probably about 150,000 BC, in the Old Stone Age. They were hunters and gatherers. By 2000 BC (or possibly earlier) Semitic-speaking people had moved into the Arabian Peninsula, also coming from the north. They were nomads when they arrived, who travelled around with their sheep and goats pasturing them in different pastures at different times of year. And they stayed nomads: many of them are nomads today.
In the southern part of the peninsula, on the other hand, the people were farmers. Nobody is sure where they came from, but the Queen of Sheba mentioned in the Bible may be one of these people.
By the time of Alexander the Great, we start to know a little more about the Arabs, because the Greeks were trading with them. The Romans also traded with the Arabs, who got spices and other things from India and sold them to the Romans for gold.
In the long war between the Sassanids and the Romans, different tribes of Arabs fought on each side. In this Late Antique period, the kingdom of Saba (Sheba) fell apart.
The Prophet Mohammed was born in the northern Arabian trading city of Mecca between 570 and 580 AD. When he was forty years old, he heard the angel Gabriel speaking to him and telling Mohammed that he was a prophet in the line of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, who would continue the faith those prophets had started. Mohammed's faith was called Islam (iz-LAMM). After a slow start, Mohammed made a lot of converts to his religion, and after he won some military battles, most of the other Arabic tribes also converted to Islam. After they had done that, Mohammed's successors attacked first the Romans and then the Sassanids to convert them. By 640 (after the death of Mohammed) the Arabs controlled most of West Asia, and soon after that, under the rule of the Umayyad caliphs, they conquered Egypt. By 711, the Umayyads controlled all of Western Asia except Turkey (which was still part of the Roman Empire), and all of the southern Mediterranean: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and most of Spain.
Topic16:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the ancient Islamic civilization.
Typical Essay:
Because West Asia was such an economic crossroads in the medieval Islamic period - because of the Silk Road that connected China and India in the east to Europe and Africa in the West - there were always lots of new scientific ideas coming through West Asia too. Educated West Asian scholars were able to make use of these foreign ideas to develop new scientific theories and approaches.
One example from the East is the use of "Arabic" numbers, which really came from India, about 630 AD. The Arabic word for numbers, in fact, is hindsah, which means "from India". Arab scientists, especially the Persian Mohammed Al-Khwarizmi, were able to make use of the new numbers (and possibly the work of Greek mathematicians like Diophantus of Alexandria) to develop algebra around 830 AD (The English word "algorithm" comes from Al-Khwarizmi). (Ordinary people, however, kept on using the Greek system of numbers; only mathematicians used Arabic numbers).
In the 800's AD, the great schools at Cordoba in Spain, under Umayyad rule, inspired many scholars to investigate new scientific ideas. Among them was a man of Berber origin, Ibn Firnas, who designed the first glider, which he successfully used in 875, when he was 65 years old, to fly down from a cliff near Cordoba (though he hurt his back when he landed). This was the first controlled human flight.
A more successful invention also from Islamic Spain was the glass mirror, invented around 1000 AD. Even earlier, in the 900's, Ibn Sahl and others made curved glass mirrors that concentrated sunlight to focus heat.
About 1000 AD, West Asian blacksmiths also learned how to make steel from India, and then they developed the idea further to produce the very high quality Damascus steel that was used in fighting the Crusades.
Another example from the East is the use of paper, which the Arabs learned from the Chinese about 750 AD. The magnetic compass also came to West Asia from China, about 1100 AD.
From the West, Arabic scholars were able to read the books of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, and the Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder, and they translated these books into Arabic. They were especially interested in Aristotle and Pliny's studies of plants and animals, and produced many new studies like that of their own, often with beautifully detailed and accurate illustrations. This led to the classification and description of many new species of plants and animals, and also to advances in medicine. All through the Middle Ages, everyone knew that the best doctors, men like Ibn Sina or Maimonides, lived in the Islamic kingdoms.
Topic17:
Write a composition on the achievements of the Islamic civilization in architecture.
Typical Essay:
The first buildings that were built in the Islamic Empire were designed by Greek architects who had already been living in the area when the Arabs conquered it. Because of that, these buildings look a lot like earlier buildings in the area - Late Roman Empire buildings. But because they were now building Islamic mosques and not Christian churches, these Greek architects were able to experiment with some new forms, developing a new Islamic style. One of the earliest mosques is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, from the 600's AD. It's octagonal, like Hadrian's Pantheon, instead of being cross-shaped like a Christian church. In the late 700's AD, the new Arab rulers of North Africa marked their new territory by building great mosques like the one at Kairouan (modern Tunisia) and the one at Cordoba in Spain.
In the Abbasid period, beginning about 800 AD, the capital of the Islamic empire moved further east, to Baghdad, and so the caliphs needed a lot of new beautiful palaces and mosques built in Baghdad. Because Baghdad was in the old Sassanian Empire, the architects who lived there followed Sassanian architectural traditions, and these buildings, like the mosque at Samarra, looked very different from the ones built by the Greek architects.
In the end, though, the Islamic Empire made it so easy to travel around that all the architects got to know each other's styles, and there got to be one main style of building all across the Islamic Empire. As the empire broke down into a lot of smaller kingdoms, the ruler of each kingdom needed to show how important he was, so he built mosques and palaces in his own capital. The Fatimids, for example, built the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo in the 900's AD. In Spain in the late 1200's AD, the Almohads, built their own palace at Granada, the Alhambra.
The Ottoman sultan built the last great Islamic building before 1500 AD - his palace in Istanbul, which he built in the late 1400's AD.
Topic18:
Write a composition on the achievements of the Islamic civilization in art.
Typical Essay:
For the earliest years of the Islamic Empire, under the Umayyad dynasty, we don't have very much art surviving. The best of it is the elaborate mosaics on the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem and on the Great Mosque in Damascus. These mosaics are done in a Roman style, probably by Roman craftsmen.
But already we can see one big difference between Roman art and Islamic art: the followers of Islam, like the Jews, took seriously the idea that you should not make graven images, and although these mosaics show plants and buildings they do not show people or animals.
By the Abbasid period, even plants and buildings were frowned on. Most of the art was geometric designs. A lot of these designs seem to be from fabric patterns. The Arabs, because they were nomadic, had always relied on carpets and hangings for decoration. Now that they lived in buildings, they used those same familiar patterns only in stone or tile. They often used calligraphy (beautiful writing) of verses from the Koran to decorate buildings, plates, and vases.
In this period, also, the focus of the Islamic Empire shifted from Damascus and the old Roman territory east to Baghdad and the old Sassanian territory. So the art also became more Persian and less Roman.
By about 1000 AD, the Islamic empire was breaking up into smaller states, and each state developed its own art style. There are individual styles for Spain, the Maghreb, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia.
In some of these places, the iconoclastic rules against using pictures of things or people were relaxed as time went on. In Persia (modern Iran), painters made beautiful little miniature paintings of people at court, and of famous people from history.
The arrival of paper from China in 751 AD let artists do a lot more painting, because paper was so much cheaper than papyrus or parchment.
After the Mongols conquered Persia and China in the 1200's AD, many Chinese motifs started to show up in Persian painting and vases.
ايمان الله
2011-04-25, 18:29
Unit Two: Ill-gotten gains never prosper
Ethics in Business
Topic19:
Write a composition on the conception of corruption.
Typical Essay:
There is an old axiom often applied to those with political ambitions: Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. In this case, the term corruption means the abuse of a public office for personal gain or other illegal or immoral benefit. Political corruption is a recognized criminal offense, along with bribery, extortion, and embezzlement – three illegal acts often associated with corruption in office. Some forms of corruption may escape legal notice, such as the hiring of relatives for key positions, but they may not escape the scrutiny of voters on Election Day.
Whenever a person accepts a political appointment or wins election to an office, he or she must take an oath to uphold the public trust. While this may sound noble on paper, enforcement of this oath can prove problematic. Very few political candidates successfully reach office without making a few promises along the way. Many of these campaign promises are harmless, such as sponsoring a bill or lobbying for more funding for schools. Other promises, however, may come closer to crossing an ethical line, such as hiring relatives or awarding government contracts to influential contributors.
Political corruption has been a fact of life for thousands of years, beginning with the first attempts at a democratic form of government in ancient Greece and Rome. Almost all of these countries' political representatives were from the wealthier class, which inevitably led to a division between the influential haves and the virtually powerless have-nots. The seeds of political corruption were planted as soon as the senators and other political leaders realized that power and wealth could be equals. Political corruption often begins with favoritism towards those with wealth and influence.
In the modern sense of the term, political corruption is a cancer on the integrity of a governmental body. Very few public officials begin their careers with the intention of becoming corrupt, but some succumb to a sinister form of peer pressure over time. Being placed in a position of significant political power can be overwhelming, and the temptation to bend or break rules for a perceived 'greater good' is always present.
There are a few experienced politicians, however, for whom political corruption is a natural state of being. History is filled with examples of corrupt public officials, such as New York City's Boss Tweed and his political cronies at Tammany Hall during the late 19th century. Charges ranging from bribery and graft to nepotism, racketeering and fraud were all leveled at Tweed's administration, but it was Tweed's skills in political corruption that kept law enforcement at bay for years. A number of judges and law enforcement officers were already on Boss Tweed's secret payroll. Political corruption may always remain a concern for democratic governments, but there are a number of independent checks and balances that can root out corruption before it affects the integrity of the political body as a whole.
Topic20:
Write a composition on embezzlement.
Typical Essay:
Embezzling is the act of taking money that has been placed in your trust but belongs to another person. For instance, someone who works in a bank may secretly steal money that he or she has been entrusted to look after. This money belongs to the bank's customers, and the employee's action can be considered embezzling.
One of the major methods used in embezzling is to falsify records and documents. A recent British case involved a bank manager embezzling 23 million GB pounds (GBP). The bank manager set up many false bank accounts and deposited millions from other bank accounts into them.
Another very successful method of falsifying records is the phantom employee. The manager may create a job role and documents for an employee who does not actually exist. The phantom employee is then paid a salary.
Even charities are threatened by embezzlement. One of the most common methods used in this case is to redirect large amounts of money for administrative purposes. Sadly, many worthwhile charities have been shut down as a result of this type of embezzling.
Topic21:
Write a composition on bribery.
Typical Essay:
A bribe is a form of corruption which involves the promise of money or a favor to someone in a position of power, with the hope of influencing that person's behavior. Bribery is viewed as a crime in many regions of the world, and people who are caught offering or receiving bribes may face hefty penalties. In other regions, the line between bribing and tipping is sometimes rather blurred, which can make it difficult to prosecute people for bribery, or to understand when one has crossed the line.
There are several reasons why bribery is viewed as a crime. In the first place, accepting a bribe and acting on it is a clear misuse of power, and a dereliction of duty. In egalitarian societies, the thought of greasing the way with bribes is especially distasteful, because it highlights the differences between those who can buy power or favors, and those who cannot. A bribe may also compromise the quality of a transaction. For example, when a construction firm bribes a government official to get a contract, the government official may overlook a company which provides superior or cheaper work, thereby essentially cheating the government.
Bribes can take any number of forms. Historically, bribes to public officials have been extremely common, and in some regions, this continues to be the case. Bribes also play a role in the financial industry, and even in occupations like medicine, where doctors may be bribed by drug companies to prescribe their products. Politics is also rife with bribery in many region, with people bribing politicians to achieve desired ends, and politicians in turn offering bribes to others in the hopes of attaining specific goals, like winning an election.
Drawing the line with bribes is very challenging. For example, many politicians receive healthy campaign contributions from an assortment of companies and industries. These payments could be viewed as bribes in the eyes of some critics, especially when the politicians vote and act in the interests of their biggest contributors. However, it could also be argued that these companies are certainly entitled to support candidates they like, especially when those candidates have political beliefs which align with the interests of the company.
Likewise, the practice of offering a bribe to ministry officials in some countries is so widespread that bribes are viewed almost like set fees. People who attempt to act with integrity may find that the ministry in question never approves a request or a document, thus forcing them to bribe an official to get the job done. In some cases, such bribes are even tax-deductible, with tax agencies recognizing them as a legitimate business expense.
Topic22:
Write a composition on money laundering.
Typical Essay:
Money laundering refers to the process of concealing financial transactions. Various laundering techniques can be employed by individuals, groups, officials and corporations. The goal of a money laundering operation is usually to hide either the source or the destination of money.
Perhaps the best way to understand the concept is to take a look at some common examples. Suppose, for example, that an employee was stealing large sums of cash from her employer without getting caught. If she was to make large deposits into her bank account, some regulator (or computer program) might notice the unusually large deposits, thereby increasing the chances of getting caught. To launder the money, the criminal might simply use the cash to make purchases and then resell the items in a legitimate market. The revenue gained from these sales is 'cleaner' and the criminal is drawing less attention to herself.
The example provided above is a particularly simple example that involves a non-cash step; actual money laundering operations are often complex assortments of various transactions. The term 'money laundering' is typically used to refer to any financial transaction that is not kept transparent. Needless to say, the practice is illegal and large penalties, fines or imprisonment may ensue.
Topic23:
Write a composition on tax evasion.
Typical Essay:
Tax evasion is usually understood to be an act in which an individual intentionally chooses to not pay income taxes due. This act of not paying taxes may be conducted by simply chooses to not file an income tax return, or choosing to not include information about taxable income on the filed return. In all instances, tax evasion can be considered to be fraud, and usually carries stiff penalties.
While there are some that consider any type of omission from the tax return to constitute tax evasion, it is important to remember that it is possible to omit an item simply because the data was overlooked when filing the return. Thus, the intent of the individual plays a key role in determining if tax evasion has taken place.
However, when it can be demonstrated that the individual willfully attempted to hide information about income that was subject to withholding, the tax agency may choose to impose more than a simple interest fine on the amount omitted. The filer may be subject to stiff fines associated with the deliberate failure to file an accurate tax return, or even possibly face prosecution and some time spent in jail for the intentional negligence.
Tax evasion is considered a crime, and is often classified as fraud. All citizens suffer from tax evasion, as the act prevents the government from collecting funds to use for the operation of essential services to the population. When these funds are not collected, services have to be curtailed and thus result in a lower quality of life for all citizens.
Persons who become aware of an error on calculating taxes on reported income or notice that income was inadvertently left off the tax return for a given period should contact the tax agency and make arrangements to file an amended return as soon as possible. This will help to minimize the chances of being suspected of tax evasion, and allow the matter to be settled before interest charges become significant.
Topic24:
Write a composition on creative accounting.
Typical Essay:
Creative accounting, also called aggressive accounting, is the manipulation of financial numbers, usually within the letter of the law and accounting standards, but very much against their spirit and certainly not providing the "true and fair" view of a company that accounts are supposed to.
A typical aim of creative accounting will be to inflate profit figures. Some companies may also reduce reported profits in good years to smooth results. Assets and liabilities may also be manipulated, either to remain within limits such as debt covenants, or to hide problems.
Typical creative accounting tricks include off balance sheet financing, over-optimistic revenue recognition and the use of exaggerated non-recurring items.
The term "window dressing" has similar meaning when applied to accounts, but is a broader term that can be applied to other areas. In the US it is often used to describe the manipulation of investment portfolio performance numbers. In the context of accounts, "window dressing" is more likely than "creative accounting" to imply illegal or fraudulent practices, but it need to do so.
Topic25:
Write a composition on currency counterfeiting.
Typical Essay:
Counterfeiting refers to the imitation of something with the intent to deceive. As a general rule, people use the term specifically to refer to people who replicate currency in the hopes of passing it off as legal tender. However, a variety of things can be counterfeited, from designer handbags to legal documents. In terms of counterfeiting money, counterfeiting comes with severe consequences, as it is treated as a very serious crime in most nations around the world.
Most modern counterfeiting is focused on paper money, because paper money has a higher face value. Counterfeiters use a variety of techniques to produce replicas of the desired currency, depending on the security features which a nation uses to protect the integrity of its money and the level of realism desired. For example, a color photocopier can sometimes render a credible replica of legal currency, especially when the currency is run through a washer to age it, but counterfeiters may also use sophisticated printing techniques like those used at a national mint.
Most mints around the world use a number of safety systems to protect their money. For example, many nations print engraved money, meaning that specially engraved plates which are very hard to replicate are used in the production of currency. Many countries also use specialized papers and inks, along with complex designs which are hard to copy, and they may change the look of their currency frequently in an attempt to foil counterfeiters.
Someone who is convicted of counterfeiting will spend at least a decade in prison. He or she may also be forced to pay fines or restitution, and the property used in the counterfeiting process may be seized. Counterfeiting is treated as an extremely serious crime because it devalues a nation's currency, potentially threatening its economic stability and global stand
Topic26:
Write a composition on extortion.
Typical Essay:
Extortion is a crime which involves the illegal acquisition of money, property, or favors through the use of force, or the threat of force. Historically, extortion was defined as an abuse of privilege on the part of a public official who used his or her position to get money or favors, but today, people at all levels of society could potentially commit extortion. Penalties for extortion vary, depending on the specifics of the crime. In some countries, extortion is treated especially seriously because it is linked with organized crime, and sometimes special laws are designed to make it easier to prosecute and punish extortion.
To the casual ear, extortion can sound very similar to blackmail, in which people use a threat to demand payments or favors, and robbery, in which a criminal takes something by force. However, extortion is slightly different from both of these crimes. In blackmail, someone threatens to do something which is entirely legal, such as publishing a set of photographs, with the blackmailee offering payment to avoid exposure and humiliation. Extortion is entirely illegal, as it involves threats of violence or other illegal acts.
In a robbery, the violence is very real, and also very immediate. In extortion, violence may never progress beyond the stage of being a threat, assuming that the person being extorted pays up. For example, if someone is threatened at gunpoint and ordered to surrender all valuables, this is a robbery. If, on the other hand, a criminal strolls into a shop and threatens to shoot the clerk's family unless the criminal receives a share of the store's income each week, this is extortion.
Organized crime is perhaps the most famous user of extortion. For example, members of the Mafia have historically demanded “protection money” from businesses, suggesting that if the businesses don't pay up, they may be robbed or otherwise harassed. Extortion has also been used to keep community groups in fear so that they will not seek prosecution for members of a criminal organization. However, individuals may also commit extortion, as may officials, especially in corrupt agencies or governments.
In order to prove charges of extortion, a prosecutor must be able to prove either that an illegal threat was made, or that goods or services were received in exchange for such a threat. Proving such charges can sometimes be very difficult, as people may be too intimidated to testify.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-extortion.htm
Topic27:
Write a composition on blackmail.
Typical Essay:
Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal damaging or embarrassing information in order to coerce money or other goods or forms of cooperation out of the victim. For blackmail to be effective, the blackmailer must, in most cases, have physical proof of the information he or she threatens to reveal, such as photographs or letters. Blackmail is often considered synonymous with extortion, and in this sense it may rely on a threat of action other than exposing the victim's secrets.
Some laws distinguish between blackmail and extortion, while others do not. Blackmail may be defined as extortion attempts in writing. Alternatively, blackmail may refer only to threats of action that is not illegal per se, such as revealing compromising photographs, while extortion relies on more active threats, such as physical harm.
The victim of blackmail is typically threatened with exposure of his or her private life, the consequences of which can range from embarrassing to socially devastating to legally damning. A blackmailer may threaten to expose the victim's extramarital affair, for example. Homosexuals were often blackmailed in the past, though this is less common as alternative sexualities are increasingly more accepted. At its most serious, blackmail may rest on the exposure of a serious crime, which would do infinitely more damage to the victim than complying with the blackmailer. Even secret information that is not of a criminal nature, however, can make the victim of blackmail feel that he or she has no recourse against the crime.
A relatively new form of blackmail, more similar to extortion, is known as commercial blackmail. In this crime, a business is the victim. The blackmailer threatens an action which would be devastating to the company's sales or reputation and typically demands a large payment. The perpetrator may, for example, threaten to interfere with the company's ability to conduct Internet sales. In a recent case of commercial blackmail in Australia, the blackmailer claimed to have poisoned a small random selection of the victim's candy bar products.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-blackmail.htm
Topic28:
Write a composition on child labour.
Typical Essay:
Any child under the age specified by law worldwide works full time, mentally or physically to earn for own survival or adding to family income, that interrupts childs social development and education is called child labour. It is any kind of work children are made to do that harms or exploits them physically, mentally, morally, or by preventing access to education.
However, one must also understand that all work is not bad or exploitive for children. In fact, certain jobs help in enhancing the overall personality of the child. For instance, children delivering newspapers prior to going to school. Or then children taking up light summer jobs that do not interfere with their school timings. When they are given pocket money earning oriented tasks, they understand the value of money, as well as respect it even more.
While this are the positive aspects of tasks and working, the actual universal problem of child labour is the exploitive and dangerous work and working conditions children are put through. For instance, in north India young children, below the age of 14 are made to work in the carpet industry. Their delicate fingers create the world’s finest and most expensive carpets. The children are working twelve to fourteen hours a day. Many lose their fingers. Some are starved. And a number die each year because of the torturous circumstances under which they are made to work.
This is a crime. There have been instances of so-called decent middle class, as well as upper-class people employing young children as domestic helpers. But, they are not working as helpers, but bonded labour. They are made slaves. Frightening stories of how they have been physically tortured are printed in the daily newspapers. And in spite of stringent action being taken against such employers, the problem continues