December 25, 2012
Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century saint and Greek bishop in Myra (modern-day Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus (whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas).
Note: Merry Christmas!
November 22, 2012
Ismail Enver Pasha was an Ottoman military officer and a leader of the Young Turk Revolution. He was the main leader of the Ottoman Empire in both Balkan Wars and World War I. Enver was considered the most powerful figure of the government of Ottoman Turkey or “the number one man in Istanbul.” He played a major role in the Armenian Genocide, in which over two million were killed during 1915-20. Enver was born on this day in 1881.
Note: Happy Thanksgiving! Be thankful you didn’t know this guy.
December 3, 2011
The falcon-headed Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion. He was often the ancient Egyptians’ national patron god and was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through Greco-Roman times. He was born of the goddess Isis and her brother Osiris, the god of the underworld.
December 2, 2011
Isis is a goddess in the Ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic. Her brother, Osiris, became her husband. After Osiris was murdered, she awoke him from the dead in order to impregnate herself, and later gave birth to Horus.
Note: Cleopatra represented herself as the reincarnation of Isis.
December 1, 2011
Osiris is a god of the Ancient Egyptian religion, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh’s beard. He is the brother and husband of Isis. After being murdered, he was resurrected in the underworld. Horus is considered his posthumously begotten son.
November 30, 2011
Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in Ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the midday sun. All forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra, who called each of them into existence by speaking their secret names. He is considered the first being and the originator of other Egyptian deities.
August 24, 2011
A Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize who died on this day in 2004. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, President of the Palestinian National Authority, and leader of the Fatah political party, which he founded in 1959. Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination.
June 7, 2011
The ruler of Libya since a military coup in 1969, when he overthrew King Idris and established the Libyan Arab Republic. In early February 2011, major political protests against Gaddafi’s government broke out in Libya and turned into a civil war. Four months later, the situation in war-torn Libya hasn’t improved. But today is Gaddafi’s 69th birthday.
Update: At a press conference today, President Obama said it’s “just a matter of time” before Gaddafi is removed from power.
June 5, 2011
The last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great’s death. She had a long-term relationship with Julius Caesar and represented herself as the reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess Isis.
May 20, 2011
According to the Book of Genesis, the first man created by Yahweh. Adam and Eve were used by early Renaissance artists to represent nudes. Later, modesty was preserved using fig leaves. Here’s an amazing painting: “Adam and Eve” (1964) by Enrico Baj.
May 10, 2011
The author of the Torah, according to Hebrew biblical manuscripts. A prophet who led the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea and acquired stone tablets at Mount Sinai. In South Park, he was drawn to look like the Master Control Program from the film Tron.
May 7, 2011
I’ve been working on creating 8-bit versions of all major religious figures (including every character depicted in South Park‘s Super Best Friends group) and want to be inclusive without potentially upsetting radical Islamist organizations. Thus, here is a censored (think of it as extremely backlit) visual depiction of a certain prophet from Mecca.
May 1, 2011
Elusive leader of al-Qaeda and disowned member of the billionaire Saudi bin Laden family. On the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 1999.
Update: Frankly, I am stunned by the coincidence that Osama bin Laden was announced as dead this evening. Perhaps I should have posted an 8-bit version of him years ago? Does publishing primitive pixel art stop terrorism? What.
April 30, 2011
Former President of Iraq and central figure of the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Was executed by hanging in December 2006. Or was he?
Prester John – No. 622
Prester John is one of my favorite historical/mythological figures. The legends of Prester John were popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, and told of a Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. Prester John was reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Wise Men and presided over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, including unicorns. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Garden of Eden. Prester John was first imagined to reside in India, as tales of the Nestorian Christians’ evangelistic success probably provided the first seeds of the legend. After the coming of the Mongols to the Western world, accounts placed the king in Central Asia. But as the Mongol Empire collapsed, Europeans began to shift away from the idea that Prester John had ever really been a Central Asian king. Eventually, Portuguese explorers convinced themselves that they had found him in Ethiopia. The legend of Prester John affected several hundred years of European and world history by encouraging generations of Europe’s explorers, missionaries, scholars and treasure hunters to venture into India, Asia and Africa.
Prester John, the fabled king/priest invented by Crusader kingdoms, is basically the Forrest Gump of the Middle Ages (1100s-1500s). Dude was everywhere. For example, during the Mongol Empire, Prester John was identified as both Genghis Khan and a Nestorian Christian monarch defeated by Khan. The myth of Prester John was a comforting (if ethnocentric) symbol to European Christians of their religion’s universality, transcending culture and geography to encompass all humanity. Even the boneheaded Christopher Columbus cited the discovery of Prester John’s kingdom among the goals of his travels. Despite centuries of European exploration in search of treasure—and evangelizing the locals—the quest for the fictitious kingdom remained unfulfilled. But the legend served many medieval Christian kingdoms, and the Catholic Church, handsomely.