Nick will kill me for this, I’m sure. :)

no (lol), you appear to be "zagging to nick's zig".

any significance to "Il-Khanids"? what did Hulagu Khan build first?

Northanger,

Il-Khan: il = Nomad, Khan = Lord

The Il-Khanids dynasty began in iran by the rise of Holagu, most of the post-Alamut secret societies in Iran emerged during the reign of the Il-Khanids. Insurgencies which struck Il-khanids one after another, gradually fortified the foundations of Shia in Iran as the stealth military core of Islam (one the most famous of which is Sar-beh-Daran movement: literary means Ready-to-be-Hanged); actually the escalating effects / tactics of the horde’s warmachine triggered the outbreak of diffusive / assimilative (in the sense of assimilating and being assimilated) military techniques in Shia and Iran which fully developed during the Timurids who unlike Il-khanids considered Shia Muslims as Kafir (they were Sunnis) but they gradually turned into Shia fanatics. The architecture of this period (mainly because of the new zeal of il-khanids for Islam) is extraordinarily unique and pioneer for the later Islamic architecture. Uljaitu (also Oljaitu), one of the most significant khans totally cut the connection of Iran to the rest of the horde in the east, and openly announced himself as an Iranian, called himself Bandeh-e-Khoda or Gholam-e-Khoda (The Slave of God).

>>> What did Hulagu Khan build first?

When one of his sons killed in a battle; he ordered Iranian architects to build a mausoleum for his son with Islamic patterns and verses from the Quran on its walls and ceiling as he imagined the Islamic Heaven is the only safe place for his son ;)

Reza - the sheer audacity of this provocation deserves applause. I'm sick, shivering and struggling with a mountain of editing so in no position to counter-attack for a day or two ...
"as he imagined the Islamic Heaven is the only safe place for his son" - shiver, grimace ...

PS - as penance, how about sticking a Numogram into the Cryptomats bar (or sending me technical instructions on how to do it)?

reza, slave of god? how can you be the (ROTFLMAO) slave of god when, what? god is, what? um so OUTSIDE (you put it better) we cannot whatever whatever. what, tell me tell me please, does it mean to be god's slave?

Nick,

LOL ... ok, till then i'll work on the piece about Salat. Have a good day, and don't think much about the islamic heaven; fear not, my friend, it doesn't include the two of us, fortunately ;) ... but, i'm afraid something goes wrong ...

Northanger,

Bandeh-e-khoda is a farsi term (khoda is a farsi word for God) although it literary means the Slave of God both in heaven and on the earth but it simply means a humble man in servitude of people esp. muslims.

ps. on the numogram, i'll do it as a self-punishment.

reza - must admit, persian history is rich in facts, names, language, conquest and controversy. searching KAFIR brought up a link to TAKFIR (now i'm totally confused) pointing back to your "Absent Obligation" post. also relates to SALAT mentioned in your "Islamic Chronopolytics" post - i should get coffee, lol.

for my own confusion's sake, here's a glossary of terms - please rewrite as needed:

KAFIR - (infidel, unbeliever, non-Muslim) equivalent to Christian excommunication (eg, Salman Rushdie was declared a kafir)
TAKFIR - practice of declaring individual/group previously considered Muslims are in fact kafir(s) (non-believers in God).
SALAT - one of the 5 pillars of Islam; refers to five daily prayers (compulsory): Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib & Isha'a
SHARIA - traditional Islamic law consisting (mostly) of the Qur'an and the Hadith
SUNNI - first largest Islam sect (Algeria, Kuwait, Afghanistan predominately); followers of the sunna (practice) of the prophet Muhammad; recognize authority of the Caliphs
SHI'A - second largest Islam sect (Iran + Iraq predominately); believe twelve descendants of Prophet Muhammad are Imams (political and religious leaders) regarded as direct corporeal and spiritual successors
KHARIJITES - smallest Islamic sect
WAHHABISM - fundamental Sunni sect (apparently, Osama bin Laden claimed to be a follower)

"persian history is rich in facts, names, language, conquest and controversy" - forgive me, i'm just an infidel and meant no disrespect :) it's just that, wow, it's all so interesting.

Northanger, yes, these glossaries are very misguiding, translations are very poor (even those translated by Arabic writers); i'll return to your questions and these terms very soon.

::peeking::

reza - is the image on this post from an actual building? quite beautiful, do you have more info?

Northanger,

just a few remarks for now:

KAFIR - Kafir has two types (Kafir as pagan) and Kafir as Kafir-e Zemi (those who are following the previous prophets but have rejected Islam); the second type has not mentioned in the Quran and is somehow controversial for islamists; it has been expressed through Hadith (words of the prophet). For Wahhabis, for example, Christens are Kafir-e Zemi; they have the right to spread their religion, practice their customs, live normally equal to Muslims but if they try to turn a muslim into a Christian or undermine Umma by any means they should be excommunicated.

TAKFIR - practice of declaring individuals/groups previously considered Muslims / or Kafir-e Zemi (who have rights nearly equal to Muslims) as kafir(s).

Takfir means decaling someone Kafir (only a Mofti or an Ayatollah) can declare someone as a Kafir, this of course has consequences for that individual or community (first they will be repelled, excommunicated but if they show resistance, the doctrine of Jihad is raised which is also controversial among different sects) ... Takfiri is the name of a movement founded by Ahmad Mustafa based on the heresies spread by Ibn Maymun during the reign of Al Fatemids in Egypt (so Takfiries are not in direct contact with religio-political movements originated through the history of Caliphs and their islamic politics ... it is one a popular mistakes among critics); the movement gradually turned into a secret military society, first for nationalist purposes then for returning to the radical Islam. Most of Islamic historians think that the most significant part of Takfiri movement was entirely destroyed. however, a few key figures managed to escape; fled to countries like Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and influenced by the dominant religio-political movements of these countries; the result was the emergence of different Takfiri hybrids. Anyway, in 1979 (if memory serves) a new Islamic military group called themselves TAKFIRI, assembled by these hybrids from different islamic countries ... no one is quite sure how much they are connected to the old movement.

Faraj’s account of TAKFIR is somehow different as I mentioned in that article, he believes that the excommunication (Takfir and its Jihadi lines) should be indirectly fulfilled through infidels themselves (the system itself should be strategically programmed to consume itself, to excommunicate its own agencies). This discussion deserves much more concentration, marginal issues, etc. and there's more I like to say on this, perhaps for another time though.

ah, reza, good morning. while i have you here: what is JIHAD? i am carefully re-pondering your Absent Obligation post & thinking about latent viruses for some reason.

>>> ah, reza, good morning. while i have you here: what is JIHAD?

A tough question; this question deserves a book; so, first, let me give you some etymological information: Jihad from JAHADA means to attempt, to struggle, to work but originally means have a potential / to be capable of. Jihad has two spheres which must mutually communicate with each other, Jihad-e Akbar and Jihad-e Asghar. Jihad-e Asghar or the minor Jihad is Harb (War) with the enemies of Islam, that means it includes outsiders (the popular meaning of Jihad in western cultures). Jihad-e Akbar or the Major / Main Jihad is an internal war towards eradication of Nafs-e Ammareh (the tempting belief system which in the Wahhabis’ account is not different from the belief itself); Jihad-e Akbar is diverted towards oneself, a muslim, it should be remorseless, and far more brutal than Jihad-e Asghar. However, Shia politics insists that both kinds of Jihad can be overlapped and feed each other (the influence of this politics on Sunni sects is immense and should not be ignored); if Wahhabi Jihad-e Asghar is so ferocious in all aspects it is because it has been overlapped by Jihad-e Akbar (a Muslim should return to the radical islam but in the new world, this movement cannot be independent from the environment, the environment too should be provided / contaminated with the doctrine of Jihad-e Akbar) [more later]

Northanger,

>>>reza - is the image on this post from an actual building? quite beautiful, do you have more info?

Yes, it is the Mausoleum of Uljaitu in Sultanyia, it was planned to to receive the bodies of Ali and Hussein, the early imams of Shia but this was given up. The mausoleum is octagonal in form, having a beautifully poised, high profile dome, 177 feet high and 80 feet in diameter (according to my notes); also covered with light blue faience tile. The picture is from the interior.

Speaking of il-khanids again, I have another funny story about Hulugu (Holaku, Hulagu) that may give Nick a permanent flatline while he is sick; but won’t tell it until his full recovery ;)

Reza - don't hold back on my account ;)

>>>Reza - don't hold back on my account ;)

lol ... the fact is that i'm sick too so let's wait for the full recovery ;)

something entirely different: yesterday night, i discovered many old books in the family library, beneath papers and so much dust; among which i encountered an ABJAD Book of Summoning (published nearly 120 years ago), fantastic stuff ... full of magic squares (a full post on Al-Buni later, i promise), strange symbols, matrices which i can't figure out; i'll scan some of the pages for fun.

well, come to think of it, i'm getting kinda sick too

"the fact is that i'm sick too"
"well, come to think of it, i'm getting kinda sick too"
- do you think we could market this nommitized demonic time-sorcery stuff as a health product?

northanger - now your robofortress is refusing to let me post at all - calling me "an open proxy" WtF that is (and you've got a secret blogspot site hidden from us middle kingdomites and you're talking about KOM - the qabbalistic heartland of the Hex in your hermetic lair) - this is all HIGHLY infuriating

"this is all HIGHLY infuriating" - you can't see the hidden kingdom? lol, ok ... let me go fix lj -read this (your Ptolemaic queries on other post made me remember it):

The Ptolemy Effect
http://www.cosmicelk.co.uk/Ptolemyeffect.htm

mentions: Observatory of Maraghah in Iran built by Hulagu for one of his astronomers (Al-Tusi); first international observatory; star tables called the Il-Khan Stars; Ming Observatory in Beijing; Ulughbek and his observatory in Samarkand based on Maraghah; Ulughbek Killed, observatory destroyed.

fix livejournal.com, you should be able to post ok.

northanger- but what about the KOM biznis? aiming to hide that over at your blogspot lair?

kom just magick fluff; exactly how can something be hidden in the blogosphere?

>>> exactly how can something be hidden in the blogosphere?

northanger, Nick can't access blogspot from china.

"Nick can't access blogspot from china" - oh.

why not?

some restrictions and site filtering similar to iran.

ah, apparently cyberspace has virtual borders.

Read this:

http://p2pnet.net/story/1373 (esp. the part about automated trigger keywords) ... those f**kers at Anonymizer should pay.

reza, thanks for the link, that explained a lot.

"northanger- but what about the KOM biznis? aiming to hide that over at your blogspot lair?"

nick, do not want to post KOM biznis on livejournal.com, will send KOM info by email if you wish. let me know.

"will send KOM info by email if you wish" - yes please

Nick, there is also a long discussion about Asmodeus between Northanger and a puppet from Hyperstition's demonography / ancient languages unit; containing some fascinating stuff; northanger knows what i'm talking about ;) ... Northanger, please send him the Asmodeus post too.

"Northanger, please send him the Asmodeus post too" - wait a hot sec ... i'll finish the stardust report first, okay? and then send kommies and demons. however, you're free to reprioritize my todo list, if you wish. i do so want to harmonize my puny efforts with the dark lords of the sith, i mean the borg, i mean the KOLLEKTIVE. oh pooh! forgot what we're calling ourselves this week.

northanger - Khattak got you wound up about something? now you're heading from 'pissed as hell' into 'downright delusional' (when did we ever call ourselves anything? - oh, except maybe the Elf-Master Council of Outer Darkness)

>>> - oh, except maybe the Elf-Master Council of Outer Darkness)

and humble puppets ;)

EMCOD = WOT (and i'm delusional)