HIST 100: Engineering The Past

Shahada

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Shahada is the Islamic creed declaring the oneness of God and the acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet. In order for one to become muslim, they must recite the Shahada with a sincere heart. In English it translates to “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and the Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”. One declaring this pronounces publicly their confession of faith. It is also important to note that the Shahada is the first and most important of the five pillars of Islam, because understanding the Shahada means that one understands and accepts fully the essence of the entire faith, which is very important to muslims. The Muslims are very outward with their faith and the Shahada displays perfectly their need to proclaim the faith to others by reciting it.

The Shahada relates to the Hagia Sophia because it was first made as a Christian church and then later hanged into a Mosque for the Islamic people. The Hagia Sophia stands 180 ft high and 100 ft. wide, it had been standing for 1500 years and has survived many earthquakes because of its intricate architectural structuring. To build it, it tok 100 contractors and nearly 1000 workers. After 20 years the famous dome collapsed and Justinian had it rebuild. The dome that is present today is the same dome that was rebuilt.

The Shahada and the Hagia Sohpia are similar in the fact that they are both very treasured by the Islamic people. These are both centerpieces for their religion and faith which makes the two directly correlated to each other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahada

berkleycenter.georgetown.edu

 

competing narratives of the first thanksgiving

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  1. The reading that was closest t my childhood image would probably be the first article because it was the only article that, in my eyes, was more fact based and talked about how the pilgrims and the indians became partners and how they feasted together in celebration. The article that is most relevant to my current understanding of Thanksgiving would still be the first article because it was straight forward and easy for me to follow along with previous knowledge. Honestly learning more about Thanksgiving over the course of my life hasn’t changed the celebration of the holiday for me. When the day comes around I do not think about the Natives and the Pilgrims feasting together. I think about spending quality time with my family.
  2. I don’t find these interpretations interesting at all because they are more about economy and socialism which is just a way for the richer to become more rich and the poor to remain poor. These articles do tell me about how the pilgrims didn’t fully thrive until Bradford, their governor, divided up property. When I googled the author Richard Maybury it showed that he is a publisher and writes about economics, law and history from a librarian viewpoint.When I googled Rush Limbaugh, he is an American entertainer, talk show host and writer so he is very outspoken and you can tell from his interview/ article. Knowing more about the authors doesn’t change my view of their Thanksgiving stories. Everyone is entitled to their ow way of thinking.
  3. I feel like the more I read these articles the more repetitive it all becomes which I know they are telling the same story but none are really attention grabbing or stick out to me. The authors of these articles are the same as the others. Again knowing more about the authors does not change my view of their version of the first Thanksgiving.
  4. A historian would probably make sense of the first thanksgiving by relating all other events that occurred at the time. They would try to make it as accurate as possible by reading and comparing articles like we didnt today and then writing a more fact based article. An average adult would most likely make sense of the competing articles by comparing the knowledge behind each authors articles. They would probably like an article like Rush’s the most because is is more entertaining to read or listen to. Primary sources related to the first Thanksgiving would be history books or history websites. A secondary source of knowledge would be something like wikipedia because it has many facts and is cited

First Thanksgiving

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Growing up in the United States, I never truly knew what or why Thanksgiving occurred. I just knew that I ate a lot of food and most of my family would come and get together. When it came to school, I always remember we would make crafts to give to our loved ones. We used to color pages that had turkeys on them or we would trace our hands, cut it out, and then decorate it like a turkey. While doing this, I still was not aware f what Thanksgiving was. I believe it was around fourth or fifth grade when we started reading and learning about the meaning behind Thanksgiving itself. It was a very long time ago so I am not positive the information or stories I am about to give are completely accurate but that is not what it graded for this assignment so it is okay. I believe we talked about how the Native Americans and the Americans helped each other out and then they all sat down and feasted together. This explained why we all made and ate so much food. I remember our teacher made a box and told every student to write down what we were thankful for then we would put the paper inside the box. After everyone was done, he would pull out and read each paper infront of the class and we would raise our hand if were were also thankful for the same thing. This taught me a little more about Thanksgiving because it explained why my family always got together, to show we were thankful for each other. Being so young I felt like I did not care enough about the full picture of Thanksgiving so I knew to be thankful and to spend quality time with my family on this holiday.