Asia
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The Date of Christmas
“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” Luke 2:8. This is a part of the infancy gospels that are very familiar to us. The shepherds out in the fields with their flocks and being visited by the Heavenly Host and told to go find the Christ child. If this is indeed true, then this throws the date of December 25 as the date of Christ’s birth into shadow. The flocks were kept in corrals unwatched at night every season but lambing time, which took place in the spring. Only during lambing times were shepherds in the fields with…
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Prince Sado of Korea – The Coffin King
There have been many stories of insanity in European royal families. Some even, unfairly or not, have gotten the sobriquet of “the Mad”. However, European royalty did not corner the market on insane family members. This example comes to us from the Korea’s Cho’son dynasty, which had ruled Korea since 1392. Prince Sado was the crown prince, who was born February 13, 1735, as the second son of King Yeongjo with his favorite concubine. Sado was the second son of King Yeongjo and only surviving male heir as his older brother tragically died at age 9. There was great rejoicing at the birth of a healthy son. However, Sado’s…
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Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba- Always have a Chair for the Queen
The Portuguese had begun colonizing Africa after their rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. The English and the French had begun exploring northeast Africa, so the Portuguese concentrated on the south, what is now Congo and Angola. Their chief aim was to provide slaves for their colony of Brazil in South America. Ndongo was ruled by a king called a Ngola, and the government was run by slaves. This was similar to the system of the janissaries in the Ottoman Empire. Slaves loyal to the royal family took high positions in the government and the military to ensure absolute loyalty. Ndongo was a trading partner of the…
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Babur
There was the blood of conquerors in his veins. On his mother’s side, he was descended from the great Genghis Khan. On his father’s side, the man who took on the Mongols and founded his own empire, Timurlane. It made sense that this young man would found an empire of his own. However, he was born far from it. Zahir al-Din Muhammad was born February 15, 1483 in the principality of Fergana, what is now Uzbekistan. Umar Shaykh Mīrzā,his father, was the ruler of Fergana, but died early when his young son was only eleven. His death was reported as happening “”while tending pigeons in an ill-constructed dovecote that toppled…
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Timurlane
After the death of Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire had fragmented into separate khanates as his descendants squabbled amongst themselves. The empire he built was too big for any of them to rule, so it was split into pieces and divided between them. The northwestern portion was called Golden Horde, and by 1336 the majority of it was ruled by Sultan Mohammed Oz Beg. His domain ran from Moscow to the Aral Sea and his capital was Sarai. Also in 1336, a son was born to a Turco-Mongol tribal leader of the Barlas in Transoxiana. Transoxiana is located at the edge of the mountains just south of the beautiful city…
