The Saljuq Turks’ Conversion to Islam: The Crusading Sources

This article contributes to the important debate over the conversion of the Turks to Islam. Previously, it was thought that the Turks abandoned their former steppe faith and customs very swiftly to become staunch Sunni Muslims, but this view has recently been challenged by a number of studies. The current consensus seems to be that the Turks’ adoption of Islam was a process of far longer duration, spanning many decades. This article broadens this discussion by demonstrating that the chronicles written by the First Crusaders contain much useful information that is pertinent to this question. It works through these texts, showing that they can shed new light on this point.     

Acerca del hielo en el islam medieval

The history of ice in medieval Arab societies is obscured behind a mosaic of a variety of references and scholarly citations. Beyond al-Qalqashandī's reference to organised ice trafficking in fourteenth-century Mamluk Egypt, we do not have conclusive evidence on the origin and use of ice as a consumer product. In this paper we trace its presence based on three genres of references: historical and literary quotations, medicine and literature pertaining to food. These references allow us to consider the extent of ice consumption in the Arab world before the ninth century, as well as the existence of an organised trade throughout the Middle Ages from that time. However, contrary to the Persian world, with its well-documented Iranian yakhchals, we still know virtually nothing about ice-houses in medieval Arab societies. We also know very little about the profession of the thallāj or ice-seller, or whether the widespread consumption of ice that originated in Spain in the sixteenth century was in fact a legacy of an earlier trade in al-Andalus.     

The Jews of Venetian Candia: The Challenges of External Influences and Internal Diversity as Reflected in Takkanot Kandiyah

Takkanot Kandiyah is a collection of Hebrew-written legislative texts regarding the leadership of the Jewish community of Candia, the capital of the Venetian colony of Crete, which were issued by successive generations of communal leaders between the early thirteenth and late sixteenth centuries. The detailed information it provides on many areas of the communal life makes Takkanot Kandiyah a valuable source for historical research into Jewish life in the medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean. Through a study of the texts contained in Takkanot Kandiyah, this article attempts to identify and analyse the ways in which the leadership of the Candiot community responded to the challenges of coexistence with the Greek inhabitants of Crete and the Venetian rulers of the island, as well as with the Jewish immigrants whom the currents of history brought to Crete from various corners of the Mediterranean, and thus to examine the importance of the “Mediterranean dimension” of the life of Cretan Jewry.     

The Seljuk Sultanate of Rūm and the Turkmen of the Byzantine frontier, 1206–1279*

This article examines the frontier between the Seljuk Sultanate of Rūm and its Byzantine neighbours in the thirteenth century, concentrating on the place of these frontier districts within the Seljuk state. Scholarship on the frontier, influenced by the ideas of Paul Wittek, has seen it as something of a “no man's land”, politically, economically, culturally and religiously distinct from the urban heartland of the Seljuk sultanate in central Anatolia, dominated by the nomadic Turks, the Turkmen, who operated largely beyond sultanic control. It is often thought that the Seljuk and Greek sides of the border shared more in common with each other than they did with the states of which they formed a part. In contrast, this article argues that in fact the western frontier regions were closely integrated into the Seljuk sultanate. Furthermore, with the Mongol domination of the Seljuk sultanate in the second half of the thirteenth century, the Seljuk and Mongol elites became increasingly involved in this frontier region, where some of the leading figures of the sultanate had estates and endowments.     

Surveying the Aspect of the Medieval West Anatolian Town

The aim of this short article is modest: it means to fill a lacuna in scholarly output by offering a concise and accessible survey of the physical structure of the typical west Anatolian town in the High Middle Ages. Attempts to locate such a study meet with disappointment. If one wishes to look through the eyes of medieval travellers in Anatolia, whether they be merchants, pilgrims or soldiers, and discover what type of construction they witnessed when approaching and entering a typical town, one is compelled to trawl through a great number of specialist articles and monographs dealing with specific archaeological sites or particular narrow periods of history. This laborious exercise will be made somewhat redundant by a brief synthesis of the appropriate evidence which historians and archaeologists have addressed and compiled since the late 1950s when attempting to reconstruct the development of the Byzantine city. The article traces the slow development of the typical Anatolian urban form and aspect from the late fourth century, through the mid-seventh to mid-eighth centuries, and then through to a period of urban recovery until the latter part of the twelfth century. The choice of periods separated by some 800 years is not arbitrary: the physical character (and function) of the typical town began to change in the late fourth century, and the form it obtained during the seventh and eighth centuries continued to be the one retained (with inconsequential variations to the general pattern) during the intermediate periods of Byzantine recovery     

The “Other” in the Crusading Period: Walter the Chancellor's Presentation of Najm al-Dīn Il-Ghāzī

This paper examines ideas surrounding the presentation of the Muslim “other” in Latin writings of the early period of the Crusades. Using a case-study approach of the views of one chronicler, Walter the Chancellor, in his work Bella Antiochena, on one individual Muslim, Najm al-Dīn Il-Ghāzī, the paper studies aspects of the image of Il-Ghāzī, the reasons for them, how and why they develop throughout the chronicle, and whether, from the other information given in the chronicle, it would be possible to interpret the information in other ways. The conclusions reached demonstrate that the reason for the vitriol in Walter's presentation was his wish to justify the Crusades and suggest that the writers of Outremer started to develop their own cross-cultural responses to Islam, independent of mainstream European thought, because of their situation.     

Examining the influence of grip type on wrist and club head kinematics during the golf swing: Benefits of a local co-ordinate system

Wrist movements have been identified as an important factor in producing a successful golf swing, with their complex motion influencing both club head velocity and orientation. However, a detailed analysis of wrist angles is lacking in the literature. The purpose of this study was to determine kinematics across wrists and club head characteristics during the golf swing under weak, neutral and strong grip conditions. Twelve professional male golfers executed 24 shots using a driver under three grip conditions. A six degrees of freedom analysis of the hand with respect to the distal forearm was performed using a 10-camera three-dimensional motion capture system. Differences in joint angles were explored using repeated measures ANOVAs at key swing events (onset, top of backswing and impact), in addition club head velocity and clubface angle at impact were also explored. Main findings revealed significant differences in flexion/extension and internal/external rotation for both wrists at all swing events, whereas fewer significant interactions were found in ulnar/radial deviation across grips for both wrists at all events. Clubface angle only differed significantly between the weak and the strong and neural grips, presenting a more ‘open’ clubface to the intended hitting direction. This study is the first to explore tri-planar wrist movement and the effect of different grips, such analysis has implications for coaching knowledge and practice and should inform future research into different aspects of skill, technique analysis and may inform injury mechanisms/prevention.     

Using football cultures as a vehicle to improve mental health in men: the case of the Redcar and cleveland boot room

This paper sets out to appraise (from the perspective of members) the impact of a localized, football-based mental health intervention. Commissioned in late 2015, the ‘Redcar and Cleveland Boot Room (BR)’ was implemented in response to mass redundancy in the local area, coupled with regional suicide rates in men that exceed the national average. Interactive discussions with BR members revealed that: (a) the language of football and shared identity were important for initiating and sustaining engagement in the BR; (b) peer-support and mentoring combined with member-led activities were active ingredients of the BR and (c) that the BR was an effective vehicle for building mental health resilience. This evaluation adds to the evidence base on the value of football as a context to engage adult males in community-based interventions targeting mental health resilience.     

我国农村体育精准扶贫改革路径分析

为了丰富户外用品上市公司的评价研究,提升企业的经营绩效,以我国户外用品6家上市公司2016年度财务数据为样本,采用熵权法从偿债能力、运营能力、盈利能力和成长能力四个纬度,对其进行了综合评价。结果显示：（1）公司经营结构中,偿债能力所占的权重最大,运营能力次之,盈利能力排名第三,成长能力所占权重最小;（2）6家公司中,4项一级指标的评分存在明显的两极分化现象。其中,三夫户外的偿债能力最强,牧高笛最弱;牧高笛的运营能力和盈利能力最突出,三夫户外的运营能力和嘉麟杰的盈利能力比较薄弱;中潜股份的成长能力最优秀,浙江永强成长能力最小;（3）综合实力强弱顺序依次为探路者、三夫户外、牧高笛、中潜股份、嘉麟杰、浙江永强。     

我国优秀青少年女子羽毛球运动员身体形态特征研究

CUBA联赛经过20年的开展,其职业水平和影响力不断提高,对于开展高校篮球运动、储备篮球后备人才、传播校园体育文化及提高高校知名度都起到积极的作用。通过文献资料法、数理统计法、录像观察法和逻辑分析法,对第20届CUBA男子四强在整个赛程的攻防指标进行对比分析,对于四支队伍存在的优劣势,提出合理化建议。