In his 2011 novel, Open City, Nigerian-American writer, photographer and art critic Teju Cole presents a narrator, Julius, whose biography and artistic tastes bear significant similarities to himself. Julius is a figure who indulges in a certain form of privileged cosmopolitan flânerie, signposted by his admiration of the ideas of Kwame Anthony Appiah, and has been read by many scholars in this light. However, as the story develops, the reader comes to understand Julius as a troubling figure, one very possibly guilty of a serious crime. His form of cosmopolitanism is gradually revealed to be unidirectional and exploitative. Julius’s encounters with two of the minor characters, Saidu and Farouq, can be read as emblematic of a stance towards the Other that Sara Ahmed terms ‘stranger fetishism,’ and of the limitations of ‘conversation’ as a vehicle for ethical development. Decentering the narrator and focusing on nuances that the narrative voice obscures, I show how Michel Agier’s concept of ‘banal cosmopolitanism’ is personified by one of these characters and argue that this may guide the reader to an understanding of cosmopolitanism as a process always teetering between exultation and extraction.
Tekst jest biografią intelektualną współczesnego filozofa francuskiego, Gillesa Deleuze’a. Uwzględnia ona jego inspiracje filozoficzne, przyjaźnie, a przede wszystkim wszystkie publikacje, wzmiankując ich problematykę. Przede wszystkim jednak pokazuje sylwetkę człowieka, który, nie mogąc z powodów zdrowotnych robić tego, czemu poświęcił życie, tj. myśleć, pisać i uczyć, popełnił samobójstwo. Finalnie zaś odnotowuje recepcję tego aktu we francuskim środowisku filozoficznym. W sumie tekst jest wspomnieniem o wielkim filozofie oraz hołdem dla jego dzieła-życia.
Claudio Savelli, Moreno La Quatra, Alkis Koudounas
et al.
LLMs trained on web-scale data raise concerns about privacy and the right to be forgotten. To address these issues, Machine Unlearning provides techniques to remove specific information from trained models without retraining from scratch. However, existing benchmarks for evaluating unlearning in LLMs face two major limitations: they focus only on English and support only entity-level forgetting (removing all information about a person). We introduce FAME (Fictional Actors for Multilingual Erasure), a synthetic benchmark for evaluating Machine Unlearning across five languages: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. FAME contains 1,000 fictional actor biographies and 20,000 question-answer pairs. Each biography includes information on 20 topics organized into structured categories (biography, career, achievements, personal information). This design enables both entity-level unlearning (i.e., forgetting entire identities) and instance-level unlearning (i.e., forgetting specific facts while retaining others). We provide two dataset splits to support these two different unlearning scenarios and enable systematic comparison of unlearning techniques across languages. Since FAME uses entirely fictional data, it ensures that the information was never encountered during model pretraining, allowing for a controlled evaluation of unlearning methods.
Abstract
Shiism experienced a significant crisis following the tragedy of Ashura characterized by oppression, fear, isolation, and the practice of taqiyyah. This study focused on the strategies employed by Imam Sajjad (A.S.) to revive Shiism in the aftermath of this event. Specifically, it addressed this question: How can we analyze Imam Sajjad’s strategies for revitalizing Shiism after the Ashura event? It appeared that Imam Sajjad (A.S.) utilized components of diffusion theory—namely, the destination of diffusion (environments that were both receptive and intolerant, along with political and cultural barriers), paths of diffusion (including displacement, contagious, and hierarchical diffusion), and timing of diffusion. By leveraging various tools, such as the community's reverence for the Prophet’s family, he transformed the emotional landscape created after Ashura, mitigating the effects of the oppressive Umayyad regime and countering the influence of pro-Umayyad scholars. Through initiatives like cadre building and promoting pilgrimage, he effectively revived Shiism after the Ashura event. This research elucidated Imam Sajjad's actions through the lens of diffusion theory, demonstrating how Shiism was revitalized in the wake of Ashura. Employing a historical methodology, the study analyzed Imam Sajjad's activities aimed at reviving Shiism, including cadre development, exposing Umayyad injustices, mobilizing the populace post-Karbala, challenging beliefs in predestination, elucidating the fundamental principles of Imamate, addressing key issues, and countering deviation through prayer and supplication.
Keywords: Strategies of Imam Sajjad (A.S.), Revival of Shiism, Ashura Event, Diffusion Theory, Umayyad Era.
Introduction
The era of Imam Sajjad (A.S.), which commenced on Ashura in 61 AH, unfolded under exceptional circumstances. The oppressive measures of the Umayyads coupled with the suppression of dissenting movements and emergence of deviant intellectual currents underscored the urgent need for the revitalization of Shiite life. In light of the political, social, and cultural conditions of his time, Imam Sajjad (A.S.) adopted various approaches to articulate the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt, employing methods, such as prayer and pilgrimage. This study sought to analyze how Imam Sajjad (A.S.) revived Shiism following the Ashura event and identify the factors that influenced this revival. Several books and articles have been published regarding Imam Sajjad's role in the resurgence of Shiism. Notably, Seyyed Ja'far Shahidi's Life of Ali ibn al-Hussein (2001) examined and critiqued some well-known historical accounts of Imam Sajjad (A.S.). While this work shared common themes with the present research, it offered a new perspective by integrating theoretical frameworks. Additionally, Mohsen Ranjbar's Studying the Role of Imam Sajjad (A.S.) in Shiite Leadership after the Karbala Incident (2002) explored the cultural and political landscape of Imam Sajjad's era, focusing on his stance against the caliphate. However, this article distinguished itself by analyzing the environmental factors and components of diffusion theory relevant to Imam Sajjad's context. Another significant work was Madrasah Kalami Medinah from the Beginning to the Imamate of Imam Baqir (2024) written by Seyyed Ali Hussainizadeh from Khizrabad, which reviewed the history of Imamiyyah thought up to the end of Imam Sajjad's era through historical reports. Unlike the other two works, it did not provide an analysis of Imam Sajjad (A.S.) based on diffusion theory. Finally, Seyyed Gholam Hossein Hosseini's article, Headlines of the Political Movement of Imam Sajjad (A.S.) in the Karbala Movement (2002), touched upon similar themes; yet, it did not specifically apply diffusion theory, revealing a gap in independent research on this topic.
Materials & Methods
Diffusion theory introduced by Swedish geographer Hagerstrand in 1935, explored how innovations, phenomena, ideas, and thoughts spread. Initially applied to agriculture and disease transmission, this theory has since found relevance in political science and international relations. It effectively explains the reasons behind the spread of various intellectual and physical innovations, detailing how they disseminate, the pathways they follow, and the factors that may halt or re-ignite their spread. Additionally, it accounts for the stability of certain trends and the decline of others. In the modern era, cultural elements and innovations cross borders at unprecedented speeds, akin to jet travel and satellite communication. Contagious and hierarchical diffusion represent two rapid forms of expansion diffusion, where ideas and concepts migrate from new sources without the need for physical relocation. When analyzing the impact of any political innovation through the lens of diffusion theory, key factors like origin and destination, timeframes, tools, and channels of dissemination are considered. Furthermore, diffusion barriers and competing waves serve as mitigating factors that must be addressed in the examination of the phenomenon and its diffusion.
Research Findings
Imam Zayn al-Abidin (A.S.) aimed to restore order in a society that had succumbed to misguidance and moral decay, striving to revive authentic Islam (Shi'a). Alongside the Sahifa al-Sajjadiyah, which encapsulates the principles and teachings of Islam, the Treatise on Rights outlines fundamental rights that govern human life and ensure its happiness. Indeed, religion and Sharia were revealed to uphold these rights. Through this guidance, the Imam demonstrated that only an Imam, intimately connected to the source of revelation, possesses the authority to enact progressive laws that resonate with the human spirit.
Discussion of Results & Conclusion
The continuation of Umayyad rule under Yazid and Abdul Malik ibn Marwan following the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (A.S.) coupled with the atmosphere of fear and repression that ensued after the Ashura event posed significant challenges for Imam Sajjad (A.S.) in his efforts to revive and expand Shiism. Despite these obstacles, Imam Sajjad (A.S.) emerged as a pivotal figure in this revival, leveraging the emotional climate following events, such as the incident of Hurra and the destruction of Kaaba by Yazid's forces, alongside the public’s growing interest in the Prophet's family. To navigate the unwelcoming environment, the Imam implemented several strategies: he focused on training and building a cadre of supporters, exposed the injustices of the Umayyad regime, and sought to awaken the populace in the aftermath of Karbala. He also challenged the legitimacy of predestination and clarified the fundamental principles of Imamate. Through prayers and invocations, he addressed key issues and countered deviations, significantly advancing his goals. Utilizing methods like prayer and pilgrimage (path of diffusion) and disseminating religious concepts through his students and trained followers (path of contagion), Imam Sajjad (A.S.) endeavored to revive Shiism even amid the oppressive rule of the most tyrannical Umayyad caliphs, including Yazid and Abdul Malik ibn Marwan. This period marked a crucial phase in the diffusion of Shiism.
History (General) and history of Europe, History of Asia
What do Ignacio Minaverry and Ciro Berliac’s trajectories say about comics in contemporary Argentina? By crossreferencing their body of work with the discourses surrounding them, this article explores both as a blueprint for two different positioning strategies within the comics field. Growing up in thee arly 1990s, they were both brought up in a time of daunting change, as the remains of a once-mighty national comic industry finally disappeared and a nascent (imported) comic book shop circuit exposed them to new graphic narratives, such as manga. After publishing what was labeled as the “first Argentinian manga”, Minaverry “edited” his own biography/bibliography and phased out any overt “mangaesque” traits in his cartooning in order to fit into a field increasingly geared towards the graphic novel, and was rewarded for it. In contrast, Berliac publicly “transitioned” from cartoonist to “mangaka” in defiance of what he understood was the chauvinist establishment of Argentinean “national comics” in a (successful) bid to gain notoriety. As conclusion, contrasting both trajectories reveals the importance of the discursive and material tensions between "national" and foreign in a peripheral comics field, playing a hefty role in its mechanics of gatekeeping and the distribution of symbolic capital.
Drawing. Design. Illustration, Literature (General)
Communities on the web rely on open conversation forums for a number of tasks, including governance, information sharing, and decision making. However these forms of collective deliberation can often result in biased outcomes. A prime example are Articles for Deletion (AfD) discussions on Wikipedia, which allow editors to gauge the notability of existing articles, and that, as prior work has suggested, may play a role in perpetuating the notorious gender gap of Wikipedia. Prior attempts to address this question have been hampered by access to narrow observation windows, reliance on limited subsets of both biographies and editorial outcomes, and by potential confounding factors. To address these limitations, here we adopt a competing risk survival framework to fully situate biographical AfD discussions within the full editorial cycle of Wikipedia content. We find that biographies of women are nominated for deletion faster than those of men, despite editors taking longer to reach a consensus for deletion of women, even after controlling for the size of the discussion. Furthermore, we find that AfDs about historical figures show a strong tendency to result into the redirecting or merging of the biography under discussion into other encyclopedic entries, and that there is a striking gender asymmetry: biographies of women are redirected or merged into biographies of men more often than the other way round. Our study provides a more complete picture of the role of AfD in the gender gap of Wikipedia, with implications for the governance of the open knowledge infrastructure of the web.
The purpose of the article is to show how two authors, one Serbian and the other Bulgarian, saw the great Serbian ruler and how they composed his biography. Even though the authors were not contemporaries, their work exhibits similar pattern. However, they write in different styles, and their views and opinions differ. In this article, we will try, with a comparative method, to reliably present the life of Stefan Dečanski from the point of view of two great medieval writers. We set the goal to research biographies of Stefan Dečanski as accurately, neutrally, and objectively as possible, which were written by Danilo's student and by Grigorij Camblak. Our task is to identify all the parts in the biographies that are similar, and then those that are mentioned only in one of the listed works. Given the complexity of the topic, we used a set of methods of which the comparative is dominant. The article consists of two parts - the first gives an overview of ancient Serbian literature and explains medieval biography as a genre, while the second talks about Danilo's student and Grigorij Camblak, the similarities and differences in their work, and then compares what they wrote about. In the end, we concluded everything that was said. The beginnings of authorial literature and works, which are the subject of the article's research, brought with them a new approach to the process of writing, which reached a higher level of artistic formation of biographies. Even though the authors wrote within the canon and observed, to a greater or lesser extent, the stylistic features of everyday literature, they participated in the creation of reality and the spiritual world, as well as a selection of excerpts from the biography of the ruler. Old Serbian literature is rich in genres such as biographies, words of praise, prayers, liturgical songs, messages, etc. The genres of Serbian literature of the Middle Ages and the new century do not match: in the old Serbian literature, there are no novels, stories, historical stories, which we will display in this article. Our research does not stop at the fact that Danilo's student writes in one way about a great historical figure, while Grigorij Camblak writes differently about the same person. We set out to show, through a genre definition, the extent to which these two writers differ and what their view of Stefan Dečanski was. We will try to explain that both authors created their works for certain reasons, which are mostly different, but sometimes similar. Both wrote intending to create a cult of the Serbian king. This article will try to achieve this goal - to answer the question and show the result of a comparative analysis of the works of two authors with the same topic.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
(AR)
تًمثل دراسات التاريخ الاجتماعي ومنها موضوع الدراسة (الإرث عند العرب قبل الإسلام)، جانباً مهماً من حياة الأمم والشعوب؛ ونظراً لاختلاف طريقة كسب العرب (البدو – الحضر) للأموال، اختلف نظام الإرث بينهم، بالرغم من اتفاقهم على توزيع الإرث وفق الأعراف والتقاليد القبلية إما للنسب أو السبب.
ولرسوخ هذا العُرف القبلي نجد أن العمل به قد استمر بالرغم مما ألحقه من أضرار في حياة بعض فئات المجتمع العربي قبل الإسلام حتى السنة الثالثة من الهجرة النبوية، وتحديداً بعد غزوة أحد عندما نزلت آيات المواريث، حيث نجد أن الشرع الحكيم يذكر تفاصيل الميراث في القرآن الكريم، في حين كانت أغلب الأحكام الشرعية تُذكر في القرآن مجملة وتبينها السنة بالتفصيل.
وبالتالي فإن هذه الدراسة سوف تخدم أحد أحداث السيرة النبوية، وما يتعلق بأموال خديجة بنت خويلد رضي الله عنها التي توفيت في السنة العاشرة من البعثة.
وستعتمد هذه الدراسة على نصوص مختارة، سواءَ أكانت نقوشاً أو شعراً جاهلياً، أو ما تم ذكره في المصادر والمراجع العربية والمعربة والأجنبية.
(EN)
Studies of social history, including the subject of the study (Heritage in Arab regions before Islam), are an important aspect of the life of all peoples. Due to the different ways of earning money by Arabs (Bedouins - urban), the heritage distribution method differed among them, despite their agreement to distribute heritage according to the tribal customs and traditions, either in ancestry or effect.
Concerning the consolidation of this tribal custom, we find that it continued despite its damages that inflicted on the life of some groups of Arab society before Islam until the third year of the Prophet's migration, specifically after the Battle of Uhud when the Quranic verses of heritage were revealed. We find that the Sharia mentions the details of heritage in the Holy Quran. Most of the Islamic Shariah provisions were generally mentioned in the Quran and clarified in detail in Sunnah.
Therefore, this study will discuss an important point in the biography of the Prophet Muhammad related to the wealth of Khadija bint Khuwaylid, may Allah be pleased with her, who died in the tenth year of the Prophet's Messengership.
This study will depend on selected texts, whether they were inscriptions or pre-Islamic poetry, or what was mentioned in Arabic, translated, and foreign sources and references.
The 100th anniversary of Bruno Touschek's birth also marks 60 years since the first beams of electrons and positrons circulated in AdA, the first ever matter-antimatter collider built in Frascati National Laboratories following Touschek's visionary proposal of February 1960. A brief biography, an extensive bibliography, and a description of archives containing documents related to the life and science of the father of electron-positron physics are presented.
Voltaire devoted several passages from his Histoire de Charles XII (1731) to the history of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania in the early 18th century. A comparative analysis of different editions of this biography of the king of Sweden – with a great influence not only on public opinion, but especially on historiography – as well as passages taken from marginal notes left by the philosopher at pages of books in his library
(famous collection preserved since 1779 in Saint Petersburg) and finally insight in research conducted by Polish historians allowed us to investigate reasons and circumstances of the
election of Stanislas Leszczyński in 1704 to the throne of Poland. Our analysis allowed us to confirm a connection between a meeting of Charles XII and Leszczyński in Heilsberg
in Ermland (Pol. Lidzbark Warmiński in Warmia). The paper highlights also research problems that historians must urrently overcome to use, interpret, and understand properly sources written by historiographers, who explored bservations of eyewitnesses of the great events of their times.
The paper was originally published as Geneza elekcji Stanisława Leszczyńskiego w 1704 roku w ujęciu Woltera, ”Klio” 2013, vol. 25 (2), pp. 5–20, DOI: 10.12775/
KLIO.2013.014.
The article is a review of the book The chronicle of the life and work of S.A. Esenin. V.5. 1925 – mid-1926. In two books. Book 2. It analyzes Esenin’s chronicle of the last days of his life, his creative connections with his contemporaries (Mayakovsky, Klyuyev, Kazin, Budantsev, Voronsky, etc.) and Esenin’s participation in the literary group of imaginists in the early 1920s. It should be noted that many valuable materials about the life and creative work of the poet, as well as about the literary process of the mid-1920s, are published for the first time. The chronicle contains references to foreign publications about Esenin, confirming the extent of the poet’s fame and recognition throughout the world. The reviewer concludes that The chronicle... provides an opportunity to determine the main plots of the history of the Russian literature of the 20th century. The story about the relationships between A. K. Voronsky and Esenin is one of the recurrent plots of Book 2 of Volume 5 of The chronicle... . It is noted that the previously unknown diary of I. V. Evdokimov revealed his contribution to the publication of the collected works of Esenin. The chronicle… reports the participation of the almost forgotten writer S. F. Budantsev in the events aimed to immortalize the memory of the poet. The review of the final book of The chronicle... makes it possible to conclude that the study of the literary biography and creative activity of the poet does not close the topic, but, on the contrary, convincingly demonstrates the prospects for its further development and opens up new vistas for reconstructing a reliable history of the Russian literature of the first half of the 1920s.
A scientific biography of John Ward, who was responsible for the Ward Identity in quantum electrodynamics; the first detailed calculation of the quantum entanglement of two photons in electron-positron annihilation with Maurice Pryce; the prediction of neutral weak currents in electroweak theory with Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam, and many other major calculations in theoretical physics.
In this article we propose to give an account of the history of the Chilean collective of women mathematicians. We will begin by describing the context of the mathematical community in Chile and the process of forming the Collective, together with the first objectives we set ourselves. Then we will continue with an analysis of some reasons that support the need to create a group formed by mathematical women and also the fact of choosing horizontality and autonomy as structural pillars of our organization. On the other hand, we will refer to the main activities that we have carried out and we will provide an overview of the mathematical women's organizations that exist in Latin America. Finally, we will conclude by talking about the research project to which some of the members of the collective are dedicated nowadays (in particular the authors of this article).
María Andresa Casamayor de la Coma, born in Zaragoza, is known as the first woman who published a scientific book in Spain. In this paper we provide answers to several of the most important questions about her unknown biography such as her birth day, the origins of her family, the houses where she and her close family lived, her job as a teacher and even her true name.