The official language of China today is Mandarin.

What were the official language of other dynasties like Han, Tang, Song, Ming? Were there any official language at all?

Friend of mine grew up very very very conservative in the deep south and learned about "The War Between the States" in school, which was a war for state rights, and not slavery. I was wondering why people began to believe this and why it's still being taught. She's learning about the Civil War now and doesn't have a reddit account, so I thought I'd get some info for her. :)

Edit to clarify: Why it's still being taught in some circles. It's not universal by any means.

In Ibn Fadlan's account of his time amongst the Rus on the banks of the Volga River in 922AD, he witnesses the sacrifice of a young slave girl by a terrifying figure known as 'the Angel of Death'.

Described as an old crone who is 'thick-set and sinister', she sounds very much like the archetypal witch/evil old hag figure of western mythology.

Are there any other sources that mention 'the Angel of Death' or female shamans/witches in Germanic societies of this era? As far as I understand it, Fadlan is generally deemed a reliable source, do historians trust this part of his account? Does the archetypal figure of the witch in western popular culture date from this era, or does the concept predate this?

From what I've read, they seem very similar (direct vassals of the shogun).

Most languages have their own onomatopoeic words for animal noises (e.g. baa, moo, woof etc), do we know what words were used for this in ancient civilizations?

So i am watching the west wing (the stackhouse fillibuster) and the rules got explained about fillibuster(ing). Now i am not sure if this is the right place to ask but i can't find another subreddit to ask so here it goes. And im hoping the glorious mods of this subreddit who are not only wise and kind but also fair will allow this question to go through because i really don't know where to ask this.

One of the rules is that the person fillibustering isn't allowed to sit down or lean against anything because that would mean he yields the floor. Now here is my question does that mean someone who is handicapped and in a wheelchair or needs a walking cane can never fillibuster? Becuase that would break the rules right? Or are the special exceptions to the rule? Or can they be excused from a particular rule?

Is the premise that these all are expressions of the same basic right?

For example, I asked my history teacher friend who specializes in the Civil War this question. He answered that General Lee had huge admiration for Grant, the Confederate States actually had quite a bit of opposition in the South and that the Confederacy had many sympathizers in the midwest, and that in hindsight the South had no real chance of winning the war.

I'm new here so apologies if i've overlooked some rules/this question has been asked countless before.

When was the last time there was sustained peace/stability in the Middle East? I understand there's probably been low scale conflict going back a millennia, so by this I mean:

• A period lasting at least a generation (30 years)
• No major empire/nation on the forseeable verge of collapse
• No two major empires/nations involved in full scale war
• No major famines
• Relative prosperity (economic growth, emergence of Art, creation of new technology etc.)
• The "Middle East" = Egypt - Asia Minor- Levant - Mesopotamia - Arabian Peninsula - Iran

Thanks, look forward to hearing your answers :)

Specifically I'm wondering if Vikings did, but I'm also curious if anyone had a mirror at that time period.

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Undergraduate here, hoping to pursue graduate medieval studies.

Why is the historical record so fragmented and regional? Why is there no medieval Josephus or Thucydides, for example?

What I'm wondering is, were there underlying factors that were brewing before Somalia gained independence in 1960 that Siad Barre tried to suppress?