Has imported words from the surrounding languages (Persian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Turkish, and so on) and has certain meanings or spellings changed over time? Are there specific phases of Arabic linguistic history such as Old English, Middle English, and Modern English?

A long time ago, I read an interesting book, where they tried to shed more light on natural phenomena we know happened in the past, by studying contemporary texts: Most of there contemporary descriptions didn't know what they were describing, so a lot of it was trying to figure out that 'evil fire from the mouth of the mountain' meant a volcano eruption.

One of the descriptions was thought to maybe be about the formation of a lunar crater. I remember it as being from the middle ages, but maybe it was older. It described how the 'snake in the night sky' got bitten in the tail, which made it twist with pain. Todays historians believed this was a crecent moon that got struck by a meteor, which caused an "earth quake" (moon quake?") on the moon, hence 'twisting in pain'. I remember I looked up what the crater was, and was impressed that it was a clearly visible one, but now I can't remember which it was :( I tried googleing, but I think my memory is too vague to search relevant words.

Does this ring a bell for any historians? I imagine that such a description would be quite significant, so I'm surprised I've not heard more of it.

On a slightly related note, any other historic, cryptic descriptions of major phenomena in the past? I find it really interesting to read what people thought they saw, and then reading the actual explanations.

I'm currently reading a book on the Iranian Revolution (1978-79), but the book covers most of the 20th century. I'm having trouble understanding exactly how the government operated. There was a prime minister, a Shah, and the Marjles? What power did those three have? I understand there was also the Ulema and other political factions which didn't actually have legal power, but rather incredible influence? It almost sounds like Reza Shah had complete power. What power did the prime minister and Majles have?

Thanks!

I've been having an ongoing debate with some friends about whether Hitler would kill a black haired, brown eyed Iranian through 1933-1945. Their reasoning was ''Hitler killed anyone who didn't fit the "visual threshold". I said that it would be unlikely since he didn't fit the visual threshold himself and he just said that as propaganda for the Germans to get on his side. Now it is factual that he was good friends with the Shah of Iran during his ruling and Iran stand for ''Land of the Aryans''. Help us out

From what I am reading a battleship and a destroyer were left unharmed. Where did they go?

I have often heard on the internet, that Hitler was a vegetarian. But yesterday I heard for the first time, that this is a lie and it was in fact only propaganda of Goebbels. So, what is true?

Now, the obvious answer is "God created it in 6 days in about 4000 BC". But I've read that many classical and medieval theologians, such as Origen, St Augustine, Thomas Aquinus, etc, claimed that God created the world instantly, timelessly, or something like that, and that the 6 days were metaphorical in some sense. Though I know Martin Luther believed that it was literal. So, what I wonder is a)how your average peasant believed the world began, and b)what educated Catholics (or Orthodox) believed. Also, were there any significant changes to their understanding of the world's beginning prior to the Reformation, or did Church teaching stay pretty much the same throughout the whole medieval period?

I know alot about the treatment of US Native Americans, but almost nothing about those in Canada. I assume their nearest neighbor influenced their decision on how to deal with a similar problem. Did they have their own Trail of Tears or similar horrors?

Looking for some sources to talk about - with the inclusion, if possible, of the relevant quotes? Preferably no web sources, but depending on reliability I'm willing to accept those as well.

Many thanks!

I'm currently zipping through a Chinese history podcast, and the striking thing is how often palace coups or failed rebellions would lead to the execution of the losers' entire clan. I understand why it was done, what I don't understand is why it seems to be a practice peculiar to Chinese civilization.

I'm sure other civilizations did wipe out entire extended families on occasion, but -correct me if I'm wrong- it doesn't seem to have been a formal punishment, even for crimes perceived to be extremely heinous (I'm thinking for example of the nasty way the assassin of William the Silent was dispatched, which would suggest what he did was viewed as absolutely unforgivable).

I've already read A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, are there other books that can enlighten me on the domestic policy of the central powers? Specifically Austria-Hungary?

I have heard of this story before, but I was looking at Wikipedia and I came across this event again, so did the French cavarly capture a Dutch fleet 221 years a go?

My ancestors, Italian, and Irish, settled in Philadelphia between the 1880s and 1930s. Unfortunately, none are alive for me to ask this question to. At a time when New York was growing at such a rapid speed to become America's dominant city, why did so many choose to settle in Philadelphia, a city geographically close to New York, but smaller?

Did ancient ship construction use nails? I've heard about the clinker and shell first methods of construction, but I'm not sure how the nails survived corrosion or if they had to be repeatedly replaced.

I'm curious to hear what Mussolini knew about the holocaust and what Italy's involvement was. We don't hear about Italy's side often.

So I was watching this documentary on the history of the Calculus, and this fellow was reading from Liebniz' and Newton's respective notebooks, and I was noticing the impossibly small size of their script relative to my ponderously wasteful use of scratch paper. This got me to wondering what the cost of paper would have been back then, and also what folks would have used to work out their problems as they went. Chalkboards?

Thanks.

What kind of fabric were they made of? It couldn't have been hemp, because doesn't that only grow in the more northern parts of the world?