Would it have been probable and or possible that President James A. Garfield ate lasagna during his lifetime?

Why is Friday called 'Congregation Day' in Arabic?

I have looked at a previous Ask Historians thread about why Muslims congregate on Friday as well as searched online.

There is general agreement that the Quran commands muslims to congregate on 'Congregation Day' AKA Friday in Arabic, but this seems circular.

If Friday was already known as Congregation Day before this command, then why was that so? Was there a customary congregation on the 6th day in pre-Islamic Arabia? And if so, why the sixth day and for what purpose?

If Friday became known as Congregation Day AFTER the Quranic command, then why was the 6th day chosen?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism_and_cinema

On the contrary the percentage of for example American movies screened was reduced from 26% in 1932 to 14% in 1939; from 1933 to 1937 eleven US movies were considered "artistically valuable" by the Nazi authorities (e.g., The Lives of a Bengal Lancer).

My question is. What were those 11 films?

And what about them made them liked by the authorities?

Who are some top historians of science in al-Andalus who are still active? (Looking for supervisors)

I'm writing a short fiction piece that references famous romantic or erotic poets. I won't explain the plot, but the theme is the Greek muse Erato, whose domain was mostly lyric/'erotic' poetry. So far I'm planning on referencing Sappho, Rumi, Shakespeare, Robert Herrick, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson

Most of these poets did not primarily create erotic or romantic work, but they've all written various erotic or romantic poems. For example, I'm planning on highlighting Shakespeare's Sonnet 20, Sappho's Fragment 16, and Dickinson's For Each Ecstatic Instant.

What I'm looking for is 3-5 poets to fill the gap between Sappho and Rumi, so roughly 650 B.C.E. to 1200 C.E. I'd especially like to highlight poets who aren't from English-speaking countries, even better if they aren't from Europe at all, since most of my list right now highlights white, English-speaking poets. They must have written at least one poem with romantic or erotic themes, and it must be available in translation for me to read.

Please do not suggest poets who lived and worked past 1600 C.E. or before 650 B.C.E., unless you have some particularly good ideas who are not white/English speakers.

Thanks :)

Any great books anyone can recommend on Yugoslavia in the interwar period? Work has brought me into in the area and want a bit more context into what I'm looking at.

I’m looking to read more literature and sources from the high Middle Ages (preferably France, England, Flanders)

I’ve only read The Canterbury Tales, Marie de France, Sir Gawain, the Decameron, Eric et Enide, and le Roman de Renart.

I’m also interested in theology or other texts that wouldn’t be considered literature, but most of that seems pretty daunting.

Any recommendations?

Who was the first known person to posit that torture is an ineffective means of interrogation?

It doesn't take much to see that torture is cruel and inhumane, as that's kind of part of the whole point. But it's been proven by today to also be highly ineffective, being more likely to yield an insane subject or the answers you want to hear rather than any truth. Now, there are people who still don't understand this today, and I know in the ancient and medieval eras torture was considered fairly standard and reliable, even necessary a procedure in cases. However, even if the science disproving its effectiveness is relatively recent in the grand scale, I'm sure there must have been earlier philosophers or thinkers who would have realised that torture can't really be that reliable. Who is the first person we have records of opining thus?

Did the American constitutions; Articles of Confederation, and the constitution of 1789; influence the German Confederation constitution and later Frankfurt congress?

Is there term for prejudices that get stupider over time?

Example: 1820s American racism was filled with rich stereotypes for regions of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Congelse slaves were considered good for certain types of work and Nigerians were good for different work. Bavarians were white but Italians weren't really (mostly due to religion). The Chinese and Japanese were incredibly distinct.

Today, we just say African, European, and Asian. It erases the diversity of those places.

I'm looking for a term that deals with the information loss.

Edit: it also deals with religion. We have Wiccans calling on Hecate without a knowledge of ancient greek, and Catholics believing that a good heart is a replacement for confession.

Which is easy for me to understand, slogans tend to crowd out deep thought. I'd just like to know the formal term for it.

I picked up Robert Payne's "The Life and Death of Lenin" at a little free library and it looks interesting. Is this book still considered worth reading or is it now considered woefully out of date having been published almost 60 years ago?

Can someone recommend any accurate books on pre-colonial and colonial era Philippines?

I remember reading a comic book from the 60s where Peter Parker is described as a chemistry major in high school. Were there majors or more specialized curriculums in high school back then?

is possible that lots of moments in history have the wrong date?

Maybe historical moments happen, days, months, years later or early? (because of multiple calendars, late register, bad memory?)

So let's say I'm a naval aviator in WWII, participating in one of the great carrier battles of the Pacific War. I go on an uneventful/successful sortie, only to return and find that my carrier (or if I'm a Japanese pilot at Midway, all my carriers) is on fire/on its way to the bottom of the Pacific. What the heck do I do now?

What is the best book to read about Alexander the Great for someone who knows absolutely nothing about him and his empire?

The children's game Tag - when the child catches and tag another person, they say "Tag, you're it." What is "it" referring to?

Whats above a cathedral? I know a cathedrals above a church but whats higher then a cathedral

When people were making really long trips back in the day what did they do for money? There were no ATM's and not everyone used the same money?

In pop culture, there is always a bard to sing a song or tell a tale to help a hero or plot along. What are some real examples of historical bards and some of their songs/ballads?
Is Dandelion from the Witcher based on something or just an invention. In the name of the wind Kvothe sings a few songs and tales that ring tears from people, are there any real-world examples for such songs?

Did Oleksandr Dovzhenko serve in the Red Army or in Simon Petliura's Ukrainian national army during the Ukrainian Civil War? David Bordwell's Film History: An Introduction claims Dovzhenko served in the Red Army, while the Dovzhenko chapter in "Identities In-Between in East-Central Europe" by Fellerer et al as well as George O. Liber's " Adapting to the Stalinist Order: Alexander Dovzhenko's Psychological Journey, 1933–1953" claims that Dovzhenko served in Petliura's army during the civil war. How come this contradiction? Which one is true after all?

How many hours did a fighter spend in the air during the Battle of Britain?

The Battle of Britain is famous for its intensity, with pictures of pilots getting a quick shave or haircut before having to jump into their planes once again to defend the isles. But just how intense could a day be? Are there records of, well, records of hours spent in a day in the air? Or in general, on average, how many hours could a fighter pilot be expected to fly during a battle?

You often hear that clergy were useful to medieval rulers because they helped with administration of the realm. What does this in practice mean? What kind of administration was done in a medieval kingdom?

What are some good books on the French Revolution?

Did 16th Century Russians drink/make beer? If so what would it taste like, or what kind of beer would it have been?

Are there any women who committed crimes along the vein of DB Cooper? Not necessarily the same crime, or nationality, or even time period. Just any woman who successfully made off with a ton of cash, gems, valuables, etc.

I'm planning on running a nautical themed d&d campaign for my group and I'm struggling to find cross sectional diagrams or detailed information on the layout and design of brigantine vessels from the 18th century. Exactly how many decks would a brigantine have had? Aside from the main deck, I know that a brigantine used for piracy would likely have had a gun deck, but would there be further decks below that? What would they be used for?

Any good books on French history before the French Revolution? Specifically, France between 1453-1789. The AH booklist is focused mostly on the revolution/Napoleon and is lacking for this period. I'm a big fan of Dumas (The Three Musketeers, Queen Margot and others) but would like something more historically objective.

In Medieval England how would a person have "moved in" (for lack of a better phrase) to a town? Like say I'm some random guy with an appropriate amount of money interested in opening a pub or shop of some sort in a town. Would I just find an open area of land and start building? Would I need to buy the land from someone first? Would there be a trade guild I have to deal with in a small market town?

And what about if instead of trying to go into business, I just want to build a house to live in? Do I need a local lord's permission to live in his domain?

I realize the medieval period is a long time, but I'd be interested in an answer from any point in pre-Renaissance England.

Seeking the origin (Persian cuneiform?) of the quote, "Even if the skies were shorter than my knees, I would not kneel" by Cyrus the Great? Have had trouble finding evidence of this quote dating back to the era. Is it real? Is it highly interpreted?

Who invented umbrellas? Did they exist in babylon? Were there multiple independent inventions of them?

##What are some major illnesses/diseases that originated in the United States?

We often hear Trump supporters and other politically far right people refer the COVID-19 virus as the "China Virus" or the "Chinese Virus". It's an racially motivated attempt to shift blame onto a particular ethnictiy of people for political purposes. Any time Trump was called out for this during his presidency he would feign innocence and say "what? I'm just being accurate, the virus came from China, that makes it a Chinese Virus." That answer is obviously a cop out, but it got me wondering what major diseases originated here in America?

During the European witch trials, people were accused of committing specific rituals, communicating with devils that had names, etc. Did these ideas about rituals and demonic identities originate in actual practices, or did they begin as the invention of priests?

I heard that president Kennedy said once (on the beginning of his career and before the Berlin Wall was built) that he won't do anything about building a Wall and he is not that much against this idea. Later he apologised a few times for that. Sadly I can't find any source or quotation from this speech. Can you help me finding the source or do you know anything about this?

Are there surnames that still are used from ancient times?

Is there any historical pattern to demonyms and glossonyms being designated with "-ish," "-ese," "-ian," or something else (Hebrew, Arabic, Swahili)? As a side note to this, is it correct to assume that "French" is a contraction of "France-ish" and why isn't it "Germanian?"

how did ancient people (BC) track and label their years?

During the Byzantine-Sassanian war, the conquest of the Land Of Israel by the Sassanid Empire and the later reconquest by Byzantium, saw a number of massacres against the local population. How many of the land's inhabitants were killed, and how many were left after the fact?

According to http://www.combinedfleet.com/chokai_t.htm

IJN cruisers Chokai and Kinugasa covered a convoy concurrently to the battle of the santa cruz islands. what was the nature of that convoy?

I was thinking about reading the 4th volume of the Fontana Economic History of Europe, which is about the development of industry in European countries up to the First World War.

I like the Fact that it deals with the countries on a more or less individual basis instead of having a single narrative that jumps between places as is convenient. But as the book is nearing its 50th anniversary I was wondering if there wasn't a more contemporary work with a similar structure.

I'd be happy if anyone could recommend some books!

How common were Viking raids? Did Vikings hit one place a year? Did different groups of Vikings raid only once a year? If you were in a particular village in mainland Europe, how often would you expect to be raided if you were alive for 400 consecutive years?

I was just reading about an agrarian-populist political party that played a major role in left wing American politics during the economic crisis of the 1890s - drawing a lot of support from angry farmers. They were apparently really critical of capitalism and allied themselves with the labor movement. I feel like a large part of American history is unknown in regards to their labor movements.

Does anyone know any good books that really gets down into the nitty gritty details of the grievances workers faced since Americas founding?

Stuff ranging from labor striking, economic crisis', working conditions, the transition into modernity and how this might have affected workers. Thank you

Were Roman emperors called Caesar or Augustus? Were these the same title?

Why were so much of my history lesson in grade school focused around european cultural influence?

Where can I find Audio material from the 1924 Democratic National Convention?

I'm working on a research project about the 1924 New York DNC, and was the first convention broadcast entirely on the radio.

The book I'm reading on the topic;"The 103rd Ballot" (R. K. Murray) (1976) mentions various audiorecordings, but I've only been able to find 3 of Franklin D. Rooseveltaddressing the Convention, courtesy of The FDR Presidential Library and have been unable to find others.

The existence of these few recordingsimplies the existence of others, but could anyone point me towardswhere I might be able to find them?

Regards

As far as I'm aware ancient Chinese marriages involved a matchmaker and the children's comparability based on certain criteria. Did that all go to the way side in royal marriages like alliances or was it still important?

Is being left-handed really considered bad or "devil-ish" during the medieval period?

How did other European Countries react to the unification of Italy?

Where can I learn to talk/wrote like s knight?

I'm in active in a Reenactment group but one small detail is still unclear to us. How did the soldiers salute in the german army 1871-1919. There must be a norm or a rule for it. Could you provide any pictures? It would really mean a lot if you could answer it. (If it's no big deal I would also be thankful if you could answer that question concerning the Wehrmacht)

Do jackets like this have their roots in Native American or European designs?

https://www.woolrich.com/us/en/pacific-stretch-jacket-CFWOOU0304MRUT0102_6518.html?size=01S_4&gclid=Cj0KCQiArt6PBhCoARIsAMF5wagBr-ZWwFZNBdspMiX7XHgf1U5foQOTTSDJfMJoDCzIdCMouOBXseUaAvdnEALw_wcB

Why did Austria not make an agreement with the Soviets for a gas pipeline? Austria as a neutral country could have benefited from the transit fees by selling Soviet gas/oil to western Europe during the energy crisis. As far as I could find, Europeans had no reservations about trade with the Soviets.

The famous "made a desolation and called it peace" speech Tacitus gives to Calcagus has the line 'To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire;". Is there something about the word imperium in Latin that explains the "lying" qualifier here? Small detail I know but I'm curious.

I'm reading David Herbert Donald's biography of Abraham Lincoln, and I'm confused about something.

In Chapter 7, part V, Donald explains that Lincoln did not want to run for state legislature again because he wanted to be a US Senator, and the Constitution of Illinois prohibited state legislators from being promoted to a higher office. But in part VII, he says Lincoln campaigned for Senator after he won the state legislature and before he declined the office. Donald also says, "the Illinois constitutional provision prohibiting the legislature from electing one of its own members to higher office might give unenthusiastic legislators an excuse not to vote for [Lincoln]." (p. 179).

If it was not legal for Lincoln to be elected to the US Senate as an Illinois state legislator, and if Lincoln knew this was the case, why was he apparently campaigning for the Senate in private? And why would "unenthusiastic legislators" use that law as "an excuse not to vote for" him—wouldn't they decline him the office anyway? Am I misunderstanding something?

When was the first time we know someone to pay rent for a property?

What was the role of the infantry in the plains Indian wars?

I feel like notion of the war was that it was a cavalrymans war but I’m curious as to the role the infantry played.