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Hispano-Moresque ware

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Hispano-Moresque ware is a style of initially Islamic pottery created in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), which continued to be produced under Christian rule in styles blending Islamic and European elements. It was the most elaborate and luxurious pottery being produced in Europe until the Italian maiolica industry developed sophisticated styles in the 15th century, and was exported over most of Europe. The industry's most successful period was the 14th and 15th centuries.

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136-489: Around 711, the Moors conquered part of Spain . Over the following centuries, they introduced two ceramic techniques to Europe : glazing with an opaque white tin-glaze , and lustreware , which imitates metallic finishes with iridescent effects. Hispano-Moresque wares use both processes, applying the paint as an overglaze which is then fired again. Lustreware was a speciality of Islamic pottery, at least partly because

272-696: A UNESCO World Heritage Site . Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage , one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center , the tallest skyscraper in Europe , and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020 . The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Russian Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul . The consecration of

408-845: A civil war in 739 that lasted until 743 known as the Berber Revolt . The Berbers revolted against the Umayyads , putting an end to Eastern dominion over the Maghreb. Despite racial tensions, Arabs and Berbers intermarried frequently. A few years later, the Eastern branch of the Umayyad dynasty was dethroned by the Abbasids and the Umayyad Caliphate overthrown in the Abbasid revolution (746–750) . Abd al-Rahman I , who

544-525: A historically strategic port , it is governed as a federal city . The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress , and was named after the apostle Saint Peter . In Russia , Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a European great power . It served as

680-548: A 10% royalty on all sales of pottery, and enjoyed a very high income from these. The largest deposit of Manises ware found by archaeology, apart from Manises itself, comes from Sluis in the Netherlands , then part of the territories of the wealthy Duchy of Burgundy . Manises also had clay and a cave nearby where a special sand used as a raw material for glazes was extracted. Barcelona in Catalonia in northeastern Spain, which

816-620: A German traveller mentioned vessels "which are made by the Moorish potters". It seems that the local lords of Manises, the family of Buyl, encouraged the immigration, and may have acted as distributors and agents for the product; certainly when Maria of Castile , Queen of Aragon , wanted to order a large service in 1454, she wrote to the Buyl lord for him to arrange it. Several Buyl's had served as ambassadors, to Granada as well as Christian courts, giving them contacts in many markets. They seem to have taken

952-668: A capital of the Tsardom of Russia , and the subsequent Russian Empire, from 1712 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time between 1728 and 1730). After the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow. The city was renamed Leningrad after Lenin's death in 1924. It was the site of the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War , the most lethal siege in history. In June 1991, only

1088-413: A deep-sided dish (the lebrillo de alo ) and the eared bowl ( cuenco de oreja ). Hispano-Moresque wares had a considerable influence on early Italian maiolica , indeed two possible derivations of the name have connections with it. Towards the end of the century designs began to incorporate raised elements in imitation of European silverware shapes, such as gadrooning . Tiles were made in all centres, and

1224-525: A deliberate change in style. Several other towns began to produce lustreware in the same period. Much, in Valencia most, of the pottery was clearly made for a Christian market, as it includes coats of arms and other Western elements in the decoration. As well as the Christian IHS monogram in the centre, the naturalistic vine-leaf decoration of the dish shown at top is derived from Gothic art , probably via

1360-613: A few months before the Belovezha Accords and the dissolution of the USSR , voters supported restoring the city's original appellation in a city-wide referendum . As Russia's cultural centre, Saint Petersburg received over 15 million tourists in 2018. It is considered an important economic, scientific, and tourism centre of Russia and Europe. In modern times, the city has the nickname of being "the Northern Capital of Russia" and

1496-521: A fortress at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, which was later called Ingermanland . The small town of Nyen grew up around the fort. Before the 17th century, this area was inhabited by Finnic Izhorians and Votians . The Ingrian Finns moved to the region from the provinces of Karelia and Savonia during the Swedish rule. There was also some Estonian , Karelian , Russian and German population in

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1632-605: A heraldic symbol has been deprecated in modern North America . For example, the College of Arms of the Society for Creative Anachronism urges applicants to use them delicately to avoid causing offence. St Petersburg Saint Petersburg , formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad , is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow . It is situated on the River Neva , at

1768-505: A hereditary trait with them; all but Sulaiman al-Zafir (God have mercy on him!), whom I remember to have had black ringlets and a black beard. As for al-Nasir and al-Hakam al-Mustansir (may God be pleased with them!), I have been informed by my late father, the vizier, as well as by others, that both of them were blond and blue-eyed. The same is true of Hisham al-Mu'aiyad , Muhammad al-Mahdi, and `Abd al-Rahman al-Murtada (may God be merciful to them all!); I saw them myself many times, and had

1904-512: A high level of religious conversion (whether voluntary or enforced), driven by historical episodes of social and religious intolerance, that ultimately led to the integration of descendants." According to historian Richard A. Fletcher , "the number of Arabs who settled in Iberia was very small. 'Moorish' Iberia does at least have the merit of reminding us that the bulk of the invaders and settlers were Moors, i.e., Berbers from Algeria and Morocco." In

2040-492: A new general plan was outlined, whereby the city should expand to the south. Constructivism was rejected in favour of a more pompous Stalinist architecture . Moving the city centre further from the border with Finland, Stalin adopted a plan to build a new city hall with a huge adjacent square at the southern end of Moskovsky Prospekt , designated as the new main street of Leningrad. After the Winter (Soviet-Finnish) war in 1939–1940,

2176-577: A new plan in 1737. The city was divided into five boroughs, and the city centre was moved to the Admiralty borough, on the east bank between the Neva and Fontanka . It developed along three radial streets, which meet at the Admiralty building and are now known as Nevsky Prospect (which is considered the main street of the city), Gorokhovaya Street and Voznesensky Avenue . Baroque architecture became dominant in

2312-534: A number of new firms were set up, some of which continue today, although little original work in the tradition is done. The term "Hispano-Moresque" is also used to describe figured silk textiles with geometric patterns woven in Al-Andalus, and sometimes to refer to Mudéjar or other work in other media, such as carpets, an industry which followed a similar pattern to pottery in Spain. The Metropolitan Museum of Art uses

2448-509: A rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed but is evident in the layout of the streets. In 1716, Peter the Great appointed Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. The style of Petrine Baroque , developed by Trezzini and other architects and exemplified by such buildings as the Menshikov Palace , Kunstkamera , Peter and Paul Cathedral , Twelve Collegia , became prominent in

2584-553: A state that covered modern northern Morocco , western Algeria , and the Spanish cities Ceuta and Melilla . The Berber tribes of the region were noted in the Classics as Mauri , which was subsequently rendered as "Moors" in English and in related variations in other European languages. Mauri (Μαῦροι) is recorded as the native name by Strabo in the early 1st century. This appellation

2720-445: A workforce presumed to be largely Muslim, or Morisco , under Christian rule. It was already celebrated for its gold lustrewares in the 14th century, and remained under Muslim rule until 1487, shortly before the fall of Granada , the last Moorish kingdom. Murcia , Almería , and perhaps Granada itself were also early centres of production. This pottery stayed much closer to styles seen in other Islamic countries, although much of it

2856-492: Is combined with the city's Russian heritage. Another nickname of Saint Petersburg is "The City of the White Nights" because of a natural phenomenon which arises due to the closeness to the polar region and ensures that in summer the night skies of the city do not get completely dark for a month. The city is also often called the "Northern Palmyra ", due to its extravagant architecture. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans ,

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2992-1023: Is home to notable federal government bodies such as the Constitutional Court of Russia and the Heraldic Council of the President of the Russian Federation . It is also a seat for the National Library of Russia and a planned location for the Supreme Court of Russia , as well as the home to the headquarters of the Russian Navy , and the Leningrad Military District of the Russian Armed Forces . The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute

3128-448: Is still named Leningrad . Having passed the role of capital to Petersburg, Moscow never relinquished the title of "capital", being called pervoprestolnaya ('first throned') for 200 years. An equivalent name for Petersburg, the "Northern Capital", has re-entered usage today since several federal institutions were recently moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. Solemn descriptive names like "the city of three revolutions" and "the cradle of

3264-402: Is without parallel in the history of ceramics. Many of these vessels will keep their place among the world's finest pottery for ever; regardless of changes and outlook." Hispano-Moresque shapes of the fifteenth century included the albarello (a tall jar), large serving dishes with coats of arms, made for wealthy people all over Europe, jugs (some on high feet, the citra and the grealet ),

3400-639: Is Αγία Πετρούπολη, Agia Petroupoli ). Saint Petersburg has been traditionally called the "Window to Europe" and the "Window to the West" by the Russians. The city is the northernmost metropolis with more than 1 million people in the world, and is also often described as the " Venice of the North" or the "Russian Venice" due to its many water corridors, as the city is built on swamp and water. Furthermore, it has strongly Western European-inspired architecture and culture, which

3536-680: The Reconquista ("Reconquest") soon after the Islamic conquest in the 8th century. Christian states based in the north and west slowly extended their power over the rest of Iberia. The Kingdom of Navarre , the Kingdom of Galicia , the Kingdom of León , the Kingdom of Portugal , the Kingdom of Aragon , the Marca Hispánica , and the Crown of Castile began a process of expansion and internal consolidation during

3672-596: The Azawagh Arabs , after the Azawagh region of the Sahara. The authoritative dictionary of the Spanish language does not list any derogatory meaning for the word moro , a term generally referring to people of Maghrebian origin in particular or Muslims in general. Some authors have pointed out that in modern colloquial Spanish use of the term moro is derogatory for Moroccans in particular and Muslims in general. In

3808-587: The Bangsamoro "Moro Nation". Moreno can mean "dark-skinned" in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and the Philippines. Also in Spanish, morapio is a humorous name for "wine", especially that which has not been "baptized" or mixed with water, i.e., pure unadulterated wine. Among Spanish speakers, moro came to have a broader meaning, applied to both Filipino Moros from Mindanao, and the moriscos of Granada . Moro refers to all things dark, as in "Moor", moreno , etc. It

3944-581: The Christian kingdoms of Europe , which tried to reclaim control of Muslim areas; this conflict was referred to as the Reconquista . In 1224, the Muslims were expelled from Sicily to the settlement of Lucera , which was destroyed by European Christians in 1300. The fall of Granada in 1492 marked the end of Muslim rule in Spain, although a Muslim minority persisted until their expulsion in 1609. The etymology of

4080-487: The Crusades , as a pun on the bearer's name in the canting arms of Morese, Negri, Saraceni, etc., or in the case of Frederick II , possibly to demonstrate the reach of his empire. The arms of Pope Benedict XVI feature a moor's head, crowned and collared red, in reference to the arms of Freising, Germany . In the case of Corsica and Sardinia, the blindfolded moors' heads in the four quarters have long been said to represent

4216-685: The Gold Star sign was installed in April 1985. In October 1946 some territories along the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland , which had been annexed into the USSR from Finland in 1940 under the peace treaty following the Winter War , were transferred from Leningrad Oblast to Leningrad and divided into Sestroretsky District and Kurortny District . These included the town of Terijoki (renamed Zelenogorsk in 1948). Leningrad and many of its suburbs were rebuilt over

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4352-606: The Great Northern War , Peter the Great captured Nyenskans and soon replaced the fortress. On 27 May [ O.S. 16 May] 1703, closer to the estuary (5 km (3 mi) inland from the gulf ), on Zayachy (Hare) Island , he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress , which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia; in some years several Swedish prisoners of war were also involved under

4488-837: The Inquisition in Spain . The Muslim population of Granada rebelled in 1499 . The revolt lasted until early 1501, giving the Castilian authorities an excuse to void the terms of the Treaty of Granada (1491) . In 1501, Castilian authorities delivered an ultimatum to the Muslims of Granada: they could either convert to Christianity or be expelled. The Inquisition was aimed mostly at Jews and Muslims who had overtly converted to Christianity but were thought to be practicing their faiths secretly. They were respectively called marranos and moriscos . However, in 1567 King Philip II directed Moriscos to give up their Arabic names and traditional dress, and prohibited

4624-610: The Isma'ili rulers of the Fatimid Caliphate . Four years later, the Fatimid governor was ousted from Palermo when the island declared its independence under Emir Ahmed ibn-Kohrob. The language spoken in Sicily under Muslim rule was Siculo-Arabic . In 1038, a Byzantine army under George Maniakes crossed the strait of Messina. This army included a corps of Normans that saved the situation in

4760-518: The Leningrad Affair (1949–1952), a notable event in the postwar political struggle in the USSR . It was a product of rivalry between Stalin's potential successors where one side was represented by the leaders of the city Communist Party organization – the second most significant one in the country after Moscow. The entire elite leadership of Leningrad was destroyed, including the former mayor Kuznetsov ,

4896-685: The Narva Triumphal Arch . In 1825, the suppressed Decembrist revolt against Nicholas I took place on the Senate Square in the city, a day after Nicholas assumed the throne. By the 1840s, neoclassical architecture had given way to various romanticist styles, which dominated until the 1890s, represented by such architects as Andrei Stackenschneider ( Mariinsky Palace , Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace , Nicholas Palace , New Michael Palace ) and Konstantin Thon ( Moskovsky railway station ). With

5032-544: The October Revolution , which led to the end of the social-democratic provisional government , the transfer of all political power to the Soviets , and the rise of the Communist Party . After that the city acquired a new descriptive name, "the city of three revolutions", referring to the three major developments in the political history of Russia of the early 20th century. In September and October 1917, German troops invaded

5168-521: The October revolution " used in the Soviet era are reminders of the pivotal events in national history that occurred here. Petropolis is a translation of a city name to Greek, and is also a kind of descriptive name: Πέτρ- is a Greek root for 'stone', so the "city from stone" emphasizes the material that had been forcibly made obligatory for construction from the first years of the city (a modern Greek translation

5304-610: The Philippines , a former Spanish colony , many modern Filipinos call the large, local Muslim minority concentrated in Mindanao and other southern islands Moros . The word is a catch-all term, as Moro may come from several distinct ethno-linguistic groups such as the Maranao people . The term was introduced by Spanish colonisers, and has since been appropriated by Filipino Muslims as an endonym , with many self-identifying as members of

5440-669: The Strait of Gibraltar onto the Iberian Peninsula , and in a series of raids they conquered Visigothic Christian Hispania . Their general, Tariq ibn Ziyad , brought most of Iberia under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. They continued northeast across the Pyrenees Mountains but were defeated by the Franks under Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732. The Maghreb fell into

5576-428: The Umayyad conquest of Hispania . The Iberian Peninsula then came to be known in Classical Arabic as al-Andalus, which at its peak included most of Septimania and modern-day Spain and Portugal . In 827, the Aghlabid Moors occupied Mazara on Sicily , developing it as a port. They eventually went on to consolidate the rest of the island . Differences in religion and culture led to a centuries-long conflict with

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5712-490: The West Estonian archipelago and threatened Petrograd with bombardment and invasion. On 12 March 1918, Lenin transferred the government of Soviet Russia to Moscow, to keep it away from the state border. During the Russian Civil War , in mid-1919 Russian anti-communist forces with the help of Estonians attempted to capture the city, but Leon Trotsky mobilized the army and forced them to retreat back to Estonia . On 26 January 1924, five days after Lenin's death, Petrograd

5848-410: The emancipation of the serfs undertaken by Alexander II in 1861 and an Industrial Revolution , the influx of former peasants into the capital increased greatly. Poor boroughs spontaneously developed on the outskirts of the city. Saint Petersburg surpassed Moscow in population and industrial growth; it became one of the largest industrial cities in Europe, with a major naval base (in Kronstadt ),

5984-427: The 15th century the largest production was around Valencia , which had long been reconquered by the Crown of Aragon . Wares from Manises and other Valencian towns were mainly for the Christian market, and exported very widely. The earliest major centre of fine pottery in Al-Andalus was Málaga in southern Spain. This is the major centre whose best-known wares were produced in a Muslim kingdom, as opposed to by

6120-435: The 1920s and 1930s, the poor outskirts were reconstructed into regularly planned boroughs . Constructivist architecture flourished around that time. Housing became a government-provided amenity ; many "bourgeois" apartments were so large that numerous families were assigned to what were called "communal" apartments ( kommunalkas ). By the 1930s, 68% of the population lived in such housing under very poor conditions. In 1935,

6256-647: The Algarve ". The Moorish Kingdom of Granada continued for three more centuries in southern Iberia. On 2 January 1492, the leader of the last Muslim stronghold in Granada surrendered to the armies of a recently united Christian Spain (after the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragón and Isabella I of Castile , the " Catholic Monarchs "). The Moorish inhabitants received no military aid or rescue from other Muslim nations. The remaining Jews were also forced to leave Spain, convert to Roman Catholic Christianity, or be killed for refusing to do so. In 1480, to exert social and religious control, Isabella and Ferdinand agreed to allow

6392-438: The Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The siege lasted 872 days, or almost two and a half years, from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944. The Siege of Leningrad proved one of the longest, most destructive, and most lethal sieges of a major city in modern history . It isolated the city from food supplies except those provided through the Road of Life across Lake Ladoga , which could not make it through until

6528-400: The Christian way, which are also seen on pottery. Many large Valencian dishes with typical complicated designs centring on a coat of arms are also decorated on the underside with boldly-painted animal figures occupying the whole space, often also taken from heraldry. Of Manises ware, Alan Caiger-Smith has written, "the sustained production of fine pieces at Manises during the years 1380–1430

6664-400: The German words Sankt and Burg . In March 1917, during the February Revolution Nicholas II abdicated for himself and on behalf of his son, ending the Russian monarchy and over three hundred years of Romanov dynastic rule . On 7 November [ O.S. 25 October] 1917, the Bolsheviks , led by Vladimir Lenin , stormed the Winter Palace in an event known thereafter as

6800-430: The Hispano-Moresque style survived in the province of Valencia, although showing an immediate drop in quality. Later wares usually have a coarse reddish-buff body, dark blue decoration and luster; by now their position as the most prestigious European pottery had been lost to Italian and other producers. Alan Caiger-Smith describes the Valencian industry as the victim of its own success; as the wares initially produced for

6936-403: The Islamic territory in Iberia fell under the rule of the Almohad Caliphate in 1153. This second stage was guided by a version of Islam that left behind the more tolerant practices of the past. Al-Andalus broke up into a number of taifas (fiefs), which were partly consolidated under the Caliphate of Córdoba. The Kingdom of Asturias , a small northwestern Christian Iberian kingdom, initiated

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7072-410: The Islamic world, and has been found at Fustat (medieval Cairo ) and elsewhere. The best known and most impressive examples of Andalucian wares are the Alhambra vases , a number of very large vases made to stand in niches in the Alhambra in Granada , and perhaps elsewhere. These are very atypical in Islamic pottery in having only a decorative function, with no practical purpose, and are "by far"

7208-458: The Italian figurative Renaissance painting was not attempted in Spain is perhaps not surprising, but Valencia only joined the Italians in copying simpler shapes from metalware, the Italians being more ambitious. Wares continued to be produced in a slow decline, now relying on relatively local demand for tiles and other decorated items, including votive offerings . There were still said to be thirty working kilns at Manises around 1800, by which time

7344-616: The Middle Ages. The term ascribed to them in Anglo-Norman blazon (the language of English heraldry ) is maure , though they are also sometimes called moore , blackmoor , blackamoor or negro . Maures appear in European heraldry from at least as early as the 13th century, and some have been attested as early as the 11th century in Italy , where they have persisted in the local heraldry and vexillology well into modern times in Corsica and Sardinia . Armigers bearing moors or moors' heads may have adopted them for any of several reasons, to include symbolizing military victories in

7480-430: The Moors ( Mauri ) as the native Berber inhabitants of the former Roman Africa Province ( Roman Africans ). In medieval Romance languages , variations of the Latin word for the Moors (for instance, Italian and Spanish : moro , French : maure , Portuguese : mouro , Romanian : maur ) developed different applications and connotations. The term initially denoted a specific Berber people in western Libya , but

7616-614: The Moors were dominant between 711 and 1492. The best surviving examples of this architectural tradition are the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba and the Alhambra in Granada (mainly 1338–1390), as well as the Giralda in Seville (1184). Other notable examples include the ruined palace city of Medina Azahara (936–1010) and the Mosque of Cristo de la Luz , now a church, in Toledo , the Aljafería in Zaragoza and baths such as those at Ronda and Alhama de Granada . Moors—or more frequently their heads, often crowned—appear with some frequency in medieval European heraldry , though less so since

7752-496: The Neva River, and a seaport on the Baltic. The names of Saints Peter and Paul , bestowed upon the original city's citadel and its cathedral (from 1725 – a burial vault of Russian emperors) coincidentally were the names of the first two assassinated Russian emperors, Peter III (1762, supposedly killed in a conspiracy led by his wife, Catherine the Great ) and Paul I (1801, Nikolay Alexandrovich Zubov and other conspirators who brought to power Alexander I ,

7888-549: The Soviet era, many historic architectural monuments of the previous centuries were destroyed by the new regime for ideological reasons. While that mainly concerned churches and cathedrals, some other buildings were also demolished. On 1 December 1934, Sergey Kirov , the Bolshevik leader of Leningrad, was assassinated under suspicious circumstances, which became the pretext for the Great Purge . In Leningrad, approximately 40,000 were executed during Stalin's purges. During World War II, German forces besieged Leningrad following

8024-504: The Soviet–Finnish border moved northwards. Nevsky Prospekt with Palace Square maintained the functions and the role of a city centre. In December 1931, Leningrad was administratively separated from Leningrad Oblast . At that time it included the Leningrad Suburban District, some parts of which were transferred back to Leningrad Oblast in 1936 and turned into Vsevolozhsky District , Krasnoselsky District , Pargolovsky District and Slutsky District (renamed Pavlovsky District in 1944). During

8160-400: The Winter Palace and prohibited spacing between buildings. During the reign of Catherine the Great in the 1760s–1780s, the banks of the Neva were lined with granite embankments. However, it was not until 1850 that the first permanent bridge across the Neva, Annunciation Bridge , was allowed to open. Before that, only pontoon bridges were allowed. Obvodny Canal (dug in 1769–1833) became

8296-508: The acting mayor Pyotr Sergeevich Popkov, and all their deputies; overall 23 leaders were sentenced to the death penalty, 181 to prison or exile (rehabilitated in 1954). About 2,000 ranking officials across the USSR were expelled from the party and the Komsomol and removed from leadership positions. The Leningrad Metro underground rapid transit system , designed before the war, opened in 1955 with its first eight stations decorated with marble and bronze . However, after Stalin's death in 1953,

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8432-412: The area. At the end of the 17th century, Peter the Great, who was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, wanted Russia to gain a seaport to trade with the rest of Europe. He needed a better seaport than the country's main one at the time, Arkhangelsk , which was on the White Sea in the far north and closed to shipping during the winter. On 12 May [ O.S. 1 May] 1703, during

8568-456: The border decoration of illuminated manuscripts . No pieces have yet been found that are signed (as many pieces from other Islamic regions are), and hardly any dated, so heraldry , especially when pieces are assumed to have been commissioned to celebrate a wedding, is important evidence for dating. The pieces "had to be spectacular and elegant, yet every category of vessel had a particular use" and on grand occasions all might be used, even though

8704-426: The city Menshikov is maybe also the author of the first nickname of Petersburg which he called Петри ( Petri ). It took some years until the known Russian spelling of this name finally settled. In 1740s Mikhail Lomonosov uses a derivative of Greek: Πετρόπολις (Петрополис, Petropolis ) in a Russified form Petropol ' (Петрополь). A combo Piterpol (Питерпол) also appears at this time. In any case, eventually

8840-514: The city architecture of the early 18th century. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences , University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great. In 1725, Peter died at age fifty-two. His endeavors to modernize Russia had been opposed by the Russian nobility . There were several attempts on his life and a treason case involving his son. In 1728, Peter II of Russia moved his seat back to Moscow. But four years later, in 1732, under Empress Anna of Russia , Saint Petersburg

8976-400: The city authorities arranged for the mayoral elections and a referendum upon the city's name, when the original name Saint Petersburg was restored. The turnout was 65%; 66.13% of the total count of votes went to Anatoly Sobchak , who became the first directly elected mayor of the city . Meanwhile, economic conditions started to deteriorate as the country tried to adapt to major changes. For

9112-496: The city authorities until December 2010, when after the statement of President Dmitry Medvedev , the city decided to find a more appropriate location for this project. In the same year, the new location for the project was relocated to Lakhta , a historical area northwest of the city centre, and the new project would be named Lakhta Center . Construction was approved by Gazprom and the city administration and commenced in 2012. The 462 m (1,516 ft) high Lakhta Center has become

9248-407: The city during the first sixty years, culminating in the Elizabethan Baroque, represented most notably by Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli with such buildings as the Winter Palace . In the 1760s, Baroque architecture was succeeded by neoclassical architecture . Established in 1762, the Commission of Stone Buildings of Moscow and Saint Petersburg ruled that no structure in the city could be higher than

9384-415: The city was renamed Leningrad in January 1924. The referendum on restoring the historic name was held on 12 June 1991, with 55% of voters supporting " Saint Petersburg " and 43% supporting " Leningrad ". The turnout was 65% . Renaming the city Petrograd was not an option. This change officially took effect on 6 September 1991. Meanwhile, the oblast whose administrative center is also in Saint Petersburg

9520-523: The continuation of further conquest, but an Arab assault took Carthage and held it against a Byzantine counterattack. Although a Christian and pagan Berber rebellion pushed out the Arabs temporarily, the Romanized urban population preferred the Arabs to the Berbers and welcomed a renewed and final conquest that left northern Africa in Muslim hands by 698. Over the next decades, the Berber and urban populations of northern Africa gradually converted to Islam, although for separate reasons. The Arabic language

9656-400: The first clash against the Muslims from Messina. After another decisive victory in the summer of 1040, Maniaces halted his march to lay siege to Syracuse . Despite his success, Maniaces was removed from his position, and the subsequent Muslim counter-offensive reconquered all the cities captured by the Byzantines. The Norman Robert Guiscard , son of Tancred, invaded Sicily in 1060. The island

9792-408: The first efforts to revive the industry's former glory had already been made. The secrets of the techniques for making high-quality wares were largely lost, and after Carlos III of Spain took a personal interest a report was commissioned in 1785 to record the methods then being used, lest more was lost. By the 1870s a market had developed for pieces as close to the early work as could be managed, and

9928-531: The first time since the 1940s, food rationing was introduced, and the city received humanitarian food aid from abroad. This dramatic time was depicted in photographic series of Russian photographer Alexey Titarenko . Economic conditions began to improve only at the beginning of the 21st century. In 1995, a northern section of the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro

10064-496: The former lower or untouchable castes) to Islam or descendants of a marriage alliance between a Middle Eastern individual and an Indian woman. Within the context of Portuguese colonization , in Sri Lanka ( Portuguese Ceylon ), Muslims of Arab origin are called Ceylon Moors , not to be confused with "Indian Moors" of Sri Lanka (see Sri Lankan Moors ). Sri Lankan Moors (a combination of "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors") make up 12% of

10200-466: The four Moorish emirs who were defeated by Peter I of Aragon and Pamplona in the 11th century, the four moors' heads around a cross having been adopted to the arms of Aragon around 1281–1387, and Corsica and Sardinia having come under the dominion of the king of Aragon in 1297. In Corsica, the blindfolds were lifted to the brow in the 18th century as a way of expressing the island's newfound independence. The use of Moors (and particularly their heads) as

10336-520: The head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea . The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area . Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As the former capital of Imperial Russia , and

10472-467: The head of the city administration . The title of the city head was changed from "mayor" to "governor". In 2000, Yakovlev won re-election. His second term expired in 2004; the long-awaited restoration of the broken subway connection was expected to finish by that time. But in 2003 Yakovlev suddenly resigned, leaving the governor's office to Valentina Matviyenko . The law on election of the City Governor

10608-540: The honour of being received by them, and I remarked that they all had fair hair and blue eyes. The languages spoken in the parts of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule were Andalusian Arabic and Mozarabic ; they became extinct after the expulsion of the Moriscos , but Arabic language influence on the Spanish language can still be found today. The Muslims were resisted in parts of the Iberian Peninsula in areas of

10744-399: The incentives put in place by Fredrich II. Some Muslims from Lucera would also later convert due to oppression on the mainland and had their property returned to them and returned to Sicily. During the reigns of Frederick II as well as his son, Manfred , a large amount of Muslims were brought, as slaves, to farm lands and perform domestic labor. Enslaved persons in Sicily were not afforded

10880-420: The lake froze. More than one million civilians were killed, mainly from starvation. There were incidents of cannibalism, with around 2,000 residents arrested for eating other people. Many others escaped or were evacuated, so the city became largely depopulated. On 1 May 1945 Joseph Stalin , in his Supreme Commander Order No. 20, named Leningrad, alongside Stalingrad , Sevastopol , and Odesa , hero cities of

11016-423: The largest pieces of lustreware known. They are based on traditional shapes descended from the ancient amphora , but at about 115 to 170 cm tall are close to the height of a human. They are thought to come from a range of dates covering the late 14th and the 15th centuries, and the decoration and precise shape of the body is different in each surviving example. According to Alan Caiger-Smith, "few other pots in

11152-474: The largest platters spent most of the time on display propped up vertically on sideboards, as is shown in some contemporary paintings. Andalucian designs use a repertoire of geometric motifs, many of which probably had a religious significance of which Christian buyers remained unaware. These are usually contained in painted compartments. Pseudo-Kufic script is used, as well as inscriptions in proper Arabic. The dominant colours of gold and blue perhaps represent

11288-640: The last Arab strongholds, fell to the Christians. Islamic authors noted the tolerance of the Norman kings of Sicily. Ali ibn al-Athir wrote: "They [the Muslims] were treated kindly, and they were protected, even against the Franks . Because of that, they had great love for King Roger." The Muslim problem characterized Hohenstaufen rule in Sicily under Holy Roman Emperors Henry VI and his son, Frederick II . Many repressive measures were introduced by Frederick II to appease

11424-756: The meantime, Spanish and Portuguese expeditions westward from the New World spread Christianity to India, the Malay Peninsula , Indonesia , and the Philippines . By 1521, the ships of Magellan had reached that island archipelago, which they named Las Islas Filipinas , after Philip II of Spain . In Mindanao , the Spaniards named the kris -bearing people as Moros or 'Moors'. Today this ethnic group in Mindanao, who are generally Filipino Muslim, are called "Moros". The first Muslim conquest of Sicily began in 827, though it

11560-562: The name acquired more general meaning during the medieval period, associated with " Muslim ", similar to associations with " Saracens ". During the context of the Crusades and the Reconquista , the term Moors included the derogatory suggestion of "infidels". Apart from these historic associations and context, Moor and Moorish designate a specific ethnic group speaking Hassaniya Arabic . They inhabit Mauritania and parts of Algeria , Western Sahara , Tunisia , Morocco , Niger , and Mali . In Niger and Mali, these peoples are also known as

11696-663: The name moor is applied to unbaptized children, meaning not Christian. In Basque , mairu means moor and also refers to a mythical people. Muslims located in South Asia were distinguished by the Portuguese historians into two groups: Mouros da Terra ("Moors of the Land") and the Mouros da Arabia/Mouros de Meca ("Moors from Arabia/Mecca" or "Paradesi Muslims"). The Mouros da Terra were either descendants of any native convert (mostly from any of

11832-573: The names " Ceylon Moors " and " Indian Moors " in South Asia and Sri Lanka , now official ethnic designations on the island nation, and the Bengali Muslims were also called Moors. In the Philippines, the longstanding Muslim community, which predates the arrival of the Spanish, now self-identifies as the " Moro people ", an exonym introduced by Spanish colonizers due to their Muslim faith. In 711, troops mostly formed by Moors from northern Africa led

11968-510: The next several centuries under the flag of Reconquista. In 1212, a coalition of Christian kings under the leadership of Alfonso VIII of Castile drove the Muslims from Central Iberia. The Portuguese side of the Reconquista ended in 1249 with the conquest of the Algarve ( Arabic : الغرب – al-Gharb ) under Afonso III . He was the first Portuguese monarch to claim the title " King of Portugal and

12104-735: The northwest (such as Asturias , where they were defeated at the battle of Covadonga ) and the largely Basque Country in the Pyrenees . Though the number of Moorish colonists was small, many native Iberian inhabitants converted to Islam . By 1000, according to Ronald Segal , some 5,000,000 of Iberia's 7,000,000 inhabitants, most of them descended from indigenous Iberian converts, were Muslim. There were also Sub-Saharan Africans who had been absorbed into al-Andalus to be used as soldiers and slaves . The Berber and Sub-Saharan African soldiers were known as "tangerines" because they were imported through Tangier . The Caliphate of Córdoba collapsed in 1031 and

12240-416: The original name, Sankt-Peterburg , was returned by citywide referendum. Today, in English the city is known as Saint Petersburg . Local residents often refer to the city by its shortened nickname, Piter (Russian: Питер , IPA: [ˈpʲitʲɪr] ). After the October Revolution the name Red Petrograd (Красный Петроград, Krasny Petrograd ) was often used in newspapers and other prints until

12376-484: The perceived ornamental excesses of the Stalinist architecture were abandoned. From the 1960s to the 1980s many new residential boroughs were built on the outskirts; while the functionalist apartment blocks were nearly identical to each other, many families moved there from kommunalkas in the city centre to live in separate apartments. On 12 June 1991 , simultaneously with the first Russian SFSR presidential elections ,

12512-478: The popes, who were intolerant of Islam in the heart of Christendom . This resulted in a rebellion by Sicilian Muslims, which in turn triggered organized resistance and systematic reprisals and marked the final chapter of Islam in Sicily. The complete eviction of Muslims and the annihilation of Islam in Sicily was completed by the late 1240s when the final deportations to Lucera took place. The remaining population of Sicilian Muslims converted to Catholicism due to

12648-730: The population. The Ceylon Moors (unlike the Indian Moors) are descendants of Arab traders who settled there in the mid-6th century. When the Portuguese arrived in the early 16th century, they labelled all the Muslims in the island as Moors as they saw some of them resembling the Moors in North Africa. The Sri Lankan government continues to identify the Muslims in Sri Lanka as "Sri Lankan Moors", sub-categorised into "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors". The Goan Muslims —a minority community who follow Islam in

12784-480: The post-war decades, partially according to pre-war plans. The 1948 general plan for Leningrad featured radial urban development in the north as well as in the south. In 1953, Pavlovsky District in Leningrad Oblast was abolished, and parts of its territory, including Pavlovsk, merged with Leningrad. In 1954, the settlements Levashovo , Pargolovo and Pesochny merged with Leningrad. Leningrad gave its name to

12920-594: The preservation of its historical and architectural environment became controversial. After 2005, the demolition of older buildings in the historical centre was permitted. In 2006, Gazprom announced an ambitious project to erect a 403 m (1,322 ft) skyscraper (the Okhta Center ) opposite to Smolny , which could result in the loss of the unique line of Petersburg landscape. Urgent protests by citizens and prominent public figures of Russia against this project were not considered by Governor Valentina Matviyenko and

13056-471: The region. After an interlude, during which the Muslims fought a civil war , the invasions resumed in 665, seizing Byzantine North Africa up to Bugia over the course of a series of campaigns, lasting until 689. A Byzantine counterattack largely expelled the Arabs but left the region vulnerable. Intermittent war over the inland provinces of North Africa continued for the next two decades. Further civil war delayed

13192-628: The same privileges as the Muslims in mainland Italy. The trend of importing a considerable amount of slaves from the Muslim world did not stop with the Hohenstaufen but was amplified under the Aragonese and Spanish crowns , and was in fact continued until as late as 1838 The majority of which would also come receive the label 'Moors' Moorish architecture is the articulated Islamic architecture of northern Africa and parts of Spain and Portugal, where

13328-540: The small ceramic tombstone of an Andalucian student who died in 1409 is one of the very few precisely datable pieces. Albert Van de Put categorizes the decorative motifs into ten categories: large mock-Arabic character, small mock-Arabic character, spur-band and cross-hatching, flower and leaf on dotted ground, large vine-leaf and small flower (two sizes), foliage, bryony leaf and small flower, smaller rounded vine-leaf, and diapering of dots and stalks derived from preceding, and gadroons. The Reconquista captured Valencia for

13464-641: The small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress , while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк ( Sanktpetersburk ), emulating German Sankt Petersburg , and Сантпитербурх ( Santpiterburkh ), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh , as Peter

13600-649: The son of their victim). The third emperor's assassination took place in Saint Petersburg in 1881 when Alexander II was murdered by terrorists (see the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood ). The Revolution of 1905 began in Saint Petersburg and spread rapidly into the provinces. On 1 September 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial government renamed the city Petrograd , meaning "Peter's City", to remove

13736-547: The south, which was still continuing in the 1980s, following archaeological discoveries in Malaga, and scientific analysis of the clays used. Though other types of painted pottery, not usually called Hispano-Moresque ware, were produced in Al-Andaluz earlier, firm evidence of lustreware production is not found before the early or mid-13th century, when it may have been begun by Egyptian potters escaping political disturbances. Already it

13872-564: The south; the city had returned to Christian rule from 1238, and the immigration of skilled potters had been going on since at least the mid-14th century. In 1362 a cardinal commissioned floor-tiles in "obra de Malicha" ("Malaga work", probably meaning lustreware) for the Pope's Palais des Papes in Avignon from two masters in Manises, at least one with an Arabic name (though "Juan" as his forename). In 1484

14008-681: The southern limit of the city. The most prominent neoclassical and Empire-style architects in Saint Petersburg included: In 1810, Alexander I established the first engineering higher education , the Saint Petersburg Main military engineering School in Saint Petersburg. Many monuments commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleonic France in the Patriotic War of 1812 , including the Alexander Column by Montferrand, erected in 1834, and

14144-471: The sun and sky; other colours available, such as brown, green and yellow, are much less used. From about 1400 some elements, including the depiction of animals, which were probably first used for export wares seem to have become popular among local Muslim buyers also; two of the later "Alhambra vases" described above have pairs of gazelles . By then the Nasrid kings of Granada had given themselves heraldic arms in

14280-477: The supervision of Alexander Menshikov . Tens of thousands of serfs died while building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate . Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, nine years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war. He referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital (or seat of government) as early as 1704. While the city

14416-486: The term "Hispano-Moresque", but most who use the term at all use it to include Malaga and other Andalusian wares from the Islamic period as well as the Valencian pottery. When Spanish medieval pottery was first studied in the 19th century, there was awareness of the Valencian centres but very little of the Al-Andalus ones, and there has been a steady re-attribution of types of pottery formerly attributed to Manises to Malaga and

14552-522: The term had "no real ethnological value." Europeans of the Middle Ages and the early modern period variously applied the name to Arabs , Berbers , and Muslim Europeans . The term has also been used in Europe in a broader sense to refer to Muslims in general, especially those of Arab or Berber descent, whether living in al-Andalus or North Africa. During the colonial era, the Portuguese introduced

14688-498: The term to describe a gilded parade helmet in its collection. Moors The term Moor is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim populations of the Maghreb , al-Andalus ( Iberian Peninsula ), Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages . Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defined people. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica observed that

14824-461: The third and final time in 1238, and Malaga was one of the last cities to fall, after the Siege of Málaga (1487) . The remaining Islamic Mudéjar and converted Morisco populations were expelled from Spain in 1496 and 1609 respectively, the latter Expulsion of the Moriscos involving a third of the population in the province of Valencia. But many of the craftsmen had long been Christians in any case, and

14960-449: The usage of prefix " Sankt- " ceased except for the formal official documents, where a three-letter abbreviation "СПб" ( SPb ) was very widely used as well. In the 1830s Alexander Pushkin translated the "foreign" city name of "Saint Petersburg" to the more Russian Petrograd (Russian: Петроград , IPA: [pʲɪtrɐˈgrat] ) in one of his poems. However, it was only on 31 August [ O.S. 18 August] 1914, after

15096-683: The usage of the collective term. The term has been applied at times to urban and coastal populations of the Maghreb , the term in these regions nowadays is rather used to denote the Arab-Berber populations (occasionally somewhat mixed-race) living in Western Sahara , and Hassaniya -speaking populations, mainly in Mauritania , Western Sahara , and Northwestern Mali . In 711 the Islamic Arabs and Moors of Berber descent in northern Africa crossed

15232-523: The use of Arabic . In reaction, there was a Morisco uprising in the Alpujarras from 1568 to 1571. In the years from 1609 to 1614, the government expelled Moriscos. The historian Henri Lapeyre estimated that this affected 300,000 out of an estimated total of 8 million inhabitants. Some Muslims converted to Christianity and remained permanently in Iberia. This is indicated by a "high mean proportion of ancestry from North African (10.6%)" that "attests to

15368-467: The use of drinking and eating vessels in gold and silver, the ideal in ancient Rome and Persia as well as medieval Christian societies, is prohibited by the Hadiths , with the result that pottery and glass were used for tableware by Muslim elites, when Christian medieval elites still normally used metal for both dishes and cups. At first centred on Málaga in the south, and using typical Islamic decoration, by

15504-439: The very top of society, usually as bespoke commissions with personalized heraldry, were demanded by the expanding lesser nobility and bourgeoisie , both the size of pieces and their quality of decoration declined, with painting becoming more routine repetitions of simple motifs. The Italian maiolica industry, largely developed in imitation of the Spanish, was developing in directions where Valencia could or would not follow. That

15640-603: The war with Germany had begun, that Tsar Nicholas II renamed the city Petrograd in order to expunge the German words Sankt and Burg . Since the prefix "Saint" was omitted, this act also changed the eponym and the "patron" of the city from Saint Peter to Peter the Great, its founder. On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death of Vladimir Lenin , it was renamed to Leningrad (Russian: Ленинград , IPA: [lʲɪnʲɪnˈgrat] ), meaning 'Lenin City'. On 6 September 1991,

15776-686: The war. A law acknowledging the honorary title of "Hero City" passed on 8 May 1965 (the 20th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War), during the Brezhnev era . The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded Leningrad as a Hero City the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "for the heroic resistance of the city and tenacity of the survivors of the Siege". The Hero-City Obelisk bearing

15912-603: The western Indian coastal state of Goa —are commonly referred as Moir ( Konkani : मैर ) by Goan Catholics and Hindus . Moir is derived from the Portuguese word mouro ("Moor"). In the late 7th and early 8th centuries CE, the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate , established after the death of Muhammad, underwent a period of rapid growth. In 647 CE, 40,000 Arabs forced the Byzantine governor of northern Africa to submit and pay tribute, but failed to permanently occupy

16048-523: The word "Moor" is uncertain, although it can be traced back to the Phoenician term Mahurin , meaning "Westerners". From Mahurin , the ancient Greeks derive Mauro , from which Latin derives Mauri . The word "Moor" is presumably of Phoenician origin. Some sources attribute a Hebrew origin to the word. During the classical period, the Romans interacted with, and later conquered, parts of Mauretania ,

16184-632: The world make such a strong physical impression". All are now in museums, five in Spain and others in St Petersburg , Berlin , Washington D.C., Stockholm and Palermo ; various large fragments also survive. Lustre tiles are also still in place at the Alhambra. The "Fortuny Tablet", a unique plaque measuring 90 x 44 cm, has a garden-like design, inside a border with an inscription praising Yusuf III, Sultan of Granada (r. 1408-1417). Its design resembles that of some Spanish carpets. After Yusuf's throne

16320-574: Was again designated as the capital of the Russian Empire . It remained the seat of the Romanov dynasty and the Imperial Court of the Russian tsars , as well as the seat of the Russian government, for another 186 years until the communist revolution of 1917 . In 1736–1737 the city suffered from catastrophic fires. To rebuild the damaged boroughs, a committee under Burkhard Christoph von Münnich commissioned

16456-569: Was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe was Maurusii ( Ancient Greek : Μαυρούσιοι ). The Moors were also mentioned by Tacitus as having revolted against the Roman Empire in 24 AD . During the Latin Middle Ages, Mauri was used to refer to Berbers and Arabs in the coastal regions of Northwest Africa. The 16th century scholar Leo Africanus (c. 1494–1554) identified

16592-448: Was also adopted. Initially, the Arabs required only vassalage from the local inhabitants rather than assimilation, a process which took a considerable time. The groups that inhabited the Maghreb following this process became known collectively as Moors. Although a Kharijite rebellion would later push out Umayyad rule from the western Maghreb and form temporarily independent Arab, Berber and Persian dynasties, that effort failed to dislodge

16728-507: Was also used as a nickname; for instance, the Milanese Duke Ludovico Sforza was called Il Moro because of his dark complexion. In Portugal, mouro (feminine, moura ) may refer to supernatural beings known as enchanted moura , where "Moor" implies "alien" and "non-Christian". These beings were siren-like fairies with golden or reddish hair and a fair face. They were believed to have magical properties. From this root,

16864-576: Was being built, Peter lived in a three-room log cabin with his wife Catherine and their children. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the right bank of the Neva, near the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan. By 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by

17000-403: Was being exported to Christian markets, as can be seen by the coats of arms on many pieces. Wares from Málaga were celebrated for their gold lustre on white enamel; they are distinguished from lustreware from Granada by the inclusion of blue paint with the gold lustre over a red clay that is characteristic of the region. At least one authority, Alan Caiger-Smith , excludes this pottery from

17136-569: Was being exported, as some of the earliest evidence is bowls set as decoration into the facades of churches in Pisa when they were built. An import from Malaga through Sandwich, Kent in England for the Spanish-born Queen Eleanor of Castile was recorded in 1289, consisting of "42 bowls, 10 dishes, and 4 earthenware jars of foreign colour ( extranei coloris )". Malagan ware was also exported to

17272-524: Was changed, breaking the tradition of democratic election by universal suffrage that started in 1991. In 2006, the city legislature re-approved Matviyenko as governor. Residential building had intensified again; real-estate prices inflated greatly, which caused many new problems for the preservation of the historical part of the city. Although the central part of the city has a UNESCO designation (there are about 8,000 architectural monuments in Petersburg),

17408-400: Was cut off by underground flooding, creating a major obstacle to the city development for almost ten years. On 13 June 1996, Saint Petersburg, alongside Leningrad Oblast and Tver Oblast , signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement was abolished on 4 April 2002. In 1996, Vladimir Yakovlev defeated Anatoly Sobchak in the elections for

17544-412: Was inherited by an eight-year-old in 1418, the Nasrid kingdom went into a decline before its final conquest, and the production of fine pottery seems to cease abruptly about 1450, even though the name obra de Malequa ("Malaga work") continued to be used in Valencia for lustreware long afterwards. Valencia and its suburbs Manises and Paterna became important centres after potters migrated there from

17680-593: Was much interest in blondes in al-Andalus amongst the rulers and regular Muslims: All the Caliphs of the Banu Marwan (God have mercy on their souls!), and especially the sons of al-Nasir , were without variation or exception disposed by nature to prefer blondes. I have myself seen them, and known others who had seen their forebears, from the days of al-Nasir's reign down to the present day; every one of them has been fair-haired, taking after their mothers, so that this has become

17816-603: Was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург. A former spelling of the city's name in English was Saint Petersburgh . This spelling survives in the name of a street in the Bayswater district of London, near St Sophia's Cathedral , named after a visit by the Tsar to London in 1814. A 14 to 15-letter-long name, composed of the three roots , proved too cumbersome, and many shortened versions were used. The first General Governor of

17952-504: Was not until 902 that almost the entire island was in the control of the Aghlabids , from their capital Kairouan ( Tunisia ), with the exception of some minor strongholds in the rugged interior. During that period some parts of southern Italy fell under Muslim control, most notably the port city of Bari , which formed the Emirate of Bari from 847 to 871. In 909, the Aghlabids was replaced by

18088-694: Was of Arab-Berber lineage, managed to evade the Abbasids and flee to the Maghreb and then Iberia, where he founded the Emirate of Córdoba and the Andalusian branch of the Umayyad dynasty. The Moors ruled northern Africa and Al-Andalus for several centuries thereafter. Ibn Hazm , the polymath, mentions that many of the Caliphs in the Umayyad Caliphate and the Caliphate of Córdoba were blond and had light eyes. Ibn Hazm mentions that he preferred blondes, and notes that there

18224-478: Was renamed Leningrad . Later many streets and other toponyms were renamed accordingly, with names in honour of communist figures replacing historic names given centuries before. The city has over 230 places associated with the life and activities of Lenin. Some of them were turned into museums, including the cruiser Aurora – a symbol of the October Revolution and the oldest ship in the Russian Navy . In

18360-413: Was split between three Arab emirs, and the Christian population in many parts of the island rose up against the ruling Muslims. One year later, Messina fell, and in 1072 Palermo was taken by the Normans. The loss of the cities, each with a splendid harbor, dealt a severe blow to Muslim power on the island. Eventually all of Sicily was taken. In 1091, Noto in the southern tip of Sicily and the island of Malta,

18496-415: Was under Muslim rule from 718 to 801, became a centre for pottery much later, probably receiving immigrant Christian potters from Al-Andalus, especially Valencia, during the later Reconquista period. It was important at first for wares resembling the brown and green decorated pottery of Paterna and in the 16th century for lustreware in a "warm silvery-gold", either reflecting different materials available, or

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