Word: hand
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Saladin got his chance with the death, in 1169, of his uncle Shirkuh, a one-eyed, overweight brawler in Nur al-Din's service who had become the de facto leader of Egypt. A seasoned warrior despite his small stature and frailty, Saladin still had a tough hand to play. He was a Kurd (even then a drawback in Middle Eastern politics), and he was from Syria, a Sunni state, trying to rule Egypt, a Shi'ite country. But a masterly 17-year campaign employing diplomacy, the sword and great good fortune made him lord of Egypt, Syria and much...
...Giotto painted his Bible stories and tales of saints across the cathedral walls of Italy. Yet we see his brilliance today in a bare handful of surviving documented works. The famous 28 scenes of St. Francis' life adorning the Upper Church in Assisi--to most of us the embodiment of his work--are of hotly disputed authorship. Yet many experts still believe no other known hand could have created the economical drama, narrative power and intense depiction of human emotion that mark the best of them...
...beginning of a tide of print that has been rising ever since. We can hardly imagine a world without an abundance of printed matter, and thus we take for granted an invention that produced astonishing consequences. Early printed books tended to resemble, in appearance as well as content, the hand-copied manuscripts they were replacing. The dissemination of the writings of Greek and Roman authors led to a revival of the classical learning that spurred the Renaissance. Printed religious texts put the word of God directly into the hands of lay readers. Such personal contacts helped fuel the Protestant Reformation...
...Indian Airlines hijacking drama may have ended peacefully, but that won?t help the Taliban?s PR efforts to distance itself from terrorism. The hijackers released their 155 captives in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Friday after India agreed to hand over three high-profile Kashmiri separatist prisoners. New Delhi?s decision to reverse its no-concessions-to-terrorism policy reflected mounting domestic pressure to resolve the standoff at the same time as Afghanistan?s Taliban rulers tied India?s hands. "There were threats of self-immolation by relatives of the hostages in India and it became very difficult for the government...
...Happy New Year. And please remember to rewind - even if you have to do it by hand...