The practice of spinning to reach Sufism was begun by the followers of the 13th-century poet and Sufi mystic Rumi, also known as Mevlana. Rumi met a traveling dervish, or holy man, named Shams al-Din in 1244 and believed him to be divine. Rumi began to devote more time to al-Din than his studies.
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Thick beards, doctors believed, trap impurities from the air before they entered the body, much as nose hair does. Some doctors told their patients, especially those who often engaged in public speaking, like politicians, to grow full beards to prevent sore throats.
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Porta Alchemica is an actual door in modern-day Rome, in a park next to Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, practically smack dab in the center of the city. When we add the odd occult superstition into the mix, the reality of Porta Alchemica does indeed start to sound like something stranger than fiction.
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The Spanish Armada is often the story of the underdog English, saved from certain destruction by guts and gusty providence. The true story of the Spanish Armada, as with any event from centuries past where thousands of people die, is far more complicated than you may think.
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Everyone probably wouldn't mind finding buried treasure, but not everyone would necessarily risk their lives to find it. One particular treasure known as Fenn's Gold was found in June, but not without people dying in their quest to retrieve it.
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A young man was flying a kite on Vintém Hill when he made a truly chilling discovery: Two bodies lying on the ground in some tall weeds. These weren't just any old mortal remains, either. The dead men were both dressed in suits and waterproof coats, and they had strange lead masks over their eyes.
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The orb accelerated faster and moved more sharply than any craft Gorman had ever seen in the air. At two points during the chase, the object and Gorman played a game of chicken, with Gorman pulling away at the last second during the first encounter and the orb doing the same during the second.
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The eyeshadow protected the eye from the midday sun glinting off the Nile river, and the liner was to keep harmful bacteria and sand away. Before the invention of makeup, it was common for Egyptians to contract infections when dirt got in their eyes.
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If you don't believe in curses, maybe you should think twice. Most spiritual traditions around the world believed in curses, and the ancient Romans seemed to have had one for every occasion.
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Grynszpan shouted, "You are a dirty boche [slur for Germans] and in the name of 12,000 persecuted Jews, here is the document!" and shot vom Rath several times before being arrested by Parisian authorities.
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There's something about covered bridges. They add a more pastoral look to a scene, and a certain mystique.
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Every year on the 20th of Thoth (sometime in mid-August), the annual Festival of Drunkenness was held -- a religious experience normally reserved for nightclubs and key parties.
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The Book of Enoch is part of the Bible in some Christian churches. But that doesn't mean it's not still full of weird stuff, like strange primordial beings, talking babies, stars with human downstairs parts, a corpse giving birth, and way more. Here are some messed up stories from the Book of Enoch.
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When we learn about Greek mythology in school, we hear a lot about the heroes. But it turns out that there's a lot of little details — and entire stories — that are super dark, and slip through the cracks of higher learning. Here are stories from Greek mythology they couldn't teach you in school.
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Construction began in 1173, and by 1178 it was obvious that the tower was not going to remain upright. The subsequent stories were built to compensate for the lean -- slightly taller on the leaning side of the tower to balance it out and try and keep the floors level -- but to no avail.
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It didn't matter if their husbands hit them, belittled them, or cheated on them; women during that time had no recourse to leave a terrible marriages and be free. Tofana offered them a solution.
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It may have started in a truly Christian way, as a haven for the downtrodden with nowhere to go, as described by the BBC, but it evolved into a medieval "healthcare facility," and eventually became one of the first institutions to focus on cordoning off the "mad" and "lunatic."
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Henry Morton Stanley, most famous for rescuing Dr. David Livingstone in present-day Tanzania in 1871, was a sailor, journalist, and colonial administrator who explored central Africa. Henry Morton Stanley also searched for the source of the Nile river and aided the Belgian occupation of the Congo.
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Kuhn's speech was a hit with the 22,000 American Nazis in attendance at New York's Madison Square Garden, all of whom had no obvious qualms with the swastikas flanking the two-story-tall image of George Washington behind the stage.
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Legend says that Charlemagne's sword, which he named Joyeuse (French for joyful), had magical powers.
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Most icons who died too soon -- Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix, have famous graves people can physically visit to pay their respects. Weirdly, that's not the case with Mr. Mercury. But where do the rock icon's remains rest? Let's take a look at the mystery of Freddie Mercury's ashes.
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By most accounts, Texas-born Paris Bennett had a happy childhood. That is, until he hit 13 years old. It was in 2007 when the young teen committed a crime that would tear apart his family for years to come.
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He was a hypochondriac, according to History Collection; rarely expressed emotion, beyond an occasional temper tantrum; had virtually no sense of humor. With everything we know of the man taken into consideration, there are those who would posit that he was autistic -- specifically, Asperger's.
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It may appear to be obvious propaganda, but what do historians have to say regarding the truth about Cleopatra's descendants?
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We know that ancient peoples landed on the idea of dragons, and that stories of dragons have been around for centuries. They aren't merely a flight of fancy for fantasy writers.
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Saartjie Baartman, known in her time as the "Hottentot Venus," was a South African Khoekhoen woman who was taken from her home and exhibited in 19th-century European freakshows. Exploited for her buttocks and African features, Saartjie Baartman became a victim of racialized scientific study.
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As anyone who has sat through a Thanksgiving dinner with two vocal uncles from opposite ends of the political spectrum can readily attest, politics can be divisive, and party lines are not easily crossed. Still, at least it tends to be a tug-of-war between the Republicans and the Democrats.
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