Balder Ex-Libris - Ragozin Zénaïde AlexeïevnaReview of books rare and missing2024-03-27T00:16:02+00:00urn:md5:aa728a70505b2fae05796923271581c2DotclearRagozin Zénaïde Alexeïevna - The story of Media, Babylon and Persiaurn:md5:4530d207123ba2354db8e3310fb42fba2012-08-25T19:51:00+01:002014-05-05T15:29:53+01:00balderRagozin Zénaïde AlexeïevnaBabylonIranPersia <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img/.Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_The_story_of_Media_Babylon_and_Persia_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Ragozin Zénaïde Alexeïevna</strong><br />
Title : <strong>The story of Media, Babylon and Persia Including a study of the zend-avesta or religion of zoroaster from the fall of Nineveh to the persian war</strong><br />
Year : 1888<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook/Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_The_story_of_Media_Babylon_and_Persia.zip">Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_The_story_of_Media_Babylon_and_Persia.zip</a><br />
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1. AMONG the so-called heathen religions which still daim for their own {nore than one half of mankind, there is none of greater interest and importance than that of the PARSIS, more generally known under the graphie but misleading name of " FireWorshippers." It is certainly not from their numbers this sect derive that interest and importance, for in that respect they form an almost imperceptible unit in the general sum. The entire number of Parsis now living scarcely, if at ali, exceeds 100,000, which represents about one in fourteen thousand of the earth's population. But, small as that fragment of humanity is, it is a chip from one of the world's noblest and mightiest nations, the PERSIANS of old, a nation which, though not extinct, and still counted as one of the greater political powers of the East, has degenerated beyond recognition under the influence of foreign conquest, enforced change of religion, and mixture of races. And the religion which these exiled descendants of the ancient Persians have preserved along with purity of race and timehonored customs, is that of ancient Erân, the old and widely spread faith, the prophet of which, SPITÂMA ZARATHUSHTRA, was vaguely known and reverenced by the writers of Greek and Roman antiquity, as weil as by the later scholars of Europe, under the name of ZOROASTER. 2. It is customary to sweep un der the head " Heathen Religions " ali except the three great Semitic religions: J udaism, Christianity, and Islamism, or the religion of Mohammed. It is doubtful how far so comprehensive a designation may be correct in individual instances. In that of the Parsis, at !east, it appears decidedly rash, since they earnestly, emphatically profess the worship of the one true God, and a horror of any kind of polytheism-a form of belief which, surely, should win them a place among monotheists, as must be shown by a brief review of their religious tenets and practices. 3. It was in the year 641 A.D. that the Arab invaders, in the heyday of their fervor for the faith of which their prophet Mohammed bad taught them to consider themselves the heaven-sent bearers, won the battle, (on the field of NEHAVEND, fifty miles from ancient Ecbatana), which changed the destinies of Erân, and turned its people, dreaded and victorious for four centuries under their last national kings, the SASSANIAN dynasty, into a conquered, enslaved, and for a long time ruthlessly oppressed and ill-treated population. YEZDEGERD III., the last Sassanian king, was murdered on his flight, for plundcr, and no effort was made to retrieve the lost fortunes of that terrible day, with which closed an heroic struggle of over eight years; the country's energies were broken. 4. It was but natural that the religion of the vanquished should be the first object of persecution at the bands of victors whose wars and conqucsts were ali prompted by religious fanaticism. The Persian clergy were persecuted, 'their temples dcsecrated and destroyed, their sacred books likewise, and the faithful followers of the ancient national creed subjected to so many indignities and extortions as to make existence not only burdensome, but wellnigh impossible. They were made to pay ruinous extra taxes, were excluded from ali offices, from all participation in public life, and, worst of ali, very nearly deprived of the protection of the law, at ali events systematically denied justice or redress whenever they applied for either against a Mussulman. Their property, their lives, their honor, thus were completely at the mercy of the insolent and grasping foreign rulers. From so many and unbearable ills, the only escape lay in embracing the faith of these rulers, doing bornage to Mohammed, and abjuring aU their own traditions, beliefs, and practices. By this one act they could step at once from the state of down-trodden slaves to a condition if not of equality with their masters, at least of well-protected subjects. It is no wonder that apostasy became ripe in the land. <strong>...</strong></p>Ragozin Zénaïde Alexeïevna - The story of Chaldea from the earliest times to the rise of Assyriaurn:md5:85e5d7eed5ab25b306e50dd393accc942012-08-25T19:50:00+01:002014-05-05T15:29:50+01:00balderRagozin Zénaïde AlexeïevnaAssyriaChaldeaCivilizations <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img/.Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_The_story_of_Chaldea_from_the_earliest_times_to_the_rise_of_Assyria_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Ragozin Zénaïde Alexeïevna</strong><br />
Title : <strong>The story of Chaldea from the earliest times to the rise of Assyria The story of the nations</strong><br />
Year : 1886<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook/Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_The_story_of_Chaldea_from_the_earliest_times_to_the_rise_of_Assyria.zip">Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_The_story_of_Chaldea_from_the_earliest_times_to_the_rise_of_Assyria.zip</a><br />
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In or about the year before Christ 606, Nineveh, the great city, was destroyed. For many hundred years had she stood in arrogant splendor, her palaces towering above the Tigris and mirrored in its swift waters; army after army had gone forth from her gates and returned laden with the spoils of conquered countries ; her monarchs had ridden to the high place of sacrifice in chariots drawn by captive kings. But her time came at last. The nations assembled and encompassed her around. Popular tradition tells how over two years lasted the siege ; how the very river rose and battered her walls ; till one day a vast flame rose up to heaven ; how the last of a mighty line of kings, too proud to surrender, thus saved himself, his treasures and his capital from the shame of bondage. Never was city to rise again where Nineveh had been. <strong>...</strong></p>Ragozin Zénaïde Alexeïevna - Siegfried the hero of the North and Beowulf the hero of the Anglo-Saxonsurn:md5:d934ddaa855a6de39fcdfd1ff955864e2012-08-25T19:17:00+01:002014-05-05T15:29:47+01:00balderRagozin Zénaïde AlexeïevnaEnglandGermanyScandinavia <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img/.Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_Siegfried_the_hero_of_the_North_and_Beowulf_the_hero_of_the_Anglo-Saxons_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Ragozin Zénaïde Alexeïevna</strong><br />
Title : <strong>Siegfried the hero of the North and Beowulf the hero of the Anglo-Saxons</strong><br />
Year : 1898<br />
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A STRANGE thing happened last winter in New York, strange even for New York. It was reported, with the names and addresses, in all the papers ; and personal investigation proved the facts to be true. It happened in the family of a respectable and well-to-do German artisan couple. Both husband and wife had come from the old country very young, and prospered, as honest industry will, when coupled with intelligence and a moderate share of luck. They had profited, perhaps to an exceptional degree, by the educational advantages which Germany provides for her poorest children ; but, unfortunately, their minds and their moral sense ran in a groove. They loved truth above all things, but truth in a narrow, absolute sense. They read in their leisure hours, but only what was literally true. All fiction, all poetry was tabooed, branded uncompromisingly as "lies," and abominated accordingly. In a word, the worthy couple were specimens of a very rare genus : human beings utterly devoid of imagination. Strictly on these lines they brought up their little daughter, a pretty, blue-eyed fairy of a child, their idol and their joy. They would give to her a first-class education. They could afford it, for their savings- bank account kept growing and had reached the sum of $1400.00. But the parents the mother especially watched her studies and recreations keenly, and so successfully that little Gertrude at twelve years of age had never heard a fairy-tale, never seen a story-book or a Mother Goose picture, and had never suspected that there were any other intellectual meadows to browse on than mathematics, spelling, and geography. <strong>...</strong></p>Ragozin Zénaïde Alexeïevna - Russian Jews and Gentilesurn:md5:dd4375315a862841b659e03ff93cc82e2012-08-25T19:12:00+01:002014-05-05T15:29:43+01:00balderRagozin Zénaïde AlexeïevnaJewKahalRussiaTalmud <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img/.Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_Russian_Jews_and_Gentiles_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Ragozin Zénaïde Alexeïevna</strong><br />
Title : <strong>Russian Jews and Gentiles From a Russian point of view</strong><br />
Year : 1881<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook/Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_Russian_Jews_and_Gentiles.zip">Ragozin_Zenaide_Alexeievna_-_Russian_Jews_and_Gentiles.zip</a><br />
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The disturbances began at Ielizavetgrad, in the middle of the Easter week. How did they begin? On what provocation? The immediate occasion was too trifling to have been more than a pretense, a signal for something long impending. The first three holidays had passed over quietly, when, on the afternoon of Easter Wednesday, a quarrel took place at a much-frequented public-house on account of a broken drinking-glass, for which the offender refused to pay. The tavern-keeper, who was a Jew, from angry remonstrances passed to blows. A voice from the crowd around the bar was heard to shout: “They assault our people!” The uproar quickly spread along the street, and, in a few minutes, there was a mob of not less than a thousand men, which carried the news and the excite-ment from end to end of the city. The work of destruction began immediately, and raged all through the night and through the following day and evening, as late as midnight, when it stopped—not so much from fear of the troops who had been telegraphed for and only then had arrived, as because scarcely anything was left to destroy. To realize the extent of the ravages done, it must be kept in mind that Ielizavetgrad, situated on the highway between Poltava and Odessa, is a great commercial thoroughfare and a very wealthy city, with a population of forty-five thousand, of which fully one-third are Jews. The authorities were wholly unprepared. The ordinary police force was far too small to be of any use, and of the military only four squadrons, of cavalry were on hand—a force par-ticularly ill-suited for action in narrow, crowded streets—not quite five hundred men in all against a mob of many thousands, half of them women and children. It was a good-natured mob, too, which did not provoke violence by resistance, but dispersed at the first collision; but the broken groups would join again some streets further off, and carry their devastations to other quarters where the field was still clear. As for the citizens of the better classes, they, of course, took no part in the proceedings,—but they did nothing to oppose them. Num-bers followed the different mobs out of curiosity, as mere lookers-on. A certain secret sympathy with the rioters could even be detected, which the latter were not slow in perceiving, and acknowledged by sundry marks of friendly atten-tion. Thus, on the “bazaar,” or market-place, the ground being very wet and muddy, they spread it with carpets and woolen materials dragged out of the shops, at the same time politely inviting the spectators “to approach, as they need not lie afraid of soiling their nice shoes.” The citizens would probably not have preserved this passive attitude had the rioters shown themselves at all cruelly inclined, and threatened the persons of the Jews instead of venting their rage only on their property. But, as it was, the worst instincts of a mob were not called into play, in great part owing to the prudence of the Jews themselves, who mostly kept out of sight. Had they “shown fight” at all, matters might have taken a more tragical turn, for the rioters gave signs of manifest irritation in the rare instances when revolvers were fired, very harmlessly, from windows. Crowds of women and children, and townspeople of the poorer sort, followed in their wake, picking up and carrying away all they could of the valuable property which covered the ground, or lay piled in mud-bespattered heaps, and literally could be had, not for the asking, but for the taking. A noteworthy feature, and one that shows how entirely the actors were mastered by one feeling, that of animosity toward the Jews, is that the rioters—mostly workmen, handicrafts-men, and peasants from the environs—did not take anything for themselves; they merely destroyed. Some shop-keepers and householders tried to ransom their goods with sums of money. One gave a thousand rubles, another two thousand; many gave a hundred and fifty or two hundred. The rioters took the money, but only to fling the coin away and tear the paper to shreds, and then went on with their work. The only temptation which they could not resist was whiskey (vodka). In the cellars of wholesale spirit-warehouses, every barrel was staved in or the faucets were taken out, till the whiskey stood several feet deep and the barrels actually swam. Three men were saved from drowning only by the timely assistance of the soldiers. Many lay senseless about the streets, and were picked up in that condition hours afterward. 1 Yet, on the whole, the mob behaved—for a mob—with remarkable coolness and discrimination. Not a sin-gle Russian house or shop was touched, even by mistake, although protected only by crosses in white chalk on the doors and shutters, and occasionally by some saints' images (ikonas) and Easter loaves placed in the windows—a device which was found so efficient that the Jews did not fail to adopt it in other towns, where many saved their houses by it. Jews living in Christian houses were not molested; neither were Hebrew physicians and lawyers, they being considered useful members of society. Exceptions were made in favor of well-recommended individuals. Thus, at the door of one house belonging to a Jew, the mob is confronted by the porter: “Boys” says he, “leave him alone! He is a good man, and often gives you work. I have been ten years in his service.” “All right!” say the rioters, and pass on. When the outrages were stopped at last, and the excitement had worn itself out, the city presented the strangest, wildest aspect. The streets were as white as after a fall of snow; for one of the mob's chief amusements had been to rip up every feather-bed and pillow they came across, and fling out the contents. The wooden houses were shattered, the furniture broken to pieces and left in heaps, mingled with kitchen utensils and household goods of every kind. Here might be seen the hulk of a grand piano, with lid and legs wrenched off and strings hanging out; further on, fine mahogany reduced almost to chips, with velvet rags still clinging to them, and close to that the débris of painted furniture of the commonest description. Not a pane of glass, not a window frame, not a door was left whole. Inside the houses the same ravages had been committed every-where, with methodical regularity; every object, even the smallest, was broken or spoiled for use; the very stoves were demolished; nothing escaped destruc-tion. <strong>...</strong></p>