User talk:Cplakidas/Archive 24

DYK for Isaac Komnenos (son of John II)
— Maile (talk) 00:02, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

EOI, Second Edition
Hey Cplakidas, could you send me this entry when you have time? - LouisAragon (talk) 17:31, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Forgot to add; going for a full rewrite of Istakhr. - LouisAragon (talk) 14:40, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi LouisAragon, I've got something even better, please check your email! Constantine  ✍  09:49, 5 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Wow, thanks a lot!! My sincerest thanks! One minor thing; could you perhaps send the Atlas of Islam as a different file? Its the only one I couldn't download/open, for some reason. No hurry of course! - LouisAragon (talk) 23:27, 7 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Please try again LouisAragon. Constantine  ✍  10:21, 9 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Got it this time! - LouisAragon (talk) 18:10, 9 May 2019 (UTC)

Back to the drawing board
Implementation of the new portal design has been culled back almost completely, and the cull is still ongoing. The cull has also affected portals that existed before the development of the automated design.

Some of the reasons for the purge are:
 * Portals receive insufficient traffic, making it a waste of editor resources to maintain them, especially for narrow-scope or "micro" portals
 * The default bpsp portals are redundant with the corresponding articles, being based primarily on the corresponding navigation footer displayed on each of those articles, and therefore not worth separate pages to do so
 * They were mass created

Most of the deletions have been made without prejudice to recreation of curated portals, so that approval does not need to be sought at Deletion Review in those cases.

In addition to new portals being deleted, most of the portals that were converted to an automated design have been reverted.

Which puts us back to portals with manually selected content, that need to be maintained by hand, for the most part, for the time being, and back facing some of the same problems we had when we were at this crossroads before:
 * Manually maintained portals are not scalable (they are labor intensive, and there aren't very many editors available to maintain them)
 * The builders/maintainers tend to eventually abandon them
 * Untended handcrafted portals go stale and fall into disrepair over time

These and other concepts require further discussion. See you at WT:POG.

However, after the purge/reversion is completed, some of the single-page portals might be left, due to having acceptable characteristics (their design varied some). If so, then those could possibly be used as a model to convert and/or build more, after the discussions on portal creation and design guidelines have reached a community consensus on what is and is not acceptable for a portal.

See you at WT:POG.

Curation
A major theme in the deletion discussions was the need for portals to be curated, that is, each one having a dedicated maintainer.

There are currently around 100 curated portals. Based on the predominant reasoning at MfD, it seems likely that all the other portals may be subject to deletion.

See you at WT:POG.

Traffic
An observation and argument that arose again and again during the WP:ENDPORTALS RfC and the ongoing deletion drive of bpsp default portals, was that portals simply do not get much traffic. Typically, they get a tiny fraction of what the corresponding like-titled articles get.

And while this isn't generally considered a good rationale for creation or deletion of articles, portals are not articles, and portal critics insist that traffic is a key factor in the utility of portals.

The implication is that portals won't be seen much, so wouldn't it be better to develop pages that are?

And since such development isn't limited to editing, almost anything is possible. If we can't bring readers to portals, we could bring portal features, or even better features, to the readers (i.e., to articles)...

Quantum portals?
An approach that has received some brainstorming is "quantum portals", meaning portals generated on-the-fly and presented directly on the view screen without any saved portal pages. This could be done by script or as a MediaWiki program feature, but would initially be done by script. The main benefits of this is that it would be opt-in (only those who wanted it would install it), and the resultant generated pages wouldn't be saved, so that there wouldn't be anything to maintain except the script itself.

Non-portal integrated components
Another approach would be to focus on implementing specific features independently, and provide them somewhere highly visible in a non-portal presentation context (that is, on a page that wasn't a portal that has lots of traffic, i.e., articles). Such as inserted directly into an article's HTML, as a pop-up there, or as a temporary page. There are scripts that use these approaches (providing unrelated features), and so these approaches have been proven to be feasible.

What kind of features could this be done with?

The various components of the automated portal design are transcluded excerpts, news, did you know, image slideshows, excerpt slideshows, and so on.

Some of the features, such as navigation footers and links to sister projects are already included on article pages. And some already have interface counterparts (such as image slideshows). Some of the rest may be able to be integrated directly via script, but may need further development before they are perfected. Fortunately, scripts are used on an opt-in basis, and therefore wouldn't affect readers-in-general and editors-at-large during the development process (except for those who wanted to be beta testers and installed the scripts).

The development of such scripts falls under the scope of the Javascript-WikiProject/Userscript-department, and will likely be listed on User scripts/List when completed enough for beta-testing. Be sure to watchlist that page.

Where would that leave curated portals?
Being curated. At least for the time being.

New encyclopedia program features will likely eventually render most portals obsolete. For example, the pop-up feature of MediaWiki provides much the same functionality as excerpts in portals already, and there is also a slideshow feature to view all the images on the current page (just click on any image, and that activates the slideshow). Future features could also overlap portal features, until there is nothing that portals provide that isn't provided elsewhere or as part of Wikipedia's interface.

But, that may be a ways off. Perhaps months or years. It depends on how rapidly programmers develop them.

Keep on keepin' on
The features of Wikipedia and its articles will continue to evolve, even if Portals go by the wayside. Most, if not all of portals' functionality, or functions very similar, will likely be made available in some form or other.

And who knows what else?

No worries.

Until next issue... &mdash; The Transhumanist  01:11, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

Septinsular Republic: end in 1807, 1814, 1815?
Γεια σου!

I notice that you rewrote parts of Septinsular Republic and other article mentioning an end in 1807 rather than 1814 (British occupation of Corfu) or 1815 (establishment of the subsequent constitution of the United States of the Ionian Islands). I think that this is debatable, and I seem to have always seen in sources I read about the period that they consider the Septinsular Republic to include the Imperial French period. I did not immediately look for sources for this claim, but we need to debate that.

In this, you write: while some of the forms of the Republic's administration were preserved by the French, as a state it was disbanded in 1807. The main argument for that is the actions of the first governor César Berthier upon his arrival in Corfu in terms of hosting the flag etc. It is quite clear that Napoléon disapproved vocally of these actions (I remember reading it in his correspondance with his brother Joseph, then King of Naples, a key player in this action, albeit a primary source). It is quite clear that the islands were never annexed by France, and never considered part of the 130 departments of the First French Empire (see the contemporary map of the greatest extent of the Empire at that page). They were clearly under the control of France, politically and militarily (except the islands occupied by Britain), but I wouldn't say that the state was dissolved or integrated or annexed to France. After all, many other states and territories were occupied or made into clients of France at this time, without being annexed, especially in the Italian peninsula or Germany. The civilian institutions of the Republic, and most importantly the Senate, seem to have been held in great respect by French occupiers.

The best would be to gather opinion of secondary sources on the issue. I have some at home, but I will be away for a week.

At least one most interesting quote gathered by a first rapid search:
 * Jean Savant, Napoléon et les Grecs, Sous les Aigles impériales, 1970, p. 15 (one of the major academic publications dedicated to this topic) : En 1808, les Septinsulaires lui envoient une députation composée de quelques sénateurs et de notables des Iles. Ils soumettent à Napoléon divers projets pour l'amélioration de la condition des Grecs de l'Heptanèse et en vue des progrès à faire accomplir au pays ... Both words Septinsulaires and pays (country) are clearly used to describe the Ionian Islands.
 * Another major work about the French period, Nos anciens à Corfou; souvenirs de l'aide-major Lamare-Picquot (1807-1814), consistently refers to Berthier as "gouverneur" or "gouverneur général" (a military title), and consistently refers to the period as """notre occupation''" . However, this could be considered to be a primary source, even written long after the facts.

Did you find a source which could describe ore precisely the status of the islands during this period? Place Clichy (talk) 18:48, 3 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi Place Clichy! I myself hesitated before making that change, but in the end it was inevitable. The Greek sources I have are unanimous that the Republic ended in 1807,  as a seaparate state with its own legal identity and as a subject of international relations. After that the islands were a sui generis part of the French Empire, as seen both by Berthier's actions as well as the substance of French rule under Donzelot. As to the continuationo of the institutions, tgat was nominal: the Senate was appointed and hence no longer representative, and all decisions lay in French hands. The continued use of Septinsular as a political and geographic term does not mean the survival of the Republic, rather that it was the new common term for referring to the islands. I'll expand on that, and create an article on the second French occupation, over the coming days. Cheers, Constantine  ✍  21:37, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of John Tzelepes Komnenos
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article John Tzelepes Komnenos you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Gog the Mild -- Gog the Mild (talk) 12:40, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

DYK for John IV of Ohrid
— Maile (talk) 00:02, 9 May 2019 (UTC)


 * I noticed this little gem on the main page yesterday. Obviously I didn't even have to look to know that it was one of yours. Good work. Gog the Mild (talk) 09:34, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

John Tzelepes Komnenos
Any knowledge or preferences as to whether I should file this at GAs under J or K? Gog the Mild (talk) 09:34, 10 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi Gog the Mild, I think under "K" for his last name, no? AFAIK from the usual practice, only monarchs get to be sorted by their first name... Could be wrong though. Constantine  ✍  14:35, 10 May 2019 (UTC)
 * That's what I was about to do, then noticed that a lot of articles were listed by first name, so thought that I would check. If we both agree, how can we possibly be wrong? :) Gog the Mild (talk) 14:49, 10 May 2019 (UTC)
 * I think we are simply overthinking it :) Constantine  ✍  14:50, 10 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Possibly. But on closer scrutiny, the only exception to listing by first name is one of yours which I assessed and put there. So I have decided not to rock the boat. Gog the Mild (talk) 14:58, 10 May 2019 (UTC)
 * On reflection, the listing is probably not done by first name as such, but in alphabetical order of the article title, which in such a list arguably makes sense: the GA lists are not only about biographies, they are simply collections of articles about all kinds of subjects that have reached a certain status. Constantine  ✍  15:02, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of John Tzelepes Komnenos
The article John Tzelepes Komnenos you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:John Tzelepes Komnenos for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Gog the Mild -- Gog the Mild (talk) 09:42, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

Dihya
Hey Cplakidas, how are you?

As you're interested in Roman/Byzantine and Arabic history. I thought you could change this article's condition. The historical person in question is surrounded by mystery and historical misinterpretations (some of them were to push political agendas). One of the recent reliable sources about this subject is Modéran 2005. Kind Regards --TheseusHeLl (talk) 04:59, 11 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi TheseusHeLl, thanks for the pointer. This is definitely a topic where I want to get active, but right now I lack both time and knowledge about it. I've just recently gotten some books on the Arab conquest of the Maghreb, but haven't yet found the time to go through them, and even then I would sorely lack knowledge about the Berbers, so that I cannot really make a balanced judgment of the accuracy or even completeness of the sources. Just translating/incorporating Moderan, when the article also lists a number of other sources, would not do it justice. I do promise to keep an eye on it, though, should I find something relevant and feel more confident about my grasp of the topic's context. Cheers, Constantine  ✍  07:00, 11 May 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLVII, May 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 11:03, 12 May 2019 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Portal:Umayyad Caliphate
Portal:Umayyad Caliphate, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Umayyad Caliphate and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes ( ~ ). You are free to edit the content of Portal:Umayyad Caliphate during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:22, 12 May 2019 (UTC)

Congratulations from the Military History Project
Thirty nine A class articles! That is impressive. Congratulations. Gog the Mild (talk) 11:25, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

A potentially interesting source
Hi Constantine. I have come across a PDF of "Naval Warfare: Military, Institutional and Economic Aspects", a chapter from Y. Stouraitis, A Companion to the Byzantine Culture of War, 300-1204, Leiden / Boston, 2018. Let me know if you would like me to email you a copy. Gog the Mild (talk) 11:15, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi Gog the Mild, yes, I'd definitely be interested, especially as Stouraitis is one of the few authors dealing with the Byzantine military specifically. Thank you very much! Constantine  ✍  11:29, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Sent. Gog the Mild (talk) 11:32, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Received :) Constantine  ✍  11:35, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

NPR Newsletter No.18


Hello ,

, a product manager for the growth team, announced that work is underway in implementing improvements to New Page Patrol as part of the 2019 Community Wishlist and suggests all who are interested watch the project page on meta. Two requested improvements have already been completed. These are:
 * WMF at work on NPP Improvements
 * Allow filtering by no citations in page curation
 * Not having CSD and PRODs automatically marked as reviewed, reflecting current consensus among reviewers and current Twinkle functionality.

has been compiling a list of reliable sources across countries and industries that can be used by new page patrollers to help judge whether an article topic is notable or not. At this point further discussion is needed about if and how this list should be used. Please consider joining the discussion about how this potentially valuable resource should be developed and used.
 * Reliable Sources for NPP

Look for information on the an upcoming backlog drive in our next newsletter. If you'd like to help plan this drive, join in the discussion on the New Page Patrol talk page.
 * Backlog drive coming soon


 * News
 * Following a request for comment, the subject-specific notability guideline for pornographic actors and models (WP:PORNBIO) was removed; in its place, editors should consult WP:ENT and WP:GNG.


 * Discussions of interest
 * A request for bot approval for a bot to patrol two kinds of redirects
 * There has been a lot discussion about Notability of Academics
 * What, if anything, would a SNG for Softball look like

Six Month Queue Data: Today – 7242 Low – 2393 High – 7250

Stay up to date with even more news – subscribe to The Signpost. Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. Delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of DannyS712 (talk) at 19:17, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

Books & Bytes, Issue 33
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 33, March – April 2019 
 * # 1Lib1Ref
 * Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
 * Global branches update
 * Bytes in brief

Read the full newsletter Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:41, 21 May 2019 (UTC)

Problems to be resolved with the Basil II article
In the past you have said that the article on Basil II still needs improvement. Perhaps you can tell me what its flaws are and we can try to improve it. Векочел (talk) 20:13, 24 May 2019 (UTC)
 * As I've said many times before, there is not a list of items to fix; the problems are structural. The article needs an overhaul top to bottom, with addition of much more detail than is there, possibly a restructuring of the sections to re-balance the chronological division with the thematical one, and much more depth of coverage and especially context and analysis from modern scholarly sources. Which is also why I can't really find the time to do this properly right now, especially since reworking an extant article is more difficult than writing up one from scratch. I will try to get myself to attack it bit by bit... Constantine  ✍  20:22, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Zawila
Hey cplakidas,

I know you're still working on the Fatimid army article. There is an entry about the zawila town and its population in the encyclopaedia of islam ed2, volume XI, p:466. -TheseusHeLl (talk) 23:15, 1 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks a lot TheseusHeLl, that's very helpful! Constantine  ✍  06:48, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
 * It's nothing. You're doing stupendous work in wikipedia (the other one is Al Ameer Son). -TheseusHeLl (talk) 07:54, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your kind words :) Constantine  ✍  07:55, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

Pericharaxis
If you are up for a challenge, could you expand Pericharaxis using the Greek sources? I can only command a basic level of Greek - certainly not up to doing the job (I'll stick with the Spanish, Italian, and Catalan translations :)). Carlossuarez46 (talk) 03:11, 7 June 2019 (UTC)

Ariarathes I of Cappadocia
Hey I just nominated this one for GA. Any thoughts/suggestions? Would appreciate any input. - LouisAragon (talk) 14:04, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi LouisAragon, this looks interesting, I will do the GA review myself. Cheers, Constantine  ✍  08:19, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Oh, damn. A cursory look would be good enough really. You're a gem! - LouisAragon (talk) 19:49, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLVIII, June 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 13:07, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

Isaurian dynasty template
Hi Constantine. I hope that you are keeping well. I came across the template below, which I think is one of yours. Whether it is or not, "with Constantine V as co-emperor, 720–751"; should that be '720–741'? Thanks Gog the Mild (talk) 21:16, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi Gog the Mild, you are right, of course. Thanks for pointing it out. Constantine  ✍  06:45, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/Hours of Louis XII
Should be ok now. Thanks Johnbod (talk) 03:53, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

Ways to improve Diateichisma
Hello, Cplakidas,

Thanks for creating Diateichisma! I edit here too, under the username Boleyn and it's nice to meet you :-)

I wanted to let you know that I have tagged the page as having some issues to fix, as a part of our page curation process and note that:-

The tags can be removed by you or another editor once the issues they mention are addressed. If you have questions, leave a comment here and prepend it with. And, don't forget to sign your reply with. For broader editing help, please visit the Teahouse.

Delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.

Boleyn (talk) 20:06, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

Muhammad II of Granada and sources
Thank you again for the GA review. Re sources, yes, I'm very much interested in sources talking about the Nasrid Granada period. In the near future, I'm thinking of bringing Muhammad II to FA and then work on his son Muhammad III too. I have access to Kennedy's  Muslim Spain and Portugal (as well as other sources I listed in Muhammad I, II, and III), but it seems you have other interesting sources. I can moderately read Spanish. HaEr48 (talk) 02:19, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi HaEr48, that's great. I've got the work I cited, the Historia General de al-Andalus by Emilio González Ferrín, and the C. H. Beck Wissen series Das Maurische Spanien (in German). I can definitely look at Muhammad III, and perhaps assist with the maps as well. Constantine  ✍  06:49, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. For the maps, do you mean that the borders and the conquest dates will need sources in FA review? HaEr48 (talk) 05:45, 27 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, a map is just like any other piece of information included in the article, it needs to have good and reliable sources. It will need to reference existing maps and/or information otherwise summarized in published literature and used to make this map.  Constantine   ✍  14:27, 27 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I added some refs to File:Reino de Granada.svg. By the way there seems to be a mistake in the date for Huelma: the sources (e.g. O'Callaghan 2014, p. 52) say it's 1438, but the map says 1348 (probably a typo). Do you know how to edit the svg file to fix it? I tried but it's not as easy as editing a png or jpg file :) HaEr48 (talk) 13:58, 28 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Fixed it for you. Looks much better and more credible now, well done. Cheers, Constantine  ✍  14:22, 28 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Just curious, did you use any software to do it? Anyway, did you find anything major in your sources that's missed by Muhammad II of Granada? I'm thinking of putting it up for FAC, but checking to see if something needs to be worked on first. HaEr48 (talk) 23:00, 28 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I used Inkscape, it's pretty much the go-to software for vector graphics. On Muhammad II, I didn't find anything really major missing, but I am not sure about pushing it to FA yet. The article is a very good generalist overview, but my hunch, based on my experience in similar cases, is that there are a lot more specialist sources about both the man and specific aspects (political, administrative, financial, cultural) of his reign, most likely in the form of articles in journals. As with any ruler who reigned for so long, information about him must include information about his realm at the time. Off the top of my head, a few things I would ask if this came to FAC would be: Who were Muhammad's viziers, chief ministers, and main military commanders? What were the finances of his realm like at the time? Are there more details about his family (wife/wives and children)? How big was the native Granadan army compared to the Volunteers? Is there anything more about Granada's relationship with the Italian republics? In other words, some of the content in 'Evaluation of rule' could easily be expanded and provided with a sufficient context into a 'Domestic developments' section, leaving only the actual effect and long-term impact of his policies for the 'Evaluation' section. Constantine  ✍  07:28, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the pointers. I'll try to find sources and work in that direction. It's hard to find journal articles about his reign, but probably I can get some content in more specialist books. By the way, based on the text you added, Carrasco Manchado seems to have some discussion about the domestic aspect of his reign (administrative reform, reason for his epithet, his preference for poetry and learned men). Is there more? If yes, may I trouble you to send me some relevant pages? HaEr48 (talk) 07:57, 30 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi, checking again in case you missed the above question about whether your source has more discussion about the domestic aspect of Muhammad II's reign. HaEr48 (talk) 17:18, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Hi HaEr48, indeed I had not noticed your message. There is nothing in the relevant section, although it definitely hints at more. I'll have a look whether other, thematical sections of the book cover this in more detail, but as I am abroad this will happen sometime next week. Cheers, Constantine  ✍  09:54, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

New Page Review newsletter July-August 2019


Hello ,

More new features are being added to the feed, including the important red alert for previously deleted pages. This will only work if it is selected in your filters. Best is to 'select all'. Do take a moment to check out all the new features if you have not already done so. If anything is not working as it should, please let us know at NPR. There is now also a live queue of AfC submissions in the New Pages Feed. Feel free to review AfCs, but bear in mind that NPP is an official process and policy and is more important. Articles are still not always being checked thoroughly enough. If you are not sure what to do, leave the article for a more experienced reviewer. Please be on the alert for any incongruities in patrolling and help your colleagues where possible; report patrollers and autopatrolled article creators who are ostensibly undeclared paid editors. The displayed ORES alerts offer a greater 'at-a-glance' overview, but the new challenges in detecting unwanted new content and sub-standard reviewing do not necessarily make patrolling any easier, nevertheless the work may have a renewed interest factor of a different kind. A vibrant community of reviewers is always ready to help at NPR. The backlog is still far too high at between 7,000 and 8,000. Of around 700 user rights holders, 80% of the reviewing is being done by just TWO users. In the light of more and more subtle advertising and undeclared paid editing, New Page Reviewing is becoming more critical than ever. NPR is triage, it is not a clean up clinic. This move feature is not limited to bios so  you may have to slightly re-edit the text in the template before you save the move. Anything that is not fit for mainspace but which might have some promise can be draftified - particularly very poor English and machine and other low quality translations. Remember to use the message feature if you are just tagging an article for maintenance rather than deletion. Otherwise articles are likely to remain perma-tagged. Many creators are SPA and have no intention of returning to Wikipedia. Use the feature too for leaving a friendly note note for  the author of a first article you found well made or interesting. Many have told us they find such comments particularly welcoming and encouraging. Admins are now taking advantage of the new time-limited user rights feature. If you have recently been accorded NPR, do check your user rights to see if this affects you. Depending on your user account preferences, you may receive automated notifications of your rights changes. Requests for permissions are not mini-RfAs. Helpful comments are welcome if absolutely necessary, but the bot does a lot of the work and the final decision is reserved for admins who do thorough research anyway. School and academic holidays will begin soon in various places around the Western world. Be on the lookout for the usual increase in hoax, attack, and other junk pages.
 * WMF at work on NPP Improvements
 * QUALITY of REVIEWING
 * Backlog
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Our next newsletter might be announcing details of a possible election for co-ordinators of NPR. If you think you have what it takes to micro manage NPR, take a look at New Page Review Coordinators - it's a job that requires a lot of time and dedication.

Stay up to date with even more news – subscribe to The Signpost. Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:38, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Relief of Qasr al-Bahili
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Relief of Qasr al-Bahili you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 04:41, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi
Gatoclass (talk) 00:03, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Sarjun ibn Mansur
Hello! Your submission of Sarjun ibn Mansur at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Kim Post (talk) 19:33, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for your red link insertion.Md iet (talk) 05:26, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

Question about Spyridon Mavrogenis
I started an article on a Greek Ottoman doctor named Spyridon Mavrogenis. Apparently there was a "Spyridon Mavrogenis" who wrote "The Life of Constantin Carathéodory" - https://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/e/e/6/metadata-455-0000004.tkl - I wonder if it's the same guy WhisperToMe (talk) 00:20, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi WhisperToMe, yes it is the same person. The cover lists his titles as follows: chief physician and personal physician to HM the Sultan, senator, Grand Cordon of the Osmaniye and Medjidie orders, knight of the two Ottoman medals for merit (probably the Order of Distinction, I don't know which the second one would be), Grand Cross of the Imperial-Royal Order of the Iron Crown, the Royal Swedish order of Vasa, the Persian order of the Sun and the Lion, Commander of the Royal Belgian order of Leopold, Dr. Med. of the University of Vienna, honorary professor of pathology and clinical practice of the Constantinople Medical School, honorary member and twice chairman of the Constantinople Medical Society, ordinary member and twice chairman of the Greek Literary Society of Constantinople, corresponding member of the Algerian Climate Society, etc. etc. Constantine  ✍  09:53, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Emirs of Sicily


A tag has been placed on Category:Emirs of Sicily requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the category has been empty for seven days or more and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Liz Read! Talk! 00:53, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

ΥENED listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect ΥENED. Since you had some involvement with the ΥENED redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. –LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄ ) 06:57, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

University of Constantinople?
I started Imperial School of Medicine which is where Spyridon Mavrogenis taught. Anyhow looking through Google Books results:

Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 79. American Medical Association, 1922. p. 646 refers to a "University of Constantinople" but it doesn't seem to be the same as University of Constantinople. Is it University of Istanbul? WhisperToMe (talk) 04:23, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

Also another idea: it would be good to have French stubs/articles written on some of these subjects, such as the imperial medical school, the Mavrogenis family, etc. as well as turn-of-the-century Greek subjects as French was the major "foreign language" in both the Ottoman Empire and Greece at the time, as well as the pan-Christian language. I only have a basic level of French and don't know which French speakers are really interested in the subject, but it would be something to think about. WhisperToMe (talk) 11:14, 12 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi WhisperToMe. University of Constantinople is a modern historiographic term for a Byzantine-era institution, and entirely different from the University of Istanbul. On the French articles, User:Phso2 and User:Place Clichy might be interested. Constantine  ✍  17:44, 12 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the info! I'll ask Phso2 and Clichy. Anyhow the list from the American Medical Association seems to be a list of currently-operating universities at that time, not a Byzantine historical list, so I'm not sure why the AMA chose that name. I wonder if the AMA in particular was referring to the University of Istanbul... (which would have had a different name) WhisperToMe (talk) 17:55, 12 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Sorry, upon reading it again I see I did not make my reply very clear: the 1922 source obviously refers to the modern institution, i.e. University of Istanbul which at the time would have been known as "University of Constantinople" to Westerners. So yes, the institution referenced in 1922 is the University of Istanbul. Constantine  ✍  17:59, 12 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you! I'll add a disambig link and cite the page on the article on the University of Istanbul WhisperToMe (talk) 18:08, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

Books & Bytes Issue 34, May – June 2019
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 34, May – June 2019  French version of Books & Bytes is now available on meta!
 * Partnerships
 * # 1Lib1Ref
 * Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
 * Global branches update
 * Bytes in brief

Read the full newsletter Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:20, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

Assessment and help
Hello there, I read several of your GA articles and really enjoyed them, awesome work. I would like to ask you to take a look at Serbia article and tell me your opinion as to which paragraphs should be improved and is GA status an option in the near future? I would like to work on the article and some help from more experienced editors would be great. :) Mm.srb (talk)

The Bugle: Issue CLIX, July 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:00, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

'Amr ibn Imru' al-Qays (Lakhmids)
Hi Constantine

You don't happen to have any source regarding 'Amr ibn Imru' al-Qays (or the Lakhmids as a whole for that matter)? I know his father switched his allegiance to the Romans, but I can't seem to find any source about the former. According to his article the Lakhmids once again became Sasanian vassals under him, but it's unsourced. --HistoryofIran (talk) 20:55, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi HistoryofIran, the only sources I have are Shahid's Byzantium and the Arabs, which focus more on the Byzantine clients. Constantine  ✍  07:10, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Relief of Qasr al-Bahili
The article Relief of Qasr al-Bahili you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Relief of Qasr al-Bahili for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 00:42, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Battle of Kapetron
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Battle of Kapetron you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Gog the Mild -- Gog the Mild (talk) 13:01, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Battle of Kapetron
The article Battle of Kapetron you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Battle of Kapetron for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Gog the Mild -- Gog the Mild (talk) 14:42, 24 July 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Sarjun ibn Mansur
— Maile (talk) 00:02, 25 July 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Siege of Mecca (683)
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Siege of Mecca (683) you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 18:41, 25 July 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Battle of Velestino
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Battle of Velestino you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 18:42, 25 July 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Aaron (son of Ivan Vladislav)
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Aaron (son of Ivan Vladislav) you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Iazyges -- Iazyges (talk) 16:42, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Aaron (son of Ivan Vladislav)
The article Aaron (son of Ivan Vladislav) you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Aaron (son of Ivan Vladislav) for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Iazyges -- Iazyges (talk) 17:22, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Genoese occupation of Rhodes
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Genoese occupation of Rhodes you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 19:01, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Fatimid navy
Perhaps you already know, but a book is coming out later this year that you might be interested in. Srnec (talk) 23:59, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the heads up Srnec. I know Bramoullé's work, but wasn't aware of this. So definitely interested, but unlikely to be able to afford it. Let's hope a university library will buy it ;). Cheers, Constantine  ✍  07:06, 2 August 2019 (UTC)

Incomplete DYK nomination
Hello! Your submission of Template:Did you know nominations/Amr ibn Hind at the Did You Know nominations page is not complete; if you would like to continue, please link the nomination to the nominations page as described in step 3 of the nomination procedure. If you do not want to continue with the nomination, tag the nomination page with db-g7, or ask a DYK admin. Thank you. DYKHousekeepingBot (talk) 08:16, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Siege of Mecca (683)
The article Siege of Mecca (683) you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Siege of Mecca (683) for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 15:42, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Genoese occupation of Rhodes
The article Genoese occupation of Rhodes you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Genoese occupation of Rhodes for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 02:21, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLX, August 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:40, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLX, August 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:41, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Amr ibn Hind
— Maile (talk) 00:01, 20 August 2019 (UTC)

Precious anniversary
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:00, 20 August 2019 (UTC)

Thank you today for Al-Mu'tadid, "one of the most (and virtually the last) capable Abbasid caliphs, and definitely an interesting figure: passionate about "women and buildings", known for his cruel and ingenious punishments and fiscal stringency, and the greatest Abbasid warrior-caliph. During his decade-long rule, by virtue of constant campaigning and adroit diplomacy he managed to stabilize the state and restore many lost territories. His reign also saw the culmination of the dominance of the Turkish military, but strangely also the start of the emergence to power of the secretarial bureaucracy. During his reign (and that of al-Muktafi, which was essentially a coda to al-Mu'tadid's) the Abbasids were truly for the last time an imperial power to be reckoned with."! --

DYK for Konstantinos Smolenskis
Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:01, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Backlog Banzai
In the month of September, Wikiproject Military history is running a project-wide edit-a-thon, Backlog Banzai. There are heaps of different areas you can work on, for which you claim points, and at the end of the month all sorts of whiz-bang awards will be handed out. Every player wins a prize! There is even a bit of friendly competition built in for those that like that sort of thing. Sign up now at WikiProject Military history/September 2019 Backlog Banzai to take part. For the coordinators, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 08:18, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

Asian R1a haplogroup maps?
Hello, we have so many R1a maps for Europe but none for Asia. Do we also have the Asian maps for R1a haplogroup. Any Z93 or Z94 maps we can use? Regards! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.114.38.166 (talk) 13:01, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

EI3
Hi Constantine. Any chance you could lend me access to the EI3 entries on Mu'awiya I and Busr ibn Abi Artat? Working on rewriting the former and starting a comprehensive article on the latter. I think the EI3 info would be very helpful toward those ends. Regards, Al Ameer (talk) 16:44, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Battle of Velestino
The article Battle of Velestino you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Battle of Velestino for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 00:22, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

Battle of Manzikert
Hi Constantine. I thought that you may be interested in this - Good article reassessment/Battle of Manzikert/1. Gog the Mild (talk) 22:25, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Battle of Kapetron
Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:01, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Abu Abdallah ibn al-Hakim
valereee (talk) 12:02, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

Timeline articles name change
Greetings. There is a discussion about changing the naming convention of the Timeline articles at Timeline of Orthodoxy in Greece. Could you perhaps weigh in on this? ΙΣΧΣΝΙΚΑ-888 (talk) 20:30, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

Wikiproject Military history coordinator election nominations open
Nominations for the upcoming project coordinator election are now open. A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next year. The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers. More information on being a coordinator is available here. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 UTC on 14 September! Voting doesn't commence until 15 September. If you have any questions, you can contact any member of the coord team. Cheers, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 02:37, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Ottoman constitution of 1876 - additional copies in other languages?
I just recently found scans of the Ottoman constitution of 1876 in Ottoman Turkish and modern Turkish, something I've wanted to get for awhile. Anyhow I am interested in finding any copies of a contemporary Greek translation. Armenian, Bulgarian, and Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) versions would be interesting to find too.

I found printed copies of a French version from third party sources but I also wonder if the Ottomans directly kept a French version and if a PDF scan was made from that.

WhisperToMe (talk) 20:13, 9 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Update! Somebody from Elwiki found the Greek version! el:Συζήτηση_Βικιπαίδεια:Πρεσβεία It is a PDF from the official Ottoman translation. Someone's planning to put it on Wikisource! WhisperToMe (talk) 16:21, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Al-Mu'tadid scheduled for TFA
This is to let you know that the Al-Mu'tadid article has been scheduled as today's featured article for October 15, 2019. Please check the article needs no amendments. If you're interested in editing the main page text, you're welcome to do so at Today's featured article/October 15, 2019, but note that a coordinator will trim the lead to around 1000 characters anyway, so you aren't obliged to do so.

For Featured Articles promoted on or after October 1, 2018, there will be an existing blurb linked from the FAC talk page, which is likely to be transferred to the TFA page by a coordinator at some point.

We suggest that you watchlist Main Page/Errors up to the day of this TFA. Thanks! Jimfbleak - talk to me?  13:43, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Bury and Constantinople-717
Hello I am very curious. Who was the first to note the battle's significance? Spyridon? Lambros? Eickhoff? Bury?

Was Bury not even the first to note it in the Anglo-saxon world?

En historiker (talk) 18:59, 10 September 2019 (UTC)
 * I would hazard a guess that Gibbon at the very least had this honour in the English-speaking world, but being "first" is not really of importance, as it is no great feat of intellect to determine that the failure of the siege, involving such huge forces on the part of the Caliphate and the two greatest empires of the western world, was a momentous event in world history. The scholars listed in the article are representative of the common opinion, and there mostly to satisfy the requirements of WP:VERIFY. Constantine  ✍  08:02, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

Battle of Constantinople (1241)
Hi Constantine. I hope that things are ticking along well for you. I was about to tidy up Battle of Constantinople (1241) whan I realised that it was one of yours. I assume that you will be coming back to it in due course? Gog the Mild (talk) 19:24, 11 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi Gog the Mild, please go ahead. I am rather busy in real life at the moment, and I have full confidence in your abilities. Constantine  ✍  08:03, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

New Page Review newsletter September-October 2019
Hello ,

Instead of reaching a magic 300 as it once did last year, the backlog approaching 6,000 is still far too high. An effort is also needed to ensure that older unsuitable older pages at the back of the queue do not get automatically indexed for Google.
 * Backlog

A proposal is taking place here to confirm a nominated user as Coordinator of NPR.
 * Coordinator

Why I Hate Speedy Deleters, a 2008 essay by long since retired, is still as valid today. Those of us who patrol large numbers of new pages can be forgiven for  making  the occasional  mistake while  others can learn from  their 'beginner' errors. Worth reading.
 * This month's refresher course

Do bear in mind that articles in the feed showing the trash can icon (you will need to have 'Nominated for deletion' enabled for this in your filters) may have been tagged by inexperienced or non NPR rights holders using Twinkle. They require your further verification.
 * Deletion tags

Please be sure to look for the tell-tale signs of undisclosed paid editing. Contact the creator if appropriate, and submit the issue to WP:COIN if necessary. WMF policy requires paid editors to connect to their adverts.
 * Paid editing


 * Subject-specific notability guidelines' (SNG). Alternatives to deletion
 * Reviewers are requested to familiarise themselves once more with notability guidelines for organisations and companies.
 * Blank-and-Redirect is a solution anchored in policy. Please consider this alternative before PRODing or CSD. Note however, that users will often revert or usurp redirects to re-create deleted articles. Do regularly patrol the redirects in the feed.

Regular reviewers will appreciate the most recent  enhancements to  the New Pages Feed and  features in the Curation  tool, and there are still more to  come. Due to the wealth  of information  now displayed by  ORES, reviewers are strongly  encouraged to  use the system now rather than Twinkle; it  will  also  correctly  populate the logs.
 * Not English
 * A common issue: Pages not in English or poor, unattributed machine translations should not reside in main space even if they are stubs. Please ensure you are familiar with WP:NPPNE. Check in Google for the language and content, and if they do have potential, tag as required, then move to draft. Modify the text of the template as appropriate before sending it.
 * Tools

Stub sorting, by SD0001: A new script is available for adding/removing stub tags. See User:SD0001/StubSorter.js, It features a simple HotCat-style dynamic search field. Many of the reviewers who are using it are finding it an improvement upon other available tools.

Assessment: The script at User:Evad37/rater makes the addition of Wikiproject templates extremely easy. New page creators rarely do this. Reviewers are not obliged to make these edits but they only take a few seconds. They can use the Curation message system to let the creator know what they have done.

is now patrolling certain categories of uncontroversial redirects. Curious? Check out its patrol log.

Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:15, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Thank you
Just wanna say thank you for copyediting and expanding some of my stubs :) HaEr48 (talk) 14:41, 14 September 2019 (UTC)


 * You are welcome, HaEr48, it's a pleasure. Likewise thanks for your constant and excellent work on such a neglected but fascinating topic as the Nasrid emirate! Cheers :) Constantine  ✍  14:53, 14 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Indeed, it is a fascinating topic. Just the joy of writing it is enough to keep me going :) HaEr48 (talk) 15:04, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

Milhist coordinator election voting has commenced
G'day everyone, voting for the 2019 Wikiproject Military history coordinator tranche is now open. This is a simple approval vote; only "support" votes should be made. Project members should vote for any candidates they support by 23:59 (UTC) on 28 September 2018. Thanks, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 03:37, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLXI, September 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:17, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

And another

 * Thanks for the rapid response, Gog the Mild :). Constantine  ✍  13:29, 20 September 2019 (UTC)


 * We aim to please . I was amazed to see that these were only your second and third Four Awards, but many congratulations. The first in particular gave me several smiles. Gog the Mild (talk) 13:31, 20 September 2019 (UTC)
 * I've probably got a couple more somewhere that might qualify, I haven't really checked as I had quite forgotten this award existed; as for Tagaris, it is one of my favourite pieces of work I've ever done anywhere :). Cheers, Constantine  ✍  13:37, 20 September 2019 (UTC)

Wikiproject Military history coordinator election half-way mark
G'day everyone, the voting for the XIX Coordinator Tranche is at the halfway mark. The candidates have answered various questions, and you can check them out to see why they are running and decide whether you support them. Project members should vote for any candidates they support by 23:59 (UTC) on 28 September 2018. Thanks, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 07:36, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Books & Bytes – Issue 35, July – August 2019
 The Wikipedia Library <span style="font-size: 2em; font-family: Copperplate, 'Copperplate Gothic Light', serif">Books & Bytes

Issue 35, July – August 2019 <div style = "margin-top: 1.5em; border: 3px solid #ae8c55; border-radius: .5em; padding: 1em 1.5em; font-size: 1.2em">
 * Wikimania
 * We're building something great, but..
 * Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
 * A Wikibrarian's story
 * Bytes in brief

Read the full newsletter On behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:58, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

Al-ghuzat
I think Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus is a good source about al-ghuzat and banu abi al-Ula 's history. -TheseusHeLl (talk) 20:47, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula
Vanamonde (Talk) 00:02, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Volunteers of the Faith
Vanamonde (Talk) 00:02, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLXII, October 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:40, 12 October 2019 (UTC)

Template:Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
Hi Constantine. Hope all is well. I've recently come upon an issue: This template, Template:Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire shows some errors for some reason, do you know what the issue behind it is? --HistoryofIran (talk) 20:08, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi HistoryofIran, yes, it's due to some changes in the Lua interpreter module. Have a look here. I intend to fix them over the next few days, but any help is appreciated :) Constantine  ✍  20:10, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Oh I see. Well that sure is a lot of text, but I'll take a look it at and see if I can help. --HistoryofIran (talk) 20:12, 12 October 2019 (UTC)

Flag of the First Bulgarian Empire
Hi, thank you for your edits of the First Bulgarian Empire article, but if you want to make your changes effective and long lasting, then please change the description of the file in the Wikimedia Commons, of course you can also place there a special template with the inscription, that the flag is fictitious, which automatically moves it to a special category with fictitious flags, unless you do this, other editors will come and they will return the flag to the infobox in the article again and again, thinking that the flag is correct, and edit war never ends. Thank you. Adding descriptions in the Wikimedia will only take a few minutes, it's the same as writing editing summary. Obviously, you have a history knowledge, editing summaries is not enough, because only few people read them. It's for all of us. --Dragovit (talk) 9:58, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi Dragovit! The problem is that the flag is not, per se, fictitious; the description of the file makes clear what it is, namely the "flag of Khan Krum's army at the Battle of the Varbitsa Pass as depicted in the Vatican copy of the chronicle by Constantine Manasses". That is not incorrect, nor invented by a modern editor; the problem is the use of the flag as authentic for Krum's era, when there is no foundation to suppose that the artist had any idea of what these flags may have looked like, and most likely used flags that he (or some other artist he was copying from) was familiar with. I will edit the description though to make this clear. Constantine  ✍  11:27, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Gog the Mild -- Gog the Mild (talk) 14:01, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Question
While reading John Troglita I stumbled upon this. Are Isfidaias and Ifisdaias the same person? -TheseusHeLl (talk) 17:58, 18 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi TheseusHeLl, yes, "Isfidaias" is a typo, thanks for catching that. Constantine  ✍  18:02, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Merge proposal
Hi Constantine. I wondered if you considered this a good idea? Gog the Mild (talk) 22:53, 18 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the heads up Gog the Mild :) Constantine  ✍  08:59, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun
The article Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Gog the Mild -- Gog the Mild (talk) 10:21, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Question
Hello, I'm currently working on Irens of Athen on the French Wikipedia and I wanted to know if you would have any access to the book "The BYzantine Revival" written by Treadgold ? Thanks ! Spartan 117 (talk) 21:56, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

SVG map query
Hi, do you know why the letter "T" (bottom right) appears blurred in thumbnail mode of this SVG image? If you zoom to original quality, the T is sharp. And do you know how to fix that? HaEr48 (talk) 16:11, 27 October 2019 (UTC)
 * weird indeed. I couldn't find out right away, but a simple substitution with the Q seems to remove the problem. I also converted the text to paths, so that they scale better. Constantine  ✍  18:40, 27 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you! I have some questions, if you'll forgive my ignorance: (1) How did you convert them to paths? and if I need to modify the text later, how do I do it with paths? HaEr48 (talk) 18:48, 27 October 2019 (UTC)
 * (1) I opened it with Inkscape, then Paths menu -> Objects to paths (or Shift+Ctrl+C). (2) You will have to write new text and convert again; the paths are not editable as text. I usually keep a copy with text locally for future editing, and upload the one converted into paths. Constantine  ✍  08:04, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
 * That makes sense. Thank you for the explanation. HaEr48 (talk) 12:21, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

New Page Review newsletter November 2019
Hello ,

This newsletter comes a little earlier than usual because the backlog is rising again and the holidays are coming very soon. There are now holders of the New Page Reviewer flag! Most of you requested the user right to be able to do something about the huge backlog but it's still roughly less than 10% doing 90% of the work. Now it's time for action. Exactly one year ago there were 'only' 3,650 unreviewed articles, now we will soon be approaching 7,000 despite the growing number of requests for the NPR user right. If each reviewer soon does only 2 reviews a day over five days, the backlog will be down to zero and the daily input can then be processed by every reviewer doing only 1 review every 2 days - that's only a few minutes work on the bus on the way to the office or to class! Let's get this over and done with in time to relax for the holidays. Want to join? Consider adding the NPP Pledge userbox. Our next newsletter will announce the winners of some really cool awards. Admin has been officially invested as NPP/NPR coordinator by a unanimous consensus of the community. This is a complex role and he will need all the help he can get from other experienced reviewers. Paid editing is still causing headaches for even our most experienced reviewers: This official Wikipedia article will be an eye-opener to anyone who joined Wikipedia or obtained the NPR right since 2015. See The Hallmarks to know exactly what to look for and take time to examine all the sources. Would you like feedback on your reviews? Are you an experienced reviewer who can give feedback to other reviewers? If so there are two new feedback pilot programs. New Reviewer mentorship will match newer reviewers with an experienced reviewer with a new reviewer. The other program will be an occasional peer review cohort for moderate or experienced reviewers to give feedback to each other. The first cohort will launch November 13. The annual ArbCom election will be coming up soon. All eligible users will be invited to vote. While not directly concerned with NPR, Arbcom cases often lead back to notability and deletion issues and/or actions by holders of advanced user rights. There is to be no wish list for WMF encyclopedias this year. We thank Community Tech for their hard work addressing our long list of requirements which somewhat overwhelmed them last year, and we look forward to a successful completion. To opt-out of future mailings, you can remove yourself here MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:33, 3 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Getting the queue to 0
 * Coordinator
 * This month's refresher course
 * Tools
 * It is now possible to select new pages by date range. This was requested by reviewers who want to patrol from the middle of the list.
 * It is now also possible for accredited reviewers to put any article back into the New Pages Feed for re-review. The link is under 'Tools' in the side bar.
 * Reviewer Feedback
 * Second set of eyes
 * Not only are New Page Reviewers the guardians of quality of new articles, they are also in a position to ensure that pages are being correctly tagged for deletion and maintenance and that new authors are not being bitten. This is an important feature of your work, especially while some routine tagging for deletion can still be carried out by non NPR holders and inexperienced users. Read about it at the Monitoring the system section in the tutorial. If you come across such editors doing good work, don't hesitate to encourage them to apply for NPR.
 * Do be sure to have our talk page  on your watchlist. There are often items that require reviewers' special attention, such as to watch out for pages by known socks or disruptive editors, technical issues and new developments, and of course to provide advice for other reviewers.
 * Arbitration Committee
 * Community Wish list

About the last changes.
Το οτι είσαι κομμουνιστής δεν σημαίνει οτι μπορείς να γράφεις ότι θες. Και μήν ακούσω οτι το κάνω εγώ, γιατι εγώ γράφω μόνο τις αλήθειες. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:587:3A0D:F500:1C5F:3FD1:6B8A:F0A6 (talk) 18:35, 5 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Φυσικά, όποιος τολμά να ισχυριστεί ότι το ΕΑΜ ήταν η πιο σημαντική οργάνωση της Αντίστασης (όντας το μοναδικό μαζικό πολιτικό κίνημα και μακράν στρατιωτικά ισχυρότερο του ΕΔΕΣ, για να μην πιάσουμε την ΕΚΚΑ) ή ότι η ΕΣΣΔ ήταν η μείζων χώρα εκ των Συμμάχων (απασχόλησε μόνο τα 4/5 των γερμανικών δυνάμεων επί τέσσερα χρόνια) πρέπει να είναι κομμουνιστής. Η ιστορική ακρίβεια και αλήθεια δεν έχει σχέση με το αν συμπαθούμε ή όχι το ΕΑΜ ή την ΕΣΣΔ ή τις πράξεις τους, ή με την πολιτική μας τοποθέτηση. Και θα πρότεινα να μην θεωρείτε αυτόχρημα ότι όποιος διαφωνεί μαζί σας είναι κομμουνιστής, διότι αυτού του είδους το αντανακλαστικό χαρακτηρίζει μάλλον εσάς και την δική σας ιδεολογία παρά εμένα. Constantine  ✍  20:28, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

Vandalism or improvement
Hi Constantine

You may care to have a look at this. If it looks suspicious you may want to skim the rest of their contributions. Nothing obviously egregious jumps out at me, but they edit in some hot-button areas, which are more your territory than mine.

And congratulations on another little gem.

PS If you fancy a source edit of something you have already looked at, then - Featured article candidates/Battle of Cape Ecnomus/archive1

Gog the Mild (talk) 22:03, 7 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the heads up, taken care of. I probably should take a look at the Battle of Manzikert article sooner or later, but there is so much to do, and it is in OK shape as it is... On Ecnomus, I will have a look over the next couple of days, not just for sources; I see a lot of work has gone into it since last I reviewed it. Constantine  ✍  22:12, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Fatimid conquest of Egypt
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Fatimid conquest of Egypt you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Gog the Mild -- Gog the Mild (talk) 09:41, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

Greek romanization
Hello Constantine! In the article of Odaenathus many Greek names and words occur, and a user is "romanizing" them, but I noticed that this romanization is identical to what Google translate is giving, so I thought I ask you if its the correct spelling. Those cases are:

Ὀδαίναθος Odaínathos

Ὠδέναθος Ōdénathos

αφανής μεν τα πρώτα (aphanḗs men ta prṓta)

μεγι'στην αράμενος δοξαν (megi'stēn arámenos doxan)

ὁ λαμπρότατος ὑπατικός (ho lamprótatos hupatikós

Thanks in advance.--Attar-Aram syria (talk) 14:20, 8 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi Attar-Aram syria, the transliterations are accurate, but the original Greek has some problems (and the transliterations replicate them): αφανής μεν τα πρώτα → ἀφανὴς μὲν τὰ πρῶτα (aphanḗs men ta prṓta), and μεγι'στην αράμενος δοξαν → μεγίστην ἀράμενος δόξαν (megístēn arámenos dóxan). Constantine  ✍  16:09, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Amitchell125 -- Amitchell125 (talk) 16:41, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Portal:Fatimid Caliphate/Related portals


A tag has been placed on Portal:Fatimid Caliphate/Related portals, requesting that it be deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under two or more of the criteria for speedy deletion, by which pages can be deleted at any time, without discussion. If the page meets any of these strictly-defined criteria, then it may soon be deleted by an administrator. The reasons it has been tagged are:
 * It is a portal which would be subject to speedy deletion if it were an article. (See section P1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.)

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. &thinsp;&mdash; Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)&thinsp; 04:47, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLXIII, November 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 21:44, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

Concerns
Hey Cplakidas,

I'm asking you this for the reason that you have experience with creating good articles and using sources/references. So I created the article Hintata using two sources EI2 and EB. Firstly, I want to know if there is any problem with these two sources? Secondly, is using just two sources a problem? If you have some time can you check the points I raised in this discussion. Regards -TheseusHeLl (talk) 17:54, 14 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi TheseusHeLl. That's complete nonsense (and quite surprising really coming from such an old user). The sources you used are standard reference works with the highest credentials, so WP:RS is satisfied. You can write an article using a single source and it would still be fine (although somebody would inevitably tag it with or similar), as long as the source is above board and everything is properly cited. There is no requirement in WP:VERIFY to only use sources that can be "easily verifiable" in terms of using only online and open-access sources; that would be ridiculous as it would at one stroke remove a ton of high-quality publications that have never been digitized or are behind paywalls. Constantine   ✍  18:06, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Fatimid conquest of Egypt
The article Fatimid conquest of Egypt you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Fatimid conquest of Egypt for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Gog the Mild -- Gog the Mild (talk) 20:01, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

http://www.ehw.gr/
Hi Constantine, how are you doing?! It's being a while since our last chat. I'm expanding the article about Nicomedia and I saw that http://www.ehw.gr/ is not opening. Do you know anything about it?--Renato de carvalho ferreira (talk) 03:53, 18 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi Renato de carvalho ferreira, nice to see you too, doing well, hopefully you likewise. EHW appears to have some issues, it is more off than on in the last couple of years. I suggest trying to find archived versions from the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine). Constantine  ✍  07:19, 18 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I see, it's a pity. I will look at it. But another thing bothers me. According to İzmit "Byzantine rule renewed in 1402 but the Ottomans reconquered it in 1419. Under Ottoman rule, it was the capital of the Sanjak of Kocaeli." I didn't find any source confirming these dates. According to your article Sanjak of Kocaeli, on the other hand, the sanjak existed since 1329, but according to Kazhdan's dictionary, the city was conquered only in 1337.--Renato de carvalho ferreira (talk) 02:43, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, that's the usual mess of different scholars relying on different sources and not cross-checking. The EI2 entry (Vol. XII, p. 476) says "it remained in Byzantine hands until captured after a long siege by the Ottomans under Orkhan. The dates for this vary in the Greek and Turkish sources, the former placing this in 1338; at all events, it must have been soon after the fall of Nicaea in 731/1331". On a Byzantine recovery in 1402, I think what is meant is the Treaty of Gallipoli, but Nicomedia was not included in it; rather, according to EI2, "In 1402 the Turkish town was sacked by a group of Timur's troops", so a Byzantine recovery can be discounted. Constantine  ✍  08:10, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Damn it, the entry of "Ķodja Eli" in EI2 does indeed say that during the Ottoman interregnum the Byzantines "were able to regain their territory", and that in 1419 it was reconquered by Timurtashoglu Umur Bey. We will probably have to look into the primary sources for this. Constantine  ✍  08:27, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
 * This gets more interesting: the TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi article says that the fate of the city was sealed after Andronikos III was defeated in 1329, but the city was preserved as the emperor agreed to pay tribute in 1333, but in 1337 the city passed into Ottoman hands. So the date of the city's conquest is settled as 1337/8.
 * On the events after 1402, I found several Turkish sources that mention how Timurtaşoğlu Umur Bey took the towns of Hereke, Gebze, Pendik and Kartal in 1419, but the fullest explanation in Clive Foss (Survey of Medieval Castles of Anatolia II Vol. II: Nicomedia, p. 46): "The result was a a treaty signed in March 1403, which restored much of the north coast of the Marmora and the west coast of the Black Sea, along with Thessalonica and some islands to the Byzantines.9 Although the surviving accounts of the treaty make no mention of Asia Minor, it appears that the Byzantines made significant gains there, too, either at this time or in the confusion of the immediately succeeding years. The Turkish historian Ashikpashazade, who was born around 1400 and wrote a half century or more after these events, records that in 1421 Mehmet Celebi, who had triumphed over his brothers to restore Ottoman rule, was urged by his followers to liberate some coastal towns from the infidel.10 They complained that these towns, though in Muslim territory, actually belonged to Byzantium. Mehmet thereupon sent an army and received the submission of Hereke, Old Gebze, Darıca, Pendik and Kartal, that is, the whole northern shore of the gulf (not including Nicomedia) and the coast as far as the suburbs of Constantinople. Of this last Byzantine interlude, which lasted for close to twenty years, nothing further is known."
 * I think this is conclusive: the Byzantines did recover some coastal forts (this is consistent with the treaty of Gallipoli), but not Nicomedia/Izmit itself. Constantine  ✍  13:20, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks again for such outstanding explanation. So it's necessary to, at least, correct that piece of information that I got from İzmit, the others ones are fine.--Renato de carvalho ferreira (talk) 02:28, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

Byzantine naval paper
Hi Constantine,

Just wondered if you had seen this paper:

Maximilian C.G. Lau (2016) The naval reform of Emperor John II Komnenos: a re-evaluation, Mediterranean Historical Review, 31:2, 115-138, DOI:10.1080/09518967.2016.1248641To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518967.2016.1248641

Might be useful for the Byzantine Navy article or John II. Urselius (talk) 16:15, 20 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi Urselius, thanks, I know the paper and had glanced over it when it came out; but I am so busy with all the other topics I am involved with, that I never have had the time to properly study it and incorporate it in the relevant articles. If you feel like doing it yourself, you are more than welcome to do so :). Constantine  ✍  16:25, 20 November 2019 (UTC)
 * PS, just to make clear, I have access to a complete copy of the paper in case you don't. Constantine  ✍  16:26, 20 November 2019 (UTC)


 * I have the PDF, thanks. Urselius (talk) 19:48, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi
The article Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi for issues which need to be addressed. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Amitchell125 -- Amitchell125 (talk) 17:01, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

Books & Bytes – Issue 36
<div style = "color: #936c29; font-size: 4em; font-family: Copperplate, 'Copperplate Gothic Light', serif"> The Wikipedia Library <span style="font-size: 2em; font-family: Copperplate, 'Copperplate Gothic Light', serif">Books & Bytes

Issue 36, September – October 2019 <div style = "margin-top: 1.5em; border: 3px solid #ae8c55; border-radius: .5em; padding: 1em 1.5em; font-size: 1.2em">
 * #1Lib1Ref January 2020
 * #1Lib1Ref 2019 stories and learnings

Read the full newsletter Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:20, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

Google Code-In 2019 is coming - please mentor some documentation tasks!
Hello,

Google Code-In, Google-organized contest in which the Wikimedia Foundation participates, starts in a few weeks. This contest is about taking high school students into the world of opensource. I'm sending you this message because you recently edited a documentation page at the English Wikipedia.

I would like to ask you to take part in Google Code-In as a mentor. That would mean to prepare at least one task (it can be documentation related, or something else - the other categories are Code, Design, Quality Assurance and Outreach) for the participants, and help the student to complete it. Please sign up at the contest page and send us your Google account address to google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org, so we can invite you in!

From my own experience, Google Code-In can be fun, you can make several new friends, attract new people to your wiki and make them part of your community.

If you have any questions, please let us know at google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org.

Thank you!

--User:Martin Urbanec (talk) 21:58, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

al-Shama
Hello once again. I translated your article about Al-Husayn ibn Zikrawayh and I still don't get it the meaning of al-Shama. "Mole" is the animal or what we understand in Portuguese as pt:verruga or any kind of mark?
 * Hi Renato de carvalho ferreira, it means the birthmark; its presence was seen as one of the signs of the Mahdi in Islamic messianism. BTW, the article on Al-Husayn ibn Zikrawayh is a bit out of date, as it does not reflect the shift in scholarly consensus on the brothers' motivations. See Zakarawayh ibn Mihrawayh for this. Constantine  ✍  08:38, 25 November 2019 (UTC)

GAN Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi
Hello Cplakidas,

I hope you are well. I notice that there are only two days remaining for the article to be on hold, before it can be failed. I would appreciate it if you could respond to the comments in my review before 27 November. Best wishes, Amitchell125 (talk) 08:48, 25 November 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi
The article Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Amitchell125 -- Amitchell125 (talk) 06:02, 28 November 2019 (UTC)

Alptakin/Aftakin
Constantine and, aren't Alptakin and Aftakin one and the same? Despite the second being considered an hamdanid officer, the information at Aftakin's articles has dates matching the ones in Alptakin's biography.--Renato de carvalho ferreira (talk) 02:26, 4 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, they are the same person. I think that Alptakin is the Turkish name, the Arabic one is al-Aftakin. He was, of course, never in Hamdanid service. Constantine  ✍  07:39, 4 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks once again. But now, changing the topic totally. On Isa ibn al-Shaykh al-Shaybani's biography, there is certain Abu'l-Maghra' ibn Musa ibn Zurara. Searching for him, I found nothing about an "Abu'l-Maghra'", but some things about his possible father. Here is mentioned that Musa helped the Armenian lords to revolt against Abassid power in Armenia and Bugha al-Kabir dealt with it as your articles says. Here, on the other hand, they fought together against the Bagratuni. Here there is more information about Musa fighting the Bagratuni. Here, he is a tax-collector in Jazira. Could the be one and the same? And could the be Abu'l-Maghra's father?--Renato de carvalho ferreira (talk) 19:34, 4 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, the first source I would not regard as reliable in any way. The author is an Indian Muslim with a lot of axes to grind; he is clearly biased and definitely not a professional historian. Without giving primary or secondary sources as references, I can also not verify what he writes about Musa helping the Christian Armenians. The second source is the same as the first, I think you mixed the urls. Ter-Ghevondyan (p. 42) makes clear that Musa was the lord of Arzn, and intermarried, as was common with many Arab families in Armenia, with the Christian nakharar nobility; he also mentions his tax-collecting activity. In page 48, he also confirms that Musa was Abu'l-Maghra's father. I will write articles on both right away :). Constantine   ✍  19:58, 4 December 2019 (UTC)
 * "I will write articles on both right away :)", Nice! other articles to read. -TheseusHeLl (talk) 20:12, 4 December 2019 (UTC)
 * You are welcome :). It will take a few days to find some more sources, though, and fine-tune them a bit. Constantine  ✍  21:17, 4 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Just in case you haven;t seen them yet, the articles Musa ibn Zurara and Abu'l-Maghra ibn Musa ibn Zurara are more or less done. Cheers, Constantine  ✍  16:17, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I saw them. I'm just waiting you finish them to start translating! Cheers.--Renato de carvalho ferreira (talk) 16:34, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Translated.--Renato de carvalho ferreira (talk) 08:20, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

Constructive edits?
Curious about your opinion in relation to these edits made at Abu Tahir al-Jannabi (one by Aryzad, four by a random IP)- Long time no speak btw! Hope all is well. Been really busy lately (uni, etc.). - LouisAragon (talk) 22:45, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi LouisAragon, I am well, thanks, also a bit busy IRL. Hopefully you are likewise well :). On the edits, you did well to revert them. Cheers, Constantine  ✍  09:52, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

You've got mail!
—Compassionate727 (T·C) 18:40, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Greek to English transliteration practice
Hi Constantine,

I have come across an unregistered user - 85.72.101.175 - who has made a number of changes to the spelling of terms, mostly related to ancient weaponry, to a transliteration of Modern Greek pronunciation - 'eu' to 'ef' etc. I think that this goes against usage in English language scholarship, which generally uses a transliteration of Koine. I have attempted to revert one change on the Makhaira article. I just wondered if there has been a shift in scholarship towards Modern Greek that I was unaware of. Urselius (talk) 14:40, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi Urselius, no not that I know of, and most certainly not in Classical scholarship, where the modern Greek pronunciation is mostly inaccurate either way. Constantine  ✍  16:36, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I will stand my ground with more conviction. Urselius (talk) 18:41, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

You've got mail!
I've sent one more section, as well as an update regarding what my plans are. I also have a question for you. Would you prefer that I continue to leave a "You've got mail!" notice every time I send a new section, or would you prefer that I only leave one every few sections (or even just once when I've sent all of them) so that I don't clutter your talk page? —Compassionate727 (T·C) 19:00, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLXIV, December 2019
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:47, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

New Page Review newsletter December 2019


This year's Reviewer of the Year is. Having gotten the reviewer PERM in August 2018, they have been a regular reviewer of articles and redirects, been an active participant in the NPP community, and has been the driving force for the emerging NPP Source Guide that will help reviewers better evaluate sourcing and notability in many countries for which it has historically been difficult.
 * Reviewer of the Year

Special commendation again goes to who ends the year as one of our most prolific reviewers for the second consecutive year. Thanks also to and  who have been in the top 5 for the last two years as well.

Several newer editors have done a lot of work with CAPTAIN MEDUSA and DannyS712 (who has also written bots which have patrolled thousands of redirects) being new reviewers since this time last year.

Thanks to them and to everyone reading this who has participated in New Page Patrol this year.

(The top 100 reviewers of the year can be found here)

A recent Request for Comment on creating a new redirect autopatrol pseduo-permission was closed early. New Page Reviewers are now able to nominate editors who have an established track record creating uncontroversial redirects. At the individual discretion of any administrator or after 24 hours and a consensus of at least 3 New Page Reviewers an editor may be added to a list of users whose redirects will be patrolled automatically by.
 * Redirect autopatrol

Set to launch early in the new year is our first New Page Patrol Source Guide discussion. These discussions are designed to solicit input on sources in places and topic areas that might otherwise be harder for reviewers to evaluate. The hope is that this will allow us to improve the accuracy of our patrols for articles using these sources (and/or give us places to perform a WP:BEFORE prior to nominating for deletion). Please watch the New Page Patrol talk page for more information.
 * Source Guide Discussion

While New Page Reviewers are an experienced set of editors, we all benefit from an occasional review. This month consider refreshing yourself on Notability (geographic features). Also consider how we can take the time for quality in this area. For instance, sources to verify human settlements, which are presumed notable, can often be found in seconds. This lets us avoid the (ugly) 'Needs more refs' tag. Delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 16:10, 20 December 2019 (UTC)
 * This month's refresher course

Io Saturnalia!

 * Thank you dear Ealdgyth, likewise to you and your loved ones a happy holiday season and a fruitful and joyful 2020! Constantine  ✍  19:13, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Sepīd Šahr
Hello Constantine! I'm taking some information of Alp Arslan's life on Irannica and in one of the paragraphs it is mentioned that his generals "rejoined the sultan to take Sepīd Šahr and Ānī (Ḥosaynī, Aḵbār, pp. 34-41; Ebn al-Aṯīr, X, pp. 37-40)" I have no clue, at least with such spelling, what fortress Sepīd Šahr could be. Looking online, I saw only Irannica mentioning such place and considering its tradition to use an almost exclusive way to transliterate names, it's difficult to figure it out. Any clues?--Renato de carvalho ferreira (talk) 20:55, 21 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, I checked Ibn al-Athir and the Arabic name would be "Subidh Shahr" . But this name too does not appear anywhere else, nor is there an annotation identifying it in the work linked. I suppose it is indeed an hapax, and we can't identify the precise location meant, either because the name has become garbled, or forgotten. Constantine  ✍  09:13, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Tahir ibn Muslim
Hello. I don't think it would hurt to find other sources for the claims over at Tahir ibn Muslim. I plan on doing some research when I have time. This is not a "drive by" edit -- it's an article with one source. Give me some time, I'll add some additional sources, and then I will remove the tag. I am not doing this to frustrate you, I am doing it to further substantiate the article. Thanks. Dr42 (talk) 06:32, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Irene Komnene Palaiologina
Hello! Your submission of Irene Komnene Palaiologina at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Yoninah (talk) 23:39, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Fatimid conquest of Egypt
&mdash; Amakuru (talk) 00:02, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Happy New Year!
<div style="font-size: x-large; padding: 0; vertical-align: middle; height: 1.1em; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;float:right;margin-bottom:20px;margin-right:10px">Happy New Year! Hello Constantine: Thanks for all of your contributions to improve the encyclopedia for Wikipedia's readers, and have a happy and enjoyable New Year! Cheers, --A.S. Brown (talk) 23:20, 31 December 2019 (UTC) Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks (static)}} to user talk pages with a friendly message.