Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2014 September 21

= September 21 =

Christians in Iraq and Syria
Are there any Christians left in either Iraq or Syria? --112.198.82.105 (talk) 14:11, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, sure. Syria used to have about 10% Christians in the population. Iraq has less by percentage, but a larger base. See Christianity in Iraq. ISIS is a bunch of assholes, but I neither do they control all of Iraq and Syria, nor do they operate organised death-or-conversion camps. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:27, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Although the mainly Christian city of Qaraqosh, which is regarded as Iraq's "Christian capital" has been overrun and a large proportion of the population have fled into Kurdish territory according to BBC News - Iraq Christians flee as Islamic State takes Qaraqosh. Alansplodge (talk) 16:15, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, but that's still in Iraq, and for political reasons, it's quite likely that it won't become a recognised state in the foreseeable future. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 17:02, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * "For political reasons..." Sure, like the "politics" of public beheadings. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 10:56, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
 * You seem to misread what I wrote. I was referring to the Kurdish areas, which likely won't become an independent state because it would piss of Turkey, which is one of the few countries friendly to the West in the area. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 23:38, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

British (most likely) coat of arms identification
Looking to work out what a coat of arms that I've seen represents. I don't have a picture of it, I'm afraid. It's most likely British, and given context most likely represents a city/region/county. The background is green. The central figure is a large cross bottony in gold, with in each of the quarters made by the large central cross a smaller cross pattée in gold as well. Any ideas? 82.21.7.184 (talk) 16:58, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Nothing immediately obvious at List of British flags. The arms of Edward the Confessor (see image), perhaps?  The colours are wrong, though. Tevildo (talk) 17:48, 21 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Got it! It's the coat of arms of Abingdon-on-Thames. (See image). Cross patonce rather than bottony according to the blazon, but the Abingdon cross doesn't look very much like our reference image. Tevildo (talk) 22:13, 21 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Excellent, that's the once for sure, just slight colour variations. Cheers, that makes sense actually. 82.21.7.184 (talk) 06:40, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

Daughtes of Tsars
Why did most of the daughters of Russian Tsars traditionally remain unmarried until the Petrine reforms?--The Emperor&#39;s New Spy (talk) 17:18, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, if you look at the sisters and half-sisters of Peter the Great, (you can find the list at Alexis_of_Russia, most of them got caught up in the wrong side of the various intrigues in Russia leading up to the rise of Peter the Great; i.e. most sided with Sophia in the Moscow Uprising of 1682. As a result, when Peter took power many of them were shipped off to convents or otherwise barred from Marriage.  The one sister that remained loyal to Peter, Natalya, appears to have been close enough to him to have remained unmarried so as to remain at Court rather than be married off for diplomatic purposes, which would have been the fate of other royal females.  Peter's grandfather, Michael Romanov had many daughters, but only three lived to adulthood: Irina, Anna, and Tatiana.  Wikipedia only has an article about Irina, who (like Natalya and Peter) seems to have been the "head of the household" during Michael's reign, and as such, was kept unmarried to keep her around the court.  Prior to Michael Romanov was the Time of Troubles, when things were a bit confused regarding the Tsarship; a variety of pretenders and foreign princes claimed the title, but in reality, no one held widespread control of the country.  Prior to the Time of Troubles, Boris Godunov had one daughter, Xenia.  Boris tried TWICE to marry her off, but the first engagement was broken off, and the second was ended by her fiancees death.  After that, she got caught up in the Troubles, and never married; she seems to have lived a rather unfortunately life being raped and imprisoned.  Before Boris, Feodor I of Russia only had one daughter, and she died at age 1: .  Before Feodor was Ivan the Terrible, the first Tsar.  Ivan had a large number of wives and children, but from our list in the Wikipedia article, it appears Ivan the Terrible had no daughters to marry off; they all died before reaching marriageble age.  So, the answer to your question is there was no such tradition.  In the entire list of Tsars from the first Tsar to Peter the Great, there aren't that many daughters to establish a "tradition".  At least one was engaged to be married twice, two others were kept at court because they were close to their brother, who wanted them around rather than married off to a foreign prince or some important Boyar, the rest of the ones that lived to adulthood ended up on the wrong side of a rebellion or political intrigue, and all the rest (the majority of Tsarevnas indeed) died before they reached marriagable age.  If there's any tradition to be garnered from this, it would appear to be the tradition of dying as an infant.  -- Jayron  32  17:53, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * There was simply no incentive for marrying them. The princesses spent their entire lives in a female chamber of the palace. They had next to no opportunities to meet young noblemen. The Tsar was far above his subjects. To marry a tsarevna to one of the Tsar's "slaves" was not a desirable prospect. The relatives by marriage were expected to claim positions in the government, and this prospect was not welcomed by the existing cliques. To marry her to a foreign prince was diffucult because of a religious difference, a difference in culture, and the bride's lack of education. It was expected from a would-be husband to convert to Orthodoxy, an unthinkable prospect for most Catholic and even Lutheran princes. That's the reason why the marriage of Tsarevna Irina Mikhailovna of Russia and Valdemar Christian of Schleswig-Holstein never happened. This matrimonial failure was viewed by the Russian government as a major international humiliation. The Orthodox suitors of royal rank could be found only in the distant kingdoms of Georgia. The prospect of a Russo-Georgian royal marriage was contemplated but ultimately fell through. --Ghirla-трёп- 07:02, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
 * There was a comparable situation with the Makedonioi princesses, by the way. --Ghirla-трёп- 07:04, 22 September 2014 (UTC)