Caliph Omar, the poor woman and the sack of rice

Went to a Muslim meeting at UCC last week.  An imam in a Nehru jacket told us some nice stories about the early Caliphs.  I was on my way somewhere else so I just slipped in the back of the meeting for half an hour, a pity I couldn't stay longer. Here is one of the stories he told. 

Caliph Omar wondered about the conditions of the poor people of Damascus. His advisers assured him all was well but he wasn’t convinced.  In order to see for himself, he put aside his fine robes, and wandered incognito through the streets, mingling with the people.  One night in a poor district of the city, he heard children wailing.  Pushing aside the curtain of the of the house where the noise came from, he found a woman boiling stones in a pot. He asked, why are the children wailing and why are you boiling stones?  She said, the children are hungry. They think it’s food, and by the time they find out they will have cried themselves to sleep.  Caliph Omar was distressed to discover such poverty in his city.  He rushed to his palace, called for a sack of rice, threw it on his back, and weighed down with this heavy load, trudged through the streets towards the poor district.  He chanced to meet a Muslim man who recognising him, said : Caliph, let me carry your burden.  The Caliph replied : No, for who will carry the burden of my sins when I meet my Lord?

I enquire in Spain about the Visigoths

Denia and its castle

Just back from the Costa Blanca, a place called Denia.  In general Costa Blanca is dire but there are nuggets.  Also it’s near Granada and the Alhambra, which is just as wonderful as people say.  

The known history of Denia dates only from the Arab Conquest (8th-13th Centuries). Denia Castle (built by the Arabs during the 11th Century) houses a small Archaeological Museum.  I was interested in the Visigoths, who preceded the Arabs, and I asked the museum director about them.  They didn't leave any traces in this area and I didn't quite follow his explanation of why not, but when I asked how the Visigoths lived he said they carried on Roman civilisation, and said their advent in Spain was only a "political change".  If I understood him right he even referred to the 6th and 7th centuries as the "late Roman period".

Later, I checked this out with an archaeologist friend of mine who confirmed that the accepted orthodoxy now is that the incoming "barbarians" were in effect an elite (much as the Normans were in England in 1066) and they took over a lot of the existing administration and infrastructure.  Pottery production, for instance, continued in the Roman pottery production centres and new tastes and styles demanded by the new elites were assimilated into the existing ceramic traditions.  Much the same goes for agriculture, architectural styles and land organisation.  So the museum director who referred to the 6th and 7th centuries as "late Roman" reflects this point of view. 

Improperly pronounced in the West

Extract from Insight guide to China, 8^th ed 1998, p 156 :-

The third Ming emperor, Yongle, is credited with the planning of the capital. In 1421 he moved his government from Nanjing to Beiping (Northern Peace) and renamed it Beijing (Northern Capital).  Improperly pronounced in the West, the city became known as Peking, a name that persists in such instances as Peking duck.

It’s this improperly pronounced in the West business that gets my goat.  How do we pronounce the capital of France? Sweden’s largest port?  Sweden itself for that matter or Germany or Spain?  The capital of Austria?  The principal cities of Italy?  Are all of these improperly pronounced?  If so it ought to cease forthwith.