Nom de Plume

I am in love with wireless. I don’t know why I didn’t spend the 40 bucks to get a wireless card before now.

Of course, I realized yesterday when I went to Little Richard’s to test it out that my battery is complete toast. It shut off after 20 minutes. I shouldn’t be surprised. I never discharge it, and after all, my laptop is 4 years old. I live in dread of it dying on me.

I got a lot accomplished yesterday, but still have a ton to do. I haven’t even figured out what stuff I’m taking with me on this trip. Probably just all the clothes I can fit into two suitcases.

Which means I have a TON of laundry to do.

Steve has rented an apartment sight unseen. It’s a month to month because the building is being torn down in March. A friend of his went by to see it, and says it’s a little bigger than his place in Venice. Well, it couldn’t possibly be smaller.

Say bon voyage to the houseboat plan.

It’s supposed to get down to 12 degrees today.

For some reason, I woke up at 5:30 this morning. So, I hopped online, researched which wireless card to get, and will be heading out to CompUSA in a couple hours. I don’t like them, especially since they try to rip you off, but they’ve got a great deal on cards, so I have no problem selling out. (And I rant about others doing the same.)

When Mike’s son Ian was here, he said that he was picking up a wireless signal–so maybe I’ll just cancel CableOne today while I’m at it.

Other things I have to do: Order more checks. Start organizing and packing. Finish work project. Start revamping my web site (which I’ve been putting off). Finish the first chapter on Razia. Check availability of books I want at the LA library for Monday, when Steve has to work. Organize contacts for Seattle. Get home buying book from library for Steve. Return all other books (which means finding them, not always an easy process). Get itinerary from S, tell Dana when to take me to the airport on Sunday.

Hmm, maybe I should just go back to bed.

I wonder when Mike’s coming back. This is a huge house for one person to rattle around in — and I swear, it’s haunted. When I’m downstairs, it sounds like someone’s walking around upstairs. When I’m in bed with the door closed, it sounds like someone’s walking around on the landing/in Mike’s office. And it’s not the little pitter patter of squirrel feet. (Although there’s that too. I should put out the trap again. Add that to the list.)

If today’s low is 29 degrees with a high of 36, how can it currently be 26?

According to the Tabikat-i-Nasiri, Razia’s “mother was the chief wife of his majesty, and she resided in the chief royal palace in the Kushk-Firoze.”

I am going to assume this means her mother was the daughter presented in marriage to Iltutmish by Aybeck.

I am also going to posit that she died before Iltutmish did, based on the fact that Shah Turkan is later described as the head wife.

Shah Turkan was the scheming mother of Feroz Shah, one of Razia’s brothers who ascended the throne after Iltutmish died. Feroz was generous, but given to debauchery, and Shah Turkan assumed all power while he was off smoking dope. By all accounts, she was not a very nice person.

Once Iltutmish died, she executed all the harem ladies she didn’t like. She had Razia’s youngest brother blinded and then executed. Then, she ordered Razia’s execution. At this final straw, the people revolted and Shah Turkan was slapped in jail. As her name suggests, she was Turkish, and described both as a “slave” and as a “handmaid.” Six of one, a half dozen of the other: It is obvious that she was a bitter and ambitious woman, and the more I think of her, the larger a role she has to play in the unfolding of the story.

The royal palace mentioned above presents another set of difficulties.

There’s a Kushk-i-Firoz in Delhi; however, this was built by Firoz Shah Tughluk in 1354. Strike out.

The capital of the medieval rulers of Ghur was Firoz-Koh, and was situated halfway between Herat and Kabul. In addition, the historian who wrote the Tabikat i Nasiri was appointed head of Firozi College.

I may take artistic license with this, as I currently have the astrologer gazing into the muddy waters of the Yamuna.

Here’s what I know: Ghori and his forces invaded Delhi through the weak Northern gate of the Qila Rai Pithora (which was originally the Lal Kot, until Prithvi Rai III enlarged it and renamed it after himself.) Ghori left Aibek, a slave and head honcho in charge. Once Ghori died, Aibek assumed control, and he is considered to be the first ruler of the Slave dynasty. The Slave dynasty continued to use the QRP as their stronghold.

However, not content with ousting the Hindu Rajputs, they went on a little bit of a rampage, knocking down temples and using the materials to build a mosque and the Qut’b Minar. In other words, they personalized it. Other building remains can be seen, including the remnants of other palaces. So who’s the say that they didn’t call the new palace in Delhi the Kush-Firozi.

Well, there we go. I’ve convinced myself.

By the way, the term Mughal, although referring historically to the dynasty that started with Babur much later, was in popular use by the 12th century. It means “Hindi-speaking Muslims.” There’s a little piece of trivia for you!

It’s always interesting to see what news headlines are juxtaposed on Yahoo’s top stories. Currently, we’ve got:

Bush Plans to Send Americans to Moon, on to Mars
Payrolls Barely Rise, Worse Than Expected
Rafsanjani: Bush Accusations Spoiled Iran-U.S. Thaw

It’s always a disappointment when you see a headline proclaiming that a politician you hate has just done something you like. Fortunately, the disappointment usually fades into a much more satisfactory outrage once you’re into the meat of the article.

I am speaking, naturally, of Bush trying to reform immigration law. Sounds great. It’s long overdue. But c’mon, this from a person who wants to fingerprint everyone who isn’t white coming into the country?

Under this proposal, workers would be granted permission to stay for an initial period of three years if they can prove employment. During this time, they can go home, come back and be paid minimum wage and social security. After the three years is up, they go back. Companies can also hire workers if there aren’t any Americans to fill the position.

Woo flippin’ hoo.

Note the word worker. That’s what this is about: allowing companies to import cheap labor, which can then be more easily controlled with threat of deportation. Oh, yes, and it’s also an outright attempt to woo Hispanic voters.

Luckily, no one likes this idea. Conservatives say, “Keep the dang non-Americans out. Period.” Liberals say, “Either s*** or get off the pot.” And fiscal Republicans (you know, people who are really conservative, but, more than anything, want to be liked) say, “We-ell, I’d love to … but look at how much it’ll cost Social Security.”

I think it points to an even more disturbing trend: excessive outsourcing. We’ve been exporting blue collar jobs to countries where companies can pay cents on the dollar for labor for years. More recently, we’ve been exporting traditionally white collar jobs. I’m not going to argue for or against this, but the fact is that we’ve become a service-based economy.

With this proposal, we’re outsourcing “undesirable” jobs to a different country within our own borders. Does this sound messed up to anyone other than me? It’s not that I have a problem with the “global economy,” or that I think only Americans should get American jobs. I don’t. But I also don’t see how this proposal benefits anyone. American workers will have an even tougher time getting paid a living wage. Foreign workers will become an underclass who may pay into the tax system, but will get very little in return financially–and who will certainly get none of the benefits of citizenship.

After much searching, have found the e-texts of both the Elliot/Dawson translation of the Tabakat-i-Nasiri and Feroshti’s History of the Rise of Mahommedan Power in India.

This has MADE my day.

I also want to say that people complain about paying taxes, but we have so many wonderful services that don’t get taken advantage of. I knew that the public library did interlibrary loans (which I’ve used extensively), but didn’t know that they would get books for me from college libraries. Two of the books I need, listed below, aren’t in any libraries closer than Stanford and Berkeley, but I can get them for whatever nominal fee those libraries charge. The public library handles everything, including shipping.

Razia, 13th century Queen of Delhi, is known by many, many names. I’m getting a crash course in Arabic in my research.

Different spellings of Razia:
Raziya
Raziyya
Razziyah
Razeeya
Raddiya
Radhiya
well, you get the picture.

In Arabic, Razia and Radhiya (and their various permutations) are interchangeable, meaning “content, satisfied.”
In Aramaic, Razia(h) is the feminine form of Raziel, “raz” meaning “secret” and the “ia” part meaning “God” (Yahweh?). So “the secret of God.”

Of course, the Aramaic preceded the Arabic, but exploring the connection between the names is interesting. Content and satisfied because of being the secret of God? Or is it that basking in God’s glory should make one content and satisfied? Or perhaps, even, that the secret of God is really being content or satisfied?

In any case, Razia wasn’t either. She axed her brother to take over the throne–which her father Iltutmish (Altumish) had dictated on his deathbed. She dressed in man’s garb (who can blame her?), had, by some accounts, a torrid love affair with an Abyssinian slave and battled with the best of ‘em. There are differing accounts of her death, but they all agree she was killed.

So maybe the name itself poses certain contradictions, because of the two apparently unrelated meanings.

Then there are the honorifics:
Sultan Raziyat al-Duniya w’al [wa-al] Din Bint al-Sultan or “The Blessed of the earthly world and of the faith”
Sultan Radiyya Bint Shamas al-din or “Daughter of the Sun”
Jalalut-u’d [al]-din Radiyah (Don’t know what Jalalut means … any helpers?)
Jalalatuddin Radiyya Begum

I think one of the problems of having businesspeople (wasn’t that PC?) in public office is that they start treating the government like a corporation–and not just any corporation, but one in which the fat cats at the top get fatter, and those at the bottom get leaner and scragglier.

Take fingerprinting visitors to the U.S., which started today. It reminds me of when you go to a company, need to sign in and out, are given a badge and are urged to give information like your vehicle plate number (which I usually leave blank, simply because I have no idea what it is).

Brazil has started fingerprinting U.S. visitors in retaliation, comparing this new American policy to those of the Nazis. That seems just a little over-the-top to me, but I can’t blame them for being pissed. I’d be pissed, and I’m willing to bet that Americans visiting Brazil are going to ranting and raving. Hmmm, a little bit of a double standard, methinks. Also, probably not terribly good for foreign policy, but hey, it’s the security of the corporation that matters, right?

Another example of the government-to-business model can be found in Bush’s budget for 2005, in which he plans to “control the rising cost of housing vouchers for the poor, require some veterans to pay more for health care, slow the growth in spending on biomedical research and merge or eliminate some job training and employment programs.” (Bush’s Budget for 2005, The New York Times, January 4, 2003) Sound like corporate downsizing, anyone?

At the same time, more money will be allocated to recruit nurses to teach kids abstinence-based sex ed, recruit volunteers in homeland security–and continues to spend ridiculous amounts of money on defense and security against terrorism.

This is not democracy.

This is the tightfisted reign of a CEO who watches “unnecessary” company expenditures like a hawk, incorporates his business in a right-to-work state to avoid paying or treating workers fairly, and foists his right-wing values on a country utterly cowed by his rhetoric of terrorism.

In short, keep your mouth shut, else be fired.

I hesitate to do this, but, hey, you can have wishlists on various store sites, and you’ve got to let people know it exists, right? So Mom, if you just “happen” across any of these books in your bookly peregrinations … well, you never know, you might. In any case, you have more of a chance of it in NC than I do in ID.

wishlist

Sultan Raziya: Her Life and Times, Jamila Brijbhushan
Razia: Queen of Delhi, Rafiq Zakarian
The Forgotten Queens of Islam, Fatima Morressi
Medieval History of India, N. Jayapalan
The Sultanate of Delhi, V.D. Mahajan
Administration of the Sultanate of Delhi, I. Quereshi