Mohammed's First Wife

Mother of Believers - Robert Hunt

As I'm reading this book about Mohammed, I'm reminded of just how awesome his first wife, Khadija, really was. Mohammed's first biographer described her as "determined, noble, and intelligent". Twice a widow and single-mother, Khadija nevertheless became a wealthy, independent merchant in the trading hub of Mecca.

Side note: Khadija's name is often followed by the acronym RA. This is short for the Arabic phrase Radiallhu Anhu, or "May God be pleased with him/her."

Their meeting was interesting. Mohammed was hired by her to manage some caravans. He seemingly did such a good job that he caught Khadija's attention. He was already well-known in the community for his honesty and trustworthiness, and it was for these reasons, in spite of his low status in society, that Khadija extended her hand to him.

Mohammed was 25-years-old when they married, but I'm having a hard time finding any definitive source of how old Khadija was when she married Mohammed. The book I'm reading now suggests she was in her late thirties when she married. Further research (i.e. Googling for about fifteen minutes) shows that the most commonly accepted age was 40 at marriage, but the idea that she was closer to 28 is gaining ground in some small circles.

The marriage was described as one of mutual respect and love. Despite living in a polygamous society, Mohammed never married another while Khadija lived. Of his many political marriages after her death, this marriage to Khadija was the only one for which this was true.

When Mohammed received his first revelation from God, he was extremely shaken. He crawled down from the mountain and went immediately to his wife, who wrapped him in her arms until he was calm. She believed his story immediately, reasoning that God would not allow any demon to tell such a lie to a good, honest person. Because of this, she is described as "the first Muslim."

They were married 25 years until Khadija passed away. Even later with his younger wives, Mohammed would still speak highly of his first wife.

Sources:
"Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time" - Karen Armstrong
“Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes” - Tamim Ansar
Google

L.A.S.E.R.

U.S. Army Research Laboratory, 2013

For those who don't know, "laser" is an abbreviation for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. That really does sum things up nicely, but a little more explanation might be in order.

First of all, whenever an atom drops from a high energy state to a lower, the atom emits a photon of energy equal to the difference in energy states. This type of thing occurs spontaneously in nature all the time, but a laser works by forcing this kind of reaction.

To stimulate this photon emission, the gas inside the laser cavity is energized from an external source, such as an electrical current from a battery. For example, a mixture of helium and neon gets zapped, which causes the atoms to move around rapidly. The idea is that the twitchy helium atoms would bump into the neon atoms and cause them to jump to a high-energy state. Within moments, one of the neon atoms will naturally drop to a lower state and emit a photon.

When one of these photons bumps into another energized atom, it somewhat counter-intuitively causes the atom to drop to a lower energy level (the book uses the term "sympathetic vibration", but I'm not too clear on how that works right now) and release a photon with the exact same properties as the one that struck it; one photon becomes two. These reactions snowball into more photon emissions as the new photons react with other energized atoms. In a very short time, a lot of photons are bouncing around with the exact same properties as all the others.

All of this is occurring within a cylinder with carefully aligned mirrors on each end. The photons bounce back and forth between these mirrors until they gradually line up and fit through the hole at one of the ends, all at the same wavelength (colour), moving in parallel, and in the same direction. Voilà! A laser beam.

"Physics for the Rest of Us" - Roger S. Jones

The Annexation of Hawaii

The Saint Paul Globe, 1897

It seems that some of my assumptions about Hawaii's annexation aren't entirely true. I was always under the impression that a group of sugar barons pressured the US government into annexing the island chain and that was that. While it's certainly possible to spin the story into such an oversimplification, it misses a lot of what was going on.

It is true that there were several planters on the islands making big money selling sugar to the United States. The US government was even on good terms with Hawaii and had economic treaties to ensure unhindered sugar trade. However, the States had several sources of sugar, so losing Hawaii as a trade partner would not be catastrophic to the industry.

Obviously, the sugar planters wanted to ensure that they held sway in the Hawaiian government in order to continue growing their profits. When the queen at the time, Lili'uokalani, made a move to secure more power for the crown, the planters saw this as a cause for alarm.

Without orders from the United States, the group of influential, pro-annexation planters had US marines march from the coast to the royal palace and demand the creation of a new constitution that further limited royal power. I felt like this was something important. It's true that these Americans pushed for more American power in Hawaii, but it was not the direct will of the US government. It was a group of independent individuals.

In fact, the president did not approve. He sent a trusted adviser to the islands to ascertain the situation. The adviser concluded, in the so-called Blount Report, that the planters were a bunch of jerks that did not act in the best interest of the Hawaiian people (I'm paraphrasing, by the way).

Meanwhile, the now declawed queen attempted to stage a military overthrow. She gathered weapons and freedom fighters from around the islands, but was eventually discovered by the ruling junta's spies. She was arrested, tried, and sentenced to house arrest. Thus, the monarchy was effectively and completely destroyed.

President Cleveland did what he could to stall any annexation plans. In 1897, he was replaced with President McKinley, who eventually agreed to Hawaii's annexation. However, it had nothing to do with sugar, the currently ruling junta, nor to end the constant native petitions for independence. The annexation was signed primarily to keep the growing Japanese power from taking the island chain and having a strategic advantage in the Pacific.

In 1898, the Hawaiian flag was lowered and officially replaced with that of the United States.

Sources:
"Captive Paradise" - James L. Haley

The Ruler of Hawaii

Hawaii is an interesting place. For the longest time, its people had been largely isolated by its location in the middle of the Pacific, surrounded by miles and miles of deadly nothingness. It was controlled by an assortment of rulers that held demesne across the islands. It wasn't until around the 1780's that the warring states began to consolidate around a single warlord: Kamehameha.

He didn't have an easy time of it. After many years of fighting and peace-making, the only lands he could control were a few districts on the Big Island and, through a diplomatic marriage, another few districts in Maui.

The breakthrough came when he turned to foreign traders. Admittedly, foreign ships had been visiting the Hawaiian islands for quite some time. Its location in the middle of the Pacific made it a useful halfway point in many journeys. Whenever possible, Kamehameha traded island goods for weapons.

After several victories, he was eventually drawn into another stalemate as other powers began amassing their own stock of Western weapons. It wasn't until a timely volcanic eruption all but wiped out the army of a rival leader that Kamehameha turned things around again. He then invited his rival to a peace meeting to discuss their differences. Upon landing, the rival was swiftly executed and offered as a sacrifice to the god of war. And with that sacrifice, Kamehameha became the undisputed ruler of the big island, Hawaii.

Maui, the next island on Kamehameha's wishlist, was exhausted after a war against neighbouring Oahu and soon fell to Kamehameha's forces.

The ruler of Oahu knew what was coming and beefed up his arsenal of American weapons. However, even that was no match for Kamehameha's tactics and he eventually fell.

Kamehameha next wanted to take Kauai, but rebellions in his holding forced him to bide his time. A few years later, Kauai was struck with an outbreak of cholera. Seeing his weak position, the ruler of Kauai agreed to become Kamehameha's vassal, a bitter arrangement that the ex-ruler resented. Nevertheless, Kamehameha finally held all of the populated Hawaiian islands.

After conquering all of the islands, Kamehameha set upon boosting the government, economy, and foreign relations. He actively encouraged trade of the islands' resources and quickly grasped the concept of currency. Trade flourished, especially with America, Britain, and eventually Russia. He maintained a group of trusted advisers and administrators, and took steps to ensure they guided his son and heir after his death.

Upon his death, Kamehameha was buried in a secret grave to ensure his bones would never be disturbed. He was succeeded by his son, crowned Kamehameha II, and his wife, now queen regent. These two ushered in a series of reforms that changed Hawaii for ages to come.

Sources:
"Captive Paradise" - James L. Haley

Military Intelligence

As someone who works in computer security, I have a passing fascination with the intelligence community. One name that interested me recently is COL Oscar Koch. He was the head intelligence officer for LTG Patton during World War II and basically predicted the Ardennes Counteroffensive, a.k.a. The Battle of the Bulge.

At the time, most intelligence officers had little motivation and collected meager information about the enemy directly in front of them. Koch handled things differently. He took in everything he could get. He knew troop positions, towns, rivers, railways, bridges, contours, and every other little thing for hundreds of miles around.

His collection methods were as varied as the data coming in. Reconnaissance planes would mark enemy positions. Draftsmen would map out an entire area to determine optimal paths around obstacles. American soldiers that could pass for Germans would disguise themselves behind enemy lines and eavesdrop in bars and restaurants. Encrypted radio transmissions would be broken.

All of this data would pour in for analysis by Koch. In Patton's war room, he would physically mark everything he could onto a large 1:250,000 scale map showing the entire Western Front.

That's great and all, but what's really impressive is how Koch was able to tie together subtle troop movements, on both sides, and realize that a large counteroffensive was imminent. 

Around October of 1944, Koch noticed a buildup of German troops to the north. At the time, most intelligence officers considered the area of the Ardennes Forest to be a rest area for the Germans, where troops rotated in and out between stints. Movement was not uncommon. However, Koch felt something was unusual. Wehrmacht troops were collecting there in much higher numbers. More of the movements occurred at night. All of the movements were under complete radio silence. The Germans clearly did not want the Allies to know about this.

Koch reported his ideas to Patton in very certain terms. Considering Koch's reluctance to speak in certainties unless, well, absolutely certain, Patton took him at his word and established a contingency plan to shoot north if anything should occur. Regrettably, most intelligence officers did not agree and assumed the German army was too weak for such a counteroffensive.

As Patton made his march eastward, Koch received signal intelligence of the Germans leaving their staging area before switching to radio silence. Koch reported that the Germans were almost certainly launching their attack. Patton immediately turned his army 90 degrees to the north and flanked the Germans during their attack.

Even though the Germans did break through the Allied line, they eventually ground to a halt and Patton's army rammed into their southern side while Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery pinched from the north. Supply lines were cut and the German troops eventually had to retreat.

The important thing to take away is this: thanks to Koch's thorough intelligence, Patton's army was ready and able to counter the German offensive before it even had a chance to start. I just thought that was very impressive.

Sources:
"Killing Patton" - Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
"Oscar Koch and the Confidence of the Commander"
"Oscar Koch: An Unsung Hero Behind Patton's Victories" - MAJ Kevin Dougherty (p.66-68)