/u/benjaneson's posts
When Muhammad's first followers started to be persecuted, he advised them to escape to the Kingdom of Aksum (Abyssinia), which they did (the "First Hegira"). Why was Muhammad so sure that a Christian country would accept the followers of a new prophet, who didn't consider Jesus to be the son of God?
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I'm an educated gentleman living in continental Europe in the 1850s-70s. My British friends of a similar social standing are playing cricket, while their children at school are playing various forms of football (mainly association and rugby). Which team sports would me and my children be playing?
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As per the 1918 regulations of the House of Urach, the head of the House must be firstborn in the male line; document at least 32 noble quarters in ancestry; and marry a noblewoman with at least 32 noble quarters in ancestry. Why is this House so abnormally stringent in their "purity" of lineage?
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The native and most-spoken language of Mumbai is Marathi. How did the city become the centre of Hindi-language cinema (also known as "Bollywood", after the city's former name of Bombay), ahead of the Hindi-speaking metropolis of Delhi?
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After the Persian Church/Church of the East ("Nestorians") broke off in 431, and the Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopian ("Miaphysite") Churches broke off in 451, how much of Christendom (in terms of the population of adherents) actually remained under the "Chalcedonian" Roman Church?
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On 30 July 1966, England hosted and won the FIFA World Cup final. On that day, the front page of the UK's most popular newspaper was all about a minister fighting unions, while on 1 August (no newspaper on Sundays) it was all about Princess Alexandra's baby girl. Was football so much less popular?
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In 1516, the Fuggerei, the world's first social housing complex, was opened in Augsburg, with the rent set at one Rhenish guilder per year. How much cheaper would that have been than the normal rent for that period?
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The founding members of the UN included the Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR, apparently as a counterweight to the membership of India (a British colony) and the Philippines (a US territory). After those countries became independent, why did the other UN members accept the USSR having 3 votes?
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