Écrire et réécrire l'histoire druze des origines

Abstract: In his work ʿUmdat al-ʿārifīn, Šayḫ al-Ašrafānī, a Druze scholar living in Syria in the 11th/17th century, composed a Druze history of origins for the entire community. This universal history portrays Druzism as an inherent part of human history, like the other monotheistic doctrines. The author thus offers a theological account of the birth of Druzism by tracing a linear discourse of world history from Adam to the Druze daʿwa (preaching) in the 5th/11th century. Al-Ašrafānī also attributes an Islamic character to Druzism by drawing on the Druze sacred text as well as exegetical literature from the late 9th/15th century, while highlighting the Islamic nature of Druzism and its pre-eminence. This rewriting of history in the 11th/17th century contributed to the popularization of Druzism as attested in other texts from the same period. While al-Ašrafānī did not greatly influence his contemporaries, his work was of considerable importance in the Druze communities of Bilād al-Šām afterwards. Indeed, ʿUmdat al-ʿārifīn had such a substantial impact on Druze historiography that it became a historical source for writing and rewriting the Druze history of origins. Despite being quoted extensively by modern Druze historians, it remains unpublished, being kept secret in the community

Interactive Multimedia Learning On Health Care Among Lebanese Women: An Exploratory Study

Multimedia learning greatly enhanced the learning outcome and experience of learners exposed to it. The proposed study will explore the usefulness of multimedia learning software devised to educate Lebanese pregnant women who have a low level of formal education about pregnancy and early infant care. The study will be based on the media richness theory. It is expected that through media rich programs, communication of information is facilitated, promoting the resolving of indecisiveness and ambiguity that stems out of the lack of knowledge or information about a given a subject and the inability to convey a meaning of what is being said respectively

Le druzisme prémoderne en Syrie : émergence du droit druze et des premières institutions religieuses

The Epistles of the Druze Canon, written in the 5th/11th century, lay down the foun- dations for a new religious doctrine, and give a brief and sometimes ambiguous out- line of the moral, juridical and judicial precepts to which believers should submit henceforth, all previous legal doctrines (šarāʾiʿ) having been abrogated by the divine Will. Premodern Druze scholars, especially the Emir al-Sayyid (d. 884/1479) and his disciples, attempted to explain these canonical treatises with the aim of establishing legal and religious principles adapted to their rural milieu and posing rules designed to organise the community. Traditional Druze historiography considers the Emir al- Sayyid to be the only and greatest Druze reformer of all time, the “architect” of Druze renaissance in sum, and falsely attributes to him a collection of theological and legal writings (the “Great Exegeses”) which are scrupulously applied by religious people up to the present day. However, a critical examination of this unpublished corpus (dating from the latter part of the 9th/15th century) shows however that the Druze legal theory, as well as the first religious and judiciary Druze institutions emerged after the death of al-Sayyid

Des manuscrits druzes antérieurs au IXe/XVe siècle ?

Pour appréhender l’histoire druze, il est nécessaire au préalable de porter un regard critique sur le récit traditionnel et de mener une analyse contextuelle approfondie des écrits fondateurs. Il est nécessaire pour ce faire de connaître la période de production des textes en notre possession ; or la datation des manuscrits druzes est un exercice difficile. Ces écrits sont, en effet, soumis à une règle commune, à laquelle font exception quelques copies tardives : l’absence d’un colophon qui préciserait la date de la copie ou le nom du copiste. Dans cet article, je propose une grille de datation propre aux manuscrits druzes sur papier non filigrané − grille qui devra être réexaminée à la lumière de nouveaux corpus −, tout en favorisant l’examen de leur évolution dans un cadre plus large, celui des manuscrits arabes. Afin de mener cette étude, j'ai retenu-neuf manuscrits sur papier oriental conservés à la BnF 9. Ceux-ci représentent la plus riche collection que nous possédons de textes druzes copiés sur papier oriental. Ils appartiennent à un fonds, plus large, comportant quarante-neuf manuscrits 10 : trente-neuf sont copiés sur papier filigrané, dont cinq seulement sont datés 11 ; et dix le sont sur papier non filigrané, mais l’un d’entre eux s’est avéré inutilisable, car trop détérioré 12. Les neuf manuscrits analysés forment un corpus qui, en dépit de ses dimensions modestes, est constitué de documents variés, tant par leur contenu, canonique, théologique ou juridique, que par leurs caractéristiques matérielles, ce qui laisse à penser qu’ils ont été copiés par des copistes aux profils différents et qu’ils étaient destinés à des usages divers. En outre, ils comptent à l’évidence parmi les plus anciens manuscrits druzes conservés dans les bibliothèques occidentales

Le Kitāb Durrat al-tāğ wa-sullam al-mi'rāğ d'Ibn Nasr: un éloge de Ğamāl al-Dīn 'Abd Allāh al-Tanūkhī (820/1417-884/1479)

L’oeuvre de 'Abd Allah al-Tanukhi (m. 884/1479) est considérée comme une rupture avec la jahiliyya (antéislam) druze dans laquelle sa communauté vivait depuis la fin de la da'wa (prédication) en 435/1043. Dans l’imaginaire de ses coreligionnaires, il est le « grand réformateur » et l’instaurateur de valeurs doctrinales et juridiques aussi pures et justes que celles établies par les hudud (dignitaires) durant la période initiatique. Repenser la construction identitaire druze et la formation communautaire du druzisme, nécessite de replacer al-Tanukhi au sein de cette double évolution : serait-il le continuateur d’un courant réformateur, ou l’initiateur d’enseignements, rejetés de son vivant, ayant réussi à s’imposer ultérieurement ? Dans cet article, nous proposons une traduction annotée du récit de son disciple-biographe, Ibn Nasr (m. 898/1492), qui dévoile et dissimule simultanément des éléments clés dans la vie de son maître

Cytomegalovirus drives Vδ2neg γδ T cell inflation in many healthy virus carriers with increasing age

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) usually causes lifelong asymptomatic infection, but over time can distort immune profiles. Recent reports describe selective expansion of Vδ2(neg) γδ T cells in healthy and immunocompromised CMV carriers. Having shown previously that virus-specific CD8(+) and CD4(+) T cell responses are increased significantly in elderly CMV carriers, probably driven by chronic stimulation, we hypothesized that Vδ2(neg) γδ T cells may also be expanded with age. Our results show that Vδ2(neg) γδ T cells are increased significantly in CMV-seropositive healthy individuals compared to CMV-seronegative controls in all age groups. The differences were most significant in older age groups (P < 0·0001). Furthermore, while Vδ2(neg) γδ T- cells comprise both naive and memory cells in CMV-seronegative donors, highly differentiated effector memory cells are the dominant phenotype in CMV carriers, with naive cells reduced significantly in numbers in CMV-seropositive elderly. Although phenotypically resembling conventional CMV-specific T cells, Vδ2(neg) γδ T cells do not correlate with changes in magnitude of CMV-specific CD4(+) or CD8(+) T cell frequencies within those individuals, and do not possess ex-vivo immediate effector function as shown by CMV-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. However, after short-term culture, Vδ2(neg) γδ T cells demonstrate effector T cell functions, suggesting additional requirements for activation. In summary, Vδ2(neg) γδ T cells are expanded in many older CMV carriers, demonstrating a further level of lymphocyte subset skewing by CMV in healthy individuals. As others have reported shared reactivity of Vδ2(neg) γδ T cells towards tumour cells, the composition of γδ T cell subsets may also have implications for risk of developing cancer in elderly people

Few are as Good as Many: An Ontology-Based Tweet Spam Detection Approach

Due to the high popularity of Twitter, spammers tend to favor its use in spreading their commercial messages. In the context of detecting twitter spams, different statistical and behavioral analysis approaches were proposed. However, these techniques suffer from many limitations due to (1) ongoing changes to Twitter\u2019s streaming API which constrains access to a user\u2019s list of followers/followees, (2) spammer\u2019s creativity in building diverse messages, (3) use of embedded links and new accounts, and (4) need for analyzing different characteristics about users without their consent. To address the aforementioned challenges, we propose a novel ontology-based approach for spam detection over Twitter during events by analyzing the relationship between ham user tweets vs. spams. Our approach relies solely on public tweet messages while performing the analysis and classification tasks. In this context, ontologies are derived and used to generate a dictionary that validates real tweet messages from random topics. Similarity ratio among the dictionary and tweets is used to reflect the legitimacy of the messages. Experiments conducted on real tweet data illustrate that message-to-message techniques achieved a low detection rate compared to our ontology based approach which outperforms them by approximately 200%, in addition to promising scalability for large data analysis

Whole exome sequence of Pakistani acute lymphocytic leukemia patient from Pakhtuns ancestry reveal the novel genetic variant characterization in the GLDC gene

Background: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is the most common malignant disease in children and often involves numerical chromosomal abnormalities, fusion genes, or minor localized deletions that are significant in the development of leukemia. Glycine Decarboxylase (GLDC) gene overexpression and mutation is associated with oncogenic activity in various cancers. However, the pathophysiological roles and structural consequences of GLDC in acute lymphocytic leukemia have not been investigated. Objective: We aimed to identify novel variant in acute lymphocytic leukemia through whole exome sequencing. Methods: This study employs whole exome sequencing to examine seven pediatric patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in Pakistan. The patients under investigation are of Pakistani origin. The deleterious effect was predicted by SIFT, PolyPhen2, CADD, FATHMM, HOPE, and Mutation Assessors. Structure stability assessment was performed using the I-Mutant-3.0server. The atomic structure of the Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) was analyzed utilizing the Molecular Dynamics (MD) with WEBGRO server. Results: The present study identified a novel pathogenic heterozygous variant NM_000170.2:p.Ser551Cys/c.1651A>T in GLDC gene of early stage diagnose ALL patient the variant was not present in the dbSNP & 1000Genome Project databases. Structural instability, disrupted function, and altered 3D structure were observed in the mutant GLDC protein model compared to the wild-type structure. Conclusion: The novel SNP was found in a highly conserved region of the GLDC protein and is predicted to be a high-risk candidate for leukemia. This variant greatly affects the stability of the protein

Pelvic trauma : WSES classification and guidelines

Complex pelvic injuries are among the most dangerous and deadly trauma related lesions. Different classification systems exist, some are based on the mechanism of injury, some on anatomic patterns and some are focusing on the resulting instability requiring operative fixation. The optimal treatment strategy, however, should keep into consideration the hemodynamic status, the anatomic impairment of pelvic ring function and the associated injuries. The management of pelvic trauma patients aims definitively to restore the homeostasis and the normal physiopathology associated to the mechanical stability of the pelvic ring. Thus the management of pelvic trauma must be multidisciplinary and should be ultimately based on the physiology of the patient and the anatomy of the injury. This paper presents the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) classification of pelvic trauma and the management Guidelines.Peer reviewe