Karl Blind: KHAZARS - A Forgotten Turkish Nation in Europe

Karl Blind
KHAZARS
A Forgotten Turkish Nation in Europe
(Scripta Minora, vol iv, 2020)

“Within clear historical time — between the eighth and the eleventh centuries — we meet with, in what is at present southern Russia, one of the most extraordinary kingdoms, fully provable, from Arab and Byzantine writers, to have been founded and upheld by a Turkish people. It was a Jewish-Mahometan kingdom of no mean culture, marked by justice and religious toleration. It went down in the turmoil of attacks made upon it by the Warangian chieftains of Russia, by Byzantine arms, and by rough nomadic tribes.”
--Karl Blind, Khazars: A Forgotten Turkish Nation in Europe

F. Max Müller: THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA

F. Max Müller
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA
Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism
and Christianity
(Scripta Minora, vol. iii, 2013)

Contents:
1. Confucianism
2. Taoism
3. Buddhism and Christianity


Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900) was Anglo-German orientalist and comparative philologist. His studies in mythology led him to another field of activity in which his influence was more durable and extensive, that of the comparative science of religions.


“The Chinese idea of religion was evidently very different from our own. Religion was to them giving good advice, improving the manners of the people; and they seem to have thought that for such a purpose they could never have enough teachers and preachers.”

--F. Max Müller, The Religions of China

Emily Gerard & Agnes Murgoci: TRANSYLVANIAN SUPERSTITIONS

Emily Gerard & Agnes Murgoci
TRANSYLVANIAN
SUPERSTITIONS
(Scripta Minora, vol. ii, 2013)

Contents:
1. Emily Gerard, Transylvanian Superstitions
2. Agnes Murgoci, The Vampire in Roumania

"Transylvanian Superstitions" written by Emily Gerard and first published in 1885  is widely held to have provided key inspiration to Bram Stoker while creating the novel Dracula.

On the other hand, "The Vampire in Roumania" by Agnes Murgoci is one of the best accounts of the belief in vampires in Romania.

“Transylvania might well be termed the land of superstition, for nowhere else does this curious crooked plant of delusion flourish as persistently and in such bewildering variety. It would almost seem as though the whole species of demons, pixies, witches, and hobgoblins, driven from the rest of Europe by the wand of science, had taken refuge within this mountain rampart, well aware that here they would find secure lurking-places, whence they might defy their persecutors yet awhile.”

--Emily Gerard, 1885

William Miller: BOSNIA BEFORE THE TURKISH CONQUEST

William Miller
BOSNIA BEFORE
THE TURKISH CONQUEST

(Scripta Minora, vol. i, 2013)

Contents:
I. The History of Bosnia down to 1180
II. The Great Bosnian Bans (1180-1376)
III. The Kings of Bosnia (1376-1463)


"Bosnia before the Turkish Conquest" written by William Miller and first published in 1898 is a brief history of this Balkan country from the earliest time to the end of the Middle Ages.

"But the old Illyrian inhabitants had to acknowledge the superiority of another race. About 380 B.C. the Celts invaded the peninsula, and, by dint of continual pushing, ousted the natives of what is now Servia, and so became neighbours of the Ardiaei. Their next step was to drive the latter southward into the modern Herzegovina, and to seize their possessions in North Bosnia. Instead of uniting against the Celtic invaders the Illyrian tribes fell to quarrelling among themselves over some salt springs, which were unfortunately situated at the spot where their confines met. This fratricidal struggle had the effect of so weakening both parties that they fell an easy prey to the common foe. The victorious Celts pursued their southward course, and by 335 B.C. both Bosnia and Herzegovina were in their power, and the Illyrians either exiles or else subject to the Celtic sway. This is the first instance of that fatal tendency to disunion which has throughout been the curse of these beautiful lands. The worst foes of Bosnia and the Herzegovina have been those of their own household."

--William Miller