In 701 B.C. the Assyrian empire was in its ascendancy. It had already vanquished the kingdom of Israel to the north including the capital at Samaria. It then prepared an assault on Judah and its capital at Jerusalem.
But in one of those significant events that changes the course of world history, Assyria was repelled. Jerusalem was saved until 586 B.C. when the Babylonians sacked the city, forcing its leadership class into exile.
Henry Aubin, in a major feat of scholarship, determines that Jerusalem was aided by a Kushite army from Africa which had marched northeast from the Nile valley. While the Bible attributes the Assyrian retreat to an angel and secular commentators cite pestilence, Aubin, in a meticulously documented work, demonstrates that an alliance with the African nation of Kush bolstered Jerusalem’s defences.
Kush, also known as Nubia, was located in what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan. A monarchy that existed for more than 1000 years, from 900 B.C. to A.D. 350, Kushites held sway over Egypt from 712 B.C. to about 660 B.C. Of Egypt’s 31 dynasties, this, the 25th Dynasty, is the only one that all scholars agree, was black.
The commander of the Kushite expeditionary force was Taharqa (or as the Bible calls him Tirhakah). This Kushite prince, who had his own interests in halting Assyrian expansion, likely caught the aggressors by surprise as they prepared their siege of Jerusalem.
Aubin offers a thrilling military history and a stirring political analysis of the ancient world. He also sees the event as influential over the centuries.
The Kushite rescue of the Hebrew kingdom of Judah enabled the fragile, war-ravaged state to endure, to nurse itself back to economic and demographic health, and allowed the Hebrew religion, Yahwism, to evolve within the next several centuries into Judaism. Thus emerged the monotheistic trunk supporting Christianity and Islam.
Upside Downside
Simple Rules of Risk Management for the Smart Investor
Ron Dembo is the guru of risk. His great contribution is the concept of regret in the calculations of risk and decision-making, whether it involves buying a lottery ticket or more complex procedures.
In Upside, Downside, Ron Dembo and author Daniel Stoffman present investors with three simple rules for managing their portfolio:
Know what you own
Use multiple scenarios
Anticipate regret
Financial markets are volatile and increasingly complex. They are vulnerable to world events, such as terrorist attacks, weather, and epidemics – events that are certain to occur, yet utterly unpredictable.
Traditional methods of risk management are either too complex for the average investor or too crude to be useful. As a result, even knowledgeable investors are scared. They are unsure of what to do to safeguard their financial future.
Upside, Downside, empowers the individual investor as never before; no longer need he or she feel at the mercy of unforeseeable events. The future is, by nature, uncertain. Upside, Downside doesn’t remove the uncertainty. But it gives today’s investor, for the first time, the knowledge and ability to manage it.
Ron Dembo is a mathematician who left academe to found Algorithmics Inc, which operates in several countries to provide risk management support for leading financial institutions. He is co-author of Rules of Risk Management with Andrew Freeman.
Daniel Stoffman is the author of several books and co-author of Boom, Bust & Echo, one of the biggest sellers in Canadian publishing history. He will recast the book for each territory.
