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.
“A fanatic is the one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”
Winston S. Churchill
Nobel Prize for Literature
“My ambition is to live to see all of physics reduced to a formula so elegant and simple that it will fit easily on the front of a T-shirt.”
Leon Lederman
Nobel Prize for Physics
“Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Let us not speak of it at all.”
Samuel Beckett
Nobel Prize for Literature
“Instead of telling girls to cover their hair, we should teach them to use their heads.”
Shirin Ebadi
Nobel Prize for Peace
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PMM Editorial Catalan 2008
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The Impossible Takes Longer
The 1000 Wisest Things Ever Said by Nobel Prize Winners
For more than 100 years it has been the ultimate prize – the hallmark of genius. The Nobel Prize has honored writers such as Yeats, Faulkner, Beckett, and Naipaul and peacemakers like the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela.
Nobel science laureates have given us X-rays, penicillin, Prozac and polio vaccine. They comprise a club of the planet’s best and brightest.
From the Nobel’s extraordinary collection of talent, David L. Pratt has carefully selected 1,000 unforgettable quotations and presented them in a unique and compelling way.
Here are some of the world’s clearest minds on subjects like: Achievement and Failure; Work; Faith; Truth; Lies; Ideals; Death; Money; Emotions; the Meaning of Life — and even on what it’s like to win the Nobel Prize.
David Pratt is Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University in Canada, where he taught from 1969 to 1997. He was educated at the universities of Oxford, Harvard, and Toronto. He has published five books including two books on education (Harcourt), both of which sold world-wide. He lives in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.
