Studies on the contributions made to the Arabic language and literature during the Ottoman period generally focused on the Arabic language grammar and rhetoric education given by the Ottomans in the madrasahs. However, it is seen that Ottoman scholars also produced some works in the field of Arabic poetry. In the mentioned period, the studies in the field of Arabic poetry and literature have been increasing in recent years. In this study, a poet, a recitation scholar and an Ottoman Pasha, (...) Köprülü Abdullah Pasha, who was a member of the Köprülü family, who made his mark on the Ottoman administration and served both the science and the state, and who wrote an Arabic divan, and the content of his poetry divan were examined. The poet's divan is in manuscript form in various libraries. There is no study on Abdullah Pasha's poetry and his manuscript. Due to Abdullah Pasha's family, he received a good education, served in the geographies where the Arabs lived, especially when he was the governor in Egypt, he benefited from the al-Azhar scholars and wrote poems about the subjects discussed in classical Arabic literature. It is thought that such studies will also contribute to the studies against the claims that Arabic collapsed during the Ottoman period. (shrink)

The subject of this study is a part of the trip of Muṣṭafā Esʿad al-Luqaymî (d. 1178/1765), one of the Egyptian poets who lived in the 18th century. It is among the aims of the study to reveal the poems he said during this trip and to introduce the al-Ḳuds section of his work named Mevâniḥ al-uns bi riḥlatî li wādī al-Ḳuds, in which he tells about his journey, as a travel book in terms of Arabic literature. In this work, (...) the poet describes his 6-month journey. This journey started from Dimyāṭ in 1143/1731, continued to al-Ḳuds, Damascus and Lebanon, and ended again in Dimyāṭ. In this study, only the poems that the poet recited during his trip to al-Ḳuds were discussed. Revealing the verse and prose literary materials found in the travelogues will contribute to the riḥla/raḥālāt literature, which is a type of Arabic literature, and will make the works that have been copyrighted in this field more recognizable. Literary prose, poetry, correspondence between authors, treatises, notes on the history of literature can be found in such works. In the study, information about the poet al-Luqaymî and his life will be given and his poems about the places and people he visited in the al-Ḳuds part of his trip will be included. (shrink)

In response to the growing needs of proficient English speakers, the Taiwan Ministry of Education officially included English in standard elementary school curriculum since 2001. English courses at elementary level were extended from the fifth grade to the third grade since the fall of 2005. It is significant to examine whether the educational reform has positively affected students? learning attitudes. Through focus group interviews and questionnaire survey at six elementary schools, this study explores students? attitudes towards learning English and ways (...) of instruction. Results indicate that students generally have strong interests in English?speaking people and desire to spend time in English?speaking places. A majority of students enjoy learning English through games, and compliments from teachers or parents boost their learning motivation. The finding also reveals that English education in Taiwan seems to have directed students towards a narrow viewpoint of foreign cultures since many students associate foreigners with English?speaking people only. Finally, many students experience learning English at cram schools, which indicates the important role cram schools play in students? extracurricular learning. (shrink)

The multicultural experience offers the intriguing possibility for an empirical examination of how free-energy principles explain dynamic cultural behaviors and pragmatic cultural phenomena and a challenging but decisive test of thinking through other minds predictions. We highlight that TTOM needs to treat individuals as active cultural agents instead of passive learners.

The book you hold in your hands is the outcome of the "ISCS 2013: Interdisciplinary Symposium on Complex Systems" held at the historical capital of Bohemia as a continuation of our series of symposia in the science of complex systems. Prague, one of the most beautiful European cities, has its own beautiful genius loci. Here, a great number of important discoveries were made and many important scientists spent fruitful and creative years to leave unforgettable traces. The perhaps most significant period (...) was the time of Rudolf II who was a great supporter of the art and the science and attracted a great number of prominent minds to Prague. This trend would continue. Tycho Brahe, Niels Henrik Abel, Johannes Kepler, Bernard Bolzano, August Cauchy Christian Doppler, Ernst Mach, Albert Einstein and many others followed developing fundamental mathematical and physical theories or expanding them. Thus in the beginning of the 17th century, Kepler formulated here the first two of his three laws of planetary motion on the basis of Tycho Brahe’s observations. In the 19th century, nowhere differentiable continuous functions (of a fractal character) were constructed here by Bolzano along with a treatise on infinite sets, titled “Paradoxes of Infinity” (1851). Weierstrass would later publish a similar function in 1872. In 1842, Doppler as a professor of mathematics at the Technical University of Prague here first lectured about a physical effect to bear his name later. And the epoch-making physicist Albert Einstein – while being a chaired professor of theoretical physics at the German University of Prague – arrived at the decisive steps of his later finished theory of general relativity during the years 1911–1912. In Prague, also many famous philosophers and writers accomplished their works; for instance, playwright arel ape coined the word "robot" in Prague (“robot” comes from the Czech word “robota” which means “forced labor”). (shrink)