Ransom

Nonstate transnational actors have long played a central role in Sahelian economic structures and
geopolitical arrangements because of their capacity to constitute sources of authority and sustenance
outside and across state structures. Recently, subversive battalions (qatiba) have resorted to
kidnapping, raiding, and ransoming as a means to social justice with a redistributive dimension.
Parallels can be drawn with authority structures associated with nineteenth-century privateers and
buccaneers, and more recently with pirates operating in the Indian Ocean. The parallel economy of
ransoming emerges in a context of critical disruptions of traditional economic and mobility frameworks
in the Sahel, the aggressive scramble for resources, and the displacement of the global war
on terror in the Sahel. This article examines the legitimation processes used by subversive groups,
both ideological and religious; the ethics of ransoming as a form of prosperity endeavor without
morality; and an oscillation between cooperation and subversion in the parallel economy of
smuggling understood as two aspects of the same strategy of engagement between formal
authorities and insubordinate groups in a context of scarcity. It argues that nonconventional forms of
ransoming and criminal predation in the Sahel have similarities with practices of states and multinational
corporations insofar as these divest ordinary citizens of their ability to become subjects
outside the colluding forces of capital, state power, and external interventions.

For the past two millennia, the death and resurrection of Jesus have dominated the thought of Christian theologians and exegetes, particularly when it comes to Paul’s perspectives on the matter. There have been theories and propositions to systematic theologies that have tried to make sense of what the New Testament (hereafter NT) writers were attempting to communicate regarding Jesus’ death, and what they envisioned it to have accomplished. This controversy raged on for centuries, each side having their set of texts that supposedly proved theirs to be the “correct” opinion. It is not the purpose of this essay to enter this controversy regarding atonement theories, but rather examine texts and cultural phenomena that antedate the epistemological presuppositions of the later arguments and compare these with familiar speech found in the NT. Rather than read these texts eisegetically through a systematized theological paradigm, I want to try and make sense of what those in the Second Temple period saw as having atoning or salvific qualities through the martyrdom of a righteous individual.

Distinguishes two phases in the culture of war in Europe. In the first, the capture and enslavement of women and children were respectable war aims; in consequence the systematic killing of adult males (especially those of high-status) was routine; for a warrior to surrender was shameful and very rare. In phase two, the demise of slavery meant that for the first time women and children came to be regarded as non-combatants, and high-status warriors treated as a source of profit (ransom). In consequence the knightly class came to recognise circumstances in which surrender was both sensible and honourable. It amounts to a shift from the Old Testament-style warfare still characteristic of the early Middle Ages to war in the ‘age of chivalry’.

Cervantes pasó un año en Italia, pero cinco en la ciudad de Argel. Aquellos años constituyen lo que Zamora Vicente describió como "un hecho primordial en la vida de Cervantes," que la divide "en dos mitades" (239). Se examinan los motivos para que escogiera volver a la pudibunda España de Felipe II.

Sobre el tema, es relevante el artículo de Michael McGaha, "Hacia la verdadera historia del cautivo Miguel de Cervantes", <i>Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos</i>, 20, 1996, pp. 540-546.

This article argues for establishing a connection between the ransoming of captives and the hosting of refugees as a politically legitimising practise. The article considers twelfth-century military and demographic changes that led to an increase in capture and ransom, the legal framework and social response to the ransoming industry, and leaders’ involvement in the release of captives as a high concern of state. An example of large-scale conquest, enslavement, and ransom in the thirteenth century illustrates how ransom and refuge were causally related and predicated upon the reciprocal social expectations of frontier societies.

What was the real story behind Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti’s condemnation, attributed to Cacciaguida in Paradiso, xvi, 136–147? The major Florentine chronicles of Dante’s era (Compagni) and thenceforth (Villani, Stefani) paint a picture of an innocent Buondelmonte, barbarously assassinated thanks to the homicidal rage of his peers – the magnates. However, the harsh treatment of Buondelmonte in the Commedia is the result of the character Cacciaguida (and therefore Dante) adhering to the noble/magnate ethos found in many contemporary sources (for example the chronicle by the pseudo-Brunetto Latini). Indeed, only at a later date would the Popolo’s ethos, expressed in the works of Compagni, Villani and Stefani, become the ‘definitive’ version.

The writer Miguel de Cervantes witnessed the conflict between Christianity and Islam during the sixteenth century, from his participation in a serie of battles between the two sides, and from his experience as a captive in Algier. This writer immortalized this conflict in his writings, especially the novel “Don Quichotte”, in which he recorded both the Battle of Lepanto and the Battle of the Gouletta events, as well as the lives of the Christian captives and their suffering, and the associated depletion of the human and financial strength of the Europe.

Ransom Due To Homicide in Grágás: Early Icelandic Jurisdiction Pragmatic

The Grágás (Grey Goose Laws) are the most substantial sources for the Commonwealth period of Iceland, up to the 1260’s. This collection of laws presents strict and clear rules for nearly every problematic or controversial questions. This paper focuses on the treatment of homicide. The two most grievous punishments of Icelandic legislation were extrusion and ransom. Both of them tried to give solution against feuding between two man or families. The other sources about the Commonwealth period of Iceland are the Íslendingasögur, the Icelandic family sagas, which gives another perspective on the feuding between the Icelanders. These two different kinds of sources were written down from the 12th century, but gives a clear picture about the previous centuries of the ancestry.

Keywords: Grágás, ransom, homicide, Commenwealth period of Iceland

The present study aims to analyze the diplomatic relations entered by Venice with two Islamic potentates in order to ransom Venetian prisoners, from the 14th century to the 15th century. The author investigates in particular, as a case study, the relations with the Hafside Emirate and the rising Ottoman authority. The former have been examined until 1436, when the Muda of Barbary was established. The research concerning the relations with the Ottoman authority has been brought forward until the siege of Costantinople. Thanks to the documents, consisting mostly in Senate deliberations, it is possible to recreate the development of a multifaceted diplomatic praxis, before the establishment, from the 16th on, of specific institutions with the only purpose of ransoming the captives held by Islamic potentates.
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Il presente studio si offre di indagare le relazioni diplomatiche di Venezia con due potentati islamici finalizzate al riscatto di prigionieri veneziani a cavallo tra il XIV e il XV secolo. Saranno in particolare presi come caso di studio le relazioni intrattenute con l’emirato hafside e la nascente potenza ottomana. Per i negoziati con l’emirato tunisino, è stato posto come termine ante quem il 1436, anno dell’istituzione della muda di Barberia. Le ricerche sulle relazioni con gli ottomani sono state invece interrotte alla conquista di Costantinopoli del 1453. Attraverso tale documentazione, consistente soprattutto in delibere del Senato, sarà possibile quindi ricostruire lo sviluppo di una prassi diplomatica sfaccettata, prima che, dal XVI secolo in poi, si giungesse alla creazione di apposite magistrature aventi come scopo unicamente il riscatto dei prigionieri nelle mani di potentati islamici.

The present note contains a number of observations about the OT’s conception of a ransom.  The OT does not, as far as I am aware, contain any exact and comprehensive foreshadows of how Christ died as our ransom.  But its discussion of ransoms (particularly in its legal corpus) elucidates a number of important principles of divine justice, which can be pieced together to form a helpful backdrop against which to view Christ’s death.

Power and wisdom are often connected to wealth and treasure in medieval legends. This article explores whether characters in the medieval Icelandic Völsunga saga who come into contact with great wealth also attain increased wisdom and power as a result. Upon close analysis, it is revealed that not all of the characters do become more wise or powerful as a result of their acquisition of treasure, and the implications that this may have for the literary culture that composed this saga are explored. At the time of composition of the saga, Icelandic society was at the tail end of its transition period to Christianity but fully in the midst of its transition from an autonomous commonwealth to a constituent part of the Norwegian monarchy. This means that during the centuries preceding the appearance of the saga in manuscript form, Icelandic society would have been adjusting its pre-Christian culture to the conventions of Christianity and at the same time becoming part of a kingdom, which, while taking away its independence, completed the transition of Iceland to Christianity by bringing it under the rule of a Christian monarch. That a text such as Völsunga saga was composed at the time during which Iceland was under transition to the Norwegian monarchy is of no little importance: as the gold is incorporated into the families of the saga, with the transition, Iceland was being incorporated into the wealth of the Norwegian monarchy. Gold and its deadly consequences was a legendary subject that could captivate the contemporary audience during such a transitional period in Iceland.

Since 2009, a new form of violence has developed on irregular migration routes in different regions: human trafficking for ransom. Migrants are kidnapped on their way and forced to call their relatives abroad via mobile phone to beg for ransom money, often while being tortured. This modus operandi was first depicted in the Sinai Peninsula, where between 2009 and 2014, approximately 25.000 migrants from the horn of Africa were abducted and held captive in so called ͞torture camps͟ (Heisterkamp 2016; Humphris 2013; Goor 2017; Simpson 2014; van Reisen et al. 2014). Meanwhile, the phenomenon has emerged in other regions as well, such as Central America, Southeast Asia or the Sahara (Brhane 2015; van Reisen/Rijken 2015). Apparently, it is becoming a widespread crime on flight routes with weak or corrupt state security structures, organized by private criminal groups and facilitated by state officials.
Despite this development, there has been relatively little research about the new form of human trafficking hitherto. My research approaches this gap by tackling the following questions: What are the specific characteristics of ransom kidnapping? Which role do transnational migrant communities and modern information and communication technologies play for the collection of the ransom money? How do states and humanitarian actors respond to the crimes and how can the protection of migrants be improved? Based on empirical research in Israel with trafficking survivors, refugee organizations and representatives of the Eritrean Diaspora, my work focuses on the case study of human trafficking in the Sinai (see also: Heisterkamp 2017). However, I am gradually enhancing the scope of my research to include more comparative cases, particularly in North Africa (Libya), aiming to develop a comprehensive framework to understand the new form of human
trafficking en route.

References:
Brhane, M.O. (2015): Trafficking in Persons for Ransom and the Need to Expand the
Interpretation of Article 3 of the UN Trafficking Protocol, Anti-Trafficking Review,
issue 4, 2015, pp. 120—141, www.antitraffickingreview.org (01.03.2018).

Goor, Yehuda (2017): Ransom Kidnapping and Human Trafficking: The Case of the Sinai Torture Camps. 36:1 Berkeley Journal of International Law (Forthcoming).

Heisterkamp, Lucia (2016): Folter als Geschäftsmodell. Eine neue Form des
Menschenhandels auf Fluchtrouten, Netzwerk Flüchtlingsforschung,
http://fluechtlingsforschung.net/folter-als-geschaftsmodell/ (01.03.2018).

Heisterkamp, Lucia (2017): Globale Schutzverantwortung als translokale Praxis. Das Konzept grenzübergreifender Schutzverantwortung am Fallbeispiel der Gewaltverbrechen  durch Menschenhandel auf dem Sinai, IReflect – Student Journal of International Relations 2017, Vol. 4 (S1), pp 43-68, http://ireflect-journal.de/wpcontent/uploads/2016/01/IR-2017-Vol.4-S1_Heisterkamp.pdf
(01.03.2018).

Humphris, Rachel (2013): Refugees and the Rashaida. Human Smuggling and Trafficking from Eritrea to Sudan and Egypt, UNHCR Research Paper No. 254,
http://www.unhcr.org/research/working/51407fc69/refugees-rashaida-humansmuggling-trafficking-eritrea-sudan-egypt-rachel.html (7.01.2018).

Simpson, Gerry (2014): I Wanted to Lie Down and Die. Human Rights Watch Report,
https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/02/11/i-wanted-lie-down-and-die/trafficking-andtorture-eritreans-sudan-and-egypt (02.01.2018).

Van Reisen, M., Esfefanos M. and Rijken, C. (2014): The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond, Wolf Legal Publishers.

Van Reisen, Mirjam; Rijken, Conny (2015): Sinai Trafficking: Origin and Definition of a New Form of Human Trafficking: Cogitatio.

This article examines tafsir (interpretation of the Qurʾān) - translation relationship in the example of the translation of verse 184 of the Surat al-Baqara into Turkish. Undoubtedly, when the verses are translated into another language, it is necessary to reflect to translate what the first interlocutors understood from them. The fact that the rules (hukm) in some verses were repealed (naskh) or allocated (takhsis) later does not change this requirement. In verse 184 of surat al-Baqara, those who can afford to fast but choose not to fast are ordered to pay ransom (fidya) for every day, that is, to pay the daily amount to feed a poor person. According to the detailed information and rumors in the tafsir literature; this rule was applied when the fast was made obligatory (fard) for the first time, and then it was abrogated. However, this practice, which was canceled for healthy and unexcused people, remained as a permission (rukhṣa) for those who were too old and sick to fast. Both the narrations conveyed from the companions (sahaba) and the general opinions of the mufassirs confirm the abrogation of this rule and that it remains a rukhṣa. The fact that the situation is described as naskh or takhsis does not make a difference in terms of transferring the verse to Turkish or another language. The verses on the subject were examined in the light of the most basic tafsir sources. To give an example that reflects the general opinion; It is stated in the thirty-five narrations reported by Tabari from the companions and tābiʿūn that the 184th verse expresses the option (takhyir) of not fasting in return for fidya for those who can fast. This option has been canceled in the next verse but it has remained for, -some people with special conditions-, as the elderly who cannot afford to fast, pregnant women and breastfeeding women who worry about harm to themselves or their childrens. According to the qirāʾa that is "وعلى الذين يُطوَّقونه", it is said that the verse is not abrogated, it is meant for old men and women. But as emphasized by Abū Ḥayyān, it is understood that this qirāʾa is not actually a qirāʾa but a kind of interpretation of the expression "وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ يُطِيقُونَهُ" in terms of rukhṣa. Therefore, the claim that it has not been repealed is probably due to the continued practice of fiqh. On the other hand, also rational evidence shows that the right to choose (takhyir), which was given initially, was later repealed. For example, in verse 184, it is stated that those who are sick and travelers should perform fasting on other days with the expression "فَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْكُمْ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ"; The same issue is stated in verse 185 with the expression "وَمَنْ كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ". The repetition in question shows that the two verses were sent not together but at different times. This state of affairs confirms that the second verse has repealed the right of choosing (takhyir) in first one. In addition, as Imam Māturīdi's determined by hit, if those who cannot endure fasting were meant in verse 184, it would be unwise to call these people at the end of the verse as "However, that you fast is better for you, if you only knew!" In the overwhelming majority of Turkish translations of the Qurʾān, it is seen that there is no emphasis on the meaning of the verse when it was first sent. Even the expression “Upon those who are able to fast ...” in the verse is translated as “Upon those who aren’t able to fast...”. Whereas it is more consistent and appropriate to reflect the literal meaning of the verse in the translation and explain the situation with additional notes. In this way, it will be understood that two verses that contain the same words and come one after another are sent different times and about different things, hence the reader will be given accurate information. In the nearly thirty examples of translations in the article, it is seen that the translations belonging to Mehmet Akif and Süleyman Tevfik and the translation of the delegation chaired by Hüseyin Kazım are in full harmony with the data in tafsir literature and the general opinion of mufassirs. Rifat Börekçi, the first president of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, has criticized the translation committee headed by Hüseyin Kazım extremely harshly. Then, with the choice made by Elmalılı Hamdi, almost the direction of the wind changed and the translators could not surpass it. Although there have been some translations in line with the text of the verse, the relevant explanations of these authors reveal that they did not understand the issue in detail and did not make a conscious translation. Meantime the analysis made in the aforementioned verse example shows that reliable translations cannot be made without referring to detailed tafsir information and therefore a correct Qurʾān translation is often not possible without tafsir.

This is a TV documentary film released in 2003, produced by Seylan Company in co-production with  Irish TG4 and Dutch Avro. Covers the Turkish Raid in Iceland 1627 and related events in Hvalba, Faroe Islands, and Baltimore, Ireland, a few years after. Shot in Icland, the Faroe Islands, Morocco, Italy, France, Denmark, Holland, and more. An Icelandic v/o version is available and a different three part edition in Icelandic.
https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Jihad-Thorsteinn-Helgason/dp/0802606776/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=atlantic+jihad&qid=1574171880&sr=8-1