Muhammad - Islam's First Caliph & His Legacy

The establishment of an Islamic caliphate as actively sought by Daesh, Boko Haram, the Taliban and Abu Sayaf today is nothing new as its first caliph was Muhammad, a.k.a. the Prophet,  who sanctioned warfare as part of the struggle undertaken by himself and his disciples to propagate Islam by conquest and conversion, a struggle he called jihad, or holy war, which he succeeded in doing in Medina, his capital, and the Arabian peninsula.

The rise and fall, by means of warfare and conquests, of several caliphates followed Muhammad's death in 632 A.D., most notably the Rashidun Caliphate, 632 to 661 A.D,, capital Medina and later Kufa, stretching from Tunisia in the west to Pakistan in the east, followed by the Umayyad Caliphate, 661 to 750 A.D., capital Damascus, stretching from Spain in the west to Iran in the east, followed by the Abbasid Caliphate, 750 to 1258 A.D., capital Baghdad, stretching from Tunisia and Libya in the west to Iran and Kuwait in the east, followed by the Ottoman Caliphate, 1517 to 1924 A.D., capital Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), stretching from Serbia in the west to Iraq in the east.

Interestingly, each caliphate was ruled by a string of successive caliphs, many of whom were assassinated and subsequently replaced.

[source of information: Wikipedia]

The Effects Of Cold Weather/Cold Room Temperatures On Stroke Patients

(A Thesis I Never Wrote For A Doctorate I Never Studied For)

Stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted by a blood clot or heart stoppage, resulting in brain tissue damage and resultant stroke.

Blood, being thick as opposed to watery, coagulates, or becomes thicker in viscosity when body temperature drops in tandem with room temperature, thus hindering blood flow to the brain which controls everything from reflexes and sensation to motor function and muscle tone.

In normal people, such cold conditions neither restrict nor hinder physical movement. In stroke patients, however, hindered blood flow to a brain consisting of damaged brain tissue only worsens the stroke patient's condition.