Editing Civilizations in Babylon 5 (section)

==Minbari Federation {{anchor|Minbari|Minbari Federation}}==

The '''Minbari''' are an advanced race, who are a galactic superpower just like the Earth-Alliance. Their homeworld is the planet '''Minbar'''. ''Babylon 5'' creator [[J. Michael Straczynski]] named the planet and race after the [[Islam]]ic pulpit known as a [[minbar]].<ref>{{Cite newsgroup  | title = Minbar, an Islamic term...?  | author = J. Michael Straczynski  | date = May 15, 2000  | newsgroup= hrec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated  |message-id= 1149950890.204481.35810@h76g20…  | url = http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-5813  | accessdate = December 12, 2009 }}</ref>

They were one of the military forces of the younger races in the previous Shadow War (the Vorlons being the main force) which took place roughly in the Earth year 1260 A.D. The Minbari were completely defeated by the Shadows in this first war and on the verge of total extinction but were saved by the Earth Babylon 4 station. The '''Minbari Federation''' is a [[caste]] society, its people divided into worker, warrior, and religious castes. The Minbari are led by the Grey Council, which contains nine representatives, originally three from each of the three castes. The council was disbanded by Ambassador Delenn as part of an effort to fight the Shadows. She later reorganized it, giving the Worker Caste (which had previously been caught in the middle of the power struggle between the Warrior and Religious castes) a substantial increase of power and influence. Minbari are humanoid, usually thin and pale, though considerably stronger in hand-to-hand combat than the average human of the same size; they are bald, with gray bony crests across the back of their heads. The first encounter between Minbari and Humans was a disaster - a misunderstanding led to Earth ships firing on Minbari ships, killing their leader [[Dukhat]] and precipitating the [[Earth-Minbari War]]. Shortly before reaching Earth, the Minbari surrendered and retreated. At the time the official reason for this reprieve was unknown.

The Minbari do not believe in any individual God or gods.  They instead believe that the universe itself is sentient and that it "broke itself into pieces to study every aspect of its being" as is stated in many episodes through the entire series. They use base-eleven mathematics<ref name=eleven1>"[[The Quality of Mercy (Babylon 5)|The Quality of Mercy]]", ''[[Babylon 5]]'', orig. airdate 17 August 1994</ref><ref name=eleven2>[http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17719 Minbari base eleven includes fingers...]</ref> and believe the number "3" to be sacred.