The word 'fastness' is correct and can be used in written English.
It is generally used to refer to a state or feature of being fast, or to describe the quality of being securely fastened. For example, "The tightness of the knot was a testament to the fastness of its construction."
They exult in the memory of the seventh and eighth centuries, when they carried the word and the sword of Islam out of the Arabian fastness and built an empire from Persia to the Pyrenees.Related items Waking from its sleepJul 23rd 2009 From the archive: When history passes byMay 12th 1990History, though, can exert a baleful influence.
They were, indeed, once part of Japan, which gathered its secret attack on Pearl Harbour in the Kuriles' fastness.
Between September and November of last year she patiently negotiated a "grand coalition" deal with her SPD opponents, helped by a disgruntled Mr Stoiber's decision to retreat to his Munich fastness.
Now the tables have been turned, and they will have to see whether revivalist ardor can halt the counter-attack mounted by their opponents with the help, many people think, of Russia and perhaps Iran too.The Taliban's chief bane is Ahmad Shah Masoud, the stubborn Tajik chieftain who held out for so long against the old Soviet-backed regime in his fastness in the Panjshir valley (see map).
Carpet-bagging politicians rolled up in Mercedes cars with tinted windows, alongside turbaned Shia clerics and baggy-trousered Druze elders.But the most popular entertainment came from local lads who, egged on by journalists, vied to see how close they could get to the Israeli fastness before bringing down a hail of warning shots.
THE decision by Myanmar's ruling generals to move their capital in 2005 from Yangon, the country's biggest city, to the remote mountain fastness of Naypyidaw was as baffling as many of their other policies.
Over the following years they revamped the dye's formula to remove the original's toxic components, while retaining its light-fastness and solubility.
In the cool air of their hilltop fastnesses, the toings and froings on the Mesopotamian plain are distractions from the serious business of building a viable Kurdish entity.
Al-Qaeda cells pockmark the fastnesses of the east.
Particularly in Labour's unmodernised Northern fastnesses, this gives the Lib Dems the chance of spectacular gains.The Economist's May 15th issue will include our annual analysis of the results, prepared by Professor John Curtice of the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends.
Perhaps these icons of the old American West also started life half a world away in the fastnesses of Tibet.
