1.
Ibadan
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Ibadan is the state capital of Oyo State, Nigeria. At the time Nigerias independence in 1960, Ibadan was the largest and most populous city in the country, and the second most populous in Africa after Cairo. Ibadan had been the centre of administration of the old Western Region since the days of the British colonial rule, the principal inhabitants of the city are the Yorubas, as well as various communities from other parts of the country. Ibadan came into existence in 1829, during a period of turmoil that characterized Yorubaland at the time. It was in period that many old Yoruba cities such as old Oyo, Ijaye and Owu disappeared. According to local historians, Lagelu founded the city, and was intended to be a war camp for warriors coming from Oyo, Ife. As a forest site containing several ranges of hills, varying in elevation from 160 to 275 metres, moreover, its location at the fringe of the forest promoted its emergence as a marketing centre for traders and goods from both the forest and grassland areas. In 1852 the Church Missionary Society sent David and Anna Hinderer to found a mission and they decided to build the mission and a church in Ibadan when they arrived in 1853. Ibadan thus had initially began as a state and remained so until the last decade of the 19th century. The city-state also succeeded in building an empire from the 1860s to the 1890s which extended over much of northern and eastern Yorubaland. It was appropriately nicknamed idi Ibon or “gun base”, because of its military character. Unlike other Yoruba cities with traditional kingship institutions however, In Ibadan, the then Alaafin of Oyo had ordered the old city destroyed for the act. Lagelu was by now an old, frail man, he could not stop the destruction of his city, but he and some of his people survived the attack and fled to a nearby hill for sanctuary. On the hill they survived by eating oro fruit and snails, later, they cultivated the land and made corn and millets into pap meals known as oori or eko and they improvised a bit by using the snail shells to drink the liquefied eko. Ultimately, Lagelu and his people came down from the hill and founded another city, the new city instantly grew prosperous and became a commercial nerve centre. Shortly afterwards, Lagelu died, leaving behind a politically savvy people, the newly enthroned Olubadan made a friendly gesture to the Olowu of Owu by allowing Olowu to marry his only daughter, Nkan. A part of Ibadan was historically an Egba town, the Egba occupants were forced to leave the town and moved to present-day Abeokuta under the leadership of Sodeke as result of their disloyalty. Ibadan grew into an impressive and sprawling urban center so much that by the end of 1829, the military sanctuary expanded even further when refugees began arriving in large numbers from northern Oyo following raids by Fulani warriors
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
4.
Provinces of Iran
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Iran is subdivided into thirty one provinces, each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital of that province. The provincial authority is headed by a Governor-General, who is appointed by the Minister of the Interior subject to approval of the cabinet, from 1960 to 1981 the governorates were raised to provincial status one by one
5.
Khuzestan Province
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Khuzestan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and its capital is Ahvaz and it covers an area of 63,238 km2. In 2014 it was placed in Region 4, as the Iranian province with the oldest history, it is often referred to as the birthplace of the nation, as this is where the history of the Elamites begins. Historically, one of the most important regions of the Ancient Near East, Khuzestan is what historians refer to as ancient Elam, the Achaemenid Old Persian term for Elam was Hujiyā when they conquered it from the Elamites, which is present in the modern name. Khuzestan, meaning the Land of the Khuz refers to the inhabitants of this province. In Middle Persian the term evolves into Khuz and Kuzi, the pre-Islamic Partho-Sasanian Inscriptions gives the name of the province as Khwuzestan. The seat of the province has for the most of its history been in the reaches of the land, first at Susa. This town is now known as Ahvaz, however, later in the Sasanian time and throughout the Islamic era, the provincial seat returned and stayed at Shushtar, until the late Qajar period. With the increase in the international sea commerce arriving on the shores of Khuzistan, the River Karun is navigable all the way to Ahvaz. The town was refurbished by the order of the Qajar king, Naser al-Din Shah and renamed after him. Shushtar quickly declined, while Ahvaz/Nâseri prospered to the present day, currently, Khuzestan has 18 representatives in Irans parliament, the Majlis, and 6 representatives in the Assembly of Experts. Khuzestan is known for its diversity, the population of Khuzestan consists of Lurs, Iranian Arabs, Qashqai people, Afshar tribe, indigenous Persians. Khuzestans population is predominantly Shia Muslim, but there are small Christian, Jewish, Sunni, half of Khuzestans population is Lurs. The name Khuzestan means The Land of the Khuzi, and refers to the inhabitants of this province. The name of the city of Ahvaz also has the same origin as the name Khuzestan, being an Arabic broken plural from the compound name, Suq al-Ahvaz --the medieval name of the town, that replaced the Sasanian Persian name of the pre-Islamic times. The entire province was known as the Khudhi or the Khooji until the reign of the Safavid king Tahmasp I. The southern half of the province—south, southwest of the Ahwaz Ridge, had come by the 17th century to be known—at least to the imperial Safavid chancery as Arabistan. The contemporaneous history, the Alamara-i Abbasi by Iskandar Beg Munshi, written during the reign of king Abbas I, the northern half continued to be called Khuzestan
6.
Counties of Iran
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The counties of Iran, also called shahrestan, are administrative divisions of larger provinces. The word shahrestan comes from the Persian words shahr and stān, county, therefore, is a near equivalent of shahrestan. Iranian counties are divided into one or more bakhsh, or districts, a typical county includes both cities and rural agglomerations, which are groupings of adjacent villages. One city within the county serves as the capital of that county, in 2005, Iran had 324 shahrestans. To better understand these subdivisions, the table is useful. Assume that province P is divided into two counties, A and B, county A has 3 districts, Central, X, and Y. The Central district is the district that contains City M, the capital of the county, each district contains one or more cities and/or one or more RAs. The minimal county consists of one city as the only district, named Central. The county B in the table is of such type
7.
Abadan County
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Abadan County is a county in Khuzestan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Abadan, at the 2006 census, the countys population was 275,126, in 58,870 families. The county is subdivided into two districts, the Central District and Arvandkenar District, the county has two cities, Abadan and Arvandkenar
8.
Iran Standard Time
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Iran Standard Time or Iran Time is the time zone used in Iran. Iran uses a UTC offset UTC+03,30, IRST is defined by the 52.5 degrees east meridian, the same meridian which defines the Iranian calendar and is the official meridian of Iran. Between 2005 and 2008, by decree of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and it was reintroduced from 21 March 2008. Iran is unusual in that the dates of DST transitions arent based on a such as the third Monday in September. So in most countries, DST transitions occur on the same every year
9.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
10.
Iran Daylight Time
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Iran Standard Time or Iran Time is the time zone used in Iran. Iran uses a UTC offset UTC+03,30, IRST is defined by the 52.5 degrees east meridian, the same meridian which defines the Iranian calendar and is the official meridian of Iran. Between 2005 and 2008, by decree of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and it was reintroduced from 21 March 2008. Iran is unusual in that the dates of DST transitions arent based on a such as the third Monday in September. So in most countries, DST transitions occur on the same every year
11.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
12.
Shatt al-Arab
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The southern end of the river constitutes the border between Iraq and Iran down to the mouth of the river as it discharges into the Persian Gulf. The river is significant because it forms a natural border between Iran and the Arab world. It varies in width from about 232 metres at Basra to 800 metres at its mouth and it is thought that the waterway formed relatively recently in geologic time, with the Tigris and Euphrates originally emptying into the Persian Gulf via a channel further to the west. The Karun river, a tributary joins the waterway from the Iranian side, deposits large amounts of silt into the river. The area is judged to hold the largest date palm forest in the world, in the mid-1970s, the region included 17 to 18 million date palms, an estimated one-fifth of the worlds 90 million palm trees. But by 2002, war, salt, and pests had wiped out more than 14 million of the palms, many of the remaining 3 to 4 million trees are in poor condition. In Middle Persian literature and the Shahnama, the name اروند Arvand is used for the Tigris, Iranians also used this name specifically to designate the Shatt al-Arab during the later Pahlavi period, and continue to do so after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The Iranian cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr and the Iraqi city, the tribes on both sides of the lower waterway, however, are Marsh Arabs, and the Ottoman Empire claimed to represent them. Tensions between the empires that extended across a wide range of religious, cultural and political conflicts. The Second Treaty of Erzurum was signed by the two parties in 1847 after protracted negotiations, which included British and Russian delegates. A protocol between the Ottomans and the Persians was signed in Istanbul in 1913, which declared that the Ottoman-Persian frontier run along the thalweg, in 1937, Iran and Iraq signed a treaty that settled the dispute over control of the Shatt al-Arab. By the late 1960s, the build-up of Iranian power under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in April 1969, Iran abrogated the 1937 treaty over the Shatt al-Arab, and as such, Iran ceased paying tolls to Iraq when its ships used the Shatt al-Arab. Iraq threatened war over the Iranian move, but when on 24 April 1969 an Iranian tanker escorted by Iranian warships sailed down the Shatt al-Arab, Iraq being the militarily weaker state did nothing. The Iranian abrogation of the 1937 treaty marked the beginning of a period of acute Iraqi-Iranian tension that was to last until the Algiers Accords of 1975, all United Nations attempts to intervene as mediators were rebuffed. Under Saddam Hussein, Baathist Iraq claimed the entire waterway up to the Iranian shore as its territory, in response, Iran in the early 1970s became the main patron of Iraqi Kurdish groups fighting for independence from Iraq. In 1980, Hussein released a statement claiming to abrogate the treaty that he signed, international law, however, holds that in all cases no bilateral or multilateral treaty can be abrogated by one party only. The main thrust of the movement on the ground was across the waterway which was the stage for most of the military battles between the two armies. The waterway was Iraqs only outlet to the Persian Gulf, and thus, its shipping lanes were greatly affected by continuous Iranian attacks
13.
Karun
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The Kārun is Irans most affluent and only navigable river. The Karun continues toward the Persian Gulf, forking into two branches on its delta - the Bahmanshir and the Haffar - that join Arvand Roud. The important Island of Abadan is located between two branches of the Karun. The port city of Khorramshahr is divided from the Island of Abadan by the Haffar branch, juris Zarins and other scholars have identified the Karun as one of the four rivers of Eden, the others being the Tigris, the Euphrates and either the Wadi Batin or the Karkheh. In early classical times, the Karun was known as the Pasitigris, the modern medieval and modern name, Karun, is a corruption of the name Kuhrang, which is still maintained by one of the two primary tributaries of the Karun. It originates in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, on the slopes of 4,221 m Zard-Kuh, the river flows south and west through several prominent mountain ridges, and receives additional water from the Vanak on the south bank and the Bazuft on the north. These tributaries add to the catchment of the river above the Karun-4 Dam.25 kilometres downstream, the Khersan flows into an arm of the reservoir from the southeast. The river passes through this reservoir and flows through a canyon, now in a northwest direction, past Izeh. The Karun then turns north into the reservoir of Shahid Abbaspour Dam, the Karun flows southwest into the impoundment of Masjed Soleyman Dam, then turns northwest. Finally, it leaves the foothills and flows south past Shushtar, the largest river by discharge in Iran, the Karun Rivers watershed covers 65,230 square kilometres in parts of two Iranian provinces. The river is around 950 kilometres long and has a discharge of 575 cubic metres per second. The largest city on the river is Ahvaz, with over 1.3 million inhabitants, other important cities include Shushtar, Khorramshahr, Masjed-Soleyman, and Izeh. Much of Khuzestans transport and resources are connected in one way or another to the Karun, since the British first discovered oil at Masjed-Soleyman, the Karun has been an important route for the transport of petroleum to the Persian Gulf, and remains an important commercial waterway. Water from the Karun provides irrigation to over 280,000 hectares of the surrounding plain, the Karun River valley was once inhabited by the Elamite civilization which rose about 2,700 B. C. At several points in history, Mesopotamian civilizations such as Ur and Babylon overthrew the Elamites and gained control of the Karun, however, the Elamite empire lasted until about 640 B. C. when the Assyrians overran it. The city of Susa, near the city of Shush between the Dez and Karkheh rivers, was one of their largest before it was destroyed by the invaders. In two of several competing theories about the origins and location of the Garden of Eden, the Karun is presumed to be the Gihon River that is described in the Biblical book of Genesis. The name of the river is derived from the peak, Kuhrang
14.
Persian Gulf
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The Persian Gulf is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz, the Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline. The Persian Gulf was a battlefield of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War and it is the namesake of the 1991 Gulf War, the largely air- and land-based conflict that followed Iraqs invasion of Kuwait. The gulf has many fishing grounds, extensive coral reefs, and abundant pearl oysters, the body of water is historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf. Some Arab governments refer to it as the Arabian Gulf or The Gulf, the name Gulf of Iran is used by the International Hydrographic Organization. The Persian Gulf is geologically young, having been formed around 15,000 years ago. Its length is 989 kilometres, with Iran covering most of the northern coast, the Persian Gulf is about 56 km wide at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are very shallow, with a maximum depth of 90 metres. Various small islands lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states of the region. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Persian Gulfs southern limit as The Northwestern limit of Gulf of Oman and this limit is defined as A line joining Ràs Limah on the coast of Arabia and Ràs al Kuh on the coast of Iran. The Persian Gulf and its areas are the worlds largest single source of crude oil. Safaniya Oil Field, the worlds largest offshore oilfield, is located in the Persian Gulf, large gas finds have also been made, with Qatar and Iran sharing a giant field across the territorial median line. Using this gas, Qatar has built up a substantial liquefied natural gas, the oil-rich countries that have a coastline on the Persian Gulf are referred to as the Persian Gulf States. In 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire established the first ancient empire in Persis, consequently, in the Greek sources, the body of water that bordered this province came to be known as the Persian Gulf. In the travel account of Pythagoras, several chapters are related to description of his travels accompanied by the Achaemenid king Darius the Great, to Susa and Persepolis, and the area is described. This water channel separates the Iran Plateau from the Arabia Plate, has enjoyed an Iranian Identity since at least 2200 years ago. Before being given its present name, the Persian Gulf was called many different names, the classical Greek writers, like Herodotus, called it the Red Sea. In Babylonian texts, it was known as the sea above Akkad, the name of the gulf, historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf after the land of Persia, has been disputed by some Arab countries since the 1960s
15.
Marcian
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Marcian was Eastern Roman Emperor from 450 to 457. Marcians rule marked a recovery of the Eastern Empire, which the Emperor protected from external menaces, the Eastern Orthodox Church recognizes Marcian as a saint for his role in convoking the Council of Chalcedon. Marcian was born in 392 in Illyricum or Thracia, the son of a soldier, he spent his early life as an obscure soldier, member of a military unit located at Philippopolis. Marcian was dispatched with his unit for a war against the Sassanids, after recovering from his illness, he went to Constantinople, where he served for fifteen years as domesticus under the generals Ardaburius and Aspar. Aware that he could never capture the capital of Constantinople, Attila turned to the west and waged his famous campaigns in Gaul 451. Marcian reformed the finances, checked extravagance, and repopulated the devastated districts and he repelled attacks upon Syria and Egypt in 452, and quelled disturbances on the Armenian frontier in 456. The other notable event of his reign is the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Marcian generally ignored the affairs of the Western Roman Empire, leaving that tottering half of the empire to its fate. He did nothing to aid the west during Attilas campaigns, and, living up to his promise, shortly before Attilas death in 453, conflict had begun again between him and Marcian. However, the powerful Hun king died before all-out war broke out, in a dream, Marcian claimed he saw Attilas bow broken before him, and a few days later, he got word that his great enemy was dead. Marcian died on 27 January 457 of a disease, possibly gangrene and he was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, together with Pulcheria. Despite his short reign and his writing off of the west Marcian is considered one of the best of the early Eastern Roman Emperors, the Eastern Orthodox Church recognizes him and his wife Pulcheria as saints, with their feast day on 17 February. Marcia Euphemia was the known daughter of Marcian, and she was married to Anthemius. The identity of her mother is unknown, Pulcheria had taken a religious vow of chastity. The second marriage was a political alliance, establishing Marcian as a member of the Theodosian dynasty by marriage. The marriage of Marcian to Pulcheria was never consummated, and consequently Euphemia never had younger half-siblings, Marcian was played by the Hollywood star Jeff Chandler in the film Sign of the Pagan. Flavia List of Byzantine emperors This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, Marcianus 8, The Prosopography of the later Roman empire, A. D. 260–395, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press,1987, ISBN 0-521-20159-4, imperial unity and Christian divisions, The Church 450-680 A. D. Crestwood, NY, St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, Marcian at the DIR Media related to Marcian at Wikimedia Commons Marcian
16.
Ptolemy
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Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek writer, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, beyond that, few reliable details of his life are known. His birthplace has been given as Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid in a statement by the 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes. This is a very late attestation, however, and there is no reason to suppose that he ever lived elsewhere than Alexandria. Ptolemy wrote several treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was entitled the Mathematical Treatise. The second is the Geography, which is a discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika but more known as the Tetrabiblos from the Greek meaning Four Books or by the Latin Quadripartitum. The name Claudius is a Roman nomen, the fact that Ptolemy bore it indicates he lived under the Roman rule of Egypt with the privileges and political rights of Roman citizenship. It would have suited custom if the first of Ptolemys family to become a citizen took the nomen from a Roman called Claudius who was responsible for granting citizenship, if, as was common, this was the emperor, citizenship would have been granted between AD41 and 68. The astronomer would also have had a praenomen, which remains unknown and it occurs once in Greek mythology, and is of Homeric form. All the kings after him, until Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC, were also Ptolemies, abu Mashar recorded a belief that a different member of this royal line composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy. The correct answer is not known”, Ptolemy wrote in Greek and can be shown to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data. He was a Roman citizen, but most scholars conclude that Ptolemy was ethnically Greek and he was often known in later Arabic sources as the Upper Egyptian, suggesting he may have had origins in southern Egypt. Later Arabic astronomers, geographers and physicists referred to him by his name in Arabic, Ptolemys Almagest is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Ptolemy presented his models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest also contains a catalogue, which is a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus
17.
Tigris
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The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq, the Tigris is 1,850 km long, rising in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey about 25 km southeast of the city of Elazig and about 30 km from the headwaters of the Euphrates. The river then flows for 400 km through Turkish territory before becoming the border between Syria and Turkey and this stretch of 44 km is the only part of the river that is located in Syria. Close to its confluence with the Euphrates, the Tigris splits into several channels, First, the artificial Shatt al-Hayy branches off, to join the Euphrates near Nasiriyah. Second, the Shatt al-Muminah and Majar-al-Kabir branch off to feed the Central Marshes, further downstream, two other distributary channels branch off, which feed the Hawizeh Marshes. The main channel continues southwards and is joined by the Al-Kassarah, finally, the Tigris joins the Euphrates near al-Qurnah to form the Shatt-al-Arab. According to Pliny and other ancient historians, the Euphrates originally had its outlet into the sea separate from that of the Tigris, Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the banks of the Tigris. The port city of Basra straddles the Shatt al-Arab, in ancient times, many of the great cities of Mesopotamia stood on or near the Tigris, drawing water from it to irrigate the civilization of the Sumerians. Notable Tigris-side cities included Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, while the city of Lagash was irrigated by the Tigris via a canal dug around 2400 B. C, the Tigris has long been an important transport route in a largely desert country. Shallow-draft vessels can go as far as Baghdad, but rafts are needed for transport upstream to Mosul, General Francis Rawdon Chesney hauled two steamers overland through Syria in 1836 to explore the possibility of an overland and river route to India. One steamer, the Tigris, was wrecked in a storm which sank, Chesney proved the river navigable to powered craft. Later, the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company was established in 1861 by the Lynch Brothers trading company and they had 2 steamers in service. By 1908 ten steamers were on the river, tourists boarded steam yachts to venture inland as this was the first age of archaeological tourism, and the sites of Ur and Ctesiphon became popular to European travelers. In the First World War, during the British conquest of Ottoman Mesopotamia, Indian, see Siege of Kut and the Fall of Baghdad. The Tigris Flotilla included vessels Clio, Espiegle, Lawrence, Odin, armed tug Comet, armed launches Lewis Pelly, Miner, Shaitan, Sumana, and stern wheelers Muzaffari/Mozaffir. These were joined by Royal Navy Fly-class gunboats Butterfly, Cranefly, Dragonfly, Mayfly, Sawfly, Snakefly, and Mantis, Moth, the Ancient Greek form Tigris was borrowed from Old Persian Tigrā, itself from Elamite Tigra, itself from Sumerian Idigna. The Sumerian form was borrowed into Akkadian as Idiqlat, and from there into the other Semitic languages, another name for the Tigris used in Middle Persian was Arvand Rud, literally swift river. Today, however, Arvand Rud refers to the confluence of the Euphrates, in Kurdish, it is also known as Ava Mezin, the Great Water
18.
Umayyad Caliphate
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The Umayyad Caliphate, also spelled Omayyad, was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. This caliphate was centred on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca, Syria remained the Umayyads main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km2 and 62 million people, the Umayyad Caliphate was secular by nature. At the time, the Umayyad taxation and administrative practice were perceived as unjust by some Muslims, Muhammad had stated explicitly during his lifetime that Abrahamic religious groups, should be allowed to practice their own religion, provided that they paid the jizya taxation. The welfare state of both the Muslim and the poor started by Umar ibn al Khattab had also continued, financed by the zakat tax levied only on Muslims. Muawiyas wife Maysum was also a Christian, the relations between the Muslims and the Christians in the state were stable in this time. Prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments, the employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious assimilation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Muawiyas popularity and solidified Syria as his power base, the rivalries between the Arab tribes had caused unrest in the provinces outside Syria, most notably in the Second Muslim Civil War of AD 680–692 and the Berber Revolt of 740–743. During the Second Civil War, leadership of the Umayyad clan shifted from the Sufyanid branch of the family to the Marwanid branch. A branch of the family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus, where they established the Caliphate of Córdoba, according to tradition, the Umayyad family and Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusai, and they originally came from the city of Mecca. Muhammad descended from Abd Manāf via his son Hashim, while the Umayyads descended from Abd Manaf via a different son, Abd-Shams, the two families are therefore considered to be different clans of the same tribe. However Muslim Shia historians suspect that Umayya was a son of Abd Shams so he was not a blood relative of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai. Umayya was later discarded from the noble family, Sunni historians disagree with this and view Shia claims as nothing more than outright polemics due to their hostility to the Umayyad family in general. While the Umayyads and the Hashimites may have had bitterness between the two clans before Muhammad, the rivalry turned into a case of tribal animosity after the Battle of Badr. The battle saw three top leaders of the Umayyad clan killed by Hashimites in a three-on-three melee and this fueled the opposition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the grandson of Umayya, to Muhammad and to Islam. Abu Sufyan sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion by waging another battle with Muslims based in Medina only a year after the Battle of Badr and he did this to avenge the defeat at Badr. The Battle of Uhud is generally believed by scholars to be the first defeat for the Muslims, as they had incurred greater losses than the Meccans
19.
Abadan Refinery
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The Abadan refinery is located in Abadan near the coast of the Persian Gulf. Built by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, it was completed in 1912 and was one of worlds largest oil refineries and its nationalisation in 1951 prompted the Abadan Crisis and ultimately the toppling of the democratically elected prime minister Mossaddegh. The refinery was destroyed in September 1980 by Iraq during the initial stages of the Iraqi invasion of Irans Khuzestan province. It had a capacity of 635,000 b/d in 1980 and its capacity has been increased steadily since the war ended in 1988 and is now listed as 429,000 barrels per day of crude oil. Horace Walter Rigden List of oil refineries National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company Petroleum Siege of Abadan Facts about the Iran refinery industry
20.
Tehran
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Tehran is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. It is ranked 29th in the world by the population of its metropolitan area, in the Classical era, part of the present-day city of Tehran was occupied by a Median city that in the Avesta occurs as Rhaga. It was destroyed by the Mongols in the early 13th century, the capital has been moved several times throughout the history, and Tehran is the 32nd national capital of Iran. The city was the seat of the Qajars and Pahlavis, the two last imperial dynasties of Iran. It is home to historical collections, such as the royal complexes of Golestan, Sadabad. Large scale demolition and rebuilding began in the 1920s, and Tehran has been a destination for the migrations from all over Iran since the 20th century. Tabiat Bridge, which was completed in 2014, is considered the third symbol of the city. There have been plans to relocate Irans capital from Tehran to another area, due mainly to air pollution, to date, no definitive plans have been approved. A2016 survey of 230 cities by consultant Mercer ranked Tehran 203rd for quality of living, according to the Global Destinations Cities Index in 2016, Tehran is among the top ten fastest growing destinations. The origin of the name Tehran is uncertain, the settlement of Tehran dates back over 7,000 years. The present-day city of Tehran was a suburb of an important Median city that was known as Rhaga in Old Persian, in the Avestas Videvdat, Rhaga is mentioned as the twelfth sacred place created by the Ohrmazd. In Old Persian inscriptions, Rhaga appears as a province and it was a major area for the Iranian tribes of Medes and Achaemenids. From Rhaga, Darius the Great sent reinforcements to his father Hystaspes, in some Middle Persian texts, Rhaga is given as the birthplace of Zoroaster, although modern historians generally place the birth of Zoroaster in Khorasan. Derived into Modern Persian as Rey, it now as a city located towards the southern end of the modern-day city of Tehran. Mount Damavand, the highest peak of Iran, which is located near Tehran, is an important location in Ferdowsis Shahname, the long Iranian epic poem that is based on the ancient epics of Iran. It appears in the epics as the birthplace of Manuchehr, the residence of Keyumars, the place where Freydun binds the dragon fiend Aži Dahāka, during the Sassanid era, in 641, Yazdgerd III issued his last appeal to the nation from Rey, before fleeing to Khorasan. Rey was dominated by the Parthian Mihran family, and Siyavakhsh—the son of Mihran the son of Bahram Chobin—who resisted the Muslim Invasion, because of this resistance, when the Arabs captured Rey, they ordered the town to be destroyed and ordered Farrukhzad to rebuild the town anew. In the 9th century, Tehran was a well known village, but less known than the city of Rey, the medieval writer Najm od Din Razi declared the population of Rey about 500,000 before the Mongol Invasion
21.
Azerbaijan (Iran)
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Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq, Turkey, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Iranian Azerbaijan is administratively divided into West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, the region is mostly populated by Azerbaijanis, with minority populations of Kurds, Armenians, Tats, Talysh, Assyrians and Persians. Historic Azerbaijan was called Atropatene in antiquity and Aturpatakan in the pre-Islamic Middle Ages, some refer to Iranian Azerbaijan as South Azerbaijan and the Republic of Azerbaijan as Northern Azerbaijan, although others believe that these terms are irredentist and politically motivated. Since then the Azerbaijani people have been partitioned between nations, the territories south of the Aras River, which comprised the region historically known as Azerbaijan, became the new north-west frontier of the Persian Empire and later Iran. The name Azerbaijan itself is derived from Atropates, the Persian Satrap of Medea in the Achaemenid empire, Atropates name is believed to be derived from the Old Persian roots meaning protected by fire. The name is mentioned in the Avestan Frawardin Yasht, âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide which translates literally to. The name Atropat in Middle Persian was transformed to Adharbad and is connected with Zoroastrianism, a famous Zoroastrian priest by the name Adarbad Mahraspandan is well known for his counsels. Thus, until 1918, when the Musavat regime decided to name the newly independent state Azerbaijan, the oldest kingdom known in Iranian Azerbaijan is that of the Mannea who ruled a region south-east of Lake Urmia centred around modern Saqqez. The Manneans were a confederation of Iranian and non-Iranian groups, according to Professor Zadok, it is unlikely that there was any ethnolinguistic unity in Mannea. Like other peoples of the Iranian plateau, the Manneans were subjected to an ever increasing Iranian penetration, the Mannaeans were conquered and absorbed by an Iranian people called Matieni, and the country was called Matiene, with Lake Urmia called Lake Matianus. Matiene was later conquered by the Medes and became a satrapy of the Median empire, after Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he appointed as governor the Persian general Atropates, who eventually established an independent dynasty. The region, which came to be known as Atropatene or Media Atropatene, was much disputed, in the 2nd century BC, it was liberated from Seleucid domination by Mithradates I of Arsacid dynasty, and was later made a province of the Sassanid Empire of Ardashir I. Under the Sassanids, Azerbaijan was ruled by a marzubān, and, towards the end of the period, large parts of the region were conquered by the Kingdom of Armenia. Large parts of the made up part of historical Armenia. The parts of historical Armenia within what is modern-day Azerbaijan comprise, Nor Shirakan, Vaspurakan, Vaspurakan, of which large parts were located in what is modern-day Iranian Azerbaijan is described as the cradle of Armenian civilization. On 26 May 451 AD, an important battle was fought that would prove immensely pivotal in Armenian history. On the Avarayr Plain, at what is modern-day Churs, the Armenian Army under Vardan Mamikonian clashed with Sassanid Persia, heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, briefly held the region in the 7th century until peace was made with the Sassanids. After the Islamic Conquest of Iran, Arab invaders converted most of its people to Islam, rustam himself was born in Azerbaijan and led the Sasanian army into battle
22.
Kurdistan Province
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The province of Kurdistan is 28,817 km² in area which encompasses just one-fourth of the Kurdish inhabited areas of Iran or Iranian Kurdistan. It is located in the west of Iran, in Region 3, and bound by Iraq on the west, the capital of Kurdistan Province is the city of Sanandaj. Other counties with their cities are Marivan, Baneh, Saqqez, Qorveh, Piranshahr, Bijar, Kamyaran, Dehgolan, Diwandarreh. The mountainous lands of this area first encouraged Iranian-speaking tribes to settle in this region after their immigration to Iran. It was from here where the first plan to overthrow the Assyrian Empire began, leading to their defeat in 612 BCE, during the next few hundred years, the area of present-day Kurdistan Province became the arena of conflict between various invaders, including the Mongols and Timurids. Its steady decline began in the 16th century, when sea traffic replaced the famous Silk Road and it remained the capital for nearly one-and-a-half centuries, until, in 1372 CE, the government moved to Hassanabad fort,6 km south of Sanandaj. Around 14th century, people from Ardalan tribe established themselves in Sinne as the rulers of this region, according to Sharafnama written by Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi, the earliest known leader of the tribe, Bawa Ardalan, was a descendant of Ahmad bin Marwan, who ruled in Diyarbakır. He settled down among the Gorani people in Kurdistan and toward the end of the Mongol period took over the Şare Zor region and he is considered to be the founder of the Ardalan principality. The territories of Zardiawa, Khanaqin, Kirkuk, and Kifri, the capital city of the principality was first in Sharazor, but was moved to Sinne later on. During the reign of Shah Ismail I, the founder of Safavid dynasty, when Soleiman Khan Ardalan came to power in 1630 CE, the throne was transferred to Sanandaj, and, from then on, the rulers contributed to the flourishing and development of the area. The Ardalan Dynasty continued to rule the region until the Qajar monarch Nasser-al-Din Shah ended their rule in 1867 CE, Kurdistan Province is a mountainous region that can be topographically divided into a western and an eastern section at Sanandaj. As a result of its elevation and mountains, Kurdistan province has many rivers, lakes, glaciers and caves, consequently, Kurdistan has always attracted a large number of tourists and fans of mountaineering, ski and water-sports. The Zarrineh River,302 km long, is one of the longest rivers of this province and its banks offer great opportunities for recreation and the rivers plentiful water renders itself ideal for water sports. This river runs northwards and ultimately pours into Lake Urmia, the Sirvan River is another prominent river in this province. It runs over a distance, eventually to join the Tigris in Iraq. The banks of river are remarkably attractive. The Simineh River is also an important river in this province, a large number of marine species and birds live on the banks of the provinces numerous rivers which they seem to find ideal habitats. Lake Zarivar is the most beautiful water-way of the province, which lies at the feet to high mountains, the lake has a maximum depth of 50 m and an average depth of 3 m
23.
Blue-collar worker
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In English-speaking countries, a blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs non-agricultural manual labour. Often something is physically being built or maintained, in contrast, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk. A third type of work is a worker whose labour is related to customer interaction, entertainment. Many occupations blend blue, white or pink industry categorizations, blue-collar work is often paid hourly wage-labor, although some professionals may be paid by the project or salaried. There is a range of payscales for such work depending upon field of specialty. Industrial and manual workers wear durable canvas or cotton clothing that may be soiled during the course of their work. Navy and light blue colors conceal potential dirt or grease on the clothing, helping him or her to appear cleaner. For the same reason, blue is a color for boilersuits which protect a workers clothing. Some blue collar workers have uniforms with the name of the business or the name embroidered or printed on it. Historically the popularity of the color blue among manual labourers contrasts with the popularity of white shirts worn by people in office environments. The blue collar/white collar color scheme has socio-economic class connotations, however, this distinction has become blurred with the increasing importance of skilled labour, and the relative increase in low-paying white-collar jobs. The term blue collar was first used in reference to trades jobs in 1924, Alden, a higher level academic education is often not required for many blue-collar jobs. However, certain fields may require specialized training, licensing or certification as well as a school diploma or GED. With the information revolution, Western nations have moved towards a service, many manufacturing jobs have been offshored to developing nations which pay their workers lower wages. This offshoring has pushed formerly agrarian nations to industrialized economies and concurrently decreased the number of jobs in developed countries. Due to this economic osmosis, the rust belt has experienced high unemployment, poverty, blue-collar can be used as an adjective to describe the environment of the blue-collar worker such as a blue-collar neighborhood, restaurant, or bar
24.
White-collar worker
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In many countries, a white-collar worker is a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work. White-collar work is performed in an office, cubicle, or other administrative setting, many occupations blend blue, white and pink industry categorizations. Formerly a minority in the agrarian and early industrial societies, white-collar workers have become a majority in industrialized countries due to modernization and outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. The blue-collar and white-collar descriptors as it pertains to work dress may no longer be an accurate descriptor as office attire has broadened beyond a white shirt, employees in office environments may wear a variety of colors, may dress business casual or wear casual clothes altogether. In addition work tasks have blurred, white-collar employees may perform blue-collar tasks. An example would be a restaurant manager who may wear more formal clothing yet still assist with cooking food or taking customers orders or a worker who also performs desk work. A Cochrane systematic review published in 2016 concluded that at present there is low quality evidence that sit-stand desks can reduce sitting at work at the short term. There is no evidence for other types of interventions, also, evidence was lacking on the long term health benefits of such interventions. Knowledge worker Designation of workers by collar color Notes Further reading Mills, white Collar, the American Middle Classes, in series, Galaxy Book. New York, Oxford University Press,1956
25.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
26.
Abbasid Caliphate
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The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammads youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and they ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE. The Abbasid caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, the political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and this period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, and Muslim culture in general, though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, the Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character, according to Ira Lapidus, The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali. The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, Muhammad ibn Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam. On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim successfully initiated a revolt against Umayyad rule. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslims command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Nishapur, the Battle of Gorgan, after this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he was subsequently assassinated. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated, immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas. Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the worlds first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions, the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empires capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762, a new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. During Al-Mansurs time control of Al-Andalus was lost, and the Shiites revolted and were defeated a year later at the Battle of Bakhamra, the Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads
27.
Mat
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A mat is a piece of fabric material that generally is placed on a floor or other flat surface. Doormats are usually made from tough, long-lasting material such as coir, palmyra fibres and stalks, nylon, rubber, cloth, or aluminium and other metals. A doormat may also be known as a mat, as its location at an entrance constitutes a welcome to visitors. This in turn has given rise to a subculture of cartoons featuring characters returning home to find a message on the doormat. The lowly purpose for which doormats exist has also led to use of the term as a reference to people who behave timidly or passively when exploited by others. A bath mat is a used on the floor of a bathroom to provide a warm non-slip surface. A place mat or serving mat is a piece of fabric or other type of material used on a table at the points at which dishes and plates will be located during a meal. A car mat is designed to protect a vehicles carpeted floors. One major use of a car mat is to keep mud, sand, some require fixation points to ensure they remain fixed in position. Carpet mats and rubber mats differ in a number of ways, carpet mats are generally tufted and have a rubberised anti-slip backing. On the other hand, rubber car mats are heavy duty, while some car mats are the plain colour of rubber, many contain branded company logos, cartoon characters or advertisements. Some are in form of carpet material. They can also come in a range of colours. The terms universal and custom fit differentiate between floor mats that will fit a multitude of different cars and those that are specifically designed to fit only one chassis. Anti-fatigue mats are designed to help a person who is working in a position for prolonged periods of time. Most anti-fatigue matting is a combination of a pattern and a cushioning underlay. The cushioning causes constant subconscious balance checks and micro movements that stimulate blood flow through the legs and this results in better circulation and less fatigue. The cushioning underlay insulates the feet from the surface, cold floors, vibrations, moisture
28.
Siltation
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Siltation or siltification is the pollution of water by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the concentration of suspended sediments, and to the increased accumulation of fine sediments on bottoms where they are undesirable. Siltation is most often caused by erosion or sediment spill. Siltation is the term for being unambigiuous, even if not entirely stringent since it also includes other particle sizes than silt. The origin of the sediment transport into an area may be erosion on land. In rural areas the erosion source is typically soil degradation due to intensive or inadequate agricultural practices, leading to soil erosion, the result will be an increased amount of silt and clay in the water bodies that drain the area. In water the main source is sediment spill from dredging, from the transportation of dredged material on barges. Such deposition may be made to get rid of unwanted material, such as the dumping of material dredged from harbours. The deposition may also have as purpose to build up the coastline, artificial islands, climate change also affect siltation rates. While the sediment in transport is in suspension, it acts as a pollutant for those who require clean water and this includes uses such as for cooling or in industrial processes, and it includes aquatic life that are sensitive to suspended material in the water. While nekton have been found to avoid spill plumes in the water, among the most sensitive organisms are coral polyps. Generally speaking, hard bottom communities and mussel banks are more sensitive to siltation than sand, unlike in the sea, in a stream the plume will cover the entire channel, except possibly for backwaters, which is why fish will also be directly affected in most cases. Siltation can also affect navigation channels, or irrigation channels and it refers to the undesired accumulation of sediments in channels intended for vessels, or for distributing water. One may distinguish between measurements at the source, during transport, and within the affected area, source measurements of erosion may be very difficult, since the lost material may be a fraction of a millimeter per year.5 kg/s. Also sediment spill is better measured in transport than at the source, to distinguish the spill contribution, the background turbidity is subtracted from the spill plume turbidity. Since the spill plume in open water varies in space and time, an integration over the plume is required. These measurements are close to the source, in the order of a few hundred meters. Anything beyond a work area buffer zone for sediment spill is considered the impact area
29.
Ibn Battuta
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He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in his Travels. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands and his journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Middle East, India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. He claimed descent from a Berber tribe known as the Lawata, as a young man he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki madhhab, the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. Maliki Muslims requested Ibn Battuta serve as their religious judge as he was from an area where it was practiced. In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca and he would not see Morocco again for twenty-four years. So I braced my resolution to quit my dear ones, female and male and my parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. He travelled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast across the sultanates of Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid, the route took him through Tlemcen, Béjaïa, and then Tunis, where he stayed for two months. For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed and he took a bride in the town of Sfax, the first in a series of marriages that would feature in his travels. In the early spring of 1326, after a journey of over 3,500 km, Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Alexandria and he met two ascetic pious men in Alexandria. One was Sheikh Burhanuddin who is supposed to have foretold the destiny of Ibn Battuta as a world traveller saying It seems to me that you are fond of foreign travel and you will visit my brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin in Sind and Burhanuddin in China. Another pious man Sheikh Murshidi interpreted the meaning of a dream of Ibn Battuta that he was meant to be a world traveller and he spent several weeks visiting sites in the area, and then headed inland to Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate and an important city. After spending about a month in Cairo, he embarked on the first of many detours within the safety of Mamluk territory. Of the three routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-travelled, which involved a journey up the Nile valley. Upon approaching the town, however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back, Ibn Battuta returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus. During his first trip he had encountered a man who prophesied that he would only reach Mecca by travelling through Syria. Without this help many travellers would be robbed and murdered, after spending the Muslim month of Ramadan in Damascus, he joined a caravan travelling the 1,300 km south to Medina, site of the tomb of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. After four days in the town, he journeyed on to Mecca, rather than returning home, Ibn Battuta instead decided to continue on, choosing as his next destination the Ilkhanate, a Mongol Khanate, to the northeast. On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Mecca, the group headed north to Medina and then, travelling at night, turned northeast across the Najd plateau to Najaf, on a journey that lasted about two weeks
30.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
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Arabs
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Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
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Khaz'al Khan al-Kaabi
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Khazal bin Jabir bin Merdaw al-Kabi GCIE KCSI, Muaz us-Sultana, and Sardar-e-Aqdas, was the independent Emir of the Sheikhdom of Mohammerah, located today in the Khuzestan province of Iran. The British were providing Khazal with meager shares of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and they even considered Khazal as a possible king for Iraq. The Bani Kaab were the largest and most powerful tribe in the province, in the early 19th century the Bani Kaab had dissolved into a number of rival clans that often clashed and feuded with each other. Unlike previous leaders of the Bani Kaab, Jabir maintained law and order, Jabir also became the Imperial-appointed governor-general of the province. After Jabirs death in 1881, his son, Mazal, took over as tribal leader and Sheikh of Mohammerah, as well as the provincial governor-general. However, in June 1897 Mazal was killed, some accounts state that he was assassinated by his younger brother, Khazal, while others state that this was done by a palace guard under orders from Khazal. Thereafter Khazal assumed his position as Sheikh of Mohammerah, proclaiming himself not only the leader of the Bani Kaab and he then appointed his sons to the governorships of the various cities, towns and villages within his control, including Naseriyeh. Unlike his brother, Khazal had ambition and he had great vision for the future of Mohammerah and the Arabs. His rule in Mohammerah was Supreme and unhindered, a most astute politician and a far-seeing statesman with personal magnetism. He had ambition and was full of dreams, the rest of the province remained under the domination of Bakhtiari Khans, Lur tribal leaders, and Persian groups. Several of the Bakhtiari Khans, in particular, had entered into alliances with Khazal, the Qajar Shah made him an Officer of the Nishan-e-Aqdas in 1920. Once oil was discovered in Masjed Soleyman in 1908, by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company which later became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, eventually BP, the refinery was built and began operating in 1912. Khazal was knighted in 1910 and supported Britain in World War I, as part of the treaty they were given a monopoly of drilling in the province in return for an annual payment to Khazal, though the profits of the company vastly exceeded the annual payments. APOC had made Khaz’al extremely wealthy, not only was Khaz’al receiving revenue from oil production but he also owned a certain amount of shares in the oil company. In all Arabia and its Sheikhdoms, in Mesopotamia and Iran, from the Red Sea to the Caspian, in 1920, the Sheikh of Kuwait, Salim Al Mubarak Al Sabah, ambushed Ibn Sauds men over a border dispute between Kuwait and Najd. When Percy Cox was informed of this event, he sent a letter to Khazal offering the Kuwaiti throne to him or one of his heirs. Khazal, who considered the Al Sabah as his own family, do you think I can accept this. He then asked. even so, do you think that you have come to me something new
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T-54/T-55
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The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced just as the Second World War ended. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhni Tagli by the end of 1945, the T-54 eventually became the main tank for armoured units of the Soviet Army, armies of the Warsaw Pact countries, and many others. T-54s and T-55s have been involved in many of the armed conflicts since the later part of the 20th century. The T-54/55 series eventually became the tank in military history. Estimated production numbers for the range from 86,000 to 100,000. During the Cold War, Soviet tanks never directly faced their NATO adversaries in combat in Europe, the Soviet T-34 medium tank of the 1940s is considered to have the best balance of firepower, protection and mobility for its cost of any tank of its time in the world. In 1943, the Morozov Design Bureau resurrected the pre-war T-34M development project, by the time the T-44 was ready for production, the T-34 had also been modified to fit the same gun. The T-44 was produced in small numbers, around 2,000 being completed during the war. Instead, the continued to use the design as the basis for further improved guns, experimenting with a 122 mm design. Efforts to fit the 100 mm gun to the T-44 demonstrated that changes to the design would greatly improve the combination. The main issue was a turret ring, which suggested slightly enlarging the hull. A prototype of the new design, about 40 centimetres longer and this model looked almost identical to the original T-44, albeit with a much larger gun. In testing, there were drawbacks that required correction and many alterations that had to be made to the vehicles design. It was decided to begin production of the new vehicle. It would go into production in Nizhni Tagil in 1947 and Kharkov in 1948, production of the initial series of T-54s began slowly as 1,490 modifications were made. The Red Army received a tank that was superior to World War II designs, the 100 mm gun fired BR-412 series full-calibre APHE ammunition, which had superior penetration capability when compared to the T-34 that it replaced. The serial production version, designated T-54-1, differed from the second T-54 prototype, as production ramped up, quality problems emerged. Production was stopped and an improved T-54-2 version was designed, several changes were made and a new turret was fitted
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Percy Cox
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Major-General Sir Percy Zachariah Cox GCMG GCIE KCSI KBE DL was a British Indian Army officer and Colonial Office administrator in the Middle East. He was one of the figures in the creation of the current Middle East Cox was born in Harwood Hall, Herongate, Essex. He was educated initially at Harrow School where he developed interests in history, geography. In November 1889, a planner, he transferred to the Bengal Staff Corps. On 14 November 1889 he married Louisa Belle, youngest daughter of Irish-born surgeon-general John Butler Hamilton and he transferred to Berbera in 1894. He was promoted to captain in February 1895, in May 1895 he was given command of an expedition against the Rer Hared clan, which had blocked trade routes and was raiding the coast. With only 52 Indian and Somali regulars and 1,500 poor quality, untrained local irregulars, later that year 1895, he was promoted to be assistant to the Viceroy of Indias agent in Baroda. The French had had leased a coaling station from Sultan Feisal, the French also gave protection to the local slave trade, which the British opposed. Cox managed to successfully end French influence in the area, turning the subsidy around, when Lord Curzon, visited Muscat in 1903, he judged that Cox virtually ran the place. Cox was promoted to the rank of major on 6 February 1902 and he began a remarkable correspondence and friendship with Captain William Shakespear, appointed Coxs deputy Political Resident to Persia. Their frank exchange of views at Bandar Abbas was an element of pre-war policy in the near east. One of the few allies was Shaikh Mubarak of Kuwait, whose shared intelligence eventually aided the desert war, Cox was assiduous with his briefs, he prepared in great detail, in fluent Arabic, when he wrote Shaikhs. Warned by the ambassador to Constantinople of Turkish escalation, preparations were made to make Arabian friends. British forces were called into Bushehr in 1909, and then again to Shiraz in 1911, Cox promised Sheikh Khazal of Muhammarah that troops would protect when the Turks threatened to invade. Khazaal leased the Shatt al-Arab waterway on the Euphrates to the Anglo-Persian Oil company for the construction of refineries, in 1910 Cox wrote a full report on Shakespears findings to India, which was passed to London. He was promoted to Lieutenant-colonel in February 1910, Cox promoted trade in the Persian Gulf which doubled between 1904 and 1914, suppressed the illegal arms trade, and improved communications. In 1911 he was created KBE, in 1908 oil fields were discovered in the region of Abadan. On 16 July 1909, after negotiation with Cox, assisted by Arnold Wilson
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Arnold Wilson
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Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson KCIE CSI CMG DSO was the British civil commissioner in Baghdad in 1918–1920. Wilson served under Percy Cox, the administrator of Mesopotamia during and after World War I. Wilson was the third Member of Parliament to be killed in World War II when serving as a member at the advanced age of 55. Wilson was born in 1884 and educated in England at Clifton College and his elder half sister was the leading civil servant Mona Wilson and his younger brother was the tenor Sir Steuart Wilson. After he spent a year attached to the 1st battalion the Wiltshire regiment in India, he was appointed to the British Indian Army and posted to the 32nd Sikh Pioneers, soldier and senior administrator as Consul-General of Muhammerah, he was put in charge of the Turko-Persian Frontier Commission. He looked like the figure of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in a top buttoned bright red tunic. His flashing eyes, his eyebrows, his close-cropped hair, his biblical quotations, recalled Gertrude Bell. Wilson was a worker, a workaholic, who was tirelessly energetic. He inspired a younger colleague Harry Philby, while Hubert Young, based in Baghdad, he then became the acting Civil Commissioner for Mesopotamia. The problem remained that there was no official Arab Policy it had not been defined in law nor by the Civil Service, India wanted Mesopotamia as a Province, but Arabists from Cox downwards wished for a semi-autonomous policy separate from the Arab Bureau in Cairo. Policy was made ad hoc, but Wilson disagreed, during his tenure in Mesopotamia, Wilson worked to improve the countrys administration according to the principles he learned in India. In doing so, he was nicknamed The Despot of Mess-Pot, however, after World War I he found himself progressively opposed to other British officials who believed that Arab countries should be granted independence under British supervision. In April 1920, at the Conference of San Remo, the League of Nations agreed to the British mandate over Iraq, in the spring and summer of 1920, various riots erupted across central and southern Iraq. These riots were often violently repressed by Wilsons administration, the total number of Iraqi casualties of these riots was estimated at 10,000 people. Having achieved the rank of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in August 1918, he retired from the Indian Army in August 1921, in the summer of 1920, Wilson proposed a compromise, suggesting that Feisal, the former King of Syria, be offered the Iraqi throne. This proposal was intended to support from the Iraqis as well as British officials who favored semi-independence. It was eventually accepted by the British government, but Wilson was not there to participate in its implementation, the British government decided not to follow Wilsons views, and instead granted independence to Iraq. The British government removed Wilson from his position in Iraq and knighted him, deeply disappointed by the turn of events, he left the public service and joined the Anglo-Persian Oil Company as manager of their Middle Eastern operations
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Anglo-Persian Oil Company
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The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was a British company founded in 1908 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. It was the first company to extract petroleum from Iran, in 1935 APOC was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954 it became the British Petroleum Company, one of the antecedents of the modern BP public limited company. In 1901 William Knox DArcy, a millionaire London socialite, negotiated an oil concession with Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia and he financed this with capital he had made from his shares in the highly profitable Mount Morgan mine in Queensland, Australia. DArcy assumed exclusive rights to prospect for oil for 60 years in a vast tract of territory including most of Iran, in exchange the Shah received £20,000, an equal amount in shares of DArcys company, and a promise of 16% of future profits. DArcy hired geologist George Bernard Reynolds to do the prospecting in the Iranian desert, conditions were extremely harsh, small pox raged, bandits and warlords ruled, water was all but unavailable, and temperatures often soared past 50°C. After several years of prospecting, DArcys fortune dwindled away and he was forced to sell most of his rights to a Glasgow-based syndicate, the Burmah Oil Company. By 1908, having more than £500,000 into their Persian venture and found no oil, DArcy. Reynolds delayed following these orders and in a stroke of luck, struck oil shortly after on May 26,1908, on 14 April 1909, Burmah Oil created the Anglo-Persian Oil Company as a subsidiary and also sold shares to the public. Volume production of Persian oil products eventually started in 1913 from a refinery built at Abadan, in 1913, shortly before World War I, APOC managers negotiated with a new customer, Winston Churchill, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill, as a part of an expansion program, sought to modernize Britains Royal Navy by abandoning the use of coal-fired steamships. Although Britain had large reserves of coal, oil had advantages in energy density. Furthermore, Churchill wanted to free Britain from its reliance on the Standard Oil, in exchange for secure oil supplies for its ships, the British government injected new capital into the company and, in doing so, acquired a controlling interest in APOC. The contract that was set up between the British Government and APOC was to hold for 20 years, the British government also became a de facto hidden power behind the oil company. APOC took a 50% share in a new Turkish Petroleum Company organized in 1912 by Calouste Gulbenkian to explore, after a hiatus caused by World War I it reformed and struck an immense gusher at Kirkuk, Iraq in 1927, renaming itself the Iraq Petroleum Company. In 1920, the APOC also acquired an oil concession that had been formally granted in 1916 to a former Russian subject. During this period, Iranian popular opposition to the DArcy oil concession, such a pervasive atmosphere of dissatisfaction seemed to suggest that a radical revision of the concession terms would be possible. In 1923, Burmah employed Winston Churchill as a consultant to lobby the British government to allow APOC to have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources. In 1925, TPC received concession in the Mesopotamian oil resources from the Iraqi government under British mandate, TPC finally struck oil in Iraq on 14 October 1927
Iran
