1.
Dhivehi language
–
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Maldives, where it is the national language. It is also the first language of nearly 10,000 people on the island of Minicoy in the Union territory of Lakshadweep, India, where the Mahl dialect of the Maldivian language is spoken. The ethnic autonym for the language, Divehi, is found in English as Dhivehi. Maldivian is written in the Thaana script, the major dialects of Maldivian are Malé, Huvadhu, Mulaku, Addu, Haddhunmathee, and Maliku. The standard form of Maldivian is Malé, which is spoken in the Maldivian capital of the same name, the Maliku dialect spoken in Minicoy is officially referred to as Mahl by the Lakshadweep administration. This has been adopted by many authors when referring to Maldivian spoken in Minicoy, Maldivian is a descendent of Maharashtri Prakrit and is closely related to the Marathi, Konkani and Sinhalese languages, but not mutually intelligible with them. Many languages have influenced the development of the Maldivian language through the ages, others include French, Persian, Portuguese, Hindustani, and English. The English words atoll and dhoni are anglicised forms of the Maldivian words atoḷu, the origin of the word Divehi is Div+vehi meaning Islanders. Bas means language, so Divehi-bas means Islanders language, harry Charles Purvis Bell, one of the first Dhivehi linguists, called it Divehi. This was consistent with Maldives, the name of the country, for the -dives of Maldives, Wilhelm Geiger, a German linguist who undertook the first research on Maldivian linguistics in the early 20th century, also called the language Divehi. An h was added to the name of the language— Dhivehi— in 1976, today the spelling with an h is both common and official usage in the Maldives. Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to the Sinhalese language of Sri Lanka, Maldivian represents the southernmost Indo-Aryan language. Together with Sinhala, Maldivian represents a subgroup within the Modern Indo-Aryan languages which is called Insular Indo-Aryan, however, Sinhala and Maldivian are not mutually intelligible. Maldivian is descended from the Maharashtri Prakrit of ancient and medieval India and these Prakrits were originally derived from Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars related to Vedic Sanskrit. Maldivian has a written history of about eight hundred years. The earliest writings were on the lōmāfānu of the 12th and 13th centuries, early inscriptions on coral stone have also been found. The oldest inscription found to date is an inscription on a coral stone, Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language of the Sinhalese-Maldivian subfamily. It developed in isolation from other languages until the 12th century
2.
ISO 4217
–
The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of different countries. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency codes last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. Other changes can be seen, however, the Russian ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB and these currency units are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to USD1 or EUR1. The code XTS is reserved for use in testing, the code XXX is used to denote a transaction involving no currency. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, the codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU, the use of an initial letter X for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned. Because of this rule ISO4217 can use X codes without risk of clashing with a country code. ISO3166 country codes beginning with X are used for private custom use, consequently, ISO4217 can use X codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes. The inclusion of EU in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, the ISO4217 standard includes a crude mechanism for expressing the relationship between a major currency unit and its corresponding minor currency unit. This mechanism is called the exponent and assumes a base of 10. For example, USD is equal to 100 of its currency unit the cent. So the USD has exponent 2, the code JPY is given the exponent 0, because its minor unit, the sen, although nominally valued at 1/100 of a yen, is of such negligible value that it is no longer used. Usually, as with the USD, the currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but in some cases 1/1000 is used. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya equal to 5 khoums, some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all and these are given an exponent of 0, as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value. There is also a code number assigned to each currency
3.
Currency symbol
–
A currency symbol is a graphic symbol used as a shorthand for a currencys name, especially in reference to amounts of money. The European Commission considers the global recognition of the euro sign € part of its success, in 2009, India launched a public competition to replace the ₨ ligature it shared with neighbouring countries. It finalised its new symbol, ₹ on 15 July 2010. It is a blend of the Latin letter R with the Devanagari letter र, when writing currency amounts the location of the symbol varies by currency. Many currencies in the English-speaking world and Latin America, place it before the amount, the Cape Verdean escudo places its symbol in the decimal separator position. The usage of many European countries, such as France, Germany, the decimal separator also follows local countries standards. For instance, the United Kingdom often uses an interpunct as the point on price stickers. Commas or decimal points are common separators used in other countries, see decimal separator for information on international standards. Older currency symbols have evolved slowly, often from previous currencies, the dollar and peso symbols originated from the mark employed to denote the Spanish real de a ocho, whereas the pound and lira symbols evolved from an L standing for libra, a Roman pound of silver. Newly invented currencies and currencies adopting new symbols have symbolism closer to their adopter, the added center bar in the real sign is meant to symbolize stability. The new Indian rupee symbol, ₹, is a combination of Latin. There are also considerations, such as the perception of the business community. For a new symbol to be used, software to render it needs to be promulgated, the EU was criticized for not considering how the euro symbol would need to be customized to work in different fonts. The original design was exceptionally wide. These two factors have led to most typefaces employing customized, font-specific versions, usually with reduced width, List of currencies List of circulating currencies Currency Symbols
4.
Coins of the Maldivian rufiyaa
–
The coins of the Maldivian rufiyaa are documented since it became a British protectorate in 1304 AH. The Maldive Islands were granted independence outside the Commonwealth of Nations as an independent monarchy, the 2nd Republic was declared in November 1968. The Maldive Islands returned to the Commonwealth in 1982, note about the Islamic calendar, The dates do not always correspond exactly, as the AH year is 11 days shorter than a year on the Gregorian calendar. In 1318 AH, a copper larin was struck, in 1319 AH, a copper Larin was also struck. In 1320 AH, a copper Larin & a 4 laari was struck. These coins were an issue of 1 laari &4 laari coins that were struck in 1331 AH at Heatons Mint in Birmingham, England and these coins were the last coins to have been issued under the British protectorate. They were also the only coins to have struck during the reign of Sultan Mohammed Farid Didi. These coins were struck at the Royal Mint in London and they have the same dimensions as the coins of Ceylon, which were in everyday circulation in the Maldive Islands. The coins that were struck in 1960 were the following denominations,1 laari 2 laari 5 laari 10 laari 25 laari 50 laari There were two types of the 50 laari coin. One of these has a security groove along the edge of the coin, the coins are entirely inscribed in Arabic and Divehi. The first coins to be issued by the Maldive Islands in the period outside the Commonwealth was the issue of 1389 AH, in this period, the first coins denominated in rufiyaa were struck. Only in the late 1970s do the dates on Maldivian coins begin to correspond exactly, the 1389 AH coins are of the same design as the 1960 coins, but all references to the Sultanate were replaced with references to the Republic. Only in the late 1970s did English first appear on Maldivian coins, the first coin to be issued after the return of the Maldive Islands return to the Commonwealth was the 1 rufiyaa coin dated 1402 AH. This coin has the Coat-of-Arms on the obverse with the dates, the reverse of the coin is inscribed REPUBLIC OF MALDIVES1 RUFIYAA. A series of coins denominated from 1 laari to 50 laari was released into circulation in 1404 AH. Since then, a number of coins have been struck. In 1416 AH, the 2 rufiyaa coin was released into circulation to replace the 2 rufiyaa banknote, edited by Tom Michael and George Cuhaj. - ISBN 0-87349-793-7 Maldivian rufiyaa Maldivian laari Currency of Maldives
5.
Maldives
–
The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is a South Asian island country, located in the Indian Ocean, situated in the Arabian Sea. It lies southwest of India and Sri Lanka, the chain of twenty-six atolls stretches from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to the Addu City in the south. Malé is the capital and most populated city, traditionally called the Kings Island for its central location. With an average elevation of 1.5 metres above sea level, it is the worlds lowest country, with even its highest natural point being the lowest in the world. Due to the subsequent risks posed by rising sea-levels, the government pledged in 2009 to make the Maldives a carbon-neutral country by 2019, the Maldives have been historically and culturally linked to the Indian subcontinent since the fourth century BCE. The Maldivian archipelago was Islamised in the 12th century and consolidated as a sultanate, developing commercial and cultural ties with Asia. From the mid 16th-century, the region came under the influence of European colonial powers. Independence from the United Kingdom was achieved in 1965 and a republic was established in 1968 with an elected Peoples Majlis. The ensuing decades have been characterised by political instability, efforts at democratic reform, the Maldives is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. It is also a member of the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the World Bank classifies the Maldives as having an upper middle income economy. Fishing has historically been the dominant economic activity, and remains the largest sector by far, along with Sri Lanka, it is one of only two South Asian countries rated high on the Human Development Index, with its per capita income the highest among SAARC nations. The name Maldives may derive from the Malayalam words maala and dweepu or the Tamil maalai and theevu, the Maldivian people are called Dhivehin. The word theevu means island, and Dhives means islanders, the ancient Sri Lankan chronicle Mahawamsa refers to an island called Mahiladiva in Pali, which is probably a mistranslation of the same Sanskrit word meaning garland. Jan S Hogendorn, Grossman Professor of Economics, theorises that the name Maldives derives from the Sanskrit mālādvīpa, in Tamil, Garland of Islands can be translated as Malai Theevu. In Malayalam, Garland of Islands can be translated as Maladweepu, in Kannada, Garland of Islands can be translated as Maaledweepa. This is the name inscribed on the scroll in the Maldive state emblem. The classical Persian/Arabic name for Maldives is Dibajat, the Dutch referred to the islands as the Maldivische Eilanden, while the British anglicised the local name for the islands first to the Maldive Islands and later to Maldives. One such community are the Giraavaru people and they are mentioned in ancient legends and local folklore about the establishment of the capital and kingly rule in Malé
6.
Central bank
–
A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages a states currency, money supply, and interest rates. Central banks also usually oversee the commercial banking system of their respective countries, Central banks in most developed nations are institutionally designed to be independent from political interference. Still, limited control by the executive and legislative bodies usually exists, prior to the 17th century most money was commodity money, typically gold or silver. However, promises to pay were widely circulated and accepted as value at least five hundred years earlier in both Europe and Asia. The Song dynasty was the first to issue generally circulating paper currency, in 1455, in an effort to control inflation, the succeeding Ming Dynasty ended the use of paper money and closed much of Chinese trade. The Bank of Amsterdam, established in the Dutch Republic in 1609, is considered to be the forerunner to modern central banks. The Wisselbanks innovations helped lay the foundations for the birth and development of the banking system that now plays a vital role in the worlds economy. Along with a number of local banks, it performed many functions of a central banking system. Lucien Gillard calls it the European guilder, and Adam Smith devotes many pages to explaining how the bank guilder works, the model of the Wisselbank as a state bank was adapted throughout Europe, including the Bank of Sweden and the Bank of England. Established by Dutch-Latvian Johan Palmstruch in 1668, Sveriges Riksbank is often considered by many as the worlds oldest central bank, the lenders would give the government cash and also issue notes against the government bonds, which could be lent again. A Royal Charter was granted on 27 July through the passage of the Tonnage Act 1694, the bank was given exclusive possession of the governments balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue banknotes. The £1. 2M was raised in 12 days, half of this was used to rebuild the Navy and these modern central banking functions evolved slowly through the 18th and 19th centuries. The currency crisis of 1797, caused by panicked depositors withdrawing from the Bank led to the government suspending convertibility of notes into specie payment. The bank was accused by the bullionists of causing the exchange rate to fall from over issuing banknotes. Nevertheless, it was clear that the Bank was being treated as an organ of the state, henry Thornton, a merchant banker and monetary theorist has been described as the father of the modern central bank. An opponent of the real bills doctrine, he was a defender of the bullionist position, thorntons process of monetary expansion anticipated the theories of Knut Wicksell regarding the cumulative process which restates the Quantity Theory in a theoretically coherent form. Until the mid-nineteenth century, commercial banks were able to issue their own banknotes, many consider the origins of the central bank to lie with the passage of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Under this law, authorisation to issue new banknotes was restricted to the Bank of England, at the same time, the Bank of England was restricted to issue new banknotes only if they were 100% backed by gold or up to £14 million in government debt
7.
De La Rue
–
De La Rue plc is a banknote manufacturer, security printing of passports and tax stamps, brand authentication and papermaking company with headquarters in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. It also has a factory on the Team Valley Trading Estate, Gateshead, there are overseas offices in Kenya, Sri Lanka and Malta. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, the company was founded by Thomas de la Rue, who moved to London in 1821 and set up in business as a stationer and printer. Working as a boy of the streets, in 1831 he secured his business a Royal Warrant to produce playing cards, in 1855 it started printing postage stamps and in 1860 it began printing banknotes. In 1896, the partnership was converted to a private company. In 1921, the de la Rue family sold their interests and it was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1947. The company, then called Thomas De La Rue & Company, a takeover bid for De La Rue was made by the Rank Organisation plc in 1968 but this was rejected by the Monopolies commission as being against the public interest. In 1991 the company’s name was changed again – this time to De La Rue plc, in 1995, the company acquired Portals Limited from the Portal family. For almost 300 years Portals had been regarded as the banknote paper manufacturer in the world. In 1997, De La Rue acquired Harrison and Sons, the stamp, in 2003, the company acquired the Debden-based banknote printing operations of the Bank of England. In 2003 and 2004 the company supplied banknotes to Iraq, the company was recognized by Hermann Simon as a role model for other small- to medium-sized businesses in his book Hidden Champions. The Highest Perfection, a history of De La Rue was published in 2011, written by Peter Pugh for De La Rue, it covered the years 1712-2003. In August 2014, the announced the appointment of Martin Sutherland as Chief Executive Officer. In 2016, the Cash Handling division was sold to Privet Capital, in September 2016 The Bank of England issued the new UK five pound note, the first UK note to be printed on polymer. In December 2016 the company announced it will acquire the DuPont Authentication division, De La Rue sells high-security paper and printing technology for over 150 national currencies. Thomas de la Rues designs for playing cards are the basis for the standard design. The playing card business was sold to John Waddington in 1969, the company has also printed postage stamps for the United Kingdom and some of its colonies, for Italy and for the Confederate States of America. Some famous stamps such as the Cape of Good Hope triangulars were printed by De La Rue & Co. after Perkins Bacon fell out of favour with the authorities of the time
8.
Mint (facility)
–
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins that can be used in currency. The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins, in the beginning, hammered coinage or cast coinage were the chief means of coin minting, with resulting production runs numbering as little as the hundreds or thousands. In modern mints, coin dies are manufactured in large numbers, with the mass production of currency, the production cost is weighed when minting coins. For example, it costs the United States Mint much less than 25 cents to make a quarter, metals were well suited to represent wealth, owing to their great intrinsic value and their durability, divisibility and rarity. The first mint was established in Lydia in the 7th century BC, for coining gold, silver. The Lydian innovation of manufacturing coins under the authority of the spread to neighboring Greece. Some of the earliest Greek mints were within city-states on Greek islands such as Crete, at about the same time, coins and mints appeared independently in China and spread to Korea and Japan. The manufacture of coins in the Roman Empire, dating from about the 4th century BC, the origin of the word mint is ascribed to the manufacture of silver coin at Rome in 269 BC at the temple of Juno Moneta. This goddess became the personification of money, and her name was applied both to money and to its place of manufacture, Roman mints were spread widely across the Empire, and were sometimes used for propaganda purposes. The populace often learned of a new Roman Emperor when coins appeared with the new Emperors portrait, Ancient coins were made by casting in moulds or by striking between engraved dies. The Romans cast their larger copper coins in clay moulds carrying distinctive markings, not because they knew nothing of striking, casting is now used only by counterfeiters. The most ancient coins were cast in bulletshaped or conical moulds, the blank or unmarked piece of metal was placed on a small anvil, and the die was held in position with tongs. The reverse or lower side of the received a rectangular mark made by the sharp edges of the little anvil. Subsequently the anvil was marked in ways, and decorated with letters and figures of beasts. The spherical blanks soon gave place to lenticular-shaped ones, the blank was made red-hot and struck between cold dies. One blow was usually insufficient, and the method was similar to that used in striking medals in high relief. With the substitution of iron for bronze as the material for dies, about 300 AD, in the Middle Ages bars of metal were cast and hammered out on an anvil. Portions of the sheets were then cut out with shears
9.
Sanskrit
–
Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
10.
United States dollar
–
The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
11.
Cowry
–
Cowry or cowrie, plural cowries, is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. The word cowry is also used to refer only to the shells of these snails. Many people throughout history have found the very rounded, shiny, porcelain-like shells of cowries pleasing to look at, indeed, the term porcelain derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell due to their similar translucent appearance. The cowry was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money, cowry shell money was important at one time or another in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. Some species in the family Ovulidae are also referred to as cowries. In the British Isles the local Trivia species are sometimes called cowries, the Ovulidae and the Triviidae are somewhat closely related to Cypraeidae. The shells of cowries are usually smooth and shiny and more or less egg-shaped, with a flat surface which shows a long, narrow, slit-like opening. The narrower end of the cowry shell is the anterior end. The spire of the shell is not visible in the shell of most species, but is visible in juveniles. Nearly all cowries have a porcelain-like shine, with exceptions such as Hawaiis granulated cowry. Lengths range from 5 mm for some species up to 19 cm for the Atlantic deer cowry, the word cowrie comes from Hindi कौड़ी and ultimately from Sanskrit कपर्द. Cowry shells, especially Monetaria moneta, were used for centuries as currency in Africa, after the 1500s, however, it became even more common. Western nations, chiefly through the trade, introduced huge amounts of Maldivian cowries in Africa. The Ghanaian unit of currency known as the Ghanaian cedi was named after cowry shells, starting over three thousand years ago, cowry shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency. They were also used as means of exchange in India, the Classical Chinese character for money originated as a stylized drawing of a Maldivian cowrie shell. Words and characters concerning money, property or wealth usually have this as a radical, before the Spring and Autumn period the cowrie was used as a type of trade token awarding access to a feudal lords resources to a worthy vassal. There is some debate about how the Ojibway traded for or found these shells, so far inland and so far north, oral stories and birch bark scrolls seem to indicate that the shells were found in the ground, or washed up on the shores of lakes or rivers. Petroforms in the Whiteshell Provincial Park may be as old as 8,000 years, cowry shells are also worn as jewelry or otherwise used as ornaments or charms
12.
Ibn Battuta
–
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
13.
Dinar
–
The dinar or denar is a main currency unit in modern circulation in seven mostly-Islamic and two mostly-Orthodox countries, and has historic use in several more. The English word dinar is the transliteration of the Arabic دينار, a gold coin known as the dīnāra was also introduced to India by the Kushan Empire in the 1st century AD, and adopted by the Gupta Empire and its successors up to the 6th century. The modern gold dinar is a modern bullion gold coin, the 8th century English king Offa of Mercia minted copies of Abbasid dinars struck in 774 by Caliph Al-Mansur with Offa Rex centered on the reverse. The moneyer visibly had no understanding of Arabic as the Arabic text contains many errors, such coins may have been produced for trade with Islamic Spain. Currency Economy of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Islamic gold dinar Kelantanese dinar List of circulating currencies Middle East economic integration
14.
Persian language
–
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
15.
Arabic
–
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
16.
Persian Gulf
–
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
17.
Geography of Sri Lanka
–
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia near south-east India. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest, Sri Lankas documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II. Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lankas recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. A diverse and multicultural country, Sri Lanka is home to many religions, ethnic groups, in addition to the majority Sinhalese, it is home to large groups of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka is a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the capital and largest city. Along with the Maldives, Sri Lanka is one of the two countries in South Asia that are rated among high human development on the Human Development Index. In antiquity, Sri Lanka was known to travellers by a variety of names, according to the Mahavamsa, the legendary Prince Vijaya named the land Tambapanni, because his followers hands were reddened by the red soil of the area. In Hindu mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the island was referred to as Lankā, in Tamil, the island is referred to as Eelam. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobanā or Taprobanē from the word Tambapanni, as a British crown colony, the island was known as Ceylon, it achieved independence as the Dominion of Ceylon in 1948. The country is known in Sinhalese as Śrī Laṃkā and in Tamil as Ilaṅkai, in 1972, its formal name was changed to Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka. Later in 1978 it was changed to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as the name Ceylon still appears in the names of a number of organisations, the Sri Lankan government announced in 2011 a plan to rename all those over which it has authority. The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years, the era spans the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and early Iron Ages. Among the Paleolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka, Pahiyangala and it is said that Kubera was overthrown by his demon stepbrother Ravana, the powerful emperor who built a mythical flying machine named Dandu Monara. The modern city of Wariyapola is described as Ravanas airport, early inhabitants of Sri Lanka were probably ancestors of the Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. According to the Mahāvamsa, a written in Pāḷi, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and Nagas. Ancient cemeteries that were used before 600BC and other signs of advanced civilization has also discovered in Sri Lanka
18.
Sultan
–
Sultan is a noble title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning strength, authority, rulership, derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, the dynasty and lands ruled by a sultan are referred to as a sultanate. A feminine form of sultan, used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah, but Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses sultan for imperial lady, because Turkish grammar uses the same words for women and men. However, this styling misconstrues the roles of wives of sultans, in a similar usage, the wife of a German field marshal might be styled Frau Feldmarschall. The female leaders in Muslim history are known as sultanas. Special case in Brunei, the Queen Consort is known as Raja Isteri with suffix Pengiran Anak if the queen consort is a royal princess. Among those modern hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law and these are generally secondary titles, either lofty poetry or with a message, e. g. g. Sultan ul-Mujahidin as champion of jihad, ghaznavid Sultanate Sultans of Great Seljuk Seljuk Sultanate of Rum Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, the Osmanli Elisu Sultanate and a few others. A Sultan ranked below a Khan and this usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative. Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as sultan, but Ottomans themselves used padişah or hünkar to refer to their ruler, the emperors formal title consisted of sultan together with khan. In formal address, the children were also entitled sultan, with imperial princes carrying the title before their given name. Example, Şehzade Sultan Mehmed and Mihrimah Sultan, son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent, henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title sultan. In Kazakh Khanate a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty elected by clans, the best of sultans was elected as khan by people at Kurultai. See ru, Казахские султаны In a number of states under Mongol or Turkic rule. These administrations were often decimal, using originally princely titles such as khan, malik, in the Persian empire, the rank of sultan was roughly equivalent to that of a modern-day captain in the West, socially in the fifth-rank class, styled Ali Jah
19.
Muhammad Thakurufaanu Al Auzam
–
As-Sulṭaan al-Ghaazee Muhamadhu Thakurufaanu al-Auẓam or Al-Sultan Ghazi Muhammad Bodu Thakurufaanu ruled over the Maldive Islands from 1573 to 1585 AD. He was a captain, environmentalist and a military strategist and he is considered as the national hero of the Maldives for driving out the Portuguese who ruled over the Maldives from 1558-1573 after killing Sultan Ali VI in Malé. His victory is commemorated in the Maldives as Qaumee Dhuvas or National Day and he was also the first Maldivian king to form the Lashkaru. Muhammad Thakurufaanu was the son of a khatib, Husain of Utheemu in Thiladhummathi Atoll, Muhammad Thakurufan learned hevikan After killing Sultan Ali VI, the Maldives was ruled by Andiri Andiri and his Portuguese invaders. The three Utheemu brothers built the ship Kalhuoffummi and it is said that Muhammad Thakurufaanu received a lot of help from the renowned Maroshi Raaveribe in his fight for national independence. The sails of the ship were made on the island of Maroshi and this island is historic as it has the tree that grew from the Kaani Mundi used to make the sail of Kalhuoffummi. It is also the largest tree of its kind in the country and they, three brothers landed on a different island every night, fought the Portuguese and set sail into the ocean before daybreak. The Utheemu brothers along with other Maldivians who were determined to die for their country and faith, slew the whole Portuguese garrison, Andiri Andirin was killed by a musket shot of Muhammad Thakurufaanu himself. After killing the Andiri Andiri, as per a treaty he got refuge from Ali Raja of Cannanore, Muhammad Thakurufaanus base of operation was Maliku under the sovereignty of Cannanore. The Ali Raja demanded dominion over the Maldives, as promised to him by the Muhammad Thakurufaanu, however, Muhammad Thakurufaanu did not honor this promise. The letter was dated Friday 17 Jamada-el-oula Anno Hegirae 1243, according to the letter Muhammad Thakurufan had entered into a treaty ceding sovereignty of the Maldives to the Ali Raja of Cannanore in the event Thakurufan was established in power in Male. Muhammad Thakurufan concluded a treaty with the King Dom Manoel who lives in Goa, the chronicles report him to have ruled wisely, being just and considerate, protecting the poor, and even solicitous for the people’s interests. Muhammed Thakurufaanu died a death on August 26,1585. British author Royston Elliss novel A Hero in Time is about the life, the Islamic Centre, largest mosque in the Maldives is named after him. The Lashakru organized by him has evolved into the Maldives National Defence Force, list of Sultans of the Maldives Islamic Centre Qaumee Dhuvas Origin of the Security Force in Maldives
20.
Seal (emblem)
–
A seal is a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, a wrapper for one such as a modern envelope, the seal-making device is also referred to as the seal matrix or die, the imprint it creates as the seal impression. In most traditional forms of dry seal the design on the matrix is in intaglio. The design on the impression will reverse that of the matrix and this will not be the case if paper is embossed from behind, where the matrix and impression read the same way, and both matrix and impression are in relief. However engraved gems were carved in relief, called cameo in this context. The process is essentially that of a mould and these pendent seal impressions dangled below the documents they authenticated, to which the attachment tag was sewn or otherwise attached. Some jurisdictions consider rubber stamps or specified signature-accompanying words such as seal or L. S. to be the equivalent of, i. e. an equally effective substitute for. In Europe, although coats of arms and heraldic badges may well feature in such contexts as well as on seals, the study of seals is known as sigillography or sphragistics. Seals were used in the earliest civilizations and are of importance in archaeology. In ancient Mesopotamia carved or engraved cylinder seals in stone or other materials were used and these could be rolled along to create an impression on clay, and used as labels on consignments of trade goods, or for other purposes. They are normally hollow and it is presumed that they were worn on a string or chain round the neck, many have only images, often very finely carved, with no writing, while others have both. From Ancient Egypt seals in the form of signet-rings, including some with the names of kings, have been found, recently, seals have come to light in South Arabia datable to the Himyarite age. One example shows a name written in Aramaic engraved in reverse so as to read correctly in the impression, from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC until the Middle Ages, seals of various kinds were in production in the Aegean islands and mainland Greece. In the Early Minoan age these were formed of stone and ivory. By the Middle Minoan age a new set for seal forms, motifs, hard stone requires new rotary carving techniques. The Late Bronze Age is the par excellence of the lens-shaped seal and the seal ring. These were a luxury art form and became keenly collected. His collection fell as booty to Pompey the Great, who deposited it in a temple in Rome, engraved gems continued to be produced and collected until the 19th century
21.
Muhammad Shamsuddeen III
–
Sultan Muhammad Shamsuddeen Iskander III, CMG, son of Ibrahim Nooraddeen and Kakaage Don Goma, was the Sultan of the Maldives first from 7 May 1893 and then again from 1902. From Malé, Shamsuddeen wrote to his great-uncle, to return, at this time Haajee Imaaduddeen, nephew of the late sultan Nooraddeen, who would take over the throne after 2 months, ran the country. By this decree Haajee Imaaduddeen was raised to the throne and named Sultan Muhammad Imaaduddeen VI, Muhammad Shamsuddeen IIIs full coronation ceremony was not held until 27 July 1905. He was arrested on 2 October 1934 and was banished to Fuvahmulah with crown prince Henveyru Ganduvaru Manippulhu, the crown prince died there but later the Sultan was brought to Malé Atoll Villigili. The sultan died in Malé at the residence of Moonimaage and he is credited with bringing the first Constitution of Maldives on 22 December 1932
22.
Heaton's Mint
–
Its factory was situated in Icknield Street, on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter. It was created by Ralph Heaton II, using second-hand coin presses bought from the estate of Matthew Boulton, Ralph Heaton II was the son of Ralph Heaton I, an engineer, inventor and businessman in Slaney Street, and later Shadwell Street. Ralph Heaton II was a die sinker operating in Shadwell Street independently of his father, on 2 December 1817 Ralph I conveyed to his son land and buildings at 71 Bath Street to enable him to develop a separate company. Ralph II engaged in founding, stamping and piercing. Brass chandeliers were made for the newly invented gas lighting and a bats wing burner patented, on 1 April 1850 the auction was announced of equipment from the defunct Soho Mint, created by Matthew Boulton around 1788. At the auction on 29 April Ralph Heaton II bought the four steam-powered screw presses and these were installed at the Bath Street works, and in that year trade tokens were struck for use in Australia. In 1851 coins were struck for Chile using the letter H as a mintmark, the same year copper planchets were made for the Royal Mint to make into pennies, halfpennies, farthings, half-farthings and quarter-farthings. In 1852 the Mint won a contract to produce a new series of coins for France, in this the Mint pioneered the minting of bronze. Ralph Heaton III took key workers to Marseilles to equip and operate the French mint there, staying to fulfil the contract, in 1853 the Royal Mint was overwhelmed with producing silver and gold coins. The Birmingham Mint won its first contract to strike finished coins for Britain –500 tons of copper and these coins had no mint mark to identify them as from Birmingham. During the peak of operation the four original Boulton screw presses were striking about 110,000 coins per day, as overseas orders increased, particularly for India, the Mint added a new lever press and further equipment, filling the Bath Street premises. In 1860 the firm bought a 1-acre plot on Icknield Street, completed in 1862 it employed 300 staff. It was at time the largest private mint in the world. In 1861 a contract for bronze coins for the newly unified Italy was signed, on the death of Ralph II in 1862, Ralph III took over the running of Ralph Heaton & Sons. He added eleven lever presses, made on site, retiring the last of Boultons screw presses in 1882. In addition to the production of coins and blanks the firm manufactured metal parts for ammunition, gas fittings, medals, ornaments, plumbing fittings, rolled and strip metal, tube and wire. In 1871 the first order for silver coinage was for Canada, shortly before his death, Ralph III converted the family business into a public limited liability company, passing control on 22 March 1889 to the new company named The Mint, Birmingham, Limited. The agreement paid £110,000 to Heaton with £10,000 worth of copper, almost immediately his son, Ralph IV, was elected Managing Director by the board
23.
Sri Lankan rupee
–
The rupee is the currency of Sri Lanka, divided into 100 cents. It is issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the abbreviation is generally Rs. but SLRs. is occasionally used to distinguish it from other currencies also called rupee. The British pound became Ceylons official money of account in 1825, replacing the Ceylonese rixdollar at a rate of 1 pound = 13 1⁄3 rixdollars, Treasury notes denominated in pounds were issued in 1827, replacing the earlier rixdollar notes. Rixdollar notes not presented for exchange were demonetized in June 1831, the Indian rupee was made Ceylons standard coin on 26 September 1836, and Ceylon reverted to the Indian currency area. Pound-denominated treasury notes continued to circulate after 1836, along with the rupee, the legal currency remained British silver and accounts were kept in pounds, shillings and pence. However, payments were made in rupees and annas at the par of 2 shillings per rupee. The Bank of Ceylon was the first private bank to issue banknotes on the island, the Indian rupee was formally established as the unlimited legal tender 18 June 1869. The rupee was decimalized 23 August 1871, thus, the rupee of 100 cents became Ceylons money of account and sole legal tender effective 1 January 1872, replacing British currency at a rate of 1 rupee =2 shillings 3 pence. In 1872, copper 1⁄4, 1⁄2,1 and 5 cents coins dated 1870 were introduced, followed in 1892 by silver 10,25 and 50 cents, production of the 1⁄4 cent ceased in 1904. The large, copper 5 cents coin was replaced in 1909 by a much smaller cupro-nickel coin which was square with rounded corners, in 1919, the fineness of silver used was reduced from.800 to.550. Between 1940 and 1944, a change in the coinage was carried out. Production of the 1⁄2 cent ceased in 1940, with bronze 1 cent introduced in 1942 with reduced weight, nickel-brass replaced cupro-nickel in the 5 cents in the same year and replaced silver in the 25 and 50 cents in 1943. In 1944, nickel-brass, scalloped shaped 2 and 10 cents coins were introduced, the scalloped 10 cents coin replaced the silver 10 cents coin. Later 2 cent coins issued in 1957 were the coins from this period to ever depict Queen Elizabeth II. Coins with the portrait of King George VI continued to be issued despite his death, in 1957, cupro-nickel 1 rupee coins and.925 silver 5 rupee coins commemorating 2500 years of Buddhism were issued. In 1963, a new coinage was introduced which omitted the British monarchs portrait, coins issued were aluminium 1 and 2 cents, nickel brass 5 and 10 cents and cupro-nickel 25 and 50 cents and 1 rupee. These coins had the shapes and sizes of the previous series but were composed of different materials. In 1976, commemorative seven-sided 2 rupee and ten-sided 5 rupee coins were introduced in limited numbers, in 1978, devaluation prompted aluminum to be the replacement of nickel-brass in the 5 and 10 cents, while shortly after 1 and 2 cents were discontinued
24.
Muhammad Fareed Didi
–
He was the Sultan of Maldives from March 7,1954 until November 11,1968. He was deposed in 1968 from the throne when Maldives became a republic and he studied at Royal College Colombo in Ceylon. After spending 7 years in Ceylon, he came back and became the minister of Sultan Hassan Nooraddine II on December 16,1932. After the fall of President Mohamed Amin Didi, a referendum was held and 98% of the people voted in favour of the monarchy, a new peoples majilis was elected, as the former Peoples Majilis was dissolved after the end of the revolution. The members of the special majilis decided to take a vote to elect a sultan. His first Prime minister was Ehgamugey Ibraahim Ali Didi, on December 11,1957, the prime minister was forced to resign and Velaanagey Ibraahim Nasir was elected as the new prime minister the following day. On November 15,1967 a vote was taken in parliament to decide whether the Maldives should continue as a monarchy or become a republic. Of the 44 parliamentarians, forty voted in favour of a republic, on March 15,1968, a national referendum was held, in which 81. 23% of the votes cast favoured establishing a republic. The republic was declared on November 11,1968, thus ending the 853-year-old monarchy, after his deposition from the throne, the King left the royal palace and retired to his own residence in Henveru ward. He died on May 27,1969 in Malé and he was given a state funeral and was buried in the Galolhu Cemetery
25.
Royal Mint
–
The Royal Mint is the body permitted to strike British coins. The Royal Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, producing coins for England, since 2010 it has operated as Royal Mint Ltd, a company owned by HM Treasury, under an exclusive contract to supply all coinage for the UK. Royal Mint Ltd is 100% owned by HM Treasury, which delegates shareholder responsibilities to the Shareholder Executive, responsibility for the security of the site falls to the Ministry of Defence Police, who provide an armed contingent. In 1968 The Royal Mint began to move its operations from Tower Hill in the City of London to Llantrisant, Mid Glamorgan, Wales, and has operated on a single site in Llantrisant since 1980. At Llantrisant it holds a collection of coins dating from the 16th century onwards, housed in eighty cabinets made by Elizabeth IIs cabinet maker. The site occupies 38 acres and employs over 900 people, the annual Trial of the Pyx assays coins produced for the UK government for size, weight and chemical composition. The London Mint first became an institution in 886, during the reign of Alfred the Great. By 1279 it had moved to the Tower of London, and remained there the next 500 years and he unofficially moved the Pound Sterling to the gold standard from silver in 1717. By the time Newton arrived, the Mint had expanded to fill several rickety wooden buildings ranged around the outside of the Tower, in the eighteenth century the processes for minting coins were mechanised and rolling mills and coining presses were installed. The new machinery and the demand on space in the Tower of London following the outbreak of war with France led to a decision to move the Mint to an adjacent site in East Smithfield. The new building, designed by James Johnson and Robert Smirke, was completed in 1809, and included space for the new machinery, the building was rebuilt in the 1880s to accommodate new machinery which increased the capacity of the Mint. During World War II, The Royal Mint was bombed by the Germans, the Royal Mint was hit on several occasions and was put out of commission for three weeks at one point. In 1967 it was announced that the mint would move away from London to new buildings in Llantrisant, smirkes 1809 Building is now used as commercial offices by Barclays Global Investors. On 1 April 1975 The Royal Mint became a trading fund to improve its efficiency by requiring it to become self-financing. In March 2009, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling began planning to sell off The Royal Mint, on 31 December 2009 it ceased to be an executive agency and its assets were vested in a limited company, Royal Mint Ltd. The owner of the new company became The Royal Mint trading fund, the Royal Mint exists principally to mint coins for circulation in the UK. As of 2013, The Royal Mint produces approximately 15% of the coin based currency. From the 1970s to 2009, it produced all Order of the British Empire Insignia, the Royal Mint in London also produced coins for Canada until a branch was opened in the Canadian capital city Ottawa in 1908
26.
Emblem of Maldives
–
The Maldivian National Emblem consists of a coconut palm, a crescent, and two criss-crossing National Flags with the traditional Title of the State. The depicted coconut palm represents the livelihood of the Nation according to Maldivian folklore, the inhabitants believe it to be the most beneficial tree to them as they utilize every part of the tree on various applications ranging from medicine to boat-building. The Crescent and its accompanying star embodies the Islamic faith of the State, the words of the scroll Ad-Dawlat Al-Mahaldheebiyya are written in the Arabic naskh style of script. They were used by Sultan AI-Ghazee Mohamed Thakurufaanu Al-Azam one of the most illustrious heroes of the nation, the title Ad-Dawlat Al-Mahaldheebiyya means the State of the Mahal Dibiyat, which is the name Ibn Battuta and other Mediaeval Arab travellers used to refer to the Maldives. The Coat of Arms is a representation of the Maldivian Government and is used frequently in official documents. The crescent and star in the middle of the Maldive Coat of Arms used to be pale blue, the color of the crescent and star was changed to gold in the 1990s
27.
West Germany
–
West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
28.
People's Majlis
–
The Peoples Majlis is the unicameral legislative body of the Maldives. The Majlis has the authority to enact, amend and revise laws, Majlis is composed of 85 members. Each year on the last Thursday of February, the Majlis is opened by the president of the Maldives, during the opening ceremony, the president outlines his policies and achievements in his presidential term. The annual budget of the state is also passed by the Majlis, a council was set up by Sultan Muhammad Shamsuddeen III to draft the constitution of the Maldives on 9 March 1931. The council completed and implemented the constitution on 22 December 1932 and this constitution was the basis for the formation, of the first ever Majlis of the Maldives. The meetings of this Majlis were held in the “Hakura Ganduvaru”, the first president or the speaker of the Majlis was Al Ameer Mohammed Farid Didi. Maldives was then ruled by a sultan and the advent of the new constitution was seen as a threat to the sultanate, thus, mobs were instigated against the constitution and it was publicly torn up. Since then the constitution of the Maldives has been revised a number of times, the constitution of the Maldives was re-written in 2008, and the composition, electorates and powers of the Majlis changed drastically. Two members are elected from each administrative atoll under the present constitution, another two members are elected from the capital Male’. The president appoints 8 members to the Majlis, in the past the Majlis was fully controlled by the ruling regime but it has changed recently. There are members in the Majlis who have aligned themselves with the opposition parties, the members are elected for a five-year term. Before the ending of the duration for the existing Majlis, an election is held to elect a new Majlis. Usually a new Majlis is elected thirty days prior to the expiration of the existing Majlis, once elected, members begin their parliamentary responsibilities after taking the oath of office, stipulated in article 67 of the constitution. Members are guaranteed parliamentary immunity under the constitution, a speaker is elected among the Members. The speaker chairs the meetings of the Majlis, is responsible for maintaining order in the chamber, the speaker is next in line to be the acting president in case of a vacancy in the president’s position, until a new council to govern the state is elected. Eleven individuals have filled the speakers post in the Majlis, the current Speaker of the Peoples Majlis is Abdulla Maseeh. A deputy speaker is chosen to assist the speaker of the Majlis and to run the Majlis. The sittings of the Majlis are divided into three sessions a year, the speaker has the authority to assign the dates for the commencing and closing of the Majlis sessions
29.
Dhoni
–
Dhoni or Doni is a multi-purpose sailboat with a motor or lateen sails that is used in the Maldives. It is handcrafted and its use within the nation has been very important. A dhoni resembles a dhow, a traditional Arab sailing vessel, the traditional dhoni is one of the oldest known sea vessels in the Maldives. Many of these sailing vessels were, of necessity, built using coconut palm timber. The sailing dhoni was used in days by Maldivian fishermen. During the industrial revolution many fisherman changed to a mechanized dhoni, the islands of the Maldives have an extensive fishing fleet built domestically, each of which carries eight to twelve persons. Nearly all of these are variants of the dhoni, a craft traditionally built with coconut timber. Originally sailing craft, nowadays these boats are fitted with motors. The main site for building dhonis is in Alifushi in Raa Atoll, dhoni boat building is a traditional craft in the Maldives and young apprentices are trained by skilled craftsmen. Boats crafted from timber take 60 days to complete, dhonis used to be built without plans. The master carpenter took measurements and gave instructions to the carpenters, contemporary dhonis are often built using fibreglass. Dhonis fitted with engines are extensively used on resort islands for scuba diving purposes. Based on a US$3.2 million loan from the International Development Association, although the addition of motors increased fuel costs, it resulted in a doubling of the fishing catch between 1982 and 1985. Moreover, the 1992 catch of 82,000 tons set a record, for example, in 1995 there were 1674 registered fishing vessels in the Maldives. The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom
30.
Quran
–
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
31.
Green sea turtle
–
The green sea turtle, also known as the green turtle, black turtle, or Pacific green turtle, is a large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the species in the genus Chelonia. Its range extends throughout tropical and subtropical seas around the world, the common name comes from the usually green fat found beneath its carapace, these turtles shells are olive to black. This sea turtles dorsoventrally flattened body is covered by a large, teardrop-shaped carapace, it has a pair of large and it is usually lightly colored, although in the eastern Pacific populations parts of the carapace can be almost black. Unlike other members of its family, such as the sea turtle. The adults usually inhabit shallow lagoons, feeding mostly on various species of seagrasses, the turtles bite off the tips of the blades of seagrass, which keeps the grass healthy. Like other sea turtles, green sea turtles migrate long distances between feeding grounds and hatching beaches, many islands worldwide are known as Turtle Island due to green sea turtles nesting on their beaches. Females crawl out on beaches, dig nests and lay eggs during the night, later, hatchlings emerge and scramble into the water. Those that reach maturity may live to 80 years in the wild, C. mydas is listed as endangered by the IUCN and CITES and is protected from exploitation in most countries. It is illegal to collect, harm, or kill them, in addition, many countries have laws and ordinances to protect nesting areas. However, turtles are still in danger due to human activity, in some countries, turtles and their eggs are hunted for food. Pollution indirectly harms turtles at both population and individual scales, many turtles die after being caught in fishing nets. Also, real estate development often causes habitat loss by eliminating nesting beaches, the green sea turtle is a member of the tribe Chelonini. A1993 study clarified the status of genus Chelonia with respect to the marine turtles. The carnivorous Eretmochelys, Caretta and Lepidochelys were assigned to the tribe Carettini, herbivorous Chelonia warranted their status as a genus, while Natator was further removed from the other genera than previously believed. The species was described by Linnaeus in 1758 as Testudo mydas. In 1868, Marie Firmin Bocourt named a species of sea turtle Chelonia agassizii. This species was referred to as the sea turtle
32.
Whale shark
–
The whale shark is a slow-moving filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65 m, unconfirmed claims of considerably larger individuals, over 14 m long and weighing at least 30 t, are not uncommon. The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom. It is the member of the genus Rhincodon and the only extant member of the family Rhincodontidae. The species originated about 60 million years ago, the whale shark is found in open waters of the tropical oceans and is rarely found in water below 22 °C. Modeling suggests a lifespan of about 70 years, but measurements have proven difficult, Whale sharks have very large mouths and are filter feeders, which is a feeding mode that occurs in only two other sharks, the megamouth shark and the basking shark. They feed almost exclusively on plankton and are not known to pose a threat to humans, the species was distinguished in April 1828 after the harpooning of a 4.6 m specimen in Table Bay, South Africa. Andrew Smith, a military doctor associated with British troops stationed in Cape Town, the name whale shark directly refers to the fishs size, being as large as some species of whales and also that it is a filter feeder like baleen whales. The whale shark inhabits all tropical and warm-temperate seas, the fish is primarily pelagic, living in the open sea but not in the greater depths of the ocean, although it is known to occasionally dive to depths of as much as 1,800 metres. Although typically seen offshore, it has been closer to land, entering lagoons or coral atolls. Its range is restricted to about 30° latitude. It is capable of diving to depths of at least 1,286 m, on 7 February 2012, a large whale shark was found floating 150 kilometres off the coast of Karachi, Pakistan. The length of the specimen was said to be between 11 and 12 m, with a weight of around 15,000 kg, in 2011, more than 400 whale sharks gathered off the Yucatan Coast. It was one of the largest gatherings of whale sharks recorded, aggregations in that area are among the most reliable seasonal gatherings known for whale sharks, with large numbers occurring in most years between May and September. Associated ecotourism has grown rapidly to unsustainable levels, Whale sharks have a mouth that can be 1.5 m wide, containing 300 to 350 rows of tiny teeth and 10 filter pads which it uses to filter feed. Whale sharks have five pairs of gills. The head is wide and flat with two eyes at the front. Whale sharks are grey with a white belly and their skin is marked with pale yellow spots and stripes which are unique to each individual
33.
Currency of Maldives
–
Cowry shells, or boli, were the first known medium of exchange used in the Maldives. Various writers and travellers have in the past recorded the trade in these money shells. In the past, cowry were actually cultivated in the Maldives, when Moroccan traveler and historian Ibn Battuta visited therefadsahijsjsac0, feojedfe Dutch in Ceylon, continued until the late 19th century, when it was used mostly as ballast for sailing vessels. According to history, the first dhigu laari was struck in the Maldives, during the reign of Sultan Ibrahim III ibn Ghazi Muhammed, son of the hero Sultan Ghazi Muhammed Thakurufaanu Akbar al-Azam. Dhigu laari or larin, which owes its name to Lar, in the Persian Gulf, the dhigu laari is actually a long piece of silver, about three inches in length, doubled over and stamped with the name of the sultan, in Arabic. Loa laari or laari fothi was first struck by Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar I, the first coins were of silver and fairly coarse. Later, coins of copper and lead were put in to circulation, gold coins were also struck by Sultan Hassan Nooraddin. Said to be the finest struck at the Maldive mint, the two denominations of coins issued by Sultan Hassan Nooraddin, known as the mohori and bai mohori, were never put into circulation. The Maldivian unit of currency is the rufiyaa, introduced in 1947, the rufiyaa is divided into 100 laari. On 1 February 2009, the rate with the US dollar was USD1.00 = MVR12.80. On 10 April 2011, the Government announced a limited float of the currency within a band of 20% from the exchange rate of 12.80. Due to short supply of US Dollars, the rate quoted by all banks as on 10 May stands as follows, Buy Rate USD1.00 = MVR14.42. Browder, Tim J. Maldive Islands Money, Santa Monica,1969 The Maldive Islands, Brief History Currency in Circulation, Maldives Monetary Authority Exchange rate from Yahoo
34.
Economy of the Maldives
–
In ancient times the Maldives were renowned for cowries, coir rope, dried tuna fish, ambergris and coco de mer. Local and foreign trading ships used to load these products in the Maldives, nowadays, the mixed economy of the Maldives is based on the principal activities of tourism, fishing and shipping. Tourism is the largest industry in the Maldives, accounting for 28% of GDP and it powered the current GDP per capita to expand 265% in the 1980s and a further 115% in the 1990s. Over 90% of government tax revenue flows in from import duties, fishing is the second leading sector in the Maldives. The economic reform program by the government in 1989 lifted import quotas, subsequently, it has liberalized regulations to allow more foreign investment. Agriculture and manufacturing play a role in the economy, constrained by the limited availability of cultivable land. Industry in the Maldives consists mainly of garment production, boat building and it accounts for around 18% of GDP. Maldivian authorities are concerned about the impact of erosion and possible global warming in the low-lying country, among the 1,900 islands in the Maldives, only 198 are inhabited. The population is scattered throughout the country, and the greatest concentration is on the capital island, limitations on potable water and arable land, plus the added difficulty of congestion are some of the problems faced by households in Malé. Taxes on the tourist industry have been plowed into infrastructure and it is used to technology in the agricultural sector. This is a chart of trend of gross product of Maldives at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of rufiyaa. For purchasing power parity comparisons, the US dollar is exchanged at 12.85 rufiyaa only, mean wages were $4.15 per man-hour in 2009. The Maldives has experienced relatively low throughout the recent years. Real GDP growth averaged about 10% in the 1980s and it expanded by an exceptional 16. 2% in 1990, declined to 4% in 1993, and, over the 1995–2004 decade, real GDP growth averaged just over 7. 5% per year. In 2005, as a result of the tsunami, the GDP contracted by about 5. 5%, however, the Maldives has been running a merchandise trade deficit in the range of $200 to $260 million since 1997. The trade deficit declined to $233 million in 2000 from $262 million in 1999, in 2004 it was $444 million. Over the years, Maldives has received assistance from multilateral development organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme, Asian Development Bank. Individual donors, including Japan, India, Europe, Australia, see, Economic Aid to Maldives In 1956, a bilateral agreement gave United Kingdom access to Gan in Addu Atoll in the far south, to establish an air facility in Gan in return for British aid
35.
Wayback Machine
–
The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
36.
Iran
–
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
37.
History of the Maldives
–
The Maldives is a nation consisting of 26 natural atolls, comprising 1192 islands. Since ancient times, the Maldives were ruled by kings and occasionally queens, historically, the Maldives had a strategic importance because of its location on the major marine routes of the Indian Ocean. The Maldives nearest neighbours are Sri Lanka and India, both of which have had cultural and economic ties with Maldives for centuries, the Maldives provided the main source of cowrie shells, then used as a currency throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast. Most probably Maldives were influenced by Kalingas of ancient India who were earliest sea traders to Sri Lanka, hence ancient Hindu culture has indelible impact on Maldives local culture. After the 16th century, when colonial powers took much of the trade in the Indian Ocean, first the Portuguese, then the Dutch. However, this ended when the Maldives became a British Protectorate in the 19th century. The Maldives gained total independence from the British on 26 July 1965, however, the British continued to maintain an air base on the island of Gan in the southernmost atoll until 1976. The British departure in 1976 at the height of the Cold War almost immediately triggered foreign speculation about the future of the air base, apparently the Soviet Union made a move to request the use of the base, but the Maldives refused. Concern was also evident over a projected sea level rise. Comparative studies of Maldivian oral, linguistic and cultural traditions and customs confirm that the first settlers were people from the shores of the neighbouring Indian subcontinent. These first Maldivians didnt leave any archaeological remains and their buildings were probably built of wood, palm fronds and other perishable materials, which would have quickly decayed in the salt and wind of the tropical climate. Moreover, chiefs or headmen didnt reside in elaborate stone palaces, despite being just mentioned briefly in most history books, the 1, 400-year-long Buddhist period has a foundational importance in the history of the Maldives. It was during this period that the culture of the Maldives as we now know it developed and flourished. Serious studies of the remains of the Maldives began with the work of H. C. P. Bell. Bell was shipwrecked on the islands in 1879 AD, and returned several times to investigate the ancient Buddhist ruins, Bell, who resided in Sri Lanka most of his life, claim that Buddhism came to the Maldives from Sri Lanka. Since then, new archaeological discoveries point to Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist influences, an urn discovered in Maalhos in the 1980s has a Vishvavajra inscribed with Protobengali script. This text was in the script used in the ancient Buddhist centres of learning in Nalanda. There is also a small Porites stupa in the Museum where the directional Dhyani Buddhas are etched in its four points as in the Mahayana tradition
38.
National Museum (Maldives)
–
Established on the National Day of the Maldives, the first national museum of the country was opened on November 11,1952, by the Prime Minister at the time, Mohamed Amin Didi. The museum was administered by the Maldivian Centre for Linguistic. The three-storied museum is located in the Sultan Park in Malé, the two-storey Us-gēkolhu is the only remaining structure of the palace demolished by fire in 1968. The new building of the museum is located in Sultan Park. The building was designed, built and financed by the Chinese government, the interior of the museum has been retained from the days of the Sultanate, including the handwritten Quran engraved on the walls of the building. Others examples include textiles such as dresses, turbans, fancy slippers and belts used on special occasions, mats. The Buddhist statues were destroyed during an attack in February 2012 and he said the museum had nothing to show of the countrys pre-Islamic history
39.
Folklore of the Maldives
–
Maldivian mythology or Maldivian folklore is the body of myths, tales and anecdotes belonging to the oral tradition of Maldivians. The Maldives lie in the warm equatorial area of the Indian Ocean surrounded by deep waters. This nation is made up exclusively of coral atolls, there are about 1,200 small flat and sandy islands, but only about 200 of them are inhabited. The Maldives have been populated for millennia, therefore the folklore of these islands is very ancient. The main myths of origin are reflecting the dependence of the Maldivians on the coconut tree, therefore, the coconut tree is said to have an anthropomorphic origin according to Maldive lore. The coconut tree occupies a place in the present-day Maldive national emblem. The tuna fish is said to have brought to the Maldivian waters by a mythical seafarer called Bodu Niyami Kalēfanu who went close to the Dagas to bring this valuable fish. These myths tell that the end of the Maldives will be a great catastrophe where the islands will be submerged by the surrounding ocean, similar myths are found in the Andaman Islands as well as in the Nicobar Islands. The first settlers in the Maldive Islands were Dravidian people from the nearest coasts, the people of Giraavaru, an island located in Malé Atoll considered the first settlers, claim ancestry from the ancient Tamil people. It is said that Giraavaru fishermen used to go regularly to a large sandbank at the southern end of their atoll to clean tuna fish after a good catch. Owing to the amount of tuna fish offal and blood. Maa, meaning big, and Lē meaning blood, traditionally the first inhabitants of the Maldives, which include the Giraavaru people, didnt have kings. They lived in a society and were ruled by local headmen. One day a prince from the Subcontinent called Koimala arrived to Malé Atoll sailing from the north on a big ship, the people of Giraavaru spotted his vessel from afar and welcomed him. They allowed Prince Koimala to settle on that large sandbank in the midst of the waters tainted with fishblood, trees were planted on the sandbank and it is said that the first tree that grew on it was the papaya tree. As time went by the local islanders accepted the rule of this Northern Prince, a palace was built and the island was formally named Maa-le Malé, while the nearest island was named Hulhu-le. Most of the tales in Maldives are about evil spirits. These stories contain always a lesson in some form or the other, certain actions became necessary in order to avoid trouble with the spirit world
Maldives
.jpg)
