1.
Emperor
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An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the equivalent, may indicate an emperors wife, mother. Emperors are generally recognized to be of an honour and rank than kings. The Emperor of Japan is the currently reigning monarch whose title is translated into English as Emperor. Both kings and emperors are monarchs, but emperor and empress are considered the higher monarchical titles. In as much as there is a definition of emperor, it is that an emperor has no relations implying the superiority of any other ruler. Thus a king might be obliged to pay tribute to another ruler, or be restrained in his actions in some unequal fashion, although initially ruling much of Central Europe and northern Italy, by the 19th century the Emperor exercised little power beyond the German speaking states. In Eastern Europe the rulers of the Russian Empire also used translatio imperii to wield authority as successors to the Eastern Roman Empire. Their title of Emperor was officially recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1514, in practice the Russian Emperors are often known by their Russian-language title Tsar, which may also used to refer to rulers equivalent to a king. Historians have liberally used emperor and empire anachronistically and out of its Roman and European context to any large state from the past or the present. Such pre-Roman titles as Great King or King of Kings, used by the Kings of Persia, however such empires did not need to be headed by an emperor. Empire became identified instead with vast territorial holdings rather than the title of its ruler by the mid-18th century, outside the European context, emperor was the translation given to holders of titles who were accorded the same precedence as European emperors in diplomatic terms. In reciprocity, these rulers might accredit equal titles in their languages to their European peers. Through centuries of international convention, this has become the dominant rule to identifying an emperor in the modern era, also the name of the position split in several branches of Western tradition, see below. Later new symbols of worldly and/or spiritual power, like the orb, rules for indicating successors also varied, there was a tendency towards male inheritance of the supreme office, but as well election by noblemen, as ruling empresses are known. Ruling monarchs could additionally steer the succession by adoption, as occurred in the two first centuries of Imperial Rome. Of course, intrigue, murder and military force could also mingle in for appointing successors, probably the epoch best known for this part of the imperial tradition is Romes third century rule. When Republican Rome turned into a de facto monarchy in the half of the 1st century BC
2.
Padishah
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Its Arabized pronunciation as Badishah was used by Mughal emperors. The rulers on the following thrones – the first two effectively commanding major West Asian empires – were styled Padishah, The Shāhanshāh of Iran, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who used the Arabic version of the title, Badshah. Miangul Golshahzada Abdul Wadud of the tiny Pakistani North West Frontier state of Swat called himself badshah from November 1918 to March 1926, ahmed Shah Durrani founded the Durrani Empire in 1747 with the title Pādshah-i Afghanistan in Persian and Badcha Da Afghanistan in the Pashto language. The Sadozai were overthrown in 1823 but there was a restoration by Shah Shujah in 1839 with the help of Ranjit Singh and the Sikh Empire. The last Basha bey of Tunisia, Muhammad VIII al-Amin, adopted the sovereign style padshah 20 March 1956 –25 July 1957, the paramount prestige of this title, in Islam and even beyond, is clearly apparent from the Ottoman Empires dealings with the European powers. The compound Pādshah-i-Ghazi is only recorded for two individual rulers, H. H, there is a large family of Turkish origin using the surname Badi in modern-day Libya. In 2008, a cricket team, the Lahore Badshahs, was founded. In India, Padishah is often a Muslim surname, from the trend of adopting titles as names by both royalty and commoners. In Frank Herberts 1965 novel Dune, the head of human space is styled Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe. In the Pathfinder role-playing game, the ruler of the Empire of Kelesh is styled Padishah Emperor, baig Emir Rana Shah Sultan RoyalArk — Select present country, then choose dynasty from its menu WorldStatesmen idem, more cases but less thorough Bartbleby. com Dictionary & Etymology
3.
Maharaja
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Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a great ruler, great king or high king. It has also been the title of emperors, including Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh empire, the female equivalent, Maharani, denotes either the wife of a Maharaja, and also in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajmata queen mother, Maharaj Kumar generally denotes a son of a Maharaja, but more specific titulatures are often used at each court, including Yuvaraj for the heir. The form Maharaj indicates a separation of noble and religious offices, the word Maharaja originates in Sanskrit and is a compound karmadhāraya term from mahānt- great and rājan ruler, king). It has the Latin cognates magnum great and rex king, the Sanskrit title Maharaja was originally used only for rulers who ruled a considerably large region with minor tributary rulers under them. Since mediaeval times, the title was used even by monarchs of smaller states claiming to be the descendants of ancient Maharajas, the word Maharaja may be understood simply to mean ruler or king, in spite of its literal translation as great king. The word, however, can also mean emperor in contemporary Indian usage, two Rajas who became Maharajas in the twentieth century were the Maharaja of Cochin and the legendary Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala. Variations of this include the following, each combining Maha- great with an alternative form of Raja king, so all meaning Great King, Maharana, Maharawal, Maharawat, Maharao. Maharajah has taken on new spellings due to change and migration. It has even been shortened to Mahraj and Maraj but the most common is Maharajah, despite its literal meaning, unlike many other titles meaning Great King, neither Maharaja nor Rajadhiraja, nor even its equivalent amongst. Maharaja, Maharajadhiraja, never reached the standing required for imperial rank, dharma-maharaja was the devout title of the rulers of the Ganga dynasty. In the Mughal Empire it was common to award to various princes a series of lofty titles as a matter of protocolary rank. The british would, as partamaount power, do the same, Maharajadhiraja, Great Prince over Princes, a title of honour, one degree higher than Sawai Maharaja Bahadur. Sawai Maharaja Bahadur, a title of honour, one higher than Sawai Maharaja. Sawai Maharaja, a title of one degree higher than Maharaja Bahadur. Maharaja Bahadur, a title of honour, one higher than Maharaja. Maharaja itself could also be grahted as a personal, non-hereditary style, like Raja and various other titles, Maharaja was repeatedly awarded to notables without a princely state, such as zamindars. g. The Diwan Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad, held such a Maharaja-title, Maharaj Kumar means son of a Maharaja or Heir-Apparent, the female equivalent is Maharaj Kumari, daughter of a Maharaja
4.
King
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King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, in the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is cognate with Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate Latin rex or either Greek archon or basileus. In classical European feudalism, the title of king as the ruler of a kingdom is understood as the highest rank in the order, potentially subject. In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a number of modern monarchies. The title of king is used alongside other titles for monarchs, in the West prince, emperor, archduke, duke or grand duke, in the Middle East sultan or emir, etc. Kings, like other royalty, tend to wear purple because purple was a color to wear in the past. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Common Germanic *kuningaz, the Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas. The English term king translates, and is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx, the Germanic term is notably different from the word for king in other Indo-European languages. It is a derivation from the term *kunjom kin by the -inga- suffix, the literal meaning is that of a scion of the kin, or perhaps son or descendant of one of noble birth. English queen translates Latin regina, it is from Old English cwen queen, noble woman, the Germanic term for wife appears to have been specialized to wife of a king, in Old Norse, the cognate kvan still mostly refers to a wife generally. Scandinavian drottning, dronning is a derivation from *druhtinaz lord. The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship, the Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms. The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire, in southern Europe, the kingdom of Sicily was established following the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Kingdom of Sardinia was claimed as a title held by the Crown of Aragon in 1324. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Serbia was established in 1217, in eastern-central Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD1000 following the Christianisation of the Magyars. The kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia were established within the Holy Roman Empire in 1025 and 1198, in Eastern Europe, the Kievan Rus consolidated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which did not technically claim the status of kingdom until the early modern Tsardom of Russia. In northern Europe, the kingdoms of the Viking Age by the 11th century expanded into the North Sea Empire under Cnut the Great, king of Denmark, England
5.
Raja
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Raja, is a title for a Monarch or princely ruler in South and Southeast Asia. The female form Rani applies equally to the wife of a Raja, usually as queen consort and occasionally as regent. The title has a history in the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia, being attested from the Rigveda, where a rājan- is a ruler, see for example the dāśarājñá. Sanskrit rājan- is cognate to Latin rēx King, Gaulish rīx, Gaelic rí, etc. originally denoting heads of petty kingdoms and it is believed to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European *h3rēǵs, a vrddhi formation to the root *h3reǵ- to straighten, to order, to rule. The Sanskrit n-stem is secondary in the title, apparently adapted from the female counterpart rājñī which also has an -n- suffix in related languages. Cognates of the word Raja in other Indo-European languages include English reign, rather common, practically equivalent variants in Rajasthani, Marathi and Hindi, used as equivalent royal style in parts of India include Rana, Rao, Raol, Rawal and rawat and Yuvraj prince heir. Maharaja, or great king, is literally a title for more significant rulers in India, hence during the British raj, precedence was rather determined by the gun salute. Raja රජ means King in Sri Lanka, Rajamanthri is the Prince lineage of Kings generation in Sri Lanka. Rajamanthri title is aristocracy of the Kandiyan Kingdom මහනුවර in Sri Lanka, badan Singh was styled Raja Mahendra and founded the city and state Bharatpur, which his dynasty ruled as Maharajas. Raja Sahib was the style in Bansda until its upgrade from c.1829 to higher counterpart Maharaja Sahib. Raja-i Rajgan was notably the royal style of, the former Rajas of Jind from * until their 1911 upgrade to Maharaja, the former Rajas of Kapurthala from 1861 until their 1911 upgrade to Maharaja. Two consecutive rulers of Patiala, the first of which was originally styled Maharaja, Raja Bahadur, and remained the rulers of Raigarh. as 1763 upgrade from the family title Raja Sar Desai in Maratha state Savantvadi. e. Third prince in line for succession, there were many more Rajas among the feudatory states, such as jagirs. In Pakistan, Raja is still used by Muslim Rajput clans as hereditary titles, Raja is also used as a given name by Hindus and Sikhs. Most notably Raja is used in Hazara division of Pakistan for the descendants of a Turkic dynasty and these Rajas ruled that part of Pakistan for decades and they still possess huge land in Hazara division of Pakistan and actively participate in the politics of the region. In Sinhalese, the title Raja means King of Sri Lanka, Rajamanthri is the Prince lineage of Kings generation especially Rajamanthri is aristocracy of the Kingdom of Kandy in Sri Lanka history. Indonesian has the word raja for king, leaders of local tribes and old Hindu kingdoms had that title before Indonesia became an independent nation. Various traditional princely states in Indonesia still style their ruler Raja, in the Malay language, the word raja also means king
6.
Sultan
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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
7.
Khan (title)
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Khan is originally a title for a sovereign or a military ruler, widely used by Turkic and later medieval nomadic Mongolian tribes living to the north of China. Khan also occurs as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289, the Rourans were the first people who used the titles khagan and khan for their emperors. Subsequently the Ashina adopted the title and brought it to the rest of Asia, in the middle of the sixth century the Iranians knew of a Kagan – King of the Turks. Khan now has many equivalent meanings such as commander, leader, as of 2015 khans exist in South Asia, Middle East, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Turkey. The female alternatives are Khatun, Khatoon and Khanum and these titles or names are sometimes written as Han, Kan, Hakan, Hanum, or Hatun and as xan, xanım. Khagan is rendered as Khan of Khans and it was the title of Chinese Emperor Emperor Taizong of Tang, and also the title of Genghis Khan and of the persons selected to rule the Mongol Empire. For instance Möngke Khan and Ogedei Khan would be Khagans but not Chagatai Khan, some managed to establish principalities of some importance for a while, as their military might repeatedly proved a serious threat to such empires as China and kingdoms in Central Asia. One of the earliest notable examples of such principalities in Europe was Danube Bulgaria, Khan was the official title of the ruler until 864 AD, when Kniaz Boris adopted the Eastern Orthodox faith. The title Khan became unprecedently prominent when the Mongol Temüjin created the Mongol empire, the greatest land empire the world has ever seen and his title was khagan, or Khan of Khans, but has often been abbreviated to Khan or described as Great Khan. The great leader was regarded as a khan in the middle east, ming Dynasty Chinese Emperors also used the term Xan to denote brave warriors and rulers. The title Khan was used to designate the greatest rulers of the Jurchens, while most Afghan principalities were styled emirate, there was a khanate of ethnic Uzbeks in Badakhshan since 1697. For example, in present Armenia and nearby territories to the left and right, diverse khanates existed in Dagestan, Azerbaijan, including Baku, Ganja, Jawad, Quba, Salyan, Shakki and Shirvan=Shamakha, Talysh, Nakhichevan and Karabakh. The most important of these states were, Khanate of Kazan, sibir Khanate Astrakhan Khanate Crimean Khanate. The ruling descendants of the branch of Genghis Khans dynasty are referred to as the Great Khans. The title Khan of Khans was among numerous titles used by the Sultans of the Ottoman empire as well as the rulers of the Golden Horde and its descendant states. The title Khan was also used in the Seljuk Turk dynasties of the near-east to designate a head of multiple tribes, clans or nations, jurchen and Manchu rulers also used the title Khan, for example, Nurhaci was called Genggiyen Han. Rulers of the Göktürks, Avars and Khazars used the higher title Kaghan, see the main article for more details. Khan-i-Khanan was a given to the commander-in-chief of the army of the Mughals
8.
Prince
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A prince is a male ruler, monarch, or member of a monarchs or former monarchs family. Prince is also a title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess, the English word derives, via the French word prince, from the Latin noun princeps, from primus + capio, meaning the chief, most distinguished, ruler, prince. The Latin word prīnceps, became the title of the informal leader of the Roman senate some centuries before the transition to empire. Emperor Augustus established the position of monarch on the basis of principate. The term may be used of persons in various cultures. These titles were borne by courtesy and preserved by tradition, not law, in medieval and Early Modern Europe, there were as many as two hundred such territories, especially in Italy, Germany, and Gaelic Ireland. In this sense, prince is used of any and all rulers and this is the Renaissance use of the term found in Niccolò Machiavellis famous work, Il Principe. Most small territories designated as principalities during feudal eras were allodial and this is attested in some surviving styles for e. g. British earls, marquesses, and dukes are still addressed by the Crown on ceremonial occasions as high, in parts of the Holy Roman Empire in which primogeniture did not prevail, all legitimate agnates had an equal right to the familys hereditary titles. Gradual substitution of the title of Prinz for the title of Fürst occurred. Both Prinz and Fürst are translated into English as prince, but they not only different. This distinction had evolved before the 18th century for dynasties headed by a Fürst in Germany, note that the princely title was used as a prefix to his Christian name, which also became customary. Cadets of Frances other princes étrangers affected similar usage under the Bourbon kings, the post-medieval rank of gefürsteter Graf embraced but elevated the German equivalent of the intermediate French, English and Spanish nobles. By the 19th century, cadets of a Fürst would become known as Prinzen, the husband of a queen regnant is usually titled prince consort or simply prince, whereas the wives of male monarchs take the female equivalent of their husbands title. In Brazil, Portugal and Spain, however, the husband of a monarch was accorded the masculine equivalent of her title. To complicate matters, the style His/Her Highness, a prefix often accompanying the title of a dynastic prince, although the arrangement set out above is the one that is most commonly understood, there are also different systems. Depending on country, epoch, and translation, other usages of prince are possible, foreign-language titles such as Italian principe, French prince, German Fürst and Prinz, Russian knyaz, etc. are usually translated as prince in English
9.
Mirza
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Mirza or Mirzā is a historical title of Persian origin, denoting the rank of a high nobleman or Prince. It is usually defined in English as a royal or imperial Prince of the Blood, today, Mirza is used as a name to identify patriarchal lineage to royal aristocracies of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent. Historically, it was used as a title by and signified patriarchal lineage to the families of the Turkish Empire, Persia, Circassia, Shirvan, Mughals. It was also a title bestowed upon members of the highest aristocracies in Tatar states, under Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, the Mirzas gained equal rights with the Russian nobility due to their extreme wealth. In return, the Mirzas financed her Russo-Turkish war against the Ottoman Empire, abdul Mirza was given the title Prince Yusupov, and his descendant Prince Felix Yusupov married Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia, the only niece of Tsar Nicholas II. The word Mīrzā is derived from the Persian term ‘Amīrzāde which literally means child of the ‘Amīr or child of the ruler in Persian, ‘Amīrzād in turn consists of the Arabic title ‘Amīr, meaning commander and Prince, and the Persian suffix -zād, meaning birth or lineage. Due to vowel harmony in Turkic languages, the alternative pronunciation Morza is also used, the word Mirza means royalty in almost every old version of Persian, Arab, Caucasian, Turkish and Indian languages. Variant spellings in English include mirzya, miriza, mirize, mirze, morsey, mursay, murse, meirsa, mirzey, mursi, murze, the titles themselves were given by the Kings, Sultans and Emperors to their sons and grandsons, or even distant kins. Noblemen loyal to the kings also received this Title, although their usage differed, the title itself came from the title emir. Emir, meaning commander or Prince, -derived from the Semitic root Amr, originally simply meaning commander or leader, usually in reference to a group of people. It came to be used as a title of governors or rulers, usually in smaller states, the word entered English in 1595, from the French émir. Gasim Mirza Kavus Mirza Abu Bakr Mirza In the Indian Subcontinent and it was adopted as part of ones name, implying relationship to the Turk dynasties like the Mughal Dynasty. In the traditional naming sequence of the Indian royal families, the title can be placed both before the name and after it, such as Prince Mirza Mughal or Prince Kamran Mirza. Prince Khusrau Mirza was the grandson of Emperor Babur, son of Emperor Jahangir, Emperor Akbar Shah II was known as Prince Mirza Akbar before his coronation. Emperor Babur took the title of Padishah on 6 March 1508. Mirza Zahiruddin 1523–1530, first Mughal Emperor, Mirza Nasiruddin 1530–1539 & 1554–1555, second Mughal Emperor. Mirza Jalaluddin 1555–1605, third Mughal Emperor, Mirza Nuruddin 1605–1627, fourth Mughal Emperor. Mirza Khurram 1627–1658, fifth Mughal Emperor, Mirza Muhiuddin 1658–1707, sixth Mughal Emperor
10.
Sahibzada
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Sahib or Saheb is a name of Arabic origin meaning holder, master or owner. It has passed on to several languages including Pashto, Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Somali, as well as existing in English, Sahibzada is a princely style or title equivalent to, or referring to a young prince. This derivation using the Persian suffix -zada, literally born from a Sahib, was also the style for some princes of the blood of Muslim dynasties in the Indian sub-continent. The sons of a ruling Nawab of Arcot are styled, Sahibzada Khan Bahadur, in Bahawalpur, in Pakistan, the younger sons of the ruling Nawab/Amir are styled, Sahibzada Khan Abassi, but the Heir Apparent, Nawabzada Khan Abassi, Wali Ahad Bahadur. In Bhopal, the grandsons of the ruling Nawab were styled, Sahibzada Khan, while the Heir Apparent was the Wali Ahad Bahadur, in Jaora, more distant male relatives of the ruling Nawab then the sons were styled, Sahibzada Khan. In Malerkotla, where the Heir Apparent was Nawabzada Khan Bahadur, in Savanur, where sons of the ruling Nawab were Nawabzada, the other male descendants in the male line, Sahibzada Khan Sahib, and the more remote male descendants of the ruler, Sardar Khan Sahib. This could be combined, e. g. In Bengal, male members of Muslim zamindari families with distant connections to ruling or formerly ruling families, were styled Sahibzada if the head of the family was called sahib. It could be affixed to more titles or family names, in Hangu, the grandsons of the male line of the ruling Sahib are styled as Sahibzada Noor. In Palanpur, the sons of the ruling Nawab, and other male descendants in the male line, were styled Sahibzada Khan. In Junagadh, younger sons of the ruling Nawab and other descendants in the male line, were styled Sahibzada. Sahib means owner in Arabic and was used in the Indian Sub-continent as a courteous term in the way that Mister. It is still used today in the Sub-continent just as Mister and Mrs. in the British Indian Army, a British officer would address a Viceroys commissioned officer as <rank> sahib or <name> sahib. The term sahib was applied indiscriminately to any person whether Indian or Non-Indian and this included Europeans who arrived in the Sub-continent as traders in the 16th Century and hence the first mention of the word in European records is in 1673. Pukka sahib was also a used to signify genuine and legitimate authority. Sahiba is the form of address to be used for a female. Under the British Raj, however, the used for female members of the establishment was adapted to memsahib. The same word is appended to the names of Sikh gurus
11.
Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
12.
Nawab
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Nawab or nawaab is an honorific title ratified and bestowed by the reigning Mughal emperor to semi-autonomous Muslim rulers of princely states in South Asia. Nawab usually refers to males, the equivalent is begum or nawab begum. The primary duty of a nawab was to uphold the sovereignty of the Mughal emperor along with the administration of a certain province, in some cases, these titles were also accompanied by jagir grants, either in cash revenues and allowances or land-holdings. During the British Raj, some of the chiefs or Sardars of large or important tribes were given the title. The term nawab was originally used for the subahdar or viceroy of a subah or region of the Mughal empire. It is a Hindustani term, used in Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and many other North-Indian languages, borrowed via Persian from the Arabic, being the plural of naib. In some areas, especially Bengal, the term is pronounced nobab and this later variation has also entered English and other foreign languages. The term nawbab is often used to refer to any Muslim ruler in north or south India while the term nizam is preferred for a senior official—it literally means governor of region. The Nizam of Hyderabad had several nawabs under him, Nawabs of Cuddapah, Sira, Rajahmundry, Kurnool, Chicacole, Nizam was his personal title, awarded by the Mughal Government and based on the term Nazim as meaning senior officer. Nazim is still used for a collector in many parts of India. The term nawab is still technically imprecise, as the title was awarded to Hindus and Sikhs, as well. With the decline of empire, the title, and the powers that went with it. Other former rulers bearing the title, such as the nawabs of Bengal, some princes became Nawab by promotion, e. g. the ruler of Palanpur was diwan until 1910, then nawab sahib. Other nawabs were promoted are restyled to another style, or to and back. The style for a queen is begum. Most of the dynasties were male primogenitures, although several ruling Begums of Bhopal were a notable exception. Before the incorporation of the Subcontinent into the British Empire, nawabs ruled the kingdoms of Awadh, Bengal, Arcot and Bhopal. The title nawab was also awarded as a distinction by the paramount power, similarly to a British peerage, to persons
13.
Baig
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Baig, also commonly spelled Beg, or Begh was a title of Turko-Mongol origin, which is today used as a surname or middle name to identify lineage. It means Chief or Commander and is common in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran, Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Europe and among their respective diaspora. The name Baig is derived from the Iranian Languages word Beg or Bey, Beg was also subsequently used as a military rank in the Ottoman Empire. It was also used during the Qing dynasty in China, when the Qing dynasty ruled Xinjiang, it permitted the Turkic Begs in the Altishahr region to maintain their previous status, and they administered the area for the Qing as officials. High-ranking Begs were allowed to wear the Queue, for the Persian use, it is common to see the name Beg added to the Persian suffix of zada, zadi, which means son of or daughter of. For Example, Mirza Begzada or Noor Begzadi, for the Turkish use, it is most common to see the spelling Beg or Bey utilized. For the Moghal use, the honorific title Mirza was added before the name for all the males. For example, Mirza Abdullah Baig or Farzana Begum and this was the historical naming convention for the descendants of the Moghal dynasty. Today, however, it is not uncommon to see descendants of the Moghals use Baig as a middle name, for example, Abdullah Baig Mirza or Abdullah Mirza Baig. For the Slavic or Bosniak use, it is common to see the name Beg added to the Slavic suffix of ovic, ovich, while the title Beg is not in use in Bosnia anymore, track of families of Beg descent is kept. But a surname containing -begović suffix in itself is not an indicator of descent. For example, there is a number of Begović families, some are of noble descent, idrizbegović would be another example of non-noble family with the suffix. Some examples of beg families are, Šahbegović, Rizvanbegović, Šačirbegović, on the other hand, Kukavica is an example of a famous beg family, not containing the title in itself. The book by Enver Imamović Porijeklo i pripadnost stanovništva Bosne i Hercegovine details the origin of a big number of families in Bosnia, there are various other alternative spellings used today as well, such as, Begh, Begg, Beigh, Beyg, Bayg, Bek, Bik. Mirza Miran Shah Beg, was a son of Mirza Timur Beg, elbey Mirza-Hasan oglu Rzaguliyev, was an Azerbaijani Soviet artist and stage director, and father of artist Ayten Rzaguliyeva. Mirza Abul-Qasim Babur bin Baysonqor Beg, was a Timurid ruler in Khurasan, Mirza Mehboob Beg, is an Indian politician, belonging to Jammu & Kashmir National Conference. Mirza Farhatullah Baig, was an Indian Urdu writer of humor, Mirza Muhammed Baig Chishti Qalandari Hyderabadi, He is renowned as a Sufi saint and great scholar of Hyderabad Deccan. Mirza Ibrahim Beg, was Subahdar of Bengal during the reign of emperor Jahangir Beg, wali Beg Zul-Qadr, Soldier under Akbar Mirza Mughal Emperor
14.
Begzada
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The term Beyzade often appears in western accounts of the Ottoman Empire as superiors within the society, usually men who held a lot of authority. In Eastern Europe, Balkans, Caucasus, and some parts of Anatolia, the Begzade as a caste developed in Kurdistan among some of the chief tribes and householders such as those of the Jaffs Khoshnaws and the Berwaris. Begzade formed the dominant class of the tribe or household and they did not intermarry with socially inferior tribespeople, however, a member of the Begzade could be part of the caste both by kinship ties to the ruling lineage and as one of their retainers. Although regarded as Kurds, the Begzade come from a mixed background as most of them have Circassian origins. Beg or Baig Behzadi Khanzada Shahzada Sahibzada Begzadići
15.
Agha (title)
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Agha, also Aga, as an honorific title for a civilian or military officer, or often part of such title, was placed after the name of certain military functionaries in the Ottoman Empire. At the same time some court functionaries were entitled to the agha title, the word agha entered English from Turkish, and the Turkish word comes from the Old Turkic aqa, meaning elder brother. It is an equivalent of Mongolian word aka, in Kurdistan, within the tribal Kurdish society, agha is the title given to tribal chieftains, either supreme chieftains, or to village heads. It is also given to landlords and owners of major real estates in the urban Kurdish centers. The common tribesmen would honor the chieftains or the heads by calling them agha or agha so and so. The agha and his guests would listen at times for local or visiting singers and story tellers, one of the best studies on aghas in the Kurdish society is the important book of Mordechai Zaken, Jewish Subjects and their tribal chieftains in Kurdistan. State organisation of the Ottoman Empire Agaluk Kapi Agha Kizlar Agha Silahdar Agha
16.
Hazinedar
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Hazinedar or Haznadar is a title in Ottoman Empire hierarchy. Depending of the suffix or prefix it had different meanings, the English language translation of the word is a treasurer. The Chief Hazinedar headed the personnel of the Sultans treasury, Hazinedars subordinated to the Chief Hazinedar had a title of Hazinedar Kalfa. Kalfa is Turkish language word for apprentice, hazinedar-Agha was a title of chief eunuch treasurer. The High Hazinedar or First Hazinedar or Hazinedar Usta was a title of the housemistress of the sultans palace, there were other Hazinedars in the Ottoman hierarchy who were subordinated to the First Hazinedar, hence referred to as Usta. Only the First Hazinedar could approach the Sultan and other nobility, while the second, third and other hazinedars served the First Hazenidar
17.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
18.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
19.
Shirvan
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Shirvan, also spelled as Sharvān, Shirwan, Shervan, Sherwan and Šervān, is a historical region in the eastern Caucasus, known by this name in both Islamic and modern times. Vladimir Minorsky believes that such as Sharvān, Lāyzān and Baylaqān are Iranian names from the Iranian languages of the coast of the Caspian Sea. There are several explanations about this name, Shirvan or Sharvan are changed forms of Persian word Shahrban or شهربان which means the governor, the word Shahrban has been used since Achaemenian Dynasty as Xshathrapawn to refer to different states of the kingdom. Shervan in Persian means cypress tree and it is also used as a male name. It is connected popularly to Anushirvan, the Sasanian King, another meaning of Shirwan according to the Dehkhoda Dictionary is protector of lion. This meaning is also shared in Kurdish, where the name is used for males. Also there is a tribe in the north of Erbil Province in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region by the name of Sherwani that is part of Barzani tribe union. Sherwan town is the Center of Sherwani tribe, however, Said Nafisi points out that according to Khaqanis poems, where Khaqani contrasts his home town with kheyrvān, the original and correct pronunciation of the name was Sharvān. So all etymologies relating this name to sher/shir or Anushiravan are most probably folk etymology, the form Shervān or Shirvān are from later centuries. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, Shirwan proper comprised the easternmost spurs of the Caucasus range, but its rulers strove continuously to control also the western shores of the Caspian Sea from Ḳuba in the district of Maskat in the north, to Baku in the south. To the north of all these lands lay Bab al-Abwab or Derbend, and to the west, beyond the modern Goychay, Shirvanshah also spelled as Shīrwān Shāh or Sharwān Shāh, was the title in medieval Islamic times of a Persianized dynasty of Arabic origin. They ruled the area independently or as a vassal of larger empires from 800 A. D. up to 1607 A. D. when Safavid rule became firmly established. When the Shirvanshah Shah dynasty was ended by the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I, Shirwan formed a province of the Safavids and was governed by a Khan. Shirvan was taken by the Ottomans in 1578, however, Safavid rule was restored by 1607, in 1722, during the Russo-Persian War, the Khan of Quba, Husayn Ali, submitted to Peter the Great and was accepted as his dignitary. The Treaty of Saint Petersburg forced the Iranian king to recognise the Russian annexation, nevertheless, Mustafa continued to have secret dealings with Persia. It was not until 1820 that his territory was occupied by Russian troops, the term Shirvani/Shirvanli is still in use in Azerbaijan to designate the people of Shirvan region, as it was historically. Since ancient time, the population of Shirvan were Caucasian speaking groups. Later on Iranization of this population and subsequent Turkification since the Seljuq era occurred
20.
History of Iran
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Iran is home to one of the worlds oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 7000 BC. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel names the Persians as the first Historical People, the Medes unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC. It was the largest empire yet seen and the first world empire and they were succeeded by the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Empires, who successively governed Iran for almost 1000 years and made Iran once again as a leading power in the world. Persias arch-rival was the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, the Persian Empire proper begins in the Iron Age, following the influx of Iranian peoples. Iranian people gave rise to the Medes, the Achaemenid, Parthian, once a major empire of superpower proportions, having conquered far and wide, Iran has endured invasions too, by the Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and the Mongols. Iran has continually reasserted its national identity throughout the centuries and has developed as a political and cultural entity. The Muslim conquest of Persia ended the Sasanian Empire and was a point in Iranian history. Islamization of Iran took place during the eighth to tenth centuries, however, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity and civilization. Iran, with its history of early cultures and empires, had suffered particularly hard during the late Middle Ages. Many invasions of nomadic tribes, whose leaders became rulers in this country, the earliest archaeological artifacts in Iran were found in the Kashafrud and Ganj Par sites that are thought to date back to 100,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. Mousterian stone tools made by Neandertals have also been found, in 1949, a Neanderthal radius was discovered by Carleton S. Coon in Bisitun Cave. Early agricultural communities such as Chogha Golan in 10,000 BC along with such as Chogha Bonut in 8000 BC, began to flourish in. Around about the time, the earliest-known clay vessels and modeled human and animal terracotta figurines were produced at Ganj Dareh. There are also 10, 000-year-old human and animal figurines from Tepe Sarab in Kermanshah Province among many ancient artifacts. The two main Neolithic Iranian settlements were the Zayandeh River Culture and Ganj Dareh, parts of what is modern-day northwestern Iran was part of the Kura–Araxes culture, that stretched up into the neighboring regions of the Caucasus and Anatolia. Susa is one of the settlements of Iran and the world. Based on C14 dating, the time of foundation of the city is as early as 4395 BC, the general perception among archeologists is that Susa was an extension of the Sumerian city state of Uruk. In its later history, Susa became the capital of Elam and it is one of the most artifact-rich archaeological sites in the Middle East
21.
Transcaucasia
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Transcaucasia, or the South Caucasus, is a geopolitical region in the vicinity of the southern Caucasus Mountains on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Transcaucasia roughly corresponds to modern Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Transcaucasia and Ciscaucasia together comprise the larger Caucasus geographical region that divides Eurasia. All of present-day Armenia is in Transcaucasia, the majority of present-day Georgia and Azerbaijan, including the exclave of Nakhchivan, parts of Iran and Turkey are also included within the region of Transcaucasia. Goods produced in the region include oil, manganese ore, tea, citrus fruits and it remains one of the most politically tense regions in the post-Soviet area, and contains three heavily disputed areas, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Between 1878 and 1917 the Russian controlled province of Kars Oblast was also incorporated into the Transcaucasus, Transcaucasia is a Latin rendering of the Russian-language word zakavkazie, meaning the area beyond the Caucasus Mountains. This implies a Russian vantage point, and is analogous to similar terms such as Transnistria and Transleithania, other forms of this word include Trans-Caucasus and Transcaucasus. The region is referred to as Southern Caucasia and the South Caucasus. Located on the peripheries of Turkey, Iran and Russia, the region has been an arena for political, military, religious, throughout history, Transcaucasia was usually under the direct rule of the various in-Iran based empires and part of the Iranian world. In the course of the 19th century, Qajar Iran had to cede the region as a result of the two Russo-Persian Wars of that century to Imperial Russia. Ancient kingdoms of the region included Armenia, Albania and Iberia, later, the Orthodox Christian Kingdom of Georgia dominated most of Transcaucasia. The region was conquered by the Seljuk, Mongol, Turkic, Safavid, Ottoman, Afsharid. The 1826-1828 conquerings were confirmed in the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, in 1801, what is now Georgia was formally incorporated into the Russian Empire. After 1828-1829 war, Ottomans ceded Western Georgia except Adjaria, which was known as Sanjak of Batum, finally after Russo-Turkish War, Russians completed conquest of Transcaucasus. In 1844, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were combined into a single czarist government-general, Transcaucasia, in particular where modern-day Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Iran are located, is one of the native areas of the wine-producing vine Vitis vinifera. Some experts speculate that Transcaucasia may be the birthplace of wine production, archaeological excavations and carbon dating of grape seeds from the area have dated back to 7000–5000 BC. Wine found in Iran has been dated to c. 7400 BC and c. 5000 BC, the earliest winery, dated to c. 4000 BC, was found in Armenia
22.
Shirvanshah
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Shirvanshah, also spelled as Shīrwān Shāh or Sharwān Shāh, was the title of the rulers of Shirvan, located in modern Azerbaijan, from the mid-9th century to the early 16th century. The title remained in a family, the Yazidids, an originally Arab but gradually Persianized dynasty. The Shirvanshah established a state in Shirvan. The title Shirvanshah dates back to pre-Islamic times, ibn Khordadbeh mentions the Shirvanshah as one of the local rulers who received their title from the first Sassanid emperor, Ardashir I. From the late 8th century, Shirvan was under the rule of the members of the Arab family of Yazid ibn Mazyad al-Shaybani and his descendants, the Yazidids, would rule Shirvan as independent princes until the 14th century. By origin, the Yazidids were Arabs of the Shayban tribe and belonged to high ranking generals, in the chaos that engulfed the Abbasid Caliphate after the death of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil in 861, the great-grandson of Yazid b. Mazyad Shaybani, Haytham ibn Khalid, declared independent and assume the ancient title of Shirvanshah. The dynasty continuously ruled the area of Shirvan either as an independent state or a state until the Safavid times. A translation of important work into English language was published by the orientalist Vladimir Minorsky in 1958. We can also discern the progressive Persianisation of this originally Arab family, according to Encyclopedia of Islam, After the Shah Yazid b. Ahmad, Arab names give way to Persian ones like Manūčihr, Ḳubādh, Farīdūn, according to Vladimir Minorsky, the most likely explanation of the Iranicisation of this Arab family could be marriage link with the family of the ancient rulers of Shabaran. He further states, The attraction of a Sassanian pedigree proved stronger than the recollection of Shaybani lineage. The coat of arms with two lions could be a reminder of the story of Bahrām Gur in Shahnama where Bahrām had to claim the crown from between two lions to be recognized as the king. In 1120 King David IV of Georgia, entered the neighbouring Shirvan and took the town of Qabala and In 1124, David finally conquered Shirvan. In 1167, George III of Georgia marched to defend his vassal Shah Akhsitan of Shirvan against the Khazar and Kipchak assaults and strengthened the Georgian dominance in the area. Early in the 1190s, the Georgian government began to interfere in the affairs of the Ildenizids and of the Shirvanshahs, aiding rivaling local princes and reducing Shirvan to a tributary state. The Ildenizid atabeg Abu Bakr attempted to stem the Georgian advance, although Abu Bakr was able to resume his reign a year later, the Ildenizids were only barely able to contain further Georgian forays. Shirvanshahs built many defensive castles across all of Shirvan to resist many foreign invasions, however, Shirvan was greatly devastated by Mongol invasion in 1235, from which it was not able to fully recover for the next century
23.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
24.
Mughal Empire
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The dynasty, though ethnically Turco-Mongol, was Persianate in terms of culture. The Mughal empire extended over parts of the Indian subcontinent. The beginning of the empire is conventionally dated to the victory by its founder Babur over Ibrahim Lodi, the Mughal emperors were Central Asian Turco-Mongols belonging to the Timurid dynasty, who claimed direct descent from both Genghis Khan and Timur. During the reign of Humayun, the successor of Babur, the empire was briefly interrupted by the Sur Empire, the classic period of the Mughal Empire started in 1556 with the ascension of Akbar the Great to the throne. Under the rule of Akbar and his son Jahangir, the region enjoyed economic progress as well as harmony. Akbar was a warrior who also forged alliances with several Hindu Rajput kingdoms. Some Rajput kingdoms continued to pose a significant threat to the Mughal dominance of northwestern India, the reign of Shah Jahan, the fifth emperor, between 1628 and 1658 was the golden age of Mughal architecture. He erected several monuments, the best known of which is the Taj Mahal at Agra, as well as the Moti Masjid, Agra, the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, Delhi. By the mid-18th century, the Marathas had routed Mughal armies, during the following century Mughal power had become severely limited, and the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II, had authority over only the city of Shahjahanabad. He issued a firman supporting the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and following the defeat was therefore tried by the British East India Company for treason, imprisoned and exiled to Rangoon. Contemporaries referred to the empire founded by Babur as the Timurid empire, which reflected the heritage of his dynasty, another name was Hindustan, which was documented in the Ain-i-Akbari, and which has been described as the closest to an official name for the empire. In the west, the term Mughal was used for the emperor, and by extension, the use of Mughal derived from the Arabic and Persian corruption of Mongol, and it emphasised the Mongol origins of the Timurid dynasty. The term gained currency during the 19th century, but remains disputed by Indologists, similar terms had been used to refer to the empire, including Mogul and Moghul. Nevertheless, Baburs ancestors were sharply distinguished from the classical Mongols insofar as they were oriented towards Persian rather than Turco-Mongol culture, ousted from his ancestral domains in Central Asia, Babur turned to India to satisfy his ambitions. He established himself in Kabul and then pushed steadily southward into India from Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass, Baburs forces occupied much of northern India after his victory at Panipat in 1526. The preoccupation with wars and military campaigns, however, did not allow the new emperor to consolidate the gains he had made in India, the instability of the empire became evident under his son, Humayun, who was driven out of India and into Persia by rebels. Humayuns exile in Persia established diplomatic ties between the Safavid and Mughal Courts, and led to increasing Persian cultural influence in the Mughal Empire, the restoration of Mughal rule began after Humayuns triumphant return from Persia in 1555, but he died from a fatal accident shortly afterwards. Humayuns son, Akbar, succeeded to the throne under a regent, Bairam Khan, through warfare and diplomacy, Akbar was able to extend the empire in all directions and controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent north of the Godavari River
25.
Indian religions
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These religions are also classified as Eastern religions. Although Indian religions are connected through the history of India, they constitute a wide range of religious communities, evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings. The Harappan people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which lasted from 3300 to 1300 BCE, had an early urbanised culture which predates the Vedic religion. The documented history of Indian religions begins with the historical Vedic religion, the practices of the early Indo-Iranians. The period of the composition, redaction and commentary of these texts is known as the Vedic period, the Reform or Shramanic Period between 800–200 BCE marks a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions. This period also saw the writing of the Upanishads and the rise of Vedanta, the early Islamic period also gave rise to new movements. Sikhism was founded in the 15th century on the teachings of Guru Nanak, the vast majority of its adherents originate in the Punjab region. With the colonial dominance of the British a reinterpretation and synthesis of Hinduism arose, james Mill, in his The History of British India, distinguished three phases in the history of India, namely Hindu, Muslim and British civilisations. This periodisation has been criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to, another periodisation is the division into ancient, classical, medieval and modern periods, although this periodization has also received criticism. The division in Ancient-Medieval-Modern overlooks the fact that the Muslim-conquests took place between the eight and the century, while the south was never completely conquered. According to Thapar, a periodisation could also be based on significant social and economic changes, smart and Michaels seem to follow Mills periodisation, while Flood and Muesse follow the ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods periodisation. Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings such as at Bhimbetka, depicting dances, neolithic agriculturalists inhabiting the Indus River Valley buried their dead in a manner suggestive of spiritual practices that incorporated notions of an afterlife and belief in magic. Marshalls interpretations have been debated, and sometimes disputed over the following decades. One Indus valley seal shows a seated, possibly ithyphallic and tricephalic, figure with a horned headdress, surrounded by animals. Marshall identified the figure as a form of the Hindu god Shiva, who is associated with asceticism, yoga, and linga, regarded as a lord of animals. The seal has hence come to be known as the Pashupati Seal, after Pashupati, while Marshalls work has earned some support, many critics and even supporters have raised several objections. Doris Srinivasan has argued that the figure does not have three faces, or yogic posture, and that in Vedic literature Rudra was not a protector of wild animals. Despite the criticisms of Marshalls association of the seal with a proto-Shiva icon, historians like Heinrich Zimmer, Thomas McEvilley are of the opinion that there exists some link between first Jain Tirthankara Rishabha & Indus Valley civilisation
26.
Bengal Sultanate
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The Bengal Sultanate, officially the Sultanate of Bengal, was a Muslim state and empire based in the Indian subcontinent on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It was an important power in South and Southeast Asia and its rulers carried the title of King of Kings in the East. The kingdoms heartland was in Bengal, which is divided between Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, but its realm included large parts of North India. Its bordering countries included the Delhi Sultanate, Tibet, Ahom, the Bengal Sultanate seceded from the Delhi Sultanate under Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah in 1352 and had capitals in Gaur, Pandua and Sonargaon. Delhi recognised Bengals independence after it was defeated by Ilyas Shah and his son, the kingdom enjoyed a strategic relationship with Ming China. It reached the height of its power during the reigns of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah and Alauddin Hussain Shah in the 15th and early 16th centuries, Trade links were fostered with the Horn of Africa, the Maldives and Malacca. Its political economy featured the Taka as its standard currency, Bengali Muslim architecture flourished under the sultanates distinct regional genre, incorporating Bengali and Persian elements. A cosmopolitan literary culture developed in the kingdom, in the mid 16th century, Bengal was overrun by Sher Shah Suris conquests. Arakan ended its relationship with Bengal after allying with the Portuguese Empire. The Mughals defeated the last Sultan, Daud Khan Karrani, in Rajmahal in 1576, subsequently, eastern Bengal came under the control of the Baro-Bhuyan chieftains. By the 17th century, most of the territories of the sultanate were annexed by Mughal Bengal, Bengal was integrated into the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of the Indian subcontinent. It was annexed by Bakhtiar Khilji as a province of the Delhi Sultanate, in the mid 14th century, governors in Bengal declared independence from the Delhi Sultanate, including at Lakhnauti, Sonargaon and Satgaon. In 1352, the Bengal Sultanate was formed by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah after he conquered the three cities and he also defeated an invasion by the Sultan of Delhi Firuz Shah Tughluq in 1353. Ilyas Shah led successful campaigns against neighbouring Hindu states which consolidated the position of the Bengal Sultanate as the foremost military power in the eastern subcontinent, the records of medieval Indian historians, such as Abul Fazl, described him as first Shah of Bengal. His successors formed the Ilyas Shahi dynasty and his son Sikandar Shah and grandson Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah expanded the military, diplomatic and architectural influence of the sultanate. In 1414, Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah, the son of the Hindu zamindar Raja Ganesha, assumed the throne after a coup backed by his father and he reigned until 1433 and proclaimed himself as a caliph of Islam. During his reign, Arakan in Burma came under a century of Bengali suzerainty and his military assisted the Arakanese ruler Narameikhla to regain control of the city of Mrauk U in return for Arakan becoming a vassal state of the Bengal Sultanate. Bengali Muslims formed their own settlements in Arakan, the Buddhist rulers in Arakan received Islamic titles
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Greater Iran
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It roughly corresponds to the territory on the Iranian plateau and its bordering plains. It is also referred to as Greater Persia, while the Encyclopædia Iranica uses the term Iranian Cultural Continent. The term Iran is not limited to the state of Iran. The concept of Greater Iran has its source in the history of the Achaemenid Empire in Persis, the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 resulted in Iran ceding Dagestan, Georgia, and most of Azerbaijan to Russia. After the Russo-Persian War, the Turkmanchey Treaty of 1828 ended centuries of Iranian control of its Caucasian provinces, in 1935, the endonym Iran was adopted as the official international name of Persia by its ruler Reza Shah. The name “Irān“, meaning “land of the Aryans”, is the New Persian continuation of the old genitive plural aryānām, the Avestan evidence is confirmed by Greek sources, Arianē is spoken of as being between Persia and the Indian subcontinent. However, this is a Greek pronunciation of the name Haroyum/Haraiva, a land listed separately from the homeland of the Aryans. While up until the end of the Parthian period in the 3rd century CE, the idea of “Irān“ had an ethnic, linguistic, the idea of an “Iranian“ empire or kingdom in a political sense is a purely Sasanian one. It was the result of a convergence of interests between the new dynasty and the Zoroastrian clergy, as we can deduce from the available evidence and this convergence gave rise to the idea of an Ērān-šahr “Kingdom of the Iranians, ” which was “ēr“. Richard Nelson Frye defines Greater Iran as including much of the Caucasus, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, with influences extending to China. According to Frye, Iran means all lands and peoples where Iranian languages were and are spoken, and this view, even though common among serious scholars, is almost certainly overstated. To the Ancient Greeks, Greater Iran ended at the Indus, according to J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams most of Western greater Iran spoke Southwestern Iranian languages in the Achaemenid era while the Eastern territory spoke Eastern Iranian languages related to Avestan. In the words of Richard Nelson Frye, Only in modern times did western colonial intervention, as Patrick Clawson states, ethnic nationalism is largely a nineteenth century phenomenon, even if it is fashionable to retroactively extend it. Greater Iran however has more of a cultural super-state, rather than a political one to begin with. A detailed list of these follows in this article. Greater Iran is called Iranzamin which means The Land of Iran, Iranzamin was in the mythical times opposed to the Turanzamin the Land of Turan, which was located in the upper part of Central Asia. In the pre-Islamic period, Iranians distinguished two main regions in the territory they ruled, one Iran and the other Aniran, by Iran they meant all the regions inhabited by ancient Iranian peoples, this region was more extensive in the past
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Old Persian
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The Old Persian language is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages. Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets, recent research into the vast Persepolis Fortification Archive at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago have unearthed Old Persian tablets. This new text shows that the Old Persian language was a language in use for practical recording. As a written language, Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions and it is an Iranian language and as such a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The oldest known written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscriptions. Old Persian is one of the oldest Indo-European languages which is attested in original texts, the oldest date of use of Old Persian as a spoken language is not precisely known. Their language, Old Persian, became the language of the Achaemenid kings. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash are first mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III. The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. Old Persian belongs to the Iranian language family which is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, the common ancestors of Indo-Iranians came from Central Asia sometime in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. The former are the languages in that group which have left written original texts while Median is known mostly from loanwords in Old Persian. Old Persian subsequently evolved into Middle Persian, which is in turn the ancestor of New Persian. Unlike the other languages and dialects, ancient and modern, of the Iranian group such as Avestan, Parthian, Soghdian, Kurdish, Pashto, Old, Middle and New Persian represent one and the same language at three states of its history. It had its origin in Fars and is differentiated by dialectical features, Middle Persian, also sometimes called Pahlavi, is a direct continuation of old Persian, and was used as the written official language of the country. Comparison of the evolution at each stage of the shows great simplification in grammar. However, New Persian is a descendent of Middle and Old Persian. Old Persian presumably has a Median language substrate, the Median element is readily identifiable because it did not share in the developments that were peculiar to Old Persian. Median forms are only in personal or geographical names and some are typically from religious vocabulary
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Median language
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The Median language was the language of the Medes. It is an Old Iranian language and classified as belonging to the Northwestern Iranian subfamily, which many other languages such as Azari, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Kurdish. Median is attested only by numerous loanwords in Old Persian, nothing is known of its grammar, but it shares important phonological isoglosses with Avestan, rather than Old Persian. Median must to some extent have been the official Iranian language in western Iran, no documents dating to Median times have been preserved, and it is not known what script these texts might have been in. So far only one inscription of pre-Achaemenid times has found on the territory of Media. This is an inscription composed in Akkadian, perhaps in the 8th century BCE. It is not known what the name of the Median language was or whether the Medes themselves nominally distinguished it from the languages of other Iranian peoples. Median is presumably a substrate of Old Persian, the Median element is readily identifiable because it did not share in the developments that were particular to Old Persian. Median forms are only in personal or geographical names. And some are typically from religious vocabulary and so could in principle also be influenced by Avestan, sometimes, both Median and Old Persian forms are found, which gave Old Persian a somewhat confusing and inconsistent look, horse, for instance, is both asa and aspa. Diakonoff includes paridaiza, paradise, vazraka, great and xshayathiya, in the mid-5th century BCE, Herodotus noted that spaka is the Median word for a female dog. This term and meaning are preserved in living Iranian languages such as Talyshi, in the 1st century BCE, Strabo would note a relationship between the various Iranian peoples and their languages, beyond the Indus. Ariana is extended so as to some part of Persia, Media. Traces of the dialects of Media are preserved in the compositions of the fahlaviyat genre, consequently, these compositions have certain linguistic affinities with Parthian, but the surviving specimens are much influenced by Persian. For an enumeration of linguistic characteristics and vocabulary deserving mention, see Tafazzoli 1999, the use of fahla to denote Media is attested from late Arsacid times so it reflects the pre-Sassanid use of the word to denote Parthia, which, during Arsacid times, included most of Media. A number of modern Iranian languages spoken today have had medieval stages with evidences found from citations in Classical and Early Modern Persian sources
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Avestan
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The Yaz culture of Bactria-Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early Eastern Iranian culture described in the Avesta. Avestans status as a language has ensured its continuing use for new compositions long after the language had ceased to be a living language. It is closely related to Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language, Avestan, which is associated with northeastern Iran, and Old Persian, which belongs to the southwest, together constitute what is called Old Iranian. The Old Iranian language group is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language group, Iranian languages are traditionally classified as eastern or western, and within this framework Avestan is classified as eastern. But this distinction is of limited meaning for Avestan, as the developments that later distinguish Eastern from Western Iranian had not yet occurred. Avestan does not display some typical Western Iranian innovations already visible in Old Persian, Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and also in some extent close in nature to Vedic Sanskrit. It is believed that it might be close to a dialect of Pashto as well. The Avestan language is attested in two forms, known as Old Avestan and Younger Avestan. Younger Avestan did not evolve from Old Avestan, the two not only in time, but are also different dialects. Every Avestan text, regardless of whether originally composed in Old or Younger Avestan, Karl Hoffmann traced the following stages for Avestan as found in the extant texts. In roughly chronological order, The natural language of the composers of the Gathas, the Yasna Haptanghaiti, the script used for writing Avestan developed during the 3rd or 4th century AD. By then the language had been extinct for centuries. As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood, the script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh religion writing. It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left and these symbols, like those of all the Pahlavi scripts, are in turn based on Aramaic script symbols. Avestan also incorporates several letters from other writing systems, most notably the vowels, a few letters were free inventions, as were also the symbols used for punctuation. Also, the Avestan alphabet has one letter that has no corresponding sound in the Avestan language, Avestan script is alphabetic, and the large number of letters suggests that its design was due to the need to render the orally recited texts with high phonetic precision. The correct enunciation of the liturgies was considered necessary for the prayers to be effective, the Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, also transcribe Avestan in Brahmi-based scripts. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in Gujarati script, some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example, the /z/ in zaraϑuštra is written with j with a dot below
31.
Sanskrit
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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
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Kshatriya
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Kshatriya is one of the four varna of the Hindu society. The Sanskrit term kshatriya is used in the context of Vedic society wherein members organised themselves into four classes, brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, traditionally, the kshatriya constituted the ruling and military elite. Their role was to protect society by fighting in wartime and governing in peacetime, the Prakrit derivative of Kshatriya is Khatri. The administrative machinery in the Rig Vedic period functioned with a chief called Rajan whose position was not hereditary. The king was elected in an assembly, which included women. The Rajan protected the tribe and cattle, was assisted by a priest, the concept of fourfold varna system was non-existent. The hymn Purusha Sukta to the Rigveda describes the history of the four varna. Since not all dark-skinned Indians was fully regulated under the varna in the vedic society, the term rajanya unlike the word kshatriya essentially denoted the status within a lineage. Whereas kshatra, means ruling, one of the ruling order, jaiswal points out the term Brahman rarely occurs in the Rig-veda with the exception of the Purusha Sukta and may not have been used for the priestly class. Based on the authority of Panini, Patanjali, Katyayana and the Mahabharata, Jayaswal believes that Rajanya was the name of a people and that the Rajanyas were, therefore. Some examples were the Andhaka and Vrsni Rajanyas who followed the system of elected rulers and this later gave rise to the idea of kingship. In the period of the Brahmanas there was ambiguity in the position of the varna, in the Panchavimsha Brahmana, the Rajanya are placed first, followed by Brahmana then Vaishya. In Shatapatha Brahmana 13.8.3.11, the Kshatriya are placed second, in Shatapatha Brahmana 1.1.4.12 the order is—Brahmana, Vaishya, Rajanya, Shudra. The order of the brahmanical tradition—Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra—became fixed from the time of dharmasutras, the kshatriya were often considered pre-eminent in Buddhist circles. Even among Hindu societies they were sometimes at rivalry with the Brahmins, the kshatriya caste constituted an aristocracy but were not always necessarily wealthy. Kings usually belonged to this caste and it was considered their duty to acquire a knowledge of weapons in addition to cultivating their aptitude for command, the science of weaponry was one of the 13 branches of learning which every educated kshatriya male was expected to study. Both the kings suite and the army were recruited from among this caste. Many kshatriya were authorised to take up a craft or trade rather than gaining their living as professional warriors and these families still retained the privileges accorded to their caste however, which included special forms of marriage which were their prerogative
33.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
34.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, known as Mohammad Reza Shah, was the Shah of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979. Mohammad Reza Shah took the title Shāhanshāh on 26 October 1967 and he was the second and last monarch of the House of Pahlavi of the Iranian monarchy. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi held several titles, including that of Āryāmehr. His dream of the Great Civilization in Iran led to an industrial and military expansion as well as economic. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi came to power during World War II after an Anglo-Soviet invasion forced the abdication of his father, various additional controversial policies were enacted, including the banning of the communist Tudeh Party, and a general suppression of political dissent by Irans intelligence agency, SAVAK. According to official statistics, Iran had as many as 2,200 political prisoners in 1978, by 1979, political unrest had transformed into a revolution which, on 17 January, forced him to leave Iran. Soon thereafter, the Iranian monarchy was abolished, and Iran was declared an Islamic republic led by Ruhollah Khomeini. Facing likely execution should he return to Iran, he died in exile in Egypt, whose President, due to his status as the last de facto Shah of Iran, he is often known as simply the Shah. Born in Tehran to Reza Pahlavi and his wife, Tadj ol-Molouk, Mohammad Reza was the eldest son of the first Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Shah. He was born with a sister, Ashraf Pahlavi. However, Shams, Mohammad Reza, Ashraf, Ali Reza, nevertheless, Reza Shah was always convinced that his sudden quirk of good fortune had commenced in 1919 with the birth of his son who was dubbed khoshghadam. Mohammad Reza described his father in his book Mission for My Country as one of the most frightening men he had ever known, depicting Reza Khan as a dominating man with a violent temper. Reza Khan often impressed on his son his belief that history was made by men such as himself. From women, and apparently from women alone that the future Shah received whatever psychological nourishment he was able to get as a child, traditionally, male children were considered more preferable than females, and as a boy, Mohammed Reza was often spoiled by his mother and sisters. Mohammed Reza was very close to his twin sister Ashraf as she noted, It was this twinship, no matter how I would reach out in the years to come-sometimes even desperately-to find an identity and a purpose of my own, I would remain inextricably tied to my brother. Always, the center of my existence was, and is, in 1973, Mohammad Reza told the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, A king who does not need to account to anyone for what he says and does is unavoidably doomed to loneliness. However, I am not entirely alone, because a force others cant perceive accompanies me, I have lived with God besides me since I was 5 years old. Since, that is, God sent me those visions, in his 1961 book Mission for My Country, Mohammad Reza wrote, From the time I was six or seven, I have felt that perhaps there is a supreme being, who is guiding me
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King of Kings
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The first king known to use the title king of kings was Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria. The title was adopted in Biblical Hebrew, as מֶלֶךְ מְלָכִים, the same usage appears in Aramaic portions of the Book of Daniel 2,37, where Nebuchadnezzar is called מֶלֶךְ מַלְכַיָּא. The first written record of consistent use of the dates to the kings of the Achaemenid Empire. The title King of Kings was one of the titles borne by Cyrus the Great, and later all other Achaemenid kings, who were in fact ruling over provincial governors, the Persian usage also appears in Ezra 7,12 in reference to Artaxerxes I. The New Persian word was revived by some Islamic dynasties in Persia with the meaning great king. Alexander the Great had the title, Basileus ton Basileon meaning king of kings and this title was likely given to him to imply that he was a successor of the Persian kings who had the same title. Tigranes II of Armenia used an equivalent to king of kings. The title was used in the Donations of Alexandria ceremony in 34BC, Jesus Christ is called the king of kings once in the First Epistle to Timothy and twice in the Book of Revelation. But king of kings has also used as the title of a monarch in Christian tradition. Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλευόντων King of Kings, Ruling over Those who Rule was the motto of the Byzantine Palaiologos dynasty, the Emperors of Ethiopia had the title of king of kings. The title of king of kings is criticized in hadith, Verily, a related phrase is Malik Al-Mulk, one of the 99 names of Allah. The title shahanshah was revived by the Pahlavi dynasty of Persia in the 20th century and it was abolished when the Islamic Revolution toppled the monarchy in Iran. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya claimed to be King of Kings, a title that he subsequently had a gathering of African tribal chiefs endorse in 2008, Gaddafi urged the royals to join his campaign for African unity. Henrik Larsson WWE wrestler Triple H is also dubbed as The King of Kings, in The Simpsons episode A Star Is Burns, an actor starring in Mr. Burns movie A Burns for All Seasons referred to him as being truly The King of Kings. In the movie 300, King Xerxes I referred to himself as King of Kings, in Percy Shelleys sonnet, Ozymandias, Ozymandias refers to himself as King of Kings on line 10. In Family Guy episode Jesus, Mary and Joseph
36.
Pahlavi dynasty
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The Pahlavi dynasty was the ruling house of Iran from 1925 until 1979, when the monarchy was overthrown and abolished as a result of the Iranian Revolution. He was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, at the death of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi on 27 July 1980, his son Reza Pahlavi became the head of the Pahlavi royal family. His successor, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, announced in 1959 that both Persia and Iran were acceptable and could be used interchangeably, Rezā Shāh tried to avoid involvement with Britain and the Soviet Union. Though many of his development projects required foreign expertise, he avoided awarding contracts to British. This created problems for Iran after 1939, when Germany and Britain became enemies in World War II, Rezā Shāh proclaimed Iran as a neutral country, but Britain insisted that German engineers and technicians in Iran were spies with missions to sabotage British oil facilities in southwestern Iran. Britain demanded that Iran expel all German citizens, but Rezā Shāh refused, on 13 September 1943 the Allies reassured the Iranians that all foreign troops would leave by 2 March 1946. At the time, the Tudeh Party of Iran, a communist party that was influential and had parliamentary representation, was becoming increasingly militant. This promoted actions from the side of the government, including attempts of the Iranian armed forces to order in the Northern provinces. While the Tudeh headquarters in Tehran were occupied and the Isfahan branch crushed, thus, by November 1945 Azerbaijan had become an autonomous state helped by the Tudeh party. This puppet government of the Soviet Union only lasted until November 1946, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi replaced his father on the throne on 16 September 1941. In 1951, the Majlis named Mohammad Mossadegh as new minister by a vote of 79–12. Mossadegh was opposed by the Shah who feared a resulting oil embargo imposed by the West would leave Iran in economic ruin, the Shah fled Iran but returned when the United Kingdom and United States staged a coup against Mossadegh in August 1953. Mossadegh was then arrested by pro-Shah army forces, the Shahs government suppressed its opponents with the help of Irans security and intelligence secret police, SAVAK. Such opponents included members of the Communist Tudeh party, by the mid-1970s, relying on increased oil revenues, Mohammad Reza began a series of even more ambitious and bolder plans for the progress of his country and the march toward the White Revolution. But his socioeconomic advances increasingly irritated the clergy, the Pahlavi regime collapsed following widespread uprisings in 1978 and 1979. The Islamic Revolution dissolved the SAVAK and replaced it with the SAVAMA, Mohammad Reza fled the country, seeking medical treatment in Egypt, Mexico, the United States, and Panama, and finally resettled with his family in Egypt as a guest of Anwar Sadat. On his death, his son Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi succeeded him in absentia as heir apparent to the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Pahlavi and his wife live in the United States in Potomac, Maryland with three daughters. Under the Qajar dynasty the Persian character of Iran was not very explicit, the Pahlavi rule was instrumental in Irans nationalisation in line with Persian culture and language which, amongst other ways, was achieved through the official ban on the use of the Azeri language
37.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
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Basileus
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Basileus is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs in history. In the English-speaking world it is perhaps most widely understood to mean king or emperor. The title was used by the Byzantine emperors, and has a history of use by sovereigns and other persons of authority in ancient Greece. The feminine forms are basilissa, basileia, basilis, or the archaic basilinna, the etymology of basileus is unclear. The Mycenaean form was *gʷasileus, denoting some sort of official or local chieftain. Its hypothetical earlier Proto-Greek form would be *gʷatileus, most linguists assume that it is a non-Greek word that was adopted by Bronze Age Greeks from a pre-existing linguistic Pre-Greek substrate of the Eastern Mediterranean. Schindler argues for an innovation of the -eus inflection type from Indo-European material rather than a Mediterranean loan. The first written instance of this word is found on the clay tablets discovered in excavations of Mycenaean palaces originally destroyed by fire. The word basileus is written as qa-si-re-u and its meaning was chieftain. Here the initial letter q- represents the PIE labiovelar consonant */gʷ/, linear B uses the same glyph for /l/ and /r/, now uniformly written with a Latin r by convention. Linear B only depicts syllables of single vowel or consonant-vowel form, the word can be contrasted with wanax, another word used more specifically for king and usually meaning High King or overlord. With the collapse of Mycenaean society, the position of wanax ceases to be mentioned, in the works of Homer wanax appears, in the form ánax, mostly in descriptions of Zeus and of very few human monarchs, most notably Agamemnon. Otherwise the term survived almost exclusively as a component in compound personal names and is still in use in Modern Greek in the description of the anáktoron/anáktora, most of the Greek leaders in Homers works are described as basileís, which is conventionally rendered in English as kings. However, an accurate translation may be princes or chieftains, which would better reflect conditions in Greek society in Homers time. Agamemnon tries to give orders to Achilles among many others, while another serves as his charioteer. His will, however, is not to be automatically obeyed, a study by Robert Drews has demonstrated that even at the apex of Geometric and Archaic Greek society, basileus does not automatically translate to king. In a number of authority was exercised by a college of basileis drawn from a particular clan or group. However, basileus could also be applied to the leaders of tribal states, like those of the Arcadians
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Ottoman dynasty
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The Ottoman dynasty was made up of the members of the imperial House of Osman. According to Ottoman tradition, the family originated from the Kayı tribe branch of the Oghuz Turks, the Ottoman dynasty, named after Osman I, ruled the Ottoman Empire from c.1299 to 1922. During much of the Empires history, the sultan was the regent, head of state. The imperial family was deposed from power and the sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922 after the Turkish War of Independence, the Republic of Turkey was declared the following year. The living members of the dynasty were sent into exile as persona non gratae, though some have been allowed to return. In its current form, the family is known as the Osmanoğlu family, before Orhans proclamation of the dynasty, the tribe was known as the Bilecik Söğüt Beylik or Beys but was renamed Osmanlı in honor of Osman. The Ottoman dynasty is known in modern Turkish as Osmanlı Hanedanı, meaning House of Osman, in Ottoman Turkish it was known as Hanedan-ı Âl-i Osman, thus they still formally acknowledged the sovereignty of the Seljuk Empire and its successor, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. The first Ottoman ruler to claim the title of Sultan was Murad I. The holder of the title Sultan was in Arabic-Islamic dynasties originally the power behind the throne of the Caliph in Bagdad, the Ottoman sultans also claimed the title of Caliph starting with Murad I, who transformed the Ottoman state into a transcontinental empire. With the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II Fatih claimed the title Kaysar-i-Rûm Emperor of Rome and he appointed the Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius Scholarius, whom he protected and whose status he elevated into leader of all the Eastern Orthodox Christians. As Emperor of Rome he laid claim to all Roman territories, Sultan Mehmed II also took the title of Padishah, a Persian title meaning Master of Kings and ranking as Emperor, claiming superiority among the other kings. He was the first Ottoman ruler to adopt the title of Padishah. The Ottoman claim to caliphate was strengthened when they defeated the Mamluks in 1517, as the empire grew, sultans adopted secondary titles expressing the empires claim to be the legitimate successor of the absorbed states. Furthermore, they tended to enumerate even regular provinces, not unlike the long lists of -mainly inherited- feudal titles in the style of many Christian European monarchs. Some early Ottoman Sultans even had to accept the status in the eyes of a foreign overlord. However, the Ottoman Caliphate too was abolished soon afterwards, and Abdulmecid II was utterly deposed and expelled from Turkey with the rest of the Ottoman dynasty on 3 March 1924
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Rumelia
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Rumelia, also known as Turkey in Europe, was a historical term describing the area now referred to as the Balkans when it was administered by the Ottoman Empire. As such, it was used in Greek, Turkish, Albanian. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum meant the Sultanate of Anatolia, the name Rumelia was ultimately applied to a province composed of central Albania and north-western Macedonia, with Bitola for its chief town. Owing to administrative changes effected between 1870 and 1875, the name ceased to correspond to any political division. Eastern Rumelia was constituted as a province of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin,1878. The Kosovo Vilayet was created in 1877 and this region in Turkey is also referred to as Eastern Thrace or Turkish Thrace. In Greece, the term Ρούμελη has been used since Ottoman times to refer to Central Greece, the word Rumeli is also used in some cases to refer exclusively to the part of Istanbul Province that is situated west of the Bosphorus
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Shahbanu
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Shahbanu means The Lady Shah in Persian. Upon assuming the title in 1967, Farah Pahlavi, the wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was the first Shahbanu to be crowned in Iran since the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century. The two Sassanian Empresses, Purandokht and Azarmidokht, c,630, were the last two that carried the title before Farah Pahlavi. The Sasanian title for Shahbanu was bâmbişnân bâmbişn, meaning the Queen of Queens, borne by the principal wife. According to pre-revolutionary rules, Yasmine Pahlavi, Crown Princess of Iran, would currently hold this title
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