1.
Fra Mauro
–
Cam. was an Italian cartographer who lived in the Republic of Venice. He created the most detailed and accurate map of the world up until that time, Mauro was a monk of the Camaldolese Monastery of St. Michael, located on the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon. It was there that he maintained a cartography workshop and he also was employed by some very powerful men like Prince Henry the Navigator. Fra Mauro was born before or around the year 1400, in his youth, Mauro had traveled extensively as a merchant and a soldier. He was familiar with the Middle East and he is recorded in the records of the Monastery of St. Michael from 1409. As a lay member of the monastery, Mauro was employed as mapmaker, in the records of the monastery his main job was recorded as collecting the monasterys rents, but from the 1450s he is also mentioned as the creator of a series of world maps. Although he was no longer free to travel, due to his religious status, by 1450 he composed a great mappa mundi - a world map - with surprising accuracy, including extensive written comments reflecting the geographic knowledge of his time. The map is today as the Fra Mauro map. The Fra Mauro world map, or mappa mundi, was a major work that compiled much of the geographical knowledge of the time. The map covers over five square meters, the map is extremely detailed and contains many thousands of texts and illustrations. The world map took several years to complete and was the most detailed, Fra Mauro created the map under a commission by King Afonso V of Portugal. Andrea Bianco, a sailor-cartographer, is recorded as having collaborated with Fra Mauro in creating the map, the map was completed on 24 April 1459, and sent to Portugal, but that copy didnt survive. Along with the map was a letter from the Doge of Venice and it was intended for Prince Henry the Navigator, Afonso Vs uncle. It encouraged the prince to continue funding exploratory journeys, Fra Mauro died the following year, while he was making a copy of the map for the Signoria of Venice. The copy was completed by Andrea Bianco, a commemorative medal of the period struck in honor of his cartographic work describes Fra Mauro as chosmographus incomparabilis. Two copies of maps by Fra Mauro are known to survive, one is a portolan chart in the Vatican Library, published by Roberto Almagià in 1944. The crater Fra Mauro and associated Fra Mauro formation of the Moon are named after him. The Apollo 13 lunar mission was intended to explore the Fra Mauro formation, the formation was instead explored by astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell of the Apollo 14 mission in February 1971
Fra Mauro
–
The 1450 ca.
Fra Mauro map (inverted, South is normally at the top). The map is a world map that depicts Asia, Africa and Europe.
Fra Mauro
–
A medal in honor of Fra Mauro, "an incomparable cosmographer", produced soon after his death, probably by the artist Giovanni Boldù
2.
Mogadishu
–
Mogadishu, known locally as Hamar, is the capital and most populous city of Somalia. Located in the coastal Banaadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for millennia, tradition and old records assert that southern Somalia, including the Mogadishu area, was historically inhabited by hunter-gatherers. These were later joined by Cushitic-speaking agro-pastoralists, who would go on to establish local aristocracies, during its medieval Golden Age, Mogadishu was ruled by the Muzaffar dynasty, a vassal of the Ajuran Sultanate. It subsequently fell under the control of an assortment of local Sultanates and polities, the city later became the capital of Italian Somaliland in the colonial period. After the Somali Republic became independent in 1960, Mogadishu became known, the ICU thereafter splintered into more radical groups, notably al-Shabaab, which fought the Transitional Federal Government and its African Union Mission to Somalia allies. With a change in administration in late 2010, government troops, Mogadishu has subsequently experienced a period of intense reconstruction. As Somalias capital city, many important national institutions are based in Mogadishu and it is the seat of the Federal Government of Somalia established in August 2012, with the Somalia Federal Parliament serving as the governments legislative branch. Yusuf Hussein Jimaale has been the Mayor of Mogadishu since October 2015, villa Somalia is the official residential palace and principal workplace of the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. In May 2012, the First Somali Bank was established in the capital, the establishment of a local construction yard has also galvanized the citys real-estate sector. Arbaa Rukun Mosque is one of the oldest Islamic places of worship in the capital, the Mosque of Islamic Solidarity in Mogadishu is the largest masjid in the Horn region. Mogadishu Cathedral was built in 1928 by the authorities in Italian Somaliland in a Norman Gothic style. The National Museum of Somalia is based in Mogadishu and holds many important artefacts. The National Library of Somalia is undergoing a $1 million Somali federal government funded renovation, Mogadishu is home to a number of scholastic and media institutions. As part of the urban renewal program,100 schools across the capital are scheduled to be refurbished and reopened. The Somali National University was established in the 1950s, and professors from the university founded the non-governmental Mogadishu University. Benadir University was established in 2002 with the intention of training doctors, various national sporting bodies have their headquarters in Mogadishu, including the Somali Football Federation and the Somali Olympic Committee. Mogadishu Stadium was constructed in 1978 during the Siad Barre administration and it hosts football matches with teams from the Somali First Division and the Somalia Cup. Additionally, the Port of Mogadishu serves as a national seaport and is the largest harbour in Somalia
Mogadishu
–
Engraving of the 13th century
Fakr ad-Din Mosque built by Fakr ad-Din, the first Sultan of the
Sultanate of Mogadishu
Mogadishu
–
Downtown Mogadishu in 1936,
Arba'a Rukun Mosque to the centre right
Mogadishu
–
An avenue in Mogadishu in 1963
3.
Somali language
–
Somali /səˈmɑːli, soʊ-/ is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch. It is spoken as a mother tongue by Somalis in Greater Somalia, Somali is an official language of Somalia, a national language in Djibouti, and a working language in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. It is used as a language by a few neighboring ethnic minority groups. Somali is classified within the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, specifically, as Lowland East Cushitic along with Afar, Somali is the best-documented Cushitic language, with academic studies of the language dating back to the late 19th century. Somali is spoken by Somalis in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya and it is also spoken as an adoptive language by a few ethnic minority groups and individuals in these areas. Somali is the second most widely spoken Cushitic language after Oromo, as of 2006, there were approximately 16.6 million speakers of Somali, of which around 8.3 million resided in Somalia. The language is spoken by an estimated 95% of the countrys inhabitants, constitutionally, Somali and Arabic are the two official languages of Somalia. Somali has been a national language since January 1973, when the Supreme Revolutionary Council declared it the Somali Democratic Republics primary language of administration and education. Somali was thereafter established as the language of academic instruction in forms 1 through 4. It later expanded to include all 12 forms in 1979, in 1972, the SRC adopted a Latin orthography as the official national alphabet over several other writing scripts that were then in use. Concurrently, the Italian-language daily newspaper Stella dOttobre was nationalized, renamed to Xiddigta Oktoobar, the state-run Radio Mogadishu has also broadcast in Somali since 1943. Somali is recognized as a working language in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Although it is not a language of Djibouti, it constitutes a major national language there. Somali is used in television and radio broadcasts, with the government-operated Radio Djibouti transmitting programs in the language from 1943 onwards and it is officially mandated with preserving the Somali language. As of 2013, Somali is also one of the languages available on Google Translate. Somali linguistic varieties are divided into three main groups, Northern, Benadir and Maay. Northern Somali forms the basis for Standard Somali and it is spoken by more than 60% of the entire Somali population, with its speech area stretching from northern Somalia to parts of the eastern and southwestern sections of the country. This widespread modern distribution is a result of a series of southward population movements over the past ten centuries from the Gulf of Aden littoral
Somali language
–
Primary Somali speech area
Somali language
–
Somali language books on display.
Somali language
–
The
Osmanya writing script for Somali.
4.
Arabic
–
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
Arabic
–
The Galland Manuscript of
One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century
Arabic
–
Arabic is the sole official language
Arabic
–
Bilingual traffic sign in
Qatar.
Arabic
–
Examples of how the Arabic root and form system works.
5.
Islam
–
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
Islam
–
The
Kaaba, in
Mecca,
Hejaz region, today's
Saudi Arabia, is the
center of Islam.
Muslims from all over the world gather there to
pray in unity.
Islam
–
The dome of the
Carol I Mosque in
Constanța,
Romania, topped by the
Islamic crescent
Islam
–
Medallion showing "
Allah " (
God) in
Hagia Sophia,
Istanbul,
Turkey.
Islam
–
An
angel presenting
Muhammad and his companions with a miniature city. In the
Topkapi Palace Library,
Istanbul.
6.
Monarchy
–
The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
Monarchy
–
Richard I of England being anointed during his coronation in
Westminster Abbey, from a 13th-century chronicle.
Monarchy
–
Thutmose I, the third
Pharaoh of the
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt.
Monarchy
–
King George III of the United Kingdom, Portrait by
Allan Ramsay, 1762
Monarchy
–
King
Salman of Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarch.
7.
Middle Ages
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
Middle Ages
–
The
Cross of Mathilde, a
crux gemmata made for
Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the
enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in
Cologne or
Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques:
cast figurative sculpture,
filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical
cameos and
engraved gems.
Middle Ages
–
A late Roman statue
depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in
Venice
Middle Ages
–
Coin of
Theodoric
Middle Ages
–
Mosaic showing
Justinian with
the bishop of
Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers
8.
Mogadishu currency
–
Mogadishu currency was an old coinage system minted by the medieval Sultanate of Mogadishu. In order to facilitate trade, the Mogadishu Sultanate began minting its own coins. The currency bears the names of 23 successive Sultans of Mogadishu, some coins also adopted the style of the extant Fatimid and Ottoman currencies. Alongside their own Ajuran currency, the Sultans of the Ajuran Sultanate, mogadishan coins were in widespread circulation. Pieces have been found as far away as the present-day United Arab Emirates, over the course of three archaeological expeditions in Warsheikh between 1920 and 1921, Enrico Cerulli also uncovered coins from the medieval Sultans of Mogadishu. They were deposited in the Scuola Orientale of the University of Rome, according to Cerulli, similar coins were found in the village of Mos, located about 14 km to Warsheikhs northwest. Freeman-Grenville also record another discovery of ancient coins in the latter town, during excavation in Iraq in 1971, a copper piece was discovered baring the name of Sultan of Mogadishu Ali ibn Yusuf. Bronze coins belonging to the Sultans of Mogadishu have also found at Belid near Salalah in Dhofar. Somali aristocratic and court titles Julfar, an Arabian Port and its Settlement and Far Eastern Ceramic Trade from the 14th to the 18th Centuries. By John Hansman, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland -1985
Mogadishu currency
–
Sultanate of Mogadishu currency.
9.
Somalia
–
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, Somalia has the longest coastline on Africas mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with monsoon winds. Somalia has an population of around 12.3 million. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in the southern regions, the official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afroasiatic family. Most people in the country are Muslim, with the majority being Sunni, in antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre. It is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt, during the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuran Empire, the Adal Sultanate, the Warsangali Sultanate, and the Geledi Sultanate. The toponym Somalia was coined by the Italian explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, Italian occupation lasted until 1941, yielding to British military administration. British Somaliland would remain a protectorate, while Italian Somaliland in 1949 became a United Nations Trusteeship under Italian administration, in 1960, the two regions united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government. The Supreme Revolutionary Council seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic, led by Mohamed Siad Barre, this government later collapsed in 1991 as the Somali Civil War broke out. Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum, during this period, due to the absence of a central government, Somalia was a failed state, and residents returned to customary and religious law in most regions. A few autonomous regions, including the Somaliland and Puntland administrations emerged in the north, the early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations. The Transitional National Government was established in 2000, followed by the formation of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004, in 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nations southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union. The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups such as Al-Shabaab, by mid-2012, the insurgents had lost most of the territory that they had seized. In 2011–2012, a political process providing benchmarks for the establishment of permanent democratic institutions was launched, within this administrative framework a new provisional constitution was passed in August 2012, which reformed Somalia as a federation. Somalia has maintained an informal economy, mainly based on livestock, remittances from Somalis working abroad, Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BCE
Somalia
–
Neolithic rock art at the
Laas Geel complex depicting a long-horned cow
Somalia
Somalia
–
The
Silk Road extending from China to southern Europe, Arabia, Somalia, Egypt, Persia, India, and Java
Somalia
–
Queen Ati, wife of King Perahu of Punt, depicted on Pharaoh
Hatshepsut 's temple at
Deir el-Bahri.
10.
Arabic language
–
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
Arabic language
–
The Galland Manuscript of
One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century
Arabic language
–
al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (
Naskh script)
Arabic language
–
Bilingual traffic sign in
Qatar.
Arabic language
–
Examples of how the Arabic root and form system works.
11.
History of somalia
–
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Somalia was an important centre for commerce with the rest of the ancient world and this occupation lasted until 1941 when it was replaced by a British military administration. On 1 July 1960, the two regions united as planned to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government, the Somali National Assembly, headed by Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf, approved the act uniting the former Italian Somaliland with British Somaliland, establishing the Republic of Somalia. Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic, when the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BC. According to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the familys proposed urheimat in the Nile Valley, other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there. The Laas Geel complex on the outskirts of Hargeisa in northwestern Somalia dates back around 5,000 years, other cave paintings are found in the northern Dhambalin region, which feature one of the earliest known depictions of a hunter on horseback. The rock art is in the distinctive Ethiopian-Arabian style, dated to 1000 to 3000 BCE, additionally, between the towns of Las Khorey and El Ayo in northern Somalia lies Karinhegane, the site of numerous cave paintings of real and mythical animals. Each painting has an inscription below it, which collectively have been estimated to be around 2,500 years old, Ancient pyramidical structures, mausoleums, ruined cities and stone walls found in Somalia are evidence of an old sophisticated civilization that once thrived in the Somali peninsula. This supports the hypothesis of Somalia and/or the adjacent Horn territories corresponding with the ancient Land of Punt. An Ancient Egyptian expedition sent to Punt by the 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut is recorded on the reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, during the reign of the Puntite King Parahu. Ancient Somalis domesticated the camel somewhere between the millennium and second millennium BCE from where it spread to Ancient Egypt and North Africa. They used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo, however, Indian merchants continued to trade in the port cities of the Somali peninsula, which was free from Roman interference. For centuries, the Indian merchants brought large quantities of cinnamon from Sri Lanka and this is said to have been the best kept secret of the Somali and Gulf Arab merchants in their trade with the Roman and Greek world. The Romans and Greeks believed the source of cinnamon to have been the Somali peninsula, but in reality, Islam was introduced to the northern Somali coast early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra. Zeilas two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to the 7th century, and is the oldest mosque in the city, in the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard. He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city, according to I. M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties, who also ruled over the similarly-established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the littoral Benadir region to the south. Adals history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia, the Sultanate of Mogadishus first dynasty was established by Sultan Fakr ad-Din. This ruling house was succeeded by the Muzaffar dynasty, and the kingdom subsequently became closely linked with the powerful Somali Ajuran Sultanate, for many years, Mogadishu stood as the pre-eminent city in the بلاد البربر, Bilad-al-Barbar, which was the medieval Arab term for the Somali coast
History of somalia
–
The
Silk Road extending from southern
Europe through
Arabia, Somalia,
Egypt,
Persia,
India and
Java until it reaches
China.
History of somalia
–
Ruins of the
Sultanate of Adal in
Zeila, Somalia.
12.
Horn of Africa
–
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in Northeast Africa. It juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, the area is the easternmost projection of the African continent. The Horn of Africa denotes the region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and it covers approximately 2,000,000 km2 and is inhabited by roughly 115 million people. Regional studies on the Horn of Africa are carried out, among others, shell middens 125,000 years old have been found in Eritrea, indicating the diet of early humans included seafood obtained by beachcombing. According to both genetic and fossil evidence, archaic Homo sapiens evolved to modern humans solely in Africa between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. Evidence to support the theory that recent modern humans originated in East Africa is not conclusive, today at the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, the Red Sea is about 12 miles wide, but 50,000 years ago it was much narrower and sea levels were 70 meters lower. Though the straits were never closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached using simple rafts. It has been estimated that from a population of 2,000 to 5,000 individuals in Africa, according to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic era from the familys proposed urheimat in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, genetic analysis also indicates that, beginning in the pre-agricultural period, settlers from the Near East founded communities in Northeast Africa. These early settlements eventually gave rise to the Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations in the Horn, dʿmt was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, which existed during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. With its capital at Yeha, the kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew millet, the Kingdom of Aksum was an ancient state located in the highlands of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, which thrived between the 1st and 7th centuries CE. A major player in the commerce between the Roman Empire and Ancient India, Aksums rulers facilitated trade by minting their own currency. Under Ezana, the kingdom of Aksum became the first major empire to adopt Christianity, northern Somalia was an important link in the Horn, connecting the regions commerce with the rest of the ancient world. Somali sailors and merchants were the suppliers of frankincense, myrrh and spices. The Romans consequently began to refer to the region as Regio Aromatica, in the classical era, several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone, Mosylon and Malao also competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the rich Indo-Greco-Roman trade. The city of Mogadishu came to be known as the City of Islam, the Sultanate of Showa, established in 896, was one of the oldest local Muslim states. It was centered in the former Shewa province in central Ethiopia, the polity was succeeded by the Sultanate of Ifat around 1285. Ifat was governed from its capital at Zeila in northern Somalia and was the easternmost district of the former Shewa Sultanate, the Adal Sultanate was a medieval multi-ethnic Muslim state centered in the Horn region
Horn of Africa
–
Ancient trading centers in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula according to the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
Horn of Africa
–
Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa
–
Ezana 's
obelisk at
Aksum, symbol of the
Aksumite civilization
Horn of Africa
–
Ruins of the
Sultanate of Adal in
Zeila
13.
Ajuran Sultanate
–
The Ajuran Sultanate, also spelled Ajuuraan Sultanate, and often simply as Ajuran, was a Somali Muslim sultanate that ruled over large parts of the Horn of Africa in the Middle Ages. The sultanate left an architectural legacy, being one of the major medieval Somali powers engaged in castle. During the Ajuran period, many regions and people in the part of the Horn of Africa converted to Islam because of the theocratic nature of the government. The royal family, the House of Garen, expanded its territories and established its rule through a skillful combination of warfare. As an hydraulic empire, the Ajuran monopolized the water resources of the Shebelle, through hydraulic engineering, it also constructed many of the limestone wells and cisterns of the state that are still operative and in use today. The rulers developed new systems for agriculture and taxation, which continued to be used in parts of the Horn of Africa as late as the 19th century, the Ajuran Sultanates sphere of influence in the Horn of Africa was one of the largest in the region. The sultanate covered much of southern Somalia, with its domain extending from Mareeg in the north, to Qelafo in the west, the House of Garen was the ruling hereditary dynasty of the Ajuran Sultanate. Its origin lies in the Garen Kingdom that during the 13th century ruled parts of the Ogaden, through their genealogical Baraka, which came from the saint Balad, the Garen rulers claimed supremacy and religious legitimacy over other groups in the Horn of Africa. Balads ancestors are said to have come from the northern region of Barbara. The Ajuran nobility used many of the typical Somali aristocratic and court titles and these leaders were the sultanates highest authority, and counted multiple Sultans, Emirs, and Kings as clients or vassals. The Garen rulers also had seasonal palaces in Mareeg, Qelafo and Merca, other important cities in the Sultanate were Mogadishu and Barawa. The state religion was Islam, and thus law was based on Sharia, large wells made out of limestone were constructed throughout the state, which attracted Somali and Oromo nomads with their livestock. The centralized regulations of the wells made it easier for the nomads to settle disputes by taking their queries to government officials who would act as mediators, long distance caravan trade, a long-time practice in the Horn of Africa, continued unchanged in Ajuran times. Today, numerous ruined and abandoned towns throughout the interior of Somalia, with the centralized supervision of the Ajuran, farms in Afgooye, Kismayo and other areas in the Jubba and Shabelle valleys increased their productivity. This irrigation system was supported by numerous dikes and dams, to determine the average size of a farm, a land measurement system was also invented with moos, taraab and guldeed being the terms used. The State collected tribute from the farmers in the form of harvested products like durra, sorghum and bun, the collecting of tribute was done by a wazir. Luxury goods imported from foreign lands were presented as gifts to the Garen rulers by the coastal sultans of the state. The rulers would also claim a portion of the brides wealth
Ajuran Sultanate
–
The city of
Merca was one of several prominent
administrative centers of the Ajurans.
Ajuran Sultanate
–
The
Jubba River.
Ajuran Sultanate
–
Farms of
Afgooye.
Ajuran Sultanate
–
Mogadishan currency.
14.
Gold
–
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, dense, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold also dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, aurum, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
Gold
–
Gold, 79 Au
Gold
–
Moche gold necklace depicting feline heads.
Larco Museum Collection. Lima-Peru
Gold
–
Mirror for the future
James Webb Space Telescope coated in gold to reflect infrared light
Gold
–
The
world's largest gold bar has a mass of 250 kg.
Toi museum,
Japan.
15.
Adal Sultanate
–
The Adal Sultanate or Kingdom of Adal was a multi-ethnic medieval Muslim state located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din II after the fall of Sultanate of Ifat, the kingdom flourished from around 1415 to 1577. The sultanate and state was established by the inhabitants of the Harar Plateau, at its height, the polity controlled most of the territory in the Horn region immediately east of Abyssinia. The origins of the name Adal are obscure, but al-Umari mentions it with Shoa and Zeila as being an integral part of the Muslim confederation led by Ifat. In the thirteenth century, Arab writer, Al Dimashqi, refers to the Adal Sultanates capital, Zeila, the modern Awdal region, which was part of the Adal Sultanate, bears the kingdoms name. According to Leo Africanus, the Adal Sultanates realm encompassed the area between the Bab el Mandeb and Cape Guardafui. It was thus flanked to the south by the Mogadishu Sultanate, islam was introduced to the Horn region early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra. Zeilas two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to about the 7th century, and is the oldest mosque in the city, in the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard. He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city, the polity was governed by local dynasties established by the Adelites. Adals history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia, Adal originally had its capital in the port city of Zeila, situated in the northwestern Awdal region. The polity at the time was an Emirate in the larger Ifat Sultanate ruled by the Walashma dynasty, in 1332, the King of Adal was slain in a military campaign aimed at halting Amda Seyons march toward Zeila. When the last Sultan of Ifat, Saad ad-Din II, was killed by Dawit I of Ethiopia at the port city of Zeila in 1410, his children escaped to Yemen. During this period, Adal emerged as a center of Muslim resistance against the expanding Christian Abyssinian kingdom, after 1468, a new breed of rulers emerged on the Adal political scene. The dissidents opposed Walashma rule owing to a treaty that Sultan Muhammad ibn Badlay had signed with Emperor Baeda Maryam of Ethiopia and this was done to achieve peace in the region, though tribute was never sent. Adals Emirs, who administered the provinces, interpreted the agreement as a betrayal of their independence, the main leader of this opposition was the Emir of Zeila, the Sultanates richest province. As such, he was expected to pay the highest share of the tribute to be given to the Abyssinian Emperor. Emir Laday Usman subsequently marched to Dakkar and seized power in 1471, however, Usman did not dismiss the Sultan from office, but instead gave him a ceremonial position while retaining the real power for himself. Adal now came under the leadership of a powerful Emir who governed from the palace of a nominal Sultan
Adal Sultanate
–
Ruins of the Adal Sultanate in
Zeila,
Somalia.
Adal Sultanate
–
combination of three banners used by Ahmad al-Ghazi
Adal Sultanate
–
The Sultan of Adal (right) and his troops battling King
Yagbea-Sion and his men. From Le Livre des Merveilles, 15th century.
Adal Sultanate
–
Ruins of the Sultanate of Adal in Zeila.
16.
Somali aristocratic and court titles
–
This is a list of Somali aristocratic and court titles that were historically used by the Somali peoples various sultanates, kingdoms and empires. Below is a list of the court titles historically retained by the Somali monarchies and aristocracies. Suldaan, From the Arabic for Sultan or English Chief, very common title for rulers in the pre-colonial and colonial periods, used throughout the Somali territories. The title was employed by the leaders of the influential Ajuran Sultanate. Ughaz, Authentic Somali term for Sultan, the Gadabuursi in particular is the only clan with a longstanding tradition of Sultan. The Gadabursi gave their sultan the title of Ughaz, however, in practice, it is the primus inter pares or King of Kings. The title is derived from one of the Afro-Asiatic Somali language terms for belt. According to Kobishchanow, Boqor is also related to the style Paqar, various Somali honorifics and designations have Boqor as their root. The latter include Boqortooyo, signifying monarchy, kingdom or empire, Boqornimo, meaning royalty, nobility or dignitaries, Historically, the title was mainly used by rulers in the northeastern Puntland region of Somalia. The most prominent Boqor in recent times was Osman Mahamuud, who governed the Majeerteen Sultanate during its 19th-century heyday, also used among the Gadabuursi as the law of the King and the 100 men. Gerad/Garad, Often employed interchangeably with Suldaan to denote a Sultan, etymologically signifies wisdom, mind or understanding. According to Basset, the title corresponds with the honorific Al-Jaraad, Gerad was historically employed throughout northern Somalia. Notable Gerads include Gerad Dhidhin, the founder of the Warsangali Sultanate, and Gerad Lado, imam, Denotes the Head of State. Style was used especially by rulers in the Sultanate of Adal, notable Imams include Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, also known as Ahmed Gurey or Gran, who led a military campaign during the Middle Ages known as the Conquest of Abyssinia. Emir, Used by leaders in the Adal Sultanate, also employed by commanders in the Ajuran Sultanates armed forces and navy. Prominent Emirs include Nur ibn Mujahid, the Emir of Harar who built the wall around the city. Honorific set aside for the son of the King or Sultan. Notable Princes include Ali Yusuf Kenadid, the son and heir of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo, ina Boqor, Alternate court style for the Prince
Somali aristocratic and court titles
–
Mohamoud Ali Shire, the 26th Suldaan (
Sultan) of the
Warsangali Sultanate.
Somali aristocratic and court titles
–
Amiir (
Prince)
Ali Yusuf Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo.
Somali aristocratic and court titles
–
Sheikh
Abadir Umar Ar-Rida, an early Muslim leader.
17.
Coral
–
Corals are marine invertebrates in the class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in colonies of many identical individual polyps. The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans, a coral group is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is an animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening, an exoskeleton is excreted near the base. Over many generations, the colony creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species. Individual heads grow by reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning, polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon and these are commonly known as zooxanthellae and the corals that contain them are zooxanthellate corals. Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear, shallow water, other corals do not rely on zooxanthellae and can live in much deeper water, with the cold-water genus Lophelia surviving as deep as 3,000 metres. Some have been found on the Darwin Mounds, north-west of Cape Wrath, Corals have also been found as far north as off the coast of Washington State and the Aleutian Islands. In his Scala Naturae, Aristotle classified corals as zoophyta, animals that had characteristics of plants and were therefore hypothetically in between animals and plants, the Persian polymath Al-Biruni classified sponges and corals as animals, arguing that they respond to touch. The phylogeny of Anthozoans is not clearly understood and a number of different models have been proposed, within the Hexacorallia, the sea anemones, coral anemones and stony corals may constitute a monophyletic grouping united by their eight-fold symmetry and cnidocyte trait. The Octocorallia appears to be monophyletic, and primitive members of this group may have been stolonate, the cladogram presented here comes from a 2014 study by Stampar et al. which was based on the divergence of mitochondrial DNA within the group and on nuclear markers. Corals are classified in the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria and they are divided into three subclasses, Hexacorallia, Octocorallia, and Ceriantharia. The Hexacorallia include the stony corals, the sea anemones and the zoanthids and these groups have polyps that generally have 6-fold symmetry. The Octocorallia include blue coral, soft corals, sea pens and these groups have polyps with 8-fold symmetry, each polyp having eight tentacles and eight mesenteries. Fire corals are not true corals, being in the order Anthomedusa of the class Hydrozoa, Corals are sessile animals in the class Anthozoa and differ from most other cnidarians in not having a medusa stage in their life cycle. The body unit of the animal is a polyp, most corals are colonial, the initial polyp budding to produce another and the colony gradually developing from this small start
Coral
–
Coral
Coral
–
Anatomy of a stony coral polyp
Coral
–
Montastraea cavernosa polyps with tentacles extended
Coral
–
A male
great star coral, Montastraea cavernosa, releasing sperm into the water.
18.
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
–
The text has been ascribed to different dates between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE, but a mid-1st-century date is now the most commonly accepted. The Erythraean Sea, or in modern spelling, Eritrean Sea is presently a Greek name for the Red Sea, to the ancient Greeks it included the Indian Ocean, the work consists of 66 chapters, most of them about the length of a long paragraph in English. For instance, the short Chapter 9 reads in its entirety, the imports to this are as aforesaid, and from it likewise are exported the same goods, and fragrant gum called mokrotou. The inhabitants who trade here are more peaceful, in many cases, the description of places is sufficiently accurate to identify their present locations, for others, there is considerable debate. The description of the Indian coast mentions the Ganges River clearly, yet after that is somewhat garbled, the Periplus says that a direct sailing route from the Red Sea to the Indian peninsula across the open ocean was discovered by Hippalus. Many trade goods are mentioned in the Periplus, but some of the words naming trade goods are seen nowhere else in ancient literature, for example, one trade good mentioned is lakkos chromatinos. The name lakkos appears nowhere else in ancient Greek or Roman literature, some other named trade goods remain obscure. In the 10th-century manuscript, the text is attributed to Arrian, the Periplus was edited by Sigmund Gelen and first published in a modern edition by Hieronymus Froben in 1533. One historical analysis, published by Schoff in 1912, narrowed the date of the text to 60 CE. Schoff additionally provides an analysis as to the texts original authorship, and arrives at the conclusion that the author must have been a Greek in Egypt. By Schoffs calculations, this would have been during the time of Tiberius Claudius Balbilus, john Hill maintains that the Periplus can now be confidently dated to between 40 and 70 AD and, probably, between AD40 and 50. Because of the absence of any account of the journey up the Nile and across the desert from Coptos, ships from Himyar regularly traveled the East African coast. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes the empire of Himyar and Saba, regrouped under a single ruler Charibael. The Frankincense kingdom is described further east along the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, the ruler of this kingdom is named Eleazus, or Eleazar, thought to correspond to King Iliazz Yalit I,27. Inland from this lies the metropolis Sabbatha, in which the King lives. All the frankincense produced in the country is brought by camels to that place to be stored, and to Cana on rafts held up by inflated skins after the manner of the country, and in boats. And this place has a trade also with the ports, with Barygaza and Scythia and Ommana. Ras Hafun in northern Somalia is believed to be the location of the ancient trade center of Opone, Ancient Egyptian, Roman and Persian Gulf pottery has been recovered from the site by an archaeological team from the University of Michigan
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
–
17th century map depicting the locations of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
–
Coin of the
Himyarite Kingdom, southern coast of the
Arabian Peninsula, in which stopped ships between Egypt and India passed. This is an imitation of a coin of
Augustus. 1st Century CE.
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
–
Coins of king
Endybis, 227-235 CE.
British Museum. The left one reads in Greek "AΧWMITW BACIΛEYC", "King of Axum". The right one reads in Greek: ΕΝΔΥΒΙC ΒΑCΙΛΕΥC, "King Endybis".
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
–
The Periplus explains that coins of the
Indo-Greek king
Menander I were current in Barigaza.
19.
Somali people
–
Somalis are an ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family, ethnic Somalis number around 16-20 million and are principally concentrated in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. Expatriate Somalis are also found in parts of the Middle East, North America, Oceania, Samaale, the oldest common ancestor of several Somali clans, is generally regarded as the source of the ethnonym Somali. The name Somali is, in turn, held to be derived from the words soo and maal, another plausible etymology proposes that the term Somali is derived from the Arabic for wealthy, again referring to Somali riches in livestock. The first clear reference of the sobriquet Somali, however. Simur was also an ancient Harari alias for the Somali people, Ancient rock paintings, which date back 5000 years, have been found in the northern part of Somalia, these depict early life in the territory. In other places, such as the northern Dhambalin region, a depiction of a man on a horse is postulated as being one of the earliest known examples of a mounted huntsman. Inscriptions have been found many of the rock paintings. During the Stone age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here with their industries and factories. The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to 4th millennium BC. The stone implements from the Jalelo site in northern Somalia are said to be the most important link in evidence of the universality in palaeolithic times between the East and the West. In antiquity, the ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the Horn of Africa connecting the regions commerce with the rest of the ancient world. According to most scholars, the ancient Land of Punt and its inhabitants formed part of the ethnogenesis of the Somali people, the ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut. The pyramidal structures, temples and ancient houses of dressed stone littered around Somalia are said to date from this period, the city of Mogadishu came to be known as the City of Islam, and controlled the East African gold trade for several centuries. The Sultanate of Ifat, led by the Walashma dynasty with its capital at Zeila, ruled parts of what is now eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti. The historian al-Umari records that Ifat was situated near the Red Sea coast and its army numbered 15,000 horsemen and 20,000 foot soldiers. Al-Umari also credits Ifat with seven cities, Belqulzar, Kuljura, Shimi, Shewa, Adal, Jamme. The Harla, an early Hamitic group of tall stature who inhabited parts of Somalia, Tchertcher and other areas in the Horn and these masons are believed to have been ancestral to the Somalis
Somali people
–
1st row
Muhammad Abdullah Hassan Fatima Jibrell Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Asli Hassan Abade 2nd row
Hanan Ibrahim Hadrawi Iman Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf 3rd row
Aar Maanta Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shire Osman Yusuf Kenadid Nuruddin Farah
Somali people
–
Ruins of the
Adal Sultanate in
Zeila, a kingdom led in the 16th century by Imam
Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi (Ahmed Gurey).
Somali people
–
The
Citadel of
Gondershe was an important site in the medieval
Ajuran Empire.
Somali people
–
Mohamoud Ali Shire, a prominent Somali anti-imperialist leader and the 26th
Sultan of the
Warsangali Sultanate.
20.
Indian Ocean
–
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
Indian Ocean
–
The economically important
Silk Road (red) and spice
trade routes (blue) were blocked by the
Ottoman Empire in ca. 1453 with the fall of the
Byzantine Empire. This spurred exploration, and a new sea route around Africa was found, triggering the
Age of Discovery.
Indian Ocean
–
Extent of the Indian Ocean according to the
CIA World Factbook
Indian Ocean
–
British heavy cruisers
Dorsetshire and
Cornwall under Japanese air attack and heavily damaged on 5 April 1942
Indian Ocean
–
A
dhow off the coast of Kenya
21.
Muslim
–
A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco
Muslim
–
Afghan Muslims praying inside
Gardens of Babur in
Kabul,
Afghanistan.
Muslim
–
Famous
Muslim converts from various fields.
22.
Arabian Peninsula
–
The Arabian Peninsula, simplified Arabia is a peninsula of Western Asia situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian plate. From a geological perspective, it is considered a subcontinent of Asia and it is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km2. The Arabian Peninsula consists of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Middle East and the Arab world due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Before the modern era, it was divided into four regions, Hejaz, Najd, Southern Arabia. Hejaz and Najd make up most of Saudi Arabia, Southern Arabia consists of Yemen and some parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Eastern Arabia consists of the coastal strip of the Persian Gulf. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest there are mountain ranges, harrat ash Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from the northwestern Arabian Peninsula into Jordan and southern Syria. The peninsulas constituent countries are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the island nation of Bahrain lies off the east coast of the peninsula. Six countries form the Gulf Cooperation Council, however, this is a disputed term. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the live in Saudi Arabia. The peninsula contains the worlds largest reserves of oil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate - as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry, the four smallest states, which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the worlds most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936. Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Arabia Haplogroup J is the most abundant component in the Arabian peninsula and its two main subclades, show opposite latitudinal gradients in the Middle East
Arabian Peninsula
–
A map of the Arabian peninsula made in 1720 by the German publisher
Christoph Weigel
Arabian Peninsula
–
Arabia
Arabian Peninsula
–
Africa, Arabian subcontinent (Asia), and Eurasia
Arabian Peninsula
–
A caravan crossing the
ad-Dahna Desert in central Saudi Arabia
23.
Commerce
–
Commerce is the activity of buying and selling of goods and services, especially on a large scale. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural and technological systems that are in operation in any country or internationally, commerce is derived from the Latin commercium, from cum, together, and merx, merchandise. Some commentators trace the origins of commerce to the start of transaction in prehistoric times. Apart from traditional self-sufficiency, trading became a facility of prehistoric people. Historian Peter Watson and Ramesh Manickam dates the history of commerce from circa 150,000 years ago. In historic times, the introduction of currency as a money, facilitated a wider exchange of goods. Numismatists have collections of these tokens, which include coins from some Ancient World large-scale societies. For example, if a man who makes pots for a living needs a new house, he/she may wish to hire someone to build it for him/her. But he/she cannot make an equivalent number of pots to equal this service done for him/her, because if the builder could build the house. During the Middle Ages, commerce developed in Europe by trading luxury goods at trade fairs, wealth became converted into movable wealth or capital. Banking systems developed where money on account was transferred across national boundaries, hand to hand markets became a feature of town life, and were regulated by town authorities. Today commerce includes as a subset a complex system of companies which try to maximize their profits by offering products and services to the market at the lowest production cost
Commerce
–
The
caduceus has been used today as the symbol of commerce with which
Mercury has traditionally been associated.
24.
Shah
–
Shah is a title given to the emperors, kings, princes and lords of Iran. In Iran the title was used, rather than King in the European sense. The full, Old Persian title of the Achaemenid rulers of the First Persian Empire was Xšāyathiya Xšāyathiyānām or Šāhe Šāhān and this word is commonly confused with the unrelated and distinct Indian surname Shah, which is derived from the Sanskrit Sadhu or Sahu, meaning gentleman. Šāh, or Šāhanšāh to use the term, was the title of the Persian emperors. While the Ottoman Sultans never styled themselves as Shah, but rather Sultan, their male offspring received the title of Şehzade, or prince. The full title of the Achaemenid rulers was Xšāyaθiya Xšāyaθiyānām, literally King of Kings in Old Persian, corresponding to Middle Persian Šāhān Šāh, in Greek, this phrase was translated as βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλέων, King of Kings, equivalent to Emperor. Both terms were often shortened to their roots shah and basileus, in Western languages, Shah is often used as an imprecise rendering of Šāhanšāh. The term was first recorded in English in 1564 as a title for the King of Persia, for a long time, Europeans thought of Shah as a particular royal title rather than an imperial one, although the monarchs of Persia regarded themselves as emperors of the Persian Empire. In the twentieth century, the Shah of Persia, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, officially adopted the title شاهنشاه Šāhanšāh and, in western languages and he also styled his wife شهبانو Shahbānu. Iran no longer had a shah after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, from the reign of Ashot III, the Bagratid kings of Armenia used the title shahanshah, meaning king of kings. The title padishah was adopted from the Iranians by the Ottomans and by other monarchs claiming imperial rank. Another subsidiary style of the Ottoman and Mughal rulers was Shah-i-Alam Panah, meaning King, the Shah-Armens, used the title Shāh-i Arman. Georgian title mepetmepe was also inspired by the shahanshah title, however the precise full styles can differ in the court traditions of each shahs kingdom. This title was given to the princes of the Ottoman Empire and was used by the princes of the Mughal Empire in India. Thus, in Oudh, only sons of the sovereign shah bahadur were by birth-right styled Shahzada Mirza Bahadur, though this style could also be extended to individual grandsons, other male descendants of the sovereign in the male line were merely styled Mirza or Mirza. This could even apply to non-Muslim dynasties, for example, the younger sons of the ruling Sikh maharaja of Punjab were styled Shahzada Singh Bahadur. Shahbanu, Persian term using the word shah and the Persian suffix -banu, Empress, in modern times, shahdokht is also another term derived from shah using the Persian patronymic suffix -dokht daughter, female descendant, to address the Princess of the imperial households. Shahpur also been derived from using the archaic Persian suffix -pur son, male descendant
Shah
–
Royal and noble ranks in Iran, Turkey, Caucasus, Pakistan and Afghanistan
25.
Persian people
–
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. They share a cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the ancient Iranian population who entered modern-day Iran by the early 10th century BC. The English term Persian derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís, in the Bible, it is referred to as Parás —sometimes Paras uMadai —within the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya. Although Persis was originally one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term were adopted through Greek sources, thus, in the Western world, the term Persian came to refer to all inhabitants of the country. 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi, Dari and Azari as dialects of the Persian language, in 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta, referred to the people of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of Persians. Lady Mary Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, describes Persians, Kurds and Leks to identify themselves as descendants of the ancient Persians. On March 21,1935, the king of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran. However, the term Persian is still used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent. The earliest known written record attributed to the Persians is from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the inscription mentions Parsua as a tribal chiefdom in modern-day western Iran. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the Iranian population that, in the early 10th century BC. They were initially dominated by the Assyrians for much of the first three centuries after arriving in the region, however, they played a role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes, another branch of population, founded the unified empire of Media as the regions dominant cultural and political power in c.625 BC. Meanwhile, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids formed a state to the central Median power. In c.552 BC, the Achaemenids began a revolution which led to the conquest of the empire by Cyrus II in c.550 BC. They spread their influence to the rest of what is called the Iranian Plateau, at its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the creation of Pasargadae and its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, until the Parthian era, the Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, however, it did not yet have a political import
Persian people
–
Costumes of an ancient Persian noblemen and soldiers.
Persian people
–
Geographic distribution of modern Iranian languages: Modern Persian (green) and other related Persian (some descendant of Middle Persian like Luri in Red) also shown in the map
Persian people
–
Greek
hoplite and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient
kylix, 5th century BC
Persian people
–
Tajiks in
Samarkand,
Uzbekistan
26.
Berbers
–
Berbers or Amazighen are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. They are distributed in an area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, historically, they spoke Berber languages, which together form the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. The majority of Berbers are predominantly Sunni Muslim, the Berber identity is usually wider than language and ethnicity, and encompasses the entire history and geography of North Africa. Berbers are not an entirely homogeneous ethnicity and they encompass a range of phenotypes, societies and ancestries, the unifying forces for the Berber people may be their shared language, or a collective identification with Berber heritage and history. There are some twenty-five to thirty million Berber speakers in North Africa, the number of ethnic Berbers is far greater, as a large part of the Berbers have acquired other languages over the course of many decades or centuries, and no longer speak Berber today. The majority of North Africas population is believed to be Berber in origin, Berbers call themselves some variant of the word i-Mazigh-en, possibly meaning free people or noble men. The name likely had its ancient parallel in the Roman and Greek names for Berbers, dihya or Kahina was a religious and military leader who led a fierce Berber resistance against the Arab-Muslim expansion in Northwest Africa. Kusaila was a leader of the Awraba tribe of the Berber people. A history by a Roman consul in Africa made the first reference of the barbarian to describe Numidia. The use of the term Berber spread in the following the arrival of the Vandals during their major invasions. The English term was introduced in the 19th century, replacing the earlier Barbary, for the historian Abraham Isaac Laredo the name Amazigh could be derived from the name of the ancestor Mezeg which is the translation of biblical ancestor Dedan son of Sheba in the Targum. According to Leo Africanus, Amazigh meant free man, though this has been disputed, further, it also has a cognate in the Tuareg word Amajegh, meaning noble. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines mentioned various tribes with similar names living in Greater Libya in the areas where Berbers were later found, later tribal names differ from the classical sources, but are probably still related to the modern Amazigh. The Meshwesh tribe among them represents the first thus identified from the field, all those names are similar and perhaps foreign renditions of the name used by the Berbers in general for themselves, Imazighen. The Maghreb region in northwestern Africa is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers from at least 10,000 BC, local cave paintings, which have been dated to twelve millennia before present, have been found in the Tassili nAjjer region of southern Algeria. Other rock art has been observed in Tadrart Acacus in the Libyan desert, a Neolithic society, marked by domestication and subsistence agriculture, developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean region of northern Africa between 6000 and 2000 BC. This type of life, richly depicted in the Tassili nAjjer cave paintings of southeastern Algeria, prehistorical Tifinagh scripts were also found in the Oran region. During the pre-Roman era, several independent states existed before the king Masinissa unified the people of Numidia
Berbers
–
Hoggar painting
Berbers
Berbers
–
Ancient
Libu Libyan. Bronze inlaid with gold and silver, during the reign of
Rameses II,
Louvre Museum
Berbers
–
Heracles wrestling with the Libyan giant
Antaeus
27.
Syria
–
Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
Syria
–
Female figurine, 5000 BC.
Ancient Orient Museum.
Syria
–
Flag
Syria
–
God head, the kingdom of
Yamhad (c. 1600 BC)
Syria
–
Ebla royal palace c. 2400 BC
28.
Morocco
–
Morocco, officially known as the Kingdom of Morocco, is a sovereign country located in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Geographically, Morocco is characterized by a mountainous interior, large tracts of desert. Morocco has a population of over 33.8 million and an area of 446,550 km2 and its capital is Rabat, and the largest city is Casablanca. Other major cities include Marrakesh, Tangier, Tetouan, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, a historically prominent regional power, Morocco has a history of independence not shared by its neighbours. Marinid and Saadi dynasties continued the struggle against foreign domination, the Alaouite dynasty, the current ruling dynasty, seized power in 1666. In 1912 Morocco was divided into French and Spanish protectorates, with a zone in Tangier. Moroccan culture is a blend of Arab, indigenous Berber, Sub-Saharan African, Morocco claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces. Morocco annexed the territory in 1975, leading to a war with indigenous forces until a cease-fire in 1991. Peace processes have thus far failed to break the political deadlock, Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive and legislative powers, especially over the military, foreign policy, the king can issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. He can also dissolve the parliament after consulting the Prime Minister, Moroccos predominant religion is Islam, and the official languages are Arabic and Tamazight. The Moroccan dialect, referred to as Darija, and French are also widely spoken, Morocco is a member of the Arab League, the Union for the Mediterranean, and the African Union. It has the fifth largest economy of Africa, the full Arabic name al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyyah translates to Kingdom of the West, although the West in Arabic is الغرب Al-Gharb. The basis of Moroccos English name is Marrakesh, its capital under the Almoravid dynasty, the origin of the name Marrakesh is disputed, but is most likely from the Berber words amur akush or Land of God. The modern Berber name for Marrakesh is Mṛṛakc, in Turkish, Morocco is known as Fas, a name derived from its ancient capital of Fes. The English name Morocco is an anglicisation of the Spanish Marruecos, the area of present-day Morocco has been inhabited since Paleolithic times, sometime between 190,000 and 90,000 BC. During the Upper Paleolithic, the Maghreb was more fertile than it is today, twenty-two thousand years ago, the Aterian was succeeded by the Iberomaurusian culture, which shared similarities with Iberian cultures. Skeletal similarities have been suggested between the Iberomaurusian Mechta-Afalou burials and European Cro-Magnon remains, the Iberomaurusian was succeeded by the Beaker culture in Morocco
Morocco
–
Berber Roman King
Ptolemy of Mauretania.
Morocco
–
Flag
Morocco
–
Roman mosaic of Diana in
Volubilis.
Morocco
–
Morocco, Safi ceramic vessel Jobbana
29.
Ibn Battuta
–
He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in his Travels. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands and his journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Middle East, India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. He claimed descent from a Berber tribe known as the Lawata, as a young man he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki madhhab, the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. Maliki Muslims requested Ibn Battuta serve as their religious judge as he was from an area where it was practiced. In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca and he would not see Morocco again for twenty-four years. So I braced my resolution to quit my dear ones, female and male and my parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. He travelled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast across the sultanates of Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid, the route took him through Tlemcen, Béjaïa, and then Tunis, where he stayed for two months. For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed and he took a bride in the town of Sfax, the first in a series of marriages that would feature in his travels. In the early spring of 1326, after a journey of over 3,500 km, Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Alexandria and he met two ascetic pious men in Alexandria. One was Sheikh Burhanuddin who is supposed to have foretold the destiny of Ibn Battuta as a world traveller saying It seems to me that you are fond of foreign travel and you will visit my brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin in Sind and Burhanuddin in China. Another pious man Sheikh Murshidi interpreted the meaning of a dream of Ibn Battuta that he was meant to be a world traveller and he spent several weeks visiting sites in the area, and then headed inland to Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate and an important city. After spending about a month in Cairo, he embarked on the first of many detours within the safety of Mamluk territory. Of the three routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-travelled, which involved a journey up the Nile valley. Upon approaching the town, however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back, Ibn Battuta returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus. During his first trip he had encountered a man who prophesied that he would only reach Mecca by travelling through Syria. Without this help many travellers would be robbed and murdered, after spending the Muslim month of Ramadan in Damascus, he joined a caravan travelling the 1,300 km south to Medina, site of the tomb of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. After four days in the town, he journeyed on to Mecca, rather than returning home, Ibn Battuta instead decided to continue on, choosing as his next destination the Ilkhanate, a Mongol Khanate, to the northeast. On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Mecca, the group headed north to Medina and then, travelling at night, turned northeast across the Najd plateau to Najaf, on a journey that lasted about two weeks
Ibn Battuta
–
A 13th-century book illustration produced in Baghdad by
al-Wasiti showing a group of pilgrims on a
hajj.
Ibn Battuta
–
Tiles representing the
Kaaba, in
Mecca.
Ibn Battuta
–
Ibn Battuta made a brief visit to the Persian-Azari city of
Tabriz in 1327.
Ibn Battuta
–
Sana'a, Yemen
30.
Textile
–
A textile or cloth is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, hemp, Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or felting. The words fabric and cloth are used in textile assembly trades as synonyms for textile, however, there are subtle differences in these terms in specialized usage. Textile refers to any material made of interlacing fibres, a fabric is a material made through weaving, knitting, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further goods. Cloth may be used synonymously with fabric but is often a piece of fabric used for a specific purpose. The word textile is from Latin, from the adjective textilis, meaning woven, from textus, the word cloth derives from the Old English clað, meaning a cloth, woven or felted material to wrap around one, from Proto-Germanic kalithaz. The discovery of dyed flax fibres in a cave in the Republic of Georgia dated to 34,000 BCE suggests textile-like materials were made even in prehistoric times. The production of textiles is a craft whose speed and scale of production has been altered almost beyond recognition by industrialization, however, for the main types of textiles, plain weave, twill, or satin weave, there is little difference between the ancient and modern methods. Textiles have an assortment of uses, the most common of which are for clothing and for such as bags. In the household they are used in carpeting, upholstered furnishings, window shades, towels, coverings for tables, beds, and other flat surfaces, in the workplace they are used in industrial and scientific processes such as filtering. Textiles are used in traditional crafts such as sewing, quilting. Textiles for industrial purposes, and chosen for other than their appearance, are commonly referred to as technical textiles. Technical textiles include textile structures for applications, medical textiles, geotextiles, agrotextiles. In all these applications stringent performance requirements must be met, woven of threads coated with zinc oxide nanowires, laboratory fabric has been shown capable of self-powering nanosystems using vibrations created by everyday actions like wind or body movements. Fashion designers commonly rely on textile designs to set their fashion collections apart from others, armani, the late Gianni Versace, and Emilio Pucci can be easily recognized by their signature print driven designs. Textiles can be made from many materials and these materials come from four main sources, animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic. In the past, all textiles were made from natural fibres, including plant, animal, in the 20th century, these were supplemented by artificial fibres made from petroleum. Textiles are made in various strengths and degrees of durability, from the finest gossamer to the sturdiest canvas, microfibre refers to fibres made of strands thinner than one denier
Textile
–
Sunday textile market on the sidewalks of
Karachi, Pakistan
Textile
–
Simple textile (magnified)
Textile
–
A small fabric shop in
Al-Mukalla, Yemen
Textile
–
Late antique textile,
Egyptian, now in the
Dumbarton Oaks collection
31.
Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
Egypt
–
The
Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the
ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Egypt
–
Flag
Egypt
–
The Greek Ptolemaic queen
Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar,
Caesarion at the
Temple of Dendera.
Egypt
–
The 1803
Cedid Atlas, showing
Ottoman Egypt.
32.
Sultan
–
Sultan is a noble title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning strength, authority, rulership, derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, the dynasty and lands ruled by a sultan are referred to as a sultanate. A feminine form of sultan, used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah, but Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses sultan for imperial lady, because Turkish grammar uses the same words for women and men. However, this styling misconstrues the roles of wives of sultans, in a similar usage, the wife of a German field marshal might be styled Frau Feldmarschall. The female leaders in Muslim history are known as sultanas. Special case in Brunei, the Queen Consort is known as Raja Isteri with suffix Pengiran Anak if the queen consort is a royal princess. Among those modern hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law and these are generally secondary titles, either lofty poetry or with a message, e. g. g. Sultan ul-Mujahidin as champion of jihad, ghaznavid Sultanate Sultans of Great Seljuk Seljuk Sultanate of Rum Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, the Osmanli Elisu Sultanate and a few others. A Sultan ranked below a Khan and this usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative. Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as sultan, but Ottomans themselves used padişah or hünkar to refer to their ruler, the emperors formal title consisted of sultan together with khan. In formal address, the children were also entitled sultan, with imperial princes carrying the title before their given name. Example, Şehzade Sultan Mehmed and Mihrimah Sultan, son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent, henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title sultan. In Kazakh Khanate a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty elected by clans, the best of sultans was elected as khan by people at Kurultai. See ru, Казахские султаны In a number of states under Mongol or Turkic rule. These administrations were often decimal, using originally princely titles such as khan, malik, in the Persian empire, the rank of sultan was roughly equivalent to that of a modern-day captain in the West, socially in the fifth-rank class, styled Ali Jah
Sultan
–
Royal and noble ranks in Iran, Turkey, Caucasus, Pakistan and Afghanistan
Sultan
–
Sultan
Mehmed II is considered one of the most famous
Ottoman sultans.
Sultan
–
Ottoman Sultan
Mehmed IV attended by a eunuch and two pages.
Sultan
–
Artistic representation of
Saladin, the first
Ayyubid sultan of
Egypt and
Syria.
33.
Barbara (region)
–
Barbara, also referred to as Barbaria, referred to two ancient regions in littoral Northeast Africa. The two areas were inhabited by the Eastern Barbaroi or Baribah as referred to by ancient Greek philosophers and these inhabitants were the ancestors of todays local Afroasiatic-speaking populations. This second Barbara region was home to entrepôts known as the far-side ports, archaeological excavations led by Neville Chittick have identified the Market and Cape of Spices as the present-day Damo. The travelogue mentions these Berbers as trading frankincense, among other commodities, through their port cities such as Malao, Avalites, Mundus, Mosylon. Competent seamen, the Periplus author also indicates that they sailed throughout the Red Sea, the document describes the Berbers system of governance as decentralized, and essentially consisting of a collection of autonomous city-states. Berenice Troglodytica Periplus of the Erythraean Sea - Schoff translation
Barbara (region)
–
The northern
Somali coast, referred to as Barbara in
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
34.
Benadir
–
Banaadir is an administrative region in southeastern Somalia. It covers the area as the city of Mogadishu, Somalias capital. Although by far the smallest administrative region in Somalia, it has the largest population, Banaadir is bordered by the Somali regions of Middle Shebelle and Lower Shebelle, as well as the Indian Ocean. Banaadir is derived from the Persian bandar, which means port, in reference to the cities of Mogadishu. The place name reflects the regions position as a key trade center with Persia. Banaadir is also known for its breed of goats. Its capital is Mogadishu, although the region itself is coextensive with the city. Yusuf Hussein Jimaale serves as the current Governor of Banaadir and Mayor of Mogadishu and he was appointed by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud to replace ]. The 1,650,227 residents of Banaadir are 50. 7% female and it has the highest percentage of residents who are internally displaced persons among the regions of Somalia, because of its relative safety and availability of resources. The Banaadir region consists of seventeen districts, warta Nabada District was previously known as Wardhigley District until it was officially renamed in 2012. Kadha District was formed in 2013 and is absent from most maps
Benadir
–
Mogadishu panorama.
35.
Vizier
–
The VizieR Catalogue Service is an astronomical catalog service provided by Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. The origin of the VizieR Catalogue Service dates back to 1993 as the ESA European Space Information System Catalogue Browser. Initially intended to serve the Space Science community, the ESIS project pre-dates the World Wide Web as a network database allowing uniform access to a set of catalogues. The Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg had for years collected and disseminated astronomical data, so the original ESIS Catalogue Browser was transferred to and stored at CDS. Since its inception in 1996, VizieR has become a point for astronomers worldwide engaged in research. The new VizieR service was refurbished in 1997 by the CDS to better serve the community in terms of searching capabilities, as of March 2012 it contains more than 9800 catalogues. The VizieR catalog is now a major data source as part of the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory, Centre Donnees Stellaires, Vol.48, p.47 VizieR
Vizier
36.
Eunuch
–
The term eunuch generally refers to a man who has been castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences. In some ancient texts, eunuch may also refer to a man who is not castrated but who is impotent, celibate, or otherwise not inclined to marry, in Latin, the words eunuchus, spado, and castratus were used to denote eunuchs. Castration was typically carried out on the soon-to-be eunuch without his consent in order that he perform a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 21st century BC. Eunuchs would usually be servants or slaves who had been castrated in order to make them reliable servants of a court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence. Similar instances are reflected in the origins and etymology of many high offices. Because their condition usually lowered their status, they could also be easily replaced or killed without repercussion. In cultures that had both harems and eunuchs, eunuchs were sometimes used as servants or seraglio guards. Eunuch comes from the Greek word eunoukhos, first attested in a fragment of Hipponax, the acerbic poet describes a certain lover of fine food having consumed his estate dining lavishly and at leisure every day on tuna and garlic-honey cheese paté like a Lampsacene eunoukhos. For instance, Lucian suggests two methods to determine whether someone is a eunuch, physical inspection of the body, or scrutiny of his ability to perform sexually with females, the earliest surviving etymology of the word is from late antiquity. The 12th century Etymologicum Magnum essentially repeats the entry from Orion, in the late 12th century, Eustathius of Thessalonica offered an original derivation of the word from eunis + okheuein, deprived of mating. The early 17th century scholar and theologian Gerardus Vossius therefore explains that the originally designated an office. He says the word came to be applied to castrated men in general because such men were the usual holders of that office. Still, Vossius notes the alternate etymologies offered by Eustathius and others, modern etymologists have followed Orions first option. As an alpha-declension noun, eunē features the stem-vowel -a-, all words that are formed by adding onto eunē have an a-sound or long e-sound in the combined syllable, as in eunater or eunēter, eunaios or eunēthen. By analogy, a compound between eunē and ekhein would be expected to come out as eunēkhos, or in English eunech, on the other hand, the etymology offered by Eustathius would work only if eunis contributes an e-sound or o-sound to the compound. Unfortunately, there are no known compounds of eunis to use for comparison, consequently, the rules of Greek vowel contraction at any rate favor the derivation from eunoos and ekhein. And in fact, other words that have the same ending -oukhos feature a stem-vowel o in the first word of the compound, be that as it may, virtually all modern reference works cite the derivation from eunē and ekhein
Eunuch
–
The
Kızlar Ağası, head of the black eunuchs of the Ottoman
Imperial Harem. The title literally means "Chief of the Girls".
Eunuch
–
A group of eunuchs. Mural from the tomb of the prince
Zhanghuai, 706 AD.
Eunuch
–
A Qing dynasty eunuch, China, before 1911
Eunuch
–
Chief Eunuch of
Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II at the Imperial Palace, 1912.
37.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
China
–
Yinxu, ruins of an ancient
palace dating from the
Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)
China
–
Flag
China
–
Some of the thousands of life-size
Terracotta Warriors of the
Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE
China
–
The
Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the
Chinese interior from incursions by
nomadic pastoralists of the northern
steppes.
38.
Sri Lanka
–
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia near south-east India. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest, Sri Lankas documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II. Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lankas recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. A diverse and multicultural country, Sri Lanka is home to many religions, ethnic groups, in addition to the majority Sinhalese, it is home to large groups of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka is a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the capital and largest city. Along with the Maldives, Sri Lanka is one of the two countries in South Asia that are rated among high human development on the Human Development Index. In antiquity, Sri Lanka was known to travellers by a variety of names, according to the Mahavamsa, the legendary Prince Vijaya named the land Tambapanni, because his followers hands were reddened by the red soil of the area. In Hindu mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the island was referred to as Lankā, in Tamil, the island is referred to as Eelam. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobanā or Taprobanē from the word Tambapanni, as a British crown colony, the island was known as Ceylon, it achieved independence as the Dominion of Ceylon in 1948. The country is known in Sinhalese as Śrī Laṃkā and in Tamil as Ilaṅkai, in 1972, its formal name was changed to Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka. Later in 1978 it was changed to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as the name Ceylon still appears in the names of a number of organisations, the Sri Lankan government announced in 2011 a plan to rename all those over which it has authority. The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years, the era spans the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and early Iron Ages. Among the Paleolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka, Pahiyangala and it is said that Kubera was overthrown by his demon stepbrother Ravana, the powerful emperor who built a mythical flying machine named Dandu Monara. The modern city of Wariyapola is described as Ravanas airport, early inhabitants of Sri Lanka were probably ancestors of the Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. According to the Mahāvamsa, a written in Pāḷi, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and Nagas. Ancient cemeteries that were used before 600BC and other signs of advanced civilization has also discovered in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
–
Avukana Buddha statue, a 12 metres (39 ft) standing Buddha statue belongs to the reign of
Dhatusena of Anuradhapura, 5th century
Sri Lanka
–
Flag
Sri Lanka
–
Ptolemy's world map of Ceylon, first century CE, in a 1535 publication.
Sri Lanka
–
The
Sigiriya rock fortress
39.
Vietnam
–
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
Vietnam
–
A
Đông Sơn bronze drum, c.800 BC.
Vietnam
–
Flag
Vietnam
–
The
Imperial City in
Huế.
Vietnam
–
French Indochina in 1913.
40.
Song Dynasty
–
The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass, the Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Song, the Song capital was in the city of Bianjing. The Southern Song refers to the period after the Song lost control of its half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, the Southern Song dynasty considerably bolstered its naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin, and later the Mongols, the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder, in 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and his younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan, though his claim was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the Emperor of China, after two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khans armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol invasion led to a reunification under the Yuan dynasty, the population of China doubled in size during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Northern Song census recorded a population of roughly 50 million, much like the Han and this data is found in the Standard Histories. However, it is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of some 100 million people and this dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and the emergence of a national economy led to the withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a role in grassroots administration and local affairs. Appointed officials in county and provincial centers relied upon the gentry for their services, sponsorship. Social life during the Song was vibrant, citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and knowledge was enhanced by the expansion of woodblock printing. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished over the course of the Song, although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period
Song Dynasty
–
History of China
Song Dynasty
–
Northern Song in 1111
Song Dynasty
–
Emperor Taizu of Song (r. 960–976), a court portrait painting
Song Dynasty
–
Pillow, sandstone with white and brown slip black, incised decoration, Northern Song dynasty, 12th century
41.
Ming Dynasty
–
The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Empire of the Great Ming – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as one of the greatest eras of orderly government, although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683. He rewarded his supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia, the rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances, the capture of the Zhengtong Emperor during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade, haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. The growth of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced an influx of Japanese. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, combined with crop failure, floods, and epidemic, the dynasty collapsed before the rebel leader Li Zicheng, who was defeated by the Manchu-led Eight Banner armies who founded the Qing dynasty. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty, consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351, the Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352. In 1356, Zhus rebel force captured the city of Nanjing, with the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, arguably the largest naval battle in history. Known for its ambitious use of ships, Zhus force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley, Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or Vastly Martial, as his era name. Hongwu made an effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces, Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo, which was similar to the fubing system of the Tang dynasty. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the Jinyiwei, some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule
Ming Dynasty
–
History of China
Ming Dynasty
–
Ming China around 1580
Ming Dynasty
–
A
cannon from the
Huolongjing, compiled by
Jiao Yu and
Liu Bowen before the latter's death in 1375.
Ming Dynasty
–
Portrait of the
Hongwu Emperor (ruled in 1368–98)
42.
Qing Dynasty
–
It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
Qing Dynasty
–
History of China
Qing Dynasty
–
Flag (1889–1912)
Qing Dynasty
–
An Italian map showing the "Kingdom of the
Nüzhen " or the "
Jin Tartars", who "have occupied and are at present ruling China", north of
Liaodong and
Korea, published in 1682
Qing Dynasty
–
Qing era brush container
43.
Ming dynasty
–
The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Empire of the Great Ming – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as one of the greatest eras of orderly government, although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683. He rewarded his supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia, the rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances, the capture of the Zhengtong Emperor during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade, haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. The growth of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced an influx of Japanese. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, combined with crop failure, floods, and epidemic, the dynasty collapsed before the rebel leader Li Zicheng, who was defeated by the Manchu-led Eight Banner armies who founded the Qing dynasty. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty, consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351, the Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352. In 1356, Zhus rebel force captured the city of Nanjing, with the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, arguably the largest naval battle in history. Known for its ambitious use of ships, Zhus force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley, Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or Vastly Martial, as his era name. Hongwu made an effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces, Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo, which was similar to the fubing system of the Tang dynasty. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the Jinyiwei, some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule
Ming dynasty
–
History of China
Ming dynasty
–
Ming China around 1580
Ming dynasty
–
A
cannon from the
Huolongjing, compiled by
Jiao Yu and
Liu Bowen before the latter's death in 1375.
Ming dynasty
–
Portrait of the
Hongwu Emperor (ruled in 1368–98)
44.
Yongle Emperor
–
The Yongle Emperor, personal name Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming dynasty in China, reigning from 1402 to 1424. Zhu Di was the son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty. He was originally enfeoffed as the Prince of Yan in May 1370, amid the continuing struggle against the Mongols of the Northern Yuan dynasty, Zhu Di consolidated his own power and eliminated rivals such as the general Lan Yu. In 1402, he overthrew his nephew and occupied the imperial capital, Nanjing, after which he was proclaimed Emperor and adopted the era name Yongle. Eager to establish his own legitimacy, Zhu Di voided the Jianwen Emperors reign and established a wide-ranging effort to destroy or falsify records concerning his childhood and this included a massive purge of the Confucian scholars in Nanjing and grants of extraordinary extralegal authority to the eunuch secret police. One favorite was Zheng He, who employed his authority to launch major voyages of exploration into the South Pacific, the difficulties in Nanjing also led the Yongle Emperor to re-establish Beiping as the new imperial capital. He repaired and reopened the Grand Canal and, between 1406 and 1420, directed the construction of the Forbidden City and he was also responsible for the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, considered one of the wonders of the world before its destruction by the Taiping rebels in 1856. These scholars completed the monumental Yongle Encyclopedia during his reign, the Yongle Emperor died while personally leading a military campaign against the Mongols. He was buried in the Changling Tomb, the central and largest mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty Tombs located north of Beijing, the Yongle Emperor was born Zhu Di on 2 May 1360, the fourth son of the new leader of the central Red Turbans, Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang would later rise to become the Hongwu Emperor, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, according to surviving Ming historical records, Zhu Dis mother was the Hongwu Emperors primary consort, Empress Ma, the view Zhu Di himself maintained. Zhu Di grew up as a prince in a loving, caring environment and his father supplied nothing but the best education and, trusting them alone, reestablished the old feudal principalities for his many sons. Similarly, when the Hongwu Emperor sent large forces to the north, the Hongwu Emperor was long-lived and survived his first heir, Zhu Biao, the Crown Prince. He worried about his succession and issued a series of instructions for his family. These instructions made it clear that the rule would pass only to children from the primary consort, excluding the Prince of Yan in favour of Zhu Yunwen. When the Hongwu Emperor died on 24 June 1398, Zhu Yunwen succeeded his grandfather as the Jianwen Emperor, in direct violation of the dynastic instructions, the Prince of Yan attempted to mourn his father in Nanjing, bringing a large armed guard with him. The imperial army was able to him at Huaian and. Faced with certain hostility, Zhu Di pretended to fall ill, in the first year, Zhu Di survived the initial assaults by superior forces under Geng Bingwen and Li Jinglong thanks to superior tactics and capable Mongol auxiliaries. By 1402, he knew enough to be able to avoid the main hosts of the army while sacking Xuzhou, Suzhou
Yongle Emperor
–
Yongle Emperor
Yongle Emperor
–
The Yongle Emperor observing court eunuchs playing
cuju, an ancient Chinese game similar to
soccer.
Yongle Emperor
–
The abandoned base for a
giant stele that the Yongle Emperor ordered to be made for his father in 1405
Yongle Emperor
–
The Yongle Emperor
45.
Zheng He
–
Zheng He, formerly romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Hui Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, and fleet admiral during Chinas early Ming dynasty. Born Ma He, Zheng commanded expeditionary voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia and his larger ships stretched 120 meters in length. These carried hundreds of sailors on four tiers of decks, as a favorite of the Yongle Emperor, whose usurpation he assisted, Zheng He rose to the top of the imperial hierarchy and served as commander of the southern capital Nanjing. A trilingual stele left by the navigator was discovered on the island of Sri Lanka shortly thereafter, Zheng He was the second son of a family from Kunyang, Yunnan. He was originally born with the name Ma He and he had four sisters and one older brother. Zheng He was born into a Muslim family, however, his religious beliefs became all-embracing and eclectic in his adulthood. He was a great-great-great-grandson of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, a Persian who served in the administration of the Mongol Empire and was the governor of Yunnan during the early Yuan dynasty and his great-grandfather was named Bayan and may have been stationed at a Mongol garrison in Yunnan. His grandfather carried the title hajji and his father had the surname Ma and the title hajji. The title suggests that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and it also suggests that Zheng He may have had Mongol and Arab ancestry and that he could speak Arabic. In the autumn of 1381, a Ming army invaded and conquered Yunnan, in 1381, Ma Hajji died in the fighting between the Ming armies and Mongol forces. Dreyer states that Zheng Hes father died at age 39 while resisting the Ming conquest, Levathes states Zheng Hes father died at age 37, but it is unclear if he was helping the Mongol army or just caught in the onslaught of battle. Wenming, the oldest son, buried their father outside of Kunming, in his capacity as Admiral, Zheng He had an epitaph engraved in honor of his father, composed by the Minister of Rites Li Zhigang on the Duanwu Festival of the 3rd year in the Yongle era. Zheng He was captured by the Ming armies at Yunnan in 1381, General Fu Youde saw Zheng He on a road and approached him in order to inquire about the location of the Mongol pretender. Zheng He responded defiantly by saying that the Mongol pretender had jumped into a lake, afterwards, the general took him prisoner. The young Zheng He was soon castrated before being placed in servitude of the Prince of Yan, however, Levathes has stated that he was castrated in 1385. He was sent to serve in the household of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan and he was 10 years old when he entered into the service of the Prince of Yan. Zhu Di was eleven years older than Zheng He, since 1380, the prince had been governing Beiping, which was located near the northern frontier where the hostile Mongol tribes were situated. Zheng He would spend his life as a soldier on the northern frontier
Zheng He
–
Statue from a modern monument to Zheng He at the
Stadthuys Museum in
Malacca Town, Malaysia
Zheng He
Zheng He
–
The
Kangnido map (1402) predates Zheng's voyages and suggests that he had quite detailed geographical information on much of the
Old World.
Zheng He
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One of a set of maps of Zheng He's missions (郑和航海图), also known as the
Mao Kun map, 1628
46.
Barawa
–
Barawa, also known as Brava, is a port town in the southwestern Lower Shebelle region of Somalia. In 1840, soldiers of the Bardheere Jamaa took the city under siege while attempting to discover a more direct sea route, and inflicted much damage. The towns inhabitants pleaded with Sultan Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim of the Geledi Sultanate for protection, with the Sultans troops then invading Bardera and burned the city to the ground. The city, however, like the rest of the Benadir coast, was not under Zanzibari control but under Gobroon and Bimal rule, therefore making the Italian-Zanzibar agreement null and void. The Italians faced stiff resistance from parts of the Benadir coast, and its inland regions. Sheikh Uways al-Barawi organized an Ikhwaan and led the Banadir revolt, Italians developed Brava in the 1920s and 1930s, the first thing they did was to abolish slavery. Then they created the first sewage of the city and established a small hospital, in Brava there was a small school in the late 1930s, the first public elementary school in southern Banadir. In September of the year, a United States military raid in the area killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, in October 2013, United States Navy SEAL Team Six also launched an unsuccessful raid against a beachside house in Barawa, targeting Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, then leader of Al-Shabaab. Following the unsuccessful raid, al-Shabab began a crack down of the town, following the launch of Operation Indian Ocean, the Somali Armed Forces assisted by AMISOM troops re-seized control of Barawa from Al-Shabaab in October 2014. On October 11, during a trip to Barawe President Hassan banned charcoal trade in the city, Barawa has a population of around 32,800 inhabitants. The broader Barawa District has a population of 57,652 residents. The towns traditional inhabitants are the Tunni clan of the Somali people as well as the Bravanese, in addition to Standard Somali, the Tunni speak Af-Tunni and the Bravanese speak Chimwiini. A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar, In the Beginning of Sixteenth century
Barawa
–
The Barawa seafront.
47.
Vasco Da Gama
–
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India was the first to link Europe and Asia by a route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and, in this way, the West. Da Gamas discovery of the sea route to India was significant and opened the way for an age of global imperialism, traveling the ocean route allowed the Portuguese to avoid sailing across the highly disputed Mediterranean and traversing the dangerous Arabian Peninsula. After decades of trying to reach the Indies, with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks. Unopposed access to the Indian spice routes boosted the economy of the Portuguese Empire, the spices obtained from Southeast Asia were primarily pepper and cinnamon at first, but soon included other products, all new to Europe. Portugal maintained a monopoly of these commodities for several decades. Da Gama led two of the Portuguese armadas destined for India, the first and the fourth, the latter was the largest and departed for India four years after his return from the first one. For his contributions, Da Gama was appointed the Governor of India in 1524, under the title of Viceroy, Vasco da Gama remains a leading figure in the history of exploration. Numerous homages have been made worldwide to celebrate his explorations and accomplishments, the Portuguese national epic, Os Lusíadas, was written in his honour. His first trip to India is widely considered a milestone in world history, in March 2016, researchers announced that thousands of artifacts and vessel remains had been recovered from the ship Esmeralda, one of Da Gamas armada, found off the coast of Oman. Vasco da Gama was born in 1460 or 1469 in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal, Sines, one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, consisted of little more than a cluster of whitewashed, red-tiled cottages, occupied chiefly by fisherfolk. Vasco da Gamas father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand and he rose in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago. Estêvão da Gama was appointed alcaide-mór of Sines in the 1460s, Estêvão da Gama married Isabel Sodré, a daughter of João Sodré, scion of a well-connected family of English origin. Her father and her brothers, Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré, had links to the household of Infante Diogo, Duke of Viseu, and were prominent figures in the military Order of Christ. Vasco da Gama was the third of five sons of Estêvão da Gama and Isabel Sodré – in order of age, Paulo da Gama, João Sodré, Vasco da Gama, Pedro da Gama, Vasco also had one known sister, Teresa da Gama. Little is known of da Gamas early life, the Portuguese historian Teixeira de Aragão suggests that he studied at the inland town of Évora, which is where he may have learned mathematics and navigation. It has been claimed that he studied under Abraham Zacuto, an astrologer and astronomer, around 1480, da Gama followed his father and joined the Order of Santiago. The master of Santiago was Prince John, who ascended to the throne in 1481 as King John II of Portugal, John II doted on the Order, and the da Gamas prospects rose accordingly
Vasco Da Gama
–
Vasco Da Gama
Vasco Da Gama
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Vasco da Gama
Vasco Da Gama
–
Statue of Vasco da Gama at his birthplace,
Sines, Portugal
Vasco Da Gama
–
Vasco da Gama leaving the port of
Lisbon, Portugal.
48.
History of Gujarat
–
The history of Gujarat, began with settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation that have been found in the region. With the discovery of large Harappan site of Dholavira in Kutch District, lothal has been established as the oldest known port of the world. Gujarats coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch, served as ports and trading centers in the Nanda, Maurya, Satavahana, after the fall of the Gupta empire in the 6th century, Gujarat flourished as an independent Hindu/Buddhist states. The Maitraka dynasty, descended from a Gupta general, ruled from the 6th to the 8th centuries from their capital at Vallabhi, the Arab rulers of Sindh sacked Vallabhi in 770, bringing the Maitraka dynasty to an end. The Gurjara-Pratihara Empire ruled Gujarat after from the 8th to 10th centuries, as well as, for some periods the region came under the control of Rashtrakuta Empire and Pala Empire. In 775 the first Parsi refugees arrived in Gujarat from Greater Iran, during the 10th century, the native Chaulukya dynasty came to power. Under the Chaulukya dynasty, Gujarat reached to its greatest extent, from 1297 to 1300, Allauddin Khilji, the Turkic Sultan of Delhi, destroyed Anhilwara and incorporated Gujarat into the Delhi Sultanate. Cambay eclipsed Bharuch as Gujarats most important trade port, the Sultanate of Gujarat remained independent until 1576, when the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great conquered it and annexed it to the Mughal Empire. The port of Surat become the prominent and main port of India during Mughal rule, Gujarat remained a province of the Mughal empire until the Marathas occupied eastern and central Gujarat in the 18th century, Western Gujarat were divided among numerous local rulers. Later in the 18th century, Gujarat came under control of the Maratha Empire who dominated the politics of India, pilaji Gaekwad, first ruler of Gaekwad dynasty, established the control over Baroda and much of Gujarat. After the Battle of Panipat in 1761, all Maratha generals established themselves as a government while keeping the nominal authority of the Peshwas of Pune. The British East India Company wrested control of much of Gujarat from the Marathas during the Second Anglo-Maratha War, many local rulers, notably the Maratha Gaekwads of Baroda, made a separate peace with the British and acknowledged British sovereignty in return for retaining local self-rule. Gujarat was placed under the authority of the Bombay Presidency, with the exception of Baroda state. Mohandas Gandhi, considered Indias father of the nation, was a Gujarati who led the Indian Independence Movement against the British colonial rule, Gujarat was formed by splitting Bombay state in 1960 on linguistic lines. From 1960 to 1995, Indian National Congress retained power in Gujarat Legislative Assembly while other political parties ruled for incomplete terms in the 1970s and 1990, Bharatiya Janata Party has been in the power since 1998. Several sites of stone age are discovered in riverbeds of Sabarmati, some of such sites are Hirpura, Derol, Kapadvanj, Langhnaj and Shamlaji. The history of human settlement began with settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation that have been found in the region. With the discovery of large Harappan site of Dholavira in Kutch District, lothal has been established as the oldest known port of the world
History of Gujarat
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An ancient well, and the city drainage canals
History of Gujarat
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Gop temple, 6th Century,
Maitraka period,
Jamnagar dist.
History of Gujarat
–
Early Gujarat (BC 250 to 1300 AD)
History of Gujarat
–
Rani ki vav 11th century.
49.
Spice
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A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring, coloring or preserving food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, sometimes, spices may be ground into a powder for convenience. Spices are sometimes used in medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics or perfume production, the spice trade developed throughout South Asia and Middle East by at least 2000 BCE with cinnamon and black pepper, and in East Asia with herbs and pepper. The Egyptians used herbs for mummification and their demand for exotic spices and herbs helped stimulate world trade. The word spice comes from the Old French word espice, which became epice, and which came from the Latin root spec, by 1000 BCE, medical systems based upon herbs could be found in China, Korea, and India. Early uses were connected with magic, medicine, religion, tradition, archaeological excavations have uncovered clove burnt onto the floor of a kitchen, dated to 1700 BCE, at the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in modern-day Syria. The ancient Indian epic Ramayana mentions cloves, the Romans had cloves in the 1st century CE, as Pliny the Elder wrote about them. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants, in the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. The earliest written records of spices come from ancient Egyptian, Chinese, the Ebers Papyrus from Early Egyptians that dates from 1550 B. C. E. Describes some eight hundred different medicinal remedies and numerous medicinal procedures, historians believe that nutmeg, which originates from the Banda Islands in Southeast Asia, was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BCE. Indonesian merchants traveled around China, India, the Middle East, Arab merchants facilitated the routes through the Middle East and India. This resulted in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria being the trading center for spices. The most important discovery prior to the European spice trade were the monsoon winds, sailing from Eastern spice cultivators to Western European consumers gradually replaced the land-locked spice routes once facilitated by the Middle East Arab caravans. Spices were among the most demanded and expensive available in Europe in the Middle Ages. Given medieval medicines main theory of humorism, spices and herbs were indispensable to balance humors in food, in addition to being desired by those using medieval medicine, the European elite also craved spices in the Middle Ages. An example of the European aristocracys demand for spice comes from the King of Aragon and he was specifically looking for spices to put in wine, and was not alone among European monarchs at the time to have such a desire for spice. Spices were all imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them expensive, from the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East, and along with it the neighboring Italian city-states. The trade made the region rich and it has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the Late Middle Ages
Spice
–
A spice shop selling a variety of spices in Iran
Spice
–
A group of
Indian spices and herbs in bowls
Spice
–
An assortment of spices used in
Indian cuisine
Spice
–
Spice market,
Marakesh
50.
History of Somalia
–
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Somalia was an important centre for commerce with the rest of the ancient world and this occupation lasted until 1941 when it was replaced by a British military administration. On 1 July 1960, the two regions united as planned to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government, the Somali National Assembly, headed by Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf, approved the act uniting the former Italian Somaliland with British Somaliland, establishing the Republic of Somalia. Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic, when the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BC. According to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the familys proposed urheimat in the Nile Valley, other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there. The Laas Geel complex on the outskirts of Hargeisa in northwestern Somalia dates back around 5,000 years, other cave paintings are found in the northern Dhambalin region, which feature one of the earliest known depictions of a hunter on horseback. The rock art is in the distinctive Ethiopian-Arabian style, dated to 1000 to 3000 BCE, additionally, between the towns of Las Khorey and El Ayo in northern Somalia lies Karinhegane, the site of numerous cave paintings of real and mythical animals. Each painting has an inscription below it, which collectively have been estimated to be around 2,500 years old, Ancient pyramidical structures, mausoleums, ruined cities and stone walls found in Somalia are evidence of an old sophisticated civilization that once thrived in the Somali peninsula. This supports the hypothesis of Somalia and/or the adjacent Horn territories corresponding with the ancient Land of Punt. An Ancient Egyptian expedition sent to Punt by the 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut is recorded on the reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, during the reign of the Puntite King Parahu. Ancient Somalis domesticated the camel somewhere between the millennium and second millennium BCE from where it spread to Ancient Egypt and North Africa. They used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo, however, Indian merchants continued to trade in the port cities of the Somali peninsula, which was free from Roman interference. For centuries, the Indian merchants brought large quantities of cinnamon from Sri Lanka and this is said to have been the best kept secret of the Somali and Gulf Arab merchants in their trade with the Roman and Greek world. The Romans and Greeks believed the source of cinnamon to have been the Somali peninsula, but in reality, Islam was introduced to the northern Somali coast early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra. Zeilas two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to the 7th century, and is the oldest mosque in the city, in the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard. He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city, according to I. M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties, who also ruled over the similarly-established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the littoral Benadir region to the south. Adals history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia, the Sultanate of Mogadishus first dynasty was established by Sultan Fakr ad-Din. This ruling house was succeeded by the Muzaffar dynasty, and the kingdom subsequently became closely linked with the powerful Somali Ajuran Sultanate, for many years, Mogadishu stood as the pre-eminent city in the بلاد البربر, Bilad-al-Barbar, which was the medieval Arab term for the Somali coast
History of Somalia
–
The
Silk Road extending from southern
Europe through
Arabia, Somalia,
Egypt,
Persia,
India and
Java until it reaches
China.
History of Somalia
–
Ruins of the
Sultanate of Adal in
Zeila, Somalia.
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Somalia
Somalia portal
