Mud
Mud is a liquid or semi-liquid mixture of water and any combination of different kinds of soil. It forms after rainfall or near water sources. Ancient mud deposits harden over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as mudstone; when geological deposits of mud are formed in estuaries, the resultant layers are termed bay muds. In the construction industry, mud is a semi-fluid material that can be used to coat, seal, or adhere materials. Depending on the composition of the mud, it can be referred by many different names, including slurry, plaster and concrete. Mud, adobe and many other names are used synonymously to mean a mixture of subsoil and water with the addition of stones, straw, and/or bitumen; this material was used a variety of ways to build walls and roofs. For thousands of years it was common in most parts of the world to build walls using mudbricks or the wattle and daub, rammed earth or cob techniques and cover the surfaces with earthen plaster. Mud can be made into mud bricks called adobe, by mixing mud with water, placing the mixture into moulds and allowing it to dry in open air.
Straw is sometimes used as a binder within the bricks. When the brick would otherwise break, the straw will redistribute the force throughout the brick, decreasing the chance of breakage; such buildings must be protected from groundwater by building upon a masonry, fired brick, rock or rubble foundation, from wind-driven rain in damp climates by deep roof overhangs. In dry climates a well drained flat roof may be protected with a well-prepared and properly maintained dried mud coating, viable as the mud will expand when moistened and so become more water resistant. Adobe mudbricks were used by the Pueblo Indians to build their homes and other necessary structures. Mud, clay, or a mixture of clay and sand may be used for ceramics, of which one form is the common fired brick. Fired brick consume much more energy to produce. Stabilized mud is mud which has had a binder such as bitumen added. Examples are mudcrete and soil cement. Pottery is made by forming a clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln which removes all the water from the clay, which induces reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape.
A clay body can be decorated after firing. Prior to some shaping processes, clay must be prepared. Kneading helps to ensure an moisture content throughout the body. Air trapped within the clay body needs to be removed; this is called de-airing and can be accomplished by a machine called a vacuum pug or manually by wedging. Wedging can help produce an moisture content. Once a clay body has been kneaded and de-aired or wedged, it is shaped by a variety of techniques. After shaping it is dried and fired. In ceramics, the making of liquid mud is a stage in the process of refinement of the materials, since larger particles will settle from the liquid. Mud can provide a home for numerous types of animals, including varieties of worms, snails and crayfish. Other animals, such as hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, water buffalo and elephants, bathe in mud in order to cool off and protect themselves from the sun. Submerged mud can be home to larvae of various insects. Mud plays an important role in the marine ecosystem.
The activities of burrowing animals and fish have a dramatic churning effect on muddy seabeds. This allows the exchange and cycling of oxygen and minerals between water and sediment. Below the surface, the burrows of some species form intricate lattice-like networks and may penetrate a meter or more downwards; this means that the burrowed mud is a productive habitat, providing food and shelter for a wide range of mud-dwellers and other animals that forage in and over the mud. Mud can pose problems for motor traffic when moisture is present, because every vehicle function that changes direction or speed relies on friction between the tires and the road surface, so a layer of mud on the surface of the road or tires can cause the vehicle to hydroplane. Heavy rainfall, snowmelt, or high levels of ground water may trigger a movement of soil or sediments causing mudslides, avalanches, or sinkholes. Mudslides in volcanic terrain occur. Mudslides are common in the western United States during El Niño years due to prolonged rainfall.
There are numerous dysphemisms for poor-tasting food such as "tastes like dirt". Kava tea is described this way, as it is bitter and contains sediments. There exist children's recipes for "mud", a chocolate or cornstarch-based sludge used more for visual appeal than actual taste. Never does this confectionery mud contain real mud; the practice of eating earth or soil-like substances is geophagia. A mud bath is a bath of mud from areas where hot spring water can combine with volcanic ash. Mud baths have existed for thousands of years, can be found now in high-end spas in many countries of the world. Mud wallows are a common source of entertainment for kids. Mud wallows can be any shape, size and some can have water as well as mud. Wallows are shallow dips in the ground that have been flooded and were full of dirt and those two have mixed to make a squishy mud wallow. Mud bogging is a form of off-road motorsport popular in Canada and the United States in which the goal is to drive a vehicle through a pit of m
Sikhs
Sikhs are people associated with Sikhism, a monotheistic religion that originated in the 15th century, in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term "Sikh" has its origin in the Sanskrit words शिष्य, meaning a student. A Sikh, according to Article I of the Sikh Rehat Maryada, is "any human being who faithfully believes in One Immortal Being; the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent has been the historic homeland of the Sikhs, was ruled by the Sikhs for significant parts of the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the Punjab state in northwest India has a majority Sikh population, sizeable communities of Sikhs exist around the world. Many countries, such as the United Kingdom, recognize Sikhs as a designated religion on their censuses; the American non-profit organization United Sikhs has sought to have Sikh included on the U. S. census as an ethnicity, arguing that Sikhs "self-identify as an'ethnic minority'" and believe "that they are more than just a religion".
Male Sikhs have "Singh" as their middle or last name, female Sikhs have "Kaur" as their middle or last name. Sikhs who have undergone the Khanḍe-kī-Pahul may be recognized by the five Ks: Kesh, uncut hair, kept covered by a turban. Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism, was born to Mehta Kalu and Mata Tripta, in the village of Talwandi, now called Nankana Sahib, near Lahore. Guru Nanak was social reformer. However, Sikh political history may be said to begin with the death of the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjan Dev, in 1606. Religious practices were formalised by Guru Gobind Singh on 30 March 1699. Gobind Singh initiated five people from a variety of social backgrounds, known as the Panj Piare to form the Khalsa, or collective body of initiated Sikhs. During the period of Mughal rule in India several Sikh gurus were killed by the Mughals for opposing their persecution of minority religious communities including Sikhs. Sikhs subsequently militarized to oppose Mughal rule. After defeating the Afghan and Mughal, sovereign states called Misls were formed, under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia.
The Confederacy was unified and transformed into the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh Bahadur, characterised by religious tolerance and pluralism, with Christians and Hindus in positions of power. The empire is considered the zenith of political Sikhism, encompassing Kashmir and Peshawar. Hari Singh Nalwa, the commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army in the North West Frontier, expanded the confederacy to the Khyber Pass, its secular administration implemented military and governmental reforms. After the annexation of the Sikh kingdom by the British, the latter recognized the martial qualities of the Sikhs and Punjabis in general and started recruiting from that area. During the 1857 Indian mutiny, the Sikhs stayed loyal to the British; this resulted in heavy recruiting from Punjab to the colonial army for the next 90 years of the British Raj. The distinct turban that differentiates a Sikh from other turban wearers is a relic of the rules of the British Indian Army; the British colonial rule saw the emergence of many reform movements in India including Punjab.
This included 1879 of the First and Second Singh Sabha respectively. The Sikh leaders of the Singh Sabha worked to offer a clear definition of Sikh identity and tried to purify Sikh belief and practice; the part of British colonial rule saw the emergence of the Akali movement to bring reform in the gurdwaras during the early 1920s. The movement led to the introduction of Sikh Gurdwara Bill in 1925, which placed all the historical Sikh shrines in India under the control of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee; the months leading up to the partition of India in 1947 were marked by conflict in the Punjab between Sikhs and Muslims. This caused the religious migration of Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus from West Punjab, mirroring a similar religious migration of Punjabi Muslims from East Punjab; the 1960s saw growing animosity between Sikhs and Hindus in India, with the Sikhs demanding the creation of a Punjab state on a linguistic basis similar to other states in India. This was promised to Sikh leader Master Tara Singh by Jawaharlal Nehru, in return for Sikh political support during negotiations for Indian independence.
Although the Sikhs obtained the Punjab, they lost Hindi-speaking areas to Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. Chandigarh was made a union territory and the capital of Haryana and Punjab on 1 November 1966. Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale triggered violence in the Punjab; the prime minister Indira Gandhi ordered an operation to remove Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star. This led to her assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. Gandhi's assassination resulted in an explosion of violence against Sikh communities and the killing of thousands of Sikhs throughout India. Since 1984, relations between Sikhs and Hindus have moved toward a rapprochement aided by economic prosperity. However, a 2002 claim by the Hindu right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that "Sikhs are Hindus" disturbed Sikh sensibilities. During the 1999 Vaisakhi, Sikhs worldwide celebrated the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Khalsa. Canada Post honoured Sikh Canadians with a
Afghanistan
Afghanistan the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in South-Central Asia. Afghanistan is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, its territory covers 652,000 square kilometers and much of it is covered by the Hindu Kush mountain range, which experiences cold winters. The north consists of fertile plains, while the south-west consists of deserts where temperatures can get hot in summers. Kabul serves as its largest city. Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Era, the country's strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia; the land has been home to various peoples and has witnessed numerous military campaigns, including those by Alexander the Great, Muslim Arabs, British and since 2001 by the United States with NATO-allied countries. It has been called "unconquerable" and nicknamed the "graveyard of empires"; the land served as the source from which the Kushans, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Khaljis, Hotaks and others have risen to form major empires.
The political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in the "Great Game" between British India and the Russian Empire, its border with British India, the Durand Line, was formed in 1893 but it is not recognized by the Afghan government and it has led to strained relations with Pakistan since the latter's independence in 1947. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919 the country was free of foreign influence becoming a monarchy under King Amanullah, until 50 years when Zahir Shah was overthrown and a republic was established. In 1978, after a second coup Afghanistan first became a socialist state and a Soviet Union protectorate; this evoked the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s against mujahideen rebels. By 1996 most of Afghanistan was captured by the Islamic fundamentalist group the Taliban, who ruled most of the country as a totalitarian regime for over five years.
The Taliban were forcibly removed by the NATO-led coalition, a new democratically-elected government political structure was formed, but they still control a significant portion of the country. Afghanistan is a unitary presidential Islamic republic with a population of 31 million composed of ethnic Pashtuns, Tajiks and Uzbeks, it is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Group of 77, the Economic Cooperation Organization, the Non-Aligned Movement. Afghanistan's economy is the world's 108th largest, with a GDP of $64.08 billion. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, documented in the 10th-century geography book Hudud ul-'alam; the root name "Afghan" was used in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, the suffix "-stan" means "place of" in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more in a historical sense, to land of the Pashtuns. However, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that "he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan."
Excavations of prehistoric sites by Louis Dupree and others suggest that humans were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, that farming communities in the area were among the earliest in the world. An important site of early historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites; the country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and fought. It has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, the Islamic Empire. Many empires and kingdoms have risen to power in Afghanistan, such as the Greco-Bactrians, Hephthalites, Kabul Shahis, Samanids, Ghurids, Kartids, Timurids and the Hotak and Durrani dynasties that marked the political origins of the modern state.
Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the geographical area of Afghanistan has been connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east and north. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Neolithic and Iron ages have been found in Afghanistan. Urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan and India. In more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well. After 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic
Jahangir
Nur-ud-din Muhammad Salim, known by his imperial name Jahangir, was the fourth Mughal Emperor who ruled from 1605 until his death in 1627. His imperial name, means'conqueror of the world','world-conqueror' or'world-seizer'; the tale of his relationship with the Mughal courtesan, has been adapted into the literature and cinema of India. Prince Salim Jahangir, was born on 31 August 1569, in Fatehpur Sikri, to Akbar and one of his wives Mariam-uz-Zamani. Akbar's previous children had died in infancy and he had sought the help of holy men to produce a son. Salim was named for Shaikh Salim, though Akbar always called him Shekhu Baba. Prince Salim succeeded to the throne on Thursday, 3 November 1605, eight days after his father's death. Salim ascended to the throne with the title of Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir Badshah Ghazi and thus began his 22-year reign at the age of 36. Jahangir soon after had to fend off his own son, Prince Khusrau Mirza, when the latter attempted to claim the throne based on Akbar's will to become his next heirs.
Khusrau Mirza was confined in the fort of Agra. As punishment Khusrau Mirza was handed over to his younger brother and was blinded and killed. Jahangir considered his third son his favourite. In 1622, Khurram murdered his blinded elder brother Khusrau Mirza in order to smooth his own path to the throne. In 1622, Jahangir sent his son Prince Khurram against the combined forces of Ahmednagar and Golconda. After his victory Khurram made a bid for power; as with the insurrection of his eldest son Khusrau Mirza, Jahangir was able to defeat the challenge from within his family and retain power. In 1623, the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, sent his Tahwildar, Khan Alam, to Safavid Persia, accompanied by 800 Sepoys and scholars along with ten Howdahs well decorated in gold and silver, in order to negotiate peace with Abbas I of Persia after a brief conflict in the region around Kandahar. Khan Alam soon returned with valuable gifts and groups of Mir Shikar from both Safavid Persia and the Khanates of Central Asia.
In 1626, Jahangir began to contemplate an alliance between the Ottomans and Uzbeks against the Safavids, who had defeated the Mughals at Kandahar. He wrote a letter to the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV. Jahangir's ambition did not materialise, due to his death in 1627. Salim was made a Mansabdar of ten thousand, the highest military rank of the empire, after the emperor, he independently commanded a regiment in the Kabul campaign of 1581, when he was twelve. His Mansab was raised to Twelve Thousand, in 1585, at the time of his betrothal to his cousin Rajkumari Man Bai, daughter of Bhagwant Das of Amer. Bhagwant Das, was the son of Raja Bhar Mal and the brother of Akbar's Hindu wife and Salim's mother – Mariam-uz-Zamani; the marriage with Man Bai took place on 13 February 1585. Jahangir named her Shah Begum, gave birth to Khusrau Mirza. Thereafter, Salim married, in quick succession, a number of accomplished girls from the aristocratic Mughal and Rajput families. One of his early favourite wives was Jagat Gosain Begum.
Jahangir named her Taj Bibi Bilqis Makani and she gave birth to Prince Khurram, the future Shah Jahan, Jahangir's successor to the throne. On 7 July 1586 he married a daughter of Maharaja of Bikaner. In July 1586, he married Malika Shikar Begum, daughter of Sultan Abu Said Khan Jagatai, Sultan of Kashghar. In 1586, he married Sahib-i-Jamal Begum, daughter of Khwaja Hassan, of Herat, a cousin of Zain Khan Koka. In 1587, he married daughter of Bhim Singh, Maharaja of Jaisalmer, he married a daughter of Raja Darya Malbhas. In October 1590, he married daughter of Mirza Sanjar Hazara. In 1591, he married daughter of Raja Kesho Das Rathore, of Mertia. On 11 January 1592, he married daughter of Ali Sher Khan, by his wife, Gul Khatun. In October 1592, he married a daughter of Kashmir. In January/March 1593, he married Nur un-nisa Begum, daughter of Ibrahim Husain Mirza, by his wife, Gulrukh Begum, daughter of Kamran Mirza. In September 1593, he married a daughter of Raja of Khandesh, he married a daughter of Abdullah Khan Baluch.
On 28 June 1596, he married Khas Mahal Begum, daughter of Zain Khan Koka, sometime Subadar of Kabul and Lahore. In 1608, he married Saliha Banu Begum, daughter of Qasim Khan, a senior member of the Imperial Household. On 17 June 1608, he married eldest daughter of Jagat Singh, Yuvraj of Amber. Jahangir married the beautiful and intelligent Mehr-un-Nisaa on 25 May 1611, she was the widow of Sher Afgan. Mehr-un-Nisaa became his indisputable chief consort and favourite wife after their marriage, she was witty and beautiful, what attracted Jahangir to her. Before being awarded the title of Nur Jahan, she was called Nur Mahal, her abilities are said to range from fashion designing to hunting. There is a myth that she had once killed four tigers with six bullets. Mehr-Un-Nisa, or Nur Jahan, occupies an important place in the history of Jahangir, she was the widow of Sher Afgan, whose actual name was Ali Quli Beg Ist ` ajlu. He had earned the title "Sher Afgan" from Emperor Akbar after throwing off a tiger that had leaped to attack Akbar on the top of an elephant in a royal hunt at Bengal and stabbing the fallen tiger
Lumber
Lumber or timber is a type of wood, processed into beams and planks, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is used for structural purposes but has many other uses as well. There are two main types of lumber, it may be surfaced on one or more of its faces. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is the raw material for furniture-making and other items requiring additional cutting and shaping, it is available in many species hardwoods. Finished lumber is supplied in standard sizes for the construction industry – softwood, from coniferous species, including pine and spruce, hemlock, but some hardwood, for high-grade flooring, it is more made from softwood than hardwoods, 80% of lumber comes from softwood. In the United States milled boards of wood are referred to as lumber. However, in Britain and other Commonwealth nations, the term timber is instead used to describe sawn wood products, like floor boards. In the United States and Canada timber describes standing or felled trees. In Canada, lumber describes cut and surfaced wood.
In the United Kingdom, the word lumber is used in relation to wood and has several other meanings, including unused or unwanted items. Referring to wood, Timber is universally used instead. Remanufactured lumber is the result of secondary or tertiary processing/cutting of milled lumber, it is lumber cut for industrial or wood-packaging use. Lumber is cut by ripsaw or resaw to create dimensions that are not processed by a primary sawmill. Resawing is the splitting of 1-inch through 12-inch hardwood or softwood lumber into two or more thinner pieces of full-length boards. For example, splitting a ten-foot 2×4 into two ten-foot 1×4s is considered resawing. Structural lumber may be produced from recycled plastic and new plastic stock, its introduction has been opposed by the forestry industry. Blending fiberglass in plastic lumber enhances its strength and fire resistance. Plastic fiberglass structural lumber can have a "class 1 flame spread rating of 25 or less, when tested in accordance with ASTM standard E 84," which means it burns slower than all treated wood lumber.
Logs are converted into timber by being hewn, or split. Sawing with a rip saw is the most common method, because sawing allows logs of lower quality, with irregular grain and large knots, to be used and is more economical. There are various types of sawing: Plain sawn – A log sawn through without adjusting the position of the log and the grain runs across the width of the boards. Quarter sawn and rift sawn – These terms have been confused in history but mean lumber sawn so the annual rings are reasonably perpendicular to the sides of the lumber. Boxed heart – The pith remains within the piece with some allowance for exposure. Heart center – the center core of a log. Free of heart center – A side-cut timber without any pith. Free of knots – No knots are present. Dimensional lumber is lumber, cut to standardized width and depth, specified in inches. Carpenters extensively use dimensional lumber in framing wooden buildings. Common sizes include 2×4, 2×6, 4×4; the length of a board is specified separately from the width and depth.
It is thus possible to find 2×4s that are four and twelve feet in length. In Canada and the United States, the standard lengths of lumber are 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 feet. For wall framing, "stud" or "precut" sizes are available, are used. For an eight-, nine-, or ten-foot ceiling height, studs are available in 92 5⁄8 inches, 104 5⁄8 inches, 116 5⁄8 inches; the term "stud" is used inconsistently to specify length. Under the prescription of the Method of Construction issued by the Southern Song government in the early 12th century, timbers were standardized to eight cross-sectional dimensions. Regardless of the actual dimensions of the timber, the ratio between width and height was maintained at 1:1.5. Units are in Song Dynasty inches. Timber smaller than the 8th class were called "unclassed"; the width of a timber is referred to as one "timber", the dimensions of other structural components were quoted in multiples of "timber". The dimensions of timbers in similar application show a gradual diminution from the Sui Dyansty to the modern era.
The length of a unit of dimensional lumber is limited by the height and girth of the tree it is milled from. In general the maximum length is 24 ft. Engineered wood products, manufactured by binding the strands, fibers, or veneers of wood, together with adhesives, to form composite materials, offer more flexibility and greater structural strength than typical wood building materials. Pre-cut studs save a framer much time, because they are pre-cut by the manufacturer for use in 8-, 9-
Pakistan
Pakistan the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the world’s sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 212,742,631 people. In area, it is the 33rd-largest country. Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, China in the far northeast, it is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the northwest, shares a maritime border with Oman. The territory that now constitutes Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures and intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent; the ancient history involves the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, was home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including Hindus, Indo-Greeks, Turco-Mongols and Sikhs. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander III of Macedon, the Seleucid Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, the Gupta Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Afghan Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and, most the British Empire.
Pakistan is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. It is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a diverse geography and wildlife. A dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. An ethnic civil war and Indian military intervention in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. In 1973, Pakistan adopted a new constitution which stipulated that all laws are to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah. A regional and middle power, Pakistan has the sixth-largest standing armed forces in the world and is a nuclear power as well as a declared nuclear-weapons state, the second in South Asia and the only nation in the Muslim world to have that status. Pakistan has a semi-industrialised economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector and a growing services sector, it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, is backed by one of the world's largest and fastest-growing middle class.
Pakistan's political history since independence has been characterized by periods of military rule, political instability and conflicts with India. The country continues to face challenging problems, including overpopulation, poverty and corruption. Pakistan is a member of the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the OIC, the Commonwealth of Nations, the SAARC and the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition; the name Pakistan means "land of the pure" in Urdu and Persian. It alludes to the word pāk meaning pure in Pashto; the suffix ـستان is a Persian word meaning the place of, recalls the synonymous Sanskrit word sthāna स्थान. The name of the country was coined in 1933 as Pakstan by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never, using it as an acronym referring to the names of the five northern regions of British India: Punjab, Kashmir and Baluchistan; the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan.
The earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Indus region, which covers most of present day Pakistan, was the site of several successive ancient cultures including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro; the Vedic period was characterised by an Indo-Aryan culture. Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre; the Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, now Taxila in the Punjab, founded around 1000 BCE. Successive ancient empires and kingdoms ruled the region: the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander the Great's empire in 326 BCE and the Maurya Empire, founded by Chandragupta Maurya and extended by Ashoka the Great, until 185 BCE; the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region.
Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of higher education in the world, established during the late Vedic period in 6th century BCE. The school consisted of several monasteries without large dormitories or lecture halls where the religious instruction was provided on an individualistic basis; the ancient university was documented by the invading forces of Alexander the Great, "the like of which had not been seen in Greece," and was recorded by Chinese pilgrims in the 4th or 5th century CE. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled the surrounding territories; the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, under Dharmapala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh in 711 CE; the Pakistan government's official chronol
Detritus
In biology, detritus is dead particulate organic material. It includes the bodies or fragments of dead organisms as well as fecal material. Detritus is colonized by communities of microorganisms which act to decompose the material. In terrestrial ecosystems, it is encountered as leaf litter and other organic matter intermixed with soil, denominated "soil organic matter". Detritus of aquatic ecosystems is organic material suspended in water and piling up on seabed floors, referred to as marine snow. Dead plants or animals, material derived from animal tissues lose their form, due to both physical processes and the action of decomposers, including grazers and fungi. Decomposition, the process through which organic matter is decomposed, takes place in many stages. Materials like proteins and sugars with low molecular weight are consumed and absorbed by microorganisms and organisms that feed on dead matter. Other compounds, such as complex carbohydrates are broken down more slowly; the various microorganisms involved in the decomposition break down the organic materials in order to gain the resources they require for their own survival and proliferation.
Accordingly, at the same time that the materials of plants and animals are being broken d making up the bodies of the microorganisms are built up by a process of assimilation. When microorganisms die, fine organic particles are produced, if these are eaten by small animals which feed on microorganisms, they will collect inside the intestine, change shape into large pellets of dung; as a result of this process, most of the materials from dead organisms disappears from view and is not present in any recognisable form, but is in fact present in the form of a combination of fine organic particles and the organisms using them as nutrients. This combination is detritus. In ecosystems on land, detritus is deposited on the surface of the ground, taking forms such as the humic soil beneath a layer of fallen leaves. In aquatic ecosystems, most detritus is suspended in water, settles. In particular, many different types of material are collected together by currents, much material settles in flowing areas.
Much detritus is used as a source of nutrition for animals. In particular, many bottom feeding animals living in mud flats feed in this way. In particular, since excreta are materials which other animals do not need, whatever energy value they might have, they are unbalanced as a source of nutrients, are not suitable as a source of nutrition on their own. However, there are many microorganisms; these microorganisms do not absorb nutrients from these particles, but shape their own bodies so that they can take the resources they lack from the area around them, this allows them to make use of excreta as a source of nutrients. In practical terms, the most important constituents of detritus are complex carbohydrates, which are persistent, the microorganisms which multiply using these absorb carbon from the detritus, materials such as nitrogen and phosphorus from the water in their environment to synthesise the components of their own cells. A characteristic type of food chain called the detritus cycle takes place involving detritus feeders and the microorganisms that multiply on it.
For example, mud flats are inhabited by many univalves. When these detritus feeders take in detritus with microorganisms multiplying on it, they break down and absorb the microorganisms, which are rich in proteins, excrete the detritus, complex carbohydrates, having hardly broken it down at all. At first this dung is a poor source of nutrition, so univalves pay no attention to it, but after several days, microorganisms begin to multiply on it again, its nutritional balance improves, so they eat it again. Through this process of eating the detritus many times over and harvesting the microorganisms from it, the detritus thins out, becomes fractured and becomes easier for the microorganisms to use, so the complex carbohydrates are steadily broken down and disappear over time. What is left behind by the detritivores is further broken down and recycled by decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi; this detritus cycle plays a large part in the so-called purification process, whereby organic materials carried in by rivers is broken down and disappears, an important part in the breeding and growth of marine resources.
In ecosystems on land, far more essential material is broken down as dead material passing through the detritus chain than is broken down by being eaten by animals in a living state. In both land and aquatic ecosystems, the role played by detritus is too large to ignore. In contrast to land ecosystems, dead materials and excreta in aquatic ecosystems are transported by water flow. In freshwater bodies organic material from plants can form a silt known as mulm or humus on the bottom; this material, some called undissolved organic carbon breaks down into dissolved organic carbon and can bond to heavy metal ions via chelation. It can break down into colored dissolved organic matter such as tannin, a specific form of tannic acid. In saltwater bodies, organic material breaks down and forms a marine snow that settles down to the ocean bottom. Detritus occurs in a variety of terrestrial habitats including forest and grassland. In forests the detritus is dominated by leaf and bacteria litter as measured by biomas
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tirah". Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
