Van Vilayet

The Vilayet of Van (; ) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century, it reportedly had a population of about 400,000 and an area of . Van Vilayet was one of the Kurdish Viyalets and held, prior to World War I, majority Kurds, as well as Armenians, Assyrian and Azeri minorities.
History.
In 1875, the eyalet of Erzurum was divided in six vilayets: Erzurum, Van, Hakkari, Bitlis, Hozat (Dersim) and Kars-Çildir. In 1888, by an imperial order Hakkari was joined to the vilayet of Van, and Hozat to Mamuret ul-Aziz.
As the border province of the north-eastern frontier, towards both Russian and Persian territory, it contained a number of garrisons. It was divided into the Sanjak of Van and the Sanjak of Hakkari and covered the present-day provinces of Van, Hakkari and parts of Şırnak, Muş and Bingöl ones.
Demographics.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Van Vilayet reportedly had an area of , while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 376,297. The accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.
Based on the official 1914 Ottoman Census, the population of Van province consisted of 179,422 Muslims and 67,797 Armenians. The Ottoman Census figures include only male citizens, excluding women and children. According to Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, the corrected estimates for Van province (including women and children) was; 313,000 Muslims, 130,000 Armenians, and 65,000 others, including Syriac Christians and Nestorians.
Geography.
Vilayet of Van lay along the Persian frontier between the vilayets of Erzurum and Mosul. The northern sanjak comprised open plateau country N. and E. of the lake (with a large Armenian agricultural population and Kurdish seminomad tribes occupied chiefly in cattle and sheep raising), also of several fertile districts along the south shore of the lake. The southern sanjak was entirely mountainous, little developed and having the tribes only partly under government control. This comprised most of the upper basin of the Great Zab, with the country of the Nestorian Christians and many districts inhabited by Kurdish tribes, some of them large nomad tribes who descended for the winter to the plains of the Tigris.
The mineral wealth of the vilayet was never fully explored, but was believed to be great. There were petroleum springs at Kordzot, deposits of lignite at Sivan (now Avnik village in Bingöl) and Nurduz, several hot springs at Zilan Creek and Julamerk (Now Hakkari). Excellent tobacco was grown in Shemsdinan for export to Persia.
Administrative divisions.
Sanjaks of the Vilayet:
Economy.
Historically, the Van Vilayet produced millet. The economic center of province was the city of Van. It was also a major wine producer. Both wine and brandy were made in small amounts. The vilayet also produced flax and hemp. Van also had a major sheep herding industry. As of 1906, there were over 3 million sheep in the vilayet. As of 1920, those numbers were reduced. Beekeeping was done by peasants, with honey being frozen and sold. The area also produced coal, lead, copper and borax, orpiment, gas, granite, lime, chalk, gypsum, gold, and salt.


Tarim mummies

The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BC to the first centuries BC. The mummies, particularly the early ones, are frequently associated with the presence of the Indo-European Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin, although the evidence is not totally conclusive and many centuries separate these mummies from the first attestation of the Tocharian languages in writing. Victor H. Mair's team concluded that the mummies are Caucasoid, likely speakers of Indo-European languages such as the Tocharians.
Archaeological record.
At the beginning of the 20th century, European explorers such as Sven Hedin, Albert von Le Coq and Sir Aurel Stein all recounted their discoveries of desiccated bodies in their search for antiquities in Central Asia. Since then, numerous other mummies have been found and analyzed, many of them now displayed in the museums of Xinjiang. Most of these mummies were found on the eastern end of the Tarim Basin (around the area of Lopnur, Subeshi near Turpan, Loulan, Kumul), or along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin (Khotan, Niya, and Cherchen or Qiemo).
The earliest Tarim mummies, found at Qäwrighul and dated to 1800 BCE, are of a Caucasian physical type whose closest affiliation is to the Bronze Age populations of southern Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and the Lower Volga.
The cemetery at Yanbulaq contained 29 mummies which dated from 1100–500 BCE, 21 of which are Mongoloid—the earliest Mongoloid mummies found in the Tarim Basin—and eight of which are of the same Caucasian physical type as found at Qäwrighul.
Notable mummies are the tall, red-haired "Chärchän man" or the "Ur-David" (1000 BCE); his son (1000 BCE), a small 1-year-old baby with brown hair protruding from under a red and blue felt cap, with two stones positioned over its eyes; the "Hami Mummy" ("c." 1400–800 BCE), a "red-headed beauty" found in Qizilchoqa; and the "Witches of Subeshi" (4th or 3rd century BCE), who wore black felt conical hats with a flat brim. Also found at Subeshi was a man with traces of a surgical operation on his abdomen; the incision is sewn up with sutures made of horsehair.
Many of the mummies have been found in very good condition, owing to the dryness of the desert and the desiccation it produced in the corpses. The mummies share many typical Caucasian body features (tall stature, high cheekbones, deep-set eyes), and many of them have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown, and generally long, curly and braided. Their costumes, and especially textiles, may indicate a common origin with Indo-European neolithic clothing techniques or a common low-level textile technology. Chärchän man wore a red twill tunic and tartan leggings. Textile expert Elizabeth Wayland Barber, who examined the tartan-style cloth, discusses similarities between it and fragments recovered from salt mines associated with the Hallstatt culture. As a result of the arid conditions and exceptional preservation, tattoos have been identified on mummies from several sites around the Tarim Basin, including Qäwrighul, Yanghai, Shengjindian, Shanpula (Sampul), Zaghunluq, and Qizilchoqa.
It has been asserted that the textiles found with the mummies are of an early European textile type based on close similarities to fragmentary textiles found in salt mines in Austria, dating from the second millennium BCE. Anthropologist Irene Good, a specialist in early Eurasian textiles, noted the woven diagonal twill pattern indicated the use of a rather sophisticated loom and said that the textile is "the easternmost known example of this kind of weaving technique."
Genetic studies.
In 1995, Mair claimed that "the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusively Caucasoid, or Europoid" with east Asian migrants arriving in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin around 3,000 years ago while the Uyghur peoples arrived around the year 842. In trying to trace the origins of these populations, Victor Mair's team suggested that they may have arrived in the region by way of the Pamir Mountains about 5,000 years ago.
Mair has claimed that:
In 2007 the Chinese government allowed a National Geographic Society team headed by Spencer Wells to examine the mummies' DNA. Wells was able to extract undegraded DNA from the internal tissues. The scientists extracted enough material to suggest the Tarim Basin was continually inhabited from 2000 BCE to 300 BCE and preliminary results indicate the people, rather than having a single origin, originated from Europe, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley and other regions yet to be determined.
A 2008 study by Jilin University showed that the Yuansha population has relatively close relationships with the modern populations of South Central Asia and Indus Valley, as well as with the ancient population of Chawuhu.
Between 2009–2015, the remains of 92 individuals found at the Xiaohe Tomb complex were analyzed for Y-DNA and mtDNA markers. Genetic analyses of the mummies showed that the maternal lineages of the Xiaohe people originated from both East Asia and West Eurasia, whereas the paternal lineages all originated from West Eurasia.
Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that maternal lineages carried by the people at Xiaohe included mtDNA haplogroups H, K, U5, U7, U2e, T and R*, which are now most common in West Eurasia. Also found were haplogroups common in modern populations from East Asia: B5, D and G2a. Haplogroups now common in Central Asian or Siberian populations included: C4 and C5. Haplogroups later regarded as typically South Asian included M5 and M*.
Of the paternal lines of male remains surveyed nearly all – 11 out of 12, or around 92% – belonged to Y-DNA haplogroup R1a1, which are now most common in Northern India and Eastern Europe; the other belonged to the exceptionally rare paragroup K* (M9). The R1a1 lineage suggests a proximity of this population with groups related to the Andronovo culture, i.e. early Indo-Europeans.
The geographic location of this admixing is unknown, although south Siberia is likely.
Chinese historian Ji Xianlin says China "supported and admired" research by foreign experts into the mummies. "However, within China a small group of ethnic separatists have taken advantage of this opportunity to stir up trouble and are acting like buffoons. Some of them have even styled themselves the descendants of these ancient 'white people' with the aim of dividing the motherland. But these perverse acts will not succeed." Barber addresses these claims by noting that " is scarcely closer to 'Turkic' in her anthropological type than she is to Han Chinese. The body and facial forms associated with Turks and Mongols began to appear in the Tarim cemeteries only in the first millennium BCE, fifteen hundred years after this woman lived." Due to the "fear of fuelling separatist currents", the Xinjiang museum, regardless of dating, displays all their mummies, both Tarim and Han, together.
Posited origins.
Mallory and Mair (2000) propose the movement of at least two Caucasian physical types into the Tarim Basin. The authors associate these types with the Tocharian and Iranian (Saka) branches of the Indo-European language family, respectively. However, archaeology and linguistics professor Elizabeth Wayland Barber cautions against assuming the mummies spoke Tocharian, noting a gap of about a thousand years between the mummies and the documented Tocharians: "people can change their language at will, without altering a single gene or freckle."
B. E. Hemphill's biodistance analysis of cranial metrics (as cited in and ) has questioned the identification of the Tarim Basin population as European, noting that the earlier population has close affinities to the Indus Valley population, and the later population with the Oxus River valley population. Because craniometry can produce results which make no sense at all (e.g. the close relationship between Neolithic populations in Ukraine and Portugal) and therefore lack any historical meaning, any putative genetic relationship must be consistent with geographical plausibility and have the support of other evidence.
Han Kangxin, who examined the skulls of 302 mummies, found the closest relatives of the earlier Tarim Basin population in the populations of the Afanasevo culture situated immediately north of the Tarim Basin and the Andronovo culture that spanned Kazakhstan and reached southwards into West Central Asia and the Altai.
It is the Afanasevo culture to which trace the earliest Bronze Age settlers of the Tarim and Turpan basins. The Afanasevo culture ("c." 3500–2500 BCE) displays cultural and genetic connections with the Indo-European-associated cultures of the Eurasian Steppe yet predates the specifically Indo-Iranian-associated Andronovo culture ("c." 2000–900 BCE) enough to isolate the Tocharian languages from Indo-Iranian linguistic innovations like satemization.
 confirm a second Caucasian physical type at Alwighul (700–1 BCE) and Krorän (200 CE) different from the earlier one found at Qäwrighul (1800 BCE) and Yanbulaq (1100–500 BCE):
Mallory and Mair associate this later (700 BCE–200 CE) Caucasian physical type with the populations who introduced the Iranian Saka language to the western part of the Tarim basin.
From Libby Rosof (1997) "Penn Researcher Finds Chinese Mummies’ Surprising Roots":


Tannus al-Shidyaq

Tannus ibn Yusuf al-Shidyaq ( – 1861), also transliterated "Tannous el-Chidiac", was a Maronite clerk and emissary of the Shihab emirs, the feudal chiefs and tax farmers of Ottoman Mount Lebanon, and a chronicler best known for his work on the noble families of Mount Lebanon, "Akhbar al-a'yan fi Jabal Lubnan" (The History of the Notables in Mount Lebanon). He was born in the Keserwan area of Mount Lebanon to a long line of clerks serving the Shihab emirs and other local chieftains. Tannus was taught Arabic and Syriac grammar and throughout his career serving the Shihab emirs and as a merchant, he pursued education in the fields of medicine, jurisprudence, logic, ethics, natural sciences, Turkish and Italian.
Tannus wrote manuscripts about his Maronite sect, Arab and Islamic history, the colloquial Arabic of Mount Lebanon and his family, some of which were lost. The most important of his works was "Akhbar al-a'yan fi Jabal Lubnan", which was supervised by Butrus al-Bustani, and published in separate parts in 1855 and 1859. In it he described the natural and political geography of Mount Lebanon, documented the genealogies of its feudal families, and chronicled the history of its rule by families, such as the Buhturids, the Ma'ns, the Assafs, the Sayfas and the Shihabs. His chronicle has been one of the main sources for modern-day histories of Mamluk and Ottoman Lebanon.
Biography.
Family.
Tannus was likely born around 1794. He was the eldest of five sons of Abu Husayn Yusuf al-Shidyaq, the other four being Mansur, As'ad, Ghalib and Faris. The Shidyaqs were learned Maronite laymen originally resident in the Keserwan area of central Mount Lebanon. Members of the family served as teachers and clerks for the Muslim, Christian and Druze nobility of Mount Lebanon and its environs from the early 17th century. Their education and relationships with the leading nobility placed them in the second strata of the local aristocracy and as such their members held the title of "shaykh", a local rank below "emir" and equal to that of the feudal chieftains of the area.
Tannus's grandfather Mansur left Keserwan to serve the Shia emir of Baalbek, Haydar al-Harfush in 1741 for two years, and then moved to Hazmiyeh near Beirut in 1755 where he served the Shihab emir Qasim ibn Umar, the father of Bashir II. He eventually settled in Hadath, continuing to work for Qasim until the latter's death in 1768, after which he worked for two other Shihab emirs. Tannus's father succeeded Mansur and later served the Shihab emir Hasan ibn Umar, who moved him back to the Shidyaq ancestral village of Ashqout in Keserwan.
Education, service with Shihab emirs, and mercantile career.
Tannus was about 10 years old when his family relocated to Ashqout and there is no information about his early education; the modern historian Kamal Salibi presumes he was homeschooled. He was taught rudimentary Arabic and Syriac by teacher Yusuf al-Hukayyim in the nearby village of Ghosta in 1809. His studies were interrupted before the year's end when Bashir II, who had become the paramount strongman and tax farmer of Mount Lebanon, appointed Tannus's father the "mutasallim" (tax collector) of Shuweir in the Matn area south of Keserwan and soon after of Zahle in the Beqaa Valley as well. The family consequently moved back to Hadath where Tannus taught As'ad the Arabic and Syriac grammar he had learned in Ghosta. In 1810 he served as a clerk for the Shihab emir Salman Ali and assisted him in conscription efforts in Shahhar, near Beirut.
In 1813 Tannus was sent to learn at the Maronite monastic institution of Ayn Warqa, the most prestigious Maronite school at that time whose pupils included Butrus al-Bustani. Several bouts of headaches compelled him to end his studies there before the end of the year, after which his brother As'ad took his place. After As'ad graduated in 1818 Tannus studied ethics with him.
Tannus began his career in commerce in 1818, engaging in business in Damascus where he also represented the Shihabs in a minor political embassy that year. He continued his mercantile career until his death and was also employed by the Shihabs as a political agent and spy, giving him significant insight into the political intrigues of his age. He participated with Bashir II's forces in battle against the Ottoman governor of Damascus in 1821.
As a result of the death of his father in 1821, Tannus became financially responsible for his mother, his two younger sisters, Adla and Wardiyya and his brother Faris. Sometime afterward he married and had two sons, Faris and Naja, the first of whom died in infancy. After the deaths of his brothers Ghalib in 1840 and Mansur in 1842, he also became responsible for the former's young sons Zahir and Bishara and Ghalib's son. His mercantile business reported deficits for most of the period between 1821 and 1856 and to meet the needs of his increased dependents, he earned extra income as a teacher and copyist. He also began studying medicine in 1823 and began practicing six years later.
Tannus continued his education in different fields, studying logic in 1832, Turkish and Italian in 1835, natural sciences in 1848 and jurisprudence in 1849. During that last year he also studied rhetoric with Nasif al-Yaziji, a prominent Arabic author from Mount Lebanon.
Religion.
Unlike his better known brothers As'ad, who became a Protestant, and Faris, who converted to Islam and adopted the name Ahmad, Tannus remained a devout Maronite. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to dissuade As'ad from embracing Protestant teachings; As'ad eventually died in the custody of the Maronite Church for his beliefs. In his career during the 1840s, a decade marked by strife between the Druze and Maronites of Mount Lebanon, Tannus advocated for the Maronite notables.
Literary works.
Tannus began writing historical works in 1833, starting with "Tarikh al-ta'ifa al-Maruniyya" (History of the Maronite Sect), a now lost summary of the Maronite historian and patriarch Istifan al-Duwayhi's 17th-century history of the Maronites. He also wrote a Lebanese colloquial Arabic dictionary, which was read by the American missionary Eli Smith but whose whereabouts are currently unknown. He penned an unfinished book on the Turkish language in 1835 and summarized another work of al-Duwayhi's, "Tarikh al-azmina" (History of the Times), in 1845. Three years later he wrote a history of Arab and Islamic rulers, which is also lost. In 1850 Tannus wrote a history of his family, the principal source of his biography, entitled "Tarikh wa a'mal banu ash-Shidyaq" (History and Achievements of the Shidyaqs).
"The History of the Notables in Mount Lebanon".
The most important of Tannus's works was "Akhbar al-a'yan fi Jabal Lubnan" (The History of the Notables in Mount Lebanon), which he completed in 1855. The printed work was 770 pages and divided into three parts. The first part centered on the natural and political geography of Mount Lebanon and its surroundings and consisted of five chapters: the first chapter defined the boundaries of Mount Lebanon and surveyed its population; the second summarized the histories of the eight principal coastal towns of the Phoenicians, namely Tripoli, Batroun, Byblos, Jounieh, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre and Acre; the third described the mountain's nine main rivers; the fourth detailed the feudal districts of the mountain and the fifth was a table of the population.
The second part of "Akhbar al-a'yan" was devoted to the genealogies of the feudal families of Mount Lebanon, with each family entitled to a chapter and grouped into three categories: Muslims, Maronites and Druze—the originally Muslim and Druze Shihab and Abi'l-Lama families, at least parts of which converted to Christianity, were grouped with the Maronites. The third and longest part of "Akhbar al-a'yan" dealt with the dynastic and feudal rulers of Mount Lebanon, beginning with the "Mardaite" rulers of the northern parts of the mountain before proceeding in separate chapters, not in chronological order, with the rule of the Buhturids of the Gharb, the Ma'nids of the Chouf, the Assafs of Keserwan, the Sayfas of Akkar, the Shihabs, the Abi'l-Lamas and the Arslans of the Gharb.
Tannus cited as his sources the Maronite historian Ibn al-Qila'i (d. 1516), the Druze historian Ibn Sibat (d. 1520), al-Duwayhi, Haydar al-Shihabi (d. 1821), the biography of Fakhr al-Din II by al-Khalidi al-Safadi (d. 1624), Father Joseph Assemanus (d. 1782), Father Hananiyya al-Munayyir (d. 1820) of Zouk Mosbeh, the Melkite poet Butrus Karami of Homs (d. 1851), and oral and printed histories and court registers of the Shihab, Jumblatt, Khazen, Hubaysh and Talhuq genealogies. The first and second parts of the book were published on 13 June 1855 by the American Press under the oversight of Butrus al-Bustani. The third part was published on 26 May 1859.
According to the historian Youssef Choueiri, Tannus's "reputation as a chronicler largely rests on his "Akhbar al-a'yan"". Salibi interprets "Akhbar al-a'yan" as the work of a Maronite layman, who wrote "as a Lebanese rather than a Maronite", without consideration to the theological activism of earlier Maronite historians such as Duwayhi and Ibn al-Qilai. Based in his reading of the chronicle, the historian Philip Hitti deemed it to be the work "a judge of the Shihab amirs and compiler of the annals of the feudal families of Lebanon". Asad Rustum commented on the "Akhbar al-a'yan": "in a way, Shidyak's history is scarcely anything but an account of the Emir [Bashir]'s efforts to rid himself of his rivals".


Narathu

Narathu (, ; 1118–1171) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1167 to 1171. Narahthu ascended the throne after murdering his father King Alaungsithu and his elder brother Min Shin Saw. Narathu built the largest of all the Pagan temples, the Dhammayangyi. Nonetheless, his conduct greatly lowered the prestige of the dynasty, and he was deeply disfavored. The king was assassinated by the mercenaries sent by the chief of Pateikkaya in 1171.
Early life.
Narathu was a middle son of King Sithu I and Queen Yadanabon. His mother was a daughter of Dhamma Kyin, a minister at King Kyansittha's court. The chronicles do not agree on the dates regarding his life and reign. The table below lists the dates given by the four main chronicles.
Narathu was a senior prince for much of his father's reign, whereas the king's eldest son Min Shin Saw was the heir apparent. However, Min Shin Saw had a major falling out with his father, and was sent to exile at Aung Pinle Lake (near present-day Mandalay). With Min Shin Saw in exile, Narathu now positioned himself to take over the throne. He impressed his father with his management of day-to-day affairs of the kingdom. He soon became the de facto heir apparent at the court.
Accession.
In 1167, Sithu fell violently ill, and Narathu ordered the king moved to the Shwegugyi Temple, which Sithu had built in 1131. According to the chronicles, when the king woke up and realized that he had been moved out of the palace, he was furious. Narathu came into the room, and put a blanket over his bedridden father's head.
He still needed to deal with Min Shin Saw, who had come down with an army to claim the throne. Narathu readily submitted, personally leading Min Shin Saw's coronation ceremony. After the ceremony, Min Shin Saw was poisoned while eating his first meal as king.
Reign.
Narathu's conduct lowered the prestige of the empire, and he was deeply unpopular. Burdened by his guilt, he shut himself in his palace. To atone for the sins, he built the largest of all the Pagan temples, the Dhammayangyi.
However, the new king could not control his violent temper, and killed a queen of his with his bare hands in one of his episodes of violence. The queen was a daughter of Pateikkaya, a tributary kingdom in the west in Bengal or near present-day Chin State. The chief of Pateikkaya now sent a group of eight assassins, disguised as Brahmin astrologers in 1171. The eight managed to gain an audience with the king while hiding their swords underneath their robes. They quickly fell the king. When the palace guards rushed in, they all committed suicide.
According to a theory proposed by Gordon Luce, Narathu may have been killed by the forces from Ceylon in 1165. His theory has been strongly refuted by Htin Aung as pure conjecture.


Karaeng Matoaya

Karaeng Matoaya (1573–1637) was the ruler of Tallo and the "bicara-butta" (first minister) of Gowa from 1593 until his death. He gained power after overthrowing Tunipasuluq, and transformed Makassar into one of the main trading centre in Eastern Indonesia. He converted to Islam around 1605, adopted an Islamic name "Abdullah Awwal al-Islam" and the Islamization of Gowa and Tallo subsequently happened under his influence.


Boshin Club

The Boshin Club was a political party in Japan.
History.
The party was established in December 1908 during a period in which several anti-Rikken Seiyūkai groups began to coalesce in reaction to Rikken Seiyūkai's victory in the 1908 elections. Its 42 MPs were involved in commerce and industry and many had been elected as independents.
In March 1910 the party was dissolved when around half its members joined with several independent MPs and the Daidō Club to form the Chūō Club, whilst seven of its MPs participated in the formation of Rikken Kokumintō.


Bhuvanaikabahu I of Dambadeniya

Bhuvanaikabahu I was King of Dambadeniya in the 13th century, who ruled from 1271 to 1283. He succeeded his brother Vijayabahu IV as King of Dambadeniya and was succeeded an Interregnum of 19 years. His nephew Parakkamabahu III ruled from Polonnaruwa, and was not formally considered as a King of Dambadeniya.
Bhuvanaikabahu I is known to have resided in Yapahuwa.


Kokudaka

 refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of "koku" of rice.
One 'koku' (roughly equivalent to five bushels) was generally viewed as the equivalent of enough rice to feed one person for a year. The actual revenue or income derived holding varied from region to region, and depended on the amount of actual control the fief holder held over the territory in question, but averaged around 40 percent of the theoretical "kokudaka".
The amount taxation was not based on the actual quantity of rice harvested, but was an estimate based on the total economic yield of the land in question, with the value of other crops and produce converted to their equivalent value in terms of rice.
The ranking of precedence of the "daimyō", or feudal rulers, was determined in part by the "kokudaka" of the territories under their administration. In 1650, the total "kokudaka" of Japan was assessed at 26 million "koku", with the Shōgun directly controlling 4.2 million "koku".


Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah

Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (1885 – 29 January 1950) () was the tenth ruler of Kuwait, from 29 March 1921 until his death on 29 January 1950.
Biography.
Ahmad was the son of Jaber II Al-Sabah, who was the eighth Ruler of Kuwait between 1915 and 1917. He rose to power after the death of his uncle Salem Al-Sabah, the ninth ruler of Kuwait, in February 1921.
Ahmad was the lead cavalry commander, founder of the Military of Kuwait and the Directorate of Public Security Force. Ahmad tasked his defense cavalry and infantry to Sheikh Ali Salem Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah in the early 1920s and transferred the command of defense cavalry and infantry to Sheikh Abdullah Jaber Al-Abdullah II Al-Sabah following the Battle of Al-Regeai. He was the minister of finance from 1940 to 1950.
Personal life.
Ahmad was married several times. Notable children include:
Death.
Ahmad died in 1950 at Dasman Palace in Kuwait.


Li Guochang

Li Guochang () (died 887), né Zhuye Chixin (朱邪赤心), courtesy name Dexing (德興), posthumously honored by Later Tang as Emperor Wenjing (文景皇帝) with the temple name of Xianzu (獻祖), was a leader of the Shatuo Turks during the waning years of the Tang Dynasty.
Background.
Zhuye Chixin's ancestors had been hereditary chiefs of the Shatuo tribe, and, after they had come under the rule of Tufan and settled at the formerly-Tang Dynasty-controlled Gan Prefecture (甘州, in modern Zhangye, Gansu), had often served as forward troops for Tufan. In or shortly before 808, after Tufan lost nearby Liang Prefecture (涼州, in modern Wuwei, Gansu) to Tang's ally Huigu, Tufan feared that the Shatuo would join forces with the Huigu, and therefore consider relocating the Shatuo to the Yellow River region. When Zhuye Chixin's grandfather Zhuye Jinzhong (朱邪盡忠) heard this, he and his son, Zhuye Chixin's father Zhuye Zhiyi (朱邪執宜) decided to take their tribe and flee to Tang. The Tufan gave chase, and in the ensuing engagements, Zhuye Jinzhong was killed in battle, and over half of the Shatuo were killed or captured. Zhuye Zhiyi was able to make it through to Tang's Ling Prefecture (靈州, in modern Yinchuan, Ningxia), where the Tang military governor ("Jiedushi") of Shuofang Circuit (朔方, headquartered at Ling Prefecture), Fan Xichao (范希朝), welcomed the Shatuo under Zhuye Zhiyi. They were soon joined by Zhuye Jinzhong's younger brother Zhuye Abo (朱邪阿波). In 809, when Fan was transferred from Shuofang to Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), the Tang imperial government feared that the Shatuo would betray Tang, and therefore had them relocate, with Fan, to Hedong Circuit, and the area of Huanghuadui (黃花堆, in modern Shuozhou, Shanxi) became Zhuye Zhiyi's possession.
It is not known when Zhuye Chixin was born, or when Zhuye Zhiyi died. It is known that when Zhuye Zhiyi died, Zhuye Chixin took over leadership of the Shatuo. In 839, when the Huigu general Jueluowu (掘羅勿) rose against the rule of then-reigning Zhangxin Khan, he elicited the help from Zhuye Chixin by giving Zhuye 300 horses, and together, they defeated Zhangxin Khan, who then committed suicide, precipitating the subsequent collapse of the Huigu. In the next few years, when Huigu remnants often raided Tang borders, the Shatuo participated extensively in counterattacking the Huigu with other tribes loyal to Tang. In 843, Zhuye Chixin, under the command of the officer Shi Xiong, participated in a raid against the Huigu that rescued Tang's Princess Taihe, an aunt of then-reigning Emperor Wuzong, who had been married to a former khan as part of the "heqin" system of marriage alliances.
In 847, shortly after Emperor Wuzong's death and succession by his uncle Emperor Xuānzong, the Tufan general Lun Kongre (論恐熱), who was then contending for control of Tufan, itself then in internal turmoil, attacked the Ordos region with Dangxiang and Huigu remnants. Emperor Xuānzong ordered then-military governor of Hedong, Wang Zai, to react, and Wang had Zhuye serve as his forward commander. The Hedong forces subsequently defeated Lun, who then withdrew.
During Pang Xun's rebellion.
In 868, during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong's son Emperor Yizong, soldiers from Xusi Circuit (徐泗, headquartered in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu) who had been sent to Lingnan West Circuit (嶺南西道, headquartered in modern Nanning, Guangxi) to defend against a potential Dali attack were incensed when they were informed that they were to stay another year at the border, mutinied. They headed toward Xusi's capital Xu Prefecture, under the leadership of the officer Pang Xun. After defeating troops sent by the governor (觀察使, "Guanchashi") Cui Yanzeng (崔彥曾), Pang captured Xu Prefecture and put Cui under arrest. He demanded official imperial sanction in taking over Xusi, threatening to attack the imperial capital Chang'an if Emperor Yizong refused. Emperor Yizong reacted by commissioning the imperial guard general Kang Chengxun as the military governor of Yicheng Circuit (義成, headquartered in modern Anyang, Henan) and the overall commander of the operation against Pang. Kang requested his troops to be supplemented with Zhuye Chixin's troops, as well as the chieftains of Tuyuhun, Tatar, and Qibi (契苾) tribes, and his request was approved.
As Kang's imperial army took shape in 869 and prepared to engage Pang, he had Zhuye serve as his forward commander, and it was said that the soldiers under Kang, who were from 10 different circuits, were all impressed by the Shatuo soldiers' fortitude. He subsequently contributed greatly to Kang's battles against Pang, including the final battle at Bo Prefecture (亳州, in modern Bozhou, Anhui), in which Pang was killed. To reward Zhuye, Emperor Yizong gave him the imperial surname of Li and a new personal name of Guochang (國昌, meaning "prosperity to the empire"), having him adopted into the branch house of the Prince of Zheng. He carved out a new Datong Circuit (大同) from Hedong, with its headquarters at Yun Prefecture (雲州, in modern Datong, Shanxi), to have Li Guochang serve as its military governor, but then kept Li Guochang at the capital Chang'an for some time to serve as an imperial guard general.
Between Pang Xun's and Li Keyong's rebellions.
In 870, Emperor Yizong commissioned Li Guochang as the military governor of Zhenwu Circuit (振武, headquartered in modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia). However, he soon incurred the wrath of the imperial government when he, acting in defiance of the imperial government, killed members of his staff without imperial approval. In 872, Emperor Yizong tried to transfer him to Datong Circuit, with the lesser title of "Fangyushi" (防禦使). Li Guochang claimed to be ill and refused to report to Datong. He was apparently thereafter allowed to remain at Zhenwu, and subsequently sent soldiers to participate in the imperial campaign against the agrarian rebel Wang Xianzhi.
Rebellion against Tang.
As of 878, by which time Emperor Yizong's young son Emperor Xizong was emperor, Li Guochang's oldest son Li Keyong was serving as the deputy commander of Shatuo soldiers at Datong Circuit, stationed at Wei Prefecture (蔚州, in modern Zhangjiakou, Hebei). At that time, most of the empire was overrun with agrarian rebellions; the Shatuo officer Li Jinzhong (李盡忠), technically Li Keyong's superior as the commander of the Shatuo soldiers at Datong, as well as his subordinates Kang Junli, Xue Zhiqin (薛志勤), Cheng Huaixin (程懷信), and Li Cunzhang, also considered rising in rebellion, particularly because the defender of Datong Circuit, Duan Wenchu (段文楚), was harsh to the soldiers, and was cutting back on their supplies. Li Jinzhong persuaded Li Keyong to agree to the rebellion, and then attacked and arrested Duan. Li Keyong subsequently arrived at Yun Prefecture and took control of the Datong headquarters, putting Duan and several of Duan's staff members to death cruelly.
Li Guochang initially pledged continued faith to the imperial government, asking it to appoint a new defender of Datong and offering to attack Li Keyong himself if Li Keyong refused to comply. Emperor Xizong thus commissioned Lu Jianfang (盧簡方) as the new defender of Datong and asked Li Guochang to write a letter to persuade Li Keyong to accept Lu—but then decided to make Lu the military governor of Zhenwu and transfer Li Guochang to Datong instead (as military governor), believing that Li Keyong would not dare to resist his father. However, Li Guochang actually hoped for an arrangement where both he and Li Keyong would be each allowed to keep control of a circuit, and therefore, when he received the edict, he, in anger, tore the edict and killed the eunuch monitor of the army. He then joined forces with Li Keyong in raiding the other circuits of the region. Emperor Xizong thereafter commissioned Cui Jikang (崔季康) as the military governor of Hedong to oversee the operations against Li Guochang and Li Keyong, while ordering Li Keju the military governor of Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing), Li Jun (李均) the military governor of Zhaoyi Circuit (昭義, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi), as well as the Tuyuhun chiefs Helian Duo and Bai Yicheng (白義誠), and the Sage (薩葛) chief Mi Haiwan (米海萬) to join in the attack as well.
Li Keyong and Li Guochang initially gained successes in their raids on the neighboring circuits, and the Hedong soldiers were repeatedly intimidated into disturbances themselves, causing the successive expulsions or deaths of several Hedong military governors. However, after Li Zhuo (李涿) eventually took over the command of the entire operations, the tide began to turn against the Shatuo. In summer 880, Li Keyong's officer Gao Wenji (高文集), who was then defending Shuo Prefecture (朔州, in modern Shuozhou) for Li Keyong, surrendered to Li Zhuo along with Li Guochang's cousin Li Youjin (李友金) and several other chieftains. Li Keyong reacted by attacking Gao, to try to recapture Shuo Prefecture. Li Keju, however, attacked and defeated Li Keyong at Yao'er Heights (藥兒嶺, in modern Chengde, Hebei) before Li Keyong could do so, killing Li Jinzhong and Cheng. Li Keju then again defeated Li Keyong at Xiongwu Base (雄武軍, in modern Chengde). Meanwhile, Li Zhuo and Helian attacked Wei Prefecture, where Li Guochang had stationed himself at the time, defeating Li Guochang. Li Guochang, Li Keyong, and their family were forced to flee to the Dada (達靼) tribe, then in the Yin Mountains region.
Several months later, Helian, who was consequently made the defender of Datong, secretly tried to persuade the Dada to slaughter the Shatuo who fled to them. Li Keyong, hearing rumors of this, demonstrated his shooting skills at a feast with Dada nobles, and further proclaimed that he did not intend to stay with the Dada and wished to eventually assist the Tang imperial government in attacking the agrarian rebel Huang Chao. After Li Keyong made that proclamation, the Dada became convinced that he would not stay and pose a threat to them, and therefore did not slaughter the Shatuo. Thereafter, Li Guochang and Li Keyong remained with the Dada for some time.
Exile and later resubmission to Tang.
In 881, by which time Huang Chao had captured Chang'an, forced Emperor Xizong to flee, and established his own state of Qi as its emperor, Li Youjin persuaded the eunuch monitor of his army, Chen Jingsi (陳景思), to suggest to Emperor Xizong to pardon Li Guochang and Li Keyong and to summon them to aid the imperial cause. Chen agreed, and subsequently, Li Keyong tried to take his troops south. Then-military governor of Hedong, Zheng Congdang, however, refused to supply his troops. In reaction, Li Keyong pillaged the prefectures of Hedong, and Zheng expelled his forces, which were forced to withdraw back north. He captured Xin (忻州, in modern Xinzhou, Shanxi) and Dai (代州, in modern Xinzhou) Prefectures. In 882, Li Guochang, who was then still with the Dada, took his family and settled at Dai Prefecture.
Later in the year, Emperor Xizong again summoned Li Keyong to aid in the imperial cause in attacking Huang Chao's Qi state, and this time, pursuant to imperial orders, Zheng did not again intercept Li Keyong. Li Keyong subsequently became the leading general in the Tang campaign to recapture Chang'an. In 883, Emperor Xizong made Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong and Li Guochang the military governor of a newly created Daibei Circuit (代北), with its headquarters at Dai Prefecture.
Posthumous honors.
According to the "Zizhi Tongjian", Li Guochang died in 887, while still serving as the military governor of Daibei. According to the annotations to the "History of the Five Dynasties", he was given posthumous honors. After his grandson Li Cunxu established the Later Tang in 923 as its Emperor Zhuangzong, Li Guochang was posthumously honored Emperor Wenjing, with the temple name of Xianzu.


Central Committee elected by the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The 23rd Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was elected by the 23rd Congress, and was in session from 1966 until 1971. There were 195 regular members chosen, an increase from the 175 selected in 1961; of the 195 members, 51 were newcomers, and 144 were incumbents; another 31 had died or resigned since the 1961 election. Another 145 candidate members, who could participate but could not vote on motions, were picked in addition to the voting regular members.
The Committee elected, at its 1st Plenary Session, the 23rd Politburo, the 23rd Secretariat and the 23rd Party Control Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.


Jayavarman V

Jayavarman V () was a ruler of the Khmer Empire from his state temple, Jayendranagari, at Jayendrapura.
During his reign, the Khmer Empire had 20 cities or pura.
Early years.
Jayavarman V succeeded his father, Rajendravarman, when he was only ten years old. During his early years, the court officials dominated the royal politics. He studied under a very knowledgeable teacher Yajnavaraha, a grandson of King Harshavarman I. Yajnavaraha was a distinguished scholar as he was "first in the knowledge of the doctrines of the Buddha, medicine and astronomy," and in 967 Yajnavaraha constructed Banteay Srei, considered the jewel of Khmer art for its very beautiful display of bas-reliefs. When Jayavarman turned seventeen years old, he began the construction of his own state shrine, Ta Keo. However, an unfortunate event occurred as the edifice was hit by a thunder bolt during its construction. This was taken as an evil omen and the priests of the court performed a ritual to dispel the demons; afterward, stones and elephants were brought in to finish the job, but without success. The construction was left unfinished.
Ruling elites.
The aristocratic families dominated Jayavarman V's court. Briggs write, "There is probably no reign in the history of ancient Khmers in which more distinguished ministers, scholars, and dignitaries are mentioned in the inscriptions." Atmashiva, who served under the two previous kings, was his "purohita", chaplain. And Narayana, who had also served under King Rajendravarman, was his "hotar", high priest. However, the most influential and powerful ruling family of all was the house of Saptadevakula who dominated most of the royal affairs. This clan also helped King Suryavarman I come to power in 1002.
Rise of Mahayana Buddhism and women power.
Even though Jayavarman V was a Shaivite, he was very tolerant of Buddhism. And under his reign Buddhism flourished. Kirtipandita, his Buddhist minister, brought ancient texts from foreign lands to Cambodia, though none survived. He even suggested that priests used Buddhist prayers as well as Hindu during a ritual.
Buddha teaches tolerance toward all beings, and the rise of Buddhism during Jayavarman V's reign also ushered women in many high positions. Jahavi, younger sister of Yajnavaraha, helped raise money for the construction of Banteay Srei as this temple was not funded by the king. Prana of the Saptadevakula family was the king's trusted advisor. "Chinese writers praise the women of Cambodia for their knowledge of astrology and government and say the women of the royal family sometimes held high political posts, including that of judge."
His sister, Indralakshmi, married the Indian Brahman Divakarabhatta.
Posthumous name.
Jayavarman V's reign lasted for about 30 years and his kingdom was peaceful and prosperous. He died in 1001 and received the posthumous name of Paramaviraloka.


Battle of An

The Battle of An () was fought during the Spring and Autumn period in 589 BCE at Hua Hill in the area of the present-day city of Jinan, Shandong between the states of Qi and Jin. It ended in a victory for the state of Jin and eventually resulted in an alliance between the two states.
Two of the three surviving commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Zuo Zhuan and the Guliang Zhuan describe the event that led to
the battle as an insult that an emissary of Jin suffered at the court of Qi, but the two accounts differ on the nature of the insult. According to the
Zuo Zhuan, the duke of Qi allowed women to watch the emissary's visit from behind a screen, women who then insulted the emissary with their
laughter. The Guliang Zhuan claims that the duke of Qi insulted the emissaries of four visiting states by assigning each of them a server who shared their respective physical defects.


Dewi Sukarno

, complete name , widely known in Japan as Dewi Fujin (デヴィ夫人, "Lady Dewi", "Madame Dewi"), is a Japanese businesswoman, socialite, television personality and philanthropist. She was one of the wives of the first President of Indonesia, Sukarno.
Biography.
The 19-year-old Naoko Nemoto met the 57-year-old Sukarno at the Ginza hostess bar in Tokyo, near the Imperial Hotel. She was an arts student and entertainer, he was on a state visit to Japan.
Naoko married Sukarno in Indonesia in 1962 and converted to Islam and Sukarno gave her the Indonesian name Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno; derived from Javanese-Sanskrit which means "the jewel essence of a goddess". They had one daughter, Kartika (now uses the name "Carina"). Sukarno was overthrown by General Suharto in a 1967 coup and died three years later.
The widowed Dewi Sukarno moved to Europe after Sukarno's ouster and has since lived in different countries, including France, Switzerland and the United States. As of 2008 she resides in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, where she lives in her memorabilia-filled residence.
Dewi Sukarno is known for her outspoken personality. In Japan, she is commonly referred to simply as rather than her full name. She made appearances in the news media after the January 2008 death of her husband's successor, Suharto, blaming him for instituting a repressive regime and likening him to Cambodian despot Pol Pot.
As of 2012, Dewi Sukarno enjoys caring for her 16 dogs and her cosmetics business and has her own charity business that is often scrutinized by the National Tax Agency. She now makes a living doing part-time jobs and appearing on Japanese television and has served as a judge for a beauty contest, as in the 2005 Miss International pageant held in Tokyo. She is well known for her sculpted beauty and often claims to have not had the facelifts and plastic surgery that her doctor has rumoured performing.
Controversies.
In January 1992, Dewi became involved in a much-publicised altercation at a party in Aspen, Colorado, United States with fellow international socialite and heiress, Minnie Osmeña. A granddaughter of a former President of the Philippines, Osmeña reportedly commented on Dewi's past, and the spat culminated in Dewi hitting Osmeña's face with a wine glass. Osmeña needed 37 stitches to seal the gash, while Dewi was later detained for 34 days in Aspen for disorderly conduct. Dewi and Osmeña had already been hostile to each other after an exchange at an earlier party months before, where Dewi was heard to laugh at Osmeña's political plans (among which was to run for Vice-President of the Philippines).
Two years later, she posed for a book of photographs that was published in her native Japan (well known as "Madame de Syuga"). Some of the images featured her partially naked, and others showed what appeared to be tattoo-like body art. The book, while not distributed in Indonesia, was immediately banned, and many Indonesians felt offended by what was perceived to be a disgrace of Sukarno's name and legacy.
Political activities.
After the 1967 coup, Dewi has had little involvement with Indonesian politics. She has worked with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and has expressed the wish to help refugees as well as people living under regimes like North Korea. When asked to comment about the reign of her stepdaughter, Megawati, all she replied was, "I think Megawati is gradually doing whatever she can. It's not easy being a Muslim woman president."


The Secret History of the Mongol Queens

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire is a 2010 book by Jack Weatherford, about the impact and legacy of Genghis Khan's daughters and Mongol queens such as Mandukhai the Wise and Khutulun. The book references Mongolian, Central Asian, Persian, European and Chinese sources such as "Altan Tobchi", "Erdeni Tobchi", "Erdenyin Tunamal Sudar", "Tarikh-i-Rashidi", "Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvaini", and "Ming shi" in addition to various secondary sources in English, Mongolian, and German.
Weatherford also analyzes the role of Mongol women in the Mongol Empire and how they influenced the Mongol nation, modern Mongolia, and most of the modern world.
The book was translated into Mongolian, Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Thai and Russian.
Chinese-American actress Joan Chen mentioned that she had read the book to prepare for her role as Chabi in the TV series "Marco Polo".
Contents.
Introduction: The missing chapter.
Weatherford suggests in the introduction that the unknown censor who deliberately cut away part of "The Secret History of the Mongols" did so in order to obscure Mongol women who became too powerful. Only a small part of the text written by Genghis Khan in 1206 when he was proclaimed Qaghan of the Mongols, remains: "Let us reward our female offspring". However, external sources yielded impressions of these women and their accomplishments.
The Persian chronicler Rashid al-Din wrote that "there are many stories about these daughters", and promised that "if the reader pays attention everything will be understood." Weatherford further suggests that traces of the Mongol queens have indirectly appeared in the diplomatic reports of the Chinese court, letters to the Vatican, Muslim histories, royal Armenian chronicles, the memoirs of merchants such as Marco Polo, texts carved into the stones of Taoist temples, and in the rhymes of Chaucer and the .
Part 1: Tiger Queens of the Silk Route 1206–1241.
During his reign, Genghis Khan raised the status of women in positions of prominence, particularly his daughters and consorts. These women included his daughter Altani, who was awarded the title of "Hero "Ba'atur", given to major figures in the Mongol Empire with successful military and political careers, when she saved the life of his youngest son, Tolui.
His daughters played crucial roles in Khan's diplomacy and warfare. They married the leaders of the powerful tribes and nations surrounding the Mongols such as the Ongud, Uyghurs and Oirats, becoming diplomatic shields in all directions, cementing his alliances. The daughters of Genghis Khan came to control the Silk Route and assisted his campaigns in China and Persia. The Mongol women proved adept at administrating their territory and fighting alongside men on foreign conquests.
After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, his successors quickly neglected Khan's legacy. His son, Ögedei, purged his female relatives in order to consolidate his power over the Borjigin clan, including using a mass rape of four thousand Oirat girls in 1237 to cow Oirat into submission and take their lands after Ögedei's sister Checheyigen had died, and allegedly arranging the assassination of Genghis Khan's favorite daughter, Altalun, who was ruler of the Uyghur territory.
Part 2: The Shattered Jade Realm 1242–1470.
Following Ögedei's death, khatuns (queens) briefly ruled the Mongol Empire. Most of these women were not Genghis Khan's daughters, but his daughters- or granddaughters-in-law. Their ability to control the empire made them the most powerful women during this period. Succession struggles with male kinsmen, including their sons and brothers-in-law, meant the khatun were quickly diminished.
Khutulun, daughter of Kaidu and granddaughter of Ögedei, was the last of the Mongol women who held real power and resisted their male lines. Noted for her beauty, she also mastered the three main sports of Mongolia – Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery – and was famed for defeating men in both the battlefield and the wrestling match. When she died in 1306, the Borjigin men gained control of the whole Mongol Empire without any resistance from their female relatives. Only Mongol princesses who married Goryeo kings in Korea continued the queens' traditions in a small scale. A story from Khutulun's life is featured in Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Turandot.
In the late 14th century, the Mongol Qaghan Elbeg made a fatal mistake. He killed his blood brother in order to marry his wife, Oljei the Beauty, and ignored the Mongol tradition that a man is forbidden to forcefully take a woman in marriage. In 1399, Elbeg was killed by the Oirats after the marriage created tension between the Mongol tribes in Mongolia.
When the male descendants of Genghis Khan became prisoners or puppets of other nations such as Alans and Kipchaks, the Mongol queens tried to save them from captivity. Samur, khatun of the Four Oirats and daughter of Elbeg Khan, was the most prominent. Her grandson, Esen, defeated rival Mongol warlords and a threat from the Chinese. However, he was unable to consolidate his power and he quickly lost support from his allies including his grandmother, Samur. Esen turned against Samur's clan, nearly destroying every male of Genghis Khan's line. When Esen's daughter gave birth to a son, Bayan-Möngke, one of the last direct descendants of Khan, Samur and the child's mother successfully managed keep the child in hiding. Both Samur and Esen died soon afterward, leaving a void in power.
Part 3: Wolf Mother 1470–1509.
With the death of Samur, the strong Mongol queens did not perish from history. Instead, a new Mongol princess, Mandukhai, was born in 1448. She was later married to Manduul Khan, who restored the empire in Mongolia.
In order to keep an eye on the Mongolian Hagan Manduul, Turkic warlord Beg Arslan from Hami Oasis had him married to his daughter. When they did not produce a child, Manduul took Mandukhai as his wife. While Bayan-Möngke, who had been saved by Samur as an infant, quickly emerged as Manduul's preferred successor, Une-Bolad, an experienced and powerful warlord descended from Genghis Khan's brother Hasar, appeared as a contender of the throne. Driven from Manduul, Bayan-Möngke died in the Gobi desert.
When her husband died in 1478, Mandukhai had the choice of marrying Une-Bolad or taking the Mongols to Ming Dynasty to be vassals. Instead, Mandukhai elected to rule instead and recovered Batumöngke, the missing son of Bayan-Möngke, to ascend the throne at the royal shrine kept by the Chahar with the title Dayan Khan. Because Dayan Khan was a child at the time of his ascension, Mandukhai became the empire's de facto ruler while simultaneously raising Dayan Khan to become an effective ruler. Together, they united the entire Mongols, restoring order.
By the time Mandukhai died in 1509, the Mongol nation stretched from the Siberian tundra and Lake Baikal in the north, across the Gobi, beyond the Yellow River into the Ordos. The lands extended from the forests of Manchuria in the East past the Altai Mountains and out onto the steppes of Central Asia.
Epilogue: The Secret of History.
Weatherford says the censors' cuts only hampered the ability to understand the Mongol queens' place in history, but did not erase it entirely. The Mongol queens, particularly Mandukhai, are honored by the Mongol nation alongside Genghis Khan.


List of Burmese leaders

This is a list of rulers and office-holders in the history of Myanmar.


Monuments of National Importance of India

This article contains lists of Monuments of National Importance in India.
An "Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958" defines an "Ancient Monument" as follows:
A "Monument of National Importance" is designated by the Archaeological Survey of India and includes the following:
Table of monuments.
The Monuments of National Importance are designated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The union government of India is authorised to maintain, protect and promote the Monuments of National Importance.


Yazdanfar

Yazdanfar was an Iranian noble who ruled Qom as a Sasanian vassal. In the late 640s/early 650s, the invading Arabs, who had conquered most of the Sasanian Empire, reached Qum, where Yazdanfar made peace with them, giving them a village to settle in. The reason for his hospitality was that his domain often suffered from raids by the Daylamites, which he hoped would now be defended by the Arabs.


U Kyin U

U Kyin U (; - ) was one of Burma's most prominent 19th century dramatists, along with U Ponnya.
Kyin U was born in Sinbaungwe in present-day Magway Region. He likely began his career as a song and speech writer for stage characters. Kyin U gained prominence in the latter years of King Bagyidaw's reign, and his plays were composed after the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824. He retired after the end of Bagyidaw's reign, and returned to Sinbaungwe.
Kyin U penned several court plays, primarily based on the Buddhist jatakas. Of the six court plays he wrote, 2 have been lost. His plays dealt with the sociopolitical aspects of early 19th century Burmese history. He was also known for his songs and poetry. Many of his songs are published in an anthology called "Thachin Padetha".


Atula Maha Dhamma Dewi of Pinya

Atula Maha Dhamma Dewi (, ; ) was the chief queen consort of King Uzana I of Pinya. Uzana I was her half-brother. She was a paternal aunt of King Swa Saw Ke of Ava.
Ancestry.
The following is her ancestry as reported by the "Hmannan Yazawin" chronicle. Her personal name was Saw Min Ya (စောမင်းရာ).


Yuri Bychkov

Yuri Alexandrovich Bychkov (; September 1, 1931 – April 18, 2016) was an art historian, a member of the Union of Artists and the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation, director of writer's house museum Melikhovo in 1994-2004.
He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute.
Author of the idea, the pioneer of tourism Golden Ring. One of the founders VOOPIK (All-Russian Society for Historic Preservation and Cultural Organization).
He died in Moscow on April 18, 2016.


Islamic Tharikah Unity Party

The Islamic Tharikah Unity Party (, PPTI) was an Islamic political party in Indonesia. In the 1955 parliamentary election, PPTI got 85,131 votes (0.2% of the national vote). One parliamentarian was elected from the party.


North Borneo dispute

The North Borneo dispute, also known as the Sabah dispute, is the territorial dispute between Malaysia and the Philippines over much of the eastern part of the state of Sabah. Sabah was previously known as North Borneo prior to the formation of the Malaysian federation. The Philippines, presenting itself as the successor state of the Sultanate of Sulu, retains a "dormant claim" on Eastern Sabah on the basis that the territory was only leased to the British North Borneo Company in 1878, with the sovereignty of the Sultanate (and subsequently the Republic) over the territory never having been relinquished. However, Malaysia considers this dispute as a "non-issue" as it interprets the 1878 agreement as that of cession, and it deems that the residents of Sabah (including Eastern Sabah) had exercised their right to self-determination when they joined to form the Malaysian federation in 1963.
1878 Agreement.
The keyword in the agreement is the ambiguous term "pajakan", a Malay term which was translated by Spanish linguists in 1878 and by American anthropologists H. Otley Beyer and Harold Conklin in 1946 as "arrendamiento" or "lease". However, the British used the interpretation of historian Najeeb Mitry Saleeby in 1908 and William George Maxwell and William Summer Gibson in 1924, which translated "pajak" as "grant and cede".
It can be argued however, that "pajakan" means "mortgage" or "pawn" or even "wholesale", as per the contemporary meaning of "pajakan" in Sulu and Malay, which essentially means that the land is pawned in perpetuity for the annual cession money, and the sultanate would need to repay the entire infinite value of the territory to redeem it back. Furthermore, the term "selama-lama" which means "forever" or "in perpetuity" indicate a binding effect beyond the lifetime of the then Sultan.
The ambiguity led to the different interpretation of the original Malay text, as shown in two versions below:
Throughout the British administration of North Borneo, the British government continued to make the annual "cession money" payment to the Sultan and its heir and these payments were expressly shown in the receipts as "cession money". In a 1961 conference in London, during which a Philippine and British panel met to discuss on the Philippine claim of North Borneo, the British panel informed the Congressman Salonga that the wording of the receipts has not been challenged by the Sultan or its heir.
During a meeting of Maphilindo between the Philippine, Malayan and Indonesian governments in 1963, the Philippine government said the Sultan of Sulu wanted the payment of 5,000 from the Malaysian government. The first Malaysian Prime Minister at the time, Tunku Abdul Rahman said he would go back to Kuala Lumpur and get on the request. Malaysia considers the amount an annual "cession" payment for the land, while the sultan’s descendants consider it "rent".
The foregoing Sulu claim rests on the treaty signed by Sultan Jamalul Alam of Sulu appointing Baron de Overbeck as Dato Bendahara and Raja Sandakan on 22 January 1878. However, a further, earlier treaty signed by Sultan Abdul Momin of Brunei appointed Baron de Overbeck as the Maharaja Sabah, Rajah Gaya and Sandakan. This was signed on 29 December 1877, and granted the territories of Paitan as far as the Sibuco River, which overlaps the Sulu Sultanate's claim of their dominion in Sabah.
Madrid Protocol.
As attested to by the International Court of Justice, the Sultan of Sulu relinquished the sovereign rights over all his possessions in favour of Spain, based on the "Bases of Peace and Capitulation" signed by the Sultan of Sulu and the crown of Spain in Jolo on 22 July 1878. The Sultan declared beyond discussion the sovereignty of Spain over all the Archipelago of Sulu and the dependencies thereof.
In 1885, Great Britain, Germany and Spain signed the Madrid Protocol to cement Spanish influence over the islands of the Philippines. In the same agreement, Spain relinquished all claims to North Borneo which had belonged to the Sultanate in the past in favour of Great Britain.
1903 Confirmation of cession of certain islands.
On 22 April 1903, the successor of Sultan Jamalul Alam, Sultan Jamalul Kiram II, signed a document known as "Confirmation of cession of certain islands", under which he grant and ceded additional islands, in addition to the land agreed upon in 1878, in the vicinity of the mainland of North Borneo from Banggi Island to Sibuku Bay to British North Borneo Company.
In the 1903 agreement, the ambiguous term ""pajakan" was no longer used, but instead the phrase "kita telah keredhai menyerahkan kepada pemerintah British North Borneo"" which literally means "we have willingly surrendered to the Government of British North Borneo" was used in the agreement, asserting the understanding of the Sulu Sultanate of that time of the meaning of the earlier agreement in 1878.
The confirmatory deed of 1903 makes it known and understood between the two parties that the islands mentioned were included in the cession of the districts and islands mentioned on 22 January 1878 agreement. Additional cession money was set at 300 dollars a year with arrears due for past occupation of 3,200 dollars. The originally agreed 5,000 dollars increased to 5,300 dollars per year payable annually.
Macaskie decision of 1939.
In 1939, propriety claimants Dayang Dayang Hadji Piandao and eight other heirs filed a civil suit regarding the "cession money" payable to the heirs of Sultan of Suluthe then incumbent Jamalul Kiram II having died childless in June 1936. Chief Justice Charles Frederick Cunningham Macaskie of the High Court of North Borneo ruled on the share entitlement of each claimant.
This ruling has often been quoted by proponents of the Sulu Sultanate's claim as proof of North Borneo's acknowledgment of the sultan's ownership of the territory, although it was made solely to determine who as heir was entitled to the "cession money" of 5,300 Malaysian ringgit per year.
Philippine claim.
The Sultanate of Sulu was granted the north-eastern part of the territory as a prize for helping the Sultan of Brunei against his enemies in 1658. However, on 22 July 1878, the Sultanate of Sulu relinquished the sovereign rights over all his possessions in favour of Spain, based on the "Bases of Peace and Capitulation" signed by the Sultan of Sulu and Spain in Jolo. The Spanish then claimed the area in northern Borneo but ending its claim soon under the Madrid Protocol of 1885 after the United Kingdom and Germany recognised its presence in the Philippine archipelago in return for the Spanish to stop interfering the British affairs in northern Borneo. Once the protocol had been ratified, the British North Borneo Chartered company proceeded with the administration of North Borneo, and in 1888, North Borneo became a British protectorate.
On 15 July 1946, the North Borneo Cession Order in Council, 1946, declared that the State of North Borneo is annexed to the British Crown, hence becoming a British colony. In September 1946, F. B. Harrison, former American Governor-General of the Philippines, urged the Philippine Government to protest this proclamation. America posited the claim on the premise that Spain had never acquired sovereignty over North Borneo, and thus did not have the right to transfer claims of sovereignty over North Borneo to the United Kingdom in the Madrid Protocol of 1885. This argument however, contradicts the treaty made between Spain and the Sultanate of Sulu in 1878, which expressly states that all of the territory of the Sultanate of Sulu is relinquished to Spain. Furthermore, the American view may be based on an erroneous interpretation of that part of the 1878 and the earlier 1836 treaties, that excluded North Borneo from the Sulu transfer to Spanish sovereignty (when in fact the exclusion merely referred to Spanish protection offered to the Sultan of Sulu in case he was attacked). The United States based government also refused to intervene in the dispute, officially maintaining a neutral stance on the matter and continuing to recognise Sabah as part of Malaysia.
On 12 September 1962, during President Diosdado Macapagal's administration, the Philippine government claimed the territory of North Borneo, and the full sovereignty, title and dominion over it were "ceded" by the heirs of Sultan of Sulu, Muhammad Esmail E. Kiram I, to the Philippines. The Philippines broke off diplomatic relations with Malaysia after the federation was formed with Sabah in 1963, but probably resumed relations unofficially through the Manila Accord, in which the Philippines made it clear that its position on the inclusion of North Borneo in the Federation of Malaysia was subject to the final outcome of the Philippine claim to North Borneo. The representatives of Indonesia and the Federation of Malaya seconded that the inclusion of North Borneo into the aforementioned Federation "would not prejudice either the claim or any right thereunder". It was revealed later in 1968 that President Ferdinand Marcos was training a team of militants on Corregidor known as Operation Merdeka for infiltration into Sabah. The plan failed as a result of the Jabidah massacre.
Republic Act No. 5446 of the Philippines, which took effect on 18 September 1968, regards Sabah as a territory "over which the Republic of the Philippines has acquired dominion and sovereignty". On 16 July 2011, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled that the Philippine claim over Sabah is retained and may be pursued in the future.
Attempts at withdrawing claim.
At the ASEAN Summit on 4 August 1977, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos announced that the Philippines would take "definite steps to eliminate one of the burdens of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — the claim of the Philippine Republic to Sabah". The statement, however was not followed through, despite negotiations and reassurances made by Marcos again in 1984 with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
A bill to repeal Republic Act 5446 was filed by Leticia Ramos Shahani in the Philippine Senate in 1987. The bill was widely criticised for effectively dropping the country's claim over the territory. Muslim members of Congress also voiced their strong opposition to the measure for fears it would "endanger" the proprietary rights of the Sultanate of Sulu. This eventually led Shahani to not pursue the bill's passage.
Formation of Malaysia.
Prior to the formation of the Malaysia, two commissions of enquiry visited North Borneo, along with neighbouring Sarawak, to establish the state of public opinion there regarding merger with Malaya (and Singapore). The commission was mandated to address self-determination of the people of Sabah, i.e., the right of the people of Sabah to freely determine their own political status and freely pursue their own economic, social and cultural development.
The first commission, known as the Cobbold Commission, was established by the Malayan and British governments and was headed by Lord Cobbold, along with two representatives of Malaya and Britain (but neither of the territories under investigation). The Commission found that 'About one third of the population of each territory [i.e. of North Borneo and of Sarawak] strongly favours early realisation of Malaysia without too much concern over terms and conditions. Another third, many of them favourable to the Malaysia project, ask, with varying degrees of emphasis, for conditions and safeguards. The remaining third is divided between those who insist upon independence before Malaysia is considered and those who would strongly prefer to see British rule continue for some years to come'.
The Commission published its report on 1 August 1962 and made several recommendations. Unlike in Singapore, however, no referendum was ever conducted in North Borneo and Sarawak. Notably, the "referendum" did not involve the entire population of North Borneo and Sarawak at that time, but only representative consultations. The UN mission report stated that "[t]here was no reference to a referendum or plebiscite in the request..." and that "[t]he Mission accordingly arranged for consultations with the population through the elected representatives of the people, leaders of political parties and other groups and organisations, and with all persons who were willing to express their views". Indonesia and the Philippines rejected the findings of the Cobbold Commission.
The Manila Accord.
In July 1963, a tripartite meeting was held in Manila between Indonesian president Sukarno, Philippines president Diosdado Macapagal and Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. The three heads of state signed an agreement known as the Manila Accord where Indonesia and the Philippines stated that they would welcome the formation of Malaysia "provided the support of the people of the Borneo territories is ascertained by an independent and impartial authority, the Secretary-General of the United Nations or his representative," and provided further that "the inclusion of North Borneo as part of Malaysia would not prejudice either the claim or any right thereunder" by the Philippines to the territory.
Pursuant to the Accord, a United Nations mission to Borneo was thus established that same year, comprising members of the UN Secretariat from Argentina, Brazil, Ceylon, Czechoslovakia, Ghana, Pakistan, Japan and Jordan. The Mission's report, authored by UN Secretary-General U Thant found ‘a sizeable majority of the people' in favour of joining Malaysia. Indonesia and the Philippines subsequently rejected the report's findings – and Indonesia continued its semi-military policy of "konfrontasi" towards Malaysia. The new Federation of Malaysia was proclaimed on 16 September 1963.
In a note verbale dated 7 February 1966, the government of Malaysia put itself on record "that it has never moved away from the Manila Accord of 31 July 1963 and the Joint Statement accompanying it and reiterates its assurance that it will abide by these agreements, particularly paragraph 12 of the said Manila Accord" (where Malaysia agreed that the inclusion of North Borneo in the Federation of Malaysia would not prejudice either the claim or any right of the Philippines to the territory) and "paragraph 8 of the Joint Statement" (where all parties agreed to seek a just and expeditious solution to the dispute by means of negotiation, conciliation and arbitration, judicial settlement, or other peaceful means of the parties' own choice in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations). In other words, this note verbale affirmed Malaysia's recognition of the still unresolved territorial dispute as regards North Borneo despite the findings of the Cobbold Commission or the 1963 UN Mission.
A joint communique by Malaysia and the Philippines dated 3 June 1966 also provides that both parties have agreed to abide by the Manila Accord for the peaceful settlement of the Philippine claim to North Borneo (now called "Sabah") by "[recognizing] the need of sitting together, as soon as possible, for the purpose of clarifying the claim and discussing the means of settling it to the satisfaction of both parties" in consonance with said Accord and its accompanying Joint Statement.
In 1968, the governments of Malaysia and the Philippines agreed to hold talks in Bangkok for the purpose of clarifying the territorial dispute and discussing the modes of settling it, as provided under the terms of the Manila Accord. As reflected in the official records of a plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, the Malaysian delegation reportedly declared during such talks that "this exercise under the Joint Communique is over and done with" and that they "stalked out of the conference room, thus bringing the talks to an abrupt end," despite publicly announcing a few days earlier that they would discuss with their Philippine counterparts the modes of settlement for the issue.
Related events.
Ops Merdeka and Jabidah Massacre.
In 1967, President Ferdinand Marcos secretly authorized Major Eduardo "Abdul Latif" Martelino, a Muslim convert, to take charge of the operations of a secret commando unit code-named "Jabidah" and embark on an operation called "Project Merdeka" ("merdeka" means "freedom" in Malay) to destabilize and take over Sabah. The alleged mastermind, however, included leading generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Defense Undersecretary Manuel Syquio, and Marcos himself.
This plan backfired when in 1968, due to some reason, the trainees refused to continue their training and demanded to be returned home. One batch of recruits were disarmed, with some of the trainees returned home and some others transferred to a regular military camp in Luzon. But another batch of recruits were killed by army troops, with only one survivor, Jibin Arula, managing to escape. This event is acknowledged as a major flashpoint that ignited the Moro insurgency in the Philippines.
1985 incident.
In September 1985, 15-20 armed foreign pirates from the neighbouring Philippines landed in Lahad Datu, and killed at least 21 people and injured 11 others in a series of robberies and random shootings. In addition, some $200,000 from a local bank as well as another $5,000 from the Malaysia Airlines office were stolen.
Sovereignty over Ligitan and Sipadan islands case.
In 2002, in a case concerning sovereignty over Ligitan and Sipadan islands between Indonesia and Malaysia, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in favour of Malaysia. The two islands are located in the Celebes Sea off the northeast coast of Borneo. The case was decided based on Malaysia's "effectivités" (evidence of possession and use by a particular state that is effective to claim title) on the two islands as both Indonesia and Malaysia did not possess treaty-based titles on Ligitan and Sipadan.
The Philippines applied to intervene in the case based on its territorial claim to North Borneo. Indonesia objected to the application and stated that the "Philippines raises no claim with respect to [the two islands] and maintains that the legal status of North Borneo is not a matter on which the Court has been asked to rule". Malaysia further contended that "the issue of sovereignty over Ligitan and Sipadan is completely independent of that of the status of North Borneo" and that "the territorial titles are different in the two cases". The application was ultimately rejected by the ICJ because of the non-existence of an "interest of legal nature" such that the Court did not find how the decision on the case concerning the two islands would affect the Philippines' territorial claim to North Borneo.
2013 standoff.
On 11 February 2013, a group of approximately 100–200 individuals, some of them armed, arrived by boat in Lahad Datu, Sabah from Simunul island, Tawi-Tawi in the southern Philippines. They were sent by Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimants to the throne of the Sultanate of Sulu. Their objective was to assert their unresolved territorial claim to North Borneo. During the ensuing standoff, 56 of his followers were killed, along with 6 civilians and 10 Malaysian soldiers.
2020 diplomatic spat.
On 27 July 2020, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. posted a tweet replying to a post from the US Embassy in Manila on the "US donation of hygiene kits to Filipinos from Sabah, Malaysia" by saying that "Sabah does not belong to Malaysia". In response, the Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein rebuked the Philippine Foreign Secretary's tweet as an irresponsible statement that affects bilateral ties, and on 30 July 2020 summoned the Philippine ambassador. Locsin then summoned the Malaysian ambassador in a tit-for-tat move.
Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal rejected the Philippine claim, suggesting the issues "should be resolved once and for all" with both the governments of Malaysia and the Philippines to officially have a "government-to-government talk" through the ASEAN platform. He earlier stated that the proposal by the central government of the Philippines to include Sabah territory as part of the Philippines territory in their passports was nothing short of provocation and the federal government of Malaysia must make an immediate response. Shafie added that Sabah is a "sovereign state" and this has been settled a long time ago where the residents of Sabah had been assured by the Malaysian federal government of "full security and protection" when it formed the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
In addition, former Sabah chief minister, Musa Aman, told the Philippines to back off from continuing its claim over the state and to cease any agendas relating to Sabah and its internal politics. Similarly, former Malaysia foreign minister, Anifah Aman, who is also a Sabahan, criticised Locsin for his statement.


Democrat Turkey Party

Democrat Turkey Party (, DTP) is a former political party in Turkey,
The party was founded by a group of MPs issued from the True Path Party on 7 January 1997. The chairman of the party was Hüsamettin Cindoruk, who was a former chairman of the True Path Party. The party participated in the coalition government of Mesut Yılmaz (30 June 1997 – 11 January 1999). In the 1999 elections they received less than 1% of the vote. Hüsamettin Cindoruk resigned. In later years they tried to survive with different chairmen and names and in 2008 the party decided to merge with the People's Ascent Party.


Nolamba dynasty

Nolamba dynasty was a minor Southern Indian dynasty. The area they held sway over is referred to as "Nolambasa-37" of Henjeru (Hemavathi), "Nolambalige" ("Nolambavadi"-32000), etc. R. Narasimhacharya states that the Nolambas were a native Kannada dynasty.
Officers and kings belonging to the Nolamba dynasty.
As long as the Rastrakutas were strong Nolamba flourished under their influence. But after their collapse Nolamba Dynasty lost its influence and power.
Nolambas were overrun by the Ganga king Marasimha, who boasts of having destroyed the Nolamba family and had the title Nolambakulantaka. Nanni Nolamba was the king who was ruling in c. 970 CE. Ahavamalla Nolamba appears identical with Nanni Nolamba. Mahendra II was succeeded by his younger brother Iriva Nolamba II Ghateyankakara, who was too young to come to the throne. Hence, Mahendra's mother Divabbarasi was the queen regent during this period of interregnum after his death. Rajaraja I, the Chola emperor, invaded Nolambavadi and occupied most of its southern parts. Trailokyamalla Nanni Nolamba II Pallava Permanadi succeeded Jagadekamalla Irmadi Nolamba and was installed on the throne on 5 April 1044 CE.
Other Nolamba officers listed in various inscriptions are: Irivabe-danga Nolamba Ghateyankakara, who appears to have married Pampa Devi, a daughter of Satyashraya of Western Chalukyas.


Yuvaraj Adhikari

Yuvaraj Adhikari () (1920-1983) was a Nepalese politician belonging to the Nepali Congress Party . He was in the forefront of the leaders who took part in 1947 Biratnagar jute mill strike along with Girija Prasad Koirala, Tarini Prasad Koirala, Man Mohan Adhikari. He was among the six National Congress leaders i.e. Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, Girija Prasad Koirala, Tarini Prasad Koirala, Gehendrahari Sharma, Manmohan Adhikari who were taken to Kathmandu as the prisoners of conscience from Biratnagar via the land routes. It took 24 days for them to reach Kathmandu on foot, and was jailed at a Sundarijal-based prison after completing the walk. He was in active role in and after abolition of Rana rule. Later he was arrested and imprisoned by King Mahendra following the 1960 royal coup. Upon his release, Adhikari, was exiled to India along with other leaders and workers of the party and returned home following a government to grant him amnesty . He was then involved in underground politics to abolish the Panchayati regime.


Cangkuang

Cangkuang () is a small 8th-century Shivaist "candi" (Hindu temple) located in Kampung Pulo village, Cangkuang, Kecamatan Leles, Garut Regency, West Java, Indonesia. The temple is one of very few Hindu-Buddhist temples discovered in West Java, other temples include Batujaya and Bojongmenje temple.
Three meters to the south of the temple is an ancient Islamic tomb of Embah Dalem Arief Muhammad, believed to be the community elders of Cangkuang village during the Islamization of Sundanese in the 17th century.
Location.
The town of Leles is around 40 kilometers southeast of Bandung on the way to Garut. The temple is located several kilometers east of the Leles-Garut main road. The temple occupies a 16.5 hectares island called Kampung Pulo ("island village") surrounded by a small lake (Sundanese: "situ") called Situ Cangkuang. Near the temple there is a traditional Sundanese village. The temple, tomb, traditional village and the areas surrounding the island and lake, it is a cultural and archaeological sanctuary. Originally the whole island was surrounded by the lake, however today the village surrounds only the northern parts, the southern parts of the lake are reclaimed and cultivated as a paddy field. The temple's name "cangkuang", was derived from Sundanese native name for the pandan tree ("pandanus furcatus") found around the temple in Kampung Pulo island.
Description.
The temple is made from andesite stones, the temple's base measures 4.5 x 4.5 meters and 8.5 meters tall. The temple faces east, on the east side there is a flight of stairs leading to the portal and a small main room ("garbhagriha"). Inside the main room there is a small 62 cm tall stone statue of Shiva. The statue is damaged, the hands are broken and the face is quite eroded. On the pedestal of the statue there is a carving of Nandi's head. The temple is quite simple and unadorned with minimal ornaments. The roof is arranged in three receding steps adorned with pseudo-lingam pinnacles. The architectural style is similar to those of early Central Javanese Hindu temples. Judging from the stone decay degradation and the simple style of the temple, experts estimate that the temple is dated from the early 8th-century, about the same age as the Dieng temples, and slightly older than temples of southern Central Java such as Prambanan.


Uqair salt mine (Archaeological site)

Al-Uqair Salt mine is archaeological site located approximately 25Km Northwest of Uqair city in al-Hasa, Eastern Saudi Arabia. The site dates back to the Hellenistic period.
Description.
At the site surface, there are remains of walls that are approximately 10 cm to 30 cm high from the ground. Several remains of building were discovered and mapped by a Danish archaeological group in 1968. The remains, some of which dates back to Hellenistic period, include remains of square-shaped building which had two walls. The building is identified to be a fort and it was called “Sabkha fort”. The building is 49 m by 52 m and it is constructed by large stone ashlars. In the site had several shards that are comparable to the types found in Thaj and Hellenistic Bahrain. There are other remains of other buildings located to the East and Southeast of the fort. To the Southwest of the fort, there is a group of walled graves .
Visible remains of the site are scattered and cover an area of 10 square kilometres. There is a network of channels that stand out of the surrounding eroded ground. The network of channels appears like are of irrigated land in aerial photographs. Items found in salt mine site include shell, copper, ceramic and stone items (including pebble, chert, flint, quern and steatite.


Shapur Sorath

Shapur is a village in Vanthali taluk in Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. This region is known as "Sorath", after the former Princely State of Junagadh.
 2011 census, Shapur had a population of 8,108 in 1,798 households.
Geography.
The village is 10 km southwest of Junagadh. The main road (Bazaar) divides village from the center. It connects Station and Ozat gates. It is about 3 km long and 30 feet wide, which is wider than other older villages' roads. It has paved sidewalks on both sides. The main road has more than 500 retail stores/businesses, banks, post offices, village administration office (Gram Panchayat Office) temples, mosques, vegetable market, fruit sellers, grocery shops, Pan Masala, bookstores, hotels, snack bars, cafés, repair shops, tailors, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, shoe makers, barber shops, clothes shops, STD/PCO stores, medical stores, electric stores, lumber and hardware stores, agricultural supply stores, sweet stores, etc.
Because of its connection with Junagadh-State's Navabs; Shapur was the most planned and developed village of the State. No village of its time in India was as organized as Shapur was. Since then (and even today), the village is protected by a strong fort with four main gates around. These gates are known as Station, Ozat, Khan and Ashram gates. Perhaps today, Shapur is the only "fort-village" of India with 15 feet tall fort with 3.5 feet wide walkway and guard-rail on its top. You can take a nice walk on top-of-fort from wide stairways constructed next to both sides of each gate of the fort. Each gate has big hall on its top, from where Navab's security guards used to monitor the outside activities of the village. The roads and streets of the village are parallel and perpendicular from one end to other end of the village.
Other main roads of the village are Ashram road, Kharakuva road, Khan Darvaja road, Patel Samaj road, Civil Hospital road, Society road and Navdurga road.
The various areas of the village are known as Kshatriya Kadiya Chowk, Patel Chock (cross section), Bank of Baroda Chock, Panchayat Chock, Navdurga Chock, Azad Chock, Banglapat, Jalaram Chock, Navafari, Rabari pa, Koli pa, Soni pa, Kandarvaja, Kharakuva, Raval ni pipal and Aadarsh Society.
History.
Shapur is as old as the Muslim-ruled Junagadh state. Before Indian Independence the village was the main military-base and Janana (Muslim Queens) residence of Muslim-ruled Junagadh state. The Navabs of Junagadh-State used to visit Shapur almost every day to meet their wives and children residing at Shapur. Later on Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Indira Gandhi visited this villages for various independence and political reasons. Even after Indian independence Shapur remained important in regional and State politics, business, education and social advancement. Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji visited the first and the only public utility Thermal Power Station in that state, at that time located in Shahpur. He wanted to see personally the working conditions and the amenities provided for the villagers housing and the recreation facilities as this power station was using crushed coal as fuel for boilers and chlorination for the cooling water system, which normally polluted the local atmosphere.
The village-economy was almost destroyed after the flooding of 22 June 1983. Indian Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi was rushed to Shapur and was shocked after seeing villagers' loss of home, business, and crops. Later on the villagers and local leaders rebuilt the economy.
Demographics.
The village is residence place of Hindus and Muslims. The Hindu community includes Gurjar Kshatriya Kadia, Prajapati kumbhar,Patel, Rabari, Koli, Lohana, Mochi, Dargi, Soni, Bramhins, Bavagis, Satvara, and Dalit. The Muslim community is made of Khoja, Gameti, Naghori and Sayads.
Economy.
Shapur is known for lignite based power generation plant owned by Gujarat Electricity Board. This is one of the biggest power generation facilities in Saurastra region and employs more than 2000 people locally.
Almost 50% of village business and shoppers come from smaller villages around Shapur. Along the main road, there are several retail shops inside the village. Shapur provides better employment / business / earning opportunities to local workers in farms, industries, retail businesses, ferries, vegetable and beauty stall –Laris etc. Shapur is also famous for oil, engineering, cement products and dairy industries around the region. They provide good deal of internal and external employment and business and economy. Some of the well known industries are:
After Junagadh became Municipal Corporation, Shapur is one of the best places to do business in real estate and farming land transfer. Farmers having farms on Junagadh-road get very good value of their farms. People, who work in Junagadh but cannot afford living in Junagadh, live in Shapur as commute to Junagadh is only 15 minutes. They save much money in taxes, grocery, and education and get an urban lifestyle and facilities in this modern village. By looking at the growth of region, it looks like Shapur has been partially merged with Junagadh and will be under corporation's control within next few years.
Agriculture and farming.
Shapur is only 1.5 km away from the Ozat River. Ozat is the third-largest river of Saurastra (128 km) with its most watersheds used for drinking water to Junagadh, Vanthali, Shapur and neighbor villages. After construction of Ozat-Vear dam near Shapur the tube wells of the region became so live with full of water, which made irrigation easy and affordable for farming. That is why the areas around Ozat river are the most greenest and best harvested in Junagadh district. These farms produce world-famous 'Kesar/saffron' mango -best in test and flavor among all species of mangos.
The farmers of Shapur take three crops per year that keeps farms green and live around the year. Farmers produces fruits, vegetables and flowers like mango, chiku, banana, sitafal, coconut, watermelon, cantaloupe, pupnus, grapes, egg-plants (bringers) peppers, cubage, cucumber, zucchini, turia, tomato, potato, cilantro, lemon, wheat, peanut (ground nut), beans, cotton, castrol, and spices are common produces of the area.
Because of the big production of fruits, vegetables and grains; the local farmers/vendors get opportunity to do business with cities like Junagadh, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat and up to Mumbai. On the other hand, these produces are very cheap in local market, making easy and wealthy lifestyle for local people.
The Patel and Rabari community mostly engaged in farming and dairy business. They sell milk and milk products to inside and outside of the village. Shapur's 'Hari Oum’ and 'Kismat' are well reputed dairy and sweet producers in the district, state and outside the country.
Transport.
Shapur is the last rail road junction on Junagadh-Veraval and Junagadh-Saradiya railroads. Even the train station is farther than the bus station it is always full of travelers because availability of longer distance trains.
Frequent commuting facilities of trains, buses, and private taxi/cabs to Junagadh made Shapur as a part of Junagadh urban area. Commuter can find buses and cabs/autos for Junagadh in every five minutes.
Air: The nearest airports from Shapur are Keshod -25 km (at present not in use)and Rajkot -120 km.
Rail: The railway station of Shapur lies on Ahmadabad /Rajkot – Veraval,(Only local trains stop) connects it the major cities of the country.
Road: State transport and Junagadh municipal corporation buses link Shapur with all the major cities of the state.
Education.
Shapur was educational and cultural hub for neighbor villagers. The villagers take pride to have one of the best educational systems, schools, and teaching staffs in the district. Students come from nearby towns and villages including Vanthali (Taluka place) and Junagadh! The village has following schools:
Shapur's finest educational system comes from the best teachers and management system (mainly from Javahar Vinay Mandir). The students rank average higher than other schools around area. Shapur has an average literacy rate of 82%, higher than the national average of 59.5%:


Bangla Bazar

Bangla bazar() is the oldest neighbourhood of Dhaka, which existed before Mughal Period. Currently, the largest publication and book market of Dhaka is located in the area.
History.
Some historians think that Bangla bazar was the center of the 'Bangala' city mentioned by many travelers. Some others think that Bangla bazar was established in Sultani period when the word 'Bangala' became popular.


Orontes IV

Orontes IV (Armenian: Երվանդ Դ, Yervand IV) was the son of King Arsames and is recorded as ruling Armenia from inscriptions found at the historic capital of the Orontid dynasty, Armavir. He was the founder of the city of Yervandashat.
In his reign the religious site of Bagaran was founded. Large bronze statues in the Hellenistic style of the gods, Zeus (Aramazd), Artemis (Anahit) and Herakles (Vahagn) were brought there and set up in temples dedicated to them. He is also said to have founded a shrine at Armavir dedicated to Apollo (Mithra), a golden statue of four horses pulling a chariot with Apollo as god of the Sun. This was later destroyed by the Sassanid Persian army in the 4th century AD.
King Antiochus III instigated a revolt against King Orontes IV. Strabo, who wrote about this 200 years later, stated that it was general Artaxias I, who was also an Orontid, who overthrew King Orontes IV. Aramaic inscriptions found at Armavir state that King Orontes IV died at the hands of his own army, in other words by betrayal from Artaxias I. This was most likely bribery of the Armenian army by King Antiochus III.
Artaxias I took over as King of Armenia soon afterwards, according to Strabo.
Orontes IV had a son, Ptolemaeus of Commagene, who served as the last Satrap of Commagene between 201–163 BC, became in 163 BC the first King of Commagene and died in 130 BC.