title: The Fray

text: Like their first album, "The Fray" critical reception was mixed. "Rolling Stone" termed the album "nothing new", while "Entertainment Weekly" stated, ""The Fray" is all blah, all the time: more minor-key melodies and more dreary tempos." "Allmusic", whilst giving the album a modestly positive review, echoed many of these statements, commenting that "the songcraft remains virtually unchanged" and termed the album as ""How to Save a Life – Part 2"". However, "AbsolutePunk" criticized the negative reviews, stating, "For what it's worth, the Denver quintet has released a charming, appealing record that would be far more praiseworthy if it didn't sound so much like its predecessor... [which] isn't exactly a bad thing." Review aggregator "Metacritic" lists the album as holding a rating of 56/100 based on nine professional reviews, meaning "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Fray

text: The Fray collaborated with Timbaland on his album "Shock Value II", which was released on December 8, 2009. The band was featured on the song "Undertow", which, despite not being released as a single, entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 at No. 100, the week ending November 28, 2009. On December 22, 2009, the band released an EP, "Christmas EP", as a free download from the band's official website. The EP contained five acoustic covers of popular Christmas carols and was recorded by Warren Huart in Nashville at Blackbird Studios.


title: The Fray

text: In an interview with "Westword" in June 2010, guitarist Dave Welsh announced that the band was working on an EP containing covers of songs by artists such as Annie Lennox, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Marley but did not give a specific release date.


title: The Fray

text: In 2011, the Fray contributed two cover songs on compilation albums: "Take Your Time" for "" and "Mahna Mahna" for "".


title: The Fray

text: Brendan O'Brien was hired to produce the band's third studio album, later named "Scars & Stories". During an interview with "Colorado Daily", Slade explained why the band had recruited him: "Sonically, we wanted to make this record sound as close as possible to the live shows." He cited Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen as influences for the sound of the record that they were trying to capture. As for the lyrical composition, Slade said the lyrics capture a more aggressive tone than their previous records.


title: The Fray

text: The band began recording the album in March 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, at Blackbird Studio, and the audio mixing began on June 21, 2011. A month later, Slade confirmed via Twitter that the mixing and recording had been completed: "[We] finished our third record about half an hour ago." When asked about possible release dates for the album, Slade mentioned his hope was that the album will be out by October 2011 or at least in time for Thanksgiving. However, the date was pushed backed to early 2012. It was officially released on February 7, 2012.


title: The Fray

text: On September 13, 2011, during a live performance at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the band debuted the album's first single, "Heartbeat", The band announced in an interview on the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown that "Run for Your Life" would be the album's second single. A music video for the latter song was released on March 13, 2012.


title: The Fray

text: On June 4, 2013, the Fray announced that they had begun recording. The album's first single, "Love Don't Die", was premiered on radio stations on October 15, 2013, and on iTunes a week later. A music video for the song was filmed on November 13, 2013, at Cowboy Palace Saloon in Chatsworth, California, and released on December 6, 2013.


title: The Fray

text: The album was revealed to be titled "Helios" and was made available for preorder on November 25, 2013. The album was originally planned to be released on January 14, 2014, but it was delayed; instead, another song from the album, "Hurricane", was made available that day. The album was officially released on February 25. On May 9, the band announced via Twitter the release of the album's second single, "Break Your Plans".


title: The Fray

text: The album was produced by Stuart Price and Ryan Tedder. It received primarily mixed reviews, although it did peak at on the "Billboard" US Top Rock Albums.


title: The Fray

text: In mid-2015, the band joined Matt Nathanson as Train's opening act during the latter band's "Picasso at the Wheel Summer Tour". The tour started on May 21 and ended on July 25 of the same year. The band also continued to tour with Train into late 2015, until their final show in Las Vegas on November 7.


title: The Fray

text: On September 9, 2016, the Fray released a new single, "Singing Low", which is also included on their greatest hits album, "", which was announced along with the single's release. It was released on November 4, 2016. In late 2016, the band went on tour to promote the album.


title: The Fray

text: In July 2019, Slade revealed in an interview that the band would be taking a hiatus after fulfilling their five-record deal with Epic Records, saying they wanted to focus more on their own freedom by "playing the shows we want and picking and choosing".


title: The Fray

text: On March 12, 2022, Isaac Slade announced that he would be leaving the band. His final performance with the band took place on May 14, 2022, at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois.


title: The Fray

text: "How to Save a Life" consists of a mix of mid-tempo, piano-driven pop rock tracks and power ballads. The album "The Fray" spread the spectrum of music: the pop rock songs are faster and more energetic, while the ballads are softer than those on the first album.


title: The Fray

text: Slade's vocals feature a falsetto and a strong American accent. On the second album, his vocals are more aggressive, most notably on the tracks "We Build Then We Break" and "Say When".


title: The Fray

text: The lyrics on both albums revolve around life's problems and issues. Common themes include happiness, sadness, death, the problem of evil, relationships and war. The honest and emotional nature of the lyrics


title: The Fray

text: has also had critics labeling the Fray as emo, comparing them to mainstream emo acts like Jimmy Eat World. The Fray's initial songs contain lyrics with strong religious messages. However, by the time they began work on their debut album, the band decided against being an entirely religious group because they believed that God had called them away from the "Christian music genre and into a secular market".


title: The Fray

text: The Planeta Awards is an annual Peruvian awards ceremony established by Radio Planeta. The Fray has received one award from two nominations.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz ( ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quru River valley in Iran's historic Azerbaijan region between long ridges of volcanic cones in the Sahand and Eynali mountains, Tabriz's elevation ranges between above sea level. The valley opens up into a plain that gently slopes down to the eastern shores of Lake Urmia, to the west. With cold winters and temperate summers, Tabriz is considered a summer resort. It was named World Carpet Weaving City by the World Crafts Council in October 2015 and Exemplary Tourist City of 2018 by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.


title: Tabriz

text: With a population of over 1.7 million (2016), Tabriz is the largest economic hub and metropolitan area in northwest Iran. The population is bilingual, speaking Azerbaijani and Persian. Tabriz is a major heavy industries hub for automobiles, machine tools, refineries, petrochemicals, textiles and cement production industries. The city is famous for its handicrafts, including hand-woven rugs and jewellery. Local confectionery, chocolate, dried nuts and traditional Tabrizi food are recognised throughout Iran as some of the best. Tabriz is also an academic hub and a site for some of the most prestigious cultural institutes in Northwest Iran.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz contains many historical monuments, representing Iran's architectural transition throughout its deep history. Most of Tabriz's preserved historical sites belong to Ilkhanid, Safavid and Qajar. Among these sites is the grand Bazaar of Tabriz, which is designated a World Heritage Site. From the early modern era, Tabriz was pivotal in the development, movement and economy of its three neighboring regions; namely the Caucasus, Eastern Anatolia and Central Iran. In the modern era the city played a vital role in the history of Iran. As the country's closest hub to Europe, many aspects of early modernisation in Iran began in Tabriz. Prior to forced ceding of the Qajar dynasty's Caucasian territories to Imperial Russia, following two Russo-Persian Wars in the first half of the 19th century, Tabriz was at the forefront of Iranian rule over its Caucasian territories. Until 1925, the city was the traditional residence of the Qajar crown princes.


title: Tabriz

text: According to some sources, including "Encyclopædia Britannica", the name "Tabriz" derives from "tap-riz" ('flowing hot'), from the many thermal springs in the area.


title: Tabriz

text: Other sources claim that in AD 246, to avenge his brother's death, king Tiridates II of Armenia repelled Ardashir I of the Sassanid Empire and changed the name of the city from Shahistan to Tauris, deriving from ""ta-vrezh"" ("this revenge" in Grabar). In AD 297, it became the capital of Tiridates III, king of Armenia. However, this story has a popular origin and no ancient source has recorded such event. This is based on accounts of Vardan Areveltsi, a 13th-century Armenian historian. Accordingly, the historical Armenian name for the city was Tavrezh ().


title: Tabriz

text: "The Cambridge History of Iran" points to a connection between the "ancient stronghold of Tarui-Tarmakisa" (or Tarwi-Tarwakisa), which existed in the 8th century BC, and the city of Tabriz, with Ernst Emil Herzfeld's "Archaeological History of Iran" also directly equating ""Tarwakisa"" with Tabriz; cf Proto-Iranian "tr̥Hwáns" (able to overcome). However, some researchers believe that Tabriz may be considered a pre-Iranian toponym.


title: Tabriz

text: The early history of Tabriz is not well-documented. The earliest civilization signs in the city belongs to an Iron Age grave yard of 1st millennium B.C. which were unearthed in late 1990s in northern side of Blue Mosque. The city also inscribed as old as 714 B.C. on as Tarui or Tauris, on the Assyrian King Sargon II's epigraph in 714 BC.


title: Tabriz

text: Egyptologist David Rohl suggested that the legendary Garden of Eden was near Tabriz. Archaeologist Eric H. Cline commented on Rohl's views, writing that "his suggestions have not caught on with the scholarly establishment. His argument is not helped by the fact that it depends upon speculations regarding the transmission of place-names for both the various rivers and nearby related areas from antiquity to the present. In the end, while Rohl's suggestion is not out of the question, it seems no more probable than any other hypothesis, and less likely than those suggested by Speiser, Zarins, and Sauer."


title: Tabriz

text: Since the earliest documented history of Tabriz, it has been chosen as the capital for several rulers commencing from Atropates era and his dynasty. It is likely the city has been destroyed multiple times either by natural disasters or by the invading armies. The earliest elements of the present Tabriz are claimed to be built either at the time of the early Sassanids in the 3rd or 4th century AD, or later in the 7th century. The city used to be called "T'awrēš" in Middle Persian.


title: Tabriz

text: After the Muslim conquest of Iran, the Arabian Azd tribe from Yemen resided in Tabriz. The development of post-Islamic Tabriz began as of this time. The Islamic geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi says that Tabriz was a village before Rawwad from the tribe of Azd arrive at Tabriz. In 791 AD, Zubaidah, the wife of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, rebuilt Tabriz after a devastating earthquake and beautified the city so much as to obtain the credit for having been its founder.


title: Tabriz

text: In the Ramadan of 1208, Tabriz, as well as its adjacent cities and territories were conquered by the Kingdom of Georgia under Tamar the Great, as a response to the massacre of 12,000 Christians in the Georgian-controlled city of Ani on Easter day by Muslims. In nearby Ardebil, conquered by the Georgians as well, as many as 12,000 Muslims were killed. The Georgians then pushed further, taking Khoy and Qazvin along the way.


title: Tabriz

text: After the Mongol invasion, Tabriz came to eclipse Maragheh as the later Ilkhanid Mongol capital of Azerbaijan until it was sacked by Timur in 1392.


title: Tabriz

text: Chosen as a capital by Abaqa Khan, fourth ruler of the Ilkhanate, for its favored location in the northwestern grasslands, in 1295, his successor Ghazan Khan made it the chief administrative centre of an empire stretching from Anatolia to the Oxus River and from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean. Under his rule, new walls were built around the city, and numerous public buildings, educational facilities, and caravansarais were erected to serve traders travelling on the ancient Silk Road. The Byzantine Gregory Chioniades is said to have served as the city's Orthodox bishop during this time.


title: Tabriz

text: In the 13th century, many western expediters who visited Tabriz on their way to the east were amazed by the richness of the city, its magnificent buildings and its institutions.


title: Tabriz

text: Marco Polo travelled the Silk Road, passing Tabriz about 1275, described it as: "a great city surrounded by beautiful and pleasant gardens. It is excellently situated so the goods brought to here coming from many regions. Latin merchants specially Genevis go there to buy the goods that come from foreign lands."


title: Tabriz

text: From 1375 to 1468, Tabriz was the capital of Qara Qoyunlu state in Azerbaijan, until defeat of Qara Qoyunlu ruler, Jahan Shah by Ag Qoyunlu warriors. Ag Qoyunlus selected Tabriz as their capital from 1469 to 1501. Some of the existing historical monuments including the Blue Mosque belong to the Qara Qoyunlu period.


title: Tabriz

text: In 1501, Ismail I entered Tabriz and proclaimed it the capital of his Safavid state. In 1514, after the Battle of Chaldiran, Tabriz was sacked by Selim I. On 16 July 1534, prior to Ottoman conquest of Baghdad, Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha occupied Tabriz. In 1555, Tahmasp I transferred its capital to Qazvin to avoid the growing threat of the Ottoman army to his capital.


title: Tabriz

text: Between 1585 and 1603, Tabriz was under occupation by Ottomans. After it was retaken by the Safavids under Abbas I of Persia, the city grew as a major commerce centre, conducting trade with the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and the Caucasus. Tabriz was occupied and sacked by Ottoman Murad IV in 1635, during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39), before being returned to Persia in the Treaty of Zohab in 1639. The city was completely devastated by a strong earthquake in 1641.


title: Tabriz

text: In summer of 1721, a large earthquake shocked Tabriz, killing about eighty thousand of its residents. The devastation continued in 1724–1725, when the city was invaded by an Ottoman army. During this round of invasion, the Ottomans imprisoned many in Tabriz and killed about two hundred thousand residents. The city was subsequently retaken by the Iranian army, after which a widespread famine, combined with the spread of fatal diseases, killed more of those who still remained. In 1780, a major earthquake hit near Tabriz and killed as many as two hundred thousand people, leaving only about thirty thousand survivors.


title: Tabriz

text: At the end of the 18th century, the city was divided into several districts, each of which was ruled by a family, until 1799, when the Qajar Prince Abbas Mirza was appointed as the governor of the city. During the Qajar dynasty the city was the residence for the Crown Prince. The crown prince normally served as governor of Azerbaijan province as well. Some of the most important events in this period were the wars between Qajar Iran and neighbouring Imperial Russia. Prior to the forced cession of Iran's Caucasian territories—comprising what is now Georgia, southern Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia—to Imperial Russia following the two Russo-Persian Wars of the first half of the 19th century, Tabriz, being strategically located, was instrumental to the implementation of Iranian rule in its Caucasian territories. During the last Russo-Persian War, the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, the city was captured for Russia in 182 by General Prince Eristov, who marched into the city with 3,000 soldiers. After Abbas Mirza and Ivan Paskevich signed the peace treaty, which granted for the irrevocable cession of the last remaining Caucasian territories, the Russian army retreated from the city. Nevertheless, Russian political and military influence remained a major force in Tabriz and north-northwestern Iran even until the fall of the Russian empire in the early 20th century. After the retreat of the Russian army, Abbas Mirza, the Qajar Crown Prince, launched a modernization scheme from Tabriz, during which he introduced Western-style institutions, imported industrial machinery, installed the first regular postal service, and undertook military reforms in the city. He also began a rebuilding campaign and established a modern taxation system.


title: Tabriz

text: Thanks to the geographical closeness to the West and to communications with nearby countries' enlightenment movements, Tabriz became the centre of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution movements between 1905 and 1911, which led to the establishment of a parliament in Iran and the formation of a constitution. Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan, two Tabrizi reformists who led Tabriz people's solidarity against the absolute monarchy, had a great role in achievement to the goals of Iran's constitutional revolution. In 1909, Tabriz was occupied by the Russian forces. Four months after the constitutional revolution's success, in December 1911, the Russians reinvaded Tabriz. After crushing the local resistance by invading Russian troops, they started suppressing the constitutional revolutionaries and residents of the city. Following the invasion, Russian troops executed about 1,200 of Tabriz residents. As a result of the campaign, Tabriz was occupied by the Russian forces between 1911 and 1917.


title: Tabriz

text: From the very start of World War I, Iran declared neutrality. When the war erupted on a full scale, Tabriz and much of northwestern-northern Iran had already been "de facto" occupied by Russia for several years. In later years of World War I, the Ottoman troops intervened and took control of the city by defeating the Russian troops stationed there. By this time, the Ottoman army led by Enver Pasha threatened the whole Russian army in the Caucasus region. Russian troops recaptured the city from the Ottomans at a later stage of the war. By escalation of the revolution in Russia, the Russian armies in Iranian Azerbaijan were evacuated, and the actual power passed into the hands of the local committee of the democrat party, with Ismail Nawbari at its head. Following Russia's retreat, the Ottomans captured the city once again for a few months until the decisive end of the war, and retreated thereafter. After World War I, a new era in the county's history began. Reza Shah, brigadier-general of the Persian Cossack Brigade, declared himself the king of the country following a coup d'état. He started with promises of modernization programs in Iran which was concentrated on the unification of the country, under the idea of "one country, one nation". This included centralization of the power and imposing restrictions on the local culture, heritage, and language in Iranian Azerbaijan, and the city of Tabriz. The modernization and nationalization plan of Reza Shah continued until the surge of World War II.


title: Tabriz

text: At the final year of the World War II despite the declaration of the neutrality by the Iranian government, the country was occupied by the allied forces. The allied forces then urged Reza Shah to abdicate and installed his son Mohammad Reza as the new king of the country. The postwar situation was further complicated by Soviet aid to set up a local government called Azerbaijan People's Government in Northwest Iran, having Tabriz as its capital. The new Soviet-backed local government was run by Ja'far Pishevari and held power for one year starting from 1946. Pishevari's government gave more freedom to speech and education in Azerbaijani language and promoted local cultural heritage and gained some popularity among the residents. However, after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, Pishevari's limited armed forces were crushed by the Imperial Iranian army and the Iranian government retook control of the city. One of the major establishments in the period of Pishevari's government was opening of the University of Tabriz which played a major role in the later political movements and protests in the region.


title: Tabriz

text: For the next 30 years, after the collapse of Azerbaijan's autonomous government, Tabriz enjoyed a stable era until the revolution in 1979. During this period the city received many of investors in its industries and had transformed into a heavy industries hub in the northwest of Iran. The need for a strong workforce increased immigration from all around Azerbaijan toward Tabriz. During this era and because of the continuous policy of the government centralization in Tehran as well as changes in communication and transportation, the city lost its historical dominance in favour of being the gate for reform and modernization in the country.


title: Tabriz

text: Starting with 1978 and with the heat of the Iranian Revolution, revolutionary movements of some of Tabriz residents played a major role in the revolution. After the revolution, the residents of the city were unsatisfied with the outcome, mainly because of the ignorance of the revolutionary government about the rights of the Azerbaijani minority. Another major source of dissatisfaction was the support of most of Iranian Azerbaijanis including Tabriz residents from a more liberal cleric, Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari, who was against the content of the new constitution which was mixing religion and state together. The unrest in the city calmed down after brutal crush of the protesters in Tabriz and after house arrest of Shariatmadari.


title: Tabriz

text: In the 1980s, due to the Iran–Iraq War, like the rest of the country, most of the construction and development projects in the city were stopped in order to fund the war costs. In addition to the indirect effects of the war, city's industrial zone, especially the oil refinery was also a major target for airstrikes by Iraqi's air forces because of the closeness to the Iraqi borderlines, and their strategic roles in the country's economy. With the escalation of the war, the attacks turned to War of the Cities and the air attacks later turned into the random strikes on the residential areas of the city in the later phase of the war.


title: Tabriz

text: In recent years, Tabriz is much more stable and the new developments in the city are rapidly changing the face of the city.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz was chosen as the capital by several rulers commencing from the time of Atropates. It was the capital of the Ilkhanate (Mongol) dynasty since 1265. During the Ghazan Khan era, who came into power in 1295, the city reached its highest splendour. The later realm stretched from the Amu Darya in the East to the Egypt borders in the West and from the Caucasus in the North to the Indian Ocean in the South. It was again the capital of Iran during the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty from 1375 to 1468 and then during the Ag Qoyunlu within 1468–1500 and it was capital of Iran in the Safavid period from 1501 until their defeat in 1555.


title: Tabriz

text: In 2002, during a construction project at the north side of the Blue Mosque (Part of Silk Road Project), an ancient graveyard was revealed. This was kept secret until a construction worker alerted the authorities. Radiocarbon analysis by Allameh Tabatabai University has shown the background of the graves to be more than 3,800 years old. A museum of these excavations including the Blue Mosque was opened to the public in 2006.


title: Tabriz

text: The other excavation site is in Abbasi Street at the site of Rab'-e Rashidi, which was the location for an academic institution since approximately 700 years ago. It was established in Ilkhanid period.


title: Tabriz

text: "The City of Firsts" or city of pioneers is an unofficial motto for Tabriz, a major city and provincial capital in north west of Iran. The motto is given because of the pioneering role of the city in modernization signs in Iran and its leading role in movement toward the formation of modern Iran. Firsts of Tabriz in the Iranian History:


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is located in northwest of Iran in East Azerbaijan province between Eynali and Sahand mountains in a fertile area inshore of Aji River and Ghuri River.


title: Tabriz

text: The local area is earthquake-prone and during its history, the city has been devastated and rebuilt several times.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen: "BSk", Trewartha: "BS") bordering on a humid continental climate with regular seasons (Köppen: "Dsa", Trewartha: "Dc"). The annual precipitation is around , a good deal of which falls as snow during the winter months and rain in spring and autumn. The city enjoys a mild and fine climate in spring, dry and semi-hot in summer, humid and rainy in autumn and snowy cold in winter. The average annual temperature is . Cool winds blow from east to west mostly in summer.


title: Tabriz

text: Air pollution is one of the major environmental issues in Tabriz. Air pollution is due to an increase of the number of cars commuting in the city and polluting industries such as thermal power plants, petrochemical complexes and the oil refinery in the west of the city. Air pollution levels increased continuously in the second half of the 20th century. With a mandate of national environmental codes by heavy industries, industrial air pollution has reduced in recent years. However, the air quality in the city is far from world norms for clean air.


title: Tabriz

text: An immediate environmental threat is the shrinkage and drying out of the Lake Urmia located in the outskirts of Western Tabriz. The lake has faced a grave crisis since the late 20th century. Water depth reduction, increasing water salinity to saturation level and the appearance of vast salt fields around the lake, are alarming indications of gradual total desiccation of a unique ecosystem. This occurred due to global warming and ever-increasing demands for inadequate freshwater sources in the basin. It is feared that in the near future low-lying clouds of airborne salt and minerals may hover over large areas around the lake, posing serious health hazards.


title: Tabriz

text: Authority for the city lies with the Mayor, who is elected by a municipal board. The municipal board is periodically elected by the city's residents. The Municipal central office is located in the Tabriz Municipality Palace.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is divided into 12 municipal districts. Each municipal district retains a number of the older neighborhoods that are of cultural and historical interest.


title: Tabriz

text: According to an official 2016 census, the population of Tabriz is 1,733,033. The majority of the city's population are Azerbaijani people, followed by Persians, Armenians, Assyrians, and other People of Caucasus.


title: Tabriz

text: The predominant language spoken in Tabriz is Azerbaijani language (Azerbaijani people call it "Turku" ("تۆرکۆ") or "Turki" (تۆرکی) language), which is a Turkic language mutually intelligible with modern Turkish dialects. The language has a strong Iranian superstratum since it has been in close contact with the Persian language for many centuries. Similar to the other parts of Iran, the official language is Persian and the most inhabitants have native or near-native knowledge of Persian language, which is the major medium of education.


title: Tabriz

text: Nevertheless, the Iranian constitution respects the right to speak and have limited educational facilities in other native languages, including Azerbaijani. For the first time, an academic program on Azerbaijani language opened at the University of Tabriz in 1999. Other than Azerbaijani, there is a notable minority of Armenian speakers and a smaller minority of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic speakers.


title: Tabriz

text: It is believed that before the gradual increase and the dominance of Azerbaijani language in the area, other Iranian languages similar to Persian were spoken in Azerbaijan and Tabriz. The 13th-century manuscript Safina-yi Tabriz has poems in what its Tabriz-born author has called the Tabrizi language ("Zabān-e-Tabrizi") which is similar to Persian.


title: Tabriz

text: After being crowned at Tabriz in 1501, Shah Ismail I announced the Twelver branch of Shia Islam as the official religion of the Safavid Empire. As a result of this royal order, the mostly Sunni population of Tabriz converted to Shiism. Currently, the majority of people are followers of Shia Islam.


title: Tabriz

text: The city has a visible Armenian Apostolic minority who follow Christianity. There used to be a small Jewish community, but most of them have moved to Tehran. There is also a small, embattled community of the Baháʼí Faith in the city.


title: Tabriz

text: The proximity to Sahand, a mountain in the south of the city, has been a source of inspiration for contemporary revolutionaries and poets alike. The power of this inspiring source, however, goes to much earlier times. Tabriz was a house for numerous Iranian writers, poets, and illumination movements. In old times the city notables supported poets and writers by organizing periodical meetings. Within its long history, it was a residence for many well known Iranian writers and poets. The list can start from the old-time Rumi, Qatran, Khaqani to recent years Samad Behrangi, Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi, Parvin E'tesami. The prominent Iranian Azeri poet Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar was born in Tabriz. The culture, social values, language and music is a mixture of what exists in the rest of Iran.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz also has a special place in Persian literature, as the following sample of verses from some of Iran's best poets and authors illustrates:


title: Tabriz

text: A century-long autocratic nation-building policy of central governments in Iran has succeeded in cultural assimilation in the favour of a government-sanctioned culture. As a result, Tabriz, by the turn of the 20th century had nearly become devoid of its once characteristic cultural identity. Thanks to the more liberal policies of the Khatami era (1998–2006), a cultural renaissance took place and the local music was revitalized.


title: Tabriz

text: The traditional Azeri music is divided into two distinct types, the music of "ashugh" and the "mugham". Mugham, despite its similarity to Persian classical music, was not common among Iranian Azeris. In recent years, however, mugham is gaining popularity among the educated middle-class young generation. For instance, Nasir Atapur, from Tabriz, was the laureate of Mugam contest 2007.


title: Tabriz

text: The ashugh music had survived in a mountainous region of Qaradağ and presently is identified as the characteristic form of music in all Azerbaijan. The ashugh music, throughout its long history, had been associated with nomadic life in mountainous regions and used to be dismissed as back-country folklore. The recent identity renaissance of Azeri speaking people has elevated the status of Ashughs as the guardians of national culture. The newfound unprecedented popularity and frequent concerts and performances in urban settings have resulted in rapid innovative developments aiming to enhance the urban-appealing aspects of these ashugh performances. The main factor for these developments was the opening of academic style music classes in Tabriz by master Ashugs, such as Aşiq Imran Heydəri.


title: Tabriz

text: Ashugs (Aşiq in Azeri language stemmed from the Arabic word for lover) were travelling bards who sang and played saz, an eight or ten string plucking instrument in the form of a long-necked lute. Their roots can be traced back to at least the 7th century according to the Turkic epic Dede Korkut. Naturally, the music has evolved in the course of the grand migration and ensuing feuds with the original inhabitants the acquired lands. Still, the essence of the original epics, i.e. metamorphic description of life in pastoral terms with direct reference to the mountainous landscape, persists to the present time. The characteristic aspect of the Ashugh music is its frequent allusions to a mountain with the intention of arousing an emotional state with a tone of mild melancholy in a listener. The first verses of a contemporary Ashug song, composed by Məhəmməd Araz, may well represent the essence of Ashugh music may clarify the said statement.


title: Tabriz

text: "Tabrizian style" painting was shaped in the era of Ilkhanids, Kara Koyunlu and the Safavids. The paintings date back to the early 14th century and show significant influence from Chinese and Chinese-influenced pictures. Over the years Tabriz became the centre of the famous school of Persian miniature painting. A fascinating fictional account of "Tabrizian style" painting in the Safavids era is narrated by Orhan Pamuk in "My Name Is Red".


title: Tabriz

text: "Abgoosht" or "Shorva" (آب‌گوشت) is a hearty soup made of mutton and chickpeas. It has been cooked in Iran for many years and, until recently, was the main dish of most families in Tabriz.


title: Tabriz

text: "Chelow kabab", kebab and roasted tomatoes (and roasted hot peppers occasionally) served on a plate of steamed rice"," is the national dish of Iran. Tabriz is famous for the quality of its "chelow kabab".


title: Tabriz

text: "Dolma" is a traditional Azerbaijani food, prepared by filling an eggplant, capsicum, tomato or zucchini with a mixture of meat, split pea, onion and various spices.


title: Tabriz

text: "Garniyarikh" (meaning "the torn abdomen" in Azeri) is a kind of dolma filled with meat, garlic, almonds and spices.


title: Tabriz

text: "Tabriz meatballs" are large meatballs composed of ground meat, rice, and leeks, alongside various other ingredients. The word "kofta" is derived from Persian "kūfta": in Persian, "kuftan" (کوفتن) means "to beat" or "to grind".


title: Tabriz

text: There are also confections, biscuits and cookies which are Tabriz specialties, including Qurabiya, Tabrizi Lovuez, Riss, Nougat, Tasbihi, Latifeh, Ahari, Lovadieh, and Lokum.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz was devastated by several earthquakes during its history (e.g., in 858, 1041, and 1721) and as a result, from numerous monuments only few of them or part of them have survived until now. Moreover, some of the historical monuments have been destroyed fully or partially within construction projects (the Arg of Tabriz is in danger of destruction now, because of the ongoing nearby construction project of Mosal'laye Emam). Nonetheless, there are still numerous monuments remaining until now, which include:


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz has 132 parks, including 97 small parks, 31 regional and 4 city parks. According to 2005 statistics, the area of parks in Tabriz is 2,595 km, and the area of green spaces of Tabriz is 8,548 km, which is 5.6 sq.m per person. A study published in 2018 found that "Most of the urban green spaces are located on the urban fringes and in low-density higher income residential areas." It also found that "Greenspace per capita provision in Tabriz is much lower than the national and international standards (some districts offer only 0–1 sq.m. per capita green space)..." The oldest park in Tabriz, Golestan Baği, was established at first Pahlavi's era in the city center. Tabriz also has 8 traveller-parks with the capacity of 10.000 travellers.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is the largest economic center in Northwest Iran. The economy of Tabriz is based on commerce, services, health care and pharmaceutical, small and heavy industries, and handcrafts. Tabriz is the main site for four of Iran's Fortune 100 companies including: ITMCO, Palaz Moket, Kashi Tabriz, Shirin Asal, Aydin.


title: Tabriz

text: Modern industries in Tabriz established since early 20 century by match manufacturing industries. Currently manufacturing industries in the city include manufacturing of machinery, vehicles, chemicals and petrochemical materials, refinery, cement, electrical and electronic equipment, home appliances, textiles and leather, nutrition and dairy, woodcraft, and pharmaceuticals.


title: Tabriz

text: There are hundreds of industrial complexes in Tabriz's industrial area. Among them is the Iran Tractor Manufacturing Co (ITMCO) which is one of the biggest industrial complexes in the region. This complex alone has the highest foundry and forging capacity in the Middle East and it is the biggest tractor manufacturer in Iran with several production branches within Iran and other countries. Behind ITMCO there are several other industrial complexes including Mashin Sazi Tabriz Co, Iran Diesel Engine Manufacturing Co (IDEM), Pump Iran, Tabriz Petrochemical Complex, Tabriz Oil Refinery and a couple of industrial regions which include hundreds of small industries.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is also a site for abundant food and some of the most famous chocolate factories in Iran which honoured the city as the "Chocolate City" of Iran. This includes Dadash and Baradar Industrial Co. with the brand mark of Aidin, Soniz which is one of the biggest factories of its kind in the region.


title: Tabriz

text: A vast portion of the city's population is involved in small businesses like shoemaking ateliers, stone-cutting, furniture ateliers, confectionery, printing and dry nuts.


title: Tabriz

text: Due to its distinct handicrafts and carpets Tabriz is selected as the world city of crafts and carpet.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is the main centre for the production of the famous Iranian Rugs. The distinctive durability of Tabriz's carpets and its unique designs made it a famous brand in the world's carpet markets. Tabrizi rugs and carpets usually have ivory backgrounds with blue, rose, and indigo motifs. They often feature symmetrical and balanced designs. They usually have a single medallion that is surrounded by vines and palmettos.


title: Tabriz

text: One of the main quality characteristics of Tabriz rugs is the weaving style, using specialities that guarantee the durability of the rug in comparison for example with Kashan rugs.


title: Tabriz

text: Other than carpets, the city is famous for several other handicrafts including silverwares, wood engraving, pottery and ceramics, Ghalamzani (Irania style of toreutics), Moarraq (Iranian style of Mosaic), Monabbat, embroider.


title: Tabriz

text: Shopping centres are mostly located in the city centre, including Grand Bazaar of Tabriz, pedestrian malls on Tarbiyat street, Shahnaz street and Ferdowsi street. Also, there are some malls and a lot of elegant & luxurious boutiques of jewellery, rugs, clothes, handicrafts, confectionery and nuts, home appliances and so on in the Abresan intersection, Roshdiyeh district and Kouy Valiasr.


title: Tabriz

text: The special feature of Tabriz's malls is that most of them are designated to a particular order, such as home appliances, jewelry, shoes, clothes, wedding ceremonies, ladies/babies/men specialties, leather products, handicrafts, agricultural products, computers, electronic components, industrial equipment, piping equipment, chemical materials, agricultural machines, stationery, books, rugs, construction stuff and others.


title: Tabriz

text: Likewise, there are seasonal/occasional shopping fairs opened mainly in the Tabriz International Exhibition Center.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz International Exhibition Center which is located in the eastern part of the city holds tens of exhibitions based on yearly schedule. The most famous fair is TEXPO which is a general trade fair. Established in 1992, it usually holds exhibitions around August 4–9 every year.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is the site for 14 of Iran's most prominent universities and higher education institutes. Established in 1947, University of Tabriz is the most prestigious university in north-western Iran. University of Tabriz is also considered one of five mother universities in the country which works as the regional hub of science for the region. Besides University of Tabriz, there are several other public universities, operating in the city and its suburbs. Among them the famous ones are:


title: Tabriz

text: There are couple of private universities and higher educational institutes serving student as well, including: Islamic Azad University of Tabriz, Daneshvaran Higher Education Institute, Seraj Higher Education Institute, University College of Nabi Akram, Khajeh Rashid University.


title: Tabriz

text: There are few technical colleges, which serve the students as well: Elmi-Karbordi University of Tabriz, Tabriz College of Technology, Roshdiyeh Higher Education Institute of Tabriz, Jahad Daneshgahi (ACECR) Higher Education Institute (East Azerbaijan Branch), Alzahra College of Technology, State Organization of Technical and Vocational Training.


title: Tabriz

text: There are a couple of research centers supported by Iranian government in the city including: East Azerbaijan Park of Science & Technology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tabriz.


title: Tabriz

text: Furthermore, a couple of Iranian universities have branches in Tabriz, including: Imam Hossein University, Shahid Beheshti Training Teacher Center of Tabriz.


title: Tabriz

text: Hundreds of public and private schools serve students using the Iranian education system. Students attend primary school for five years, middle school for three years, and secondary school for a final three years. Those entering university must attend one year in college first. While the prominent language in Tabriz is Azerbaijani, Persian is used in school classrooms. Some of the high schools are famous because of their history or higher educational quality.


title: Tabriz

text: Valiasr Religious School and Talebieh Islamic Science School are two major religious schools in the city which are used for teaching Islamic literature.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz National Library, also known as Central Library of Tabriz, is the largest and the most famous library in the city. The Tabriz National Library has the biggest collection of classic handwritten Persian literature in the northwest region of Iran. There are many other public libraries all around the city such as Tarbiat library, Helal Ahmar, Shahid Motahhari, Shahriyar, Jafarieh, and Farhangsara.


title: Tabriz

text: The Ministry of Health operates most of the public hospitals and health centres in the Tabriz metropolitan region, some of which are aligned with the Tabriz Medical School.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz residents mostly commute by public bus, shuttle taxis, metro, bike, and personal cars. Tabriz public bus lines connect its districts and some of its suburbs to the city centre of Tabriz. Tabriz also has a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line which runs through an from "Train Station" in West of Tabriz to "Baseej Square" in far east of the city.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz also has a public shuttle taxi service which connects city centres to major districts of the city. There is another taxi service running in the city calls Telephone Taxi which operates by private companies.


title: Tabriz

text: Part of Tabriz subway line 1 is operational since 2015 which goes from Shahgoli to Shahriyar. Several lines are planned to connect districts of Tabriz to its city center however the construction is six years behind the schedule. The government of Iran had planned to finish of line No.1 of the network in 2006, but this was not achieved due to financial problems and currently only half of the track for the metro line has been laid.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is linked to Europe through Turkey's roads and Bazargan (Azerbaijani, Persian: بازرگان ) border. Tabriz is connected to Tehran by Freeway 2 (Iran).


title: Tabriz

text: The city is linked to Iran National Railways (IRIR, Persian: رجا ) also to Europe by Turkey's railways via Ghotour (Azerbaijani, Persian قطور) bridge in West Azerbaijan province of Iran. Tabriz was the first city in Iran to be served by railways with the construction of the Tabriz-Jolfa line in 1912–1914 (later converted to broad-gauge in 1916). Tabriz Railway Station is located in the western part of the city, at the end of Khomeyni Street.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz International Airport opened in 1950 and is the only international airport in East Azerbaijan (since 1991). It has daily and weekly domestic flights to Tehran, Isfahan, Kish Island, Shiraz, and Mashhad. It also has daily and weekly flights to Istanbul, Tbilisi, Baghdad and Baku.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is a hub for the major sports events in the region. The city has a couple of sports complexes. The major sports complex inside the city is Bagh Shomal complex which includes a soccer stadium, swimming pool, an arena for basketball and volleyball. There is also a bigger sports complex which is named the Olympic village which has a soccer stadium and a cycling track. They are several other smaller complexes for martial arts, swimming pools, and gymnasiums. Among many different sports activities soccer and cycling got more attention because of the cities teams and international events which are held in the city.


title: Tabriz

text: Football is a major part of the city's culture. Tractor SC is one of the most popular football clubs in Iran and Asia.


title: Tabriz

text: Tractor play in the Iran Pro League. The home stadium for Tractor is the city's major stadium, Sahand Stadium which has the capacity of 80,000 people.


title: Tabriz

text: In June 1976 Bagh Shomal Stadium of Tabriz hosted part of the final tournament of the AFC Asian Cup games.


title: Tabriz

text: The city's main futsal club is Dabiri Tabriz which was founded in 1998 and plays at the Oloum Pezeshki Arena in the city. The club won the Iranian Futsal Super League in 2014 and finished third in Asia. The cities other futsal team is Shahrdari Tabriz who play at the larger Shahid Poursharifi Arena. The club is usually a mid-table team and has less support throughout the city.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz is also home for Azerbaijan Cycling Tour which is held on a yearly based calendar since 1986. This cycling tour is the most prestigious cycling tour in Iran. Tabriz is also home for Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team, a cycling team which is competing in UCI-sanctioned competitions through Asian continents.


title: Tabriz

text: Sahand and Yam ski resorts are located in an hour drive from Tabriz. Depending on the perception, both resorts start operation from late December till early March.


title: Tabriz

text: Tabriz has one state television channel called Sahand TV that broadcasts in both Persian and Azerbaijani languages. It broadcasts internationally through the Arabsat and Intelsat satellites.


title: Tabriz

text: The city has one government-controlled radio channel broadcasting in both Persian and Azerbaijani languages.


title: Tabriz

text: The 14 weekly magazines and 8 main newspapers published in the city include: Amin, Mahd Azadi, Asr Azadi, Fajr Azarbaijan, Saeb Tabriz, Payam Noor, Navaye Misho and Saheb.


title: Tabriz

text: Within its long history, Tabriz was always the origin for many Iranian illumination and modernization movements. This is why the city was the hometown of numerous Iranian dominant figures including many Iranian politicians, revolutionaries, artists, and military leaders. Here a partial list of some of the most notable people who born or lived in Tabriz.


title: Tabriz

text: Azerbaijan and Turkey have consulate offices in Tabriz. Formerly the Soviet Union and the United States had consulate offices in Tabriz. The US consulate office closed after the 1979 Islamic revolution and the USSR's office closed after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.


title: 2007 in film

text: The following is an overview of events in 2007 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. The highest-grossing film of the year was "", which was just ahead of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". 2007 is often considered one of the greatest years for film in the 21st century. This would also be the last year in which no films grossed at least $1 billion at the box office until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented multiple theatrically released films.


title: 2007 in film

text: Many have considered 2007 to be the greatest year for film in the 21st century and one of the greatest of all time.


title: 2007 in film

text: In his article from April 18, 2017, which highlighted the best movies of 2007, critic Mark Allison of "Den of Geek" said, "2007 must surely be remembered as one of the finest years in English-language film-making, quite possibly the best of this century so far. Like 1939, 1976, or 1994, it was one of those years in which a succession of veritable classics came into being. So many, in fact, that some of the best examples were cruelly overlooked by the hype machine of the day." He also emphasized, "If 2007 proves anything, it's that classic films aren't just a relic of ages past; they're being made all around us. I can't wait to see what we're watching in another ten years' time."


title: 2007 in film

text: Critic Craig Johnson from the film review and movie list website "Taste of Cinema" said in an article from December 16, 2014, "For one glorious year, it (2007) was like the 1970s all over again. Smart characters were using their brains as weapons. Movie stars were challenging themselves with tough roles. Punches were not pulled. Happy endings were not guaranteed. There was a parade of intelligent movies, seemingly made for adults to watch while the kids were watching Transformers".


title: Japanese clothing

text: There are typically two types of clothing worn in Japan: traditional clothing known as , including the national dress of Japan, the kimono, and , which encompasses all else not recognised as either national dress or the dress of another country.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Traditional Japanese fashion represents a long-standing history of traditional culture, encompassing colour palettes developed in the Heian period, silhouettes adopted from Tang dynasty clothing and cultural traditions, motifs taken from Japanese culture, nature and traditional literature, the use of types of silk for some clothing, and styles of wearing primarily fully-developed by the end of the Edo period. The most well-known form of traditional Japanese fashion is the kimono, with the term "kimono" translating literally as "something to wear" or "thing worn on the shoulders". Other types of traditional fashion include the clothing of the Ainu people (known as the ) and the clothes of the Ryukyuan people which is known as , most notably including the traditional fabrics of and produced on the Ryukyu Islands.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Modern Japanese fashion mostly encompasses (Western clothes), though many well-known Japanese fashion designers – such as Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo – have taken inspiration from and at times designed clothes taking influence from traditional fashion. Their works represent a combined impact on the global fashion industry, with many pieces displayed at fashion shows all over the world, as well as having had an impact within the Japanese fashion industry itself, with many designers either drawing from or contributing to Japanese street fashion.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Despite previous generations wearing traditional clothing near-entirely, following the end of World War II, Western clothing and fashion became increasingly popular due to their increasingly-available nature and, over time, their cheaper price. It is now increasingly rare for someone to wear traditional clothing as everyday clothes, and over time, traditional clothes within Japan have garnered an association with being difficult to wear and expensive. As such, traditional garments are now mainly worn for ceremonies and special events, with the most common time for someone to wear traditional clothes being to summer festivals, when the is most appropriate; outside of this, the main groups of people most likely to wear traditional clothes are geisha, and sumo wrestlers, all of whom are required to wear traditional clothing in their profession.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Traditional Japanese clothing has garnered fascination in the Western world as a representation of a different culture; first gaining popularity in the 1860s, Japonisme saw traditional clothing – some produced exclusively for export and differing in construction from the clothes worn by Japanese people everyday – exported to the West, where it soon became a popular item of clothing for artists and fashion designers. Fascination for the clothing of Japanese people continued into WW2, where some stereotypes of Japanese culture such as "geisha girls" became widespread. Over time, depictions and interest in traditional and modern Japanese clothing has generated discussions surrounding cultural appropriation and the ways in which clothing can be used to stereotype a culture; in 2016, the "Kimono Wednesday" event held at the Boston Museum of Arts became a key example of this.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Little is known of the clothing of the Yayoi period. In the 3rd-century (, a section of the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" compiled by Chinese scholar Chen Shou), there is some description of clothing worn in Japan. It describes broad cloth (possibly double-width), made into unshaped garments by being tied about the waist and shoulders.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Until the 5th century CE, there is little artistic evidence of the clothing worn in Japan. Kofun period clothing is known from clay sculptures used atop offering cylinders. These were used in the 5th and 6th century, though most have no sculpture on top. These figures likely do not represent everyday dress; they may represent riding dress. Many wear armour.


title: Japanese clothing

text: In the Kofun period, the right side was wrapped over the left (unlike in China), and the overlapped edge was secured with ties on the right side. Sleeves and trousers were tubular. Female figures often wear a skirt, with male figures wearing trousers tied with garters just above the calf, so that they balloon over the knee, allowing freedom of movement. , wrapped skirts, were worn by men and women, sometimes over (trousers).


title: Japanese clothing

text: Traditional Chinese clothing had been introduced to Japan via Chinese envoys in the Kofun period, with immigration between the two countries and envoys to the Tang dynasty court leading to Chinese styles of dress, appearance and culture becoming extremely popular in Japanese court society. The Imperial Japanese court quickly adopted Chinese styles of dress and clothing. As early as the 4th century CE, images of priestess-queens and tribal chiefs in Japan depicted figures wearing clothing similar that of Han dynasty China. There is evidence of the oldest samples of tie-dyed fabric stored at the Shōsōin Temple being Chinese in origin, due to the limitations of Japan's ability to produce the fabrics at the time (see ).


title: Japanese clothing

text: The Asuka period began with the introduction of Buddhism, and the writing system of Chinese characters to Japan; during this time, Chinese influence over Japan was fairly strong.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Judging by the depictions in the Tenjukoku Shūchō Mandala, during the reign of Empress Suiko (593–628), male and female court dress were very similar. Both wore round-necked front-fastening with non-overlapping lapels, the front, collar, and cuffs edged with contrasting fabric, possibly an underlayer; the skirt, above knee-length, had a matching edge. Below the and extending below it to about knee length, a more heavily-pleated contrasting skirt called a was worn. Below the , men wore narrow with a contrasting lower edge, and women wore a pleated long enough to trail.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The Takamatsuzuka Tomb () is a major source of information for upper-class clothing of this period. By this time, the lapels overlapped (still right side over left), and the and were edged with pleated frills, replacing the . (black gauze caps stiffened with lacquer) were being worn by male courtiers, and were regulaed in the 11th regnal year of Emperor Tenmu (~684 CE); this fashion persists in formal use into the 21st century.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Nara-period upper-class clothing was much simpler than some later styles, taking no more than a few minutes to don, with the clothing itself allowing for freedom of movement. Women's upper-class dress consisted of a left-over-right lap-fronted top (over a similar underrobe), and a wrapped, pleated skirt (). Women also sometimes wore a lap-fronted overvest, and a narrow rectangular stole. Men's upper-class dress had narrow, unpleated (single-panel) (trousers) under a loose, mandarin-collared coat (), with elaborate hats of stiffened open-weave black cloth (). Clothing was belted with narrow sashes.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Nara-period women's clothing was heavily influenced by Tang-dynasty China. Women adopted collars, which overlapped like modern kimono collars, though men continued wearing round mandarin collars, which were associated with scholasticism, only later adopting . Lower-body garments ( and ) had been worn under the outermost upper-body garments, but now, following the newer Chinese fashion, they transitioned to being worn on top (again, by women, but not yet by men).


title: Japanese clothing

text: In 718 CE, the Yoro clothing code was instituted, which stipulated that all robes had to be overlapped at the front with a left-to-right closure, following typical Chinese fashions. China considered right-over-left wraps barbaric. This convention of wear is still followed today, with a right-to-left closure worn only by the deceased.


title: Japanese clothing

text: In 752 CE, a massive bronze Buddha statue at Tōdai-ji, Nara, was consecrated with great ceremony. The ceremonial clothing of attendees (probably not all made in Japan) was preserved in the Shōsō-in. Most of them close left-over-right, but some abut or overlap right-over-left. Collar shapes include narrow, round or v-shaped. There is craftsmen's clothing in (domestic bast fiber), with long, round-collared outer robes. Richer garments in silk are ornamented with figural and geometric patterns, woven and dyed; some have flaring sleeves. Aprons, , leggings, socks and shoes have also been preserved.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Social segregation of clothing was primarily noticeable in the Nara period (710-794), through the division of upper and lower class. People of higher social status wore clothing that covered the majority of their body, or as Svitlana Rybalko states, "the higher the status, the less was open to other people's eyes". For example, the full-length robes would cover most from the collarbone to the feet, the sleeves were to be long enough to hide their fingertips, and women carried fans were carried to protect them from speculative looks.


title: Japanese clothing

text: During the Heian period (794-1193 CE), Japan stopped sending envoys to the Chinese dynastic courts. This prevented Chinese-imported goods—including clothing—from entering the Imperial Palace and disseminating to the upper classes, who were the main arbiters of traditional Japanese culture at the time and the only people allowed to wear such clothing. The ensuing cultural vacuum facilitated the development of a Japanese culture independent from Chinese fashions. Elements previously lifted from the Tang Dynastic courts developed independently into what is known literally as "national culture" or , the term used to refer to Heian-period Japanese culture, particularly that of the upper classes.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Clothing became increasingly stylised, with some elements—such as the round-necked and tube-sleeved jacket, worn by both genders in the early 7th century—being abandoned by both male and female courtiers. Others, such as the wrapped-front robes, also worn by men and women, were kept. Some elements, such as the skirt worn by women, continued on in a reduced capacity, worn only to formal occasions; the grew too narrow to wrap all the way around and became a trapezoidal pleated train. Formal (trousers) became longer than the legs and also trailed behind the wearer. Men's formal dress included collars and very wide sleeves.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The concept of the hidden body remained, with ideologies suggesting that the clothes served as "protection from the evil spirits and outward manifestation of a social rank". This proposed the widely held belief that those of lower ranking, who were perceived to be of less clothing due to their casual performance of manual labor, were not protected in the way that the upper class were in that time period. This was also the period in which Japanese traditional clothing became introduced to the Western world.


title: Japanese clothing

text: During the later Heian period, various clothing edicts reduced the number of layers a woman could wear, leading to the (lit., "small sleeve") garment—previously considered underwear—becoming outerwear by the time of the Muromachi period (1336-1573 CE).


title: Japanese clothing

text: Originally worn with , the began to be held closed with a small belt known as an instead. The resembled a modern kimono, though at this time the sleeves were sewn shut at the back and were smaller in width (shoulder seam to cuff) than the body of the garment. During the Sengoku period (1467-1615)/Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), decoration of the developed further, with bolder designs and flashy primary colours becoming popular. By this time, separate lower-body garments such as the and were almost never worn, allowing full-length patterns to be seen.


title: Japanese clothing

text: During the Edo period (1603–1867 CE), both Japan's culture and economy developed significantly. A particular factor in the development of the Edo period was the early Genroku period (1688–1704 CE), wherein "Genroku culture" - luxurious displays of wealth and increased patronage of the arts - led to the further development of many art forms, including those of clothing. Genroku culture was spearheaded by the growing and increasingly-powerful merchant classes (); the clothing of classes, representative of their increasing economic power, rivalled that of the aristocracy and samurai classes, brightly-coloured and utilising expensive production techniques, such as handpainted dyework. , a damask fabric, also became the preferred material for kimono at this time, replacing the previously-popular plain-weave silk, which had been used to create .


title: Japanese clothing

text: In response to the increasing material wealth of the merchant classes, the Tokugawa shogunate issued a number of sumptuary laws `for the lower classes, prohibiting the use of purple or red fabric, gold embroidery, and the use of intricately dyed patterns. As a result, a school of aesthetic thought known as , which valued and prioritised the display of wealth through almost mundane appearances, developed, a concept of kimono design and wear that continues to this day as a major influence.


title: Japanese clothing

text: From this point onwards, the basic shape of both men's and women's kimono remained largely unchanged. The sleeves of the began to grow in length, especially amongst unmarried women, and the became much longer and wider, with various styles of knots coming into fashion, alongside stiffer weaves of material to support them.


title: Japanese clothing

text: In the Edo period, the kimono market was divided into craftspeople, who made the and accessories, , or wholesalers, and retailers.


title: Japanese clothing

text: In 1869, the social class system was abolished, and with them, class-specific sumptuary laws. Kimono with formerly-restricted elements, like red and purple colours, became popular, particularly with the advent of synthetic dyestuffs such as mauvine.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Following the opening of Japan's borders in the early Meiji period to Western trade, a number of materials and techniques - such as wool and the use of synthetic dyestuffs - became popular, with casual wool kimono being relatively common in pre-1960s Japan; the use of safflower dye () for silk linings fabrics (known as ; literally, "red silk") was also common in pre-1960s Japan, making kimono from this era easily identifiable.


title: Japanese clothing

text: During the Meiji period, the opening of Japan to Western trade after the enclosure of the Edo period led to a drive towards Western dress as a sign of "modernity". After an edict by Emperor Meiji, policemen, railroad workers and teachers moved to wearing Western clothing within their job roles, with the adoption of Western clothing by men in Japan happening at a much greater pace than by women. Initiatives such as the promoted Western dress as everyday clothing.


title: Japanese clothing

text: In Japan, modern Japanese fashion history might be conceived as a gradual westernization of Japanese clothes; both the woolen and worsted industries in Japan originated as a product of Japan's re-established contact with the West in the early Meiji period (1850s-1860s). Before the 1860s, Japanese clothing consisted entirely of kimono of a number of varieties.


title: Japanese clothing

text: With the opening of Japan's ports for international trade in the 1860s, clothing from a number of different cultures arrived as exports; despite Japan's historic contact with the Dutch before this time through its southerly ports, Western clothing had not caught on, despite the study of and fascination with Dutch technologies and writings.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The first Japanese to adopt Western clothing were officers and men of some units of the shōgun's army and navy; sometime in the 1850s, these men adopted woolen uniforms worn by the English marines stationed at Yokohama. Wool was difficult to produce domestically, with the cloth having to be imported. Outside of the military, other early adoptions of Western dress were mostly within the public sector, and typically entirely male, with women continuing to wear kimono both inside and outside of the home, and men changing into the kimono usually within the home for comfort.


title: Japanese clothing

text: From this point on, Western clothing styles spread outwards of the military and upper public sectors, with courtiers and bureaucrats urged to adopt Western clothing, promoted as both modern and more practical. The Ministry of Education ordered that Western-style student uniforms be worn in public colleges and universities. Businessmen, teachers, doctors, bankers, and other leaders of the new society wore suits to work and at large social functions. Despite Western clothing becoming popular within the workplace, in schools and on the streets, it was not worn by everybody, and was actively considered uncomfortable and undesirable by some; one account tells of a father promising to buy his daughters new kimono as a reward for wearing Western clothing and eating meat. By the 1890s, appetite for Western dress as a fashion statement had cooled considerably, and the kimono remained an item of fashion.


title: Japanese clothing

text: A number of different fashions from the West arrived and were also incorporated into the way that people wore kimono; numerous woodblock prints from the later Meiji period show men wearing bowler hats and carrying Western-style umbrellas whilst wearing kimono, and Gibson girl hairstyles - typically a large bun on top of a relatively wide hairstyle, similar to the Japanese - became popular amongst Japanese women as a more low-effort hairstyle for everyday life.


title: Japanese clothing

text: By the beginning of the 20th century, Western dress had become a symbol of social dignity and progressiveness; however, the kimono was still considered to be fashion, with the two styles of dress essentially growing in parallel with one another over time. With Western dress being considered street wear and a more formal display of fashionable clothing, most Japanese people wore the comfortable kimono at home and when out of the public eye.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Western clothing quickly became standard issue as army uniform for men and school uniform for boys, and between 1920 and 1930, the sailor outfit replaced the kimono and undivided as school uniform for girls. However, kimono still remained popular as an item of everyday fashion; following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, cheap, informal and ready-to-wear kimono, woven from raw and waste silk threads unsuitable for other uses, became highly popular, following the loss of many people's possessions. By 1930, ready-to-wear kimono had become highly popular for their bright, seasonally changing designs, many of which took inspiration from the Art Deco movement. kimono were usually dyed using the ikat () technique of dyeing, where either warp or both warp and weft threads (known as ) were dyed using a stencil pattern before weaving.


title: Japanese clothing

text: It was during the Taishō period that the modern formalisation of kimono and kimono types began to emerge. The Meiji period had seen the slow introduction of kimono types that mediated between the informal and the most formal, a trend that continued throughout the Taishō period, as social occasions and opportunities for leisure increased under the abolition of class distinctions. As Western clothing increased in popularity for men as everyday clothing, the kimono industry further established its own traditions of formal and informal dress for women; this saw the invention of the , divisions of (short-sleeved) kimono for women, and . The bridal kimono trousseau (), an uncommon practice of the upper classes in the Edo period, also became common throughout the middle classes; traditions of kimono bridalwear for marriage ceremonies were also codified in this time, which resembled the bridalwear of samurai-class women. Standards of at this time began to slowly graduate to a more formalised, neatened appearance, with a flat, uniform and a smooth, uncreased , which also resembled the "proper" of upper-class women. However, standards were still relatively informal, and would not become formalised until after World War II.


title: Japanese clothing

text: While kimono were no longer common wear for men, they remained everyday wear for Japanese women until World War II (1940–1945). Though the Taishō period had seen a number of invented traditions, standards of (wearing kimono) were still not as formalised in this time, with creases, uneven and crooked still deemed acceptable.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Until the 1930s, the majority of Japanese still wore kimono, and Western clothes were still restricted to out-of-home use by certain classes.


title: Japanese clothing

text: During the war, kimono factories shut down, and the government encouraged people to wear (also romanised as ) - trousers constructed from old kimono - instead. Fibres such as rayon became widespread during WWII, being inexpensive to produce and cheap to buy, and typically featured printed designs. Cloth rationing persisted until 1951, so most kimono were made at home from repurposed fabrics.


title: Japanese clothing

text: In the second half of the 20th century, the Japanese economy boomed, and silk became cheaper, making it possible for the average family to afford silk kimono. The kimono retail industry had developed an elaborate codification of rules for kimono-wearing, with types of kimono, levels of formality, and rules on seasonality, which intensified after the war; there had previously been rules about kimono-wearing, but these were not rigidly codified and varied by region and class. Formalisation sought perfection, with no creases or uneveness in the kimono, and an increasingly tubular figure was promoted as the ideal for women in kimono. The kimono-retail industry also promoted a sharp distinction between Japanese and Western clothes; for instance, wearing Western shoes with Japanese clothing (while common in the Taishō period) was codified as improper; these rules on proper dressing are often described in Japanese using the English phrase "Time, Place, and Occasion" (TPO). As neither Japanese men or women commonly wore kimono, having grown up under wartime auspices, commercial schools were set up to teach women how to don kimono. Men in this period rarely wore kimono, and menswear thus escaped most of the formalisation.).


title: Japanese clothing

text: Kimono were promoted as essential for ceremonial occasions; for instance, the expensive worn by young women for was deemed a necessity. Bridal trousseaus containing tens of kimono of every possible subtype were also promoted as "de rigueur", and parents felt obliged to provide kimono trousseaus that cost up to 10 million yen (~£70,000), which were displayed and inspected publicly as part of the wedding, including being transported in transparent trucks.


title: Japanese clothing

text: By the 1970s, formal kimono formed the vast majority of kimono sales. Kimono retailers, due to the pricing structure of brand new kimono, had developed a relative monopoly on not only prices but also a perception of kimono knowledge, allowing them to dictate prices and heavily promote more formal (and expensive) purchases, as selling a single formal kimono could support the seller comfortably for three months. The kimono industry peaked in 1975, with total sales of 2.8 trillion yen (~£18 billion). The sale of informal brand new kimono was largely neglected.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The economic collapse of the 1990s bankrupted much of the kimono industry and ended a number of expensive practices. The rules for how to wear kimono lost their previous hold over the entire industry, and formerly-expensive traditions such as bridal kimono trousseaus generally disappeared, and when still given, were much less extensive. It was during this time that it became acceptable and even preferred for women to wear Western dress to ceremonial occasions like weddings and funerals. Many women had dozens or even hundreds of kimono, mostly unworn, in their homes; a secondhand kimono, even if unworn, would sell for about 500 yen (less than £3.50; about US$5), a few percent of the bought-new price. In the 1990s and early 2000s, many secondhand kimono shops opened as a result of this.


title: Japanese clothing

text: In the early years of the 21st century, the cheaper and simpler became popular with young people. Around 2010, men began wearing kimono again in situations other than their own wedding, and kimono were again promoted and worn as everyday dress by a small minority.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Today, the vast majority of people in Japan wear Western clothing in the everyday, and are most likely to wear kimono either to formal occasions such as wedding ceremonies and funerals, or to summer events, where the standard kimono is the easy-to-wear, single-layer cotton .


title: Japanese clothing

text: The kimono , labelled the "national costume of Japan", is the most well-known form of traditional Japanese clothing. The kimono is worn wrapped around the body, left side over right, and is sometimes worn layered. It is always worn with an , and may be worn with a number of traditional accessories and types of footwear. Kimono differ in construction and wear between men and women.


title: Japanese clothing

text: After the four-class system ended in the Tokugawa period (1603-1867), the symbolic meaning of the kimono shifted from a reflection of social class to a reflection of self, allowing people to incorporate their own tastes and individualize their outfit. The process of wearing a kimono requires, depending on gender and occasion, a sometimes detailed knowledge of a number of different steps and methods of tying the , with formal kimono for women requiring at times the help of someone else to put on. Post-WW2, kimono schools were built to teach those interested in kimono how to wear it and tie a number of different knots.


title: Japanese clothing

text: A number of different types of kimono exist that are worn in the modern day, with women having more varieties than men. Whereas men's kimono differ in formality typically through fabric choice, the number of crests on the garment (known as or ) and the accessories worn with it, women's kimono differ in formality through fabric choice, decoration style, construction and crests.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Other types of kimono, such as the and (mourning) kimono are worn by both men and women, with differences only in construction and sometimes decoration. In previous decades, women only stopped wearing the when they got married, typically in their early- to mid-twenties; however, in the modern day, a woman will usually stop wearing around this time whether she is married or not.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The word kimono literally translates as "thing to wear", and up until the 19th century it was the main form of dress worn by men and women alike in Japan.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Traditionally, the art of wearing kimono (known as ) was passed from mother to daughter as simply learning how to dress, and in the modern day, this is also taught in specialist kimono schools. First, one puts on , which are white cotton socks. Then the undergarments are put on followed by a top and a wraparound skirt. Next, the (under-kimono) is put on, which is then tied by a . Finally, the kimono is put on, with the left side covering the right, tied in place with one or two and smoothed over with a belt. The is then tied in place. Kimono are always worn left-over-right unless being worn by the dead, in which case they are worn right-over-left. When the kimono is worn outside, either or sandals are traditionally worn.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Women typically wear kimono when they attend traditional arts, such as a tea ceremonies or classes. During wedding ceremonies, the bride and groom will often go through many costume changes; though the bride may start off in an entirely-white outfit before switching to a colourful one, grooms will wear black kimono made from habutae silk.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Funeral kimono () for both men and women are plain black with five crests, though Western clothing is also worn to funerals. Any plain black kimono with less than five crests is not considered to be mourning wear.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The "coming of age" ceremony, , is another occasion where kimono are worn. At these annual celebrations, women wear brightly-coloured , often with fur stoles around the neck. Other occasions where kimono are traditionally worn in the modern day include the period surrounding the New Year, graduation ceremonies, and , which is a celebration for children aged 3, 5 and 7.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Kimono are matched with seasons. (lined) kimono, made of silk, wool, or synthetic fabrics, are worn during the cooler months. During these months, kimono with more rustic colours and patterns (like russet leaves), and kimono with darker colours and multiple layers, are favoured. Lightweight cotton are worn by men and women during the spring and summer months. In the warmer weather months, vibrant colors and floral designs (like cherry blossoms) are common.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Up until the 15th century the vast majority of kimono worn by most people were made of hemp or linen, and they were made with multiple layers of materials. Today, kimono can be made of silk, silk brocade, silk crepes (such as ) and satin weaves (such as ). Modern kimono that are made with less-expensive easy-care fabrics such as rayon, cotton sateen, cotton, polyester and other synthetic fibers, are more widely worn today in Japan. However, silk is still considered the ideal fabric for more formal kimono.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Kimono are typically long with eight wide pieces. These pieces are sewn together to create the basic T-shape. Kimono are traditionally sewn by hand, a technique known as . However, even machine-made kimono require substantial hand-stitching.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Kimono are traditionally made from a single bolt of fabric called a . come in standard dimensions, and the entire bolt is used to make one kimono. The finished kimono consists of four main strips of fabric — two panels covering the body and two panels forming the sleeves — with additional smaller strips forming the narrow front panels and collar. Kimono fabrics are frequently hand-made and -decorated.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Kimono are worn with sash-belts called , of which there are several varieties. In previous centuries, were relatively pliant and soft, so literally held the kimono closed; modern-day are generally stiffer, meaning the kimono is actually kept closed through tying a series of flat ribbons, such as kumihimo, around the body. The two most common varieties of for women are , which can be worn with everything but the most casual forms of kimono, and , which are narrower at one end to make them easier to wear.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The is an informal kimono worn specifically in the spring and summer, and it is generally less expensive than the traditional kimono. Because it was made for warm weather, are almost entirely made of cotton of an often lighter weight and brighter color than most kimono fabrics. It is worn for festivals and cherry blossom viewing ceremonies.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The , which resembles a long, wide pleated skirt, is generally worn over the kimono and is considered formal wear. Although it was traditionally created to be worn by men of all occupations (craftsmen, farmers, samurai, etc.), it is now socially accepted to be worn by women as well.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The is similar to a belt, wrapping around the outer kimono and helping to keep all of the layers together, though it does not actually tie them closed. are typically long, rectangular belts that can be decorated and coloured in a variety of different ways, as well as being made of a number of different fabrics. Modern are typically made of a crisp, if not stiff, weave of fabric, and may be relatively thick and unpliant.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Multiple designers use the kimono as a foundation for their current designs, being influenced by its cultural and aesthetic aspects and including them into their garments.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Issey Miyake is most known for crossing boundaries in fashion and reinventing forms of clothing while simultaneously transmitting the traditional qualities of the culture into his work. He has explored various techniques in design, provoking discussion on what identifies as "dress". He has also been tagged the "Picasso of Fashion" due to his recurring confrontation of traditional values. Miyake found interest in working with dancers to create clothing that would best suit them and their aerobic movements, eventually replacing the models he initially worked with for dancers, in hopes of producing clothing that benefits people of all classifications. His use of pleats and polyester jersey reflected a modern form of fashion due to their practical comfort and elasticity. Over 10 years of Miyake's work was featured in Paris in 1998 at the "Issey Miyake: Making Things" exhibition. His two most popular series were titled, "Pleats, Please" and "A-POC (A piece of Cloth)".


title: Japanese clothing

text: Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo are Japanese fashion designers who share similar tastes in design and style, their work often considered by the public to be difficult to differentiate. They were influenced by social conflicts, as their recognizable work bloomed and was influenced by the post war era of Japan. They differ from Miyake and several other fashion designers in their dominating use of dark colors, especially the color black. Traditional clothing often included a variety of colors in their time, and their use of "the absence of color" provoked multiple critics to voice their opinions and criticize the authenticity of their work. American Vogue of April 1983 labeled the two "avant-garde designers", eventually leading them to their success and popularity.


title: Japanese clothing

text: The Japanese are often recognized for their traditional art and its capability of transforming simplicity into creative designs. As stated by Valerie Foley, "Fan shapes turn out to be waves, waves metamorphose into mountains; simple knots are bird wings; wobbly semicircles signify half-submerged Heian period carriage wheels". These art forms have been transferred onto fabric that then mold into clothing. With traditional clothing, specific techniques are used and followed, such as metal applique, silk embroidery, and paste- resist. The type of fabric used to produce the clothing was often indicative of a person's social class, for the wealthy were able to afford clothing created with fabrics of higher quality. Stitching techniques and the fusion of colors also distinguished the wealthy from the commoner, as those of higher power had a tendency to wear ornate, brighter clothing.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Japanese street fashion emerged in the 1990s and differed from traditional fashion in the sense that it was initiated and popularized by the general public, specifically teenagers, rather than by fashion designers. Different forms of street fashion have emerged in different Tokyo locales, such as the "rorīta" in Harajuku, the "koakuma ageha" of Shibuya or the "Gyaru" subculture fashion style.


title: Japanese clothing

text: Lolita fashion became popular in the mid 2000s. It is characterized by "a knee length skirt or dress in a bell shape assisted by petticoats, worn with a blouse, knee high socks or stockings and a headdress". Different sub-styles of lolita include casual, gothic, and ("princess"). is based on a Shibuya club-hostess look, with dark, heavy eyeliner, false eyelashes, and contact lenses that make the eyes appear larger. The style is also characterized by lighter hair and sparkly accessories. The trend is found in both Shibuya and Harajuku, and is influenced by a "schoolgirl" look, with participants often wearing short skirts, oversized knee-high socks. It is also characterized by artificially tanned skin or dark makeup, pale lipstick, and light hair.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Ferdinand (Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad; 24 August 1865 – 20 July 1927), nicknamed "Întregitorul" ("the Unifier"), was King of Romania from 1914 until his death in 1927. Ferdinand was the second son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern and Infanta Antónia of Portugal, daughter of Ferdinand II of Portugal and Maria II of Portugal. His family was part of the Catholic branch of the Prussian royal family Hohenzollern.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: In 1889, Ferdinand became Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Romania, following the renunciation of his father (in 1880) and older brother, Wilhelm (in 1886), to the rights of succession to the royal crown of Romania. From the moment he settled in Romania, he continued his military career, gaining a series of honorary commands and being promoted to the rank of corps general. He married in 1893 Princess Maria Alexandra Victoria, later known as Queen Marie of Romania, granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Emperor Alexander II and daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Ferdinand became King of Romania on 10 October 1914, under the name Ferdinand I, following the death of his uncle, King Carol I. He ruled Romania during World War I, choosing to side with the Triple Entente against the Central Powers. This led to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany removing his name from the royal house of Hohenzollern. At the war's end, Romania emerged as a much-enlarged kingdom due to Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania and parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș becoming part of the Kingdom of Romania in 1920, and Ferdinand was crowned king of "Greater Romania" in a grand ceremony in 1922. In the years following the establishment of Greater Romania, Romanian society went through a series of major transformations, especially to the application of the agrarian reform and of the universal vote. In 1925, his eldest son, Prince Carol, gave up the rights of succession to the royal crown of Romania leading to a dynastic crisis, as the next prince in line of succession was 4-year-old Prince Michael. This led Ferdinand to remove Prince Carol's name from the royal house of Romania.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Ferdinand died from cancer in 1927 and was succeeded by his grandson Michael under a regency formed by 3 people: Prince Nicholas of Romania, the younger brother of Prince Carol; patriarch Miron Cristea; and president of the Supreme Court of Justice Gheorghe Buzdugan.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany. The name was later shortened simply to Hohenzollern after the extinction of the Hohenzollern-Hechingen branch in 1869. The princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen had ruled the principality until 1850, when it was annexed to Prussia.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Ferdinand I was the son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and Infanta Antónia of Portugal (1845–1913), daughter of Queen Maria II of Portugal and Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, heir to the Hungarian magnates of Koháry on his mother's side.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Following the renunciations, first of his father in 1880 and then of his elder brother Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1886, young Ferdinand became the heir-presumptive to the throne of his childless uncle, King Carol I of Romania, who would reign until his death in October 1914. In 1889, the Romanian parliament recognized Ferdinand as a prince of Romania. The Romanian government did not require his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy from Catholicism, as was the common practice prior to this date, thus allowing him to continue with his born creed, but it was required that his children be raised Orthodox, the state religion of Romania. For agreeing to this, Ferdinand was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, although this was later lifted.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Ferdinand's mother's first cousin Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria sat on the throne of the neighbouring Bulgaria beginning in 1887, and was to become the greatest opponent of the kingdom of his Romanian cousins. The neighboring Emperor Francis Joseph, monarch of Austria-Hungary and as such, ruler of Transylvania, was Ferdinand's grandmother's first cousin.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Ferdinand, a complete stranger in his new home, started to get close to one of Queen Elisabeth's ladies in waiting, Elena Văcărescu. Elisabeth, the Queen consort of Romania, very close to Elena herself, encouraged the romance, although she was perfectly aware of the fact that a marriage between the two was forbidden by the Romanian constitution (according to the 1866 Constitution of Romania, the heir-presumptive to the throne was not allowed to marry a Romanian).


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: The affair caused a sort of dynastic crisis in 1891. The result of this was the exile of both Elisabeth (in Neuwied) and Elena (in Paris), as well as a trip by Ferdinand through Europe in search of a suitable bride, whom he eventually found in Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Marie of Edinburgh.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: In Sigmaringen on 10 January 1893, Prince Ferdinand of Romania married his distant cousin, the Lutheran Princess Marie of Edinburgh, daughter of Anglican Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and the Orthodox Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia. Marie and Ferdinand were third cousins in descent from Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Marie's paternal grandparents were Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; her maternal grandparents were Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. The reigning emperor of neighbouring Russia at the time of the marriage was Marie's uncle, Tsar Alexander III, who would be succeeded by his eldest son, Marie's first cousin, Tsar Nicholas II, the following year.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: The royal Romanian marriage produced three sons (Carol, Nicholas, and Mircea – the last of whom died in infancy) and three daughters (Elisabeta, Maria – called "Mignon" – and Ileana), but it was unhappy. Indeed, the couple's two youngest children, Ileana and Mircea, are widely believed to have been sired by Marie's long-time lover, Barbu Știrbey.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: On 10 October 1914, Ferdinand's uncle, Carol I, died without surviving issue. Ferdinand succeeded him as King of Romania, reigning until his own death on 20 July 1927.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Ferdinand was appointed as the 1,174th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Austria in 1909 and as the 868th Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1924.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Though a member of a cadet branch of Germany's ruling Hohenzollern imperial family, Ferdinand presided over his country's entry into World War I on the side of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers, on 27 August 1916. Thus he gained the sobriquet "the Loyal", having kept the oath he swore before the Romanian Parliament in 1914: "I will reign as a good Romanian."


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: As a consequence of this "betrayal" of his German origin, Kaiser Wilhelm II had Ferdinand's name erased from the Hohenzollern House register.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Despite the setbacks after the entry into war, when Dobruja and Wallachia were occupied by the Central Powers, Romania fought in 1917 and stopped the German advance into Moldavia. When the new Bolshevik government of Russia sued for peace in 1918, Romania was surrounded by the Central Powers and forced to conclude a peace treaty of its own; however, Ferdinand refused to sign and ratify the Treaty of Bucharest. Allied forces then advanced on the Thessaloniki front and they knocked Bulgaria out of the war. Ferdinand ordered the re-mobilization of the Romanian Army, and Romania re-entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: The outcome of Romania's war effort was the union of Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. Ferdinand became the ruler of a greatly enlarged Romanian state in 1918–1920 following the victory of the Entente over the Central Powers, a war between the Kingdom of Romania and the new Hungarian Soviet Republic, and the Russian civil war. He was crowned king of "Greater Romania" in a spectacular ceremony on 15 October 1922 in the courtyard of the newly consecrated "Coronation Cathedral" in the historic princely seat of Alba Iulia in Transylvania.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: A new period of Romanian history began on the day of the Union of Transylvania with Romania (Great Union Day, "Marea Unire"). This period would come to an end with international treaties, in the years leading to World War II, which ceded parts of Romania to its neighbors. As such, they are widely seen as an attempt to provoke the country into taking sides and joining the war.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Domestic political life during his reign was dominated by the conservative National Liberal Party, which was led by the brothers Ion and Vintilă Brătianu. The acquisition of Transylvania had the unintended effect of enlarging the electoral base of the opposition, whose principal parties united in January 1925 – October 1926 to form the National Peasant Party.


title: Ferdinand I of Romania

text: Ferdinand died from cancer in Sinaia in 1927, and was succeeded by his grandson Crown Prince Michael under a regency (Michael's father having renounced his rights to the throne in December 1925). The regency had three members, one of whom was Ferdinand's second son, Prince Nicholas.


title: Kommando Spezialkräfte

text: The Kommando Spezialkräfte ("Special Forces Command, KSK") is the special forces military command of the German Army. The KSK has received decorations and awards from NATO, the United States, and its affiliates. KSK operatives have taken part in joint anti-terror operations, notably in the Balkans and Middle East.


title: Kommando Spezialkräfte

text: From 1973 until the KSK's formation in 1996, the West German (and later German) government assigned all counter-terrorist and special operations activities to the GSG 9, a highly trained police force created shortly after the hostage-taking that transpired during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Prior to 1973, the army's "Fernspäher" (Long-Distance Reconnaissance), the navy's "Kampfschwimmer" (Combat Swimmers/"Frogmen"), and (until 1989) the "Special Weapons Escort Companies—Sonderwaffenbegleitkompanien" were the only military units comparable to anything that other nations may have seen as dedicated special forces units.