Etymology.

Historical names.

In 1154, a town called ("Qlwn" or "Qalaven", possibly derivations of "Kalevan" or "Kolyvan") was put on the world map of the Almoravid by the Arab cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, who described it as "a small town like a large castle" among the towns of 'Astlanda'. It was suggested that Quwri may have denoted a predecessor of the modern city. Another possibly one of the earliest name of Tallinn is "Kolyvan" (), which has been discovered from East Slavic chronicles and may somehow be connected to the Estonian mythical hero Kalev. However, a number of modern historians have considered connecting al-Idrisi placename(s) with Tallinn unfounded and erroneous.

Modern name.

The name Tallinn(a) is Estonian. It is usually thought to be derived from "Taani-linn(a)", (meaning 'Danish-town) (), after the Danes built the castle in place of the Estonian stronghold at Lindanisse. However, it could also have come from "tali-linna" ('winter-castle or town'), or "talu-linna" ('house/farmstead-castle or town'). The element "-linna", like Germanic "-burg" and Slavic "-grad" / "-gorod", originally meant 'fortress', but is used as a suffix in the formation of town names.  The previously-used official names in German and Russian "Revel" () were replaced after Estonia became independent in 1918.  At first, both forms "Tallinna"

History.

The first traces of human settlement found in Tallinn's city centre by archeologists are about 5,000 years old. The comb ceramic pottery found on the site dates to about 3000 BCE and corded ware pottery c. 2500 BCE.  Around 1050, the first fortress was built on Tallinn Toompea.  As an important port for trade between Russia and Scandinavia, it became a target for the expansion of the Teutonic Knights and the Kingdom of Denmark during the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century when Christianity was forcibly imposed on the local population. Danish rule of Tallinn and Northern Estonia started in 1219.  In 1285, Tallinn, then known more widely as Reval, became the northernmost member of the Hanseatic League – a mercantile and military alliance of German-dominated cities in Northern Europe. The king of Denmark sold Reval along with other land possessions in northern Estonia to the Teutonic Knights in 1346. Medieval Reval enjoyed a strategic position at the crossroads of trade between Western and Northern Europe and Russia. The city, with a population of about 8,000, was very well fortified with city walls and 66 defence towers.  A weather vane, the figure of an old warrior called Old Thomas, was put on top of the spire of the Tallinn Town Hall in 1530. Old Thomas has later become a popular symbol of the city.  Already in the early years of the Protestant Reformation the city converted to Lutheranism. In 1561, Reval became a dominion of Sweden.  During the Great Northern War, plague stricken Tallinn along with Swedish Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Imperial Russia in 1710, but the local self-government institutions (Magistracy of Reval and Chivalry of Estonia) retained their cultural and economical autonomy within Imperial Russia as the Governorate of Estonia. The Magistracy

Geography.

Tallinn is situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, in north-western Estonia.  The largest lake in Tallinn is Lake Ülemiste (). It is the main source of the city's drinking water. Lake Harku is the second largest lake within the borders of Tallinn and its area is. Tallinn does not lie on a major river. The only significant river in Tallinn is Pirita River in Pirita, a city district counted as a suburb. Historically, the small Härjapea River flowed from Lake Ülemiste through

Geology.

The geology under the city of Tallinn is made up of rocks and sediments of different composition and age. Youngest are the Quaternary deposits. The material of these deposits are till, varved clay, sand, gravel and pebbles that are of glacial, marine and lacustrine origin. Some of the Quaternary deposits are valuable as they constitute aquifers or, as in the case of gravels and sands, are used as construction materials. The Quaternary deposits are the fill of valleys that are now buried. The buried valleys of Tallinn are carved into older rock likely by ancient rivers to be later modified by glaciers. While the valley fill is made up of Quaternary sediments the valleys themselves originated

Climate.

Tallinn has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification "Dfb") with warm, mild summers and cold, snowy winters. Winters are cold but mild for its latitude, owing to its coastal location. The average temperature in February, the coldest month, is. During the winter months, temperatures tend to hover close to the freezing mark but mild spells of weather can push temperatures above, occasionally reaching above while cold air masses can push temperatures below an average of 6 days a year. Snowfall is common during the winter months. Winters are cloudy and are characterised by low amounts of sunshine, ranging from only 0.5 hours of sunshine per day in December to 4.1 hours in March. At the winter solstice daylight lasts for only 6 hours.  Spring starts out cool, with freezing temperatures common in March and April but gradually becomes warmer in late May when daytime temperatures average although nighttime temperatures still remain cool, averaging from March to May. Snowfall is common in March and can occur in April.

Administrative districts.

For local government purposes, Tallinn is subdivided into 8 administrative districts (, singular "linnaosa"). The district governments are city institutions that fulfill, in the territory of their district, the functions assigned to them by Tallinn legislation and statutes.  Each district government is managed by an elder ().

Demographics.

The population of Tallinn on 1 January 2020 was 437,619.  According to Eurostat, in 2004 Tallinn had one of the largest number of non-EU nationals of all EU member states' capital cities with Russians forming a significant minority

Economy.

Tallinn is the financial and business capital of Estonia. The city has a highly diversified economy with particular strengths in information technology, tourism and logistics. Over half of the Estonian GDP is created in Tallinn. In 2008, the GDP per capita of Tallinn stood at 172% of the Estonian average.

Information technology.

In addition to longtime functions as seaport and capital city, Tallinn has seen development of an information technology sector; in its 13 December 2005, edition, "The New York Times" characterised Estonia as "a sort of Silicon Valley on the Baltic Sea". One of Tallinn's sister cities is the Silicon Valley town of Los Gatos, California. Skype is one of the best-known of several Estonian

Tourism.

Tallinn receives 4.3 million visitors annually, a figure that has grown steadily over the past decade.  Tallinn's Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a major tourist attraction; others include the Seaplane Harbour of Estonian Maritime Museum, the Tallinn Zoo, Kadriorg Park, and the Estonian Open Air Museum. Most of the visitors come from Europe, though

Energy.

Eesti Energia, a large oil shale to energy company, has its headquarters in Tallinn. The city also hosts the headquarters of Elering, a national electric power transmission

Finance.

Tallinn is the financial centre of Estonia and also a strong economic centre in the Scandinavian-Baltic region. Many major banks, such as SEB, Swedbank, Nordea, DNB, have their local offices

Logistics.

Port of Tallinn is one of the biggest ports in the Baltic sea region. Old City Harbour has been known as a

Manufacturing sector.

Tallinn industries include shipbuilding, machine building, metal processing, electronics, textile manufacturing. BLRT Grupp has its headquarters and some subsidiaries in Tallinn. Air Maintenance Estonia and AS Panaviatic Maintenance, both based in Tallinn Airport, provide MRO services for aircraft, largely expanding their operations in recent years.

Food processing.

Liviko, the maker of Vana Tallinn liqueur, strongly associated with the city, is based in Tallinn. The headquarters of Kalev, a confectionery company and part of the industrial conglomerate Orkla Group, is located in Lehmja, southeast of Tallinn.

Retail.

The city draws large numbers of shopping tourists from countries within the region. When new planned retail developments are completed, Tallinn will have almost 2 square metres of shopping floor

Notable headquarters.

Among

Education.

Institutions of higher

Culture.

Museums.

Tallinn is home to more than 60 museums and galleries. Most of them are located in Kesklinn, the central district of the city, and cover Tallinn's rich history.  One of the most visited historical museums in Tallinn is the Estonian History Museum, located in Great Guild Hall at Vanalinn, the old part of the city. It covers Estonia's history from prehistoric times up until the end of the 20th century. It features film and hands-on displays that show how Estonian dwellers lived and survived. The Estonian Maritime Museum provides a

Lauluväljak.

The Estonian Song Festival (in Estonian: Laulupidu) is one of the largest choral events in the world, listed by the UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It is held every five years in July on the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds ("Lauluväljak") simultaneously with the Estonian Dance Festival. The joint choir has comprised more than

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Estonian: Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival, or PÖFF), is an annual film festival held since 1997 in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. PÖFF is the only festival in the Nordic and Baltic region with a FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Association) accreditation for holding an international competition programme in the Nordic and Baltic region with 14 other non-specialised festivals,

Cuisine.

The traditional cuisine of Tallinn reflects culinary traditions of the Northern Estonia, the role of the city as a fishing port, and the Baltic German influence. Numerous cafés () have played a major role in a social life of the city since the 19th century, as have bars, especially in the Kesklinn district.  The marzipan industry in Tallinn has a very long history. The production of marzipan started in the Middle Ages, almost simultaneously in Tallinn and Lübeck, both members of the Hanseatic League. In 1695, marzipan was mentioned as a medicine, under the designation of "Panis Martius," in the price lists of the Tallinn Town Hall Pharmacy. The modern era of marzipan in Tallinn began in 1806, when the Swiss confectioner Lorenz Caviezel set up his confectionery on Pikk Street. In 1864

Tourism.

What can arguably be considered to be Tallinn's main attractions are located in the old town of Tallinn (divided into a "lower town" and Toompea hill) which is easily explored on foot. The eastern parts of the city, notably Pirita (with Pirita Convent) and Kadriorg (with Kadriorg Palace) districts, are also popular destinations, and the Estonian Open Air Museum in Rocca al Mare, west of the city, preserves aspects of Estonian rural culture and architecture.

Toompea – Upper Town.

This area was once an almost separate town, heavily fortified, and has always been the seat of whatever power that has ruled Estonia. The hill occupies an

All-linn – Lower Town.

This area is one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe and the authorities are continuing its rehabilitation. Major sights include the Town Hall square (), the city wall

Kadriorg.

Kadriorg is east of the city centre and is served by buses and trams. Kadriorg Palace, the former palace of Peter the Great, built just after the Great Northern War, now houses the foreign art department of the Art Museum of Estonia, the

Pirita.

This coastal district is a further 2 kilometres north-east of Kadriorg. The marina was built for the

Music culture.

Tallinn has a few music venues for live music such as Kultuurikatel/Kanala, Ptarmigan,

Transport.

City transport.

The city operates a system of bus (73 lines), tram (4 lines) and trolley-bus (4 lines) routes to all districts. A flat-fare system is used. The ticket-system is based

Air.

The Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport is about from Town Hall square (). There is a tram (Line Number: 4 and local bus connection between the airport and the edge of the city centre (bus no. 2). The nearest railway station Ülemiste is only from the airport.  The construction of the new section of the airport began in 2007 and was finished in summer 2008.  There has been a helicopter

Ferry.

Several ferry operators, Viking Line, Linda Line, Tallink and Eckerö Line, connect Tallinn to

Railroad.

The Elron railway company operates train services from Tallinn to Tartu, Valga, Türi, Viljandi, Tapa, Narva, Orava, Koidula. Buses are also available to all these and various other destinations in Estonia, as well as to Saint Petersburg in Russia and Riga, Latvia. The Russian railways company operates a daily international sleeper train service between Tallinn – Moscow.  Tallinn also has a commuter rail service running from Tallinn's main

Roads.

The Via Baltica motorway (part of European route E67 from Helsinki to Prague) connects Tallinn to the Lithuanian/Polish border

International relations.

Twin towns – sister cities.

Tallinn participates in international town

Tallinn (; ; names in other languages) is the capital, primate and the most populous city of Estonia. Located in the northern part of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of 437,619 in 2020. Administratively a part of Harju "maakond" (county), Tallinn is the main financial, industrial, cultural, educational and research centre of Estonia; the second largest city, Tartu, is located in the southern part of Estonia, southeast of Tallinn. Tallinn is located south of Helsinki, Finland, west of Saint Petersburg, Russia, north of Riga, Latvia, and east of Stockholm, Sweden. It has close historical ties with these four cities. From the 13th century until the first half of the 20th century Tallinn was known in most of the world by its historical German name Reval.

Tallinn (česky zřídka též "Tallin" nebo "Talin", dříve rovněž "Revel", německy dříve "Reval", švédsky dříve "Lindanäs") je hlavní město Estonska a přístav na jižním pobřeží Finského zálivu Baltského moře. Žije zde obyvatel.


Background.

The 'Reichskonkordat' between Germany and the Holy See was signed on 30 July 1933 and ratified in September of that year. The treaty was an extension of existing concordats already signed with Prussia and Bavaria Concordats have been used to create binding agreements to safeguard church interests and its freedom to act, particularly in countries that do not have strong jurisprudence guaranteeing government non-interference in religious matters or where the church seeks a privileged position under government patronage.  Accounts of 20th-century diplomatic relations between Germany and the Vatican commonly take as their starting point the political scene in the late 19th century. German Chancellor Bismarck's "Kulturkampf" ("Battle for Culture") of 1871–78 saw an attempt to assert a Protestant vision of nationalism over the new German Empire, and fused anticlericalism with suspicion of the Catholic population, whose loyalty was presumed to lie with Austria and France. The Catholic Centre Party had formed in 1870, initially to represent the religious interests of Catholics and Protestants, but was transformed by the "Kulturkampf" into the "political voice of Catholics". Bismarck's "Culture Struggle" was largely a failure.  Bismarck sought to restrict the power of the Catholic Church in Germany. He regarded the Roman Church as "the enemy within". His "Kulturkampf" included the disbanding of Catholic organizations, confiscation of church property, banishment or imprisonment of clergy, and an ongoing feud with the Vatican. According to novelist James Carroll, the end of "Kulturkampf" signaled "that the Church had successfully resisted to his face the man [Bismarck] who, according to an admiring Henry Kissinger, was 'outmaneuvered' by nobody." The Catholic Church's firm resistance to Bismarck and "Kulturkampf", including passive resistance by the Church in general and the excommunication of collaborating priests, has been used as benchmark for assessing the Church's response to the Nazis from the early 1930s through World War II.  A formal realignment of Church and state relationships was considered desirable in the aftermath of the political instability of 1918 and the adoption of the Weimar constitution for the Reich along with the new constitutions in the German states in 1919. Key issues that the Church hoped to resolve related to state subsidies to the Church, support for Catholic schools, the appointment of bishops and the legal position of the clergy. The Reich government, in turn, wished for reasons of foreign

Nazi period.

Nazis take power.

In January 1933, Hitler became Chancellor. The passing of the Enabling Act on 23 March, in part, removed the Reichstag as an obstacle to concluding a concordat with the Vatican. Hitler offered the possibility of friendly co-operation, promising not to threaten the Reichstag, the President, the States or the Churches if granted the emergency powers. With Nazi paramilitary encircling the building, he said: "It is for you, gentlemen of the Reichstag to decide between war and peace." The Act allowed Hitler and his Cabinet to rule by emergency decree for four

Negotiations.

The Catholic bishops in Germany had generally shown opposition to Hitler from the beginning of his rise to power. When the Nazi Party polled six million votes during the 14 September 1930 election, the Catholic hierarchy called on its people to examine their consciences. During the next two years, though there had been softening by some, the bishops continued to pronounce against unacceptable policies of the Nazi Party. When Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933, the bishops maintained support for the Catholic Centre Party ("Zentrum"), which in turn refused to assent to a proposal that would allow Hitler to assume full power. On 12 March 1933 Pope Pius XI received the German Cardinal Faulhaber in Rome. On his return Faulhaber reported: After my recent experience in Rome in the highest circles, which I cannot reveal here, I must say that I found, despite everything, a greater tolerance with regard to the new government....Let us meditate on the words of the Holy Father, who in a consistory, without mentioning his name, indicated before the whole world in Adolf Hitler the statesman who first, after the Pope himself, has raised his voice against Bolshevism.  At a cabinet meeting on 20 March 1933 Hitler "confidently reported" that the Centre Party had now seen the necessity of the Enabling Act and that "the acceptance of the Enabling Act also by the "Zentrum" would signify a strengthening prestige with regard to foreign countries." Early in March 1933 the bishops recommended that Catholics vote for the Centre Party in the elections scheduled for 5 March 1933. However, two weeks later the Catholic hierarchy reversed its previous policy – the bishops now allowed the Centre Party and the Bavarian Catholic Party to vote for the Enabling Act which gave Hitler dictatorial powers on 23 March. German Catholic theologian Robert Grosche described the Enabling Act in terms of the 1870 decree on the infallibility of the Pope, and stated that the Church had "anticipated on a higher level, that historical decision which is made today on the political level: for the Pope and against the sovereignty of the Council; for the Fuhrer and against the Parliament." On 29 March 1933

The concordat.

The Treaty with Additional Protocol [in brackets] was signed 20 July 1933. It was ratified and in force starting 10 September 1933 and remains in force today. The text of the concordat was released 22 July 1933 and began with a preamble that set out the common desire of both parties for friendly relations set-out in a solemn agreement.  Preamble  His Holliness Pope Pius XI and the President of the German Reich ["Paul von Hindenburg"], led by their common desire to consolidate and enhance the existing friendly relations between the Catholic Church and the state in the whole territory of the German Reich in a stable and satisfactory manner for both parties, have decided to conclude a solemn agreement which will supplement the concordats already concluded with some particular German States (Laender) and secure for the others the principles of a uniform treatment of the questions involved.  His Holiness Pope Pius XI has appointed as his plenipotentiary ["a diplomat granted full power to represent"] His Eminence the Most Revered Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, His Holiness' Secretary of State; and the President of the German Reich ["Paul von Hindenburg"] has appointed as plenipotentiary the Vice-Chairman of the German Reich,

Reception.

The British Roman Catholic periodical "The Tablet" reported the signing of the concordat:  Already it is being said that THE POPE OF ROME thinks of nobody save his own adherents and that he does not care how Lutherans are dragooned and how Jews are harried so long as Popish bishops, monastic orders, confessional schools, and Catholic associations are allowed full freedom. We beg our Protestant and Jewish friends to put away such suspicions. As we suggested at the outset of this brief article, the Catholic Church could have done little for other denominations in Germany if she had begun thrusting out wild hands to help them while

Violations.

Nazi violations of the concordat commenced almost immediately after it was signed. The Nazis claimed jurisdiction over all collective and social activity, interfering with Catholic schooling, youth groups, workers' clubs and cultural societies. Hitler had a "blatant disregard" for the concordat, wrote Paul O'Shea, and its signing was to him merely a first step in the "gradual suppression of the Catholic Church in Germany". Anton Gill wrote that "with his usual irresistible, bullying technique, Hitler then proceeded to take a mile where he had been given an inch" and closed all Catholic institutions whose functions weren't strictly religious:  Within the same month of signing the concordat, the Nazis promulgated their sterilization law – the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased

World War II.

From 1940, the Gestapo launched an intense persecution of the monasteries, invading, searching and appropriating them. The Provincial of the Dominican Province of Teutonia, Laurentius Siemer, a spiritual leader of the German Resistance, was influential in the Committee for Matters Relating to the Orders, which formed in response to Nazi attacks against Catholic monasteries and aimed to encourage the bishops to intercede on behalf of the Orders and oppose the Nazi state more emphatically.  With the expansion of the war in the East from 1941, there came also an expansion of the regime's attack on the churches. Monasteries and convents were targeted and expropriation of Church properties surged. The Nazi authorities claimed that the properties were needed for wartime necessities such as hospitals, or accommodation for refugees or children, but in fact used them for their own purposes. "Hostility to the state" was another common cause given for the confiscations, and the action of a single

After World War II.

Pius XII put a high priority on preserving the concordat from the Nazi era, although the bishops were unenthusiastic about it and the Allies considered the request inappropriate. After the war, the concordat remained in place and the Catholic church was restored to its previous position.  When Lower Saxony passed a new school law, the Holy See complained that it violated the terms of the concordat. The federal government called upon the Federal Constitutional Court ("Bundesverfassungsgericht") for clarification. In its ruling of 26 March 1957, the court decided that the circumstances surrounding the conclusion of the concordat did not invalidate it.

Assessment.

Anthony Rhodes regarded Hitler's desire for a concordat with the Vatican as being driven principally by the prestige and respectability it brought to his regime abroad whilst at the same time eliminating the opposition of the Centre Party. Rhodes took the view that if the survival of Catholic education and youth organisations was taken to be the principal aim of papal diplomacy during this period then the signing of the concordat to prevent greater evils was justified. Many of the Centre Party deputies were priests who had not been afraid to raise their voices in the past and would almost certainly have voted against Hitler's assumption of dictatorial powers. The voluntary dissolution of the Centre Party removed that obstacle and Hitler now had absolute power and brought respectability to the state: "Within six months of its birth, the Third Reich had been given full approval by the highest spiritual power on earth". Ian Kershaw considered the role of the Centre Party in Hitler's removal of almost all constitutional restraints as "particularly ignominious."  John Cornwell views Cardinal Pacelli as being an example of a "fellow traveller" of the Nazis who, through the concordat, was willing to accept the generosity of Hitler in the educational sphere (more schools, teachers and student slots), so long as the Church withdrew from the social and political sphere, at the same time as Jews were being dismissed from universities and Jewish student slots were being reduced. He argues that the Catholic Centre Party vote was decisive in the adoption of dictatorial powers by Hitler and that the party's subsequent dissolution was at Pacelli's prompting. Michael Phayer is of the opinion that the concordat conditioned German bishops to avoid speaking out against anything that was not strictly related to church matters, leading to a muted response to the attacks on Mosaic Jews. Carlo Falconi described the concordat as "The Devil's Pact with Hitler". Albert Einstein in private conversation relating to the concordat said "Since when can one make a pact with Christ and Satan at the same time?" Daniel Goldhagen recalled how Hitler had said: "To attain our aim we should stop at nothing even if we must join forces with the devil," and that, in Goldhagen's view, is what Hitler did in agreeing the concordat with the church. Gordon Zahn felt that though the signing of the concordat was distasteful for Cardinal Pacelli it had spared the church in Germany from greater hardship and persecution.  John Cornwell's analysis ignores all the real evidence. The President of Germany at the time the Concordant with the Vatican was signed was Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler was merely the newly appointed Chancellor and Hitler was still selecting his cabinet when the Concordant was signed. The negotiations over the language of and terms of the Concordant had been concluded long before Hitler was appointed Chancellor by German President Paul von Hindenburg. Bismark engaged in many of the negotiations but never signed the Concordant due to the anti-Catholic reaction he feared.  In 1933 German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor. The concordat was negotiated in order to placate Pope Pius XI and the Vatican by ensuring the German Church's safety. Although Hitler did not have presidential powers at the time of the treaty's signing, he already had dictatorial powers and decided the articles of the treaty.

The Reichskonkordat ("Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich") is a treaty negotiated between the Vatican and the emergent Nazi Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII, on behalf of Pope Pius XI and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of President Paul von Hindenburg and the German government. It was ratified 10 September 1933 and it has been in force from that date onward. The treaty guarantees the rights of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. When bishops take office Article 16 states they are required to take an oath of loyalty to the Governor or President of the German Reich established according to the constitution. The treaty also requires all clergy to abstain from working in and for political parties. Nazi breaches of the agreement began almost as soon as it had been signed and intensified afterwards leading to protest from the Church including in the 1937 "Mit brennender Sorge" encyclical of Pope Pius XI. The Nazis planned to eliminate the Church's influence by restricting its organizations to purely religious activities.

Jako Říšský konkordát se označuje konkordát mezi Německem a Svatým stolcem podepsaný 20. července 1933 kardinálem Pacellim a vicekancléřem von Papenem a ratifikovaný Německem 10. září téhož roku. Je stále platný pro Spolkovou republiku Německo. Uzavření konkordátu je hodnoceno jako kontroverzní, neboť usnadnilo Adolfu Hitlerovi cestu k moci.


Mode of action.

Hydrogen cyanide is a poisonous gas that interferes with cellular respiration. Cyanide prevents the cell from producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by binding to one of the proteins involved in the electron transport chain. This protein, cytochrome c oxidase, contains several subunits and has ligands containing iron groups. The cyanide component of Zyklon B can bind at one of these iron groups, heme a3, forming a more stabilized compound through metal-to-ligand pi bonding. As a result of the formation of this new iron-cyanide complex, the electrons that would situate themselves on the heme a3 group can no longer do so. Instead, these electrons destabilize the compound; thus, the heme group no longer accepts them. Consequently, electron transport is halted, and cells can no longer produce the energy needed to synthesize ATP. Death occurs in a human being weighing within two minutes of inhaling 70 mg of hydrogen cyanide.

History.

Hydrogen cyanide, discovered in the late 18th century, was used in the 1880s for the fumigation of citrus trees in California. Its use spread to other countries for the fumigation of silos, goods wagons, ships, and mills. Its light weight and rapid dispersal meant its application had to take place under tents or in enclosed areas. Research by Fritz Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry led to the founding in 1919 of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung mbH (Degesch), a state-controlled consortium formed to investigate military use of the chemical. Chemists at Degesch added a cautionary eye irritant to a less volatile cyanide compound which reacted with water in the presence of heat to become hydrogen cyanide. The new product was marketed as the pesticide Zyklon (cyclone). As a similar formula had been used as a weapon by the Germans during World War I, Zyklon was soon banned.  Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheideanstalt (German Gold and Silver Refinery; Degussa) became sole owners of Degesch in 1922. There, beginning in 1922,, Bruno Tesch, and others worked on packaging hydrogen cyanide in sealed canisters along with a cautionary eye irritant and adsorbent stabilizers such as diatomaceous earth. The new product was also labelled as Zyklon, but it became known as Zyklon B to distinguish it from the earlier version. Heerdt was named the inventor of Zyklon B in the Degesch patent application (number DE 438818) dated 20 June 1922. The Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt awarded the patent on 27 December 1926. Beginning in the 1920s, Zyklon B was used at U.S. Customs facilities along the Mexican border to fumigate the clothing of border crossers.

Corporate structure and marketing.

In 1930, Degussa ceded 42.5 percent ownership of Degesch to IG Farben and 15 percent to Th. Goldschmidt AG, in exchange for the right to market pesticide products of those two companies through Degesch. Degussa retained managerial control.  While Degesch owned the rights to the brand name Zyklon and the patent on the packaging system, the chemical formula was owned by Degussa. Schlempe GmbH, which was 52 percent owned by Degussa, owned the rights to a process to extract hydrogen cyanide from waste products of sugar beet processing. This process was performed under license by two companies, Dessauer Werke and Kaliwerke Kolin, who also combined the resulting hydrogen cyanide with stabilizer from IG Farben and a cautionary agent from Schering AG to form the final product, which was packaged using equipment, labels, and canisters provided by Degesch. The finished goods were sent to Degesch, who forwarded the product to two companies that acted as distributors: Heerdt-Linger GmbH (Heli) of Frankfurt and Tesch & Stabenow (Testa) of Hamburg. Their territory was split along the Elbe river, with Heli handling clients to the west and south, and Testa those to the east. Degesch owned 51 percent of the shares of Heli, and until 1942 owned 55 percent of Testa.  Prior to World War II Degesch derived most of its Zyklon B profits from overseas sales, particularly in the United States, where it was produced under license by Roessler & Hasslacher prior to 1931 and by American Cyanamid from 1931 to 1943. From 1929, the United States Public Health Service used Zyklon B to fumigate freight trains and clothes of Mexican immigrants entering the United States. Uses in Germany included delousing clothing (often using a portable sealed chamber invented by Degesch in the 1930s) and fumigating ships, warehouses, and trains. By 1943, sales of Zyklon B accounted for 65 percent of Degesch's sales revenue and 70 percent of its gross profits.

Use in the Holocaust.

In early 1942, the Nazis began using Zyklon B as the preferred killing tool in extermination camps during the Holocaust. They used it to kill roughly 1.1 million people in gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and elsewhere. Most of the victims were Jews, and by far the majority killed using this method died at Auschwitz. Distributor Heli supplied Zyklon B to Mauthausen, Dachau, and Buchenwald, and Testa supplied it to Auschwitz and Majdanek; camps also occasionally bought it directly from the manufacturers. Some 56 tonnes of the 729 tonnes sold in Germany in 1942–44 were sold to concentration camps, amounting to about 8 percent of domestic sales. Auschwitz received 23.8 tonnes, of which 6 tonnes were used for fumigation. The remainder was used in the gas chambers or lost to spoilage (the product had a stated shelf life of only three months). Testa conducted fumigations for the Wehrmacht and supplied them with Zyklon B. They also offered courses to the SS in the safe handling and use of the material for fumigation purposes. In April 1941, the German agriculture and interior ministries designated the SS as an authorized applier of the chemical, which meant they were able to use it without any further training or governmental oversight.  Rudolf Höss, commandant of Auschwitz, said that the use of Zyklon-B to kill prisoners came about on the initiative of one of his subordinates, SS-"Hauptsturmführer" (captain) Karl Fritzsch, who had used it to kill some Russian POWs in late August 1941 in the basement of Block 11 in the main camp. They repeated the experiment on more Russian POWs in September, with Höss watching. Block 11 proved unsuitable for mass killings, as the basement was difficult to air out afterwards and the crematorium (Crematorium I, which operated until July 1942) was some distance away. The site of the killings was moved to Crematorium I, where more than 700 victims could be killed at once. By the middle of 1942, the operation was moved to Auschwitz II–Birkenau, a nearby satellite camp which had been under construction since October 1941.  The first gas chamber at Auschwitz II–Birkenau was the "red house" (called Bunker 1 by SS staff), a brick cottage converted to a gassing facility by tearing out the inside and bricking up the windows. It was operational by March 1942. A second brick cottage, called the "white house" or Bunker 2, was converted some weeks later. According to Höss, Bunker 1 held 800 victims and Bunker 2 held 1,200 victims. These structures were in use for mass killings until early 1943. At that point, the Nazis decided to greatly increase the gassing capacity of Birkenau. Crematorium II was originally designed as a mortuary with morgues in the basement and ground-level incinerators; they converted it into a killing factory by installing gas-tight doors, vents for the Zyklon B to be dropped into the chamber, and ventilation equipment to remove the gas afterwards. Crematorium III was built using the same design. Crematoria IV and V, designed from the beginning as gassing centers, were also constructed that spring. By June 1943, all four crematoria were operational. Most of the victims were killed using these four structures.  The Nazis began shipping large numbers of Jews from all over Europe to Auschwitz in the middle of 1942. Those who were not selected for work crews were immediately gassed. Those selected to die generally comprised about three-quarters of the total and included almost all children, women with small children, all the elderly, and all those who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be completely fit. The victims were told that they were to undergo delousing and a shower. They were stripped of their belongings and herded into the gas chamber.  A special SS bureau known as the Hygienic Institute delivered the Zyklon B to the crematoria by ambulance. The actual delivery of the gas to the victims was always handled by the SS, on the order of the supervising SS doctor. After the doors were shut, SS men dumped in the Zyklon B pellets through vents in the roof or holes in the side of the chamber. The victims were dead within 20 minutes. Johann Kremer, an SS doctor who oversaw gassings, testified that the "shouting and screaming of the victims could be heard through the opening and it was clear that they fought for their lives".  "Sonderkommandos" (special work crews forced to work at the gas chambers) wearing gas masks then dragged the bodies from the chamber. The victims' glasses, artificial limbs, jewelry, and hair were removed, and any dental work was extracted so the gold could be melted down. If the gas chamber was crowded, which they typically were, the corpses were found half-squatting, their skin discolored pink with red and green spots, with some foaming at the mouth or bleeding from their ears. The corpses were burned in the nearby incinerators, and the ashes were buried, thrown in the river, or used as fertilizer. With the Soviet Red Army approaching through Poland, the last mass gassing at Auschwitz took place on 30 October 1944. In November 1944, "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, ordered gassing operations to cease throughout the Reich.

Legacy.

After World War II ended in 1945, Bruno Tesch and Karl Weinbacher of Tesch & Stabenow were tried in a British military court and executed for knowingly providing Zyklon B to the SS for use on humans. Gerhard Peters, who served as principal operating officer of Degesch and Heli and also held posts in the Nazi government, served two years eight months in prison as an accessory before being released due to amendments to the penal code.  Use of hydrogen cyanide as a pesticide or cleaner has been banned or restricted in some countries. Most hydrogen cyanide is used in industrial processes, made by companies in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the US. Degesch resumed production of Zyklon B after the war. The product was sold as Cyanosil in Germany and Zyklon in other countries. It was still produced as of 2008. Degussa sold Degesch to Detia-Freyberg GmbH in 1986. The company is now called Detia-Degesch. Up until around 2015, a fumigation product similar to Zyklon B was in production by Lučební závody Draslovka of the Czech Republic, under the trade name Uragan D2. "Uragan" means "hurricane" or "cyclone" in Czech.  Subsequent use of the word "Zyklon" in trade names has prompted angry reactions in English-speaking countries. The name "Zyklon" on portable roller coasters made since 1965 by Pinfari provoked protests among Jewish groups in the U.S. in 1993, and 1999. In 2002, British sportswear and football equipment supplier Umbro issued an apology and stopped using the name "Zyklon", which had appeared since 1999 on the box for one of its trainers, after receiving complaints from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre. Also in 2002, Siemens withdrew its application for an American trademark of the word "Zyklon", which their subsidiary BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte had proposed to use for a new line of home appliances in the United States. (The firm was already using the name in Germany for one of their vacuum cleaners.) Protests were lodged by the Simon Wiesenthal Center after the trademark application was reported to BBC News Online by one of their readers. French company IPC's product names used "Cyclone" for degreasers and suffix "B" for biodegradable: "Cyclone B" was renamed ("green cap") in 2013 after protests from Jewish groups. A rabbi said the name was "horrible ignorance at best, and a Guinness record in evil and cynicism if the company did know the history of the name of its product."  Holocaust deniers claim that Zyklon B gas was not used in the gas chambers, relying for evidence on the discredited research of Fred A. Leuchter, who found low levels of Prussian blue in samples of the gas chamber walls and ceilings. Leuchter attributed its presence to general delousing of the buildings. Leuchter's negative control, a sample of gasket material taken from a different camp building, had no cyanide residue. In 1999, James Roth, the chemist who had analyzed Leuchter's samples, stated that the test was flawed because the material that was sent for testing included large chunks, and the chemical would only be within 10 microns of the surface. The surface that had been exposed to the chemical was not identified, and the large size of the specimens meant that any chemical present was diluted by an undeterminable amount. In 1994, the Institute for Forensic Research in Kraków re-examined Leuchter's claim, stating that formation of Prussian blue by exposure of bricks to cyanide is not a highly probable reaction. Using microdiffusion techniques, they tested 22 samples from the gas chambers and delousing chambers (as positive controls) and living quarters (as negative controls). They found cyanide residue in both the delousing chambers and the gas chambers but none in the living quarters.

Zyklon B (; translated Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consisted of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such as diatomaceous earth. The product is notorious for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder approximately 1.1 million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps.

Cyklon B (německy Zyklon B) je obchodní název insekticidu německé firmy IG Farben. Je to granulovaná křemelina nasycená kyanovodíkem, ze které se po otevření obalu začal uvolňovat plynný kyanovodík (HCN). Jeho původní zamýšlené použití spočívalo v dezinsekci.


Etymology and meaning.

The word appears about 70 times in the Quran itself, assuming various meanings. It is a verbal noun () of the Arabic verb (), meaning "he read" or "he recited". The Syriac equivalent is (), which refers to "scripture reading" or "lesson". While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, the majority of Muslim authorities hold the origin of the word is itself. Regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammad's lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the "act of reciting", as reflected in an early Quranic passage: "It is for Us to collect it and to recite it ()."  In other verses, the word refers to "an individual passage recited [by Muhammad]". Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example: ""So when is recited, listen to it and keep silent."" The word

History.

Prophetic era.

Islamic tradition relates that Muhammad received his first revelation in the Cave of Hira during one of his isolated retreats to the mountains. Thereafter, he received revelations over a period of 23 years. According to "hadith" and Muslim history, after Muhammad immigrated to Medina and formed an independent Muslim community, he ordered many of his companions to recite the Quran and to learn and teach the laws, which were revealed daily. It is related that some of the Quraysh who were taken prisoners at the Battle of Badr regained their freedom after they

Compilation.

Following Muhammad's death in 632, a number of his companions who knew the Quran by heart were killed in the Battle of Yamama by Musaylimah. The first caliph, Abu Bakr (d. 634), subsequently decided to collect the book in one volume so that it could be preserved. Zayd ibn Thabit (d. 655) was the person to collect the Quran since "he used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle". Thus, a group of scribes, most importantly Zayd, collected the verses and produced a hand-written manuscript of the complete book. The manuscript according to Zayd remained with Abu Bakr until he died. Zayd's reaction to the task and the difficulties in collecting the Quranic material from parchments, palm-leaf stalks, thin stones (collectively known as "suhuf") and from men who knew it by heart is recorded in earlier narratives. After Abu Bakr, in 644, Hafsa bint Umar, Muhammad's widow, was entrusted with the manuscript until the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, has requested the standard

Significance in Islam.

Muslims believe the Quran to be God's final revelation to humanity, a work of divine guidance revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel.  Revered by pious Muslims as "the holy of holies", whose sound moves some to "tears and esctasy", it is the physical symbol of the faith, the text often used as a charm on occasions of birth, death, marriage. Consequently Traditionally great emphasis was put on children memorizing the 6200+ verses of the Quran, those succeeding being honored with the title Hafiz. "Millions and millions" of Muslims "refer to the Koran daily to explain their actions and to justify their aspirations", and in recent years many consider it the source of scientific knowledge.  Revelation in Islamic and Quranic contexts means the act of God addressing an individual, conveying a message for a greater number of recipients. The process by which the divine message comes to the heart of a messenger of God is "tanzil" (to send down) or "nuzūl" (to come down). As the Quran says, "With the truth we (God) have sent it down and with the truth it has come down."  The Quran frequently asserts in its text that it is divinely ordained. Some verses in the Quran seem to imply that even those who do not speak Arabic would understand the Quran if it were recited to them. The Quran refers to a written pre-text, "the preserved tablet", that records God's speech even before it was sent down.  Muslims believe that the present wording of the Quran corresponds to that revealed to Muhammad, and according to their interpretation of Quran, it is protected from corruption ("Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian."). Muslims consider the Quran to be a guide, a sign of the prophethood of Muhammad and the truth of the religion.

Shia view of the Quran.

The Shīa believe that the Quran was gathered and compiled by Muhammad during his lifetime, rather than being compiled by Uthman ibn Affan. There are other differences in the way Shias interpret the text. Muslims do not agree over whether

Inimitability.

Inimitability of the Quran (or ""I'jaz"") is the belief that no human speech can match the Quran in its content and form. The Quran is considered an inimitable miracle by Muslims, effective until the Day of Resurrection—and, thereby, the central proof granted to Muhammad in authentication of his prophetic status. The concept of inimitability originates in the Quran where in five different verses opponents are challenged to produce something like the Quran: "If men and sprites banded together to produce the like of this Quran

In worship.

The first sura of the Quran is repeated in daily prayers and in other occasions. This sura, which consists of seven verses, is the most often recited sura of the Quran:  Praised be God, Lord of the Universe, the Beneficent, the Merciful and Master of the Day of Judgment, You alone We do worship and from You alone we do seek assistance, guide us to the right path, the path of those to whom You have granted blessings, those who are neither subject to Your anger nor have gone astray."  Other sections of the Quran of choice are also read

In Islamic art.

The Quran also inspired Islamic arts and specifically the so-called Quranic arts of calligraphy and illumination. The Quran is never decorated with figurative images, but many Qurans have been highly decorated with

Text and arrangement.

The Quran consists of 114 chapters of varying lengths, each known as a "sūrah". Chapters are classified as Meccan or Medinan, depending on whether the verses were revealed before or after the migration of Muhammad to the city of Medina. However, a sūrah classified as Medinan may contain Meccan verses in it and vice versa. Sūrah titles are derived from a name or quality discussed in the text, or from the first letters or words of the sūrah. Chapters are arranged roughly in order of decreasing size. The sūrah arrangement is thus not connected to the sequence of revelation. Each sūrah except the ninth starts with the "Bismillah" (), an Arabic phrase meaning "In the name of God". There are, however, still 114 occurrences of the "Bismillah" in the Quran, due to its presence in Quran as the opening of Solomon's letter to the Queen of Sheba.  Each sūrah consists of several verses, known as "āyāt", which originally means a "sign" or "evidence" sent by God. The number of verses differs from sūrah to sūrah. An individual verse may be just a few letters

Contents.

The Quranic content is concerned with basic Islamic beliefs including the existence of God and the resurrection. Narratives of the early prophets, ethical and legal subjects, historical events of Muhammad's time, charity and prayer also appear in the Quran. The Quranic verses contain general exhortations regarding right and wrong and historical events are related to outline general moral lessons. Verses pertaining to natural phenomena have been interpreted by Muslims as an indication of the authenticity of the Quranic message. The style of the Quran has been called "allusive", with commentaries needed to explain what is being referred to -- "events are referred to, but not narrated; disagreements are debated without being explained; people and places are mentioned, but rarely named."

Monotheism.

The central theme of the Quran is monotheism. God is depicted as living, eternal, omniscient and omnipotent (see, e.g., Quran,, ). God's omnipotence appears above all in his power to create. He is the creator of everything, of the heavens and the earth and what is between them (see, e.g., Quran,, etc.). All human beings are equal in their utter dependence

Eschatology.

The doctrine of the last day and eschatology (the final fate of the universe) may be reckoned as the second great doctrine of the Quran. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the Quran is eschatological, dealing with the afterlife in the next world and with the day of judgment at the end of time. There is a reference to the afterlife on most pages of the Quran and belief in the afterlife is often referred to in conjunction with belief in God as in the common expression: "Believe in God and the last day". A number of suras such

Prophets.

According to the Quran, God communicated with man and made his will known through signs and revelations. Prophets, or 'Messengers of God', received revelations and delivered them to humanity. The message has been identical and for all humankind. "Nothing is said to you that was not said to the messengers before you, that

Ethico-religious concepts.

Belief is a fundamental aspect of morality in the Quran, and scholars have tried to determine the semantic contents of "belief" and "believer" in the Quran. The ethico-legal concepts and exhortations dealing with righteous conduct are linked to a profound awareness of God, thereby emphasizing the importance of faith, accountability, and the belief in each human's ultimate encounter with God. People are invited to perform acts of charity, especially for the needy. Believers who "spend of their wealth by night and

Encouragement for the sciences.

The astrophysicist Nidhal Guessoum, while being highly critical of pseudo-scientific claims made about the Quran, has highlighted the encouragement for sciences that the Quran provides by developing "the concept of knowledge." He writes: "The Qur'an draws attention to the danger of conjecturing without evidence ("And follow not that of which you have not the (certain) knowledge of..." 17:36) and in several different verses asks Muslims to require proofs ("Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful" 2:111), both in matters of theological belief and in natural science." Guessoum cites Ghaleb Hasan on the definition of "proof" according the Quran being "clear and strong... convincing evidence or argument." Also, such a proof cannot rely on an argument from authority, citing verse 5:104. Lastly, both assertions and rejections require a proof, according to verse 4:174. Ismail al-Faruqi and Taha Jabir Alalwani are of the view that any reawakening of the Muslim civilization must start with the Quran; however, the biggest obstacle on this route is the "centuries old heritage of tafseer (exegesis) and other classical disciplines" which inhibit a "universal, epidemiological and systematic conception" of the Quran's message. The philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, considered the Quran's methodology and

Literary style.

The Quran's message is conveyed with various literary structures and devices. In the original Arabic, the suras and verses employ phonetic and thematic structures that assist the audience's efforts to recall the message of the text. Muslims assert (according to the Quran itself) that the Quranic content and style is inimitable.  The language of the Quran has been described as "rhymed prose" as it partakes of both poetry and prose; however, this description runs the risk of failing to convey the rhythmic quality of Quranic language, which is more poetic in some parts and more prose-like in others. Rhyme, while found throughout the Quran, is conspicuous in many of the earlier Meccan suras, in which relatively short verses throw the rhyming words into prominence. The effectiveness of such a form is evident for instance in Sura 81, and there can be no doubt that these passages impressed the conscience of the hearers. Frequently a change of rhyme from one set of verses to another signals a change in the subject of discussion. Later

Interpretation.

The Quran has sparked a huge body of commentary and explication ("tafsir"), aimed at explaining the "meanings of the Quranic verses, clarifying their import and finding out their significance".  Tafsir is one of the earliest academic activities of Muslims. According to the Quran, Muhammad was the first person who described the meanings of verses for early Muslims. Other early exegetes included a few Companions of Muhammad, such as Abu Bakr, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan, ʻAli ibn Abi Talib, 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ood, ʻAbdullah ibn Abbas, Ubayy ibn Kaʻb, Zayd ibn Thaabit, Abu Moosaa al-Ash’ari, and ‘Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr. Exegesis in those days was confined to the explanation of literary aspects of the verse, the background of its revelation and, occasionally, interpretation of one verse with the help of the other. If the verse was about a historical event, then sometimes a few traditions ("hadith") of Muhammad were narrated to make its meaning clear.  Because the Quran is spoken in classical Arabic, many of the later converts to Islam (mostly non-Arabs) did not always understand the Quranic Arabic, they did not catch allusions that were clear to early Muslims fluent in Arabic and they were concerned with reconciling apparent conflict of themes in the Quran. Commentators erudite in Arabic explained the allusions, and perhaps most importantly, explained which Quranic verses had been revealed early in Muhammad's prophetic career, as being appropriate to the very earliest Muslim community, and which had been revealed later, canceling out or "abrogating" ("nāsikh") the earlier text ("mansūkh"). Other scholars, however, maintain that no abrogation has taken place in the Quran. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has published a ten-volume Urdu commentary on the Quran, with the name "Tafseer e Kabir". Following this commentary, a five volume English commentary was also published as The English Commentary of the Holy Quran.

Esoteric interpretation.

Esoteric or Sufi interpretation attempts to unveil the inner meanings of the Quran. Sufism moves beyond the apparent ("zahir") point of the verses and instead relates Quranic verses to the inner or esoteric ("batin") and metaphysical dimensions of consciousness and existence. According to Sands, esoteric interpretations are more suggestive than declarative, they are allusions ("isharat") rather than explanations ("tafsir"). They indicate possibilities as much as they demonstrate the insights of each writer.  Sufi interpretation, according to Annabel Keeler, also exemplifies the use of the theme of love, as for instance can be seen in Qushayri's interpretation of the Quran. Quran says:  Moses, in 7:143, comes the way of those who are in love, he asks for a vision but his desire is denied, he is made to suffer by being commanded to look at other than the Beloved while the mountain is able to see God. The mountain crumbles and Moses faints at the sight of God's manifestation upon the mountain. In Qushayri's words, Moses came like thousands of men who traveled great distances, and there was nothing left to Moses of Moses. In that state of annihilation from himself, Moses was granted the unveiling of the realities. From the Sufi point of view, God is the always the beloved and the wayfarer's longing and suffering lead to realization of the truths.  Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei says that according to the popular explanation among the later exegetes, "ta'wil" indicates the particular meaning a verse is directed towards. The meaning of revelation ("tanzil"), as opposed to "ta'wil", is clear in its accordance to the obvious meaning of the words as they were revealed. But this explanation has become so widespread that,

Levels of meaning.

Unlike the Salafis and Zahiri, Shias and Sufis as well as some other Muslim philosophers believe the meaning of the Quran is not restricted to the literal aspect. For them, it is an essential idea that the Quran also has inward aspects. Henry Corbin narrates a "hadith" that goes back to Muhammad:  The Quran possesses an external appearance and a hidden depth, an exoteric meaning and an esoteric meaning. This esoteric meaning in turn conceals an esoteric meaning (this depth possesses a depth, after the image of the celestial Spheres, which are enclosed within each other). So

Reappropriation.

Reappropriation is the name of the hermeneutical style of some ex-Muslims who have converted to Christianity. Their style or

Translations.

Translating the Quran has always been problematic and difficult. Many argue that the Quranic text cannot be reproduced in another language or form. Furthermore, an Arabic word may have a range of meanings depending on the context, making an accurate translation even more difficult.  Nevertheless, the Quran has been translated into most African, Asian, and European languages. The first translator of the Quran was Salman the Persian, who translated surat "al-Fatiha" into Persian during the seventh century. Another translation of the Quran was completed in 884 in Alwar (Sindh, India, now Pakistan) by the orders of Abdullah bin Umar bin Abdul Aziz on the request of the Hindu Raja Mehruk.  The first fully attested complete translations of the Quran were done between the 10th and 12th centuries in Persian. The Samanid king, Mansur I (961–976), ordered a group of scholars from Khorasan to translate the Tafsir al-Tabari, originally in Arabic, into Persian. Later in the 11th century, one of the students of Abu Mansur Abdullah al-Ansari wrote a complete "tafsir" of the Quran in Persian. In the 12th century, Najm al-Din Abu Hafs al-Nasafi translated the Quran into Persian. The manuscripts

Recitation.

Rules of recitation.

The proper recitation of the Quran is the subject of a separate discipline named "tajwid" which determines in detail how the Quran should be recited, how each individual syllable is to be pronounced, the need to pay attention to the places where there should be a pause, to elisions, where the pronunciation should be long or short, where letters should be sounded together and where they should be kept separate, etc. It may be said that this discipline studies the laws and methods of the proper recitation of the Quran and covers three main areas: the proper pronunciation of consonants and vowels (the articulation

Variant readings.

Vocalization markers indicating specific vowel sounds (tashkeel) were introduced into the text of the Qur'an during the lifetimes of the last Sahabah. The first Quranic manuscripts lacked these marks, enabling multiple possible recitations to be conveyed by the same written text. The 10th-century Muslim scholar from Baghdad, Ibn Mujāhid, is famous for establishing seven acceptable textual readings of the Quran. He studied various readings and their trustworthiness and chose seven 8th-century readers from the cities of Mecca, Medina, Kufa, Basra and Damascus. Ibn Mujahid did not explain why he chose seven readers, rather than six or ten, but this may be related to a prophetic tradition (Muhammad's saying) reporting that the Quran had been revealed in seven ""ahruf"" (meaning seven letters or modes). Today, the most popular readings are those

Writing and printing.

Writing.

Before printing was widely adopted in the 19th century, the Quran was transmitted in manuscripts made by calligraphers and copyists. The earliest manuscripts were written in "Ḥijāzī"-type script. The "Hijazi" style manuscripts nevertheless confirm that transmission of the Quran in writing began at an early stage. Probably in the ninth century, scripts began to feature thicker strokes, which are traditionally known as "Kufic" scripts. Toward the end of the ninth century, new scripts began to appear in copies of the Quran and replace earlier scripts. The reason for discontinuation in the use of the earlier style was that it took too long to produce and the demand for copies was increasing. Copyists

Printing.

Wood-block printing of extracts from the Quran is on record as early as the 10th century.  Arabic movable type printing was ordered by Pope Julius II (r. 1503–1512) for distribution among Middle Eastern Christians. The first complete Quran printed with movable type was produced in Venice in 1537/1538 for the Ottoman market by Paganino Paganini and Alessandro Paganini. But this Quran was not used as it contained a large number of errors. Two more editions include those published by the pastor Abraham Hinckelmann in Hamburg in 1694, and by Italian priest Ludovico Maracci in Padua in 1698 with Latin translation and commentary.  Printed copies of the Quran during this period met with strong opposition from Muslim legal scholars: printing anything in Arabic was prohibited in the Ottoman empire between 1483 and 1726—initially, even on penalty of death.

Criticism.

Regarding the claim of divine origin, critics refere to preexisting sources, not only taken from the Bible, supposed to be older revelations of God, but also from heretic-, apocryphic and talmudic sources, such as The Syriac Infancy Gospel and Gospel of James. Due to rejection of Crucifixion of Jesus in the Quran, some scholars also suspect Manichaean, a dualistic religion believing in two eternal forces, influences on the Quran. Christopher Hitchens states that Islam as whole, both hadith and the Quran, are little more than a poorly structured plagiarisms, using earlier

Relationship with other literature.

The Bible.

The Quran attributes its relationship with former books (the Torah and the Gospels) to their unique origin, saying all of them have been revealed by the one God.  According to Christoph Luxenberg (in "The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran") the Quran's language was similar to the Syriac language. The Quran recounts stories of many of the people and events recounted in

Relationships.

Some non-Muslim groups such as Bahá'ís and Druze view the Quran as holy. Unitarian Universalists may also seek inspiration from the Quran. The Quran has been noted to have certain

Arab writing.

After the Quran, and the general rise of Islam, the Arabic alphabet developed rapidly into an art form.

Further reading.

Introductory texts:  Traditional Quranic commentaries (tafsir):

External links.

Quran browsers and translations:  Word-for-word analysis:  Manuscripts:  Other resources:

The Quran ( ;, literally meaning "the recitation"), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God ("Allah"). It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature. Slightly shorter than the New Testament, it is organized in 114 chapters (Arabic: سورة "sūrah", plural سور "suwar") — not according to chronology or subject matter, but according to length of surahs (with some exceptions). Surah are subdivided into verses (Arabic: آية "āyah", plural آيات "āyāt").

Korán (arabsky القرآن 'al-Qurʾān', doslova: "recitace") je hlavní náboženský text islámu, který se skládá z recitací Muhammada (proroka islámu) během posledních 23 let jeho života. Muslimové věří, že verše koránu mu diktoval anděl Gabriel jako zprávy od jediného Boha (Aláha). Korán je rozdělen na 114 súr (kapitol), které nejsou chronologicky uspořádány dle času zjevení (historicky první Muhammadovo zjevení se nachází až v 96. súře ). Každá súra se skládá z určitého počtu veršů ("ayat"). Nejstarší rukopisné exempláře jsou uchovávány ve dvou přepisech, které se nyní nacházejí v Taškentu a v muzeu Topkapi v Istanbulu.


Authorship.

None of the surviving manuscripts specify the name of the author. The name "Fredegar" (modern French Frédégaire) was first used for the chronicle in 1579 by Claude Fauchet in his "Recueil des antiquitez gauloises et françoises". The question of who wrote this work has been much debated, although the historian J. M. Wallace-Hadrill admits that "Fredegar" is a genuine, if unusual, Frankish name. The Vulgar Latin of this work confirms that the Chronicle was written in Gaul; beyond this, little is certain about the origin of this work. As a result, there are several theories about the authorship:  Fredegar is usually assumed to have been a Burgundian from the region of Avenches because of his knowledge of the alternate name Wifflisburg for this locality, a name only then coming into usage. This assumption is supported by the fact that he had access to the annals of many Burgundian churches. He also had access to court documents and could apparently interview Lombard, Visigoth, and Slavic ambassadors. His awareness of events in the Byzantine world is also usually explained by the proximity of Burgundy to Byzantine Italy.

Manuscripts.

The chronicle exists in over thirty manuscripts, which both Krusch and the English medievalist Roger Collins group into five classes. The original chronicle is lost, but it exists in an uncial copy made in 715 by a Burgundian monk named Lucerius. This copy, the sole exemplar of a class 1 manuscript, is in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (MS Latin 10910) and is sometimes called the "Codex Claromontanus" because it was once owned by the Collège de Clermont in Paris. A diplomatic edition was prepared by the French historian Gabriel Monod and published in 1885. The "Codex Claromontanus" was also the basis of the critical edition by Krusch published in 1888 and of the partial English translation by Wallace-Hadrill published in 1960. Most of the other surviving manuscripts were copied in Austrasia and date from the early ninth century or later.  The first printed version, the "editio princeps", was published in Basel by Flacius Illyricus in 1568. He used MS Heidelberg University Palat. Lat. 864 as his text. The next published edition was "Antiquae Lectiones" by Canisius at Ingolstadt in 1602.  The manuscript was made available on the World Digital Library on December 20, 2017.

Structure.

In the critical edition by Krusch the chronicle is divided into four sections or books. The first three books are based on earlier works and cover the period from the beginning of the world up to 584; the fourth book continues up to 642 and foreshadows events occurring between 655 and 660. In the prologue the author (traditionally Fredegar) writes:  I have most carefully read the chronicles of St Jerome, Hydatius and a certain wise man, of Isidore as well as of Gregory, from the beginning of the world to the declining years of Guntram's reign; and I have reproduced successively in this little book, in suitable languages and without many omissions, what these learned men have recounted at length in their five chronicles.  In fact, Fredegar quotes from sources that he does not acknowledge and drastically condenses some of those he does. He also inserts additional sections of text that are not derived from his main sources. These inserted sections are referred to as "interpolations". For most of them the sources are not known. Some of the interpolations are used to weave a legend of a Trojan origin for the Franks through the chronicle.  The initial 24 chapters of the first book are based on the anonymous "Liber generationis" which in turn is derived from the work of Hippolytus. The remainder of the book contains a compendium of various chronological tables including a list of the Roman Emperors, a list of Judaic kings, a list of popes up to the accession of Theodore I in 642 and Chapter 3 of the chronicle of Isidore of Seville. On the reverse of the folio containing the papal list is an ink drawing showing two people which according to Monod probably represent Eusebius and Jerome.  The first 49 chapters of the second book contain extracts from Jerome's Latin translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius. The text includes some interpolations. The remaining chapters contains extracts from the Chronicle of Hydatius.  The third book contains excerpts from Books II–VI of the "Decem Libri Historiarum" by Gregory of Tours with several interpolations. Fredegar's source appears to have lacked the last four books of Gregory's text and his narrative ends in 584.  The 90 chapters in the fourth book contain details of events concerning the Burgundian court. Fredegar does not reveal his sources but the earlier chapters are presumably based on local annals. Chapters 24–39 contain an accounts from witnesses of events between 603 and 613. Chapter 36 is an interpolation on the life of Saint Columbanus that is copied, almost without change, from the "Vita Columbani" by Jonas of Bobbio. The book ends abruptly in 642. Book IV has been the most studied by historians as it contains information that is not present in other medieval sources.

Continuations.

One group of manuscripts (Krusch's Class 4) contain a reworking of the "Chronicle of Fredegar" followed by additional sections that describe events in Francia up to 768. These additional sections are referred to as the "Continuations". Krusch in his critical edition, appends these extra chapters to the text of the "Codex Claromontanus" creating the false impression that the two parts originate from the same manuscript.  Class 4 manuscripts are divided into three books. The first begins with a section based on the treatise "De cursu temporum" by the obscure fourth century Latin writer Quintus Julius Hilarianus. This is followed by a version of Fredegar's Book II incorporating an expanded account of the Trojan origin of the Franks. The second book is an abridged version of the histories by Gregory of Tours corresponding to Fredegar's Book III. The third and final book consists of the 90 chapters of Fredegar's Book IV followed by the "Continuations".  The "Continuations" consists of three part. The first ten chapters are based on the "Liber Historiae Francorum", an anonymous Neustrian chronicle that ends in around 721. The second part (Chapters 11–33) covers the years up to 751. At this point a colophon is inserted in the text explaining that the writing of the chronicle was ordered by Charles Martel's brother, Count Childebrand. Wallace-Hadrill's translation is: The chronicle then continues for another twenty chapters covering events in Francia up to the year 768.  The medievalist Roger Collins has argued that the text in the Class 4 manuscripts is sufficiently different from the "Fredegar Chronicle" of the "Codex Claromontanus" that it should be considered a separate work. He has proposed the new title "Historia vel Gesta Francorum" which occurs in the colophon mentioned above. He has suggested that one author was responsible for the text up to 751, and that a different author probably wrote the additional chapters.

The Chronicle of Fredegar is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century.

Fredegarova kronika neboli Historia Francorum je franská kronika, sepsaná v 7. století v Burgundsku. Ačkoliv je zřejmé, že autorů tohoto díla bylo více, je označována jako „"Kronika tak řečeného Fredegara Scholastika, knihy IV"“ či „"Fredegarova kronika"“ - takto označili autora až ke sklonku 16. století humanisté Joseph Justus Scaliger a Marquard Freher. Ani přesný tvar jména údajného autora, mnicha Fredegara, není znám. Někdy je uváděn jako Fredegard nebo Fredegart.


Content and scope.

Songs included on a compilation album may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. Compilation albums may employ traditional product bundling strategies.  According to sound technician Richard King, classical music compilations "may require more processing to match tracks coming from various sources and recording venues as well as the different sizes of ensembles."  In "" (1981), Robert Christgau said, "While compilation albums by album artists (as opposed to stylistically unified singles specialists) are often useless, sometimes they present themselves as events", citing as examples the 1971 Ray Charles LP "A 25th Anniversary in Show Business Salute to Ray Charles", "The Kink Kronikles" (1972), and "Changesonebowie" (1976).

Common types.

Common types of compilation include:

Royalties.

For multi-artist compilations, royalties are usually pro-rated. In most cases, each artist's per-record royalty rate (typically 12–14% in 1999) is divided by the number of artists on the album. However, some record companies opt to simplify the equation and pay a rounded-off rate, either as a percentage or as a set amount, regardless of the total number of artists on the record., these rates were around 1/2% to 1% or 15–16 cents per record. When a compilation album includes a track from a different record company, the royalties are split between the artist and the original record company. Unless specifically limited by a contract, record companies may release as many greatest hits albums by their recording artist as they wish without requiring the artist's agreement or permission.

Charts.

In the United Kingdom, The Official Charts Company compiles a weekly compilation albums chart, limited to various artists compilations and soundtrack compilations.

A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If from several performers, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology.

Kompilační album je nepůvodní hudební dílo, sestavené z úryvků nebo myšlenek jiných děl, případně autorů. Pokud si je autor kompilace přivlastní, jedná se o plagiát.