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1. Medri Bahri
Medri Bahri (Tigrinya: ምድሪ ባሕሪ?) was a medieval kingdom in the Horn of Africa. Situated in modern-day Eritrea, it was ruled by the Bahri
Negus (also called the Bahri Negasi), whose capital was located at Debarwa. The state's main provinces were Hamasien, Serae and Akele Guzai,
all of which are today predominantly inhabited by the Tigrinya (who constitute over 50% of Eritrea's population). In 1890, Medri Bahri was
conquered by the Kingdom of Italy.
Ruler of the Province of Medri Bahri
Bahri Negassi Yeshaq (died 1578) was Bahri Negassi, or ruler of the Province of Medri Bahri (Bahr Midir in Ge'ez) in present-day Eritrea
during the mid to late 16th century. His support of the Emperor of Ethiopia during the invasion of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (also
known as Ahmed Gragn), when so many of the local aristocrats had switched their support, helped to preserve Abyssinia from extinction. Bahr
negus Yeshaq first appears in history about the time the Portuguese fleet arrived at Massawa in 1541. When Christovão da Gama marched inland
with his 400 matchlockmen, Yeshaq not only provided him provisions and places to camp in his realm, but also about 500 soldiers and
information about the land. The Bahr negus also joined Emperor Gelawdewos in the decisive Battle of Wayna Daga, where Imam Ahmad was
killed and his forces scattered (1543). When the Ottoman general Özdemir Pasha, who had been made governor of the Ottoman province of
Habesh, crossed over from Jeddah in 1557 and occupied Massawa, Arqiqo and finally Debarwa, capital of the Bahri negassi, Yeshaq led the local
peasantry against the invaders, recapturing Debarwa and seizing the "immense treasure" the invaders piled up within. Although he enjoyed good
relations with Emperor Galawdewos, his relations with his successors were not as positive. In 1560, the year after Menas became emperor, Bahri
negassi Yeshaq revolted against the new Emperor. While he was successful at first, eventually Menas drove Yeshaq out of Tigray, and the noble
was forced to seek refuge at the court of his former enemy. In return for ceding the town of Debarwa, Ozdemur Pasha extended military support
to the exiled Bahri negassi, and Yeshaq led an army into Tigray and the other northern provinces. Emperor Menas campaigned against the
forces of this alliance again in 1562, but was not able to decisively defeat Yeshaq. When Sarsa Dengel was made emperor, Yeshaq at first pledged
his loyalty, but within a few years he once more went into rebellion, and found another ally in the ruler of Harar, Sultan Mohammed IV Mansur.
Despite these alliances, Emperor Sarsa Dengel defeated and killed Yeshaq in battle (1578). Richard Pankhurst concurs with the judgement of
James Bruce on Yeshaq, who points out that the status of the Bahri negassi "was much diminished by Yeshaq's treachery. From then onwards the
governor of the provinces beyond the Tekezé was not allowed the sandaq (Banner) and nagarit (War Drum), and no longer had a place in
Council unless especially called on by the Emperor". This could also mean that the Bahr neguses' kingdom was no longer part of the "Empire"
per se.
Emishi
The Emishi or Ebisu (蝦夷) constituted a group of people who lived in northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region which was referred to as
michi no oku (道の奥) in contemporary sources. The original date of the Emishi is unknown, but they definitely occurred sometime in the B.C.
era, as they are believed to have advanced the Jōmon. The first mention of them in literature was in 400 A.D.,[citation needed] mentioned as 'the
hairy people' from the Chinese records. Some Emishi tribes resisted the rule of the Japanese Emperors during the late Nara and early Heian
periods (7th–10th centuries CE). More recently, scholars believe that they were natives of northern Honshū and were descendants of those who
developed the Jōmon culture. They are thought to have been related to the Ainu. The separate ethnic status of the Emishi is not in doubt; this
understanding is based upon a language that is separate from Japanese, which scholars have been unable to reconstruct.
Chief of the Isawa (朝廷) band of Emishi
Aterui (アテルイ 阿弖流爲) (died, AD 802 in Enryaku) was the most prominent chief of the Isawa (朝廷) band of Emishi in northern
Japan.[citation needed] The Emishi were an indigenous people of North Japan, who were considered hirsute barbarians by the Yamato
Japanese.[citation needed] Aterui was born in Isawa[disambiguation needed], Hitakami-no-kuni, what is now Mizusawa Ward of Ōshū City in
southern Iwate Prefecture. Nothing is known of his life until the battle of Sufuse Village in 787. In 786 Ki no Asami Kosami was appointed by
the Japanese emperor Emperor Kammu as the new General of Eastern Conquest and given a commission to conquer Aterui. In June 787 Kosami
split his army in two and sent them north from Koromogawa on each side of the Kitakami River hoping to surprise Aterui at his home in
Mizusawa. Burning houses and crops as they went they were surprised when Emishi cavalry swept down from the hills to the East and pushed
them into the river. Over 1,000 armored infantry drowned in the river weighed down by their heavy armor. In September Kosami returned to
Kyoto where he was rebuked by the emperor Kammu for his failure. Another attack in 795 was unsuccessful as well and it was not until 801 that
any Japanese general could claim success against the Emishi. In that year Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, who had previously been appointed to the
positions of Supervisory Delegate of Michinoku and Ideha and Governor of Michinoku, General of the Peace Guard and Grand General of
Conquering East-Barbarians (Seii Tai Shogun), was given a commission by Emperor Kammu to subjugate the Emishi. He and his 40,000 troops
were somewhat successful as he reported back to the emperor on September 27, "We conquered the Emishi rebels." But still the Emishi leaders
Aterui and More eluded capture. In 802 Tamuramaro returned to Michinoku and built Fort Isawa in the heart of Isawa territory. Then on April
15 he reported the most important success of all in this campaign: The Emishi leaders Aterui and More surrendered with more than 500
warriors. General Sakanoue delivered Aterui and More to the capital on July 10. Despite General Sakanoue's pleadings the government, "...cut
them down at Moriyama in Kawachi province." This was an epic moment in the history of the Emishi conquest. Before this time the Japanese had
adhered to a policy of deporting captured women and children to Western Japan then enticing their warrior husbands and fathers to join their
families in their new homes. Captured warriors had not been killed either. The executions of Aterui and More are thought[by whom?] to have
been responsible for the fierce resistance by the Emishi over the next hundred years or so. For many Japanese, he was long demonized as the
"Lord of the Bad Road" (悪路王 Akuro-o). Aterui folklore has been made into many plays and an anime (Aterui the Second). In January 2013
dramatization of Aterui's life, Fiery Enmity: Hero of the North (火怨・北の英雄 アテルイ伝), starring Takao Osawa in the title role, which was

2. broadcast on NHK.[1] Aterui is also a supporting character in Shin Teito Monogatari, the prequel to the bestselling historical fantasy novel Teito
Monogatari (Hiroshi Aramata). 7590 Aterui (1992 UP4) is an asteroid discovered on October 26, 1992 by K. Endate and K. Watanabe.
Kumaso
The Kumaso (熊襲) were a people of ancient Japan, believed to have lived in the south of Kyūshū until at least the Nara period. William George
Aston, in his translation of the Nihongi, says Kumaso refers to two separate tribes, Kuma (meaning "bear") and So (written with the character for
"attack" or "layer on"). In his translation of the Kojiki, Basil Hall Chamberlain records that the region is also known simply as So, and elaborates
on the Yamato-centric description of a "bear-like" people, based on their violent interactions or physical distinctiveness. (The people called
tsuchigumo by the Yamato people provide a better-known example of the transformation of other tribes into legendary monsters. Tsuchigumo--
the monstrous "ground spider" of legend—is speculated to refer originally to the native pit dwellings of that people.) As the Yamato pushed
southward, the Kumaso people were either assimilated or exterminated. The last leader of the Kumaso, Torishi-Kaya, aka Brave of Kahakami,
was assassinated in the winter of 397 by Prince Yamato Takeru of Yamato, who was disguised for this as a woman at a banquet. Geographically,
Aston records that the Kumaso domain encompassed the historical provinces of Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma (contemporaneous with Aston's
translation), or present-day Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures. The word Kuma ('Bear') survives today as Kumamoto Prefecture ('source of the
bear'), and Kuma District, Kumamoto. Kuma District is known for a distinct dialect, Kuma Dialect.
List of Leaders of the Kumaso people
Torishi-Kaya(aka Brave of Kahakami) was a leader of the Kumaso people in late 4th century AD. Torishi-Kaya, aka Brave of Kahakami, was
assassinated in the winter of AD 397 by Prince Yamato Takeru of Yamato, who was disguised for this as a woman at a banquet.
Atsukaya was a leader of the Kumaso people.
Sakaya was a leader of the Kumaso people.
Haider Al-Abadi (or al-'Ibadi; Arabic: ‫يدر‬ ‫ح‬ ‫)يدابعدا‬ is an Iraqi politician, spokesman for the
Islamic Dawa Party and Prime Minister of Iraq since August 11, 2014 by President Fuad Masum. Al-
Abadi was also Minister of Communications in the Iraqi Governing Council from September 1,
2003 until June 1, 2004. A Shia Muslim and electronic consultant engineer by training with a PhD
degree from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, in 1980. Al-Abadi lived in exile in
London during the time of Saddam Hussein. After studying at the University of Manchester, Al-
Abadi remained in the UK in voluntary exile until 2003. His positions during this time included:
DG of a small high tech vertical and horizontal transportation design and development firm in
London, (1993–2003), a top London Consultant to the industry in matters relating to people
movers, (1987–2003), Research Leader for a major modernization contract in London, (1981–1986).
He was registered a patent in London in rapid transit system, (2001). He was awarded a smart grant from the UK Department of Trade and
Industry, (1998). Politically, he is one of the leaders of the popular Islamic Dawa Party, the head of its political office and a spokesman for the
party. He became a member of the party in 1967 and a member of its executive leadership in 1979. The Baath regime executed two of his
brothers and imprisoned a third brother for ten years. In 2003, Al-Abadi became sceptical of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
privatization plan, proposing to Paul Bremer that they had to wait for a legitimate government to be formed. In October 2003, Al-Abadi with all
25 of the Governing Council interim ministers protested to Paul Bremer and rejected the CPA's demand to privatize the state-owned companies
and infrastructure prior to forming a legitimate government. The CPA, led by Bremer, fell out with Al-Abadi and the Governing Council. The
CPA worked around the Governing Council, forming a new government that remained beholden to the CPA until general elections had been
completed, prompting more aggressive armed actions by insurgents against U.S.-led coalition personnel. While Al-Abadi was Minister of
Communications, the CPA awarded licenses to three mobile operators to cover all parts of Iraq. Despite being rendered nearly powerless by the
CPA,[6] Al-Abadi was not prepared to be a rubber stamp and he introduced more conditions in the licenses. Among them stated that a sovereign
Iraqi government has the power to amend or terminate the licenses and introduce a fourth national license, which caused some frictions with
the CPA. In 2003, press reports indicated Iraqi officials under investigation over a questionable deal involving Orascom, an Egypt-based telecoms
company, which in late 2003 was awarded a contract to provide a mobile network to central Iraq. Al-Abadi asserted that there was no illicit
dealing in the completed awards. In 2004, it was revealed that these allegations were fabrications, and a US Defense Department review found
that telecommunications contracting had been illegally influenced in an unsuccessful effort led by disgraced U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of
Defense John A. Shaw, not by Iraqis. In 2005, he served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Iraq in the first elected government. He was
elected member of Iraqi Parliament in 2005 and chaired the parliamentary committee for Economy, Investment and Reconstruction. Al-Abadi

3. was re-elected as member of Iraqi Parliament representing Baghdad in the general election held on March 2010. In 2013, he chaired the Finance
Committee and was at the center of a parliamentary dispute over the allocation of the 2013 Iraqi budget. Al-Abadi's name was circulated as a
prime ministerial candidate during the formation of the Iraqi government in 2006 during which Ibrahim al-Jaafari was replaced by Nouri al-
Maliki as Prime Minister. In 2008, Al-Abadi remained steadfast in his support of Iraqi sovereignty, insisting on specific conditions to the
agreement with the U.S. regarding presence in Iraq. In 2009, Al-Abadi was identified by the Middle East Economic Digest as a key person to
watch in Iraq's reconstruction. He is an active member of the Iraq Petroleum Advisory Committee, participating in the Iraq Petroleum
Conferences of 2009–2012. He was one of several Iraqi politicians supporting a suit against Blackwater as a result of the 2010 dismissal of
criminal charges against Blackwater personnel involved the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqi civilians. Al-Abadi was again tipped as a possible Prime
Minister during the tough negotiations between Iraqi political blocs after the elections of 2010 to choose a replacement to incumbent PM Nouri
Al-Maliki. Again in 2014, he was nominated by Shia political parties as an alternative candidate for Prime Minister. On July 24, 2014, Fuad
Masum became the new president of Iraq. He, in turn, nominated Al-Abadi for prime minister on August 11, 2014. However, for the
appointment to take effect, Al-Abadi must form a government and be confirmed by Parliament, within 30 days. Al-Maliki however refused to
give up his post and referred the matter to the federal court claiming the president's nomination was a "constitutional violation." He said: "The
insistence on this until the end is to protect the state." On August 14, 2014, however in the face of growing calls from world leaders and members
of his own party the embattled prime minister announced he was stepping down to make way for Al-Abadi. The Iraqi Parliament approved al-
Abadi's new government and his presidential program on 8 September 2014. By late October 2014, Abadi had made noticeable improvements in
governance. He split the remaining cabinet positions three ways: Defense went to the Sunnis, a significant appointment given Sunni demands
for more representation in the security forces, Interior went to the Shia, and Finance went to the Kurds, also significant given Kurdish demands
for resolutions to the oil and budget disputes. While these appointments were made as a result of necessary political agreements between Iraq’s
various political groups, they nevertheless represented a shift in power sharing arrangements that were lacking under Maliki, who had
completely consolidated power in his own hands as prime minister. Abadi also appeared before the CoR three times in two months and took
steps to address corruption by removing thousands of “ghost soldiers” from the Iraqi security force’s own payroll and sacking several generals at
the top of the chain of command.
Islamic State
The Islamic State (IS) (Arabic: ‫ة‬ ‫دود‬ ‫يد‬ ‫ييمالسية‬ ad-Dawlah al-ʾIslāmiyyah), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS /ˈaɪsɪs/),[a] is a jihadist group, widely regarded as a terrorist organisation. In its self-proclaimed status as a
caliphate, it claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world and aspires to bring much of the Muslim-inhabited regions of the world
under its direct political control, beginning with territory in the Levant region, which includes Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and an
area in southern Turkey that includes Hatay. The group has been officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States,
the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, and has been widely described as a terrorist group by Western and Middle
Eastern media sources. The group, in its original form, was composed of and supported by a variety of Sunni Arab terrorist insurgent groups,
including its predecessor organizations, Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) (2003–2006), Mujahideen Shura Council (2006–2006) and the Islamic State of
Iraq (ISI) (2006–2013), other insurgent groups such as Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura, Jaysh al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba and Katbiyan Ansar Al-
Tawhid wal Sunnah, and a number of Iraqi tribes that profess Sunni Islam. ISIS grew significantly as an organization owing to its participation in
the Syrian Civil War and the strength of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Economic and political discrimination against Arab Iraqi Sunnis since
the fall of the secular Saddam Hussein also helped it to gain support. At the height of the 2003–2011 Iraq War, its forerunners enjoyed a
significant presence in the Iraqi governorates of Al Anbar, Nineveh, Kirkuk, most of Salah ad Din, parts of Babil, Diyala and Baghdad, and
claimed Baqubah as a capital city. In the ongoing Syrian Civil War, ISIS has a large presence in the Syrian governorates of Ar-Raqqah, Idlib and
Aleppo. ISIS is known for its extreme and brutally harsh interpretation of the Islamic faith and sharia law and has a record of horrifying
violence, which is directed at Shia Muslims, indigenous Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac Christians and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabakis
and Mandeans in particular. It has at least 4,000 fighters in its ranks in Iraq who, in addition to attacks on government and military targets, have
claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed thousands of civilians. ISIS had close links with al-Qaeda until 2014, but in February of that
year, after an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with the group, reportedly for its brutality and "notorious intractability". ISIS’s
original aim was to establish a caliphate in the Sunni-majority regions of Iraq. Following its involvement in the Syrian Civil War, this expanded
to include controlling Sunni-majority areas of Syria. A caliphate was proclaimed on June 29, 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—now known as Amir
al-Mu'minin Caliph Ibrahim—was named as its caliph, and the group was renamed the Islamic State.
Caliph—Head of state and theocratic absolute monarch—of the self-proclaimed Islamic State
Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai (Arabic: ‫يم‬ ‫ريه‬ ‫إب‬ ‫ن‬ ‫يب‬ ‫عويد‬ ‫ن‬ ‫يب‬ ‫يم‬ ‫ريه‬ ‫إب‬ ‫ن‬ ‫يب‬ ‫لي‬ ‫ع‬
‫ن‬ ‫يب‬ ‫سحسد‬ ‫بدرا‬ ‫يد‬ ‫,يدمعسريلي‬ born 1971), formerly also known as Dr Ibrahim and Abu Du'a (‫و‬ ‫أب‬ ‫)دععء‬ most
commonly known by the nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (‫و‬ ‫أب‬ ‫كر‬ ‫ب‬ ‫غديدا‬‫ب‬ ‫)يد‬ and in an attempt to
claim him as a descendant of Prophet Muhammad, more recently as Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Al-Husseini Al-
Qurashi (‫و‬ ‫أب‬ ‫كر‬ ‫ب‬ ‫غديدا‬‫ب‬ ‫يد‬ ‫ني‬ ‫ي‬ ‫م‬ ‫ح‬ ‫يد‬ ‫شسي‬ ‫هع‬ ‫يد‬ ‫شي‬ ‫قر‬ ‫)يد‬ and now as Amir al-Mu'minin Caliph Ibrahim (‫ير‬ ‫أس‬
‫ين‬ ‫ن‬ ‫سؤس‬ ‫يد‬ ‫فة‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ل‬ ‫خ‬ ‫يد‬ ‫يم‬ ‫ريه‬ ‫,)إب‬ has been named the Caliph—head of state and theocratic absolute monarch—of
the self-proclaimed Islamic State located in western Iraq and north-eastern Syria since June 29, 2014. He is
the former leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), alternatively translated as the Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). On October 4, 2011, the US State Department listed al-Baghdadi as a Specially
Designated Global Terrorist and announced a reward of up to US$10 million for information leading to his
capture or death. Only Ayman al-Zawahiri, chief of the global al-Qaeda organization, merits a larger reward
(US$25 million). Al-Baghdadi is believed to have been born near Samarra, Iraq, in 1971. Reports suggest that
he was a cleric at the Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal Mosque in Samarra at around the time of the US-led
invasion of Iraq in 2003. He earned a master's degree and a PhD in Islamic studies from the University of

4. Islamic Sciences in the Baghdad suburb of Adhamiya. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, al-Baghdadi helped to found the militant group,
Jamaat Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamaah (JJASJ), in which he served as head of the group's sharia committee. Al-Baghdadi and his group joined
the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) in 2006, in which he served as a member of the MSC's sharia committee. Following the renaming of the
MSC as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in 2006, al-Baghdadi became the general supervisor of the ISI's sharia committee and a member of the
group's senior consultative council. According to US Department of Defense records, al-Baghdadi was held at Camp Bucca as a "civilian internee"
by US Forces-Iraq from February until December 2004, when he was released. A Combined Review and Release Board recommended an
"unconditional release" of al-Baghdadi and there is no record of him being held at any other time. A number of newspapers, in contrast, have
stated that al-Baghdadi was interned from 2005 to 2009. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI)—also known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI—was the Iraqi
division of the international Islamist militant organization al-Qaeda. Al-Baghdadi was announced as leader of the ISI on May 16, 2010, following
the death of his predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in a raid the month before. As leader of the ISI, al-Baghdadi was responsible for managing
and directing large-scale operations such as the August 28, 2011 attack on the Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad which killed prominent Sunni
lawmaker Khalid al-Fahdawi. Between March and April 2011, the ISI claimed 23 attacks south of Baghdad, all of which were alleged to have
been carried out under al-Baghdadi's command. Following the US commando raid on May 2, 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda
supreme leader Osama bin Laden, al-Baghdadi released a statement eulogizing bin Laden and threatened violent retaliation for his death. On
May 5, 2011, al-Baghdadi claimed responsibility for an attack in Hilla that killed 24 policemen and wounded 72 others. On August 15, 2011, a
wave of ISI suicide attacks beginning in Mosul resulted in 70 deaths. Shortly thereafter, the ISI pledged on its website to carry out 100 attacks
across Iraq in retaliation for bin Laden's death. It stated that this campaign would feature various methods of attack, including raids, suicide
attacks, roadside bombs and small arms attacks, in all cities and rural areas across the country. On December 22, 2011, a series of coordinated car
bombings and IED attacks struck over a dozen neighborhoods across Baghdad, killing at least 63 people and wounding 180; the assault came just
days after the US completed its troop withdrawal from the country. On December 26, 2011 the ISI released a statement on jihadist internet
forums claiming credit for the operation, stating that the targets of the Baghdad attack were "accurately surveyed and explored" and that the
"operations were distributed between targeting security headquarters, military patrols and gatherings of the filthy ones of the al-Dajjal Army",
referring to the Mahdi Army of Shia warlord Muqtada al-Sadr. On December 2, 2012, Iraqi officials claimed that they had captured al-Baghdadi
in Baghdad following a two-month tracking operation. Officials claimed that they had also seized a list containing the names and locations of
other al-Qaeda operatives. However, this claim was rejected by the ISI. In an interview with Al Jazeera on December 7, 2012, Iraq's Acting
Interior Minister said that the arrested man was not al-Baghdadi, but rather a section commander in charge of an area stretching from the
northern outskirts of Baghdad to Taji. Al-Baghdadi remained leader of the ISI until its formal expansion into Syria in 2013, when in a statement
on April 8, 2013, he announced the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)—alternatively translated from the Arabic as the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). As the leader of ISIS, al-Baghdadi took charge of running all ISIS activity in Iraq and Syria. When
announcing the formation of ISIS, al-Baghdadi stated that the Syrian Civil War jihadist faction, Jabhat al-Nusra—also known as Al-Nusra
Front—had been an extension of the ISI in Syria and was now to be merged with ISIS.[29][30] The leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, Abu Mohammad al-
Jawlani, disputed this merging of the two groups and appealed to al-Qaeda emir Ayman al-Zawahiri, who issued a statement that ISIS should be
abolished and that al-Baghdadi should confine his group's activities to Iraq. Al-Baghdadi, however, dismissed al-Zawahiri's ruling and took
control of a reported 80% of Jabhat al-Nusra's foreign fighters. In January 2014, ISIS expelled Jabhat al-Nusra from the Syrian city of Raqqa, and
in the same month clashes between the two in Syria's Deir ez-Zor Governorate killed hundreds of fighters and displaced tens of thousands of
civilians. In February 2014, al-Qaeda disavowed any relations with ISIS. According to several Western sources, al-Baghdadi and ISIS have
received private financing from citizens in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and enlisted fighters from recruitment drives in Saudi Arabia in particular.
On June 29, 2014, ISIS announced the establishment of a caliphate, al-Baghdadi was named its caliph, to be known as Caliph Ibrahim, and the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was renamed the Islamic State (IS). There has been much debate across the Muslim world about the
legitimacy of these moves. The declaration of a caliphate has been heavily criticized by Middle Eastern governments and other jihadist groups,
and by Sunni Muslim theologians and historians. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent scholar living in Qatar stated: "[The] declaration issued by the
Islamic State is void under sharia and has dangerous consequences for the Sunnis in Iraq and for the revolt in Syria", adding that the title of
caliph can "only be given by the entire Muslim nation", not by a single group. In an audio-taped message, al-Baghdadi announced that ISIS
would march on Rome in its quest to establish an Islamic State from the Middle East across Europe, saying that he would conquer both Rome
and Spain in this endeavor. He also urged Muslims across the world to emigrate to the new Islamic State. On July 5, 2014, a video was released
apparently showing al-Baghdadi making a speech at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, northern Iraq. A representative of the Iraqi
government denied that the video was of al-Baghdadi, calling it a "farce". However, both the BBC and the Associated Press quoted unnamed Iraqi
officials as saying that the man in the video was believed to be al-Baghdadi. In the video, al-Baghdadi declared himself the world leader of
Muslims and called on Muslims everywhere to support him. On July 8, 2014, ISIL launched its online magazine Dabiq. The title appears to have
been selected for its eschatological connections with the Islamic version of theEnd times, or Malahim.According to a report in October 2014,
after suffering serious injuries, al-Baghdadi fled ISIL's capital city Ar-Raqqah due to the intense bombing campaign launched by Coalition
forces, and sought refuge in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the largest city under ISIL control. On November 5, 2014, al-Baghdadi sent a message to al-
Qaeda Emir Ayman al-Zawahiri requesting him to sever his allegiance to Taliban commander Mullah Mohammed Omar. Al-Bagdahdi allegedly
called the Taliban leader "an ignorant, illiterate warlord, unworthy of spiritual or political respect". He then urged al-Zawahiri to swear
allegiance to him as Caliph, in return for a position in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The source of this information was a senior
Taliban intelligence officer. Al-Zawahiri did not reply, and instead reassured the Taliban of his loyalty to Mullah Omar. On November 7, 2014,
there were unconfirmed reports of al-Baghdadi's death after an airstrike in Mosul, while other reports said that he was only wounded. On
November 13, 2014, ISIL released an audiotaped message, claiming it to be in the voice of al-Baghdadi. In the 17-minute recording, released via
social media, the speaker said that ISIL fighters would never cease fighting "even if only one soldier remains". The speaker urged supporters of
the Islamic State to "erupt volcanoes of jihad" across the world. He called for attacks to be mounted in Saudi Arabia—describing Saudi leaders as
"the head of the snake" and said that the US-led military campaign in Syria and Iraq was failing. He also said that ISIL would keep on marching
and would "break the borders" of Jordan and Lebanon and "free Palestine." Al-Baghdadi also claimed in 2014 that Islamic jihadists would never
hesitate to eliminate Israel just because it has the United States support. On January 20, 2015, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported
that al-Baghdadi had been wounded in an airstrike in Al-Qa'im, an Iraqi border town held by ISIL, and as a result, withdrew to Syria. Through his
forename, he is rumored to be styling himself after the first ever Caliph, Abu Bakr, who led the so-called "Rightly Guided" or the Rashidun. One
of the distinctive comportments that the original Abu Bakr was distinguished by was the Sunnistic tradition recalling him
replacing Muhammad as prayer leader when he was suffering from illnesses. Another feature of the original Rashidun was what some historians
dub as the firstSunnist Shiist discord during the Battle of Siffin. Some publishers have drawn a correlation between those ancient events and
modern events under Baghdadi's reign. Due to relative stationary nature of Islamic State control, the elevation of religious clergy and the
scripture-themed legal system, some analysts have declared Baghdadi a theocrat and IS a theocracy. Other indications of the decline of
secularism includes the evisceration of secular institutions and its replacement with strict sharià law as well as the gradual caliphization of
regions under their control. In July 2015, Baghdadi was described by a reporter as exhibiting a kinder and gentler side after he banned slaughter

5. or execution videos. Little is known about al-Baghdadi's family and sources provide conflicting information. Reuters, quoting tribal sources in
Iraq, reports Baghdadi has three wives, two Iraqis and one Syrian. The Iraqi Interior Ministry has said, "There is no wife named Saja al-Dulaimi"
and that al-Baghdadi has two wives, Asma Fawzi Mohammed al-Dulaimi and Israa Rajab Mahal A-Qaisi. According to many sources, Saja al-
Dulaimi is or was al-Baghdadi's wife. The couple met and fell in love online. Some sources prefix her name with caliphess orcalipha in
recognition of her status as the wife of a caliph. She was arrested in Syria in late 2013 or early 2014, and was released from a Syrian jail in March
2014 as part of a prisoner swap involving 150 women, in exchange for 13 nuns taken captive by al-Qaeda-linked militants. Also released in
March were her two sons and her younger brother. Al-Dulaimi's family allegedly all adhere to ISIL's ideology. Her father, Ibrahim Dulaimi, a so-
called ISIL emir in Syria, was reportedly killed in September 2013 during an operation against the Syrian Army in Deir Attiyeh. Her sister, Duaa,
was allegedly behind a suicide attack that targeted a Kurdish gathering in Erbil. The Iraq Interior Ministry has said that her brother is facing
execution in Iraq for a series of bombings in southern Iraq. The Iraq government, however, said that al-Dulaimi is the daughter of an active
member of al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front. In late November 2014, al-Dulaimi was arrested and held for questioning by Lebanese
authorities, along with two sons and a young daughter. They were traveling on false documents.The children are being held in a care center
while Dulaimi is interrogated. The capture was a joint intelligence operation by Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, with the US assisting Iraq. Al-Dulaimi's
potential intelligence value is unknown. An unnamed intelligence source told The New York Times that during the Iraq war, when the
Americans captured a wife of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, "We got little out of her, and when we sent her back, Zarqawi
killed her." Al-Baghdadi's family members are seen by the Lebanese authorities as potential bargaining chips in prisoner exchanges.In the
clearest explanation yet of al-Dulaimi's connection to al-Baghdadi, Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk told Lebanon's MTV channel
that "Dulaimi is not Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's wife currently. She has been married three times: first to a man from the former Iraqi regime, with
whom she had two sons." Other sources identify her first husband as Fallah Ismail Jassem, a member of the Rashideen Army, who was killed in a
battle with the Iraqi Army in 2010. Machnouk continued, "Six years ago she married Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for three months, and she had a
daughter with him. Now, she is married to a Palestinian and she is pregnant with his child." The Minister added, "We conducted DNA tests on her
and the daughter, which showed she was the mother of the girl, and that the girl is [Baghdadi's] daughter, based on DNA from Baghdadi from
Iraq." Al-Monitor reported a Lebanese security source as saying that al-Dulaimi had been under scrutiny since early 2014. He said, "[Jabhat al-
Nusra] insisted back in March on including her in the swap that ended the kidnapping of the Maaloula nuns. The negotiators said on their behalf
that she was very important, and they were ready to cancel the whole deal for her sake," adding, "It was later revealed by Abu Malik al-Talli, one
of al-Nusra's leaders, that she was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's wife." On December 9, 2014, al-Dulaimi and her current Palestinian husband Kamal
Khalaf were formally arrested after the Lebanese Military Court issued warrants and filed charges for belonging to a terrorist group, holding
contacts with terrorist organizations, and planning to carry out terrorist acts. Her freedom was offered in a hostage swap deal. According to a
source interviewed by The Guardian, al-Baghdadi married in Iraq in around 2000 after finishing his doctorate. He had a son soon after, aged 11
years old in 2014. A four- to six-year-old girl who was detained in Lebanon in 2014 is allegedly al-Baghdadi's daughter. According to media
reports, al-Baghdadi was wounded in a March 18, 2015 coalition airstrike at the al-Baaj District, in the Nineveh Governorate, near the Syrian
border. His wounds were so serious that the top ISIL leaders had a meeting to discuss who would replace him if he died. Three days later, on 21
April, al-Baghdadi had not yet recovered enough from his injuries to resume daily control of ISIL.The Pentagon said that al-Baghdadi had not
been the target of the airstrikes and that "we have no reason to believe it was Baghdadi." On April 22, 2015, Iraqi government sources reported
that Abu Ala al-Afri, the self-proclaimed Caliph's deputy and a former Iraqi physics teacher, had been installed as the stand-in leader while
Baghdadi recuperates from his injuries. On May 3, 2015, the Guardian further reported that al-Baghdadi was recovering from severe injuries he
received from a March 18, 2015 airstrike, in a part of Mosul. It was also reported that al-Baghdadi's spinal injury, which left him paralyzed and
incapacitated, means that he may never be able to fully resume direct command of ISIL. By May 13, ISIL fighters had warned they would
retaliate for al-Baghdadi's injury, which the Iraqi Defense Ministry believed would be carried out through attacks in Europe. On May 14, ISIL
released an audio message that it claimed was from al-Baghdadi. In the recording, al-Baghdadi urged Muslims to emigrate to the "Islamic State",
and to join the fight in Iraq and Syria. In the recording, he also condemned the Saudi involvement in Yemen, and claimed that the conflict
would lead to the end of the Saudi royal family's rule. He also claimed that Islam was never a religion of peace, that it was "the religion of
fighting."Assessment was made that this statement proved that al-Baghdadi remained in control or influencing ISIL. On July 20, the New York
Times wrote that rumors al-Baghdadi had been killed or injured earlier in the year had been "dispelled".
Ethel Ana Del Rosario Jara Velásquez (born May 11, 1968) is a Peruvian lawyer and politician who was been
Prime Minister from July 22, 2014 until April 2, 2015. In 2011, she was elected congresswoman, representing to the
Peruvian Nationalist Party. She was Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations from 2011 to 2014. Currently she is
the President of Council of Ministers of Peru, from July 22, 2014. Ana Jara was born in Ica. She studied law and political
science at the Saint Aloysius Gonzaga National University located in the same city. In the Graduate School of the
university studies culminated LL.M., majoring in civil and commercial matters, and started her PhD in Law. In 1998, he
began working as a notary public in Ica. In 2011, she was elected Congresswoman of the Republic of Peru, representing
the Peruvian Nationalist Party in Ica, the same party won the presidential election. On December 11, 2011 Ana Jara was
sworn as Minister of Women and Social Development. She remained in front of this Ministry until February 24, 2014, when sworn in as Minister
of Labour and Employment Promotion. Following the resignation of Premier René Cornejo went on to chair the Council of Ministers. Her
swearing ceremony was held on July 22, 2014. On March 31, 2015 The Peruvian Congress voted 72 to 42 to censure Jara for spying against
lawmakers, reporters, business leaders and other citizens, which removes Jara as Prime Minister.
Anastase Murekezi(born 1961) is a Rwandan politician and Prime Minister of Rwanda since July 24, 2014. He
studied in Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare (GSOB) and went on to Louvain-La-Neuve University in Belgium to
study agriculture. He was the minister of Public service and labor until 23 July 2014 when he was nominated by
President Paul Kagame as the Prime Minister of Rwanda.
Aguila Saleh Issa (Arabic : ‫لة‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ق‬ ‫ع‬ ‫ح‬ ‫صعد‬ ‫مى‬ ‫ي‬ ‫;ع‬ born 1944) is a Libyan
jurist and politician who has been President of the Libyan House of Representatives since August 5,
2014. He is also a representative of the town of Al Qubbah, in the east of the country. On
February 20, 2015, Aguila Saleh Issa's residence was target of bombing by ISIL militants in the town

6. of Al Qubbah. What became known as Al Qubbah bombings, bombs also targeted a petrol station and a police station as well. It was one of the
deadliest attack in Libya since the end of the 2011 civil war rsulting in a total of at least 40 people although it was not clear how many died on
the attack on his residence. ISIL said that the attacks were carried out in retaliation to the 2015 Egyptian military intervention in Libya.
Georgi Bliznashki (Bulgarian: Георги Близнашки; born October 4, 1956 in Skravena, Sofia Oblast) is
a Bulgarian politician, former Member of the European Parliament and Acting Prime Minister of
Bulgaria from August 6 until November 7, 2014. He was a member of the Coalition for Bulgaria, part of
the Party of European Socialists, and became and was an MEP from January 1, 2007 to June 2007 with the
accession of Bulgaria to the European Union. He was expelled from BSP in the March 2014. On August
6, 2014 he was appointed to serve as a caretaker Prime Minister of Bulgaria and currently holds this
position.
Mahamat Kamoun (born November 13, 1961)is a Central African politician who is the Acting Prime
Minister of the Central African Republic since August 10, 2014. He is the country's first Muslim Prime
Minister. A specialist in finance, Kamoun previously served as the Director-General of the Treasury under
President Francois Bozize. He subsequently served as the head of the cabinet of President Michel Djotodia
and served as an advisor to interim President Catherine Samba-Panza before his appointment as Prime
Minister. Kamoun's appointment as Prime Minister sparked discontent and astonishment among the
Muslim Séléka rebel group, as the group does not consider Kamoun as a member of Séléka, despite
Kamoun being a Muslim. The group subsequently boycotted the National Unity Government as they were
not consulted about the choice of Prime Minister, and even threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire
agreement signed in Brazzaville last month as a result of Kamoun's appointment.
Miroslav Cerar Jr. (known as Miro Cerar; born on August 25, 1963 in Ljubljana) is a Slovenian lawyer, politician and
Prime Minister of Slovenia since September 18, 2014. Cerar is the son of Miroslav Cerar Sr., Olympic gymnastics
champion and lawyer, and Zdenka Cerar, former Minister of Justice and chief prosecutor. Cerar was a professor at the
Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana and a legal adviser to parliament. Following the resignation of Alenka
Bratušek’s government in May 2014, Cerar announced that he would enter national politics. On June 2, 2014, he formed a
new political party called Stranka Mira Cerarja (Party of Miro Cerar). In the July election, Cerar's party won a leading total
36 of 90 seats in the parliament.
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (Pashto: ‫شرف‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ني‬ ‫غ‬ ‫,يحسدحا‬ Persian: ‫شرف‬ ‫ي‬ ‫نی‬ ‫غ‬ ‫,يحسدحا‬ born May 19, 1949) is
current President of Afghanistan since September 29, 2014 and an anthropologist by education. He is usually
referred to as Ashraf Ghani, while ahmadzai is the name of his tribe. Ghani previously served as Finance Minister
and as a chancellor of Kabul University. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002, Ghani was a leading scholar of
political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development
assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan from July 2, 2002 until December 14, 2004, he led Afghanistan's
attempted economic recovery after the collapse of the Taliban government. He is the co-founder of the Institute
for State Effectiveness, an organization set up in 2005 to improve the ability of states to serve their citizens. He was
also Chancellor of Kabul University from December 22, 2004 until December 21, 2008. In 2005 he gave a TED talk,
in which he discussed how to rebuild a broken state such as Afghanistan. Ghani is a member of the Commission on
Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an independent initiative hosted by the United Nations Development
Programme. In 2013 he was ranked second in an online poll to name the world's top 100 intellectuals conducted by
Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines, ranking just behind Richard Dawkins. He previously was named in the
same poll in 2010. Ghani came in fourth in the 2009 presidential election, behind Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, and Ramazan Bashardost.
In the 2014 presidential election, Ghani placed second in the first round, qualifying for the run-off election against Abdullah. The official run-off
results show Ghani in the lead, though accused of mass fraud in which President Karzai was allegedly complicit in and the UNAMA has warned
it would be "premature" for either side to claim victory. His brother is Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai, Grand Council Chieftain of the Kuchis. Ghani
was born in 1949 in the Logar Province of Afghanistan. He completed his primary and secondary education in Habibia High School in Kabul.
He escaped to Lebanon to attend the American University in Beirut, getting a degree in 1973, where he also met his future wife, Rula Ghani. He
returned to Afghanistan in 1977 to teach anthropology at Kabul University before being given a scholarship by the government in 1977 to study
for a Master's degree in anthropology at Columbia University in the United States. When the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)
communist party came to power in 1978, most of the male members of his family were imprisoned and Ghani was stranded in the United States.
He stayed at Columbia University and earned his PhD in Cultural Anthropology. He was invited to teach at University of California, Berkeley in
1983, and then at Johns Hopkins University from 1983 to 1991. During this period he became a frequent commentator on the BBC Farsi/Persian

7. and Pashto services, broadcast in Afghanistan. He has also attended the Harvard-INSEAD and World Bank-Stanford Graduate School of
Business's leadership training program. He served on the faculty of Kabul University (1973–77), Aarhus University in Denmark (1977),
University of California, Berkeley (1983), and Johns Hopkins University (1983–1991). His academic research was on state-building and social
transformation. In 1985 he completed a year of fieldwork researching Pakistani Madrasas as a Fulbright Scholar. He also studied comparative
religion. He joined the World Bank in 1991, working on projects in East and South Asia through the mid-1990s. In 1996, he pioneered the
application of institutional and organizational analysis to macro processes of change and reform, working directly on the adjustment program of
the Russian coal industry and carrying out reviews of the Bank’s country assistance strategies and structural adjustment programs globally. He
spent five years each in China, India, and Russia managing large-scale development and institutional transformation projects. He worked
intensively with the media during the first Gulf War, commenting on radio and television and in newspaper interviews. After the September 11
attacks in the United States in 2001, he took leave without pay from the World Bank and engaged in intensive interaction with the media,
appearing regularly on PBS's NewsHour, BBC, CNN, US National Public Radio, and other broadcasters, and writing for major newspapers. In
November 2002, he accepted an appointment as a Special Advisor to the United Nations and assisted Lakhdar Brahimi, the Special
Representative of the Secretary General to Afghanistan, to prepare the Bonn Agreement, the process and document that provided the basis of
transfer of power to the people of Afghanistan. Returning after 24 years to Afghanistan in December 2001, he resigned from his posts at the UN
and World Bank to join the Afghan government as the chief advisor to President Hamid Karzai on February 1, 2002. He worked "pro bono" and
was among the first officials to disclose his assets. In this capacity, he worked on the preparation of the Loya Jirgas (grand assemblies) that
elected Karzai and approved the Constitution of Afghanistan. After the 2004 election, Ghani declined to join the cabinet and asked to be
appointed as Chancellor of Kabul University. As Chancellor he instituted participatory governance among the faculty, students and staff,
training both men and women with skills and commitment to lead their country. After leaving the university, Ghani co-founded the Institute for
State Effectiveness with Clare Lockhart, of which he is Chairman. The Institute put forward a framework proposing that the state should
perform ten functions in order to serve its citizens. This framework was discussed by leaders and managers of post-conflict transitions at a
meeting sponsored by the UN and World Bank in September 2005. The program proposed that double compacts between the international
community, government and the population of a country could be used as a basis for organizing aid and other interventions, and that an annual
sovereignty index to measure state effectiveness be compiled. Ghani was tipped as a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the
United Nations at the end of 2006 in a front page report in The Financial Times (September 18, 2006) that quoted him as saying, “I hope to win,
through ideas.” Two distinguished experts on international relations told the paper that "the UN would be very lucky indeed to have him" and
praised his "tremendous intellect, talent and capacity." In 2005 Ghani gave keynote speeches for meetings including the American Bar
Association’s International Rule of Law Symposium, the Trans-Atlantic Policy Network, the annual meeting of the Norwegian Government’s
development staff, CSIS’ meeting on UN reform, the UN-OECD-World Bank’s meeting on Fragile States and TEDGlobal. He contributed to the
Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Ghani
was recognized as the best finance minister of Asia in 2003 by Emerging Markets. He carried extensive reforms, including issuing a new
currency, computerizing treasury operations, instituting a single treasury account, adopting a policy of balanced budgets and using budgets as
the central policy instrument, centralizing revenue collection, tariff reform and overhauling customs. He instituted regular reporting to the
cabinet the public and international stakeholders as a tool of transparency and accountability, and required donors to focus their interventions
on three sectors, improving accountability with government counterparts and preparing a development strategy that held Afghans more
accountable for their own future development. On March 31, 2004, he presented a seven-year program of public investment called Securing
Afghanistan’s Future[8] to an international conference in Berlin attended by 65 finance and foreign ministers. Described as the most
comprehensive program ever prepared and presented by a poor country to the international community, Securing Afghanistan’s Future was
prepared by a team of 100 experts working under a committee chaired by Ghani. The concept of a double-compact, between the donors and the
government of Afghanistan on the one hand and between the government and people of Afghanistan on the other, underpinned the investment
program. The donors pledged $8.2 billion at the conference for the first three years of the program—the exact amount requested by the
government—and agreed that the government’s request for a total seven-year package of assistance of $27.5 billion was justified. Poverty
eradication through wealth creation and the establishment of citizens' rights is the heart of Ghani’s development approach. In Afghanistan, he is
credited with designing the National Solidarity Program,[9] that offers block grants to villages with priorities and implementation defined by
elected village councils. The program covers 13,000 of the country's estimated 20,000 villages. He partnered with the Ministry of
Communication to ensure that telecom licenses were granted on a fully transparent basis. As a result, the number of mobile phones in the
country has jumped to over a million at the end of 2005. Private investment in the sector exceeded $200 million and the telecom sector emerged
as one of the major providers of tax revenue. In January 2009 an article by Ahmad Majidyar of the American Enterprise Institute included Ghani
on a list of fifteen possible candidates in the 2009 Afghan presidential election. On May 7, 2009, Ashraf Ghani registered as a candidate in the
Afghan presidential election, 2009. Ghani's campaign emphasized the importance of: a representative administration; good governance; a
dynamic economy and employment opportunities for the Afghan people. Unlike other major candidates, Ghani asked the Afghan diaspora to
support his campaign and provide financial support. He appointed Mohammed Ayub Rafiqi as one of his vice president candidate deputies, and
hired noted Clinton-campaign chief strategist James Carville as a campaign advisor. Preliminary results placed Ghani fourth in a field of 38,
securing roughly 3% of the votes. On January 28, 2010, Ghani attended the International Conference on Afghanistan in London, pledging his
support to help rebuild their country. Ghani presented his ideas to Karzai as an example of the importance of cooperation among Afghans and
with the international community, supporting Karzai's reconciliation strategy. Ghani said hearing Karzai's second inaugural address in
November 2009 and his pledges to fight corruption, promote reconciliation and replace international security forces persuaded him to help.
Ghani is on the Board of Directors of the World Justice Project, which works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of
Law in developing countries. Ghani is one of the main and leading candidates in the 2014 presidential election. His running mates are Abdul
Rashid Dostum, Sarwar Danish and Ahmad Zia Massoud. It was reported that Ghani secured roughly 56% of the total votes. After challenger
Abdullah Abdullah becoming unsatisfied with the result, a complete auditing of votes was initiated under the watch eyes of the international
community. Ghani's campaign emphasized the importance of: a representative administration; good governance; a dynamic economy and
employment opportunities for the Afghan people. Unlike other major candidates, Ghani asked the Afghan diaspora to support his campaign and
provide financial support. He appointed Mohammed Ayub Rafiqi as one of his vice president candidate deputies, and paid for the noted Clinton-
campaign chief strategist James Carville as a campaign advisor. Preliminary results placed Ghani fourth in a field of 38, securing roughly 3% of
the votes. On January 28, 2010, Ghani attended the International Conference on Afghanistan in London, pledging his support to help rebuild
their country. Ghani presented his ideas to Karzai as an example of the importance of cooperation among Afghans and with the international
community, supporting Karzai's reconciliation strategy. Ghani said hearing Karzai's second inaugural address in November 2009 and his pledges
to fight corruption, promote reconciliation and replace international security forces persuaded him to help. After announcing his candidacy for
the 2014 elections, Ghani tapped General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent Uzbek politician and former military official in Karzai's
government and Sarwar Danish, an ethnic Hazara, who also served as the Justice Minister in Karzai's cabinet as his pick for vice presidential
candidates. This Ghani-Dostum pairing is the most remarkable in today's race. In an article for the London Times on August 20, 2009, when

8. Ghani received three percent of the votes in the presidential elections, he called Dostum a "killer" and lashed out against Karzai for calling
Dostum back from Turkey to lend him his support. Now, Ghani has invited the very same Dostum to be his closest partner in the hope that this
new alliance will bring him victory. "Politics is not a love marriage, politics is a product of historic necessities," he explained to Agence France
Presse a few days after he had chosen Dostum. After none of the candidates managed to win more than 50% of the vote in the first round of the
election, Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the two front runners from the first round contested in a run-off election, which was held on June
14, 2014. Initial results from the run-off elections showed Ghani as the overwhelming favourite to win the elections. However, allegations of
electoral fraud resulted in a stalemate, threats of violence and the formation of a parallel government by his opponent Dr. Abdullah Abdullah
camp. On August 7, 2014 US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Kabul to broker a deal that outlined an extensive audit of nearly 8 million
votes and formation of a national unity government with a new role for a chief executive who would serve as a prime-minister. After a three
month audit process, which was supervised by the United Nations with financial support from the U.S. government, the Independent Election
Commission announced Ghani as the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan after Ghani agreed to a national unity deal. Initially the
election commission said it would not formally announce specific results, it later released a statement that said Ghani managed to secure 55.4%
and Abdullah Abdullah secured 43.5% of the vote. Although it declined to release the individual vote results. Ghani is on the Board of Directors
of the World Justice Project, which works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law in developing countries. Ashraf
Ghani is married to Rula Saade, a citizen with dual Lebanese and American nationality. Rula Saade Ghani was born in a
Lebanese Christian family. The couple married after they met during their studies at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon during the
1970s. Mrs. Ghani is reportedly fluent in English, French, Arabic, Pashto, Persian and Urdu. Ashraf and Rula Ghani have two children, a
daughter, Mariam Ghani, a Brooklyn-based visual artist, and a son, Tariq. Both were born in United States and carry US citizenship and passports.
In an unusual move for a politician in Afghanistan, Mr. Ghani at his presidential inauguration in 2014 publicly thanked his wife, acknowledging
her with an Afghan name, Bibi Gul. "I want to thank my partner, Bibi Gul, for supporting me and Afghanistan," said Mr. Ghani, looking
emotional. "She has always supported Afghan women and I hope she continues to do so."
Grand Pensionery of the United Provinces
The grand pensionary (Dutch: raad(s)pensionaris) was the most important Dutch official during the time of the United Provinces. In theory he
was only a civil servant of the Estates of the dominant province among the Seven United Provinces: the county of Holland. In practice the grand
pensionary of Holland was the political leader of the entire Dutch Republic when there was no stadtholder (in practice the Prince of Orange) at
the centre of power. The Dutch name raad(s)pensionaris literally translates as "pensionary of council". Indeed, other provinces could also have a
raadspensionaris, e.g. Zeeland, but only the one of Holland was considered by foreign powers to be of any importance, so they called him the
grand pensionary. The position of the grand pensionary was in many ways similar to what through later political and constitutional
developments came to be a prime minister. The office started in 1619 and replaced the title of land's advocate. When there was a stadtholder,
then the grand pensionary was often the second leader of the republic. Being the raadspensionaris of Holland, the grand pensionary acted as the
chairman of States of Holland. He was appointed by the Estates and could be fired instantly by the Estates. A decision of the Estates was made by
a summarizing of all the statements of the delegates by the grand pensionary, with an implicit conclusion about what collective decision had
been made. He had the first say on a subject during a meeting of the Estates and controlled the agenda. This way, if he was a competent man, he
could control the entire decision-making process, especially as one of his "duties" was to represent the ten members of the nobility delegates (the
ridderschap) in their absence and phrase the single opinion they as a body had the right to express. The office existed because all delegates of
the States were, although ranked according to ancient feudal hierarchy, still basically equal (pares) and none among them could thus act as a
head. The Batavian Republic first abolished the office but in its last year, 1805–1806, the title had to be reinstituted on orders of Napoleon as part
of a number of measures to strengthen the executive power; Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck thus acted for a short time as the last grand
pensionary. He officially functioned as a president of the entire Republic, not just of Holland.
List of Grand Pensionaries of Zeeland
Christoffel Roels was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1578 until 1597.
Johan van de Warck was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1599 until 1614.
Bonifacius de Jonge was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1615 until 1625.
Johan Boreel was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1625 until 1629.
Boudewijn de Witte was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1630 until 1641.
Cornelis Adriaansz. Stavenisse was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1641 until 1649.
Johan de Brune (May 29, 1588 - November 7, 1658) was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1649 until his death on
November 7, 1658.

9. Adriaan Veth was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1658 until 1663.
Pieter de Huybert was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1664 until 1687.
Jacob Verheije (August 7, 1640 - August 16, 1718) was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1687 until his death on August 16, 1718.
Caspar van Citters (January 22, 1674 - September 28, 1734) was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1718 until his death on
September 28, 1734.
Johan Pieter Recxstoot was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1751 until 1756.
Jacob du Bon was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1757 until 1760.
Wilhem van Citters (May 25, 1723 - August 17, 1802) was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1760 until 1766.
Adriaan Steengracht was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1766 until 1770.
Johan Marinus Chalmers was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1770 until 1785.
Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel (January 19, 1736 in Middelburg - May 7, 1800 in Lingen) was Grand Pensionary of
Zeeland from 1785 until 1787 and Grand Pensionary of Holland from November 9, 1787 until February 4, 1795. He was an
Orangist, which means that he was a supporter of Prince William V of Orange. He became grand pensionary of Holland
when the Prussian army had reinstated William V in power in 1787. He fled to Germany in 1795, when the French defeated
the Dutch army and an anti-orangist revolution broke out. He died in Lingen, Prussia. Van de Spiegel was the last Grand
Pensionary of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, which was replaced with the Batavian Republic modelled after
the French revolutionary state. Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel was married to Digna Johanna Ossewaarde (1841-1813). The
couple had eight children, one of them, jonkheer Cornelis Duvelaer van de Spiegel (1771-1829), was a member of parliament
(1815-1829) after the French era. Cornelis was ennobled by King William I in 1815.
Willem Aarnoud van Citters (January 28, 1741 - September 22, 1811) was Grand Pensionary of Zeeland from 1788 until 1795.
Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland
The Land's Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland acted as the chairman of the States of Holland. The office started in the early 14th
century and ended in 1619, when the title was renamed into Grand Pensionary. He was the speaker of the nobility of Holland and had the first
say on a subject during a meeting of the Estates. A decision of the Estates was made by a summarizing of all the statements of the other
delegates by the Land's Advocate. The Land's Advocate of Holland was the most powerful man of the United Provinces when there was no
Stadtholder in Holland (because two-thirds of the tax income of the republic came from the county of Holland). The most powerful land's
advocates of Holland were the last two, Paulus Buys (1572–1584) and Johan van Oldebarnevelt (1586–1619).
List of Advocates (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland
Barthout van Assendelft (ca. 1440 -1502) was Land's Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1480 until 1489 and from 1494
until 1497.
Jan Bouwensz (ca. 1452 - March 11, 1514) was Land's Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1489 until 1494.

10. Frans Coebel van der Loo (ca. 1470 - September 12, 1532) was Land's Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1500 until 1513.
Albrecht van Loo (ca. 1472 - January 5, 1525) was Land's Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1513 until 1524.
Aert van der Goes (1475 - November 1, 1545) was a member of the House of Goes and Land's Advocate (Dutch:
landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1525 until 1544. He studied at the University of Leuven. Aert van der Goes was born in Delft, and
was a lawyer and pensionary of Delft from 1508–1525. From May 1525 until January 1544 he was State Attorney (Grand
Pensionary) of the States of Holland. He wrote the Register of Dachvaerden's Lands of the States of Holland in which the events
during the meetings of the States captured. Aert van der Goes was a son of Witte van der Goes. His first marriage was to Barbara
Herwijnen. After her death he married Margaret of Banchem. From his first marriage son Aert van der Goes the young born.
This Aert was attorney for the Great Council of Malines. From the marriage with Margaret of Banchem was a son, Adriaen van
Der Goes and a daughter, Geneviève. Adriaen succeeded him as Grand Pensionary of Holland. Daughter Geneviève married Everhard Nicolai,
who later became President of the Grand Council of Mechelen. Through his son Adrian he is an ancestor of the American Rachael Clawson, who
married prominent farmer George John Debolt. The Arms of the Van der Goes family consisted of black three gold-silver horned goats heads,
and the crest a silver bokkenkop between two silver pheasant feathers.
Adriaen van der Goes (1505 - November 5, 1560) was Land's Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1544 until his
death on November 5, 1560.
Jacob van den Eynde (1515 - 1570) was Land's Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1560 until 1568.
Paulus Buys, heer van Zevenhoven and (from 1592) Capelle ter Vliet (Amersfoort, 1531 – IJsselstein, Manor house
Capelle ter Vliet, May 4, 1594) was Land's Advocate (Dutch: landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1572 until 1584. Buys was
born in a wealthy family in Amersfoort in the province of Utrecht. He studied law in France and worked as lawyer at the
court of Holland for a few years. In 1561, he became pensionary of Leiden. Later on he also became 'hoogheemraad' (the
chief official) of the 'Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland' (Dutch constitutional body for the security of dikes and polders
against the sea and the rivers) of Rhineland (the area around Leiden). Pensionaries were well paid. His task was to advise
the city council on legal affairs and serve as the representative of Leiden at the estates of Holland. Paulus Buys was
appointed as land's advocate of Holland in 1572 before Calvinists took the county. As representative of Holland, he vetoed
the decision of the duke of Alva to raise taxes at the estates general of the Netherlands in Brussels. Because of this, he had
to flee from the Netherlands and joined Prince William of Orange in Arnstadt. Paulus Buys was Roman Catholic, but he, like many moderate
Catholics, joined the rebels (Protestantism was a minority faith in Holland at that time) and secretly helped raising armies for the cause of the
prince when he came back to Leiden in the same year. He refused to admit a Spanish garrison in Leiden. Leiden became a part of rebel territory
still in 1572. Buys became the head of the rebel 'Raad van State' (one of the constitutional bodies of the Netherlands) in 1573, which would make
him the rebel leader if William of Orange died at the siege of Haarlem. The prince did not go to Haarlem, which fell to the Spanish. Buys was
the leader of the inundations (opening of dikes to let the water of the sea in) during the siege of Leiden in 1574. The water drowned the Spanish
cannons, so the Spanish had to lift the siege. He was the leader of the reconstruction of Leiden and appealed to the prince of Orange to establish
the Leiden University. He was curator of the university. In 1575, he went to England to try to convince Elizabeth I of England to ally with rebel
Holland and the prince of Orange. Elizabeth refused. Paulus Buys was one of the founders of the Union of Utrecht in 1579, which made an end
to the Union of Brussels, which was founded by the prince of Orange. Prince William of Orange was killed in 1584. Paulus Buys lost his mainstay
and left the estates of Holland, probably because he thought that they were overly supportive of France. Buys was an advocate of the English,
and he became the chief adviser of the Earl of Leicester, when the latter was sent to the Netherlands to aid the rebels with an English army.
Leicester first supported Buys against political rivals, but within two months fell out with him. As Elizabeth I seemed to drawback her support
for the Dutch, Leicester was convinced that Buys intrigued against him behind his back. Buys was arrested in July 1586 by the town of Utrecht, to
Leicester's contentment. Many cities asked for his release, but he remained imprisoned for half a year and was released after the payment of a
very large amount of money as ransom. This was the end of his political career. He lost his last profession as curator of Leiden university in
1591, because of his authoritarian behaviour. He sold his possessions in Leiden and moved to IJsselstein, where he died in 1594. His son is most
likely Cornelis Buys (*1559), who inherited the manors Capelle ter Vliet and Zevenhoven in 1592 - the year Paulus Buys died. Cornelis Buys was
a member of the General Chamber of Auditors of the County Holland and also a court clerk there. It is not known when Cornelis Buys died.
Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (Dutch pronunciation: [joɑŋ vɑŋ oldə(n)bɑrnəvəlt] ), Lord of Berkel en Rodenrijs
(1600), Gunterstein (1611) and Bakkum (1613) (September 14, 1547 - May 13, 1619) was Land's Advocate (Dutch:
landsadvocaat) of Holland from 1586 until his death on May 13, 1619. He was a Dutch statesman who played an
important role in the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain. Van Oldenbarnevelt was born in Amersfoort. He
studied law at Leuven, Bourges, Heidelberg and Padua, and traveled in France and Italy before settling in The Hague. He
was a supporter of the Arminians, who also supported William the Silent in his revolt against Spain, and fought in
William's army. He served as a volunteer for the relief of Haarlem (1573) and again at Leiden (1574). Oldenbarnevelt was
married in 1575 to Maria van Utrecht. In 1576 he obtained the important post of pensionary of Rotterdam, an office
which carried with it official membership of the States of Holland. In this capacity his industry, singular grasp of affairs,
and persuasive powers of speech speedily gained for him a position of influence. He was active in promoting the Union of Utrecht (1579) and
the offer of the countship of Holland and Zeeland by William (prevented by Williams death in 1584). He was a fierce opponent of the policies of
the Earl of Leicester, the governor‐general at the time, and instead favoured Maurice of Nassau, a son of William. Leicester left in 1587, leaving
the military power in the Netherlands to Maurice. During the governorship of Leicester, Van Oldenbarnevelt was the leader of the strenuous
opposition offered by the States of Holland to the centralizing policy of the governor. On March 16, 1586, Van Oldenbarnevelt, in succession to
Paulus Buys, became Land's Advocate of Holland for the States of Holland, an office he held for 32 years. This great office, given to a man of
commanding ability and industry, offered unbounded influence in a multi-headed republic without any central executive authority. Though

11. nominally the servant of the States of Holland, Oldenbarnevelt made himself the political personification of the province which bore more than
half the entire charge of the union. As mouthpiece of the States-General, he practically dominated the assembly. In a brief period, he became
entrusted with such large and far-reaching authority in all details of administration, that he became the virtual Prime minister of the Dutch
republic. During the two critical years following the withdrawal of Leicester, the Advocate's statesmanship kept the United Provinces from
collapsing under their own inherent separatist tendencies. This prevented the United Provinces from becoming an easy conquest for the
formidable army of Alexander of Parma. Also of good fortune for the Netherlands, the attention of Philip II of Spain was at its greatest
weakness, instead focused on a contemplated invasion of England. Spain's lack of attention coupled with the United Province's lack of central,
organized government allowed Oldenbarnevelt to gain control of administrative affairs. His task was made easier by receiving whole-hearted
support from Maurice of Nassau, who, after 1589, held the office of Stadholderate of five provinces. He was also Captain-General and Admiral of
the Union. The interests and ambitions of Oldenbarnevelt and Maurice did not clash. Indeed, Maurice's thoughts were centered on training and
leading armies, and he had no special capacity as a statesman or desire for politics. Their first rift between came in 1600, when Maurice was
forced against his will by the States-General, under the Advocate's influence, to undertake a military expedition to Flanders. The expedition was
saved from disaster by desperate efforts that ended in victory at the Nieuwpoort. In 1598, Oldenbarnevelt took part in special diplomatic
missions to King Henry IV of France and Queen Elizabeth I of England, and again in 1605 in a special mission sent to congratulate King James I
of England on his accession. The opening of negotiations by Albert and Isabel in 1606 for a peace or long truce led to a great division of opinion
in the Netherlands. The archdukes having consented to treat with the United Provinces as free provinces and states over which they had no
pretensions, Van Oldenbarnevelt, who had with him the States of Holland and the majority of the Regenten patriciate throughout the county,
was for peace, provided that liberty of trading was conceded. Maurice and his cousin William Louis, stadholder of Friesland, with the military
and naval leaders and the Calvinist clergy, were opposed to it, on the ground that the Spanish king was merely seeking a repose to recuperate his
strength for a renewed attack on the independence of the Netherlands. For some three years the negotiations went on, but at last after endless
parleying, on April 9, 1609, a truce for twelve years was concluded. All the Dutch demands were directly or indirectly granted, and Maurice felt
obliged to give a reluctant and somewhat sullen assent to the favorable conditions obtained by the firm and skillful diplomacy of the Advocate.
The immediate effect of the truce was a strengthening of Van Oldenbarnevelt's influence in the government of the Dutch Republic, now
recognized as a free and independent state; external peace, however, was to bring with it internal strife. For some years there had been a war of
words between the religious parties, the strict Calvinist Gomarists (or Contra-Remonstrants) and the Arminians. In 1610 the Arminians,
henceforth known as Remonstrants, drew up a petition, known as the Remonstrance, in which they asked that their tenets (defined in the Five
Articles of Remonstrance) should be submitted to a national synod, summoned by the civil government. It was no secret that this action of the
Arminians was taken with the approval and connivance of Van Oldenbarnevelt, who was an upholder of the principle of toleration in religious
opinions. The Gomarists in reply drew up a Contra-Remonstrance in seven articles, and called for a purely church synod. The whole land was
henceforth divided into Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants; the States of Holland under the influence of Van Oldenbarnevelt supported the
former (Remonstrants), and refused to sanction the summoning of a purely church synod (1613). They likewise (1614) forbade the preachers in
the Province of Holland to treat the disputed subjects from their pulpits. Obedience was difficult to enforce without military help. Riots broke
out in certain towns, and when Maurice was appealed to, as Captain‐General, he declined to act. Though in no sense a theologian, he then
declared himself on the side of the Contra-Remonstrants, and established a preacher of that persuasion in a church in The Hague (1617). The
Advocate now took a bold step. He proposed that the States of Holland should, on their own authority, as a sovereign province, raise a local force
of 4000 men (waardgelders) to keep the peace. The States-General, meanwhile, by a bare majority (4 provinces to 3) agreed to the summoning of
a national church synod. The States of Holland, also by a narrow majority, refused their assent to this, and passed on August 4, 1617 a strong
resolution (Scherpe Resolutie) by which all magistrates, officials and soldiers in the pay of the province were on pain of dismissal required to
take an oath of obedience to the States of Holland, and were to be held accountable not to the ordinary tribunals, but to the States of Holland.
The States‐General of the Republic saw this as a declaration of sovereign independence on the part of Holland, and decided to take action. A
commission was appointed, with Maurice at its head, to compel the disbanding of the waardgelders. On July 31, 1618 the Stadholder, at the head
of a body of troops, appeared at Utrecht, which had thrown in its lot with Holland. At his order the local militias laid down their arms. His
progress through the towns of Holland met with no military opposition. The States' sovereignty party was crushed without a battle being fought.
On August 23, 1618, by order of the States-General, Van Oldenbarnevelt and his chief supporters, Hugo Grotius, Gilles van Ledenberg, Rombout
Hogerbeets and Jacob Dircksz de Graeff, were arrested or lost their political positions in government. Van Oldenbarnevelt was, with his friends,
kept in strict confinement until November of that year, and then brought for examination before a commission appointed by the States-General.
He appeared more than 60 times before the commissioners and the whole course of his official life was severely examined. During the period of
inquest, he was neither allowed to consult papers nor put his defense in writing. On February 20, 1619, Van Oldenbarnevelt was arraigned before
a special court of twenty-four members, only half of whom were Hollanders, and nearly all of whom were personal enemies. This ad hoc judicial
commission was necessary, because, unlike in the individual provinces, the federal government did not have a judicial branch. Normally the
accused would be brought before the Hof van Holland or the Hoge Raad van Holland en Zeeland, the highest courts in the provinces of Holland
and Zeeland; however, in this case, the alleged crime was against the Generaliteit, or federal government, and required adjudication by the
States-General, acting as highest court in the land. As was customary in similar cases (for instance, the later trial of the judges in the case of the
Amboyna massacre), the trial was delegated to a commission. Of course, the accused contested the competence of the court, as they contested
the residual sovereignty of the States-General, but their protest was disregarded. It was in fact a kangaroo court, and the stacked bench of judges
on Sunday, May 12, 1619, pronounced a death sentence on Van Oldenbarnevelt. On the following day, the old statesman, at the age of seventy-
one, was beheaded in the Binnenhof, in The Hague. Van Oldenbarnevelt's last words to the executioner were purportedly: "Make it short, make it
short." He was buried in a family grave under the Court Chapel (Hofkapel) at the Binnenhof. The States of Holland noted in their Resolution
book on May 13, that Van Oldenbarnevelt had been: "…a man of great business, activity, memory and wisdom – yes, extra-ordinary in every
respect." They added the sentence Die staet siet toe dat hij niet en valle, which is a quotation of 1 Cor 10: 12 which probably should be
understood as referring to both how Oldenbarnevelt ended after holding one of the highest offices in the Republic and for choosing the side of
the Arminians, whom were ruled to be standing outside the Dutch Reformed Church and the Reformed Faith by the Synod of Dort. Van
Oldenbarnevelt left two sons; Reinier van Oldenbarnevelt, lord of Groeneveld and Willem van Oldenbarnevelt, lord of Stoutenburg, and two
daughters. A conspiracy against the life of Maurice, in which both sons of Van Oldenbarnevelt took part, was discovered in 1623. Stoutenburg,
who was the chief accomplice, made his escape and entered the service of Spain; Groeneveld was executed. The Nederland Line ship Johan van
Oldenbarnevelt carried his name from 1930 to 1963.
List of Grand Pensionaries (Dutch: raad(s)pensionaris) of Holland
Andries de Witt (June 16, 1573, Dordrecht - November 26, 1637, Dordrecht) was Grand Pensionary of Holland from 1619 until 1621. He was
the successor of Johan van Oldebarnevelt, who had been executed in 1619. Andries de Witt was a member of the old Dutch patrician family De

12. Witt. He was the oldest son of Johanna Heijmans and Cornelis Fransz de Witt (1545-1622), 16-fold burgomaster of Dordrecht. He was the uncle
of Cornelis de Witt and Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary from 1652 to 1672, who were sons of his youngest brother Jacob de Witt. Andries
married Elizabeth van den Honert in 1604, with whom he had 10 children.
Anthonie Duyck (c. 1560 - September 13, 1629) was Grand Pensionary of Holland from 1621 until his death on September 13, 1629.
Anthonie Duyck was a descendant of a notable hollandic family which was founded in the 13th century. Anthonie was the son of Gijsbert Duyck,
lord of Oud Karspel, who was appointed schout of Hoorn in 1580.[2] Anthonie was born in The Hague and studied law in Leiden. In 1588, he
became advocaat-fiscaal (public prosecutor) at the Raad van State. This was, next to the States-General of the Netherlands, the central
constitutional body of the United Provinces. As official of the Raad van State, he accompanied Prince Maurice of Orange on his military
campaigns between 1591 and 1602. He wrote long reports about these military campaigns for his superiors in The Hague. In 1602, he became
griffier at the court of Holland. In 1619 even a justice in the Hoge Raad van Holland en Zeeland. He was named as one of the public prosecutors
against his will for the special court which tried Johan van Oldebarnevelt. This court pronounced the death penalty in 1619. Duyck became
Grand Pensionary of Holland in 1621. His tasks were moderate compared to the tasks of Oldebarnevelt. Oldebarnevelt was an important political
leader, while Duyck was more an official. Anthonie married twice, and his first wife, Elisabeth de Michely, gave him three children, all
daughters. From 1591 until 1602, Anthonie kept a journal, detailing his activities and events of the Eighty years war, in which the Dutch
Republic was embroiled at that time. This journal was edited and published by the Dutch department of war in 1862, though of the seven books,
one, book four, was lost.
Jacob Cats (November 10, 1577 - September 12, 1660) was a Dutch poet, humorist, jurist and Grand Pensionary of
Holland from 1629 until 1631 and from 1636 until 1651. He is most famous for his emblem books. Having lost his
mother at an early age, and being adopted with his three brothers by an uncle, Cats was sent to school at Breda. He then
studied law at Rotterdam and at Paris, and, returning to Holland, he settled at the Hague, where he began to practise as
an advocate. His pleading in defence of a person accused of witchcraft brought him many clients and some reputation.
He had a serious love affair about this time, which was broken off on the very eve of marriage by his catching a tertian
fever which defied all attempts at cure for some two years. For medical advice and change of air Cats went to England,
where he consulted the highest authorities in vain. He returned to Zeeland to die, but was cured mysteriously with the
powder of a travelling doctor (later sources claim he was a quack). He married in 1602 a lady of some property, Elisabeth
van Valkenburg, and thenceforward lived at Grijpskerke in Zeeland, where he devoted himself to farming and poetry. In
1621, on the expiration of the twelve-year truce with Spain, the breaking of the dykes drove him from his farm. He was made pensionary
(stipendiary magistrate) of Middelburg; and two years afterwards of Dordrecht. In 1627 Cats came to England on a mission to Charles I, who
made him a knight. In 1636 he was made Grand Pensionary of Holland, and in 1648 keeper of the great seal; in 1651 he resigned his offices, but
in 1657 he was sent a second time to England on what proved to be an unsuccessful mission to Oliver Cromwell. In the seclusion of his villa of
Sorgvliet (near the Hague), he lived from this time till his death, occupied in the composition of his autobiography (Eighty-two Years of My Life,
first printed at Leiden in 1734) and of his poems. He became famous in his own lifetime from his moralistic Emblem books, most notably Sinne
en Minnebeelden, for which Adrian van der Venne cut the plates. He died on September 12, 1660, and was buried by torchlight, and with great
ceremony, in the Klooster-Kerk at the Hague. He is still spoken of as Father Cats by his countrymen. Cats was contemporary with Hooft and
Vondel and other distinguished Dutch writers in the golden age of Dutch literature, but his Orangist and Calvinistic opinions separated him
from the liberal school of Amsterdam poets. He was, however, intimate with Constantijn Huygens, whose political opinions were more nearly in
agreement with his own. Hardly known outside of Holland, among his own people for nearly two centuries he enjoyed an enormous popularity.
His diffuseness and the antiquated character of his matter and diction, have, however, come to be regarded as difficulties in the way of study, and
he is more renowned than read. A statue to him was erected at Brouwershaven in 1829. He wrote the following works: Jacob Cats, Complete
Works (1790–1800, 19 vols.), later editions by van Vloten (Zwolle, 1858–1866; and at Schiedam, 1869–1870): Pigott, Moral Emblems, with
Aphorisms, etc., from Jacob Cats (1860); and P. C. Witsen Geijsbeek, Het Leven en de Verdiensten van Jacob Cats (1829). Southey has a very
complimentary reference to Cats in his Epistle to Allan Cunningham, Emblemata or Minnebeelden with Maegdenplicht (1618), Selfstryt (1620),
Houwelick (1625), Proteus Ofte Minne-Beelden Verandert In Sinne-Beelden. (1627), Spiegel van den ouden en nieuwen Tyt (1632), Ouderdom,
Buytenleven en Hofgedachten op Sorgvliet (1664) and Gedachten op slapelooze nachten (1660). Cats' moralistic poems were told and retold like
nursery rhymes over several generations. Even today many of his coined phrases are still colloquialisms in everyday Dutch. Many of Cats' moral
poems were set to music. A selection of these, Klagende Maeghden en andere liederen, was recorded in 2008 by the Utrecht ensemble Camerata
Trajectina.
Adriaan Pauw, knight, heer van Heemstede, Bennebroek, Nieuwerkerk etc. ( November 1, 1585 - February 21, 1653) was
Grand Pensionary of Holland from 1631 until 1636 and from 1651 until his death on February 21, 1653. He was born in
Amsterdam in a rich merchant family - his father, Reinier Pauw (1564–1636) wasn't only a merchant, but also a Mayor of
Amsterdam - and studied law in Leiden. He was the pensionary of Amsterdam from 1611 to 1627. In 1620 he bought the town of
Heemstede and was called 'Lord of Heemstede'. He was appointed grand pensionary in 1631. Pauw, Holland and Amsterdam
wanted an alliance with Spain, but Prince Frederick Henry of Orange wanted an alliance with France. Frederick Henry sent
Pauw to France to start an alliance against Spain. Pauw accepted this assignment and allied with France. He resigned in 1636 as
grand pensionary. After the Peace of Münster (1648) for which he was instrumental as ambassador for Holland Pauw became grand pensionary
again in 1651 although there was much opposition against him. He tried to stop a war with England in 1652. He died in 1653. Adriaan Pauw was
married to Anna van Ruytenburgh (1589–1648), daughter of Pieter van Ruytenburgh, heer van Vlaardingen, Vlaardingerambacht en Ter Horst
(1562–1627), a wealthy merchant. Her mother was Aleyda Huybrechts van Duyvendrecht.
Johan de Witt or Jan de Witt, heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp and IJsselveere
(September 24, 1625 - August 20, 1672) was Grand Pensionary of Holland from July 30, 1653 until his death on
Auguat 20, 1672. was a key figure in Dutch politics in the mid-17th century, when its flourishing sea trade in a
period of globalization made the United Provinces a leading European power during the Dutch Golden Age. De
Witt controlled the Netherlands political system from around 1650 until shortly before his death in 1672 working
with various factions from nearly all the major cities, especially his hometown, Dordrecht, and the city of birth of
his wife, Amsterdam. As a republican he opposed the House of Orange and, along with his brother Cornelis de
Witt, was murdered by Orangists. Johan de Witt was a member of the old Dutch patrician family De Witt. His father
was Jacob de Witt, an influential regent and burgher from the patrician class in the city of Dordrecht, which in the

13. seventeenth century, was one of the most important cities of the dominating province of Holland. Johan and his older brother, Cornelis de Witt,
grew up in a privileged social environment in terms of education, his father having as good acquaintances important scholars and scientists,
such as Isaac Beeckman, Jacob Cats, Gerhard Vossius and Andreas Colvius. Johan and Cornelis both attended the Latin school in Dordrecht,
which imbued both brothers with the values of the Roman Republic. Johan de Witt married on February 16, 1655 Wendela Bicker (1635–1668),
the daughter of Jan Bicker (1591–1653), an influential patrician from Amsterdam, and Agneta de Graeff van Polsbroek (1603–1656). Jan Bicker
served as mayor of Amsterdam in 1653. De Witt became a relative to the strong republican-minded brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, and
to Andries Bicker. The couple had four children, three daughters and one son: Anna de Witt (1655–1725), married to Herman van den Honert,
Agnes de Witt (1658–1688), married to Simon Teresteyn van Halewijn, Maria de Witt (1660–1689), married to Willem Hooft and Johan de Witt
Jr. (1662–1701), heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard and IJsselveere, married to Wilhelmina de Witt. He was secretary of the city of
Dordrecht. After De Witt's death, his brother in law Pieter de Graeff became a guardian over his children. After having attended the Latin school
in Dordrecht, he studied at the University of Leiden, where he excelled at mathematics and law. He received his doctorate from the University of
Angers in 1645. He practiced law as an attorney in The Hague as an associate with the firm of Frans van Schooten. In 1650 (the year that
stadtholder William II of Orange died) he was appointed leader of the deputation of Dordrecht to the States of Holland. In December of 1650, De
Witt became the pensionary of Dordrecht. Once during the year 1652 in the city of Flushing, Johan De Witt found himself faced with a mob of
angry demonstrators of sailers and fishermen. An ugly situation was developing. However, even at the young age of 27 years, it was Johan's cool
headedness calmed the situation. Many people older than Johan began to see greatness in Johan dating from that experience. In 1653, Johan De
Witt's uncle, Cornelis De Graeff, made De Witt 'Grand Pensionary' of the States of Holland. Since Holland was the Republic's most powerful
province, he was effectively the political leader of the United Provinces as a whole—especially during periods when no stadholder had been
elected by the States-General of the United Provinces. That is why the raadpensionaris of Holland was also referred to as the Grand Pensionary
— in many way similar to a modern Prime Minister. Representing the province of Holland, Johan De Witt tended to identify with the economic
interests of the shipping and trading interests in the United Provinces. These interests were largely concentrated in the province of Holland and
to a lesser degree in the province of Zeeland.[6] In the religious conflict between the Calvinists and the more moderate members of the Dutch
Reform Church which arose in 1618, Holland tended to belong to the more tolerant Dutch Reform faction in the United Provinces. Not
surprisingly, Johan de Witt also held views of toleration of religious beliefs. Together with his uncle, Cornelis De Graeff, Johan De Witt brought
about peace with England after the First Anglo-Dutch War with the Treaty of Westminster in May of 1654. The peace treaty had a secret annex,
the Act of Seclusion, forbidding the Dutch ever to appoint William II's posthumous son, the infant William, as stadholder. This annex had been
attached on instigation of Cromwell, who felt that since William III was a grandson of the executed Charles I, it was not in the interests of his
own republican regime to see William ever gain political power. On September 25, 1660 the States of Holland under the prime movers of De
Witt, Cornelis De Graeff, his younger brother Andries de Graeff and Gillis Valckenier resolved to take charge of William's education to ensure
he would acquire the skills to serve in a future—though undetermined—state function. Influenced by the values of the Roman republic, De Witt
did his utmost anyway to prevent any member of the House of Orange from gaining power, convincing many provinces to abolish the
stadtholderate entirely. He bolstered his policy by publicly endorsing the theory of republicanism. He is supposed to have contributed personally
to the Interest of Holland, a radical republican textbook published in 1662 by his supporter Pieter de la Court. De Witt's power base was the
wealthy merchant class into which he was born. This class broadly coincided politically with the "States faction", stressing Protestant religious
moderation and pragmatic foreign policy defending commercial interests. The "Orange faction", consisting of the middle class, preferred a
strong leader from the Dutch Royal House of Orange as a counterweight against the rich upper-classes in economic and religious matters alike.
Although leaders that did emerge from the House of Orange rarely were strict Calvinists themselves, they tended to identify with Calvinism,
which was popular among the middle classes in the United Provinces during this time. William II of Orange was a prime example of this
tendency among the leaders of the House of Orange to support Calvinism. William II was elected Stadholder by the States-General in 1625 and
continued to serve until his death in November, 1650. Eight days after his death, William II wife delivered a male heir--William III of Orange.
Many citizens of the United Provinces urged the election of the infant William III as stadholder under a regency until he came of age. However,
the States-General, under the dominance of the province of Holland did not fill the office of Stadholder. The United Provinces were to remain
"stadholderless" until crucial year of 1672. During this stadholderless period Jacob De Witt reached the apex of his power in the United Provinces.
In the period following the Treaty of Westminster, the Republic grew in wealth and influence under De Witt's leadership. De Witt created a
strong navy, appointing one of his political allies, Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam, as supreme commander of the confederate
fleet. Later De Witt became a personal friend of Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. The Second Anglo-Dutch War began in 1665, lasting
until 1667 when it ended with the Treaty of Breda, in which De Witt negotiated very favorable agreements for the Republic after the partial
destruction of the British fleet in the Raid on the Medway, initiated by De Witt himself and executed in 1666 by De Ruyter. At about the time the
Treaty of Breda was concluded, De Witt made another attempt at pacification of the quarrel between States Party and Orangists over the position
of the Prince of Orange. He proposed to have William appointed captain-general of the Union on reaching the age of majority (23); on condition,
however, that this office would be declared incompatible with that of stadtholder in all of the provinces. For good measure the stadtholderate
was abolished in Holland itself. This Perpetual Edict (1667) was enacted by the States of Holland on August 5, 1667, and recognized by the
States-General on a four-to-three vote in January, 1668. This edict was added by Gaspar Fagel, then Pensionary of Haarlem, Gillis Valckenier and
Free Imperial Knight Andries de Graeff, two prominent Amsterdam regents, which abolished the stadtholderate in Holland "for ever". During
1672, which the Dutch refer to as the "year of disaster" or rampjaar, France and England attacked the Republic during the Franco-Dutch War and
the Orangists took power by force and deposed de Witt. Recovering from an earlier attempt on his life in June, he was lynched by an organized
mob after visiting his brother Cornelis in prison. After the arrival of Johan de Witt, the city guard was sent away on a pretext to stop farmers who
were supposedly engaged in pilfering. Without any protection against the assembled mob, the brothers were dragged out of the prison and killed
next to a nearby scaffold. Immediately after their deaths, the bodies were mutilated and fingers, toes, and other parts of their bodies were cut off.
Other parts of their bodies were allegedly eaten by the mob (or taken elsewhere, cooked and then allegedly eaten). The heart of Cornelis de Witt
was exhibited for many years next to his brother's by one of the ringleaders, the silversmith Hendrik Verhoeff. Today some historians believe
that his adversary and successor as leader of the government, stadtholder William III of Orange, was involved in the de Witt brothers' deaths. At
the very least he protected and rewarded their killers. The ringleaders were Johan Kievit, his brother-in-law Cornelius Tromp and Johan van
Banchem. Besides being a statesman Johan de Witt, also was an accomplished mathematician. In 1659 he wrote "Elementa Curvarum Linearum"
as an appendix to Frans van Schooten's translation of René Descartes' "La Géométrie". In this, De Witt derived the basic properties of quadratic
forms, an important step in the field of linear algebra. In 1671 his Waardije van Lyf-renten naer Proportie van Los-renten was published ('The
Worth of Life Annuities Compared to Redemption Bonds'). This work combined the interests of the statesman and the mathematician. Ever since
the Middle Ages, a Life Annuity was a way to "buy" someone a regular income from a reliable source. The state, for instance, could provide a
widow with a regular income until her death, in exchange for a 'lump sum' up front. There were also Redemption Bonds that were more like a
regular state loan. De Witt showed - by using probability mathematics - that for the same amount of money a bond of 4% would result in the
same profit as a Life Annuity of 6% (1 in 17). But the 'Staten' at the time were paying over 7% (1 in 14). The publication about Life Annuities is
seen as the first mathematical approach of chance and probability.[citation needed] After the violent deaths of the brothers the 'Staten' issued