Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a trade agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The agreement was signed by U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and Mexican President Carlos Salinas on December 17, 1992 in San Antonio, Texas, and took effect on January 1, 1994. It removed taxes on products traded between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It also protects copyrights, patents, and trademarks between those three countries. It was updated with the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, which helped set more environment regulations and helped reduce pollution. It was also updated with the North American Agreement for Labor Cooperation, which helped people fight for better work conditions.

On September 30, 2018, it was announced that the United States, Mexico, and Canada had come to an agreement to replace NAFTA with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Effects 
Since it took away taxes between products traded between the US, Canada, and Mexico. Mexico has been buying more products from the US. It saved U.S. companies on the cost of selling products to Mexico, and it saved Mexican companies on the cost of buying things from U.S. companies.

A benefit of the bill is that labels on products exchanged between the three countries come in French, English, and Spanish. That way, Mexicans and Americans who speak Spanish can read the Spanish label, Americans and Canadians can read the English label, and Canadians who speak French can read the French label.
NAFTA also encourages more immigration from Mexico to the US. Since small businesses can no longer be protected by tariffs, many small business owners in Mexico cannot compete with the prices of subsidized products from the US and therefore many of them have gone under, or they lost more money than they could make. As a result, many Mexicans have gone to the US looking for work. The human rights organization EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de la Liberación Nacional), a revolutionary Mexican grass roots movement, is a strong opponent of NAFTA and points out how its provisions only make the economic situation worse for the poorest in Mexico and better for multi-national corporations.

Job losses 
Small Business Chronicle
With the increased ease by which Mexico can import food products from the United States, the role of Mexican farmers is overwhelmed by the output of American farming. This is a notable con of NAFTA. According to Thomas Net Industry Market Trends, over 1 million Mexican farmers have lost their jobs as a result of the agreement.

The American economy lost about 683,000 jobs thanks to NAFTA—more than 60% of which were in the manufacturing sector. Almost 35,000 Ohioans found themselves unemployed, or without jobs, thanks to a free trade agreement that's been a disaster for our nation’s industrial base. - Sharrod Brown
Immigration 
It was possible that NAFTA would encourage Mexican citizens to stay in their country since their manufacturing work could still reach the American market easily. But since the creation of NAFTA, illegal immigration between Mexico and the United States has only gotten worse. Over the 10-year period between 1990 and 2000, the number of illegal immigrants per year doubled, or increased two times, despite the creation of NAFTA in 1994, according to Thomas Net Industry Market Trends. NAFTA not being more effective in preventing the immigration crisis is a disadvantage to the agreement.

Related pages
 Globalization

1994 in the United States
1994 in Canada
1990s in Mexico
Commerce
1990s treaties
International organizations
Economics organizations
Economy of North America
Economy of Canada
Economy of Mexico
Economy of the United States
1994 works
Treaties of the United States
Language revival is people trying to make a language spoken often again when it is not spoken or is spoken very little. Language death happens when a language is not used by the people who used to speak it.

Language revival tries to save a language that is dead or endangered. The Hebrew language was once a language that was not spoken, but the language was revived, and people now speak and use it again. Many people are now trying to revive their languages. The revival of languages is useful as it can give insight to older languages.

References

Language
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer and singer.

Biography

The youngest of six children, John Joseph Travolta was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey. His father, Salvatore Travolta (November 1912 – May 1995), was a semi-professional American football player of Italian descent. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke, January 1912 – December 1978), was an Irish-American actress and singer. He was raised Roman Catholic, but changed to Scientology in 1975. 

Travolta was engaged with Diana Hyland who died of breast cancer in 1977, they met while filming The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. He married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. The couple had a son, Jett (1992–2009). Their daughter, Ella Bleu, was born in 2000. On May 18, 2010, Travolta and Preston said she was pregnant with the couple's third child. Later they said it would be a boy. Their son, Benjamin, was born on November 23, 2010 in Florida.
He starred in the movies Grease with Olivia Newton-John, Pulp Fiction with Samuel L. Jackson and Hairspray.

His wife, Kelly Preston died of breast cancer in July 2020.

Filmography

Discography

Awards and nominations

References

Other websites 

1954 births
Living people
Actors from New Jersey
People from Englewood, New Jersey
American aviators
American movie actors
American television actors

Golden Globe Award winning actors
American musicians
Scientologists
Ukrainian might mean:

Something related to the country Ukraine
Something related to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which existed from 1922 to 1991
Ukrainians, the people of Ukraine
Ukrainian language
Objectivity in science means that scientific ideas and measurements are tested. That means they are independent from the individual scientist (the subject) who proposes them. In other words, if scientist A claims something, scientist B must be able to check whether A is right.

The evidence can (in principle) be shown to anyone who doubts it. The "in principle" bit is because some science needs complex machinery, and if you don't understand the machinery, you won't understand the results. But elementary science can often be shown in a classroom, or on television.

Some science does need a proper scientific education. To some extent the general public has to trust a qualified scientist to present the idea in some suitable form. That means on television or on the web, or perhaps in published articles or books. Most awards of the Nobel Prize in science are followed by presentations on various web channels.
Objectivity in measurement 
To avoid the variety in subjective (ambiguous) interpretation of quantifying terms such as "green", "hot", "large", "considerable", and "negligible", scientists try hard, where possible, to eliminate human senses by use of standardized measuring tools (meter stick, stopwatch, thermometer, etc.) and mechanical/electronic measuring instruments (spectrometer, voltmeter, timer, oscilloscope, gravimeter, etc.) for performing the actual measuring process, eliminating much of the perceptive variability of individual observers. The results of measurements are expressed on a numerical scale of standard units - so that everybody else understands them the same way. Where data must need be used, the ideal is to use "hard", "objective" criteria for assigning the classifications (see definition), such that different classifiers would get the same results.
Literature 
 Dawkins, Richard 2003. A Devil’s Chaplain: selected essays. Phoenix. 
 Kuhn, Thomas 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed. 1996.
 Porter, Theodore M. 1995. Trust in Numbers: the pursuit of objectivity in science and public life. Princeton University Press. 
 Restivo, Sal 1994. Science, Society, and Values: toward a sociology of objectivity. Lehigh University Press.
 Sokal, Alan & Bricmont, Jean 1997. Intellectual Impostures: postmodern philosophers’ abuse of science. Profile Books 2003.

Science
Roundhay Garden Scene is a short movie made on October 14, 1888 in the garden of Oakwood Grange, Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was made by a French man named Louis Le Prince. It was silent. The movie had Adolphe Le Prince, Sarah Whitley, Joseph Whitley, and Harriet Hartley walking in the garden of Oakwood Grange. It is believed to be the oldest surviving movie by many people. It is 1.66 seconds long. The digitalized version lasts 2.11 seconds.

Other websites 
 
 
 Louis Le Prince Centre for Cinema, Photography, and Television
 YouTube video of Roundhay Garden Scene

Silent movies
1888
Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with reptiles and amphibians. It is about cold-blooded animals like salamanders, frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, turtles, tuataras and crocodilians.

Herp
"Herp" is a vernacular term for reptiles and amphibians. It is derived from the old term "herpetile". Linnaeus  grouped reptiles and amphibians together in the same class, and that is where the term comes from. The term has persisted, particularly in the names of herpetology, the scientific study of reptiles and amphibians, and herpetoculture, the captive care and breeding of reptiles and amphibians. There are over 6700 species of amphibians and over 9000 species of reptiles.

Batrachology
Batrachology is the study of amphibians. Batrachology can also mean that a person enjoys amphibians and are among their favorite pets.

Branches of zoology
Reptiles
Amphibians
Captain Hector Barbossa is a fictional character and a recurring antagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. He appeared in the first five movies of the series. 

At first he was the main antagonist as an undead pirate in The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). The character dies at the end of the movie, however, he is revealed to have been brought back to life at the end of Dead Man's Chest. 

He later became an antihero in supporting roles as a Pirate Lord in At World's End (2007), a privateer with the Royal Navy in On Stranger Tides (2011), and finally as the rich pirate in Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).

He is seen as the evil version of Captain Jack Sparrow.

References

Pirates of the Caribbean characters
Alpha Kappa Alpha is the first sorority founded by African-American women.  The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at Howard University. The sorority has more than 300,000 women in over one thousand chapters. They are in the United States, the Caribbean, Germany, Korea and Japan.

Other websites

Official website

Fraternities and sororities
1908 establishments
Organizations based in Illinois
Objectivity can mean:

 Objectivity (philosophy)
 Objectivity (journalism)
 Objectivity (science)
 Objectivity in historiography

Related pages
 New Objectivity, German art movement
Fraud (or defrauding or scamming) is a crime in which someone tricks somebody else to get unfair or unlawful gain. Frauds are almost always about money, either directly or indirectly. 

A fraudster or a fraud is the person who commits the fraud. Fraudulence is the adjective, as in He tried to pass a fraudulent cheque. To defraud someone is to commit a fraud against them. 

Fraudsters may find people to defraud by phone calls, emails, or websites. Fraud often starts by saying there is a free or low price item. The fraudster then asks for personal information, such as a home address and bank account numbers. Instead of giving an item, the fraudster takes their money. Fraudsters often target senior citizens.

Fraud is a criminal wrong: a fraudster may be prosecuted and imprisoned. It is also a civil wrong: a fraud victim may sue the fraudster to get compensation.
All societies have laws against fraud, but the details differ in each jurisdiction. In England an Act of Parliament defines three kinds of fraud.
fraud by false representation, 
fraud by failing to disclose information, and 
fraud by abuse of position. 
Lesser cases are heard in a Magistrates' Court; more serious offences are tried in the High Court (jury proceedings).

Related pages
 Phishing
 Ponzi scheme
 Pyramid scheme
 Welfare fraud
 Internet fraud, online fraud

Financial crimes
A pump is a machine which moves a liquid from one place to another, often upwards.

Pumps need some kind of power, often kinetic energy, to make them work. Sometimes the power comes from a person. Sometimes the power comes from a motor.

Types of pumps 

There are many different kinds of pumps. Some types of pumps are:
 Air pump
 Boiler feedwater pump
 Fire pump
 Heat pump

Related pages 
 Gas compressor

Resources 

 Pumps history - 2000 BC to Now

Engineering
Mechanics
Tools
Alpha may mean:

The Greek letter alpha
Alpha, a letter in the Greek alphabet. α may be used as the symbol for:
Angle of attack in aerodynamics
Common-base current gain of a transistor in electronics
In physics:
Fine-structure constant, a fundamental physical constant
Alpha particle, form of particle radiation
H-alpha, or H-α, an emission line created by hydrogen atoms
The alpha carbon in organic chemistry
In Bayer designation, the typically brightest star in a constellation
The significance level in statistical hypothesis testing
Alpha channel, describing transparency and opacity in computer graphics
The alpha coefficient in evaluating financial returns
Thermal diffusivity

Place names
Alpha, Michigan
Alpha, Minnesota
Alpha, New Jersey
Alpha, Queensland
Media, literature and fiction
Alpha (band), a British electronic music group
Alpha Magazine, Australian men's sport magazine
Alpha (search engine), a search engine by Yahoo!
Alpha TV, a Greek terrestrial channel
Alpha the Ultimate Mutant, a character featured in Marvel Comics

Science and mathematics
 The Bayer designation of the brightest star in a constellation, for example
 Alpha Centauri, the brightest star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus
Alpha (biology), "alpha male" and "alpha female", the highest ranking individuals in a community of social animals
Alpha (investment), a measurement of risk-adjusted performance
Alpha waves, recorded by electroencephalography
Cronbach's alpha, a statistical measure of reliability
ALPHA, the Antihydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus, an experiment at CERN.
Computing
Alpha (machine learning), the degree to which a learning agent takes into account new information
ALPHA refers to the set of ASCII characters A-Z and a-z, as defined in RFC 4234
The ALPHA programming language
Alpha, a development stage of software release
DEC Alpha, a microprocessor/central processing unit (CPU)
AlphaServer - DEC now HP machine successor to the VAX
AlphaStation - DEC now HP workstation successor to the VAX
Other
Latin alpha, an open back unrounded vowel
Space Station Alpha, the original name and unofficial call sign for the International Space Station
The first letter in the NATO phonetic alphabet
Alpha (radio navigation), a Russian radio navigation system similar to the former Omega Navigation System
Alpha 2000, a light aircraft built in New Zealand
Alpha Group, a dedicated counter-terrorism unit that belonged to OSNAZ
Alpha class submarine, a Russian fast attack nuclear submarine
Sony α or Sony Alpha, a digital SLR series by Sony
Minolta α or Minolta Alpha, the Japanese name for a series of SLR cameras known as Maxxum or Dynax elsewhere, and predecessor to Sony's brand of the same name
Tropical Storm Alpha (2005)
Alpha Industries, clothing company

Related pages
Beta
Ioan Petru Culianu (January 5, 1950–May 21, 1991) was a Romanian historian of religion, culture, ideas, philosopher, political essayist, poet, mystic and short story writer.

He was 41 when he was shot in the head in the men's room in his University, Divine School where he was teaching on May 21 1991. At times he preached against communism and its system of brainwashing youth. It is alleged that he was killed on the orders of outgoing Romanian Communist Party leaders.

Other websites
Biography - The life and death of Romanian mystic, The Forces of Darkness- professor Ioan Culianu
Culianu's works

1950 births
1991 deaths
Romanian writers
Romanian historians
Romanian poets
20th-century philosophers
Romanian philosophers
In popular music marketing, a single is a record release with only one or two songs. The first song (usually the one given the most promotion, and heard more often in the media) is called an A-side, while any other song on the single is called a B-side.

The pairing of recordings on a single comes from the days of shellac and vinyl records, when discs had two playable sides. Modern compact disc singles may contain more than one version of either the A- or B-side, or sometimes an additional recording by the same performer. B-sides may be selections from an album, or songs not otherwise issued for sale.

Many times the chance to get a new song issued as an A-side creates competition between members of bands, or teams of songwriters. John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles tried to write better songs than each other, to get more A-sides than the other. George Harrison, also a Beatle, rarely had his songs chosen for singles, but had a hit with "Something" for the band.
In the days of vinyl singles, royalties for both A- and B-sides were paid equally. Many listeners never played B-sides more than once, and radio focused on A-sides. Many people who made recordings knew this, and used it to earn extra money from sales, or to promote other music they made. Phil Spector sometimes used short jam sessions by his studio band as B-sides to singles he produced. 

Michael Nesmith of the Monkees wanted his songs to appear on Monkees singles. He would settle for B-sides, if he could not get an A-side. Don Kirshner, who oversaw the band's early music, wanted the B-sides to come from other songwriters who worked for him. Nesmith and Kirshner disagreed, and it caused tension for the Monkees and their company.

Records that include more than two or three songs are usually called EPs (for "extended play"), and may include four or more distinct songs, but not as many as on an album.

Related pages
 Album
 Extended play
 Vinyl (or gramophone record)

Marketing
Songs
Captain America is a fictional superhero from the Marvel Comics. He made his first appearance in the comic book Captain America Comics #1 in 1941. He wears a suit that has a white star on his chest with 2 stripes (still white) on each side next to the star. His suit is blue. He also has an indestructible shield with a bullseye and a star on the front of it. He is also known as his alter ego Steve Rogers. Captain America had a sidekick (friend), Bucky who later became the Winter Soldier, is a very good fighter, both hand-to-hand and using his guns to take care of his enemies easily. Captain America has an nemesis called Red Skull. He later joins a team called the Avengers to help protect the world.

Power and abilities 
Captain America has superhuman strength, superhuman stamina, and can live without eating, sleeping and resting.

Film and TV 
He first appeared in the serial (film) Captain America, which was from 1940.
He appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, played by Chris Evans. He was in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016), as well as Marvel's The Avengers (2012), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

In Real Life 
In 1966, Joe Simon (one of the people who helped make Captain America) sued Marvel, saying that he was the one who should be able to use the character, not them. It was agreed that Captain America was made under the publisher's rules, and belonged to them. This meant that Marvel won.

References 

Fictional characters introduced in 1941
Marvel Comics adapted into movies
Avengers (comics) characters
Marvel vs. Capcom fighters
Fictional American people
Objectivity is a significant principle of journalistic professionalism. It involves presenting information that can be relied upon.

Objectivity may have several meanings in the eye of the public. "Fairness" involves making sure that multiple sides of an issue are presented. "Disinterestedness" means that the presenters are neutral in a story in which the people involved try to influence them. "Factuality" bases story content on facts that can be checked by an independent agent. "Nonpartisanship" means not taking sides, especially on political matters. Depending on the topic of a story, any or all of these factors may be relevant in the journalist's remaining objective.

The editorial board of media outlets such as the press or broadcast news chooses what information to present, so the editors' selection may be biased toward one position or belief system.
In many countries, "advocacy journalism," which supports a particular position, is considered as a legitimate sort of professional journalism. These stories may be either news or analysis. They may or may not be objective.

Definitions 
Few journalists would make a claim to total neutrality or impartiality.  However, most try to keep distance from their own personal biases in their news work.  In Discovering the News (1978), sociologist Michael Schudson argues that "the belief in objectivity is a faith in 'facts,' a distrust in 'values,' and a commitment to their segregation."  In the United States, an objective story is typically considered to be one that steers a middle path between two poles of political rhetoric. 
 
Journalism without any bias, as if one just came to Earth from another planet and had no opinions about our behavior or ways is rarely practiced, although some argue it would lead to radical changes in reporting. (See, for example, Noam Chomsky, The Journalist from Mars.)
Related pages
Objectivity
Objectivity (philosophy) for a general discussion of objectivity
Objectivity (science)

References 
Herman, Edward and Noam Chomsky.  1988.  Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.  New York: Pantheon.
Mindich, David T. Z.  1998.  Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to Define American Journalism.  New York: New York University Press.
Schudson, Michael.  1978.  Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers.  New York: Basic Books.
Schudson, Michael.  1997.  "The Sociology of News Production."  In Social Meaning of News: A Text-Reader.  Dan Berkowitz, ed.  Pp. 7-22. Thousand Oaks: Sage. 

Mass media
Journalism
The Genesis Nomad is a portable video game console released by the Sega Corporation. It has a colour screen and can play most games designed for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.

It cannot be used with the Sega CD and Sega 32X unless special modifications are made. But such special modifications may not be safe.

Fewer than one million Genesis Nomads were sold. 

Handheld video games
Sega video game consoles
The Erlasee Solar Park  is in one of the sunniest regions of Germany. On the former wine-producing Erlasee estate near Arnstein in Bavaria, in southern Germany, SOLON has constructed what is currently the largest tracking photovoltaic solar power station in the world with an output of 12 MW. Just under 1,500 "SOLON-Movers" modules convert sunlight into environmentally friendly power, generating as much as the average consumption of the nearby town of Arnstein.  

The solar power plant cost £35 million and covers 77 hectares of land.

Related pages
Photovoltaics

References

Other websites
SunPower Celebrates the Dedication of SOLON's Gut Erlasee Solar Park 

Buildings and structures in Bavaria
Power stations in Germany
Solar power plants
Khula is the right of a woman to ask her husband for a divorce and to offer him a compensation in case he does so. Following the Sharia the husband has no right to ask for a compensation of a higher value than that what he gave his wife when they married. 

After divorce the former husband is responsible for education, food and residence of children. The children live with the mother for 7 years. After 7 years children have the right to live with father or mother, as they decide.

Marriage
Islamic culture
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (, Akbar Hāshemī Rafanjānī), Hashemi Bahramani (; August 25, 1934 – January 8, 2017) was an influential Iranian politician. He has been the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran from 1989 until his death in 2017.

Forbes magazine listed Rafsanjani in their list of richest people in the world and has written that as the real power behind the Iranian government, he "has more or less run the Islamic Republic for the past 24 years."  His wealth has earned him the infamous nickname of Akbar Shah in Iran.
Rafsanjani was President of Iran from 1989 to 1997, losing on the second ballot to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 election on his attempt for a third term in office. After this, he has tried to use his position in the Expediency Council to denounce President Ahmadinejad's administration.  He said he would do some  privatizations and change foreign policy. However, President Ahmadinejad has noted Rafsanjani's failure to make a difference between  privatization and self takeover of government-owned companies. Ahmadinejad has also commmented on  the foreign policies of Rafsanjani's administration which lead to sanctions against Iran in 1995 and 1996.

Currently, one of his sons has been accused of receiving a bribe. Analysts expect that his son will not be put on trial, however. 

Rafsanjani died on January 8, 2017 in Tehran from a heart attack, aged 82.

References

Other websites 
Profile: Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani at BBC News
Profile:  Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani  at www.aljazeera.com
Video clips
Rafsanjani and Al-Qaradhawi on Muslim Unity - Part 1
Rafsanjani and Al-Qaradhawi on Muslim Unity - Part 2

1934 births
2017 deaths
Deaths from myocardial infarction
Iranian clerics
Iranian Muslims
Speakers of the Islamic Consultative Assembly
Presidents of Iran
Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American boxer. He held both the world heavyweight championship and the world cruiserweight championship. He also won a bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Holyfield was born in Atmore, Alabama. He became a professional boxer in 1984 and won the cruiserweight championship from Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1986. He moved to the heavyweight division in 1988 and won the world championship from James "Buster" Douglas in 1990. He defended the title three times, including fights against former champions Larry Holmes and George Foreman. He lost the title to Riddick Bowe in 1992 but won it back the next year. In 1994 he lost to Michael Moorer and briefly retired. He soon fought again, however, and surprised many by knocking out Mike Tyson in 1996. He had a draw against Lennox Lewis in 1998 and then lost a rematch to him in 1999.
In 2005, Holyfield  was a contestant on season 1 of Dancing with the Stars. He was a housemate in the January 2014 series of Celebrity Big Brother (UK).

Other websites
Boxing record

African-American boxers
American Olympic bronze medalists
Celebrity Big Brother contestants
Dancing with the Stars participants
Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from Alabama
1962 births
Living people
Porthmadog Football Club is a football team, playing in the Cymru North. The club was started in 1884.

Other websites 
 Official website

Welsh football clubs
1884 establishments in the United Kingdom
1880s establishments in Wales
Sharia, Sharia law or Islamic law is a set of religious principles which form part of the Islamic culture. The Arabic word sharīʿah () refers to the revealed law of God and originally meant "way" or "path".

Classical sharia deals with many aspects of public and private life, including religious rituals, family life, business, crimes, and warfare. In former times, sharia was interpreted by independent jurists, who based their legal opinions on Qur'an, Hadith and centuries of debate, interpretation and precedent. Some parts of sharia can be described as "law" in the usual sense of that word, while other parts are better understood as rules for living life in accordance with God's will.

Countries in the Muslim world all have their own laws. In most of them only a small part of the legal system is based on classical sharia. Muslims disagree on how sharia should be applied.
Meaning and origins
People of different religions who speak Arabic use the word sharīʿah to describe a religious tradition that comes from teachings of prophets. Christians and Jews in the Middle East have used it to describe their own religion. For many Muslims the word "sharia" means simply "justice". They will say that any law agrees with sharia as long as it helps to build a more fair and prosperous society.

Most Muslims believe sharia should be interpreted by experts in Islamic law. In Arabic, the word sharīʿah refers to God's revelation, which does not change. In contrast, the rules of behavior created by scholars as they try to understand God's revelation are called fiqh. These rules can change and Islamic scholars have often disagreed about them.
Scholars disagree about the origins of the word "sharia". Some say that "sharia" comes from the old Arabic word meaning "pathway to be followed". This would make it similar to halakha (the way to go), the Hebrew word for Jewish law. Other scholars think that the word "sharia" originally meant "path to the water hole". They say that knowing the way to a water hole could save a man's life in the deserts of Arabia, and that is why this word came to refer to God's guidance to man.

Theory 
Islamic scholars who lived during the first centuries of Islam developed different methods for interpreting sharia. Most of them came to agree that sharia rules should be derived from the following main sources:
 The Qur'an, which Muslims believe was revealed by God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril).
 The actions and words of Muhammad, which are called the sunnah and were preserved in collections called hadith
 Consensus, when legal experts all agree on a point of law
 qiyās or legal reasoning by analogy
The process of deriving sharia rules from the Qur'an and hadith is called ijtihad. Sharia rules classify actions into one of the following categories:
 Fard (action that one must perform)
 Mustahabb (recommended action)
 Mubah (action that is allowed)
 Makruh (action that is despised)
 Haram (forbidden action)

These acts have "material or moral" provisions in the understanding of Sharia. The abandonment of the actions "that are considered fard, wajib and sunnah", and doing the forbidden ones "that are considered makruh and haram" are penalized. (hadd or tazir punishments). E.g.; Beating, imprisoning and killing those who insist on not praying can be considered in this context.
Sharia in Islam is viewed as the revealed law of God, which cannot be altered. On the other hand, its interpretation, called fiqh, is the work of legal scholars, who have frequently differed in their legal opinions. Some parts of sharia are similar to what people in the West call "law", while other parts are better understood as rules for living life in accordance with God's will.

There are several schools of legal thought in Islam, of which the most important are the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools of Sunni Islam and the Ja'fari school of Shia Islam.

Branches of sharia 
The divisions of sharia are called "branches" (furu) in Arabic. The main branches are ibadat (rituals or acts of worship) and mu'amalat (human interactions or social relations). These branches are divided into many smaller branches, some of which are listed bellow:
The acts of worship, or al-ibadat, called the 5 pillars of Islam: affirmation of faith, prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage
 Human interaction, or al-mu'amalat, which includes:
 Financial transactions
 Endowments
 Laws of inheritance
 Marriage, divorce, and child custody
 Foods and drinks (including ritual slaughtering and hunting)
 Penal punishments
 Warfare and peace
 Judicial matters (including witnesses and forms of evidence)

Acts of worship 

The Five Pillars of Islam are:

 Affirmation (Shahadah): There is no God except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.
 Prayer (Salah): five times a day
 Fasting (Sawm during Ramadan)
 Charity (Zakat)
 Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)

There are two festivals that are considered Sunnah.
 Eid ul-Fitr
 Eid ul-Adha
There are some special rituals used during these festivals:
 Sadaqah (charity) before Eid ul-Fitr prayer.
 The Prayer and the Sermon on Eid day.
 Takbirs (glorifying God) after every prayer in the days of Tashriq (see footnote for def.)
 Sacrifice of unflawed, four-legged grazing animal of appropriate age after the prayer of Eid ul-Adha in the days of Tashriq. The animal must not be wasted; its meat must be consumed.

Dietary laws 

Islamic law lists only some specific foods and drinks that are not allowed.
 Pork, blood, and scavenged meat are not allowed. People are also not allowed to eat animals that were slaughtered in the name of someone other than Allah.
 Intoxicants (like alcoholic drinks and drugs) are not allowed generally.

While Islamic law prohibits already-dead meat, this does not apply to fish and locusts. Also, hadith literature prohibits beasts having sharp canine teeth, birds having claws and talons in their feet, tamed donkeys, and any piece cut from a living animal.
Sacrifice 
There are some specific rules regarding the killing of animals in Islam.
 The animal must be killed in the most humane way: by swiftly cutting the throat.
 The animal must not be diseased.
 The animal must not have been exposed to feces, worms, and other impurities.
 All blood must drain from the animal before being packaged.
Family life 
 A Muslim woman can only marry a Muslim man and a Muslim man can only marry a Muslim or Ahl al-Kitāb. He/She cannot marry an atheist, agnostic or polytheist.
 A Muslim minor girl's father or guardian needs her consent when arranging a marriage for her. And should only marry when she is of legal age.
 A marriage is a contract that requires the man to pay, or promise to pay some of the wedding and provisions the wife needs. This is known as the Mahr or Meher.
 A Muslim man may be married to up to four women at a time, although the Qur'an has emphasised that this is a permission, and not a rule. The Qur'an has stated that to marry one is best if you fear you cannot do justice between your wives and respective families. This means that he must be able to house each wife and her children in a different house, he should not give preferential treatment to one wife over another.
A female heir inherits half of what a male heir inherits. The concept being that Islam puts the responsibility of earning and spending on the family on the male. Any wealth the female earns is strictly for her own use. The female also inherits from both her immediate family and through agency of her husband, her in-laws as well.
Crime and punishment 
Sharia recognises three categories of crime:
 Offenses mentioned in the Quran (hudud) that are viewed as violating "claims of God" and have fixed punishments.
 Offenses against persons (murder and wounding) which call for a punishment similar to the crime (qisas) or payment of compensation (diya)
 Other forbidden behaviour where a Muslim judge uses his discretion in sentencing (ta'zir and siyasa)
Although there is some disagreement about which crimes are hudud crimes, they usually include theft, highway robbery, zina (sex with forbidden partners), falsely accusing someone of zina, and drinking alcohol. The prescribed punishments for these crimes range from 80 lashes to death. However, classical jurists developed very strict rules which restrict when these punishments could be applied, so that in many cases it became almost impossible to convict anyone under these rules. For example, there must be four adult male Muslim witnesses to a hudud crime or a confession repeated four times, before someone can be punished. If a criminal could not be convicted of a hudud crime, they could still receive a tazir punishment.
 Qisas;
In the historical practice, qisas appears in two ways. One of them is the punishment of the perpetrator with a “counter-action”, exactly the same as the crime committed, in crimes against the person's bodily integrity; A life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... etc.
Another application is related to the social status of the perpetrator and the victim. In the tribal understanding, when a person kills a woman, a slave or an honorable person from another tribe, a person "of similar status from the tribe to which the murderer belongs" will be killed in return. As a general custom, killing the master's to slave, father's to child, husband's to wife was not punished with retaliation, and retaliation was not applied to the man who killed the woman as a rule. The condition of "social equality" in qisas means that; "if a socially inferior person kills someone from the upper class, qisas will be applied", whereas "if someone from the upper class kills someone from the lower class, it cannot be applied". On this pre-Islamic understandings the discussion whether a Muslim could be executed for a non-Muslim was added in Islamic period.

In these cases, compensation (Diya) can be paid to the family of the murdered person.
The main verse for implementation in Islam is Al Baqara; 178 verse;
: '''Believers! Retaliation is ordained for you regarding the people who were killed. Free versus free, captive versus captive, woman versus woman. Whoever is forgiven by the brother of the slain for a price, let him abide by the custom and pay the price well."

While retaliation is certain in crimes of murder, according to the verse(2:178)), the situation is not clear in the crimes of wounding. For such (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc.) punishments,  the expression "This is how we wrote to them (the Children of Israel) in the book", is used. (5: 45)
Murder, bodily injury and property damage - intentional or unintentional - is considered a civil dispute under sharia law. The victim, victim's heir(s) or guardian is given the option to either forgive the offender, demand Qisas (equal retaliation) or accept a compensation (Diyya). Under sharia law, the Diyya compensation received by the victim or victim's family is in cash.M Kar (2005), Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures: Family, Law and Politics (Ed: Suad Joseph, Afsāna Naǧmābādī), , pp. 406-407

Apostasy is punished by death unless the apostate agreed to return to Islam.

 Legal system 
 Muftis 
During the Islamic Golden Age, sharia was interpreted by experts in Islamic law (muftis), most of whom were independent religious scholars. Anyone could ask them a question about law, and they were expected to give an answer for free. Their legal opinions were called fatwas.
Qadi's courts 
When there was a legal dispute about family or financial matters, it would be handled in a court headed by a qadi (judge). These judges also had a legal education, and they were appointed to their post by the ruler. In simple cases, qadis would pronounce a verdict based on their own knowledge of sharia. In more difficult cases, they would express the details of the case in general terms and ask a mufti for his legal opinion.
Mazalim courts 
Criminal cases were usually handled in maẓālim courts. These courts were controlled by the ruler's council. Mazalim courts were supposed to follow "the spirit of sharia". Qadis and muftis were present in those courts to make sure the verdicts did not go against it. However, these courts did not necessarily follow the letter of the law, and they had fewer legal restrictions than qadi's courts. Mazalim courts also handled complaints against government officials. Their purpose of mazalim courts was to "right wrongs" which could not be addressed through procedures of qadi's courts. Less serious crimes were often handled by local police and market inspectors according to local customs, which were only loosely related to sharia.
Non-Muslims 
Non-Muslim communities living under Islamic rule were allowed to follow their own laws. The government kept out of their internal legal affairs, except when there was a dispute between people of different religions. Such cases were handled by a qadi. When that happened, sharia rules gave Muslims some legal advantages over non-Muslims. However, non-Muslims often won cases against Muslims and even against high government officials, because people thought that sharia was a reflection of divine justice which should defend the weak against the powerful.
Sharia in the modern world 
In the modern era, most parts of the Muslim world came under influence or control of European powers. This led to major changes in the legal systems of these lands. In some cases, this was because Muslim governments wanted to make their states more powerful and they took European states as models of what a modern state should look like. In other cases, it was because Europeans who colonized these lands forced them to abandon parts of Islamic law and follow European laws instead.
In modern times, criminal laws in the Muslim world were widely replaced by codes which were inspired by European laws. Court procedures and legal education were also made similar to European practice. The constitutions of most Muslim-majority states mention sharia in one way or another. However, the classical rules of sharia were preserved mostly in family laws. In earlier times, sharia was interpreted by independent scholars who often disagreed with each other, and all their opinions were never written down in one place. In the modern era, it was the government who controlled the laws. Different states created their own legal codes, where the laws were clearly stated. The governments wanted to make family laws fit better in the modern world, but they still wanted people to view them as laws based on sharia. In order to do this, the scholars who wrote down these laws decided to pick and choose rules from the different legal opinions available in the classical books of law
. When some of the laws they picked disagreed with the current norms of society, the government tried to solve this problem by creating additional court procedures. For example, when family laws in some states seemed to treat women unfairly to the population, the government created procedures that made it more difficult for men to take advantage of these laws in an unfair manner.
Recent legal reforms 

In the last quarter of the 20th century, many Muslims around the world became disappointed in their governments. These governments had adopted Western ways in their legal systems and other matters, but many people regarded their actions as oppressive, corrupt, and ineffective. More and more Muslims started to think that things would improve if their government returned to Islamic traditions. They began calling for return of sharia, and conservative members of the public wanted the government to deal with crime using all the traditional methods, including hudud punishments. In a few countries, the government put some elements of classical criminal law into the legal code. However, in some of these countries (for example, Iran and Sudan) the supreme court has rarely approved the harsher hudud punishments, while in the other countries which adopted hudud laws (for example, Pakistan and Nigeria), the supreme court never approves them.
Saudi Arabia 
Saudi Arabia is an exceptional case in the legal history of the Muslim world. It has always continued to use sharia in different areas of law, and it never codified its laws. Its judges have always tried to follow traditional sharia rules for dealing with crimes, and they often impose harsh punishments that inspire international protests. However, these punishments are not necessarily prescribed by sharia. Judges in Saudi Arabia follow the classical principle which says that hudud punishments should be avoided if at all possible, and the punishments which they apply are usually tazir punishments which are left to their own choice. Saudi Arabia is often criticized for its public executions, and their frequency has increased in recent decades. Executions became more frequent because the government and courts decided to crack down on violent crime which became more frequent during the 1970s, as also happened in the U.S. and China.

 Notes
Notes 

 References 
 Laleh Bakhtiar and Kevin Reinhart (1996). Encyclopedia of Islamic Law: A Compendium of the Major Schools. Kazi Publications. 
 Muhammad ibn Idris al- Shafi'i (1993). Risala: Treatise on the Foundations of Islamic Jurisprudence. 
 Khaled Abou El Fadl 2003). Reasoning with God: Rationality and Thought in Islam. Oneworld. 
 Cemal Kafadar (1996). Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. University of California Press. 
 Omid Safi (2003). Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism. Oneworld Publications. 
 Mumisa, Michael (2002) Islamic Law: Theory & Interpretation. Amana Publications. 
 Daniel W. Brown (1996). Rethinking traditions in modern Islamic thought''. Cambridge University Press, UK. 
 Bernard Weiss (2002), Studies in Islamic Legal Theory, Brill Academic publishers,

Related pages
 Irth, farā'iḍ, or wasāyā
 Fatwa
 Zakat - Payment of portion of one's wealth for charity

Other websites
Other websites

 World Database for Islamic Banking and Finance
 Al-Mawrid Institute of Islamic Sciences
 Shariah Institute 
 Muslim Arbitration Tribunal 
 Khalid Chraibi: Reforming Islamic family law within the religious framework - The "best practices" strategy
 Khalid Chraibi: The king, the mufti & the Facebook girl - a power play. Who decides what is licit in Islam? - CyberOrient
 Division of Inheritance According to Qur'an 
 Full official English version of Sunni Sharia Law online

Islamic law
Wadowice  () is a town in Poland in Lesser Poland Voivodeship in the mountainous range known as Zakopane region,  southeast of Krakow - (former Polish capital).

Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) was born there on May 18 1920. He also attended elementary and high school there, graduating with honors in 1938.

The town is twinned with 4 others, all in Italy.

Other websites 
History of Wadowice

Cities in Lesser Poland Voivodeship
A piano duet is a piece of music written for two people to play at one piano. It is often called Piano 4 hands.

To play piano duets the two players sit with one person on the right (playing the high notes) and the other person on the left (playing the low notes). The person on the right is called “Primo” (“First”) and the person on the left is called “Secondo” (“Second”).

Piano duet music is usually printed with the Secondo part on the left-hand page and the Primo part on the right-hand page. Occasionally it is printed with the two parts underneath one another.

Playing piano duets is great fun and an excellent way to become a better musician. Like all group music making, each player has to learn to listen and adapt to what is going on in the other part. Sometimes one player will have to take away his or her hand quickly so that the other player can play the same note immediately afterwards. Sometimes the players have to cross their hands (secondo’s right hand crosses with primo’s left hand).
A lot of the time the primo’s part may have both hands written in the treble clef and the secondo’s part may have both hands written in the bass clef. This can sometimes be confusing at first.

The pedalling is usually done by the secondo player. This is because pedalling is very much about keeping chords going (“sustaining”), and it is the secondo who usually has the chords which give the harmony because these are in the lower part.

Repertoire 

There are lots of piano duets available for people to play. Some of these are simple ones written for beginner pianists. Some are written by the great composers.

Some pieces that are really supposed to be played by an orchestra have been arranged for piano duet. In some cases the composer himself made this arrangement. Examples from famous composers include Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring which is extremely hard to play, and Maurice Ravel’s suite Ma Mère l’Oie.