title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Signing a contract with a publisher was a very difficult task for Monolith. Development had been going on for months, and the project had been approved by different publishers four times, before they were able to actually sign a deal with one. During this long time for finding a publishing partner, "No One Lives Forever" "mutated constantly in order to please prospective producers and marketing departments. The game actually started off as a mission-based, anime-inspired, paramilitary action thriller intended as a spiritual sequel to "Shogo" and ended up as a 60s spy adventure in the tradition of "Our Man Flint" and countless other 60s spy movies and shows." This final theme for the game was settled on through discussions with Fox Interactive, the final publisher of "NOLF". (Parts of the initial "paramilitary action thriller" concept evolved into "F.E.A.R.", another Monolith game, released after the "NOLF" series, in 2005.) Monolith's producer for the game, Samantha Ryan, said that before the deal was signed, "here was a period where Monolith was two weeks from death. And Jace Hall closed the deal with Fox Interactive that basically saved the company."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: After finally signing a contract with Fox (with whom partnership was announced to the public on August 24, 1999), the team was able to draft a mission statement, which stood as a point of reference during every aspect of developing the game.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: The game was announced at the 1999 E3 conference show. While at this time – as described in the mission statement above – the game was already set out to be a spy-themed shooter set in the 1960s, the version that was previewed to the press at this time had many differences to the finished product, with regard to characters, plot and setting. The game's protagonist was originally set out to be a male character called Adam Church who worked for MI0, "Her Majesty's Most Secret Service". However, many of the final gameplay and story elements are known to have been present in this earlier iteration of the game: the H.A.R.M. organization; the defection of an East German biophysicist for information about a top-secret Soviet weapons program; the presence of humor in the game; some locations, such as the sunken cargo freighter; the use of gadgets, such as the rocket-launching briefcase; etc.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: By at least July 1999, Monolith has decided to introduce many major changes to the game; the main reason being that the gaming press unexpectedly started comparing the game to James Bond games, like "GoldenEye 007" (1997). Hubbard mentioned that their intention was to "make a 60s spy game", and claimed that they "didn't want to make a 'Bond' style game, so when people were obviously drawing that comparison, we decided to rework things a bit. We wanted to get away from the Bond comparisons that people were making, so we've changed the main character and the back-story a fair amount." As a result, the player controls a female protagonist in the final game, Cate Archer, who works for an organization called UNITY. Changing the main character to a woman not only helped the separation of the game from the Bond franchise, but also allowed for "more interesting dramatic possibilities", and the "list of gadgets got a lot more visually interesting". As Hubbard said, before switching to a female protagonist, he had been "struggling with trying to distinguish him from all the other male superspies from the era—extraordinarily handsome, intelligent, knowledgeable, resourceful, and so on. But a woman with those same characteristics immediately stood out because of the social climate of the time. No matter how qualified she might be, she'd have to overcome some serious barriers just to get a chance to prove herself. And if things didn't go flawlessly on a mission, she'd catch more heat than she deserved."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: The female protagonist "went through numerous concept sketches, costume designs, hairstyles, names, and even nationalities." According to Hubbard, it was a challenge to find a look for her that was not only evocative of era, "but also worked as a 3D model." In the end, the in-game model of Cate Archer was styled after model and actress Mitzi Martin. This was a marketing decision made by the publisher, Fox Interactive, which used its feature film casting department to look for an appropriate model internationally. Archer's voice was provided by American voice actress Kit Harris, who also did the voice of the Inge Wagner character. Originally, Harris recorded the Scottish protagonist's voice in a stronger Scottish accent. This was changed after a Scottish producer of the game felt that the particular accent used was too lower class, and an inappropriate choice; Harris re-recorded her lines with a "British bent" instead. Both the face and the voice of the character were changed in , where she was voiced by Jen Taylor.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Along with the character and plot changes, it was also decided to change the game's working title, "No One Lives Forever", to something else, for similar reasons related to the Bond franchise (in particular, the novel "Nobody Lives for Ever"), as well as possible legal considerations. However, the title instead stayed consistent throughout development, and ""The Operative"" (referring to the game's heroine, Cate Archer), which was added to the beginning of the title, was removed for the sequel, "No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way".


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: After the game's release, Hubbard identified the realistic expectations set by the team as a strong point in the game's development, saying that "given our budget, team size, and development cycle, the best we could hope to do was to create a fun, engaging 60s espionage game that would make up in presentation what it lacked in innovation." Other positive aspects of the process included the aforementioned mission statement, along with the flexible systems used in development, the cohesion of the team, and effective scheduling. On the other hand, Hubbard cited difficulties in fleshing out the final team, as well as inefficient pre-production, delays due to waiting on technology, and the major difficulties in finding a publisher. Hubbard also mentioned the cinematic cutscenes as lengthy and problematic, partly because of technical difficulties, and partly because of conceptual flaws on his behalf, with regard to screenwriting. Regarding gameplay, he said that "ne of the main failings of "NOLF" was that it ended up feeling a lot more scripted and linear than it was intended to be". Hubbard also expressed dissatisfaction with the balance between action and intrigue: "Unfortunately, we came up a little short on intrigue. Stealth was too unforgiving. Once you were spotted, you were playing an action game." The team paid attention to these points while developing "No One Lives Forever 2".


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: According to Hubbard, the team's "greatest asset was the list of mistakes we made during "Shogo". We started this project with a pretty sober view of what we could achieve. As a result, every major feature we outlined made it into the game, as well as a few additional items we came up with during the project." However, there were still things that the team didn't have enough time to implement. For example, "No One Lives Forever"'s team-based multiplayer portion was originally going to be a story-driven cooperative gameplay mode (similar to the "Assault" game type in the 1999 first-person shooter "Unreal Tournament"), including objectives and obstacles for the two teams. Like the single-player story in the game, this gameplay mode was also going to incorporate humor; for example, in one map, a goal of each team was to find a special watermelon for a mayor in a Moroccan marketplace. While this mode was publicly discussed even in July 2000, it is not present as such in the final product (which went gold on October 20). The different objectives were changed to a general goal for both teams in all maps: photographing the other team's intelligence item. However, a number of remnants stemming from the earlier gameplay design can be seen in some of the released maps, such as the office of the aforementioned mayor seen in the Morocco map. Fully realized co-operative multiplayer was, however, a feature of "No One Lives Forever 2".


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: "No One Lives Forever" utilizes the LithTech game engine, which was originally developed by Monolith, and later by its subsidiary, LithTech, Inc. (later known as Touchdown Entertainment). The game is based on LithTech 2.5 (the first game to use this version), with many custom additions and modifications to support the game's design, such as support for vehicles. According to the game's creators, characters in "NOLF" were built from more polygons than any other PC action game at the time, with Cate Archer's model having approximately 1,700 polygons.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: The artificial intelligence (AI) in "NOLF" was significantly advanced at the time of the game's release. Enemy AI can react to eleven different stimuli, including hearing the player's footsteps or weapon firing, seeing the player's footprints in the snow, or hearing an ally scream in pain. The AI can try and investigate the source of these stimuli, by following the footprints for example, and can sound alarms or call for backup. During combat, the AI finds cover positions, and, to some extent, can also use its environment for protection, such as flipping over a table and hiding behind it. After advancing AI technology in their subsequent games, Monolith likened the way "NOLF"s AIs pop randomly in and out of cover to a shooting gallery. Groups of AI guards make use of a group logic when investigating and combating the player. For example, one guard might start firing at the player, while another runs and calls for backup. The game's AI includes friendly and enemy humans, as well as dogs, sharks, and helicopters.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: In terms of video games, Monolith drew inspiration from a number of stealth/action games, such as "Metal Gear Solid" (1998), "" (1998), "Syphon Filter" (1999), and "GoldenEye 007" (1997), because the team was "interested in a blend of stealth and action rather than focusing on one or the other exclusively." The original release of the 1981 stealth game "Castle Wolfenstein" was also cited as being influential.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Thematically, influences behind "The Operative: No One Lives Forever" were primarily 1960s spy-themed films, novels, television shows, as well as historical references. When it was decided that "NOLF" was going to be a 1960s spy game, lead designer Craig Hubbard started immersing himself in the subject matter, in order to "develop some fluency" in it. As he explained, he "was a big fan of early Bond films, but didn't know a lot about the whole spy craze. So I watched the Derek Flint movies , "Modesty Blaise", Matt Helm, "", "Avengers" – anything I could get my hands on." Other influences included books, such as "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", TV shows like "The Saint", "The Pink Panther" films, commando movies, such as "The Guns of Navarone", as well as "lots of historical references, encompassing everything from books and documentaries on the spy trade to fashion catalogs and interior-design books." The basis for the biological explosives plot was the 1967 film "Casino Royale". According to Hubbard, "the idea was to create a game that would make you feel like a superspy, so we tried to come up with situations, characters, and settings to support that goal." During the course of the game, the player can hear explicit popular culture references, including the TV series "The Prisoner" and "The Fugitive", the Matt Helm films "The Silencers" and "The Ambushers", and exotica musicians Les Baxter and Sondi Sodsai. Other conversations allude to major events of the time, such as the studio years of The Beatles, and the commercial failure of the Edsel automobile.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Humor plays an important role in "No One Lives Forever". As Hubbard explained, the game's intention is "to make you laugh, but not at the expense of providing a broader, more satisfying emotional experience than a spoof generally allows, so that even if you don't chuckle once, you can still have plenty of fun playing the game. At heart, NOLF is an action/adventure/espionage game with a healthy dose of levity." Humor is presented mainly via visual gags, overheard conversations, textual intelligence items, and cutscenes. The humor includes "situational humor, and even a dash of absurdity and bathroom humor for good measure. Some of it is subtle, some of it isn't." The name of UNITY, H.A.R.M., and other fictional organizations mentioned in the game follow the spy genre formula of using contrived acronyms for organizations (see List of fictional espionage organizations). What H.A.R.M. actually stands for is never revealed, and speculation about its true meaning is used as a running gag in the game's sequel.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Regarding comparisons between the game and the "Austin Powers" film series, Hubbard pointed out on several occasions that, unlike "Austin Powers", "No One Lives Forever" is not a parody of the spy genre. Contrasting the source of the humor in the two series, Hubbard noted that while the game is "campy and silly, the underlying premise borders on apocalyptic. That dichotomy in tone results in a very different style of humor from a parody, where everything is in good fun and nobody, including the characters, takes anything very seriously."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: The soundtrack for the original version of "No One Lives Forever" (as well as the later Mac OS X port) was chiefly composed and produced by Guy Whitmore. The game uses DirectMusic technology, and its music is an example of an adaptive score: the music smoothly and flexibly adapts to the situations that players finds themselves in, in order to simulate film soundtracks. For instance, the music increases in tempo or urgency when the player is in a combat situation, or if enemies become aware of the player's presence. Whitmore's task as composer was "to capture the flavor of the '50s/'60s spy genre, without infringing on any existing copyrights." In order to avoid any legal troubles over music from the James Bond franchise of films and games, Whitmore was initially asked to refrain from using brass instruments; a directive he compared to "being asked to produce a blues album without guitars". While some of the instrument sounds came from professional collections, others were home-made samples, including solo cello sounds performed by Lori Goldston, used in the H.A.R.M. theme. Influences for the score included German composer Peter Thomas, the soundtrack of the 1968 film "Barbarella", and "an array of Italian composers who did beautiful scores for low budget European erotic films."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Whitmore's adaptive score was not used for the PlayStation 2 version of the game. Instead, it featured original music by Rebecca Kneubuhl, and mixed by Gabriel Mann. The "No One Lives Forever" theme song was created by Rich Ragsdale. Kneubuhl and Mann also provided vocals for the title theme.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: The game was released with bonus 1960s-inspired music on the second CD. The songs available on this album, titled "In the Lounge", were not featured in the game, but were specifically written as extra material. The 9 songs were written by Rebecca Kneubuhl (who created the in-game score for the later PlayStation 2 port as well), and were recorded at Asylum Studios. The CD also features two songs by independent artists: "Void" by Red Delicious and "El Dorado" by Archie Thompson. These were selected for inclusion as part of a "NOLF" online "music search", organized by Fox Interactive and Indiespace.com.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: A different version of "In the Lounge" was also created. This includes the same 9 original tracks, although in a slightly different order. It does not include the two indie songs; however, it does feature Rich Ragsdale's "NOLF" title theme, as well as remixes of 6 of the original songs, by Gabriel Mann.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: "The Operative: No One Lives Forever" was originally released for Windows in the United States on November 9, 2000, by Fox Interactive, after it went gold on October 20. Before the game's release, a tech demo was released that included four single player missions, with one being a training mission. After the game's release, another demo was released, dubbed "Mega Mix Demo", which contained four single player levels and two multiplayer maps. A number of patches and map packs had also been made freely available for the game.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: After receiving a number of Game of the Year awards, a special "Game of the Year Edition" was released on October 4, 2001. At this point, Fox Interactive co-published titles with a selection of partners, with the "Game of the Year" edition of the title being co-published by Sierra On-Line. This re-released version includes an exclusive mission otherwise not available in the original game, titled "Rest and Relaxation", which is available after the original story. The GOTY edition comes with the game's official Prima strategy guide, and it also contains more multiplayer maps, which were also made available as a download for owners of the original game.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: In 2001, Monolith Productions released a set of editing tools for "No One Lives Forever" that included the level editor and model editor used for development. The team also released the source code for "NOLF" (version 1.003 on Windows) that year to "support the fan base by offering the tools to create their own levels". It is available both as a download, as well as on the "Game of the Year Edition" CD-ROM.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: On May 11, 2000, at E3, Fox Interactive announced that "No One Lives Forever" would be released for the PlayStation 2. although no release date was planned within that time.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: On May 2, 2001, Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing and Fox Interactive signed a co-publishing agreement for four titles, including the PS2 port of "No One Lives Forever", all of which would be released under the company's Sierra division. This deal followed an initial January 2001 announcement by Fox where they announced to cease publishing as a standalone unit. The port was initially announced for a Q4 2001 release, but was instead released on April 18, 2002.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: The PlayStation 2 version is a port of the "Game of the Year Edition", but includes three exclusive flashback levels not available in other releases of the game titled "Nine Years Ago", in which the player controls a younger Cate Archer, when she used to be a cat burglar. Each of the new levels is accessed during several moments in the original story, when Cate is knocked out by Armstrong. All three levels use new textures, new character models, and feature Cate's cat burglar outfit, as well as two exclusive gadgets. The port does not feature Guy Whitmore's original interactive score; instead, it uses different original music by Rebecca Kneubuhl. Multiplayer mode is not present in this version of the game.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: A port of "No One Lives Forever – Game of the Year Edition" for the Mac OS X operating system was developed by MumboJumbo, and published by MacPlay. It was released on November 21, 2002, soon after the original Windows release of "No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way" (which was also ported to Mac OS X by MacPlay later). Similarly to the Windows version of the game, the Mac OS X port also uses GameSpy technology for its online multiplayer mode, allowing players to play with each other, no matter which platform they use.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: With the rise of digital distribution of video games in the latter part of the 2000s, there has been speculation about a possible re-release, or even a remake of the titles in the "No One Lives Forever" series. However, a number of reports have pointed out the complicated state of the series' intellectual property (IP) rights. Even parties that have strong ties to the IP, including video game publisher Activision and "NOLF" designer Craig Hubbard, have publicly admitted not knowing the precise legal situation of the series, .


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: In April 2013, Activision community manager Dan Amrich attempted to explain the acquisition history of the "No One Lives Forever" IP in a public video. This history includes the 2003 acquisition of "NOLF" publisher Fox Interactive by Vivendi Universal Games (who also owned Sierra Entertainment), as well as the 2008 merger between Vivendi Universal Games (VUG, which had since been renamed Vivendi Games) and video game publisher Activision, forming the Activision Blizzard holding company. After the merger, Activision decided to sell off some IPs and retain others. In order to find out the legal details behind "NOLF", Amrich asked his colleagues, saying that "[t]he person that I normally talk to about this stuff does not believe that we [at Activision] currently have the rights. They've never seen it, they've never been given the permission to put that stuff on [GOG.com]. He said, basically, 'If we had it, I would love to be able to reissue those old games.'" Amrich also asked a friend of his who worked at "NOLF" developer Monolith (since acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment), who also did not know who the IP belonged to. Amrich concluded that "at this time I do not believe that Activision has the rights to "No One Lives Forever"."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: When asked about the rights to the game in July 2013, "NOLF" designer Craig Hubbard also expressed confusion about the legal complexities behind the series. According to Hubbard, "my understanding was that Monolith owned the IP and Fox owned the title of the first game, which was technically "The Operative: No One Lives Forever". I think Monolith actually owned "A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way", the subtitle of the sequel, but I could be wrong about that. Fox got acquired by VUG, which in turn got acquired by Activision, while Monolith got bought by Warner Brothers, so some stars would have to align for everything to get sorted out." Hubbard added that "there didn't seem to be any interest in resurrecting the franchise" as of 2012, while he was still working at Monolith/Warner Bros.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: A possible venue for re-release of the games would be computer game sale and distribution service GOG.com. In an interview with GOG.com's Trevor Longino, he said that ""NOLF" is a really great title, and it's one of the ones where the rights are a bear to get sorted. Just like pretty much any other classic IP you're ever thought of, we’ve looked into it, but it’s not an easy thing to do."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: In May 2014, Nightdive Studios, a publisher of classic PC titles, filed trademarks for "No One Lives Forever", "The Operative", "A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way", and "Contract J.A.C.K.", Nightdive had also been able to acquire the source code for the games, which would enable them to remaster them for modern computer systems. However, Nightdive had yet to comment on the situation regarding who owned the rights to the game. At this point, the rights to the series were unclear, as the property may have been owned solely or in part by 20th Century Fox (which owned Fox Interactive at the time of the game's release), Activision (which acquired and merged with Vivendi Games, which in turn was the parent to Sierra Entertainment, the publisher of "No One Lives Forever 2", and had acquired Fox Interactive in 2003), and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (which acquired Monolith Productions). Warner Bros. did file opposition to Nightdive's trademark, leading Nightdive to try to seek a license arrangement. However, Warner Bros. representatives were concerned that if either Fox or Activision had a part of the ownership, that they would also need their approval. Nightdive attempted to work with Fox and Activision to search their archives, but as these transitions pre-dated computerized records, neither company wanted to do so. Nightdive's efforts were further stalled when they were told by Warner Bros. that they had no interest in partnering or licensing the IP, leading Nightdive to abandon their efforts to acquire the rights.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: "No One Lives Forever" received critical acclaim upon its release, and has an 88.34% ranking on the aggregate site GameRankings (based on 28 reviews), and a score of 91 out of 100 on Metacritic (32 reviews). Many reviewers said at the time that "No One Lives Forever" was among the best first-person shooters since the influential and critically acclaimed 1998 title "Half-Life".


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: In his review, GameSpot's Erik Wolpaw gave "No One Lives Forever" a score of 9.3 out of 10, and praised the "game's unrelenting inventiveness shows in virtually every aspect of its design." In IGN's review the game was given a 9.1 overall rating ("Outstanding") out of 10, and was called "one of the best shooters of the year". Eurogamer gave the game a score of 8 out of 10, and called it "thoroughly commendable." "Computer Games Magazine" gave the game 5 stars out of 5, and claimed that ""No One Lives Forever" combines a fantastic sense of style with great animation and voice acting, clever AI, industry-leading interactive music, a wry sense of humor, and gameplay that keeps you coming back for more."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PC version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "It may not be in quite the same league as "Deus Ex", but then, what is? "NOLF" is one ferociously terrific game. Sequel please."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Critical reception of the PlayStation 2 port of "No One Lives Forever" was much less positive than the original version. It has a 70.12% ranking on GameRankings (42 reviews), and a score of 67 out of 100 on Metacritic (23 reviews). IGN gave the PlayStation 2 version an overall rating of 6.9 ("Passable") out of 10. The PlayStation 2 port received a 4.6 score ("Poor") out of 10 from GameSpot, and was panned mainly for the lack of the quicksave feature available in the PC version. The Mac OS X version of the game was given a 9.1 rating overall ("Outstanding") by IGN, and was called "a fabulous Mac version of this top notch game."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: In the United States, "No One Lives Forever" sold 36,501 copies by the end of 2000, which accounted for $1.32 million in revenue. The editors of "PC Gamer US" called these figures "a tragedy, and it's tough to nail a reason." By January 2002, the game's total sales had reached 350,000 copies.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: "No One Lives Forever" has earned several Game of the Year awards in the video game press. "NOLF" was named "Game of the Year" and "Action Game of the Year" by "Computer Games Magazine". It also received "Action Game of the Year" awards from "Computer Gaming World" and "PC Gamer" magazines. In 2001, the game was nominated by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences for their annual Interactive Achievement Award in the "Game Play Engineering" and "PC Action/Adventure" categories. "NOLF" was also nominated for the International Game Developers Association's 2001 Game Developers Choice Awards in four categories: Game of the Year, Original Character of the Year, Excellence in Level Design, and Game Spotlight Awards. Out of these, the game earned a Game Spotlight Award for innovation.


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: Retrospective articles written about the game have also been positive. In a 2003 GameSpy feature called "The Top 25 Underrated Games of All Time", "No One Lives Forever" was ranked as #19, dubbing it and its sequel "two of the most memorable games of the past 10 years." In an article written in 2009 (nine years after the game's release), Eurogamer states that the game has "dated enormously but survives well", and that "you simply couldn't make "No One Lives Forever" today. You couldn't because it would be too long, require far too many assets, and most significantly of all, risk all the cost of development on a comedy game – a genre that no longer exists." In a 2010 online PC Gamer feature titled "Why you must replay No One Lives Forever", Tim Stone hailed the 10-year-old game's use of humor, and wrote that "NOLF" "is every bit the amusing, inventive, life-affirming experience I remembered."


title: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

text: "The Operative: No One Lives Forever" is the first game in the "No One Lives Forever" series. It was followed by a sequel in 2002, entitled "". In 2003, a spin-off of the first two games was released, entitled "Contract J.A.C.K.". Being a prequel to "No One Lives Forever 2", it is chronologically set between the first two "No One Lives Forever" games. This stand-alone expansion pack is a shorter game, and unlike the previous titles, its main protagonist is not Cate Archer, but John Jack, who works for H.A.R.M. The game also focuses more on action gameplay, rather than on stealth.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Stuart is a city in and the seat of Martin County, Florida, United States. Located on Florida's Treasure Coast, Stuart is the largest of four incorporated municipalities in Martin County. The population is 17,425 according to the 2020 United States Census. Stuart is the 126th largest city in Florida based on official 2019 estimates from the US Census Bureau. It is part of the Port St. Lucie, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Stuart is frequently cited as one of the best small towns to visit in the U.S., in large part because of its proximity to the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: In the 18th century, several Spanish galleons were shipwrecked in the Martin County area of Florida's Treasure Coast. The multiple wrecks were reportedly the result of a hurricane, and the ships were carrying unknown quantities of gold and silver. Some of this treasure has since been recovered, and its presence resulted in the region's name. In 1832, pirate Pedro Gilbert, who often used a sandbar off the coast as a lure to unsuspecting prey, chased and caught the "Mexican", a U.S. merchant ship. Although he attempted to burn the ship and kill the crew, they survived to report the incident, ultimately resulting in the capture and execution of Gilbert and his crew. The bar from which he lured his intended booty is named "Gilbert's Bar" on nautical charts.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: The Treasure Coast area that became Stuart was first settled by non-Native Americans in 1870. In 1875, a United States Lifesaving Station was established on Hutchinson Island, near Stuart. Today, the station is known as Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge and is on the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: From 1893 to 1895, the area was called Potsdam. This name was chosen by Otto Stypmann, a local landowner originally


title: Stuart, Florida

text: from Potsdam, Germany. Stypmann, with his brother Ernest, owned the land that would become downtown Stuart. Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway connected the area to Daytona Beach in 1892 and Miami in 1896.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Potsdam was renamed Stuart in 1895, in honor of Homer Hine (Jack) Stuart Jr., a local landowner who owned a 160 acres around the railway station. Rue, Luckhardt, Krueger, Crary, Armellinis, were some of the prominent settler families.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: When Stuart was incorporated as a town in 1914, it was located in Palm Beach County. In 1925, Stuart was chartered as a city and named the county seat of the newly created Martin County.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: The City of Stuart formally adopted the slogan "Sailfish Capital of the World" in 1957, following pressure from the Stuart Chamber of Commerce, owing to the many sailfish found in the ocean off Martin County. The slogan is still used by the City. Some have also assigned Guatemala the namesake.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: From 1871 to 2005, 19 hurricanes passed through Stuart, including Isbell (1964), Frances (2004), Jeanne (2004), and Wilma (2005).


title: Stuart, Florida

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: According to the Köppen climate classification, Stuart has a tropical rainforest climate (Af), with hot, humid summers and warm, drier winters. Stuart has a noticeably seasonal precipitation pattern, with summer being the wettest season and winter being the driest.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Summers feature hot temperatures and frequent thunderstorms. Average highs during summer range from to . On average, there are 81 days of 90+ °F highs annually, with an average annual mean maximum of . Late summer brings an increased threat of tropical storms and hurricanes, though landfalls are rare. Several major hurricanes have impacted Stuart since 1900, with Hurricane David in 1979 and hurricanes Frances and Jeanne causing moderate damage to the area in 2004.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Winter brings much cooler and drier air. Average highs during winter range from to , though occasional strong cold fronts bring brief rainfall followed by cooler temperatures, with highs in the 50s °F for a few days each winter. Most winters are frost-free, with an annual mean minimum temperature of .


title: Stuart, Florida

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 17,425 people, 7,263 households, and 3,562 families residing in the city.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 15,593 people, 7,220 households, and 3,422 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 8,777 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 83.30% White, 12.33% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.66% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.97% from other races, and 1.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.29% of the population.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: There were 7,220 households, out of which 15.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.7% were married couples living together, 9.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 52.6% were non-families. 46.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 26.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.88 and the average family size was 2.60.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 14.5% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 32.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.4 males.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: The median income for a household in the city was $35,954, and the median income for a family was $47,736. Males had a median income of $29,151 versus $23,125 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,020. About 7.8% of families and 11.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.5% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those age 65 or over. Stuart is publicly seen as a new coming old city, starting a new boom in its local economy with construction of a new bridge, rise of new buildings and roadways being restored.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: The cost of living in Stuart is 88, on a relative scale where the U.S. average is represented by 100.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Stuart hosts one of the two Florida Department of Health offices in Martin County, the other being in Indiantown.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Various businesses cater to tourists, such as fishing charters, boating charters, sailing, cruises, SCUBA and snorkeling, and nature tours.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: According to the city's 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the Stuart area are:


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Notable historic properties in downtown in range from the early 1880s to 1940s, representing a mix of Beaux-Arts, colonial revival, spanish mediterranean, Art Deco, frame vernacular, masonry vernacular architecture styles.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Witham Field is a public-use airport located one mile southeast of the central business district owned by Martin County.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: US Route 1 passes northwest-southeast through Stuart. The coastal route A1A heads east from Stuart towards Hutchinson Island, and the road heads southeast out of Stuart. Florida State Road 76 heads south from the city, and Florida State Road 714 heads west from the city.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: Until 1968 the Florida East Coast Railway operated Jacksonville to Miami service, with a station stop in Stuart. Until 1963 long distance passenger trains included the Illinois Central Railroad's "City of Miami" and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad's "South Wind" both heading from Chicago; and they included the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's "East Coast Champion," the "Havana Special," and the winter-only "Florida Special" originating from New York.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: The Brightline passenger rail company is extending to the Space Coast and Orlando, north from the West Palm Beach terminus of its West Palm Beach - Miami service. While the City of Stuart initially appeared eager to become the sole station along the Brightline's Treasure Coast length, the City has more recently reiterated concerns about the project's effects on traffic.


title: Stuart, Florida

text: In 1973, the movie "Little Laura and Big John", a highly fictionalized version of the true story of John Ashley and Laura Upthegrove, was filmed in Stuart.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Muhammad, the final Islamic prophet, was born and lived in Mecca for the first 53 years of his life ("c." 570–632 CE) until the Hijra. This period of his life is characterized by his proclamation of prophethood. Muhammad's father, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, died before he was born. His mother would raise him until he was six years old, before her death around 577 CE at Abwa'. Subsequently raised by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, and then his uncle, Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, Muhammad's early career involved being a shepherd and merchant. Muhammad married Khadija bint Khuwaylid after a successful trading endeavour in Syria. After the death of Khadija and Abu Talib in the Year of Sorrow, Muhammad married Sawda bint Zam'a and Aisha.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Muslims believe Muhammad began receiving revelation sometime in the year 610 CE. Initially, the ranks of the Muslims only included Muhammad and some of his close friends and relatives. However, as more members of the Quraysh and other Arab tribes respected his words and accepted his message, the vast majority of them, including tribal leaders and some of his relatives, such as Abū Lahab, opposed, ridiculed and eventually boycotted his clan, the Banu Hashim, and Muhammad and his followers were harassed, assaulted and forced into exile in Abyssinia. After experiencing the "Isra" and "Mi'raj" in 620 and receiving delegations from Medina and pledges of protection from the two Arab tribes that lived in the city at al-'Aqabah, Muhammad instructed his companions to gradually migrate to the city, before doing so himself in 622.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: The Quran, early biographies of Muhammad ("seerah"), and hadith literature are some of the primary sources used by both early and modern historians in portraying this period of Muhammad's life. While questions have been raised regarding the certainty of some of these sources, most academics have come to accept these along with some of their revisions as the definitive sources for Muhammad's early life in Mecca.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: The Arabian Peninsula was largely arid and volcanic, making agriculture difficult except near oases or springs. Thus the Arabian landscape was dotted with towns and cities near those oases, two prominent of which were Mecca and Medina (then known as Yathrib). Communal life was essential for survival in desert conditions, as people needed support against the harsh environment and lifestyle. The tribal grouping was thus encouraged by the need to act as a unit. This unity was based on the bond of kinship by blood. People of Arabia were either nomadic or sedentary, the former constantly traveling from one place to another seeking water and pasture for their flocks, while the latter settled and focused on trade and agriculture. The survival of nomads (or bedouins) was also partially dependent on raiding caravans or oases; thus they saw this as no crime. Medina was a large flourishing agricultural settlement, while Mecca was an important financial center for many of the surrounding tribes.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: In pre-Islamic Arabia gods or goddesses were viewed as protectors of individual tribes and their spirits were associated with sacred trees, stones, springs and wells. There was an important shrine in Mecca (called the Kaaba) that housed statues of 360 idols of tribal patron deities and was the site of an annual pilgrimage. Aside from these tribal gods, Arabs shared a common belief in a supreme deity Allah (akin to "God" in English, as opposed to "god") who was however remote from their everyday concerns and thus not the object of cult or ritual. Three goddesses were associated with Allah as his daughters: al-Lat, Manat and al-Uzza. Some monotheistic communities also existed in Arabia, including Christians and Jews. According to the tradition, Muhammad himself was a descendant of Ishmael, son of Abraham.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Muhammad was born in the month of Rabi' al-Awwal. Islamic historians place the year of Muhammad's birth as 570. corresponding with the Year of the Elephant, however recent scholarship has suggested earlier dates for this event, including 568 and 569. The precise date of Muhammad's birth varies between different Islamic sects, with most Sunnis accepting the 12th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal as the date of his birth which is in ibn ishaq's opinion and there are more dates 2,8,10,rabiul awwaland other opinion as well while Shi'a Muslims believe it to have been the dawn of 17th day of same month. Muhammad was born into the family of Banu Hashim, one of the prominent clans forming the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, although the family seems to have not been as prosperous during Muhammad's early lifetime. His parents were 'Abdullah ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib of the Banu Hashim and Aminah bint Wahb, the sister of the then-chief of the Banu Zuhrah. Muhammad's paternal great-grandmother, Salma bint 'Amr, was an influential Jewish lady from the Khazraj tribe of Medina, thus Muhammad had mixed Arab-Jewish ancestry. According to Ibn Ishaq, an early biographer of Muhammad, 'Abd al-Muttalib, Muhammad's grandfather, came up with the child's name, which was quite unknown at the time in the Arabian Peninsula.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Muhammad's father, Abdullah, died almost six month before he was born. Muhammad was sent to live with a Bedouin family in the desert soon after his birth, as the desert life was considered healthier for infants. Because he was fatherless, wet nurses refused to take him, fearing that it would not be profitable to take care of an orphan. However, he was accepted by Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb al-Sa'diyyah, who had found no child to take care of. Muhammad stayed with Halimah and her husband until he was two or three years old. He lived with his mother in Mecca for the next three years until she took him to Medina (then known as Yathrib) to visit his maternal relatives, and died on the way back around Abwa'. Having lost both his parents, Muhammad's grandfather, 'Abd al-Muttalib, took over custodianship of the child. Two years later, his grandfather died and Muhammad was raised under the care of his uncle Abu Talib, the leader of the Banu Hashim. While living with his uncle, Muhammad began tending flocks of sheep on the outskirts of Mecca to earn his living. He also accompanied his uncle on several of his commercial journeys. These journeys exposed Muhammad to cultural diversity and varying religious traditions. At the age of 9, he went with his uncle Abu Talib on a business journey to Syria, where Muslims believe he met Bahira in the town of Bosra, who foretold his prophecy.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Later in his life, influenced by the commercial journeys with his uncle, Muhammad worked as a merchant and was involved in trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. During his career as a merchant, Muhammad became known as "the Trustworthy" () and was sought out as an impartial arbitrator of disputes.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: After parts the Kaaba were destroyed in flash floods, with the reconstruction almost complete, disagreements arose among the leaders of the different clans of the Quraysh as to which one should put the Black Stone into place. These disagreements led to an escalation in tensions, and war seemed imminent before they agreed to take the advice of the next person entering the Haram. Muslims believe Muhammad was this person, and that he spread out his cloak, put the stone in the middle and had the members of the four major clans raise it to its destined position, before ensuring its secure placement with his own hands.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Khadija bint Khuwaylid, a female merchant and widower, asked Muhammad to manage her commercial operations in Syria after hearing of his trustworthiness. Impressed with the extraordinary success of Muhammad's leadership, Khadija sent a marriage proposal to Muhammad through her friend Nafisa. Muhammad accepted the proposal and married Khadija. Khadija gave Muhammad the slave boy Zayd ibn Harithah, whom Muhammad would adopt later. Ibn Ishaq records that Khadija bore Muhammad six children: a boy named Al Qasim (who would die at the age of two), then four girls, Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum, Fatimah, and another boy, Abdullah (who also died at two).


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Due to the death of Abdullah, Muhammad's desire to relieve his uncle Abu Talib of the burden of providing for a large family, and Abu Talib's financial situation, Muhammad took Abu Talib's son and his cousin, Ali, into his own home. Muhammad also adopted Zayd, giving him the name Zayd ibn Muhammad. Muslims believe that this renaming was rendered invalid by the revelation of some verses in Surah 33 of the Qur'an, Al Aḥzāb, wherein it is stated that an adopted child could not be treated as a natural son by marriage or inheritance. Consequently, the adopted child had to retain the name of his or her biological father. Therefore, Zayd's name was reverted to Zayd ibn Haritha.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: At some point, Muhammad adopted the practice of meditating alone for several weeks every year in a cave on Mount Hira near Mecca. Islamic belief holds that in one of his visits to Mount Hira in the year 610, 13 years before the Hijra, the angel Gabriel began communicating with and commanded Muhammad to recite the following verses of the 96th Surah of the Quran, Al 'Alaq:


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the pen,- Taught man that which he knew not. (Qur'an )


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Most Sunni traditions believe that upon receiving his first revelations Muhammad was deeply distressed, but the spirit moved closer and told him that he had been chosen as a messenger of God, and that Muhammad returned home and was consoled and reassured by Khadija and her Christian cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal. Shiite Muslims maintain that Muhammad was neither surprised nor frightened at the appearance of Gabriel but rather welcomed him as if he had been expecting him. The initial revelation was followed by a pause of three years during which Muhammad gave himself up further to prayers and spiritual practices. When the revelations resumed he was reassured and commanded to begin preaching: Your lord has not forsaken you nor does he hate [you] (Qur'an )According to Welch, these revelations were accompanied by mysterious seizures, and the reports are unlikely to have been forged by later Muslims. W. Montgomery Watt further adds that Muhammad was confident that he could distinguish his own thoughts from these messages.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Muhammad's early efforts in preaching the new faith focused on the preaching of a single ideal: monotheism. Surahs of the Quran believed to have been revealed during this period, known as the Meccan surahs (), command Muhammad to proclaim and praise the name of Allah, instruct him not to worship idols or associate other deities with Allah and to worship Him alone, warn the pagans of their eschatological punishment, sometimes referring to the Day of Judgement indirectly, while providing examples from the history of some extinct communities. Early converts to Islam included Muhammad's wife, Khadija, his cousin Ali, his adopted son Zayd, his nursemaid Umm Ayman, and his friend Abu Bakr.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Very few of the Quraysh gave weight to Muhammad's message; most ignored it and a few mocked him. According to Welch, early Qur'anic verses were not "based on a dogmatic conception of monotheism but on a strong general moral and religious appeal," further adding that the key themes of these Meccan surahs include the moral responsibility of man towards his creator: the resurrection of the dead, the Day of Judgement supplemented with vivid descriptions of the tortures in hell and pleasures in paradise, the wonders of nature and everyday life, the signs of God, and the proof of the existence of a greater power who will take into account the greed of people and their suppression of the poor. The foundations of early religious duties were also laid and included belief in God, asking for forgiveness of sins, offering frequent prayers, assisting others with emphasis on those in need, ejecting cheating and the love of wealth, chastity, and the prevention of femicide which was prevalent in early Arabia.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: There were three main groups of early converts to Islam: younger brothers and sons of great merchants, people who had fallen out of the first rank in their tribe or failed to attain it, and the weak, mostly unprotected, foreigners. Abu Bakr, who used to purchase slaves to set them free in accordance with Muhammad's principle of equality, attracted a large number of converts. Nevertheless, the number of these early converts remained small, and Muhammad concentrated on quietly building a small, but spiritually strong, community. Around 613, the Quran commanded Muhammad to "admonish your nearest kinsmen," initiating the phase of public preaching. One day, Muhammad climbed the As Safa mountain, and called out the tribal chiefs. After receiving assurances that the chiefs, who reportedly never heard Muhammad tell lies, would believe him, he declared the Oneness of God. Later Muhammad organized dinners in which he conveyed and advocated the substance of his message. At these events, Muhammad met fierce opposition from one of his uncles, Abu Lahab, while others such as Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib and al-'Abbas accepted him. Several reasons have been given for the resentment of the Quraysh toward Muhammad's message, the most accepted is that the Quraysh also did not accept Muhammad as a prophet since he came from a clan less powerful than his opponents'.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Conservative opposition arose to Muhammad's speeches. According to Ibn Sa'd, the opposition in Mecca began with Muhammad delivering verses that "spoke shamefully of the idols [the Meccans] worshiped other than [Allah] and mentioned the perdition of their fathers who died in disbelief." According to Watt, as Muhammad's followers gained traction in Mecca, they posed a new, internal threat to the local tribes and the rulers of the city, whose wealth rested upon the annual pilgrimage to the Kaaba, the focal point of Meccan religious life, which Muhammad threatened to overthrow; his denunciation of the Meccan traditional religion was especially offensive to his own tribe, the Quraysh, as they were the guardians of the Ka'aba. Some of the ranking and influential leaders of the Quraysh tried and failed to come to arrangements with Muhammad in exchange for abandoning his preaching. They offered him admission into the inner circle of merchants and establishing his position in the circle by an advantageous marriage, but Muhammad refused. During this period, Muhammad urged his followers to be pacifist; according to Peterson, to "deal gently with the infidels".


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Relations between Muhammad's Islamic faction and the other members of the Quraysh rapidly deteriorated. Muhammad's open denunciation of the Meccan idols provoked hostile reactions, and he was mainly protected from physical harm for he belonged to the Banu Hashim; injuring Muhammad threatened to open up a blood feud between the Banu Hashim and the rest of the Quraysh, undermining the legitimacy and morality of the tribal leaders, thus, the Quraysh were reluctant to hurt or kill Muhammad. Regardless, several attempts were made at Muhammad's life. Traditional Islamic accounts maintain that the Quraysh first taunted Muslims by interrupting their prayers. Western scholars have accepted records of persecution and ill-treatment of Muhammad's followers. Many of Muhammad's followers were harassed, assaulted and forced into exile—and two, Yasir bin 'Amir and Sumayya bint Khabbat, were tortured and killed.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: In 615, at a time of heightened violence against the Muslims, Muhammad arranged for his followers to emigrate to the Kingdom of Aksum and found a small colony there under the protection of the Christian king, al-Negashi. While the traditions view the persecutions of Meccans to have played the major role in the emigration, William Montgomery Watt, a professor of Islamic studies, states "there is reason to believe that some sort of division within the embryonic Muslim community played a role and that some of the emigrants may have gone to Abyssinia to engage in trade, possibly in competition with prominent merchant families in Mecca." The Meccans sent Amr ibn al-As and Abdullah ibn Rabi'ah to negotiate the surrender of the Muslims to the Quraysh, however, the Negus refused their request.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Sunni Muslims believe Muhammad prayed for the strengthening of the cause of Islam through the conversion of either Umar ibn al-Khattab or Amr ibn Hishām. Umar initially reacted to Muhammad's preaching by ardently opposing it. Angered by Muhammad's preaching which had led to divisions within Meccan society, he eventually decided to kill Muhammad, whom he held responsible for the divisions. While en route to assassinate Muhammad, Umar was informed of his sister's conversion to Islam. Approaching his sister's house, he heard her reciting the Quran. Eventually considering the words beautiful and noble, Umar converted to Islam, making his conversion public instantly. Tempered by Umar's conversion, Muslims could now pray openly at the Kaaba, as the pagans were reluctant to confront Umar, known for his forceful character.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Two important clans of Quraysh declared a public banishment against the clan of Banu Hashim in order to put pressure on the clan to withdraw their protection of Muhammad. The terms imposed on Banu Hashim, as reported by Ibn Ishaq, were that "no one should marry their women nor give women for them to marry; and that no one should either buy from them or sell to them." The banishment lasted for two or three years but eventually collapsed mainly because it was not achieving its purpose and sympathizers of the Hashemites within the Quraysh finally united to annul the agreement.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: 9 years into Muhammad's claim to prophethood, two of the most committed defenders of Muhammad's message, his wife Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib, died. With the death of Abu Talib, the leadership of the clan of Banu Hashim was passed to another uncle of Muhammad, Abu Lahab, an inveterate enemy of Muhammad and Islam. Abu Lahab soon withdrew the clan's protection from Muhammad, placing Muhammad in mortal danger since the withdrawal of clan protection implied that the blood revenge for his killing would not be exacted. Muhammad then tried to find a protector for himself in another important Arabian city close to Mecca, Ta'if, but his effort failed as he was pelted with stones in the city.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Sometime in 620, the year following the Year of Sorrow, Muhammad sent a proposal of marriage to Sawda bint Zam'a, an early convert to Islam. The proposal was accepted by both her and her father, Zam'a ibn Qays. Muhammad and Sawda were married in Ramadan of that year. Muhammad also married Aisha, a daughter of his friend and companion Abu Bakr, when she was somewhere between 6 and 9 years old, which has caused controversy in modern scholarly discussion. Both Sawda and Aisha would outlive Muhammad, dying around sometime between 642–672 and in 678, respectively. Aisha would narrate more than 2,200 hadiths in the 44 years she lived after Muhammad, covering several diverse topics, including inheritance, pilgrimage, eschatology and Muhammad's private life.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Some time in 620, Muhammad told his followers that he had experienced the "Isra and Mi'raj", a supernatural journey to Jerusalem ("Isra") and ascension to the Seven Heavens ("Mi'raj"), said to have been accomplished in one night along with the angel Gabriel. Muhammad is said to have toured heaven and hell, and spoken with earlier prophets, including Adam, Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa. Ibn Ishaq, author of first biography of Muhammad, presents this event as a spiritual experience while later historians like al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir present it as a physical journey. Some western scholars of Islam hold that the oldest Muslim tradition identified as a journey traveled through the heavens from the sacred enclosure at Mecca to the "Bayt al-Ma'mur" (a celestial recreation of the Kaaba); others identify it as Muhammad's journey from Mecca to the "Bayt al-Maqdis" in Jerusalem.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Since the Quraysh gave little weight to Muhammad's message, Muhammad took to spreading his message to the merchants and pilgrims that frequented Mecca. After several unsuccessful negotiations, he found hope with some men from Medina. The Arab population of Yathrib were somewhat familiar with monotheism because a Jewish community existed in that city. Muhammad met with a few members of the two tribes of Medina, the Aws and Khazraj, twice, at a hill known as al-'Aqabah near Mina, where they pledged their allegiance to Muhammad and agreed to protect Muhammad if he were to migrated to Medina. Following the pledges at al-'Aqabah, Muhammad encouraged his followers to emigrate to Medina. The Quraysh attempted to stop the Muslims from emigrating to the city, however, almost all Muslims managed to leave.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Muslims believe Muhammad waited until he was commanded by Allah to migrate to Medina. Upon receiving this divine direction, Muhammad planned to leave Mecca the same night. The Quraysh had besieged his house hearing of the large numbers of Muslims who had emigrated prior to him. Muhammad slipped from his home the night of the planned assassination. Due to his possession of several articles that belonged to members of the Quraysh, Muhammad asked Ali to stay behind to settle his outstanding financial obligations. Ali had worn Muhammad's cloak, leading the assassins to think Muhammad had not yet departed. By the time the assassins realised this, Muhammad had already left the city with Abu Bakr. Ali survived the plot, but risked his life again by staying in Mecca to carry out Muhammed's instructions: to restore to their owners all the goods and properties that had been entrusted to Muhammad for safekeeping. Ali then went to Medina with his mother, Fatima bint Asad, and Muhammed's daughters, Fatimah and Umm Kulthum as well as two other women, Muhammad's wife, Sawda, and wetnurse, Umm Ayman. Muhammad and Abu Bakr took refuge in a cave atop the Thawr mountain outside Mecca before continuing their journey. To further delude the Quraysh, Muhammad travelled south for the first few days of his journey, in the opposite direction to Medina. Later, Muhammad and Abu Bakr turned to the Red Sea, following the coastline up to Medina, arriving at Quba' on Monday, 27 September 622.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: The Quran is the only primary source for the life of Muhammad in Mecca. The text of the Quran is generally considered by university scholars to record the words spoken by Muhammad as the search for variants in Western academia has not yielded any differences of great significance. The Quran, however, mainly records the ideological and spiritual considerations of Muhammad, and only fragmentarily references to the details of his life in the city, which makes it difficult to reconstruct the chronological order of the incidents in his or his followers' lives in Mecca. Modern biographers of Muhammad try to reconstruct the socioeconomic and sociopolitical aspects of Mecca and read the ideological aspects of the Quran in that context.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Other later historical works, particularly those of the 3rd and 4th century of the Islamic calendar, are also of considerable importance in mapping Muhammad's life in the city. These include the early biographies of Muhammad ("seerah"), particularly those written by Ibn Ishaq (–767 CE) and Ibn Sa'd (–845 CE), and quotes attributed to Muhammad in hadith literature, compiled by Islamic scholars such as Al Bukhari (–870 CE) and Muslim ibn Hajjaj (–875 CE) which provide further information on his life. The earliest surviving "seerah" is the ""Sīrah Rasūl Allah"" by Ibn Ishaq. Although the original is lost, portions of it survive in the recensions of Ibn Hisham and al-Tabari. Many historians accept the accuracy of these biographies, though their accuracy is unascertainable. According to William Montgomery Watt, in the legal sphere, it would seem that sheer invention could have very well happened. In the historical sphere, however, aside from exceptional cases, the material may have been subject to "tendential shaping" rather than being completely fabricated.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Hadiths are the record of the traditions or sayings of Muhammad, defined as the biography of Muhammad perpetuated by the long memory of his companions and community for their exemplification and obedience. The development of hadiths is a vital contributive element to the biography of Muhammad in early Islamic history. There had been a common tendency among earlier western scholars against these narrations and reports gathered in later periods, who regarded them as fabrications. Leone Caetani considered the attribution of historical reports to Abdullah ibn 'Abbas and 'Aisha as mostly fictitious while examining accounts reported without "sanad" by the early compilers of "seerah" such as Ibn Ishaq. Wilferd Madelung has rejected the stance of indiscriminately dismissing everything. Madelung and some later historians do not reject the narrations which have been compiled in later periods and try to judge them in the context of history and on the basis of their compatibility with the events and figures.


title: Muhammad in Mecca

text: Sunni Muslims consider the Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the collection of hadiths made by Al Bukhari and Muslim ibn Hajjaj, to be the most authoritative hadith collections. Al Bukhari is said to have spent over 16 years gathering over 1,600,000 hadiths and finding the best 7,397 of them. Most of these traditions deal with the life of Muhammad. For Shiites, the words and deeds of their Imams, the progeny of Muhammad, are given that authority. Originally transmitted from generation to generation orally before being compiled, some of these sayings, according to their chain of transmission, are sayings of Muhammad.


title: Caron

text: A caron (), háček or haček (, or ; plural "háčeks" or "háčky") also known as a hachek, wedge, check, kvačica, strešica, mäkčeň, varnelė, inverted circumflex, inverted hat, flying bird, inverted chevron, is a diacritic mark (◌̌) commonly placed over certain letters in the orthography of some languages to indicate a change of the related letter's pronunciation.


title: Caron

text: The use of the caron differs according to the orthographic rules of a language. In most Slavic and other European languages it indicates present or historical palatalization (e → ě; [] → []), iotation, or postalveolar articulation (c → č; → ). In Salishan languages, it often represents a uvular consonant (x → x̌; [] → ). When placed over vowel symbols, the caron can indicate a contour tone, for instance the falling and then rising tone in the Pinyin romanization of Mandarin Chinese. It is also used to decorate symbols in mathematics, where it is often pronounced ("check").


title: Caron

text: The caron is shaped approximately like a small letter "v". For serif typefaces, the caron generally has one of two forms: either symmetrical, essentially identical to a rotated circumflex; or with the left stroke thicker than the right, like the usual serif form of the letter "v" (but without serifs). The latter form is often preferred by Czech designers for use in Czech, while for other uses the symmetrical form tends to predominate, as it does also among sans-serif fonts.


title: Caron

text: The caron is not to be confused with the breve (◌̆), which has a curved bottom, while the caron is pointed (see illustration).


title: Caron

text: Different disciplines generally refer to this diacritic mark by different names. Typography tends to use the term "caron". Linguistics more often uses "haček" (with no long mark), largely due to the influence of the Prague School (particularly on Structuralist linguists who subsequently developed alphabets for previously unwritten languages of the Americas). Pullum's and Ladusaw's "Phonetic Symbol Guide" (Chicago, 1996) uses the term "wedge".


title: Caron

text: The term "caron" is used in the official names of Unicode characters (e.g., "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH CARON"). The Unicode Consortium explicitly states that the reason for this is unknown, but its earliest known use was in the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual of 1967, and it was later used in character sets such as DIN 31624 (1979), ISO 5426 (1980), ISO/IEC 6937 (1983) and ISO/IEC 8859-2 (1985). Its actual origin remains obscure, but some have suggested that it may derive from a fusion of caret and macron. Though this may be folk etymology, it is plausible, particularly in the absence of other suggestions.


title: Caron

text: The "Oxford English Dictionary" gives 1953 as the earliest appearance in English for . In Czech, () means 'small hook', the diminutive form of (, 'hook')". The name appears in most English dictionaries, but they treat the long mark (acute accent) differently. British dictionaries, such as the "OED", "ODE", "CED", write (with the mark) in the headwords, while American ones, such as the "Merriam-Webster", "NOAD", "AHD", omit the acute and write , however, the "NOAD" gives as an alternative spelling.


title: Caron

text: In Slovak it is called (, i.e., 'softener' or 'palatalization mark'), in Serbo-Croatian or ('angled hook' or 'small angled hook'), in Slovenian ('little roof') or ('little hook'), in Lithuanian ('little bird') or ('little jackdaw'), in Estonian ('roof'), in Finnish ('hat'), and in Lakota ('wedge').


title: Caron

text: The caron evolved from the dot above diacritic, which Jan Hus introduced into Czech orthography (along with the acute accent) in his "De Orthographia Bohemica" (1412). The original form still exists in Polish "ż". However, Hus's work was hardly known at that time, and "háček" became widespread only in the 16th century with the introduction of printing.


title: Caron

text: For the fricatives "š" , "ž" , and the affricate "č" only, the caron is used in most northwestern Uralic languages that use the Latin alphabet, such as Karelian, Veps, Northern Sami and Inari Sami (though not in Southern Sami). Estonian and Finnish use "š" and "ž" (but not "č"), but only for transcribing foreign names and loanwords (albeit common loanwords such as or 'check'); the sounds (and letters) are native and common in Karelian, Veps and Sami.


title: Caron

text: In Italian, "š", "ž", and "č" are routinely used as in Slovenian to transcribe Slavic names in the Cyrillic script since in native Italian words, the sounds represented by these letters must be followed by a vowel, and Italian uses "ch" for , not . Other Romance languages, by contrast, tend to use their own orthographies, or in a few cases such as Spanish, borrow English "sh" or "zh".


title: Caron

text: The caron is also used in the Romany alphabet. The Faggin-Nazzi writing system for Friulian makes use of the caron over the letters "c", "g", and "s".


title: Caron

text: The caron is also often used as a diacritical mark on consonants for romanization of text from non-Latin writing systems, particularly in the scientific transliteration of Slavic languages. Philologists and the standard Finnish orthography often prefer using it to express sounds for which English require a digraph ("sh, ch", and "zh") because most Slavic languages use only one character to spell the sounds (the key exceptions are Polish "sz" and "cz"). Its use for that purpose can even be found in the United States because certain atlases use it in romanization of foreign place names. On the typographical side, Š/š and Ž/ž are likely the easiest among non-Western European diacritic characters to adopt for Westerners because the two are part of the Windows-1252 character encoding.


title: Caron

text: Esperanto uses the circumflex over "c", "g", "j" and "s" in similar ways; the circumflex was chosen because there was no caron on most Western European typewriters, but the circumflex existed on French ones.


title: Caron

text: It is also used as an accent mark on vowels to indicate the tone of a syllable. The main example is in Pinyin for Chinese in which it represents a falling-rising tone. It is used in transliterations of Thai to indicate a rising tone.


title: Caron

text: The caron represents a rising tone in the International Phonetic Alphabet. It is used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet for indicating postalveolar consonants and in Americanist phonetic notation to indicate various types of pronunciation.


title: Caron

text: In printed Czech and Slovak text, the caron combined with certain letters (lower-case ť, ď, ľ, and upper-case Ľ) is reduced to a small stroke. That is optional in handwritten text. Latin fonts are typically set to display this way by default. Some fonts have an option to display a normal caron over these letters, but for those that don't, an option is to combine the letter and caron with the combining grapheme joiner, U+034F, resulting in ť, ď, ľ. However, using CGJ in this way can result in the caron mark being misaligned with respect to its letter, as is true for the font Gentium Plus, for instance.


title: Caron

text: In Lazuri orthography, the lower-case "k" with caron sometimes has its caron reduced to a stroke while the lower-case "t" with caron preserves its caron shape.


title: Caron

text: Although the stroke looks similar to an apostrophe, there is a significant difference in kerning. Using an apostrophe in place of a caron looks very unprofessional, but it can be found on goods produced in foreign countries and imported to Slovakia or the Czech Republic (compare t’ to ť, L’ahko to Ľahko). (Apostrophes appearing as palatalization marks in some Finnic languages, such as Võro and Karelian, are not forms of caron either.) Foreigners also sometimes mistake the caron for the acute accent (compare Ĺ to Ľ, ĺ to ľ).


title: Caron

text: Balto-Slavic Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Latvian and Lithuanian use č, š and ž. The digraph dž is also used in these languages but is considered a separate letter only in Serbo-Croatian. The Belarusian Lacinka alphabet also contains the digraph dž (as a separate letter), and Latin transcriptions of Bulgarian and Macedonian may use them at times, for transcription of the letter-combination ДЖ (Bulgarian) and the letter Џ (Macedonian).


title: Caron

text: In the Finnic languages, Estonian (and transcriptions to Finnish) use Š/š and Ž/ž, and Karelian use Č/č, Š/š and Ž/ž. Dž is not a separate letter. Č is present because it may be phonemically geminate: in Karelian, the phoneme 'čč' is found, and is distinct from 'č', which is not the case in Finnish or Estonian, for which only one length is recognized for 'tš'. (Incidentally, in transcriptions, Finnish orthography has to employ complicated notations like or even the to express Karelian .) On some Finnish keyboards, it is possible to write those letters by typing "s" or "z" while holding right Alt key or AltGr key, though that is not supported by the Microsoft Windows keyboard device driver KBDFI.DLL for the Finnish language.


title: Caron

text: In Estonian, Finnish and Karelian these are "not" palatalized but postalveolar consonants. For example, Estonian (palatalized) is distinct from (postalveolar). Palatalization is typically ignored in spelling, but some Karelian and Võro orthographies use an apostrophe (') or an acute accent (´). In Finnish and Estonian, "š" and "ž" (and in Estonian, very rarely "č") appear in loanwords and foreign proper names only and when not available, they can be substituted with 'h': 'sh' for 'š', in print.


title: Caron

text: In the orthographies of the Sami languages, the letters Č/č, Š/š and Ž/ž appear in Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami. Skolt Sami also uses three other consonants with the caron: Ǯ/ǯ (ezh-caron) to mark the voiced postalveolar affricate (plain Ʒ/ʒ marks the alveolar affricate ), Ǧ/ǧ to mark the voiced palatal affricate and Ǩ/ǩ the corresponding voiceless palatal affricate . More often than not, they are geminated: "vuäǯǯad" "to get". The orthographies of the more southern Sami languages of Sweden and Norway such as Lule Sami do not use caron, and prefer instead the digraphs "tj" and "sj".


title: Caron

text: Most other Uralic languages (including Kildin Sami) are normally written with Cyrillic instead of the Latin script. In their scientific transcription, the Finno-Ugric Transcription / Uralic Phonetic Alphabet however employs the letters "š", "ž" and occasionally "č", "ǯ" (alternately "tš", "dž") for the postalveolar consonants. These serve as basic letters, and with further diacritics are used to transcribe also other fricative and affricate sounds. Retroflex consonants are marked by a caron and an underdot ("ṣ̌", "ẓ̌" = IPA , ), alveolo-palatal (palatalized postalveolar) consonants by a caron and an acute ("š́", "ž́" = IPA , ). Thus, for example, the postalveolar consonants of the Udmurt language, normally written as Ж/ж, Ӝ/ӝ, Ӵ/ӵ, Ш/ш are in Uralic studies normally transcribed as "ž", "ǯ", "č", "š" respectively, and the alveolo-palatal consonants normally written as Зь/зь, Ӟ/ӟ, Сь/сь, Ч/ч are normally transcribed as "ž́", "ǯ́", "š́", "č́" respectively.


title: Caron

text: In the Berber Latin alphabet of the Berber language (North Africa) the following letters and digraphs are used with the caron:


title: Caron

text: Many alphabets of African languages use the caron to mark the rising tone, as in the African reference alphabet.


title: Caron

text: Outside of the Latin alphabet, the caron is also used for Cypriot Greek letters that have a different sound from Standard Modern Greek: σ̌ κ̌ π̌ τ̌ ζ̌ in words like ('and'), ('cat').


title: Caron

text: The DIN 31635 standard for transliteration of Arabic uses Ǧ/ǧ to represent the letter . "", on account of the inconsistent pronunciation of J in European languages, the variable pronunciation of the letter in educated Arabic , and the desire of the DIN committee to have a one-to-one correspondence of Arabic to Latin letters in its system.


title: Caron

text: Romanization of Pashto uses Č/č, Š/š, Ž/ž, X̌/x̌, to represent the letters چ, ش, ژ, ښ, respectively. Additionally, Ṣ̌/ṣ̌ and Ẓ̌/ẓ̌ are used by the southern Pashto dialect only (replaced by X̌/x̌ and Ǵ/ǵ in the north).


title: Caron

text: The latter Š/š is also used to transcribe the phoneme in Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform, and the phoneme in Semitic languages represented by the letter shin (Phoenician and its descendants).


title: Caron

text: The caron is also used in Mandarin Chinese pinyin romanization and orthographies of several other tonal languages to indicate the "falling-rising" tone (similar to the pitch made when asking "Huh?"). The caron can be placed over the vowels: ǎ, ě, ǐ, ǒ, ǔ, ǚ. The alternative to a caron is a number 3 after the syllable: = , as the "falling-rising" tone is the third tone in Mandarin.


title: Caron

text: The caron is used in the New Transliteration System of D'ni in the symbol š to represent the sound (English "sh").


title: Caron

text: A-caron (ǎ) is also used to transliterate the Cyrillic letter Ъ () in Bulgarian—it represents the mid back unrounded vowel .


title: Caron

text: For legacy reasons, most letters that carry carons are precomposed characters in Unicode, but a caron can also be added to any letter by using the combining character , for example: b̌ q̌ J̌.


title: Caron

text: The characters Č, č, Ě, ě, Š, š, Ž, ž are a part of the Unicode Latin Extended-A set because they occur in Czech and other official languages in Europe, while the rest are in Latin Extended-B, which often causes an inconsistent appearance.


title: City of Leeds

text: The City of Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell, Wetherby and Yeadon. It has a population of (), making it technically the second largest city in England by population behind Birmingham, since London is not a single local government entity. It is governed by Leeds City Council.


title: City of Leeds

text: The current city boundaries were set on 1 April 1974 by the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, as part a reform of local government in England. The city is a merger of eleven former local government districts; the unitary City and County Borough of Leeds combined with the municipal boroughs of Morley and Pudsey, the urban districts of Aireborough, Garforth, Horsforth, Otley and Rothwell, and parts of the rural districts of Tadcaster, Wharfedale and Wetherby from the West Riding of Yorkshire.


title: City of Leeds

text: For its first 12 years the city had a two-tier system of local government; Leeds City Council shared power with West Yorkshire County Council. Since the Local Government Act 1985 Leeds City Council has effectively been a unitary authority, serving as the sole executive, deliberative and legislative body responsible for local policy, setting council tax, and allocating budget in the city, and is a member of the Leeds City Region Partnership. The City of Leeds is divided into 31 civil parishes and a single unparished area.


title: City of Leeds

text: The Borough of Leeds was created in 1207, when Maurice Paynel, lord of the manor, granted a charter covering a small area adjacent to a crossing of the River Aire, between the old settlement centred on Leeds Parish Church to the east and the manor house and mills to the west. In 1626 a charter was granted by Charles I, incorporating the entire parish as the Borough of Leeds; it was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. The parish and borough included the chapelries of Chapel Allerton, Armley, Beeston, Bramley, Farnley, Headingley cum Burley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Leeds, Potternewton and Wortley. The borough was located in the West Riding of Yorkshire and gained city status in 1893. When a county council was formed for the riding in 1889, Leeds was excluded from its area of responsibility and formed a county borough. The borough made a significant number of territorial expansions, expanding from in 1911 to in 1961; adding in stages the former area of the Roundhay, Seacroft, Shadwell and Middleton parishes and gaining other parts of adjacent districts.


title: City of Leeds

text: A review of local government arrangements completed in 1969 proposed the creation of a new large district centred on Leeds, occupying and including 840,000 people. The proposed area was significantly reduced in a 1971 white paper; and within a year every local authority to be incorporated into it protested or demonstrated. The final proposal reduced the area further and following the enactment of the Local Government Act 1972, the county borough was abolished on 1 April 1974 and its former area was combined with that of the municipal boroughs of Morley and Pudsey; the urban districts of Aireborough, Horsforth, Otley, Garforth and Rothwell; and parts of the rural districts of Tadcaster, Wetherby and Wharfedale. The new district gained both borough and city status, as had been held by the county borough; and forms part of the county of West Yorkshire.


title: City of Leeds

text: The district and its settlements are situated in the eastern foothills of the Pennines astride the River Aire whose valley, the Aire Gap, provides a road and rail corridor that facilitates communications with cities to the west of the Pennines. The district extends from east to west and from north to south; with over 65% covered with green belt land. The highest point, at 1,115 feet (340 m), is at its north western extremity on the eastern slopes of Rombalds Moor, better known as Ilkley Moor, on the boundary with the City of Bradford. The lowest points are at around 33 feet (10 m), in the east: where River Wharfe crosses the boundary with North Yorkshire south of Thorp Arch Trading Estate and where the River Aire (at this point forming the City of Wakefield boundary) meets the North Yorkshire boundary near Fairburn Ings. To the north and east Leeds is bordered by the North Yorkshire districts of Harrogate to the north and Selby district to the east. The remaining borders are with other districts of West Yorkshire: Wakefield to the south, Kirklees to the south-west, and Bradford to the west.


title: City of Leeds

text: Leeds City Council is the local authority of the district. The council is composed of 99 councillors, three for each of the city's 33 wards. Elections are held three years out of four, on the first Thursday of May. One third of the councillors are elected, for a four-year term, in each election. 2004 saw all seats up for election due to boundary changes. It is currently run by a Labour administration. Before the 2011 election, the council had been under no overall control since 2004. The Chief Executive of Leeds City Council is Tom Riordan, and the Leader of the Council is Councillor James Lewis of the Labour Party. As a metropolitan county, West Yorkshire does not have a county council, so Leeds City Council is the primary provider of local government services. The district forms part of the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England.


title: City of Leeds

text: Most of the district is an unparished area, comprising Leeds itself (the area of the former county borough), Pudsey, Garforth, Rothwell and the area of the former urban district of Aireborough. In the unparished area there is no lower tier of government. Outside the unparished area there are 31 civil parishes, represented by parish councils. These form the lowest tier of local government and absorb some limited functions from Leeds City Council in their areas. The councils of the civil parishes of Horsforth, Morley, Otley and Wetherby are town councils. The 34 other civil parishes are:


title: City of Leeds

text: The district is represented by eight MPs, for the constituencies of Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke, Conservative); Leeds Central (Hilary Benn, Labour); Leeds East (Richard Burgon, Labour); Leeds North East (Fabian Hamilton, Labour); Leeds North West (Alex Sobel, Labour); Leeds West (Rachel Reeves, Labour); Morley and Outwood (constituency shared with City of Wakefield) (Andrea Jenkyns, Conservative); and Pudsey (Stuart Andrew, Conservative).


title: City of Leeds

text: At the 2001 UK census, the district had a total population of 715,402. Of the 301,614 households in Leeds, 33.3% were married couples living together, 31.6% were one-person households, 9.0% were co-habiting couples and 9.8% were lone parents, following a similar trend to the rest of England. The population density was and for every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. Of those aged 16–74, 30.9% had no academic qualifications, higher than the 28.9% in all of England. Of the residents, 6.6% were born outside the United Kingdom, lower than the England average of 9.2%.


title: City of Leeds

text: The majority of people in Leeds identify themselves as Christian. The proportion of Muslims is around National average. Leeds has the third-largest Jewish community in the United Kingdom, after those of London and Manchester. The areas of Alwoodley and Moortown contain sizeable Jewish populations. 16.8% of Leeds residents in the 2001 census declared themselves as having "no religion", which is broadly in line with the figure for the whole of the UK (also 8.1% "religion not stated").


title: City of Leeds

text: The crime rate in Leeds is well above the national average, like many other cities in England. In July 2006, the think tank Reform calculated rates of crime for different offences and has related this to populations of major urban areas (defined as towns over 100,000 population). Leeds was 11th in this rating (excluding London boroughs, 23rd including London boroughs).


title: City of Leeds

text: Leeds has a diverse economy with the service sector now dominating over the traditional manufacturing industries. It is the location of one of the largest financial centres in England outside London. New tertiary industries such as retail, call centres, offices and media have contributed to a high rate of economic growth. This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Leeds at current basic prices with figures in millions of pounds.


title: City of Leeds

text: Education Leeds, a non-profit company owned by Leeds City Council, provided educational services between 2001 and 2011. In April 2011 Leeds City Council disbanded Education Leeds and has consolidated educational services into the Children's Services Department of the council itself.


title: City of Leeds

text: Leeds city centre is connected to the National Rail network at Leeds railway station. Public transport in West Yorkshire is coordinated by West Yorkshire Metro, under the control of a joint-board of local authorities in the county, including Leeds City Council.


title: City of Leeds

text: There are 24 cemeteries in Leeds operated by the City Council. The oldest ones, in Beckett Street and Hunslet, were both opened in 1845; the newest ones, in Kippax and Whinmoor, opened in 2013.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: Gambling in Russia is legal in four regional subject areas, and in 2009 was made illegal in all other areas of Russia.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: In 2009, gambling was banned almost everywhere in Russia. The only exceptions are four specially arranged zones in the Altai, Krasnodar, Kaliningrad, and Primorsky regions.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: At the end of 1927, the People’s Commissar of the Interior presented a report devoted to gambling and the gaming business existing at that time to the RSFSR SPC. The main idea voiced through the report was that its incompatibility of an idle, bourgeois pastime with


title: Gambling in Russia

text: the true spirit of the working proletariat. And, regardless of the rather modest figures in the gaming sector (for example, only 4 small gaming houses operated in Leningrad at that time), the key prohibitive provisions in the report were approved.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: All this led to a ban on the opening of gambling houses in worker districts, it was followed by a ban on gambling in the entire districts, and later, on May 8, 1928, by the resolution of the USSR SPC, all Soviet Republics were instructed, the reasons not being explained, "to take measures on the immediate closure of any facilities for card games, roulette, lotto and other kinds of gambling". The closure of gaming houses and the gambling ban were pushed by the penal policy course shaped by the Soviet state, providing for overall reinforcement of criminal sanctions in the country and the modification of the state's penitentiary policy upon the whole. Later, lotteries were also restricted. On June 6, 1928, the Workers-Peasants’ Government of the RSFSR issues the resolution, "On Banning the Draw of Liquors in Lotteries". First, on January 1, 1930, the USSR SPC issues the resolution "On the Procedure of Issuing Permits for Lottery Arrangement", and then, on August 31, 1932, another USSR SPC Resolution #1336 was announced, "On the Regulation of the Lottery Business".


title: Gambling in Russia

text: The first slot machines which appeared in the country quite lawfully, were installed only in 1988 in hotels which were part of the USSR State Committee of Foreign Tourism (Goscomintourist). Within the system, the All-Russian Business External Trade Union (VHVO) "Intourservice" is set up, developing new kinds of additional services for foreign tourists, payable in free convertible currency. And private businesses have no access to gambling operations. Despite an eagerness to deal with slot machine installation and operation, the Soviete authorities allowed it only within its state structures, only as an experiment. To be on the safe side, there was a legal reminder that the business still cannot be entered. On December 29, 1988, the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued another resolution, this time "On the Regulation of Certain Activities of Cooperatives According to the Law on Cooperation in the USSR", which, in particular, stressed that cooperatives are not entitled to perform gambling operations.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: On August 23, 1989, the Soviet government lifted its ban on gambling and opened the first gambling house in Moscow. The first slot machines began to be installed in 1988 in the hotels of the USSR State Committee for Tourism. In the first year, 226 slot machines with cash prizes were installed in Intourist hotels in Moscow, Leningrad, Sochi, Yalta, Minsk, Tallinn, Vyborg and Pyatigorsk. The first casino in the USSR, Astoria Palace, opened in the Estonian SSR in the spring of 1989 at the Palace Hotel in Tallinn. The second casino was opened in Moscow on August 23, 1989 at the Savoy Hotel.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: Poker in Russia was very popular during the collapse of the USSR, when people started being interested in Western culture and values.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: In the Soviet Union it was possible to play poker only in cellar clubs or the casino. In addition, players often gathered in private flats. By the end of the 90s it was the first attempt to hold poker tournaments, but it did not get the widespread popularity at the time.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: According to the Casinos Analyze, an online platform for gamblers used in CIS region, there were more than 100 active online casinos in Russia as for 2021.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: In 2010, the Russian Masters Poker Cup was held in one of the legal poker zones, Azov City. This event did not cause much popularity, since the location of the gambling zone was unsuccessful, two casinos were in an empty field. The hotel in the casino had only 14 rooms. The zone became popular with players from Rostov-on-Don, while the rest preferred to play via the Internet, or traveled to the CIS countries, where live poker was not prohibited.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: In 2004, the Law #142-FZ “On Gambling Tax” being in effect for a sixth year, Chapter 29 “Gambling Tax” of the Russian Federation's Tax Code came into effect. A new and the most complicated stage in the area of gambling taxation began. As of January 1, 2004, gambling tax became regional and its receipts are transferred to the budgets of the Federation's constituent entities. As of 2004, each region was entitled to independently determine the gambling tax rate within the limits provided for by the Law #142-FZ “On Gambling Tax”. The taxation rate for slot machines with cash winnings was 1,500 to 7,500 roubles and for gaming tables, totalisator cash desks and bookmaker cash desks – 25,000 to 125,000 roubles. Any previous privileges with regard to the gambling tax were cancelled.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: Online casino tax rate: fixed amount, monthly 2,500,000 – 3,000,000 RUB ( payable by online sports betting licence holders, the only kind of online gambling licence available in Russia).


title: Gambling in Russia

text: The state regulation of activities involved in gambling organisation and arrangement was performed by the government, by the federal executive agency authorised by the government to perform functions on standard and legal regulation in the area of


title: Gambling in Russia

text: gambling organisation, by other federal executive authorities within their competence and by the governmental bodies of the Russian Federation's constituent entities, authorised to perform the functions of gaming zone management.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: Gambling may be arranged solely by legal entities registered according to the set procedure within the Russian Federation. Gambling cannot be arranged by legal entities, the founders (participants) of which include the Russian Federation, the Russian Federation's constituent entities or local government authorities.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: The law contemplates that four gaming zones will be created within the Russian Federation; meanwhile no more than one gaming zone may be created within one and the same constituent entity. If Legal Requlation of Gambling in Former USSR Countries and Foreign States the created gaming zone belongs to several regions, no other gaming zones may be created within their territories. Gaming zones are to be set up within the Altay, Primorie and Kaliningrad regions and on the border between the Krasnodar region and Rostov region. The procedure of gaming zone creation and liquidation, their names, borders and other characteristics, will be determined by the government upon an agreement with the government bodies in constituent entities. The existence of gaming zones has no time limits. A decision on the liquidation of a gaming zone by the government may not be made until ten years after it was created. A ruling on the creation of a gaming zone may set requirements for certain types of gambling facilities, as well as other restrictions. Gambling facilities, except bookmakers’ offices and totalisators, may be opened only within the gaming zones according to the procedure set out by the law. Furthermore, the boundaries of the gaming zones should have been outlined by July 1, 2007, whereas they cannot be created on land in populated localities.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: The names of the territories are "Siberian Coin" (Altay), "Yantarnaya" (Kaliningrad region), "Azov-city" (Rostov region) and "Primorie" (Primorie region).


title: Gambling in Russia

text: The gambling operator should submit the data needed for exercising control of compliance with the legislative requirements. The net assets of the gambling operator, throughout the entire period of their activities, cannot be less than: 600,000,000 roubles (for operators of casinos and slot halls) and 100,000,000 roubles (for operators of bookmakers’ offices and totalisators). The procedure for the calculation of the value of the gambling operator's net assets will be set by the Ministry of Finance, while the Government may establish additional requirements for gambling operators.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: The gambling operator shall secure the personal safety of gamblers, other visitors to gambling facilities and their employees during their stay in the gambling facility. People under 18 cannot be the gambling operator's employees or visit a gambling facility. Gambling facilities may be located only in buildings which are capital construction projects. Gambling facilities cannot be located in residential fund properties, uncompleted constructions, temporary structures, kiosks, open shelters and other similar premises; in buildings and constructions where children's, educational, healthcare and sanatorium institutions are located; in buildings and constructions including bus stations, railway stations, river stations, river ports, airports, at stations and stops for any public transport(common carriers) for urban and suburban services, etc., as well as on plots of land where the above-mentioned facilities are situated.


title: Gambling in Russia

text: Bookmakers’ offices and totalisators, apart from those opened within gaming zones, may be opened solely based on licences, the


title: Gambling in Russia

text: procedure of issuing which will be determined by the government The customer service area for gamblers in casinos cannot be less