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Turkey: Turkish (Osmanli) script. Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent (r.1520-66). A tughra (Ottoman Turkish: طغراء; Ṭuğrā) is a calligraphic monogram, seal or signature of an Ottoman sultan that was affixed to all official documents and correspondence. It was also carved on his seal and stamped on the coins minted during his reign.
The Lindisfarne Gospels is an illuminated manuscript gospel book produced around the year 700 CE in a monastery on Lindisfarne Island, off the coast of Northumberland. It is now on display in the British Library in London. The manuscript is one of the finest works in the unique style of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular art, combining Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic elements. <br/><br/> The Lindisfarne Gospels are presumed to be the work of a monk named Eadfrith, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698 and died in 721. Current scholarship indicates a date around 715, and it is believed they were produced in honour of St. Cuthbert. However, it is also possible that Eadfrith produced them prior to 698, in order to commemorate the elevation of Cuthbert's relics in that year, which is also thought to have been the occasion for which the St Cuthbert Gospel was produced.<br/><br/> The Gospels are richly illustrated in the insular style, and were originally encased in a fine leather binding covered with jewels and metals made by Billfrith the Anchorite in the 8th century. During the Viking raids on Lindisfarne, however, this cover was lost, and a replacement was made in 1852. The text is written in insular script.<br/><br/> In the 10th century an Old English translation of the Gospels was made: a word-for-word gloss inserted between the lines of the Latin text by Aldred, Provost of Chester-le-Street. This is the oldest extant translation of the Gospels into the English language. The Gospels may have been taken from Durham Cathedral during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, ordered by Henry VIII, and were acquired in the early 17th century by Sir Robert Cotton from Thomas Walker, Clerk of the Parliaments. Cotton's library came to the British Museum in the 18th century, and from there to the British Library in London when this was separated from the British Museum.
Job (Hebrew: אִיּוֹב, Arabic: أيّوب‎ Ayyūb) is the central character of the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible. Job is also recognised as a prophet of God in the Qur'an.<br/><br/> The Book of Job begins with an introduction to Job's character. He is described as a blessed man who lives righteously. God's praise of Job prompts Satan to challenge Job's integrity and suggesting that Job serves God simply because he protects him. God removes Job's protection, allowing Satan to take his wealth, his children, and his physical health in order to tempt Job to curse God. Despite his difficult circumstances, he does not curse God, but rather curses the day of his birth. And although he protests his plight and pleads for an explanation, he stops short of accusing God of injustice. Most of the book consists of conversations between Job and his three friends concerning Job's condition and its possible reasons, after which God responds to Job and his friends.<br/><br/> The characters in the Book of Job consist of Job, his wife, his friends, a man named Eliyahu, God, and Satan. Neither the patriarchs nor any other biblical characters make an appearance.
Dejima (literally 'exit island'; Dutch: Desjima or Deshima, sometimes latinised as Decima or Dezima) was a small fan-shaped artificial island built in the bay of Nagasaki in 1634. This island, which was formed by digging a canal through a small peninsula, remained as the single place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and the outside world during the Edo period.<br/><br/> Dejima was built to constrain foreign traders as part of the 'sakoku' self-imposed isolationist policy. Originally built to house Portuguese traders, it changed to a Chinese and Dutch trading post from 1641 until 1853. Covering an area of 120 m x 75 m (9000 square meters, or 0.9 hectares) it later became integrated into the city. 'Dejima Dutch Trading Post' has been designated a Japanese national historic site.