title: Resonance

text: Like mechanical resonance, acoustic resonance can result in catastrophic failure of the object at resonance. The classic example of this is breaking a wine glass with sound at the precise resonant frequency of the glass, although this is difficult in practice.


title: Resonance

text: The rocket engines for the International Space Station (ISS) are controlled by an autopilot. Ordinarily, uploaded parameters for controlling the engine control system for the Zvezda module make the rocket engines boost the International Space Station to a higher orbit. The rocket engines are hinge-mounted, and ordinarily the crew doesn't notice the operation. On January 14, 2009, however, the uploaded parameters made the autopilot swing the rocket engines in larger and larger oscillations, at a frequency of 0.5 Hz. These oscillations were captured on video, and lasted for 142 seconds.


title: Resonance

text: Electrical resonance occurs in an electric circuit at a particular "resonant frequency" when the impedance of the circuit is at a minimum in a series circuit or at maximum in a parallel circuit (usually when the transfer function peaks in absolute value). Resonance in circuits are used for both transmitting and receiving wireless communications such as television, cell phones and radio.


title: Resonance

text: An optical cavity, also called an "optical resonator", is an arrangement of mirrors that forms a standing wave cavity resonator for light waves. Optical cavities are a major component of lasers, surrounding the gain medium and providing feedback of the laser light. They are also used in optical parametric oscillators and some interferometers. Light confined in the cavity reflects multiple times producing standing waves for certain resonant frequencies. The standing wave patterns produced are called "modes". Longitudinal modes differ only in frequency while transverse modes differ for different frequencies and have different intensity patterns across the cross-section of the beam. Ring resonators and whispering galleries are examples of optical resonators that do not form standing waves.


title: Resonance

text: Different resonator types are distinguished by the focal lengths of the two mirrors and the distance between them; flat mirrors are not often used because of the difficulty of aligning them precisely. The geometry (resonator type) must be chosen so the beam remains stable, i.e., the beam size does not continue to grow with each reflection. Resonator types are also designed to meet other criteria such as minimum beam waist or having no focal point (and therefore intense light at that point) inside the cavity.


title: Resonance

text: Optical cavities are designed to have a very large "Q" factor. A beam reflects a large number of times with little attenuation—therefore the frequency line width of the beam is small compared to the frequency of the laser.


title: Resonance

text: Additional optical resonances are guided-mode resonances and surface plasmon resonance, which result in anomalous reflection and high evanescent fields at resonance. In this case, the resonant modes are guided modes of a waveguide or surface plasmon modes of a dielectric-metallic interface. These modes are usually excited by a subwavelength grating.


title: Resonance

text: In celestial mechanics, an orbital resonance occurs when two orbiting bodies exert a regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually due to their orbital periods being related by a ratio of two small integers. Orbital resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of the bodies. In most cases, this results in an "unstable" interaction, in which the bodies exchange momentum and shift orbits until the resonance no longer exists. Under some circumstances, a resonant system can be stable and self-correcting, so that the bodies remain in resonance. Examples are the 1:2:4 resonance of Jupiter's moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io, and the 2:3 resonance between Pluto and Neptune. Unstable resonances with Saturn's inner moons give rise to gaps in the rings of Saturn. The special case of 1:1 resonance (between bodies with similar orbital radii) causes large Solar System bodies to clear the neighborhood around their orbits by ejecting nearly everything else around them; this effect is used in the current definition of a planet.


title: Resonance

text: Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is the name given to a physical resonance phenomenon involving the observation of specific quantum mechanical magnetic properties of an atomic nucleus in the presence of an applied, external magnetic field. Many scientific techniques exploit NMR phenomena to study molecular physics, crystals, and non-crystalline materials through NMR spectroscopy. NMR is also routinely used in advanced medical imaging techniques, such as in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).


title: Resonance

text: All nuclei containing odd numbers of nucleons have an intrinsic magnetic moment and angular momentum. A key feature of NMR is that the resonant frequency of a particular substance is directly proportional to the strength of the applied magnetic field. It is this feature that is exploited in imaging techniques; if a sample is placed in a non-uniform magnetic field then the resonant frequencies of the sample's nuclei depend on where in the field they are located. Therefore, the particle can be located quite precisely by its resonant frequency.


title: Resonance

text: Electron paramagnetic resonance, otherwise known as "electron spin resonance" (ESR), is a spectroscopic technique similar to NMR, but uses unpaired electrons instead. Materials for which this can be applied are much more limited since the material needs to both have an unpaired spin and be paramagnetic.


title: Resonance

text: The Mössbauer effect is the resonant and recoil-free emission and absorption of gamma ray photons by atoms bound in a solid form.


title: Resonance

text: Resonance in particle physics appears in similar circumstances to classical physics at the level of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. Resonances can also be thought of as unstable particles, with the formula in the Universal resonance curve section of this article applying if "Γ" is the particle's decay rate and "Ω" is the particle's mass "M". In that case, the formula comes from the particle's propagator, with its mass replaced by the complex number "M" + "iΓ". The formula is further related to the particle's decay rate by the optical theorem.


title: Resonance

text: A column of soldiers marching in regular step on a narrow and structurally flexible bridge can set it into dangerously large amplitude oscillations. April 12, 1831, the Broughton Suspension Bridge near Salford, England collapsed while a group of British soldiers were marching across. Since then, the British Army has had a standing order for soldiers to break stride when marching across bridges, to avoid resonance from their regular marching pattern affecting the bridge.


title: Resonance

text: Vibrations of a motor or engine can induce resonant vibration in its supporting structures if their natural frequency is close to that of the vibrations of the engine. A common example is the rattling sound of a bus body when the engine is left idling.


title: Resonance

text: Structural resonance of a suspension bridge induced by winds can lead to its catastrophic collapse. Several early suspension bridges in Europe and USA were destroyed by structural resonance induced by modest winds. The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on 7 November 1940 is characterized in physics as a classic example of resonance. It has been argued by Robert H. Scanlan and others that the destruction was instead caused by aeroelastic flutter, a complicated interaction between the bridge and the winds passing through it—an example of a self oscillation, or a kind of "self-sustaining vibration" as referred to in the nonlinear theory of vibrations.


title: Resonance

text: The "Q" factor or "quality factor" is a dimensionless parameter that describes how under-damped an oscillator or resonator is, and characterizes the bandwidth of a resonator relative to its center frequency.


title: Resonance

text: A high value for "Q" indicates a lower rate of energy loss relative to the stored energy, i.e., the system is lightly damped. The parameter is defined by the equation:


title: Resonance

text: The higher the Q factor, the greater the amplitude at the resonant frequency, and the smaller the "bandwidth", or range of frequencies around resonance occurs. In electrical resonance, a high-"Q" circuit in a radio receiver is more difficult to tune, but has greater selectivity, and so would be better at filtering out signals from other stations. High Q oscillators are more stable.


title: Resonance

text: Examples that normally have a low Q factor include door closers (Q=0.5). Systems with high Q factors include tuning forks (Q=1000), atomic clocks and lasers (Q≈10).


title: Resonance

text: The exact response of a resonance, especially for frequencies far from the resonant frequency, depends on the details of the physical system, and is usually not exactly symmetric about the resonant frequency, as illustrated for the simple harmonic oscillator above.


title: Resonance

text: For a lightly damped linear oscillator with a resonance frequency "Ω", the "intensity" of oscillations "I" when the system is driven with a driving frequency "ω" is typically approximated by a formula that is symmetric about the resonance frequency:


title: Resonance

text: Where the susceptibility formula_55 links the amplitude of the oscillator to the driving force in frequency space:


title: Resonance

text: The intensity is defined as the square of the amplitude of the oscillations. This is a Lorentzian function, or Cauchy distribution, and this response is found in many physical situations involving resonant systems. is a parameter dependent on the damping of the oscillator, and is known as the "linewidth" of the resonance. Heavily damped oscillators tend to have broad linewidths, and respond to a wider range of driving frequencies around the resonant frequency. The linewidth is inversely proportional to the "Q" factor, which is a measure of the sharpness of the resonance.


title: Resonance

text: In radio engineering and electronics engineering, this approximate symmetric response is known as the "universal resonance curve", a concept introduced by Frederick E. Terman in 1932 to simplify the approximate analysis of radio circuits with a range of center frequencies and "Q" values.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Mullah Muhammad Omar (; –April 2013) was an Afghan Islamic revolutionary who founded the Taliban and served as the supreme leader of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Born into a religious family of Kandahar, Omar was educated at local "madrasas" in Afghanistan. Following the Soviet invasion in 1979, he joined the Afghan mujahideen in the Soviet–Afghan War. He served as an important military general during several skirmishes and lost his right eye in an explosion. Afterward, the Soviets withdrew in 1989 and the communist rule of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was toppled in 1992, prompting a civil war in Afghanistan. He initially remained quiet and continued his studies, though the practice of "bacha bazi" and "fasad" in the country prompted Omar to take part in the civil war. In 1994, Omar formed the Taliban along with religious students in Kandahar. The Taliban emerged victorious in the civil war and established the First Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with Omar serving as the country's emir.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Omar formed an Islamic state headed by the Supreme Council and imposed the Sharia. He faced a period of food shortages, refugee crisis, economic downturn and devastated infrastructure, all of which resulted from the twenty years of continuous warfare. Omar's regime coincided with the September 11 attacks, which were carried out by the extremist organization al-Qaeda. The United States accused the Taliban of harboring al-Qaeda and invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, with the aid of several countries and militant organizations, including the Northern Alliance. The Taliban's government was ousted by December 2001 and Omar fled his hometown, concealed himself in Zabul and delegated the operational control to his deputies. Under his command, the Taliban launched an insurgency in 2004. Although Omar was the subject of a decade-long international manhunt, he remained hidden throughout the rest of his life and naturally died in 2013.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Widely considered one of Afghanistan's most significant figures, Omar remains popular among the Taliban, viewing him as a freedom fighter who played an important role in defending Islamic principles against the spread of Western culture in Afghanistan. On the other hand, he has been criticized for his strict government and also for his extremist views.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Despite his political rank and his high status on the Rewards for Justice most wanted list, not much was publicly known about him. Omar made no public speeches and always refused to meet foreigners; Before his death, only one known photo existed of him. After his death, the Taliban released a newer and clearer photo showing Omar in his youth in 1978. Accounts of his physical appearance state that Omar was thin, strongly built and very tall, at around . Omar was described as shy and taciturn, by – for example – the famed Afghan poet Abdul Bari Jahani, who visited him with academics and activists at the beginning of his rule. The members of this group applauded the order and security he brought to the country, and Jahani remembers him as a "tall and handsome" man who "listened in quiet." Zaeef said "he listened, he was patient, and he did not react in anger." Conversely, a former Saudi intelligence chief who met him said Omar was "extremely nervous, perspired, and even screamed at me." Senior Taliban leaders claimed he would "stumble over his native tongue in the interviews he occasionally gave the BBC Pashto service." He had "at least" three wives and "at least" five or six children, including Mohammad Yaqoob, the current acting Defence Minister of Afghanistan.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Omar studied at a religious school or madrasa run by his uncle. According to Gopal and Strick van Linschoten, all his religious education was in Afghan hujras, which are small religious schools annexed to village mosques. He completed his primary and secondary religious education, then began higher religious studies at 18. His studies were interrupted before he completed them and he did not properly earn the title "Mullah". Later in life he was given an honorary degree by the Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia seminary in Karachi, Pakistan, but he never studied there, contrary to some reports. He was also given an honorary doctorate by Darul Uloom Haqqania in northwestern Pakistan, where numerous other senior Taliban leaders studied. Some sources have claimed that he studied there, but its leader Sami-ul-Haq said that he did not know of Omar until 1994. Despite receiving a personal invitation from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in 1998, Omar refused to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and would not do one in his lifetime.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In April 2015, during the time when his death was being kept secret, the Taliban published a biography of Omar to mark his "19th year as their supreme leader," when in fact he had already died on 23 April 2013. According to this biography, Omar was born in 1960 at the village of Chah-i-Himmat in the Khakrez District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. However, according to "The Daily Telegraph" he was instead born in Uruzgan Province. He came from a line of Islamic scholars and teachers. His father was Mawlawi Ghulam Nabi, his grandfather Mawlawi Muhammad Rasool, and his great-grandfather Mawlawi Baz Muhammad. They were of the Tomzi clan of the Hotak tribe, which is part of the larger Ghilzai tribal confederation of the Pashtuns. His father, born in Khakrez District, was a poor, landless itinerant teacher who taught the Quran to village boys and received alms from their families. He died when Omar was three years old, according to Omar's own words, or five years old, according to the Taliban biography. Thereafter Omar was raised by his uncles. One of his father's brothers, Maulawi Muzafer, married Omar's widowed mother, as was often done in rural Afghanistan. The family moved to the village of Dehwanawark, several miles from the town of Deh Rawood, in the poor Deh Rawood District in Uruzgan Province, where the uncle was a religious teacher. According to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, "Omar's father was a local religious leader, but the family was poor and had absolutely no political links in Kandahar or Kabul. They were essentially lower middle class Afghans and were definitely not members of the elite."


title: Mullah Omar

text: After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Omar joined the mujahideen in Deh Rawood to fight the Soviets. In 1983 he moved with mujahideen friends to Maywand District in Kandahar Province and fought under Faizullah Akhundzada, the commander of a group affiliated with Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami (Islamic and National Revolution Movement). Abdul Ghani Baradar was another from Deh Rawood who was in the group. Omar fought in the Maiwand, Zhari, Panjwai and Dand districts and was an expert in using rocket-propelled grenades against tanks. In the last years of the war, some mujahideen groups split up, and Omar and his friends left Faizullah Akhundzada's group. They formed a new group under Omar's leadership, based at Aday, in the Singesar area, then in the Panjwayi District and now in Zhari District, and became registered with Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami as an affiliated group. Omar was wounded four times. Abdul Salam Zaeef has said he was present when exploding shrapnel destroyed Omar's right eye at Singesar during the 1987 Battle of Arghandab. Other sources place this event in 1986 or in the 1989 Battle of Jalalabad. Omar went to a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, for treatment to his eye wound. According to former Taliban official Abdul Hai Mutmaen (or Mutma’in), this was the only time that Omar ever went to Pakistan, and that he returned after treatment. According to Dutch journalist Bette Dam, in research published in 2019, he went to Pakistan on one other occasion during the war, to fetch weapons following a dispute within his mujahideen group. Mutmaen denies that Omar went there for weapons, but acknowledges that a few members of Omar's family claim he visited Pakistan four times during the war – once for the injury, then to register his group, and two visits to injured friends.


title: Mullah Omar

text: The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. According to Ahmed Rashid, Omar joined the mujahideen group Hezb-i Islami Khalis and fought under the command of Nek Mohammed against Mohammad Najibullah's communist regime between 1989 and 1992.


title: Mullah Omar

text: After Najibullah's government collapsed in 1992, Omar and a group of mujahideen turned their base near Haji Ibrahim Mosque in Gheshano village, in the Singesar area, into a madrassa. As well as teaching there, Omar resumed his own studies that had been interrupted by the war. Unlike many Afghan mujaheddin, Omar spoke Arabic. He was devoted to the lectures of Sheikh Abdullah Azzam.


title: Mullah Omar

text: After Najibullah's regime ended, the country fell into chaos as various mujahideen factions fought for control. According to one legend, Omar had a dream in 1994 in which a woman told him: "We need your help; you must rise. You must end the chaos. God will help you." Omar started his movement with less than 50 armed madrassah students who were simply known as the Taliban (Pashtun for 'students'). His recruits came from madrassas located in Afghanistan and the Afghan refugee camps which were located across the border in Pakistan. They fought against the rampant corruption which had emerged during the civil war period and were initially welcomed by Afghans who were weary of warlord rule. Apparently, Omar became sickened by the abusive raping of children by warlords and turned against their authority in the mountainous country of Afghanistan from 1994 onwards.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Two influential anti-Soviet political leaders who were connected with Peshawar during this era were Mohammad Yunus Khalis and Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi; both exerted a considerable influence over the Taliban, particularly in the southern parts of the country, including Kandahar. Many of those who later formed the core of the Taliban, including Omar, fought under the command of factions that were loyal to Nabi Mohammadi. These factions had helped spread "madrasa", attended by many of the Kandahar Taliban, throughout the southern regions of Afghanistan.


title: Mullah Omar

text: The practice of bacha bazi by warlords was one of the key factors in Omar mobilizing the Taliban. Reportedly, in early 1994, Omar led 30 men armed with 16 rifles to free two young girls who had been kidnapped and raped by a warlord, hanging him from a tank gun barrel. Another instance arose when in 1994, a few months before the Taliban took control of Kandahar, two militia commanders confronted each other over a young boy whom they both wanted to sodomize. In the ensuing fight, Omar's group freed the boy; appeals soon flooded in for Omar to intercede in other disputes. His movement gained momentum through the year and he quickly gathered recruits from Islamic schools totaling 12,000 by the year's end with some Pakistani volunteers. By November 1994, Omar's movement managed to capture the whole of the Kandahar Province and then captured the Herat Province in September 1995. Some accounts estimated that by the spring of 1995 he had already taken 12 of the 31 provinces in Afghanistan.


title: Mullah Omar

text: On 4 April 1996, supporters of Omar bestowed the title "Amir al-Mu'minin" (أمير المؤمنين, ) on him, after he donned a cloak which was alleged to be that of Muhammad, locked in a series of chests and held inside the Shrine of the Cloak (Kirka Sharif) in the city of Kandahar. Legend decreed that whoever could retrieve the cloak from the chest would be the great Leader of the Muslims, or the ""Amir al-Mu'minin".


title: Mullah Omar

text: In September 1996, Kabul fell to Omar and his followers. The civil war continued in the northeast corner of the country, near Tajikistan. In October 1997 the nation was named the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Described as a "reclusive, pious and frugal" leader, Omar rarely left his residence in the city of Kandahar, and he only visited Kabul twice between 1996 and 2001 during his tenure as ruler of Afghanistan. In November 2001, during a radio interview with the BBC, Omar stated: "All Taliban are moderate. There are two things: extremism ['ifraat', or doing something to excess] and conservatism ['tafreet', or doing something insufficiently]. So in that sense, we are all moderates – taking the middle path." During his tenure as Afghanistan's ruler, Omar seldom left the city of Kandahar, where he lived in a large house reportedly built for him by Osama bin Laden, the Saudi militant who was the founder of al-Qaeda.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Omar had a complicated relationship with Osama bin Laden. According to Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, Omar stated in the late 1990s, "We have told Osama [Bin Laden] not to use Afghan soil to carry out political activities as it creates unnecessary confusion about Taliban objectives." Bin Laden was a challenge for Omar: he was widely seen as a defender of the faith, had deep pockets, and if he were to censure the Taliban, the movement would likely end. However, Omar did not want bin Laden spreading a message of jihad. Omar summoned bin Laden to meet him in 1996 after bin Laden's declaration of jihad against the United States the same year. He asked bin Laden to stop talking about the jihad, but as a matter of Pashtun tribal custom did not outright forbid him, as it would be deeply insulting to a guest. Bin Laden chose to ignore Omar. The high stature of Bin Laden and his importance in keeping the Taliban in power were further evidenced by Omar visiting bin Laden as a guest, a sign of deference and respect. After the 1998 United States embassy bombings, the US launched cruise missiles against al-Qaeda training camps and sought bin Laden. This inadvertently created more sympathy for bin Laden in Afghanistan. Omar did not hand bin Laden over, citing Pashtunwali tribal customs that require a host to protect guests, and that bin Laden was a guest of Afghanistan. Privately, Omar felt that if he bowed to the US by turning over bin Laden, the US would try to further influence Afghanistan and attempt to meddle in its religious matters. In 2000, Omar ordered bin Laden to not attack the United States, after advisors warned him that bin Laden might be planning to do so. Omar suggested to the US that bin Laden be turned over to an international Islamic court, or simply exiled, but the US turned both suggestions down.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Omar was also "Head of the Supreme Council of Afghanistan". The Supreme Council was initially established at Kandahar in 1994.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In July 1999, Mohammed Omar issued a decree in favor of the preservation of the Bamiyan Buddha statues. Because Afghanistan's Buddhist population no longer exists, so the statues are no longer worshiped, he added: "The government considers the Bamiyan statues as an example of a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamiyan shall not be destroyed but protected."


title: Mullah Omar

text: In early 2000, local Taliban authorities asked for UN assistance to rebuild drainage ditches around tops of the alcoves where the Buddhas were set.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In March 2001, the Bamiyan Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taliban under an edict issued from Omar, stating: "all the statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed." This prompted an international outcry. Information and Culture Minister Qadratullah Jamal told Associated Press of a decision by 400 religious clerics from across Afghanistan declaring the Buddhist statues against the tenets of Islam. "They came out with a consensus that the statues were against Islam," said Jamal. A statement issued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Taliban regime justified the destruction as being in accordance with Islamic law. The then Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef held that the destruction of the Buddhas was finally ordered by Abdul Wali, the Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In July 2000, Taliban leader Mohammed Omar, in an effort to eradicate heroin production in Afghanistan, declared that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns. The Taliban enforced a ban on poppy farming via threats, forced eradication, and public punishment of transgressors. The result was a 99% reduction in the area of opium poppy farming in Taliban-controlled areas, roughly three-quarters of the world's supply of heroin at the time. The ban was effective only briefly due to the deposition of the Taliban in 2001.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Following the September 11 attacks on the United States carried out by al-Qaeda, the United States under the Bush administration issued an ultimatum to Afghanistan to hand over Osama bin Laden and other high ranking al-Qaeda officials and shut down all al-Qaeda training camps within the country. In an interview with Voice of America, Omar was asked if he would give up Osama bin Laden. Omar replied, "No. We cannot do that. If we did, it means we are not Muslims, that Islam is finished. If we were afraid of attack, we could have surrendered him the last time we were threatened." Omar explained his position to high-ranking Taliban officials:


title: Mullah Omar

text: Omar was adamant that bin Laden was innocent of planning the 9/11 attacks despite the accusations directed against him. Nonetheless, high-ranking Taliban officials attempted to persuade Omar to hand bin Laden over and made offers to the United States through its contacts with Pakistan. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef said at a news conference in Islamabad that "our position in this regard is that if the Americans have evidence, they should produce it." If they could prove their allegations, he said, "we are ready for a trial of Osama bin Laden." The Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil also attempted to negotiate, offering the Americans the proposal of setting up a three-nation court under the supervision of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference as it was a "neutral organization" or having bin Laden tried by an Islamic council in Afghanistan. Muttawakil said "the US showed no interest in it." The Taliban Prime Minister Abdul Kabir stated that if evidence was provided, "we would be ready to hand him over to a third country". Part of the reluctance to hand bin Laden over stemmed from Omar's own miscalculations. Omar thought there was "less than a 10 percent" chance that the US would do anything beyond make threats.


title: Mullah Omar

text: The Supreme Council of the Islamic Clergy, a council of around 1,000 clerics, convened in Kabul in late September 2001 and issued a decree against the United States and its threats of militarily invading Afghanistan. They also recommended that Osama bin Laden be asked to leave Afghanistan of his own free will to "avoid the current tumult" and expressed sympathy and a conciliatory tone towards those who died in the 11 September attacks: "The ulema voice their sadness over American deaths and hope America does not attack Afghanistan." The Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that Omar had agreed to follow guidance offered by the clerics and would try to encourage bin Laden to leave Afghanistan without forcibly handing him over to the United States for prosecution, even if bin Laden refused to leave the country.


title: Mullah Omar

text: On the night of 7–8 October 2001, shortly after the US-led United States invasion of Afghanistan began, Omar's house in Kandahar was bombed just after he had left, fatally injuring his 10-year-old son. His stepfather, who was also his uncle, was initially reported killed, but later reports said he was injured and treated in hospital.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In another account of an attack that night, an MQ-1 Predator drone followed a three-vehicle convoy that left Omar's compound and drove to a compound to the southwest of Kandahar, with US commanders believing Omar was in one of the vehicles. Men disembarked from the vehicles and entered a large building in the compound. US military officers considered bombing the building, but were concerned that another building in the compound might be a mosque, which they wished to avoid hitting. Eventually it was decided to fire a Hellfire missile from the Predator at one of the vehicles, where armed guards kept gathering, in the hope that it would draw out anyone inside the possible mosque. The the first missile launched by a drone in appeared to cause two casualties. Dozens of men, some armed, emerged from the large building and other buildings in the compound, and some got into vehicles and departed.


title: Mullah Omar

text: According to fellow Taliban fighters, Omar had secretly fled his residence in Kandahar for security purposes shortly after it was bombed and was last seen riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by his brother-in-law and right-hand man, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Senior and former Taliban officials have said that there had not been any confirmed sightings of their "Amir-ul-Momineen" (commander of the faithful) in Afghanistan since then.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In November 2001, he was heard over a short-wave radio ordering all Taliban troops to abandon Kabul and take to the mountains, noting, "defending the cities with front lines that can be targeted from the air will cause us terrible loss". In a November 2001 BBC Pashto interview, Omar said, "You (the BBC) and American puppet radios have created concern. But the current situation in Afghanistan is related to a bigger cause – that is the destruction of America. ... This is not a matter of weapons. We are hopeful for God's help. The real matter is the extinction of America. And, God willing, it [America] will fall to the ground." Claiming that the Americans had circulated "propaganda" that Omar had gone into hiding, Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil stated that he would like to "propose that Prime Minister Blair and President Bush take Kalashnikovs and come to a specified place where Omar will also appear to see who will run and who not". He stated that Omar was merely changing locations due to security reasons.


title: Mullah Omar

text: During the Battle for Kandahar in late November 2001, US Special Operations teams known as Texas 12 and Texas 17 aligned with Hamid Karzai and with Pashtun General Gul Agha Sherzai, respectively, surrounded Kandahar backed by US Marines outside LashkarGah. On 28 November 2001, while under attack by a Russian-made BM-21 multiple rocket launcher, Texas 17 observed Omar's black American-made Chevrolet Suburban passing Kandahar Airport and travelling down highway four surrounded by a dozen sedans and six semi-trucks. Four US Navy F-18's from destroyed all the vehicles including the Suburban. The same day, 28 November 2001, the Taliban reported that Omar had supposedly survived an American air strike.


title: Mullah Omar

text: On 5 December 2001, Omar held a meeting in Kandahar of top Taliban leaders and asked them what they wanted to do. Many were ready to stop fighting and willing to surrender. Omar handed over the Taliban leadership to his defence minister, Mullah Obaidullah, in writing. Two days later Omar left Kandahar and went into hiding in Zabul province in Afghanistan. In the following years, there was speculation about his location – with some believing that he went to Pakistan along with other Taliban leaders – and his circumstances and purported communications. But according to Bette Dam, in research published in 2019, and Borhan Osman, a senior analyst at International Crisis Group (ICG), Omar spent the rest of his life living in Zabul province. Dam said that her research relied on interviews with current and former members of the Afghan government, the Afghan intelligence agency National Directorate of Security, the Taliban, and Omar's bodyguard Jabbar Omari. She said that her findings, confirmed by Afghan officials as well as the Talibans, depicted the US intelligence failure and cast even further doubt on US claims in the Afghan war.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Omar was protected in hiding by Jabbar Omari, a former Taliban governor of Baghlan province, who was from Zabul province and belonged to the Hotak tribe, as Omar did. They spent four years living in the provincial capital Qalat at a private home owned by Abdul Samad Ustaz, Omari's former driver. Omar's wives moved to Pakistan and Omar declined when Omari offered to bring his son to visit. He had very little active involvement in the Taliban from the end of 2001. He sent a cassette tape to the rest of the Taliban leadership in Quetta in 2003, reaffirming that Obaidullah was the supreme leader and naming who should be on the leadership shura (council). The shura sent a messenger every three to seven months, when they wanted his advice on some matter. He sent at least one other cassette tape, in 2007, but stopped that practice after the messenger was briefly detained in Pakistan, and thereafter messages were just relayed person-to-person. Omar kept in touch with events in the world by listening to BBC Pashto radio. Bette Dam wrote, "Though Mullah Omar did not venture outside for fear of being caught, according to Jabbar Omari, in the four years they hid in that home, they felt relatively safe." The house was searched by the US military once, but they did not enter the concealed room where Omar was hiding.


title: Mullah Omar

text: After the US established Forward Operating Base Lagman a few hundred metres from the house in 2004, Omar relocated to a shack in a remote hamlet on the edge of a river, about 20 miles southeast of Qalat in Shinkay District, close to the Durand Line. His hideout was connected to underground irrigation channels that ran up into the hills. Soon after moving there, the US started building Forward Operating Base (FOB) Wolverine an hour's walk or about three miles away, but Omar stayed put. The FOB eventually housed about 1,000 United States troops, and sometimes other NATO troops. To avoid detection, he would occasionally hide in the underground irrigation tunnels connected to his hideout, as US planes flew over or if US or Afghan troops came to search the area. People in the village knew that Taliban personnel were living there and offered gifts of clothes and food to Omari and Omar. In 2019, the Taliban released a picture of the supposed hideout where Omar spent the last years of his life. The pictures show a modest mud house with a small garden in which Omar "used to sit in the sun", according to a Taliban spokesman.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Jabbar Omari said that Omar grew ill in 2013, refusing to visit a doctor and dying of illness on 23 April. Omari and two helpers buried him that night, with Omari videoing the burial as proof. Omari went to Quetta, returning with Omar's son Yaqoob and brother Abdul Manan Omari, who had not seen him since 2001. Yaqoob insisted that the grave be opened so that he could see his father. Omari went to Quetta and met with ten senior Taliban to describe the 12 years he spent with Omar. Obaidullah had died in 2010 and Akhtar Mansour was the operational leader of the Taliban. Four religious scholars at the meeting decided that Mansour should continue as leader, but that Omar's death and Mansour's succession should not be disclosed publicly yet, while the United States was preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan. Some at the meeting unsuccessfully argued for openness. Omar's death remained a secret for two years.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Some believed that Omar hid in the mountains of southern Afghanistan for over a year before he fled to neighboring Pakistan in late 2002. He continued to receive the allegiance of prominent pro-Taliban military leaders in the region, including Jalaluddin Haqqani. According to sources, he lived somewhere in Karachi for a time, where he worked as a potato trader. The United States offered a reward of US$10 million for information leading to his capture.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In April 2004, Omar was interviewed via phone by Pakistani journalist Mohammed Shehzad. During the interview, Omar claimed that Osama Bin Laden was alive and well, and that his last contact with Bin Laden was months before the interview. Omar declared that the Taliban were "hunting Americans like pigs".


title: Mullah Omar

text: In the years following the allied invasion, numerous statements were released that were identified as coming from Omar. In June 2006, a statement regarding the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq was released by Omar and in it, he hailed al-Zarqawi as a martyr and he also claimed that the resistance movements in Afghanistan and Iraq "will not be weakened". Then, in December 2006, Omar reportedly issued a statement expressing confidence that foreign forces will be driven out of Afghanistan.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In January 2007, it was reported that Omar made his "first exchange with a journalist since he went into hiding" in 2001 with Muhammad Hanif via email and courier. In it he promised "more Afghan War", and he also said that the more than one hundred suicide bomb attacks which occurred in Afghanistan in the last year had been carried out by bombers who acted on religious orders which they received from the Taliban – "the mujahedeen do not take any action without a fatwa." In April 2007, Omar issued another statement through an intermediary in which he encouraged more suicide attacks.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In November 2009, "The Washington Times" claimed that Omar, assisted by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), had moved back to Karachi in October. In January 2010, Brigadier Amir Sultan Tarar, a retired officer with ISI who had previously trained Omar, said that he was ready to break with his al-Qaida allies and make peace in Afghanistan: "The moment he gets control, the first target will be the al-Qaida people."


title: Mullah Omar

text: In January 2011, "The Washington Post", citing a report which was published by the Eclipse Group, a privately operated intelligence network that may be contracted by the CIA, stated that Omar had a heart attack on 7 January 2011. According to the report, Pakistan's ISI rushed Omar to a hospital near Karachi where he was operated on, treated, and then released several days later. Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, stated that the report "had no basis whatsoever".


title: Mullah Omar

text: On 23 May 2011, TOLO News in Afghanistan quoted unnamed sources as saying that Omar had been killed by ISI two days earlier. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid responded to the report by stating, "He is in Afghanistan safe and sound." On 20 July 2011, phone text messages which were delivered from accounts which were used by Mujahid and fellow spokesman Qari Mohammed Yousuf announced Omar's death. However, Mujahid and Yousuf quickly denied sending the messages and they claimed that their mobile phones, websites, and e-mail accounts had all been hacked, and they swore revenge on the telephone network providers. In 2012, it was revealed that an individual claiming to be Omar sent a letter to President Barack Obama in 2011, expressing slight interest in peace talks.


title: Mullah Omar

text: On 31 May 2014, five senior Afghan detainees were released from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba in return for the release of American prisoner of war Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl – a person claiming to be Omar reportedly hailed their release.


title: Mullah Omar

text: In December 2014, acting Afghan intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil stated that he was not sure "whether Omar is alive or dead". This statement was made after the Afghan intelligence agency published reports in which it revealed that fracturing was occurring within the Taliban movement, leading some reporters to speculate that a leadership struggle had ensued because Omar had died. Later reports which were released by Afghan intelligence in December said that Omar had been hiding in Karachi. An anonymous European intelligence official stated that "there's a consensus among all three branches of the Afghan security forces that Omar is alive. Not only do they think he's alive, they say they have a good understanding of where exactly he is in Karachi."


title: Mullah Omar

text: In April 2015, a man who claimed to be Mullah Omar issued a fatwa which decreed that pledges of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) are forbidden by Islamic law. The man described ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as a "fake caliph", and he also said that "Baghdadi just wanted to dominate what has so far been achieved by the real jihadists of Islam after three decades of jihad. A pledge of allegiance to him is 'haram'."


title: Mullah Omar

text: On 29 July 2015, Abdul Hassib Seddiqi, the spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, said "officially" that Mohammed Omar had died at a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, in April 2013, and the office of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani confirmed that information on his death was "credible". Pakistani newspaper "The Express Tribune" reported that a former Taliban minister and current leadership council member, who spoke anonymously, said Omar died from tuberculosis.


title: Mullah Omar

text: The following day, the Taliban confirmed that he was dead, but denied that he died in Pakistan. Other Taliban members stated that his death occurred in Afghanistan. According to an official statement by Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Asif, "Mullah Omar neither died nor was buried in Pakistan and his sons' statements are on record to support this. Whether he died now or two years ago is another controversy which we do not wish to be a part of. He was neither in Karachi nor in Quetta."


title: Mullah Omar

text: Afghan officials report that Omar was buried in Zabul province, a province in southern Afghanistan. Atta Mohammed Haqyar, head of Zabul's provincial council, believed that Omar was buried in a cemetery in Sarkhogan area of Shinkay district in Zabul province. Several senior Taliban commanders have also been buried in Sarkhogan area. He further stated that the area had special significance for the Hotak tribe which Omar was from.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Sources close to the Taliban leadership said his deputy, Akhtar Mansoor, would replace him, although with the lesser title of Supreme Leader. It was confirmed by a senior Taliban member that Omar's death was kept a secret for two years.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Fidai Mahaz, a Taliban splinter group, claimed that Omar did not die of natural causes; rather he was killed in his hideout in Zabul province.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Many Islamist and jihadist movements expressed condolences following Omar's death, including Ajnad al-Kavkaz, Ansar Al-Furqan, Islamic Front's Ahrar al-Sham, Jaish Muhammad, Ansar al-Din Front, Turkistan Islamic Party, Jamaat Ansar al-Sunna, Jaish al Ummah, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Caucasus Emirate, Jaish al-Islam, Al-Nusra Front, AQAP, AQIM, and Al-Shabaab.


title: Mullah Omar

text: Conversely, the Afghan government was unsympathetic to mourning his death; security forces were ordered to prevent citizens from publicly grieving Omar. A National Directorate of Security (NDS) spokesman said that Omar was "the biggest cause of war and backwardness in the modern history of Afghanistan", adding that any ceremony for Omar would be an "insult" to victims of the Taliban. Meanwhile, thousands of Afghans nationwide took part in rallies on 4 August, denouncing Omar.


title: Migraine

text: Migraine (, ) is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent headaches. Typically, the associated headache affects one side of the head, is pulsating in nature, may be moderate to severe in intensity, and could last from a few hours to three days. Non-headache symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light, sound, or smell. The pain is generally made worse by physical activity during an attack, although regular physical exercise may prevent future attacks. Up to one-third of people affected have aura: typically, it is a short period of visual disturbance that signals that the headache will soon occur. Occasionally, aura can occur with little or no headache following, but not everyone has this symptom.


title: Migraine

text: Migraine is believed to be due to a mixture of environmental and genetic factors. About two-thirds of cases run in families. Changing hormone levels may also play a role, as migraine affects slightly more boys than girls before puberty and two to three times more women than men. The risk of migraine usually decreases during pregnancy and after menopause. The underlying mechanisms are not fully known. They are, however, believed to involve the nerves and blood vessels of the brain.


title: Migraine

text: Initial recommended treatment is with simple pain medication such as ibuprofen and paracetamol (acetaminophen) for the headache, medication for the nausea, and the avoidance of triggers. Specific medications such as triptans or ergotamines may be used in those for whom simple pain medications are not effective. Caffeine in combination with other analgesics is safe and effective in treatment of acute migraine. A number of medications are useful to prevent attacks including metoprolol, valproate, and topiramate.


title: Migraine

text: Globally, approximately 15% of people are affected by migraine. In the Global Burden of Disease Study of 2010, it was ranked as the third most prevalent disorder in the world. It most often starts at puberty and is worst during middle age. , it is one of the most common causes of disability. An early description consistent with migraines is contained in the Ebers papyrus, written around 1500 BC in ancient Egypt. The word "migraine" is from the Greek ἡμικρᾱνίᾱ ("hēmikrāníā"), 'pain in half of the head', from ἡμι- ("hēmi-"), 'half' and κρᾱνίον ("krāníon"), 'skull'.


title: Migraine

text: Migraine typically presents with self-limited, recurrent severe headache associated with autonomic symptoms. About 15–30% of people living with migraine experience episodes with aura, and they also frequently experience episodes without aura. The severity of the pain, duration of the headache, and frequency of attacks are variable. A migraine attack lasting longer than 72 hours is termed status migrainosus. There are four possible phases to a migraine attack, although not all the phases are necessarily experienced:


title: Migraine

text: Migraine is associated with major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, and obsessive–compulsive disorder. These psychiatric disorders are approximately 2–5 times more common in people without aura, and 3–10 times more common in people with aura.


title: Migraine

text: Prodromal or premonitory symptoms occur in about 60% of those with migraines, with an onset that can range from two hours to two days before the start of pain or the aura. These symptoms may include a wide variety of phenomena, including altered mood, irritability, depression or euphoria, fatigue, craving for certain food(s), stiff muscles (especially in the neck), constipation or diarrhea, and sensitivity to smells or noise. This may occur in those with either migraine with aura or migraine without aura. Neuroimaging indicates the limbic system and hypothalamus as the origin of prodromal symptoms in migraine.


title: Migraine

text: Aura is a transient focal neurological phenomenon that occurs before or during the headache. Aura appears gradually over a number of minutes (usually occurring over 5–60 minutes) and generally lasts less than 60 minutes. Symptoms can be visual, sensory or motoric in nature, and many people experience more than one. Visual effects occur most frequently: they occur in up to 99% of cases and in more than 50% of cases are not accompanied by sensory or motor effects.


title: Migraine

text: Visual disturbances often consist of a scintillating scotoma (an area of partial alteration in the field of vision which flickers and may interfere with a person's ability to read or drive). These typically start near the center of vision and then spread out to the sides with zigzagging lines which have been described as looking like fortifications or walls of a castle. Usually the lines are in black and white but some people also see colored lines. Some people lose part of their field of vision known as hemianopsia while others experience blurring.


title: Migraine

text: Sensory aura are the second most common type; they occur in 30–40% of people with auras. Often a feeling of pins-and-needles begins on one side in the hand and arm and spreads to the nose–mouth area on the same side. Numbness usually occurs after the tingling has passed with a loss of position sense. Other symptoms of the aura phase can include speech or language disturbances, world spinning, and less commonly motor problems. Motor symptoms indicate that this is a hemiplegic migraine, and weakness often lasts longer than one hour unlike other auras. Auditory hallucinations or delusions have also been described.


title: Migraine

text: Classically the headache is unilateral, throbbing, and moderate to severe in intensity. It usually comes on gradually and is aggravated by physical activity during a migraine attack. However, the effects of physical activity on migraine are complex, and some researchers have concluded that, while exercise can trigger migraine attacks, regular exercise may have a prophylactic effect and decrease frequency of attacks. The feeling of pulsating pain is not in phase with the pulse. In more than 40% of cases, however, the pain may be bilateral (both sides of the head), and neck pain is commonly associated with it. Bilateral pain is particularly common in those who have migraine without aura. Less commonly pain may occur primarily in the back or top of the head. The pain usually lasts 4 to 72 hours in adults; however, in young children frequently lasts less than 1 hour. The frequency of attacks is variable, from a few in a lifetime to several a week, with the average being about one a month.


title: Migraine

text: The pain is frequently accompanied by nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to sound, sensitivity to smells, fatigue and irritability. Many thus seek a dark and quiet room. In a basilar migraine, a migraine with neurological symptoms related to the brain stem or with neurological symptoms on both sides of the body, common effects include a sense of the world spinning, light-headedness, and confusion. Nausea occurs in almost 90% of people, and vomiting occurs in about one-third. Other symptoms may include blurred vision, nasal stuffiness, diarrhea, frequent urination, pallor, or sweating. Swelling or tenderness of the scalp may occur as can neck stiffness. Associated symptoms are less common in the elderly.


title: Migraine

text: Sometimes, aura occurs without a subsequent headache. This is known in modern classification as a typical aura without headache, or acephalgic migraine in previous classification, or commonly as a silent migraine.<ref name="jmedicalcaserep-Yusheng-2015-aura-w/o-headache"></ref> However, silent migraine can still produce debilitating symptoms, with visual disturbance, vision loss in half of both eyes, alterations in color perception, and other sensory problems, like sensitivity to light, sound, and odors, and aura sudden outbreak without headache can be scary. It can last from 15 to 30 minutes, usually no longer than 60 minutes, and it can recur or appear as an isolated event.


title: Migraine

text: The migraine postdrome could be defined as that constellation of symptoms occurring once the acute headache has settled. Many report a sore feeling in the area where the migraine was, and some report impaired thinking for a few days after the headache has passed. The person may feel tired or "hung over" and have head pain, cognitive difficulties, gastrointestinal symptoms, mood changes, and weakness. According to one summary, "Some people feel unusually refreshed or euphoric after an attack, whereas others note depression and malaise." For some individuals this can vary each time.


title: Migraine

text: The underlying causes of migraines are unknown. However, they are believed to be related to a mix of environmental and genetic factors. They run in families in about two-thirds of cases and rarely occur due to a single gene defect. While migraines were once believed to be more common in those of high intelligence, this does not appear to be true. A number of psychological conditions are associated, including depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, as are many biological events or triggers.


title: Migraine

text: Studies of twins indicate a 34% to 51% genetic influence of likelihood to develop migraine. This genetic relationship is stronger for migraine with aura than for migraines without aura. A number of specific variants of genes increase the risk by a small to moderate amount.


title: Migraine

text: Single gene disorders that result in migraines are rare. One of these is known as familial hemiplegic migraine, a type of migraine with aura, which is inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion. Four genes have been shown to be involved in familial hemiplegic migraine. Three of these genes are involved in ion transport. The fourth is an axonal protein associated with the exocytosis complex. Another genetic disorder associated with migraine is CADASIL syndrome or cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy. One meta-analysis found a protective effect from angiotensin converting enzyme polymorphisms on migraine. The "TRPM8" gene, which codes for a cation channel, has been linked to migraines.


title: Migraine

text: Migraine may be induced by triggers, with some reporting it as an influence in a minority of cases and others the majority. Many things such as fatigue, certain foods, alcohol, and weather have been labeled as triggers; however, the strength and significance of these relationships are uncertain. Most people with migraines report experiencing triggers. Symptoms may start up to 24 hours after a trigger.


title: Migraine

text: Common triggers quoted are stress, hunger, and fatigue (these equally contribute to tension headaches). Psychological stress has been reported as a factor by 50 to 80% of people. Migraine has also been associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and abuse. Migraine episodes are more likely to occur around menstruation. Other hormonal influences, such as menarche, oral contraceptive use, pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause, also play a role. These hormonal influences seem to play a greater role in migraine without aura. Migraine episodes typically do not occur during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, or following menopause.


title: Migraine

text: There are many reports that tyramine – which is naturally present in chocolate, alcoholic beverages, most cheeses, processed meats, and other foods – can trigger migraine symptoms in some individuals. Likewise, monosodium glutamate (MSG) is frequently reported as a trigger for migraine symptoms.


title: Migraine

text: A 2009 review on potential triggers in the indoor and outdoor environment concluded that while there were insufficient studies to confirm environmental factors as causing migraine, "migraineurs worldwide consistently report similar environmental triggers". The article suggests that people living with migraine take some preventive measures related to indoor air quality and lighting.


title: Migraine

text: Migraine is believed to be primarily a neurological disorder, while others believe it to be a neurovascular disorder with blood vessels playing the key role, although current evidence does not support this completely. Others believe both are likely important. One theory is related to increased excitability of the cerebral cortex and abnormal control of pain neurons in the trigeminal nucleus of the brainstem.


title: Migraine

text: Cortical spreading depression, or "spreading depression" according to Leão, is a burst of neuronal activity followed by a period of inactivity, which is seen in those with migraines with aura. There are a number of explanations for its occurrence, including activation of NMDA receptors leading to calcium entering the cell. After the burst of activity, the blood flow to the cerebral cortex in the area affected is decreased for two to six hours. It is believed that when depolarization travels down the underside of the brain, nerves that sense pain in the head and neck are triggered.


title: Migraine

text: The exact mechanism of the head pain which occurs during a migraine episode is unknown. Some evidence supports a primary role for central nervous system structures (such as the brainstem and diencephalon), while other data support the role of peripheral activation (such as via the sensory nerves that surround blood vessels of the head and neck). The potential candidate vessels include dural arteries, pial arteries and extracranial arteries such as those of the scalp. The role of vasodilatation of the extracranial arteries, in particular, is believed to be significant.


title: Migraine

text: Adenosine, a neuromodulator, may be involved. Released after the progressive cleavage of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), adenosine acts on adenosine receptors to put the body and brain in a low activity state by dilating blood vessels and slowing the heart rate, such as before and during the early stages of sleep. Adenosine levels have been found to be high during migraine attacks. Caffeine's role as an inhibitor of adenosine may explain its effect in reducing migraine. Low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, also known as 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), are also believed to be involved.


title: Migraine

text: Calcitonin gene-related peptides (CGRPs) have been found to play a role in the pathogenesis of the pain associated with migraine, as levels of it become elevated during an attack.


title: Migraine

text: The diagnosis of a migraine is based on signs and symptoms. Neuroimaging tests are not necessary to diagnose migraine, but may be used to find other causes of headaches in those whose examination and history do not confirm a migraine diagnosis. It is believed that a substantial number of people with the condition remain undiagnosed.


title: Migraine

text: The diagnosis of migraine without aura, according to the International Headache Society, can be made according to the following criteria, the "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 criteria":


title: Migraine

text: If someone experiences two of the following: photophobia, nausea, or inability to work or study for a day, the diagnosis is more likely. In those with four out of five of the following: pulsating headache, duration of 4–72 hours, pain on one side of the head, nausea, or symptoms that interfere with the person's life, the probability that this is a migraine attack is 92%. In those with fewer than three of these symptoms, the probability is 17%.


title: Migraine

text: Migraine was first comprehensively classified in 1988. The International Headache Society updated their classification of headaches in 2004. A third version was published in 2018. According to this classification, migraine is a primary headache disorder along with tension-type headaches and cluster headaches, among others.


title: Migraine

text: The diagnosis of abdominal migraine is controversial. Some evidence indicates that recurrent episodes of abdominal pain in the absence of a headache may be a type of migraine or are at least a precursor to migraines. These episodes of pain may or may not follow a migraine-like prodrome and typically last minutes to hours. They often occur in those with either a personal or family history of typical migraine. Other syndromes that are believed to be precursors include cyclical vomiting syndrome and benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood.


title: Migraine

text: Other conditions that can cause similar symptoms to a migraine headache include temporal arteritis, cluster headaches, acute glaucoma, meningitis and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Temporal arteritis typically occurs in people over 50 years old and presents with tenderness over the temple, cluster headache presents with one-sided nose stuffiness, tears and severe pain around the orbits, acute glaucoma is associated with vision problems, meningitis with fevers, and subarachnoid hemorrhage with a very fast onset. Tension headaches typically occur on both sides, are not pounding, and are less disabling.


title: Migraine

text: Those with stable headaches that meet criteria for migraines should not receive neuroimaging to look for other intracranial disease. This requires that other concerning findings such as papilledema (swelling of the optic disc) are not present. People with migraines are not at an increased risk of having another cause for severe headaches.


title: Migraine

text: Preventive treatments of migraine include medications, nutritional supplements, lifestyle alterations, and surgery. Prevention is recommended in those who have headaches more than two days a week, cannot tolerate the medications used to treat acute attacks, or those with severe attacks that are not easily controlled. Recommended lifestyle changes include stopping tobacco use and reducing behaviors that interfere with sleep.


title: Migraine

text: The goal is to reduce the frequency, painfulness, and duration of migraine episodes, and to increase the effectiveness of abortive therapy. Another reason for prevention is to avoid medication overuse headache. This is a common problem and can result in chronic daily headache.


title: Migraine

text: Preventive migraine medications are considered effective if they reduce the frequency or severity of the migraine attacks by at least 50%. Due to few medications being approved specifically for the preventative treatment of migraine headaches; many medications such as beta-blockers, anticonvulsive agents such as topiramate or sodium valproate, antidepressants such as amitriptyline and calcium channel blockers such as flunarizine are used off label for the preventative treatment of migraine headaches. Guidelines are fairly consistent in rating the anticonvulsants topiramate and divalproex/sodium valproate, and the beta blockers propranolol and metoprolol as having the highest level of evidence for first-line use for migraine prophylaxis in adults. Propranolol and topiramate have the best evidence in children; however, evidence only supports short-term benefit as of 2020.


title: Migraine

text: The beta blocker timolol is also effective for migraine prevention and in reducing migraine attack frequency and severity. While beta blockers are often used for first-line treatment, other antihypertensives also have a proven efficiency in migraine prevention, namely the calcium channel blocker verapamil and the angiotensin receptor blocker candesartan.


title: Migraine

text: Tentative evidence also supports the use of magnesium supplementation. Increasing dietary intake may be better. Recommendations regarding effectiveness varied for the anticonvulsants gabapentin and pregabalin. Frovatriptan is effective for prevention of menstrual migraine.


title: Migraine

text: The antidepressants amitriptyline and venlafaxine are probably also effective. Angiotensin inhibition by either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin II receptor antagonist may reduce attacks.


title: Migraine

text: Medications in the anti-calcitonin gene-related peptide, including eptinezumab, erenumab, fremanezumab, and galcanezumab, appear to decrease the frequency of migraines by one to two per month. They are, however, expensive: a year of erenumab costs $6,900 .


title: Migraine

text: Acupuncture has a small effect in reducing migraine frequency, compared to sham acupuncture, a practice where needles are placed randomly or do not penetrate the skin. Physiotherapy, massage and relaxation, and chiropractic manipulation might be as effective as propranolol or topiramate in the prevention of migraine headaches; however, the research had some problems with methodology. Another review, however, found evidence to support spinal manipulation to be poor and insufficient to support its use.


title: Migraine

text: Tentative evidence supports the use of stress reduction techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, biofeedback, and relaxation techniques. Regular physical exercise may decrease the frequency. Numerous psychological approaches have been developed that are aimed at preventing or reducing the frequency of migraine in adults including educational approaches, relaxation techniques, assistance in developing coping strategies, strategies to change the way one thinks of a migraine attack, and strategies to reduce symptoms. The medical evidence supporting the effectiveness of these types of psychological approaches is very limited.


title: Migraine

text: Among alternative medicines, butterbur has the best evidence for its use. However, unprocessed butterbur contains chemicals called pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) which can cause liver damage, however there are versions that are PA free. In addition, butterbur may cause allergic reactions in people who are sensitive to plants such as ragweed. There is tentative evidence that coenzyme Q10 reduces migraine frequency.


title: Migraine

text: Feverfew has traditionally been used as a treatment for fever, headache and migraine, women's conditions such as difficulties in labour and regulation of menstruation, relief of stomach ache, toothache and insect bites. During the last decades, it has mainly been used for headache and as a preventive treatment for migraine. The plant parts used for medicinal use are the dried leaves or the dried aerial parts. Several historical data supports feverfew's traditional medicinal uses. In addition, several clinical studies have been performed assessing the efficacy and safety of feverfew monotherapy in the prevention of migraine. The majority of the clinical trials favoured feverfew over placebo. The data also suggest that feverfew is associated with only mild and transient adverse effects. The frequency of migraine was positively affected after treatment with feverfew. Reduction of migraine severity was also reported after intake of feverfew and incidence of nausea and vomiting decreased significantly. No effect of feverfew was reported in one study.


title: Migraine

text: There is tentative evidence for melatonin as an add-on therapy for prevention and treatment of migraine. The data on melatonin are mixed and certain studies have had negative results. The reasons for the mixed findings are unclear but may stem from differences in study design and dosage. Melatonin's possible mechanisms of action in migraine are not completely clear, but may include improved sleep, direct action on melatonin receptors in the brain, and anti-inflammatory properties.


title: Migraine

text: Medical devices, such as biofeedback and neurostimulators, have some advantages in migraine prevention, mainly when common anti-migraine medications are contraindicated or in case of medication overuse. Biofeedback helps people be conscious of some physiological parameters so as to control them and try to relax and may be efficient for migraine treatment. Neurostimulation uses noninvasive or implantable neurostimulators similar to pacemakers for the treatment of intractable chronic migraine with encouraging results for severe cases. A transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator and a transcranial magnetic stimulator are approved in the United States for the prevention of migraines. There is also tentative evidence for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation decreases the frequency of migraines. Migraine surgery, which involves decompression of certain nerves around the head and neck, may be an option in certain people who do not improve with medications.


title: Migraine

text: There are three main aspects of treatment: trigger avoidance, acute symptomatic control, and medication for prevention. Medications are more effective if used earlier in an attack. The frequent use of medications may result in medication overuse headache, in which the headaches become more severe and more frequent. This may occur with triptans, ergotamines, and analgesics, especially opioid analgesics. Due to these concerns simple analgesics are recommended to be used less than three days per week at most.


title: Migraine

text: Recommended initial treatment for those with mild to moderate symptoms are simple analgesics such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or the combination of paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen), aspirin, and caffeine. Several NSAIDs, including diclofenac and ibuprofen have evidence to support their use. Aspirin (900 to 1000 mg) can relieve moderate to severe migraine pain, with an effectiveness similar to sumatriptan. Ketorolac is available in intravenous and intramuscular formulations.


title: Migraine

text: Paracetamol, either alone or in combination with metoclopramide, is another effective treatment with a low risk of adverse effects. Intravenous metoclopramide is also effective by itself. In pregnancy, paracetamol and metoclopramide are deemed safe as are NSAIDs until the third trimester.


title: Migraine

text: Naproxen by itself may not be effective as a stand-alone medicine to stop a migraine headache as it is only weakly better than a placebo medication in clinical trials.


title: Migraine

text: Triptans such as sumatriptan are medications used to stop an active migraine headache (an abortive medication). Triptans are the initially recommended treatments for those with moderate to severe pain from an acute migraine headache or those with milder symptoms who do not respond to simple analgesics. Triptans have been shown to be effective for both pain and nausea in up to 75% of people. There are different methods or routes of administration to take sumatriptan including oral (by mouth), injectable (subcutaneous), rectal, nasal spray, and oral dissolving tablets. For people with migraine symptoms such as nausea or vomiting, taking the abortive medicine by mouth or through the nose may be difficult. All route of administration have been shown to be effective at reducing migraine symptoms, however, nasal and injectable subcutaneous administration may result in more side effects. The adverse effects associated with rectal administration have not been well studied. Some people may find that they respond to one type of sumatriptan better than another.


title: Migraine

text: Most side effects are mild, including flushing; however, rare cases of myocardial ischemia have occurred. They are thus not recommended for people with cardiovascular disease, who have had a stroke, or have migraines that are accompanied by neurological problems. In addition, triptans should be prescribed with caution for those with risk factors for vascular disease. While historically not recommended in those with basilar migraines there is no specific evidence of harm from their use in this population to support this caution. Triptans are not addictive, but may cause medication-overuse headaches if used more than 10 days per month.


title: Migraine

text: Sumatriptan does not prevent other migraine headaches from starting in the future. For increased effectiveness at stopping migraine symptoms, a combined therapy that includes sumatriptan and naproxen may be suggested.


title: Migraine

text: CGRP receptor antagonists target calcitonin gene-related peptide or its receptor to prevent migraine headaches or reduce their severity. CGRP is a signaling molecule as well as a potent vasodilator that is involved in the development of a migraine headache. There are four injectable monoclonal antibodies that target CGRP or its receptor (eptinezumab, erenumab, fremanezumab and galcanezumab) and the medications have demonstrated efficacy in the preventative treatment of episodic and chronic migraine headaches in phase 3 randomized clinical trials. Eptinezumab is available as an infusion every three months, Erenumab and galcanezumab are once monthly injections and fremanezumab is a monthly or quarterly injection.


title: Migraine

text: Ergotamine and dihydroergotamine are older medications still prescribed for migraines, the latter in nasal spray and injectable forms. They appear equally effective to the triptans and experience adverse effects that typically are benign. In the most severe cases, such as those with status migrainosus, they appear to be the most effective treatment option. They can cause vasospasm including coronary vasospasm and are contraindicated in people with coronary artery disease.


title: Migraine

text: Magnesium is recognized as an inexpensive, over-the-counter supplement which can be part of a multimodal approach to migraine reduction. Some studies have shown to be effective in both preventing and treating migraine in intravenous form. The intravenous form reduces attacks in approximately 15-45 minutes, 120 minutes, and 24 hour time periods, magnesium taken orally changes the frequency and intensity of migraines.


title: Migraine

text: Intravenous metoclopramide, intravenous prochlorperazine, or intranasal lidocaine are other potential options. Metoclopramide or prochlorperazine are the recommended treatment for those who present to the emergency department. Haloperidol may also be useful in this group. A single dose of intravenous dexamethasone, when added to standard treatment of a migraine attack, is associated with a 26% decrease in headache recurrence in the following 72 hours. Spinal manipulation for treating an ongoing migraine headache is not supported by evidence. It is recommended that opioids and barbiturates not be used due to questionable efficacy, addictive potential, and the risk of rebound headache. There is tentative evidence that propofol may be useful if other measures are not effective.


title: Migraine

text: Occipital nerve stimulation, may be effective but has the downsides of being cost-expensive and has a significant amount of complications.


title: Migraine

text: There is modest evidence for the effectiveness of non-invasive neuromodulatory devices, behavioral therapies and acupuncture in the treatment of migraine headaches. There is little to no evidence for the effectiveness of physical therapy, chiropractic manipulation and dietary approaches to the treatment of migraine headaches. Behavioral treatment of migraine headaches may be helpful for those who may not be able to take medications (for example pregnant women).


title: Migraine

text: Feverfew is registered as a traditional herbal medicine in the Nordic countries under the brand name Glitinum, only powdered feverfew is approved in the Herbal community monograph issued by European Medicines Agency (EMA).


title: Migraine

text: Ibuprofen helps decrease pain in children with migraines and is the initially recommended treatment. Paracetamol does not appear to be effective in providing pain relief. Triptans are effective, though there is a risk of causing minor side effects like taste disturbance, nasal symptoms, dizziness, fatigue, low energy, nausea, or vomiting. Ibuprofen should be used less than half the days in a month and triptans less than a third of the days in a month to decrease the risk of medication overuse headache.


title: Migraine

text: Topiramate and botulinum toxin (Botox) have evidence in treating chronic migraine. Botulinum toxin has been found to be useful in those with chronic migraine but not those with episodic ones. The anti-CGRP monoclonal antibody erenumab was found in one study to decrease chronic migraines by 2.4 days more than placebo.


title: Migraine

text: "Migraine exists on a continuum of different attack frequencies and associated levels of disability." For those with occasional, episodic migraine, a "proper combination of drugs for prevention and treatment of migraine attacks" can limit the disease's impact on patients' personal and professional lives. But fewer than half of people with migraine seek medical care and more than half go undiagnosed and undertreated. "Responsive prevention and treatment of migraine is incredibly important" because evidence shows "an increased sensitivity after each successive attack, eventually leading to chronic daily migraine in some individuals." Repeated migraine results in "reorganization of brain circuitry," causing "profound functional as well as structural changes in the brain." "One of the most important problems in clinical migraine is the progression from an intermittent, self-limited inconvenience to a life-changing disorder of chronic pain, sensory amplification, and autonomic and affective disruption. This progression, sometimes termed chronification in the migraine literature, is common, affecting 3% of migraineurs in a given year, such that 8% of migraineurs have chronic migraine in any given year." Brain imagery reveals that the electrophysiological changes seen during an attack become permanent in people with chronic migraine; "thus, from an electrophysiological point of view, chronic migraine indeed resembles a never-ending migraine attack." Severe migraine ranks in the highest category of disability, according to the World Health Organization, which uses objective metrics to determine disability burden for the authoritative annual "Global Burden of Disease" report. The report classifies severe migraine alongside severe depression, active psychosis, quadriplegia, and terminal-stage cancer.


title: Migraine

text: Migraine with aura appears to be a risk factor for ischemic stroke doubling the risk. Being a young adult, being female, using hormonal birth control, and smoking further increases this risk. There also appears to be an association with cervical artery dissection. Migraine without aura does not appear to be a factor. The relationship with heart problems is inconclusive with a single study supporting an association. Migraine does not appear to increase the risk of death from stroke or heart disease. Preventative therapy of migraines in those with migraine with aura may prevent associated strokes. People with migraine, particularly women, may develop higher than average numbers of white matter brain lesions of unclear significance.


title: Migraine

text: Worldwide, migraine affects nearly 15% or approximately one billion people. It is more common in women at 19% than men at 11%. In the United States, about 6% of men and 18% of women experience a migraine attack in a given year, with a lifetime risk of about 18% and 43% respectively. In Europe, migraines affect 12–28% of people at some point in their lives with about 6–15% of adult men and 14–35% of adult women getting at least one yearly. Rates of migraine are slightly lower in Asia and Africa than in Western countries. Chronic migraine occurs in approximately 1.4 to 2.2% of the population.


title: Migraine

text: These figures vary substantially with age: onset of migraine is most commonly between 15 and 24 years of age, and occur most frequently in those 35 to 45 years of age. In children, about 1.7% of 7 year olds and 3.9% of those between 7 and 15 experience migraine, with the condition being slightly more common in boys before puberty. Children as young as two years may be affected. During adolescence, migraine becomes more common among women and this persists for the rest of the lifespan, being twice as common among elderly females than males. In women migraine without aura are more common than migraine with aura; however in men the two types occur with similar frequency.


title: Migraine

text: During perimenopause symptoms often get worse before decreasing in severity. While symptoms resolve in about two thirds of the elderly, in 3 to 10% they persist.


title: Migraine

text: An early description consistent with migraine is contained in the Ebers papyrus, written around 1500 BCE in ancient Egypt. In 200 BCE, writings from the Hippocratic school of medicine described the visual aura that can precede the headache and a partial relief occurring through vomiting.


title: Migraine

text: A second-century description by Aretaeus of Cappadocia divided headaches into three types: cephalalgia, cephalea, and heterocrania. Galen of Pergamon used the term hemicrania (half-head), from which the word migraine was eventually derived. He also proposed that the pain arose from the meninges and blood vessels of the head. Migraine was first divided into the two now used types – migraine with aura ("migraine ophthalmique") and migraine without aura ("migraine vulgaire") in 1887 by Louis Hyacinthe Thomas, a French Librarian. The mystical visions of Hildegard von Bingen, which she described as “reflections of the living light", are consistent with the visual aura experienced during migraines.


title: Migraine

text: Trepanation, the deliberate drilling of holes into a skull, was practiced as early as 7,000 BCE. While sometimes people survived, many would have died from the procedure due to infection. It was believed to work via "letting evil spirits escape". William Harvey recommended trepanation as a treatment for migraines in the 17th century. The association between trepanation and headaches in ancient history may simply be a myth or unfounded speculation that originated several centuries later. In 1913, the world-famous American physician William Osler misinterpreted the French anthropologist and physician Paul Broca ’s words about a set of children's skulls from the Neolithic age that he found during the 1870s. These skulls presented no evident signs of fractures that could justify this complex surgery for mere medical reasons. Trepanation was probably born of superstitions, to remove “confined demons” inside the head, or to create healing or fortune talismans with the bone fragments removed from the skulls of the patients. However, Osler wanted to make Broca’s theory more palatable to his modern audiences, and explained that trepanation procedures were used for mild conditions such as “infantile convulsions headache and various cerebral diseases believed to be caused by confined demons.”


title: Migraine

text: While many treatments for migraine have been attempted, it was not until 1868 that use of a substance which eventually turned out to be effective began. This substance was the fungus ergot from which ergotamine was isolated in 1918. Methysergide was developed in 1959 and the first triptan, sumatriptan, was developed in 1988. During the 20th century with better study-design, effective preventive measures were found and confirmed.


title: Migraine

text: Migraine is a significant source of both medical costs and lost productivity. It has been estimated that migraine is the most costly neurological disorder in the European Community, costing more than €27 billion per year. In the United States, direct costs have been estimated at $17 billion, while indirect costs — such as missed or decreased ability to work — is estimated at $15 billion. Nearly a tenth of the direct cost is due to the cost of triptans. In those who do attend work during a migraine attack, effectiveness is decreased by around a third. Negative impacts also frequently occur for a person's family.


title: Migraine

text: Transcranial magnetic stimulation shows promise as does transcutaneous supraorbital nerve stimulation. There is preliminary evidence that a ketogenic diet may help prevent episodic and long-term migraine.


title: Migraine

text: While no definitive proof has been found linking migraine to gender, statistical data indicates that women may be more prone to having migraine, showing migraine incidence three times higher among women than men. The Society for Women's Health Research has also mentioned hormonal influences, mainly estrogen, as having a considerable role in provoking migraine pain. Studies and research related to the gender dependencies of migraine are still ongoing, and conclusions have yet to be achieved.


title: Penang

text: Penang () is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. They are connected by Malaysia's two longest road bridges, the Penang Bridge and the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge; the latter is also the second longest oversea bridge in Southeast Asia. The second smallest Malaysian state by land mass, Penang is bordered by Kedah to the north and the east, and Perak to the south.


title: Penang

text: Penang is the 8th most populated state in Malaysia. Its population stood at nearly 1.767 million , while its population density was as high as . It has among the nation's highest population densities and is one of the country's most urbanised states. Seberang Perai is Malaysia's second-largest city by population. Its heterogeneous population is highly diverse in ethnicity, culture, language and religion. Aside from the three main races, the Malays, Chinese, and Indians, Penang is home to significant Eurasian, Siamese and expatriate communities. A resident of Penang is colloquially known as a Penangite or "Penang Lang" (Penang Hokkien: 庇能儂; Tâi-lô: "Pī-néeng-lâng") in Penang Hokkien due to the significant Penangite Chinese population.


title: Penang

text: Penang's modern history began in 1786, upon the establishment of George Town by Francis Light. Penang formed part of the Straits Settlements in 1826, which became a British crown colony in 1867. Direct British rule was only briefly interrupted during World War II, when Japan occupied Penang; the British retook Penang in 1945. Penang was later merged with the Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia), which gained independence from the British in 1957.


title: Penang

text: Following the decline of its entrepôt trade towards the 1970s, Penang's economy was reoriented by the central government towards manufacturing. Today, it has become one of Malaysia's most vital economic powerhouses. Penang is the nation's third highest Human Development Index (HDI) state, after Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.


title: Penang

text: The name "Penang" comes from the modern Malay name "Pulau Pinang" which means "areca nut island". The State of Penang is also referred to as the "Pearl of the Orient" and "The Island of Pearls" (in Malay: "Pulau Mutiara").


title: Penang

text: Penang Island was originally known by native seafarers as "Pulau Ka-Satu", meaning "The First Island", because it was the largest island encountered on the trading sea-route between Lingga and Kedah. Similarly, the Siamese, then the overlord of Kedah, referred to the island as "Koh Maak" ().


title: Penang

text: In the 15th century, Penang Island was referred to as "" () in the navigational drawings used by Admiral Zheng He of Ming China. Emanuel Godinho de Eredia, a 16th-century Portuguese historian, also referred to the island as in the "Description of Malacca".


title: Penang

text: Human remains, dating back to about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, have been uncovered in Seberang Perai, along with seashells, pottery and hunting tools. These artifacts indicate that the earliest inhabitants of Penang were nomadic Melanesians during the Neolithic era.


title: Penang

text: The Cherok Tok Kun megalith in Bukit Mertajam, uncovered in 1845, contains Pali inscriptions, indicating that the Hindu-Buddhist Bujang Valley civilisation based in what is now Kedah had established control over parts of Seberang Perai by the 6th century. The entirety of what is now Penang would later become part of the Sultanate of Kedah up to the late 18th century.


title: Penang

text: The first British vessel arrived in Penang in June 1592. This ship, the "Edward Bonadventure", was captained by James Lancaster. However, it was not until the 18th century did the British establish a permanent presence on the island. Prior to the first British settlement, in the early 18th century, three brothers of cross-strait traders from Minangkabau of Sumatra establish settlements on the island. They were Nakhoda Bayan, Nakhoda Intan, and Nakhoda Kecil who brought several followers from Batubara, northeast of Sumatra. They received the appropriate permissions by Ahmad Tajuddin, the sultan of Kedah, and then establish the settlements in Bayan Lepas, Balik Pulau, Gelugor, and Tanjung (now George Town). Other Minang merchants, Datuk Jannaton and Datuk Maharaja Setia who came in 1749, establish Batu Uban area.


title: Penang

text: In the 1770s, Francis Light was instructed by the British East India Company to form trade relations in the Malay Peninsula. Light subsequently landed in Kedah, which was by then a Siamese vassal state. Aware that the Sultanate was under external and internal threats, he promised British military protection to the then Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin II; in return, the Sultan offered Penang Island to the British.


title: Penang

text: It was only in 1786 when the British East India Company finally ordered Light to obtain the island from Kedah. Light negotiated with the new Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah, regarding the cession of the island to the British East India Company in exchange for British military aid. After an agreement between Light and the Sultan was ratified, Light and his entourage sailed on to Penang Island, where they arrived on 17 July 1786. Light took formal possession of the island on 11 August "in the name of His Britannic Majesty, King George III and the Honourable East India Company". Penang Island was renamed the Prince of Wales Island after the heir to the British throne, while the new settlement of George Town was established in honour of King George III.


title: Penang

text: Unbeknownst to Sultan Abdullah, Light had been acting without the authority or the consent of his superiors in India. When Light reneged on his promise of military protection, the Kedah Sultan launched an attempt to recapture the Prince of Wales Island in 1791; the British East India Company subsequently defeated the Kedah forces. The Sultan sued for peace and an annual payment of 6000 Spanish dollars to the Sultan was agreed.


title: Penang

text: In 1800, Lieutenant-Governor Sir George Leith secured a strip of hinterland across the Penang Strait which in subsequent years was named Province Wellesley (now Seberang Perai). The treaty, negotiated between Leith's First Assistant George Caunter and the new Sultan of Kedah, superseded Light's earlier agreement and gave the British permanent sovereignty over both Prince of Wales Island and the newly ceded mainland territory. Province Wellesley was then gradually expanded up to its present-day boundaries in 1874. In exchange for the acquisition, the annual payment to the Sultan of Kedah was increased to 10,000 Spanish dollars per annum. From 1874 until 2018, the Malaysian federal government (and its historical predecessors) paid Kedah, on behalf of Penang, RM 10,000 annually as a symbolic gesture.


title: Penang

text: Since 2018, the Malaysian federal government revised the payments to Kedah, increasing to RM 10 million a year to Kedah (whilst in 2021, the Menteri Besar of Kedah, Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, in reference to the annual payments, demanded the payments be raised to RM 100 million annually. Despite claims by Sanusi, there was never a lease agreement between Kedah and Penang.)


title: Penang

text: Light founded George Town as a free port to entice traders away from nearby Dutch trading posts. Simultaneously, spices were harvested on the island, turning it into a regional centre for spice production. Consequently, maritime trade at the Port of Penang grew exponentially; the number of incoming vessels rose from 85 in 1786 to 3,569 in 1802.


title: Penang

text: In 1805, Penang became a separate presidency of British India, sharing similar status with Bombay and Madras. By 1808, a local government for George Town was in place, whilst the establishment of the Supreme Court of Penang marked the birth of Malaysia's modern judiciary. In 1826, Penang, Singapore and Malacca were incorporated into the Straits Settlements, with George Town as the capital.


title: Penang

text: However, Penang's importance was soon supplanted by Singapore, as the latter rapidly outstripped the Port of Penang as the region's premier entrepôt. In 1832, Singapore replaced George Town as the capital of the Straits Settlements.Even so, the Port of Penang retained its importance as a vital British entrepôt. Towards the end of the 19th century, it became a major tin-exporting harbour. George Town concurrently evolved into Malaya's principal financial hub, as banks and mercantile firms flocked into the city. Meanwhile, other towns, including Bayan Lepas on the island, and Butterworth and Bukit Mertajam in "Province Wellesley", emerged due to agricultural and logistical developments.


title: Penang

text: Throughout the century, Penang's cosmopolitan population, comprising Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan, Eurasian, Thai and other ethnicities, grew rapidly in tandem with the economic prosperity. However, the population growth also led to social problems, such as inadequate sanitation and public health facilities, as well as rampant crime, with the latter culminating in the Penang Riots of 1867. Also in 1867, the Straits Settlements was made a British crown colony. Direct British rule meant better law enforcement, as the police force was beefed up and the secret societies that had previously plagued Penang were gradually outlawed. More investments were also made on health care and public transportation.


title: Penang

text: Due to the improved access to education, the active participation in municipal affairs by its Asian residents and substantial press freedom, George Town was perceived as being more intellectually receptive than Singapore. The city became a magnet for reputable English authors, Asian intellectuals and revolutionaries, including Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham and Sun Yat-sen.


title: Penang

text: During World War I, in the Battle of Penang, the German cruiser SMS "Emden" surreptitiously sailed to Penang Island and sank two Allied warships off its coast, Russian protected cruiser "Zhemchug" and the French destroyer "Mousquet". One hundred and forty-seven French and Russian sailors perished during the battle.


title: Penang

text: World War II, on the other hand, led to unparallelled social and political upheaval. Although Penang Island had been designated as a fortress, Penang fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on 19 December 1941, after suffering devastating aerial attacks. The British covertly evacuated Penang's European populace; historians have since contended that "the moral collapse of British rule in Southeast Asia came not at Singapore, but at Penang".Penang Island was subsequently renamed "Tojo-to", after Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. The period of Japanese occupation was renowned for the Imperial Japanese Army's massacres of Penang's Chinese populace, known as "Sook Ching" to the locals. Women in George Town were also coerced to work as comfort women by the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Port of Penang was put to use as a major submarine base by the Axis Powers.


title: Penang

text: In the last years of the war, Allied bombers from India repeatedly bombed George Town, seeking to destroy the naval facilities and administrative centres. Several colonial buildings were destroyed or damaged, such as the Government Offices, St. Xavier's Institution and Hutchings School (now Penang State Museum). The Penang Strait was also mined to constrict Japanese shipping. Following the surrender of Japan, British forces launched Operation Jurist to recapture Penang Island on 3 September 1945, making George Town the first city in Malaya to be liberated from the Japanese.