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Ulama

In Islam, the ulama (علماء; singular عالِم; feminine singular alimah; plural aalimath ), also spelled ulema, are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam.

"Ulama" may refer broadly to the educated class of such religious scholars, including theologians, canon lawyers (muftis), judges (qadis), professors, and high state religious officials. Alternatively, "ulama" may refer specifically to those holding governmental positions in an Islamic state.

By longstanding tradition, ulama are educated in religious institutions (madrasas). The Quran and sunnah (authentic hadith) are the scriptural sources of traditional Islamic law.

Traditional way of education

Students of Islamic doctrine do not seek out a specific educational institution, but rather seek to join renowned teachers. By tradition, a scholar who has completed their studies is approved by their teacher. At the teacher's individual discretion, the student is given the permission for teaching and for the issuing of legal opinions (fatwa). The official approval is known as the ijazat at-tadris wa 'l-ifta (lit. 'license to teach and issue legal opinions'). Through time, this practice has established a chain of teachers and pupils who have become teachers in their own time.

Places of learning

The traditional place of higher education is the madrasa. The institution likely originated in Khurasan during the 10th century AD, and spread to other parts of the Islamic world from the late 11th century onwards. The most famous early madrasas are the Sunni Niẓāmiyya, founded by the Seljuk vizir Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092) in Iran and Iraq in the 11th century. The Mustansiriya, established by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mustansir in Baghdad in 1234 AD, was the first to be founded by a caliph, and also the first known to host teachers of all four major madhhab known at that time. From the time of the Persian Ilkhanate (1260–1335 AD) and the Timurid dynasty (1370–1507 AD) onwards, madrasas have often become part of an architectural complex which also includes a mosque, a Sufi ṭarīqa, and other buildings of socio-cultural function, like baths or a hospital.

Madrasas are considered sacred places of learning. They may provide boarding and salaries to a limited number of teachers, and boarding for a number of students out of the revenue from religious endowments (waqf), allocated to a specific institution by the donor. In later times, the deeds of endowment were issued in elaborate Islamic calligraphy, as is the case for Ottoman endowment books (vakıf-name). The donor could also specify the subjects to be taught, the qualification of the teachers, or which madhhab the teaching should follow. Moreover, the donor is free to specify in detail the curriculum, as was shown by Ahmed and Filipovic (2004) for the Ottoman imperial madrasas founded by Suleiman the Magnificent.

As Berkey (1992) has described in detail for the education in medieval Cairo, unlike medieval Western universities, in general madrasas have no distinct curriculum, and do not issue diplomas. The educational activities of the madrasas focuses on the law, but also includes what Zaman (2010) called "Sharia sciences" (al-ʿulūm al-naqliyya) as well as the rational sciences like philosophy, astronomy, mathematics or medicine. The inclusion of these sciences sometimes reflects the personal interests of their donors, but also indicates that scholars often study various different sciences.

Sufism
Early on in Islamic history, a line of thought developed around the idea of mysticism, striving for the perfection (Ihsan) of worship. During the first Islamic century, Hasan al-Basri (642–728 AD) was one of the first Muslim scholars to describe, according to Albert Hourani (1991) "the sense of the distance and nearness of God ... in the language of love". During the 7th century, the ritual of Dhikr evolved as a "way of freeing the soul from the distractions of the world". Important early scholars who further elaborated on mysticism were Harith al-Muhasibi (781–857 AD) and Junayd al-Baghdadi (835–910 AD).

Philosophy and ethics
The early Muslim conquests brought about Arab Muslim rule over large parts of the Hellenistic world. During the time of the Umayyad Caliphate, at latest, the scholars of the emerging Islamic society had become familiar with the classical philosophical and scientific traditions of the world they had conquered. The collection of classical works and their translation into the Arabian language initiated a period which is known today as the Islamic Golden Age. According to Hourani (1991), the works of the classical scholars of antiquity were met with considerable intellectual curiosity by Islamic scholars. Hourani quotes al-Kindi (c. 801–873 AD), "the father of Islamic philosophy", as follows:

We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples. For him who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself.

The works of Aristotle, in particular his Nicomachean Ethics, had a profound influence on the Islamic scholars of the Golden Age like Al-Farabi (870–950 AD), Abu al-Hassan al-Amiri (d. 992 AD) and Ibn Sina (ca. 980–1037 AD). In general, the Islamic philosophers saw no contradiction between philosophy and the religion of Islam. However, according to Hourani, al-Farabi also wrote that philosophy in its pure form was reserved for an intellectual elite, and that ordinary people should rely for guidance on the sharia. The distinction between a scholarly elite and the less educated masses "was to become a commonplace of Islamic thought". As exemplified by the works of al-Razi (c. 865–925 AD), during later times, philosophy "was carried on as a private activity, largely by medical men, pursued with discretion, and often met with suspicion".

The founder of Islamic philosophical ethics is Ibn Miskawayh (932–1030 AD) He combined Aristotelian and Islamic ethics, explicitly mentioning the Nicomachean Ethics and its interpretation by Porphyry of Gaza as the foundation of his philosophical thoughts.

In the 12th century, the early Islamic Neoplatonism which had developed out of Hellenistic philosophy was effectively criticised by al-Ghazali, one of the most influential scholars of Islam. In his works Tahāfut al-Falāsifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), Mizan al-'amal (Criterion of Action) and Kimiya-yi sa'ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness), he refuted the Philosophy of Ibn Sīnā, and demonstrated that the Aristotelian ethics is incompatible with Islamic ethics: The latter is based on the belief in God and in life after death, which together provide the foundation of action in the pursuit of sa'āda (Happiness).

Law
According to Shia Islam, the authority to interpret the messages of the Quran and the Hadith lies with the Imamah, a line of infallible interpreters of the truth. The Sunni majority, however, reject this concept and maintain that God's will has been completely revealed in the Quran and sunnah of the Prophet. The capacity of its interpretation lies with the ulama.

By the eleventh century, the major schools of Sunni and Shia law (madhhab) had emerged. Whilst, historically, the schools were at times engaged in mutual conflicts, the differences became less controversial over time, and merely represent regional predominances today. The four most important Sunni schools are:
 * Shafi'i (Egypt, Mashriq, Hijaz, Yemen)
 * Maliki (Maghreb and West Africa)
 * Hanafi (Central and South Asia, the Balkans, Turkey)
 * Hanbali (most common in the Gulf counties)

Shia madhhab include the Ja'fari and Zaidi schools. Minor madhhab also mentioned in the Amman message are the Ibadi and the Zahiri schools.

All Sunni madhhabs recognize four sources of sharia (divine law): the Quran, sunnah (authentic hadith), qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ijma (juridical consensus). However, the madhhabs differ from each other in their conception of the Principles of Islamic jurisprudence, or uṣūl al-fiqh, as briefly summarised by Hourani (1991). The Hanbalis accepted only the consensus of the Companions of the Prophet (aṣ-ṣaḥābah), which gave more leeway to independent reasoning (ijtihad) within the boundaries of the rules of qiyās. The Hanafis hold that strict analogy may at times be supported by a limited use of juristic preference (istihsan), whereas the Maliki school also allows pragmatic considerations in the interest of public welfare (istislah) are also acceptable. Instead of the Sunni concept of analogy (qiyās), Shia ulama prefer "dialectical reasoning" ('Aql) to deduce law.

The body of substantive jurisprudence (fiqh) defines the proper way of life through interpretation of sharia, which Muslims should follow if they want to live according to God's will. Over time, the madhhabs established "codes of conduct", examining human actions in the light of the Quran and Hadith. Supplementing the sharia were customs (ʿurf) within a given society. Islamic law and regional customs were not opposed to each other: In 15th century Morocco, qadis were allowed to use a process called ʻamal in order to choose from different juridical opinions one which applied best to the local customs, even if they were not supported by the consensus of the majority. More often, the use of sharia led to changes in local customs.

Theology
ʿIlm al-Kalām, the "science of discourse", also termed "Islamic theology", serves to explain and defend the doctrine of the Quran and Hadith. The concept of kalām was introduced during the first Islamic centuries by the Muʿtazila school. One of the most prominent scholars of the Muʿtazila was Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad (935–1025 AD). From the 11th century on, the Muʿtazila was suppressed by the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate and the Seljuk Empire, but it continued playing an important role in the formation of Shia theology. The Ash'ari school encouraged the use of Kalām as the basis of fiqh, and was followed in this approach by parts of the Shafi'i madhhab. In contrast, the Hanbali and Maliki madhhabs discouraged theological speculation. Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (853–944 AD) developed his own form of Kalām, differing from the Ash'ari view in the question of Man's free will and God's omnipotence. Maturidi Kalām was often used in combination with Hanafi fiqh in the northwestern parts of the Islamic world.

A distinct school of theology often called traditionalist theology emerged under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the early centuries of Islam among hadith scholars who rejected rationalistic argumentation. In the wake of the Ash'arite synthesis between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, its original form survived among a minority of mostly Hanbalite scholars. While Ash'arism and Maturidism are often called the Sunni "orthodoxy", traditionalist theology has thrived alongside it, laying rival claims to be the orthodox Sunni faith.

Islamic theology experienced further developments among Shia theologians.

Cosmopolitan scholarly tradition
The study of, and commentaries on Quran and hadith, debates about ijtihad and taqlid and the issuing of fatwa as well as the use of Arabic, and later also Persian as common languages of discourse constituted the religious authority of the ulama throughout the entire Islamic world. Zaman has demonstrated that, as personal contacts were key to acquiring knowledge, Islamic scholars sometimes travel far in search of knowledge (ṭalab al-ʿilm). Due to their common training and language, any scholars travelling from one region of the Islamic world to another can easily integrate themselves into the local Muslim community and hold offices there: The traveller Ibn Battuta (1304–1368 or 1369), born in Tangiers, Morocco, to a family of ulema, was appointed qadi by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq of Delhi. Nuruddin ar-Raniri (d. 1658), born to a Gujarati Muslim family, travelled to, and worked as Shaykh ul-Islam in modern-day Indonesia under the protection of Iskandar Thani, Sultan of Aceh. Both scholars were able to move freely in an "interconnected world of fellow scholars". According to Zaman, their offices and positions as respected scholars were only questioned if they proved themselves unfamiliar with local customs (as happened to Ibn Battuta]), or met resistance from opponents with stronger local roots (ar-Raniri).

Through their travels and teachings, ulama are able to transmit new knowledge and ideas over considerable distances. However, according to Zaman (2010), scholars have often been required to rely on commonly known texts which could support their fatwas. A text which might be widely known within the intellectual circles of one region could be unknown in another. The ability of scholars from one region to support their argument in another might therefore be limited by the familiarity with the respective texts of the community they are working in. In an era without book print or mass communication media, a scholar's reputation might have remain limited if he was unfamiliar with the local canon of texts. As the ijazah, the scholar's approval by another master, is key to the scholar's reputation, the latter would be greater in regions where the approving masters is more widely known.

Early Muslim communities
The second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, funded a group of Muslims to study the revelations, stories of Muhammed's life, "and other pertinent data, so that when he needed expert advice" he could draw it from these "people of the bench". According to Tamim Ansary, this group evolved into the Ulama

Fiqh
The formative period of Islamic jurisprudence stretches back to the time of the early Muslim communities. In this period, jurists were more concerned with pragmatic issues of authority and teaching than with theory. Progress in theory began to develop with the coming of the early Muslim jurist Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i (767–820), who codified the basic principles of Islamic jurisprudence in his book ar-Risālah. The book details the four roots of law (Qur'an, Sunnah, ijma, and qiyas) while specifying that the primary Islamic texts (the Qur'an and the hadith) must be understood according to objective rules of interpretation derived from scientific study of the Arabic language.

According to Feldman (2008), under many Muslim caliphate states and later states ruled by sultans, the ulama were regarded as the guardians of Islamic law and prevented the Caliph from dictating legal results, with the ruler and ulama forming a sort of "separation of powers" in government. Laws were decided based on the Ijma (consensus) of the Ummah (community), which was most often represented by the legal scholars.

Early modern Islamic empires
The Sunni Ottoman, and the Shi'a Safavid Persian dynasties, rulers of the two opponent early modern Islamic empires, both relied on ulama in order to legitimise their power. In both empires, ulama patronised by the royal courts created "official" religious doctrines which supported the dynastic rule. At the high points of their political power, respectively, the development took different paths: The Ottoman Sultan Süleyman I successfully integrated the imperial ulama into the imperial bureaucracy, and Ottoman secular law into Islamic law. In contrast, Shah Abbas I of Persia was unable to gain similar support by the Shi'a ulama, who retained a more independent position. During the late Safavid empire, the Shi'a ulama developed into one of the warrantors of continuity in a period of instability of the central government, thus securing a relative independency which they retained during the reign of subsequent dynasties.

Ottoman imperial Sunni ulama

After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the leaders and subjects of the Ottoman Empire became increasingly aware of its role as a great power of its time. This new self-awareness was associated with the idea to legitimise the new political role by linking the religious scholarship to the political system: Ottoman historians of the 15th and 16th century like Ibn Zunbul or Eyyûbî, described the deeds of the Ottoman sultans in terms of idealised Islamic ghazi warriors. According to Burak (2015), the Ottoman literature genres of the "rank order" (tabaḳat and the "biografic lexicon" (Eş-şakaiku'n) compiled the biographies of scholars in such ways as to create a concise and coherent tradition of the doctrine and structure of the Ottoman imperial scholarship. During the 16th century, scholars like the Shaykh al-Islām Kemālpaşazade (d. 1534), Aḥmād b. Muṣṭafā Taşköprüzāde (1494–1561), Kınalızāde ʿAli Çelebi (d. 1572) and Ali ben Bali (1527–1584) established a seamless chain of tradition from Abu Hanifa to their own time. Explicitly, some authors stated that their work must not only be understood as the historiography of the Hanafi madhhab, but that it should be consulted in case of eventual disagreements within the school of law. This exemplifies their purpose to establish a canon of Hanafi law within the Ottoman imperial scholarship. which modern Ottomanists termed the "Ottoman Islam".

After 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror (1432–1481) had established eight madrasas in former Byzantine church buildings, and later founded the sahn-ı şeman or "Eight courtyards madrasa", adjacent to the Fatih mosque, where he brought together the most distinguished Islamic law scholars of his territory. In his 2015 study on the "second formation of Islamic law", Burak has shown in detail how the Ottoman state gradually imposed upon the traditional ulama a hierarchy of "official imperial scholars", appointed and paid by the central government. From the conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo in 1517 onwards, the Ottoman ulama set up their own interpretation of the Sunni Hanafi doctrine which then served as the official religious doctrine of the empire. The formal acknowledgment by decree of the sultan became a prerequisite to issue fatwas. In the 17th century, the annalist al-Hamawi used the expression "sultanic mufti" (al-ifta' al-sultani) to delineate the difference between the officially appointed religious leaders and those who had followed the traditional way of education. Other authors at that time called the Ottoman law scholars "Hanafi of Rūm [i.e., the Ottoman Empire]" (Rūmi ḫānāfi), "Scholars of Rūm" (ʿulamā'-ı rūm) or "Scholars of the Ottoman Empire" (ʿulamā' al-dawla al-ʿUthmaniyyā). The Shaykh al-Islām (Şeyhülislam) in Istanbul became the highest-ranking Islamic scholar within, and head of the ulama throughout the empire.

The ulama in the Ottoman Empire had a significant influence over politics due to the belief that secular institutions were all subordinate to Islamic law, the Sharia (Şeriat). The ulama were responsible for interpreting the religious law, therefore they claimed that their power superseded that of the government. Within the Ottoman hierarchy of ulama, the Shaykh al-Islām held the highest rank. He exerted his influence by issuing fatwas, his written interpretations of the sharia had authority over the entire Ottoman population. In the 16th century, as the support by the ulama of the sultan and the central government was essential for shaping the still-growing empire, the importance of the office rose, and its power increased. As members of the Ilmiye, the imperial scholars were part of the Ottoman elite class of the Askeri, and were exempt from any taxes.

However, by approving scholars and appointing them to offices, over time the sultan's influence increased over the religious scholars, although, as a Muslim, he still stood under the Islamic law. Even the Shaykh al-Islām was subordinate to the sultan; his position, like the ranks of the muftis, was described as a "service" (hizmet) or "rank" (rütbe or paye-ı Sahn), to which a candidate was appointed or elevated. Sometimes, the sultans made use of their power: In 1633, Murad IV gave order to execute the Shaykh al-Islām Ahīzāde Ḥüseyin Efendi. In 1656, Shaykh al-Islām Ḥocazāde Mesʿud Efendi was sentenced to death by sultan Mehmed IV.

The use of the Sunni Islam as a legitimisation of the Ottoman dynastic rule is closely linked to Sultan Süleyman I and his kazasker and later Schaykh al-Islām Ebussuud Efendi. Ebussuud compiled an imperial book of law (ḳānūn-nāme), which combined religious law (sharīʿah) with secular dynastic law (ḳānūn) in the person of the sultan. For example, Ebussuud provided a reason why the government could own land, or could levy and increase taxes, as the government was responsible for the protection of the common good of all Muslims.

Shi'a state religion of Safavid Persia
Shaikh Safi-ad-Din Ardabili (1252–1334) was the founder of the Safaviyya tariqa. Safi ad-Din's great-great grandson Ismail, who from 1501 onwards ruled over the Persian Empire, was the founder of the Safavid dynasty. Shah Ismail I proclaimed the Twelver Shi'a as the new Persian state religion. To propagate the Safavid faith, he invited ulama from Qom, Jabal 'Āmil in southern Lebanon and Syria to travel around Iran and promote the Shi'a doctrine. In 1533, Shah Tahmasp I commissioned a new edition of the Safvat as-safa, Shaikh Ṣāfī's genealogy. It was rewritten in order to support the royal family's claim at descendency from Musa al-Kadhim, the Seventh Imam, and thus to legitimise the Safavid rule.

During the reign of Shah Abbas I (1571 – 1629 AD), the argument of the theocratic unity of religious and political power was no longer sufficient to legitimise the Shah's authority: Shi'a ulama renounced the monarch's claim to represent the hidden Imam by teaching that descendancy did not necessarily mean representation. Likewise, as the influence of Sufi mysticism weakened, the Shah's role as the head of the Safaviyya lost its significance as a justification for his political role. Abbas I thus sought to associate himself with eminent ulama like Shaykh Bahāʾi (1574–1621 AD), whom he made Shaykh al-Islām in his new capital, Isfahan. Other famous ulama working under Abbas's patronage were Mir Damad (d. 1631 or 1632 AD), one of the founders of the School of Isfahan, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ardabili (d. 1585). By their teachings, they further developed the Shi'a Islamic teachings and religious practice. However, as religion did no longer suffice to support political power in Persia, Abbas I had to develop independent concepts to legitimise his rule. He did so by creating a new ghulam army, thus evoking the Turco-Mongol tradition of Timur and his reign.

New Ottoman scholarly elite
By the beginning of the 19th century, the Ottoman ulama still retained their political influence. When sultan Selim III tried to reform the Ottoman army, the ulama opposed his plans, which they rejected as an apostasy from Islam. Consequently, his reform failed. However, Selims successor Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839) was more successful: He called the new troops, organised according to European models, by the name "Victorious army of Muhammad" (Asâkir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye). By doing so, he was able to overcome the accusation of apostasy and secure the ulama's support. Mahmuds reforms created a new imperial elite class who spoke Western European languages and were knowledgeable of the Western European societies and their political systems. As the political and economic pressure increased on the Ottoman Empire in the course of the 19th century, this new elite carried on the Sultan's reforms and helped initiating a new era of reform, the Tanzimat. In parallel, the political influence of the ulama was circumvented and reduced step by step. A ministry for religious endowments was created in order to control the finances of the vakıf. Thus, the ulama lost direct control over their finances, which significantly reduced their capacity to exert political influence.

Orthodox Shi'a ulama in post-Safavid and Qajar Iran

In Iran, a period of political instability began with the collapse of the Safavid reign after shah Sultan Husayns death in 1722. In the light of the discontinuity and fragmentation of the central government, two social groups maintained continuity and, consequently, rose in power: Tribal chieftains established, amongst others, the Khanates of the Caucasus, the Afsharid and Zand dynasties. The second group who benefitted from the weakness of the central authority was the Shi'a ulama. According to Garthwaite (2010), "the ulama constituted one institution that not only provided continuity, but gradually asserted its role over and against royal authority." A process of change began which continued throughout the 19th century and into the present.

Already some of the last Safavids, Sulayman Shah (r. 1666–1694) and Tahmasp II (r. 1722–1732) had sought the ulama's support in an attempt to strengthen their authority. Particularly, they associated themselves with a group of ulama who supported the "official" Twelver Shi'a doctrine, established by the Iranian Shaykh al-Islām Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi (1627–1699) during the later decades of Safavid rule. The dispute between the Twelver Shi'a and Mir Damad's (d. 1631 or 1632) and Mulla Sadra's (c. 1571/2 – 1640) School of Isfahan, who promoted Sufi mysticism and Islamic philosophy, continued throughout the 18th century, and shaped the relationship between ulama and government during the reigns of the subsequent dynasties.

With the accession of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar to the Iranian throne, the Qajar dynasty consolidated the central power. However, the Qajar Shahs, in particular Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848–1896), whose reign paralleled that of the Ottoman Sultans of the Tanzimat time, failed at obtaining central control over the ulama. The Shiite scholars retained their political influence on the Persian society. They also maintained unrestricted access to the financial resources from the religious endowments. In addition, the Islamic Zakat tax was paid to individual imams and not to state-sponsored tax collectors. Both their religious influence and their financial means allowed the Shiite ulama to act, at times, against the Shah. Thus, under the Qajar dynasty, the ulama provided a source of religious legitimacy and served as interpreters of religious law in a dual legal system where the state administered law based on custom (ʻurf).

Reformers and concepts
Starting in the first half of the 19th century, direct contacts began and gradually increased between members of the ulama and modern Western Europe. The Egyptian alim Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (1801–1873) was amongst the first members of the ulama who travelled to Europe. As a religious counsellor to a delegation by the Egyptian khedive Muhammad Ali Pasha he stayed in Paris from 1826 to 1831. His report "The Extraction of Gold or an Overview of Paris" (Taḫlīṣ al-ibrīz fī talḫīṣ Bārīz) (1849) included some outlines of future reforms and potential improvements in his native country. Although al-Tahtawi had gone through the traditional education of an alim, his interest focused on modern French concepts of administration and economy. He only referred to Islam in order to emphasize that Muslims can adopt practical knowledge and insights from Europe. As such, lt-Tahtawi's report reflects the political efforts of Muhammad Ali Pasha, who did not intend to reform al-Azhar university, but aimed at building an independent educational system sponsored by his government.

Hayreddin Pasha (1822/3–1890) was an Ottoman Tunisian alim and statesman who reformed the administration and jurisdiction of the province. He was able to explain his ideas in French (Réformes nécessaires aux États musulmans – Necessary reforms of the Muslim states. Paris, 1868), which he had learned whilst representing his sovereign Ahmad Bey at the court of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1855. In contrast to al-Tahtawi, Hayreddin Pasha used the religious concept of the Muslim collective interest (maṣlaḥa) to make his point, thereby applying the idea of ijtihad to public affairs.

Positions comparable to the Western Islamic ulama were also taken in the Eastern parts of the Islamic world by Syed Ahmad Khan, the pioneering Muslim modernist in South Asia, and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. The latter is regarded as the mentor of Pan-Islamism, but also as one of the founders of the political Islam and of the late 19th and 20th century Salafi movement.

The Egyptian Grand Mufti Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905), who was granted the degree of 'Alim by al-Azhar university in 1877, was the first who used the term Islāh in order to denote political and religious reforms. Until 1887 he edited together with al-Afghani the newspaper al-ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā ("The firm bond"). The gazette widely spread the pan-islamistic concept of Islam representing a religious bond which was believed to be stronger than nationality or language. From 1876 on, Abduh edited the newspaper al-Ahrām. Since 1898, he also edited, together with Rashid Rida (1865–1935), the newspaper al-Manār ("The Beacon"), in which he further developed his ideas. al-Manār appeared in print for almost 40 years and was read throughout the Islamic world.

ʿAbduh understood Islah as a concept of "reform of mankind" (iṣlāḥ nauʿ al-insān). In his works, he emphasized the special importance of a reform of the traditional madrasa system, which was taken to disadvantage by the parallel establishment of the secular, state-sponsored educational system in Egypt. He strove at reconciling the traditional and modern educational systems, thereby justifying from the point of view of Islam the introduction of modern institutions by the national state. He referred to the Islamic concept of the collective interest or common good of the Muslim community (maṣlaḥa), to which he accorded overarching importance (al-maṣlaḥa shar) in the interest of his fellow Muslims. The concept of islāh gained special relevance for the future, as it strives at understanding and justifying all aspects of modern life from the Islamic doctrine.

After Abduh's death in 1905, Rashīd Ridā continued editing al-Manār on his own. In 1924, he published a collection of writings by some ulama of Najd: Maǧmūʿat al-ḥadiṭ an-naǧdīya. Thus, the teachings of the Yemeni alim Muhammad ash-Shawkani (1759–1839), which had already been discussed since the 1880s, gained greater publicity. Likewise, the writings of the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328) came to attention again. Ibn Taymiyyah's doctrine provided a link between the wahhabiyya and parts of the salafiyya movements. The theological differences between the two movements were altogether too large for a complete union of the two doctrines. However, the opening of the Salafi movement towards Wahhabism helped to reconcile the latter with the Islamic public after king Ibn Saud's invasion of the Hijaz in 1924. The Central Arabian militias (Iḫwān) had occupied and looted the holy towns of Mecca and Medina, thereby destroying monuments which they considered pagan (shirk). Starting with the Pan-Islamic Congress in Mecca in 1926, the pro-Saudi movement developed into one of the most relevant currents of Islamic thought.

In his Egyptian exile, the Syrian alim Abd ar-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1854–1902) met al-Afghani, Abduh and Rida. In his books Ṭabāʾiʿ al-istibdād ("The nature of despotism") and Umm al-Qurā ("Mother of villages [i.e., Mecca]", 1899) he accused the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II of corrupting the Islamic community. The Ottoman despotism "encroaches on the rights of its citizens, keeps them ignorant to keep them passive, [and] denies their right to take an active part in human life". Therefore, the law must be reformed. By the use of ijtihad, a "modern and unified system of law" must be created, and "proper religious education" must be provided. Because of the central position of the Arabic peoples in the ummah and the Arabic language in the intellectual discourse, but also because "Arabian Islam is ... free from modern corruptions and the bedouin are free from the moral decay and passivity of despotism", the balance of power must shift from the Turks towards the Arabs. The Ottoman dynasty must give up their claim to the caliphate, and a new caliph of Quraysh descent must be elected by representatives of the ummah. His temporal authority would be set up in the Hejaz, whilst he would hold religious authority over the entire Muslim community, "assisted ... by a consultative council nominated by the Muslim rulers".

Al-Kawākibīs idea that the Arabian doctrine represented a more puristic form of the Islam, according to Cleveland and Bunton (2016), prepared the ground for the 20th century Arab nationalism as well as the Islamic renewal movement of the Nahda.

Muslim mass organizations
In 1912, the Muhammadiyah organization was founded in Yogyakarta (in modern-day Indonesia), which, together with Nahdlatul Ulama ("Reawakening of the ulama"), founded in 1926, form the two largest Muslim organizations in the world. Since the 1930s, their religious boarding schools (pesantren) also taught mathematics, natural sciences, English and history. Since the 1980, the Nahdlatul Ulama schools also offered degrees in economy, jurisdiction, paedagogical and medical sciences. In the 1990s, under their leader Abdurrahman Wahid, the organization adopted an anti-fundamentalistic doctrine, teaching democracy and pluralism.

Darul Uloom Deoband, next to al-Azhar one of the most influential madrasas, was founded in the city of Deoband, Uttar Pradesh, in 1867. Initially, the intention of the school was to help Indian Muslims, who had become subjects of the British Empire after 1857, to lead their lives according to Islamic law. The Deobandi propagate a Sunni Islam of the Hanafi school, which was the most prevalent madhhab in South Asia. Still today, they aim at a revival of the Islamic society and education. Following the example of Deoband, thousands of madrasas were founded during the late 19th century which adopted the Deobandi way of studying fundamental texts of Islam and commenting on Quran and Hadith. By referring back to traditional Islamic scholars, the Deobandi School aims at defending the traditional Islamic madhhab, especially the Hanafi, against criticism which arose from other Islamic schools like the Ahl-i Hadith. During the 1990s, the Afghan taliban also referred to the Deoband School. Ashraf Ali Thanwi (1863–1943) is one of the most prominent teachers of Darul Uloom Deoband. Thanwi initiated and edited multi-volume encyclopedic commentaries on the Quran. However, he was also able to reach out to a larger audience: His book Bahishti Zewar, which is still widely read in South Asia, as it details, amongst other topics, the proper conduct and beliefs for Muslim women.

Ahl-i Hadith is a movement which emerged in North India in the mid-19th century. By rejecting taqlid (following legal precedent) and favoring ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) based on the foundational scriptures of Islam, they oppose the traditional madhhab and criticize their reliance on legal authorities other than the traditional texts. The Ahl-i Hadith was the first organization which printed and spread the works of Muhammad ash-Shawkani, whose writings did also influence the doctrine of the Salafi movement in the Arab Middle East and worldwide.

Muslim World League is an international non-governmental Islamic organization based in Mecca, Saudi Arabia that is a member of UNICEF, UNESCO and OIC. It aims to resolve the issues faced by the Islamic community by organizing scholarly conferences with the ulama around the world in order to form public Islamic opinions based on principles of moderation, peace and harmony.

Ulama in the secular national states of the 20th century
In most countries, the classical institution of the madrasa as a place of teaching remained largely intact until the beginning of the 20th century. In the Western parts of the Islamic world, national states arose from the disintegration and partition of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. The government of Kemalist Turkey sought to distance the nation from the religious traditions and institutions of the Ottoman past.

In Egypt, the establishment of a state-controlled educational system had already begun in the 1820s. From 1961 onwards, Gamal Abdel Nasser tried to increase the state control over ancient Islamic institutions like al-Azhar university. The head of al-Azhar was—and still is—appointed directly by the president, and new faculties were created in this ancient Islamic institution.

Initially giving rise to modernist reforms, up to a certain degree the state-sponsored faculties were able to retain their independence from government control. However, as Pierret has pointed out in detail for Syria, in some countries the orthodox madrasa system remained largely intact, its decentralised organisation protecting it from state control. In fact, the government's attempt at controlling the religious education focussed largely on the academic institutions and neglected the traditional madrasas. By their continuing ability to provide social support and access to an educational alternative which was propagated as being more orthodox according to Islamic faith, the traditional ulama not only maintained their influence on large parts of the population, but actually increased their political influence and power.

Republic of Turkey
In the Kemalist Republic of Turkey, traditional Ottoman religious institutions were abolished like the Ottoman Caliphate, the office of the Shaykh ul-Islam, as well as the dervish brotherhoods. The Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, or Diyanet) was created in 1924 by article 136 of the Constitution of Turkey by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as a successor to the office of the Shaykh ul-Islam. From 1925 onwards, the traditional dervish tekkes and Islamic schools were dissolved. Famous convents like the Tekke of the Mevlevi order in Konya were secularized and turned into museums.

Iran
In Iran, contrary to many other Islamic countries, the Shi'a ulama have maintained their religious authority together by Khums tax. Thus, they maintained their ability to exert political pressure.

Between 1905 and 1911, a coalition of ulama, bazaari, and some radical reformers incited the Persian Constitutional Revolution, which led to the establishment of the parliament (majlis) of Iran during the Qajar dynasty.

The Islamic Revolution in Iran was led by a senior Shia cleric—the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—who then established the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist.

Syria
In his study Religion and State in Syria (2013), Pierret pointed out how the training of Syria's ulama gradually became more institutionalised, based upon the traditional madrasa system. In 1920, the madrasa of the Khusruwiyah Mosque complex (which was to be destroyed in 2014 during the Syrian Civil War) introduced an entrance exam and a stable curriculum for its Islamic seminary. Graduates were issued a diploma carrying the name of the institution, which bore the signatures of all teachers, signifying individual ijazah. In 1947, courses also included natural sciences and foreign languages. In 1947, the state-run "Faculty of Sharia" was initiated in Damascus by Kamal al-Qassab (1853–1954), a former student of Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905) in Cairo. Until 1954, all Syrian ulama aiming at higher degrees had to join Al-Azhar University in Cairo. In 1954, however, Syria's first higher faculty of sharia was founded by members of the modernist wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its curriculum, which included economy and the "current situation of the Muslim world", according to Pierret, "anticipated the 1961 modernist reform of al-Azhar by Nasser". In 1972, the curriculum of the state-run "Sharia high schools" was reformed again, thus providing access for their students to all faculties of Syrian high schools.

According to Pierret (2015), the Ba'ath Party coup of 1963 brought about a weakening of the state-controlled sharia high schools by the secular government. Many teachers of the Damascus faculty of sharia were forced into exile during the 1960s. Attempts of the regime during the 1980s at changing the curricula of the faculty and create a new "Ba'athist ulama" failed. The faculty, maintaining their ability to recruit competent teachers, was able to resist the political pressure. Consequently, the Syrian government prohibited the faculty to grant doctorates until 1998, and delayed the establishment of another faculty in Aleppo until 2006.

Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq
In 1961, Gamal Abdel Nasser put the Al-Azhar University under the direct control of the state. "Azharis were given military uniforms and found themselves marching in step under the orders of army officers." After the independence of Algeria, President Ahmed Ben Bella also deprived the Algerian ulama of their power. Baathist repression in Iraq led to a drop of enrollment in the Shia holy cities of Iraq from 12,000 students in the early 1900s to only 600 scholars and students in 1977.

Pakistan
In the 1980s and 1990s, competition arose between Sunni and Shia interests in Pakistan, with Saudi Arabian humanitarian organizations using the sponsorship of madrasas to spread their Wahhabi doctrine, while the Islamic Republic of Iran used Shiite madrasas to similarly peddle influence. For poorer communities in Pakistan, internationally sponsored madrasas could be the only accessible form of education.

This influence from institutions which were financially independent from the state led to a resurgence of the social and political influence of the traditional ulama, while the insufficient state control over the educational institutions, insufficient qualification of the teachers and ideologic indoctrination of such institutions all become considerable issues. Graduates (talib) from North Pakistani madrasas like "Mullah" Mohammed Omar subsequently played a role in the establishment of the Afghan Taliban regime.

Modern challenges
Some opinions from within the Muslim world have criticized the lack of scientific training of the ulama, and argued that those proficient in the sciences should qualify for this title. In Egypt, the Al-Azhar University has begun to introduce scientific and practical subjects in its traditional theological colleges to help the ulama face the challenges of the modern world. Sudanese politician Hassan Al-Turabi argued, in his work The Islamic State, that the ulama should not be limited to those versed in religious affairs but include experts in fields such as engineering, science, politics, and education because all knowledge is divine and God-given.

Types of Ulema titles

 * Hafiz (Quran) recites Quran by heart
 * Qāriʾ, who reads Quran with correct pronunciation
 * Mawlawi (Islamic title) who has done 12 years of Islamic studies and preaches Salah
 * Mir, who has all above titles, equivalent to doctorate degree
 * Mir ul Urah, who is above Mir
 * Mufti, issues fatwas
 * Grand Mufti, highest Mufti

title: Ulama


text:
Cheddar Gorge

Cheddar Gorge is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar, Somerset, England. The gorge is the site of the Cheddar show caves, where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be 9,000 years old, was found in 1903. Older remains from the Upper Late Palaeolithic era (12,000–13,000 years ago) have been found. The caves, produced by the activity of an underground river, contain stalactites and stalagmites. The gorge is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest called Cheddar Complex.

Cheddar Gorge, including the caves and other attractions, has become a tourist destination. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, following its appearance on the television programme Seven Natural Wonders (2005), Cheddar Gorge was named as the second greatest natural wonder in Britain, surpassed only by Dan yr Ogof caves. The gorge attracts about 500,000 visitors per year.

Geology
Cheddar is a gorge lying on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. The maximum depth of the gorge is 137 m, with a near-vertical cliff-face to the south, and steep grassy slopes to the north. The B3135 road runs along the bottom of the gorge.

The area is underlain by Black Rock slate, Burrington Oolite and Clifton Down Limestone of the Carboniferous Limestone Series, which contain ooliths and fossil debris, on top of Old Red Sandstone and by dolomitic conglomerate of the Keuper. Evidence for Variscan orogeny is seen in the sheared rock and cleaved shales. In many places weathering of these strata has resulted in the formation of immature calcareous soils.

The gorge was formed by meltwater floods during the cold periglacial periods which have occurred over the last 1.2 million years. During the ice ages, permafrost blocked the caves with ice and frozen mud and made the limestone impermeable. When this melted during the summers, water was forced to flow on the surface, and carved out the gorge. During warmer periods, the water flowed underground through the permeable limestone, creating the caves and leaving the gorge dry, so that today much of the gorge has no river until the underground Cheddar Yeo river emerges in the lower part from Gough's Cave. The river is used by Bristol Water, who maintain a series of dams and ponds which supply the nearby Cheddar Reservoir, via a 137 cm diameter pipe that takes water just upstream of the Rotary Club Sensory Garden, a public park in the gorge opposite Jacob's Ladder.

The gorge is susceptible to flooding. In the Chew Stoke flood of 1968, the flow of water washed large boulders down the gorge, damaging the cafe and entrance to Gough's Cave and washing away cars. In the cave itself the flooding lasted for three days. In 2012 the B3135, the road through the gorge, was closed for several weeks following damage to the road surface during extensive flooding.

Ownership
The south side of the gorge is owned and administered by the Marquess of Bath's Longleat Estate. The cliffs on the north side of the gorge are owned by The National Trust. Every year, both of the gorge's owners contribute funds towards the clearance of scrub, bush and trees from the area.

Most of the commercial visitor activity in the gorge is on the Longleat-owned south side, including access to the two main commercial show caves and the visitor centre, which is operated by Longleat-owned company Cheddar Gorge and Caves Ltd under director Hugh Cornwell. Because visitors to the show caves have decreased from 400,000 a year in the 1980s to 150,000 in 2013, Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth, who runs the Longleat estate on behalf of the family trust, proposed the installation of a 600 m 18-gondola cable car at an estimated cost of £10m, which would take visitors from the entrance area to the caves directly to the top of the southside cliffs. The National Trust opposed the proposed development, stating that it would spoil the view and cheapen the experience, creating a "fairground ride" that would make the area feel more like an amusement park. Planning permission was planned in Spring 2014, which would have meant that operations would start in Spring 2016. In 2015 the financial feasibility was still being investigated.

Ecology
Notable species at the gorge include dormice, yellow-necked mice, slowworms and adders and the rare large blue butterfly (Maculinea arion), and small pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria selene).

A wide variety of wild birds may be seen in Cheddar Gorge including peregrine falcon, buzzard, kestrel, raven and grasshopper warbler.

The flora include chalk grassland-loving species such as marjoram and wild thyme. The Cheddar pink, Dianthus gratianopolitanus, also known as firewitch, only grows in the wild in the gorge. It was once common in the gorge but declined after being picked by collectors. It is also home to unique species of whitebeam. The nationally rare little robin geranium (Geranium purpureum), and Cheddar bedstraw (Galium fleurotii) and the nationally scarce species include slender tare (Vicia tenuissima), dwarf mouse-ear (Cerastium pumilum) and rock stonecrop (Sedum forsteranum) also occur in the gorge. It is one of the few localities in England with native populations of the Welsh poppy Papaver cambricum. It is one of the very few areas in southern Britain where the lichens Solorina saccata, Squamaria cartilaginea and Caloplaca cirrochroa can be found.

The gorge is also an important site for whitebeams and in 2009 a survey was carried out by botanists from the Welsh National Herbarium as part of a nationwide survey of whitebeams. Among the eight species identified were three new species previously unknown to science. Nineteen specimens with oval-shaped leaves were named the "Cheddar whitebeam", Sorbus cheddarensis, fifteen specimens with roundish leaves and greyish brown bark were named the "Twin Cliffs whitebeam", Sorbus eminentoides, and thirteen with long, narrow leaves were named "Gough’s Rock whitebeam", Sorbus rupicoloides. The Cheddar whitebeam, which has evolved as a cross between the common whitebeam and the grey-leaved whitebeam, is unique to the gorge, but its survival is threatened by the goats that were introduced specifically to keep down the growth of new trees and encourage the proliferation of rare plant species such as the Cheddar pink. Cuttings have been taken from the trees to be grafted and grown on at the Welsh National Herbarium.

Longleat Estate has fenced off a large part of its land and has introduced goats, as part of a programme to encourage the biodiversity of the area; the goats were intended to replace the sheep that grazed in the gorge until the 1970s. The National Trust announced in March 2007 that it plans to release a flock of sheep on its side of the gorge for the same purpose, but will first consult local residents and interested parties on whether to fence off the gorge or introduce cattle grids to prevent the sheep from straying. There is already a small flock of feral Soay sheep in the gorge.

Caves
The two main caves open to the public are on the southside of the Gorge, owned by Longleat Estate. The extensive Gough's Cave and the smaller Cox's Cave are both named after their respective discoverers. Both are known for their geology, and it has been suggested that the caves were used for maturing cheese in prehistoric times.

Gough's cave, which was discovered in 1903, leads around 400 m into the rock-face, and contains a variety of large rock chambers and formations. Cox's Cave, discovered in 1837, is smaller but contains many intricate formations. In 2016 Cox's cave was turned into "Dreamhunters", a multimedia walk-through experience with theatrical lighting and video projection.

The Gorge's many caves are home to colonies of Greater and Lesser horseshoe bats.

In 1999, the Channel 4 television programme Time Team investigated Cooper's Hole in an attempt to find evidence of Palaeolithic human activity.

These caves are the inspirations for the glittering caves of Aglarond situated in the White Mountains behind Helm's Deep in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Two Towers, which was later founded as a new kingdom of Durin's Folk by Gimli after the War of the Ring.

Several of the caves have been scheduled as ancient monuments as nationally important archaeological sites including: Gough's Old Cave, Great Oone's Hole, Saye's Hole, Soldier's Hole and Sun Hole.

Recreational use
Cliff Road (B3135), which runs through the Gorge, offers a popular climb for bicyclists and has a maximum gradient of 16%. The ascent featured in stage 6 of the 2011 Tour of Britain.

There are about 590 graded rock climbing routes on the South side of the gorge, which are generally open to climbers between 1 October and 15 March each year. The North side of the gorge has about 380 climbing routes and the land is predominantly owned by the National Trust and mapped as Open Access land which give a right of access for climbers all year. Each of the routes is named and included in the British Mountaineering Council guidebook. Although the majority of the climbs are "trad" or "traditional", which means that the leader places protection as they go up, there are also some "sport" routes where bolts are left in place. Climber Chris Bonington was the first to scale the Coronation Street route in 1965.

Visitors to the gorge have experienced a number of accidents. Rescue services, including local mountain rescue and cave rescue groups, frequently use the gorge to stage exercises. It is also used as a training location for military rescue helicopter pilots.

The Cheddar Man Museum of Prehistory inspired by the discovery of ancient hominids such as Cheddar Man contains information about the caves and their palaeontological development. Exhibits include original flint tools and human remains excavated from the caves. The Visitors' Centre and Restaurant is an important Modernist design by Geoffrey Jellicoe, dating from 1934. Jellicoe was commissioned by the fifth Marquess of Bath, and created a two-block structure with a rooftop pool. He drew inspiration from International Modernist buildings, including the De La Warr Pavilion. The integrity of the building has been greatly compromised. In the 1960s, the glass roof to the restaurant, and the pool set above it, were removed to increase seating capacity, and it has since been re-clad in poor quality materials. Michael Spens, in his comprehensive study, The Complete Landscape Designs and Gardens of Geoffrey Jellicoe, writes that it is "now barely recognizable as a pioneer construction of the modern period".

There is a clifftop walk from Jacob's Ladder along the crest of the gorge and back to the road, with views of the gorge. A caving experience is offered within Gough's Cave. There is a path of 274 steps, built up the side of the gorge, known as Jacob's Ladder after the Biblical description of a ladder to the heavens. A watchtower at the top provides a 360–degree view of the entire area and village. An open-top bus tour operates during the summer. Cheddar cheese is made in the lower part of the gorge.

In popular culture
In 1916, a location scene for the movie Just a Girl was filmed at Cheddar Gorge. The heroine, played by Daisy Burrell, had to fire a revolver while riding a pony, which bolted. Burrell clung on grimly, and filming had to be abandoned for the rest of the morning.

External

 * Cheddar Caves and Gorge, a commercial company operating some of the tourist attractions at Cheddar Gorge, Somerset
 * British Geological Survey information about Cheddar Gorge
 * Cheddar Gorge at Beautiful World

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cheddar Gorge


text:
Talk:Cheddar Gorge

Untitled
I moved the ISIHAC link to Cheddar Gorge (game), so this can be given over to your actual gorge.

GA On Hold
I've made some minor Manual of Style type edits. Still, several issues with verifiability, quality of prose, and coverage remain:

 * Gorge section contains way too little citations. Citations are needed for first two paragraphs which have non-trivial statements.
 * Caves section: don't just say spectacular geology or intricate formations, give details using geologic terminology and say something about their formation (see undue weight comment below).
 * Other attractions reads too much like, well, the brochure. There is no need to mention which direction is chargeable or give the reader steep cliff warnings or all these goods that can be obtained nearby.
 * Other attractions gets too much weight: talk more about the geologic history of the area and its formation instead.
 * Prose is a bit choppy in places like third paragraph of Gorge section. Rephrase/rewrite some sentences.
 * I'm a little worried about using the tourist company that manages the caves as a reliable source. Try to find some third party for those citations.

This is a lot and I was close to failing this article, but given its narrow scope, I think these changes can be made in a week. I'd be glad to assist or clarify any of these criticisms. --Meowist 03:54, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I did not nominate this article but have added more information (& references) on the geology, reduced the size (& peacock phrases) in other attractions, and found alternative references for the discovery of the caves. Not sure about the "choppy prose" comment.— Rod talk 21:40, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Changes 8/12/07
Citations for largest, oldest, etc. have been added. Novickas 16:24, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Pass as Good Article
This article has been on hold for a while so I have taken the decision to Pass it as a Good Article. Many of the suggestions above have been implemented and the article seems in much better shape. Further improvements to the article are certainly possible: Overall a good article, and hopefully these suggestions will help in the future. Congratulations to the editors. Suicidalhamster 12:44, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The intro talks about the cheddar man however he is hardly mentioned in the rest of the article (See WP:LEAD)
 * In the cave section it says the caves are known for their geology - it would be nice if this could be elaborated on.
 * Finally the last section doesn't have a reference for the inforamtion - If one general source could be found that would be good.

I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue
Not one reference to the Cheddar Gorge game, or "I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue"? -Shame Bogger 15:31, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You could always add a comment about this to the article, however, the link is tenuous and may constitute trivia.— Rod talk 15:47, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

I am learing about this at school

Depth
The depth is wrong. Currently it says the maximum depth is 113 metres. However, the pinnacles are typically quoted as 450 feet (137 metres), and are the highest point above the gorge floor: http://www.iknow-somerset.co.uk/tourist_information/central_somerset/cheddar/cheddar_gorge_showcaves.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2008/10/20/cheddar_gorge_feature.shtml (also quoted by the tour guide). The tallest popular climbing wall (Coronation Street route up what I think is called the "high rock") is quoted as 400 feet (122 metres). Both are significantly taller than 113 metres.

Also, some info on the total depth would be nice; the highest point above the gorge is 255 metres, and the gorge ends at about 25 metres: http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=346856&y=154048&z=115&sv=346856,154048&st=4 This would give a total depth of about 230 metres.TarquinWJ (talk) 07:34, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Separately, someone needs to verify the claims that this is the largest gorge in the United Kingdom or Britain (made in the introduction and Geography sections). The referenced article shows no research on the subject and seems only to be repeating common misconceptions. The gorge is clearly outdone in length, width, and height by several other gorges in Britain (and thus the UK). One example would be the Clydach Gorge in South Wales, which is about 50% deeper, twice as wide, and about the same length. There are also several longer gorges in the Brecon Beacons national park. I suspect that Cheddar Gorge is probably the deepest gorge in England (which is neither all of Britain or the UK), but this needs to be made clear in the article, along with some actual research that proves it one way or the other.TarquinWJ (talk) 09:10, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I am going to edit the article to remove those inaccurate statements. Research is collected at http://www.cavinguk.co.uk/holidays/Brighton2009/ TarquinWJ (talk) 13:12, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

 * Sorry, but someone's holiday blog is not a reliable source. See WP:RS for details. Of course, that's not to say the existing articles in there are either, so go ahead an tag any disputable facts or replace them if you can provide a better source. --Simple Bob (talk) 20:05, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

What else is needed to get this article to FA
This article has now been a fairly stable Good Article for over two years and I am looking for ideas about what would be needed to get it to meet the Wikipedia:Featured article criteria? This is one part of the Featured topic about Physical geography of Somerset. The rules about FT's have changed and we need to get one of the GAs included in the topic up to FA status or the whole FT will be demoted to a Good topic. Any ideas appreciated.— Rod talk 21:04, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

 * I'm surprised that there isn't more on Gough's Cave, and Reservoir Hole which has the largest chamber in the country. The resurgence at the bottom of Cheddar Gorge is the largest on Mendip, and the cave system behind it, with which those caves are associated, are amongst the most important in the country. Incidentally, with reference to the caves that are mentioned in the article, what does the phrase "Both are known for their geology" refer to? That they are in rock? Langcliffe (talk) 11:23, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Cheddar Gorge. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090319215844/http://www.bristol-water.co.uk/pdf/environment/w2008/WRP%202010%20v1.1%20D%20REP.pdf to http://www.bristol-water.co.uk/pdf/environment/w2008/WRP%202010%20v1.1%20D%20REP.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081216141738/http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/image.php?search=cave&getprev=73539 to http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/image.php?search=cave&getprev=73539

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Cultural references
For me, this is coming close to trivia. Five of the seven items have been added since the article made GA. Two are uncited, one is cited to IMDb, a deprecated, user-generated source, and another to Feedwhip which looks pretty dubious. Much looks pretty trivial - a fifty-year old afternoon radio play, a cartoon character, a video game, a forty-year old childrens' TV programme. And it's close to bullet points, rather than prose. I don't think it adds much at all to the article and propose to trim drastically, but would appreciate other views first. KJP1 (talk) 07:13, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

National Trust pilot
Hello! During late June, July and some of August, I'm working on a paid project sponsored by the National Trust to review and enhance coverage of NT sites. You can find the pilot edits here, as well as a statement and contact details for the National Trust. I am leaving this message when I make a first edit to a page; please do get in touch if you have any concerns. Lajmmoore (talk) 18:18, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Cheddar Gorge


text:
DeMarcus Corley

DeMarcus Deon Corley (born June 3, 1974) is an American professional boxer. A veteran of the sport for more than two decades, he held the WBO junior welterweight title from 2001 to 2003, and has fought as a gatekeeper against many of boxing's biggest names.

Amateur career
Corley was an amateur standout, and won the National Golden Gloves Light Welterweight Championship in 1995. Corley also had a record of 100-19.

Professional career
Corley began boxing professionally on May 17, 1996, knocking out Aaron Smith in the first round.

WBO light welterweight champion
Corley would not lose a match until 1999, against Daniel Lujan. Later that year in his 22nd bout with a record of 21 wins 1 defeat (11KO), he faced Ener Julio for the USBA light welterweight title. He won via a 12-round split decision. Corley later defeated Ener Julio again to defend his WBO light welterweight belt (which he would later lose to future undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah).

Inactive period and return
Corley took 2002 off from boxing to recover from the murder of his brother. This murder left Corley to care for his brother’s 7 children on top of the 7 children he already had. He returned to the ring on January 4, 2003.

In 2006 Corley fought Junior Witter for the vacant WBC light welterweight championship, losing a wide decision in a very tactical bout.

Later career
After many consecutive losses, Corley took on Damian Fuller in 2010 and improved his record to 37-13-1 (21 KOs) with a 4th-round TKO.

On August 28, 2010, Corley lost to Marcos Maidana by unanimous decision in a fight in which was disputed, for the WBA light welterweight title.

On November 14, 2010, Corley lost to Serhiy Fedchenko by unanimous decision in a fight in which was also disputed, for the vacant WBO European light welterweight title.

On January 21, 2012, Corley won the vacant NABF light welterweight title when he defeated Gabriel Bracero by unanimous decision.

Corley then earned a TKO victory over Paul McCloskey on May 5, 2012.

On September 27, 2013, Corley lost against Selçuk Aydın by corner stoppage at the end of round 4.

Bare knuckle boxing
On March 19, 2021, Corley fought Reggie Barnett Jr in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. He lost the fight via retirement after the fourth round.

title: DeMarcus Corley


text:
A Close Shave

Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave is a 1995 British stop-motion animated short film co-written and directed by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations with Wallace and Gromit Ltd., BBC Bristol and BBC Children's International. It is the third film featuring Wallace and Gromit, following A Grand Day Out (1989) and The Wrong Trousers (1993). A Close Shave won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. A Close Shave saw the first appearance of Shaun, who became the main character of the Shaun the Sheep spin-off series.

Plot
Wallace and his dog, Gromit, operate a window cleaning business. Wallace falls for the wool shopkeeper Wendolene Ramsbottom. Her sinister dog, Preston, rustles sheep to supply the shop. After a lost sheep wanders into the house, Wallace places him in his Knit-o-Matic, which shears sheep and knits the wool into jumpers. Wallace names the sheep Shaun.

Preston steals the Knit-o-Matic blueprints. When Gromit investigates, Preston captures him and frames him for the sheep rustling. Gromit is arrested and imprisoned, while Wallace's house is inundated with sheep. Wallace and the sheep break Gromit out of jail and hide out in the fields. Wendolene and Preston arrive in the lorry to round up the sheep. When Wendolene demands Preston stop the rustling, he locks her in the lorry with the sheep and drives away, intent on turning them into dog food.

Wallace and Gromit give chase on their motorcycle. When Gromit's sidecar detaches, he activates its aeroplane mode and resumes the chase from the air. Wallace becomes trapped in the lorry and he, Wendolene, and the sheep are transported to Preston's factory, where Preston has built an enormous Knit-o-Matic. The captives are loaded into the wash basin, but Shaun escapes. Shaun activates neon signs to reveal the factory's location to Gromit, who attacks Preston. Shaun sucks Preston into the Knit-o-Matic, removing his fur and revealing him to be a robot. Wendolene explains that Preston is a creation of her inventor father.

The Knit-o-Matic makes a sweater of Preston's fur and dumps it on his head, obscuring his vision. Shaun pushes Preston into the dog food mincing machine, crushing him. Gromit is exonerated and Wallace rebuilds Preston as a harmless remote-controlled dog. Afterwards, Wallace is saddened when Wendolene leaves and tells him that she is allergic to cheese. When he tries to cheer himself up with some cheese, he finds that Shaun has eaten it all.

Cast

 * Peter Sallis as Wallace
 * Anne Reid as Wendolene Ramsbottom

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, A Close Shave has a perfect score of 100% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10.

title: A Close Shave


text:
Talk:World line

Early notes
--Sir48 9 July 2005 12:13 (UTC)What is this ?
 * It's user:Fwappler. See also Duration. Fwappler, please explain these things you are adding! Wikipedia is a general encyclopedia, not a scientific text. That doesn't mean anything must be dumbed down, but articles need an introduction that establishes CONTEXT and gives an overview -- Tarquin 10:54 Jan 5, 2003 (UTC)

I known I found this article trying to understand duration.

As for the above:

 * I'm sorry, the notion of Worldline which I've added doesn't readily admit any explanation besides those stated already, and as (at least partially) provided through their Links.
 * Set and Observational content are about as plain as I know to put it.

 * If this were not the principal notion of Worldline which We like to see, then my addition may constitute merely the aspect of Worldline:Scientific text. The article which links to this page might be similarly parcelt [parceled(?) - Patrick] . I surely don't wish to extend my reach beyond my grasp. Fortunately We seem to agree that Wikipedia is not a general encyclopedia to the exclusion of scientific text.

Best regards,  Frank W ~@) R,			Jan. 5, 20:57 PST.

Fwappler, something in the style of http://library.thinkquest.org/27930/worldlines.htm (which you've linked to) is required, at least for the introduction. -- Tarquin 09:32 Jan 6, 2003 (UTC)

I could not understand the content as it was and I have replaced the item with an entirely new text. Please add the old text again, but try to place it in a better context, starting e.g. with In philosophy a wordline is ... Jheise 18:00 Jan 6 2004

Why does this article in the text and the thumb-text of the illustration talk about the earth's orbit as (almost) a circle? The right expression "an ellipse" should be well known. --Sir48 9 July 2005 12:13 (UTC)

I changed the word 'singular' to unique in the first sentence. Worldlines are continuous and smooth most places. 'Singular' might be confused with a discontinuity or discontinuous derivative. -r

New image
Would you please comment on the new "light cone" image we have prepared. The intention was to imply the correct scale of space-time relative to the observer. Interstellar light-years vs years scales seemed appropriate. Thoughts? Dhatfield (talk) 11:55, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Time direction flow?
"Time flows from The Past to Now." That may not always be true, possibly not even in the classical macro realm. There are non-classical physical experiments which undeniably exhibit results where effect precedes cause, and experimental results in classical frames where the results may possibly be explained by virtue of positing "reversal" of time. The problem is human bias in that our brains interpret cause and effect classically when in relativistic terms there is no privileged frame of reference, even for time.

My physics classes are decades obsolete and far in the past :) however I also dimly recall a French physicist who mathematically demonstrated a theoretical basis for supposing that there is only one electron extant in the whole of space which is manifest as a superposition-like spread over the dimension we consider to be “time.” His work suggested a classical explanation of action-at-a-distance in the context that quantum entanglement was the result of there being only one electron in the whole of the Universe yet manifest spread out over time.

We're also seeing time reversal effects in nano circuitry which hold the potential to allow macro benefits in electronics and spintronics. Imagine memory storage densities in magnetic particles laid down on a gallinium substrate that take advantage of storing minute magnetic fields in the past, much, much longer than a Planck time or even longer than a chronon. :) One could even read data long before it was written. :) Damotclese (talk) 18:55, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

 * I think there is a fundamental problem with this page in that the heading says "This article is about a concept used in physics and literature." but, other than a few references to "World lines in literature", it is entirely about the usage in physics. In that context, the majority seems to have been well written by someone who understands the subject but there are significant parts that are badly flawed or complete rubbish. (For example "pendulum clock floating in space" wouldn't swing because a pendulum clock relies on gravity for its operation.) The statement "Time flows from The Past to Now." is not part of any scientific formualtion I know of and is incompatible with the "block universe" model which is probably the most prevalent philosophical interpretation of relativity. However, such interpretations aren't really relevant to an article explaining worldlines though a link to alternative philosophies of time could be helpful. I won't have time to fix this myself in the near future but it badly needs to be corrected.
 * George Dishman (talk) 19:56, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Literary importance out of place
Considering that World lines are essentially a physics concept, the importance placed on the literature section feels out of place for the article. Reading the introduction, I do a double take at the sentence "in general usage, a world line is the sequential path of personal human events" wait... what? That's not general usage, but just an interpretation of how it applies to people. The section headings "Usage in Physics" along with "World line in Literature" suggest that world line is a general concept that takes specific and different meanings in the context of literature vs. physics. This isn't really the case. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.244.176.240 (talk) 00:49, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Use of the word "travel"
When time is treated as a fourth spatial dimension, there is no chronological time. Thus world lines are the static, eternal path traced by an object, but it is incoherent to describe the object as "travelling" through Minkowski space. With no chronological time there is no change, no motion. If we speak of motion through the fourth dimension, then we must also answer absurd questions like "at what speed is the object moving through the fourth dimension?" ie "What is its change in time with respect to time?" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1.72.2.98 (talk) 06:27, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

 * I've reworded the first sentence to fix this. —Quondum 18:19, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

disambiguation for 'wordline' company at top of page
can we get a mod or someone in here to settle this? i don't think this company is worthy of piggybacking off minkowski's background.

i don't think when people google worldline they're looking for the company. they're looking for the mathematical construct.

paging user:mindmatrix, help pls? ty — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.3.213.121 (talk) 01:29, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

 * I'm in agreement here: remove the hatnote. There must be many instances of a word being used as a company name, and to provide a hatnote like this for the very occasional person who might seek it would clutter WP with adverts for companies.  —Quondum 02:40, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

Misleading image under "Trivial examples of spacetime curves"
The image under the aforementioned section is somewhat misleading.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Worldlines1.jpg

The "faster object" and "very fast object" lines don't reflect reality. As far as I'm aware, the overwhelming convention in spacetime diagrams is that the line y=x represents a light-speed trajectory. Thus, it appears that "faster object" is travelling about the speed of light, and "very fast object" appears to be traveling much faster than the speed of light.

A more conventional image would have two or three example lines whose slope is greater than one, and an additional one or two lines showing a light-speed trajectory (the light cone from the origin). An illustrative example could even have a fifth line whose slope is less than one, and point out that such a world line involves faster than light travel, and is thus impossible under conventional understanding. 24.107.185.147 (talk) 03:43, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

 * Agreed, in this context it would be more conventional and less confusing to have all the lines above 45°. —Quondum 05:20, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
 * The same criticism applies to Richard Haskell's essay in Ext Lks: in depth text on world lines and special relativity. Though a thoughtful essay, it does not appear to be a reliable source for this article.Rgdboer (talk) 23:35, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Oddly worded statement about manifolds
In the Usage In Physics section of the World line page, there is a statement saying that "The mathematical term for spacetime is a four-dimensional manifold." This needs to be corrected slightly as it makes it sound like spacetime and manifolds have the equivalent definition. Perhaps it should say instead that "In mathematics, spacetime is an example of a four-dimensional manifold." Sammysimplex (talk) 02:05, 6 November 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:World line


text:
Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport is the main international airport serving Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It is also one of the largest and busiest airports in the world.

This airport opened for business on 29 March 2001 to replace the older Gimpo International Airport, which now serves mostly domestic destinations and shuttle flights to several East Asian metropolitan areas, including Beijing–Capital, Kaohsiung, Osaka–Kansai, Shanghai–Hongqiao, Taipei–Songshan and Tokyo–Haneda.

Incheon International Airport is located west of Incheon's city center, on an artificially created piece of land between Yeongjong and Yongyu Islands. A shallow sea originally separated the two islands. That area between the two islands was reclaimed for the construction project, effectively connecting the once-separate Yeongjong and Yongyu islands. The reclaimed area and the two islands are all part of Jung-gu, an administrative district of Incheon. The airport has 111 boarding gates altogether, with 44 in Terminal 1, 30 in Concourse A (connected to Terminal 1), and 37 in Terminal 2.

This airport was constructed to share the demand for air transport in the 21st century and to serve as a hub airport in Northeast Asia.

History

International air traffic to South Korea increased after the 1988 Summer Olympics. In the 1990s, it became apparent that Gimpo International Airport could not cope with the increase in air traffic. The government decided to build a new international airport to reduce the load on Gimpo International Airport.

The new airport was originally planned to be located in Cheongju, 124 km southeast of Seoul, but due to its distance, it was opposed by Seoul and Gyeonggi citizens. Hwaseong was the other choice, but it was also rejected due to similar reasons. Finally, the area chosen was Incheon.

In November 1992, the construction of the Incheon airport began on reclaimed land between Yeongjong Island and Youngyu Island and took eight years to finish, with an additional six months for testing. Completion was initially scheduled for 1997 but delayed due to the economic crisis. The airport was officially opened on 21 March 2001.

On 15 November 2006, the Airbus A380 landed at the airport as part of the first leg of its certification trip. Tests on the runways, taxiways, and ramps showed that the airport could handle the aircraft.

To further upgrade service, Incheon and major Korean logistics firm Hanjin Group (parent company of Korean Air) agreed on 10 January 2008 to build Yeongjong Medical Centre, which was completed in 2012. This hospital serves nearby residents and some of the 30,000 medical tourists who come to Korea annually.

Statistics
Located 48 km west of Seoul, the capital and the largest city of South Korea, Incheon International Airport is the main hub for Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air, and Polar Air Cargo. The airport serves as a hub for international civilian air transportation and cargo traffic in East Asia. In 2016, the Incheon International Airport was the fifth-busiest airport in the world and third in Asia by cargo traffic, and 19th in the world and eighth in Asia by passenger traffic. In 2016, the airport served a total of 57,849,814 passengers.

The airport opened for business in early 2001 to replace the older Gimpo International Airport, which now serves mostly domestic destinations plus shuttle flights to Beijing–Capital, Osaka–Kansai, Shanghai–Hongqiao, Taipei–Songshan and Tokyo–Haneda although flights to Beijing and Osaka also operate from Incheon Airport.

Construction phases

The airport was originally planned to be built in three phases, incrementally increasing airport capacity as the demand grew. This was changed, however, to four phases after the airport was opened.

Phase 1
In Phase 1, the airport had a capacity of 30 million passengers annually, and a cargo capacity of 1700000 t annually. In this phase, a passenger terminal with a floor space of 496000 m2, two parallel runways, a control tower, an administrative building, a transportation Centre (the Integrated Transportation Centre, designed by Terry Farrell and Partners and Samoo Architects & Engineers), an integrated operations Centre, three cargo terminals, international business Centre, and a government office building were constructed.

Phase 2
Phase 2 construction began in 2002, and was originally expected to be completed in December 2008. However, in an attempt to have the airport ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which took place in August 2008, the schedule was modified, and Phase 2 construction was completed on 20 June 2008. During this construction phase, a third parallel 4000 m runway and a 13 hectare cargo terminal area was added. A 16.5 hectare concourse connected to the main passenger building via two parallel 870 m underground passageways were added, with a Mitsubishi Crystal Mover shuttle train APM shuttling passengers between the concourse and the main terminal.

Many long-distance foreign carriers were moved to the new concourse, with Korean Air and Asiana Airlines continuing to use the existing terminal.

Phase 3
The South Korean government invested ₩4 trillion until 2017 to expand Incheon International Airport. The second passenger terminal was constructed in the northern field of the airport, and its existing cargo terminal and other infrastructures were expanded. The terminals are connected by the underground "Starline" train. Also, a Landside Connecting system (Bus shuttle) is used for airport employees and departing passengers who don't come to the right terminal. After completion, Incheon International Airport can handle 62 million passengers and 5800000 t of cargo a year, up from the previous capacity of 44 million passengers and 4500000 t. Construction began in 2011 and was completed in 2017. The terminal opened on 18 January 2018. Incheon's expansion also includes adding more aprons to park planes and extending a railway line to the city center of Seoul about 70 km away from the airport. The airport also signed an agreement to build a resort called "Inspire" which includes 6-star hotels, theme parks, and a casino.

Phase 4
Between 2017 and 2024, a fourth construction phase at the airport is taking place. There will be an expansion of Terminal 2, the building of a fourth runway and additional apron and car parking facilities. Following completion of the works, it is expected that the hourly flight capacity of the airport will increase from 90 to 107.

There are long-term plans for a fifth runway and a third terminal.

Terminal 1
Terminal 1 (measuring 496000 m2) is the largest airport terminal by area in South Korea. Terminal 1 was designed by Curtis W. Fentress, FAIA, RIBA of Fentress Architects. It is 1060 m long, 149 m wide, and 33 m high. Its construction cost was 5.632 trillion South Korean Won. The terminal has 44 boarding ports (all of which can accommodate the Airbus A380), 50 customs inspection ports, 2 biological quarantine counters, 6 stationary and 14 portable passenger quarantine counters, 120 arrival passport inspection counters, 8 arrival security ports, 28 departure security ports, 252 check-in counters, and 120 departure passport inspection counters. In 2015, an automatic check-in counter lane was introduced, which people travelling via Korean Air, Asiana Airlines and China Southern Airlines can use. Instead of having airport staff at the counter, there is a machine where travellers input their flight information, scan their passports, receive their flight tickets and lastly, load the luggage onto the conveyor. This system was planned to be introduced in Terminal 2, but in May 2015 Incheon Airport used one of the counter islands for the unmanned luggage handling system.

In December 2023, a Oneworld-branded and operated lounge opened in Incheon Airport Terminal 1 to serve passengers flying on seven of the alliance's 13 member carriers who serve the airport: American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, and SriLankan Airlines. It is the first in a series of planned lounges under development by the alliance.

Midfield Concourse
The passenger concourse was completed at the end of May 2008. It is connected to Terminal 1 by two parallel 870 m underground passageways equipped with IATs (Intra Airport Transit). It has 30 gates and six lounges.

Terminal 2
A new passenger terminal, designed by Gensler, opened on 18 January 2018, and Korean Air, KLM, Delta Air Lines, and Air France flights were relocated from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. Other SkyTeam members such as Aeromexico, China Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, XiamenAir, Czech Airlines and Aeroflot started serving the Terminal 2 on 28 October 2018. From 1 July 2023, Jin Air, the low-cost subsidiary of Korean Air, will operate at Terminal 2. And the rest of the SkyTeam members, such as Vietnam Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Saudia, will be relocated to Terminal 2 after the Phase 4 construction work is completed.

Passenger
Aeromexico's flight from Mexico City to Seoul–Incheon operates via Monterrey but the flight from Seoul–Incheon to Mexico City is non-stop.

Korean Air's service between Busan and Incheon is available only to connecting passengers flying with the airline internationally.

Korean Air's service between Daegu and Incheon is available only to connecting passengers flying with the airline internationally.

Accidents and incidents
On 16 June 2011, an Airbus A321-200, operating as Asiana Airlines flight 324 between Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, China and Incheon International Airport, was fired upon by two soldiers of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps as it came in to land at Incheon. A total of 99 rounds were discharged at the aircraft, which was out of range and made a safe landing without sustaining any damage. The soldiers had misidentified the aircraft as belonging to the North Korean military and were acting on orders that permitted them to engage without reference to senior officers, following the Bombardment of Yeonpyeong in November 2010.

Bus
Airport shuttle buses transport passengers between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Buses are free, arrive every 5 to 8 minutes, take approximately 20 minutes of travel time, and stop at the Hyatt Hotel or airport fire station en route, depending on direction.

Airport buses are called limousine buses. Standard limousine buses travel to Gimpo Airport & Songjeong station.

Intercity buses connect with other towns and cities in Korea.

The City Air Logistics & Transportation company runs a airport bus line directly connected to the bus station at COEX, Gangnam.

Rail
The Airport Railroad Express (AREX and styled as A'REX) has two stations located in both the Transport Centre adjacent to the Terminal 1 building (Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 station) and is in the basement of Terminal 2 (Incheon International Airport Terminal 2 station). It provides service to Gimpo International Airport and Seoul. Many of the stations along the line provide connections to Incheon Subway, Seoul Metropolitan Subway, and Incheon Airport Maglev.

For departing passengers, Seoul Station City Airport Terminal offers in-town early check-in service and has related immigration services before arriving at the airport. After CALT closed its in-town check-in operation at Gangnam in 2023, the Seoul Station City Airport Terminal is the only available place in Seoul where in-town check-in service is provided.

The Korea Train eXpress (KTX) operated at the same station as AREX but used a different platform. It operated 20 times per day from the airport; twelve times on the Gyeonbu Line, twice on the Gyeonjeon Line, four times on the Honam Line, and twice on the Jeolla Line. The service started in 2014 but was suspended in March 2018 due to low ridership. The suspension became permanent in September 2018 as the line was officially closed.

The Incheon Airport Maglev opened on 3 February 2016 and closed on 1 September 2023. The first phase was to be 6.1 km long, spread over six stations (but eight stations were built, spanning more than 8 km), taking riders from the airport toward the southwest of the island where a water park is located. Phase 2 was to be 9.7 km long, extending the line to the northwest of the island. Phase 3 would have added 37.4 km, transforming the line into a circle. After converting the tracks from Maglev to orbital tram tracks, service is expected to resume from March 2024.

Ferry
A ferry service connects Yeongjong-do to the mainland. However, the dock is located a considerable distance from the airport. An alternative means of transport must be sought upon arriving at the island to be able to get to the airport.

Car
The airport provides a short-term parking lot for 4,000 cars and a long-term parking lot for 6,000 cars. Shuttle services connect the long-term parking lot to the passenger terminal and the cargo terminal. Car rental is located near the long-term parking lot. A link to the mainland is provided by the toll Yeongjong Bridge and an expressway. A second expressway on the Incheon Bridge also connects the island to central Incheon.

Traffic and statistics
In 2017, the airport was the world's fourth busiest airport by cargo traffic and third in Asia, and the world's 19th busiest airport by passenger traffic and ninth in Asia. In 2019, the airport served a total of 70,857,908 passengers.

Awards
As of 2021, the airport has been rated by Skytrax as the fourth-best airport in the world. Skytrax has also rated the airport as the world's best international transit airport and one of the world's cleanest airports. The airport is one of Skytrax's 5-star airports and has also been awarded for the best airport security in 2021.

During the entire run of the best airport worldwide ranking by Airports Council International (ACI) from 2005 to 2011, Incheon International Airport topped the ranking every year. ACI also rated the airport as the best airport in Asia-Pacific for 10 consecutive years from 2006 to 2016 until the ranking series ended in 2017.

Its duty-free shopping mall has been rated the world's best for three years in a row in 2013 by Business Traveller.

Facilities
This airport has a golf course, spa, private sleeping rooms, an ice skating rink, a casino, indoor gardens, video game center and the Museum of Korean Culture.

In popular culture
The Sims 4 Team released The Sims 4: Incheon Arrivals Kit inspired by the fashion at the Incheon airport.

title: Incheon International Airport