Maldivian (also known as Divehi) is spoken on the Maldive Islands located off the southwest tip of India in the Indian Ocean. It is an Indo-Aryan language, formerly written in a script resembling Sinhalese script. After the islands became exclusively Islamic, it was found convenient to design a script reading from right to left, so that Arabic words could be accommodated in Maldivian sentences. An official scheme of roman transliteration for Maldivian was adopted by the Maldive government in the 1970s. This Maldivian-English Dictionary consists of 5000 individual entries.

Marking the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, this volume presents twenty-one completely new essays on aspects of Beethoven's personal life, his composing process, his manuscripts, and his greatest works. Beethoven's music stands as a universal symbol of personal and artistic achievement. As we reach and then surpass the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, Jeremy Yudkin has commissioned a collection of new essays from some of the most insightful writers on Beethoven's accomplishments and brought them together in this remarkable volume. Filled with careful explanations, this book gives us completely new insights into music known and loved by people around the world. Ordinary music lovers as well as scholars will find countless new discoveries about Beethoven and his music. Listeners will hear his compositions afresh, and scholars will find new results of research and analysis and new avenues for discovery. Topics include Beethoven's cultural milieu, his personal life, his friends, his publishers, his instruments, his working methods, his own handwritten scores, and, of course, his music. Many works are carefully discussed and explained in ways that reveal fascinating and previously unknown aspects of compositions that we thought we knew well. A landmark publication for all who admire some of the greatest music of our civilization.

Where previous accounts of the Renaissance have not fully acknowledged the role that music played in this decisive period of cultural history, Laurenz Lutteken merges historical music analysis with the analysis of the other arts to provide a richer context for the emergence and evolution of creative cultures across civilizations. This fascinating panorama foregrounds music as a substantial component of the era and considers musical works and practices in a wider cultural-historical context. Among the topics surveyed are music's relationship to antiquity, the position of music within systems of the arts, the emergence of the concept of the musical work, as well as music's relationship to the theory and practice of painting, literature, and architecture. What becomes clear is that the Renaissance gave rise to many musical concepts and practices that persist to this day, whether the figure of the composer, musical institutions, and modes of musical writing and memory.

Christopher Reynolds began an extensive study of Australian political history and the Australian Constitution when he was a senior professional staff member in the U.S. Congress in the 1980s. As someone who drafted and promoted legislation, he was interested in Australia's complicated relationship with Britain as well as what it needs to change to promote democracy. Quoting authors from Aristotle to Thomas Jefferson, and a host of Australian authorities, Reynolds outlines Australia's journey from being a dominion of the British Empire toward independence. He supports his findings by examining documents from British archives, Australian constitutional debates, as well as the constitutions of other nations that lead to the path of meaningful reform. Take a revealing journey through the history of Australian politics and consider a model of government based on involvement and interaction rather than conflict with In the Shadow of the Crown.

There is agreement in political and academic circles that the European Union needs a common foreign and security policy (CFSP). The question is how to move from recognised necessity to practical implementation: from rhetoric to reality. Many efforts have been made, and indeed the creation of a European foreign policy is 'work in progress'. Bringing together a multinational team of both young researchers and established academics, this volume offers a comprehensive analysis of this process, uniquely combining the examination of the foundations, institutions, procedures and obstacles of EU-level foreign policy with an extensive range of case studies exploring European policy 'on the ground' in key areas such as the Balkans, Africa or the Middle East. Of use and interest to students of European politics and the general reader alike, it breaks through the Eurojargon to provide a clear, accessible and up-to-date account of this unprecedented system of international relations, with a particular focus placed on the questions of why EU member states participate in the CFSP and what impact it enables them to have in geopolitics.