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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the significance of the pictures on the notes?

5K Note:
Front - Gully Ali Beg and its 800m waterfall. The 10km gully passes between Mount Kork and Mount Nwathnin, some 60km away from Shaqlawa.
Back - The second century desert fortress of Al-Ukhether, Hejira.
10K Note:
Front - Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham (known as Alhazen to medieval scholars in the West), born Basrah in 965 CE. His most important work - although he wrote some 200 books - is held to be a seven volume series on optics Kitab al-Manazir, in which he gives the first correct explanation of vision, showing that light is reflected from an object into the eye. He is said to have ‘invented’ the camera obscura. Also, an eminent physicist and mathematician he developed analytical geometry by establishing linkage between algebra and geometry. Alhazen’s work was translated into Latin, and greatly influenced European scientific thought.
Back - Hadba Minaret, at the Great Nurid Mosque, Mosul, built 1172 CE by Nurridin Zangi, the then Turkish ruler. The 59m-high minaret leans 8 feet off the perpendicular. That is how it earned its Arabic name Al-Hadba (‘the humped’).
25K Note:
Front - Kurdish farmer holding sheaf of wheat. Tractor in background.
Back - King Hammurabi, best known for writing the first code of law in human history. Hammurabi founded the First Dynasty of Babylon in 1700 BCE- the beginning of a prosperous era for the region.
50K Note:
Front - traditional symbols to reflect Iraq’s diverse heritage including a water wheel on the Euphrates river, palm trees, flying birds and the Gali Ali Beg waterfall in Kurdistan.
Back - Fisherman poles a canoe through a marsh surrounded by indigenous animals with the Great Mosque of Samarra in the background.