Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) alabaster, fine-grained, massive, translucent variety of gypsum, a hydrous calcium sulfate. It is pure white or streaked with reddish brown. Alabaster, like all other forms of gypsum, forms by the eva...

(Encyclopedia) Beyazid I bāyäzĭdˈ [key], 1347–1403, Ottoman sultan (1389–1402), son and successor of Murad I. He besieged Byzantine Emperor Manuel II at Constantinople, then overcame the Turkish rulers in E ...

(Encyclopedia) Madinat ash Shab mədēˈnət ăsh shăb [key], town, SW Yemen, just N of Aden. Formerly called al-Ittihad, it was built in the 1960s as the federal capital of the Federation of South Arabia. From 196...

(Encyclopedia) Browne, William (William Browne of Tavistock) tăvˈĭstŏkˌ [key], 1591?–1645?, English poet. An imitator of Spenser, he did his finest work in pastoral poetry, of which Britannia's Pastorals (161...

(Encyclopedia) Pamir pəmērˈ, pä– [key] or Pamirs, mountainous region of central Asia, located mainly in Tajikistan and extending into NE Afghanistan and SW Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China; called the �...

(Encyclopedia) Abravanel or Abarbanel, Judah, c.1460–c.1523, Jewish philosopher, physician, and poet, son of Isaac Abravanel, b. Lisbon; he is also known as Leone Ebreo. He fled (1483) from Portugal to Spain with ...

(Encyclopedia) Larache läräshˈ [key], Arab. Al Araish, city (1994 pop. 98,755), N Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean. Vegetables, cork, wool, and timber are exported. The Phoenicians founded a trading post on the sit...

(Encyclopedia) Beth-horon bĕth-hōˈrən [key], in the Bible, name of two neighboring towns on the northerly road from Lod to Jerusalem. They are the modern Beit Ur at Tahta and Beit Ur al Fawga in the West Bank. I...

(Encyclopedia) collective bargaining, in labor relations, procedure whereby an employer or employers agree to discuss the conditions of work by bargaining with representatives of the employees, usually a labor union...

(Encyclopedia) Hopper, Edward, 1882–1967, American painter and engraver, b. Nyack, N.Y., studied in New York City with Robert Henri and other Ashcan School painters. Hopper lived in France for a year but was littl...