Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) week, period of time shorter than the month, commonly seven days. The ancient Egyptians used a 10-day period, as did the French under the short-lived French Revolutionary calendar. In many regions a f...

(Encyclopedia) Sarajevo sârˌəyāˈvō [key], city (2013 pop. 438,443), capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the Miljacka River. An important industrial and railway center, its industries include food and tobacco...

(Encyclopedia) Nasrallah, Hassan häˈsən näsräˈlä [key], 1960–, Lebanese political and religious leader. A Shiite Muslim cleric, he became politically active in the 1970s and joined the Amal militia. After I...

(Encyclopedia) Alfonso I (Alfonso the Battler) ălfŏnˈsō, äl– [key], d. 1134, king of Aragón and Navarre (1104–34), brother and successor of Peter I. The husband of Urraca, queen of Castile, he fought unsuc...

(Encyclopedia) Dongola dŏngˈgələ [key], region, part of Northern state, Sudan. Old Dongola, c.75 mi (120 km) south of the present city of Dongola, was the capital of the Christian kingdom of Makurra or Nubia. It...

(Encyclopedia) Abd al-Kader äbˌdäl-kädērˈ [key], c.1807–1883, Algerian military and religious leader. Although born to an anti-Turkish family, he was chosen emir of Mascara to fight the French invaders who h...

(Encyclopedia) Hoysala, dynasty of S India, c.1110–1326. It had its origins in the last half of the 11th cent., when Vinayaditya (1047–98) ruled an an area centered on Dorasamudra (modern Halebid, near Hassan), ...

(Encyclopedia) Aoun, Michel Naïm, 1935–, Lebanese military and political leader. A graduate of Lebanon's military academy (1958), he fought in several major battles during the civil war (1975–90), rising to the...

(Encyclopedia) Jammu jŭˈmo͞o [key], city (1991 pop. 206,135), Jammu and Kashmir union territory, N India, on the Tawi River and in the Himalayan foothills. The winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, it is strategic...

(Encyclopedia) Arafat äräfäˈ [key], granite hill, Saudi Arabia, near Mecca. The hill was an ancient pagan sanctuary and is shrouded in many legends. It is a site for prayers during the hajj, the annual Muslim pi...