Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Hagia Sophia häˈjə sōfēˈə, hāˈjēə, [key] [Gr.,=Holy Wisdom] or Santa Sophia, Turkish Ayasofya, originally a Christian church at Constantinople (now İstanbul, Turkey) and then a mosque unde...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Pakistan păkˈĭstănˌ, päkĭstänˈ [key], officially Islamic Republic of Pakistan, republic (2015 est. pop. 189,381,000), 310,403 sq mi (803,944 sq km), S Asia. Pakistan is bordered by Ind...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 titles, terms used to designate degrees of sovereignty, nobility, and honor. In the Muslim world the temporal successors of Muhammad received the title caliph (literally, “successor”). ...

(Encyclopedia) madrasa or madrassah, in Islamic countries, a school, historically usually one devoted to higher education in religious studies, but the term may refer to any school. Privately endowed, often by royal...

(Encyclopedia) Maghreb or Magrib both: mäˈgrĭb [key] [Arab.,=the West], Arabic term for NW Africa. It is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia but actually pertains only to the area of the thr...

(Encyclopedia) Nice nēs [key], city (1990 pop. 345,674), capital of Alpes-Maritimes dept., SE France, on the Mediterranean Sea. Nice is the most famous resort on the French Riviera. Although the economy depends mai...

(Encyclopedia) resurrection rĕzˌərĕkˈshən [key] [Lat.,=rising again], arising again from death to life. The emergence of Jesus from the tomb to live on earth again for 40 days as told in the Gospels has been f...

(Encyclopedia) Darwish, Mahmoud, 1941–2008, widely considered the Palestinian national poet, b. Barwa, Palestine (now in Israel). He was born to middle-class Sunni Muslim farmers, who were displaced when soldiers ...

(Encyclopedia) Ebadi, Shirin shērēn ĕbôdēˈ [key], 1947–, Iranian jurist, author, and human-rights activist. From a family of distinguished jurists, she obtained her law degree (1969) and doctorate (1971) fro...