Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Damascus dəmăsˈkəs [key], Arabic Dimashq or ash-Sham, city (1995 est. pop. 1,500,000), capital of Syria and of its Damascus governorate, SW Syria, on the eastern edge of the Anti-Lebanon Mts. It i...

(Encyclopedia) Nubia no͞oˈbēə [key], ancient state of NE Africa. At the height of its political power Nubia extended, from north to south, from the First Cataract of the Nile (near Aswan, Egypt) to Khartoum, in ...

(Encyclopedia) Assassin əsăsˈĭn [key], European name for the member of a secret order of the Ismaili sect of Islam. They are known as Nizaris after Nizar ibn al-Mustansir, whom they supported as caliph; the Euro...

(Encyclopedia) Persian language, member of the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian languages). The official language of Iran, it has about 38 millio...

(Encyclopedia) Moluccas məlŭkˈəz, mō– [key] or Spice Islands, Bahasa Indonesia Maluku, Du. Molukken, island group and prov. (1990 pop. 1,856,075), c.32,300 sq mi (83,660 sq km), E Indonesia, between Sulawesi ...

(Encyclopedia) Circassia sərkăshˈēə [key], historic region, encompassing roughly the area between the Black Sea, the Kuban River, and the Caucasus, now largely the Krasnodar Territory of SE European Russia. The...

(Encyclopedia) Ibn al-Arabi or Ibn Arabi, Muhyi ad-Din Muhammad bin Ali al-Hatimi at-Tai ĭbˌən äl äräˈbē [key], 1165–1240, a Muslim Sufi mystic b. in Murcia, Spain. As a child in Seville, Ibn al-Arabi had ...

(Encyclopedia) Ibn Hanbal, Ahmad äˈməd ĭbˈən hănˈbăl [key], 780–855, Muslim jurist and theologian. His disciples founded the fourth of the four major Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the Hanbali. Ibn Hanba...

(Encyclopedia) heraldry, system in which inherited symbols, or devices, called charges are displayed on a shield, or escutcheon, for the purpose of identifying individuals or families. In the Middle Ages the herald,...

(Encyclopedia) Timurids tĭmo͝orˈĭdz [key], dynasty founded by Timur (or Tamerlane). After the death of Timur (1405) there was a struggle for power over his empire, which then extended from the Euphrates River to...