Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Baybars I bīˈbärs [key], 1223–77, Mamluk sultan (1260–77) of Egypt and Syria. Once a Turkish slave, Baybars became a commander of the Ayyubid and then Mamluk armies. In 1260 he led Mamluk troop...

(Encyclopedia) Rhazes rāˈsĭs, –zĭs [key], 860–932, Persian physician. He was chief physician at the Baghdad hospital. An observant clinician, he formulated the first known description of smallpox as distingu...

(Encyclopedia) Tahpanhes tēhăfˈnĭhēz [key], ancient city, NE Egypt, on Lake Manzala. The site is now on the Suez Canal. Herodotus states that the city (called by the Greeks Daphnae) had a garrison of Psamtik's ...

(Encyclopedia) Polyglot Bible pŏlˈēglŏt [key], Bible in which different texts, often in different languages, are laid out in parallel columns. Polyglot Bibles serve as tools for textual criticism. Origen's Hexap...

(Encyclopedia) Lucas, George W., Jr., 1944–, American film director, producer, and writer, b. Modesto, Calif. Although Lucas's first film, THX-1138 (1970), was not successful, his next two, American Graffiti (1973...

(Encyclopedia) Aegina or Aíyina āˈyēnä [key], island, 32 sq mi (83 sq km), off SE Greece, in the Saronic Gulf (or Gulf of Aegina), near Athens. Sponge fishing and farming (fi...

(Encyclopedia) Akbar ăkˈbär [key], 1542–1605, Mughal emperor of India (1556–1605); son of Humayun, grandson of Babur. He succeeded to the throne under a regent, Bairam Khan, who rendered loyal service in expa...

(Encyclopedia) Smith, Sir William Sidney, 1764–1840, British admiral. He was a distinguished commander in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and is especially remembered for his defense of Acre against N...

(Encyclopedia) Aubigné, Théodore Agrippa d' tāōdôrˈ əgrĭpˈəˈ dōbĭnŏyāˈ [key], 1552–1630, French poet and Huguenot soldier. A devoted follower of Henry of Navarre (Henry IV) from 1568, he was later ...

(Encyclopedia) Marignano, battle of märēnyäˈnō [key], 1515, in the Italian Wars, fought by Francis I of France and his Venetian allies against the Swiss Confederates, who then controlled the duchy of Milan. It ...