Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Rohingya, Muslim ethnic, cultural, and linguistic group living primarily in Rakhine State, W Myanmar. A minority of some 1.5 million in a country that is predominantly Buddhist, they speak a language ...

(Encyclopedia) sharia, the religious law of Islam. As Islam makes no distinction between religion and life, Islamic law covers not only ritual but many aspects of life. The actual codification of canonic law is the ...

(Encyclopedia) Thanksgiving Day, national holiday in the United States commemorating the Pilgrims' celebration of the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony in 1621, after a winter of great starvation and privation. ...

(Encyclopedia) Hague Tribunal, popular name for the Permanent Court of Arbitration established in 1899 by a convention of the First Hague Peace Conference to facilitate arbitration and other forms of dispute resolut...

(Encyclopedia) fraud, in law, willful misrepresentation intended to deprive another of some right. The offense, generally only a tort, may also constitute the crime of false pretenses. Frauds are either actual or co...

(Encyclopedia) commerce, traffic in goods, usually thought of as trade between states or nations. Engaged in by all peoples from the earliest times, it has been carried on in some areas and by some peoples more than...

(Encyclopedia) Hamas hämäsˈ [key] [Arab., = zeal], Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization that was founded in 1987 during the Intifada; it seeks ...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Ukraine yo͞oˈkrān, yo͞okrānˈ [key], Ukr. Ukraina, republic (2015 est. pop. 44,658,000), 232,046 sq mi (601,000 sq km), E Europe. It borders on Poland in the northwest; on Slovakia, Hungar...

(Encyclopedia) knight, in ancient and medieval history, a noble who did military service as a mounted warrior. As the feudal system disintegrated, knight service was with growing frequency commuted into cash pay...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Korea kôrēˈə, kə– [key], Korean Hanguk or Choson, region and historic country (85,049 sq mi/220,277 sq km), E Asia. A peninsula, 600 mi (966 km) long, Korea separates the Sea of Japan (c...