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Kafirs

(Encyclopedia)Kafirs or Kaffirs both: kăfˈərz [key] [Arab.,=infidel], name applied by European settlers to the Xhosa branch of the Bantu-speaking people of S Africa. Originally used only for the inhabitants of t...

Kalemie

(Encyclopedia)Kalemie älbĕrvēlˈ [key], city (1984 pop. 73,528), Tanganyika prov., SE Congo (Kinshasa), on Lake Tanganyika at the mouth of the Lukuga River. It is a commercial center and a rail-steamer transfer ...

Daddah, Moktar Ould

(Encyclopedia)Daddah, Moktar Ould mo͝okhˈtär o͞old dädˈdä [key], 1924–2003, president of Mauritania (1961–78). He became premier when Mauritania joined the French Community (1958). Elected president when...

Albumazar

(Encyclopedia)Albumazar älˌbo͞omäˈzər [key], 805?–885, Arab astronomer, more fully Abu-Mashar Jafar ibn Muhammad. In his De magnis conjunctionibus he claimed that the world had been created when the seven p...

Chotts, Plateau of the

(Encyclopedia)Chotts, Plateau of the shŏts [key] [Arab.,=salt lake], plateau region of the Atlas Mts., alt. c.3,500 ft (1,070 m), N Algeria, N Africa. The plateau is c.125 mi (200 km) wide in the west, narrowing i...

Ruiz, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Ruiz, Juan hwän ro͞oēthˈ [key], 1283?–1350?, Spanish poet, musician, and archpriest of Hita. Ruiz suffered 13 years in prison, during which time he revised his masterpiece, El Libro de buen amor...

Said, Sayyid

(Encyclopedia)Said, Sayyid säēdˈ säēdˈ [key] or Said ibn Sultan, 1791?–1856, ruler of Oman and Zanzibar. He became ruler of Oman in 1806, when he was about 15. After defeating opposition in Oman, with Briti...

Tombalbaye, Ngarta

(Encyclopedia)Tombalbaye, Ngarta ən-gärˈtä tŏmbəlbäˈyā [key], 1918—75, president of Chad (1960–75). Born François Tombalbaye, he Africanized his given name in 1973. A businessman and school official, ...

Abano, Pietro d'

(Encyclopedia)Abano, Pietro d' pyāˈtrō däˈbänō [key], 1250?–1316?, Italian physician and philosopher, a professor of medicine in Padua. His famous work Conciliator differentiarum was an attempt to reconcil...

Qantarah esh Sharqiya

(Encyclopedia)Qantarah esh Sharqiya känˈtärä ĕsh shärkēˈyä [key], town, NE Egypt, on the east bank of the Suez Canal. It is on the ancient military road between Egypt and Syria. Qantarah esh Sharqiya is th...