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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...

Intifada

(Encyclopedia)Intifada ĭntēfăˈdĕ [key] [Arab.,=uprising, shaking off], the Palestinian uprising during the late 1980s and early 90s in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas that had been occupied by Israel since...

Aqaba, Gulf of

(Encyclopedia)Aqaba, Gulf of, northeastern arm of the Red Sea, 118 mi (190 km) long and 10 to 15 mi (16.1 to 24.1 km) wide, between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas; a part of the Great Rift Valley. The gulf, which...

Mosul

(Encyclopedia)Mosul mōˈsəl, mōso͞olˈ [key], Arab. al Mawsil, city (1987 pop. 664,221), provincial capital, N Iraq, on the Tigris River, opposite the ruins of Nineveh. It is the largest city in N Iraq and the ...

Nablus

(Encyclopedia)Nablus năˈbləs, näˈ– [key], Heb. Shechem, city (2003 est. pop. 127,000), the West Bank. It is the market center for a region where wheat and olives are grown and sheep and goats are grazed. Man...

Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian lōˈᵺēən [key], 1868–1926, British traveler, author, and government official, one of the builders of the modern state of Iraq, grad. Oxford, 1887. From 1899 on ...

Sadat, Anwar al-

(Encyclopedia)Sadat, Anwar al- änwärˈ äl-sädätˈ [key], 1918–81, Egyptian political leader and president (1970–81). He entered (1936) Abbasia Military Academy, where he became friendly with Gamal Abdal Na...

Basra

(Encyclopedia)Basra bŭsˈrə [key], Arabic al Basrah, city (2020 est. pop. 1,352,000), SE Iraq, on the Sha...

Abscam

(Encyclopedia)Abscam, U.S. scandal resulting from an investigation begun in 1978 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI created a front (Abdul Enterprises, Ltd., hence, Abscam) for its agents, who, posing ...

Ibn Tufayl

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Tufayl ĭˈbən to͞ofālˈ [key], d. 1185/86?, 12th-century Spanish-Arab philosopher and physician, b. near Granada. His chief work was a philosophical romance, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, describing the de...