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Middle East

(Encyclopedia)Middle East, term traditionally applied by western Europeans to the countries of SW Asia and NE Africa lying W of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Thus defined it includes Cyprus, the Asian part of T...

Opa-Locka

(Encyclopedia)Opa-Locka ōˈpə-lŏkˈə [key], city (1990 pop. 15,283), Dade co., SE Fla.; inc. 1926. There is some diverse light industry. Opa-Locka has a large county airport, which also houses a U.S. Coast Guar...

Larache

(Encyclopedia)Larache läräshˈ [key], Arab. Al Araish, city (1994 pop. 98,755), N Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean. Vegetables, cork, wool, and timber are exported. The Phoenicians founded a trading post on the sit...

Abu Nuwas

(Encyclopedia)Abu Nuwas äˈbo͞o no͞owäsˈ [key], c.750–c.810, Arab poet, b. Ahvaz, Persia. He spent most of his life in Baghdad. High in favor with the caliphs Harun ar-Rashid and Amin, he lived a courtier's ...

Abu Tammam Habib ibn Aus

(Encyclopedia)Abu Tammam Habib ibn Aus täm-mämˈ häbēbˈ ĭˈbən ous [key], c.805–c.845, Arab poet, compiler of the Hamasa. His poems of valor, often describing historical events, are important as source mat...

Mutesa I

(Encyclopedia)Mutesa I mo͞otāˈsə [key], d. 1884, kabaka, or king, of Buganda (now in Uganda), c.1857–84. He brought Buganda to its height by increasing the autocratic powers of the kabaka, strengthening the a...

nadir

(Encyclopedia)nadir nāˈdər [key] [Arab.,=opposite], in astronomy, the point on the celestial sphere directly opposite the zenith, i.e., directly beneath the observer. ...

Hebron, city, West Bank

(Encyclopedia)Hebron, Arab. Al-Khalil, city (2003 est. pop. 155,000), the West Bank. Hebron is situated at an altitude of 3,000 ft (910 m) in a region where grapes, cereal grains, and vegetables are grown. Tanning,...

Al-Khowarizmi

(Encyclopedia)Al-Khowarizmi äl-khōwärēzˈmē [key], fl. 820, Arab mathematician of the court of Mamun in Baghdad. His treatises on Hindu arithmetic and on algebra made him famous. He is said to have given algeb...

Habash al-Hasib

(Encyclopedia)Habash al-Hasib häbäshˈ äl-häsēbˈ [key], d. c.870, Arab mathematician and astronomer. Habash al-Hasib was born in what is now Mary, Turkmenistan, and worked in Baghdad. He calculated tables of ...