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Almoravids

(Encyclopedia)Almoravids ălmôrˈəvĭdz [key], Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled Morocco and Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th cent. The Almoravids may have originated in what is now Mauritania. The real founder w...

Sibir

(Encyclopedia)Sibir sĭbērˈ [key], former city, southeast of present-day Tobolsk, W Siberian Russia. Founded in the 11th or 12th cent., it became (early 16th cent.) the capital of the Tatar khanate of Sibir, whic...

Balzac, Honoré de

(Encyclopedia)Balzac, Honoré de bălˈzăk, bôl–, Fr. ōnôrāˈ də bälzäkˈ [key], 1799–1850, French novelist, b. Tours. Balzac ranks among the great masters of the novel. Of a bourgeois family, he himsel...

Pskov

(Encyclopedia)Pskov pəskôfˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 204,000), capital of Pskov region, NW European Russia, on the Velikaya River. It is an important rail junction in the heart of a flax-growing area. Industries i...

Comnenus

(Encyclopedia)Comnenus kŏmnēˈnəs [key], family name of several Byzantine emperors—Isaac I, Alexius I, John II, Manuel I, Alexius II, and Andronicus I—who reigned in the 11th and 12th cent., and of the histo...

Saxony-Anhalt

(Encyclopedia)Saxony-Anhalt săkˈsənē-änˈhält [key], Ger. Sachsen-Anhalt, state (1994 pop. 2,965,000), 7,892 sq mi (20,445 sq km), E Germany. Magdeburg is the capital. It is bordered on the east by Brandenbur...

Mendoza, Pedro de

(Encyclopedia)Mendoza, Pedro de dā māndōˈthä [key], b. 1501 or 1502, d. 1537, Spanish conquistador, first adelantado [civil and military governor] of Río de la Plata (present-day Argentina). After a military...

Ghelderode, Michel de

(Encyclopedia)Ghelderode, Michel de mēshĕlˈ də gĕldərōdˈ [key], 1898–1962, Belgian dramatist. He wrote in French and is noted for his colorful and avant-garde plays. He lived in obscurity until 1949, when...

Neuss

(Encyclopedia)Neuss nois [key], city (1994 pop. 148,560), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany. It is a rail junction and canal port, near the left bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Its industries produce heav...

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