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Ptolemy V

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemy V (Ptolemy Epiphanes) ĭpĭfˈənēz [key], d. 180 b.c., king of ancient Egypt (205–180 b.c.), of the Macedonian dynasty, son of Ptolemy IV. He succeeded to the throne as a small boy, and hi...

Maccabees, books of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Maccabees, two books included in the Septuagint and placed as the last two books in the Old Testament of the Vulgate; they are not included in the Hebrew Bible and are placed in the Apocrypha in Prote...

philanthropy

(Encyclopedia)philanthropy, the spirit of active goodwill toward others as demonstrated in efforts to promote their welfare. The term is often used interchangeably with charity. Every year vast sums of money are co...

Mariette, Auguste Édouard

(Encyclopedia)Mariette, Auguste Édouard ōgüstˈ ādwärˈ märyĕtˈ [key], 1821–81, French Egyptologist. On a visit (1850–54) to Egypt to collect Coptic manuscripts for the Louvre, he excavated (1851) the r...

Idris I

(Encyclopedia)Idris I, 1890–1983, king of Libya (1951–69). A grandson of the founder of the Sanusi Muslim sect, he became leader of the group in 1917. He was acknowledged (1920) by the Italians as emir of Cyren...

Arabian music

(Encyclopedia)Arabian music, classical musical tradition of the Islamic peoples of Arabia, the Fertile Crescent, and North Africa. Little is known of Arabian music before the Hegira (a.d. 622), but afterward unde...

Apries

(Encyclopedia)Apries āˈprē–ēz [key], king of ancient Egypt (588–569 b.c.), of the XXVI dynasty; successor of Psamtik II. Apries sought to recover Syria and Palestine. He attacked Tyre and Sidon but failed (...

Girga

(Encyclopedia)Girga jĭrˈjă [key], town, central Egypt, on the Nile. It is noted for its pottery; a sugar...

Coptic art

(Encyclopedia)Coptic art, Christian art in the upper Nile valley of Egypt. Reaching its mature phase in the late 5th and 6th cent., the development of Coptic art was interrupted by the Arab conquest of Egypt betwee...

Arab Spring

(Encyclopedia)Arab Spring, in modern North African and Middle Eastern history, antigovernment demonstrations and uprisings that, from late 2010, swept many of the regions' Arab nations. Arising in large part in rea...