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Stanhope, Lady Hester Lucy

(Encyclopedia)Stanhope, Lady Hester Lucy, 1776–1839, English traveler. Leaving England in 1810, she traveled in the Levant, adopting Eastern male dress and a religion that was a composite of Christianity and Isla...

water lily

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Fragrant water lily, Nymphaea odorata water lily, common name for some members of the Nymphaeaceae, a family of freshwater perennial herbs found in most parts of the world and often characteri...

magic, in religion and superstition

(Encyclopedia)magic, in religion and superstition, the practice of manipulating and controlling the course of nature by preternatural means. Magic is based upon the belief that the universe is populated by unseen f...

moon worship

(Encyclopedia)moon worship. Although the moon has not had great prominence in the history of religion, the worship of it has been known since earliest recorded time—in the oldest literatures of Egypt, Babylonia, ...

Abydos, ancient city of Egypt

(Encyclopedia)Abydos əbīˈdəs [key], ancient city of Egypt, c.50 mi (80 km) NW of Thebes, near modern El Balyana. Associated in religion with Osiris, Abydos became the most venerated place in Egypt. It was the f...

Breasted, James Henry

(Encyclopedia)Breasted, James Henry brĕsˈtĭd [key], 1865–1935, American Egyptologist, b. Rockford, Ill., grad. North Central College, 1888, M.A. Yale, 1891, Ph.D. Univ. of Berlin, 1894. He began teaching at th...

polytheism

(Encyclopedia)polytheism pŏlˈēthēĭzəm [key], belief in a plurality of gods in which each deity is distinguished by special functions. The gods are particularly synonymous with function in the Vedic religion (...

Qutb, Sayyid

(Encyclopedia)Qutb, Sayyid sīˈyĭd kŭˈtəb [key], 1906–66, Egyptian Islamist whose critique of modern civilization and Islam provides the theoretical underpinnings for many contemporary Islamic militants. Edu...

Suppiluliumas

(Encyclopedia)Suppiluliumas, fl. 14th cent. b.c., Hittite king (1390–54 b.c.). The greatest statesman-warrior in Hittite history, he left on his death an empire that was stronger, though not richer, than Egypt. H...

Rougé, Emmanuel, vicomte de

(Encyclopedia)Rougé, Emmanuel, vicomte de ĕmänüĕlˈ vēkôNtˈ də ro͞ozhāˈ [key], 1811–72, French Egyptologist. Rougé was curator of the Egyptian section of the Louvre and professor of Egyptology at the...