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D'Israeli, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)D'Israeli, Isaac, 1766–1848, English critic and historian, b. London; father of Benjamin Disraeli. Born into a wealthy Jewish family, he produced his first poem at the age of 14. His best-known work...

Chinguetti

(Encyclopedia)Chinguetti, town, central Mauritania, on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar. Founded in the 8th cent., it was a center on several trans-Saharan trade routes...

Powell, William

(Encyclopedia)Powell, William, 1892–1984, American movie actor, b. Pittsburgh. Powell made his stage debut in 1912. He played the dapper villain in such early films as Sherlock Holmes (1921), Romola (1924), and B...

Saltonstall, Sir Richard

(Encyclopedia)Saltonstall, Sir Richard sôlˈtənstôl [key], 1586–1658, early English colonist in Massachusetts. Of a prominent Yorkshire family (he was knighted in 1618), Saltonstall became a member and was app...

ballade

(Encyclopedia)ballade bəlädˈ [key], in literature, verse form developed in France in the 14th and 15th cent. The ballade usually contains three stanzas of eight lines with three rhymes and a four-line envoy (a s...

Ravi

(Encyclopedia)Ravi räˈvē [key], one of the five rivers of the Punjab, 475 mi (764 km) long, rising in the Himalayas, NW India, and flowing generally W into Pakistan, past Lahore, to join the Chenab River, NE Pak...

Papias

(Encyclopedia)Papias pāˈpēəs [key], fl. a.d. 130, early Christian theologian said to have been bishop of Hieropolis and a friend of St. Polycarp. Papias' five-volume work, Oracles; or, Explanations of the Sayin...

Walpole, Sir Spencer

(Encyclopedia)Walpole, Sir Spencer, 1839–1907, English historian. He held a number of minor public offices and served as private secretary in the home office to his father, Sir Spencer Horatio Walpole, whose biog...

Song Shan

(Encyclopedia)Song Shan sŭngˈ shänˈ [key], mountain, N central Henan prov., China; one of the five sacred mountains of China. It is famous for the Shaolin Temple, where generations of Buddhist monks have practi...

Bikaner

(Encyclopedia)Bikaner bĭkənērˈ [key], former native state, NW India. The state is now part of Rajasthan ...