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Shah Alam

(Encyclopedia)Shah Alam shä äˈləm [key], 1728–1806, Mughal emperor of India (1759–1806). Driven out of Delhi in 1758, he nonetheless proclaimed himself emperor after the murder (1759) of his father, Alamgir...

Nerva

(Encyclopedia)Nerva (Marcus Cocceius Nerva) nûrˈvə [key], c.a.d. 30–a.d. 98, Roman emperor (a.d. 96–a.d. 98). He had an honorable career as a statesman at Rome, and his reputation was blameless. At the death...

Szombathely

(Encyclopedia)Szombathely sômˈbŏt-hāˌ [key], Ger. Steinamanger, city (1991 est. pop. 85,700), W Hungary, near the Austrian border. An important railway junction, it produces leather goods, agricultural machine...

East India Company, British

(Encyclopedia)East India Company, British, 1600–1874, company chartered by Queen Elizabeth I for trade with Asia. The original object of the group of merchants involved was to break the Dutch monopoly of the spic...

Gervase of Tilbury

(Encyclopedia)Gervase of Tilbury, fl. 1200, medieval author, b. England. He became marshal of the kingdom of Arles under Emperor Otto IV and wrote the Otia imperiala, a miscellany of legend, history, and politics. ...

caste

(Encyclopedia)caste [Port., casta=basket], ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste s...

Grierson, Sir George Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Grierson, Sir George Abraham grĭrˈsən [key], 1851–1941, Irish philologist. Besides writing grammars of many modern Indian vernaculars, Grierson directed the compilation of the great Linguistic Su...

Algoa Bay

(Encyclopedia)Algoa Bay ălgōˈə [key], arm of the Indian Ocean, indenting Eastern Cape, South Africa. The Portuguese arrived in the late 15th cent., and it was used as an anchorage. Port Elizabeth is on the shor...

Tana, river, Kenya

(Encyclopedia)Tana täˈnä [key], river, c.500 mi (800 km) long, rising near Mt. Kenya, central Kenya, E Africa, and flowing E then S across Kenya to the Indian Ocean. There are hydroelectric plants and irrigation...

Sunita, Narain

(Encyclopedia)Sunita, Narain, 1961–, Indian writer and environmentalist, b. New Delhi, India, graduated from University of Delhi, honorary degrees from Cranfield ...