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Delmedigo, Elijah ben Moses Abba

(Encyclopedia)Delmedigo, Elijah ben Moses Abba dālmĕˈdēgō [key], c.1460–1497, Jewish philosopher and Talmudist, b. Crete, known also as Elijah Cretensis. He emigrated to Italy as a young man. He studied the ...

Dayr az Zawr

(Encyclopedia)Dayr az Zawr –ĕz– [key], town, capital of Dayr az Zawr governorate, E Syria, on the Euph...

Maiduguri

(Encyclopedia)Maiduguri mīdo͞oˈgərē [key], town (1991 est. pop. 282,000), capital of Borno state, NE Nigeria. The city is an important industrial center engaged in food processing and aluminum, steel, asbestos...

lusterware

(Encyclopedia)lusterware, kind of pottery with an overglaze finish containing copper and silver or other materials that give the effect of iridescence. The process may have been invented and was certainly first pop...

Wahid, Abdurrahman

(Encyclopedia)Wahid, Abdurrahman, 1940–2009, Indonesian religious and political leader popularly called Gus Dur, president of Indonesia (1999–2001). A Muslim scholar and political moderate who supported separat...

Sogdiana

(Encyclopedia)Sogdiana sŏgdēāˈnə [key], part of the ancient Persian Empire in central Asia between the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr Darya) rivers. Corresponding to the later emirate of Bukhara and region...

Salman bin Abdul Aziz

(Encyclopedia)Salman bin Abdul Aziz, 1935–, king of Saudi Arabia (2015–), b. Riyadh. Like his predecessor, King Abdullah, he is a son—by a different wife—of Saudi Arabia's founder, Ibn Saud. Salman served a...

Mamluk

(Encyclopedia)Mamluk or Mameluke mămˈəlo͞ok [key] [Arab.,=slaves], a warrior caste dominant in Egypt and influential in the Middle East for over 700 years. Islamic rulers created this warrior caste by collectin...

Benedict XVI

(Encyclopedia)Benedict XVI, 1927–2022, pope (2005–13) and Roman Catholic theologian, a German (b. Marktl am Inn, Bavaria) named Josef (or Joseph) Alois Ratzinger;...

Copernicus, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Copernicus, Nicholas kōpûrˈnĭkəs [key], Pol. Mikotaj Kopérnik, 1473–1543, Polish astronomer. After studying astronomy at the Univ. of Kraków, he spent a number of years in Italy studying vari...