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Galileo

(Encyclopedia)Galileo (Galileo Galilei) gălˌĭlēˈō; gälēlĕˈō gälēlĕˈē [key], 1564–1642, great Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist. By his persistent investigation of natural laws he la...

Aceh

(Encyclopedia)Aceh äˈchā [key], special region (1980 pop. 2,875,634), 21,387 sq mi (55,392 sq km), N Sumatra, Indonesia, formerly known as Atjeh or Achin. The capital and largest city is Banda Aceh. The northern...

fasting

(Encyclopedia)fasting, partial or temporary abstinence from food, a widely used form of asceticism. Among the stricter Jews the principal fast is the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur; in Islam the faithful fast all ...

Tyre

(Encyclopedia)Tyre tīr [key], ancient city of Phoenicia, S of Sidon. It is the present-day Sur in Lebanon, a small town on a peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean from the mainland of Syria S of Beirut. It was ...

Indonesia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Indonesia ĭnˌdənēˈzhə [key], officially Republic of Indonesia, republic (2015 est. pop. 258,162,000), c.735,000 sq mi (1,903,650 sq km), SE Asia, in the Malay Archipelago. The fourth most...

Field, Marshall

(Encyclopedia)Field, Marshall, 1834–1906, American merchant, b. Conway, Mass. In 1856, after five years' apprenticeship in a general store in Pittsfield, Mass., he went to Chicago and became a clerk for Cooley, W...

Waldenses

(Encyclopedia)Waldenses wôldĕnˈsēz [key] or Waldensians, Protestant religious group of medieval origin, called in French Vaudois. They originated in the late 12th cent. as the Poor Men of Lyons, a band organize...

Jinnah, Muhammad Ali

(Encyclopedia)Jinnah, Muhammad Ali məhämˈəd älēˈ jĭnˈə [key], 1876–1948, founder of Pakistan, b. Karachi. After his admission to the bar in England, he returned to India to practice law. Early in his ca...

Medina, city, Saudi Arabia

(Encyclopedia)Medina mĭdēˈnə [key], Arabic Medinat an-Nabi [city of the Prophet] or Madinat Rasul Allah [city of the apostle of Allah], city (1993 pop. 608,226), Hejaz, W Saudi Arabia. It is situated c.110 mi (...

Anwar Ibrahim

(Encyclopedia)Anwar Ibrahim änˈwär ēˈbrähēm [key], 1947–, Malaysian political leader. He first came to public attention as the founder (1971) of an Islamic youth movement and as a leader of antigovernment ...