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Al-Khowarizmi

(Encyclopedia)Al-Khowarizmi äl-khōwärēzˈmē [key], fl. 820, Arab mathematician of the court of Mamun in Baghdad. His treatises on Hindu arithmetic and on algebra made him famous. He is said to have given algeb...

Georgian literature

(Encyclopedia)Georgian literature. Early Georgian literature shows the influence of two distinctly different civilizations—medieval Eastern Orthodox Christianity and, later, Persia. The Passion of St. Shushanik, ...

Constantinople, Latin Empire of

(Encyclopedia)Constantinople, Latin Empire of, 1204–61, feudal empire established in the S Balkan Peninsula and the Greek archipelago by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade (see Crusades) after they had sacked (120...

Jerusalem, Latin Kingdom of

(Encyclopedia)Jerusalem, Latin Kingdom of, feudal state created by leaders of the First Crusade (see Crusades) in the areas they had wrested from the Muslims in Syria and Palestine. In 1099, after their capture of ...

Capella, Martianus

(Encyclopedia)Capella, Martianus märshēāˈnəs kəpĕlˈə [key], fl. 5th cent.?, Latin writer, b. Carthage. His one famous work, The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, also called the Satyricon and Disciplinae,...

Provençal literature

(Encyclopedia)Provençal literature, vernacular literature of S France. Provençal, or Occitan, as the language is now often called, appears to have been the first vernacular tongue used in French commerce and lite...

Gesta Romanorum

(Encyclopedia)Gesta Romanorum jĕsˈtə rōˌmənôrˈəm [key], medieval collection of Latin stories. Although the title means “Deeds of the Romans,” the tales have very little to do with actual Roman history....

Japanese flowering cherry

(Encyclopedia)Japanese flowering cherry, any of a variety of flowering cherry species native to East Asia. ...

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