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madrasa

(Encyclopedia)madrasa or madrassah, in Islamic countries, a school, historically usually one devoted to higher education in religious studies, but the term may refer to any school. Privately endowed, often by royal...

Osiris

(Encyclopedia)Osiris ōsīˈrĭs [key], in Egyptian religion, legendary ruler of predynastic Egypt and god of the underworld. He was the son of the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb. The great benefactor of man...

Bani Hasan

(Encyclopedia)Bani Hasan bäˈnē häsänˈ [key], village, E central Egypt, on the Nile near Al Minya. There are 39 tombs, carved out of solid rock in the XII dynasty of ancient Egypt. The name is also spelled Ben...

United Arab Republic

(Encyclopedia)United Arab Republic, political union (1958–61) of Egypt and Syria. The capital was Cairo. The two countries were merged (1958) into a single unit comprising the Southern (Egypt) and the Northern (S...

Copts

(Encyclopedia)Copts kŏpts [key], the native Christian minority of Egypt; estimates of the number of Copts in Egypt range from 5% to 17% of the population. Copts are not ethnically distinct from other Egyptians; th...

Mitanni

(Encyclopedia)Mitanni mĭtănˈē [key], ancient kingdom established in the 2d millennium b.c. in NW Mesopotamia. It was founded by Aryans but was later made up predominantly of Hurrians. Washshukanni was its capit...

Kitab al-Aghani

(Encyclopedia)Kitab al-Aghani kētäbˈ äl-ägänēˈ [key] [Arab.,=book of songs], collection of poems in many volumes compiled by Abu al-Faraj Ali of Esfahan. It contains poems from the oldest epoch of Arabic li...

Hatshepsut

(Encyclopedia)Hatshepsut hätshĕpˈso͝ot [key], d. 1458 b.c., ruler of ancient Egypt, of the XVIII dynasty; eldest daughter of Thutmose I. She managed to rule Egypt by relegating her husband (and younger half-bro...

papyrus

(Encyclopedia)papyrus pəpīˈrəs [key], a sedge (Cyperus papyrus), now almost extinct in Egypt but so universally used there in antiquity as to be the hieroglyphic symbol for Lower Egypt and a common motif in art...

Pyramids, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Pyramids, battle of, July, 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, battle fought between the French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte and the Egyptian Mamluks led by Murad Bey. Napoleon's victory ga...