Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Abu Bakr

(Encyclopedia)Abu Bakr äˈbo͞o bäkˈər [key], 573–634, 1st caliph, friend, father-in-law, and successor of Muhammad. He was probably Muhammad's first convert outside the Prophet's family and alone accompanied...

Doria, Andrea

(Encyclopedia)Doria, Andrea ändrāˈä dōˈrēä [key], b. 1466 or 1468, d. 1560, Italian admiral and statesman, of an ancient family prominent in the history of Genoa. He started his career as a condottiere and ...

Maghreb

(Encyclopedia)Maghreb or Magrib both: mäˈgrĭb [key] [Arab.,=the West], Arabic term for NW Africa. It is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia but actually pertains only to the area of the thr...

French North Africa

(Encyclopedia)French North Africa, originally general name for Algeria, former French Morocco, and Tunisia. ...

Agadir

(Encyclopedia)Agadir ägädērˈ, ăgədērˈ [key], city, SW Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean. Agadir has metal-processing industries and exports fruit and vegetables. While France was e...

Abbadids

(Encyclopedia)Abbadids ăˈbədĭdz [key], Arab dynasty in Spain that ruled Seville from 1023 to 1091. Taking advantage of the disintegration of the caliphate of Córdoba, the cadi [judge-governor] of Seville seize...

Farouk

(Encyclopedia)Farouk färo͞okˈ [key], 1920–65, king of Egypt (1936–52), son and successor of Fuad I. After a short regency he acceded (1937) to the throne. A constitutional monarch, Farouk was frequently at o...

Black Muslims

(Encyclopedia)Black Muslims, African-American religious movement in the United States, split since the late 1970s into the American Society of Muslims and the Nation of Islam. The original group was founded (1930) ...

Alfonso I, king of Aragón and Navarre

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso I (Alfonso the Battler) ălfŏnˈsō, äl– [key], d. 1134, king of Aragón and Navarre (1104–34), brother and successor of Peter I. The husband of Urraca, queen of Castile, he fought unsuc...

Charles I, king of Naples and Sicily

(Encyclopedia)Charles I (Charles of Anjou), 1227–85, king of Naples and Sicily (1266–85), count of Anjou and Provence, youngest brother of King Louis IX of France. He took part in Louis's crusades to Egypt (124...

Browse by Subject