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Sinan

(Encyclopedia)Sinan sēnän [key], Muslim architect, 1490?–1588?. He is regarded as the greatest of Islamic builders, and his finest achievements lie in his solutions to spatial problems posed by dome-topped stru...

aloe

(Encyclopedia)aloe ălˈō [key] [Gr.], any species of the genus Aloe, succulent perennials of the family Lilaceae (lily family), native chiefly to the warm dry areas of S Africa and also to tropical Africa, but cu...

Hafiz

(Encyclopedia)Hafiz häfēzˈ [key] [Arab.,=one who has memorized the Qur'an], 1319–1389?, Persian lyric poet, b. Shiraz. His original name was Shams al-Din Muhammad. He acquired the surname from having memorized...

Mayotte

(Encyclopedia)Mayotte mīŏtˈ [key], island (2015 est. pop. 240,000), 144 sq mi (374 sq km), French departmental collectivity, Indian Ocean, in the Comoro chain. Mamoudzou is the capital and largest city. The land...

atrium

(Encyclopedia)atrium āˈtrēəm [key], term for an interior court in Roman domestic architecture and also for a type of entrance court in early Christian churches. The Roman atrium was an unroofed or partially roo...

Karmathians

(Encyclopedia)Karmathians or Carmathians kärmāˈthēənz [key], a Muslim sect of the 9th and 10th cent., similar to the Assassin sect. They were part of a movement for social reform that spread widely through Isl...

United Provinces , former state, India

(Encyclopedia)United Provinces, former state, N India, now almost coextensive with the modern state of Uttar Pradesh. The United Provinces embraced the plain of the Ganges, the heartland of India. This region was t...

Puntland

(Encyclopedia)Puntland, semiautonomous region (2009 est. pop. 3,900,000), c.82,050 sq mi (212,500 sq km), extreme NE Somalia. It is bordered on the N by the Gulf of Aden, on the E by the Indian Ocean, on the S by t...

Sana

(Encyclopedia)Sana, San'a, or Sanaa sŏnäˈ [key], city (1994 pop. 954,448), capital and largest city of Yemen. The city lies inland on a high plain (alt. 7,250 ft/2,210 m) and is connected to the Red Sea port of...

Śivaji

(Encyclopedia)Śivaji or Shivaji shĭväˈjē [key], 1627–80, Indian ruler, leader of the Marathas. The son of a Maratha chieftain, he was imbued from early childhood with hatred of the Mughal empire, which contr...