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Riblah

(Encyclopedia)Riblah rĭbˈlə [key]. 1 In the Bible, unidentified boundary landmark, N ancient Palestine. 2 City of ancient Syria, used by the Egyptians and later by the Neo-Babylonians as a headquarters in the we...

Obadiah, book of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Obadiah, short prophetic book of the Bible. The prophet is otherwise unknown. The oracle which comprises this book dates from after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 b.c. The prop...

Caesarea Philippi

(Encyclopedia)Caesarea Philippi fĭlĭpˈī [key], city, N ancient Palestine, at the foot of Mt. Hermon. It was built by Philip the Tetrarch in the 1st cent. a.d. Its site (Paneas) had long been a center for the wo...

Darwish, Mahmoud

(Encyclopedia)Darwish, Mahmoud, 1941–2008, widely considered the Palestinian national poet, b. Barwa, Palestine (now in Israel). He was born to middle-class Sunni Muslim farmers, who were displaced when soldiers ...

Beersheba

(Encyclopedia)Beersheba bērshēˈbə, bērˈshēbə [key] [Heb.,=seven wells or well of the oath],...

Bukhara

(Encyclopedia)Bukhara bəkäˈrə [key], city, capital of Bukhara region, Uzbekistan, in the Zeravshan River ...

Wu-ti

(Encyclopedia)Wu-ti wo͞o dē [key], posthumous temple name of the 5th emperor (140 b.c.–87 b.c.) of the Han dynasty. Wu-ti [Chin.,=martial emperor] ruled directly through a palace secretariat. During his vigorou...

Aretas

(Encyclopedia)Aretas ârˈĭtəs, –tăs [key], dynastic name of the Nabataean kings of Petra. The best-known Aretas was Aretas IV, 9 b.c.–a.d. 49, ruler of S Palestine, most of Jordan, N Arabia, and Damascus. H...

Niebuhr, Karsten

(Encyclopedia)Niebuhr, Karsten nēˈbo͝or [key], 1733–1815, German traveler in Arabia. He was sole survivor of a party of five (of whom the best known was Peter Forskal, a Swedish naturalist) sent by Frederick ...

Pamir

(Encyclopedia)Pamir pəmērˈ, pä– [key] or Pamirs, mountainous region of central Asia, located mainly in Tajikistan and extending into NE Afghanistan and SW Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China; called the �...