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Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian lōˈᵺēən [key], 1868–1926, British traveler, author, and government official, one of the builders of the modern state of Iraq, grad. Oxford, 1887. From 1899 on ...

Abdül Hamid

(Encyclopedia)Abdül Hamid. For Ottoman sultans thus named, use Abd al-Hamid.

Abdül Aziz

(Encyclopedia)Abdül Aziz. For Ottoman sultans thus named, use Abd al-Aziz.

Abscam

(Encyclopedia)Abscam, U.S. scandal resulting from an investigation begun in 1978 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI created a front (Abdul Enterprises, Ltd., hence, Abscam) for its agents, who, posing ...

Ibn Tufayl

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Tufayl ĭˈbən to͞ofālˈ [key], d. 1185/86?, 12th-century Spanish-Arab philosopher and physician, b. near Granada. His chief work was a philosophical romance, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, describing the de...

Antara

(Encyclopedia)Antara äntärˈä [key], fl. 600, Arab warrior and poet, celebrated in his own day as a hero because he rose from slave birth to be a tribal chief. His poetry is represented by one poem in the Mualla...

Georgetown University

(Encyclopedia)Georgetown University, in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.; Jesuit; coeducational; founded 1789 by John Carroll, chartered 1815, inc. 1844. Its law and medical schools are noteworthy, and it...

Jarring, Gunnar

(Encyclopedia)Jarring, Gunnar gŭnˈär yärˈĭng [key], 1907–2002, Swedish diplomat. He entered diplomatic service during World War II and was minister to India (1948–51), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka; 1950–51), a...

Ramla

(Encyclopedia)Ramla or Ramleh both: rämˈlĕ [key] [Arab.,=sand], town (1994 pop. 57,300), central Israel, in a farming area. Ramla may be the biblical Ramathaim-zophim, but more probably it was founded (c.716) by...

Chamberlain, John

(Encyclopedia)Chamberlain, John, 1927–2011, American sculptor, b. Rochester, Ind. In the late 1950s, Chamberlain became known for his welded abstract assemblages of smashed automobile parts and colored scrap meta...