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Sino-Tibetan languages

(Encyclopedia)Sino-Tibetan languages, family of languages spoken by over a billion people in central and SE Asia. This linguistic family is second only to the Indo-European stock in the number of its speakers. It i...

MacGahan, Januarius Aloysius

(Encyclopedia)MacGahan, Januarius Aloysius məgănˈ [key], 1844–78, American newspaper correspondent. He reported the Franco-Prussian War for the New York Herald and in 1873 penetrated central Asia to join the R...

mangosteen

(Encyclopedia)mangosteen mangˈgəstēnˌ [key], the edible fruit of Garcinia mangostana, of the family Clusiaceae (Guttiferae), an evergreen tree native to SE Asia. The purple fruit is similar to an orange in size...

John of Ephesus

(Encyclopedia)John of Ephesus ĕfˈəsəs [key], c.505–c.585, Syrian Monophysite historian, bishop of Ephesus. He became a leader of the Monophysites (see Monophysitism), and Byzantine Emperor Justinian, whose fa...

Nabataea

(Encyclopedia)Nabataea năbˌətēˈə [key], ancient kingdom of Arabia, south of Edom, in present-day Jordan. It flourished from the 4th cent. b.c. to a.d. 106, when it was conquered by Rome. The history of Nabata...

Forbes, William Cameron

(Encyclopedia)Forbes, William Cameron, 1870–1959, American business executive and diplomat, b. Milton, Mass. He entered the mercantile house of his grandfather, John Murray Forbes, in Boston and was a partner in ...

Chishti, Muin ad-Din Hasan

(Encyclopedia)Chishti, Muin ad-Din Hasan mo͞oēnˈ äd-dĭn häsänˈ chĭshˈtē [key], 1142–1236, Indian Muslim saint, b. Sistan, Persia. He founded a Sufi mystic order responsible for spreading Islamic teachi...

Christopher, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Christopher, Saint krĭsˈtəfər [key] [Gr.,=Christ bearer], 3d cent.?, martyr of Asia Minor. His characteristic legend is that one day when he was carrying a little child over a river, he felt the c...

Schimper, Karl Friedric

(Encyclopedia)Schimper, Karl Friedric shĭmˈpər [key], 1803–67, German botanist. He did important work in plant morphology and originated the theory, called phyllotaxis, that there is a fixed order to the arran...

Turkmenbashi

(Encyclopedia)Turkmenbashi or Türkmenbaşy krəsnəvôtskˈ [key], city (1991 pop. 59,500), W Turkmenistan, on the Krasnovodsk Gulf of the Caspian Sea. It is the western terminus of oil and natural gas pipelines a...