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Semnan

(Encyclopedia)Semnan sĕmnänˈ [key], city (1991 pop. 75,131), capital of Semnan prov., N Iran. It is the trade and transportation center of a fertile agricultural region. Manufactures of the city include textiles...

Byzantine art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Byzantine art and architecture, works of art and structures works produced in the city of Byzantium after Constantine made it the capital of the Roman Empire (a.d. 330) and the work done under Byzanti...

emperor

(Encyclopedia)emperor [Lat. imperator=one holding supreme power, especially applied to generals], the sovereign head of an empire. In the Roman republic the term imperator referred to the chief military commander a...

Rumi, Jalal ad-Din

(Encyclopedia)Rumi, Jalal ad-Din jälälˈ ĕd-dēnˈ ro͞oˈmē [key], 1207–73, great Islamic Persian sage and poet mystic, b. in Balkh. His father, a scholar, was invited by the Seljuk sultan of Rum to settle i...

Mohyliv-Podilskyy

(Encyclopedia)Mohyliv-Podilskyy mŭˌhĭlyĭfˈ-pədyĭlˈskyē [key], Rus. Mogilev-Podolski, city, E Ukraine, at the confluence of the Dniester and Derlo rivers. In the 17th cent. it became an important commercial...

Gallipoli campaign

(Encyclopedia)Gallipoli campaign, 1915, Allied expedition in World War I for the purpose of gaining control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, capturing Constantinople, and opening a Black Sea supply route to...

Pátrai

(Encyclopedia)Pátrai pəträsˈ, pătˈrəs [key], Lat. Patrae, city (1991 pop. 153,344), capital of Akhaía prefecture, central Greece, in the Peloponnesus. It is a port on the Gulf of Pátrai, which connects the...

Turkish language

(Encyclopedia)Turkish language, member of the Turkic subdivision of the Altaic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages (see Uralic and Altaic languages). Turkish is the official language of Turkey and one ...

Hapsburg

(Encyclopedia)Hapsburg or Habsburg both: hăpsˈbûrg, Ger. häpsˈbo͝ork [key], ruling house of Austria (1282–1918). In the 19th cent. the Hapsburg position was challenged in Germany by Prussia, in Italy b...

Mwanamutapa

(Encyclopedia)Mwanamutapa mwäˌnämo͞otäˈpä [key], former state, SE Africa. The Mwanamutapa empire, headed by a ruler of the same name, was founded c.1420 among the Karanga people (a subgroup of the Bantu-spea...