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Jos Plateau

(Encyclopedia)Jos Plateau jôs [key], region, c.3,000 sq mi (7,770 sq km), alt. c.4,200 ft (1,280 m), central Nigeria, W Africa. The plateau, composed mainly of granite, slopes gently to the north and is covered by...

Swat

(Encyclopedia)Swat swät [key], district of the Malakand division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province), Pakistan. Saidu Sharif is the capital. The largely inaccessible region is reached by ai...

Jesus (Jesus Christ)

(Encyclopedia)Jesus or Jesus Christ jēˈzəs krīst, jēˈzəz [key], 1st-century Jewish teacher and prophet in whom Christians have traditionally seen the Messiah [Heb.,=annointed one, whence Christ from the Gree...

Kaaba

(Encyclopedia)Kaaba or Caaba both: käˈbə or käˈəbə [key] [Arab.,=cube], the central, cubic, stone structure, covered by a black cloth, within the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The sacred nature of the...

Boko Haram

(Encyclopedia)Boko Haram [Western education is sinful], Nigerian Islamic fundamentalist militia, officially Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad [people committed to the propagation of the Prophet's teaching...

Islam

(Encyclopedia)Islam ĭslämˈ, ĭsˈläm [key], [Arab.,=submission to God], world religion founded by the Prophet Muhammad. Founded in the 7th cent., Islam is the youngest of the three monotheistic world religions ...

dating

(Encyclopedia)dating, the determination of the age of an object, of a natural phenomenon, or of a series of events. There are two basic types of dating methods, relative and absolute. In relative dating, the tempor...

Wilders, Geert

(Encyclopedia)Wilders, Geert, 1963–, Dutch politician. known for his far-right and anti-immigration views. A member of People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from 1989, he was elected to the municipal cou...

pre-Columbian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)pre-Columbian art and architecture, works of art and structures created in Central and South America before the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. For many years the regions that are now ...

jinni

(Encyclopedia)jinni jĭn [key], in Arabic and Islamic folklore, spirit or demon endowed with supernatural power. In ancient belief the jinn were associated with the destructive forces of nature. In Islamic traditio...