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Syriac

(Encyclopedia)Syriac sērˈēăkˌ [key], late dialect of Aramaic, which is a West Semitic language (see Afroasiatic languages). The early Christians of Mesopotamia and Syria gave the Greek name Syriac to the Arama...

Taormina

(Encyclopedia)Taormina täōrmēˈnä [key], town (1991 pop. 10,120), E Sicily, Italy, overlooking the Ionian Sea and at the foot of Mt. Etna. It commands a magificent view and is a world-famous winter resort celeb...

Sadi

(Encyclopedia)Sadi or Saadi both: säˈdē [key], Persian poet, 1184–1291. b. Shiraz. Orphaned at an early age, Sadi studied in Baghdad, where he met Suhrawardi, a major Sufi figure. Having to flee Baghdad becaus...

Copts

(Encyclopedia)Copts kŏpts [key], the native Christian minority of Egypt; estimates of the number of Copts in Egypt range from 5% to 17% of the population. Copts are not ethnically distinct from other Egyptians; th...

Aramaic

(Encyclopedia)Aramaic ârəmāˈĭk [key], language belonging to the West Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). At some point during the se...

Persian literature

(Encyclopedia)Persian literature, literary writings in the Persian language, nearly all of it written in the area traditionally known as Persia, now Iran. The 15th cent. period of the second Turko-Tartar invasi...

Aldebaran

(Encyclopedia)Aldebaran ălˌdĕbˈərən [key], brightest star in the constellation Taurus; Bayer designation α Tauri; 1992 position R.A. 4h35.5m, Dec. +16°30′. An orange giant star (spectral class K5 III) wit...

Ibn Gabirol, Solomon ben Judah

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Gabirol, Solomon ben Judah ĭˈbən gäbēˈrôl [key], c.1021–1058, Jewish poet and philosopher, known also as Avicebron, b. Malaga. His secular poetry deals partly with nature and love, but mo...

Hermon, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Hermon, Mount hûrˈmən [key], Arabic Jabal Ash Shaykh [mountain of the chief] and Jebel-eth-Thelj [snowy mountain], on the Syria-Lebanon border. The highest of its three peaks (all of which are snow...

Mozarabs

(Encyclopedia)Mozarabs mōzârˈəbz [key], Christians of Muslim Spain. Their position was the usual one of Christians and Jews in Islam: they were a separate community, locally autonomous, and they paid a special ...