fourth Umayyad ruler of Muslim Spain who enjoyed a reign (822-852) of brilliance and prosperity, the importance of which has been underestimated by some historians.
leader of a resistance movement against Spanish and French rule in North Africa and founder of the short-lived Republic of the Rif (1921-26). A skilled tactician and a capable organizer, he led a liberation movement that made him the hero ...
Persian painter who, together with Mir Sayyid 'Ali, was one of the first members of the imperial atelier in India and is thus credited with playing a strong part in the foundation of the Mughal school of miniature painting (see ...
former semi-independent state in the southern Arabian Peninsula, in what is now Yemen. Located just north of Aden city, it was one of the most important tribal areas of the Aden Protectorate, which was the forerunner of independent Yemen (Aden); ...
amir of Mascara (from 1832), the military and religious leader who founded the Algerian state and led the Algerians in their 19th-century struggle against French domination (1840-46).
in ancient Greece, town on the coast of Thrace near the mouth of the Nestos River. The people of Teos, evacuating Ionia when it was overrun by the Persians under Cyrus (c. 540 BC), succeeded in establishing a colony there ...
largest hollow space of the body. Its upper boundary is the diaphragm, a sheet of muscle and connective tissue that separates it from the chest cavity; its lower boundary is the upper plane of the pelvic cavity. Vertically it is ...
any of the muscles of the anterolateral walls of the abdominal cavity, composed of three flat muscular sheets, from without inward: external oblique, internal oblique, and transverse abdominis, supplemented in front on each side of the midline by rectus abdominis.
amir of Afghanistan (1880-1901) who played a prominent role in the fierce and long-drawn struggle for power waged by his father and his uncle, A'zam Khan, against his cousin Shir 'Ali, the successor of Dost Mohammad Khan.
in law, the carrying away of any female for purposes of concubinage or prostitution. The taking of a girl under a designated age for purposes of marriage is in most jurisdictions also included in the crime of abduction. Abduction is ...
any of the muscles that cause movement of a limb away from the midplane of the body or away from a neighbouring part or limb (compare adductor muscle), as in raising the arms to the side (effected by the deltoideus ...
religious scholar, jurist, and liberal reformer, who led the late 19th-century movement in Egypt and other Muslim countries to revitalize Islamic teachings and institutions in the modern world. As mufti (Islamic legal counsellor) for Egypt (from 1899), he effected reforms ...
Indian scientist and politician, who played a leading role in the development of India's missile and nuclear weapons programs. He became president of India in 2002.
first prime minister of independent Malaya (1957-63) and then of Malaysia (1963-70), under whose leadership the newly formed government was stabilized.
first supreme chief of state of the Federation of Malaya. After the declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1957, the tuanku became the first head of state, or paramount ruler, elected by and from the Malay rulers for a ...
Ottoman sultan (1861-76) who continued the westernizing reforms that had been initiated by his predecessors until 1871, after which his reign took an absolutist turn.
poet and playwright, considered one of the greatest Turkish Romantic writers. He was instrumental in introducing Western influences into Turkish literature.
Ottoman sultan from 1774 to 1789 who concluded the war with Russia by signing the humiliating Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca. By the terms of the treaty, Russia obtained the fortresses on the coast of the Sea of Azov, the area ...
Ottoman sultan from 1876 to 1909, under whose autocratic rule the reform movement of Tanzimat (Reorganization) reached its climax and who adopted a policy of pan-Islamism in opposition to Western intervention in Ottoman affairs.
king of Jordan from 1999. A member of the Hashimite dynasty, he was considered by pious Muslims to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (see Ahl al-Bayt).
Ottoman sultan from 1839 to 1861 who issued two major social and political reform edicts known as the Hatt-i Serif of Gulhane (Noble Edict of the Rose Chamber) in 1839 and the Hatt-i Humayun (Imperial Edict) in 1856, heralding the ...
one of the founders of the Japanese socialist movement and titular head of the Social Mass Party (Shakai Taishuto) from its inception in 1932 until 1940. He is also remembered for introducing the game of baseball to Japan.
statesman who negotiated the opening of Japan to trade and communication with Western nations after the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his U.S. Navy fleet.
a type of acrostic in which the first letter of each line of a poem or the first letter of the first word of each stanza taken in order forms the alphabet. Examples of these are some of the Psalms ...
town, eastern Chad, between the wadis Chao and Sao. Historically it was the site of the capital of the Muslim sultanate of Ouaddai (q.v.), which dominated much of the area of Chad before French conquest was accomplished in 1912. The ...
Ghanaian football (soccer) player who was the only man to have won the African Player of the Year award three consecutive times (1991-93). As an attacking midfielder with Olympique de Marseille in France, Abedi Pele was one of the first ...
physical chemist whose work contributed to the understanding of valence (the capacity of an atom to combine with another atom) in light of the newly discovered presence of electrons within the atom.
in the Old Testament, second son of Adam and Eve, who was slain by his older brother, Cain (Genesis 4:1-16). According to Genesis, Abel, a shepherd, offered the Lord the firstborn of his flock. The Lord respected Abel's sacrifice but ...
wildlife preserve in northwestern South Island, New Zealand. Established in 1942, it was named for Abel Tasman, the Dutch navigator. With an area of 55,699 acres (22,541 hectares), it extends inland for about 6 miles (10 km) from the beaches ...
American pharmacologist and physiological chemist who made important contributions to a modern understanding of the ductless, or endocrine, glands. He isolated adrenaline in the form of a chemical derivative (1897) and crystallized insulin (1926). He also invented an artificial kidney.
Soviet intelligence officer, convicted in the United States in 1957 for conspiring to transmit military secrets to the Soviet Union. He was exchanged in 1962 for the American aviator Francis Gary Powers, who had been imprisoned as a spy in ...
English chemist and explosives specialist who, with the chemist Sir James Dewar, invented cordite (1889), later adopted as the standard explosive of the British army. Abel also made studies of dust explosions in coal mines, invented a device for testing ...
French theologian and philosopher best known for his solution of the problem of universals and for his original use of dialectics. He is also known for his poetry and for his celebrated love affair with Heloise.
dramatist and social critic, best known outside Denmark for two plays, Melodien der blev vaek (1935; English adaptation, The Melody That Got Lost, 1939) and Anna Sophie Hedvig (1939; Eng. trans., 1944), which defends the use of force by the ...
American physical chemist who proposed the gas diffusion process for separating uranium-235 from uranium-238 and in collaboration with the U.S. physicist Edwin Mattison McMillan discovered the element neptunium.
coral atoll of the northern Gilbert Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. Captain Charles Bishop, who discovered the atoll in 1799, named it Roger Simpson Island for one of his associates. Seat of the area's ruling family ...
a confederacy of Algonkian-speaking Indian tribes in northeastern North America, which was organized to furnish resistance and protection against the Iroquois Confederacy, especially the Mohawk, of what is now northern New York state. In its earliest known organization it consisted ...
town, eastern Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), on the road from Abidjan (the national capital) to Ghana. The major trading centre for a productive forest region, it is also the residence of the Anyi (Agni) paramount chief, who is the present ...
