(Arabic: "absence," or "concealment"), Islamic doctrine, especially among such Shi'ite sects as the Ithna 'Ashariyah, or "Twelvers." The term refers to the disappearance from view of the 12th and last imam (leader), Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Hujjah, in 878.
in Islamic literature, genre of lyric poem, generally short and graceful in form and typically dealing with themes of love. As a genre the ghazal developed in Arabia in the late 7th century from the nasib, which itself was the ...
Muslim theologian and mystic whose great work, Ihya' 'ulum ad-din ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences"), made Sufism (Islamic mysticism) an acceptable part of orthodox Islam.
most prominent of the Il-Khans (subordinate khans) to rule the Mongol dynasty in Iran. Reigning from 1295 to 1304, he is best known for the conversion of his state to Islam and his wars against Egypt.
town, administrative headquarters of Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. Founded in 1740, it is located on the Grand Trunk Road 12 mi (19 km) east of New Delhi. Modern Ghaziabad is a rapidly developing industrial town. Many workers ...
town, administrative headquarters of Ghazipur district, Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, northeast of Varanasi (Benares), on the Ganges River. Its ancient name of Gadhipur was changed to Ghazipur in about 1330, reputedly in honour of Ghazi Malik, a Muslim ruler. ...
city, east-central Afghanistan. It lies beside the Ghazni River on a high plateau at an elevation of 7,300 feet (2,225 m). Afghanistan's only remaining walled town, it is dominated by a 150-foot- (45-metre-) high citadel built in the 13th century. ...
Chinese secret society that flourished in Malaya in the 19th and early 20th centuries. During the 1800s many Chinese migrated to Malaya, bringing their secret societies with them. The Ghee Hin had strong branch organizations in Penang. Its membership consisted ...
eccentric Belgian dramatist whose folkish morality plays resound with violence, demonism, holy madness, and Rabelaisian humour. He has affinities with Fernand Crommelynck but is bleaker and more extreme in his visions.
city and capital of East Flanders provincie, northwestern Belgium. Ghent lies at the junction of the canalized Lys (Leie) and Scheldt (Schelde) rivers and is the centre of an urban complex that includes Ledeberg, Gentbrugge, and Sint-Amandsberg.
(Nov. 8, 1576), declaration by which the northern and southern provinces of the Low Countries put aside their religious difference and united in revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs. The declaration was the first major expression of the Netherlands' national self-consciousness. ...
state-financed coeducational institution of higher learning with limited autonomy in Ghent, Belg. Founded in 1817 under King William I of The Netherlands, the university at first conducted its instruction in Latin; in 1830 the language was changed to French; in ...
(Dec. 24, 1814), agreement in Belgium between Great Britain and the United States to end the War of 1812 on the general basis of the status quo antebellum (maintaining the prewar conditions). Because the military positions for each side were ...
group of manuscript illuminators and scribes active during the last quarter of the 15th and first part of the 16th centuries, principally in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. Credit for founding the tradition that included such masters as ...
waterway running 19 miles (31 km) south to north between Ghent, Belg., and the western Scheldt Estuary at Terneuzen, Neth. The canal was built in 1824-27 and was reconstructed during the early 20th century and reopened in 1911 to enable ...
one of the foremost families of the Tuscan nobility, whose lands included the counties of Gherardesca, Donoratico, and Montescudaio, near Pisa. At the beginning of the 13th century, they led the pro-imperial Ghibelline party of the Pisan republic against the ...
(Cucumis anguria), trailing vine, of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), grown for its edible fruit. The gherkins sold in pickle mixtures are not C. anguria but rather are small pickled immature cucumbers (Cucumis sativus). A true gherkin has palmately lobed leaves ...
formerly a street, or quarter, of a city set apart as a legally enforced residence area for Jews. One of the earliest forced segregations of Jews was in Muslim Morocco when, in 1280, they were transferred to segregated quarters called ...
important early Italian Renaissance sculptor, whose doors ("Gates of Paradise"; 1425-52) for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence are considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Italian art in the Quattrocento. Other works include three bronze statues for Or ...
one of the largest of the Pashto-speaking tribes in Afghanistan, whose traditional territory extended from Ghazni and Kalat-i-Ghilzai eastward into the Indus Valley. They are reputed to be descended at least in part from the Khalaj or Khilji Turks, who ...
floor covering handwoven in the town of Ghiordes (Gordes), northeast of Izmir in western Anatolia (now in Turkey). The prayer rugs of Ghiordes, together with those of Kula and Ladik, have long been especially prized in the Middle East, as ...
early Renaissance painter of the Florentine school noted for his detailed narrative frescoes, which include many portraits of leading citizens in contemporary dress.
soul or spectre of a dead person, usually believed to inhabit the netherworld and to be capable of returning in some form to the world of the living. According to descriptions or depictions provided by believers, a ghost may appear ...
some of the few bats known to possess white or gray fur; not every bat with white fur is called a ghost bat. Ghost bats are tropical, but only one, also called the Australian giant false vampire bat (Macroderma gigas), ...
any of approximately 20 species of shore crabs (order Decapoda of the class Crustacea). O. quadratus, the beach crabs noted for their running speed, occur on dry sand above the high-tide mark on the western Atlantic coast from New Jersey ...
either of two distinct cults in a complex of late 19th-century religious movements that represented an attempt of Indians in the western United States to rehabilitate their traditional cultures. Both cults arose from Northern Paiute prophet-dreamers in western Nevada who ...
a tale about ghosts. More generally, the phrase may refer to a tale based on imagination rather than fact. Ghost stories exist in all kinds of literature, from folktales to religious works to modern horror stories, and in most cultures. ...
word game in which each player in turn presents a letter that must contribute to the eventual formation of a word but not complete it. The player whose letter completes a word loses the round and becomes one-third of a ...
in popular legend, demonic being believed to inhabit burial grounds and other deserted places. In ancient Arabic folklore, ghuls belonged to a diabolic class of jinn (spirits) and were said to be the offspring of Iblis, the Muslim prince of ...
oasis, southwestern Libya, near the Algerian border. Located on an ancient Saharan caravan route, it was a slave-trading centre and the object of European exploration in the 19th century. Ghat lies west of the Wadi Tanezzuft in hilly sandstone country, ...
capital of Al-Bahr al-Ahmar muhafazah (governorate), Egypt. The town is a small Red Sea port, but its main industry is oil exploration and production. It is the site of a large oil field and serves as the administrative and support ...
rulers of a kingdom centred in Ghur (modern Ghowr) in west-central Afghanistan from the mid-12th to the early 13th century. Its founder was 'Ala'-ud-Din Husayn.
in Islam, the "major ablution" that entails washing the entire body in ritually pure water and is required in specified cases for both the living and the dead. The ghusl, accompanied by a statement of intent, must be performed whenever ...
town just north of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), southern Vietnam, in an area of intensive rice cultivation. It has several hospitals and an institution of higher learning. The Gia Dinh industrial park includes rubber tire and textile plants. ...
Italian-born physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2002 for his seminal discoveries of cosmic sources of X rays, which helped lay the foundations for the field of X-ray astronomy. Raymond Davis, Jr., and Koshiba Masatoshi also won ...
Swiss sculptor and painter, best known for his attenuated sculptures of solitary figures. Notable works include "Head of a Man on a Rod" (1947) and "Composition with Seven Figures and a Head (The Forest)" (1950). His work has been compared ...
