Arabic calligrapher of the 'Abbasid Age (750-1258) who reputedly invented the cursive rayhani and muhaqqaq scripts. He refined several of the calligraphic styles invented a century earlier by Ibn Muqlah, including the naskhi and tawqi scripts, and collected and preserved ...
in full 'abd Ar-rahman Ibn 'ali Ibn Muhammad Abu Al-farash Ibn Al-jawzi jurist, theologian, historian, preacher, and teacher who became an important figure in the Baghdad establishment and a leading spokesman of traditionalist Islam.
Arab physician who first described the pulmonary circulation of the blood. In finding that the wall between the right and left ventricles of the heart is solid and without pores, he disputed Galen's view that the blood passes directly from ...
in full Abu 'abd Allah Muhammad Ibn 'abd Allah Al-lawati At-tanji Ibn Battutah the greatest medieval Arab traveller and the author of one of the most famous travel books, the Rihlah (Travels), which describes his extensive travels covering some 75,000 ...
also called Rabad I physician and historian who was the first Jewish philosopher to draw on Aristotle's writings in a systematic fashion. He is probably more esteemed today for his history Sefer ha-kabbala ("Book of Tradition") than for his major ...
in full Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Al-hasan Al-azdi Ibn Durayd Arab philologist who wrote a large Arabic dictionary, Jamharat al-lughah ("Collection of Language").
poet, grammarian, traveller, Neoplatonic philosopher, and astronomer, best known as a biblical exegete whose commentaries contributed to the Golden Age of Spanish Judaism.
Hebrew poet and critic, one of the finest poets of the golden age of Spanish Jewry (900-1200). He was one of the first Jewish poets to write secular verse; his surname, "ha-Sallah" (Hebrew: Writer of Penitential Poems), however, was bestowed ...
Spanish-born Jewish philosopher and translator who propagated a reconciliation between Jewish Orthodoxy and philosophy and defended Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed against the attacks of the traditionalists.
one of the outstanding figures of the Hebrew school of religious and secular poetry during the Jewish Golden Age in Moorish Spain. He was also an important Neoplatonic philosopher.
Muslim litterateur, historian, jurist, and theologian of Islamic Spain, famed for his literary productivity, breadth of learning, and mastery of the Arabic language. One of the leading exponents of the Zahiri (Literalist) school of jurisprudence, he produced some 400 works, ...
in full Muhammad Ibn Ishaq Ibn Yasar Ibn Khiyar Arab biographer of the Prophet Muhammad whose book, in a recension by Ibn Hisham, is one of the most important sources on the Prophet's life.
perhaps the most important medieval Hebrew grammarian and lexicographer. Known as the founder of the study of Hebrew syntax, he established the rules of biblical exegesis and clarified many difficult passages.
in full 'imad Ad-din Isma'il Ibn 'umar Ibn Kathir Muslim theologian and historian who became one of the leading intellectual figures of 14th-century Syria.
the greatest Arab historian, who developed one of the earliest nonreligious philosophies of history, contained in his masterpiece, the Muqaddimah ("Introduction"). He also wrote a definitive history of Muslim North Africa.
in full Abu 'ali Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ya'qub Ibn Miskawayh Persian scientist, philosopher, and historian whose scholarly works became models for later generations of Islamic thinkers.
in full Abu 'ali Muhammad Ibn 'ali Ibn Muqlah one of the foremost calligraphers of the 'Abbasid Age (750-1258), reputed inventor of the first cursive style of Arabic lettering, the naskhi script, which replaced the angular Kufic as the standard ...
writer of adab literature-that is, of literature exhibiting wide secular erudition and also of theology, philology, and literary criticism. He introduced an Arabic prose style outstanding for its simplicity and ease, or "modern" flavour.
in full 'abd Al-'aziz Ibn 'abd Ar-rahman Ibn Faysal Ibn Turki 'abd Allah Ibn Muhammad Al Sa'ud tribal and Muslim religious leader who formed the modern state of Saudi Arabia and initiated the exploitation of its oil.
Jewish philosopher and Castilian court physician who attempted to mediate the disdain shown for philosophy by contemporary Jewish scholars by undertaking a reconciliation of Aristotelian ethical philosophy with Jewish religious thought, best exemplified by his influential Kevod Elohim (written 1442; ...
one of Islam's most forceful theologians who, as a member of the Pietist school founded by Ibn Hanbal, sought the return of the Islamic religion to its sources: the Qur'an and the sunnah, revealed writing and the prophetic tradition. He ...
French Jewish physician, translator, and astronomer whose work was utilized by Copernicus and Dante. He was highly regarded as a physician and served as regent of the faculty of medicine at the University of Montpellier. He was the grandson of ...
Jewish physician and translator of Jewish Arabic-language works into Hebrew; he was also the progenitor of several generations of important translators.
Jewish physician like his father, Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon, and his paternal grandfather, Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon, and an important translator of Arabic-language works into Hebrew. His translations served to disseminate Greek and Arab culture throughout Europe. Besides ...
Jewish translator and physician whose most significant achievement was an accurate and faithful rendition from the Arabic into Hebrew of Maimonides' classic Dalalat al-ha'irin (Hebrew More nevukhim; English The Guide of the Perplexed).
in full Muhammad Ibn 'abd Al-malik Ibn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Tufayl Al-qaysi, also called Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn 'abd Al-malik Ibn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Tufayl Al-qaysi Moorish philosopher and physician who is known for his Hayy ibn yaqzan ...
Berber spiritual and military leader who founded the al-Muwahhidun confederation in North Africa (see Almohads). The doctrine he taught combined a strict conception of the unity of God with a program of juridical and puritanical moral reform, based on a ...
Middle Eastern agriculturist and toxicologist alleged to have written al-Fillahah an-Nabatiyah ("Nabatean Agriculture"), a major treatise dealing with plants, water sources and quality, weather conditions, the causes of deforestation, soils and their improvement, crop cultivation, and other similar subjects. The ...
hallucinogenic drug and the principal iboga alkaloid, found in the stems, leaves, and especially in the roots of the African shrub Tabernanthe iboga. Ibogaine was isolated from the plant in 1901 and was synthesized in 1966. In small doses it ...
Ottoman sultan whose unstable character made him prey to the ambitions of his ministers and relatives and to his own self-indulgence; as a consequence, the Ottoman state was weakened by war, misrule, and rebellion during his reign (1640-48).
Ottoman diplomat known for his contributions to the 18th-century reform movement in the Ottoman Empire; he sponsored the introduction of printing into the Turkish domains.
major Norwegian playwright of the late 19th century who introduced to the European stage a new order of moral analysis that was placed against a severely realistic middle-class background and developed with economy of action, penetrating dialogue, and rigorous thought.
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used in the treatment of minor pain, fever, and inflammation. Like aspirin, ibuprofen works by inhibiting the synthesis of prostaglandins, body chemicals that sensitize nerve endings. The drug may irritate the gastrointestinal tract. Marketed under trade names ...
city, capital of Ica departamento, southern Peru. It is located about 30 miles (48 km) from the Pacific Ocean and 170 miles (275 km) southeast of Lima in the extremely arid and intensively irrigated coastal valley of the Ica River. ...
departamento (formed 1866) of southern Peru, composed of the western slope of the Andes, the arid Pacific coast, the northern end of the coastal range, and the Chincha Islands. Ica is sparsely inhabited, except in irrigated areas such as the ...
family of tropical trees, shrubs, and woody climbers, belonging to the order Celastrales, comprising more than 55 genera. The alternate leaves usually are leathery and simple in outline; the flowers are small, whitish or greenish, clustered, and either unisexual or ...
