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Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid ... air gun

Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid: Muslim educator, jurist, and author, founder of the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, and the principal motivating force behind the revival of Indian Islam in the late ...
Ahmad Musa: painter active at the court of the Il Khans at Tabriz. He is said to have learned painting from his father and to have "drawn the veil from the face ...
Ahmad Shah: ineffectual Mughal emperor of India from 1748 to 1754, who has been characterized as a "good-natured imbecile," without personality, training, or qualities of leadership. He was entirely dominated by others, ...
Ahmad Shah Durrani: founder of the state of Afghanistan and ruler of an empire that extended from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorasan into Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind. ...
Ahmad Sirhindi, Shaykh: Indian mystic and theologian who was largely responsible for the reassertion and revival in India of orthodox Sunnite Islam as a reaction against the syncretistic religious tendencies prevalent during the ...
Ahmadi, Al-: town, southern Kuwait. The oasis town was built after 1946 with the development of the oil field in which it is located. Al-Ahmadi is the headquarters of the Kuwait Oil ...
Ahmadiyah: a modern Islamic sect and the generic name for various Sufi (Muslim mystic) orders. The sect was founded in Qadian, the Punjab, India, in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (c. ...
Ahmadnagar: town, west-central Maharashtra state, western India. It lies along the Sina River, 130 miles (210 km) east of Bombay. Known as Bhinar in early Yadava times, it was conquered by ...
Ahmadu Seku: second and last ruler of the Tukulor empire in West Africa, celebrated for his resistance to the French occupation.
Ahmed Hasim: writer, one of the most outstanding representatives of the Symbolist movement in Turkish literature.
Ahmed I: Ottoman sultan from 1603 to 1617, whose authority was weakened by wars, rebellions, and misrule. The rebellions he was able to suppress; he executed some of the viziers and exiled ...
Ahmed II: Ottoman sultan (1691-95) whose reign was marked by the continuing war with the Holy League (Austria-Poland-Venice).
Ahmed III: sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1703 to 1730.
Ahmed Vefik Pasa: Ottoman statesman and scholar who presided over the first Ottoman Parliament (1877) and who is known for his contributions to Turkish studies.
Ahmed Yesevi: poet and Sufi (Muslim mystic), an early Turkish mystic leader who exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkish-speaking world.
Ahmed, Fakhruddin Ali: statesman who was president of India from 1974 to 1977.
Ahmedabad: city, eastern Gujarat state, west-central India. It lies along the Sabarmati River about 275 miles (440 km) north of Mumbai (Bombay). The old city lies east of the river, while ...
Ahmedi, Taceddin: one of the greatest poets of 14th-century Anatolia.
Ahmet Pasa Bursali: one of the most important figures in 15th-century Turkish literature.
Ahmose I: (reigned c. 1539-14 BC), founder of the 18th dynasty, who completed his brother's expulsion of the Hyksos (Asiatic rulers of Egypt), invaded Palestine, and re-exerted Egypt's hegemony over Nubia, to ...
Ahmose II: king of the 26th dynasty (reigned 570-526 BC), a general who seized the throne during a revolt against King Apries. The account of the 5th-century-BC Greek historian Herodotus reveals Ahmose ...
Aho, Juhani: novelist and short-story writer who began as a realist but toward the end of his life made large concessions to Romanticism.
aholehole: any of several species of fishes constituting the family Kuhliidae (order Perciformes). Various members of the genus Kuhlia inhabit marine or fresh waters in the Indo-Pacific region, whereas representatives of ...
Ahom: tribe that ruled much of Assam from the 13th century until the establishment of British rule in 1838. Their power in Assam reached its peak during the reign of King ...
Ahram, Al-: daily newspaper published in Cairo, long regarded as Egypt's most authoritative and influential newspaper and as one of the most important papers in the Arab world.
Ahriman: the evil spirit in the dualistic doctrine of Zoroastrianism. His essential nature is expressed in his principal epithet-Druj, "the Lie." The Lie expresses itself as greed, wrath, and envy. To ...
Ahsa'i, al-: founder of the heterodox Shi'ite Muslim Shaykhi sect of Iran.
Ahtisaari, Martti: Finnish politician and noted mediator who was president of Finland (1994-2000).
Ahuachapan: city, western El Salvador, on the small Molino River (with a hydroelectric station) at the foot of La Lagunita Volcano. Originally called Gueciapam by the Indians, it was renamed Aguecha ...
Ahuitzotl: eighth king of the Aztecs, under whose reign (1486-1503) the Aztec empire reached its greatest extent.
Ahura Mazda: supreme god in ancient Iranian religion, especially in the religious system of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster (7th century-6th century BC). Ahura Mazda was worshiped by the Persian king Darius I ...
Ahvaz: town, southwestern Iran. Ahvaz is situated on both banks of the Karun River where it crosses a low range of sandstone hills. The town has been identified with Achaemenid Tareiana, ...
Ai: ancient Canaanite town destroyed by the Israelites under their leader Joshua (Joshua 7-8). Biblical references agree in locating Ai (Hebrew: ha-'Ay, "The Ruin") just east of Bethel (modern Baytin in ...
Ai Qing: Chinese poet whose free verse was influential in the development of xinshi ("new poetry").
Aicard, Jean: French poet, novelist, and dramatist, best known for his poems of the Provence region.
Aichbuhl: site of a Middle Neolithic settlement (end of the 3rd millennium BC) on the shores of Lake Feder (Federsee) in southeastern Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. Foundations of 25 rectangular ...
Aichi: ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan, on the Pacific coast. More than half of its area lies within the Nobi Plain and two smaller plains to the east. The northwestern border ...
Aichinger, Gregor: German composer of religious music during the stylistic transition from the late Renaissance to early Baroque.
Aichinger, Ilse: Austrian poet and prose writer whose work, often surreal and presented in the form of parables, reflects her preoccupation with the Nazi persecution of the Jews during World War II.
aid: a tax levied in medieval Europe, paid by persons or communities to someone in authority. Aids could be demanded by the crown from its subjects, by a feudal lord from ...
Aidan: king of the Scottish kingdom of Dalriada. He was the son of Gabran, king of Dalriada.
Aidan, Saint: apostle of Northumbria, monastic founder, first bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland.
aide-de-camp: (French: "camp assistant"), an officer on the personal staff of a general, admiral, or other high-ranking commander who acts as his confidential secretary in routine matters. On Napoleon's staff such ...
Aidoo, Ama Ata: Ghanaian writer whose work, written in English, emphasized the paradoxical position of the modern African woman.
AIDS: transmissible disease of the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV slowly attacks and destroys the immune system, the body's defense against infection, leaving an individual vulnerable ...
aigrette: tuft of long, white heron (usually egret) plumes used as a decorative headdress, or any other ornament resembling such a headdress. Such plumes were highly prized as ornaments in Middle ...
Aigues-Mortes: town, Gard departement, Languedoc-Roussillon region, southeastern France, southwest of Nimes, on the Canal du Rhone a Sete, with its own 3.5-mile (6-km) canal to ...
Aiguillon, Emmanuel-Armand de Richelieu, duc d': French statesman, whose career illustrates the difficulties of the central government of the ancien regime in dealing with the provincial Parlements and estates, the extent to which powerful ministers were ...
Aiken: city, seat of Aiken county, western South Carolina, U.S. Aiken lies 16 miles (26 km) northeast of Augusta, Georgia. It was chartered in 1835 and named for the railroad entrepreneur ...
Aiken: county, western South Carolina, U.S. It lies in the state's sandhill region between the North Fork Edisto River to the northeast and the Savannah River border with Georgia to the ...
Aiken, Conrad: American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, short-story writer, novelist, and critic whose works, influenced by early psychoanalytic theory, are concerned largely with the human need for self-awareness and a sense of identity. ...
Aiken, Howard Hathaway: mathematician who invented the Harvard Mark I, forerunner of the modern electronic digital computer.
Aiken, Joan: prolific British author of fantasy, adventure, horror, and suspense tales for both juvenile and adult readers. Perhaps best-known as the inventor of a genre called the "unhistorical romance," Aiken wrote ...
aikido: (Japanese: "way of spiritual harmony"), self-defense system that resembles the fighting methods jujitsu and judo in its use of twisting and throwing techniques and in its aim of turning an ...
aileron: movable part of an airplane wing that is controlled by the pilot and permits him to roll the aircraft around its longitudinal axis. Ailerons are thus used primarily to bank ...
Ailey, Alvin, Jr.: American dancer, choreographer, and director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Ailly, Pierre d': French theologian, cardinal, and advocate of church reform whose chief aim was to heal the Great Schism of the Western church (1378-1417). He advocated the doctrine of conciliarism-the subordination of ...
Ailsa Craig: granite islet, South Ayrshire council area, Scotland, at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde and 10 miles (16 km) off the coast of South Ayrshire, to which it belongs. ...
Aimard, Gustave: popular novelist who wrote adventure stories about life on the American frontier and in Mexico.
Aimoin: French Benedictine monk whose history of the Franks was highly esteemed in the European Middle Ages.
Aimores Mountains: mountainous region divided between the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, eastern Brazil, occupying an area of about 3,900 square miles (10,100 square km). The mountains form a crystalline-hill ...
Ain Beida: town, northeastern Algeria. It is situated on a plateau at the eastern edge of the Setif plains. The plateau, once occupied by a large lake, now has several shallow depressions ...
Ain River: river, eastern France, flowing 124 miles (200 km) southward from the Jura Plateau through Jura and Ain departements. The river emerges from its gorge near Pont-d'Ain, having powered several hydroelectric ...
Ain Sefra: town, western Algeria. It is situated in the Saharan Atlas, 28 miles (45 km) east of the Moroccan border. The town lies in a broad valley between Mount Aissa and ...
Ain Temouchent: town, northwestern Algeria, on the right bank of the Wadi Sennene. The town is bounded on the south by the Wadi Temouchent, with the Tessala Mountains in the background. Built ...
Ainsworth, Henry: Nonconformist theologian, Hebrew scholar, and a leader of the English Separatist colony in Amsterdam.
Ainsworth, William Harrison: English author of popular historical romances.
Ainu: indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands who are differentiated physically and culturally from their Asian neighbours. Their origins are obscure. One claim that they were descended from ...
air: mixture of gases comprising the Earth's atmosphere. The mixture contains a group of gases of nearly constant concentrations and a group with concentrations that are variable in both space and ...
air brake: either of two kinds of braking systems. The first, used by railroad trains, trucks, and buses, operates by a piston driven by compressed air from reservoirs connected to brake cylinders. ...
Air Canada: airline established by the Canadian Parliament in the Trans-Canada Air Lines Act of April 10, 1937. Known for almost 28 years as Trans-Canada Air Lines, it assumed its current name ...
air de cour: (French: "court air"), genre of French solo or part-song predominant from the late 16th century through the 17th century. It originated in arrangements, for voice and lute, of popular chansons ...
air embolism: blockage of an artery or vein by an air bubble. Air can be introduced into the blood vessels during surgery or traumatic accidents. One type of traumatic embolization occurs when ...
air force: that military organization of a nation which is primarily responsible for the conduct of air warfare. The air force has the missions of gaining control of the air, supporting surface ...
Air France: French international airline originally formed in 1933 and today serving all parts of the globe. With British Airways, it was the first to fly the supersonic Concorde. Headquarters are in ...
air gun: weapon based on the principle of the primitive blowgun that shoots bullets, pellets, or darts by expansion of compressed air.