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Abrahams, Peter ... acacia
Abrahams, Peter
most prolific of South Africa's black prose writers, whose early novel Mine Boy (1946) was the first to depict the dehumanizing effect of racism upon South African blacks.
Abramov, Fyodor
Russian writer, academic, and literary critic whose work, which frequently ran afoul of the official Soviet party line, focused on the difficulties and discrimination faced by Russian peasants.
Abrams, M.H.
American literary critic known for his analysis of the Romantic period in English literature.
abrasive
sharp, hard material used to wear away the surface of softer, less resistant materials. Included within the term are both natural and synthetic substances, ranging from the relatively soft particles ...
abraxas
sequence of Greek letters considered as a word and formerly inscribed on charms, amulets, and gems in the belief that it possessed magical qualities. In the 2nd century AD, some ...
Abreu, Capistrano de
Brazilian historian best known for his large-scale interpretive work on Brazil's colonial history.
Abrikosov, Alexey A.
Russian physicist, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2003 for his pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductivity. He shared the award with Vitaly L. Ginzburg of Russia ...
Abruzzi
regione, central Italy, fronting the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provincie of L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara, and Teramo. Most of the region is mountainous or hilly, except for such intermontane basins ...
Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco, Duke d'
Spanish mountaineer and explorer whose ventures ranged from Africa to the Arctic.
Abruzzo, Ben L.
American balloonist who, with three crew mates, made the first transpacific balloon flight and the longest nonstop balloon flight, in the Double Eagle V.
Abs, Hermann J.
German banker and a leading figure in the West German "economic miracle" following World War II.
Absalom
third and favourite son of David, king of Israel and Judah.
Absalon
archbishop, statesman, and close adviser of the Danish kings Valdemar I and Canute VI.
Absaroka Range
mountain segment of the northern Rocky Mountains, in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana, U.S. Extending in a northwest-southeast direction, the range is 170 miles (270 km) long and 50 miles ...
abscess
a localized collection of pus in a cavity formed from tissues that have been broken down by infectious bacteria. An abscess is caused when such bacteria as staphylococci or streptococci ...
Abse, Dannie
British poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist, known for the characteristically Welsh voice and sensibility of his poetry.
absentee ownership
originally, ownership of land by proprietors who did not reside on the land or cultivate it themselves but enjoyed income from it. The term absentee ownership has assumed a derogatory ...
absentee voting
electoral process that enables persons who cannot appear at their designated polling places to vote from another location. The usual method of absentee voting is by mail, although provision is ...
Abseron Peninsula
peninsula in Azerbaijan that extends 37 miles (60 km) eastward into the Caspian Sea and reaches a maximum width of 19 miles (30 km). An eastern extension of the Caucasus ...
absinthe
flavoured, distilled liquor, yellowish green in colour, turning to cloudy, opalescent white when mixed with water. Highly aromatic, this liqueur is dry and somewhat bitter in taste. Absinthe is made ...
Absolute Idealism
a philosophical theory chiefly associated with G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both German idealist philosophers of the 19th century, Josiah Royce, an American philosopher, and others, but, in its essentials, ...
absolute zero
temperature at which a thermodynamic system has the lowest energy. It corresponds to -273.15° on the Celsius scale and to -459.67° on the Fahrenheit scale.
absolution
in the Christian religion, a pronouncement of remission (forgiveness) of sins to the penitent. In Roman Catholicism, penance is a sacrament and the power to absolve lies with the priest, ...
absolutism
the political doctrine and practice of unlimited, centralized authority and absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator. The essence of an absolutist system is that the ruling ...
absorption
in wave motion, the transfer of the energy of a wave to matter as the wave passes through it. The energy of an acoustic, electromagnetic, or other wave is proportional ...
Abstbessingen faience
tin-glazed earthenware produced in a factory in the village of Abstbessingen, in Thuringia, which flourished probably from the first half of the 18th century to about 1816. A hayfork factory ...
abstract art
painting, sculpture, or graphic art in which the portrayal of things from the visible world plays no part. All art consists largely of elements that can be called abstract-elements of ...
Abstract Expressionism
broad movement in American painting that began in the late 1940s and became a dominant trend in Western painting during the 1950s. The most prominent American Abstract Expressionist painters were ...
abstract poem
a term coined by Edith Sitwell to describe a poem in which the words are chosen for their aural quality rather than specifically for their sense or meaning. An example ...
Abstraction-Creation
association of international painters and sculptors that from 1931 to 1936 promoted the principles of pure abstraction in art.
Absurd, Theatre of the
dramatic works of certain European and American dramatists of the 1950s and early '60s who agreed with the Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus's assessment, in his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" ...
Abu
city, southwestern Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It is situated on the slopes of Mount Abu, an isolated feature of the Aravali Range. The city is a noted hill resort, and ...
Abu 'Ali Mustafa
Palestinian nationalist who was a cofounder (1967) and secretary-general (2000-01) of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a radical faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Abu 'l-Fadl 'Allami
historian, military commander, secretary, and theologian to the Mughal emperor Akbar.
Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah
Islamic caliph (reigned 749-754), first of the 'Abbasid dynasty, which was to rule over eastern Islam for approximately the next 500 years. The 'Abbasids were descended from an uncle of ...
Abu al-'Atahiyah
first Arab poet of note to break with the conventions established by the pre-Islamic poets of the desert and to adopt a simpler and freer language of the village.
Abu al-Faraj al-Isbahani
literary scholar who composed an encyclopaedic and fundamental work on Arabic song, composers, poets, and musicians.
Abu al-Fida'
Ayyubid dynasty historian and geographer who became a local sultan under the Mamluk empire.
Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur
khan (ruler) of Khiva and one of the most prominent historians in Chagatai Turkish literature.
Abu al-Hasan
one of the leading Mughal painters of the emperor Jahangir's atelier, honoured by the emperor with the title Nadir-uz-Zaman ("Wonder of the Age").
Abu al-Hasan 'Ali
Marinid sultan of Morocco (reigned 1331-51) who increased the territories of his dynasty and, for a brief time, created a united North African empire.
Abu al-Qasim
Islam's greatest medieval surgeon, whose comprehensive medical text, combining Middle Eastern and Greco-Roman classical teachings, shaped European surgical procedures until the Renaissance.
Abu Bakar
sultan of the Malay state of Johore (now part of Malaysia) from 1885 to 1895. He maintained independence from Britain and stimulated economic development in Johore at a time when ...
Abu Bakr
Muhammad's closest companion and adviser, who succeeded to the Prophet's political and administrative functions, thereby initiating the office of the caliphate.
Abu Dhabi
constituent emirate of the United Arab Emirates (formerly Trucial States, or Trucial Oman). Though its international boundaries are disputed, it is unquestionably the largest of the country's seven constituent emirates ...
Abu Dhabi
town, capital of Abu Dhabi emirate, one of the United Arab Emirates (formerly Trucial States, or Trucial Oman), and the national capital of that federation. The town occupies most of ...
Abu Hanifah
Muslim jurist and theologian whose systematization of Islamic legal doctrine was acknowledged as one of the four canonical schools of Islamic law. The school of Abu Hanifah acquired such prestige ...
Abu Jirab
ancient Egyptian site, about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Abu Sir, between Saqqarah and Giza; it is known as the location of two 5th-dynasty (c. 2465-c. 2325 BC) sun ...
Abu Kalijar al-Marzuban ibn Sultan ad-Dawlah
ruler of the Buyid dynasty from 1024, who for a brief spell reunited the Buyid territories in Iraq and Iran.
Abu Madi, Iliya
Arab poet and journalist who spent much of his life in the United States.
Abu Muslim
leader of a revolutionary movement in Khorasan who, while acting as an agent for the 'Abbasid family, was instrumental in the downfall of the Umayyad caliphate and in placing the ...
Abu Nidal
militant leader of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, more commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), or Abu Nidal Group, a Palestinian organization that engaged in numerous acts of terrorism ...
Abu Nuwas
important poet of the early 'Abbasid period (750-835).
Abu Qir Bay
semicircular inlet of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between Abu Qir Point (southwest) and the mouth of the Rosetta Branch (northeast) of the Nile River delta, in Lower Egypt. The bay ...
Abu Rishah, 'Umar
Syrian poet and diplomat, noted for his early poetry, which broke with the traditions of Arab classicism.
Abu Ruwaysh
ancient Egyptian site of a 4th-dynasty (c. 2575-c. 2465 BC) pyramid built by Redjedef, usually considered the third of the seven kings of that dynasty. The site is about 5 ...
Abu Shahrayn
mound in southern Iraq, site of the ancient Sumerian city of Eridu (q.v.).
Abu Simbel
site of two temples built by the Egyptian king Ramses II (reigned 1279-13 BC), now located in Aswan muhafazah (governorate), southern Egypt. In ancient times the area was at the ...
Abu Sir
ancient site between Al-Jizah (Giza) and Saqqarah, northern Egypt, where several 5th-dynasty (c. 2465-c. 2325 BC) kings built their pyramids. The pyramids were poorly constructed (in comparison with Egyptian monuments ...
Abu Tammam
poet and editor of an anthology of early Arabic poems known as the Hamasah.
Abu'l-Wafa'
a distinguished Muslim astronomer and mathematician, who made important contributions to the development of trigonometry.
Abubakar, Abdusalam
Nigerian military leader, who served as head of state (1998-99).
Abuja
federal capital territory, central Nigeria, created in 1976. The territory is located north of the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers. It is bordered by the states of Niger ...
Abuja
city and capital of Nigeria. It lies in the central part of the Abuja federal capital territory (created 1976), approximately 300 miles (480 km) northeast of Lagos, the former capital ...
Abukuma-sammyaku
(Japanese: Abukuma Mountains), range in northern Honshu, Japan, extending for 106 miles (170 km) north to south and paralleling the Pacific coast of Fukushima Prefecture (ken), Tohoku Region (chiho). Its ...
Abuna River
headwater of the Amazon, rising in several streams, east of the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes. The navigable river flows for about 200 miles (320 km) northeast through rain forests, ...
Abutilon
genus of about 100 species of herbaceous plants and partly woody shrubs, of the mallow family (Malvaceae), native to tropical and warm temperate areas. It includes several species used as ...
Abydos
prominent sacred city and one of the most important archaeological sites of ancient Egypt. The site, located in the low desert west of the Nile near al-Balyana, was a royal ...
Abydos
ancient Anatolian town located just northeast of the modern Turkish town of Canakkale on the east side of the Dardanelles (Hellespont). Probably originally a Thracian town, it was colonized about ...
abyssal hill
small, topographically well-defined submarine hill that may rise from several metres to several hundred metres above the abyssal seafloor, in water 3,000 to 6,000 m (10,000 to 20,000 feet) deep. ...
abyssal plain
flat seafloor area at an abyssal depth (3,000 to 6,000 m [10,000 to 20,000 feet]), generally adjacent to a continent. These submarine surfaces vary in depth only from 10 to ...
abyssal zone
portion of the ocean deeper than about 2,000 m (6,600 feet) and shallower than about 6,000 m (20,000 feet). The zone is defined mainly by its extremely uniform environmental conditions, ...
Abyssinian
breed of domestic cat, probably of Egyptian origin, that has been considered to approximate the sacred cat of ancient Egypt more closely than any other living cat. The Abyssinian is ...
Abzug, Bella
U.S. congresswoman (1971-77) and lawyer who founded several liberal political organizations for women and was a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War and a supporter of equal rights for women.
AC/DC
Australian heavy metal band whose theatrical, high-energy shows placed them among the most popular stadium performers of the 1980s. The principal members were Angus Young (b. March 31, 1955, Glasgow, ...
acacia
any of about 800 species of trees and shrubs comprising a genus (Acacia) in the mimosa family (Mimosaceae) and native to tropical and subtropical regions of the world, particularly Australia ...