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Gettysburg College: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. Though it is affiliated with the Lutheran church, the college maintains a policy of nonsectarian instruction. The college offers a ...
Gettysburg, Battle of: (July 1-3, 1863), major engagement in the American Civil War fought 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that was a crushing Southern defeat. After defeating the Union forces ...
Getz, Stan: American jazz tenor saxophonist known for his mellow, "cool" style of playing.
Geulincx, Arnold: Flemish metaphysician, logician, and leading exponent of a philosophical doctrine known as occasionalism based on the work of Rene Descartes, as extended to include a comprehensive ethical theory.
Geuzen: the largely Calvinist Dutch guerrilla and privateering forces whose military actions initiated the Netherlands' revolt against Spanish rule (1568-1609). The term was first applied derisively to the lesser nobility who, ...
Gevaudan: ancient region of France, formerly located in the southern province of Languedoc and corresponding to most of the modern departement of Lozere. A Roman community called Civitas Gabalitana, or Gabalitanus ...
Gevelsberg: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany. It lies along the Ennepe River just northeast of Wuppertal. First mentioned in 1225, the city developed around a Cistercian abbey founded in ...
Gevers, Marie: Belgian novelist and poet whose works, almost without exception, evoke Kempenland, a rural area in which she spent most of her life; her family estate, Missembourg, was situated near Antwerp.
Geyl, Pieter: Dutch historian whose works on The Netherlands are highly respected both for their wealth of information and for their scholarly, incisive critical analysis.
Geyr von Schweppenburg, Leo: German tank commander in World War II.
geyser: hot spring that intermittently spouts jets of steam and hot water. The term is derived from the Icelandic word geysir, meaning "to gush."
Geysir: geyser in Arnes, southwestern Iceland, near the settlement of Haukadalur. The spouting hot spring gave its name (in use since 1647) to similar phenomena around the world. It spouted boiling ...
Gezelle, Guido: Flemish priest and poet who was one of the masters of 19th-century European lyric poetry.
Gezer: ancient royal Canaanite city, near present-day Ramla, Israel. Gezer is often mentioned in the Old Testament and in the Egyptian records of the New Kingdom, from Thutmose III (1479-26 BC) ...
Gezing: town, southwestern Sikkim state, northern India. Gezing lies just west of the Rangit River on the Rathong-Kalet interfluve. The town has a hospital, a rest house, a higher secondary school, ...
Ghadmis: oasis, northwestern Libya, near the Tunisian and Algerian borders. It lies at the bottom of a wadi (seasonal river) bordered by the steep slopes of the stony al-Hamra' Plateau. Located ...
Ghadr: (Urdu: "Revolution"), an early 20th-century movement among Indians, principally Sikhs living in North America, to end British rule in their homeland of India. The movement originated with an organization of ...
Ghaffar Khan, Abdul: the foremost 20th-century leader of the Pashtuns (or Pathans; a Muslim ethnic group of Pakistan and Afghanistan), who became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was called "the Frontier Gandhi."
Ghaggar River: river, northern India. The Ghaggar rises in the Siwalik Range, northwestern Himachal Pradesh state, and flows about 200 miles (320 km) southwest through Haryana state, where it receives the Saraswati ...
Ghaghara River: major left-bank tributary of the Ganges River, rising as the Karnali River (Chinese: K'ung-ch'iao Ho) in the Tibetan Himalayas and flowing southeast into Nepal. Cutting southward across the Siwalik Hills, ...
Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan: the preeminent Indian poet of his time writing in Persian, equally renowned for poems, letters, and prose pieces in Urdu.
Ghana: first of the great medieval trading empires of western Africa (fl. 7th-13th century). It was situated between the Sahara (Desert) and the headwaters of the Senegal and Niger rivers, in ...
Ghana: country of western Africa situated on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of 92,098 square miles (238,533 square kilometres). It is bordered on the northwest ...
ghanimah: in the early Islamic community (7th century AD), booty taken in battle in the form of weapons, horses, prisoners, and movable goods. In pre-Islamic Bedouin society, where the ghazw (razzia, ...
Ghanzi: village, west-central Botswana. The village is located at the northern rim of the Kalahari (desert) and is the starting point of a 500-mile- (800-kilometre-) long cattle trek-one of the longest ...
Gharbyah, Al-: muhafazah (governorate) in the middle Nile River delta, Lower Egypt. It is bounded to the east and west by the Damietta and the Rosetta branches of the ...
Ghardaa: chief town of the M'zab Oasis, north-central Algeria. It lies along the left bank of the Wadi Mzab in the northern Sahara (Desert). Founded in the 11th century, it was ...
Gharyan: town, in the Tripolitania region of northwestern Libya. It lies at the foot of the plateau Jabal Nafusah, 50 miles (80 km) south of Tripoli, and was a major centre ...
Ghassan: Arabian kingdom prominent as a Byzantine ally (symmachos) in the 6th century AD. From its strategic location in portions of modern Syria, Jordan, and Israel, it protected the spice trade ...
Ghassaniy, Muyaka bin Haji al-: Kenyan poet who was the first Swahili-language secular poet known by name.
Ghassulian culture: archaeological stage dating to the Middle Chalcolithic Period in southern Palestine (c. 3800-c. 3350 BC). Its type-site, Tulaylat al-Ghassul, is located in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea in ...
ghata-pallava: in Indian art, important decorative motif consisting of a pot filled with flowers and leaves. In Vedic literature it is the symbol of life, the source of vegetation, a meaning ...
ghatam: large, narrow-mouthed earthenware water pot used as a percussion instrument in India. Unlike other Indian percussion instruments, such as the tabla and mridanga, the ghatam does not ...
Ghats: two mountain ranges forming the eastern and western edges, respectively, of the Deccan (q.v.) plateau of peninsular India. In Hindi ghat means "river landing stairs" or "mountain pass" and has ...
Ghavam el-Saltaneh, Ahmad: Iranian politician who was a five-time prime minister of Iran (1921-22, 1922-23, 1942-43, 1946-47, 1952).
ghaybah: (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 ...
ghazal: 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 ...
Ghazali, al-: 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.
Ghazan, Mahmud: 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 ...
Ghaziabad: 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. ...
Ghazipur: 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 ...
Ghaznavid Dynasty: (AD 977-1186), Turkish dynasty that ruled in Khorasan (in northeastern Iran), Afghanistan, and northern India.
Ghazni: 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 ...
ghee: clarified butter, a staple food on the Indian subcontinent. As a cooking oil, ghee is the most widely used food in India, apart from wheat and rice.
Ghee Hin: 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 ...
Ghelderode, Michel de: 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 ...
Ghent: 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 ...
Ghent, Pacification of: (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 ...
Ghent, State University of: 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 ...
Ghent, Treaty of: (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 ...
Ghent-Bruges school: 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. ...
Ghent-Terneuzen Canal: 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 ...
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej: (Romania): see Onesti.
Gheorghiu-Dej, Gheorghe: long-time head of the Romanian Communist Party, prime minister (1952-55), and president of Romania's State Council (1961-65).
Gherardesca Family: 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 ...
gherkin: (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 ...
ghetto: 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 ...
Gheyn, Matthias van den: Flemish organist, composer, and an outstanding virtuoso of the carillon, particularly known for his brilliant improvisations.
Ghezzi, Pier Leone: Italian artist and probably the first professional caricaturist.
ghi: clarified butter, a staple food on the Indian subcontinent. See butterfat.
Ghibelline: in medieval Italy, member of the pro-imperial party, opponents of the pro-papal Guelfs. See Guelf and Ghibelline.
Ghiberti, Lorenzo: 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 ...
ghibli: hot and dusty wind descending from the interior highlands of Libya toward the Mediterranean Sea. See foehn.
Ghica, Ion: member of a great Romanian princely family, prominent man of letters, and prime minister of Romania (1866, 1870-71).
Ghilzay: 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 ...
Ghiordes carpet: 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, ...
Ghirlandajo, Domenico: early Renaissance painter of the Florentine school noted for his detailed narrative frescoes, which include many portraits of leading citizens in contemporary dress.
Ghose, Zulfikar: Pakistani-American author of novels, poetry, and criticism about cultural alienation.
ghost: 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 ...
ghost bat: 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, ...
ghost crab: 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 ...
Ghost Dance: 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 ...
ghost story: 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 ...
ghosts: 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 ...
Ghotbzadeh, Sadegh: Iranian politician who helped establish Iran as an Islamic republic and was foreign minister of the country from 1979 to 1980.
ghoul: 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 ...