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Tammuz

(Encyclopedia)Tammuz täˈməz [key], ancient nature deity worshiped in Babylonia. A god of agriculture and flocks, he personified the creative powers of spring. He was loved by the fertility goddess Ishtar, who, a...

Lorestan

(Encyclopedia)Lorestan or Luristan both: lo͝orĭstänˈ [key], province (1991 pop. 1,501,778), c.11,700 sq mi (30,300 sq km), W Iran. The chief cities are the capital Khorramabad and Borujerd. The region consists ...

Psamtik

(Encyclopedia)Psamtik sämˈtĭk, sămˈ– [key], Lat. Psammetichus, d. 609 b.c., king of ancient Egypt, founder of the XXVI dynasty. When his father, Necho, lord of Saïs under the Assyrians, was defeated and kil...

Cyrus the Great

(Encyclopedia)Cyrus the Great sīˈrəs [key], d. 529 b.c., king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, he was the son of an Iranian noble, the eld...

Cunaxa

(Encyclopedia)Cunaxa kyo͞onăkˈsə [key], ancient town of Babylonia, near the Euphrates River, NE of Ctesiphon. It was the scene of a battle (401 b.c.) between Cyrus the Younger and Artaxerxes II, described by Xe...

Gaonim

(Encyclopedia)Gaonim gāōˈnĭm [key] [Heb.,=excellencies], title given to the heads of the Jewish academies at Sura and Pumbedita in Babylonia immediately following the period of the Saboraim until the middle of ...

moon worship

(Encyclopedia)moon worship. Although the moon has not had great prominence in the history of religion, the worship of it has been known since earliest recorded time—in the oldest literatures of Egypt, Babylonia, ...

Amoraim

(Encyclopedia)Amoraim äˈmōräˈĭm [key] [Heb. amar=to interpret], in Judaism, term referring to those scholars, predominantly at Caesarea and Tiberias in Palestine (c.a.d. 220–c.a.d. 375) and in Babylonia (c....

Nabonidus

(Encyclopedia)Nabonidus năbənīˈdəs [key], d. 538? b.c., last king of the Chaldaean dynasty of Babylonia. He was not of Nebuchadnezzar's family, and it is possible that he usurped the throne. He was absorbed in...

Neusner, Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Neusner, Jacob, 1932–2016, American scholar and historian of Judaism, b. West Hartford, Conn, B.A. Harvard, 1953, M.A. Jewish Theological Seminary, 1960), Ph.D. Columbia, 1960. Regarded as the world...

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