Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

94 results found

Baghdad

(Encyclopedia)Baghdad or Bagdad both: băgˈdăd, bägdädˈ [key], city (2020 pop. 7,144,000), cap...

Baghdad Railway

(Encyclopedia)Baghdad Railway, railroad of international importance linking Europe with Asia Minor and the Middle East. The line runs from İstanbul, Turkey, to Basra, Iraq; it connected what were distant regions o...

Bagdad

(Encyclopedia)Bagdad: see Baghdad, Iraq.

Ctesiphon

(Encyclopedia)Ctesiphon tĕsˈĭfŏnˌ, tēˈsĭ– [key], ruined ancient city, 20 mi (32 km) SE of Baghdad, Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris opposite Seleucia and at the mouth of the Diyala River. After 129 b....

Diyala

(Encyclopedia)Diyala dĭyăˈlă, –ˈə [key], river, c.275 mi (440 km) long, rising as the Sirvan River in NW Iran and flowing SW through the Zagros Mts. into E Iraq, where it enters the Tigris River S of Baghda...

Saffarid

(Encyclopedia)Saffarid säˈfärĭd [key], a dynasty of Sistan that flourished in the 9th cent., ruling (867–1495) in E Persia. Its founder, Yaqub ibn Layth, d. 879?, was a coppersmith who raised an army during a...

Mansur, al-, d. 775, 2d Abbasid caliph

(Encyclopedia)Mansur, al- äl-mänso͝orˈ [key] [Arab.,=the victorious], d. 775, 2d Abbasid caliph (754–75) and founder of the city of Baghdad. His name was in full Abu Jafar abd-Allah al-Mansur. He was brother ...

Buyid

(Encyclopedia)Buyid bo͞oˈyĭd [key], Shiite Islamic dynasty of N Persian descent that controlled Iraq and Persia from c.945 to 1060; founded by the sons of Buyeh. In the 930s, Buyeh's sons (Ali, Hasan, and Ahmad)...

Mamun, al-

(Encyclopedia)Mamun, al- (Abu al-Abbas Abd Allah al-Mamun) mämo͞onˈ [key], 786–833, 7th Abbasid caliph (813–33); son of Harun ar-Rashid. He succeeded his brother al-Amin after a bitter civil war, but was una...

Abu'l Hasan al-Uqlidisi

(Encyclopedia)Abu'l Hasan al-Uqlidisi, c. a.d. 920–c. a.d. 980, Arab mathematician working in Damascus and Baghdad. He wrote (952–53) a treatise on arithmetic and Arabic numerals that is the first known work to...

Browse by Subject