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Austin

(Encyclopedia)Austin. 1 City, seat of Mower co., SE Minn., on the Cedar River, near the Iowa line; inc. 1868. The commercial and industrial center of a rich farm region, it is noted as home to the ...

Mahdi

(Encyclopedia)Mahdi mäˈdē [key] [Arab.,=he who is divinely guided], in Sunni Islam, the restorer of the faith. He will appear at the end of time to restore justice on earth and establish universal Islam. The Mah...

caravan

(Encyclopedia)caravan, group of travelers or merchants banded together and organized for mutual assistance and defense while traveling through unsettled or hostile country. Caravan trade is associated with the hist...

incense-tree

(Encyclopedia)incense-tree, common name for members of the Burseraceae, a family of sometimes deciduous shrubs and large trees found chiefly in tropical America and NE Africa. The name derives from the characterist...

Ibn Saud

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Saud (Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud) ĭˈbən säo͞odˈ [key], c.1880–1953, founder of Saudi Arabia and its first king. His family, with its regular seat at Riyadh in the Nejd, were the traditional lead...

Malcolm X

(Encyclopedia)Malcolm X, 1925–65, militant black leader in the United States, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, b. Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb. A petty crimi...

Saudi Arabia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Saudi Arabia säo͞oˈdē ərāˈbēə, souˈ–, sô– [key], officially Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, kingdom (2015 est. pop. 27,752,000), 829,995 sq mi (2,149,690 sq km), comprising most of the ...

Qur'an

(Encyclopedia)Qur'an or Koran kōrănˈ, –ränˈ [key] [Arab.,=reading, recitation], the sacred book of Islam. Revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad in separate revelations over the major portion of the Prophet...

pilgrim

(Encyclopedia)pilgrim, one who travels to a shrine or other sacred place out of religious motives. Pilgrimages are a feature of many religions and cultures. Examples in ancient Greece were the pilgrimages to Eleusi...

Pan-Arabism

(Encyclopedia)Pan-Arabism, general term for the modern movement for political unification among the Arab nations of the Middle East. Since the Ottoman Turks rose to power in the 14th cent., there have been stirring...

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