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Arabia

(Encyclopedia)Arabia ərāˈbēə [key], peninsula (1991 est. pop. 35,000,000), c.1,000,000 sq mi (2,590,000 sq km), SW Asia. It is bordered on the W by the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea, on the S by the Gulf of Ad...

Aden, Gulf of

(Encyclopedia)Aden, Gulf of äˈdən, āˈ– [key], western arm of the Arabian Sea, 550 mi (885 km) long, lying between Yemen and Somalia; connected with the Red Sea by the Bab el Mandeb. The gulf is on the great ...

Arab Spring

(Encyclopedia)Arab Spring, in modern North African and Middle Eastern history, antigovernment demonstrations and uprisings that, from late 2010, swept many of the regions' Arab nations. Arising in large part in rea...

Gulf Cooperation Council

(Encyclopedia)Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), officially Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, organization (est. 1981) promoting stability and economic cooperation among Persian Gulf nations. Its me...

Sadi

(Encyclopedia)Sadi or Saadi both: säˈdē [key], Persian poet, 1184–1291. b. Shiraz. Orphaned at an early age, Sadi studied in Baghdad, where he met Suhrawardi, a major Sufi figure. Having to flee Baghdad becaus...

Tillerson, Rex Wayne

(Encyclopedia)Tillerson, Rex Wayne, 1952–, American business executive and government official, b. Wichita Falls, Tex., B.S. Univ. of Texas, Austin, 1975. He joined the Exxon Corp. in 1975 as a production enginee...

Hadhramaut

(Encyclopedia)Hadhramaut or Hadramaut both: hädrəmoutˈ, –môtˈ [key], region, S Arabia, on the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, occupying the southeastern part of Yemen. Historically, the name refers to the ...

river blindness

(Encyclopedia)river blindness or onchocerciasis, disease caused by the parasitic nematode worm Onchocerca volvulus. The worm larvae are transmitted by the bites of blackflies (genus Simulium) that live in fast movi...

Middle East

(Encyclopedia)Middle East, term traditionally applied by western Europeans to the countries of SW Asia and NE Africa lying W of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Thus defined it includes Cyprus, the Asian part of T...

Karmathians

(Encyclopedia)Karmathians or Carmathians kärmāˈthēənz [key], a Muslim sect of the 9th and 10th cent., similar to the Assassin sect. They were part of a movement for social reform that spread widely through Isl...

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