Born: Apr. 19, 1962Auto racer 2-time CART-IndyCar national champion (1990,94); captured Indy 500 for 2nd time in 3 years in '94, giving Unser family 9 overall titles at the Brickyard; 31 CART wins…
Born: May 29, 1939Auto racer 3-time USAC-CART national champion (1970,83,85); 4-time winner of Indy 500 (1970-71,78,87); retired in 1994 ranked 3rd (now 4th) on all-time CART list with 39 wins;…
(Encyclopedia) Ghitani, Gamal al-, 1945–2015, Egyptian novelist and journalist. He studied Oriental carpet design and apprenticed as a carpet maker before turning to journalism. A strong supporter of…
(Encyclopedia) Davis, Al (Allen Davis), 1929–2011, American football executive, b. Brockton, Mass. After coaching mainly college teams in the 1950s, he was (1960–62) a coach with the Los Angeles,…
(Encyclopedia) Assad, Bashar al- Assad, Bashar al- bäshärˈ äl-äsˈsäd [key], 1965–, Syrian political leader, son of Hafez al-Assad. A medical doctor, he left Syria (1992) for an…
(Encyclopedia) Al Aswany, Alaa, 1957–, Egyptian author, b. Cairo. The son of a novelist-lawyer, he was trained as a dentist at Cairo Univ. (grad. 1980) and the Univ. of Illinois at Chicago (M.S.,…
(Encyclopedia) Abd al-AzizAbd al-Azizäbˌdäl-äzēzˈ [key] or AbdülazizAbdülazizTurk. äbdülˈäzēzˈ [key], 1830–76, Ottoman sultan (1861–76), brother and successor of Abd al-Majid. The economic and…
Caliph of the Abbasid Empire Born: c.764 Harun al-Rashid became the fifth Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty in 786, and went on to become its most famous and celebrated leader. A number of the stories…
(Encyclopedia) Sadr, Moktada or Moqtada al-Sadr, Moktada or Moqtada al-m&oobreve;khˈtädä ä-säˈdər [key], 1973?–, Iraqi Shiite cleric. The son of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, who was…
The month of fasting by Holly Hartman For more on Islamic history and culture, see the Islam Primer. For more than a billion Muslims, Ramadan is a time of prayer,…
