Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

269 results found

Indian literature

(Encyclopedia)Indian literature. Oral literature in the vernacular languages of India is of great antiquity, but it was not until about the 16th cent. that an extensive written literature appeared. Chief factors in...

Andorra la Vella

(Encyclopedia)Andorra la Vella lä vĕlˈyä [key] or Andorra, Span. Andorra la Vieja, Fr. Andorre-la-Vielle, city (2006 est. pop. 24,211), capital of Andorra, on the Valira River near its confluence with the Valir...

epigram

(Encyclopedia)epigram, a short, polished, pithy saying, usually in verse, often with a satiric or paradoxical twist at the end. The term was originally applied by the Greeks to the inscriptions on stones. The epigr...

Marrakech

(Encyclopedia)Marrakech or Marrakesh both: märäˈkĕsh, mə– [key], city (1994 pop. 672,478), W central Morocco. The city, renowned for leather goods, is one of the principal commercial centers of Morocco and a...

Cairngorms

(Encyclopedia)Cairngorms kârngôrmzˈ, kârnˈgôrmz [key], group of mountains forming part of the Grampian Mts, in Highland, Moray, and Aberdeenshire, central Scotland, between the Dee and the upper Spey rivers; ...

Tay

(Encyclopedia)Tay tā [key], longest river of Scotland, 118 mi (190 km) long. It rises on Ben Lui in the Grampians as the Fillan and flows NE into Loch Dochart, where it is called the Dochart until it enters Loch T...

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)...

Muhammad VI, king of Morocco

(Encyclopedia)Muhammad VI, 1963–, king of Morocco (1999–), formerly Muhammad ben Al-Hassan, crown prince Sidi Muhammad. He studied at Muhammad V Univ., Rabat, where he received bachelor's (1985) and master's (1...

Lomond, Loch

(Encyclopedia)Lomond, Loch lŏkh lōˈmənd, –mən [key], largest freshwater lake in Great Britain, 23 mi (37 km) long and from 1 to 5 mi (1.6–8.1 km) wide, in Argyll and Bute, West Dunbartonshire, and Stirling...

Symonds, John Addington

(Encyclopedia)Symonds, John Addington sĭmˈənz [key], 1840–93, English author. Educated at Harrow and Oxford, constant ill health exiled him for the greater part of his life to Italy and Switzerland. His many w...