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Moors

(Encyclopedia)Moors, nomadic people of the northern shores of Africa, originally the inhabitants of Mauretania. They were chiefly of Berber and Arab stock. In the 8th cent. the Moors were converted to Islam and bec...

Syracuse, city, Italy

(Encyclopedia)Syracuse sĭrˈəkyo͞os, –kyo͞oz [key], Ital. Siracusa, city (1991 pop. 125,941), capital of Syracuse prov., SE Sicily, Italy, on the Ionian Sea. It has a port and is a market and tourist center. ...

prohibition

(Encyclopedia)prohibition, legal prevention of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, the extreme of the regulatory liquor laws. The modern movement for prohibition had its main growth in...

canoe

(Encyclopedia)canoe kəno͞oˈ [key], long, narrow watercraft with sharp ends originally used by most peoples. It is usually propelled by means of paddles, although sails and, more recently, outboard motors are als...

Ostrogoths

(Encyclopedia)Ostrogoths (East Goths), division of the Goths, one of the most important groups of the Germans. According to their own unproved tradition, the ancestors of the Goths were the Gotar of S Sweden. By th...

Etruscan civilization

(Encyclopedia)Etruscan civilization, highest civilization in Italy before the rise of Rome. The core of the territory of the Etruscans, known as Etruria to the Latins, was northwest of the Tiber River, now in moder...

Anglo-Saxon literature

(Encyclopedia)Anglo-Saxon literature, the literary writings in Old English (see English language), composed between c.650 and c.1100. See also English literature. Old English literary prose dates from the latter ...

mythology

(Encyclopedia)mythology [Greek,=the telling of stories], the entire body of myths in a given tradition, and the study of myths. Students of anthropology, folklore, and religion study myths in different ways, distin...

Davis, Sammy, Jr.

(Encyclopedia) Davis, Sammy, Jr. (Samuel George), 1925-1990, American entertainer, b. Harlem, New York City, N.Y. Both of Davis’s parents were dancers who performe...

Chautauqua movement

(Encyclopedia)Chautauqua movement, development in adult education somewhat similar to the lyceum movement. It derived from an institution at Chautauqua, N.Y. There, in 1873, John Heyl Vincent and Lewis Miller propo...