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Round Table

(Encyclopedia)Round Table, in Arthurian legend, the table at which King Arthur and his knights held court. It was allegedly fashioned at the behest of Arthur to prevent quarrels among the knights over precedence. A...

Rimmon

(Encyclopedia)Rimmon rĭmˈən [key], in the Bible. 1 Syrian god. 2 Father of the murderers of Ish-bosheth. 3 Rock, E of Bethel. There the remnants of the Benjamites took refuge after the battle of Gibeah. 4 See En...

Shuayb

(Encyclopedia)Shuayb sho͞ohāyb [key], Qur'anic non-biblical prophet, appeared later than Hud and Salih among “the people of the thicket.” His preaching is said to have consisted of a call to monotheism and so...

Cleophas

(Encyclopedia)Cleophas klēˈōfəs [key], in the New Testament, husband of one of the Marys who stood at the foot of the Cross. This is apparently Mary the mother of St. James the Less, but the father of James the...

Anak

(Encyclopedia)Anak āˈnăk [key], according to a folk tradition in the Bible, an ancestor of the Anakim, a tribe of giants inhabiting Hebron and its vicinity at the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan. Arba i...

Getty, Jean Paul

(Encyclopedia)Getty, Jean Paul, 1892–1976, American business executive, one of the richest men in the world during his life, b. Minneapolis, Minn. He inherited his father's oil business, George F. Getty, Inc., be...

Alfonso II, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso II (Alfonso the Fat), 1185–1223, king of Portugal (1211–23), son and successor of Sancho I. His reign was spent in struggles with the church and his brothers and sisters, to whom his fathe...

D'Israeli, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)D'Israeli, Isaac, 1766–1848, English critic and historian, b. London; father of Benjamin Disraeli. Born into a wealthy Jewish family, he produced his first poem at the age of 14. His best-known work...

Dobrovský, Josef

(Encyclopedia)Dobrovský, Josef dôˈbrôfskē [key], 1753–1829, Hungarian philologist, of Bohemian parentage. In 1792 the Royal Bohemian Academy of Sciences commissioned Dobrovský to recover Bohemian manuscript...

Ferdinand I, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand I or Ferdinand the Great, d. 1065, Spanish king of Castile (1035–65) and León (1037–65). He inherited Castile from his father, Sancho III of Navarre, conquered León, and took parts of ...