Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Muhammad, prophet of Islam

(Encyclopedia)Muhammad məhămˈəd [key] [Arab.,=praised], 570?–632, the name of the Prophet of Islam, one of the great figures of history, b. Mecca. The traditions concerning Muhammad's life, deeds, and sa...

Museum of Modern Art

(Encyclopedia)Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, established and incorporated in 1929. It is privately supported. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., was its first director. Operating at first in rented galleries, the mu...

Book of the Dead

(Encyclopedia)Book of the Dead, term used to describe Egyptian funerary literature. The texts consist of charms, spells, and formulas for use by the deceased in the afterworld and contain many of the basic ideas of...

Lee, Rowland

(Encyclopedia)Lee or Legh, Rowland both: lē [key], d. 1543, English bishop. Educated at Cambridge, he received preferments under the patronage of Cardinal Wolsey, who employed him in the suppression of the monaste...

York, Richard, duke of

(Encyclopedia)York, Richard, duke of, 1411–60, English nobleman, claimant to the throne. He was descended from Edward III through his father, Richard, earl of Cambridge, grandson of that king, and also through hi...

Matilda, countess of Tuscany

(Encyclopedia)Matilda, 1046–1115, countess of Tuscany, called the Great Countess; supporter of Pope Gregory VII in the papal conflict with the Holy Roman emperors. Ruling over Tuscany and parts of Emilia-Romagna ...

Book of Common Prayer

(Encyclopedia)Book of Common Prayer, title given to the service book used in the Church of England and in other churches of the Anglican Communion. The first complete English Book of Common Prayer was produced, mai...

Booker, Corey Anthony

(Encyclopedia) Booker, Corey Anthony, 1969- , African American politician, b. Washington, D.C., Stanford University (B.A., 1991; M.A., 1992), Rhodes Scholar, ...

precession of the equinoxes

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Precession of the equinoxes (the points at which the earth's celestial equator intersects its ecliptic) is due to the slow rotation of the earth's axis around a perpendicular to the ecliptic. ...