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Nansen International Office for Refugees

(Encyclopedia)Nansen International Office for Refugees, worldwide agency est. 1931 by the League of Nations to work on behalf of refugees. It was named for Fridjof Nansen, head of the League's High Commission for R...

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

(Encyclopedia)Ladysmith Black Mambazo mämbäzˈō [key], choral group formed in 1965 in Ladysmith, South Africa, founded and led (until 2014) by Joseph Shabalala (1941–2020). The group, which sings with a precis...

Bonnefoy, Yves

(Encyclopedia)Bonnefoy, Yves ēv bônfwäˈ [key], 1923–2016, French poet, critic, and translator of many of Shakespeare's plays and poems, studied Univ. of Poitier, Sorbonne. His verse, e.g., On the Motion and I...

Brel, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Brel, Jacques, 1929–1978, Belgian singer and songwriter. His literate and theatrical songs made him one of the 20th cent.'s most influential French-language songwriters and performers. He first sang...

Sakharov, Andrei Dmitriyevich

(Encyclopedia)Sakharov, Andrei Dmitriyevich, 1921–89, Soviet nuclear physicist and human-rights advocate; first Soviet citizen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1975). From 1948 to 1956 he helped to develop the U...

rinderpest

(Encyclopedia)rinderpest or cattle plague, an acute and highly infectious viral disease of cattle. It less frequently affects other ruminants, such as sheep, goats, and wild game. After an incubation period of thre...

Ibn Batuta

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Batuta ĭˈbən bäto͞oˈtä [key], 1304?–1378?, Muslim traveler, b. Tangier. No other medieval traveler is known to have journeyed so extensively. In 30 years (from c.1325) he made a series of...

Idrisids

(Encyclopedia)Idrisids ĭdˈrĭsĭdzˌ [key], two historic Muslim families. 1 An Arab Shiite dynasty of Morocco (788–974), founded by Idris I, a descendant of caliph Ali. It was the first Shiite dynasty in the hi...

infanticide

(Encyclopedia)infanticide ĭnfănˈtəsīd [key] [Lat.,=child murder], the putting to death of the newborn with the consent of the parent, family, or community. Infanticide often occurs among peoples whose food sup...

Sabbatai Zevi

(Encyclopedia)Sabbatai Zevi säbätīˈ zāˈvē [key], 1626–76, Jewish mystic and pseudo-Messiah, founder of the Sabbatean sect, b. Smyrna. After a period of study of Lurianic kabbalah (see Luria, Isaac ben Solo...