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zakat

(Encyclopedia)zakat zə-kätˈ [key] [Arab.,=purification], Islamic religious tax, one of the five basic requirements (arkan or “pillars”) of Islam. All adult Muslims of sound mind and body with a set level of ...

Muawiya

(Encyclopedia)Muawiya mo͞oäˈwēä [key], d. 680, 1st Umayyad caliph (661–80), one of the greatest Muslim statesmen; son of Abu Sufyan, a Koreish tribesman of Mecca. He submitted to Islam the year of the surren...

Bedouin

(Encyclopedia)Bedouin bĕdˈo͞oĭn [key] [Arab.,=desert dwellers], primarily nomad Arab peoples of the Middle East, where they form about 10% of the population. They are of the same Semitic stock as their sedentar...

Umar

(Encyclopedia)Umar ōˈmär [key], c.581–644, 2d caliph (see caliphate). At first hostile to Islam, he was converted by 618, becoming an adviser to Muhammad. He succeeded Abu Bakr as caliph without opposition in ...

Shiites

(Encyclopedia)Shiites shēˈītz [key] [Arab., shiat Ali,=the party of Ali], the second largest branch of Islam, Shiites currently account for 10%–15% of all Muslims. Shiite Islam originated as a political moveme...

monotheism

(Encyclopedia)monotheism mŏnˈəthēĭzəm [key] [Gr.,=belief in one God], in religion, a belief in one personal god. In practice, monotheistic religion tends to stress the existence of one personal god that unifi...

Karmathians

(Encyclopedia)Karmathians or Carmathians kärmāˈthēənz [key], a Muslim sect of the 9th and 10th cent., similar to the Assassin sect. They were part of a movement for social reform that spread widely through Isl...

linden, in botany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Linden, Tilia americana linden, common name for the Tiliaceae, a family of chiefly woody shrubs and trees. Most genera are tropical, but the genus Tilia, commonly called linden, or lime tree, ...

lens, in optics

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Lenses lens, device for forming an image of an object by the refraction of light. In its simplest form it is a disk of transparent substance, commonly glass, with its two surfaces curved or wi...

Leo, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Leo [Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the z...