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Indus

(Encyclopedia)Indus ĭnˈdəs [key], chief river of Pakistan, c.1,900 mi (3,060 km) long, rising in the Kailas range in the Tibetan Himalayas, and flowing NW across Ladakh, India, then SW through Pakistan to the Ar...

Leo Africanus

(Encyclopedia)Leo Africanus ăfrĭkāˈnəs [key], c.1465–1550, Moorish traveler in Africa and the Middle East. His Arabic name was Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad. Captured by pirates, he was sent as a slave to Pope Leo X...

Constantine XI, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Constantine XI (Constantine Palaeologus), d. 1453, last Byzantine emperor (1449–53), brother and successor of John VIII. To secure Western aid against the Turkish assault on what remained of the emp...

Ghor

(Encyclopedia)Ghor, Ghowr go͝or [key], mountainous region and province (1979 est. pop. 341,000), 14,085 sq mi (36,479 sq km), W central Afghanistan, including a ruined medieval city of the same name. Chagcharan i...

Hariri

(Encyclopedia)Hariri (Abu Muhammad al-Kasim al-Hariri) härēˈrē [key], 1054–1122, Arab writer of Basra. His principal work is one of the most popular of Arabic books. It is called Makamat [literary assemblies]...

Larissa, Greece

(Encyclopedia)Larissa läˈrēsä [key], city (1991 pop. 113,090), capital of Larissa prefecture, E Greece, in Thessaly on the Piniós River. It is an agricultural trade center and a transportation hub, linked by r...

Villaurrutia, Xavier

(Encyclopedia)Villaurrutia, Xavier hävēˈār vēˌyäo͞oro͞oˈtyä [key], 1903–50, Mexican poet and playwright. Villaurrutia was deeply influenced by Ramón López Velarde. He worked on the Mexican literary r...

Shrirangapattana

(Encyclopedia)Shrirangapattana srēˌrŭngˌgəpŭtˈnə [key], town (1991 pop. 21,905), Karnataka state, S India, on an island in the Kaveri River. There are Hindu monuments, some built in the 13th cent. Most of t...

Gjirokastër

(Encyclopedia)Gjirokastër gyēnô– [key], Gr. Argyrokastron, It. Argirocastro, town (1989 pop. 24,207), capital of Gjirokastër dist., S Albania. A commercial center, it produces foodstuffs, leather, and textile...

Ford, John, English dramatist

(Encyclopedia)Ford, John, 1586–c.1640, English dramatist, b. Devonshire. He went to London to study law but was never called to the bar. The early part of his playwriting career was taken up with collaborations, ...