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Mandeville, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Mandeville, Sir John, 14th-century English author of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Originally written in Norman French, the work became enormously popular and was translated into English, Latin,...

Rollo

(Encyclopedia)Rollo rŏlf [key], c.860–c.932, first duke of Normandy. As leader of the Norman pirates settled at the mouth of the Seine, he attacked (910) Paris and Chartres. By the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte...

Alexius V

(Encyclopedia)Alexius V (Alexius Ducas Mourtzouphlos) do͞oˈkəsmo͝ortˈso͞oflŏs [key], d. 1204, Byzantine emperor (1204), son-in-law of Alexius III. The head of the Byzantine national party, he overthrew emper...

Irtysh

(Encyclopedia)Irtysh ĭrtĭshˈ [key], river, c.2,650 mi (4,260 km) long, W Siberian Russia and Kazakhstan. It is the chief tributary of the Ob and one of the two major rivers of W Siberia. As the Ertix, it rises i...

lost tribes

(Encyclopedia)lost tribes, 10 Israelite tribes that, according to the Bible, were transported to Assyria by Tiglathpileser III or Shalmaneser after the conquest of Israel in 722 b.c. Numerous conjectures have been ...

Lamoricière, Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de

(Encyclopedia)Lamoricière, Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de krēstôfˈ lāôNˈ lwē zhüshōˈ də lämôrēsyĕrˈ [key], 1806–65, French general. Important in the conquest of Algeria, he distinguished hims...

Bubastis

(Encyclopedia)Bubastis byo͞obăsˈtĭs [key], ancient city, NE Egypt, in the Nile delta, near the modern Zagazig. Capital of Egypt in the XXII and XXIII dynasties, it began to decline after the second Persian conq...

Batavian Republic

(Encyclopedia)Batavian Republic, name for the Netherlands in the years (1795–1806) following conquest by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars. The United Provinces of the Netherlands were reconstituted...

Valera, Diego de

(Encyclopedia)Valera, Diego de dyāˈgō dā välāˈrä [key], 1412?–1488?, Spanish adventurer and writer. Reared at the Castilian court, he was page to John II and later became one of his diplomatic agents. He ...

Shamyl

(Encyclopedia)Shamyl or Shamil both: shäˈmĭl [key], 1798?–1871, imam (religious and political leader) of the E Caucasus. From 1834 to 1859 he led the Muslim tribes of the E Caucasus in their holy war to resist...