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Drangiana

(Encyclopedia)Drangiana drănˌjēāˈnə, –ănˈə [key], ancient country, part of the Persian Empire, between Aria on the north and Gedrosia on the south. It was conquered (330 b.c.) by Alexander the Great and ...

Cyme

(Encyclopedia)Cyme sīˈmē [key], ancient Greek city of W Asia Minor, on the Ionian Sea and N of the present Smyrna in W Asian Turkey. It was the largest and most important of the 12 cities of Aeolis. In the late ...

Sibawaihi

(Encyclopedia)Sibawaihi sēbäwīhē [key], c.760–793, Persian grammarian, considered the most important Arabic grammarian. His book al-Kitah fi'l nahwi is the first complete Arabic grammar, upon which all other ...

Bandar-e Torkaman

(Encyclopedia)Bandar-e Torkaman tôrˌkämänˈ [key] town, Mazandaran prov., N Iran, on the Caspian Sea. The town has ...

Zerubbabel

(Encyclopedia)Zerubbabel zērŭbˈəbəl [key] [Heb.,=seed of Babylon], in the Bible, a grandson of King Jehoiachin (exiled in 597 b.c.) and governor of Jerusalem. He led a company returning from exile in c.520 b.c...

onager

(Encyclopedia)onager ŏnˈəjər [key] or Persian wild ass, wild ass of central Asia, Equus hemonius onager. Formerly classified as a separate species, it is one of the several subspecies of Asian wild ass (E. hemo...

mosque

(Encyclopedia)mosque mŏsk [key], building for worship used by members of the Islamic faith. Muhammad's house in Medina (a.d. 622), with its surrounding courtyard and hall with columns, became the prototype for the...

Whitney, William Dwight

(Encyclopedia)Whitney, William Dwight, 1827–94, American Sanskrit scholar and lexicographer, b. Northampton, Mass. After studying in Germany, Whitney became professor of Sanskrit and of comparative philology at Y...

Lithuanian

(Encyclopedia)Lithuanian lĭthˌo͞oāˈnēən [key], a language belonging to the Baltic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Baltic languages). The official language of Lithuania since 1918, Lit...

Backus, John Warner

(Encyclopedia)Backus, John Warner, 1924–2007, American computer scientist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Columbia (M.A. 1950). Trained as a mathematician, he was hired (1950) by IBM Corp. as a computer programmer. From ...