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Islam in Africa

(Encyclopedia)Islam in Africa, the development of the Muslim religion on the African continent. During Muhammad's lifetime a group of Muslims escaped Meccan persecution (615) by fleeing to Ethiopia, where the Negus...

Stepniak, S.

(Encyclopedia)Stepniak, S. styĭpnyäkˈ [key], 1852–95, Russian revolutionary and writer, whose real name was Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski. He fled Russia in 1878 after taking part in the assassination of the...

Akhmatova, Anna

(Encyclopedia)Akhmatova, Anna əndrāˈəvnə gôryĕngˈkô [key], 1888–1966, Russian poet of the Acmeist school. Her brief lyrics, simply and musically written in the tradition of Pushkin, attained great popula...

Paris, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Paris or Alexander, in Greek mythology, son of Priam and Hecuba and brother of Hector. Because it was prophesied that he would cause the destruction of Troy, Paris was abandoned on Mt. Ida, but there ...

Pobyedonostzev, Konstantin Petrovich

(Encyclopedia)Pobyedonostzev, Konstantin Petrovich kənstəntyēnˈ pētrôˈvĭch pəbyĕdənôsˈtsyĭf [key], 1827–1907, Russian public official and jurist. He was professor of civil law at Moscow when he attr...

Koltsov, Aleksey Vasilyevich

(Encyclopedia)Koltsov, Aleksey Vasilyevich əlyĭksyāˈ vəsēˈlyəvĭch kəltsôfˈ [key], 1809–42, Russian poet. Although he had little formal education, he studied great works of literature and became well k...

naturalism, in philosophy

(Encyclopedia)naturalism, in philosophy, a position that attempts to explain all phenomena and account for all values by means of strictly natural (as opposed to supernatural) categories. The particular meaning of ...

Armenian literature

(Encyclopedia)Armenian literature. The Armenian Church fostered literature, and the principal early works are religious or hagiographical, most of them translations. The first major Armenian literary work is a 5th ...

e, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)e, in mathematics, irrational number occurring widely in mathematics and science, approximately equal to the value 2.71828; it is the base of natural, or Naperian, logarithms. The number e is defined ...

Aquila, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Aquila ăkˈwĭlə, əkwĭlˈə [key], in the New Testament, Christian of Jewish origin from Pontus who lived at Rome. He and his wife, Prisca or Priscilla, were friendly to Paul. ...