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Tombalbaye, Ngarta

(Encyclopedia)Tombalbaye, Ngarta ən-gärˈtä tŏmbəlbäˈyā [key], 1918—75, president of Chad (1960–75). Born François Tombalbaye, he Africanized his given name in 1973. A businessman and school official, ...

Albumazar

(Encyclopedia)Albumazar älˌbo͞omäˈzər [key], 805?–885, Arab astronomer, more fully Abu-Mashar Jafar ibn Muhammad. In his De magnis conjunctionibus he claimed that the world had been created when the seven p...

Chotts, Plateau of the

(Encyclopedia)Chotts, Plateau of the shŏts [key] [Arab.,=salt lake], plateau region of the Atlas Mts., alt. c.3,500 ft (1,070 m), N Algeria, N Africa. The plateau is c.125 mi (200 km) wide in the west, narrowing i...

Daddah, Moktar Ould

(Encyclopedia)Daddah, Moktar Ould mo͝okhˈtär o͞old dädˈdä [key], 1924–2003, president of Mauritania (1961–78). He became premier when Mauritania joined the French Community (1958). Elected president when...

Kafirs

(Encyclopedia)Kafirs or Kaffirs both: kăfˈərz [key] [Arab.,=infidel], name applied by European settlers to the Xhosa branch of the Bantu-speaking people of S Africa. Originally used only for the inhabitants of t...

Kalemie

(Encyclopedia)Kalemie älbĕrvēlˈ [key], city (1984 pop. 73,528), Tanganyika prov., SE Congo (Kinshasa), on Lake Tanganyika at the mouth of the Lukuga River. It is a commercial center and a rail-steamer transfer ...

Berbera

(Encyclopedia)Berbera bûrˈbərə [key], city, Somaliland region, N Somalia, a port on the Gulf of Aden. The ...

Nablus

(Encyclopedia)Nablus năˈbləs, näˈ– [key], Heb. Shechem, city (2003 est. pop. 127,000), the West Bank. It is the market center for a region where wheat and olives are grown and sheep and goats are grazed. Man...

Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian lōˈᵺēən [key], 1868–1926, British traveler, author, and government official, one of the builders of the modern state of Iraq, grad. Oxford, 1887. From 1899 on ...

Intifada

(Encyclopedia)Intifada ĭntēfăˈdĕ [key] [Arab.,=uprising, shaking off], the Palestinian uprising during the late 1980s and early 90s in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas that had been occupied by Israel since...