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foundation

(Encyclopedia)foundation, institution through which private wealth is contributed and distributed for public purpose. Foundations have existed since Greek and Roman times, when they honored deities. During the Midd...

astrolabe

(Encyclopedia)astrolabe ăsˈtrəlāb [key], instrument probably used originally for measuring the altitudes of heavenly bodies and for determining their positions and movements. Although its origin is ancient and ...

Banda, Rupiah Bwezani

(Encyclopedia)Banda, Rupiah Bwezani, 1937–, Zambian politician, president of Zambia (2008–11), b. Gwenda, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Educated in Ethiopia, Sweden, and England, he joined the United Nation...

Alhambra, Moorish citadel, Spain

(Encyclopedia)Alhambra [Arab.,=the red], extensive group of buildings on a hill overlooking Granada, Spain. They were built chiefly between 1230 and 1354 and they formed a great citadel of the Moorish kings of Spai...

Hermon, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Hermon, Mount hûrˈmən [key], Arabic Jabal Ash Shaykh [mountain of the chief] and Jebel-eth-Thelj [snowy mountain], on the Syria-Lebanon border. The highest of its three peaks (all of which are snow...

Eban, Abba

(Encyclopedia)Eban, Abba äbˈə ēˈbən [key], 1915–2002, Israeli statesman, b. Cape Town, South Africa. He was educated at Cambridge, where upon graduation he became (1938) a lecturer in Middle Eastern languag...

Suez

(Encyclopedia)Suez so͞oĕzˈ [key], city (1996 pop. 417,610), NE Egypt, at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez and at the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. An important port with extensive facilities, it is al...

Tantawi, Hussein

(Encyclopedia)Tantawi, Hussein (Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Soliman), 1935–, Egyptian field marshal. Joining the army in 1956, he became defense minister (1991) and commander-in-chief of the armed forces (1995). He s...

Bunche, Ralph Johnson

(Encyclopedia)Bunche, Ralph Johnson bŭnch [key], 1904–71, U.S. government official and UN diplomat, b. Detroit, Ph.D., Harvard, 1934. He taught political science at Howard Univ. (1928–40). In government servic...

Baha Ullah

(Encyclopedia)Baha Ullah or Baha Allah bähäˈ o͝olˈä [key] [Arab.,=glory of God], 1817–92, Persian religious leader originally named Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri. One of the first disciples of the Bab (see Babism),...