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Syria

(Encyclopedia)Syria sr´ [key], officially Syrian Arab Republic, republic (2015 est. pop. 18,735,000), 71,467 sq mi (185,100 sq km), W Asia. It borders on Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea in the west, on Tur...

Coele-Syria

(Encyclopedia)Coele-Syria: see Biqa, Al.

Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

(Encyclopedia)Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: see Islamic State.

Apollonius

(Encyclopedia)Apollonius pl´ns [key], in the books of the Maccabees. 1 Governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia for Seleucus IV. He oppressed the Jews and was killed by Judas Maccabaeus. 2 Governor of Coe...

Ba'ath party

(Encyclopedia)Ba'ath party bä´äth [key], Arab political party, in Syria and in Iraq. Founded in Damascus in 1941 with an ideology of secularism, socialism, and pan-Arab unionism, it was reformed with the name Ba...

Baghdadi, Abu Bakr al-

(Encyclopedia)Baghdadi, Abu Bakr al-, nom de guerre of Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai, 1971–2019, Iraqi jihadist leader. Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, he helped found a Sunni militia. Arres...

Druze

(Encyclopedia)Druze or Drusedrooz [key], religious community of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, with important overseas branches in the Americas and Australia. The religious leadership prefers the name Muwahh...

United Arab Republic

(Encyclopedia)United Arab Republic, political union (1958–61) of Egypt and Syria. The capital was Cairo. The two countries were merged (1958) into a single unit comprising the Southern (Egypt) and the Northern (S...

Assad, Bashar al-

(Encyclopedia)Assad, Bashar al- bäshär´ äl-äs´säd [key], 1965–, Syrian political leader, son of Hafez al-Assad. A medical doctor, he left Syria (1992) for an ophthamology residency in London when his elder...

Dayr az Zawr

(Encyclopedia)Dayr az Zawr dr z zôr [key] or Deir ez Zor–z– [key], town (1994 est. pop. 133,000), capital of Dayr az Zawr governorate, E Syria, on the Euphrates River. It is a prosperous farming town, wi...