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Assyria

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Assyrian Empire (c.650 b.c.) Assyria əsĭrˈēə [key], ancient empire of W Asia. It developed around the city of Ashur, or Assur, on the upper Tigris River and south of the later capital, Ni...

refugee

(Encyclopedia)refugee, one who leaves one's native land either because of expulsion or to escape persecution. The legal problem of accepting refugees is discussed under asylum; this article considers only mass disl...

Trump, Donald John

(Encyclopedia)Trump, Donald John, 1946–, 45th President of the United States (2017–21), b. New York City. Prior to his election as president in 2016, Trump was a ...

Pompey

(Encyclopedia)Pompey (Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus) pŏmˈpē [key], 106 b.c.–48 b.c., Roman general, the rival of Julius Caesar. Sometimes called Pompey the Great, he was the son of Cnaeus Pompeius Strabo (consul in 8...

Hittites

(Encyclopedia)Hittites hĭtˈīts [key], ancient people of Asia Minor and Syria, who flourished from 1600 to 1200 b.c. The Hittites, a people of Indo-European connection, were supposed to have entered Cappadocia c....

Hellenistic civilization

(Encyclopedia)Hellenistic civilization. The conquests of Alexander the Great spread Hellenism immediately over the Middle East and far into Asia. After his death in 323 b.c., the influence of Greek civilization con...

Turks

(Encyclopedia)Turks, term applied in its wider meaning to the Turkic-speaking peoples of Turkey, Russia, Central Asia, Xinjiang in China (Chinese Turkistan), Azerbaijan and the Caucasus, Iran, and Afghanistan. They...

Saladin

(Encyclopedia)Saladin sălˈədĭn [key], Arabic Salah ad-Din, 1137?–1193, Muslim warrior and Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, the great opponent of the Crusaders, b. Mesopotamia, of Kurdish descent. He lived for 10 year...

Crassus

(Encyclopedia)Crassus krăsˈəs [key], ancient Roman family, of the plebeian Licinian gens. It produced men who achieved great note in the 2d cent. and 1st cent. b.c. One of the well-known members was Lucius Licin...

poliomyelitis

(Encyclopedia)poliomyelitis pōˌlēōmīˌəlīˈtĭs [key], polio, or infantile paralysis, acute viral infection, mainly of children but also affecting older persons. Historically, there were three immunologic ty...