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John Climax, Saint

(Encyclopedia)John Climax, Saint [Gr.,=ladder], d. c.649, Syrian hermit of Mt. Sinai. Little is known of his life, but his guide to the spiritual life in 30 steps, The Ladder of Paradise, was widely read in the Mid...

Hezbollah

(Encyclopedia)Hezbollah [Arab., = Party of God], Lebanese Shiite political party and militia. Founded in 1982 with Iranian help to oppose Israeli forces occupying S Lebanon, Hezbollah launched guerrilla attacks...

Heliodorus

(Encyclopedia)Heliodorus hēˌlēōdôrˈəs [key], fl. 175 b.c., Syrian statesman. The treasurer of Seleucus IV (Seleucus Philopator), he murdered the king and attempted unsuccessfully to usurp the throne. Accordi...

Sahara

(Encyclopedia)Sahara səhârˈə [key] [Arab.,=desert], world's largest desert, c.3,500,000 sq mi (9,065,000 sq km), N Africa; the western part of a great arid zone that continues into SW Asia. Extending more than ...

Salinas Grandes

(Encyclopedia)Salinas Grandes sälēˈnäs gränˈdās [key], salt desert, c.3,200 sq mi (8,290 sq km), in Córdoba and Santiago del Estero provs., N Argentina. The Córdoba-Tucumán RR crosses the desert. Sodium a...

Idlib

(Encyclopedia)Idlib ĭdˈlĭb [key], town (1995 est. pop. 100,000), capital of Idlib governorate, NW Syria. It is an important market center for a fertile agricultural region where grains, grapes, olives, sesame, a...

Rub al Khali

(Encyclopedia)Rub al Khali ro͞ob äl khäˈlē [key] [Arab.,=empty quarter], great desert of the Arabian peninsula, c.225,000 sq mi (582,750 sq km); one of the largest sand deserts in the world. The desert occupie...

American University of Beirut

(Encyclopedia)American University of Beirut, at Beirut, Lebanon; English language; chartered by New York State in 1866 as Syrian Protestant College, rechartered 1920 as the American Univ. of Beirut. It has facultie...

Evagrius Scholasticus

(Encyclopedia)Evagrius Scholasticus ēvāˈgrēəs [key], c.536–c.600, Syrian ecclesiastical historian, a prominent, honored lawyer in Antioch and Constantinople. His Ecclesiastical History (431–594), written i...

Heliodorus of Emesa

(Encyclopedia)Heliodorus of Emesa ĕmˈəsə [key], fl. 3d cent., Syrian Greek writer. He wrote the romance Aethiopica, one of the oldest and best of surviving Greek romances. Little is known of his life except tha...