Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Goodell, William

(Encyclopedia)Goodell, William go͝odĕlˈ [key], 1792–1867, American missionary in the Middle East, b. Templeton, Mass. He went in 1823, for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to what is n...

Sephardim

(Encyclopedia)Sephardim səfärˈdəm [key], one of the two major geographic divisions of the Jewish people, consisting of those Jews whose forebears in the Middle Ages resided in the Iberian Peninsula, as distingu...

Kyprianou, Spyros

(Encyclopedia)Kyprianou, Spyros kēprēäno͞o [key], 1932–2002, Greek Cypriot political leader and president of Cyprus (1977–1988). He served (1960–72) as foreign minister, and opposed efforts by Athens to u...

Goltz, Colmar, Freiherr von der

(Encyclopedia)Goltz, Colmar, Freiherr von der kôlˈmär frīˈhĕr fən dər gôlts [key], 1843–1916, Prussian field marshal and military historian. A soldier, he served in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and the...

Constantine XI, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Constantine XI (Constantine Palaeologus), d. 1453, last Byzantine emperor (1449–53), brother and successor of John VIII. To secure Western aid against the Turkish assault on what remained of the emp...

Ali Pasha

(Encyclopedia)Ali Pasha älēˈ päshäˈ [key], 1744?–1822, Turkish pasha [military governor] of Yannina (now Ioánnina, Greece), a province of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He was called the Arslan [lion] of Yan...

Indo-Iranian

(Encyclopedia)Indo-Iranian, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by more than a billion people, chiefly in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (see The Indo-Eu...

Ali, Sabahattin

(Encyclopedia)Ali, Sabahattin, 1907–48, Turkish fiction writer. During his lifetime he was best known for his popular and realistic short stories, many of which were concerned with the plight of Turkey's poor. Hi...

Shumen

(Encyclopedia)Shumen sho͝oˈmĕn [key], city (1993 pop. 96,099), NE Bulgaria. It is a railway junction and a market for grains and other agricultural products. Brewing, tobacco processing, canning, flour milling, ...

Pleven

(Encyclopedia)Pleven plĕvˈnə [key], city (1993 pop. 130,354), N Bulgaria. A commercial center for a fertile agricultural region, it has food-processing industries and manufactures cotton textiles, cement, and wo...