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Janissaries

(Encyclopedia)Janissaries jănˈĭsârˌēz [key] [Turk.,=recruits], elite corps in the service of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). It was composed of war captives and Christian youths pressed into service; all the rec...

Ahmad Shah

(Encyclopedia)Ahmad Shah äkhmädˈ shäˈ [key], c.1723–1773, Afghan ruler (1747–73), founder of the Durani dynasty. His success in commanding Afghan forces in India for Nadir Shah of Iran won him the rule of ...

Bezborodko, Aleksandr Andreevich, Prince

(Encyclopedia)Bezborodko, Aleksandr Andreevich, Prince əlyĭksänˈdər əndrāˈəvĭch bĕzbôrôdˈkô [key], 1747–99, Russian statesman. He became secretary of petitions under Catherine II in 1775 and from 1...

Sérrai

(Encyclopedia)Sérrai sĕrˈəs [key], Lat. Serrae or Serrhae, city (1991 pop. 50,390), capital of Sérrai prefecture, NE Greece, in Macedonia. It is a trade center for tobacco, grain, and livestock. Textiles and o...

Esquiline

(Encyclopedia)Esquiline, hill: see Rome before Augustus and Roman Empire under Rome. ...

Palatine, hill, Rome

(Encyclopedia)Palatine, hill: see Rome before Augustus and Roman Empire under Rome. ...

Campus Martius

(Encyclopedia)Campus Martius: under Rome see Rome before Augustus; Roman Empire; Renaissance and Modern Rome. ...

Sri Vijaya

(Encyclopedia)Sri Vijaya, maritime Indonesian city and kingdom. It was prominent as a trading partner with China from the 7th cent. until it was conquered by the Javanese Majapahit empire in the 14th cent. ...

Central Powers

(Encyclopedia)Central Powers, in World War I, the coalition of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. ...

Maximilian, 1832–67, emperor of Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Maximilian, 1832–67, emperor of Mexico (1864–67). As the Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, he was denied a share in the imperial government by his reactionary brother, Emperor Francis Joseph...