Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kuraish

(Encyclopedia)Kuraish ko͞orīshˈ [key], ancient Bedouin tribe near Mecca to which Muhammad belonged. At one time camel drivers and caravan guides, they became, after acquiring custody of the Kaaba (5th cent.), on...

Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi

(Encyclopedia)Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi mo͞ohämˈmäd rĭzä shä păˈləvē [key], 1919–80, shah of Iran (1941–79). Educated in Switzerland, he returned (1935) to Iran to attend the military academy in Teh...

Muhammad Ali, shah of Persia

(Encyclopedia)Muhammad Ali, 1872–1925, shah of Persia (1906–9), son of Muzaffar ad-Din Shah, of the Qajar dynasty. Muhammad Ali, who was an opponent of constitutional government, began to rule at a critical per...

Ershad, Hussain Muhammad

(Encyclopedia)Ershad, Hussain Muhammad, 1930–2019, Bangladeshi military and political leader, b. Cooch Behar (now part of West Bengal, India). Commissioned in Pakistan's army in 1952, he was a career soldier, ris...

Muhammad, Benjamin Franklin Chavis

(Encyclopedia)Muhammad, Benjamin Franklin Chavis, 1948–, African-American civil-rights and religious leader, b. Oxford, N.C., as Benjamin Franklin Chavis, Jr. An activist from boyhood, he was a youth coordinator ...

John VI, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)John VI (John Cantacuzene) kănˌtəkyo͞ozēnˈ [key], c.1292–1383, Byzantine emperor (1347–54). He was chief minister under Andronicus III, after whose death he proclaimed himself emperor and ma...

Koo, Vi Kuiyuin Wellington

(Encyclopedia)Koo, Vi Kuiyuin Wellington vē jün wĕlˈĭngtən ko͞o [key], Mandarin Ku Wei-chün, 1887–1985, Chinese Nationalist diplomat, b. Shanghai. Koo was educated at Columbia (B.A., 1908; M.A., 1909; Ph....

Yahya Khan, Agha Muhammad

(Encyclopedia)Yahya Khan, Agha Muhammad äˈgä mo͞ohämˈmäd yäˈyä khän [key], 1917–80, Pakistani general and president (1969–71). He fought with the British in World War II, and rose through the Pakista...

Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Ismail, al-

(Encyclopedia)Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Ismail, al- bo͞ok-härēˈ [key] (c.810–70), Arabic scholar, b. Bukhara. He traveled widely over Muslim regions and made an authoritative collection of the hadith, the traditi...

Browse by Subject