Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bull, The

(Encyclopedia)Bull, The, English name for Taurus, a constellation. ...

Nasir ad-Din

(Encyclopedia)Nasir ad-Din näˈsər äd-dēn [key], 1831?–1896, shah of Persia (1848–96). He and his able vizier, Mirza Taqi Khan, were responsible for shaking Persia from a long period of inertia. He traveled...

Tahmasp

(Encyclopedia)Tahmasp täˈmäsp [key], 1514–76, shah of Persia (1524–76), son and successor of Ismail and the second of the Safavid dynasty. He successfully repulsed persistent invasions by the Uzbeks. Sulayma...

White Huns

(Encyclopedia)White Huns or Hephthalites hĕfˈthəlītsˌ [key], people of obscure origins, possibly of Tibetan or Turkish stock. They were called Ephthalites by the Greeks, and Hunas by the Indians. There is no d...

Corinthian War

(Encyclopedia)Corinthian War (395 b.c.–86 b.c.), armed conflict between Corinth, Argos, Thebes, and Athens on one side and Sparta on the other. Angered by Sparta's tyrannical overlordship in Greece after the Pelo...

Gulistan, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Gulistan, Treaty of go͞olĭstänˈ [key], 1813, signed by Russia and Iran (Persia) at Gulistan, a village in what is now NW Azerbaijan. It ended the Russo-Persian war that had begun in 1804. Persia c...

Turkmanchai, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Turkmanchai, Treaty of to͝orkmänchīˈ [key], 1828, agreement signed by Russia and Persia at the village of Turkmanchai (Torkaman), East Azerbaijan prov., NW Iran. It concluded the Russo-Persian war...

Zoroaster

(Encyclopedia)Zoroaster zōrˈōăsˌtər [key], c.628 b.c.–c.551 b.c., religious teacher and prophet of ancient Persia, founder of Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster, the name by which he is ordinarily known, is derived ...

Darius III

(Encyclopedia)Darius III (Darius Codomannus) kŏdəmănˈəs [key], d. 330 b.c., king of ancient Persia (336–330 b.c.). A cousin of Artaxerxes III, he was raised to the throne by the eunuch Bagoas, who had murder...

Artaxerxes I

(Encyclopedia)Artaxerxes I ärˌtəzûrkˈsēz [key], d. 425 b.c., king of ancient Persia (464–425 b.c.), of the dynasty of the Achaemenis. Artaxerxes is the Greek form of “Ardashir the Persian.” He succeeded...