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Hariri

(Encyclopedia)Hariri (Abu Muhammad al-Kasim al-Hariri) härēˈrē [key], 1054–1122, Arab writer of Basra. His principal work is one of the most popular of Arabic books. It is called Makamat [literary assemblies]...

Dera Ismail Khan

(Encyclopedia)Dera Ismail Khan ĭsmīlˈ khän [key], town (1981 pop. 64,358), N central Pakistan, c.1 mi (1.6 km) on the western bank of the Indus River. A district administrative center, it is known for its lacqu...

Assassin

(Encyclopedia)Assassin əsăsˈĭn [key], European name for the member of a secret order of the Ismaili sect of Islam. They are known as Nizaris after Nizar ibn al-Mustansir, whom they supported as caliph; the Euro...

Allah

(Encyclopedia)Allah ălˈə, äˈlə [key], [Arab.,=the God]. Derived from an old Semitic root refering to the Divine and used in the Canaanite El, the Mesopotamian ilu, and the biblical Elohim, the word Allah is u...

Saud

(Encyclopedia)Saud (Saud bin Abd al-Aziz al-Saud) ĭˈbən abdäl äzēzˈ ĭˈbən säo͞odˈ [key], 1902–69, king of Saudi Arabia (1953–64), son of Ibn Saud, brother of Faisal. Saud, who had distinguished him...

Ismail, shah of Persia

(Encyclopedia)Ismail ĭsmäēlˈ [key], 1486–1524, shah of Persia (1502–24), founder of the Safavid dynasty. He restored Persia to the position of a sovereign state for the first time since the Arab invasion of...

Barmakids

(Encyclopedia)Barmakids bärˈməsīdzˌ [key], Persian-descended religious family from Khorasan. They served as viziers to the Abbasid caliphs in the 8th cent. Khalid ibn Barmak, d. 782?, supported the revolution ...

Sufism

(Encyclopedia)Sufism so͞oˈfĭzəm [key], an umbrella term for the ascetic and mystical movements within Islam. While Sufism is said to have incorporated elements of Christian monasticism, gnosticism, and Indian m...

Black Muslims

(Encyclopedia)Black Muslims, African-American religious movement in the United States, split since the late 1970s into the American Society of Muslims and the Nation of Islam. The original group was founded (1930) ...

Witelo of Silesia

(Encyclopedia)Witelo of Silesia or Vitelo, c.1230–75, Silesian physicist, philosopher, and theologian. He studied in Paris and Padua and spent time at the papal palace in Viterbo, Italy. His ten-volume work on op...
 

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