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Mahmud of Ghazna
Mahmud of Ghazna , 971?-1030, Afghan emperor and conqueror. He defeated (c.999) his elder brother to gain control of Khorasan (in Iran) and of Afghanistan. In his raids against the states of N India, Mahmud, a staunch Muslim, destroyed Hindu temples, forced conversions to Islam, and carried off boot...
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al- Ghazali
al- Ghazali , 1058-1111, Islamic theologian, philosopher, and mystic. He was born at Tus in Khorasan, of Persian origin. He is considered the greatest theologian in Islam. Al-Ghazali was appointed professor at Baghdad in 1091, but following a spiritual crisis in 1095 he abandoned his career to becom...
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Jeremiah
Jeremiah a book of the Bible, comprising a collection of prophetic oracles attributed to Jeremiah, a prophet who preached (c.628-586 BC) in Jerusalem under King Josiah and his successors. His message indicts his contemporaries for social injustice and religious apostasy. Jeremiah realistically oppo...
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Kings
Kings books of the Bible, originally a single work in the Hebrew canon. They are called First and Second Kings in modern Bibles, and Third and Fourth Kingdoms in the Greek versions, where the books of Samuel are called First and Second Kingdoms. First and Second Kings cover the period c.1000 BC-c.5...
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Peter Shaffer
Peter Shaffer , 1926-, English playwright, b. Liverpool, grad. Cambridge, 1950. Before turning to the stage he wrote for radio and television and was the author of several mystery novels. He has written both historical and contemporary dramas, work ranging from the tautly dramatic to the farcically ...
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Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela or Santiago, city (1990 pop. 91,419), A Coruña prov., NW Spain, in Galicia, on the Sar River. The city is one of the chief shrines of Christendom. There in the early 9th cent. the supposed tomb of the apostle St. James the Greater was reputedly discovered by a mi...
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Isidorus of Miletus
Isidorus of Miletus , name of two architects of the time of Justinian. The elder was associated with Anthemius of Tralles in rebuilding Hagia Sophia, AD 532-37; the younger rebuilt the church's dome after its destruction by earthquake, AD 553.
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Lot
Lot in the Book of Genesis, the son of Abraham's brother Haran. Lot settled in Sodom and received a warning of its destruction. As he fled with his family, his wife, disobeying God's orders, looked back at the city and was turned into a pillar of salt. In biblical ethnography, Lot is considered the...
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Rahab
Rahab , in the Bible. 1 Prostitute of Jericho whose protection of Joshua's two spies saved her and her family from destruction. She may be the same woman mentioned in the Gospel genealogy as Rachab. 2 Dragonlike monster that figures in the mythic primordial battle between God and the sea monster...
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Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca , ancient deity of the Toltec in Mexico. Identified with the night sky, the moon, and the stars, and associated with the forces of evil and destruction, Tezcatlipoca shared dominion over humanity with Quetzalcoatl , the god of light and good. Of the various legends surrounding their ...
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