|
empire of Nicaea
empire of Nicaea 1204-61. In 1204 the armies of the Fourth Crusade set up the Latin Empire of Constantinople, but the Crusaders' influence did not extend over the entire Byzantine Empire. Several Greek successor states, chief among them the empire of Nicaea, sprang up (see also Epirus, despotate o...
Read more
|
|
|
Asia Minor
Asia Minor great peninsula, c.250,000 sq mi (647,500 sq km), extreme W Asia, generally coterminous with Asian Turkey, also called Anatolia. It is washed by the Black Sea in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the south, and the Aegean Sea in the west. The Black and Aegean seas are linked by the Sea...
Read more
|
|
Saint Christopher
Saint Christopher [Gr.,=Christ bearer], 3d cent.?, martyr of Asia Minor. His characteristic legend is that one day when he was carrying a little child over a river, he felt the child's weight almost too great to bear. The child was Jesus, carrying the world in his hands. Hence St. Christopher is us...
Read more
|
|
Sargon
Sargon , king of Akkad in Mesopotamia (reigned c.2340-c.2305 BC). By conquest he established a great empire that included the whole of Mesopotamia and extended over Syria and Elam, and he controlled territories W to the Mediterranean and N to the Black Sea. Documents now support the theory that Sarg...
Read more
|
|
minority
minority in international law, population group with a characteristic culture and sense of identity occupying a subordinate political status. Religious minorities were known from ancient times, but ethnic minorities did not become an issue in European politics until the rise of nationalism in the...
Read more
|
|
|
Agesilaus II
Agesilaus II , c.444-360 BC, king of Sparta. After the death of Agis I (398? BC), he was brought to power by Lysander, whom he promptly ignored. After the Peloponnesian War the Greek cities in Asia Minor had not been ceded to Persia despite Sparta's promises, and in 396 BC Agesilaus went there to op...
Read more
|
|
|
Revelation
Revelation or Apocalypse , the last book of the New Testament. It was written c.AD 95 on Patmos Island off the coast of Asia Minor by an exile named John, in the wake of local persecution by the Emperor Domitian (AD 81-96). Tradition has identified John with the disciple St. John , but many sch...
Read more
|
|
Turks
Turks term applied in its wider meaning to the Turkic-speaking peoples of Turkey, Russia, Central Asia, Xinjiang in China (Chinese Turkistan), Azerbaijan and the Caucasus, Iran, and Afghanistan. They total about 125 million, and they are distributed from E Siberia to the Balkans. The wide differenc...
Read more
|
|
|
Osman I
Osman I or Othman I , 1259-1326, leader of the Ottoman Turks and founder of the dynasty that established and ruled the Ottoman Empire . The Osmanli or Ottoman Turks derive their name from Osman. He proclaimed (1290) his independence from his overlord, the Seljuk Turks, upon the collapse of th...
Read more
|
|
|
Pontus
Pontus ancient country, NE Asia Minor (now Turkey), on the Black Sea coast. On its inland side were Cappadocia and W Armenia. It was not significantly penetrated by Persian or Hellenic civilization. In the 4th cent. BC, Pontus was taken over by a Persian family, profiting by the breakup of the empi...
Read more
|
