Baghdad: Districts: Parallel to Saʿdūn, Abū Nuwās Street on the riverfront was once the city’s showpiece and—as befits a thoroughfare named for a poet known for his libidinous verse—its entertainment centre. During the 1990s the street lost much of its old glamour, and its cafes, restaurants, and luxury hotels either…

Abū Nuwās was an important poet of the early ʿAbbāsid period (750–835). Abū Nuwās, of mixed Arab and Persian heritage, studied in Basra and al-Kūfah, first under the poet Wālibah ibn al-Ḥubāb, later under Khalaf al-Aḥmar. He also studied the Qurʾān (Islāmic sacred scripture), Ḥadīth (traditions

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet, renowned in his own country and time for his scientific achievements but chiefly known to English-speaking readers through the translation of a collection of his robāʿīyāt (“quatrains”) in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859), by the

Iran: The Ghaznavids: He and Abū al-Ḥasan Sīmjūrī, as Samanid generals, competed with each other for the governorship of Khorāsān and control of the Samanid empire by placing on the throne emirs they could dominate. Abū al-Ḥasan died in 961, but a court party instigated by men of the scribal…

Abū Qīr Bay, semicircular inlet of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between Abū Qīr Point (southwest) and the mouth of the Rosetta Branch (northeast) of the Nile River delta, in Lower Egypt. The bay was the scene of the Battle of the Nile (1798), in which an English fleet under Rear Admiral Sir Horatio

Mecca: City site: …rises to 1,332 feet, and Mount Abū Qubays, which attains 1,220 feet, to the east and Mount Quʿayqʿān, which reaches 1,401 feet, to the west. Mount Hirāʾ rises to 2,080 feet on the northeast and contains a cave in which Muhammad sought isolation and visions before he became a prophet.…

ʿUmar Abū Rīshah was a Syrian poet and diplomat, noted for his early poetry, which broke with the traditions of Arab classicism. Abū Rīshah attended the University of Damascus in Syria, the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, and the University of Manchester, England. He was an early

Abū Ruwaysh, ancient Egyptian site of a 4th-dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 bce) pyramid built by Redjedef, usually considered the third of the seven kings of that dynasty. The site is about 5 miles (8 km) northwest of the Pyramids of Giza (Al-Jīzah) on the west bank of the Nile River. It is part of a

Syria: Relief: …the extreme south, and the Abū Rujmayn and Bishrī Mountains, which stretch northeastward across the central part of the country.

Abū Ruwaysh, ancient Egyptian site of a 4th-dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 bce) pyramid built by Redjedef, usually considered the third of the seven kings of that dynasty. The site is about 5 miles (8 km) northwest of the Pyramids of Giza (Al-Jīzah) on the west bank of the Nile River. It is part of a

Dunash Ben Tamim was a Jewish physician and one of the first scholars to make a comparative study of the Hebrew and Arabic languages. He practiced medicine at the Fāṭimid court of al-Qayrawān, (now in Tunisia) and, like other educated Jews of his time, was versed in Hebrew. The work for which he is

mathematics: Mathematics in the 10th century: …grandson Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān (909–946), Abū Sahl al-Kūhī (died c. 995), and Ibn al-Haytham solved problems involving the pure geometry of conic sections, including the areas and volumes of plane and solid figures formed from them, and also investigated the optical properties of mirrors made from conic sections. Ibrāhīm ibn…

history of Mesopotamia: Sumer and Akkad from 2350 to 2000 bce: …found in the archives of Tall Abū Ṣalābīkh, near Nippur in central Babylonia, synchronous with those of Shuruppak (shortly after 2600). The Sumerian king list places the 1st dynasty of Kish, together with a series of kings bearing Akkadian names, immediately after the Flood. In Mari the Akkadian language was…

Abu Sayyaf Group, militant organization based on Basilan island, one of the southern islands in the Philippine archipelago. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the group, whose origins are somewhat obscure, carried out terrorist attacks in the Philippines, including a series of high-profile kidnappings in

Jahān Shāh: …seized Herāt from the Timurid Abū Saʿīd, but the growing power of the Ak Koyunlu (“White Sheep”) under Uzun Ḥasan brought about an agreement between Abū Saʿīd and Jahān Shāh to divide Iran between them. After being defeated by the Ottoman Turks in 1461, Uzun Ḥasan fought the Kara Koyunlu…

Il-Khanid dynasty: His son and successor, Abū Saʿīd (reigned 1317–35), reconverted to Sunni Islam and thus averted war. However, during Abū Saʿīd’s reign, factional disputes and internal disturbances continued and became rampant. Abū Saʿīd died without leaving an heir, and with his death the unity of the dynasty was fractured. Thereafter…

Qarmatian: …exploits of two Bahraini leaders, Abū Saʿīd al-Jannābī and his son and successor, Abū Ṭāhir Sulaymān, who invaded Iraq several times and in 930 sacked Mecca and carried off the Black Stone of the Kaaba.

al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī was a deeply pious and ascetic Muslim who was one of the most important religious figures in early Islam. Ḥasan was born nine years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. One year after the Battle of Ṣiffīn (657), he moved to Basra, a military camp town situated 50 miles (80 km)

Persian literature: Religious poetry: …these poems is attributed to Abū Saʿīd ibn Abū al-Khayr, who died in 1049. He would be the first mystical poet in Persian literature, but one of his hagiographers asserts that he did not write any poetry himself; he instead merely used anonymous quatrains in his preaching that were circulating…

al-Aṣmaʿī was a noted scholar and anthologist, one of the three leading members of the Basra school of Arabic philology. A gifted student of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, the founder of the Basra school, al-Aṣmaʿī joined the court of the ʿAbbāsid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd in Baghdad. Renowned for his piety

Abū Shahrayn, mound in southern Iraq, site of the ancient Sumerian city of Eridu

Abu Simbel, site of two temples built by the Egyptian king Ramses II (reigned 1279–13 bce), now located in Aswān muḥāfaẓah (governorate), southern Egypt. In ancient times the area was at the southern frontier of pharaonic Egypt, facing Nubia. The four colossal statues of Ramses in front of the main

Abū Ṣīr, ancient site between Al-Jīzah (Giza) and Ṣaqqārah, northern Egypt, where three 5th-dynasty (c. 2465–c. 2325 bce) kings (Sahure, Neferirkare, and Neuserre) built their pyramids. The pyramids were poorly constructed (in comparison with Egyptian monuments of similar types) and are now in a

Umayyad dynasty: The Umayyads, headed by Abū Sufyān, were a largely merchant family of the Quraysh tribe centred at Mecca. They had initially resisted Islam, not converting until 627, but subsequently became prominent administrators under Muhammad and his immediate successors. In the first Muslim civil war (fitnah; 656–661)—the struggle for the…

Ḥamdānid Dynasty: …Iraq to his domains, and Abū Taghlib (reigned 969–979) was forced to seek refuge and help from the Fāṭimids of Egypt, though without success. ʿAḍud ad-Dawlah later maintained two Ḥamdānids, Ibrāhīm and al-Ḥusayn, as joint rulers of Mosul (981–991), but the dynasty’s power had already shifted to Syria.

Qarmatian: … and his son and successor, Abū Ṭāhir Sulaymān, who invaded Iraq several times and in 930 sacked Mecca and carried off the Black Stone of the Kaaba.

Muhammad: Biography according to the Islamic tradition: …clan of Hāshim, his uncle Abū Ṭālib. While accompanying his uncle on a trading journey to Syria, Muhammad is recognized as a future prophet by a Christian monk.

Islamic arts: Indian literature in Persian: …poets, the most outstanding is Abū Ṭālib Kalīm (died 1651), who came from Hamadan. Abounding in descriptive passages of great virtuosity, his poignant and often pessimistic verses have become proverbial, thanks to their compact diction and fluent style. Also of some importance is Ṣāʾib of Tabriz (died 1677), who spent…

al-Muʿizz was the most powerful of the Fāṭimid caliphs, whose armies conquered Egypt and who made the newly founded Al-Qāhirah, or Cairo, his capital in 972–973. He was about 22 years of age when he succeeded his father, al-Mansur, in 953 with the title of al-Muʿizz. His authority was acknowledged

Abū Tammām was a poet and editor of an anthology of early Arabic poems known as the Ḥamāsah. Abū Tammām changed his Christian father’s name of Thādhūs to Aws and invented for himself an Arab genealogy. In his youth he worked in Damascus as a weaver’s assistant but on going to Egypt began to study

Abū Tammām was a poet and editor of an anthology of early Arabic poems known as the Ḥamāsah. Abū Tammām changed his Christian father’s name of Thādhūs to Aws and invented for himself an Arab genealogy. In his youth he worked in Damascus as a weaver’s assistant but on going to Egypt began to study

Wilhelm Raabe: (1868; Abu Telfan, Return from the Mountains of the Moon), and Der Schüdderump, 3 vol. (1870; “The Rickety Cart”). These three novels are often viewed as a trilogy that is central to Raabe’s generally pessimistic outlook, which views the difficulties of the individual in a world…

Wilhelm Raabe: (1868; Abu Telfan, Return from the Mountains of the Moon), and Der Schüdderump, 3 vol. (1870; “The Rickety Cart”). These three novels are often viewed as a trilogy that is central to Raabe’s generally pessimistic outlook, which views the difficulties of the individual in a world…

Sudan: Muḥammad ʿAlī and his successors: His successor, Aḥmad Pasha Abū Widān, continued his policies with but few exceptions and made it his primary concern to root out official corruption. Abū Widān dealt ruthlessly with offenders or those who sought to thwart his schemes to reorganize taxation. He was particularly fond of the…

Marīnid dynasty: …when, in 1248, their ruler, Abū Yaḥyā, captured Fès (Fez) and made it the Marīnid capital. With the defeat of the last of the Almohads and the capture of Marrakech in 1269, the Marīnids, under Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb, became masters of Morocco. In order to fulfill what they viewed as…

Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī: …and married a daughter of Abū Bakr, the Ḥafṣid ruler of Tunisia, which by 1342 had become a virtual vassal state. After Abū Bakr’s death Abū al-Ḥasan invaded Tunisia and captured Tunis (Sept. 15, 1347), but in the following April he was badly defeated by a confederation of Tunisian tribes…

Isaac ben Solomon Israeli was a Jewish physician and philosopher, widely reputed in the European Middle Ages for his scientific writings and regarded as the father of medieval Jewish Neoplatonism. Although there is considerable disagreement about his birth and death dates, he is known to have lived

Almohads: …virtually intact until the caliph Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf (reigned 1163–84) forced the surrender of Sevilla (Seville) in 1172; the extension of Almohad rule over the rest of Islamic Spain followed. During the reign of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr (1184–99) serious Arab rebellions devastated the eastern provinces of the empire, whereas…

Ḥanafī school: …as spread by his disciples Abū Yūsuf (died 798) and Muḥammad al-Shaybānī (749/750–805) and became the dominant system of Islamic administration for the ʿAbbāsids and Ottomans. Although the Ḥanafī school acknowledges the Qurʾān and the Hadith (narratives concerning the Prophet Muhammad’s life and

Marīnid dynasty: … in 1269, the Marīnids, under Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb, became masters of Morocco. In order to fulfill what they viewed as the duty of Muslim sovereignty and to acquire religious prestige, they declared a jihad (holy war) in Spain until the mid-14th century. Although the war helped the Muslim Naṣrid dynasty…

Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr was the third ruler of the Muʾminid dynasty of Spain and North Africa, who during his reign (1184–99) brought the power of his dynasty to its zenith. When his father, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, died on July 29, 1184, Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb succeeded to the throne with minor

Abu Dhabi, constituent emirate of the United Arab Emirates (formerly Trucial States, or Trucial Oman). Though its international boundaries are disputed, it is unquestionably the largest of the country’s seven constituent emirates, with more than three-fourths of the area of the entire federation.

Abu Dhabi, city and capital of Abu Dhabi emirate, one of the United Arab Emirates (formerly Trucial States, or Trucial Oman), and the national capital of that federation. The city occupies most of a small triangular island of the same name, just off the Persian Gulf coast and connected to the

Ḥafṣid dynasty: …founded by the Almohad governor Abū Zakariyyāʾ Yaḥyā about 1229. In the 20 years of his rule, Abū Zakariyyāʾ kept the various tribal disputes and intrigues under control, ensured Ḥafṣid economic prosperity by trade agreements with Italian, Spanish, and Provençal communities, and expanded his power into northern Morocco and Spain.…

al-Ḥarīrī: …Hammām, his repeated encounters with Abū Zayd al-Sarūjī, an unabashed confidence artist and wanderer possessing all the eloquence, grammatical knowledge, and poetic ability of al-Ḥarīrī himself. Time and again, al-Ḥārith finds Abū Zayd at the centre of a throng of people in a new city. Abū Zayd brings tears to…

Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd was an Egyptian scholar whose interpretations of the Qurʾān challenged mainstream views and sparked controversy and debate. Abū Zayd attended Cairo University and received a Ph.D. in Arab and Islamic studies. His research and writings on Qurʾānic exegesis, including his

al-Fīrūzābādī was a lexicographer who compiled an extensive dictionary of Arabic that, in its digest form, Al-Qāmūs (“The Ocean”), served as the basis of later European dictionaries of Arabic. After teaching in Jerusalem (1349–59), al-Fīrūzābādī traveled through western Asia and Egypt and settled

al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad was an Arab philologist who compiled the first Arabic dictionary and is credited with the formulation of the rules of Arabic prosody. When he moved to Basra, al-Khalīl left the Ṣufriyyah division of the Khārijites, which was popular in his native Oman. He lived simply and

al-Muḥāsibī was an eminent Muslim mystic (Ṣūfī) and theologian renowned for his psychological refinement of pietistic devotion and his role as a precursor of the doctrine of later Muslim orthodoxy. His main work was ar-Ri ʿāyah li-ḥūqūq Allah, in which he acknowledges asceticism to be valuable as

Alhambra: History: …1358, in the reigns of Ibn al-Aḥmar, founder of the Naṣrid dynasty, and his successors. The splendid decorations of the interior are ascribed to Yūsuf I (died 1354). After the expulsion of the Moors in 1492, much of the interior was effaced and the furniture was ruined or removed. Charles…

Mālik ibn Anas was a Muslim legist who played an important role in formulating early Islamic legal doctrines. Few details are known about Mālik ibn Anas’ life, most of which was spent in the city of Medina. He became learned in Islamic law and attracted a considerable number of students, his

Muḥammad XII: …was deposed by his brother al-Zaghal (Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-Zaghal). On Boabdil’s first military venture (1483) against the Castilians, he was captured and to obtain his release signed the Pact of Córdoba, promising to deliver to the Castilians that part of his domain that was in the control of…

Ibn ʿAbbād was an Islamic theologian who became the leading mystical thinker of North Africa in the 14th century. Attracted to Morocco by the famous madrasas (religious colleges), Ibn ʿAbbād immigrated there at an early age. He abandoned legal studies in a quest for mystical knowledge. In 1359 he

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Shāfiʿī was a Muslim legal scholar who played an important role in the formation of Islamic legal thought and was the founder of the Shāfiʿiyyah school of law. He also made a basic contribution to religious and legal methodology with respect to the use of traditions. Little is

al-Bukhārī was one of the greatest Muslim compilers and scholars of Hadith (the recorded corpus of the sayings and acts of the Prophet Muhammad). His chief work is accepted by Sunni Muslims—i.e., those following the majority tradition—as second only to the Qurʾān as both a source of religious law

al-Battānī was an Arab astronomer and mathematician who refined existing values for the length of the year and of the seasons, for the annual precession of the equinoxes, and for the inclination of the ecliptic. He showed that the position of the Sun’s apogee, or farthest point from the Earth, is

Muḥammad al-Idrīsī was an Arab geographer and adviser to Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily. He wrote one of the greatest works of medieval geography, Kitāb nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq (“The Pleasure Excursion of One Who Is Eager to Traverse the Regions of the World”). Al-Idrīsī traced

Ibn Tūmart was a Berber spiritual and military leader who founded the al-Muwaḥḥidūn confederation in North Africa (see Almohads). The doctrine he taught combined a strict conception of the unity of God with a program of juridical and puritanical moral reform, based on a study of the Qurʾān and of

Ibn Battuta was the greatest medieval Muslim traveler and the author of one of the most famous travel books, the Riḥlah (Travels). His great work describes his extensive travels covering some 75,000 miles (120,000 km) in trips to almost all of the Muslim countries and as far as China and Sumatra

Ibn al-Abbār was a historian, theologian, and humorist who became one of the most famous students of Islamic Spain. Ibn al-Abbār began his official career as a secretary to the Muslim governor of the Emirate of Balansiya. After the fall of Valencia (September 1238), he settled in Tunisia and was

al-Wāqidī was an Arab historian, author of the Kitāb al-maghāzī, a well-known work on the military campaigns (al-maghāzī) of the Prophet Muhammad. As a youth al-Wāqidī is said to have been such an authority on the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina that he was guide to the ʿAbbāsid caliph Hārūn

Fakhr ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī was a Muslim theologian and scholar, author of one of the most authoritative commentaries on the Qurʾān in the history of Islām. His aggressiveness and vengefulness created many enemies and involved him in numerous intrigues. His intellectual brilliance, however, was

Muḥammad XII was the last Naṣrid sultan of Granada, Spain. His reign (1482–92) was marked by incessant civil strife and the fall of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Roman Catholic rulers of Aragon and Castile. Instigated by his mother, a jealous wife, Boabdil rebelled against his father, the

ʿilm al-ḥadīth: … (died 888), al-Tirmidhī (died 892), Ibn Mājāh (died 886), and al-Nasāʾī (died 915)—came to be recognized as canonical in orthodox Islam, though the books of al-Bukhārī and Muslim enjoy a prestige that virtually eclipses the other four.

Rūdakī was the first poet of note to compose poems in the “New Persian,” written in Arabic alphabet, widely regarded as the father of Persian poetry. A talented singer and instrumentalist, Rūdakī served as a court poet to the Sāmānid ruler Naṣr II (914–943) in Bukhara until he fell out of favour in

Sīmjūrid Dynasty: Abū ol-Ḥasan’s son Abū ʿAlī added Herāt to the domains.

Ibn Miskawayh was a Persian scientist, philosopher, and historian whose scholarly works became models for later generations of Islamic thinkers. Little is known of Ibn Miskawayh’s personal life. It is believed he converted to Islam from Zoroastrianism, the religion of pre-Islamic Iran. His

Ibn al-Haytham was a mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the principles of optics and the use of scientific experiments. Conflicting stories are told about the life of Ibn al-Haytham, particularly concerning his scheme to regulate the Nile. In one version, told by the

Avicenna was a Muslim physician, the most famous and influential of the philosopher-scientists of the medieval Islamic world. He was particularly noted for his contributions in the fields of Aristotelian philosophy and medicine. He composed the Kitāb al-shifāʾ (Book of the Cure), a vast

al-Ḥākim was the sixth ruler of the Egyptian Shiʿi Fatimid dynasty, noted for his eccentricities and cruelty, especially his persecutions of Sunni Muslims, Christians, and Jews. He is held by adherents of the Druze religion to be a divine incarnation. Al-Ḥākim was named caliph in 996 and depended

Niẓām al-Mulk was a Persian vizier of the Turkish Seljuq sultans (1063–92), best remembered for his large treatise on kingship, Seyāsat-nāmeh (The Book of Government; or, Rules for Kings). Niẓām al-Mulk was the son of a revenue official for the Ghaznavid dynasty. Through his father’s position, he

Ibn Muqlah was one of the foremost calligraphers of the ʿAbbāsid Age (750–1258), reputed inventor of the first cursive style of Arabic lettering, the naskhī script, which replaced the angular Kūfic as the standard of Islamic calligraphy. In the naskhī script, Ibn Muqlah introduced the rounded forms

Abū ʿAlī Muṣṭafā was a Palestinian nationalist who was a cofounder (1967) and secretary-general (2000–01) of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a radical faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Born Muṣṭafā al-Zibrī, he later took the nom de guerre Abū ʿAlī

al-Aṣmaʿī: A gifted student of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, the founder of the Basra school, al-Aṣmaʿī joined the court of the ʿAbbāsid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd in Baghdad. Renowned for his piety and plain living, he was a tutor to the caliph’s sons (the future caliphs al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn) and a…

ʿAbbādid dynasty: His son Abu ʿAmr ʿAbbād, known as al-Muʿtaḍid (1042–69), greatly enlarged his territory by forcibly annexing the minor kingdoms of Mertola, Niebla, Huelva, Saltés, Silves, and Santa María de Algarve.

Moses Maimonides was a Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician, the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism. His first major work, begun at age 23 and completed 10 years later, was a commentary on the Mishna, the collected Jewish oral laws. A monumental code of Jewish law followed in

North Africa: Political fragmentation and the triumph of Islamic culture (c. 1250–c. 1500): His son and successor, Abū ʿInān, also invaded the eastern Maghrib, in 1356–57, but he, too, had to withdraw from Tunisia when faced with Arab tribal resistance.

al-Tirmidhī was an Arab scholar and author of one of the six canonical collections of spoken traditions (Hadith) attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. The life of al-Tirmidhī is poorly documented. He journeyed to Khorāsān, to Iraq, and to the Hejaz in search of material for his collection and studied

Ṣalāḥ Khalaf was a Palestinian political activist who was a founding member of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and a close associate of PLO leader Yāsir ʿArafāt. Khalaf’s family fled to the Gaza Strip in 1948 during the conflict that accompanied Israel’s

al-Buḥturī was one of the most outstanding poets of the ʿAbbāsid period (750–1258). Al-Buḥturī devoted his early poetry, written between the ages of 16 and 19, to his tribe, the Ṭayyiʾ. Sometime after 840 he came to the attention of the prominent poet Abū Tammām, who encouraged his panegyrics and

Spain: Science: …geographers in Muslim Spain were Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī (died 1094), who wrote the Kitāb al-masālik wa’l-mamālik (“Book of Highways and of Kingdoms”), and al-Idrīsī (died 1166), who was in the service of Roger II of Sicily and is the author of the leading universal geography composed by the Arabs. Somewhat…

al-Aʿshā: …is included by the critic Abū ʿUbaydah (d. 825) in the celebrated Muʿallaqāt, a collection of seven pre-Islāmic qaṣīdahs, each of which was considered by its author to be his best; the contents of the collection vary slightly, according to the views of several compilers.

al-Jāḥiẓ was an Islamic theologian, intellectual, and litterateur known for his individual and masterful Arabic prose. His family, possibly of Ethiopian origin, had only modest standing in Basra, but his intellect and wit gained him acceptance in scholarly circles and in society. During the reign

Abu: …situated on the slopes of Mount Abu, an isolated massif in the Aravalli Range.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an American journalist and political activist who was sentenced to death and then to life in prison for the 1981 murder of a police officer, Daniel Faulkner, in Philadelphia. Wesley Cook established his status as a political activist while still a teenager. At age 14, he took

Akbar was the greatest of the Mughal emperors of India. He reigned from 1556 to 1605 and extended Mughal power over most of the Indian subcontinent. In order to preserve the unity of his empire, Akbar adopted programs that won the loyalty of the non-Muslim populations of his realm. He reformed and

Abdusalam Abubakar is a Nigerian military leader, who served as head of state (1998–99). Hailing from the middle belt of the country, Abubakar joined the army in 1975 and received his formal military training in the United States. He commanded Nigeria’s contingent of United Nations peacekeeping

Abdusalam Abubakar is a Nigerian military leader, who served as head of state (1998–99). Hailing from the middle belt of the country, Abubakar joined the army in 1975 and received his formal military training in the United States. He commanded Nigeria’s contingent of United Nations peacekeeping

Abdusalam Abubakar is a Nigerian military leader, who served as head of state (1998–99). Hailing from the middle belt of the country, Abubakar joined the army in 1975 and received his formal military training in the United States. He commanded Nigeria’s contingent of United Nations peacekeeping

damselfish: …and the sergeant major (Abudefduf saxatilis), a black-banded, bluish and yellow fish of the tropical Atlantic.

Suleja, town and traditional emirate, Niger state, central Nigeria. The town is situated on the Iku River, a minor tributary of the Niger at the foot of the Abuchi Hills, and lies at the intersection of several roads. The emirate’s wooded savanna area of about 1,150 square miles (2,980 square km)

Abuja, city, capital of Nigeria. It lies in the central part of Nigeria, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT; created 1976). The city is approximately 300 miles (480 km) northeast of Lagos, the former capital (until 1991). During the 1980s the new capital city was built and developed on the

Suleja: The emirate’s wooded savanna area of about 1,150 square miles (2,980 square km) originally included four small Koro chiefdoms that paid tribute to the Hausa kingdom of Zazzau. After warriors of the Fulani jihad (holy war) captured Zaria (Zazzau’s capital, 137 miles [220 km] north-northeast) about…

Federal Capital Territory (FCT), administrative territory, central Nigeria, created in 1976. The territory is located north of the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers. It is bordered by the states of Niger to the west and northwest, Kaduna to the northeast, Nassarawa to the east and south, and

Abuk, in Dinka religion, the first woman. Abuk is represented as a snake, which is also her favourite animal. The Dinka believe that the Creator made both Abuk and Garang, the first man, out of the rich clay of the Sudan. After making them, the Creator placed Abuk and Garang in a huge pot. When the

Abū Qīr Bay, semicircular inlet of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between Abū Qīr Point (southwest) and the mouth of the Rosetta Branch (northeast) of the Nile River delta, in Lower Egypt. The bay was the scene of the Battle of the Nile (1798), in which an English fleet under Rear Admiral Sir Horatio

Battle of the Nile, battle that was one of the greatest victories of the British admiral Horatio Nelson. It was fought on August 1, 1798, between the British and French fleets in Abū Qīr Bay, near Alexandria, Egypt. (See “Napoleon’s Major Battles” Interactive Map) The French Revolutionary general

Abukuma Mountains, range in northern Honshu, Japan. It extends for 106 miles (170 km) north to south and parallels the Pacific Ocean coast of Fukushima prefecture in the Tōhoku region. Its southern end reaches into northern Ibaraki prefecture in the Kantō region. The mountain range is some 30 miles

Abukuma Mountains, range in northern Honshu, Japan. It extends for 106 miles (170 km) north to south and parallels the Pacific Ocean coast of Fukushima prefecture in the Tōhoku region. Its southern end reaches into northern Ibaraki prefecture in the Kantō region. The mountain range is some 30 miles

Abukuma Mountains, range in northern Honshu, Japan. It extends for 106 miles (170 km) north to south and parallels the Pacific Ocean coast of Fukushima prefecture in the Tōhoku region. Its southern end reaches into northern Ibaraki prefecture in the Kantō region. The mountain range is some 30 miles