Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • ʿAbd al-Ṣabur, Ṣalāḥ (Egyptian author)
    ...its homiletic function in Arabic poetry to the present day, but rather that the theme of humankind’s mortality is now subsumed within poems with a variety of purposes. The modern Egyptian poet Ṣalāḥ ʿAbd al-Ṣabūr, for instance, depicts a rural preacher in his Al-Nās fī bilādī (1957; “The...
  • ʿAbd al-Wādid dynasty (Berber dynasty)
    dynasty of Zanātah Berbers (1236–1550), successors to the Almohad empire in northwestern Algeria. In 1236 the Zanātahs, loyal vassals to the Almohads, gained the support of other Berber tribes and nomadic Arabs and set up a kingdom at Tilimsān (Tlemcen), headed by the Zanātah amīr Yaghmurāsan (ruled 1236–83). Yaghmur...
  • ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Aḥmad (Islamic mystic)
    Egyptian scholar and mystic who founded an Islāmic order of Ṣūfism....
  • ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Ṭāhir (ruler of Ṭāhirid dynasty)
    ...the 9th century to 1962. There was a sharp decline in the city’s fortunes in the 12th–15th century, as successive conquerors of Yemen set up their capitals in other cities. During the reign of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Ṭāhir of the Ṭāhirid dynasty in the early 16th century the city was embellished with many fine mosques and madrasahs (Isla...
  • ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Muḥammad (Egyptian musician)
    Egyptian composer and musician, who changed the direction of modern Arabic music by incorporating European and Latin American instruments, melodies, and dance rhythms into his work....
  • ʿAbd Allāh (Sudanese religious leader)
    political and religious leader who succeeded Muḥammad Aḥmad (al-Mahdī) as head of a religious movement and state within the Sudan....
  • ʿAbd Allāh (king of Saudi Arabia)
    king of Saudi Arabia from 2005. As crown prince (1982–2005), he had served as the country’s de facto ruler following the 1995 stroke of his half brother King Fahd (reigned 1982–2005)....
  • ʿAbd Allāh (Spanish Umayyad ruler)
    His successors Muḥammad I (852–886), al-Mundhir (886–888), and ʿAbd Allāh (888–912) were confronted with a new problem, which threatened to do away with the power of the Umayyads—the muwallads. Having become more and more conscious of their power, they rose in revolt in the north of the peninsula, led by the......
  • ʿAbd Allāh (father of Muhammad)
    Soon after this momentous event in the history of Arabia, Muhammad was born in Mecca. His father, ʿAbd Allāh, and his mother, Āminah, belonged to the family of the Banū Hāshim, a branch of the powerful Quraysh, the ruling tribe of Mecca, that also guarded its most sacred shrine, the Kaʿbah. Because ʿAbd Allāh died before Muhammad’s bir...
  • ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī, Khwajah (Persian poet)
    ...onward turned to Persian. Along with works of pious edification and theoretical discussions, what was to be one of the most common types of Persian literature came into existence: the mystical poem. Khwajah ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī of Herāt (died 1088), a prolific writer on religious topics in both Arabic and Persian, first popularized the literary......
  • ʿAbd Allāh I ibn Saʿūd (Arab leader)
    In 1815 Saʿūd’s successor, ʿAbd Allāh I, sued for peace, and the Egyptians withdrew from Najd. The following year, however, Ibrāhīm Pasha, one of the Viceroy’s sons, took command of the Egyptian forces. Gaining the support of the volatile Arabian tribes by skillful diplomacy and lavish gifts, he advanced into central Arabia to occupy the town...
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (king of Saudi Arabia)
    king of Saudi Arabia from 2005. As crown prince (1982–2005), he had served as the country’s de facto ruler following the 1995 stroke of his half brother King Fahd (reigned 1982–2005)....
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās (Companion of Muḥammad)
    a Companion of the prophet Muḥammad, one of the greatest scholars of early Islām, and the first exegete of the Qurʾān....
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn (king of Jordan)
    statesman who became the first ruler (1946–51) of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan....
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr (Companion of Muḥammad)
    leader of a rebellion against the Umayyad ruling dynasty of the Islāmic empire, and the most prominent representative of the second generation of Muslim families in Mecca, who resented the Umayyad assumption of caliphal authority....
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn Fayṣal (Wahhābī leader)
    The Wahhābī prince ʿAbd Allāh lost many of the territories that his father, Fayṣal (reigned 1834–65), had acquired by conquest following the collapse of the first Wahhābī empire (1818). In 1885 ʿAbd Allāh was “invited” to Ḥāʾil to be the “guest” of Ibn Rashīd, the dominant ...
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lutf Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Rashīd al-Bihdādīnī Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū (Persian historian)
    Persian historian, and one of the most important historians of the Timurid period (1370–1506)....
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Maslamah (Afṭasid ruler)
    ...when it was ruled by his freed slave, Sābūr (976–1022). In 1022, at Sābūr’s death, his minister ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Maslamah, who was known as Ibn al-Afṭas, seized control of the kingdom and, assuming the title Al-Manṣūr Billāh (“Victorious by God”), ruled fairly peacefully until 104...
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ (governor of Egypt)
    governor of Upper (southern) Egypt for the Muslim caliphate during the reign of ʿUthmān (644–656) and the cofounder, with the future caliph Muʿāwiyah I, of the first Muslim navy, which seized Cyprus (647–649), Rhodes, and Cos (Dodecanese Islands) and defeated a Byzantine fleet off Alexandria in 652. He shared in the direction of the Muslim fleet that defea...
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿūd (Arab leader)
    Saʿūd died at Al-Dirʿiyyah in 1814. His successor, his son ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿūd, was scarcely of his father’s calibre, and the capture of Al-Raʿs in Al-Qaṣīm region by the Egyptians in 1815 forced him to sue for peace. This was duly arranged, but the truce was short-lived, and in 1816 the struggle was renewed, with Ibr...
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn Thunayan (Arab leader)
    The subservience of Khālid to his Egyptian and Ottoman masters was increasingly resented by his Wahhābī subjects, and in 1841 his cousin, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Thunayān, raised the standard of revolt. Riyadh was captured by a bold coup; its garrison was expelled; and Khālid, who was in Al-Hasa at the time, fled by ship to Jiddah. ʿAbd Allāh r...
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy (Arab leader)
    ...al-muhājirūn) and the Medinan helpers (al-anṣār). A few Medinan families and some prominent figures such as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy held back, but gradually all the Arabs of Medina embraced Islam. Nevertheless, tribal divisions remained, along with a continued Jewish presence that included wealt...
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar (Arab leader)
    ...caliph by some of his Syrian supporters. In January 659 the arbitrators met at Adhruḥ, formally deposed both ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah, then discussed the candidacy of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar and Muʿāwiyah for the caliphate; no decision was reached....
  • ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yasīn (Islamic scholar)
    ...not only in Mecca and Medina but also on the many stops along the 3,000-mile overland route. When Yaḥyā returned, he was accompanied by a teacher from Nafis (in present-day Libya), ʾAbd Allāh ibn Yasīn, who would instruct the Berbers in Islām as teachers under ʾUmar I had instructed the Arab fighters in the first Muslim garrisons. Having met with...
  • ʿAbd Allāh II (Kuwaiti ruler)
    ...family (Āl Ṣabāḥ). During the 19th century, Kuwait developed as a thriving, independent trading community. Toward the end of the century, one ruler, ʿAbd Allāh II (reigned 1866–92), began to move Kuwait closer to the Ottoman Empire, although he never placed his country under Ottoman rule. This trend was reversed with the accession......
  • ʿAbd Allāh II ibn Fayṣal (Arab leader)
    In 1865, when his power was an acknowledged factor in Arabian politics, Fayṣal died. His sons disputed the succession. His eldest son, ʿAbd Allāh, succeeded first, maintaining himself against the rebellion of his brother Saʿūd II for six years until the Battle of Jūdah (1871), in which Saʿūd triumphed. ʿAbd Allāh fled, and Sa...
  • ʿAbd Allāh Khan II (Shaybānid ruler)
    During the reign of the greatest Shaybānid ruler, ʿAbd Allāh Khan II (reigned 1557–98), Shaybānid authority was expanded in Balkh, Samarkand, Tashkent, and Fergana. Uzbek hegemony extended eastward as far as Badakhstān and East Turkistan and westward to Khorāsān and Khwārezm....
  • ʿAbd Allah Khan Sayyid (Mughal minister)
    Farrukh-Siyar (ruled 1713–19) owed his victory and accession to the Sayyid brothers, ʿAbd Allāh Khan and Ḥusayn ʿAlī Khan Bāraha. The Sayyids thus earned the offices of vizier and chief bakhshī and acquired control over the affairs of state. They promoted the policies initiated earlier by......
  • ʿAbd Allāh, Khawr (estuary, Iraq)
    estuary (khawr) separating Kuwait and Iraq, probably a drowned river mouth of the Shatt (stream) al-Arab, whose mouth is now farther north and forms the southeastern part of the border between Iraq and Iran. It extends into Iraqi territory in the form of the Khawr az-Zubayr, on which the Iraqi port of Umm Qaṣr is located and which is linked by canal northwestward to the Tigris...
  • Abd ar-Rahman (sultan of Morocco)
    sultan of Morocco (1822–59) who was the 24th ruler of the ʿAlawī dynasty. His reign was marked by both peaceful and hostile contacts with European powers, particularly France....
  • ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Abū al-Farash Ibn al-Jawzī (Muslim educator)
    jurist, theologian, historian, preacher, and teacher who became an important figure in the Baghdad establishment and a leading spokesman of traditionalist Islam....
  • ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Hishām (sultan of Morocco)
    sultan of Morocco (1822–59) who was the 24th ruler of the ʿAlawī dynasty. His reign was marked by both peaceful and hostile contacts with European powers, particularly France....
  • ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān II (Spanish Umayyad ruler)
    fourth Umayyad ruler of Muslim Spain who enjoyed a reign (822–852) of brilliance and prosperity, the importance of which has been underestimated by some historians....
  • Abd el-Kader (Algerian leader)
    amīr of Mascara (from 1832), the military and religious leader who founded the Algerian state and led the Algerians in their 19th-century struggle against French domination (1840–46)....
  • Abd el-Krim (Berber leader)
    leader of a resistance movement against Spanish and French rule in North Africa and founder of the short-lived Republic of the Rif (1921–26). A skilled tactician and a capable organizer, he led a liberation movement that made him the hero of the Maghrib (northwest Africa). A precursor of the anticolonial struggle for independence, Abd el-Krim was defeated only by the mili...
  • ʿAbd Manāf (Quraysh clan)
    ...to Iraq. Another agreement made trade with Axum (in what is now Ethiopia) and the African coast secure, as was also the Arabian coastal sea route. Furthermore, members of the Quraysh house of ʿAbd Manāf concluded pacts with Byzantium, Persia, and rulers of Yemen and Ethiopia, promoting commerce outside Arabia. The ʿAbd Manāf house could effect such agreements because...
  • ʿAbd ol-Bahā (Bahāʾī religious leader)
    ...confined by the Ottomans in Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey) and then in Acre in Palestine (now ʿAkko, Israel). Before Bahāʾ Ullāh died in 1892, he appointed his eldest son, ʿAbd ol-Bahā (1844–1921), to be the leader of the Bahāʾi community and the authorized interpreter of his teachings. ʿAbd ol-Bahā actively administe...
  • Abd-el-Kerim (Maba chieftain)
    ...to Europeans until after 1873, when it was explored by the German geographer Gustav Nachtigal. The history of Ouaddaï before the 17th century is uncertain, but about 1640 a Maba chieftain, Abd-el-Kerim, conquered the country and overthrew the Tungur, a dynasty originating in Darfur to the east. For the next 200 years there were intermittent wars with the kingdoms of Bagirmi and......
  • ʿAbd-uṣ-Ṣamad, Khwāja (Persian painter)
    Persian painter who, together with Mīr Sayyid ʿAlī, was one of the first members of the imperial atelier in India and is thus credited with playing a strong part in the foundation of the Mughal school of miniature painting (see Mughal painting)....
  • ABDA Command (Australian-European-United States history)
    A unified American–British–Dutch–Australian Command, ABDACOM, under Wavell, responsible for holding Malaya, Sumatra, Java, and the approaches to Australia, became operative on Jan. 15, 1942; but the Japanese had already begun their advance on the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. They occupied Kuching (December 17), Brunei Bay (January 6), and Jesselton (January 11), on the northern...
  • ABDACOM (Australian-European-United States history)
    A unified American–British–Dutch–Australian Command, ABDACOM, under Wavell, responsible for holding Malaya, Sumatra, Java, and the approaches to Australia, became operative on Jan. 15, 1942; but the Japanese had already begun their advance on the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. They occupied Kuching (December 17), Brunei Bay (January 6), and Jesselton (January 11), on the northern...
  • ʿAbdali (people, Yemen)
    ...the forerunner of independent Yemen (Aden); its capital was Laḥij. The sultanate was earlier tributary to western Yemen (i.e., Yemen [Sanaa]) but gained its independence in 1728. The ʿAbdali tribal people then seized Aden and remained independent until 1839, when they signed the first of several treaties with the British that led to the formation of the Aden Protectorate. T...
  • Abdālī (people, Afghanistan)
    one of the two chief tribal confederations of Afghanistan, the other being the Ghilzay. In the time of Nāder Shāh the Durrānī were granted lands in the region of Qandahār, which was their homeland; and they moved there from Herāt....
  • Abdālī, Aḥmad Khān (ruler of Afghanistan)
    founder of the state of Afghanistan and ruler of an empire that extended from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorāsān into Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind. Head of the central government, with full control of all departments of state in domestic and foreign affairs, both civil and military, the shāh was assisted by a prime minister and a council of nine life-term adv...
  • ʿAbdali sultanate (historical state, Yemen)
    former semi-independent state in the southern Arabian Peninsula, in what is now Yemen. Located just north of Aden city, it was one of the most important tribal areas of the Aden Protectorate, which was the forerunner of independent Yemen (Aden); its capital was Laḥij. The sultanate was earlier tributary to western Yemen (i.e., Yemen [Sanaa]) but gained its independence in 1728. The ...
  • ʿAbdallabi dynasty (East African history)
    ...the left bank of the Blue Nile above its confluence with the White Nile, was founded by ʿAmārah Dunqas in 1504–05. The Funj expanded northward from this region at the same time the ʿAbdallabi dynasty was extending its dominion southward from the region of Sūbah....
  • Abdallah, Ahmed (president of Comoros)
    ...in 1974, but most of the inhabitants of Mayotte favoured continuing French rule. When the National Assembly of France held that each island should decide its own status, Comorian President Ahmed Abdallah (who was deposed later that year) declared the whole archipelago independent on July 6, 1975. Comoros was subsequently admitted to the United Nations, which recognized the integrity of......
  • Abdallahi, Sidi Ould Cheikh (president of Mauritania)
    ...reforms. Voters overwhelmingly approved the changes, which included limiting presidents to two consecutive terms of five rather than six years. In March 2007 presidential elections were held, and Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi became Mauritania’s first democratically elected president....
  • Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem Trophy (football)
    The African Cup of Nations was first held in February 1957 in Khartoum, Sudan, where Egypt defeated the host nation in the final to win the Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem Trophy, named after its donor, an Egyptian who was the first CAF president. That trophy was permanently awarded to Ghana in 1978 when it became the first country to win the tournament three times. The next trophy, known as the......
  • Abdel Shafi, Haidar (Palestinian nationalist)
    Palestinian nationalist who was a founding member (1964–65) of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and a longtime secular voice in negotiations with Israel for Palestinian self-rule. Abdel Shafi studied medicine at the American University in Beirut and later (after completing his World War II service in the British Jordanian Army) at a hospital in Dayton, ...
  • Abdelkader (Algerian leader)
    amīr of Mascara (from 1832), the military and religious leader who founded the Algerian state and led the Algerians in their 19th-century struggle against French domination (1840–46)....
  • Abdera (ancient town, Greece)
    in ancient Greece, town on the coast of Thrace near the mouth of the Néstos River. The people of Teos, evacuating Ionia when it was overrun by the Persians under Cyrus (c. 540 bc), succeeded in establishing a colony there that developed a brisk trade with the Thracian interior. Abdera was a prosperous member of the Delian League in the 5th century but was crippled early...
  • Abdi-Kheba (ruler of Jerusalem)
    ...Egyptians, are mentioned in the Egyptian Execration Texts (c. 1900–1800 bce) and again in the 14th-century Tell el-Amarna correspondence, which contains a message from the city’s ruler, Abdi-Kheba (Abdu-Ḥeba), requiring his sovereign’s help against the invading Hapiru (Habiru, ʿApiru). A biblical narrative mentions the meeting of the Canaa...
  • Abdias, Book of (Old Testament)
    the fourth of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, in the Jewish canon treated as one book, The Twelve. Obadiah, with only one chapter consisting of 21 verses, is the shortest of all Old Testament books and purports to be a record of “the vision of Obadiah.” Nothing is known of the prophet except for his name, which means “servant of Yahweh....
  • Abdim’s stork (bird)
    Other birds migrate across the Equator to their alternate seasonal grounds. Abdim’s stork (Sphenorhynchus abdimii) nests in a belt extending from Senegal to the Red Sea; after the wet season, it winters from Tanzania through most of southern Africa. The pennant-wing nightjar (Cosmetornis vexillarius), in contrast, nests in the Southern Hemisphere south of the Congo forests dur...
  • ʿAbdīn (district, Cairo, Egypt)
    ...ordered the construction of a European-style city to the west of the medieval core. French city-planning methods dominated the design of the districts of Al-Azbakiyyah (with its large park), ʿAbdīn, and Ismāʿīliyyah—all now central zones of contemporary Cairo. By the end of the 19th century these districts were well-developed, but with the beginning of....
  • ʿAbdollāh Anṣārī (Persian poet)
    ...onward turned to Persian. Along with works of pious edification and theoretical discussions, what was to be one of the most common types of Persian literature came into existence: the mystical poem. Khwajah ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī of Herāt (died 1088), a prolific writer on religious topics in both Arabic and Persian, first popularized the literary......
  • abdomen (anatomy)
    The abdomen consists of a maximum of 11 segments, although this number commonly is reduced by fusion. Appendages are usually absent except in caterpillars, which use up to five pairs of abdominal prolegs in walking, and in adult insects where the appendages at the hind end have become transformed into external genitalia. In the male these genitalia are paired claspers used to hold the female;......
  • abdominal aorta (anatomy)
    In the abdominal cavity the aorta gives off a number of branches, which form an extensive network supplying blood to the stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, small and large intestines, kidneys, reproductive glands, and other organs. At the level of the fourth lumbar vertebra, which is about even with the top of the hip bones, the aorta divides into the right and left common iliac arteries, the......
  • abdominal cavity (anatomy)
    largest hollow space of the body. Its upper boundary is the diaphragm, a sheet of muscle and connective tissue that separates it from the chest cavity; its lower boundary is the upper plane of the pelvic cavity. Vertically it is enclosed by the vertebral column and the abdominal and other muscles. The abdominal cavity contains the greater part of the digestive tract, the ...
  • abdominal ectopic pregnancy
    Abdominal ectopic pregnancy occurs when the placenta is attached to some part of the peritoneal cavity other than the uterus or tube. While a few of these pregnancies are a result of implantation in the abdominal lining, most are the result of expulsion of a tubal pregnancy. The condition can be suspected in the first three months of pregnancy if pain and bleeding are experienced. Abdominal......
  • abdominal muscle
    any of the muscles of the anterolateral walls of the abdominal cavity, composed of three flat muscular sheets, from without inward: external oblique, internal oblique, and transverse abdominis, supplemented in front on each side of the midline by rectus abdominis....
  • Abdominal Operations (work by Moynihan)
    ...on the surgical treatment of diseases of the stomach (1901) and pancreas (1902) and upon gastric and duodenal ulcers (1903) and gallstones (1904). His classic exposition of his surgical doctrine, Abdominal Operations, was published in 1905 and remained a standard text for two decades. His book Duodenal Ulcer (1910) secured his reputation as a clinical scientist....
  • ʿAbdor Raḥmān Khān (amīr of Afghanistan)
    amīr of Afghanistan (1880–1901) who played a prominent role in the fierce and long-drawn struggle for power waged by his father and his uncle, Aʿẓam Khān, against his cousin Shīr ʿAlī, the successor of Dōst Moḥammad Khān....
  • Abdu (Egypt)
    prominent sacred city and one of the most important archaeological sites of ancient Egypt. The site, located in the low desert west of the Nile near al-Balyanā, was a royal necropolis of the first two dynasties and later a pilgrimage centre for the worship of Osiris....
  • Abdu Zanga (Nigerian explorer)
    town, western Plateau state, central Nigeria. It was founded about 1800 by Abdu Zanga (Abdullahi), a Fulani warrior from the north who made it the seat of a vassal emirate subject to the emir of Zaria (a town 153 miles [246 km] north). Although Keffi paid tribute to Zaria throughout the 19th century, it was constantly raided for slaves; its war in the reign of Sidi Umaru (1877–94) with......
  • Abdu-Ḥeba (ruler of Jerusalem)
    ...Egyptians, are mentioned in the Egyptian Execration Texts (c. 1900–1800 bce) and again in the 14th-century Tell el-Amarna correspondence, which contains a message from the city’s ruler, Abdi-Kheba (Abdu-Ḥeba), requiring his sovereign’s help against the invading Hapiru (Habiru, ʿApiru). A biblical narrative mentions the meeting of the Canaa...
  • abducens nerve
    From its nucleus in the caudal pons, the abducens nerve exits the brainstem at the pons-medulla junction, pierces the dura mater, passes through the cavernous sinus close to the internal carotid artery, and exits the cranial vault via the superior orbital fissure. In the orbit the abducens nerve innervates the lateral rectus muscle, which turns the eye outward. Damage to the abducens nerve......
  • abduction (reason)
    ...deductive, or mathematical, logic, Peirce was a student primarily of “the logic of science”—i.e., of induction and of what he referred to as “retroduction,” or “abduction,” the forming and accepting on probation of a hypothesis to explain surprising facts. His lifelong ambition was to establish abduction and induction firmly and permanentl...
  • abduction (law)
    in law, the carrying away of any female for purposes of concubinage or prostitution. The taking of a girl under a designated age for purposes of marriage is in most jurisdictions also included in the crime of abduction. Abduction is generally regarded as a form of kidnapping....
  • abduction (extraterrestrial hypothesis)
    “Contact events,” such as abductions, are often associated with UFOs because they are ascribed to extraterrestrial visitors. However, the credibility of the ETH as an explanation for abductions is disputed by most psychologists who have investigated this phenomenon. They suggest that a common experience known as “sleep paralysis” may be the culprit, as this causes......
  • Abduction from the Seraglio, The (opera by Mozart)
    ...music for publication, and to play in concerts (which in Vienna were more often in noblemen’s houses than in public). He also embarked on an opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio). (Joseph II currently required that German opera, rather than the traditional Italian, be given at the court theatre.) In the summer of 1781, rumours began t...
  • abductor muscle
    any of the muscles that cause movement of a limb away from the midplane of the body or away from a neighbouring part or limb (compare adductor muscle), as in raising the arms to the side (effected by the deltoideus muscle) or spreading the fingers or toes. In man certain muscles of the hands and feet are named for performing this function. In the hand, the abductor digit...
  • ʿAbduh, Muḥammad (Egyptian scholar and jurist)
    religious scholar, jurist, and liberal reformer, who led the late 19th-century movement in Egypt and other Muslim countries to revitalize Islāmic teachings and institutions in the modern world. As muftī (Islāmic legal counsellor) for Egypt (from 1899), he effected reforms in Islāmic law, administration, and higher education and, although resisted by conservatives...
  • Abdul Kalam, A. P. J. (president of India)
    Indian scientist and politician, who played a leading role in the development of India’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. He was president of India from 2002 to 2007....
  • Abdul Kalam, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen (president of India)
    Indian scientist and politician, who played a leading role in the development of India’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. He was president of India from 2002 to 2007....
  • Abdul Rahman (sultan of Riau-Johor)
    ...by the hereditary chief, the temenggong (direct ancestor of the sultans of modern Johor), that the company could purchase land. The temenggong, however, was a subordinate of his cousin Abdul Rahman, sultan of Riau-Johor, who was under Dutch surveillance. Furthermore, Abdul Rahman was a younger son and not a sultan de jure. Raffles, disobeying instructions not to offend the Dutch,....
  • Abdul Rahman Putra Alhaj, Tunku (prime minister of Malaysia)
    first prime minister of independent Malaya (1957–63) and then of Malaysia (1963–70), under whose leadership the newly formed government was stabilized....
  • Abdul Rahman, Tuanku (Malaysian leader)
    first supreme chief of state of the Federation of Malaya. After the declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1957, the tuanku became the first head of state, or paramount ruler, elected by and from the Malay rulers for a five-year term. Abdul Rahman died before completion of his term....
  • Abdul Razak bin Hussein, Tun Haji (prime minister of Malaysia)
    prime minister, foreign minister, and defense minister of Malaysia from 1970 to 1976....
  • Abdul-Hamid II (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan from 1876 to 1909, under whose autocratic rule the reform movement of Tanzimat (Reorganization) reached its climax and who adopted a policy of pan-Islāmism in opposition to Western intervention in Ottoman affairs....
  • Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem (American athlete)
    collegiate and professional basketball player, who as a 7-ft-1.75-in centre dominated the game throughout the 1970s and early ’80s....
  • Abdul-Medjid I (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan from 1839 to 1861 who issued two major social and political reform edicts known as the Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane (Noble Edict of the Rose Chamber) in 1839 and the Hatt-ı Hümayun (Imperial Edict) in 1856, heralding the new era of Tanzimat (“Reorganization”)....
  • Abdul-Medjid II (Ottoman prince and caliph)
    the last caliph and crown prince of the Ottoman dynasty of Turkey....
  • Abdul-Mejid I (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan from 1839 to 1861 who issued two major social and political reform edicts known as the Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane (Noble Edict of the Rose Chamber) in 1839 and the Hatt-ı Hümayun (Imperial Edict) in 1856, heralding the new era of Tanzimat (“Reorganization”)....
  • Abdul-Mejid II (Ottoman prince and caliph)
    the last caliph and crown prince of the Ottoman dynasty of Turkey....
  • Abdul-Qadir (Algerian leader)
    amīr of Mascara (from 1832), the military and religious leader who founded the Algerian state and led the Algerians in their 19th-century struggle against French domination (1840–46)....
  • Abdülaziz (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan (1861–76) who continued the westernizing reforms that had been initiated by his predecessors until 1871, after which his reign took an absolutist turn....
  • Abdülaziz Oglu Mahmud II (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan (1861–76) who continued the westernizing reforms that had been initiated by his predecessors until 1871, after which his reign took an absolutist turn....
  • Abdülbâkî, Mahmud (Turkish author)
    one of the greatest lyric poets of the classical period of Ottoman Turkish literature....
  • Abdülhak Hâmid (Turkish author)
    poet and playwright, considered one of the greatest Turkish Romantic writers. He was instrumental in introducing Western influences into Turkish literature....
  • Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan (Turkish author)
    poet and playwright, considered one of the greatest Turkish Romantic writers. He was instrumental in introducing Western influences into Turkish literature....
  • Abdülhamid I (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan from 1774 to 1789 who concluded the war with Russia by signing the humiliating Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. By the terms of the treaty, Russia obtained the fortresses on the coast of the Sea of Azov, the area between the Dnieper and Bug rivers, and navigation and commercial privileges in the Ottoman Empire. Bukovina was ceded to Austria in 1775. ...
  • Abdülhamid II (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan from 1876 to 1909, under whose autocratic rule the reform movement of Tanzimat (Reorganization) reached its climax and who adopted a policy of pan-Islāmism in opposition to Western intervention in Ottoman affairs....
  • Abdulhamid Sulayman Yunús (Uzbek poet)
    ...in Uzbek and Tajik. These writers all began as poets and subsequently branched out to produce many of the first modern indigenous plays, stories, and novels of Central Asia. The younger poets Batu, Cholpán (Abdulhamid Sulayman Yunús), and Elbek (Mashriq Yunus Oghli) offered metres and rhyme schemes quite different from the verse composed in the traditions long employed by the......
  • Abdulla, Muhammed Said (Tanzanian writer)
    Tanzanian novelist generally regarded as the father of Swahili popular literature....
  • Abdullah (king of Saudi Arabia)
    king of Saudi Arabia from 2005. As crown prince (1982–2005), he had served as the country’s de facto ruler following the 1995 stroke of his half brother King Fahd (reigned 1982–2005)....
  • Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir (Malaysian author)
    Malayan-born writer who, through his autobiographical and other works, played an important role as a progenitor of modern Malay literature....
  • ʿAbdullāh I (king of Jordan)
    statesman who became the first ruler (1946–51) of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan....
  • ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al Saʿud (king of Saudi Arabia)
    king of Saudi Arabia from 2005. As crown prince (1982–2005), he had served as the country’s de facto ruler following the 1995 stroke of his half brother King Fahd (reigned 1982–2005)....
Skip this Advertisement

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

The Britannica Store
A-Z Browse

Image preview