Biblical Literature, The Aramaic Targums

In the course of the 5th and 6th centuries BCE, Aramaic became the official language of the Persian Empire. In the succeeding centuries it was used as the vernacular over a wide area and was increasingly spoken by the postexilic Jewish communities of Palestine and elsewhere in the Diaspora. In response to liturgical needs, the institution of a turgeman (or meturgeman, “translator

Koch, Martin

Koch came from a lower middle-class family, which his father deserted when the children were very young. The young Koch worked as a labourer's helper, studied art, and became active in the Good Templars Lodge. His first publication

Palestine, History Of, The rise of Islam

The successful unification of the Arabian Peninsula by the first caliph, Abu Bakr (AD 632–Aug. 23, 634), made it possible to channel the expansion of the Arab Muslims into new directions. Abu Bakr, therefore, summoned the faithful to a holy war (jihad) and quickly amassed an impressive army. He dispatched three detachments of about 3,000 (later increased to about 7,500) men each to start operations

Lorca

Town, Murcia province and autonomous community (region), southeastern Spain. It is situated along the Río Guadalentín in a semiarid and steppelike area that is surrounded by rugged mountains. The town, which sits on both banks of the river, was the Ilurco (Ilukro) of the Romans and the Lurka of the Moors. It was the scene of numerous battles between Christian and Moorish

Yung-lo

Pinyin  Yonglo  (reign name), temple name (ming)  Ch'eng Tsu , or (ming)  T'ai Tsung , posthumous name, or shih,  Wen Ti , personal name  Chu Ti  third emperor (1402–24) of China's Ming dynasty, which he raised to its greatest power. He moved the capital from Nanking to Peking, which was rebuilt with the Forbidden City.

Aakjær, Jeppe

Aakjær grew up in the Jutland farming area and so was well aware of the harsh conditions endured by farm labourers in his country. His early novels deal primarily with this theme. As a young man he went to study in Copenhagen,

Biblical Literature, The Letter of Jeremiah

The Letter of Jeremiah, like the book of Baruch, was conserved—together with the Greek translation of the Book of Jeremiah—in the Septuagint. The oldest witness of the letter is a fragment of a Greek papyrus, written about 160 BCE and found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. Whether the letter was originally written in Greek or is a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic is difficult

Arundel, Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl Of

Son of William Fitzalan (1483–1544), the 11th earl, he succeeded to the earldom in 1544. He took part in the siege of Boulogne (1544) and was appointed lord chamberlain and a privy councillor in 1546. In June 1553 he alone of the council refused the “engagement” of the council

Don Juan

Fictitious character who is a symbol of libertinism. Originating in popular legend, he was first given literary personality in the tragic drama El burlador de Sevilla (1630; “The Seducer of Seville,” translated in The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest), attributed to the Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina. Through Tirso's tragedy, Don Juan became a universal character,