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Possible definitions for raab

Arab
Any member of the Arabic-speaking peoples of the Middle East and N. Africa. Before the spread of Islam in the 630s, the term referred to the largely nomadic Semitic peoples of the Arabian Peninsula; it came to apply to Arabic-speaking peoples from Africa's Mauritanian and Moroccan coasts east to Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula and south to N Sudan after their acceptance and promotion of Islam. Traditionally, some Arabs are desert-dwelling pastoral nomads (see Bedouin), whereas others live by oases and in small, isolated farming villages. While most Arabs are Muslims, some are Christian. The term may also be used today in an ethnic ("the Arab nation") or sociolinguistic sense.


Kaaba
Most sacred Muslim shrine, located near the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca. All Muslims face toward it in their daily prayers. The cube-shaped structure, made of gray stone and marble, has its corners roughly oriented to the points of the compass; the interior contains only pillars and silver and gold lamps. Pilgrims to Mecca walk around the Kaaba seven times and touch the Black Stone of Mecca on its E side, which may date from the pre-Islamic religion of the Arabs. Tradition holds that the Kaaba was built by Abraham and Ishmael. In 630 Muhammad purged the place of its pagan idols and rededicated it to Islam.


Rabat
City (metro. area pop., with Salé , 1994: 1,386,000), capital of Morocco. It is situated on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Bou Regreg River, opposite Salé . One of Morocco's four imperial cities, it was founded in the 12th cent. by Almohad ruler Abd al-Mumin as a ribat (camp) quartering troops for his holy war against Spain. After 1609 the unified community of Rabat-Salé became the home of large numbers of Andalusian Moors who had been driven from Spain and, later, of the Sallee Corsairs, the most dreaded of Barbary Coast pirates. Under the French, it was made the administrative capital of a French protectorate after 1912. Now a center of the textile industry, it is noted for its carpets, blankets, and leather handicrafts.


rabbi
In Judaism, a person qualified by study of the Hebrew scriptures and the Talmud to serve as spiritual leader of a Jewish community or congregation. Ordination can be conferred by any rabbi, but it usually depends on a written statement issued by the candidate's teacher. Though rabbis are considered teachers rather than priests, they conduct religious services, assist at bar mitzvahs, perform marriages, and are present at funerals. In questions of divorce, a rabbi's role depends on an appointment to a special court of Jewish law. The rabbi also counsels and consoles members of his congregation and oversees the religious education of the young.


Aragon
French poet, novelist, and essayist. He was introduced by A. Breton into avant-garde circles, and the two cofounded the Surrealist review Litté rature in 1919. From 1927 he ...

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