Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Bagheria ... Bahram II

Bagheria: town, Palermo province, northwestern Sicily, Italy, 8 miles (13 km) east-southeast of the city of Palermo. A resort of wealthy Palermitans, Bagheria is noted for several historic villas. The best-known are Villa Palagonia (1715), containing more than 60 Byzantine statues ...
Baghlan: city, northeastern Afghanistan, near the Qonduz River, at an elevation of 1,650 feet (500 m). Baghlan is the centre of beet-sugar production and has a sugar refinery. Cotton textiles are also manufactured. The city's industrial development has led to rapid ...
Baghmati River: river in south-central Nepal and northern Bihar state, northeastern India, rising in several headstreams in the lowland area of Nepal and flowing southward through the Siwalik Range, southernmost range of the Himalayas. It continues across the plains of Tarai into ...
Bagirmi: people living on the southern fringe of the Sahara, close to the region of Bornu in Chad and Nigeria. They numbered about 70,000 at the turn of the 21st century. Most speak Bagirmi, a Central Sudanic language of the Nilo-Saharan ...
Bagirmi, Kingdom of: historic African state founded in the 16th century in the region just southeast of Lake Chad. Europeans first learned about the existence of Bagirmi and the other powerful states of central Africa (Wadai Bornu-Kanem) when Dixon Denham penetrated the Lake ...
Bagley, Sarah G.: American labour organizer who was active in trying to institute reform in the mills of Lowell, Massachusetts.
Bagley, William Chandler: American educator, author, and editor who, as a leading "Essentialist," opposed many of the practices of progressive education.
Baglioni Family: related Umbrian nobles, many of whom were fierce and skillful condottiere, who dominated Perugia between 1488 and 1534. They were constantly challenged by other nobles and by the papacy.
Bagnold, Enid: English novelist and playwright who was known for her broad range of subject and style.
Bagnold, Ralph A.: English geologist who was a leading authority on the mechanics of sediment transport and on eolian (wind-effect) processes.
Bago: city, western portion of the island of Negros, Philippines. Bago lies along Guimaras Strait at the mouth of the Bago River and is situated between Bacolod and its outport to the southwest, Pulupandan. Bago is located in an agricultural area ...
Bagoas: confidential minister of the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes III of Persia. His name was the Greek form of an Old Persian name often used for eunuchs.
bagpipe: wind instrument consisting of two or more single- or double-reed pipes, the reeds being set in motion by wind fed by arm pressure on an animal-skin (or rubberized-cloth) bag. The pipes are held in wooden sockets (stocks) tied into the ...
Bagratid: princely and royal dynasty founded in Armenia and Georgia during the 9th century by the Bagratuni family. The Bagratid kings kept Armenia independent of both the Byzantine Empire and the 'Abbasid Caliphate.
Bagration, Pyotr Ivanovich, Knyaz: Russian general who distinguished himself during the Napoleonic Wars.
Bagritsky, Eduard Georgiyevich: Soviet poet known for his revolutionary verses and for carrying on the romantic tradition in the Soviet period.
Baguio: city, west-central Luzon, Philippines. After the United States occupied the Philippines in 1898, Governor William Howard Taft and other officials proposed the pleasant site nestled in pine-clad hills at about 4,900 feet (1,500 m) to serve as the summer capital ...
Bagutta Prize: Italian literary prize that is awarded annually to the author of the best book of the year. Established in 1927, it is named after the Milan trattoria in which the award ceremony is held. The prize recognizes authors in several ...
bagworm moth: any insect of the worldwide family Psychidae (order Lepidoptera), named for the baglike cases the larvae carry with them. The bag, which ranges in size from 6 to 152 mm (0.25 to 6 inches) and is constructed from silk and ...
Bagyidaw: king of Myanmar (Burma) from 1819 to 1837. The seventh monarch of the Konbaung, or Alaungpaya, dynasty, he was defeated in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26). As a result of his defeat, the provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim were lost ...
Baha' ad-Din Zuhayr: Arab poet attached to the Ayyubid dynasty of Cairo.
Baha' al-Din: Arab writer and statesman, author of the Sirat Salah ad-Din ("Life of Saladin"). He was first a teacher at Baghdad and then professor at Mosul.
Baha' Ullah: founder of the Baha'i faith upon his claim to be the manifestation of the unknowable God.
Baha'i faith: religion founded in Iran in the mid-19th century by Mirza Hoseyn 'Ali Nuri, who is known as Baha' Ullah (Arabic: "Glory of God"). The cornerstone of Baha'i belief is the conviction that Baha' Ullah and his forerunner, who was known ...
Baha'i temple: in the Baha'i faith, house of worship open to adherents of all religions. See mashriq al-adhkar.
Bahadur Shah I: Mughal emperor of India in 1707-12.
Bahadur Shah II: the last Mughal emperor of India (reigned 1837-58). He was a poet, musician, and calligrapher, more an aesthete than a political leader.
Bahadurpur, Battle of: (Feb. 24, 1658), conflict that helped decide the war of succession among the sons of Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor of India (reigned 1628-57/58). When Shah Jahan fell ill in 1657, his four sons-Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja', Aurangzeb, and Murad Bakhsh-fought ...
Bahah, al-: town, southwestern Saudi Arabia. The town is situated on a mountainous plateau at an elevation of 7,014 feet (2,138 m) and is surrounded by terraced hillsides, which are covered with juniper. It is known as the gateway to the 'Asir ...
Bahamas, The: archipelago and state on the northwestern edge of the West Indies. The group occupies an irregular submarine tableland that rises out of the Atlantic depths and is separated from nearby lands to the south and west by deepwater channels. Lying ...
Bahar, Muhammad Taqi: poet who is considered to be one of the greatest poets of early 20th-century Iran.
Baharampur: town, central West Bengal state, northeastern India, just east of the Bhagirathi River. Baharampur was founded and fortified in 1757 by the English East India Company and continued as a cantonment until 1870. It was the scene of the first ...
Bahawalnagar: town, east-central Punjab province, Pakistan. The town lies just east of the Sutlej River. It is a market distributing centre connected by road with Multan to the west and Bahawalpur to the southwest and also by rail with the latter. ...
Bahawalpur: city, southeastern Punjab province, Pakistan. The nawabs of Bahawalpur originally came from Sindh; they formed a princely state and assumed independence in 1802.
Bahia: estado ("state") of eastern Brazil. It is bounded on the northwest by Piaui state, north by Pernambuco state, northeast by Alagoas and Sergipe states, east by the Atlantic Ocean, southeast by Espirito Santo state, south by Minas Gerais state, ...
Bahia Blanca: city and major port of Argentina, located near Blanca Bay of the Atlantic Ocean in the southwestern part of Buenos Aires provincia. The bay forms a natural harbour for the city, which is located 4 miles (6.5 km) upstream on ...
Bahmani Sultanate: Muslim state (1347-1518) in the Deccan in India. The sultanate was founded in 1347 by 'Ala'-ud-Din Bahman Shah, who was supported by other military leaders in rebellion against the sultan of Delhi, Muhammad ibn Tughluq. The Bahmani capital was Ahsanabad ...
Bahnaric languages: branch of the Mon-Khmer family of languages, itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. The Bahnaric branch is divided into West, Northwest, North, Central, and South subbranches. North Bahnaric languages, such as Sedang and Halang, are spoken primarily in central ...
Bahonar, Mohammad Javad: Iranian politician who was prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1981. In office for less than a month, he was killed by antigovernment forces.
Bahr al-'Arab: intermittent river of southwestern Sudan, rising northeast of the Tondou (Bongo) Massif, near the border with the Central African Republic. The river flows 500 miles (800 km) east-southeast to join the Bahr al-Ghazal, a tributary of the Nile River, at ...
Bahr al-Ahmar, al-: muhafazah (governorate) of Egypt, comprising much of the Eastern Desert (also called Arabian Desert) east of the Nile River Valley to the Red Sea; its name means "red sea." It extends from approximately 29° N latitude southward to the frontier ...
Bahr al-Ghazal: river, The Sudan, chief western affluent of the Nile River. It is 445 miles (716 km) long and joins the upper Nile (Bahr al-Jabal) through Lake No, from which it flows eastward as the White Nile (Bahr al-Abyad). Vaguely known ...
Bahr al-Jabal: that section of the Nile River between Nimule near the Uganda border and Malakal in south-central Sudan. Below Nimule the river flows northward over the Fula Rapids, past Juba (the head of navigation), and through as-Sudd, an enormous, papyrus-choked swamp ...
Bahr az-Zaraf: river, an arm of the Nile River in as-Sudd region of south-central Sudan. It is formed in the swamps north of Shambe, diverting water from the Bahr al-Jabal (Mountain Nile), and flows 150 miles (240 km) north, past Fangak, to ...
Bahr, George: German architect who is best known for his design of the Baroque Dresden Frauenkirche (1722-43; destroyed by Allied bombing, 1945).
Bahr, Hermann: Austrian author and playwright who championed (successively) naturalism, Romanticism, and Symbolism.
Bahraich: city, east-central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, located on a tributary of the Ghaghara River and on a rail line between Lucknow and Nepalganj, Nepal. Bahraich is a centre of trade (agricultural products and timber) with Nepal; there is also ...
Bahrain: small Arab state in the Persian Gulf. It is an archipelago consisting of Bahrain Island-extending about 30 miles (50 km) from north to south and 10 miles (16 km) from east to west-and some 30 smaller islands. Its Arabic name ...
Bahram: (foaled 1932), English racehorse (Thoroughbred), winner in 1935 of the British Triple Crown and never beaten in nine contests.
Bahram I: Sasanian king (reigned 273-276).
Bahram II: Sasanian king (reigned 276-293), the son and successor of Bahram I.