Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

diwani script ... Dobrovsky, Josef

diwani script: cursive style of Arabic calligraphy developed during the reign of the early Ottoman Turks (16th-early 17th century). It was invented by Housam Roumi and reached its height of popularity under Suleyman I the Magnificent (1520-66). As decorative as it was ...
Diwaniyah, ad-: town, south-central Iraq. The town lies in a riverine area about 20 miles west of a channel of the Euphrates River, and some nearby areas are under irrigation. Agriculture is the main occupation; palm trees, vineyards, and orchards are cultivated. ...
Dix, Dorothea Lynde: American educator, social reformer, and humanitarian whose devotion to the welfare of the mentally ill led to widespread reforms in the United States and abroad.
Dix, John Adams: political leader and U.S. Army officer who, as secretary of the treasury of the United States (1861), issued to a treasury officer in New Orleans the famous order: "If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him ...
Dix, Otto: German painter and engraver who mixed compassion and Expressionist despair to create works harshly critical of society. He was associated and exhibited with the Neue Sachlichkeit (q.v.) group of painters.
Dixie: the Southern U.S. states, especially those that belonged to the Confederate States of America (1860-65). The name came from the title of a song composed in 1859 by Daniel Decatur Emmett; this tune was popular as a marching song of ...
Dixiecrat: member of a right-wing Democratic splinter group in the 1948 U.S. presidential election organized by Southerners who objected to the civil rights program of the Democratic Party. It met at Birmingham, Ala., and on July 17, 1948, nominated Gov. Strom ...
Dixieland: in music, a style of jazz, often ascribed especially to the New Orleans pioneers of that movement, although many critics of popular music believe the term better describes the music of a later wave of white Chicago musicians including Jimmy ...
Dixon: city, seat (1839) of Lee county, northwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies on the Rock River, about 100 miles (160 km) west of Chicago. The area was settled in 1828 by Joseph Ogee, who established a ferry service across the river. ...
Dixon Entrance: narrow passage (50 mi [80 km] wide) of the eastern North Pacific, stretching 50 mi east from the open ocean to Hecate Strait (Canada). The Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska lies to the north and British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands ...
Dixon, George: Canadian-born American boxer, the first black to win a world boxing championship. He is considered one of the best fighters in the history of the bantamweight and featherweight divisions (present weight limits 118 pounds and 126 pounds, respectively).
Dixon, George: English navigator whose exploration of the western coast of North America helped to establish a profitable English fur trade in what is now British Columbia.
Dixon, Henry Horatio: Irish botanist who investigated plant transpiration and, with John Joly, developed the tension theory of sap ascent.
Dixon, Jeremiah: British surveyor who, working with fellow surveyor Charles Mason, established the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, known since as the Mason and Dixon Line.
Dixon, Joseph: American inventor and manufacturer who pioneered in the industrial use of graphite.
Dixon, Roland B: U.S. cultural anthropologist who, at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, organized one of the world's most comprehensive and functional anthropological libraries. He also developed Harvard into a leading centre for the training of anthropologists.
Dixon, Thomas: U.S. novelist, dramatist, and legislator who vigorously propagated ideas of white supremacy. He is chiefly remembered for his novel The Clansman (1905), which presented a sympathetic picture of the Ku Klux Klan. Dixon's friend, D.W. Griffith, used the novel as ...
Dixon, Willie: American blues musician who, as record producer, bassist, and prolific songwriter, exerted a major influence on the post-World War II Chicago style.
diyah: in Islam, the traditional compensation due for the shedding of blood. In pre-Islamic times, the compensation required for taking a life was 10 she-camels. The figure was increased to 100 in the area where Islam originated, and this regulation was ...
Diyala River: river, important tributary of the Tigris River, rising in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran near Hamadan as the Sirvan River and flowing westward across lowlands to join the Tigris just below Baghdad, Iraq. Its total length is 275 miles ...
Diyarbakir: city, southeastern Turkey, on the right bank of the Tigris River. The name means "district (diyar) of the Bakr people." Amida, an ancient town predating Roman colonization in the 3rd century AD, was enlarged and strengthened under the Roman emperor ...
Dja River: stream in west-central Africa that forms part of the Cameroon-Congo (Brazzaville) boundary. It rises southeast of Abong-Mbang, southeastern Cameroon, and flows generally southeast past Moloundou to Ouesso, Congo, where it empties into the Sangha River (a tributary of the Congo ...
Djebar, Assia: one of the most talented and prolific of contemporary Algerian women writers.
Djelfa: town, north-central Algeria, in the Oulad Nail Mountains at an elevation of 3,734 feet (1,138 m). It is situated between the towns of Bou Saada and Laghouat. Djelfa town is at a point of transition between the dry, steppelike High ...
Djenne: ancient trading city and centre of Muslim scholarship, southern Mali. It is situated on the Bani River on floodlands between the Bani and Niger rivers, 220 miles (354 km) southwest of Timbuktu. Djenne was founded in the 13th century near ...
Djibouti: port city and capital of the Republic of Djibouti. It lies on the southern shore of the Gulf of Tadjoura, which is an inlet of the Gulf of Aden. Built on three level areas (Djibouti, Serpent, Marabout) linked by jetties, ...
Djibouti: strategically located nation on the northeast coast of the Horn of Africa. It is situated on the Strait of Mandeb, which lies to the east and separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden. Small in size (8,950 square ...
Djibouti, history of: history of Djibouti from independence in 1977 to the present.
Djilas, Milovan: prolific political writer and former Yugoslav communist official remembered for his disillusionment with communism. Much of his work has been translated into English from Serbo-Croatian.
Djoser: second king of the 3rd dynasty (c. 2650-c. 2575 BC) of Egypt, who undertook the construction of the earliest important stone building in Egypt. His reign, which probably lasted 19 years, was marked by great technological innovation. He became renowned ...
Dlugosz, Jan: Polish diplomat and historian whose monumental history of Poland, the first of its kind, inspired Poles with pride in their past and helped to favourably change the attitude of educated Europeans toward Poland.
Dmanisi: site of paleoanthropological excavations in southern Georgia, where in 1991 a human jaw and teeth showing anatomical similarities to Homo erectus were unearthed.
Dmitry Donskoy: prince of Moscow, or Muscovy (1359-89), and grand prince of Vladimir (1362-89), who won a victory over the Golden Horde (Mongols who had controlled Russian lands since 1240) at the Battle of Kulikovo (Sept. 8, 1380).
Dmitry, False: any of three different pretenders to the Muscovite throne who, during the Time of Troubles (1598-1613), claimed to be Dmitry Ivanovich, the son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (reigned 1533-84) who had died mysteriously in 1591 while still a ...
Dmowski, Roman: Polish statesman, a leader of Poland's struggle for national liberation, and the foremost supporter of cooperation with Russia as a means toward achieving that goal.
DMT: powerful, naturally occurring hallucinogenic compound structurally related to the drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). DMT blocks the action of serotonin (a transmitter of nerve impulses) in brain tissue. It is inactive when taken by mouth and produces effects only when ...
Dmytryk, Edward: American motion-picture director, who was one of the "Hollywood Ten," a group of film-industry people who were blacklisted for their alleged communist association. His notable films include Crossfire (1947), The Caine Mutiny (1954), The Young Lions (1958), and a film ...
DNA: organic chemical of complex molecular structure that is found in all prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and in many viruses. DNA codes genetic information for the transmission of inherited traits.
DNA fingerprinting: in genetics, method of isolating and making images of sequences of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The technique was developed in 1984 by the British geneticist Alec Jeffreys, after he noticed the existence of certain sequences of DNA (called minisatellites) that do ...
Dnieper River: river of Europe, the fourth longest after the Volga, Danube, and Ural. It is 1,367 miles (2,200 kilometres) in length and drains an area of about 195,000 square miles (505,000 square kilometres).
Dniester River: river of southwestern Ukraine and of Moldova, rising on the north side of the Carpathian Mountains and flowing south and east for 840 miles (1,352 km) to the Black Sea near Odessa. It is the second longest river in Ukraine ...
Dniprodzerzhynsk: city, Dnipropetrovsk oblast (province), southern Ukraine, along the Dnieper River. Founded about 1750 as the Cossack settlement of Kamenskoye, the town grew after 1889 with the developing metallurgical industry. The Soviets renamed it Dneprodzerzhinsk in 1936. A large, modern iron ...
Dnipropetrovsk: oblast (province), southern Ukraine. It lies astride the Dnieper River, which there comprises three reservoirs dammed for hydroelectric power. The oblast consists of rolling plains of loess-covered sedimentary rocks, largely dissected by erosion gullies. In the valleys are outcrops of ...
Dnipropetrovsk: city and administrative centre, Dnipropetrovsk oblast (province), south-central Ukraine. It lies along the Dnieper River, near its confluence with the Samara. The river has been considerably widened by the construction of a dam about 50 miles (80 km) downstream. Founded ...
Dobell, Sydney Thompson: English writer of erratic poetry characterized by formlessness, chaotic imagery, and exaggerations of passion-one of a group of poets of what the writer Charles Kingsley called the Spasmodic school.
Dobereiner, Johann Wolfgang: German chemist whose observation of similarities among certain elements anticipated the development of the periodic system of elements.
Doberman pinscher: breed of working dog developed in Apolda, Ger., by Louis Dobermann, a night watchman and keeper of a dog pound, in the late 1800s. The Doberman pinscher is a sleek, agile, and powerful dog standing 24 to 28 inches (61 ...
Doblin, Alfred: German novelist and essayist, the most talented narrative writer of the German Expressionist movement.
Dobrich: town, northeastern Bulgaria. It lies on the road and railway line between Varna and Constanta, Rom., and is a long-established market town. Under Turkish rule from the 15th century until 1878, the town was called Bazardzhik; after liberation it became ...
Dobrolyubov, Nikolay Aleksandrovich: radical Russian utilitarian critic who rejected traditional and Romantic literature.
Dobrovsky, Josef: scholar of the Czech language, antiquary, and a principal founder of comparative Slavic linguistics.