town, northwestern Angola. It is situated on a low plateau about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Noqui, which is the nearest point on the Congo River. It was the capital of the Kongo kingdom from the 16th to the ...
Irish politician and historian who first made his name as a novelist with such successes as Dear Lady Disdain (1875) and Miss Misanthrope (1878) but then published his History of Our Own Times (1879-1905), which won general recognition.
eastern arm of the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is about 170 miles (270 km) long and 60 miles (90 km) wide. In western Franklin District, Northwest Territories, Canada, it extends west of Viscount Melville Sound and lies ...
town, north-central Algeria. It is situated on the Plains of Hodna between the saline lake Chott el-Hodna (south) and the east-west extending Hodna Mountains to the north at an elevation of 1,542 feet (470 m). A dam on the Wadi ...
region containing five towns, one of the major groups of oases of the Sahara, central Algeria. It was founded in the early 11th century by M'zabite Berbers. The M'zab was annexed to France in 1882 and reverted to Algeria in ...
member of a Berber people who inhabit the M'zab oases of southern Algeria. Members of the Ibadiyah subsect of the Muslim Kharijite sect, the M'zabites are descendants of the Ibadi followers of 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rustam, who were driven from ...
member of the British Empire, member of a British order of knighthood, though this rank does not confer knighthood. See British Empire, The Most Excellent Order of the.
assault rifle adopted as a standard weapon by the U.S. Army in 1967. The M16 superseded the M14 rifle. It is gas-operated and has both semiautomatic (i.e., autoloading) and fully automatic capabilities. Weighing less than 3.6 kg (8 pounds) and ...
river, northern Vietnam, one of the longest of the region, rising in the northwest. It flows southeastward through Laos for about 50 miles (80 km), cutting gorges through uplands to reach the plains region at which northern Vietnam begins to ...
Chinese historian who wrote the Wen hsien t'ung k'ao ("General Study of the Literary Remains"), a huge encyclopaedia of general knowledge. This work, with the works of two other historians of the Sung dynasty (960-1279), Cheng Ch'iao (1108-66) and Ssu-ma ...
Chinese general who helped establish the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25-220) after the usurpation of power by the minister Wang Mang ended the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 25).
influential Chinese landscape painter whose work, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the Ma-Xia school of painting. Ma occasionally painted flowers, but his genius lay in landscape painting, his lyrical and romantic interpretation becoming the model ...
predynastic Egyptian site located just south of modern Cairo in Al-Qahirah muhafazah (governorate) in Lower Egypt. The settlement at Al-Ma'adi was approximately contemporary with the widespread Gerzean culture (c. 3400-c. 3100 BC) of Upper Egypt. Al-Ma'adi was apparently a peasant ...
(Hebrew: "stands," or "posts"), 24 groups of Jewish laymen that witnessed, by turns of one week each, the daily sacrifice in the Second Temple of Jerusalem as representatives of the common people. Gradually ma'amadot were organized in areas outside Jerusalem, ...
town, southern Jordan. It is a regional trade centre for the sparsely settled southern part of the country, which is inhabited mainly by the Huwaytat and other Bedouins. Ma'an is the chief road and rail junction of southern Jordan. The ...
new city and industrial centre in southeastern Anhui sheng (province). Ma'anshan is situated on the south bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) some 22 miles (35 km) downstream from Wuhu, near the border of Jiangsu province, ...
in ancient Egyptian religion, the personification of truth, justice, and the cosmic order. The daughter of the sun god Re, she was associated with Thoth, god of wisdom.
town, west-central Jordan. It is situated on a highland plain more than 2,500 feet (760 metres) above sea level. The town lies 20 miles (32 km) south of Amman, along a main highway to southern Jordan.
ancient South Arabian kingdom that flourished in the 4th-2nd century BC in what is now northern Yemen. The Minaeans were a peaceful community of traders whose government showed features of democracy of the city-state pattern. Ma'in fell to the Sabaeans ...
village in southern Syria about 30 mi (50 km) north of Damascus. The houses are built on the slopes of a huge cirque of rocks that encloses the village; the houses are constructed of stones with flat beam roofs. Most ...
seventh 'Abbasid caliph (813-833), known for his attempts to end sectarian rivalry in Islam and to impose upon his subjects a rationalist Muslim creed.
town and historic site, north-central Yemen. It is famous as the location of the ancient fortified city of Ma'rib and its associated dam, principal centre of the pre-Islamic state of Saba' (950-115 BC). Sabaean civilization reached its peak with the ...
French-born American cellist known for his extraordinary technique and rich tone. His frequent collaborations with musicians and artists from other genres and media reinvigorated classical music and expanded its audience.
town, southern Myanmar (Burma). The town is a river port on the west bank of the main Irrawaddy distributary and is protected by flood-control embankments. It is linked with Yangon (Rangoon), 40 miles (65 km) east, by the Twante Canal ...
Chinese archaeological site uncovered in 1963 and located near Ch'ang-sha. It is the burial place of the Marquess of Tai, who lived in the 2nd century BC, and of his immediate family. He was one of many petty nobles who ...
group of Chinese landscape artists that used a style of painting named after Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, two great painters of the Southern Song academy, of which they were members in the last quarter of the 12th century AD ...
in Estonian folk religion, mysterious elflike small folk living under the earth. Corresponding to these are the Finnish maahiset and Lude muahiset, which refer both to the spirits and to an illness caused by them.
("who brings on twilight"), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the ...
gemeente (commune) and capital, Limburg provincie, southeastern Netherlands. It lies along the Maas (Meuse) River at the junction of the Juliana, Liege-Maastricht, and Zuid-Willems canals. Maastricht is the principal city in the southeastern appendix of The Netherlands and is only ...
international agreement approved by the heads of government of the states of the European Community (EC) in Maastricht, Netherlands, in December 1991. Ratified by all EC member states (voters in Denmark rejected the original treaty but later approved a slightly ...
uppermost of six main divisions in the Upper Cretaceous Series, representing all those rocks on a global basis deposited during the Maastrichtian Age (74.5 to 66.4 million years ago). The stage's name is derived from the city of Maastricht in ...
conductor and violinist who, as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1972 to 1982, was only the second American to have served as principal conductor of a major American orchestra.
in English folklore, the queen of the fairies. Mab is a mischievous but basically benevolent figure. In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, she is referred to as the fairies' midwife, who delivers sleeping men of their innermost wishes in the ...
fossil fragments of an ancient human skull found in 1958 near the village of Maba (Ma-pa), Guangdong (Kwangtung) province, southern China. Intermediate in form between Homo erectus and H. sapiens, the remains are referred by many authorities to archaic H. ...
group of related languages spoken in the border area of Chad, The Sudan, and the Central African Republic. The Maban languages form a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Maba (also called Bura Mabang) is the largest Maban language in ...
collection of 11 medieval Welsh tales based on mythology, folklore, and heroic legends. The tales provide interesting examples of the transmission of Celtic, Norman, and French traditions in early romance. The name Mabinogion derives from a scribal error and is ...
American comedian who was one of the most successful black vaudeville performers. She modeled her stage persona largely on her grandmother, who had been a slave. Wise, clever, and often ribald, Mabley dressed in frumpy clothes and used her deep ...
American mathematician who was a cocreator of category theory, an architect of homological algebra, and an advocate of categorical foundations for mathematics.
marshal of France and second president of the Third French Republic. During his presidency the Third Republic took shape, the new constitutional laws of 1875 were adopted, and important precedents were established affecting the relationship between executive and legislative powers.
form of pavement invented by John McAdam of Scotland in the 18th century. McAdam's road cross section was composed of a compacted subgrade of crushed granite or greenstone designed to support the load, covered by a surface of light stone ...
(Macadamia), any of about 10 species of ornamental evergreen tree belonging to the family Proteaceae, producing an edible, richly flavoured dessert nut.
title often assigned to a French medieval epic poem, or chanson de geste, after one of its chief characters. Blanchefleur, wife of the aged and infirm emperor Charlemagne, having repulsed the advances of Macaire, is accused of infidelity and sentenced ...
