Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Maputo ... Maravi

Maputo: port city and capital of Mozambique. It lies along the north bank of Espirito Santo Estuary of Delagoa Bay, an inlet of the Indian Ocean. Maputo derived its former name from the Portuguese trader who first explored the region in ...
Maputo River: river formed by the confluence in southwestern Mozambique of the Great Usutu River (flowing from Swaziland) and the Pongola River (flowing from South Africa). From the confluence it flows about 50 miles (80 km) northeastward to enter Delagoa Bay, 14 ...
maqam: (Arabic: "place of residence"), a spiritual stage that periodically marks the long path followed by Muslim mystics (Sufis) leading to the vision of and union with God. The Sufi progresses by means of his own mujahadah (work, or self-mortification) and ...
maqam: in Islamic music, a set of pitches and of characteristic melodic elements, or motives, and a traditional pattern of their use, forming a system for the melodic and tonal construction of performances. A maqam can be represented by a seven-tone ...
maqamah: (Arabic: "assembly"), Arabic literary genre in which entertaining anecdotes, often about rogues, mountebanks, and beggars, written in an elegant, rhymed prose (saj'), are presented in a dramatic or narrative context most suitable for the display of the author's eloquence, wit, ...
Maqdisi, al-: Arab traveler, geographer, and author of a noted work based on personal observations of the populations, manners, and economic life of the various inhabitants of the lands of Islam, Ahson at-taqasim fi ma'rifat al-aqalim (985; "The Best of Classification for ...
maquiladora: manufacturing plant that imports and assembles duty-free components for export. The arrangement allows plant owners to take advantage of low-cost labour and to pay duty only on the "value added"-that is, on the value of the finished product minus the ...
maquis: a scrubland vegetation of the Mediterranean region, composed primarily of leathery, broad-leaved evergreen shrubs or small trees. Garigue, or garrigue, a poorer version of this vegetation, is found in areas with a thin, rocky soil. Maquis occurs primarily on the ...
Mar Chiquita, Lake: saline lake at the southern edge of the Gran Chaco in northeastern Cordoba provincia, north-central Argentina. It is about 45 miles (70 km) long and 15 miles (24 km) wide with an area of almost 775 square miles (2,000 square ...
Mar del Plata: coastal city, southeastern Buenos Aires provincia, east-central Argentina. Juan de Garay, the second founder of Buenos Aires, first explored the coastal area of Mar del Plata in 1581. In 1746 Father Thomas Falkner and Father Jose Cardiel founded the Indian ...
Mar, John Erskine, 1st Earl of: Scottish lord who played a major role in deposing Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (reigned 1542-67), and gaining the crown for her infant son James VI (later James I of England); Mar was regent for James in 1571-72.
Mar, John Erskine, 2nd Earl of: Scottish politician and friend of King James VI; he helped James govern Scotland both before and after James ascended the English throne (as James I) in 1603.
Mar, John Erskine, 6th earl of, Lord Erskine: Scottish noble who led the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, an unsuccessful attempt to gain the British crown for James Edward, the Old Pretender, son of the deposed Stuart monarch James II. Because Mar shifted his political allegiances frequently, he earned ...
Mar, Serra do: (Portuguese: "Mountain Range of the Sea"), great escarpment on the eastern margins of the Brazilian Highlands, which descend abruptly to the Atlantic coast. It extends for about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) from Rio Grande do Sul estado ("state") all the ...
Mar-pa: one of the Tibetan translators of Indian Vajrayana (or Tantric) Buddhist texts, a significant figure in the revival of Buddhism in Tibet in the 11th century.
mara: either of two South American rodents in the genus Dolichotis of the cavy family, the Patagonian mara (D. patagonum) or the Chacoan mara (D. salinicola).
Mara: the Buddhist "Lord of the Senses," who was the Buddha's temptor on several occasions. When the bodhisattva Gautama seated himself under the Bo tree to await Enlightenment, the evil Mara appeared first in the guise of a messenger bringing the ...
Mara, Gertrud Elisabeth: German soprano of great technical ability, who was one of the few non-Italians of the time to gain a great international reputation.
marabou: (Leptoptilos crumeniferus), large African bird of the stork family, Ciconiidae (order Ciconiiformes). The marabou is the largest stork, 150 cm (5 feet) tall with a wingspread of 2.6 m (8 12 feet). Mainly gray and white, it has a naked ...
marabout: ("one who is garrisoned"), originally, in North Africa, member of a Muslim religious community living in a ribat, a fortified monastery, serving both religious and military functions. Men who possessed certain religious qualifications, such as the reciters of the Qur'an ...
Maracaibo: city, capital of Zulia estado ("state"), northwestern Venezuela, the country's second largest city and one of its largest seaports. On the western shore of the channel connecting Lake Maracaibo with the Gulf of Venezuela, it is in a basin surrounded ...
Maracaibo, Lake: large inlet of the Caribbean Sea, lying in the Maracaibo Basin of northwestern Venezuela. It is the largest natural lake in South America, covering an area of about 5,150 square miles (13,300 square km), extending southward for 130 miles (210 ...
Maracay: city, capital of Aragua estado ("state"), northern Venezuela. In the central highlands at 1,500 feet (460 m) above sea level and 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Caracas, Maracay rose to fame when the dictator Juan Vicente Gomez determined to ...
Maradi: town, south-central Niger, western Africa. The town is located on the banks of the Maradi, a seasonal stream, in a region consisting largely of a flat sandy plain (1,000 to 1,650 feet [300 to 500 m] in elevation) with isolated ...
Maradona, Diego Armando: Argentine football (soccer) player who is generally regarded as the top footballer of the 1980s and one of the greatest of all time. Renowned for his ability to control the ball and create scoring opportunities for himself and others, he ...
Maragheh: town in the Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran. It lies in the shelter of Mount Sahand (12,100 feet [3,700 m]) in a well-watered valley. The town is the prosperous centre of a large fruit-growing area and exports dried fruits. Its ...
Marais des Cygnes River: river flowing through east-central Kansas and west-central Missouri, U.S. It rises near Eskridge, Kansas, and flows nearly 220 miles (355 km) eastward into Missouri, where it joins the Little Osage River to form the Osage River. The Marais des Cygnes ...
Marais Theatre: one of the major theatrical companies in 17th-century France. With the actor Montdory as its head, the company performed at various temporary theatres in Paris from 1629 before finding a permanent home in a converted tennis court in the Marais ...
Marais, Jean: French actor who was a protege and longtime partner of French writer-director Jean Cocteau. Marais was one of the most popular leading men in French films during the 1940s and '50s.
Marais, Marin: French composer who was also a celebrated virtuoso of the viola da gamba.
Marajo Island: island, in the Amazon River delta, eastern Para state, Brazil. It is the world's largest fluvial island (i.e., one produced by sediments deposited by a stream or river). The island is 183 miles (295 km) long and 124 miles (200 ...
Maramures: judet (county), northwestern Romania. It occupies an area of 2,400 square miles (6,215 square km) and is bounded in the north by Ukraine. It is mostly mountainous and is dominated by the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, including the Maramures and Tibles ...
Maranao: largest of the Muslim cultural-linguistic groups of the Philippines. Numbering more than 840,000 in the late 20th century, they live around Lake Lanao on the southern island of Mindanao. Rice farming is their main livelihood, along with metalworking and woodworking ...
Maranhao: estado (state) of northern Brazil, situated south of the Equator and to the southeast of the Amazon River basin. About two-thirds of its area consists of a low, heavily wooded region, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north. To ...
Maranon River: headwater of the Amazon, rising in the snowcapped Andes above Lake Lauricocha in central Peru, about 100 miles (160 km) from the Pacific Ocean. It flows northwest across windswept plateaus 12,000 feet (3,650 m) high and carves a deep canyon ...
Marantaceae: the prayer plant family of the ginger order (Zingiberales), composed of about 31 genera and 550 species of rhizomatous perennial herbs that are native to moist or swampy tropical forests, particularly in the Americas. Members of the Marantaceae vary from ...
Maranville, Rabbit: American professional baseball player who is rated as one of the finest shortstops of the game.
Maranzano, Salvatore: American gangster of the Prohibition era, leader among the old-country-oriented Italians, known as "Moustache Petes," many of whom were former members of the Sicilian Mafia and Neapolitan Camorra.
marasmus: a form of protein-energy malnutrition occurring chiefly among very young children in developing countries, particularly under famine conditions, in which a mother's milk supply is greatly reduced. Marasmus results from the inadequate intake of both protein and calories; persons with ...
Marat, Jean-Paul: French politician, physician, and journalist, a leader of the radical Montagnard faction during the French Revolution. He was assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a young Girondin conservative.
Maratha: a major people of India, famed in history as yeoman warriors and champions of Hinduism. Their homeland is the present state of Maharashtra, the Marathi-speaking region that extends from Bombay to Goa along the west coast of India and inland ...
Maratha confederacy: alliance formed in the 18th century after Mughal pressure forced the collapse of Sivaji's kingdom of Maharashtra in western India. After the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's death (1707), Maratha power revived under Sivaji's grandson Shahu. He confided power to the Brahman ...
Maratha Wars: (1775-82, 1803-05, 1817-18), three conflicts between the British and the Maratha confederacy, resulting in the destruction of the confederacy.
Marathi language: Indo-Aryan language of western and central India. Its range extends from north of Bombay down the western coast past Goa and eastward across the Deccan; in 1966 it became the official language of the state of Maharashtra. The standard form ...
marathon: long-distance footrace first held at the revival of the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. It commemorates the legendary feat of a Greek soldier who, in 490 BC, is supposed to have run from Marathon to Athens, a distance of ...
Marathon Oil Corporation: American oil and gas company with a full range of operations from exploration and production to marketing and transportation. Marathon Oil, founded in 1887 as the Ohio Oil Company, came under the control of the Standard Oil Trust in 1889. ...
Marathon orogeny: mountain-building event in the Marathon region of western Texas, U.S., during the Late Carboniferous Period (from 320 to 286 million years ago). Rocks of Early Permian age (from 286 to 258 million years old) that overlie the Pennsylvanian and older ...
Marathon, Battle of: (September 490 BC), in the Greco-Persian Wars, decisive battle fought on the Marathon plain of northeastern Attica in which the Athenians, in a single afternoon, repulsed the first Persian invasion of Greece. Command of the hastily assembled Athenian army was ...
Maratta, Carlo: one of the leading painters of the Roman school in the later 17th century, and one of the last great masters of Baroque classicism, who (with Francesco Solimena) established the style known as the European Grand Manner.
Marattiaceae: the giant fern family, the only family of the fern order Marattiales, or, in some classification systems, one of four families in that order. The family contains as many as six genera and about 200 species of large tropical and ...
Maravi: cluster of nine Bantu-speaking peoples living in the tree-studded grasslands of Malawi and along the lower Zambezi River. The two largest groups are the Chewa (or Cewa) and the Nyanja. Their economy is based mainly on shifting agriculture, corn (maize) ...