Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Quiroga, Horacio ...

Quiroga, Horacio: Uruguayan-born short-story writer whose imaginative portrayal of the struggle of man and animal to survive in the tropical jungle earned him recognition as a master of the short story. He also excelled in depicting mental illness and hallucinatory states, in ...
Quiroga, Vasco de: Spanish bishop, social reformer, and humanist educator who founded the Colegio de San Nicolas Obisbo in colonial Mexico.
Quisling, Vidkun: Norwegian army officer whose collaboration with the Germans in their occupation of Norway during World War II established his name as a synonym for "traitor."
Quito: city and capital of Ecuador. It is situated in Pichincha province, on the lower slopes of the volcano Pichincha, which last erupted in 1666, in a narrow Andean valley at an elevation of 9,350 feet (2,850 metres), just south of ...
quiz show: broadcast show designed to test the memory, knowledge, agility, or luck of persons selected from studio or broadcast audience or to contrive a competition among these people for merchandise or cash awards. The quiz show first gained popularity on U.S. ...
Qumran: region on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, notable since 1947 as the site of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls (q.v.) were first discovered. Excavations (since 1949) at a site called Khirbet Qumran (Arabic: "Qumran Ruins"), less ...
Qunaytirah, Al-: abandoned town in the UN-monitored demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel. It was an important regional hub and administrative centre in southwestern Syria until 1967, when it was occupied by Israeli military forces. When the Israelis withdrew in 1974, they ...
Quoc-ngu: writing system used for the Vietnamese language. Quoc-ngu was devised in the mid 17th century by Portuguese missionaries who modified the Roman alphabet with accents and signs to suit the particular consonants, vowels, and tones of Vietnamese. It was further ...
quodlibet: (Latin: "what you will"), musical composition in which several well-known melodies are combined, either simultaneously or, less frequently, sequentially, for humorous effect. Quodlibet can also refer to an amalgamation of different song texts in a vocal composition. While simultaneous combinations ...
quoin: in Western architecture, both the external angle or corner of a building and, more often, one of the stones used to form that angle. These cornerstones are both decorative and structural, since they usually differ in jointing, colour, texture, or ...
quoits: game in which players toss rings at a stake, called the hob. A ring that encircles the hob scores two points for the thrower; a ring closer to the hob than an opponent's scores one. The rings are usually made ...
quokka: marsupial mammal, a species of wallaby (q.v.).
quoll: any of the catlike Australian marsupials that make up the genus Dasyurus in the family Dasyuridae. All native cats are predators that hunt chiefly at night. Because they sometimes raid poultry yards, native cats have been persecuted and in some ...
quota: in international trade, government-imposed limit on the quantity, or in exceptional cases the value, of the goods or services that may be exported or imported over a specified period of time. Quotas are more effective in restricting trade than tariffs, ...
Qur'an: holy book of Islam, regarded by believers as the true word of God as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. In its written form it is accepted as the earthly reproduction of an uncreated and eternal heavenly original, according to the ...
Quraysh: the ruling tribe of Mecca at the time of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. There were 10 main clans, the names of some of which gained great lustre through their members' status in early Islam. These included Hashim, the ...
Qurayyat, Al-: mintaqah (province), western Al-Shamaliyah (Northern) region, northwestern Saudi Arabia. It is bordered by the provinces of Al-Hudud al-Shamaliyah to the northeast, Al-Jawf to the east, Tabuk to the south, and Jordan to the north. Al-Qurayyat fronts the ...
qurra': ', professional class of reciters of the text of the Muslim sacred scripture, the Qur'an. In the early Islamic community, Muhammad's divine revelations had often been memorized by his Companions (disciples), a practice derived from the pre-Islamic tradition of preserving ...
Qutaybah ibn Muslim: Arab general under the caliphs 'Abd al-Malik and 'Abd al-Walid I whose conquests in Afghanistan and Central Asia helped bring the Umayyad caliphate to the height of its power.
Qutb Shahi Dynasty: (1518-1687), Muslim rulers of the kingdom of Golconda in the southeastern Deccan of India, one of the five successor states of the Bahmani kingdom. The founder was Quli Qutb Shah, a Turkish governor of the Bahmani eastern region, which largely ...
Qutb-ud-Din Aybak: a founder of Muslim rule in India and an able general of Mu'izz-ud-Din Muhammad of Ghur.
Quthing: village, southern Lesotho. The surrounding area, which borders South Africa (southeast and west) and the Orange River (north), is predominantly agricultural (with subsistence farming of wheat, corn [maize], and sorghum) and pastoral. The area's main cash income comes from livestock ...
Qwaqwa: former nonindependent black state, Free State, South Africa, designated for the southern Sotho (often called Basuto) people. Located in a section of the Drakensberg, Qwaqwa was a glen among mountains at elevations from 5,500 feet to more than 10,000 feet ...