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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 The M16 superseded the M14 rifle.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 ...
Chinese historian who wrote the Wenxian tongkao ("General Study of the Literary Remains"), a huge encyclopaedia of general knowledge. This work, with the works of two other ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
(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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
("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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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, ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
(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 ...
city, capital of Amapa state, northern Brazil, on the northern channel (Canal do Norte) of the Amazon Delta, situated on a small plateau of firm ground 50 feet (15 metres) ...
any of about 20 species of gregarious Old World monkeys, all of which are Asian except for the Barbary macaque of North Africa. Macaques are robust primates whose arms and ...
Eastern Orthodox bishop and polemicist, author of an apology for the Christian faith, a document of signal value for its verbatim preservation of early philosophical attacks on Christian revelation.
monk and ascetic who, as one of the Desert Fathers, advanced the ideal of monasticism in Egypt and influenced its development throughout Christendom. A written tradition of mystical theology under ...
in art, Late Paleolithic finger tracings in clay. It is one of the oldest and simplest known forms of art. Innumerable examples appear on the walls and ceilings of limestone ...
originally, comic Latin verse form characterized by the introduction of vernacular words with appropriate but absurd Latin endings: later variants apply the same technique to modern languages. The form was ...
cookie or small cake made of sugar, egg white, and almonds, ground or in paste form, or coconut. The origin of the macaroon is uncertain. The name is applied generally ...
U.S. general who commanded the Southwest Pacific Theatre in World War II, administered postwar Japan during the Allied occupation that followed, and led United Nations forces during the first nine ...
(christened Sept. 3, 1767, Stoke Damerel, Devonshire, Eng.-d. April 11, 1834, Camden, New South Wales), agriculturist and promoter who helped found the Australian wool industry, which became the world's largest.
town, southeastern Ecuador. It lies on the Upano River along the eastern slopes of the Andes, at an elevation of 3,445 feet (1,050 m). Founded by the Spanish captain Jose ...
special administrative region (Pinyin tebie xingzhengqu; Wade-Giles t'e-pieh hsing-cheng-ch'u) of China, on the country's southern coast. Macau is located on the western side of ...
English Whig politician, essayist, poet, and historian best known for his History of England, 5 vol. (1849-61); this work, which covers the period 1688-1702, secured his place ...
common name of about 18 species of large colourful parrots native to tropical America. These brightly coloured, long-tailed birds are some of the most spectacular parrots in the world. The ...
king of Scots from 1040, the legend of whose life was the basis of Shakespeare's Macbeth. He was probably a grandson of King Kenneth II (reigned 971-995), ...
tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written sometime in 1606-07 and published in the First Folio of 1623 from a playbook or a transcript of one. Some portions of ...
British poet and novelist whose verse ranged from moving personal elegies, highly contrived poetic jokes, and loosely structured dream fantasies to macabre satires.
priestly family of Jews who organized a successful rebellion against the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV and reconsecrated the defiled Temple of Jerusalem.
