'aqil

(Arabic: “knowledgeable”), in Islamic law, one who is in full possession of his mental faculties. Such a person is legally responsible for his actions and punishable for any deviation from religious commandments. 'Aqil is often used with the adjective baligh (“grown-up,” or “of age”) in contrast to qasir (“juvenile”). In Islamic law, a qasir cannot qualify as a witness in court without consideration

Congonhas

Town, east-central Minas Gerais estado (“state”), Brazil, in the Brazilian Highlands, at 2,854 feet (870 metres) above sea level. The settlement was made the seat of a municipality in 1938. Known as Congonhas do Campo before 1948, the town is a centre for the mining of iron, nickel, gold, and other minerals. The town is dominated by the great pilgrimage church of Bom Jesus (1773) and its chapels, which are set

Guadalupe, Basilica Of

Officially  Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe , Spanish  Basílica de Guadalupe , or  Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe  Roman Catholic church that is the chief religious centre of Mexico, located in Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo, a northern neighbourhood of Mexico City. The church was erected near the spot where two apparitions of the Virgin are said to have appeared to an Indian convert named Juan Diego in December 1531 and commanded that a church be built. The second apparition resulted

Szeged

American symphony orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes in 1918 and was one of the last major American orchestras to be created. Nikolai Sokoloff (1918–33), the first music director, was succeeded by Artur Rodzinski (1933–43), Erich Leinsdorf (1943–46, mostly in absentia; he was serving concurrently in the U.S. armed forces), George Szell (1946–70), Pierre Boulez (1970–72), Lorin Maazel

Bradford, Roark (whitney Wickliffe)

Bradford had little formal education; instead, he found the substance for his career in the people around him. When he began work as a reporter in 1920, he met the colourful characters of various Southern

Leaf

In botany, any usually flattened green outgrowth from the stem of a vascular plant. Leaves manufacture food for plants, which in turn ultimately nourish and sustain all land animals. Botanically, leaves are an integral part of the stem system, and they are initiated in the apical bud along with the tissues of the stem itself. Certain organs that are superficially very

Bohol Sea

Also called  Mindanao Sea,  section of the western North Pacific Ocean. Measuring about 170 miles (270 km) east–west, it is bounded by the islands of the Philippines—Mindanao (south and east), Leyte, Bohol, and Cebu (north), and Negros (west). It opens north to the Visayan Sea through Bohol and Tañon straits and the Canigao Channel, east to the Philippine Sea through the Surigao Strait, and west to the Sulu Sea. The

World War I, The war in the east, 1914

Urged by the

Scandinavian Literature, Developments in Finno-Swedish literature

The second flourishing of Finno-Swedish literature occurred in the 1920s, with the development of modernism in lyric poetry. This trend was initiated by Edith Södergran, whose visionary, dreamlike poems proved influential throughout much of Scandinavia. After her came such poets as Gunnar Björling, noted for his impressionistic pictures of nature; Rabbe

Mascarene Islands

French  Îles Mascareignes,   collectively, the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues, which are situated in a line along a submarine ridge, the Seychelles–Mauritius Plateau, 400 to 500 miles (640 to 800 km) northeast from southern Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean. All are volcanic in origin. The name Mascarene is taken from the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Pedro de Mascarenhas. The islands now form

Tragicomedy

Dramatic work incorporating both tragic and comic elements. When coined by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the 2nd century BC, the word denoted a play in which gods and men, masters and slaves reverse the roles traditionally assigned to them, gods and heroes acting in comic burlesque and slaves adopting tragic dignity. This startling innovation may be seen in Plautus'

Wicklow

Irish  Cill Mhantáin  county in the province of Leinster, Ireland. With an area of 782 sq mi (2,025 sq km), it is bounded on the east by the Irish Sea and by Counties Wexford (south), Carlow and Kildare (west), and Dublin (north). County Wicklow includes much of the Leinster Chain mountain range, notably the Wicklow Mountains, and has fertile lowland areas. Much of its coast comprises rocky cliffs and excellent

Ch'i Ju-shan

Born into a prosperous and well-educated family, Ch'i Ju-shan received a Classical Chinese education, also studying traditional Chinese theatre from childhood and learning European languages as a young man.

Vignola, Giacomo Da

After studying in Bologna, Vignola went to Rome in the 1530s and made drawings of the antiquities for a projected edition of Vitruvius' treatise

Togo, Transportation

The government-owned national railway consists of four lines, all of which emanate from Lomé. One line connects Kpalimé with the capital; other lines run to Ané

Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos

Also spelled  Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos   Byzantine historian and litterateur whose stylistic prose and poetry exemplify the developing Byzantine humanism of the 13th and 14th centuries and whose 23-volume Ecclesiasticae historiae (“Church History”), of which only the first 18 volumes survive, constitutes a significant documentary source for material on primitive Christianity, its doctrinal controversies

Endocrinology

Medical discipline dealing with the role of hormones and other biochemical mediators in regulating bodily functions and with the treatment of imbalances of these hormones. Although some endocrine diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, have been known since antiquity, endocrinology itself is a fairly recent medical field, depending as it does on the recognition

Henrietta Anne Of England

The youngest child of England's King Charles I (beheaded 1649), she was reared as an exile by her mother, Henrietta Maria, in Paris. Her brother Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660, and on March 30, 1661, Henrietta was

Liquid-drop Model

In nuclear physics, description of atomic nuclei formulated (1936) by Niels Bohr and used (1939) by him and John A. Wheeler to explain nuclear fission. According to the model, the nucleons (neutrons and protons) behave like the molecules in a drop of liquid. If given sufficient extra energy (as by the absorption of a neutron), the spherical nucleus may be distorted into a dumbbell shape

Igneous Rock, Inclusions

These are rounded to angular masses of solid material enclosed within a rock of recognizably different composition or texture. Those consisting of older material not directly related to that of their host are known as xenoliths, and those representing broken-up and detached older parts of the same igneous body that encloses them are termed cognate xenoliths

Periyar Wild Life Sanctuary

Wildlife preserve in Idukki district, Kerala state, southern India. The sanctuary is noted for herds of elephants, sometimes numbering 50 members. In addition, bonnet monkey, nilgai, langur, porcupine, sloth bear, tiger, leopard, Asian elephant, barking deer, gray jungle fowl, kingfisher, the great Indian hornbill, and the southern grackle are found in the preserve. Extending

Zollverein

The movement to create a free-trade zone in Germany received great impetus from economists such as Friedrich List, its most active advocate in early 19th-century Germany. In 1818 Prussia

Iliamna Lake

Lake, southwestern Alaska, U.S., west of Cook Inlet (Gulf of Alaska). The second largest freshwater lake entirely within the United States (after Lake Michigan), it is 80 miles (129 km) long and 25 miles (40 km) wide and covers an area of 1,000 square miles (2,600 square km). It drains southwest through the Kvichak River into Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea. It is noted for its game fish, especially rainbow

Permafrost, Air temperature and ground temperature

In areas where the mean annual air temperature becomes colder than 0° C, some of the ground frozen in the winter will not be completely thawed in the summer; therefore, a layer of permafrost will form and continue to grow downward gradually each year from the seasonally frozen ground. The permafrost layer will become thicker each winter, its thickness controlled by

Wake

Watch or vigil held over the body of a dead person before burial and sometimes accompanied by festivity; also, in England, a vigil kept in commemoration of the dedication of the parish church. The latter type of wake consisted of an all-night service of prayer and meditation in the church. These services, officially termed Vigiliae by the church, appear to have existed

Widsith

Modern English  Far Traveler  Old English poem, probably from the 7th century, that is preserved in the Exeter Book, a 10th-century collection of Old English poetry. “Widsith” is an idealized self-portrait of a scop (minstrel) of the Germanic heroic age who wandered widely and was welcomed in many mead halls, where he entertained the great of many kingdoms. Because the heroic figures the minstrel claims

Kazak

Also spelled  Kazakh,   an Asiatic Turkic-speaking people inhabiting mainly Kazakstan and the adjacent parts of the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang in China. The Kazaks emerged in the 15th century from an amalgam of Turkic tribes who entered Transoxiana about the 8th century and of Mongols who entered the area in the 13th century. At the end of the 20th century there were roughly 7,600,000 in Kazakstan

Thomas, Saint

Thomas' character is outlined in The Gospel

Joubert, Petrus Jacobus

Joubert was the son of an indigent farmer-missionary who trekked his family north to Natal in 1837. When his father died, the family settled on a farm (Rustfontein)

Chan Chan

Great ruined and abandoned pre-Inca city on the present-day northern Peruvian coast, the capital of the Chimú kingdom (c. AD 1200–1400). The site is about 300 miles (480 km) north of Lima in the Moche Valley, between the Pacific and the city of Trujillo. The ruins, which cover nearly 14 square miles (36 square km), are in good condition because the area is rainless. The city was watered by irrigation ditches,

Dozy, Reinhart Pieter (anne)

Dutch Arabist, best remembered for his monumental Histoire des musulmans d'Espagne, jusqu'à la conquête de l'Andalousie par les Almoravides, 711–1110 (1861; Spanish Islam, 1913). Dozy, of French Huguenot ancestry, spent 33 years (from 1850) as professor of history at the University of Leiden. His history, a graphically written account of Moorish dominion in Spain that

San Leandro

City, Alameda County, western California, U.S., adjoining Oakland (south), forms part of the East Bay metropolitan strip characterized by suburban developments, commercial trading centres, and waterfront industries. Once part of Rancho San Leandro (1839), it was known as Squatterville when prospectors settled there after the 1849 Gold Rush. Laid out in 1855, it began as a horticultural

Byrd, Richard E.

In full  Richard Evelyn Byrd   U.S. naval officer, pioneer aviator, and polar explorer best known for his explorations of Antarctica using airplanes and other modern technical resources.

Hess, Germain Henri

After practicing medicine for several years in Irkutsk, Russia, Hess became professor of chemistry in 1830 at the Technological Institute, University of St. Petersburg. His early investigations concerned minerals and the natural

Discovery Bay

Wide curved bay indenting the south coast of Australia. An inlet of the Indian Ocean, it is 50 miles (80 km) across and is bounded on the east by Cape Bridgewater (Victoria) and on the west by Cape Northumberland (South Australia). Visited in 1800 by James Augustus Grant of the Royal Navy, it was named in 1836 by Thomas Livingstone Mitchell as he descended the Glenelg River (which enters the

Spanish Lace

Lace made in Spain; the name is also erroneously given to much lace that was in fact imported into Spain from the 17th century onward. The Spaniards imported a great deal of Venetian needle lace for church use in the 17th century. When the Spanish monasteries were dissolved in 1830, much ecclesiastical lace came to light that was described as “Spanish point,” but little, if any, of

Dow Jones Average

Stock price average computed by Dow Jones & Company. The averages are among the most commonly used indicators of general trends in the prices of stocks and bonds in the United States. Dow Jones & Company, a financial news publisher founded by Charles Henry Dow and Edward D. Jones, began computing a daily industrials average in 1897, using a list of 12 stocks and dividing their

Maso Di Banco

Florentine painter who was the most talented of Giotto's pupils. Maso's work displays a style that effectively and intelligently incorporated the teachings of the master. It was the work of Maso that Ghiberti singled out in the 15th century for praise. Maso is mentioned in connection with the Bardi family in a document of 1341. It was a member of this family that provided

Indes, Compagnie Fran�aise Des

(French: “French Company of the Indies”), one of the companies known as the French East India Company (q.v.).

Basil

Albanian in origin, Basil acceded to the throne of Moldavia in the spring of 1634. He intrigued throughout his reign to acquire the Walachian throne as well, and in 1637 and 1639 led unsuccessful expeditions against the ruling prince

Computer Virus

A virus consists of a set of instructions that attaches itself to other computer programs, usually in the computer's operating system,

Restif, Nicolas-edme

After serving his apprenticeship as a printer in Auxerre, Restif went to Paris, where he eventually set the type for some of his own works—books long prized by collectors for their rarity, quaint typography,

Italic Languages, Oscan

Before Latin spread out, Oscan was the most widely spoken group of dialects of the Apennine Peninsula. It was used by the Samnites in Samnium and Campania; by the inhabitants of Lucania and Bruttium; and, with slight variations, by smaller tribes between Latium and the Adriatic coast: the Volsci, Marsi, Paeligni, Vestini, and Marrucini. (These distinct “minor dialects” within

Adams, Maude

Her mother, whose maiden name she adopted, was leading lady of the Salt Lake City stock company. From Adams' first triumph at the age of five as Little Schneider in Fritz at the San Francisco Theatre, she played child roles. In 1888 she joined

Mcadam, John Loudon

In 1770 he went to New York City, entering the countinghouse of a merchant uncle; he returned to Scotland with a considerable fortune in 1783. There he purchased an estate at Sauhrie, Ayrshire. McAdam, who had become a road trustee in his district, noted that the local highways were

Clodion

In 1755 Clodion went to Paris and entered the workshop of Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, his uncle. On his uncle's death, he became a pupil of J.B. Pigalle. In 1759 he won the grand prize for sculpture at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and in 1762 he went to Rome. Catherine II was

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Parable

In the West the conventions of parable were largely established by the teachings of Christ. The New Testament records a sufficient number of his parables, with their occasions, to show that to some extent his disciples were chosen as his initiates and followers because they “had ears to hear” the true meaning of his parables. (It has already been noted that the parable

Alexander Aetolus

Greek poet of Pleuron, in Aetolia. He was appointed by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Macedonian king of Egypt, to arrange and catalog the tragedies in the library at Alexandria. Nothing remains of his own tragic writing except the title of one play, Astragalistae (“The Dice Players”). A few fragments of his shorter writings are extant, including a brief appreciation of Euripides.

Aldosterone

Aldosterone is synthesized in the body from corticosterone, a steroid derived from cholesterol. Production of aldosterone (in adult humans,

Cramp

Painful, involuntary, and sustained contraction of muscle, most common in the limbs but also affecting certain internal organs. Examples of cramping include menstrual cramps and spasms of the circular muscles of the bowel (irritable colon), blood vessels (vasospasm), and pylorus of the stomach (pylorospasm; the pylorus is the opening from the stomach to the

Ta-pa Mountains

Wade–Giles romanization  Ta-pa Shan,  Pinyin  Daba Shan,   mountain range dividing Szechwan province from Shensi province, China. Like the Tsinling Mountains to the north, from which it is separated by the Han River valley and the basin near Han-chung in Shensi, it is an eastward continuation of the Kunlun Mountains. The Ta-pa range is a broad belt of mountains running roughly northwest to southeast, forming the northern rim

Gaius

Also spelled  Caius  Roman jurist whose writings became authoritative in the late Roman Empire. The Law of Citations (426), issued by the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II, named Gaius one of five jurists (the others were Papinian, Ulpian, Modestinus, and Paulus) whose doctrines were to be followed by judges in deciding cases. The Institutiones (“Institutes”) of the Byzantine emperor Justinian

Fishburne, Laurence

Fishburne began acting as a child, making his

Amaryllidaceae

Family of perennial herbs in the flowering plant order Liliales, containing about 65 genera and at least 835 species, distributed primarily in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Members of the family have bulbs or underground stems; several strap- or lance-shaped leaves grouped at the base of the stem or arranged alternately along the stem; flowers usually with

Catechumen

A person who receives instruction in the Christian religion in order to be baptized. According to the New Testament, the apostles instructed converts after baptism (Acts 2:41–42), and Christian instruction was evidently given to all converts (Luke 1:4, Acts 18:25, Galatians 6:6). As the number of Gentiles in the church increased, instruction became more definite. In the 4th century, with the

Khakass

Also spelled  Khakas, or Hakas,   people who have given their name to Khakassia republic in central Russia. The general name Khakass encompasses five Turkic-speaking groups that differ widely in their ethnic origin as well as in their culture and everyday life: the Kacha, Sagay (Sagai), Beltir, Kyzyl, and Koybal. Before the Russian Revolution of 1917 the Kacha were seminomadic pastoralists raising cattle,

Muravyov-apostol, Sergey Ivanovich

The son of a diplomat and writer, Muravyov-Apostol graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers and fought against the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and in subsequent foreign

Sangha

The sangha originated in the group of disciples who renounced the worldly life to wander with the Buddha and listen to his teachings. After the Buddha's

Cambridge

City, regional municipality of Waterloo, southeastern Ontario, Can. It lies 55 miles (90 km) west-southwest of Toronto. Cambridge was created in 1973 from the consolidation of the city of Galt, the towns of Hespeler and Preston, and parts of the townships of Waterloo and North Dumfries. Galt was founded about 1817 and, along with Dumfries Township, became the home of large numbers of Scottish