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  • Haines (Alaska, United States)
    city, southeastern Alaska, U.S. Located at the northern end of North America’s longest fjord, it also lies at the northern end of the Alexander Archipelago on a peninsula between the Chilkoot and Chilkat rivers. Situated near the point where the Taiya Inlet meets the Chilkoot Inlet, Haines is south of Skagway (the former gold-rush cen...
  • Haines, Connie (American singer)
    American singer who was a petite but powerful vocalist who performed with Frank Sinatra in the big swing bands of Harry James and Tommy Dorsey and went on to make more than 200 solo recordings, 25 of which sold more than 50,000 copies. Some of her best-known songs include “Let’s Get Away from It All,” “Friendship,” “What Is This Thing Called Love?,”...
  • Haines, Jackson (American figure skater)
    American skater known as the father of figure skating. A ballet dancer, he adapted ballet styles and techniques to a sport that had previously comprised a limited number of figures executed in a tight, awkward manner....
  • Hainisch, Michael Arthur Josef Jakob (president of Austria)
    Austrian economist and statesman who served as first president of the federal republic of Austria (1920–28)....
  • Hainuwele (mythology)
    In a myth from Ceram (Molucca Islands), a beautiful girl, Hainuwele, has grown up out of a coconut plant. After providing the community with their necessities and luxuries, she is killed and her body cut into several pieces, which are then thrown over the island. From each part of her body a coconut tree grows. It is only after the death of Hainuwele that mankind becomes sexual; that is, the......
  • Haiphong (Vietnam)
    city, northern Vietnam. It lies on the northeastern edge of the Red River delta, beside a distributary of the Thai Binh River, 10 miles (16 km) from the Gulf of Tonkin. It is the outport of the capital, Hanoi, 37 miles (60 km) west, and is the country’s third largest city. Haiphong became a seaport in 1874, and through the French colonial period it developed commercially as a port and as th...
  • Haiphong cyclone (tropical cyclone)
    (Oct. 8, 1881), one of most catastrophic natural disasters in history and the third deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded. The cyclone smashed into the Gulf of Tonkin, setting off tidal waves that flooded the city of Haiphong in northeastern Vietnam, caused widespread destruction, and killed an estimated 300,000 inhabitants....
  • hair (anatomy)
    in mammals, the characteristic threadlike outgrowths of the outer layer of the skin (epidermis) that form an animal’s coat, or pelage. Hair is present in differing degrees on all mammals. On adult whales, elephants, sirenians, and rhinoceroses body hair is limited to scattered bristles. In most other mammals the hair is abundant enough to form a thick coat, while humans are among the most ...
  • Hair (rock music by Ragni and Rado)
    ...in many different directions: rock and roll, operatic styling, extravagant lighting and staging, social comment, nostalgia, pure spectacle. The first notable example of the rock musical was Hair (1967), which found its social dissent in a combination of loud music, stroboscopic lighting, youthful irreverence, and nudity. In a few cases, rock music was combined with biblical stories,......
  • hair (plant anatomy)
    The trichomes (pubescences) that often cover the plant body are the result of divisions of epidermal cells. Trichomes may be either unicellular or multicellular and are either glandular, consisting of a stalk terminating in a glandular head, or nonglandular, consisting of elongated tapering structures. Leaf and stem trichomes increase the reflection of solar radiation, thereby reducing internal......
  • hair cell (inner ear anatomy)
    ...as a result of continuous exposures to sound waves of sufficient intensity and duration. Hearing loss can be caused by damage to the middle ear, tympanic membrane (eardrum), and inner ear. The hair cells that line the inner ear and take part in the process of hearing can be irreversibly damaged by excessive noise levels. Intense sound blasts can rupture the tympanic membrane and dislocate......
  • hair feather (avian anatomy)
    ...from the tip of a very short shaft. Their function is insulation, and they may be found in both pterylae and apteria in adult birds. They also constitute the first feather coat of most young birds. Filoplumes are hairlike feathers with a few soft barbs near the tip. They are associated with contour feathers and may be sensory or decorative in function. Bristlelike, vaneless feathers occur......
  • hair follicle (anatomy)
    small oil-producing gland present in the skin of mammals. Sebaceous glands are usually attached to hair follicles and release a fatty substance, sebum, into the follicular duct and thence to the surface of the skin. The glands are distributed over the entire body with the exception of the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet; they are most abundant on the scalp and face....
  • hair seal (mammal)
    (Phoca vitulina), nonmigratory, earless seal (family Phocidae) found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The harbour seal is whitish or grayish at birth and as an adult is generally gray with black spots. The adult male may attain a length and weight of about 1.8 m (6 feet) and 130 kg (290 pounds); the female is somewhat smaller. Found along coastlines and in a few freshwater lakes in Cana...
  • hair transplant (medical operation)
    There are three medical treatments for male pattern baldness. The first, hair transplantation, involves the transplanting of hair follicles from areas of the scalp where hair is still growing to areas where it is not—e.g., from the back to the front of the head. The second treatment consists of the topical application of drugs. One drug, minoxidil, when applied to thinning areas of the......
  • hair worm (aschelminths class)
    any of the approximately 250 to 300 species of the class Nematomorpha, or Gordiacea (phylum Aschelminthes). The young of these long, thin worms are parasitic in arthropods. The adults are free-living in the sea or in freshwater. The hairlike body sometimes grows to a length of 1 m (about 39 inches)....
  • hair-cap moss (moss)
    any of the plants of the genus Polytrichum (subclass Bryidae) with 39–100 species; it often forms large mats in peat bogs, old fields, and areas with high soil acidity. About 10 species are found in North America. The most widely distributed species is P. commune, which often attains a height of 15 cm (6 inches) or more and may form large tussocks or wide beds, especially in p...
  • haircloth (textile)
    Horsehair fabric, or haircloth, stiff and with an open weave, is usually made with lengthwise yarns of another fibre, such as cotton, and long, crosswise yarns of horsehair. It is used as interlining or stiffening for tailored garments and millinery but is gradually being replaced for such purposes by materials of synthetic fibres. The fabric, at one time made into shirts worn by religious......
  • hairdressing
    custom of cutting and arranging the hair, practiced by men and women from ancient times to the present. Early records indicate that the ancient Assyrians wore elaborate curly hair styles; by contrast, the ancient Egyptians, men and women alike, shaved their heads and wore wigs. Whether ornate or simple, hairdressing has been employed by very nearly every society. In 400 bc some Gree...
  • hairless bat (mammal)
    ...bats about 4–13 cm (1.6–5.1 inches) long excluding the 1.5–8-cm (0.6–3.1-inch) tail. Their ears are large and are joined across the forehead in some species. Except for the naked, or hairless, bat (Cheiromeles torquatus), which is almost hairless, they have short, velvety, usually dark fur....
  • hairpin (ornament)
    In the time of the Shang dynasty, in the last centuries of the 2nd millennium bc, bone and ivory hairpins with ends carved in the form of birds or abstract figures were a popular adornment. The many finely wrought, small jade plaques of the period, depicting animals in profile, are in many cases clearly intended for sewing to the costume. The earliest evidence of gold ornaments belon...
  • Hairspray (film)
    ...album in six years, The Dana Owens Album, and she again brought her musical background to the screen for her role as Motormouth Maybelle in the film Hairspray (2007), a remake of the stage musical. In 2008 Queen Latifah starred in The Secret Life of Bees, a drama about a white girl taken in by a family of......
  • hairspring (watch part)
    Controlling the oscillations of a balance with a spring was an important step in the history of timekeeping. English physicist Robert Hooke designed a watch with a balance spring in the late 1650s; there appears to be no evidence, however, that the spring was in the form of a spiral, a crucial element that would become widely employed. Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens was probably the first......
  • hairstreak (insect)
    any of a group of insects in the gossamer-winged butterfly family, Lycaenidae (order Lepidoptera), that are distinguished by hairlike markings on the underside of the wings. The hairstreaks are small and delicate with an 18 to 38 mm (0.75 to 1.5 inch) wingspan, are found in open areas, and are usually iridescent gray or brown. They frequently have one or more thin, taillike extensions on the hindw...
  • hairstyling
    custom of cutting and arranging the hair, practiced by men and women from ancient times to the present. Early records indicate that the ancient Assyrians wore elaborate curly hair styles; by contrast, the ancient Egyptians, men and women alike, shaved their heads and wore wigs. Whether ornate or simple, hairdressing has been employed by very nearly every society. In 400 bc some Gree...
  • hairworm (aschelminths class)
    any of the approximately 250 to 300 species of the class Nematomorpha, or Gordiacea (phylum Aschelminthes). The young of these long, thin worms are parasitic in arthropods. The adults are free-living in the sea or in freshwater. The hairlike body sometimes grows to a length of 1 m (about 39 inches)....
  • hairy alpine rose (plant)
    ...in habit from evergreen to deciduous and from low-growing ground covers to tall trees. The first species available for garden use, in the mid-1600s, was R. hirsutum, the hairy alpine rose, which may grow as high as 1 metre (3 feet). Others range from matlike dwarf species only 10 cm (4 inches) high (R. prostratum, from Yunnan, China) to......
  • Hairy Ape, The (work by O’Neill)
    ...1913 and 1917 and produced in 1924 under the overall title S.S. Glencairn; The Emperor Jones (about the disintegration of a Pullman porter turned tropical-island dictator); and The Hairy Ape (about the disintegration of a displaced steamship coal stoker)....
  • hairy armadillo (mammal genus)
    Several kinds of sounds are reported to be made by fleeing or otherwise agitated armadillos. The peludos, or hairy armadillos (three species of genus Chaetophractus), make snarling sounds. The mulita (D. hybridus) repeatedly utters a guttural monosyllabic sound similar to the rapid fluttering of a human tongue....
  • hairy chinch bug (insect)
    The hairy chinch bug (Blissus hirtus) does not migrate. This short-winged insect, sometimes a lawn pest, is controlled by fertilizing, watering, and cutting grass. The false chinch bug (Nysius ericae) is brownish gray and resembles the chinch bug. It feeds on many plants but is rarely an important crop pest. ...
  • hairy fungus beetle (insect)
    any of approximately 200 described species of beetles (insect order Coleoptera) that are small, oval, and hairy. These beetles are commonly found on shelf fungi, under bark, or in rotting plant material. Hairy fungus beetles are black or brown and often have orange or red markings. They range between 1.5 and 5.5 mm (0.06 and 0.2 inch) in length. Some, like Typhaea stercorea, can be pests of...
  • hairy grama (plant)
    ...grow in tufts or clumps or spread by creeping horizontal stems above or below ground. Sideoats grama (B. curtipendula), blue grama (B. gracilis), black grama (B. eriopoda), and hairy grama (B. hirsuta) are the most important North American range species. Other common names include mat, needle, Parry, purple, Rothrock, six-weeks, and slender....
  • hairy hedgehog (mammal)
    any of seven species of hedgehoglike mammals having a long muzzle with a protruding and mobile snout. Found in Southeast Asia and the Philippines, gymnures have a slim body, short tail, and long, slender limbs and feet. The eyes are large, as are the nearly hairless ears....
  • hairy leukoplakia (medical disorder)
    Hairy leukoplakia is a white lesion on the tongue or mouth floor, often having rough hairlike projections. It often occurs in persons with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) or the AIDS-related complex (ARC). The Epstein-Barr virus has been isolated from the lesions. ...
  • hairy mygalomorph (spider)
    any of numerous hairy and generally large spiders found in the southwestern United States, Mexico, and tropical America. Many tarantulas make burrows in soil and feed mainly at night on insects and occasionally small frogs, toads, and mice. In the southwestern United States, species of the genus Aphonopelma can attain a body length of up to 5 cm (alm...
  • hairy willow herb (plant)
    The hairy willow herb, or codling-and-cream (E. hirsutum), up to 2 m (6 feet) high, is similar to fireweed but has hairy leaves and stalks and notched flower petals; it is found in waste places in eastern North America. Rock fringe (E. obcordatum) is a prostrate form from the western United States; it has rose-purple flowers. Two alpine species are E. alsinifolium and E.......
  • hairy woodpecker (bird)
    ...the great spotted woodpecker (D. major), about 23 cm (9 inches) long and found from the forests and gardens of western temperate Eurasia south to North Africa; and the hairy woodpecker (D. villosus), which is 20–25 cm (8–9.8 inches) long and found in temperate North America....
  • hairy-cell leukemia (cancer)
    Despite these setbacks, in the 1980s alpha interferon came into use, in low doses, to treat hairy-cell leukemia (a rare form of blood cancer) and, in higher doses, to combat Kaposi sarcoma, which frequently appears in AIDS patients. The alpha form also has been approved for treating the viral infections hepatitis B, hepatitis C (non-A, non-B hepatitis), and......
  • hairy-legged vampire bat (mammal)
    ...native to the New World tropics and subtropics. The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), together with the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus, or Desmodus, youngi) and the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata) are the only sanguivorous (blood-eating) bats. The common vampire bat thrives in agricultural areas and feeds on livestock such as cattle, pigs,......
  • hairy-nosed wombat (marsupial)
    The hairy-nosed wombats (genus Lasiorhinus) are more sociable. They make a grassy nest at the end of a large underground burrow 30 metres (100 feet) long that is shared with several other wombats. They have silky fur and pointed ears, and the nose is entirely hairy, without a bald pad. The southern hairy-nosed wombat (L. latifrons) is smaller than the......
  • hairy-tailed rat (rodent)
    All cloud rats belong to the “true” mouse and rat family Muridae within the order Rodentia. They are closely related to Luzon tree rats (Carpomys) and hairy-tailed rats (Batomys), both of which are also endemic to the Philippines....
  • Haise, Fred W., Jr. (American astronaut)
    American astronaut, participant in the Apollo 13 mission (April 11–17, 1970), in which an intended Moon landing was canceled because of a rupture in a fuel-cell oxygen tank in the Service Module. The crew, consisting of Haise, John L. Swigert, Jr., and James A. Lovell, Jr., returned safely to Earth, however, making use of the life-support system in the ...
  • Haise, Fred Wallace, Jr. (American astronaut)
    American astronaut, participant in the Apollo 13 mission (April 11–17, 1970), in which an intended Moon landing was canceled because of a rupture in a fuel-cell oxygen tank in the Service Module. The crew, consisting of Haise, John L. Swigert, Jr., and James A. Lovell, Jr., returned safely to Earth, however, making use of the life-support system in the ...
  • Haithabu (medieval trade centre, Denmark)
    in medieval Danish history, trade centre at the southeastern base of the Jutland Peninsula on the Schlei estuary. It served as an early focus of national unification and as a crossroads for Western–Eastern European and European–Western Asian trade....
  • Haithon (king of Little Armenia)
    king of Little Armenia, now in Turkey, from 1224 to 1269; the account of his travels in western and central Asia, written by Kirakos Gandzaketsi, a member of his suite, gives one of the earliest and most comprehensive accounts of Mongolian geography and ethnology....
  • Haiti
    country of the Caribbean Sea that includes the western third of the island of Hispaniola and such smaller islands as Gonâve, Tortue (Tortuga), Grande Caye, and Vache. It is roughly threefold larger than Puerto Rico. The capital is Port-au-Prince....
  • Haiti (island, West Indies)
    second largest island of the West Indies, lying within the Greater Antilles. It is divided politically into the Republic of Haiti (west) and the Dominican Republic (east). The island’s area is 29,418 square miles (76,192 square km); its greatest length is nearly 400 miles (650 km), and its width is 150 miles (241 km). Christopher Columbus...
  • Haiti, flag of
    ...
  • Haiti, history of
    The following discussion focuses on events from the time of European settlement. For treatment of earlier history and the country in its regional context, see West Indies, history of, and Latin America, history of....
  • Haiti, Republic of
    country of the Caribbean Sea that includes the western third of the island of Hispaniola and such smaller islands as Gonâve, Tortue (Tortuga), Grande Caye, and Vache. It is roughly threefold larger than Puerto Rico. The capital is Port-au-Prince....
  • Haïti, République d’
    country of the Caribbean Sea that includes the western third of the island of Hispaniola and such smaller islands as Gonâve, Tortue (Tortuga), Grande Caye, and Vache. It is roughly threefold larger than Puerto Rico. The capital is Port-au-Prince....
  • Haitian Ciboney (people)
    ...base of their cultures. While both were primarily hunters and gatherers, the technology of the Ciboney of Cuba, called variously Cayo Redondo or Guayabo Blanco, was based on shell, while that of the Haitian Ciboney was based on stone. The typical artifact of Cayo Redondo was a roughly triangular shell gouge made from the lip of a strombus shell, a tool also quite common in sites of the Glades.....
  • Haitian Creole (language)
    a French-based vernacular language that developed in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It developed primarily on the sugarcane plantations of Haiti from contacts between French colonists and African slaves. It has been one of Haiti’s official languages since 1987 and is the first language of about 95 percent of Haitians, especially in rural areas. Like other French ...
  • Haitian Revolution (Haitian history)
    The revolution was actually a series of conflicts during the period 1791–1804 that involved shifting alliances of Haitian slaves, affranchis, mulattoes, and whites, as well as British and French army troops. Several factors precipitated the event, including the affranchis’ frustrations with a racist society...
  • Haitink, Bernard (Dutch conductor)
    Dutch conductor best known for his interpretations of Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Liszt. His conducting, which continued the tradition of Willem Mengelberg, was noted for its careful attention to detail combined with an uncommon strength of character and conviction....
  • Haiyan Sijia (Chinese artists)
    group of Chinese artists who were born and worked in Anhui province in the 17th century (Qing dynasty) and who, being somewhat remote from the traditional centres of Chinese painting, developed rather unusual styles. The “four masters” are generally identified as the little-known artists Sun Yi and Wang Zhirui, and the famous artists Hongren and Zha Shibiao. Two ot...
  • Haiyue Mingyan (work by Mi Fu)
    ...records of his own and others’ collections of paintings, essays on aesthetic history, and criticism of paintings. There also exist some posthumous collections of his writings, Haiyue Mingyan (“Remarks on Calligraphy”) and Haiyue Tiba (“Inscriptions and Colophons by Mi Fu”)....
  • Haiyue shanren (Chinese artist)
    scholar, poet, calligrapher, and painter who was a dominant figure in Chinese art. Of his extensive writings—poetry, essays on the history of aesthetics, and criticism of painting—a considerable amount survives....
  • Haiyue Tiba (work by Mi Fu)
    ...and criticism of paintings. There also exist some posthumous collections of his writings, Haiyue Mingyan (“Remarks on Calligraphy”) and Haiyue Tiba (“Inscriptions and Colophons by Mi Fu”)....
  • Haizhou (China)
    city and seaport, northern Jiangsu sheng (province), eastern China. It is situated near the mouth of the Qiangwei River and at the northern end of a network of canals centred on the Yunyan River that is associated with the innumerable salt pans of the coastal districts of northern Jiangsu....
  • Haj, The (work by Uris)
    ...QB VII (1970), dealing with Nazi war crimes; Trinity (1976), a chronicle of a Northern Irish farm family from the 1840s to 1916; The Haj (1984), depicting the lives of Palestinian Arabs from World War I to the Suez war of 1956; and A God in Ruins (1999), a novel about a U.S. presidential......
  • Hajang (people)
    Indigenous minority peoples in other parts of Bangladesh include the Santhal, the Khasi, the Garo, and the Hajang. The Santhal peoples live in the northwestern part of Bangladesh, the Khasi in Sylhet in the Khasi Hills near the border with Assam, India, and the Garo and Hajang in the northeastern part of the country....
  • Ḥajar, al- (mountains, Arabia)
    mountain chain in northern Oman, paralleling the coast of the Gulf of Oman and stretching in an arc southeastward from the Musandam Peninsula almost to Raʾs (cape) al-Ḥadd on the extreme northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. From northwest to southeast, the al-Ḥajar (The Stone) range includes the Ruʾūs al-Jibāl overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, the al...
  • Ḥajar al-Aswad, Al- (Islam)
    Muslim object of veneration, built into the eastern wall of the Kaʿbah (small shrine within the Great Mosque of Mecca) and probably dating from the pre-Islamic religion of the Arabs. It now consists of three large pieces and some fragments, surrounded by a stone ring and held together with a silver band. According to popular Islamic legend, the stone was given to Adam on his fall from parad...
  • Ḥajar Mountains, al- (mountains, Arabia)
    mountain chain in northern Oman, paralleling the coast of the Gulf of Oman and stretching in an arc southeastward from the Musandam Peninsula almost to Raʾs (cape) al-Ḥadd on the extreme northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. From northwest to southeast, the al-Ḥajar (The Stone) range includes the Ruʾūs al-Jibāl overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, the al...
  • Ḥajarah, Al- (desert, Iraq)
    ...miles (168,000 square km), almost two-fifths of the country. The western desert, an extension of the Syrian Desert, rises to elevations above 1,600 feet (490 metres). The southern desert is known as Al-Ḥajarah in the western part and as Al-Dibdibah in the east. Al-Ḥajarah has a complex topography of rocky desert, wadis, ridges, and depressions. Al-Dibdibah is a more sandy region.....
  • Hajdú-Bihar (county, Hungary)
    megye (county), eastern Hungary. It is bordered by the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg to the north, by Romania to the east, and by the counties of Békés to the south, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok to the southwest, and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplé...
  • Hajdúság (region, Hungary)
    ...cold. In the 19th century the Tisza was regulated through the construction of the Tiszalök Dam and the 60-mile (100-km) Main Canal, which supplies water to the Hortobágy steppe and the Hajdúság, a low tableland covered by fertile black soil. Rice, wheat, corn (maize), tobacco, sunflowers, and lentils all flourish in the county wherever recurring drought has been......
  • Hajdúszoboszló (Hungary)
    ...black soil. Rice, wheat, corn (maize), tobacco, sunflowers, and lentils all flourish in the county wherever recurring drought has been eliminated by irrigation projects. Natural gas is exploited at Hajdúszoboszló, Nádudvar, and Berekböszörmény. There are pebble mines in Ártánd and clay mines in the Hajdúság. Although......
  • Hajek, Igor (Czech writer)
    Czech writer, translator, teacher, and foreign literary editor, 1964-69, of the radical Czechoslovak Writers’ Union’s Literarni Noviny (b. March 22, 1931--d. April 19, 1995)....
  • Hajek, Jiri (Czech politician)
    Czech politician (b. June 6, 1913, Krhanice, Czech.--d. Oct. 22, 1993, Prague, Czech Republic), was forced from office as a Communist Party official during the 1968 Soviet crackdown and was later an activist in the dissident movement. Hajek became involved in politics while studying law at Charles University, Prague, where he joined the youth branch of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and organi...
  • Haji (sultan of Bantam)
    ...trade but successfully opposed Dutch expansion into the area in the early part of his reign. In the 1670s, however, when he attempted to change the succession to his throne from his older son Sultan Haji to his younger son, Haji revolted and with Dutch help seized the throne. Haji had to pay war costs and grant a trade monopoly to the Dutch. Agung ended his days in captivity, and Bantam came......
  • Ḥājī Gak (Afghanistan)
    High-grade iron ore has been discovered at Ḥājjī Gak, northwest of Kabul. Copper has been mined at ʿAynak, near Kabul, and uranium in the mountains near Khvājah Rawāsh, east of Kabul. There are deposits of copper, lead, and zinc near Kondoz; beryllium in Khāṣ Konaṛ; chrome ore in the Lowgar River valley near Herāt; and the......
  • Haji, Raja (Malaysian statesman)
    Buginese soldier and statesman under whose leadership Buginese adventurers spread throughout the Malay Peninsula. The power of the Buginese (a people originally from the southern Celebes) dated from the early 1700s, when Buginese adventurers, cut off from their homeland by the Dutch, established a dynasty in the Malay state of Selangor, became the power behind the throne of the ...
  • haji ware (pottery)
    Japanese earthenware developed in the 4th century ad (during the Tumulus period) from the Yayoi ware of the preceding period. Great amounts of this everyday ware were produced into the Heian period (794–1185). A rust-red earthenware, haji ware is baked in oxidizing fires. Production began in what were then the provinces of Yamato and K...
  • ḥājib (Spanish and Egyptian official)
    in Muslim Spain and Mamlūk Egypt, a high government official. The term originally designated a chamberlain, but under the Spanish Umayyads (756–1031) the ḥājib functioned as a chief minister, paralleling the position of vizier (wazīr) in the eastern caliphates. He was the chief representative of the caliph and ...
  • Hajipur (India)
    town, north-central Bihār state, northeastern India. Hājīpur lies in the northern Bihār Plains, which are part of the Middle Ganges Plains. It is located on the land route from Vaishali, which was the capital of one of the states in northern India during Buddha’s lifetime, to Nālanda, which was the seat of a celebrated Buddhist monastic university in the ...
  • hajj (Islam)
    in Islām, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which every adult Muslim of either sex must make at least once in his or her lifetime. The hajj is the fifth of the fundamental Muslim practices and institutions known as the Five Pillars of Islām. The pilgrimage rite begins on the 7th day of Dhū al-Ḥijjah (the last month of the Isl...
  • Hajj Amīn (Arab nationalist)
    grand mufti of Jerusalem and Arab nationalist figure who played a major role in Arab resistance to Zionist political ambitions in Palestine and became a strong voice in the Arab nationalist and anti-Zionist movements....
  • Hajj Amīn, al- (Arab nationalist)
    grand mufti of Jerusalem and Arab nationalist figure who played a major role in Arab resistance to Zionist political ambitions in Palestine and became a strong voice in the Arab nationalist and anti-Zionist movements....
  • Ḥājj ʿUmar ibn Saʿīd Tal, al- (Tukulor leader)
    West African Tukulor leader who, after launching a jihad (holy war) in 1854, established a Muslim realm, the Tukulor empire, between the upper Senegal and Niger rivers (in what is now upper Guinea, eastern Senegal, and western and central Mali). The empire survived until the 1890s under his son, Aḥmadu Seku....
  • Ḥajjāj, al- (Umayyad governor of Iraq)
    one of the most able of provincial governors under the Umayyad caliphate (661–750). He played a critical role in consolidating the administrative structure of the Umayyad dynasty during its early years....
  • Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ath-Thaqafī, al- (Umayyad governor of Iraq)
    one of the most able of provincial governors under the Umayyad caliphate (661–750). He played a critical role in consolidating the administrative structure of the Umayyad dynasty during its early years....
  • Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar, al- (Muslim mathematician)
    ...impact of the Elements on Islamic mathematics is visible through the many translations into Arabic from the 9th century forward, three of which must be mentioned: two by al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar, first for the Abbāssid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd (ruled 786–809) and again for the caliph al-Maʾm...
  • Ḥājjī Bektāsh Walī (Muslim theologian)
    any member of an order of Muslim mystics founded, according to their own traditions, by Ḥājjī Bektāsh Walī of Khorāsān, Iran. It acquired definitive form in the 16th century in Anatolia (Turkey) and spread to the Ottoman Balkans, particularly Albania....
  • Hajji Firuz (archaeological site, Iran)
    By approximately 6000 bc these patterns of village farming were widely spread over much of the Iranian plateau and in lowland Khūzestān. Tepe Sabz in Khūzestān, Hajji Firuz in Azerbaijan, Godin Tepe VII in northeastern Lorestān, Tepe Sialk I on the rim of the central salt desert, and Tepe Yahya VI C–E in the southeast are all sites that have ...
  • Ḥajjī Khalīfa (Turkish historian)
    Turkish historian, geographer, and bibliographer. ...
  • Hajjibekov, Uzeir (Azerbaijani composer)
    The opera and ballet are widely attended. Some of Azerbaijan’s composers, notably Uzeir Hajjibekov (the operas Ker-Ogly and Leyli and Mejnūn and the operetta Arshin Mal ʾAlan) and Kara Karayev (the ballets Seven Beauties and The Path of Thunder), have international reputations. The latter’s symphonic music is also well known abr...
  • Hajnikova zena (work by Hviezdoslav)
    ...By the time of his death the Slovaks possessed an extensive poetic literature of a high order. Hviezdoslav’s contribution to this development was of decisive importance. In his main epics—Hájnikova žena (1886; “The Gamekeeper’s Wife”) and Ežo Vlkolinský (1890)—he treated local themes in a style that combined rea...
  • Hajós, Alfréd (Hungarian athlete)
    Hungarian swimmer who won three Olympic medals and was the first Olympic swimming champion....
  • Ḥajr, Wadi (river, Arabia)
    ...volcanic peninsulas of the lowland below the southern mountain face of Yemen. The coastal plain, about 30 miles wide behind Aden, is narrower nearly everywhere else. Along this coast the stream of Wadi Ḥajr, perhaps the only truly perennial river in Arabia, flows about 60 miles to the sea....
  • ḥaju (poetic genre)
    Less ornate, if not less elaborate, and more edifying are the ḥaju (derogatory verses, personal and otherwise) and the shahr-āshūb (poems lamenting the decline or destruction of a city). They provide useful information about the mores and morals of the period from the 18th to mid-19th century and truly depict the problems facing the society at large. The poems......
  • Hak lae phukphan (story by Duangsai Luangphasi)
    ...resonated more strongly among the reading public in Vientiane. In these stories the focus is on the personal rather than on political concerns. One example from the late 1990s is Hak lae phukphan (“Love and Ties”) by the prolific Duangsai Luangphasi. In this story a woman’s parents oblige her to end her relationship with the man she loves in order...
  • haka (chant and dance)
    ...asserting the performer’s high lineage and threatening her detractors), kaioraora (expressions of hatred and abuse of an enemy, promising terrible revenge), and the haka (a chant accompanied by rhythmic movements, stamping, and fierce gestures, the most famous of these being war dances that incorporate stylized violence). In every aspect of t...
  • “Hakai” (work by Shimazaki)
    ...the short-lived romantic movement of young poets and writers, which he later described in his novel Haru (1908; “Spring”). The first of his major novels, Hakai (1906; The Broken Commandment), the story of a young outcast schoolteacher’s struggle for self-realization, has been called representative of the naturalist school, then the vogue in Japan, altho...
  • Ḥakam I, al- (Umayyad caliph)
    ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I’s successors, Hishām I (788–796) and al-Ḥakam I (796–822), encountered severe internal dissidence among the Arab nobility. A rebellion in Toledo was put down savagely, and the internal warfare caused the emir to increase the numbers of Slav and Amazigh mercenaries and to impose new taxes to pay for them....
  • Ḥakam II, al- (Umayyad caliph)
    Al-Nāṣir was succeeded by his son al-Ḥakam II (961–976), who adopted the caliphal title of al-Mustanṣir. His peaceful reign succeeded in resolving the problem of the Maghrib, thanks to the strategic ability of General Ghālib and the policy of the intendant, Abū ʿĀmir al-Maʿāfirī, who soon became the all-powerful......
  • hakama (garment)
    ...to have been worn regularly during the 7th and 8th centuries, the jackets of this period being called kinu, the men’s trousers hakama, and the women’s skirts mo....
  • Hakapehi (town, French Polynesia)
    ...trade in the early 19th century and subsequently became a favoured stopping place for whalers. The narrow valleys are fertile and, under a warm and humid climate, yield copra and fruit for export. Hakapehi (Tai-o-hae), on the south coast, the main harbour and port, is the administrative seat for the Marquesas. Another harbour, Anaho Bay, is on the north coast. American writer Herman Melville......
  • Hakas (people)
    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, sheep, and horses. The Ky...
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