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  • Magdeburg Law (German constitution)
    ...Mongol invasion in 1241. At the invitation of Silesian authorities in the 13th century, many Germans migrated to Wrocław. The city received self-governing rights in 1261, when it adopted the Magdeburg Law (Magdeburger Recht), a civic constitution based on German law. Wrocław again flourished as an economic centre. Nearby to the east a “new town” was developed; it was...
  • Magdeburg Rider (statue, Magdeburg, Germany)
    ...dedicated to Saints Maurice and Catherine has survived, and the Monastery of Our Lady (begun c. 1070), the oldest church in the city, has been restored. The Magdeburg Rider, the oldest German equestrian statue (c. 1240), showing Otto the Great, can be seen in Magdeburg’s Cultural History Museum. The physicist Otto von Guericke, the composer......
  • Magdeburger Recht (German constitution)
    ...Mongol invasion in 1241. At the invitation of Silesian authorities in the 13th century, many Germans migrated to Wrocław. The city received self-governing rights in 1261, when it adopted the Magdeburg Law (Magdeburger Recht), a civic constitution based on German law. Wrocław again flourished as an economic centre. Nearby to the east a “new town” was developed; it was...
  • “Magdeburger Reiter” (statue, Magdeburg, Germany)
    ...dedicated to Saints Maurice and Catherine has survived, and the Monastery of Our Lady (begun c. 1070), the oldest church in the city, has been restored. The Magdeburg Rider, the oldest German equestrian statue (c. 1240), showing Otto the Great, can be seen in Magdeburg’s Cultural History Museum. The physicist Otto von Guericke, the composer......
  • Magdoff, Harry (American economist)
    American economist (b. Aug. 21, 1913, New York, N.Y.—d. Jan. 1, 2006, Burlington, Vt.), after a career in government service, wrote the best-selling The Age of Imperialism: The Economics of U.S. Foreign Policy (1969), which was translated into 15 languages. Magdoff began working for the Works Progress Administration in 1935 and went on to hold positions on the War Production Board an...
  • Magdoff, Henry Samuel (American economist)
    American economist (b. Aug. 21, 1913, New York, N.Y.—d. Jan. 1, 2006, Burlington, Vt.), after a career in government service, wrote the best-selling The Age of Imperialism: The Economics of U.S. Foreign Policy (1969), which was translated into 15 languages. Magdoff began working for the Works Progress Administration in 1935 and went on to hold positions on the War Production Board an...
  • Magelang (Indonesia)
    city, Jawa Tengah (Central Java) provinsi (province), Java, Indonesia. It lies 25 miles (40 km) north-northwest of Yogyakarta, along the Progo River, which empties into the Indian Ocean. A tourist centre for those visiting the Borobudur, Pawon, and Mendut temples, the city has a large Roman Catholic seminary and a military academy. There a...
  • Magellan (United States spacecraft)
    U.S. spacecraft that from 1990 to 1994 used radar to create a high-resolution map of the surface of Venus....
  • Magellan, Ferdinand (Portuguese explorer)
    Portuguese navigator and explorer who sailed under the flags of both Portugal (1505–12) and Spain (1519–21). From Spain he sailed around South America, discovering the Strait of Magellan, and across the Pacific. Though he was killed in the Philippines, his ships continued westward to Spain, accomplishing the first circumnavigat...
  • Magellan goose (bird)
    Among the sheldgeese are several South American species of Chloëphaga—the kelp goose (C. hybrida), the Magellan goose (C. picta), and the Andean goose (C. melanoptera)—and the Orinoco goose (Neochen jubatus). African sheldgeese include the spur-winged goose (Plectropterus gambensis) and the Egyptian......
  • Magellan, Strait of (channel, South America)
    channel linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, between the mainland tip of South America and Tierra del Fuego island. Lying entirely within Chilean territorial waters, except for its easternmost extremity touched by Argentina, it is 350 miles (560 km) long and 2–20 miles (3–32 km) wide. It extends westward from the Atlantic between Cape Vírgenes and Cape Espíritu Sant...
  • Magellanic Cloud (astronomy)
    either of two satellite galaxies of the Milky Way Galaxy, the vast star system of which Earth is a minor component. These companion galaxies were named for the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, whose crew discovered them during the first voyage around the world (1519–22)....
  • Magelona (polychaete genus)
    ...divided into 2 regions; prostomium flattened with 2 long palpi arising from the ventral surface at the junction of the prostomium and next segment; capillary and hooded hooks; single genus, Magelona.Order PsammodrilidaProstomium and peristome lack appendages; parapodia in mid-region long and supported by aciculae; ...
  • Magelonida (polychaete order)
    ...prostomium with palpi; modified setae on segment 4; tube dweller; examples of genera: Chaetopterus (parchment worm), Spiochaetopterus.Order MagelonidaLong, slender bodies divided into 2 regions; prostomium flattened with 2 long palpi arising from the ventral surface at the junction of the prostomium and next...
  • Magen Avot (work by Duran)
    ...rabbinical compendium of law, lore, and commentary. Before the 14th century, the rabbinical post had been almost invariably honorary; Duran set a precedent in accepting a salary. His commentary Magen Avot (“The Shield of the Fathers”), which influenced the great medieval Jewish philosopher Joseph Albo, is important for reducing the Thirteen Articles of Faith of Moses......
  • Magen David (Judaism)
    Jewish symbol composed of two overlaid equilateral triangles that form a six-pointed star. It appears on synagogues, Jewish tombstones, and the flag of the State of Israel. The symbol—which historically was not limited to use by Jews—originated in antiquity, when, side by side with the five-pointed star, it served as a magical sign or as a decoration. In the Middle Ages the Star of D...
  • Magendie, François (French physiologist)
    French experimental physiologist who was the first to prove the functional difference of the spinal nerves. His pioneer studies of the effects of drugs on various parts of the body led to the scientific introduction into medical practice of such compounds as strychnine and morphine. In 1822 he confirmed and elaborated the observation by the Scottish anatomist Sir Charles Bell (1811) that the anter...
  • magenta (colour)
    ...that absorbs red light while transmitting all other radiations is blue-green, often called cyan. An image that absorbs only green light transmits both blue light and red light, and its colour is magenta. The blue-absorbing image transmits only green light and red light, and its colour is yellow. Hence, the subtractive primaries are cyan, magenta, and yellow (see figure, right)....
  • Magenta (Italy)
    town, Lombardia (Lombardy) regione, northern Italy, just west of Milan. Its name is derived from that of Marcus Maxentius, a Roman general and emperor (ad 306–312) who had his headquarters there at Castra Maxentia. The town was the site of the Battle of Magenta (June 4, 1859), fought during the Franco-Piedmontese war against the Austrians (second War ...
  • Magenta, Battle of (Italian history)
    ...west of Milan. Its name is derived from that of Marcus Maxentius, a Roman general and emperor (ad 306–312) who had his headquarters there at Castra Maxentia. The town was the site of the Battle of Magenta (June 4, 1859), fought during the Franco-Piedmontese war against the Austrians (second War of Italian Independence, 1859–61). Napoleon III and his 54,000 troops met...
  • Magenta, Marie-Edme-Patrice-Maurice, duc de, comte de Mac-Mahon (president of France)
    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 were established affecting the relationship between executive and legislative powers....
  • Mager Island (island, Norway)
    ...of the Arctic Circle. Adjacent to the mouth of the fjord is a largely uninhabited area, Sværholtklubben, which serves as home to thousands of seabirds. Many islands are found in Porsangen. Magerøya (island), just west of the mouth, contains North Cape (Nordkapp) and the northernmost point in Europe; a tunnel under Magerøy Sound leads to the island. The region around......
  • Magerøya (island, Norway)
    ...of the Arctic Circle. Adjacent to the mouth of the fjord is a largely uninhabited area, Sværholtklubben, which serves as home to thousands of seabirds. Many islands are found in Porsangen. Magerøya (island), just west of the mouth, contains North Cape (Nordkapp) and the northernmost point in Europe; a tunnel under Magerøy Sound leads to the island. The region around......
  • magga (Indian religion)
    in Indian religions, a path toward, or way of reaching, salvation. Hinduism articulates the following meanings: jnana-marga, the way of knowledge (study of philosophical texts and contemplation); karma-marga, the way of action (proper performance of one’s religious and ethical duties); and ...
  • maggid (Jewish preacher)
    any of the many itinerant Jewish preachers who flourished especially in Poland and Russia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Because rabbis at that time preached only on the Sabbaths preceding Pesaḥ (Passover) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), maggidim were in great demand throughout the year to instruct, encourage, and sometimes admonish their congregation. Through their preaching, the m...
  • Maggid mesharim (work by Karo)
    Karo was also the author of another major work, a strange, mystical diary, entitled Maggid mesharim (1646; “Preacher of Righteousness”), in which he recorded the nocturnal visits of an angelic being, the personification of the Mishna (the authoritative collection of Jewish Oral Law). His visitor spurred him to acts of righteousness and even asceticism, exhorted him to study......
  • maggidim (Jewish preacher)
    any of the many itinerant Jewish preachers who flourished especially in Poland and Russia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Because rabbis at that time preached only on the Sabbaths preceding Pesaḥ (Passover) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), maggidim were in great demand throughout the year to instruct, encourage, and sometimes admonish their congregation. Through their preaching, the m...
  • Maggie: a Girl of the Streets (novel by Crane)
    ...a literary career. While alternating bohemian student life and explorations of the Bowery slums with visits to genteel relatives in the country near Port Jervis, N.Y., Crane wrote his first book, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), a sympathetic study of an innocent and abused slum girl’s descent into prostitution and her eventual suicide....
  • Maggini, G. P. (violin maker)
    ...(1698–1745), whose title originates in the “I.H.S.” inscribed on his labels. He was much influenced by the works of the earlier Brescian school, particularly those of G.P. Maggini, whom he followed in the boldness of outline and the massive construction that aim at the production of tone, rather than visual perfection of form. The great variety of his work in......
  • Maggio, Michael John (American director)
    American stage director (b. July 3, 1951, Chicago, Ill.—d. Aug. 19, 2000, Chicago), gained a national reputation as one of the most talented in his field. Besides directing more than 50 plays at such venues as Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minn., and the Seattle (Wash.) Repertory Theatre, he served as artistic direct...
  • Maggiore, Lago (lake, Europe)
    second largest lake in Italy (area 82 square miles [212 square km]), bisected by the border between Lombardy (east) and Piedmont (west). Its northern end is in the Swiss Ticino canton. At an elevation of 633 feet (193 m) above sea level, the lake is 34 miles (54 km) long, with a maximum width of 7 miles (11 km) and a maximum depth of 1,220 feet (372 m). The lake is traversed from north to s...
  • Maggiore, Lake (lake, Europe)
    second largest lake in Italy (area 82 square miles [212 square km]), bisected by the border between Lombardy (east) and Piedmont (west). Its northern end is in the Swiss Ticino canton. At an elevation of 633 feet (193 m) above sea level, the lake is 34 miles (54 km) long, with a maximum width of 7 miles (11 km) and a maximum depth of 1,220 feet (372 m). The lake is traversed from north to s...
  • Maggiore, Porta (gate, Rome, Italy)
    ...Italy and at Rome. Hundreds of inscriptions attest to Bacchic Mysteries. In some circles, Orphic and Dionysiac ideas were blended, as in the community that met in the underground basilica near the Porta Maggiore (Major Gate) at Rome. There was also a blend of ideas in the community for which the Orphic hymns were written. The members of this community (probably in Asia Minor) assembled at......
  • maggot (insect larva)
    ...beneficial, too, functioning as scavengers, predators, or parasites of certain insect pests, as pollinators of plants, and as destroyers of weeds noxious to humans. Dipterous larvae, often called maggots or grubs, are found in many habitats (e.g., in any kind of water, in plant tissue and soil, beneath bark or stones, in decaying plant and animal matter, even in pools of crude......
  • Magh (people)
    people of the Chittagong Hills region of Bangladesh. The Marma numbered approximately 210,000 in the late 20th century. One group, the Jhumia Marma, have long settled in this southeastern region of Bengal; the other group, the Rakhaing Marma, are recent immigrants, having come from Arakan toward the end of the 18th century, when their kingdom was conquered by the Burmese....
  • Magh Bihu (Indian culture)
    ...day of the Bohag or Baishakh month). Also known as Rangoli Bihu (from rang, meaning merrymaking and fun), it is accompanied by much dancing and singing. The Magh Bihu, celebrated in mid-January (in the month of Magh), is a harvest festival. Known also as Bhogali Bihu (from bhog, meaning enjoyment and feasting), it is......
  • Māgha (Indian Sanskrit poet)
    Sanskrit poet whose only recorded work is Shishupalavadha (“The Slaying of King Shishupala”), an influential mahakavya (“great poem”), a type of classical epic that consists of a variable number of comparatively short cantos. Magha is a master of technique in the strict Sanskrit sense of luscious descriptions; intricate syntax; compounds...
  • Māgha (Hindu month)
    ...is celebrated with a fair that continues for a month’s duration, with much rejoicing. The Śrī Pañcamī, a festival (utsava) of seasonal renewal on the fifth day of Māgha, symbolizes the ripening of crops. Feasts and festivals centring on seasonal renewal can be found among all peoples of the world, both past and present. Rogation festivities (Days...
  • Magha (Indian Sanskrit poet)
    Sanskrit poet whose only recorded work is Shishupalavadha (“The Slaying of King Shishupala”), an influential mahakavya (“great poem”), a type of classical epic that consists of a variable number of comparatively short cantos. Magha is a master of technique in the strict Sanskrit sense of luscious descriptions; intricate syntax; compounds...
  • maghāzī (Islamic literature)
    ...which together are the second most important source of Islamic law and practice after the Qurʾān itself. These reports also became part of the collections of maghāzī (accounts of the Prophet’s raids during his lifetime) and sīrah (biographies of the Prophet). Beyond these spec...
  • Maghdïmgïlï (Turkmen writer)
    ...āzād (1753; “The Sermon of the Free”) and Behishtnāme (1756; “The Book of Paradise”). But it was Makhtumquli Fïrāghī (Maghdïmgïlï), Āzādī’s son and the most important figure in Turkmen literature, who began to write in a form of the Tur...
  • maghemite (mineral)
    an iron oxide mineral. It has a composition close to ferric oxide (Fe2O3) and exhibits strong magnetism and remanence. Its structure is isometric, of defective spinel form, and somewhat iron-deficient. Maghemite is metastable with respect to hematite and forms a continuous metastable solid solution with magnetite; titanium can substitute for iron, giving rise to titanomaghemi...
  • Magherafelt (district, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    Magherafelt district is bounded by the River Bann and Lough (lake) Neagh on the east and by the Sperrin Mountains on the west. It borders the districts of Antrim and Ballymena to the east; Coleraine to the north; Limavady, Strabane, and Omagh to the west; and Cookstown to the south. Gently rolling lowlands in the east rise gradually westward to elevations of more than 1,800 feet (550 metres)......
  • Magherafelt (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    town, seat, and district (established 1973), formerly within County Londonderry, central Northern Ireland. Magherafelt town was originally an English-company (Plantation of Ulster) town and is now the marketing centre and administrative seat of the district; Maghera town, 9 miles (14 km) to the northwest, was the birthplace of Charles Thomson (1730–1824...
  • Maghī language
    eastern Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the state of Bihār, India, and in the Tarai region of Nepal. There are three main languages: Maithilī (Tirhutiā) and Magadhī (Magahī) in the east and Bhojpurl in the west, extending into the southern half of Chota Nāgpur. Maithilī, spoken in the old country of Mithilā (Tirhut), was famous from ancient ti...
  • Maghiāna (Pakistan)
    city consisting of twin towns, headquarters of Jhang Maghiāna District, Sargodha Division, Punjab Province, Pakistan, just east of the Chenāb River. Maghiāna lies on the edge of the highlands overlooking the alluvial valley, while Jhang occupies the lowlands at its foot. They are connected by two roads and by the Grand Trunk Road with Peshāwar and Lah...
  • Maghīlī, al- (African scholar)
    ...or Muḥammad I Askia, the greatest ruler of Songhai (ruled 1493–1528). Often, as in the case of both of these rulers, militance was encouraged by an aggressive reformist scholar like al-Maghīlī (flourished 1492), whose writings detailed the conditions that would justify a jihād against Muslims who practiced their faith inadequately. Like many reformers,....
  • Maghnia (Algeria)
    town, northwestern Algeria, on the northern edge of the Hauts Plateaux, 8 miles (13 km) east of the Moroccan border. The modern town grew around a French redoubt built in 1844 on the site of the Roman post of Numerus Syrorum. It was named for the local Muslim saint Lalla Maghnia and contains her mausoleum, probably built in the 18th century. Located within the watershed of Wadi Tafna, Maghnia is a...
  • Maghreb (region, North Africa)
    region of North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Africa Minor of the ancients, it at one time included Moorish Spain and now comprises essentially the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plain of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The weather of the Maghrib is characterized by prevailing westerly winds, which drop most of their moisture on the northe...
  • maghrebi script (Arabic calligraphy)
    in calligraphy, Islamic cursive style of handwritten alphabet that developed directly from the early Kūfic angular scripts used by the Muslim peoples of the Maghrib, who were Western-influenced and relatively isolated from Islam as it was absorbed into the eastern part of North Africa. The script they developed is rounded, with exagge...
  • Maghrib (region, North Africa)
    region of North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Africa Minor of the ancients, it at one time included Moorish Spain and now comprises essentially the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plain of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The weather of the Maghrib is characterized by prevailing westerly winds, which drop most of their moisture on the northe...
  • Maghrib, Bank Al- (bank, Morocco)
    Morocco’s central bank, the Bank al-Maghrib, plays a preeminent role in the country’s banking system. It issues the Moroccan dirham, maintains Morocco’s foreign currency reserves, controls the credit supply, oversees the government’s specialized lending organizations, and regulates the commercial banking industry. Privatization has stimulated activity on the Casablanca ...
  • Maghrib Bureau (government organization, Cairo, Egypt)
    ...in the Indian Ocean. Receiving permission in 1947 to live in France, he left Réunion and was granted political asylum en route by the Egyptian government; for five years he presided over the Liberation Committee of the Arab West (sometimes called the Maghrib Bureau) in Cairo. After the restoration of Moroccan independence, King Muhammad V invited him to return to Morocco, which he......
  • Maghrib Unity Congress (political meeting, Tangier, Morocco)
    The Maghrib Unity Congress was held at Tangier in April under the auspices of the Moroccan and Tunisian nationalist parties and the Algerian FLN, and it recommended the establishment of an Algerian government-in-exile and a permanent secretariat to promote Maghrib unity. Five months later the FLN formed the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (Gouvernement Provisionel de la......
  • maghribi script (Arabic calligraphy)
    in calligraphy, Islamic cursive style of handwritten alphabet that developed directly from the early Kūfic angular scripts used by the Muslim peoples of the Maghrib, who were Western-influenced and relatively isolated from Islam as it was absorbed into the eastern part of North Africa. The script they developed is rounded, with exagge...
  • Maghrupī, Gurbanali (Turkmen writer)
    Makhtumquli’s contemporaries included Abdulnazar Shahbende and Gurbanali Maghrupī. Shahbende, who studied in Khiva, was also a musician who performed his own works. He was famous for his destāns Gul-Bulbul; Shahbehrām, taken from classical Persian themes; and Khojamber...
  • Maghut, Muhammad al- (Syrian poet and playwright)
    Syrian poet and playwright (b. 1934, Salamiyah, Syria—d. April 3, 2006, Damascus, Syria), was considered to be one of the greatest and most original writers of modern Arabic literature and was known for the darkly comic and satiric nature of his writing. Maghut was imprisoned for nine months in 1955 because he was a member of the opposition Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and it was in pri...
  • Magi (biblical figures)
    in Christian tradition, the noble pilgrims “from the East” who followed a miraculous guiding star to Bethlehem, where they paid homage to the infant Jesus as king of the Jews (Matthew 2:1–12). Christian theological tradition has always stressed that Gentiles as well as Jews came to worship Jesus—an event celebrated in the Eastern church at Christmas and in the West at ...
  • Magi (Persian priesthood)
    member of an ancient Persian clan specializing in cultic activities. The name is the Latinized form of magoi (e.g., in Herodotus 1:101), the ancient Greek transliteration of the Iranian original. From it the word magic is derived....
  • Magi, Adoration of the (religious motif)
    The Adoration of the Magi—i.e., their homage to the infant Jesus—early became one of the most popular themes in Christian art, the first extant painting on the subject being the fresco in the Priscilla Catacomb of Rome dating from the 2nd century. In the Middle Ages the Adoration of the Magi was often associated with two other major events of Jesus’ life: his Baptism, during w...
  • Magia naturalis (work by Porta)
    His major work is Magia naturalis (4 books, 1558; “Natural Magic”; 2nd ed., in 20 books, 1589), in which he treats the wonders and marvels of the natural world as phenomena underlain by a rational order that can be divined and manipulated by the natural philosopher through theoretical speculation and practical experiment. The work discusses such topics as demonology,......
  • Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis (magic manual)
    ...bearing Faust’s name became a lucrative trade. The books included careful instructions on how to avoid a bilateral pact with the devil or, if need be, how to break it. The classic of these, Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis, was in the grand-ducal library in Weimar, Ger., and was known to J.W. von Goethe....
  • Magic (missile)
    ...fighters, for instance, carried both heat-seeking Sidewinders and radar-homing Sparrows. Meanwhile, the Europeans developed such infrared-homing missiles as the British Red Top and the French Magic, the latter being a short-range (one-quarter to four miles) highly maneuverable equivalent of the Sidewinder....
  • magic (entertainment)
    the theatrical representation of the defiance of natural law. Legerdemain, meaning “light, or nimble, of hand,” and juggling, meaning “the performance of tricks,” were the terms initially used to designate exhibitions of deception. The words conjuring and magic had no theatrical significance until the end of the 18t...
  • magic (supernatural phenomenon)
    a concept used to describe a mode of rationality or way of thinking that looks to invisible forces to influence events, effect change in material conditions, or present the illusion of change. Within the Western tradition, this way of thinking is distinct from religious or scientific modes; however, such distinctions and even the definition of magic are subject to wide debate....
  • Magic Barrel, The (work by Malamud)
    ...Isaac Bashevis Singer—treated the human condition with humour and forgiveness. Malamud’s gift for dark comedy and Hawthornean fable was especially evident in his short-story collections The Magic Barrel (1958) and Idiots First (1963). His first three novels, The Natural (1952), The Assistant (1957), and A New Life (1...
  • Magic City, The (work by Sun Ra)
    ...moved to New York about 1960, he became wholly involved with free jazz; he dispensed with composition entirely, creating works by conducting his improvisers. Among his free jazz recordings, The Magic City (1965/66) is the most significant. The Arkestra, which included dancers, dressed in fantastical costumes inspired by ancient Egyptian attire and the space age, and Sun Ra conducted......
  • Magic Flute, The (opera by Mozart)
    ...of Mozart’s, Emanuel Schikaneder, had in 1789 set up a company to perform singspiels in a suburban theatre, and in 1791 he engaged Mozart to compose a score to his Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute); Mozart worked on it during the spring and early summer. Then he received another commission, anonymously delivered, for a requiem, to be composed under conditions of secr...
  • Magic Johnson Foundation (American organization)
    ...of Mozart’s, Emanuel Schikaneder, had in 1789 set up a company to perform singspiels in a suburban theatre, and in 1791 he engaged Mozart to compose a score to his Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute); Mozart worked on it during the spring and early summer. Then he received another commission, anonymously delivered, for a requiem, to be composed under conditions of secr...
  • Magic Man (American boxer)
    Despite the interest generated by his foray into the heavyweight division, Jones dropped back down to light heavyweight to face Antonio Tarver on November 8, 2003, in Las Vegas. Tarver gave Jones a surprisingly difficult fight, though Jones managed to win by a majority decision, capturing Tarver’s World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight belt. In their rematch on May 15, 2004, Jones......
  • Magic Mountain, The (work by Mann)
    ...and “Von deutscher Republik” (“The German Republic”) show his somewhat hesitant espousal of democratic principles. His new position was clarified in the novel The Magic Mountain. Its theme grows out of an earlier motif: a young engineer, Hans Castorp, visiting a cousin in a sanatorium in Davos, abandons practical life to submit to the rich seductions......
  • magic number (cluster)
    ...required to separate the particles from each other—vary widely with N for small clusters. The reason for this wide range is that clusters of certain values of N, known as magic numbers, can take on unusually stable geometric structures that yield large binding energies, while others with different small values of N have no especially stable forms and therefore......
  • magic number (atomic structure)
    in physics, in the shell models of both atomic and nuclear structure, any of a series of numbers that connote stable structure....
  • Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix, The (work by Gardner)
    ...of the following similarities (not all of them numerological) between U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, taken from a far more extensive list in Martin Gardner’s The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix (1985)? Lincoln was elected president in 1860, Kennedy in 1960.Both were assassinated on a Friday.Lincoln was killed in Ford’s Theatre; Kennedy wa...
  • Magic Realism (German art movement)
    (German: New Objectivity), a group of German artists in the 1920s whose works were executed in a realistic style (in contrast to the prevailing styles of Expressionism and Abstraction) and who reflected what was characterized as the resignation and cynicism of the post-World War I period in Germany. The term was fashioned in 1924 by Gustav F. Hartlaub, director of the Mannheim Kunsthall. In a 192...
  • magic realism (literary genre)
    chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. Although this strategy is known in the literature of many cultures in many ages, the term magic realism is a relatively recent designation, first applied in the 1940s by Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, who rec...
  • Magic, Science and Religion (work by Malinowski)
    ...in the The Andaman Islanders (1922) and to a lesser extent by Malinowski in Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) and Magic, Science and Religion (1925). Radcliffe-Brown posited that the function of magic was to express the social importance of the desired event, while Malinowski regarded magic as directly......
  • Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality (work by Tambiah)
    ...Clifford Geertz, and Marshall Sahlins has had a wide impact on the social sciences and humanities. Central to the challenge to the traditional magic-religion-science paradigm was Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality (1990), in which Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah deconstructs the European history of the progress model and the work of anthropologists from......
  • magic square (puzzle)
    square matrix often divided into cells, filled with numbers or letters in particular arrangements that were once thought to have special, magical properties. Originally used as religious symbols, they later became protective charms or tools for divination; and finally, when the original meanings were lost, people considered them mere curiosities or puzzles—except for some Western mathemati...
  • magic tale
    wonder tale involving marvellous elements and occurrences, though not necessarily about fairies. The term embraces such popular folktales (Märchen) as “Cinderella” and “Puss-in-Boots” and art fairy tales (Kunstmärchen) of later invention, such as The Happy Prince (1888), by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. It is often ...
  • Magic Theatre (theatre, San Francisco, California, United States)
    ...notable plays of this period—The Tooth of Crime (1972) and Geography of a Horse Dreamer (1974)—premiered in London. In late 1974, he became playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, where most of his subsequent plays were first produced....
  • magician
    one who practices magic, sometimes considered the same as a sorcerer or witch. Conjurers are also sometimes called magicians, reflecting a historical confusion whereby legerdemain was considered to involve the supernatural. The name derives from the magus, an ancient Persian priest, and the cognate maghdim, a Chaldean term meaning wisdom and philosophy....
  • magician box (automaton)
    ...beneath hinged panels in snuffbox tops or to operate in cages that were suspended so that a clock under the base was visible. Perhaps the most intriguing of small-size automatons were the so-called magician boxes. A disk engraved with a question is inserted in a slot in the box, upon which the tiny figure of a magician comes to life and points with his wand at a space where the answer appears....
  • Magician, Pyramid of the (pyramid, Uxmal, Mexico)
    The central ruins cover about 150 acres (60 hectares), but the remains of the residential districts extend over considerably more ground. At the tourist entrance to the central area is the Pyramid of the Magician (“Pirámide del Adivino”), which rises 90.5 feet (27.6 metres) in three concentric sections. At its base it measures about 227 by 162 feet (69 by 49 metres). The......
  • Magician’s Assistant, The (work by Patchett)
    ...loss of his son finds a new family when he hires a young white woman, Fay Taft, and becomes involved in the problems of her brother, Carl. Patchett also wrote a screen adaptation of the novel. The Magician’s Assistant (1997) relates the discoveries of the widow of a homosexual magician named Parsifal. The woman, who also had been her husband’s assistant, visits the fa...
  • Magicicada septendecim (insect)
    ...and forests. In addition to the dog-day cicada (Tibicen and others) that appears yearly in midsummer, there are also periodic cicadas. Among the most fascinating and best-known are the 17-year cicada (often erroneously called the 17-year locust) and the 13-year cicada (Magicicada). These species occur in large numbers in chronologically and geographically isolated broods....
  • Magie, Lizzie G. (American designer)
    ...Brothers in 1935. Before then, homemade versions of a similar game had circulated in many parts of the United States. Most were based on the Landlord’s Game, a board game designed and patented by Lizzie G. Magie in 1904. She revised and renewed the patent on her game in 1924. Notably, the version Magie originated did not involve the concept of a monopoly; for her, the point of the game w...
  • Magill, Helen (American educator)
    educator who was the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. degree....
  • Magill, Juliette Augusta (American pioneer and author)
    American pioneer and writer, remembered for her accounts of the indigenous peoples and settlers of early Chicago and the Midwest....
  • Magindanao (people)
    second largest of the Muslim cultural-linguistic groups of the Philippines. The Magindanao, numbering about 700,000 at the turn of the 21st century, live along the shores and floodlands of the Cotabato River in the southern island of Mindanao. They are chiefly rice farmers....
  • Maginot, André-Louis-René (French statesman)
    French statesman for whom a French line of elaborate fortifications against Germany was named. The Maginot Line contributed in large part to French complacency in the face of resurgent German military might after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933....
  • Maginot Line (French fortification, Europe)
    elaborate defensive barrier in northeast France constructed in the 1930s and named after its principal creator, André Maginot, who was France’s minister of war in 1929–31....
  • Maginulfo (antipope)
    antipope from 1105 to 1111. While the Investiture Controversy raged between the German king Henry V (later Holy Roman emperor) and Pope Paschal II, the imperialist faction, under Werner, margrave of Ancona, elected Maginulfo as successor to the imperialist antipope Albert (Aleric) on Nov. 18, 1105. He was the fourth in a line of antipopes set up against Pascha...
  • Magione conspiracy (Italian history)
    ...which surrendered without a shot being fired. He then turned on Camerino, which was also quickly subdued. At this stage his leading commanders, fearing his power, turned against him in the so-called Magione conspiracy. Cesare, stripped of most of his troops, was forced to fight defensively in the Romagna. With lavish use of papal funds, however, he managed to rebuild his army while at the same....
  • magister equitum (ancient Roman governor)
    ...supreme military command for no longer than six months. He was also termed the master of the army (magister populi), and he appointed a subordinate cavalry commander, the master of horse (magister equitum). The office was thoroughly constitutional and should not be confused with the late republican dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar, which were simply legalizations of autocratic......
  • Magister Jón (Icelandic bishop and author)
    Lutheran bishop, best known for his Húss-Postilla (1718–20; “Sermons for the Home”), one of the finest works of Icelandic prose of the 18th century....
  • “Magister Ludi” (work by Hesse)
    ...Goldmund), an intellectual ascetic who is content with established religious faith is contrasted with an artistic sensualist pursuing his own form of salvation. In his last and longest novel, Das Glasperlenspiel (1943; English titles The Glass Bead Game, or Magister Ludi), Hesse again explores the dualism of the contemplative and the active life, this time through th...
  • Magisterium (Roman Catholicism)
    The magisterium...
  • magistrat du parquet (French law)
    ...Centre for Judicial Studies. A traditional distinction is made between the magistrats du siège, who try cases, and the magistrats de parquet (public prosecutors), who prosecute. Only the former enjoy the constitutional guarantee of irremovability. The High Council of the Judiciary is made up of 20 members......
  • magistrat du siège (French law)
    ...National School of the Magistracy, which was founded in 1958 and in 1970 replaced the National Centre for Judicial Studies. A traditional distinction is made between the magistrats du siège, who try cases, and the magistrats de parquet (public prosecutors), who prosecute. Only the former enjoy the......
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