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  • Malāmatīyah (Ṣūfism)
    a Ṣūfī (Muslim mystic) group that flourished in Sāmānid Iran during the 8th century. The name Malāmatīyah was derived from the Arabic verb laʾma (“to be ignoble,” or “to be wicked”). Malāmatī doctrines were based on the reproach of the carnal self and a careful watch over its inclinatio...
  • Malamud, Bernard (American author)
    American novelist and short-story writer who made parables out of Jewish immigrant life....
  • Malamute (breed of dog)
    sled dog developed by the Malemiut, an Eskimo (Inupiat) group from which it takes its name. The Alaskan Malamute is a strongly built dog, with a broad head, erect ears, and a plumelike tail carried over its back. Its thick coat is usually gray and white or black and white, the colours frequently forming a caplike or masklike marking on the head. The Alaskan Malamute stands about...
  • Malan, Daniel François (South African politician)
    statesman and politician who is best remembered for forming the first exclusively Afrikaner government of South Africa and for instituting apartheid (the enforced segregation of nonwhites from whites)....
  • Malan, François Stephanus (South African politician)
    politician who was a leader of the moderate Dutch political parties in South Africa. He was a constant supporter of political rights for Africans....
  • Malanchuk, Valentyn (Soviet government official)
    ...of cadres associated with the site of Shcherbytsky’s (and Brezhnev’s) earlier career, the Dnipropetrovsk regional Communist Party organization. The most significant occurred in October 1972: Valentyn Malanchuk, who had previously conducted ideological work in the nationally highly charged Lviv region, was appointed secretary for ideology. A purge in 1973–75 removed a...
  • Malang (Indonesia)
    kotamadya (municipality), East Java (Jawa Timur) propinsi (province), Indonesia. Malang is located on a plateau between Mount Kawi (8,697 feet [2,651 metres]) and the Tengger Mountains, and the city enjoys a comfortable climate. The Indonesian parliament met there temporarily during Indonesia’s struggle for independence from Dutch rule. Malang’s indus...
  • Malangatana (Mozambican artist)
    The painter Malangatana Valente Ngwenya, commonly known as Malangatana, has gained an international following, as has the sculptor Alberto Chissano. Malangatana and the muralist Mankew Valente Muhumana have inspired the formation of artist cooperatives, particularly around Maputo; among the most prominent of these is the Nucleo de Arte, which operates a gallery and offers workshops throughout......
  • Malange (Angola)
    town, north-central Angola. The town developed in the mid-19th century as an important feira (open-air market) on the country’s principal plateau, between Luanda—now the country’s capital, 250 miles (400 km) to the west—and the Cuango valley, inhabited by Mbundu peoples, ...
  • malanggan style (art)
    one of the most sophisticated styles of carving in the South Pacific Islands, with a technical virtuosity, vocabulary of fantastic motifs, and range of colour unique in Oceanic art. Although malanggan carvings have been found in other areas of Melanesia, they are indigenous to northwestern New Ireland....
  • Malania anjouanae (fish)
    ...but in 1938 a living member (Latimeria chalumnae) was netted in the Indian Ocean near the southern coast of Africa. Rewards were offered for more specimens, and in 1952 a second (named Malania anjouanae but not separable from Latimeria) was obtained from near the Comoros Islands. Numerous others have been caught in that area. It was later discovered that these fishes......
  • Malanje (Angola)
    town, north-central Angola. The town developed in the mid-19th century as an important feira (open-air market) on the country’s principal plateau, between Luanda—now the country’s capital, 250 miles (400 km) to the west—and the Cuango valley, inhabited by Mbundu peoples, ...
  • Malankarese Catholic Church (church, India)
    an Antiochene-rite member of the Eastern Catholic church, composed of former members of the Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) Church of Kerala, India, who united with Rome in 1930....
  • Malaparte, Curzio (Italian writer)
    journalist, dramatist, short-story writer, and novelist, one of the most powerful, brilliant, and controversial of the Italian writers of the fascist and post-World War II periods....
  • malapropism
    verbal blunder in which one word is replaced by another similar in sound but different in meaning. Although William Shakespeare had used the device for comic effect, the term derives from Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s character Mrs. Malaprop, in his play The Rivals (1775). Her name is taken from the term malapropos (French: “inappropriate”) and ...
  • Malapterurus electricus (fish)
    any of about 18 widely distributed freshwater catfish species native to tropical Africa belonging to two genera (Malapterurus and Paradoxoglanis) of the family Malapteruridae. The best known of this group is M. electricus, a thickset fish with six mouth barbels and a single fin (the adipose fin) on its back, just anterior to the rounded tail fin. It is brownish or grayish, irr...
  • malar bone (anatomy)
    diamond-shaped bone below and lateral to the orbit, or eye socket, at the widest part of the cheek. It adjoins the frontal bone at the outer edge of the orbit and the sphenoid and maxilla within the orbit. It forms the central part of the zygomatic arch by its attachments to the maxilla in front and to the zygomatic process of the temporal bone at the side. The zygomatic bone forms in membrane (...
  • Mälar, Lake (lake, Sweden)
    lake in eastern Sweden, located just west of Stockholm, which lies at the lake’s junction with Salt Bay, an arm of the Baltic Sea. At one time Lake Mälar was a bay of the Baltic, and seagoing vessels using it were able to sail far into the interior of Sweden. Because of movements of the Earth’s crust, however, the rock barrier at the mouth of the bay had become so shallow by a...
  • Mälaren (lake, Sweden)
    lake in eastern Sweden, located just west of Stockholm, which lies at the lake’s junction with Salt Bay, an arm of the Baltic Sea. At one time Lake Mälar was a bay of the Baltic, and seagoing vessels using it were able to sail far into the interior of Sweden. Because of movements of the Earth’s crust, however, the rock barrier at the mouth of the bay had become so shallow by a...
  • malaria (pathology)
    serious, relapsing infection in humans, characterized by periodic attacks of chills and fever, anemia, splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen), and often fatal complications. It is caused by one-celled parasites of the genus Plasmodium that are transmitted to humans by the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes. Malar...
  • Malaria Vaccine Initiative (international organization)
    ...almost no country with endemic malaria was without drug-resistant parasites. In the late 1990s and early 2000s partnership-based aid programs, such as the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria and the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, were established to support the fight against malaria. Some of these programs aim to fund a broad range of malaria research, whereas others aim to fund ongoing malaria......
  • Malaspina, Conrad (Italian noble)
    ...gold lettering. Numerous historical instances of augmentations of honour occurred in continental Europe, especially in connection with the Holy Roman emperors. Frederick II, for example, granted to Conrad Malaspina an augmentation of a chief of the empire, thereby adding an eagle displayed sable to the Malaspina arms of per fess gules and or overall a thorn branch vert with.....
  • Malaspina family (Italian family)
    feudal family powerful in northern Italy in the Middle Ages. Descended from Marquis Oberto I, who was created count palatine by the Holy Roman emperor Otto I, the family at first controlled Tuscany, eastern Liguria, and the March of Lombardy. Early in the 11th century the Este, Pallavicino, and Massa-Corsica family branches separated from the Malaspina. The situation of Malaspina lands, in the mou...
  • Malaspina Glacier (glacier, Alaska, United States)
    segment of the St. Elias Mountains glacier system, west of Yakutat Bay in southeastern Alaska, U.S. The most extensive individual ice field in Alaska, it flows for 50 miles (80 km) along the southern base of Mount St. Elias, is more than 1,000 feet (300 metres) thick, and covers about 1,500 square miles (3,900 square km). It is located in ...
  • Malasseziales (order of fungi)
    ...(incertae sedis)Includes one order not placed in any class.Order MalassezialesSymbiotic on skin of animals but can become pathogenic, mainly affecting dogs and cats; asexual; rapidly budding yeasts with thick cell walls, colonies range in......
  • malate (chemical compound)
    ...of fumarate in a reaction catalyzed by fumarase [45]; this type of reaction also occurred in step [39] of the cycle. The product of reaction [45] is malate....
  • malate dehydrogenase (enzyme)
    Malate can be oxidized to oxaloacetate by removal of two hydrogen atoms, which are accepted by NAD+. This type of reaction, catalyzed by malate dehydrogenase in reaction [46], also occurred in step [40] of the cycle. The formation of oxaloacetate completes the TCA cycle, which can now begin again with the formation of citrate [38]....
  • malate synthase (enzyme)
    succinate and glyoxylate. Glyoxylate, like oxaloacetate, is the anion of an α-oxoacid and thus can condense, in a reaction catalyzed by malate synthase, with acetyl coenzyme A; the products of this reaction are coenzyme A and malate [53]....
  • Malaterra, Goffredo (Italian historian)
    In a chronicle of the Norman rule in Sicily and southern Italy during the 11th century, Goffredo Malaterra records an eclipse of the Sun that, even though it caused alarm to some people, was evidently regarded by others as no more than a practical inconvenience:[ad 1084] On the sixth day of the month of February between the sixth and ninth hours the Sun was obscured for t...
  • Malatesta, Enrico (Italian revolutionary)
    Italian anarchist and agitator, a leading advocate of “propaganda of the deed,” the doctrine urged largely by Italian anarchists that revolutionary ideas could best be spread by armed insurrection....
  • Malatesta, Errico (Italian revolutionary)
    Italian anarchist and agitator, a leading advocate of “propaganda of the deed,” the doctrine urged largely by Italian anarchists that revolutionary ideas could best be spread by armed insurrection....
  • Malatesta family (Italian family)
    Italian family that ruled Rimini, south of Ravenna, in the European Middle Ages and led the region’s Guelf (papal) party. Originating as feudal lords of the Apennine hinterland, the family became powerful in Rimini in the 13th century, when Malatesta da Verucchio (d. 1312) expelled Ghibelline (imperial party) leaders in 1295 and became lord of the city. Possibly the best...
  • Malatesta, Gianciotto (ruler of Rimini)
    daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, whose tragic love affair with Paolo Malatesta is renowned in literature and art. Married to Gianciotto Malatesta (called “the Lame”) for reasons of state, she was murdered by him when he discovered her in adultery with his brother Paolo (called “the Fair”), whom he also killed....
  • Malatesta, Sigismondo Pandolfo (ruler of Rimini)
    feudal ruler and condottiere who is often regarded as the prototype of the Italian Renaissance prince....
  • Malatesta Temple (chapel, Rimini, Italy)
    burial chapel in Rimini, Italy, for Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, the lord of the city, together with his mistress Isotta degli Atti and the Malatesta family. The “temple” was converted, beginning in 1446, from the Gothic-style Church of San Francesco according to the plans of the Early Renaissance Florentine architect ...
  • Malathion (insecticide)
    trade name for an organic phosphorus compound that is a general-purpose insecticide considerably less toxic to humans than parathion and is thus suited for the control of household and garden insects. It is important in the control of mosquitoes, flies, and lice. Malathion is a yellow-to-brown liquid with a characteristic unpleasant odour. It is generally prepared by combining O,O′-...
  • Malati Madhava (work by Bhavabhūti)
    ...of the Great Hero”), which gives in seven acts the main incidents in the Rāmāyaṇa up to the defeat of Rāvaṇa and the coronation of Rāma; Mālatī Mādhava, a domestic drama in 10 acts abounding in stirring, though sometimes improbable, incidents; and Uttararāmacarita (“The Later Deeds of......
  • Malatya (Turkey)
    city, east-central Turkey. It lies in a fertile plain watered by the Tohma River (a tributary of the Euphrates) and is surrounded by high ranges of the eastern Taurus Mountains. The modern town was founded in 1838 near the sites of two earlier settlements: the ancient Hittite city of Milid, on the site of the present-day Arslantepe, 4 miles (6 km) north, and its successor, the R...
  • Malava (people)
    ...whose local importance rose and fell in inverse proportion to the rise and fall of larger kingdoms. According to numismatic evidence, the most important politically were the Audambaras, Arjunayanas, Malavas, Yaudheyas, Shibis, Kunindas, Trigartas, and Abhiras. The Arjunayanas had their base in the present-day Bharatpur-Alwar region. The Malavas appear to have migrated from the Punjab to the......
  • Malava (historical province, India)
    historic province comprising a large portion of eastern Madhya Pradesh state and parts of southeastern Rājasthān state, west central India. Strictly, the name is confined to the hilly tableland bounded on the south by the Vindhya Range, but it has been extended to include the Narmada Valley. Traditionally a land of plenty, it is an area of fertile black soil drained by the Chambal, S...
  • Mālava era (Indian history)
    The Vikrama era (58 bc) is said in the Jain book Kālakācāryakathā to have been founded after a victory of King Vikramāditya over the Śaka. But some scholars credit the Scytho-Parthian ruler Azes with the foundation of this era. It is sometimes called the Mālava era because Vikramāditya ruled over the M...
  • Mālavikāgnimitra (work by Kālidāsa)
    The third of Kālidāsa’s dramas, Mālavikāgnimitra, is of a different stamp—a harem intrigue, comical and playful, but not less accomplished for lacking any high purpose. The play (unique in this respect) contains datable references, the historicity of which have been much discussed....
  • Malaviscus arboreus (plant)
    ...(Corchorus olitorius), from tropical Asia, a secondary source of jute; tree mallow (Lavatera arborea), up to 3 metres (10 feet), from Europe but naturalized along coastal California; wax mallow (Malvaviscus arboreus), a reddish flowering ornamental shrub from South America; poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata), a hairy perennial, low-growing, with poppy-like reddish....
  • Malaviya, Pandit Madan Mohan (Indian educator)
    ...were pioneers in the founding of indigenous educational institutions in the Deccan in the 1880s. The movement for national education spread throughout Bengal, as well as to Varanasi (Banaras), where Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861–1946) founded his private Banaras Hindu University in 1910....
  • “malavoglia, I” (novel by Verga)
    ...Verga saw as foredoomed. D.H. Lawrence translated several of his works into English, including Cavalleria rusticana and Mastro-don Gesualdo. Another notable English translation is The House by the Medlar Tree (1953), Eric Mosbacher’s version of I malavoglia....
  • Malaŵi
    landlocked country in southeastern Africa. A country of spectacular highlands and extensive lakes, it occupies a narrow, curving strip of land along the East African Rift Valley. Stretching about 520 miles (840 kilometres) from north to south, it has a width varying from 5 to 100 miles and is bordered by Tanzania to the north, Mozambique to the east and south, and Zambia to the west....
  • Malaŵi Congress Party (political party, Malaŵi)
    When elections were held in 1961, the Malaŵi Congress Party obtained more than 90 percent of the votes. Its party flag consisted of three equal horizontal stripes of black, red, and green. These respectively symbolized the African people of the territory, the blood of martyrs for the national flag, and the ever-green nature of Malaŵi. The country’s name means “flaming.....
  • Malaŵi Correspondence College (college, Malaŵi)
    ...primary schools feature one of the highest student-teacher ratios in Africa. Postprimary education comprises a four-year secondary-school course that can lead to a university education. The Malaŵi Correspondence College is available to students unable to attend regular secondary school. There are also institutions for teacher training and for technical and vocational training. The......
  • Malaŵi, flag of
    ...
  • Malaŵi, history of
    The paleontological record of human cultural artifacts in Malaŵi dates back more than 50,000 years, although known fossil remains of early Homo sapiens belong to the period between 8000 and 2000 bc. These prehistoric forebears have affinities to the San (Bushmen) of southern Africa and were probably ancestral to the Twa and Fula, whom Bantu-speakin...
  • Malaŵi, Lake (lake, Africa)
    lake, southernmost and third largest of the East African Rift Valley lakes of East Africa, lying in a deep trough mainly within Malaŵi....
  • Malaŵi, Republic of
    landlocked country in southeastern Africa. A country of spectacular highlands and extensive lakes, it occupies a narrow, curving strip of land along the East African Rift Valley. Stretching about 520 miles (840 kilometres) from north to south, it has a width varying from 5 to 100 miles and is bordered by Tanzania to the north, Mozambique to the east and south, and Zambia to the west....
  • Malaŵi Young Pioneers (youth movement, Malaŵi)
    ...and water supplies; health centres; afforestation units; and crop storage and protection facilities. Outside the main program areas, advisory services and educational programs are available, and the Malaŵi Young Pioneers, a national youth movement, trains more than 2,000 young men and women yearly in techniques of rural development....
  • Malay (people)
    any member of an ethnic group of the Malay Peninsula and portions of adjacent islands of Southeast Asia, including the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and smaller islands that lie between these areas. The Malay speak various dialects belonging to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family of languages....
  • “Malay Annals” (Malaysian literature)
    one of the finest literary and historical works in the Malay language. Concerning the Malaccan sultanate, it was composed sometime in the 15th or 16th century. The original text, written prior to 1536, underwent changes in 1612, ordered by Sultan Abdullah Maayah Shah. Only manuscripts of this modified version survive....
  • Malay Archipelago (islands, southeast Asia)
    largest group of islands in the world, consisting of the more than 13,000 islands of Indonesia and the some 7,000 islands of the Philippines. The regional name “East Indies” is sometimes used as a synonym for the archipelago. New Guinea is usually arbitrarily included in the Malay Archipelago while the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the northwest and the Bismarck A...
  • Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise, The (book by Wallace)
    ...Mitten (1848–1914), with whom he raised three children (Herbert died at age 4, whereas Violet and William survived their father), published a highly successful narrative of his journey, The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise (1869), and wrote Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870). In the latter volume and in several......
  • Malay language
    member of the Western, or Indonesian, branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family, spoken as a native language by more than 33,000,000 persons distributed over the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, and the numerous smaller islands of the area, and widely used in Malaysia and Indonesia as a second language. Malay shows the closest relationship to most of the other languages of S...
  • Malay literature
    ...but they have a single common linguistic ancestor. Before the coming of Islam to the region in the 14th century, Javanese had been the language of culture; afterward, during the Islamic period, Malay became the most important language—and still more so under later Dutch colonial rule so that, logically, it was recognized in 1949 as the official Indonesian language by the newly......
  • Malay Peninsula (peninsula, Southeast Asia)
    in Southeast Asia, a long, narrow appendix of the mainland extending south for a distance of about 700 miles (1,127 km) through the Isthmus of Kra to Cape Balai, southernmost point of the Asian continent; its maximum width is 200 miles (322 km). It lies between the Andaman Sea of the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca (west), the Singapore Strait (south), and the Gulf of Thailand and the South...
  • Malaya, Federation of (historical state, Malaysia)
    British and Dutch decolonization in East Asia began in 1947 with the independence of India and the creation of Pakistan. Burma and Ceylon followed in 1948, and the Dutch East Indies in 1949. Malaya’s independence was delayed until 1957 by a communist campaign of terror, quelled by both a sophisticated antiguerrilla campaign and a serious effort to win what the British General Sir Gerald Tem...
  • Malaya Ob (river, Russia)
    ...of the river and dotted with lakes. Below Peregrebnoye the river divides itself into two main channels: the Great (Bolshaya) Ob, which receives the Kazym and Kunovat rivers from the right, and the Little (Malaya) Ob, which receives the Northern (Severnaya) Sosva, the Vogulka, and the Synya rivers from the left. These main channels are reunited below Shuryshkary into a single stream that is up.....
  • Malayalam language
    language of the Dravidian family, spoken in southwestern India; it is the official language of the state of Kerala. Malayalam has three important regional dialects and a number of smaller ones. There is also some difference in dialect along caste lines and a distinction, called diglossia, between the formal, literary language and the colloquial tongue. Both th...
  • Malayālam language
    language of the Dravidian family, spoken in southwestern India; it is the official language of the state of Kerala. Malayalam has three important regional dialects and a number of smaller ones. There is also some difference in dialect along caste lines and a distinction, called diglossia, between the formal, literary language and the colloquial tongue. Both th...
  • Malayalam literature (Indian literature)
    In Malayalam the modern movement began in the late 19th century with Asan, who was temperamentally a pessimist—a disposition reinforced by his metaphysics—yet all his life was active in promoting his downtrodden Ezhava community. Ullor wrote in the classical tradition, on the basis of which he appealed for universal love, while Vallathol (died 1958) responded to the human......
  • Malayāli (people)
    Most Malayālis, the Malayālam-speaking people of Kerala, are of Dravidian ancestry, with some Indo-European admixture representing the ancient so-called Aryan influx. The latter element remains strongest among the Nambūdiri caste of orthodox Hindus. A few tribal people in the mountains may exhibit affinities with the Negrito local race of Southeast Asia....
  • Malayan (nationality)
    Most Malayālis, the Malayālam-speaking people of Kerala, are of Dravidian ancestry, with some Indo-European admixture representing the ancient so-called Aryan influx. The latter element remains strongest among the Nambūdiri caste of orthodox Hindus. A few tribal people in the mountains may exhibit affinities with the Negrito local race of Southeast Asia.......
  • Malayan Chinese Association (political party, Malaysia)
    Promising independence, British officials commenced negotiations with the various ethnic leaders, including those of UMNO and the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), formed in 1949 by wealthy Chinese businessmen. A coalition consisting of UMNO (led by the aristocratic moderate Tunku Abdul Rahman), MCA, and the Malayan Indian Congress contested the national legislative elections held in 1955 and......
  • Malayan Communist Party (political party, Malaysia)
    ...organized the MPAJA. This army consisted primarily of Chinese Communists, with smaller numbers of Kuomintang (Nationalist) Chinese and some Malays. Because of the Chinese majority in the army, the Malayan Communist Party was able to infiltrate and indoctrinate the guerrillas and to stress that postwar Malaya would become Communist through their efforts....
  • Malayan Emergency (Malayan history)
    (1948–60), period of unrest following the creation of the Federation of Malaya (precursor of Malaysia) in 1948....
  • Malayan field rat (rodent)
    ...Philippine forest rat (R. everetti), also eat insects and worms. Other tropical species, such as the rice-field rat (R. argentiventer) and Malayan field rat (R. tiomanicus), primarily consume the insects, snails, slugs, and other invertebrates found in habitats of forest patches, secondary growth, scrubby......
  • Malayan gaur (mammal)
    Malayan wild cattle, a species of gaur....
  • Malayan lar (primate)
    species of gibbon....
  • Malayan leaf beetle (insect)
    The beneficial Lebia grandis, which resembles the bombardier beetle, preys upon the Colorado potato beetle. The Malayan leaf beetle, or fiddle beetle (Mormolyce), measuring approximately 100 mm (4 inches) long, resembles a violin with its slender head and thorax and wide elytra. This flat beetle uses its long head to probe into small openings in search of prey. It hides in......
  • Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (Malaysian history)
    guerrilla movement formed originally to oppose the Japanese occupation of Malaya during World War II. In December 1941 a rapid Japanese invasion commenced, and within 10 weeks it had conquered Malaya. British military forces had prepared for this possibility by training small Malayan guerrilla groups. Once war became a reality, the guerrillas organized the MPAJA. This army consisted primarily of C...
  • Malayan range (mountains, Philippines)
    ...That range and the Cordillera Central merge in north-central Luzon to form the Caraballo Mountains. To the north of the latter, and between the two ranges, is the fertile Cagayan Valley. The narrow Ilocos, or Malayan, range, lying close along the west coast of northern Luzon, rises in places to elevations above 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) and is seldom below 3,500 feet (1,000 metres); it is......
  • Malayan rat shrew (mammal)
    a large Southeast Asian insectivore that is essentially a primitive tropical hedgehog with a long tail and fur instead of spines. Despite their name, moonrats are not rodents, although they have a slim body, small unpigmented ears, small eyes, and a tapered muzzle with long whiskers. Like other insectivores, they have a mobile snout....
  • Malayan stink badger (mammal)
    species of badger found in Southeast Asia....
  • Malayan sun bear (mammal)
    smallest member of the family Ursidae, found in Southeast Asian forests. The bear (Helarctos, or Ursus, malayanus) is often tamed as a pet when young but becomes bad-tempered and dangerous as an adult. It weighs only 27–65 kg (59–143 pounds) and grows 1–1.2 m (3.3–4 feet) long with a 5-centimetre (2-inch) tail. Its large forepaws bear long,...
  • Malayan tapir (mammal)
    The three New World species are plain dark brown or gray, but the Malayan tapir (T. indicus) is strongly patterned, with black head, shoulders, and legs and white rump, back, and belly. The young of all tapirs are dark brown, streaked and spotted with yellowish white. A single young (rarely two) is produced after a gestation of about 400 days....
  • Malayo-Polynesian languages
    ...central and eastern Pacific as Further Polynesian, although he offered no name for the language family as a whole. The German scholar Wilhelm von Humboldt is generally credited with coining the name Malayo-Polynesian, although the word first appeared in print in an 1841 publication of his contemporary, the German linguist Franz Bopp. Several decades later Robert Codrington, a leading English......
  • Malaysia
    country of Southeast Asia, lying just north of the Equator, that is composed of two noncontiguous regions: Peninsular Malaysia (Semenanjung Malaysia), also called West Malaysia (Malaysia Barat), on the Malay Peninsula, and East Malaysia (Malaysia Timur) on the island of Borneo. The Mal...
  • Malaysia Barat (region, Malaysia)
    region of the 13-state federation of Malaysia. It occupies the southern half of the Malay Peninsula and is separated from East Malaysia (on the island of Borneo) by the South China Sea. Formerly the Federation of Malaya (1948–63), it contains the bulk of Malaysia’s population and has the ca...
  • Malaysia, flag of
    ...
  • Malaysia, history of
    Extending well into the western zone of the Southeast Asian archipelago, the Malay Peninsula has long constituted a critical link between the mainland and the islands of Southeast Asia. Because Malaysia itself is divided between the two regions, the history of the country can be understood only within a broad geographic context. The Strait of Malacca, narrowly separating the peninsula from the......
  • Malaysian (nationality)
    Extending well into the western zone of the Southeast Asian archipelago, the Malay Peninsula has long constituted a critical link between the mainland and the islands of Southeast Asia. Because Malaysia itself is divided between the two regions, the history of the country can be understood only within a broad geographic context. The Strait of Malacca, narrowly separating the peninsula from the.......
  • Malaysian dollar (Malaysian currency)
    monetary unit of Malaysia. The ringgit, also known as the Malaysian dollar, is divided into 100 sen. The Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia) has the exclusive authority to issue banknotes and coins in Malaysia. Coins are issued in denominations ranging from 1 sen to 1 ringgit. Banknote values are denominated from 1 to 100 ringgit. The obverse of each of the colourful bills contains a p...
  • Malaysian Grand Prix (automobile race)
    monetary unit of Malaysia. The ringgit, also known as the Malaysian dollar, is divided into 100 sen. The Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia) has the exclusive authority to issue banknotes and coins in Malaysia. Coins are issued in denominations ranging from 1 sen to 1 ringgit. Banknote values are denominated from 1 to 100 ringgit. The obverse of each of the colourful bills contains a p...
  • Malaysian-Australian monsoon (meteorology)
    Southeast Asia and northern Australia are combined in one monsoonal system that differs from others because of the peculiar and somewhat symmetrical distribution of landmasses on both sides of the Equator. In this respect, the northwest monsoon of Australia is unique. The substantial masses of water between Asia and Australia have a moderating effect on tropospheric temperatures, weakening the......
  • Malbin (Russian rabbi)
    The tradition of orthodox Jewish exegesis has persisted. In the 19th century the Russian rabbi Meir ben Yehiel Michael, “Malbin,” (1809–79) wrote commentaries on the prophets and the writings, emphasizing the differences between synonyms. In the 20th century the traditional values of Judaism were popularly expounded in Joseph Herman Hertz’s commentary on The Pentateu...
  • Malbodius, Jan (Flemish painter)
    Flemish painter who was one of the first artists to introduce the style of the Italian Renaissance into the Low Countries....
  • Malbone, Edward Greene (American painter)
    painter generally regarded as the greatest American miniaturist....
  • Malbork (Poland)
    city, Pomorskie województwo (province), northern Poland. It lies on the Nogat River, the easternmost distributary of the Vistula River delta. The town was founded on the site of a medieval Prussian estate fortified by knights of the Teutonic Order in 1236 and was once the residence of their grand master; the surrounding settlement re...
  • Malbork castle (castle, Malbork, Poland)
    ...sculptures, among which the wooden altar of Veit Stoss (Wit Stwosz), in St. Mary’s Church (Kościół Mariacki) in Kraków, is the most famous. The vast red-brick castle of Malbork (Marienburg), once the headquarters of the Teutonic Knights, is among the most impressive in Europe; the well-restored castle was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1997. The......
  • Malchus (Syrian philosopher)
    Neoplatonist Greek philosopher, important both as an editor and as a biographer of the philosopher Plotinus and for his commentary on Aristotle’s Categories, which set the stage for medieval developments of logic and the problem of universals. Boethius’ Latin translation of the introduction (Isagoge) became a standard medieval textbook....
  • Malchus (Jewish historian)
    ...culture, by asserting that Moses was the real originator of Egyptian civilization, and by claiming that Moses taught the Egyptians the worship of Apis (the sacred bull) and the ibis (sacred bird). Cleodemus (Malchus), in an attempt to win for the Jews the regard of the Greeks, asserted in his history that two sons of Abraham had joined Heracles in his expedition in Africa and that the Greek......
  • malcoha (bird)
    any of several species of cuckoos of southern Asia, especially members of the genus Rhopodytes (often placed in Phaenicophaeus). Malcohas are noted for having a long tail, a stout bill with bristly base, and bare skin around the eyes. They are forest birds that move in a squirrellike manner along branches in thick vegetation....
  • Malcolm (kings of Scotland)
    any of several species of cuckoos of southern Asia, especially members of the genus Rhopodytes (often placed in Phaenicophaeus). Malcohas are noted for having a long tail, a stout bill with bristly base, and bare skin around the eyes. They are forest birds that move in a squirrellike manner along branches in thick vegetation.......
  • Malcolm (novel by Purdy)
    Purdy’s fiction examines the relationships between individuals and the effects of family life. Malcolm (1959) tells the story of the experiences of a 15-year-old boy in a fruitless search for his identity. In Purdy’s later works, such as The Nephew (1960) and Cabot Wright Begins (1964), he further develops the...
  • Malcolm, Catherine Wilson (New Zealander activist)
    English-born activist, who was a leader in the woman suffrage movement in New Zealand. She was instrumental in making New Zealand the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote (1893)....
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