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  • Mama Mikay (Inca noble)
    ...chronicles for the fact that he fathered a large number of sons, one of whom, Yahuar Huacac (Yawar Waqaq), was kidnapped by a neighbouring group when he was about eight years old. The boy’s mother, Mama Mikay, was a Huayllaca (Wayllaqa) woman who had been promised to the leader of another group called the Ayarmaca (’Ayarmaka). When the promise was broken and Mama Mikay married Inc...
  • Mama Qoca (Inca god)
    ...and festivals were celebrated on their reappearance in the sky. Earth was called Pachamama (Paca Mama), or Earth Mother. The sea, which was relatively remote to the Inca until after 1450, was called Cochamama (Mama Qoca), the Sea Mother....
  • Mama Quilla (Inca goddess)
    Mama Quilla (Mama-Kilya), wife of the sun god, was the Moon Mother, and the regulator of women’s menstrual cycles. The waxing and waning of the moon was used to calculate monthly cycles, from which the time periods for Inca festivals were set. Silver was considered to be tears of the moon. The stars had minor functions. The constellation of Lyra, which was believed to have the appearance of...
  • Mama-Kilya (Inca goddess)
    Mama Quilla (Mama-Kilya), wife of the sun god, was the Moon Mother, and the regulator of women’s menstrual cycles. The waxing and waning of the moon was used to calculate monthly cycles, from which the time periods for Inca festivals were set. Silver was considered to be tears of the moon. The stars had minor functions. The constellation of Lyra, which was believed to have the appearance of...
  • Mamadou Dia (prime minister of Senegal)
    In late 1962 Prime Minister Mamadou Dia, a longtime protégé of Senghor, attempted a coup d’état. The Senegalese people rallied behind Senghor, however, and Dia was sentenced to life imprisonment (he was released in 1974). Senghor was reelected president in 1963 and retired on Dec. 31, 1980, the first African president to leave office voluntarily. Abdou Diouf, whom Sengh...
  • Mamai (Mongol general)
    Subsequently, Mamai, the Mongol general who was the effective ruler of the western portion of the Golden Horde, formed a military alliance with neighbouring rulers for the purpose of subduing the Russians. Confronting the Mongols on the Don River, however, in the bloody battle on Kulikovo Pole (“Snipes’ Field”), Dmitry routed Mamai’s forces; for his victory Dmitry was h...
  • Mamalla (Pallava king)
    Mahendravarman’s successor, Narasimhavarman I (reigned c. 630–668), also called Mahamall or Mamalla, avenged the Pallava defeat by capturing Vatapi. He sent two naval expeditions from Mahabalipuram to Sri Lanka to assist the king Manavamma in regaining his throne. Pallava naval interests laid the foundation for extensive reliance on the navy by the succeeding dynasty, the Cola...
  • Mamallapuram (historical town, India)
    historic town, northeast Tamil Nādu state, southeastern India. The town lies along the Bay of Bengal 37 miles (60 km) south of Madras. The town’s religious centre was founded by a 7th-century-ad Hindu Pallava king, Narasiṃhavarman, also known as Māmalla, for whom the town was named. Ancient Chinese, Persian, and Roman coins found at Mah...
  • Mamaloni, Solomon (prime minister of Solomon Islands)
    ...was attained on July 7, 1978. Peter Kenilorea, who had helped lead Solomon Islands to independence, became its first prime minister (1978–81) and served a second term from 1984 to 1986. Solomon Mamaloni, another pre-independence leader, served as prime minister several times in the 1980s and ’90s; resigning from his final term in August 1997 amid allegations of corruption, he was....
  • mamanatowick (Algonquin title)
    ...and energetic ruler, but he was also noted as being strict and occasionally cruel toward his subjects. In the Algonquian language of his people, his title as emperor was mamanatowick, and his territory was known as Tsenacommacah. Each tribe within the Powhatan empire had its own chief, or weroance, and Powhatan......
  • Mamari Kulibali (African chief)
    Mamari Kulibali, known as “the Commander” (reigned c. 1712–55), is regarded as the true founder of Segu; he extended his empire to what is now Bamako in the southwest and to Djénné and Timbuktu in the northeast by forming a professional army and navy and conquering other Bambara rivals and fighting off the king of Kong (c. 1730)....
  • Mamaroneck (New York, United States)
    village, Westchester county, New York, U.S. It is located on Long Island Sound, just northeast of New Rochelle, astride the border separating the towns (townships) of Mamaroneck and Rye. Although considered part of the Dutch West India Company lands, the site was sold in 1661 by ...
  • Mamas and the Papas, The (American music group)
    American vocal quartet whose intricate harmonies brought them to the forefront of the folk rock movement of the 1960s. The original members were John Phillips (b. August 30, 1935Parris Island, South Carolina, U.S.—d. March 18, 2001Los Angeles, Ca...
  • Mamay (Mongol general)
    Subsequently, Mamai, the Mongol general who was the effective ruler of the western portion of the Golden Horde, formed a military alliance with neighbouring rulers for the purpose of subduing the Russians. Confronting the Mongols on the Don River, however, in the bloody battle on Kulikovo Pole (“Snipes’ Field”), Dmitry routed Mamai’s forces; for his victory Dmitry was h...
  • mamba (snake)
    any of four species of large arboreal venomous snakes that live throughout sub-Saharan Africa in tropical rainforest and savanna. Mambas are slender, agile, and quick and are active during the day. They have smooth scales, flat-sided (coffin-shaped) heads, long front fangs, and a powerful neurotoxic venom (see snakebite)....
  • Mamberamo River (river, Indonesia)
    river in Indonesian Irian Jaya, northwestern New Guinea. Formed by the confluence of the Taritatu (Idenburg) and Tariku (Rouffaer) rivers, which converge in a large wild sago swamp, it flows generally northwest and empties into the Pacific Ocean near Tanjung (cape) D’Urville. After flowing placidly the first 20 mi (32 km), the river cuts through the Pegunungan (mountains) Van Rees in a seri...
  • Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, The (work by Hijuelos)
    ...a B.A. in 1975 and an M.A. in 1976. He won critical acclaim for his first novel, Our House in the Last World (1983), and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for his second novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989; filmed as The Mambo Kings, 1992). Our House in the Last World concerns members of the immigrant Santinio family...
  • “Mambo Kings, The” (work by Hijuelos)
    ...a B.A. in 1975 and an M.A. in 1976. He won critical acclaim for his first novel, Our House in the Last World (1983), and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for his second novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989; filmed as The Mambo Kings, 1992). Our House in the Last World concerns members of the immigrant Santinio family...
  • Mamdani, E. H. (mathematician)
    E.H. Mamdani, while a lecturer at Queen Mary College, London, working in the design of learning systems, is credited with implementing the first fuzzy logic controller in the early 1970s. Mamdani and his student Seto Assilian wrote down 24 heuristic rules for controlling the operation of a small steam engine and boiler combination. They then used fuzzy sets to translate these linguistic rules......
  • Mamean (people)
    ...Belize; the Quichéan peoples of the eastern and central highlands of Guatemala (Kekchí, Picomohi, Pocomam, Uspantec, Quiché, Cakchiquel, Tzutujil, Sacapultec, and Sipacapa); the Mamean peoples of the western Guatemalan highlands (Mam, Teco, Aguacatec, and Ixil); the Kanjobalan peoples of Huehuetenango in the same region and adjacent parts of Mexico (Motozintlec, Tuzantec,.....
  • Mameli, Goffredo (Italian poet)
    Italian poet and patriot of the Risorgimento and author of the Italian anthem “Inno di Mameli” (“Mameli Hymn”), popularly known as “Fratelli d’Italia” (“Brothers of Italy”)....
  • Mamelles de Tirésias, Les (opera by Poulenc)
    ...group known as Les Six, only Francis Poulenc wrote works that stayed in the repertoire. He composed one comic monodrama and one serious opera of note. The first, Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1947; “The Breasts of Tiresias”), is a surreal opéra bouffe, the sardonic music of which is humorously appropriate to the text by the French......
  • mameluco (people)
    (from mamaruca, Indian for “half-breed”), in colonial Brazil, especially in the São Paulo district, a person of mixed Indian and white ancestry. The reputation of mamelucos for cruelty toward Indians, supposedly reminiscent of the Mamlūks, a Muslim military caste of Southwest Asia and Egypt in medieval and early modern times, prompted the use of the term....
  • Mameluke (Islamic dynasty)
    slave soldier, a member of one of the armies of slaves that won political control of several Muslim states during the Middle Ages. Under the Ayyūbid sultanate, Mamlūk generals used their power to establish a dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517. The name is derived from an Arabic word for slav...
  • Mamers (Sabellian god)
    band of mercenaries from Campania, in Italy, who, by a shift in alliances, touched off the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage (264–241 bc). Their name was derived from Mamers, Oscan for Mars, the war god. Originally hired by Syracuse, in Sicily, they deserted, seized the Greek colony of Messana (modern Messina) about 288, and plundered the surrounding territory. When Hi...
  • Mamertini (Italian mercenaries)
    band of mercenaries from Campania, in Italy, who, by a shift in alliances, touched off the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage (264–241 bc). Their name was derived from Mamers, Oscan for Mars, the war god. Originally hired by Syracuse, in Sicily, they deserted, seized the Greek colony of Messana (modern Messina) about 288, and plundered the surrounding...
  • Mamertinus, Claudius (Roman official)
    Roman official, author of a panegyric on the emperor Julian delivered at Constantinople in ad 362 in the form of a gratiarum actio (thanksgiving) for the orator’s elevation to the consulship. Mamertinus had already held high office under Julian’s patronage and later was governor of Italy, Africa, and Illyria, but his career was terminated in ...
  • Mamertus of Vienne, Saint (bishop of Vienne)
    The Minor Rogations were first introduced in Gaul by St. Mamertus of Vienne about the year 470 and were made binding for all of Gaul by the first Council of Orléans (511). Later (c. 800) the festivals were adopted in Rome by Pope Leo III. It is possible that Mamertus first instituted the Minor Rogations to replace three days of pagan crop processions called the Ambarvalia. ...
  • Mamet, David (American author)
    American playwright, director, and screenwriter noted for his often desperate working-class characters and for his distinctive, colloquial, and frequently profane dialogue....
  • Mamet, David Alan (American author)
    American playwright, director, and screenwriter noted for his often desperate working-class characters and for his distinctive, colloquial, and frequently profane dialogue....
  • mamey (fruit)
    fruit of Mammea americana, a large, primarily West Indian tree of the garcinia family (Clusiaceae), with opposite, leathery, gland-dotted leaves; white, sweet-scented, short-stalked, solitary or clustered axillary flowers; and yellow or russet fruit, 7–15 cm (3–6 inches) in diameter. The bitter rind encloses a sweet, aromatic flesh, which is eaten raw and also used for preserv...
  • Mami, Cheb (Algerian singer)
    In 2001 internationally renowned Algerian rai singer Cheb Mami continued his efforts to cultivate an American fan base. Before his 1999 collaboration with British pop singer Sting on the smash-hit single “Desert Rose,” Mami, a popular figure in Europe and North Africa, had been virtually unknown in the U.S. The success of “Desert Rose,” however, propelled Mami in...
  • Mamikonian dynasty (Armenian history)
    The first, unsuccessful, Arab raid into Armenia in 640 found the defense of the country in the hands of the Byzantine general Procopius and the nakharar Theodor Rshtuni. Unable to prevent the pillage of Dvin in 642, Theodor in 643 gained a victory over another Arab army and was named commander in chief of the Armenian army by the Byzantine emperor Constans......
  • Mamiya Michio (Japanese composer)
    ...nationalistically in his choral settings of Japanese and Ainu music, in which the style of vocal production and chordal references seems to be a more honest abstraction of Japanese ideals. Mamiya Michio combined traditional timbres with 12-tone compositional technique in a koto quartet. Mayuzumi Toshirō has produced many clever eclectic results in such works as his Nirvana......
  • mamlahah (salt flat)
    ...dissolved minerals or—more usually—from the evaporation of saline waters nurtured by nearby outcrops of salt. The Arabic name for this kind of salt flat is mamlaḥah. Arabs have quarried crude salt from both sabkhahs and mamlaḥahs for hundreds of years....
  • Mamlakah Al-ʿArabīyah As-Saʿūdīyah, Al-
    arid, sparsely populated kingdom of the Middle East....
  • Mamlakah al-Urdunīyah al-Hāshimīyah, Al-
    Arab country of Southwest Asia, in the rocky desert of the northern Arabian Peninsula....
  • Mamlūk (Islamic dynasty)
    slave soldier, a member of one of the armies of slaves that won political control of several Muslim states during the Middle Ages. Under the Ayyūbid sultanate, Mamlūk generals used their power to establish a dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517. The name is derived from an Arabic word for slav...
  • Mamlūk rug
    usually small floor covering, often attributed to Damascus, Syria, in the 16th or 17th century in continuation of the rug art of the Mamlūk rulers of that land. The usual Damascus field pattern is a grid of small squares or rectangles (hence the European term chessboard carpets), each of which includes a hexagon or octagon filled with tiny radial motifs that surround a star interlace. Among...
  • mammal
    any member of the group of vertebrate animals in which the young are nourished with milk from special mammary glands of the mother. In addition to these characteristic milk glands, mammals are distinguished by several other unique features. Hair is a typical mammalian feature, although in many whales it has disappeared except in the fetal st...
  • Mammalia
    any member of the group of vertebrate animals in which the young are nourished with milk from special mammary glands of the mother. In addition to these characteristic milk glands, mammals are distinguished by several other unique features. Hair is a typical mammalian feature, although in many whales it has disappeared except in the fetal st...
  • mammalian diving reflex (biology)
    A natural biological mechanism that is triggered by contact with extremely cold water, known as the mammalian diving reflex, enhances survival during submersion, thus permitting seagoing mammals to hunt for long periods underwater. Scientists have recently determined that vestiges of the reflex persist in humans. The mechanism is powerful in children. It diverts blood from the limbs, abdomen,......
  • mammalogy (zoology)
    scientific study of mammals. Interest in nonhuman mammals dates far back in prehistory, and the modern science of mammalogy has its broad foundation in the knowledge of mammals possessed by primitive peoples. The ancient Greeks were among the first peoples to write systematically on mammalian natural history, and they knew many mammals not native to Greece; Ar...
  • mammary dysplasia (mammary gland)
    noncancerous cysts (harmless swellings caused by fluid trapped in breast tissues) that often increase in size and become tender during the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle. This condition occurs most often in women between the ages of 30 and 50 years. Aside from discomfort, the chief problem posed by the disease is that it makes the detection of other abnormalities more difficult. Neverth...
  • mammary gland (anatomy)
    milk-producing gland characteristic of all female mammals and present in a rudimentary and generally nonfunctional form in males. Mammary glands are regulated by the endocrine system and become functional in response to the hormonal changes associated with parturition....
  • Mammea americana (fruit)
    fruit of Mammea americana, a large, primarily West Indian tree of the garcinia family (Clusiaceae), with opposite, leathery, gland-dotted leaves; white, sweet-scented, short-stalked, solitary or clustered axillary flowers; and yellow or russet fruit, 7–15 cm (3–6 inches) in diameter. The bitter rind encloses a sweet, aromatic flesh, which is eaten raw and also used for preserv...
  • mammee apple (fruit)
    fruit of Mammea americana, a large, primarily West Indian tree of the garcinia family (Clusiaceae), with opposite, leathery, gland-dotted leaves; white, sweet-scented, short-stalked, solitary or clustered axillary flowers; and yellow or russet fruit, 7–15 cm (3–6 inches) in diameter. The bitter rind encloses a sweet, aromatic flesh, which is eaten raw and also used for preserv...
  • Mammeri, Mouloud (Algerian author)
    Kabyle novelist, playwright, and translator who depicted the changing realities of modern-day Algeria....
  • Mammillaria (plant genus)
    large genus (some 150 species) of low-growing cacti, native to the Western Hemisphere and concentrated in Mexico. It includes pincushion, fishhook, snowball, bird’s-nest, golden-star, thimble, old woman, coral, royal cross, feather, and lemon ball cacti, all of which are small plants suitable to indoor cultivation or outdoor cultivation in warmer climates....
  • mammillary body (anatomy)
    Severe and highly specific amnesic symptoms principally stem from damage to such brain structures as the mammillary bodies, circumscribed parts of the thalamus, and of the temporal lobe (e.g., the hippocampus). While the ability to store new experience (and perhaps to retrieve well-established memories) appears to depend on a distinct neural system involving the temporal cortex and......
  • mammillary texture (mineralogy)
    ...forming starlike or circular groups; globular, radiating individuals forming small spherical or hemispherical groups; dendritic, in slender divergent branches, somewhat plantlike; mammillary, large smoothly rounded, masses resembling mammae, formed by radiating crystals; botryoidal, globular forms resembling a bunch of grapes; colloform, spherical forms......
  • mammography (medicine)
    Breast cancer may be first discovered by the patient as the result of a regular breast self-examination. A breast X ray (mammogram) is often used for initial diagnosis, but in order to confirm the presence of cancer, a tissue sample (biopsy) usually must be taken. If cancer is suspected to have spread to nearby lymph nodes, they must also be sampled....
  • mammoth (fossil mammal)
    (genus Mammuthus), any member of an extinct group of elephants found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits over every continent except Australia and South America (the Pleistocene epoch began 1,600,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago). The woolly, Northern, or Siberian mammoth (M. primigenius) is by far the best-known o...
  • Mammoth Cave (cave, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, United States)
    (genus Mammuthus), any member of an extinct group of elephants found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits over every continent except Australia and South America (the Pleistocene epoch began 1,600,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago). The woolly, Northern, or Siberian mammoth (M. primigenius) is by far the best-known o...
  • Mammoth Cave National Park (park, Kentucky, United States)
    national park containing an extensive system of limestone caverns, in west-central Kentucky, U.S.; it was designated a World Heritage site in 1981. The park, authorized in 1926 but fully established only in 1941, occupies a surface area of 83 square miles (215 square km). In 1972 a passage was discovered linking the Mammot...
  • Mammoth Jack (mule)
    ...because of their ability to withstand most types of stress including heat, irregular feeding, and abuse. The mule is produced by crossing a jackass (Equus asinus) with a mare. The so-called Mammoth Jack was developed in America from European imports dating back to the late 18th century. It stands 15 to 16 hands (4.9 to 5.2 feet, or 1.5 to 1.6 metres) in height and weighs from 900 to......
  • Mammut (extinct mammal)
    any of several extinct elephantine mammals (family Mastodontidae, genus Mastodon [also called Mammut] that first appeared in the early Miocene and continued in various forms through the Pleistocene Epoch (from 1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago). In North America, mastodons probably persisted into post-Pleistocene time and were thus contemporaneous with historic North American Indian grou...
  • Mammuthus (fossil mammal)
    (genus Mammuthus), any member of an extinct group of elephants found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits over every continent except Australia and South America (the Pleistocene epoch began 1,600,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago). The woolly, Northern, or Siberian mammoth (M. primigenius) is by far the best-known o...
  • Mammuthus imperator (extinct mammal)
    A variety of distinct species are included in the genus Mammuthus. Most mammoths were about as large as modern elephants. The North American imperial mammoth (M. imperator) attained a shoulder height of 4 metres (14 feet). At the other extreme were certain dwarfed forms whose ancestors became isolated on various islands. Many mammoths......
  • Mammuthus primigenius (fossil mammal)
    ...group of elephants found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits over every continent except Australia and South America (the Pleistocene epoch began 1,600,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago). The woolly, Northern, or Siberian mammoth (M. primigenius) is by far the best-known of all mammoths. The relative abundance and, at times, excellent preservation of this......
  • mamo (bird)
    (species Drepanis pacifica), Hawaiian songbird of the family Drepanididae (order Passeriformes), which became extinct in about 1898. About 20 cm (8 inches) long, it was black with yellow touches and had a long, decurved bill for nectar-feeding. The native Hawaiian nobility killed mamos for their feathers, but the birds nevertheless remained fairly numerous until the Americans destroyed the...
  • Mamo, Sir Anthony Joseph (Maltese jurist and statesman)
    Maltese jurist and statesman who was the first president (1974–76) of the independent Republic of Malta and came to be regarded as a symbol of the new country. Mamo obtained (1934) a degree in law from the University of Malta and later was a criminal law professor (1943–57) there. He devoted most of his life to the public sector, however, serving as a member of the commission (1936...
  • Mamom culture (Mesoamerican culture)
    In the Maya lowlands the Mamom cultures developed out of those of Xe times. Mamom shares many similarities with the highland Maya at Las Charcas: pottery is almost entirely monochrome—red, orange, black, and white—and figurines are female with the usual punched and appliquéd embellishments. Toward the end of the Middle Formative, or after about 600 bc, Mamom peop...
  • Mamoré River (river, South America)
    river in north-central Bolivia. It is formed by headwaters, chiefly the Grande River, which arise in Andean cordilleras and drain the Moxos (Mojos) plain, an ancient lake bed. The Mamoré meanders generally northward to the Brazilian border, at which point it is joined by the Iténez River (Portuguese: Guaporé). It constitutes the Bolivia-Br...
  • Mamoru Bandô (Japanese actor)
    Japanese actor (b. 1916, Tokyo, Japan—d. July 8, 2001, Tokyo), was one of the greatest tachiyaku (male-role) actors in Japan’s traditional kabuki theatre. Ichimura was the nephew of Kikugoro Onoe VI, one of the foremost interpreters of kabuki plays. After debuting at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo at the age of five, Ichimura went on to star in numerous dramas, one of the most ...
  • Mamoru, Bandô (Japanese actor)
    Japanese actor (b. 1916, Tokyo, Japan—d. July 8, 2001, Tokyo), was one of the greatest tachiyaku (male-role) actors in Japan’s traditional kabuki theatre. Ichimura was the nephew of Kikugoro Onoe VI, one of the foremost interpreters of kabuki plays. After debuting at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo at the age of five, Ichimura went on to star in numerous dramas, one of the most ...
  • Mamou (Guinea)
    town, west-central Guinea. Located on the Conakry-Kankan railway and at the intersection of roads from Kindia, Dalaba, Dabola, and Faranah, Mamou was founded in 1908 as a collecting point on the railroad from Conakry (125 miles [201 km] southwest). It is the chief trading centre for the rice, cattle, citrus fruits, bananas, tomatoes, and mangoes raised in the surrounding agricul...
  • Mamoulian, Rouben (American director)
    theatrical and motion-picture director noted for his contribution to the development of cinematic art at the beginning of the sound era. His achievements include the skillful blending of music and sound effects with an imaginative visual rhythm....
  • Mampruli (people)
    a people who inhabit the area between the White Volta and Nasia rivers in northern Ghana. The Mamprusi speak different dialects of More-Gurma (Mõõre-Gurma) of the Gur (Voltaic) branch of the Niger-Congo language family. A few Mamprusi also live in northern Togo....
  • Mamprusi (people)
    a people who inhabit the area between the White Volta and Nasia rivers in northern Ghana. The Mamprusi speak different dialects of More-Gurma (Mõõre-Gurma) of the Gur (Voltaic) branch of the Niger-Congo language family. A few Mamprusi also live in northern Togo....
  • Mamre (historical site, West Bank)
    Abraham had not yet come to the end of his journey. Between Shechem and Bethel he had gone about 31 miles. It was about as far again from Bethel to Hebron, or more precisely to the oaks of Mamre, “which are at Hebron” (according to the Genesis account). The location of Mamre has been the subject of some indecision. At the present time, there is general agreement in setting it 1.5......
  • Mamry (lake, Poland)
    ...is the Staropruska Lowland, and to the west are the Gdańsk Coastland and the Masurian Lakeland, site of Poland’s largest lakes—Śniardwy (44 square miles [114 square km]) and Mamry (40 square miles [104 square km]). The province’s main rivers are the Pasłęka, Łyna, and Drwęca. Forests (mainly coniferous) cover nearly one-third of the...
  • Mamucium (England, United Kingdom)
    city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, northwestern England. Most of the city, including the historic core, is in the historic county of Lancashire, but it includes an area south of the River Mersey in the historic county of Cheshire. Manchester is the nucleus of the largest metropolitan area in the n...
  • Maʾmūn, al- (ʿAbbāsid caliph)
    seventh ʿAbbāsid caliph (813–833), known for his attempts to end sectarian rivalry in Islām and to impose upon his subjects a rationalist Muslim creed....
  • Maʾmūn, al- (Dhū an-Nūnid ruler)
    ...Umayyad caliph of Córdoba. Aẓ-Ẓāfīr established himself as an independent king in Toledo and, despite constant wars with the Christians, ruled until 1043. His son Yaḥyā al-Maʾmūn (reigned 1043–75) allied with Christians several times against his Muslim enemies and even entertained King Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon at his......
  • Mamvu (people)
    ...are found with the Mangbetu in the northwest. The Efe have the broadest distribution, extending across the northern and eastern portions of the Ituri, and are associated with the Sudanic-speaking Mamvu and Lese (Walese). The Mbuti live with the Bila (Babila) in the centre of the forest....
  • man
    a culture-bearing primate that is anatomically similar and related to the other great apes but is distinguished by a more highly developed brain and a resultant capacity for articulate speech and abstract reasoning. In addition, human beings display a marked erectness of body carriage that frees the hands for use as manipulative members. Some of these characte...
  • Man (Côte d’Ivoire)
    town, western Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The town is situated along the Ko River, in a mountainous area (Massif de Man) on the eastern edge of the Nimba Range. There are iron-ore reserves in the mountains east of Man. The chief trade centre (rice, cassava, livestock, and palm oil and kernels) for a forested region mainly inhabited by the Dan an...
  • Man (people)
    people who lived for many centuries mainly in Manchuria (now Northeast) and adjacent areas of China and who in the 17th century conquered China and ruled for more than 250 years. The term Manchu dates from the 16th century, but it is certain that the Manchu are descended from a group of peoples collectively called the Tungus (the Even and Evenk...
  • Maʿn (Druze family)
    ...there grew up families of notables who controlled the land and established a feudal relation with the cultivators; some were Christian, some Druze, who were politically dominant. From them arose the house of Maʿn, which established a princedom over the whole of Mount Lebanon and was accepted by Christians and Druze alike. Fakhr al-Dīn II ruled most of Lebanon from 1593 to 1633 and...
  • Man (people)
    peoples of southern China and Southeast Asia. In the early 21st century, they numbered some 2,700,000 in China, more than 350,000 in Vietnam, some 40,000 in Thailand, and approximately 20,000 in Laos. Several thousand Mien refugees from Laos have also settled in North America, Australia, and France. Mien peoples speak dialects of the Hmong-Mien languages. In some areas, such as ...
  • Man a Machine (work by La Mettrie)
    ...own system had a mechanistic side to it that was taken up by 18th-century Materialists, such as Julien de La Mettrie, the French physician whose appropriately titled L’Homme machine (1747; Man a Machine, 1750) applied Descartes’s view about animals to man himself. Denis Diderot, an 18th-century French Encyclopaedist, supported a broadly Materialist outlook by conside...
  • Man Against the Sky, The (work by Robinson)
    ...privately printed at his own expense. His subsequent collections, The Children of the Night (1897) and The Town Down the River (1910), fared little better, but the publication of The Man Against the Sky (1916) brought him critical acclaim. In these early works his best poetic form was the dramatic lyric, as exemplified in the title poem of The Man Against the Sky,......
  • Man and a Woman, A (film by Lelouch [1966])
    motion-picture director, noted chiefly for his lush visual style, who achieved prominence in 1966 with his film Un Homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman), which shared the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and won two Oscars from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences as best foreign film and best original story and screenplay....
  • Man and His Works (work by Herskovits)
    ...by indicating how trait and complex and pattern, however separable they may be, intermesh, as the gears of some machine, to constitute a smoothly running, effectively functioning whole (from Man and His Works, 1948)....
  • Man and Nature, or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action (work by Marsh)
    U.S. diplomat, scholar, and conservationist whose greatest work, Man and Nature (1864), was one of the most significant advances in geography, ecology, and resource management of the 19th century....
  • Man and Superman (play by Shaw)
    In Man and Superman (performed 1905) Shaw expounded his philosophy that humanity is the latest stage in a purposeful and eternal evolutionary movement of the “life force” toward ever-higher life forms. The play’s hero, Jack Tanner, is bent on pursuing his own spiritual development in accordance with this philosophy as he flees the determined marital pu...
  • Man and the Biosphere (UN program)
    In Man and Superman (performed 1905) Shaw expounded his philosophy that humanity is the latest stage in a purposeful and eternal evolutionary movement of the “life force” toward ever-higher life forms. The play’s hero, Jack Tanner, is bent on pursuing his own spiritual development in accordance with this philosophy as he flees the determined marital pu...
  • Man and the Masses (work by Toller)
    In confinement Toller wrote Masse-Mensch (1920; Man and the Masses, 1923), a play that brought him widespread fame. Books of lyrics added to his reputation. In 1933, immediately before the accession of Hitler, he emigrated to the United States. Also in that year he brought out his vivid autobiography, Eine Jugend in Deutschland (I Was a German, 1934)....
  • Man as an End (work by Moravia)
    Moravia’s views on literature and realism are expressed in a stimulating book of essays, L’uomo come fine (1963; Man as an End), and his autobiography, Alberto Moravia’s Life, was published in 1990. He was married for a time to the novelist Elsa Morante....
  • Man at the Crossroads (work by Rivera)
    ...he painted murals for the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (1931), the Detroit Institute of Arts (1932), and Rockefeller Center in New York City (1933). His Man at the Crossroads fresco in Rockefeller Center offended the sponsors because the figure of Vladimir Lenin was in the picture; the work was destroyed by the centre but was later reproduced......
  • Man Booker Prize (British literary award)
    prestigious British award given annually to a full-length novel; those eligible include English-language writers from the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth countries, and the Republic of Ireland....
  • Man, Calf of (islet, British Isles)
    ...of the central massif are smooth and rounded as a result of action during various glacial periods. The island’s landscape is treeless except in sheltered places. To the southwest lies an islet, the Calf of Man, with precipitous cliffs, which is administered by the Manx National Heritage as a bird sanctuary....
  • “Man Called John, A” (film by Olmi)
    ...and class structure, which dominated his work into the 1990s. His first film on these subjects was the story of Angelo Roncalli before he became Pope John XXIII, E venne un uomo (1965; And There Came a Man, or A Man Called John). Olmi’s peasant origins surfaced in his films I recuperanti (1969; The Scavengers) and the internationally successful L...
  • Man, City of (theoretical construct)
    ...affiliated with the Christian church. During the next 15 years, working meticulously through a lofty architecture of argument, he outlined a new way to understand human society, setting up the City of God over and against the City of Man. Rome was dethroned—and the sack of the city shown to be of no spiritual importance—in favour of the heavenly Jerusalem, the true home and......
  • Man, das (philosophy)
    ...such a degree that he is temporarily absorbed (Aufgehen in). He is then nobody in particular; and a structure that Heidegger calls das Man (“the they”) is revealed, recalling certain Anglo-American sociological criticisms of modern industrial society that stress man’s......
  • Man Died, The (work by Soyinka)
    ...of Poems from Prison while he was jailed in 1967–69 for speaking out against the war brought on by the attempted secession of Biafra from Nigeria. The Man Died (1972) is his prose account of his arrest and 22-month imprisonment. Soyinka’s principal critical work is Myth, Literature, and the African World (1...
  • Man Escaped, A (film by Bresson)
    His films were straightforwardly austere, with no fancy camera work, flashy crosscutting, or other attention-getting devices. In Un Condamme à mort s’est échappé (1956; A Man Escaped), based on the director’s own wartime experiences, his no-frills approach was articulated by the opening title: “This story actually happened. I have set it down...
  • Man, Fall of (religion)
    ...alone, God created other animals but, finding these insufficient, put Adam to sleep, took from him a rib, and created a new companion, Eve. The two were persons of innocence until Eve yielded to the temptations of the evil serpent and Adam joined her in eating the forbidden fruit, whereupon they both recognized their nakedness and donned fig leaves as garments. Immediately, God recognized their...
  • Man, Felix H. (German photographer)
    ...new style of photographs. Erich Salomon captured revealing candid portraits of politicians and other personalities by sneaking his camera into places and meetings officially closed to photographers. Felix H. Man, encouraged by Stefan Lorant, editor of the Münchner Illustrierte, made sequences of photographs at interviews and cultural and social events, which.....
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