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  • tafsīr (Islam)
    the science of explanation of the Qurʾān, the sacred scripture of Islam, or of Qurʾānic commentary. So long as Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was alive, no other authority for interpretations of the Qurʾānic revelations was recognized by Muslims. Upon his death, however, commentaries were needed because the text, when it achieved writte...
  • Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (work by al-Maḥllī and al-Suyūṭī)
    Al-Suyūṭī’s works number more than 500; many are mere booklets, and others are encyclopaedic. He was coauthor of Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (“Commentary of the Two Jalāls”), a word-by-word commentary on the Qurʾān, the first part of which was written by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī. His I...
  • tafsīr bir-raʾy (Islam)
    ...in a defective script, and even contained apparent contradictions. Many Muslims in the early period sought to explain the Qurʾān on the basis of pure personal speculation, known as tafsīr bir-raʾy, and such interpretation, though generally disapproved, has persisted down to the present time. Others explained or embellished Qurʾānic passages using...
  • Taft (work by Patchett)
    ...love to travel to a home for unwed mothers. There, as her feelings change and she creates a new family, so do her plans for the future. The novel was adapted as a television movie in 1997. In Taft (1994) the black manager of a blues bar who is mourning the 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......
  • Taft, Helen (American first lady)
    American first lady (1909–13), the wife of William Howard Taft, 27th U.S. president and 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court....
  • Taft, Lorado (American sculptor)
    American sculptor of portrait busts and monumental, allegorical works. He was also an influential teacher and writer....
  • Taft, Robert A. (American politician)
    Republican leader in the U.S. Senate for 14 years (1939–53) whose espousal of traditional conservatism won him the sobriquet “Mr. Republican”; his failure to receive the presidential nomination in 1948 and 1952 was indicative of the defeat of isolationism by the internationalist wing of the party....
  • Taft, Robert Alphonso (American politician)
    Republican leader in the U.S. Senate for 14 years (1939–53) whose espousal of traditional conservatism won him the sobriquet “Mr. Republican”; his failure to receive the presidential nomination in 1948 and 1952 was indicative of the defeat of isolationism by the internationalist wing of the party....
  • Taft, William Howard (president and chief justice of United States)
    27th president of the United States (1909–13) and 10th chief justice of the United States (1921–30). As the choice of President Theodore Roosevelt to succeed him and carry on the progressive Republican agenda, Taft as president alienated the progressives—and later Roosevelt—thereby contributing greatly to the split in Republican ranks in 1912, to the ...
  • Taft–Hartley Act (United States [1947])
    (1947), in U.S. history, law—enacted over the veto of Pres. Harry S. Truman—amending much of the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935. A variety of factors, including the fear of Communist infiltration of labour unions, the tremendous growth in both membership and power of unions, and a series of large-scale strikes, contributed to an anti-union climate in the United States after World War I...
  • Taftān, Mount (mountain, Iran)
    Mount Taftān, a massive cone reaching 13,261 feet (4,042 metres) in southeastern Iran, emits gas and mud at sporadic intervals. In the north, however, Mount Damāvand has been inactive in historical times, as have Mount Sabalān (15,787 feet [4,812 metres]) and Mount Sahand (12,172 feet [3,710 metres]) in the northwest. The volcanic belt extends some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) from....
  • Tafuna (airport, Pago Pago, American Samoa)
    ...for the U.S. Navy from the Samoan high chief Mauga. It remained an active naval base from 1900 to 1951 and is now a regular port of call for all types of vessels. Canned tuna is the dominant export. Pago Pago International Airport, built partly on a fringing reef, opened in 1964 and has stimulated tourist traffic. Pago Pago, once depicted as a sultry and shabby town by Somerset Maugham in his.....
  • tag (game)
    children’s game in which, in its simplest form, the player who is “it” chases the other players, trying to touch one of them, thereby making that person “it.” The game is known by many names, such as leapsa in Romania and kynigito in parts of modern Greece. In some va...
  • Tag des jungen Arztes, Der (work by Carossa)
    ...(1951; “Different Worlds”) Carossa treats his involuntary presidency of the European Writers Association, a National Socialist organization. Carossa’s last and unfinished work, Der Tag des jungen Arztes (1955; “The Day of the Young Doctor”), explores the conflicts between his duties as a physician and his responsibilities as a writer....
  • Taga Shinkō (Japanese painter)
    Japanese painter who broke away from the orthodox style of the Kanō school to experiment with humorous subjects from everyday life. Because of his subject matter, his work is sometimes classified with the ukiyo-e school of paintings and prints, and, indeed, some of his designs were used by later ukiyo-e wood-block printers. Unlike most of the ukiyo-e artists, however, he ...
  • Tagal (people)
    least numerous of the indigenous ethnic groups of Indonesian Borneo, living mostly in the hilly southwestern uplands of northeastern Malaysia and speaking a distinctive Austronesian language also called Murut. Of Proto-Malay stock, their prehistoric ancestors migrated from Asia. The Murut were historically headhunters living in longhouse settlements on hilltops for defense; they were gradually di...
  • Tagalog (people)
    largest cultural-linguistic group in the Philippines. They form the dominant population in the city of Manila; in all provinces bordering Manila Bay except Pampanga; in Nueva Ecija to the north; and in Batangas, Laguna, Marinduque, Mindoro, and Quezon to the south. Tagalog is an Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language like the other Philippine languages. The mother tongue of ...
  • Tagalog language
    member of the Central Philippine branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family and the base for Pilipino, an official language of the Philippines, together with English. It is most closely related to Bicol and the Bisayan (Visayan) languages—Cebuano, Hiligaynon (Ilongo), and Samar. Native Tagalog speakers form the second largest linguistic and cultural g...
  • Tagamet (drug)
    During the 1970s an H2-blocking agent, cimetidine (Tagamet) was introduced. Compounds of this class suppress histamine-induced gastric secretion and have proved extremely useful in treating gastric and duodenal ulcers....
  • Taganrog (Russia)
    city and seaport, Rostov oblast (province), southwestern Russia. It lies on the northern coast of Taganrog Gulf of the Sea of Azov. Founded as a fortress and naval base in 1698 by Peter I the Great, Taganrog developed in the 19th century as a grain-exporting port. Although overshadowed by Rostov-na-Donu, it is still a significant port for the Donets Basin coalfield and industrial area. Ste...
  • Tagar culture (Siberian culture)
    ...Tajikistan spread across northeastern Central Asia into the Semirechiye, or foothills of the Tien Shan, while in Siberia the Bronze Age Karasuk culture was replaced in the 8th century bc by the Tagar culture. The latter endured until the 2nd century bc, producing an art of animal motifs related to that of the Scythians of southern European Russia....
  • Tagaro moiety (kinship group)
    ...Wolf moieties in Tlingit culture traditionally performed certain tasks, such as preparing funerals, for each other. Moieties often reflect divisions found in the culture’s myths and folklore; the Tagaro and Supwe moieties of north Pentecost Island (Vanuatu), for instance, were named for two culture heroes and are said to bear the respective traits of each. Occasionally, if incorrectly,.....
  • Tagawa (Japan)
    city, Fukuoka ken (prefecture), Kyushu, Japan, on the upper Onga River. It was a farm village until the systematic exploitation of nearby coalfields began after 1900. Tagawa was the largest mining town in the Chikuhō coalfield region until 1970, when the last of the mines was closed. The city’s main industrial product now is cement. Pop. (2005) 51,534....
  • Tagaytay (Philippines)
    city, southwestern Luzon, Philippines. It is located on Tagaytay Ridge at about 2,000 feet (600 m) above sea level, on the northern flank of Mount Taal. The city is a weekend retreat, popular for its cool climate and outstanding view to the south of Taal Lake, with an active volcano on an island. Market gardening for the Manila area to the north is a local activity. Inc. city, 1...
  • Tagbilaran (Philippines)
    city on Bohol Island, in the Bohol (Mindanao) Sea, Philippines. Tagbilaran lies along the Bohol Strait and is sheltered by Panglao Island. It is a principal port of the area, with warehouses and distributory outlets, regular interisland service to Cebu and Mindanao islands, and a busy passenger traffic, particularly of emigrants journeying to areas on Mindanao...
  • Tagdempt (Algeria)
    city, northern Algeria. It lies at the southern end of Ouarsenis Massif (in the Tell Atlas) on the slopes of Mount Guezoul (4,510 feet [1,375 metres]) at the edge of the High Plateaus (Hauts Plateaux). Wadi Tiaret flows through the city to join Wadi Mîna....
  • “Tagebuch, Das” (work by Goethe)
    ...Austrian war against France in 1809, a new serenity entered his writing. A wryly humorous poem on the subject of impotence and marital fidelity, Das Tagebuch (1810; “The Journal”), suppressed by Goethe’s heirs on grounds of obscenity until the 20th century, reflects this new realism, and for the sophisticated and worldly wise Continental public that...
  • “Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, Das” (film by Pabst)
    ...(1929; Pandora’s Box). Brooks’s haunting performance in this film and as the 16-year-old girl who is seduced and prostituted in Pabst’s Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1929; Diary of a Lost Girl) marked the summit of her career. Her innocent eroticism, along with her pale, beautiful features and bobbed brunette hair, made her both a film icon and a symbo...
  • “Tagebuch im Kriege” (work by Carossa)
    ...expressed his indebtedness to Goethe in Die Wirkungen Goethes in der Gegenwart (1938; “Goethe’s Influence Today”). Rumänisches Tagebuch (1924; A Roumanian Diary; republished in 1934 as Tagebuch im Kriege, “War Diary”) is an evaluation of Carossa’s observations as an army doctor in Romania during World War I and ...
  • Tagebücher (work by Hebbel)
    ...Hamburg in 1835 to prepare for the university. He was supported during this time, both spiritually and materially, by a seamstress, Elise Lensing, with whom he lived. At this time he started his Tagebücher (published 1885–87; “Diaries”), which became an important and revealing literary confession. Provided with a small income from his patrons, he went to Heide...
  • Tagelied (German music)
    (from Middle High German Tageliet, “day song”), a medieval German dawn song, or song of lament by lovers parting at dawn. The Tagelied is similar to the Provençal alba and may have been derived from it. The most notable composer of Tagelieder was the 13th-century poet Wolfram von Eschenbach....
  • Tagelieder (work by Wolfram von Eschenbach)
    Wolfram’s surviving literary works, all bearing the stamp of his unusually original personality, consist of eight lyric poems, chiefly Tagelieder (“Dawn Songs,” describing the parting of lovers at morning); the epic Parzival; the unfinished epic Willehalm, telling the history of the crusader Guillaume d’Orange; and short fragments of a further epic,...
  • Tages (Etruscan religion)
    ...the gods and that they had developed an elaborate lore and attendant rituals for using this knowledge. Their own myths explained the lore as having been communicated by the gods through a prophet, Tages, a miraculous child with the features of a wise old man who sprang from a plowed furrow in the fields of Tarquinii and sang out the elements of what the Romans called the Etrusca......
  • Tagetes (plant)
    any plant of the genus Tagetes of the family Asteraceae, consisting of about 50 species of annual herbs native to southwestern North America, tropical America, and South America. The name marigold also refers to the pot marigold (genus Calendula) and unrelated plants of several families....
  • Tagetes erecta (plant)
    African marigold (T. erecta), French marigold (T. patula), and several other species are grown as garden ornamentals, although most species have strong-scented leaves. Members of the genus Tagetes have attractive yellow, orange, or red flowers that are solitary or clustered; leaves opposite each other on the stem that usually are finely cut; and bracts (leaflike structures)......
  • Tagetes patula (plant)
    African marigold (T. erecta), French marigold (T. patula), and several other species are grown as garden ornamentals, although most species have strong-scented leaves. Members of the genus Tagetes have attractive yellow, orange, or red flowers that are solitary or clustered; leaves opposite each other on the stem that usually are finely cut; and bracts (leaflike structures)......
  • Taggard, Genevieve (American poet)
    American poet who, though best remembered for her biography of Emily Dickinson, was much admired for her lyric verse that deftly and passionately mingles intellectual, personal, social, and aesthetic concerns....
  • Taggart, Thomas (American politician)
    ...18th-century French trading post in the area and an animal (salt) lick within the town boundaries. The first hotel on the site was built in 1840 by William A. Bowles, who laid out the town in 1857. Thomas Taggart (1856–1929), three-time mayor of Indianapolis and later chairman of the Democratic National Committee, purchased the hotel in 1901 and was instrumental in French Lick’s.....
  • tagging (graffiti)
    ...urban centres throughout the world, especially in the United States and Europe; common targets were subways, billboards, and walls. In the 1990s there emerged a new form of graffiti, known as “tagging,” which entailed the repeated use of a single symbol or series of symbols to mark territory. In order to attract the most attention possible, this type of graffiti usually appeared i...
  • tagging up (baseball)
    A runner also can be thrown out without being tagged if he has left his base before a fly ball is caught. With the catching of the fly, the runner must return to the base he just left (known as tagging up) before being eligible to advance. If the player catching the fly throws the ball to that base before the runner returns and tags up, the runner is retired. On the other hand, after the catch......
  • Taghanic Event (paleontology)
    ...The Lower Zlichov Event is associated with the extinction of the graptoloids and the appearance of the coiled cephalopod goniatites. Three events are very significant extinction episodes: the Taghanic Event, which formerly was used to draw the boundary between the Middle and Upper Devonian, was a marked period of extinction for goniatites, corals, and brachiopods; the Kellwasser Event saw......
  • Taghlib (Arabian tribe)
    After al-Ḥārith’s death the kingdom split up into four tribes—Asad, Taghlib, Qays, and Kinānah—each led by a Kindah prince. The tribes feuded constantly, and, after about the middle of the 6th century, the Kindah princes were forced by the local tribesmen to withdraw once more to southern Arabia....
  • Taginae, Battle of (Italian history)
    (June or July 552), decisive engagement fought near what is now the town of Gualdo Tadino, Italy. In the battle the Byzantine general Narses defeated the main body of the Goths, who were led by their Christian king, Totila....
  • Tagliacozzi, Gaspare (Italian surgeon)
    ...of the 6th century bc, developed techniques for reconstructing noses from skin flaps taken from the patient’s arm. This method was introduced into Western medicine by the great Italian surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi in the 16th century. The flap was left attached to the arm for two to three weeks until new blood vessels had grown into it from the nose remnant. The flap was the...
  • Tagliacozzo, Battle of (European history)
    ...then rallied his German supporters and led them across the Alps. But Conradin’s financial resources were inadequate; unpaid troops deserted, and his depleted following was routed by Charles near Tagliacozzo (1268). Conradin was captured as he fled toward Rome, convicted of lèse-majesté (a form of treason), and beheaded in the public square at Naples....
  • Tagliavini, Ferrucio (Italian singer and actor)
    Italian opera tenor and motion-picture actor (b. Aug. 14, 1913--d. Jan. 28, 1995)....
  • Tagliente, Giovanni Antonio (calligrapher)
    ...letters are made; he states rules for joining and spacing letters and for spacing words and text lines, and he supplies practice exercises. Almost simultaneously the Venetian writing master Giovanantonio Tagliente published Lo presente libro insegna la vera arte… (c. 1524; “This Book Teaches the True Art…”). Both books were printed from......
  • “taglio del bosco, Il” (work by Cassola)
    ...campagna [1942; “Diary of a Country Priest”]) or in some respects back to Federigo Tozzi. Especially typical of Cassola’s works are Il taglio del bosco (1953; The Felling of the Forest), Un cuore arido (1961; An Arid Heart), and Un uomo solo (1978; “A Man by Himself”)....
  • Taglioni, Fabio (Italian engineer and designer)
    Italian engineer and motorcycle designer (b. Sept. 10, 1920, Lugo di Romagna, Italy—d. July 18, 2001, Bologna, Italy), during his 35-year career as the chief engineer for the state-owned Ducati (1954–89), transformed that company’s motorcycles from cheap, low-powered scooters that were little more than motorized bicycles into high-priced, high-performance road-racing cycles. T...
  • Taglioni, Filippo (Italian dancer)
    Italian dancer and choreographer who developed the Romantic style of ballets....
  • Taglioni, Marie (Italian dancer)
    Italian ballet dancer whose fragile, delicate dancing typified the early 19th-century Romantic style....
  • tagmeme (linguistics)
    ...general theory of human behaviour, described in his Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, 3 vol. (1954–60; 2nd ed. 1967). The tagmeme is a unit comprising a function (for example, a subject) and a class of items fulfilling that function (e.g., nouns). It is most suitable in describing languages (such as the Central and......
  • tagmemics
    a system of linguistic analysis developed by the American linguist Kenneth L. Pike in the 1950s and applied to the description of a very large number of hitherto unrecorded languages. Tagmemics differs from alternative systems of grammatical analysis in that it defines the basic units of language (tagmemes) as composite elements, one part being the “slot,” or ...
  • Tagmule ha-nefesh (work by Hillel ben Samuel)
    Reputed to have lived in the Italian cities of Verona, Naples, and Capua, and later in Barcelona, Spain, Hillel ben Samuel wrote his major work, Tagmule ha-nefesh (1288–91; “The Rewards of the Soul”), to rebut Averroës’ theory of the soul. In the work, he holds that the soul is composed of “formal substance” that derives from the universal so...
  • Tagnïn Nuruu (mountains, Russia)
    mountain range of southern Tuva, extending eastward about 350 miles (560 km) from the Altai Mountains in Russia. The average elevation of its summits is 8,200–8,850 feet (2,500–2,700 m) above sea level, with a maximum elevation of 10,043 feet (3,061 m) at Sagly in the Western Tannu-Ola; the highest point in the Eastern Tannu-Ola is Despen (8,501 feet [2,591 m]). The range is drained ...
  • Tagore, Debendranath (Hindu philosopher)
    Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj (“Society of Brahmā,” also translated as “Society of God”), which purged the Hindu religion and way of life of many abuses....
  • Tagore, Devendranath (Hindu philosopher)
    Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj (“Society of Brahmā,” also translated as “Society of God”), which purged the Hindu religion and way of life of many abuses....
  • Tagore, Rabindranath (Bengali poet and mystic)
    Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and v...
  • tagua palm (plant)
    ...altilis); it is especially successful with cacao (Theobroma cacao). In Ecuador, palms that are grown by the agroforestry industry include the peach palm; the tagua, or ivory, palm (Phytelephas aequatorialis) grown for vegetable ivory; and a fibre palm (Aphandra natalia). In Southeast Asia the production of rattan from species of Calamus (C. caesius, C.......
  • Tagula Island (island, Papua New Guinea)
    volcanic island of the Louisiade Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, southwestern Pacific Ocean. It lies 175 miles (280 km) southeast of the island of New Guinea. The largest island of the archipelago, measuring 50 by 15 miles (80 by 24 km), Tagula has an area of 310 square miles (800 square km). Surrounded by a coral reef, the...
  • Tagus River (river, Iberian Peninsula)
    longest waterway of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises in the Sierra de Albarracín of eastern Spain, at a point about 90 miles (150 km) from the Mediterranean coast, and flows westward across Spain and Portugal for 626 miles (1,007 km) to empty into the Atlantic Ocean near Lisbon. Its drainage basin of 31,505 square miles (81,600 square km) is only exceeded on the peninsula by that of the Ebro...
  • Tagus valley (valley, Portugal)
    The earliest human remains found in Portugal are Neanderthal-type bones from Furninhas. A distinct culture first emerged in the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) middens of the lower Tagus valley, dated about 5500 bc. Neolithic (New Stone Age) cultures entered from Andalusia, leaving behind varied types of beehive huts and passage graves. Agriculture, pottery, and the working of soft met...
  • Tah-Gah-Jute (American Indian leader)
    prominent Indian leader, whose initial excellent relations with white settlers in Pennsylvania and the Ohio Territory deteriorated into a vendetta after the slaughter of his family in 1774....
  • Taha Husain (Egyptian author)
    outstanding figure of the modernist movement in Egyptian literature whose writings, in Arabic, include novels, stories, criticism, and social and political essays. Outside Egypt he is best known through his autobiography, Al-Ayyām (3 vol., 1929–67; The Days), the first modern Arab literary work to be acclaimed in the West....
  • Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (Egyptian author)
    outstanding figure of the modernist movement in Egyptian literature whose writings, in Arabic, include novels, stories, criticism, and social and political essays. Outside Egypt he is best known through his autobiography, Al-Ayyām (3 vol., 1929–67; The Days), the first modern Arab literary work to be acclaimed in the West....
  • Ṭaha Ḥussein (Egyptian author)
    outstanding figure of the modernist movement in Egyptian literature whose writings, in Arabic, include novels, stories, criticism, and social and political essays. Outside Egypt he is best known through his autobiography, Al-Ayyām (3 vol., 1929–67; The Days), the first modern Arab literary work to be acclaimed in the West....
  • Tahaa (island, French Polynesia)
    Raiatea, the principal island, and neighbouring Tahaa are part of a single submarine formation and are surrounded by a single barrier reef. Tahaa lies north of Raiatea and is separated from it by a channel 2 miles (3 km) wide. To the east is the fertile island of Huahine, which becomes two sections at high tide: Huahine Nui (“Great Huahine”) and Huahine Iti (“Little......
  • “Tahāfut al-falāsifah” (work by al-Ghazālī)
    His philosophical studies began with treatises on logic and culminated in the Tahāfut (The Inconsistency—or Incoherence—of the Philosophers), in which he defended Islām against such philosophers as Avicenna who sought to demonstrate certain speculative views contrary to accepted Islāmic teaching. In preparation for this major treatise, he published ...
  • tahajjud (Islam)
    (Arabic: “keeping vigil”), in Islāmic practice, the recitation of the Qurʾān (Islāmic scriptures) and prayers during the night. Tahajjud is generally regarded as sunnah (tradition) and not farḍ (obligation). There are many verses in the Qurʾān that encourage these nightly recitations and other verses that i...
  • Tahan, Mount (mountain, Malaysia)
    highest peak of the Malay Peninsula (7,175 feet [2,187 m]), in the Tahan Range, West Malaysia. Mount Tahan is the central feature of Taman Negara National Park and a destination for mountaineers who begin their ascent from nearby Kuala Tahan, headquarters of the park. The Tahan Range parallels the Main Range (about 60 miles [97 km] west) and extends south from Mount Tahan for about 75 miles (120 k...
  • Tahan Range (mountains, Malaysia)
    ...West Malaysia. Mount Tahan is the central feature of Taman Negara National Park and a destination for mountaineers who begin their ascent from nearby Kuala Tahan, headquarters of the park. The Tahan Range parallels the Main Range (about 60 miles [97 km] west) and extends south from Mount Tahan for about 75 miles (120 km) across the tablelands of Terengganu (formerly Trengganu). Its......
  • Taharqa (king of Egypt)
    fourth king (reigned 690–664 bce) of the 25th dynasty of ancient Egypt (see ancient Egypt: The 24th and 25th dynasties)....
  • Tahart (Algeria)
    city, northern Algeria. It lies at the southern end of Ouarsenis Massif (in the Tell Atlas) on the slopes of Mount Guezoul (4,510 feet [1,375 metres]) at the edge of the High Plateaus (Hauts Plateaux). Wadi Tiaret flows through the city to join Wadi Mîna....
  • Tahat, Mount (mountain, Algeria)
    large plateau in the north centre of the Sahara, on the Tropic of Cancer, North Africa. Its height is above 3,000 feet (900 m), culminating in Mount Tahat (9,573 feet [2,918 m]) in southeastern Algeria. The plateau, about 965 miles (1,550 km) north to south and 1,300 miles (2,100 km) east to west, is rocky desert composed of black volcanic (basalt) necks and of flows rising above a pink granite......
  • Tahdhīb al-akhlāq (work by Ibn Miskawayh)
    ...of pre-Islamic Iran. His interests included alchemy and poetry, and some 20 works are attributed to him. His most notable contributions, however, were in ethics and history. His moral treatise Tahdhīb al-akhlāq, influenced by the Aristotelian concept of the mean, is considered one of the best statements of Islamic philosophy. The Islamic philosopher Naṣīr......
  • Ṭāherī (Iran)
    ...or in its more formalized shape, as in Damascus, the hypostyle tradition dominated mosque architecture from 715 to the 10th century. As it occurs at Nīshāpūr in northeastern Iran, Sīrāf in southern Iran, al-Qayrawān (Kairouan) in Tunisia, and Córdoba in Spain, it can indeed be considered as the classic early Islāmic type. Its masterpieces ...
  • tahini (food)
    paste of crushed sesame seeds that is widely used in Middle Eastern cooking. Tahini mixed with garlic, lemon juice, and salt and thinned with water constitutes taratoor, a sauce that is eaten as a dip with Arab bread as part of a selection of meze, or hors d’oeuvres. Taratoor is mixed with ground chickpeas for hummus...
  • Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn (ʿAbbāsid general)
    ...in effect stripped by al-Amīn of his rights to the succession, was supported by an Iranian, al-Faḍl ibn Sahl, whom he was to make his vizier, as well as by an Iranian general, Ṭāhir. Ṭāhir’s victory over al-Amīn’s army on the outskirts of the present Tehrān allowed al-Maʾmūn’s troops to occupy western Ira...
  • Ṭāhirid dynasty (Muslim dynasty of Khorāsān)
    (ad 821–873), Islāmic dynasty of the land of Khorāsān (centred in northeastern Persia), which owed nominal allegiance to the ʿAbbāsid caliph at Baghdad but enjoyed virtual independence. The dynasty was founded by Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn, a successful military general awarded the eastern l...
  • Ṭāhirid dynasty (Muslim dynasty of Yemen)
    ...trade in the Red Sea keen competition, but, soon after his death, internal unrest, revolts of slaves, and the plague hastened the fall of the dynasty. Yemen then passed into the hands of the Ṭāhirid dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of the 16th century....
  • Tahiti (island, French Polynesia)
    largest island of the Îles du Vent (Windward Islands) of the Society Islands, French Polynesia, in the central South Pacific Ocean. Its nearest neighbour is Moorea, 12 miles (20 km) to the northwest. The island of Tahiti consists of two ancient eroded volcanic cones, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti (the...
  • Tahiti vanilla (plant)
    ...commerce are the cured, unripe fruit of Vanilla planifolia, Mexican or Bourbon vanilla, which is native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America; or Vanilla tahitensis, Tahiti vanilla, which is native to Oceania. The principal sources of vanilla are Madagascar, the Comoros, and Réunion, which together furnish about 70 to 75 percent of the world’s supply...
  • Tahitian language
    The best-known Polynesian languages are Samoan, with about 200,000 speakers; Maori, spoken in New Zealand by about 100,000 persons; Tahitian, with an unknown number of native speakers but widely used as a lingua franca in French Polynesia; and Hawaiian, with only a few remaining native speakers but formerly spoken by perhaps 100,000 persons. Samoan is the national language of Samoa (formerly......
  • Tahlequah (Oklahoma, United States)
    city, seat (1907) of Cherokee county, eastern Oklahoma, U.S., in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, near the Illinois River and Lake Tenkiller. Settled by Cherokee Indians and made capital of the Cherokee Nation (1839–1907), the town site was laid out on Cherokee council grounds in 1843. The name, meaning ...
  • Tahltan (people)
    an Athabaskan-speaking North American Indian people living on the upper Stikine River and other nearby streams in what is now northwestern British Columbia, Can. This region, though grassy and rocky with only sparse woodlands, provided plentiful salmon and such game as caribou, moose, bears, and various other furbearing animals....
  • Ṭahmāsp I (Ṣafavid shah of Iran)
    shāh of Iran from 1524 whose rule was marked by continuing warfare with the Ottoman Empire and the loss of large amounts of territory....
  • Ṭahmāsp II (Ṣafavid shah of Iran)
    ...ravaging western Persia. Nādr, an Afshārid Turkmen from northern Khorāsān, was eventually able to reunite Iran, a process he began on behalf of the Ṣafavid prince Ṭahmāsp II (reigned 1722–32), who had escaped the Afghans. After Nādr had cleared the country of Afghans, Ṭahmāsp made him governor of a large area of easter...
  • Ṭahmāsp Qolī Khān (Iranian ruler)
    Iranian ruler and conqueror who created an Iranian empire that stretched from the Indus River to the Caucasus Mountains....
  • Tahoe, Lake (lake, United States)
    freshwater lake occupying a fault basin on the California-Nevada border in the northern Sierra Nevada, U.S. Fed by numerous small streams, it is drained by the Truckee River to Pyramid Lake, Nevada, about 60 miles (100 km) northeast. It measures 22 miles (35 km) north-south and 12 miles (19 km) east-west and has an area of 193 square miles (500 square km); its surface stands at 6,229 feet (1,899 m...
  • Tahoua (Niger)
    town, southern Niger. Situated on the boundary between a cultivated zone (peanuts [groundnuts]) and a drier pastoral zone (cattle, goats, and sheep), it is an important trading town. During the Sahel drought of the 1970s and 1980s it served as a refugee centre. It is a significant junction on the road between Agadez and Niamey, the national capital; it also has an airfield. Pop....
  • Tahpanhes (ancient city, Egypt)
    ancient fortress town (Fortress of Penhase), situated near Qanṭarah, in present-day ash-Sharqīyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate), northeastern Egypt. Excavations by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1886 uncovered a massive fort and enclosure surrounded by a wall 40 feet (13 m) thick, built by Psamtik I in the 7th century bc. A garrison of m...
  • tahr (mammal)
    (genus Hemitragus), any of several wary and surefooted wild goats of the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla). Tahrs live in herds and usually frequent steep, wooded mountainsides. They range in shoulder height from 60–106 cm (24–42 inches), depending on the species. Both sexes have short horns that curve backward and are flattened from side to side. The Himalayan tahr (Hem...
  • Tahrir al-Marʾāh (work by Qasim Amīn)
    ...kinds, from popular journalism to the first Malay novels. Sayyid Shaykh himself wrote the novel Faridah Hanum (adapted from an Egyptian love story) in 1926; translated Qasim Amīn’s Tahrir al-Marʾāh, on the emancipation of women (1930), into Malay; and edited and wrote extensively on religious, political, and social questions for his monthly journ...
  • Ṭahṭāwī, Rifāʿah Rāfiʿ al- (Islamic scholar)
    teacher and scholar who was one of the first Egyptians to grapple with the question of adjusting to the West and to provide answers in Islamic terms....
  • Tahuna (Indonesia)
    ...of Sulawesi Utara (North Celebes) provinsi (province). The main islands in the group are Sangihe, Siau, Tahulandang, and Biaro, and there are numerous islets. Tahuna (Taruna), on Sangihe’s west coast, is the main town and lies in the shadow of Mount Awu (6,070 feet [1,850 metres]), an active volcano to the north. Most of the islands’ inhabit...
  • t’ai (Chinese architecture)
    ...the conduct of state rituals was the Ming-t’ang (“Spirit Hall”), discussed in Chou literature but not yet known through excavations. Late Chou texts also describe platforms or towers, t’ai, made of rammed earth and timber and used as watchtowers, as treasuries, or for ritual sacrifices and feasts, while pictures engraved or inlaid on late Chou bronze vessels s...
  • TAI (chronology)
    ...generated by atomic clocks, which furnish time more accurately than was possible with previous astronomical means (measurements of the rotation of the Earth and its revolution about the Sun). International Atomic Time (TAI) is based on a system consisting of about 270 laboratory-constructed atomic clocks. Signals from these atomic clocks are transmitted to the International Bureau of......
  • Tai (people)
    peoples of mainland Southeast Asia, including the Thai, or Siamese (in central and southern Thailand), the Lao (in Laos and northern Thailand), the Shan (in northeast Myanmar [Burma]), the Lü (primarily in Yunnan province, China, but also in Myanmar, Laos, northern Thailand, and Vietnam), the Yunnan Tai (the major Tai group in Yunnan), and the tribal Tai (in northern Vietnam). All of these ...
  • Tai Chen (Chinese philosopher)
    Chinese empirical philosopher, considered by many to have been the greatest thinker of the Qing period (1644–1911/12)....
  • tai chi (martial art)
    ancient and distinctive Chinese form of exercise or attack and defense that is popular throughout the world. As exercise, tai chi chuan is designed to provide relaxation in the process of body-conditioning exercise and is drawn from the principles of taiji, notably including the harmonizing of the yin and yang, respectively the passive and active principles. ...
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