Anthropomorphism
The attribution of human form or other human characteristics to any nonhuman object. In religion, the term is applied to any statement that depicts the deity as having a bodily form resembling that of human beings, or as possessing qualities of thought, will, or emotion that are continuous with those experienced by humans. Any reference to the divine as having a human
France, History Of, Economy, society, and culture in the 14th and 15th centuries
The long war, fought almost entirely in France, benefited few but the captains and peculators; it injured almost everyone. Even the best disciplined companies lived off the land, so that French peasants and defeated townsfolk in effect paid the expenses of both sides; and undisciplined mercenary bands were a wearisome scourge in times of truce after the middle of
Qatar
Qatar's economic prosperity is derived from petroleum, which was discovered in 1939 and first produced in 1949, and from natural gas. Before World War II, Qatar's population lacked any economic occupation apart from pearling, fishing, and some trade and was one of the poorest in the world. By the 1970s, however, the native Qataris enjoyed one of the highest per capita incomes in the world,
Rovaniemi
Town, capital of Lapin l��ni (Lappi province), northern Finland, at the junction of the Kemijoki and Ounasjoki (rivers), northeast of Tornio, on the Arctic Circle. Incorporated in 1929, it became the administrative centre of Lappi in 1939, when the government of Lapland was reorganized. Road building between 1920 and 1940 spurred its development, but near the end of World War II the retreating
Cheddar
Village (�parish�), Sedgemoor district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England, at the mouth of a spectacular limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills. The gorge (now owned by the National Trust) and caverns, in which human remains and artifacts dating back to the Stone Age have been found, attract many tourists. Cheddar cheese was first made there at or before
Indore
Indore was founded in 1715 as a trade market on the Narmada River valley route by local landowners, who erected Indreshwar Temple (1741), from which the name Indore is derived. It became the capital
Ibn Shem Tov, Joseph Ben Shem Tov
Jewish philosopher and Castilian court physician who attempted to mediate the disdain shown for philosophy by contemporary Jewish scholars by undertaking a reconciliation of Aristotelian ethical philosophy with Jewish religious thought, best exemplified by his influential Kevod Elohim (written 1442; �The Glory of God�). Here he expounded his belief that answers
Rowland, Henry Augustus
In 1872 Rowland became an instructor of physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
Arts, Islamic, Three great mosques
During the rule of the Umayyad prince al-Walid I (705 - 715), a number of complex developments within the Muslim community were crystallized in the construction of three major mosques, at Medina, Jerusalem, and Damascus. The very choice of these three cities is indicative: the city in which the Muslim state was formed and in which the Prophet was buried; the city held in common holiness
Cambrai, League Of
An alliance of Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I, Louis XII of France, and Ferdinand II of Aragon, formed Dec. 10, 1508, ostensibly against the Turks but actually to attack the Republic of Venice and divide its possessions among the allies. Mantua and Ferrara, both of which had lost possessions to Venice, were included in the league and were promised that their
Biblical Literature, The Wisdom of Solomon
The other deuterocanonical wisdom book, the Wisdom of Solomon, was written in Greek, though it purports to have been written by King Solomon himself. The hypothesis that the first half of the book was translated from Hebrew seems to be without foundation and probably came into existence because, in this section, the author imitated in Greek the Old Testament poetical
Chia-i
Also spelled �Chiayi,� hsien (county), west-central Taiwan, with an area of 734 square miles (1,902 square km). It is bounded by the hsien of Y�n-lin and Nan-t'ou (north), Kao-hsiung (east), and T'ai-nan (south) and by the Taiwan Strait (west). The A-li Mountains dominate the eastern region, and there are coastal plains in the west. Paddy rice, sugarcane, peanuts (groundnuts), corn (maize), jute, bananas, pineapples, and citrus fruits
Oberlin, Johann Friedrich
Born into a middle-class family, Oberlin studied theology and graduated from the University of Strasbourg in 1758. He was a teacher
Caracalla
Also spelled �Caracallus, �byname of �Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus, �original name (until AD 196) �Septimius Bassianus, �also called (AD 196 - 198) �Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caesar � Roman emperor, ruling jointly with his father, Septimius Severus, from 198 to 211 and then alone from 211 until his assassination in 217. His principal achievements were his colossal baths in Rome and his edict of 212, giving Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Caracalla, whose reign contributed to the decay
Caucasian Languages, Grammatical characteristics
In a number of languages (Lezgi, Udi) noun differentiation by classes has disappeared. The class of
Aeolic Dialect
Any of several dialects of Ancient Greek �that were spoken in Thessaly, Boeotia, and, after approximately 1000 Bc� in Asiatic Aeolis, including the island of Lesbos, where Aeolian colonists from the mainland founded their cities. West Thessalian and especially Boeotian varieties of Aeolic were influenced by the neighbouring West Greek (Doric) dialects, whereas Asiatic Aeolic was influenced by Ionic. The Lesbian poets Alcaeus (c. 620 - c. 580 BC) and Sappho (fl. c. 610 - c. 580 BC) used their vernacular Asiatic
Zapopan
City, north-central Jalisco estado (�state�), west-central Mexico. It is in the temperate Guadalajara Valley, at an elevation of 5,243 feet (1,598 m) above sea level, 4.5 miles (7 km) northwest of Guadalajara, the state capital. It is a commercial and manufacturing centre for the surrounding area that produces grain (principally corn [maize]), sugarcane, cotton, and fruits and vegetables. Livestock
Guadalcanal, Battle Of
(August 1942 - February 1943), series of World War II land and sea clashes between Allied and Japanese forces on and around Guadalcanal, one of the southern Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific. Japanese troops had landed on Guadalcanal on July 6, 1942, and had begun constructing an airfield there. On August 7, in the Allies' first major offensive in the Pacific, 6,000 U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal
Magnus Vi
Magnus succeeded his father, Haakon IV Haakonsson, in 1263 and quickly made peace with the Scottish king Alexander
Mercury
Latin �Mercurius, � in Roman religion, god of merchandise and merchants, commonly identified with the Greek Hermes (q.v.), fleet-footed messenger of the gods. His worship was introduced early, and his temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome was dedicated in 495 BC. There he was associated with the goddess Maia, who became identified as his mother through her association with the Greek Maia, mother of
Gates Of Paradise
Italian �Porta Del Paradiso, � the pair of gilded bronze doors (1425 - 52) designed by the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti for the east entrance of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence. Each wing of the Gates of Paradise contains five rectangular reliefs of scenes from the Old Testament between figurated borders containing statuettes in niches and medallions with busts. The entire surface of the doors
Denizli
City, southwestern Turkey. It lies near a tributary of the Menderes River. Set among the gardens at the foot of Mount G�kbel (7,572 feet [2,308 m]), Denizli inherited the economic position of ancient Laodicea ad Lycum, 4 miles (6 km) away, when that town was deserted during wars between the Byzantines and the Seljuq Turks in the 12th century. By the 14th century, as L�dik (Ladiq), Denizli had emerged
Mignet, Fran�ois
Educated at Avignon, Mignet became professor there in 1815; he returned to Aix for his law studies and was called to the bar in 1818. His first work, the Essai sur les institutions de Saint Louis, was acclaimed by the Academy of Inscriptions
Tzaddiq
Also spelled �Tsaddik, or Zaddik (Hebrew: �righteous man�), �plural �Tzaddiqim, Tsaddikim, or Zaddikim, � one who embodies the religious ideals of Judaism. In the Bible, a tzaddiq is a just or righteous man (Genesis 6:9), who, if a ruler, rules justly or righteously (II Samuel 23:3) and who takes joy in justice (Proverbs 21:15). The Talmud (compendium of Jewish law, lore, and commentary) asserts that the continued existence of the world is due to the merits of 36 individuals, each of whom is gamur
Zagwe Dynasty
Also spelled �Zague, � line of 12th- and 13th-century Ethiopian kings who combined a nomadic military life with an impassioned desire to build monuments to their Christian religion. Their tenuous pretensions to succession, based on a legendary marriage to a daughter of one of the last Aksumite kings, the line they deposed, was subsequently confirmed by the church; in return for its support,
Argentina, The Gran Chaco
The western sector of the North region, the Gran Chaco, extends beyond the international border at the Pilcomayo River into Paraguay, where it is called the Chaco Boreal (�Northern Chaco�) by Argentines. The Argentine sector between the Pilcomayo River and the Bermejo River is known as the Chaco Central. Argentines have named the area southward to latitude 30� S, where the
Scandinavian Literature, Notable 20th-century prose writers
Several writers of this time showed a keen eye for character and an understanding of human feelings and of the stark life of rural Iceland: J�n Trausti (Gudmundur Magn�sson), who wrote the cycle Heidarb�lid (4 vol., 1908 - 11; �The Mountain Cot�); Gunnar Gunnarsson, whose Kirken p� bjerget (1923 - 28; �The Church on the Mountain�) was written in Danish; and Gudmundur Hagal�n. The outstanding modern
Westchester
The original inhabitants of Westchester, Algonquian-speaking Wappinger Indians, were displaced in the 1640s by Dutch colonists along the Hudson and by colonists
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi (�Village of Rawals�) occupies the site of an old village inhabited by the Rawals, a group of yogis (ascetics). Certain ruins on the site are identified with the ancient city Gajipur, or Gajnipur,
Water Softener
Device for removing calcium and magnesium from water; water so treated will not form insoluble scale in pipes and tanks and will not form a precipitate with soaps or interfere with other cleaners. Water softeners usually consist of zeolite or an ion-exchange resin (q.v.) in a tank connected directly into the water system. The zeolite or resin contains sodium ions that
