Harun Ar-rashid

In full �Harun ar-Rashid ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ibn al-Mansur al-'Abbasi� fifth caliph of the 'Abbasid dynasty (786 - 809), who ruled Islam at the zenith of its empire with a luxury in Baghdad memorialized in The Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights Entertainment).

Botta, Paul-�mile

The son of a distinguished historian, Carlo Botta, he was educated as a physician. In 1842 he secured an appointment

Beverly

City, Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It is situated on Beverly Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Salem. Settled about 1626, it was named for Beverley, England, when incorporated as a town (township) in 1668. It early developed as a shipping centre, and the schooner Hannah, claimed to be the first ship of the U.S. Navy, was commissioned (September 5, 1775) at Glover's

Botticelli, Sandro

Original name �Alessandro Di Mariano Filipepi� one of the greatest painters of the Florentine Renaissance. His �The Birth of Venus� and �Primavera� are often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.

Sarda River

River rising in the Himalayas and flowing south-southeast along the India - Nepal border to join the Ghaghara River after a course of about 300 miles (480 km). In its upper course, where the stream is known as the Kali River, it enters the Gangetic Plain at Barmdeo Mandi, widening there above the Sarda Barrage; below this point it is known as the Sarda River. Its major tributaries are the

Rabbit

Rabbits are ground dwellers that live

Ahmad Shah Durrani

Founder of the state of Afghanistan and ruler of an empire that extended from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorasan into Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind. Head of the central government, with full control of all departments of state in domestic and foreign affairs, both civil and military, the shah was assisted by a prime minister

Guadet, Marguerite-�lie

At the time of the outbreak of the revolution (1789), Guadet was a leading lawyer in Bordeaux. In 1790 he became administrator of the Gironde d�partement, and in 1791 he was made president of the d�partement's criminal tribunal. Later that

Banner System

Chinese �(Wade - Giles romanization) Ch'i-ping, �Pinyin �Qibing, � the military organization used by the Manchu tribes of Manchuria (now Northeast China) to conquer and control China in the 17th century. The Banner system was developed by the Manchu leader Nurhachi (1559 - 1626), who in 1601 organized his warriors into four companies of 300 men each. The companies were distinguished by banners of different colours - yellow, red, white, and blue. In 1615 four more

Pacific Scandal

One of the conditions under which British Columbia entered the Dominion of Canada (1871) was that a railway to link that province with the east be constructed

Maurice, Saint

Their story was recorded in the Passio martyrum Acaunensium (�The Passion of the Martyrs of Agaunum�), by the 5th-century French bishop St. Eucherius, who believed

Brieux, Eug�ne

French dramatist, one of the leading exponents of the realist drama, whose somewhat didactic works attacked the social evils of his day. Brieux's works formed part of the repertory of the famed Th��tre-Libre of Andr� Antoine, which had a far-reaching effect on the spread of the new naturalistic style. Playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw described

Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

At five Brackenridge was taken by his impoverished family from Scotland to a farm in York county in Pennsylvania. After a local minister taught him Latin and Greek,

Shadows, The

London-based instrumental rock group whose distinctive sound exerted a strong influence on young British musicians in the 1960s. The original members were Hank B. Marvin (original name Brian Robson Rankin; b. Oct. 28, 1941, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, Eng.), Bruce Welch (original name Bruce Cripps; b. Nov. 2, 1941, Bognor Regis, Sussex), Jet Harris (byname of Terence Harris; b.

Water Witch Incident

In 1853 the �Water Witch� set out on a scientific study, organized by the U.S. government, of the R�o de La Plata waterways. In 1854, after Page became involved in a

Sail

The first sails were most likely animal skins that were used to harness wind power for rafts or boats consisting of a single log. The next probable step was the use of woven reed mats stretched between poles. Depictions of cloth sails appear in predynastic (c. 3300 BC) Egyptian art, and

Cambay

Also called �Khambhat, � city, east-central Gujarat state, west-central India. It lies at the head of the Gulf of Cambay and the mouth of the Mahi River. The city was mentioned in 1293 by Marco Polo, who referred to it as a busy port. It was still a prosperous port in the late 15th century, when Muslims controlled Gujarat. As the gulf silted up, however, the port became insignificant. The city was capital of the princely

Maharashtra

State of India that occupies a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau in the western peninsular part of the subcontinent. Its shape roughly resembles a triangle, with the 450-mile (725-kilometre) western coastline forming the base and the interior narrowing to a blunt apex some 500 miles to the east. It has an area of 118,809 square miles (307,713 square kilometres). It is bounded by the states

United States, The Radicals' plan

Radical Republicans were outraged at these procedures, which savoured of executive usurpation of congressional powers, which required only minimal changes in the Southern social system, and which left political power essentially in the hands of the same Southerners who had led their states out of the Union. The Radicals put forth their own plan of Reconstruction in the Wade - Davis Bill, which Congress passed on July 2, 1864; it required not 10 percent but a majority of the white male citizens in each Southern state to participate in the reconstruction process, and it insisted upon an oath of past, not just of future, loyalty. Finding the bill too rigorous and inflexible, Lincoln pocket vetoed it; and the Radicals bitterly denounced him. During the 1864 - 65 session of Congress, they in turn defeated the president's proposal to recognize the Louisiana government organized under his 10 percent plan. At the time of Lincoln's assassination, therefore, the president and the Congress were at loggerheads over Reconstruction.

Niuafo'ou

Northernmost island of Tonga, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The generally wooded land area of 19 square miles (49 square km) includes a volcanic peak 853 feet (260 m) high, a crater lake, and numerous hot springs. During a particularly violent eruption in 1946, the island's inhabitants were evacuated to 'Eua, several hundred miles to the south. They began returning to Niuafo'ou in 1958. Because

Sabin, Albert Bruce

Sabin immigrated with his parents to the United States in 1921 and became an American citizen nine

Alkaline-earth Metal

Prior to the 19th century, substances that were nonmetallic, insoluble in water, and unchanged by fire were known as earths. Those earths, like lime, that resembled the alkalies (soda ash and

Karaism

The movement began in

Gastronomy, Scandinavian

Sweden's great contribution to international eating is the smorgasbord, literally a �bread-and-butter

Sa'adia Ben Joseph

Sa'adia's opus magnum was on exegesis. He prepared

Keeler, Wee Willie

Keeler was an outfielder who batted and threw left-handed. He played in the major leagues from 1892 to 1910 and achieved a career batting average

Andrea Da Barberino

The material for Andrea's prose compilation of Charlemagne legends, I reali di Francia (1491; �The Royalty of France,� modern edition by G. Vandelli, 1892 - 1900), was drawn for the most part from earlier Italian versions, though the author added much pseudohistorical material