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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

Musailima (or Moseilema)
(died 634) Contemporary and rival of the prophet Muhammad, claiming to have equal rights with him to the title of `Messenger of God`. He stated that Muhammad had nominated him his successor, but his claim...

Musashi, Miyamoto
Japanese samurai; see Miyamoto Musashi. ...

Muschg, Adolf
(1934) Swiss author. His first novel, Im Sommer des Hasen/Summer of the Hare (1965), was a work of unusual power about the Far East. Muschg's polished style is always evident in his work even if the...

Muscovy
Anglicized name for both Moscow and Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was also the name of a Russian principality which existed from the 13th to the 16th century; its capital was Moscow. ...

Muscovy Company
Company founded 1555 to foster trade with Russia via the Arctic seas, after attempts to find a northerly route to China in 1553 opened the way for trade with Russia. Furs, timber, and naval supplies...

Muse
In Greek mythology, one of the nine inspiring deities of the creative arts: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Urania, and Calliope; daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne,...

Musée d'Art Moderne
Museum of modern art in Paris, opened 1945. It takes up the account of modern art where the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay leave off, with works by the Fauves, cubists, surrealists, and others. ...

Musée D'Orsay
Museum of 19th- and early 20th-century painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and photography, opened at the former Gare du Quai d'Orsay (Orsay quayside railway station), Paris, France, in 1986....

Muselier, Emile Henri
(1882-1965) French admiral. During World War II he was commander-in-chief of the Free French naval forces 1940-42 and of the Free French air forces 1940-41 under Gen Charles de Gaulle. He led the Free...

museology
The study of the organization and function of museums. ...

museum
A place or building for the storage and display of works of art, scientific specimens, or other objects of cultural importance. In Ancient Greece...

Museum of Modern Art, New York
Leading US art museum devoted to art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Opened in 1929, it has amassed an exceptional collection of modern works, including collections...

Museveni, Yoweri Kaguta
(1945) Ugandan soldier and politician, president from 1986. He led the opposition to Idi Amin's brutal and autocratic regime 1971-79, and became minister of defence 1979-80. As president, Museveni...

Musgrave, Richard Abel
(1910-2007) German-born US economist. His book The Theory of Public Finance (1959) provided a definitive text that incorporates the economics of public finance into economic theory as a whole. Born in...

Musharraf, Pervez
(1943) Pakistani general and military ruler, head of the army from 1998, emergency ruler from 1999, and president from 2001. He seized power from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and...

music hall
British light theatrical entertainment, in which singers, dancers, comedians, and acrobats perform in `turns`. The music hall's heyday was at the beginning of the 20th century, with such...

music theatre
Staged performance of vocal music that deliberately challenges, in style and subject matter, traditional operatic pretensions. Drawing on English music hall and European cabaret and Singspiel...

musical
20th-century form of dramatic musical performance, combining elements of song, dance, and the spoken word, often characterized by lavish staging...

Musil, Robert
(1880-1942) Austrian novelist. He was the author of the unfinished Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften/The Man without Qualities (three volumes; 1930-43). Its hero shares the author's background of philosophical...

Muskie, Edmund S(ixtus)
(1914-1996) US Democrat politician. A moderate by ideology and nature, he was a senator from Maine 1959-81 and secretary of state 1980-81. As a senator he concentrated on the environment, specializing in...

Muskoge
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Creek people. ...

Muskogean
Dominant American Indian language family of the southeast USA. It is divided into Eastern and Western branches. The Eastern group includes the Alabama and Koasati languages of Texas and Louisiana;...

Muslim
A follower of the religion of Islam. In the Balkan peninsula, Muslims (descendants of Slavs who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule) have since 1971 been recognized as a distinct religious and...

Muslim Brotherhood
Sunni Islamic movement founded in Egypt in 1928, active throughout the Arab world although banned in most countries. It aims at the establishment of a Muslim state governed by Islamic law. The...

Musmanno, Michael Angelo
(1897-1968) US judge and author. A successful and controversial lawyer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he tried to reverse the death sentence in the Mussenden Temple
Circular, domed temple in the grounds of the ruined Downhill Castle, Castlerock, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is surrounded by Corinthian columns and is sited on a cliff top overlooking...

Musset, (Louis Charles) Alfred de
(1810-1857) French poet and playwright. He achieved success with the volume of poems Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie/Stories of Spain and Italy (1829). His autobiographical poem Confessions d'un enfant du...

Mustafa Kemal Pasha
Turkish leader who assumed the name Atatürk. ...

mustard gas
Chemical weapon, developed by the Germans in World War I and first used on 12 July 1917. A vesicant and systemic poison, it attacks the lungs when inhaled, while the vapour attacks the eyes, causing...

Muste, A(braham) J(ohannes)
(1885-1967) Protestant clergyman and social activist. As the minister of a church in New York City, he became exposed both to social problems and to socialist thinkers such as Norman Thomas and Eugene Debs;...

Mut
In Egyptian mythology, the mother goddess of Thebes. She is depicted wearing a headdress in the shape of a vulture, and is the wife of Ammon. ...

Mutaguchi, Renya
(1888-1966) Japanese general in World War II. An ambitious and hot-tempered man, he commanded the Japanese force which captured Malaya and Singapore 1941, then went to command the 15th Japanese Army in Burma...

Mutanabbi, al-, Abu al-Tayyib
(915-965) Syrian poet. He developed the qasida form to its highest degree of rhetorical ornamentation, and also had a great influence on the early development of Persian poetry. He is regarded as one of the...

Mutina
Ancient town in Cisalpine Gaul, northern Italy, on a site adjacent to modern Modena. Originally a town of the Gallic people the Boii, Mutina became subject to Rome about 218 BC. Octavian (the future...

mutiny
Organized act of disobedience or defiance by two or more members of the armed services. In naval and military law, mutiny has always been regarded as one of the most serious of crimes, punishable in...

Mutiny Act
In Britain, an act of Parliament, passed in 1689 and re-enacted annually since then (since 1882 as part of the Army Acts), for the establishment and payment of a standing army. The act is intended...

Mutsuhito
Personal name of the Japanese emperor Meiji. ...

mutual assured destruction
Military doctrine that asserts that the relationship between nuclear powers remains stable if they are able to destroy each other. It reflects the theory of deterrence: that a potential aggressor...

mutual fund
Another name for unit trust, used in the USA. ...

Muzorewa, Abel (Tendekayi)
(1925) Zimbabwean politician and Methodist bishop. He was president of the African National Council 1971-85 and prime minister of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe 1979-80. He was detained for a year in 1983-84....

MVD
Abbreviation for the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, name (1946-53) of the Soviet secret police; later the KGB. ...

Mwinyi, Ali Hassan
(1925) Tanzanian socialist politician, succeeding Julius Nyerere as president 1985-95. He began a revival of private enterprise and control of state involvement and spending, and also instituted a...

My Lai massacre
Killing of 109 civilians in My Lai, a village in South Vietnam, by US troops in March 1968. An investigation in 1969 produced enough evidence to charge 30...

Myanmar
Country in Southeast Asia, bounded northwest by India and Bangladesh, northeast by China, southeast by Laos and Thailand, and southwest by the Bay of Bengal. Government Myanmar has a military...

Mycenae
Ancient Greek city in the eastern Peloponnese, which gave its name to the Mycenaean (Bronze Age) civilization. Its peak was 1400-1200 BC, when the Cyclopean walls (using close-fitting stones)...

Mycenaean civilization
Bronze Age civilization that flourished in Crete, Cyprus, Greece, the Aegean Islands, and western Anatolia about 3000-1000 BC. During this period, magnificent architecture and sophisticated...

Myconius (or Geisshäusler), Oswald
(1488-1552) Swiss religious reformer. He was a close friend of Ulrich...

Myers, F(rederic) W(illiam) H(enry)
(1843-1901) English psychic researcher, classical scholar, and poet. He coined the word `telepathy` and was a founder in 1882 and one of the first presidents, in 1900, of the Society for Psychical Research....

Myers, L(eopold) H(amilton)
(1881-1944) English novelist. His first novel, The Orissers 1922, was a critical success, and established him as a writer of major importance. His chief work was a tetralogy set in India in the late 16th...

Mühlberg, Battle of
Battle fought near the German town of Mühlberg, on the bank of the River Elbe, in 1547. It was a victory for the forces under the personal command of Emperor Charles V over a Lutheran alliance led...

Myitkyina
Town in northern Burma (now Myanmar) held by the Japanese in World War II, commanding road and rail routes, about 420 km/260 mi north of Mandalay. It was the objective of Stilwell's 1944 operations...

Müller, Heiner
(1929-1995) German dramatist. His scripts have played a leading role in contemporary avant-garde theatre in Germany and abroad. Early political works, showing the influence of Brecht, for example The Scab...

Müller, Hermann
(1876-1931) German Socialist politician, chancellor for a few months in 1920 and again 1928-30, when he formed a Grand Coalition. He was previously foreign minister in the cabinet of Gustav Bauer in 1919 and...

Müller, Johannes von
(1752-1809) Swiss historian. He published the first volume of his Geschichten der Schweizer in 1780, and the following year his Essais historiques appeared. His Gerschichte der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft...

Münster, Sebastian
(1489-1552) German theologian and geographer. He wrote Cosmographia universalis/Universal Cosmography printed in 1544, complete with woodcuts and maps (very detailed for Germany and Western Europe, less so for...

Müntzer (or Münzer), Thomas
(c. 1490-1525) German religious reformer, leader of the Anabaptists. He headed...

Myrdal, (Karl) Gunnar
(1898-1987) Swedish economist, sociologist, and politician. The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory (1953), originally published in Swedish in 1930, and Monetary Equilibrium (1939),...

Myrdal, Alva
(1902-1986) Swedish politician and prominent leader of the disarmament movement. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1982 with Mexican politician Alfonso García Robles for her...

Myrmidon
In Greek mythology, a member of a legendary race, subjects of the Greek warrior Achilles, whom he commanded at the siege of Troy in Homer's Iliad. Originally from Aegina, many Myrmidones followed...

Myron
(c. 500-440 BC) Greek sculptor. A late contemporary of Phidias, he is known to have made statues of the athletes Timanthes (456 BC) and Lycinus (448 BC), excelling in the representation of movement. His bronze...

Myrrhine Vases
Alternative spelling for Murrhine Vases. ...

Mysia
Ancient district of northwestern Asia Minor containing the Bronze-Age city of Troy. The principal towns of Mysia were Pergamum, Lampsacus, Abydos, and Assos. In the 6th century BC Mysia was...

mystery play
Medieval religious drama based on stories from the Bible. Mystery plays were performed around the time of church festivals, reaching their height in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. A...

mystery religion
Any of various cults of the ancient world that were open only to the initiated; for example, the cults of Demeter (see Eleusinian Mysteries), Dionysus, Cybele, Isis, and Mithras. Underlying some of...

mysticism
Religious belief or spiritual experience based on direct, intuitive communion with the divine or apprehension of truths beyond the understanding. It does not always involve an orthodox de ...

Mytens, Daniel
(1590-1642) Dutch portrait painter. He moved to England about 1618, becoming court painter to James I and Charles I. His portraits (such as Charles I, National Portrait Gallery, London) are competent, though...

mythological origins of Ireland
In Irish legend, an epic struggle was fought for control of the island between successive waves of supernatural and mortal settlers. These included the demonic Fomorians, the original inhabitants of...

mythology
Genre of traditional stories symbolically underlying a given culture. These stories describe gods and other supernatural beings with whom humans may have relationships, and are often intended to...

mythopoeia
Composition of stories or myths, usually in a narrative form such as epic poetry. The term may include the reshaping of traditional stories by a poet, and an acknowledgement of...

Myton, Battle of
Victory of a Scottish army under Sir James Douglas over an army hastily raised by the archbishop of York, William Melton, on 20 September 1319 at Myton-in-Swaledale, Yorkshire. The victory...

Na-Dene
One of the largest American Indian language families in the USA and Canada, originating from the northwest region of the North American continent. Its branches include the Tlingit language; the...

NAACP
Abbreviation for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a US civil-rights organization. ...

NAAFI
Non-profit-making association providing canteens for HM British Forces in the UK and abroad. ...

Nabataean
Member of an Arab people who lived in the northwest of the Arabian peninsula. They are mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions and in 312 BC defeated a Syrian army. At that time they were nomads and...

Nabis, les
Group of French painters formed towards the end of the 19th century in an effort to clarify modern purpose in painting. Paul Sérusier, a follower of Gauguin, brought them together and invented the...

nabob
18th- and 19th-century nickname for those who made their fortune in India, a corruption of the Mogul royal title nawab. The name became widespread when many `nabobs` returned to England and...

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich
(1899-1977) US writer. He left his native Russia in 1917 and began writing in English in the 1940s. His most widely known book is Nabu
In Babylonian and Assyrian mythology, the god of learning and wisdom, especially of writing, astronomy, and the sciences. His symbol is an upright wedge on a pole, probably representing a stylus and...

Nachtigal, Gustav
(1834-1885) German explorer of Africa. In 1869 he set out from Tripoli, Libya, on a mission from the king of Prussia to Bornu, visiting Tibesti and Borku, in the central Sahara, until then unvisited by...

Nadelman, Elie
(1882-1946) Polish-born sculptor, a US citizen from 1927. He is celebrated for his stylish, `tubular` figures with doll-like faces and body parts that melt into flowing contours, as in Man in the Open...

Nader, Ralph
(1934) US lawyer and consumer advocate. Called the `scourge of corporate morality`, he led many major consumer campaigns. His book Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) led to US car-safety legislation. In 1996...

Nadir Shah Afshar
(1688-1747) Shah of Persia from 1736. He drove the Afghans from Persia in 1729 and restored his brother-in-law Tahmasp II to his throne. Nadir then deposed Tahmasp and became regent for his infant son,...

Nadir Shah, (Khan) Muhammad
(c. 1880-1933) King of Afghanistan from 1929. Nadir played a key role in the 1919 Afghan War, but was subsequently forced into exile in France. He returned to Kabul in 1929 to seize the throne and embarked on an...

Naevius, Gnaeus
(c. 270-c. 201 BC) Roman poet and dramatist. He developed Roman low-life comedy and invented historical drama. He produced his first play 235 BC, and was imprisoned 206 for having attacked Scipio Africanus Major and...

NAFTA
Acronym for North American Free Trade Agreement. ...

Naga
Member of any of the various peoples who inhabit the highland region near the Indian-Myanmar (Burma) border; they number approximately 800,000. These peoples do not possess a common name; some of...

Nagel, Ernest
(1901-1985) Czech-born US philosopher who specialized in the philosophy of science and logic. He analysed the logical structure of scientific enquiries; and, in particular, he argued that the social sciences...

Nagorno-Karabakh
Autonomous region of Azerbaijan; area 4,400 sq km/1,700 sq mi; population (1997 est) 204,800 (77% Armenian, 23% Azeri), the Christian Armenians forming an enclave within the predominantly Shiite...

Nagumo, Chuichi
(1886-1944) Japanese admiral in World War II, commander of the Fast Carrier Striking Force which attacked Pearl Harbor December 1941. A cautious man, after his aircraft had made two raids against Pearl Harbor...

Nagy, Ferenc
(born 1903) Hungarian prime minister 1946-47. He was a founding member of the Smallholders' Party and became its general secretary in 1930. At the general elections in November 1945 the Smallholders received...

Nagy, Imre
(1895-1958) Hungarian politician, prime minister 1953-55 and 1956. He led the Hungarian revolt against Soviet domination in 1956, for which he was executed. Nagy, an Austro-Hungarian prisoner of war in...

Nahas, Mustafa al-
(1897-1965) Egyptian nationalist and politician, leader of the Wafd party. He was instrumental in the process leading to the establishment of the Arab League, one of his major achievements. The military failure...

Nahuatl
Any of a group of Mesoamerican Indian peoples (Mexico and Central America), of which the best-known group were the Aztecs. The Nahuatl are the largest ethnic group in Mexico, and their languages,...

Nahum
(lived 7th century BC) In the Old Testament, a Hebrew prophet, possibly born in Galilee, who forecast the destruction of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, by the Medes 612 BC. ...

Nahyan, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-
(1918-2004) Emir of Abu Dhabi 1969-2004 and first president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) 1971-2004. Considered the father of his nation, he is credited with building a modern infrastructure and...

naiad
In classical mythology, a water nymph. Naiads lived in rivers and streams;nereids in the sea. ...

Naidu, Sarojini
(1879-1949) Indian feminist and poet. She published three volumes of lyric verse The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird of Time (1912), and The Broken Wing (1915). She organized flood-relief in Hyderabad in...

Naipaul, V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad)
(1932) Trinidadian novelist and travel writer living in Britain. His novels, usually set in former colonies, explore the relationship between indigenous culture and Western influence. These include A House...

naive art
Fresh, childlike style of painting, employing bright colours and strong, rhythmic designs. It is usually the work of self-taught artists with no formal training, and is less technical in approach....

Najibullah, Ahmadzai
(1947-1996) Afghan communist politician, leader of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1986, and state president 1986-92. Although his government initially survived the withdrawal of...