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

Farid ud-din 'Attar
(lived 12th century AD) Persian mystic and religious poet. He wrote `Mantiq al-Tayr/Language of the Birds`, a long, mystical, and allegorical poem. Shiite tendencies in h ...

Farinacci, Roberto
(1892-1945) Italian politician. Fascist Party Secretary from 1924 to 1926, he became a member of the Fascist Grand Council in 1935 and was appointed minister of state in 1938. An ardent racist and...

Farington, Joseph
(1747-1821) English topographical artist. He made many engravings of scenes in the English Lake District. His detailed diary, of great value for its account of the art world of his...

Farjeon, Eleanor
(1881-1965) English author. She wrote many novels, poems, and plays for children, including Nursery Rhymes of London Town 1916, Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard 1921, Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field 1937,...

Farjeon, Herbert
(1887-1945) English dramatist and critic. His light plays include Friends (1917) and Many Happy Returns (1928); he also wrote (in collaboration with his sister Eleanor Farjeon) the musical plays The Two...

Farley, Jim
(1888-1976) US businessman and public official. Prominent in New York State Democratic politics, he worked for Al Smith and Franklin D Roosevelt, was chairman of the Democratic National Committee and postmaster...

Farnese
Italian family, originating in upper Lazio, who held the duchy of Parma 1545-1731. Among the family's most notable members were Alessandro Farnese (1468-1549), who became Pope Paul III in 1534...

Farnese Palace
Palace in Rome, Italy, on the Piazza Farnese, one of the finest examples of Roman Renaissance architecture. It was begun on the order of Cardinal Aless ...

Farnese, Palazzo
A Roman palace near the Campo dei Fiori. It was commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III) and designed in the Florentine style by the architect Antonio da Sangallo the...

Farnham, Russel
(1784-1832) US fur trader. A member of the Astoria expedition to Oregon (1810-13), he later travelled across Siberia on foot (1814-16). He managed John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company (1817-19) and...

Farnol, John Jeffrey
(1878-1952) English novelist. His successful picaresque romance The Broad Highway 1910 was followed by The Amateur Gentleman 1913, The Chronicles of the Imp 1915, and Our Admirable Betty 1918. Other flamboyant...

Farouk
(1920-1965) King of Egypt. He succeeded the throne on the death of his father Fuad I. His early popularity was later overshadowed by his somewhat unsuccessful private life, and more importantly by the...

Farquhar, George
(c. 1677-1707) Irish dramatist. His most notable plays are The Recruiting Officer (1706) and The Beaux Stratagem (1707). Although typical of the Restoration tradition of comedy of manners, the good-humoured...

Farragut, David Glasgow
(1801-1870) US admiral. During the American Civil War he took New Orleans 1862, after destroying the Confederate fleet, and in 1864 effectively put an end to blockade-running at Mobile, Alabama where he said...

Farrakhan, Louis
(1933) African-American religious and political figure. Leader of the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan preached strict adherence to Muslim values and black separatism. His outspoken views against Jews,...

Farrand, Beatrix
(1872-1959) US landscape architect. She designed the Memorial and Silliman College quadrangles and the Marsh Botanical Garden for Yale University. At Reef Point Gardens in Bar Harbor, Maine, she created a...

Farrell, J(ames) G(ordon)
(1935-1979) English historical novelist. His work includes Troubles (1970), set in Ireland just after World War I, the The Siege of Krishnapur (1973) (Booker Prize), describing the Indian Mutiny, and The...

Farrell, James T(homas)
(1904-1979) US novelist and short-story writer. His naturalistic documentary of the Depression, the Studs Lonigan trilogy (1932-35) comprising Young Lonigan, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, and Judgment...

Farrell, Terry
(1938) English architect and urban designer. He works in a postmodern idiom, largely for corporate clients seeking an alternative to the rigours of modernist or high-tech office blocks. His works in...

Farren, Elizabeth
(c. 1759-1829) English actor. She appeared at the Haymarket and Drury Lane theatres, London, in such roles as Miss Hardcastle in Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer and Lady Teazle in Richard Sheridan's The...

Farrère, Claude
(1876-1957) French writer. He published some 30 novels, often set in exotic locations, including Les Civilisés 1905 (set in Saigon), L'Homme qui assassina 1907 (with Constantinople as a background), La...

Farson, Negley
(1890-1960) US journalist. He reported from Western Europe, the Soviet Union, Egypt, and India for the Chicago Daily News (1924-35), using a vivid, unanalytical style. His book of memoirs...

farthing
Formerly the smallest English coin, a quarter of a penny. It was introduced as a silver coin in Edward I's reign. The copper farthing became widespread in Charles II's reign, succeeded by the bronze...

Fasanella, Ralph
(1914-1997) US painter. Entirely self-taught, his early work mainly depicts simple scenes of city life in a primitivist style. In his later work, such as The Iceman Crucified (1958), he developed a more...

fasces
In ancient Rome, bundles of rods carried in procession by the lictors (minor officials) in front of the chief magistrates, as a symbol of the latter's power over the lives and liberties of the...

Fasching
Period preceding Lent in German-speaking towns, particularly Munich, Cologne, and Vienna, devoted to masquerades, formal balls, and street parades. ...

fascine
Bundle of wood, used to help tanks cross trenches in World War I. The bundle was tightly wrapped on top of the tank and on arrival at a trench too wide to be crossed unaided, the fascine was...

fascism
Political ideology that denies all rights to individuals in their relations with the state; specifically, the totalitarian nationalist movement founded in Italy in 1919 by Mussolini and followed by...

fashion
Style currently in vogue, primarily applied to clothing. Throughout history, in addition to its mainly functional purpose, clothing has been a social status symbol, conveying information about the...

Faslane
Nuclear-submarine (Polaris) base on the River Clyde in Scotland. In the early 1990s there was some internal pressure within the Royal Navy to close it. ...

Fassi, Allal al-
(1910-1974) Moroccan nationalist leader. Arrested in 1937 by the colonial authorities, he was sent into exile in Gabon and his organization, the Parti National (PN), dissolved. Upon his return in 1946, his...

fasti
In ancient Rome, various lists or registers. Originally fasti were calendars that showed the dies fasti (`judicial days`) on which legal and governmental business could be transacted. Later,...

fasting
The practice of voluntarily going without food. It can be undertaken as a religious observance, a sign of mourning, a political protest (hunger strike), or for slimming purposes. Fasting or...

Fastnachtspiel
Carnival play that emerged in the 15th century as Germany's first truly secular form of drama, surviving until the end of the 16th century. It combined popular farce and elements from religious...

fata morgana
Mirage, often seen in the Strait of Messina and traditionally attributed to the sorcery of Morgan le Fay. She was believed to reside in Calabria, a region of southern Italy. ...

Fatah, al-
Palestinian nationalist organization, founded in 1957 to bring about an independent state of Palestine. Also called Tahir al-Hatani al Falastani (Movement for the National Liberation of...

fatalism
The view that the future is fixed, irrespective of our attempts to affect it. Seldom held as a philosophical doctrine, fatalism has been influential...

fate
A principle of what is ordained for human beings, which may also constrain gods in some mythologies. Fate is also described as the `destiny` of individuals or nations. In classical mythology,...

Fateh Singh, Sant
(1911-1972) Sikh religious leader. Born in the Punjab, India, he was a campaigner for Sikh rights and was involved in religious and educational activity in Rajastan, founding many schools and colleges there. In...

Fates
In Greek mythology, three female figures who determined the destiny of human lives; later, the duration of human life. They were envisaged as spinners: Clotho spun the thread of life, Lachesis...

Father Christmas
Popular personification of the spirit of Christmas, derived from the Christian legend of St Nicholas and elements of Scandinavian mythology. He is depicted as a fat, jolly old man with a long white...

Father Divine
US evangelist; see George Baker. ...

Father of the Church
Any of certain teachers and writers of the early Christian church, eminent for their learning and orthodoxy, experience, and sanctity of life. They lived between...

Father's Day
Day set apart in many countries for honouring fathers, observed on the third Sunday in June in the USA, UK, and Canada. The idea for a father's day originated with Sonora Louise Smart Dodd of...

Fathers and Sons
Novel by Ivan Turgenev, published in Russia 1862. Its hero, Bazarov, rejects the traditional values of his landowning family in favour of nihilistic revolutionary ideas, but his love for a...

Fathy, Hassan
(1900-1989) Egyptian architect. In his work at the village of New Gournia in Upper Egypt 1945-48, he demonstrated the value of indigenous building technology and natural materials in solving contemporary...

Fatima
(died 633) Daughter of Muhammad. She married her cousin, Ali, and sayyids and sherifs claim she forms the link in their descent from Muhammad. For Muslims, she is one of the four perfect women. Her mother was...

Fatimid
Dynasty of Muslim Shiite caliphs founded in 909 by Obaidallah, who claimed to be a descendant of Fatima (the prophet Muhammad's daughter) and her husband Ali, in North Africa. In 969 the Fatimids...

fatwa
In Islamic law, an authoritative legal opinion on a point of doctrine. In 1989, a fatwa calling for the death of British novelist Salman Rushdie was made by the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, following...

Fauchet, Claude
(1530-1601) French critic and historian. He was historiographer (`official historian`) of France under Henry IV. He wrote Antiquités gauloises et françaises jusqu'à Clovis (1579-99) and Recueil de...

Faulkner, (Arthur) Brian (Deane)
(1921-1977) Northern Irish Unionist politician and the last prime minister of Northern Ireland 1971-72 before the Stormont parliament was suspended. Elected to t ...

Faulkner, William (Cuthbert)
(1897-1962) US novelist. His works employ difficult narrative styles in their epic mapping of a quasi-imaginary region of the American South. His third novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929), deals with the...

Fauna
Alternative name given to the Roman goddess Bona Dea. ...

faunal dating
In archaeology, an imprecise method of relative dating based on evolutionary changes in particular species of animals so as to form a chronological sequence. ...

Faunus
In Roman mythology, one of the oldest Italian deities; god of fertility and prophecy; protector of agriculturists and shepherds. He was later identified with the Greek Pan and represented with...

Faure, Edgar
(1908-1988) French Radical politician, prime minister 1952 and 1955-56, when he was the first prime minister since 1876 to dissolve the national assembly rather than resign after a no-confidence vote. As...

Faure, François Felix
(1841-1899) French politician. Elected to the National Assembly 1881, he held various ministerial posts from 1883 and became president of the republic in 1895, upon the resignation of Casimir-Perier. The...

Fauset, Jessie R(edmon)
(1882-1961) US writer. As literary editor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's magazine Crisis (1919-26), she was influential in promoting black Francophone and Harlem...

Fausset, Hugh I'anson
(1895-1965) English critic. He published studies of Keats 1922, Tennyson 1923, Donne 1924, Coleridge 1926, Tolstoy 1928, Wordsworth 1933, and Walt Whitman 1942. He also wrote some poetry and edited Minor Poets...

Faust
Play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, completed in two parts in 1808 and 1832. Mephistopheles attempts to win over the soul of the world-weary Faust but ultimately fails after helping Faust in the...

Faust
Legendary magician who sold his soul to the devil. The historical Georg (or Johann) Faust appears to have been a wandering scholar and conjurer in Germany at the start of the 16th century....

Faust, Frederick Shiller
(1892-1944) US writer and poet, one of the earliest mass-market writers, with over 500 novels. The 100 `Max Brand` Westerns, and his prolific detective stories, thrillers, and screenplays, earned him the...

fauvism
Movement in modern French painting characterized by the use of very bold, vivid, pure colours. The name is a reference to the fact that the works seemed crude and untamed to many people at the time....

Favart, Charles Simon
(1710-1792) French playwright and librettist. He made a reputation as a librettist of light operas. He wrote Bastien und Bastienne (Mozart), Cythère assiégée (Gluck), Löttchen am Hofe (J A Hiller), Rosina...

Fawcett, Millicent
(1847-1929) English suffragist and social reformer, younger sister of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. A non-militant, she rejected the violent acts of some of her contemporaries in the suffrage movement. She...

Fawcett, Percy Harrison
(1867-1925) British explorer. After several expeditions to delineate frontiers in South America during the rubber boom, he set off in 1925, with his eldest son John and a friend, into...

Fawkes, Guy
(1570-1606) English conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up King James I and the members of both Houses of Parliament. Fawkes, a Roman Catholic convert, was arrested in the cellar underneath the House of...

Fay, Morgan le
In British legend, the sister of King Arthur; see Morgan le Fay. ...

Fay, William George
(1872-1947) Irish actor born in Dublin. With his brother Frank Fay (1870-1931), he founded the company that in 1904 took up residence in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. He was largely responsible for the subtlety...

Fayolle, Marie Emile
(1852-1928) French general. He replaced General Castelnau as commander of French armies in the Somme 1916. In 1917 he took command of the Army of the Centre, fighting the battles of the Aisne, and became...

FBI
Abbreviation for Federal Bureau of Investigation, agency of the US Department of Justice. ...

FCO
Abbreviation for Foreign and Commonwealth Office. ...

fealty
In feudalism, the loyalty and duties owed by a vassal to a lord. In the 9th century fealty obliged the vassal not to take part in any action that would endanger the lord or his property, but by the...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Reportage novel in 1971 by US journalist Hunter S Thompson, illustrated by British artist Ralph Steadman. Subtitled `A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream`, it is the outrageous...

February Revolution
First of the two political uprisings of the Russian Revolution in 1917 that led to the overthrow of the tsar and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The immediate cause of the revolution was the...

Febvre, Lucien
(1878-1956) French historian who in 1929 founded, with his colleague Marc Bloch, the highly influential journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale. His pupil Fernand Braudel became the leading exponent...

Fechter, Charles Albert
(1824-1879) English or French actor. He made his name as Armand Duval in La Dame aux camélias 1852 by Alexandre Dumas fils in Paris and Berlin, and created a sensation as Hamlet in London in 1861. He was...

Feciales
Alternative form of Fetiales, the ancient Roman college of 20 priests. ...

Federal Art Project
Scheme developed by the US government's Works Project Administration (WPA) to support artists during the Great Depression of the 1930s. More than 4,000 artists were employed and paid a monthly...

Federal Aviation Administration
Agency of the US Department of Transportation that controls air traffic. Its responsibilities include regulating air transportation, aviation safety, requiring airports and airlines to provide...

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Agency of the US Department of Justice that investigates violations of federal law not specifically assigned to other agencies, and is particularly concerned with internal security. The FBI was...

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Former name (1992-2003) of Serbia and Montenegro after the constituent republics of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia declared independence and seceded from Yugoslavia in the...

Federal Theater Project
US arts employment scheme 1935-39 founded as part of Roosevelt's New Deal by the Works Progress Administration; it provided affordable theatre throughout the USA and had long-term influence on...

Federal Writers' Project
US arts project founded 1934 by the Works Progress Administration to encourage and employ writers during the Depression, generate compilations of regional records and folklore, and develop a series...

federalism
System of government in which two or more separate states unite into a federation under a common central government. A federation should be distinguished from a confederation, a looser union of...

Federalist
In US history, one who advocated the ratification of the US Constitution 1787-88 in place of the Articles of Confederation. The Federalists became in effect the ruling political party under the...

Federalist Papers
In US politics, a series of 85 letters published in The Federalist in the newly independent USA in 1788, attempting to define the relation of the states to the nation, and making the case for a...

federation
Political entity made up from a number of smaller units or states where the central government has powers over national issues such as foreign policy...

Federici, Camillo.
(1749-1802) Italian dramatist. Most of his comedies were melodramatic in character. They were published as Opere teatrali 1794-99. ...

Federman, Raymond
(1928) US writer. His playful postmodernist texts draw on his French-Jewish boyhood, his family's death in Auschwitz, and his post-war emigration to the USA. He coined the term `surfiction` to...

Federzoni, Luigi
(1878-1967) Italian Fascist politician. As minister of the interior 1924-26, he subjected the press to stringent controls, but also instructed prefects to curb Fascist violence. Distrusted by Fascist...

Fedin, Konstantin Aleksandrovich
(1892-1977) Russian novelist and literary official. His Cities and Years 1924 revived the traditional realistic novel in postrevolutionary Russia. Later, he embraced socialist realism. Fedin's main...

Fedor II
(1589-1605) Tsar of Russia, the son of Boris Godunov, he succeeded his father in 1605, but was soon deposed in favour of the usurper `the false Dmitri` and murdered. ...

Fedor III
(1661-1682) The last Tsar of Muscovy, he succeeded his father in 1676. His attempts at modernizing the government included abolishing the appointment of high officials according to their birth. ...

Fedorov, Ivan Fedorovich
(died 1583) Russian printer. In 1563, he printed the first book in Moscow. He fled from Russia to Lithuania and Poland where he continued his work. ...

Feiffer, Jules
(1929) US cartoonist, playwright, and scriptwriter. His satirical cartoons in the Village Voice featured neurotic New Yorkers negotiating contemporary social issues. He became a regular contributor to The...

Feininger, Lyonel Charles Adrian
(1871-1956) US abstract artist, an early cubist. He worked at the Bauhaus school of design and architecture in Germany 1919-33, and later helped to found the Bauhaus in Chicago. Inspired by cubism and der...

Feinstein, Elaine
(1930) English poet, novelist, and translator. Her verse, first published in In a Green Eye (1966), has an international flavour as well as reflecting a wide variety of forms. Her Selected Poems was...

Feinstein, Moshe
(1895-1986) Russian-born US rabbi. Dean of Mesifta Tifereth Jerusalem in New York (1938-86), it became a leading yeshiva under his guidance. He was president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the USA and...

Feith, Rhijnvis
(1753-1824) Dutch author. Influenced by Goethe, Friedrich Klopstock, and Christoph Wieland, he wrote sentimental, morbid novels as well as tragedies, didactic poems, and lyrics. His best novels, Julia 1783 and...