The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 297

MAHMUD II., Sultan of Turkey; crushed a rebellion on his accession by putting his brother to death, on whose behalf the janissaries had risen, as they afterwards did to their annihilation at his hands by wholesale ma.s.sacre; by the victory of Navarino in 1827 he lost his hold of Greece, which declared its independence, and was near losing his suzerainty in Egypt when he died; his reign was an eventful one (1785-1839).

MAHOMET. See MOHAMMED.

MAHON, LORD, EARL STANHOPE, statesman and historian; wrote "History of the War of the Succession in Spain," "History of the Reign of Queen Anne," and "History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles" (1805-1875).

MAHONY, FRANCIS, an Irish priest, born in Cork, who took to journalism, and is known by his _nom de plume_ of Father Prout; contributed to _Fraser's Magazine_, and was foreign correspondent to the _Daily News_ and the _Globe_; was famous for his elegant translations (1804-1866).

MAHOUN, a contemptuous name for Mahomet, transferred in Scotland to the devil, who was called Old Mahoun.

MAHRATTAS, a warlike Hindu race in Central India, occupying a territory watered by the Nerbudda, G.o.davari, and Kistna, who at one time kept up a struggle for the supremacy of India with the British, but were finally subdued in 1843.

MA, ANGELO, cardinal, distinguished scholar and editor; became librarian of the Vatican; was distinguished for deciphering PALIMPSESTS (q. v.), and thus disclosing lost cla.s.sical works or fragments of them; he edited a number of unedited MSS. which he found in the Vatican, and in particular the Vatican codex of the Bible (1782-1854).

MAIA, the daughter of Atlas, the eldest of the seven PLEIADES (q. v.), and the mother by Zeus of Hermes or Mercury.

MAID MARIAN, a man dressed as a woman who grimaced and performed antics in the morris dances.

MAID OF NORWAY, daughter of Eric II., king of Norway, and through her mother heiress to the Scottish crown; died on her pa.s.sage to Scotland in 1240.

MAID OF ORLEANS, Joan of Arc, so called from her defence of Orleans against the English. See JOAN.

MAIDEN, THE, a sort of guillotine that appears to have been in use in Scotland during the 15th and 16th centuries, of which there is one in the Antiquarian Museum, Edinburgh.

MAIDMENT, JAMES, antiquary and collector, born in London; pa.s.sed through Edinburgh University to the Scotch bar, and was chief authority on genealogical cases; his hobby was the collection of literary rarities, and he published editions of ancient literary remains; he died at Edinburgh (1794-1879).

MAIDSTONE (32), county town of Kent, on the Medway, 30 m. SE. of London; has several fine old churches and historical buildings, a grammar school and a school of art and music, numerous paper-mills, and breweries, and does a large trade in hops; Woollett the engraver and Hazlitt the essayist were born here.

MAIMON, SOLOMON, philosopher, born, of Jewish parents, in a village of Minsk; came to Berlin, where he studied, lived an eccentric, vagabond life, dependent mostly on his friends; made the acquaintance of Kant and Goethe, and attempted and published an eclectic system of philosophy in 1790, being Kant's system supplemented from Spinoza, Leibnitz, and Locke, and even Hume; his last patron was Count Kalkreuth, at whose house in Siegersdorf he died (1754-1800).

MAIMONIDES, MOSES, a Jewish rabbi, born at Cordova, whom the Jews regarded as their Plato, and called the "Lamp of Israel" and the "Eagle of the doctors"; was a man of immense learning, and was physician to the Sultan of Egypt; in his relation to the Jews he ranks next to Moses, and taught them to interpret their religion in the light of reason; he wrote a "Commentary on the Mishna and the Second Law," but his chief work is the "Moreh Nebochim," or "Guide to the Perplexed" (1135-1204).

MAINE (662), the most north-easterly State in the American Union, lies between Quebec and New Hampshire on the W. and New Brunswick and the Atlantic on the E., and is a little larger than Ireland, a picturesque State with high mountains in the W., Katahdin (5000 ft), many large lakes like Moosehead, numerous rivers, and a much indented rocky coast; the climate is severe but healthy, the soil only in some places fertile, the rainfall is abundant; dense forests cover the north; hay, potatoes, apples, and sweet corn are chief crops; cotton, woollen, leather manufactures, lumber working, and fruit canning are princ.i.p.al industries; the fisheries are valuable; timber, building stone, cattle, wool, and in winter ice are exported; early Dutch, English, and French settlements were unsuccessful till 1630; from 1651 Maine was part of Ma.s.sachusetts, till made a separate State in 1820; the population is English-Puritan and French-Canadian in origin; education is advancing; the State's Liquor Law of 1851 was among the first of the kind: the capital is Augusta (11); Portland (36) is the largest city and chief seaport; Lewiston (22) has cotton manufactures.

MAINE, SIR HENRY, English jurist, legal member of the Council in India, and professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford; wrote on "Ancient Law,"

and important works on ancient inst.i.tutions generally; regarded the social system as a development of the patriarchal system (1822-1888).

MAINTENANCE, CAP OF, an ermine-lined, crimson velvet cap, the wearing of which was a distinction granted first to dukes but subsequently to various other families.

MAINTENON, FRANcOISE D'AUBIGNe, MARQUISE DE, born in the prison of Niort, where her father was incarcerated as a Protestant; though well inoculated with Protestant principles she turned a Catholic, married the poet Scarron in 1652, became a widow in 1660; was entrusted with the education of the children of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan; supplanted the latter in the king's affections, and was secretly married to him in 1684; she exercised a great influence over him, not always for good, and on his death in 1715 retired into the Convent of St. Cyr, which she had herself founded for young ladies of n.o.ble birth but in humble circ.u.mstances (1635-1719).

MAINZ or MAYENCE (72), in Hesse-Darmstadt, on the Rhine, opposite the mouth of the Main, is an important German fortress and one of the oldest cities in Germany; it has a magnificent cathedral, restored in 1878, and is a stronghold of Catholicism; a large transit trade is done, and the making of furniture, leather goods, and machinery are important industries; Gutenberg was a native.

MAISTRE, COUNT, JOSEPH DE, a keen and extreme Ultramontanist, born at Chambery, of a n.o.ble French family; accompanied the king of Sardinia in his retreat while the French occupied Savoy in 1792; was amba.s.sador at St. Petersburg from 1803 to 1817, when he was recalled to the home government at Turin; wrote numerous works, the chief "Du Pape" and "Soirees de St. Petersbourg" (1753-1821).

MAITLAND, WILLIAM, Scottish politician and reformer, the Secretary Lethington of Queen Mary's reign; played a prominent part in the various movements of his time, but gained the confidence of no party; he adhered to the party of Moray as against the extreme measures of Knox, and proved a highly astute amba.s.sador at the English Court; he connived at Rizzio's murder, but regained Mary's favour, and when she fled to England he, though joining with the new government, acted in her interest and formed a party to restore her to power; he and Kirkcaldy of Grange were forced to surrender, however, at Edinburgh in 1573, and Maitland afterwards died in Leith prison (1525-1573).

MAJOLICA, a kind of enamelled pottery imported into Italy from Majorca, known also as faience from its manufacture at Faenza, and applied also to vessels made of coloured clay in imitation.

MAJORCA (234), the largest of the Balearic Isles, is 130 m. NE. of Cape San Antonio, in Spain; mountains in the N. rise to 5000 ft., their slopes covered with olives, oranges, and vines; the plains are extremely fertile, and the climate mild and equable; manufactures of cotton, silk, and shoes are the industries; the capital, PALMA (61), is on the S.

coast, at the head of a large bay of the same name.

MAJUSCULE, a capital letter found in old Latin MSS. in and before the 6th century.

MAKRIZI, TAKI-ED-DIN AHMED EL-, greatest Arabic historian of Egypt, born at Cairo; studied philosophy and theology, and in 1385 won the green turban; occupied several political and ecclesiastical offices; went to Damascus in 1408, but returning to Cairo devoted himself to history, and published among other works an important "History of Egypt and Cairo"

(1364-1442).

MALABAR (2,653), a district in the W. of Madras, sloping from the Ghats down to the Indian Ocean, very rainy, covered with vast forests of teak; produces rice, coffee, and pepper.

MALACCA is a name given to the whole Malay Peninsula, that remarkable tongue of land 44 to 210 m. wide, stretching 800 m. SE. from Burma between the Strait of Malacca and the Gulf of Siam; mountain ranges 7000 ft. high from the backbone; along the coast are deep mangrove swamps; the plains between yield rice, sugar-cane, cotton, and tobacco; there are forests of teak, camphor, ebony, and sandal-wood, and the richest tin mines in the world; the climate is unhealthy; the northern portion is Siamese, the southern const.i.tutes the British Straits Settlements, of which one, on the W. coast, is specifically called MALACCA (92); it exports tin and tapioca; the capital, MALACCA (20), 120 m. NW. of Singapore, was the scene of Francis Xavier's labours.

MALACHI, a prophetic book of the Old Testament, the author of which is otherwise unknown, as the name, which means the "Messenger of Jehovah," occurs nowhere else in the Bible, and it is a question whether the name is that of a person or a mere appellative; the prophecy it contains appears to have been uttered 420 B.C., and refers to abuses which came to a head between the first and second visits of Nehemiah to Jerusalem; it lacks the old prophetic fire, and gives the impression that the prophetic office is ended.

MALACHY, ST., archbishop of Armagh in the 12th century; was a friend of St. Bernard's, who wrote his Life and in whose arms he died at Clairvaux; was renowned for his sanct.i.ty as well as learning; a book of prophecies ascribed to him bearing on the Roman pontiffs is a forgery.

MALADETTA, MOUNT (i. e. the accursed), the name of the highest summit of the Pyrenees, 11,168 ft. high, in NE. of Zaragoza.

MALAGA (132), Spanish seaport, 65 m. NE. of Gibraltar, an ancient Phoenician town, is now an important but declining centre of commerce; it exports olive-oil, wine, raisins, lead, &c., and manufactures cotton, linen, machinery, fine-art pottery, &c.; its magnificent climate makes it an excellent health resort.