(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
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  • Amichai, Yehuda (Israeli author)
    Israeli writer who is best known for his poetry....
  • Amici, Dominic Felix (American actor)
    (DOMINIC FELIX AMICI), U.S. actor (b. May 31, 1908, Kenosha, Wis.--d. Dec. 6, 1993, Scottsdale, Ariz.), was a versatile performer who was at home on radio, on television, and in films but was best remembered for two standout motion-picture roles; his performance in the title role in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939) was so riveting that Ameche became a byword for telephone, and his ...
  • Amici, Giovanni Battista (Italian astronomer)
    astronomer and optician who made important improvements in the mirrors of reflecting telescopes and also developed prisms for use in refracting spectroscopes (instruments used to separate light into its spectral components)....
  • Amicia of Leicester (English aristocrat)
    ...name from Amaury, or Amalric (d. c. 1053), the builder of the castle there, whose father had been invested with the lordship by Hugh Capet. Amaury’s grandson Simon (d. 1181 or later) married Amicia, ultimately the heiress of the English earldom of Leicester, and it was through their son, the crusader Simon de Montfort (q.v.), that the family first attained real prominence. ...
  • Amicis, Edmondo De (Italian author)
    novelist, short-story writer, poet, and author of popular travel books and children’s stories....
  • Amicizia, L’  (work by Tomizza)
    ...(La suora giovane [1959; The Novice] and Il fratello italiano [1980; “The Italian Brother”]). Fulvio Tomizza also tackled this theme in L’amicizia (1980; “The Friendship”)....
  • amictic egg (biology)
    ...and streams exhibit a peculiar reproductive behaviour that is well adapted to their transient environment: they produce different kinds of eggs at different times of the year. One egg type, called amictic, is produced in the early spring. These eggs apparently cannot be fertilized, and the embryo develops without fertilization (parthenogenesis); the result is females with a life-span no longer....
  • amicus curiae (law)
    (Latin: “friend of the court”), one who assists the court by furnishing information or advice regarding questions of law or fact. He is not a party to a lawsuit and thus differs from an intervenor, who has a direct interest in the outcome of the lawsuit and is therefore permitted to participate as a party to the suit....
  • ʿamida (Jewish prayer)
    in Judaism, the main section of morning, afternoon, and evening prayers, recited while standing up. On weekdays the amidah consists of 19 benedictions. These include 3 paragraphs of praise, 13 of petition, and another 3 of thanksgiving. Some call this section of the daily prayer by the ancient name, shemone ʿesre (Hebrew: “eighteen”), although the 19th benediction was a...
  • “Amida” (sculpture by Jōchō)
    ...He was also instrumental in improving the social position of Buddhist sculptors by organizing a guild, which came to be called “Bussho,” or the Buddhist sculpture studio. The Amida (Amitabha) of the Hōō-dō (Phoenix Hall), of the Byōdō Temple at Uji, near Kyōto, is his only extant work. Carved in 1053, it embodies tranquillity and gracefuln...
  • Amida (Turkey)
    city, southeastern Turkey, on the right bank of the Tigris River. The name means “district (diyar) of the Bakr people.” Amida, an ancient town predating Roman colonization in the 3rd century ad, was enlarged and strengthened under the Roman emperor Constantius II, who also erected new walls around the city (349). After a long siege, it fell to ...
  • Amida (Buddhism)
    in Buddhism, the great saviour deity worshiped principally by members of the Pure Land sect in Japan. As related in the Sukhāvatī-vyūha-sūtra (the fundamental scripture of the Pure Land sects), many ages ago a monk named Dharmākara made a number of vows, the 18th of which promised that, on his attaining buddhahood, all who believed in hi...
  • “Amida Nyorai” (sculpture by Jōchō)
    ...He was also instrumental in improving the social position of Buddhist sculptors by organizing a guild, which came to be called “Bussho,” or the Buddhist sculpture studio. The Amida (Amitabha) of the Hōō-dō (Phoenix Hall), of the Byōdō Temple at Uji, near Kyōto, is his only extant work. Carved in 1053, it embodies tranquillity and gracefuln...
  • Amida Triad (Japanese art)
    ...are found in the kondō at Hōryū Temple. Many of these wall paintings were irreparably damaged by fire in 1949, but photos and reproductions remain. One fresco depicting an Amida (Amitābha) Triad shows graceful figures rendered with comparative naturalism and defined with consistent, unmodulated brush lines known as “wire lines”......
  • amidah (Jewish prayer)
    in Judaism, the main section of morning, afternoon, and evening prayers, recited while standing up. On weekdays the amidah consists of 19 benedictions. These include 3 paragraphs of praise, 13 of petition, and another 3 of thanksgiving. Some call this section of the daily prayer by the ancient name, shemone ʿesre (Hebrew: “eighteen”), although the 19th benediction was a...
  • amide (chemical compound)
    any member of either of two classes of nitrogen-containing compounds related to ammonia and amines. The covalent amides are neutral or very weakly acidic substances formed by replacement of the hydroxyl group (OH) of an acid by an amino group (NR2, in which R may represent a hydrogen atom or an organic combining group such as methyl, CH3). The carboxamides...
  • Amidei, Saint Bartholomew (Italian friar)
    saints Bonfilius, Alexis Falconieri, John Bonagiunta, Benedict dell’Antella, Bartholomew Amidei, Gerard Sostegni, and Ricoverus Uguccione, who founded the Ordo Fratrum Servorum Sanctae Mariae (“Order of Friar Servants of St. Mary”). Popularly called Servites, the order is a Roman Catholic congregation of mendicant friars dedicated to apostolic work....
  • Amidism (Buddhist sect)
    sect of Mahāyāna Buddhism centring on worship of Amida (in Japanese; Sanskrit Amitābha; Chinese O-mi-t’o-fo), Buddha (Buddha of Infinite Light), whose merits can be transferred to a believer. Amidism holds that the faithful—by believing in Amida, hearing or saying his name, or desiring to share in his Western Paradise—can be reborn in the Pure Land (se...
  • amidot (Jewish prayer)
    in Judaism, the main section of morning, afternoon, and evening prayers, recited while standing up. On weekdays the amidah consists of 19 benedictions. These include 3 paragraphs of praise, 13 of petition, and another 3 of thanksgiving. Some call this section of the daily prayer by the ancient name, shemone ʿesre (Hebrew: “eighteen”), although the 19th benediction was a...
  • amidoth (Jewish prayer)
    in Judaism, the main section of morning, afternoon, and evening prayers, recited while standing up. On weekdays the amidah consists of 19 benedictions. These include 3 paragraphs of praise, 13 of petition, and another 3 of thanksgiving. Some call this section of the daily prayer by the ancient name, shemone ʿesre (Hebrew: “eighteen”), although the 19th benediction was a...
  • Amiel, Henri Frédéric (Swiss writer)
    Swiss writer known for his Journal intime, a masterpiece of self-analysis. Despite apparent success (as professor of aesthetics, then of philosophy, at Geneva), he felt himself a failure. Driven in on himself, he lived in his Journal, kept from 1847 until his death and first published in part as Fragments d’un journal intime (1883–84; later enlarged editions; def...
  • Amiens (France)
    city, capital of Somme département, Picardie région, principal city and ancient capital of Picardy, northern France, in the Somme River valley, north of Paris. Famed since the European Middle Ages are its textile industry and its great Gothic Cathedral of Notre-Dame, one of the finest in France. Known as Samarobriva in pre-Roman tim...
  • Amiens, Battle of (World War I [1918])
    ...halting only when it reached the desolation of the old battlefields of 1916. Several German divisions simply collapsed in the face of the offensive, their troops either fleeing or surrendering. The Battle of Amiens was thus a striking material and moral success for the Allies. Ludendorff put it differently: “August 8 was the black day of the German Army in the history of the war . . . It...
  • Amiens Cathedral (cathedral, Amiens, France)
    Gothic cathedral located in the historic city of Amiens, France, in the Somme River valley north of Paris. It is the largest of the three great Gothic cathedrals built in France during the 13th century, and it remains the largest in France. It has an exterior length of 476 feet (145 me...
  • Amiens, Mise of (French history)
    ...Simon de Montfort, by now the undisputed leader of the opposition, raised rebellion, but an agreement was reached to submit the dispute to the arbitration of Louis IX of France. The verdict of the Mise of Amiens in 1264, however, was so favourable to Henry III that Simon de Montfort could not accept it....
  • Amiens, Treaty of (France [1279])
    Questions over spheres of administrative rights in Aquitaine had been creating tensions for many years. By the Treaty of Amiens (1279) the Agenais, whose status had been left in doubt when Alphonse of Poitiers died, passed to Edward I of England, who also had unsettled claims in Quercy. Serious conflict was precipitated in 1293, when clashes between French and English seamen caused Philip the......
  • Amiens, Treaty of (France [1802])
    (March 27, 1802), an agreement signed at Amiens, Fr., by Britain, France, Spain, and the Batavian Republic (the Netherlands), achieving a peace in Europe for 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars. It ignored some questions that divided Britain and France, such as the fate of the Belgian provinces, ...
  • Amies, Sir Hardy (British couturier)
    British couturier (b. July 17, 1909, London, Eng.—d. March 5, 2003, Langford, Oxfordshire, Eng.), dressed Queen Elizabeth II of England for half a century and was credited with having been a major influence on the menswear fashion revolution of the 1960s. Though his background was in business, he was hired by the design house Lachasse, known for its tailoring, in 1934, and by 1939 he was de...
  • Amiiformes (fish order)
    The division Holosteans includes the orders Semionotiformes, Pycnodontiformes, Amiiformes, and perhaps Pachycormiformes. In these orders the preoperculum (an L-shaped bone anterior to the operculum, or gill cover) is tied to the palatal elements and provides part of the originating area for the adductor mandibulae muscle....
  • Amik (region, Turkey)
    plain of southern Turkey, bordering Syria. Framed by mountains, the plain is about 190 square miles (500 square km) in area and forms a triangle between the cities of Antioch (southwest), Reyhanlı (southeast), and Kırıkhan (north). In the centre of the plain is Lake Amik (Lake Antioch), which was drained after the mid-20th century. The region’s agriculture is based on i...
  • amikacin (drug)
    ...drugs, especially when begun before the disease has spread, has reduced mortality from nocardiosis greatly. If the organism has reached the brain, however, the outlook is still very poor. Amikacin is another drug that is used with patients who do not respond to sulfa drugs....
  • ʿamil (Egyptian official)
    ...early date the administration of Egypt had been divided between the amīr (military governor), appointed by the caliph, and the ʿāmil (fiscal officer), who was sometimes appointed by the caliph, sometimes by the governor. When Aḥmad entered Egypt in 868 he found the office of......
  • Amiles (French legendary figures)
    chief characters in an Old French metrical romance, based on an older and widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its simplest form the story tells of the knights Amis and Amiles and of their lifelong devotion to one another....
  • ʿĀmilī, Bahāʾ ad-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al- (Iranian scholar)
    theologian, mathematician, jurist, and astronomer who was a major figure in the cultural revival of Ṣafavid Iran....
  • Amīn, al- (ʿAbbāsid caliph)
    sixth caliph of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty....
  • Amin Dada Oumee, Idi (president of Uganda)
    military officer and president (1971–79) of Uganda whose regime was noted for its brutality....
  • Amin, Hafizullah (president of Afghanistan)
    leftist politician who briefly served as the president of Afghanistan in 1979....
  • Amin, Idi (president of Uganda)
    military officer and president (1971–79) of Uganda whose regime was noted for its brutality....
  • Amīn Khān, Muḥammad (Mughal minister)
    ...of the relationship between the emperor and the nobility had almost completely changed. Individual interests of the nobles had come to guide the course of politics and state activities. In 1720 Muḥammad Amīn Khan replaced Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh Khan as vizier; after Amīn Khan’s death (January 1720), the office was occupied by the Niẓām al-Mulk ...
  • Amin, Mohamed (Kenyan photographer)
    Kenyan news photographer and cameraman whose television reports of the 1984 famine in Ethiopia attracted worldwide attention and prompted a massive outpouring of relief, including the Live Aid concert; his more than 30-year career was ended by the crash of a hijacked Ethiopian airliner off the Comoros (b. Aug. 29, 1943--d. Nov. 23, 1996)....
  • Amīn, Muḥammad al- (ʿAbbāsid caliph)
    sixth caliph of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty....
  • Amin, Mustafa (Egyptian journalist)
    outspoken Egyptian journalist and publisher who was sentenced to life imprisonment under Pres. Gamal Abdel Nasser as an American spy in 1965, allegedly because he promoted Western-style democracy and closer ties to the U.S.; he was released by Pres. Anwar as-Sadat in 1974 (b. Feb. 21, 1914--d. April 13, 1997)....
  • Āminah (mother of Muhammad)
    Soon after this momentous event in the history of Arabia, Muhammad was born in Mecca. His father, ʿAbd Allāh, and his mother, Āminah, belonged to the family of the Banū Hāshim, a branch of the powerful Quraysh, the ruling tribe of Mecca, that also guarded its most sacred shrine, the Kaʿbah. Because ʿAbd Allāh died before Muhammad’s bir...
  • Amīndīvi Islands (islands, India)
    The Amīndīvis are the northernmost islands of the group and Minicoy Island the southernmost. All but one of the inhabited islands are coral atolls. The higher eastern sides of the islands are the most ideally suited for human habitation, while the low-lying lagoons on the western sides protect the inhabitants from the southwest monsoon. The islands are small, none exceeding one mile....
  • amine (chemical compound)
    any member of a family of nitrogen-containing organic compounds that is derived, either in principle or in practice, from ammonia (NH3)....
  • amino acid (chemical compound)
    any of a group of organic molecules that consist of a basic amino group (−NH2), an acidic carboxyl group (−COOH), and an organic R group (or side chain) that is unique to each amino acid. The term amino acid is short for “αあるふぁ-amino [alpha-amino] carboxylic acid.” Each molecule contains a central carbon (C) atom, termed th...
  • amino group (chemistry)
    Hemoglobin acts in another way to facilitate the transport of carbon dioxide. Amino groups of the hemoglobin molecule react reversibly with carbon dioxide in solution to yield carbamates. A few amino sites on hemoglobin are oxylabile, that is, their ability to bind carbon dioxide depends on the state of oxygenation of the hemoglobin molecule. The change in molecular configuration of hemoglobin......
  • Amino, Leo (sculptor)
    ...David Smith’s “Hudson River Landscape” (1951), Theodore J. Roszak’s “Recollections of the Southwest” (1948), Louise Bourgeois’s “Night Garden” (1953), and Leo Amino’s “Jungle” (1950) are later examples....
  • amino sugar (chemistry)
    ...include sorbitol (glucitol) from glucose and mannitol from mannose; both are used as sweetening agents. Glycosides derived from monosaccharides are widespread in nature, especially in plants. Amino sugars (i.e., sugars in which one or two hydroxyl groups are replaced with an amino group, −NH2) occur as components of glycolipids and in the chitin of......
  • aminoacyl tRNA (chemical compound)
    ...The aminoacyl–AMP, which remains bound to the enzyme, is transferred to a specific molecule of tRNA in a reaction catalyzed by the same enzyme. AMP is released, and the other product is called aminoacyl–tRNA [88b]. In E. coli the amino acid that begins the assembly of the protein is always formylmethionine (f-Met). There is no evidence that f-Met is involved in protein......
  • aminoacyl-acceptor site (biochemistry)
    ...base triplets in mRNA; the base triplets in mRNA specify the amino acids to be added to the protein chain. During or shortly after the pairing occurs the aminoacyl–tRNA moves from the aminoacyl-acceptor (A) site on the ribosome to another site, called a peptidyl-donor (P) site....
  • aminoacyl-AMP complex (biochemistry)
    ...is activated and transferred to a specific transfer RNA (tRNA). The activation step, catalyzed by an aminoacyl–tRNA synthetase specific for a particular amino acid, effects the formation of an aminoacyl–AMP complex [88a] in a manner somewhat analogous to reaction [77]; ATP is required, and inorganic pyrophosphate is a product. The aminoacyl–AMP, which remains bound to the.....
  • aminoacyl-transfer RNA (chemical compound)
    ...The aminoacyl–AMP, which remains bound to the enzyme, is transferred to a specific molecule of tRNA in a reaction catalyzed by the same enzyme. AMP is released, and the other product is called aminoacyl–tRNA [88b]. In E. coli the amino acid that begins the assembly of the protein is always formylmethionine (f-Met). There is no evidence that f-Met is involved in protein......
  • aminobenzoic acid (chemical compound)
    a vitamin-like substance and a growth factor required by several types of microorganisms. In bacteria, PABA is used in the synthesis of the vitamin folic acid. The drug sulfanilamide is effective in treating some bacterial diseases because it prevents the bacterial utilization of PABA in the synthesis of folic acid....
  • aminoglycoside (drug)
    The aminoglycosides (streptomycin, neomycin, paromomycin, amikacin, and tobramycin) all inhibit protein synthesis. The aminoglycosides are poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, so, with some exceptions, they are given parenterally. Neomycin is very toxic to kidney cells and is no longer used parenterally. It is only used topically. Streptomycin was the first of the aminoglycosides to......
  • aminohippuric acid (chemical compound)
    The concept of clearance is also useful in the measurement of renal blood flow. Para-aminohippuric acid (PAH), when introduced into the bloodstream and kept at relatively low plasma concentrations, is rapidly excreted into the urine by both glomerular filtration and tubular secretion. Sampling of blood from the renal vein reveals that 90 percent of PAH is removed by a single circulation of......
  • aminosalicylic acid (chemical compound)
    ...suffers, however, from the great disadvantage that the tubercle bacillus tends to become resistant to it. Fortunately, other drugs became available to supplement it, the two most important being para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS) and isoniazid. With a combination of two or more of these preparations, the outlook in tuberculosis improved immeasurably. The disease was not conquered, but it was......
  • aminotransferase (enzyme)
    any of a group of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of the amino group (−NH2) of an amino acid to a carbonyl compound, commonly an a-keto acid (an acid with the general formula RCOCOOH). The liver, for example, contains specific transaminases for the transfer of an amino group from glutamic acid to a-keto acids that correspond to most of the other amino acids. Othe...
  • Aminta (work by Tasso)
    ...pastoral tragicomedy, set in Arcadia, was published in 1590 and first performed at the carnival at Crema in 1595. Although it lacked the lyrical simplicity of Tasso’s earlier work in this genre, Aminta (1573), it had a more immediate success, becoming one of the most famous and most widely translated and imitated works of the age. For nearly two centuries Il pastor fido was...
  • “Aminta, L’ ” (work by Tasso)
    ...pastoral tragicomedy, set in Arcadia, was published in 1590 and first performed at the carnival at Crema in 1595. Although it lacked the lyrical simplicity of Tasso’s earlier work in this genre, Aminta (1573), it had a more immediate success, becoming one of the most famous and most widely translated and imitated works of the age. For nearly two centuries Il pastor fido was...
  • Amiot, Jean-Joseph-Marie (Jesuit missionary)
    Jesuit missionary whose writings made accessible to Europeans the thought and life of East Asia....
  • amīr (Islamic title)
    (“commander,” or “prince”), in the Muslim Middle East, a military commander, governor of a province, or a high military official. Under the Umayyads, the emir exercised administrative and financial powers, somewhat diminished under the ʿAbbāsids, who introduced a separate financial officer. Sometimes, as in the cases of the Aghlabids and Ṭāh...
  • ʿĀmir, ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm (Egyptian military official and vice president)
    military official who helped establish Egypt as a republic in 1952 and, as leader of the army, was one of the most powerful figures in Egypt until his death. As army chief of staff he led Egyptian forces to defeat in the Six-Day War of June 1967....
  • amīr al-baḥr (Islamic title)
    The title of admiral has an ancient lineage. It apparently originated before the 12th century with Muslim Arabs, who combined emir, or amīr (“commander”), the article al, and baḥr (“sea”) to make ......
  • amīr al-muʾminīn (Islamic title)
    ...all of Muḥammad’s duties except the prophetic: as imams, they led the congregation in prayer at the mosque; as khaṭībs, they delivered the Friday sermons; and as umarāʾ al-muʾminīn (“commanders of the faithful”), they commanded the army....
  • amīr al-umarāʾ (Islamic title)
    ...and al-Mustakfī of the 940s were at the mercy of the Turkish slaves in their palace guard. The generals of the guard competed with each other for the office of amīr al-umarāʾ (commander in chief), who virtually ruled Iraq on behalf of the caliphs. When Aḥmad gained Khūzestān, he was close to the scene of......
  • Amir Ali, Sayyid (Indian political leader)
    jurist, writer, and Muslim leader who favoured British rule in India rather than possible Hindu domination of an independent India....
  • Amīr Barīd (Bidār ruler)
    ...these states. Although a Bahmanī sultan still remained as a puppet ruler until at least 1538, effective control of the Bidar government passed into the hands of Qasīm Barīd’s son Amīr Barīd upon his father’s death in 1505, thus establishing what proved to be a dynastic claim for the Barīd Shāhī dynasty of Bidar....
  • Amīr Khosrow (Indian poet)
    poet and historian, considered one of India’s greatest Persian-language poets....
  • Amīr Lakes (lake system, Afghanistan)
    ...and the saline Lake Īstādeh-ye Moqor, situated 60 miles (100 km) south of Ghaznī in the southeast. There are five small lakes in the Bābā Mountains known as the Amīr lakes; they are noted for their unusual shades of colour, from milky white to dark green, a condition caused by the underlying bedrock....
  • ʿĀmirah, al- (archaeological site, Egypt)
    Egyptian Predynastic cultural phase, centred in Upper Egypt, its type-site being Al-ʿĀmirah near modern Abydos. Numerous sites, dating to about 3600 bce, have been excavated and reveal an agricultural way of life similar to that of the preceding Badarian culture but with advanced skills and techniques. Pottery characteristic of this period includes black-topped red ware...
  • Amiran-Darejaniani (Georgian literature)
    ...courtly romance Vepkhvistqaosani (c. 1220; The Knight in the Panther’s Skin). It was preceded and perhaps influenced by Amiran-Darejaniani (probably c. 1050; Eng. trans. Amiran-Darejaniani), a wild prose tale of battling knights, attributed by Rustaveli to Mose Khoneli, who is otherwise......
  • Amirante Isles (islands, Seychelles)
    group of coral islands in the western Indian Ocean, lying about 200 miles (320 km) southwest of the Seychelles group and forming, with the Seychelles and other islands, the Republic of Seychelles. The Amirante Isles were known to Persian Gulf traders centuries ago and were sighted by the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama on his second voyage to India, in 1502, but they are sti...
  • ʿĀmirids (Islamic dynasty)
    Manṣūr died on the way back from a campaign against Castile, the 50th of his expeditions, and was succeeded by his son; but his family, known as the ʿĀmirids, retained power for only a few more years....
  • ʿĀmiriyyah, Al- (district, Egypt)
    industrial district of Al-Iskandariyyah (Alexandria) muḥāfaẓah (governorate), northern Egypt. The centre of the 913-square-mile (2,365-square-km) district, which adjoins Lake Maryūṭ (Mareotis) on the southwest, is Al-ʿĀmiriyyah town. This town was originally a small gypsum-mining centre on the desert roads leading south to ...
  • ʿĀmiriyyah, Al- (Egypt)
    ...(governorate), northern Egypt. The centre of the 913-square-mile (2,365-square-km) district, which adjoins Lake Maryūṭ (Mareotis) on the southwest, is Al-ʿĀmiriyyah town. This town was originally a small gypsum-mining centre on the desert roads leading south to Cairo and west along the coast to Marsā Maṭrūḥ.......
  • Amis (French legendary figures)
    chief characters in an Old French metrical romance, based on an older and widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its simplest form the story tells of the knights Amis and Amiles and of their lifelong devotion to one another....
  • Amis and Amiles (French legendary figures)
    chief characters in an Old French metrical romance, based on an older and widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its simplest form the story tells of the knights Amis and Amiles and of their lifelong devotion to one another....
  • Amis de la Constitution, Société des (French political history)
    the most famous political group of the French Revolution, which became identified with extreme egalitarianism and violence and which led the Revolutionary government from mid-1793 to mid-1794....
  • Amis des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen, Société des (French political history)
    one of the popular clubs of the French Revolution, founded in 1790 to prevent the abuse of power and “infractions of the rights of man.” The club’s popular name was derived from its original meeting place in Paris, the nationalized monastery of the Cordeliers (Franciscans). It became a political force under the leadership of such men as Jean-Paul Marat and G...
  • Amis du Manifest et de la Liberté (Algerian organization)
    ...to the French on June 26. On its rejection by the French governor general, Ferhat Abbas and an Algerian working-class leader, Messali Hadj, formed the Amis du Manifeste et de la Liberté (AML; Friends of the Manifesto and Liberty), which envisioned an Algerian autonomous republic federated to a renewed, anti-colonial France. After the suppression of the AML and a year’s imprisonmen...
  • Amis language
    ...that is theoretically equivalent to the entire Malayo-Polynesian branch of some 1,180 member languages. Among the best-described Formosan languages are Atayal (spoken in the northern mountains), Amis (spoken along the narrow east coast), and Paiwan (spoken near the southern tip of the island); only superficial descriptions are available for most of the other Formosan languages....
  • Amis, Martin (British author)
    English satirist known for his virtuoso storytelling technique and his dark views of contemporary English society....
  • Amis, Sir Kingsley (British author)
    novelist, poet, critic, and teacher who created in his first novel, Lucky Jim, a comic figure that became a household word in Great Britain in the 1950s....
  • Amish (North American religious group)
    member of a Christian group in North America, primarily the Old Order Amish Mennonite Church. The church originated in the late 17th century among followers of Jakob Ammann....
  • Amish Mennonite (North American religious group)
    member of a Christian group in North America, primarily the Old Order Amish Mennonite Church. The church originated in the late 17th century among followers of Jakob Ammann....
  • Amistad (slave ship)
    Another spectacular contribution by Adams to the antislavery cause was his championing of the cause of Africans arrested aboard the slave ship Amistad—slaves who had mutinied and escaped from their Spanish owners off the coast of Cuba and had wound up bringing the ship into United States waters near Long Island, New York. Adams defended them as freemen before the Supreme......
  • Amistad (film by Spielberg)
    ...(1991). He received subsequent Oscar nominations for his roles as a duty-bound butler in Remains of the Day (1993), as Richard M. Nixon in Nixon (1995), and as John Quincy Adams in Amistad (1997)....
  • Amistad Dam (dam, United States-Mexico)
    ...Elephant Butte on the Rio Grande in New Mexico, Marte Gómez (El Azúcar Dam) reservoir on the San Juan, and Venustiano Carranza (Don Martín Dam) on the Salado. The international Amistad Dam, below the confluence of Devils River, was completed in 1969 under terms of a U.S.-Mexico treaty. Considerable amounts of hydroelectricity are produced within the basin....
  • Amistad mutiny (North American-African history)
    (July 2, 1839), slave rebellion that took place on the slave ship Amistad near the coast of Cuba and had important political and legal repercussions in the American abolition movement. The mutineers were captured and tried in the United States, and a surprising victory for the country’...
  • Amistad, Puente de la (bridge, Paraguay)
    ...trade of electronic goods and firearms. The major reasons for the city’s rapid growth are its commercial connection with Brazil, symbolized by the 1,600-foot (500-metre) Puente de la Amistad (“Friendship Bridge”; opened 1964), and its association with the nearby Itaipú Dam on the Paraguay-Brazil border, which is one of the largest hydroelectric facilities in the worl...
  • Amisus (Turkey)
    city, capital of Samsun il (province), northern Turkey. The largest city on the southern coast of the Black Sea, Samsun lies between the deltas of the Kızıl and Yeşil rivers. Amisus, which stood on a promontory just northwest of the modern city centre, was founded in the 7th century bc; after Sinop it was the most flourishing Milesian co...
  • Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd. (Indian entertainment company)
    Bachchan returned to film and won the National Award for his portrayal of a mafia don in Agneepath (1990; “Path of Fire”). He later headed Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd., an entertainment venture that specialized in film production and event management. The business was plagued by financial difficulties, however, and Bachchan eventually returned to......
  • Amitābha (Buddhism)
    in Buddhism, the great saviour deity worshiped principally by members of the Pure Land sect in Japan. As related in the Sukhāvatī-vyūha-sūtra (the fundamental scripture of the Pure Land sects), many ages ago a monk named Dharmākara made a number of vows, the 18th of which promised that, on his attaining buddhahood, all who believed in hi...
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    ...are found in the kondō at Hōryū Temple. Many of these wall paintings were irreparably damaged by fire in 1949, but photos and reproductions remain. One fresco depicting an Amida (Amitābha) Triad shows graceful figures rendered with comparative naturalism and defined with consistent, unmodulated brush lines known as “wire lines”......
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    (Sanskrit: “Discourse Concerning Meditation on Amitāyus”), one of three texts basic to Pure Land Buddhism. Together with the larger and smaller Sukhāvatī-vyūha-sūtras (Sanskrit: “Description of the Western Paradise Sutras”), this text envisions rebirth in the celestial Pure Land of Amitāyus, the Buddha...
  • Amitayus (Buddhism)
    in Buddhism, the great saviour deity worshiped principally by members of the Pure Land sect in Japan. As related in the Sukhāvatī-vyūha-sūtra (the fundamental scripture of the Pure Land sects), many ages ago a monk named Dharmākara made a number of vows, the 18th of which promised that, on his attaining buddhahood, all who believed in hi...
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    ...Generally the outer wall is constructed of hard soil material, distinct from the internal central portion (or nursery), which is composed of softer carton material. In northern Australia Amitermes meridionalis builds wedge-shaped mounds, called compass or magnetic mounds, that are 3 to 4 metres (9.8 to 13.1 feet) high, 2.5 metres (8.1 feet) wide, and 1 metre (3.2 feet) thick at......
  • Amiternum (ancient town, Italy)
    in ancient Italy, a Sabine town 5 miles (8 km) north of present L’Aquila in the Aterno (ancient Aternus) River valley. It was stormed by the Romans in 293 bc, but the fertility of its fields helped it to regain its prosperity as a Roman municipality (municipium), especially under the empire (after 27 bc). The Roman historian ...
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