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  • algorithm (mathematics)
    systematic procedure that produces—in a finite number of steps—the answer to a question or the solution of a problem. The name derives from the Latin translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum, of the 9th-century Muslim mathematician al-Khwarizmi’s arithmetic treatise “Al-Khwarizmi Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning.”...
  • algorithmic information theory (mathematics)
    ...publish an objective measure of the intrinsic complexity of a message. Chaitin, a research scientist at IBM, developed the largest body of work and polished the ideas into a formal theory known as algorithmic information theory (AIT). The algorithmic in AIT comes from defining the complexity of a message as the length of the shortest algorithm, or step-by-step procedure, for......
  • Algorithmic Language (computer language)
    ALGOL (algorithmic language) was designed by a committee of American and European computer scientists during 1958–60 for publishing algorithms, as well as for doing computations. Like LISP (described in the next section), ALGOL had recursive subprograms—procedures that could invoke themselves to solve a problem by reducing it to a smaller problem of the......
  • algorithms, theory of (logic)
    ...functions (i.e., functions defined in a finite sequence of combinatorial steps). Kleene, together with Alonzo Church, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing, and others, developed the field of recursion theory, which made it possible to prove whether certain classes of mathematical problems are solvable or unsolvable. Recursion theory in turn led to the theory of computable functions,......
  • Algren, Nelson (American writer)
    writer whose novels of the poor are lifted from routine naturalism by his vision of their pride, humour, and unquenchable yearnings. He also catches with poetic skill the mood of the city’s underside: its jukebox pounding, stench, and neon glare....
  • alguacile
    ...named after famous matadors. The spectacle begins with a trumpeter blowing a fanfare and the opening of a large gate at one end of the arena. One or two mounted bailiffs (alguaciles) in 16th-century costume (sometimes cowboy costume in Mexico) with plumed hats ride across the ring to the box of the president (often a local dignitary) and doff their hats.....
  • Alguma Poesia (work by Andrade)
    ...and unconventional syntax in their free-verse forms. He helped to found the literary magazine A revista (“Review”) in 1925. The first of his numerous collections of poetry, Alguma poesia (1930; “Some Poetry”), demonstrates both his affinity with the Modernist movement and his own strong poetic personality....
  • Algunas obras de Fernando de Herrera (work by Herrera)
    ...Works of Garcilaso de la Vega”), which praised the Italianate innovations of the poet Garcilaso de la Vega and several other poets of Sevilla. In his own poetry, published as Algunas obras de Fernando de Herrera (1582; “Some Works of Fernando de Herrera”), he elaborated on the style of Garcilaso and began to move toward ......
  • ALH84001 (meteorite)
    meteorite determined to have come from Mars and the subject of a contentious scientific claim that it contains the remains of ancient life indigenous to the planet. Recovered from the Allan Hills ice field of Antarctica in 1984, the 1.9-kg (4.2-pound) igneous rock is thought to have crystallized from magma on Mars 4.5 billion years ago and l...
  • Alhagi maurorum (plant)
    ...to Turkey, especially L. esculenta. In the Middle East lichen bread and manna jelly are made from Lecanora. Manna also refers to resins produced by two plants called camel’s thorns (Alhagi maurorum and A. pseudalhagi). Both are spiny-branched shrubs less than 1 m (about 3 feet) tall and are native to Turkey. An edible, white honeylike substance known as manna ...
  • Alhagi pseudalhagi (plant)
    ...esculenta. In the Middle East lichen bread and manna jelly are made from Lecanora. Manna also refers to resins produced by two plants called camel’s thorns (Alhagi maurorum and A. pseudalhagi). Both are spiny-branched shrubs less than 1 m (about 3 feet) tall and are native to Turkey. An edible, white honeylike substance known as manna forms drops on the stem o...
  • Alhague (star)
    ...begins numerous star names indicates their Arabic origin, al being the Arabic definite article “the”: Aldebaran (“the Follower”), Algenib (“the Side”), Alhague (“the Serpent Bearer”), and Algol (“the Demon”). A conspicuous exception is Albireo in Cygnus, possibly a corruption of the words ab ireo in the first La...
  • Alhambra (California, United States)
    city, Los Angeles county, California, U.S. Alhambra lies in the San Gabriel Valley, south of Pasadena. Laid out in 1874 by Benjamin D. Wilson on land once part of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, it developed as an agricultural community with a unique irrigation system using the first piped water in southern California. Named for one of Wilson’s fav...
  • Alhambra (fortress, Granada, Spain)
    palace and fortress of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, Spain. The name Alhambra, signifying in Arabic “the red,” is probably derived from the colour of the sun-dried tapia, or bricks made of fine gravel and clay, of which the outer walls are built....
  • Alhambra, The (work by Irving)
    ...as an agricultural community with a unique irrigation system using the first piped water in southern California. Named for one of Wilson’s favourite books—Washington Irving’s The Alhambra (1832), which popularized the Moorish palace of the same name in Granada, Spain (see Alhambra)—the city grew as a residential base for nearby Los Ang...
  • Alhazen (Arab astronomer and mathematician)
    mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the principles of optics and the use of scientific experiments....
  • Alhucemas (Spanish enclave, Morocco)
    Spanish exclave on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, comprising a bay, three islets, and a small port. The bay, a semicircular inlet (9 miles [14 km] wide and 5 miles [8 km] long), is protected by Cap Nuevo; its sandy bottom is an extension of the Nekor River alluvial plain. The islets, administered by Spain since 1673, are uninhabited, although Peñón de Alhucemas was garrisoned un...
  • Alhucemas (Morocco)
    city, northern Morocco. The city, founded by Spaniards in 1926 as Villa Sanjurjo, still has a large Spanish population. Situated on Al-Hoceïma Bay, it is a small fishing port, food-processing centre, and beach resort just northwest of the islets of the Spanish plaza (enclave) of Alhucemas. It is connected by road ...
  • ALI (American organization)
    The American Law Institute (ALI), a private association of lawyers, judges, and law professors, drafts so-called “restatements” of specific areas of the law. Bearing some resemblance to European codes in their form and structure, the ALI’s restatements synthesize all U.S. state case laws on a particular subject, such as tort, agency, or contracts. As the laws change, the ALI.....
  • ʿAlī (Tunisian ruler)
    ...France attacked and captured Sousse in July 1881, took Kairouan in October, and seized Gafsa and Gabès in November. After the death of Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq, his successor, ʿAlī, was forced to introduce administrative, judicial, and financial reforms that the French government considered useful. This agreement, known as the Convention of Al-Marsa, was signe...
  • ʿAlī (Muslim caliph)
    cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, and fourth of the “rightly guided” (rāshidūn) caliphs, as the first four successors of Muhammad are called. Reigning from 656 to 661, he was the first imam (leader) of Shīʿism...
  • Ali (Dulkadir ruler)
    After 1450 Ottoman-Mamlūk rivalry intensified, resulting in dynastic struggles and frequent changes in Dulkadir leadership. When Ali, the last Dulkadir prince, was overthrown by his grand vizier in 1522, the principality was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, the Dulkadir family was accorded vassal status, and its members were appointed to high offices....
  • ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Laṭīf (Sudanese leader)
    Its first manifestations occurred in 1921, when ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Laṭīf founded the United Tribes Society and was arrested for nationalist agitation. In 1924 he formed the White Flag League, dedicated to driving the British from the Sudan. Demonstrations followed in Khartoum in June and August and were suppressed. When the governor-general, Sir Lee Stack, was assassin...
  • Ali, Ahmed (Pakistani writer)
    Pakistani author whose novels and short stories examine Islamic culture and tradition in Hindu-dominated India. Proficient in both English and Urdu, he was also an accomplished translator and literary critic....
  • ʿAlī al-Hādī (Shīʿite imām)
    ...Muḥammad al-Bāqir, Jaʿfar aṣ-Ṣādiq, Mūsā al-Kāẓim, ʿAlī ar-Riḍā, Muḥammad al-Jawād, ʿAlī al-Hādī, Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī, and Muḥammad al-Mahdī al-Ḥujjah—was chosen from the family of his predecessor, not necessari...
  • ʿAli an-Nāṣir (Berber ruler)
    In 1013 the Umayyad caliph Sulaymān al-Mustaʿīn awarded Sabtah to ʿAlī ibn Ḥammūd and Algeciras, Tangier, and Asilah to ʿAlī’s brother al-Qāsim in payment for their help in returning him to the throne. ʿAlī, however, claiming to be the rightful heir to Hishām II, al-Mustaʿīn’s pre...
  • ʿAlī ar-Riḍā (Shīʿite imam)
    eighth imam of the Twelver Shīʿites, noted for his piety and learning until 817, when the caliph al-Maʾmūn, in an attempt to heal the division between the majority Sunnites and the Shīʿites, appointed him his successor. The appointment aroused varying reactions—few of them, even among the Shīʿites, wholly favourable...
  • ʿAlī Asghar (Persian painter)
    He was the son of ʿAlī Asghar of Kashān, who painted at the court of Prince Ibrāhīm Mīrzā, the Ṣafavid viceroy at Meshhed, which was then (1556–77) the leading Iranian centre of the cultivation of the arts. While Rezā was still young, his virtuosity brought him to the attention of Shāh ʿAbbās at Eṣfah...
  • Ali Bash Hamba (Tunisian leader)
    The party, headed by Ali Bash Hamba and Bashir Sfar, demanded complete Tunisian control of the government and administration of the country and full citizenship rights for both Tunisians and Frenchmen. The party attracted a following among the young, educated, professional Muslims, but the liberal attitudes and European ways of its members alienated the common people....
  • ʿAlī Bey (Mamlūk governor of Egypt)
    Mamlūk governor of Egypt under Ottoman suzerainty who attempted to throw off the Ottoman Turkish rule....
  • Ali, Choudhry Rahmat (Indian-Pakistani politician)
    In 1933 a group of Muslim students at Cambridge, led by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, proposed that the only acceptable solution to Muslim India’s internal conflicts and problems would be the birth of a Muslim “fatherland,” to be called Pakistan (Persian: “Land of the Pure”), out of the Muslim-majority northwestern and northeastern provinces. The Muslim League and its pr...
  • ʿAli Dīnār (Darfur sultan)
    ...of al-Mahdī’s successor, the khalīfah (caliph) ʿAbd Allāh, in 1898, the new (Anglo-Egyptian) government of the Sudan recognized ʿAli Dīnār as sultan of Darfur (1899). A rebellion led by ʿAli Dīnār in 1915 provoked the British to launch a punitive expedition, in which he was killed...
  • Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (film by Fassbinder)
    ...(1972; The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant), an account of power struggles in human relationships; Angst essen Seele auf (1973; Ali: Fear Eats the Soul), a tale of doomed romance between a German cleaning woman and a much younger Moroccan mechanic; and In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden (1979; ......
  • ʿAlī Gauhar (Mughal emperor)
    nominal Mughal emperor of India from 1759 to 1806....
  • Ali Haji bin Raja Amhad, Raja (Bugis-Malay prince, historian, and scholar)
    Bugis-Malay prince who, as a scholar and historian, led a renaissance in Malay letters in the mid-19th century....
  • ʿAlī I ibn Mazyad (Iraqi ruler)
    ...Asad, had settled along the Euphrates River, between Hīt and Kūfah, in the middle of the 10th century; soon afterward the Būyid Sulṭān ad-Dawlah in Baghdad recognized ʿAlī I ibn Mazyad as emir of the area. ʿAlī died in 1018, leaving behind three sons, each of whom was eager to assume power, although Dubays I (reigned 1018–81)...
  • ʿAlī ibn Abi ar-Rijāl (Tunisian scientist)
    Astrology was popular in Muslim Spain, and after 788 the Umayyad rulers retained an official astrologer in their courts. The most widely used astrological treatises were those of the Tunisian ʿAlī ibn Abi al-Rijāl and another, anonymous scientist, who made a translation from Vulgar Latin into Arabic in the 8th century. This book was translated from Arabic into Spanish during t...
  • ʿAlī ibn Abū Ṭālib (Muslim caliph)
    cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, and fourth of the “rightly guided” (rāshidūn) caliphs, as the first four successors of Muhammad are called. Reigning from 656 to 661, he was the first imam (leader) of Shīʿism...
  • ʿAlī ibn Būyeh (Būyid ruler)
    one of the founders of the Būyid dynasty of Iran. ʿAlī and his brothers Aḥmad and Ḥasan were followers of Mardāvīz ebn Zeyār of northern Iran. In 934 ʿAlī revolted against local Zeyārid rulers and conquered Fārs province in southern Iran. He made Shīrāz his capita...
  • ʿAlī ibn Ḥammūd (Berber ruler)
    In 1013 the Umayyad caliph Sulaymān al-Mustaʿīn awarded Sabtah to ʿAlī ibn Ḥammūd and Algeciras, Tangier, and Asilah to ʿAlī’s brother al-Qāsim in payment for their help in returning him to the throne. ʿAlī, however, claiming to be the rightful heir to Hishām II, al-Mustaʿīn’s pre...
  • ʿAlī ibn Mahdī (Khārijite leader)
    ...ʿAbbāsid suzerainty. The Banū Yaʿfur, lords north of Sanaa, expelled the Ziyādid governor and ruled independently from 861 to 997. Najāḥid rule ended when ʿAlī ibn Mahdī captured Zabīd in 1159....
  • ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad (Persian Khārijite)
    ...to drain the salt marshes east of Basra. The landowners subjected the Zanj, who generally spoke no Arabic, to heavy slave labour and provided them with only minimal subsistence. In September 869, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, a Persian claiming descent from ʿAlī, the fourth caliph, and Fāṭimah, Muḥammad’s daughter, gained the support of severa...
  • ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Jurjānī (Iranian theologian)
    leading traditionalist theologian of 15th-century Iran....
  • ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣulayḥī (Ṣulayḥid ruler)
    ...though the highlands, a stronghold of tribal chieftains, remained recalcitrant. Najāḥ’s murder c. 1060 threw the kingdom into chaos, allowing the Ṣulayḥid ruler ʿAlī to take Zabīd, and reduced Najāḥid history to a series of intrigues....
  • ʿAlī ibn Rasūl (Turkmen Muslim leader)
    Although the family claimed descent from Qaḥṭān, the legendary patriarch of the southern Arabs, the Rasūlids were of Oğuz (Turkmen) origin, Rasūl having been a messenger (Arabic rasūl) for an ʿAbbāsid caliph. His son ʿAlī was governor of Mecca under the last Ayyūbid ruler of Yemen and succeeded him in the go...
  • ʿAlī ibn Shihāb ad-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Hamadānī (Islamic mystic)
    mystic Persian theologian responsible for the propagation of the Kubrāwīyah order of Sufis (Islamic mystics) in Kashmir....
  • ʿAlī ibn Uthman al-Mazrui (Omani clan leader)
    ...ability to hold the balance between the rival factions in the Swahili population and also to their ability peacefully to overcome all but one of their dynastic successions. In 1746 a Mazrui notable, ʿAlī ibn Uthman al-Mazrui, overthrew an Omani force that had murdered his brother. Soon after he seized Pemba and, but for a family quarrel, might have won Zanzibar; his successor,......
  • ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf (Almoravid ruler)
    The whole of Muslim Spain, however, except Valencia, independent under El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar), eventually came under Almoravid rule. In the reign (1106–42) of ʿAli ibn Yūsuf the union between Spain and Africa was consolidated, and Andalusian civilization took root: administrative machinery was Spanish in pattern, writers and artists crossed the straits, and the....
  • Ali Khan, Liaquat (prime minister of Pakistan)
    first prime minister of Pakistan (1947–51)....
  • ʿAlī Khūrshīd Āghā (governor-general of The Sudan)
    ...bodyguard. But the rebels lacked leadership and coordination, and their revolt was brutally suppressed. A sullen hostility in the Sudanese was met by continued repression until the appointment of ʿAlī Khūrshīd Āghā as governor-general in 1826. His administration marked a new era in Egyptian-Sudanese relations. He reduced taxes and consulted the Sudanese...
  • Ali Kosh (archaeological site, Iran)
    More than 1,000 years later, the Ali Kosh site (also in Iran) was settled. This site is located in a lower elevation zone than Ganj Dareh, outside the natural range of goats. Goat remains at Ali Kosh show clear signs of domestication—the females have no horns. Sheep and goats were herded at Abū Hureyra by 8000 bp. Cattle were not of immediate importance to the people of...
  • ʿAlī Kwame (king of Bono)
    The kings of Bono are said to have played a major role in the gold-mining industry: both Obunumankoma (fl. c. 1450–75) and ʿAlī Kwame (fl. c. 1550–60) are thought to have introduced new mining techniques from the western Sudan to the Akan fields, and Owusu Aduam (fl. c. 1650) is reported to have completely reorganized the industry. From the Akan fields the gold passed.....
  • ʿAlī Mardān Khān (Bakhtyārī leader)
    Muḥammad Karīm Khan Zand entered into an alliance with the Bakhtyārī chief ʿAlī Mardān Khan in an effort to seize Eṣfahān—then the political centre of Iran—from Shah Rokh’s vassal, Abū al-Fatḥ Bakhtyārī. Once this goal was achieved, Karīm Khan and ʿAlī Mardān ...
  • ʿAlī Moḥammad of Shīrāz, Mīrzā (Iranian religious leader)
    merchant’s son whose claim to be the Bāb (Gateway) to the hidden imām (the perfect embodiment of Islamic faith) gave rise to the Bābī religion and made him one of the three central figures of the Bahāʾī faith....
  • Ali, Muhammad (American boxer)
    American professional boxer and social activist. Ali was the first fighter to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions; he successfully defended this title 19 times....
  • ʿAlī Muḥammad Khan Ruhela (Mughal leader)
    ...to appoint the Maratha chief minister (peshwa), Balaji Baji Rao, as governor of Malwa. The province of Katehar (Rohilkhand) was seized by an adventurer, ʿAlī Muḥammad Khan Ruhela, who could not be suppressed by the feeble government of Delhi. The loss of Kabul opened the empire to the threat of invasions from the northwest; a vital......
  • ʿAlī, Muḥammad Kurd (Syrian scholar)
    ...was blended with novelistic techniques learned from Sir Walter Scott. Two writers in the front rank of Arab intellectuals were: Amīr Shakīb Arslān (died 1946), of Druze origin, and Muḥammed Kurd ʿAlī (died 1953), the founder of the Arab Academy of Damascus, each of whom, by encouraging a new degree of awareness, made an important contribution to the edu...
  • Ali Pașa (16th-century Ottoman admiral)
    ...near Lepanto (Návpaktos), Greece. The allied fleet of more than 200 ships sailed for Corfu on September 15 and on October 7 advanced in four squadrons against the Ottoman fleet, commanded by Ali Pașa, Muḥammad Saulak (governor of Alexandria), and Uluj Ali (dey of Algiers). After about four hours of fighting, the allies were victorious, capturing 117 galleys and......
  • Âli Paşa, Mehmed Emin (Ottoman grand vizier)
    Ottoman grand vizier (chief minister) distinguished for his westernizing reform policies. Together with Mustafa Reşid Paşa and Fuad Paşa, he was a main figure of the Tanzimat (Reorganization) period (1839–c. 1870) in Ottoman history....
  • Ali Paşa Tepelenë (Turkish leader)
    Albanian brigand who, by murder and intrigue, became pasha, or provincial governor, of Janina from 1788. He extended his capricious rule within the Ottoman Empire over much of Albania and Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, and the Morea....
  • ʿAlī Qāpū, Palace of (palace, Eṣfahān, Iran)
    ...Shaykh Luṭf Allāh (“Sheikh Loṭfollāh Mosque”), the mosque used by ʿAbbās for his private devotions. On the western side of the square is the ʿAlī Qāpū (“Lofty Gate”), a high building in the form of an archway that is crowned in the forepart by an immense ......
  • ʿAlī Shāh (Nizārī imam)
    eldest son of the Aga Khan I. In 1881 he succeeded his father as imam, or spiritual leader, of the Nizārī Ismāʿīlīte sect of Shīʿite Muslims, and, during his short imamate, sought to improve the conditions of the community....
  • ʿAlī Shāh mosque (mosque, Tabrīz, Iran)
    ...large blue-tiled dome, and an interior measuring 80 feet (25 metres), it is clear that the building was intended to be imposing. Il-Khanid attention to impressiveness of scale also accounted for the ʿAlī Shāh mosque in Tabriz, whose eyvān measuring 150 by 80 by 100 feet (45 by 25 by 30 metres) was meant to be the largest ever built. The eyvān vau...
  • ʿAlī Vardī Khān (nawab of Bengal)
    ʿAlī Vardī Khan—the nawab and virtual ruler of Bengal—died in April 1756, leaving his power to his young grandson Sirāj al-Dawlah. The latter’s position was insecure because of discontent among his officers, both Hindu and Muslim, and because he himself was at the same time both headstrong and vacillating. On an exaggerated report that the British w...
  • Ali Wai Canal (canal, Hawaii, United States)
    ...In the 19th century Waikiki was a favourite resort of Hawaii’s royals, and the area was teeming with coconut groves, fishponds, and walled taro patches that extended a mile inland. In the 1920s the Ali Wai Canal was built, diverting the water that went into Waikiki and helping to expand the potential for tourism. Waikiki’s beach, now a tourist mecca, is one of the best known in th...
  • ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (Shīʿite imam)
    Each of the imāms—ʿAlī, his sons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn, ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, Muḥammad al-Bāqir, Jaʿfar aṣ-Ṣādiq, Mūsā al-Kāẓim, ʿAlī ar-Riḍā,......
  • Äli-Bayramlı (Azerbaijan)
    ...plains, specializes in cotton growing (under irrigation), producing about seven-tenths of the gross cotton output of Azerbaijan. Cotton-ginning plants are located in Bärdä, Salyan, and Äli-Bayramlı, all of which, in addition to being on the Kura River, have the advantage of being located on railways and motor roads. A thermal power station stands near......
  • Alia, Ramiz (president of Albania)
    president of Albania (1982–92) and head of the communist Party of Labour of Albania (1985–91), renamed the Socialist Party of Albania in 1991....
  • Aliákmon Potamós (river, Greece)
    river, the longest in Greek Macedonia. The river’s total length is 185 miles (297 km). Rising in the Grámmos Mountains of the eastern Pindus Range on the Albanian frontier, the Aliákmon River flows southeast through gentle valleys and basins and is joined by a tributary, sometimes also called the Aliákmon, which rises near the Albanian border. After collecting the drain...
  • Aliákmon River (river, Greece)
    river, the longest in Greek Macedonia. The river’s total length is 185 miles (297 km). Rising in the Grámmos Mountains of the eastern Pindus Range on the Albanian frontier, the Aliákmon River flows southeast through gentle valleys and basins and is joined by a tributary, sometimes also called the Aliákmon, which rises near the Albanian border. After collecting the drain...
  • Alianca Democrática (political organization, Portugal)
    ...to enact an effective austerity program. A number of volatile coalition governments followed, until in 1980, in the general election scheduled by the constitution, a centre-right coalition, the Democratic Alliance (Alianca Democrática), swept into power. The new government swiftly moved to revise the character of the 1976 constitution. The Assembly of the Republic approved a series......
  • Aliança Renovadora Nacional (political party, Brazil)
    ...but few of them gained much influence. In 1965 the military government, which had taken power the previous year, abolished all political parties and replaced them with a single government party, the National Renewal Alliance, and a lone opposition party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement. The government abolished these two organizations in 1979 and allowed more parties to participate but still....
  • Alianza Democrática (political organization, Chile)
    ...(Alianza Democrática; AD) to actively oppose the regime and promote democracy. Following Pinochet’s defeat in a 1988 plebiscite that formally ended his power, this group was renamed the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de los Partidos por la Democracia; CPD). Negotiations between the CPD and Pinochet’s government in 1989 resulted in the removal of the...
  • Alianza Liberal (political party, Nicaragua)
    The FSLN and the newly formed right-wing Liberal Alliance (Alianza Liberal; AL), a coalition of three liberal parties, were the main contenders in the 1996 national elections. Daniel Ortega was the FSLN’s presidential candidate, and his party campaigned for expanded social services and civil liberties, national unity, and, in contrast to its historical stance, reconciliation with the United...
  • Alianza Popular (political party, Spain)
    Spanish conservative political party....
  • Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (political party, Peru)
    Peruvian political theorist and activist who founded and led the Aprista Party, which has been the vehicle for radical dissent in Peru since 1924....
  • Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (political party, El Salvador)
    ...The latter group felt it could no longer rely entirely on the armed forces for protection and sought to broaden its base of support by the formation in 1981 of a new political organization, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista; Arena), led by retired major Roberto D’Aubuisson Arrieta....
  • Alicante (Spain)
    port city, capital of Alicante provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Valencia, southeastern Spain. It is located on Alicante Bay of the Mediterranean Sea. Founded as Akra Leuke (“White Summit”) by Phocaean ...
  • Alicante (province, Spain)
    provincia (province) in Valencia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), southeastern Spain. It was formed in 1833 from parts of the historical provinces of Valencia and Murcia. The barren mountain terrain of the north and northwest stands in contrast to the densely populated...
  • alicatado (mosaic)
    mosaic formed of polygonal, coloured glazed tiles. Made up into geometric patterns, they have been used mostly for paving Spanish and Moorish patios but also for wall surfaces. The expansion of the lands under Christian control in Spain in the 13th century led to a mixture of Gothic and Islāmic styles (known as the Mudéjar style), in which alicatado was muc...
  • Alice (South Africa)
    town, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. It lies on the southwestern bank of the Tyume River, west-northwest of East London, at an elevation of 1,720 feet (524 m). Alice began as a mission station established by the Glasgow Missionary Society for the Xhosa people in 1824. It was named after Princess Alice (a daughter of Queen Victoria) and became the seat of a magistracy in 18...
  • Alice Adams (novel by Tarkington)
    ...(1915); The Magnificent Ambersons (1918; filmed 1941 by Orson Welles), and The Midlander (1924), the last two combined as Growth (1927); and The Plutocrat (1927). Alice Adams (1921), a searching character study, is perhaps his most finished novel. He continued his delineations of female character in Claire Ambler (1928), Mirthful Haven......
  • Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (film by Scorsese [1974])
    ...of Robert De Niro, the actor most associated with Scorsese’s films. In 1974, in response to the accusation that he couldn’t make a “woman’s picture,” Scorsese directed Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which follows a recently widowed woman (Ellen Burstyn in an Oscar-winning performance) and her son across the West in their loose...
  • Alice in Cartoonland (American animated film)
    ...Disney and Iwerks in the enterprise were such noted animators as Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Isadore (“Friz”) Freleng. In 1923 Disney produced the short subject Alice in Cartoonland, a film combining both live action and animation that was intended to be the pilot film in a series. Within weeks of its completion, Disney filed for bankruptcy and left......
  • Alice in Chains (American band)
    ...Disney and Iwerks in the enterprise were such noted animators as Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Isadore (“Friz”) Freleng. In 1923 Disney produced the short subject Alice in Cartoonland, a film combining both live action and animation that was intended to be the pilot film in a series. Within weeks of its completion, Disney filed for bankruptcy and left.......
  • Alice Nielsen Comic Opera Company (American opera company)
    ...1896 Nielsen won a position with the Bostonians, a leading light opera company, and eventually won the female lead in Reginald De Koven’s Robin Hood. In 1897 she formed the Alice Nielsen Comic Opera Company. Her greatest successes with her own company were Victor Herbert’s The Fortune Teller (1898) and The Sing...
  • Alice Springs (Northern Territory, Australia)
    town, Northern Territory, Australia. It is the main focus of the Centre, a name given to approximately 100,000 square miles (260,000 square km) of central Australia that includes large areas of desert and rocky ridges. Alice Springs lies on the intermittent Todd River and the Stuart Highway, 1,028 road miles (1,654 km) north of Adelaide and ...
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (work by Carroll)
    English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, especially remembered for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). His poem The Hunting of the Snark (1876) is nonsense literature of the highest order....
  • Alicia Alonso Ballet Company (ballet company)
    One of Cuba’s foremost artistic figures is Alicia Alonso—a dancer of international acclaim, the prima ballerina and founder (1948) of the company that would become the National Ballet of Cuba, and the head of its school. The Ballet of Camagüey, under the direction of Fernando Alonso, was established in 1971, and a second Havana company was founded in the mid-1980s. Besides cla...
  • alicyclic compound (chemical compound)
    in chemistry, any of a large class of organic compounds in which three or more atoms of the element carbon are linked together in a ring. The bonds between pairs of adjacent atoms may all be of the type designated single bonds (involving two electrons), or some of them may be double or triple bonds (with four or six electrons, respectively); six-membered rings for which a system of alternating si...
  • ʿAlīd family (Muslim dynastic family)
    ...and son-in-law of the Prophet) and the Umayyad dynasty (661–750). After ʿAlī’s death, the Shīʿah (Party; i.e., of ʿAlī) demanded the restoration of rule to ʿAlī’s family, and from that demand developed the Shīʿite legitimism, or the divine right of the holy family to rule. In the early stages, the ...
  • alidade (instrument)
    The Arabs employed similar instruments with diametric sight rules, or alidades, and it is likely that those made and used in the 12th century by Moors in Spain were the prototypes of all later European armillary spheres....
  • alidade, plane-table (measurement instrument)
    ...above the water level, the sights determined a level line accurate enough to establish the grades of the Roman aqueducts. In laying out their great road system, the Romans are said to have used the plane table. It consists of a drawing board mounted on a tripod or other stable support and of a straightedge—usually with sights for accurate aim (the alidade) to the objects to be......
  • alien (law)
    in national and international law, a foreign-born resident who is not a citizen by virtue of parentage or naturalization and who is still a citizen or subject of another country....
  • Alien and Sedition Acts (American history)
    (1798), four internal security laws passed by the U.S. Congress, restricting aliens and curtailing the excesses of an unrestrained press, in anticipation of an expected war with France. After the XYZ Affair (1797), war appeared inevitable. Federalists, aware that French military successes in Europe had been greatly facilitated by political dissidents in invad...
  • Alien Compliance Order (1969, Ghana)
    ...of mine workers in South Africa, the forced emigration of Asians from East Africa, and the expulsion of people from neighbouring West African states caused by such actions as the enforcement of the Alien Compliance Order of 1969 in Ghana....
  • Alien Registration Act (United States [1940])
    U.S. federal law passed in 1940 that made it a criminal offense to advocate violent overthrow of the government or to organize or be a member of any group or society devoted to such advocacy. After World War II this statute was made the basis of a series of prosecutions against leaders of the Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party. The conviction of the principal officers was sustained, a...
  • alien species
    a species introduced either accidentally or deliberately by human actions into places beyond its natural geographical range. Familiar examples include the house sparrow, domestic pigeon, and starling, which were all deliberately introduced into North America and other places from their native ranges in Europe. Rats of seve...
  • alienation (property law)
    ...person, it may be asked whether that right, power, or privilege can be transferred to someone else. The general assumption in Western law is that it can be. Freedom of contract and freedom of alienation of property (i.e., the rights to enter freely into enforceable contracts on terms agreed to by the parties and to transfer property to whomever the owner wishes, on terms of his choosing)......
  • alienation (society)
    in social sciences, the state of feeling estranged or separated from one’s milieu, work, products of work, or self. Despite its popularity in the analysis of contemporary life, the idea of alienation remains an ambiguous concept with elusive meanings, the following variants being most common: (1) powerlessness, the feeling that one’s destiny is not under one...
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