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  • hammerstone (tool)
    “Hammer” is used here in a general sense to cover the wide variety of striking tools distinguished by other names, such as pounder, beetle, mallet, maul, pestle, sledge, and others. The best known of the tools that go by the name hammer is the carpenter’s claw type, but there are many others, such as riveting, boilermaker’s, bricklayer’s, blacksmith’s, mac...
  • Hammett, Dashiell (American writer)
    American writer who created the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. (See detective story; hard-boiled fiction)....
  • Hammett, Samuel Dashiell (American writer)
    American writer who created the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. (See detective story; hard-boiled fiction)....
  • Hammid, Alexander (Czech filmmaker)
    Having become interested in modern dance, Deren began working for choreographer Katherine Dunham. In 1941, while on tour in Los Angeles with Dunham and her dance troupe, Deren met Alexander Hammid, a Czech filmmaker. Deren and Hammid married the next year, and in 1943 they codirected Meshes of the Afternoon. They shot the film in their own home, with Hammid serving as cinematographer and......
  • Hamming code (communications)
    Another simple example of an FEC code is known as the Hamming code. This code is able to protect a four-bit information signal from a single error on the channel by adding three redundant bits to the signal. Each sequence of seven bits (four information bits plus three redundant bits) is called a code word. The first redundant bit is chosen so that the sum of ones in the first three information......
  • Hamming, Richard (American mathematician)
    American mathematician who discovered mathematical formulas and techniques that made it possible for computers to correct their own errors, thus paving the way for the creation of a number of devices that employ microprocessors and digital signal processors, such as modems, compact discs, and satellite communications; several of these techniques were named for him (b. Feb. 11, 1915, Chicago, Ill.-...
  • Hamming, Richard Wesley (American mathematician)
    American mathematician who discovered mathematical formulas and techniques that made it possible for computers to correct their own errors, thus paving the way for the creation of a number of devices that employ microprocessors and digital signal processors, such as modems, compact discs, and satellite communications; several of these techniques were named for him (b. Feb. 11, 1915, Chicago, Ill.-...
  • hammock (furniture)
    The high degree of regional variation in crafts is probably related to the small scale of political organization, in which regional chiefdoms predominated. The hammock apparently originated in this area and was widespread; little other furniture was used. Houses varied considerably in size and shape, although virtually all had palm-thatched roofs and walls of thatch or adobe. A wide variety of......
  • Hammond (Indiana, United States)
    city, Lake county, northwestern Indiana, U.S. It is located in the Calumet industrial complex between Chicago and Gary, on the Grand Calumet River, near Lake Michigan. It was founded in 1869 when George Hammond, a pioneer in the shipping of refrigerated beef, established with Marcus Towle the State Line Slaughterhouse. Ice from the river and inland lakes was used for packing the meat. Until it was...
  • Hammond Clock Company (American company)
    In 1928 he perfected his electric clock and founded the Hammond Clock Company; the company name was changed to the Hammond Instrument Company in 1937, later (1953) becoming the Hammond Organ Company. Although he was not a musician, Hammond became fascinated early in 1933 with the sounds emanating from the phonograph turntables in his laboratory. He and his engineers began to explore the......
  • Hammond Innes, Ralph (British author)
    English novelist and traveler known for adventure stories in which suspense and foreign locations are prominent features....
  • Hammond Instrument Company (American company)
    In 1928 he perfected his electric clock and founded the Hammond Clock Company; the company name was changed to the Hammond Instrument Company in 1937, later (1953) becoming the Hammond Organ Company. Although he was not a musician, Hammond became fascinated early in 1933 with the sounds emanating from the phonograph turntables in his laboratory. He and his engineers began to explore the......
  • Hammond, James H. (American politician)
    After Calhoun’s death, his protégé, James H. Hammond, said thatpre-eminent as he was intellectually above all the men of this age as I believe, he was so wanting in judgment in the managing of men, was so unyielding and unpersuasive, that he never could consolidate sufficient power to accomplish anything great, of himself and [in] due season . . . and the jealousy ...
  • Hammond, John (American recording executive)
    American record producer, promoter, talent scout, and music critic who discovered and promoted several major figures of popular music, from Count Basie and Billie Holiday in the 1930s to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen during the rock era. A tireless crusader for racial integration in the music business, he is regarded as ...
  • Hammond, John Hays (American engineer)
    U.S. mining engineer who helped develop gold mining in South Africa and California....
  • Hammond, John Hays, Jr. (American inventor)
    U.S. inventor whose development of radio remote control served as the basis for modern missile guidance systems....
  • Hammond, John Henry, Jr. (American recording executive)
    American record producer, promoter, talent scout, and music critic who discovered and promoted several major figures of popular music, from Count Basie and Billie Holiday in the 1930s to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen during the rock era. A tireless crusader for racial integration in the music business, he is regarded as ...
  • Hammond, Laurens (American inventor)
    American businessman and inventor of the electronic keyboard instrument known as the Hammond organ....
  • Hammond organ (musical instrument)
    One of the most important and well known of the electronic organs is the Hammond organ, a sophisticated instrument having two manuals, or keyboards, and a set of pedals operated by the feet. It was patented by its American inventor Laurens Hammond in 1934. Unlike most other instruments of its type, it produces its sound through a complex set of rotary, motor-driven generators. By means of a......
  • Hammond Organ Company (American company)
    In 1928 he perfected his electric clock and founded the Hammond Clock Company; the company name was changed to the Hammond Instrument Company in 1937, later (1953) becoming the Hammond Organ Company. Although he was not a musician, Hammond became fascinated early in 1933 with the sounds emanating from the phonograph turntables in his laboratory. He and his engineers began to explore the......
  • Hammond, Ralph (British author)
    English novelist and traveler known for adventure stories in which suspense and foreign locations are prominent features....
  • Hammond, Walter Reginald (English cricketer)
    English cricketer and former team captain (1939–46) who broke many records during his career as one of the country’s finest batsmen....
  • Hammondsport (New York, United States)
    village, in the town (township) of Urbana, Steuben county, southern New York, U.S. It lies at the south end of Keuka Lake (one of the Finger Lakes), 20 miles (32 km) north-northwest of Corning. In 1829 a local resident, William Bostwick, planted the first grapevine in the area, which was settled by French winegrow...
  • Ḥammūda Bey (ruler of Tunisia)
    ...struggles for succession and difficulties with the French marred subsequent Ḥusaynid history. In 1756 the Algerians occupied Tunis and beheaded ʿAlī Bey (reigned 1735–56). Ḥammūda Bey (reigned 1782–1814) severed ties with Venice after its attacks on the Tunisian coastal towns of Sousse (1784) and La Goulette (1785). He also faced two Algerian......
  • Ḥammūdid dynasty (Berber dynasty)
    in Spain, Muslim Berber dynasty, one of the party kingdoms (ṭāʾifahs) that emerged during the decline of the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba early in the 11th century. The Ḥammūdids ruled Málaga (1022–57) and Algeciras (1039–58)....
  • Hammurabi (king of Babylonia)
    sixth and best-known ruler of the 1st (Amorite) dynasty of Babylon (reigning c. 1792–50 bc), noted for his surviving set of laws, once considered the oldest promulgation of laws in human history. See Hammurabi, Code of....
  • Hammurabi, Code of (Babylonian laws)
    the most complete and perfect extant collection of Babylonian laws, developed during the reign of Hammurabi (1792–1750 bc) of the 1st dynasty of Babylon. It consists of his legal decisions that were collected toward the end of his reign and inscribed on a diorite stela set up in Babylon’s temple of Marduk, the national god of Babylonia. These 282 case...
  • Hammurapi (king of Babylonia)
    sixth and best-known ruler of the 1st (Amorite) dynasty of Babylon (reigning c. 1792–50 bc), noted for his surviving set of laws, once considered the oldest promulgation of laws in human history. See Hammurabi, Code of....
  • Hamon, Pierre (French calligrapher)
    The Essemplare is finely printed from woodcut blocks, but seven years after its publication a new and better method of reproducing elaborate calligraphy appeared. In 1567 Pierre Hamon, secretary and royal writing master to Charles IX of France, published the first copybook printed from engraved metal plates, Alphabet de plusiers sortes de lettres......
  • Hamor the Hivite (biblical figure)
    in the Old Testament (Genesis 30:21; 34; 46:15), daughter of Jacob by Leah; Dinah was abducted and raped near the city of Shechem, by Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite (the Hivites were a Canaanitish people). Because Shechem then wished to marry Dinah, Hamor suggested to Jacob that their two peoples initiate a policy of commercial and social intercourse. Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi......
  • Hamp (American musician)
    American jazz musician and bandleader, known for the rhythmic vitality of his playing and his showmanship as a performer. Best known for his work on the vibraphone, Hampton was also a skilled drummer, pianist, and singer....
  • Hampden (county, Massachusetts, United States)
    county, southwestern Massachusetts, U.S., bordered by Connecticut to the south. The county’s terrain is characterized by mountains in the west and by ridges and valleys in the east, bisected north-south by the Connecticut River. Other watercourses include the Chicopee and Westfield rivers and the Cobble Mountain Reservoir. Chester-Blandford, Granville,...
  • Hampden, John (English political leader)
    English Parliamentary leader famous for his opposition to King Charles I over ship money, an episode in the controversies that ultimately led to the English Civil Wars....
  • Hampden, Walter (American actor)
    American actor, theatre manager, and repertory producer....
  • Hampel, Anton (German musician)
    ...to form an extension of the air column, the pitch of the note being played was lowered one-half step. Hand stopping, which became known throughout Europe in the 1750s thanks to the Bohemian hornist Anton Hampel, was later applied to the trumpet....
  • Hämpfeli Lieder, E (work by Burckhardt)
    ...character of a period and in turn helped to define the period’s culture. Among Burckhardt’s minor publications, a small but precious collection of poetry in the Alemannic dialect may be noted: E Hämpfeli Lieder (1853; “The Jumping Jack Songs”)....
  • Hampshire (county, England, United Kingdom)
    administrative, geographic, and historic county of south central England, bounded west by Dorset and Wiltshire, north by Berkshire, east by Surrey and West Sussex, and south by the English Channel. The administrative, geographic, and historic counties cover somewhat different areas. The administrative county comprises 11 districts: East Hampshire, Har...
  • Hampshire (breed of sheep)
    breed of medium-wool, dark-faced, hornless sheep originating in Hampshire, England. It is large and blocky and, as a superior mutton breed, is noted for its early maturity. It is one of the most popular meat breeds in the United States, where it is raised extensively for market-lamb production in farming regions and for crossing with white-faced range ewes in the western range r...
  • Hampshire (county, Massachusetts, United States)
    county, west-central Massachusetts, U.S. It consists of a mountainous, forested region adjoining Quabbin Reservoir on the northeast and bisected north-south by the Connecticut River. Other watercourses include The Oxbow (lake), Tighe Carmody Reservoir, and the Westfield and Chicopee rivers. Parklands include East Branch, Middlefield, and D.A.R. state forests,...
  • Hampshire (breed of pig)
    breed of pig developed in the United States from the Wessex Saddleback and other varieties first imported from England around 1825; in the late 20th century it was one of the predominant breeds in the U.S. The trim, fine-coated Hampshire is black with a white saddle, which includes the forelegs. Recent selection has improved the breed’s growing ability, and its carcass is...
  • Hampshire Avon (river, southern England, United Kingdom)
    river that rises 3 miles (5 km) east of Devizes, Wiltshire, England, on the north side of the Vale of Pewsey and flows generally southward for 48 miles (77 km) to the English Channel. The river shares the name Avon (derived from a Celtic word meaning “river”) with several other rivers in Great Britain, including the Avon of Bristol (or Lower Avon) and the ...
  • Hampshire Basin (marine basin, Europe)
    ...Europe contains a number of Tertiary marine basins that essentially rim the North Sea basin, itself the site of active subsidence during the Paleogene and infilling during the Neogene. The marine Hampshire and London basins, the Paris Basin, the Anglo-Belgian Basin, and the North German Basin have become the standard for comparative studies of the Paleogene part of the Cenozoic, whereas the......
  • Hampshire Downs (hills, England, United Kingdom)
    ...county of Berkshire, England. The unitary authority extends westward from the district of Reading along both sides of the River Kennet and edges into the Berkshire Downs on the north and the Hampshire Downs on the south; both downs are composed of chalk and rise to elevations of between 600 to 800 feet (185 to 245 metres). The downs have occasional clumps of beech, and cereal grains......
  • Hampshire, Stuart (British philosopher)
    British philosopher (b. Oct. 1, 1914, Healing, Lincolnshire, Eng.—d. June 13, 2004, Oxford, Eng.), brought aesthetics, politics, and psychology to bear on the philosophy of mind. Hampshire was educated at Repton School and Balliol College, Oxford. He took a first-class degree in Greats in 1936, after which he was elected to a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, where he encountered Joh...
  • Hampstead (area, London, United Kingdom)
    Hampstead was a village in Anglo-Saxon times; in the 10th century ad its manor was bestowed on the monastery at Westminster. In 1086 St. Pancras was held by St. Paul’s Cathedral and divided into the manors of Pancras, Tothele (Totenhall), and Rugmere and a portion of land identified as Kennistoune or Cantelowes. In the 15th century Eton College obtained Chalcot’s Farm (...
  • Hampstead Academy (college, Clinton, Mississippi, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning, located in Clinton, Mississippi, U.S. Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, it is the second oldest Baptist college in the United States and the oldest and largest private college in Mississippi. The college emphasizes a curriculum in the liberal arts. It consists of the College of Arts and Scie...
  • Hampton (Virginia, United States)
    independent city, southeastern Virginia, U.S. It lies on the Chesapeake Bay and the north shore of Hampton Roads (natural roadstead), opposite Norfolk, to which it is linked by the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. The city forms part of a metropolitan complex, including Newport News, Norfolk...
  • Hampton (county, South Carolina, United States)
    county, southern South Carolina, U.S. It consists of a low-lying, largely flat region on the Coastal Plain. The Salkehatchie River and its extension, the Combahee, form the county’s eastern border, and Georgia and the Savannah River form the southwestern border. The county is also drained by the Coosawhatchie River. Lake Warren State Park and the James ...
  • Hampton Academy (school, Virginia, United States)
    ...are in the city. The Syms-Eaton Museum commemorates Benjamin Syms and Thomas Eaton, who founded the first free schools (1634 and 1659, respectively) in America; the two schools merged in 1805 as Hampton Academy, which was later absorbed into the city’s public school system. Hampton University (1868) was established by General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, an agent of the Freedmen’s Bu...
  • Hampton, Christopher (British playwright, screenwriter, director, and producer)
    Original Screenplay: Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow for Rain ManAdapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton for Dangerous LiaisonsCinematography: Peter Biziou for Mississippi BurningArt Direction: Stuart Craig for Dangerous LiaisonsOriginal Score: Dave Grusin for......
  • Hampton Court (palace, Richmond upon Thames, London, United Kingdom)
    Tudor palace in the Greater London borough of Richmond upon Thames. It overlooks the north bank of the River Thames. In the 1520s the palace was given by Thomas Cardinal Wolsey to Henry VIII (reigned 1509–47), who enlarged it as his favourite residence. Trees ...
  • Hampton Court Conference (English history)
    meeting held at Hampton Court Palace, near London, in January 1604, in response to the Millenary Petition, in which the Puritans set forth their demands for reform of the Church of England. The conference was presided over by King James I and attended by the bishops and the Puritan leaders. Among the reforms discussed were changes in church government, changes in The Book of...
  • Hampton Court Palace (palace, Richmond upon Thames, London, United Kingdom)
    Tudor palace in the Greater London borough of Richmond upon Thames. It overlooks the north bank of the River Thames. In the 1520s the palace was given by Thomas Cardinal Wolsey to Henry VIII (reigned 1509–47), who enlarged it as his favourite residence. Trees ...
  • Hampton, Henry (American filmmaker)
    American documentary filmmaker whose 1987 television series "Eyes on the Prize," which won a Peabody Award and four Emmys, told the story of the American civil rights struggle with an emphasis on the strength and leadership of African-Americans (b. Jan. 8, 1940, St. Louis, Mo.--d. Nov. 22, 1998, Boston, Mass.)....
  • Hampton Institute (university, Hampton, Virginia, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Hampton, Virginia, U.S. It is a historically African-American university. The Undergraduate College consists of schools of business, liberal arts and education, engineering and technology, nursing, pharmacy, and science. The Graduate College offers master’s degree programs in bu...
  • Hampton, Judith (American religious leader)
    ...Washington state for the study of the teachings of Ramtha, a spiritual being who is purportedly “channeled” by—i.e., speaks through the mediumship of—the school’s leader, JZ Knight. Ramtha’s school draws more than 3,000 students from more than 20 countries....
  • Hampton, Lionel (American musician)
    American jazz musician and bandleader, known for the rhythmic vitality of his playing and his showmanship as a performer. Best known for his work on the vibraphone, Hampton was also a skilled drummer, pianist, and singer....
  • Hampton, Lionel Leo (American musician)
    American jazz musician and bandleader, known for the rhythmic vitality of his playing and his showmanship as a performer. Best known for his work on the vibraphone, Hampton was also a skilled drummer, pianist, and singer....
  • Hampton, Mark Iredell, Jr. (American interior designer)
    American interior designer (b. June 1, 1940, Plainfield, Ind.--d. July 23, 1998, New York, N.Y.), decorated the homes of such luminaries as George and Barbara Bush, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Estée Lauder, using 18th- and 19th-century American and English antiques and furniture upholstered in flowery chintz. In the 1980s Hampton became a household name, putting his imprint on interior ...
  • Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (university, Hampton, Virginia, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Hampton, Virginia, U.S. It is a historically African-American university. The Undergraduate College consists of schools of business, liberal arts and education, engineering and technology, nursing, pharmacy, and science. The Graduate College offers master’s degree programs in bu...
  • Hampton Roads (roadstead, Virginia, United States)
    great natural roadstead, southeastern Virginia, U.S., formed by the deepwater estuary of the James River, protected by the Virginia Peninsula. The Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers also enter the roadstead, which is connected to Chesapeake Bay by the Thimble Shoal Channel, some 1,000 feet (300 metres) wide; the channel extends for 12 miles (19 ...
  • Hampton Roads, Battle of (American Civil War)
    (March 9, 1862), in the American Civil War, naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia, a harbour at the mouth of the James River, notable as history’s first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare....
  • Hampton Roads Conference (American Civil War)
    (Feb. 3, 1865), informal, unsuccessful peace talks at Hampton Roads, Va., U.S., between the Union and the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. At the urging of his wartime adviser, Francis P. Blair, Sr., Pres. Abraham Lincoln had agreed for the first time since the start of the war to meet with representatives of the South. The President and Secretary of State William H. Seward met on the boat ...
  • Hampton Roads, Port of (region, Virginia, United States)
    The port cities comprise the Port of Hampton Roads, created in 1926 under the State of Virginia Port Authority; it is one of the busiest seaports in the country. Exports include tobacco and paper products, while imports include petroleum products, ores, and automobile parts. Shipbuilding, food products, and chemicals are important local industries....
  • Hampton University (university, Hampton, Virginia, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Hampton, Virginia, U.S. It is a historically African-American university. The Undergraduate College consists of schools of business, liberal arts and education, engineering and technology, nursing, pharmacy, and science. The Graduate College offers master’s degree programs in bu...
  • Hampton, Wade (Confederate general)
    Confederate war hero during the American Civil War who restored Southern white rule to South Carolina following Radical Reconstruction....
  • Ḥamrāʾ, al-Ḥammādah al- (plateau, Libya)
    desolate rocky plateau of the Sahara, northwestern Libya. Located mostly in Tripolitania, it occupies an area measuring about 275 mi (440 km) by 190 mi. Its bare rock outcrops reach a height of about 2,700 ft (825 m). Wells are drilled for petroleum, which was discovered in the region in 1976. Some phosphates have also been discovered. The region’s name is Arabic for “red stony plate...
  • Ḥamrāʾ Plateau, Al- (plateau, Libya)
    desolate rocky plateau of the Sahara, northwestern Libya. Located mostly in Tripolitania, it occupies an area measuring about 275 mi (440 km) by 190 mi. Its bare rock outcrops reach a height of about 2,700 ft (825 m). Wells are drilled for petroleum, which was discovered in the region in 1976. Some phosphates have also been discovered. The region’s name is Arabic for “red stony plate...
  • hamri (pedology)
    ...Doukkala, and Abda plains, produces good yields of wheat and barley when precipitation is sufficient and can retain enough moisture to support summer pasture. Hamri, a light reddish siliceous soil found throughout the Saïs Plain surrounding Meknès and Fès, supports productive vineyards and can also produce good cereal yields,......
  • hamster (rodent)
    any of 18 Eurasian species of rodents possessing internal cheek pouches. The golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) of Syria is commonly kept as a pet. Hamsters are stout-bodied, with tails much shorter than body length and have small, furry ears, short, stocky legs, and wide feet. Their thick, long fur ranges from grayish to reddis...
  • Hamsun, Knut (Norwegian author)
    Norwegian novelist, dramatist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. A leader of the Neoromantic revolt at the turn of the century, he rescued the novel from a tendency toward excessive naturalism....
  • Hamtap (Turkey)
    city, south-central Turkey. It is situated near the Sacirsuyu, a tributary of the Euphrates River, in limestone hills north of Aleppo, Syria....
  • hamuli (anatomy)
    ...basal section of the rachis is called the calamus, part of which lies beneath the skin. The barbs, in turn, have branches, the barbules. The barbules on the distal side of each barb have hooks (hamuli) that engage the barbules of the next barb. The barbs at the base of the vane are often plumaceous—i.e., lacking in hamuli and remaining free of each other. In many birds each contour......
  • Ḥamūlī, ʿAbduh al- (Islamic musician)
    ...is cultivated independently. Thus almost all of the Near Eastern musicians who are well known are singers; those particularly influential in the modern renaissance, in chronological order, include ʿAbduh al-Ḥamūlī, Dāhūd Ḥussnī, Sayyid Darwīsh, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Umm Kulthūm, Farid al-Aṭrash,......
  • hamulus (anatomy)
    ...basal section of the rachis is called the calamus, part of which lies beneath the skin. The barbs, in turn, have branches, the barbules. The barbules on the distal side of each barb have hooks (hamuli) that engage the barbules of the next barb. The barbs at the base of the vane are often plumaceous—i.e., lacking in hamuli and remaining free of each other. In many birds each contour......
  • Hamvīra (Indian king)
    ...coasts was lost to the Bahmanī sultans and to the suddenly powerful Gajapati ruler of Orissa. In the 1450s and ’60s Kapilendra (Kapileshvara), the great king of Orissa, together with his son Hamvira, conquered the Reddi kingdom of Rajahmundry and the Vijayanagar province of Kondavidu, captured Warangal and Bidar from the Bahmanīs, eventually occupied Udayagiri, and sent a.....
  • Hamza El Din (Nubian musician, composer, and musicologist)
    Nubian musician, composer, and musicologist (b. July 10, 1929, Toshka, Egypt—d. May 22, 2006, Berkeley, Calif.), gained fame playing Nubian folk-based compositions on the ʾud, or oud (a short-necked lute), and was recognized as one of the first practitioners of World Music (before the advent of that term). Although he was an electrical engineer by training, he went on to study Arabic...
  • Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (uncle of Muḥammad)
    ...heroes from early Islāmic times were afterward retold throughout Iran, India, and Turkey. Thus, the Dāstān-e Amīr Ḥamzeh, a story of Muḥammad’s uncle Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, was slowly enlarged by the addition of more and more fantastic details. This form of dāstān, as such literature i...
  • Ḥamzah ibn ʿAlī (Druze religious leader)
    one of the founders of the Druze religion. Almost nothing is known of his life before he entered Egypt in 1017. He became a spokesman for the religious convictions of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim (the Fāṭimids were the ruling dynasty in Egypt), who was already accorded the position of imām, a divinely appointed and authorita...
  • Ḥamzah ibn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad (Druze religious leader)
    one of the founders of the Druze religion. Almost nothing is known of his life before he entered Egypt in 1017. He became a spokesman for the religious convictions of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim (the Fāṭimids were the ruling dynasty in Egypt), who was already accorded the position of imām, a divinely appointed and authorita...
  • “Ḥamzeh-nāmeh” (Islamic literature)
    Among ʿAbd-uṣ-Ṣamad’s greatest achievements was the supervision, together with his fellow Persian Mīr Sayyid ʿAlī, of a large part of the illustrations of the Dāstān-e (“Stories of”) Amīr Ḥamzeh, a series that numbered about 1,400 paintings, all of unusually large size. As none of the paintings...
  • Hamziya (poem by Aidarusi)
    ...to the mid-17th century. Until the mid-19th century, Arabic script was used, but thereafter Latin script became more common and is now standard. The oldest extant epic is the Hamziya (1749), a court poem written by Sayyid Aidarusi, who was assigned the task by Bwana Mkuw II, ruler of the island of Pate off the coast in what is now Kenya. It was written in Arabic......
  • han (Japanese government unit)
    in Japanese history, fief controlled by a daimyo, or territorial lord, during the Tokugawa period (1603–1868)....
  • Han (Asian people)
    ...China since 1949, when the forces of Mao Zedong won the Chinese civil war and expelled the Nationalists and their flag from the mainland. However, red is also the traditional ethnic colour of the Han, who form the overwhelming majority in the country. Under the Ch’ing (Manchu) dynasty, which ruled from 1644 until 1911/12, most of the flags of China were yellow, the Manchu ethnic colour. ...
  • han (Chinese ornament)
    ...the huan (a braceletlike disk with a large hole), the huang (a flat, half-ring pendant), the han (ornaments, often carved in the shape of a cicada, to be placed in the mouth of the dead), and the zhang and gui......
  • Han Canal (canal, China, 206-220 BC)
    ...and the 1st century ad, the Chinese built impressive canals. Outstanding were the Ling Canal in Kuangsi, 90 miles long from the Han capital; Changan (Sian) to the Huang He (Yellow River); and the Pien Canal in Honan. Of later canals the most spectacular was the Grand Canal, the first 600-mile section of which was opened to navigation in 610. This waterway enabled grain to be trans...
  • Han Changli (Chinese author)
    master of Chinese prose, outstanding poet, and the first proponent of what later came to be known as Neo-Confucianism, which had wide influence in China and Japan....
  • Han Chiang (river, Kwangtung province, China)
    river in eastern Guangdong province, China. The Han River rises in the Wuyi Mountains in southwest Fujian province to the north of Changting. Its upper course is known as the Ting River, and it flows south to Fengshi, below which it is joined by the Yongding River. Flowing south over the border into Guangdong province, it is joined at Sanheba by its principal ...
  • Han Chiao-shun (Chinese businessman)
    Charlie Soong (1863–1918), also called Charles Jones Soong, was born Han Jiaozhun and was reared until he was nine in Wenchang, a port on the eastern coast of the island of Hainan, China. After a three-year apprenticeship in the East Indies (Indonesia), he spent eight years in the United States, where he was educated and trained by the Methodists for missionary work among the Chinese. In......
  • Han Chinese (language)
    Han Chinese developed more polysyllabic words and more specific verbal and nominal (noun) categories of words. Most traces of verb formation and verb conjugation began to disappear. An independent Southern tradition (on the Yangtze River), simultaneous with Late Archaic Chinese, developed a special style, used in the poetry Chuci (“Elegies of Chu”), which......
  • Han Chungli (Taoist mythology)
    in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals of Taoism. A wine-drinking recluse in quest of immortality, he is often depicted as a potbellied, bearded old man holding a fan with a tassel of horse hairs. Occasionally he is depicted as a military man and is credited with unusual knowledge of alchemy. His primacy among the Eight Immortals is challenged by a tradit...
  • “Han d’Islande” (novel by Hugo)
    In 1823 he published his first novel, Han d’Islande, which in 1825 appeared in an English translation as Hans of Iceland. The journalist Charles Nodier was enthusiastic about it and drew Hugo into the group of friends, all devotees of Romanticism, who met regularly at the Bibliothèque de L’Arsenal. While frequenting this literary circle, which was called t...
  • Han dynasty (Chinese history)
    the second great Chinese imperial dynasty (206 bc–ad 220) after the Zhou dynasty. It suceeded the Qin dynasty (221–207 bc). So thoroughly did the Han dynasty establish what was thereafter considered Chinese culture that “Han” became the Chinese word denoting someone who is Chinese....
  • Han Fei (Chinese philosopher)
    the greatest of China’s Legalist philosophers. His essays on autocratic government so impressed King Zheng of Qin that the future emperor adopted their principles after seizing power in 221 bc. The book that goes by Han Fei’s name comprises a synthesis of legal theories up to his time....
  • Han Fei Tzu (Chinese philosopher)
    the greatest of China’s Legalist philosophers. His essays on autocratic government so impressed King Zheng of Qin that the future emperor adopted their principles after seizing power in 221 bc. The book that goes by Han Fei’s name comprises a synthesis of legal theories up to his time....
  • Han Gan (Chinese painter)
    Chinese painter of the Tang dynasty, who, though recorded as having done wall paintings on Buddhist and Daoist themes, is best remembered for his paintings of horses. Han emphasized the strength and nobility of the horses of the Tang empire by using a tautly controlled line and compositions of great clarity. The horse as a subject of painting was continued by ...
  • Han, Grottoes of (caves, Belgium)
    ...rocks (limestone and shale) of the Famenne depression, it abruptly turns westward toward the Meuse. Disappearing underground for about a mile at Han-sur-Lesse, the river has created the celebrated Grottoes of Han, which are renowned for their stalactites and stalagmites. One of the grottoes measures 505 feet (154 metres) long and 450 feet (137 metres) wide. In its lowest section, from Houyet......
  • Han Hsiang (Chinese mythology)
    in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals of Taoism. He desired to make flowers bloom in an instant and to produce fine-tasting wine without using grain. When his uncle scoffed at the idea, Han Hsiang performed the impossible before his uncle’s eyes: flowers suddenly appeared in bloom from a clod of earth. In addition, a mysterious poem of 14 golden characters was seen ...
  • Han Jiang (river, Kwangtung province, China)
    river in eastern Guangdong province, China. The Han River rises in the Wuyi Mountains in southwest Fujian province to the north of Changting. Its upper course is known as the Ting River, and it flows south to Fengshi, below which it is joined by the Yongding River. Flowing south over the border into Guangdong province, it is joined at Sanheba by its principal ...
  • Han Kan (Chinese painter)
    Chinese painter of the Tang dynasty, who, though recorded as having done wall paintings on Buddhist and Daoist themes, is best remembered for his paintings of horses. Han emphasized the strength and nobility of the horses of the Tang empire by using a tautly controlled line and compositions of great clarity. The horse as a subject of painting was continued by ...
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