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  • Jamieson, Penelope (New Zealander bishop)
    ...Harris was ordained a bishop. (She was elected as a suffragan bishop of Massachusetts but did not head a diocese.) In subsequent years, other women were consecrated as bishops. In 1990 New Zealander Penelope Jamieson became the first diocesan bishop, and in 2006 the ECUSA elected Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first woman presiding bishop of any member church of the Anglican Communion. The......
  • Jamīl al-ʿUdhri (Arabian poet)
    In Medina, on the other hand, idealized love poetry was the vogue; its invention is attributed to Jamīl (died 701), of the tribe ʿUdhrah, “whose members die when they love.” The names of some of these “martyrs of love,” together with the names of their beloved, were preserved and eventually became proverbial expressions of the tremendous force of true love...
  • Jamīla (Arab singer)
    ...or “gentle song.” Her house was the most brilliant literary salon of Medina, and most of the famous musicians of the town came under her tutelage. Also famed were the female musician Jamīla, around whom clustered musicians, poets, and dignitaries; the male musician Ṭuways, who, attracted by the melodies sung by Persian slaves, imitated their style; and......
  • Jamison, Judith (American dancer)
    American modern dancer who became artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1989....
  • Jamison, Kay (American psychiatrist)
    ...is characterized by extreme swings of mood, from exhilaration to depression, and has been particularly associated with artists, writers, musicians, and entrepreneurs. The American psychiatrist Kay Jamison suggested that, although most people who have this disorder are debilitated by it, there may be ways in which the extreme energy and expansiveness of a moderate manic state may contribute......
  • jamʿīyah al-ʿarabīyah Lil-wiḥdah al-iqtisādīyah, al- (Arab organization)
    Arab economic organization established in June 1957 by a resolution of the Arab Economic Council of the Arab League. Its first meeting was held in 1964. Members include Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Somalia, The Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen....
  • Jamʿīyyah al-ʿUlamāʾ al-Muslimīn al-Jazaʾrīyyah (Muslim religious organization)
    a body of Muslim religious scholars (ʿulamāʾ) who, under French rule, advocated the restoration of an Algerian nation rooted in Islamic and Arabic traditions....
  • Jamʿiyyat-e Eslāmī (political group, Afghanistan)
    ...in the country. Founded in 1965, the party soon split into two factions, known as the People’s (Khalq) and Banner (Parcham) parties. Another was a conservative religious organization known as the Islamic Society (Jamʿiyyat-e Eslāmī), which was founded by a number of religiously minded individuals, including members of the University of Kabul faculty of religion, in 1...
  • Jammes, Francis (French author)
    French poet and novelist whose simple rustic themes were a contrast to the decadent element in French literature of the turn of the century....
  • jamming (electronics)
    in electronics, broadcasting a strong signal that overrides or obscures a target signal. Jamming of radio and television stations broadcasting from beyond borders may be carried out by a country that does not wish its citizens to receive programs from abroad. In military activities, jamming is frequently employed to confuse enemy radar or communications. The techniques of jammi...
  • Jammu (India)
    city and winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, northern India. It lies along the Tawi River, south of Srinagar (the state’s summer capital), and to the north is the Siwalik Range. Once the capital of the Dogra dynasty, Jammu became part of the domain of the maharaja Ranjit Singh...
  • Jammu and Kashmir (state, India)
    state of India, located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in the vicinity of the Karakoram and western Himalayan mountain ranges. The state is part of the larger region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since the partitio...
  • Jāmnagar (district, India)
    ...districts. Cement, pottery, textiles, and salt are the main industrial products, and the town is famous for its bāndhanī (tie-dyeing work), gold embroidery, and metalware. Jāmnagar is served by highways, railways, and an airport....
  • Jamnagar (India)
    town, southwestern Gujarāt state, west-central India. Jāmnagar is situated on the Kāthiāwār Peninsula, southeast of Bedi, its port on the Gulf of Kutch of the Arabian Sea. Founded in 1540, it was the capital of former Nawānagar state. Its historic temples and palaces contrast with modern factories, hospitals, and residential districts. Cement, pottery, te...
  • Jamnia (ancient city, Palestine)
    ancient city of Palestine (now Israel) lying about 15 miles (24 km) south of Tel Aviv–Yafo and 4 miles (6 km) from the Mediterranean Sea. Settled by Philistines, Jabneh came into Jewish hands in the time of Uzziah in the 8th century bc. Judas Maccabeus (d. 161 bc) attacked the harbour of Jabneh in his anger at the inhabitants’ hostility....
  • Jamnia, Synod of (Judaism)
    ...such sacred writings are studied to find the revealed word of God, a settled delimiting of the writings—i.e., a canon—must be selected. In the last decade of the 1st century, the Synod of Jamnia (Jabneh), in Palestine, fixed the canon of the Bible for Judaism, which, following a long period of flux and fluidity and controversy about certain of its books, Christians came to....
  • Jamón, jamón (film by Luna)
    ...at age five. After briefly studying painting in Madrid, he concentrated on an acting career. In 1992 he received much attention—especially from women—for his work in Jamón, jamón, in which he played an underwear model hired to romance a factory worker. Three years later he proved he was more than a sex symbol by winning a Goya Award (Spain...
  • jamrah (Islam)
    ...by tradition as the site where the patriarch Ibrāhīm (Abraham) stoned Shayṭān (Satan). On the 11th, 12th, and 13th of the month, the ritual is repeated at all three jamrahs, these being stone towers located in the valley of Minā; each is pelted with seven stones every noon for the three days....
  • Jāmrai Tlāng Mountains (mountains, India)
    ...Plains. Each successive ridge of hills to the east rises higher than the one before; the low Deotamura Range is followed by the Artharamura, Langtarai, and Sākhān Tlāng ranges. The Jāmrai Tlāng Mountains, 46 miles (74 km) in length, have the highest peak, Betling Sib (3,280 feet [1,000 m]). The Tripura Hills, once heavily forested, now have patches of bare soi...
  • jamrat al-agabah, al- (Islamic construction)
    ...as completed by Muḥammad. On the 10th day of the Dhū al-Ḥijjah, the month of the ḥajj, they each throw seven small stones at a stone construction, al-jamrat al-ʿaqabah, which is identified by tradition as the site where the patriarch Ibrāhīm (Abraham) stoned Shayṭān (Satan). On the 11th, 12th, and 13th of the......
  • Jamrūd (Pakistan)
    town in the Khyber Agency of Peshāwar Division, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, lying 1,512 ft (461 m) above sea level at the entrance to the Khyber Pass. It is connected by road and rail with Peshāwar and with Landi Kotal through the pass by the Afghan border. Noted for its fort built with 10-ft (3-m) thick walls c. 1836 by the Sikh Hari Singh Nalwa, one of Ranjit Si...
  • Jamshedpur (India)
    city, East Singhbhūm district, Jharkhand state, northeastern India, at the junction of the Subarnarekhā and Kharkai rivers. Sometimes called Tatanagar, the city was named for industrialist Jamsetji (Jamshedji) Nusserwanji Tata, whose company opened a steel plant there in 1911, and it rapidly grew in importance. The second largest city in the state, Jamshedpur is a ...
  • Jamshid (Iranian religion)
    in ancient Iranian religion, the first man, the progenitor of the human race, and son of the sun. Yima is the subject of conflicting legends obscurely reflecting different religious currents....
  • Jämtland (county, Sweden)
    län (county) of western Sweden, on the Norwegian border. It takes in the traditional landskap (provinces) of Jämtland and Härjedalen. The land rises in the west to 5,780 feet (1,762 metres) but falls to below 1,500 feet in the east. It is drained by the rivers Ljungan, Indalsälven, Ångermanälven, and Ljusnan; Storsjö...
  • Jamuka (Mongolian leader)
    ...to have had nothing else to offer; yet, in exchange; Toghril promised to reunite Temüjin’s scattered people, and he is said to have redeemed his promise by furnishing 20,000 men and persuading Jamuka, a boyhood friend of Temüjin’s, to supply an army as well. The contrast between Temüjin’s destitution and the huge army furnished by his allies is hard to ...
  • Jamuna (river, Asia)
    major river of Central and South Asia. It flows some 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometres) from its source in the Himalayas to its confluence with the Ganges River, after which the mingled waters of the two rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal. Along its course it passes through the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, the Indian sta...
  • Jan and Dean (American music duo)
    As Jan and Dean, Jan Berry (b. April 3, 1941Los Angeles, California, U.S.—d. March 26, 2004Los Angeles) and Dean Torrence (b. March 10, 1941Los......
  • Jan III Sobieski (king of Poland)
    elective king of Poland (1674–96), a soldier who drove back the Ottoman Turks and briefly restored the kingdom of Poland-Lithuania to greatness for the last time....
  • Jan Kazimierz Waza (king of Poland)
    king of Poland (1648–68) and pretender to the Swedish throne, whose reign was marked by heavy losses of Polish territory incurred in wars against the Ukrainians, Tatars, Swedes, and Russians....
  • Jan Mayen (island, Norway)
    island, part of the Kingdom of Norway, in the Greenland Sea of the Arctic Ocean, about 300 mi (500 km) east of Greenland. It is approximately 35 mi long and 9 mi across at its widest point, with an area of 144 sq mi (373 sq km). It is the peak of a submarine volcanic ridge, and Beerenberg volcano (7,470 ft [2,277 m]), the last major eruption of which was in 1732, forms the Nord-Jan, the northeast...
  • Jan Milíč z Kroměříže (Bohemian theologian)
    theologian, orator, and reformer, considered to be the founder of the national Bohemian religious-reform movement....
  • Jan Nepomucký, Svatý (Czech saint)
    patron saint of the Czechs, who was murdered during the bitter conflict of church and state that plagued Bohemia in the latter 14th century....
  • Jan of Jenštein (Bohemian archbishop)
    ...and skill in arranging compromise, and in less than a decade the delicate balance between the throne, the nobility, and the church hierarchy was upset. In a conflict with the church, represented by Jan of Jenštein, archbishop of Prague, the king achieved temporary success; the archbishop resigned and died in Rome (1400). The nobility’s dissatisfaction with Wenceslas’ regime...
  • Jan Olbracht (king of Poland)
    king of Poland and military leader whose reign marked the growth of Polish parliamentary government....
  • Jan S Čech (king of Bohemia)
    king of Bohemia from 1310 until his death, and one of the more popular heroic figures of his day, who campaigned across Europe from Toulouse to Prussia....
  • Jan Six (etching by Rembrandt)
    ...during that period or he did not accept such commissions for the decade. At the same time, he embarked on a number of extremely ambitious etchings, such as the portrait (1647) of his friend Jan Six (1618–1700) and especially the Hundred Guilder Print, a large (unfinished) print with episodes from chapter 19 of The Gospel According to Matthew....
  • Jan van Avesnes (count of Hainaut and Holland)
    count of Hainaut (1280–1304) and of the Dutch provinces of Holland and Zeeland (1299–1304), who united the counties and prevented the northward expansion of the house of Dampierre, the counts of Flanders....
  • Jan z Rokycan (Bohemian archbishop)
    priest, archbishop, and follower of Jan Hus (1372/73–1415); he was a chief organizer of the papally denounced Hussite Church and a major figure in Bohemian church history....
  • Jan z Teczyna (work by Niemcewicz)
    ...as John Dryden, John Milton, Alexander Pope, and Samuel Johnson during a period of imprisonment in 1794–96. Further, he introduced the historical novel to Poland with his three-volume Jan z Tęczyna (1825; “Jan of Tęczyn”), which was influenced by the Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott....
  • Janáček, Leoš (Czech composer)
    composer, one of the most important exponents of musical nationalism of the 20th century....
  • Jānakī (Hindu mythology)
    in Hindu mythology, the consort of Rāma and the embodiment of wifely devotion and self-surrender. Her abduction by the demon king Rāvaṇa and subsequent rescue are the central incidents in the great Hindu epic Rāmāyaṇa (“Romance of Rāma”). Sītā was raised by K...
  • Janakiraman, T. (Indian author)
    Contemporary literature is represented by T. Janakiraman, who writes novels, short stories, and plays with themes from urban Tamil middle-class family life; Jayakanthan, a sharp and passionate writer, with a tendency to shock his readers; and L.S. Ramatirthan, probably the finest stylist at work in Tamil today, who started by writing in English....
  • janam-sākhī (Sikh literature)
    ...writings, such as those of the first Sikh Gurū, Nānak (late 15th and early 16th centuries), are in Old Hindi rather than true Punjabi. The first work identifiable as Punjabi is the Janam-sākhī, a 16th-century biography of Gurū Nānak by Bala. In 1604, Arjun, the fifth Gurū of the Sikhs, collected the poems of Nānak and others into wh...
  • Janata Dal (political party, India)
    ...(I) even more vulnerable to opposition parties, including the right-wing Bharatiya Janata (“Indian People’s”) Party (BJP), headed by L.K. (Lal Krishna) Advani, and V.P. Singh’s new Janata Dal. In the general elections held in November, Gandhi barely managed to retain his own Lok Sabha seat, as the Congress (I), winning only 193 seats, lost its majority. The Janata Da...
  • Janata Dal (S) (political party, India)
    ...retained the largest single block of party faithful in the Lok Sabha; however, Advani’s BJP support also lined up against Singh. The smallest new party bloc in Lok Sabha belonged to Shekhar, whose Janata Dal (S)—the S stood for Socialist—gained the support of Gandhi and thus came to be invited by Pres. Ramaswamy Venkataraman to serve as prime minister before the end of 1990...
  • Janata Morcha (political party, India)
    ...1967 the BJS gained a substantial foothold in the Hindi-speaking regions of northern India. Ten years later the party, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, joined three other political parties to form the Janata Party and took over the reins of government. Plagued by factionalism and internal disputes, however, the government collapsed in July 1979. The BJP was formally established in 1980, following.....
  • Janata Party (political party, India)
    ...1967 the BJS gained a substantial foothold in the Hindi-speaking regions of northern India. Ten years later the party, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, joined three other political parties to form the Janata Party and took over the reins of government. Plagued by factionalism and internal disputes, however, the government collapsed in July 1979. The BJP was formally established in 1980, following.....
  • Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (revolutionary organization, Sri Lanka)
    ...they did nothing to address basic economic problems such as the mounting trade deficit. The educated youth, impatient for radical change, became disillusioned. Their discontent was mobilized by the People’s Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna; JVP), a group of revolutionary youth who launched an unsuccessful armed rebellion in 1971....
  • janbiyyah (weapon)
    ...near Aden in the south. In the past, coal and iron deposits supported a small-scale steel industry (primarily for the manufacture of swords and daggers, particularly the janbiyyah, a symbolic, largely ornamental dagger worn by many Yemeni men). There are deposits of copper, as well as some evidence of sulfur, lead, zinc, nickel, silver, and gold, and......
  • Janco, Marcel (artist)
    ...at Hugo Ball’s Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, during one of the meetings held in 1916 by a group of young artists and war resisters that included Jean Arp, Richard Hülsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, and Emmy Hennings. When a paper knife inserted into a French-German dictionary pointed to the French word dada (“hobby-horse...
  • Jancsó, Miklós (Hungarian director)
    In Hungary the abortive revolution of 1956 forestalled a postwar revival in film until the late 1960s, when the complex work of Miklós Jancsó (Szegénylegények [The Round-Up], 1965; Csillagosok, katonák [The Red and the White], 1967; Még......
  • Jandial (temple, Taxila, Pakistan)
    The Jandial temple, set up on an artificial mound, closely resembles the classical temples of Greece. Its Ionic columns and pilasters are composed of massive blocks of sandstone. Built in the Scythio-Parthian period, it is probably the temple described by Philostratus in his Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Though the Jandial temple is not Buddhist, the Jaulian remains are.......
  • Jandl, Ernst (Austrian poet)
    Austrian poet (b. Aug. 1, 1925, Vienna, Austria—d. June 9, 2000, Vienna), crafted “sound poetry” that relied on linguistic experimentation, word fragmentation, surrealist elements, and sardonic humour to express his anti-Nazi sentiments as well as his profound personal pessimism. Jandl was often linked with the Vienna Group, whose concrete poetry employed graphic patterns and ...
  • Jandl, Ivan (Czech actor)
    ...“Buttons and Bows” from The Paleface; music and lyrics by Ray Evans and Jay LivingstonHonorary Awards: Sid Grauman and Adolph Zukor; Walter Wanger for Joan of Arc; Ivan Jandl for The Search; Monsieur Vincent ...
  • Jandudum Cernimus (work by Pius IX)
    ...Roman Pontiff can and should reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization,” sought its authority in the pope’s refusal, in Jamdudum Cernimus, to have any dealings with the new Italian kingdom. On both scores, the Syllabus undermined the liberal Catholics’ position, for it destroyed their follow...
  • Jane (comic strip)
    ...Capp,” with its work-shy title character, surprisingly also ran in the Russian daily newspaper Izvestiya. A notably original strip was Norman Pett’s “Jane” (1932–59), published in the Daily Mirror. It used an artful striptease theme and had great popularity with servicemen during World War II. The mildly....
  • Jane (American women’s collective)
    Chicago-based women’s collective that provided more than 11,000 safe albeit illegal abortions between 1969 and 1973. The underground clinic, a small branch of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, strove to strengthen the pro-choice movement and abolish expensive, unsafe, and callously performed abortion services. They did so by providing medically sound, low-cost ...
  • Jane Eyre (novel by Brontë)
    English novelist, noted for Jane Eyre (1847), a strong narrative of a woman in conflict with her natural desires and social condition. The novel gave new truthfulness to Victorian fiction. She later wrote Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853)....
  • Jane Seymour (queen of England)
    third wife of King Henry VIII of England and mother of King Edward VI. She succeeded—where Henry’s previous wives had failed—in providing a legitimate male heir to the throne....
  • Janenz, Theodor Friedrich Emil (German actor)
    internationally known German actor famous for his tragic roles in motion pictures....
  • Janequin, Clément (French composer)
    a leading 16th-century French composer of chansons, famous for his program chansons, part-songs in which sounds of nature, of battles, and of the streets are imitated....
  • Janesville (Wisconsin, United States)
    city, seat (1839) of Rock county, southern Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on the Rock River, about 15 miles (25 km) north of Beloit and 40 miles (65 km) southeast of Madison. Settled in 1835 and named for a pioneer, Henry F. Janes, it developed as a trading centre for the surrounding agricultural region and as a manufacturing (agricultural equipmen...
  • Janet (French painter)
    Renaissance painter of portraits celebrated for the depth and delicacy of his characterization....
  • Janet, Pierre (French neurologist and psychologist)
    French psychologist and neurologist influential in bringing about in France and the United States a connection between academic psychology and the clinical treatment of mental illnesses. He stressed psychological factors in hypnosis and contributed to the modern concept of mental and emotional disorders involving anxiety, phobias, and other abnormal behaviour....
  • Janet, Pierre-Marie-Félix (French neurologist and psychologist)
    French psychologist and neurologist influential in bringing about in France and the United States a connection between academic psychology and the clinical treatment of mental illnesses. He stressed psychological factors in hypnosis and contributed to the modern concept of mental and emotional disorders involving anxiety, phobias, and other abnormal behaviour....
  • Janevski, Slavko (Macedonian author)
    ...language. With this new freedom to write and publish in its own language, Macedonia produced many literary figures in the postwar period. Poetry was represented in the work of Aco Šopov, Slavko Janevski, Blaže Koneski, and Gane Todorovski. Janevski was also a distinguished prose writer and the author of the first Macedonian novel, Selo zad sedumte......
  • Janeway, Eliot (American economist)
    U.S. economist and writer (b. Jan. 1, 1913, New York, N.Y.--d. Feb. 8, 1993, New York), proposed the controversial and thought-provoking theory that political pressures shape economic and market trends and was dubbed "Calamity Janeway" on Wall Street because of his perpetually gloomy forecasts on the stock market. Janeway, one of the foremost political economists in the U.S., studied economics at ...
  • Janeway, Elizabeth (American writer)
    American writer (b. Oct. 7, 1913, New York, N.Y.—d. Jan. 15, 2005, Rye, N.Y.), was a best-selling novelist in the 1940s who transformed herself into a critic, social historian, and feminist. Her popular novels included The Walsh Girls (1943), Daisy Kenyon (1945), and Leaving Home (1953). Janeway increasingly focused on writing book reviews for the New York Times ...
  • Janeway, James (British author)
    ...back to the early Middle Ages. This underwent a Puritan mutation after the Restoration. It is typified by that classic for the potentially damned child, A Token for Children (1671), by James Janeway. The Puritan outlook was elevated by Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), which, often in simplified form, was either forced upon children or more probably actually enjoye...
  • jang (Chinese philosophy)
    ...the centre of an obedient universe. Survivals of archaic notions concerning the compelling effect of renunciation—which the Confucians sanctified as ritual “deference” (jang)—are echoed in the recommendation to “hold to the role of the female,” with an eye to the ultimate mastery that comes of passivity....
  • Jang Bahadur (prime minister of Nepal)
    prime minister and virtual ruler of Nepal from 1846 to 1877, who established the powerful Rana dynasty of hereditary prime ministers, an office that remained in his family until 1951....
  • Janggala (historical kingdom, Indonesia)
    ...Foreseeing that two of his sons might quarrel, he divided his kingdom so that one son should rule over the southern part, known as Panjalu, Kadiri, or Daha, and the other over the northern part, Janggala. Erlangga’s sons refused to honour their father’s intentions. Fighting broke out, and the Kadiri rulers were unable to establish their uneasy domination over the kingdom until the...
  • Jangijul’ (Uzbekistan)
    ’, city, Tashkent oblast (province), Uzbekistan. The city lies in the middle of the Tashkent oasis. Formerly a village on the site of the ancient settlement of Kaunchi-Tepe, it developed between World Wars I and II because of its proximity to Tashkent and its situation on the Tashkent–Samarkand railway and Great Uzbek Highway. It is now a thriving centre of food and other ligh...
  • Jangjangbure (island, The Gambia)
    island, in the Gambia River, 176 miles (283 km) upstream from Banjul, central Gambia. It was ceded in 1823 to Captain Alexander Grant of the African Corps, who was acting for the British crown. Designated as a site for freed slaves, the island was renamed for Sir Charles MacCarthy, British colonial governor (1814–24). In the 1830s peanut (groundnut) cultivation was introduced by the Wesleya...
  • Jango (Brazilian politician)
    reformist president of Brazil (1961–64) until he was deposed....
  • Jani Beg (Uzbek leader)
    ...(13th–14th centuries ce), most of the territory was part of the ulus (“polity”) of Chagatai. About 1465, under the leadership of Karay and Jani Beg, some 200,000 dissatisfied subjects of the Uzbek khan Abūʾl-Khayr (Abū al-Khayr) moved into Mughulistān, whose khan, Esen Bogha (Buga), settled th...
  • Jani Beg (Mongol ruler)
    ...Öz Beg based his power upon firm control of the Crimea and had extensive relations with the Genoese and Venetians, who controlled the main ports there. After the death of Öz Beg’s son Jani Beg in 1357, however, the empire began to reveal serious internal strains. The tribes of the west paid little heed to the khans who appeared in dizzying succession in Sarai; the northern ...
  • Janicius, Klemens (Polish poet)
    ...(Johannes Dantiscus), an author of incidental verse, love poetry, and panegyric; Andrzej Krzycki (Cricius), an archbishop who wrote witty epigrams, political verse, and religious poems; and Klemens Janicki (Janicius), a peasant who studied in Italy and won there the title of poet laureate. Janicki was the most original Polish poet of the age....
  • Janicki, Klemens (Polish poet)
    ...(Johannes Dantiscus), an author of incidental verse, love poetry, and panegyric; Andrzej Krzycki (Cricius), an archbishop who wrote witty epigrams, political verse, and religious poems; and Klemens Janicki (Janicius), a peasant who studied in Italy and won there the title of poet laureate. Janicki was the most original Polish poet of the age....
  • Janiculum (hill, Rome, Italy)
    Behind the river plain of Trastevere is the Gianicolo (Janiculum), and behind the Piazza del Popolo across the river is the Pincio. Both are now parkland, with villas, gardens, and churches discreetly disposed. The Janiculum crest was made into a park in 1870 to honour Garibaldi for his heroic but unsuccessful defense of the Roman Republic in 1849. During the Roman Empire the Pincio was covered......
  • Janid dynasty (Asian history)
    During Shaybanid rule, and even more under the Ashtarkhanids (also known as Astrakhanids, Tuquy-Timurids, or Janids) who succeeded them during the 1600s, Central Asia experienced a decline in prosperity compared with the preceding Timurid period, in part because of a marked reduction in the transcontinental caravan trade following the opening of new oceanic trade routes. In the 1700s the basins......
  • Janie Porter Barrett School for Girls (school, Virginia, United States)
    ...federation until 1942, when it became solely a function of the Virginia Department of Welfare and Institutions. Barrett retired as superintendent in 1940. Ten years later the school was renamed the Janie Porter Barrett School for Girls....
  • Janīn (town in the West Bank)
    town in the West Bank. Originally administered as part of the British mandate of Palestine (1920–48), Janīn was in the area annexed by Jordan in 1950 following the first of the Arab-Israeli wars (1948–49). After the Six-Day War of 1967, it was part of the West Bank territory under Israeli occupation until coming under the administration of...
  • Janina (Greece)
    city and capital, nomós (department) of Ioánnina, in the Epirus (Ípiros) region of northwestern Greece. It is located on a plateau on the western side of Lake Ioánnina (ancient Pambotis), facing the gray limestone mass of Mount Mitsikéli....
  • Janissary corps (Turkish military)
    (New Soldier, or Troop), member of an elite corps in the standing army of the Ottoman Empire from the late 14th century to 1826. Highly respected for their military prowess in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Janissaries became a powerful political force within the Ottoman state. The Janissary corps was originally staffed by Christian youths from the Balkan provinces who were converted to Isl...
  • Janissary music
    in a narrow sense, the music of the Turkish military establishment, particularly of the Janissaries, an elite corps of royal bodyguards (disbanded 1826); in a broad sense, a particular repertory of European music the military aspect of which derives from conscious imitation of the music of the Janissaries....
  • Janiszewski, Zygmunt (Polish mathematician)
    ...in 1904, and in 1908 he became the first person anywhere to lecture on set theory. During World War I it became clear that an independent Polish state might emerge, and Sierpiński, with Zygmunt Janiszewski and Stefan Mazurkiewicz, planned the future shape of the Polish mathematical community: it would be centred in Warsaw and Lvov, and, because resources for books and journals would......
  • Janizary (Turkish military)
    (New Soldier, or Troop), member of an elite corps in the standing army of the Ottoman Empire from the late 14th century to 1826. Highly respected for their military prowess in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Janissaries became a powerful political force within the Ottoman state. The Janissary corps was originally staffed by Christian youths from the Balkan provinces who were converted to Isl...
  • Janjangbure (The Gambia)
    town, port on MacCarthy Island in the Gambia River in central Gambia. It was founded in 1823 by Captain Alexander Grant as a settlement for freed slaves. Georgetown’s Wesleyan Mission (1823) introduced the peanut (groundnut), a crop still exported downstream on the Gambia River. Georgetown is a collecting centre for...
  • Janjangbureh (The Gambia)
    town, port on MacCarthy Island in the Gambia River in central Gambia. It was founded in 1823 by Captain Alexander Grant as a settlement for freed slaves. Georgetown’s Wesleyan Mission (1823) introduced the peanut (groundnut), a crop still exported downstream on the Gambia River. Georgetown is a collecting centre for...
  • Janjaweed (Sudanese militia)
    ...was the Sudanese government’s disregard for the western region and its non-Arab population. The government in Khartoum responded by creating an Arab militia force—which came to be known as Janjaweed (also Jingaweit or Janjawid)—that began attacking the sedentary groups in Darfur. Within a year, tens of thousands of people (primarily Fur and other agriculturalists) had been....
  • Janjawid (Sudanese militia)
    ...was the Sudanese government’s disregard for the western region and its non-Arab population. The government in Khartoum responded by creating an Arab militia force—which came to be known as Janjaweed (also Jingaweit or Janjawid)—that began attacking the sedentary groups in Darfur. Within a year, tens of thousands of people (primarily Fur and other agriculturalists) had been....
  • Jankov, Battle of (European history)
    ...was saved from further defeat only by the outbreak of war between Denmark and Sweden (May 1643–August 1645). Yet, even before Denmark’s final surrender, the Swedes were back in Bohemia, and at Jankov (March 6, 1645) they totally destroyed another imperial army. The emperor and his family fled to Graz, while the Swedes advanced to the Danube and threatened Vienna. Reinforcements we...
  • Janković, Danica (Serbian author)
    Two sisters from Serbia, Ljubica Janković (1894–1974) and Danica Janković (1898–1960), devoted much of their lives to collecting and analyzing folk dances from Serbia and other parts of what was then Yugoslavia. Between 1934 and 1951 they published six volumes and several monographs of dance research in Serbian for the Yugoslav government. In the work they analyzed......
  • Janković, Ljubica (Serbian author)
    Two sisters from Serbia, Ljubica Janković (1894–1974) and Danica Janković (1898–1960), devoted much of their lives to collecting and analyzing folk dances from Serbia and other parts of what was then Yugoslavia. Between 1934 and 1951 they published six volumes and several monographs of dance research in Serbian for the Yugoslav government. In the work they analyzed......
  • Janmāṣṭamī (Hindu festival)
    Hindu festival celebrating the birth (janma) of the god Krishna (Kṛṣṇa) on the eighth (aṣṭamī) day of the dark fortnight of the month of Bhādrapada (August–September). The eighth also has significance in the Krishna legend that he is the 8th of the 10 usually enumerated avatars (incarnations) of Lord Vishnu a...
  • Jannequin, Clément (French composer)
    a leading 16th-century French composer of chansons, famous for his program chansons, part-songs in which sounds of nature, of battles, and of the streets are imitated....
  • Jannings, Emil (German actor)
    internationally known German actor famous for his tragic roles in motion pictures....
  • János Hill (hill, Budapest, Hungary)
    The hills of Buda, with their pleasant wooded paths, can be reached easily from the town either by an old cog railway, bus, or a chairlift that takes sightseers to the top of János Hill, which, at 1,729 feet (527 metres) above sea level, is the highest point in Budapest. The Children’s Railway (Gyermekvasút), which winds through the hills, is managed largely by children....
  • Janos, Jesse George (American politician and pro wrestler)
    Ready to rumble through 1999 was Jesse (“The Body”) Ventura, the former professional wrestler who pulled off a stunning political upset in the November 1998 elections to become governor of Minnesota. In his years as a pro wrestler, the 1.93-m (6-ft 4-in), 117-kg (260-lb) Ventura was known for delivering flying elbow drops and booming tirades. Continuing in his signature off-the-top-r...
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