tank: Gun calibre: …were the M46, M47, and M48 medium tanks, all armed with 90-mm guns. After the mid-1950s the M47 tanks were passed on to the French, Italian, Belgian, West German, Greek, Spanish, and Turkish armies, and during the 1960s the M48 began to be replaced by the M60, which was armed…

Ring Nebula, (catalog numbers NGC 6720 and M57), bright nebula in the constellation Lyra, about 2,300 light-years from the Earth. It was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Augustin Darquier. Like other nebulae of its type, called planetary nebulae, it is a sphere of glowing gas thrown off

tank: Gun calibre: …to be replaced by the M60, which was armed with a U.S.-made version of the 105-mm gun developed for the British Centurion.

tank: Gun calibre: …to be replaced by the M60, which was armed with a U.S.-made version of the 105-mm gun developed for the British Centurion.

tank: Ammunition: M60A2 and the U.S.-West German MBT-70 were armed with 152-mm gun/launchers firing standard ammunition as well as launching Shillelagh guided antitank missiles, and the AMX-30 was armed experimentally with the 142-mm ACRA gun/launcher. But the high cost, unreliability, and slow rate of fire of the…

star: Estimates of stellar ages: …very old cluster such as M67, which is 4.5 billion years old, all of the bright main-sequence stars have disappeared.

bazooka: …or LAWs, such as the M72, a one-shot disposable weapon that weighed 5 pounds (2.3 kg) fully loaded yet could launch its rocket with reasonable accuracy out to 350 yards (320 metres).

armoured vehicle: Fully tracked carriers: …followed in 1952 by the M75, which had a similar box body but carried only 12 soldiers. The U.S. Army used a few M75s successfully during the Korean War.

small arm: Single shot: …single-shot, break-open, sawed-off shotgun, the M79 lobbed a 40-mm, 6-ounce (176-gram), high-explosive fragmentation grenade at a velocity of 250 feet per second to a maximum range of 400 yards. This covered the area between the longest range of hand-thrown grenades (30 to 40 yards) and the middle range of 60-mm…

Lagoon Nebula, (catalog numbers NGC 6523 and M8), ionized-hydrogen region located in the constellation Sagittarius at 1,250 parsecs (4,080 light-years) from the solar system. The nebula is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust approximately 10 parsecs (33 light-years) in diameter. A group of young,

M81 group: …group is the spiral galaxy M81. Much like the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies, M81 is of Hubble type Sb and luminosity class II.

M81 group, group of more than 40 galaxies found at a distance of 12 million light-years from Earth, one of the nearest galaxy groups to the Local Group (the group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way Galaxy). The dominant galaxy in the M81 group is the spiral galaxy M81. Much like the Andromeda

M87, giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo whose nucleus contains a black hole, the first ever to be directly imaged. M87 is the most powerful known source of radio energy among the thousands of galactic systems constituting the so-called Virgo Cluster. It is also a powerful X-ray

small arm: Self-loaders: …Beretta, given the NATO designation M9, reflected post-1970 trends such as large-capacity magazines (15 shots in the Beretta), double-action triggers (which could snap the hammer without its having to be cocked manually or automatically), and ambidextrous safety levers.

bazooka, shoulder-type rocket launcher adopted by the U.S. Army in World War II. The weapon consisted of a smooth-bore steel tube, originally about 5 feet (1.5 metres) long, open at both ends and equipped with a hand grip, a shoulder rest, a trigger mechanism, and sights. Officially titled the M9A1

mechanical advantage, force-amplifying effectiveness of a simple machine, such as a lever, an inclined plane, a wedge, a wheel and axle, a pulley system, or a jackscrew. The theoretical mechanical advantage of a system is the ratio of the force that performs the useful work to the force applied,

Octavia Spencer: …neighbour in the horror film Ma and an inscrutable high-school teacher in the drama Luce. That year the TV series Truth Be Told premiered, with Spencer cast as a journalist and host of a true-crime podcast. In 2020 she lent her voice to Dolittle, Onward, and Superintelligence and starred in…

Anatolian religion: The Phrygians: …the process by which this matronly figure was transformed into the Mountain Mother of the Phrygians can only be surmised.

Lajos Kassák: …a journal of radical opinion, Ma (“Today”).

Ningxia: History of Ningxia: …the political base of the Ma clan of Hezhou, Gansu. Wooed by the Nationalist Party—to which they declared nominal allegiance—as well as the Japanese and the Russians, the region remained an arena of conflict throughout the period between World Wars I and II.

gastronomy: The great French chefs: …wrote—Le Livre des menus (1924), Ma Cuisine (1934), and Le Guide culinaire (1921), written in collaboration with Gilbert—in which he codified the French cuisine in its modern form, setting down thousands of menus and clarifying the principles of French gastronomy. With the great hotel entrepreneur César Ritz, he established a…

Sarah Bernhardt: International success: …to disentangle in her autobiography, Ma Double Vie: mémoires de Sarah Bernhardt (1907; My Double Life: Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt, also translated as Memories of My Life). Bernhardt’s treatise on acting, L’Art du théâtre (1923; The Art of the Theatre), is revealing in its sections on voice training: the actress…

Ma Duanlin was a Chinese historian who wrote the Wenxian tongkao (“General Study of the Literary Remains”), a huge encyclopaedia of general knowledge. This work, with the works of two other historians of the Song dynasty (960–1279), Zheng Qiao (1104–62) and Sima Guang (1019–86), is considered one

Zheng He was an admiral and diplomat who helped extend the maritime and commercial influence of China throughout the regions bordering the Indian Ocean. He commanded seven naval expeditions almost a century before the Portuguese reached India by sailing around the southern tip of Africa. Zheng He

Chinese painting: Song (960–1279), Liao (907–1125), and Jin (1115–1234) dynasties: …artists including Li Tang and Ma Hezhi, often include lengthy inscriptions purportedly executed by the emperors themselves. They represent the finest survival today of the ancient court tradition of propagandistic historical narrative painting in a Confucian political mode.

ephedra: Major species and uses: Various Asian plants, particularly ma huang (Ephedra sinica), have been used as sources of the drug ephedrine. Ephedra has been a common herbal medicine in China for thousands of years, and several species are important in Ayurvedic medicine. Ephedrine is prescribed for colds, to break a fever and induce…

Ma Huateng is a Chinese business executive who was cofounder and CEO (1998– ) of Tencent Holdings Ltd., one of the world’s largest Internet companies. Ma studied computer science at Shenzhen University, where he earned (1993) a Bachelor of Science degree. He then worked in research and development

Wang Junxia: She was soon coached by Ma Junren, who was known for his demanding and sometimes cruel training regime as well as for the record-breaking performances of his star athletes. In 1992 Wang claimed the world junior championship in the 10,000 metres. In her greatest season, 1993, she won the world…

Chinese painting: Song (960–1279), Liao (907–1125), and Jin (1115–1234) dynasties: …masters Ma Yuan, his son Ma Lin, Xia Gui, and Liu Songnian, all of whom served with distinction in the painting division of the imperial Hanlin Academy. These artists used the Li Tang technique, only more freely, developing the so-called “large ax-cut” texture stroke. Their compositions are often “one-cornered,” depicting…

Penélope Cruz: The Spanish-language melodrama Ma ma (2015), which Cruz coproduced, featured her as a mother diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her comedic skills were on display in Ben Stiller’s fashion-industry satire Zoolander 2 (2016).

Éric Rohmer: …Ma Nuit chez Maud (1969; My Night at Maud’s) that he scored a commercial hit. Considered by most critics to be the centrepiece of the contes moraux, My Night at Maud’s is the story of a puritanical engineer marooned in a snowstorm who takes refuge in the apartment of an…

Chadwick Boseman: …and gifted musician Levee in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020), based on the play by August Wilson, was a tour de force, for which he received a posthumous Academy Award nomination. It was his final role. Boseman died of colon cancer on August 28, 2020, and it was revealed that…

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, drama in two acts by August Wilson, performed in 1984 and published in 1985. It was the first of a series of plays in which Wilson portrayed African American life in the 20th century. The play, set in a recording studio in Chicago in 1927, features Ma Rainey, a popular

Ma River, river, northern Vietnam, one of the longest of the region, rising in the northwest. It flows southeastward through Laos for about 50 miles (80 km), cutting gorges through uplands to reach the plains region at which northern Vietnam begins to narrow. The river enters the Gulf of Tonkin, 65

Zheng He was an admiral and diplomat who helped extend the maritime and commercial influence of China throughout the regions bordering the Indian Ocean. He commanded seven naval expeditions almost a century before the Portuguese reached India by sailing around the southern tip of Africa. Zheng He

Ma Duanlin was a Chinese historian who wrote the Wenxian tongkao (“General Study of the Literary Remains”), a huge encyclopaedia of general knowledge. This work, with the works of two other historians of the Song dynasty (960–1279), Zheng Qiao (1104–62) and Sima Guang (1019–86), is considered one

The Moldau: …six-movement suite, Má vlast (My Country), which premiered in its entirety in Prague on November 5, 1882.

Transoxania, (“That Which Lies Beyond the River”), historical region of Turkistan in Central Asia east of the Amu Darya (Oxus River) and west of the Syr Darya (Jaxartes River), roughly corresponding to present-day Uzbekistan and parts of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. A great centre of

Ma Yansong is a Chinese architect whose designs reflect his “Shanshui City” concept, which calls for balancing the natural environment, the urban landscape, and society in new ways through architecture. Ma graduated from the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture and then attended

Ma Ying-jeou is a Hong Kong-born politician who was chairman of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang; 2005–07 and 2009–14) and who later served as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan; 2008–16). Ma was born in British-occupied Hong Kong to parents who had fled mainland China after the communist

Ma Yuan was a Chinese general who helped establish the Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty (25–220 ce) after the usurpation of power by the minister Wang Mang ended the Xi (Western) Han dynasty (206 bce–25 ce). Ma began his career in the service of Wang Mang, but, when revolts erupted throughout the

Ma Yuan was an influential Chinese landscape painter whose work, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the Ma-Xia school of painting. Ma occasionally painted flowers, but his genius lay in landscape painting, his lyrical and romantic interpretation becoming the model for later

Ma Yuan was a Chinese general who helped establish the Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty (25–220 ce) after the usurpation of power by the minister Wang Mang ended the Xi (Western) Han dynasty (206 bce–25 ce). Ma began his career in the service of Wang Mang, but, when revolts erupted throughout the

Ma Yuan was an influential Chinese landscape painter whose work, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the Ma-Xia school of painting. Ma occasionally painted flowers, but his genius lay in landscape painting, his lyrical and romantic interpretation becoming the model for later

Jack Ma is a Chinese entrepreneur who was head of the Alibaba Group, which comprised several of China’s most popular Web sites, including the business-to-business marketplace Alibaba.com and the shopping site Taobao.com. Ma became interested in the English language as a young boy, and during his

Chinese literature: Drama: Ma Zhiyuan, another contemporary, wrote 14 plays, of which the most celebrated is Hangongqiu (“Sorrow of the Han Court”). It deals with the tragedy of a Han dynasty court lady, Wang Zhojun, who, through the intrigue of a vicious portrait painter, was picked by mistake…

Madi, group of more than 150,000 people who inhabit both banks of the Nile River in northwestern Uganda and in South Sudan. They speak a Central Sudanic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family and are closely related to the Lugbara, their neighbours to the west. Primarily hoe cultivators with

Fiji: History of Fiji: …rival was the Tongan chief Maʿafu, who led an army of Christian Tongans and their allies from eastern Fiji. After a short-lived alliance with Maʿafu, Cakobau became a Christian in 1854, thus bringing most Fijians under the influence of Methodist missionaries. Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries arrived later but did…

Ma’anshan, city and industrial centre in southeastern Anhui sheng (province). Ma’anshan is situated on the south bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) some 22 miles (35 km) downstream from Wuhu, near the border of Jiangsu province, opposite Hexian. The city is on the railway between Wuhu and

Madi, group of more than 150,000 people who inhabit both banks of the Nile River in northwestern Uganda and in South Sudan. They speak a Central Sudanic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family and are closely related to the Lugbara, their neighbours to the west. Primarily hoe cultivators with

Jack Ma is a Chinese entrepreneur who was head of the Alibaba Group, which comprised several of China’s most popular Web sites, including the business-to-business marketplace Alibaba.com and the shopping site Taobao.com. Ma became interested in the English language as a young boy, and during his

Yo-Yo Ma is a French-born American cellist known for his extraordinary technique and rich tone. His frequent collaborations with musicians and artists from other genres, cultures, and media reinvigorated classical music and expanded its audience. Ma was born to Chinese parents. A child prodigy, at

Ma’anshan, city and industrial centre in southeastern Anhui sheng (province). Ma’anshan is situated on the south bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) some 22 miles (35 km) downstream from Wuhu, near the border of Jiangsu province, opposite Hexian. The city is on the railway between Wuhu and

Standing Bear was a Ponca chief who advocated for the rights of Native Americans in the United States and successfully argued in court that Native people are “persons” under the U.S. Constitution. The Ponca traditionally lived close to the place where the Niobrara and Missouri rivers meet in what

Comana: …place where the cult of Ma-Enyo, a variant of the great west Asian mother goddess, was celebrated with orgiastic rites. The service was carried on in an opulent temple by thousands of temple servants. The city, a mere appanage of the temple, was governed by the chief priest, usually a…

Lake Mapam, lake, in the western Tibet Autonomous Region of China, to the south of the Kailas Range. Lying nearly 15,000 feet (4,600 metres) above sea level, it is generally recognized as the highest body of fresh water in the world. The lake is prominent in the mythology of Hinduism, and it has

Ma-Xia school, group of Chinese landscape artists that used a style of painting named after Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, two great painters of the Southern Song academy, of which they were members in the last quarter of the 12th century ad and the beginning of the 13th century. The aim of their landscapes

Black Hawk was a leader of a faction of Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) peoples. Black Hawk and his followers contested the disposition of 50 million acres (20 million hectares) of territory that had supposedly been granted to the United States by tribal spokesmen in the Treaty of St.

Black Hawk: …they had edited and published Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk. While its authenticity was questioned at the time, it is generally accepted now as Black Hawk’s autobiography. But it should not be viewed as entirely accurate—either as an account of events or as a record of Black Hawk’s understanding…

Lake Mapam, lake, in the western Tibet Autonomous Region of China, to the south of the Kailas Range. Lying nearly 15,000 feet (4,600 metres) above sea level, it is generally recognized as the highest body of fresh water in the world. The lake is prominent in the mythology of Hinduism, and it has

Matsu Island, small island under the jurisdiction of Taiwan in the East China Sea, lying off the Min River estuary of mainland China and about 130 miles (210 km) northwest of Chi-lung (Keelung), Taiwan. Matsu is the main island of a group of 19, the Matsu Islands, which constitute Lien-kiang

Ma-ubin, town, southern Myanmar (Burma). The town is a river port on the west bank of the main Irrawaddy distributary and is protected by flood-control embankments. It is linked with Yangon (Rangoon), 40 miles (65 km) east, by the Twante Canal and is the site of a diesel electric plant. The

Mawangdui, archaeological site uncovered in 1963 near Changsha, Hunan province, southeastern China. It is the burial place of a high-ranking official, the marquess of Dai, who lived in the 2nd century bc, and of his immediate family. He was one of many petty nobles who governed small semiautonomous

Ma-Xia school, group of Chinese landscape artists that used a style of painting named after Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, two great painters of the Southern Song academy, of which they were members in the last quarter of the 12th century ad and the beginning of the 13th century. The aim of their landscapes

Vietnam: Languages: Bahnar, Mnong, Mang (Maa), Muong, and Stieng—speak Mon-Khmer languages, connecting them with the Khmer. French missionaries and administrators provided Roman script for some of the Montagnard languages, and additional orthographies have since been devised.

maa-alused, in Estonian folk religion, mysterious elflike small folk living under the earth. Corresponding to these are the Finnish maahiset and Lude muahiset, which refer both to the spirits and to an illness caused by them. These terms refer to beings living under the earth with an existence

mafé, a West African dish consisting of meat in a peanut or peanut butter sauce served over rice or couscous. It originated in Mali and spread across the region, particularly in Senegal and the Gambia, during the colonial period, when efforts were undertaken to increase production of groundnuts.

maa-alused, in Estonian folk religion, mysterious elflike small folk living under the earth. Corresponding to these are the Finnish maahiset and Lude muahiset, which refer both to the spirits and to an illness caused by them. These terms refer to beings living under the earth with an existence

Finland: Local government: …into 19 maakunnat (regions; singular maakunta), including the autonomous region of Åland (Ahvenanmaa). Each regular maakunta is governed by a council. The country was divided into 12 läänit (provinces) until 1997, when that number was reduced to five, plus the autonomous territory of Åland, all of which were subdivided into…

Baaba Maal is a Senegalese musician known for his unique blend of traditional African rhythms and modern Western musical styles. Maal spent his childhood surrounded by music. He frequently joined his father, the muezzin at the local mosque in Podor, for the daily call to prayer—an exercise that

Maʿlula, village in southern Syria about 30 mi (50 km) north of Damascus. The houses are built on the slopes of a huge cirque of rocks that encloses the village; the houses are constructed of stones with flat beam roofs. Most of the houses have blue plaster on the outside, a Christian custom. Most

bhangra: Gurdas Maan was widely acclaimed—and criticized—for his creative juxtaposition of traditional, modern, Western, and South Asian elements, both in his lyrics, which often addressed the clash between Western and South Asian traditions, and in his musical style, which featured a notably polished electronic underpinning. Maan…

galaxy: The scale of the Milky Way Galaxy: …colleagues at Mount Wilson Observatory, Adrian van Maanen.

maar, small crater blasted by a low-temperature volcanic explosion and not associated with a volcanic cone. The rim of ejected fragmental material around the crater often is very low and inconspicuous. The best known of these are in the nearly horizontal, nonvolcanic rocks of the Eifel region in

Dora Maar was a French photographer and Surrealist artist whose career and accomplishments were overshadowed during her lifetime by the details of her affair with Pablo Picasso. Her work was resurrected and reexamined more thoughtfully after her death. Maar, whose mother was French and father was

Åland Islands: …and is the site of Mariehamn, the administrative capital, chief seaport, and only town. Also located on Åland is Orrdals Hill, the highest point of the archipelago, rising to a height of 423 feet (129 metres). From the 19th century until World War II, Mariehamn served as the centre of…

maarib, (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship:

maarib, (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship:

maarib, (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship:

maarib, (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship:

Aelbert Cuyp: , The Maas at Dordrecht (c. 1650)—or resting cattle silhouetted against an evening sky—e.g., A View of Vianen with a Herdsman and Cattle by a River (c. 1643/45)—and the bolder Rhenish landscapes, with groups of horsemen or peasants—e.g., An Evening Landscape with Figures and Sheep (c.…

Meuse River, river, rising at Pouilly on the Langres Plateau in France and flowing generally northward for 590 miles (950 km) through Belgium and the Netherlands to the North Sea. In the French part, the river has cut a steep-sided, sometimes deep valley between Saint-Mihiel and Verdun, and beyond

Nicolaes Maes was a Dutch Baroque painter of genre and portraits who was a follower of Rembrandt. In about 1650 Maes went to Amsterdam, where he studied with Rembrandt. Before his return to Dordrecht in 1654, Maes painted a few Rembrandtesque genre pictures as well as a biblical scene with

Maasai, nomadic pastoralists of East Africa. Maasai is essentially a linguistic term, referring to speakers of this Eastern Sudanic language (usually called Maa) of the Nilo-Saharan language family. These include the pastoral Maasai who range along the Great Rift Valley of Kenya and Tanzania, the

Solomon Islands: Independence: …a nationalist movement known as Maasina Rule, which lasted from 1944 to 1952. Subsequently, in response to the worldwide movement for decolonization, the Solomons set out on the path of constitutional development. The country was formally renamed Solomon Islands in 1975, and independence was attained on July 7, 1978. Peter…

Clara Maass was an American nurse, the only woman and the only American to die during the yellow fever experiments of 1900–01. Maass graduated from the Newark (New Jersey) German Hospital School of Nursing in 1895 and shortly afterward was named head nurse of the school. At the outbreak of the

Maastricht, gemeente (municipality), southeastern Netherlands. It lies along the Meuse (Maas) River at the junction of the Juliana, Liège-Maastricht, and Zuid-Willems canals. Maastricht is the principal city in the southeastern appendix of the Netherlands and is only 2 miles (3 km) from the Belgian

Maastricht Treaty, international agreement approved by the heads of government of the states of the European Community (EC) in Maastricht, Netherlands, in December 1991. Ratified by all EC member states (voters in Denmark rejected the original treaty but later approved a slightly modified version),

Siege of Maastricht, (6 June–1 July 1673). The Siege of Maastricht showed the genius of Sébastien Le Preste de Vauban, the most renowned military engineer of his day. In this siege, during the Franco-Dutch War, Vauban was able to capture the well-fortified city without a prolonged struggle. The

Spain: The War of the Spanish Succession: The treaties of Maastricht and Utrecht (1713) stripped it of its European possessions (Belgium, Luxembourg, Milan, Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples) and gave Britain Gibraltar and Minorca and the right to send one ship a year to trade with Spanish America.

canals and inland waterways: Europe: The Maastricht-Liège Canal was opened in 1850, enabling raw materials and steel to be transported from the Meuse and Sambre industrial areas by waterway throughout the Netherlands. In 1824 a long ship canal was built to bypass silting that obstructed navigation on the IJsselmeer (Zuiderzee) and…

Maastrichtian Stage, uppermost of six main divisions in the Upper Cretaceous Series, representing rocks deposited worldwide during the Maastrichtian Age, which occurred 72.1 million to 66 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Rocks of the Maastrichtian Stage overlie those of the Campanian

Maat: In its abstract sense, maat was the divine order established at creation and reaffirmed at the accession of each new king of Egypt. In setting maat ‘order’ in place of isfet ‘disorder,’ the king played the role of the sun god, the god with the closest links to Maat.…

Maat, in ancient Egyptian religion, the personification of truth, justice, and the cosmic order. The daughter of the sun god Re, she was associated with Thoth, god of wisdom. The ceremony of judgment of the dead (called the “Judgment of Osiris,” named for the god of the dead) was believed to focus

Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, becoming the first Black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. Her work was often considered both unwelcome and subversive in her own country, where her outspokenness constituted

Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, becoming the first Black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. Her work was often considered both unwelcome and subversive in her own country, where her outspokenness constituted

Lorin Maazel was a conductor and violinist who, as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1972 to 1982, was the second American to have served as principal conductor of a major American orchestra. Maazel grew up in Los Angeles and began his first musical instruction at age five. A musical

Lorin Maazel was a conductor and violinist who, as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1972 to 1982, was the second American to have served as principal conductor of a major American orchestra. Maazel grew up in Los Angeles and began his first musical instruction at age five. A musical

Mab, in English folklore, the queen of the fairies. Mab is a mischievous but basically benevolent figure. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, she is referred to as the fairies’ midwife, who delivers sleeping men of their innermost wishes in the form of dreams. In Michael Drayton’s mock-epic

Ouaddaï: The dominant people, the Maba, a Sudanic people, are Muslims. Their main economic activity is raising cattle. Other inhabitants include Arabs and Fulani.