Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Lindgren, Astrid, 1907–2002, Swedish author of children's fiction, b. Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson. She worked as a secretary before turning to writing as a profession and later was a children's book...

(Encyclopedia) Mufaddaliyat mō– [key], great Arabic anthology compiled by the celebrated philologist Al Mufaddal ad-Dabbi (d. c.775). It contains 126 poems, some complete odes, others fragmentary. They are all of...

(Encyclopedia) Malatya mälätˈyä [key], city (1990 pop. 276,666), capital of Malatya prov., E central Turkey, in the E Taurus Mts. It is the commercial center for a rich farm region that produces apricots, grapes...

(Encyclopedia) Mattei, Enrico ānrēˈkō mät-tāˈ [key], 1906–62, Italian public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian Petroleum Agency, a Fascist state enterprise. ...

(Encyclopedia) Matthiessen, F. O. (Francis Otto Matthiessen) măthˈĭsĕn [key], 1902–50, American critic, b. Pasadena, Calif., grad. Yale Univ., 1923, B.Litt., Oxford, 1925, Ph.D., Harvard, 1927. A Rhodes schola...

(Encyclopedia) Alfonso VIII (Alfonso the Noble), 1155–1214, Spanish king of Castile (1158–1214), son and successor of Sancho III. Chaos prevailed during his minority, but he quickly restored order after assuming...

(Encyclopedia) Didache dĭdˈəkē [key] [Gr.,=teaching], early Christian work written in Greek, called also The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Dates for its composition suggested by scholars have ranged from a.d....

(Encyclopedia) eclecticism ĭklĕkˈtĭsĭzˌəm [key] [Gr. eklektikos=to choose], in philosophy, the selection of elements from different systems of thought, without regard to possible contradictions between the sy...

(Encyclopedia) Churches of God, General Conference, conservative evangelical Christian bodies, Arminian in faith (see Jacobus Arminius), with certain Baptist doctrines. The movement originated during revivals held i...

(Encyclopedia) interdict ĭnˈtərdĭkt [key], ecclesiastical censure notably used in the Roman Catholic Church, especially in the Middle Ages. When a parish, state, or nation is placed under the interdict no public...