OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bristol (Pennsylvania)

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​BRISTOL, a borough of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Delaware river, opposite Burlington, New Jersey, 20 m. N.E. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890) 6553; (1900) 7104 (1134 foreign-born); (1910) 9256. It is served by the Pennsylvania railway. The borough is built on level ground elevated several feet above the river, and in the midst of an attractive farming country. The principal business houses are on Mill Street; while Radcliffe Street extends along the river. Among Bristol’s manufacturing establishments are machine shops, rolling mills, a planing mill, yarn, hosiery and worsted mills, and factories for making carpets, wall paper and patent leather. Bath Springs are located just outside the borough limits; though not so famous as they were early in the 18th century, these springs are still well known for the medicinal properties of their chalybeate waters. Bristol was one of the first places to be settled in Pennsylvania after William Penn received his charter for the province in 1681, and from its settlement until 1725 it was the seat of government of the county. It was laid out in 1697 and was incorporated as a borough in 1720; the present charter, however, dates only from 1851.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brisson, Mathurin Jacques

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​BRISSON, MATHURIN JACQUES (1723–1806), French zoologist and natural philosopher, was born at Fontenay le Comte on the 30th of April 1723. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history, his published works in this department including Le Règne animal (1756) and Ornithologie (1760). After the death of R. A. F. Réaumur (1683–1757), whose assistant he was, he abandoned natural history, and was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Navarre and later at Paris. His most important work in this department was his Poids spécifiques des corps (1787), but he published several other books on physical subjects which were in considerable repute for a time. He died at Croissy near Paris, on the 23rd of June 1806.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bristol (Rhode Island)

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​BRISTOL, the shire-township of Bristol county, Rhode Island, U.S.A., about 15 m. S.S.E. of Providence, between Narragansett Bay on the W. and Mount Hope Bay on the E., thus being a peninsula. Pop. (1900) 6901, of whom 1923 were foreign-born; (1905; state census) 7512; (1910) 8565; area 12 sq. m. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford, and the Rhode Island Suburban railways, and is connected with the island of Rhode Island by ferry. Mount Hope (216 ft.), on the eastern side, commands delightful views of landscape, bay and river scenery. Elsewhere in the township the surface is gently undulating and generally well adapted to agriculture, especially to the growing of onions. A small island, Hog Island, is included in the township. The principal village, also known as Bristol, is a port of entry with a capacious and deep harbour, has manufactories of rubber and woollen goods, and is well known as a yacht-building centre, several defenders of the America’s Cup, including the “Columbia” and the “Reliance,” having been built in the Herreshoff yards here. At the close of King Philip’s War in 1676, Mount Hope Neck (which had been the seat of the vanquished sachem), with most of what is now the township of Bristol, was awarded to Plymouth Colony. In 1680, immediately after Plymouth had conveyed the “Neck” to a company of four, the village was laid out; the following year, in anticipation of future commercial importance, the township and the village were named Bristol, from the town in England. The township became the shire-township in 1685, passed under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts in 1692, and in 1747 was annexed to Rhode Island. During the War of Independence the village was bombarded by the British on the 7th of October 1775, but suffered little damage; on the 25th of May 1778 it was visited and partially destroyed by a British force.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bristol (Tennessee)

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​BRISTOL, a city of Sullivan county, Tennessee, and Washington county, Virginia, U.S.A., 130 m. N.E. of Knoxville, Tennessee, at an altitude of about 1700 ft. Pop. (1880) 3209; (1890) 6226; (1900) 9850 (including 1981 negroes); (1910) 13,395, of whom 7148 were in Tennessee and 6247 were in Virginia. Bristol is served by the Holston Valley, the Southern, the Virginia & South-Western, and the Norfolk & Western railways, and is a railway centre of some importance. It is near the great mineral deposits of Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina; an important distributing point for iron, coal and coke; and has tanneries and lumber mills, iron furnaces, tobacco factories, furniture factories and packing houses. It is the seat of Sullins College (Methodist Episcopal, South; 1870) for women, and of the Virginia Institute for Women (Baptist, 1884), both in the state of Virginia, and of a normal college for negroes, on the Tennessee side of the state line. The Tennessee-Virginia boundary line runs through the principal street, dividing the place into two separate corporations, the Virginia part, which before 1890 (when it was chartered as a city) was known as Goodson, being administratively independent of the county in which it is situated. Bristol was settled about 1835, and the town of Bristol, Tennessee, was first incorporated in 1856.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aẓān

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​AẒĀN (Arabic for “announcement”), the call or summons to public prayers proclaimed by the Muezzin (crier) from the mosque twice daily in all Mahommedan countries. In small mosques the Muezzin at Aẓān stands at the door or at the side of the building; in large ones he takes up his position in the minaret. The call translated runs: “God is most great!” (four times), “I testify there is no God but God!” (twice), “I testify that Mahomet is the apostle of God!” (twice), “Come to prayer!” (twice), “Come to salvation!” (twice), “God is most great!” (twice), “There is no God but God!” To the morning Aẓān are added the words, “Prayer is better than sleep!” (twice). The devout Moslem has to make a set response to each phrase of the Muezzin. At first these are mere repetitions of Aẓān, but to the cry “Come to prayer!” the listener must answer, “I have no power nor strength but from God the most High and Great.” To that of “Come to salvation!” the formal response is, “What God willeth will be: what He willeth not will not be.” The recital of the Aẓān must be listened to with the utmost reverence. The passers in the streets must stand still, all those at work must cease from their labours, and those in bed must sit up.
The Muezzin, who is a paid servant of the mosque, must stand with his face towards Mecca and with the points of his forefingers in his ears while reciting Aẓān. He is specially chosen for good character, and Aẓān must not be recited by any one unclean, by a drunkard, by the insane, or by a woman. The summons to prayers was at first simply “Come to prayer!” Mahomet, anxious to invest the call with the dignity of a ceremony, took counsel of his followers. Some suggested the Jewish trumpet, others the Christian bell, but according to legend the matter was finally settled by a dream:—“While the matter was under discussion, Abdallah, a Khazrajite, dreamed that he met a man clad in green raiment, carrying a bell. Abdallah sought to buy it, saying that it would do well for bringing together the assembly of the faithful. 'I will show thee a better way,' replied the stranger; 'let a crier cry aloud “God is most great, &c.”' On awaking, Abdallah went to Mahomet and told him his dream,” and Aẓān was thereupon instituted.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Azure

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​AZURE (derived, through the Romance languages, from the Arabic al-lazward, for the precious stone lapis lazuli, the initial l having dropped), the lapis lazuli; and so its colour, blue.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aṣma'ī

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​AṢMAʽĪ [Abū Saʽīd ʽAbd ul-Malik ibn Quraib] (c. 739–831), Arabian scholar, was born of pure Arab stock in Basra and was a pupil there of Abū ʽAmr ibn ul-ʽAlā. He seems to have been a poor man until by the influence of the governor of Baṣra he was brought to the notice of Harūn al-Rashīd, who enjoyed his conversation at court and made him tutor of his son. He became wealthy and acquired property in Baṣra, where he again settled for a time; but returned later to Bagdad, where he died in 831. Aṣmaʽī was one of the greatest scholars of his age. From his youth he stored up in his memory the sacred words of the Koran, the traditions of the Prophet, the verses of the old poets and the stories of the ancient wars of the Arabs. He was also a student of language and a critic. It was as a critic that he was the great rival of Abū ‘Ubaida (q.v.). While the latter followed (or led) the Shuʽūbite movement and declared for the excellence of all things not Arabian, Aṣmaʽī was the pious Moslem and avowed supporter of the superiority of the Arabs over all peoples, and of the freedom of their language and literature from all foreign influence. Some of his scholars attained high rank as literary men. Of Aṣmaʽī’s many works mentioned in the catalogue known as the Fihrist, only about half a dozen are extant. Of these the Book of Distinction has been edited by D. H. Müller (Vienna, 1876); the Book of the Wild Animals by R. Geyer (Vienna, 1887); the Book of the Horse, by A. Haffner (Vienna, 1895); the Book of the Sheep, by A. Haffner (Vienna, 1896).
For life of Aṣmaʽī, see Ibn Khallikān, Biographical Dictionary, translated from the Arabic by McG. de Slane (Paris and London, 1842), vol. ii. pp. 123-127. For his work as a grammarian, G. Flügel, Die grammatischen Schulen der Araber (Leipzig, 1862), pp. 72-80. (G. W. T.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aïssé, Mademoiselle

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​AÏSSÉ [a corruption of Haidée], Mademoiselle (c. 1694–1733), French letter-writer, was the daughter of a Circassian chief, and was born about 1694. Her father’s palace was pillaged by the Turks, and as a child of four years old she was sold to the Comte de Ferriol, the French ambassador at Constantinople. She was brought up in Paris by Ferriol’s sister-in-law with her own sons, MM. d’Argental and Pont de Veyle. Her great beauty and romantic history made her the fashion, and she attracted the notice of the regent, Philip, duke of Orleans, Whose offers she had the strength of mind to refuse. She formed a deep and lasting attachment to the Chevalier d’Aydie, by whom she had a daughter. She died in Paris on the 13th of March 1733. Her letters to her friend Madame Calandrini contain much interesting information with regard to contemporary celebrities, especially on Mme. du Deffand and Mme. de Tencin, but they are above all of interest in the picture they ​afford of the writer’s own tenderness and fidelity. Her Lettres were edited by Voltaire (1787), by J. Ravenel, with a notice by Sainte-Beuve (1846) and by Eugène Asse (1873). Mlle. Aïssé has been the subject of three plays: by A. de Lavergne and P. Woucher (1854), by Louis Bouilhet (1872) and by Dejoux (1898).
See also Courteault, Une Idylle au XVIIIᵉ siècle, Mlle. Aïssé et le Chevalier d’Aydie (Maçon, 1900); and notices prefixed to the editions of 1846 and 1873. There is an interesting essay by E. Gosse in his French Profiles (1905).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal

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​AḤMAD IBN ḤANBAL (780–855), the founder, involuntarily and after his death, of the Ḥanbalite school of canon law, was born at Bagdad in A.H. 164 (A.D. 780) of parents from Merv but of Arab stock. He studied the Koran and its traditions (hadīth, sunna) there and on a student journey through Mesopotamia, Arabia and Syria. After his return to Bagdad he studied under ash-Shāfī‛ī between 195 and 198, and became, for his life, a devoted Shāfi-‛ite. But his position in both theology and law was more narrowly traditional than that of ash-Shāfī‛ī; he rejected all reasoning, whether orthodox or heretical in its conclusions, and stood for acceptance on tradition (naql) only from the Fathers. (See further on this, Mahommedan Religion and Mahommedan Law.) In consequence, when al-Ma’mūn and, after him, al-Mo‛tasim and al-Wāthiq tried to force upon the people the rationalistic Mo‛tazilite doctrine that the Koran was created, Ibn Ḥanbal, the most prominent and popular theologian who stood for the old view, suffered with others grievous imprisonment and scourging. In 234, under al-Motawakkil, the Koran was finally decreed uncreated, and Ibn Ḥanbal, who had come through this trial better than any of the other theologians, enjoyed an immense popularity with the mass of the people as a saint, confessor and ascetic. He died at Bagdad in 241 (A.D. 855) and was buried there. There was ​much popular excitement at his funeral, and his tomb was known and visited until at least the 14th century A.D.
On his great work, the Musnad, a collection of some thirty thousand selected traditions, see Goldziher in ZDMG, l. 465 ff. For his life and works generally see W. M. Patten, Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Mihna; C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arab. Lit. i. 181 ff.; F. Wüstenfeld, Schäfi’iten, 55 ff.; M‘G. de Slane’s transl. of Ibn Khallikan, i. 44 ff.; MacDonald, Development of Muslim Theology, 110, 157, index. (D. B. Ma.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Azymites

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​AZYMITES (Gr. ἀ-, without; ζύμη, leaven), a name given by the Orthodox Eastern to the Western or Latin Church, because of the latter’s use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, a practice which arose in the 9th century and is also observed by Armenians and Maronites following the Jewish passover custom. The Orthodox Church strenuously maintains its point, arguing that the very name bread, the holiness of the mystery, and the example of Jesus and the early church alike, testify against the use of unleavened bread in this connexion.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ba-Kwiri

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​BA-KWIRI, a Bantu nation of German Cameroon, West Africa. According to tradition they are migrants from the eastward. The “Brushmen,” for that is the meaning of their name, are grouped in about sixty separate clans. They are a lively intelligent people, brave fighters and daring hunters, and in their love of songs, music and elocution are superior to many negro races. Their domestic affections are strongly developed. Their chief physical peculiarity is the great disparity between the size and complexion of the sexes, most of the women being much shorter and far lighter in colour than the men. The Ba-Kwiri are generous and open-handed among themselves; but the law of blood for blood is mercilessly fulfilled, even in cases of accidental homicide. Their religion is ancestor-worship blended with witchcraft and magic. They believe in good and evil spirits, those of the forests and seas being especially feared. In common with their neighbours the Dualla (q.v.) the Ba-Kwiri possess a curious drum language. By drum-tapping news is conveyed from clan to clan. Slaves and women are not allowed to master this language, but all the initiated are bound to repeat it so as to pass the messages on. The Ba-Kwiri have also a horn language peculiar to themselves.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Azurite

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AZURITE, or Chessylite, a mineral which is a basic copper carbonate, 2CuCO$_3$·Cu(OH)$_2$. In its vivid blue colour it contrasts strikingly with the emerald-green malachite, also a basic copper carbonate, but containing rather more water and less carbon dioxide. It was known to Pliny under the name caeruleum, and the modern name azurite (given by F. S. Beudant in 1824) also has reference to the azure-blue colour; the name chessylite, also in common use, is of later date (1852), and is from the locality, Chessy near Lyons, which has supplied the best crystallized specimens of the mineral. Crystals of azurite belong to the monoclinic system; they have a vitreous lustre and are translucent. The streak is blue, but lighter than the colour of the mineral in mass. Hardness 31/2– 4; sp. gr. 3·8.
Azurite occurs with malachite in the upper portions of deposits of copper ore, and owes its origin to the alteration of the sulphide or of native copper by water containing carbon dioxide and oxygen. It is thus a common mineral in all copper mines, and sometimes occurs in large masses, as in Arizona and in South Australia, where it has been worked as an ore of copper, of which element it contains 55%. Being less hydrated than malachite it is itself liable to alteration into this mineral, and pseudomorphs of malachite after azurite are not uncommon. Occasionally the massive material is cut and polished for decorative purposes, though the application in this direction is far less extensive than that of malachite. (L. J. S.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/B'nai B'rith, Independent Order of

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​B’NAI B’RITH (or Sons of the Covenant), INDEPENDENT ORDER OF, a Jewish fraternal society. It was founded at New York in 1843 by a number of German Jews, headed by Henry Jones, and is the oldest as well as the largest of the Jewish fraternal organizations. Its membership in 1908 was 35,870, its 481 lodges and 10 grand lodges being distributed over the United States, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Rumania, Egypt and Palestine. Its objects are to promote a high morality among Jews, regardless of differences as to dogma and ceremonial customs, and especially to inculcate the supreme virtues of ​charity and brotherly love. Political and religious discussions were from the first excluded from the debates of the order. In 1851 the first grand lodge was established at New York; in 1856, the number of district lodges having increased, the supreme authority was vested in a central body consisting of one member from each lodge; and by the present constitution, adopted in 1868, this authority is vested in a president elected for five years, an executive committee and court of appeals (elected as before). The first lodge in Germany was instituted at Berlin in 1883. A large number of charitable and other public institutions have been established in the United States and elsewhere by the order, of which may be mentioned the large orphan asylum in Cleveland, the home for the aged and infirm at Yonkers, N.Y., the National Jewish hospital for consumptives at Denver, and the Maimonides library in New York City. The B’nai B’rith society has also co-operated largely with other Jewish philanthropic organizations in succouring distressed Israelites throughout the world.
See the Jewish Encyclopaedia (1902), s.v.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Curtin, Andrew Gregg

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​CURTIN ANDREW GREGG (1817–1894), American political leader, was born at Bellefonte, Centre county, Pennsylvania, on the 22nd of April 1817, the son of a native of Ireland who was a pioneer iron manufacturer in Pennsylvania. He graduated from the law department of Dickinson College in 1837, was admitted to the bar in 1839, and successfully practised his profession. Entering politics as a Whig, he was chairman of the Whig state central committee in 1854, and from 1855 to 1858 was secretary of the commonwealth. In this capacity he was also ex officio the superintendent of common schools, and rendered valuable services to his state in perfecting and expanding the free public school system, and in establishing state normal schools. Upon the organization of the Republican party he became one of its leaders in Pennsylvania, and in October 1860 was chosen governor of the state on its ticket, defeating Henry D. Foster, the candidate upon whom the Douglas and Breckinridge Democrats and the Constitutional Unionists had united, by 32,000 votes, after a spirited campaign which was watched with intense interest by the entire country as an index of the result of the ensuing presidential election. During the Civil War he was one of the closest and most constant advisers of President Lincoln, and one of the most efficient, most energetic and most patriotic of the “war governors” of the North. Pennsylvania troops were the first to reach Washington after the president’s call, and from first to last the state, under Governor Curtin’s guidance, furnished 387,284 officers and men to the Northern armies. One of his wisest and most praiseworthy acts was the organization of the famous “Pennsylvania Reserves,” by means of which the state was always able to fill at once its required quota after each successive call. In raising funds and equipping and supplying troops the governor showed great energy and resourcefulness, and his plans and organizations for caring for the needy widows and children of Pennsylvania soldiers killed in battle, and for aiding and removing to their homes the sick and wounded were widely copied throughout the North. He was re-elected governor in 1863 and served until January 1867. He was United States minister to Russia from 1869 until 1872, when he returned to America and took part in the Liberal Republican revolt against President U. S. Grant. In 1872–1873 he was a member of the state constitutional convention. Subsequently he joined the Democratic party and was a representative in Congress from 1881 to 1887. He died at his birthplace, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on the 7th of October 1894.
See William H. Egle’s Life and Times of Andrew Gregg Curtin (Philadelphia, 1896), which contains chapters written by A. K. McClure, Jno. Russell Young, Wayne McVeagh, Fitz John Porter and others.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Curtius, Marcus

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​CURTIUS, MARCUS, a legendary hero of ancient Rome. It is said that in 362 B.C. a deep gulf opened in the forum, which the seers declared would never close until Rome’s most valuable possession was thrown into it. Then Curtius, a youth of noble family, recognizing that nothing was more precious than a brave citizen, leaped, fully armed and on horseback, into the chasm, which immediately closed again. The spot was afterwards covered by a marsh called the Lacus Curtius. Two other explanations of the name Lacus Curtius are given: (1) a Sabine general, Mettius (or Mettus) Curtius, hard pressed by the Romans under Romulus, leaped into a swamp which covered the valley afterwards occupied by the forum, and barely escaped with his life; (2) in 445 B.C. the spot was struck by lightning, and enclosed as sacred by the consul, Gaius Curtius. It was marked by an altar which was removed to make room for the games in celebration of Caesar’s funeral (Pliny, Nat. Hist. xv. 77), but restored by Augustus (cf. Ovid, Fasti, vi. 403), in whose time there was apparently nothing but a dry well. The altar seems to have been restored early in the 4th century A.D. In April 1904, on the N. side of the Via Sacra and 20 ft. N.W. of the Equus Domitiani, remains of the buildings were discovered.
See Livy i. 12, vii. 6; Dion Halic. ii. 42; Varro, De lingua Latina, v. 148; Ch. Hülsen, The Roman Forum (Eng. trans. of 2nd ed., J. B. Carter, 1906); O. Gilbert, Geschichte und Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertum, i. (1883), 334–338.