OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/A'Shā

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​ A‘SHĀ [Maimūn ibn Qais], Arabian poet, was born before Mahomet, and lived long enough to accept the mission of the prophet. He was born in Manfūha, a village of al-Yemāma in the centre of Arabia, and became a wandering singer, passing through all Arabia from Hadramut in the south to al-Hīra in the north, and naturally frequenting the annual fair at Okaz (Ukāz). His love poems are devoted to the praise of Huraira, a black female slave. Even before the time of Mahomet he is said to have believed in the resurrection and last judgment, and to have been a monotheist. These beliefs may have been due to his intercourse with the bishop of Nejrān (Najrān) and the ‘Ibādites (Christians) of al-Hīra. His poems were praised for their descriptions of the wild ass, for the praise of wine, for their skill in praise and satire, and for the varieties of metre employed. His best-known poem is that in praise of Mahomet.
His poems have been collected from various sources in L. Cheikho's Les Poètes arabes chrétiens (Jesuit press, Beirut, 1890), pp. 357-399. His eulogy of Mahomet has been edited by H. Thorbecke, Al Aša's Lobgedicht auf Muhammad (Leipzig, 1875). (G. W. T.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/A-she-ho

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​A-SHE-HO (Manch. Alchuku), a town of Manchuria, China, 125 m. N.E. of Kirin, and 30 m. S. of the Sungari. It is governed by a mandarin of the second class. Pop. about 60,000.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/'s Hertogenbosch

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​’S HERTOGENBOSCH (’sBosch, or den Bosch, French Bois-le-Duc), the capital of the province of North Brabant, Holland, at the confluence of the rivers Dommel and Aa, which unite to form the Dieze, and a junction station 291/2 m. S.S.E. of Utrecht and 271/2 m. W.S.W. of Nijmwegen by rail. It is connected by steam tramway with Helmond (21 m. S.E.) and by the Zuid-Willem’s canal with Maastricht (60 m. S. by E.). Pop. (1900) 32,345. ’s Hertogenbosch is a well-built city and contains several churches. The Roman Catholic cathedral of St John, the Janskerk, with its interior in a state of preservation rare in Holland, is one of the finest architecturally in the country. Occupying the site of a much earlier building, of which there are remains, the present church with its fine choir was built in the middle of the 15th century. The 15th-century font, the pulpit (1570), the organ (1617), and the early Gothic Lady ​chapel containing a much venerated 13th-century image of the Virgin, which was annually carried in procession through the town, are all noticeable. The choir-screen was sold to the South Kensington Museum in London for £900, this sum being devoted to the work of modern restoration. The town hall contains an interesting series of decorative panels by a modern artist, A. Derkinderen, describing the founding of the city. It also includes a museum of local antiquities. In the Provincial museum are interesting Roman, German and Frankish antiquities. The principal other buildings are the court house, government buildings (formerly a Jesuit monastery), episcopal palace, grammar school (once attended by Erasmus), a prison, hospitals, arsenal and barracks. 's Hertogenbosch is the market of the fertile Meiery district, and carries on a considerable trade, chiefly by water, with Dordrecht and Rotterdam, Nijmwegen, Amhem, Maastricht and Liège. The chief industries include distilleries, breweries, glass works, cigar factories and the ancient linen and cutlery manufactures.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/A Fortiori

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​A FORTIORI (Lat. “from a stronger [reason]”), a term used of an argument which justifies a statement not itself specifically demonstrated by reference to a proved conclusion which includes it; thus, if A is proved less than B, and is known to be greater than C, it follows a fortiori that C is less than B without further proof. The argument is frequently based merely on a comparison of probabilities (cf. Matt. vi. 30), when it constitutes an appeal to common sense.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aa

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​AA, the name of a large number of small European rivers. The word is derived from the Old German aha, cognate to the Latin aqua, water (cf. Ger. -ach; Scand. å, aa, pronounced ō). The following are the more important streams of this name:—Two rivers in the west of Russia, both falling into the Gulf of Riga, near Riga, which is situated between them; a river in the north of France, falling into the sea below Gravelines, and navigable as far as St Omer; and a river of Switzerland, in the cantons of Lucerne and Aargau, which carries the waters of Lakes Baldegger and Hallwiler into the Aar. In Germany there are the Westphalian Aa, rising in the Teutoburger Wald, and joining the Werre at Herford, the Münster Aa, a tributary of the Ems, and others.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/'Ashkenazi, Sebi

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​’ASHKENAZI, SEBI (1656–1718), known as Ḥakham Ṣebi, for some time rabbi of Amsterdam, was a resolute opponent of the followers of the pseudo-Messiah, Sabbatai Ṣebi (q.v.). He had a chequered career, owing to his independence of character. He visited many lands, including England, where he wielded much influence. His Responsa, are held in high esteem.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/A Priori

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​A PRIORI (Lat. a, from, prior, prius, that which is before, precedes), (1) a phrase used popularly of a judgment based on general considerations in the absence of particular evidence; (2) a logical term first used, apparently, by Albert of Saxony (14th century), though the theory which it denotes is as old as Aristotle. In the order of human knowledge the particular facts of experience come first and are the basis of generalized laws or causes (the Scholastic notiora nobis); but in the order of nature the latter rank first as the self-existent, fundamental truths of existence (notiora naturae). Thus to Aristotle the a priori argument is from law or cause to effect, as opposed to what we call a posteriori (posterior, subsequent, derived), from effect to cause. Since Kant the two phrases have become purely adjectival (instead of adverbial) with a technical controversial sense, closely allied to the Aristotelian, in relation to knowledge and judgments generally. A priori is applied to judgments which are regarded as independent of experience, and belonging to the essence of thought; a posteriori to those which are derived from particular observations. The distinction is analogous to that between analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction (but there may be a synthesis of a priori judgments, cf. Kant’s “Synthetic Judgment a priori”). Round this distinction a rather barren controversy has raged, and almost all modern philosophers have labelled themselves either “Intuitionalist” (a priori) or “Empiricist” (a posteriori) according to the view they take of knowledge. In fact, however, the rival schools are generally arguing at cross purposes; there is a knowledge based on particulars, and also a knowledge of laws or causes. But the two work in different spheres, and are complementary. The observation of isolated particulars gives not necessity, but merely strong probability; necessity is purely intellectual or “transcendental.” If the empiricist denies the intellectual element in scientific knowledge, he must not claim absolute validity for his conclusions; but he may hold against the intuitionalist that absolute laws are impossible to the human intellect. On the other hand, pure a priori knowledge can be nothing more than form without content (e.g. formal logic, the laws of thought). The simple fact at the bottom of the controversy is that in all empirical knowledge there is an intellectual element, without which there is no correlation of empirical data, and every judgment, however simple, postulates a correlation of some sort if only that between the predicate and its contradictory.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arnsberg

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​ARNSBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, romantically situated on an eminence almost surrounded by the river Ruhr, 44 m. S.E. of Münster and 58 m. E.N.E. of Düsseldorf by rail. Pop. (1900) 8490. It is the seat of the provincial authorities, and has three churches, a court of appeal, a Roman Catholic gymnasium, which was formerly the Benedictine abbey of Weddinghausen, a library, a normal school and a chamber of commerce. Weaving, brewing and distilling are carried on, and there are manufactories of white lead, shot and paper, works for the production of railway plant, and saw-mills. Near the town are the ruins of the castle of the counts of Arnsberg, the last of whom, Gottfried, sold his countship, in 1368, to the archbishop of Cologne. The countship was incorporated by the archbishops in their duchy of Westphalia, which in 1802 was assigned to Hesse-Darmstadt and in 1815 to Prussia. The town, which had received its first charter in 1237 and later joined the Hanseatic League, became the capital of the duchy.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arnstadt

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​ARNSTADT, a town in the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Germany, on the river Gera, 11 m. S. of Erfurt, with which it is connected by rail. Pop. (1900) 14,413. There are five churches, four Protestant and one Catholic. The Evangelical Liebfrauenkirche, a Romanesque building (mainly 12th-century), has two octagonal towers and a 10th-century porch. The palace contains collections of pictures and porcelain, and attached to it is a magnificent tower, all that remains of the castle built in 1560. The town hall dates from 1561. The industries of Arnstadt include iron and other metal founding, the manufacture of leather, cloth, tobacco, weighing-machines, paper, playing-cards, chairs, gloves, shoes, iron safes, and beer, and market-gardening and trade in grain and wood are carried on. There are copper-mines in the neighbourhood, as well as tepid saline springs, the waters of which are used for bathing, and are much frequented in summer. Arnstadt dates back to the 8th century. It was bought in 1306 by the counts of Schwarzburg, who lived here till 1716.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arnold, Samuel

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​ARNOLD, SAMUEL (1740–1802), English composer, was born at London on the 10th of August 1740. He received a thorough musical education at the Chapel Royal, and when little more than twenty years of age was appointed composer at Covent Garden theatre. Here, in 1765, he produced his popular opera, The Maid of the Mill, many of the songs in which were selected from the works of Italian composers. In 1776 he transferred his services to the Haymarket theatre. In 1783 he was made composer to George III. Between 1765 and 1802 he wrote as many as forty-three operas, after-pieces and pantomimes, of which the best were The Maid of the Mill, Rosamond, Inkle and Yarico, The Battle of Hexham, The Mountaineers. His oratorios included The Cure of Saul (1767), Abimelech (1768), The Resurrection (1773), The Prodigal Son (1777) and Elisha (1795). In 1783 he became organist to the Chapel Royal. In 1786 he began an edition of Handel’s works, which extended to 40 volumes, but was never completed. In 1793 he became organist of Westminster Abbey, where he was buried after his death on the 22nd of October 1802. Arnold is chiefly remembered now for the publication of his Cathedral Music, being a collection in score of the most valuable and useful compositions for that service by the several English masters of the last 200 years (1790).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arnott, Neil

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​ARNOTT, NEIL (1788–1874), Scottish physician, was born at Arbroath on the 15th of May 1788. He studied medicine first at Aberdeen, and subsequently in London under Sir Everard Home (1756–1832), through whom he obtained, while yet in his nineteenth year, the appointment of full surgeon to an East Indiaman. After making two voyages to China he settled in 1811 to practise in London, and speedily acquired high reputation in his profession. Within a few years he was made physician to the French and Spanish embassies, and in 1837 he became a physician extraordinary to the queen. From his earliest youth Arnott had an intense love of natural philosophy, and to this was added an inventiveness which served him in good stead in his profession and yielded the “Arnott water-bed,” the “Arnott ventilator,” the “Arnott stove,” &c. He was the author of several works bearing on physical science or its applications, the most important being his Elements of Physics (1827), which went through six editions in his lifetime. In 1838 he published a treatise on Warming and Ventilating, and, in 1855, one on the Smokeless Fireplace. He was a strong advocate of scientific, as opposed to purely classical, education; and he manifested his interest in natural philosophy by the gift of £2000 to each of the four universities of Scotland and to the university of London, to promote its study in the experimental and practical form. He died in London on the 2nd of March 1874.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arnould-Plessy, Jeanne Sylvanie

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​ARNOULD-PLESSY, JEANNE SYLVANIE (1819–1897), French actress, was born in Metz on the 7th of September 1819, the daughter of a local actor named Plessy. She was a pupil of Samson at the Conservatoire in 1829, and made her début as Emma at the Comédie Française in 1834 in Alexandre Duval’s La Fille d’honneur. She had an immense success, and Mlle Mars, to whom the public already compared her, took her up. Until 1845 she had prominent parts in all the plays, new and old, at the Théâtre Français, when suddenly at the height of her success, she left Paris and went to London, marrying the dramatic author, J. F. Arnould (d. 1854), a man much older than herself. The Comédie Française, after having tried in vain to bring her back, brought a suit against her, and obtained heavy damages. In the meantime Madame Arnould-Plessy accepted an engagement at the French theatre at St Petersburg, where she played for nine years. In 1855 she returned to Paris and was re-admitted to the Comédie Française, as pensionnaire with an engagement for eight years. This second part of her career was even more brilliant than the first. She revived some of her old rôles, but began to abandon the jeunes premières for ​the “lead,” in which she had a success unequalled since the retirement of Mlle Mars. Her later triumphs were especially associated with new plays by Émile Augier, Le Fils de Giboyer and Maître Guerin. Her last appearance was in Edouard Cadol’s La Grand-maman; she retired in 1876, and died in 1897.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arnswalde

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​ARNSWALDE, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, in a marshy district between four lakes, 20 m. S.W. of Stargard and on the main line between that place and Posen. Besides the Gothic church there are no noteworthy public buildings. Its industries include iron founding, machinery, and manufactures of cloth, matches and starch. Pop. (1900) 8665.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aaron's Rod

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​AARON’S ROD, the popular name given to various tall flowering plants (“hag taper,” “golden rod,” &c.). In architecture the term is given to an ornamental rod with sprouting leaves, or sometimes with a serpent entwined round it (from the Biblical references in Exodus vii. 10 and Numbers xvii. 8).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aarhus

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​AARHUS, a seaport and bishop’s see of Denmark, on the east coast of Jutland, of which it is the principal port; the second largest town in the kingdom, and capital of the amt (county) of Aarhus. Pop. (1901) 51,814. The district is low-lying, fertile and well wooded. The town is the junction of railways from all ​parts of the country. The harbour is good and safe, and agricultural produce is exported, while coal and iron are among the chief imports. The cathedral of the 13th century (extensively restored) is the largest church in Denmark. There is a museum of art and antiquities. To the south-west (13 m. by rail), a picturesque region extends west from the railway junction of Skanderborg, including several lakes, through which flows the Gudenaa, the largest river in Jutland, and rising ground exceeding 500 ft. in the Himmelbjerg. The railway traverses this pleasant district of moorland and wood to Silkeborg, a modern town having one of the most attractive situations in the kingdom. The bishopric of Aarhus dates at least from 951.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ab

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​AB, the fifth month of the ecclesiastical and the eleventh of the civil year of the Jews. It approximately corresponds to the period of the 15th of July to the 15th of August. The word is of Babylonian origin, adopted by the Jews with other calendar names after the Babylonian exile. Tradition ascribes the death of Aaron to the first day of Ab. On the ninth is kept the Fast of Ab, or the Black Fast, to bewail the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadrezzar (586 B.C.) and of the second by Titus (A.D. 70).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aba

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​ABA. (1) A form of altazimuth instrument, invented by, and called after, Antoine d’Abbadie; (2) a rough homespun manufactured in Bulgaria; (3) a long coarse shirt worn by the Bedouin Arabs.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Abaca

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​ABACA, or Abaka, a native name for the plant Musa textilis, which produces the fibre called Manila Hemp (q.v.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aarssens, Francis van

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​AARSSENS, or Aarssen, FRANCIS VAN (1572–1641), a celebrated diplomatist and statesman of the United Provinces. His talents commended him to the notice of Advocate Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, who sent him, at the age of 26 years, as a diplomatic agent of the states-general to the court of France. He took a considerable part in the negotiations of the twelve years’ truce in 1606. His conduct of affairs having displeased the French king, he was recalled from his post by Oldenbarneveldt in 1616. Such was the hatred he henceforth conceived against his former benefactor, that he did his very utmost to effect his ruin. He was one of the packed court of judges who in 1619 condemned the aged statesman to death. For his share in this judicial murder a deep stain rests on the memory of Aarssens. He afterwards became the confidential counsellor of Maurice, prince of Orange, and afterwards of Frederick Henry, prince of Orange, in their conduct of the foreign affairs of the republic. He was sent on special embassies to Venice, Germany and England, and displayed so much diplomatic skill and finesse that Richelieu ranked him among the three greatest politicians of his time.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Berekhiah Naqdan

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​BEREKHIAH NAQDAN, Jewish fabulist, author of a collection of Fox Fables, written in Hebrew. As his title implies (Naqdan＝punctuator of the Biblical text), Berekhiah was also a grammarian. He further wrote an ethical treatise and was the author of various translations. His date is disputed. Most authorities place him in the 13th century, but J. Jacobs has identified him with Benedictus le Puncteur, an English Jew of the 12th century.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Berezovsk

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​BEREZOVSK, a village of east Russia, in the government of Perm, on the eastern slope of the Urals, 8 m. N.E. of Ekaterinburg. It is the centre of an important gold-mining region (5 m. by 21/2) of the same name. The mines have been known since 1747. The inhabitants also manufacture boots, cut stone and carry on cabinet-making.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Berenice (Egypt)

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​BERENICE, an ancient seaport of Egypt, on the west coast of the Red Sea, in 23° 56′ N., 35° 34′ E. Built at the head of a gulf, the Sinus Immundus, or Foul Bay, of Strabo, it was sheltered on the north by Ras Benas (Lepte Extrema). The port is now nearly filled up, has a sand-bar at its entrance and can be reached only by small craft. Most important of the ruins is a temple; the remnants of its sculptures and inscriptions preserve the name of Tiberius and the figures of many deities, including a goddess ​of the emerald mines. Berenice was founded by Ptolemy II. (285–247 B.C.) in order to shorten the dangerous Red Sea voyages, and was named in honour of his mother. For four or five centuries it became the entrepot of trade between India, Arabia and Upper Egypt. From it a road, provided with watering stations, leads north-west across the desert to the Nile at Coptos. In the neighbourhood of Berenice are the emerald mines of Zabara and Saket.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Berezina

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​BEREZINA, a river of Russia, in the government of Minsk, forming a tributary of the Dnieper. It rises in the marshes of Borizov and flows south, inclining to east, for 350 m. (250 m. navigable), for the most part through low-lying but well-wooded country. As a navigable river, and forming a portion of the canal system which unites the Black Sea with the Baltic, it is of importance for commerce, but is subject to severe floods. It was just above Borizov that Napoleon’s army forced the passage of the Berezina, with enormous losses, on the 26th–28th of November 1812, during the retreat from Moscow.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Berezov

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​BEREZOV. a town of Asiatic Russia, in the government of Tobolsk, 700 m. N. of the city of that name, situated on three hills on the left bank of the Sosva, 26 m. above its mouth in the Ob, in 63° 55′ N. lat. and 65° 7′ E. long. It has more than once suffered from conflagrations—for example, in 1710 and 1808. Prince Menshikov, the favourite of Peter the Great and Catherine I., died here an exile, in 1729. In 1730 his enemy and rival, Prince Dolgoruki, was interned here with his family; and in 1742 General Ostermann was sent to Berezov with his wife and died there in 1747. The yearly mean temperature is 25° Fahr., the maximum cold being 4·7°. It has a cathedral, near which lie buried Mary Menshikov, once betrothed to the tsar Peter II., and some of the Dolgorukis. There is some trade in furs, mammoth bones, dried and salted fish. Pop. (1897) 1073.