Lake Maggiore, second largest lake in Italy (area 82 square miles [212 square km]), bisected by the border between Lombardy (east) and Piedmont (west). Its northern end is in the Swiss Ticino canton. At an elevation of 633 feet (193 metres) above sea level, the lake is 34 miles (54 km) long, with a

mystery religion: Roman imperial times: …the underground basilica near the Porta Maggiore (Major Gate) at Rome. There was also a blend of ideas in the community for which the Orphic hymns were written. The members of this community (probably in Asia Minor) assembled at night in a clubhouse and held their services by the light…

Paul Muldoon: Poetry: …with the photographer Norman McBeath), Maggot (2010), The Word on the Street: Rock Lyrics (2013), One Thousand Things Worth Knowing (2015), and Frolic and Detour (2019). Moy Sand and Gravel (2002) reaped both the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the Griffin Poetry Prize for an international writer in 2003.

maggot, soft-bodied grub that is the larva of many dipterous flies. About half of fly species produce larvae that would be categorized as maggots; other flies beget more specialized and distinct larvae. Of the fly species with maggots, the larval form persists through several stages of their life

Marma, people of the Chittagong Hills region of Bangladesh. The Marma numbered approximately 210,000 in the late 20th century. One group, the Jhumia Marma, have long settled in this southeastern region of Bengal; the other group, the Rakhaing Marma, are recent immigrants, having come from Arakan

Assam: Cultural life: The Magh Bihu, celebrated in mid-January (in the month of Magh), is a harvest festival. Known also as Bhogali Bihu (from bhog, meaning enjoyment and feasting), it is a time of community feasts and bonfires. The third Bihu festival, the Kati Bihu (in mid-October or November),…

feast: The significance of seasonal renewal in areas of other religions: …on the fifth day of Magha, symbolizes the ripening of crops. Feasts and festivals centring on seasonal renewal can be found among all peoples of the world, both past and present. Rogation festivities (Days of Asking), originally held by the ancient Romans to counteract the effectiveness of the deity (Robigus)…

Magha was a Sanskrit poet whose only recorded work is Shishupalavadha (“The Slaying of King Shishupala”), an influential mahakavya (“great poem”), a type of classical epic that consists of a variable number of comparatively short cantos. Magha was a master of technique in the strict Sanskrit sense

Magha was a Sanskrit poet whose only recorded work is Shishupalavadha (“The Slaying of King Shishupala”), an influential mahakavya (“great poem”), a type of classical epic that consists of a variable number of comparatively short cantos. Magha was a master of technique in the strict Sanskrit sense

Arabic literature: Belles lettres and narrative prose: …part of the collections of maghāzī (accounts of the Prophet’s raids during his lifetime) and sīrah (biographies of the Prophet). Beyond these specific genres, however, the logical structure of the khabar was replicated in a wide variety of other generic contexts. It is even possible to see the maqāmah genre…

Turkmen literature: But it was Makhtumquli Fïrāghī (Maghdïmgïlï), Āzādī’s son and the most important figure in Turkmen literature, who began to write in a form of the Turkmen language and who set Turkmen writing on the track it would travel throughout the rest of the 18th century and into the…

maghemite, an iron oxide mineral. It has a composition close to ferric oxide (Fe2O3) and exhibits strong magnetism and remanence. Its structure is isometric, of defective spinel form, and somewhat iron-deficient. Maghemite is metastable with respect to hematite and forms a continuous metastable

Magherafelt, town and former district (1973–2015) within the former county of Londonderry, now in Mid Ulster district, central Northern Ireland. Magherafelt town was originally an English-company (Plantation of Ulster) town and is now a marketing centre. Maghera town, 9 miles (14 km) to the

Magherafelt: The former Magherafelt district was bounded by the River Bann and Lough (lake) Neagh on the east and by the Sperrin Mountains on the west. It bordered the former districts of Antrim and Ballymena to the east; Coleraine to the north; Limavady, Strabane, and

Makar Sankranti, Hindu festival in January celebrating the entrance of the Sun into the astrological sign of makara (corresponding to Capricorn) and the beginning of the Sun’s uttarayana (northward journey). Makar Sankranti occurs on January 14 (or 15 during a leap year). Did You Know? The Sun’s

Bihārī languages: …main languages: Maithilī (Tirhutiā) and Magadhī (Magahī) in the east and Bhojpurl in the west, extending into the southern half of Chota Nāgpur. Maithilī, spoken in the old country of Mithilā (Tirhut), was famous from ancient times for its use among scholars, and it still retains many antiquated linguistic forms.…

Jhang Sadar, city consisting of historical twin towns, headquarters of Jhang district, Faisalabad division, Punjab province, Pakistan, situated just east of the Chenab River. The city was first incorporated as an administrative unit under the British raj, combining the towns of Maghiana and Jhang.

Islamic world: Trans-Saharan Islam: …an aggressive reformist scholar like al-Maghīlī (flourished 1492), whose writings detailed the conditions that would justify a jihad against Muslims who practiced their faith inadequately. Like many reformers, al-Maghīlī identified himself as a mujaddid, a figure expected to appear around the turn of each Muslim century. (The 10th century ah…

Maghnia, town, northwestern Algeria, on the northern edge of the High Plateau (Hauts Plateaux), 8 miles (13 km) east of the border with Morocco. The modern town grew around a French redoubt built in 1844 on the site of the Roman post of Numerus Syrorum. It was named for the local Muslim saint Lalla

Maghreb, region of North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Africa Minor of the ancients, it at one time included Moorish Spain and now comprises essentially the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plain of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The weather of the Maghreb is characterized by

maghribi script, in calligraphy, Islamic cursive style of handwritten alphabet that developed directly from the early Kūfic angular scripts used by the Muslim peoples of the Maghrib, who were Western-influenced and relatively isolated from Islam as it was absorbed into the eastern part of North

Maghreb, region of North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Africa Minor of the ancients, it at one time included Moorish Spain and now comprises essentially the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plain of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The weather of the Maghreb is characterized by

Abd el-Krim: Exile and after: …el-Krim associated himself with the Liberation Committee of the Arab West (Magreb) until he broke with that group in the early 1950s. He continued to give interviews and to write articles for Arab consumption against European colonialism and for the liberation of North Africa. Even after Morocco’s independence in 1956,…

Algeria: The Algerian War of Independence: The Maghreb Unity Congress was held at Tangier in April under the auspices of the Moroccan and Tunisian nationalist parties and the Algerian FLN, and it recommended the establishment of an Algerian government-in-exile and a permanent secretariat to promote Maghreb unity. Five months later the FLN…

Morocco: Finance: Morocco’s central bank, the Bank al-Maghrib, plays a preeminent role in the country’s banking system. It issues the Moroccan dirham, maintains Morocco’s foreign currency reserves, controls the credit supply, oversees the government’s specialized lending organizations, and regulates the commercial banking industry. Privatization has stimulated activity on the Casablanca Stock…

maghribi script, in calligraphy, Islamic cursive style of handwritten alphabet that developed directly from the early Kūfic angular scripts used by the Muslim peoples of the Maghrib, who were Western-influenced and relatively isolated from Islam as it was absorbed into the eastern part of North

Turkmen literature: contemporaries included Abdulnazar Shahbende and Gurbanali Maghrupī. Shahbende, who studied in Khiva, was also a musician who performed his own works. He was famous for his destāns Gul-Bulbul; Shahbehrām, taken from classical Persian themes; and Khojamberdi Khan, which deals with the Turkmen response to Āghā Moḥammad Khān, the founder of…

magus, member of an ancient Persian clan specializing in cultic activities. The name is the Latinized form of magoi (e.g., in Herodotus 1:101), the ancient Greek transliteration of the Iranian original. From it the word magic is derived. It is disputed whether the magi were from the beginning

Magi, in Christian tradition, the noble pilgrims “from the East” who followed a miraculous guiding star to Bethlehem, where they paid homage to the infant Jesus as king of the Jews (Matthew 2:1–12). Christian theological tradition has always stressed that Gentiles as well as Jews came to worship

Magi: The Adoration of the Magi—i.e., their homage to the infant Jesus—early became one of the most popular themes in Christian art, the first extant painting on the subject being the fresco in the Priscilla Catacomb of Rome dating from the 2nd century. In the Middle Ages…

Giambattista della Porta: His major work is Magia naturalis (4 books, 1558; “Natural Magic”; 2nd ed., in 20 books, 1589), in which he treats the wonders and marvels of the natural world as phenomena underlain by a rational order that can be divined and manipulated by the natural philosopher through theoretical speculation…

Faust: The classic of these, Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis, was in the grand-ducal library in Weimar, Germany, and was known to J.W. von Goethe.

20th-century international relations: Japan’s challenge: …the Japanese code with the MAGIC process, knew of the decision at once. On July 26, Japan occupied all of French Indochina, and the United States impounded Japanese assets. On September 5, Hull sanctioned a complete embargo on petroleum.

magic, a concept used to describe a mode of rationality or way of thinking that looks to invisible forces to influence events, effect change in material conditions, or present the illusion of change. Within the Western tradition, this way of thinking is distinct from religious or scientific modes;

rocket and missile system: Air-to-air: …Red Top and the French Magic, the latter being a short-range (one-quarter to four miles) highly maneuverable equivalent of the Sidewinder.

Bruce Springsteen: Back with the E Street Band and into the 21st century: Magic (2007), another E Street Band album produced by O’Brien, speaks sometimes metaphorically and sometimes explicitly in opposition to the war and government intrusions on civil liberties. Springsteen continued his commentary through a worldwide tour with the E Street Band in 2007 and 2008. He…

Dead of Night: …many later horror tales, including Magic (1978), starring Anthony Hopkins as the deranged ventriloquist.

magic, theatrical representation of the defiance of natural law. Legerdemain, meaning “light, or nimble, of hand,” and juggling, meaning “the performance of tricks,” were the terms initially used to designate exhibitions of deception. The words magic and conjuring had no theatrical significance

Lou Reed: Velvets bandmate John Cale; and Magic and Loss (1991), inspired by the deaths of two friends.

Elaine Feinstein: Her second volume of verse, The Magic Apple Tree (1971), was preceded by a novel, The Circle (1970).

The Magic Barrel, collection of 13 short stories by Bernard Malamud, published in 1958. Malamud’s first published collection, The Magic Barrel won a 1959 National Book Award. The title story, first published in 1954, is considered one of Malamud’s finest. Most of the stories concern impoverished

Jeffrey Tambor: Arrested Development and Transparent: … (2017); and the family comedy Magic Camp (2020).

Ringo Starr: Solo career: music, acting, and photography: Starr appeared in films, including The Magic Christian (1969), and his first two solo albums, Sentimental Journey, consisting of standards from the 1930s and ’40s, and Beaucoups of Blues, a collection of country music, were both released in 1970. He also had several hit singles during the 1970s, notably “It…

Sun Ra: Among his free jazz recordings, The Magic City (1965/66) is the most significant. The Arkestra, which included dancers, dressed in fantastical costumes inspired by ancient Egyptian attire and the space age, and Sun Ra conducted while wearing flowing robes and futuristic helmets. He was highly regarded for his atonal solos…

The Magic Flute, singspiel in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with a German libretto by Austrian actor and theatrical producer Emanuel Schikaneder. The opera, Mozart’s last, premiered at the rustic Theater auf der Wieden near Vienna on September 30, 1791, not long before Mozart’s death on

F. Murray Abraham: …and the Tramp (2019) and The Magic Flute (2022).

Charles Alston: …painted two widely praised murals, Magic in Medicine and Modern Medicine, for New York’s Harlem Hospital Center; the murals, commissioned in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project and completed in 1940, feature images of traditional healers in Africa as well as Black medical professionals in the United…

Woody Allen: 2000 and beyond: He next directed the film Magic in the Moonlight (2014), a romantic farce about a magician (Colin Firth) who attempts to prove that a psychic (Emma Stone) is a fraud. Irrational Man (2015), an existentially comic thriller set in a New England university town, featured Joaquin Phoenix as a disillusioned…

zombie: History: …galvanized by the nonfiction book The Magic Island, a travelogue of Haiti by William Seabrook, first published in 1929, which detailed his observations of Vodou zombi. Three years after The Magic Island’s publication, the first feature-length zombie film, White Zombie—inspired by the book and by a stage play called Zombie—was…

Roy Jones, Jr.: …to light heavyweight to face Antonio Tarver on November 8, 2003, in Las Vegas. Tarver gave Jones a surprisingly difficult fight, though Jones managed to win by a majority decision, capturing Tarver’s World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight belt. In their rematch on May 15, 2004, Jones suffered only his…

Der Freischütz, Romantic opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber that is widely considered one of the first German masterpieces in the world of opera. Its German libretto by Johann Friedrich Kind is based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun. The opera premiered in Berlin on June

Steven Soderbergh: Ocean’s series and Magic Mike: …another hit with the good-humoured Magic Mike, about the world of male stripping. The following year he helmed Side Effects, a thriller in which a woman’s dependency on antidepressants has criminal consequences, and Behind the Candelabra, about a romantic relationship that the entertainer Liberace (Michael Douglas) began with a young…

Donald Glover: Acting, writing, and producing career: …singer in the stripper comedy Magic Mike XXL, and memorably portrayed an astrodynamics scientist in Ridley Scott’s The Martian (all 2015).

Steven Soderbergh: Later credits: …world of male strippers with Magic Mike’s Last Dance, which starred Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek.

The Magic Mountain, novel of ideas by Thomas Mann, originally published in German as Der Zauberberg in 1924. It is considered a towering example of the bildungsroman, a novel recounting the main character’s formative years. The Magic Mountain tells the story of Hans Castorp, a young German

psilocybin mushroom, any of several species of hallucinogenic fungi found across a number of genera, especially Psilocybe mexicana and P. cubensis. Often called “magic mushrooms,” psilocybin mushrooms produce two primary psychoactive compounds, psilocybin and psilocin, which are responsible for

cluster: Comparison with bulk matter: …values of N, known as magic numbers, can take on unusually stable geometric structures that yield large binding energies, while others with different small values of N have no especially stable forms and therefore only relatively low binding energies. The binding energies of medium-size clusters vary rather smoothly with N,…

magic number, in physics, in the shell models of both atomic and nuclear structure, any of a series of numbers that connote stable structure. The magic numbers for atoms are 2, 10, 18, 36, 54, and 86, corresponding to the total number of electrons in filled electron shells. (Electrons within a

number symbolism: Numerals and numerology: …extensive list in Martin Gardner’s The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix (1985)?

Rob Reiner: Later films: …to find an audience, and The Magic of Belle Isle (2012), while remarked for the skill of Freeman’s performance as an alcoholic writer, did not reach a large viewership. Reiner’s next effort, And So It Goes (2014), a romantic comedy starring Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas, was drubbed by commentators…

Richard Dawkins: …of evolution by natural selection; The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True (2011), a book for young readers that juxtaposes the scientific understanding of various phenomena with mythologies that purport to explain them; Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide (2019); and the collection Books Do Furnish a Life:…

magic realism, chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. Although this strategy is known in the literature of many cultures in many ages, the term magic realism is a relatively

Neue Sachlichkeit, (German: New Objectivity), a group of German artists in the 1920s whose works were executed in a realistic style (in contrast to the prevailing styles of Expressionism and Abstraction) and who reflected what was characterized as the resignation and cynicism of the post-World War

magic square, square matrix often divided into cells, filled with numbers or letters in particular arrangements that were once thought to have special, magical properties. Originally used as religious symbols, they later became protective charms or tools for divination; and finally, when the

fairy tale, wonder tale involving marvellous elements and occurrences, though not necessarily about fairies. The term embraces such popular folktales (Märchen, q.v.) as “Cinderella” and “Puss-in-Boots” and art fairy tales (Kunstmärchen) of later invention, such as The Happy Prince (1888), by the

Sam Shepard: …he became playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, where most of his plays over the next decade were first produced.

William Wellman: Films of the 1940s: …into the roots of aviation; Magic Town (1947), a satire of Middle America written by longtime Frank Capra collaborator Robert Riskin, featured James Stewart as a pollster who locates the average American town; and The Iron Curtain (1948) was a Cold War drama about Russian espionage in Canada. Arguably

magic: Sociological theories: …the Western Pacific (1922) and Magic, Science and Religion (1925). Radcliffe-Brown posited that the function of magic was to express the social importance of the desired event, while Malinowski regarded magic as directly and essentially concerned with the psychological needs of the individual.

magic: Postmodern dialogue: …the traditional magic-religion-science paradigm was Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality (1990), in which Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah deconstructs the European history of the progress model and the work of anthropologists from Tylor forward. Other anthropologists have questioned the model of the rise and decline of magic in European…

football: Europe: The “Magical Magyars” opened English eyes to the dynamic attacking and tactically advanced football played on the Continent and to the technical superiority of players such as Ferenc Puskás, József Bozsik, and Nándor Hidegkuti. During the 1950s and ’60s, Italian and Spanish clubs were the most…

George A. Miller: In a famous paper, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information” (1956), Miller proposed as a law of human cognition and information processing that humans can effectively process no more than seven units, or chunks, of information, plus or minus…

magic realism, chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. Although this strategy is known in the literature of many cultures in many ages, the term magic realism is a relatively

magical thinking, the belief that one’s ideas, thoughts, actions, words, or use of symbols can influence the course of events in the material world. Magical thinking presumes a causal link between one’s inner, personal experience and the external physical world. Examples include beliefs that the

cups and balls trick: …tricks traditionally performed by a conjurer. To begin the trick, the performer places a bead or ball under one of three inverted cups. The ball is then made to “jump” invisibly from one cup to another or to “multiply.” The basis for the illusion is a secret additional ball that,…

magician, one who practices magic, sometimes considered the same as a sorcerer or witch. Conjurers are also sometimes called magicians, reflecting a historical confusion whereby legerdemain was considered to involve the supernatural. The name derives from the magus, an ancient Persian priest, and

automaton: Automatons since the Renaissance: …small-size automatons were the so-called magician boxes. A disk engraved with a question is inserted in a slot in the box, upon which the tiny figure of a magician comes to life and points with his wand at a space where the answer appears.

The Magician of Lublin, novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, published serially as Der Kuntsnmakher fun Lublin in the Yiddish-language daily newspaper Forverts in 1959 and published in book form in English in 1960. The entire novel did not appear in Yiddish in book form until 1971. The novel is set in

Ann Patchett: Early novels: The Magician’s Assistant (1997) relates the discoveries of the widow of a gay magician named Parsifal. The woman, who also had been her husband’s assistant, visits the family he had never told her of and learns about his past.

Kate DiCamillo: …to love through tragedy, and The Magician’s Elephant (2009), about an orphan whose quest to find his missing sister involves an elephant. Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (2013; film 2021), which concerns the adventures of a cynical young comic-book lover and a squirrel endowed with human abilities, won the…

Uxmal: …the central area is the Pyramid of the Magician (“Pirámide del Adivino”), which rises 90.5 feet (27.6 metres) in three concentric sections. At its base it measures about 227 by 162 feet (69 by 49 metres). The temple at the top section has a doorway in the form of a…

periodical cicada, (genus Magicicada), genus of seven species of cicadas known for their unusual highly synchronized life cycles and raucous choruses. Periodical cicadas are native to the eastern and midwestern United States but are not present aboveground every year. In what are among the longest

Aleister Crowley: …was a practitioner of “magick” (as he spelled it) and called himself the Beast 666, drawing on the number of the beast mentioned in the Book of Revelation. He was denounced in his own time for his decadent lifestyle and had few followers, but he became a cult figure…

Monopoly: …game designed and patented by Lizzie G. Magie in 1904. She revised and renewed the patent on her game in 1924. Notably, the version Magie originated did not involve the concept of a monopoly; for her, the point of the game was to illustrate the potential exploitation of tenants by…

Helen Magill White was an educator who was the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. degree. Helen Magill grew up in a Quaker family that valued education for both women and men. In 1859 the family moved to Boston, where Helen enrolled as the only female student in the Boston Public

Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie was an American pioneer and writer, remembered for her accounts of the indigenous peoples and settlers of early Chicago and the Midwest. Juliette Magill was educated at home, in a New Haven, Connecticut, boarding school, and briefly at Emma Willard’s Troy (New York)

Maguindanao, ethnolinguistic group living primarily in south-central Mindanao, the largest island in the southern Philippines. With a name meaning “people of the flood plain,” the Maguindanao are most heavily concentrated along the shores and in the flood lands of the Pulangi-Mindanao River basin,

Maguindanao, ethnolinguistic group living primarily in south-central Mindanao, the largest island in the southern Philippines. With a name meaning “people of the flood plain,” the Maguindanao are most heavily concentrated along the shores and in the flood lands of the Pulangi-Mindanao River basin,

Maginot Line, elaborate defensive barrier in northeast France constructed in the 1930s and named after its principal creator, André Maginot, who was France’s minister of war in 1929–31. The fact that certain modern fortresses had held out against German artillery during World War I, as well as the

André Maginot was a French statesman for whom a French line of elaborate fortifications against Germany was named. The Maginot Line contributed in large part to French complacency in the face of resurgent German military might after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. Originally a member of the

Sylvester (IV) was an antipope from 1105 to 1111. While the Investiture Controversy raged between the German king Henry V (later Holy Roman emperor) and Pope Paschal II, the imperialist faction, under Werner, margrave of Ancona, elected Maginulfo as successor to the imperialist antipope Albert

Cesare Borgia: Rise to power: …against him in the so-called Magione conspiracy. Cesare, stripped of most of his troops, was forced to fight defensively in the Romagna. With lavish use of papal funds, however, he managed to rebuild his army while at the same time working on the diplomatic front to break up the league…

master of arts, degree and title conferred by colleges and universities to indicate the completion of a course of study in the humanities (such as philosophy, arts, or languages). Candidates are often required to take an exam and to complete a thesis or creative project. Programs usually take an

ancient Rome: The dictatorship: …the master of horse (magister equitum). The office was thoroughly constitutional and should not be confused with the late republican dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar, which were simply legalizations of autocratic power obtained through military usurpation.

Jón Thorkelsson Vídalín was a Lutheran bishop, best known for his Húss-Postilla (1718–20; “Sermons for the Home”), one of the finest works of Icelandic prose of the 18th century. The son of a learned physician and a grandson of the scholar Arngrímur Jónsson the Learned, Vídalín was educated at

The Glass Bead Game, final novel by Hermann Hesse, published in two volumes in 1943 in German as Das Glasperlenspiel and sometimes translated as Magister Ludi. The book is an intricate bildungsroman about humanity’s eternal quest for enlightenment and for synthesis of the intellectual and the

Roman Catholicism: The magisterium: The Roman Catholic Church claims for itself a teaching authority that is unparalleled in the Christian community. In its broadest sense, this authority belongs to all members of the church, who, according to Vatican II, share in the threefold…

France: The judiciary: …who try cases, and the magistrats de parquet (public prosecutors), who prosecute. Only the former enjoy the constitutional guarantee of irremovability. The High Council of the Judiciary is made up of 20 members originally appointed by the head of state from among the judiciary. Since 1993, however, its members have…

France: The judiciary: …distinction is made between the magistrats du siège, who try cases, and the magistrats de parquet (public prosecutors), who prosecute. Only the former enjoy the constitutional guarantee of irremovability. The High Council of the Judiciary is made up of 20 members originally appointed by the head of state from among…

China: Unification: …the prefects there were district magistrates (subprefects) in charge of areas corresponding roughly in size to counties. The duties of these subprefects were catholic, for they were supposed to see to all aspects of the welfare of the people in their area. This was the lowest level of major direct…

magistrates’ court, in England and Wales, any of the inferior courts with primarily criminal jurisdiction covering a wide range of offenses from minor traffic violations and public-health nuisances to somewhat more serious crimes, such as petty theft or assault. Magistrates’ courts with similar