modular arithmetic: …Sun Zi’s Sunzi suanjing (Master Sun’s Mathematical Manual), asks

Tara Singh was a Sikh leader known chiefly for his advocacy of an autonomous Punjabi-speaking Sikh nation in the Punjab region. He was a champion of Sikh rights against the dominant Hindus, Muslims, and British. Tara Singh was born a Hindu, but while a student in Rawalpindi he became attracted to

master’s degree, academic degree intermediate between the bachelor’s degree and the doctor’s degree. The terms master and doctor were used interchangeably during the Middle Ages, but in Germany the doctorate came to be considered superior to the master’s and this system subsequently spread to the

tort: Vicarious liability: …is sometimes called the “master’s tort” theory. This theory probably results from a misreading of Roman texts as well as the desire to protect small industrial concerns at the end of the 19th century. It makes the master liable only if he is personally at fault in selecting or…

Amy Adams: Stage debut and later career: …of a spiritual leader in The Master (2012), which netted her another Oscar nomination. She subsequently appeared as the determined daughter of a baseball scout in Trouble with the Curve (2012) and a character based on William S. Burroughs’s wife, Joan Vollmer, in a screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On…

Colm Tóibín: Novels: The Master (2004) is a piercing portrait of the American literary giant Henry James; in 2006 the novel received the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Mastercard Inc. is an international payment card services corporation established in 1966. It provides various financial services in more than 210 countries and territories, and its branded credit cards and debit cards are accepted by more than 37 million businesses worldwide. The company is

Gordon Ramsay: …and an American version of MasterChef that debuted in 2010. The latter show, which Ramsay cohosted, featured amateur cooks competing for cash prizes and a cookbook contract. MasterChef Junior, which had children as contestants, began airing in 2013 in the United States. In 2017 Ramsay appeared in the two-part British…

Gordon Ramsay: MasterChef Junior, which had children as contestants, began airing in 2013 in the United States. In 2017 Ramsay appeared in the two-part British documentary series Gordon on Cocaine, about the illegal drug. Two years later Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted made its debut; the TV show followed…

beef Wellington: …variation in her best-selling book Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) and then, on a 1965 episode of her television show The French Chef, calling it “filet of Wellington beef.” A favourite dish of U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon—a recipe is included in the White…

quiz: A history of quizzing: …notable exception was the BBC’s Mastermind, which was created by Bill Wright, a former Royal Air Force gunner. Having been shot down over Germany during World War II, he became a prisoner of war and was repeatedly interrogated with a light in his face. He brought that experience to Mastermind,…

quiz: Why people quiz: …of the fourth season of Mastermind India, went on to win the Champion of Champions title. To do so, she had to defeat three other Mastermind winners. But quizzing often continues to be perceived as a space for men to hang out. This is unfortunate because quizzes are, by nature,…

Russell Baker: …host of the television program Masterpiece Theatre. In that same year he published Russell Baker’s Book of American Humor, which, following an illuminating introduction, gives its due to figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, and James Thurber. Baker’s final “Observer” column for The New York Times appeared on Christmas…

Bunraku: …2003 UNESCO declared Bunraku a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Russell Baker: …host of the television program Masterpiece Theatre. In that same year he published Russell Baker’s Book of American Humor, which, following an illuminating introduction, gives its due to figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, and James Thurber. Baker’s final “Observer” column for The New York Times appeared on Christmas…

Émile Zola: Life: …of his novel L’Oeuvre (1886; The Masterpiece), which depicts the life of an innovative painter who, unable to realize his creative potential, ends up hanging himself in front of his final painting. Cézanne, in particular, chose to see the novel as a thinly disguised commentary on his own temperament and…

Bunraku: …2003 UNESCO declared Bunraku a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Masters and Johnson: …a sex therapist, established the Masters & Johnson Institute (originally the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation), which served couples affected by sexual dysfunction from 1964 until 1994.

Masters and Johnson, American research team noted for their studies of human sexuality. William H. Masters (in full William Howell Masters; b. December 27, 1915, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.—d. February 16, 2001, Tucson, Arizona), a physician, and Virginia E. Johnson (née Virginia Eshelman; b. February

Southern Africa: Changes in the status of Africans: By 1841, largely through “masters and servants” legislation, settlers had reimposed much of their old authority.

Brazilian literature: Modernismo and regionalism: The Masters and the Slaves). This sociological study characterized miscegenation and the Portuguese racial practice of commingling with black slaves for the first time in a positive frame; it categorized them luso-tropicalismo, a concept later criticized as contributing to the myth of racial democracy. In…

Charles Portis: In the similarly episodic Masters of Atlantis (1985), Portis humorously skewered secret societies and cults with his depiction of an organization devoted to preserving the esoteric wisdom of the island of Atlantis. The quest for another ancient civilization, a lost city in the jungles of Mexico, animates the plot…

Colleen McCullough: …the first of her seven-book Masters of Rome series, The First Man in Rome. The works, which center on historical figures during the twilight of the Roman Republic, were widely praised for their meticulous adherence to historical record. The last novel, Antony and Cleopatra, was published in 2007.

Masters and Johnson: …a drama television series titled Masters of Sex debuted on the American cable channel Showtime. The drama was based on Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love (2009), a biography of the two researchers written by…

Black Eyed Peas: … to release the graphic novel Masters of the Sun: The Zombie Chronicles (2017), written by will.i.am with Marvel’s Benjamin Jackendoff and Damion Scott (illustrator), and shortly thereafter they added an augmented-reality smartphone app in conjunction with the graphic novel. In 2018 the band, without Fergie, unexpectedly issued a hip-hop single,…

Masters Tournament, invitational golf tournament held annually since 1934 from Thursday through Sunday during the first full week of April at the private Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The tournament was conceived by American golfer Bobby Jones. It is considered one of the four

Masters Tournament champions, winners of the Masters Tournament, which is held each April in Augusta, Georgia, and is often regarded as the most prestigious annual golf competition in the world. The Masters was the brainchild of golf legend Bobby Jones, who retired from competitive golf in 1930 and

Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet and novelist, best known as the author of Spoon River Anthology (1915). Masters grew up on his grandfather’s farm near New Salem, Ill., studied in his father’s law office, and attended Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., for one year. He was admitted to the bar in

William H. Masters was an American gynecologist who was a pioneer in the field of human sexuality research and sex therapy. With partner Virginia E. Johnson, Masters conducted groundbreaking research on sex physiology and in 1964 established the Masters & Johnson Institute (originally the

William H. Masters was an American gynecologist who was a pioneer in the field of human sexuality research and sex therapy. With partner Virginia E. Johnson, Masters conducted groundbreaking research on sex physiology and in 1964 established the Masters & Johnson Institute (originally the

master’s degree, academic degree intermediate between the bachelor’s degree and the doctor’s degree. The terms master and doctor were used interchangeably during the Middle Ages, but in Germany the doctorate came to be considered superior to the master’s and this system subsequently spread to the

Richard Wagner: Return from exile of Richard Wagner: …Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Meistersingers of Nürnberg), for which he incorporated into his new conception of music drama certain of the old “operatic” elements. By 1864, however, his expenditure on a grand scale and inveterate habits of borrowing and living on others had brought him to financial disaster:…

Bat Masterson was a gambler, saloonkeeper, lawman, and newspaperman who made a reputation in the old American West. Born in Canada, Masterson grew up on successive family farms in New York, Illinois, and Kansas. Leaving home at 19, he eventually became a buffalo hunter and Indian scout, working out

Bat Masterson was a gambler, saloonkeeper, lawman, and newspaperman who made a reputation in the old American West. Born in Canada, Masterson grew up on successive family farms in New York, Illinois, and Kansas. Leaving home at 19, he eventually became a buffalo hunter and Indian scout, working out

Ashton Kutcher: Medical issues and philanthropic work: …costar from That ’70s Show, Danny Masterson, who had been convicted of rape; Masterson ultimately received a sentence of 30 years to life.

Bat Masterson was a gambler, saloonkeeper, lawman, and newspaperman who made a reputation in the old American West. Born in Canada, Masterson grew up on successive family farms in New York, Illinois, and Kansas. Leaving home at 19, he eventually became a buffalo hunter and Indian scout, working out

Masterton, town (“district”), southern North Island, New Zealand. It is located on the Ruamahanga River (a tributary of the Wairarapa), 55 miles (89 km) northeast of Wellington. The town was established in 1854 and named for Joseph Masters, founder of the Wairarapa Small Farms Association.

Dallas Stars: …marked by tragedy, as centre Bill Masterton became the first NHL player to die from an injury sustained during a game; he died after hitting his (helmetless) head on the ice during a January 1968 contest. Led by right wing Bill Goldsworthy, the North Stars qualified for the playoffs in…

mastic, aromatic resin obtained as a soft exudation from incisions in mastic trees. It is used chiefly to make pale varnishes for protecting metals and paintings. When dispersed in bodied (thickened by heating) linseed oil, mastic is known as megilp and is used as a colour vehicle. Mastic is also

chewing gum: …the sweet resin of the mastic tree (so named after the custom) as a tooth cleanser and breath freshener. New England colonists borrowed from the Indians the custom of chewing aromatic and astringent spruce resin for the same purposes. Similarly, for centuries inhabitants of the Yucatán Peninsula have chewed the…

chewing, up-and-down and side-to-side movements of the lower jaw that assist in reducing particles of solid food, making them more easily swallowed; teeth usually act as the grinding and biting surface. In cats and dogs, food is reduced only to a size that permits easy swallowing. Cows and other

rubber: Mastication: Mastication and softening are usually carried out in batches. The operation is done either in large enclosed mixing machines or on rubber mills. The preeminent example of an enclosed machine is the Banbury (registered trademark) mixer, consisting of heavy steel counterrotating paddles in an…

mastic, aromatic resin obtained as a soft exudation from incisions in mastic trees. It is used chiefly to make pale varnishes for protecting metals and paintings. When dispersed in bodied (thickened by heating) linseed oil, mastic is known as megilp and is used as a colour vehicle. Mastic is also

coachwhip, (Masticophis, sometimes Coluber, flagellum), nonvenomous snake of the family Colubridae that ranges from the southern half of the United States to west central Mexico. It averages 1.2 metres (4 feet) long, but it is occasionally twice that length. It is slender, and its tail is marked

Mastiff, breed of large working dog used as a guard and fighting dog in England for more than 2,000 years. Dogs of this type are found in European and Asian records dating back to 3000 bce. Sometimes called the Molossian breeds for a common ancestor, numerous heavily built large dog breeds

mastiff bat, any of various species of free-tailed bats (family Molossidae) named for their doglike faces. The eight New World species of bats making up the genus Molossus are called mastiff bats. Several other genera also include species commonly called mastiff

rhizomastigote: , Mastigamoeba) are free-living in fresh and salt water, in soil, or in other organisms. An important parasitic form is Histomonas meleagridis, the cause of enterohepatitis (or blackhead) in poultry. Cell shape, although variable in this species, frequently is round; cells range from 10 to 14…

protozoan: Annotated classification: Mastigamoebidae Possess several pseudopodia and a single anterior flagellum; some life stages lack flagella. Some taxa are multinucleate. Mitochondria absent. Pelomyxa Anaerobic, lacking mitochondria, peroxisomes, and hydrogenosomes. Express a polymorphic life cycle with multinucleate stages.

protist: Cilia and flagella: …absence, or pattern of the mastigonemes (minute scales or hairs covering the flagellum) may also differ between two flagella. Some parasitic zooflagellates have hundreds of long flagella.

flagellate, (subphylum Mastigophora), any of a group of protozoans, mostly uninucleate organisms, that possess, at some time in the life cycle, one to many flagella for locomotion and sensation. (A flagellum is a hairlike structure capable of whiplike lashing movements that furnish locomotion.)

vinegarroon, species of whip scorpion

spiny-tailed lizard, (Uromastyx), any of more than a dozen species belonging to the lizard family Agamidae. Spiny-tailed lizards live in arid and semiarid habitats from northern Africa to India. They are limbed lizards with broad heads and stout bodies, and most adults grow up to about 25 to 30 cm

mast seeding, the production of many seeds by a plant every two or more years in regional synchrony with other plants of the same species. Since seed predators commonly scour the ground for each year’s seed crop, they often consume most of the seeds produced by many different plant species each

della Scala family: …of the ruling dynasty was Mastino I della Scala (d. 1277), who became podesta (chief magistrate) shortly after the defeat and death (1259) of Ezzelino da Romano, tyrant of Verona. A new election in 1262 gave Mastino the added authoritative office of captain of the people. He was succeeded in…

della Scala family: His successor and nephew, Mastino II (who ruled with his brother Alberto II), tried to continue the expansionist policies of his uncle. His aggressiveness, however, provoked a rival Florentine-Venetian coalition and the loss of allies and territories, and by the end of his reign he was left with only…

mastitis, inflammation of the breast in women or of the udder in sheep, swine, and cattle. Acute mastitis in women is a sudden infectious inflammation caused usually by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, or sometimes by streptococcus organisms. It begins almost exclusively during the first three

fibrocystic disease of the breast, noncancerous cysts (harmless swellings caused by fluid trapped in breast tissues) that often increase in size and become tender during the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle. This condition occurs most often in women between the ages of 30 and 50 years.

mastodon, (genus Mammut), any of several extinct elephantine mammals (family Mammutidae, genus Mammut ) that first appeared in the early Miocene (23 million to 2.6 million years ago) and continued in various forms through the Pleistocene Epoch (from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). In North

artiodactyl: Specializations of the head: …the skull is called the mastoid, and skulls without such a surface exposure are described as being amastoid. Amastoid skulls are found in most suiform groups (including entelodonts, anthracotheres, and all living suiform groups); mastoid skulls occur in some early suiform groups, oreodonts, and all remaining artiodactyls that have lived…

mastoid process, the smooth pyramidal or cone-shaped bone projection at the base of the skull on each side of the head just below and behind the ear in humans. The mastoid process is important to students of fossil humans because it occurs regularly and in the specific form described only in

mastoiditis, inflammation of the mastoid process, a projection of the temporal bone just behind the ear. Mastoiditis, which primarily affects children, usually results from an infection of the middle ear (otitis media). Symptoms include pain and swelling behind the ear and over the side of the head

chemoreception: Sex-attractant pheromones: Late-stage immature and adult female bolas spiders in the genus Mastophora are known to produce some of the same components of the sex-attractant pheromone produced by females of some noctuid moths. The spider is active at night and hangs from a horizontal silk line. It produces a vertical thread, which…

termite: Evolution, paleontology, and classification: …the most primitive living termite, Mastotermes darwiniensis, from Australia. Mastotermes has further affinities with other roaches: its hind wing has a folded anal lobe, and its eggs are not laid singly as those of other termites but in clusters held together by a gelatinous material resembling the egg case of…

Dion and the Belmonts: …Long Island, New York), and Carlo Mastrangelo (b. October 5, 1937, New York City, New York—d. April 4, 2016, Tampa Bay, Florida).

Latin American literature: Post-boom writers: … (settled in France) and Mexican Angeles Mastretta outstripped their predecessors in originality and independence. In fact, at the turn of the 21st century, Cuban women writers in exile were highly popular in Latin America, Spain, and other parts of Europe. Chaviano won an important award in Spain. Montero, Valdés, and…

Mastro-don Gesualdo, realistic novel of Sicilian life by Giovanni Verga, published in Italian in 1889. Mastro-don can be translated as “Sir-Workman,” a title that embodies the story’s central dilemma. The protagonist, Gesualdo Motta, is a peasant who becomes a wealthy landowner through hard work

Marcello Mastroianni was an actor who became the preeminent leading man in Italian cinema during the 1960s. An attractive man whose acting style projected a mood of casual affability, he achieved international fame as the screen symbol of the modern European. Mastroianni enrolled at the University

masturbation, manipulation of the genital organs for pleasure, usually to orgasm. The term masturbation generally connotes self-manipulation, but it can also be used to describe manipulation of or by a sexual partner, exclusive of sexual intercourse. Once the object of extravagant superstitions and

mola: The sharptail mola (Masturus lanceolatus) is also very large; its maximum length is 3.37 metres (11.1 feet). However, the slender mola (Ranzania laevis) is smaller, measuring no more than 1 metre (39.3 inches) long.

Masuda, city, Shimane ken (prefecture), western Honshu, Japan. It lies in the basin of the Takatsu River, near the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Masuda, the commercial hub of the surrounding agricultural region, has a few rural industries, such as tatami mat production, silk manufacture and spinning,

Masukagami, historical epic about the Kamakura period (1192–1333) and one of the four best-known kagami (records) of Japanese history. The document, which is attributed to Nijō Yoshimoto, was written sometime between 1333 and 1376 and narrates the historical events occurring from the birth of the

Maskawa Toshihide was a Japanese physicist who was a corecipient, with Yoichiro Nambu and Kobayashi Makoto, of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Physics. Maskawa and Kobayashi shared half the prize for their discovery of the origin of broken symmetry, which created at least six quarks moments after the big

Machilipatnam, city, eastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. Masulipatam was the first British trading settlement (1611) on the Bay of Bengal. From 1686 to 1759 the city was held by the French and Dutch, until it was finally ceded to the British, who captured the city and fort from the French

Treaty of Masulipatam, (Feb. 23, 1768), agreement by which the state of Hyderabad, India, submitted to British control. The First Mysore War began in 1767 and concerned the East India Company’s attempts to check the expansionary policies of the ruler of Mysore, Hyder Ali. Although originally allied

Machilipatnam, city, eastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. Masulipatam was the first British trading settlement (1611) on the Bay of Bengal. From 1686 to 1759 the city was held by the French and Dutch, until it was finally ceded to the British, who captured the city and fort from the French

Orhan Pamuk: Works: Masumiyet müzesi (2008; The Museum of Innocence) investigates the relationship between an older man and his second cousin. Thwarted in his attempts to marry her, the man begins to collect objects that she has touched. Pamuk replicated the titular museum in reality, using a house in Istanbul to…

flash memory: …early 1980s by Japanese engineer Masuoka Fujio, who was then working at the Toshiba Corporation and who was searching for a technology that would replace existing data-storage media such as magnetic tapes, floppy disks, and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips. The name flash was coined by Ariizumi Shoji, a coworker…

Kurt Masur was a German conductor, known for his heartfelt interpretations of the German Romantic repertoire, who rose to prominence in East Germany in the 1970s. Masur studied piano and cello at the National Music School in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), from 1942 to 1944. He then studied

Jambi: …surmounted by volcanic cones, including Mount Masurai (9,623 feet [2,933 metres]) and Mount Sumbing (8,228 feet [2,508 metres]). Mangroves are found in the estuaries and along the tidal rivers in the east. The principal waterway is the Batanghari River, which is navigable for deep-draft vessels from the city of Jambi…

Masurian Lakeland, lake district, northeastern Poland. It is a 20,000-square-mile (52,000-square-km) area immediately to the south of the Baltic coastal plains and extends 180 miles (290 km) eastward from the lower Vistula River to the borders with Lithuania and Belarus. It lies within the

Ida Noddack: …number 43, which they called masurium, after the region in Prussia that Noddack had come from, and atomic number 75, which they called rhenium, after the Latin name for the Rhine River.

Masvingo, town, south-central Zimbabwe. It was founded in 1890 near the Macheke and Mshangashe rivers and became a municipality in 1953. A fort was built there and named for Queen Victoria. Located on the road between Harare (formerly Salisbury) and Pretoria and the terminus of a railway spur from

Nizārī Ismāʿīliyyah: …most important of which was Maṣyāf. From this fortress the Syrian grand master, the legendary Rashīd al-Dīn al-Sinān, ruled virtually independently of the Nizārī base at Alamūt. Rashīd and his successor chiefs were known as the shaykh al-jabal (Arabic: “mountain chief”), which was mistranslated by the Crusaders as the “old…

Indonesia: The years of constitutional democracy: …were the major Muslim party, Masyumi (Masjumi); the Muslim theologians’ party, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which seceded from Masyumi in 1952; the Nationalist Party (PNI); the Communist Party (PKI); the “national communist” party, Murba; the lesser Muslim parties, Perti and Partai Sarekat Islam Indonesia (PSII); and the Socialist Party (PSI). Until…

Battle of Dandānqān: …forces of the Ghaznavid sultan Masʿūd I (reigned 1031–41) and the nomad Turkmen Seljuqs in Khorāsān. The battle resulted in Masʿūd’s defeat and the Seljuq takeover of Ghaznavid territory in Iran and Afghanistan.

Anatolia: Seljuq expansion: …was his son Rukn al-Dīn Masʿūd I. He seized Konya in 1116 with the help of his father-in-law Amīr Ghāzī Gümüshtegin Dānishmend, who had come to power after the death of his father Malik Dānishmend Ghāzī. During his nearly 40-year rule Rukn al-Dīn Masʿūd held back the Byzantines while patiently…

eastern Africa: The Omani ascendancy: …have won Zanzibar; his successor, Masʿūd ibn Nāṣir, initiated a pattern of cooperation with Pate, maintained close links with inland Nyika peoples, and established Mazrui dominance from the Pangani River to Malindi.

Anatolia: Division and decline: …was occupied by Ghiyās̄ al-Dīn Masʿūd II (1285–98, 1303–08), a son of ʿIzz al-Dīn Kay-Kāʾūs, who had come from Crimea to claim his patrimony. However, he made Kayseri, not Konya, the seat of his government. His reign marks the definitive rise to power of the Turkmen frontier chieftains, especially the…

Anatolia: Division and decline: …of his son Ghiyās̄ al-Dīn Masʿūd III, who assumed the rule in 1307, is obscure. Though some sources mention the existence of Seljuq scions in later years in various parts of Anatolia, Masʿūd III may be considered the last member of the dynasty to have exercised sovereignty. In 1328 the…

Ghaznavid dynasty: The victory tower of Masʿūd III (built 1099–1115) is a precursor of the Seljuq türbe, or tomb-tower. Of its two original stories, the remaining one is largely covered with ornamental inscription. Excavations at the site of the palace at Lashkarī Bāzār have uncovered figurative paintings whose stylistic elements are…

Persian literature: The proliferation of court patronage: The major representative was Masʿūd Saʿd Salmān. He was an official of the viceroy’s administration, but he fell into disgrace and had to spend long years in exile in remote fortresses. He wrote several poems to bring his dismal condition to the attention of the Ghaznavid sultan and thereby…

Persian literature: The proliferation of court patronage: The major representative was Masʿūd Saʿd Salmān. He was an official of the viceroy’s administration, but he fell into disgrace and had to spend long years in exile in remote fortresses. He wrote several poems to bring his dismal condition to the attention of the Ghaznavid sultan and thereby…

al-Masʿūdī was a historian and traveler, known as the “Herodotus of the Arabs.” He was the first Arab to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, Murūj al-dhahab wa maʿādin al-jawāhir (“The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems”), a world history. As a child, al-Masʿūdī showed an

mas̄navī, a series of distichs (couplets) in rhymed pairs (aa, bb, cc, and so on) that makes up a characteristic type of Persian verse, used chiefly for heroic, historical, and romantic epic poetry and didactic poetry. The form originated in the Middle Persian period (roughly from the 3rd century

mas̄navī, a series of distichs (couplets) in rhymed pairs (aa, bb, cc, and so on) that makes up a characteristic type of Persian verse, used chiefly for heroic, historical, and romantic epic poetry and didactic poetry. The form originated in the Middle Persian period (roughly from the 3rd century

printing: Preparing stereotypes and plates: In making stereotype plates, a flong, or mat, a thin sheet of pasteboard, pliant enough to register an impression and sufficiently heat-resistant to tolerate the molten type metal, is placed on the type form with paper and cotton packing. It is subjected to heavy pressures in a press at a…

basketry: Uses: …the mud impressions of woven mats that covered the floors of houses in the Neolithic (c. 7000 bce) village of Jarmo in northern Iraq. Mats were used in ancient Egypt to cover floors and walls and were also rolled up and unrolled in front of doorways, as is shown by…

wind instrument: Reedpipes: …the oboe, known only as mat, the generic name of pipes. Like the flute, the oboe was made of narrow cane but was about 2 feet (60 cm) long; like the clarinet, it was blown in pairs, the left sounding a drone while the right produced a melody. Such instruments…

Vsevolod Pudovkin: He then directed Mat (1926; Mother). Based on Maxim Gorky’s novel, it exemplifies Pudovkin’s use of elaborate crosscutting of images (montage) to represent complex ideas; e.g., a sequence of scenes showing a prison riot is intercut with shots of ice breaking up on a river. Other important films were Konets…

Maxim Gorky: Plays and novels: Mat (1906; Mother) is probably the least successful of the novels, yet it has considerable interest as Gorky’s only long work devoted to the Russian revolutionary movement. It was made into a notable silent film by Vsevolod Pudovkin (1926) and dramatized by Bertolt Brecht in Die Mutter…