• Umbra limi (fish)

    mudminnow: …sometimes called rockfish, and the central mudminnow (U. limi) mudfish or dogfish. Mudminnows are often used as bait and sometimes kept in home aquariums.

  • Umbra pygmaea (fish)

    mudminnow: In North America the eastern mudminnow (U. pygmaea) is sometimes called rockfish, and the central mudminnow (U. limi) mudfish or dogfish. Mudminnows are often used as bait and sometimes kept in home aquariums.

  • Umbra Workshop (American literary group)

    Harlem Writers Guild: …Harlem Writers Guild founded the Umbra Workshop to advance African American literary independence in the arts. The Umbra Workshop was based on the Lower East Side, signifying a break with the literary traditions of Harlem. Umbra participants moved toward a more-radical Black separatist view of American politics and culture. Some…

  • Umbrail Pass (pass, Italy)

    Valtellina: …feet [1,176 m]), and the Umbrail (9,944 feet [3,031 m]).

  • Umbrella (song by Rihanna)

    Rihanna: Music career: A Girl Like Me and Good Girl Gone Bad: …its anthemic lead single, “Umbrella,” featuring an introductory rap from Jay-Z, became one of the year’s biggest hits and earned Rihanna a Grammy Award.

  • umbrella (device)

    umbrella, a portable, hand-held device that is used for protection against rain and sunlight. The modern umbrella consists of a circular fabric or plastic screen stretched over hinged ribs that radiate from a central pole. The hinged ribs permit the screen to be opened and closed so that the

  • umbrella elm (plant)

    elm: Major species: glabra), with smoother bark; and Camperdown elm (U. glabra camperdownii), a variety of Wych elm also known as umbrella elm because of its drooping branches. The fast-growing Siberian elm (U. pumila), a brittle-twigged weak-wooded tree, is sometimes planted for quick shade and for windbreaks.

  • umbrella fern family (plant family)

    Dipteridaceae, the umbrella fern family, in the division Pteridophyta (the lower vascular plants). The family has a long fossil history dating back to the Triassic Period (251 million to 199.6 million years ago), but it presently contains only two extant genera, Dipteris (11 species) and

  • Umbrella for Democratic Change (political party, Botswana)

    Duma Boko: …party since 2010 and the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) coalition since 2012.

  • Umbrella insurance: An all-weather financial tool to protect your assets

    If you’re concerned that your current auto or homeowner’s policy doesn’t have a high enough liability limit to cover the risks you’re exposed to, you might consider umbrella insurance. An umbrella liability policy comes with higher limits than most standard insurance policies, offering additional

  • umbrella palm (plant)

    umbrella plant: …alternifolius (family Cyperaceae), also called umbrella palm and umbrella sedge, is widely cultivated in water gardens and as a potted plant. It grows up to 1 m (3 feet) high. Native to Madagascar, Réunion, and Mauritius, it is widely naturalized in the tropics and subtropics.

  • umbrella pine (tree species)

    pine: …including black, white, Himalayan, and stone pines, and some are planted in reforestation projects or for windbreaks. Pine-leaf oil, used medicinally, is a distillation product of the leaves; charcoal, lampblack, and fuel gases are distillation by-products.

  • umbrella pine (tree)

    umbrella pine, (Sciadopitys verticillata), coniferous evergreen tree endemic to Japan, the only member of the umbrella pine family (Sciadopityaceae). Historically, this genus was classified variously in Cupressaceae or the now-defunct Taxodiaceae, but subsequent studies confirmed its structural

  • umbrella plant (plant)

    umbrella plant, any of several unrelated but similarly leaved plants. Cyperus alternifolius (family Cyperaceae), also called umbrella palm and umbrella sedge, is widely cultivated in water gardens and as a potted plant. It grows up to 1 m (3 feet) high. Native to Madagascar, Réunion, and Mauritius,

  • umbrella sedge (plant)

    umbrella plant: …alternifolius (family Cyperaceae), also called umbrella palm and umbrella sedge, is widely cultivated in water gardens and as a potted plant. It grows up to 1 m (3 feet) high. Native to Madagascar, Réunion, and Mauritius, it is widely naturalized in the tropics and subtropics.

  • umbrella tent

    tent: …a projecting horizontal flap; the umbrella tent, which was originally made with internal supporting arms like an umbrella but which later became widely popular with external framing of hollow aluminum; and the cabin tent, resembling a wall tent with walls four to six feet high. Special tent designs include mountain…

  • umbrella tree (plant)

    schefflera, any of several tropical evergreen trees or shrubs, in the ginseng family (Araliaceae), that are widely cultivated as indoor foliage plants because of their tolerance to low light conditions. The genus Schefflera includes the New Zealand seven fingers (S. digitata), which may reach a

  • umbrella tree (plant, Magnolia species)

    magnolia: Major species: …feet) tall with purple-based blooms; umbrella tree (M. tripetala), 12 metres (40 feet) tall with leaves 60 cm (2 feet) long that are sometimes used as rain shields; cucumber tree (M. acuminata), a 30-metre (100-foot) tree with cucumber-shaped rosy fruits; and Thompson’s magnolia (M. ×thompsoniana), a hybrid between the umbrella…

  • umbrellabird (bird)

    umbrellabird, any of three species of cotingas (family Cotingidae, order Passeriformes) of tropical American forests. They are notable for their unique, umbrella-like crest and for the pendant suspended from the throat, which is an inflatable wattle. When displaying, the male spreads the crest to

  • Umbrellales (plant order)

    Cornales, dogwood order of flowering plants, comprising six families and more than 590 species. Cornales is the basalmost order of the core asterid clade (organisms with a single common ancestor), or sympetalous lineage of flowering plants, in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (APG III) botanical

  • Umbrellas in the Rain (painting by Prendergast)

    Maurice Prendergast: A painting such as Umbrellas in the Rain (1899), painted during his second European trip, reflects his new interest in Post-Impressionist currents, especially in the paintings of Édouard Vuillard and Paul Cézanne and the doctrines of pointillism. Later pictures are composed of floating geometric areas of colour, representing such…

  • Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The (film by Demy [1964])

    The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, French musical film, released in 1964, that is unusual in that literally all of the dialogue in the movie—from mundane conversations to emotional confrontations—is sung. Director-writer Jacques Demy dared to present a rather poignant and melancholy story in musical

  • Umbri (people)

    Umbri, ancient pre-Etruscan people who gradually concentrated in Umbria (in central Italy) in response to Etruscan and Gallic pressure. By about 400 bc the inhabitants of this area spoke an Indo-European dialect closely related to Oscan (Umbrian). It is best known from the ritual texts called the

  • Umbria (region, Italy)

    Umbria, region, central Italy, including the provinces of Perugia and Terni. It lies roughly equidistant between Rome (south) and Florence (north). The modern region takes its name from the Umbria of Roman times. The Roman emperor Augustus made Umbria (together with the district of Ager Gallicus)

  • Umbrian language

    Umbrian language, one of the ancient Italic languages closely related to Oscan and Volscian and more distantly related to Latin and Faliscan. Umbrian was spoken in central Italy, probably only in the area of the Tiber River valley in the last few centuries bc; it was displaced by Latin at an

  • Umbrian-Marchigian Apennines (mountain range, Italy)

    Apennine Range: Physiography: …feet at Mount Cimone; the Umbrian-Marchigian Apennines, with their maximum elevation (8,130 feet) at Mount Vettore; the Abruzzi Apennines, 9,554 feet at Mount Corno; the Campanian Apennines, 7,352 feet at Mount Meta; the Lucanian Apennines, 7,438 feet at Mount Pollino; the Calabrian Apennines

  • Umbridae (fish)

    mudminnow, any of several hardy fishes, family Umbridae (order Esociformes), found in cool, mud-bottomed ponds, lakes, and streams of southeastern Europe and North America. Somewhat pikelike fishes with rounded snouts and tails, mudminnows are about 7.5 to 15 cm (3 to 6 inches) long. They

  • Umbriel (astronomy)

    Umbriel, third nearest of the five major moons of Uranus and the one having the darkest and oldest surface of the group. Its discovery is attributed to the English astronomer William Lassell in 1851, although the English astronomer William Herschel, who discovered Uranus and its two largest moons,

  • Umbrisol (FAO soil group)

    Umbrisol, one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Umbrisols are characterized by a surface layer that is rich in humus but not in calcium available to plants, owing to high rainfall and extensive leaching that lead to acidic conditions.

  • Umbro-Marchigiano Mountains (mountain range, Italy)

    Apennine Range: Physiography: …feet at Mount Cimone; the Umbrian-Marchigian Apennines, with their maximum elevation (8,130 feet) at Mount Vettore; the Abruzzi Apennines, 9,554 feet at Mount Corno; the Campanian Apennines, 7,352 feet at Mount Meta; the Lucanian Apennines, 7,438 feet at Mount Pollino; the Calabrian Apennines

  • Umbundu (people)

    Ovimbundu, people inhabiting the tree-studded grasslands of the Bié Plateau in Angola. They speak Umbundu, a Bantu language of the Niger-Congo language family. They numbered about four million at the turn of the 21st century. The ruling families entered the highlands from the northeast in the 17th

  • Umbuso weSwatini

    Eswatini, landlocked country in the eastern flank of South Africa, where it adjoins Mozambique. It extends about 110 miles (175 km) from north to south and about 80 miles (130 km) from west to east at its largest dimensions. In the colonial era, as a protectorate, and later as an independent

  • ʿUmdah fī maḥāsin al shiʿr wa adabihi wa naqdihi, Al- (work by Ibn Rashīq)

    Arabic literature: Compilations and manuals: …piece of synthesis, Ibn Rashīq’s Al-ʿUmdah fī maḥāsin al-shiʿr wa adabihi wa naqdihi (“The Mainstay Concerning Poetry’s Embellishments, Correct Usage, and Criticism”). The comprehensive coverage that this work provided of previous writings on the various subfields of poetics—prosody and poetic genres and devices, for example—and the critical insights that Ibn…

  • Umeå (Sweden)

    Umeå, town and capital of Västerbotten län (county), northeastern Sweden. It lies on the left bank of the Umeå River near the Gulf of Bothnia. It has long been an educational and cultural centre for northern Sweden. In 1622 it was incorporated by Gustav II Adolf. After suffering several destructive

  • Umeå IK (Swedish football team)

    Marta: Early life and club play: …in Brazil before joining Sweden’s Umeå IK in 2004.

  • Umehara Ryūzaburō (Japanese painter)

    Umehara Ryūzaburō was a Western-style Japanese painter whose vibrant colours, dynamic brushstrokes, and liberated spirit had a strong impact on young Japanese painters. Umehara first studied painting under Asai Chū at the Kansai Art School. From 1908 to 1913 he toured Europe. In 1909 he was in

  • Umeki, Miyoshi (Japanese-born actress)
  • Umeki, Nancy (Japanese-born actress)
  • Umfolozi Game Reserve (reserve, South Africa)

    Umfolozi Game Reserve, wild animal sanctuary in northern KwaZulu/Natal province, South Africa. The reserve lies southwest of the Hluhluwe Game Reserve, about 35 miles (56 km) inland from the Indian Ocean. It was established in 1897 and has an area of 185 square miles (478 square km). A wooded

  • UMHK (African company)

    Moise Tshombe: …by the Belgian mining monopoly Union Minière du Haut Katanga, which controlled the province’s rich copper mines. At a conference called by the Belgian government in 1960 to discuss independence for the Congo, Tshombe presented Conakat’s proposals for an independent Congo made up of a loose confederation of semiautonomous provinces.…

  • Umhlanga (Swazi festival)

    Eswatini: Cultural life: The Umhlanga, or Reed Dance, brings together the unmarried girls and young women of the country to cut reeds for the annual repairs to the windbreaks of the queen mother’s village; it lasts for five days. It is also symbolic of the unity of the nation…

  • umiak (boat)

    umiak, boat used by the Greenland and later by the Alaskan Eskimos for transport. It was called the woman’s boat, as opposed to the kayak, the men’s hunting and fishing boat. Like the kayak, the umiak was made of seal or other animal skins stretched over a driftwood or whalebone frame and was

  • umialik (boat owner)

    Arctic: Seasonally migratory peoples: the northern Yupiit and the Inuit: …to an exception being the umialik of the Inupiat. In addition to owning the boat used for whaling, the umialik was the employer of a whaling crew, recruiting his men for their professional ability and acting as benefactor to them and their families. In many villages each umialik and his…

  • Umiam-Barapani (river, India)

    Meghalaya: Relief and drainage: …the most important is the Umiam-Barapani, which is the major source of hydroelectric power for Assam and Meghalaya states.

  • Umibe no Kafuka (novel by Murakami)

    Haruki Murakami: Works: …included Umibe no Kafuka (2002; Kafka on the Shore) and Afutā dāku (2004; After Dark). 1Q84 (2009), its title a reference to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), shifts between two characters as they navigate an alternate reality of their own making; the book’s dystopian themes range from the

  • Umkhonto we Sizwe (South African military organization)

    Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1961 until 1993. Founded by Nelson Mandela and others, Umkhonto we Sizwe (commonly abbreviated MK) carried out waves of sabotage and guerrilla attacks against South Africa’s apartheid government, which

  • uMkhonto weSizwe Party (political party, South Africa)

    uMkhonto weSizwe Party, South African political party formed in 2023. It is commonly referred to as the MK Party. The party takes its name from Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), the apartheid-era military wing of the African National Congress (ANC) liberation movement and, later, political

  • uMkhuze Game Reserve (park, South Africa)

    uMkhuze Game Reserve, park in northern KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The park, established in 1912, lies to the east of the Lebombo Mountains and has an area of 95 square miles (246 square km). Vegetation varies from open bush country to thorn velds and forests of sycamore figs and giant

  • Umkonto we Sizwe (South African military organization)

    Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1961 until 1993. Founded by Nelson Mandela and others, Umkhonto we Sizwe (commonly abbreviated MK) carried out waves of sabotage and guerrilla attacks against South Africa’s apartheid government, which

  • UML (political party, Nepal)

    Nepal: Constitutional monarchy: …205 seats), but the moderate Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)—CPN (UML)—with 69 seats, emerged as a strong opposition party. The two “Pancha” parties usually associated with the old system won only four seats. The elections were thus perceived to constitute a strong endorsement of the 1990 political changes, and…

  • umland (geography)

    hinterland, tributary region, either rural or urban or both, that is closely linked economically with a nearby town or city. George G. Chisholm (Handbook of Commercial Geography, 1888) transcribed the German word hinterland (land in back of), as hinderland, and used it to refer to the backcountry

  • umlaut (linguistics)

    linguistics: Sound change: …the phenomenon referred to as umlaut in the Germanic languages. The high front vowel i of suffixes had the effect of fronting and raising preceding back vowels and, in particular, of converting an a sound into an e sound. In Modern German this is still a morphologically productive process (compare…

  • Umlazi (South Africa)

    Umlazi, urban area, southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It lies along the south bank of the Mlazi (Umlazi) River and adjoins the city of Durban on the southwest. The present site of Umlazi was occupied by American missionaries in 1836, but it became an Anglican mission reserve in

  • Umm al-Naʿsān (island, Bahrain)

    Bahrain: Land: Umm al-Naʿsān (linked by the King Fahd Causeway), and Jiddah. The second group consists of the Ḥawār Islands, which are situated near the coast of Qatar, about 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Bahrain Island; a dispute with Qatar over ownership of the islands was…

  • Umm al-Qaiwain (emirate, United Arab Emirates)

    Umm al-Quwain, constituent emirate of the United Arab Emirates, located on the Arabian Peninsula facing the Persian Gulf. The second smallest in area and the least populous of the federation’s seven emirates, Umm al-Quwain is roughly triangular in shape and is bounded by the emirates of Ras

  • Umm al-Qaiwain (United Arab Emirates)

    Umm al-Quwain: …spits is the town of Umm al-Quwain, which is the capital and largest urban settlement.

  • Umm al-Qaywayn (United Arab Emirates)

    Umm al-Quwain: …spits is the town of Umm al-Quwain, which is the capital and largest urban settlement.

  • Umm al-Quwain (emirate, United Arab Emirates)

    Umm al-Quwain, constituent emirate of the United Arab Emirates, located on the Arabian Peninsula facing the Persian Gulf. The second smallest in area and the least populous of the federation’s seven emirates, Umm al-Quwain is roughly triangular in shape and is bounded by the emirates of Ras

  • Umm al-Ṣabbān (island, Bahrain)

    Bahrain: Land: …the group are Nabī Ṣāliḥ, Al-Muḥammadiyyah (Umm al-Ṣabbān), Umm al-Naʿsān (linked by the King Fahd Causeway), and Jiddah. The second group consists of the Ḥawār Islands, which are situated near the coast of Qatar, about 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Bahrain Island; a dispute with Qatar over ownership of…

  • Umm Al-Samīm Salt Flat (geographical feature, Arabian Peninsula)

    Arabia: The Rubʿ al-Khali: …the large salt flat of Umm Al-Samīm. In the southwest, sand ridges reach a length of 150 miles.

  • Umm al-Shāʾif (oil field, Persian Gulf)

    United Arab Emirates: Resources and power: …offshore fields is located in Umm al-Shāʾif. Al-Bunduq offshore field is shared with neighboring Qatar but is operated by ADMA-OPCO. A Japanese consortium operates an offshore rig at Al-Mubarraz, and other offshore concessions are held by American companies. Onshore oil concessions are held by another ADNOC company, the Abu Dhabi…

  • Umm Durman (Sudan)

    Omdurman, one of the Three Towns (with Khartoum and Khartoum North), east-central Sudan. Situated on the bank of the main Nile River just below the confluence of the Blue and White Niles, Omdurman was an insignificant riverine village until the victory of Muḥammad Aḥmad, known as al-Mahdī, over the

  • Umm Kulthūm (Egyptian musician)

    Umm Kulthūm was an Egyptian singer who mesmerized Arab audiences from the Persian Gulf to Morocco for half a century. She was one of the most famous Arab singers and public personalities of the 20th century. Umm Kulthūm’s father was a village imam who sang traditional religious songs at weddings

  • Umm Qays (ancient city, Jordan)

    Gadara, ancient city of Palestine, a member of the Decapolis, located just southeast of the Sea of Galilee in Jordan. Gadara first appeared in history when it fell to the Seleucid Antiochus the Great (218 bce); the Jewish king Alexander Jannaeus took it after 10 months’ siege (c. 100 bce). It was

  • Umm Saʿīd (Qatar)

    Umm Saʿīd, town and port situated in Qatar, on the east coast of the Qatar Peninsula, in the Persian Gulf. It was established in 1949 as a tanker terminal by the Qatar Petroleum Company on an inhospitable, previously uninhabited site, along the sabkhah (salt flat) terrain characteristic of the

  • Umma (ancient city-state, Mesopotamia)

    Sumer: Umma, Lagash, Bad-tibira, and Larsa. Each of these states comprised a walled city and its surrounding villages and land, and each worshipped its own deity, whose temple was the central structure of the city. Political power originally belonged to the citizens, but, as rivalry between…

  • Umma Party (political party, Zanzibar)

    Tanzania: Independence of Tanzania: …leader of the new left-wing Umma (The Masses) Party (formed by defectors from the ZNP), became minister for defense and external affairs. Pending the establishment of a new constitution, the cabinet and all government departments were placed under the control of a Revolutionary Council of 30 members, which was also…

  • ummah (Islam)

    Muhammad: Biography according to the Islamic tradition: …tribes into a community (ummah) recognizing Muhammad as the “Messenger of God.” However, relations with the Jews of Medina steadily worsen. Eighteen months after the emigration, a revelation bids the Muslims to pray in the direction of the Meccan Kaʿbah, rather than to continue facing toward Jerusalem as is…

  • Ummah Party (political party, The Sudan)

    Sudan: The growth of national consciousness: …militants, the moderates formed the Ummah (Nation) Party under the patronage of Sayyid ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Mahdī, the posthumous son of the Mahdī, with the intention of cooperating with the British toward independence.

  • UMMC Ekaterinburg (Russian basketball team)

    Brittney Griner: WNBA and international career: In 2015 Griner joined UMMC Ekaterinburg of the Russian Premier League, and the team won the EuroLeague championship the following year. Ekaterinburg also claimed the title in 2018, 2019, and 2021.

  • Umnak Island (island, Alaska, United States)

    Inuit: Another was found on Umnak Island in the Aleutians, for which an age of approximately 3,000 years was recorded.

  • uMnambithi (South Africa)

    uMnambithi, town, northwestern KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, on the Klip River. Founded in 1850 after the British annexed the area, it was named Ladysmith for the wife of Harry Smith (then governor of Cape Colony). It was besieged by the Boers during the South African War from November 1,

  • umngqusho (food)

    South Africa: Daily life and social customs: …chiles, and lemon is called umngqusho. It is still possible to visit a shebeen, an African tavern where beer is home-brewed. Dutch and English settlers introduced sausages and bobotie, a meat pie made with minced meat that has been cooked with brown sugar, apricots and raisins, milk-soaked mashed bread, and…

  • Umniati River (river, Zimbabwe)

    Umniati River, river, tributary of the Zambezi River in north-central Zimbabwe. It has its source in the Daramumbe Range on the main watershed north of Chivhu. Flowing northwest for 325 miles (520 km), the Umniati joins the Zambezi River near the Kariba Dam. Its tributaries include the Sebakwe,

  • UMNO (political party, Malaysia)

    Dato’ Onn bin Jaafar: …the union, Onn founded the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), a political party representing purely Malay interests. When the plan for a union was eventually withdrawn, the sultan of Johore appointed him prime minister (Mentri Besar) of his state, and in February 1948 he became Member for Home Affairs for…

  • UMNO Baru (political party, Malaysia)

    Malaysia: Malaysia from independence to c. 2000: …forming a new Malay party, UMNO Baru (New UMNO; Baru was subsequently dropped in 1997 and the original name restored). Mahathir’s opponents countered by forming Semangat ’46 (Spirit of ’46), which claimed to embody the ideals of the original UMNO (established in 1946) and attempted to unite the disparate opposition…

  • umoor al-tabiyah, al- (medicine)

    Unani medicine: Al-Umoor al-tabiyah: basic physiological principles: According to practitioners of Unani medicine, the health of the human body is maintained by the harmonious arrangement of al-umoor al-tabiyah, the seven basic physiological principles of the Unani doctrine. These principles include (1) arkan, or elements, (2) mizaj, or…

  • umorismo, L’  (work by Pirandello)

    Luigi Pirandello: …the long essay L’umorismo (1908; On Humor), in which he examines the principles of his art. Common to both books is the theory of the subconscious personality, which postulates that what a person knows, or thinks he knows, is the least part of what he is. Pirandello had begun to…

  • UMP (political party, France)

    Jacques Chirac: First term: …Presidential Majority (later renamed the Union for a Popular Movement; UMP). In the spring of the same year—despite criticism for various ethical lapses and accusations of illegal fund-raising levied against the RPR—Chirac won the first round of France’s presidential balloting over right-wing nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jospin, whose third-place…

  • UMP (political party, Djibouti)

    Djibouti: Djibouti under Guelleh: …was the creation of the Union for the Presidential Majority (Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle; UMP) coalition, which included both the RPP and FRUD and was formed in preparation for the 2003 legislative elections.

  • UMP (chemical compound)

    metabolism: Pyrimidine ribonucleotides: …yield the parent pyrimidine nucleotide, uridylic acid (UMP; reaction [73]).

  • UMPA (United States law [1983])

    Uniform Marital Property Act (UMPA), U.S. law enacted in 1983 that defined the ownership of property by married persons and the means to divide the property in the event of divorce or death. The Uniform Marital Property Act (UMPA) created a class of property that belonged to the marriage rather

  • umpire (sports)

    Bill Klem: …considered by many the greatest umpire of all time. Klem is credited with the introduction of hand and arm signals to indicate calls of pitched balls and strikes and foul and fair batted balls. He was also famous for his practice of drawing a line in the dirt with his…

  • ʿumrah (Islam)

    ʿumrah, the “minor pilgrimage” undertaken by Muslims whenever they enter Mecca. It is also meritorious, though optional, for Muslims residing in Mecca. Its similarity to the major and obligatory Islamic pilgrimage (hajj) made some fusion of the two natural, though pilgrims have the choice of

  • Umrisse zu einer Kritik der Nationalökonomie (work by Engels)

    Marxism: The contributions of Engels: …Marx, Engels was finishing his Umrisse zu einer Kritik der Nationalökonomie (Outline of a Critique of Political Economy)—a critique of Smith, Ricardo, Mill, and J.-B. Say. This remarkable study contained in seminal form the critique that Marx was to make of bourgeois political economy in Das Kapital. During the first…

  • umrubhe (musical instrument)

    African music: Musical bows: …the string, but the Xhosa umrubhe is bowed with a friction stick, the xizambi of the Tsonga has serrations along the stave that are scraped with a rattle stick, and the Sotho lesiba (like the gora of the Khoekhoe) is sounded by exhaling and inhaling across a piece of quill…

  • Umsiligasi (king of the Ndebele)

    Mzilikazi was a Southern African king who founded the powerful Ndebele (Matabele) kingdom in what is now Zimbabwe. The greatest Bantu warrior after Shaka, king of the Zulus, Mzilikazi took his Kumalo people more than 500 miles (800 km) from what is now South Africa to the region now known as

  • Umtali (Zimbabwe)

    Mutare, city, eastern Zimbabwe. It originated as Fort Umtali and was built by prospectors in 1890 near the junction of the Sambi and Umtara rivers. Its name was derived from a local word meaning “metal,” probably referring to the nearby ancient goldworkings. The settlement was moved twice so as to

  • Umtata (South Africa)

    Mthatha, town, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. It was the capital of Transkei, a nominally independent but not internationally recognized southern African republic that was reincorporated into South Africa in 1994. Located on the Mthatha (“The Taker”) River (so named because of its destructive

  • umtshingo (musical instrument)

    African music: Flutes: The long Zulu umtshingo has an obliquely cut embouchure; there are no finger holes, but a double range of overblown harmonics is produced by alternately stopping and unstopping the lower end with a finger. Such instruments and many others throughout the continent are played singly, but in many…

  • umu (Inca religion)

    pre-Columbian civilizations: The priesthood: …that a priest’s title was umu, but in usage his title was geared to his functions as diviner of lungs, sorcerer, confessor, and curer. The title of the chief priest in Cuzco, who was of noble lineage, was villac umu. He held his post for life, was married, and competed…

  • Umuahia (Nigeria)

    Umuahia, town, capital of Abia state, southern Nigeria. It lies along the railroad from Port Harcourt to Enugu. It is an agricultural market centre and (since 1916) a collecting point on the railway for the crops of the surrounding region: yams, cassava (manioc), corn (maize), taro, citrus fruits,

  • umuganuro (Burundian festival)

    Burundi: Daily life, social customs, and the arts: …the annual sorghum festival (umuganuro), the occasion for a magnificent display of traditional dances by court dancers (intore). Also participating in the festival are drummers beating the Karyenda (“sacred drum”), an emblem of the monarchy—their performance is intended to give both musical and symbolic resonance to this festival and…

  • Umulirimbyi wa Nyili-ibiremwa (work by Kagame)

    Alexis Kagame: …epic conceived in 1941, is Umulirimbyi wa Nyili-ibiremwa, 3 vol. (1950; “The Singer of the Lord of Creation”), which consists of 35,000 lines arranged into 150 cantos. Lesser-known works include a novella, Matabaro Ajya Iburayi (1938–39; “Matabaro Leaves for Europe”); a historical poem, Umwaduko w’Abazungu muli Afrika yo hagati (1947;…

  • Umur Bey (Aydın ruler)

    Aydın Dynasty: His son and successor, Umur Bey (Umur I; reigned 1334–48), organized a fleet and led expeditions to the Aegean islands, the Balkans, and the Black Sea coasts, intervening in dynastic quarrels and assisting John VI Cantacuzenus in the neighbouring Byzantine Empire.

  • Umur I (Aydın ruler)

    Aydın Dynasty: His son and successor, Umur Bey (Umur I; reigned 1334–48), organized a fleet and led expeditions to the Aegean islands, the Balkans, and the Black Sea coasts, intervening in dynastic quarrels and assisting John VI Cantacuzenus in the neighbouring Byzantine Empire.

  • Umvukwe Range (mountains, Zimbabwe)

    Umvukwe Range, mountain range in northern Zimbabwe, extending about 100 miles (160 km) north from the Hunyani River and rising to a high point of 5,748 feet (1,752 m). The range forms the northern section of an enormous tabular block of igneous rock (norite) and is a major chrome-mining area. Major

  • UMWA (American labor union)

    United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), American labour union, founded in 1890, that engaged in bitter, though often successful, disputes with coal mine operators for safe working conditions, fair pay, and other worker benefits. An industrial union, the UMWA includes miners in bituminous and

  • Umwelt (perceptual environment)

    animal behaviour: Sensory-motor mechanisms: …ethologists have adopted the word Umwelt, a German word for environment, to denote an organism’s unique sensory world. The umwelt of a male yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), for example, differs sharply from that of a human. Whereas the human auditory system hears sounds over a wide range of frequencies,…

  • UN (international organization)

    United Nations (UN), international organization established on October 24, 1945. The United Nations (UN) was the second multipurpose international organization established in the 20th century that was worldwide in scope and membership. Its predecessor, the League of Nations, was created by the