ayagapata, in Jainism, any of numerous votive slabs associated with such Jain sites as Kankali Tila in Mathura, India, and dating to about the 1st century ce. The slabs are decorated with an object of Jain veneration such as the stupa (relic mound), dharmacakra (wheel of law), triratna (three

Lake Balkhash: …rivers as the Qaratal, Aqsū, Ayaguz, and Lepsi feed the eastern part of the lake. With almost equal areas in both parts of the lake, this situation creates a continuous flow of water from the western to the eastern section. The water of the western part was almost fresh and…

Arabic literature: Message and impact: …has provided clear “signs” (āyāt) regarding the fates of peoples, such as ʿĀd and Thamūd (surah 7, verses 65–79), who ignored this message. Muslims are urged to live their lives in such a way that on the Day of Judgment, when their deeds are weighed in the balance, they…

ayahuasca, hallucinogenic drink made from the stem and bark of the tropical liana Banisteriopsis caapi and other botanical ingredients. First formulated by indigenous South Americans of the Amazon basin, ayahuasca is now used in many parts of the world. Some users experience visions and sensations,

ayahuasca: …bark of the tropical liana Banisteriopsis caapi and other botanical ingredients. First formulated by indigenous South Americans of the Amazon basin, ayahuasca is now used in many parts of the world. Some users experience visions and sensations, while others claim that the potion has healing powers.

Francisco Ayala was a Spanish novelist and sociologist whose literary works examined the abuse of power and its moral implications for individuals and society. Ayala received a law degree from the University of Madrid in 1929, at which time he had already published the novel Tragicomedia de un

Paraguay: The Chaco War: Eusebio Ayala gave a military carte blanche to Gen. José Félix Estigarribia, who gradually pushed the Bolivians back until they were almost entirely ejected from the Chaco. Through foreign mediation, a cease-fire was attained on June 12, 1935, and a peace treaty ending the Chaco…

Francisco Ayala was a Spanish novelist and sociologist whose literary works examined the abuse of power and its moral implications for individuals and society. Ayala received a law degree from the University of Madrid in 1929, at which time he had already published the novel Tragicomedia de un

Francisco J. Ayala was a Spanish-born American evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist best known for expounding the philosophical perspective that Darwinism and religious faith are compatible. Ayala was raised in Madrid by his parents, Francisco and Soledad Ayala. He received a B.S. in

Francisco J. Ayala was a Spanish-born American evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist best known for expounding the philosophical perspective that Darwinism and religious faith are compatible. Ayala was raised in Madrid by his parents, Francisco and Soledad Ayala. He received a B.S. in

San Francisco: Exploration and early settlement: …San Carlos, commanded by Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala, turned eastward between the headlands, breasted the ebbing tide, and dropped anchor just inside the harbour mouth. It is possible that Drake may have entered the bay, but most evidence suggests otherwise.

Emiliano Zapata: The Plan of Ayala: Madero was elected president in November 1911, and Zapata met with him again but without success. With the help of a teacher, Otilio Montaño, Zapata prepared the Plan of Ayala, which declared Madero incapable of fulfilling the goals of the revolution. The…

Ramón Pérez de Ayala was a Spanish novelist, poet, and critic who excelled in philosophical satire and the novel of ideas. Pérez de Ayala studied law at Oviedo University and philosophy and literature at the University of Madrid. During World War I he covered France, Italy, England, South America,

Ki Seto ware: …soft dull-glazed pure yellow (ayame-de, or aburage-de), fired at low heat.

ʿayn, in Islāmic countries, an eminent person. Under the Ottoman regime (c. 1300–1923) the term at first denoted provincial or local notables, but in the 18th and early 19th century it was applied to a class of landlords who exercised political functions and were accorded official status. Many

pre-Columbian civilizations: The beginnings of external expansion: …of another group called the Ayarmaca (’Ayarmaka). When the promise was broken and Mama Mikay married Inca Roca, the Ayarmaca went to war with the Huayllaca and were defeating them. As a peace offering, the Huayllaca agreed to deliver Mama Mikay’s son to the Ayarmaca. This tale says a great…

pre-Columbian civilizations: The beginnings of external expansion: …of another group called the Ayarmaca (’Ayarmaka). When the promise was broken and Mama Mikay married Inca Roca, the Ayarmaca went to war with the Huayllaca and were defeating them. As a peace offering, the Huayllaca agreed to deliver Mama Mikay’s son to the Ayarmaca. This tale says a great…

Accra: …ruled from a parent settlement, Ayaso (Ayawaso), located about 15 miles (24 km) north. Between 1650 and 1680 the Europeans built three fortified trading posts—Fort James (English), Fort Crevecoeur (Dutch), and Christiansborg Castle (Danish)—along the coast in the locality. While these European posts were being constructed, Ayaso was destroyed in…

Hagia Sophia, an important Byzantine structure in Istanbul and one of the world’s great monuments. It was built as a Christian church in the 6th century ce (532–537) under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. In subsequent centuries it became a mosque, a museum, and a mosque again.

ayatana, in Buddhist philosophy, the field of cognition. Human physical existence consists of 12 ayatanas: the 6 cognitive faculties (5 sense organs and the mind) and the 6 corresponding categories of objects. This classification of the elements of the world is based on human experience and is used

Gahanbar: …of Shatvairō; 30 days later, Ayāthrima (possibly Time of Prosperity), in the month of Mitrā; 80 days later, Maidhyāirya (Midwinter), in the month of Dīn; and 75 days later, in the last five intercalary or Gatha days of the year, Hamaspathmaēdaya (a festival for the dead).

Accra: …ruled from a parent settlement, Ayaso (Ayawaso), located about 15 miles (24 km) north. Between 1650 and 1680 the Europeans built three fortified trading posts—Fort James (English), Fort Crevecoeur (Dutch), and Christiansborg Castle (Danish)—along the coast in the locality. While these European posts were being constructed, Ayaso was destroyed in…

Aybak was the first Mamlūk sultan of Egypt (1250–57) in the Turkish, or Baḥrī, line. Upon the death of al-Ṣaliḥ, the last great sultan of the Ayyūbid dynasty, his son succeeded him but offended his father’s slave guards, or Mamlūks, who killed him (April 30, 1250). Shajar al-Durr, al-Ṣaliḥ’s widow,

Mount Gerizim: …it is a twin of Mount Ebal (Arabic Jabal ʿAybāl, Hebrew Har ʿEval; 3,084 feet [940 metres]) to the north. Separating the two is a valley some 700 feet (210 metres) deep, through which passes one of the few east-west routes of the central Palestine hill country. The mountain was…

Aybak was the first Mamlūk sultan of Egypt (1250–57) in the Turkish, or Baḥrī, line. Upon the death of al-Ṣaliḥ, the last great sultan of the Ayyūbid dynasty, his son succeeded him but offended his father’s slave guards, or Mamlūks, who killed him (April 30, 1250). Shajar al-Durr, al-Ṣaliḥ’s widow,

Alan Ayckbourn is a successful and prolific British playwright, whose works—mostly farces and comedies—deal with marital and class conflicts and point out the fears and weaknesses of the English lower-middle class. He wrote more than 80 plays and other entertainments, most of which were first

Alan Ayckbourn is a successful and prolific British playwright, whose works—mostly farces and comedies—deal with marital and class conflicts and point out the fears and weaknesses of the English lower-middle class. He wrote more than 80 plays and other entertainments, most of which were first

Sedgefield: Aycliffe, also called Newton Aycliffe, was the first official new town in the north of England, designated in 1947 in conjunction with a revamped World War II ordnance factory. The industrial estate established there had expanded by the early 1980s to provide employment for 12,000…

historiography: Political history: …It was to be, as William Aydelotte put it, “a sedate, hesitant, circumspect, little behavioral revolution” in American historical practice. The postwar United States furnished some innovative young historians who combined an interest in political history with a program for making it more scientific. Among the most systematic of these…

Muhammad Farah Aydid was a Somali faction leader. He received military training in Italy and the U.S.S.R. and served in posts under Mohamed Siad Barre (1978–89) before overthrowing him in 1991. He became the dominant clan leader at the centre of the Somalian civil war. Losing the interim presidency

Aydın, city, southwestern Turkey. It is located near the Menderes River (the ancient Maeander). It is an important trading centre on the highway and rail line between Afyon and İzmir. Nearby is the site of ancient Tralles, said to have been founded by the Argives. Aydın was called Güzelhisar

Aydın Dynasty, Turkmen dynasty (c. 1308–1425) that ruled in the Aydın-Izmir region in western Anatolia. Situated in a prosperous coastal region, the Aydın principality was active in the Mediterranean trade. As a frontier state between the declining Byzantine Empire and the growing Ottoman state, it

John Lewis: …and 2016; all cowritten with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell), a graphic novel series for young adults that was based on Lewis’s experiences in the civil rights movement. The final installment in the series received numerous honours, including the National Book Award (2016), and Lewis and Aydin shared…

China: Relief of China: …Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang—Lake Ayding—is 508 feet (155 meters) below sea level. The coast of China contrasts greatly between South and North. To the south of the bay of Hangzhou, the coast is rocky and indented with many harbors and offshore islands. To the north, except along the…

Ay was a king of ancient Egypt (reigned c. 1323–20 bce) of the 18th dynasty, who rose from the ranks of the civil service and the military to become king after the death of Tutankhamen. Ay first appears as a member of the court of Akhenaton, at his capital city of Akhetaton, where Ay’s large

aye-aye, (Daubentonia madagascariensis), rare squirrel-like primate of Madagascar, the sole living representative of the family Daubentoniidae. Nocturnal, solitary, and arboreal, most aye-ayes live in rainforests of eastern Madagascar; however, fossils from Egypt and Kenya dating to 34 million

Southeast Asian arts: The 15th century: …of military marching songs; (4) ayegyin (lullaby), an informative poem usually addressed to a young prince or princess and written in praise of his royal ancestors.

English literature: Prose: …Northgate produced in Kentish the Ayenbite of Inwit (“Prick of Conscience”), a translation from French. But the best prose of this time is by the mystic Richard Rolle, the hermit of Hampole, whose English tracts include The Commandment, Meditations on the Passion, and The Form of Perfect Living, among others.…

Monir Farmanfarmaian: Farmanfarmaian was inspired by ayeneh-kari, a traditional decorative technique of embedding fragments of mirrored glass in plaster. In her work Farmanfarmaian often fused enduring Islamic pattern making and a Modernist exploration of abstract geometric forms.

A.J. Ayer was a British philosopher and educator and a leading representative of logical positivism through his widely read work Language, Truth, and Logic (1936). Although Ayer’s views changed considerably after the 1930s, becoming more moderate and increasingly subtle, he remained loyal to

Francis Wayland Ayer was a U.S. advertising pioneer who founded N.W. Ayer & Son and revolutionized that industry by making the advertising firm an active agent for the advertiser, rather than a middleman selling a newspaper’s space to the advertiser. Francis Ayer was a member of an old

A.J. Ayer was a British philosopher and educator and a leading representative of logical positivism through his widely read work Language, Truth, and Logic (1936). Although Ayer’s views changed considerably after the 1930s, becoming more moderate and increasingly subtle, he remained loyal to

Uluru/Ayers Rock, giant monolith, one of the tors (isolated masses of weathered rock) in southwestern Northern Territory, central Australia. It has long been revered by a variety of Australian Aboriginal peoples of the region, who call it Uluru. The rock was sighted in 1872 by explorer Ernest Giles

Olgas: …miles (28 square km) within Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park (established in 1958 as Ayers Rock–Mount Olga National Park) and culminate at Mount Olga, 1,500 feet (460 metres) above the plain and 3,507 feet above sea level. Mount Olga is the most westerly of Australia’s three giant tors; the others are…

Ramón de Campoamor y Campoosorio: … (1840; “Endearments and Flowers”) and Ayes del alma (1842; “Laments of the Soul”), show the influence of the Spanish Romantic poet José y Moral Zorrilla, he broke away from Romanticism with his book Doloras (1845), simple verses of worldly wisdom much like proverbs, which were thought to herald a breakthrough…

Ayesha, fictional character, the supernatural white queen of a vanished African city in the romantic novel She (1887) by H. Rider Haggard. Ayesha ("She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed") is a beautiful and majestic woman with supernatural powers who spends centuries waiting for the reincarnation of a lover from

Irrawaddy River, principal river of Myanmar (formerly Burma), running through the centre of the country. Myanmar’s most important commercial waterway, it is about 1,350 miles (2,170 km) long. Its name is believed to derive from the Sanskrit term airāvatī, meaning “elephant river.” The river flows

Yauri: About 1810 King Albishir (Mohammadu dan Ayi), the Hausa ruler of Yauri, pledged allegiance to the emir of Gwandu, the Fulani empire’s overlord of the western emirates, and became the first emir of Yauri.

Greek religion: Religious art and iconography: On a well-known sarcophagus from Ayías Triádhos in Crete, for example, a priestess dressed in a skin skirt assists at a sacrifice, flanked by wreathed axes on which squat birds. The significance of the scene has been much discussed. The birds have been regarded as epiphanies of deities, giving sacral…

Ethiopia: Daily life and social customs: Ayib, a fresh soft cheese similar to cottage cheese, serves to temper the heat of the spicy dishes. Each diner tears off a piece of injera and uses it to scoop up a morsel of one or more dishes and their sauces. One diner may…

Aying was a Chinese critic and historian of modern Chinese literature. A member of the Communist Party and of the standing committee of the League of Left-Wing Writers, he began c. 1930 to gather and study materials on the literature of modern times and of the Ming and Qing dynasties. His published

Gaziantep, city, south-central Turkey. It is situated near the Sacirsuyu River, a tributary of the Euphrates River, in limestone hills north of Aleppo, Syria. The city was strategically situated near ancient trade routes, and recent excavations have unearthed fragments of pottery indicating

Metéora: …Great Metéoron, Varlaám (also called All Saints [Áyioi Pándes]), Roussanou, St. Nikolas (Áyios Nikolaos), Holy Trinity (Áyia Triada), and St. Stephen (Áyios Stéfanos). Some still serve a religious function, though they are now only sparsely populated by monks and nuns. Since the construction of paved roads through the area in…

Mount Athos, mountain in northern Greece, site of a semiautonomous republic of Greek Orthodox monks inhabiting 20 monasteries and dependencies (skítes), some of which are larger than the parent monasteries. It occupies the easternmost of the three promontories of the Chalcidice (Khalkidhikí)

Gulf of Agíou Orous, inlet of the Aegean Sea, northeastern Greece. It is the larger and deeper of two gulfs (the other being Ierisoú Gulf) that extend into the peninsula of the historical region in Greece known as Macedonia (Makedonía). The silted-up remains of a canal completed by Persian king

Thessaloníki: The church of Áyios Dimítrios, the city’s patron saint, is early 5th-century; it was entirely reconstructed in 1926–48. The Panaghia Chalkeon (1028 or 1042) is another excellent example of the Greek cross design that inspired many later Byzantine churches. Dating from the 5th century, the little Church of…

Athens: The Horologium and the Orthodox cathedrals: …(Mitrópolis) nestles the 12th-century Mitrópolis, Áyios Elefthérios, one of three genuine Byzantine churches still surviving. It is red brick, like the others, and tiny. Its Pentelic marble is ruddied with age, and its outer walls are artfully, if promiscuously, decorated with Classical Greek tidbits: panels, votive tablets, and morsels of…

Aegina: The highest point is conical Mount Áyios Ilías (ancient Mount Pan Hellenion), at 1,745 feet (532 metres). On the west coast the chief town and port, Aegina, lies over part of the ancient town of the same name.

Metéora: St. Nikolas (Áyios Nikolaos), Holy Trinity (Áyia Triada), and St. Stephen (Áyios Stéfanos). Some still serve a religious function, though they are now only sparsely populated by monks and nuns. Since the construction of paved roads through the area in the 1960s, it has been…

Metéora: …Holy Trinity (Áyia Triada), and St. Stephen (Áyios Stéfanos). Some still serve a religious function, though they are now only sparsely populated by monks and nuns. Since the construction of paved roads through the area in the 1960s, it has been visited annually by thousands of tourists and Orthodox pilgrims.…

Metéora: Nikolas (Áyios Nikolaos), Holy Trinity (Áyia Triada), and St. Stephen (Áyios Stéfanos). Some still serve a religious function, though they are now only sparsely populated by monks and nuns. Since the construction of paved roads through the area in the 1960s, it has been visited annually by thousands…

Abraham Mapu: Other novels include ʿAyiṭ tzavuaʿ (1858–69; “The Hypocrite”), an attack on social and religious injustice in the Jewish ghetto; Ashmat Shomron (1865; “Guilt of Samaria”), a biblical epic about the hostility between Jerusalem and Samaria in the time of King Ahaz; and Ḥoze ḥezyonot

John Belushi: Early life: …1971, where he met actor Dan Aykroyd, who became a lifelong friend and collaborator. Belushi moved to New York City in 1972 and joined the cast of National Lampoon: Lemmings, an Off-Broadway rock music stage revue that was originally scheduled to run for six weeks but played for nearly 10…

Al-ʿAqabah, port town, extreme southwestern Jordan. It lies on the Gulf of Aqaba, an inlet of the Red Sea, just east of the Jordan-Israel frontier on the gulf. It is Jordan’s only seaport. Because of freshwater springs in the vicinity, it has been settled for millennia; King Solomon’s port and

Albert Ayler was an American tenor saxophonist whose innovations in style and technique were a major influence on free jazz. As a boy, Ayler studied saxophone with his father, with whom he played duets in church. In his mid-teens he played in rhythm-and-blues bands, and as a young alto saxophonist

poultry farming: Ducks and geese: Although the white-fleshed Aylesbury was once the favoured meat duck in England, disease and market competition from the yellow-fleshed Pekin duck have led to its decline.

Aylesbury, town (parish), Aylesbury Vale district, administrative and historic county of Buckinghamshire, southeast-central England. The town lies at the centre of a rich clay vale and serves as the county town (seat) of Buckinghamshire. It was once an important market town for ducks and dairy

Aylesbury Vale, district in the northern part of the administrative and historic county of Buckinghamshire, southern England. The name comes from the rich clay Vale of Aylesbury, which is situated between the ridges of the Cotswolds and the Chiltern Hills. The district includes both Aylesbury (the

Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón was a Spanish explorer and the first European colonizer of what is now South Carolina. Going to the West Indies in 1502, he became a judge in the colonial administration of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo). In 1520 he went to Mexico to mediate the dispute between the Spanish

Aymara: The political unit is the ayllu, or comunidad, composed of several extended families.

John Aylmer was an Anglican bishop of London in the reign of Elizabeth I, known for his vigorous enforcement of the Act of Uniformity (1559) within his Church of England diocese. His harsh treatment of all (whether Puritan or Roman Catholic) who differed with him on ecclesiastical questions caused

Black September, breakaway militant faction of the Palestinian organization Fatah. The group was founded in 1971 to seek retribution on Jordan’s military and to assassinate Jordan’s King Hussein after they forcefully confronted the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during an attempt to seize

Patricio Aylwin was a Chilean politician who served as president from 1990 to 1994. He was the country’s first democratically elected president after the 1973 military coup that had brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Aylwin was credited with helping guide Chile back to democracy. Aylwin was the

Patricio Aylwin was a Chilean politician who served as president from 1990 to 1994. He was the country’s first democratically elected president after the 1973 military coup that had brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Aylwin was credited with helping guide Chile back to democracy. Aylwin was the

Aymara, large South American Indian group living on the Altiplano—a vast windy plateau of the central Andes in Peru and Bolivia—with smaller numbers in Argentina and Chile. Their language is also called Aymara. In colonial times the Aymara tribes were the Canchi, Colla, Lupaca, Collagua, Ubina,

Aymaran languages, group of South American Indian languages spoken over a fairly large region in the southern Peruvian highlands and adjacent areas of Bolivia. Some scholars classify the Aymaran group and the Quechuan group together in the Quechumaran stock. See Quechuan

Marcel Aymé was a French novelist, essayist, and playwright, known as a master of light irony and storytelling. He grew up in the country among farmers, in a world of close-knit families bounded by the barnyard on one side, the schoolhouse on the other. Aymé drew most of his characters from this

ʿayn, in Islāmic countries, an eminent person. Under the Ottoman regime (c. 1300–1923) the term at first denoted provincial or local notables, but in the 18th and early 19th century it was applied to a class of landlords who exercised political functions and were accorded official status. Many

Dānishmend dynasty: (Yaghibasan) in Sivas and ʿAyn ad-Dawlah in Malatya-Elbistan—and his son Dhū an-Nūn in Kayseri. After Yağibasan’s death (1164), the Seljuq sultan Qïlïj Arslan II intervened repeatedly in the affairs of the Sivas and Kayseri branches and finally invaded Dānishmend territory; but he was stopped by Dhū an-Nūn’s father-in-law, Nureddin…

Battle of ʿAyn Jālūt, ʿAyn Jālūt also spelled Ain Jalut, (September 3, 1260), decisive victory of the Mamlūks of Egypt over the invading Mongols, which saved Egypt and Islam and halted the westward expansion of the Mongol empire. Baghdad, the capital city of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate, had fallen to

Anazarbus, former city of the ancient province of Cilicia in Anatolia that was important in the Roman and Byzantine periods. It was located in what is now south-central Turkey. The original native settlement was refounded by the Romans in 19 bc, following a visit by Augustus. It rivaled Tarsus, the

Al-Ain, city in Al-Buraimi oasis, southeastern Abu Dhabi emirate, United Arab Emirates. The oasis city consists of houses of dried earth in a large palm grove; it also has a modern mosque and many gardens. Al-Ain is situated in a large expanse of fertile land at the foot of Mount Ḥafīt. Grave

Andrée Putman was a French designer, known for her Minimalist, avant-garde furnishings and interior designs. Putman was educated in Paris at the Collège d’Hulst and studied piano at the Paris Conservatory, winning the school’s highest award at age 20. She became frustrated with musical training,

Jafar Panahi: In Ayneh (1997; The Mirror) a young girl decides to make her own way home after her mother does not pick her up at the end of the school day despite the fact that she does not know her address. The story makes an abrupt turn when the…

Tajikistan: Literature: …Tajik, Russian, and Uzbek, and Sadriddin Ayni, known for his novel Dokhunda (1930; The Mountain Villager) and for his autobiography, Yoddoshtho (1949–54; published in English as Bukhara). Both Fitrat and Ayni were bilingual, writing in Uzbek and Tajik. Abū al-Qāsim Lāhūtī’s poem Taj va bayraq (1935; Crown and Banner) and…

Gaziantep, city, south-central Turkey. It is situated near the Sacirsuyu River, a tributary of the Euphrates River, in limestone hills north of Aleppo, Syria. The city was strategically situated near ancient trade routes, and recent excavations have unearthed fragments of pottery indicating

Ayodhya, town in northern India that is known as a sacred city and the birthplace of Rama in Hinduism and as a historical center of Buddhism. On a site significant to both Hindus and Muslims was a Mughal-era mosque, the Babri Masjid, which was destroyed in 1992 amid interreligious tensions. After a

Ram Mandir, Ayodhya, a grand Hindu temple inaugurated on January 22, 2024, at a site in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India, believed to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram. The site is where the Babri Masjid, a Mughal-era mosque, stood until December 6, 1992, when Hindu activists destroyed the

Argentina: Discovery and settlement: …party from Buenos Aires under Juan de Ayolas and Domingo Martínez de Irala, lieutenants of Mendoza, pushed a thousand miles up the Plata and Paraguay rivers. Ayolas was lost on an exploring expedition, but Irala founded Asunción (now in Paraguay) among the Guaraní, a largely settled agricultural people. In 1541…

Native American music: Idiophones: The Aztec áyotl was a tortoise shell rubbed on its ventral side with a stick. Plucked idiophones consist of a flexible tongue or lamella that is fixed to a frame and plucked with the finger or thumb; while these are not widespread among American Indians, one example…

Kelly Ayotte is an American lawyer and politician who was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2010 and represented New Hampshire in that body from 2011 to 2017. She previously served as the state’s first female attorney general (2004–09). After studying political science at Pennsylvania

Kelly Ayotte is an American lawyer and politician who was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2010 and represented New Hampshire in that body from 2011 to 2017. She previously served as the state’s first female attorney general (2004–09). After studying political science at Pennsylvania

Laayoune, town, northern Western Sahara, 8 miles (13 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean and situated in the geographic region of Saguia el-Hamra. It was the capital of Western Sahara from 1940 to 1976 (when Western Sahara was a northwest African overseas province of Spain known as Spanish Sahara);

Ayr, town, northeastern Queensland, Australia, on the delta of the Burdekin River. It is known for its natural beauty and fertile farmland. The settlement was surveyed and gazetted in 1881. Declared a town in 1882 and named for the Scottish birthplace of Sir Thomas McIllwraith, then state premier,

Ayr, port town, South Ayrshire council area, historic county of Ayrshire, Scotland, at the mouth of the River Ayr where it enters the Firth of Clyde. The town is at the centre of the area associated with Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. Ayr was created a royal burgh in 1202 (the original

Ayrshire, historic county, southwestern Scotland. The county is named for Ayr, its historic county town (seat). Apart from a small section in the south that is part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire is presently divided into the council areas of South Ayrshire, East Ayrshire,

extraterritoriality: …originated by the French jurist Pierre Ayraut (1536–1601) and gained wide currency because of its adoption by the classical writers on the law of nations such as Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) and Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694). The word extraterritoriality or its foreign equivalent was not in use until the end of…

ayre, genre of solo song with lute accompaniment that flourished in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The outstanding composers in the genre were the poet and composer Thomas Campion and the lutenist John Dowland, whose “Flow, my teares” (“Lachrimae”) became so popular that a large

Jakob Ayrer was a dramatist who incorporated elements of Elizabethan plays (e.g., spectacular stage effects, violent action, histrionic bombast, the stock figure of the clown) into his own plays, particularly his Fastnachtsspiele, the farces performed at Shrovetide (the three days preceding Ash

Douglas: …during the Sioux wars, and Ayres Natural Bridge, a 100-foot (30-metre) arch spanning La Prele Creek. A division of the Medicine Bow National Forest is across the river to the south, and the Thunder Basin National Grassland lies to the north. Inc. 1886. Pop. (2000) 5,288; (2010) 6,120.