MAHDISM, a hope cherished by devout Moslems of a Mahdi to come who will lead them on to victory against the infidel and to the conquest of the world.

MAHMUD II., Sultan of Turkey; crushed a rebellion on his accession by putting his brother to death, on whose behalf the janissaries had risen, as they afterwards did to their annihilation at his hands by wholesale massacre; by the victory of Navarino in 1827 he lost his hold of Greece, which declared its independence, and was near losing his suzerainty in Egypt when he died; his reign was an eventful one (1785-1839).

MAHOMET.  See MOHAMMED.

MAHON, LORD, EARL STANHOPE, statesman and historian; wrote “History of the War of the Succession in Spain,” “History of the Reign of Queen Anne,” and “History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles” (1805-1875).

MAHONY, FRANCIS, an Irish priest, born in Cork, who took to journalism, and is known by his nom de plume of Father Prout; contributed to Fraser’s Magazine, and was foreign correspondent to the Daily News and the Globe; was famous for his elegant translations (1804-1866).

MAHOUN, a contemptuous name for Mahomet, transferred in Scotland to the devil, who was called Old Mahoun.

MAHRATTAS, a warlike Hindu race in Central India, occupying a territory watered by the Nerbudda, Godavari, and Kistna, who at one time kept up a struggle for the supremacy of India with the British, but were finally subdued in 1843.

MAI, ANGELO, cardinal, distinguished scholar and editor; became librarian of the Vatican; was distinguished for deciphering PALIMPSESTS (q. v.), and thus disclosing lost classical works or fragments of them; he edited a number of unedited MSS. which he found in the Vatican, and in particular the Vatican codex of the Bible (1782-1854).

MAIA, the daughter of Atlas, the eldest of the seven PLEIADES (q. v.), and the mother by Zeus of Hermes or Mercury.

MAID MARIAN, a man dressed as a woman who grimaced and performed antics in the morris dances.

MAID OF NORWAY, daughter of Eric II., king of Norway, and through her mother heiress to the Scottish crown; died on her passage to Scotland in 1240.

MAID OF ORLEANS, Joan of Arc, so called from her defence of Orleans against the English.  See JOAN.

MAIDEN, THE, a sort of guillotine that appears to have been in use in Scotland during the 15th and 16th centuries, of which there is one in the Antiquarian Museum, Edinburgh.

MAIDMENT, JAMES, antiquary and collector, born in London; passed through Edinburgh University to the Scotch bar, and was chief authority on genealogical cases; his hobby was the collection of literary rarities, and he published editions of ancient literary remains; he died at Edinburgh (1794-1879).

MAIDSTONE (32), county town of Kent, on the Medway, 30 m.  SE. of London; has several fine old churches and historical buildings, a grammar school and a school of art and music, numerous paper-mills, and breweries, and does a large trade in hops; Woollett the engraver and Hazlitt the essayist were born here.