MOSES. MO'SES (Heb. Môsheh; LXX. and Vulg. Moyses; ?Egypt. Mes or Messou; Copt. Mo-ushe, i.e., drawn out of the water), prophet and legislator of the Israelites, born about 1600 B. c. in Egypt (? Heliopolis), during the period of their hard bondage. His father was Amram, his mother Jochebed, both of the tribe of Levi. The tale of his birth and early education has, by tradition (Manetho, Philo, Josephus, Midrash, &c.), received a much more extraordinary legendary character than is found in Exodus; while the main features are, on the whole, the same in them all. And there is no reason to doubt the truthfulness of an account which shews us M., like many other supreme benefactors and suns' of mankind, struggling against an apparently adverse fate, nay for very life, from the instant of his birth. The well-known narrative, to which late traditions (contained in Philo, Josephus, the Fathers, &c.) have supplied questionable names and dates, is that M.'s mother, unable to hide the child-which was to have been drowned at its birth-longer than for the space of three months, put it into a basket of papyrus, and hid it among the Nile rushes, Miriam, his sister, watching it from afar. The king's daughter (Thermuthis, or Merris ?), coming down to the river, observed the weeping child, and was so struck with its beauty, that she allowed Miriam to fetch a Hebrew nurse, Jochebed. Grown up, he was sent to the king's palace (Heliopolis) as the adopted son of the princess, and here seems to have enjoyed not only princely rank, but also a princely education. He is also said to have become a priest, under the name of Osarsiph or Tisithen, and to have been a mighty adept in all the sciences of Egypt, Assyria, and Chaldea;' to have led Egyptian armies against the Ethiopians, defeated them, and pursued them to their stronghold, Saba (Meroe); this place being delivered into his hands by Tharbis, the king's daughter, whom he subsequently married. The Bible contains nothing whatever about the time of his youth. He first reappears there as the avenger of a Hebrew slave, ill-treated by an Egyptian overseer. Threatened by the discovery of this bloody act, he escapes into Midian, where he is hospitably received by Jethro, the priest, and married his daughter, Zipporah. He stayed for many years in Midian, tending the flocks of his father-in-law. This most sudden transition from the brilliant and refined life of an Egyptian court, of which he had been brought up a prince, to the state of a poor, proscribed, exiled shepherd, together with the influences of the vast desert around him, must, in M.'s mind, have produced a singular revolution. The two names which he gave to his sons, strikingly express part of what filled his soul-a feeling of gratitude for his salvation from the avenging hand of justice, and the deep woe of his exile. The fate of his brethren went now, to his heart with greater force than when he was a prince and near them. There rushed upon his memory the ancient traditions of his family, the promises of Jehovah to the mighty sheikhs, his forefathers; that they should become a great and a free nation, and possess the ancient heritage of Canaan; why should not he be the instrument to carry out this promise? The Ehye asher Ehye (I am that I am appeared to him while his mind was occupied with such thoughts, and himself put the office upon his shoulders. A new king had succeeded in Egypt, his old enemies were either dead or had forgotten him, and M. returned to Egypt. Together with Aaron, his brother, the man of small energy but of fine tongue, he consulted about the first steps to be taken with the king as well as with their own people: --both of whom treated them at first with suspicion, nay, with contempt. After ten distinct plagues (more or less akin to natural phenomena peculiar to Egypt), the last being the death of all the firstborn, Pharaoh consented to let his slaves go free, that they might serve their God.' M. very soon had occasion to prove that he was not only the God-inspired Liberator of his people, who, in the enthusiasm of the moment had braved the great king and his disciplined armies, but that he possessed all those rarer qualities which alone could enable a man to mould half-brutalised hordes of slaves into a great nation. Calmness, disinterestedness, patience, perseverance, meekness, coupled with keen energy, rapidity of action, unfailing couragewisdom in council and boldness in war'-constituted the immense power which he held over the hundreds of thousands who knew no law in their newly-acquired liberty, and who were apt to murmur and to rebel on any or no provocation. Nor were the hostile Bedouin tribes, whose territories the new emigrants approached, easily overcome with untrained warriors, such as formed the ranks of M.'s army. The jealousy of certain elders fostering seditions within, added to his unceasing vexations; and to fill the measure to overflowing indeed, his own brother Aaron, whom he had made his representative during his temporary absence on the Mount of Sinai, himself assisted in the fabrication of an idol. His sacred office as legislator he in reality first assumed in the third month after the Exodus, when, after many hard and trying marches and countermarches-from Goshen to Succoth (? Latopolis, the present Old Cairo); thence, by a detour, to Etham (?Ramlieh), Pi-hachiroth (? Bedea), through the Red Sea, to the Desert of Shur (? AlDjofar), Marah, Elim (Wadi Gharandel), Desert of Sin (Wadi Mocatteb, or Wadi Al-Sheikh), Dophka, Alus, Raphidim (near the Makkad Sidna Mousa)made more trying by want of food and of water, by encounters with Pharaoh and the Amalekites, having arrived near the Mount of Sinai, he made the people encamp all round, and ascended the summit of the mountain by himself. On the incidents connected with the Revelation' made to the whole people, we need not dwell any more than on any other part of this well-known narrative. Suffice it to point out briefly, that the tendency of the whole Law was to make the Hebrews a people consecrated to the Lord,' a holy people, and a kingdom of priests,' i. e., a people of equals both before God and the Law. Three distinct parts compose this Mosaic Constitution. The doctrine with respect to God and His attributes; the 'Symbolical' Law, as the outward token of His Doctrine; and the Moral and Social Law. The Decalogue forms a kind of summary of all the three: the existence of Jehovah as the Absolute Being, the liberation of the people and the prohibition of Polytheism, and the Representation of the Divinity by visible images (i.-iii.). While the institution of the Sabbath, the symbol of creation and the Creator, forms the basis of all religious observances (iv.), the remaining part of the laws relate to the intercourse among the members of the human commonwealth; the gratitude of children is inculcated; murder, adultery, theft, false witness, coveting of others' goods are prohibited. The groundwork of these regulations had indeed been a special inheritance in the family of the Abrahamites from the carliest times; but the vicissitudes of fortune, the various migrations, and the enormous increase of this family, and its being mixed up for long years with the surrounding idolaters, had obliterated nearly all traces of the primeval purity of creed in the populace. The wisdom displayed even in the minor regulations of the Mosaic dispensation, with respect to their adaptation MOSES-MOSHEIM. to the peculiarity of the race, the climate, the political state of the country which they were to inhabit; in the hygienic regulations, and the rules which treat of the social and domestic relations; and, above all, the constantly-reiterated caution from mixing again with other nations, such as they found them in Canaan-and the neglect of which subsequently proved their ruin-is traced to a direct influence of Jehovah, generally indicated by the words, And God spake to Moses, speak unto the children of Israel.' An ample Ritual, in connection with the Tabernacle, or constantlyvisible symbol of a Divine Dwelling; the allegory of an ever-new covenant represented by Sacrifices, Prayers, Purifications, kept the supreme task of being priests and a holy people unceasingly before the eyes of the nation. The tribe of Levi (q. v.), to a certain degree acted in this respect as permanent representatives; and not to Moses's sons, but to his brother Aaron and his descendants, was intrusted the office of High-priest. culous liberation, and no less miraculous preservation in the desert. Their happiness-their lifewas bound up, he told them, in the Divine Law, communicated through him by Jehovah. A recapitulation of its principal ordinances, with their several modifications and additions, and reiterated exhortations to piety and virtue, form the contents of his last speeches, which close with one of the grandest poetical hymns. The law was then handed over to the priests that they might instruct the people in it henceforth; Joshua was installed as successor (while his own sons sunk into the obscurity of ordinary Levites), and he blessed the whole people. He then ascended the Mount of Nebo, from whence he cast a first and last look upon the land towards which he had pined all his life, and on which his feet were never to tread. He died upon this mountain, 120 years old, in the full vigour of manhood, according to the Scriptures, and no man knew his burial-place up to this day'-so that neither his remains nor his tomb were desecrated by Divine honours' being superstitiously paid to them. This is a summary of M.'s life as derived from biblical as well as non-biblical sources. The latter except, perhaps the very doubtful traditions of Manetho-belong, whatever may be the date of the respective documents of the Pentateuch, to a much later age, and bear the air of tradition and legend, grown out of those very documents, so plainly on their face, that they are of about the same importsagas that have gathered around M., and which are reproduced variously in Moslem Legendaries. On his office as a 'prophet:'-what was the special nature of his revelations, how far the doctrines promulgated by him were traditional among the Abrahamites, and how much of his laws is due to Egyptian influences; whether part of them was first inaugurated by later generations and ascribed to him, or whether others were never carried out at all: on these and similar questions which have been abundantly raised, more especially in recent times, we must refer for fuller information to the special works on the subject. Some notices of the more important points will be found under GENESIS, JEWS, PENTATEUCH, DECALOGUE, &c. There seems, however, but one conclusion. The brief span of human history of which we have any knowledge, shews few, if any, men of M.'s towering grandeur-even with all the deductions that the most daring criticism has yet proposed. When on the eve of entering into the promised land, the people broke out in open rebellion, and threatened, by a spontaneous return to the land of slavery, to undo the entire work of M.'s life. Convinced that they were not as yet fit to form a commonwealth of their own, the Liberator and Lawgiver had to postpone, for the long space of 40 years, the crowning act of his work; and, in fact, did not himself live to see them taking possession of the hallowed territory. How these years of nomadic journeying through the Desert (El-Tyhance for historical purposes as the cycle of Midrashor Al-Tyh Beni-Israel) were spent, save in rearing up a new generation of a more manly and brave, as well as more 'civilised' stamp, we can only conjecture. All those who had left Egypt as men were doomed to die in the desert, either by a natural death, or by being suddenly cut off,' in consequence of their openly defying M., and through M., Jehovah. The apparent lack of incidents during this period has indeed furnished grounds for various speculations on this subject, and critics have tried to reduce it to a much shorter space, without, however, being able to prove their point. Even Goethe, with more ingenuity than knowledge of the subject, has endeavoured to prove the forty' to be a mythical round number, the real time being two years. The testimonies of the Hebrew prophets and historians, however, are perfectly unanimous on the subject (cf. Jos. v. 6; xiv. 10; Amos, ii. 10; v. 26; Ps. xcv. 10, &c.), and modern criticism has mostly endorsed the number as in keeping with the circumstances. On the first month of the fortieth MOSHEIM, JOHANN LORENZ VON, a distinyear after the Exodus, we find M. at the head of anguished church historian of Germany, was born at entirely new generation of Hebrews at Kadesh, in Lübeck on 9th October 1694, and studied at Kiel. the Desert of Phoran or Zin. Here his sister Miriam In 1723, he became ordinary professor of theology died. Here also, for the first time, M., seeing the at Helmstedt, from which he was removed in 1747 new generation as stubborn and hard-necked' as to a similar office in Göttingen. He died Chancellor their fathers, is recorded to have despaired of the of the University of Göttingen, 9th September 1755. Divine Providence; and his disobedience to the His theological works are numerous, amongst which letter of the command given to him, 'to speak to are a work on Bible morality, Sittenlehre der Heilithe rock,' is alleged as the reason that his bones gen Schrift (new ed., continued by J. P. Miller, too had to fall in the desert.' His brother Aaron 9 vols. Helmst. 1770-1778); and Discourses, Heiligen died at Hor (near Petra, according to Josephus and Reden (3 vols. Hamb. 1732, et seq.). But his most St Jerome), whither the Israelites had gone next. important contributions to theological literature Not long afterwards, M. once more had occasion to are in the department of ecclesiastical history, punish with relentless severity the idolatrous tend- in which his Institutiones Historia Ecclesiastica encies of the people (Baal Peor), thus shewing that (Helmst. 1755) is familiar to every student as a age had had no power of making him relax his strong work of great learning, fulness, and accuracy. It rule over the still half-savage and sensuous multi- has been translated from the original very elegant tude. Having finally fixed the limits of the land to Latin into English and other languages. The best be conquered, and given the most explicit orders to English translation is that by Dr James Murdock Joshua, to Eliezer, and the chiefs of the ten tribes, (3 vols. New York, 1832), of which there are many respecting its division, he prepared the people for reprints. Besides this, M. is the author of Inhis own impending death. He recalled to their stitutiones Historia Christiana Majores (Helmst., minds in the most impressive language, their mira- 1763); De Rebus Christianorum ante Constantinum 584 MOSOSAURUS-MOSQUE. Commentarii (Helmst. 1753); Dissertationes ad Hist. Ecclesiasticam pertinentes (2 vols. new ed. Altona, 1767); and Versuch einer unparteiischen Ketzergeschichte (2 vols. Helmst. 1746-1748). His stand-point is that of liberal orthodoxy; yet he is essentially dogmatic, and pays more regard to the mere 'opinions' of men than to the character and genius shining through them; hence, his Church History is far inferior in point of richness, depth, and suggestiveness to that of Neander. MOSOSAURUS (MEUSE LIZARD), a genus of huge marine lizards, whose remains occur in rocks of cretaceous age. Three species are known, one from the upper chalk of Sussex, a second from the cretaceous beds of North America, and the third from the Maestricht beds. This last (M. Hofmanii) was first known from a nearly perfect head dug out the siege, had instructions not to point the artillery towards that part of the town in which the precious specimen was deposited. This head is four feet in length, and the animal to which it belonged is estimated to have been 25 feet long. The total number of the vertebræ was 133; they were concave in front and convex behind, and were fitted to each other by a ball-and-socket joint, admitting of easy and universal flexion; the sacrum seems to have been wanting. The limbs were developed into four large paddles, and these with the comparatively short and strong tail, the bones of which were constructed to give great muscular power, enabled the animal to move quickly through the water in pursuit of its prey. The jaws were furnished with a single row of strong conical teeth. Cuvier first shewed the affinities of the animal. It is most nearly related to the modern monitor, but differs from all modern lizards in its peculiar adaptations for an ocean life, and in its great size. The largest living lacertian is only 5 feet in length, and of this a large proportion is made up by the tail; the M., with its short tail, is estimated to have been at least 25 feet long. MOSQUE, a Mohammedan house of prayer. The word is derived, through the Italian moschea, from the Arabic mesjid, a place of prayer. The form of the oldest mosques (at Jerusalem and Cairo) is evidently derived from that of the Christian Basilica, the narthex being the origin of the court, with its arcade, and the eastern apses representing the principal buildings of the mosque facing Mecca. The original forms became, however, entirely obliterated in the progress of Mohammedan architecture, and the mosques, with their arcaded courts, gateways, domes, and minarets, became the most characteristic edifices of Saracenic art. Wherever the Mohammedan faith prevailed, from Spain to India, beautiful examples of these buildings exist. They vary considerably in style in wyda Great Mosque at Delhi, from the North-east.-From Fergusson's Hand-Book of Architecture. different countries, the Saracens generally borrowing much from the architecture of the various nations who adopted their faith. In India, the mosques have many features in common with the temples of the Jains, while in Turkey they resemble the Byzantine architecture of Constantinople. Everywhere the dome is one of the leading and most beautiful features of the mosques, which commonly consist of porticoes surrounding an open square, in the centre of which is a tank or fountain for ablution. Ara besques and sentences of the Koran inscribed upon the walls, which are generally white-washed, and never bear any device representing a living thing, are the only ornaments of the interior. The floor is generally covered with mats or carpets; there are no seats. In the south-east is a kind of pulpit (Mimbar) for the Imám; and in the direction in which Mecca lies (the Kibleh), there is a niche (Mehrab) towards which the faithful are required to look when they pray. Opposite the pulpit, there MOSQUITO-MOSSES. is generally a platform (Dikkeh), surrounded by a parapet, with a desk bearing the Koran, from which portions are read to the congregation. The five daily prayers (see MOHAMMEDANISM), which are generally said at home-especially by the better classes- -on week-days, are said in the mosque by the whole congregation on Fridays, the days of Al-Gumah, or the Assembly, the Moslem Sundays, together with some additional prayers, and at times a sermon is superadded to the service. It is not customary for women to visit the mosques, and if they do, they are sepa: rated from the male worshippers. The utmost solemnity and decorum are preserved during the service, although in the hours of the afternoon (when there is no worship) people are seen lounging, chatting, even engaged in their trade, in the interior of the sacred building. On entering the mosque, the Moslem takes off his shoes, carries them in his left hand, sole to sole, and putting his right foot first over the threshold, he then performs the necessary ablutions, and finishes by putting his shoes and any arms he may have with him upon the matting before him. The congregation generally arrange themselves in rows parallel to that side of the mosque in which is the niche, and facing that side. The chief officer of a mosque is the Nazir, under whom are two Imams, a kind of religious official, in no way to be compared with what we understand by a clergyman of a creed, but who performs a certain number of religious rites, as long as the Nazir allows him to do so, and who, being very badly remunerated, generally has to find some other occupation besides. There are further many persons attached to a mosque in a lower capacity, as Mueddins (q. v.), Bowwabs (door-keepers), &c., all of whom are paid, not by contributions levied upon the people, but from the funds of the mosque itself. The revenues of mosques are derived from lands. With many of the larger mosques, there are schools, academies (Medressehs), and hospitals connected, and public kitchens, in which food is prepared for the poor. MOSQUITO (Span. gnat), a name very generally given to the most troublesome species of Culex, and allied genera. See GNAT. The name M. is given, according to Humboldt, in some parts of tropical South America to species of Simulia, which are active during the day, whilst species of Culex, active chiefly during the night, are called Zancudoes; but these latter are the mosquitoes of other countries generally. The name was probably first used in the West Indies, where it particularly designates a species (C. Mosquito) very similar to the common gnat, but not quite so large, with black proboscis, and marked with silvery white on the head, thorax, and abdomen. It abounds in the warm parts of America, especially in marshy districts and in the vicinity of stagnant waters. It and similar species extend even to very northern regions, appearing during the heat of summer in prodigious swarms. Similar species are found also in similar situations in almost all parts of the world, and are almost as great a pest in Lapland as within the tropics. The bite which they inflict is painful, and their incessant sharp buzzing prevents sleep. In India and other countries, beds are provided with mosquito curtains of gauze, which are closely drawn, to protect the occupant, while the natives who cannot avail themselves of such protection, smear their bodies with oil. So numerous are mosquitoes in some localities in South America, that the wretched inhabitants sleep with their bodies covered over with sand three or four inches deep, the head only being left out, which they cover with a handkerchief; and travellers have been obliged to have recourse to the same expedient. Even thick clothes afford at best a very partial protection from mosquitoes being readily penetrated by the proboscis. Mosquitoes are readily attracted to a lamp, and perish in its flame; but where they are numerous, a lamp only causes additional swarms to congregate to its neighbourhood until it is extinguished, as is often very soon the case, by their dead bodies MOSQUITO COAST, MOSQUITO TERRITORY, or MOSQUITIA, formerly a native kingdom, under the protectorate of Britain, lies on the the north, Nicaragua on the west, and Costa Rica east coast of Central America, having Honduras on on the south. The area is estimated at 15,000 English square miles, but as 20,000 miles of contested territory lie between it, and Honduras and Nicaragua, its extent would be more correctly given at 25,000 square miles. The coast is low, with many bays and lagunes, and possesses a number of good harbours. The two principal rivers are the Rio de Ocean), and the Rio Escondido, both of which flow Segovia (which rises within 35 miles of the Pacific into the Caribbean Sea. The climate is rainy, and the temperature, considering the latitude, is cool and equal, the thermometer seldom rising above 82° or falling below 71°. On the whole, this territory is one of the most healthy parts of Central America. Ague is not unusually common, epidemics are exceedingly rare, and white people who do not recklessly expose themselves enjoy the best health. The swampy grounds are generally covered with dense forests, in which dye-woods and timber-trees of great value abound. Rice, maize, manioc, and other tropical plants, are cultivated. The country abounds in deer of various kinds, half-wild horses and oxen roam in the savannahs, which are covered with tall grass, and alligators and serpents are common. The inhabitants are of The chief exports are mahogany, cocoa, ginger, sarsaparilla, and tortoise-shell, but the whole trade is inconsiderable. but many are a cross between the native Indians various races, the greater portion being aboriginal, than from 10,000 to 15,000 in all. Their chief occuand runaway negroes; they do not number more pations are hunting and fishing, but a little agriculture and cattle breeding are also practised. The M. C. was discovered in 1502 by Columbus, and though never conquered, was claimed by Spain till about 1660, when the king, with consent of his people, placed himself under the protection of Britain. British colonists at different times attempted to found settlements in various parts of the country, but from various causes were soon after compelled to withdraw. Of late years they have met with more success. The foothold Britain thus obtained in Central America was viewed with great jealousy by the United States, who left no means untried to effect her expulsion. During the British protectorate consisting of a legislative body, and regular jury a sort of constitutional government was established, courts. In July 1850, the United States and Great Britain bound themselves by the Clayton-Bulwer treaty 'not to occupy, fortify, colonise, or exercise dominion over the M. C., or any part of Central America;' and in November 1859, Britain ceded the protectorate of M. C. along with the Bay Islands to Honduras, a proceeding which gave rise to much discontent among the natives of the coast, and a complete rebellion of the islanders. However, by a subsequent treaty, concluded 26th January 1860, the whole territory was finally handed over to Nicaragua. MOSSES (Musci), an order of acotyledonous plants, consisting of mere cellular tissue without vessels, and distinguished from Hepatica (q. v.), the order with which they are most nearly allied, by having always a leafy stem, and an operculated MOSTAR-MOTETT. capsule or urn (sporangium or theca), which opens at the top, and is filled with spores arranged around a central column (columella). The capsule is covered by a hood (calyptra); and when it is ripe, and has thrown off the calyptra and operculum, exhibits around its mouth a single or double row of rigid processes, few or numerous, but always either four or a multiple of four, collectively called the peristome. These reproductive organs are viewed by many botanists as female flowers or pistillidia; whilst reproductive organs of another kind, sometimes found on the same plant, but more generally on distinct plants, are regarded as male flowers or antheridia. These are minute cylindrical sacs, occurring in the axils of the leaves, or collected into a head enclosed by variously modified leaves at the summit of the stem, and finally bursting and discharging a great number of spherical or oval vesicles, through the transparent walls of which, when moistened with water, filaments (spermatozoïds) coiled up within them may be seen wheeling rapidly round and round. As the sacs merely discharge these vesicles and perish, it is Vi Moss. (From Stark's Mosses.) 1, perfect plant; a, branches clothed with leaves; b, seta, or footstalk; c, capsule; d, operculum, or lid. 2, branch producing stellate heads, having masses of male flowers, and filaments in centre. 3, spore of moss, germinating. 4, spore of moss in a more advanced state. supposed that the spermatozoids contained in them may effect the fertilisation of the spore-producing capsules; but this wants confirmation, and their particular office as reproductive organs is not yet fully ascertained. None of the M. are large plants, many are very small. Many have elongated stems, often branching; others have the stem scarcely developed, so that they seem to consist of a mere tuft of leaves. They are generally social in their manner of growth. They are among the first plants which begin to clothe the surface of rocks, sands, trunks of trees, &c., adapting inorganic matter for the support of higher kinds of vegetation. They love moisture, and are generally more abundant in cold and temperate than in hot climates. They struggle for existence on the utmost limits of vegetation in the polar regions and on mountain-tops. They dry up and appear as dead in a very dry state of the atmosphere, but revive when moisture returns. Some of them grow in bogs, which they gradually fill up and consolidate. They are of great use in protecting the roots of many plants from cold and from drought, and afford harbour to multitudes of insects. Some of them supply food for cattle, particularly for the reindeer, when nothing better is to be obtained, and a wretched kind of bread is even made by some of the dwellers in the Arctic regions, of species of Sphagnum. Some are astringent and diuretic, but their medicinal virtues are unimportant. Among the other principal uses to which they are applied by man are the packing of things liable to be broken, the littering of cattle, the covering of garden plants in winter, and the stuffing of the open space in roofs to moderate the heat of attic rooms in summer and their cold in winter-perhaps the most important use to which they are ever put, at least in Britain, and to which, as the benefit is great and easily attained, it is wonderful that they are not much more frequently applied. The abundance of M. in meadows and pastures is disagreeable to farmers. The best remedies are proper drainage, the application of lime, and the liberal use of other manures, by which the soil may be enriched, so that better plants may grow with sufficient luxuriance, upon which the M. are choked and disappear. Several thousand species of M. are known. Many of the M. are very beautiful, and their capsules and other organs are interesting objects of study, even with an ordinary magnifying-glass. MOSTAR, a town of European Turkey, capital of Herzegovina (q. v.), on the Narenta, 45 miles south-west of Bosna-Serai. It is surrounded by embattled walls, contains ten mosques, a Greek church, and a famous Roman bridge of one arch, 95 feet in span. Silk, grapes, and wine are produced, and knife-blades and weapons are manufactured. M. is also a place of considerable trade. Pop. 10,000. MO'SUL, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the province of Al-Jezireh (ancient Mesopotamia), is situated on the right bank of the Tigris, opposite the ruins of ancient Nineveh (q. v.), and 180 miles up the river from Bagdad. It is surrounded by walls, and is still in a more flourishing condition than most Turkish towns, on account of its caravantrade with Diarbekir, Bagdad, and Aleppo, though its prosperity is nothing to what it formerly was. During the Middle Ages it supplied all Europe with its rich manufactures-muslins, according to Marco Polo, got their name from this town; now, on the contrary, the bazaars of M. are filled with the manufactures of the West. The principal causes of its diminished importance are the rise of Abushehr (q. v.) as an emporium of trade, and the opening up of the new sea-route to India by the Isthmus of Suez. M. is the seat of a Jacobite patriarch, and was formerly the great metropolis of all the Mesopotamian Christians (the Nestorians, the United Chaldeans, the Jacobites, &c.), but war, pestilence, incessant anarchy, have greatly reduced their numfamine, Mohammedan proselytism, oppression, and bers. The population is variously estimated at from 18,000 to 40,000, of whom perhaps about a fourth are Christians. There are also about 1500 Jews; the rest are Mohammedans (Arabs, Kurds, and Turks). MOTACI'LLIDE. See WAGTAIL. MOTETT, a name applied to two different forms of musical composition-1. A sacred cantata, consisting of several unconnected movements, as a solo, trio, chorus, fugue, &c. ; 2. A choral composition, generally also of a sacred character, beginning with an introduction in the form of a song, perhaps with figurative accompaniment; after which follow several fugue subjects, with their expositions, the whole ending either with the exposition of the last subject, a repetition of the introduction, or a special final subject. A motett differs in this respect from |