Murat \rmE-'ra\, Joachim (b. March 25, 1767, La Bastide-Fortuniere, France—d. Oct. 13, 1815, Pizzo, Calabria) French soldier and king of Naples (1808-15). He served in Italy and Egypt as a daring cavalry com¬ mander, and later he aided Napoleon in his coup d’etat (1799) and mar¬ ried Napoleon’s sister Caroline Bonaparte. He helped win the Battle of Marengo (1800). Appointed governor of Paris, he was promoted to mar¬ shal in 1804. After victories at the Battles of Austerlitz (1805) and Jena
(1806), he was made king of Naples (1808), where he carried out admin¬ istrative and economic reforms and encouraged Italian nationalism. He led troops in Napoleon’s Russian campaign at the Battle of Borodino (1812) but left the army during its retreat from Moscow. He supported Napoleon again during the Hundred Days in 1815, but he was defeated with his Neapolitan forces at the Battle of Tolentino and was later taken prisoner and shot.
Murchison River River, Western Australia, Australia. Sporadically flowing west to the Indian Ocean, it
is 440 mi (708 km) long. In 1891 the river’s name was given to one of Australia’s richest goldfields, and some gold is still mined in the area. Kalbarri National Park is on the lower Murchison, where the river cuts a scenic gorge through the coastal range.
Murat, detail of a drawing by Antoine- Jean Gros; in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
CUCHE MUSEES NATIONAUX, PARIS
Murcia Vmor-shoV Autonomous community (pop., 2001: 1,197,646), province, and historic region, southeastern Spain. It covers 4,368 sq mi (11,314 sq km), and its capital is the city of Murcia. It was an indepen¬ dent Moorish kingdom until its annexation by Castile in 1243. The autono¬ mous community was established in 1982. The Segura River flows through its centre, irrigating rich farmland and orchards. The ports of Cartagena, Mazarron, and Aguilas have grown with the development of shipping and mining along the coastal plain. Principal crops are grain, olives, grapes, and melons.
Murcia City (pop., 2001: 370,745), capital of the autonomous commu¬ nity of Murcia, southeastern Spain. The site was settled before the Roman occupation of Spain in the 3rd century bc. It became the Muslim city of Murslyah in ad 825, when it was made a provincial capital by the emir of Cordoba. It was the birthplace of Ibn al-'ArabT (1165). The Segura River divides the city into older and newer parts. The 14th-century cathedral was restored in the 18th century. It is a communications and agricultural- trade centre for surrounding areas. Its silk industry dates from Moorish times.
murder See homicide
Murder, Inc. Popular name for an arm of the U.S. national crime syn¬ dicate founded c. 1930 in Brooklyn, N.Y., to threaten, maim, or murder designated victims for a price. Its services were available to any syndi¬ cate member anywhere in the country; many of its victims were them¬ selves syndicate members who were killed for “business reasons.” Its principal figures were Louis Buchalter, known as Louis Lepke, and Albert Anastasia. Investigated by Thomas Dewey, it was exposed in 1940-41 by a former member, Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, who described some 70 mur¬ ders and suggested hundreds more; he himself died mysteriously in the middle of the investigation.
Murdoch Ymsr-.dakV, Dame (Jean) Iris (b. July 15, 1919, Dublin, Ire.—d. Feb. 8, 1999, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.) British novelist and philosopher. A graduate of the University of Oxford, she worked as a uni¬ versity lecturer while pursuing her writing career. Her first published work was a study of Jean-Paul Sartre (1953). Her novels, including The Bell (1958), A Severed Head (1961), The Black Prince (1973), The Sea, the Sea (1978), and The Book and the Brotherhood (1987), typically have convoluted plots featuring philosophical and comic elements. Her non¬ fiction philosophical works include The Sovereignty of Good (1970) and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (1992). Her decline under Alzheimer disease was chronicled by her husband, the critic John Bayley, in Elegy for Iris (1999).
Murdoch, (Keith) Rupert (b. March 11, 1931, Melbourne, Vic., Austl.) Australian-U.S. newspaper publisher and media entrepreneur. Son of a famous Australian war correspondent and publisher, he inherited two Adelaide newspapers in 1954 and boosted their circulation by emphasiz¬ ing crime, sex, scandal, sports, and human interest stories, while taking an outspokenly conservative editorial stance. He used this approach with soaring success with papers bought in Australia, Britain, and the U.S. by his global media holding company, The News Corporation Ltd. He also acquired conventional and respected publications, including The Times of
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1312 I Mures River ► Murray River
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London. In the 1980s and ’90s he expanded into book and electronic pub¬ lishing, television broadcasting, and film and video production. His hold¬ ings include the New York Post ; Fox, Inc. (see Fox Broadcasting Co.); HarperCollins Publishers; British Sky Broadcasting; and Star TV, a pan- Asian television service.
Mures Vmu-reshV River River, rising in the eastern Carpathian Moun¬ tains, east-central Romania. It flows west across northern Romania and across the Hungarian border to join the Tisza River at Szeged, Hung.; it is about 450 mi (725 km) long. It is the Tisza’s most important tributary and a significant traffic route; it is navigable for small boats for more than 200 mi (320 km).
Murgab River See Morghab River muriatic acid See hydrochloric acid
Murillo \mu-'re-o,\ English \myu-'ri-lo\, Bartolome Esteban (bap¬ tized Jan. 1, 1618, Sevilla, Spain—d. April 3, 1682, Sevilla) Spanish painter. The most popular Baroque religious painter of 17th-century Spain, he is noted for his idealized figures, most of them painted for reli¬ gious orders and the confraternities of his native Sevilla (Seville). His early works were executed in the naturalistic style of Francisco de Zur- baran, but with the development of his mature style in the 1650s he soon surpassed the older master in fame and popularity. The softly modeled forms, rich colours, and broad brushwork of the later paintings, such as the Immaculate Conception of 1652 (his favourite subject), reveal the influence of 16th-century Venetian and Flemish Baroque painters. Murillo’s works were copied and imitated throughout Spain and its empire, and he was the first Spanish painter to achieve fame outside the Spanish world.
Murji’ah \'mur-je-o\ One of the earliest sects of Islam to believe in the postponement of judgment on those who have committed serious sins, recognizing that God alone is able to decide whether a Muslim has lost his faith. The Murji’ah flourished during the 7th-8th century, a period of strife in the Muslim community. Unlike the Kharijites, a militant sect that wanted to oust serious sinners from the community and declare jihad against them, the Murji’ah, who advocated leaving great sinners to God, claimed that no one who had professed Islam could be declared an infi¬ del. When the Kharijites revolted against the Umayyad dynasty, the Murji’ah declared that revolt against a Muslim ruler could not be justi¬ fied under any circumstances. The Murji’ah were moderates who empha¬ sized the love and goodness of God.
Murmansk Seaport (pop., 1999 est.: 382,700), northwestern Russia. Situated on the eastern shore of Kola Bay near the Barents Sea, it is the world’s largest city north of the Arctic Circle. Its ice-free harbour makes it Russia’s only port with unrestricted access to the Atlantic. Founded in 1915 as a supply port in World War I, it was a base for the British, French, and U.S. forces against the Bolsheviks in 1918; it also served as a major supply base during World War II. In addition to a Russian naval base, it has a large fishing fleet and fish-processing industry.