Raphael Vra-fe-ol, 'ra-fe-oH orig. Raffaello Sanzio (b. April 6,1483, Urbino, Duchy of Urbino—d. April 6, 1520, Rome, Papal States) Italian painter and architect. As a member of Perugino’s workshop, he established his mastery by 17 and began receiving important commissions. In 1504 he moved to Florence, where he executed many of his famous Madonnas; his unity of composition and suppression of inessentials is evident in The Madonna of the Goldfinch (c. 1506). Though influenced by Leonardo da Vinci’s chiaroscuro and sfumato, his figure types were his own creation, with round, gentle faces that reveal human sentiments raised to a sublime serenity. In 1508 he was summoned to Rome to decorate a suite of papal chambers in the Vatican. The frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura are probably his greatest work; the most famous. The School of Athens (1510— 11), is a complex and magnificently ordered allegory of secular knowledge showing Greek philosophers in an architectural setting. The Madonnas he painted in Rome show him turning away from his earlier work’s serenity to emphasize movement and grandeur, partly under Michelangelo’s High Renaissance influence. The Sistine Madonna (1513) shows the richness of colour and new boldness of compositional invention typical of his Roman period. He became the most important portraitist in Rome, designed 10 large tapestries to hang in the Sistine Chapel, designed a church and a chapel, assumed the direction of work on St. Peter's Basilica at the death of Donato Bramante, and took charge of virtually all the papacy’s projects in archi¬ tecture, painting, and the preservation of antiquities. When he died on his 37th birthday, his last masterpiece, the Transfiguration altarpiece, was placed at the head of his bier.
Jeannette Rankin, 1918.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
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Raphael ► Rastenburg Assassination Plot I 1591
Raphael In the Bible and the Qur’an, one of the archangels. In the apoc¬ ryphal book of Tobit he appears in human disguise and conquers the demon Asmodeus. His name in Hebrew means “God has healed,” and in Tobit his business is to heal the earth. Raphael is reckoned among the saints in both Eastern and Western churches, and his feast day is October
Rapier \'rap-yor\, James T(homas) (b. Nov. 13, 1837, Florence, Ala., U.S.—d. May 31, 1883, Montgomery, Ala.) U.S. politician. The son of a slave and a wealthy planter, he was educated in Canada and Scot¬ land. After the American Civil War he returned to Alabama, where he became a successful cotton planter and a delegate to the state’s first Republican convention. Serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (1873-75) during Reconstruction, he worked for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He was later collector of internal revenue in Ala¬ bama’s second district, and he remained active as a labour organizer and publisher of the Montgomery Sentinel.
raptor \'rap-tor \ In general, any bird of prey, including owls. The raptors are sometimes restricted to eagles, falcons, hawks, and vultures (birds of the order Falconiformes), all diurnal predators that “seize and carry off” (Latin raptare) their prey.
rare earth metal Any of a large class of chemical elements including scandium (atomic number 21), yttrium (39), and the 15 elements from 57 (lanthanum) to 71 (see lanthanides). The rare earths themselves are pure or mixed oxides of these metals, originally thought to be quite scarce; how¬ ever, cerium, the most plentiful, is three times as abundant as lead in the Earth’s crust. The metals never occur free, and the pure oxides never occur in minerals. These metals are similar chemically because their atomic structures are generally similar; all form compounds in which they have valence 3, including stable oxides, carbides, and borides.
Ra’s NasranT See Cape NasranT
Rashi \'ra-she\ in full Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi (b. 1040, Troyes, Champagne—d. July 13, 1105, Troyes) Medieval French commentator on the Bible and the Talmud. He studied in the schools of Worms and Mainz and became a local Jewish leader in the valley of the Seine c. 1065. His influential writings on the Bible examined the literal meaning of the text and used allegory, parable, and symbolism to analyze its nonliteral mean¬ ing. His landmark commentary on the Talmud is a classic introduction to biblical and postbiblical Judaism.
Rashid Rida Xra-'shed-re-'daV Muhammad (b. 1865, Syria—d. 1935, Syria) Syrian Islamic scholar. As founder (1898) and publisher of the newspaper Al-Manar, he helped Muslims formulate an intellectual response to the problem of reconciling their religious heritage with the modern world. He was concerned with the backwardness of the Muslim countries, which he proposed to remedy by reviving the original principles of Islam. He advocated that rulers consult with religious leaders in for¬ mulating government policies. He also urged Arabs and Muslims to emu¬ late the scientific and technological progress of the West.
Rashidun \,ra-shi- , dun\ Arabic "Rightly Guided" First four caliphs of the Islamic community: AbG Bakr, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan, and ‘All As Islam’s first rulers after Muhammad, they assumed all his duties except prophecy: they led the congregation in prayer, delivered the Friday sermons, and commanded the army. The caliphate of the Rash- Idun expanded the Islamic state beyond Arabia into Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iran, and Armenia. They were also responsible for the adoption of the Islamic calendar and the establishment of an authoritative reading of the Qur’an.
Rashnu Vrash-nu\ In Zoroastrianism, the god of justice, who determines the fates of the dead. Assisted by Mithra and Sraosha, Rashnu stands at the Bridge of the Requiter and weighs on his golden scales the deeds of the souls that wish to pass. The divine triad sometimes attempts to inter¬ cede for souls and obtain forgiveness for their sins. The 18th day of the month is sacred to Rashnu.
Rasht City (pop., 1996: 417,748), north-central Iran. It is situated on a branch of the Safid River south of the Caspian Sea. Its importance as the main city of the Gllan region dates from Russia’s expansion southward in the 17th century. In the 20th century, it was severely damaged by Rus¬ sian occupation during both world wars. Surrounded by rice fields and areas of half-cleared forests, it is a market and processing centre for rice, tea, peanuts, and silk.
Rask Vrask\, Rasmus (Kristian) (b. Nov. 22, 1787, Braendekilde, Den.—d. Nov. 14, 1832, Copenhagen) Danish linguist. A scholar of Indo- European languages, he was a principal founder of the science of com¬ parative linguistics. His observation that sound shifts between corresponding words in Germanic and other Indo-European languages fol¬ lowed predictable patterns was the basis of a fundamental law of linguis¬ tics later enunciated by Jacob Grimm (Grimm’s law). Rask also carried out extensive research on Old Norse, publishing his Investigation of the Ori¬ gin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language in 1818. By the end of his life he had mastered 25 languages and dialects.
Raskob Vras-kobV, John Jakob (b. March 19, 1879, Lockport, N.Y., U.S.—d. Oct. 15, 1950, Centreville, Md.) U.S. financier. He went to work for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. in 1902 and played a major role in Du Pont’s expansion in the early 20th century. He joined the board of General Motors in 1915; as chairman of its finance committee from 1918, he greatly increased sales and earnings, establishing the General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC) to allow dealers to finance their inventory and offer credit and long-term financing to their customers. He left in 1928 to head the Democratic National Committee and run Alfred E. Smith’s unsuccessful presidential campaign; later he and Smith helped direct the construction of the Empire State Building.