rug and carpet Any decorative textile normally made of a thick mate¬ rial and intended as a floor covering. Floor coverings made of plaited rushes date from the 5th or 4th millennium bc. Carpets were first made in central and western Asia as coverings for earthen floors; they were also used for blankets, saddle covers, storage bags, tent doorways, and tomb covers. Oriental carpets imported into Europe in the 16th— 17th century were considered too valuable to be put on the floor and were often used as wall decoration. They are still popular wall decorations in Russia. Car¬ pet weaving reached its peak of artistry in 16th-century Persia. In the West, outstanding carpets were produced at factories in 17th-century France and 18th-century England. Most handmade carpets are made from sheep’s wool. Natural dyes were used until the 19th century, when chemi¬ cal dyes were introduced. See also Aubusson carpet; Axminster carpet.
rugby Football sport made up of two variant codes—rugby union and rugby league. The sport was first developed in the 1820s at Rugby School in England. In 1895 a dispute over professionalism between the Rugby Football Union and several clubs in northern England led to the creation of rugby league (always a professional sport). Rugby union became fully pro¬ fessional in 1995. The game is played by teams of 15 (union) or 13 (league) members each, using an inflated oval ball. The ball may be kicked, carried, or passed laterally or backward (but not forward). The object is to score goals (worth three points) by kicking the ball between the uprights of the opponent’s goal, or tries (worth five points in union play, four in league), by grounding the ball behind the opponent’s goal line. A conversion kick (worth two points) is attempted after scoring a try. Both rugby union and rugby league have international play and world cup tournaments. Rugby is most popular in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
Ruhr occupation (1923-25) Occupation of the industrial Ruhr River valley region in Germany by French and Belgian troops. The action was provoked by German deficiencies in the coal and coke deliveries to France required by the reparations agreement after World War I. French occupa¬ tion of Diisseldorf, Duisburg, and Ruhrort in 1921 was followed by French-Belgian occupation of the entire region in 1923. Passive resistance by German workers paralyzed the Ruhr’s economy and precipitated the collapse of the German currency. The dispute was settled by the Dawes Plan, and the occupation ended in 1925.
Ruhr Vrur\ River River, western Germany. An important tributary of the lower Rhine River, it rises on the northern side of Winterberg and flows 146 mi (235 km) west. The Ruhr valley is a major industrial and mining region; it includes the industrial cities of Essen, Diisseldorf, and Dortmund. The Ruhr coalfield is one of the world’s largest and produces the bulk of Germany’s bituminous coal. Industries begun by the Krupp and Thyssen families flourished in the 19th-20th centuries (see Thyssen-Krupp Stahl). The river was militarily important in World War I, and the river valley was occupied from 1923 to 1925 by France and Belgium (see Ruhr occu¬ pation). As the industrial heart of Nazi Germany, it was heavily bombed in World War II and occupied by Allied troops in 1945; full control was returned to West Germany in 1954. It is now a centre of steel production and diversified chemical manufacturing.
Ruisdael Vrois-.dalV Jacob (Isaakszoon) van also spelled Ruys- dael (b. 1628/29, Haarlem, Neth.—buried March 14, 1682, Amsterdam) Dutch landscape painter. He was probably trained by his father, a frame- maker and artist. He was enrolled in the Haarlem painters’ guild in 1648 and settled in Amsterdam c. 1656. He was a remarkably versatile artist, and some 700 paintings have been attributed to him. Whereas earlier Dutch art¬ ists used trees merely as decorative devices, Ruisdael made them the sub¬ ject of his paintings and imbued them with forceful personalities through vigorous brushwork and strong colours in the Baroque style. The emotional force of his work is evident in the famous Jewish Cemetery (c. 1660), where three tombstones crumble to ruin amid an ever-renewing nature. His late works include numerous panoramas of the flat Dutch countryside, in which a low, distant horizon is dominated by a vast, clouded sky. He is often considered the greatest Dutch landscape painter of all time.
Ruisdael, Salomon van See Salomon van Ruysdael
Ruiz \ru-'eth\, Juan (b. c. 1283, Alcala, Spain—d. c. 1350) Spanish poet and cleric. Educated at Toledo, Ruiz was serving as a village archpriest when he finished his masterpiece, The Book of Good Love (1330, expanded 1343). Perhaps the most important long poem in medieval Span¬ ish literature, it contains 12 narrative poems, each describing a different love affair. Its title refers to the distinction the author makes between the (good) love of God and carnal love. Drawing on material from an impres¬ sive range of literary and other sources, it presents a vigorous, high- spirited, satirical glimpse of medieval life.
Rukwa Vrii-kwaV, Lake Shallow lake, southwestern Tanzania, eastern Africa. It covers an area of about 1,000 sq mi (2,600 sq km) and lies mid¬ way between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi (Nyasa) at an elevation of about 2,600 ft (800 m). It has no outlet, and at times it is completely dry. Its water is brackish, and there are salt pans near its southwestern end. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses inhabit the lake, and fish abound.
Rule of the Community See Manual of Discipline rules of order See parliamentary procedure
rum Distilled liquor made from sugarcane products, primarily molasses. It is first mentioned in records from Barbados c. 1650. Rum figured in the slave trade: slaves from Africa were traded in the West Indies for molasses, the molasses was made into rum in New England, and the rum was then traded to Africa for more slaves. British sailors received regular rum rations from the 18th century until the 1970s. Two major types are marketed. The light-bodied rums, traditionally of Puerto Rico and Cuba, employ culti¬ vated yeast and are distilled in continuous-operation stills before being blended and aged one to four years. The heavier dark rums, traditionally of Jamaica, employ yeast spores from the air and are distilled in simple pot stills before being blended and aged five to seven years. Rum is drunk straight or mixed and is used in dessert sauces and other dishes.
Rumania See Romania
Rumi \'ru-,me\ in full Jalal al-DTn al-Rumi byname Mawlana (Arabic: "Our Master") (b. c. Sept. 30, 1207, Balkh, Ghurid
Wilma Rudolph, 1961.
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1652 I ruminant ► rush
empire—d. Dec. 17, 1273, Konya, Anatolia) The greatest Sufi mystic and among the most renowned Persian poets. He was a teacher at a madrasah in Anatolia when he met Shams al-Dln (“Sun of Religion”), a wandering dervish who revealed to him the inner mysteries of divine majesty; their intimate relationship scandalized Rumi’s followers, who likely had Shams al-Dln murdered. The disappearance of his companion turned RumI to poetry, and his Dlvdn-e Shams (“Collected Poetry of the Sun”) contains verses on his love and longing for Shams al-Dln. His main work, the didactic epic Masnavl-ye Ma'navl (“Spiritual Couplets”), widely influ¬ enced Muslim mystical thought and literature. He is believed to have composed poetry while in a state of ecstasy and often accompanied his verses by a whirling dance. After his death, his disciples were organized as the Mawlawiyyah (Mevlevi), a Sufi order called in the West the “whirl¬ ing dervishes,” and his influence on Turkish culture is inestimable. His poems, originally in Persian, have been translated into a number of lan¬ guages, including English, and have enjoyed a worldwide following into the modem period.
ruminant Vrii-mo-nonA Any cud-chewing ungulate, including antelope, CAMELS, CATTLE, DEER, GIRAFFES, GOATS, OKAPIS, PRONGHORN, and SHEEP. Most ruminants have a four-chambered stomach, two-toed feet, and small or absent upper incisors. Camels and chevrotains have three-chambered stomachs. Ruminants eat quickly, storing masses of grass (grazers) or foliage (browsers) in the first stomach chamber, the rumen, where it soft¬ ens. They later regurgitate the material, called cud, and chew it again to break down the undigestible cellulose. The chewed cud goes directly to the other chambers, where various microorganisms help in its digestion.