Baybars I or Baibars \'bl-bars\ (b. c. 1223, north of the Black Sea—d. July 1, 1277, Damascus, Syria) Most eminent sultan of the MamlGk dynasty. A Kipchak Turk, he was sold as a slave ( mamluk ) after a Mon¬ gol invasion in the 1240s. He ended up in the service of the sultan of Egypt’s AyyObid dynasty, who gave him military training. In 1250 his army captured the Crusader king Louis IX, and he and other mamluk officers murdered the last Ayyubid sultan, establishing the Mamluk dynasty. He distinguished himself against an invading Mongol force at the Battle of ‘Ayn Jalut (1260) and soon thereafter took the throne, when he murdered the third Mamluk sultan. As sultan, he rebuilt the Syrian fortresses that had been destroyed by the Mongols and built up the sultanate’s arma¬ ments. He seized territory from the Crusaders that they were never to recover. He harried the Mongols in Persia, attacking their allies (the Chris¬ tian Armenians) and forging an alliance with the Mongols of the Golden Horde against them. He sent military expeditions into Nubia and Libya. He had diplomatic relations with James I of Aragon, Alfonso X of Leon and Castile, and Charles of Anjou, as well as with the Byzantine emperor. At home he built canals and the great mosque in Cairo that bears his name and established efficient postal service between Cairo and Damascus. The Sirat Baybars, a folk account purporting to be his life story, is still popu¬ lar in the Arabic-speaking world.
bayberry Any of several aromatic shrubs and small trees of the genus Myrica in the bayberry family (Myricaceae), but especially M. pennsyl-
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Bayer AG ► bazooka I 181
vanica, also called candleberry, which has grayish waxy berries that, upon boiling, yield the wax used in bayberry candles. The California bayberry, or California wax myrtle (M. californica), is used as an ornamental on sandy soils in warm climates.
Bayer AG German chemical and pharmaceutical company. Founded in 1863 by Friedrich Bayer (1825-1880), it now operates plants in more than 30 countries. Bayer has originated scores of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and synthetic materials; it was the first developer and marketer of aspirin (1899); of Prontosil, the first sulfa drug (1935); and of polyurethane (1937). Bayer was part of the chemical cartel IG Farben from 1925 to 1945, when the latter was dissolved by the Allies; it was reestablished as an independent company in 1951. Its most noteworthy drug of the 1990s was the antibiotic Cipro. Its headquarters are in Leverkusen.
Bayeux \ba-'yce\ Tapestry Medieval embroidered tapestry depicting the Norman Conquest. Woven in woolen threads of eight colours on coarse linen, it is about 231 ft (70 m) long by about 20 in. (50 cm) wide. It consists of 79 consecutive scenes, with Latin inscriptions and decora¬ tive borders. Stylistically it resembles English illuminated manuscripts. It was probably woven c. 1066, within a few years of the conquest, and was possibly commissioned by Odo, bishop of Bayeux, brother of William I (the Conqueror). The most famous of all pieces of needlework, it hung for centuries in the cathedral in Bayeux (Normandy) and now hangs in the tapestry museum there.
English axman in combat with Norman cavalry during the Battle of Hastings, detail from the 11 th-century Bayeux Tapestry, Bayeux, France.
GIRAUDON/ART RESOURCE, NEW YORK
Bayezid \bI-3-'zed\ I (b. c. 1360—d. March 1403?, Ak§ehir, Anatolia) Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1389-1402). After succeeding his father, Murad II (d. 1389), Bayezid expanded Ottoman control of the shrinking Byzantine Empire by conquering vast tracts of territory in the Balkans, thus securing his rule south of the Danube. From 1391 to 1398 he blockaded Constantinople (modern Istanbul), and he crushed the Hungarian Crusad¬ ers at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. He then sought to widen Ottoman control over Anatolia. Defeated by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Bayezid died in captivity. He was succeeded by his son, Mehmed I, after an interregnum of some 10 years.
Bayezid \,bI-3-'zed\ II (b. December 1447/January 1448?, Demotika, Thrace, Ottoman Empire—d. May 26, 1512, Demotika) Sultan who con¬ solidated control of the Ottoman Empire begun by his father, Mehmed II. After taking the throne in 1481, he reversed his father’s policies of expro¬ priating Muslim religious properties and rejected his pro-European ori¬ entation but continued the policy of territorial conquest. Under him, Herzegovina came under direct Ottoman control, and the Ottoman hold over the Crimea and Anatolia was strengthened. He fought the Safavid dynasty in the east, the MamlOk dynasty in the south, and the Venetians in the west. At home he built mosques, colleges, hospitals, and bridges and supported jurists, scholars, and poets. He abdicated in favour of his son, Selim I, a month before his death.
Baykal, Lake See Lake Baikal
Bayle \'bel\, Pierre (b. Nov. 18, 1647, Carla-le-Comte, France—d. Dec. 28, 1706, Rotterdam, Neth.) French philosopher. Educated at a Jesuit school, he converted to Roman Catholicism but later reverted to his origi¬ nal Calvinist faith. His religious views led to his losing professorships first at Sedan and later at Rotterdam. He was convinced that philosophi¬ cal reasoning led to universal skepticism, but that nature compelled man¬ kind to adopt beliefs on the basis of blind faith. The bulk of his Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697) consists of quotations, anecdotes, com¬ mentaries, and erudite annotations that cleverly undo whatever orthodox Christian beliefs the articles express; and it was condemned by religious authorities. Bayle’s oblique method of subversive criticism was later adopted by the contributors to the Encyclopedie of Denis Diderot.
Baylis, Lilian (Mary) (b. May 9, 1874, London, Eng.—d. Nov. 25, 1937, London) British theatrical manager and founder of the Old Vic. She assisted her aunt, Emma Cons, in the operation of the Royal Victoria Hall and Coffee Tavern, and on Cons’s death in 1912 she converted the hall into the Old Vic, which became famous for its Shakespearean productions. Between 1914 and 1923 the theatre staged all of William Shakespeare’s plays, a feat no other playhouse had attempted. In 1931 she took over the derelict Sadler’s Wells Theatre and made it a centre of opera and ballet.
Bayliss, Sir William Maddock (b. May 2, 1860, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, Eng.—d. Aug. 27, 1924, London) British physiologist. He and Ernest H. Starling studied nerve-controlled blood-vessel contraction and dilation and discovered the peristaltic wave. In 1902 they showed that dilute hydrochloric acid mixed with partly digested food activates a chemical in the duodenum that they called secretin, because it stimulates secretion of pancreatic juice. This marked the discovery of hormones, a term the men coined. Bayliss also showed how the enzyme trypsin was formed from inactive trypsinogen and measured precisely the time it took to digest protein. His recommendation of gum-saline injections for wound shock saved many lives in World War I.
Baylor, Elgin (b. Sept. 16, 1934, Washington, D.C., U.S.) U.S. basket¬ ball player. At 6 ft 5 in. (1.96 m) Baylor played for the Minneapolis (later Los Angeles) Lakers of the NBA from 1958 to 1971. A high-scoring and acrobatic forward, Baylor averaged 27.4 points for his career, placing him in the top five of all time.
bayonet Short, sharp-edged, sometimes pointed weapon, designed for attachment to the muzzle of a firearm. According to tradition, it was developed in Bayonne, France, early in the 17th century and soon spread throughout Europe. The earliest design, the plug bayonet, was inserted into the muzzle of a musket, thus preventing the musket from being fired until the bayonet was removed. Later designs, including the socket bayo¬ net invented by Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1688), slipped it over the muzzle. Repeating firearms greatly reduced its combat value. By World War I it had become an all-purpose knife.