Himalayas ^hi-mo-Ta-oz, hi-'ma-b-yozV or Himalaya Mountain system, southern Asia. It forms a barrier between the Plateau of Tibet to the north and the plains of the Indian subcontinent to the south. It con¬ stitutes the greatest mountain system on Earth and includes more than 110 peaks rising to elevations above 24,000 ft (7,300 m), including Mount Everest. The system extends some 1,550 mi (2,500 km) from east to west and covers about 230,000 sq mi (595,000 sq km). It is traditionally divided into four parallel ranges: from north to south, the Tethys (or Tibetan) Himalayas, the Great Himalayas (including the major peaks), the Lesser Himalayas (including peaks of 12,000-15,000 ft [3,700-4,500 m]), and the Outer Himalayas (including the lowest peaks). Between the eastern and western extremities of the broad Himalayan arc lie several Indian states and the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. It acts as a great climatic divide, causing heavy rain and snow on the Indian side but aridity in Tibet,
and represents at many points a virtually impassable barrier, even by air. The mountains’ glaciers and snows are the source of 19 major rivers, including the Indus, Ganges (Ganga), and Brahmaputra.
Himera Vhi-m9-r9\ Ancient Greek city, northern coast of Sicily. It was founded c. 649 bc by Syracusan exiles and Chalcidian inhabitants of Zan- cle (see Messina). An unsuccessful Carthaginian invasion of Sicily ended in the death of Hamilcar at the Battle of Himera in 480 bc. It was finally destroyed in 409 bc by Hamilcar’s grandson Hannibal. Its only visible relic is a Doric temple (480 bc); many of its lion-head spouts are exhibited in the Palermo Museum.
Himmler, Heinrich (b. Oct. 7, 1900, Munich, Ger.—d. May 23, 1945, Liineburg) German Nazi police administrator who became the sec¬ ond most powerful man in the Third Reich. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and rose to become head of Adolf Hitler’s SS. He was put in com¬ mand of most German police units after 1933, taking charge of the Gestapo in 1934, and established the Third Reich’s first concentration camp, at Dachau. He soon built the SS into a powerful network of state terror, and by 1936 he commanded all the Reich’s police forces. In World War II he expanded the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) until it rivaled the army; after 1941 he organized the death camps in eastern Europe. Shunted aside by Hitler’s entourage, Him¬ mler, hoping to succeed Hitler, had negotiations with the Allies in the final months of the war over Germa¬ ny’s surrender or its alliance with the Western Allies against the Soviet Union. Hitler ordered his arrest, but when he attempted to escape he was captured by the British and committed suicide by taking poison.
Hims \'hims\ or Homs \'homs\ ancient Emesa City (pop., 2004 est.: 800,400), central Syria. It is located near the Orontes River. As Emesa, it contained a large temple to the sun god El Gebal and was the birthplace of the priest-king Elagabalus, who became Roman emperor in ad 218. The emperor Aurelian defeated Queen Zenobia of Palmyra there in 272. It was taken in 636 by the Muslims, who renamed it Hims. In 1516 it passed into Ottoman hands, where it remained (except for a brief period of Egyptian control in the 1830s) until the creation of Syria after World War I (1914— 18). Hims is a thriving agricultural market centre and has oil and sugar refineries. It is the central link between the interior cities and the Medi¬ terranean Sea coast.
Hinayana V.he-no-'ya-noV Name given to the more conservative schools of Buddhism. A Sanskrit word meaning “Lesser Vehicle” (because it is concerned with the individual’s salvation), it was first applied pejoratively to the established Buddhist schools by followers of the more liberal Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle,” because it is concerned with universal sal¬ vation) tradition. The ancient Hinayana schools continued to prosper after the rise of the Mahayana in the 1st century ad, but Theravada Buddhism was the only Hinayana school that maintained a strong position after the collapse of Indian Buddhism in the 13th century.
Hincmar of Reims \ , hiqk-,mar... , remz\ (b. c. 806, northern France?—d. Dec. 21, 882, Epernay, near Reims) French archbishop and theologian. The most influential churchman of the 9th century, he advised the Carolingian emperors Louis I and Charles II and was chosen archbishop of Reims in 845. He maintained his influence despite the hostility of Lothar I, whose divorce Hincmar staunchly opposed, and secured the suc¬ cession of Charles to the throne of Lotharingia. Hincmar also rallied the church to the defense of Charles when Louis the German invaded the kingdom in 858. His theological writings included treatises on predesti¬ nation, in which he argued that God does not damn a sinner in advance, and a defense of the Christian opposition to divorce.
Hindemith Vhin-do-.mitV, Paul (b. Nov. 16, 1895, Hanau, near Frank¬ furt am Main, German Empire—d. Dec. 28, 1963, Frankfurt am Main, W.Ger.) German composer. His talent was noticed early, and he received
Himmler.
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Hindenburg ► Hindustan I 877
thorough training on viola, violin, clarinet, and piano. He became con- certmaster of the Frankfurt Opera at age 20, and his compositions began drawing attention at new-music festivals. Because his wife was Jewish and his music was considered “degenerate” by the Nazis, he left Germany in 1938, settling in the U.S. in 1940. Advocating Gebrauchsmusik (“use¬ ful music”), he wrote solo sonatas and concertos for many of the standard orchestral instruments. Mathis der Maler (1935) is the best known of his six operas; the symphony based on it, and the Symphonic Metamorpho¬ sis on Themes of Weber (1943), are widely performed.
Hindenburg, Paul von in full Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hin¬ denburg (b. Oct. 2, 1847, Posen,
Prussia—d. Aug. 2, 1934, Neudeck,
Ger.) German field marshal and sec¬ ond president (1925-34) of the Weimar Republic. Born to an aristo¬ cratic family, he retired from the Prussian army as a general in 1911.
Recalled to duty in World War I, he commanded German forces in East Prussia and became a national hero after the Battle of Tannenberg (1914).
With Erich Ludendorff as his chief aide, he nominally commanded all German forces until the end of the war, then retired again in 1919. Sup¬ ported by conservative groups, he was elected president of Germany in 1925. When the Great Depression led to a political crisis, he was pressured to make the government more inde¬ pendent of parliamentary controls. In 1930 he allowed Chancellor Heinrich Bruning to dissolve the Reichstag, and in the new elections the Nazi Party emerged as the second largest party. In 1932 Hindenburg was reelected president by opponents of the Nazis; however, his advisers considered the Nazis useful, and in 1933 he was persuaded to appoint Adolf Hitler chancellor.
Hindenburg disaster Explosion of the dirigible Hindenburg, the largest rigid airship ever constructed. Launched in 1936 in Germany, it started the first commercial air service across the North Atlantic and made 10 successful round trips. On May 6, 1937, as it was landing in Lake- hurst, N.J., U.S., its hydrogen gas burst into flames, destroying the air¬ ship and killing 36 of the 97 persons aboard. The disaster, recorded on film and phonograph disk, effectively ended the use of rigid airships in commercial transportation.