hurdy-gurdy Pear-shaped fiddle, the strings of which are sounded by the rim of a rosined wooden wheel turned by a handle. A row of keys is used to produce the melody by stop¬ ping one or two strings; the remain¬ ing strings sound a constant drone. A hurdy-gurdy-like instrument existed in Europe by the 12th century; it took its present shape in the 13th century.
It has long been associated with street musicians, and it is still played as a folk instrument in Europe. The name is also often used for the bar¬ rel organ, in which a hand crank rotates a barrel inside the case, on which several tunes are encoded, causing a small pipe organ to play.
Hurley, Patrick J(ay) (b. Jan. 8,
1883, Indian Territory, U.S.—d. July 30, 1963, Santa Fe, N.M.) U.S. dip¬ lomat. He began practicing law in Oklahoma in 1908. In World War I he served as a colonel in the American Expeditionary Force. Active in Republican Party politics during the 1920s, he served as U.S. secretary of war under Pres. Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. When the U.S. entered World War II, he was promoted to brigadier general and sent to the Philippines to examine the possibility of relieving U.S. troops on the island of Bataan; he succeeded three times in delivering food and ammu¬ nition to the beleaguered troops there. Throughout the remainder of the war he served as the personal representative of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. As ambassador to China (1944-45), he tried unsuccessfully to reconcile the Nationalists and the communists.
hurling Irish sport resembling both field hockey and lacrosse. It is played between two 15-player teams. The game is mentioned in Irish manuscripts dating back to the 13th century bc. The stick used— a tapered, slightly curved device with a cupped blade at the end—is called a hurley. A point is scored by hitting the ball over the crossbar of the opposing team’s goal¬ posts, and three points are scored by driving it under the crossbar. It is considered the national pastime of Ireland.
Hurok \'hyur-,ak\, Sol(omon Isiaevich) (b. April 9, 1888, Pogar, near Kharkov, Russia—d. March 5, 1974, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Russian- born U.S. impresario. He went to the U.S. in 1905 and in 1913 inaugu¬ rated the concert series Music for the Masses, which led to his representing many famous eastern European artists when they toured abroad, including Feodor Chaliapin, Mischa Elman, Anna Pavlova, and Artur Rubinstein.
Huron See Wyandot
Huron, Lake Lake, U.S. and Canada. The second-largest of the Great Lakes of North America, it is bounded by Michigan and Ontario, and is about 206 mi (330 km) long with an area of 23,000 sq mi (59,570 sq km). Inflow comes from Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and numerous streams; the lake discharges at its southern end into Lake Erie. It contains many islands, including Mackinac, and Saginaw Bay indents the Michigan coast. As part of the St. Lawrence Seaway, it supports heavy commercial traffic from April to December. The first of the Great Lakes seen by Europeans, it was explored by the French (1615-79), who named it after the Huron Indians.
hurricane See tropical cyclone
Hurston, Zora Neale (b. Jan. 7, 1891, Notasulga, Ala., U.S.—d. Jan. 28, 1960, Fort Pierce, Fla.) U.S. folklorist and writer. Although she claimed to have been born in 1901 in Eatonville, Fla., she was in fact born in Alabama 10 years earlier, and her family moved to Eatonville when she was a child. She joined a traveling theatrical company, ending up in New York, where she studied anthropology with Franz Boas at Columbia University and became associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She collaborated with Langston Hughes on the play Mule Bone (1931). Her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), was followed by the contro¬ versial but widely acclaimed Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). She also wrote an autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942).
Hurdy-gurdy played by a French lady of fashion, 18th century
H. ROGER-VIOLLET
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Hurt ► Husserl I 913
Hurt, John (b. Jan. 22, 1940, Shirebrook, Derbyshire, Eng.) British actor. He made his film and stage debuts in 1962. Known as an insight¬ ful character actor, Hurt had notable roles in A Man for All Seasons (1966), The Elephant Man (1980), and Rob Roy (1995). His stage performances include The Dwarfs (1963) and Travesties (1974). On television he por¬ trayed Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant (1975) and Caligula in the series I, Claudius (1977).
Hus Vhos, 'hus\, Jan or Jan Huss (b. c. 1370, Husinec, Bohemia—d. July 6, 1415, Konstanz) Bohemian religious reformer. He studied and taught at the University of Prague, where he was influenced by John Wycliffe. As rector of the university from 1402, he became leader of a reform movement that criticized the corruption of the Roman Catholic clergy. The movement was threatened when Wycliffe’s teachings were condemned by the church, and Hus’s position was further undermined by his stand in the power struggles among rival popes. He was excommu¬ nicated in 1411 but continued to preach. Renewed sale of indulgences by the antipope John XXIII earned Hus’s criticism, which in turn led to a revival of the case of heresy against him. He was invited to the Council of Constance to explain his views; though promised safe conduct, he was arrested, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake. His writings were impor¬ tant in the development of the Czech language as well as in the theology of church reform, and his followers were called Hussites.
Husain, Maqbul Fida (b. Sept. 17, 1915, Pandharpur, Maharashtra state, India) Indian artist. His narrative paintings, executed in a modified Cubist style, can be caustic and funny as well as serious and sombre. His themes—usually treated in series—include topics as diverse as Mohan¬ das K. Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Brit¬ ish raj, and motifs of Indian urban and rural life. One of the most celebrated and internationally recognized Indian artists of the 20th cen¬ tury, he has also received recognition as a printmaker, photographer, and fimmaker.
Husak \'h(y)u-,sak\, Gustav (b. Jan. 10, 1913, Bratislava, Slvk., Austria-Hungary—d. Nov. 18, 1991, Bratislava, Czech.) Leader of Czechoslovakia (1969-89). He helped direct the antifascist Slovak national uprising of 1944, and after the war he began a career as a gov¬ ernment official and Communist Party functionary. He became a deputy premier of Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubcek. When Dubcek was deposed by Soviet forces, Husak was installed as first secretary of the Communist Party (1969). He reversed Dubcek’s reforms and purged the party of its liberal members. He became president in 1975. When com¬ munist rule collapsed in 1989, he resigned as president.
Husayn, Saddam See Saddam Hussein
Husayn ibn 'All (b. c. 1854, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire—d. 1931, Amman, Transjordan) Sharif of the Hashimite line, Ottoman- appointed emir of Mecca (1908-16), and self-proclaimed king of the Arabs (1916-24). His claim to be the new caliph (1924) led to a short and unsuccessful war against Ibn Sa'Od. Husayn was exiled to Cyprus. One of his sons, ‘Abdullah, became king of Transjordan (present-day Jordan); another became king of Syria and later Iraq as Faysal I.
Husayn ibn Al! Vhu-'san-.ib-on-a-'leV al- (b. January 626, Medina, Hejaz, Arabian Peninsula—d. Oct. 10, 680, Karbala, Iraq) Muslim politi¬ cal and religious leader. He was the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. After the assassination of his father, the fourth caliph, 'All ibn AbI Taub, he accepted the rule of the first caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, Mu'awiyah I. He refused, however, to acknowledge the succession of the latter’s son, YazId I, and instead accepted an invitation to travel to Iraq in order to lead a revolt against the Umayyads. He, along with a small entourage of fam¬ ily and followers, was intercepted by the Umayyads and killed at the Battle of Karbala’. He is viewed by ShTite Muslims as the prototypical martyr, and his death became a central theme of later Shfite theology and is commemorated annually during the holy festival of c Ashura\