MAHMUD II 



3598 



MAHRATTAS 



the name given to the expected Messiah, or 

 messenger of Allah (God), who is depended 

 upon to complete the prophet's work by de- 

 stroying unbelievers and dividing this world's 

 goods equally among the faithful. According 

 to tradition, Mohammed foretold the coming 

 of the Mahdi, although this is not mentioned 

 in the Koran. Many so-called Mahdis have 

 appeared from time to time in Persia, Turkey, 

 Syria and Egypt. The story of one of these is 

 told in Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh. The 

 latest and best-known Mahdi was Mar Mullah, 

 who led an insurrection in the Egyptian Sudan 

 in 1883. After winning several victories from 

 the English, he occupied Khartum, in the de- 

 fense of which General Gordon was killed. 

 Although the Mahdi died of smallpox in 1885, 

 it was thirteen years before the British recov- 

 ered possession of Khartum. See GORDON, 

 CHARLES GEORGE. 



MAHMUD II, mahmood' (1785-1839), a pro- 

 gressive and broad-minded Turkish sultan, to 

 whose radical reforms, both in the government 

 and army, the present Turkish Empire practi- 

 cally owes what modern elements it possesses. 

 Following the deposition of his brother, Mus- 

 tapha IV, in 1808, he was raised to the throne 

 and immediately began to reorganize the army. 

 A conflict with Russia, which completely pros- 

 trated Turkey, hindered his reform plans for 

 several years, but after the peace of 1812 he 

 entered earnestly into the work. In 1826 Mah- 

 mud succeeded in destroying the Janizaries, a 

 Turkish army corps which had strongly opposed 

 the military reform, so the army was reorgan- 

 ized on the European model. In 1821 Greece 

 revolted and six years later secured its inde- 

 pendence at the Battle of Navarino, although it 

 was not recognized as a separate kingdom by 

 Turkey until 1829, when this recognition was 

 made a part of the Treaty of Adrianople (see 

 GREECE, subtitle History). 



MAHOGANY, ma hog' a ni, a tree of tropical 

 and semitropical regions, producing a heavy 

 wood which is very valuable for cabinetmaking. 

 The timber is light red when felled, but it dark- 

 ens on exposure to light and air. It is close- 

 grained and difficult to split, polishes readily to 

 a satiny luster, is superior to almost all others 

 in its freedom from shrinking or warping, in 

 holding firmly to glue and in resisting the ac- 

 tion of fire. Varieties with irregular grain or 

 wavy figure are most valued for furniture mak- 

 ing. The tree is known to botanists as Swie- 

 tenia mahagoni and is found in Mexico, Central 

 America and various West Indian islands. 



Little of the true mahogany is now avail- 

 able, that coming from Central America, called 

 Honduras or Panama mahogany, being the 

 wood of species of Cedrela, a genus of trees 

 closely related to true mahogany. This wood 

 is softer, lighter and more brittle, but other- 

 wise closely resembles the genuine article. 

 Other substitutes are from African, Australian 

 and Philippine trees, closely allied with the 

 more valuable woods of the American conti- 

 nent. The fineness and beauty of the grain in 

 mahogany are dependent upon the relative 

 rapidity of growth of the tree; the slower the 

 growth, the finer the grain. Trees attain an 

 average height of about sixty feet, with diame- 

 ters ranging from three to four feet, although 

 heights of one hundred feet have been noted, 

 with diameters as great as six feet. 



The mahogany has been an important tree 

 for centuries. The Aztecs crushed the seeds 

 and used the oil for a cosmetic. Its value as 

 timber was first discovered in 1595, when Sir 

 Walter Raleigh's ship returned to England 

 with repairs made from this wood, but it was 

 more than a hundred years later before it came 

 into general use for furniture and cabinet- 

 making. 



Mahogany is one of the most expensive 

 woods used in manufactures; plain mahogany 

 sells for from sixty to one hundred dollars 

 per thousand feet in the log, and unusually fine 

 logs of mahogany have been sold at prices 

 ranging from seven to ten thousand dollars for 

 the entire log. Added to this cost is the cost 

 of transportation and sawing, which often is 

 great. The scarcity of mahogany and the in- 

 creasing demand for it has led furniture mak- 

 ers to veneer cheaper woods with very thin lay- 

 ers of mahogany. The process is practical and 

 in every way satisfactory, giving the article so 

 treated the appearance of solid mahogany, 

 without decreasing wearing qualities. E.D.F. 



MAHOM'ET. See MOHAMMED. 



MAHRATTAS, marah'taz, a vigorous peo- 

 ple inhabiting the central part of India south of 

 the Ganges River, representing a mixed Hindu 

 race. They are divided into two great classes: 

 Brahmans, a high type intellectually and phys- 

 ically ; and the low-caste people, plain of feature 

 and short of stature, and possessed of remark- 

 able physical endurance. The Mahrattas are 

 devoted adherents of the Hindu religion, Brah- 

 manism, and they speak a language known as 

 Marathi. They are supposed to have invaded 

 India about the tenth century, and by the 

 eighteenth century they had established five 



