M A Z 
rice, Corn, and fait. Among the animals are tygers, deer, 
(keep, goats, &c. This province is well fituated for trade 
on the Cafpiaw Sea, but the towns on the coalt are in- 
fefted by pirates, Balfrufch is the capital; and hither 
the Ruffians and Armenians convey their mercliandife, 
though the traffic is much iefs confiderable than it was, 
on account of the impofitions of the khan of Mazanderan. 
Merchants from Kafkin, Ifpahan, Schiras, and Korafan, 
refort to Balfrufch, and bring for fide the Perfian and In¬ 
dian commodities. Lat. 33.40. N. Ion. 50. 30. E. 
This province, and alfo tliofe of Shirvan, Ghilan, and 
Affrabad, have been much affedfed by the unfettled ffate 
of Perfia, and the civil wars which liarrafs that divided 
empire. On the death of Kerim Khan, the fuccefior of 
Nadir Sliah, in 1779, Perfia became expofed to all the hor¬ 
rors of a difputed fucceffion, and was divided between the 
two principal competitors. Akau Mahomet Khan, a Per- 
lian of high diftinflion, was caftrated in his infancy by or¬ 
der of Nadir Shah ; but, pofTefling great civil and military 
talents, lie became matter, in 1788, of Mazanderan and 
Ghilan, as well as the cities of Ifpahan and Tauris. Jaa- 
far Khan, nephew of Kerim Khan, was at that period 
fovereign of Shirauz, the capital, and of the foathern 
provinces. In general, however, thefe provinces are go¬ 
verned by their own khans, who, though tributary to the 
fopbi, render themfelves occafionally independent ; and, 
as they are continually at war with each other, their go¬ 
vernments are almof always the feat of hoftility, rapine, 
and devaftation ; and trade flourifhes or declines in pro¬ 
portion as the exaffions of the fovereigns are more or lefs 
frequent and exorbitant. 
MAZA'NO, a town of Italy, in the Veronefe : eight 
miles north of Verona. 
MAZANSKA'IA, a fort of Ruflia, on the Volga: fix- 
ty miles north-weft of Tchernoijar. 
MAZA'RA, a river of Sicily, which runs into the fea 
at the town of Mazara. 
MAZA'RA, a fea-port town of Sicily, in the divifon 
called the Valley of Mazara, ftuated on the fouth-weft 
coaft, near a river of the fame name, near or upon the 
ruins of Selinuntium. At a diftance its appearance is 
not unpromifing, as it prefents to view feveral convents 
and chapels richly ornamented; but its ftreets are narrow 
and winding, and it lias only one fquare before the ca¬ 
thedral. Mazara was of fome note in the time of the Ro¬ 
mans ; and many of their tombs and infcriptions are found 
in it. In the cathedral are fome valuable farcopliagi; and 
one in particular, which on account of the llyle of its 
cotnpofition, as well as its defign and workmanfliip, is at¬ 
tributed to the Greeks. Mazara was laid walte by the 
Saracens, and was taken from them by earl Roger, who 
vowed to build a church if he obtained a victory. The 
church does not now exift. At Mazara have been found 
fome Punic and many Roman coins, and thofe of the 
Saracens in their tombs. It has not now more than 7000 
inhabitants, without trade or manufacture. The chief 
cultivation is that of cotton. Here is no harbour; but 
the fea enters by a channel above half a mile into the coun¬ 
try, which would form an excellent fhelter for (hipping, 
if merchants had any inducement to come hither. Ma¬ 
zara is the fee of a biftiop. It is fifty miles fouth-weft 
from Palermo. Lat. 37.46. N. Ion. 12.28. E. 
MAZA'RA (Valley ot), the welterly divifion of the 
ifland of Sicily. 
MAZ'ARD, or Ma'z'zard,/. [mafchoire, Fr.] A jaw. 
Hanmer. —Now my lady Worm’s chaplefs, and knockt 
about the mazard with a fexton’s fpade. ShakeJ'peare. 
Where thou might’lt ftickle without hazard 
Of outrage to thy hide and mazard. Hudibras. 
To MAZ'ARD, v. a. To knock on the head.— rf I had 
not been a fpirit, I had been mazarded. B. Jon/on’s Mafques. 
MAZAREL'LI,a town of Sicily, in the valley of Noto: 
fifteen miles fouth-weft of Noto. 
MAZARI'N (Julius), a celebrated minifter of ftate, 
M A Z 
and a cardinal, born in 1602 at Pifcina, a town in Abruzzo, 
of a'noble family named Mazarini. In the courfe of edu¬ 
cation he difplayed talents which eventually introduced 
him into the houfehold of Jerome Colonna, afterwards 
cardinal. When that young nobleman went to ftudy at 
the univerfity of Alcala in Spain, Mazarin followed him, 
and there applied to the ftudy of law, in which after his 
return he took the degree of dodtor. He attended the 
court of Rome ; and attached himfelf to Sacbetti, after¬ 
wards cardinal, whom he accompanied into Lombardy, 
where a war was then prevailing concerning Calal and 
Montferrat. Cardinal Barberini afterwards went thither 
in quality of legate to his uncle the pope; and Mazarin, 
who had remained there, and had paid great attention to 
the politics of that part of Italy, gave him much afliftance 
in his attempts to effect an accommodation between the 
different powers. When the French were juft preparing 
to attack the Spanifh lines before Calal, Mazarin rode out 
of them on full gallop, crying “ Peace ! peace !” and 
brought propofals to the French general, which caufed a 
fufpenfion of arms; and were followed in 1631 by the 
treaty of Ratifbon. His fervices in this bufinefs were re¬ 
warded by the pope with the place of referendary; and in 
1634 he was fent as vice-legate to Avignon, and nuncio 
to the court of France. He there acquired the efteem of 
the all-powerful Richelieu, and of the king, Louis XIII. 
who procured his elevation to the cardinalate in 1641. 
After the death of that great minifter, Louis created him 
counfellor of (fate, and made him one of the executors of 
his will. At the death of the king in 1643, Mazarin was 
immediately placed at the head of the government by the 
regent-queen Anne of Auftria, who had the moft un¬ 
bounded confidence in him : it is faid Ihe married him, 
and that theifl'ue of this marriage was “ the man with the 
iron mafque.” See Maso.ue, p. 503, 4. 
Mazarin was a very different man from Richelieu ; he 
was fimple and niodeft in his appearance and equipage; 
infinuating in his manners; and he ever affected to carry 
his point rather by gentle means than by the force of au¬ 
thority. But the rapacity of his difpofition foon raifed a 
powerful party againlt him, while his foreign manners 
threw a ridicule over him which rendered him contempti¬ 
ble. Some edicts of taxation being refufed verification by 
the parliament of Paris, Mazarin caufed the prefident to 
be imprifoned. This was the fignal for the civil wars 
which commenced in 1648, in which the Parifians were 
excited to revolt by De Retz, with feveral princes of the 
blood and nobles. The queen, the young king, and the 
minifter, were obliged to take refuge at St. Germain’s. 
Mazarin was profcnbed as a public dilturber of the peace: 
Conde, then on the fide of the court, befieged Paris, and 
the war of the Fronde enfued, which was more fertile in 
fatirical fongs and epigrams than in important events. 
An accommodation was effected in 1649, by which the 
parliament preferved its right of affembling, and the queen 
kept her minifter. In the following year, frefh dilturb- 
ances led the parliament to iffue a decree, banifhing Ma¬ 
zarin from the kingdom. He made his retreat to Cologne, 
whence he continued to govern the kingdom by his coun- 
fels. In 1652 Mazarii: returned to France with feven 
thoufand men whom he had raifed; but, being regarded 
by parliament as a public enemy, lie was obliged a fecond 
time to retire. In 1653 he entered Paris amidft the accla¬ 
mations of the inconftant people; and even the parliament, 
from which a more fteady line of conduft might have 
been expected, received him with diftinguifhed honours. 
Henceforward iiis powers were unlimited : in 1655 he 
made a treaty with Cromwell, of which one of the condi¬ 
tions was the refilling Charles II. an afylum in France. 
The war with Spain was terminated in 1659 by the peace 
of the Pyrenees, negociated in perfon between Mazarin 
and the Spanifh prime minifter. The ceffion of Alface to 
France was one of its conditions, and the marriage of the 
young king to the infanta of Spain was another. After 
this, the cardinal afiimied a greater ttate, and ruled with a 
more 
