phenomenal compass, which was carefully cultivated by her father. She was only seventeen when, in consequence of an indisposition of Madame Pasta, she was suddenly asked to take her place in The Barber of Seville at Covent Garden. She was forthwith engaged for the remaining six weeks of the season, and then followed her father to New York, where she appeared in Othello, The Barber of Seville, Don Juan, Romeo and Juliet, Tancred. Her gifts as an actress were on a par with her magnificent voice, and her gaiety made her irresistible in light opera, although her great triumphs were obtained chiefly in tragic parts. She married a French banker of New York, named Malibran, who was much older than herself. The marriage was an unhappy one, and Mme Malibran returned alone to Europe in 1828, when she began the series of representations at the Théâtre des Italiens, which excited an enthusiasm in Paris only exceeded by the reception she received in the principal towns of Italy. She was formally divorced from Malibran in 1835, and married the Belgian violinist, Charles de Beriot; but she died of fever on the 23rd of September 1836.
See Memoirs of Mme Malibran by the comtesse de Merlin and other intimate friends, with a selection from her correspondence (2 vols., 1840); and M. Teneo, La Malibran, d’après des documents inédits, in Sammelbände der internationalen Musik-Gesellschaft (Leipzig, 1906).
MALIC ACID (Hydroxyethylene Succinic Acid), C4H6O5, an organic acid found abundantly in the juices of many plants, particularly in mountain-ash berries, in unripe apples and in grapes. The acid potassium salt is also found in the leaves and stalks of rhubarb. Since the acid contains an asymmetric carbon atom, it can exist in three forms, a dextro-rotatory, a laevo-rotatory and an inactive form; the acid obtained in the various synthetical processes is the inactive form. It may be prepared by heating racemic acid (see Tartaric Acid) with fuming hydriodic acid; by heating fumaric acid (q.v.) with water at 150–200° C.; by the action of nitrous acid on inactive aspartic acid; and by the action of moist silver oxide on monobromsuccinic acid. It forms deliquescent crystals, which are readily soluble in alcohol and melt at 100° C. When heated for some time at 130° C. it yields fumaric acid (q.v.), and on rapid heating at 180° C. gives maleic anhydride and fumaric acid. It yields coumarins when warmed with sulphuric acid and phenols (H. v. Pechmann, Ber., 1884, 17, 929, 1649 et seq.). Potassium bichromate oxidizes it to malonic acid; nitric acid oxidizes it to oxalic acid; and hydriodic acid reduces it to succinic acid. The inactive variety may be split into the component active forms by means of its cinchonine salt (G. J. W. Bremer, Ber., 1880, 13, 352).
MALIGNANT (Lat. malignus, evil-disposed, from maligenus),
wicked, of a malicious or wilfully evil disposition. The word
was early applied by the Protestants to the Romanists, with an
allusion to the “congregation of evil doers” (Vulgate Ecclesiam
malignantium) of Psalm xxvi. 5. In English history, during
the Great Rebellion, the name was given to the Royalists by
the Parliamentary party. In the Great Remonstrance of 1641
occur the words “the malignant partie, wherof the Archbishop
(Laud) and the earl of Strafford being heads.” The name
throughout the period had special reference to the religious
differences between the parties. In medical science, the term
“malignant” is applied to a particularly virulent or dangerous
form which a disease may take, or to a tumour or growth of
rapid growth, extension to the lymphatic glands, and recurrence
after operation.
MALIK IBN ANAS (c. 718–795), the founder of the Malikite
school of canon law, was born at Medina about A.D. 718: the
precise date is not certain. He studied and passed his life
there, and came to be regarded as the greatest local authority
in theology and law. (For his legal system and its history see
Mahommedan Law.) His life was one of extreme honour and
dignity, but uneventful, being given to study, lecturing on law
and acting as muftī and judge. Only two episodes stand out
in his biography. When Mahommed ibn ʽAbdallāh, the ʽAlid,
rose in A.D. 762 at Medina against the ʽAbbāsids, Malik gave a
fatwā, or legal opinion, that the oath of allegiance to the
ʽAbbāsids was invalid, as extorted by force. For this independence
he was severely scourged by the ʽAbbāsid governor,
who, apparently, did not dare to go beyond scourging with a
man of his standing with the people. The second episode gave
equal proof of independence. In 795 Hārūn al-Rashīd made
the pilgrimage, came with two of his sons to Medina, and sat
at the feet of Malik as he lectured in the mosque. The story,
legendary or historical, adds that Malik had refused to go to
the caliph, saying that it was for the student to come to his
teacher. Late in life he seems to have turned to asceticism and
contemplation. It is said that he retired from all active, public
life and even neglected plain, public duties, replying to reproaches,
“Not every one can speak in his own excuse” (Ibn
Qutaiba, Ma ʽārif, 250). He is also entered among the early
ascetic Sūfīs (cf. Fihrist, 183). He died in Medina, A.D. 795.
For a description of his principal book, the Muwaṭṭa’, see Goldziher’s Muhammedanische Studien, ii. 213 sqq. He wrote also a Koran commentary, now apparently lost, and a hortatory epistle to Hārūn al-Rashīd. See further, de Slane’s trans. of Ibn Khallikān, ii. 545 sqq.; von Kremer, Culturgeschichte, i. 477 sqq.; Brockelmann, Gesch. der arab. Litt., i. 175 sqq.; Macdonald, Muslim Theology, &c., 99 sqq. and index; Fihrist, 198 seq.; Nawawi, 530 sqq. (D. B. Ma.)
MALINES (Flemish, Mechelen, called in the middle ages by
the Latin name Mechlinia, whence the spelling Mechlin), an
ancient and important city of Belgium, and the seat since 1559
of the only archbishopric in that country. Pop. (1904), 58,101.
The name is supposed to be derived from maris linea, and to
indicate that originally the sea came up to it. It is now situated
on the Dyle, and is in the province of Antwerp, lying about
half-way between Antwerp and Brussels. The chief importance
of Malines is derived from the fact that it is in a sense the
religious capital of Belgium—the archbishop being the primate
of the Catholic Church in that country. The archbishop’s palace
is in a picturesque situation, and dates from the creation of the
dignity. The principal building in the city is the exceedingly
fine cathedral dedicated to St Rombaut. This cathedral was
begun in the 12th and finished early in the 14th century, and
although modified in the 15th after a fire, it remains one of the
most remarkable specimens of Gothic architecture in Europe.
The massive tower of over 300 ft., which is described as unfinished
because the original intention was to carry it to 500 ft., is its
most striking external feature. The people of Malines gained
in the old distich—“gaudet Mechlinia stultis”—the reputation
of being “fools,” because one of the citizens on seeing the moon
through the dormer windows of St Rombaut called out that the
place was on fire, and his fellow-citizens, following his example,
endeavoured to put out the conflagration until they realized the
truth. The cathedral contains a fine altar-piece by Van Dyck,
and the pulpit is in carved oak of the 17th century. Another
old palace is that of Margaret of Austria, regent for Charles V.,
which has been carefully preserved and is now used as a court
of justice. In the church of Notre Dame (16th century) is
Rubens’ masterpiece “the miraculous draught of fishes,” and
in that of St John is a fine triptych by the same master. Malines,
although no longer famous for its lace, carries on a large trade
in linen, needles, furniture and oil, while as a junction for the
line from Ghent to Louvain and Liège, as well as for that from
Antwerp to Brussels and the south, its station is one of the
busiest in Belgium, and this fact has contributed to the general
prosperity of the city.
The lordship of Malines was conferred as a separate fief by Pippin the Short on his kinsman Count Adon in 754. In the 9th century Charles the Bald bestowed the fief on the bishop of Liége, and after being shared between Brabant and Flanders it passed into the hands of Philip the Bold, founder of the house of Burgundy, in 1384. During the religious troubles of the 16th century Malines suffered greatly, and in 1572 it was sacked by Alva’s troops during three days. In the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries it was besieged many times and captured by the French, Dutch and English on several occasions. The French finally removed the fortifications in 1804, since which year it has been an open town.
