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GHILAN Ghiberti was associated with Brunelleschi in constructing the cupola of Sta. Maria del Fiore. He excelled in painting upon glass, and in the goldsmith's art. He also left a treatise on sculpture, a part of which has been pub- lished by Cicognara ; a treatise on proportions, yet unpublished ; and a treatise on Italian art, first published in 1841. GHILAN, a province of Persia, bounded N. by Russia, E. and N. E. by the Caspian sea, S. E. by the province of Mazanderan, S. and S. W. by Irak-Ajemi, and N. W. by Azerbijan. It is about 120 ra. long and 40 m. wide; pop. about 100,000. Its inland boundary on the south and west is formed by the Elburz range of mountains, averaging from 6,000 to 8,000 ft. above the sea. The interior is covered, excepting where cleared for cultivation, with dense forests, and much of the country is level and swampy. The rainfall is excessive, and the climate unhealthy. In the woods lurk the tiger, the panther, the wild boar, and the jackal ; and the marshes are filled with wild fowl. The soil is fertile, and the productions include barley, hemp, hops, fruits, and espe- cially rice, the production of which has more than doubled since 1865, on account of the failure of the silk crop, which, however, has greatly improved since 1870. There are ex- tensive sturgeon fisheries along the Caspian, but they are mostly in the hands of Russians. There are few towns, most of the people living in small hamlets. The capital, Resht, is a clean town, with extensive bazaars. Enzeli, the only seaport, has a harbor deep enough for vessels of 250 tons. GHIRLANDAIO (otherwise called COKRADI, or BIGORD.I), DOMENICO DEL, an Italian painter, the master of Michel Angelo, born in Florence in 1451, died there in 1495. His father was a goldsmith, called Ghirlandaio from the silver ornaments in the shape of garlands which he manufactured ; and the son, who was brought up to the same calling, inherited the name. Domenico early manifested an extraordinary aptitude for portraiture, and, after studying under Alessio Baldovinetti, went to Rome to assist in the decoration of the Sistine chapel. Of the pictures executed by him there, but one now exists, the " Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew." Upon returning to Florence he painted a chapel of the Vespucci family in the church of Ognissanti, in one of the compart- ments of which he introduced a portrait of the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci. Of greater ex- cellence was his series of frescoes in the Sas- setti chapel in Santissima Trinita, representing the life of St. Francis. In these works, as in the frescoes in the choir of Sta. Maria Novella depicting the lives of John the Baptist and the Virgin, he introduced excellent portraits of many eminent Florentines of the period. He painted many easel pictures in oil and distem- per ; but his frescoes, in the coloring of which, as well as in the mechanical and technical parts of his art, he excelled all previous painters, are GIANT 793 incomparably his finest works. He is said to have created aerial perspective, and to have perfected the art of mosaic. Two brothers, Benedetto and Davide, and a son, Ridolfo, were also painters of some distinction GHIZEH. See GIZEH. GHUZNI, Ghiznee, or Ghazna, a fortified city of Afghanistan, on the river Ghuzni, 80 m. S. S. W. of Cabopl; pop. estimated at from 3,000 to 10,000. It is a commercial entrepot between the Punjaub and Cabool. It lies on the W. extremity of a range of low hills, which rises above the plain; and as the plain itself is high, the site is 7,726 ft. above the sea. The for- tress is an irregular square, with a circuit of about a mile and a quarter. The wall, which is flanked by numerous towers, has a wet ditch supplied with water from the river Ghuzni, which flows around the W. angle. In the N. part of the enclosed town is the citadel. In former times Ghuzni was a magnificent city, filled with palaces, mosques, fountains, reser- voirs, and baths. Two lofty minarets, the smaller of which is more than 100 ft. high, several tombs, and a quantity of ruins scattered over a wide area 3 m. N. E. of the modern town, are the only relics of its former gran- deur. About 970 Alp-Teghin, governor of Khorasan under the king of Bokhara, revolted against his sultan and established at Ghuzni the seat of an independent empire, including Cabool and Candahar. Under Mahmoud, the third prince of this new dynasty, Ghuzni ac- quired historical importance as the centre of the first permanent Mussulman conquests in In- dia. Mahmoud extended his victories from the Tigris to the Ganges, from the Indian ocean to the Oxus. He made twelve great military ex- peditions, breaking idols, plundering temples, and rendering his capital one of the richest cities of Asia. He built a mosque of granite and marble, and lavished upon it ornaments of such magnificence that throughout the East it was known as the " celestial bride." He found- ed and endowed a university, patronized lite- rature, and filled his court with poets and philosophers. After his death (about 1030) Ghuzni declined. In 1152 it was taken by the princes of Ghore. In 1839 it was stormed by the British under Sir J. Keane. In 1842 it sur- rendered to the Afghans, but was retaken by Gen. Sir William Nott, who brought back to India the famous gates of Somnauth, which Mahmoud had carried off from Guzerat. GIANT (Gr. yiyas, gen. yiyavros, from y?, the earth, and obsolete yevetv, to be born, earth- born), a person of extraordinary stature. The Hebrew word nepUlim (Gen. vi. 4.), which the Septuagint renders giants (yiyavrtfi, has had a variety of interpretations. Some suppose it to mean men of great size ; others, men sur- passing in physical or mental strength; and others, apostates from the worship of the true God. But there are other passages in the Old Testament which indicate the existence of men of huge dimensions. The Rephaim, the