Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/881

MOSER university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, but re- signed in 1739. In 1749 he founded at Hanau . an academy for the instruction of young nobles in political science. In 1751 he returned to Wtirtemberg, where he was imprisoned from 1759 to 1764 for memorializing the duke on the rights of the estates. He was the first to give a systematic account of European international law. His works are very numerous, embracing the voluminous Deutsches Staatsrecht (Nurem- berg, 1737-'54), with various Supplements. II. Friedrich Karl von, a German publicist, son of the preceding, born in Stuttgart, Dec. 18, 1723, died in Ludwigsburg, Nov. 10, 1798. He was for many years imperial councillor at the court of Vienna, and afterward a member of the administration of Hesse-Darmstadt. His Der ' Herr und der Diener (1759), exposing ad- i -inistrative abuses, created a great sensation. He exerted a still greater influence by means of the Patriotisches Archiv, which he edited from 1784 to 1790, and which was followed in 1792-'4 by the Neues Patriotisches Archiv. He also wrote on international law, and is the author of a Geschichte der Waldemer (Zurich, 1798), and of Luther s Furstenspiegel (new . ed., Frankfort, 1834). MOSER, Justus, a German author, born in Osnabruck, Dec. 14, 1720, died there, Jan. 8, 1794. He studied jurisprudence at Jena and Gottingen, and became government attorney in 1747 ; and for 20 years during the minority of the duke Frederick of York, who came into possession of Osnabruck in 1764, he was the principal adviser of the regent. He was after- ward a judge. One of his most celebrated hu- morous works is his Harlekin, directed against pedants and hypocrites of all kinds. In his work on the German language and literature he attacks the Gallomania and infidelity of Frederick the Great ; and in a letter addressed to Jean Jacques Kousseau he opposes the theo- ries of that philosopher. His most important contribution to literature is his Omdbruclcische Geschichte (2 vols., 1768; 3d ed., 1820; vol. iii. published from his literary remains by Her- bert von Bar, 1824). His short essays, Pa- triotische Phantasien (4 vols., 1774-'86), relate to local subjects. A complete edition of his works was published by Abeken (10 vols., Ber- i lin, 1842-'3). MOSES. See HEBREWS, vol. viii., p. 583. MOSHEIM, Johann Lorenz YOU, a German ec- clesiastical historian, born in Ltibeck, Oct. 9, 1694, died in Gottingen, Sept. 9, 1755. He was educated at the gymnasium of Liibeck and the university of Kiel, where he became pro- fessor of philosophy. From 1723 to 1747 he was professor of theology at Helmstedt, and afterward till his death divinity professor and chancellor of the university of Gottingen. He was the author of a large number of works, the principal of which are Institutions Histo- ric Ecclesiastical, Antiquioris et Recentioris (2 vols., Helmstedt, 1726), and De Rebus Chris- tianorum ante Constantinum Magnum Com- 576 VOL. xi. 55 MOSSES 863 mentarii (1753). The best English translation of these works is by James Murdock, D. D., " Institutes of Ecclesiastical History " (3 vols., New Haven, 1832; revised, New York, 1839), and "Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians before Constantino " (2 vols., New York, 1855). MOSKVA, Battle of the. See BORODINO. MOSLEMS. See MOHAMMEDANISM. MOSQUE (Arab, mesjid, " place of prayer "), a Mohammedan temple or house of worship. The first mosque was erected by Mohammed at Medina, part of the work being done by his own hands. The site was a graveyard shaded by date trees, which was selected by the proph- et because his camel knelt opposite to it on his public entry into the cit s v. The edifice was square and capacious, the walls of earth and brick, and the roof supported by the trunks of palm trees and thatched with palm leaves. It had three doors. A part of the building was assigned as a habitation to the poor among the faithful who had no other homes. In this mosque Mohammed was buried; and though the original edifice was long ago replaced by a larger structure, the temple still bears the name of mesjid en-nebi, "the mosque of the prophet," and has ever since served as a mod- el for the construction of Mohammedan places of worship. Everywhere the mosque is sub- stantially the same in plan, though differing in detail in some countries, as modified by national taste. What in Arabia was simple and elegant became highly ornate in Spain, florid in Turkey, and effeminate in India. In the reign of the caliph Walid I., toward the end of the 1st century of the Hegira, the cupola and the minaret were added to the mosque, and the Saracenic style of architecture was in- troduced throughout the Moslem world. The mosque of the prophet at Medina, the great mosque at Mecca, and the mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, are considered peculiarly holy, and are among the finest extant specimens of Moslem architecture. Cairo has about 400 mosques, the chief of which, that of Sultan Hassan, is a majestic edifice in the purest style. The jumma mvsjid or great mosque at Delhi, built by Shah Jehan in 1631-'7, is gen- erally considered the noblest building ever erected for Mohammedan worship. The prin- cipal mosque of Constantinople was original- ly the Christian church of St. Sophia. The mosque of Solyman the Magnificent, begun in 1550 and finished in 1555, has six minarets. Attached to this mosque, as to almost all oth- ers, are various endowments for institutions of education, piety, and benevolence. It has an annual revenue of 300,000 piasters. MOSQUITO. See GNAT. MOSQUITO COAST. See NICARAGUA. MOSSES (musci), a large family of cryptoga- mic plants, the study of which forms a dis- tinct department of botany called bryology (Gr. ppijov. moss), or muscology. Mosses have distinct stems, leaves, flower-like reproductive