[Minarets], a salient feature of Mohammedan architecture, are tall slim towers, in several storeys with balconies, from which the muezzin calls the people to prayer, and terminated by a spire or finial.
[Minerva], the Roman virgin goddess of wisdom and the arts, identified with the [Greek Athena] (q. v.); born full-armed from the brain of Jupiter, and representing his thinking, calculating, inventive power, and third in rank to him.
[Minerva Press], a printing establishment in Leadenhall Street, London, which about a century ago issued a set of trashy, extremely sentimental novels with complicated plots, in which hero and heroine were involved before they could get married.
[Minghetti, Marco], Italian patriot and statesman, born at Bologna; a man of liberal views; a friend and associate of Cavour; held office under him as Minister of the Interior in 1862; was ambassador to the Court of St. James's in 1868, and Prime Minister at Rome from 1873 to 1876 (1818-1886)
[Minims], an order of monks founded by St. Francis of Paula in 1453, a name which signifies "the least" to express super-humility.
[Minneapolis] (203), city of U.S., Minnesota, on both sides of the Mississippi, the greatest centre of the wheat and flour trade in U.S.
[Minnesingers] (i. e. love-singers), a name given to the lyric poets of Germany during the latter part of the 12th and the first half of the 13th centuries.
[Minnesota] (1,302), one of the United States of America; lies between the Dakotas on the W. and Wisconsin on the E., Canada on the N., and Iowa on the S., round the upper waters of the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and the Red River of the North; the State is largely prairie, with hundreds of lakes, the largest Red Lake, and is chiefly a wheat-producing area; there are pine forests in the N., iron mines, slate and granite quarries; the climate is dry, equable, and bracing; education is good; the State university is at Minneapolis; the capital is St. Paul (133), where the Mississippi is still navigable, a fine city, founded in 1840, the centre of the grocery and dry-goods trade; the largest city is Minneapolis (203), which has great lumber and flour mills; Duluth (33) has a magnificent harbour and good shipping trade.
[Minorca] (34), the second of the Balearic Isles, hilly, with stalactite caves and rocky coast; is less fertile than Majorca, from which it is 25 m. distant NE.; it produces oil, wine, and fruits, and makes boots and shoes, but under Spanish misrule is not prosperous; the capital Mahon (17), in the SE., is strongly fortified, and has a good harbour.
[Minos], an ancient king of Crete, celebrated for his administration of justice; was fabled to have been appointed, along with Æacus and Rhadamanthus, one of the judges of the dead on their descent into the nether world.