MALIBRAN, MARIE FÉLICITÉ (1808-1836), operatic singer, daughter of Manoel Garcia, was born in Paris on the 24th of March 1808. Her father was then a member of the company of the Théâtre des Italiens, and she accompanied him to Italy and London. She possessed a soprano voice of unusual beauty and 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 ‘Abdallāh, the ‘Alid, rose in A.D. 762 at Medina against the ‘Abbāsids, Malik gave a fatwā, or legal opinion, that the oath of allegiance to the ‘Abbāsids was invalid, as extorted by force. For this independence he was severely scourged by the ‘Abbāsid 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 ‘ārif, 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.