A place Midian is mentioned in 1 Kings xi. 18, apparently between Edom and Paran, and in later times the name lingered in the district east of the Gulf of ʽAkaba, where Eusebius knows a city Madiam in the country of the Saracens and Ptolemy (vi. 7) places Modiana. Still later Madyan was a station on the pilgrim route from Egypt to Mecca, the second beyond Aila (Elath). Here in the middle ages was shown the well from which Moses watered the flocks of Shoʽaib (Jethro), and the place is still known as “the caves of Shoʽaib.” It has considerable ruins, which have been described by Sir R. Burton (Land of Midian, 1879).
This district which has on its east Taimā, a centre of civilization in the 5th century B.C., and on its south-east El-ʽOlā whose existence as a seat of culture is possibly even older, is identified by some scholars with the Muṣrān of the Minaean (south Arabian) inscriptions, on which see Sabaeans, Yemen. That this part of north-west Arabia had frequent intercourse with Palestine appears certain from its commercial relations with Gaza; and the association of the Midianite Jethro with early Hebrew legislation, as also the possibility that Mizraim (“Egypt”) in the Old Testament should be taken in some cases to refer to this district, have an important bearing upon several Old Testament questions. See Mizraim.
MIDLETON, WILLIAM ST JOHN FREMANTLE BRODRICK, 9th Viscount (1856–), English politician, was the son of the 8th viscount (1830–1907). He came of a Surrey family who in the 17th century, in the persons of Sir St John Brodrick and Sir Thomas Brodrick, obtained grants of land in the south of Ireland. Sir St John Brodrick settled at Midleton, between Cork and Youghal in 1641; and his son Alan Brodrick (1660–1728), speaker of the Irish House of Commons and lord chancellor of Ireland, was created Baron Brodrick in 1715 and Viscount Midleton in 1717 in the Irish peerage. In 1796 the title of Baron Brodrick in the peerage of the United Kingdom was created. The English family seat at Peper Harow, near Godalming, Surrey, was designed by Sir William Chambers. The 8th viscount was a Conservative in politics, who for a few years had a seat in the House of Commons, and who was responsible in the House of Lords for carrying the Infants Protection Act. His brother, the Hon. G. C. Brodrick, was for many years warden of Merton College, Oxford. As Mr St John Brodrick, the 9th viscount had a distinguished career in the House of Commons. After being at Eton and Balliol, Oxford, and serving as president of the Oxford Union, he entered parliament as conservative member for one of the Surrey divisions in 1880. From 1886 to 1892 he was financial secretary to the war office; under secretary for war, 1895–1898; under secretary for foreign affairs, 1898–1900; secretary of state for war, 1900–1903; and secretary of state for India, 1903–1905. He lost his seat for the Guildford division of Surrey at the general election of January 1906. In March 1907 he was made an alderman of the London County Council. He married, first in 1880, Lady Hilda (d. 1901), daughter of the 9th earl of Wemyss, by whom he had a family; and secondly in 1903, Madeleine Stanley, daughter of Lady St Helier by her first husband.
MIDLETON, or Middleton, a market town of Co. Cork, Ireland, on the river Owenacurra, 13 m. E. of Cork by the Youghal branch of the Great Southern & Western railway. Pop. (1901), 3361. The river here enters a branch of Cork harbour. The surrounding hilly country is pleasant and fertile, and furnishes the town with a good agricultural trade. There are also whisky-distilleries. Ballinacurra, 112 m. south on the estuary, serves as a small port. The grammar school was founded in 1696, and here among its students were John Philpot Curran and Isaac Butt. Midleton is governed by an urban district council.
MIDNAPORE, a town and district of British India, in the Burdwan division of Bengal. The town is 68 m. W. of Calcutta; it has a station on the Bengal Nagpur railway. Pop. (1901), 33,140. It is an important centre of trade, being the terminus of a navigable canal to Calcutta, and also the junction for the Sini branch of the Bengal-Nagpur railway. There are manufactures of brass and copper wire. It has an American mission, a municipal college, and a public library founded in 1852.
The District of Midnapore has an area of 5186 sq. m. The general appearance is that of a large open plain, of which the greater part is under cultivation. In the northern portion the soil is poor, and there is little wood. The country along the western boundary, known as the Jungle Mahals, is undulating and picturesque; it is almost uninhabited. The eastern and south-eastern portions are swampy and richly cultivated. The chief rivers of the district are the Hugli and its three tributaries, the Rupnarayan, the Haldi and the Rasulpur. The Midnapore high-level canal used also for irrigation runs almost due east and west from the town of Midnapore to Ulubaria on the Hugli 16 m. below Calcutta, and affords a continuous navigable channel 53 m. in length. There is also a tidal canal for navigation, 26 m. in length, extending from the Rupnarayan river. The district is traversed as well by the Bengal-Nagpur railway towards Orissa, with a branch to Chota Nagpur. The jungles in the west of the district yield lac, tussur, silk, wax, resin, fire-wood, charcoal, &c., and give shelter to large and small game. The principal exports are rice, silk and sugar; and the chief imports consist of cotton cloth and twist. Salt, indigo, silk, mats and brass and copper utensils are manufactured. Both silk and indigo are decaying industries. The population in 1901 was 2,789,114, showing an increase of 6% in the decade.
The early history of Midnapore centres round the ancient town of Tamluk, which in the beginning of the 5th century was an important Buddhist settlement and maritime harbour. The first connexion of the English with the district dates from 1760, when Mir Kasim ceded to the East India Company Midnapore, Chittagong, and Burdwan (then estimated to furnish one-third of the entire revenue of Bengal) as the price of his elevation to the throne of Bengal on the deposition of Mir Jafar.
MIDRASH, a very common term in Jewish writings for “exposition” and a certain class of expository literature. The word also occurs twice in the Old Testament (2 Chron. xiii. 22, xxiv. 27; R.V. rather poorly “commentary”).
1. Introduction.—The term (Heb. midrāsh from dārash “to search out, enquire”) denotes some explanation or exposition, which, in contrast to the more literal exegesis (technically called pĕshat “simple”), endeavours to reach the spirit lying below the text. It may be defined as a didactic or homiletic development of some thought or theme, characterized by a more subjective, imaginative and ampliative treatment. Jewish Midrash falls broadly into two classes: Halaka (q.v.) or Hălākā (walking, way, conduct) and Haggādah (narrative [with a purpose], homily; Aramaic equivalent Aggādah; the incorrect form Agadah rests upon a mistaken etymology). The former dealt with legal and ritual matters; it flourished in the schools and developed into the most subtle casuistry. The latter covered all non-halakic exposition and was essentially popular. It embraced historical and other traditions; stories, legends, parables and allegories; beliefs, customs and all that may be called folk-lore. It fed itself, not upon the laws, but upon the narrative, the prophetical and the poetical writings of the Old Testament, and it had a more spiritual and ethical tone than the Halaka. In both classes, accepted tradition (written or oral) was reinterpreted in order to justify or to deduce new teaching (in its widest sense), to connect the present with a hallowed past, and to be a guide for the future; and the prevalence of this process, the innumerable different examples of its working, and the particular application of the term Midrash to an important section of Rabbinical literature complicates both the study of the subject and any attempt to treat it concisely.[1] Apart from the popular paraphrastic translations of the Old Testament (see Targum), the great mass of orthodox Rabbinical literature consists of (1) the independent Midrāshīm, and (2) the Mishna which, with its supplement the Gĕmārā, constitutes the Talmud. Both contain Halaka, and Haggada, although the Mishna itself is essentially Halaka, and the Midrashim are more especially Haggadic; and consequently further information bearing upon Midrash must be sought in the art. Talmud. These two articles
- ↑ For a careful study of the meaning of the term, see W. Bacher, Jew. Quart. Rev. IV. 406-429.
