AUTHORITIES.--All the earlier works on Mazarin, and early accounts of his administration, of which the best were Bazin's _Histoire de France sous Louis XIII. et sous le Cardinal Mazarin_, 4 vols. (1846), and Saint-Aulaire's _Histoire de la Fronde_, have been superseded by P. A. Chéruel's admirable _Histoire de France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV._, 4 vols. (1879-1880), which covers from 1643-1651, and its sequel _Histoire de France sous le ministère de Cardinal Mazarin_, 2 vols. (1881-1882), which is the first account of the period written by one able to sift the statements of De Retz and the memoir writers, and rest upon such documents as Mazarin's letters and _carnets_. Mazarin's _Lettres_, which must be carefully studied by any student of the history of France, have appeared in the _Collection des documents inédits_, 9 vols. For his _carnets_ reference must be made to V. Cousin's articles in the _Journal des Savants_, and Chéruel in _Revue historique_ (1877), see also Chéruel's _Histoire de France pendant la minorité_, &c., app. to vol. iii.; for his early life to Cousin's _Jeunesse de Mazarin_ (1865) and for the careers of his nieces to Renée's _Les Nièces de Mazarin_ (1856). For the Mazarinades or squibs written against him in Paris during the Fronde, see C. Moreau's _Bibliographie des mazarinades_ (1850), containing an account of 4082 Mazarinades. See also A. Hassall, _Mazarin_ (1903). MAZAR-I-SHARIF, a town of Afghanistan, the capital of the province of Afghan Turkestan. Owing to the importance of the military cantonment of Takhtapul, and its religious sanctity, it has long ago supplanted the more ancient capital of Balkh. It is situated in a malarious, almost desert plain, 9 m. E. of Balkh, and 30 m. S. of the Pata Kesar ferry on the Oxus river. In this neighbourhood is concentrated most of the Afghan army north of the Hindu Kush mountains, the fortified cantonment of Dehdadi having been completed by Sirdar Ghulam Ali Khan and incorporated with Mazar. Mazar-i-Sharif also contains a celebrated mosque, from which the town takes its name. It is a huge ornate building with minarets and a lofty cupola faced with shining blue tiles. It was built by Sultan Ali Mirza about A.D. 1420, and is held in great veneration by all Mussulmans, and especially by Shiites, because it is supposed to be the tomb of Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet.