I
Any of various cereals .
Most millets range in height from 1 to 4 ft (0.3 to 1.3 m). Except for pearl millet ( Pennisetum glaucum , or P. americanum ), seeds remain enclosed in hulls after threshing. Cultivated in China since at least the 3rd millennium BC, millets are today an important food staple in much of Asia, Russia, and western Africa. High in carbohydrates, they are somewhat strong in taste and cannot be made into leavened bread, so they are consumed mainly in flatbreads and porridges or prepared and eaten much like rice. In the U.S. and western Europe they are used chiefly for pasture or to produce {{link=hay">hay .
II
Turkish term referring to an autonomous religious community under the Ottoman Empire (с 1300–1923).
Each millet was responsible to the central government for obligations such as taxes and internal security and also had responsibility for social and administrative functions not provided by the state. Beginning in 1856, a series of secular legal reforms known as the Tanzimat ("Reorganization") eroded much of their administrative autonomy.