Hyder Ali
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Hyder Ali. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
hi'der a'lee (1728-1782), a distinguished soldier of India. He is considered the most formidable Asiatic rival the English have ever had in India. He was a Mohammedan descended from a fakir family. He never learned to read or write. He was the first native of India to arm a corps of sepoys with firelocks and bayonets. Macaulay calls him "a man born for conquest and command." This military adventurer rose from one position to another. In 1762 he made himself rajah, that is to say, king, of Mysore. His territory embraced 84,000 square miles and yielded an enormous revenue. He spent his time carrying on wars with surrounding princes and with the English. He brought the British empire in southern India to the verge of ruin. Only a half dozen fortified places remained under the British flag. His forces were defeated finally by the English commander, Sir Eyre Coote, in 1781. He was succeeded by his son, Tippoo Sahib, whom English historians consider an arrant knave, in rascality quite equal to his father, but without corresponding ability. See India
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an Indian prince of Arabian origin, born in Mysore in 1718. He took the field with his brother, who was in alliance with France, 1751, and in the interval between that period and 1780 acquired for himself an independent sovereignty, and nearly brought the English presidency of Madras to ruin. His death occurred at a critical period in 1782, and he was succeeded by his son, Tippoo-Sahib, who was driven from the Carnatic in 1783.