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  • Śaivism (Indian religious cult)
    cult of the Indian god Shiva, with Vaishnavism and Shaktism, one of the three principal forms of modern Hinduism. Shaivism includes such diverse movements as the highly philosophic Shaiva-siddhanta, the socially distinctive Lingayat, ascetic orders such as the ...
  • saivo (Sami mythology)
    one of the Sami regions of the dead, where the deceased, called saivoolmak, lead happy lives in the saivo world with their families and ancestors; they build tents, hunt, fish, and in every way act as they did on earth. In Norway the saivo world was thought to exist in the mountains, whereas in Finland it was usually believed to be under special double-bottomed lakes connecte...
  • sajʿ (rhymed prose)
    ...prose but the inimitable Qurʾān. The fact that the Qurʾān showed most of the features of a characteristic form of pre-Islamic discourse known as sajʿ (usually translated as “rhyming prose” but almost certainly a very early form of poetic expression) complicated matters considerably, in that some of the earli...
  • Sajan Mountains (mountains, Asia)
    large upland region lying along the frontiers of east-central Russia and Mongolia. Within Russia the mountains occupy the southern parts of the Krasnoyarsk kray (region) and Irkutsk oblast (province), the northern part of Tuva, and the west of Buryatiya....
  • Saji Keizo (Japanese entrepreneur)
    Japanese businessman and tastemaker who helped change the national custom of drinking sake to that of imbibing hard liquor, primarily whisky and beer, while serving as president from 1961 to 1990 of Suntory Ltd., one of the world’s largest alcoholic beverage companies; a leading patron of the arts, Saji, founder of the Suntory Art Museum in Osaka and the Suntory Music Hall in Tokyo, also pu...
  • sajjāda
    one of the major types of rug produced in central and western Asia, used by Muslims primarily to cover the bare ground or floor while they pray. Prayer rugs are characterized by the prayer niche, or mihrab, an arch-shaped design at one end of the carpet. The mihrab, which probably derives from the prayer niche in mosques, must point toward Mecca while the rug ...
  • Śaka (people)
    The Bactrian control of Taxila was disturbed by an intrusion of the Scythians, known in Indian sources as the Shakas (who established the Shaka satrap). They had attacked the kingdom of Bactria and subsequently moved into India. The determination of the Han rulers of China to keep the Central Asian nomadic tribes (the Xiongnu, Wu-sun, and Yuezhi) out of China forced these tribes in their search......
  • Śaka era (Indian history)
    The Śaka, or Salivāhana, era (ad 78), now used throughout India, is the most important of all. It has been used not only in many Indian inscriptions but also in ancient Sanskrit inscriptions in Indochina and Indonesia. The reformed calendar promulgated by the Indian government from 1957 is reckoned by this era. It is variously alleged to have been founded by King Kani...
  • Saka language (Iranian language)
    Middle Iranian language spoken in Sinkiang, in northwestern China, by the Saka tribes. Two dialectal varieties are distinguished. Khotanese, from the kingdom of Khotan, is richly attested by Buddhist and other texts dating from the 7th to the 10th century. Most of these writings remain unedited. The other dialect, known from only one Buddhist fragment, is connected with Tumshuq. The texts are writ...
  • Śaka Satrap (Indian dynasty)
    either of two dynasties of satraps in northwestern India who ruled with considerable independence on behalf of the Pahlava suzerains. The two families are both known to Indian literature as the Śakas (from the native word for Scythians) and to most Western historians as the Kshatrapas....
  • sakadagamin (Buddhism)
    ...the Buddha, the teaching (dhamma), and the order (sangha), (2) the “once-returner” (sakadagamin), who will be reborn only once in this realm, a state attained by diminishing lust, hatred, and illusion, (3) the “nonreturner” (......
  • Sakaeya (Japanese actor)
    Japanese kabuki actor who introduced male roles into the kabuki theatre’s dance pieces (shosagoto), which had been traditionally reserved for female impersonators....
  • Sakai (Japan)
    city, Ōsaka fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on Ōsaka Bay. Many large earthen tomb mounds in the area attest to the city’s antiquity. The mausoleum of the emperor Nintoku—1,594 feet (486 m) long and 115 feet (35 m) high—is the largest in Japan. Sakai was a leading seaport and commercial centre from the mid-14th to...
  • Sakai Hidemaro (Japanese painter)
    Japanese painter who, with his friend Hishida Shunsō, contributed to the revitalization of traditional Japanese painting in the modern era....
  • Sakai Hōitsu (Japanese artist)
    Japanese painter and poet of the late Tokugawa period (1603–1867). ...
  • Sakai languages
    subbranch of the Aslian branch of the Mon-Khmer language family, itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. The main languages, Semai and Temiar, are spoken in the Main Range of the Malay Peninsula. Together their speakers number some 33,000....
  • Sakai Tadanao (Japanese artist)
    Japanese painter and poet of the late Tokugawa period (1603–1867). ...
  • Sakai Toshihiko (Japanese politician)
    socialist leader and one of the founders of the Japan Communist Party....
  • Sakaida family (Japanese family)
    celebrated family of Japanese potters whose founder, Sakaida Kizaemon (1596–1666), was awarded the name Kakiemon in recognition of his capturing the delicate red colour and texture of the persimmon (kaki) in porcelain. See Kakiemon ware....
  • Sakaida Kakiemon I (Japanese potter)
    ...these shapes give less evidence of warping in the kiln than do circular ones. Wares were painted in a pale underglaze blue until the family learned the Chinese secret of using overglaze colours. Sakaida Kakiemon I perfected this overglaze technique at Arita in the Kan’ei era (1624–43). It was continued by his family, and, since many of them were also called Kakiemon, the style has...
  • Sakaida Kizaemon (Japanese potter)
    ...these shapes give less evidence of warping in the kiln than do circular ones. Wares were painted in a pale underglaze blue until the family learned the Chinese secret of using overglaze colours. Sakaida Kakiemon I perfected this overglaze technique at Arita in the Kan’ei era (1624–43). It was continued by his family, and, since many of them were also called Kakiemon, the style has...
  • Sakaide (Japan)
    city, Kagawa ken (prefecture), Shikoku, Japan, facing the Inland Sea. The city has been a centre of salt manufacture since the early 17th century. Part of the salt fields were reclaimed for industrial use after World War II, and Sakaide became heavily industrialized. Besides salt, its products include chemicals, petrochemicals, and machinery. A large shipyard is attached ...
  • Sakākah (oasis, Saudi Arabia)
    oasis, northwestern Saudi Arabia. It lies on an old caravan route from the Mediterranean Sea coast to the central and southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Sakākah lies north of the desert an-Nafūd and northeast of al-Jawf oasis. The government tried to improve agricultural conditions in the area. The main products of the oasis are dates and dairy products....
  • sakaki (tree)
    low-spreading, flowering evergreen tree (Cleyera ochnacea), of the family Pentaphylacaceae, used in Shintō to demarcate or decorate sacred spaces. The tree, which grows in warm areas of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China, may reach a height of about 10 metres (30 feet) and in spring produces white, drooping flowers. Its branches are used in decorating Shintō shrines or s...
  • Sakakura Junzō (Japanese architect)
    architect who was one of the first to combine 20th-century European architecture with elements from the traditional Japanese style....
  • Sakalava (people)
    a Malagasy people living in the western third of Madagascar. The Sakalava live in a sparsely populated area of vast plains, grasslands, and rolling foothills....
  • Sakamoto Naonari (Japanese imperial loyalist)
    noted imperial loyalist whose effort to forge the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance (1866) between those two large feudal domains, or hans, was critical in setting the stage for the Meiji Restoration (1868)....
  • Sakamoto Ryōma (Japanese imperial loyalist)
    noted imperial loyalist whose effort to forge the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance (1866) between those two large feudal domains, or hans, was critical in setting the stage for the Meiji Restoration (1868)....
  • Sakamoto, Ryuichi (Japanese musician)
    ...for The Last EmperorCinematography: Vittorio Storaro for The Last EmperorArt Direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti for The Last EmperorOriginal Score: David Byrne, Cong Su, Ryuichi Sakamoto for The Last EmperorOriginal Song: “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing; music by John DeNicola, Donald Markowitz,......
  • Sakartvelo
    country of Transcaucasia located at the eastern end of the Black Sea on the southern flanks of the main crest of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. It is bounded on the north and northeast by Russia, on the east and southeast by Azerbaijan, on the south by Armenia and Turkey, and on the west by the Black Sea. Georgia includes three ethnic enclaves: Abkhazia, in the northwest (pri...
  • Sakartvelos Respublika
    country of Transcaucasia located at the eastern end of the Black Sea on the southern flanks of the main crest of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. It is bounded on the north and northeast by Russia, on the east and southeast by Azerbaijan, on the south by Armenia and Turkey, and on the west by the Black Sea. Georgia includes three ethnic enclaves: Abkhazia, in the northwest (pri...
  • Sakarya (Turkey)
    city, northwestern Turkey, lying in a fertile plain west of the Sakarya River. It is situated along the old military road from Istanbul. The region came under Ottoman control in the early 14th century, and the city acquired its present name at the end of the 18th century. An agricultural and industrial centre, Sakarya is connected by a branch line to the main Anatolian railway s...
  • Sakarya River (river, Turkey)
    ...parallel to the east-west ranges of northern Turkey. These rivers include the Yenice (Filyos), Çoruh, Kelkit, Yeşil, and Kızıl. One of the largest basins is that of the Sakarya River, which covers about 500 miles (800 km) from its source, southwest of Ankara, to its mouth, north of Adapazarı....
  • Sakarya River, Battle of the (Turkish history)
    ...principally by irregular forces, who at the end of 1920 were brought under Mustafa Kemal’s control. In 1920–21 the Greeks made major advances, almost to Ankara, but were defeated at the Battle of the Sakarya River (Aug. 24, 1921) and began a long retreat that ended in the Turkish occupation of İzmir (Sept. 9, 1922)....
  • Sakastan (depression, Asia)
    extensive border region, eastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. Forty percent of its area is in Iran, as well as the majority of its sparse population. The region comprises a large depression some 1,500–1,700 feet (450–520 m) in elevation. Numerous rivers fill a series of lagoons (hāmūn) and in high flood form a shallow lake that spills into another depressio...
  • Sakata (Japan)
    city, Yamagata ken (prefecture), northern Honshu, Japan, on the Mogami River. A prosperous commercial and fishing port during the Muromachi period (1338–1573), it later developed as a seaport for the shipment of rice along the Sea of Japan coast. The chemical industry was introduced in 1940, and manganese ore, phosphate fertilizer, and ferroalloys are now produced....
  • Sakata Tōjūrō (Japanese actor)
    ...the riverbed,” as kabuki actors were called, to stage the art which had become the exclusive privilege of the warrior class. By Genroku times, new kabuki dramatic styles had emerged. The actor Sakata Tōjūİō (1647–1709) developed a relatively realistic, gentle style of acting (wagoto) for erotic love stories in Kyōto, while in Edo, a styliz...
  • Sakawa Orogeny (geology)
    ...and Mexico’s Sierra Madre Oriental during the Late Cretaceous to Early Paleogene. In the South American Andean system, mountain building reached its climax in the mid-Late Cretaceous. In Japan the Sakawa orogeny proceeded through a number of phases during the Cretaceous....
  • Sakça Gözü (Turkey)
    village in the Southeastern Taurus Mountains some 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Gaziantep, south-central Turkey. Archaeologists first took note of Sakcagöz as the site of a Late Hittite slab relief depicting a royal lion hunt. John Garstang, a British archaeologist, traced the relief to a small mound (tell) called Cobba Hüyük, adjacent the village. Excavations of the mound bet...
  • Sakcagöz (Turkey)
    village in the Southeastern Taurus Mountains some 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Gaziantep, south-central Turkey. Archaeologists first took note of Sakcagöz as the site of a Late Hittite slab relief depicting a royal lion hunt. John Garstang, a British archaeologist, traced the relief to a small mound (tell) called Cobba Hüyük, adjacent the village. Excavations of the mound bet...
  • Sakçagöze (Turkey)
    village in the Southeastern Taurus Mountains some 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Gaziantep, south-central Turkey. Archaeologists first took note of Sakcagöz as the site of a Late Hittite slab relief depicting a royal lion hunt. John Garstang, a British archaeologist, traced the relief to a small mound (tell) called Cobba Hüyük, adjacent the village. Excavations of the mound bet...
  • Sakdal Uprising (Filipino history)
    brief peasant rebellion in the agricultural area of central Luzon, Philippines, on the night of May 2–3, 1935. Though quickly crushed, the revolt of the Sakdals (or Sakdalistas) warned of Filipino peasant frustration with the oppressive land tenancy situation....
  • Sakdalista (Filipino history)
    brief peasant rebellion in the agricultural area of central Luzon, Philippines, on the night of May 2–3, 1935. Though quickly crushed, the revolt of the Sakdals (or Sakdalistas) warned of Filipino peasant frustration with the oppressive land tenancy situation....
  • sakdi na (Thai official rank)
    ...finance, lands and agriculture, and justice and the royal household. He further stabilized the structure of Thai society by assigning all officials and all his subjects a numerical rank (sakdi na) notionally expressed in terms of units of land—from 4,000 acres for the highest minister down to 10 acres for the humblest freeman—thus making explicit the relative status......
  • sake (alcoholic beverage)
    Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice. Sake is light in colour, is noncarbonated, has a sweet flavour, and contains up to 18 percent alcohol....
  • Sakel, Manfred J. (Austrian neurophysiologist and psychiatrist)
    Polish neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who introduced insulin-shock therapy for schizophrenia....
  • Sakel, Manfred Joshua (Austrian neurophysiologist and psychiatrist)
    Polish neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who introduced insulin-shock therapy for schizophrenia....
  • saker (bird)
    ...and broadwings. The hawks in each of these three categories display different traits because of adaptation to their hunting environments and prey. Longwings are falcons, such as the peregrine, the saker, and the gyrfalcon. They mainly hunt other birds in flight. Because their pursuit of quarry can take them over considerable distances, longwings are flown over open terrain, such as desert or......
  • Saker, Alfred (British missionary)
    missionary who established the first British mission in the Cameroons and who was, in the opinion of David Livingstone, the most important English missionary in West Africa. Saker founded the city of Victoria, Cameroon, and translated the Bible into Douala, the local language....
  • Sakesar, Mount (mountain, Pakistan)
    The Salt Range is an extremely arid territory that marks the boundary between the submontane region and the Indus River plain to the south. The highest point of the Salt Range, Mount Sakesar, lies at 4,992 feet (1,522 metres). The Salt Range is of interest to geologists because it contains the most complete geologic sequence in the world, in which rocks from early Cambrian times (about......
  • Saketa (India)
    city, south-central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies on the Ghāghara (Gogra) River near Faizābād....
  • Sakha (people)
    one of the major peoples of eastern Siberia, numbering some 380,000 in the late 20th century. In the 17th century they inhabited a limited area on the middle Lena River, but in modern times they have expanded throughout Sakha republic (Yakutia) in far northeastern Russia. They speak a Turkic language. The Sakha are thought to be an admixture of migrants from the Lake Baikal regi...
  • Sakha (republic, Russia)
    republic in far northeastern Russia, in northeastern Siberia. The republic occupies the basins of the great rivers flowing to the Arctic Ocean—the Lena, Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma—and includes the New Siberian Islands between the Laptev and East Siberian seas. Sakha was created an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union in 1922; it is now the second largest republic in Russia....
  • Sakha (river, Russia)
    major river of Russia and the 10th longest river in the world. It flows 2,734 miles (4,400 km) from its sources in the mountains along the western shores of Lake Baikal, in southeastern Siberia, to the mouth of its delta on the Arctic Laptev Sea. The area of the river’s drainage basin is about 961,000 square miles (...
  • Sakha language
    member of the Turkic subfamily of the Altaic language family, spoken in northeastern Siberia (Sakha republic), in northeastern Russia. Because its speakers have been geographically isolated from other Turkic languages for centuries, Sakha has developed deviant features; it demonstrates closest affinity to the northeastern branch of Turkic la...
  • Sakha-Tyla language
    member of the Turkic subfamily of the Altaic language family, spoken in northeastern Siberia (Sakha republic), in northeastern Russia. Because its speakers have been geographically isolated from other Turkic languages for centuries, Sakha has developed deviant features; it demonstrates closest affinity to the northeastern branch of Turkic la...
  • Sakhalin (oblast, Russia)
    oblast (province), extreme eastern Russia, composed of Sakhalin Island and the chain of the Kuril Islands. The present oblast was formed in 1947 after southern Sakhalin and the Kurils were acquired from Japan. The economy is dominated by fishing, lumbering, coal mining, and the extraction of oil and natural gas in the north. Area (land) 33,600 square miles (87,100 ...
  • Sakhalin Island (island, Russia)
    island at the far eastern end of Russia. It is located between the Tatar Strait and the Sea of Okhotsk, north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. With the Kuril Islands, it forms Sakhalin oblast (province)....
  • Sakharov, Andrey Dmitriyevich (Soviet physicist and dissident)
    Soviet nuclear theoretical physicist, an outspoken advocate of human rights, civil liberties, and reform in the Soviet Union as well as rapprochement with noncommunist nations. In 1975 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace....
  • Sakhmet (Egyptian goddess)
    in Egyptian religion, a goddess of war and the destroyer of the enemies of the sun god Re. Sekhmet was associated both with disease and with healing and medicine. Like other fierce goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon, she was called the “Eye of Re.” She was the companion of the god Ptah and was worshipped principally at ...
  • Şäki (Azerbaijan)
    city, north-central Azerbaijan. It is situated on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Range. Şäki, one of the oldest cities in Azerbaijan, was a trading centre on the road to Dagestan. In the 18th and 19th centuries it served as the capital of the khanate of Sheki, which was ceded to Russia in 1805; the last khan died in 1819. Şäki has a number of buildings of h...
  • saki (alcoholic beverage)
    Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice. Sake is light in colour, is noncarbonated, has a sweet flavour, and contains up to 18 percent alcohol....
  • Saki (Nigeria)
    town, Oyo state, western Nigeria. It lies near the source of the Ofiki River (the chief tributary of the Ogun River), about 40 miles (60 km) from the Benin border. Originally part of the Oyo empire, Shaki became a Yoruba refugee settlement after the destruction in 1835 of Old Oyo (Katunga), 70 miles (113 km) east-northeast, by Muslim Fulani conquerors. By the early 1860s the Yoruba Mission had est...
  • saki (monkey)
    any of seven species of arboreal South American monkeys having long nonprehensile furred tails. The “true” sakis of the genus Pithecia are approximately 30–50 cm (12–20 inches) long, not including the bushy, tapering tail of 25–55 cm. Females generally weigh less than 2 kg (4.4 pounds) and males more than 2 kg. Thes...
  • Saki (Scottish writer)
    Scottish writer and journalist whose stories depict the Edwardian social scene with a flippant wit and power of fantastic invention used both to satirize social pretension, unkindness, and stupidity and to create an atmosphere of horror....
  • sakia (water-supply system)
    mechanical device used to raise water from wells or pits. A sakia consists of buckets fastened to a vertical wheel or to a rope belt about the wheel, which is itself attached by a shaft to a horizontal wheel turned by horses, oxen, or asses....
  • Sakic, Dinko Ljubomir (Croatian concentration camp commander)
    Croatian concentration camp commander who was convicted (1999) and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for crimes against humanity committed during his bloody seven-month term (April–November 1944) as commandant of the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia. Sakic was notorious for brutally torturing and murdering inmates, two of whom he reportedly shot and killed for smiling. After...
  • sakieh (water-supply system)
    mechanical device used to raise water from wells or pits. A sakia consists of buckets fastened to a vertical wheel or to a rope belt about the wheel, which is itself attached by a shaft to a horizontal wheel turned by horses, oxen, or asses....
  • Sakigake (Japanese space probe)
    ...the comet passed Earth in November–December 1985, reached perihelion on Feb. 9, 1986, and came closest to Earth on April 11, 1986. Its passage was observed by two Japanese spacecraft (Sakigake and Suisei), two Soviet spacecraft (Vega 1 and Vega 2), and a European Space Agency spacecraft (Giotto). Close-up images of the comet’s nucleus made by Giotto show an oblong object with......
  • Sakishima islands (island group, Japan)
    ...area of 1,193 square miles (3,090 square km), the Ryukyus consist of 55 islands and islets divided into three major groups: the Amami island chain in the north, the central Okinawa islands, and the Sakishima islands in the south. Administratively, the Ryukyus are part of Japan, the Amami group constituting a southern extension of Kyushu’s Kagoshima prefecture (......
  • Sakje-Gözü (Turkey)
    village in the Southeastern Taurus Mountains some 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Gaziantep, south-central Turkey. Archaeologists first took note of Sakcagöz as the site of a Late Hittite slab relief depicting a royal lion hunt. John Garstang, a British archaeologist, traced the relief to a small mound (tell) called Cobba Hüyük, adjacent the village. Excavations of the mound bet...
  • Sakka (Indian deity)
    in Hindu mythology, the king of the gods. He is one of the main gods of the archaic Sanskrit collection of hymns, the Rigveda, and is the Indo-European cousin of the German Wotan, Norse Odin, Greek Zeus, and Roman Jupiter....
  • sakkana (Ur official)
    ...“King Ur-Nammu has confirmed the field of the god XX for the god XX.” In some cities, notably in Uruk, Mari, or Dēr (near Badrah, Iraq), the administration was in the hands of a šakkana, a man whose title is rendered partly by “governor” and partly by “general.”...
  • Sakkara (archaeological site, Memphis, Egypt)
    part of the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Cairo and west of the modern Arab village of Ṣaqqārah. The site extends along the edge of the desert plateau for about 5 miles (8 km), bordering Abū Ṣīr to the north and Dahshūr...
  • sakkos (ecclesiastical garb)
    outer liturgical vestment worn by bishops of the Eastern Orthodox church. It is a short, close-fitting tunic with half sleeves, buttoned or tied with ribbons on the sides, and usually heavily embroidered. Small bells on the sleeves or sides imitate those worn by Jewish high priests. It is similar to the dalmatic worn by Roman Catholic deacons. Possibly derived from the tunic of Byzantine emperors...
  • Sakmann, Bert (German physiologist)
    German medical doctor and research scientist who in 1991, together with German physicist Erwin Neher, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research into basic cell function and for their development of the patch-clamp technique—a laboratory method widely used in cell biology and neuroscience to detect electrical currents as small as a tril...
  • Sakmarian Stage (geochronology)
    second of the four stages of the Early Permian (Cisuralian) Epoch, encompassing all rocks deposited during the Sakmarian Age (294.6 million to 284.4 million years ago) of the Permian Period. Rocks deposited during the Sakmarian were marine sandstones, siltstones, shales, and limestones...
  • sakoku (national isolation)
    ...further Christian infiltration of Japan, banned foreign travel and prohibited the return of overseas Japanese. Further, in 1639, the shogunate banned visits by Europeans. This was the so-called sakoku, or period of national isolation. From that time on Christianity was strictly forbidden, and international trade was conducted with only the Chinese and the Dutch. Because contact with......
  • Sakonnet River (strait, Rhode Island, United States)
    inlet of the Atlantic Ocean extending approximately 14 miles (23 km) north to Mount Hope Bay, southeastern Rhode Island, U.S. Although called a river, the Sakonnet is actually a saltwater strait that separates Rhode (Aquidneck) Island from the mainland to the east. Sakonnet is an Indian name said to mean “Haunt of the Wild Black Goose...
  • Śakra (Indian deity)
    in Hindu mythology, the king of the gods. He is one of the main gods of the archaic Sanskrit collection of hymns, the Rigveda, and is the Indo-European cousin of the German Wotan, Norse Odin, Greek Zeus, and Roman Jupiter....
  • Saks Fifth Avenue (American company)
    ...majority control of Wiggins Teape Limited, a paper-products manufacturer. Beginning in 1971 it began investing in American department-store chains, eventually buying Marshall Field and Company and Saks Fifth Avenue. In 1976 the firm was reorganized as a holding company and renamed B.A.T Industries. It entered the field of financial services with the purchase, in 1989, of the insurer Farmers......
  • Śakti (Hindu deity)
    ...female counterpart, she inherits some of Shiva’s more fearful aspects. She comes to be regarded as the power (shakti) of Shiva, without which Shiva is helpless. Shakti is in turn personified in the form of many different goddesses, often said to be aspects of her....
  • Śāktism (Hindu sect)
    worship of the Hindu supreme goddess, Shakti (Sanskrit: “Power,” or “Energy”). Shaktism is, together with Vaiṣṇavism and Śaivism, one of the major forms of modern Hinduism and is especially popular in Bengal and Assam. Shakti is conceived of either as the paramount goddess or as the consort of a male deity, generally Śiva....
  • Sakuma Kunitada (Japanese minister)
    early and influential proponent of Westernization in Japan whose slogan Tōyō no dōtoku, seiyō no geijutsu (“Eastern ethics, Western techniques”) became the basis of the Japanese modernization effort in the late 19th century. Sakuma’s ideas, especially as they became known through his colourful disciple Yoshida Shōin, provided one of th...
  • Sakuma Shōzan (Japanese minister)
    early and influential proponent of Westernization in Japan whose slogan Tōyō no dōtoku, seiyō no geijutsu (“Eastern ethics, Western techniques”) became the basis of the Japanese modernization effort in the late 19th century. Sakuma’s ideas, especially as they became known through his colourful disciple Yoshida Shōin, provided one of th...
  • Sakuma Zōzan (Japanese minister)
    early and influential proponent of Westernization in Japan whose slogan Tōyō no dōtoku, seiyō no geijutsu (“Eastern ethics, Western techniques”) became the basis of the Japanese modernization effort in the late 19th century. Sakuma’s ideas, especially as they became known through his colourful disciple Yoshida Shōin, provided one of th...
  • Śakuntalā (play by Kālidāsa)
    “The Little Clay Cart” has been successful in the West, whereas Indian audiences, still fed on poetic-flavoured characters and romances of an ethereal type, have favoured Śakuntalā. Western audiences find “The Little Clay Cart” more in their own tradition of realism and individualized characterization. Its “lisping villain,” gamblers, ...
  • Sakurada Jisuke I (Japanese dramatist)
    kabuki dramatist who created more than 120 plays and at least 100 dance dramas....
  • Sakya (monastery, Tibet, China)
    Tibetan Buddhist sect that takes its name from the great Sa-skya (Sakya) monastery founded in 1073, 50 miles (80 km) north of Mount Everest. The sect follows the teachings of the noted traveler and scholar ’Brog-mi (992–1072). He translated into Tibetan the important Tantric work Hevajra Tantra, which remains one of the basic texts of the order. He also......
  • Śākyamuni (founder of Buddhism)
    the founder of Buddhism, one of the major religions and philosophical systems of southern and eastern Asia. Buddha is one of the many epithets of a teacher who lived in northern India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries before the Common Era....
  • Sakyapa (Tibetan Buddhist sect)
    Tibetan Buddhist sect that takes its name from the great Sa-skya (Sakya) monastery founded in 1073, 50 miles (80 km) north of Mount Everest. The sect follows the teachings of the noted traveler and scholar ’Brog-mi (992–1072). He translated into Tibetan the important Tantric work Hevajra Tantra, which remains one of the b...
  • Śākyas (people)
    ...to oligarchy, as in the case of Vaishali, the nucleus of the Vrijji state. Apart from the major states, there also were many smaller oligarchies, such as those of the Koliyas, Moriyas, Jnatrikas, Shakyas, and Licchavis. The Jnatrikas and Shakyas are especially remembered as the tribes to which Mahavira (the founder of Jainism) and Gautama Buddha, respectively, belonged. The Licchavis......
  • SAL
    ...the war. During the mid-1960s the UPU, in response to the continuing increase of aircraft capacity, adopted the policy of maximizing air conveyance of mail. In the mid-1970s, the concept of “surface air-lifted” (SAL) mails was developed in conjunction with the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This arrangement allows some mails to receive, for little or no surcharge,...
  • sal (tree)
    With decreasing rainfall and increasing altitude westward, the rain forests give way to tropical deciduous forests, where the valuable timber tree sal is the dominant species; sal thrives best on high plateaus at elevations of 3,000 feet (wet sal), as well as higher up, at 4,500 feet (dry sal). Farther to the west, steppe forest (i.e., forest on an extensive plain), steppe, subtropical......
  • sal ammoniac (chemical compound)
    the salt of ammonia and hydrogen chloride. Its principal use is as an electrolyte in dry cells, and it is also extensively employed as a constituent of galvanizing, tinning, and soldering fluxes to remove oxide coatings from metals and thereby improve the adhesion of the solders. It is a component of many proprietary cold medicines and cough remedies. Ammonium chloride is a colo...
  • Sal, Ilha do (island, Cape Verde)
    northeasternmost island of Cape Verde, in the Atlantic Ocean, about 400 miles (640 km) off the coast of western Africa. It has an area of 83 square miles (216 square km) and rises to an elevation of 1,332 feet (406 m). Sal (Portuguese for “salt”) is noted for its saltworks near the towns of Pedra Lume and Santa Maria, the island’s chief town. The town of Espargo has an interna...
  • Sal Island (island, Cape Verde)
    northeasternmost island of Cape Verde, in the Atlantic Ocean, about 400 miles (640 km) off the coast of western Africa. It has an area of 83 square miles (216 square km) and rises to an elevation of 1,332 feet (406 m). Sal (Portuguese for “salt”) is noted for its saltworks near the towns of Pedra Lume and Santa Maria, the island’s chief town. The town of Espargo has an interna...
  • sal soda (chemical compound)
    sodium carbonate decahydrate, efflorescent crystals used for washing, especially textiles. It is a compound of sodium....
  • Sala dell’Udienza (building, Perugia, Italy)
    Commissioned by the guild of bankers of Perugia, Perugino painted a fresco cycle in their Sala dell’Udienza that is believed to have been completed during or shortly after 1500, the date that appears opposite Perugino’s self-portrait in one of the scenes. The importance of these frescoes lies less in their artistic merit than in the fact that the young Raphael, Perugino’s pupi...
  • Ṣalābat Jang (Indian ruler)
    ...1750. French troops conducted Muẓaffar Jang toward Hyderabad; when Muẓaffar in turn was murdered three months later, the French succeeded in placing the late nizam’s third son, Ṣalābat Jang, on the Hyderabad throne. Thenceforward, in the person of the skillful Charles, marquis de Bussy-Castelnau, Dupleix had a kingmaker at the centre of Muslim power in the......
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