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Sha-ch'ing ... Shamal Sina'

Sha-ch'ing: blade-tool culture that existed along the present region of the Great Wall in northwestern China as early as 5000 BC. The Sha-ch'ing remains were first uncovered by the Swedish geologist ...
Sha-shih: city and river port in Hupeh sheng (province), China. It is a large city on the north bank of the Yangtze River near the large Lake Ch'ang. It was a ...
Shabaka: Cushite king who conquered Egypt and founded its 25th (Ethiopian) dynasty. He ruled Egypt from about 719/718 to 703 BC.
Shabazz, Betty: American educator and civil rights activist, who is perhaps best known as the wife of slain black nationalist leader Malcolm X.
Shabbetai Tzevi: a false messiah who developed a mass following and threatened rabbinical authority in Europe and the Middle East.
Shabestari, Sa'd od-Din Mahmud: Persian mystic whose poetic work Golshan-e raz (The Mystic Rose Garden) became a classic document of Sufism (Islamic mysticism).
Shabonee: Potawatomi Indian chief, hero of a Paul Revere-style ride through northern Illinois in 1832, the purpose of which was to warn white settlers of an imminent Indian raid during the ...
shabunder: in the Malay states, the official who supervised merchants, controlled the port, and collected customs duties. Although the title shabunder was of Persian-Arabic origin, the position itself existed on the ...
Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry: British Antarctic explorer who attempted to reach the South Pole.
shad: any of several saltwater food fishes of the herring family (Clupeidae) that swim up rivers to spawn. Shad of the genus Alosa are rather deep bodied and have a notch ...
Shadbolt, Maurice: New Zealander author of novels and short stories set in his native land, which he has called "a last frontier for the human race, and a paradise lost."
shaddock: (Citrus grandis), citrus tree of the family Rutaceae, reaching 6-13 m (20-43 feet) in height. Shaddock is allied to the orange and the lemon and is presumably native to Malaysia ...
Shadhili, ash-: in full Abu Al-hasan 'ali Ibn 'abd Allah Ash-shadhili Sufi Muslim theologian who was the founder of the order of the Shadhiliyah.
Shadhiliyah: widespread brotherhood of Muslim mystics (Sufis), founded on the teachings of Abu al-Hasan ash-Shadhili (d. 1258) in Alexandria. Shadhili teachings stress five points: fear of God, living the sunna (practices) ...
shadkhan: one who undertakes to arrange a Jewish marriage. Such service was virtually indispensible during the Middle Ages when custom frowned on courtships and numerous Jewish families lived in semi-isolation in ...
shadow play: type of theatrical entertainment performed with puppets, probably originating in China and on the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali. Flat images are manipulated by the puppeteers between a bright ...
Shadows, the: London-based instrumental rock group whose distinctive sound exerted a strong influence on young British musicians in the 1960s. The original members were Hank B. Marvin (original name Brian Robson Rankin; ...
Shadrafa: ancient West Semitic benevolent deity. His name may possibly be translated as "Spirit of Healing." He was often represented as a youthful, beardless male, standing on a lion above mountains, ...
Shadrinsk: city and centre of Shadrinsk rayon (sector) of Kurgan oblast (province), west-central Russia, on the Iset River and the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Founded in 1662, it was chartered in 1781 and ...
shaduf: hand-operated device for lifting water, invented in ancient times and still used in India, Egypt, and some other countries to irrigate land. Typically it consists of a long, tapering, nearly ...
Shadwell, Thomas: English dramatist and poet laureate, known for his broad comedies of manners and as the butt of John Dryden's satire.
Shafer, Helen Almira: American educator, noted for the improvements she made in the curriculum of Wellesley College both as mathematics chair and as school president.
Shaffer, Peter: British playwright of considerable range who moved easily from farce to the portrayal of human anguish.
Shafi'i, Abu 'Abd Allah ash-: Muslim legal scholar who played an important role in the formation of Islamic legal thought and was the founder of the Shafi'iyah school of law. He also made a basic ...
Shafi'iyah: in Islam, one of the four Sunni schools of religious law, derived from the teachings of Abu 'Abd Allah ash-Shafi'i (767-820). This legal school (madhhab) stabilized the bases of Islamic ...
Shafiq, Durriyyah: Egyptian educator, journalist, and reformer who campaigned for women's rights in Egypt and founded (1948) the Egyptian women's organization Bint al-Nil ("Daughter of the Nile").
shaft coupling: in machinery, a device for providing a connection, readily broken and restored, between two adjacent rotating shafts. A coupling may provide either a rigid or a flexible connection; the flexibility ...
shaft graves: late Bronze Age (c. 1600-1450 BC) burial sites from the era in which the Greek mainland came under the cultural influence of Crete. The graves were those of royal or ...
shaft seal: in machinery, a device that prevents the passage of fluids along a rotating shaft. Seals are necessary when a shaft extends from a housing (enclosure) containing oil, such as a ...
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of, Baron Cooper of Pawlett, Baron Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles: English politician, a member of the Council of State (1653-54; 1659) during the Commonwealth, and a member of Charles II's "Cabinet Council" and lord chancellor (1672-73). Seeking to exclude the ...
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of, Baron Cooper of Pawlett, Baron Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles: English politician and philosopher, grandson of the famous 1st earl and one of the principal English Deists.
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of, Baron Cooper Of Pawlett, Baron Ashley Of Wimborne St. Giles: one of the most effective social and industrial reformers in 19th-century England. He was also the acknowledged leader of the evangelical movement within the Church of England.
Shagamu: town, Ogun state, southwestern Nigeria. It lies along the Ibu River and the Eruwuru Stream, between Lagos and Ibadan. Founded in the mid-19th century by members of the Ijebu branch ...
Shagari, Shehu: Nigerian politician, president of Nigeria from 1979 to 1983.
shah: title of the kings of Iran, or Persia. When compounded as shahanshah, it denotes "king of kings," or emperor, a title adopted by the 20th-century Pahlavi dynasty in evocation of ...
Shah 'Alam II: original name 'ali Gauhar nominal Mughal emperor of India from 1759 to 1806.
Shah Alam: city, western Peninsular (West) Malaysia. Shah Alam lies about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Kuala Lumpur and just east of Klang (Kelang). The city has an industrial estate where ...
Shah diamond: yellow-tinged stone of about 89 carats that bears three ancient Persian inscriptions, indicating it was discovered before 1591, probably in the Golconda mines in India. The inscriptions are to Nezam ...
Shah Jahan: Mughal emperor of India (1628-58) and builder of the Taj Mahal.
Shah Jahan period architecture: Indian building style that flourished under the patronage of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-58); its crowning achievement is the magnificent mausoleum at Agra, the Taj Mahal (q.v.). Among ...
Shah Rokh: Timurid ruler of much of Central Asia, best known as a patron of the arts.
Shah Shoja': original name Shoja' Mirza, or Shoja'-ul-mulk, Shoja' also spelled Shuja' shah, or king, of Afghanistan (1803-10; 1839-42) whose alliance with the British led to his death.
Shah-nameh: celebrated work of the epic poet Ferdowsi, in which the Persian national epic found its final and enduring form. Written for Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna and completed in 1010, the ...
shahadah: (Arabic: "testimony"), the Muslim profession of faith: "There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the prophet of Allah." The shahadah is the first of the five Pillars of Islam ...
shaharith: ("dawn"), in Judaism, the first of three periods of daily prayer; the other daily services are minhah and maarib. They are all ideally recited in the synagogue so that a ...
Shahdol: town, northeastern Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It lies along the Murna River, about 110 miles (177 km) northwest of Bilaspur. The town is an agricultural market and is a ...
Shahi Family: dynasty of some 60 rulers who governed the Kabul valley (in Afghanistan) and the old province of Gandhara from the decline of the Kushan empire in the 3rd century AD. ...
Shahjahanpur: town, north-central, Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies southeast of Bareilly, on the Deotta River, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Lucknow. The town was founded in 1647 ...
Shahn, Ben: American painter and graphic artist whose work, displaying a combination of realism and abstraction, addressed various social and political causes.
Shahpura: town, south-central Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It is a major road junction and agricultural mart. A walled town, Shahpura was founded about 1629 and was named after the Mughal emperor ...
Shahr Kord: city, western Iran. A developing urban centre, the city has industries producing bricks, mosaics, milled rice, woven cloth, animal feed, candy, stockings and gloves, coarse carpets and rugs, and fruit ...
Shahr-e Sokhta: archaeological site located south of Zabol in the Balochistan region of eastern Iran. It has yielded important information on Chalcolithic (Bronze Age) settlement in the Helmand River valley during the ...
Shailendra Dynasty: a dynasty that flourished in Java from about 750 to 850 after the fall of the Funan kingdom of mainland Southeast Asia. The dynasty was marked by a great cultural ...
shaitan: in Islamic myth, an unbelieving class of jinn ("spirits"); it is also the name of Iblis, the devil, when he is performing demonic acts.
Shajapur: town, administrative headquarters of Shajapur district, Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The town lies just west of the Lakunda River. It was founded c. AD 1640 by the Mughal emperor ...
Shaka: also spelled Chaka, or Tshaka Zulu chief (1816-28), founder of southern Africa's Zulu Empire, who created a fighting force that devastated the entire region.
Shaker: member of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, a celibate millenarian group that established communal settlements in the United States in the 18th century. Based on the ...
Shaker furniture: furniture designed for the religious colonies of Shakers founded in America in the last quarter of the 18th century, characterized by austerity of decoration and truth to materials. Deeply dedicated ...
Shaker Heights: city and southeastern residential suburb of Cleveland, Cuyahoga county, northeastern Ohio, U.S. It was planned and developed after 1900 by Oris P. and Mantis J. van Sweringen, two entrepreneurs from ...
Shakespeare, William: English poet, dramatist, and actor, often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time.
Shakhlin, Boris Anfiyanovich: Soviet gymnast who set a career record of 10 individual titles in the world championships and who also won gold medals at three successive Olympic Games. His tally of seven ...
Shakhtarsk: city, Donetsk oblast (province), eastern Ukraine. Shakhtarsk is a mining town on the Donets Basin coalfield and has mines that produce high-quality anthracite coal. The town also has coal-preparation plants ...
Shakhty: city, Rostov oblast (province), western Russia. It lies along the upper Grushevka River, 47 miles (75 km) northeast of Rostov-na-Donu. Shakhty developed in the early 19th century as a coal-mining ...
Shaki: 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. ...
Shaktism: worship of the Hindu supreme goddess, Shakti (Sanskrit: "Power," or "Energy"). Shaktism is, together with Vaisnavism and Saivism, one of the major forms of modern Hinduism and is especially popular ...
shakuhachi: a Japanese end-blown bamboo flute that was originally derived from the earlier Chinese hsiao. The shakuhachi's blowing end is cut obliquely outward, and a small piece of ivory or bone ...
Shalamov, Varlam: Russian writer best known for a series of short stories about imprisonment in Soviet labour camps.
shale: any of a group of fine-grained, laminated sedimentary rocks consisting of silt- and clay-sized particles. Shale is the most abundant of the sedimentary rocks, accounting for roughly 70 percent of ...
shale oil: synthetic crude oil that is extracted from oil shale by means of pyrolysis, or destructive distillation. In this process, intense heat breaks down a waxy organic matter called kerogen that ...
shallot: (species Allium ascalonicum), mildly aromatic herb of the lily family (Liliaceae) or its bulbs, which are used like onions to flavour foods, particularly meats and sauces. The shallot is a ...
Shalmaneser I: king of Assyria (reigned c. 1263-c. 1234 BC) who significantly extended Assyrian hegemony.
Shalmaneser III: king of Assyria (reigned 858-824 BC) who pursued a vigorous policy of military expansion.
Shalmaneser V: king of Assyria (reigned 726-721 BC) who subjugated ancient Israel and undertook a punitive campaign to quell the rebellion of Israel's king Hoshea (2 Kings 17).
shama: any of certain magpie-robin species. See magpie-robin.
shamal: hot and dry, dusty wind from the north or northwest in Iraq, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula. In June and July it blows almost continuously, but usually under 50 km ...
Shamal Sina': (Arabic: "Northern Sinai"), muhafazah (governorate), northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. The governorate has an area of 10,646 square miles (27,574 square km) and was created out of Sina' ...