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shamanism ... Sharqiyah, Ash-

shamanism: a religious phenomenon centred on the shaman, an ecstatic figure believed to have power to heal the sick and to communicate with the world beyond. The term applies primarily to ...
Shamash: in Mesopotamian religion, the god of the sun, who, with the moon god, Sin (Sumerian: Nanna), and Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna), the goddess of Venus, was part of an astral triad ...
Shamash-shum-ukin: crown prince of Babylon, son of Esarhaddon and brother of Ashurbanipal, the last of the great kings of Assyria. He led a coalition of Arabic tribes against Ashurbanipal, but, after ...
Shamil: also spelled Shamyl, Schamil, or Schamyl leader of Muslim Dagestan and Chechen mountaineers, whose fierce resistance delayed Russia's conquest of the Caucasus for 25 years.
Shamir, Yitzhak: Polish-born Zionist leader and prime minister of Israel in 1983-84 and 1986-90 (in alliance with Shimon Peres of the Labour Party) and in 1990-92.
Shammai Ha-zaken: ("the Elder")one of the leading Jewish sages of Palestine in his time. With the sage Hillel, he was the last of the zugot ("pairs"), the scholars that headed the Great ...
shammash: salaried sexton in a Jewish synagogue whose duties now generally include secretarial work and assistance to the cantor, or hazan, who directs the public service.
Shamokin: city, Northumberland county, east-central Pennsylvania, U.S. It lies along Shamokin Creek. Founded in 1835 by the coal speculators John C. Boyd and Ziba Bird, it was early known as Boyd's ...
shamrock: any of several similar-appearing trifoliate plants-i.e., plants each of whose leaves is divided into three leaflets. Plants called shamrock include the wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) of the family Oxalidaceae, or ...
Shamva: town, northeastern Zimbabwe. It was originally called Abercorn, and its present name was derived from a Shona word meaning "to become friendly." Located at the site of a sandstone reef ...
Shan: Southeast Asian people who live primarily in eastern and northwestern Myanmar (Burma) and also in Yunnan province, China. The Shan are the largest minority group in Myanmar, making up nearly ...
Shan language: language spoken in the northern and eastern states of Myanmar (Burma) and belonging to the Southwestern group of the Tai language family of Southeast Asia. Its speakers, known as the ...
Shan Plateau: crystalline massif forming the eastern part of Myanmar (Burma) and forming part of the Indo-Malayan mountain system. The plateau is crossed by the deep trench of the Salween River in ...
Shan-hai-kuan: town in eastern Hopeh sheng (province), China. It lies on the coast of the Po Hai (Gulf of Chihli). Now a place of minor importance, Shan-hai-kuan until the 17th century ...
Shang Dynasty: the first recorded Chinese dynasty for which there is both documentary and archaeological evidence. The Shang dynasty was the reputed successor to the quasi-legendary first, or Hsia, dynasty. The dates ...
Shang K'o-hsi: Chinese general whose attempt to retire in 1673 resulted in large-scale rebellion.
Shang Yang: Chinese statesman and thinker whose successful reorganization of the state of Ch'in paved the way for the eventual unification of the Chinese empire by the Ch'in dynasty (221-206 BC). Shang ...
Shang-ch'iu: city, eastern Honan sheng (province), China. Situated in the middle of the North China Plain, it lies at the junction of the north-south route from Chi-nan (Tsinan) in Shantung province ...
Shang-chou: town in southeastern Shensi sheng (province), China. Shang-chou is situated some 55 miles (90 km) southeast of Sian at the southern end of one of the few passes across the ...
Shang-jao: city, northeastern Kiangsi sheng (province), China. It lies along the Hsin River, about 110 miles (180 km) east of Nan-ch'ang, the provincial capital, and is on the main rail and ...
Shange, Ntozake: African American author of plays, poetry, and fiction noted for their feminist themes and racial and sexual anger.
Shanghai: city, and province-level shih (municipality), east-central China. It is one of the world's largest seaports and a major industrial and commercial centre of China. The city is ...
Shanghai Museum: museum in Shanghai founded in 1952 that contains some 120,000 objects, considered one of the finest collections of art in China. In 1996 the museum was relocated to the People's ...
Shangri-La: presidential retreat established in rural Maryland, U.S., by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 and renamed Camp David (q.v.) in 1953.
Shanidar: site of paleoanthropological excavations in the Zagros Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Two clusters of human fossils discovered at the Shanidar cave between 1953 and 1960 provide information on the geographic ...
Shankar, Ravi: Indian musician, player of the sitar, composer, and founder of the National Orchestra of India, influential in stimulating Western appreciation of Indian music.
Shankar, Uday: major dancer and choreographer of India whose adaptation of Western theatrical techniques to traditional Hindu dance popularized the ancient art form in India, Europe, and the United States.
Shannon, Claude: American mathematician and electrical engineer who laid the theoretical foundations for digital circuits and information theory, a mathematical communication model.
Shannon, Del: American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who was one of the first white rock and rollers to write his own songs. He is best known for the pop music classic "Runaway" ...
Shannon, River: the longest river in Ireland, rising in northwestern County Cavan and flowing for about 161 miles (259 km) in a southerly direction to enter the Atlantic Ocean via a 70-mile ...
Shansi: sheng (province) of northern China. It has an area of about 60,200 square miles (156,000 square kilometres). Roughly rectangular in shape, Shansi is bounded by the provinces ...
Shantou wares: various types of porcelain produced mostly in Fujian province, southeastern China, during the 16th and 17th centuries. Most pieces were exported to Japan, Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East; ...
Shantung: north coastal sheng (province) of China, lying across the Yellow Sea from Korea. It has an area of 59,200 square miles (153,300 square kilometres). Shantung is China's ...
Shantung Peninsula: peninsula in eastern China, occupying the east section of Shantung sheng (province) and extending northeastward beween the Gulf of Chihli and the Yellow Sea. The terrain is hilly, with elevations ...
Shantung question: at the Versailles Peace Conference ending World War I, in 1919, the problem of whether to transfer to Japan the special privileges held by imperial Germany in the northeastern Chinese ...
shanty: also spelled Chantey, or Chanty (from French chanter, "to sing"), English-language sailors' work song dating from the days of sailing ships, when manipulating heavy sails, by means of ...
Shao Yong: Chinese philosopher who greatly influenced the development of the idealist school of Neo-Confucianism (see Confucianism). Shao Yong's mathematical ideas also influenced the 18th-century European philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the ...
Shao-hsing: city in northeastern Chekiang sheng (province), China. Shao-hsing is situated in the centre of the eastern half of the coastal plain south of Hang-chou Bay. It lies along the Che-tung ...
Shao-kuan: city in northern Kwangtung sheng (province), China. Shao-kuan lies along the Pei River where it is formed by the junction of the Wu River, flowing southeast from the borders of ...
Shao-wu: city in northwestern Fukien sheng (province), China. Situated on the upper course of the Fu-t'un River, some 30 miles (50 km) from the border of Kiangsi province, Shao-wu is an ...
Shao-yang: city in central Hunan sheng (province), China. It lies in the middle basin of the Tzu River.
shape-note hymnal: American hymnal incorporating many folk hymns and utilizing a special musical notation. The seven-note scale was sung not to the syllables do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti but to a four-syllable system carried with them ...
shaper: metal-cutting machine in which the workpiece is usually held in a vise or similar device that is clamped to a table and can be manually operated or power driven at ...
Shapey, Ralph: American composer and conductor noted for his lyrical, often contrapuntal and serial compositions for orchestral and chamber group. He was called a "radical traditionalist" for his unusual juxtaposition of modern ...
Shapiro, Karl: American poet and critic whose verse ranges from passionately physical love lyrics to sharp social satire.
Shapley, Harlow: American astronomer who deduced that the Sun lies near the central plane of the Galaxy some 30,000 light-years away from the centre.
Shapur I: Persian king of the Sasanian dynasty who consolidated and expanded the empire founded by his father, Ardashir I. Shapur continued his father's wars with Rome, conquering Nisibis (modern Nusaybin, Tur.) ...
Shapur II: 10th king of the Sasanian Empire of Persia, who withstood Roman strength by astute military strategy and diplomacy and brought the empire to the zenith of its power.
Sharaf ad-Din 'Ali Yazdi: Persian historian, one of the greatest of 15th-century Iran.
Sharavati River: river in western Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, southern India, rising in the western Ghats and flowing for 60 miles (95 km) in a northwesterly direction to the Arabian Sea at ...
Sharett, Moshe: Israeli Zionist leader and politician who was prime minister of Israel from 1953 to 1955.
Shari'ah: the fundamental religious concept of Islam, namely its law, systematized during the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Muslim era (8th-9th centuries AD).
Shariat-Madari, Mohammad Kazem: Iranian cleric who, as one of five Shi'ite grand ayatollahs, was the leading representative of the clergy during the final years of the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. An ...
sharif: Arabic title of respect, restricted, after the advent of Islam, to members of Muhammad's clan of Hashim-in particular, to descendants of his uncles al-'Abbas and Abu Talib and of the ...
Sharif-Emami, Jafar: Iranian politician and close confidant of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi who twice served as prime minister of Iran (1960-61, 1978). He attempted but failed to stem the rise of Shi'ite ...
Shariqah, ash-: constituent emirate of the United Arab Emirates (formerly Trucial States, or Trucial Oman). Some of ash-Shariqah's interior boundaries are only presumptive, but its main portion is an irregularly shaped tract, ...
shark: any of numerous species of cartilaginous fishes of predatory habit that constitute the order Selachii (class Chondrichthyes).
Shark Bay: inlet of the Indian Ocean, Western Australia. It is sheltered on the west by Bernier, Dorre, and Dirk Hartog islands. Peron Peninsula bisects the bay. Geographe Channel forms the bay ...
Sharkey, Jack: American world heavyweight-boxing champion from June 21, 1932, when he defeated Max Schmeling in 15 rounds at Long Island City, N.Y., until June 29, 1933, when he was knocked out ...
Sharma, Shankar Dayal: Indian lawyer and politician who was president of India from 1992 to 1997.
Sharman, Bill: American professional basketball player noted for his skills as a free-throw shooter and as a long-range field-goal marksman.
Sharon: city, Mercer county, western Pennsylvania, U.S. It lies along the Shenango River at the Ohio border, 14 miles (23 km) northeast of Youngstown, Ohio. Sharon is part of an industrial ...
Sharon: town (township), Windsor county, east-central Vermont, U.S. It lies along the White River 29 miles (47 km) northeast of Rutland and is surrounded on three sides by high hills. Chartered ...
Sharon, Ariel: Israeli general and politician, whose public life was marked by brilliant but controversial military achievements and political policies. One of the chief participants in the Arab-Israeli wars, he was elected ...
Sharon, Plain of: section of the Mediterranean coastal plain, and the most densely settled of Israel's natural regions. It is roughly triangular in shape and extends about 55 miles (89 km) north-to-south from ...
Sharp, Cecil: English musician noted for his work as a collector of English folk song and dance.
Sharp, Granville: English scholar and philanthropist, noted as an advocate of the abolition of slavery.
Sharp, Phillip A.: American molecular biologist, awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Richard J. Roberts, for his independent discovery that individual genes are often interrupted by long sections ...
sharpbill: (Oxyruncus cristatus), bird of rain forests in scattered localities from Costa Rica southward to Paraguay. It is usually considered the sole member of the family Oxyruncidae (order Passeriformes), which is ...
Sharpe, Sir Alfred: English adventurer and colonial administrator who helped establish the British Nyasaland Protectorate (now Malawi) and obtain portions of central East Africa (now in Zambia) for the British Empire.
Sharpe, William F.: American economist who shared the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1990 with Harry M. Markowitz and Merton H. Miller. Their early work established financial economics as a separate field of ...
Sharpeville massacre: (March 21, 1960), incident in the black township of Sharpeville, near Vereeniging, South Africa, in which police fired on a crowd of blacks, killing or wounding some 250 of them. ...
Sharpey-Schafer, Sir Edward Albert: English physiologist and inventor of the prone-pressure method (Schafer method) of artificial respiration adopted by the Royal Life Saving Society.
Sharpless, K. Barry: American scientist who, with William S. Knowles and Noyori Ryoji, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2001 for developing the first chiral catalysts.
Sharpton, Al: American civil rights activist and minister. He began preaching at age four and became an ordained Pentecostal minister at age 10. In 1971 he founded a national youth organization that ...
Sharqiyah, Ash-: region, eastern Saudi Arabia. The region includes most of the desert Rub' al-Khali (the Empty Quarter) and extends southward from a neutral zone jointly administered with Kuwait to indefinite borders ...