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Ya'qub ibn Laith as-Saffar ... Yambol

Ya'qub ibn Laith as-Saffar: founder of the Saffarid Empire, who rose from obscurity to rule much of present Iran as well as portions of Afghanistan and Pakistan; at one point he came close to ...
Ya'qubi, al-: Arab historian and geographer, author of a history of the world, Ta'rikh ibn Wadih ("Chronicle of Ibn Wadih"), and a general geography, Kitab al-buldan ("Book of the Countries").
Ya-an: city in west-central Szechwan sheng (province), China. Ya-an is situated in the mountainous western border of the Szechwan Basin. It is a communications centre near the crossing of two main ...
Ya-lung River: long secondary tributary of the Yangtze River in central and southern China. The Ya-lung rises in the Pa-yen-k'a-la Mountains in Tsinghai Province at an elevation of nearly 16,500 feet (5,000 ...
yab-yum: (Tibetan: "father-mother"), in Buddhist art of India, Nepal, and Tibet, the representation of the male deity in sexual embrace with his female consort. The pose is generally understood to represent ...
Yablochkov, Pavel Nikolayevich: also called Paul Jablochkov Russian electrical engineer and inventor who developed the Yablochkov candle, the first arc lamp that was put to wide practical use and that greatly accelerated the ...
Yablonitsky Pass: pass in the outer eastern Carpathians of western Ukraine, an important route connecting the rest of the republic with the isolated Zakarpatskaya oblast (administrative region) and with northeastern Romania. The ...
Yablonovy Range: mountain range in the Transbaikalia region of Chita oblast (province) and Buryatiya, in far eastern Russia. The range is some 500 miles (800 km) long northeast-southwest and reaches a maximum ...
yacht: a sail- or power-driven vessel, usually light and comparatively small, used for racing or for recreation. In recreation the term applies to very large craft, originally powered by sail and ...
yad: in Judaism, a ritual object, usually made of silver but sometimes of wood or other materials, that consists of a shaft affixed to a miniature representation of a hand with ...
Yadava Dynasty: rulers of a 12th-14th-century Hindu kingdom of central India in what is the modern Indian state of Maharashtra. Originally a feudatory of the Eastern Calukyas of Kalyani, the dynasty became ...
Yaddo: a working community of writers, composers, and visual artists, located on the outskirts of Saratoga Springs, New York, U.S. Yaddo is a nonprofit organization founded in 1900 by New York ...
Yadin, Yigael: original name Yigael Sukenik Israeli archaeologist and military leader noted for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Yagoda, Genrikh Grigoryevich: head of the Soviet secret police under Stalin from 1934 to 1936 and a central figure in the purge trials.
yahrzeit: in Judaism, the anniversary of the death of a parent or close relative, most commonly observed by burning a candle for an entire day. On the anniversary, a male (or ...
Yahweh: the God of the Israelites, his name being revealed to Moses as four Hebrew consonants (YHWH) called the tetragrammaton. After the Exile (6th century BC), and especially from the 3rd ...
Yahya: Zaydi imam of Yemen from 1904 to 1948.
Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti: Muslim painter and illustrator who produced work of originality and excellence. He was the outstanding painter of the Baghdad school of illustration, which blended Turkish art and native Christian (probably ...
Yahya Khan, Agha Mohammad: president of Pakistan (1969-71), a professional soldier who became commander in chief of the Pakistani armed forces in 1966.
Yahya Sobh-e Azal, Mirza: half brother of Baha' Ullah (the founder of the Baha'i faith) and leader of his own Babist movement in the mid-19th century Ottoman Empire.
Yaizu: city, Shizuoka ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the west coast of Suruga Bay. Since the Tokugawa era (1603-1867), Yaizu has been one of the important coastal fishing ports for tuna, ...
yajna: (Sanskrit: "sacrifice, offering"), in Hinduism, worship based on rites prescribed in the earliest scriptures of ancient India, the Vedas, in contrast to puja (q.v.), which may include image worship and ...
Yajuj and Majuj: in Islamic eschatology, two hostile forces who will ravage the Earth before the end of the world. The Qur'an relates that a certain people terrorized by Yajuj and Majuj induced ...
Yajurveda: collection of mantras (sacred formulas) and verses that forms part of the ancient sacred literature of India known as the Vedas. See Veda.
yak: long-haired, short-legged oxlike mammal that was probably domesticated in Tibet but has been introduced wherever there are people at elevations of 4,000-6,000 metres (14,000-20,000 feet), mainly in China but also ...
Yaka: a people inhabiting the wooded plateau and savanna areas between the Kwango and Wamba rivers in southwestern Congo (Kinshasa) directly bordering Angola on the west. Their origins are not certain, ...
Yakima: Sahaptian-speaking Indian tribe that lived along the Columbia, Yakima, and Wenatchee rivers in south-central Washington. They were members of the Plateau culture area and were primarily salmon fishers.
Yakima: city, seat (1886) of Yakima county, south-central Washington, U.S., on the Yakima River. In 1884 the Northern Pacific Railway selected the site of Yakima City (now Union Gap) as a ...
Yakima River: river, south-central Washington, U.S., rising in the Cascade Range, near Snoqualmie Pass. It flows southeastward about 200 miles (320 km) past Ellensburg and Yakima to join the Columbia River near ...
Yako: people of the Cross River region of eastern Nigeria; they speak Luko, a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family.
Yakovlev, Aleksandr Sergeyevich: aircraft designer noted for his series of Yak aircraft, most of them fighters used by the Soviet Union in World War II.
yaksha: in the mythology of India, a class of generally benevolent nature spirits who are the custodians of treasures that are hidden in the earth and in the roots of trees. ...
Yakub Beg: Tajik adventurer who entered northwest China in 1864 and through a series of military and political maneuvers took advantage of the anti-Chinese uprisings of its Muslim inhabitants to establish himself ...
Yakushi-ji: temple complex dedicated to Yakushi, the Healing Buddha, in Nara, Japan. It was established about 690 outside Nara, and in 718 it was refounded within the city. The only one ...
Yakutsk: city and capital of Sakha republic (Yakutia), in far northeastern Russia, on the Lena River. A fort was founded on the Lena's low right bank in 1632 and transferred 43 ...
yakuza: in Japan, gangster, a member of a boryokudan (q.v.), or gang of racketeers. The word yakuza, which has come to mean "good for nothing," is derived from a worthless hand ...
Yala: town, extreme southern Thailand. Yala is a modern commercial centre on the Pattani River, which flows north into the Gulf of Thailand. The town is also located on the Bangkok-Singapore ...
Yale school: group of literary critics at Yale University, who became known in the 1970s and '80s for their deconstructionist theories. The Yale school's skeptical, relativistic brand of criticism drew inspiration from ...
Yale University: private university in New Haven, Conn., one of the Ivy League schools. It was founded in 1701 and is the third oldest university in the United States. Yale was originally ...
Yale, Caroline: American educator of the deaf and longtime principal of the Clarke School for the Deaf.
Yale, Elihu: English merchant, official of the East India Company, and benefactor of Yale University. Although born in Massachusetts, Yale was taken to England by his family at the age of three, ...
Yale, Frankie: American gangster and national president, during its heyday (1918-28), of the Unione Siciliane, a Sicilian fraternal organization that by World War I had become a crime cartel operating in several ...
Yale, Linus: American inventor and designer of the compact cylinder pin-tumbler lock that bears his name.
Yalow, Rosalyn S.: American medical physicist and joint recipient (with Andrew V. Schally and Roger Guillemin) of the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, awarded for her development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA), ...
Yalta: city, Crimea, southern Ukraine. It faces the Black Sea on the southern shore of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlement on the site dates from prehistoric times, but modern Yalta developed only ...
Yalta Conference: (Feb. 4-11, 1945), major World War II conference of the three chief Allied leaders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and ...
Yalu River: river that forms the northwestern boundary between North Korea and the Northeast Region (Manchuria) of China. The Chinese provinces of Kirin and Liaoning are bordered by the river. Its length ...
yam: any of several plant species of the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae), native to warmer regions of both hemispheres. A number of species are cultivated for food in the tropics; in ...
Yama: in Tibetan Buddhism, one of the eight fierce protective deities. See dharmapala.
yama: (Sanskrit: "restraint"), in the Yoga system of Indian philosophy, first of the eight stages intended to lead the aspirant to samadhi, or state of perfect concentration. An ethical preparation, meant ...
Yama: in the mythology of India, the lord of death. The Vedas describe him as the first man who died, blazing the path of mortality down which all men have since ...
Yama-no-kami: in Japanese popular religion, any of numerous gods of the mountains. These kami are of two kinds: (1) gods who rule over mountains and are venerated by hunters, woodcutters, and ...
Yamaga Soko: military strategist and Confucian philosopher who set forth the first systematic exposition of the missions and obligations of the samurai (warrior) class and who made major contributions to Japanese military ...
Yamagata: prefecture (ken), northern Honshu, Japan, on the Sea of Japan. Much of its 3,601 sq mi (9,327 sq km) is mountainous. Bandai-Asahi National Park, stretching from north to south, includes ...
Yamagata Aritomo: Japanese soldier and statesman who exerted a strong influence in Japan's emergence as a formidable military power at the beginning of the 20th century. He was the first prime minister ...
Yamaguchi: prefecture (ken), extreme western Honshu, Japan, bordered by the Sea of Japan (north), the Shimonoseki-kaikyo (Shimonoseki Strait; southwest), and the Inland Sea (south). Most of its 2,355-sq-mi (6,100-sq-km) area is ...
Yamal Peninsula: lowland region in northwestern Siberia, west-central Russia, bounded on the west by the Kara Sea and Baydarata Bay, on the east and southeast by the Gulf of Ob, and on ...
Yamalo-Nenets: autonomous okrug (district), Tyumen oblast (province), in western Siberia, north-central Russia. It was established in 1930 as an autonomous okrug for the Nenets, or Samoyed, people, although by 1979 they ...
Yamamoto Gonnohyoe, Count: Japanese naval officer who served two terms as prime minister of his country (1913-14; 1923-24).
Yamamoto Isoroku: Japanese naval officer who conceived of the surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Yamana: South American Indian people, very few in number, who were the traditional occupants of the south coast of Tierra del Fuego and the neighbouring islands south to Cape Horn. In ...
Yamana Mochitoyo: head of the most powerful warrior clan in western Japan in the 15th century.
Yamanashi: landlocked ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan. Much of its area is mountainous, including the peaks of Mount Shirane (10,472 feet [3,192 m]) in the northwest and Mount Fuji (12,388 feet) ...
Yamanouchi Family: family of Japanese feudal lords who from 1600 to 1868 dominated the important fief of Tosa on the island of Shikoku.
Yamanoue Okura: one of the most individualistic, even eccentric, of Japan's classical poets, who lived and wrote in an age of bold experimentation when native Japanese poetry was developing rapidly under the ...
Yamantaka: in northern Buddhism, one of the eight fierce protective deities. See dharmapala.
Yamasaki, Minoru: American architect whose buildings, notable for their appeal to the senses, departed from the austerity often associated with post-World War II modern architecture.
Yamasee War: (1715-16), in British-American colonial history, conflict between Indians, mainly Yamasee, and British colonists in the southeastern area of South Carolina, resulting in the collapse of Indian power in that area. ...
Yamashita Tomoyuki: Japanese general known for his successful attacks on Malaya and Singapore during World War II.
Yamato: city, Kanagawa ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, in the eastern part of the Sagamihara Plateau. During the Tokugawa period (1603-1867) it was a local trade centre for the surrounding sericultural region. ...
Yamato Takeru: . His tomb at Ise is known as the Mausoleum of the White Plover.
Yamato-e: (Japanese: "Japanese painting"), style of painting important in Japan during the 12th and early 13th centuries. It is a Late Heian style, secular and decorative with a tradition of strong ...
Yamato-Koriyama: (Koriyama-Goldfish), city, Nara ken (prefecture), western Honshu, Japan. It is located 3 miles (5 km) southwest of Nara city. A prehistoric settlement, it became a castle town during the last ...
Yamazaki Ansai: propagator in Japan of the philosophy of the Chinese neo-Confucian philosopher Chu Hsi (1130-1200). Ansai reduced neo-Confucianism to a simple moral code, which he then blended with the native Shinto ...
Yamazaki Sokan: Japanese renga ("linked-verse") poet of the late Muromachi period (1338-1573) who is best known as the compiler of Inu tsukuba shu (c. 1615; "Mongrel Renga Collection"), the first published anthology ...
Yambol: town, east-central Bulgaria, on the Tundzha (Tundja) River. North of the present town are the ruins of Kabyle (or Cabyle), which originated as a Bronze Age settlement in the 2nd ...