Karbala’ N.kar-ba-'laV Battle of (Oct. 10, 680) Brief engagement in which an Ummayad army sent by Yazid I killed al-HuSAYN ibn 'Au and a small group of his family and followers. Al-Husayn, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was on his way to Al-Kufah, where he had been invited to press his claim to the caliphate, when he and his party were attacked and killed near the town of Karbala 5 , Iraq. Most Shl'ites regard the anniversary of the battle as a holy day of mourning, and on that day they ritually reenact al-Husayn’s death; his tomb in Karbala 5 is likewise considered a place of great sanctity. See also 'AlI; fitnah; Mu'awiyah I.
Kardelj Vkar-.delA, Edvard (b. Jan. 27,1910, Ljubljana, Slvn., Austria- Hungary—d. Feb. 10,1979, Ljubljana) Yugoslav revolutionary and admin¬ istrator. He joined the outlawed Communist Party in 1926, was imprisoned from 1930 to 1932, and fled to the Soviet Union in 1934. Returning to Yugoslavia in 1937, he helped organize resistance to the German occupa¬ tion in World War II and joined Tito in much of the Partisans’ fighting. In 1946 he drew up the Soviet-inspired constitution after Tito became pre¬ mier, and he directed the creation of all succeeding constitutions. He was the main architect of socialist self-management, which distinguished Yugoslavia’s political and economic system from the Soviet system. In for¬ eign affairs, he pioneered the concept of Yugoslav nonalignment.
Karen \ko-'ren\ Any member of a variety of tribal peoples of southern Myanmar (Burma). Constituting the second largest minority in Myanmar, the Karen are not a unitary group in any ethnic sense, as they differ among themselves linguistically, religiously, and economically. Rather, they have defined themselves in terms of their common distrust of political domi¬ nation by Myanmar, which has persisted since the country attained inde¬ pendence in 1948.
Karisimbi \,ka-re-'sim-be. Mount Peak, Virunga Mountains, east- central Africa. The highest peak in the Virungas, at a height of 14,787 ft (4,507 m), it lies on the boundary between Rwanda and Congo (Kinshasa) in Virunga National Park. It is the habitat of gorillas and is known for its exotic plants.
Karkar or Qarqar \'kar-,kar\ Ancient fortress on the Orontes River, western Syria. A strategic outpost, it was attacked by the Assyrians in 853 bc. It was defended by Aramaeans, led by Ben-hadad I of Damascus, and their allies, including King Ahab of Israel. In 720 bc it was the scene of a battle in which Sargon II of Assyria captured and burned it.
KarkGk\kir-'kiik\ 0 /- Kirkuk City (pop., 2003 est.: 750,000), northeast¬ ern Iraq. Located north of Baghdad in the Kurdistan region, it is situated in one of the first areas in the Middle East where oil was discovered. Karkuk is a trade and export centre as well as a centre of Iraq’s petroleum industry, with oil pipeline connections to Tripoli and to Yumurtahk on the Turkish coast. The city has traditionally had a Kurdish and Turkmen majority, but a large number of Arabs were resettled there in the late 20th century.
Karl Franz Josef See Charles I (Austria)
Karl-Marx-Stadt See Chemnitz
Karlfeldt Vkarl-felt\, Erik Axel (b. July 20, 1864, Folkarna, Swed.—d. April 8, 1931, Stock¬ holm) Swedish poet. His strong ties to the peasant culture of his rural homeland remained a dominant influence on his writing all his life.
His essentially regional, tradition- bound poems, some published in English in Arcadia Borealis (1938), were very popular. He was elected to the Swedish Academy in 1904 and made its permanent secretary in 1912. He refused the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1918 but was awarded it posthumously in 1931.
Karloff, Boris orig. William Henry Pratt (b. Nov. 23, 1887,
London, Eng.—d. Feb. 2, 1969,
Midhurst, West Sussex) British-U.S. actor. He immigrated to Canada from England in 1909 and acted with tour¬ ing companies before moving to Boris Karloff.
Hollywood, where he played minor ap/wide world photos
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1018 I Karlovy Vary ► Karsh
roles in films from 1919. His tender, sympathetic performance in Holly¬ wood’s first important monster film, James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931), received so much critical praise that he became an overnight sensation. He acted in more than 100 films, specializing in horror pictures such as The Mummy (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Bride of Franken¬ stein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939), and his name became syn¬ onymous with the horror genre. He returned to the stage for highly acclaimed performances on Broadway in Arsenic and Old Lace (1941) and as Captain Hook in Peter Pan (1950). His most famous television performance was in the animated special How the Grinch Stole Christ¬ mas (1966), for which he provided the voices of both the Grinch and the narrator.
Karlovy Vary \'kar-l6-ve-'var-e\ German Karlsbad or Carlsbad
City (pop., 2001 prelim.: 53,857), western Czech Republic. A health resort with sulfur springs, it was developed in 1358 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. The Carlsbad Decrees were drawn up there in 1819.
Karlowitz, Treaty of See Treaty of Carlowitz
karma In Indian philosophy, the influence of an individual’s past actions on his future lives or reincarnations. It is based on the conviction that the present life is only one in a chain of lives (see samsara). The accumulated moral energy of a person’s life determines his or her character, class sta¬ tus, and disposition in the next life. The process is automatic, and no interference by the gods is possible. In the course of a chain of lives, people can perfect themselves and reach the level of Brahma, or they can degrade themselves to the extent that they return to life as animals. The concept of karma, basic to Hinduism, was also incorporated into Bud¬ dhism and Jainism.
Karma-pa See Dge-lugs-pa
Karman \'kar-man\, Theodore von (b. May 11, 1881, Budapest—d. May 6, 1963, Aachen, W.Ger.)
Hungarian-bom U.S. engineer. After directing the Aeronautical Institute at Aachen, Germany (1912-30), he immigrated to the U.S., where he taught at the California Institute of Technology (1930-44) and later headed NATO’s Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Develop¬ ment (1951-63). His pioneering work in aeronautics and astronautics included important contributions to fluid mechanics, turbulence theory, supersonic flight, mathematics in engineering, and aircraft structures.
His jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) rocket provided the prototype for engines used in present-day long- range missiles. He contributed to the first assisted takeoff of U.S. aircraft with solid- and liquid-propellant rockets, the flight of aircraft with rocket propulsion alone, and the development of spontaneously igniting liquid propellants (later used in the Apollo modules). In 1963 he was awarded the first National Medal of Science.
Karnak Village, Upper Egypt. Its name has been given to the northern part of the ruins of Thebes on the Nile River’s eastern bank (the southern part is called Luxor). Among its many religious buildings stood the larg¬ est of all Egyptian temples, the Temple of Amon. Itself a complex of temples, added to and altered many times, it reflects the fluctuating for¬ tunes of the Egyptian empire. There are no fewer than 10 pylons, sepa¬ rated by courts and halls. The most striking feature is the vast hypostyle hall commissioned by Ramses I (r. 1292-90 bc), with an area of some 54,000 sq ft (5,000 sq m). Twelve enormous columns, some 80 ft (24 m) high, raised the roofing slabs of the central aisle to produce a clerestory. Karnak is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site (designated 1979) cen¬ tred on Thebes.