"Toilers of the Sea," oil on wood panel by Ryder, before 1884; in the Metro¬ politan Museum of Art, New York City
COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, GEORGE A. HEARN FUND, 1915
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
SA ► Sabin
1659
SA in full Sturmabteilung (German: "Assault Division") known as Storm Troopers or Brownshirts Nazi paramilitary orga¬ nization that played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. The SA was founded by Hitler in Munich in 1921 and drew its early membership from the Freikorps. Outfitted in brown uniforms after the fashion of the Italian Fascist Blackshirts, the SA protected Nazi Party meetings and assaulted political opponents. From 1931 it was headed by Ernst Rohm, and by 1932 it had grown to a force of more than 400,000. Rohm wanted to merge the regular army with the SA under his leadership, but Hitler had become wary of the organization’s growing power. In 1934 he ordered a “blood purge” of the SA, which became known as the Night of the Long Knives. Thereafter the SA was reduced to a minor political role.
Sa al-Hajar See Sais
Sa-skya pa \'sas-ky3-'pa\ Tibetan Buddhist sect granted sovereignty over Tibet by Kublai Khan and noted also for contributions to philosophy and linguistics. The Sa-skya pandita Kun-dga’-rgyal-mtshan (1182-1251) wrote a major treatise developing Buddhist logic.
Saadia ben Joseph Vsa-de-a-ben-'jo-zoA Arabic Sa'Id ibn Yusuf al-Fayyuml (b. 882, Dilaz, in al-Fayyum, Egypt—d. September 942, Sura, Babylonia) Egyptian-Babylonian Jewish philosopher and polemicist.
He left Egypt c. 905 and eventually settled in Babylonia, where he headed the rabbinic Academy of Sura. He wrote a Hebrew-Arabic dictionary and translated much of the Old Testament into Arabic. In 935 he produced his great¬ est work, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, the objective of which was the harmonization of revelation and reason.
The introduction refutes skepticism and establishes the foundations of human knowledge. The first chapter seeks to establish creation ex nihilo (out of nothing) in order to ascertain the existence of a Creator-God. Saadia then discusses God’s uniqueness, jus¬ tice, revelation, free will, and other doctrines accepted both by Judaism and by the Mu'tazill sect of Islam (see Mu'tazilah). The second part of the book deals with the essence of the soul and eschatological problems and presents guidelines for ethical living.
Saale \'za-lo,\ English Vsa-l9\ River River, east-central Germany. A tributary of the Elbe River, it rises in the Bavarian highlands and flows north to join the Elbe just above Barby. As it crosses Thuringia, it enters a deep valley dominated by picturesque castles. The Saale is 265 mi (426 km) long.
Saar, Betye orig. Betye Irene Brown (b. July 30, 1926, Los Ange¬ les, Calif., U.S.) U.S. artist and educator. She studied design, education, and printmaking. By 1968 she developed an interest in three-dimensional objects and began working in assemblage. Her works incoiporate found objects of all sorts—from those suggesting ritual folk art to traditional Christianity. Many also challenge racist myths and stereotypes. Saar’s The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972), for example, is a “mammy” doll placed in front of the eponymous pancake syrup labels; the doll carries a broom in one hand and a shotgun in the other. Saar’s works expanded in size and scope from the late 1970s. Her room-size installations often featured mys¬ tical themes and sometimes included shrines.
Saar Vsar, 'zar\ River French Sarre \'sar\ River, France and Germany. A tributary of the Moselle River, it flows 153 mi (246 km) across north¬ eastern France into Germany and enters the Moselle above Trier. The northern part of the valley is a wine-growing district. The middle stretch between Saarbriicken and Dillingen is a centre of heavy industry.
Saarbriicken \zar-'bril-k3n\ City (pop., 2002 est.: city, 182,858; urban agglom., 959,084), capital of Saarland state, southwestern Germany. Located on the Saar River, Saarbriicken was chartered in 1321 and belonged to the counts of Nassau-Saarbrucken until it was occupied by the French in 1793. It passed to Prussia in 1815 and became the capital of the Saar region in 1919. The present city was formed in 1909 by the union of the former Saarbriicken with Burbach-Malstatt, Sankt Johann, and Sankt Arnual. In 1959 it was made capital of Saarland. Historic build¬ ings include the 18th-century Baroque Ludwigskirche, the Gothic abbey church of St. Arnual (c. 1270-1330), and the Old Bridge over the Saar
(1546).
Saaremaa or Sarema \'sar-3-,ma\ Island, Estonia. The largest of the islands in the Muhu archipelago, which divides the Baltic Sea from the
Gulf of Riga, Saaremaa has an area of 1,031 sq mi (2,671 sq km). It was occupied in the 13th century by the Livonian Knights and was ruled suc¬ cessively by Denmark, Sweden, and Russia before becoming part of Esto¬ nia in 1918. In 1940 Estonia was incorporated into the U.S.S.R., and the island passed into the Soviet sphere. Saaremaa was occupied by German troops during World War II. In 1991 Estonia became an independent nation, and Saaremaa was once again an Estonian possession. Economic activities include agriculture, livestock raising, and fishing.
Saarinen Vsar-s-nsnV, Eero (b. Aug. 20, 1910, Kirkkonummi, Fin.—d. Sept. 1, 1961, Ann Arbor, Mich., U.S.) Finnish-born U.S. architect. His father, Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950), was the foremost Finnish architect of his time; his major works include the Helsinki railway sta¬ tion (1904-14) and—after immigrating to the U.S. in 1923—the buildings of the Cranbrook Foundation, Bloom¬ field Hills, Mich. (1925-41). Eero joined his father’s prac¬ tice after studying at Yale. His vast General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Mich. (1948-56), was fol¬ lowed in 1948 by his design for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo. (completed 1965). In the Kresge Auditorium and chapel at MIT (1955), Cambridge, Mass., he used a “hand¬ kerchief’ dome resting on three points for the auditorium and a stark red-brick cylinder for the chapel. His TWA termi¬ nal at Kennedy International Airport (1956-62), New York City, employs two cantilevered concrete shells that extend dramatically outward, suggesting wings. Like many contemporary architects, Saarinen was challenged by furniture design, especially the chair. He is remem¬ bered in particular for a chair in molded plywood he designed with Charles Eames; a womblike chair using a glass-fibre shell upholstered in foam rubber and fabric; and a series of pedestal-based chairs and tables that combined a sculptural aluminum base with plastic shells for the chairs and disks of marble or plastic for the table tops.
Saarland \'zar-,lant,\ English \'sar-,land\ or Saargebiet \'zar-g3-,bet\ State (pop., 2002 est.: 1,066,470), southwestern Germany. It has an area of 992 sq mi (2,569 sq km). The capital, Saarbriicken, lies along the Saar River. The region was contested by France and Germany from the 17th century until 1815, when France ceded most of it to Prussia by the Treaty of Paris. When Alsace-Lorraine was added to the German Empire in 1871, the Saar ceased to be a boundary state and developed rapidly as a coal¬ mining and industrial area, producing iron and steel. French military forces occupied it after World War II, but it was restored to West Ger¬ many and became a state in 1957.
Saba Island (pop., 1994 est.: 1,180) of the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It lies 16 mi (26 km) northwest of St. Eustatius, with which it forms the Lesser Antilles. It has an area of 5 sq mi (13 sq km) and is the peak of an extinct volcano, Mount Scenery. It was settled by the Dutch in 1632, but its inaccessibility and ruggedness prevented it from achiev¬ ing economic importance and it was often a buccaneers’ stronghold. The economy depends heavily on tourism.
Sabah dynasty or Al Sabah ("Sabah family") Ruling family of Kuwait since 1756. In that year the Banu TJtub, a group of families of the ‘Anizah tribe living in what is now Kuwait, appointed a member of the Sabah family, Sabah ibn Jabir (r. c. 1752-64), to be their ruler. The dynasty frequently depended politically or militarily on outsiders but maintained its autonomy. Its dependence on the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century was subsequently a cause for Iraq to claim hegemony over Kuwait. It later enjoyed the patronage of the United Kingdom and, more recently, the support of the U.S. Despite the existence of deliberative institutions in modem Kuwait, the dynasty retains absolute power.