Sacramento River River, northern California, U.S. Rising near Mount Shasta, it flows 382 mi (615 km) southwest between the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges, through the northern Central Valley. It forms a common delta with the San Joaquin River before entering the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. California’s largest river, it is navigable for 180 mi (290 km) and accommodates oceangoing vessels as far as Sacramento. Scene of the gold rush of 1849, the river flows through one of the world’s richest agricultural regions.
sacrifice Act of offering objects to a divinity, thereby making them holy. The motivation for sacrifice is to perpetuate, intensify, or reestablish a connection between the human and the divine. It is often intended to gain the favour of the god or to placate divine wrath. The term has come to be applied specifically to blood sacrifice, which entails the death or destruction of the thing sacrificed (see human sacrifice). The sacrifice of fruits, flowers, or crops (bloodless sacrifice) is more often referred to as an offering.
sacrifice, human See human sacrifice
Sadat \so-'dat\, (Muhammad) Anwar el- (b. Dec. 25, 1918, Mit Abu al-Kum, Egypt—d. Oct. 6, 1981, Cairo) President of Egypt (1970- 81). A graduate of the Cairo Military Academy, he joined Gamal Abdel Nasser’s coup that deposed the monarchy in 1950 and later served as vice president (1964-66, 1969-70). He became president when Nasser died in 1970. He led Egypt during the Yom Kippur War (1973) against Israel. A military loss, the war was a political success for Sadat, bolstering his popularity through the Arab world. At home, he reversed many of Nass¬ er’s socialist policies and attempted to garner the support of the country’s Islamists. In 1977 he went to Jerusalem to offer peace to Israel, and in 1979 he concluded a peace treaty, the Camp David Accords, with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. The two men shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for Peace. His popularity in the Arab world plummeted, and domestic support for his treaty with the Jewish state—especially among Islamists— evaporated. He was killed by a group of Muslim extremists led by Kha- lid al-lsiAMBUU and associated with the Islamic Jihad Group. See also Arab- Israeli Wars; Hosni Mubarak.
Saddam Hussein (b. April 28, 1937, Tikrlt, Iraq) President of Iraq (1979-2003). He joined the Ba'th Party in 1957. Following participation in a failed attempt to assassinate Iraqi Pres. c Abd al-Karim Qasim in 1959, Saddam fled to Cairo, where he briefly attended law school. He returned to Iraq when the Ba'thists gained power in 1963. Jailed when the Ba'thists were overthrown, he escaped and helped reinstall the party to power in 1968. He led the nationalization of the oil industry in 1972. He took over the presidency with the aims of replacing Egypt as leader of the Arab world and of gaining hegemony over the Persian Gulf, and he launched wars against Iran (Iran-Iraq War, 1980-90) and Kuwait (First Persian Gulf
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1662 I saddle ► saffron
War, 1990-91), both of which he lost. He instituted a brutal dictatorship and directed intensive campaigns against minorities within Iraq, particu¬ larly the Kurds. U.S. fears regarding his development of weapons of mass destruction led to Western sanctions against Iraq. Sanctions were followed by an Anglo-American invasion in 2003 (Second Persian Gulf War) that drove him from power. After several months in hiding, he was captured by U.S. forces. See also Pan-Arabism.
saddle Seat for a rider on the back of an animal, usually a horse. The leather saddle was developed between the 3rd century bc and the 1st cen¬ tury ad, probably by peoples of the Asian steppes, where the stirrup and the horse collar also originated. The saddle greatly improved a rider’s ability to control a moving horse, especially in combat. Improvements made in medieval Europe were related to feudal battles among knights. Modern saddles are mainly divided into two types: the light, flat English or Hungarian style used for sport and recreation, and the sturdy Western style used originally for cattle roping and now also for recreation.
Sadducee \'sa-jo-,se\ Member of a Jewish priestly sect that flourished for about two centuries, until the destruction (ad 70) of the Second Temple of Jerusalem. Sadducees were generally wealthier, more conservative, and better connected politically than their rivals, the Pharisees. They believed in strict interpretation of the Torah and thus rejected such ideas as immor¬ tality of the soul, bodily resurrection after death, and the existence of angels. They viewed Jesus' ministry with mistrust and are believed to have played some part in his death. Their wealth and complicity with Roman rulers made them unpopular with the common people.
Sade Vsad\, Marquis de orig. Donatien-Alphonse-Francois, count de Sade (b. June 2, 1740, Paris, France—d. Dec. 2, 1814, Charenton, near Paris) French novelist and philosopher. After abandon¬ ing a military career at the end of the Seven Years’ War, he married and became involved in a life of debauchery and outrageous scandal with prostitutes and with local young people he abducted, for which he was repeatedly imprisoned, once narrowly escaping execution. Despite his noble birth, he supported the French Revolution, which he saw as repre¬ senting political liberation on a level parallel to the sexual liberation he himself represented. He was twice sent to the insane asylum at Charen¬ ton (1789-90, 1801-14), where he would eventually die. He overcame boredom and anger in prison and the asylum by writing sexually graphic novels and plays. The 120 Days of Sodom (written 1785) was a tale of four libertines who kidnap victims for a nonstop orgy of perversion. In his most famous novel, Justine (1791), the heroine suffers because she fails to perceive that there is no moral God and that desire is the only reality. His other works include Philosophy in the Bedroom (1793) and Crimes of Passion (1800). His reputation and writings gave rise to the term sadism.
sadhu and swami In India, a religious ascetic or holy person. Sadhus are typically wandering ascetics who subsist on alms. They may follow the tenets of a particular belief system, such as Hinduism or Jainism, but are more typically regarded as saintly in their own right. The term swami refers to a sadhu ordained in a specific order and is associated particu¬ larly with Vedanta. Sadhus and swamis may live either in communities or in solitude; they typically possess little, eschew conventional and mod¬ ern dress, and have shaven heads or matted, unkempt hair.
sadism Ysa-.di-zom, ‘sa-.di-zonA Psychosexual disorder in which sexual urges are gratified by inflicting pain on another person. The term was coined in reference to the marquis de Sade, who chronicled his own such practices. Sadism is often linked to masochism, and many individuals who have one tendency also have the other.
Sadowa, Battle of See Battle of Koniggratz
Sadr, Musa al- Vmii-sa-al-'sadrA (b. 1928, Qom, Iran—disappeared Aug. 31, 1978, Libya?) Iranian-born Lebanese Shl'ite cleric. The son of an ayatollah, he received a traditional Islamic education in Qom and in Al-Najaf, Iraq, and also briefly studied political economy and law at Tehran University. In 1960 he moved to Lebanon, where he became involved in social work among the country’s largely disfranchised Shl'ite community. In 1968-69 he formed the Higher Shl'ite Islamic Council to promote the community’s interests, and in 1975 he formed a militia, Amal, to defend the Shl'ite community in the Lebanese Civil War. He and a small entourage dis¬ appeared while on an official trip in Libya. The Libyan government dis¬ avowed any knowledge of what became of the cleric and his companions; his disappearance has remained a highly controversial mystery.