Saintsbury, George (Edward Bateman) (b. Oct. 23, 1845, Southampton, Hampshire, Eng.—d. Jan. 28, 1933, Bath, Somerset) English literary historian and critic. When the school at which he was teaching failed in 1876, he decided to write for a living. He produced several successful volumes of criticism of French literature and extensive writings on English literature. Though he formulated no philosophy of criticism, his works were influential because they combined authoritative scholarship with the popular appeal of entertaining prose. They include A History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe from the Earliest Texts to the Present Day (1900-04), one of the first surveys of critical literary theory and practice.
Saipan \si-'pan, sl-'pan\ Island (pop., 2000: 62,392), Northern Mariana Islands, in the western Pacific Ocean. It has an area of 42 sq mi (109 sq km). Its chief settlement, Chalan Kanoa, is the Northern Marianas’ com¬ monwealth centre. Ruled by Spain (1565-1899), it then passed to Ger¬ many (1899-1914). It was a Japanese mandate from 1920, but in 1944 during World War II it was captured by U.S. forces after fierce fighting. It subsequently was the headquarters of the U.S.-administered UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (terminated 1990). Copra is the island’s chief product.
Sais Vsa-is \ Arabic Sa al-Hajar Ancient Egyptian city. Located in the delta on the Canopic, or Rosetta, branch of the Nile River, it was from prehistoric times the site of the chief shrine of Neith, goddess of war and the loom. It became the capital of Egypt under Psamtik I (r. 664-609 bc).
His successors of the 26th dynasty also had their capital there. Enriched by trade from the Mediterranean region and Africa, the Saite kings built fine temples, palaces, and tombs. Inscribed stones found on the site and in nearby villages are all that remain of the once-great city.
Saivism See Shaivism
saivo Vsl-,vu\ One of the Sami regions of the dead, where the deceased lead happy lives with their families and ancestors, acting in every way as they did on earth. In Norway the saivo world was thought to exist in the mountains, whereas in Finland it was usually believed to be under spe¬ cial double-bottomed lakes. These localities were regarded as sacred and as sources of power that could be used by the shaman, or noaide. When the noaide wished to go into a trance, he would ask his guardian spirits from the saivo to aid him.
Sakakura \,sa-ka-'ku-ra\ Junzo (b. May 29, 1904, Gifu prefecture, Japan—d. Sept. 1, 1969, Tokyo) Japanese architect. He was one of the first to combine 20th-century European architecture with traditional Japa¬ nese elements. His first outstanding East-West blend was the Japanese pavilion at the 1937 World Exposition in Paris. He worked in the Paris office of Le Corbusier (1931-36) and was known as Le Corbusier’s lead¬ ing advocate in Japan. His major works include the Museum of Modern Art in Kamakura (1951) and Shinjuku Station Square and Odakyu Depart¬ ment Store in Tokyo (1964-67).
sake Vsa-ke\ Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice. It dates to at least the 3rd century ad. Sake is light in colour and noncar- bonated, with a sweet flavour; its alcohol content is about 18% by vol¬ ume. Often mistakenly called a wine, sake is closer in its method of manufacture to beer. Steamed rice is combined with a mold that converts the rice starch to fermentable sugars; the mix is kneaded into a paste, twice fermented (with fresh rice and water added), filtered, and bottled. In Japan, where it is the national beverage and the traditional drink of the Shinto gods, sake is warmed in a small earthenware or porcelain vessel before being blessed and served in small porcelain cups.
Sakha or Yakut Siberian people who speak a Turkic language. Most were formerly seminomadic, raising cattle and horses. They lived in win¬ ter settlements of earth-covered log huts and summer camps of conical birch-bark tents near pasturage and sources of hay for winter fodder. Through assimilation, many southern Sakha turned to farming while northern Sakha adopted reindeer breeding from the Evenk. The Sakha were noted for their ironwork (supernatural power was attributed to black¬ smiths) and also made pottery; traditional arts such as ivory and wood carving are still practiced. Filmmaking has become popular more recently. The Sakha number about 380,000. See also Siberian peoples.
Sakhalin \,sa-ka-'len\ Island Island, extreme eastern Russia. Together with the Kuril Islands, it forms an administrative region of Russia. It is 589 mi (948 km) long and a maximum of 100 mi (160 km) wide; it covers 29,500 sq mi (76,400 sq km). Sakhalin was first settled by Russians in 1853, and it came under Russian control in 1875 when Japan ceded it in exchange for the Kuril Islands. Japan held the southern part from 1905 to 1945, then ceded it and the Kurils to the U.S.S.R. The economy is dominated by fishing, lumbering, coal mining, and the extraction of oil and natural gas in the north.
Sakharov \'sa-k3-,r6f\, Andrey (Dmitriyevich) (b. May 21, 1921, Moscow, Russia—d. Dec. 14, 1989, Moscow) Russian nuclear physicist and human rights advocate. He worked with I.Y. Tamm (1895-1971) to develop the Soviet Union’s first hydrogen bomb, but in 1961 he opposed Nikita Khrushchev’s plan to test a 100-megaton hydrogen bomb in the atmosphere. In 1968 he published in the West “Progress, Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom,” which called for nuclear arms reduction and criti¬ cized Soviet repression of dissidents. He and his wife, Yelena G. Bonner, continued to advocate civil liberties and reform in the Soviet Union. In 1975 Sakharov received the Nobel Prize for Peace but was forbidden to travel to Oslo to receive it. In 1980 he was exiled to the closed city Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod); his wife was exiled there in 1984. They were released in 1986 and returned to Moscow. Elected to the Congress of Peo¬ ple’s Deputies in April 1989, Sakharov had his honours restored and saw many of the causes for which he had fought and suffered become official policy under Mikhail Gorbachev.
Saki \'sa-ke\ orig. H(ector) H(ugh) Munro (b. Dec. 18, 1870, Akyab, Burma—d. Nov. 14, 1916, near Beaumont-Hamel, France) Scot¬ tish writer. A journalist early in his career, he wrote political satires and
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Sakkara ► Salerno I 1671
worked as a foreign correspondent before settling in London in 1908. His comic short stories and sketches, which satirize the Edwardian social scene, were published in Reginald (1904), Reginald in Russia (1910), The Chronicles of Clovis (1911), and Beasts and Super-Beasts (1914); the best-known include “Tobermory” and “The Open Window.” Studded with epigrams and with well-contrived plots, his stories reveal a vein of cru¬ elty and a self-identification with the enfant terrible. He was killed in action in World War I.
Sakkara See Saqqarah sakti See shakti Saktism See Shaktism
Sakyamuni Vsak-ys-.mu-neV Epithet of the Buddha Gautama meaning “sage of the Sakyas.” The Sakyas were a clan into which the Buddha was born a prince; their kingdom covered an area that is today in southern Nepal and part of what is now northern Uttar Pradesh, India.
Saladin \'sa-b-d 3 n \ byname o/Salah al-DTn Yusuf ibn Ayyub (b.
1137/38, Tikrlt, Mesopotamia—d. March 4, 1193, Damascus, Syria) Kur¬ dish sultan of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine and founder of the AyyObid dynasty. Though as a youth he preferred religious to military stud¬ ies, he began his military career under his uncle, a military commander of the Zangid dynasty. On his uncle’s death, Saladin became vizier of the Fajimid dynasty of Egypt. In 1171 he abolished the Shl'ite Fatimid caliph¬ ate and announced a return to Sunnite Islam in Egypt. From 1174, as sul¬ tan of Egypt and Syria, he succeeded in uniting Egypt, Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Palestine. His reputation as a generous and virtuous but firm ruler rekindled Muslim resistance to the Crusades. In 1187, turn¬ ing his full strength against the Latin Crusader states, he captured Jerus¬ alem, which had been in Christian hands for 88 years. Whereas the Christian conquest had been marked by slaughter, Saladin’s troops dem¬ onstrated courteous and civilized behaviour. His victory deeply shocked the West and led to the call for the Third Crusade (1189-92), which matched him against Richard I (the Lionheart); their stalemate resulted in a peace that gave the Crusaders only a small strip of land from Tyre to Yafo (Jaffa). Many Muslims consider Saladin the paradigm of the pious and virtuous ruler.