Shipka Pass Pass in the Balkan Mountains, central Bulgaria. The pass is 4,376 ft (1,334 m) high. A main route between Bulgaria and Turkey, it was the site of fierce fighting during the Russo-Turkish Wars; in one battle (1878), the Turks lost so many soldiers that their leader, Suleyman, earned the name “Shipka butcher.”
Shippen, William, Jr, (b. Oct. 21, 1736, Philadelphia, Pa.—d. July 11, 1808, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. physician. He earned his M.D. in Edinburgh. In 1762 he established the first American maternity hospital, and in 1765, with John Morgan, he organized the first medical school in the American colonies, where he became the first systematic teacher of anatomy, surgery, and obstetrics. He was one of the first to use dissected human bodies to teach anatomy. He succeeded Morgan as head medical officer of the Continental Army in 1777. He was a founder and president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the first American medical school.
shipping Transporting of goods and passengers by water. Early civili¬ zations, which arose by waterways, depended on watercraft for transport. The Egyptians were probably the first to use seagoing vessels (c. 1500 bc); the Phoenicians, Cretans, Greeks, and Romans also all relied on waterways. In Asia, Chinese ships equipped with multiple masts and a rudder were making sea voyages by c. ad 200; from as early as the 4th century bc the Chinese also relied heavily on internal waterways to trans¬ port food to their large cities (see Grand Canal). Japan, too mountainous to rely on roads for mass transport, also relied on internal and coastal waterways for shipping from early in its history. The spice trade was a great stimulus to shipping trade; Arabians were sailing to the spice islands before the Christian era and European merchant marines grew up largely because of it. The tea trade had a similar effect, as did the discovery of gold in the New World. From the 17th to the 19th century, the slave trade was a major feature of Atlantic shipping. The U.S. and England were the ascendant shipping nations in the 19th century; Germany, Norway, Japan, The Netherlands, and France joined them in the early 20th century, with Greece dominating the industry by the century’s end. Transoceanic ship¬ ping remains a vital part of the world economy. Many U.S. merchant ships are registered in a third nation to avoid heavy taxes. See also British East India Co.; Dutch East India Co.; French East India Co.
shipworm or pileworm Any of approximately 65 species (family Teredidae) of common marine bivalves that can severely damage wooden structures, including ship hulls and wharves. Its anterior end is covered by a shell; the rest is a tubelike structure, sometimes up to 6 ft (1.8 m) long. File-like ridges on its white shell cut into wood at 8-12 rasping motions a minute. It secretes lime to line its burrow, and its tubelike por¬
tion extends back to the burrow opening. It ingests food particles and oxygen from the water; some wood is also ingested as food.
Shirakawa Hideki (b. Aug. 20, 1936, Tokyo, Japan) Japanese chem¬ ist. He earned a Ph.D. from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1966. After graduation he began teaching at the University of Tsukuba. In 1977 he started collaborating with Alan J. Heeger and Alan G. MacDiarmid, conducting experiments on the polymer polyacetylene. Their work dem¬ onstrated that certain plastics can be chemically changed to conduct elec¬ tricity almost as readily as metals. Other conductive polymers were later discovered, and the finding was expected to play a significant role in the emerging field of molecular electronics. With Heeger and MacDiarmid, Shirakawa was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000.
Shiraz \she-'raz\ Industrial and commercial city (pop., 1996: 1,053,025), south-central Iran. It was important during the Seleucid (312-175 bc), Parthian (247 bc-ad 224), and Sasanian (c. ad 224-651) periods but reached its economic and cultural peak in the 10th— 11th centuries, dur¬ ing the Islamic period. In the 14th century, Timur occupied Shiraz, which had by that time become a Muslim centre rivaling Baghdad. In 1724 it was sacked by Afghan invaders and later became the capital of the Per¬ sian Zand dynasty (1750-94). Famous for its wine, gardens, shrines, and mosques, it was the birthplace of the Persian poets Sa c d! and Hafez, who remain local icons and whose tombs are located there.
Shire River Vshir-a\ River, southern Malawi and central Mozambique. The most important river in Malawi, it flows 250 mi (402 km) from the southern shore of Lake Malawi into the Zambezi River. In Malawi it drops 1,260 ft (384 m) in a spectacular 50-mi (80-km) stretch of gorges and cataracts. A dam at Liwonde regulates flow from Lake Malawi and pro¬ vides flood control.
Shirer VshIr-or\, William L(awrence) (b. Feb. 23, 1904, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—d. Dec. 28, 1993, Boston, Mass.) U.S. journalist, historian, and novelist. He served as a foreign correspondent and radio broadcaster in Europe and India in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s. Berlin Diary (1941) col¬ lects his impressions of European political events. He was blacklisted in the McCarthy era as a leftist sympathizer. He is best known for The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1969, National Book Award), a massive study of Nazi Germany. His other major historical work is The Collapse of the Third Republic (1969), a study of France. Gandhi (1979) recalls inter¬ views conducted in the 1930s.
shirk In Islam, idolatry and polytheism, both of which are regarded as heretical. The Qu’ran stresses that God does not share his powers with any partner ( sharik ) and warns that those who believe in idols will be harshly dealt with on the Day of Judgment. The concept of shirk has broadened considerably throughout the dogmatic development of Islam, and it has come to be used as the opposite of taw hid (the oneness of God). Different grades of shirk have been distinguished by Islamic law; they include the belief in superstition, belief in the power of created things (e.g., reverencing saints), and belief in those who profess to know the future—all of which pale beside polytheism in seriousness.
Shirley, William (b. Dec. 2,
1694, Preston, Sussex, Eng.—d.
March 24, 1771, Roxbury, Mass.)
American colonial governor. A law¬ yer in England, he moved to Boston in 1731. He was appointed admiralty judge (1733), king’s advocate gen¬ eral (1734), and governor of Massa¬ chusetts (1741-49, 1753-56). In King George's War he planned the British capture of Louisbourg (1745). He became commander of British forces in North America (1755) but was dismissed after the failure of his expedition against Fort Niagara. He served as governor of the Bahamas (1761-67).
Shiva Vshi-vo, 'she-vo\ or Siva Major deity of Hinduism, believed to have many manifestations. Like Vishnu, he is the subject of an elabo¬ rate and sometimes contradictory
Shiva, bronze statue, Madras, c. ad
COURTESY OF THE GOVERNMENT MUSEUM, CHENNAI; PHOTOGRAPH, ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1742 I Shivaji ► shoin-zukuri
mythology. He is both the destroyer and the restorer, the great ascetic and the symbol of sensuality, the benevolent herdsman of souls and the wrath¬ ful avenger. His female consort is known under various manifestations, including Parvati, Durga, and Kau. In Shaivism he is worshiped as the para¬ mount lord.
Shivaji \'shi-va-je\ or Sivaji (b. Feb. 19, 1630, or April 1627, Shivner, Pune, India—d. April 3, 1680, Rajgarh) Indian king (r. 1674-80), founder of the Maratha kingdom of India. A devout Hindu, he grew up at a time when India was ruled by Muslims, and he found their religious persecu¬ tion intolerable. Collecting a band of followers, he began in c. 1655 to seize weak outposts of the sultan of Bijapur. In 1659 he lured the sultan’s army to its destruction and, possessed of its horses and armaments, became overnight a formidable warlord. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb sent out his most prominent general and an army of 100,000 to capture him, but Shivaji made a daring escape. Gaining even more strength, he added a naval force to his military might. In 1674 he proclaimed himself an independent sovereign. He forged an alliance with the sultans in the south, thereby blocking the spread of Mughal rule. His rule was noted for its religious tolerance. See also Maratha confederacy.