building stone See building stone
Bujumbura V.bii-jam-'bur -d\ formerly Usumbura City (pop., 2001: 346,000), capital of Burundi. Lying on the northern end of Lake Tanga¬ nyika, it is the country’s chief port and largest urban centre. Known as Usumbura in the 1890s when German troops occupied the area and incor¬ porated it into German East Africa, it was included in a Tutsi kingdom. When Burundi achieved independence in 1962, the city’s name was changed to Bujumbura. Its industry specializes in textiles and agricultural products; most of Burundi’s foreign trade is shipped between the capital and Kigoma, Tanzania.
Bukhara or Bokhara or Buxoro \bo-'ka-ra, bli-'kar-oX City (pop., 1999 est.: 237,900), west-central Uzbekistan. Lying east of the Amu Darya, it was founded in the 1st century ad and was a major trade centre when the Arabs captured it c. 710. Built up by the Samanid dynasty, it became the capital of their realm, which at its height encompassed much of south¬ ern Central Asia. After falling to Genghis Khan in 1220 and to Timur in 1370, it was taken by the Uzbeks, who in the 16th century made it the capital of the khanate of Bukhara. In 1868 the khanate was made a Rus¬ sian protectorate and in 1920 a Soviet republic. Bukhara was the capital until the republic was absorbed into the Uzbek S.S.R. in 1924. It became part of Uzbekistan on that country’s independence in 1991. Historic build¬ ings in the central city were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.
Bukhari \bu-'kar-e\, (Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn IsmaTl)
al- (b. July 19, 810, Bukhara, Central Asia—d. Aug. 31, 870, Khartank, near Samarkand) Muslim compiler and scholar of HadIth. He began his study as a child in Central Asia and traveled as far as Mecca and Cairo to learn about Muhammad and his utterances. Of the 600,000 traditions he collected, he deemed 7,275 authentic and included them in Kitab al-jami 1 al-sahih (“Entirety of the Genuine”). His Kitab al-tdrikh al-kabir (“The Great History”) contains biographies of those who passed on the oral tra¬ ditions from the days of the Prophet to Bukhari’s own era.
Bukharin \bu-'kar-3n\, Nikolay (Ivanovich) (b. Oct. 9, 1888, Mos¬ cow, Russia—d. March 14, 1938, Moscow) Russian communist leader and economist. After the Bolsheviks seized power, he became the editor of the party newspaper Pravda (1917-29). A member of the Politburo and a prominent leader of the Comintern, he also wrote several theoretical economic works. In 1938 he was a defendant in the last of the public purge trials. Falsely accused of counterrevolutionary activities and espio¬ nage, he was found guilty and executed.
Bukovina \,bu-ko-'ve-na\ Region, eastern central Europe. It consists of part of the northeastern Carpathian Mtns. and the adjoining plain. Settled by both Ukrainians and Romanians, it became an integral part of Mold¬ avia in the 14th century. It acquired its own name in 1775, when it was ceded to Austria by the Turks. Romania occupied it when Austria-Hungary collapsed in 1918, and was granted it through treaty in 1919. In 1944 the Soviet Union took the northern region, which became part of the Ukrai¬ nian S.S.R. (now Ukraine), while the rest became part of the Romanian People’s Republic (now Romania).
Bukowski, Charles (b. Aug. 16, 1920, Andernach, Ger.—d. March 9, 1994, San Pedro, Calif., U.S.) German-bom U.S. poet, short-story writer, and novelist. His family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1922. He began publishing short stories in the mid 1940s. His first poetry collec¬ tion, Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail, appeared in 1959, and the poetry vol¬ umes he published regularly for the next few years earned a devoted cult following. His novels include Post Office (1971) and Factotum (1975); he also wrote the screenplay for the film Barfly (1987), a semiautobiograph- ical comedy about alcoholic lovers. The novel Hollywood (1989) dealt with its filming. His writing, often scurrilous but humorous, frequently reflected his perpetually down-and-out mode of existence.
Bulawayo \,bu-la-'wa-yo\ City (pop., 1998 est.: 790,000), southwest¬ ern Zimbabwe. One of the country’s largest cities, it lies 4,400 ft (1,340
m) above sea level. Originally the headquarters of the king of the Nde- bele, it was occupied in 1893 by the British. It is Zimbabwe’s principal industrial centre and, as headquarters for the country’s railroads, its main transshipment point for goods to and from South Africa.
bulb In botany, the resting stage of certain seed plants, particularly peren¬ nial monocotyledons (see cotyledon), consisting of a relatively large, usu¬ ally globe-shaped, underground bud with membranous or fleshy overlapping leaves arising from a short stem. The fleshy leaves function as food reserves that enable a plant to lie dormant when water is unavail¬ able (during winter or drought) and to resume active growth when favour¬ able conditions again prevail. There are two main types of bulbs. One, typified by the onion, has a thin papery covering protecting its fleshy leaves. The other, the scaly bulb, as seen in true lilies, has naked storage leaves, with no papery covering, making the bulb appear to consist of angular scales. Bulbs enable many common ornamentals, such as the nar¬ cissus, tulip, and hyacinth, to flower rapidly in early spring when growing conditions are favourable. Other bulb-producing plants bloom in the sum¬ mer (e.g., lilies) or fall (e.g., the autumn crocus). The solid corms of the crocus and gladiolus and the elongated rhizomes of some irises are not bulbs.
Bulfinch, Charles (b. Aug. 8, 1763, Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony—d. April 4, 1844, Boston, Mass., U.S.) First professional U.S. architect. He studied at Harvard University and then toured Europe, visit¬ ing major architectural sites in France and Italy. Most of his works incor¬ porate Classical orders and show a mastery of proportion. Chiefly a designer of government buildings, he served as architect of the U.S. Capitol in 1817-30. He used the plans of his immediate predecessor, Benjamin H. Latrobe, for the wings but prepared a new design for the rotunda. His son Thomas Bulfinch (1796-1867) wrote the famous Bulfinch’s Mythology.
Bulgakov \biil-'ga-k3f\, Mikhail (Afanasyevich) (b. May 15,
1891, Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire—d. March 10, 1940, Moscow, Rus¬ sian S.F.S.R., U.S.S.R.) Russian playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. He wrote and staged many popular plays in the years 1925-29, including dramatizations of his own novels, but by 1930 his trenchant criticism of Soviet mores had caused him to be effectively prohibited from publishing. His works, known for their scathing humour, include the novella The Heart of a Dog (written 1925), a satire on pseudoscience that did not appear openly in the Soviet Union until 1987, and the dazzling fantasy The Master and Margarita, not published in unexpurgated form until 1973.
Bulganin \bul-'ga-nyin\, Nikolay (Aleksandrovich) (b. June 11,
1895, Nizhy Novgorod, Russia—d. Feb. 24, 1975, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Soviet statesman and industrial and economic administrator. After supporting Nikita Khrushchev in the latter’s power struggle with Georgy Malenkov, Bulganin was made premier of the Soviet Union (1955-58). Though closely identified with Khrushchev, he joined an “anti¬ party group” that tried to oust Khruschev in 1957, a move that led to his own downfall.
Bulgaria officially Republic of Bulgaria Country, southeastern Europe. Area: 42,858 sq mi (111,002 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 7,740,000. Capitaclass="underline" Sofia. Bulgarians make up the great majority of the population; smaller ethnic groups include Turks, Roma (Gypsies), and Macedonians. Languages: Bulgarian (official), regional dialects. Reli¬ gions: Christianity (predominantly Eastern Orthodox; also other Chris¬ tians); also Islam. Currency: lev. Three major regions define the landscape. The northernmost is the Danubian Plain, a fertile area occu¬ pying one-third of the country. Immediately south lie the Balkan Moun¬ tains (Stara Planina). In the southwest and south lie the Rhodope Mountains, with the country’s highest point, Musala Peak, rising 9,596 ft (2,925 m). Smaller than the three major regions, Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast is a popular eastern European resort area. Major drainage systems include the Black and Aegean seas. Bulgaria had a planned economy mod¬ eled on the Soviet system (1946-89). Since 1991 the noncommunist gov¬ ernment has been moving to privatize some sectors of the economy, including agriculture. Bulgaria is a republic with one legislative body; its chief of state is the president, and its head of government is the prime minister. Evidence of human habitation dates from prehistoric times. Thracians were the first recorded inhabitants, dating from c. 3500 bc, and their first state dates from about the 5th century bc. The area was subdued by the Romans, who divided it into the provinces of Moesia and Thrace. In the 7th century ad the Bulgars took the region south of the Danube