Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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sama' ... Samoa

sama': (Arabic: "listening"), the Sufi (Muslim mystic) practice of listening to music and chanting to reinforce ecstasy and induce mystical trance. The Muslim orthodox regarded such practices as un-Islamic, and the more puritanical among them associated the Sufis' music, song, and ...
Samadet faience: tin-glazed earthenware made in the 18th century in Samadet, Landes, France, at a factory founded in 1732. It is delicately painted with such motifs as formal flowers and cupids, in pink, blue, yellow green, and purplish black on white.
samadhi: ("total self-collectedness"), in Hindu and Buddhist religion and philosophy, the highest state of mental concentration that a person can achieve while still bound to the body and which unites him with the highest reality. Samadhi is a state of profound ...
Samal: Muslim cultural-linguistic group of the Philippines, numbering about 360,000 in the late 20th century. They live in the southern islands of the Sulu Archipelago, southwest of Mindanao, mainly in the Tawitawi island cluster. Like other Filipino Muslims, the Samal differ ...
Samana: city, northeastern Dominican Republic, on the southern shore of the Samana Peninsula. The city was founded in 1756 by Spaniards from the Canary Islands. In 1825 there was a notable influx of black immigrants from the United States. Samana serves ...
Samana Bay: bay located in the northeastern Dominican Republic and lying along the Mona Passage joining the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Bounded on the north by the Samana Peninsula, the bay measures about 40 miles (65 km) east-west and 15 ...
Samana Cay: islet, eastern Bahamas, 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Acklins Island. About 10 miles (16 km) long and up to 2 miles (3 km) wide and bound by reefs, the verdant cay has long been uninhabited, but figurines, pottery shards, ...
Samanid Dynasty: (AD 819-999), first native dynasty to arise in Iran after the Muslim Arab conquest. It was renowned for the impulse that it gave to Iranian national sentiment and learning.
Samaniego, Felix Maria: poet whose books of fables for schoolchildren have a grace and simplicity that has won them a place as the first poems that Spanish children learn to recite in school.
Samar: island, east-central Philippines, the third largest (after Luzon and Mindanao), part of the Visayas group. It lies between the Samar and Philippine seas and is separated from the Bicol Peninsula of Luzon (northwest) by the San Bernardino Strait. A bridge ...
Samara: city and administrative centre, west-central Samara oblast (region), western Russia. It lies along the Volga River at the latter's confluence with the Samara River. Founded in 1586 as a fortress protecting the Volga trade route, it soon ...
Samara: oblast (region), western Russia. It is located in the middle Volga River area where the river makes a great loop around the Zhiguli Hills. The hills, heavily forested and deeply dissected by ravines, rise to 1,214 feet ...
Samara River: river in Orenburg and Samara oblasti (provinces), western Russia, a left-bank tributary of the Volga. It rises in the southern Ural Mountains northwest of Pavlovka and flows 369 miles (594 km) generally west-northwest to join the Volga at Samara. The ...
Samaran: any member of a large ethnolinguistic group of the Philippines, living on Samar, eastern Leyte, and Biliran. Numbering about 2,840,000 in the late 20th century, they speak a Visayan (Bisayan) language of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family. Most Samaran are farmers, ...
Samaranch, Juan Antonio, marques de Samaranch: Spanish businessman and public official who served from 1980 to 2001 as the seventh president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Samaria: the central region of ancient Palestine. Samaria extends for about 40 miles (65 km) from north to south and 35 miles (56 km) from east to west. It is bounded by Galilee on the north and by Judaea on the ...
Samaria: ancient town in central Palestine. It is located on a hill northwest of Nabulus in the West Bank territory under Israeli administration since 1967. Excavations (1908-10; 1931-33; 1935) revealed that the site had been occupied occasionally during the late 4th ...
Samarinda: kotamadya (municipality), capital of East Kalimantan provinsi ("province"), eastern Borneo, Indonesia. It is on the Mahakam River, about 30 miles (48 km) above the mouth of its broad delta opening onto Makassar Strait. Samarinda is the centre of the extensive ...
Samaritan: member of a community of Jews, now nearly extinct, that claims to be related by blood to those Jews of ancient Samaria who were not deported by the Assyrian conquerors of the kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. The Samaritans ...
samarium: (Sm), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table. Samarium is silvery white in colour and is relatively stable in air. It was isolated as an impure oxide and spectroscopically identified as a new element (1879) ...
Samarkand: city in east-central Uzbekistan that is one of the oldest cities of Central Asia. In the 4th century BC, then known as Maracanda, it was the capital of Sogdiana and was captured (329) by Alexander the Great. The city was ...
Samarkand rug: handwoven floor covering that was once marketed through the ancient city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan but is actually produced by Kyrgyz or Uzbek tribeswomen or in the towns of Khotan (Ho-t'ien), Kashgar, and Yarkand in Sinkiang, China. Except for their ...
Samarkand ware: in Islamic ceramics, style originating in Samarkand province (now in Uzbekistan) that was at its height in the 10th century and had backgrounds of black, red, and creamy white with decorations in green, yellow, pink, and brown. The most famous, ...
Samaroff, Olga: American pianist who also found a successful and varied career as a music educator.
Samarra': town, central Iraq. Located on the Tigris River, it is the site of a prehistoric settlement of the 5th millennium BC. The town was founded between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD. In 836, when the 'Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim was ...
Samastipur: city, northern Bihar state, northeastern India. Samastipur lies just south of the Burhi Gandak River. A major rail hub with workshops, it engages in agricultural trade and has sugar refining as its chief industry. The city has a hospital and ...
Samawah, As-: city, southern Iraq. It is approximately 164 miles (266 km) south of Baghdad and is located on the Euphrates River. The city is the agricultural market centre of the locality, in which vineyards and orchards are cultivated. As-Samawah has a ...
Samaxi: city, east-central Azerbaijan. It is located 76 miles (122 km) west of Baku and is one of the oldest cities in the republic, dating from the 6th century AD, but the modern city was not incorporated until 1824. From the ...
samba: ballroom dance of Brazilian origin, popularized in western Europe and the United States in the early 1940s. Characterized by simple forward and backward steps and tilting, rocking body movements, it is danced to music in 44 time with syncopated rhythm. ...
sambal: in Indonesian and Malaysian cuisine, a spicy relish served as a side dish. The basic sambal consists of fresh chilis, shrimp paste (trassi), lime juice, sugar, and salt. Though most sambals are uncooked, a sambal goreng is fried. Numberless variations ...
Sambalpur: town, northwestern Orissa state, eastern India. The town is a commercial centre and rail terminus along the Mahanadi River. It has some industry, including the milling of rice, weaving, and metalworking. There are several colleges, a sacred Vaishnavite temple, and ...
sambar: (Cervus unicolor), widely distributed deer, family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla), found from India and Nepal eastward through Southeast Asia. The sambar live in forests, alone or in small groups. A large, relatively long-tailed deer, it stands 1.2-1.4 m (47-55 inches) at ...
Sambation: legendary "Sabbath River" beyond which the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were exiled in 721 BC by Shalmaneser V, king of Assyria. Legends describe it as a roaring torrent (often not of water but of stones), the turbulence of which ...
Sambhal: town, northwestern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies southwest of Moradabad town. Sambhal is an ancient settlement that was also important during the period of Muslim rule and was one of Sikandar Lodi's provincial capitals in the late 15th ...
Sambhar Salt Lake: ephemeral salt lake, the largest lake in India, situated in east-central Rajasthan state, west of Jaipur. About 90 square miles (230 square km) in area, it represents a depression of the Aravalli Range. The soluble sodium compounds stored in the ...
sambo: (Russian: "self-defense without weapons"), form of wrestling developed in the Soviet Union in the 1930s from elements of several Soviet regional styles. It is also practiced in Japan and Bulgaria. In 1964 it was recognized by the International Federation of ...
Samborombon Bay: bay of the South Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, Argentina, located 100 miles (160 km) southeast of the city of Buenos Aires. The bay arcs southwestward, southeastward, and then eastward for 85 miles (135 ...
Sambucuccio D'alando: Corsican revolutionary who, in collaboration with Genoa, led an uprising against the feudal Cinarca family and their overlord, James (IV) of Aragon.
Samch'onp'o: city, in South Kyongsang do (province), southern South Korea. Islands such as Ch'ongsan, Sinsu, and Nuk screen the city's deepwater port. Its industries, which were traditionally based on fishing and fish processing, were diversified during the 1970s. Pottery and tile ...
Samhain: (Celtic: "End of Summer"), one of the most important and sinister calendar festivals of the Celtic year. At Samhain, held on November 1, the world of the gods was believed to be made visible to mankind, and the gods played ...
Sami: any member of a people speaking the Sami language and inhabiting Lapland and adjacent areas of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The three Sami languages, which are mutually unintelligible, are sometimes considered ...
Sami language: any of three members of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family, spoken by the Sami (Lapp) people in northern Finland, Sweden, and Norway and on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The Sami languages, which are mutually unintelligible, are ...
samisen: long-necked, fretless Japanese lute with three strings, a small, square body with catskin front and back, and a curved-back pegbox with side pegs. It was derived from the similar Chinese san-hsien, the Ryukyu Islands version of which reached Japan in ...
samizdat: (from Russian sam, "self," and izdatelstvo, "publishing"), literature secretly written, copied, and circulated in the former Soviet Union and usually critical of practices of the Soviet government.
Samkhya: one of the six orthodox systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy (q.v.). Samkhya adopts a consistent dualism of the orders of matter (prakriti) and soul, or self (purusha). The two are originally separate, but in the course of evolution purusha mistakenly ...
Sammartini, Giovanni Battista: Italian composer who was an important formative influence on the pre-Classical symphony and thus on the Classical style later developed by Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Sammatiya: ancient Buddhist school or group of schools in India that held a distinctive theory concerning the pudgala, or person. They believed that though an individual does not exist independently from the five skandhas, or components that make up his personality, ...
Sammu-ramat: Assyrian queen who became a legendary heroine.
Samnite: a member of the ancient warlike tribes inhabiting the mountainous centre of southern Italy. These tribes, who spoke Oscan and were probably an offshoot of the Sabini, apparently referred to themselves not as Samnite but by the Oscan form of ...
Samoa: country in the central South Pacific Ocean, among the westernmost of the island nations of Polynesia.
Samoa: group of Polynesian islands and islets in the south-central Pacific Ocean about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) northeast of New Zealand. American Samoa, a dependency of the United States, consists of the six islands east of longitude 171° W, including Tutuila. ...