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Encyclopedias since 1768

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Ya'qub ibn Laith as-Saffar ... Yama

Ya'qub ibn Laith as-Saffar: founder of the Saffarid Empire, who rose from obscurity to rule much of present Iran as well as portions of Afghanistan and Pakistan; at one point he came close to capturing Baghdad, the seat of the caliph (the religious leader ...
Ya'qubi, al-: Arab historian and geographer, author of a history of the world, Ta'rikh ibn Wadih ("Chronicle of Ibn Wadih"), and a general geography, Kitab al-buldan ("Book of the Countries").
Ya-an: city in west-central Szechwan sheng (province), China. Ya-an is situated in the mountainous western border of the Szechwan Basin. It is a communications centre near the crossing of two main routes-one running west to K'ang-ting and to Tibet and another ...
Ya-lung River: long secondary tributary of the Yangtze River in central and southern China. The Ya-lung rises in the Pa-yen-k'a-la Mountains in Tsinghai Province at an elevation of nearly 16,500 feet (5,000 m). The upper stream flows southeastward to the south of ...
yab-yum: (Tibetan: "father-mother"), in Buddhist art of India, Nepal, and Tibet, the representation of the male deity in sexual embrace with his female consort. The pose is generally understood to represent the mystical union of the active force, or method (upaya, ...
Yablochkov, Pavel Nikolayevich: also called Paul Jablochkov Russian electrical engineer and inventor who developed the Yablochkov candle, the first arc lamp that was put to wide practical use and that greatly accelerated the development of electric lighting.
Yablonitsky Pass: pass in the outer eastern Carpathians of western Ukraine, an important route connecting the rest of the republic with the isolated Zakarpatskaya oblast (administrative region) and with northeastern Romania. The southern portion of the pass is formed by the valley ...
Yablonovy Range: mountain range in the Transbaikalia region of Chita oblast (province) and Buryatiya, in far eastern Russia. The range is some 500 miles (800 km) long northeast-southwest and reaches a maximum height of 5,512 feet (1,680 m) in Mount Kusotuy. Formed ...
yacht: a sail- or power-driven vessel, usually light and comparatively small, used for racing or for recreation. In recreation the term applies to very large craft, originally powered by sail and later by steam or internal-combustion engines. It is in this ...
yad: in Judaism, a ritual object, usually made of silver but sometimes of wood or other materials, that consists of a shaft affixed to a miniature representation of a hand with its index finger pointing. The yad is used optionally in ...
Yadava Dynasty: rulers of a 12th-14th-century Hindu kingdom of central India in what is the modern Indian state of Maharashtra. Originally a feudatory of the Eastern Calukyas of Kalyani, the dynasty became paramount in the Deccan under Bhillama (c. 1187-91), who founded ...
Yaddo: a working community of writers, composers, and visual artists, located on the outskirts of Saratoga Springs, New York, U.S. Yaddo is a nonprofit organization founded in 1900 by New York financier Spencer Trask (1844-1909), his wife, the writer Kate, or ...
Yadin, Yigael: original name Yigael Sukenik Israeli archaeologist and military leader noted for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Yagoda, Genrikh Grigoryevich: head of the Soviet secret police under Stalin from 1934 to 1936 and a central figure in the purge trials.
yahrzeit: in Judaism, the anniversary of the death of a parent or close relative, most commonly observed by burning a candle for an entire day. On the anniversary, a male (or female, in Reform and Conservative congregations) usually recites the Qaddish ...
Yahweh: the God of the Israelites, his name being revealed to Moses as four Hebrew consonants (YHWH) called the tetragrammaton. After the Exile (6th century BC), and especially from the 3rd century BC on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh ...
Yahya: Zaydi imam of Yemen from 1904 to 1948.
Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti: Muslim painter and illustrator who produced work of originality and excellence. He was the outstanding painter of the Baghdad school of illustration, which blended Turkish art and native Christian (probably Jacobite or Syriac Monophysite) painting in a lively Islamic syncretism.
Yahya Khan, Agha Mohammad: president of Pakistan (1969-71), a professional soldier who became commander in chief of the Pakistani armed forces in 1966.
Yahya Sobh-e Azal, Mirza: half brother of Baha' Ullah (the founder of the Baha'i faith) and leader of his own Babist movement in the mid-19th century Ottoman Empire.
Yaizu: city, Shizuoka ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the west coast of Suruga Bay. Since the Tokugawa era (1603-1867), Yaizu has been one of the important coastal fishing ports for tuna, bonito, skipjack, and mackerel. Canning and freezing plants operate there. ...
yajna: (Sanskrit: "sacrifice, offering"), in Hinduism, worship based on rites prescribed in the earliest scriptures of ancient India, the Vedas, in contrast to puja (q.v.), which may include image worship and devotional practices non-Vedic in origin.
Yajuj and Majuj: in Islamic eschatology, two hostile forces who will ravage the Earth before the end of the world. The Qur'an relates that a certain people terrorized by Yajuj and Majuj induced Alexander the Great to construct a great wall between them. ...
Yajurveda: collection of mantras (sacred formulas) and verses that forms part of the ancient sacred literature of India known as the Vedas. See Veda.
yak: long-haired, short-legged oxlike mammal that was probably domesticated in Tibet but has been introduced wherever there are people at elevations of 4,000-6,000 metres (14,000-20,000 feet), mainly in China but also in Central Asia, Mongolia, and Nepal.
Yaka: a people inhabiting the wooded plateau and savanna areas between the Kwango and Wamba rivers in southwestern Congo (Kinshasa) directly bordering Angola on the west. Their origins are not certain, and Yaka is now a tribal name given to the ...
Yakima: city, seat (1886) of Yakima county, south-central Washington, U.S., on the Yakima River. In 1884 the Northern Pacific Railway selected the site of Yakima City (now Union Gap) as a construction headquarters. This plan was abandoned and a new settlement, ...
Yakima: Sahaptian-speaking Indian tribe that lived along the Columbia, Yakima, and Wenatchee rivers in south-central Washington. They were members of the Plateau culture area and were primarily salmon fishers.
Yakima River: river, south-central Washington, U.S., rising in the Cascade Range, near Snoqualmie Pass. It flows southeastward about 200 miles (320 km) past Ellensburg and Yakima to join the Columbia River near Kennewick in Benton county. The Yakima and its tributaries irrigate ...
Yako: people of the Cross River region of eastern Nigeria; they speak Luko, a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family.
Yakovlev, Aleksandr Sergeyevich: aircraft designer noted for his series of Yak aircraft, most of them fighters used by the Soviet Union in World War II.
yaksha: in the mythology of India, a class of generally benevolent nature spirits who are the custodians of treasures that are hidden in the earth and in the roots of trees. Principal among the yakshas is Kubera (q.v.), who rules in ...
Yakub Beg: Tajik adventurer who entered northwest China in 1864 and through a series of military and political maneuvers took advantage of the anti-Chinese uprisings of its Muslim inhabitants to establish himself as head of the kingdom of Kashgaria. Expanding northward in ...
Yakushi-ji: temple complex dedicated to Yakushi, the Healing Buddha, in Nara, Japan. It was established about 690 outside Nara, and in 718 it was refounded within the city. The only one of the original buildings to have survived is the three-storied ...
Yakutsk: city and capital of Sakha republic (Yakutia), in far northeastern Russia, on the Lena River. A fort was founded on the Lena's low right bank in 1632 and transferred 43 miles (70 km) upstream to the present site of Yakutsk ...
yakuza: in Japan, gangster, a member of a boryokudan (q.v.), or gang of racketeers. The word yakuza, which has come to mean "good for nothing," is derived from a worthless hand in a Japanese card game similar to blackjack: the cards ...
Yala: town, extreme southern Thailand. Yala is a modern commercial centre on the Pattani River, which flows north into the Gulf of Thailand. The town is also located on the Bangkok-Singapore railway and the Pattani-George Town (Penang [Malaysia]) highway. The population ...
Yale school: group of literary critics at Yale University, who became known in the 1970s and '80s for their deconstructionist theories. The Yale school's skeptical, relativistic brand of criticism drew inspiration from the work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Its most prominent ...
Yale University: private university in New Haven, Conn., one of the Ivy League schools. It was founded in 1701 and is the third oldest university in the United States. Yale was originally chartered by the colonial legislature of Connecticut as the Collegiate ...
Yale, Caroline: American educator of the deaf and longtime principal of the Clarke School for the Deaf.
Yale, Elihu: English merchant, official of the East India Company, and benefactor of Yale University. Although born in Massachusetts, Yale was taken to England by his family at the age of three, and he never returned to America. He was educated at ...
Yale, Frankie: American gangster and national president, during its heyday (1918-28), of the Unione Siciliane, a Sicilian fraternal organization that by World War I had become a crime cartel operating in several U.S. cities and active in robbery, prostitution, labour-union extortion, and ...
Yale, Linus: American inventor and designer of the compact cylinder pin-tumbler lock that bears his name.
Yalow, Rosalyn S.: American medical physicist and joint recipient (with Andrew V. Schally and Roger Guillemin) of the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, awarded for her development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA), an extremely sensitive technique for measuring minute quantities of biologically ...
Yalta: city, Crimea, southern Ukraine. It faces the Black Sea on the southern shore of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlement on the site dates from prehistoric times, but modern Yalta developed only in the early 19th century, becoming a town in 1838. ...
Yalta Conference: (Feb. 4-11, 1945), major World War II conference of the three chief Allied leaders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union (see ), which ...
Yalu River: river that forms the northwestern boundary between North Korea and the Northeast Region (Manchuria) of China. The Chinese provinces of Kirin and Liaoning are bordered by the river. Its length is estimated to be 491 miles (790 km), and it ...
yam: any of several plant species of the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae), native to warmer regions of both hemispheres. A number of species are cultivated for food in the tropics; in certain tropical cultures, notably of West Africa and New Guinea, ...
Yama: in Tibetan Buddhism, one of the eight fierce protective deities. See dharmapala.
yama: (Sanskrit: "restraint"), in the Yoga system of Indian philosophy, first of the eight stages intended to lead the aspirant to samadhi, or state of perfect concentration. An ethical preparation, meant to purify the individual, yama involves the abstinence from injury ...
Yama: in the mythology of India, the lord of death. The Vedas describe him as the first man who died, blazing the path of mortality down which all men have since followed. He is the guardian of the south (the region ...