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  • karajishi (Chinese ornament)
    ...be seen in Japan, but their function is always the same: to divide the sacred precincts from the secular area. A pair of sacred stone animals called komainu (“Korean dogs”) or karajishi (“Chinese lions”) are placed in front of a shrine. Originally they served to protect the sacred buildings from evil and defilements. After the 9th century they were used...
  • Karak (ancient Korean tribal league)
    tribal league that was formed sometime before the 3rd century ad in the area west of the Naktong River in southern Korea. The traditional date for the founding of the confederation is given as ad 42, but this is considered to be highly unreliable. The confederation was sometimes known as Karak after its largest single unit....
  • Karak, Al- (Jordan)
    town, west-central Jordan. It lies along the Wadi Al-Karak, 15 miles (24 km) east of the Dead Sea. Built on a small, steep-walled butte about 3,100 feet (950 metres) above sea level, the town is the Qir-hareseth, or Qir-heres, of the Old Testament and was one of the capitals of ancient Moab. Its ancient name means “...
  • Karakalpak (people)
    ...likely that the Aral Sea could disappear within 20 to 30 years, leaving a large desert in its place. The health costs to people living in the area were beginning to emerge. Hardest hit were the Karakalpaks, who live in the southern portion of the region. Exposed seabeds led to dust storms that blew across the region, carrying a toxic dust contaminated with salt, fertilizer, and pesticides.......
  • Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (republic, Uzbekistan)
    autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, situated southeast and southwest of the Aral Sea....
  • Karakalpak language
    ...many Turkic peoples and the relative absence of geographic barriers to communication has resulted in a high degree of similarity and hence mutual intelligibility among most of the languages; Kyrgyz, Karakalpak, and Kazakh in particular are linguistically much alike. (See Turkic languages article and table.)...
  • Karakalpakiya (republic, Uzbekistan)
    autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, situated southeast and southwest of the Aral Sea....
  • Karakalpakstan (republic, Uzbekistan)
    autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, situated southeast and southwest of the Aral Sea....
  • Karakam (Indian folk dance)
    Of the endless variety of ritualistic folk dances, many have magical significance and are connected with ancient cults. The karakam dance of Tamil Nadu state, mainly performed on the annual festival in front of the image of Māriyammai (goddess of pestilence), is to deter her from unleashing an epidemic. Tumbling and leaping, the dancer retains on his head without touching it a pot......
  • Karakax River (river, Asia)
    The oasis of Hotan, the largest of these, includes Karakax (Moyu), to the northwest, and Luopu (Lop), to the east. The oasis is watered by the Karakax (Kalakashi) and Yurungkax (Yulongkashi) rivers, which flow from the high Kunlun Mountains to the south. They join in the north of the oasis to form the Hotan (Khotan) River, which discharges into the desert to the north. The rivers have their......
  • Karakhan, Lev M. (Soviet diplomat)
    By mid-1923 the Soviets had decided to renew the effort to establish diplomatic relations with the Beijing government. Lev M. Karakhan, the deputy commissar for foreign affairs, was chosen as plenipotentiary for the negotiations. In addition to negotiating a treaty of mutual recognition, Karakhan was to try to regain for the Soviet Union control of the Chinese Eastern Railway. On the......
  • Karakhan Manifesto (China-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [1919])
    manifesto issued on July 25, 1919, by Lev Karakhan, a member of the foreign ministry of the newly formed Soviet republic, in which he offered to relinquish all Soviet claims to the special rights and privileges won by the Russian tsarist government in China. The proposal, even after it was later somewhat modified, created a favourable impression in China; it was the first unilateral expression of...
  • Karakhanid dynasty (Asian history)
    Turkic dynasty (999–1211) that ruled in Transoxania in Central Asia....
  • Karakhitan state (Central Asian dynasty)
    founder and first emperor (1124–43) of the Xi (Western) Liao dynasty (1124–1211) of Central Asia....
  • karakia (song)
    ...(somewhere between song and chant, performed by women welcoming or farewelling visitors on the marae). Some chants are recited rather than sung. These include karakia (forms of incantation invoking a power to protect or to assist the chanter), paatere (chants by women in rebuttal of gossip or slander, asserting the......
  • Karakitai dynasty (Central Asian dynasty)
    founder and first emperor (1124–43) of the Xi (Western) Liao dynasty (1124–1211) of Central Asia....
  • Karaklis (Armenia)
    city, northern Armenia. It lies at the confluence of the Pambak, Tandzut, and Vanadzoriget rivers. In 1826 the villages of Bolshoy and Maly Karaklis were merged into the town of Karaklis. Construction of the Tiflis-Karaklis-Alexandropol railway at the end of the 19th century speeded the town’s development. In 1935 the name of Karaklis was officially changed to Kirovakan to honour...
  • Karakoƈ, Sezai (Turkish poet)
    Among the poets of the latter half of the 20th century, Sezai Karakoç blended European and Ottoman sensibilities with a right-wing Islamist perspective. His poetry collections include Körfez (1959; “The Gulf”) and Şiirler VI (1980; “Poems VI”). Karakoç also published numerous essays on Islam. ...
  • Karakol (Kyrgyzstan)
    city, eastern Ysyk-köl oblasty (province), Kyrgyzstan, at the northern foot of the Teriskey Alatau (Teskey Ala) Mountains at an elevation of 5,807 feet (1,770 metres) on the Karakol River. The city was founded in 1869 as a Russian military and administrative outpost; it was twice renamed for the Russian explorer Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przheva...
  • Karakoram Highway (road, Asia)
    roadway that connects Kashgar, China, with Islāmābād, Pak. The road, which took almost 20 years (1959–78) to complete, extends for about 500 miles (800 km) through some of the most rugged and inaccessible terrain in Asia; it runs through or near the Hindu Kush, the Kunlun Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and the northernmost Himalayas....
  • Karakoram Pass (mountain pass, Asia)
    ...of Tibet. With elevations up to 24,000 feet, the central part of the range forms an almost impenetrable barrier to movement from north to south. There are passes on the west and east such as the Karakoram in Jammu and Kashmir and the K’u-erh-kan in Sinkiang. In the east the A-erh-chin Mountains turn northeast and eventually merge with the Tsou-lang-nan Mountains in southern Kansu Provinc...
  • Karakoram Range (mountains, Asia)
    great mountain system extending some 300 miles (500 kilometres) from the easternmost extension of Afghanistan in a southeasterly direction along the watershed between Central and South Asia. Found there are the greatest concentration of high mountains in the world and the longest glaciers outside the high latitudes. The borders of Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, ...
  • Karakorum (ancient site, Mongolia)
    ancient capital of the Mongol empire, whose ruins lie on the upper Orhon River in north-central Mongolia....
  • Karakorum Shan (mountains, Asia)
    great mountain system extending some 300 miles (500 kilometres) from the easternmost extension of Afghanistan in a southeasterly direction along the watershed between Central and South Asia. Found there are the greatest concentration of high mountains in the world and the longest glaciers outside the high latitudes. The borders of Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, ...
  • Karaköse (Turkey)
    city, in the highlands of eastern Turkey. It lies 5,380 feet (1,640 metres) above sea level in the valley of the Murat River, a tributary of the Euphrates River. The town is a centre for trade in livestock and livestock products and is a transit station on the main highway from Turkey to Iran....
  • Karakoyunlular (Turkmen tribal federation)
    Turkmen tribal federation that ruled Azerbaijan and Iraq from about 1375 to 1468....
  • Karakozov, Dmitry Valadimirovich (Russian revolutionary)
    ...and the beginnings of a revolutionary movement. The government, after 1862, had reacted increasingly with repressive police measures. A climax was reached in the spring of 1866, when Dmitry Karakozov, a young revolutionary, attempted to kill the emperor. Alexander—who bore himself gallantly in the face of great danger—escaped almost by a miracle. The attempt, however, left......
  • Karakul (breed of sheep)
    sheep breed of central or west Asian origin, raised chiefly for the skins of very young lambs, which are covered with glossy, tightly curled black coats and are called Persian lamb in the fur trade. The wool of mature Karakul sheep, classified as carpet wool, is a mixture of coarse and fine fibres, from 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) long, of colours varying fro...
  • Karakul hat (clothing)
    ...women sometimes wear the burqa, a full-length garment that may or may not cover the face. In earlier generations, the fez hat was popular among Muslim men, but more often the woolen, boat-shaped Karakul hat (popularized by Mohammed Ali Jinnah) is associated with Pakistan; however, many other hat styles are worn, especially in tribal areas. Western clothes are popular among the urban young,......
  • Karakul, Lake (lake, Tajikistan)
    The few lakes in Tajikistan lie mostly in the Pamir region; the largest is Lake Karakul, lying at an elevation of about 13,000 feet. Lake Sarez was formed in 1911 during an earthquake, when a colossal landslide dammed the Murgab River. The Zeravshan Range contains Iskanderkul, which, like most of the country’s lakes, is of glacial origin....
  • Karakum Canal (canal, Turkmenistan)
    waterway in Turkmenistan. The main section, begun in 1954 and completed in 1967, runs some 520 miles (840 km) from the Amu Darya (river) to Gökdepe, west of Ashgabat, skirting the Karakum Desert. In the 1970s and ’80s the canal was extended to the Caspian Sea coast, making the total length 870 miles (1,400 km). Water from the canal, which is navigable for 280 miles (450 km), is used...
  • Karakum Desert (desert, Turkmenistan)
    great sandy region in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent of the area of Turkmenistan. Another, smaller desert in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea is called the Aral Karakum....
  • Karakumsky Kanal (canal, Turkmenistan)
    waterway in Turkmenistan. The main section, begun in 1954 and completed in 1967, runs some 520 miles (840 km) from the Amu Darya (river) to Gökdepe, west of Ashgabat, skirting the Karakum Desert. In the 1970s and ’80s the canal was extended to the Caspian Sea coast, making the total length 870 miles (1,400 km). Water from the canal, which is navigable for 280 miles (450 km), is used...
  • Karakumy Priaralskiye (desert, Kazakstan)
    great sandy region in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent of the area of Turkmenistan. Another, smaller desert in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea is called the Aral Karakum....
  • karakurt (spider)
    any of several species of black spiders distinguished by an hourglass-shaped marking on the abdomen. Black widows, especially L. mactans, are found throughout much of the world. The bite of the black widow often produces muscle pain, nausea, and mild paralysis of the diaphragm, which makes breathing difficult. Most victims recover without serious com...
  • Karaman (historical principality, Anatolia)
    ...Islāmic and Turkish base for his domain, Bayezid began to widen Ottoman suzerainty over the Turkish-Muslim rulers in Anatolia. He annexed various Turkmen emirates in Anatolia and defeated the Karaman emirate at Akçay (1397). These conquests brought Bayezid into conflict with the Central Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), who claimed suzerainty over the Anatolian Turkmen rulers and...
  • Karamanli, Aḥmed (Karamanli ruler)
    ...was governed from Tripoli and included the whole of present-day Libya. In 1711 the province underwent a change similar to the one that Tunisia had experienced in 1705, when the chief of the cavalry, Aḥmad Karamanli, usurped power and established his own dynasty. The Karamanlis ruled Libya until 1835 when, in the wake of a tribal rebellion supported by the British, direct Ottoman rule was...
  • Karamanlis, Konstantinos (Greek statesman)
    Greek statesman who was prime minister from 1955 to 1963 and again from 1974 to 1980. He then served as president from 1980 to 1985 and from 1990 to 1995. Karamanlis gave Greece competent government and political stability while his conservative economic policies stimulated economic growth. In 1974–75 he successfully restored democracy and constitutional government in Greece after the rule ...
  • Karamanlis, Kostas (prime minister of Greece)
    Greek politician who became prime minister of Greece in 2004....
  • karāmāt (Islamic mysticism)
    ...power and whose role as a strict judge was emphasized repeatedly, there emerged a desire for intercessors. These were found in saintly men who were believed to be endowed with charismatic powers (karāmāt), allowing them to go miraculously from one place to another far away; to wield authority over animals, plants, and clouds; and to bridge the gap between life and death. Th...
  • Karamat, Jehangir (Pakistani general)
    ...expenditures had gone unchecked, as profligate spending on the regime’s pet projects caused more severe economic dislocation. With ethnic strife continuing unabated, Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, spoke for a frustrated public when he appeared to indicate the country was teetering at the abyss. However, Karamat’s role in the political process angered...
  • Karamay (China)
    city, northern Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, far northwestern China. Located in the Junggar (Dzungarian) Basin, it is about 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Ürümqi (Urumchi), the provincial capital....
  • Karamayi (China)
    city, northern Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, far northwestern China. Located in the Junggar (Dzungarian) Basin, it is about 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Ürümqi (Urumchi), the provincial capital....
  • Karambar Pass (mountain pass, Asia)
    The eastern limit of the Hindu Kush is difficult to determine because of a locally complex topography, although the Karambar Pass (14,250 feet [4,343 metres]) between the valleys of the Konar (called the Kunar or Chitral in Pakistan) and Gilgit rivers may be tentatively accepted as the boundary. The western limit also is uncertain, as the mountains lose height and fan out into minor ranges in......
  • Karami, Rashid (prime minister of Lebanon)
    ...of his term. In 1968–69 a pattern emerged in which the Christian president and the army command opposed the stationing of Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon, while the Muslim prime minister, Rashid Karami, favoured it. Under great pressure from Arab nations and from Lebanese Muslims, Hélou in 1969 moved to avert a crisis by accepting Karami’s proposed policy of coordination....
  • Karamojong (people)
    eastern Nilotic pastoral people of northeastern Uganda. The Karimojong are the largest of a cluster of culturally and historically related peoples, including the Jie, Teso, Dodoth (or Dodos), and Labwor of Uganda and the Turkana of neighbouring Kenya. They speak an Eastern Nilotic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family....
  • Karamzin, Nikolay Mikhaylovich (Russian author)
    Russian historian, poet, and journalist who was the leading exponent of the sentimentalist school in Russian literature....
  • Karan, Donna (American designer)
    Internationally acclaimed fashion designer Donna Karan captured the spotlight in 1993 both with her mix-and-match clothing in soft fabrics and neutral colours and with the public offering of shares--worth more than $160 million--in her company, Donna Karan Co. The nine-year-old concern was initially bankrolled with a $3 million investment, and its explosive growth provided testament to the popular...
  • karaṇa ṣarīra (Hinduism)
    ...seat of judgment, where it is sentenced to a strictly limited term in heaven (svarga) or hell (naraka) according to its deserts. This completed, it moves into another body (the karaṇa ṡarīra), whose form depends on the individual’s karman. It could be a plant, a cockroach, a canine intestinal parasite, a mouse, or a human being. Unlike Jai...
  • Karaṇakutūhala (work by Bhāskara II)
    In other of his works, notably Siddhāntaśiromaṇi (“Head Jewel of Accuracy”) and Karaṇakutūhala (“Calculation of Astronomical Wonders”), he wrote on his astronomical observations of planetary positions, conjunctions, eclipses, cosmography, geography, and the mathematical techniques and astronomical......
  • karanga (song)
    ...attached to flax strings, swung rhythmically), oriori (songs composed for young children of chiefly or warrior descent, to help them learn their heritage), and karanga (somewhere between song and chant, performed by women welcoming or farewelling visitors on the marae). Some chants are recited rather than sung. These......
  • Karanga (people)
    ...for more than 10 centuries. Those who speak Ndebele are concentrated in a circle around Bulawayo, with Shona-speaking peoples beyond them on all sides—the Kalanga to the southwest, the Karanga to the east around Nyanda (formerly Fort Victoria), the Zezuru to the northeast, and the Rozwi and Tonga to the north. Generations of intermarriage have to a degree blurred the linguistic......
  • Karanga language (language)
    ...12th centuries cite a few words that are probably taken from Niger-Congo languages, the earliest clearly identifiable words are found in Portuguese records in 1506. These words probably come from Karanga, a southeastern Bantu language. From then on eastern Bantu words and phrases occur in Portuguese records, and in 1523 a vocabulary that resembles modern Akan from Ghana was also recorded. In......
  • Karankawa (people)
    several groups of North American Indians that lived along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, from about Galveston Bay to Corpus Christi Bay. They were first encountered by the French explorer La Salle in the late 17th century, and their rapid decline began with the arrival of Stephen Austin and other white settlers in the 1820s and 1830s. The Karankawa fought on the side of the Texans...
  • Karanqa (people)
    ...to have controlled any outliers of their own on the Amazonic slope. Their main puna farms and most of their subjects lived above 12,000 feet, and their camelid herds were pastured even higher. The Karanqa also controlled corn (maize) fields at less lofty altitudes in what today is Chilean territory, several days’ walk away. Farther west and closer to the coast were their fruit and coca-l...
  • Karaðorðe (Serbian political leader)
    leader of the Serbian people in their struggle for independence from the Turks and founder of the Karadjordjević (Karageorgević, or Karađorđevići) dynasty....
  • Karaðorðević dynasty (Serbian history)
    rulers descended from the Serbian rebel leader Karadjordje (Karageorge, or Karađorđe). It rivaled the Obrenović dynasty for control of Serbia during the 19th century and ruled that country as well as its successor state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (called Yugoslavia after 1929), in 1842–58 and 1903–45....
  • Karaðorðevići, Aleksandar (prince of Serbia)
    prince of Serbia from 1842 to 1858....
  • Karaðorðevići dynasty (Serbian history)
    rulers descended from the Serbian rebel leader Karadjordje (Karageorge, or Karađorđe). It rivaled the Obrenović dynasty for control of Serbia during the 19th century and ruled that country as well as its successor state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (called Yugoslavia after 1929), in 1842–58 and 1903–45....
  • Karaosmanoğlu, Yakup Kadri (Turkish author)
    writer and translator, one of the most renowned figures in modern Turkish literature, noted for vigorous studies of 20th-century Turkish life....
  • Karası (Turkmen ruler)
    Founded by Karası, a frontier ruler under Seljuq suzerainty, the principality had two branches, with their respective centres in Balıkesir and Bergama (Pergamum). Of the sons of Karası, Demirhan was defeated by the Ottoman ruler Orhan, and Balıkesir was annexed (c. 1345). The coastal region of Çanakkale-Troy was ruled by Karası Süleyman. His....
  • Karası dynasty (Turkmen dynasty)
    Turkmen dynasty (c. 1300–60) that ruled in the Balıkesir-Çanakkale region of western Anatolia....
  • Karasu (river, Asia)
    The headwaters of the Euphrates are the Murat and the Karasu rivers in the Armenian Highland of northeastern Turkey. Considerably altered in the 20th century by water-control projects, they join to form the Euphrates at Keban, near Elazığ, where the Keban Dam, completed in 1974, spans a deep gorge. The river breaks through the Taurus Mountains and descends to the high plain of......
  • Karasu, Bilge (Turkish writer)
    Beginning with Troyaʿda olüm vardı (1963; Death in Troy), Bilge Karasu created works that display a sophisticated narrative style. Among his novels and novellas are Uzun sürmüş bir günün akşamı (1970; “The Evening of One Long Day”), ......
  • Karasuk culture (archaeology)
    Dating from about 1200 to about 70 bc—the dawn of the Iron and historical age—the Karasuk culture was located in the Minusinsk Basin, on the Yenisey River and on the upper reaches of the Ob River. Its creators must have been in touch with East Asia, for certain bronze objects, notably elbow-shaped knives, are related to those used between the 14th and 11th centuries ...
  • karat (gold measurement)
    a measure of the fineness (i.e., purity) of gold. It is spelled carat outside the United States but should not be confused with the unit used to measure the weight of gems, also called carat. A gold karat is 124 part, or 4.1667 percent, of the whole, and the purity of a gold alloy is expressed as the number of these parts of gold ...
  • Karataş-Semayük (ancient site, Turkey)
    Fortified sites—whether single buildings, villages, towns, or palaces—were the norm. A single building at Karataş-Semayük was defended by a ditch, a plastered rampart, and an enclosure wall. Villages such as Demirci Hüyük relied on the outer wall of a radial arrangement of houses. The town of Poliochni on the island of Lemnos was protected by a stone wall ...
  • karate (martial art)
    unarmed martial-arts discipline employing kicking, striking, and defensive blocking with arms and legs. Emphasis is on concentrating as much of the body’s power as possible at the point and instant of impact. Striking surfaces include the hands (particularly the knuckles and the outer edge), ball of the foot, heel, forearm, knee, and elbow. All are toughened by practice blows against padded...
  • Karatepe (archaeological site, Turkey)
    (Turkish: “Black Hill”), site of a Late Hittite fortress city, located in the piedmont country of the Taurus Mountains in south-central Turkey. The city, dating from the 8th century bc, was discovered in 1945 by Helmuth T. Bossert and Halet Çambel. It was built with a polygonal fortress wall and an upper and lower gateway of ...
  • Karatkyevich, Vladimir (Belarusian writer)
    ...and Arkadi Kulyashov and the prose writers Yanka Bryl, Ivan Shamyakin, and Ivan Melezh. The 1960s marked the tentative beginnings of yet another national revival with the novels of Vasil Bykov and Uladzimir Karatkievich. Among younger writers, the poets Yawhyeniya Yanishchyts and Ales Razanov and the short-story writer Anatol Sys should be noted....
  • Karatsu (Japan)
    city, Saga ken (prefecture), northern Kyushu, Japan. Located about 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Fukuoka, it faces Karatsu Bay. Its name is derived from the Japanese terms kara (referring to China) and tsu...
  • Karatsu ware (Japanese art)
    Japanese ceramic ware of Korean origin produced in Kyushu. The actual date of production is thought to be sometime during the first half of the 16th century, in the late Muromachi period....
  • Karatygin, Vasily (Russian actor)
    The preponderance of Mochalov’s career was spent at Moscow’s Maly Theatre, and he was invariably compared to his St. Petersburg rival, Vasily Karatygin (1802–53). Where Mochalov enacted emotional tirades and temperamental passions, Karatygin reflected studied subtleties and calculated effects; where Mochalov was intuitive, active, and resounding, Karatygin was technical, poise...
  • Karavanke (mountains, Europe)
    mountain range of the Eastern Alps, extending eastward along the Slovenian-Austrian border for 50 miles (80 km) from the town of Tarvisio in Italy. The range lies between the Drava River (north) and the upper Sava River (south) and rises to Hochstuhl (7,342 feet [2,238 m]) in the eastern part. The Karawanken, consisting mainly of limestone, is crossed by road at Wurzen, Loibl, and Seeberg passes. ...
  • Karavelov, Lyuben Stoychev (Bulgarian revolutionary and writer)
    Bulgarian writer and revolutionary who contributed to the national reawakening of Bulgaria....
  • Karavelov, Petko (Bulgarian officer)
    ...opponents, dismissed the Russians, restored the constitution, and accepted a Conservative-Liberal coalition government, but the coalition was soon supplanted by an entirely Liberal government under Petko Karavelov....
  • Karawanken (mountains, Europe)
    mountain range of the Eastern Alps, extending eastward along the Slovenian-Austrian border for 50 miles (80 km) from the town of Tarvisio in Italy. The range lies between the Drava River (north) and the upper Sava River (south) and rises to Hochstuhl (7,342 feet [2,238 m]) in the eastern part. The Karawanken, consisting mainly of limestone, is crossed by road at Wurzen, Loibl, and Seeberg passes. ...
  • Karaween (mosque and university, Fès, Morocco)
    mosque and Islāmic university in Fès, Morocco....
  • Karay Beg (Uzbek leader)
    ...Mongols (13th–14th centuries ce), most of the territory was part of the ulus (“polity”) of Chagatai. About 1465, under the leadership of Karay and Jani Beg, some 200,000 dissatisfied subjects of the Uzbek khan Abūʾl-Khayr (Abū al-Khayr) moved into Mughulistān, whose khan, Esen Bogha (Buga), se...
  • Karay, Refik Halid (Turkish writer)
    Refik Halid Karay was a journalist who became one of the leading short-story writers in Turkey. His political columns, mainly of a satirical nature, appeared between 1910 and 1913 in various journals; they were published under the pen name Kirpi (“The Porcupine”) and were collected in Kirpinin dedikleri (1919; “What the Porcupine Said”). Many of his columns...
  • Karayazici Abdülhalim (Turkish rebel)
    In 1598 a sekban leader, Karayazici Abdülhalim (ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm), united the dissatisfied groups in Anatolia, forcing the towns to pay tribute and dominating the Sivas and Dulkadir provinces in central Anatolia. When Ottoman forces were sent against them the Jelālīs withdrew to Urfa in southeastern Anatolia, making it the centre of resistance. Karayaz...
  • Karayev, Kara (Azerbaijani composer)
    ...widely attended. Some of Azerbaijan’s composers, notably Uzeir Hajjibekov (the operas Ker-Ogly and Leyli and Mejnūn and the operetta Arshin Mal ʾAlan) and Kara Karayev (the ballets Seven Beauties and The Path of Thunder), have international reputations. The latter’s symphonic music is also well known abroad....
  • Karbalāʾ (Iraq)
    city, capital of Karbalāʾ muḥāfaẓah (governorate), central Iraq. One of Shīʿite Islam’s foremost holy cities, it lies 55 miles (88 km) southwest of Baghdad, with which it is connected by rail....
  • Karbalāʾ, Battle of (Islamic history)
    (Oct. 10, 680 [10th of Muharram, ah 61]), brief military engagement in which a small party led by al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and son of ʿAlī, the fourth caliph, was defeated and massacred by an army sent by the Umayyad caliph Yazīd I. The battle helped secure t...
  • Karbaschi, Gholamhussein (Iranian politician)
    ...following the end of the war, largely owing to economic and political reform under Pres. Hashemi Rafsanjani and Pres. Mohammad Khatami. The 1990s saw radical improvements to the city itself under Gholamhussein Karbaschi, a strong but rather controversial mayor. As Karbaschi assumed his post in 1989, Tehrān’s fragmentation and overcrowding had reached such a level of crisis proport...
  • Karbi language
    ...also Chairel) in Manipur, India, and adjacent Myanmar resemble Kachin; Nung (including Rawang and Trung) in Kachin state in Myanmar and in Yunnan province, China, has similarities with Kachin; and Mikir in Assam, as well as Mru and Meithei in India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, seem close to Kukish....
  • Karchedon (ancient city, Tunisia)
    great city of antiquity, traditionally founded on the north coast of Africa by the Phoenicians of Tyre in 814 bc. It is now a residential suburb of the city of Tunis. Its Phoenician name means New Town....
  • Kardar, Abdul Hafeez (Pakistani athlete and diplomat)
    Indian-born Pakistani cricketer and politician who played three Test matches for India and led Pakistan in 23 Tests after partition (1947); he retired from the game in 1957 with a first-class career total of 6,814 runs (including eight centuries), then served on the Pakistani national cricket board and held office as a member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly, a federal government minister, and am...
  • Kardelj, Edvard (Yugoslavian revolutionary)
    Yugoslav revolutionary and politician, a close colleague and chosen successor of Josip Broz Tito. He was the chief ideological theoretician of Yugoslav Marxism, or Titoism....
  • Karder (Zoroastrian priest)
    influential high priest of Zoroastrianism, whose aim was to purge Iran of all other religions, especially the eclectic Manichaeism founded by the 3rd-century Persian prophet Mani. What little is known of Kartēr comes from inscriptions on cliff faces, mostly dating from the reign of Shāpūr I (241–272). On more than 700 cliffs he proclaimed the fundamental doctrines of th...
  • Kardiner, Abram (American scholar)
    ...relations studies after World War II. Harold D. Lasswell, for example, explored the relationships between world politics and the psychological realm of symbols, perceptions, and images; Abram Kardiner and his associates laid the groundwork for an approach, based on a branch of anthropology known as culture-and-personality studies, that later became a popular but short-lived theory......
  • Kardis, Peace of (Sweden-Russia [1661])
    (1661), peace settlement between Russia and Sweden, ending the war begun in 1656 and maintaining the territorial accords of the earlier Treaty of Stolbovo. See Stolbovo, Treaty of....
  • Kardzhali (Bulgaria)
    town, south-central Bulgaria, in a broad valley on the Arda River between the Kŭrdzhali and Studen Kladenets dams, both important hydroelectric power and irrigation stations. The town became part of Bulgaria after the 1912–13 Balkan Wars....
  • kare sansui (landscaping)
    ...(compiled in 1476). As a landscape gardener, he designed two of the most celebrated Zen temple gardens in Japan: the Ryōan Temple garden, in Kyōto, an outstanding example of kare sansui, a dry landscape technique in which combinations of stones and sand are used to suggest mountains and water; and the Daisei-in garden, a miniature reproduction of a natural landscape,......
  • Kare, Susan (American graphic designer)
    Software for Apple’s 1984 Macintosh computer, such as the MacPaint™ program by computer programmer Bill Atkinson and graphic designer Susan Kare, had a revolutionary human interface. Tool icons controlled by a mouse or graphics tablet enabled designers and artists to use computer graphics in an intuitive manner. The Postscript™ page-description language from Adobe Systems, Inc...
  • Karekin I, Catholicos (Armenian patriarch)
    patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church who was credited with reinvigorating his church after the fall of the Soviet Union and with improving its relationship with the Roman Catholic Church; after spending time at a seminary in Beirut, Lebanon, he studied theology at the University of Oxford (1957–59). He was consecrated a bishop in 1964 and for the next 13 years led church dioceses in t...
  • Karel de Goede (count of Flanders)
    count of Flanders (1119–27), only son of St. Canute, or Canute IV of Denmark, by Adela, daughter of Robert I the Frisian, count of Flanders. After the assassination of Canute in 1086, his widow took refuge in Flanders, taking with her her son. Charles was brought up by his mother and grandfather, Robert the Frisian, on whose death he did great services ...
  • Karel ende Elegast (Dutch poem)
    ...a demand for the kind of self-instructional literature that long remained a characteristic of Dutch literature. The change in social patterns at this time is also evident in two epic tales. Karel ende Elegast (“Charles and Elegast”), probably an original Flemish chanson de geste of the 12th or 13th century, describes with feudal reverence Charlemagne’s adventures in ...
  • Karel Lucembursky (Holy Roman emperor)
    German king and king of Bohemia (as Charles) from 1346 to 1378 and Holy Roman emperor from 1355 to 1378, one of the most learned and diplomatically skillful sovereigns of his time. He gained more through diplomacy than others did by war, and through purchases, marriages, and inheritance he enlarged his dynastic power. Under Charles’s rule Prague became the political, economic, and cultural ...
  • Karel of Minstrberk (Bohemian noble)
    ...intending to heighten the royal authority. With the help of loyal lords, he relieved Zdeněk Lev of Rožmitál of the office of supreme burgrave in February 1523 and appointed Karel of Minstrberk, a grandson of George of Poděbrady, to that key position in provincial administration. Soon after the king’s departure, however, Rožmitál resumed political...
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