A-Z Browse

  • Kado (people)
    ...various invasions. On the plains surrounding the Hadjeray are the Bulala, Kuka, and the Midogo, who are sedentary peoples. In the eastern region of Ouaddaï live the Maba, among whom the Kado once formed an aristocracy. They constitute a nucleus surrounded by a host of other groups who, while possessing their own languages, nevertheless constitute a distinct cultural unit. The Tama......
  • Kadoma (Zimbabwe)
    town, central Zimbabwe. Named for nearby Kadoma (Gatooma) Hill, it was constituted a village in 1907 and received municipal status in 1917. Located in a fertile area and on the main road and railway between Harare (formerly Salisbury) and Bulawayo, the town is a commercial centre for agricultural products (cattle, cotton, corn [maize], and tobacco) and manufactures cotton textil...
  • Kadoma (Japan)
    city, Ōsaka fu (urban prefecture), west-central Honshu, Japan, bordering Ōsaka city. The city is located on the left bank of the Yodo River and is known for its cultivation of lotus flowers. After the establishment of a railway connection to Ōsaka in 1909, industrialization was rapid. The Matsushita Electric Industrial Company moved to ...
  • Kadoorie, Lawrence Kadoorie, Baron (Hong Kong industrialist)
    BARON, Hong Kong industrialist (b. June 2, 1899, Hong Kong--d. Aug. 25, 1993, Hong Kong), was one of the colony’s last great taipans (businessmen of enormous power and influence) and the first native of Hong Kong to be awarded a British life peerage (1981). His father, Sir Elly Kadoorie, was a Jewish immigrant from Baghdad, now in Iraq, who made a fortune in hotels, transport, and electric ...
  • Kadoya Shichirobei (Japanese trader)
    Japanese trader who became a leader in the overseas Japanese community of Annam (modern Vietnam). Kadoya left Japan for Annam in 1631 and settled in a Japanese community near Tourane (now Da Nang). When, two years later, the Tokugawa shogunate issued a decree forbidding Japanese subjects to travel or trade abroad, Kadoya chose to remain in Annam. He married an Annamese noble’s daughter and ...
  • Kadsura (plant genus)
    The family Schisandraceae contains two genera: Schisandra with 25 species and Kadsura with 22 species of climbing vines with separate male and female flowers that are often found on separate plants. The fruits in this family produce one to five seeds each. A few species are occasionally cultivated as ornamentals—for example, the magnolia vine (Schisandra chinensis),......
  • Kadsura japonica (plant)
    ...A few species are occasionally cultivated as ornamentals—for example, the magnolia vine (Schisandra chinensis), for its fragrant white or pink flowers and attractive fruits, and Kadsura japonica, for its clusters of scarlet-coloured fruits....
  • KADU (political organization, Kenya)
    The Kenya African National Union (KANU) has dominated Kenyan politics since its founding in 1960. Its principal opposition, the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU), merged with KANU in 1964. Since Kenya’s transformation from single-party KANU rule back into a multiparty state in the early 1990s, many political parties have been created, often reflecting ethnic alliances. The major parties...
  • Kadu languages
    group of related languages spoken along the western and southern edge of the Nuba Hills in The Sudan. These languages were formerly classified as part of the Kordofanian group within the Niger-Congo language family, but they are now widely believed to form a subgroup within the Nilo-Saharan language family. The name Kadu is based on a widesp...
  • Kadugli-Krongo languages
    group of related languages spoken along the western and southern edge of the Nuba Hills in The Sudan. These languages were formerly classified as part of the Kordofanian group within the Niger-Congo language family, but they are now widely believed to form a subgroup within the Nilo-Saharan language family. The name Kadu is based on a widesp...
  • Kaduna (state, Nigeria)
    state, north-central Nigeria. Its area includes the traditional emirate of Zaria and Jemaa town. Kaduna was substantially reduced in size when its northern half became Katsina state in 1987. Kaduna is bordered by the states of Sokoto, Katsina, and Kano to the north; Bauchi to the east; Plateau to the east and south; and Niger to the west. Abuja Federal Capital Territory also borders Kaduna state t...
  • Kaduna (Nigeria)
    town, capital of Kaduna state, north-central Nigeria. It lies along the Kaduna River, which is a major tributary of the Niger River. Sir Frederick (later Lord) Lugard, the first British governor of Northern Nigeria, selected the present site along the Lagos-Kano Railway for a town, and building began in 1913. In 1917 Kaduna (a Hausa word for “crocodiles”) replaced Zungeru, 100 miles ...
  • Kaduna River (river, Nigeria)
    main tributary of the Niger River, in central Nigeria. It rises on the Jos Plateau 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Jos town near Vom and flows in a northwesterly direction to a bend 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Kaduna town. It then adopts a southwesterly and southerly course before completing its 340-mile (550-kilometre) flow to the Niger at Mureji (opposite Pategi). Most of its course passes thro...
  • Kāduqlī (The Sudan)
    town, south-central Sudan. It is situated 149 miles (240 km) south of al-Ubayyid, at the northern edge of the White Nile plain. Kāduqlī came under Egyptian rule in the early 19th century and was probably a centre for recruiting slaves for the Egyptian army. It is now a trading centre for gum arabic and livestock. Industries include textiles, soap factories, and the...
  • Kaduri, Yitzhak (Israeli rabbi)
    Israeli rabbi (b. probably 1898, Ottoman Empire [now Iraq]—d. Jan. 28, 2006, Jerusalem, Israel), was a Kabbalist rabbi and a scholar of Jewish mysticism who rose from obscurity to become a significant force in Israeli politics in the 1990s. Kaduri settled in Palestine in the early 1920s. By the 1990s he had become a venerated religious leader in Israel, particularly among ultra-Orthodox and...
  • Kaédi (Mauritania)
    town, southern Mauritania. It lies along the right bank of the Sénégal River where it is joined by the Gorgol River. The banks of these streams and other tributaries are seasonally inundated and cultivated and support the densest settled population in the nation. The remainder of the area, which receives more rainfall than regions farther north, is grazed by zebu cattle, sheep, and g...
  • Kael, Pauline (American film critic)
    prominent American film critic of the second half of the 20th century....
  • Kaema Highlands (plateau, North Korea)
    tableland, northern North Korea. Called the roof of the Korean Peninsula, the Kaema Highlands are bounded on the north by Paektu Mountain (9,003 feet [2,744 m]), on the west by the Nangnim Mountain Range, on the east by the coast of the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and on the south by the northern tip of the T’aebaek Mountains. The heights rise 3,300–6,600 feet (1,000–2,000 m) and...
  • Kaema-kowŏn (plateau, North Korea)
    tableland, northern North Korea. Called the roof of the Korean Peninsula, the Kaema Highlands are bounded on the north by Paektu Mountain (9,003 feet [2,744 m]), on the west by the Nangnim Mountain Range, on the east by the coast of the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and on the south by the northern tip of the T’aebaek Mountains. The heights rise 3,300–6,600 feet (1,000–2,000 m) and...
  • kaeriten mark
    In Japan a complicated system of kaeriten and kunten marks was used from the 8th century onward to clarify the meaning and grammatical construction of texts in Chinese. As a result of contact with Europeans in the 15th and 16th centuries, a hollow point and a reversed virgule (\) were used during the Edo period (1603–1868) as equivalents of the European full point and comma......
  • Kaesŏng (North Korea)
    city, southwestern North Korea. It lies just south of the 38th parallel and northwest of Seoul, South Korea. One of the oldest cities of Korea, Kaesŏng was the capital of the Koryŏ dynasty (935–1392). It was formerly called Songdo (“City of Pine”), so named because it is surrounded by pine-covered mountains: Songak (2,506 feet [764 m]), Osŏng (3,483 feet)...
  • Kāf, Al- (Tunisia)
    town in northwestern Tunisia, about 110 miles (175 km) southwest of Tunis. El-Kef is situated at an elevation of 2,559 feet (780 metres) on the slopes of the Haut (high) Tell, 22 miles (35 km) from the Algerian border. It occupies the site of an ancient Carthaginian town and later Roman colony, Sicca Veneria, which was at the centre of the Mercenaries’ War (or “Tru...
  • Kaffa (province, Ethiopia)
    any of the Cushitic-speaking peoples of southwestern Ethiopia who are not Oromo; they are mostly concentrated in the Omo River and Rift Valley regions. The Sidamo founded the Kefa kingdom in about ad 1400 and were subsequently controlled by both the “Abyssinians” (Amhara and Tigray) and the Oromo, whose invasions pressed them into their present geographic boundaries....
  • Kaffa (Ukraine)
    city, southern Ukraine. It lies on the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula on the western shores of Feodosiya Bay....
  • Kaffeklubben Island (island, Greenland)
    island and one of the world’s northernmost points of land, in the Arctic Ocean, 37 km (20 nautical miles) east of Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland. Kaffeklubben (Danish: “Coffee Club”) was discovered in 1900 by Robert E. Peary, the American Arctic explorer. The island was visited in 1921 by the Danish explorer Lauge Koch, who named it for the Kaffeklub at the Mineralogical Museum...
  • Kaffir (people)
    (Arabic: Infidel), people of the Hindu Kush mountain area of Afghanistan and the Chitral area of Pakistan. Their territory, formerly called Kafiristan, was renamed Nūristan, “Land of Light” or “Enlightenment,” when they became Muslims at the turn of the 20th century. The territory now forms the northern part of the Afghan province of Nangarhār and has a p...
  • kaffiyeh (clothing)
    The characteristic masculine Arab headdress has been the kaffiyeh. It is still worn today, although it may now accompany a business suit. Basically, the kaffiyeh is a square of cotton, linen, wool, or silk, either plain or patterned, that is folded into a triangle and placed upon the head so that one point falls on to......
  • Kaffraria (region, Africa)
    (from Arabic kāfir, “infidel”), the territories along the southeast coast of Africa that were colonized by the Portuguese and British. The term referred more specifically in the 19th century to those lands inhabited by the Xhosa-speaking peoples of the Transkei and Ciskei. Now considered pejorative, the term Kaffir was used in the 19th century as a s...
  • kāfir (Islam)
    ...messengers of God have, throughout history, been calling man back to God. Yet not all men have accepted the truth; many of them have rejected it and become disbelievers (kāfir, plural kuffār: literally “concealing”—i.e., the blessings of God), and, when man becomes so obdurate, his h...
  • Kafir (people)
    (Arabic: Infidel), people of the Hindu Kush mountain area of Afghanistan and the Chitral area of Pakistan. Their territory, formerly called Kafiristan, was renamed Nūristan, “Land of Light” or “Enlightenment,” when they became Muslims at the turn of the 20th century. The territory now forms the northern part of the Afghan province of Nangarhār and has a p...
  • kafir corn (grain)
    cereal grain plant of the family Gramineae (Poaceae), probably originating in Africa, and its edible starchy seeds. All types raised chiefly for grain belong to the species Sorghum vulgare, which includes varieties of grain sorghums and grass sorghums, grown for hay and fodder, and broomcorn, used in making brooms and brushes. Grain sorghums include durra, milo, shallu, kafir corn, Egyptia...
  • Kafir harp (musical instrument)
    Arched harps were prominent in ancient Central Asia, and 1st-century frescoes (Gandhāra culture, in modern Pakistan) show a seemingly archaic variety that survives almost unchanged in the vaji, or Kafir harp, of Nūrestān in Afghanistan. This instrument’s neck pierces and then emerges from the skin belly; the strings run from the neck to the protruding end (in mos...
  • Kafiri language
    group of closely related Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Pakistan, Kashmir, and Afghanistan. They are often divided into three subgroups: Kafiri, or Western; Khowari, or Central (spoken in the Chitrāl district of northwestern Pakistan); and the Eastern group, which includes Shina and Kashmiri. (Some scholars use the term Dardic to refer only to the Eastern subgroup of languages and use......
  • Kāfiristān (historical region, Afghanistan)
    historic region in eastern Afghanistan, about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square km) in area and comprising the upper valleys of the Alīngār, Pīch, and Landay Sind rivers and the intervening mountain ranges. Its northern boundary is the main range of the Hindu Kush, its eastern the Pakistani border, its southeastern the Konar (Kunar) Valley, and its western the mountain ranges ...
  • Kafirnigan River (river, Tajikistan)
    The dense river network that drains the republic includes two large swift rivers, the upper courses of the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, together with their tributaries, notably the Vakhsh and Kofarnihon. The Amu Darya is formed by the confluence of the Panj and Vakhsh rivers; the Panj forms much of the republic’s southern boundary. Most of the rivers flow east to west and eventually drain i...
  • Kafka, Franz (German-language writer)
    German-language writer of visionary fiction, whose posthumously published novels—especially Der Prozess (1925; The Trial) and Das Schloss (1926; The Castle)—express the anxieties and alienation of 20th-century man....
  • Kafr al-Shaykh (Egypt)
    town, capital of Kafr al-Shaykh muḥāfaẓah (governorate) of the central Nile River delta, Lower Egypt, bordering the Mediterranean. The town is situated in a fertile plain about 25 miles (40 km) north-northwest of Ṭanṭā. Industries in the town include cotton-processing plants and factories producing ...
  • Kafr al-Shaykh (governorate, Egypt)
    muḥāfaẓah (governorate) in the central Nile delta, Lower Egypt, with the Rosetta Branch of the river to the west and ad-Daqahlīyah governorate to the east. It was created in 1949 out of al-Gharbīyah governorate, just south, and named Fuʾādīyah mudūīyah...
  • Kafr el-Sheikh (Egypt)
    town, capital of Kafr al-Shaykh muḥāfaẓah (governorate) of the central Nile River delta, Lower Egypt, bordering the Mediterranean. The town is situated in a fertile plain about 25 miles (40 km) north-northwest of Ṭanṭā. Industries in the town include cotton-processing plants and factories producing ...
  • Kafr el-Sheikh (governorate, Egypt)
    muḥāfaẓah (governorate) in the central Nile delta, Lower Egypt, with the Rosetta Branch of the river to the west and ad-Daqahlīyah governorate to the east. It was created in 1949 out of al-Gharbīyah governorate, just south, and named Fuʾādīyah mudūīyah...
  • kaftan (clothing)
    man’s full-length garment of ancient Mesopotamian origin, worn throughout the Middle East. It is usually made of cotton or silk or a combination of the two....
  • Kafuan tool complex (archaeological record)
    In Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, very simple types of pebble tools, roughly chipped to an edge on one side only, occur in deposits of Lower Pleistocene age. This development, known as the Kafuan, apparently evolved into an industry characterized by implements made on pebbles chipped to an edge on both sides, called the Oldowan. Overlying the latter are beds containing true Lower Paleolithic hand......
  • Kafue (Zambia)
    town, south-central Zambia, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Lusaka, the national capital. The town is located on the northern bank of the Kafue River, whose water is diverted northward by channel to Chilanga and Lusaka. The town’s industrial area, which gets its power supply from the Kafue hydroelectric scheme, houses an ammonium nitrate fertilizer plant, a textile mill, an iron and steel c...
  • Kafue Flats (plain, Zambia)
    ...River drains the Lukanga Swamp and Kafue Flats before an abrupt descent to the Zambezi. The Luangwa River, mostly confined within its rift trough, is quite different. The Bangweulu Swamps and the Kafue Flats are wetlands of international importance....
  • Kafue National Park (park, Zambia)
    park, south-central Zambia. Established in 1950 and located about 200 miles (322 km) west of Lusaka, the park covers an area of 8,650 square miles (22,400 square km) and consists of a vast and gently undulating plateau, situated along the middle reaches of the Kafue River and its two tributaries, the Lufupa and the Lunga. The vegetation is lush and green, varying from mixed forest, thicket, woodla...
  • Kafue River (river, East Africa)
    river rising on the Congo (Kinshasa)–Zambia border. It meanders generally southward until it turns west near the Lukanga Swamp (which it drains). The river then flows south and finally east through the Kafue Flats and Kafue Gorge to join the Zambezi River near Chirundu, Zimbabwe, after a course of 600 miles (960 km). One of Zambia’s major rivers, its waters are used for irrigation. I...
  • Kāfūr, Abū al-Misk (Ikhshīdid vizier)
    Ethiopian slave who, as vizier under the Ikshīdid dynasty, was de facto ruler of Egypt from 946 to 966 and de jure ruler from then until his death....
  • Kāfūr, Malik (Khaljī leader)
    ...supremacy and in the collection of huge amounts of tribute and booty, which were used to finance his centralizing activities in the north. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn’s lieutenant Malik Kāfūr again subdued the Yadava kingdom of Devagiri in 1307 and two years later added the Kakatiya kingdom of Telingana. In 1310–11 Malik Kāfūr plundered the...
  • Kafzeh (anthropological and archaeological site, Israel)
    paleoanthropological site south of Nazareth, Israel, where some of the oldest remains of modern humans in Asia have been found. More than 25 fossil skeletons dating to about 90,000 years ago have been recovered. The site is a rock shelter first excavated in the early 1930s; excavation continued in the 1960s and early ’70s....
  • Kaga (Japan)
    city, Ishikawa ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Daishōji River. The city was created in 1958 by the amalgamation of the city of Daishōji with several towns, including the hot-spring resorts of Katayamazu and Yamashiro....
  • Kagame, Abbé Alegisi (Rwandan poet)
    Rwandan poet, historian, and Roman Catholic priest, who introduced the written art, both in his own language, Kinyarwanda, and in French, to his country....
  • Kagame, Abbé Alexis (Rwandan poet)
    Rwandan poet, historian, and Roman Catholic priest, who introduced the written art, both in his own language, Kinyarwanda, and in French, to his country....
  • Kagame, Alexis (Rwandan poet)
    Rwandan poet, historian, and Roman Catholic priest, who introduced the written art, both in his own language, Kinyarwanda, and in French, to his country....
  • Kagame, Paul (president of Rwanda)
    Rwandan military leader and politician, who, as leader of the Rwandan Patriot Front, defeated Hutu extremist forces to end the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In 2000 he became president of Rwanda....
  • Kagamigahara (Japan)
    city, Gifu ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, east of Gifu city. Upon the Meiji Restoration in 1868, an army base was established in the city. It was taken over by the U.S. Army after World War II and is now used by the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force. The city contains aircraft and transport equipment factories and textile mills. It is included in the Chukyo Industrial Reg...
  • Kāgān Valley (valley, Pakistan)
    The surrounding region extends northwest from the Siran River valley to encompass the scenic Kāgān (Kāghān) Valley, formed by the Kunhār River. Kāgān Valley, a growing tourist area, is 96 miles (154 km) long by road, hemmed in by mountains with peaks rising to 17,000 feet (5,200 m), and is partly forested by deodar (East Indian cedar) and pin...
  • Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich (Soviet official)
    Soviet Communist Party leader and supporter of Joseph Stalin....
  • Kagawa (prefecture, Japan)
    smallest ken (prefecture) of Shikoku, Japan, facing the Inland Sea opposite Okayama prefecture, Honshu. Its area of 727 square miles (1,883 square km) includes Shōdo and other offshore islands. The climate is warm with little rain; the prefecture is drained by numerous rivers (including the Kōtō and Doki) and is dotted with lakes. The Yashima promontory, overlooking th...
  • Kagawa Kageki (Japanese poet)
    Japanese poet and literary scholar of the late Tokugawa period (1603–1867) who founded the Keien school of poetry....
  • Kagawa Toyohiko (Japanese social reformer and author)
    Christian social reformer, author, and leader in Japanese labour and democratic movements who focused attention upon the poor of Japan....
  • kagba (African costume)
    ...Among the Naffara group of the Senufo, masks of similar form but with an interior cavity too small for a human head are carried on the top corner of a rectangular, tentlike costume called kagba. This mask is the symbol of the Lo, which only initiates may see. In the Korhogo region, deguele masks appear in pairs at funerals. They are of plain helmet shapes topped with......
  • kagebayashi (Japanese music)
    ...in the section Dance and theatre: The development of dance and theatre in the East Asian nations. Its musical events can be divided into onstage activities (debayashi) and offstage groups (geza). In plays derived from puppet dramas, the gidayū musicians, called here the chobo, are placed on their traditional platform offstage left or behind a curtained alcove....
  • Kagel, Mauricio Raúl (Argentine-born composer)
    Argentine-born avant-garde composer who incorporated sound effects—both artificial ones and those using the human voice—into complex provocative musical compositions such as Anagrama (1957–58), with sound effects created by soloists, a speaking chorus, and musical instruments; Acustica (1968–70), in which he made use of car horns, cash registers, and walki...
  • Kagemusha (film by Kurosawa)
    Kagemusha (“The Shadow Warrior”), released in 1980, was the director’s first samurai film in 14 years. It concerns a petty thief who is chosen to impersonate a powerful feudal lord killed in battle. This film was notable for its powerful battle scenes. Kurosawa’s next film, Ran (1985; “Chaos”), was an even ...
  • Kagera River (river, Africa)
    most remote headstream of the Nile River and largest tributary of Lake Victoria, rising in Burundi near the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika. It is formed at the confluence of its two headstreams—the Nyawarongo (Niavarongo) and the Ruvubu (Ruvuvu)—which in turn are fed by streams rising in the highlands east of Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika, between Congo (Kinshasa...
  • Kagera River basin (region, Africa)
    The Kagera River basin, mountainous and dotted with lakes and swamps, lies chiefly in Rwanda and includes Akagera National Park. The river’s longest tributary is the Lukarara, the southernmost the Ruvironza (Luvironza). Much of the Kagera is unnavigable; its only port, Kyaka, Tanzania, is served by shallow-draft cargo steamers....
  • “Kagerō nikki” (Japanese diary)
    ...wrote in the Japanese language were, in fact, court ladies; their writings include some of the supreme masterpieces of the literature. Kagerō nikki (The Gossamer Years) describes the life between 954 and 974 of the second wife of Fujiwara Kaneie, a prominent court official. The first volume, related long after the events, is in the manner...
  • Kaggwa, Saint Andrew (Ugandan saint)
    Mwanga continued his persecution, destroying Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries alike. Subsequent victims included Saints Matthias Mulumba, assistant judge to a provincial chief; Andrew Kaggwa, chief of Kigowa; and Noe Mawaggali, a Roman Catholic leader. The page St. Jean Marie Muzeyi was beheaded on January 27, 1887....
  • Kāghān Valley (valley, Pakistan)
    The surrounding region extends northwest from the Siran River valley to encompass the scenic Kāgān (Kāghān) Valley, formed by the Kunhār River. Kāgān Valley, a growing tourist area, is 96 miles (154 km) long by road, hemmed in by mountains with peaks rising to 17,000 feet (5,200 m), and is partly forested by deodar (East Indian cedar) and pin...
  • kagok (music)
    Vocal music is another important side of the Korean tradition. One of the longest and rarest older forms is the kagok, which consists of 26 five-line solo songs and one duet. Accompaniments and interludes are provided by a small ensemble. Sijo is a classical three-line form of Korean poetry that also can be sung to......
  • Kagoshima (prefecture, Japan)
    city and ken (prefecture), southernmost Kyushu, Japan, including the island groups of Ōsumi, Tokara, and Amami. It occupies an area of 3,539 square miles (9,167 square km). Its southern coast is deeply indented by Kagoshima Bay. The active volcano, On-take, was an island in the bay until an eruption in 1914 connected it to the eastern shore. Rough topography, volcanic-ash soil, and ...
  • Kagoshima (Japan)
    ...on processed foodstuffs, woodworking, and traditional handicrafts. The custom of not washing a man’s clothes at the same time as a woman’s has persisted since feudal times in some of the villages. Kagoshima, the prefectural capital, is the economic, cultural, and transport centre of southern Kyushu. Located on Kagoshima Bay opposite On-take, it is sometimes called the “Napl...
  • Kagoshima dialect (Japanese dialect)
    ...valleys as well as by small isolated islands, has fostered the development of various dialects throughout the archipelago. Different dialects are often mutually unintelligible; the speakers of the Kagoshima dialect of Kyushu are not understood by the majority of the people of the main island of Honshu. Likewise, northern dialect speakers from such places as Aomori and Akita are not understood.....
  • kagu (bird)
    (Rhynochetus jubatus), nearly extinct and virtually flightless bird of New Caledonia, sole member of the family Rhynochetidae (order Gruiformes). About 55 cm (22 inches) long, it is a chunky bird with loose, gray plumage, including an erectile crest. The bill, legs, and eyes are reddish orange. In courtship the kagu dances with wings spread to show attractive spots of black, white, and rus...
  • Kagu-hana (Japanese myth)
    ...of the dead by two disembodied heads, which rest on pillars on either side of him. The female head, Miru-me, has the power of perceiving the sinner’s most secret faults, while the male head, Kagu-hana, can detect any misdeed. Damnation is not eternal; the dead are sentenced to fixed periods of time in one region or to several regions in succession. The sentences can be shortened by the.....
  • Kagu-tsuchi (Japanese deity)
    in the Shintō religion of Japan, a god of fire. His mother, the female creator Izanami, was fatally burned giving birth to him; and his father, Izanagi, cut him into pieces, creating several new gods....
  • Kaguerian-Kamasian Interpluvial (geologic period, Africa)
    ...Series and are recognized in Africa in Ethiopia and Kenya. These levels date to approximately three to four million years ago and contain fossils of the genus Australopithecus. The Kaguerian-Kamasian Interpluvial levels, which date to about 500,000 years ago, contain the remains of Homo erectus at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) and in Morocco, Algeria, and Chad....
  • kagura (Shintō music and dance)
    ...emperor. Thus, special Shintō music was devised for use in Imperial shrines, a tradition already familiar from the discussion of China and Korea. In Japan such Shintō music is called kagura. The kind of music and ritual used exclusively in the Imperial palace grounds is called mi-kagura, that in large Shintō shrines, o-kagura, and Shintō music fo...
  • Kagutsuchi (Shintō deity)
    ...to a ritual error on the part of Izanami, who as a woman should never have spoken first, they began again and produced numerous islands and deities. In the act of giving birth to the fire god, Kagutsuchi (or Homusubi), Izanami was fatally burned and went to Yomi, the land of darkness. Izanagi followed her there, but she had eaten the food of that place and could not leave. She became angry......
  • Kagwa, Sir Apolo (prime minister of Buganda)
    katikiro (prime minister) of Buganda (1890–1926) and the leading figure in the semiautonomous development of the Ganda (Baganda) people under British authority....
  • Kagyupa (Buddhist sect)
    Buddhist sect in Tibet. Its members are followers of the 11th-century teacher Mar-pa, who distinguished himself as a translator of Buddhist texts while continuing to live the life of a householder. Mar-pa studied in India under the master yogi (spiritual adept, or ascetic) Naropa. Mar-pa’s chief disciple was Mi-la ras-pa (Milarepa), w...
  • “Kagyur” (Buddhist literature)
    the collection of Tibetan Buddhist sacred literature representing the “Word of the Buddha”—as distinct from the Bstan-’gyur (“Translation of Teachings”), or collection of commentaries and miscellaneous works. This body of canonical literature contains more than 1,000 works, most of them originally written in Sanskrit and most translated (with great ...
  • Kahal, Irving (American songwriter)
    ...Mills in 1925 and in the late 1920s appeared in a vaudeville act with Artie Dunn entitled “Fain and Dunn.” Fain achieved his first success as a songwriter after teaming up with lyricist Irving Kahal in 1927, and the pair collaborated until Kahal’s death in 1942. In the 1930s Fain moved to Hollywood and contributed songs to more than 20 films, among them The Big Pond....
  • Kahana-Carmon, Amalia (Israeli author)
    Israeli author of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays, whose modern style influenced subsequent generations of Israeli writers....
  • Kahanamoku, Duke Paoa (American athlete)
    Hawaiian surfer and swimmer who won three Olympic gold medals for the United States and who for several years was considered the greatest freestyle swimmer in the world. He was perhaps most widely known for developing the flutter kick, which largely replaced the scissors kick....
  • Kahane, Martin David (Israeli political activist)
    American-born Israeli political extremist and rabbi who campaigned for self-protection of Jews....
  • Kahane, Maurice (French publisher)
    French publisher of banned books, including many classics of modern literature....
  • Kahane, Meir (Israeli political activist)
    American-born Israeli political extremist and rabbi who campaigned for self-protection of Jews....
  • Kahanovitsh, Pinhas (Russian writer)
    Der Nister (“The Hidden One”; pseudonym of Pinhas Kahanovitsh) was a highly original Symbolist author. Early in his career he translated selected stories of Hans Christian Andersen and later incorporated folktale elements into his fiction. His major work was the two-volume novel Di mishpokhe Mashber (1939–48; The Family Mashber...
  • Kahf, Al- (chapter of the Qurʾān)
    ...is often illustrated with a variety of homiletic narratives. The most famous is the story of Joseph, in the middle of which he, while imprisoned, delivers a sermon on the oneness of God. Sura 18, Al-Kahf (“The Cave”), is also notable for its reference to the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (verses 9–26), who fall into a prolonged sleep and wake to find themselves in....
  • kahikatea (tree)
    ...important members of the genus include the brown pine, plum pine, or yellow pine (Podocarpus elatus) of southeastern Australia; the black pine, or matai (P. spicatus), the kahikatea, or white pine (P. dacrydioides), the miro (P. ferrugineus), and the totara (P. totara), all native to New Zealand; kusamaki, or broad-leaved podocarpus (P.......
  • kāhin (Arabian priest)
    Pre-Islāmic prophecy in Arabia was no different in character from other Semitic prophecy. Pre-Islāmic terms for prophet are ʿarrāf and kāhin (“seer,” cognate to Hebrew kohen, “priest”). The kāhin could often be a priest, and as a diviner he was an ecstatic. The kāhin was considered to be...
  • Kāhinah (Berber leader)
    ...was dispatched from Egypt in 693. It faced stiff resistance in the eastern Aurès Mountains from the Jawāra Berbers, who were commanded by a woman whom the Arabs referred to as Kāhinah (al-Kāhinah, “the Priestess”). After Kāhinah was defeated in 698, Ibn al-Nuʿmān occupied Carthage, the centre of Byzantine administration in Tunisia,....
  • Kahle, Paul (German biblical scholar)
    ...revised according to the Masora and early prints with variant readings from manuscripts and ancient versions. It was soon displaced by the Biblica Hebraica (1906, 1912) by Rudolf Kittel and Paul Kahle, two German biblical scholars. The third edition of this work, completed by Albrecht Alt and Otto Eissfeldt (Stuttgart, 1937), finally abandoned Ben Hayyim’s text, substituting that ...
  • Kahlen Mountain (mountain, Austria)
    Vienna reaches across the Danube on one side and climbs into the Vienna Woods on the other. There it includes the 1,585-foot (483-metre) Kahlen Mountain (Kahlenberg) and the 1,778-foot (542-metre) Hermanns Mountain (Hermannskogel), Vienna’s highest point. The Vienna Woods slope to the river in four roughly semicircular terraces, with the Innere Stadt occupying the second lowest terrace. The...
  • Kahlenberg (mountain, Austria)
    Vienna reaches across the Danube on one side and climbs into the Vienna Woods on the other. There it includes the 1,585-foot (483-metre) Kahlen Mountain (Kahlenberg) and the 1,778-foot (542-metre) Hermanns Mountain (Hermannskogel), Vienna’s highest point. The Vienna Woods slope to the river in four roughly semicircular terraces, with the Innere Stadt occupying the second lowest terrace. The...
  • Kahlenberg, Battle of (Polish history)
    ...he had the highest rank of all military leaders gathered to relieve Vienna, he took command of the entire relief force (about 75,000 men) and achieved a brilliant victory over the Turks at the Kahlenberg (September 12, 1683), in one of the decisive battles of European history....
  • Kahler Asten (mountain, Germany)
    ...Sauerland in the Middle Rhine Highlands of southeastern North Rhine–Westphalia Land (state), west-central Germany. The round-topped hills reach their highest point at the heath-covered Kahler Asten (2,759 feet [841 m]). Heavily forested slopes fall steeply to the Lenne and Sieg valleys in the north and west but drop gradually to the southeast, where they are drained by the Lahn an...
  • Kähler, Martin (German theologian)
    In his search for a solution Tillich found help in the writings of the German philosopher F.W.J. von Schelling (1775–1854) and the lectures of his theology teacher Martin Kähler. Schelling’s philosophy of nature, which appealed to Tillich’s own feeling for nature, offered a conceptual framework interpreting nature as the dynamic manifestation of God’s creative sp...
  • Kahlers disease (pathology)
    malignant proliferation of cells within the bone marrow that usually occurs during middle age or later and increases in occurrence with age. Myelomas are equally common in males and females and affect any of the marrow-containing bones such as the skull, the flat bones (e.g., ribs, sternum, pelvis, shoulder blades), and vertebrae....

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