OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Samland

See also Sambia on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer. Now part of Russia.
SAMLAND, a peninsula of Germany, in the province of East Prussia, on the Baltic. It separates the Frisches Haff on the W. from the Kurisches Haff on the N.E., and is bounded on the S. by the river Pregel and on the E. by the Deime. Its shape is oblong; it is 43 m. long, and 18 broad, and has an area of 900 sq. m. The surface is mostly flat, but on the W. sand-hills rise to a height of 300 ft. The chief product is amber. The former episcopal see of Samland was founded by Pope Innocent IV. in 1249 and subordinated to the archbishop of Riga. Bishop Georg von Polentz embraced the Reformation in 1523, and in 1525 the district was incorporated with the duchy of Prussia.
See Reusch, Sagen des preussischen Samlandes (2nd ed., Königsberg, 1863); Jankowsky, Das Samland und seine Bevölkerung (Königsberg, 1902); Hensel, Samland Wegweiser (4th ed., Königsberg, 1905); and the Urkundenbuch des Bistums Samland, edited by Wölky and Mendthal (Leipzig, 1891-1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sambalpur

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​SAMBALPUR, a town and district of British India, in the Orissa division of Bengal. The town is on the left bank of the river Mahanadi, 495 ft. above sea-level, the terminus of a branch of the Bengal-Nagpur railway. Pop. (1901) 12,870. It contains a ruined fort with old temples. The garrison of native infantry was withdrawn in 1902. There is considerable trade, and hand weaving of tussore silk and cotton cloth are carried on.
The District of Sambalpur has an area of 3773 sq. m. The Mahanadi, which is the only important river, divides it into unequal parts. The greater portion is an undulating plain, with ranges of rugged hills running in every direction, the largest of which is the Bara Pahar, covering an area of 350 sq. m., and attaining at Debrigarh a height of 2267 ft. above the plain. The Mahanadi affords means of water communication for 90 m.; its principal tributaries in Sambalpur are the Ib, Kelo and Jhira. To the W. of the Mahanadi the district is well cultivated. The soil is generally light and sandy. It is occupied for the greater part by crystalline metamorphic rocks; but part of the N.W. corner is composed of sandstone, limestone and shale. Gold dust and diamonds have been found near Hirakhuda or Diamond Island, at the junction of the Ib and Mahanadi. The climate of Sambalpur is considered very unhealthy; the annual rainfall averages 59 in. The population in 1901 was 640,243, showing an increase of 3.2% in the decade. The registered death-rate for 1897 was only 30 per thousand, as against 68 for the province generally. This figure shows that Sambalpur entirely escaped the famine of 1896–1897, which indeed can be said to have brought prosperity to the district by causing high prices for a good rice crop, rice being the staple of cultivation. It was almost equally fortunate in 1900. The main line of the Bengal-Nagpur railway runs along the N. border of the district, with a branch S. to Sambalpur town.
Sambalpur lapsed to the British in 1849, and was attached to Bengal until 1862, when it was transferred to the Central Provinces. The early revenue administration was not successful. On the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857 a general rising of the chiefs took place, and it was not until the final arrest of Surandra Sa, in 1864, that tranquillity was restored. In October 1905 Sambalpur was transferred back again to Bengal, without the subdivisions of Phuljhar and Chandarpur-Padarnpur.
See Sambalpur District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1909).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sambuca

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​SAMBUCA, Sambute, Sambiut, Sambue, Sambuque, an ancient stringed instrument of Asiatic origin generally supposed to be a small triangular harp of shrill tone (Arist. Quint. Meib. ii. p. 101). The sambuca was probably identical with the Phoenician sabecha and the Aramaic sabka, the Greek form being σαμβύχη. The sabka is mentioned in Dan. iii. 5, 10, 15, where it is erroneously translated sackbut. The sambuca has been compared to the military engine of the same name by some classical writers; Polybius likens it to a rope ladder; others describe it as boat-shaped. Among the musical instruments known, the Egyptian nanga best answers to these descriptions. These definitions are doubtless responsible for the medieval drawings representing the sambuca as a kind of tambourine, for Isidor elsewhere defines the symphonia as a tambourine. During the middle ages the word sambuca was applied (1) to a stringed instrument about which little can be discovered, (2) to a wind instrument made from the wood of the elder tree (sambūcus). In an old glossary (Fundgruben, i. 368), article vloyt (flute), the sambuca is said to be a kind of flute. “Sambuca vel sambucus est quaedam arbor parva et mollis, unde haec sambuca est quaedam species symphoniae qui fit de illa arbore.” Isidor of Seville (Etym. 2. 20) describes it as “Sambuca in musicis species est symphoniarum. Est enim genus ligni fragilis unde et tibiae componuntur.” In a glossary by Papias of Lombardy (c. 1053), first printed at Milan in 1476, the sambuca is described as a cithara, which in that century was generally glossed “harp,” i.e. “Sambuca, genus cytherae rusticae.”
In Tristan (7563-72) the knight is enumerating to King Marke all the instruments upon which he can play, the sambiut being the last mentioned:
| “ | Waz ist daz, lieber mann? — Daz veste Seitspiel daz ich kann.” |
In a Latin-French glossary (M.S. at Montpelier, H. 110, fol. 212 v.) Psalterium = sambue. During the later middle ages sambuca was often translated sackbut in the vocabularies, whether merely from the phonetic similarity of the two words has not yet been established. The great Boulogne Psalter (xi. c.) contains, among other fanciful instruments which are evidently intended to illustrate the equally vague and fanciful descriptions of instruments in the apocryphal letter of S. Jerome, ad Dardanum, a Sambuca, which resembles a somewhat primitive sackbut (q.v.) without the bell joint. It is reproduced by Coussemaker, Lacroix and Viollet-le-Duc, and has given rise to endless discussions without leading to any satisfactory solution. (K. S.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Samnan

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​SAMNAN, Simnan, or Semnan, a small province of Persia, which, including the city and district of Damghan, is generally known as “Samnan va Damghan.” It is bounded on the W. by the districts of Khar (the ancient Choara) and Fjruzkuh, on the N. by Mazandaran, and on the E. by Shahrud and Bostam. In the S. it extends beyond the oasis of Jendek in the desert N. of Yezd. Its northern part is still known as Komush or Komish, the ancient Commisene. The revenue amounts to about £7000 per annum.
Samnan, the capital of the province, is situated 145 m. E. of Teheran, on the high road thence to Meshed, at an altitude of 3740 ft. in 35° 34' N., 53° 22' E. It has a population of about 10,000, post and telegraph offices, and a fine minaret, built in the 12th century. It exports pistachios, almonds and coarse tobacco. A dialect with many old Persian forms and resembling the Mazandaran dialect is spoken.
A. Houtum-Schindler, “Bericht über d. Samnán Dialect,” Zeitsch. d. morgenl. Gesellschaft, vol. xxxii. (1878).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sibi

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​SIBI, a town and district of Baluchistan. The town is now an important junction on the Sind-Peshin railway, where the Harnai line and the Quetta loop line meet, near the entrance of the Bolan pass, 88 m. S.E. of Quetta. Pop. (1901) 4551. The district, which was constituted in 1903, has an area of 4152 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 74,555. The greater part became British territory by the treaty of Gandamak in 1879; the rest is administered under a perpetual lease from the khan of Kalat. Political control is also exercised over the Marri-Bugti country, with an additional area of 7129 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 38,919. Besides the town of Sibi, the district contains the sanatorium of Ziarat, the summer residence of the government.
See Sibi District Gazetteer (Bombay, 1907).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shāfi'ī

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​SHĀFIʽĪ [Mahommed ibn Idrīs ash-Shāfiʽī] (767–820), the founder of the Shati'ite school of canon law, was born in A.H. 150 (A.D. 767) of a Koreishite (Quraishite) family at Gaza or Ascalon, and was brought up by his mother in poor circumstances at Mecca. There, and especially in intercourse with the desert tribe of Hudhail, he gained a knowledge of classical Arabic and old Arabian poetry for which he was afterwards famous. About 170 he went to Medina and studied canon law (fiqh) under Malik ibn Anas. After the death of Malik in 179 legend takes him to Yemen, where he is involved in an ʽAlid conspiracy, carried prisoner to Bagdad, but pardoned by Hārūn al-Rashīd. He was certainly pursuing his studies, and he seems to have come to Bagdad in some such way as this and then to have studied under Ḥanifite teachers. He had not yet formulated his own system. After a journey to Egypt, however, we find him in Bagdad again, as a teacher, between 195 and 198. There he had great success and turned the tide against the Hanifite school. His method was to restore the sources of canon law which Abū Ḥanïfa, had destroyed by inclining too much to speculative deduction. Instead, he laid equal emphasis upon the four—Koran, tradition, analogy, and agreement. See further, under Mahommedan Law. In 198 he went to Egypt in the train of a new governor, and this time was received as the leading orthodox authority in law of his time. There he developed and somewhat changed the details of his system, and died in 204 (A.D. 820). He was buried to the south-east of what is now Cairo, and a great dome (erected c. A.D. 1240) is conspicuous over his tomb.
See F. Wüstenfeld, Schāfiʽiten, 31 ff.; M. I. de Goeje in ZDMG. xlvii. 106 ff.; C. Brockelmann, Geschichte, i . 178 ff.; M‘G. de Slane’s transl. of Ibn Khallikan, ii. 569 ff., Fihrist, 209, Nawawi’s Biogr. Dict. 56 ff. (D. B. Ma.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sibbald, Sir Robert

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​SIBBALD, SIR ROBERT (1641–1722), Scottish physician and antiquary, was born in Edinburgh on the 15th of April 1641. Educated at Edinburgh, Leiden and Paris, he took his doctor’s degree at Angers in 1662, and soon afterwards settled as a physician in Edinburgh. In 1667 with Sir Andrew Balfour he started the botanical garden in Edinburgh, and he took a leading part in establishing the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, of which he was elected president in 1684. In 1685 he was appointed the first professor of medicine in the university. He was also appointed geographer-royal in 1682, and his numerous and miscellaneous writings deal effectively with historical and antiquarian as well as botanical and medical subjects. He died in August 1722.
Amongst Sibbald’s historical and antiquarian works may be mentioned A History Ancient and Modern of the Sheriffdoms of Fife and Kinross (Edinburgh, 1710, and Cupar, 1803), An Account of the Scottish Atlas (folio, Edinburgh, 1683), Scotia Ulustrata (Edinburgh, 1684) and Description of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland (folio, Edinburgh', 1711 and 1845). The Remains of Sir Robert Sibbald, containing his autobiography, memoirs of the Royal College of Physicians, portion of his literary correspondence and account of his manuscripts, was published at Edinburgh in 1833.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sibonga

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​SIBONGA, a town of the province of Cebú, island of Cebú, Philippine Islands, on the E. coast, 30 m. S.W. of Cebú, the capital. Pop. (1903) 25,848. Sibonga is an agricultural town with a port for coasting vessels, and is served by a railway. The principal products are Indian corn and tobacco. The climate is hot, but healthy. The language is Cebú-Visayan.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sibpur

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​SIBPUR, a town of British India, in the Hugli district of Bengal, on the right bank of the river Hugli, opposite Calcutta. It is a suburb of Howrah. It contains jute-mills, a flour-mill, rope-works, brick-works and other industrial establishments; the royal botanical garden; and the engineering college with electrical and mining departments and a boarding-house. The college, of gothic architecture, was originally built for a missionary institution, as the Bishop’s College, in 1824. It has recently been decided to remove it to Ranchi, in Chota Nagpur.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shêng-king

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​SHÊNG-KING, SHEN-KING, or LIAO-TUNG, a province of the Chinese empire, in southern Manchuria. It occupies an area of 50,000 sq. m. and contains a population of 4,000,000. Its capital is Mukden, or, as it is otherwise known, Shêng-king, “ the Flourishing Capital.” The province includes the Liaotung peninsula, the most southern part of which, including Port Arthur, is leased to Japan.
Shêng-king is largely mountainous. A line drawn from King-chow Fu (41° 12' N., 121 10' E.) N.E. to Mukden, and then south by west through Lêaoi-yang and Hai-chêng to Kai-ping and the sea, would define the level country. A large portion of the plain, being an alluvial deposit, is extremely fertile, but in the neighbourhood of the sea the saline exudation common in the north of China renders futile all attempts at cultivation. North and east of this district run numerous mountain ranges, for the most part in a north-and-south direction. The climate of Shêng-king is marked by extremes of heat and cold. In summer the temperature varies from 70° to 90° F., and in winter from 50° above to 10° below zero. The mountain scenery is extremely picturesque, and the trees and shrubs are such as are common in England, the mountain ash being the only common English tree which is there conspicuous by its absence. The most important rivers are the Liao-ho and the Yalu. The former takes its rise in Mongolia, and after running an easterly course for about 400 m., turns S.W., and empties into the Gulf of Liao-tung, in the neighbourhood of Ying-tsze, up to which town, 20 m. from the bar, the river is navigable for large junks. The Yalu rises in the mountains to the south of the plain, and empties into the Yellow Sea.
The chief cities, Mukden, Liao-yang, Niu-chwang, Port Arthur and Tairen (Dalny) are separately noticed. Niu-chwang is the chief port of the province. Shêng-king is well supplied with railways, Mukden being in direct railway connexion with Peking, Niu-chwang, Port Arthur and Tairen as well as with the Korean railways, and with Europe and Vladivostock by the trans-Siberian line. The Mukden-Peking railway follows the route of the imperial highway from Peking, which passes through the Great Wall at Shan-kai-kwan and along the shores of the Gulf of Chih-li, and after leaving Mukden divides into three branches-one going eastward to Korea, another going by Kirin and A-she-ho to San-sing, while a third diverges N. by W. to Fakumen, thence through Mongolia to Pe-tu-na, and then to Tsi-tsi-har, Mergen, and the Amur. Another road leads east from Niu-chwang to Fung-hwang-chung, now a station on the Mukden-Korea railway. The chief-agricultural products are wheat, barley, millet, oats, maize, cotton, indigo and tobacco. Coal, iron and gold are also found in considerable quantities in various localities. (See also Manchuria and China.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sialkot

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​SIALKOT, or Sealkote, a town and district of British India, in the Lahore division of the Punjab. The town, which has a station on the North-Western railway, is 72 m. N.E. of Lahore. Pop. (1901) 57,956. It is a military cantonment, being the headquarters of a brigade in the 2nd division of the northern army. There are remains of a fort dating from about the 10th century; but the mound on which they stand is traditionally supposed to mark the site of a much earlier stronghold, and some authorities identify it with the ancient Sakala or Sagal. Other ancient buildings are the shrine of Baba Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, that of the Mahommedan Imam Ali-ul-hakk and Raja Tej Singh's temple. The town has an extensive trade, and manufactures of sporting implements, boots, paper, cotton, cloth and shawl-edging. There are Scottish and American missions, a Scottish mission training institution and an arts college.
The District of Sealkote has an area of 1991 sq. m. It is an oblong tract of country occupying the submontane portion of the Rechna (Ravi-Chenab) Doab, fringed on either side by a line of fresh alluvial soil, above which rise the high banks that form the limits of the river-beds. The Degh, which rises in the Jammu hills, traverses the district parallel to the Ravi, and is likewise fringed by low alluvial soil. The north-eastern boundary is 20 m. distant from the outer line of the Himalayas; but about midway between the Ravi and the Chenab is a high dorsal tract, extending from beyond the border and stretching far into the district. Sialkot is above the average of the Punjab in fertility. The upper portion is very productive; but the southern portion, farther removed from the influence of the rains, shows a marked decrease of fertility. The district is also watered by numerous small torrents; and several swamps or jhils, scattered over the face of the country, are of considerable value as reservoirs of surplus water for purposes of irrigation. Sialkot is reputed to be healthy; it is free from excessive heat, judged by the common standard of the Punjab; and its average annual rainfall varies from 35 in. near the hills to 22 in. in the parts farthest from them. The population in 1901 was 1,083,909, showing a decrease of 3% as against an increase of 11% in the previous decade. This is explained by the fact that Sialkot contributed over 100,000 persons to the Chenab colony (q.v.). The principal crops are wheat, barley, maize, millets and sugar-cane. The district is crossed by a branch of the North-Western railway from Wazirabad to Jammu.
The early history of Sialkot is closely interwoven with that of the rest of the Punjab. It was annexed by the British after the second Sikh war in 1849; since then its area has been considerably reduced, assuming its present proportions in 1867. During the Mutiny of 1857 the native troops plundered the treasury and destroyed all the records, when most of the European residents took refuge in the fort.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stoss, Veit

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​STOSS, VEIT (1438 or 1440–1533), German sculptor and wood carver, was born in Nuremberg. In 1477 he went to Cracow, where he was actively engaged until 1499. It was here that he carved the high altar for the Marienkirche, between 1477 and 1484. On the death of King Kasimir IV. in 1492 Stoss carved his tomb in red marble for the cathedral in Cracow. To the same date is ascribed the marble tombstone of the archbishop Zbigniew Ollsnicki in the cathedral at Gnesen; and soon after this he executed the Stanislaus altar for the Marienkirche at Cracow. In 1496 he returned to Nuremberg, where he did a great deal of work in completing altars. His main works are: a relief with the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin in the Germanic museum at Nuremberg, a statue of the Blessed Virgin in the Frauenkirche, the Annunciation in the Lorenzkirche and the circular rosary in the Germanic museum.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stothard, Charles Alfred

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​STOTHARD, CHARLES ALFRED (1786–1821), antiquarian draughtsman, son of Thomas Stothard (q.v.), was born in London on the 5th of July 1786. After studying in the schools of the Royal Academy, he began, in 1810, his first historical piece, the Death of Richard II. in Pomfret Castle. He published in 1811 the first part of his valuable work, The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. He was appointed historical draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries, and was deputed by that body to visit Bayeux-to make drawings of the tapestry. He was made a fellow of the society in 1819, and subsequently engaged in numerous journeys with the view of illustrating the works of D. Lysons. While engaged in tracing a portrait from one of the windows of the church of Beer Ferrers, Devonshire, he fell and was killed on the spot (May 27, 1821). His widow (afterwards Mrs Bray), with her brother, completed his Monumental Effigies, left unfinished at his death. A biography, by his widow, was published in 1823.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stoughton, John

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​STOUGHTON, JOHN (1807–1897), English Nonconformist divine, was born at Norwich on the 18th of November 1807. His father was an Episcopalian, his mother a member of the Society of Friends. Stoughton was educated at Norwich Grammar School, and, after an interval of legal study, at Highbury Congregational College. In 1833 he became minister at Windsor, in 1843 at Kensington; in 1856 he was elected chairman of the Congregational Union. From 1872 to 1884 he was professor of historical theology in New College, Hampstead. He died at Ealing on the 24th of October 1897. Stoughton was no controversialist, but did a good deal of sound historical work which was published in Church and State 1660-1663 (London, 1862); Ecclesiastical History of England 1640-1660 (4 vols., London, 1867–1870); Religion in England under Queen Anne and the Georges (2 vols., 1878); Religion in England from 1800 to 1880 (2 vols., 1884). He contributed an account of Nonconformist modes of celebrating the Lord's Supper to the ritual commission of 1870, arranged a conference on co-operation between Anglicans and dissenters (presided over by Archbishop Tait) in 1876, was one of Dean Stanley's lecturers in Westminster Abbey and a pall-bearer at his funeral. He was elected to the Athenaeum Club in 1874 on the nomination of Matthew Arnold.
Besides the books already mentioned he wrote a number of more popular works, among which Homes and Haunts of Luther (1875), The Italian Reformers (1881), and The Spanish Reformers (1883) are conspicuous. His Recollections of a Long Life (1894) furnish interesting autobiographical material.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stourport

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​STOURPORT, a market town in trie Bewdley parliamentary division of Worcestershire, England, 145 m. N. by W. of Worcester by the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district ​(1901), 4529. It lies on the left bank of the Severn, at the junction of the Stour and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal. The town grew up after the opening of the canal in 1768. Ironworks, carpet-weaving and tanneries occupy many hands. At Redstone, the site of a former important ferry over the Severn, is a curious hermitage, excavated out of the red sandstone bank.