Akiba ben Joseph Xa-'ke-va-ben-'jo-zofX (b. ad 40—d. c. 135, Cae¬ sarea, Palestine) Jewish sage, one of the founders of rabbinic Judaism. He is said to have been an illiterate shepherd who began to study after age 40. He believed that Scripture contained many implied meanings in addi¬ tion to its overt meaning, and he regarded written law (Torah) and oral law (Halakhah) as ultimately one. He collected and systematized the oral traditions concerning the conduct of Jewish social and religious life, thus laying the foundation of the Mishna. He may have been involved in Bar Kokhba’s unsuccessful rebellion against Rome; he gave the rebel leader his title and recognized him as the Messiah. He was imprisoned by the Romans and martyred for his public teaching. See also Ishmael ben Elisha.
Akihito \a-'ke-he-,to\ or Heisei \'ha-'sa\ emperor (b. Dec. 23, 1933, Tokyo, Japan) Emperor of Japan from 1989. Son of Hirohito, his role, like that of his father after 1945, has been largely ceremonial. He is the first Japanese emperor to have married a commoner, in what was hailed at the time as a love match rather than the customary arranged marriage. His children are Crown Prince Naruhito, Prince Akishino, and Princess Nori.
Akita \o -'ke-to\ Breed of working dog that originated in the mountains of northern Japan. In 1931 the Japanese government designated the breed as a national treasure. It is a powerful, muscular dog with a broad head, erect pointed ears, and a large curved tail carried over the back or curled against the flank. Colours and markings vary, including all-white, brindle, and pinto. All but the white akitas bear a distinct mask (dark area around the muzzle). Males stand 26-28 in. (66-71 cm) high, females 24-26 in. (60-66 cm).
Akkad Va -kad\ Ancient region, central Iraq. Akkad was the northern division of ancient Babylonia (Sumer was the southern division). Its name was taken from the city of Agade, founded by the conqueror Sargon c. 2300 bc. Sargon united the city-states in the region and extended the empire to much of Mesopotamia, including Sumer, Elam, and the upper Tigris. The empire waned in the 22nd century bc. Under the kings of Akkad, their Semitic language, Akkadian, became a literary language, and great art was fostered.
Akkadian Xo-'ka-de-onX language <?/ Assyro-Babylonian lan¬ guage Semitic language spoken in Mesopotamia in the 3rd-lst millen¬ nia bc. It is known from a great many inscriptions, seals, and clay tablets in cuneiform writing. Akkadian supplanted Sumerian as the major spoken language of southern Mesopotamia by 2000 bc and about this time split into an Assyrian dialect spoken in the northeast and a Babylonian dialect spoken in the south. Akkadian died out as a vernacular in the first half of the 1st millennium bc, being effectively replaced by Aramaic in Meso¬ potamia, though it continued to be written until about the 1st century ad.
‘Akko Va -ko\ or Acre X'a-kro, 'a-korX Seaport town (pop., 2000 est.: 45,737), northwestern Israel. First mentioned in an Egyptian text from the 19th century bc, it was long a Canaanite and Phoenician city. After its conquest by Alexander the Great (336 bc), it was a Greek polity (called Philadelphus), and for several centuries it remained part of the Roman Republic and Empire. The Persians (614) and Arabs (638) conquered the town, but it was ruled by the Turkish SeuOq dynasty when the Crusaders captured it in 1104. The Crusaders renamed the city St. Jean d’Acre and made it their last capital (see Crusades). Except for brief intervals, it was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 until British forces took it in 1918. It was part of Palestine under the British mandate and became part of Israel in 1948, when most of its Arab inhabitants fled. Notable structures include the Great Mosque and the Crypt of St. John. It is the burial place of Baha’ Ullah, the founder of the Baha’i faith.
Akmola See Astana
Akron City (pop., 2000: 217,074), northeastern Ohio, U.S., on the Cuya¬ hoga River. At 1,200 ft (370 m) above sea level, Akron was named for its “high place” (Greek: acros) on the watershed between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. Laid out in 1825, the town was assured substantial growth by the completion of two canals (1827, 1840). The abundant water supply and the arrival of the railroads prompted Benjamin Franklin Goo¬ drich to move a rubber factory there in 1871. Akron became known as “rubber capital of the world,” although by the 21st century much pro¬ duction had moved from the area.
Aksum or Axum X'ak-.siimX Ancient kingdom, northern Ethiopia. At its apogee (3rd-6th century ad), Aksum merchants traded as far as Alex¬ andria and beyond the Nile River. The modern town of Aksum (pop., 1994: 27,148), once the kingdom’s capital, is a religious centre best known for its antiquities. It has long been regarded as a holy city for the Ethiopian Orthodox church; according to tradition, King Menilek I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, brought the Ark of the Covenant there from Jerusalem. Aksum’s antiquities have made it a tourist centre.
Akwamu X'ak-wa-miiX Historical state of western Africa’s Gold Coast (now Ghana). Founded by an Akan people c. 1600, it grew rich on the sale of gold. At its height in the early 18th century, Akwamu stretched more than 250 mi (400 km) along the coast, from Whydah (now Ouidah, Benin) in the east to beyond Winneba (now in Ghana) in the west. By 1710 the state was being pressured by other groups (including the Asante) that had grown powerful in the area, and by 1731 it had ceased to exist.
Al Among Arab groups, a term denoting a tribe, clan, family, or other patrilineal filiation. It often refers to a ruling line or dynasty and gener¬ ally precedes a substantive name (e.g., Al Sa'ud) but is not connected by a hyphen; it is unrelated to the Arabic definite article, al-. In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, entries for Arab tribal and dynastic groups are alphabetized under the substantive (e.g., for Al Sa'ud, see Sa'Gd dynasty).
al- Arabic definite article, meaning “the.” It prefixes Arabic nouns, from which it is generally separated by a hyphen when rendered in Latin script. In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, entries are alphabetized under the noun the article modifies (e.g., see Azhar University, al-).
Al-JazTrah See Gezira
al-Khwarizmi Xal-'kwar-iz-meX Arabic in full Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (b. c. 780, Baghdad, Iraq—d. c. 850) Muslim mathematician and astronomer. He lived in Baghdad during the golden age of Islamic science and, like Euclid, wrote mathematical books that collected and arranged the discoveries of earlier mathematicians. His Al-Kitdb al-mukhtasar fi hisdb al-jabr wa’l-muqabala (“The Compendi¬ ous Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”) is a compila¬ tion of rules for solving linear and quadratic equations, as well as problems of geometry and proportion. Its translation into Latin in the 12th century provided the link between the great Hindu and Arab mathematicians and
Anna Akhmatova.
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36 I Alabama ► Alaska Highway
European scholars. A corruption of the book’s title resulted in the word algebra ; a corruption of the author’s own name resulted in the term algo¬ rithm.
Alabama State (pop., 2000: 4,447,000), southern central U.S. It is bor¬ dered by Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi; the Gulf of Mexico lies to the southwest. Covering 51,718 sq mi (133,950 sq km), its capital is Montgomery. Its original inhabitants included Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek Indians; evidence of their activity can be found near Tuscaloosa. Hernando de Soto traveled there, and the French founded a settlement at Fort Louis in 1702. The Alabama Territory was created in 1817, and statehood was granted in 1819. Alabama seceded from the Union in 1861, becoming part of the Confederacy; it was readmitted in 1868. Efforts during Reconstruction to include blacks in government failed, and Alabama remained segregationist until the 1960s. Dependent on cotton until the early 20th century, the state has since diversified its agricultural production and developed industrially, especially at Birming¬ ham; Mobile has become a major ocean terminal.