Random Image

You are here: Random Image > Words beginning with k > Random Image for kababs

Possible definitions for kababs

Kaaba
Most sacred Muslim shrine, located near the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca. All Muslims face toward it in their daily prayers. The cube-shaped structure, made of gray stone and marble, has its corners roughly oriented to the points of the compass; the interior contains only pillars and silver and gold lamps. Pilgrims to Mecca walk around the Kaaba seven times and touch the Black Stone of Mecca on its E side, which may date from the pre-Islamic religion of the Arabs. Tradition holds that the Kaaba was built by Abraham and Ishmael. In 630 Muhammad purged the place of its pagan idols and rededicated it to Islam.


Kabbala
Jewish mysticism as it developed in the 12th cent. and after. Essentially an oral tradition, it laid claim to secret wisdom of the unwritten Torah communicated by God to Adam and Moses. It provided Jews with a direct approach to God, a notion regarded as heretical and pantheistic by Orthodox Judaism. A major text was the 12th-cent. Book of Brightness, which introduced the doctrine of transmigration of souls to Judaism and provided Kabbala with extensive mythical symbolism. In 13th-cent. Spain the tradition included the Book of the Image, which asserted that each cycle of history had its own Torah, and the Book of Splendor, which dealt with the mystery of creation. In the 16th cent. the center of Kabbala was Safed, Galilee, where it was based on the esoteric teachings of the greatest of all Kabbalists, I. ben S. Luria. The doctrines of Lurianic Kabbala, which called for Jews to achieve a cosmic restoration (tiqqun) through an intense mystical life and an unceasing struggle against evil, were influential in the development of modern Hasidism.


Karaism
Jewish religious movement that denied the authenticity of the oral law and defended the Hebrew Bible as the only basis of doctrine and practice. It originated in 8th-cent. Persia, where its members were called Ananites after Anan ben David, who worked out a code of life independent of the Talmud. Members later adopted the name Karaites from the Hebrew qara ("to read"), emphasizing their reliance on a personal reading of the Bible. The movement spread through Egypt and Syria, winning only small numbers of followers and enduring many schisms. It still has about 10,000 members in Israel.


Kawabata
Japanese novelist. His writing echoes ancient Japanese forms in prose influenced by post-World War I French literary currents such as Dadaism and Expressionism. His best-known novel is Snow Country (1948), the story of a forlorn geisha. His other major works (published together in 1952) are A Thousand Cranes and The Sound of the Mountain. The loneliness and preoccupation with death in many of his mature works may derive from his losing all his near relatives while he was young. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1968. He died a suicide.

Top words beginning with K: keraunoscopia, kelima, kilohm, kurt, keith, keeks, kea, kwakiutl, keratinize, kisner, kinyoun, knolly, kantian, krubi, kaik, kildee, kleptomanias, kailyarder, komondor, kohlmeier

More words beginning with K.

Browse the alphabet: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z