598 



SHIELDS 



SH1ITES 



ailing vessels and manufacture of anchors, chain- 

 cables, ropes, &c. At the fish -quay (4J acres in 

 extent) tliere were landed in the year ending 

 March 25, 1890, 6530 bins of herrings and 6146 tons 

 of whitetish. At Cliflbrd'H Fort is a submarine 

 mining station. In conjunction with Tyne- 

 mouth (<i.v.) and three small townships North 

 Shields forms a municipal and parliamentary 

 borough, named after Tynemouth, and sends one 

 member to parliament. The population of the 

 municipal Ixirough of Tynemouth, of which North 

 Shields form- a part, in 1881 was 44,118; in 1891 

 it was 46,588. This town is the birthplace of 

 the painters George Balmer ( 1805-46 ) and Birket 

 Foster (born 1812), also of William Wouldhave 

 ( 1751-1821 ), who shares with Greathead the honour 

 of inventing the lifeboat. Henry Taylor ( 1737- 

 1823), who originated the system of lightships in 

 such places as Goodwin Sands, was from 1772 to 

 his death associated with North Shields. 



Sliii'lds. Si ii i ii. a seaport, municipal and par- 

 liamentary borough, and market-town of Durham, 

 situated on the south bank of the Tyne at the 

 mouth of that river, 9 miles ENE. of Newcoatle- 

 upon-Tyne. On the Lawe, an eminence overlook- 

 ing the river, the Romans had an important 

 military station, approached from the south by the 

 Ryknield Wav. In Saxon times it was called 

 Caer Urfa, and is said to have been the birthplace 

 of King ( (-win. Salt-pans were established here in 

 1489, and glass-works in 1619. The oldest part of 

 the town extends for about two miles along the 

 river-bank, the streets being narrow and dingy. 

 Ocean Road a fine broad thoroughfare nearly a 

 mile long stretches from the market-place to the 

 pier. Several of the modern streets are wide and 

 well-built. South Shields is becoming popular as a 

 watering-place. The coast southward is very fine, 

 the cliffs magnesian limestone of the Permian 

 system being hollowed into picturesque caves. 

 The principal public buildings are the town-hall, 

 in the centre of the market-place ( 1768) ; the public 

 library, news-room, and museum ( 1859) ; the marine 

 school (opened 1869); the theatre-royal (1866); 

 and the Ingham Infirmary (1873). South Shields 

 is in the parish of Jarrow (q.v.). Tliere are twelve 

 churches in the l>orongh (ten belonging to the 

 Established Church and two to the Roman Catholic 

 Church ) and twenty -six chapels. At the east side 

 of the town are the North and South Marine Parks, 

 45 acres in extent, divided by the pier parade. A 

 portion of the site of the Roman station, contain- 

 ing the remains of the Forum, treasury, western 

 gateway, &c., has been enclosed by the corpora- 

 tion anil laid out as a recreation ground. The south 

 pier a gigantic breakwater fl'218 feet in length, 

 protecting the harbonr from the south-east gales, 

 was begun in 1854, and not quite completed at the 

 end of 1891. Nearly 30,000 tons of shipping 

 are registered at the port of South Shields. 

 The liarliniir is lined with ship and boat yards, 

 iron, glass, alkali, and rope works, paint anil 

 varnish manufactories, &c. Within the borough 

 are the Tyne Docks, the property of the North- 

 Eastern Railway, from which 5,695,829 tons of 

 coal and coke were shipped in 1890. The docks were 

 opened in 1859, and cover an area of 50 acres. 

 There is a large colliery in the town the St Hilda 

 which WOK opened in 1810. In an explosion here 

 in 1839 fifty-nine )>ersons were killed. The first 

 lifeboat wax built at South Shields, and was u-r.l 

 for the first time on January 30, 1790. A memorial 

 to the inventors Wimldhave and Greathead has 

 l*en erected on the pier parade. Near it is pre- 

 served the old ' Tyne ' lifolmat which saved no 

 less than 1024 lives. A life-brigade was established 

 here in 1866. A steam -ferry for passengers and 

 carriages plies day and night between North and 



South Shields. South Shields was incorporated in 

 1850. Since 1832 it has returned one member to 

 [MCrliament. Pop. (1851) 28,974; (1881) 56,875; 

 ( 1891 ) "K.391. 



Sliifnal. ii town of Shropshire, 17 miles E. by S. 

 of Shrewsbury, with iron manufacture*. Pup. ,V>31. 



Shigatze, or DIGAKCHI, a town of Tibet, stands 

 on the right bank of the Sanpo or Brahmaputra, 

 140 mil.- \V. by S. of Lhassa, at an altitude of 

 12,000 feet. Near bv is the great monastery ( 3500 

 monks) of the Tashilunpo, the residence of one 

 of the Tibetan incarnations of Buddha, Pop. of 

 Shigatze, 9000. 



Slii ill's (also Shceah* ; 'sectaries,' from the 

 Arab, .v/i IK/I, 'a party '), the name given by ortho- 

 dox Muslims or Sunnites to Ali's followers, who 

 call themselves al-adeliyyah, 'the right people.' 

 They were the champions of Ali's right to be 

 Mohammed's successor as being his cousin and 

 Mm in law (see CALIF, ALI); and after Ali's 

 death they took the side of his sons Hassan 

 (Hasan), Hussein (Hosain), and Mohammed ilm 

 al Hanafiyyah. The Persians, believers in the 

 divine right and even in the divine nature of kings, 

 took this side. All Shfites allegorise the Koran ; 

 but the ultra- Shlites, founded by Abdall&h ibn 

 Sabft, a converted Jew of Yemen, differed from the 

 moderate Shiites or Zaidites in believing in the 

 transmigration of souls, and in calling All and his 

 legitimate successors incarnations of God. By 

 Shiite help the Abbasides in 750 wrested the calif- 

 ate from the Ommiades. Yet, unsound as the 

 Abbasides were, and decided as Persian ascendency 

 was for 100 years, the Shtites gained little. They 

 were the strength of 'the veiled prophet' (see 

 MOKANNA ) in 770-779 and of Bftlek 817-837. Their 

 disaffection was one chief reason for the introduc- 

 tion of Turks into the califs service (830-840). In 

 765 the death of Jaafar the Veracious, the sixth 

 Shiite Imam, developed the Ismatli sect of the 

 Shiites. Those followed the eldest son Ismoel ; the 

 majority, following Moosa the second son, were 

 afterwards named 'J'nv/n-rx, the series of their 

 Imams ending with the twelfth. In Irak in 887 arose 

 the Karniatlnon branch of the Ismatlis. In 909 an 

 Ismafli proclaimed himself in North Africa as the 

 first Ffttimide calif. The 6th calif of this line. Hakim, 

 was declared to be God's tenth and final incarnation 

 by Darazt, who founded the sect of the Druses. In 

 1090 Hassan Sabbfth, an Ismalli of Khorassftn, as the 

 Sheikh of the Mountains instituted the order of 

 Assassins, who generally recognised the FAtimide 

 califate. Ismailis are still found in Persia and 

 Syria. The moderate Shfism that has been the 

 national religion of Persia since the native royal 

 line of Safiides ascended the throne in 1499 is more 

 Koranic than Sunnism. It has Hadtth and Sunna 

 (see SUNNITES), but not those of the orthodox Mus- 

 lims. It has its own modes of religious washing, and 

 its own postures in prayer. Shiites, habitually ill- 

 used in Arabia, alisent themselves much from Mecca, 

 and, unable to bless Alm-l>ekr and ((mar, who are 

 buried in Medina, go still less thither. Hut they 

 do pilgrimage unhindered to the tomlis of Ali and 

 Hussein in the pashalic of Bagdad, and to the tomb 

 of Ki/a, one of their twelve imams, in Meshhed, 

 the capital of Khorassan, and to the tombs of Shfite 

 sainta. They keep the orthodox feasts and others, 

 among which the Moharram feast, occupying the 

 first ten days of the month Moharram (q.v.), and 

 commemorating the martyrdom of Hussein, is the 

 chief. (For the Shlito cry of Ya Hasan! Ya 

 llnx/iin, see HOBSON-JoiisoN.) They detest 

 Ayeshiih and the founders of the four orthodox 

 schools, and hold all califs save Ali to have been 

 usurpers. They own no califate nor imftniate; 

 these have been dormant since the death of 



