A.D. 226 and destroyed by the Arabs in 637. The dynasty is named after Sāsān, an ancestor of Ardashir I. For a list of the kings and the history of the empire see Persia: Ancient History, section viii.; for its fall see also Caliphate, section A, § 1.
SASSARI, a town and archiepiscopal see of Sardinia, capital
of the province of Sassari, situated in the N.W. corner of the
island, 1212 m. by rail S.E. of Porto Torres on the north coast,
and 2112 m. N.W. of Alghero on the west coast, 762 ft. above
sea-level. Pop. (1906) 34,897 (town); 41,638 (commune). The
Aragonese castle and the Genoese walls have been demolished
in recent times, and the town has a modern aspect, with spacious
streets and squares. The cathedral has a baroque facade; but
traces of Romanesque work (12th century) can be seen at the
sides and in the Campanile. The see was transferred from Porto
Torres in 1441. S. Maria di Betlemme has a good facade and
Romanesque portal of the end of the 13th (?) century (D. Scano,
in L’Arte, 1905, 134). In the municipal collection are a few
pictures of interest. The museum in the university has an interesting
collection of antiquities, largely formed by G. Spano, from
all parts of the island, and belonging to the prehistoric, Phoenician
and Roman periods. To the east of the town is the Fontana
del Rosello, which supplied the town with water before the
construction of the aqueduct, the water being brought up in small
barrels by donkeys. Sassari is connected by rail by a branch
(2812 m. E.S.E. to Chilivani) with the main line from Cagliari
to Golfo degli Aranci, and with Porto Torres and Alghero. To
the district near Sassari belong some of the most picturesque
costumes of the island.
The date of the origin of the town is uncertain; but it was no doubt founded as the result of migrations from Porto Torres. This can hardly have occurred during the 11th century, when we find the giudici of Torres or Logudoro residing either at Porto Torres or at Ardara; but it must have occurred before 1217, when a body of Corsicans, driven out of their island by the cruelties of a Visconti of Pisa, took refuge at Sassari, and gave their name to a part of the town. About this time we find one of the giudici residing at Sassari for a whole summer, no doubt to escape the malaria. The giudici continued to exist at least until 1275, and perhaps till 1284, but about 1260 Sassari seems to have shaken itself free, and in 1275 and 1286 we find Pisa treating Sassari as a free commune. In 1288, four years after the defeat of Meloria, Pisa ceded Sassari to Genoa; but Sassari enjoyed internal autonomy, and in 1316 published its statutes (still extant), which are perhaps in part the reproduction of earlier ones. These, however, did not last long, for in 1323 Sassari submitted to the Aragonese king, and lost its independence. Sassari was sacked by the French in 1527, and disastrous pestilences are recorded in 1528, 1580 and 1652. In 1795 Sassari was the centre of the reaction of the barons against the popular ideas sown by the French Revolution; an insurrection of the people led by one Angioi lasted only a short while, and led to reactionary measures.
See P. Satta-Branca, Il Comune di Sassari nei secoli XIII e XIV (Rome, 1885). (T. As.)
SASSINA (or Sarsina, the modern form), an ancient town of
Umbria, Italy, on the left bank of the river Sapis (Savio), 16 m.
8. of Caesena (Cesena). In 266 B.C. both consuls, on different
dates, celebrated a triumph over the Sassinates, as is recorded in
the Fasti, and in the enumeration of the Italian allies of the
Romans in 225 B.C. the Umbri and Sassinates are mentioned,
on an equal footing, as providing 20,000 men between them.
It is possible that the tribus Sapinia (the name of which is derived
from the river Sapis) mentioned by Livy in the account of the
Roman marches against the Boii in 201 and 196 B.C. formed a
part of the Sassinates. The poet Plautus was a native of Sassina
(b. 254 B.C.). The town was of some importance, as inscriptions
show; these are preserved in the local museum. Remains of
several buildings, one of which was probably the public baths,
have been found (A. Santarelli in Notizie degli scavi, 1892,
370; A. Negrioli, ibid., 1900, 392). Its milk is frequently
mentioned—no doubt it was the centre of a pasture district—and
it provided a number of recruits for the praetorian guard.
An episcopal see was founded here in the 3rd century A.D. and
still exists. The present town has 2291 inhabitants (commune,
3861).
SASSOON, SIR ALBERT ABDULLAH DAVID, Bart. (1818–1896), British Indian philanthropist and merchant, was born at Bagdad on the 25th of July 1818, a member of a Jewish family settled there since the beginning of the 16th century, and previously in Spain. His father, a leading Bagdad merchant, was driven by repeated Anti-Semitic outbreaks to remove from Bagdad to Bushire, Persia, and, in 1832, he settled in Bombay where
he founded a large banking and mercantile business. Albert
Sassoon was educated in India, and on the death of his father
became head of the firm. He was a great benefactor to the city
of Bombay, among his gifts being the Sassoon dock, completed
in 1875, and a handsome proportion of the cost of the new
Elphinstone High School. In 1867 he was made a C.S.I., and
in 1872 a Knight of the Bath. In 1873 he visited England and
received the freedom of the city of London. Shortly afterwards
he settled in England, and was made a baronet in 1890. He
died at Brighton on the 24th of October 1896.
SATARA, a town and district of British India, in the Central
division of Bombay. The name is derived from the “seventeen”
walls, towers and gates which the fort was supposed to possess.
The town is 2320 ft. above sea-level, near the confluence of the
rivers Kistna and Vena, 56 m. S. of Poona. Pop. (1901) 26,022.
The District of Satara has an area of 4825 sq. m. It contains two hill systems, the Sahyadri, or main range of the Western Ghats, and the Mahadeo range and its offshoots. The former runs through the district from north to south, while the Mahadeo range starts about 10 m. north of Mahabaleshwar and stretches east and south-east across the whole breadth of the district. The Mahadeo hills are bold, presenting bare scarps of black rock like fortresses. Within Satara are two river systems-the Bhima system in a small part of the north and north-east, and the Kistna system throughout the rest of the district. The hill forests have a large store of timber and firewood. The whole of Satara falls within the Deccan trap area; the hills consist of trap intersected by strata of basalt and topped with laterite, while, of the different soils on the plains, the commonest is the black loamy clay containing carbonate of lime. This when well watered is capable of yielding heavy crops. Satara contains some important irrigation works, including the Kistna canal. In some of the western parts of the district the average annual rainfall exceeds 200 in.; but on the eastern side water is scanty, the rainfall varying from 40 in. in Satara town to less than 12 in. in some places farther east. The population in 1901 was 1,146,559, showing a decrease of 6% in the preceding decade. The principal crops are millet, pulse, oil-seeds and sugar-cane. The only manufactures are cotton cloth, blankets and brass-ware. The district is traversed from north to south by the Southern Mahratta railway, passing 10 m. from Satara town. The Satara agency comprises the two feudatory states of Phaltan and Aundh. Total area 844 sq.m.; pop. (1901) 109,660.
On the overthrow of the Jadhav dynasty in 1312 the district passed to the Mahommedan power, which was consolidated in the reign of the Bahmani kings. On the decline of the Bahmanis towards the end of the 15th century the Bijapur kings finally asserted themselves, and under these kings the Mahrattas arose and laid the foundation of an independent kingdom with Satara. as its capital. Intrigues and dissensions in the palace led to the ascendancy of the Peshwas, who removed the capital to Poona in 1749, and degraded the raja of Satara into the position of a political prisoner. The war of 1817 closed the career of the peshwas, and the British then restored the titular raja, and assigned to him the principality of Satara, with an area much larger than the present district. In consequence of political intrigues, he was deposed in 1839, and his brother was placed on the throne. This prince dying without male heirs in 1848, the state was resumed by the British government.
SATELLITE (from the Lat. satelles, an attendant), in astronomy, a small opaque body revolving around a planet, as the moon around the earth (see Planet). In the theory of cubic curves,
