Sarai, former city, S European Russia, near present-day Volgograd. Founded in 1241 by Batu Khan, it was (13th-15th cent.) the capital of the Tatar Golden Horde, to which the Russians paid tribute for more than 200 years. The city declined after Czar Ivan III threw off the Tatar yoke in 1480.

(born March 27, 1924, Newark, N.J., U.S.—died April 3, 1990, Hidden Hills, Calif.) U.S. jazz singer. Vaughan won an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo Theatre in 1942 and soon joined Earl Hines's big band as vocalist and second pianist. Joining Billy Eckstine's band in 1944, she gained exposure to the new bebop style; she was especially influenced by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and recorded with them in 1945. Alternating between popular song and jazz, she worked as a soloist for the rest of her career. A vast range and wide vibrato in the service of her harmonic sensitivity enabled Vaughan to use her voice with a seemingly instrumental approach, often improvising as a jazz soloist.

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orig. Sarah Kemble

(born July 5, 1755, Brecon, Brecknockshire, Wales—died June 8, 1831, London, Eng.) British actress. She acted with her father's traveling company and married actor William Siddons in 1773. Her performance as Isabella in Fatal Marriage at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1782 was highly successful; she was instantly acclaimed as the leading tragedienne of the time. Siddons played Shakespearean parts, notably Lady Macbeth, from 1785 until she retired in 1812. She was the subject of well-known portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds.

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orig. Sarah Kemble

(born July 5, 1755, Brecon, Brecknockshire, Wales—died June 8, 1831, London, Eng.) British actress. She acted with her father's traveling company and married actor William Siddons in 1773. Her performance as Isabella in Fatal Marriage at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1782 was highly successful; she was instantly acclaimed as the leading tragedienne of the time. Siddons played Shakespearean parts, notably Lady Macbeth, from 1785 until she retired in 1812. She was the subject of well-known portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds.

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(born March 27, 1924, Newark, N.J., U.S.—died April 3, 1990, Hidden Hills, Calif.) U.S. jazz singer. Vaughan won an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo Theatre in 1942 and soon joined Earl Hines's big band as vocalist and second pianist. Joining Billy Eckstine's band in 1944, she gained exposure to the new bebop style; she was especially influenced by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and recorded with them in 1945. Alternating between popular song and jazz, she worked as a soloist for the rest of her career. A vast range and wide vibrato in the service of her harmonic sensitivity enabled Vaughan to use her voice with a seemingly instrumental approach, often improvising as a jazz soloist.

Learn more about Vaughan, Sarah (Lois) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Henriette-Rosine Bernard

(born Oct. 22/23, 1844, Paris, France—died March 26, 1923, Paris) French actress. The illegitimate child of a courtesan, she was encouraged to pursue a theatrical career by one of her mother's lovers, the duke de Morny. After a brief appearance at the Comédie-Française (1862–63), she joined the Odéon theatre (1866–72), where she acted in Kean by Alexandre Dumas père and Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, charming audiences with her “golden voice.” Returning to the Comédie-Française (1872–80), she starred in Phèdre to great acclaim in Paris and London. She formed her own company in 1880 and toured the world in The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas fils, Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe, four plays written for her by Victorien Sardou, and The Eaglet by Edmond Rostand. After an injury to her leg forced its amputation (1915), she strapped on a wooden leg and chose roles she could play largely seated. One of the best-known figures in the history of the stage, she was made a member of France's Legion of Honour in 1914.

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(flourished early 2nd millennium BC) In the Hebrew scriptures, the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. She was childless until age 90. In Genesis, God promised Abraham that she would be “a mother of nations,” but Sarah refused to believe and had already given her maidservant Hagar to Abraham, with whom he fathered Ishmael. Nevertheless, Sarah did conceive in her old age and give birth to Abraham's son Isaac.

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(born Sept. 3, 1849, South Berwick, Maine, U.S.—died June 24, 1909, South Berwick) U.S. writer. Concerned to capture the folkways of a vanishing culture, she wrote realistic sketches of aging Maine natives, whose manners, idioms, and pithiness she recorded with pungency and humour. Outstanding among her 20 volumes are Deephaven (1877), A White Heron (1886), and The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).

Learn more about Jewett, (Theodora) Sarah Orne with a free trial on Britannica.com.

married name Marchesa Ossoli

(born May 23, 1810, Cambridgeport, Mass., U.S.—died July 19, 1850, at sea off Fire Island, N.Y.) U.S. critic, teacher, and woman of letters. She became part of the Transcendentalist circle (see Transcendentalism), was a close friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and eventually became the founding editor of the Trancendentalist magazine The Dial (1840–42). Her Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 (1844), a study of frontier life, was followed by Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), a demand for women's political equality and a plea for women's intellectual and spiritual fulfillment. She traveled to Europe in 1846 as a correspondent for the New York Tribune. In Italy she married a revolutionary marquis; forced into exile, they perished in a shipwreck while returning to the U.S.

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orig. Henriette-Rosine Bernard

(born Oct. 22/23, 1844, Paris, France—died March 26, 1923, Paris) French actress. The illegitimate child of a courtesan, she was encouraged to pursue a theatrical career by one of her mother's lovers, the duke de Morny. After a brief appearance at the Comédie-Française (1862–63), she joined the Odéon theatre (1866–72), where she acted in Kean by Alexandre Dumas père and Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, charming audiences with her “golden voice.” Returning to the Comédie-Française (1872–80), she starred in Phèdre to great acclaim in Paris and London. She formed her own company in 1880 and toured the world in The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas fils, Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe, four plays written for her by Victorien Sardou, and The Eaglet by Edmond Rostand. After an injury to her leg forced its amputation (1915), she strapped on a wooden leg and chose roles she could play largely seated. One of the best-known figures in the history of the stage, she was made a member of France's Legion of Honour in 1914.

Learn more about Bernhardt, Sarah with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Sarai, Saraj or Sarah can refer to:

Places

• Sarai (city), the capital city of the Golden Horde
• Sarai Alamgir, a town in northern Pakistan
• Sarai (urban-type settlement), an urban-type settlement in Ryazan Oblast, Russia
• Saraj municipality, a municipality in Greater Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
• Saraj (Skopje), a village near Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; seat of the Saraj municipality
• Saraj (Strumica), a village near Strumica, Republic of Macedonia, in the Bosilovo municipality
• Sarai-khas, a village in Jalandhar District of Punjab, India
• Bal-Sarai, a village in Amritsar District of Punjab, India
• Sarai, Bangladesh

Other meanings

• The Biblical figure Sarah
• Sarai (rapper), female rapper
• Sarai Kale Khan
• Sarai Rohilla
• Sheikh Sarai
• Yusuf Sarai
• Ber Sarai
• The Sarai Programme at CSDS, a program for interdisciplinary research and practice on urban space, media and information at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, India
• Sarai, a Jat clan from Punjab, mostly of the Sikh faith

See also

• Saray-Jük, the Little Sarai of the Golden Horde