Wisdom of Solomon or Wisdom, early Jewish book included in the Septuagint and the Vulgate but not in the Hebrew Bible. The book opens with an exhortation to seek wisdom, followed by a statement on worldly attitudes. Chapter 3 is an eloquent passage on the immortality of the just and the rewards of the wicked, amplified in the next chapters. Then follows another exhortation and a transition to a section praising wisdom, ending with a prayer for it. The remainder of the book is a history of God's care of the Jews from the beginning, with a long parenthesis on the natural origin of idolatry and its folly. The style and content of the book lend themselves to quotation; for example, St. Paul's letters allude to passages from Wisdom. The book is probably of Alexandrian Jewish authorship—most scholars place the date in the two centuries before Jesus. Some see in it a composite work of three parts: chapters 1-6, 7-9, and 10-19, of which the third is said to resemble a Passover Haggada. It is the paragon of what is called wisdom literature, a term for the Jewish philosophical writings of the pre-Christian era. The following books of the Hebrew Bible also represent this type: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Sirach.

Willard, Solomon, 1783-1861, American architect and sculptor, b. Petersham, Mass. Arriving in Boston in 1804, he eventually became a leading architect; he both designed and supervised the erection of the Bunker Hill monument. He carved the architectural detail of many Boston buildings, as well as ships' figureheads, including the figure for the frigate Washington (U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.). He taught drawing and sculpture in Boston, where Horatio Greenough was one of his pupils.

Song of Solomon, Song of Songs, or Canticles, book of the Bible, 22d in the order of the Authorized Version. Although traditionally ascribed to King Solomon, many scholars date it as late as the 3d cent. B.C. It is in form a collection of love poems. Its preservation in the Jewish and Christian canon is due not to its universally admitted poetic beauty, but to the acceptance of it as an allegory or parable of God's love for Israel, or for the church, or for the soul that loves Him. Famous among such interpretations are St. Bernard of Clairvaux's 86 sermons on the book (tr. 1895) and St. Francis de Sales's explanation (tr. 1908).

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: see Guggenheim Museum.

Solomon Islands, independent Commonwealth nation (2005 est. pop. 538,000), c.15,500 sq mi (40,150 sq km), SW Pacific, E of New Guinea. The islands that constitute the nation of the Solomon Islands—Guadalcanal, Malaita, New Georgia, the Santa Cruz Islands, Choiseul, Ysabel (Santa Isabel), San Cristobal (Makira), the Shortland Islands, and countless smaller islands—are only part of the 900-mi (1,448-km) Solomon Islands chain, which also includes Bougainville and Buka, which are politically part of Papua New Guinea. The capital is Honiara, on Guadalcanal.

Land, People, and Economy

The Solomons are mountainous and heavily wooded. The inhabitants are largely Melanesians, although some Polynesians live in the outlying atolls. About one third of the people belong to the Church of Melanesia, and there are minorities of Roman Catholics and other Christian denominations. English is the official language, but a Melanesian pidgin is the lingua franca; there are about 120 indigenous languages.

Farming, fishing, and forestry are the main occupations. Cocoa beans, coconuts, palm kernels, rice, potatoes, vegetables, and fruit are grown. Economic development has been slow, and industry is limited to fish processing, mining, and lumbering. There are large undeveloped mineral resources. By the 1990s, logging levels had become unsustainable and the government instituted regulatory legislation. Timber, fish, copra, palm oil, and cocoa are the main exports, while foodstuffs, machinery, manufactured goods, fuels, and chemicals are imported. The main trading partners are China, Australia, and South Korea.

Government

The country is governed under the constitution of 1978. The monarch of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by the governor-general, is the head of state. The government is headed by the prime minister. The unicameral National Parliament has 50 members, all elected by popular vote for four-year terms. Administratively, the Solomon Islands are divided into nine provinces and the capital territory.

History

A Spanish explorer, Álvaro de Mendeña de Neira, was the first European to visit the islands (1568), but his colonizing efforts failed. European settlers and missionaries arrived throughout the 18th and 19th cent. In 1885 the German New Guinea Company established control over the N Solomons. The southern islands were placed under a British protectorate in 1893; the eastern islands were added to it in 1898. In 1900, Germany transferred its islands (except Bougainville and Buka) to Great Britain in return for British withdrawal from W Samoa. Bougainville and Buka were occupied by Australian forces during World War I and were placed under Australian mandate by the League of Nations in 1920. During World War II, Choiseul, New Georgia, Ysabel, and Guadalcanal were occupied by the Japanese (1942) but were liberated by U.S. forces (1943-44).

The Solomon Islands became self-governing in 1976 and independent in 1978. The government is parliamentary, with a governor-general representing the British crown, a prime minister and cabinet, and an elected unicameral parliament. In Aug., 1997, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu became prime minister after winning a leadership vote in parliament. Ethnic strife broke out on Guadalcanal in 1999, as island natives fought with immigrants from the island of Malaita. In 2000 the battling between ethnic-based militias intensified, and the Malaita militia took Ulufa'alu hostage in June. The prime minister resigned under duress; Mannasseh Sogavare, who was chosen to succeed him, pledged to seek a resolution to the violence.

After elections held in Dec., 2001, Sir Allan Kemakeza was elected prime minister. Despite efforts to negotiate an end to the violence, it continued, ruining the economy and bankrupting the country. In July, 2003, an Australian-led peacekeeping force entered the Solomons at the government's request to restore order. The operation was largely successful, disarming rebels, arresting their leaders, and enabling people displaced by the violence to return home, and most troops were withdrawn before year's end. Police officers associated with the mission remain in the Solomons.

Corruption accusations against several government ministers led to large losses for Kemakeza's party in the Apr., 2006, elections. Former deputy prime minister Snyder Rini was elected to succeed Kemakeza as prime minister, but Rini's election sparked protests in Honiara by demonstrators upset with his ties to what they regarded as a corrupt administration. The protests turned into anti-Chinese riots because the corruption has been associated with the money and development brought by recent Chinese investors. Additional Australian and New Zealand forces were sent to the Solomons to help restore order, and Rini resigned when he lost parliamentary support. In May, Mannasseh Sogavare was elected prime minister with the support of the opposition parties.

The new government's relations with Australia subsequently became strained when Australia's ambassador criticized a Solomons investigation into the post-election riots as a potential whitewash and was expelled. The situation worsed when Sogavare appointed Julian Moti, an Australian lawyer of Fijian descent who was wanted in Australia on child sex charges, as the Solomons attorney general. Australia sought Moti's extradition from Papua New Guinea, where Moti was arrested (Sept., 2006) while in transit. Moti managed to flee with apparent help from Papua New Guinea and Solomons officials, and then entered the Solomons illegaly and was held there. (His appointment as attorney general was suspended as a result of his illegal entry.)

A Solomons police investigation into Moti's illegal entry resulted in a raid on the prime minister's office. Sogavare criticized the raid as an Australian violation of his nation's sovereignty because of the presence of Australians (hired by the Solomons government) throughout the police force; the Australian government denied having any involvement in Solomons police affairs. A Solomons court cleared Moti of all Solomons charges in December, the Australian-born police commissioner was subsequently declared an undesirable immigrant, and in July, 2007, Moti became attorney general. In Apr., 2007, an undersea earthquake and tsunami caused widespread significant destruction in the W Solomon Islands, devastating the nation's second largest city, Gizo. Sogavare lost a confidence vote in Dec., 2007, and Derek Sikua, backed by the oppostion and some former Sogavare supporters, became prime minister. Moti subsequently was extradited to Australia.

Solomon, d. c.930 B.C., king of the ancient Hebrews (c.970-c.930 B.C.), son and successor of David. His mother was Bath-sheba. His accession has been dated to c.970 B.C. According to the Bible. Solomon's reign was marked by foreign alliances (notably with Egypt and Phoenicia) and the greatest extension of Israel's territory in biblical times. He built numerous cities, constructed copper smelting furnaces in the Negev, and had the first temple built at Jerusalem. However, his despotism resulted in the alienation of N Israel and the revolt of Jeroboam I. The biblical account of Solomon derives from the "Succession Narrative" in Second Samuel and First and Second Kings; Temple archives; and various folk-tales, but what the Bible says about the glory of his reign is impossible to confirm from the archaeological record.

Solomon's wisdom is proverbial. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were ascribed to him, as was Wisdom of Solomon, a book of the Old Testament Apocrypha, and the Song of Solomon bears his name. The Psalms of Solomon (1st cent. B.C.) and the Odes of Solomon (early 2d cent. A.D.) are found in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Solomon's original name was Jedidiah.

Schechter, Solomon, 1847-1915, Jewish scholar. Born in Romania, he was educated in Vienna and at the Univ. of Berlin. He went to England in 1882 and in 1890 he was made lecturer in Talmud at Cambridge; he became professor of Hebrew at University College, London, in 1899. In 1887 he published his critical edition of Avot According to Rabbi Nathan. In 1897 he traveled to Cairo and brought back to Cambridge some 100,000 manuscript fragments from the famous Cairo geniza. Among these, Schechter identified the hitherto missing Hebrew version of Ecclesiasticus. In 1902 he became president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, which he developed into a center of learning and a spiritual home of the Conservative movement. He was also the founder of the United Synagogue of America, the association of Conservative congregations. Among his books are Studies in Judaism (1896; 2d series 1908; 3d series 1924) and Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (1909).

Rapoport, Solomon Seinwil: see Ansky, Shloime.

Psalms of Solomon: see Pseudepigrapha.

Luria or Loria, Isaac ben Solomon, 1534-72, Jewish kabbalist, surnamed Ashkenazi, called Ari [lion] by his followers, b. Jerusalem. In his 20s he spent seven years in seclusion, intensely studying the kabbalah. He settled (c.1570) at Safed, Palestine, where he became the teacher and leader of a large circle of students who formed an important school of mysticism. Combining messianism with reinterpreted kabbalistic doctrines from an earlier period, Luria sought to understand the nature and connection between earthly redemption and cosmic restoration. Man's deeds, linked to the secret processes of creation and thus an integral part of the cosmic drama, work toward man's redemption by aiding in the restoration of the cosmos to its original state. It is the Jewish people, through their adherence to God's halakah, who will effect this restoration and thereby bring forth the Messiah as the consummate act of earthly redemption. Luria's philosophy has come down to us through the numerous works of his chief disciple, Hayim Vital.

Loria, Isaac ben Solomon: see Luria, Isaac ben Solomon.

Loeb, Solomon, 1828-1903, American banker, b. Germany. After he came (1849) to the United States, he settled in Cincinnati and became wealthy as a dry-goods merchant. He moved (1865) to New York City and with Abraham Kuhn started the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb and Company. After his retirement, most of his financial interests were taken over by his son, James Loeb. His philanthropies included large amounts to Jewish charities.

Juneau, Solomon Laurent, 1793-1856, French Canadian fur trader and founder of Milwaukee, Wis., b. near Montreal. In 1818, as an agent of the American Fur Company, he moved to their new post at Milwaukee. He amassed a fortune in independent trade, acquired large tracts of land there, and was revered by the indigenous population. He became an American citizen in 1831. He surveyed the town site, built the first store and first tavern, became Milwaukee's first postmaster (1835) and first president of the village (1837). His fortune was reduced by the Panic of 1837, but he remained a leading citizen of Milwaukee, becoming its first mayor in 1846.

Immanuel ben Solomon, c.1265-c.1330, Hebrew-Italian poet and scholar, b. Rome. He wrote biblical criticism and, in both Hebrew and Italian, satiric verse and lively stories. His work represents a synthesis of Jewish thought and reflects the spirit of Italian Renaissance. His collected poems were printed (1491) under the title Mahberoth Immanuel [the compositions of Immanuel]. His verse was notorious in his day and later for its satiric and erotic content. He introduced the Italian sonnet form into Hebrew poetry.

Ibn Gabirol, Solomon ben Judah, c.1021-1058, Jewish poet and philosopher, known also as Avicebron, b. Malaga. His secular poetry deals partly with nature and love, but most of it reveals a gloom and bitterness engendered by his tragic life. Orphaned early, he spent much of his life contending with mediocre rivals and critics jealous of his scholarship. It is thought that he was murdered by a rival. Ibn Gabriol's religious poetry is filled with a mystic awe of God, and much of it has been incorporated into the Judaic liturgy. His great philosophical work, The Well of Life, showing the influence of Neoplatonism, was written in Arabic. In its Latin translation (Fons vitae), it exercised a great influence on Christian thought. The book is an attempt to explain the universality of matter, man's purpose in life, and the communion of man's soul with the spiritual sources that created it. His hundreds of poems and his book of ethics, The Improvement of the Moral Qualities, were also important.

Foot, Solomon, 1802-66, U.S. Senator from Vermont (1851-66), b. Cornwall, Vt. He taught school, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1831. Foot served several terms in the state legislature and was in the U.S. House of Representatives (1843-47). His antislavery convictions carried him into the new Republican party. In the Senate he was recognized as a master of parliamentary law (he was often president pro tempore) and established many customs in the Senate's procedure.

Elijah ben Solomon, 1720-97, Jewish scholar, called the Gaon of Vilna, b. Lithuania. A leading Jewish scholar of his time, he opposed the spread of Hasidism in Lithuania and Poland because he feared that the creation of these new groups would weaken the Jewish community. His many influential works include commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, the Mishna and Talmud, Midrash, and the kabbalah. He upheld the primacy of Torah study and the halakah, which he held as being of supreme importance for Jewish life.

Blumengarten, Solomon: see Bloomgarden, Solomon.

Bloomgarden or Blumengarten, Solomon, pseud. Yehoash, 1870-1927, American writer in Yiddish, b. Lithuania. He emigrated to America in 1891 and, except for 10 years in Colorado (1900-1910), lived chiefly in New York City. His poetry, which holds a high place in Jewish-American literature, includes the collections Through Mist and Sunshine (1913) and In the Weaving (2 vol., 1919-21). The Feet of the Messenger (1921) was translated into English (1923). Considered to be his greatest work was the translation of the entire Old Testament from Hebrew into Yiddish. With Charles D. Spivak he compiled a Hebrew-Yiddish dictionary (1911). A translation of his poems appeared in 1952.

Bandaranaike, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias, 1899-1959, prime minister (1956-59) of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka); husband of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. A lawyer educated in England, he entered politics and rose to hold a cabinet position. He resigned, however, in 1951 to form what became the Sri Lanka Freedom party. In 1956 he organized a leftist coalition that came to power with the 1956 elections. As prime minister, he took a neutralist stance in foreign affairs; domestically, he was faced by economic problems and disputes over languages. He was assassinated by a dissident Buddhist monk.

(born Jan. 9, 1899, Colombo, Ceylon—died Sept. 26, 1959, Colombo) Statesman and prime minister (1956–59) of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Educated at the University of Oxford, he became a prominent member of Ceylon's Western-oriented United National Party. In 1952 he founded the nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party, becoming the opposition leader in the legislature. He later formed an alliance of four nationalist-socialist parties that swept elections in 1956 and made him prime minister. Under Bandaranaike, Sinhalese replaced English as the country's official language, Buddhism (the majority religion) was given a prominent place in the affairs of state, and Ceylon established diplomatic relations with communist states. He was assassinated in 1959. His widow, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (1916–2000), became the world's first woman prime minister in 1960, serving until 1965; she was prime minister twice more (1970–77 and 1994–2000). During her second term a new constitution was adopted that proclaimed a republic (1972) and changed the country's name to Sri Lanka. She was appointed to a third term when her daughter, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (b. 1945), became president in 1994.

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Museum in New York City housing the Solomon R. Guggenheim collection of modern art. An example of the “organic architecture” of Frank Lloyd Wright, the building (constructed 1956–59) represents a radical departure from traditional museum design, spiraling upward and outward in a smooth coil of massive, unadorned white concrete. The exhibition space, which has been criticized for upstaging the artwork displayed, consists of a six-story-high spiral ramp encircling an open centre volume lighted by a dome of glass supported by stainless steel. The museum has a comprehensive collection of European painting from throughout the 20th century and of American painting from the second half of the century.

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Island country, southwestern South Pacific Ocean. (Another island group named Solomon Islands, which includes Bougainville, is part of Papua New Guinea.) The country includes the islands of Guadalcanal, Malaita, San Cristobal, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, and Rennell; the Russell, Florida, Shortland, Santa Cruz, and New Georgia island groups; and small islands and reefs. Area: 10,954 sq mi (28,370 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 471,000. Capital: Honiara. The population is largely Melanesian. Languages: English (official), Pijin (an English-based pidgin), and more than 60 indigenous Melanesian languages. Religions: Christianity (predominantly Protestant; also Roman Catholic); also traditional beliefs. Currency: Solomon Islands dollar. The Solomons group comprises numerous volcanic islands arranged in two parallel chains that converge in the southeast. They consist mostly of heavily wooded, mountainous terrain drained by short, swift-flowing rivers. The climate is tropical. The economy is based on agriculture, fishing, and lumbering. Tourism is increasing as cruise ships and visitors to World War II battlefields stop at the islands. The country is a constitutional monarchy with one legislative house; its chief of state is the British monarch represented by the governor-general, and the head of government is the prime minister. The Solomon Islands were probably settled circa 2000 BC by Austronesian people. Visited by the Spanish in 1568, they were subsequently explored and charted by the Dutch, French, and British. They were under British protection from 1893 as the British Solomon Islands. The Japanese invasion of 1942 ignited some of the most bitter fighting in the Pacific during the war, particularly on Guadalcanal. The protectorate became self-governing in 1976 and fully independent in 1978. From 1999 ethnic fighting broke out in the Solomons; New Zealand and Australian armed forces helped restore order.

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(born April 9, 1888, Pogar, near Kharkov, Russia—died March 5, 1974, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. impresario. He went to the U.S. in 1905 and in 1913 inaugurated the concert series Music for the Masses, which led to his representing many famous eastern European artists when they toured abroad, including Feodor Chaliapin, Mischa Elman, Anna Pavlova, and Artur Rubinstein.

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Any of about 25 species of herbaceous perennials that make up the genus Polygonatum (lily family), found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Particularly common in the eastern U.S. and Canada, Solomon's seals flourish in damp, wooded areas and thickets. They have thick, creeping rhizomes and tall, drooping stems, and they bear clusters of white or greenish-white flowers in the axils of leaves, followed by drooping red berries. Similar plants of the genus Smilacina, known as false Solomon's seal, bear their flower clusters at the tips of the stems.

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(born 1534, Jerusalem—died Aug. 5, 1572, Safed, Syria) Jewish mystic and founder of a school of Kabbala. He was brought up in Egypt, where he pursued rabbinic studies. He dedicated himself to the study of the Kabbala with messianic fervour, and in 1570 he journeyed to a centre of the movement in Galilee. He died two years later in an epidemic, having written little. The Lurianic Kabbala, a collection of Luria's doctrines recorded after his death by a pupil, had great influence on later Jewish mysticism and on Hasidism. It propounds a theory of the creation and later degeneration of the world and calls for restoration of the original harmony through ritual meditation and secret combinations of words.

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(born 1534, Jerusalem—died Aug. 5, 1572, Safed, Syria) Jewish mystic and founder of a school of Kabbala. He was brought up in Egypt, where he pursued rabbinic studies. He dedicated himself to the study of the Kabbala with messianic fervour, and in 1570 he journeyed to a centre of the movement in Galilee. He died two years later in an epidemic, having written little. The Lurianic Kabbala, a collection of Luria's doctrines recorded after his death by a pupil, had great influence on later Jewish mysticism and on Hasidism. It propounds a theory of the creation and later degeneration of the world and calls for restoration of the original harmony through ritual meditation and secret combinations of words.

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(born April 23, 1720, Sielec, Lith., Russian Empire—died Oct. 9, 1797, Vilna) Lithuanian scholar and Jewish leader. Born into a long line of scholars, he traveled in Poland and Germany before settling in Vilna, the cultural centre of eastern European Jewry. He refused rabbinic office and lived as a recluse while devoting himself to study and prayer, but he nevertheless became famous and revered in the Jewish community. His scholarly interests included biblical exegesis, Talmudic studies, folk medicine, grammar, and philosophy. A vehement opponent of Hasidism, he denounced its claims to miracles, visions, and spiritual ecstasy, calling instead for the intellectual love of God.

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(born Jan. 9, 1899, Colombo, Ceylon—died Sept. 26, 1959, Colombo) Statesman and prime minister (1956–59) of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Educated at the University of Oxford, he became a prominent member of Ceylon's Western-oriented United National Party. In 1952 he founded the nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party, becoming the opposition leader in the legislature. He later formed an alliance of four nationalist-socialist parties that swept elections in 1956 and made him prime minister. Under Bandaranaike, Sinhalese replaced English as the country's official language, Buddhism (the majority religion) was given a prominent place in the affairs of state, and Ceylon established diplomatic relations with communist states. He was assassinated in 1959. His widow, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (1916–2000), became the world's first woman prime minister in 1960, serving until 1965; she was prime minister twice more (1970–77 and 1994–2000). During her second term a new constitution was adopted that proclaimed a republic (1972) and changed the country's name to Sri Lanka. She was appointed to a third term when her daughter, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (b. 1945), became president in 1994.

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