Yashar Kemal (born 1922) was the most successful and most widely known of modern Turkish novelists. His works, which also include short stories and essays, are local in color and infused with the spirit of Turkish folk traditions. They sho...

Aritomo Yamagata (1838-1922) was a Japanese general and a member of the oligarchy which dominated Meiji Japan. He was instrumental in building a modern army, strengthening the power of the civil and military bureaucracy, and checking the d...

The Chinese warlord Yen Hsi-shan (1883-1960) ruled Shansi Province in northwest China from 1911 to 1949. Because of his program of reforms, Shansi was dubbed the "model province." Yen Hsi-shan was born in the village of Ho-pien not far fro...

Abu Yusuf Yakub al-Mansur (reigned 1184-1199) was the third caliph of the Almohad dynasty and the victor against the Spanish Christians at the battle of Alarcos. Abu Yusuf served as vizier of the Almohad empire during the reign of his fath...

Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) was a distinguished Japanese novelist who won the Nobel Prize in literature for exemplifying in his writings the Japanese mind. Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka on June 11, 1899, into a cultured family, his...

The Spanish Hebrew poet and religious thinker Judah Halevi (ca. 1085-ca. 1150) taught that God had revealed Himself primarily through the people of Israel. Few definite facts are known about Judah Halevi. He was born in Toledo, Castile, to...

The Ethiopian king Yekuno Amlak (reigned ca. 1268-1283) restored the Solomonic dynasty to the throne of Ethiopia after it had been held by the Zagwe dynasty for about 300 years. Almost everything that has been written about Yekuno Amlak pe...

Tsou Yen (active late 4th century BC) was a Chinese philosopher important for developing the so-called Five Element theory, fundamental to Chinese philosophy and science. Tsou Yen was born in Ch'i, a state in modern Shantung Province, wher...

Yi Hwang (1501-1570), Yi-dynasty philosopher, poet, scholar, and educator, was one of the greatest Korean Confucian philosophers, famous for his comprehensive studies of the great Sung Neo-Confucian philosopher Chu Hsi. Yi Hwang, whose lit...

Yitzak Shamir (born 1914) was prime minister of Israel (1983-84, 1987-88), leader of the Likud Party and vice premier and minister of foreign affairs in the National Unity government (1984-86). Yitzak Shamir (Yizernitsky) was born in 1914 ...

The Jewish teacher Johanan ben Zakkai (active ca. AD 70) was the leading expounder of Jewish law of his time. He founded an important academy at Yavneh. Johanan ben Zakkai was the youngest among the numerous disciples of the great Hillel a...

Yung-lo (1360-1424) was the third emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, and in his reign the dynasty reached the height of its power owing to his military prowess and civil reforms. A favorite son of Hung-wu, Chu Ti, whose reign title was ...

Yoshio Kodama was the fifth son of an unsuccessful businessman in Nihonmatsu City, Japan. He was sent to Korea to be raised by relatives. In Korea, Kodama's upbringing was filled with isolation and child labor in industry. These experience...

Yüan Mei (1716-1798), Chinese author, was one of the great poets of the Ch'ing dynasty. He is especially noted for his cultivation of naturalness and individuality in his poetry and criticism as well as in his life. A native of Hangch...

Chemist Yuan Tseh Lee (born 1936) shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with two colleagues for the part he played in the development of chemical-reaction dynamics. Their work opened important new fields of chemistry. Remarkably, Lee d...

Yun Sondo (1587-1671) was a major Korean sijo poet who captured the Korean spirit in native terms. Yun Sondo, whose literary names were Kosan (Lonely Mountain) and Haeong (Old Man of the Sea), was born in July 1587 in Seoul to Yun Yusim, a...

The Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alexeivich Gagarin (1934-1968) was the first man to orbit the earth in an artificial satellite and thus ushered in the age of manned spaceflight. Yuri Gagarin, the third child of Alexei Ivanovich, a carpenter on ...

In the first chapter of Du sommet d'un arbre (1986), a collection of autobiographical pieces written for CBC radio, Yves Beauchemin describes his childhood as a time of total freedom. He was born in the town of Noranda, Quebec, on 26 June ...

Yvonne Vera (born 1964), one of Africa's most esteemed writers, has been showered with awards and her work has landed on feminist and African studies curriculums at universities across the world. Vera was born and raised against the backdr...