صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

asserts that he died in prison after severe beating, because he refused to obey al-Mansur's command to act as a judge (cadi, qādi). This was to avoid a responsibility for which he felt unfit -a frequent attitude of more pious Moslems. Others say that al-Mahdi, son of al-Manşür, actually constrained him to be a judge and that he died a few days after. It seems certain that he did suffer imprisonment and beating for this reason, at the hands of an earlier governor of Kufa under the Omayyads (Ibn Qutaiba, Ma'ārif, p. 248). Also that al-Mansur desired to make him judge, but compromised upon his inspectorship of buildings (so in Tabari). A late story is that the judgeship was only a pretext with al-Mansur, who considered him a partisan of the Alids and a helper with his wealth of Ibrahim ibn 'Abd Allāh in his insurrection at Kufa in 145 (Weil, Geschichte, ii. 53 ff.). For many personal anecdotes see de Slane's transl. of Ibn Khallikan iii. 555 ff., iv. 272 ff. For his place as a speculative jurist in the history of canon law, see MAHOMMEDAN LAW. He

was buried in eastern Bagdad, where his tomb still exists, one of the few surviving sites from the time of al-Manşür, the founder. (Le Strange 191 ff.)

See C. Brockelmann, Geschichte, i. 169 ff.; Nawawi's Biogr. Dict.

pp. 698-770; Ibn Hajar al-Haitami's Biography, publ. Cairo, A.H. 1304; legal bibliography under MAHOMMEDAN LAW. (D. B. MA.) ABU KLEA, a halting-place for caravans in the Bayuda Desert, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It is on the road from Merawi to Metemma and 20 m. N. of the Nile at the last-mentioned place. Near this spot, on the 17th of January 1885, a British force marching to the relief of General Gordon at Khartum was attacked by the Mahdists, who were repulsed. On the 19th, when the British force was nearer Metemma, the Mahdists renewed the attack, again unsuccessfully. Sir Herbert Stewart, the commander of the British force, was mortally wounded on the 19th, and among the killed on the 17th was Col. F. G. Burnaby (see EGYPT, Military Operations).

ABU-L-`ALA UL-MA'ARRI (Abu-l-'Ala Aḥmad ibn 'Abdallah ibn Sulaiman] (973-1057), Arabian poet and letter-writer, belonged to the South Arabian tribe Tanukh, a part of which had migrated to Syria before the time of Islam. He was born in 973 at Ma'arrat un-Nu'mān, a Syrian town nineteen hours' journey south of Aleppo, to the governor of which it was subject at that time. He lost his father while he was still an infant, and at the age of four lost his eyesight owing to smallpox. This, however, did not prevent him from attending the lectures of the best teachers at Aleppo, Antioch and Tripoli. These teachers were men of the first rank, who had been attracted to the court of Saif-ud-Daula, and their teaching was well stored in the remarkable memory of the pupil. At the age of twenty-one Abu-l-'Ala returned to Ma'arra, where he received a pension of thirty dinars yearly. In 1007 he visited Bagdad, where he was admitted to the literary circles, recited in the salons, academies and mosques, and made the acquaintance of men to whom he addressed some of his letters later. In 1009 he returned to Ma'arra, where he spent the rest of his life in teaching and writing. During this period of scholarly quiet he developed his characteristic advanced views on vegetarianism, cremation of the dead and the desire for extinction after death. Of his works the chief are two collections of his poetry and two of his letters. The earlier poems up to 1029 are of the kind usual at the time. Under the title of Saqt uz-Zand they have been published in Bulaq (1869), Beirut (1884) and Cairo (1886). The poems of the second collection, known as the Luzum ma lam yalzam, or the Luzūmiyyāt, are written with the difficult rhyme in two consonants instead of one, and contain the more original, mature and somewhat pessimistic thoughts of the author on mutability, virtue, death, &c. They have been published in Bombay (1886) and Cairo (1889). The letters on various literary and social subjects were published with commentary by Shain Effendi in Beirut (1894), and with English translation, &c., by Prof. D. S. Margoliouth in Oxford (1898). A second collection of letters, known as the Risalat ul-Ghufrän, was summarized and partially translated by R. A. Nicholson in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1900, pp. 637 ff.; 1902, pp. 75 ff., 337 ff., 813 ff.).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-C. Rieu, De Abu-l-'Alae Poetae Arabici vita et Gedichte des Abu-l-'Ala (Vienna, 1888); cf. also the same writer's carminibus (Bonn, 1843); A. von Kremer, Über die philosophischen articles in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft (vols. xxix., xxx., xxxí. and xxxviii.). For his life see the introduction to D. S. Margoliouth's edition of the letters, supplemented by the same writer's articles "Abu-l-'Ala al-Ma'arri's Correspondence on Vegetarianism" in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1902, pp. 289 ff.). (G. W. T.)

ABU-L-'ATAHIYA [Abū Ishaq Isma'il ibn Qasim al-'Anazi] (748-828), Arabian poet, was born at 'Ain ut-Tamar in the Hijaz near Medina. His ancestors were of the tribe of 'Anaza. His youth was spent in Kufa, where he was engaged for some time in selling pottery. Removing to Bagdad, he continued his business there, but became famous for his verses, especially for those addressed to 'Utba, a slave of the caliph al-Mahdi. His affection was unrequited, although al-Mahdi, and after him Harun al-Rashid, interceded for him. Having offended the caliph, he was in prison for a short time. The latter part of his

life was more ascetic. He died in 828 in the reign of al-Ma'mūn. The poetry of Abu-l-'Atahiya is notable for its avoidance of the

artificiality almost universal in his days. The older poetry of the desert had been constantly imitated up to this time, although it was not natural to town life. Abu-l-'Atahiya was one fluent and used many metres. of the first to drop the old qasida (elegy) form. He was very He is also regarded as one of the earliest philosophic poets of the Arabs. Much of his poetry is concerned with the observation of common life and morality, and at times is pessimistic. Naturally, under the circumstances, he was strongly suspected of heresy.

His poems (Diwan) with life from Arabian sources have been published at the Jesuit Press in Beirut (1887, 2nd ed. 1888). On his position in Arabic literature see W. Ahlwardt, Diwan des Abu Nowas (Greifswald, 1861), pp. 21 ff.; A. von Kremer, Culturgeschichte des Orients (Wien, 1877), vol. ii. pp. 372 ff. (G. W. T.)

ABULFARAJ [Abū-l-Faraj ‘Ali ibn ul-Husain ul-Isbahānī] (897-967), Arabian scholar, was a member of the tribe of the Quraish (Koreish) and a direct descendant of Marwan, the last of the Omayyad caliphs. He was thus connected with the Omayyad rulers in Spain, and seems to have kept up a correspondence with them and to have sent them some of his works. He was born in Ispahan, but spent his youth and made his early studies in Bagdad. He became famous for his knowledge of early Arabian antiquities. His later life was spent in various parts of the Moslem world, in Aleppo with Saif-ud-Daula (to whom he dedicated the Book of Songs), in Rai with the Buyid vizier Ibn 'Abbād and elsewhere. In his last years he lost his reason. In religion he was a Shiite. Although he wrote poetry, also an anthology of verses on the monasteries of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and a genealogical work, his fame rests upon his Book of Songs (Kitāb ul-Aghāni), which gives an account of the chief Arabian songs, ancient and modern, with the stories of the composers and singers. It contains a mass of information as to the life and customs of the early Arabs, and is the most valuable authority we have for their pre-Islamic and early Moslem days. translation (Greifswald, 1840). The text was published in 20 A part of it was published by J. G. L. Kosegarten with Latin vols. at Bulaq in 1868. Vol. xxi. was edited by R. E. Brünnow (Leyden, 1888). A volume of elaborate indices was edited by I. Guidi (Leyden, 1900), and a missing fragment of the text was published by J. Wellhausen in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. 50, pp. 146 ff.

For his life see M'G. de Slane's translation of Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol. ii. pp. 249 ff. (G. W. T.) ABUL FAZL, wazir and historiographer of the great Mogul emperor, Akbar, was born in the year A.D. 1551. His career as a minister of state, brilliant though it was, would probably have been by this time forgotten but for the record he himself has left of it in his celebrated history. The Akbar Nameh, or Book of Akbar, as Abul Fazl's chief literary work, written in Persian, is called, consists of two parts-the first being a complete history of Akbar's reign and the second, entitled Ain-iAkbari, or Institutes of Akbar, being an account of the religious and political constitution and administration of the empire. The style is singularly elegant, and the contents of the second

compared with Domina Abundia (Old Fr. Dame Habonde, Notre Dame d'Abondance), whose name often occurs in poems of the Middle Ages, a beneficent fairy, who brought plenty to those whom she visited (Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, tr. 1880, i. 286-287).

part possess a unique and lasting interest. An excellent trans- | dicating the liberality of the emperor or empress. She may be lation of the Ain by Francis Gladwin was published in Calcutta, 1783-1786. It was reprinted in London very inaccurately, and copies of the original edition are now exceedingly rare and correspondingly valuable. It was also translated by Professor Blockmann in 1848. Abul Fazl died by the hand of an assassin, while returning from a mission to the Deccan in 1602. The murderer was instigated by Prince Selim, afterwards Jahangir, who had become jealous of the minister's influence.

ABULFEDA [Abu-l-Fidā' Isma'il ibn 'Ali 'Imad-ud-Dni] (1273-1331), Arabian historian and geographer, was born at Damascus, whither his father Malik ul-Afdal, brother of the prince of Hamah, had fled from the Mongols. He was a descendant of Ayyüb, the father of Saladin. In his boyhood he devoted himself to the study of the Koran and the sciences, but from his twelfth year was almost constantly engaged in military expeditions, chiefly against the crusaders. In 1285 he was present at the assault of a stronghold of the knights of St John, and he took part in the sieges of Tripoli, Acre and Qal'at ar-Rum. In 1298 he entered the service of the Mameluke Sultan Malik al-Nașir and after twelve years was invested by him with the governorship of Hamah. In 1312 he became prince with the title Malik us-Salih, and in 1320 received the hereditary rank of sultan with the title Malik ul-Mu'ayyad. For more than twenty years altogether he reigned in tranquillity and splendour, devoting himself to the duties of government and to the composition of the works to which he is chiefly indebted for his fame. He was a munificent patron of men of letters, who came in large numbers to his court. He died in 1331. His chief historical work in An Abridgment of the History of the Human Race, in the form of annals extending from the creation of the world to the year 1329 (Constantinople, 2 vols. 1869). Various translations of parts of it exist, the earliest being a Latin rendering of the section relating to the Arabian conquests in Sicily, by Dobelius, Arabic professor at Palermo, in 1610 (preserved in Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. i.). The section dealing with the pre-Islamitic period was edited with Latin translation by H. O. Fleischer under the title Abulfedae Historia Ante-Islamica (Leipzig, 1831). The part dealing with the Mahommedan period was edited, also with Latin translation, by J. J. Reiske as Annales Muslemici (5 vols., Copenhagen, 1789-1794). His Geography is, like much of the history, founded on the works of his predecessors, and so ultimately on the work of Ptolemy. A long introduction on various geographical matters is followed by twenty-eight sections dealing in tabular form with the chief towns of the world. After each name are given the longitude, latitude, “ climate,” spelling, and then observations generally taken from earlier authors. Parts of the work were published and translated as early as 1650 (cf. Carl Brockelmann's Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Berlin, 1902, vol. ii. pp. 44-46). The text of the whole was published by M'G. de Slane and M. Reinaud (Paris, 1840), and a French translation with introduction by M. Reinaud and Stanislas Guyard (Paris, 1848-1883).

(G. W. T.)

ABU-L-QASIM [Khalaf ibn 'Abbās uz-Zahrāwi], Arabian physician and surgeon, generally known in Europe as ABULCASIS, flourished in the tenth century at Cordova as physician to the caliph 'Abdur-Rahman III. (912-961). No details of his life are known. A part of his compendium of medicine was published in Latin in the 16th century as Liber theoricae nec non practicae Alsaharavii (Augsburg, 1519). His manual of surgery was published at Venice in 1497, at Basel in 1541, and at Oxford Abulcasis de Chirurgia arabice et latine cura Johannis Channing (2 vols. 1778).

For his other works see Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 239-240. (G. W. T.) ABUNDANTIA (“ Abundance "), a Roman goddess, the personification of prosperity and good fortune. Modelled after the Greek Demeter, she is practically identical with Copia, Annona and similar goddesses. On the coins of the later Roman emperors she is frequently represented holding a cornucopia, from which she shakes her gifts, thereby at the same time in

[ocr errors]

ABU NUWAS [Abu 'Ali Hal-asan ibn Hani'al-Hakami] (c. 756-810), known as Abū Nuwās, Arabian poet, was born in alAhwaz, probably about 756. His mother was a Persian, his father a soldier, a native of Damascus. His studies were made in Başra under Abū Zaid and Abū 'Ubaida (q.v.), and in Kufa under Khalaf al-Aḥmar. He is also said to have spent a year with the Arabs in the desert to gain purity of language. Settling in Bagdad he enjoyed the favour of Harun al-Rashid and al-Amin, and died there probably about 810. The greater part of his life was characterized by great licentiousness and disregard of religion, but in his later days he became ascetic. Abū Nuwās is recognized as the greatest poet of his time. His mastery of language has led to extensive quotation of his verses by Arabian scholars. Genial, cynical, immoral, he drew on all the varied life of his time for the material of his poems. In his wine-songs especially the manners of the upper classes of Bagdad are revealed. He was one of the first to ridicule the set form of the qasida (elegy) as unnatural, and has satirized this form in several poems. See I. Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur Arabischen Philologie (Leyden, 1896), i. pp. 145 ff. His poems were collected by several Arabian editors. One such collection (the MS. of which is now in Vienna) contains nearly 5000 verses grouped under the ten headings: wine, hunting, praise, satire, love of youths, love of women, obscenities, blame, elegies, renunciation of the world. His collected poems (Diwan) have been published in Cairo (1860) and in Beirut (1884). The wine-songs were edited by W. Ahlwardt under the title Diwan des Abu Nowas. 1. Die Weinlieder (Greifswald, 1861). (G. W. T.)

ABU SIMBEL, or IPSAMBUL, the name of a group of temples of Rameses II. (c. 1250 B.C.) in Nubia, on the left bank of the Nile, 56 m. by river S. of Korosko. They are hewn in the cliffs at the riverside, at a point where the sandstone hills on the west reach the Nile and form the southern boundary of a wider portion of the generally barren valley. The temples are three in number. The principal temple, probably the greatest and most imposing of all rock-hewn monuments, was discovered by Burckhardt in 1812 and opened by Belzoni in 1817. (The front has been cleared several times, most recently in 1892, but the sand is always pressing forward from the north end.). The hillside was recessed to form the façade, backed against which four immense seated colossi of the king, in pairs on either side of the entrance, rise from a platform or forecourt reached from the river by a flight of steps. The colossi are no less than 65 ft. in height, of nobly placid design, and are accompanied by smaller figures of Rameses' queen and their sons and daughters; behind and over them is the cornice, with the dedication below in a line of huge hieroglyphs, and a long row of apes, standing in adoration of the rising sun above. The temple is dedicated primarily to the solar gods Amenre of Thebes and Raharakht of Heliopolis, the true sun god; it is oriented to the east so that the rays of the sun in the early morning penetrate the whole length of two great halls to the innermost sanctuary and fall upon the central figures of Amenre and Rameses, which are there enthroned with Ptah of Memphis and Raharakht on either side. The interior of the temple is decorated with coloured sculpture of fine workmanship and in good preservation; the scenes are more than usually interesting; some are of religious import (amongst them Rameses as king making offerings to himself as god), others illustrate war in Syria, Libya and Ethiopia: another series depicts the events of the famous battle with the Hittites and their allies at Kadesh, in which Rameses saved the Egyptian camp and army by his personal valour. Historical stelae of the same reign are engraved inside and outside the temple; the most interesting is that recording the marriage with a Hittite princess in the 34th year. Not the least important feature of the temple belongs to a later age, when some Greek, Carian and Phoenician

of his works are mentioned in the Fihrist, and his Book of Days is the basis of parts of the history of Ibn al-Athir and of the Book of Songs (see ABULFARAJ), but nothing of his (except a song) seems to exist now in an independent form. He is often described as a Kharijite. This, however, is true only in so far as he denied the privileged position of the Arab people before God. He was, however, a strong supporter of the Shu'ubite movement, i.e. the movement which protested against the idea of the superiority of the Arab race over all others. This is especially seen in his satires on Arabs (which made him so hated that no man followed his bier when he died). He delighted in showing that words, fables, customs, &c., which the Arabs believed to be peculiarly their own, were derived from the Persians. In these matters he was the great rival of Asma'i (q.v.).

soldiers of one of the kings named Psammetichus (apparently | branches of human knowledge, and Ibn Hisham accepted his Psammetichus II., 594-589 B.C.) inscribed their names upon the interpretation even of passages in the Koran. The titles of 105 two southern colossi, doubtless the only ones then clear of sand. These graffiti are of the highest value for the early history of the alphabet, and as proving the presence of Greek mercenaries in the Egyptian armies of the period. The upper part of the second colossus (from the south) has fallen; the third was repaired by Sethos II. not many years after the completion of the temple. This great temple was wholly rock-cut, and is now threatened by gradual ruin by sliding on the planes of stratification. A small temple, immediately to the south of the first, is believed to have had a built antechamber: it is the earliest known example of a "birth chapel," such as was usually attached to Ptolemaic temples for the accommodation of the divine mother-consort and her son. The third and northernmost temple, separated from the others by a ravine, is on a large scale; the colossi of the façade are six in number and 33 ft. high, representing Rameses and his queen Nefrère, who dedicated the temple to the goddess Hathōr. The whole group forms a singular monument of Rameses' unbounded pride and self-glorification.

See EGYPT; J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records, Egypt, vol. iii. pp. 124 et seq., esp. 212; "The Temples of Lower Nubia," in the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, October 1906. (F. LL. G.)

ABU TAMMĀM (Habib ibn Aus] (807-846), Arabian poet, was, like Buḥturi, of the tribe of Ţãi (though some say he was the son of a Christian apothecary named Thaddeus, and that his genealogy was forged). He was born in Jasim (Josem), a place to the north-east of the Sea of Tiberias or near Manbij (Hierapolis). He seems to have spent his youth in Homs, though, according to one story, he was employed during his boyhood in selling water in a mosque in Cairo. His first appearance as a poet was in Egypt, but as he failed to make a living there he went to Damascus and thence to Mosul. From this place he made a visit to the governor of Armenia, who awarded him richly. After 833 he lived mostly in Bagdad, at the court of the caliph Mo'tasim. From Bagdad he visited Khorassan, where he enjoyed the favour of 'Abdallah ibn Tahir. About 845 he was in Ma'arrat unNu'man, where he met Buḥturi. He died in Mosul. Abu Tammām is best known in literature as the compiler of the collection of early poems known as the Hamāsa (q.v.). Two other collections of a similar nature are ascribed to him. His own poems have been somewhat neglected owing to the success of his compilations, but they enjoyed great repute in his lifetime, and were distinguished for the purity of their style, the merit of the verse and the excellent manner of treating subjects. His poems (Diwan) were published in Cairo (A.D. 1875).

See Life in Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, trans. by M'G. de Slane (Paris and London, 1842), vol. i. pp. 348 ff.; and in the Kitab ul-Aghāni (Book of Songs) of Abulfaraj (Bulaq, 1869), vol. xv. pp. 100-108. (G. W. T.)

ABUTILON (from the Arabic aubülilun, a name given by Avicenna to this or an allied genus), in botany, a genus of plants, natural order Malvaceae (Mallows), containing about eighty species, and widely distributed in the tropics. They are freegrowing shrubs with showy bell-shaped flowers, and are favourite greenhouse plants. They may be grown outside in England during the summer months, but a few degrees of frost is fatal to them. They are readily propagated from cuttings taken in the spring or at the end of the summer. A large number of horticultural varieties have been developed by hybridization, some of which have a variegated foliage.

ABUTMENT, a construction in stone or brickwork designed to receive and resist the lateral pressure of an arch, vault or strut. When built outside a wall it is termed a buttress.

ABU UBAIDA [Ma'mar ibn ul-Muthanna] (728-825), Arabian scholar, was born a slave of Jewish Persian parents in Basra, and in his youth was a pupil of Abū'Amr ibn ul-'Alā. In 803 he was called to Bagdad by Harun al-Rashid. He died in Başra. He was one of the most learned and authoritative scholars of his time in all matters pertaining to the Arabic language, antiquities and stories, and is constantly cited by later authors and compilers. Jahiz held him to be the most learned scholar in all

[ocr errors]

See Life in Ibn Khallikān's Biographical Dictionary, trans. by I. Goldziher's Muhammedanische Studien (Halle, 1888), vol. i. M'G. de Slane (Paris and London, 1842), vol. iii. pp. 388-398; also pp. (G. W. T.)

194-206.

ABYDOS, an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, situated at Nagara Point on the Hellespont, which is here scarcely a mile broad. It probably was originally a Thracian town, but was afterwards colonized by Milesians. Here Xerxes crossed the is celebrated for the vigorous resistance it made against Philip V. strait on his bridge of boats when he invaded Greece. Abydos of Macedon (200 B.C.), and is famed in story for the loves of Hero and Leander. The town remained till late Byzantine times the toll station of the Hellespont, its importance being transferred to the Dardanelles (q.v.), after the building of the " Old Castles" by Sultan Mahommed II. (c. 1456).

See Choiseul-Gouffier, Voyage dans l'empire ottoman (Paris, 1842). ABYDOS, one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, about 7 m. W. of the Nile in lat. 26° 10' N. The Egyptian name was Abdu," the hill of the symbol or reliquary," in which the sacred head of Osiris was preserved. Thence the Greeks named it Abydos, like the city on the Hellespont; the modern Arabic name is Arabet el Madfunch. The history of the city begins in the late prehistoric age, it having been founded by the pre-Menite kings (Petrie, Abydos, ii. 64), whose town, temple and tombs have been found there. The kings of the Ist dynasty, and some of the IInd enlarged by them. Great forts were built on the desert behind dynasty, were also buried here, and the temple was renewed and the town by three kings of the IInd dynasty. The temple and town continued to be rebuilt at intervals down to the times of In the XIIth dynasty a gigantic tomb was cut in the rock by the XXXth dynasty, and the cemetery was used continuously. Senwosri (or Senusert) III. Seti I. in the XIXth dynasty founded a great new temple to the south of the town in honour of the ancestral kings of the early dynasties; this was finished by Rameses (or Ramessu) II., who also built a lesser temple of his own. Mineptah (Merenptah) added a great Hypogeum of Osiris to the temple of Seti. The latest building was a new temple of Nekhtnebf in the XXXth dynasty. From the Ptolemaic times the place continued to decay and no later works are known (Petrie, Abydos, i. and ii.).

The worship here was of the jackal god Upuaut (Ophoïs, Wepwoi), who "opened the way" to the realm of the dead, increasing from the Ist dynasty to the time of the XIIth dynasty and then disappearing after the XVIIIth. Anher appears in the XIth dynasty; and Khentamenti, the god of the western Hades, rises to importance in the middle kingdom and then vanishes in the XVIIIth. The worship here of Osiris in his various forms begins in the XIIth dynasty and becomes more important in later times, so that at last the whole place was considered as sacred to him (Abydos, ii. 47).

The temples successively built here on one site were nine or ten in number, from the Ist dynasty, 5500 B.C. to the XXVIth dynasty, 500 B.C. The first was an enclosure, about 30 X 50 ft., surrounded by a thin wall of unbaked bricks. Covering one wall of this came the second temple of about 40 ft. square in a wall about 10 ft. thick. An outer temenos (enclosure) wall surrounded the ground. This outer wall was thickened about the IInd or

IIIrd dynasty. The old temple entirely vanished in the IVth | brick-lined pit. Rows of small tomb-pits for the servants of dynasty, and a smaller building was erected behind it, enclosing the king surround the royal chamber, many dozens of such a wide hearth of black ashes. Pottery models of offerings are burials being usual. By the end of the IInd dynasty the type found in the ashes, and these were probably the substitutes for changed to a long passage bordered with chambers on either sacrifices decreed by Cheops (Khufu) in his temple reforms. A hand, the royal burial being in the middle of the length. The great clearance of temple offerings was made now, or earlier, greatest of these tombs with its dependencies covered a space and a chamber full of them has yielded the fine ivory carvings of over 3000 square yards. The contents of the tombs have and the glazed figures and tiles which show the splendid work been nearly destroyed by successive plunderers; enough reof the Ist dynasty. A vase of Menes with purple inlaid hiero-mained to show that rich jewellery was placed on the mummies, glyphs in green glaze and the tiles with relief figures are the most a profusion of vases of hard and valuable stones from the royal important pieces. The noble statuette of Cheops in ivory, found table service stood about the body, the store-rooms were filled in the stone chamber of the temple, gives the only portrait of with great jars of wine, perfumed ointment and other supplies, this greatest ruler. The temple was rebuilt entirely on a larger and tablets of ivory and of ebony were engraved with a record scale by Pepi I. in the VIth dynasty. He placed a great stone of the yearly annals of the reigns. The sealings of the various gateway to the temenos, an outer temenos wall and gateway, officials, of which over 200 varieties have been found, give an with a colonnade between the gates. His temple was about insight into the public arrangements (Petrie, Royal Tombs, i. 40X50 ft. inside, with stone gateways front and back, showing | and ii.). that it was of the processional type. In the XIth dynasty Menthotp (Mentuhotep) III. added a colonnade and altars. Soon after, Sankhkere entirely rebuilt the temple, laying a stone pavement over the area, about 45 ft. square, besides subsidiary chambers. Soon after Senwosri (Senusert) I. in the XIIth dynasty laid massive foundations of stone over the pavement of his predecessor. A great temenos was laid out enclosing a much larger area, and the temple itself was about three times the earlier size.

The XVIIIth dynasty began with a large chapel of Amasis (Ahmosi, Aahmes) I., and then Tethmosis (Thothmes, Tahutmes) III. built a far larger temple, about 130X200 ft. He made also a processional way past the side of the temple to the cemetery beyond, with a great gateway of granite. Rameses III. added a large building; and Amasis II. in the XXVIth dynasty rebuilt the temple again, and placed in it a large monolith shrine of red granite, finely wrought. The foundations of the successive temples were comprised within about 18 ft. depth of ruins; these needed the closest examination to discriminate the various buildings, and were recorded by over 4000 measurements and 1000 levellings (Petrie, Abydos, ii.).

The temple of Seti I. was built on entirely new ground half a mile to the south of the long series of temples just described. This is the building best known as the Great Temple of Abydos, being nearly complete and an impressive sight. A principal object of it was the adoration of the early kings, whose cemetery, to which it forms a great funerary chapel, lies behind it. The long list of the kings of the principal dynasties carved on a wall is known as the "Table of Abydos." There were also seven chapels for the worship of the king and principal gods. At the back were large chambers connected with the Osiris worship (Caulfield, Temple of the Kings); and probably from these led out the great Hypogeum for the celebration of the Osiris mysteries, built by Mineptah (Murray, Osireion). The temple was originally 550 ft. long, but the forecourts are scarcely recognizable, and the part in good state is about 250 ft. long and 350 ft. wide, including the wing at the side. Excepting the list of kings and a panegyric on Rameses II., the subjects are not historical but mythological. The work is celebrated for its delicacy and refinement, but lacks the life and character of that in earlier ages. The sculptures have been mostly published in hand copy, not facsimile, by Mariette in his Abydos, i. The adjacent temple of Rameses II. was much smaller and simpler in plan; but it had a fine historical series of scenes around the outside, of which the lower parts remain. A list of kings, similar to that of Seti, formerly stood here; but the fragments were removed by the French consul and sold to the British Museum.

The Royal Tombs of the earliest dynasties were placed about a mile back on the great desert plain. The earliest is about 10X 20 ft. inside, a pit lined with brick walls, and originally roofed with timber and matting. Others also before Menes are 15X25 ft. The tomb probably of Menes is of the latter size. After this the tombs increase in size and complexity. The tomb-pit is surrounded by chambers to hold the offerings, the actual sepulchre being a great wooden chamber in the midst of the

[ocr errors]

66

The cemetery of private persons begins in the Ist dynasty with some pit tombs in the town. It was extensive in the XIIth and XIIIth dynasties and contained many rich tombs. In the XVIIIth-XXth dynasties a large number of fine tombs were made, and later ages continued to bury here till Roman times. Many hundred funeral steles were removed by Mariette's workmen, without any record of the burials (Mariette, Abydos, ii. and iii.). Later excavations have been recorded by Ayrton, Abydos, iii.; MacIver, El Amrah and Abydos; and Garstang, El Arabah. The forts lay behind the town. That known as Shunet ez Zebib is about 450X 250 ft. over all, and still stands 30 ft. high. It was built by Khasckhemui, the last king of the IInd dynasty. Another fort nearly as large adjoined it, and is probably rather older. A third fort of a squarer form is now occupied by the | Coptic convent; its age cannot be ascertained (Ayrton, Abydos, iii.). (W. M. F. P.) ABYSS (Gr. ȧ-, privative, ßvooós, bottom), a bottomless depth; hence any deep place. From the late popular abyssimus (superlative of Low Latin abyssus) through the French abisme (i.e. abîme) is derived the poetic form abysm, pronounced as late as 1616 to rhyme with time. The adjective "abyssal" or abysmal " has been used by zoologists to describe deep regions of the sea; hence abysmal zone, abysmal flora and fauna, abysmal accumulations, the deposit on the abysmal bed of the ocean. In heraldry, the abyss is the middle of an escutcheon. In the Greek version of the Old Testament the word represents (1) the original chaos (Gen. i. 2), (2) the Hebrew tehom (“a surging water-deep "), which is used also in apocalyptic and kabbalistic literature and in the New Testament for hell, the place of punishment (cf. Eurip. Phoen. for the "yawning chasm of Tartarus "); in the Revised (not the Authorized) version abyss is generally used for this idea. Primarily in the Septuagint cosmography the word is applied (a) to the waters under the earth which originally covered it, and from which the springs and rivers are supplied, (b) to the waters of the firmament which were regarded as closely connected with those below. Derivatively, from the general idea of depth, it acquired the meaning of the place of the dead, though apparently never quite the same as Sheol. In Revelation it is the prison of evil spirits whence they may occasionally be let loose, and where Satan is doomed to spend 1000 years. Beneath the altar in the temple of Jerusalem there was believed to be a passage which led down to the abyss of the world, where the foundation-stone of the earth was laid. In rabbinical cosmography the abyss is a region of Gehenna situated below the ocean bed and divided into three or seven parts imposed one above the other. In the Kabbalah the abyss as the opening into the lower world is the abode of evil spirits, and corresponds to the opening of the abyss to the world above. In general the abyss is regarded vaguely as a place of indefinite extent, the abode of mystery and sorrow.

See G. Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the Old Testament (Eng. trans., Oxford, 1905).

ABYSSINIA (officially ETHIOPIA), an inland country and empire of N.E. Africa lying, chiefly, between 5° and 15° N. and 35° and 42° E. It is bounded N. by Eritrea (Italian). W.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

by the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, S. by British East Africa, S.E. and E. by the British, Italian and French possessions in Somaliland and on the Red Sea. The coast lands held by European powers, which, cut off Abyssinia from access to the sea, vary in width from 40 to 250 miles. The country approaches nearest to the ocean on its N.E. border, where the frontier is drawn about 40 m. from the coast of the Red Sea. Abyssinia is narrowest in the north, being here 230 m. across from east to west. It broadens out southward to a width of 900 m. along the line of 9° N., and resembles in shape a triangle with its apex to the north. It is divided into Abyssinia proper (i.e. Tigré, Amhara, Gojam, &c.), Shoa, Kaffa and Galla land-all these form a geographical unit and central Somaliland with Harrar. To the S. W. Abyssinia also includes part of the low country of the Sobat tributary of the Nile. The area of the whole state is about 350,000 sq. m., of which Abyssinian Somaliland covers fully a third.

allid mistan Emery Walker sc.

(1) Physical Features.- Between the valley of the Upper Nile and the low lands which skirt the south-western shores of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden is a region of elevated plateaus from which rise various mountain ranges. These tablelands and mountains constitute Abyssinia, Shoa, Kaffa and Galla land. On nearly every side the walls of the plateaus rise with considerable abruptness from the plains, constituting outer mountain chains. The Abyssinian highlands are thus a clearly marked orographic division. From Ras Kasar (18° N.) to Annesley Bay (15° N.) the eastern wall of the plateau runs parallel to the Red Sea. It then turns due S. and follows closely the line of 40° E. for some 400 m. About 9° N, there is a break in the wall, through which the river Hawash flows eastward. The main range at this point trends. S.W., while south of the Hawash valley, which is some 3000 ft. below the level of the mountains, another massif rises in a direct line south. This

« السابقةمتابعة »