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Azamgarh

former inhabits sandy woods, and has tufts of odorous flowers, of various shades of pink, appearing with the leaves; the white azalea is more fragrant, and grows in swamps, being a tall shrub with sticky ivory-colored flowers. A southern species (A. lutea), the flame azalea, has orange-red, or red blossoms, which make the shrub a favorite for cultivation.

Azamgarh, tn., cap. of dist. of the same name, United Provinces, India, 52 m. N.E. of Benares. Pop. (1901) of tn. 18,835; of dist. 1,529,785.

Azan ('announcement'), the Moslem call to prayer, chanted or recited five times daily by the muezzin, with his face towards Mecca, generally from the turret of the mosque (minaret) designed for this purpose.

Azandeh, NIAM-NIAM.

or ZANDY. See

Azara, FELIX DE (1746-1811) Spanish naturalist and traveller in Paraguay (1781-1801), wrote the Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale, 4 vols. and atlas (1809), and Nat. Hist. of Paraguay (Eng. trans. 1838)..

Azariah. See UZZIAH.

Azazel, formerly supposed to designate the goat chosen to carry away the sins of the Israelites on the Day of Atonement (hence rendered 'scapegoat' in A.V.; see Lev. 16:7 ), but now universally taken as the name of a desertspirit or fallen angel, for whom the goat was destined. Cf. the bird liberated for leprosy (Lev. 14:6 f.), and, for analogies, Frazer's Golden Bough, ii. 18 f. (2nd ed. 1900).

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П. ascended the throne, he appointed Azeglio president of the council and minister of foreign affairs; but in 1852 he resigned, making way for Cavour. In July, 1859, Azeglio was sent to the Roman states as military commissioner. His political corre spondence and autobiography were published after his death, under the title of I miei Ricordi (15th ed. 1895). See his life by Pavesio (1871) and Bianchi (1884); Italy, 1815-90, by J. W. Probyn (1891).

Azerbaijan, or ADERBAIJAN (over 40,000 sq. m.), a fertile and mountainous province in N.W. Persia, and encroaching on Armenia towards Mt. Ararat (16,916 ft.). Mt. Savalan (15,820 ft.) lies towards the E.; Lake Urumiah lies in the w.; and the river Aras (Araxes) forms the N. boundary, its tributary, the Kara-Su, being the only other important stream, Wheat, maize, cotton, hemp, and tobacco are grown in considerable

Azeglio, MASSIMO TAPARELLI, MARCHESE D' (1798-1866), Italian statesman, artist, and author, came of a noble Piedmontese family. At fifteen years of age he went to Rome with his father, who was ambassador at the papal court. There he studied art and music, excelling as a landscape painter. When his father died, în 1830, Azeglio went to Milan, where he met Manzoni, whose daughter he married. Turning to literature, he produced two novels, Ettore Fieramosca (1833) and Niccolò de' Lapi (1841), which roused much enthusiasm among the patriotic party. He now traversed the country, stirring up the fires of patriotism, but discountenancing the extreme propaganda of Mazzini. In 1846 he wrote a pamphlet entitled Degli Ultimi Casi di Romagna ('On the Recent Events in the Romagna'), in which he satirized the papal government, and demonstrated to the Italian princes the necessity of a national policy. Two years later he joined the patriotic army against Austria, and was severely wounded at the battle of Vicenza (1848). When Victor Emmanuel

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Azov

atmosphere and equable tem perature (50° to 734°F. being the range). The soil is fertile, and produces fine oranges, good wine (some 970,000 gals. annually), various other fruits, yams, bananas, coffee, sugar, and tea. Fishing is one of the chief occupations. Pottery, cottons, spirits, hats, wool lens, linens, cheese and butter, soap, baskets and mats, bricks and tiles, are all made on the isl ands. The total trade reaches an annual value of over $1,000,000. The only tolerably safe harbor is at Horta, on Fayal I. The celebrated Fayal lace is named after this island. Volcanic outbursts have shaken the archipelago in 1591, 1638, 1719, and 1841; and there are several mineral springs. The principal islands are São Miguel, or St. Michael, 300 sq.m., and pop. 127,566 in 1900, its chief town being Ponta Delgada, with (1900)17,675 inhabitants; Terceira, 163 sq. m., and pop. 48,920, the chief town being Angra, with

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quantities. The chief towns are Tabriz (the cap.), Urumiah, Khoi, Ardebil, and Maragha. Pop. estimated at over 2,000,000.

Azevedo, MANOEL ANTONIO ALVARES DE (1831-52), Brazilian poet; wrote, in the temper of Heine and Byron, Lyra dos Vinte Annos (1851; 5th ed. 1884), which shows undeniable genius.

Azimuth is the angular distance of a celestial object from the N. or S. point of the horizon, or the angle comprised between the meridian and a vertical plane passing through the object. In the N. hemisphere it is usually reckoned from the s. point of the horizon through the w. from 0° to 360°. See ALTAZIMUTH.

Azincourt. See AGINCOURT. Azores (in Portuguese, Açores -Hawk Islands'), a group of islands in the Atlantic, 930 m. w. of the coast of Portugal, of which country they are not colonies, but a constituent part. They are of volcanic origin, have steep rocky coasts, a mountainous interior (7,700 ft.) seamed with glens, and a most excellent climate-a pure

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(1900) 10,843 inhabitants; Pico, 173 sq. m., and pop. 24,125; Fayal, 69 sq. m., and pop. 22,385-chief town Horta, with (1900) 6,734 inhabitants; São Jorge, or St. George, 94 sq. m., and pop. 16,138; Graciosa, with 24 sq. m., and 8,394 inhabitants; and the smaller St. Mary, Flores, and Corvo. The total area is 922 sq.m.; the total pop.(1900)256,474; the chief town of the entire archipelago, Ponta Delgada. The people are mainly of Portuguese descent, but have a blend of Moorish and Flemish blood; because of the Flemish settlers introduced there by Isabella of Burgundy in 1466, the group was for some time known as the Ilhas Flamengas, or Flemish Islands. The Azores were discovered by the Portuguese navigator Cabral in 1431. In 1908 the islands were plaguestricken, and the inability of the government to send relief led to serious disorders. See Godman's Nat. Hist. of the Azores (1870); Ray's The Azores (1892).

Azotus. See ASHDOD.
Azov, Sea of (anc. Palus Mæo

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1. Terra-cotta fanciful bust covering square box or hollow pedestal, probably to contain jewels or incense; found near Zachila. 2. Aztec representation of Tonatish, the substance of the sun. 3. Pyramid near Tehuantepec 4. Temple near Palenque.

Azpeitia

tis), is a sea which penetrates into the s. of Russia, and is connected s. through the Strait of Kerch or Yenikale with the Black Sea. From the shore of the Crimea, in the s.w., to the mouth of the Don, in the N.E., it measures 220 m. It covers an area of 14,515 sq. m., and is everywhere very shallow, the maximum depth being only 53 ft. At the s.w., along the Crimean shore, it forms a long narrow lagoon, separated by a ribbon of sand, and known as Sivash, or the Putrid Sea; and a further series of irregularly shaped lagoons stretch across the N. of the Crimea to the isthmus of Perekop. Navigation of the Sea of Azov is beset with great difficulties, not only because of its extreme shal

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1847. The membership, of 227, is now limited to participants in the Mexican War or their male blood relatives. The latter are associate members and taken into full membership only on the death of original members by whom they were nominated.

Aztecs, one of the chief cultured peoples of the New World; so called from Aztlan, the fabulous land of the 'Seven Caves' in the north, whence they migrated southwards, and founded a powerful empire in the valley of Mexico, some three or four hundred years before the discovery of America. Here they had been preceded by the Chichemecs and other conquering tribes, all belonging to the Nahua race,which had overthrown

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Sea of Azov.

lowness, but also because of the storms to which it is always liable, while in winter it is generally icebound. Its surface lies at about the same level as the surface of the Black Sea. Its waters, which are less salt than those of the Black Sea, teem with fish. In 1902 the construction of a dike 12 m. long, at the entrance to the sea, was sanctioned for facilitating communication with the Black Sea. The cost of the whole work, including locks, is estimated at $25,000,000.

Azpeitia, tn., prov. Guipuzcoa, Spain, 20 m. s.w. of San Sebastian; the birthplace of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). There are pilgrimages (July) to the monastery in which his house is preserved. Pop. (1900) 6,066.

Azrael, or ASRAEL, the 'Angel of Death,' is a figure in Jewish mythology as far back as the days of King Solomon. He has been recognized by the Mohammedans as one of the servants of Allah.

Aztec Club of 1847. A society founded in the City of Mexico in

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the still earlier empire of the Toltecs, and borrowed much of their culture. The relations are very obscure, but much light has been thrown on them by E. Seler's commentaries on the Mexican pictorial codices of the Aubin, Fejérváry-Mayer, and Vatican collections (English editions by A. H. Keane, 1901, 1902, 1903), from which the Aztecs would seem to have been northern barbarians, who developed their political and social systems under the influence of the Toltec (Maya) civilization which they had destroyed. Their polytheistic religion was largely their own, and was characterized by the worship of the sun and human sacrifices. Their astronomy was mainly astrological, or used for astrological purposes -the determining of good and evil days, divination, the taking of horoscopes, and the like. Yet they could take accurate observations, not only of lunations, but also of the periods of Venus; divided the solar year into 18 months of 20 days each,

Azurite

with 5 intercalaries; named each day by consecutive hieroglyphic signs (the day counts); and 'calculated annual periods of 4, 13, 52, and some say even 52+52=104 cycles. But the writing system was mainly pictorial, with few phonetic elements, and in this respect was greatly inferior to the Maya, which approximated to a true phonetic syllabary. The Aztec monuments also-mainly teocalli, i.e. truncated pyramids surmounted by temples-were not to be compared with those of Yucatan, while the finest in Mexico itself (Teotihuacan, Colula, Papantla) were the work of their Toltec predecessors. Before the overthrow of their empire by Cortes in 1520, the Aztecs had reduced the civilized peoples of Oajaca (Lapotecs, Mixtecs, etc.), and had founded settlements far to the s.,where their descendants, the Pipils of Guatemala, Salvador, and the Niquirans of Nicaragua, still speak a corrupt form of the Nahua stock language, which has long been cultivated, and is now spoken by about 1,000,000 fullblood Aztecs, and perhaps 500,000 half-breeds, on the Anahuac table-land. See Peñafiel's Monuments of Ancient Mexican Art (1891); Payne's History of the New World, vol. i. (1892); Bandelier's Rept. Peabody Museum (vol. ii. 1876-79); Bancroft's Native Races of the Pacific States (1875); also works cited under MEXICO.

Azuaga, tn., prov. Badajoz, Spain, 17 m. from Llerena. Centre of silver-lead-mining district. Important Roman ruins. Pop. (1900) 14,192.

Azuni, DOMENICO ALBERTO (1749-1827), Italian historian and jurist, was born and died in Sardinia, but held judicial offices in Nice and Genoa, and was placed by Napoleon on the commission which drew up the commercial code. The Sistema Univer sale dei Principi del Diritto Marittimo dell' Europa (1795), Dizionario della Giurisprudenza Mercantile (1786-8), and Histoire de Sardaigne (1802) are his chief works.

Azurite, or blue copper ore, so called from its deep-blue color, and also known as chessylite, from its abundance in beautiful crystals at Chessy, near Lyons. It is a basic carbonate of copper, and like malachite, which it often accompanies, is found chiefly where copper ores have been exposed to water containing carbonic acid. It was formerly much used by painters, but is liable to change to malachite and become green: this is believed to be the origin of the green skies in some old paintings. As an ore of copper, azurite is chiefly important in the copper mining region of southeastern Arizona.

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B. This letter represents a sound which differs very slightly in different languages. Before utterance the stream of breath is stopped by the lips, hence the modern classification of B as a stop consonant; it is the voiced labial stop Like other stop consonants, it tends to change into the corresponding spirant, v In this way the letter may come to represent the_sound v. It did so partially in Latin from the 2nd century, and the usage passed to Britain also. In modern Greek, B has the value of v. In Irish,

B

Hence Hebrew is the lower part of English B, in Arabic reduced to .. The Semitic name beth means 'house'; Greek beta is the same word.

B, in music, is the seventh degree or leading note' of the natural scale of C. In French and Italian it is called si; in German, H (Ha), with B for our Bb. The key of B natural has five sharps; that of B has two flats.

Baader, FRANZ XAVER VON (1765-1841),German Roman Catholic mystic and philosopher, pro

(Baal-berith), a baal of flies (Baal-zebub), etc. The theory which makes Baal the proper name of a god typifying the sun is not consistent with this multiplicity of local baals (Heb. pl. baalim) and lacks corroborative evidence. The baalim were rather local deities each of whom gave fertility to his district and thus became an object of worship. The Israelites found the cult everywhere when they entered Canaan and naturally adopted it, calling Yahweh their baal (cf Hos. 2:16, where 'Baali'=' my baal,'

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B is b mutated-ie v or w. Similarly, Hebrew is B, v. In English, b has shown a tendency to become silent before _t and after m ('debt,' 'lamb'). B is the Greek form of the sign, and became the Latin also Except as a 'capital, it is now supplanted by other forms. b is a Roman modification, which perhaps originated when the loops of B were written from the bottom. is a cursive variation of b (14th century). B and 6 are the principal Greek minuscule variants. The Semitic original, 4, was open at the bottom on the left. The Aramaic alphabet opened the top loop, and finally lost it entirely.

Temple of Jupiter, Baalbek.

fessor of philosophy and theology at Munich (1826), was a spiritual follower of Boehme, with whose works he became acquainted when travelling in England (1792-6). His works, with Life (vol. xv.), were published in 16 vols. (185060); and a selection, with Life, ed. Claassen, in 2 vols. (1886-7).

Baal, a word found in all Semitic languages meaning 'owner, proprietor.' When used of a god the article is often prefixed and a word is added expressing the place or thing possessed, or indicating a characteristic. Thus, there was a baal of Tyre (whose name was Melkart), a baal of Mt. Hermon, a baal of the covenant

and proper names like Ishbosheth Ishbaal, see below). As the baalim were gods of fertility, the rites of the baal worship degenerated into sensuality and thus the Yahweh cult was corrupted (cf. 1 Kings 18 for a description of the baal rites). The prophets, inveighed against it and to the later Jews the name was so offensive that they substituted bosheth, 'shame,' for it. See Sayce, Hibbert Lectures (1887); Baethgen, Beiträge zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte (1888);, Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites (1894).

Baalbek (Gr. Heliopolis, 'city of the sun'; Scrip. Baalath), an

Baa.b.k

cient city of Syria, on the plateau (alt. 4,500 ft.) of El Bekaa, at the foot of Anti-Libanus, 35 m. N. by w. of Damascus; chiefly remarkable for the magnificence of its ruins, which occupy a site analogous to that of the Acropolis of Athens. The temple of Jupiter, or the Sun (Little Temple), stands to the s. of the Great Temple. A third ruin is known as the Circular Temple. Elsewhere are numerous columns, altars, and the remains of the city walls (2 m. in circuit). The older portions of the acropolis wall are probably of Phoenician or kindred origin, and date from a time when the worship of Baal was supreme. The early history of Baalbek is lost in the mists of antiquity; but as it stood on the route between Tyre and Palmyra, it early became a great entrepôt of Oríental commerce. Under Alexander the Great it rose to a high

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articles) in Temple Bar (1861); Frauberger's Die Akropolis von Baalbek (1891).

Baasha, a man of humble origin, who, having slain Nadab, son of Jeroboam I., ascended the throne of Israel about 914 B.C. He massacred all the descendants of Jeroboam and undertook a long war with Asa, king of Judah, who, in self-defence, had to seek the help of Syria. See 1 Kings 15:16-16:7.

Baba. Turkish word, title of respect='papa'; applied to ecclesiastic and secular dignitaries in Western Asia.

Baba (Slav. 'old woman'), the name of a fantastic being who plays a great rôle in the folk-lore of the Slavonic peoples, especially the Russian, where she is called Iaga-Baba. See Ralston's Russian Folk-tales (1873).

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Babbage, CHARLES (1791-1871), a scientific mechanician, who,

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degree of prosperity, and Augustus made it a Roman colony. Antoninus Pius erected the Great Temple, which Theodosius converted into a Christian church. The Arabs conquered Baalbek in 636, after a stubborn resistance; in 1139, and again in 1260, it was captured by the Mongols; and Timur Beg (Tamerlane) utilized the temple as a fortress (1400). From this period the decline of Baalbek was rapid, and an earthquake (1759) completed the devastation begun by Tartars, Turks, and Damascene pashas. During the Crusades the city was frequently the centre of warlike operations. It is now a povertystricken little village, with about a hundred mean houses. The Germans excavated the site of the acropolis in 1900-2. See Wood's The Ruins of Balbec (1757; new ed. 1827); Lortet's La Lyrie d'aujourd'hui (1884); Bellew (two

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Babi

to identify the 'Tower of Babel' with the zikkurrat of the temple E-sagilla, the extensive ruins of which are now known as Amran, in Babylon itself. See Sayce's Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments (1884), and his edi tion of G. Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis (1880).

Bab-e-Mandeb, strait uniting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean (144 m. wide). The island of Perim divides it into two unequal channels (the western 12 m. and the eastern 2 m. wide). The cape of the same name is on the Arabian side of the strait.

Babel und Bibel, the title of a series of lectures delivered in Berlin before the emperor of Germany in 1902-3 by Friedrich Delitzsch, one of the most eminent of Assyriologists, in which he expounded the relations between the Bible and the results of the recent excavations at Babylon and the ancient Mesopotamian centres of culture.

Baber (the Tiger), ZEHIR EDDIN MOHAMMED (1483-1530), first Mogul emperor in India, and founder of the Mogul dynasty, which lasted to the beginning of the 19th century, was a descendant of Timur-Beg (Tamerlane), and succeeded his father, Sheikh Mirza, at the age of twelve on the throne of Andijan in Ferghana. In 1504 he conquered Kandahar and Kabul, and thence made four expeditions against India between 1508 and 1525. In 1526 he appeared in the Punjab, defeated his opponents near Delhi, and occupied Delhi and Agra, and in the following year pushed his conquests as far as Bengal. He made Agra his favorite residence. Baber was also a poet, writing in both Turkish and Persian; but the most important of his literary works is his Autobiography or Memoirs, which he wrote in Turkish, at the end of his life: trans. into English by J. Leyden and Erskine under the title Memoirs of Zehir ed-Din Mohammed Baber, Emperor of Hindustan (1826). See Lane Poole's Baber (1899).

Babeuf, FRANÇOIS NOEL (176097), a French revolutionist who formed a plot against the French Directory. Babeuf was executed. See Advielle's Histoire de Babeuf (1884).

Babi and Babiism. The term Babiism denotes the tenets of a school of religious reformers who arose in Persia in the middle of the 19th century. The founder was a young sayíd, Mirza Ali, son of Mohammed, who was born at Shiraz in 1819, and who, while resident near Bagdad, in 1844, began to preach a faith which differed in many respects from the orthodox Sufism of Persia. Regarding himself as the latest prophet of God, he took the

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