M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in his paper on the Proteles, inserted in the eleventh volume of the Mémoires du Museum, has bestowed upon this species the name of Proteles Lalandii. He has done so, in the belief that the spedes has not been indicated by any previous traveller. We have considered it proper, however, to substitute the specific Game of Proteles Cristata, for that proposed in honour of M. Lalande, for both Sparrman and Levaillant have mentioned the aard-wolf long before the date of M. Delalande's journey; and the former has not only described it with alerable accuracy, but has even ascertained its true generic characters, and associated it with the civets, under the denomination of Viverra cristata. The passage alluded to will be found in the English translation of Sparrman's Travels, vol. ii., p. 177.

In the Second Voyage of Levaillant, vol. ii., p. 360, menton is likewise made of this animal under the appellation of loup de terre,' which is a simple translation of its colonial name aard-wolf.

Sparrman mentions having found ants in the stomach of the proteles, and these, it may be observed, are also a favourite food of the bear. It is very destructive to young lambs, and it is stated to attack the harge fatty growths which envelop the tails of the African sheep. AARGAU, one of the twenty-two Swiss cantons. On the north the Rhine separates it from the grand duchy of Baden: the canton of Basel bounds it on the west, and that of Zürich on the east. It takes its name from the river Aar, which rises in the glaciers that form the southern limits of the canton of Bern; and, after flowing through the lakes of Brienz and Thun, and past the towns of Bern, Soleure, and Aarau, falls into the Rhine on the south bank, about fourteen miles above Laufenburg. The whole length of its course is about 160 miles. The canton takes its name from the river, the word Aar-gau signifying the province or district of the Aar: the same termination frequently occurs in other names, such as Thurgau.

The canton of Aargau is a pleasant, and in many parts fertile, district, diversified by hills, mountains, and valleys. The chain of the Jura mountains runs through part of the canton, but they hardly attain the height of 3000 feet. The amber of inhabitants is about 199,000. Aargau is one of the most industrious cantons of Switzerland, and perhaps more a manufacturing than agricultural country. This canton has paid great attention to the education of its people. The chief town is Aarau, which contains 4600 inhabitants; and has manufactures of silk, cotton, and leather; and good establishments for education. At Laufenburg are some alls in the Rhine, which impede the navigation of the ver. A bridge here leads over the Rhine to the little illage of Laufenburg, in Baden. Aargau contains many heat, industrious towns; such as Zofingen with a good library, Lenzburg, Klingnau, Schinznach having near it the castle of Hapsburg, which is the original seat of the Imeral Austrian family, and Baden, which has warm baths, and a good Lyceum. Each of the eight districts into which Aargau is divided has a secondary school. [See Journ. of Educ., No. 6.] The area of the canton is estimated at about 550 English square miles.

AARHUUS, a division of Jutland, containing 1890 English square miles, and 137,000 inhabitants; with a considerable portion of good soil. Aarhuus, the chief town, stands in N. lat. 56° 10′, E. long. 10° 13', between the sea and a small lake, which, at its outlet, forms a port. The town is pretty well built, and contains a large cathedral church: the manufactures are cotton and woollen cloth, gloves, sugar-refining to a small amount, tobacco, and father. The number of inhabitants is about 8000. Aarhuus is the point in Jutland from which passengers generally set out to the island of Zealand, where they land at a place called

AARON, the first high-priest of the Jews. He was the elder brother of Moses, and was, by the express appointment of Heaven, associated with that illustrious legislator in the enterprize of delivering their countrymen from Egyptian bondage, and conducting them to the promised land. Aaron, who was a ready and eloquent speaker, was the chief instrument employed in announcing the command of God to Pharaoh, and attesting it by the series of stupendous miracles recorded in the earlier chapters of the book of Exodus. After the passage of the Red Sea, and during the sojourn in the wilderness, he was far from manifesting the steady confidence and undaunted disregard of popular clamour which characterized the conduct of his brother; but, notwithstanding the timidity and weakness which he had shown in yielding to the demand of the impatient and superstitious multitude, that he would make them a golden calf to worship, he was, in conformity to the divine purpose, consecrated to the priesthood, of which the highest office was made hereditary in his family. Aaron, however, was not permitted to reach the promised land, any more than his brother Moses. Having ascended the summit of Mount Hor, in company with Moses and his eldest son Eleazar, he died there, after Moses, as commanded by God, had stripped him of his sacerdotal robes, and put them upon his son. This event happened when Aaron was in the hundred and twenty-third year of his age, forty years after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and, according to the commonly received chronology, in the year 1451 B. C., or 2553 from the creation of the world. The history of Aaron is to be found in the book of Exodus, and the three following books of the Pentateuch.

AARON, the fifth caliph of the race of the Abbasides, born 765, died in 802.-[See ABBASIDES.]

AB, the fifth month of the ancient Hebrew year, but now the eleventh (or, in intercalary years, the twelfth), in consequence of the transfer of the new year from spring to autumn.

On the 1st day of Ab a fast is held in commemoration of the death of Aaron. On the 9th a very solemn fast is observed in remembrance of the destruction of the Holy Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 588, B. C., and of the destruction of the second Temple by Titus, A. D. 70. This fast is considered the most mournful of the whole year: on this day, in the synagogues, the lamentations of Jeremiah are publicly read, with other portions of the Bible, expressive of sorrow and desolation. No recreation is allowed from the beginning of the month, nor may any man shave his beard the more serious Jews even abstain from all meat, except on the Sabbath-day. On the 18th, another fast is observed. All these fasts are postponed one day if they fall on the Saturday.

A little festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the month to commemorate an ancient custom, according to which, the young girls of each tribe came forth into the fields clothed in white, and exhibited themselves in dances before the marriageable young men, with the view of being selected by them in marriage. A fast is also said to fall on the 18th, in memory of the western lamp going out in the Temple in the time of Ahaz.

The month of Ab may begin in some years as early as the 10th July, in others as late as the 7th August. In 1855, it commences on the 16th July.

Ab is the name of the twelfth month of the Syrian year, coinciding with our August.

ABABDE, the name of several African tribes, which occupy the country between the Nile and the Red Sea, south of Kosseir, nearly as far as the latitude of Derr, 22°. 47'. The Bisharye inhabit the mountains from thence southwards. Many of the Ababde have settled in Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, from Kenneh to Assouan, and thence to Derr. According to Belzoni, some of them are spread as far as Suez. But the greater part still live like Bedouins, and act as guides to the Sennaar caravans which set out from Daraou, a place about ten hours journey north of Assouan. The Ababde formerly guarded the caravans from Kenneh to Kosseir, on the Red Sea

but they have been deprived of this branch of profit by the Maazu and Ataony Arabs, who live to the north, and farm the profits of this line of road from the Pasha.

The Ababde have considerable property, but a very bad character; they are described as faithless, and unworthy of the Bedouin origin of which they boast.

These people are known in Upper Egypt for their excellent camels, and particularly for their dromedaries. They trade principally in senna leaves, and charcoal made of acacia wood, which is sent as far as Cairo. The Ababde have few horses; they fight with other Arab tribes upon camels. Their arms are a target, lance, and sword. They are divided into three principal tribes, El Fokara, El Ashabat, and El Meleykab.

Those who encamp with the Bisharye speak the language of the latter. The female children of the Ababde and Jaafere Arabs, as Burckhardt calls them, who inhabit the west bank of the Nile, south of Thebes, as far as the first cataracts, as well as the female children of all the people south of Kenneh and Esne to the borders of Sennaar, undergo the operation of excision, which was an old Egyptian custom. [Compare Strabo., p. 824, Casaub.] The Ababde fight naked, except that they have a rag or napkin round their waists. A fight which Burckhardt saw commenced with a shower of stones, for the repelling of which

missiles, their targets appeared very useful. The comb ants on each side were about thirty; and the results we three men slightly wounded, and one shield cleft in two. This account is from Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia (L don, 1819), who appears, from this and other passages, to c sider the Ababde as of Arab stock; but if this be his meani it seems to be incorrect. Other writers say that the Abab who are of the same family as their southern neighbou the Bisharye, differ in appearance, habits and langua from the Arabs. The latter fact might readily be es blished by a comparison of an Arabic and Ababde vocal lary; but we have not been able to find one of the la language. That the Ababde have, at different peri mixed with the Arabs is certain, and we believe have their religion, such as it is, from the same nation. Th form, which is not that of the negro, their dark colour, their long hair besmeared with grease, and hanging ringlets, which have been compared in shape to co screws, show them to be of Nubian stock, and proba the remnant of a race long settled in these regions. kind of head-dress which they wear is often seen on Egyptian monuments, and a pretty correct notion of it m be formed from the following Egyptian painting, now in British Museum.

The fact of the Ababde being camel-breeders, and using them in battle, coincides singularly with the habits of the Arabians, as Herodotus calls them, who lived south of Egypt, and were in the army of Xerxes when he invaded Greece, B.C. 480.

It is conjectured by Ritter, that the Ababde, as well as the Bisharye, may be a remnant of that people, whom we hear of under the Roman Emperors by the name of Blemyes. We hear no more of the Blemyes after the Arab conquest of Egypt; but they appear under the general name of Bejas, as the great carriers between the Nile and Aidab on the Red Sea, and, in fact, as a commercial people. The Bisharye, the Ababde, Barabras, &c., may be considered as different branches of the Beja stock. [See BEJAS.] What reasons Herodotus had for calling the camel-riding people south of Egypt by the name of Arabs, it is difficult to say; only we may observe, that Arabia, properly so called, was then very little known; and the word Arabs would be applied vaguely, and perhaps sometimes incorrectly, to many people, who lived a nomadic life. For many Ababde customs, see Belzoni's Researches, p. 309, 4to. [See Ritter's Geography, Africa.]

ABACISCUS, in architecture, is a diminution of the architectural term ABACUS, and is principally applied, when used at all, which is not often, to the tiles or squares of a tessellated pavement.

A'BACUS, in architecture, is the level tablet, whether square or oblong, which is almost always formed on the moulded or otherwise enriched capital of a column, to sup

port the horizontal entablature. [See the words CAPIT COLUMN, and ENTABLATURE.] The architectural appli tion of the term Abacus, which in the original is applied any rectangular tile-like figure, arises from a story wh Vitruvius tells of the manner in which the foliated capi called the Corinthian originated.

A'BACUS, a game among the Romans; so called from being played on a board, somewhat in the manner of che A BAČUS, an instrument employed to facilitate arit metical calculations. The name may be given with p priety to any machine for reckoning with counters, bea &c., in which one line is made to stand for units, anoth for tens, and so on. We have here given the form of abacus, such as we may recommend, for the purpose teaching the first principles of arithmetic, the only use far as we know, to which such an instrument is put in t country. Its length should be about three times its bread It consists of a frame, traversed by stiff wires, on wh beads or counters are strung so as to move easily. T beads on the first right hand row are units, those on the ne tens, and so on. Thus, as it stands, the number 57048 represented upon the lower part of it.

For a more detailed account of the method of using th instrument for the purposes of instruction, see NUMER TION. There is an instrument sold in the toy-shops w twelve wires, and twelve beads on each wire, for teachi the multiplication-table, which may be made of more use applied according to the method which will be described the article referred to.

he commits no breach of the peace, and does no more injury to the property than is absolutely necessary for effecting his purpose. If a new house or a wall be erected so near to an old house as to obstruct its ancient lights, this is a private nuisance, which it is competent to the person injured peaceably to abate: or, if a gate or other obstruction be erected or placed across a public road, this, which is a public nuisance, any of the king's subjects passing that way may beat down and remove.

The second signification of abatement is that of abating a civil action, or an indictment. Here it is taken figuratively, and signifies the beating down or overthrowing such action or indictment. This is effected in an action at law, either by showing, by way of plea, that something has occurred by which the proceeding is ipso facto determined, or by stating some matter which renders it imperative on the court to quash, or put an end to, the proceedings. Thus, in the first case, it may be alleged that the plaintiff has taken possession of the property which he seeks by his suit to recover from the defendant. In the second case, it may be shewn that the plaintiff in such proceedings is an alien, an outlaw, or an attainted or excommunicated person, and therefore incompetent by the law of England to maintain an action; or that the defendant is privileged from action, or has been misnamed in the suit; or that there are other persons still living who are equally liable with the defendant, and ought, therefore, to be joined with him in the demand; or that the plaintiff is disqualified from suing by some personal disability, or that the plaintiff or defendant is misnamed. In the former of these cases, the plea informs the court that the action is no longer pending-is already of itself abated by one of the parties, without the interposition of the court: in the latter it calls upon the court to pronounce a judgment which shall put a stop to the present proceedings, without deciding anything upon the main question in dispute between the parties. Where the defendant pleads any matter in abatement which lies peculiarly in his own knowledge, such as his own misnomer, or the non-joinder of other parties as defendants, it is, in general, necessary that the plea should be so framed as to give to the plaintiff that information which shall prevent his falling into a similar mistake, when commencing a new action for the same demand. This is technically called giving the plaintiff a better writ. It is an indispensable rule, where the action is only abateable by plea, that he who takes advantage of a flaw must, at the same time, show how it can be amended. This is, of course, not required where the action is actually abated, and where the plea, though in form a plea in abatement, is substantially a plea in bar, and shows, not that the particular proceeding is misconceived, but that the plaintiff has no right to recover by his action the thing which he has claimed.

In the early history of our law, as recorded in the Year Books, the most numerous subjects of discussion are questions arising upon pleas in abatement; and many important legal points were settled in considering whether a writ had or had not abated in fact, or was or was not abateable. Of late years a variety of causes, which cannot be explained without involving the consideration of matters scarcely intelligible to any but a professional reader, have conspired to render pleas in abatement in civil actions of much less frequent use than they formerly were. They are, in fact, discouraged by the Courts; and now, by the provisions of the 15 and 16 Vict. c. 76 (1852), commonly called the Common Law Procedure Act, the law on this subject is very much simplified and improved; facilities are given for amendment of pleadings, and much of the artificial technicality of the former system of procedure abolished. The law on the subject of abatement is very much the same in the Courts of Equity, the procedure of which has also of late been considerably simplified. The effect of marriage, nowever, as a ground of abatement, appears to be differently viewed in the legal and equitable jurisdictions. Thus, at Common Law, and under the regulations of the above Act, 15 and 16 Vict. c. 76, the marriage of a female plaintiff or defendant will not cause the action to abate; whereas, in Equity, it would appear that upon the marriage of a female plaintiff the suit abates; but not so of a female defendant, in which case it is merely necessary to name the husband as well as the wife in the subsequent proceedings.

a wrong one, no surname or a wrong one, or no addition description of his calling and place of abode, or a wr one, he may plead this matter in abatement. In mod times, however, misnomer is the only case in which a in abatement to an indictment has been at all usual practice; and at the present day, such a plea would be no avail to a defendant-a statute (7 Geo. IV. cap. section 10) having been passed, which gives autho to criminal courts of justice to amend the indictm according to the truth upon such a plea being made, then to call upon the party to plead to the substance of charge.

The last species of abatement is that of an abatem into a freehold, wherein, as in the last case, the term ab ment is used in a figurative sense, to denote that the righ possession or freehold of the heir or devisee is overthr by the rude intervention of a stranger. [Stephen's C mentaries, vol. iii. p. 475, and notes; and Blacksto Commentaries, vol. iii. pp. 167-8.].

ABATIS, a military term, signifying a work compose felled trees, with the softer branches cut off, laid side by with the end from which the branches grow towards enemy; thus forming an obstruction to his progress, an breast-work for musketry to fire over. This species of fence is often used in fieldworks, where wood, not of great size, is plentiful. Lines, flanked by bastions, are t formed, either simply by laying down and fastening the tr or, if when so placed they would be too high to fire over, sinking them in a ditch whose section is an angle, with longest slope towards the enemy. They are sometimes form against the counterscarp of a rampart, sometimes in covered way, and may generally be used wherever an obstr tion is to be raised to the enemy's progress, provided th can be flanked by a fire sufficient to prevent his destroy them at his leisure.

ABATTOIR, the name given by the French to the lic slaughter-houses, which were established in Paris, b decree of Napoleon, in 1807, and finished in 1818. Pa previous to the arrangement thus made for the public hea and comfort, was, as London now is, subject to the nuisan of having cattle driven through a crowded city, to be slaug tered in yards and hovels of the closest streets. But t capital was not still further exposed, as our metropolis is the frightful annoyance of a great cattle-market, held in very heart of the city: the cattle were bought and sold the adjacent villages of Scéaux and Passy. Assuredly, beast-market of Smithfield, and the slaughter-houses Warwick-lane, and of many other thoroughfares, are e which ought not to exist in a period of high civilization. 1 abattoirs of Paris are five in number; three being on the ri bank of the Seine, and two on the left. These buildings, wh are of very large dimensions, consist of slaughter-rooms, b of stone, with every arrangement for cleanliness, and w ample mechanical aids; and of ox and sheep pens. E butcher has stalls set apart for his beasts, and convenien for securing his own forage. A fixed price is paid for 1 accommodation of the building, and for the labour of attendants; the rate for killing is 6 francs for an ox, 4 for a cow, 2 fr. for a calf, and fr. for a sheep. A cha is also made for melting tallow, preparing tripe, &c. 1843, the revenue of the abbatoirs of Paris, derived from above charges, amounted to 1,090,230 fr., or 43,6107. WI it is considered that above two million head of sheep, or calves, and hogs are annually slaughtered in London, serious inconveniences arising from the old system must evident. In 1851, an act of parliament was passed for removal of Smithfield Market, but as yet without any pr tical effect. [Dictionnaire de la Conversation.]

ton. King William wished to retain him in England, ut he decided to return to Geneva. There he took part in le translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 18, and received the thanks of the clergy for his exerThe Academy offered him a professor's chair in 3. which he declined, preferring the situation of a supererary librarian, without salary. In 1727 the governent of Geneva bestowed on him the rights of citizenship. is one of the most remarkable instances on record a combination of universality and depth of learning. very man who talked with Abauzit on his own particular dy, imagined that, whatever his general learning might his special attention had been reserved for that which were discussing. Newton addressed himself to Abauzit proper person to decide between him and Leibnitz. cke, the Oriental traveller, thought he had passed his in the east. Rousseau imagined that he had devoted self to the study of ancient music. The latter speaks him in terms of the highest admiration in his Hé, being the only instance in which he has thus disished a contemporary. In his temper he was so mild denduring, that an anecdote which is preserved of him that those virtues had reached an excess which st entitles them to the appellation of a disease of the His friends bribed or encouraged his servant to try at lengths he might go with his master. The man, dingly, neglected to make his bed, of which Abauzit nunded him without reproof. The same neglect, however, a allowed to occur several days running; on which muzit called the servant, and said, 'You appear not to e to make my bed; perhaps you think it too much uble; it is, however, no great matter, as I begin to actom myself to it. For a man of his attainments we ve not much remaining of Abauzit. With the exception wme antiquarian papers, in Spon's Histoire de la Ville Genève and the Journal Helvétique, he printed nothing elf. Some theological works were published after his th, but the greater part of his manuscripts were burnt his heirs, whose religious opinions differed from his own, chwere Unitarian.-[Mostly abridged from the Biophie Universelle.]

ABBAS the Great, or, with his full name, Shah Abbas hadur Khan, was the fifth king of the Sufi dynasty which mded the throne of Persia in the year 1501 of our era. ng the latter part of the reign of Shah Mohammed dabende, his father, he filled the situation of governor the province of Khorasan; and on the death of that min 1586, succeeded him in the government. Khorasan just then been occupied by the Usbeks, and it was first object of Shah Abbas to recover possession of But his efforts proved for a time ineffectual. Not being to take Herat, the capital of Khorasan, from the ks, he was obliged to content himself with leaving a son at Meshhed, and even this town, considered as by the Shiites on account of the tomb of a celebrated hammedan saint, Imam Ali Reza, fell again into the of the enemy. About the same time the internal ce of Persia was interrupted by a revolt at Istakhar, th was, however, soon repressed, and terminated with execution of the prime mover, Yakub Khan. The year was distinguished by victories in Gilan and Azerbijan r the Turks, who had collected a considerable force on banks of the river Kur, and threatened Persia with an inon. The Turks lost, through this campaign, their influence lan, but retained for the present possession of the forses of Nuhavend, Tebriz, Tiflis, and almost the whole of rbijan and Georgia. During this time, one of the erals of Abbas conquered the province of Lar in the th, and the Bahrein islands in the Persian gulf, important account of their pearl-fishery.

he Usbeks still remained masters of Khorasan, and, ng to their desultory mode of carrying on their attacks, by attempts at bringing them to a regular action had At last, however, in the year 1597, they were totally ated by the Persian troops, near Herat, and Khorasan for a long time released from their predatory incursions. English knights, Sir Anthony, and his brother Sir ert Sherley, arrived about this time as private travellers Persia. They were honourably received by Shah Abbas, confidence they soon gained to such a degree, that Sir Robert Sherley remained in Persia, his brother Anthony was sent as envoy from the Persian court to the istian princes of Europe, to offer them the Shah's friend

VOL. I.

ship, chiefly with a view to some future common undertaking against the Turks, who were then the terror of Europe. Between Persia and Turkey hostilities were still carried on. Nuhavend, Tebriz, and Bagdad were taken; a Turkish army of 100,000 men was defeated by about half that number of Persians; Abbas recovered Azerbijan, Shirwan, part of Georgia, and Armenia, and subsequently also Kurdistan, Mosul, and Diarbekir; and the Turks were ever after this victory kept in check. They formed a league with the Tartars of Kaptchak, but the united forces of both were vanquished in a battle fought between Sultanieh and Tebriz, A. D. 1618, the last memorable battle that occurred during the reign of Shah Abbas. Negotiations were then commenced between Abbas and the Sultan at Constantinople; but insurrections and conflicts in the frontier provinces, fomented and secretly instigated by the Turkish government, still continued for some time.

Shah Abbas encouraged the trade of Europeans with Persia: he protected the factories which the English, the French and the Dutch had at Gombroon; but he looked with jealousy on the flourishing establishment of the Portuguese on the small island of Ormuz, situated near the entrance of the Persian Gulf, which had been in their possession ever since 1507, when Albuquerque occupied it, and had now become the emporium of an extensive commerce with India, Persia, Arabia, and Turkey. This settlement the Persians and the English East India Company agreed to attack with joint forces. The English furnished the naval, the Persians the military, forces; and the island was taken on the 22nd April, 1622. For this service the English received part of the plunder, and a grant of half the customs at the port of Gombroon; but their hopes of further advantages for their commerce in these parts were frustrated, and the mission of Sir Dodmore Cotton from England to the Persian court, in 1627, likewise failed in procuring them. After a reign of upwards of forty years, Shah Abbas died at Kaswin, A. D. 1628. Like most of the monarchs of the Sufi dynasty, he was excessively cruel, and hasty in awarding capital punishment often on very slight grounds. All his sons fell victims to his suspicion and jealousy; only one grandson survived him, who succeeded him on the throne as Shah Sufi. Abbas was a zealous Shiite, and used to make frequent pilgrimages to the tomb of Imam Ali Reza, at Meshhed; but he showed great tolerance to those that professed other religions, and especially to Christians. His belief in astrology was so firm that he once even vacated the throne for a short period during which it had been predicted that danger menaced the life of the Shah. He made Isfahan the capital of the empire, and embellished that town by magnificent gardens and palaces. He favoured commerce, and rendered the communications in the interior easier by caravanserais and highways. As a means of securing the authority of the crown, he countenanced the conflict of political parties in the interior; with the same view he formed a new clan of his own, consisting of persons from all classes, and denominated the King's friends,' whom he distinguished and attached to his person by many particular favours.

ABBASIDES. The name of this family of sovereigns is derived from their ancestor, Abbas ben Abd-al-Motalleb, a paternal uncle of the Arabian prophet Mohammed. On account of their descent from so near a relation of the prophet, the Abbasides had, ever since the introduction of the Islam, been held in very high esteem among the Arabs, and had at an early period begun to excite the jealousy of the Ommaïade caliphs, who, after the defeat of Ali ben Ali Taleb, the son-in-law of Mohammed (A.D. 661), occupied the throne of the Arabian empire. The Abbasides had already for some time asserted their claims to the caliphat, in preference to the reigning family, when, in A.D. 746, they formed a strong party, and commenced open hostilities against the government of the Ommaïades in the province of Khorasan. Three years afterwards (A.D. 749) the Abbaside Abul-Abbas Abdallah ben Mohammed, surnamed Al-Saffah, or 'the bloodshedder, was recognized as caliph at Kufa. A battle on the banks of the river Zab, not far from Mosul (in the same neighbourhood where, more than a thousand years before, the battle of Gaugamela had made Alexander master of the Persian empire), decided (Jan. 750 A.D.) the ruin of the Ommaïades. Merwan II., the last caliph of that lineage, fled before the advancing forces of Al-Saffah from Mosul to Emesa, thence to Damascus, and finally to Egypt, where he was overtaken and killed. So great was the hatred of the victorious party against the

C