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LEFT BAGDAD RAILWAY 384 BAHAMA ISLANDS whole population. The city has been scription of the Money Market,'* He frequently visited by the plague, and, in died in London, March 24, 1877. 1831, was nearly devastated by that calamity. Bagdad was founded in 762, BAHAMA BANK, GREAT and by the Caliph Almansur, and raised to a LITTLE, shoals among the West India MOSQUE OF ABDUL KADR AT BAGDAD high degree of splendor, in the 9th century, by Haroun Al Raschid. It is the scene of a number of the tales of the "Arabian Nights." In the 13th century it was stormed by Hulaku, grandson of Genghis-Khan, who caused the reigning caliph to be slain, and destroyed the caliphate. In the World War (1914- 1918) British forces captured the city,, March 11, 1917, and it has since been governed by a British commission. As a result of the peace treaty, handed to the Turkish peace delegates in Paris on Mayll, 1920, Bagdad became part of the independent state of Mesopotamia. Pop. of vilayet about 900,000. City, about 225,000. BAGDAD RAILWAY. See Mesopo- tamia. BAGEHOT, WALTER (baj'ot), an English writer on political economy and government, born in Langport, Somer- setshire, Feb. 3, 1826; was graduated at University College, London, and ad- mitted to the bar; but never entered practice. His principal works are "The English Constitution"; "Physics and Politics"; and "Lombard Street: a De- Islands; the former between 22° and 26" N., 75° and 79° W., having S. and W. the Bahama old and new channels. On it are the islands of Providence, Andros, and Exuma. The Little Bank, N. W. of the foregoing, between 26° and 27° N., 77° and 79° W., has on it the Great Bahama and Abaco Islands. BAHAMA CHANNEL, OLD and NEW, two American channels; the former separates the Great Bahama Bank and Cuba; the latter, also called the Gulf of Florida, j^ between the Great and Little Bahama Banks and Florida, and forms a part of the chan- nel of the great Gulf Stream, which flows here at the rate of from 2 to 5 miles an hour. BAHAMA ISLANDS, or LXJCAYOS, a group of islands in the West Indies, forming a colony belonging to Great Britain, lying N. E. of Cuba and S. E. of the coast of Florida, the Gulf Stream passing between them and the mainland. They extend a distance of upward of 600 miles, and besides innumerable keys and rocks, number 20 inhabited islands. The principal islands are Grand Bahama,