Page:EB1911 - Volume 08.djvu/960

 inscriptions published by Sachau, who also visited and describes (pp. 204-206) the Dēr Yaʽqūb, nearly two hours distant.

Urfa is the capital of a sanjak of the same name, in the vilāyet of Aleppo. The population was estimated by Olivier in 1796 at 20,000 to 24,000, by Buckingham at 50,000, by Chernik in 1873 at 40,000, by Sachau in 1879 at 50,000, in Baedeker’s Handbook in 1906 at 30,000. Vice-Consul Fitzmaurice said that before December 1895 it was close on 65,000, of whom about 20,000 were Armenian, 3000 or 4000 Jacobites, Syrian-Catholic, Greek-Catholic, Maronites and Jews, and the remaining 40,000 Turkish, Kurdian and Arab Mahommedans. Two barbarous massacres occurred on the 28th and 29th of October and the 28th and 29th of December 1895; 126 Armenian families were absolutely wiped out. He believes that 8000 Armenians perished in the second massacre. The Deutsche Orient-Mission has its chief seat in Urfa, and there have for years been American and French missions. The Germans have an orphanage with 300 Armenian children, a carpet factory and a medical station. The American school had some years ago 250 pupils.

 EDFU, in Coptic Atbō, a town of Upper Egypt, 484 m. S.S.E. of Cairo by rail, on the W. bank of the Nile, the railway station being on the opposite side of the river. Pop. (1907) 19,262. The inhabitants manufacture earthenware, which finds ready sale all through Egypt. The ancient Atbō (Apollinopolis Magna) was capital of the second nome of Upper Egypt. The great sandstone temple is practically complete (see : Egypt). It was built on the site of an earlier structure entirely in the time of the Ptolemies. The central part of the building, begun by Ptolemy III. Euergetes in 237, was finished by his successor in 212; the portico, court, pylons and surrounding wall were added by Ptolemy Euergetes II., Soter II. and Alexander I.; but the decoration was not finished till 57 in the reign of Ptolemy XIII. Neos Dionysus. The god of Atbō was a form of Horus (Apollo) as the sun-god; his most characteristic representation is as the disk of the sun with outspread wings, so often seen over the doors of shrines, at the top of stelae, &c. In the temple, where he is often figured as a falcon-headed man, he is associated with Hathor of Dendera and the child Harsemteus.

 EDGAR, king of the English (944–975), was the younger son of Edmund the Magnificent and Ælfgifu. As early as 955 he signed a charter of his uncle Eadred, and in 957 the Mercian nobles, discontented with the rule of his elder brother Eadwig, made him king of England north of the Thames. On the death of his brother in October 959 Edgar became king of a united England. Immediately on his accession to the throne of Mercia Edgar recalled St Dunstan from exile and bestowed on him first the bishopric of Worcester, and then that of London. In 961 Dunstan was translated to Canterbury, and throughout Edgar’s reign he was his chief adviser, and to him must be attributed much of the peace and prosperity of this time.

The reign of Edgar was somewhat uneventful, but two things stand out clearly: his ecclesiastical policy and his imperial position in Britain. Edgar and Dunstan were alike determined to reform the great monastic houses, and to secure that they should be restored once more to their true owners and not remain in the hands of the secular priests or canonici, whose life and discipline alike seem to have been extremely lax. In this reform Edgar was helped not only by St Dunstan but also by Oswald of Worcester and Æthelwold of Winchester. The priests of the old and new monasteries at Winchester, at Chertsey and at Milton Abbas were replaced by monks, and in monastic discipline the old rule of St Benedict was restored in all its strictness.

The coronation of Edgar was, for some unexplained reason, delayed till the Whitsunday of 973. It took place with much ceremony at Bath, and was followed shortly after by a general submission to Edgar at Chester. Six, or (according to later chroniclers) eight kings, including the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde, plighted their faith that they would be the king’s fellow-workers on sea and land. The historical truth of this story has been much questioned; there seems to be little doubt that it is true in its main outlines, though we need not accept the details about Edgar’s having been rowed on the Dee by eight kings.

Two isolated and unexplained incidents are also recorded in the chronicle: first, the ravaging of Westmorland by the Scandinavian Thored, son of Gunnere, in 967; and second, the ravaging of Thanet by Edgar’s own command in 970.

Edgar’s death took place in the year 975, and he was buried at Glastonbury. By his vigorous rule and his statesmanlike policy Edgar won the approval of his people, and in the Saxon chronicle we have poems commemorating his coronation and death, and describing his general character. The only fault ascribed to him is a too great love for foreigners and for foreign customs. Edgar strengthened the hands of the provincial administration, and to him has been attributed the reorganization of the English fleet. The characteristic feature of his rule was his love of peace, and by efficient administration he secured it.

Edgar formed an irregular union in 961 with Wulfthryth, an inmate of the convent at Wilton, who bore him a daughter Eadgyth. He next married Æthelflæd, “the white duck,” daughter of Earl Ordmær, who bore him a son, afterwards known as Edward the Martyr. Finally he was united to Ælfthryth, daughter of Earl Ordgar, who became the mother of the Ætheling Edmund (d. 971) and of Æthelred the Unready.

 EDGAR, or (c. 1050–c. 1130), called the Ætheling, was the son of Edward, a son of the English king Edmund Ironside, by his wife Agatha, a kinswoman of the emperor Henry II., and was born probably in Hungary some time before 1057, the year of his father’s death. After the death of Harold in 1066, Archbishop Aldred and the citizens of London desired to make him king, but on the advance of William, Edgar and his supporters made their submission. In 1068, after the failure of the first rising of the north, Edgar retired to Scotland, when his sister Margaret married the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore.