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ABE been well remarked, that the conflict before Sebastopol assumed such gigantic proportions, that it became the war itself. The preceding efforts of the Turks on the banks of the Danube under Omar Pasha, and the subsequent conquest of the allies at Kinburn and in the sea of Azoff, are all forgotten in the memory of this great siege. The armies of Russia were absorbed in it, and perished in detail; so that when Sebastopol fell (September 8, 1855), the Muscovite was glad to relinquish his exorbitant claims, and to accept conditions of peace.

The treaty of peace signed at Paris on the 30th of March, 1856, between Russia, Turkey, and the Western Powers, including Sardinia, whose troops took an honourable share in the contest before Sebastopol, secured to Turkey the full exercise of her legitimate power, and gave her an interval of security to work out plans of internal improvement. But the task before the sultan was one which required a cool head and a stout heart. The more fanatical of his Mussulman subjects viewed his measures for administrative reform with mistrust and dislike. Amiable, voluptuous, and profuse, well-meaning, but feeble, Abdu-l-Medjid was little fitted to reinvigorate a country exhausted by the struggle with Russia. He died in June, 1861, and was succeeded by his more resolute and energetic brother, now Sultan Abdul-Aziz.—T. J.  ABDU'-L-MUMEN or ABD-EL-MUMEN,, surnamed —according to some second sultan of Africa, of the dynasty of Almohades; according to others, virtual founder of that dynasty—was born in Africa in 1101. At the age of eighteen he became the adviser of Mohammed Ibn Tiumarta, surnamed Al-Mahdi, a native of Cordova, who had studied at Bagdad under the famous Arab philosopher, Abú Hámid Alghazali. Availing themselves of a popular impression that the Mahdi or expected Moslem Messiah was about to appear, the two associates devised a scheme, which, mainly through the genius and intrepidity of Abdu'-l-Mumen, was ultimately crowned with success. Abdu'-l boldly proclaimed his friend the longed-for Mahdi, and was appointed his prime minister. So rapidly did the crowd of fervid followers increase, that they soon constituted a large and formidable army. The new sect, assuming the name of Almohades, commenced a sanguinary war with the Almoravide emperor of Africa and Moslem Spain, and continued it with almost uninterrupted success, till they accomplished the extinction of the Almoravide dynasty. Mohammed dying in 1130, Abdu'-l-Mumen was declared his successor, and, after a brilliant reign of thirty-three years, he died in 1163, when on the point of starting at the head of an immense army he had raised in Africa, to check the career of Alfonso VIII.—E. M.  A'BECKET,, an English writer of great talents, and extraordinary wit and humour, born in 1811. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, but devoted himself to political and light literature, for which he had more taste than for the practice of the law. He was successively on the staff of the Times and other leading journals, and long continued to be one of the most copious, as well as one of the most brilliant contributors to Punch. After holding, with much credit, the office of assistant poor-law commissioner, he was appointed stipendiary magistrate for Southwark; and by the able and efficient discharge of his functions, showed it was not want of aptitude for business that prevented his success in the legal profession. His literary productions, though replete with the boldest drollery, are, happily, free from every trace of indelicacy or malignity. His acknowledged works, mostly republications of detached effusions, are—"Comic Blackstone;" "Comic History of England;" "Comic History of Rome;" and "Quizziology of the British Drama." He died at Boulogne in August, 1856.—E. M.  A'BECKET,. See.  ABEELE,, a Dutch medallist of great merit, flourished in the second half of the 17th century.  * ABEGG,, born at Erlängen in 1796, was in 1824 appointed professor of law in the university of Königsberg, but left this chair for one in Breslau in 1826. He is the author of several works on jurisprudence.  ABEILLE,, born at Riez in Provence in 1648; died at Paris, 1718, was secretary to Marshal de Luxembourg, whom he followed through all his campaigns. He wrote numerous odes and several dramas.  ABEILLE,, a political economist, was born at Toulouse, 1719; died at Paris, 1807. He was inspector-general of manufactures in France, and secretary-general of the Board of Trade. He has left several works on political economy, and a preface, with notes, to Malesherbes' Observations sur l'Histoire Naturelle de Buffon. <section end="31H" /> <section begin="31I" />ABEILLE,, brother of Gaspard, a surgeon of the department of St. Côme, died at Paris, 1697. He was also a poet, and chose, as the themes of his muse, the singular subjects of anatomy and surgery. <section end="31I" /> <section begin="31J" />ABEL (Vanity), the second son of Adam and Eve, who was murdered by his brother Cain. <section end="31J" /> <section begin="31K" />ABEL, king of Denmark, succeeded his brother Erick, whom he had caused to be assassinated in 1250, and died in 1252. In order to obtain the suffrages of the people (who were ignorant of his guilt), he awarded them greater privileges than they had ever enjoyed under any of his predecessors: but insisting on the maintenance of an extraordinary tax instituted by his brother, the Frisians revolted. He marched against them and defeated them; but the day after the battle, the rebels returned to the charge, attacked and killed the king in his camp, putting his army to flight. He was succeeded by Christopher I.—S. <section end="31K" /> <section begin="31L" />ABEL,, a player on the viol da gamba, an instrument of a larger size than the viola now in use, which was originally distinguished from it by the name of viol da braccia. He was born at Köthen in 1725 (M. Fètis states in 1719), where his father was kapellmeister, from whom he received his first instruction on the instrument for which he became famous, and on the harpsichord. He studied composition under the great Bach at Leipzig, with success only inferior to that with which he applied himself to his principal instrument. In 1748 he obtained an appointment in the court of the electoral king of Poland, at Dresden, where Hasse was gaining celebrity by the production of his operas, from hearing which Abel is supposed to have acquired that peculiarly expressive character that especially distinguished his compositions, and still more his playing. Here he remained for ten years, till his patron abruptly dismissed him, and he left Dresden with but three dollars in his pocket, but with half a dozen compositions in his folio, which he sold to a publisher for as many ducats, directly he arrived at Leipzig. Pleased with this good fortune, and with the applause that attended his public performances, he proceeded on foot from city to city with his instrument. His wanderings led him the following year to London, where he had recommendations to the duke of York, through whose interest he at once was engaged as chamber musician to the queen. He had, in this capacity, to play nightly a solo on his viol da gamba at the palace concerts, by which he gained a rapid distinction, or, in the absence of both J. C. Bach and Schröter, to accompany the other performances on the harpsichord. He now obtained a high price for all he wrote, he had as many pupils as he chose to teach, and gave frequent concerts in conjunction with J. C. Bach, by which he always made considerable profit. Here he remained for twenty-three years, and in 1782 he visited Germany, to create anew the same powerful impression by his playing that he had done in the days of his youthful freshness. He next went professionally to Paris, to meet with his universal success, and thence came back to London, where he died on the 20th of June, 1787. His cotemporaries speak of his playing, especially of adagios, in terms of unqualified rapture, and say that it had great influence upon the style of all the string-instrument players of his day. He wrote some songs in "Love in a Village," in "Berenice," and in several Italian operas, but never a complete dramatic work; his fame as a composer, however, which in his own time was very considerable, rests upon his numerous instrumental productions, of which the principal are named in M. Fètis' Biographie, and in Dr. Schilling's Lexicon. He was particularly extolled for his improvisations, and his best composition is said to have been a solo he played a few days before he died.—G. A. M. <section end="31L" /> <section begin="31M" />ABEL,, an English surgeon and naturalist, was born about 1780. He accompanied Lord Amherst on his embassy to China in 1816-17, and on his return to England published "A Narrative of a Journey to the Interior of China," which contains much information interesting to the student of natural history. He was afterwards appointed surgeon-in-chief to the East India Company, in which capacity he resided for some years at Calcutta, where he died, 26th December, 1826.—S. <section end="31M" /> <section begin="31Zcontin" />ABEL,, son of Gaspard Abel, was born 8th July, 1714; died in November, 1764. He was an <section end="31Zcontin" />