Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/575

 io*s. ii. DEC. io, wo*.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

476

inscriptions, &c., but I confess to som disinclination to publish abroad the name in instances where *tfe effect is to excite feeling of amusement rather than of venera tion, and especially where the date is a least comparatively recent. It is seldom that much time need be lost in searching fo a particular gravestone, and I intended "at to convey a different meaning from "in when used with the name of a church.

W. B. H.

The proper name of the lady referred tc ,t p. 322 by MR. FRANCIS KING was Mari Statira Elizabeth Farquharson Johnstone Kettelby, only daughter and heiress of Abe Johnstone Kettelby by Margaret, only daughter of John Farquharson, physician t< the King of Denmark. She was born 25 April 1747 ; married 30 December, 1766, in th( Abbey Church, Bath, to Thomas Rundell of Bath ; and died at Lausanne, Switzer- land, 16 December, 1829. I believe she retained her father's surname, taking her husband's in addition to it, and so became Maria Statira Elizabeth Farquharson John stone Kettelby Rundell. A. R. MALDEN.

Archdeacon's gravestone stands about a yard from the north-west corner of the church tower of All Saints', Hastings.

W. S.

^ BATTLE OF BEDR (10 th S. ii.409). Any one who judges the reliability of a date by the number of concurring authorities will readily accept 623 as the date of the battle of Bedr, where Mohammedanism could so easily have been extinguished. But though Gibbon displayed his customary sagacity in not detailing "the day on which the event occurred, his date, 623, is not corroborated by all authorities. Tims, 624 is mentioned in Oman's 'Europe' (1893) ; and the same year is inferentially allotted to the fight in Oilman's ' Saracens ' {1889), though it is true that 623 appears in anappended chronological table. As, however, he exact day is asked for, it is satisfactory to find Prof. Wellhausen giving a precise date in the 'Ency. Brit' (xvi. 555), viz. "Friday, the 17th Ramadan," this month being the " Ramadan, A.H. 2 (December 623)" authority not specified. Elsewhere, too, December, 623, is also given in this connexion. Now as

1 Ramadan is the 253rd day of the ordinary Mohammedan year of 354 days, it seems a simple operation to convert the date to our reckoning.

But, alas ! doctors differ on the cardinal point by which this conversion is to be effected. Gibbon and many others agree in saying that the first day of the Moham-

medan era was probably Friday, 16 July, 622 ; yet it appears that Prof. Wellhausen chose to equate the first month of that era with April, 622. As the calendarial Hejira is generally understood not to synchronize with the actual flight of the prophet, it is not of much importance whether his adherents began emigrating from Mecca on 19 April, or whether Mohammed himself left the city on 20 June, 15 July, 13 September, 19 September, or on some other date, provided that the first day of the era is definitely settled. But, on consulting Conde's * Arabs in Spain,' Gilman's 'Saracens,' and other works, one can without difficulty collect a variety of dates 20 June, 7 July, 15 July, 13 September, 22 September, &c. each presumably having some right to be considered the exact day on which the Mohammedan era began. Life, however, being short, and incontestable dates elusive, it may be permissible to calculate 17 Ramadan, A.H. 2, on the assumption that

16 July, 622, represents 1 Muharram, A.H. 1. By this reckoning there would seem some probability that the battle of Bedr took place on Tuesday, 13 March, 624, O.S. But there is evidently quite a nice assortment of dates which would do equally well. J. DORMER.

Arab historians seem agreed as to

17 Ramadan. The year is, perhaps, less certain. Prof. Bury C Gibbon,' v. 362) gives A.D. 623 ; other moderns prefer A.D. 624. In the former case, the date will answer to Good Friday, 25 March; in the latter, to Tuesday, 13 March. In Smith and Wace's ' Diet. Christian Biog.' (iii. 968 A) the late G. P. Badger says " 17th Ram. (13 Jan., 624)," which is badly awry as an equation. If Mas Latrie's table is trustworthy, it was not till A.D. 890 that 17 Ram. coincided with 13 Jan.

C. S. WARD. Wootton 8t. Lawrence, Basingstoke.

Humphrey Prideaux, in his life of Mahomet, pp. 94 and 95, third edition, corrected, gives the date in the margin as Heg. 2, July 5, A.D. 623. He also gives marginal references : Elmacin, lib. i. C. i. ; Abul Faraghius, p. 102 ; Alcoran, c. 3, & (Jommentatores in illud
 * aput. HERBERT SOUTHAM.

There are two different traditions about uhe date of the day on which the battle of

3edr was fought. Some assert that it took place on Friday, the 17th of Ramadhan ;

)thers on Friday, the 19th of Ramadhan (i.e.

6 March, 624 of our era). Of. A. Sprenger's

Leben und Lehre des Mohammad,' vol. iii. p. 108 (Berlin, 1865), where the name of the Battle-place is spelt Badr instead of Bedr