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 AKRON composed of Koktchetav, Atbaesar, and Akmo- linsk (three of the five districts into which the land of the Siberian Kirghiz was formerly divided), of five districts and part of a sixth of the Siberian Cossacks, and of the towns of Omsk and Petropavlovsk. Capital, Akmolinsk, 300 m. S. W. of Omsk, founded by the Kus- sians in 1862 ; pop. in 1867, 4,800. The prov- ince remains under the governor general of Western Siberia. AKRON, a city and the capital of Summit county, Ohio, 36 m. S. of Cleveland, at the junction of the Ohio and Erie and Ohio and Pennsylvania canals, and at the intersection of the Atlantic and Great "Western and the Cleve- land, Mt. Vernon, and Delaware railways ; pop. in 1860, 3,477 ; in 1870, 10,006. The canals and the Little Cuyahoga river furnish ample water power for numerous mills, factories, and other mechanical establishments. The chief articles of manufacture are flour and woollen goods. There is also a steam engine factory, a blast furnace, a mineral paint mill, a card man- ufactory, and an extensive stove manufactory. The town is 400 feet above the lake, being the most elevated ground on the line of the canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio river. In the vicinity of the town immense beds of Ohio mineral fire-proof paint are found, and export- ed to every part of the country. Akron was first settled in 1825. AR-SHEHR (the White City), a town in the eyalet of Karaman, in Asia Minor, about 5 m. S. of a lake of the same name, and 65 m. N. W. of Konieh ; pop. about 15,000. It is the seat of a pasha, and a station of considerable im- portance on the caravan route between Con- stantinople and Syria. It carries on an exten- sive trade, and manufactures carpets, &c. Ak- Shehr is the Philomelium of the ancient geog- rapher Strabo, and near it the German emperor Frederick I. fought a battle with the Seljuks in 1190. It was afterward called Aksiari. Here also the sultan Bajazet L, who was a prisoner in the fortified camp of Tamerlane, died in March, 1403. ARSl', or Oksu, a commercial and manufac- turing town of East Turkistan, about 250 m. N. E. of Cashgar ; pop. estimated at about 50,000. It is situated in a fertile valley at the terminus of a road leading across the Thian Shan mountains to the Sungarian district of 115, with which it has an extensive trade. Kus- sian, Tartar, and Chinese caravans here effect their exchanges, and there are famous manufac- tures of a sort of unglazed cotton cloth called bias, elaborate saddlery of deer skin, and jew- elled and jasper ornaments. While East Tur- kistan was tinder Chinese rule, the city had a Chinese garrison of 2,000 or 3,000 men. The inhabitants are industrious and hospitable. Aksu was the capital of the kings of Cashgar and Yarkand. In 1716 it was nearly de- stroyed by an earthquake, and at the begin- ning of the present century it was swept by a freshet in which 3,000 persons perished. ALABAMA 227 ARYAB, a town of British Burmah, capital of the province of Aracan, situated in lat. 20 8' N., Ion. 92 54' E., on the E. side of the island of Akyab, at the mouth of the Aracan river, 50 m. S. S. W. of the town of Aracan, the former capital ; pop. in 1864, 15,512. Its origin dates from 1826. The houses are built chiefly of bamboo ; the streets are broad ; there are several public buildings and barracks, be- sides the British government house. It is a free port, opium being the only article subject to duty. The harbor is safe, and the coasting and foreign trade extremely active. It is an important Protestant missionary station. AL, il, or ul (improperly pronounced by those of other nations el), the Arabic definite article, and indeed the only article in use in the Arable language, words indefinitely used standing alone, as yad, a hand, al or il yad, the hand. When this article stands before a lingual or dental (of which there are in Arabic 13, called shamsi), the sound of the letter I (lam) is drop- ped for the sake of euphony, and the initial dental or lingual takes a double sound ; thus, il shams, the sun, is pronounced ish shams. When the word preceding the article ends in a long vowel, a wasla (marked thus ~) is placed over the a (alif), indicating that it is to be dropped in pronunciation, and the I joined to the vowel sound. Thus, Abu il Feda is pronounced Abulfeda. ALABAMA (Indian, "Here we rest"), one of the southern states of the American Union, sit- uated between lat. 30 10' and 35 N., and Ion. 84 53' and 88 30' W., bounded N. by Ten- nessee, E. by Georgia and Florida, S. by Flor- ida and the gulf of Mexico, and W. by Missis- sippi; area, 50,722 sq. m. Alabama is divided into 65 counties, viz. : Autauga, Baker, Bald- win, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Cleburne, Coffee, Colbert, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, De Kalb, Elmore, Escambia, Etowah, Fayette, Franklin, Geneva, Greene, Hale, Henry, Jack- son, Jefferson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lee, Limestone, Lowndes, Macon, Madison, Ma- rengo, Marion, Marshall, Mobile, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Randolph, Russell, Sanford, Shelby, St. Clair, Sumter, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, State Seal of Alabama.