Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/367

 ALMARIO ALMODOVAR 343 his reign. He was the first of the caliphs who introduced the taste for literature. In his reign many of the best Greek works were trans- lated into Arabic. ALMARIC or Amalrle of Bene, or Amaury of Chartres, a French theologian and philosopher, born at Bene near Chartres, died about 1209. He was one of the most celebrated teachers of dialectics and the arts in the university of Paris, and devoted himself especially to the study of Aristotle, from whose writings he drew the germ of his own philosophical system. He taught that God was an immaterial substance, without form or figure, but with perpetual and necessary movement. All beings were derived from this primitive substance and would finally be absorbed in it. There were three epochs in the religious history of the world : the Mosaic law marked the epoch of God the Father ; the gospel period was the epoch of God the Son, in which every man was a member of Jesus Christ, whose body was in everything as well as in the eucharist; the epoch of God the Holy Ghost was then about to begin, in which the sacraments were to cease and men to be saved by the interior infusion of the Spirit without the need of any external act. The work entitled Physion (now lost), in which Almaric ex- plained this theory, was condemned by Inno- cent III., and the author was obliged to recant in 1204. His disciples exaggerated his errors, teaching that God the Father was incarnate in Abraham. They denounced the pope as Anti- christ, and are accused of gross immorality. One of them, a goldsmith named Guillaume, announced himself as one of the seven person- ages in whom the Holy Ghost was to become incarnate, and pretended to the gift of proph- ecy. A synod held at Paris in 1209 sentenced Guillaume and nine others to the flames, and the corpse of Almaric was exhumed and burnt with his books. ALMKH (properly alimeh, pi. avalim), an Ara- bic name given to the better class of public singers and dancers in Egypt, and sometimes erroneously applied also to the lower prostitutes and dancers, the ghawazi. The almehs form a separate social class, live together in compa- nies, and often earn very large sums by their songs, dances, and improvisations, which are almost always of a lascivious character. Their services are generally called into requisition at banquets, marriages, and other festivals. The ghawazi are a much lower class, including both male and female dancers, who travel from place to place, and exhibit in the public streets their dances, which, like those of the almehs, con- sist of lascivious movements of the body. The female ghawazi are prostitutes of the lowest class ; yet a respectable Arab may without dis- grace marry one of them who has abandoned her profession. Though the two classes are alike in the licentiousness of their lives and occupations, a sharp distinction exists between the almehs and the ghawazi, the former pan- dering to the higher orders of society, while the latter (considered by many actually a dis- tinct race of gypsies) address themselves to the populace. ALMEIDA, a strongly fortified town of Por- tugal, in the province of Beira, near the Spanish frontier, 20 m. W. of Ciudad Ro- drigo, on the river Coa; pop. about 8,000. One of the foremost strongholds of the king- dom, it was taken by the Spaniards in 1762, and by the French in 1810. When in 1811 "Wellington compelled the retreat of the French from Portugal, the latter destroyed a large part of the fortifications, but these were soon restored by the British. In 1844 the in- surrectionists, under Bomfim, held Almeida a few weeks against the troops of the queen. ALMEIDA, Francisco de, the first Portuguese viceroy of India, born about the middle of the 15th century, died March 1, 1510. He distin- guished himself in the peninsular wars with the Moors, and on his appointment to the govern- ment of the newly discovered Indian provinces, in 1505, was attended by a large number of volunteers. He extended the Portuguese power, but was unfortunate in an expedition against Calicut, losing his son Lorenzo and a part of his fleet. At this juncture Albuquerque came out to India, but Almeida refused to recognize him, and cast him into prison until he had avenged the death of his son, ravaged the coast, and destroyed a fleet of the sultan of Egypt, who was the ally of the king of Calicut. He then laid down his government, and sailed for home, but was killed by the natives at Saldanha bay, near, the Cape of Good Hope. ALMERIA. I. A S. E. province of Spain, in Andalusia, on the Mediterranean; area, 3,299 sq. m. ; pop. in 1867 (estimated), 352,946. The greater part of the province is broken by moun- tains and ravines, with small valleys and pla- teaux, nearly denuded of wood and subject to great extremes of drought and flood. There are very few roads and no public improvements. But it is one of the richest provinces of Spain in mines of silver, lead, copper, coal, salt, &c., which are worked in the most primitive man- ner, mining being the chief industry. There is little agriculture, but some grain and silk are produced, and cotton is raised to some extent along the coast, its cultivation having been introduced by Mr. Kirkpatrick, U. S. consul at Malaga, many years ago. The principal towns, besides the capital, are Vera, Pur- chena, Sorbas, and Berja. II. A city and the capital of the preceding province, situated on the Mediterranean, 104 m. E. of Malaga ; pop. about 30,000. It was one of the most im- portant commercial towns of, Granada in the time of the Moorish kings, is still surrounded by the old Moorish walls, and has in general an African aspect. It was formerly the prin- cipal port of the coast, and at one time a no- torious seat of pirates. The principal building is a magnificent cathedral. ALMODOVAR, Ildefonso Diaz de Ribera, count of, a Spanish statesman, born about 1777, died in