Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/61

 ABSTINENCE ABYDOS and inactive, their eyes lacked lustre, and their skins exhaled an offensive odor." Next, many of them were attacked with slight cholera mor- bus, and afterward an incurable diarrhoea set in, attended with gangrene about the cheeks, the anus, or vagina. In most of these cases sloughing of the cornea took place and the eye was destroyed. When for a iength of time the allowance of food, either from its indigestibility or from its limited amount, has been insuffi- cient for the wants of the system, the digestive organs are weakened ; the appetite is lost, and the person often loathes food while he is suf- fering from starvation. In the experiments of Chossat, when turtle doves were placed upon a limited allowance of corn, but with access to water, part of the corn was either rejected by vomiting, accumulated in the crop, or passed unchanged through the bowels. ABSTINENCE, Total. See TOTAL ABSTINENCE. ABT, Franz, a German composer, born at Eilenburg, Saxony, Dec. 22, 1819. His early studies were theological, but he abandoned divinity for music, and at the age of 22 became musical director at Zurich. He remained there eleven years, when he became second musical director at the Brunswick court theatre, and was promoted to be first by the grand duke in 1855. He has composed for orchestra, piano, and voice; but it is mainly as a song writer that he has attained his reputation, having composed a great number of songs that have become well known throughout the world. He has also been very successful as a composer of two-part songs, and of four-part songs for male voices. He visited the United States in 1872. ABl'BEKR, the first caliph, born at Mecca about 573, died in 634. Abubekr means "father of the virgin," and this name was given to him when his daughter Ayesha be- came the favorite wife of Mohammed. His real name was Abd-el-Caaba. He was Mo- hammed's most trusted adherent, and in 632 succeeded his master in the supreme authority, to the exclusion of the prophet's son-in-law A-li. At the commencement his reign was troubled, first by the relapse of several tribes to idolatry, and then by the springing up of a new sect under Mosseilama. Assisted by the hero Khaled, Abubekr compelled the backsli- ders to return, and suppressed the rival creed, Mosseilama himself being slain in a battle. He now led his followers to conquest. His gen- erals fell upon the frontiers of the Eoman and Persian empires, and their easy success excited the warrior population of Arabia to pour forth. The emperor Heraclius vainly opposed them. Syria and the provinces of the Euphrates were soon overrun and Damascus besieged. Abu- bekr died in the full tide of conquest, after a brief reign of two years and three months. His tomb is shown by the side of that of the prophet at Mecca. Abubekr was surnamed the Just. His charity was unbounded, while his manner of living was so strict that he pos- sessed at his death only the one robe he wore, one camel, and an Ethiopian slave. These he bequeathed to Omar, his successor. Abubekr collected the scattered writings and the oral doctrines of Mohammed forming the Koran. ABIL-CASIM. See ALBTJOASIS. ABULFARAGIUS, or Abulfaraj, Mar Gregoriiu, surnamed, on account of his Jewish descent, Bar-Hebrseus, a Syriac and Arabic writer, born in 1226, died in 1286. He was a native of Armenia, and the son of a converted Jew. By his knowledge and virtues he rose to the dig- nity of bishop of Aleppo, and in 1266 to that of primate of the Jacobite Christians. His best known work is the " History of the Dynasties," treating of the different kingdoms of the world, Jewish, Chaldean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Mohammedan, and Mongol. An edition in Arabic and Latin was published by Edward Pococke at Oxford, 1663, and one in Syriac and Latin at Leipsic, 1789. ABULFEDA, Ismail ibn All, a Moslem prince and writer, born at Damascus about 1273, died in October, 1331. He was a descendant of Eyub (or Ayub), the founder of the Kurdish dynasty in Egypt ; fought in the campaigns of Sultan Nasir, of Egypt and Syria, against the Tartars ; was by him appointed governor of Hamah in Syria, which his ancestors had held in fief, and subsequently acknowledged as sultan of that principality. He was a man of eminent tal- ents as a warrior, a ruler, and a writer. He is chiefly renowned as the author of an exten- sive historical compilation, in Arabic, embra- cing both ancient history and the annals of the Moslems, from the time of Mohammed to the year 1328 ; and of a geographical work, mainly descriptive of Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and Persia, considered the best of its kind in eastern litera- ture. Both have appeared in various editions, in the original as well as in Latin and other occidental translations. Abulfeda also wrote scientific treatises, which have been lost. ABU SAMBUL. See IPSAMBUL. ABU SHEHR. See BUSHIBE. ABU TEMAM, one of the greatest Arabic poets, born in Syria about 806, died at Mosul in 845 or 846. His poems are said to have procured him the favor of the Moslem courts and many thousand pieces of gold, and the Arabs say of him that " no one could ever die whose name had been praised in the verses of AbuTemam." He was also the compiler of three collections of select pieces of eastern poetry, the most es- teemed of which, called the Hamasa, is praised by Sir William Jones. ABYDOS. I. An ancient city of Asia Minor, on the narrowest part of the Hellespont, oppo- site Sestos, originally the possession of the Trojan prince Asius, and later occupied by the Thracians and Milesians. It is celebrated in connection with the army of Xerxes and the immense bridge built by him at this spot, 480 B. C. Here the tragedy of Hero and Leander took place, according to the poetical legend, and here Lord Byron swam across in imitation