Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Apollodorus" to "Aral" Volume 2, Slice 3
Act 1737, and the Apportionment Act 1834, and is now allowed generally
under the Apportionment Act 1870. Under that statute (S 2) all rents, annuities, dividends and other periodical payments in the nature of income are to be considered as accruing from day to day and to be apportionable in respect of time accordingly. It is provided, however, that the apportioned part of such rents, &c., shall only be payable or recoverable in the case of a continuing payment, when the entire portion of which it forms part itself becomes payable, and, in the case of a payment determined by re-entry, death or otherwise, only when the next entire portion would have been payable if it had not so determined (S 3). Persons entitled to apportioned parts of rent have the same remedies for recovering them when payable as they would have had in respect of the entire rent; but a lessee is not to be liable for any apportioned part specifically. The rent is recoverable by the heir or other person who would, but for the apportionment, be entitled to the entire rent, and he holds it subject to distribution (S 4). The Apportionment Act 1870 extends to payments not made under any instrument in writing (S 2), but not to annual sums made payable in policies of insurance (S 6). Apportionment under the act can be excluded by express stipulation.
The apportionment created by this statute is "apportionment in respect of time." The cases to which it applies are mainly cases of either (A) apportionment of rent due under leases where at a time between the dates fixed for payment the lessor or lessee dies, or some other alteration in the position of parties occurs; or (B) apportionment of income between the representatives of a limited owner and the remainder-man when the limited interest determines at a time between the date when such income became due.
(A) With regard to the former of these classes, it may be noticed that although apportioned rent becomes payable only when the whole rent is due, the landlord, in the case of the bankruptcy of an ordinary tenant, may prove for a proportionate part of the rent up to the date of the receiving order (Bankruptcy Act 1883, Sched. ii. r. 19); and that a similar rule holds good in the winding up of a company (_in re South Kensington Co-operative Stores_, 1881, 17 Ch.D. 161); and further that the act of 1870 applies to the liability to pay, as well as to the right to receive, rent (_in re Wilson_, 1893, 62 L.J.Q.B. 628, 632). Accordingly where an assignment of a lease is made between two half-yearly rent-days, the assignee is not liable to pay the full amount of the half-year's rent falling due on the rent-day next after the date of the assignment, but only an apportioned part of that half-year's rent, computed from the last mentioned date (_Glass_ v. _Patterson_, 1902, 2 Ir.R. 660).
(B) With regard to the apportionment of income, the only points requiring notice here are that all dividends payable by public companies are apportionable, whether paid at fixed periods or not, unless the payment is, in effect, a payment of capital (S 5).
The Apportionment Act 1870 extends to Scotland and Ireland. It has been followed in many of the British colonies (e.g. Ontario, Rev. Stats., 1897, c. 170, SS 4-8; New Zealand, No. 4 of 1886; Tasmania, No. 8 of 1871; Barbados, No. 12 of 1891, SS 9-12). Similar legislation has been adopted in many of the states of the American Union, where, as in England, rent was not, at common law, apportionable as to time (Kent, _Comm_. iii. 469-472).
An _equitable apportionment_, apart from statute law, arises where property is bequeathed on trust to pay the income to a tenant for life and the reversion to others, and the realization of the property in the form of a fund capable of producing income is postponed for the benefit of the estate. In such cases there is an ultimate apportionment between the persons entitled to the income and those entitled to the capital of the accumulations for the period of such postponement. The rule followed is this: the proceeds, when realized, are apportionable between capital and income by ascertaining the sum which, put out and accumulated at 3% _per annum_ from the day of the testator's death (with yearly rents and deducting income tax) would have produced at the day of receipt the sum actually received. The sum so ascertained should be treated as capital and the residue as income. (_In re Earl of Chesterfield's Trusts_, 1883, 24 Ch.D. 643; _In re Goodenough_, 1895, 2 Ch. 537; _Rowlls_ v. _Bebb_, 1900, 2 Ch. 107.)
In addition to the authorities cited in the text, see Stroud, _Jud. Dict._ (2nd ed., London, 1903), s.v. "Apportion"; Bouvier, _Law Dict._ (London and Boston, 1897), s.v. "Apportionment"; _Ruling Cases_ (London, 1895), tit. "Apportionment"; Fawcett, _Landlord and Tenant_ (London, 1905), pp. 238 et seq.; Foa, _Landlord and Tenant_ (3rd ed., London, 1901), pp. 112 et seq. (A. W. R.)
APPORTIONMENT BILL, an act passed by the Congress of the United States after each decennial census to determine the number of members which each state shall send to the House of Representatives. The ratio of representation fixed by the original constitution was 1 to 30,000 of the free population, and the number of the members of the first House was 65. As the House would, at this ratio, have become unmanageably large, the ratio, which is first settled by Congress before apportionment, has been raised after each census, as will be seen from the accompanying table.
+-----------------+-------------------+------+---------+-----------+ | | Census | Apportionment | Whole | | Under +------+------------+------+---------+ Number of | | | Year | Population | Year | Ratio | Represe- | | | | | | | ntatives | +-----------------+------+------------+------+---------+-----------+ | Constitution | .. | .. | 1789 | 30,000 | 65 | | First Census | 1790 | 3,929,214 | 1793 | 33,000 | 105 | | Second Census | 1800 | 5,308,483 | 1803 | 33,000 | 141 | | Third Census | 1810 | 7,239,881 | 1813 | 35,000 | 181 | | Fourth Census | 1820 | 9,633,822 | 1823 | 40,000 | 213 | | Fifth Census | 1830 | 12,866,020 | 1833 | 47,700 | 240 | | Sixth Census | 1840 | 17,069,453 | 1843 | 70,680 | 223 | | Seventh Census | 1850 | 23,191,876 | 1853 | 93,423 | 234 | | Eighth Census | 1860 | 31,443,321 | 1863 | 127,381 | 241 | | Ninth Census | 1870 | 38,558,371 | 1873 | 131,425 | 292 | | Tenth Census | 1880 | 50,155,783 | 1883 | 151,911 | 325 | | Eleventh Census | 1890 | 62,622,250 | 1893 | 173,901 | 356 | | Twelfth Census | 1900 | 75,568,686 | 1903 | 194,182 | 386 | +-----------------+------+------------+------+---------+-----------+
The same term is applied to the acts passed by the state legislatures for correcting and redistributing the representation of the counties. Such acts are usually passed at decennial intervals, more often after the federal census, but the dates may vary in different states. The state representatives are usually apportioned among the several counties according to population and not by geographical position. The electoral districts so formed are expected to be equal in proportion to the number of inhabitants; but this method has led to much abuse in the past, through the making of unequal districts for partisan purposes. (See GERRYMANDER.)
If a state has received an increase in the number of its representatives and its legislature does not pass an apportionment bill before the next congressional election, the votes of the whole state elect the additional members on a general ticket and they are called "congressmen-at-large."
APPRAISER (from Lat. _appretiare_, to value), one who sets a value upon property, real or personal. In England the business of an appraiser is usually combined with that of an auctioneer, while the word itself has given place, to a great extent, to that of "valuer." (See the articles AUCTIONS AND AUCTIONEERS, and VALUATION AND VALUERS.)
In the United States appraiser is a term often used to describe a person specially appointed by a judicial or quasi-judicial authority to put a valuation on property, e.g. on the items of an inventory of the estate of a deceased person or on land taken for public purposes by the right of eminent domain. Appraisers of imported goods and boards of general appraisers have extensive functions in administering the customs laws of the United States. Merchant appraisers are sometimes appointed temporarily under the revenue laws to value where there is no resident appraiser without holding the office of appraiser (U.S. Rev. Stats. S 2609).
APPREHENSION (Lat. _ad_, to; _prehendere_, to seize), in psychology, a term applied to a mode of consciousness in which nothing is affirmed or denied of the object in question, but the mind is merely aware of ("seizes") it. "Judgment" (says Reid, ed. Hamilton, i. p. 414) "is an act of the mind specifically different from simple apprehension or the bare conception of a thing"; and again, "Simple apprehension or conception can neither be true nor false." This distinction provides for the large class of mental acts in which we are simply aware of or "take in" a number of familiar objects, about which we in general make no judgment unless our attention is suddenly called by a new feature. Or again two alternatives may be apprehended without any resultant judgment as to their respective merits. Similarly G.F. Stout points out that while we have a very vivid idea of a character or an incident in a work of fiction, we can hardly be said in any real sense to have any belief or to make any judgment as to its existence or truth. With this mental state may be compared the purely aesthetic contemplation of music, wherein apart from, say, a false note, the faculty of judgment is for the time inoperative. To these examples may be added the fact that one can fully understand an argument in all its bearings without in any way judging its validity.
Without going into the question fully, it may be pointed out that the distinction between judgment and apprehension is relative. In every kind of thought there is judgment of some sort in a greater or less degree of prominence. Judgment and thought are in fact psychologically distinguishable merely as different, though correlative, activities of consciousness. Professor Stout further investigates the phenomena of apprehension, and comes to the conclusion that "it is possible to distinguish and identify a whole without apprehending any of its constituent details." On the other hand, if the attention focuses itself for a time on the apprehended object, there is an expectation that such details will as it were emerge into consciousness. Hence he describes such apprehension as "implicit," and in so far as the implicit apprehension determines the order of such emergence he describes it as "schematic." A good example of this process is the use of formulae in calculations; ordinarily the formula is used without question; if attention is fixed upon it, the steps by which it is shown to be universally applicable emerge and the "schema" is complete in detail.
With this result may be compared Kant's theory of apprehension as a synthetic act (the "synthesis of apprehension") by which the sensory elements of a perception are subjected to the formal conditions of time and space.
See G.F. Stout, _Analytic Psychology_ (London, 1896); F. Brentano, _Psychologie_ (bk. ii. ch. vii.), and _Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis_; B. Titchener, _Outlines of Psychology_ (New York, 1902), and text-books of psychology. Also PSYCHOLOGY.
APPRENTICESHIP (from Fr. _apprendre_, to learn), a contract whereby one person, called the master, binds himself to teach, and another, called the apprentice, undertakes to learn, some trade or profession, the apprentice serving his master for a certain time.
Roman law is silent on the subject on this contract, nor does it seem to have had any connexion with the division of the Roman citizens into tribes or colleges. So far as can be seen it arose in the middle ages, and formed an integral part of the system of trade gilds and corporations by which skilled labourers of all kinds sought protection against the feudal lords, and the maintenance of those exclusive privileges with which in the interests of the public they were favoured. In those times it was believed that neither arts nor sciences would flourish unless such only were allowed to practise them as had given proofs of reasonable proficiency and were formed into bodies corporate, with certain powers of self-government and the exclusive monopoly of their respective arts within certain localities; and the medieval _universitas_ (corporation)--whether of smiths and tailors or of scholars--included both such as were entitled to practise and teach and such as were in course of learning. The former were the masters, the latter the apprentices. Hence the term _apprentice_ was applied indifferently to such as were being taught a trade or a learned profession, and even to undergraduates or scholars who were qualifying themselves for the degree of doctor or master in the liberal arts. When barristers were first appointed by Edward I. of England they were styled _apprenticii ad legem_--the serjeants-at-law being _servientes ad legem_; and these two terms corresponded respectively to the trade names of apprentices and journeymen. During the middle ages the term of apprenticeship was seven years, and this period was thought no more than sufficient to instruct the learner in his profession, craft or mystery under a properly qualified master, teacher or doctor--for these names were synonymous--and to reimburse the latter by service for the training received. After this the apprentice became himself a master and a member of the corporation, with full rights to practise the business and to teach others in his turn; so also it would seem that undergraduates had to pass through a curriculum of seven years before they could attain the degree of doctor or master in the liberal arts. On the continent of Europe these rules were observed with considerable rigour, both in the learned professions and in those which we now designate as trades. In England they made their way more slowly and did not receive much countenance, there being always a jealousy of anything savouring of interference with the freedom of trade. Nevertheless the formation of gilds and companies of tradesmen in England dates probably from the 12th century, and the institution of apprenticeships cannot be of much later date. In 1388 and 1405 it is noticed in acts of parliament. By various subsequent statutes provisions were made for the regulation of the institution, and from them it appears that seven years was its ordinary and normal term in the absence of special arrangement. By a statute of 1562 this was made the law of the land, and it was enacted that no person should exercise any "trade or mystery" without having served a seven years' apprenticeship. In no place did the apprentices become so formidable by their numbers and organization as in London. During the Great Rebellion they took an active part as a political body, and were conspicuous after the Restoration by being frequently engaged in tumults. It was probably owing to this circumstance, quite as much as to economic considerations of freedom of trade, that the act of Elizabeth never found much favour with the courts of law. Soon after the Great Rebellion we find the apprentice laws strongly reprobated by the judges, who endeavoured, on the theory that the act of Elizabeth could apply to no trades which were not in existence at its date, to limit its operation as far as possible. Such limitation of the act gave rise to many absurd anomalies and inconsistencies, e.g. that a coachmaker could not make his own wheels but must buy them of a wheelwright, while the latter might make both wheels and coaches, because coach-making was not a trade in England when the act of Elizabeth was passed. For the like reason the great textile and metal manufactures which arose at Manchester and Birmingham were held exempt from the operation of the statute. Concurrently with the dislike to the apprentice laws which such anomalies generated, the doctrines of Adam Smith, that all monopolies or restrictions on the freedom of trade were injurious to the public interest, had gradually been making their way, and notwithstanding much opposition an act was passed in 1814 by which the statute of Elizabeth, in so far as it enacts that no person shall engage in any trade without a seven years' apprenticeship, was wholly repealed. The effect of this act was to give every person the fullest right to exercise any occupation or calling of a mechanical or trading kind for which he deemed himself qualified.
Apprenticeship, therefore, which was formerly a compulsory, now became a voluntary contract. In the case of the learned professions the principles and theories which gave birth to corporations with monopolies, and required apprenticeship or its equivalents, have--contrary to what has taken place in trade--been not only maintained but intensified; that is to say, not only have such bodies retained and even extended in some cases their exclusive privileges, but in general no one is allowed to practise in such professions unless his capabilities have been tested and approved by public authority. Thus no man is allowed to practise law or medicine in any of their branches who has not undergone the appropriate training by attendance at a university or by apprenticeship--sometimes by both combined--and passed certain examinations. Entrance to the church is guarded by similar checks. In such instances the old principle--now generally abandoned in trade--of granting a monopoly to those possessing a certain standard of qualification is maintained in greater vigour than ever.
In some kinds of manufacture the old conditions have been modified by the subdivisions of labour or by the introduction of machinery, which have reduced the amount of skill which formerly was requisite, and thus they have passed out of the category of the higher skilled handicrafts, as only a very slight or short training is necessary to make an efficient worker; but a large number of the higher skilled trades remain which require a long period of training at the bench, and a careful inquiry into this subject has shown that in nearly all of such trades there is a scarcity of skilled workers, which is due to the falling off in the number of apprenticeships. Many persons qualified to form an opinion deplore that something in the nature of the old standard of qualification is not still applied to those trades, and consider that the only method of restoring a high standard of skill is by apprenticeship. The decay of apprenticeship in these trades is due, not to any inherent defect in the system, nor to its having been superseded by any other form of technical education, but to difficulties, especially in London and some other large towns, which place it beyond the reach of that class of persons who have the greatest need of it. Among these difficulties are:--first, insufficient organization, and secondly, want of funds to pay premiums where such are required. These difficulties are accentuated in London and some other large towns, but in many other districts apprenticeship is actively proceeded with. Efforts are being made, notably by the National Institution of Apprenticeship, to meet these difficulties. The Charity Commissioners in their report for 1905 recognized the value of this institution, and stated that they would in future enable the trustees of charity endowments for apprenticeship to avail themselves of the practical co-operation of the institution. The modern trade unions, on the other hand, have done nothing to assist in restoring apprenticeship to its proper place; on the contrary, they have hampered it by restrictions which they have imposed, limiting the number of apprentices who may be taken. The result of fewer apprentices has been not only to lower the standard of skill in the higher trades, but to reduce the productive capacity of the artisans. The altered conditions now attending apprenticeship are, mainly, that the apprentice does not live with the master, and that the term is generally five years instead of a longer period; but the principle remains precisely the same, and the fact that it is applied more and more largely in Austria, Germany and other countries is an evidence of its necessity.
The contract of apprenticeship is generally created by indenture, but any writing properly expressed and attested will do. The full consideration must be set out, and the instrument, whether a premium is paid or not, must be duly stamped, except in the case of parish apprentices and apprentices to the sea service (see SEAMEN, LAWS RELATING TO). Where a charity or institution intervenes, it retains control over the indentures until the end of the term of apprenticeship, when the indenture should be cancelled and given up to the apprentice. Any one who is capable of making a contract can take an apprentice, and the law does not limit the number which may be taken by any master. Any person of legal capacity can bind himself as an apprentice, provided he is over seven years of age, though, as he is by the common law exempt from all liability _ex contractu_, it is usual for the apprentice's relations or friends to become bound for his service and good conduct during the period of his apprenticeship. The consent of the apprentice, however, must be expressed by his executing the indenture. No child under nine can be bound as a parish apprentice. The master must teach the apprentice the agreed trade or trades; should the master exercise two trades (which he has agreed to teach) and give up one, it would be good ground for dissolving the contract by the apprentice. An apprentice is not bound to work on Sundays, but he may be required to work on bank holidays. He cannot become a volunteer (soldier) without his master's consent. It is usual in the indenture to state whether the apprentice is to be paid wages or otherwise. If the contract is to pay wages, no deduction can be made owing to illness or accident, unless it has been so provided for in the indentures. Nor is the apprentice liable for breakages or similar faults. The master has been supposed to have a right to administer moderate corporal punishment, though he may not delegate it. But this right is really obsolete. According to old custom a master provided proper food for his apprentices, and medical attendance when required; but the modern practice is for apprentices to reside with their parents or friends who maintain them. A master cannot assign indentures without the approval of the apprentice or such parties as are named in the contract for this purpose, even if he should transfer his business. The contract of apprenticeship may be dissolved by (1) efflux of time; (2) by death (if the master dies, some part of the premium is usually returnable, but if the apprentice dies no part is returnable); (3) by consent; (4) in case of grave misconduct; (5) under the Bankruptcy Act 1883, providing for discharge of the indentures of apprenticeship and for payment on account of premium. Disputes between master and apprentice, in cases where no premium has been paid, or where the premium does not exceed L25, are dealt with by courts of summary jurisdiction. Apprentices bound according to the "custom of London," who are infants above the age of fourteen years and under twenty-one and unmarried, are responsible upon covenants contained in indentures executed by them just as if they were of full age. The term of apprenticeship is usually not less than four years. Apprentices by the custom of London in agreements made at the Guildhall are subject to the jurisdiction of the chamberlain of London.
Parish apprentices are those bound out by guardians of the poor in England. By the Poor Relief Act 1601, overseers of the poor were empowered, with the consent of two justices, to put out poor children as apprentices "where they shall be convenient." Owing to the disinclination to receive such apprentices it became necessary to make the reception compulsory (1696), but this compulsion to receive them was abolished in 1844. Many statutes have been passed from time to time regulating the apprenticing of parish children, but it is now under the control of the Local Government Board, which issues rules specifying fully the manner in which such children are to be bound, assigned and maintained.
AUTHORITIES.--See E. Austin, _Law Relating to Apprentices_ (1890); Addison, _On Contracts_ (1905). For the state of apprenticeship in European countries, and, more particularly in France, see _Apprentissage, enquete et documents_ (Paris, 1904, Conseil Superieur du Travail, Ministere du Commerce, de l'Industrie, des Postes et des Telegraphes, session de 1902). See also the literature issued by the National Institution of Apprenticeship, London. (J. S. B.)
APPROPRIATION (from Lat. _appropriare_, to set aside), the act of setting apart and applying to a particular use to the exclusion of all other. In ecclesiastical law, appropriation is the perpetual annexation of an ecclesiastical benefice to the use of some spiritual corporation, either aggregate or sole. In the middle ages in England the custom grew up of the monasteries reserving to their own use the greater part of the tithes of their appropriated benefices, leaving only a small portion to their vicars in the parishes. On the dissolution of the monasteries these "great tithes" were often granted, with the monastic lands, to laymen, whose successors, known as "lay impropriators" or "lay rectors," still hold them, the system being known as _impropriation_. Appropriation may be severed and the church become disappropriate, by the presentation of a clerk, properly instituted and inducted, or by the dissolution of the corporation possessing the benefice.
In the law of debtor and creditor, appropriation of payments is the application of a particular payment for the purpose of paying a particular debt. When a creditor has two debts due to him from the same debtor on distinct accounts, the general law as to the appropriation of payments made by the debtor is that the debtor is entitled to apply the payments to such account as he thinks fit; _solvitur in modum solventis_. In default of appropriation by the debtor the creditor is entitled to determine the application of the sums paid, and may appropriate them even to the discharge of debts barred by the Statute of Limitations. In default of appropriation by either debtor or creditor, the law implies an appropriation of the earlier payments to the earlier debts.
In constitutional law, appropriation is the assignment of money for a special purpose. In the United Kingdom an Appropriation Bill is a bill passed at the end of each session of parliament, enumerating the money grants made during the session, and appropriating the various sums, as voted by committee of supply, to the various purposes for which it is to be applied. The United States constitution (art. I. S 9) says: "No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law." Bills for appropriating money originate in the House of Representatives, but may be amended in the Senate.
APPURTENANCES (from late Lat. _appertinentia_, from _appertinere_, to appertain), a legal term for what belongs to and goes with something else, the accessories or things usually conjoined with the substantive matter in question.
APRAKSIN, THEDOR MATVYEEVICH (1671-1728), Russian soldier, began life as one of the pages of Tsar Theodore III., after whose death he served the little tsar Peter in the same capacity. The playfellowship of the two lads resulted in a lifelong friendship. In his twenty-first year Apraksin was appointed governor of Archangel, then the most important commercially of all the Russian provinces, and built ships capable of weathering storms, to the great delight of the tsar. He won his colonelcy at the siege of Azov (1696). In 1700 he was appointed chief of the admiralty, in which post (from 1700 to 1706) his unusual technical ability was of great service. While Peter was combating Charles XII., Apraksin was constructing fleets, building fortresses and havens (Taganrog). In 1707 he was transferred to Moscow. In 1708 he was appointed commander-in-chief in Ingria, to defend the new capital against the Swedes, whom he utterly routed, besides capturing Viborg in Carelia. He held the chief command in the Black Sea during the campaign of the Pruth (1711), and in 1713 materially assisted the conquest of Finland by his operations from the side of the sea. In 1710-1720 he personally conducted the descents upon Sweden, ravaging that country mercilessly, and thus extorting the peace of Nystad, whereby she surrendered the best part of her Baltic provinces to Russia. For these great services he was made a senator and admiral-general of the empire. His last expedition was to Reval in 1726, to cover the town from an anticipated attack by the English government, with whom the relations of Russia at the beginning of the reign of Catharine I. were strained almost to breaking-point. Though frequently threatened with terrible penalties by Peter the Great for his incurable vice of peculation, Apraksin, nevertheless, contrived to save his head, though not his pocket, chiefly through the mediation of the good-natured empress, Catharine, who remained his friend to the last, and whom he assisted to place on the throne on the death of Peter. Apraksin was the most genial and kind-hearted of all Peter's pupils. He is said to have never made an enemy. He died on the 10th of November 1728.
See R. Nisbet Bain, _The Pupils of Peter the Great_ (London, 1897). (R. N. B.)
APRICOT (from the Lat. _praecox_, or _praecoquus_, ripened early, _coquere_, to cook, or ripen; the English form, formerly "apricock" and "abrecox," comes through the Fr. _abricot_, from the Span. _albaricoque_, which was an adaptation of the Arabic _al-burquk_, itself a rendering of the late Gr. [Greek: prekokkia] or [Greek: praikokion], adapted from the Latin; the derivation from _in aprico cactus_ is a mere guess), the fruit of _Prunus armeniaca_, also called _Armeniaca vulgaris_. Under the former name it is regarded as a species of the genus to which the plums belong, the latter establishes it as a distinct genus of the natural order _Rosaceae_. The apricot is, like the plum, a stone fruit, cultivated generally throughout temperate regions, and used chiefly in the form of preserves and in tarts. The tree has long been cultivated in _Armenia_ (hence the name _Armeniaca_); it is a native of north China and other parts of temperate Asia. It flowers very early in the season, and is a hardy tree, but the fruit will scarcely ripen in Britain unless the tree is trained against a wall. A great number of varieties of the apricot, as of most cultivated fruits, are distinguished by cultivators. The kernels of several varieties are edible, and in Egypt those of the Musch-Musch variety form a considerable article of commerce. The French liqueur _Eau de noyaux_ is prepared from bitter apricot kernels. Large quantities of fruit are imported from France into the United Kingdom.
The apricot is propagated by budding on the mussel or common plum stock. The tree succeeds in good well-drained loamy soil, rather light than heavy. It is usually grown as a wall tree, the east and west aspects being preferred to the south, which induces mealiness in the fruit, though in Scotland the best aspects are necessary. The most usual and best mode of training is the fan method. The fruit is produced on shoots of the preceding year, and on small close spurs formed on the two-year-old wood. The trees should be planted about 20 ft. apart. The summer pruning should begin early in June, at which period all the irregular foreright and useless shoots are pinched off; and, shortly afterwards, those which remain are fastened to the wall. At the winter pruning all branches not duly furnished with spurs and fruit buds are removed. The young bearing shoots are moderately pruned at the points, care being, however, taken to leave a terminal shoot or leader to each branch. The most common error in the pruning of apricots is laying in the bearing shoots too thickly; the branches naturally diverge in fan training, and when they extend so as to be about 15 in. apart, a fresh branch should be laid in, to be again subdivided as required. The blossoms of the apricot open early in spring, but are more hardy than those of the peach; the same means of protection when necessary may be employed for both. If the fruit sets too numerously, it is thinned out in June and in the beginning of July, the later thinnings being used for tarts. In the south of England, where the soil is suitable, the hardier sorts of apricot, as the Breda and Brussels, bear well as standard trees in favourable seasons. In such cases the trees may be planted from 20 to 25 ft. apart.
The ripening of the fruit of the apricot is accelerated by culture under glass, the trees being either planted out like peaches or grown in pots on the orchard-house system. They must be very gently excited, since they naturally bloom when the spring temperature is comparatively low. At first a maximum of 40 deg. only must be permitted; after two or three weeks it may be raised to 45 deg., and later on to 50 deg. and 55 deg., and thus continued till the trees are in flower, air being freely admitted, and the minimum or night temperature ranging from 40 deg. to 45 deg. After the fruit is set the temperature should be gradually raised, being kept higher in clear weather than in dull. When the fruit has stoned, the temperature may be raised to 60 deg. or 65 deg. by day and 60 deg. by night; and for ripening off it may be allowed to reach 70 deg. or 80 deg. by sun heat.
The Moorpark is one of the best and most useful sorts in cultivation, and should be planted for all general purposes; the Peach is a very similar variety, not quite identical; and the Hemskerk is also similar, but hardier. The Large Early, which ripens in the end of July and beginning of August, and the Kaisha, a sweet-kernelled variety, which ripens in the middle of August, are also to be recommended. For standard trees in favourable localities the Breda and Brussels may be added.
APRIES ([Greek: Apries]), the name by which Herodotus (ii. 161) and Diodorus (i. 68) designate _Uehabre'_, [Greek: Onaphres] (Pharaoh-Hophra), the fourth king (counting from Psammetichus I.) of the twenty-sixth Egyptian dynasty. He reigned from 589 to 570 B.C. See EGYPT and AMASIS.
APRIL, the second month of the ancient Roman, and the fourth of the modern calendar, containing thirty days. The derivation of the name is uncertain. The traditional etymology from Lat. _aperire_, "to open," in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to "open," is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of [Greek: anoixis] (opening) for spring. This seems very possible, though, as all the Roman months were named in honour of divinities, and as April was sacred to Venus, the _Festum Veneris et Fortunae Virilis_ being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her Greek name Aphrodite. Jacob Grimm suggests the name of a hypothetical god or hero, _Aper_ or _Aprus_. On the fourth and the five following days, games (_Ludi Megalenses_) were celebrated in honour of Cybele; on the fifth there was the _Festum Fortunae Publicae_; on the tenth (?) games in the circus, and on the nineteenth equestrian combats, in honour of Ceres; on the twenty-first--which was regarded as the birthday of Rome--the _Vinalia urbana_, when the wine of the previous autumn was first tasted; on the twenty-fifth, the _Robigalia_, for the averting of mildew; and on the twenty-eighth and four following days, the riotous _Floralia_. The Anglo-Saxons called April _Oster-monath_ or _Eostur-monath_, the period sacred to _Eostre_ or _Ostara_, the pagan Saxon goddess of spring, from whose name is derived the modern Easter. St George's day is the twenty-third of the month; and St Mark's Eve, with its superstition that the ghosts of those who are doomed to die within the year will be seen to pass into the church, falls on the twenty-fourth. In China the symbolical ploughing of the earth by the emperor and princes of the blood takes place in their third month, which frequently corresponds to our April; and in Japan the feast of Dolls is celebrated in the same month. The "days of April" (_journees d'avril_) is a name appropriated in French history to a series of insurrections at Lyons, Paris and elsewhere, against the government of Louis Philippe in 1834, which led to violent repressive measures, and to a famous trial known as the _proces d'avril_.
See Chambers's _Book of Days_; Grimm's _Geschichte der deutschen Sprache_. Cap. "Monate"; also APRIL-FOOLS' DAY.
APRIL-FOOLS' DAY, or ALL-FOOLS' DAY, the name given to the 1st of April in allusion to the custom of playing practical jokes on friends and neighbours on that day, or sending them on fools' errands. The origin of this custom has been much disputed, and many ludicrous solutions have been suggested, e.g. that it is a farcical commemoration of Christ being sent from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate, the crucifixion having taken place about the 1st of April. What seems certain is that it is in some way or other a relic of those once universal festivities held at the vernal equinox, which, beginning on old New Year's day, the 25th of March, ended on the 1st of April. This view gains support from the fact that the exact counterpart of April-fooling is found to have been an immemorial custom in India. The festival of the spring equinox is there termed the feast of Huli, the last day of which is the 31st of March, upon which the chief amusement is the befooling of people by sending them on fruitless errands. It has been plausibly suggested that Europe derived its April-fooling from the French. They were the first nation to adopt the reformed calendar, Charles IX. in 1564 decreeing that the year should begin with the 1st of January. Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the first day of January, and those who disliked the change were fair butts for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April. Though the 1st of April appears to have been anciently observed in Great Britain as a general festival, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gowks," the cuckoo being there, as it is in most lands, a term of contempt. In France the person befooled is known as _poisson d'avril_. This has been explained from the association of ideas arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. A far more natural explanation would seem to be that the April fish would be a young fish and therefore easily caught.
A PRIORI (Lat. a, from, _prior, prius_, that which is before, precedes), (1) a phrase used popularly of a judgment based on general considerations in the absence of particular evidence; (2) a logical term first used, apparently, by Albert of Saxony (14th century), though the theory which it denotes is as old as Aristotle. In the order of human knowledge the particular facts of experience come first and are the basis of generalized laws or causes (the Scholastic _notiora nobis_); but in the order of nature the latter rank first as the self-existent, fundamental truths of existence (_notiora naturae_). Thus to Aristotle the _a priori_ argument is from law or cause to effect, as opposed to what we call _a posteriori_ (_posterior_, subsequent, derived), from effect to cause. Since Kant the two phrases have become purely adjectival (instead of adverbial) with a technical controversial sense, closely allied to the Aristotelian, in relation to knowledge and judgments generally. _A priori_ is applied to judgments which are regarded as independent of experience, and belonging to the essence of thought; _a posteriori_ to those which are derived from particular observations. The distinction is analogous to that between analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction (but there may be a synthesis of _a priori_ judgments, cf. Kant's "Synthetic Judgment _a priori_"). Round this distinction a rather barren controversy has raged, and almost all modern philosophers have labelled themselves either "Intuitionalist" (_a priori_) or "Empiricist" (_a posteriori_) according to the view they take of knowledge. In fact, however, the rival schools are generally arguing at cross purposes; there is a knowledge based on particulars, and also a knowledge of laws or causes. But the two work in different spheres, and are complementary. The observation of isolated particulars gives not necessity, but merely strong probability; necessity is purely intellectual or "transcendental." If the empiricist denies the intellectual element in scientific knowledge, he must not claim absolute validity for his conclusions; but he may hold against the intuitionalist that absolute laws are impossible to the human intellect. On the other hand, pure _a priori_ knowledge can be nothing more than form without content (e.g. formal logic, the laws of thought). The simple fact at the bottom of the controversy is that in all empirical knowledge there is an intellectual element, without which there is no correlation of empirical data, and every judgment, however simple, postulates a correlation of some sort if only that between the predicate and its contradictory.
APRON (a corruption arising from a wrong division of "a napron" into "an apron," from the Fr. _naperon, napperon_, a diminutive of _nappe_, Lat. _mappa_, a napkin), an article of costume used to protect the front of the clothes. It forms part of the ceremonial dress of Freemasons. The "apron" worn by church dignitaries is a shortened cassock (q.v.). The word has many technical uses, as for the protecting slope in front of the sill of dock-gates, or at the foot of weirs.
APSARAS, in Hindu mythology, a female spirit of the clouds and waters. In the Rig-Veda there is one Apsaras, wife of Gandharva; in the later scriptures there are many Apsaras who act as the handmaidens of Indra and dance before his throne. They are able to change their form, and specially rule over the fortunes of gaming. One of their duties is to guide to paradise the heroes who fall in battle, whose wives they then become. They are distinguished as _daivika_ ("divine") or _laukika_ ("worldly").
APSE (Gr. [Greek: apsis], a fastening, especially the felloe of a wheel; Lat. _absis_), in architecture, a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault. The term is applied also to the termination to the choir, transept or aisle of any church which is either semicircular or polygonal in plan, whether vaulted or covered with a timber roof; a church is said to be "apsidal" when it terminates in an apse.
The earliest example of an apse is found in the temple of Mars Ultor at Rome (2 B.C.), and it formed afterwards the favourite feature terminating the rear of any temple, and one which gave importance to the statue of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated. Its use by the Romans was not confined to the temples, as it is found in the palaces on the Palatine Hill, the great Thermae (Baths) and other monuments. In the civil basilicas the apse was screened off by columns, and constituted the court of justice. In the Ulpian (Trajan's) Basilica the apses at each end were of such great dimensions as to come better under the definition of hemicycles (q.v.). In these apses the floor was raised, and had an altar placed in the centre of its chord, where sacrifices were made prior to the sittings. The only other two Roman basilicas in which the semicircular apse can still be traced are that commenced by Maxentius and completed by Constantine at Rome and the basilica at Trier (Treves).
In the earliest Christian basilica, St Peter's at Rome, built 330 A.D., the apse, 57 ft. in diameter, raised above the confessio or crypt, was placed at the west end of the church. This orientation was originally followed in the churches of St Paul and St Lawrence (S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura), both outside the walls of Rome, and is found in most of the churches at Rome. On the other hand, in the Byzantine church, the apse was built at the east end of the church.
During the reign of Justin the Second (A.D. 565-574), owing to a change in the liturgy, two more apses were added, one on each side of the central apse. These in the Greek Church were provided not to hold altars but for ceremonial purposes. One of the earliest examples is found in the church of St Nicholas at Myra of the 6th century, and the basilica erected in the great court of the temple at Baalbek shows the triple apse. The earliest example in Rome is found in the church of Sta Maria in Cosmedin (772-795), built probably by Greek craftsmen, who had been exiled by the Iconoclasts. Other triapsal choirs are found in the cathedral of Parenzo (542 A.D.), in St Mark's, Venice, in Sta Fosca and the Duomo at Torcello, and in numerous examples throughout Italy and Germany. In central Syria there is one example only, at Kalat Seman, where the side apses were a later addition.
There is one important distinction to be drawn between the Byzantine and the Latin apses; they are both semicircular internally, but externally the former are nearly always polygonal. It follows, therefore, that in those churches in Italy where the apse is polygonal externally, it is a sign of direct Byzantine influence. This is found in St Mark's, Venice; Sta Fosca, Torcello; Murano; nearly all the churches at Ravenna; and in the Crusaders' churches throughout Syria.
In the Coptic church in Egypt we find other characteristics; in the churches of the Red and White Monasteries, attributed to St Helena, an unusual depth is given to the apse, in the walls of which niches are sunk; in the church of St John at Antinoe there are no fewer than seven. Similar niches are found in the apses of St Mark's, Venice, built in A.D. 828, it is said in imitation of St Mark's in Alexandria, to receive the relics of St Mark brought over from there.
In a large number of the apses in the Coptic churches the seats round the apse with the bishop's throne in the centre are still preserved; of these the best examples are at Abu Sargah, Al 'Adra and Abu-s-Sifain. Unfortunately there are no remains of the fittings in the tribunes of the ancient Roman basilicas, but those in St Peter's at Rome, which were probably copied from them, are recorded in drawings, there being two or three rows of stone seats with the papal throne in the centre. It is possible also that some may still exist in the other early Christian basilicas at Rome, but there have been so many changes that it is not possible to trace them. In the cathedral of Parenzo in Istria (A.D. 532-535), the hemicycle of marble seats for the clergy with the episcopal chair in the centre still exists. A similar arrangement is found in the apse of the church of the 6th century attached to the church of St Helena in the island of Paros, where there are eight steep grades of semicircular stone seats with the bishop's chair in the centre. The aspect of the interior of this apse has in consequence very much the appearance of a Roman theatre. A third example, better known, exists at Torcello, with six concentric seats rising one above the other, and in the centre the episcopal chair with a flight of thirteen steps down in front of it.
In the basilica at Bethlehem, the east end of which was reconstructed probably in the 5th century, apses of similar dimensions to the eastern apse were built at the north and south end of the transept. The same disposition is found in the Coptic churches of the Red and White Monasteries just referred to, in the church of St Elias at Salonica (c. 1012), the cathedral of Echmiadzin in Armenia, at Vatopedi, Mt. Athos, and some other Byzantine churches. An early example in France exists in the church of Germigny-des-Pres on the Loire (806; rebuilt 1868), where the three apses are horseshoe on plan, and the same is found in the church at Oberzell in the island of Reichenau, Lake of Constance, except that the eastern apse there is square. Small examples also are found at Querqueville and at St Wandrille near Caudebec, both in Normandy, but the finest development takes place in the church of St Maria im Capitol at Cologne, where the aisles are carried round both the northern and southern apses. The same feature exists in the cathedral of Tournai in Belgium and the churches at Cambrai, Soissons and Valenciennes (the last destroyed at the Revolution) in France, and also in the cathedrals of Como and of Pisa in Italy. Without aisles, there are examples in the churches of the Apostles and of St Martin at Cologne; St Quirinus at Neuss; at Roermond; St Cross, Breslau; the cathedral of Bonn; and, at a later date, in the Marienkirche at Trier; S. Elizabeth at Marburg; the church of Sta Maria-del-Fiore at Florence; and the cathedral of Parma.
In consequence of a change made in the orientation of apses in the 6th or 7th century, others were subsequently added at the west end of existing churches, and this is considered to have been the case at Canterbury; but in the German churches sometimes apses were built from the first at both ends, such as are shown on the manuscript plan of St Gall, of the 9th century. Western apses exist at Gernrode; Drubeck; Huyseburg; the Obermunster of Regensburg; St Godehard in Hildesheim; the cathedrals of Worms and Trier; the Abbey church of Laach; the Minster at Bonn; and in St Pietro-in-Grado near Pisa.
The triapsal churches, to which we have referred, are those in which the side apses form the termination of the side aisles; but where there are transepts, the aisles are sometimes not continued beyond them, and the expansion of the transept to north and south gives more ample space for apses; of these there are many examples, as in the Abbey church of Laach in Germany; at Romsey; Christchurch, Hants; Gloucester, Ely, Norwich and Canterbury cathedrals, in England; and at St Georges de Boscherville in France; sometimes there being space for two apses on each side.
In the beginning of the 13th century in France, the apses became radiating chapels outside the choir aisle, henceforth known as the chevet. These radiating chapels would seem to have been suggested in Norwich and Canterbury cathedrals, but the feature is essentially a French one and in England is found only in Westminster Abbey, into which it was introduced by Henry III., to whom the chevets of Amiens, Beauvais and Reims were probably well known. (R. P. S.)
APSE and APSIDES, in mechanics, either of the two points of an orbit which are nearest to and farthest from the centre of motion. They are called the lower or nearer, and the higher or more distant apsides respectively. The "line of apsides" is that which joins them, forming the major axis of the orbit.
APSINES of Gadara, a Greek rhetorician, who flourished during the 3rd century A.D. After studying at Smyrna, he taught at Athens, and gained such a reputation that he was raised to the consulship by the emperor Maximinus (235-238). He was the friend of Philostratus, the author of the _Lives of the Sophists_, who speaks of his wonderful memory and accuracy. Two rhetorical treatises by him are extant: [Greek: technae raetorikae], a handbook of rhetoric greatly interpolated, a considerable portion being taken from the _Rhetoric_ of Longinus; and a smaller work, [Greek: perhi eschaematismenon problaematon], on Propositions maintained figuratively.
Editions by Bake, 1849; Spengel-Hammer in _Rhetores Graeci_, ii. (1894): see also Hammer, _De Apsine Rhetore_ (1876); Volkmann, _Rhetorik der Griechen und Romer_ (1885).
APT, a town of south-eastern France, in the department of Vaucluse, on the left bank of the Coulon, 41 m. E. of Avignon by rail. Pop. (1906) 4990. The town was formerly surrounded by massive ancient walls, but these have now been for the most part replaced by boulevards; many of its streets are narrow and irregular. The chief object of interest is the church of Sainte-Anne (once the cathedral), the building of which was begun about the year 1056 on the site of a much older edifice, but not completed until the latter half of the 17th century. Many Roman remains have been found in and near the town. A fine bridge, the Pont Julien, spanning the Coulon below the town, dates from the 2nd or 3rd century. A tribunal of first instance and a communal college are the chief public institutions. The chief manufactures are silk, confectionery and earthenware; and there is besides a considerable trade in fruit, grain and cattle. Apt was at one time the chief town of the Vulgientes, a Gallic tribe; it was destroyed by the Romans about 125 B.C. and restored by Julius Caesar, who conferred upon it the title _Apta Julia_; it was much injured by the Lombards and the Saracens, but its fortifications were rebuilt by the counts of Provence. The bishopric, founded in the 3rd century, was suppressed in 1790.
APTERA (Greek for "wingless"), a term in zoological classification applied by Linnaeus to various groups of wingless arthropods, including some of the insects, the centipedes, the millipedes, the Arachnida (scorpions, spiders, &c.) and the Crustacea. In modern zoology the term has become restricted to the lowest order of the class Hexapoda or true insects. This order includes the bristle-tails and the springtails.
Many wingless insects--such as lice, fleas and certain earwigs and cockroaches--are placed in various orders together with winged insects to which they show evident relationships. In such cases the absence of wings must be regarded as secondary--due to a parasitic or other special manner of life. But the bristle-tails and springtails, which form the modern order Aptera, are all without any trace of wings, and, on account of several remarkable archaic characters which they exhibit, there is reason for believing that they are primitively wingless--that they represent an early offshoot which sprang from the ancestral stock of the Hexapoda before organs of flight had been acquired by the class.
_Characters._--In addition to the complete absence of wings and of metamorphosis, the Aptera are characterized by peculiar elongate mandibles (figs. 1, Mn.; 2, 4), with toothed apex and sub-apical grinding surface, like those of certain Crustacea; by the presence between the mandibles and maxillae of a pair of appendages (superlinguae or maxillulae), fig. 1, Mxl., which are absent or vestigial in all other insects; and, in most genera, by the presence in the adult of abdominal appendages used for locomotion, these latter varying in number from one to nine pairs. Among peculiarities of the internal organs the segmental arrangement of the ovaries in most members of the order is noteworthy. Many Aptera are covered with flattened scales like those of moths.
_Classification._--The Aptera are divided into two divergent sub-orders, the _Thysanura_ (q.v.) or bristle-tails, and the _Collembola_ or springtails.
_Thysanura._--The bristle-tails have an abdomen of eleven segments, the tenth usually carrying a pair of long many-jointed tail-feelers (cerci, fig. 1, x.); sometimes a median, jointed tail-appendage is also present. To these feelers the popular name is due. There may also be abdominal appendages--in the form of simple unjointed stylets (fig. 1, ii.-ix.), accompanied by paired eversible sacs, probably respiratory in function--on eight (or fewer) other abdominal segments. The head of a bristle-tail carries a pair of compound eyes and a pair of elongate many-jointed feelers.
The air-tube system is developed in varying degree in different bristle-tails, the number of pairs of spiracles being three (_Campodea_), nine (_Machilis_), ten (_Lepisma_), or eleven (_Japyx_).
Four families of Thysanura are usually recognized. In the _Machilidae_ and _Lepismidae_ (these two families are known as the Ectotrophi) the maxillae are like those of typical biting insects, and there is a median tail-bristle in addition to the paired cerci; while in the _Campodeidae_ and _Japygidae_ (which form the group Entotrophi) the jaws are apparently sunk in the head, through a deep inpushing at the mouth, and there is no median tail-bristle. The cerci in _Japyx_ are not, as usual, jointed feelers, but strong, curved appendages forming a forceps as in earwigs.
_Collembola._--In springtails, or _Collembola_, the jaws are sunk into the head, as in the entotrophous Thysanura; the head carries a pair of feelers with not more than six (usually four) segments, and there are eight (or fewer) distinct simple eyes on each side of the head (fig. 2, 1, 2). These are in some genera like the single elements (_ommatidia_) of a compound insect eye, in others like simple ocelli. The abdomen consists of six segments only. The first of these usually carries a ventral tube, furnished with paired eversible sacs which assist the insects in walking on smooth surfaces, and perhaps serve also as organs for breathing. From the researches of V. Willem it appears that the viscid fluid which causes the adherence of the ventral tube is secreted by a pair of glands in the head whose ducts open into a superficial groove leading from the second maxillae backward to the tube on the first abdominal segment. The third abdominal segment usually carries a pair of short appendages whose basal segments are fused together; this is the "catch" (fig. 2, 7), whose function is to hold in place the "spring," which is formed by the fourth pair of abdominal appendages--also with fused basal segments. In most Collembola the spring appears to belong to the fifth abdominal somite, but Willem, by study of the muscles, has shown that it really belongs to the fourth. The fused basal segments of the appendages form the "manubrium" of the spring, which carries the two "dentes" (usually elongate and flexible), each with a "mucro" at its tip (fig. 2, 5). The fifth abdominal segment is the genital, and the sixth the anal somite.
The spring serves the Collembola which possess it as an efficient leaping-organ (see SPRINGTAIL). But in some genera it is greatly reduced and in many quite vestigial.
Most springtails are without air-tubes, and breathe through the general cuticle of the body. But in one family (_Sminthuridae_) a spiracle, opening on either side between the head and the prothorax, leads to a branching system of air-tubes. The _Sminthuridae_ are further characterized by the globular abdomen, which shows but little external trace of segmentation, and by the well-developed spring.
In the _Entomobryidae_ the body is elongate and clearly segmented, but the dorsal region (tergum) of the prothorax is much reduced and the head downwardly directed; the spring is well developed. In the _Achorutidae_ the head is forwardly directed, the tergum of the prothorax conspicuous, and the spring small or vestigial.
In many genera of springtails a curious post-antennal organ, consisting of sensory structures (often complex in form) surrounded by a firm ring, is to be noticed on the cuticle of the head between the eyes and the feelers. It may be of use as an organ of smell. Other sensory organs occur on the third and fourth antennal segments in the _Achorutidae_ and _Entomobryidae_ (fig. 2, 3).
_Distribution and Habits._--The Aptera are probably the most widely distributed of all insects. Among the bristle-tails we find the genus _Machilis_, represented in Europe (including the Faeroe Islands) and in Chile; while _Campodea_ lives high on the mountains and in the deepest caves. The springtails have even a wider distribution. The genus _Isotoma_, for example, has some of its numerous species in regions so remote as Alaska, Franz Josef Land, the Sandwich Islands, the South Orkneys, Graham Land, Kerguelen and South Victoria Land. As it is unlikely that these delicate insects could be transported across sea-channels, their wide and discontinuous range suggests both their great antiquity and the former existence of continental tracts over which they may have travelled to their present stations.
Springtails and bristle-tails live in damp concealed places--under stones or tree-bark, in moss, and in the decaying vegetable or animal matter which serves as food for most of them. Some species, however, eat fresh plant-tissues. A species of bristle-tail (_Machilis maritima_) and quite a number of springtails haunt the sea-coast at or below high-water mark. In such localities many thousands of individuals may sometimes be found associated together. The insect fauna of limestone caves both in Europe and North America is largely composed of Aptera, especially Collembola.
_Geological History._--A supposed Thysanuran from the Silurian of New Brunswick has been described by G.F. Matthew, and another genus from the French Carboniferous by C. Brongniart. Not till the Tertiary do we find remains of Aptera in any quantity, species both of living and extinct genera being represented in the amber.
_Development._--The embryonic development of several genera of Aptera, which has been carefully studied, will be more suitably described in comparison with that of other insects than here (see HEXAPODA).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The modern study of the Aptera may be said to date from the classical memoirs of T. Tullberg, "Sveriges Podurider," in _Kongl. Svensk Vetensk. Akad. Handl._ x., 1872, and Sir J. Lubbock (Lord Avebury), "Monograph of the Collembola and Thysanura," _Ray Society_, 1873. In these, full references to the older literature will be found. Subsequently our knowledge of the Thysanura has been markedly advanced by J.T. Oudemans, _Bijdrage tot de Kennis den Thysanura en Collembola_ (Amsterdam, 1888); B. Grassi, who published between 1885 and 1889 a series of memoirs entitled "I progenitori dei Miriapodi e degli Insetti," in the _Atti Accad. di Scienz. Nat. Catania_, and the _Memor. R. Accad. dei Lincei_; and V. Willem, whose "Recherches sur les Collemboles et les Thysanoures," in _Mem. Cour. Acad. Roy. Belgique_, lviii., 1900, are indispensable to the student. In addition to this work of Willem, valuable anatomical papers on Collembola have been published by H.J. Hansen (_Zool. Anz._ xvi., 1893), J.W. Folsom (_Bull. Mus. Comp. Anat. Harv._ xxxv., 1899), C. Borner (_Zool. Anz._ xxiii., 1900), and K. Absolon (_Zool. Anz._ xxiii. and xxiv., 1900, 1901), the two latter writers having paid especial attention to the peculiar post-antennal and antennal sense-organs of springtails. Absolon has also written on the Collembola of caves. These writers, with H. Schott, C. Schaffer and others, have published many systematic papers on Collembola, as has F. Silvestri on Thysanura. British species are mentioned in Lubbock's monograph; for recent additions see G.H. Carpenter and W. Evans (_Proc. R. Phys. Soc. Edinb._ xiv., 1899, and xv., 1903). (G. H. C.)
APTERAL (from the Gr. [Greek: apteros], wingless, [Greek: a-], privative and [Greek: pteros], a wing), an architectural term applied to amphiprostyle temples which have no columns on the sides; in the Ionic temple on the Acropolis at Athens known as Nike Apteros, the adjective is used, not as applying to the goddess of victory but to the absence of any peristyle on the sides.
APTIAN (Fr. _Aptien_, from Apt in Vaucluse, France), in geology, the term introduced in 1843 by A. d'Orbigny (_Pal. France Cret._ ii.) for the upper stage of the Lower Cretaceous rocks. In England it comprises the Lower Greensand and part of the Speeton beds; in France it is divided into two sub-stages, the lower, "Bedoulian," of Bedoule in Provence, with _Hoplites deshayesei_ and _Ancyloceras Matheroni_; and an upper, "Gargasian," from Gargas near Apt, with _Hoplites furcatus_ (_Dufrenoyi_) and _Phylloceras Guettardi_. To this stage belong the _Toucasia_ limestone and _Orbitolina_ marls of Spain; the _Schrattenkalk_ (part) of the Alpine and Carpathian regions; and the _Terebrirostra_ limestone of the same area. Parts of the Flysch of the eastern Alps, the Biancone of Lombardy, and _argile scagliose_ of Emilia, are of Aptian age; so also are the "Trinity Beds" of North America. Deposits of bauxite occur in the Aptian hippurite limestone at Les Baux near Aries, and in the Pyrenees. The Aptian rocks are generally clays, marls and green glauconitic sands with occasional limestones. (See GREENSAND and CRETACEOUS.)
APULEIUS, LUCIUS, Platonic philosopher and rhetorician, was born at Madaura in Numidia about A.D. 125. As the son of one of the principal officials, he received an excellent education, first at Carthage and subsequently at Athens. After leaving Athens he undertook a long course of travel, especially in the East, principally with the view of obtaining initiation into religious mysteries. Having practised for some time as an advocate at Rome, he returned to Africa. On a journey to Alexandria he fell sick at Oea (Tripoli), where he made the acquaintance of a rich widow, Aemilia Pudentilla, whom he subsequently married. The members of her family disapproved of the marriage, and indicted Apuleius on a charge of having gained her affections by magical arts. He easily established his innocence, and his spirited, highly entertaining, but inordinately long defence (_Apologia_ or _De Magia_) before the proconsul Claudius Maximus is our principal authority for his biography. From allusions in his subsequent writings, and the mention of him by St. Augustine, we gather that the remainder of his prosperous life was devoted to literature and philosophy. At Carthage he was elected provincial priest of the imperial cult, in which capacity he occupied a prominent position in the provincial council, had the duty of collecting and managing the funds for the temples of the cult, and the superintendence of the games in the amphitheatre. He lectured on philosophy and rhetoric, like the Greek sophists, apparently with success, since statues were erected in his honour at Carthage and elsewhere. The year of his death is not known.
The work on which the fame of Apuleius principally rests has little claim to originality. The _Metamorphoses_ or _Golden Ass_ (the latter title seems not to be the author's own, but to have been bestowed in compliment, just as the _Libri Rerum Quotidianarum_ of Gaius were called _Aurei_) was founded on a narrative in the _Metamorphoses_ of Lucius of Patrae, a work extant in the time of Photius. From Photius's account (impugned, however, by Wieland and Courier), this book would seem to have consisted of a collection of marvellous stories, related in an inartistic fashion, and in perfect good faith. The literary capabilities of this particular narrative attracted the attention of Apuleius's contemporary, Lucian, who proceeded to work it up in his own manner, adhering, as Photius seems to indicate, very closely to the original, but giving it a comic and satiric turn. Apuleius followed this rifacimento, making it, however, the groundwork of an elaborate romance, interspersed with numerous episodes, of which the beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche is the most celebrated, and altering the _denouement_ to suit the religious revival of which he was an apostle.
The adventures of the youthful hero in the form of an ass are much the same in both romances, but in Apuleius he is restored to human shape by the aid of Isis, into whose mysteries he is initiated, and finally becomes her priestess. The book is a remarkable illustration of the contemporary reaction against a period of scepticism, of the general appetite for miracle and magic, and of the influx of oriental and Egyptian ideas into the old theology. It is also composed with a well-marked literary aim, defined by Kretzschmann as the emulation of the Greek sophists, and the transplantation of their _tours de force_ into the Latin language. Nothing, indeed, is more characteristic of Apuleius than his versatility, unless it be his ostentation and self-confidence in the display of it. The dignified, the ludicrous, the voluptuous, the horrible, succeed each other with bewildering rapidity; fancy and feeling are everywhere apparent, but not less so affectation, meretricious ornament, and that effort to say everything finely which prevents anything being said well. The Latinity has a strong African colouring, and is crammed with obsolete words, agreeably to the taste of the time. When these defects are mitigated or overlooked, the _Golden Ass_ will be pronounced a most successful work, invaluable as an illustration of ancient manners, and full of entertainment from beginning to end. The most famous and poetically beautiful portion is the episode of Cupid and Psyche, adapted from a popular legend of which traces are found in most fairy mythologies, which explains the seeming incongruity of its being placed in the mouth of an old hag. The allegorical purport he has infused into it is his own, and entirely in the spirit of the Platonic philosophy. Don Quixote's adventure with the wine-skins, and Gil Blas's captivity among the robbers, are palpably borrowed from Apuleius; and several of the humorous episodes, probably current as popular stories long before his time, reappear in Boccaccio.
Of Apuleius's other writings, the _Apology_ has been already mentioned. The _Florida_ (probably meaning simply "anthology," without any reference to style) consists of a collection of excerpts from his declamations, ingenious but highly affected, and in general perfect examples of the sophistical art of saying nothing with emphasis. They deal with the most varied subjects, and are intended to exemplify the author's versatility. The pleasing little tract _On the God of Socrates_ expounds the Platonic doctrine of beneficent daemons, an intermediate class between gods and men. Two books on Plato (_De Platone et Ejus Dogmate_) treat of his life, and his physical and ethical philosophy; a third, treating of logic, is generally considered spurious. The _De Mundo_ is an adaptation of the [Greek: Peri kosmou] wrongly attributed to Aristotle. Apuleius informs us that he had also composed numerous poems in almost all possible styles, and several works on natural history, some in Greek. In the preparation of these he seems to have attended more closely to actual anatomical research than was customary with ancient naturalists. Some other works--dealing with theology, the properties of herbs, medical remedies and physiognomy, are wrongly attributed to him.
The character of Apuleius, as delineated by himself, is attractive; he appears vehement and passionate, but devoid of rancour; enterprising, munificent, genial and an enthusiast for the beautiful and good. His vanity and love of display are conspicuous, but are extenuated by a genuine thirst for knowledge and a surprising versatility of attainments. He prided himself on his proficiency in both Greek and Latin. His place in letters is accidentally more important than his genius strictly entitles him to hold. He is the only extant example in Latin literature of an accomplished sophist in the good sense of the term. The loss of other ancient romances has secured him a peculiar influence on modern fiction; while his chronological position in a transitional period renders him at once the evening star of the Platonic, and the morning star of the Neo-Platonic philosophy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Complete works: Editio princeps, ed. Andreas (1469); Oudendorp (1786-1823); Hildebrand (1842); Helm (1905 et seq.); P. Thomas (vol. iii. 1908). _Metamorphoses_, Eyssenhardt (1869), van der Vliet (1897). _Psyche et Cupido_, Jahn-Michaelis (1883); Beck (1902). _Apologia_, I. Casaubon (1594); Kruger (1864); (with the _Florida_), van der Vliet (1900). _Florida_, Kruger (1883). _De Deo Socratis_, Buckley (1844), Lutjohann (1878). _De Platone et ejus Dogmate_, Goldbacher (1876) (including _De Mundo_ and _De Deo Socratis_). For the relation between Lucian's [Greek: Ovos] and the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius, see Rohde, _Uber Lucians Schrift [Greek: Loukios]_ (1869), and Burger, _De Lucio Patrensi_ (1887). On the style of Apuleius consult Kretzschmann, _De Latinitate L. Apulei_ (1865), and Koziol, _Der Stil des A._ (1872). There is a complete English translation of the works of Apuleius in Bohn's Classical Library. The translations and imitations of the _Golden Ass_ in modern languages are numerous: in English, by Adlington, 1566 and later eds. (reissued in the Tudor translations and Temple Classics), Taylor (1822) (including the philosophical works), Head (1851). Of the Cupid and Psyche episode there are recent translations by Robert Bridges (1895) (in verse), Stuttaford (1903); and it is beautifully introduced by Walter Pater into his _Marius the Epicurean_. This episode has afforded the subject of a drama to Thomas Heywood, and of narrative poems to Shakerley Marmion, Mrs. Tighe, and William Morris (in the _Earthly Paradise_).
APULIA (sometimes APPULIA in manuscripts but never in inscriptions), the district inhabited in ancient times by the Apuli. Strictly a Samnite tribe (see SAMNITES) settled round Mount Garganus on the east coast of Italy (Strabo vi. 3. 11), the Apuli mingled with the Iapygian tribes of that part of the coast (Dauni, Peucetii, Poediculi) who, like the Messapii, had come from Illyria, so that the name Apulia reached down to the border of the ancient Calabria. Almost the only monument of Samnite speech from the district is the famous _Tabula Bantina_ from Bantia, a small city just inside the Peucetian part of Apulia, on the Lucanian border. This inscription is one of the latest and in some ways the most important monument of Oscan, though showing what appear to be some southern peculiarities (see OSCA LINGUA). Its date is almost certainly between 118 and 90 B.C., and it shows that Latin had not even then spread over the district (cf. LUCANIA). Far older than this are some coins from Ausculum and Teate (later known as Teanum Apulum), of which the earliest belong to the 4th century B.C. Roman or Latin colonies were few, Luceria (planted 314 B.C.) in the north and Brundisium (soon after 268) being the chief. (See R.S. Conway, _Italic Dialects_, xxviii.-xxx. pp. 15 f.; and Mommsen's introduction to the opening sections of _C.I.L._ ix.) (R. S. C.)
The wars of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. brought a great part of the pastures of the Apulian plain into the hands of the Roman state, and a tax was paid on every head of cattle and every sheep, at first to the tax farmer and later to the imperial procurator. It was under the Romans that the system of migration for the flocks reached its full development, and the practice is still continued; the sheep-tracks (_tratturi_), 350 ft. wide, leading from the mountains of the Abruzzi to the plain of Apulia date in the main at least from the Roman period, and are mentioned in inscriptions. The plain, however, which once served as winter grazing ground for a million sheep, now gives pasture to about one-half of that number.[1] The shepherds, who were slaves, often gave considerable trouble; we hear that some 7000 of them, who had made the whole country unsafe, were condemned to death in 185 B.C. (Livy xxxix. 29). Sheep-farming on a large scale was no doubt detrimental to the interests of the towns. We hear of repeated risings, for the last time in the Social War. Even in the 4th century B.C. the then chief town of Apulia, Teate or Teanum Apulum (see above), suffered in this way. Luceria subsequently took its place, largely owing to its military importance; but under the Empire it was succeeded by Canusium.
The road system of Apulia, which touched all the important towns, consisted of three main lines, the Via Appia (see APPIA, VIA), the Via Traiana, and the coast road, running more or less parallel in an east-south-east direction. The first (the southernmost), coming east from Beneventum, entered Apulia at the Pons Aufidi, and ran through Venusia to Tarentum, and thence, turning north-east, to Brundusium. The second, coming north-east from Beneventum, turned east at Aecae, and ran through Herdoniae, Canusium, Butuntum, Barium and Gnathia (Gnatia) to Brundusium. There was also a short cut from Butuntum to Gnathia through Caelia, keeping inland. The third parallel line ran to the north of the Via Traiana, in continuation of the road along the north-east coast of Picenum and Samnium; it entered Apulia near Larinum (whence a branch ran south to Bovianum Undecimanorum), and thence, keeping in the plain to the south of the Mons Garganus, rejoined the coast at Sipontum, where it received a branch road from the Via Traiana at Aecae, passing through Luceria and Arpi. It then passed through Barduli (where it was joined by a road from Canusium by way of Cannae) to Barium, where it joined the Via Traiana. From Barium a road probably ran direct to Caelia, and thence south-south-east to join the Via Appia some 25 m. north-west of Tarentum.
Barium was an important harbour, though less so than Brundusium and Tarentum, which, however, belonged to Calabria in the Roman sense. Apulia, with Calabria, formed the second region of Augustus, though we once find Calabria treated as a part of the third region, Lucania (_C.I.L._ ix. 2213). The Hannibalic and later wars had, Strabo tells us, destroyed the former prosperity of the country; in imperial times we hear little or nothing of it. Both were governed by a _corrector_ from the time of Constantine onwards, but in 668 the Lombards conquered Calabria and Apulia, and it was then that the former name was transferred to Bruttium, the meaning of the latter being extended to include Calabria also. In the 10th century the greater part of this territory was recovered by the Byzantine emperors, whose governor was called [Greek: Katapanos], a name which, under the corrupt form Capitanata, belonged to the province of Foggia till 1861. It was conquered by the Normans under William Bras-de-fer, who took the title of _comes Apuliae_ in 1042; it was raised to a dukedom with Calabria by Robert Guiscard in 1059, and united to the Sicilian monarchy in 1127. Many of the important towns possess fine Romanesque cathedrals, constructed under the Normans and the Hohenstaufen rulers. It shared the subsequent fate of Sicily, becoming a part of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1734, and being united with Italy in 1861.
Modern Apulia.
Modern Apulia comprises the three provinces of Foggia, Bari and Lecce (the latter corresponding roughly with the ancient Calabria, which, however, extended somewhat farther north inland), and is often known as Le Puglie; it stretches from Monte Gargano to the south-east extremity of Italy, with an area of 7376 sq. m.; it is bounded on the north and east by the Adriatic, on the south-east by the Gulf of Taranto, on the south by Basilicata and on the west by Campania and the Abruzzi. The three provinces correspond to the three natural divisions into which it falls. That of Foggia, though it has mountains on the west and south-west boundary, and the Monte Gargano at its north-east extremity, is in the main a great plain called the Tavoliere (chessboard) di Puglia, with considerable lagoons on its north and east coast. That of Bari, east-south-east of Foggia and divided from it by the Ofanto (Aufidus), the only considerable river of Apulia, 104 m. long, is a hilly district with a coast strip along which are the majority of the towns--the lack of villages is especially noticeable; in the _circondario_ of Barletta, the north-east portion of the province, there are only eleven communes, with a total population of 335,934. That of Lecce, to the east-south-east again, is a low flat limestone terrace.
The industries of Apulia are mainly pastoral or agricultural. Besides sheep, a considerable number of horses, cattle and swine are bred; while despite the lack of water, which is the great need of modern Apulia (in 1906 arrangements were made for a great aqueduct, to supply the three provinces from the headwaters of the Sele), cultivation is actively carried on, especially in the province of Bari, where grain, wine, olives, almonds, lemons, oranges, tobacco, &c., are produced in abundance, and the export of olive oil is attaining considerable importance. The salt works of Margherita di Savoia produce large quantities of salt, and nitre is extracted near Molfetta.
Railway communications are fairly good, the main line from Bologna to Brindisi passing through the whole length of Apulia, by way of Foggia and Bari, and having branches from Foggia (the main railway centre of Apulia) to Benevento and Caserta, to Manfredonia, to Lucera and to Rocchetta S. Antonio (and thence to either Avellino, Potenza or Gioia del Colle), from Ofantino to Margherita di Savoia, from Barletta to Spinazzola (between Rocchetta S. Antonio and Gioia del Colle), from Bari to Putignano, and via Gioia del Colle to Taranto, and from Brindisi to Taranto, and to Lecce and Otranto; besides which, there is a steam tramway from Barletta to Bari via Andria.
The most important harbours of Apulia are Brindisi, Bari, Taranto, Barletta, Molfetta and Gallipoli. The export of olive oil to foreign countries from the province of Lecce in 1905 amounted to 1048 tons, as against 3395 in 1901; but that to home ports increased from 7077 to 9025 tons in the same period. The production of wine was 358,953 tons in 1905 as against 203,995 tons in 1901 (an exceptionally bad year) and 284,156 tons in 1902. Of this 211,872 tons were forwarded by rail and sea, in the proportion of five to two respectively, the rest being used for home consumption and as a reserve. The cultivation of oriental tobacco is extending in the province (see _Consular Report_, No. 3672, July 1906).
The population of the province of Foggia was 425,450 (1901) as against 322,755 in 1871, the chief towns being Foggia (53,151), Cerignola (34,195), S. Severo (30,040), Monte S. Angelo (21,870), S. Marco in Lamis (17,309), Lucera (17,515); that of Bari, 827,698 (1901) as against 604,540 in 1871, the chief towns being Bari (77,478), Andria (49,569), Barletta (42,022), Corato (41,573), Molfetta (40,135), Trani (31,800), Bisceglie (30,885), Bitonto (30,617), Canosa (24,169), Ruvo (23,776), Terlizzi (23,232), Altamura(22,729), Monopoli (22,545), Gioia del Colle (21,721); that of Lecce, 706,520 (1901) as against 493,594 in 1871, the chief towns being Taranto (60,733), Lecce (32,687), Brindisi (25,317), Martina Franca (25,007), Ostuni (22,997), Francavilla Fontana (20,422), Ceglie Messapica (16,867), Nardo (14,387), Galatina (14,071), Gallipoli (13,552), Manduria (13,113). (T. As.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The migration was made compulsory by Alphonso I. in 1442, and remained so until 1865. Since that time the _tratturi_ have been to some extent absorbed by private proprietors.
APURE, a river of western Venezuela, formed by the confluence of the Sarare and Uribante at 6 deg. 45' N. lat. and 71 deg. W. long., and flowing eastward across the Venezuelan _llanos_ to a junction with the Orinoco at about 7 deg. 40' N. lat. and 66 deg. 45' W. long. Its drainage area includes the slopes of both the Colombian and Venezuelan Andes. It has a sluggish course across the _llanos_ for about 300 m., and is navigable throughout its length. Its principal tributaries are the Caparro, Portuguesa and Guarico on the north, and the Caucagua on the south. Its lateral channels on the south mingle with those of the Arauca for many miles, forming an extensive district subject to annual inundations.
APURIMAC, a river of central Peru, rising in the Laguna de Villafra in the western Cordilleras, 7 m. from Caylloma, a village in the department of Arequipa, and less than 100 m. from the Pacific coast. It flows first north-easterly, then north-westerly past Cuzco to the mouth of the Perene tributary, thence east and north to its junction with the Ucayali at 10 deg. 41' S. lat., and 73 deg. 34' W. long. It is known as the Apurimac only down to the mouth of the Mantaro tributary, 11 deg. 45' S. lat. and 1325 ft. above sea-level. Thence to the mouth of the Perene (984 ft.) it is known as the Ene, and from that point to its junction with the Ucayali (859 ft.) as the Tambo.
APURIMAC, an interior department of southern Peru, bounded N. by the department of Ayacucho, E. by Cuzco, S. and W. by Cuzco and Ayacucho. Area, 8187 sq. m.; pop. (1896) 177,387. The department was created in 1873 and comprises five provinces. Its physical features and productions are very similar to those of Ayacucho (q.v.), with the exception that sugar-cane is cultivated with noteworthy success in the low valley of the province of Abancay. The capital, Abancay, 110 m. south-west of Cuzco, which is only a village in size but is rich in historical associations and Andahuaylas, in the north-west part of the department, are its principal towns.
APYREXIA (Gr. [Greek: apyrexia], from [Greek: a-], privative, [Greek: pyressein], to be in a fever, [Greek: pyr], fire, fever), in pathology, the normal interval or period of intermission in a fever.
'AQIBA BEN JOSEPH (c. 50-132), Jewish Palestinian rabbi, of the circle known as _tana_ (q.v.). It is almost impossible to separate the true from the false in the numerous traditions respecting his life. He became the chief teacher in the rabbinical school of Jaffa, where, it is said, he had 24,000 scholars. Whatever their number, it seems certain that among them was the celebrated Rabbi Meir, and that through him and others 'Aqiba exerted a great influence on the development of the doctrines embodied in the Mishnah. He sided with Bar Cochebas in the last Jewish revolt against Rome, recognized him as the Messiah, and acted as his sword-bearer. Being taken prisoner by the Romans under Julius Severus, he was flayed alive with circumstances of great cruelty, and met his fate, according to tradition, with marvellous steadfastness and composure. He is said by some to have been a hundred and twenty years old at the time of his death. He is one of the ten Jewish martyrs whose names occur in a penitential prayer still used in the synagogue service. 'Aqiba was among the first to systematize the Jewish tradition, and he paved the way for the compilation of the Mishnah. From his school emanated the Greek translation of the scriptures by Aquila.
AQUAE (Lat. for "waters"), a name given by the Romans to sites where mineral springs issued from the earth. Over a hundred can be identified, some declaring by their modern names their ancient use: Aix-les-Bains in Savoy (_Aquae Sabaudicae_), Aix-en-Provence (_Aquae Sextiae_), Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen (_Aquae Grani_), &c. Only two occur in Britain: _Aquae Sulis_--less correctly _Aquae Solis_--at Bath in Somerset, which was famous, and Buxton (called _Aquae_ simply), which seems to have been far less important. Aquae Sulis was occupied by the Romans almost as soon as they entered the island in A.D. 43, and flourished till the end of the Roman period. It was frequented by soldiers quartered in Britain, by the Britons, and by visitors from north Gaul, and its name was known in Italy, though patients probably seldom travelled so far. Like most mineral springs known to the ancients, it was under the protection of a local deity, the Celtic Sul, whom the Romans equated with their Minerva. Stately remains of its baths and temple have been found at various times, especially in 1790 and 1878-1895, and may still be seen there.
AQUAE CUTILIAE, a mineral spring in Italy, near the modern Cittaducale, 9 m. E. of Rieti. The lake near it was supposed by classical writers to be the central point of Italy, and was renowned for its floating islands, which, as in other cases, were formed from the partial petrification of plants by the mineral substances contained in the water. Considerable remains of baths may still be seen there--they were apparently resorted to by both Vespasian and Titus in their last illnesses, for both died there.
AQUAMARINE (Lat. _aqua marina_, "water of the sea"), a transparent variety of beryl (q.v.), having a delicate blue or bluish-green colour, suggestive of the tint of sea-water. It occurs at most localities which yield ordinary beryl, some of the finest coming from Russia. The gem-gravels of Ceylon contain aquamarine. Clear yellow beryl, such as occurs in Brazil, is sometimes called aquamarine chrysolite. When corundum presents the bluish tint of typical aquamarine, it is often termed Oriental aquamarine.
AQUARELLE (from Ital. _acquarella_, water-colour), a form of painting with thin water-colour or ink.
AQUARII, a name given to the Christians who substituted water for wine in the Eucharist. They were not a sect, for we find the practice widely in vogue at an early time, even among the orthodox. In Greek they were called _Hydroparastatae_, or those who offer water. Theodosius, in his persecuting edict of 382, classes them as a special sect with the Manicheans, who also eschewed wine. See EUCHARIST.
AQUARIUM (plural _aquaria_), the name given to a receptacle for a marine flora and fauna. Until comparatively recently, aquaria were little more than domestic toys, or show-places of a popular character, but they have now not only assumed a profound scientific importance for the convenient study of anatomical and physiological problems in marine botany and zoology, but have also attained an economic value, as offering the best opportunities for that study of the habits and environment of marketable food-fish without which no steps for the improvement of sea-fisheries can be safely taken. The numerous "zoological stations" which have sprung up, chiefly in Europe and the United States, but also in the British colonies and Japan, often endeavour to unite these two aims, and have in many cases become centres of experimental work in problems relating to fisheries, as well as in less directly practical subjects. Of these stations, the oldest and the most important is that at Naples, which, though designed for purely scientific objects, also encourages popular study by means of a public aquarium. The following account (1902) of this station by Dr W. Giesbrecht, a member of the staff, will serve to show the methods and aims, and the complex and expensive equipment, of a modern aquarium:--
"The zoological station at Naples is an institution for the advancement of biological science--that is, of comparative anatomy, zoology, botany, physiology. It serves this end by providing the biologist with the various objects of his study and the necessary appliances; it is not a teaching institution. The station was founded by Dr Anton Dohrn, and opened in the spring of 1874; it is the oldest and largest of all biological stations, of which there are now about thirty in existence. Its two buildings are situated near the seashore in the western town park (Villa Nazionale) of Naples. The older and larger one, 33 metres long, 24 m. deep, 16 m. high, contains on the ground floor the aquarium, which is open to the public. On the first floor there is, facing south, the principal library, ornamented with fresco paintings, and, facing north, a large hall containing twelve working tables, several smaller rooms and the secretarial offices. On the second floor is the physiological laboratory, and on the third floor the small library, a hall with several working tables, and the dark rooms used in developing photographs. The ground floor of the smaller building, which was finished in 1887, contains the rooms in which the animals are delivered, sorted and preserved, and the fishing tackle kept, together with the workshop of the engineer; on the first and second floors are workrooms, amongst others the botanical laboratory; on the third floor are store-rooms. In the basement of both buildings, which is continued underneath the court, there are sea-water cisterns and filters, engines and store-rooms. The materials for study which the station offers to the biologist are specimens of marine animals and plants which abound in the western part of the Mediterranean, and especially in the Gulf of Naples. To obtain these, two screw-steamers and several rowing boats are required, which are moored in the harbour of Mergellina, situated close by. The larger steamer, 'Johannes Muller' (15 m. long, 2-1/2 m. wide, 1 m. draught), which can steam eight to ten English miles per hour, is provided with a steam dredge working to a depth of eighty fathoms. From the small steamer, 'Frank Balfour,' and the rowing boats, the fishing is done by means of tow-nets. Besides these there are fishermen and others who daily supply living material for study. The plankton (small floating animals) is distributed in the morning, other animals as required. The animals brought in by the fishermen are at once distributed amongst the biologists, whereas the material brought up by the dredges is placed in flat revolving wooden vessels, so as to give the smaller animals time to come out of their hiding-places. The students who work in the station have the first claim on specimens of plants and animals; but specimens are also supplied to museums, laboratories and schools, and to individuals engaged in original research elsewhere. Up to the present time about 4000 such parcels have been despatched, and not infrequently live specimens of animals are sent to distant places. This side of the work has been of very great value to science. The principal appliances for study with which the station provides the biologist are workrooms furnished with the apparatus and chemicals necessary for anatomical research and physiological experiments and tanks. Every student receives a tank for his own special use. The large tanks of the principal aquarium are also at his disposal for purposes of observation and experiment if necessary.
"The water in the tanks is kept fresh by continual circulation, and is thus charged with the oxygen necessary to the life of the organisms. It is not pumped into the tanks directly from the sea, but from three large cisterns (containing 300 cubic metres), to which it again returns from the tanks. The water wasted or evaporated during this process is replaced by new water pumped into the cisterns directly from the sea. The water flows from the large cisterns into a smaller cistern, from which it is distributed by means of an electric pump through vulcanite or lead pipes to the various tanks. The water with which the tanks on the upper floors are filled is first pumped into large wooden tanks placed beneath the roof, thence it flows, under almost constant pressure, into the tanks. The water circulated in this manner contains by far the largest number of such animals as are capable of living in captivity in good condition. Some of them even increase at an undesirable rate, and it sometimes happens that young Mytilus or Ciona stop up the pipes; in laying these, therefore, due regard must be had to the arrangements for cleaning. For the cultivation of very delicate animals it is necessary to keep the water absolutely free from harmful bacteria; for this purpose large sand-filters have lately been placed in the system, through which the water passes after leaving the cisterns. Each of the smaller cisterns, which are fixed in the workrooms, consist of two water-tanks, placed one above the other; their frames are of wrought iron and the walls generally of glass. Vessels containing minute animals can be placed between these two tanks, receiving their water through a siphon from the upper tank; the water afterwards flows away into the lower tank.
"The twenty-six tanks of the public aquarium (the largest of which contains 112 cubic metres of water) have stone walls, the front portion alone being made of glass. As the tanks hold a very large number of animals in proportion to the quantity of water, they require to be well aerated. The pipes through which the water is conducted are therefore placed above the surface of the water, and the fresh supply is driven through them under strong pressure. A large quantity of air in the form of fine bubbles is thus taken to the bottom of the tank and distributed through the entire mass of water. Should the organisms which it is desired to keep alive be very minute, there is a danger of their being washed away by the circulating water. To obviate this, either the water which flows away is passed through a strainer, or the water is not changed at all, air being driven through it by means of an apparatus put into motion by the drinking-water supply.
"The library contains about 9000 volumes, which students use with the help of a slip catalogue, arranged according to authors. The station has published at intervals since 1879 two periodicals treating of the organisms of the Mediterranean. One is _Fauna und Flora des Golfes van Neapel_, the other _Mittheilungen aus der zoologischen Station zu Neapel_. The former consists of monographs in which special groups of animals and plants are most exhaustively treated and the Mediterranean species portrayed according to life in natural colours; up to the present time twenty-one zoological and five botanical monographs have appeared, making altogether 1200 4to sheets with about 400 plates. Of the Mittheilungen, which contain smaller articles on organisms of the Mediterranean, fourteen volumes in 8vo have been published. The station also publishes a _Zoologischer Jahresbericht_, which at first treated of the entire field of zoology, but since 1886 has been confined principally to comparative anatomy and ontogeny; it appears eight to nine months after the end of the year reported. The _Guide to the Aquarium_, with its descriptions and numerous pictures, is meant to give the lay visitor an idea of the marine animal world.
"There are about forty officials, amongst them six zoologists, one physiologist, one secretary, two draughtsmen, one engineer. The station is a private institution, open to biologists of all nations under the following conditions: there are agreements with the governments of Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, Hamburg, Holland, Hesse, Italy, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Switzerland, Hungary, Wurttemberg, the province of Naples, and the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Strassburg, Columbia College (New York), and the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the Smithsonian Institution, and a society of women in the United States of North America (formerly also with Bulgaria, Rumania, Spain, the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Williams College, University of Pennsylvania), by virtue of which the governments and corporate bodies named have the right, on payment of L100 per annum, to send a worker to the station; this places at his disposal a 'table' or workplace, furnished with all the necessary appliances and materials as set down in the agreement. At present there are agreements for thirty-three tables, and since the foundation of the station nearly 1200 biologists have worked there. The current expenses are paid out of the table-rents, the entrance fees to the public aquarium, and an annual subvention paid by the German empire."
In England a station on similar lines, but on a smaller scale, is maintained at Plymouth by the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, with the help of subsidies from the government and the Fishmongers' Company.
Little difficulty is experienced in maintaining, breeding and rearing fresh-water animals in captivity, but for many various reasons it is only by unremitting attention and foresight that most marine animals can be kept even alive in aquaria, and very few indeed can be maintained in a condition healthy enough to breed. Much experience, however, has been gained of late years at considerable expense, both in England and abroad. In starting a marine aquarium of whatever size, it should be obvious that the first consideration must be a supply of the purest possible water, as free as may be, not only from land-drainage and sewage, but also from such suspended matters as chalk, fine sand or mud. This is most ideally and economically secured by placing the station a few feet above high-water mark, in as sheltered a position as possible, on a rocky coast, pumping from the sea to a large reservoir above the station, and allowing the water to circulate gently thence through the tanks by gravity (Banyuls). At an inland aquarium (Berlin, Hamburg), given pure water in the first instance, excellent if less complete results may nevertheless, be obtained. The next consideration is the method by which oxygen is to be supplied to the organisms in the aquarium. Of the two methods hitherto in use, that of pumping a jet of air into tanks otherwise stagnant or nearly so (Brighton), while supplying sufficient oxygen, has so many other disadvantages, that it has not been employed regularly in any of the more modern aquaria. It is, however, still useful in aerating quite small bodies of water in which hardy and minute organisms can be isolated and kept under control. In the other method, now in general use, a fine jet of water under pressure falls on to the surface of the tank; this carries down with it a more than sufficient air-supply, analysis showing in some cases a higher percentage of oxygen in aquarium water than in the open sea.
The water supply is best effected by gravity from reservoirs placed above the tanks, but may be also achieved by direct pumping from low reservoirs or from the sea to the tanks. Provided that an unlimited supply of pure water can be obtained cheaply, the overflow from the tanks is best run to waste; but in aquaria less fortunately placed, it returns to a storage low-level reservoir, from which it is again pumped, thus circulating round and round (Naples, Plymouth). The storage reservoirs should be in all cases very large in comparison with the bulk of water in circulation; if practicable, they should be excavated in rock, and lined with the best cement. Thera is no reason why they should not be shallow, exposed to light and air, and cultivated as rock-pools by the introduction of seaweeds and small animals, but they must then be screened from rain, cold and dust. The pumps used in circulation will be less likely to kill minute animals if of the plunger or ram type, rather than rotary, and should be of gun-metal or one of the new bronze-alloys which take a patina in salt water. For the circulating pipes many materials have been tried. Vulcanite is not only expensive and brittle, but has other disadvantages; common iron pipes, coated internally with cement or asphalt or glazed internally, with all unions and joints cemented, have been used with more or less success. Probably best of all is common lead piping, the joints being served with red-lead; water should be circulated through such pipes till they become coated with insoluble carbonate, for some time before animals are put into the tanks. For small installations glass may be used, the joints being made with marine glue or other suitable cement.
In building the tanks themselves, regard must be had to their special purposes. If intended for show-tanks for popular admiration, or for the study of large animals, they must be large with a plate-glass front; for ordinary scientific work small tanks with all sides opaque are preferable from every point of view. According to their character, size and position, fixed tanks may be of brickwork, masonry or rock, coated in each case with cement; asphalting the sides offers no particular advantages, and often gives rise to great trouble and expense. All materials, and especially the cements, must be of the finest quality procurable. For smaller and movable tanks, slate slabs bolted or screwed together have some disadvantages, notably those of expense, weight and brittleness, but are often used. Better, cheaper and lighter, if less permanent, are tanks of wood bolted together, pitched internally. Glass bell-jars, useful in particular cases, should generally have their sides darkened, except when required for observation. Provision should always be made for cleaning every part of the tanks, pipes and reservoirs; all rock-work in tanks should therefore be removable. As regards the lighting of fixed tanks, it should always be directly from above. In all tanks with glass sides, whether large or small, as much light as possible should be kept from entering through the glass; otherwise, with a side-light, many animals become restless, and wear themselves out against the glass, affected by even so little light as comes through an opposite tank.
In cases where distance from the sea or other causes make it impracticable to allow the overflow from the tanks to run to waste, special precautions must be taken to keep the water pure. Chemically speaking, the chief character of the water in an aquarium circulation, when compared with that of the open sea, lies in the excessive quantity of nitrogen present in various forms, and the reduced alkalinity; these two being probably connected. The excess of nitrogen is referable to dead animals, to waste food and to the excreta of the living organisms. The first two of these sources of contamination may be reduced by care and cleanliness, and by the maintenance of a flow of water sufficient to prevent the excessive accumulation of sediment in the tanks. The following experiment shows the rapid rise of nitrogen if unchecked. A tank with a considerable fauna was isolated from the general circulation and aerated by four air-jets, except during hours 124-166 of the experiment; column I. shows per 100,000 the nitrogen estimated as ammonia, column II. the total inorganic nitrogen:--
I. II. Sea-water at source of original supply 0.001 0.003 Aquarium water in tank at commencement of experiment 0.012 0.400 After 22-1/2 hours 0.020 .. " 75 " 0.025 1.200 " 93 " 0.019 .. " 121-1/2 " 0.012 .. " 141 " 0.015 2.200 " 165 " 0.025 .. " 169 " 0.025 .. " 189 " 0.012 ..
During this time the alkalinity was reduced to the equivalent of 30 mg. CaCO3 per litre, ocean water having an alkalinity equivalent to 50-55 mg. per litre. It has been suggested that the organic nitrogen becomes oxidized into nitrous, then into nitric acid, which lowers the carbonate values. A great deal of reduction of this nitrogenous contamination can be effected by filtration, a method first introduced successfully at Hamburg, where a most thriving aquarium has been maintained by the local Zoological Society for many years on the circulation principle, new water being added only to compensate for waste and evaporation. The filters consist of open double boxes, the inner having a bottom of perforated slate on which rests rough gravel; on the latter is fine gravel, then coarse, and finally fine sand. Filtration may be either upwards or downwards through the inner box to the outer. Such filters, intercalated between tanks and reservoir, have been shown by analysis to stop a very large proportion of nitrogenous matter. It is doubtful whether aquarium water will not always show an excess of nitrogenous compounds, but they must be kept down in every way possible. In small tanks, well lighted, seaweeds can be got to flourish in a way that has not been found practicable in large tanks with a circulation; these, with Lamellibranchs and small Crustacea as scavengers, will be found useful in this connexion. Slight or occasional circulation should be employed here also, to remove the film of dust and other matters, which otherwise covers the surface of the water and prevents due oxygenation.
In such small tanks for domestic use the fauna must be practically limited to bottom-living animals, but for purposes of research it is often desired to keep alive larval and other surface-swimming animals (plankton). In this case a further difficulty is presented, that of helping to suspend the animals in the water, and thus to avoid the exhaustion and death which soon follow their unaided efforts to keep off the bottom; this duty is effected in nature by specific gravity, tide and surface current. In order to deal with this difficulty a simple but efficient apparatus has been devised by Mr E.T. Browne; a "plunger," generally a glass plate or filter funnel, moves slowly up and down in a bell-jar or other small tank, with a period of rest between each stroke; the motive power is obtained through a simple bucket-and-siphon arrangement worked by the overflow from other tanks. This apparatus (first used at the Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association in 1897, and since introduced into similar institutions), by causing slight eddies in the water, keeps the floating fauna in suspension, and has proved very successful in rearing larvae and in similar work. (G. H. Fo.)
AQUARIUS (the "Water-bearer" or "Cup-bearer"), in astronomy, the eleventh sign of the zodiac (q.v.), situated between Capricornus and Pisces. Its symbol is [symbol], representing part of a stream of water, probably in allusion to the fact that when the sun is in this part of the heavens (January, February) the weather is rainy. It is also a constellation mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.); Ptolemy catalogued forty-five stars, Tycho Brahe forty-one, Hevelius forty-seven. [Zeta] _Aquarii_ is a well-defined binary, having both components of the fourth magnitude; it is probably of long period.
AQUATINT (Lat. _aqua_, water, and _tincta_, dyed), a kind of etching (q.v.) which imitates washes with a brush. There are many ways of preparing a plate for aquatint, the following being recommended by P.G. Hamerton. Have three different solutions of rosin in rectified alcohol, making them of various degrees of strength, but always thin enough to be quite fluid, the weakest solution being almost colourless. First pour the strongest solution on the plate. When it dries it will produce a granulation; and you may now bite as in ordinary etching for your darker tones, stopping out what the acid is not to operate upon, or you may use a brush charged with acid, perchloride of iron being a very good mordant for the purpose. After cleaning the plate, you proceed with the weaker solutions in the same way, the weakest giving the finest granulation for skies, distances, &c. The process requires a good deal of stopping-out, and some burnishing, scraping, &c., at last. Aquatint may be effectively used in combination with line etching, and still more harmoniously with soft ground etching in which the line imitates that of the lead pencil.
AQUAVIVA, CLAUDIO (1542-1615), fifth general of the Jesuits, the youngest son of the duke d'Altri, was born at Naples. He joined the Jesuits at Rome in 1567, and his high administrative gifts marked him out for the highest posts. He was soon nominated provincial of Naples and then of Rome; and during this office he offered to join the Jesuit mission to England that set out under Robert Parsons (q.v.) in the spring of 1580. The following year, being then only thirty-seven years old, he was elected, by a large majority, general of the society in succession to Mercurian, to the great surprise of Gregory XIII.; but the extraordinary political ability he displayed, and the vast increase that came to the Society during his long generalate, abundantly justified the votes of the electors. He, together with Lainez, may be regarded as the real founder of the Society as it is known to history. A born ruler, he secured all authority in his own hands, and insisted that those who prided themselves on their obedience should act up to the profession. In his first letter "On the happy increase of the Society" (25th of July 1581), he treats of the necessary qualifications for superiors, and points out that government should be directed not by the maxims of human wisdom but by those of supernatural prudence. He successfully quelled a revolt among the Spanish Jesuits, which was supported by Philip II., and he made use in this matter of Parsons. A more difficult task was the management of Sixtus V., who was hostile to the Society. By consummate tact and boldness Aquaviva succeeded in playing the king against the pope, and Sixtus against Philip. For prudential reasons, he silenced Mariana, whose doctrine on tyrannicide had produced deep indignation in France; and he also appears to have discountenanced the action of the French Jesuits in favour of the League, and was thus able to secure solid advantages when Henry IV. overcame the confederacy. To him is due the Jesuit system of education in the book _Ratio atque institutio studiorum_ (Rome, 1586). But the Dominicans denounced it to the Inquisition, and it was condemned both in Spain and in Rome, on account of some opinions concerning the Thomist doctrines of the divine physical premotion in secondary causes and predestination. The incriminated chapters were withdrawn in the edition of 1591. In the fierce disputes that arose between the Jesuit theologians and the Dominicans on the subject of grace, Aquaviva managed, under Clement VIII. and Paul V., to save his party from a condemnation that at one time seemed probable. He died at Rome on the 31st of January 1615, leaving the Society numbering 13,000 members in 550 houses and 15 provinces. The subsequent influence exercised by the Jesuits, in their golden age, was largely due to the far-seeing policy of Aquaviva, who is undoubtedly the greatest general that has governed the Society. (E. Tn.)
AQUEDUCT (Lat. _aqua_, water, and _ducere_, to lead; Gr. [Greek: hydragogeion], [Greek: hydragogion], [Greek: hyponomos]), a term properly including artificial works of every kind by means of which water is conveyed from one place to another, but generally used in a more limited sense. It is, in fact, rarely employed except in cases where the work is of considerable magnitude and importance, and where the water flows naturally by gravitation. The most important purpose for which aqueducts are constructed is that of conveying pure water, from sources more or less distant, to large masses of population. Aqueducts are either below ground, on the surface, or raised on walls either solid or pierced with arches; to the last the term is often confined in popular language. The choice of method naturally depends on the contour of the country.
Phoenician.
I. _Ancient Aqueducts._--In Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria--flat countries traversed by big rivers and subject to floods--water was supplied by means of open canals with large basins. In Persia devices of all kinds were adopted according to the nature of the country. In relation to the achievements of Greece and Rome, the Phoenicians are the most important among pre-classical engineers. In Cyprus water was supplied to temples by rock-cut subterranean conduits carried across intervening valleys in siphons. Such conduits have been found near Citium, Amathus, &c. (Cesnola, _Cyprus_, pp. 187, 341). In Syria the most striking of Phoenician waterworks is the well of Ras-el-Ain near Tyre, which consisted of four strong octagonal towers through which rises to a height of 18 to 20 ft. the water from four deep artesian wells. The water thus accumulated was carried off in conduits to reservoirs near the shore, and thence in vessels or skins to the island. The aqueduct across to the island is, of course, of Roman work.
Jerusalem.
It is not possible in all cases to find a satisfactory date for the numerous conduits which have supplied Jerusalem; some probably go back to the times of the kings of Judah. The principal reservoir consists of the three Pools of Solomon which supplied the old aqueduct; the highest is about 20 ft. above the middle one and 40 above the lowest. These pools collected the water from Ain Saleh and other springs, and sent it to the city by two conduits. The higher of these--probably the older--was partly a rock-cut canal, partly carried on masonry; the siphon-pipe system was adopted across the lower ground near Rachel's Tomb, where the pipe (15 in. wide) is formed of large pierced stones embedded in rubble masonry. The lower conduit is still complete; it winds so much as to be altogether some 20 m. long. Near the Birket-es-Sultan it passes over the valley of Hinnom on nine low arches and reaches the city on the hill above the Tyropeon valley. It enters the Haram enclosure at the Gate of the Chain (Bab es-Silsila), outside which is a basin 84 ft. by 42 by 24 deep. It is interesting to note in the case of the underground tunnel which brought water from the Virgin's Fountain to the pool of Siloam, that the two boring parties had no certain means of keeping the line; there is evidence that they had to make shafts to discover their position, and that ultimately the parties almost passed one another. Though the direct distance is 1100 ft., the length of the conduit is over 1700 ft. Perrot and Chipiez incline to attribute the Pools of Solomon to the Asmonaeans, followed by Roman governors, whereas the earlier tunnels of the Kedron and Tyropeon valley may be Punic-Jewish (see also _Palest. Explor. Fund Mem._, "Jerusalem," pp. 346-365). Besides these conduits excavation has discovered traces of many other cisterns, tunnels and conduits of various kinds. Many of them point to periods of great prosperity and engineering enterprise which gave to the city a water-supply far superior to that which exists at present.
See the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund; A.S. Murray's _Handbook to Syria and Palestine_ (1903), pp. 63-67; Perrot and Chipiez, _History of Art in Sardinia, Judaea, &c._ (Eng. trans., 1890), pp. 321 ff.; other authorities quoted under JERUSALEM.
Greek
The earliest attempts in Europe to solve the problems of water-supply were made by the Greeks, who perhaps derived their ideas from the Phoenicians. It has generally been held, partly on the strength of a passage in Strabo (v. 3. 8, p. 235), and partly owing to the comparative unimportance of the remains discovered, that the Greek works were altogether inferior to the Roman. Research in the Greek towns of Asia Minor, together with a juster appreciation of the remains as a whole, must be held to modify this view. Among the earliest examples of Greek work are the tunnels or _emissaria_ which drained Lake Copais in Boeotia; these, though not strictly aqueducts, were undoubtedly the precursors of such works, consisting as they did of subterranean tunnels ([Greek: hyponomoi]) with vertical shafts ([Greek: phreatiai]), sixteen of which are still recognizable, the deepest being about 150 ft. They may be compared with that described by Polybius as conveying water from Taurus to Hecatompylos, and with numerous other remains in Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia and Palmyra. Popular legend ascribed them to Cadmus, just as Argos referred the irrigation of its lands to Danaus. They are undoubtedly of great antiquity.
The insufficiency of water, supplied by natural springs and cisterns hewn in the rock, which in an early age had satisfied the small communities of Greece, had become a pressing public question by the time of the Tyrants, of whom Polycrates of Samos and Peisistratus of Athens were distinguished for their wisdom and enterprise in this respect. The former obtained the services of Eupalinus, an engineer celebrated for the skill with which he had carried out the works for the water-supply of Megara (see _Athen. Mittheil._ xxv., 1900, 23) under the direction of the Tyrant Theagenes (c. 625 B.C.). At Samos the difficulty lay in a hill which rose between the town and the water source. Through this hill Eupalinus cut a tunnel 8 ft. broad, 8 ft. high and 4200 ft. long, building within the tunnel a channel 3 ft. broad and 11 ells deep. The water, flowing by an accurately reckoned declivity, and all along open to the fresh air, was received at the lower end by a conduit of masonry, and so led into the town, where it supplied fountains, pipes, baths, cloacae, &c., and ultimately passed into the harbour (Herod, iii. 60). In Athens, under the rule of the Peisistratids (c. 560-510 B.C.), a similarly extensive, if less difficult, series of works was completed to bring water from the neighbouring hills to supplement the inadequate supply from the springs. From Hymettus were two conduits passing under the bed of the Ilissus, most of the course being cut in the rock. Pentelicus, richer in water, supplied another conduit, which can still be traced from the modern village of Chalandri by the air shafts built several feet above the ground, and at a distance apart of 130-160 ft.; the diameter of these shafts is 4-5 ft., and the number of them still preserved is about sixty. Tributary channels conveyed into the main stream the waters of the district through which it passed. Outside Athens, those two conduits met in a large reservoir, from which the water was distributed by a ramification of underground channels throughout the city. These latter channels vary in form, being partly round, partly square, and generally walled with stone; the chief one is sufficiently large for two men to pass in it. The precise location of the reservoir depends on the value of Dr Wilhelm Dorpfeld's theory as to the site of the Enneacrunus of Thucydides and Pausanias (see ATHENS: _Topography and Antiquity_). Dorpfeld places it south-west of the Acropolis, where there is a cistern connected with an aqueduct which passed under the theatre of Dionysus and on towards the Ilissus (see map under ATHENS). Others have placed it south of the Olympieum in the Ilissus bed. Beside these works water was brought from Pentelicus in an underground conduit begun by the emperor Hadrian and completed by Antoninus Pius. This aqueduct is still in use, having been repaired in 1869.
In Sicily, the works by which Empedocles, it is said, brought the water into the town of Selinus, are no longer visible; but it is probable that, like those of Syracuse, they consisted chiefly of tunnels and pipes laid under the ground. Syracuse was supplied by two aqueducts, one of which the Athenians destroyed (Thuc. vi. 100). One was fed by an affluent (the mod. Buttigliara) of the Anapus (mod. Anapo); it carried the water up to the top of Epipolae, where the channel was open, and thence down to the city and finally into the harbour. The other also ascends to the top of Epipolae, skirts the city on the north, and then proceeds along the coast. Its course is marked by rectangular shafts (_spiragli_) at the bottom of which water is still visible.
An example of what appears to have been the earliest form of aqueduct in Greece was discovered in the island of Cos beside the fountain Burinna (mod. Fountain of Hippocrates) on Mount Oromedon. It consists of a bell-shaped chamber, built underground in the hill-side, to receive the water of the spring and keep it cool; a shaft from the top of the chamber supplied fresh air. From this reservoir the water was led by a subterranean channel, 114 ft. long and 6-1/2 ft. high. (J. M. M.)
Roman.
In comparing Greek and Roman aqueducts, many writers have enlarged on the greatness of the latter as an example of Roman contempt for natural obstacles, or even of Roman ignorance of the laws of nature. Now, in the first place, the Romans were not unacquainted with the law that water finds its own level (see Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xxxi. 57, "subit altitudinem exortus sui"), and took full advantage of it in the construction of lofty fountains and the supplying of the upper floors of houses. That they built aqueducts across valleys in preference to carrying pipes underground was due simply to economy. Pipes had to be made of lead which was weak, or of bronze which was expensive; and the Romans were not sufficiently expert in the casting of large pipes which would stand a very great pressure to employ them for the whole course of a great aqueduct. Secondly, the water was so extremely hard that it was important that the channels should be readily accessible for repair as well as for the detection of leakage.[1] Moreover, as we shall see, the Roman aqueducts did not, in fact, preserve a straight line regardless of the configuration of the country. A striking example is the aqueduct of Nemausus (Nimes), the springs of which are some 10 m. from the town, though the actual distance traversed is about 25. Other devices, such as changing the level and then modifying the slope, and siphon arrangements of various kinds, were adopted (as in the aqueduct at Aspendus).
Sextus Julius Frontinus, appointed _curator aquarum_ in A.D. 97, mentions in his treatise _de aquaeductibus urbis Romae_ (on the aqueducts of the city of Rome) nine aqueducts as being in use in his time (the lengths of the aqueducts as given here follow his measurements). These are: (1) AQUA APPIA, which took its rise between the 6th and 7th milestones of the Via Collatina, and measured from its source to the Porta Trigemina 11 Roman miles, of which all but about 300 ft. were below ground. It appears to have been the first important enterprise of the kind at Rome, and was the work of the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, from whom it derived its name. The date of its construction was 312 B.C. (2) ANIO VETUS, constructed in 272-269 B.C. by the censor Manius Curius Dentatus. From its source near Tivoli, on the left side of the Anio, it flowed some 43 m.,[2] of which only 1100 ft. was above ground. At the distance of 2 m. from Rome (Frontinus, i. 21), it parted into two courses, one of which led to the _horti Asiniani_, and was thence distributed; while the other (_rectus ductus_) led by the temple of Spes to the Porta Esquilina. (3) AQUA MARCIA, reconstructed in 1869-1870 under the name of Acqua Pia or Marcia-Pia after Pius IX. (though from Tivoli to Rome the modern aqueduct takes an entirely different course), rising on the left side of the Via Valeria near the 36th milestone. It traversed 61-3/4 m., of which 54-1/4 were underground, and for the remaining distance was carried partly on substructions and partly on arches. It was the work of the praetor Quintus Marcius Rex (144-140 B.C.), not of Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, as Pliny (_N.H._ xxxi. 3) fancied, and took its name from its constructor. Its waters were celebrated for their coolness and excellent quality. Its volume was largely increased by Augustus, who added to it the Aqua Augusta; and it was repaired and restored by Titus, Septimus Severus, Caracalla and Diocletian. (4) AQUA TEPULA, from its source (now known as Sorgente Preziosa) in the district of Tusculum, to Rome, was some 11 m. in length. The first portion of its course must have been almost entirely subterranean and is not now traceable. For the last 6-1/2 m. it ran on the same series of arches that carried the Aqua Marcia, but at a higher level. It was the work of the censors Cn. Servilius Caepio and L. Cassius Longinus, and was completed in the year 125 B.C. Its water is warm (about 63 deg. Fahr.) and not of the best quality. (5) The AQUA JULIA, from a source 2 m. from that of the Tepula, joined its course at the 10th milestone of the Via Latina. The combined stream, after a distance of 4 m., was received in a reservoir, and then once more divided into two channels. The entire length of the Julia was 15-1/2 m. It was constructed in the year 33 B.C. by M. Vipsanius Agrippa, who also built the (6) AQUA VIRGO which, from its origin at a copious spring in a marsh on the Via Collatina, measured 14 m. in length; it was conveyed in a channel, partly under and partly above ground. It was begun in the year 33 B.C. and was celebrated for the excellence of its waters. It was restored to use by Pius V. in 1570. (7) AQUA ALSIETINA or AUGUSTA, the source of which is the Lacus Alsietinus (mod. Lago di Martignano), to the north of Rome, was over 22 m. in length, of which 358 paces were on arches. It was the work of Augustus, probably with the object of furnishing water for his _naumachia_ (a basin for sham sea-fights), and not for drinking purposes. Its course is unknown, as no remains of it exist, but an inscription relating to it is given in _Notizie d. Scant_ (1887), p. 182. (8, 9) The AQUA CLAUDIA and ANIO NOVUS were two aqueducts begun by Caligula in A.D. 38 and completed by Claudius in A.D. 52. The springs of the former belonged to the same group as those of the Marcia, and were situated near the 38th milestone of the Via Sublacensis, not far from its divergence from the Via Valeria, while the original intake of the latter from the river Anio was 4 m. farther along the same road. As the water was thick it was collected in a purifying tank, and 4 m. below, a branch stream, the Rivus Herculaneus, was added to it. According to Frontinus, over 10 m. of the course of the Claudia and nearly 9-1/2 of that of the Anio Novus were above ground. Seven miles out of Rome they united and ran from that point into Rome, following a natural isthmus formed by a lava stream from the Alban volcano, upon a line of arches, which still forms one of the most conspicuous features of the Campagna. The original inscription of Claudius (A.D. 52) on the Porta Maggiore, by which the Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus crossed the Via Praenestina and the Via Labicana, gives the length of the Aqua Claudia as 45 m., and that of the Anio Novus as 62 m. Frontinus, on the other hand, gives 46.406 m. (i.e. about 43 English miles) and 58.700 m. (i.e. about 54 English miles). Albertini (_Melanges de l'Ecole Francaise_, 1906, 305) explains the difference as due to the fact that Frontinus was calculating the length of the Claudia from the farthest spring, the Fons Albudinus, and that of the Anio Novus from the new intake constructed by Trajan in one of the three lakes constructed by Nero for the adornment of his villa above Subiaco. Two other inscriptions on the Porta Maggiore record restorations by Vespasian in A.D. 70, and by Titus in A.D. 80. That the aqueducts should be spoken of as _vetustate dilapsi_ so soon after their construction is not a little surprising, and may be attributed either to hasty construction in order to complete them by a fixed date, or to jobbery by the imperial freedmen who under Claudius were especially powerful, or to the fact that a line of arches intended originally in all probability for the Aqua Claudia alone was made to carry the Anio Novus as well.
The size of the channels (_specus_) of the principal aqueducts varies considerably at different points of their course. The Anio Novus has the largest of them all, measuring 3 to 4 ft. wide and 9 ft. high to the top of the roof, which is pointed. They are lined with hard cement (_opus signinum_) containing fragments of broken brick. Those aqueducts of which the most conspicuous remains exist in the neighbourhood of Rome are the four from the upper valley of the Anio, the two which took their supply and their name from the river itself, and the Marcia and the Claudia, which originated from the same group of springs, in the floor of the Anio valley 6 m. below Subiaco. Those of the Anio Vetus, which travelled at a considerably lower level than the other three, are the least conspicuous, while the Claudia and Anio Novus as a rule kept close together, the latter at the highest level of all. The ruins of bridges and substructions in the Anio valley down to Tivoli, though comparatively little known, are of great importance. In all the aqueducts the original construction of the bridges was in _opus quadratum_ (masonry), while the substructions are in brick-faced concrete; but the bridges are as a rule strengthened (and often several times) with reinforcing walls of concrete faced with _opus reticulatum_ or brickwork. Below Tivoli, where the Anio leaves its narrow valley, the aqueducts sweep round towards the Alban hills, and pass through some very difficult country between Tivoli and Gallicano, alternately crossing ravines, some of which are as much as 300 ft. deep, and tunnelling through hills.[3]
The engineering skill displayed is remarkable, and one wonders what instruments were employed--probably the so-called _chorobates_, an improvement upon the ordinary water-level (Vitruvius viii. 6), though this would be slow and complicated. The optical properties of glass lenses were, however, unknown to the ancients, and the _dioptra_, or angle measure, was considered by Vitruvius less trustworthy than the _chorobates_ for the planning of aqueducts (cf. E. Hultsch, _s.v_. in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-encyclopadie_). The aqueducts as a rule were carried on separate bridges, though all four united at the Ponte Lupo, a huge structure, which after the addition of all the four, and with the inclusion of all the later strengthening walls that were found necessary in course of time, measures 105 ft. in height, 508 in length, and 46 in thickness at the bottom, without including the buttresses. From Gallicano onwards the course of these four aqueducts follows the lower slopes of the Alban Hills. Previous writers on the subject have been unable to determine their course, which is largely subterranean; but it can be followed step by step with the indications given by the presence of the calcareous deposit which was thrown out at the _putei_ or shafts (which were, as a rule, placed at intervals of 240 ft., as were the _cippi_) when the _specus_ was cleaned; and remains of bridges, though less important, owing to the less difficult character of the country, are not entirely absent (cf. the works by T. Ashby cited in bibliography).[4] Near the 7th milestone of the Via Latina at Le Capanelle, the Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus emerge from their underground course, and run into Rome upon the long series of arches already mentioned, passing over the Porta Maggiore. The Claudia sent off an important branch from the Porta Maggiore over the Caclian to the Palatine, but the main aqueduct soon reached its termination. A mile farther on the Aqua Marcia also, owing to the gradual slope of the ground towards Rome, begins to be supported on arches, which were also used to carry the Aqua Tepula and the Aqua Julia (of the two latter, before their junction with the Marcia, no remains exist above ground, but inscribed _cippi_ of the last named and its underground channel have been found at Le Capanelle, and _cippi_ also close to its springs, which are a little way above Grottaferrata at Gli Squarciarelli). The Anio Vetus followed the same line, but kept underground (as was natural at the early period at which it was constructed) until the immediate neighbourhood of Rome, near the locality known as "ad Spem veterem" (from a temple of Spes, of which no remains are known) close to the Porta Maggiore. At this point, besides the aqueducts named, the Aqua Appia, as we are told by Frontinus, entered the city, and received an important branch, the Appia Augusta. No remains of either have been discovered outside the city.
The Aqua Alexandrina must also have entered the city here, though its channel, which lay at some depth below ground, has not been discovered. Considerable remains of its brick aqueducts exist in the district between the Via Praenestina and the Via Labicana.
Of the two aqueducts on the right bank of the Tiber, the Alsietina, as we have said, has no remains at all, while those of the Traiana are not of great importance. The line of the aqueducts was marked by _cippi_, inscribed (in the case of the Anio Vetus, Marcia, Tepula, Julia and Virgo--those of the Claudia and Anio Novus are uninscribed, and those of the Traiana are differently worded) with the name of the aqueduct, the distance from the next _cippus_ (generally 240 ft.) and the number, counting from Rome (not from the springs). These boundary stones were erected in pairs, to mark off the strip of land 30 ft. in width reserved for the aqueduct, and for the road or path which generally followed it. The shafts (_putei_) often stood, but not necessarily, at the same points as the _cippi_.
To these nine must be added the two following, constructed after Frontinus's time: (10) AQUA TRAIANA, from springs to the north-west of the Lacus Sabatinus (Lago di Bracciano), constructed by Trajan in A.D. 109, about 36-1/2 English miles in length. It was restored by Paul V. in 1611, who made use of and largely transformed the remains of the ancient aqueduct; he allowed some of the inferior water of the lake to flow into the channel, and it is thus no longer used for drinking. (11) AQUA ALEXANDRINA, rising about 14 English miles from Rome, between the Via Praenestina and the Via Labicana, the work of Alexander Severus (A.D. 226). The springs now supply the modern Acqua Felice, constructed by Sixtus V. in 1585, but the course of the latter is mainly subterranean and not identical with that of the former.
It is agreed that these eleven are all that were constructed. Procopius speaks of fourteen (and the Regionary catalogues mention others), but this number includes branch conduits. All the aqueducts ended in the city in huge _castella_ or reservoirs for the purpose of distribution. Vitruvius recommends the division of these into three parts--one for the supply of fountains, &c., one for the public baths and one for private consumers. In the Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele at Rome there are still to be seen the remains of a large ornamental fountain built probably for the Aqua Julia by Domitian or Alexander Severus (Jordan-Hulsen, _Topographie_, i. 3350). Besides these main _castella_ there were also many minor _castella_ in various parts of the city for sub-distribution. To allow the water to purify itself before being distributed in the city, filtering and settling tanks (_piscinae limariae_) were built outside the walls. These _piscinae_ were covered in with a vaulted roof, and were sometimes on a very large scale, as in the example still preserved at Fermo, which consists of two stories, each having three oblong basins communicating with each other; or the Piscina Mirabilis at Baiae, which is covered in by a vaulted roof, supported on forty-eight pillars and perforated to permit the escape of foul air. Two stairs lead by forty steps to the bottom of the reservoir. In the middle of the basin is a sinking to collect the deposit of the water. The walls and pillars are coated with a stucco so hard as to resist a tool.
The oversight of aqueducts was placed, in the times of the republic, under the aediles, who were not, however, the constructors of them; of the four aqueducts built during this period, three are the work of censors, one (the Marcia) of a praetor. Under the empire this task devolved on special officials styled _Curatores Aquarum_, instituted by Augustus, who, as he himself says, "rivos aquarum omnium refecit" (inscription on the arch by which the Aqua Marcia crossed the Via Tiburtina). (T. As.)
Among the aqueducts outside Italy, constructed in Roman times and existing still, the most remarkable are: (1) the aqueduct at Nimes (Nemausus), erected probably by Vipsanius Agrippa in the time of Augustus, which rose to 160 ft. The Pont du Card, as this aqueduct is now called, consists of three tiers of arches across the valley of the river Gardon. In the lowest tier are six arches, of which one has a span of 75 ft., the others each 60 ft. In the second tier are eleven arches, each with a span of 75 ft. In the third tier are thirty-five smaller arches which carried the _specus_. As a bridge, the Pont du Gard has no rival for lightness and boldness of design among the existing remains of works of this class carried out in Roman times. (2) The aqueduct bridges at Segovia (Merckel, _Ingenieurtechnik_, pp. 566-568), Tarragona (_ibid._ 565-566), and Merida in Spain, the former being 2400 ft. long, with 109 arches of fine masonry, in two tiers, and reaching the height of 102 ft. The bridge at Tarragona is 876 ft. long and 83 ft. high. (3) At Mainz are the ruins of an aqueduct 7000 yds. long, about half of which is carried on from 500 to 600 pillars (_Archaeological Journal_, xlvii., 1890, pp. 211-214). This aqueduct was built by the XIVth legion and was for the use of the camp, not for the townspeople. For the similar aqueduct at Luynes see _Arch. Journ._ xlv. (1888), pp. 235-237. Similar witnesses of Roman occupation are to be seen in Dacia, Africa (see especially under CARTHAGE), Greece and Asia Minor. (4) The aqueduct at Jouy-aux-Arches, near Metz, which originally extended across the Moselle, here very broad, conveyed to the city an abundance of excellent water from Gorze. From a large reservoir at the source of the aqueduct the water passed along subterranean channels built of hewn stone, and sufficiently spacious for a man to walk in them upright. Similar channels received the water after it had crossed the Moselle by this bridge, at the distance of about 6 m. from Metz, and conveyed it to the city. The bridge consisted of only one row of arches nearly 60 ft. high. The middle arches have given way under the force of the water, but the others are still perfectly solid. This aqueduct is probably to be attributed to the latter half of the 4th century A.D. It is for the use of the town; hence its size. (5) One of the principal bridges of the aqueduct of Antioch in Syria is 700 ft. long, and at the deepest point 200 ft. high. The lower part consists almost entirely of solid wall, and the upper part of a series of arches with very massive pillars. The masonry and design are rude. The water supply was drawn from several springs at a place called Beit el-Ma (anc. Daphne) about 4 or 5 m. from Antioch. From these separate springs the water was conducted by channels of hewn stone into a main channel, similarly constructed, which traversed the rest of the distance, being carried across streams and valleys by means of arches or bridges. (6) At the village of Moris, about an hour's distance north-west from the town of Mytilene, is the bridge of an aqueduct, carried by massive pillars built of large hewn blocks of grey marble, and connected by means of three rows of arches, of which the uppermost is of brick. The bridge extended about 500 ft. in length, and at the deepest point was from 70 to 80 ft. high. Judged by the masonry and the graceful design, it has been thought to be a work of the age of Augustus. Remains of this aqueduct are to be seen at Larisson Lamarousia, an hour's distance from Moris, and at St Demetri, two hours and a half from Ayasos, on the road to Vasilika.
Asia Minor.
The whole subject of the ancient and medieval aqueducts of Asia Minor has been considered in great detail by G. Weber ("Wasserleitungen in kleinasiatischen Stadten," in the _Jahrbuch des kaiserl. deutsch. archaolog. Instit._ xix., 1904; see also earlier articles in _Jahrbuch_, 1892, 1899). The aqueducts examined are those at Pergamum, Laodicea and Smyrna (in the earlier articles), and those at Metropolis (Ionia), Tralles (Aidin), Antioch-on-Maeander, Aphrodisias, Trapezopolis, Hierapolis, Apamea Cibotus and Antioch in Pisidia. In most of these cases it is difficult or even impossible to decide whether the work is Hellenistic or Roman; to the Romans Weber inclines to attribute, e.g. those at Metropolis, Tralles (perhaps), Aphrodisias; to the Greeks, e.g. those at Antioch-on-Maeander and Antioch in Pisidia. Since, therefore, a detailed description of these remains does not provide material for any satisfactory generalizations as to the distinctive features of Hellenistic and Roman work, it will be sufficient here to mention a few of the more interesting discoveries.
In the case of Metropolis, the aqueduct in the valley of the Astraeus consisted of an arcade about 13 to 16 ft. high. Nearer to the town in the hills there are distinct traces of a canal with brick walls. It is clear that the water could not have served more than the lower parts of the town, the acropolis of which is nearly 200 ft. above the level of the conduit. In the case of Tralles the water was supplied by a high pressure conduit and distributed from the acropolis, where there are the remains of a basin (13 ft. by 10) arched over with brick. The ancient aqueduct is to be distinguished from a later, probably Byzantine, canal conduit, the course of which avoids the deeper depressions, crossed by the old aqueduct. Of the Antioch-on-Maeander aqueduct only a few clay-pipes remain, and the same is true of the aqueduct which was built by Carminius in the 2nd century A.D. to supply the community when reinforced by the amalgamation of Plarasa and Tauropolis; two of its basins are still distinguishable, but the two water-towers which are still standing belong to a later Byzantine structure. Trapezopolis was supplied from Mt. Salbacus (Baba Dagh): some twenty stone-pipes have been found built into a low wall which varies from 3-1/4 to about 5 ft. wide. Of the pillars which carried the conduit-pipe to Antioch in Pisidia, nineteen are still standing. Each arch consists of eleven keystones; no cement was used. The conduit, which was high-pressure, ends in a distributing tower and reservoir. (J. M. M.)
II. _Medieval._--The aqueduct near Spoleto, which now serves also as a bridge, is deserving of notice as an early instance of the use of the pointed arch, belonging as it does to the 7th or 8th century. It has ten arches, remarkable for the elegance of their design and the airy lightness of their proportions, each over 66 ft. in span, and about 300 ft. in height.
Constantinople.
The aqueduct of Pyrgos, near Constantinople, is a remarkable example of works of this class carried out in the later times of the Roman empire, and consisted of two branches. From this circumstance it was called Egri Kemer ("the Crooked Aqueduct"), to distinguish it from the Long Aqueduct, situated near the source of the waters. One of the branches extends 670 ft. in length, and is 106 ft. in height at the deepest part. It is composed of three tiers of arches, those in each row increasing in width from the bottom to the top--an arrangement very properly introduced with the view of saving materials without diminishing the strength of the work. The two upper rows consisted of arches of semicircles, the lower of Gothic arches; and this circumstance leads to the belief that the date of the structure is about the 10th century. The breadth of the building at the base was 21 ft., and it diminished with a regular batter on each side to the top, where it was only 11 ft. The base also was protected by strong buttresses or counterforts, erected against each of the pillars. The other branch of the aqueduct was 300 ft. long, and consisted of twelve semicircular arches. This aqueduct serves to convey to Constantinople the waters of the valley of Belgrad, one of the principal sources from which the city is supplied. These are situated on the heights of Mount Haemus, the extremity of the Balkan Mountains, which overhangs the Black Sea. The water rises about 15 m. from the city, and between 3 and 4 m. west of the village of Belgrad, in three sources, which run in three deep and very confined valleys. These unite a little below the village, and then are collected into a large reservoir. After flowing a mile or two from this reservoir, the waters are augmented by two other streams, and conveyed by a channel of stone to the Crooked Aqueduct. From this they are conveyed to another which is the Long Aqueduct; and then, with various accessions, into a third, termed the Aqueduct of Justinian. From this they enter a vaulted conduit, which skirts the hills on the left side of the valley, and crosses a broad valley 2 m. below the Aqueduct of Justinian, by means of an aqueduct, with two tiers of arches of a very beautiful construction. The conduit then proceeds onward in a circuitous route, till it reaches the reservoir of Egri Kapu, situated just without and on the walls of the city. From this the water is conducted to the various quarters of the city, and also to the reservoir of St Sophia, which supplies the seraglio of the grand signior. The Long Aqueduct (Usun Kemer) is more imposing by its extent than the Crooked one, but is far inferior in the regularity of design and disposition of the materials. It is evidently a work of the Turks. It consists of two tiers of arches, the lower being forty-eight in number, and the upper fifty. The whole length was about 2200 ft., and the height 80 ft. The aqueduct of Justinian (Muallak Kemer or "Hanging Aqueduct") is without doubt one of the finest monuments which remain to us of the middle ages. It consists of two tiers of large pointed arches, pierced transversely. Those of the lower story have 55 ft. of span, the upper ones 40 ft. The piers are supported by strong buttresses, and at different heights they have little arches passing through them laterally, which relieve the deadness of the solid pillar. The length of this aqueduct is 720 ft. and the height 108 ft. This aqueduct has been attributed both to Constantine I. and to Justinian, the latter being perhaps the more probable.
Besides the waters of Belgrad, Constantinople was supplied from several other principal sources, one of which took its rise on the heights of the same mountains, 3 or 4 m. east of Belgrad. This was conveyed in a similar manner by an arched channel elevated, when it was necessary, on aqueduct bridges, till it reached the northern parts of the city. It was in the course of this aqueduct that the contrivance of the _souterasi_ or hydraulic obelisks, described by Andreossy (on his voyage to the Black Sea, the account of the Thracian Bosporus), was constructed, which excited some attention, as being an improvement on the method of conducting water by aqueduct bridges. "The souterasi," says Andreossy, "are masses of masonry, having generally the form of a truncated pyramid or an Egyptian obelisk. To form a conduit with souterasi, we choose sources of water, the level of which is several feet higher than the reservoir by which it is to be distributed over the city. We bring the water from its sources in subterranean canals, slightly declining until we come to the borders of a valley or broken ground. We there raise on each side a souterasi, to which we adapt vertically leaden pipes of determinate diameters, placed parallel to the two opposite sides of the building. These pipes are disjoined at the upper part of the obelisk, which forms a sort of basin, with which the pipes are connected. The one permits the water to rise to the level from whence it had descended; by the other, the water descends from this level to the foot of the souterasi, where it enters another canal underground, which conducts it to a second and to a third souterasi, where it rises and again descends, as at the last station. Here a reservoir receives it and distributes it in different directions by orifices of which the discharge is known." Again he says, "it requires but little attention to perceive that this system of conducting tubes is nothing but a series of siphons open at their upper part, and communicating with each other. The expense of a conduit by souterasi is estimated at only one-fifth of that of an aqueduct with arcades." There seems to be really no advantage in these pyramids, further than as they serve the purpose of discharging the air which collects in the pipes. They are in themselves an evident obstruction, and the water would flow more freely without any interruption of the kind. In regard to the leaden pipes, again, they would have required, with so little head pressure as is stated, to be used of very extraordinary dimensions to pass the same quantity of water as was discharged along the arched conduits (see also works quoted under CONSTANTINOPLE). The other principal source from which Constantinople is supplied, is from the high grounds 6 or 8 m. west of the town, from which it is conducted by conduits and arches, in the same manner as the others. The supply drawn from all these sources, as detailed by Andreossy, amounted to 400,000 cubic ft. per day. (A. S. M.; J. M. M.)
Aqueducts and water supply.
III. _Modern Construction._--Where towns are favourably situated the aqueduct may be very short and its cost bear a relatively small proportion to the total outlay upon a scheme of water supply, but where distant sources have to be relied upon the cost of the aqueduct becomes one of the most important features in the scheme, and the quantity of water obtainable must be considerable to justify the outlay. Hence it is that only very large towns can undertake the responsibility for this expenditure. In Great Britain it has in all large schemes become a condition that, when a town is permitted to go outside its own watershed, it shall, subject to a priority of a certain number of gallons per day per head of its own inhabitants, allow local authorities, any part of whose district is within a certain number of miles of the aqueduct, to take a supply on reasonable terms. The first case in which this principle was adopted on a large scale was the Thirlmere scheme sanctioned by parliament in 1879, for augmenting the supply of Manchester. The previous supply was derived from a source only about 15 m. distant, and the cost of the aqueduct, chiefly cast-iron pipes, was insignificant compared with the cost of the impounding reservoirs. But Thirlmere is 96 m. distant from the service reservoir near Manchester, and the cost of the aqueduct was more than 90% of the total cost. As a supply of about 50,000,000 gallons a day is available the outlay was justifiable, and the water is in fact very cheaply obtained. Liverpool derives a supply of about 40,000,000 gallons a day from the river Vyrnwy in North Wales, 68 m. distant, and Birmingham has constructed works for impounding water in Radnorshire, and conveying it a distance of 74 m., the supply being about 75,000,000 gallons a day. In the year 1899 an act of parliament was passed authorizing the towns of Derby, Leicester, Sheffield and Nottingham, jointly to obtain a supply of water from the head waters of the river Derwent in Derbyshire. Leicester is 60 m. distant from this source, and its share of the supply is about 10,000,000 gallons a day. For more than half the distance, however, the aqueduct is common to Derby and Nottingham, which together are entitled to about 16,000,000 gallons a day, and the expense to Leicester is correspondingly reduced. These are the most important cases of long aqueducts in England, and all are subsequent to 1879. It is obvious, therefore, how greatly the design and construction of the aqueduct have grown in importance, and what care must be Exercised in order that the supply upon which such large populations depend may not be interrupted, and that the country through which such large volumes of water are conveyed may not be flooded in consequence of the failure of any of the works.
Construction.
Practically only two types of aqueduct are used in England. The one is built of concrete, brickwork, &c., the other of cast-iron (or, in special circumstances, steel) pipes. In the former type the water surface coincides with the hydraulic gradient, and the conditions are those of an artificial river; the aqueduct must therefore be carefully graded throughout, so that the fall available between source and termination may be economically distributed. This condition requires that the ground in which the work is built shall be at the proper elevation; if at any point this is not the case, the aqueduct must be carried on a substructure built up to the required level. Such large structures are, however, extremely expensive, and require elaborate devices for maintaining water-tightness against the expansion and contraction of the masonry due to changes of temperature. They are now only used where their length is very short, as in cases where mountain streams have to be crossed, and even these short lengths are avoided by some engineers, who arrange that the aqueduct shall pass, wherever practicable, under the streams. Where wide valleys interrupt the course of the built aqueduct, or where the absence of high ground prevents the adoption of that type at any part of the route, the cast-iron pipes hereafter referred to are used.
Masonry aqueducts.
The built aqueduct may be either in tunnel, or cut-and-cover, the latter term denoting the process of cutting the trench, building the floor, side-walls, and roof, and covering with earth, the surface of the ground being restored as before. For works conveying water for domestic supply, the aqueduct is in these days, in England, always covered. Where, as is usually the case, the water is derived from a tract of mountainous country, the tunnel work is sometimes very heavy. In the case of the Thirlmere aqueduct, out of the first 13 m. the length of the tunnelled portions is 8 m., the longest tunnel being 3 m. in length. Conditions of time, and the character of the rock, usually require the use of machinery for driving, at any rate in the case of the longer tunnels. For the comparatively small tunnels required for aqueducts, two percussion drilling machines are usually mounted on a carriage, the motive power being derived from compressed air sent up the tunnel in pipes. The holes when driven are charged with explosives and fired. In the Thirlmere tunnels, driven through very hard Lower Silurian strata, the progress was about 13 yds. a week at each face, work being carried on continuously day and night for six days a week. Where the character of the country through which the aqueduct passes is much the same as that from which the supply is derived, the tunnels need not be lined with concrete, &c., more than is absolutely necessary for retaining the water and supporting weak places in the rock; the floor, however, is nearly always so treated. The lining, whether in tunnel or cut-and-cover, may be either of concrete, or brickwork, or of concrete faced with brickwork. To ensure the impermeability of work constructed with these materials is in practice somewhat difficult, and no matter how much care is taken by those supervising the workmen, and even by the workmen themselves, it is impossible to guarantee entire freedom from trouble in this respect. With a wall only about 15 in. thick, any neglect is certain to make the work permeable; frequently the labourers do not distribute the broken stone and fine material of the concrete uniformly, and no matter how excellent the design, the quality of materials, &c., a leak is sure to occur at such places (unless, indeed, the pressure of the outside water is superior and an inflow occurs). A further cause of trouble lies in the water which flows from the strata on to the concrete, and washes away some of the cement upon which the work depends for its watertightness, before it has time to set. For this reason it is advisable to put in the floor before, and not after, the sidewalls and arch have been built, otherwise the only outlet for the water in the strata is through the ground on which the floor has to be laid. Each length of about 20 ft. should be completely constructed before the next is begun, the water then having an easy exit at the leading end. Manholes, by which the aqueduct can be entered, are usually placed in the roof at convenient intervals; thus, in the case of the Thirlmere aqueduct, they occur at every quarter of a mile.
Timber aqueducts.
In some parts of America aqueducts are frequently constructed of wood, being then termed flumes. These are probably more extensively used in California than in any other part of the world, for conveying large quantities of water which is required for hydraulic mining, for irrigation, for the supply of towns and for transporting timber. The flumes are frequently carried along precipitous mountain slopes, and across valleys, supported on trestles. In Fresno county, California, there is a flume 52 m. in length for transporting timber from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the plain below; it has a rectangular V-shaped section, 3 ft. 7 in. wide at the top, and 21 in. deep vertically. The boards which form the sides are 1-1/4 in. thick, and some of the trestlework is 130 ft. high. The steepest grade occurs where there is a fall of 730 ft. in a length of 3000 ft. About 9,000,000 ft. of timber were used in the construction. At San Diego there is a flume 35 m. long for irrigation and domestic supply, the capacity being 50 ft. per second; it has 315 trestle bridges (the longest of which is that across Los Coches Creek, 1794 ft. in length and 65 ft. in height) and 8 tunnels, and the cost was $900,000. The great bench flume of the Highline canal, Colorado, is 2640 ft. in length, 28 ft. wide, and 7 ft. deep; the gradient is 5.28 ft. per mile, and the discharge 1184 ft. per second.
Aqueduct in iron piping.
As previously stated, the type of aqueduct built of concrete, &c., can only be adopted where the ground is sufficiently elevated to carry it, and where the quantity of water to be conveyed makes it more economical than piping. Where the falling contour is interrupted by valleys too wide for a masonry structure above the surface of the ground, the detached portions of the built aqueduct must be connected by rows of pipes laid beneath, and following the main undulations of, the surface. In such cases the built aqueduct terminates in a chamber of sufficient size to enclose the mouths of the several pipes, which, thus charged, carry the water under the valley up to a corresponding chamber on the farther hillside from which the built aqueduct again carries on the supply. These connecting pipes are sometimes called siphons, although they have nothing whatever to do with the principle of a siphon, the water simply flowing into the pipe at one end and out at the other under the influence of gravity, and the pressure of the atmosphere being no element in the case. The pipes are almost always made of cast-iron, except in such cases as the lower part of some siphons, where the pressure is very great, or where they are for use abroad, when considerations of weight are of importance, and when they are made of rolled steel with riveted or welded seams. It is frequently necessary to lay them in deep cuttings, in which case cast-iron is much better adapted for sustaining a heavy weight of earth than the thinner steel, though the latter is more adapted to resist internal pressure. Mr D. Clarke (_Trans. Am. Soc. C.E._ vol. xxxviii. p. 93) gives some particulars of a riveted steel pipe 24 m. long, 33 to 42 in. diameter, varying in thickness from 0.22 in. to 0.375 in. After a length of 9 m. had been laid, and the trench refilled, it was found that the crown of the pipe had been flattened by an amount varying from 1/2 in. to 4 in. Steel pipes suffer more from corrosion than those made of cast-iron, and as the metal attacked is much thinner the strength is more seriously reduced. These considerations have prevented any general change from cast-iron to steel.
Mr. Clemens Herschel has made some interesting remarks (_Proc. Inst. C.E._ vol. cxv. p. 162) as to the circumstances in which steel pipes have been found preferable to cast-iron. He says that it had been demonstrated by practice that cast-iron cannot compete with wrought-iron or steel pipes in the states west of the Rocky Mountains, on the Pacific slope. This is due to the absence of coal and iron ore in these states, and to the weight of the imported cast-iron pipes compared with steel pipes of equal capacity and strength. The works of the East Jersey Water Company for the supply of Newark, N.J., include a riveted steel conduit 48 in. in diameter and 21 m. long. This conduit is designed to resist only the pressure due to the hydraulic gradient, in contradistinction to that which would be due to the hydrostatic head, this arrangement saving 40% in the weight and cost of the pipes. For the supply of Rochester, N.Y., there is a riveted steel conduit 36 in. in diameter and 20 m. long; and for Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, there is a steel conduit 5 ft. in diameter and nearly 10 m. long. The works for bringing the water from La Vigne and Verneuil to Paris include a steel main 5 ft. in diameter between St. Cloud and Paris.
Cast-iron pipes rarely exceed 48 in. in diameter, and even this diameter is only practicable where the pressure of the water is low. In the Thirlmere aqueduct the greatest pressure is nearly 180 lb. on the square inch, the pipes where this occurs being 40 in. in diameter and 1-3/4 in. thick. These large pipes, which are usually made in lengths of 12 ft., are generally cast with a socket at one end for receiving the spigot end of the next pipe, the annular space being run with lead, which is prevented from flowing into the interior of the pipe by a spring ring subsequently removed; the surface of the lead is then caulked all round the outside of the pipe. A wrought-iron ring is sometimes shrunk on the outer rim of the socket, previously turned to receive it, in order to strengthen it against the wedging action of the caulking tool. Sometimes the pipes are cast as plain tubes and joined with double collars, which are run with lead as in the last case. The reason for adopting the latter type is that the stresses set up in the thicker metal of the socket by unequal cooling are thereby avoided, a very usual place for pipes to crack under pressure being at the back of the socket. The method of turning and boring a portion, slightly tapered, of spigot and socket so as to ensure a watertight junction by close annular metallic contact, is not suitable for large pipes, though very convenient for smaller diameters in even ground. Spherical joints are sometimes used where a line of main has to be laid under a large river or estuary, and where, therefore, the pipes must be jointed before being lowered into the previously dredged trench. This was the case at the Willamette river, Portland, Oregon, where a length of 2000 ft. was required. The pipes are of cast-iron 28 in. in diameter, 1-1/2 in. thick, and 17 ft. long. The spigots were turned to a spherical surface of 20 in. radius outside, the inside of the sockets being of a radius 3/8 in. greater. After the insertion of the spigot into the socket, a ring, 3 in. deep, turned inside to correspond with the socket, was bolted to the latter, the annular space then being run with lead. These pipes were laid on an inclined cradle, one end of which rested on the bed of the river and the other on a barge where the jointing was done; as the pipes were jointed the barge was carefully advanced, thus trailing the pipes into the trench (_Trans. Am. Soc. C.E._ vol. xxxiii. p. 257). As may be conjectured from the pressure which they have to stand, very great care has to be taken in the manufacture and handling of cast-iron pipes of large diameter, a care which must be unfailing from the time of casting until they are jointed in their final position in the ground. They are cast vertically, socket downwards, so that the densest metal may be at the weakest part, and it is advisable to allow an extra head of metal of about 12 in., which is subsequently cut off in a lathe. An inspector representing the purchaser watches every detail of the manufacture, and if, after being measured in every part and weighed, they are found satisfactory they are proved with internal fluid pressure, oil being preferable to water for this purpose. While under pressure, they are rapped from end to end with a hand hammer of about 5 lb. in weight, in order to discover defects. The wrought-iron rings are then, if required, shrunk on to the sockets, and the pipes, after being made hot in a stove, are dipped vertically in a composition of pitch and oil, in order to preserve them from corrosion. All these operations are performed under cover. A record should be kept of the history of the pipe from the time it is cast to the time it is laid and jointed in the ground, giving the date, number, diameter, length, thickness, and proof pressure, with the name of the pipe-jointer whose work closes the record. Such a history sometimes enables the cause (which is often very obscure) of a burst in a pipe to be ascertained, the position of every pipe being recorded.
Cast-iron pipes, even when dipped in the composition referred to, suffer considerably from corrosion caused by the water, especially soft water, flowing through them. One pipe may be found in as good a condition as when made, while the next may be covered with nodules of rust. The effect of the rust is twofold; it reduces the area of the pipe, and also, in consequence of the resistance offered by the rough surface, retards the velocity of the water. These two results, expecially the latter, may seriously diminish the capability of discharge, and they should always be allowed for in deciding the diameter. Automatic scrapers are sometimes used with good results, but it is better to be independent of them as long as possible. In one case the discharge of pipes, 40 in. in diameter, was found after a period of about twelve years to have diminished at the rate of about 1% per year; in another case, where the water was soft and where the pipes were 40 in. in diameter, the discharge was diminished by 7% in ten years. An account of the state of two cast-iron mains supplying Boston with water is given in the _Trans. Am. Soc. C.E._ vol. xxxv. p. 241. These pipes, which were laid in 1877, are 48 in. in diameter and 1800 ft. long. When they were examined in 1894-1895, it was estimated that the tubercles of rust covered nearly one-third of the interior surfaces, the bottom of the pipe being more encrusted than the sides and top. They had central points of attachment to the iron, at which no doubt the coating was defective, and from them the tubercles spread over the surface of the surrounding coating. In this case they were removed by hand, and the coating of the pipes was not injured in the process. Cast-iron pipes must not be laid in contact with cinders from a blast furnace with which roads are sometimes made, because these corrode the metal. Mr Russell Aitken (_Proc. Inst. C.E._ vol. cxv. p. 93) found in India that cast-iron pipes buried in the soil rapidly corroded, owing to the presence of nitric acid secreted by bacteria which attacked the iron. The large cast-iron pipes conveying the water from the Tansa reservoir to Bombay are laid above the surface of the ground. Cast-iron pipes of these large diameters have not been in existence sufficiently long to enable their life to be predicted. A main, 40 in. in diameter, conveying soft water, after being in existence fifty years at Manchester, was apparently as good as ever. In 1867 Mr J.B. Francis found that no apparent deterioration had taken place in a cast-iron main, 8 in. diameter, which was laid in the year 1828, a period of thirty-nine years (_Trans. Soc. Am. C.E._ vol. i. p. 26). These two instances are probably not exceptional.
Methods of laying.
Pipes in England are usually laid with not less than 2 ft. 6 in. of cover, in order that the water may not be frozen in a severe winter. Where they are laid in deep cutting they should be partly surrounded with concrete, so that they may not be fractured by the weight of earth above them. Angles are turned by means of special bend pipes, the curves being made of as large a radius as convenient. In the case of the Thirlmere aqueduct, double socketed castings about 12 in. long (exclusive of the sockets) were used, the sockets being inclined to each other at the required angle. They were made to various angles, and for any particular curve several would be used connected by straight pipes 3 ft. long. As special castings are nearly double the price of the regular pipes, the cost was much diminished by making them as short as possible, while a curve, made up of the slight angles used, offered practically no more impediment to the flow of water in consequence of its polygonal form, than would be the case had special bend pipes been used. In all cases of curves on a line of pipes under internal fluid pressure, there exists a resultant force tending to displace the pipes. When the curve is in a horizontal plane and the pipes are buried in the ground, the side of the pipe trench offers sufficient resistance to this force. Where, however, the pipes are above ground, or when the curve is in a vertical plane, it is necessary to anchor them in position. In the case of the Tansa aqueduct to Bombay, there is a curve of 500 ft. radius near Bassein Creek. At this point the hydrostatic head is about 250 ft., and the engineer, Mr Clerke, mentions that a tendency to an outward movement of the line of pipes was observed. At the siphon under Kurla Creek the curves on the approaches as originally laid down were sharp, the hydrostatic head being there about 210 ft.; here the outward movement was so marked that it was considered advisable to realign the approaches with easier curves (_Proc. Inst. C.E._ vol. cxv. p. 34). In the case of the Thirlmere aqueduct the greatest hydrostatic pressure, 410 ft., occurs at the bridge over the river Lune, where the pipes are 40 in. in diameter, and in descending from the bridge make reverse angles of 31-1/2 deg. The displacing force at each of these angles amounts to 54 tons, and as the design includes five lines of pipes, it is obvious that the anchoring arrangements must be very efficient. The steel straps used for anchoring these and all other bends were curved to fit as closely as possible the castings to be anchored. Naturally the metal was not in perfect contact, but when the pipes were charged the disappearance of all the slight inequalities showed that the straps were fulfilling their intended purpose. At every summit on a line of pipes one or more valves must be placed in order to allow the escape of air, and they must also be provided on long level stretches, and at changes of gradient where the depth of the point of change below the hydraulic gradient is less than that at both sides, causing what may be called a virtual summit. It is better to have too many than too few, as accumulations of air may cause an enormous diminution in the quantity of water delivered. In all depressions discharge valves should be placed for emptying the pipes when desired, and for letting off the sediment which accumulates at such points. Automatic valves are frequently placed at suitable distances for cutting off the supply in case of a burst. At the inlet mouth of the pipe they may depend for their action on the sudden lowering of the water (due to a burst in the pipe) in the chamber from which they draw their supply, causing a float to sink and set the closing arrangement in motion. Those on the line of main are started by the increased velocity in the water, caused by the burst on the pipe at a lower level. The water, when thus accelerated, is able to move a disk hung in the pipe at the end of a lever and weighted so as to resist the normal velocity; this lever releases a catch, and a door is then gradually revolved by weights until it entirely closes the pipe. Reflux valves on the ascending leg of a siphon prevent water from flowing back in case of a burst below them; they have doors hung on hinges, opening only in the normal direction of flow. Due allowance must be made, in the amount of head allotted to a pipe, for any head which may be absorbed by such mechanical arrangements as those described where they offer opposition to the flow of the water. These large mains require most careful and gradual filling with water, and constant attention must be given to the air-valves to see that the gutta-percha balls do not wedge themselves in the openings. A large mass of water, having a considerable velocity, may cause a great many bursts by water-ramming, due to the admission of the water at too great a speed. In places where iron is absent and timber plentiful, as in some parts of America, pipes, even of large diameter and in the most important cases, are sometimes made of wooden staves hooped with iron. A description of two of these will be found below.
Thirlmere.
The _Thirlmere Aqueduct_ is capable of conveying 50,000,000 gallons a day from Thirlmere, in the English lake district, to Manchester. The total length of 96 m. is made up of 14 m. of tunnels, 37 m. of cut-and-cover, and 45 m. of cast-iron pipes, five rows of the latter being required. The tunnels where lined, and the cut-and-cover, are formed of concrete, and are 7 ft. in height and width, the usual thickness of the concrete being 15 in. The inclination is 20 in. per mile. The floor is flat from side to side, and the side-walls are 5 ft. high to the springing of the arch, which has a rise of 2 ft. The water from the lake is received in a circular well 65 ft. deep and 40 ft. in diameter, at the bottom of which there is a ring of wire-gauze strainers. Wherever the concrete aqueduct is intersected by valleys, cast-iron pipes are laid; in the first instance only two of the five rows 40 in. in diameter were laid, the city not requiring its supply to be augmented by more than 20,000,000 gallons a day, but in 1907 it was decided to lay a third line. All the elaborate arrangements described above for stopping the water in case of a burst have been employed, and have perfectly fulfilled their duties in the few cases in which they have been called into action. The water is received in a service reservoir at Prestwich, near Manchester, from which it is supplied to the city. The supply from this source was begun in 1894. The total cost of the complete scheme may be taken at about L5,000,000, of which rather under L3,000,000 had been spent up to the date of the opening, at which time only one line of pipes had been laid.
Vyrnwy.
The _Vyrnwy Aqueduct_ was sanctioned by parliament in 1880 for the supply of Liverpool from North Wales, the quantity of water obtainable being at least 40,000,000 gallons a day. A tower built in the artificial lake from which the supply is derived, contains the inlet and arrangements for straining the water. The aqueduct is 68 m. in length, and for nearly the whole distance will consist of three lines of cast-iron pipes, two of which, varying in diameter from 42 in. to 39 in., are now in use. As the total fall between Vyrnwy and the termination at Prescot reservoirs is about 550 ft., arrangements had to be made to ensure that no part of the aqueduct be subjected to a greater pressure than is required for the actual discharge. Balancing reservoirs have therefore been constructed at five points on the line, advantage being taken of high ground where available, so that the total pressure is broken up into sections. At one of these points, where the ground level is 110 ft. below the hydraulic gradient, a circular tower is built, making a most imposing architectural feature in the landscape. At the crossing of the river Weaver, 100 ft. wide and 15 ft. deep, the three pipes, here made of steel, were connected together laterally, floated into position, and sunk into a dredged trench prepared to receive them. Under the river Mersey the pipes are carried in a tunnel, from which, during construction, the water was excluded by compressed air.
Denver.
_Denver Aqueduct._--The supply to Denver City, initiated by the Citizens Water Company in 1889, is derived from the Platte river, rising in the Rocky Mountains. The first aqueduct constructed is rather over 20 m. in length, of which a length of 16-1/2 m. is made of wooden stave pipe, 30 in. in diameter. The maximum pressure is that due to 185 ft. of water; the average cost of the wooden pipe was $1.36-1/2 per foot, and the capability of discharge 8,400,000 gallons a day. Within a year of the completion of the first conduit, it became evident that another of still greater capacity was required. This was completed in April 1893; it is 34 in. in diameter and will deliver 16,000,000 gallons a day. By increasing the head upon the first pipe, the combined discharge is 30,000,000 gallons a day. An incident in obtaining a temporary supply, without waiting for the completion of the second pipe, was the construction of two wooden pipes, 13 in. in diameter, crossing a stream with a span of 104 ft., and having no support other than that derived from their arched form. One end of the arch is 24-1/2 ft. above the other end, and, when filled with water, the deflection with eight men on it was only 7/8 of an inch. A somewhat similar arch, 60 ft. span, occurs on the 34-in. pipe where it crosses a canal. Schuyler points out (_Trans. Am. Soc. C.E._ vol. xxxi. p. 148) that the fact that the entire water supply of a city of 150,000 inhabitants is conveyed in wooden mains, is so radical a departure from all precedents, that it is deserving of more than a passing notice. He says that it is manifestly and unreservedly successful, and has achieved an enormous saving in cost. The sum saved by the use of wooden, in preference to cast-iron pipes, is estimated at $1,100,000. It is perhaps necessary to state that the pipe is buried in the ground in the same way as metal pipes. The edges of the staves are dressed to the radius with a minute tongue 1/16 in. high on one edge of each stave, but with no corresponding groove in the next stave; its object is to ensure a close joint when the bands are tightened up. Leaks seldom or never occur along the longitudinal seams, but the end shrinkage caused troublesome joint leaks. The shrinkage in California redwood, which had seasoned 60 to 90 days before milling, was frequently as much as 3 in. in the 20 staves that formed the 34-in. pipe, and the space so formed had to be filled by a special closing stave. Metallic tongues, 3/4 in. deep, are inserted at the ends of abutting staves, in a straight saw cut. The bands, which are of mild steel, have a head at one end and a nut and washer at the other; the ends are brought together on a wrought-iron shoe, against which the nut and washer set. The staves forming the lower half of the pipe are placed on an outside, and the top staves on an inside, mould. While the bands are being adjusted the pipe is rounded out to bring the staves out full, and the staves are carefully driven home on to the abutting staves. The spacing of the bands depends on circumstances, but is about 150 bands per 100 ft. With low heads the limit of spacing was fixed at 17 in. The outer surface of the pipe, when charged, shows moisture oozing slightly over the entire surface. This condition Schuyler considers an ideal one for perfect preservation, and the staves were kept as thin as possible to ensure its occurrence. Samples taken from pipes in use from three to nine years are quite sound, and it is concluded that the wood will last as long as cast-iron if the pipe is kept constantly charged. The bands are the only perishable portion, and their life is taken at from fifteen to twenty years. Other portions of the second conduit for a length of nearly 3 m. were formed of concrete piping, 38 in. diameter, formed on a mould in the trench, the thickness being 2-1/2 to 3 in. So successful an instance of the use of wooden piping on a large scale is sure to lead to a large development of this type of aqueduct in districts where timber is plentiful and iron absent.
Pioneer, Utah.
_Pioneer Aqueduct, Utah._--The construction of the Pioneer Aqueduct, Utah, was begun in 1896 by the Pioneer Electric Power Company, near the city of Ogden, 35 m. north of Salt Lake City. The storage reservoir, from which it draws its water, will coyer an area of 2000 acres, and contain about 15,000 million gallons of water. The aqueduct is a pipe 6 ft. in diameter, and of a total length of 6 m.; for a distance of rather more than 5 m. it is formed of wooden staves, the remainder, where the head exceeds 117 ft., being of steel. It is laid in a trench and covered to a depth of 3 ft. The greatest pressure on the steel pipe is 200 lb. per sq. in., and the thickness varies from 3/8 to 11/16 in. The pipe was constructed according to the usual practice of marine boiler-work for high pressures, and each section, about 9 ft. long, was dipped in asphalt for an hour. These sections were supported on timber blocking, placed from 5 to 9 ft. apart, and consisting of three to six pieces of 6 X 6 in. timbers laid one on the top of the other; they were then riveted together in the ordinary way. The wooden stave-pipe is of the type successfully used in the Western States for many years, but its diameter is believed to be unequalled for any but short lengths. There were thirty-two staves in the circle, 2 in. in thickness, and about 20 ft. long, hooped with round steel rods 5/8 in. in diameter, each hoop being in two pieces. The pipe is supported at intervals of 8 ft. by sills 6 X 8 in. and 8 ft. long. The flow through it is 250 cubic ft. per second.
Santa Ana.
The _Santa Ana Canal_ was constructed for irrigation purposes in California, and is designed to carry 240 cub. ft. of water per second (_Trans. Am. Soc. C.E._ vol. xxxiii. p. 99). The cross section of the flumes shows an elliptical bottom and straight sides consisting of wooden staves held together by iron and steel ribs. The width and depth are each 5 ft. 6 in., the intended depth of water being 5 ft. The staves are held by T-iron supports resting on wooden sills spaced 8 ft. apart, and are compressed together by a framework. They were caulked with oakum, on the top of which, to a third of the total depth, hot asphalt was run. The use of nails was altogether avoided except in parts of the framework, it being noticed that decay usually starts at nail-holes. It was found possible to make the flume absolutely watertight, and in case of repair being necessary at any part the framework is easily taken to pieces so that new staves can be inserted. The water in the flume has a velocity of 9.6 ft. per second. The Warm Springs, Deep, and Morton canons on the line are crossed by wooden stave pipes 52 in. in diameter, bound with round steel rods, and laid above the surface of the ground. The work is planned for two rows of pipes, each capable of carrying 123 cub. ft. per second; of these one so far has been laid. The lengths of the pipes at each of the three canons are 551, 964 and 756 ft. respectively, and the maximum head at any place is 160 ft. The pipes are not painted, and it has been suggested that they would suffer in their exposed position in case of a bush fire, a contingency to which, of course, flumes are also liable.
New York.
_Aqueducts of New York._--There are three aqueducts in New York--the Old Croton Aqueduct (1837-1843), the Bronx River Conduit (1880-1885), and the New Croton Aqueduct (1884-1893), discharging respectively 95, 28, and 302 million U.S. gallons a day; their combined delivery is therefore 425 million gallons a day. The Old Croton Aqueduct is about 41 m. in length, and was constructed as a masonry conduit, except at the Harlem and Manhattan valleys, where two lines of 36-in. pipe were used. The inclination of the former is at the rate of about 13 in. per mile. The area of the cross-section is 53.34 sq. ft., the height is 8-1/2 ft., and the greatest width 7 ft. 5 in.; the roof is semicircular, the floor segmental, and the sides have a batter on the face of 1/2 in. per foot. The sides and invert are of concrete, faced with 4 in. of brickwork, the roof being entirely of brickwork. There is a bridge over the Harlem river 1450 ft. in length, consisting of fifteen semicircular arches; its soffit is 100 ft. above high water, and its cost was $963,427. The construction of the New Croton Aqueduct was begun in 1885, and the works were sufficiently advanced by the 15th of July 1890 to allow the supply to be begun. The lengths of the various parts of the aqueduct are as follows:--
Miles. Tunnel 29.75 Cut-and-cover 1.12 Cast-iron pipes, 48 in. diameter, 8 rows. 2.38 ----- Croton Inlet to Central Park. 33.25 =====
The length of tunnel under pressure (circular form) is 7.17 m., and that not under pressure (horse-shoe form) 23.70 m. The maximum pressure in the former is 55 lb. per sq. in. The width and height of the horse-shoe form are each 13 ft. 7 in., and the diameter of the circular form (with the exception of two short lengths) is 12 ft. 3 in. The reason for constructing the aqueduct in tunnel for so long a distance was the enhanced value of the low-lying ground near the old aqueduct. The tunnel deviates from a straight line only for the purpose of intersecting a few transverse valleys at which it could be emptied. For 25 m. the gradient is 0.7 foot per mile; the tunnel is then depressed below the hydraulic gradient, the maximum depth being at the Harlem river, where it is 300 ft. below high water. The depth of the tunnel varies from 50 to 500 ft. from the surface of the ground. Forty-two shafts were sunk to facilitate driving, and in four cases where the surface of the ground is below the hydraulic gradient these are closed by watertight covers. The whole of the tunnel is lined with brickwork from 1 to 2 ft. in thickness, the voids behind the lining being filled with rubble-in-mortar. The entry to the old and new aqueducts is controlled by a gatehouse of elaborate and massive design, and the pipes which take up the supply at the end of the tunnel are also commanded by a gate-house. The aqueduct, where it passes under the Harlem river, is worthy of special notice. As it approaches the river it has a considerable fall, and eventually ends in a vertical shaft 12 ft. 3 in. in diameter (where the water has a fall of 174 ft.), from the bottom of which, at a depth of 300 ft. below high-water level, the tunnel under the river starts. The latter is circular in form, the diameter being 10 ft. 6 in., and the length is 1300 ft.; it terminates at the bottom of another vertical shaft also 12 ft. 3 in. in diameter. The depth of this shaft, measured from the floor of the lower tunnel to that of the upper tunnel leading away from it, is 321 ft.; it is continued up to the surface of the ground, though closed by double watertight covers a little above the level of the upper tunnel. Adjoining this shaft is another shaft of equal diameter, by means of which the water can be pumped out, and there is also a communication with the river above high-water level, so that the higher parts can be emptied by gravitation. The cost of the Old Croton Aqueduct was $11,500,000; that of the new aqueduct is not far short of $20,000,000.
Nadrai.
The _Nadrai Aqueduct Bridge_, in India, opened at the end of 1889, is the largest structure of its kind in existence. It was built to carry the water of the Lower Ganges canal over the Kali Naddi, in connexion with the irrigation canals of the north-west provinces. In the year 1888-1889 this canal had 564 m. of main line, with 2050 m. of minor distributaries, and irrigated 519,022 acres of crops. The new bridge replaces one of much smaller size (five spans of 35 ft.), which was completely destroyed by a high flood in July 1885. It gives the river a waterway of 21,000 sq. ft., and the canal a waterway of 1040 sq. ft., the latter representing a discharge of 4100 cub. ft. per second. Its length is 1310 ft., and it is carried on fifteen arches having a span of 60 ft. The width between the faces of the arches is 149 ft. The foundations below the river-bed have a depth of 52 ft., and the total height of the structure is 88 ft. It cost 44-1/2 lakhs of rupees, and occupied four years in building. The foundations consist of 268 circular brick cylinders, and the fifteen spans are arranged in three groups, divided by abutment piers; the latter are founded on a double row of 12-ft. cylinders, and the intermediate piers on a single row of 20-ft. cylinders, all the cylinders being hearted with hydraulic lime concrete filled in with skips. This aqueduct-bridge has a very fine appearance, owing to its massive proportions and design. (E. P. H.*)
AUTHORITIES.--For ancient aqueducts in general: Curt Merckel, _Die Ingenieurtechnik im Alterthum_ (Berlin, 1899); ch. vi. contains a very full account from the earliest Assyrian aqueducts onwards, with illustrations, measurements and an excellent bibliography. For Greek aqueducts see E. Curtius, "Uber stadtische Wasserbauten der Hellenen," in _Archaeologische Zeitung_ (1847); G. Weber (as above); papers in _Athen. Mittheil._ (Samos), 1877, (Enneacrunus) 1892, 1893, 1894, 1905, and articles on ATHENS, PERGAMUM, &c. For Roman aqueducts: R. Lanciani, "I Commentari di Frontino intorno le acque e gli acquedotti," in _Memorie dei Lincei_, serie iii. vol. iv. (Rome, 1880), 215 sqq., and separately; C. Herschel, _The Two Books on the Water Supply of the City of Rome of Sextus Julius Frontinus_ (Boston, 1899); T. Ashby in _Classical Review_ (1902), 336, and articles in _The Builder_; cf. also the maps to T. Ashby's "Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna," in _Papers of the British School at Rome_, i., in., iv. (in progress).
For modern aqueducts, see Rickman's _Life of Telford_ (1838); Schramke's _New York Croton Aqueduct; Second Annual Report of the Department of Public Works of the City of New York in 1872; Report of the Aqueduct Commissioners_ (1887-1895), and _The Water Supply of the City of New York_ (1896), by Wegmann; _Memoires sur les eaux de Paris_, presentes par le Prefet de la Seine au Conseil Municipal (1854 and 1858); _Recherches statistiques sur les sources du bassin de la Seine_, par M. Belgrand, Ingenieur en chef des ponts et chaussees (1854); "Descriptions of Mechanical Arrangements of the Manchester Waterworks," by John Frederic Bateman, F.R.S., Engineer-in-chief, from the _Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers_ (1866); _The Glasgow Waterworks_, by James M. Gale, Member Inst. C.E. (1863 and 1864); _The Report of the Royal Commission on Water Supply, and the Minutes of Evidence_ (1867 and 1868). For accounts of other aqueducts, see the Transactions of the Societies of Engineers in the different countries, and the Engineering Journals.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] There have been found at Caerwent, in Monmouthshire, clear traces of wooden pipes (internal diameter about 2 in.) which must have carried drinking-water, and almost certainly a pressure supply from the surrounding hills. Some patches of lead also have been found obviously nailed on to the pipes at points where they had burst (see _Archaeologia_, 1908).
[2] This distance will not agree with the length given on some of the _cippi_ (Lanciani, _Bull. Com._, 1899, 38).
[3] The course of the Aqua Claudia was considerably shortened by the cutting of a tunnel 3 m. long under the Monte Affliano in the time of Domitian (T. Ashby, in _Papers of the British School at Rome_, iii, 133).
[4] About 3 m. south-east of this point the presence of large quantities of deposit and a sudden fall in the level of the channels seems to indicate the existence of settling tanks, of which no actual traces can be seen.
AQUILA [Greek: Akulas], (1) a Jew from Rome, who with his wife Prisca or Priscilla had settled in Corinth, where Paul stayed with them (Acts xviii. 2,3). They became Christians and fellow-workers with Paul, to whom they seem to have shown their devotion in some special way (Rom. xvi. 3, 4). (2) A native of Pontus, celebrated for a very literal and accurate translation of the Old Testament into Greek. Epiphanius (_De Pond. et Mens._ c. 15) preserves a tradition that he was a kinsman of the emperor Hadrian, who employed him in rebuilding Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina, q.v.), and that he was converted to Christianity, but, on being reproved for practising pagan astrology, apostatized to Judaism. He is said also to have been a disciple of Rabbi 'Aqiba (d. A.D. 132), and seems to be referred to in Jewish writings as [Hebrew: akiles]. Aquila's version is said to have been used in place of the Septuagint in the synagogues. The Christians generally disliked it, alleging without due grounds that it rendered the Messianic passages incorrectly, but Jerome and Origen speak in its praise. Origen incorporated it in his _Hexapla_.
It was thought that this was the only copy extant, but in 1897 fragments of two codices were brought to the Cambridge University Library. These have been published--the fragments containing 1 Kings xx. 7-17; 2 Kings xxiii. 12-27 by F.C. Burkitt in 1897, those containing parts of Psalms xc.-ciii. by C. Taylor in 1899. See F.C. Burkitt's article in the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_.
AQUILA, CASPAR [KASPAR ADLER] (1488-1560), German reformer, was born at Augsburg on the 7th of August 1488, educated there and at Ulm (1502), in Italy (he met Erasmus in Rome), at Bern (1508), Leipzig (1510) and Wittenberg (1513). According to his son, he entered the ministry in August 1514, at Bern. He was for some time a military chaplain. In 1516 he became pastor of Jenga, near Augsburg. Openly proclaiming his adhesion to Luther's doctrine, he was imprisoned for half a year (1520 or 1522) at Dillingen, by order of the bishop of Augsburg; a death sentence was commuted to banishment through the influence of Isabella, wife of Christian II. of Denmark and sister of Charles V. Returning to Wittenberg he met Luther, acted as tutor to the sons of Franz von Sickingen at Ebernburg, taught Hebrew at Wittenberg, and aided Luther in his version of the Old Testament. The dates and particulars of his career are uncertain till 1527, when he became pastor at Saalfeld, and in 1528, superintendent. His vehement opposition to the Augsburg Interim (1548) led him to take temporary shelter at Rudolstadt with Catherine, countess of Schwarzburg. In 1550 he was appointed dean of the Collegiatstift in Schmalkalden. Here he had a controversy with Andreas Osiander. Restored to Saalfeld, not without opposition, in 1552, he remained there, still engaged in controversy, till his death on the 12th of November 1560. He was twice married, and left four sons. He published numerous sermons, a few Old Testament expositions and some controversial tracts.
See G. Kawerau, in A. Hauck's _Realencyklopadie_ (1896); _Allgemeine deutsche Biog._ (1875); Lives by J. Avenarius (1718); J.G. Hillinger (1731); Chr. Schlegel (1737); Fr. Gensler (1816).
AQUILA, SERAFINO DELL' (1466-1500), Italian poet and improvisatore, was born in 1466 at the town of Aquila, from which he took his name, and died in the year 1500. He spent several years at the courts of Cardinal Sforza and Ferdinand, duke of Calabria; but his principal patrons were the Borgias at Rome, from whom he received many favours. Aquila seems to have aimed at an imitation of Dante and Petrarch; and his poems, which were extravagantly praised during the author's lifetime, are occasionally of considerable merit. His reputation was in great measure due to his remarkable skill as an improvisatore and musician. His works were printed at Venice in 1502, and there have been several subsequent editions.
AQUILA, a city of the Abruzzi, Italy, the capital of the province of Aquila, and the seat of an archbishop, 2360 ft. above sea-level, 50 m. directly N.E. of Rome, and 145 m. by rail. Pop. (1901) town, 18,494; commune, 21,261. It lies on a hill in the wide valley of the Aterno, surrounded by mountains on all sides, the Gran Sasso d'Italia being conspicuous on the north-east. It is a favourite summer resort of the Italians, but is cold and windy in winter. In the highest part of the town is the massive citadel, erected by the Spanish viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo in 1534. The church of S. Bernardino di Siena (1472) has a fine Renaissance facade by Nicolo Filotesio (commonly called Cola dell' Amatrice), and contains the monumental tomb of the saint, decorated with beautiful sculptures, and executed by Silvestro Ariscola in 1480. The church of S. Maria di Collemaggio, just outside the town, has a very fine Romanesque facade of simple design (1270-1280) in red and white marble, with three finely decorated portals and a rose-window above each. The two side doors are also fine. The interior contains the mausoleum of Pope Celestine V. (d. 1296) erected in 1517. Many smaller churches in the town have similar facades (S. Giusta, S. Silvestro, &c.). The town also contains some fine palaces: the municipality has a museum, with a collection of Roman inscriptions and some illuminated service books. The Palazzi Dragonetti and Persichetti contain private collections of pictures. Outside the town is the _Fontana delle novantanove cannelle_, a fountain with ninety-nine jets distributed along three walls, constructed in 1272. Aquila has some trade in lace and saffron, and possesses other smaller industries. It was a university town in the middle ages, but most of its chairs have now been suppressed.
Aquila was founded by Conrad, son of the emperor Frederick II., about 1250, as a bulwark against the power of the papacy. It was destroyed by Manfred in 1259, but soon rebuilt by Charles I. of Anjou. Its walls were completed in 1316; and it maintained itself as an almost independent republic until it was subdued in 1521 by the Spaniards, who had become masters of the kingdom of Naples in 1503. It was twice sacked by the French in 1799.
See V. Bindi, _Monumenti storici ed artistici degli Abruzzi_ (Naples, 1889), pp. 771 seq.
AQUILA, in astronomy, the "Eagle," sometimes named the "Vulture," a constellation of the northern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th cent. B.C.) and Aratus (3rd cent. B.C.). Ptolemy catalogued nineteen stars jointly in this constellation and in the constellation _Antinous_, which was named in the reign of the emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), but sometimes, and wrongly, attributed to Tycho Brahe, who catalogued twelve stars in Aquila and seven in Antinous; Hevelius determined twenty-three stars in the first, and nineteen in the second. The most brilliant star of this constellation, [alpha]-_Aquilae_ or Altair, has a parallax of 0.23", and consequently is about eight times as bright as the sun; [eta]-_Aquilae_ is a short-period variable, while _Nova Aquilae_ is a "temporary" or "new" star, discovered by Mrs Fleming of Harvard in 1899.
AQUILA ROMANUS, a Latin grammarian who flourished in the second half of the 3rd century A.D. He was the author of an extant treatise _De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis_, written as an instalment of a complete rhetorical handbook for the use of a young and eager correspondent. While recommending Demosthenes and Cicero as models, he takes his own examples almost exclusively from Cicero. His treatise is really adapted from that by Alexander, son of Numenius, as is expressly stated by Julius Rufinianus, who brought out a supplementary treatise, augmented by material from other sources. Aquila's style is harsh and careless, and the Latin is inferior.
Halm, _Rhetores Latini minores_ (1863); Wensch, _De Aquila Romano_ (1861).
AQUILEIA, an ancient town of Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 6 m. from the sea, on the river Natiso (mod. Natisone), the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. It was founded by the Romans in 181 B.C. as a frontier fortress on the north-east, not far from the site where, two years before, Gaulish invaders had attempted to settle. The colony was led by two men of consular and one of praetorian rank, and 3000 _pedites_ formed the bulk of the settlers. It was probably connected by road with Bononia in 175 B.C.; and subsequently with Genua in 148 B.C. by the Via Postumia, which ran through Cremona, Bedriacum and Altinum, joining the first-mentioned road at Concordia, while the construction of the Via Popilia from Ariminum to Ad Portum near Altinum in 132 B.C. improved the communications still further. In 169 B.C., 1500 more families were settled there as a reinforcement to the garrison. The discovery of the goldfields near the modern Klagenfurt in 150 B.C. (Strabo iv. 208) brought it into notice, and it soon became a place of importance, not only owing to its strategic position, but as a centre of trade, especially in agricultural products. It also had, in later times at least, considerable brickfields. It was originally a Latin colony, but became a _municipium_ probably in 90 B.C. The customs boundary of Italy was close by in Cicero's day. It was plundered by the Iapydes under Augustus, but, in the period of peace which followed, was able to develop its resources. Augustus visited it during the Pannonian wars in 12-10 B.C. and it was the birthplace of Tiberius's son by Julia, in the latter year. It was the starting-point of several important roads leading to the north-eastern portion of the empire--the road (Via Iulia Augusta) by Iulium Carnicum to Veldidena (mod. Wilten, near Innsbruck), from which branched off the road into Noricum, leading by Virunum (Klagenfurt) to Lauricum (Lorch) on the Danube, the road into Pannonia, leading to Emona (Laibach)[1] and Sirmium (Mitrowitz), the road to Tarsatica (near Fiume) and Siscia (Sissek), and that to Tergeste (Trieste) and the Istrian coast.
In the war against the Marcomanni in A.D. 167, the town was hard pressed; the fortifications had fallen into disrepair during the long peace. In A.D. 238, when the town took the side of the senate against the emperor Maximinus, they were hastily restored, and proved of sufficient strength to resist for several months, until Maximinus himself was assassinated. The 4th century marks, however, the greatest importance of Aquileia; it became a naval station and, probably, the seat of the _corrector Venetiarum et Histriae_; a mint was established here, the coins of which are very numerous, and the bishop obtained the rank of patriarch. An imperial palace was constructed here, in which the emperors after the time of Diocletian frequently resided; and the city often played a part in the struggles between the rulers of the 4th century. At the end of the century, Ausonius enumerated it as the ninth among the great cities of the world, placing Rome, Mediolanum and Capua before it, and called it "moenibus et portu celeberrima." In A.D. 452, however, it was destroyed by Attila, though it continued to exist until the Lombard invasion of A.D. 568. After this the patriarchate was transferred to Grado. In 606 the diocese was divided into two parts, and the patriarchate of Aquileia, protected by the Lombards, was revived, that of Grado being protected by the exarch of Ravenna and later by the doges of Venice. In 1027 and 1044 Patriarch Poppo of Aquileia entered and sacked Grado, and, though the pope reconfirmed the patriarch of the latter in his dignities, the town never recovered, though it continued to be the seat of the patriarchate until its formal transference to Venice in 1450. The seat of the patriarchate of Aquileia had been transferred to Udine in 1238, but returned in 1420 when Venice annexed the territory of Udine. It was finally suppressed in 1751, and the sees of Udine and Gorizia (Gorz) established in its stead. Its buildings served as stone quarries for centuries, and no edifices of the Roman period remain above ground. Excavations have revealed one street and the north-west angle of the town walls, while the local museum contains over 2000 inscriptions, besides statues and other antiquities. The cathedral, a flat-roofed basilica, was erected by Patriarch Poppo in 1031 on the site of an earlier church, and rebuilt about 1379 in the Gothic style by Patriarch Marquad. The narthex and baptistery belong to an earlier period. Of the palace of the patriarchs only two isolated columns remain standing. The modern village (pop. 2300) is rendered unhealthy by rice-fields.
See T.W. Jackson, _Dalmatia, Istria and the Quarnero_ (Oxford, 1887), iii. 377 seq.; H. Maionica, _Aquileia zur Romerzeit_ (Gorz, 1881), _Fundkarte van Aquileia_ (Gorz, 1893), "Inschriften in Grado" (Roman inscriptions removed thither from Aquileia) in _Jahreshefte des Osterr. Arch. Instituts_, i. (1898), Beiblatt, 83, 125. (T. As.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] This road is described in detail by O. Cuntz in _Jahreshefte des Osterr. Arch. Inst._ v. (1902), Beiblatt, pp. 139 seq.
AQUILLIUS, MANIUS, Roman general, consul in 101 B.C. He successfully put down a revolt of the slaves under Athenion in Sicily. After his return, being accused of extortion, he was acquitted on account of his military services, although there was little doubt of his guilt. In 88 he acted as legate against Mithradates the Great, by whom he was defeated and taken prisoner. Mithradates treated him with great cruelty, and is said to have put him to death by pouring molten gold down his throat.
Diodorus Siculus xxxvi. 3; Appian, _Mithrid_. ii. 17. 21; Vell. Paterculus ii. 18; Cicero, _Verres_, iii. 54, _De Officiis_, ii. 14, _Tusc_. v. 5.
AQUINAS, THOMAS [THOMAS OF AQUIN or AQUINO], (c. 1227-1274), scholastic philosopher, known as _Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis_, was of noble descent, and nearly allied to several of the royal houses of Europe. He was born in 1225 or 1227, at Roccasecca, the castle of his father Landulf, count of Aquino, in the territories of Naples. Having received his elementary education at the monastery of Monte Cassino, he studied for six years at the university of Naples, leaving it in his sixteenth year. While there he probably came under the influence of the Dominicans, who were doing their utmost to enlist within their ranks the ablest young scholars of the age, for in spite of the opposition of his family, which was overcome only by the intervention of Pope Innocent IV., he assumed the habit of St Dominic in his seventeenth year.
His superiors, seeing his great aptitude for theological study, sent him to the Dominican school in Cologne, where Albertus Magnus was lecturing on philosophy and theology. In 1245 Albertus was called to Paris, and there Aquinas followed him, and remained with him for three years, at the end of which he graduated as bachelor of theology. In 1248 he returned to Cologne with Albertus, and was appointed second lecturer and _magister studentium_. This year may be taken as the beginning of his literary activity and public life. Before he left Paris he had thrown himself with ardour into the controversy raging between the university and the Friar-Preachers respecting the liberty of teaching, resisting both by speeches and pamphlets the authorities of the university; and when the dispute was referred to the pope, the youthful Aquinas was chosen to defend his order, which he did with such success as to overcome the arguments of Guillaume de St Amour, the champion of the university, and one of the most celebrated men of the day. In 1257, along with his friend Bonaventura, he was created doctor of theology, and began to give courses of lectures upon this subject in Paris, and also in Rome and other towns in Italy. From this time onwards his life was one of incessant toil; he was continually engaged in the active service of his order, was frequently travelling upon long and tedious journeys, and was constantly consulted on affairs of state by the reigning pontiff.
In 1263 we find him at the chapter of the Dominican order held in London. In 1268 he was lecturing now in Rome and now in Bologna, all the while engaged in the public business of the church. In 1271 he was again in Paris, lecturing to the students, managing the affairs of the church and consulted by the king, Louis VIII., his kinsman, on affairs of state. In 1272 the commands of the chief of his order and the request of King Charles brought him back to the professor's chair at Naples. All this time he was preaching every day, writing homilies, disputations, lectures, and finding time to work hard at his great work the _Summa Theologiae_. Such rewards as the church could bestow had been offered to him. He refused the archbishopric of Naples and the abbacy of Monte Cassino. In January 1274 he was summoned by Pope Gregory X. to attend the council convened at Lyons, to investigate and if possible settle the differences between the Greek and Latin churches. Though suffering from illness, he at once set out on the journey; finding his strength failing on the way, he was carried to the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova, in the diocese of Terracina, where, after a lingering illness of seven weeks, he died on the 7th of March 1274, Dante (_Purg_. xx. 69) asserts that he was poisoned by order of Charles of Anjou. Villani (ix. 218) quotes the belief, and the _Anonimo Fiorentino_ describes the crime and its motive. But Muratori, reproducing the account given by one of Thomas's friends, gives no hint of foul play. Aquinas was canonized in 1323 by Pope John XXII., and in 1567 Pius V. ranked the festival of St Thomas with those of the four great Latin fathers, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome and Gregory. No theologian save Augustine has had an equal influence on the theological thought and language of the Western Church, a fact which was strongly emphasized by Leo XIII. (q.v.) in his _Encyclical_ of August 4, 1879, which directed the clergy to take the teachings of Aquinas as the basis of their theological position. In 1880 he was declared patron of all Roman Catholic educational establishments. In a monastery at Naples, near the cathedral of St Januarius, is still shown a cell in which he is said to have lived.
The writings of Thomas are of great importance for philosophy as well as for theology, for by nature and education he is the spirit of scholasticism incarnate. The principles on which his system rested were these. He held that there were two sources of knowledge--the mysteries of Christian faith and the truths of human reason. The distinction between these two was made emphatic by Aquinas, who is at pains, especially in his treatise _Contra Gentiles_, to make it plain that each is a distinct fountain of knowledge, but that revelation is the more important of the two. Revelation is a source of knowledge, rather than the manifestation in the world of a divine life, and its chief characteristic is that it presents men with mysteries, which are to be believed even when they cannot be understood. Revelation is not Scripture alone, for Scripture taken by itself does not correspond exactly with his description; nor is it church tradition alone, for church tradition must so far rest on Scripture. Revelation is a divine source of knowledge, of which Scripture and church tradition are the channels; and he who would rightly understand theology must familiarize himself with Scripture, the teachings of the fathers, and the decisions of councils, in such a way as to be able to make part of himself, as it were, those channels along which this divine knowledge flowed. Aquinas's conception of reason is in some way parallel with his conception of revelation. Reason is in his idea not the individual reason, but the fountain of natural truth, whose chief channels are the various systems of heathen philosophy, and more especially the thoughts of Plato and the methods of Aristotle. Reason and revelation are separate sources of knowledge; and man can put himself in possession of each, because he can bring himself into relation to the church on the one hand, and the system of philosophy, or more strictly Aristotle, on the other. The conception will be made clearer when it is remembered that Aquinas, taught by the mysterious author of the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius, who so marvellously influenced medieval writers, sometimes spoke of a natural revelation, or of reason as a source of truths in themselves mysterious, and was always accustomed to say that reason as well as revelation contained two kinds of knowledge. The first kind lay quite beyond the power of man to receive it, the second was within man's reach. In reason, as in revelation, man can only attain to the lower kind of knowledge; there is a higher kind which we may not hope to reach.
But while reason and revelation are two distinct sources of truths, the truths are not contradictory; for in the last resort they rest on _one_ absolute truth--they come from the one source of knowledge, God, the Absolute One. Hence arises the compatibility of philosophy and theology which was the fundamental axiom of scholasticism, and the possibility of a Summa Theologiae, which is a Summa Philosophiae as well. All the many writings of Thomas are preparatory to his great work the _Summa Theologiae_, and show us the progress of his mind training for this his life work. In the _Summa Catholicae Fidei contra Gentiles_ he shows how a Christian theology is the sum and crown of all science. This work is in its design apologetic, and is meant to bring within the range of Christian thought all that is of value in Mahommedan science. He carefully establishes the necessity of revelation as a source of knowledge, not merely because it aids us in comprehending in a somewhat better way the truths already furnished by reason, as some of the Arabian philosophers and Maimonides had acknowledged, but because it is the absolute source of our knowledge of the mysteries of the Christian faith; and then he lays down the relations to be observed between reason and revelation, between philosophy and theology. This work, _Contra Gentiles_, may be taken as an elaborate exposition of the method of Aquinas. That method, however, implied a careful study and comprehension of the results which accrued to man from reason and revelation, and a thorough grasp of all that had been done by man in relation to those two sources of human knowledge; and so, in his preliminary writings, Thomas proceeds to master the two provinces. The results of revelation he found in the Holy Scriptures and in the writings of the fathers and the great theologians of the church; and his method was to proceed backwards. He began with Peter of Lombardy (who had reduced to theological order, in his famous book on the _Sentences_, the various authoritative statements of the church upon doctrine) in his _In Quatuor Sententiarum P. Lombardi libros_. Then came his deliverances upon undecided points in theology, in his _XII. Quodlibeta Disputata_, and his _Quaestiones Disputatae_. His _Catena Aurea_ next appeared, which, under the form of a commentary on the Gospels, was really an exhaustive summary of the theological teaching of the greatest of the church fathers. This side of his preparation was finished by a close study of Scripture, the results of which are contained in his commentaries, _In omnes Epistolas Dim Apostoli Expositio_, his _Super Isaiam et Jeremiam_, and his _In Psalmos_. Turning now to the other side, we have evidence, not only from tradition but from his writings, that he was acquainted with Plato and the mystical Platonists; but he had the sagacity to perceive that Aristotle was _the_ great representative of philosophy, and that his writings contained the best results and method which the natural reason had as yet attained to. Accordingly Aquinas prepared himself on this side by commentaries on Aristotle's _De Interpretatione_, on his _Posterior Analytics_, on the _Metaphysics_, the _Physics_, the _De Anima_, and on Aristotle's other psychological and physical writings, each commentary having for its aim to lay hold of the material and grasp the method contained and employed in each treatise. Fortified by this exhaustive preparation, Aquinas began his _Summa Theologiae_, which he intended to be the sum of all known learning, arranged according to the best method, and subordinate to the dictates of the church. Practically it came to be the theological dicta of the church, explained according to the philosophy of Aristotle and his Arabian commentators. The _Summa_ is divided into three great parts, which shortly may be said to treat of God, Man and the God-Man. The first and the second parts are wholly the work of Aquinas, but of the third part only the first ninety quaestiones are his; the rest of it was finished in accordance with his designs. The first book, after a short introduction upon the nature of theology as understood by Aquinas, proceeds in 119 questions to discuss the nature, attributes and relations of God; and this is not done as in a modern work on theology, but the questions raised in the physics of Aristotle find a place alongside of the statements of Scripture, while all subjects in any way related to the central theme are brought into the discourse. The second part is divided into two, which are quoted as _Prima Secundae_ and _Secunda Secundae_. This second part has often been described as ethic, but this is scarcely true. The subject is man, treated as Aristotle does, according to his [Greek: telos], and so Aquinas discusses all the ethical, psychological and theological questions which arise; but any theological discussion upon man must be mainly ethical, and so a great proportion of the first part, and almost the whole of the second, has to do with ethical questions. In his ethical discussions (a full account of which is given under ETHICS) Aquinas distinguishes theological from natural virtues and vices; the theological virtues are faith, hope and charity; the natural, justice, prudence and the like. The theological virtues are founded on faith, in opposition to the natural, which are founded on reason; and as faith with Aquinas is always belief in a proposition, not trust in a personal Saviour, conformably with his idea that revelation is a new knowledge rather than a new life, the relation of unbelief to virtue is very strictly and narrowly laid down and enforced. The third part of the _Summa_ is also divided into two parts, but by accident rather than by design. Aquinas died ere he had finished his great work, and what has been added to complete the scheme is appended as a _Supplementum Tertiae Partis_. In this third part Aquinas discusses the person, office and work of Christ, and had begun to discuss the sacraments, when death put an end to his labours.
The purely philosophical theories of Aquinas are explained in the article SCHOLASTICISM. In connexion with the problem of universals, he held that the diversity of individuals depends on the quantitative division of matter (_materia signata_), and in this way he attracted the criticism of the Scotists, who pointed out that this very matter is individual and determinate, and, therefore, itself requires explanation. In general, Aquinas maintained in different senses the real existence of universals _ante rem_, _in re_ and _post rem_.
The best modern edition of the works of Aquinas is that prepared at the expense of Leo XIII. (Rome, 1882-1903). The Abbe Migne published a very useful edition of the _Summa Theologiae_, in four 8vo vols., as an appendix to his _Patrologiae Cursus Completus_; English editions, J. Rickaby (London, 1872), J.M. Ashley (London, 1888). See _Acta Sanct_., vii. Martii; A. Touron, _La Vie de St Thomas d'Aquin, avec un expose de sa doctrine et de ses ouvrages_ (Paris, 1737); Karl Werner, _Der Heilige Thomas van Aquino_ (1858); and R.B. Vaughan, _St Thomas of Aquin, his Life and Labours_ (London, 1872): other lives by P. Cavanagh (London, 1890); E. Desmousseaux de Giure (Paris, 1888); M. Didot (Louvain, 1894). For the philosophy of Aquinas, see Albert Stockl, _Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters_, ii.; B. Haureau, _De la philosophie scolastique_, vol. ii.; J. Frohschammer, _Die Philos. d. Th. van A_. (Leipzig, 1889); K. Prantl, _Geschichte d. Logik_, vol. iii.; C.M. Schneider, _Natur, Vernunft, Gott_ (Regensburg, 1883), _Das Wissen Gottes nach d. Lehre des Th. v. A_. (4 vols. Regensburg, 1884-1886), _Die socialistische Staatsidee beleuchtet durch Th. v. A_. (Paderborn, 1894); A. Harnack, _Hist, of Dogma_ (trans. Wm. Gilchrist, London, 1899); Ueberweg's _History of Philosophy_, vol. i. See also H.C. O'Neill, _New Things and Old in St Thomas Aquinas_ (1909), with biography. (T. M. L.; J. M. M.)
AQUINO, a town and episcopal see of Campania, Italy, in the province of Caserta; it is 56 m. N.W. by rail from the town of Caserta, and 7-1/2 m. N.W. of Cassino. Pop. (1901) 2672. The modern town, close to the ancient, is unimportant, though the canons of the cathedral have the privilege of wearing the mitre and _cappa magna_ at great festivals. It is close to the site of the ancient Aquinum, a _municipium_ in the time of Cicero, and made a colony by the Triumviri, the birthplace of Juvenal and of the emperor Pescennius Niger. The Via Latina traversed it; one of the gates through which it passed, now called Porta S. Lorenzo, is still well preserved, and there are remains within the walls (portions of which, built of large blocks of limestone, still remain) of two (so called) temples, a basilica and an amphitheatre (see R. Delbruck in _Rom. Mitteilungen_, 1903, p. 143). Outside, on the south is a well-preserved triumphal arch with composite capitals, and close to it the 11th-century basilica of S. Maria Libera, a handsome building in the Romanesque style, but now roofless. Several Roman inscriptions are built into it, and many others that have been found indicate the ancient importance of the place, which, though it does not appear in early history, is vouched for by Cicero and Strabo.[1] A colony was planted here by the Triumviri. St Thomas Aquinas was born in the castle of Roccasecca, 5 m. N.
See E. Grossi, _Aquinum_ (Rome, 1907). (T. As.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] According to H. Nissen, _Ital. Landeskunde_ (Berlin, 1902), ii. 665, a road ran from here to Minturnae; but no traces of it are to be seen.
AQUITAINE, the name of an ancient province in France, the extent of which has varied considerably from time to time. About the time of Julius Caesar the name _Aquitania_ was given to that part of Gaul lying between the Pyrenees and the Garonne, and its inhabitants were a race, or races, distinct from the Celts. The name Aquitania is probably a form of Auscetani, which in its turn is a lengthened form of Ausces, and is thus cognate with the words Basque and Wasconia, i.e. Gascony. Although many of the tribes of Aquitania submitted to Julius Caesar, it was not until about 28 B.C. that the district was brought under the Roman yoke. In keeping with the Roman policy of denationalization, the term Aquitania was extended, and under Augustus it included the whole of Gaul south and west of the Loire and the Allier, and thus ceased to possess ethnographical importance. In the 3rd century A.D. this larger Aquitania was divided into three parts: _Aquitania Prima_, the eastern part of the district between the Loire and the Garonne; _Aquitania Secunda_, the western part of the same district; and _Aquitania Tertia_, or _Novempopulana_, the region between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, or the original Aquitania. The seats of government were respectively Bourges, Bordeaux and Eauze; the province contained twenty-six cities, and was in the diocese of Vienne. Like the rest of Gaul, Aquitania absorbed a large measure of Roman civilization, and this continued to distinguish the district down to a late period. In the 5th century the Visigoths established themselves in Aquitania Secunda, and also in parts of Aquitania Prima and Novempopulana, but after the defeat of their king Alaric II. by the Franks under Clovis in 507, they were supplanted by their conquerors. Clovis and his successors extended their authority nominally to the Pyrenees, but, as Guizot has remarked, "the conquest of Aquitania by Clovis left it almost as alien to the people and king of Franks as it had formerly been." Subsequently during the Merovingian period it was contended for by the feeble rulers of the various Frankish kingdoms, and was frequently partitioned among them; but the Aquitanians had little difficulty in effectually resisting this authority, although they did not establish themselves as a separate kingdom. About 628, indeed, they gathered around Charibert, or Haribert, a brother of the Frankish king, Dagobert I., in the hope of national independence; but after his death in 630 they returned to their former condition. But this effort, although a failure, brought about a certain measure of concord between the two principal races inhabiting the district, and so prepared the way for the stubborn resistance which, subsequently, the Aquitanians were able to offer to the Franks.
The first line of dukes began about 660 with one Felix, who, like his successor, Lupus, probably owned allegiance to the Frankish kings, and whose seat of government was Toulouse. About the end of the 7th century an adventurer named Odo, or Eudes, made himself master of this region. Attacked by the Saracens he inflicted on them a crushing defeat, but when they reappeared, he was obliged to invoke the aid of Charles Martel, who, as the price of his support, claimed and received the homage of his ally. Odo was succeeded by his son Hunald, who after carrying on a war against the Franks under Pippin the Short, retired to a convent, leaving both the kingdom and the conflict to Waifer, or Guaifer. For some years Waifer strenuously carried on an unequal struggle with the Franks, but he was assassinated in 768, and with him perished the national independence, although not the national individuality, of the Aquitanians. In 781 Charlemagne bestowed Aquitaine upon his young son, Louis, and as Louis was generally described as a king, Aquitaine is referred to during the Carolingian period as a kingdom, and not as a duchy. When Louis succeeded Charlemagne as emperor in 814, he granted Aquitaine to his son Pippin, on whose death in 838 the Aquitanians chose his son Pippin II. (d. 865) as their king. The emperor Louis I., however, opposed this arrangement and gave the kingdom to his youngest son Charles, afterwards the emperor Charles the Bald. Now followed a time of confusion and conflict which resulted eventually in the success of Charles, although from 845 to 852 Pippin was in possession of the kingdom. In 852 Pippin was imprisoned by Charles the Bald, who soon afterwards gave to the Aquitanians his own son Charles as their king. On the death of the younger Charles in 866, his brother Louis the Stammerer succeeded to the kingdom, and when, in 877, Louis became king of the Franks, Aquitaine was united to the Frankish crown.
A new period now begins in the history of Aquitaine. By a treaty made in 845 between Charles the Bald and Pippin II. the kingdom had been diminished by the loss of Poitou, Saintonge and Angoumois, which had been given to Rainulf I., count of Poitiers. Somewhat earlier than this date the title of duke of the Aquitanians had been revived, and this was now borne by Rainulf, although it was also claimed by the counts of Toulouse. The new duchy of Aquitaine, comprising the three districts already mentioned, remained in the hands of Rainulf's successors, in spite of some trouble with their Frankish overlords, until 893 when Count Rainulf II. was poisoned by order of King Charles III. the Simple. Charles then bestowed the duchy upon William the Pious, count of Auvergne, the founder of the abbey of Cluny, who was succeeded in 918 by his nephew, Count William II., who died in 926. A succession of dukes followed, one of whom, William IV., fought against Hugh Capet, king of France, and another of whom, William V., called the Great, was able considerably to strengthen and extend his authority, although he failed in his attempt to secure the Lombard crown. William's duchy almost reached the limits of the Roman Aquitania Prima and Secunda, but did not stretch south of the Garonne, a district which was in the possession of the Gascons. William died in 1030, and the names of William VI. (d. 1038), Odo or Eudes (d. 1039), who joined Gascony to his duchy, William VII. and William VIII. bring us down to William IX. (d. 1127), who succeeded in 1087, and made himself famous as a crusader and a troubadour. William X. (d. 1137) married his daughter Eleanor to Louis VII., king of France, and Aquitaine went as her dowry. When Eleanor was divorced from Louis and was married in 1152 to Henry II. of England the duchy passed to her new husband, who, having suppressed a revolt there, gave it to his son Richard. When Richard died in 1199, it reverted to Eleanor, and on her death five years later, was united to the English crown and henceforward followed the fortunes of the English possessions in France. Aquitaine as it came to the English kings stretched as of old from the Loire to the Pyrenees, but its extent was curtailed on the south-east by the wide lands of the counts of Toulouse. The name Guienne, a corruption of Aquitaine, seems to have come into use about the 10th century, and the subsequent history of Aquitaine is merged in that of Gascony (q.v.) and Guienne (q.v.).
See E. Desjardins, _Geographie historique el administrative de la Gaule romaine_ (Paris, 1876, 93); A. Luchaire, _Les Origines linguistiques de l'Aquitaine_ (Paris, 1877); A. Longnon, _Geographie de la Gaule au VI^e siecle_ (Paris, 1876); A. Perroud, _Les Origines du premier duche d'Aquitaine_ (Paris, 1881); and E. Mabille, _Le Royaume d'Aquitaine et ses marches sous les Carlovingiens_ (Paris, 1870).
ARABESQUE, a word meaning simply "Arabian," but technically used for a certain form of decorative design in flowing lines intertwined; hence comes the more metaphorical use of this word, whether in nature or in morals, indicating a fantastic or complicated interweaving of lines against a background. In decorative design the term is historically a misnomer. It is applied to the grotesque decoration derived from Roman remains of the early time of the empire, not to any style derived from Arabian or Moorish work. Arabesque and Moresque are really distinct; the latter is from the Arabian style of ornament, developed by the Byzantine Greeks for their new masters, after the conquests of the followers of Mahomet; and the former is a term pretty well restricted to varieties of cinquecento decoration, which have nothing in common with any Arabian examples in their details, but are a development derived from Greek and Roman grotesque designs, such as we find them in the remains of ancient palaces at Rome, and in ancient houses at Pompeii. These were reproduced by Raphael and his pupils in the decoration of some of the corridors of the Loggie of the Vatican at Rome: grotesque is thus a better name for these decorations than Arabesque. This technical Arabesque, therefore, is much more ancient than any Arabian or Moorish decoration, and has really nothing in common with it except the mere symmetrical principles of its arrangement. Pliny and Vitruvius give us no name for the extravagant decorative wall-painting in vogue in their time, to which the early Italian revivers of it seem to have given the designation of grotesque, because it, was first discovered in the arched or underground chambers (_grotte_) of Roman ruins--as in the golden house of Nero, or the baths of Titus. What really took place in the Italian revival was in some measure a supplanting of the Arabesque for the classical grotesque, still retaining the original Arabian designation, while the genuine Arabian art, the Saracenic, was distinguished as Moresque or Moorish. So it is now the original Arabesque that is called by its specific names of Saracenic, Moorish and Alhambresque, while the term Arabesque is applied exclusively to the style developed from the debased classical grotesque of the Roman empire.
There is still much of the genuine Saracenic element in Renaissance Arabesques, especially in that selected for book-borders and for silver-work, the details of which consist largely of the conventional Saracenic foliations. But the Arabesque developed in the Italian cinquecento work repudiated all the original Arabian elements and devices, and limited itself to the manipulating of the classical elements, of which the most prominent feature is ever the floriated or foliated scroll; and it is in this cinquecento decoration, whether in sculpture or in painting, that _Arabesque_ has been perfected.
In the Saracenic, as the elder sister of the two styles, which was ingeniously developed by the Byzantine Greek artists for their Arabian masters in the early times of Mahommedan conquest, every natural object was proscribed; the artists were, therefore, reduced to making symmetrical designs from forms which should have no positive meaning; yet the Byzantine Greeks, who were Christians, managed to work even their own ecclesiastical symbols, in a disguised manner, into their tracery and diapers; as the lily, for instance. The cross was not so introduced; this, of course, was inadmissible; but neither was the crescent ever introduced into any of this early work in Damascus or Cairo. The crescent was itself not a Mahommedan device till after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. The crescent, as the new moon, was the symbol of Byzantium; and it was only after that capital of the Eastern empire fell into the hands of the Turks that this symbol was adopted by them. The crescent and the cross became antagonist standards, therefore, first in the 15th century. And the crescent is not an element of original Moorish decoration.
The Alhambra diapers and original Majolica (Majorca) ware afford admirable specimens of genuine Saracenic or Moorish decoration. A conventional floriage is common in these diapers; tracery also is a great feature in this work, in geometrical combinations, whether rectilinear or curvilinear; and the designs are rich in colour; idolatry was in the reproduction of natural forms, not in the fanciful combination of natural colours. These curves and angles, therefore, or interlacings, chiefly in stucco, constitute the prominent elements of an Arabian ornamental design, combining also Arabic inscriptions; composed of a mass of foliation or floral forms conventionally disguised, as the exclusion of all natural images was the fundamental principle of the style in its purity. The Alhambra displays almost endless specimens of this peculiar work, all in relief, highly coloured, and profusely enriched with gold. The mosque of Tulun, in Cairo, A.D. 876, the known work of a Greek, affords the completest example of this art in its early time; and Sicily contains many remains of this same exquisite Saracenic decoration.
Such is the genuine Arabesque of the Arabs, but a very different style of design is implied by the Arabesque of the cinquecento, a purely classical ornamentation. This owes its origin to the excavation and recovery of ancient monuments, and was developed chiefly by the sculptors of the north, and the painters of central Italy; by the Lombardi of Venice, by Agostino Busti of Milan, by Bramante of Urbino, by Raphael, by Giulio Romano, and others of nearly equal merit. Very beautiful examples in sculpture of this cinquecento Arabesque are found in the churches of Venice, Verona and Brescia; in painting, the most complete specimens are those of the Vatican Loggie, and the Villa Madama at Rome and the ducal palaces at Mantua. The Vatican Arabesques, chiefly executed for Raphael by Giulio Romano, Gian Francesco Penni, and Giovanni da Udine, though beautiful as works of painting, are often very extravagant in their composition, ludicrous and sometimes aesthetically offensive; as are also many of the decorations of Pompeii. The main features of these designs are balanced scrolls in panels; or standards variously composed, but symmetrically scrolled on either side, and on the tendrils of these scrolls are suspended or placed birds and animals, human figures and chimeras, of any or all kinds, or indeed any objects that may take the fancy of the artist. The most perfect specimens of cinquecento Arabesque are certainly found in sculpture. As specimens of exquisite work may be mentioned the Martinengo tomb, in the church of the Padri Riformati at Brescia, and the facade of the church of Santa Maria del Miracoli there, by the Lombardi; and many of the carvings of the Chateau de Gaillon, France--all of which fairly illustrate the beauties and capabilities of the style.
See also Wornum, _Analysis of Ornament_ (1874). (R. N. W.)
ARABGIR, or ARABKIR (Byz. _Arabraces_), a town of Turkey in Asia in the Mamuret el-Aziz or Kharput vilayet, situated near the confluence of the eastern and western Euphrates, but some miles from the right bank of the combined streams. Pop. about 20,000, of which the larger half is Mussulman. It is connected with Sivas by a _chaussee_, prolonged to the Euphrates. The inhabitants are enterprising and prosperous, many of them leaving their native city to push their fortunes elsewhere, while of those that remain the greater part is employed in the manufacture of silk and cotton goods, or in the production of fruit. The present town was built at a comparatively recent date; but about 2 m. north-east is the old town, now called Eski-Shehr, given (c. 1021) to Senekherim of Armenia by the emperor Basil II. It contains the ruins of a castle and of several Seljuk mosques. The Armenian population suffered severely during the massacres of 1895. (D. G. H.)
ARABIA, a peninsula in the south-west of Asia, lying between 34 deg. 30' and 12 deg. 45' N., and 32 deg. 30' and 60 deg. E., is bounded W. by the Red Sea, S. by the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, and E. by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. Its northern or land boundary is more difficult to define; most authorities, however, agree in taking it from El Arish on the Mediterranean, along the southern border of Palestine, between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba, then bending northwards along the Syrian border nearly to Tadmur, thence eastwards to the edge of the Euphrates valley near Anah, and thence south-east to the mouth of the Shat el Arab at the head of the Persian Gulf,--the boundary so defined includes the northern desert, which belongs geographically to Arabia rather than to Syria; while on the same grounds lower Mesopotamia and Irak, although occupied by an Arab population, are excluded.
In shape, the peninsula forms a rough trapezium, with its greatest length from north-west to south-east. The length of its western side from Port Said to Aden is 1500 m.; its base from the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb (or Bab al Mandab) to Ras el Had is 1300 m., its northern side from Port Said to the Euphrates 600 m.; its total area approximately 1,200,000 sq. m.
GEOGRAPHY
_General Features._--In general terms Arabia may be described as a plateau sloping gently from south-west to north-east, and attaining its greatest elevation in the extreme south-west. The western escarpment of the plateau rises steeply from the Red Sea littoral to a height of from 4000 to 8000 ft., leaving a narrow belt of lowland rarely exceeding 30 m. in width between the shore and the foot-hills. On the north-east and east the plateau shelves gradually to the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf; only in the extreme east is this general easterly slope arrested by the lofty range of Jebel Akhdar, which from Ras Musandan to Ras el Had borders the coast of Oman.
Its chief characteristic is the bareness and aridity of its surface; one-third of the whole desert, and of the remainder only a small proportion is suited to settled life, owing to its scanty water-supply and uncertain rainfall. Its mountains are insufficient in elevation and extent to attract their full share of the monsoon rains, which fall so abundantly on the Abyssinian highlands on the other side of the Red Sea; for this reason Arabia has neither lakes nor forests to control the water-supply and prevent its too rapid dissipation, and the rivers are mere torrent beds sweeping down occasionally in heavy floods, but otherwise dry.
The country falls naturally into three main divisions, a northern, a central and a southern; the first includes the area between the Midian coast on the west and the head of the Persian Gulf on the east, a desert tract throughout, stony in the north, sandy in the south, but furnishing at certain seasons excellent pasturage; its population is almost entirely nomad and pastoral. The central zone includes Hejaz (or Hijaz), Nejd and El Hasa; much of it is a dry, stony or sandy steppe, with few wells or watering-places, and only occupied by nomad tribes; but the great wadis which intersect it contain many fertile stretches of alluvial soil, where cultivation is possible and which support a considerable settled population, with several large towns and numerous villages.
The third or southern division contains the highland plateaus of Asir and Yemen in the west, and J. Akhdar in the east, which with a temperate climate, due to their great elevation and their proximity to the sea, deserve, if any part of Arabia does, the name of Arabia Felix--the population is settled and agricultural, and the soil, wherever the rainfall is sufficient, is productive. The Batina coast of Oman, irrigated by the mountain streams of J. Akhdar, is perhaps the most fertile district in the peninsula; Hadramut, too, contains many large and prosperous villages, and the torrents from the Yemen highlands fertilize several oases in the Tehama (or Tihama) or lowlands of the western and southern coast. These favourable conditions of soil and climate, however, extend only a comparatively short distance into the interior, by far the larger part of which is covered by the great southern desert, the Dahna, or Ruba el Khali, empty as its name implies, and uninhabitable.
_Exploration._--Before entering on a detailed description of the several provinces of Arabia, our sources of information will be briefly indicated. Except in the neighbourhood of Aden, no regular surveys exist, and professional work is limited to the marine surveys of the Indian government and the admiralty, which, while laying down the coast line with fair accuracy, give little or no topographical information inland. For the mapping of the whole vast interior, except in rare cases, no data exist beyond the itineraries of explorers, travelling as a rule under conditions which precluded the use of even the simplest surveying instruments. These journeys, naturally following the most frequented routes, often cover the same ground, while immense tracts, owing to their difficulty of access, remain unvisited by any European.
The region most thoroughly explored is Yemen, in the south-west corner of the peninsula, where the labours of a succession of travellers from Niebuhr in 1761 to E. Glaser and R. Manzoni in 1887 have led to a fairly complete knowledge of all that part of the province west of the capital Sana; while in 1902-1904 the operations of the Anglo-Turkish boundary commission permitted the execution of a systematic topographical survey of the British protectorate from the Red Sea to the Wadi Bana, 30 m. east of Aden. North of Yemen up to the Hejaz border the only authority is that of E.F. Jomard's map, published in 1839, based on the information given by the French officers employed with Ibrahim Pasha's army in Asir from 1824 to 1827, and of J. Halevy in Nejran. On the south coast expeditions have penetrated but a short distance, the most notable exceptions being those of L. Hirsch and J.T. Bent in 1887 to the Hadramut valley. S.B. Miles, J.R. Wellsted, and S.M. Zwemer have explored Oman in the extreme east; but the interior south of a line drawn from Taif to El Katr on the Persian Gulf is still virgin ground. In northern Arabia the Syrian desert and the great Nafud (Nefud) have been crossed by several travellers, though a large area remains unexplored in the north-east between Kasim and the gulf. In the centre, the journeys of W. Palgrave, C. Doughty, W. Blunt and C. Huber have done much to elucidate the main physical features of the country. Lastly, in the north-west the Sinai peninsula has been thoroughly explored, and the list of travellers who have visited the Holy Cities and traversed the main pilgrim routes through Hejaz is a fairly long one, though, owing to the difficulties peculiar to that region, the hydrography of southern Hejaz is still incompletely known.
Modern Exploration in Yemen.
The story of modern exploration begins with the despatch of C. Niebuhr's mission by the Danish government in 1761. After a year spent in Egypt and the Sinai peninsula the party reached Jidda towards the end of 1762, and after a short stay sailed on to Lohaia in the north of Yemen, the exploration of which formed the principal object of the expedition; thence, travelling through the Tehama or lowlands, Niebuhr and his companions visited the towns of Bet el Fakih, Zubed and Mokha, then the great port for the coffee trade of Yemen. Continuing eastward they crossed the mountainous region and reached the highlands of Yemen at Uden, a small town and the centre of a district celebrated for its coffee. Thence proceeding eastwards to higher altitudes where coffee plantations give way to fields of wheat and barley, they reached the town of Jibla situated among a group of mountains exceeding 10,000 ft. above sea-level; and turning southwards to Taiz descended again to the Tehama via Hes and Zubed to Mokha. The mission, reduced in numbers by the death of its archaeologist, von Haven, again visited Taiz in June 1763, where after some delay permission was obtained to visit Sana, the capital of the province and the residence of the ruling sovereign or imam. The route lay by Jibla, passing the foot of the lofty Jebel Sorak, where, in spite of illness, Forskal, the botanist of the party, was able to make a last excursion; a few days later he died at Yarim. The mission continued its march, passing Dhamar, the seat of a university of the Zedi sect, then frequented by 500 students. Thence four marches, generally over a stony plateau dominated by bare, sterile mountains, brought them to Sana, where they received a cordial welcome from the imam, el Mahdi Abbas.
The aspect of the city must have been nearly the same as at present; Niebuhr describes the _enceinte_ flanked by towers, the citadel at the foot of J. Nukum which rises 1000 ft. above the valley, the fortress and palace of the imams, now replaced by the Turkish military hospital, the suburb of Bir el Azab with its scattered houses and gardens, the Jews' quarter and the village of Rauda, a few miles to the north in a fertile, irrigated plain which Niebuhr compares to that of Damascus. After a stay of ten days at Sana the mission set out again for Mokha, travelling by what is now the main route from the capital to Hodeda, through the rich coffee-bearing district of J. Haraz, and thence southward to Mokha, where they embarked for India. During the next year three other members of the party died, leaving Niebuhr the sole survivor. Returning to Arabia a year later, he visited Oman and the shores of the Persian Gulf, and travelling from Basra through Syria and Palestine he reached Denmark in 1764 after four years' absence.
The period was perhaps specially favourable for a scientific mission of the sort. The outburst of fanaticism which convulsed Arabia twenty years later had not then reached Yemen, and Europeans, as such, were not exposed to any special danger. The travellers were thus able to move freely and to pursue their scientific enquiries without hindrance from either people or ruler. The results published in 1772 gave for the first time a comprehensive description not only of Yemen but of all Arabia; while the parts actually visited by Niebuhr were described with a fulness and accuracy of detail which left little or nothing for his successors to discover.
Asir.
Jauf and Marib.
C.G. Ehrenberg and W.F. Hemprich in 1825 visited the Tehama and the islands off the coast, and in 1836 P.E. Botta made an important journey in southern Yemen with a view to botanical research, but the next advance in geographical knowledge in south Arabia was due to the French officers, M.O. Tamisier, Chedufau and Mary, belonging to the Egyptian army in Asir; another Frenchman, L. Arnaud, formerly in the Egyptian service, was the first to visit the southern Jauf and to report on the rock-cut inscriptions and ruins of Marib, though it was not till 1869 that a competent archaeologist, J. Halevy, was able to carry out any complete exploration there. Starting from Sana, Halevy went north-eastward to El Madid, a town of 5000 inhabitants and the capital of the small district of Nihm; thence crossing a plateau, where he saw the ruins of numerous crenellated towers, he reached the village of Mijzar at the foot of J. Yam, on the borders of Jauf, a vast sandy plain, extending eastwards to El Jail and El Hazm, where Halevy made his most important discoveries of Sabaean inscriptions: here he explored Main, the ancient capital of the Minaeans, Kamna on the banks of the W. Kharid, the ancient Caminacum, and Kharibat el Beda, the Nesca of Pliny, where the Sabaean army was defeated by the Romans under Aelius Gallus in 24 B.C. From El Jail Halevy travelled northward, passing the oasis of Khab, and skirting the great desert, reached the fertile district of Nejran, where he found a colony of Jews, with whom he spent several weeks in the oasis of Makhlaf. An hour's march to the east he discovered at the village of Medinat el Mahud the ruins of the Nagra metropolis of Ptolemy. In June 1870 he at last reached the goal of his journey, Marib; here he explored the ruins of Medinat an Nahas (so called from its numerous inscriptions engraved on brass plates), and two hours to the east he found the famous dam constructed by the Himyarites across the W. Shibwan, on which the water-supply of their capital depended.
One other explorer has since visited Marib, the Austrian archaeologist, E. Glaser (1855-1908), who achieved more for science in Yemen than any traveller since Niebuhr. Under Turkish protection, he visited the territory of the Hashid and Bakil tribes north-east of Sana, and though their hostile attitude compelled him to return after reaching their first important town, Khamr, he had time to reconnoitre the plateau lying between the two great wadis Kharid and Hirran, formerly covered with Himyaritic towns and villages; and to trace the course of these wadis to their junction at El Ish in the Dhu Husen country, and thence onward to the Jauf. In 1889 he succeeded, again under Turkish escort, in reaching Marib, where he obtained, during a stay of thirty days, a large number of new Himyaritic inscriptions. He was unable, however, to proceed farther east than his predecessors, and the problem of the Jauf drainage and its possible connexion with the upper part of the Hadramut valley still remains unsolved.
Exploration in Hadramut.
The earliest attempt to penetrate into the interior from the south coast was made in 1835 when Lieuts. C. Cruttenden and J.R. Wellsted of the "Palinurus," employed on the marine survey of the Arabian coast, visited the ruins of Nakb (el Hajar) in the W. Mefat. The Himyaritic inscriptions found there and at Husn Ghurab near Mukalla, were the first records discovered of ancient Arabian civilization in Hadramut. Neither of these officers was able to follow up their discoveries, but in 1843 Adolph von Wrede landed at Mukalla and, adopting the character of a pilgrim to the shrine of the prophet Hud, made his way northward across the high plateau into the W. Duwan, one of the main southern tributaries of the Hadramut valley, and pushed on to the edge of the great southern desert; on his return to the W. Duwan his disguise was detected and he was obliged to return to Mukalla. Though he did not actually enter the main Hadramut valley, which lay to the east of his track, his journey established the existence of this populous and fertile district which had been reported to the officers of the "Palinurus" as lying between the coast range and the great desert to the north. This was at last visited in 1893 by L. Hirsch under the protection of the sultan of Mukalla, the head of the Kaiti family, and practically ruler of all Hadramut, with the exception of the towns of Saiyun and Tarim, which belong to the Kathiri tribe. Starting like von Wrede from Mukalla, Hirsch first visited the W. Duwan and found ancient ruins and inscriptions near the village of Hajren; thence he proceeded north-eastward to Hauta in the main valley, where he was hospitably received by the Kaiti sultan, and sent on to his deputy at Shibam. Here he procured a Kathiri escort and pushed on through Saiyun to Tarim, the former capital. After a very brief stay, however, he was compelled by the hostility of the people to return in haste to Shibam, from which he travelled by the W. bin Ali and W. Adim back to Mukalla. J. Theodore Bent and his wife followed in the same track a few months later with a well-equipped party including a surveyor, Imam Sharif, lent by the Indian government, who made a very valuable survey of the country passed through. Both parties visited many sites where Himyaritic remains and inscriptions were found, but the hostile attitude of the natives, more particularly of the Seyyids, the religious hierarchy of Hadramut, prevented any adequate examination, and much of archaeological interest undoubtedly remains for future travellers to discover.
Exploration in Oman.
In Oman, where the conditions are more favourable, explorers have penetrated only a short distance from the coast. Niebuhr did not go inland from Muscat; the operations by a British Indian force on the Pirate coast in 1810 gave no opportunities for visiting the interior, and it was not till 1835 that J.R. Wellsted, who had already tried to penetrate into Hadramut from the south, landed at Muscat with the idea of reaching it from the north-east. Sailing thence to Sur near Ras el Had, he travelled southward through the country of the Bani bu Ali to the borders of the desert, then turning north-west up the Wadi Betha through a fertile, well-watered country, running up to the southern slopes of J. Akhdar, inhabited by a friendly people who seem to have welcomed him everywhere, he visited Ibra, Semed and Nizwa at the southern foot of the mountains. Owing to the disturbed state of the country, due to the presence of raiding parties from Nejd, Wellsted was unable to carry out his original intention of exploring the country to the west, and after an excursion along the Batina coast to Sohar he returned to India.
In 1876 Colonel S.B. Miles, who had already done much to advance geographical interests in south Arabia, continued Wellsted's work in Oman; starting from Sohar on the Batina coast he crossed the dividing range into the Dhahira, and reached Birema, one of its principal oases. His investigations show that the Dhahira contains many settlements, with an industrious agricultural population, and that the unexplored tract extending 250 m. west to the peninsula of El Katr is a desolate gravelly steppe, shelving gradually down to the salt marshes which border the shores of the gulf.
Exploration in Hejaz.
Leaving southern Arabia, we now come to the centre and north. The first explorer to enter the sacred Hejaz with a definite scientific object was the Spaniard, Badia y Leblich, who, under the name of Ali Bey and claiming to be the last representative of the Abbasid Caliphs, arrived at Jidda in 1807, and performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. Besides giving to the world the first accurate description of the holy city and the Haj ceremonies, he was the first to fix the position of Mecca by astronomical observations, and to describe the physical character of its surroundings. But the true pioneer of exploration in Hejaz was J.L. Burckhardt, who had already won a reputation as the discoverer of Petra, and whose experience of travel in Arab lands and knowledge of Arab life qualified him to pass as a Moslem, even in the headquarters of Islam. Burckhardt landed in Jidda in July 1814, when Mehemet Ali had already driven the Wahhabi invaders out of Hejaz, and was preparing for his farther advance against their stronghold in Nejd. He first visited Taif at the invitation of the pasha, thence he proceeded to Mecca, where he spent three months studying every detail of the topography of the holy places, and going through all the ceremonies incumbent on a Moslem pilgrim. In January 1815 he travelled to Medina by the western or coast route, and arrived there safely but broken in health by the hardships of the journey. His illness did not, however, prevent his seeing and recording everything of interest in Medina with the same care as at Mecca, though it compelled him to cut short the further journey he had proposed to himself, and to return by Yambu and the sea to Cairo, where he died only two years later.
His striking successor, Sir Richard Burton, covered nearly the same ground thirty-eight years afterwards. He, too, travelling as a Moslem pilgrim, noted the whole ritual of the pilgrimage with the same keen observation as Burckhardt, and while amplifying somewhat the latter's description of Medina, confirms the accuracy of his work there and at Mecca in almost every detail. Burton's topographical descriptions are fuller, and his march to Mecca from Medina by the eastern route led him over ground not traversed by any other explorer in Hejaz: this route leads at first south-east from Medina, and then south across the lava beds of the Harra, keeping throughout its length on the high plateau which forms the borderland between Hejaz and Nejd. His original intention had been after visiting Mecca to find his way across the peninsula to Oman, but the time at his disposal (as an Indian officer on leave) was insufficient for so extended a journey; and his further contributions to Arabian geography were not made until twenty-five years later, when he was deputed by the Egyptian government to examine the reported gold deposits of Midian. Traces of ancient workings were found in several places, but the ores did not contain gold in paying quantities. Interesting archaeological discoveries were made, and a valuable topographical survey was carried out, covering the whole Midian coast from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to the mouth of the Wadi Hamd, and including both the Tehama range and the Hisma valley behind it; while the importance of the W. Hamd and the extent of the area drained by its tributaries was for the first time brought to light.
Exploration in Nejd.
Burckhardt had hoped in 1815 that the advance of the Egyptian expedition would have given him the opportunity to see something of Nejd, but he had already left Arabia before the overthrow of the Wahhabi power by Ibrahim Pasha had opened Nejd to travellers from Hejaz, and though several European officers accompanied the expedition, none of them left any record of his experience. It is, however, to the Egyptian conquest that the first visit of a British traveller to Nejd is due. The Indian government, wishing to enter into relations with Ibrahim Pasha, as _de facto_ ruler of Nejd and El Hasa, with a view to putting down piracy in the Persian Gulf, which was seriously affecting Indian trade, sent a small mission under Captain G.F. Sadlier to congratulate the pasha on the success of the Egyptian arms, and no doubt with the ulterior object of obtaining a first-hand report on the real situation. On his arrival at Hofuf, Sadlier found that Ibrahim had already left Deraiya, but still hoping to intercept him before quitting Nejd, he followed up the retreating Egyptians through Yemama, and Wushm to Ras in Kasim, where he caught up the main body of Ibrahim's army, though the pasha himself had gone on to Medina. Sadlier hesitated about going farther, but he was unable to obtain a safe conduct to Basra, or to return by the way he had come, and was compelled reluctantly to accompany the army to Medina. Here he at last met Ibrahim, but though courteously received, the interview had no results, and Sadlier soon after left for Yambu, whence he embarked for Jidda, and after another fruitless attempt to treat with Ibrahim, sailed for India. If the political results of the mission were _nil_, the value to geographical science was immense; for though no geographer himself, Sadlier's route across Arabia made it possible for the first time to locate the principal places in something like their proper relative positions; incidentally, too, it showed the practicability of a considerable body of regular troops crossing the deserts of Nejd even in the months of July and August.
Sadlier's route had left Jebel Shammar to one side; his successor, G.A. Wallin, was to make that the objective of his journey. Commissioned by Mehemet Ali to inform him about the situation in Nejd brought about by the rising power of Abdallah Ibn Rashid, Wallin left Cairo in April 1845, and crossing the pilgrim road at Ma'an, pushed on across the Syrian desert to the Wadi Sirhan and the Jauf oasis, where he halted during the hot summer months. From the wells of Shakik he crossed the waterless Nafud in four days to Jubba, and after a halt there in the nomad camps, he moved on to Hail, already a thriving town, and the capital of the Shammar state whose limits included all northern Arabia from Kasim to the Syrian border. After a stay in Hail, where he had every opportunity of observing the character of the country and its inhabitants, and the hospitality and patriarchal, if sometimes stern, justice of its chief, he travelled on to Medina and Mecca, and returned thence to Cairo to report to his patron. Early in 1848 he again returned to Arabia, avoiding the long desert journey by landing at Muwela, thence striking inland to Tebuk on the pilgrim road, and re-entering Shammar territory at the oasis of Tema, he again visited Hail; and after spending a month there travelled northwards to Kerbela and Bagdad.
Palgrave's journey to Nejd.
The effects of the Egyptian invasion had passed away, and central Arabia had settled down again under its native rulers when W.G. Palgrave made his adventurous journey through Nejd, and published the remarkable narrative which has taken its place as the classic of Arabian exploration. Like Burton he was once an officer in the Indian army, but for some time before his journey he had been connected with the Jesuit mission in Syria. By training and temperament he was better qualified to appreciate and describe the social life of the people than their physical surroundings, and if the results of his great journey are disappointing to the geographer, his account of the society of the oasis towns, and of the remarkable men who were then ruling in Hail and Riad, must always possess an absorbing interest as a portrait of Arab life in its freest development.
Following Wallin's route across the desert by Ma'an and Jauf, Palgrave and his companion, a Syrian Christian, reached Hail in July 1862; here they were hospitably entertained by the amir Talal, nephew of the founder of the Ibn Rashid dynasty, and after some stay passed on with his countenance through Kasim to southern Nejd. Palgrave says little of the desert part of the journey or of its Bedouin inhabitants, but much of the fertility of the oases and of the civility of the townsmen; and like other travellers in Nejd he speaks with enthusiasm of its bright, exhilarating climate. At Riad, Fesal, who had been in power since the Egyptian retirement, was still reigning; and the religious tyranny of Wahhabism prevailed, in marked contrast to the liberal regime of Talal in Jebel Shammar. Still, Palgrave and his companions, though known as Christians, spent nearly two months in the capital without molestation, making short excursions in the neighbourhood, the most important of which was to El Kharfa in Aflaj, the most southerly district of Nejd. Leaving Riad, they passed through Yemama, and across a strip of sandy desert to El Hasa where Palgrave found himself in more congenial surroundings. Finally, a voyage to the Oman coast and a brief stay there brought his adventures in Arabia to a successful ending.
Doughty.
Charles Doughty, the next Englishman to visit northern Arabia, though he covered little new ground, saw more of the desert life, and has described it more minutely and faithfully than any other explorer. Travelling down from Damascus in 1875 with the Haj caravan, he stopped at El Hajr, one of the pilgrim stations, with the intention of awaiting the return of the caravan and in the meantime of exploring the rock-cut tombs of Medain Salih and El Ala. Having successfully completed his investigations and sent copies of inscriptions and drawings of the tombs to Renan in Paris, he determined to push on farther into the desert. Under the protection of a sheikh of the Fukara Bedouin he wandered over the whole of the borderland between Hejaz and Nejd. Visiting Tema, where among other ancient remains he discovered the famous inscribed stone, afterwards acquired by Huber for the Louvre. Next summer he went on to Hail and thence back to Khaibar, where the negro governor and townsmen, less tolerant than his former Bedouin hosts, ill-treated him and even threatened his life. Returning to Hail in the absence of the amir, he was expelled by the governor; he succeeded, however, in finding protection at Aneza, where he spent several months, and eventually after many hardships and perils found his way to the coast at Jidda.
Three years later Mr Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt made their expedition to J. Shammar. In their previous travels in Syria they had gained the confidence and friendship of a young sheikh whose family, though long settled at Tadmur, came originally from Nejd, and who was anxious to renew the connexion with his kinsmen by seeking a bride among them. In his company the Blunts set out from Damascus, and travelled across the Syrian desert by the Wadi Sirhan to Jauf. Here the sheikh found some of his relations and the matrimonial alliance was soon arranged; but though the object of the journey had been attained, the Blunts were anxious to visit Hail and make the acquaintance of the amir Ibn Rashid, of whose might and generosity they daily heard from their hosts in Jauf. The long stretch of waterless desert between Jauf and J. Shammar was crossed without difficulty, and the party was welcomed by the amir and hospitably entertained for a month, after which they travelled northwards in company with the Persian pilgrim caravan returning to Kerbela and Bagdad.
Huber.
In 1883 the French traveller, C. Huber, accompanied by the archaeologist, J. Euting, followed the same route from Damascus to Hail. The narrative of the last named forms a valuable supplement to that published by the Blunts, and together with Doughty's, furnishes as complete a picture as could be wished for of the social and political life of J. Shammar, and of the general nature of the country. Huber's journal, published after his death from his original notes, contains a mass of topographical and archaeological detail of the greatest scientific value: his routes and observations form, in fact, the first and only scientific data for the construction of the map of northern Arabia. To archaeology also his services were of equal importance, for, besides copying numerous inscriptions in the district between Hail and Tema, he succeeded in gaining possession of the since famous Tema stone, which ranks with the Moabite stone among the most valuable of Semitic inscriptions. From Hail Huber followed nearly in Doughty's track to Aneza and thence across central Nejd to Mecca and Jidda, where he despatched his notes and copies of inscriptions. A month later, in July 1884, he was murdered by his guides a few marches north of Jidda, on his way back to Hail.
One other traveller visited Hail during the lifetime of the amir Mahommed--Baron E. Nolde--who arrived there in 1893, not long after the amir had by his victory over the combined forces of Riad and Kasim brought the whole of Nejd under his dominion. Nolde crossed the Nafud to Haiyania by a more direct track than that from Shakik to Jubba. The amir was away from his capital settling the affairs of his newly acquired territory; Nolde therefore, after a short halt at Hail, journeyed on to Ibn Rashid's camp somewhere in the neighbourhood of Shakra. Here he was on new ground, but unfortunately he gives little or no description of his route thither, or of his journey northwards by the Persian pilgrim road, already traversed by Huber in 1881. His narrative thus, while containing much of general interest on the climate and on the animal life of northern Arabia, its horses and camels in particular, adds little to those of his predecessors as regards topographical detail.
General results of exploration.
If the journeys detailed above be traced on the map they will be found to cover the northern half of the peninsula above the line Mecca-Hofuf, with a network of routes, which, though sometimes separated by wide intervals, are still close enough to ensure that no important geographical feature can have been overlooked, especially in a country whose general character varies so little over wide areas. In the southern half, on the other hand, except in Nejran and Jauf, no European traveller has penetrated 100 m. in a direct line from the coast. The vast extent of the Dahna, or great southern desert, covering perhaps 250,000 sq. m., accounts for about a third of this area, but some of the most favoured districts in Arabia--Asir and northern Yemen--remain unexplored, and the hydrography of the Dawasir basin offers some interesting problems, while a great field remains for the archaeologist in the seat of the old Sabaean kingdom from Jauf to the Hadramut valley.
Sinai Peninsula.
_Topographical Details._--Beginning from the north-west, the Sinai peninsula belongs to Egypt, though geographically part of Arabia. It is bounded on the E. by a line drawn from Ar Rafa, a few miles E. of El Arish on the Mediterranean, to the head of the Gulf of Akaba; and on the W. by the Suez Canal; its length from El Arish to its most southern point is 240 m., and its breadth from Suez to Akaba is nearly 160 m. The greater part drains to the Mediterranean, from which the land rises gradually to the summit of the Tih plateau. The deep depression of Wadi Feran separates the Tih from the higher mass of Sinai (q.v.), in which J. Katherine attains a height of 8500 ft.; except in W. Feran there is little cultivable land, the greater part consisting of bare, rocky hills and sandy valleys, sparsely covered with tamarisk and acacia bushes. The Egyptian pilgrim road crosses the peninsula from Suez to Akaba, passing the post of An Nakhl, with a reservoir and a little cultivation, about half way; a steep descent leads down from the edge of the Tih plateau to Akaba.
Syrian desert.
The rest of the northern borderland is covered by the Syrian desert, extending from the borders of Palestine to the edge of the Euphrates valley. This tract, known as the Hamad, is a gravelly plain unbroken by any considerable range of hills or any continuous watercourse except the Wadi Hauran, which in rainy seasons forms a succession of pools from J. Hauran to the Euphrates. Its general slope is to the north-east from the volcanic plateau of the Harra south of J. Hauran to the edge of the Euphrates valley. The Wadi Sirhan, a broad depression some 500 ft. below the average level of the Hamad, crosses it from north-east to south-west between Hauran and Jauf; it has a nearly uniform height above sea-level of 1850 ft., and appears to be the bed of an inland sea rather than a true watercourse. Water is found in it a few feet below the surface, and a little cultivation is carried on at the small oases of Kaf and Ithri, whence salt produced in the neighbouring salt lakes is exported. The W. Sirhan is continuous with the depression known as the Jauf, situated on the northern edge of the Nefud or Nafud, and the halfway station between Damascus and Hail; and it is possible that this depression continues eastward towards the Euphrates along a line a little north of the thirtieth parallel, where wells and pasturages are known to exist. Jauf is a small town consisting, at the time of the Blunts' visit in 1879, of not more than 500 houses. The town with its gardens, surrounded by a mud wall, covers a space of 2 m. in length by half a mile in width; the basin in which it lies is barely 3 m. across, and except for the palm gardens and a few patches of corn, it is a dead flat of white sand, closed in by high sandstone cliffs, beyond which lies the open desert. The oases of Sakaka and Kara are situated in a similar basin 15 m. to the east; the former a town of 10,000 inhabitants and somewhat larger than Jauf according to Huber.
The Nafud.
A short distance south of Jauf the character of the desert changes abruptly from a level black expanse of gravel to the red sands of the Nafud. The northern edge of this great desert follows very nearly the line of the thirtieth parallel, along which it extends east and west for a length of some 400 m.; its breadth from north to south is 200 m. Though almost waterless, it is in fact better wooded and richer in pasture than any part of the Hamad; the sand-hills are dotted with _ghada_, a species of tamarisk, and other bushes, and several grasses and succulent plants --among them the _adar_, on which sheep are said to feed for a month without requiring water--are found in abundance in good seasons. In the spring months, when their camels are in milk, the Bedouins care nothing for water, and wander far into the Nafud with their flocks in search of the green pasture which springs up everywhere after the winter rains. A few wells exist actually in the Nafud in the district called El Hajra, near its north-eastern border, and along its southern border, between J. Shammar and Tema, there are numerous wells and artificial as well as natural reservoirs resorted to by the nomad tribes.
Owing to the great extent of the Nafud desert, the formation of sand-dunes is exemplified on a proportionate scale. In many places longitudinal dunes are found exceeding a day's journey in length, the valleys between which take three or four hours to cross; but the most striking feature of the Nafud are the high crescent-shaped sand-hills, known locally as _falk_ or _falj_, described by Blunt and Huber, who devoted some time to their investigation. The falks enclose a deep hollow (known as _ka'r_), the floor of which is often hard soil bare of sand, and from which the inner slopes of the falk rise as steeply as the sand will lie (about 50 deg.). On the summit of the falk there is generally a mound known as _tas_ or _barkhus_ composed of white sand which stands out conspicuously against the deep red of the surrounding deserts; the exterior slopes are comparatively gentle. The falks are singularly uniform in shape, but vary greatly in size; the largest were estimated by Huber and Euting at 1-1/4 m. across and 330 ft. deep. They run in strings irregularly from east to west, corresponding in this with their individual direction, the convex face of the falk being towards the west, i.e. the direction of the prevailing wind, and the cusps to leeward. In the south of the Nafud, where Huber found the prevailing wind to be from the south, the falks are turned in that direction. Though perhaps subject to slight changes in the course of years, there is no doubt that these dunes are practically permanent features; the more prominent ones serve as landmarks and have well-known distinctive names. The character of the vegetation which clothes their slopes shows that even superficial changes must be slight. The general level of the Nafud was found by Huber's observations to be about 3000 ft. above sea-level; the highest point on the Jauf-Hail route is at Falk Alam, the rocky peaks of which rise 200 or 300 ft. above the surface of the sand. Other peaks cropping out of the Nafud are Jebel Tawil, near the wells of Shakik, and J. Abrak Rada, a long black ridge in the middle of the desert.
The Harra.
The high plateau which from. J. Hauran southward forms the main watershed of the peninsula is covered in places by deep beds of lava, which from their hardness have preserved the underlying sandstones from degradation, and now stand up considerably above the general level. These tracts are known as _harra_; the most remarkable is the Harrat El Awerid, west of the Haj route from Tebuk to El Ala, a mountain mass 100 m. in length with an average height of over 5000 ft., and the highest summit of which, J. Anaz, exceeds 7000 ft. The harra east of Khaibar is also of considerable extent, and the same formation is found all along the Hejaz border from Medina to the Jebel el Kura, east of Mecca. The surface of the harra is extremely broken, forming a labyrinth of lava crags and blocks of every size; the whole region is sterile and almost waterless, and compared with the Nafud it produces little vegetation; but it is resorted to by the Bedouin in the spring and summer months when the air is always fresh and cool. In winter it is cold and snow often lies for some time.
Hejaz.
Hejaz, if we except the Taif district in the south, which is properly a part of the Yemen plateau, forms a well-marked physical division, lying on the western slope of the peninsula, where that slope is at its widest, between the Harra and the Red Sea. A high range of granite hills, known as the Tehama range, the highest point of which, J. Shar, in Midian, exceeds 6500 ft., divides it longitudinally into a narrow littoral and a broader upland zone 2000 or 3000 ft. above the sea. Both are generally bare and unproductive, the uplands, however, contain the fertile valleys of Khaibar and Medina, draining to the Wadi Hamd, the principal river system of western Arabia; and the Wadi Jadid or Es Safra, rising in the Harra between Medina and Es Safina, which contain several settlements, of which the principal produce is dates. The quartz reefs which crop out in the granite ranges of the Tehama contain traces of gold. These and the ancient copper workings were investigated by Burton in 1877. The richer veins had evidently been long ago worked out, and nothing of sufficient value to justify further outlay was discovered. The coast-line is fringed with small islets and shoals and reefs, which make navigation dangerous. The only ports of importance are Yambu and Jidda, which serve respectively Medina and Mecca; they depend entirely on the pilgrim traffic to the holy cities, without which they could not exist.
Nejd.
The great central province of Nejd occupies all inner Arabia between the Nafud and the southern desert. Its northern part forms the basin of the Wadi Rumma, which, rising in the Khaibar harra, runs north-eastward across the whole width of Nejd, till it is lost in the sands of the eastern Nafud, north of Aneza. The greater portion of this region is an open steppe, sandy in places and in others dotted with low volcanic hills, but with occasional ground water and in favourable seasons furnishing support for a considerable pastoral population. Its elevation varies from about 5000 ft. in the west to 2500 ft. in the east. In Jebel Shammar, Kasim and Wushm, where the water in the wadi beds rises nearly to the ground level, numerous fertile oases are found with thriving villages and towns.
Jebel Shammar, from which the northern district of Nejd takes its name, is a double range of mountains some 20 m. apart, rising sharply out of the desert in bare, granite cliffs. J. Aja, the western and higher of the two ranges, has a length of about 100 m. from north-east to south-west, where it merges into the high plateau extending from and continuous with the Khaibar harra. The highest point, J. Kara, near its north-eastern extremity, is about 4600 ft. above sea-level, or 1600 ft. above the town of Hail, which, like most of the larger villages, lies along the wadi bed at the foot of J. Aja. The town, which has risen with the fortunes of the Ibn Rashid family to be the capital of Upper Nejd, is at the mouth of the valley between the twin ranges, about 2 m. from the foot of J. Aja, and contained at the time of Nolde's visit in 1893 about 12,000 inhabitants.
The principal tributaries of the W. Rumma converge in lower Kasim, and at Aneza Doughty says its bed is 3 m. wide from bank to bank. Forty years before his visit a flood is said to have occurred, which passed down the river till it was blocked by sand-drifts at Thuwerat, 50 m. lower down, and for two years a lake stood nearly 100 m. long, crowded by waterfowl not known before in that desert country. Below this its course has not been followed by any European traveller, but it may be inferred from the line of watering-places on the road to Kuwet, that it runs out to the Persian Gulf in that neighbourhood.
East of Kasim the land rises gradually to the high plateau culminating in the ranges of Jebel Tuwek and J. Arid. The general direction of these hills is from north-west to south-east. On the west they rise somewhat steeply, exposing high cliffs of white limestone, which perhaps gave Palgrave the impression that the range is of greater absolute height than is actually the case. J. Tuwek in any case forms an important geographical feature in eastern Nejd, interrupting by a transverse barrier 200 m. in length the general north-easterly slope of the peninusla, and separating the basin of the W. Rumma from that of the other great river system of central Arabia, the Wadi Dawasir. The districts of Suder and Wushm lie on its northern side, Arid in the centre, and Aflaj, Harik and Yemama on its south, in the basin of the W. Dawasir; the whole of this hilly region of eastern Nejd is, perhaps, rather a rolling down country than truly mountainous, in which high pastures alternate with deep fertile valleys, supporting numerous villages with a large agricultural population. The W. Hanifa is its principal watercourse; its course is marked by an almost continuous series of palm groves and settlements, among which Deraiya the former, and Riad the present, capital of the Ibn Saud kingdom are the most extensive. Its lower course is uncertain, but it probably continues in a south-east direction to the districts of El Harik and Yemama when, joined by the drainage from Aflaj and the W. Dawasir, it runs eastward till it disappears in the belt of sandy desert 100 m. in width that forms the eastern boundary of Nejd, to reappear in the copious springs that fertilize El Hasa and the Bahrein littoral.
Unexplored region of S. Nejd.
As regards the unexplored southern region, Palgrave's informants in Aflaj, the most southerly district visited by him, stated that a day's march south of that place the Yemen road enters the W. Dawasir, up which it runs for ten days, perhaps 200 m., to El Kura, a thinly peopled district on the borders of Asir; this accords with the information of the French officers of the Egyptian army in that district, and with that of Halevy, who makes all the drainage from Nejran northward run to the same great wadi. Whether there be any second line of drainage in southern Nejd skirting the edge of the great desert and following the depression of the W. Yabrin must remain a matter of conjecture. Colonel Miles concluded, from his enquiries, that the low salt swamp, extending inland for some distance from Khor ed Duwan, in the bay east of El Katr, was the outlet of an extensive drainage system which may well be continuous with the W. Yabrin and extend far into the interior, if not to Nejran itself.
El Hasa.
East of Nejd a strip of sandy desert 50 m. in width extends almost continuously from the great Nafud to the Dahna. East of this again a succession of stony ridges running parallel to the coast has to be crossed before El Hasa is reached. This province, which skirts the Persian Gulf from the mouth of the Euphrates to the frontiers of Oman, is low and hot; its shores are flat, and with the exception of Kuwet at the north-west corner of the gulf, it possesses no deep water port. North of Katif it is desert and only inhabited by nomads; at Katif, however, and throughout the district to the south bordering on the Gulf of Bahrein there are ample supplies of underground water, welling up in abundant springs often at a high temperature, and bringing fertility to an extensive district of which El Hofuf, a town of 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, is the most important centre.
South-western Arabia.
South-western Arabia, from the twenty-first parallel down to the Gulf of Aden, including the Taif district of Hejaz, Asir and Yemen, forms one province geographically. Throughout its length it consists of three zones, a narrow coastal strip, rarely exceeding 20 m. in width, a central mountainous tract, embracing the great chain which runs parallel to the coast from near Taif to within 50 m. of Aden, and an inner plateau falling gradually to the north-east till it merges in the Nejd steppes or the sands of the great desert.
The lowland strip or Tehama consists partly of a gravelly plain, the _Khabt_, covered sparsely with acacia and other desert shrubs and trees, and furnishing pasturage for large flocks of goats and camels; and partly of sterile wastes of sand like the _Ramla_, which extends on either side of Aden almost from the seashore to the foot of the hills. The Tehama is, however, by no means all desert, the mountain torrents where they debouch into the plain have formed considerable tracts of alluvial soil of the highest degree of fertility producing in that warm equable climate two and even three crops in the year. The flood-water is controlled by a system of dams and channels constructed so as to utilize every drop, and the extent of cultivation is limited more by the supply of water available than by the amount of suitable soil. These districts support a large settled population and several considerable towns, of which Bet el Fakih and Zubed in the western and Lahej in the southern Tehama, with 4000 to 6000 inhabitants, are the most important. There are signs that this coastal strip was until a geologically recent period below sea-level; and that the coast-line is still receding is evidenced by the history of the town of Muza, once a flourishing port, now 20 m. inland; while Bet el Fakih and Zubed, once important centres of the coffee trade, have lost their position through the silting up of the ports which formerly served them.
The jebel or mountain-land is, however, the typical Yemen, the _Arabia Felix_ of the ancients. Deep valleys winding through the barren foothills lead gradually up to the higher mountains, and as the track ascends the scenery and vegetation change their character; the trees which line the banks of the wadi are overgrown with creepers, and the running stream is dammed at frequent intervals, and led off in artificial channels to irrigate the fields on either side; the steeper parts of the road are paved with large stones, substantially built villages, with their masonry towers or _dars_, crowning every height, replace the collection of mud walls and brushwood huts of the low country; while tier above tier, terraced fields cover the hill slopes and attest the industry of the inhabitants and the fertility of their mountains. On the main route from Hodeda to Sana the first coffee plantations are reached at Usil, at an altitude of 4300 ft., and throughout the western slopes of the range up to an altitude of 7000 ft. it is the most important crop. Jebel Haraz, of which Manakha, a small town of 3000 inhabitants is the chief place, is described by Glaser as one vast coffee garden. Here the traveller ascending from the coast sees the first example of the jebel or highland towns, with their high three-storeyed houses, built of quarried stone, their narrow facades pierced with small windows with whitewashed borders and ornamented with varied arabesque patterns; each dar has the appearance of a small castle complete in itself, and the general effect is rather that of a cluster of separate forts than of a town occupied by a united community.
The scenery in this mountain region is of the most varied description; bare precipitous hill-sides seamed with dry, rocky watercourses give place with almost startling rapidity to fertile slopes, terraced literally for thousands of feet. General Haig in describing them says: "One can hardly realize the enormous labour, toil and perseverance that these represent; the terrace walls are usually 5 to 8 ft. in height, but towards the top of the mountains they are sometimes as much as 15 or 18 ft.; they are built entirely of rough stone without mortar, and I reckon that on an average each wall retains not more than twice its own height in breadth, and I do not think I saw a single break in them unrepaired."
The highest summits as determined by actual survey are between 10,000 and 11,000 ft. above sea-level. J. Sabur, a conspicuous mass in the extreme south, is 9900 ft., with a fall to the Taiz valley of 5000 ft.; farther north several points in the mountains above Ibb and Yarim attain a height of 10,500 ft., and J. Hadur, near the Sana-Hodeda road, exceeds 10,000 ft. From the crest of the range there is a short drop of 2000 or 3000 ft. to the broad open valleys which form the principal feature of the inner plateau. The town of Yarim lies near its southern extremity at an altitude of about 8000 ft.; within a short distance are the sources of the W. Yakla, W. Bana and W. Zubed, running respectively east and south and west. The first named is a dry watercourse ultimately joining the basin of the W. Hadramut; the two others run for a long distance through fertile valleys and, like many of the wadis on the seaward side of the range, have perennial streams down to within a few miles of the sea. Sana, the capital of Yemen, lies in a broad valley 7300 ft. above sea-level, sloping northwards to the W. Kharid which, with the Ghail Hirran, the sources of which are on the eastern slopes of J. Hadur, run north-eastward to the Jauf depression. The Arhab district, through which these two great wadis run, was formerly the centre of the Himyar kingdom; cultivation is now only to be found in the lower parts on the borders of the watercourses, all above being naked rock from which every particle of soil has been denuded. In the higher parts there are fine plains where Glaser found numerous Himyaritic remains, and which he considers were undoubtedly cultivated formerly, but they have long fallen out of cultivation owing to denudation and desiccation--the impoverishment of the country from these causes is increasing. Eastward the plateau becomes still more sterile, and its elevation probably falls more rapidly till it reaches the level of the Jauf and Nejran valleys on the borders of the desert. The water-parting between central and southern Arabia seems to be somewhere to the south of Nejran, which, according to Halevy, drains northward to the W. Dawasir, while the Jauf is either an isolated depression, or perhaps forms part of the Hadramut basin.
Asir.
Farther north, in Asir, the plateau is more mountainous and contains many fertile valleys. Of these may be mentioned Khamis Mishet and the Wadi Shahran rising among the high summits of the maritime chain, and the principal affluents of the Wadi Besha; the latter is a broad well-watered valley, with numerous scattered hamlets, four days' journey (perhaps 80 m.) from the crest of the range. Still farther north is the Wadi Taraba and its branches running down from the highland district of Zahran. The lower valleys produce dates in abundance, and at higher elevations wheat, barley, millets and excellent fruit are grown, while juniper forests are said to cover the mountain slopes. In Yemen this tree was probably more common formerly; the place-name Arar, signifying juniper, is still often found where the tree no longer exists.
Coast of Yemen.
Hadramut.
The western coast of Yemen, like that of Hejaz, is studded with shoals and islands, of which Perim in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, Kamaran, the Turkish quarantine post, 40 m. north of Hodeda, and the Farsan group, off the Abu Arish coast, are the principal. Hodeda is the only port of any importance since the days of steamships began; the other ports, Mokha, Lohaia and Kanfuda merely share in the coasting trade. The south coast is free from the shoals that imperil the navigation of the Red Sea, and in Aden it possesses the only safe natural harbour on the route between Suez and India. Several isolated volcanic hills crop out on the shore line between Aden and the straits; the most remarkable are J. Kharaz, 2500 ft., and J. Shamshan, 1700 ft., at the base of which Aden itself is built. In both of these the crater form is very clearly marked. A low maritime plain, similar to the Tehama of the western coast, extends for some 200 m. east of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, backed by mountains rising to 7000 ft. or more; farther east the elevation of the highland decreases steadily, and in the Hadramut, north of Mukalla, does not much exceed 4000 ft. The mountain chain, too, is less distinctly marked, and becomes little more than the seaward escarpment of the plateau which intervenes between the coast and the Hadramut valley. This valley runs nearly east and west for a distance of 500 m. from the eastern slopes of the Yemen highlands to its mouth on the Mahra coast near Sihut. The greater part of it is desert, but a short stretch lying between the 48th and 50th meridians is well watered and exceptionally fertile. This begins a little to the east of Shabwa, the ancient capital, now half buried in the advancing sand, and for a distance of over 70 m. a succession of villages and towns surrounded by fields and date groves extends along the main valley and into the tributaries which join it from the south. Shibam, Saiyun and Tarim are towns of 6000 or more inhabitants, and Hajren and Haura in the W. Duwan are among the larger villages. Himyaritic remains have been found here and in the W. Mefat which enters the Gulf of Aden near Balhaf. A few small fishing villages or ports are scattered along the coast, but except Mukalla and Shihr none is of any importance.
The Gara coast was visited by the Bents, who went inland from Dhafar, one of the centres of the old frankincense trade, to the crest of the plateau. The narrow coastal strip seems to be moderately fertile, and the hills which in places come down to the seashore are covered with trees, among which the frankincense and other gum-bearing trees are found. On the plateau, which has an altitude of 4000 ft., there is good pasturage; inland the country slopes gently to a broad valley beyond which the view was bounded by the level horizon of the desert.
Oman.
Oman (q.v.) includes all the south-eastern corner of the peninsula. Its chief feature is the lofty range of J. Akhdar, 10,000 ft. above sea-level. Like the great range of western Arabia, it runs parallel to the coast; it differs, however, from the western range in that its fall on the landward side is as abrupt and nearly as great as on its seaward side. Its northern extremity, Ras Musandan, rises precipitously from the straits of Hormuz; farther south the range curves inland somewhat, leaving a narrow but fertile strip, known as the Batina coast, between it and the sea, and containing several populous towns and villages of which Sohar, Barka and Sib are the chief. Muscat, the capital of the province and the principal port on the coast, is surrounded on three sides by bare, rocky hills, and has the reputation of being the hottest place in Arabia. Zwemer says the fertility of the highland region of J. Akhdar is wonderful and is in striking contrast to the barrenness of so much of the coast; water issues in perennial springs from many rocky clefts, and is carefully husbanded by the ingenuity of the people; underground channels, known here as _faluj_, precisely similar to the _kanat_ or _karez_ of Persia and Afghanistan, are also largely used. The principal villages on the eastern slopes are Rustak, Nakhl and Semail in the well-watered valley of the same name; on the western slopes are Tanuf and Nizwa, lying immediately below the highest summit of the range; Semed, Ibra and Bidiya in the W. Betha are all well-built villages with palm-groves and irrigated fields. In the north-west the Dhahira district sloping towards the Jewasimi coast is more steppe-like in character; but there two oases of great fertility are found, of which Birema, visited by both Miles and Zwemer, supports a population of 15,000. West of Abu Dhabi a low flat steppe with no settled inhabitants extends up to the Katr peninsula, merging on the north into the saline marshes which border the Persian Gulf, and on the south into the desert.
The southern desert.
The great desert known as the Dahna or the Rub'a el Khali ("the empty quarter") is believed to cover all the interior of southern Arabia from the borders of Yemen in the west to those of Oman in the east. Halevy in Nejran, Von Wrede in Hadramut, and Wellsted in Oman reached its edge, though none of them actually entered it, and the guides accompanying them all concurred in describing it as uninhabitable and uncrossed by any track. Its northern fringe is no doubt frequented by the Bedouin tribes of southern Nejd after the rains, when its sands, like those of the northern desert, produce herbage; but towards the east, according to Burckhardt's information, it is quite without vegetation even in the winter and spring. The farthest habitable spot to the south of Nejd is the Wadi Yabrin, which L. Pelly heard of from the Ahl Murra Bedouins as once a fertile district, and which still produces dates, though, owing to malaria, it is now deserted; thence southward to the Hadramut valley no communication is known to exist.
[_Geology._--The geological structure of Arabia is very similar to that of Egypt. The oldest rocks consist of granite and schist, penetrated by intrusive dykes, and upon this foundation rest the flat-lying sedimentary deposits, beginning with a sandstone like the Nubian sandstone of Egypt. In the northern part of Arabia the crystalline rocks form a broad area extending from the peninsula of Sinai eastwards to Hail and southwards at least as far as Mecca. Towards the north the crystalline floor is overlaid by the great sandstone series which covers nearly the whole of the country north of Hail. Upon the sandstone rest a few scattered outliers of limestone, probably of Cretaceous age, the largest of which occur near Jauf and east of Bureda. Over both sandstone and granite great sheets of lava have been poured, and these, protecting the softer beds beneath from further denudation, now stand up as the high plateaus and hills called _harra_. Volcanic cones still exist in large numbers, and the sheets of lava appear as fresh as any recent flows of Etna or Vesuvius. Arabian manuscripts describe an eruption on the harra near Medina in A.D. 1256. In the south of Arabia the crystalline floor appears at intervals along the southern coast and on the shores of the Gulf of Oman. At Marbat the granite is overlaid by sandstone, presumably the Nubian sandstone: this is followed by marls containing Cenomanian fossils; and these are overlaid by Upper Cretaceous limestones, upon which rest isolated patches of _Alveolina_ limestone. Generally, however, the Cretaceous beds do not appear, and the greater part of southern Arabia seems to be formed of _Alveolina_ and nummulite limestones of Tertiary age. An extinct volcano occurs at Aden, and volcanic rocks are found at other places near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Throughout the whole of Arabia, so far as is known, the sedimentary beds show no signs of any but the most gentle folding. Faulting, however, is by no means absent, and some of the faults are of considerable magnitude. The Gulf of Akaba is a strip of country which has been let down between two parallel faults, and several similar faulted troughs occur in the Sinai peninsula. The Red Sea itself is a great trough bounded by faults along each side.]
_Climate._--Owing to its low latitude and generally arid surface, Arabia is on the whole one of the hottest regions of the earth; this is especially the case along the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the southern half of the Red Sea, where the moist heat throughout the year is almost intolerable to Europeans. In the interior of northern and central Arabia, however, where the average level of the country exceeds 3000 ft., the fiery heat of the summer days is followed by cool nights, and the winter climate is fresh and invigorating; while in the highlands of Asir and Yemen in the south-west, and of Oman in the east, the summer heat is never excessive, and the winters are, comparatively speaking, cold.
In the northern desert the temperature is subject to extreme variations. Nolde states that on the 1st of February 1893 in the desert north of Hail the thermometer fell from 78 deg. a little before sunset to 18 deg. a quarter of an hour after. The midday temperatures recorded by Huber at Hail during January and the first half of February average about 65 deg. F., and water froze on several nights; at Medina the winters are cold and night frosts of frequent occurrence, and these conditions prevail over all the western part of the Nejd plateau. In the east where the elevation is lower the climate is warmer. In the elevated highland district which extends from Taif to within 50 m. of Aden, the summer heat is tempered by the monsoon winds, and the seasonal variation of temperature is less marked. From observations made at Sana by Manzoni, Deflers and Glaser, the mean temperature for the year of that city at an altitude of 7300 ft. and in 15 deg. 22' N. appears to be 60 deg. F.; for July the mean maximum was 77 deg., mean minimum 54 deg.; for January the figures were 62 deg.and 40 deg. respectively, the lowest recorded temperature in 1878 was 26.6 deg. on the 26th of January. At Aden at the sea-level the mean temperature for the year is 83 deg.; the highest observed temperature in 1904 was 97.3 deg., the lowest 67.4 deg.
The rainfall throughout northern and central Arabia is chiefly in the winter months between October and April, and is scanty and irregular. Doughty states that in 1876 rain to wet the ground had not fallen for three years at Medain Salih; in that year showers fell on the 29th of December and on two days in January and again in March. After a very hot summer the bright weather changed to clouded skies on the 2nd of October, rain fell tempestuously the same evening, and there were showery days and nights till the 14th. The autumn rains fell that year abundantly in the Nafud towards Jauf, but very little in the basin of the W. Hamd (on the western slope). Doughty adds that the Nejd highlands between Kasim and Mecca are watered yearly by seasonable rains, which at Taif are expected about the end of August and last commonly from four to six weeks. This appears to be about the northern limit reached by the south-west monsoon, which from June to September brings a fairly abundant rainfall to the Yemen highlands, though the Tehama remains almost entirely rainless. The rainfall is heaviest along the western fringe of the plateau, and penetrates inland in decreasing quantity over a zone which perhaps extends to 100 m. in width. In good seasons it is sufficient for the cultivation of the summer crop of millet, and for the supply of the perennial streams and springs, on which the irrigation of the winter crops of wheat and barley depend. The amount measured at Dhala at the extreme south of the plateau at an elevation of 4800 ft. was in 1902 as follows:--June, 4.0 in.; July, 5.5; August, 5.8; September, 1.9. Only slight showers were recorded in the other months of the year. At higher elevations the rainfall is no doubt heavier; Manzoni mentions that at Sana there was constant rain throughout August and September 1878, and that the thermometer during August did not reach 65 deg. In the Tehama occasional showers fall during the winter months; at Aden the average rainfall for the year is 2.97 in., but during 1904 only 0.5 in. was recorded. Snow falls on the Harra and on the Tehama range in northern Arabia, and Nolde records a fall of snow which lay on the Nafud on the 1st of February 1893. It also falls on J. Akhdar in Oman, but is very rarely known on the Yemen mountains, probably because the precipitation during the winter months is so slight.
The prevailing winds in northern Arabia as far as is known are from the west; along the southern coast they are from the east; at Sana there is generally a light breeze from the north-north-west from 9 to 11 A.M., from noon till 4 P.M. a steady and often strong wind blows from the south-south-east, which dies away later. The climate is extremely dry, but this is compensated for by the heavy mists which sweep up from the plains during the rainless months and exercise a most beneficial effect in the coffee-growing districts. This phenomenon is known as the sukhemani or amama. In the morning the Tehama, as seen from the mountain tops, appears buried in a sea of white cloud; towards noon the clouds drift up the mountain slopes and cover the summits with wreaths of light mist charged with moisture which condenses on the trees and vegetation; in the afternoon they disappear, and the evenings are generally clear and still.
_Fauna._--The wild animals of Arabia are all of the desert-loving type: antelopes and gazelles are found in small numbers throughout the peninsula; the latter are similar to the _chikara_ or ravine deer of India. The larger antelopes, so common on the African side of the Gulf of Aden, are not found, except one variety, the _Oryx beatrix_ (called by the Arabs, wild cow), which is an inhabitant of the Nafud between Tema and Hail; it is about the size of a donkey, white, and with long straight horns. Hares are numerous both in the desert and in cultivated tracts. In the Yemen mountains the _wal_, a wild goat with massive horns, similar to the Kashmir ibex, is found; monkeys also abound. Among smaller animals the jerboa and other descriptions of rat, and the _wabar_ or cony are common; lizards and snakes are numerous, most of the latter being venomous. Hyenas, wolves and panthers are found in most parts of the country, and in the mountains the leopard and wild cat. Of birds the ostrich is found in the Nafud and in the W. Dawasir. Among game birds the bustard, guinea fowl, sand grouse (_kata_), blue rock, green pigeon, partridge, including a large chikor (_akb_) and a small species similar to the Punjab sisi; quail and several kinds of duck and snipe are met with. In the cultivated parts of Yemen and Tehama small birds are very numerous, so also are birds of prey, vultures, kites and hawks.
Insects of all sorts abound; scorpions, centipedes, spiders, and an ugly but harmless millipede known in Yemen as _hablub_ are very common in summer. Ants and beetles too are very numerous, and anthills are prominent features in many places. Locusts appear in great swarms and do much damage; fires are lighted at night to attract them, and large quantities are caught and eaten by the poorer people. Bees are kept, and in Yemen and Hadramut the honey is exceptionally good.
Camel.
Of domesticated animals the camel is far the most useful to the Arab. Owing to its endurance of thirst the long desert journeys which separate the populous centres are made practicable, and in the spring months, when green forage is plentiful in the desert, the Bedouins pitch their camps for long periods far from any water, and not only men but horses subsist on camel's milk. The Arabian camel belongs to the one-humped species, though there are many varieties differing in appearance as much as the thoroughbred race-horse from the English cart-horse. The ordinary load for a pack camel is about 400 lb., and in hot weather good camels will march 20 to 25 m. daily and only require water every third or fourth day: in cool weather, with ample green fodder they can go twenty-five days or more without drinking. A good _dalul_ or riding camel will carry his rider 100 m. a day for a week on end. Nolde gives an instance from his own experience of a camel rider covering 62 m. in seven hours. The pure-bred riding camel is only found in perfection in inner Arabia; for some unexplained reason when taken out of their own country or north of the 30th degree they rapidly degenerate.
Horse.
The horse does not occupy the important position in the Bedouin economy that is popularly supposed. In Nejd the number of horses is, comparatively speaking, very small; the want of water in the Nafud where alone forage is obtainable, and the absence of forage in the neighbourhood of the towns makes horse-breeding on a large scale impracticable there. Horses are in fact only kept by the principal sheiks, and by far the larger proportion of those now in Nejd are the property of the amir and his family. These are kept most of the year in the Nafud, five or ten days' march from Hail, where they find their own food on the desert herbage. When a raid is in contemplation, they are brought in and given a little barley for a few weeks. Reared in this way they are capable of marvellous endurance, marching during a raid twenty hours a day for eight or ten days together. As a rule, they are only mounted at the moment of attack, or in pursuit. Water and forage have to be carried for them on camels.
The great majority of the horses that come into the market as Arabs, are bred in the northern desert and in Mesopotamia, by the various sections of the Aneza and Shammar tribes, who emigrated from Nejd generations ago, taking with them the original Nejd stock. In size and appearance, and in everything but endurance, these northern horses are admittedly superior to the true Nejdi. A few of the latter are collected by dealers in the nomad camps and exported chiefly from Kuwet. The amir Mahommed Ibn Rashid used to send down about one hundred young horses yearly.
Asses of excellent quality are bred all over the country; they are much used as mounts by the richer townsmen. Except in the settled districts horned cattle are not numerous; they are similar to the Indian humped cattle, but are greatly superior in milking qualities. The great wealth of the Arabs is in their flocks of sheep and goats; they are led out to pasture soon after sunrise, and in the hotter months drink every second day. In the spring when the succulent _ashub_ and _adar_ grow plentifully in the desert, they go for weeks without drinking. They are milked once a day about sunset by the women (the men milk the camels), and a large proportion of the milk is made into _samn_, clarified butter, or _marisi_, dried curd. The wool is not of much value, and is spun by the women and woven into rugs, and made up into saddlebags or into the black Bedouin tents.
_Flora._--The flora of Arabia has been investigated by P. Forskal, the botanist of Niebuhr's mission, P.E. Botta, G. Schweinfurth and A. Deflers, to whose publications the technical reader is referred. Its general type approaches more closely to the African than to that of southern Asia. In the higher regions the principal trees are various species of fig, tamarind, carob and numerous kinds of cactiform _Euphorbia_, of which one, the _Euphorbia arborea_, grows to a height of 20 ft. Of Coniferae the juniper is found on the higher slopes of J. Sabur near Taiz, where Botta describes it as forming an extensive forest and growing to a large size; it is also found in the range overlooking the W. Madin, 50 m. W. of Aden. Considerable forests are said to exist in Asir, and Burton found a few fine specimens which he regarded as the remains of an old forest, on the Tehama range in Midian. On the rocky hill-sides in Yemen the _Adenium Obesum_ is worthy of notice, with its enormous bulb-like stems and brilliant red flowers. Some fine aloes or agaves are also found. In the cultivated upland valleys all over Arabia the _Zisyphus jujuba_, called by some travellers lotus, grows to a large tree; its thorny branches are clipped yearly and used to fence the cornfields among which it grows. In the broad sandy wadi beds the tamarisk (_athl_) is everywhere found; its wood is used for making domestic implements of all sorts. Among fruit trees the vine, apricot, peach, apple, quince, fig and banana are cultivated in the highlands, and in the lower country the date palm flourishes, particularly throughout the central zone of Arabia, in Hejaz, Nejd and El Hasa, where it is the prime article of food. A hundred kinds of date are said to grow at Medina, of which the _birni_ is considered the most wholesome; the _halwa_ and the _jalebi_ are the most delicately flavoured and sell at very high rates; the _khulas_ of El Hasa is also much esteemed.
Of cereals the common millets, _dhura_ and _dukhn_, are grown in all parts of the country as the summer crop, and in the hot irrigated Tehama districts three crops are reaped in the year; in the highlands maize, wheat and barley are grown to a limited extent as the winter crop, ripening at the end of March or in April. Among vegetables the common kinds grown include radishes, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, potatoes, onions and leeks. Roses are grown in some places for the manufacture of _atr_, or attar of roses; mignonette, jasmine, thyme, lavender and other aromatic plants are favourites in Yemen, when the Arabs often stick a bunch in their head-dress.
Coffee.
Of the products special to Arabia coffee comes first; it is nowhere found wild, and is believed to have been introduced from Abyssinia in the 6th century A.D. It thrives on the seaward slopes of the western range in the zone of the tropical rains, at altitudes between 4000 and 7000 ft. The principal centres of production are the upper valleys of the W. Surdad, between Kaukaban and Manakha, and particularly on J. Haraz; in the Wadi Zubed west of Uden; in Hajaria on the slopes of J. Sabur, and in the Yafa district north-east of Aden. It is planted in terraces on the mountain slopes; shady trees, such as tamarind and fig, are planted in the border as a protection from the sun, and the terraces are irrigated by channels led from a neighbouring rivulet or spring. The plants are raised from seedlings, and when six or seven weeks old they are transplanted in rows 4 to 6 ft. apart; they require watering twice a month, and bear in two to four years. The berries are dried in the sun and sent down to Hodeda or Aden, where they are subjected to a process for separating the husk from the bean; the result is about 50% of cleaned berries, _bun safi_, which is exported, and a residue of husk or _kishr_, from which the Yemenis make their favourite beverage.
Another plant universally used as a stimulant in Southern Arabia is _khat_ (_Catha edulis_). The best is grown on J. Sabur and the mountainous country round Taiz. It is a small bush propagated from cuttings which are left to grow for three years; the leaves are then stripped, except a few buds which develop next year into young shoots, these being cut and sold in bunches under the name of _khat mubarak_; next year on the branches cut back new shoots grow; these are sold as _khat malhani_, or second-year kat, which commands the highest price. The bush is then left for three years, when the process is repeated. The leaves and young shoots are chewed; they have stimulating properties, comparable with those of the coca of Peru.
The aromatic gums for which Arabia was famed in ancient times are still produced, though the trade is a very small one. The tree from which myrrh is extracted grows in many places, but the industry is chiefly carried on at Suda, 60 m. north-north-east of Sana. Longitudinal slits are made in the bark, and the gum is caught in cups fixed beneath. The balsam of Mecca is produced in the same way, chiefly in the mountains near the W. Safra between Yambu and Medina.
The stony plains which cover so large a part of the country are often covered with acacia jungle, and in the dry water-courses a kind of wild palm, the _dom_, abounds, from the leaves of which baskets and mats are woven. Brushwood and rough pasturage of some sort is found almost everywhere, except in the neighbourhood of the larger settlements, where forage and firewood have to be brought in from long distances. The Nafud sands, too, are tufted in many places with bushes or small trees, and after the winter rains they produce excellent pasture.
_Population._--The people, according to their own traditions, are derived from two stocks, the pure Arabs, descended from Kahtan or Joktan, fourth in descent from Shem; and the Mustarab or naturalized Arabs, from Ishmael. The former are represented at the present day by the inhabitants of Yemen, Hadramut and Oman, in general a settled agricultural population; the latter by those of Hejaz, Nejd, El Hasa, the Syrian desert and Mesopotamia, consisting of the Bedouin or pastoral tribes (see ARABS and BEDOUINS). This distinction between the characteristics of the two races is only true in a general sense, for a considerable population of true Bedouin origin has settled down to agricultural life in the oases of Hejaz and Nejd, while in southern Arabia the tribes dwelling on the fringe of the great desert have to a certain extent adopted the nomad life.
Both among the nomad and settled Arabs the organization is essentially tribal. The affairs of the tribe are administered by the sheiks, or heads of clans and families; the position of sheik in itself gives no real governing power, his word and counsel carry weight, but his influence depends on his own personal qualities. All matters affecting the community are discussed in the _majlis_ or assembly, to which any tribesman has access; here, too, are brought the tribesmen's causes; both sides plead and judgment is given impartially, the loser is fined so many head of small cattle or camels, which he must pay or go into exile. Murder can be expiated by the payment of _diya_ or blood-money, if the kinsmen of the murdered man consent; they may, however, claim the life of the murderer, and long and troublesome blood feuds often ensue, involving the relatives of both sides for generations.
Apart from the tribesmen there is in Hejaz and south Arabia a privileged, religious class, the Sharifs or Seyyids, who claim descent from Mahomet through his daughter Fatima. Until the Egyptian invasion in 1814 the Sharifs of Mecca were the recognized rulers of Hejaz, and though the Turks have attempted to suppress their importance, the Sharif still executes justice according to the Mahommedan law in the holy cities, though, nominally, as a Turkish official. In Yemen and Hadramut many villages are occupied exclusively by this religious hierarchy, who are known as Ashraf, Sada or Kudha (i.e. Sharifs, Seyyids or Kadhis); the religious affairs of the tribes are left in their hands; they do not, however, interfere in tribal matters generally, or join in fighting.
Below these two classes, which may be looked on as the priestly and the military castes, there is, especially in the settled districts, a large population of artisans and labourers, besides negro slaves and their descendants, slave or free. The population of Khaibar consists almost entirely of the latter, and in Hail Huber estimates the pure Arab inhabitants at only one-third of the whole. In the desert, too, there is a widely scattered tribe, the Salubi, which from its name (_Salib_, cross) is conjectured to be of early Christian origin; they are great hunters, killing ostriches and gazelles; the Arabs despise them as an inferior race, but do not harm them; they pay a small tax to the tribe under whose protection they live, and render service as labourers, for which they receive in the spring milk and cheese; at the date harvest they get wages in kind; with this, and the produce of the chase, they manage to exist in the desert without agriculture or flocks.
The Jews in Arabia.
In southern Arabia the Jews form a large element in the town population. According to one authority their presence in Yemen dates from the time of Solomon, others say from the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar. Manzoni estimated their number in Sana in 1878 at 1700 out of a total population of 20,000; at Aden they are a numerous and wealthy community, with agents in most of the towns of Yemen. Even in remote Nejran, Halevy, himself a Jew, found a considerable colony of his co-religionists. They wear a distinctive garb and are not allowed to carry arms or live in the same quarter as Moslems. Another foreign element of considerable strength in the coast towns of Muscat, Aden and Jidda, is the British Indian trading class; many families of Indian origin also have settled at Mecca, having originally come as pilgrims.
Estimates of the population of Arabia vary enormously, and the figures given in the following table can only be regarded as a very rough approximation:--
Hejaz 300,000 Yemen and Asir 1,800,000 Nejd 1,000,000 Hadramut 150,000 Oman 1,000,000 El Hasa 300,000 Syrian desert and border 275,000 --------- 4,825,000
_Communications._--The principal land routes in Arabia are those leading to the holy cities. In the present day the Syrian pilgrim route, or Darb el Haj, from Damascus to Medina and Mecca is the most used. The annual pilgrim caravan or haj, numbering some 6000 people with 10,000 pack animals, is escorted by a few Turkish irregulars known as _agel_; small fortified posts have been established at the regular halting-places some 30 m. apart, each furnished with a well and reservoir, and for the further protection of the haj, payments are made to the Bedouin tribes through whose territories the route passes. The road is a mere camel track across the desert, the chief places passed are Ma'an on the Syrian border, a station on the old Sabaean trade route to Petra, and Medain Salih, the site of the rock-cut tombs and inscriptions first brought to notice by Doughty. From Medina the route usually followed descends the W. Safra to Badr Hunen, whence it keeps near the coast passing Rabigh and Khulesa to Mecca. The total distance, 1300 m., is covered in forty days.
The Egyptian pilgrim route from Cairo, across the Sinai peninsula and down the Midian coast to El Wijh, joins the Syrian route at Badr Hunen. It also was formerly provided with stations and reservoirs, but owing to the greater facilities of the sea journey from Suez to Jidda it is now little used. Another important route is that taken by the Persian or Shia pilgrims from Bagdad and Kerbela across the desert, by the wells of Lina, to Bureda in Kasim; thence across the steppes of western Nejd till it crosses the Hejaz border at the Ria Mecca, 50 m. north-east of the city. It lies almost entirely in the territory of the amir Ibn Rashid of J. Shammar, who derives a considerable revenue from the pilgrimage. The old reservoirs on this route attributed to Zubeda, wife of Harun al Rashid, were destroyed during the Wahhabi raids early in the 19th century, and have not been repaired. The Yemen pilgrim route, known as the Haj el Kabsi, led from Sada through Asir to Taif and Mecca, but it is no longer used.
The principal trade routes are those leading from Damascus to Jauf and across the Nafud to Hail. Other important routes leading to Nejd are those from Kuwet to Hail, and from El Hasa to Riad respectively. In the west and south the principal routes, other than those already mentioned, are from Yambu to Medina, from Jidda to Mecca, Hodeda to Sana, Aden to Sana, and from Mukalla to the Hadramut valley. Railway construction has begun in Arabia, and in 1908 the Hejaz line, intended to connect Damascus with Mecca, had reached Medina, 500 m. south of Ma'an. This line is of great strategical importance, as strengthening the Turkish hold on the Red Sea provinces. But the principal means of commercial communication for a country like Arabia must always be by sea. Bahrein, Kuwet and Muscat are in steam communication with India, and the Persian Gulf ports; all the great lines of steamships call at Aden on their way between Suez and the East, and regular services are maintained between Suez, Jidda, Hodeda and Aden, as well as to the ports on the African coast, while native coasting craft trade to the smaller ports on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
_Commerce._--The total value of the trade of Aden for 1904 amounted to over L6,000,000. The imports to Jidda in the same year were L1,405,000, largely consisting of rice, wheat and other food stuffs from India; the exports, which have dwindled away in late years, amounted in 1904 to only L25,000. To balance the exports and imports specie was exported in the three years 1902-1904 amounting to L2,319,000; a large proportion of this was perhaps provided by cash brought into the country by pilgrims.
The pilgrim traffic increased largely in 1904 as compared with previous years; 74,600 persons landed at Jidda, 18,000 of whom were from British India, 13,000 from Java and the Straits Settlements, and the remainder from Turkish territory, Egypt and other countries: 235 out of a total of 334 steamships engaged in this traffic were British.
The trade of Hodeda, which contributes by far the largest share to that of Turkish Yemen, fell off considerably during the period from 1901-1905, chiefly owing to the disturbed state of the country. In the latter year the imports amounted to L467,000, and the exports to L451,000; coffee, the mainstay of Yemen trade, shows a serious decline from L302,000 in 1902 to L229,000 in 1904; this is attributable partly to the great increase of production in other countries, but mainly to the insecurity of the trade routes and the exorbitant transit dues levied by the Turkish administration.
Oman, through its chief port Muscat, had a total trade of about L550,000, two-thirds of which is due to imports and one-third to exports. The chief items of imports are arms and ammunition, rice, coffee and piece goods; the staple export is dates, which in a good year accounts for nearly half the total; much of the trade is in the hands of British Indians, and of the shipping 92% is British.
The principal trade centre of the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf is Bahrein; the total volume of trade of which amounted in 1904 to L1,900,000, nearly equally divided between imports and exports; rice, piece goods, &c., form the bulk of the former, while pearls are the most valuable part of the latter. (R. A. W.)
ANTIQUITIES
Arabia cannot be said to be "destitute of antiquities," but the material for the study of these is still very incomplete. The difficulties in the way of travelling in Arabia with a view to scientific investigation are such that little or nothing is being done, and the systematic work which has given such good results in Egypt, Palestine and Babylonia-Assyria is unknown in Arabia. Yet the passing notes of travellers from the time of Carsten Niebuhr show that antiquities are to be found.
_Prehistoric Remains._--Since prehistoric remains must be studied where they are found, the difficulty in the way of exploration makes itself severely felt. That such remains exist seems clear from the casual remarks of travellers. Thus Palgrave (_Central and Eastern Arabia_, vol. i. ch. 6) speaks of part of a circle of roughly shaped stones taken from the adjacent limestone mountains in the Nejd. Eight or nine of these stones still exist, some of them 15 ft. high. Two of them, 10 to 12 ft. apart, still bear their horizontal lintel. They are all without ornament. Palgrave compares them with the remains at Stonehenge and Karnak. Doughty (_Arabia Deserta_, vol. ii.), travelling in north-west Arabia, saw stones of granite in a row and "flagstones set edgewise" (though he does not regard these as religious), also "round heaps, perhaps barrows," and "dry-built round chambers," which may be ancient tombs. J.T. Bent (_Southern Arabia_, pp. 24 ff.) explored one of several mounds in Bahrein. It proved to be a tomb, and the remains in it are said to be Phoenician.
_Castles and Walls._--In the south of Arabia, where an advanced civilization existed for centuries before the Christian era, the ruins of castles and city-walls are still in existence, and have been mentioned, though not examined carefully, by several travellers. In Yemen and Hadramut especially these ruins abound, and in some cases inscriptions seem to be still _in situ_. Great castles are often mentioned in early Arabian literature. One in the neighbourhood of San'a was described as one of the wonders of the world by Qazwini (_Athar ul-Bilad_, p. 33, ed. Wustenfeld, Gottingen, 1847, cf. _Journal of the German Oriental Society_, vol. 7, pp. 472, 476, and for other castles vol. 10, pp. 20 ff.). The ruins of the city of Ma'rib, the old Sabaean capital, have been visited by Arnaud, Halevy and Glaser, but call for further description, as Arnaud confined himself to a description of the dike (see below), while Halevy and Glaser were interested chiefly in the inscriptions.
_Wells and Dikes._--From the earliest times the conservation of water has been one of the serious cares of the Arabs. All over the country wells are to be found, and the masonry of some of them is undoubtedly ancient. Inscriptions are still found in some of these in the south. The famous well Zemzem at Mecca is said to belong to the early times, when the eastern traffic passed from the south to the north-west of Arabia through the Hejaz, and to have been rediscovered shortly before the time of Mahomet. Among the most famous remains of Ma'rib are those of a great dike reminding one of the restored tanks familiar to visitors at Aden. These remains were first described by Arnaud (_Journal asiatique_, January 1874, with plan). Their importance was afterwards emphasized by Glaser's publication of two long inscriptions concerning their restoration in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. ("Zwei Inschriften uber den Dammbruch von Marib," in the _Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft_, Berlin, 1897). Another dike about 150 yds. long was seen by W.B. Harris at Hirran in Yemen. Above it was a series of three tanks (_A Journey through the Yemen_, p. 279, London, 1893).
_Stones and Bronzes._--The 19th century has brought to the museums of Europe (especially to London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna) a number of inscriptions in the languages of Minea and Saba, and a few in those of Hadramut and Katabania (Qatta-bania). These inscriptions are generally on limestone or marble or on tablets of bronze, and vary from a few inches to some feet in length and height. In some cases the originals have been brought to Europe, in other cases only squeezes of the inscriptions. The characters employed are apparently derived from the Phoenician (cf. Lidzbarski's _Ephemeris_, vol. i. pp. 109 ff.). The languages employed have been the subject of much study (cf. F. Hommel's _Sud-arabische Chrestomathie_, Munich, 1893), but the archaeological value of these remains has not been so fully treated. Very many of them are votive inscriptions and contain little more than the names of gods and princes or private men. A few are historical, but being (with few and late exceptions) undated, have given rise to much controversy among scholars. Their range seems to be from about 800 B.C. (or 1500 B.C. according to E. Glaser) to the 6th century A.D. Few are still _in situ_, the majority having been taken from their original positions and built into houses, mosques or wells of more recent date. Among these remains are altars, and bases for statues of gods or for golden images of animals dedicated to gods. The earlier stones are devoid of ornamentation, but the later stones and bronzes are sometimes ornamented with designs of leaves, flowers, ox-heads, men and women. Some bear figures of the conventionalized sacred tree with worshippers, similar to Babylonian designs. Besides these there are gravestones, stelae with human heads, fragments of limestone, architectural designs as well as bronze castings of camels, horses, mice, serpents, &c. (cf. D.H. Muller's _Sudarabische Alterthumer im Kunsthistorischen Museum_, Vienna, 1899, with plates).
_Seals, Weights and Coins._--The Vienna Museum possesses a small number of seals and gems. The seals are inscribed with Sabaean writing and are of bronze, copper, silver and stone. The gems of onyx, carnelian and agate are later and bear various figures, and in some cases Arabic inscriptions. One or two weights are also in existence. A number of coins have been brought to the British Museum from Aden, San'a and Ma'rib. Others were purchased by G. Schlumberger in Constantinople; others have been brought to Europe by Glaser, and are now in the Vienna Museum. These are imitations of Greek models, while the inscriptions are in Sabaean characters (cf. B.V. Head, in the _Numismatic Chronicle_, 1878, pp. 273-284; G. Schlumberger, _Le Tresor de San'a_, Paris, 1880; D.H. Muller, _op. cit._ pp. 65 ff. and plates).
For the problem of Arabic antiquities in Rhodesia see RHODESIA and ZIMBABWE. (G. W. T.)
HISTORY
_Introduction._--Arabia is a land of Semites, and is supposed by some scholars to have been the original home of the Semitic peoples. Although this cannot be said to be proved, the studies, linguistic and archaeological, of Semitic scholars have shown it to be probable. The dispersion from Arabia is easy to imagine. The migration into Babylonia was simple, as there are no natural boundaries to separate it from north-east Arabia, and similar migrations have taken place in historic times. That of the Aramaeans at an early period is likewise free from any natural hindrance. The connexion with Palestine has always been close; and the Abyssinian settlement is probably as late as the beginning of the Christian era. Of these migrations, however, history knows nothing, nor are they expressed in literature. Arabian literature has its own version of prehistoric times, but it is entirely legendary and apocryphal. It was, and still is, the custom of Arabian historians to begin with the creation of the world and tell the history from then to the time of which they are writing. Consequently even the more sober histories contain a mass of fables about early days. Many of these, taken in part from Jewish and Christian sources, find a place in the Koran. Of all these stories current at the time of Mahomet, the only ones of any value are the accounts of the "days of the Arabs," i.e. accounts of some famous inter-tribal battles in Arabia.
_Authorities._--Until recently the Arab traditions were practically the only source for the pre-Islamic history of Arabia. The Old Testament references to Arabs were obscure. The classical accounts of the invasion of Aelius Callus in 26 B.C. threw little light on the state of Arabia at the time, still less on its past history. The Greek writers from Theophrastus in the 4th century B.C. to Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D. mention many names of Arabian peoples and describe the situation of their cities, but contribute little to their history, and that little could not be controlled. The same applies to the information of Pliny in his _Natural History_. In the 19th century the discovery and decipherment of the Assyrian inscriptions gave a slight glance into the relations between Arabs and Assyrians from the 8th century B.C. But the great contribution of the century to the early history of Arabia was the collecting and translating of numerous early Arabian inscriptions (cf. section _Antiquities_ above), which have done service both by their own indication of a great civilization in Arabia for nearly (or more than) a thousand years before the Christian era, and by the new stimulus which they gave to the study and appreciation of the materials in the Assyrian inscriptions, the Old Testament, and the Greek and Roman writers. At the same time the facts that the inscriptions are undated until a late period, that few are historical in their contents, and for the most part yield only names of gods and rulers and domestic and religious details, and that our collection is still very incomplete, have led to much serious disagreement among scholars as to the reconstruction of the history of Arabia in the pre-Christian centuries.
All scholars, however, are agreed that the inscriptions reach as far back as the 9th century B.C. (some say to the 16th) and prove the existence of at least four civilized kingdoms during these centuries. These are the kingdoms of Ma'in (Minaean), of Saba (Sabaean), of Hadramaut (Hadramut) and of Katabania (Katabanu). Of the two latter little is known. That of Hadramut had kings from the time of the Minaeans to about A.D. 300, when it was conquered by Ethiopia. The limits of the kingdom of Katabania are not known, but it has its own inscriptions.
As to the Sabaean kingdom there is fair agreement among scholars. The inscriptions go back to 800 B.C. or earlier, and the same applies to the kingdom. A queen of this people (the "Queen of Sheba") is said (1 Kings x.) to have visited Solomon about 950 B.C. There is, however, no mention of such a queen in the inscriptions. An Assyrian inscription mentions Ith'amara the Sabaean who paid tribute to Sargon in 715 B.C. At this time the Sabaeans must have been in north Arabia unless the inscription refers to a northern colony of the southern Sabaeans. The former opinion is held by E. Glaser, who thinks that in the 9th and 8th centuries they moved down along the west coast to the south, where they conquered the Minaeans (see below). The Sabaean rule is generally divided into periods indicated by the titles given to their rulers. In the first of these ruled the Makarib, who seem to have been priest-kings. Their first capital was at Sirwah. Ten such rulers are mentioned in the inscriptions. Their rule extended from the 9th to the 6th century. The second period begins about 550 B.C. The rulers are known as "kings of Saba." Their capital was Ma'rib. The names of seventeen of these kings are known from the inscriptions. Their sway lasted until about 115 B.C., when they were succeeded by the Himyarites. During this period they were engaged in constant strife with the neighbouring kingdoms of Hadramut and Katabania. The great prosperity of south-west Arabia at this time was due in large measure to the fact that the trade from India with Egypt came there by sea and then went by land up the west coast. This trade, however, was lost during this period, as the Ptolemies established an overland route from India to Alexandria. The connexion of Saba with the north, where the Nabataeans (q.v.) had existed from about 200 B.C., was now broken. The decay that followed caused a number of Sabaeans to migrate to other parts of Arabia.
The Minaean kingdom extended over the south Arabian Jauf, its chief cities being Karnau, Ma'in and Yathil. Some twenty-five kings are known from the inscriptions; of these twenty are known to be related to one another. Their history must thus cover several centuries. As inscriptions in the Minaean language are found in al-'Ula in north Arabia, it is probable that they had colonies in that district. With regard to their date opinion is very much divided; some, with E. Glaser and F. Hommel, maintaining that their kingdom existed prior to that of Saba, probably from about 1500 B.C. or earlier until the Sabaeans came from their home in the north and conquered them in the 9th century. Other scholars think, with D.H. Muller, partly on palaeographical grounds (cf. M. Lidzbarski's _Ephemeris_, vol. i. pp. 109 seq., Giessen, 1902), that none of the inscriptions are earlier than about 800 B.C. and that the Minaean kingdom existed side by side with the Sabaean. It is curious that the Sabaean inscriptions contain no mention of the Minaeans, though this may be due to the fact that very few of the inscriptions are historical in content.
About 115 B.C. the power over south Arabia passed from the Sabaeans to the Himyarites, a people from the extreme south-west of Arabia; and about this time the kingdom of Katabania came to an end. The title taken by the new rulers was "king of Saba and Raidan." Twenty-six kings of this period are known from the inscriptions, some of which are dated. In this period the Romans made their one attempt at direct interference in the affairs of Arabia. The invasion under Aelius Gallus was an absolute failure, the expedition being betrayed by the guides and lost in the sands of the desert. During the latter part of this time the Abyssinians, who had earlier migrated from Arabia to the opposite coast of Africa, began to flow back to the south of Arabia, where they seem to have settled gradually and increased in importance until about A.D. 300, when they became strong enough to overturn the Himyarite kings and establish a dynasty of their own. The title assumed by them was "king of Saba, Raidan, Hadramut and Yemen." The Himyarites were, however, still active, and after a struggle succeeded in establishing a Jewish Sabaean kingdom, having previously accepted Judaism as their religion. Their best-known king was Dhu Nuwas. The struggle between them and the Abyssinians now became one of Judaism against Christianity. The persecution of the Christians was very severe (see E. Glaser's _Die Abyssinier in Arabien und Afrika_, Munich, 1895, and F.M.E. Pereira's _Historia dos Martyres de Nagran_, Lisbon, 1899). Apparently for this reason Christian Abyssinia was supported from Byzantium in its attempts to regain power. These attempts were crowned with success in 525. Of the Christian Abyssinian kings in Arabia tradition tells of four, one only of whom is mentioned in inscriptions. The famous expedition of Abraha, the Abyssinian viceroy, against Mecca, took place in 570. Five years later the Persians, who had been called in by the opponents of Christianity, succeeded in taking over the rule and in appointing governors over Yemen. (See further ETHIOPIA: _The Axumite Kingdom_.)
_Hira, Ghassan and Kinda._--Before passing to the time of Mahomet it is necessary to take account of three other Arabian powers, those of Hira, Ghassan and Kinda.
Hira.
The kingdom of Hira (Hira) was established in the boundary land between the Euphrates and the Arabian desert, a district renowned for its good air and extraordinary fertility. The chief town was Hira, a few miles south of the site of the later town of Kufa. The inhabitants of this land are said in Tabari's history to have been of three classes:--(1) The Tanukh (Tnuhs), who lived in tents and were made up of Arabs from the Tehama and Nejd, who had united in Bahrein to form a new tribe, and who migrated from there to Hira, probably at the beginning or middle of the 3rd century A.D., when the Arsacid power was growing weak. The Arabian historians relate their conflict with Zenobia. (2) The 'Ibad or 'Ibadites, who dwelt in the town of Hira in houses and so led a settled life. These were Christians, whose ecclesiastical language was Syriac, though the language of intercourse was Arabic. A Christian bishop of Hira is known to have attended a synod in 410. In the 5th century they became Nestorians. (3) Refugees of various tribes, who came into the land but did not belong to the Tanukh or the 'Ibad. There is no trustworthy information as to the earlier chiefs of this people. The dynasty of the Lakhmids, famed in Arabian history and literature, arose towards the end of the 3rd century and lasted until about 602. The names of twenty kings are given by Hisham al-Kalbi in Tabari's history. Although so many of their subjects were Christian, the Lakhmids remained heathen until Nu'man, the last of the dynasty. The kingdom of Hira was never really independent, but always stood in a relation of dependence on Persia, probably receiving pay from it and employing Persian soldiers. At the height of its power it was able to render valuable aid to its suzerain. Much of its time was spent in wars with Rome and Ghassan. Its revenues were derived from the Bedouins of the surrounding lands as well as from its own subjects at home. About 602 the Lakhmid dynasty fell, and the Persian Chosroes (Khosrau) II. appointed as governor an Arab of the tribe of Tai. Shortly after it came into relation with Islam.
See G. Rothstein's _Die Dynastie der Lakhmiden in al-Hira_ (Berlin, 1899); Th. Noldeke's _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sassaniden_ (Leiden, 1879).
Ghassan.
In the beginning of the 6th century A.D. a dynasty known as the Jafnids, enter into the history alike of the Roman and Persian empires. They ruled over the tribe of Ghassan in the extreme north-west of Arabia, east of the Jordan, from near Petra in the south to the neighbourhood of Rosafa in the north-east. Of their origin little is known except that they came from the south. A part of the same tribe inhabited Yathrib (Medina) at the time of Mahomet. The first certain prince of the Jafnid house was Harith ibn Jabala, who, according to the chronicle of John Malalas, conquered Mondhir (Mundhir) of Hira in 528. In the following year, according to Procopius, Justinian perceived the value of the Ghassanids as an outpost of the Roman empire, and as opponents of the Persian dependants of Hira, and recognized Harith as king of the Arabs and patrician of the Roman empire. He was thus constantly engaged in battles against Hira. In 541 he fought under Belisarius in Mesopotamia. After his death about 569 or 570 the friendly relations with the West continued, but about 583 there was a breach. The Ghassanid kingdom split into sections each with its own prince. Some passed under the sway of Persia, others preserved their freedom at the expense of their neighbours. At this point their history ceases to be mentioned in the Western chronicles. There are references to the Ghassanid Nu'man in the poems of Nabigha. Arabian tradition tells of their prince Jabala ibn Aiham who accepted Islam, after fighting against it, but finding it too democratic, returned to Christianity and exile in the Roman empire. As Islam advanced, some of the Ghassanids retreated to Cappadocia, others accepted the new faith.
See Th. Noldeke, _Die ghassanischen Fursten aus dent Hause Gafna's_ (Berlin, 1887).
Kinda.
In the last decade of the 5th century a new power arose in central Arabia. This was the tribe of Kinda under the sway of the family of Aqil ul Murar, who came from the south. They seem to have stood in much the same relation to the rulers of Yemen, as the people of Hira to the Persians and the Ghassanids to Rome. Abraha in his invasion of the Hejaz was accompanied by chiefs of Kinda. Details of their history are not known, but they seem to have gained power at one time even over the Lakhmids of Hira; and to have ruled over Bahrein as well as Yemama until the battle of Shi'b ul Jabala, when they lost this province to Hira. The poet Amru'ul Qais was a member of the princely family of Kinda.
Other parts of Arabia.
Outside the territory of the powers mentioned above, Arabia in the 6th century was in a state of political chaos. Bahrein, inhabited chiefly by the Bani'Abd Qais and the Bani Bakr, was largely subject to Persian influence near its coast, and a Persian governor, Sebocht, resided in Hajar, its chief town. In Oman the Arabs, who were chiefly engaged in fishing and seafaring, were Azdites mixed with Persians. The ruling dynasty of Julanda in their capital Suhar lasted on till the Abbasid period. No Persian officials are mentioned in this country; whether Persians exercised authority over it is doubtful. On the west coast of Arabia the influence of the kingdom of Yemen was felt in varying degree according to the strength of the rulers of that land. Apart from this influence the Hejaz was simply a collection of cities each with its own government, while outside the cities the various tribes governed themselves and fought continual battles with one another.
_Time of Mahomet._--Thus at the time of Mahomet's advent the country was peopled by various tribes, some more or less settled under the governments of south Arabia, Kinda, Hira and Ghassan, these in turn depending on Abyssinia, Persia and Rome (i.e. Byzantium); others as in the Hejaz were ruled in smaller communities by members of leading families, while in various parts of the peninsula were wandering Arabs still maintaining the traditions of old family and tribal rule, forming no state, sometimes passing, as suited them, under the influence and protection of one or another of the greater powers. To these may be added a certain number of Jewish tribes and families deriving their origin partly from migrations from Palestine, partly from converts among the Arabs themselves. Mahomet appealed at once to religion and patriotism, or rather created a feeling for both. For Mahomet as a religious teacher and for the details of his career see MAHOMET. It is enough here to outline his actions in so far as he attempted to create a united, and then a conquering, Arabia. Though the external conquests of the Arabs belong more properly to the period of the caliphate, yet they were the natural outcome of the prophet's ideas. His idea of Arabia for the Arabians could only be realized by summoning the great kings of the surrounding nations to recognize Islam; otherwise Abyssinia, Persia and Rome (Byzantium) would continue their former endeavours to influence and control the affairs of the peninsula. Tradition tells that a few years before his death he did actually send letters to the emperor Heraclius, to the negus of Abyssinia, the king of Persia, and Cyrus, patriarch of Alexandria, the "Mukaukis" of Egypt, summoning them to accept Islam and threatening them with punishment in case of refusal. But the task of carrying out these threats fell to the lot of his successors; the work of the prophet was to be the subjugating and uniting of Arabia. This work, scarcely begun in Mecca, was really started after the migration to Medina by the formation of a party of men--the _Muhajirun_ (Refugees or Emigrants) and the _Ansar_ (Helpers or Defenders)--who accepted Mahomet as their religious leader. As the necessity of overcoming his enemies became urgent, this party became military. A few successes in battle attracted to him men who were interested in fighting and who were willing to accept his religion as a condition of membership of his party, which soon began to assume a national form. Mahomet early found an excuse for attacking the Jews, who were naturally in the way of his schemes. The Bani Nadir were expelled, the Bani Quraiza slaughtered. By the time he had successfully stormed the rich Jewish town of Khaibar, he had found that it was better to allow industrious Jews to remain in Arabia as payers of tribute than to expel or kill them: this policy he followed afterwards. The capture of Mecca (630) was not only an evidence of his growing power, which induced Arabs throughout the peninsula to join him, but gave him a valuable centre of pilgrimage, in which he was able by a politic adoption of some of the heathen Arabian ceremonies into his own rites to win men over the more easily to his own cause. At his death in 623 Mahomet left Arabia practically unified. It is true that rival prophets were leading rebellions in various parts of Arabia, that the tax-collectors were not always paid, and that the warriors of the land were much distressed for want of work owing to the brotherhood of Arabs proclaimed by Mahomet. The tribes were a seething mass of restlessness, their old feuds ready to break out again. But they had realized that they had common interests. The power of the foreigner in Arabia was broken. Islam promised rich booty for those who fought and won, paradise for those who fell.
_Early Caliphs_.[1] 1. _Conquest._--One task of the early caliphs was to find an outlet for the restless fighting spirit. Abu Bekr (632-634), the first of these caliphs, was a man of simple life and profound faith. He understood the intention of Mahomet as to foreign nations, and set himself resolutely to carry it out in the face of much difficulty. Hence as soon as he assumed office he sent out the army already chosen to advance against the Romans in the north. The successful reduction of the rebels in Arabia enabled him in his first year to send his great general Khalid with his Arab warriors first against Persians, then against Romans. His early death prevented him from seeing the fruits of his policy. Under the second caliph Omar (634-644) the Persians were defeated at Kadesiya (Kadessia), and Irak was completely subdued and the new cities of Kufa and Basra were founded (635). In the same year Damascus fell into the hands of the Arabs under Abu 'Ubaida. In 636 Jerusalem fell and received a visit from the caliph. Three years later the fateful step was taken of appointing Moawiya (Mu'awiyya) governor of Syria. In 640 'Amr-ibn-el-Ass (Amr ibn al-'As) invaded Egypt and the following year took Alexandria and founded Fostat (which later became Cairo). The victory at Nehavend in 641 over the Persians, the flight of the last Sassanid king and the capture of Rei or Rai (class. Rhagae) in 643 meant the entire subjugation of Persia and crowned the conquests of Omar's caliphate. The reign of the third caliph Othman (644-656) was marked by the beginning of that internal strife which was to ruin Arabia; but the foreign conquests continued. In the north the Moslem arms reached Armenia and Asia Minor; on the west they were successful as far as Carthage on the north coast of Africa. After the murder of Othman, 'Ali (656-661) became caliph, but Moawiya, governor of Syria, soon rebelled on the pretext of avenging the death of Othman. After the battle of Siffin (657) arbitration was resorted to for the settlement of the rival claims. By a trick 'Ali was deposed (658), and the Omayyad dynasty was established with its capital at Damascus.
Institution of navy.
During these early years the Arabs had not only made conquests by land, but had found an outlet for their energy at sea. In 640 Omar sent a fleet of boats across the Red Sea to protect the Moslems on the Abyssinian coast. The boats were wrecked. Omar was so terrified by this that when Moawiya applied to him for permission to use ships for an attack on the islands of the Levant, he resolutely refused. Othman was less careful, and allowed a fleet from Africa to help in the conquests of the Levant and Asia Minor. In 649 he sanctioned the establishment of a maritime service, on condition that it should be voluntary. Abu Qais, appointed admiral, showed its usefulness by the capture of Cyprus. In 652 Abu Sarh with a fleet from Egypt won a naval battle over the Byzantine fleet near Alexandria.
2. _Internal Affairs._--In the meantime what had become of Arabia and its unification? The first task of Abu Bekr had been to reduce those rebels who threatened to destroy that unity even before it was fully established. This he did by the aid of the great general Khalid. First he swept down on the Bani Hanifa in Yemama, who with their rival prophet Mosailama (Mosailima) and 40,000 men were in arms. The battle of Yemama (633) was fierce and decisive. Mosailama was slain. The Bani Hanifa returned to Islam. Bahrein was influenced by this battle, and the rebellion there, which was threatening, was crushed. Oman was reconquered by Huddhaifa, who became its governor. Ikrima settled Mahra. Muhajir, with the help of Ikrima, succeeded with difficulty, but thoroughly, in defeating Amr ibn Ma'dikarib and Qais ibn 'Abd Yaghuth in Yemen and Ashath ibn Qais in Hadramut. The Hejaz and Tehama were cleared of the plundering nomads by 'Attab and Tahir. At the end of the first year of his caliphate Abu Bekr saw Arabia united under Islam. The new national feeling demanded that all Arabs should be free men, so the caliph ordained that all Arab slaves should be freed on easy terms. The solidarity of Arabia survived the first foreign conquests. It was not intended that Arabs should settle in the conquered lands except as armies of occupation. Thus it was at first forbidden that Arabs should buy or possess land in these countries. Kufa was to be only a military camp, as was Fostat in Egypt. The taxes with the booty from conquests were to be sent to Arabia for distribution among the Moslems. Omar tried to prevent the advance of conquests lest Arabia should suffer. "I would rather the safety of my people than thousands of spoil and further conquest." But men could not be prevented from pouring out from their homes in search of new conquests and more booty. Many of those who went forth did not return. They acquired property and rank in the new lands. Kufa attracted chiefly men of south Arabia, Basra those of the north. Both became great cities, each with a population of 150,000 to 200,000 Arabians. Yet so long as the caliphs lived in Medina, the capital of Arabia was the capital of the expanding Arabian empire. To it was brought a large share of the booty. The caliphs were chosen there, and there the rules for the administration were framed. Thence went out the governors to their provinces. Omar was the great organizer of Arabian affairs. He compiled the Koran, instituted the civil list, regulated the military organization. He, too, desired that Mahomet's wish should be carried out and that Arabia should be purely Moslem. To this end he expelled the Christians from Nejran and gave them lands in Syria and Irak, where they were allowed to live in peace on payment of tribute. The Jews, too, were shortly after expelled from Khaibar. The secondary position that Arabia was beginning to assume in the Arabian empire is clearly marked in the progress of events during the caliphate of Othman. In his appointments to governorships and other offices, as well as in his distribution of spoil, Othman showed a marked preference for the members of his own tribe the Koreish (Quraish) and the members of his own family the Bani Omayya (Umayya). The other Arab tribes became increasingly jealous of the Koreish, while among the Koreish themselves the Hashimite family came to hate the Omayyad, which now had much power, although it had been among the last to accept Islam and never was very strict in its religious duties. But the quarrels which led to the murder of Othman were fomented not so much in Arabia as in Kufa and Basra and Fostat. In these cities the rival parties were composed of the most energetic fighting men, who were brought into the most intimate contact with one another, and who kept up their quarrels from the home land. In Kufa a number of the Koreish had settled, and their arrogance became insupportable. The governors of all these towns were of Othman's own family. After some years of growing dissatisfaction deputies from these places came to Medina, and the result was the murder of the caliph. Syria alone remained loyal to the house of Omayya, and Othman had been advised to take refuge there, but had refused. Arabia itself counted for little in the strife. Yet its prestige was not altogether lost. After the murder the rebels were unwilling to return home until a new caliph had been chosen in the capital. The Egyptian rebels managed to gain most influence, and, in accordance with their desire, 'Ali was appointed caliph by the citizens of Medina. But Medina itself was being corrupted by the constant influx of captives, who, employed at first as servants, soon became powerful enough to dictate to their masters. In the struggle that ensued upon the election of 'Ali, Arabia was involved. Ayesha, Talha and Zobair, who were strong in Mecca, succeeded in obtaining possession of Basra, but were defeated in 656 at the battle of the Camel (see ALI). In the south of Arabia 'Ali succeeded in establishing his own governor in Yemen, though the government treasure was carried off to Mecca. But the centre of strife was not to be Arabia. When 'Ali left Medina to secure Basra, he abandoned it as the capital of the Arabian empire. With the success of Moawiya Damascus became the capital of the caliphate (658) and Arabia became a mere province, though always of importance because of its possession of the two sacred cities Mecca and Medina. Both these cities were secured by Moawiya in 660, and at the same time Yemen was punished for its adherence to 'Ali. The final blow to any political pretensions of Medina was dealt by the caliph when he had his son Yazid declared as his successor, thus taking away any claim on the part of the citizens of Medina to elect to the caliphate.
_The Omayyads._--The early years of the Omayyads were years of constant strife in Arabia. The Kharijites who had opposed 'Ali on the ground that he had no right to allow the appeal to arbitration, were defeated at Nahrawan or Nahrwan (658), but those who escaped became fierce propagandists against the Koreish, some claiming that the caliph should be chosen by the Faithful from any tribe of the Arabs, some that there should be no caliph at all, that God alone was their ruler and that the government should be carried on by a council. They broke up into many sects, and were long a disturbing political force in Arabia as elsewhere. On the death of 'Ali his house was represented by his two sons Hasan and Hosain (Husain). Hasan soon made peace with Moawiya. On the accession of Yazid, Hosain refused homage and raised an army, but was slain at Kerbela (680). 'Abdallah ibn Zobair (of the house of Hashim) immediately stepped forward in Mecca as the avenger of 'Ali's family and the champion of religion. The two sacred cities supported him. Medina was besieged and sacked by the troops of Yazid (682) and Mecca was besieged the following year. The siege was raised in the third month on the news of the death of Yazid, but not before the Ka'ba had been destroyed. 'Abdallah remained in Mecca recognized as caliph in Arabia, and soon after in Egypt and even a part of Syria. He defeated the troops of Merwan I., but could not win the support of the Kharijites. In 691 Abdalmalik ('Abdul-Malik) determined to crush his rival and sent his general Hajjaj against Mecca. The siege was begun in March 692, and in October the city was taken and 'Abdallah slain. Abdalmalik was now supreme in Arabia and throughout the Moslem world. During the remaining years of the Omayyad dynasty (i.e. until 750) little is heard of Arabia in history. The conquests of Islam in Spain on the one side and India on the other had little or no effect on it. It was merely a province.
_The 'Abbasids._--The accession of Abul 'Abbas (of the house of Hashim) and the transference of the capital of the caliphate from Damascus to Kufa, then Anbar and soon after (in 760) to Bagdad meant still further degradation to Arabia and Arabs. From the beginning the 'Abbasids depended for help on Persians and Turks, and the chief offices of state were frequently filled with foreigners. In one thing only the Arabs conquered to the end; that was in their language. The study of Arabic was taken up by lexicographers, grammarians and poets (mostly of foreign origin) with a zeal rarely shown elsewhere. The old Arabian war spirit was dying. Although the Arabians, as a rule, were in favour of the Omayyad family, they could not affect the succession of the 'Abbasids. They returned more and more to their old inter-tribal disputes. They formed now not only a mere branch of the empire of the caliphate, but a branch deriving little life from and giving less to the main stock. In 762 there was a rebellion in favour of a descendant of 'Ali, but it was put down with great severity by the army of the caliph Mansur. A more local 'Alyite revolt in Mecca and Medina was crushed in 785. In the contest between the two sons of Harun al Rashid all Arabia sided with Mamun (812). In 845-846 the lawless raids of Bedouin tribes compelled the caliph Wathiq to send his Turkish general Bogha, who was more successful in the north than in the centre and south of Arabia in restoring peace.
_The Carmathians._--Towards the close of the 9th century Arabia was disturbed by the rise of a new movement which during the next hundred years dominated the peninsula, and at its close left it shattered never to be united again. In the year 880 Yemen was listening to the propaganda of the new sect of the Carmathians (q.v.) or followers of Hamdan Qarmat. Four years later these had become a public force. In 900 'Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, who had been sent to Bahrein by Hamdan, had secured a large part of this province and had won the city of Katif (Ketif) which contained many Jews and Persians. The Arabs who lived more inland were mostly Bedouin who found the obligations of Islam irksome, and do not seem to have made a very vigorous opposition to the Carmathians who took Hajar the capital of Bahrein in 903. From this they made successful attacks on Yemama (Yamama), and attempts only partially successful at first at Oman. In 906 the court at Bagdad learned that these sectaries had gained almost all Yemen and were threatening Mecca and Medina. Abu Sa'id was assassinated (913) in his palace at Lahsa (which in 926 was fortified and became the Carmathian capital of Bahrein). His son Sa'id succeeded him, but proved too weak and was deposed and succeeded by his brother Abu Tahir. His success was constant and the caliphate was brought very low by him. In Arabia he subjugated Oman, and swooping down on the west in 929 he horrified the Moslem world by capturing Mecca and carrying off the sacred black stone to Bahrein. The Fatimite caliph 'Obaidallah (see FATIMITES), to whom Abu Tahir professed allegiance, publicly wrote to him to restore the stone, but there is some reason to believe that he secretly encouraged him to retain it. In 939, however, the stone was restored and pilgrimages to the holy cities were allowed to pass unmolested on payment of a tax. So long as Abu Tahir lived the Carmathians controlled Arabia. After his death, however, they quarrelled with the Fatimite rulers of Egypt (969) and began to lose their influence. In 985 they were completely defeated in Irak, and soon after lost control of the pilgrimages. Oman recovered its independence. Three years later Katif, at that time their chief city, was besieged and taken by a Bedouin sheik, and subsequently their political power in Arabia came to an end. It was significant that their power fell into the hands of Bedouins. Arabia was now completely disorganized, and was only nominally subject to the caliphate. The attempt of Mahomet to unify Arabia had failed. The country was once more split up into small governments, more or less independent, and groups of wandering tribes carrying on their petty feuds. Of the history of these during the next few centuries little is known, except in the case of the Hejaz. Here the presence of the sacred cities led writers to record their annals (cf. F. Wustenfeld's _Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka_, 4 vols., Leipzig, 1857-1861). The two cities were governed by Arabian nobles (_sherifs_), often at feud with one another, recognizing formally the overlordship of the caliph at Bagdad or the caliph of Egypt. Thus in 966 the name of the caliph Moti was banished from the prayers at Mecca, and an 'Alyite took possession of the government of the city and recognized the Egyptian caliph as his master. About a century later (1075-1094) the 'Abbasid caliph was again recognized as spiritual head owing to the success in arms of his protector, the Seljuk Malik-Shah. With the fall of the Bagdad caliphate all attempts at control from that quarter came to an end. After the visit of the Sultaft Bibars (1269) Mecca was governed by an amir dependent on Egypt. Outside the two cities anarchy prevailed, and the pilgrimage was frequently unsafe owing to marauding Bedouins. In 1517 the Osmanli Turkish sultan Selim conquered Egypt, and having received the right of succession to the caliphate was solemnly presented by the sherif of Mecca with the keys of the city, and recognized as the spiritual head of Islam and ruler of the Hejaz. At the same time Yemen, which since the 9th century had been in the power of a number of small dynasties ruling in Zubed, San'a, Sa'da and Aden, passed into the hands of the Turk.
For the history of Yemen during this period cf. H.C. Kay, _Omarah's History of Yaman_ (London, 1892), and S. Lane-Poole, _The Mahommedan Dynasties_, pp. 87-103 (Westminster, 1894). Little more than a century later (1630), a Yemen noble Khasim succeeded in expelling the Turk and establishing a native imamate, which lasted until 1871. For descriptions of it in the 18th century cf. C. Niebuhr's accounts of his travels in Arabia in 1761.
_Oman._--Since the separation from the caliphate (before 1000 A.D.) Oman had remained independent. For more than a century it was governed by five elected imams, who were chosen from the tribe of al-Azd and generally lived at Nizwa. After them the Bani Nebhan gained the upper hand and established a succession of kings (_maliks_) who governed from 1154 to 1406. During this time the country was twice invaded by Persians. The "kings of Hormuz" claimed authority over the coast land until the beginning of the 16th century. In 1435 the people rose against the tyranny of the Bani Nebhan and restored the imamate of the tribe al-Azd. In 1508 the Portuguese under Albuquerque seized most of the east coast of Oman. In 1624 a new dynasty arose in the interior, when Nasir ibn Murshid of the Yariba (Ya'aruba) tribe (originally from Yemen) was elected imam and established his capital at Rustak. He was able to subdue the petty princes of the country, and the Portuguese were compelled to give up several towns and pay tribute for their residence at Muscat. About 1651 the Portuguese were finally expelled from this city, and about 1698 from the Omanite settlements on the east coast of Africa.
For the history of Oman from 661 to 1856 cf. G.P. Badger, _History of the Imams and Seyyids of Oman by Salil-ibn-Razik_ (London, Hakluyt Society, 1871). (G. W. T.)
_Wahhabi Movement._--Modern Arabian history begins with that of the Wahhabi movement in the middle of the 18th century. Its originator, Mahommed Ibn Abdul Wahhab, was born (1691) at Ayana in Nejd, and after studying in Basra and Damascus, and making the pilgrimage to Mecca returned to his native country and settled down at Huremala near Deraiya. The abuses and corruptions which had overgrown the practice of orthodox Islam had deeply impressed him, and he set to work to combat them, and to inculcate on all good Moslems a return to the pure simplicity of their original faith. In 1742 Mahommed Ibn Saud, sheik of Deraiya, accepted his doctrines, and enforced them by his sword with such effect that before his death in 1765 the whole of eastern Nejd and El Hasa was converted to the faith of Abdul Wahhab, and accepted the political supremacy of Ibn Saud. His son and successor, Abdul Aziz, in a rapid series of successful campaigns, extended his dominion and that of the reformed faith far beyond the limits of Nejd. His attacks on the pilgrim caravans, begun in 1783 and constantly repeated, startled the Mahommedan world,[2] and compelled the attention of the sultan, as the nominal protector of the faithful. In 1798 a Turkish force was sent from Bagdad into El Hasa, but was compelled to retreat without accomplishing anything, and its discomfiture added much to the renown of the Wahhabi power. In 1801 Saud, son of the amir Abdul Aziz, led an expedition to the Euphrates, and on the festival of Bairam, the 20th of April, stormed Kerbela, put the defenders to the sword, destroyed the sacred tomb, scattered the sacred relics and returned laden with the treasures, accumulated during centuries in the sanctuary of the Shia faith. Mecca itself was taken; plundering was forbidden, but the tombs of the saints and all objects of veneration were ruthlessly destroyed, and all ceremonies which seemed in the eye of the stern puritan conqueror to suggest the taint of idolatry were forbidden.
On the 14th of October 1802 the amir Abdul Aziz, at the age of eighty-two years, was murdered by a Shia fanatic when at prayers in the mosque of Deraiya, and Saud, who had for many years led the Wahhabi armies, became the reigning amir. In 1804 Medina was taken and with its fall all resistance ceased. The Wahhabi empire had now attained its zenith, a settled government was established able to enforce law and order in the desert and in the towns, and a spirit of Arabian nationality had grown up which bade fair to extend the Wahhabi dominion over all the Arab race. It already, however, bore within it the germ of decay; the accumulation of treasure in the capital had led to a corruption of the simple manners of the earlier times; the exhaustion of the tribes through the heavy blood tax had roused discontent among them; the plundering of the holy places, the attacks on the pilgrim caravans under the escort of Turkish soldiers, and finally, in 1810, the desecration of the tomb of Mahomet and the removal of its costly treasures, raised a cry of dismay throughout the Mahommedan world, and made it clear even to the Turkish sultan that unless the Wahhabi power were crushed his claims to the caliphate were at an end.
But Turkey was herself fully occupied by affairs in Europe, and to Mehemet Ali, then pasha of Egypt, was deputed the task of bringing the Wahhabis into subjection. In October 1811 an expedition consisting of 10,000 men under Tusun Pasha, the pasha's son, a youth of sixteen, landed in Hejaz without opposition. Saud with his main forces had started northwards to attack Bagdad, but returning at once he met and defeated Tusun with great loss and compelled him to retire. Medina and subsequently Mecca were eventually taken by the Egyptians, but in spite of continual reinforcements they could do little more than hold their own in Hejaz. In 1813 Mehemet Ali was compelled to take the field himself with fresh troops, but was unable to achieve any decisive success, and in 1814 Tusun was again defeated beyond Taif. In May 1814 Saud died, and his son, Abdallah, attempted to negotiate, but Mehemet Ali refused all overtures, and in January 1815 advanced into Nejd, defeated the Wahhabi army and occupied Ras, then the chief town in Kasim. Terms of peace were made, but on the retirement of the Egyptians Abdallah refused to carry out the conditions agreed on, which included the return of the jewels plundered by his father, and another campaign had to be fought before his submission was obtained. Ibrahim Pasha replaced Tusun in command, and on reaching Arabia in September 1816 his first aim was to gain over the great Bedouin tribes holding the roads between Hejaz and his objective in Nejd; having thus secured his line of advance he pushed on boldly and defeated Abdallah at Wiya, where he put to death all prisoners taken; thence rapidly advancing, with contingents of the friendly Harb and Muter tribes in support of his regular troops, he laid siege to Ras; this place, however, held out and after a four months' siege he was compelled to give up the attack. Leaving it on one side he pushed on eastwards, took Aneza after six days' bombardment and occupied Bureda. Here he waited two months for reinforcements, and with his Bedouin contingent, strengthened by the adhesion of the Ateba and Bani Khalid tribes, advanced on Shakra in Wushm, which fell in January 1818 after a regular siege. After destroying Huremala and massacring its inhabitants, he arrived before Deraiya on the 14th of April 1818. For six months the siege went on with varying fortune, but at last the courage and determination of Ibrahim triumphed, and on the 9th of September, after a heroic resistance, Abdallah, with a remnant of four hundred men, was compelled to surrender. The Wahhabi leader was soon after sent to Constantinople, where, in spite of Mehemet Ali's intercession, he and the companions who had followed him in his captivity were condemned to death, and after being paraded through the city with ignominy for three days were finally beheaded.
Deraiya was razed to the ground and the principal towns of Nejd were compelled to admit Egyptian garrisons; but though the Arabs saw themselves powerless to stand before disciplined troops, the Egyptians, on the other hand, had to confess that without useless sacrifices they could not retain their hold on the interior.
In 1824 Turki, son of the unfortunate Abdallah, headed a rising which resulted in the re-establishment of the Wahhabi state with Riad as its new capital; and during the next ten years he consolidated his power, paying tribute to and under the nominal suzerainty of Egypt till his murder in 1834. His son, Fesal, succeeded him, but in 1836 on his refusal to pay tribute an Egyptian force was sent to depose him and he was taken prisoner and sent to Cairo, while a rival claimant, Khalid, was established as amir in Riad. Mehemet Ali and his son Ibrahim Pasha were, however, now committed to their conflict with Turkey for Syria and Asia Minor, and had no troops to spare for the thankless task of holding the Arabian deserts; the garrisons were gradually withdrawn, and in 1842 Fesal, who had escaped from his prison at Cairo reappeared and was everywhere recognized as amir. The few remaining Egyptian troops were ejected from Riad, and with them all semblance of Egyptian or Turkish rule disappeared from central Arabia.
For a time it looked as if the supremacy of the Wahhabi empire was to be renewed; El Hasa, Harik, Kasim and Asir returned to their allegiance, but over Oman and Yemen Fesal never re-established his dominion, and the Bahrein sheiks with British support kept their independence.
Ibn Rashid.
A rival state had, however, arisen, under Abdallah Ibn Rashid in Jebel Shammar. Driven into exile owing to a feud between his family and the Ibn Ali, the leading family of the Shammar, Abdallah came to Riad in 1830, and was favourably received by the amir Turki. In 1834 he was with Fesal on an expedition against El Hasa when news came of the amir's murder by his cousin Masharah. By Abdallah's advice the expedition was abandoned; Fesal hastened back with all his forces to Riad, and invested the citadel where Masharah had taken refuge, but failed to gain possession of it, until Abdallah with two companions found his way into the palace, killed Masharah, and placed Fesal on the throne of his father. As a reward for his services Abdallah was appointed governor of Jebel Shammar, and had already established himself in Hail when the Egyptian expedition of 1836 removed Fesal temporarily from Nejd. During the exile of the latter he steadily consolidated his power, extending his influence more especially over the desert tribes, till on Fesal's return in 1842 he had created a state subject only in name to that of which Riad was the capital.
On the death of Abdallah in 1843, his son Talal succeeded. He set himself to work to establish law and order throughout the state, to arrange its finances, and to encourage the settlement in Hail of artificers and merchants from abroad; the building of the citadel and palace commenced by Mehemet Ali, and continued by Abdallah Ibn Rashid, was completed by Talal. The town walls were strengthened, new wells dug, gardens planted, mosques and schools built. His uncle Obed, to whom equally with Abdallah is due the foundation of the Ibn Rashid dynasty, laboured to extend the Shammar boundaries. Khaibar, Tema and Jauf became tributary to Hail.
Though tolerant in religion Talal was careful to avoid the suspicion of lukewarmness towards the Wahhabi formulas. Luxury in clothing and the use of tobacco were prohibited; attendance at the mosque was enforced: any doubt as to his orthodoxy was silenced by the amount and regularity of the tribute sent by him to Riad. Equally guarded was his attitude to the Turkish authorities; it is not improbable that Talal had also entered into relations with the viceroy of Egypt to ensure his position in case of a collision with the Porte. During his twenty years' reign Jebel Shammar became a model state, where justice and security ruled in a manner before unheard of. Fesal may well have watched with jealous anxiety the growing strength of his neighbour's state as compared with his own, where all progress was arrested by the deadening tyranny of religious fanaticism.
The amir Mahommed.
On the 11th of March 1868 Talal, smitten with an incurable malady, fell by his own hand and was succeeded by his brother Matab; after a brief reign he was murdered by his nephews, the elder of whom, Bandar, became amir. Mahommed, the third son of the amir Abdallah, was at the time absent; with a view of getting his uncle into his power, Bandar invited him to return to Hail, and on his arrival went out to meet him accompanied by Hamud, son of Obed, and a small following. Warned by a hurried sign by Hamud that his life was in danger, Mahommed at once attacked Bandar, stabbed him and took possession of the citadel; a general massacre of all members of the house of Ibn Rashid followed, and next day Mahommed appeared with his cousin Hamud in the market-place of Hail, and announced his assumption of the amirship. A strong and capable ruler, he soon established his authority over all northern and western Nejd, and in 1872 the opportunity arrived for his intervention in the east. In that year Abdallah, who had succeeded Fesal in Riad in 1867, was deposed, but with the assistance of Mahommed was reinstated; two years later, however, he was again deposed and forced to seek refuge at Hail, from which place he appealed for assistance to the Turkish authorities at Bagdad. Midhat Pasha, then governor-general, seized the occasion of asserting Turkish dominion on the Persian Gulf coast, and in 1875, in spite of British protests, occupied El Hasa and established a new province under the title of Nejd, with its headquarters at Hofuf, of which Abdallah was appointed governor. This was an event of some importance, as it constituted the first Turkish claim to the sovereignty over Nejd abandoned by Egypt thirty-three years earlier. The Turks did not support their client by advancing into Nejd itself, and he and his rivals were left to fight out their battles among themselves. Turkey was indeed too much occupied by the war with Russia to pay much attention to Arab affairs, though a few years later she attempted to occupy Bahrein by a _coup de main_, which was only frustrated by the action of a British gunboat.
Owing to the dissensions among the ruling family of Riad, the towns of eastern Nejd gradually reverted to their former condition of independence, but menaced in turn by the growing power of Hail, they formed a coalition under the leadership of Zamil, sheik of Aneza, and in the spring of 1891, Aneza, Bureda, Shakra, Ras and Riad assembled their contingents to contest with Ibn Rashid the supremacy in Nejd. The latter had besides 20,000 of his own south Shammar tribesmen, the whole strength of the Harb Bedouins, some 10,000 men, and an additional support of 1000 mounted men from his kinsmen, the northern Shammar from the Euphrates, while the Muter and Ateba tribes took part with the allies. The total strength of each side amounted to about 30,000 men. Zamil's forces held a strong position between Aneza and Bureda, and for over a month desultory fighting went on; finally an attack was made against the defenders' centre, covered by 20,000 camel riders; the men of Aneza broke and the whole allied forces fled in disorder; Zamil and his eldest son were killed, as were also two of the Ibn Saud family, while the remainder were taken prisoners. Aneza and Bureda surrendered the same day, and shortly after Ras, Shakra and Riad tendered their submission.
This victory placed the whole of northern and central Arabia under the supremacy of Mahommed Ibn Rashid, which he held undisputed during the rest of his life.
Recent history.
On his death in 1897 his nephew Abdul-Aziz, son of the murdered amir Matab, succeeded; during his reign a new element has been introduced into Nejd politics by the rising importance of Kuwet (Koweit) and the attempts of Turkey to obtain possession of its important harbour. In 1901 a quarrel arose between Sheik Mubarak of Kuwet and the amir of Hail whose cause was supported by Turkey. A force was equipped at Basra under Ahmad Feizi Pasha with the intention of occupying Kuwet; Mubarak thereupon appealed to Great Britain and action was taken which prevented the Turkish designs from being carried out. Kuwet was not formally placed under British protection, but it was officially announced by the government on the 5th of May 1903 "that the establishment of a naval base or fortified port in the Persian Gulf by any other power would be regarded as a very grave menace to British interests which would certainly be resisted with all the means at its disposal."
In the meantime Sheik Mubarak had found useful allies in the Muntafik Arabs from the lower Euphrates, and the Wahhabis of Riad; the latter under the amir Ibn Saud marched against Ibn Rashid, who at the instigation of the Porte had again threatened Kuwet (Koweit), compelled him to retire to his own territory and took possession of the towns of Bureda and Aneza. Sheik Mubarak and his allies continued their advance, defeated Ibn Rashid in two engagements on the 22nd of July and the 26th of September 1904, and drove him back on his capital, Hail. The Porte now made another effort to assist its protege; two columns were despatched from Medina and Basra respectively, to relieve Hail, and drive out the Wahhabis. Ahmad Feizi Pasha, in command of the Basra column, 4200 strong, crossed the desert and reached the wells of Lina, 200 m. from Hail, on the 5th of March 1905; here, however, he received orders to halt and negotiate before proceeding farther. The Turkish government realized by this time the strength of the hostile combination, and in view of the serious state of affairs in Yemen, hesitated to undertake another campaign in the deserts of Nejd. Arrangements were accordingly made with the Wahhabis, and on the 10th of April Ahmad Feizi Pasha left Lina, ostensibly with the object of protecting the pilgrim road, and joined the Medina column by the end of the month. Bureda and Aneza were occupied without opposition, the rebellious sheiks amnestied by the sultan and loaded with gifts, and formal peace was made between the rival factions.
History of European influence.
British intervention in Oman.
European influence was not felt in Arabia until the arrival of the Portuguese in the eastern seas, following on the discovery of the Cape route. In 1506 Hormuz was taken by Albuquerque, and Muscat and the coast of Oman (q.v.) were occupied by the Portuguese till 1650. In 1516 their fleets appeared in the Red Sea and an unsuccessful attempt was made against Jidda; but the effective occupation of Yemen by the Turks in the next few years frustrated any designs the Portuguese may have had in S.W. Arabia. Even in Oman their hold on the country was limited to Muscat and the adjacent ports, while the interior was ruled by the old Yariba (Ya-'aruba) dynasty from their capital at Rustak. The Persian occupation, which followed that of the Portuguese, came to an end in the middle of the 18th century, when Ahmad Ibn Said expelled the invaders and in 1759 established the Ghafari dynasty which still reigns in Oman. He was succeeded by his son, who in 1798 made a treaty with the East India Company with the object of excluding the French from Oman, and the connexion with Great Britain was further strengthened during the long reign of his grandson Sultan Said, 1804-1856. During the earlier years of his reign he was constantly at war with the Wahhabi empire, to which Oman became for a time tributary. The piracies committed by the Jawasimi Arabs in the gulf compelled the intervention of England, and in 1810 their strongholds were destroyed by a British-Indian expedition. The overthrow of the Wahhabis in 1817 restored Sultan Said to independence; he equipped and armed on Western models a fleet built in Indian ports, and took possession of Sokotra and Zanzibar, as well as the Persian coast north of the straits of Hormuz as far east as Gwadur, while by his liberal policy at home Sohar, Barka and Muscat became prosperous commercial ports.
On his death in 1856 the kingdom was divided, Majid, a younger son, taking Zanzibar, while the two elder sons contested the succession to Oman. The eldest, Thuweni, with British support, finally obtained the throne, and in 1862 an engagement was entered into by the French and English governments respecting the independence of the sultans of Oman. He was assassinated in 1866, and his successor, Seyyid Turki, reigned till 1888. On his death several claimants disputed the succession; ultimately his son Fesal was recognized by the British government, and was granted a subsidy from British-Indian revenues, in consideration of which he engaged not to cede any of his territory without the consent of the British government; similar engagements have been entered into by the tribes who occupy the south coast from the borders of Oman westward to the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
British sphere of influence.
The opening of the overland route to India again brought the west coast of Arabia into importance. Aden was occupied by the British in 1839. The Hejaz coast and some of the Yemen ports were still held by Mehemet Ali, as viceroy of Egypt, but on his final withdrawal from Arabia in 1845, Hejaz came under direct Turkish rule, and the conquest of Yemen in 1872 placed the whole Red Sea littoral (with the exception of the Midian coast, ceded by Egypt on the accession of Abbas Hilmi Pasha) under Ottoman administration. The island of Perim at the southern entrance of the Red Sea has been a British possession since 1857, while the promontory of Shekh Said on the Arabian side of the strait is in Turkish occupation. In order to define the limits between Turkish territory and that of the independent Arab tribes in political relations with Great Britain, a joint commission of British and Turkish officers in 1902-1905 laid down a boundary line from Shekh Said to a point on the river Bana, 12 m. north-east of the small town of Kataba, from which it is continued in a north-easterly direction up to the great desert. This delimitation places the whole of southern Arabia, east of this line, within the British sphere of influence, which thus includes the district surrounding Aden (q.v.), the Hadramut and Oman with its dependencies.
Turkish rule.
The provinces of Hejaz and Yemen are each administered by a Turkish governor-general, with headquarters at Taif and Sana respectively; the country is nominally divided up into divisions and districts under minor officials, but Turkish rule has never been acquiesced in by the inhabitants, and beyond the larger towns, all of which are held by strong garrisons, Turkish authority hardly exists. The powerful Bedouin tribes of Hejaz have always asserted their independence, and are only kept quiet by the large money payments made them by the sultan on the occasion of the annual pilgrimage to the holy cities. A large part of Asir and northern Yemen has never been visited by Turkish troops, and such revenues as are collected, mainly from vexatious customs and transit duties, are quite insufficient to meet the salaries of the officials, while the troops, ill-fed and their pay indefinitely in arrears, live on the country as best they can.
Yemen revolt.
A serious revolt broke out in Yemen in 1892. A Turkish detachment collecting taxes in the Bani Merwan lands north of Hodeda was destroyed by a body of Arabs. This reverse set all Yemen aflame; under the leadership of the imam, who had, since the Turkish occupation, lived in retirement at Sada, 120 m. north of the capital, the powerful tribes between Asir and Sana advanced southwards, occupied the principal towns and besieged the few Turkish fortified posts that still held out. In many cases the garrisons, Arab troops from Syria, went over to the insurgents. Meanwhile, reinforcements under General Ahmad Feizi Pasha reached Hodeda, Manakha was retaken, Sana relieved, and by the end of January 1893 the country with the exception of the northern mountainous districts was reconquered.
A state of intermittent rebellion, however, continued, and in 1904 a general revolt took place with which the normal garrison of Yemen, the 7th army corps, was quite unable to cope. The military posts were everywhere besieged, and Sana, the capital, was cut off from all communication with the coast. During February 1905 reinforcements were sent up which raised the garrison of Sana to a strength of eight battalions, and in March a further reinforcement of about the same strength arrived, and fought its way into the capital with the loss of almost all its guns and train. The position was then desperate, wholesale desertion and starvation had decimated the garrison, and three weeks later Ali Riza Pasha, the Turkish commander, was compelled to surrender. The fall of Sana made a deep impression at Constantinople, every effort was made to hasten out reinforcements, the veteran Ahmad Feizi Pasha was nominated to the supreme command, and Anatolian troops in place of the unreliable Syrian element were detailed. The scale of the operations may be judged from the fact that the total number of troops mobilized up to the beginning of July 1905 amounted to 126 battalions, 8 squadrons and 15 batteries; the rebel leader Mahommed Yahiya had at this time a following of 50,000.
By the end of June, Ahmad Feizi Pasha was in a position to advance on Manakha, where he organized an efficient transport, rallied the scattered remnants of Ali Riza's army, and with the newly arrived troops had by the middle of July a force of some 40 battalions available for the advance on Sana. He left Manakha on the 17th of July, and after almost daily fighting reached Sana on the 30th of August; on the 31st he entered the city without serious opposition, the insurgents having retreated northward.
AUTHORITIES.--D.G. Hogarth, _Penetration of Arabia_ (London, 1904); C. Niebuhr, _Travels and Description of Arabia_ (Amsterdam, 1774); A. Zehme, _Arabien und die Araber seit Hundert Jahren_ (Halle, 1875); J.L. Burckhardt, _Travels in Arabia_ (London, 1829); R.F. Burton, _Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah_ (London, 1855), _Midian revisited_ (1879); W.G. Palgrave, _Central and Eastern Arabia_ (London, 1865); C. Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_ (Cambridge, 1888), and an abridgment, containing mainly the personal narrative, under the title of _Wanderings in Arabia_ (London, 1908); L. van den Berg, _Le Hadramut et les colonies arabes_, &c. (Batavia, 1885); C. Huber, _Journal d'un voyage en Arabie_ (Paris, 1891); J. Euting, _Reise in inner Arabien_ (Leiden, 1896); E. Nolde, _Reise nach inner Arabien_ (Brunswick, 1895); L. Hirsch, _Reise in Sud Arabien_ (Leiden, 1897); J.T. Bent, _Southern Arabia_ (1895); R. Manzoni, _Il Yemen_ (Rome, 1884); A. Deflers, _Voyage en Yemen_ (Paris, 1889); J. Halevy, _Journal Asiatique_ (1872); Lady Anne Blunt, _Pilgrimage to Nejd_ (London, 1881); E. Glaser, _Petermann's Mitt._ (1886, 1888 and 1889); W.B. Harris, _Journey through Yemen_ (Edinburgh, 1893); J.R. Wellsted, _Travels in Arabia_ (London, 1838); Capt. F.M. Hunter, _Aden_ (London, 1877). Consult also _Proc. R.G.S._ and _Geogr. Journal_. For geology see H.J. Carter, "Memoir on the Geology of the South-East Coast of Arabia," _Journ. Bombay Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc._ vol. iv. pp. 21-96 (1852); Doughty's _Arabia Deserta_; W.F. Hume, _The Rift Valleys and Geology of Eastern Sinai_ (London, 1901). For ancient geography of Arabia:--A. Sprenger, _Alte Geographie Arabiens_ (Berne, 1875); E.H. Bunbury, _History of Ancient Geography_ (London, 1883); D.H. Muller, _Hamdani's Geographie_ (Leiden, 1884); E. Glaser, _Geschichte und Geographie Arabiens_ (Berlin, 1890). (R. A. W.)
LITERATURE
The literature of Arabia has its origin in the songs, improvisations, recitations and stories of the pre-Mahommedan Arabs. Of written literature in those days there was, so far as we know, none. But where books failed memory was strong and the power of retaining things heard was not confined to a professional class. At every festive meeting many could contribute a poem or a story, many could even improvise the one or the other. When members of different tribes met in peace (as at the fair of 'Ukaz) the most skilful reciters strove to maintain the honour of their own people, and a ready improviser was held in high esteem. The smartest epigrams, the fairest similes, the keenest satires, spoken or sung on such occasions, were treasured in the memory of the hearers and carried by them to their homes. But the experience of all peoples in that memory requires to be helped by form. Sentences became balanced and were made clear by some sort of definite ending. The simplest form of this in Arabian literature is the _saj'_ or rhymed prose, in which the sentences are usually (though not always) short and end in a rhyme or assonance. Mahomet used this form in many parts of the Koran (e.g. _Sura_, 81). The next step was the introduction of metre into the body of the sentence and the restriction of the passages to a definite length. This in its simplest form gave rise to the _rajaz_ verses, where each half-line ends in the same rhyme and consists of three feet of the measure /u - u -. Other metres were introduced later until sixteen altogether were recognized. In all forms the rhyme is the same throughout the poem, and is confined to the second half of the line except in the first line where the two halves rhyme. While, however, these measures were in early use, they were not systematically analysed or their rules enunciated until the time of Khalil ibn Ahmad in the 8th century. Two other features of Arabian poetry are probably connected with the necessity for aiding the memory. The first of these is the requirement that each line should have a complete sense in itself; this produces a certain jerkiness, and often led among the Arabs to displacement in the order of the lines in a long poem. The other feature, peculiar to the long poem (_qasida_, elegy), is that, whatever its real object, whatever its metre, it has a regular scheme in the arrangement of its material. It begins with a description of the old camping-ground, before which the poet calls on his companion to stop, while he bewails the traces of those who have left for other places. Then he tells of his love and how he had suffered from it, how he had journeyed through the desert (this part often contains some of the most famous descriptions and praises of animals) until his beast became thin and worn-out. Then at last comes the real subject of the poem, usually the panegyric of some man of influence or wealth to whom the poet has come in hope of reward and before whom he recites the poem.
_Poetry._--The influence of the poet in pre-Mahommedan days was very great. As his name, _ash-Sha'ir_, "the knowing man," indicates, he was supposed to have more than natural knowledge and power. Panegyric and satire (_hija'_) were his chief instruments. The praise of the tribe in well-chosen verses ennobled it throughout the land, a biting satire was enough to destroy its reputation (cf. I. Goldziher's _Abhandlungen zur arabischen Philologie_, i. pp. 1-105). Before Mahomet the ethics of the Arabs were summed up in _muruwwa_ (custom). Hospitality, generosity, personal bravery were the subjects of praise; meanness and cowardice those of satire. The existence of poetry among the northern Arabs was known to the Greeks even in the 4th century (cf. St Nilos in Migne's _Patrologia Graeca_, vol. 79, col. 648, and Sozomen's _Ecclesiastical History_, bk. 6, ch. 38). Women as well as men composed and recited poems before the days of the Prophet (cf. L. Cheikho's _Poetesses of the Jahiliyya_, in Arabic, Beirut, 1897).
The transmission of early Arabic poetry has been very imperfect. Many of the reciters were slain in battle, and it was not till the 8th to the 10th centuries and even later that the earliest collections of these poems were made. Many have to be recovered from grammars, dictionaries, &c., where single lines or groups of lines are quoted to illustrate the proper use of words, phrases or idioms. Moreover, many a reciter was not content to declaim the genuine verses of ancient poets, but interpolated some of his own composition, and the change of religion introduced by Islam led to the mutilation of many verses to suit the doctrines of the new creed.[3]
The language of the poems, as of all the best Arabian literature, was that of the desert Arabs of central Arabia; and to use it aright was the ambition of poets and scholars even in the Abbasid period. For the man of the towns its vocabulary was too copious to be easily understood, and in the age of linguistic studies many commentaries were written to explain words and idioms.
Of the pre-Mahommedan poets the most famous were the six whose poems were collected by Asma'i about the beginning of the 9th century (ed. W. Ahlwardt, _The Diwans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets_, London, 1870). Single poems of four of these--Amru-ul-Qais, Tarafa, Zuhair and 'Antara--appear in the Mo'allakat (q.v.). The other two were Nabigha (q.v.) and 'Alqama (q.v.). But besides these there were many others whose names were famous; such as Ta'abbata Sharran, a popular hero who recites his own adventures with great gusto; his companion Shanfara, whose fame rests on a fine poem which has been translated into French by de Sacy (in his _Chrestomathie Arabe_) and into English by G. Hughes (London, 1896); Aus ibn Hajar of the Bani Tamin, famous for his descriptions of weapons and hunting scenes (ed. R. Geyer, Vienna, 1892); Hatim Ta'i, renowned for his open-handed generosity as well as for his poetry (ed. F. Schulthess, Leipzig, 1897, with German translation); and 'Urwa ibn ul-Ward of the tribe of 'Abs, rival of Hatim in generosity as well as in poetry (ed. Th. Noldeke, Gottingen, 1863). Among these early poets are found one Jew of repute, Samau'al (Samuel) ibn Adiya (cf. Th. Noldeke's _Beitrage_, pp. 52-86; art. _s.v._ "Samuel ibn Adiya" in _Jewish Encyc._ and authorities there quoted), and some Christians such as 'Adi'ibn Zaid of Hira, who sang alike of the pleasures of drink and of death (ed. by Louis Cheikho in his _Les Poetes arabes chretiens_, pp. 439-474, Beirut, 1890; in this work many Arabian poets are considered to be Christian without sufficient reason). One poet, a younger contemporary of Mahomet, has attracted much attention because his poems were religious and he was a monotheist. This is Umayya ibn Abi-s-Salt, a Meccan who did not accept Islam and died in 630. His poems are discussed by F. Schulthess in the _Orientalische Studien_ dedicated by Th. Noldeke, Giessen, 1906, and his relation to Mahomet by E. Power (in the _Melanges de la faculte orientale de l'universite Saint-Joseph_, Beirut, 1906). Mahomet's relation to the poets generally was one of antagonism because of their influence over the Arabs and their devotion to the old religion and customs. Ka'b ibn Zuhair, however, first condemned to death, then pardoned, later won great favour for himself by writing a panegyric of the Prophet (ed. G. Freytag, Halle, 1823). Another poet, A'sha (q.v.), followed his example. Labid (q.v.) and Hassan ibn Thabit (q.v.) were also contemporary. Among the poetesses of the time Khansa (q.v.) is supreme. In the scarcity of poets at this time two others deserve mention; Abu Mihjan, who made peace with Islam in 630 but was exiled for his love of wine, which he celebrated in his verse (ed. L. Abel, Leiden, 1887; cf. C. Landberg's _Primeurs arabes_, 1, Leiden, 1886), and Jarwal ibn Aus, known as al-Hutai'a, a wandering poet whose keen satires led to his imprisonment by Omar (Poems, ed. by I. Goldziher in the _Journal of the German Oriental Society_, vols. 46 and 47).
Had the simplicity and religious severity of the first four caliphs continued in their successors, the fate of poetry would have been hard. Probably little but religious poetry would have been allowed. But the Omayyads (with one exception) were not religious men and, while preserving the outward forms of Islam, allowed full liberty to the pre-Islamic customs of the Arabs and the beliefs and practices of Christians. At the same time the circumstances of the poet's life were altered. Poetry depended on patronage, and that was to be had now chiefly in the court of the caliph and the residences of his governors. Hence the centre of attraction was now the city with its interests, not the desert. Yet the old forms of poetry were kept. The _qasida_ still required the long introduction (see above), which was entirely occupied with the affairs of the desert. Thus poetry became more and more artificial, until in the Abbasid period poets arose who felt themselves strong enough to give up the worn-out forms and adopt others more suitable. The names of three great poets adorn the Omayyad period: Akhtal, Farazdaq and Jarir were contemporaries (see separate articles). The first was a Christian of the tribe of Taghlib, whose Christianity enabled him to write many verses which would have been impossible to a professing Moslem. Protected by the caliph he employed the old weapons of satire to support them against the "Helpers" and to exalt his own tribe against the Qaisites. Farazdaq of the Bani Tamim, a good Moslem but loose in morals, lived chiefly in Medina and Kufa, and was renowned for his command of language. Jarir of another branch of the Bani Tamim lived in Irak and courted the favour of Hajjaj, its governor. His satires were so effective that he is said to have crushed forty-three rivals. His great efforts were against Farazdaq, who was supported by Akhtal (cf. _The Naka'id of Jarir and al-Farazdaq_, ed. A.A. Bevan, Leiden, 1906 foll.). Among many minor poets one woman is conspicuous. Laila ul-Akhyaliyya (d. 706) was married to a stranger. On the death of her lover in battle, she wrote numerous elegies bewailing him, and so became famous and devoted the rest of her life to the writing of verse. Two poets of the Koreish attained celebrity in Arabia itself at this time. Qais ur-Ruqayyat was the poet of 'Abdallah ibn uz-Zubair (Abdallah ibn Zobair) and helped him until circumstances went against him, when he made his peace with the caliph. His poems are chiefly panegyrics and love songs (ed. N. Rhodonakis, Vienna, 1902). 'Umar ibn Abi Rabi'a (c. 643-719) was a wealthy man, who lived a life of ease in his native town of Mecca, and devoted himself to intrigues and writing love songs (ed. P. Schwarz, Leipzig, 1901-1902). His poems were very popular throughout Arabia. As a dweller in the town he was independent of the old forms of poetry, which controlled all others, but his influence among poets was not great enough to perpetuate the new style. One other short-lived movement of the Omayyad period should be mentioned. The _rajaz_ poems (see above) had been a subordinate class generally used for improvisations in pre-Mahommedan times. In the 7th and 8th centuries, however, a group of poets employed them more seriously. The most celebrated of these were 'Ajjaj and his son Ru'ba of the Bani Tamim (editions by W. Ahlwardt, Berlin, 1903; German trans. of Ru'ba's poems by Ahlwardt, Berlin, 1904).
With the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty, a new epoch in Arabian poetry began. The stereotyped beginning of the _qasida_ had been recognized as antiquated and out of place in city life even in the Omayyad period (cf. Goldziher, _Abhandlungen_, i. 144 ff). This form had been ridiculed but now it lost its hold altogether, and was only employed occasionally by way of direct imitation of the antique. The rise of Persian influence made itself felt in much the same way as the Norman influence in England by bringing a newer refinement into poetry. Tribal feuds are no longer the main incentives to verse. Individual experiences of life and matters of human interest become more usual subjects. Cynicism, often followed by religion in a poet's later life, is common. The tumultuous mixture of interests and passions to be found in a city like Bagdad are the subjects of a poet's verse. One of the earliest of these poets, Muti' ibn Ayas, shows the new depth of personal feeling and refinement of expression. Bashshar ibn Burd (d. 783), a blind poet of Persian descent, shows the ascendancy of Persian influence as he openly rails at the Arabs and makes clear his own leaning to the Persian religion. In the 8th century Abu Nuwas (q.v.) is the greatest poet of his time. His language has the purity of the desert, his morals are those of the city, his universalism is that of the man of the world. Abu-l-'Atahiya (q.v.), his contemporary, is fluent, simple and often didactic. Muslim ibn ul-Walid (ed. de Goeje, Leiden, 1875), also contemporary, is more conservative of old forms and given to panegyric and satire. In the 9th century two of the best-known poets--Abu Tammam (q.v.) and Buhturi (q.v.) --were renowned for their knowledge of old poetry (see HAMASA) and were influenced by it in their own verse. On the other hand Ibn ul-Mo'tazz (son of the caliph) was the writer of brilliant occasional verse, free of all imitation. In the 10th century the centre of interest is in the court of Saif ud-Daula (addaula) at Aleppo. Here in Motanabbi (q.v.) the claims of modern poetry not only to equal but to excel the ancient were put forward and in part at any rate recognized. Abu Firas (932-968) was a member of the family of Saif ud-Daula, a soldier whose poems have all the charm that comes from the fact that the writer has lived through the events he narrates (ed. by R. Dvorak, Leiden, 1895). Many Arabian writers count Motanabbi the last of the great poets. Yet Abu-l-'Ala ul-Ma'arri (q.v.) was original alike in his use of rhymes and in the philosophical nature of his poems. Ibn Farid (q.v.) is the greatest of the mystic poets, and Busiri (q.v.) wrote the most famous poem extant in praise of the Prophet. In the provinces of the caliphate there were many poets, who, however, seldom produced original work. Spain, however, produced Ibn 'Abdun (d. 1126), famous for the grace and finish of his style (ed. with commentary of Ibn Badrun by R.P.A. Dozy, Leiden, 1846). The Sicilian Ibn Hamdis (1048-1132) spent the last fifty years of his life in Spain (_Diwan_, ed. Moacada, Palermo, 1883; _Canzoniere_, ed. Schiaparelli, Rome, 1897). It was also apparently in this country that the strophe form was first used in Arabic poems (cf. M. Hartmann's _Das arabische Strophengedicht_, Weimar, 1897), and Ibn Quzman (12th century), a wandering singer, here first used the language of everyday life in the form of verse known as _Zajal_.
_Anthologies._--As supplemental to the account of poetry may be mentioned here some of the chief collections of ancient verse, sometimes made for the sake of the poems themselves, sometimes to give a _locus classicus_ for usages of grammar or lexicography, sometimes to illustrate ancient manners and customs. The earliest of these is the _Mo'allakat_ (q.v.). In the 8th century Ibn Mofaddal compiled the collection named after him the _Mofaddaliyat_. From the 9th century we have the Hamasas of Abu Tammam and Buhturi, and a collection of poems of the tribe Hudhail (second half ed. in part by J.G.L. Kosegarten, London, 1854; completed by J. Wellhausen in _Skizzen und Vorarbeiten_, i. Berlin, 1884). The numerous quotations of Ibn Qutaiba (q.v.) in the 'Uyun ul-Akhbar (ed. C. Brockelmann, Strassburg, 1900 ff.) and the _Book of Poetry and Poets_ (ed. M.J. de Goeje, Leiden, 1904) bring these works into this class. In the 10th century were compiled the _Jamharat ash'ar al Arab_, containing forty-nine poems (ed. Bulaq, 1890), the work _al-'Iqd ul-Farid_ of Ibn' Abdi-r-Rabbihi (ed. Cairo, various years), and the greatest work of all this class, the _Kitab ul-Aghani_ ("Book of Songs") (cf. ABU-L FARAJ). The 12th century contributes the _Diwan Mukhtarat ush-Shu'ara'i_ with fifty qasidas. The _Khizanai ul-Adab_ of Abdulqadir, written in the 17th century in the form of a commentary on verses cited in a grammar, contains much old verse (ed. 4 vols., Bulaq, 1882).
_Belles-Lettres and Romances._--Mahomet in the Koran had made extensive use of _saj'_ or rhymed prose (see above). This form then dropped out of use almost entirely for some time. In the 10th century, however, it was revived, occurring almost simultaneously in the _Sermons_ of Ibn Nubata (946-984) and the _Letters_ of Abu Bakr ul-Khwarizmi. Both have been published several times in the East. The epistolary style was further cultivated by Hamadhani (q.v.) and carried to perfection by Abu-l'Ala ul-Ma'arri. Hamadhini was also the first to write in this rhymed prose a new form of work, the _Maqama_ ("assembly"). The name arose from the fact that scholars were accustomed to assemble for the purpose of rivalling one another in orations showing their knowledge of Arabic language, proverb and verse. In the _Maqamas_ of Hamadhani a narrator describes how in various places he met a wandering scholar who in these assemblies puts all his rivals to shame by his eloquence. Each oration forms the substance of a _Maqama_, while the _Maqamas_ themselves are united to one another by the constant meetings of narrator and scholar. Hariri (q.v.) quite eclipsed the fame of his predecessor in this department, and his _Maqamas_ retain their influence over Arabian literature to the present day. As late as the 19th century the sheik Nasif ul Yaziji (1800-1871) distinguished himself by writing sixty clever _Maqamas_ in the style of Hariri (ed. Beirut, 1856, 1872). While this class of literature had devoted itself chiefly to the finesses of the language, another set of works was given to meeting the requirements of moral education and the training of a gentleman. This, which is known as "Adab literature," is anecdotic in style with much quotation of early poetry and proverb. Thus government, war, friendship, morality, piety, eloquence, are some of the titles under which Ibn Qutaiba groups his stories and verses in the _'Uyun ul Akhbar_. _Jahiz_ (q.v.) in the 9th century and Baihaqi (_The Kitab al-Mahasin val-Masawi_, ed. F. Schwally, Giessen, 1900-1902) early in the 10th, wrote works of this class. A little later a Spaniard, Ibn 'Abdrabbihi (Abdi-r-Rabbihi), wrote his _'Iqd ul-Farid_ (see section _Anthologies_). The growth of city life in the Abbasid capital led to the desire for a new form of story, differing from the old tales of desert life. This was met in the first place by borrowing. In the 8th century Ibn Muqaffa', a convert from Mazdaism to Islam, translated the Pahlavi version of Bidpai's fables (itself a version of the Indian _Panchatantra_) into Arabic with the title _Kalila wa Dimna_ (ed. Beirut, various years). Owing to the purity of its language and style it has remained a classic work. The _Book of the 1001 Nights_ (_Arabian Nights_) also has its basis in translations from the Indian through the Persian, made as early as the 9th century. To these stories have been added others originating in Bagdad and Egypt and a few others, which were at first in independent circulation. The whole work seems to have taken its present form (with local variations) about the 13th century. Several other romances of considerable length are extant, such as the _Story of 'Antar_ (ed. 32 vols., Cairo, 1869, &c., translated in part by Terrick Hamilton, 4 vols., London, 1820), and the _Story of Saif ibn Dhi Yezen_ (ed. Cairo, 1892). (G. W. T.)
_Historical Literature._--Arabian historians differ from all others in the unique form of their compositions. Each event is related in the words of eye-witnesses or contemporaries transmitted to the final narrator through a chain of intermediate reporters (_rawis_), each of whom passed on the original report to his successor. Often the same account is given in two or more slightly divergent forms, which have come down through different chains of reporters. Often, too, one event or one important detail is told in several ways on the basis of several contemporary statements transmitted to the final narrator through distinct lines of tradition. The writer, therefore, exercises no independent criticism except as regards the choice of authorities; for he rejects accounts of which the first author or one of the intermediate links seems to him unworthy of credit, and sometimes he states which of several accounts seems to him the best.
A second type of Arabian historiography is that in which an author combines the different traditions about one occurrence into one continuous narrative, but prefixes a statement as to the lines of authorities used and states which of them he mainly follows. In this case the writer recurs to the first method, already described, only when the different traditions are greatly at variance with one another. In yet a third type of history the old method is entirely forsaken and we have a continuous narrative only occasionally interrupted by citation of the authority for some particular point. But the principle still is that what has been well said once need not be told again in other words. The writer, therefore, keeps as close as he can to the letter of his sources, so that quite a late writer often reproduces the very words of the first narrator.
From very early times story-tellers and singers found their subjects in the doughty deeds of the tribe on its forays, and sometimes in contests with foreign powers and in the impression produced by the wealth and might of the sovereigns of Persia and Constantinople. The appearance of the Prophet with the great changes that ensued, the conquests that made the Arabs lords of half the civilized world, supplied a vast store of new matter for relations which men were never weary of hearing and recounting. They wished to know everything about the apostle of God. Every one who had known or seen him was questioned and was eager to answer. Moreover, the word of God in the Koran left many practical points undecided, and therefore it was of the highest importance to know exactly how the Prophet had spoken and acted in various circumstances. Where could this be better learned than at Medina, where he had lived so long and where the majority of his companions continued to live? So at Medina a school was gradually formed, where the chief part of the traditions about Mahomet and his first successors took a form more or less fixed. Soon men began to assist memory by making notes, and pupils sought to take written jottings of what they had heard from their teachers. Thus by the close of the 1st century many _dictata_ were already in circulation. For example, Hasan of Basra (d. 728 A.D.) had a great mass of such notes, and he was accused of sometimes passing off as oral tradition things he had really drawn from books; for oral tradition was still the one recognized authority, and it is related of more than one old scholar, and even of Hasan of Basra himself, that he directed his books to be burned at his death. The books were mere helps. Long after this date, when all scholars drew mainly from books, the old forms were still kept up. Tabari, for example, when he cites a book expresses himself as if he had heard what he quotes from the master with whom he read the passage or from whose copy he transcribed it. He even expresses himself in this wise: "'Omar b. Shabba has _related_ to me in his book on the history of Basra." No independent book of the 1st century from the Flight (i.e. 622-719) has come down to us. It is told, however, that Moawiya summoned an old man named 'Abid ibn Sharya from Yemen to Damascus to tell him all he knew about ancient history and that he induced him to write down his information. This very likely formed the nucleus of a book which bore the name of that sheik and was much read in the 3rd century from the Flight. It seems to be lost now. But in the 2nd century (719-816) real books began to be composed. The materials were supplied in the first place by oral tradition, in the second by the _dictata_ of older scholars, and finally by various kinds of documents, such as treaties, letters, collections of poetry and genealogical lists. Genealogical studies had become necessary through Omar's system of assigning state pensions to certain classes of persons according to their kinship with the Prophet, or their deserts during his lifetime. This subject received much attention even in the 1st century, but books about it were first written in the 2nd, the most famous being those of Ibn al-Kalbi (d. 763), of his son Hisham (d. 819), and of Al-Sharqi ibn al-Qutami. Genealogy, which often called for elucidations, led on to history. Baladhuri's excellent _Ansab al-Ashraf_ (Genealogies of the Nobles) is a history of the Arabs on a genealogical plan.
The oldest extant history is the biography of the Prophet by Ibn Ishaq (d. 767). This work is generally trustworthy. Mahomet's life before he appeared as a prophet and the story of his ancestors are indeed mixed with many fables illustrated by spurious verses. But in Ibn Ishaq's day these fables were generally accepted as history--for many of them had been first related by contemporaries of Mahomet--and no one certainly thought it blameworthy to put pious verses in the mouth of the Prophet's forefathers, though, according to the _Fihrist_ (p. 92), Ibn Ishaq was duped by others with regard to the poems he quotes. The original work of Ibn Ishaq seems to be lost. That which we possess is an edition of it by Ibn Hisham (d. 834) with additions and omissions (text ed. by F. Wustenfeld, Gottingen, 1858-1860; German translation by Weil, Stuttgart, 1864).
The _Life_ of the Prophet by Ibn Oqba (d. 758), based on the statements of two very trustworthy men, 'Urwa ibn az-Zubair (d. 713) and Az-zuhri (d. 742), was still much read in Syria in the 14th century. Fragments of this have been edited by E. Sachau, Berlin, 1904. We fortunately possess the _Book of the Campaigns_ of the Prophet by al-Waqidi (d. 822) and the important _Book of Classes_ of his disciple Ibn Sa'd (q.v.). Waqidi had much more copious materials than Ibn Ishaq, but gives way much more to a popular and sometimes romancing style of treatment. Nevertheless he sometimes helps us to recognize in Ibn Ishaq's narrative modifications of the genuine tradition made for a purpose, and the additional details he supplies set various events before us in a clearer light. Apart from this his chief merits lie in his studies on the subject of the traditional authorities, the results of which are given by Ibn Sa'd, and in his chronology, which is often excellent. A special study of the traditions about the conquest of Syria made by M.J. de Goeje in 1864 (_Memoires sur la conquete de la Syrie_, 2nd ed., Leiden, 1900), led to the conclusion that Waqidi's chronology is sound as regards the main events, and that later historians have gone astray by forsaking his guidance. This result has been confirmed by certain contemporary notices found by Th. Noldeke in 1874 in a Syriac MS. of the British Museum. And that Ibn Ishaq agrees with Waqidi in certain main dates is important evidence for the trustworthiness of the former also. For the chronology before the year 10 of the Flight Waqidi did his best, but here, the material being defective, many of his conclusions are precarious. Waqidi had already a great library at his disposal. He is said to have had 600 chests of books, chiefly _dictata_ written by or for himself, but in part real books by Abu Mikhnaf (d. 748), Ibn Ishaq (whom he uses but does not name), 'Awana (d. 764), Abu Mashar (d. 791) and other authors. Abu Mikhnaf left a great number of monographs on the chief events from the death of the Prophet to the caliphate of Walid II. These were much used by later writers, and we have many extracts from them, but none of the works themselves except a sort of romance based on his account of the death of Hosain (Husain) of which Wustenfeld has given a translation. With regard to the history of Irak in particular he was deemed to have the best information, and for this subject he is Tabari's chief source, just as Madaini, a younger contemporary of Waqidi, is followed by preference in all that relates to Khorasan. Madaini's _History of the Caliphs_ is the best, if not the oldest, published before Tabari; but this book is known only by the excerpts given by later writers, particularly Baladhuri and Tabari. From these we judge that he had great narrative power, with much clear and exact learning, and must be placed high as a critical historian. His plan was to record the various traditions about an event, choosing them with critical skill; sometimes, however, he fused the several traditions into a continuous narrative. A just estimate of the relative value of the historians can only be reached by careful comparison in detail. This has been essayed by Brunnow in his study on the Kharijites (Leiden, 1884), in which the narrative of Mubarrad in the Kamil is compared with the excerpts of Madaini given by Baladhuri and those of Abu Mikhnaf given by Tabari. The conclusion reached is that Abu Mikhnaf and Madaini are both well informed and impartial.
Among the contemporaries of Waqidi and Madaini were Ibn Khidash (d. 838), the historian of the family Muhallab, whose work was one of Mubarrad's sources for the _History of the Kharijites_; Haitham ibn 'Adi (d. 822), whose works, though now lost, are often cited; and Saif ibn 'Omar at-Tamimi, whose book on the revolt of the tribes under Abu-Bekr and on the Mahommedan conquests was much used by Tabari. His narratives are detailed and often tinged with romance, and he is certainly much inferior to Waqidi in accuracy. Wellhausen has thoroughly examined the work of Saif in _Skizzen und Vorarbeiten_, vi. Besides these are to be mentioned Abu 'Ubaida (d. 825), who was celebrated as a philologist and wrote several historical monographs that are often cited, and Azraqi, whose excellent _History of Mecca_ was published after his death by his grandson (d. 858). With these writers we pass into the 3rd century of Islam. But we have still an important point to notice in the 2nd century; for in it learned Persians began to take part in the creation of Arabic historical literature. Ibn Muqaffa' translated the great _Book of Persian Kings_, and others followed his example. Tabari and his contemporaries, senior and junior, such as Ibn Qutaiba, Ya'qubi, Dinawari, preserve to us a good part of the information about Persian history made known through such translations.[4] But even more important than the knowledge conveyed by these works was their influence on literary style and composition. Half a century later began versions from the Greek either direct or through the Syriac. The pieces translated were mostly philosophical; but the Arabs also learned something, however superficially, of ancient history.
The 3rd century (816-913) was far more productive than the 2nd. Abu 'Ubaida was succeeded by Ibn al-A'rabi (d. 846), who in like manner was chiefly famous as a philologist, and who wrote about ancient poems and battles. Much that he wrote is quoted in Tabrizi's commentary on the _Hamasa_, which is still richer in extracts from the historical elucidations of early poems given by ar-Riyashi (d. 871). Of special fame as a genealogist was Ibn Habib (d. 859), of whom we have a booklet on Arabian tribal names (ed. Wustenfeld, 1850). Azraqi again was followed by Fakihi, who wrote a _History of Mecca_ in 885,[5] and 'Omar b. Shabba (d. 876), who composed an excellent history of Basra, known to us only by excerpts. Of the works of Zubair b. Bakkar (d. 870), one of Tabari's teachers, a learned historian and genealogist much consulted by later writers, there is a fragment in the Koprulu library at Constantinople, and another in Gottingen, part of which has been made known by Wustenfeld (_Die Familie Al-Zobair_, Gottingen, 1878). Ya'qubi (Ibn Wadih) wrote a short general history of much value (published by Houtsma, Leiden, 1883). About India he knows more than his predecessors and more than his successors down to Beruni. Ibn Khordadhbeh's historical works are lost. Ibn 'Abdalhakam (d. 871) wrote of the conquest of Egypt and the West. Extracts from this book are given by M'G. de Slane in his _Histoire des Berberes_, from which we gather that it was a medley of true tradition and romance, and must be reckoned, with the book of his slightly senior contemporary, the Spaniard Ibn Habib, in the class of historical romances. A high place must be assigned to the historian Ibn Qutaiba or Kotaiba (d. 889), who wrote a very useful _Handbook of History_ (ed. Wustenfeld, Gottingen, 1850). Much more eminent is Baladhuri (d. 893), whose book on the Arab conquest (ed. M.J. de Goeje, Leiden, 1865-1866) merits the special praise given to it by Mas'udi, and who also wrote a large work, the _Ansab al-Ashraf_. A contemporary, Ibn abi Tahir Taifur (d. 894), wrote on the Abbasid caliphs and was drawn on by Tabari. The sixth part of his work is in the British Museum. The universal history of Dinawari (d. 896), entitled _The Long Narratives_, has been edited by Girgas (1887).
All these histories are more or less thrown into the shade by the great work of Tabari (q.v.), whose fame has never faded from his own day to ours. The _Annals_ (ed. M. de Goeje, Leiden, 1879-1901) are a general history from the creation to 302 A.H. (= A.D. 915). As a literary composition they do not rank very high, which may be due partly to the author's years, partly to the inequality of his sources, sometimes superabundant, sometimes defective, partly perhaps to the somewhat hasty condensation of his original draft. Nevertheless the value of the book is very great: the author's selection of traditions is usually happy, and the episodes of most importance are treated with most fulness of detail, so that it deserves the high reputation it has enjoyed from the first. This reputation rose steadily; there were twenty copies (one of them written by Tabari's own hand) in the library of the Fatimite caliph 'Aziz (latter half of the 4th century), whereas, when Saladin became lord of Egypt, the princely library contained 1200 copies (Maqrizi, i. 408 seq.).
The _Annals_ soon came to be dealt with in various ways. They were published in shorter form with the omission of the names of authorities and of most of the poems cited; some passages quoted by later writers are not found even in the Leiden edition. On the other hand, some interpolations took place, one in the author's lifetime and perhaps by his own hand. Then many supplements were written, e.g. by Ferghani (not extant) and by Hamadhani (partly preserved in Paris). 'Arib of Cordova made an abridgment, adding the history of the West and continuing the story to about 975.[6] Ibn Mashkawaih wrote a history from the creation to 980, with the purpose of drawing the lessons of the story, following Tabari closely, as far as his book is known, and seldom recurring to other sources before the reign of Moqtadir; what follows is his own composition and shows him to be a writer of talent.[7] In 963 an abridgment of the _Annals_ was translated into Persian by Bal'ami, who, however, interwove many fables.[8] Ibn al-Athir (d. 1234) abridged the whole work, usually with judgment, but sometimes too hastily. Though he sometimes glided lightly over difficulties, his work is of service in fixing the text of Tabari. He also furnished a continuation to the year 1224. Later writers took Tabari as their main authority, but sometimes consulted other sources, and so add to our knowledge--especially Ibn al-Jauzi (d. 1201), who adds many important details. These later historians had valuable help from the biographies of famous men and special histories of countries and cities, dynasties and princes, on which much labour was spent from the 4th century from the Flight onwards.
The chief historians after Tabari may be briefly mentioned in chronological order. Razi (d. A.D. 932) wrote a _History of Spain_; Eutychius (d. 940) wrote _Annals_ (ed. L. Cheikho, Paris, 1906), which are very important because he gives the Christian tradition; Suli (d. 946) wrote on the Abbasid caliphs, their viziers and court poets; Mas'udi (q.v.) composed various historical and geographical works (d. 956). Of Tabari's contemporary Hamza Ispahani (c. 940) we have the Annals (ed. Gottwaldt, St Petersburg, 1844); Ibn al-Qutiya wrote a _History of Spain_; Ibn Zulaq (d. 997) a _History of Egypt_; 'Otbi wrote the _History of Mahmud of Ghazna_, at whose court he lived (printed on the margin of the Egyptian edition of Ibn al-Athir); Tha'labi (d. 1036) wrote a well-known _History of the Old Prophets_; Abu Nu'aim al-Ispahani (d. 1039) wrote a _History of Ispahan_, chiefly of the scholars of that city; Tha'alibi (d. c. 1038) wrote, _inter alia_, a well-known _History of the Poets of his Time_, published at Damascus, 1887; Biruni (q.v.) (d. 1048) takes a high place among historians; Koda'i (d. 1062) wrote a _Description of Egypt_ and also various historical pieces, of which some are extant; Ibn Sa'id of Cordova (d. 1070) wrote a _View of the History of the Various Nations_. Bagdad and its learned men found an excellent historian in al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 1071), and Spain in Ibn Hayan (d. 1076), and half a century later in Ibn Khaqan (d. 1135) and Ibn Bassam (d. 1147). Sam'ani (d. 1167) wrote an excellent book on genealogies; 'Umara (d. 1175) wrote a _History of Yemen_ (ed. H.C. Kay, London, 1892); Ibn 'Asaqir (d. 1176) a _History of Damascus and her Scholars_, which is of great value, and exists in whole or in part in several libraries. The _Biographical Dictionary_ of the Spaniard Ibn Pascual (d. 1182) and that of Dabbi, a somewhat junior contemporary, are edited in Codera's _Bibliotheca Arab. Hisp._ (1883-1885); Saladin found his historian in the famous 'Imad uddin (d. 1201) (Arabic text, ed. C. Landberg, Leiden, 1888). Ibn ul-Jauzi, who died in the same year, has been already mentioned. Abdulwahid's _History of the Almohades_, written in 1224, was published by Dozy (2nd ed., 1881). Abdullatif or Abdallatif (d. 1232) is known by his writings about Egypt (trans. de Sacy, 1810); Ibn al-Athir (d. 1233) wrote, in addition to the _Chronicle_ already mentioned, a _Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries of the Prophet_. Qifti (d. 1248) is especially known by his _History of Arabic Philologists_. Sibt ibn al-Jauzi (d. 1256), grandson of the Ibn al-Jauzi already mentioned, wrote a great _Chronicle_, of which much the larger part still exists. Codera has edited (Madrid, 1886) Ibn al-'Abbar's (d. 1260) _Biographical Lexicon_, already known by Dozy's excerpts from it. Ibn al-'Adim (d. 1262) is famed for his _History of Aleppo_, and Abu Shama (d. 1267) wrote a well-known _History of Saladin and Nureddin_, taking a great deal from 'Imad uddin. Ibn abi Usaibia (d. 1269) wrote a _History of Physicians_, ed. A. Muller. The _History_ of Ibn al-'Amid (d. 1276), better known as Elmacin, was printed by Erpenius in 1625. Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi (d. 1274 or 1286) is famous for his histories, but still more for his geographical writings. The noted theologian Nawawi (q.v.; d. 1278) wrote a _Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of the First Ages of Islam_. Preeminent as a biographer is Ibn Khallikan (q.v.;