a populous unwalled town devoted to commerce and industry; it is possible, however, that Idrisi is referring not to Gao but to another town somewhat to the south—at that period the middle course of the Niger had many prosperous towns along its banks. In the 14th century Gao was conquered by the king of Melle, and its great mosque was built (c. 1325) by the Melle sovereign Kunkur Musa on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca. In the 15th century the Songhoi regained power and Gao attained its greatest prosperity in the reign of Askia. It did not enjoy the commercial importance of Jenné nor the intellectual supremacy of Timbuktu, but was the political centre of the western Sudan for a long period. On the break up of the Songhoi power the city declined in importance. It became subject in 1590 to the Ruma of Timbuktu, from whom it was wrested in 1770 by the Tuareg, the last named surrendering possession to the French. The first European to reach Gao was Mungo Park (1805); he was followed in 1851 by Heinrich Barth, and in 1896 by the French naval lieutenant Hourst. Gao is now the headquarters of a military district. A caravan route leads from it to Kano and Bornu. From Gao upwards the Niger is navigable for over 1000 m.
See Timbuktu. For the Gao region of the Niger see an article by F. Dubois in L’Afrique française (January 1909).
GAOL, or Jail, a prison (q.v.). The two forms of the word are due to the parallel dual forms in Old Central and Norman French respectively, jaiole or jaole, and gaiole or gayolle. The common origin is the med. Lat. gabiola, a diminutive formed from cavea, a hollow, a den, from which the English “cave” is derived. The form “gaol” still commonly survives in English, and is in official usage, e.g. “gaol-delivery,” but the common pronunciation of both words, “jail,” shows the real surviving word.
GAON (Heb. for “Excellency,” plural Geonim), the title
given to the heads of the two Jewish academies in Babylonia,
Sura and Pumbeditha. Though the name is far older, it is
chiefly applied to Rabbis who lived between the close of the
Talmud and the transference of the centre of Judaism from Asia
to Europe—i.e. from the end of the 6th to the middle of the 11th
century A.D. The Geonim were required to do homage to the
Exilarchs (see Exilarch) but were otherwise independent.
They exercised wide authority and were appealed to in settlement
of the social and religious affairs of the diaspora. To them
must be assigned the arrangement of the main lines of the present
Synagogue liturgy. Their chief literary activity took the form of
Answers to Questions—a form which was extensively used in
later centuries. The most noted of the Geonim, who will be
found treated under their respective names, were Aḥai, Amram,
Ṣemach, Saadiah, Sherira and Hai. Hai Gaon died in 1038,
closing the period of the Geonim after an activity of four and a
half centuries.
A full list of the Geonim is given in tabular form in the Jewish Encyclopaedia, vol. v. p. 571. (I. A.)
GAP, the capital of the French department of the Hautes
Alpes. Pop. (1906) town, 6888; commune, 10,823. It is built
at a height of 2418 ft. on the right bank of the Luye (an affluent
of the Durance), in an agreeable position, and is dominated afar
by snowy peaks on the N.E. The little city has the look of a
Provençal town, being white. The 17th-century cathedral
church has been entirely reconstructed (1866–1905). In the
prefecture is the tomb of the constable de Lesdiguières (1543–1626),
dating from about 1613, and due to a Lorraine sculptor,
Jacob Richier. The same building contains various scientific
and archaeological collections, as well as the very rich archives,
which include many MSS. from the monastery of Durbon, &c.
There are a few small manufactories of purely local importance.
Gap is connected by railway with Briançon (5112 m.) and with
Grenoble (8512 m.), while from the railway junction of Veynes
(1612 m. W. of Gap) it is 122 m. by rail to Marseilles. The episcopal
see of Gap, now in the ecclesiastical province of Aix en Provence,
is first certainly mentioned in the 6th century, and in 1791 was
enlarged by the annexation of that of Embrun (then suppressed).
Gap is the Vapincum of the Romans, and was founded by Augustus about 14 B.C. It long formed part of Provence, but in 1232 most of the region passed by marriage to the dauphins of Viennois. The town itself, however, remained under the rule of the bishops until 1512, when it was annexed to the crown of France. The bishops continued to bear the title of count of Gap until the Revolution. The town was sacked by the Huguenots in 1567 and 1577, and by the duke of Savoy in 1692. It was the birthplace of the reformer Guillaume Farel (1489–1565), who first preached his doctrines there about 1561–1562, but then took refuge in Switzerland.
See J. Roman, Histoire de la ville de Gap (Gap, 1892). (W. A. B. C.)
GAPAN, a town of the province of Nueva Ecija, Luzon,
Philippine Islands, 3 m. E. of San Isidro, the capital. Pop.
(1903) 11,278. It is situated in a rich rice-growing region, and
extensive forests in its vicinity contain fine hardwoods. Its
climate is comparatively cool and healthy. The principal native
dialects spoken are Tagalog and Pampangan. Gapan is the oldest
town of the province.
GARARISH (Kararish), a semi-nomadic tribe of Semitic
origin, dwelling along the right bank of the Nile from Wādi
Halfa to Merawi. Many members of the tribe are agriculturists,
others act as guides or transport drivers. They declare themselves
kinsfolk of the Ababda, but they are more Arab than Beja.
GARASHANIN, ILIYA (1812–1874), Servian statesman, was
the son of a Servian peasant, who made money by exporting
cattle and pigs to Austria and by his intelligence and wealth
attained to a certain influence in the country. He wanted to
give his son as good an education as possible, and therefore sent
him to Hungary to learn first in a Greek and then in a German
school. Highly gifted, and having passed through a regular
although somewhat short school training, the young Iliya very
quickly came to the front. In 1836 Prince Milosh appointed him
a colonel and commander of the then just organized regular army
of Servia. In 1842 he was called to the position of assistant to
the home minister, and from that time until his retirement from
public life in 1867 he was repeatedly minister of home affairs, distinguishing
himself by the energy and justice of his administration.
But he rendered far greater services to his country as minister
for foreign affairs. He was the first Servian statesman who had a
political programme, and who worked to replace the Russian protectorate
over Servia by the joint protectorate of all the great
powers of Europe. As minister for foreign affairs in 1853 he was
decidedly opposed to Servia joining Russia in war against Turkey
and the western powers. His anti-Russian views resulted in
Prince Menshikov, while on his mission in Constantinople, 1853,
peremptorily demanding from the prince of Servia (Alexander
Karageorgevich) his dismissal. But although dismissed, his
personal influence in the country secured the neutrality of Servia
during the Crimean War. He enjoyed esteem in France, and it
was due to him that France proposed to the peace conference of
Paris (1856) that the old constitution, granted to Servia by
Turkey as suzerain and Russia as protector in 1839, should be
replaced by a more modern and liberal constitution, framed by a
European international commission. But the agreement of the
powers was not secured. Garashanin induced Prince Alexander
Karageorgevich to convoke a national assembly, which had not
been called to meet for ten years. The assembly was convoked
for St Andrew’s Day 1858, but its first act was to dethrone Prince
Alexander and to recall the old Prince Milosh Obrenovich. When
after the death of his father Milosh (in 1860) Prince Michael
ascended the throne, he entrusted the premiership and foreign
affairs to Iliya Garashanin. The result of their policy was that
Servia was given a new, although somewhat conservative, constitution,
and that she obtained, without war, the evacuation
of all the fortresses garrisoned by the Turkish troops on the
Servian territory, including the fortress of Belgrade (1867).
Garashanin was preparing a general rising of the Balkan nations
Bulala dynasty, an offshoot of the royal family of Kanem, whose rule in the 15th century extended from the Shari to Darfur. The existence of the state was first mentioned by Leo Africanus. To the Bornuese it was known as Bulala or Kuka Bulala, a name which persists as that of a district in French Congo (see Bornu). The similarity of the name Gaoga to that of the Songhoi capital has given rise to much confusion.
