Song of Solomon (1623). These were collected in folio in 1627, and again in 1639, and later in various forms. From the outset the Annotations took a commanding place, especially among continental scholars, and he established for English nonconformity a tradition of culture and scholarship. There is no probability about the narrative given by Neal in his History of the Puritans (ii. 47) that he was poisoned by certain Jews. He died in 1622, or early in 1623, for in that year was published his Seasonable Discourse, or a Censure upon a Dialogue of the Anabaptists, in which the editor speaks of him as a departed worthy.
Literature.—John Worthington’s Diary (Chetham Society), by Crossley, i. 263-266; works of John Robinson (1851); H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years (1880); W. E. A. Axon, H. Ainsworth, the Puritan Commentator (1889); F. J. Powicke, Henry Barrow and the Exiled Church of Amsterdam (1900); J. H. Shakespeare, Baptist and Congregational Pioneers (1906).
AINSWORTH, ROBERT (1660–1743), English schoolmaster and author, was born at Eccles, near Manchester, in September 1660. After teaching for some time at Lever’s Grammar School in Bolton, he removed to London, where he conducted a boarding-school,
first at Bethnal Green and then at Hackney. He soon
made a moderate fortune which gave him leisure to pursue his classical studies. Ainsworth’s name is associated with his Latin-English Dictionary, begun in 1714, and published in 1736 as Thesaurus linguae Latinae compendiarius. It was long extensively
used in schools, and often reprinted, the later editions being revised and enlarged by other hands, but it is now superseded. Ainsworth was also the author of some useful works on classical antiquities, and a sensible treatise on education, entitled
The most Natural and Easy Way of Institution (1698), in which he advocates the teaching of Latin by conversational methods and deprecates punishment of any sort. He died in London on the 4th of April 1743.
AINSWORTH, WILLIAM HARRISON (1805–1882), English
novelist, son of Thomas Ainsworth, solicitor, was born at Manchester on the 4th of February 1805. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and articled to the firm of which his father was a member, proceeding to London in 1824 to complete his legal training at the Inner Temple. At the age of twenty-one he married a daughter of John Ebers the publisher, and started in his father-in-law’s line of business. This, however,
soon proved unprofitable and he decided to attempt literary work. A novel called Sir John Chiverton, in which he appears to have had a share, had attracted the praise of Sir Walter Scott, and this encouragement decided him to take up fiction as a career. In 1834 he published Rookwood, which had an immediate success, and thenceforth he was always occupied with the compilation of “historical” novels. He published about forty such stories, of which the best-known are Jack Sheppard (1839), The Tower of London (1840), Guy Fawkes (1841), Old St Paul’s (1841)
and Windsor Castle (1843). He edited Bentley’s Miscellany, in which Jack Sheppard was published as a serial, and in 1842 he became proprietor of Ainsworth’s Magazine. In 1853 it ceased to appear, and Ainsworth bought the New Monthly Magazine.
He continued his literary activity until his death, but his later stories were less striking than the earlier ones. He died at Reigate on the 3rd of January 1882 and was buried at Kensal Green. Ainsworth had a lively talent for plot, and his books have many attractive qualities. The glorification of Dick Turpin
in Rookwood, and of Jack Sheppard in the novel that bears his name, caused considerable outcry among straitlaced elders. In his later novels Ainsworth confined himself to heroes less open to criticism. His style was not without archaic affectation and awkwardness, but when his energies were aroused by a striking situation he could be brisk, vigorous and impressive. He did a great deal to interest the less educated classes in the historical romances of their country, and his tales were invariably instructive,
clean and manly.
AINTAB (anc. Doliché), a town in the vilayet of Aleppo and ancient Cyrrhestica district of N. Syria. Pop. 45,000, two-thirds Moslem. The site of Doliche, famous for its worship of Baal (Zeus Dolichenus), adopted by the Seleucids and eventually spread all over the Roman empire, lies at Duluk, two hours N.W.; but nothing is to be seen there except a mound. The place was probably of Hittite origin and does not appear to have been settled by Greeks. The bazaars of Aintab are a great centre for “Hittite” antiquities, found at various sites from Sakchegözu on the west to Jerablus on the east. The modern town lies in the open treeless valley of the Sajur, a tributary of the Euphrates, and on the right bank, 65 m. north-east of Aleppo, with which it is connected by a chaussée, passing through Killis. This road proceeds east to the great crossing of Euphrates at Birejik, and thus Aintab lies on the highway between N. Syria and Urfa-Mosul and has much transit trade and numerous khans. In the middle ages its strong castle (Hamtab) was an important strategic point, taken by Saladin about A.D. 1183; and it supplied the last base from which Ibrahim Pasha marched in 1839 to win his decisive victory over the Turksat Nezib, about 25 m. distant north-east. Lying high (3500 ft.) and swept by purifying winds, Aintab is a comparatively clean and healthy spot, though not free from ophthalmia and the “Aleppo button,” and it has been selected by the American Mission Board as its centre for N. Syria “Central Turkey College,” educational and medical, lies on high ground west. It was burnt down in 1891, but rebuilt; it has a dependency for girls within the town. Thanks to its presence the Armenian protestants are a large and rich community, which suffered less in the massacre of 1895 than the Gregorians. There is a small Episcopalian body, which has a large unfinished church, and a schismatic “catholicos,” who has vainly tried to gain acceptance into the Anglican communion. There is also a flourishing Franciscan mission. Striped cloths and pekmez, a sweet paste made from grapes, are the principal manufactures; and tobacco and cereals the principal cultures. The town is unusually well and solidly built, good stone being obtained near at hand. The Moslem inhabitants are mainly of Turkoman origin, and used to owe fealty to chieftains of the family of Chapan Oglu, whose headquarters were at Yuzgat in Cappadocia.
(D. G. H.)
AINU (“man”), a race inhabiting the northernmost islands of Japan. Little definite is known about their earliest history, but it is improbable that they are, as has been urged, the aborigines of Japan. The most accurate researches go to prove that they were immigrants, who reached Yezo from the Kuriles, and subsequently crossing Tsugaru strait, colonized a great part of the main island of Japan, exterminating a race of pit-dwellers to whom they gave the name of koro-pok-guru (men with sunken places). These koro-pok-guru were of such small stature as to be considered dwarfs. They wore skins of animals for clothing, and that they understood the potter’s art and used flint arrow-heads is clearly proved by excavations at the sites of their pits. The Ainu, on the contrary, never had any knowledge of pottery. Ultimately the Ainu, coming into contact with the Japanese, who had immigrated from the south and west, were driven northward into the island of Yezo, where, as well as in the Kuriles and in the southern part of Sakhalin, they are still found in some numbers. When, at the close of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, Russian enterprises drew the attention of the Japanese government to the northern districts of the empire, the Tokugawa shoguns adopted towards the Ainu a policy of liberality and leniency consistent with the best principles of modern colonization. But the doom of unfitness appears to have begun to overtake the race long ago. History indicates that in ancient times they were fierce fighters, able to offer a stout resistance to the incomparably better armed and more civilized Japanese. To-day they are drunken, dirty, spiritless folk, whom it is difficult to suppose capable of the warlike rôle they once played. Their number, between 16,000 and 17,000, is virtually stationary. The Ainu are somewhat taller than the Japanese, stoutly built, well proportioned, with dark-brown eyes, high cheek-bones, short broad noses and faces lacking length. The hairiness of the Ainu has been much exaggerated. They are not more hairy than many Europeans. Never shaving after a certain age, the men have full beards and moustaches, but the stories of Ainu covered with hair like a bear are quite unjustified by facts. Men and women alike cut their hair level with the shoulders at the sides of
