The Murābiṭi power was at its height at Yūsef’s death, and the Moorish empire then included all North-West Africa as far as Algiers, and all Spain south of the Tagus, with the east coast as far as the mouth of the Ebro, and the Balearic Islands. Three years afterwards, under Yūsef’s son and successor, ʽAli III. of Morocco, Madrid, Lisbon and Oporto were added, and Spain was again invaded in 1119 and 1121, but the tide had turned, the French having assisted the Aragonese to recover Saragossa. In 1138 ʽAli III. was defeated by Alphonso VII. of Castile and Leon, and in 1139 by Alphonso I. of Portugal, who thereby won his crown, and Lisbon was recovered by the Portuguese in 1147. Ali III. was a pious nonentity, who fasted and prayed while his empire fell to pieces under the combined action of his Christian foes in Spain and the agitation of the Muwāḥḥadis or “Almohades” (q.v.) in Morocco. After ʽAli’s death in 1142, his son Tashfin lost ground rapidly before the Muwāḥḥadis, and in 1145 he was killed by a fall from a precipice while endeavouring to escape after a defeat near Oran. His two successors Ibrāhīm and Isḥāk are mere names. The conquest of the city of Marrākesh by the Muwāḥḥadis in 1147 marked the fall of the dynasty, though fragments of the Murābiṭis continued to struggle in the Balearic Islands, and finally in Tunisia.
The amirs of the Murābiṭi dynasty were as follows:—Yūsef I., bin Tashfin (1061); ʽAli III. (1106); Tashfīn I. (1143); Ibrāhim II. (1145); Isḥāk (1146).
See Budgett Meakin, The Moorish Empire (London, 1899); the anonymous Raōḍ el Karṭāṣ (Fez. 1326), translated by Baymier as Roudh el-Karṭaṣ (Paris, 1860); Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb el ʽAibr . . . fi Aīyām el Maghrib, &c. (cir. 1405), partly translated by de Slane as Histoire des Berbers, vol. ii. (Algiers, 1852–1856); Makkāri, History of the Mahommedan Dynasties in Spain, translated by Gayangos (London, 1840); Histoire des Mussulmans d’Espagne, by R. Dozy, vol. iv. (Leiden, 1861). (B. M.*; D. H.)
ALMQVIST, KARL JONAS LUDWIG (1793–1866), Swedish
writer, was born at Stockholm in 1793. He became a student
at Upsala, where his father was professor of theology, in 1808,
and took his degree in 1815. He began life under highly favourable
auspices; but becoming tired of a university career, in
1823 he threw up the position he held in the capital to lead a
colony of friends to the wilds of Wermland. This ideal Scandinavian
life soon proved a failure; Almqvist found the pen easier
to wield than the plough, and in 1828 he returned to Stockholm
as a teacher in the new Elementary School there, of which he
became rector in 1829. Now began his literary life; and after
bringing out several educational works, he made himself suddenly
famous by the publication of his great series of novels, called
The Book of the Thorn-Rose (1832–1835). The career so begun
developed with extraordinary rapidity; few writers have
equalled Almqvist in productiveness and versatility; lyrical,
epic and dramatic poems; romances; lectures; philosophical,
aesthetical, moral, political and educational treatises; works
of religious edification, studies in lexicography and history, in
mathematics and philology, form the most prominent of his
countless contributions to modern Swedish literature. So
excellent was his style, that in this respect he has been considered
the first of Swedish writers. His life was as varied as
his work. Unsettled, unstable in all his doings, he passed from
one lucrative post to another, at last subsisting entirely on the
proceeds of literary and journalistic labour. More and more
vehemently he espoused the cause of socialism in his brilliant
novels and pamphlets; friends were beginning to leave him,
foes beginning to triumph, when suddenly all minor criticism
was silenced by the astounding news that Almqvist, convicted
of forgery and charged with murder, had fled from Sweden.
This occurred in 1851. For many years no more was heard of
him; but it is now known that he went over to America and
settled in St Louis. During a journey through Texas he was
robbed of all his manuscripts, among which are believed to have
been several unprinted novels. He is said to have appealed in
person to President Lincoln, but the robbers could not be traced.
The American adventures of Almqvist remain exceedingly
obscure, and some of the most remarkable have been proved to
be fabulous. In 1865 he returned to Europe, and his strange
and sinister existence came to a close at Bremen on the 26th
of September 1866. It is by his romances, undoubtedly the
best in Swedish, that his literary fame will mainly be supported;
but his singular history will always point him out as a remarkable
figure even when his works are no longer read. He was another
Eugene Aram, but of greater genius, and so far more successful
that he escaped the judicial penalty of his crimes. (E. G.)
ALMS, the giving of relief, and the relief given, whether in goods or money, to the poor, particularly applied to the charity bestowed under a sense of religious obligation (see Charity and Charities). The word in O. Eng. was aelmysse, and is derived through the Teutonic adaptation (cf. the modern Ger. almosen) of the Latinized form of the Gr. ἐλεημοσύνη, compassion or mercy, from ἔλεος, pity. The English word “eleemosynary,” that which is given in the way of alms, charitable, gratuitous, derives direct from the Greek. “Alms” is often, like “riches,” wrongly taken as a plural word.
ALMSHOUSE, a house built and endowed by private charity for the residence of poor and usually aged people. The greater portion were built after the Reformation. Two interesting examples are the Hospital of St Cross, near Winchester, founded in 1136, and Coningsby Hospital at Hereford, founded in 1614.
ALMUCE, or Amice (O. Fr. aumuce, O. Eng. aumuce, amys,
amess, &c., from late Lat. almucia, almucium, armucia, &c.), a
hooded cape of fur, or fur-lined, worn as a choir vestment by
certain dignitaries of the Western Church. The origin of the
word almucium is a philological mystery. The al- is probably
the Arabic article, since the word originated in the south (Sicilian
almuziu, Prov. almussa, Span. almucio, &c.), but the derivation
of the second part of the word from a supposed old Teutonic
term for cap—Ger. Mütze, Dutch Mutsche, Scot. mutch
(New Eng. Dict. s. “Amice”; Diez, Wörterbuch der rom. Sprachen)—is
the exact reverse of the truth. The almuce was originally a
head-covering only, worn by the clergy, but adopted also by the
laity, and the German word Mütze, “cap,” is later than the
introduction of the almuce in church, and is derived from it
(M. H. G., 13th century, almutz; 14th century, armuz, aremuz,
&c.; 15th century, mutz, mütze, &c.). The word mulzen, to
dock, cut off, which first appears in the 14th century, does not
help much, though the name of another vestment akin to the
almuce—the mozzetta—has been by some traced to it through
the Ital. mozzare and mozzo (but see below).
In numerous documents from the 12th to the 15th century the almucium is mentioned, occasionally as identical with the hood, but more often as a sort of cap distinct from it, e.g. in the decrees of the council of Sens (1485)—non caputia, sed almucia vel bireta lenentes in capite. By the 14th century two types of almucium were distinguished: (1) a cap coming down just over the ears; (2) a hood-like cap falling over the back and shoulders. This latter was reserved for the more important canons, and was worn over surplice or rochet in choir. The introduction of the biretta (q.v.) in the 15th century tended to replace the use of the almuce as a head-covering, and the hood now became smaller, while the cape was enlarged till in some cases it fell below the elbows. Another form of almuce at this period covered the back, but was cut away at the shoulders so as to leave the arms free, while in front it was elongated into two stole-like ends. Almuces were occasionally made of silk or wool, but from the 13th century onward usually of fur, the hem being sometimes fringed with tails. Hence they were known in England as “grey amices” (from the ordinary colour of the fur), to distinguish them from the liturgical amice (q.v.). By the 16th century the almuce had become definitely established as the distinctive choir vestment of canons; but it had ceased to have any practical use, and was often only carried over the left arm as a symbol of office. The almuce has now been almost entirely superseded by the mozzetta, but it is still worn at some cathedrals in France, e.g. Amiens and Chartres, at three churches in Rome, and in certain cathedrals elsewhere in Italy. The “grey amice” of the canons of St Paul’s at London was put down in 1549, the academic hood being substituted. It was again put down in 1559, and was
