which he found abandoned and in ruins. Returning to Oran, he proceeded in January, 1836, to Tlemsen, in the vicinity of Morocco, and occupied the town, which the emir century just quitted. The marshal traversed a large extent of country, but with little permanent result; the emir hanging on his rear, and harassing his troops in their march, and, shortly afterwards, inflicting a signal defeat on a large French convoy intended for Tlemsen. The French government now sent out General Bugeaud, with instructions to neutralize by treaty or force the restless activity of the emir. Bugeaud's proffered terms were rejected; and the emir attempted, by laying waste the country along the tract to Tlemsen, to baffle the efforts of the French to provision that place. But Bugeaud, amply provided with loaded camels and mules, continued his march. The emir, having suddenly attacked him in the defile of Sakkak, was repulsed with the loss of 1200 killed and wounded. The terms previously offered by Bugeaud were now accepted. The emir agreed to pay tribute to France, and obtained a large accession of territory. Without loss of time, he proceeded strenuously to assert his authority over the provinces ceded to him, and to extend his influence in the interior beyond them. It has been generally stated and believed that Abd-el-Kader had previously, by a breach of his treaty with Desmichels, given occasion to Trezel's renewal of hostilities; and that now, by the alleged massacre of a tribe, and other proceedings, he had flagrantly violated his treaty with Bugeaud. But a distinguished French officer, Major Boissonet, has proved by facts, that these charges are utterly groundless, and that the emir strictly observed on all occasions his stipulations with the French. The alleged massacre was a fiction. On the remonstrances of the governor-general, a new treaty, partly explanatory and partly supplementary, was agreed to at Algiers in July, 1838. In the meantime the emir proceeded with vigour to improve his civil and military administration, and to make every possible provision for the easily foreseen renewal of the war. The emir's growing power alarmed the French authorities; and, to counteract his influence, a French army was marched into the interior, and through a celebrated defile called the Iron Gates, which the Turks, at the height of their power, had never ventured to pass without special leave of the natives. This demonstration produced, as was intended, an immense sensation, and was regarded by the tribes as the preliminary or commencement of hostilities. The emir, in the spirit of chivalry, gave due notice by letter to the French governor-general, that, in spite of his remonstrances, a holy war had been proclaimed, and that his countrymen, with himself at their head, were about to appeal to arms. After some unsatisfactory operations on the part of Marshal Vallée, Bugeaud was sent a second time to Africa. He had now instructions to subdue the emir, and complete the conquest of Algeria. Bugeaud soon captured the new forts which the emir had erected; and, by carrying off the flocks, destroying the crops, and burning the villages of all who refused submission, he caused great numbers of the emir's troops to desert, and, in the next campaign, reduced him to such straits, that Algeria was officially announced at Paris as now an integral part of the French dominions. But the spirit of the bold Arab was not yet crushed. By the amazing rapidity and fearlessness of his movements, he continued to inflict on the French no small annoyance and damage. In October, 1843, however, he sustained so thorough a defeat, that he instantly sought refuge in the empire of Morocco. The population declared in his favour, and the emperor, but for his fear of the French, would have eagerly espoused his cause. The French declared war against Morocco, and forced the emperor to send an army against the emir. After an unavailing night-attack of amazing boldness on the emperor's camp, Abd-el-Kader gave up all for lost, and proposed to surrender to the French on terms which were accorded, both by General Lamoricière and the Duke d'Aumale, the governor-general. The emir arrived at Toulon on the 29th January, 1848, and in violation of the solemn stipulations that had been made, was imprisoned in the fortress of Lamalgue, whence he was transferred to Pau, and afterwards to Amboise. In October, 1852, he obtained his liberty, on pledging his honour not to return to Algeria, or conspire against France. He reached Brussa in Asia Minor in 1853—the place, by curious coincidence, where Hannibal expired—and resided there till its almost total destruction by an earthquake in 1855, when he removed to Constantinople, his present residence. In the autumn of 1855, he paid a short visit to Paris to see the Exhibition.—E. M.
ABDIAS. The name assumed by the writer of an apocryphal history of the labours of the apostles. The book professes to be written by "Abdias, bishop of Babylon, who was ordained by the apostles themselves;" but various arguments make it certain that the work is a forgery of the sixth, or at the earliest, of the end of the fifth century.
ABDIAS BARTENO´RA, an Italian rabbi, author of a celebrated commentary on the Mishna.
ABDIAS BEN SHALOM, a Jewish rabbi, noted as the first convert from Judaism to the faith of Islam. He went with three Jews to dispute with Mahomet and at the end of the discussion exclaimed—"Enough, most excellent Mahomet, thou hast conquered; receive me as thy disciple." He was received among the Arabs, and named Abdullah Ibn Shelem. The famous disputation is found at the end of the Koran.—J. B.
ABDI-L-MUTALIB, Mahomet's grandfather and guardian, a rich and beneficent citizen of Mecca, to whom a variety of achievements are attributed in Moslem legends; born a.d. 497, and died at Mecca when upwards of eighty years old.
ABDOLO´NYMUS, a Sidonian of royal descent, though in very humble circumstances, whom Alexander the Great is said to have made sovereign of Sidon and Tyre.
ABDON, one of the judges of Israel. He preceded Samson, and governed, according to Hales, from 1160 to 1152 b.c.
'ABDU'-L-AZIZ, the third Arab governor of Spain, greatly aided his father Músa, lieutenant of the Caliph Walid I., in the conquest of the peninsula. He was assassinated in a mosque near Seville, by order of the Caliph Soliman, in 716.
ABDU'-L-'AZIZ, sheikh (or prince) of the Wahabites, murdered in 1803 by a Persian fanatic, who, to accomplish his purpose, had professed to be a convert to the Wahabite creed.
* ABDUL-HAMED-BEG (whose real name was Du Couret), a French traveller, was born at Huningue in 1812. In 1834 he departed for Egypt, where he ascended the Nile as far as Abyssinia, and returned into Egypt along the western coast of the Red Sea. He adopted Islamism, made the pilgrimage to Mecca, which gave him a right to the title of hadji, traversed a great part of Arabia, and at last landed on the Isle de Bourbon, exhausted by fatigue and sickness. From thence he went into Persia, where he was accused of political intrigues, and thrown into prison. Delivered by ransom, he returned to France in 1847, but very soon again left his native country to penetrate central Africa as far as Timbuctoo.—S.
'ABDULLAH, fourth and last chief of the Wahabites, a warlike Moslem sect in Arabia. He succeeded his father Sehoud in 1814. Mehemet Ali, instructed by the sultan to exterminate the sect, sent a large force against them, and defeated an army of thirty thousand men, commanded by 'Abdullah's brother. After a feigned submission, 'Abdullah concentrated the most heroic of his adherents in the town of Dereyeh, his capital, determined to hold out to the last. Ibrahim Pasha, after besieging the place for six months without effect, contrived to decoy 'Abdullah to an interview, and took him prisoner by treachery. 'Abdullah was sent to Constantinople, where he was publicly executed on the 16th December, 1818.—E. M.
'ABDULLAH, Abu-Mohammed, a Moslem sovereign of the thirteenth century, of the dynasty of the Almohades. Though his dominions comprehended part of Africa, as well as Moslem Spain, his presence was permanently required in the latter country, to oppose the growing strength of the christian princes of the peninsula. He rendered himself odious to his own subjects, by whom he was massacred in 1225.—E. M.
'ABDULLAH, Ibn Abdi-L-Mutalib, father of Mahomet, born at Mecca in 545. Two months after the birth of his son in 570, he died at Medina, then called Yathreb, whither he had been sent to procure a supply of dates.
'ABDULLAH IBN BALKI´N, the fourth and last sultan of Granada, of the dynasty of the Zeyrites, succeeded to the throne a.d. 1073. He, with other Moslem rulers, implored the king of the Almoravides of Africa, to aid them against Alfonso I. of Castile; but, by the treachery of their ally, Abdullah was taken prisoner, and sent in chains to Africa, where he died.
'ABDULLAH IBN MOHAMMED, seventh sultan of Cordova, of the Ommiade dynasty, distinguished for his wars with the rebel Ibn Hafssún. He is remembered also as a poet and lover of literature. Died a.d. 912.
