ABOS, Maximilian-Francis and Gabriel, born in Bearne towards the end of the seventeenth century, two brothers, knights of Malta, and heroic seamen, who with four vessels defeated a Turkish fleet of fifty galleys at Ios, one of the Cyclades. Maximilian died a few days after the action. Gabriel, while returning towards Malta with immense booty, was driven on the Tunisian shore by a storm, sent to Constantinople by the Tunisians, and, by order of the sultan, there beheaded in 1793.
ABOUL ILHASAN ALI EBN OMAR of Morocco; an astronomer, who wrote about the beginning of the thirteenth century. Modern inquiry is indebted for the great work of this observer and important writer to the labours of M. Sedillot. A very few notices in Montucla—these also given at second-hand—was all we knew of him, until M. Sedillot produced, in French, his invaluable treatise on Philosophical Instruments. This work is one of far more than curiosity, by showing us the exact nature of the instruments with which the Arabians worked. Aboul Ilhasan has supplied an essential element of criticism,—we can now all the better form an opinion as to the value or weight of their results. The work in question is not the work of a mere mechanician, but of a distinguished astronomer. The author docs not stop with description of the external form of instruments. Deeming that the exactness of observations is the foundation of all progress in astronomy, and knowing how needful it is that they who construct instruments should have precise notions as to the end for which they are destined, he discusses and illustrates his subject by aid of all the light derivable from his own experience, and from the best writings of his time. After laying down, as a preliminary, a certain number of theoretical propositions, regarding cosmography, chronology, and gnomonics (employing therein trigonometrical tangents and secants), he devotes three books to the description of instruments for measuring time, and other four to that of purely astronomical instruments, among which we find several quadrants, a sphere, a planisphere, four mesâtirahs, traced upon planes parallel to the horizon or to the meridian; ten cuts of astrolabes, including those of Arzachel; the sextant, the ring, and other constructions, specially destined for the observation of eclipses, of new moons, and several other celestial phenomena. The book terminates with illustrations of the use of such instruments, and a number of problems for exercise. In so far as his geometry, or his general management of the subject goes, Aboul Ilhasan is inferior to few writers. For the clear insight thus given into the scientific workshops of those early times, too much gratitude cannot be felt to M. Sedillot.—J. P. N.
ABOUL-WÉFA AL BUZGIANI, a contemporary of Ibn Jounis; lived at Bagdad about the year 980 a.d. In the first books of his Almagest, Aboul-Wéfa goes over preliminary or elementary considerations; but the rest of his work is very remarkable. It contains formulas for tangents and secants, and tables of tangents and co-tangents for the entire quarter of the circumference. Abul-Wéfa used them as geometers do now in all trigonometrical calculations: he changed the formulæ for triangles; he banished those inconvenient composite expressions which include both sines and co-sines of the unknown angle: in fine, he completed that revolution whose origination is uncertain, but which, on no authority, has been attributed to Regiomontanus, who did not know so much as either Abul-Wéfa or Ibn Jounis. This commodious trigonometry was not employed in Europe until six centuries after its invention by the Arabs. Delambre has given a full summary of all we owe to Abul-Wéfa.—J. P. N.
ABOVILLE, François-Marie, Comte d', a French general, born at Brest in 1730. He entered the military service in 1744, and after acquiring much experience under Marshal Saxe, and in the Seven Years' war in Germany, he greatly distinguished himself as a colonel of artillery in the French army sent to aid the Americans in the war of Independence. His efficient direction of the French and American artillery is said to have mainly contributed to the defeat and surrender of Marquis Cornwallis at York Town. On returning to France he was made a major-general, and in 1791 gave his adherence to the National Assembly. In 1792, when General Dumouriez attempted to pervert his troops, Aboville, then lieutenant-general of the army of the north, remained faithful to the convention. He received from Napoleon numerous honours and promotions. In 1814 he adhered to the Bourbons. In June, 1815, he again sided with Napoleon, and was made a peer. He was ultimately admitted to the Chamber of Peers by Louis XVIII. Died 1819.—E. M.
ABRABANEL, ABARBANEL, BARBINELLUS, or RAVANELLA, Rabbi don Isaac, was born at Lisbon in 1437. His family was of high antiquity, and even boasted of its descent from the royal house of David. In early life, Abrabanel was introduced to the court of Alphonsus V., and even in that age of intolerance, the young and versatile Jew became one of the chief counsellors of the Portuguese sovereign. At his death, Abrabanel found no favour in the eyes of John II., his successor; for falling under suspicion of treason, he fled to Castile, where he was well received by Ferdinand, and in whose financial service he remained from 1484 to 1492. During this year a decree was issued ordering all Jews to leave Spain, and neither the talent nor the services of the Jewish statesman could save him from exile. Accordingly he repaired with his family to Naples, where again he rose into the royal favour of Ferdinand and Alphonsus, and fled with the latter to Messina, from the power of Charles VIII. of France. At the demise of Alphonsus he betook himself to Corfu; then in 1496 to Monopoli, a town of Apulia; and finally he went to Venice, and was instrumental in producing peace between that republic and Portugal. He died at Venice in 1508, in his seventy-first year, and was buried at Padua with great honour. Some Christian writers have asserted that Abrabanel was not wholly free from blame at the period of his flight from Portugal; and that, especially at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, his avarice, vanity, and favouritism for his race, his financial exactions, his love of such place and honour as would set him on an equality with the old grandees of Spain, and his antipathy to the established faith, contributed to raise, or at least to augment the storm, which scattered his people to the four winds of heaven.
The industry and erudition of Abrabanel were alike surprising. One wonders that, amidst incessant toils and flights, he found time to write so much. His ripe scholarship was the result of early acquirement and incessant application. Hours of leisure were hours of labour, and his nation honour him by the name of the Sage, the Prince, and the Politician. His principal works have reference to the Jewish scriptures and the Jewish faith. He was a resolute foe to Christianity, and was well able to maintain his ground. His commentaries on the Old Testament are clear and acute, though certainly tedious and trifling on many occasions. The commentary on the Pentateuch, "Perosch al Hattorah," appeared at Venice in 1579; that on the earlier and later prophets, at Pesaro in 1520, and it is disfigured by some virulent assaults on Christianity, which have been omitted in subsequent editions. What he had suffered from the Inquisition had embittered his spirit, and he almost thirsts for revenge. His discourse on the Messianic prophecies, named "Mushmia Jeshua," or "Preacher of salvation," was published at Amsterdam in 1644—an earlier edition being printed probably at Salonichi in 1526. In this treatise he freely indulges in violent tirades against Christianity. But his implacable enmity to Christianity did not so sour him, as to prevent him from equitable and urbane intercourse with Christians. His "Rosh Amana," "Sum of Truth," or an exposition and defence of the articles of the Jewish faith, was published at Constantinople in 1505. Other works belong to him, which need not be characterized. Several of his treatises have been translated into Latin. Of his sons, one was distinguished in medicine and poetry, and another embraced Christianity.—(Wolf, Bale. De Rossi, Fürst's Bibliotheca Judaica.)—J. E.
ABRADATES, king of Susiana, who, according to Xenophon's Cyropædia, rendered great service to Cyrus the Great in his war with the Assyrians.
ABRAHAM, the founder of the Hebrew nation, was born at Ur, a city of Chaldea, a.m. 2008. His father's name was Terah, and he married Sarah, the daughter of his elder brother Haran. Abraham abode in Ur during the first sixty years of his life. He left it, in obedience to a divine call, along with his father, and other members of the family, "not knowing whither he went." The place where he first sojourned was Haran, where he abode fifteen years, and where his father died. After that event he left his brother Nahor, and journeyed onwards to Canaan in company with Lot. The habits of the people of Canaan were all of a nomadic character, similar to those which still prevail among the Arabs. This was Abraham's mode of life. The removals which he made were all towards the south, and it was his practice, wherever he came, to build an altar to the Lord, and to call upon his name. At length a famine in
