mains is grouped around two principal oblong courts, the Court of the Blessing (140x74 feet), and the Court of the Lions (110x60 feet). There are porticoes, pillared halls, small gardens, and a. mosque. The Court of the Lions is surrounded by arcades supported by 124 white marble col- umns, while similar arcades frame the ends of the other court. The main reception-hall, called the Hall of the Ambassadors, is a square (37 feet), surmounted by a beautiful dome 75 feet high, with stalactite pendentives. Connected with the Court of the Lions are two smaller, but equal- ly exquisite, halls, the Hall of the Abencerrages, with a dome and exquisite columns, used as a banquet-hall, and the Hall of the Two Sisters, a pleasure-room communicating with the baths. There is a network of smaller apartments. All the surfaces are decorated with a bewildering mass of color and design in tiles, stucco, and painting. Red, blue, black, and gold are the principal colors; the ornamentation comprises not only the plain geometrical patterns, but also a profusion of Cutic mottoes and of heraldic floral designs and arabesques. The most characteristic parts were reproduced in the Alhambra Court of the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham, and the palace has served as a model for innumerable modern imitations of Moorish art. The Alhambra was partly restored by Queen Isabella II., but was damaged by fire in 1890. See Mohammedan Art.
Consult: Washington Irving, The Alhambra (New York, 1832); Goury and Jones, Plans, Elevations, Sections and Details of The Alhambra (London, 1842); M. Junghändel, Die Baukunst Spaniens (Dresden, 1889); Girault de Prangey, Monuments arabes et moresques d'Espagne (Paris, 1839); Bisson, Choix d'ornements moresques de l'Alhambra (Paris, 1855).
ALHAMBRA, The. A famous collection of tales and legends of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving (1812).
ALHAZEN, al-hli'zen, El-Hasan ibn elHasan ibn el-Haitam, Abu 'Ali (c. 965-c. 1039).
An Arabian mathematician and physicist. From his native city, Basra, he went to Egypt, and died in Cairo. A man of remarkable intelligence and productiveness, he wrote commentaries on Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy, Euclid, and Archimedes, and also made numerous original contributions to science. His Optics, the most important Arabic work on the subject, was translated into Latin, probably by Gerard of Cremona, and not by Vitellius, who wrote an original work on optics, and was published at Basel in 1572 under the title, Opticæ Thesaurus Alhazeni Arabis Libri Septem, nunc primum editi, eiusdem Liber de Erepusculis et Nubium Ascensionibus, etc., a Fed. Risnero. Various other of his works have been translated in whole or in part by Woepeke, Sédillot, Suter, and Baarmann. He is now known chiefly from the problem bearing his name: From two given points within a circle to draw to a point on the circumference two lines which shall make equal angles with the tangent at that point. For bibliography of this problem, consult the American Journal of Mathematics, Volume IV., 327.
AL-HEN'NA. See Henna.
ALHONDIGA DE GEANADITAS, al-on'-de-gii da gra'n:i-iie'tas. A fortified public storehouse near Guanajuato, Mexico, where, in 1810, in the beginning of the revolution against Spain, the local government officials took refuge and defended themselves vigorously, being captured only after severe fighting by the insurgents under Hidalgo. Local tradition of the fight declares that when the Spaniards in the granary had exhausted their stock of cannon balls, they used bags of silver coins, fresh from the mint, and also quicksilver flasks, which were stored there for use in connection with the great silver mines of the place. Hidalgo was subsequently defeated and executed at Chihuahua, and his head was suspended from a spike on the wall of the Alhondiga, now the local prison.
ALI, ibn Abu Talib, ä'lḗ ĭb-nä'bōō tȧ'lēb (c. 600-661). Fourth caliph, cousin of Mohammed, and one of his first converts. Ali became a staunch adherent of Mohammed, and fought bravely and vigorously for him. On the death of Mohammed it was expected that Ali, who had married Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, would succeed to the caliphate, but he only reached that office on the murder of Othman, the third caliph, in 656. His caliphate was very stormy and full of wars, due to the opposition of Aisha, the young widow of Mohammed, and her party, chief among whom stood Muawiyah, the commander of Syria. At the battle of the Camel, fought at Basra in 656, Aisha was captured, and later Muawiyah was met at the battle at Sitlin. On the 22d of January, 661, Ali was attacked by three members of the Kharijite sect, and murdered at Kufa. Near this city he was buried, and when later a monument was raised to his memory, so many pilgrims came that it became the centre of a city, Masjid Ali. After his death his followers formed themselves into a sect called the Shiite, which numbers about fifteen millions, scattered in Irak, Syria, Afghanistan, India, and in the neighborhood of Medina. Persia is a decidedly Shiite country, while Turkey is Sunnite. The Fatimides, who reigned in Egypt, were believed to be the descendants of Ali and Fatima. Ali was noted for his great knowledge and wisdom. Fleischer published Ali's Hundert Sprüche (“Hundred Maxims”) in the Arabic and Persian texts, with a translation (Leipzig, 1837). The Diwan was published by Kuypers (Leyden, 1745), and later at Bulak in 1840. Some of the maxims and poems attributed to Ali, of course, may be genuine, but the majority of them bear traces of later composition. Consult Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, Vol. I., pp. 43-44 (Weimar, 1898).
A'LIAS. A name other than his true and proper name by which a person passes or is known. The phrase (Lat. alias dictus, otherwise called) from which the term is derived was formerly employed in indictments and pleadings to render absolutely certain the description of the individual intended by adding his fictitious or assumed name. In order to constitute an alias, the name so described need not be assumed for purposes of deception or from any improper motive. Stage names, pseudonyms, and even nicknames, are properly comprehended under the term. But a name which has, by legal process, been assumed in lieu of one's original name, is not an alias. See Name.
ALI BABA, a'le b-i'ba. The hero of the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. He is a poor forester, who accidentally learns the magic formula which opens the door to a robbers' cave. In
