THE 



ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA. 



A 



ABBOT, JOSEPH HALE, A. A. S., a distin- 

 guished scientist, philologist, and teacher, born 

 at Wilton, X. II., September 2fi, 1802; died in 

 Cambridge, Mass., April 7, 1873. He was de- 

 scended in a collateral line from the same stock 

 with Captain Nathan Hale, of Revolutionary 

 memory. He graduated from Bowdoin Col- 

 lege in 1822, was a tutor in that college from 

 1825 to 1827, and from 1827 to 1833 was Pro- 

 fessor of Mathematics and teacher of modern 

 languages in Phillips Academy, Exeter, X. II. 

 For several years following be taught a school 

 for young ladies in Boston, and subsequently 

 was principal of the high-school in Beverly, 

 Mass. He early became an active member, 

 and was for several years recording secretary, 

 of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences, to whose "Transactions" he contrib- 

 uted numerous papers of a scientific charaod-r; 

 he paid much attention to the solving of pneu- 

 matic and hydraulic problems, and published 

 several ingenious and original speculations on 

 questions connected therewith. In the " Ether 

 Controversy," he warmly espoused the claims 

 of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, and wrote an elo- 

 quent and earnest defense of them. He also 

 assisted Dr. Worcester in the preparation of 

 his great English Dictionary, contributing 

 many of the scientific definitions. During tin' 

 last few months of his life he had suffered 

 from paralysis. 



ABb-EL-KADEPv, SII>I-EI.-KAI>JI ULKnM\- 

 ninms, an Arab prophet, reformer, and mili- 

 tary chieftain, born in 1807, in the suburbs of 

 Mascara, in the territory of the Hashems, in 

 what is now claimed as a part of the French 

 province of Algeria ; died in Egypt, in Novem- 

 ber, 1873. II.- WHS of noble birth, his father, 

 Siili-el-Mahicldin, being a venerable and vener- 

 ated saint, or marabout, of the province of Oran, 

 and a lineal descendant of the Arabian Proph- 

 et. Malii'Min aM>-i| to bis religions duties the 

 instruction of promising youths in Arabic sci- 

 TOL. xin. 1 A 



ence, and in the knowledge of the Koran, and 

 in his father's guttna, or seminary, the young 

 Abd-el-Kader, and his three brothers, were 

 ediK-ated. The boy possessed remarkable in- 

 telligence and precocity of intellect, and even 

 in early childhood could explain the most diffi- 

 cult passages of the Koran. As he grew up, 

 he distinguished himself by his eloquence and 

 his thorough knowledge of his nation's history, 

 as well as by his fervor in all religious exer- 

 cises, and at the dawn of manhood ho was 

 hailed by his fellow-countrymen as both mara- 

 bout and thaleb, or saint and scholar. Mean- 

 while, he had not neglected those manly sports 

 in which Arabian youths were wont to in- 

 dnl-,'1-, and in the whole province of Oran there 

 was no more skillful horseman and no more 

 adroit swordsman than Abd-el-Kader. These 

 high qualities of character and attainment won 

 him the envy and hatred of the Dey of Algiers, 

 who sought to assassinate him. Apprised of 

 his peril, he fled with his father to Egypt, 

 where he was for the first time brought in 

 contact with European civilization. Thence 

 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and visited 

 the tomb of his illustrious ancestor the Proph- 

 et. After some years of exile ho returned, 

 to find his old enemy deposed, the Turkish 

 power overthrown, and the coast in the hands 

 of the French. The Arabs of the province 

 of Oran deemed this a good opportunity to 

 reconquer their independence, and, under the 

 lead of the venerated Mahiddin and his gal- 

 lant son, now a yonth of twenty-four years, 

 they rose upon the Turks, expelled them from 

 the province, and occupied Mascara, making it 

 their capital. The grateful Arabs would have 

 made Mahiddin their king, but, with a father's 

 pride, he turned their choice to his son, who 

 became thenceforth their chosen leader, and 

 with each succeeding month extended his do- 

 main farther and farther toward the desert, 

 till he had gathered nnder his banner all the 



