ABINGTON, FRANCES. 



ABU-BEKR. 



28 



wife of Lord Campbell, was created a peeress in 1836 by the title of 

 Baroness Stratheden. 



Lord Abinger was a skilful and dexterous rather than an eloquent 

 advocate, and while on the bench he was more distinguished for the 

 clearness with which he summed up a case to a jury than for the pro- 

 foundness or subtlety of his legal views. Yet he was considered also 

 a sound and good lawyer. In the great art of gaining verdicts he was 

 unrivalled ; and no practitioner at the bar had ever before received so 

 large a sum in fees in any year as he drew in the height of his practice. 

 His conduct as attorney-general under the Tories in 1829, when he 

 filed a number of criminal informations against the opposition news- 

 papers, naturally exposed him to some severe animadversions from 

 those who still continued attached to the more democratic political 

 creed which he had originally been accustomed to profess. 



(Gent. Mag. for June, 1844.) 



ABINGTON, FRANCES, was born in 1731, or, according to some, 

 in 1738. Her maiden name was Barton, and her father, although of 

 respectable descent, is said to have been only a common soldier. Early 

 in life she obtained her livelihood by running on errands, and one of 

 her places happening to be at a French milliner's, she soon contrived 

 to pick up the language. She was afterwards a dower-girl in St. 

 James's Park, London. Her first appearance on the stage was as 

 Miranda in the ' Busy Body,' at the Haymarket Theatre, on August 21st, 

 1755. Not making much impression on the public, she went to Dublin, 

 previously to which she was married to Mr. Abington, who had become 

 known to her as her music-master, and from whom she separated in a 

 few months. At Dublin she made her first step to fame, as Kitty, in 

 ' High Life below Stairs,' which was brought out for the benefit of 

 Tate Wilkinson, who has left an animated account of her great success. 

 The more fashionable theatre in Crow-street was soon deserted for the 

 obscure house in Smock Alley; the head-dress that Mrs. Abiugton 

 wore was copied by every milliner, and the "Abington cap" in a;few 

 days figured in ev;ry shop window, and on the head of every lady 

 who had any pretensions to fashion. Mrs. Abington continued a first- 

 rate favourite at both the Dublin theatres until her return to England, 

 in 1765, when she was warmly welcomed by Garrick. In a few seasons, 

 by the retirement of Mrs. Pritchard and Mrs. Clive, the field was left 

 open to her, and she quickly became the first comic actress of her 

 day ; a station which she long retained. Her last public appearance 

 was on the 12th of April, 1799. She died at her house in Pall Mall, 

 London, 4th March, 1815. She left a legacy to each of the theatrical 

 funds. 



ABLANCOURT, PERROT NICOLAS D', one of the most esteemed 

 French translators of the classic authors in the 17th century, was 

 born at Chalous-sur-Marne, in Champagne (now in the department of 

 Marne), in 1606, and died at Ablancourt in November, 1664. Ablau- 

 court commenced his career at the bar, but quitted it almost imme- 

 diately for literary pursuits ; and at the same time abandoned the 

 Protestant creed, in which he had been brought up. He returned 

 however to bis first belief; for six years afterwards he studied with 

 the deepest attention, under the learned Stuart for three years, at the 

 end of which time he abjured the Roman faith, and immediately 

 after retired into Holland, to be near the learned Saumaise, and enjoy 

 the society of that famous scholar ; perhaps also to let the scandal of 

 his second abjuration die away. From Holland he repaired to England, 

 and thence to Paris, where he became intimately acquainted with Patru, 

 one of the moat celebrated writers and distinguished lawyers of that 

 day, aud also with other eminent literary characters. In 1637 he was 

 received a member of the French Academy, and gave his whole atten- 

 tion to the translation of the works of Tacitus; but being eoon 

 obliged to quit Paris on account of the war which broke out, he went 

 to reside at his seat at Ablancourt, in Champagne, for the remainder 

 of his life, with the exception of the time he spent in Paris during 

 the printing of his works. Of his numerous translations, those most 

 known are, the whole of Tacitus, of which there have been ten 

 editions; four orations of Cicero; Ctesar; the Wars of Alexander, 

 by Arrian the most esteemed of bis translations as regards) the style ; 

 Thucydides ; the Anabasis of Xenophon ; and an imitation, rather 

 than a translation, of Lucian. During his life he appears to have been 

 held in general estimation as a translator, but his versions are very far 

 from accurate, and are now obsolete. 



In 1C62 Colbert proposed him to Louis XIV. as the historian of his 

 reign, but Louis would not have a Protestant to commemorate its 

 events. However, he did not deprive him of his pensiou of 120/. per 

 annum, which had been granted to him as hUtoriogapher. Ablan- 

 court's life was written by his friend Patru. 



ABRAHAM (originally Abram), the great ancestor and founder of 

 the Jewish nation, and the first depositary of the divine promises in 

 favour of the chosen people. He was the ion of Terab, the eighth in 

 descent from Sbrra, the eldest son of Noah, and was born probably at 

 Ur, a town of Chajdsea, about 2000 years before the Christian, era. 

 Hi* history occupies about a fourth part of the book of Genesis, 

 namely, from tlie llth to the 25th chapters inclusive. Having mar- 

 ried Sarah (originally Sarai), the daughter of his brother Haran, he 

 accompanied his father and his nephew Lot to Haran, where Terah 

 died ; and then, at the command of God, taking Lot along with him, 

 he left Harun, and proceeded towards the south till he reached the 

 plain of Moreh, in Canaan. The epoch of the commencement of this 



journey, which happened when he was 75 years old, is called by chro- 

 nologists the Call of Abraham. Soon after, a famine forced the 

 patriarch to make a journey into Egypt, from which country, when 

 he had returned to the place of his abode in Canaan, he found that 

 the increase of his own flocks, and those of his nephew, made it 

 necessary that they should choose separate settlements ; and accord- 

 ingly, by mutual consent, Lot withdrew towards the east, and 

 established himself among the cities in the plain of Jordan, while 

 Abraham removed to the plain of Mamre, in Hebron. He had reached 

 his 99th year, and his wife (who had been hitherto barren) her 89th, 

 when God appeared to him, and declared that there should yet spring 

 from them a great nation a promise which was confirmed by the 

 birth of Isaac the following year. The severe trial of Abraham's 

 faith, in the command given him to sacrifice this beloved son, so 

 beautifully related in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, is familiar to every 

 reader. Some time before this he had given another striking proof of 

 his submission to the divine will and his implicit reliance on the 

 promises of God, in his dismissal of his son Ishruael, whom he had by 

 Hagar, the Egyptian bondwoman, on the assurance of his Heavenly 

 Father, that of him too would he make a nation, because he was the 

 patriarch's seed. The Arabs claim to have sprung from Ishmael, as 

 did the Hebrews from Isaac. After the death of Sarah, at the age of 

 127, Abraham man-led Keturab, and by her had six other sons. The 

 venerable patriarch died at the age of 175, and was buried, by Isaac 

 and Ishmael, in the tomb which contained his first wife in Mamre. 



ABCJ-BEKR, properly called Aldattah-Atik-ben-Abi-Kohafah, but 

 better known under the name of Abu-Bekr (that is, 'Father of the 

 Maiden,' in allusion to his daughter Ayeshah, whom the Arabian 

 prophet married very young), was the first kalif or successor of 

 Mohammed in the government of the new empire founded by him. 

 Mohammed died in A.D. 632, without leaving any male issue. The 

 succession to the sovereignty was at first contested between his father- 

 in-law, Abu-Bekr, and AH-ben-Abi-Taleb, his cousin-german, who was 

 also, through marriage with the prophet's daughter Fatima, his son- 

 in-law. Between the two rivals themselves the dispute was settled 

 without an appeal to arms. Abu-Bekr prevailed, aud AH, though 

 disappointed, submitted to the authority of his successful opponent. 

 But among the Mohammedans the respective claims of the two com- 

 petitors became a point of perpetual controversy, and gave rise to 

 the great division of tbe whole Mohammedan community into Sunnites 

 and Shiites ; the former asserting the right of Abu-Bekr and his two 

 successors, Omar and Othman, while the Shiites condemn these three 

 kalifs as unlawful intruders, and maintain the exclusive right of AH- 

 ben-Abi-Taleb and his lineal descendants to the commandership over 

 the Faithful [ALI-BEX-ABI-TALEB.] 



After the death of Mohammed, only the three important towns of 

 Mecca, Medina, and Tayef declared themselves for Abu-Bekr. It was 

 the first and principal object of the newly-appointed sovereign to 

 establish his authority in the other parts of Arabia, especially iu the 

 countries of Yemen, Tehama, Oman, and Bahrain. In reducing to 

 obedience these refractory provinces, Abu-Bekr was powerfully sup- 

 ported by Omar, afterwards his successor, and especially by Khaled- 

 ben-Walid, a military commander of extraordinary courage and 

 presence of mind. Besides this rebellion of some of its members, the 

 Mohammedan state had to encounter other difficulties from several 

 new pretenders to prophetship. Mosailamah seems to have been the 

 most formidable of these enemies of the Islam. He was however 

 defeated by Khaled, and killed in a battle near Akrabah. This con- 

 flict is memorable on another account. The precepts promulgated 

 at different times by Mohammed had till then been in a great measure 

 preserved by oral tradition, or handed about in fragments written on 

 palm-leaves, or pieces of parchment Many of the personal associates 

 of Mohammed, who were from memory familiar with his doctrine, 

 fell in the war with Mosailamah ; and Abu-Bekr, in order to obviate 

 any future uncertainty about the genuine text of the ordinances, 

 caused all the fragments to be collected, the passages remembered by 

 heart to be written out, and the whole to be embodied in the volume 

 known under the title of the Koran. 



Abu-Bekr, anxious to increase the Mohammedan dominions, dis- 

 patched Khaled into Irak, where he subdued several of the frontier 

 provinces along the Euphrates. Two other commanders, Yezid-ben- 

 Abi-Sofyan and Abu-Obeidah, entered Syria and defeated tbe troops 

 of the Grecian emperor Heraclius. After a decisive victory over a 

 Greek army of 70,000 men, near Ajnaidain, the capture of Damascus 

 by the united forces of Abu-Obeidah and Khaled established the 

 dominion of the Arabs over Syria, and iu fact over the whole country 

 between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. 



On the day of the capture of Damascus (August 23rd, 634) Abu- 

 Bekr died, at the age of 63 years. Not one of his three sons, Abdallah, 

 Abd-al-rahman, and Mohammed, survived him; and in his will he 

 appointed Omar as bis successor. Eastern writers praise the simplicity 

 of his habits and manners, and his disregard of wealth and the luxu- 

 ries or even comforts of life. Every Frulay he distributed all the 

 surplus of his income among such persons as he thought deserving of 

 it. His short reign, of little more than two years, forms an eventful 

 epoch in the history of Mohammedanism ; and oriental authors have 

 vied with one another in recording details about the early conquests 

 of the armies of the Faithful. The volume of the great Arabic 



