B E J 



170 



B E J 



plain so fertile, that it it siid to produce more than a million 

 of bushel'! of wheat yearly, besides a great quantity of oil. 

 vine, ami fruit. The iown'is almost circular, and surrounded 

 by walla of Moorish and Portuguese construction. It has 

 an old castle, in the opinion of Murphy one of the liest in 

 the kingdom ; a good square, in which is tho town-house ; 

 and regular streets, with Rood bouses, inhabited by the rich 

 ritizens. The principal buildings are the convent of San 

 Francisco, and the Casa dc Miserirordia, or charity house. 

 The merit of these buildings, however, cannot be very great, 

 tu Murphy does not so much as mention them. Beja is tin- 

 Heat of a bishop, and of the civil authorities of tho district. 

 It contains four parishes, and 10,422 inhabitants. It is 

 about 90 miles south-east of Lisbon, in 38 J 5' N. lat., and 

 r 40' VV. long. 



The city of Beja is of very great antiquity. It was a 

 Roman colony under the name of Pax Julia. The original 

 :ood at a short distance east of the present Beja. It 

 was in the possession of the Moors from 717 to 1 165, when 

 Alonso, the first king of Portugal, wrested it from their 

 hands. The chief part of the present city was built by 

 Alonso III., and the castle was constructed under his son 

 Dora Deniz. Many valuable relics of Pax Julia have been 

 dug out at different times, winch are preserved in the mu- 

 Bum of antiquities at Evora. (Minano; Murphy's Travels 

 in Pnrtugai.) 



BEJA, or BOJA, an African people who inhabit a tract 

 of country north of Abyssinia, and between the Mareb and 

 the Red Sea to the south of the port of Suakirn. Mr. Salt 

 says the country of the Boja is two days' journey north of 

 Hamazen, which is the most northern district of Abyssinia, 

 and that they are partially under the inlluenceof the Nayib 

 of Mnsiowa and of a Christian chief, the natives being half 

 Musselmans and half Christians. Farther north-west, to- 

 wanls the Mareb, is a people called Tokue, who, in all pro- 

 bability, are the same as the Tokaeou, mentioned in the 

 Axuni inscription as being at that time subject to the king 

 of Axum. That inscription refers to nn expedition sent by 

 Aei/anns, king of the Axumites, Homerites, &c., who 

 reigned about the middle of the fourth century, against the 

 revolted Bougaeitto, the modern Boja. [See AXUM.] 



Mr. Salt places to the cast of the Beja, and near the coast 

 of the Red Sea. north of Arkeeko, another people, whom he 

 calls Bekla. Ibn '1 Wardi, an Arabian geographer who 

 wrote about the thirteenth century, and is quoted by Salt in 

 the Appendix, snys, 'the Bujja, or Boja, are the merchants 

 of Halicih to the north, their country being between Habesh 

 and Nuba ;' and he describes them as black, naked, and 

 worshippers of idols, but he adds that 'many Arabs of the 

 tribe of Raben Ibn Nn/zar have connected themselves wilh 

 these people, and intermarried with them.' This seems to 

 show that the Beja, or Boja, were originally an African 

 race, and became intermixed with Arab blood, and gradually 

 and partially adopted the profession of Islamism. Bruce 

 the Beja speak a dialect of the Geez. Ibn '1 Wardi 

 spvaks of a mine of go'd, probably the Jebel Dyab, and 

 poM sand.s in the country of the Boja, in the valley of 

 Allaki (the modern Salaka). the collecting of the gold con- 

 stituting the chief support of tho natives. In describing 

 the land of Aidhab (now called Gidid, or Ras Gidtd). which 

 was tht-n a much-frequented harbour on the Red Sea, to 

 the north of StiaUim, he says, 'a governor from the Bujja 

 presides over it, and another from the sultan of Egypt, who 

 divide the revenues between them. The duty of the go- 

 vernor from Egypt is to provide supplies, and the governor 

 of the Bujja has to guard it from the Habshi,' the people of 

 Hahlx-sh or Abyssinia. It is evident that at the time of 

 Ibn '1 Wardi the Beja were a powerful and widely- extended 

 people, or confederation of tribes, and we have also an ac- 

 count of their sending a largo army, together with the 

 Nubians, to the assistance of the Christians of Oxyrhynchus 

 in Upper Egypt, against the Saracen invaders. (See Ap- 

 pendix to Burckhardl's Nubia.) The Beja and Nuba are 

 bnd i-h-phants in their army. With the Beja 

 were n race of men of gigantic stature, called El Kowad, 

 who came from beyond Suakim. They wore tiger-skins, 

 and had their upper lips pierced with copper rings. Makrizi, 

 also quoted by Burckhardt, gives a long account of the 

 Bnrckhardt himself, in his journey from Berber to 

 Suakim in IS 14, passed through the country of Taka, 

 ' which,' he say*, ' forms part of the country of B'edjn, whose 

 inhabitants are railed Bedjawa, and which extends from 

 Ooz Rodjib on the Atbarn as far southwards as the moun- 



tains of Abyssinia, while to the north the chain of moun 

 tains culk-d Langay marks its boundaries towards the 

 Ui-harye or Bishireen. It includes varum* dc-erls and &} 

 vend hilly districts and valleys, some of which are very 

 fertile. The range of country thus described extends from 

 about 15 to 18 N. lat., and from the right bank of tiie 

 Atbara to the shores of the Red Sea. It is in tln> i 

 that the Mareb must terminate its course, either by ' 

 lost in the sands or by joining tho All 



Some writers (see Make Brun's Geography) have placed 

 the Beja much farther north, among the AbaUde, anil 

 near the port of Habbcsh, at the bottom of the large bay 

 between Ras el Ans and Ras el Gidid, but the proper ] >- 

 cality of the Beja seems now too well ascertained by tho 

 authorities above given to admit of doubt. 



BEJAH, the antient Hydraotes. [See PENJAB.] 



BEJAPORE, a considerable province of the Deccan in 

 Hindustan, lying between 15 and IS" N. lat. and "3 and 

 76 E. long. The province is bounded on the north by 

 Aurungabad, on the east by that province and Beeder, on 

 the south by Canora, and on the west by the Indian Ocean. 

 Its length is about 320 miles, and its average breadth 200 

 miles. 



Towards the west, running parallel with tho coast. :uid at 

 a distance varying from 25 to 60 miles from tho sea, is a 

 range of lofty mountains, forming a continuation of the 

 Ghauts. In these mountains are several fortresses which, 

 aided by their natural position, are of great strength. They 

 are usually built on isolated eminences, the sides of which 

 are either naturally scarped or cut perpendicular for 70 or 

 80 feet below their upper margin, with only one narrow 

 path leading up to the fortress. The passes through tlu-c 

 mountains to the low land of the Concan on the sea-shore 

 are always difficult, and at times are rendered almost im- 

 practicable by the swelling of mountain-streams during the 

 frequent and abundant rains in those high regions. 



The prorince of Bejapore is divided into sixteen district*, 

 viz. : tho Concan (the low ground between the mountains 

 and the sea), Colapoor, Mortizabad, Assodnagur, Bejaporc, 

 Sackur, Raishoor, Mudgul, Gujundeghur, Annagoondy, 

 Bancaporo, Gunduck, Nurgul, A/imnagur, Rycbaiigh, and 

 Darwar. The principal towns of the province are : Bejapore 

 (the capital), Satara, Goa, Bijanagur, Warree, Colapoor, 

 Darwar, Shahnoor, Hoobly, and Meritch. 



The principal rivers in tho province are the Kistna, the 

 Toombudilra, the Becma, and the Gutpurba. 



On the ruin of the Bhamenee empire in this quarter the 

 Adil Shahy dynasty was established in Bejapore in the 

 year 14X9, and the sovereignty of the province was trans- 

 mitted through eight princes, all of whom bore the name or 

 title of Adil Shah. The founder of this dynasty was Alxiu- 

 ul-Adil Shah, and the last of these sovereigns was See-under 

 Adil Shah, who was made prisoner by Aurungzebe in ICS'J, 

 exactly 200 years after the founding of the sovereignty. 



The Emperor Aurung/ebe never obtained quiet posses- 

 sion of Bejapore, and after his death it speedily passed 

 under the sway of the Mahrattas, with whom it remained 

 until 1818, when, on the expulsion of the Pcshwa Bajee 

 Rao, this great province was brought under British govern- 

 ment. On this occasion a treaty was made with the rajah 

 of Sattara, then a minor, assigning to him a small prin- 

 cipality under British protection out of his former dominions, 

 the peshwa, who was actually the sovereign of the province-, 

 having been, nominally, the minister of the rajah. Under 

 the stipulations of this treaty the tract of country which now 

 forms the Sattara dominions was to remain for some time 

 under the management of British oflicurs, to be gradually 

 transferred to the rajah's management, who was still bound 

 to conform generally to the advice of the British resident, 

 and to the British system in (lie collection of his customs' 

 duties. The British government charged itself at the same 

 time with the defence of his territory, and accordingly the 

 rajah's military establishment is entirely regulated by the 

 win of the East India Company, with which he is bound 

 always to act in subordinate co-operation. One of the funda- 

 mental conditions of the agreement on the part of the rajah 

 is the renunciation of all intercourse with foreign powers, a 

 departure from which line of conduct would subject him to 

 the loss of the protection and other advantages which are 

 secured to him by the treaty. The whole of tho stipulated 

 territory was placed under the rajah's management in April, 

 r821, when lie became twenty-one years of age: it yields 

 him an annual revenue to tiie amount of about 20 lues of 



