AZZARA BABER. 



3G3 



connexion with the painter Mengs, who had entered 

 the service of the king of Spain. A. entered on the 

 career of diplomacy, was sent to pope Clement XIII., 

 as royal agent for ecclesiastical aflairs, highly dis- 

 tinguished himself in this post, and always maintained 

 a great influence in the most important negotiations 

 between his country and the papal court. (See 

 Dohm's Memoirs of Joseph IL and Rome.) In 1796, 

 he was sent to the conqueror of Italy, to obtain his 

 favour towards Rome. Bonaparte immediately con- 

 ceived an esteem for him, and, after this meeting, A. 



always regarded him with admiration. At that time, 

 also, commenced his connexion with Joseph Bona- 

 parte. He went soon after, in a diplomatic charac- 

 ter, to Paris, where the agreeable society and recep. 

 tion which he met with compensated him for the loss 

 of his old friends, of an elegant library, and a rich 

 collection of paintings and antiques. He was sub- 

 sequently recalled, banished to Barcelona, again sent 

 ambassador to Paris, and again deprived ot this im- 

 portant office. His feeble health at last gave way, 

 and he died at Paris, Jan. 26, 1804. 



B 



B ; the second letter in all European alphabets, in 

 Hebrew, and most other languages. It belongs to 

 the mutes and the labials, and, as all labials are easy to 

 be pronounced, b is one of the first letters which chil- 

 dren learn to speak, after they utter a. The first 

 syllable which they pronounce is, generally, ba or pa. 

 The pronunciation of b differs from that of v only in 

 this, that the lips are compressed a little more closely. 

 The difference is so slight, that, in all original lan- 

 guages, a considerable period elapses before the two 

 sounds cease to be used indifferently. In some lan- 

 guages, b continues to be pronounced v. under certain 

 circumstances. In the Spanish, it has this sound 

 between two vowels in the middle of a word, and, 

 generally, when it occurs between a vowel preceding, 

 and an r succeeding it. The modern Greeks pronounce 

 b always v , and represent our sound of b by combining 

 the two letters p, * ; e.g. Boston they write Maw. 

 The languages of the American Indians have few 

 perfect labials, and are, therefore, spoken with an 

 open mouth, and scarcely any motion of the lips. 

 Another letter, into which b is often changed, is , 

 which requires merely a stronger breathing, with the 

 same motion of the lips. In one part of Saxony, the 

 people use p and b indifferently, and, in another 

 part, b is not used at all. Some languages regularly 

 change b into p, under certain circumstances ; as the 

 Latin, when this letter occurs before p ; thus ob is 

 changed into op before ponere (opponere). The 

 German pronounces b, at the end of a word, in- 

 variably p. B is often used as an abbreviation, and 

 its most common meanings are before (as in B. C.), 

 bachelor (as in B. A., B. D., B. L.). Among the 

 Greeks and Hebrews, B signified 2 ; among the 

 Romans, 300 ; with a dasli over it, 3000 ; an J with 

 a sort of accent under it, 200. (See Abbreviations.) 

 In music, b is the designation of the seventh note in 

 the natural diatonic scale of c, to which De Nevers, 

 a French musician, in the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury, is said to have first applied the syllable si. The 

 ancients denoted by b the second interval in their 

 musical scale, beginning with a the only interval, 

 with them, which had two chords differing half a 

 note. The lower one was denoted by a small B, the 

 higher one by a large B. 



BAAL, BEL ; a Babylonian or Phoenician god, the 

 idea of whom has been very much obscured by time, 

 and the imperfection of language. Some believe 

 him to have been a man, the founder of Babylon ; 

 Herodotus calls him the son of Alcaeus ; others make 

 him a Chaldean giant. From the traditions which 

 history has transmitted to us, we might think him to 

 have been an extraordinary man, who founded the 



kingdom of Babylon, and was afterwards deified. 

 Some writers report of him, that he made the land 

 fertile and habitable, connected rivers by canals, and 

 surrounded Babylon with a wall. His son Ninus, the 

 great conqueror, is said to have declared him a god 

 after his death, and to have ordered that divine 

 honours should be paid him. But his worship was 

 not limited to Babylon and Assyria ; we find it 

 among the Persians, Tyrians, and others. Of the 

 manner in which the god Baal was worshipped, we 

 have but imperfect and contradictory statements. 

 Amongst the sacrifices offered to him, the Bible 

 mentions human victims, which, however, is, per- 

 haps, a mere figurative expression, to denote the 

 apostasy from Jehovah to Baal. Besides, the name 

 Baal or Bel, in several Oriental languages, signifies 

 lord, and denotes the dignity of a ruler; e. g., when 

 compounded with several proper names, as Bel-shaz- 

 zar, Hannibal. 



BAALBEK. See Balbek. 



BAAL-ZEBUB. See Beelzebub. 



BAAN, John van ; a Dutch portrait painter, born 

 in 1633 ; died in 1702. He resided some time in 

 England. 



BABEL-MANDKB, or BABELMANDEL (literally, the gate 

 of affliction ; anciently, Dira, or Dira) ; a narrow 

 strait between the Indian ocean and the Red sea, 

 formed by projecting points of Arabia in Asia, and 

 Abyssinia in Africa. It is fifteen miles wide. In the 

 middle is an island, called El Mandel, or Perim, or 

 Me/i tin. It is said to be about five miles in circum 

 ference, barren, and very thinly inhabited. Niebuhr, 

 Bruce, and lord Valentia give an account of these 

 straits and this island. 



BABER, or BABOUR, sultan; the founder of the 

 Mogul dynasty in Hindostan. He was descended 

 from the great Tartar prince Timour, usually called 

 Tamerlane, and was sovereign of Cabul. He attempt- 

 ed the conquest of Samarcand, and, while engaged 

 in an expedition against it, was deprived of his 

 hereditary dominions, and reduced to the utmost 

 extremities, by an invasion of the Usbecks. After 

 more than once recovering his fortunes, when they 

 seemed to be almost desperate, he invaded Hindos- 

 tan, and, in 1525, overthrew and killed sultan 

 Ibrahim, the last Hindoo emperor of the Patan or 

 Afghan race. Another emperor was chosen to op- 

 pose B., who, however, overcame the combination 

 against him, and firmly established himself on the 

 throne. After an active and glorious reign, he died 

 in 1530. This prince wrote an elegant history of 

 his own life, a translation of which has been publish- 

 ed at London. He is said to have been of a vnluptu- 



