SAKER SALAMANCA. 



75 



English from the tune of Henry II. until it was 

 conquered by Charles V. It now forms the de- 

 partment of the Lower Charente. The capital, 

 Saintes, with 10,300 inhabitants, contains some 

 fine remnants of ancient architecture. 



SAKER; a name formerly used for a small 

 species of cannon. See Cannon. 



SAKHARA; the necropolis of ancient Memphis, 

 from whose ruins it is about two miles distant, on 

 the edge of the Libyan desert. It is remarkable 

 for its ancient monuments, among which are thirty 

 pyramids, besides the ruins of a great number, and 

 numberless grottoes, sarcophagi, the ibis-catacombs, 

 &c. 



SALACINE. M. Leroux, a Frenchman, ex- 

 tracted this principle from willow bark, and pre- 

 sented a memoir * on it to the French academy in 

 1830. He recommends it as a febrifuge instead of 

 quinine, and cases of cures with it have since been 

 reported. Salacine (thus called by M. Leroux) is 

 in the form of very fine nacreous white crystals, 

 very soluble in water and alcohol, but not in ether. 

 It is in a high degree bitter. 



SALADIN, OR SALAHEDDIN YUSEPH 

 BEN AYUB, a celebrated sultan of Egypt and 

 Syria, was born, in the year 1137, in the castle of 

 Tecnib, of which his father, a native of Curdistan, 

 was governor. In 1 168, he was chosen to succeed 

 his uncle Siracouh in the command of the armies of 

 the Fatimite caliph Adhed, or rather of the sultan 

 Noureddin, his immediate superior. He terminated 

 the dynasty of the Fatimite caliphs of Egypt (1 171), 

 at the command of Noureddin, and subsequently 

 endeavoured to supersede the minor son of Noured- 

 din himself, but did not succeed until after his 

 death (1174), when he was recognised sultan of 

 Syria and Egypt by the caliph of Bagdat. The 

 great object both of his religion and his politics was 

 how to expel the Christians from Palestine, and to 

 recover the city of Jerusalem. An atrocious mas- 

 sacre of Mohammedan pilgrims by the French lord 

 du Chatillon, added still more to his ardour; and 

 his vow of revenge against the perpetrator he was 

 enabled to make good by his famous victory on the 

 plain of Tiberias, in 1187, where he captured Guy 

 de Lusignan with the chieftain Chatillon (whom 

 he cut down after the battle with his own scimi- 

 tar), and many more. The fruits of this victory 

 were the towns of Acre, Said, and Barout; after 

 which, he laid siege to Jerusalem, which yielded 

 (1187), in a capitulation, to the articles of which 

 Saladin faithfully adhered. He then proceeded 

 against Tyre, but failed, in consequence of the 

 destruction of his fleet by the Franks. The intelli- 

 gence of the loss of Jerusalem reaching Europe, 

 produced the crusade under the emperor Frederic 

 Barbarossa (see Frederic}, whose death inspired 

 the Mussulman with hopes which were soon damped 

 by the arrival of the forces of Richard Coeur-de- 

 Lion of England, and of Philip Augustus of France. 

 The recovery of Acre by the two kings took place 

 in 1191 ; upon which event Philip returned to 

 France, and Richard, after twice defeating the 

 sultan, took Caesarea and Jaffa, and spread alarm 

 as far as Jerusalem. At length a truce was con- 

 cluded between Richard and Saladin, by the 

 terms of which the coast from Jaffa to Tyre was 

 ceded to the Christians, whilst the rest of Palestine 

 remained to the sultan. The departure of Richard 

 freed Saladin from his most formidable foe. This 



Messrs Gay-Liissac and Magendi reported yery favourably 

 on this memoir to tp academy. 



active and able prince soon after died at Damascus 

 (in 1 193), in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Though 

 chargeable with unjustifiable means of acquiring 

 power, Saladin employed it, when obtained, usefully 

 for his subjects, whose burdens he lightened, whilst 

 he benefited them by many useful works and estab- 

 lishments. Magnificent in his public undertakings, 

 he was frugal in his personal expenses. In religion 

 he was zealous for his creed almost to fanaticism, 

 but faithful to his engagements. A lasting proof 

 of the terror which his name inspired, was given 

 by the Saladin Tenth, imposed by the authority of 

 pope Innocent X. on clergy and laity, for the sup- 

 port of the holy war. Saladin left a family of 

 seventeen sons and one daughter, and was the 

 founder of the dynasty of the Ayoubites. 



SALAMANCA; capital of a province of Spain, 

 in the southern part of the kingdom of Leon. It 

 is in a picturesque and agreeable situation on the 

 Tormes, which is here crossed by a stone bridge, 

 half of which is of Roman workmanship; lat. 41 

 5' N.; Ion. 5 10' W. ; one hundred and twelve 

 miles north-west of Madrid; population, 13,920, 

 exclusive of the students and religious. It is badly 

 built, with narrow, crooked, and dirty streets, but 

 has some handsome squares, of which the Plaza 

 Mayor, where bull-fights are exhibited in June, is 

 one of the finest in Spain. There are here twenty- 

 five parish churches and thirty-seven convents. 

 The numerous churches, with their works of sculp- 

 ture and painting, are described in Ponz's Viage de 

 Espana. The cathedral is a magnificent Gothic 

 edifice, begun in 1513, and completed in 1734: it 

 presents great inequalities and disproportions. The 

 old church, built in the twelfth century, has several 

 interesting monuments ; and in a chapel belonging 

 to it, the mass is said according to the Mozarabic 

 manner. The Jesuits' college, built in 1614, is one 

 of the most splendid which the order possessed in 

 Spain, and, since their abolition in 1798, it has 

 been, in part, occupied as a theological seminary. 

 The university buildings consist of two divisions 

 separated by a street, the escuelas menores, and the 

 university, properly so called, or escuelas mayores, 

 in which are the theological, law, medical, philoso- 

 phical, philological, &c., lecture rooms. The uni- 

 versity was founded in the thirteenth century, by 

 Alphonso IX. of Leon; and, in 1239, Ferdinand III. 

 united with it the Castilian university of Palencia. 

 (See Davila's Historia de Salamanca.} Its repu- 

 tation extended through Europe, and, at the end 

 of the sixteenth century, it had, according to 

 Medina (Grandezas de Espana}, 7000 students; 

 but with the decline of literature in Spain, in the 

 seventeenth century, it sank to a very low condi- 

 tion. According to Hassel, the number of students, 

 in 1827, was but 418. There are also some other 

 institutions for education at Salamanca. The banks 

 of the Tormes, and the country to the west of 

 Salamanca, were the scene of an engagement 

 between the British under Wellington, and the 

 French under Marmont, July 22, 1812. The 

 French had abandoned the place, on the first attack 

 by the allied Portuguese and British forces, June 

 16. Meanwhile, Marmont, having received rein- 

 forcements, advanced against the British; and, 

 after various movements, the object of which was 

 to cut them off from Ciudad Rodrigo and Sala- 

 manca, the battle took place in the narrow space 

 on the Tormes. The French commander had 

 formed his plan of attack judiciously, but incau- 

 tiously extended his left wing too much an error 



