A L E 



oi\'n engagements and of their ferviccs. The threats of the 

 l.aliiii cuiicurrccl with the ihffhtibfaflion of the Grctks in 

 exciting a tumult among tlic people ; of which a prince of 

 the houfe of Ducas, iurnumed Moiir/.oufle, perridioafly 

 avjlled liimfclf to caufe a vacancy of the throne. Alexius, 

 hurried hy the arts of this falfe friend into a prifon, was 

 fcizcd, dripped and loaded witii chuir.s ; and, after lading 

 fnme days the bittemefs of death, he was poifoncd, or 

 ftrangled, or beaten witli chihs, A. D. 12C4. The emperor 

 Ifaac Angelus foon followed his fon to the grave ; if, indeed, 

 he furvived his death. Anc. Un. Hift. vol. xv. p. 168. 

 Gibbon's Hift. vol. xi. p. 225. 



Ale^cius V. Di'CAs, funiamed MoiirzauJIi!, on account 

 of the clofe junction of his black and Ihaggy eye-brows, was, 

 according to Ducange, fecond coufni of young Alexius, 

 whom he betraved and dethroned, and fucceeded to the em- 

 pire on his death. The people having advanced him to the 

 throne, he found it necefiary to prepare for the defeiice of 

 the metropolis of the empire. The princcs of the Cnifade 

 renewed their claims, and pitying tlie fate of Alexius, the 

 late emperor, to which, indeed, they themfelves had con- 

 tributed, refolved to revenge his death. Accordingly they 

 muilcred all their forces in Afia, croflTed the Straits, fnd 

 clofely bcfieged the Imperial city, both by fea and h'.nd. 

 Mourzoufle, who was a man of warlike valour and expe- 

 rience, made a vigorous defence ; but in a notlurnal aiTault, 

 he was overpowered ; the city was taken and pluade ,•''.. and 

 the capture of it was attended with a dreadful (laughter. 

 The emperor made his efcape in the night with Euphri,fyi:e, 

 the wife of the late ufurper Alexius Angelus, and her 

 daughter Eudoxia, for w'hofe fake he had abandoned his 

 kwful wife. This happened, A. D. 1204. Mourz.nifle 

 fought an afylum in the camp of his father Alexius in 

 Thrace, and was at firft received with fmiles and honours ; 

 but as the wicked can never love, and (hould rarely truft, 

 their fello-.v-criminals, he was feized in the h ith, deprived of 

 his eyes, ftripped of his troops and treafures, and turned 

 out to wander an objeft of horror and contempt to thofe 

 who with more propriety could hate, and with more juflice 

 could punidi, the alTainn of the emperor Ifaac and his fon. 

 As he was privately pafiingover into Afia, he was feized by 

 the Latins of Conftantinople, and condemned, after an open 

 trial, for the murder of young Alexius, to an ignominious 

 death. His judges, having debafed the mode of his exe- 

 cution, refolved, that he fhould afcend the Theodofian 

 column, a pillar of white marble, 147 feet high, and be caft 

 down headlong from its fummit, and dafhed in pieces on the 

 pavement, in the prefence of a great multitude of fpeilators. 

 Anc. Un. Hid. vol. xv. p. 169. Gibbon's Hid. vol. xi. p. 

 225, 2J2, &c. 



ALEYN, Charles, an elegant hidorical poet, in the 

 reign of king Charles I., was educated at Sidney college, 

 Cambridge, and afterwards fettled as ufher in a grammar 

 fchool in London. In i6j!i he publiflied two poems, en- 

 titled, " The Battailes of Crefl'ey and Poidtiers, under the 

 fortunes and valour of king Edward III. of that name, and his 

 fonne Edward, prince of Wales, named the Black." Having 

 left the fchool in which he was uiher, \\c. was domeftic tutor 

 to the fon of Sir Edward Sherburne, afterwards clerk of the 

 ordnance and commidary general of the artillery to king 

 Charles, at the battle of Edgehill. In this fituation he 

 wrote another elaborate poem, in honour of king Henry VII, 

 and that important battle which gained him the crown of 

 Encrland. This poem was publidicd in 163S, and entitled, 

 " The hiftorie of that wife and fortunate priuee Henrie, of 

 that name the fcventh, king of England ; with that famed 



A L F 



battaile, fought between the faid king Henrie and Richard 

 III., named crook-back, upon Redraore, near Boiworth." 

 He died about the year 1 640 ; before which time he pub- 

 liflied a tranflation, " The Hidor}' of Eurialus and Lucrc- 

 tia," from a dory found among the Latin epidles of 

 ./Eneas Svlvius. Biog. Brit. 



ALE'/ONNE, in Ccop-aphy. See Alesonnk. 



ALFABUCELIS, in ^Indent Geogmphy, a place of 

 Italy, adigned by Ptolemy to the Marli. 



ALEACAR, in Geography, a town of Spain, five miles 

 north-eaft of Grenada. 



ALEANDEGA da Fe, a fmalldidria of Portugal, iu 

 the province of Traz-oz Montes, cor.taining 15 paridies. 



ALFANDIGA, the name of the cudom-houfe at 

 Liibon. 



ALFAQJ^ES, among the Spanidi Morifcoes, were the 

 clergy, or ihofe who indructed them in the Mahometan 

 fa th. The alfaques difi'ered fi-om the Morabites, who aa- 

 fwered to monks, or religious, among Chriftians. 



ALF.^QUES, or Alfacqj, in Geography, a fea-port 

 town of Spain, in the province of Catalonia, on the coad 

 of the Mediten-anean, fituate on an ifland of the fame 

 name at the mouth of the Ebro, three leagues fouth of 

 Tortofa. 



ALFAQUES, a town of Africa, in the kingdom of 

 Tunis. 



AL-FARABI, or Abu Nasr, in Biography, a native 

 of Balch Farab, a town of Afia Minor, called by the Turks 

 Otrar, was a celebrated philofopher of the fchool of Bagdad, 

 and flourillied in the loth century. His parents were opulent, 

 but he preferred the ftudy of philofophy to the acquifition 

 or poffeffion of affluence. He dudied mathematics and me- 

 dicine, but chiefly excelled in logic. Such were his talents 

 and learning, that great men and princes were emulous to 

 confer upon him honours and emoluments. But Al-Farabi 

 declined every offer of this kind, and preferred, either 

 through his love of philofophy or from a natural gloominefs 

 of temper, folitude, and an abdemious life. During 

 winter, he condantly flept on draw, his countenance was 

 always forrowful, and he found confolation in nothing but 

 philofophy. Lamenting the imperfection and vanity of 

 human life, and dreading intercourfe witli the world as de- 

 dructive of innocence, he employed his time in dudy, and 

 devoted his whole attention to the perufal of the writings of 

 Ariftotle. He wrote 60 didinft treatifes on the Aridotelian 

 philofophy, which were popular and much read among the 

 Arabians, and alfo among the Jews. Many of his books 

 were tranflated from Ambic into Hebrew. The fubjefts 

 on which he principally treated were logic, mctaphyfics, 

 and phyfics. Among his writings on the lalt of thefe fubjefts 

 are mentioned treatiles on optics and adronomy. Abulf. 

 Dyn. ix. p. 208. Pococke, p. 372. Fabric. Bib. Gr. vol. 

 xiii. p. 265. Brucker's Hid. Philof. by Enfield, vol. ii. 



P- 239- 



ALFARO, in Geographv, a town of Spain, in the pro- 

 vince of Old Cadile, on the fouth fide of the Ebro, and on 

 the borders of Navarre, nine miles north-wed of Tudela. 



ALFAS, fmall idands of the Red Sea, over againd the 

 wed fide of Ambia Felix. They are only inhabited occa- 

 fionally by the Moors, who come thither from other idands 

 for the fake of the pearl fiihery. N. lat. 17° 10'. E. long. 



45° 44'- 



ALFATERNA, \n Ancient Geography. SeeNoCERA. 



ALFAYATES, in Geography, a town of Portugal, in the 



province of Beira, fituate on an eminence, near the confines 



of Spain, is walled and guarded, but contains only one 



I paridi. 



