AL H 



ami I'ome ot!ier of tne principal cupolas, the outward walls 

 of tliK towers arc railed lo ftct above t!ic top of the dome, 

 and fiipport another roof over all, fo tliat no injury can be 

 ccoarioued by wet weather, or exccfTive heat and cold. Fro;n 

 this luiU you pais round the little myrtle garden of Linda- 

 raxa into an additional building conilrudled at the call end 

 by Charles V. His admired motto, " plus outre," ap- 

 pears on every beam. Tliis leads to a little tower, called, El 

 tocailor, or the drefiing-room of the Sultana ; in one corner of 

 which is a large marble flag, penetrated with holes, through 

 which the fmoke ot perfumes afcended from furnaces below; 

 and here, it is fuppofed, the Muorifh queen fumigated and 

 fweetened her perfon. The emperor caufed this room to be 

 painted with reprefentations of his wars, and a variety of 

 groteiques, which appear to be copies or imitations of thofe 

 in the loggie of the Vatican. From hence you go through 

 a long paiTage to the hall of ambalTadors, wiiich is magnifi. 

 cently decorated with innumerable varietie.-, of molaics, and 

 the mottoes of all the kings of Granada. This antichamber 

 opens on the lett hand into the Commuua, and on tl'.e rin-ht 

 into the great audience hall in the tower of Comares, which 

 is a noble apartment, 36 feet fqaarc, 36 higli to the cornice, 

 and 18 from thence to the centre of tiie cupola. Tlic lower 

 i-ange of windows is 13 feet high ; the walls on three (ides 

 are 15 teet thick, and on the other 9. The wliole wall is in- 

 laid with mofaic of many colours, difpofcd in intricate knots, 

 liars, and other figures. In ever)' part various j\rabic fen- 

 tences are repeated. 



The lower floor of the palace confided of bed-chambers 

 and fummer-rooms ; the moll remarkable of which is the 

 king's bed-chamber, which, by means of a gallery, com- 

 municated with the upper llory. The beds were placed in 

 two alcoves upon a railed pavement of blue and white tiles ; 

 but it has been repaired, and probably altered by Philip V. 

 In the midd'e a fountain played for refrefhing the apartment 

 in hot weather. Beiiind the alcoves are fmall doors that lead 

 to the royal baths. Thefe confill of one fmall clofet, with 

 marble cillerns, for wafliing children, two rooms fjr grown- 

 up perfons, and vaults for furnaces and boilers that fupplied 

 the baths with water and the ftoves with vapour. The 

 troughs are formed of large llabs of white marble ; the walls 

 are oinamented with party-coloiu-ed earthen-ware, and light 

 is admitted by holes in the covered cieling. At a fmall dif- 

 tanoe is a whifpering-gallcry, and a kind of labyrinth, faid 

 to have been deligned for the amnfement of women and chil- 

 dren. One of tlic pa.Tages is fenced olT with a ftrong iron 

 grate, and called the Pnfon of the Sullann ; but it was more 

 probably intended for preventing intruders from climbing 

 into the women's quarter. Under the council-room is a long 

 flip, called the King's Sluily ; and adjoining to it are ievtral 

 vaults, faid to be the burial-place of the royal family. In 

 theretrofpeftive view of this tumptuous palace, we need not 

 wonder that the Moors thought of Granada with regret ; 

 and that they fhould (lill offer up prayers eveiy Friday for 

 the recovery of this city, which they regard as a ten-eilrial 

 paradife. 



ALHANDAL, a term in the Arabian Pharmacy, fig- 

 nifying colocyrith. The troches ot alhatidal, trochifri al- 

 hamlal, are a kind of troches, compoftd oi rolorynth, bdellium, 

 and gum tragacanth. The word is lormed of the Arabic han- 

 dnl, or bimdhal, a name for colocyiilh'ts. They are elleemed 

 good purgatives, and are ufed on divers occafions. 



ALHANDRA,inG«;5-r/7/>Aj,alownof Portugal, in Eftre- 

 madura, containing two parilhcs, and about 1 350 inhabitants. 



ALHANGA, a fmall town of Spain, in Eftremadura, 

 belonging to the order of St. Jago, feated on an eminence, 

 and dvfended by a ftrong callle ilanding on a rock. 



Atn 



ALHAUR, a river of Afia, whicli runs into the Sakka* 

 ria, eight miles fouth of Ameria. 



ALHAUS, a town of PrufCa, four miles foulh of 

 Culm^ 



AlvHAZEN, in Biography, a learned Arabian, lived in 

 Spain about the clofe of the I ith, or beginning of the iztb 

 century; though Montucla fays, that it is not known what 

 was the precife period in which he lived. lie wrote a trca- 

 tile on allrology ; and another on optics, which was printed 

 in Latin in the Thefaurus Optica; of Kifuer, in 1572. In 

 this optical treatile he gives a tolerable defcription of the 

 eye, and difcourfes largely concerning the nature of vifion ; 

 maintaining that the cryllalline humour is the mod import- 

 ant organ for this purpoic, without confidering it a.i a lens, 

 ami alli-rting thatviiion is not completed till the ideas of cxter- 

 nal objefts are conveyed by the optic nerves to the brain. He 

 accounts for fimple vifion with tvo eyes, by fuppofing, th;:t 

 wlieu two corrcfponding parts of the retina are aft'ecled, the 

 mind perceives but one image ; and he treats very difiufcly 

 of optical deceptions, botli in direct vilion, and alfo in vi- 

 fion by reflecled and refracled light. Alliazen purfued his 

 enquiries into the nature of refraftion mucFi further, and with 

 greater fucccfs, than the more ancient writers. He deduces 

 irom experimental and general reafoning fevcral properties of 

 atmofpherical refradlion, obferving, that it increafes the alti- 

 tudes of all celellial objects ; and he was the firll who ad- 

 vanced the notion, that the liars are fometimes feen above 

 the horizon by means of refraftion, when they are really 

 below it. He alfo obferved, that refraction contracts the 

 diameters anddillances of the heavenly bodies, and that it is 

 the caufe of the twinkling of the liars. 



Alhazen fuppofed, that the refraftion of the atmofphere 

 did not depend upon its vapours, but upon its different tranf- 

 parency, that is, as Montucla underflands his meaning, the 

 dei'.fity of the grofs air contiguous to the earfli, and the a-ther 

 or fubtle air that lies beyond it. In examining the eftedts 

 of refrattion, he endeavours to prove that it is fo far from 

 being the caufe of the heavenly bodies appearing larger near' 

 the horizon, that it would make them appear lets ; two liars, 

 he fays, appearing nearer togctlier in the liorizon than near 

 the meridian. This phenomenon he ranks among optical 

 deceptions. We judge, fays he, of diilani---j, by cumiiaring 

 the angle under which objects appear with thrir fuppofed 

 diflance ; fo that if thefe angles be neaj-ly equal, and the dif- 

 tance of one objett be conceived to be greater than tl:at of the 

 other, it will be imagined to be the larger : And lie adds^ 

 that the ll<y near the horizon is always imagined to be farther 

 from us than any other part of tlie concave furface. In the 

 writings of Alhazen, we find the firll dillind account of the 

 Tiiagnifying power of glaifes, and he probably fuggellld the 

 hints which led to the ufeful invention of fpettaclts ; for, he 

 fays, that if an object be applied clofe to tlie bafc of a larger 

 fegment of glafs, it will appear magnified ; he alfo treats of 

 the appearance of an objeCt through a globe, and favs, that 

 he was the firll that found out the refraction of rays into the 

 eye. Alhazen's optics were much illullr.ited by Viiellio in a 

 trcatife publifhed in 1270. Smith's Optics, Remarks, 



§ 89. p. 15. Priellley's Hill, of Vifion, &S. 1772. p. 17 • 



20. Montucla's Hill, des Mathem. tom. i. p. 367. 



ALHEN, in Botanyf a name by which Dr. Shaw and 

 others have called a genus of plants, fince named by Lin- 

 nxus Lawsonia. Sec Ai.camna. 



ALHIDADE, or Alibade, the index or label of an 

 allronomical or geometrical inllrument, for taking of heights' 

 or di (lances. The word is Arabic, and it lignii'.es the lame 

 thing. In Greek and Latin it is called liitno-^, ilioplra, and 

 liiieaJiJiuis,Jidu<ial Hue, The alhkhnU is a kind of nilcr,' 



moveable 



