a purse or pouch, Deut. xxv, 13; 1 Sam. xvii, 40; Luke xii, 33; Job xiv, 17. The money collected in the treasuries of eastern princes was reckoned up in certain equal sums, put into bags and sealed. These are, in some parts of the Levant, called _purses_, where they estimate great expenses by so many purses. The money collected in the temple in the time of Joash, for its reparation, seems, in like manner, to have been told up in bags of equal value; and these were probably delivered sealed to those who paid the workmen, 2 Kings xii, 10. In the east, in the present day, a bag of money passes, for some time at least, currently from hand to hand, under the authority of a banker’s seal, without any examination of its contents. See Tobit ix, 5; xi, 16.
BAGATELLE is an indoor game, probably derived from the old English shovel-board, described by Cotton in his Compleat Gamester (1674), though many consider that its invention is due to the French. Like billiards, chess, and draughts, its origin is not certainly known; but whatever its genesis, its name is undoubtedly French. Bagatelle games are played on an oblong board, usually from six to ten feet in length, by a foot and a half to three feet in width. The bed of the table, which is ordinarily of slate or mahogany, is covered with fine green cloth; and at the upper end, which is rounded, there are nine holes or cups,, numbered from 1 to 9, thus [table]
Into these holes ivory balls are driven by a cue in all respects similar to the instrument used in Billiards, which see. The sides and circular end of the table are furnished with elastic cushions; and in some of the newer tables there is also a pocket on each side. Nine balls— eight white, and one red or black (sometimes four white, four red, and one black)—are used in the most popular of the several bagatelle games.
The ordinary game is played according to the following rules :—...
1. Any number of persons may play, whether singly or in sides. 2. Each player strings for lead, and he who lodges his ball in the highest hole begins. In the case of partners, one only on each side need string for the lead. 3. The player who wins the lead takes the nine balls and plays them one after the other up the table from baulk, first striking at the red ball which is placed on the spot about a foot below the 1 hole. The object of the player is to lodge his own, or the coloured ball, or both balls, in the holes. 4. The red ball counts double when it is played into a hole; and for each white ball lodged or holed, a corresponding number of points is scored to that marked in the cup. (Sometimes two coloured balls are used, in which case both count double.) 5 The red ball must be first struck, and the remainder of the balls are played up to the holes—the sum total of the holes made being the striker’s score. 6. Any number of rounds may be played for the game, as agreed on at the commencement; and the player (or side) obtaining the highest aggregate score wins. 7. Any ball that rebounds beyond the baulk line, or is forced over the table, is not re-used in that round.
Sans Egal, or the French Game, is the next most generally play·d game on the bagatelle table. It is governed by the following laws :—1. The player who takes the lead (which is decided as in bagatelle) makes choice of four balls of either colour, and placing the black one on the spot, commences by striking it with a ball from baulk. 2. The other player then strikes up one of his balls, and so on alternately, 3. He who holes the black ball counts it towards his game, together with any number made by the whito. 4. If either player hole his adversary’s ball, the number scored by such ball, or balls, is marked to the other side. 5. The player who makes the greatest number of points in each round wins the game, and takes the lead in the next. The rule as to balls rebounding beyond the baulk line, or being forced off the table, is the same as in the preceding game.
The Cannon Game, sometimes played on a table without holes, consists entirely of cannons, that is to say, two balls struck in succession by the cue-ball. This game is played 50, 100, or 150 up, and the holes into which the balls fall are sometimes counted in addition to the cannon. Three balls only are used—a white, a spot-white, and a black ball. At starting the latter is placed on the spot, and the adversary’s ball on a point equi-distant between the first and centre holes, 1 and 9, If the striker make a cannon, he goes on as long as he can score, but no hole can be counted without first making the cannon. To miss the white involves the loss of 1 point; and to miss the black ball, 5 points. The striker’s break is ended when he fails to cannon, and then the other player goes on,—he who first gains the required number winning the game. When there are pockets to the table, two points are taken for every white ball pocketed, and three points for the red. Should the player’s ball fall into a pocket before he make the cannon, the score is taken by the opponent. In the Irish Cannon Game the holes do not count, except by way of penalty; all points made by holing the balls being added to the score of the adversary. Sometimes, in both the cannon games two points are taken for a cannon from white to white and then to red, and three for a cannon from white to red and then to white; or, when two coloured balls are used, three points are taken for a cannon from the black to the red. Lately, bagatelle tables as much as 14 feet long by 6 feet wide have been made for the cannon game.
Mississippi is a game played on a bagatelle table with a bridge pierced with arches, each arch bearing a certain number—say, from 1 to 10 or 12. The balls are first played from the baulk against the cushion on to the bridge, which is placed just in front of the lowermost hole. The rules are —1. If the ball pass through the bridge, all the points indicated on the arch are counted towards the player’s score, in addition to any points made by the ball falling into a hole beyond the bridge. The game may be played by two or more persons, and he who first makes the number of points agreed on—100, 200, 500, &c.—wins. A modification of this game is called Trou Madame. In this the balls are played from the baulk straight up to the bridge without touching the cushion, and only the points marked upon the arches score,— all points made by the balls dropping into i the holes beyond being scored to the opponent. Another variety, called Cockamaroo, or Russian Bagatelle, is played on a table prepared with a number of pins, holes, arches, and bells, up to and through which the ball is played from the baulk end of the table. It is a childish amusement, requiring little skill, and therefore needing only the barest mention.
In playing the bagatelle games a much less degree of force is required for the stroke than is necessary for billiards. Some adepts are able to fill all the holes at one essay; first, by striking the red ball on the side, making a double hazard, say, into the 7 and the 8 holes, and then, either by playing direct at the holes or at the cushion, lodging each successive ball till the whole nine are pocketed. In this way, counting double for the red, as many as 54 points can be scored in a single round of the balls. When two coloured balls are used, of course a proportionally larger score is made. The cue should be held lightly between the fingers and thumb, not grasped in the palm of the hand; and much use may be made of the various strokes employed in billiards,—as the side, the screw, the twist, and the drag; for which terms see the article Billiards. (a. f. p.)
BAGGESEN, Jens Emmanuel, the most prominent literary figure in Denmark during the latter part of last century, was born on the 15th of February 1765, at Korsör. His parents were very poor, and before he was twelve he was sent to copy documents at the office of the clerk of the district. By dint of indomitable perseverance, he managed to gain an education, and in 1782 entered the university of Copenhagen. His success as a writer was coeval with his earliest publication; his Comical Tales in verse, poems that recall the Broad, Grins that Colman the younger brought out a decade later, took the town by storm, and tho struggling young poet found himself a popular favourite at twenty-one. He then tried serious lyrical writing, and his tact, elegance of manner, and versatility, gained him a place in the best society. This sudden success received a blow in 1788, when a very poor opera he had produced was received with mockery, and a reaction against him set in. He left Denmark in a rage, and spent the next years in Germany, France, and Switzerland. In the country last mentioned he married, began to write in German, and published in that language his next poem, Alpenlied. In 1790 he returned to his mother-country, bringing with him as a peace-offering his fine descriptive poem, the Labyrinth, in Danish, and was received with unbounded homage. The next twenty years were spent in incessant restless wanderings over the north of Europe, Paris latterly becoming his nominal home. He continued to publish volumes alternately in Danish and German. In 1811 he returned to Copenhagen to find the young Ohlenschläger installed as the great poet of the day, and he himself beginning to lose his previously unbounded popularity. Until 1820 he resided in Copenhagen, in almost unceasing literary ...feud with some one or other, abusing and being abused, the most important feature of the whole being Baggesen’s determination not to allow Ohlenschläger to be considered a greater poet than himself. He then went back to his beloved Paris, where he lost his wife and youngest child, and fell at last into a state of hopeless melancholy madness. In 1826, having slightly recovered, he wished to see Denmark once more, but died at Hamburg on his way, on the 3d of October, and was buried at Kiel. His many-sided talents achieved success in all forms of writing, but his domestic, philosophical, and critical works have long ceased to occupy attention. A little more power of restraining his egotism and passion would have made him one of the wittiest and keenest of modern satirists, and his comic poems are deathless. The Danish literature owes Baggesen a great debt for the firmness, polish, and form which he introduced into it—his style being always finished and elegant. With all his faults he stands as the greatest figure between Holberg and Ohlenschläger. Of all his poems, however, the loveliest and best is a little simple song, called There was a time when, I was very little, which every Dane, high or low, knows by heart, and which is matchless in its simplicity and pathos. It has outlived all his epics. (e. w. g.)
BAGHDAD, a Turkish pashalic or government of Asia, computed to have an area of above 100,000 square miles. It stretches in a N.W. direction, from the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab at Bussorah, to Merdin, situated near the source of the Tigris; and from the confines of Persia to the banks of the Khabour, which separates it from the pashalic of Diarbekir. Its general boundaries are the Euphrates and the Arabian desert of Nejd to the W. and S., Kusistan and Mount Zagros to the E., the pashalic of Diarbekir to the N.W., and Armenia with the territories of the Kurdish chief of Julamerick to the N. This great tract comprehends ancient Babylonia and the greatest part of Assyria proper. The first includes the space enclosed by the Tigris and the Euphrates, which is also known under the general appellation of Mesopotamia; and the second, that which iβ beyond the Tigris, commonly called Lower Kurdistan. This tract of country is an extensive and very fertile plain, and is watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates, which at Baghdad approach within 25 miles of each other, and afford an inexhaustible supply of the finest water. Only some parts of these fertile districts, however, are cultivated, as the population consists in many places of wandering Arabs, who are averse to agriculture, and who, in their vagrant lifo of idleness and rapine, neglect all the natural advantages of the country. The most productive portion of the pashalic is on the banks of the Shatt-el-Arab, in the neighbourhood of Bussorah. This tract, for upwards of 30 miles below that city, is well cultivated, and yields vast quantities of dates, wheat, barley, and various kinds of fruits. The banks of the Euphrates produce abundant crops of dry grain. Higher up the Euphrates, the country which is possessed by the Arabs ...is a low marshy tract, formed by the expansion of the Euphrates, and is famed for plentiful crops of rice. Among the mountainous districts of the Upper Euphrates the country is highly picturesque and beautiful; it is watered by the River Mygdonius (the Gozan of Scripture), and is in a tolerable state of cultivation. It produces in abundance the finest fruits, such as grapes, olives, figs, pomegranates, which are considered the most delicious in the East; apples, pears, apricots of an inferior quality; and the finest dates, on which the inhabitants, as in other parts of Asia, depend in many cases for subsistence. The domestic animals are, the horse, for which the country has long been famed, the ass, camel, dromedary, buffalo, and mule. Of the wild animals, the lion, the hyena, the jackal, the wolf, and the wild boar, are common; and antelopes are very numerous. Hares are plentiful, but foxes are seldom seen. All sorts of poultry are bred except the turkey. On the cultivated lands, and on the borders of the rivers, the black partridge is met with in great numbers. Snipes and almost every species of wild fowl may be found in the marshes, and pelicans on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. In addition to these two rivers, the country is watered by the Khabour or Chaboras, formed by the junction of several small streams about ten miles to the S.W. of Merdin, and by the Mygdonius, or Gozan, the Hermas of the Arabs, which used formerly to discharge a part of its waters into the Euphrates through the Khabour, and a part into the Tigris through the Thirthar, passing by Hatra, but which is now entirely lost in a salt marsh at the foot of the Singar hills.
In ancient times the plain of Mesopotamia was occupied by the great and wealthy cities of Nineveh, Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Ac., and was in a high state of cultivation. It was intersected by many well-constructed canals and other works, which, in dispersing over the country the superfluous waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, proved extremely useful to agriculture. These works are now all ruined, and not a vestige remains of many of the canals, while the course of others can only be faintly traced in their imperfect remains. One canal, however, called El-Hye, still exists; it connects the Euphrates and the Tigris exactly half-way between Bussorah and Baghdad, and is navigable in spring for large boats.
BAGHDAD, a city of Asia, formerly the capital of the empire of the caliph, and long renowned for its commerce and its wealth, is situated on an extensive and desert plain, which has scarcely a tree or village throughout its whole extent; and though it is intersected by the Tigris, it stands mostly on its eastern bank, close to the water’s edge. Old Baghdad on the W. is now considered as merely a suburb to the larger and more modern city on the eastern shore, the former containing an area of only 146 acres, while the latter extends over 591. It has, however, numerous and extensive streets, well furnished with shops, and is protected by strong walls, with three gates opening towards Hillah on the Euphrates and Kazimeen. Beyond these modern ^bulwarks vestiges of ancient buildings, spreading in various directions, are visible in the plain, which is strewed with fragments of brick, tiles, and rubbish. A burying-ground has extended itself over a large tract of land formerly occupied by the streets of the city; and here is the tomb of Zobeide, the favourite wife of Haroun el Raschid, built of brick, of a high octagonal shape, and surmounted by a lofty superstructure in the form of a cone. It was originally built in 827 A.D., but has been frequently restored. The two towns of Old and New Baghdad are connected by a bridge of thirty pontoons. The form of the new city is that of an irregular oblong, about 1500 paces in length by 800 in breadth; and a brick wall, about five miles in circuit, encloses the town on both sides of the river. This wall, which is built of brick, has been constructed and repaired at different periods; and, as in most other works of the same nature in Mahometan countries, the oldest portion is the best, and the more modern the worst part of the fabric. At the principal angles are large round towers, with smaller towers intervening at short distances; and on these large towers batteries are planted, with brass cannon of different calibre, badly mounted. Of two of these angular towers Mr Buckingham remarked that the workmanship is equal to any ancient masonry that he had ever seen. The wall has three gates—one on the S.E., one on the N.E., and a third on the N.W. of the city; and it is surrounded by a dry ditch of considerable depth. A fourth gate on the northern side, which has been closed since the capture of the city by Sultan Amurath IV. in 1638, is a good specimen of Saracenic brick-work. It was formerly called " the white Gate,” but is now known as the “Bab-el-Tilism,” or “Talismanic Gate,” from a fine Arabic inscription in relief on a scroll border round the tower, which bears the date of 618 a.h. (1220 A.D.) The town has been built without the slightest regard to regularity. The streets are even more intricate and winding than those in most other Eastern towns; and, with the exception of the bazaars and some open squares, the interior is little else than a labyrinth of alleys and passages. The streets are unpaved, and in many places so narrow that two horsemen can scarcely pass each other; and as it is seldom that the houses have windows facing the great public thoroughfares, and the doors are small and mean, they present on both sides the gloomy appearance of dead walls. All the buildings, both public and private, are constructed of furnace-burnt bricks, of a yellowish-red colour, taken chiefly from the ruins of other edifices, as their rounded angles evidently show. A house is generally laid out in ranges of apartments opening into a square interior court, and furnished with subterranean rooms called serdaubs, into which the inhabitants retreat during the day for shelter from the intense heats of summer; and with terraced roofs, on which they take their evening meal, and sleep in the open air. Occasionally in the months of June, July, and August, when the Sherki or south wind is blowing, the thermometer at break of day is known to stand at 112° Fahr.; while at noon it rises to 119°, and a little before two o’clock to 122°, standing at sunset at 117°, and at midnight at 114°. But this scale of temperature is exceptional. During the summer months the wind is usually in the north-west, and the air, though hot, is fresh and exhilarating, the thermometer ranging from about 75° at sunrise to 107° at the hottest time of the day. The interiors of the houses of the rich are splendidly furnished, and ornamented in the ceilings with a sort of chequered work, which has a handsome appearance. A great portion of the ground within the walls of the town is unoccupied by buildings, especially in the north-eastern quarter; and even in the more populous parts of the city near the river, a considerable space between the houses is occupied by gardens, where pomegranates, grapes, figs, olives, and dates grow in great abundance, so that the city when seen from a distance has the appearance of rising out of the midst of trees.
The principal public buildings in Baghdad are the mosques, the khans or caravanserais, and the serai or palace of the pasha. The palace, which is situated in the north-western quarter of the town, not far from the Tigris, is distinguished rather for extent than grandeur. It is a comparatively modern structure, built at different periods, and forming a large and confused pile, without proportion, beauty, or strength. There are no remains of the ancient palace of the caliphs.
In all Mahometan cities the mosques are conspicuous objects. The number in Baghdad is above 100; but of these not more than thirty are distinguished by the characteristic minarets or steeples, the rest being merely chapels and venerated places of prayer. The most ancient of these mosques was erected in the year of the Hegira 633, or 1235 of the Christian era, by the Caliph Mustansir. All that remains of the original building is the minaret, and a small portion of the outer walls; the former a short, heavy erection, of the most ungraceful proportions, built of bricks of various colours, diagonally crossed. The jamah or mosque of Merjaneeah, not far distant from the former, though the body of it is modern, has some remains of old and very rich arabesque work on its surface, dating from the 14th century. The door is formed by a lofty arch of the Pointed form, bordered on both sides by rich bands exquisitely sculptured, and having numerous inscriptions. The mosque of Khaseki, supposed to have been an old Christian church, is chiefly distinguished by the niche for prayer, which, instead of a simple and unadorned recess, is crowned by a Roman arch, with square pedestals, spirally fluted shafts, a rich capital of flowers, and a fine fan or shell-top in the Roman style. Around the arch is a sculptured frieze; and down the centre, at the back of the niche, is a broad band, richly sculptured with vases, flowers, &c., in the very best style of workmanship,—the whole executed on a white marble ground. The building in its present state bears the date of 1682 a,i>., but the sculptures which it contains belong probably to the time of the early caliphs. The mosque of the vizier, near the Tigris, has a fine dome and lofty minaret; and the great mosque in the square of El Meidan is also a noble building. The others do not merit any particular notice. The domes of Baghdad are mostly high, and disproportionately narrow. They are richly ornamented with glazed tiles and painting, the colours chiefly green and white, which, being reflected from a polished surface, impart more liveliness than magnificence to the aspect of these buildings. In the opinion of Mr Buckingham, they are not to be compared to the rich and stately domes of Egypt, as the minarets, although they have the same bright assemblage of colours, are far from being equal “to the plain and grave dignity of some of the Turkish towers at Diarbekir, Aleppo, and Damascus, or to the lighter elegance of many of those in the larger towns on the banks of the Nile.”
There are about thirty khans or caravanserais in Baghdad, all of inferior construction to those in the other large towns of Turkey. The only remarkable building of this class is called Khan-el-Aourtmeh, and adjoins the Merjaneeah mosque, to which it formerly belonged. The vaulted roof of this building is a fine specimen of Saracenic brickwork, and like the adjoining mosque, bears the date of 1356 a.d. It is said, however, to occupy the site of an ancient Christian church. The bazaars, which are numerous, are mostly formed of long, straight, and tolerably wide avenues. The one most recently built is the largest and the best; still it has an air of meanness about it that is not common in the bazaars of large Turkish cities. It is long, wide, and lofty, and well filled with dealers and wares of all sorts. Several of these bazaars are vaulted over with brick-work; but the greater number are merely covered with flat beams which support a roof of straw, dried leaves, or branches of trees and grass. There are about fifty baths in Baghdad, which are also very inferior in their accommodations to those in the other large towns of Mesopotamia. The only other Mahometan remains which it is necessary to mention are—1. The Tekiyeh, or shrine of the Bektash dervishes, on the western bank of the river. The shrine is in ruins, but it contains a fine Cufic inscription now mutilated, which bears the date of 333 a.h. (or 944 a.d.) 2. The tomb of the famous
Maaruf-el-Kerkhi, in the immediate vicinity, dating from 1215 a.d. 3. In Eastern or New Baghdad the college of Mustansir, near the bridge, now in ruins, but bearing a fine inscription dated 630 a.h. (or 1233 a.d.) 4. The shrine of the famous Saint Abdul Kadir, which is visited by pilgrims from all parts of the Mahometan world. The original tomb was erected about 1252 a.d., but the noble dome which now canopies the grave dates from about two centuries later. An aqueduct, the only one in the city, conveys water from the river to this shrine. None of the other mosques or tombe require particular notice.
Baghdad is about 500 miles from the mouth of the Tigris (following itβ course), and about 400 from Bussorah; and with the latter place it carries on a constant communication by means of boats of from twenty to fifty tons burden, though the river is navigable for larger vessels. With a northerly wind these boats will make the passage to Bussorah in seven or eight days; in calms, when they have merely the aid of the current, the passage occupies from ten to fifteen days. Sir R. K. Porter mentions that the stream of the Tigris runs at the rate of seven knots an hour. This, however, is probably during floods, since, with such a powerful current, a boat could not occupy ten or fifteen days on its passage from Baghdad to Bussorah. Incoming up the stream, thirty or forty days are required to reach Baghdad. Of late years, however, steam communication has almost entirely superseded the use of the native craft between Baghdad and Bussorah. British steamers were first placed upon the Tigris and Euphrates by Colonel Chesney in 1836, and, with the sanction of the Turkish Government, they have ever since been maintained there, one small vessel of the Indian naval service being attached to the British Residency, and two commercial steamers belonging to an English company being employed in navigating the Tigris for trade purposes. The Turks have also endeavoured to establish a line of mercantile steamers of their own between Baghdad and Bussorah, but they have not hitherto been very successful. The smaller craft, used for bringing supplies of provisions and fruit to the city, are circular boats of basket-work, covered with skins, the same that have been employed from the remotest antiquity. The Euphrates and the Tigris are liable to spring floods; and the streams of both rivers being sometimes joined, inundate the desert plain on which Baghdad stands, when the city appears like an island in the midst of the sea. The inhabitants are supplied with water from the Tigris, which is brought to their houses in goats’ skins, the convenience of water-works, cisterns, and pipes being entirely unknown.
Baghdad has much declined from its ancient importance. It was formerly a great emporium of Eastern commerce; and it still receives, by way of Bussorah, from Bengal the manufactures and produce of India, which are distributed over Arabia, Syria, Kurdistan, Armenia, and Asia Minor. At the same time the inland trade from Persia and the East has fallen off. The productions and manufactures of Persia, which were intended for the Syrian, Armenian, and Turkish markets, and were sent to Baghdad as a central dépôt, now reach Constantinople by the more direct route of Erzeroum and Tocat. Wealth, indeed, appears to be deficient among all classes, and Baghdad has many symptoms of a decayed city. It must, however, be noted that a very considerable trade has sprung up of late years between the European markets and Baghdad, several English houses being established in the city, who import goods direct from London and Liverpool, via the Suez Canal and Bussorah, and French, German, Swiss, and Greek merchants being also engaged in the traffic. The staple articles of export are dates, wool, and grain, to which may be added cloth of various kinds, drugs, dye-stuffs, and miscellaneous productions. A very considerable trade in horses is also carried on. The total value of the exports in 1870-71 reached about £46,900, while the imports for the same year were stated at upwards of £285,000. There is a considerable manufacture of red and yellow leather, which is made into shoes, and finds a ready sale.
The population is a mixture of nations from various quarters of the East. The chief officers of Government, whether civil or military, are of the families of Constantinopolitan Turks, though they are mostly natives of the city; the merchants and traders are almost all of Persian or Arabian descent; while the lower classes consist of Turks, Arabs, Persians, and Indians. There are some Jews and Christians, who still remain distinct from the other classes; while the strangers in the town are Kurds, Persians, and desert Arabs in considerable numbers. The dress of the Baghdad Turks is not nearly so gay or splendid as that of their northern countrymen; and the costume of the residents is, upon the whole, unusually plain in comparison with that of other Asiatics. As every nation retains its own peculiar dress, it may be easily conceived what an amusing variety of costume must be seen in the streets of Baghdad. The dress of the females is as mean as that used in the poorest villages of Mesopotamia; women of all classes being enveloped in a blue checked cloth, such as is worn by the lowest orders in Egypt, and having their faces covered by hideous veils of black horse-hair.
Baghdad is governed by a pasha, assisted by a council. Ξe was formerly chosen from the ranks of the Georgian Mamelukes, but is now always selected from among the highest officers of the Constantinople court, his term of office being usually for four or five years. He is also governor-general of Irak, and possesses supreme authority from Diarbekir to Bahrein, though he does not under ordinary circumstances interfere with the subordinate governments of Mosul and Kurdistan.
The East India Company used to maintain a resident in Baghdad with a large establishment, and his post is now replaced by that of a consul-general and political agent. A French consul is also regularly appointed.
Until recently Baghdad was supposed to be entirely a Mahometan city, dating from the time of Al Mansιir; but Sir H. Rawlinson discovered in 1848, during an unusually dry season, when the rivers had fallen six feet below the ordinary low-water mark, that the western bank of the Tigris was lined with an embankment of solid brick-work, dating from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, as the bricks were each stamped with his name and titles; and it has been since remarked that in the Assyrian geographical catalogues of the time of Sardanapalus, one of the Babylonian cities bears the name of Bagdad, and may thus very possibly represent the after site of the capital of the caliphs. According to the Arabian writers, however, there were no traces of former habitation when Al Mansûr laid the foundation of the new city. It was adorned -with many noble and stately edifices by the magnificence of the renowned Haroun el Raschid, who also built on the eastern side of the river, connecting the two quarters of the town by a bridge of boats. Under the auspices of Zobeide, the wife of that prince, and Jaffer the Barmecide, his favourite, the city may be said to have attained its greatest splendour. It continued to flourish and increase, and to be the seat of elegance and learning, until the 656th year of the Hegira (1277 a.d.), when Hulaku the Tatar, the grandson of Genghis Khan, took it by storm, and extinguished the dynasty of the Abbassides. The Tatars retained possession of Baghdad till about the year 1400 of our era, when it was taken by Timur, from whom the Sultan Ahmed Ben Avis fled, and finding refuge with the Greek emperor, contrived afterwards to repossess himself of the city, whence he was finally expelled by Kara Yusef in 1417. In 1477 his descendants were driven out by Usum Cassim, who reigned 39 years in Baghdad, when Shah Ishmael the First, the founder of the royal house of Sefi, made himself master of it. From that time it continued for a long period an object of contention between the Turks and Persians. It was taken by Soliman the Magnificent, and retaken by Shah Abbas the Great; and it was afterwards besieged by Amurath the Fourth, with an army of 300,000 men. After an obstinate resistance, it was forced to surrender 1638 A.D.; when, in defiance of the terms of capitulation, most of the inhabitants were massacred. Since that· period it has remained under a nominal subjection to the Turks. Achmet, the greatest of the pashas of Baghdad, and the first who rendered the pashalic independent of the Porte, defended the town with such courage against Nadir Shah, that the invader was compelled to raise the siege, after suffering great loss. Baghdad, according to Colonel Chesney, had 110,000 inhabitants previously to the great plague of 1830; but in 1853 Mr Layard estimated its population under 50,000. An estimate made in 1872 on a census taken in 1869 rises as high as 150,000, but this is in all probability an exaggeration (y. Allen’s Indian Mail, 1874). Long. 44° 24' E., lat. 33° 2Γ N. Buckingham’s Travels in Mesopotamia (1827); Sir R. K. Porter’s Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia (1821-22); Kinneir’s Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire (1813); Chesney’s Expedition (1850); Rousseau’s Description du pachalik de Bagdad (1809); Wellsted’s City of the CaliρJt3; Grove’s Residence in Baghdad (1830-32); Transactions of Bombay Geog. Soc. (1856). (h. c. r.)
BAGHERMI, or Bagirmi, a district or kingdom of Central Africa, lying to the S. of Lake Chad and S.W. of Bornu. It extends about 240 miles from N. to S., and has a breadth of barely 150 miles. The surface is almost flat, with a slight inclination to the N., and the general elevation is about 950 feet above sea-leveL The Shari, a large and always navigable river, forms the western boundary, and throws out an important effluent called the Bachikam, which passes through the heart of the country. The soil consists partly of lime and partly of sand, and is by no means unfertile. In many parts not a stone is to be seen. Negro-millet, sesamum, and sorghum are the principal grains in cultivation, but rice grows wild, and several kinds of grass or poa are used as food by the natives. Cotton and indigo are grown to a considerable extent, especially by Bornu immigrants. Among the trees the most important are the tamarind, the deleb-palm, the dum-palm, the hajilij or Balanites oegyptiaca, the sycamore, and the cornel. The country often suffers from drought, and is greatly plagued with worms and insects, especially ants of all kinds, red, black, and white. The Kungjungjudu, a sort of beetle w hich does great damage to the crops, is eaten by the natives. A large proportion of the people have their feet mutilated by the attacks of a small worm, which takes up its residence in the first joint of the little toe and eats it gradually away. The inhabitants of Baghermi are a vigorous, well-formed race, who, according to their own traditions, came from the Far East several centuries ago. They speak a language cognate with those spoken by the Sara, who dwell about two degrees further south, and the Dor, who are situated at the confluence of the Dyor with the White Nile. On their arrival they ...soon extended their power over the Fellata and Arabs already settled in the district, and after being converted to Mahometanism under Abd-Allah, their fourth king, they extended their authority over a large number of heathen tribes. The most important of these are the Sokoro, the Bua, the Nyillam, the Sara, the Tumok, and the Busso. They are almost all in a low state of civilisation, and practise strange superstitions—a belief in a god whom they identify with thunder being the greatest extent of their religion. They are subject to the barbarous raids of their Bagheπnian masters, who derive from them a constant supply of slaves with which to pay the tribute demanded from them in their turn by the sultan of Bornu. For our knowledge of this district we are principally indebted to Barth and Nachtigal; the former was for some time a prisoner in Massena, the capital.
See Barth, Travels in Northern and Central Africa in 1849-53, vol. iii., and Nachtigal, in Petermann’s Mittheil. for 1874, and in Zeitsch. d. Ges.f. Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1875.
BAGHMATI, a river of Hindustan, which has its source in the hills to the north of Katmandu, the capital of Nepâl, whence it flows in a southerly direction through the district of Tirhut in the province of Behar, and, receiving the waters of the Buchiâ on its north bank, and of Burâ Gandak on its south bank, joins the Ganges, after a course of 285 miles, in 25° 23' N. lat. and 86° 34' E. long., about 8 miles below the town of Monghir, but on the opposite bank.
BAGLIVI, Giorgio, an illustrious Italian physician, descended from a poor persecuted Armenian family, was born at Ragusa in 1669, and assumed the name of his adoptive father, Pietro Angelo Baglivi, a wealthy physician of Lecce. He studied successively at the universities of Salerno, Padua, and Bologna; and after travelling over Italy, he went in 1602 to Rome, where, through the influence of the celebrated Malpighi, he was elected professor of anatomy in the college of Sapienza. He died at Rome in 1707, at the early age of thirty-eight. A collection of his writings, which are all in the Latin language, was published in 4to in 1704, and has been several times reprinted in the same form. An edition in 2 vols. 8vo was published in 1788. Baglivi’s work De Fibra Motrice, is the foundation of that theory of medicine which was substituted by Hoffmann and Cullen for the Humoral Pathology.
BAGNACAVALLO, Bartolommeo, an Italian painter, who flourished about the beginning of the 16th century. His real name was Ramenghi, but he received the cognomen Bagnacavallo from the little village where he was born in 1484. He studied first under Francia, and then proceeded to Rome, where he became a pupil of Raffaelle. While studying under him he worked along with many others at the decoration of the gallery in the Vatican, though it is not known what portions are his work. On his return to Bologna he quickly took the leading place as an artist, and to him were due the great improvements in the general style of what has been called the Bolognese school· His works were considered to be inferior in point of design to some other productions of the school of Raffaelle, but they were distinguished by rich colouring and graceful delineation. They were highly esteemed by Guido and the Carracci, who studied them carefully and in some points imitated them. The best specimens of Bagnacavallo’s works, the Dispute of St Augustin and a Madonna with Child, are at Bologna. He died in 1542.
