ABANA, which signifies stony, made of stone, building; and PHARPAR, or PHARPHAR, reduced to minuteness, or fructification of fruit, also, bull of the bull, two rivers of Damascus, an ancient city of Syria, thus mentioned by Naathe king of Syria's general, 2 Kings v. 12, "Are not Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the rivers of Israel?" There has been a variety of opinions among travellers respecting these rivers. They are generally supposed to be branches of the river Barady, or Chrysorrhoas, which waters the city of Damascus and its neighbourhood. According to Maundrel, the river Barady, of which Abana and Pharpar are said to be branches, has its source at the eastern base of Mount Libanus or Lebanon, and flowing through and about Damascus, continues its course till it is lost in a dry and sterile desert about five leagues from that city. traveller informs us, that when he visited Damascus these rivers watered that city, and, though unnavigable, were well stocked with fish. Other travellers, however, have omitted to mention them altogether. The river Barady, at the present time, has divided itself into three branches, the middle one, Abana, which is the largest, running directly through Damascus, and the other two, one on

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each side of that city, refreshing and fertilizing its gardens. Mr Buckingham, one of the most recent travellers, informs us that the water of the river Barady is considered unwholesome, and that he had not received any information which could assist him to understand whether its branches were the Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, which Naaman the Syrian thought better than all the rivers of Israel. See DAMASCUS and PHARPar.

ABARIM, passages, passengers, the general name of a ridge of rocky and sterile mountains to the east of the river Jordan, Numb. xxvii. 12, which stretches into the ancient country of the Moabites, and the possessions of the tribe of Reuben, on both sides of the river Arnon. The ridge consists of the mountains Nebo, Pisgah, Peor, &c., which form narrow passages or passes in the valleys, from which it is probable the ridge derives its name. The Israelites had various encampments near these mountains, when marching to take possession of the Promised Land, Numb. xxxiii. 44-48.

ABEL, mourning, sometimes called The Field of Joshua, a place near Bethshemesh, a city in the tribe of Judah, belonging to the priests. It was termed Abel by the Israelites, on account of their mourning for their countrymen, 50,070 of whom were struck dead for looking

into the ark. A great stone was erected in commemoration of that remarkable calamity, 1 Sam. vi. 18, 19, which was subsequently named Abel the Great. Josephus, however, asserts that only seventy were killed on that occasion. See BETHSHEMESH.

ABEL-BETH-MAACHAH, mourning to the House of Maachah, or ABELMAIM, the valley of waters, or ABEL, a strong city, according to some writers situated in Syria, to the north of Damascus, on the frontiers of Lebanon; but, according to other geographers, which appears to be the correct statement, a city belonging to the tribe of Naphtali, in the north part of Palestine. Sheba, the son of Bichri, fled to this city for protection, when pursued by the army of King David under the command of Joab; and the inhabitants, to avoid the miseries of a siege on his account, by the advice of a woman, cut off his head, and threw it over the wall, 2 Sam. xx. 13-22. About eighty years afterwards it was plundered by Benhadad, king of Syria. It was also taken and demolished by Tiglath-pilezer, who carried the citizens into Assyria as captives, 2 Kings xv. 29. It was subsequently rebuilt, and became the capital of the province of Abilene.

ABEL-MEHOLAH, or ABEL-MEA, the mourning of weakness or sickness, sometimes called ABEMEA, was the name of a town situated near the river Jordan, in a great plain considerably to the south of Scythopolis, and belonged to the halftribe of Manasseh. The prophet Elisha was born in this town, 1 Kings xix. 16; and near it Gideon obtained a decisive victory over the Midianites, Judges vii. 22.

ABEL-MIZRAIM, the mourning of the Egyptians, sometimes also called Atad's Threshing-Floor, the name of a place between the city of Jericho and the river Jordan, whither the Egyptians accompanied the sons of Jacob, when they were conveying the body of that patriarch to be buried in the cave of Machpelah; and where, according to the Eastern custom, they male a loud lamentation,

from which it received its name, Gen. 1. 10, 11. Josephus says it was in Hebron, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem, and that Joseph's brothers were buried there.

ABEL-KERAMIM, or The Plain of the Vineyards, Judges xi. 33, was probably the same as ABELA, a city beyond the river Jordan, belonging to the halftribe of Manasseh, twelve miles east of Gadara.

ABEL-SHITTIM, the mourning of the thorns, a town a few miles east of the river Jordan in the plains of Moab, near the mountain Peor, one of the mountainous ridge Abarim, and opposite to Jericho. The Israelites encamped here immediately before the death of Moses, and falling into idolatry, worshipped Baal-peor, by the allurements of the Moabitish and Midianitish women, for which 24,000 of them died in one day, Numb. xxv. 9. St Paul says that 23,000 were visited with this severe mortality, 1 Cor. x. 8; but the other thousand were put to death by the Levites, who were the judges. It is said that its name Shittim originated in the great abundance of shittim-wood which grew in its neighbourhood, of which the ark was made, Exod. xxv. 5-12.

ABEN-BOHAN, so called from Bohan, a descendant of Jacob's son Reuben, was the name of a boundary-stone between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, to the east, in a valley leading to the town of Adummim, Josh. xviii. 17.

ABEZ, an egg, or muddy, a city belonging to the tribe of Issachar, Josh. xix. 20.

ABILA, or ABELA. See ABEl-Kera

MIM.

ABILENE, the father of the apartment, or of mourning, the name of a small province in Syria, west of Damascus, between Libanus and Antilibanus, situated within the borders of Naphtali, but never subdued by that tribe. Lysanias was tetrarch or governor of this province in the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, St Luke iii. 1. See SYRIA.

ABUMA, a city of Judah, according

to Josephus, the birth-place of Zebudah, the mother of King Jehoiakim. This place is also called RUMAH, 2 Kings xxiii. 36.

ACCAD, termed ASCHAD by the Septuagint, a vessel, a pitcher, or a sparkle, the name of a city built by Nimrod, and which he made a kind of capital before he built Babylon, Gen. x. 10. It was situated in Babylonia, on the east side of the river Tigris; but its site has not been accurately ascertained. Dr Wells is of opinion that some traces of its name are still preserved in that of a small river called Argades, which flows near Sittace, a town situated at some distance from the Tigris, and which anciently gave the name of Sittacene to the district of country between Babylon and Susa. It is farther conjectured, that Sittace was formerly called Argad or Aschad, and that it received its present name of Sittace or Psittace from the great quantities of nuts called psittacias or pistacias which grow in its vicinity. Strabo mentions a district of that country by the name of Artacene, probably formed from Arcad, which might be the ancient name of the district Sittacene, as Arcad was of the city Sittace. Pliny expressly says that Sittacene was the same as Arbelitis, or the country of Arbela.

ACCHO, or AUCнOO, close, inclosed, pressed together, now called ACRE, a most celebrated city both in ancient and modern history, situated in the province of Galilee in Syria, on the Mediterranean Sea, distant about twenty-seven miles south of Tyre, and about seventy north of Jerusalem. It is mentioned by its ancient Hebrew name of ACCHO or Acco, as a place of considerable strength in the Book of Judges (i. 31), and was one of the cities of the tribe of Asher; but they never extirpated the Canaanites from it, in whose possession it continued. The Arabs still call it AKKA. It was at onetime called PTOLEMAIS, after Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, who rebuilt it, and it went by that name in St Paul's time. Christianity was early preached here. We find that apostle visiting the Christians of Acre on his way to Jeru

salem, Acts xxi. 7, with whom he remained one day. It subsequently shared in the various calamities occasioned by the wars in Syria, and is now called Acra or Acre, on account of its fortifications and importance. By the Knights of St John of Jerusalem it was called St John d'Acre. It is most advantageously situated, being bounded on the north and east by a spacious and fertile plain, on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the south by a semicircular bay, nine miles in length, which extends from the city to Mount Carmel. Acre was successively under the dominion of the Romans and the Moors, and has been the scene of some most remarkable transactions both in ancient and modern times. During the phrenzy of the religious war excited by Peter the Hermit, called the Crusades, it was repeatedly the object of obstinate and bloody contentions between the Christians and the Saracens. In 1187, Acre was taken by the victorious Sultan Saladin and the Saracens. It was speedily invested by all the Christian forces in Palestine, and after a vigorous and obstinate resistance on the part of the Saracens for two years, it surrendered to the united armies of Philip Augustus of France and Richard I. of England, two monarchs whose rivalry of each other, and devoted ardour in the cause of the Crusades, excited them to extraordinary deeds of valour. The possession of it was dearly purchased by the assailants; they lost more than 100,000 men before its walls; a much greater number was destroyed by disease and shipwreck, and very few soldiers of the Christian armies, which amounted to nearly 600,000 persons, returned to their respective countries. The pretended wood of the true cross was then in Acre, and of this enviable prize the Christians, who were aware of that circumstance, obtained possession. They also procured the liberation of numbers of Christians who had been made prisoners by the Saracens. The Sultan Saladin, however, refused to ratify the capitulation of the city, which

so exasperated Richard I. of England, that he ordered 5000 of the Saracens to be massacred, an act of cruelty which was severely retaliated on the Christians by Saladin. About a century afterwards, when the Christians were finally expelled from Jerusalem by the Saracens, and when the attempts made by St Louis of France, Edward I. of England, and other princes, had been completely unsuccessful, Acre became a kind of metropolis in Syria for the Latin Christians, and here the military order called the Knights of St John of Jerusalem strongly fortified themselves. The city was then adorned with many elegant and magnificent edifices, churches, aqueducts, an artificial port, and was strengthened by a double wall. Pilgrims and fugitives were attracted to it, and its advantageous situation procured for it a flourishing trade both from the East and the West. In proportion as it increased in population, the morals of the citizens became extremely licentious; its government was feebly administered, and made no attempt to suppress or punish the commission of crimes. Bands of adventurers sallied out from its gates, and under the banner of the cross plundered the adjacent villages of the Saracens. Nineteen Syrian merchants were on one occasion robbed and murdered under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, and when satisfaction was demanded, it was refused with contempt. The Sultan Serapha, at length exasperated by these enormities, marched against Acre at the head of an army consisting of 160,000 infantry, 60,000 cavalry, and a tremendous train of artillery. After a siege of thirty-three days, the besiegers forced the double wall, the city was stormed, and 60,000 Christians were either massacred or made slaves. The fortress of the Knights was destroyed, their Grand Master slain, and out of 500 of them, only ten survived, who probably, observes Gibbon, perished on the scaffold. This event took place on the 5th of April 1291; and on that day there was so great a tempest, that numbers of the fugitives from the garrison, unable to reach the

ships in the bay, perished in the waves. A few of the besieged, among whom were the King of Jerusalem, the Patriarch, and the Grand Master of the Hospital, escaped by sea to Cyprus. There was a convent, the abbess of which, says Maundrel, to avoid the violation which was apprehended from the Saracens, ordered the nuns to mangle their faces, setting the example herself; and the victors, exasperated and disappointed, put them all to the sword. The Saracens thus having revenged themselves, dilapidated Acre, and reduced it to almost a ruin. It remained in this condition till 1750, when it was fortified by an Arabian scheik named Dakir, who was in arms against the Grand Signior, and had maintained his independence for many years, until he was basely assassinated, at the advanced age of eighty-six. After that event, a pacha named Djezzar devoted much of his attention to repairing and fortifying the city; but its works were so weak and inconsiderable, that when the French army under Napoleon, Buonaparte advanced against it in 1798, it could boast of little else than a few, old towers mounted with rusty cannon, some of which burst when a round was fired. Sir Sidney Smith, who anchored in the roadstead off Caiffa, sent a French engineer to assist the Pacha in repairing the fortifications. Djezzar had previously: conveyed his women and his treasure to a distant place of security, and thus, assisted by the British, he determined to hold out the city to the last. Acre was: invested by Buonaparte, but the French were repulsed in every mode of attack by the skill and intrepidity of Sir Sidney Smith. The garrison, assisted by the British marines, repulsed the French with immense slaughter. The particulars of that memorable action, so glorious to the British name, are incorporated in our national history. After sustaining irre-, parable losses, especially of his batteringrams and stores, Buonaparte announced his intention of raising the siege, and on the 20th of May, the sixty-first day of the siege, he commenced his retreat, and was