Chapter LXXXI: Act 1903: , the powers and duties of the Board of Trade under the (6)

The chief object of interest is the darga, or tomb of a famous Mahommedan saint named Mayud-uddin. It is situated at the foot of the Taragarh mountain, and consists of a block of white marble buildings without much pretension to architectural beauty. To this place the emperor Akbar, with his empress, performed a pilgrimage on foot from Agra in accordance with the terms of a vow he had made when praying for a son. The large pillars erected at intervals of two miles the whole way, to mark the daily halting-place of the imperial pilgrim, are still extant. An ancient Jain temple, now converted into a Mahommedan mosque, is situated on the lower slope of the Taragarh hill. With the exception of that part used as a mosque, nearly the whole of the ancient temple has fallen into ruins, but the relics are not excelled in beauty of architecture and sculpture by any remains of Hindu art. Forty columns support the r00f, but no two are alike, and great fertility of invention is manifested in the execution Of the ornaments. The summit of Taragarh hill, overhanging Ajmere, is crowned by a foot, the lofty thick battlements of which run along its brow and enclose the table-land. The walls are 2 m. in circumference, and the fort can only be approached by steep and very roughly paved planes, commanded by the fort and the outworks, and by the hill to the west. On coming into the hands of the English, the fort Was dismantled by order of Lord William Bentinck, and is now converted into a sanatorium for the troops at Xasirabad. Ajmere was founded about the year 145 A.p. by AJi, a Chauhan, who established the dynasty which continued to rule the country (with many vicissitudes of fortune) while the repeated waves of Mahommedan invasion swept over India, until it eventually became an appanage of the crown Of Delhi in 1193. Its internal government, however, was handed over to its ancient rulers upon the payment of a heavy tribute to the conquerors. It then remained feudatory to Delhi till 1365, when it was captured by the ruler of Mewar. In 1509 the place became a source of Contention between the chiefs of Mewar and Marwar, and was ultimately Conquered in 1532 by the latter prince, who in his turn in 1559 had to give way before the emperor Akbar. It continued in the hands of the Moguls, with occasional revolts, till 1770, when it was ceded to the Mahrattas, from which time up to 1818 the unhappy district was the scene of a continual struggle, being seized at different times by the Mewar and Marwar rajas, from whom it was as often retaken by the Mahrattas. In 1818 the latter ceded it to the British in return for a payment of 50,000 rupees. Since then the country has enjoyed unbroken peace and a stable government.

The modern city is an important station on the Rajputana railway, 615 m. from BOmbay and 275 m. from Delhi, with a branch running due south to the Great Indian Peninsula main line. The city is well laid out with wide streets and handsome houses. The city trade chiefly consists of salt and opium. The former is inlported in large quantities from the Sambar lake and Ramsur. Oil-making is also a profitable branch of trade. Cotton cloths are manufactured to some extent, for the dyeing Of which the city has attained a high reputation2 The educational institutions include the Majo Rajkumar college, opened in 1875, for training the sons of the nobles of Rajputana, on the lines of an English public school. Population (1901) 73,839, showing an increase of 10% in the decade.

The DISTRICT OF AJMERE, which forms the largest part of the province of Ajmere-Merwara, has an area of 2069 sq. m. The eastern portion of the district is generally flat, broken only by gentle undulations, but the western parts, from north-west to south-west, are intersected by the great Aravalli range. Many of the valleys in this region are mere sandy deserts, with an occasional oasis of cultivation, but there are also some very fertile tracts; among these is the plain on which lies the town of Ajmere. This valley, however, is not only fortunate in possessing a noble artificial lake, but is protected by the massive walls of the Nagpathar range or Serpent rock, which forms a harrier against the sand. The only hills in the district are the Aravalli range and its offshoots. Ajmere is almost totally devoid of rivers, the Banas being the only stream which can be dignified with that name, and it only touches the south-eastern boundary of the district so as to irrigate the pargana of Samur. Four small streams ---the Sagarmati, Saraswati, Khari and Dai-also intersect the district. In the dry weather they are little more than brooks. The population in 1901 was 7453, showing a decrease of 13% in the decade. Besides the city of Ajmere, the district contains the military station of Nasirabad, with a population of 22,494.

AJMERE-MERWARA, a division or petty province of British India, in Rajputana, consisting of the two districts of Ajmere and Merwara, separated from each other and isolated amid native states. The administration is in the hands of a commissioner, subordinate to the governor-general's agent for Rajputana. The capital is Ajmere city. The area is 2710 sq. m. The plateau, on whose centre stands the town of Ajmere, may be considered as the highest point in the plains of Hindustan; from the circle of hills which hem it in, the country slopes away on every side---towards river valleys on the east, south, west and towards the desert region on the north. The Aravalli range is the distinguishing feature of the district. The range of hills which runs between Ajmere and Nasirabad marks the watershed of the continent of India. The rain which falls on one side drains into the Chambal, and so into the Bay of Bengal; that which falls on the other side into the Luni, which discharges itself into the Runn of Cutch. The province is on the border of what may be called the arid ``zone''; it is the debatable land between the north-eastern and south-western monsoons, and beyond the influence of either. The south-west monsoon sweeps up the Nerbudda valley from Bombay and crossing the tableland at Neemuch gives copious supplies to Malwa, Jhalawar and Kotah and the countries which lie in the course of the Chambal river. The clouds which strike Kathiawar and Cutch are deprived of a great deal of their moisture by the hills in those countries, and the greater part of the remainder is deposited on Mount Abu and the higher slopes of the Aravalli mountains, leaving but little for Merwara, where the hills are lower, and still less for Ajmere. It is only when the monsoon is in considerable force that Merwara gets a plentiful supply from it. The north-eastern monsoon sweeps up the valley of the Ganges from the Bay of Bengal and waters the northern part of Rajputana, but hardly penetrates farther west than the longitude of Ajmere. On the varying strength of these two monsoons the rainfall of the district depends. The agriculturist in Ajmere-Merwara can never rely upon two good harvests in succession. A province subject to such conditions can hardly be free from famine or scarcity for any length of time; accordingly it was visited by two famines, one of unprecedented severity, and one scarcity, in the decade 1891-1901. In June 1900 the number of persons in receipt of relief was 143,000, being more than one fourth of the total population.

In 1901 the population was 476,912, showing a decrease of 12% in the decade, due to the results of famine. Among Hindus, the Rajputs are land-holders, and the Jats and Gujars are cultivators. The Jains are traders and money-lenders. The aboriginal tribe of Mers are divided between Hindus and Mahommedans. The chief crops are millet, wheat, cotton and oil-seeds. There are several factories for spinning and pressing cotton, the chief trading centres being Beawar and Kekri.

AJODHYA, an ancient city of India, the prehistoric capital of Oudh, in the Fyzabad district of the United Provinces. It is situated on the right bank of the Gogra. In the present day the old city has almost entirely disappeared, and its site is marked only by a heap of ruins; but in remote antiquity Ajodhya was one of the largest and most magnificent of Indian cities. It is said to have covered an area of 96 m., and was the capital of the kingdom of Kosala, the court of the great king Dasaratha, the fifty-sixth monarch of the Solar line in descent from Raja Manu. The opening chapters of the Ramayana recount the magnificence of the city, the glories of the monarch and the virtues, wealth and loyalty of his people. Dasaratha was the father of Rama Chandra, the hero of the epic. A period of Buddhist supremacy followed the death of the last king of the Solar dynasty. On the revival of Brahmanism Ajodhya was restored by King Vikramaditya (c. 57 B.C..) Kosala is also famous as the early home of Buddhism, and of the kindred religion of Jainism, and claims to be the birthplace of the founders of both these faiths. The Chinese traveller, Hsuan Tsang, in the 7th century, found 20 Buddhist temples with 3000 monks at Ajodhya among a large Brahmanical population. The modern town of Ajodhya contains 96 Hindu temples and 36 Mussulman mosques. Little local trade is carried on, but the great fair of Ramnami held every year is attended by about 500,000 people.

AKABA, GULF OF, the Sinus Aelaniticus of antiquity, the eastern of the two divisions into which the Red Sea bifurcates near its northern extremity. It penetrates into Arabia Petraea in a N.N.E. direction, from 28 deg. to 29 deg. 32' N., a distance of 100 m., and its breadth varies from 12 to 17 m. The entrance is contracted by Tiran and other islands, so that the passage is rendered somewhat difficult; and its navigation is dangerous on account of the numerous coral reefs, and the sudden squalls which sweep down from the adjacent mountains, many of which rise perpendicularly to a height of 2000 ft. The gulf is a continuation southward of the Jordan-'Araba depression. Raised beaches on the coast show that there has been a considerable elevation of the sea-bed. The only well-sheltered harbour is that of Dahab (the Golden Port) on its western shore, about 33 m. from the entrance and 29 m. E. of Mount Sinai. Near the head of the gulf is Jeziret Faraun (medieval Graye), a rocky islet with the ruins of a castle built by Baldwin I. (c. 1115).

About 2 1/2 m. from the head of the gulf and on its eastern side is the TOMN OF AKABA, with a picturesque medieval castle, built for the protection of pilgrims on there way from Egypt to Mecca. In the neighbourhood are extensive groves of date palms, and there is an ample supply of good water. Akaba is of considerable historical interest and of great antiquity, being the Elath or Eloth of the Bible, and one of the ports whence Solomon's fleet sailed to Ophir. By the Romans, who made it a military post, it was called Aelana. It continued to be the seat of great commercial activity under the early Moslem caliphs, who corrupted the name to Haila or Ailat. In the 10th century an Arab geographer described it as the great port of Palestine and the emporium of the Hejaz. In the 12th century the town suffered at the hands of Saladin and thereafter fell into decay. In 1841 the town was recognized by Turkey, together with the Sinai peninsula, as part of Egypt. At that time Egyptian pilgrims frequented Akaba in large numbers. In 1892, on the accession of the khedive Abbas II., Turkey resumed possession of Akaba, the Egyptian pilgrims having deserted the land route to Mecca in favour of a sea passage. In 1906 the construction was begun of a branch line joining Akaba to the Mecca railway and thus giving through communication with Beirut. Early in the same year the Turks occupied Taba, a village at the mouth of a small stream g m. by land W. by S. of Akaba, near which is the site, not identified, of the Ezion-Geber of Scripture, another of the ports whence the argosies of the Israelites saileffi. Taba being on the Egyptian side of the frontier, Great Britain intervened on behalf of Egypt, and in May 1906 secured the withdrawal of the Turks.

AKA HILLS, a tract of country on the north-east frontier of India, occupied by an independent tribe called the Akas. It lies north of the Darrang district of Eastern Bengal and Assam, and is bounded on the east by the Daphla Hills and on the west by independent Bhutia tribes. The Aka country is very difficult of access, the direct road from the plains leading along the precipitous channel of the Bhareli river, which divides the Aka from the Daphla country. The Akas are a brave people, and the men are strong and well-made. Their reputation as raiders is sufficiently shown in the division of the tribe into two clans, the Hazari-khoas or ``eaters of a thousand hearths,'' and the Kapah-chors or ``thieves that lurk in the cotton fields.'' In the early years of British occupation, about 1820, they gave much trouble; and in 1883 they broke out once more into their old habits. They raided into the British district of Darrang and carried off several native forest officers as hostages. An expedition was sent against them under General Sale Hill with 860 troops, which was completely successful. All its objects were satisfactorily accomplished, namely, the recovery of the captives, the surrender of all firearms, the payment of the fine inflicted by government, the complete submission of the tribe and the survey of the country.

AKALKOT, a native state of India, in the Deccan division of Bombay, ranking as one of the Satara Jagirs, situated between the British district of Sholapur and the nizam's dominions. It forms part of the Deccan table-land, and has a cool and agreeable climate. Area 498 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 82,047, showing an increase of 8% in the decade. Estimated revenue, L. 26,586; the tribute is L. 1000. The chief, who is a Mahratta of the Bhonsla family, resides at Poona on a pension, while the state is under British management.

The town of Akalkot is situated near the Great Indian Peninsula railway, which traverses the state. Pop. 8348.

AKBAR, AKHBAR or AKBER, JELLALADIN MAHOMMED (1542-1605), one of the greatest and wisest of the Mogul emperors. ' He was born at Umarkot in Sind on the 14th of October 1542, his

father, Humayun, having been driven from the throne a short time before by the usurper Sher Khan. After more than twelve years' exile, Humayun regained his sovereignty, which, however, he had held only for a few months when he died. Akbar succeeded his father in 1556 under the regency of Baira n Khan, a Turkoman noble, whose energy in repelling pretenders to the throne, and severity in maintaining the discipline of the army, tended greatly to the consolidation of the newly recovered empire. Bairam, however, was naturally despotic and cruel; and when order was somewhat restored, Akbar found it necessary to take the reins of government into his own hands, which he did by a proclamation issued in March 1560. The discarded regent lived for some time in rebellion, endeavouring to establish an independent principality in Malwa, but at last he was forced to cast himself on Akbar's mercy. The emperor not only freely pardoned him, but magnanimously offered him the choice of a high place in the army or a suitable escort for a pilgrimage to Mecca, and Bairam preferred the latter alternative. When Akbar ascended the throne, only a small portion of what had formerly been comprised within the Mogul empire owned his authority, and he devoted himself with great determination and success to the recovery of the revolted provinces. Over each of these, as it was restored, he placed a governor, whom he superintended with vigilance and wisdom. He tried by every means to develop and encourage commerce; he had the land accurately measured for the purpose of rightly adjusting taxation; he gave the strictest instructions to prevent extortion on the part of the taxgatherers, and in many other respects displayed an enlightened and equitable policy. Thus it happened that, in the fortieth year of Akbar's reign, the empire had more than regained all that it had lost, the recovered provinces being reduced, not to subjection only as before, but to a great degree of peace, order and contentment. Akbar's method of dealing with what must always be the chief difficulty of one who has to rule widely diverse races, affords perhaps the crowning evidence of his wisdom and moderation In religion he was at first a Mussulman, but the intolerant exclusiveness of that creed was quite foreign to his character. Scepticism as to the divine origin of the Koran led him to seek the true religion in an eclectic system. He accordingly set himself to obtain information about other religions, sent to Goa, requesting that the Portuguese missionaries there should visit him, and listened to them with intelligent attention when they came. As the result of these inquiries, he adopted the creed of pure deism and a ritual based upon the system of Zoroaster. The religion thus founded, however, having no vital force, never spread beyond the limits of the court, and died with Akbar himself. But though his eclectic system failed, the spirit of toleration which originated it produced in other ways many important results, and, indeed, may be said to have done more to establish Akbar's power on a secure basis than all his economic and social reforms. He conciliated the Hindus by giving them freedom of worship; while a- the same time he strictly prohibited certain barbarous Brahmanical practices, such as trial by ordeal and the burning of widows against their will. He also abolished all taxes upon pilgrims as an interference with the liberty of worship, and the capitation tax upon Hindus, probably upon similar grounds. Measures like these gained for him during his lifetime the title of ``Guardian of Mankind,'' and caused him to be held up as a model to Indian princes of later times, who in the matter of religious toleration have only too seldom followed his example.

Akbar was a munificent patron of literature. He established schools throughout his empire for the education of both Hindus and Moslems, and he gathered round him many men of literary talent, among whom may be mentioned the brothers Feizi and Abul Fazl. The former was commissioned by Akbar to translate a number of Sanskrit scientific works into Persian; and the latter (see ABUL FAzl) has left, in the Akbar-Nameh, an enduring record of the emperor's reign. It is also said that Akbar employed Jerome Xavier, a Jesuit missionary, to translate the four Gospels into Persian.

The closing years of Akbar's reign were rendered very unhappy by the misconduct of his sons. Two of them died in youth, the victims of intemperance; and the third, Salim, afterwards the emperor Jahangir, was frequently in rebellion against his father. These calamities were keenly felt by Akbar, and may even have tended to hasten his death, which occurred at Agra on the 15th of October 1605. His body was deposited in a magnificent mausoleum at Sikandra, near Agra.

See G. B. Malleson, Akbar (``Rulers of India'' series), 1890. AKCHA, a town and khanate of Afghan Turkestan. The town lies 42 m. westward of Balkh on the road to Andkhui. It is protected by a mud wall and a citadel. Estimated population d000, chiefly Uzbegs. The khanate is small, but well watered and populous. The rivers rising in the southern mountains, which no longer reach the Oxus, terminate in vast swamps near Akcha, and into these the debris of such vegetation as yearly springs up on the slopes of the southern hills is washed down in time of flood.

AKEN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, on the Elbe, 25 m. E. S. E. of Magdeburg, with a branch line to Cothen (8 m.). Pop. (1900) 7358. It has manufactures of cloth, leather, chemicals and optical instruments; large quantities of beetroot sugar are produced in the neighbourhood; and there is a considerable transit trade on the Elbe.

AKENSIDE, MARK (1721-1770), English poet and physician. was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne on the 9th of November 1721. He was the son of a butcher, and was slightly lame all his life from a wound he received as a child from his father's cleaver. All his relations were dissenters, and, after attending the free school of Newcastle, and a dissenting academy in the town. he was sent (1739) to Edinburgh to study theology with a view to becoming a minister, his expenses being paid from a special fund set aside by the dissenting community for the education of their pastors. He had already contributed ``The Virtuoso, in imitation of Spenser's style and stanza'' (1737) to the Gentleman's Magazine, and in 1738 ``A British Phillipic, occasioned by the Insults of the Spaniards, and the present Preparations for War'' (also published separately). After he had spent one winter as a student of theology, he entered his name as a student of medicine. He repaid the money that had been advanced for his theological studies, and with this change of mind he seems to have drifted to a mild deism. His politics, says Dr Johnson, were characterized by an ``impetuous eagerness to subvert and confound, with very little care what shall be established,'' and he is caricatured in the republican doctor of Smollett's Peregrine Pickle. He was elected a member of the Medical Society of Edinburgh in 1740. His ambitions already lay outside his profession, and his gifts as a speaker made him hope one day to enter parliament. In 1740 he printed his ``Ode on the Winter Solstice'' in a small volume of poems. In 1741 he left Edinburgh for Newcastle and began to call himself surgeon, though it is doubtful whether he practised, and from the next year dates his life-long friendship with Jeremiah Dyson (1722-1776). During a visit to Morpeth in 1738 he had conceived the idea of his didactic poem, ``The Pleasures of the Imagination.'' He had already acquired a considerable literary reputation when he came to London about the end of 1743, and offered the work to Dodsley for L. 120. Dodsley thought the price exorbitant, and only accepted the terms after submitting the Ms. to Pope, who assured him that this was ``no everyday writer.'' The three books of this poem appeared in January 1744. His aim, Akenside tells us in the preface, was ``not so much to give formal precepts, or enter into the way of direct argumentation, as, by exhibiting the most engaging prospects of nature, to enlarge and harmonize the imagination, and by that means insensibly dispose the minds of men to a similar taste and habit of thinking in religion, morals and civil life.'' Akenside's powers fell short of this lofty design; his imagination was not brilliant enough to surmount the difficulties inherent in a poem dealing so largely with abstractions; but the work was well received by the general public. His success was not unchallenged. Gray wrote to Thomas Wharton that it was ``above the middling,'' but ``often obscure and unintelligible and too much infected with the Hutchinson1 jargon.''

Into a note added by Akenside to the passage in the third book dealing with ridicule, William Warburton chose to read a reflexion on himself. Accordingly he attacked the author of the Pleasures of the Imagination---which was published anonymously--in a scathing preface to his Remarks on Several Occasional Reflections, in answer to Dr Middleton (1744). This was answered, nominally by Dyson, in An Epistle to the Rev. Mr Brarburton, in which Akenside no doubt had a hand. It was in the press when he left England in 1744 to secure a medical degree at Leiden. In little more than a month he had completed the necessary dissertation, De ortu et incremento foetus humani, and received his diploma. Returning to England he attempted without success to establish a practice in Northampton. In 1744 he published his Epistle to Curio, attacking William Pulteney (afterwards earl of Bath) for having abandoned his liberal principles to become a supporter of the government, and in the next year he produced a small volume of Odes on Several Subjects, in the preface to which he lays claim to correctness and a careful study of the best models. His friend Dyson had meanwhile left the bar, and had become, by purchase, clerk to the House of Commons. Akenside had come to London and was trying to make a practice at Hampstead. Dyson took a house there, and did all he could to further his friend's interest in the neighbourhood. But Akenside's arrogance and pedantry frustrated these efforts, and Dyson then took a house for him in Bloomsbury Square, making him independent of his profession by an allowance stated to have been L. 300 a year, but probably greater, for it is asserted that this income enabled him to ``keep a chariot,'' and to live ``incomparably well.'' In 1746 he wrote his much-praised ``Hymn to the Naiads,'' and he also became a contributor to Dodsley's Museum, or Literary and Historical Register. He was now twenty-five years old, and began to devote

1 The reference is to Francis Hutcheson (1604-1746), author of an inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725).

himself almost exclusively to his profession. He was an acute and learned physician. He was admitted M.D. at Cambridge in 1753, fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1754, and fourth censor in 1755. In June 1755 he read the Gulstonian lectures before the College, in September 1756 the Croonian lectures, and in 1759 the Harveian oration. In January 1759 he was appointed assistant physician, and two months later principal physician to Christ's Hospital, but he was charged with harsh treatment of the poorer patients, and his unsympathetic character prevented the success to which his undeniable learning and ability entitled him. At the accession of George III. both Dyson and Akenside changed their political opinions, and Akenside's conversion to Tory principles was rewarded by the appointment of physician to the queen. Dyson became societary to the treasury, lord of the treasury, and in 1774 privy Councillor and cofferer to the household.

Akenside died on the 23rd of June 1770, at his house in Burlington Street, where the last ten years of his life had been spent. His friendship with Dyson puts his character in the most amiable light. Writing to his friend so early as 1744, Akenside said that the intimacy had ``the force of an additional conscience, of a new principle of religion,'' and there seems to have been no break in their affection. He left all his effects and his literary remains to Dyson, who issued an edition of his poems in 1772. This included the revised version of the Pleasures of Imagination, on which the author was engaged at his death. The first book of this work defines the powers of imagination and discusses the various kinds of pleasure to be derived from the perception of beauty; the second distinguishes works of imagination from philosophy; the third describes the pleasure to be found in the study of man, the sources of ridicule, the operations of the mind, in producing works of imagination, and the influence of imagination on morals. The ideas were largely borrowed from Addison's essays on the imagination and from Lord Shaftesbury. Professor Dowden complains that ``his tone is too high-pitched; his ideas are too much in the air; they do not nourish themselves in the common heart, the common life of man.'' Dr Johnson praised the blank verse of the poems, but found fault with the long and complicated periods. Akenside's verse was better when it was subjected to severer metrical rules. His odes are very few of them lyrical in the strict sense, but they are dignified and often musical, while the few ``inscriptions'' he has left are felicitous in the extreme.

The best edition of Akenside's Poetical Works is that prepared (1834) by Alexander Dyce for the Aldine Edition of the British Poets, and reprinted with small additions in subsequent issues of the series. See Dyce's Life of Akenside prefixed to his edition, also Johnson's Lives of the Poets, and the Life, Writings and Genius of Akenside (1832) by Charles Bucke.

AKERMAN, JOHN YONGE (1806-1873), English antiquarian, distinguished chiefly in the department of numismatics, was born in Wiltshire. He became early known in connexion with his favourite study, having initiated the Numismatic Journal in 1836. In the following year he became the secretary of the newly established Numismatic Society. In 1848 he was elected secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, an office which he was compelled to resign in 1860 on account of failing health. Akerman published a considerable number of works on his special subject, the more important being a Catalogue of Roman Coins (1839); a Numismatic Manual (1840); Roman Coins relating to Britain (1844); Ancient Coins--Hispania, Gallia, Britannia (1846); and Numismatic Illustrations of the New Testament (1846). He wrote also a Glossary of Words used in Wiltshire (1842); Wiltshire Tales, illustrative of the Dialect (1853); and Remains of Pagan Saxondom (1855).

AKHALTSIKH (Georgian Akhaltsikhe, ``new fortress''), a fortified town of Russian Transcaucasia, government of Tiths, 68 m. E. of Batum, in 41 deg. 40' N. lat., 43 deg. 1' E. long., on a tributary of the Kura, at an altitude of 3375 ft. The new town is on the right bank of the river, while the old town and the fortress are on the opposite bank. There is trade in silk, honey and wax, and brown coal is found in the neighbourhood. The silver filigree work is famous. Pop. (1897) 15,387, of whom many were Armenians, as against 15,977 in 1867. From 1579 to 1828 Akhaltsikh was the capital of Turkish Armenia. In the last-mentioned year it was captured by the Russians. The Turks invested it in 1853.

AK-HISSAR (anc. Thyateira, the ``town of Thya''), a town situated in a fertile plain on the Gurduk Chai (Lycus), in the Aidin vilayet, 58 m. N.E. of Smyrna. Pop. about 20,000, Mussulmans forming two-thirds. Thyateira was an ancient town re-peopled with Macedonians by Seleucus about 290 B.C. It became an important station on the Roman road from Pergamum to Laodicea, and one of the ``Seven Churches'' of Asia (Rev. ii. 18), but was never a metropolis or honoured with a neocorate, though made the centre of a conventus by Caracalla. The modern town is connected with Smyrna by railway, and exports cotton, wool, opium, cocoons and cereals. The inhabitants are Greeks, Armenians and Turks. The Greeks are of an especially fine type, physical and moral, and noted all through Anatolia for energy and stability. W. M. Ramsay believes them to be direct descendants of the ancient Christian population; but there is reason to think they are partly sprung from more recent immigrants who moved in the 18th century from western Greece into the domain of the Karasmans of Manisa and Bergama, as recorded by W. M. Leake. Cotton of excellent quality is grown in the neighbourhood, and the place is celebrated for its scarlet dyes. Perebus Thyatirenorum (1893).

AKHMIM, or EKHMIM, a town of Upper Egypt, on the right bank of the Nile, 67 m. by river S. of Assiut, and 4 m. above Suhag, on the opposite side of the river, whence there is railway communication with Cairo and Assuan. It is the largest town on the east side of the Nile in Upper Egypt, having a population in 1007 of 25,795, of whom about a third were Copts. Akhmim has several mosques and two Coptic churches, maintains a weekly market, and manufactures cotton goods, notably the blue shirts and check shawls with silk fringes worn by the poorer classes of Egypt. Outside the walls are the scanty ruins of two ancient temples. In Abulfeda's days (13th century A.D.) a very imposing temule still stood here. Akhmim was the Egyptian Apu or Khen-min, in Coptic Shmin, known to the Greeks as Chemmis or Panopolis, capital of the 9th or Chemmite nome of Upper Egypt. The ithyphallic Min (Pan) was here worshipped as ``the strong Horus.'' Herodotus mentions the temple dedicated to ``Perseus'' and asserts that Chemmis was remark-. able for the celebration of games in honour of that hero, after

the manner of the Greeks, at which prizes were given; as a matter of fact some representations are known of Nubians and people of Puoni (Somalic coast) clambering up poles before the god Min. Min was especially a god of the desert routes on the

east of Egypt, and the trading tribes are likely to have gathered to his festivals for business and pleasure, at Coptos (which was really near to Neapolis, Kena) even more than at Akhmim. Herodotus perhaps confused Coptos with Chemmis. Strabo mentions linen-weaving as an ancient industry of Panopohs, and it is not altogether a coincidence that the cemetery of Akhmim is one of the chief sources of the beautiful textiles of Roman and Coptic age that are brought from Egypt. Monasteries abounded in this neighbourhood from a very early date; Shenout (Sinuthius), the fiery apostle and prophet of the Coptic national church, was a monk of Atrepe (now Suhag), and led the populace to the destruction of the pagan edifices. He died in 451; some years earlier Nestorius, the ex-patriarch, had succumbed perhaps to his persecution and to old age, in the neighbourhood of Akhmim. Nonnus, the Greek poet, was born at Panopolis at the end of the 4th century. (F. LL. G.)

AKHTAL [GHIYYTH IBN HYRITH} (c. 640-710), one of the most famous Arabian poets of the Omayyad period, belonged to the tribe of Taghlib in Mesopotamia, and was, like his fellow-tribesmen, a Christian, enjoying the freedom of his religion, while not taking its duties very seriously. Of his private life .few details are known, save that he was married and divorced, and that he spent part of his time in Damascus, part with his tribe in Mesopotamia. In the wars of the Taghhbites with the Qaisites he took part in the field, and by his satires. In the literary strife between his contemporaries Jarir and Lerazdaq he was induced to support the latter poet. Akhtal, Jarir and Ferazdaq form a trio celebrated among the Arabs, but as to relative superiority there is dispute. In the'Abbasid period there is no doubt that Akhtal's Christianity told against his reputation, but Abu'Ubaida placed him highest of the three on the ground that amongst his poems there were ten flawless qasidas (elegies), and ten more nearly so, and that this could not be said of the other two. The chief material of his poems consists of panegyric of patrons and satire of rivals, the latter being, however, more restraified than was usual at the time.

The Poetry of al-Akhtal has been published at the Jesuit press in Beirut, 1891. A full account of the poet and his times is given in H. Lammens' Le chantre des Omiades (Paris, 1895) (a reprint from the Journal Asiatique for 1894). (G. W. T.)

AKHTYRKA, a town of Russia, in the government of Kharkov, near the Vorskla river, connected by a branch (11 m.) with the railway from Kiev to Kharkov. It has a beautiful cathedral, built after a plan by Rastrelh in 1753, to which pilgrims resort to venerate an ikon of the Virgin. There are manufactures of light woollen stuffs and a trade in corn, cattle and the produce of domestic industries. The environs are fertile, the orchards producing excellent fruit. A fair is held on the 9th of May. The place was founded by the Poles in 1642. Pop. (1867) 17,411; (1900) 25,965.

AKKA (TIKEI-TIKKI), a race of African pygmies first seen by the traveller G. A. Schweinfurth in 1870, when he was in the Mangbettu country, N.W. of Albert Nyanza. The home of the Akka is the dense forest zone of the Aruwimi district of the Congo State. They form a branch of the primitive pygmy negroid race. and appear to be divided into groups, each with its own chief. Of all African ``dwarfs'' the Akka are believed the best representatives of the ``little people'' mentioned by Herodotus. Giovanni Miani, the Italian explorer who followed Schweinfurth, obtained two young Akka in exchange for a dog and a calf. These, sent to Italy in 1873, were respectively 4 ft. 4 in. and 4 ft. 8 in. high, while the tallest seen by Schweinfurth did not reach 5 ft. None of the four Akka brought to Europe in 1874 and 1876 exceeded 3 ft. 4 in. The average height of the race would seem to be somewhat under 4 ft., but sufficient measurements have not been taken to allow of a conclusive statement. Schweinfurth says the Akka have very large and almost spherical skulls (this last detail proves to be an exaggeration). They are of the colour of coffee slightly roasted, with hair almost the same colour, woolly and tufted; they have very projecting jaws, flat noses and protruding lips, which give them an ``ape-like'' appearance. Marked physical features are an abdominal protuberance which makes all Akka look like pot-bellied children, and a remarkable hollowing of the spine into a curve like an d. Investigation has shown that these are not true racial characteristics, but tend to disappear, the abdominal enlargement subsiding after some weeks of regular and wholesome diet. The upper limbs are long, and the hands, according to Schweinfurth, are singularly delicate. The lower limbs are short, relatively to the trunk, and curve in somewhat, the feet being bent in too, which gives the Akka a top heavy, tottering gait. There is a tendency to steatopygia among the women. The Akka are nomads, living in the forests, where they hunt game with poisoned arrows, with pitfalls and springs set everywhere, and with traps built like huts, the roofs of which, hung by tendrils only, fall in on the animal. They collect ivory and honey, manufacture poison, and bring these to market to exchange for cereals, tobacco and iron weapons. They are courageous hunters, and do not hesitate to attack even elephants, both sexes joining in the chase. They are very agile, and are said by the neighbouring negroes to leap about in the high grass like grasshoppers. They are timid as children before strangers, but are declared to be malevolent and treacherous fighters. In dress, weapons and utensils they are as the surrounding negroes. They build round huts of branches and leaves in the forest clearings. They seem in no way a degenerate race, but rather a people arrested in development by the forest environment. Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa (London, 1873); Dr W. Pleyte, Chapitres supplementaires du Livre des Morts, traduction et commontaire (Leiden, 1883); Sir H. H. Johnston, Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902).

AKKAD (Gr. versions aroad and achad), a Hebrew name, mentioned only once in the Old Testament (Gen. x. 10), for one of the four chief cities, Akkad, Babel, Erech and Calneh, which constituted the nucleus of the kingdom of Nimrod in the land of Shinar or Babylonia. This Biblical city, Akkad, was most probably identical with the northern Babylonian city known to us as Agade (not Agane, as formerly read), which was the principal seat of the early Babylonian king Sargon I. (Sargani-Sarali), whose date is given by Nabonidus, the last Semitic king of Babylonia (555-537 B.C.), as 3800 B.C., which is perhaps too old by 700 or 1000 years.i The probably non-Semitic name Agade occurs in a number of inscriptions2 and is now well attested as having been the name of an important ancient capital. The later Assyro-Babylonian Semitic form Akkadu (``of or belonging to Akkad'') is, in all likelihood, a Semitic loan form from the non-Semitic name Agade, and seems to be an additional demonstration of the identity of Agade and Akkad. The usual signs denoting Akkadu in the Semitic narrative inscriptions were read in the non-Semitic idiom uri-ki or ur-ki, ``land of the city,'' which simply meant that Akkadu was the land of the city par excellence, i.e. of the city of Agade of Sargon I., which remained for a long period the leading city of Babylonia.3

It is quite probable that the non-Semitic name Agade may mean ``crown (aga) of fire (de)''4 in allusion to Istar, ``the brilliant goddess,'' the tutelar deity of the morning and evening star and the goddess of war and love, whose cult was observed in very early times in Agade. This fact is again attested by Nabonidus, whose record 5 mentions that the Istar worship of Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, another personification of the Istar idea, whose shrine was at Sippar. It is significant in this connexion that there were two cities named Sippar, one under the protection of Shamash, the sun-god, and one under this Anunit, a fact which points strongly to the probable proximity of Sippar and Agade. In fact, it has been thought that Agade-Akkad was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was probably the oldest part of the city of Sippar.

In the Assyro-Babylonian literature the name Akkadu appears as part of the royal title in connexion with Sumer; viz. non-Semitic: lugal Kengi (ki) Uru (ki) = sar mat Sumeri u Akkadi, ``king of Sumer and Akkad,'' which appears to have meant simply ``king of Babylonia.'' It is not likely, as many scholars have thought, that Akkad was ever used geographically as a distinctive appellation for northern Babylonia, or that the name Sumer (q.v.) denoted the southern part of the land, because kings who ruled only over Southern Babylonia used the double title ``king of Sumer and Akkad,'' which was also employed by northern rulers who never established their sway farther south than Nippur, notably the great Assyrian conqueror Tiglathpileser III. (745--727 B.C..) Professor Mccurdy has very reasonably suggested 6 that the title ``king of Sumer and Akkad'' indicated merely a claim to the ancient territory and city of Akkad together with certain additional territory, but not necessarily all Babylonia, as was formerly believed.

A discussion of the interesting question relating to the non-Semitic so-called Sumero-Akkadian language and race will be found in the article SUMER.

1 Prince, Nabonidus, p. v. 2 in the Sargon inscriptions; Bab. Exped. of the Univ. of Penn. also xi. pl. 49, nr. 119 and in Nebuchadnezzar, col. ii. line 50 (Hilprecht, Freibrief Neb.); Cun. Texts from Bab. Tablets, pl. 1, nr. 91146, line 3. 3Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, i. pp. 365, 373-374. 4 prince, ``Materials for a Sumerian Lexicon,'' pp. 23, 73, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1906. 5 I. Rawl. 69, col. ii. 48 and iii. 28. 6 History, Prophecy and the Monuments, i. sec. 110.

LITERATURE.---Schmder, Zur Frage n. d. Ursprung d. altbab. Kultur (1883); Keilinschriften und Geschichteforschung, pp. 533 fr; Fried. Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? (1881), p. 198; Paul Haupt, Akkadische und Sumerische Keilschrifttexte (1881), pp. 133 ff.; Die Sumerische Akkadische Sprache, Verh. 5-ten Orient. Cong. ii. pp. 249-287; Die sumerischen Familiengesetze (1879); Zimmern, Babylonische Busspsalmen (1885), pp. 71 f.; Hommel, Gesch. Bab. Assyr. (1885), pp. 240 ff.; Tiele, Bab. Assyr. Gesch. (1888), p. 68; W. H. Ward, Hebraica (1886), pp. 79-86; Mccurdy, Presb. and Ref. Review, Jan. 1891, pp. 58-81; History, Prophecy and the Monuments (1894), sec. sec. 79-85, 94-110; Hugo Winckler, Untersuchungen zur altorientallischen Geschichte (1886), pp. 65 ff. In Rabbinical literature, Louis Ginzberg, in Monatschrift, xliii. 486; and Jewish Encyclopaedia, i. p. 149. (J. D. PR.)

AKKERMAN (in old Slav. Byelgorod, ``white town''), a town, formerly a fortress, of south-west Russia, in the government of Bessarabia, situated on the right bank of the estuary (liman) of the Dniester, 12 m. from the Black Sea. The town stands on the site of the ancient Milesian colony of Tyras. Centuries later it was rebuilt by the Genoese, who called it Mauro Castro. The Turks first acquired possession of it in 1484. It was taken by the Russians in 1770, 1774 and 1806, but each time returned to the Turks, and not definitely annexed to Russia until 1881 . A treaty concluded here in 1826 between Russia and the Porte secured considerable advantages to the former. It was the non-observance of this treaty that led to the war of 1S28. The harbour is too shallow to admit vessels of large size, but the proximity of the town to Odessa secures for it a thriving business in wine, salt, fish wool and tallow. The salt is obtained from the saline lakes (limans) in the neighbourhood. The town, with its suburbs, contains beautiful gardens and vineyards. It is surrounded by ramparts, and commanded by a citadel. Pop. (1900) 32,470.

AKMOLINSK, one of the governments belonging to the governor-generalship of the Steppes in Asiatic Russia, formerly known as the Kirghiz Steppe; bounded by the government of Turgai on the W., by that of Tobolsk on the N., of Semi-palatinsk on the E., and of Syr-darya on the S. Area 229,544 sq. m., of which 4535 are lakes. In the north the government is low and dotted with salt lakes, and is sandy on the banks of the Irtysh in the north-east. An undulating plateau stretches through the middle, watered by the Ishim and its tributary the Nura. The plains gradually rise southwards, where a broad spur of the Tarbagatai mountains stretches north-westwards, containing gold, copper and coal. Many lakes, of which the largest is Teniz, are scattered along the northern slope of these hills. Farther south, towards Lake Balkash, on the southeastern frontier, is a wide waterless desert, Bek-pak-dala, or Famine Steppe. This section of the government is drained by the Sary-su and Chu, the latter on the southern boundaryline. The climate is continental and dry, the average temperatures at the town of Akmolinsk being for the year 35 deg. , January 1.5 deg. , July 70 deg. ; rainfall, only 9 in. The population, which was 686,863 in 1897 (324,587 women), consists chiefly of Russians in the northern and middle portions, and of Kirghiz (about 350,000), who breed cattle, horses and sheep. The urban population was only 74,069. Agriculture is successfully carried on in the north, the Siberian railway running between Petropavlovsk and Omsk through a very fertile, well-populated region. Steamers ply on the Irtysh. The government is divided into five districts, the chief towns of which are: Omsk (pop. 53,050 in 1900), formerly capital of West Siberia, now capital of this government and also of the governor-generalship of the Steppes; Akmolinsk, or Akmolly (9560 in 1897), on the Ishim, 260 m. S.S.W. of Omsk, and chief centre for the caravans coming from Tashkent and Bokhara; Atbasar (3030); Kokchetav (5000); and Petropavlovsk (21,769 in 1901).

AKOLA, a town and district of India, in Berar, otherwise known as the Hyderabad Assigned Districts. The town is on the Murna tributary of the Purna river, 930 ft. above the sea, Akola proper being on the west bank, and Tajnapeth, containing the government buildings and European residences, on the east bank. It is a station on the Nagpur branch of the Great Indian Peninsula railway and is 383 m. E.N.E. of Bombay. It had a population (1901) of 29,289. It is walled, and has a citadel built in the early years of the 19th century. Akola is one of the chief centres of the cotton trade in Berar, and has numerous ginning factories and cotton presses. Among the educational establishments are a government high school, and an industrial school supported by a Protestant mission.

The DISTRICT OF AKOLA as. reconstituted in 1905 has an area of 4111 sq. n1.. the popi:lation of this area in 1901 being 754,804. (Before the alteration of the boundaries the area of the district was 2678 sq. m., and the population 582,540.) The surface of the country is generally flat, the greater part being situated in the central valley of Berar. On the north it is bounded by the Melghat hills. By the addition of Basim and Mangrul laluks in 1005, the district includes the eastern part of the Ajanta hills, with peaks rising to 2000 ft., and the tableland of Basim (q.v..) North of the Ajanta hills the country is drained eastward by the I,urna affluent of the Tapti and its tributaries. None of the rivers is navigable. The climate resembles that of Berar generally, but the beat during April to mid-June, when the rains begin, is very great, the average temperature at the town of Akola in May for the twenty-five years ending 1901 being 94.4 deg. F. But even during the hot season the nights are cool. The annual rainfall averages 34 in. In the Purna valley the soil is everywhere a rich lilack loam, and nearly the whole of the land is cultivated. Very little.land is under irrigation. The principal crop is cotton, and the staple grain millet. Wheat and pulses are also grown. The history of Akola is not distinguished from that of the other portions of Berar. In 1317--1318 it was added to the Delhi empire, became independent under the Bahmani dynasty in 1348, and in 1596 again fell under the sv'ay of the Moguls. In 1724 it came, with the rest of Berar, under the dominion of the nizam, being assigned to the British in 1853.

AKRON, a city and the county-seat of Summit county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Little Cuyaboga river, about 35 m. S. by E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 27,601; (1900) 42,728, of whom 7127 were foreign-born (3227 being German, 1104 English, and 641 Irish); (1910) 69,067. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the Erie, the Northern fj!:io, and the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus railways, by inter-urban electric lines and by the Ohio Canal. The city is situated in a region abounding in lakes, springs and hills; it is about 1000 ft. above sea-level, whence its name (from Oir. akron, height); and attracts many summer visitors. It is the seat of Buchtel College (co-educational; non-sectarian), which was founded by the Ohio Universalist Convention in 1870, was opened in 1872, and was named in honour of its most liberal benefactor, John R. Buchtel (18221802), a successful business man who did much to promote the industrial development of Akron. Buchtel College provides three courses leading to the degrees of A.B., Ph.B. and S.B.; it has a school of music, a school of art and an academy; in 1908 there were 267 students. Coal is mined in the neighbourhood. The river furnishes considerable water-power; and among the city's most important manufactures are rubber and elastic goods (value, 1905, $13,396,974; 83.9% of the total of this industry in the state and 21.3% of the total for the United States, Akron ranking first among the cities of the country in this industry), printing and publishing product (value, 1905, $2,834,639), foundry and machine-shop product (value, 1905, $2,367,764), and pottery, terra-cotta and fire-clay (value, 1905, $1,718,033; nearly twice the value of the output in 1900, Akron ranking fourth among the cities of the United States in this industry in 1905). Other important manufactures are food preparations (especially of oats) and flour and grist mill products. The value of the total manufactured products (under the ``factory'' system) in 1905 was $34,004,243, an increase in five years of 54.5%. Akron was settled about 1825, was incorporated as a village in 1836, was made the county-seat in 1842, and in 1865 was chartered as a city.

See S. N. Lane, Fifty Years and over of Akron and Sumnnit County (Akron, 1892).

AK-SHEHR (anc. Philomelioii), a town in Asia Minor, in the Ronia vilayet, situated at the edge of a fertile plain, on the north side of the Sultan Dagh. Philomelion was probably a Pergamenian foundation on the great Graeco-Roman highway from Ephesus to the east, and to its townsmen the Smyrniotes wrote the letter that describes the martyrdom of Polycarp. Cicero, on his way to Cilicia, dated some of his extant correspondence there; and the place played a considerable part in the frontier wars between the Byzantine emperors and the sultanate of Rum. It became an important Seljuk town, and late in the 14th century passed into Ottoman hands. There Bayezid Yilderim is said by Ali of Yezd to have died after his defeat at Angora. The place still enjoys much repute among Turks, as the burialplace of Nur-ed-din Khoja. The town has a station on the Anatolian railway, about 60 m. from Afium-Rara-Hissar and 100 m. from Konia.

AKSU (White Water), a town of the Chinese empire, Eastern Turkestan, in 41 deg. 7' N. and 79 deg. 7' E. of Uch-Turfan and 270 m. N.E. of Yarkand, near the left bank of the Aksu river, which takes its origin in the Tien-shan (Tian-shan) mountains and joins the Tarim. It belongs to the series of oases (Uch-Turfan, Bai, Koucha, &c.) situated at the southern foot of the eastern Tien-shan mountains. The tov'n, which is supposed to have about 6000 houses, is enclosed by a wall. It is an important centre for caravan routes and has a considerable trade. There are some cotton manufactures; and the place is celebrated for its richly ornamented saddlery made from deerskin. A Chinese garrison is stationed here, and copper and iron are wrought in the neighbourhood by exiled Chinese criminals. Extensive cattle-breeding is carried on by the inhabitants.