about 100 miles northeast, with a width of 12 to 17 miles (Map: Asia, C 6). Navigation is difficult on account of reefs and sudden squalls. The only good harbor is Golden Port, on the west shore, 33 miles from the entrance and 29 miles east of Mount Sinai.
AKAKIA, a'ka'k^-a',
Le Docteur. The name of a noted French physician of the sixteenth century (Martin Akakia, Grecized from the French name sans-malice), borrowed as a pseudonym by Voltaire in his Diatribe du Docteur Akakia. This was a brilliant satire, covering with ridicule Maupertuis and the Berlin Academy, of which he was president. King Frederick II., however, had it publicly burned (1752).
AKAMAGASEKI, a'ka-mU'ga-sa'kc-. See
Shimonoseki.
AKASHI, a-ka'she. A town of Japan, in the
prefecture of Hiogo, situated on the northern
coast of the Inland Sea, and giving its name to
the passage between Honshiu and the island of
Awaji (Map: Japan, D 6). It is a station on
the Sanyo Railway, and it lies twelve miles east
of Kobé, whose inhabitants go there for the sum-
mer. It contains a Shinto temple in honor of
the ancient poet Kaki-no-moto-no-Hitomaro, and
the remains of a moat and a large castle. Its
meridian is used for the standard time of Japan.
Pop., 1898, 21,196.
AKBAR, Uk'ber; Hind. pron. uk'ber (Ar.
very great), properly Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad
(1542-1605). Emperor of Hindustan, the great-
est Asiatic monarch of modern times. His
father, Humayun. was deprived of the throne by
usurpers, and fled for refuge to Persia. On his
way thither, in the town of Amerkote, Akbar
was born in 1542. Humayun recovered the
throne of Delhi in 1555, after an exile of twelve
years, but died within a year. The prince of
fourteen at first committed the administration to
Bahram Khan as regent minister, but finding
this authority degenerating into tyranny, he shook
it off by a bold stroke and took the power into
his own hands (1560). At this time only a few of
the many provinces once subdued by the Mongol
invaders were actually subject to the throne of
Delhi: in ten or twelve years Akbar's empire
embraced the whole of Hindustan north of the
Deccan. The wisdom, vigor, and humanity with
which he organized and administered his vast
dominions are unexampled in the East. He pro-
moted commerce by constructing roads, estab-
lishing a uniform system of weights and meas-
ures, and a vigorous police. He exercised the
utmost vigilance over his viceroys of provinces
and other officers, to see that no extortion was
practiced, and that justice was impartially ad-
ministered to all classes of his subjects. For the
adjustment of taxation, the lands were accurately
measured, and statistics were taken, not only of
the population, but of the resources of each prov-
ince, he also forbade child-marriage, permitted
the remarriage of widows, and endeavored to
stop the practice of suttee. In religion Akbar
was exceedingly liberal, largely on account of the
influence of the vizier Abu-l Fazl. He was fond
of inquiries as to religious beliefs, and invited
Portuguese missionaries from Goa to his court
to give an account of the Christian faith.
He even attempted to promulgate a new eclectic
religion of his own, which, however, never
took root. Literature received the greatest en-
couragement. Schools were established for the
education of both Hindus and Mohammedans; and numbers of Hindu works were translated from Sanskrit into Persian. Abu-l Fazl (q.v.), the able minister of Akbar, has left a valuable history of his master's reign, entitled Akbar Nāmah (History of Akbar): the third volume, containing a description of Akbar's empire, derived from the statisticial inquiries above mentioned, and entitled Ayīn-i-Akbar (Institutes of Akbar), has been translated into English by Gladwin (3 volumes, Calcutta, 1786, and London, 1800), and by Blochmann and Jarett (3 volumes, Calcutta, 1873-94). Akbar's latter days were embittered by the death of two of his sons from dissipation, and by the rebellious conduct of the third, Selim (known as Jehangir), who succeeded his father in 1605, and was suspected of being the cause of his death. Consult Malleson, Akbar, Rulers of India Series (Oxford, 1891-1901).
AKEE' (native name, its scientific name being Cupania or Blighia sapida). A fruit tree of the order Sapindaceæ, a native of tropical Africa, introduced into Jamaica in the latter part of the seventeenth century. It grows to a height of upward of 25 feet, with numerous branches and alternate pinnate leaves resembling those of the ash. The flowers are small, white, on axillary racemes; the fruit is about the size of a goose's egg, with three cells and three seeds, and its succulent aril has a grateful subacid flavor. The fruit is little inferior to a nectarine. Boiled down with sugar and cinnamon, it is used as a remedy for diarrhœa. The distilled water of the flowers is used by negro women as a cosmetic. The akee sometimes produces fruit in hothouses in Great Britain. In order to obtain this the roots should be cramped in pots. The Aki of New Zealand is a totally different plant, Metrosideros buxifolia, of the natural older Myrtaceæ, a shrub, which sends out lateral roots, and so attains the summits of the loftiest trees.
Fossil Forms. Under the names Cupanites and Cupanoides. several forms of fruits have been described from the Eocene clays, of the Tertiary age, of Great Britain.
AKEL’DAMA. See Aceldama.
À KEM'PIS, Thomas. See Kempis, Thomas À.
AKENE'. See Achene.
A'KENSIDE, Mark (1721-70). An English author of considerable celebrity in his own day, on account of his didactic poem, the Pleasures of the Imagination, and some medical works. He was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where his father was a butcher. Being intended for the Presbyterian Church, he was sent to study theology at Edinburgh, but soon abandoned it for medicine. He graduated as a physician at Leyden in 1744, and practiced at Northampton, then at Hampstead, and finally in London. His success as a practicing physician was never very great, owing, it is said, to his haughty and pedantic manner. He died in London, soon after being appointed one of the physicians to the Queen. At Leyden he had formed an intimacy with Jeremiah Dyson, and this rich and generous friend allowed him £300 a year. Some of his medical treatises, as that on dysentery, won for him distinction as a scholar. His later poetry, consisting chiefly of odes and hymns, did not attain the same reputation as his Pleasures of the Imagination, which was completed in his twenty-third
