Page:The Oriental Biographical Dictionary.djvu/52

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'Ali 40 Al-Kaliir ' light of mercy' has descended on his soul, those -words represent the year of his departure." One of his works is called '• Majalis-ul-Nafaes." 'Ali Tabar, is^^ ^^Ij^) (Prince) was the son of prince 'Azim Shah, and grandson of the emperor 'Alamgrr. He died in the year 1734 A. D., 1147 A. H. 'Ali Waez, i^^i the son of the famous Husain Waez Kashifi of Hirat. Vide 'Alf son of Husain "Waez. 'Ali Wardi Khan, o^^lS^JJ ij-^s also called Alah- wardf Khan, which see. 'Ali Yezdi, CS'-^J'" U^"^} vide Sharaf-uddm 'Ali Yezdi. Alexander tlie Great, vide Sikandar Zul-karnyn. Al-Parghani, cs^'^t'^'j surname of Ahmad ibn Kathir or Kasir, an Arabian astronomer of the ninth century, author of an introduction to astronomy. Vide Farghani. Al-Faryabi, ijikj^^, vide Faryahf. Al- Ghazzali, c5- j'*-" ? vide Ghazzalf. 'Alha and Udal, J iji _j princes of Mahoba. There is a heroic ballad sung or recited by the Hindu sepoys in a kind of monotonous, but not unmusical sort of chaunt, accompanied by a sotto voce beat of the dhol, which rise to a constrepito in the pause between the ver- ses. Whoever has resided in a militajry cantonment must have frequently observed the sepoys, when disengaged from military duty, collected in small knots, listening to one of the party reciting some poem or tale to a deeply interested audience. The gubject of this lay is the prow- ess of 'Alha', the raja of Mahoba, a town in Bundelkhand, of which extensive ruins remain. The hero is described as the terror of the Muhammadans ; his triumphs over whom are attributed not only to his own valour, but the favor of the goddess Kali, whom he had propitiated by the offering of his life. There are many songs, it is said, of this prince, and his brother Udal, a warrior of equal esti- mation ; but they are preserved only traditionally by the Powars, and their amateur students. The verses are in Bhakha. Al-Hadi, LS'^^^} the fourth khalif of the house of 'Abbas succeeded his father al-Mahdi on the 4th of August, 785 A. D., 23rd Muharram, 169 H., to the throne of Baghdad. He reigned one year and one month, and having formed a design to deprive his younger brother Harun-al-Eashid of his right of succession and even to assassinate him, was poisoned by his prime minister about the month of Sep- tember 786 A. D., Eabi I, 170 A. H. On his death his brother the celebrated Harun-al-Eashid ascended the throne. Al-Hakm, also called ibn Abdul Hakm, an Arabian author who (according to the chronological arrangement of the Arab authorities by Howard Vyse and Dr. Sprenger, in the former's second volume of ' The Pyramids of Gizeh') lived about 1450 A. D., or six hundred years after the death of the khalif al-Mamun of Baghdad, but by a ma- nuscript note recorded by a gentleman of the British Museum, (1868) it appears that al-Hakm was nearly con- temporary with that prince who flourished between 813 and 842 A. D. Al-Hakm writes that the Great Pyramid in Egypt was built by a certain antediluvian king Saurid, and filled by him chiefly with celestial spheres and figures of the stars ; together with the perfumes used in their worship ; and that khalifa al-Mamun found the body of a man deposited, with jewels, arms, and golden writing, in the coffer, when he broke into the king's chamber of the Gi-eat Pyramid. But neither Abii Mushar Jafar bin Muhammad Balkhi, who wrote in about 890 A. D. nor ibn Khurdalbeh, in 920 A. D. have one word about al-Mamun, or any opening of the pyramid. But when we descend to Masaudi, in 967 A. D. he, after an astonishing amount of romancing on what took place at the building of the pjTamids 300 years before the Flood, — mentions that, not al-Mamun, but his father, khalifa Harun-al-Eashi'd, at- tempted to break into the Great Pyramid ; and after pe- netrating 20 cubits, found a vessel containing 1000 coins of the finest gold, each just one ounce in weight, and making up a sum which exactly repaid the cost of his operations ; at which, it is added, he greatly wondered. About the year 1170 A. D. or 340 years after al-Mamun's age, that prince is mentioned by Abu Abd-ullah Muham- mad bin Abdur Eahim Alkaisi, who states that he was informed that those who went into the upper parts of the Great Pyramid in the time of al-3Iamun, came to a small passage, containing the image of a man in green stone, and within that a human body with golden armour &c. &c. Al-Hasan, (^'^•==1 , an Arabian who wrote on optics, about the year 1100 A. D. Alif bin Nur Kashani, i^'^-^K'J^ lyf author of another " Matla'-ul- Anwar", besides the one of the same name written by MuUa Husain Waez. This is a complete history of Muhanmiad, his descendants, with Memoirs of the khalif s. Aljaitu, ->^^.'?^tj a Tartar king of Persia, who assumed the * title of Muhammad Khuda Banda on his accession to the throne, which see. Al-Eadir Billah, ^•'^ J-^^^-'t, the twenty-fifth khalif of the Abbaside family, was the son of Is-hak the son of Mu^^tadir Billah. He ascended the throne of Baghdad after the dethronement of al-Taya' in 991 A. D., 381 A. H. He was a contemporary of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni ; reigned 41 lunar years and 3 months, and died in 1031 A. D., 422 A. H. He was succeeded by al-Ka- em-bi-amr-illah. Al-Kadiri or Kadiri, isb^^^U sect of Muhammadans. These are a branch of the Muetazillis, and differ in their opinions from the orthodox Musalmans, in that they deny God's decree, and assert free will ; affirming that the contrary opinion makes God the author of evil. Al-Kaim Billah. or Al-Kaim-bi-amr-illah, j«jlaJ(^ surnamed Abu Ja'far Abdullah, the 26th khalif of the house of 'Abbas. He succeeded his father Kadir Billah to the throne of Baghdad in 1031 A. D., 422 A. H., reigned 44 lunar years and 8 months, and died in 1075 A. D., 467 A. H., which was soon after Sultan Malikshah the Saljuki had ascended the throne of Persia, and as that monarch was the real master of the empire, the nomina- tion of a successor was deferred till he was consulted. He deputed a son of his prime minister Nizam-ul-Mulk to Baghdad with ordeis to raise al-Muktadi the grandson of al-K&im to the (nominal) rank of the commander of the faithful. Al-Kaim, second khalif of the Fatimite race of Barbary; he succeeded his father Obeid-uUah al-Mahdi A. D. 924, 312 A. H. During his reign we read of noth- ing remarkable, except the revolt of Yezid ibn Kondat, a man of mean extraction. Al-Kaem" reigned nearly 12 years and died in A. D. 945, 334 A. H. His son Ismail al-Mansur succeeded him. Al-Kahir Billah, j^^h, the nineteenth khalif of the race of the Abbasides, and the third son of al-Mo'tazid Billah, succeeded his brother al-Muktadii- to the crown of Baghdad in October, 932 A. D., Shawwal, 320 A. H. He had reigned only one year five months and twenty-one days, when his wazir ibn Makla deprived him of his sight with a hot iron on Wednesday the 23rd April, 934 A. D.,