(Josem), a place to the north-east of the Sea of Tiberias or
near Manbij (Hierapolis). He seems to have spent his youth
in Homs, though, according to one story, he was employed
during his boyhood in selling water in a mosque in Cairo.
His first appearance as a poet was in Egypt, but as he failed
to make a living there he went to Damascus and thence to
Mosul. From this place he made a visit to the governor of
Armenia, who awarded him richly. After 833 he lived mostly in
Bagdad, at the court of the caliph Mo,tasim. From Bagdad he
visited Khorassan, where he enjoyed the favour of Abdallah ibn
Tahir. About 845 he was in Ma'arrat un Nu`man, where he met
Buhturi. He died in Mosul. Abu Tammam is best known in
literature as the compiler of the collection of early poems
known as the Hamasa (q.v..) Two other h collections of
a similar nature are ascribed to him. His own poems I
have been somewhat neglected owing to the success of his
compilations, but they enjoyed great repute in his lifetime,
and were distinguished for the purity of their style, the merit
of the verse and the excellent manner of treating subjects.
His poems (Diwan) were published in Cairo (A.D. 1875).
See Life in Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary,
trans. by M`G. de Slane (Paris and London, 1842), vol. i.
pp. 348 ff.; and in the Kitab ul-Aghani (Book of Songs)
of Abulfaraj (Bulaq, 1869), vol. xv. pp. 100-108. (G.W. T.)
ABUTILON (from the Arabic aubutilun, a name given by
Avicenna to this or an allied genus), in botany, a genus of
plants, natural order Malvaceae (Mallows), containing about
eighty species, and widely distributed in the tropics. They
are free-growing shrubs with showy bell-shaped flowers, and
are favorite greenhouse plants. They may be grown outside
in England during the summer months, but a few degrees of
frost is fatal to them. They are readily propagated from
cuttings taken in the spring or at the end of the summer. A
large number of horticultural varieties have been developed
by hybridization, some of which have a variegated foliage.
ABUTMENT, a construction in stone or brickwork designed to
receive and resist the lateral pressure of an arch, vault or
strut. When built outside a wall it is termed a buttress.
ABU UBAIDA [Ma,mar ibn ul-Muthanna] (728-825), Arabian
scholar, was born a slave of Jewish Persian parents in Basra,
and in his youth was a pupil of Abu,Amr ibn ul-,Ala. In
803 he was called to Bagdad by Harun al-Rashjd. He died in
Basra. He was one of the most learned and authoritative
scholars of his time in all matters pertaining to the Arabic
language, antiquities and stories, and is constantly cited by
later authors and compilers. Juhiz held him to be the most
learned scholar in all branches of human knowledge, and Ibn
Hisbam accepted his interpretation even of passages in the
Koran. The titles of 105 of his works are mentioned in the
Fihrist, and his Book of Days is the basis of parts of
the history of Ibn al-Athir and of the Book of Songs
(see ABULFARAJ), but nothing of his (except a song) seems to
exist now in an independent form. He is often described as a
Kharijite. This, however, is true only in so far as he
denied the privileged position of the Arab people before
God. He was, however, a strong supporter of the Shu'ubite
movement, i.e. the movement which protested against the
idea of the superiority of the Arab race over all others.
This is especially seen in his satires on Arabs (which made
him so hated that no man followed his bier when he died). He
delighted in showing that words, fables, customs, &c., which
the Arabs believed to be peculiarly their own, were derived
from the Persians. In these matters he was the great rival
of Asma'i (q.v..) M`G. de Slane (Paris and London, 1842),
vol. iii. pp. 388-398; also I. Goldziher's Muhammedanische
Studien (Halle, 1888), vol. i. pp. 194-206. (G. W. T.)
ABYDOS, an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, situated at
Nagara Point on the Hellespont, which is here scarcely a mile
broad. It probably was originally a Thracian town, but was
afterwards colonized by Milesians. Here Xerxes crossed the
strait on his bridge of boats when he invaded Greece. Abydos
is celebrated for the vigorous resistance it made against Philip
V. of Macedon (200 B.C.), and is famed in story for the loves
of Hero and Leander. The town remained till late Byzantine
times the toll station of the Hellespont, its importance being
transferred to the Dardanelles (q.v.), after the building
of the ``Old Castles'' by Sultan Mahommed II. (c. 1456).
See Choiseul-Gouffier, Voyage dans l'empire ottoman (Paris, 1842).
ABYDOS, one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt,
about 7 m. W. of the Nile in lat. 26 deg. 10' N. The Egyptian
name was Abdu, ``the hill of the symbol or reliquary,''
in which the sacred head of Osiris was preserved. Thence
the Greeks named it Abydos, like the city on the Hellespont;
the modern Arabic name is Arabet el Madfuneh. The history
of the city begins in the late prehistoric age, it having
been founded by the pre-Menite kings (Petrie, Abydos,
ii. 64), whose town, temple and tombs have been found
there. The kings of the Ist dynasty, and some of the IInd
dynasty, were also buried here, and the temple was renewed
and enlarged by them. Great forts were built on the desert
behind the town by three kings of the IInd dynasty. The
temple and town continued to be rebuilt at intervals down
to the times of the XXXth dynasty, and the cemetery was used
continuously. In the XIIth dynasty a gigantic tomb was
cut in the rock by Senwosri (or Senusert) III. Seti I. in
the XIXth dynasty founded a great new temple to the south
of the town in honour of the ancestral kings of the early
dynasties; this was finished by Rameses (or Ramessu) II., who
also built a lesser temple of his own. Mineptah (Merenptah)
added a great Hypogeum of Osiris to the temple of Seti. The
latest building was a new temple of Nekhtnebf in the XXXth
dynasty. From the Ptolemaic times the place continued to decay
and no later works are known (Petrie, Abydos, i. and ii.).
The worship here was of the jackal god Upuaut (Ophols,
Wepwoi), who ``opened the way'' to the realm of the dead,
increasing from the Ist dynasty to the time of the XIIth
dynasty and then disappearing after the XVIIIth. Anher
appears in the XIth dynasty; and Khentamenti, the god of the
western Hades, rises to importance in the middle kingdom and
then vanishes in the XVIIIth. The worship here of Osiris
in his various forms begins in the XIIth dynasty and becomes
more important in later times, so that at last the whole
place was considered as sacred to him (Abydos, ii. 47).
The temples successively built here on one site were nine
or ten in number, from the Ist dynasty, 5500 B.C. to the
XXVIth dynasty, 500 B.C.. The first was an enclosure,
about 30X 50 ft., surrounded by a thin wall of unbaked
bricks. Covering one wall of this came the second temple of
about 40 ft. square in a wall about 10 ft. thick. An outer
temenos (enclosure) wall surrounded the ground. This outer
wall was thickened about the IInd or IIIrd dynasty. The old
temple entirely vanished in the IVth dynasty, and a smaller
building was erected behind it, enclosing a wide hearth of black
ashes. Pottery models of offerings are found in the ashes,
and these were probably the substitutes for sacrifices decreed
by Cheops (Khufu) in his temple reforms. A great clearance of
temple offerings was made now, or earlier, and a chamber full
of them has yielded the fine ivory carvings and the glazed
figures and tiles which show the splendid work of the Ist
dynasty. A vase of Menes with purple inlaid hieroglyphs
in green glaze and the tiles with relief figures are the
most important pieces. The noble statuette of Cheops in
ivory, found in the stone chamber of the temple, gives
the only portrait of this greatest ruler. The temple was
rebuilt entirely on a larger scale by Pepi I. in the VIth
dynasty. He placed a great stone gateway to the temenos, an
outer temenos wall and gateway, with a colonnade between the
gates. His temple was about 40X50 ft. inside, with stone
gateways front and back, showing that it was of the processional
type. In the XIth dynasty Menthotp (Mentuhotep) III. added
a colonnade and altars. Soon after, Sankhkere entirely
rebuilt the temple, laying a stone pavement over the area,
about 45 ft. square, besides subsidiary chambers. Soon after
Senwosri (Senusert) I. in the XIIth dynasty laid massive
foundations of stone over the pavement of his predecessor. A
great temenos was laid out enclosing a much larger area, and
the temple itself was about three times the earlier size. .
The XVIIIth dynasty began with a large chapel of Amasis
(Ahmosi, Aahmes) I., and then Tethmosis (Thothmes, Tahutmes)
III. built a far larger temple, about 130X200 ft. He made
also a processional way past the side of the temple to the
cemetery beyond, with a great gateway of granite. Rameses III.
added a large building; and Amasis II. in the XXVIth dynasty
rebuilt the temple again, and placed in it a large monolith
shrine of red granite, finely wrought. The foundations of
the successive temples were comprised within about 18 ft.
depth of ruins; these needed the closest examination to
discriminate the various buildings, and were recorded by over
4000 measurements and 1000 levellings (Petrie, Abydos, ii.).
The temple of Seti I. was built on entirely new ground
half a mile to the south of the long series of temples just
described. This is the building best known as the Great
Temple of Abydos, being nearly complete and an impressive
sight. A principal object of it was the adoration of the early
kings, whose cemetery, to which it forms a great funerary
chapel, lies behind it. The long list of the kings of the
principal dynasties carved on a wall is known as the ``Table
of Abydos.'' There were also seven chapels for the worship of
the king and principal gods. At the back were large chambers
connected with the Osiris worship (Caulfield, Temple of the
Kings); and probably from these led out the great Hypogeum
for the celebration of the Osiris mysteries, built by Mineptah
(Murray, Osireion.) The temple was originally 550 ft. long,
but the forecourts are scarcely recognizable, and the part in
good state is about 250 ft. long and 350 ft. wide, including
the wing at the side. Excepting the list of kings and a
panegyric on Rameses II., the subjects are not historical but
mythological. The work is celebrated for its delicacy and
refinement, but lacks the life and character of that in earlier
ages. The sculptures have been mostly published in hand copy,
not facsimile, by Mariette in his Abydos, i. The adjacent
temple of Rameses II. was much smaller and simpler in plan; but
it had a fine historical series of scenes around the outside,
of which the lower parts remain. A list of kings, similar
to that of Seti, formerly stood here; but the fragments were
removed by the French consul and sold to the British Museum.
The Royal Tombs of the earliest dynasties were placed about
a mile back on the great desert plain. The earliest is about
10X20ft. inside, a pit lined with brick walls, and originally
roofed with timber and matting. Others also before Menes
are 15X25 ft. The tomb probably of Menes is of the latter
size. After this the tombs increase 111 size and complexity.
The tomb-pit is surrounded by chambers to hold the offerings,
the actual sepulchre being a great wooden chamber in the
midst of the brick-lined pit. Rows of small tomb-pits for the
