is less forcible than that of Raphael; it has something of the tone of Barocci's pictures. There are in Perugia, a Birth of Christ at San Francesco, and a Madonna and Child at the Augustine convent, which are much praised; there is also at the Conventual Friars a picture of a Crucifix between St. Apollonia and St. Gerome, painted by father and son conjointly, very highly spoken of by Mariotti. They both painted in oil and in fresco. Orazio was the first president of the Academy of Arts of Perugia, instituted in 1573.

Titi in his account of the pictures in Rome mentions an Emmanuele Alfani who in the time of Clement XII. painted a Magdalen for the church of SS. Celso and Giuliano in Rome. (Mariotti, Lettere Pittoriche Perugine; Lanzi, Storia Pittorica della Italia.)

R. N. W. ALFARA'BIUS is the Latinized surname of a celebrated Arabian philosopher named Abú Nasr Mohammed Ibn Mohammed Ibn Auzlagh Ibn Tarkhán Al-turkí and Alfarábí, because he was a native of Faráb, now Otrár, in Mawar-an-nahr or Tranxoxiana, He was a Turcoman by origin, but quitted his country in order to acquire a more perfect knowledge of the Arabic language, and to study the works of the great philosophers. He studied principally at Baghdad, under an Aristotelian professor named Abú Bashr Matti, who was a Christian by origin, as well as under Yuhanná Ibn Jeylán, another celebrated professor of the same creed. In a short time he surpassed all his fellowscholars, and acquired great reputation by his writings. After a visit to Egypt, where he went in A. H. 330 (A. D. 941–2), Alfarabius settled at Damascus, where the Sultan Seyfud-daulah Ibn Hamadán, founder of the dynasty called the Bení Hamadán, took him under his patronage and conferred upon him many honours and emoluments. Yet, either from his love of science, or from a natural gloominess of temper, Alfarabius could seldom be persuaded to accept the favours of his sovereign; he preferred solitude and an abstemious life to comforts and luxuries. Ibn Abí Ossay bi'ah says that although through the liberality of Seyfu-d-daulah, Alfarabius was entitled to a very considerable pension upon his treasury, he would never receive any sum beyond what he judged necessary for his daily support and the purchase of books, namely, four dirhams of silver. The same writer adds, that when Alfarabius presented himself before Seyfu-d-daulah for the first time, the latter wishing to amuse himself at the expense of the philosopher communicated his intention to one of his favourites in Turkish; but he was much surprised when Alfarabius told him that he understood what he had said, and could, if necessary, address him in seventy different languages. The conversation then turned on the sciences in ge

neral, when Alfarabius delivered his opinion with such learning and eloquence that the literary men present were struck with astonishment, and began eagerly to note down every word he said. He then took a lute and played a tune of his own composition, which so delighted Seyfu-d-daulah and the rest of the assembly that they involuntarily left their seats and surrounded him. Alfarabius lived in great intimacy with Seyfu-d-daulah until he died in A. H. 339 (A.D. 950); his death was so much felt by that sultan, that on the day of his funeral he walked behind his bier with the principal officers of his court. Alfarabius wrote up

wards of sixty different works on philosophy, dialectic, physic, metaphysics, music, optics, astronomy, &c. He had a great predilection for Aristotle, whose Metaphysics, he himself informs us, he had read forty times in the original without understanding them. The works of Alfarabius were very popular among the Arabs as well as among the Jews, who began about that time to study the Aristotelian philosophy. Some of them were translated into Hebrew, and thence into Latin. Two works seem principally to have established the reputation of Alfarabius among his countrymen: one is the "Ihssá-l-'olúm" ("Review of the Sciences"), a species of cyclopædia, of which there is a copy in the library of the Escurial (No. DCXLIII.); the other is a parallel of the philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle. He wrote also a work on music, entitled "Istikasát 'ilm Músike" ("Elements of Music"), in which he treats of the principles of the art, the union of voices and instruments, and the various kinds of musical composition, together with the musical notes of the Arabs, and upwards of thirty figures of their musical instruments. (Bib. Esc. No. 906.) The description of this valuable manuscript, given in Casiri (Bib. Arab. Hisp. Esc. i. 347.), suggested to Andres (Origine è progressi d'ogni Letteratura, ix. 122.) and to Laborde (Essai sur la Musique ancienne et moderne, i. 177–182.) the idea that the old mode of teaching music, by what is usually called sol-fa-ing, was borrowed from the Moors of Spain, whose notes, it is asserted, were called la, mi, ré, fa, pé, mi, sol, fa, ut. The life of Alfarabius is given at length in Ibn Abí Ossay bi'ah, who counts him among the Arabian physicians.

Two short treatises of Alfarabius, one on what students ought to know before they undertake the philosophy of Aristotle, the other entitled "Oyúnu-l-masáyel" ("Fontes Quæstionum"), were published, in 1836, at Bonn, with a Latin translation and notes by Dr. Augustus Schmoelders, 8vo. (Documenta Philosophiæ Arabum ex Cod. MS. edidit, &c.; Abú-l-faraj, Hist. Dyn. p. 315.; Ibn Abí Ossay bi'ah, 'Oyúnu-l-anbá fí tabakáti-l-atabá, or The Lives of the Arabian Physicians, MS. British Museum, No. 7340. fol. 159. verso;

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Casiri, Bib. Arab. Hisp. Esc. i. 190.; D'Herbelot, Bib. Orient. voc. "Farabi," "Saifoldaulat;" Rossi, Dizionario Storico degli Autori Arabi, p. 71.) P. de G. AL-FARAZDA'K is the surname of a celebrated Arabian poet, whose name was Abú Firás Hamám, or Humeym Ibn Ghálib, who lived in the seventh century of our æra. His father Ghalib was the chief of the tribe of Temím, who had their domicile near Kúfah. He is considered by the Arabs one of their best poets, and was the master of another poet of the same tribe named Jerír Ibn 'Atiyah At-temímí. He wrote several poems, which after his death were collected into a díwán, but which are only known to us through the extracts given by Ath-tha'a'lebí in his "Yatímatu-d-dahr," or Lives of the Arabian Poets, (Brit. Mus. No. 9578.) and by Ibn Khallekán in his Biographical Dictionary of Illustrious Men. Being a zealous partisan of the house of 'Ali, whom he praised in several of his poems, Al-farazdák was exposed to much ill treatment on the part of the Bení Umeyyah, who had usurped the khalifate. Upon one occasion Suleymán, the seventh khalif of that race, having observed whilst in the temple at Mecca that the crowd of pilgrims who filled the avenues of the Ka'bah were respectfully making room for a man modestly dressed, but who was no other than Zeynu-l-'abadín, the grandson of 'Ali, he inquired of one of his courtiers who the man was who seemed to be the object of so much veneration. Whilst the courtier, who did not know Zeynu-l-'abadín, was trying to ascertain his name and condition, Al-farazdák approached the khalif and delivered extempore a long ode, which is considered one of his finest productions, in which he told him who Zeynu-l-'abadín was, and in which he did not fail to hint that the khalifate belonged by right to him as the descendant of 'Ali. Suleymán was highly displeased, and sent the poet to prison Al-farazdák died at Basrah between A. H. 110 and 114 (A. D. 728-33.) razdák is the plural of " Farazdakah," a dumpling, and Abú Firás was so named because he was short and fat. (Ibn Khallekán, Biog. Dict. Tyd. Ind. No. 788.) P. de G. ALFARO, FRANCISCO, a celebrated Spanish silversmith, who lived at Seville in the latter part of the sixteenth century. In 1586 he made a tabernacle of silver, gilt, for the parochial church of St. John in the city of Marchena, for which he was paid fourteen hundred pounds: it was still preserved in that church in the time of Bermudez, in 1800. In 1596 Alfaro made the magnificent silver tabernacle, partly gilt, which is placed over the great altar of the cathedral of Seville; it is of an oval form, with columns round about it, and statues of angels and the prophets, and on the door of the sanctuary is a bas-relief representing the Israelites gather

Fa

ing the manna. He made also the two silver desks or stands for the communion service; on that for the Gospels is a medal with a representation of the Lamb upon the book of the seven seals; on that for the Epistles is one containing a representation of the conversion of St. Paul. All these works of Alfaro, says Bermudez, are designed with great taste, and executed with the utmost delicacy. (Bermudez, Diccionario Historico de los mas Ilustres Profesores de las Bellas Artes en España.) R. N. W.

ALFARO Y GAMEZ, DON JUAN DE, a celebrated Spanish historical and portrait painter, born at Cordova in 1640; he first studied with Antonio del Castillo in Cordova, and afterwards went to Madrid and entered the school of Velazquez, whose style in portraits he imitated. Velazquez also procured him the permission to copy some of the masterpieces in the royal gallery in the palace of Madrid, where Alfaro made several copies after Rubens, Titian, and Vandyck, by which means he acquired a great facility and brilliancy of colouring, but his acquirements went no further. Shortly after he had made these copies he returned to Cordova, where his first performance of any extent was a series of pictures illustrating the life of San Francisco in the cloister of the convent of that saint. In the composition of these pictures he availed himself of the assistance of some prints, yet he wrote very conspicuously upon each "Alfaro pinxit;" a piece of vanity which so much disgusted his old master Castillo that he procured permission to paint a picture in the same cloister, and wrote upon it in the same manner "Non pinxit Alfaro," which created much mirth in Cordova, and it became a proverb amongst its painters.

He painted also at Cordova, an Incarnation for the oratory of the barefooted Carmelites; and the portrait of the Bishop Juan de Alarcon, and made copies of the portraits of his predecessors for that prelate. Alfaro now married and returned to Madrid, where he met with great encouragement both in history and in portrait painting; his best historical piece was a guardian angel painted in a chapel in the church of San Isidoro. He lived in the house of his patron, Pedro de Arce, whose portrait he painted, and that of his wife. He painted also for him portraits of the famous Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and of other poets and writers who were in the habit of frequenting the house of Arce; besides other pictures, copies and originals. Calderon's portrait was placed over his tomb in the church of San Salvador; but this was after Alfaro's death. Calderon died in 1681.

Alfaro had another valuable patron in the admiral of Castile, with whom he also lived. and who honoured him with his confidence and friendship. When, however, the admiral

was disgraced and banished in 1677, Alfaro declined to accompany him in his banishment, and returned to Cordova, where he married a second time, and executed several private and public works. He repaired however again to Madrid in 1680, when the admiral was again restored to favour, and hastened to visit his former patron, but the admiral refused to see him; a disappointment which had such an effect upon Alfaro, already suffering under nervous irritability, that it caused his death very shortly afterwards, in 1680, in the fortieth year of his age. Alfaro was a man of considerable literary acquirements, and a poet. As a painter his chief merit consisted in a brilliancy of colouring, and his most excellent works were his small portraits in oil, which are still held in esteem. He paid little attention to drawing, but Bermudez says that in the degenerate time for the arts in which Alfaro lived, an attractive brilliancy of colouring was all that a painter required, to become famous. Palomino y Velasco compiled his lives of Becerra, Cespedes, and Velazquez, from manuscripts of Alfaro. (Palomino, El Parnaso Español Pintoresco lauredo, con las Vidas de los Pintores y Estatuarios eminentes Españoles; Bermudez, Diccionario Historico, &c.) R. N. W. AL-FATAH or AL-FATH IBN KHAKA'N (Abú Nasr Mohammed Ibn 'Obeydillah Al-kaysí), a celebrated philologist, was born at Seville in Spain, about the close of the eleventh century of our æra. Few particulars of his life are known, except that he visited Cordova and other cities of Spain, and that he crossed over to Africa, where he resided at the court of 'Ali Ibn Yusuf, the second sultan of the Almoravides, and that he was put to death at Marocco in A. H. 529 (A. D. 1134-5), by the command of Abú-l-hasan 'Ali Ibn Yusuf Ibn Táshefín, the reigning sultan. He wrote a work entitled "Mattmahu-1-anfus wa masrahu-ttánnus fí milhi-ahli-l-andalus" ("Spot of Recreation for the Eyes, and Field for Familiarity and Acquaintance: On the witty Sayings of the Andalusians, or Spanish Moslems"), which is a biography of eminent poets, natives of Spain, with copious extracts from their poems. The work is divided into four "aksám," or parts: the first treating of the kings and princes, seven in number; the second, of the vizírs, in all thirty-seven; the third, of the kádhis, theologians and doctors, containing twenty-three articles; the fourth, of twenty-four poets and literary men not belonging to any of the above classes. Alfáth wrote another work, entitled "Kaláyidu-l-'ikiyán fí maháseni-l-'ayán" ("Gold Chains: On the laudable Actions of the Illustrious"), which is an abstract of the former, the only difference being that the "Mattmah" contains more lives than the "Kaláyid," and that the latter work is confined to those poets who lived in the author's time,

| whilst the former contains the lives of many who lived as early as the tenth century. Which of the two was written first is a fact not ascertained, but it is probable that the "Kaláyid," or smaller work, was written first, and that Al-fáth, seeing its success, determined upon enlarging it. Both were dedicated to Abú Is'hák Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf Ibn Táshefín, brother to the sultan at whose court Al-fáth was residing.

The work of Al-fáth has in itself little or no historical value, being mostly composed of extracts from the works of eminent poets born in Spain, preceded by short notices of their lives. Even these are almost destitute of such data as might throw light upon the history of the times; the birthplace, profession, and age of the poet being often omitted, and most of the articles containing nothing but extravagant praises of the individuals to whom they are consecrated. As a literary production, however, it is considered by the best Arabian critics to possess undeniable merit; and Ibn Khaldún, in his Historical Prolegomena, in the chapter treating of the cultivation of letters among the western Arabs, pronounces it to be the best work of its kind. It is written throughout in rhymed prose, strewn with metaphorical expressions, which make its perusal a matter of great labour and difficulty: it is nevertheless a valuable production for those who wish to acquire a profound knowledge of the Arabic language, or to inquire into the state of poetical literature among the Arabs and Moors of Spain. As-safadí, in his "Wáfí bi-l-wafiyyát" (a Biography of illustrious Moslems of all countries), describes Ibn Khakán as a man of great talents and merits, as a poet and a grammarian, but of dissipated habits and low morals. He says that when he had fixed upon the composition of his work, he addressed himself to all the eminent poets, distinguished authors, and learned men of his time, announcing to them his intention of writing a book, and begging them to send him such of their compositions as they wished to have inserted. Fearing his satirical propensities, most of them complied with his request, and sent him, with their verses, a present in money, by which means they ensured his praises: those who did not openly bribe him, he treated in the most severe manner. There are copies of the

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Kaláyid" in almost every public library in Europe, the work having always been, and being still, in great repute all over the East. (Bib. Par. 734.; Bib. Bodl. 706.; Bib. Lugd. Bat. 1450.; Bib. Esc. 436.) There is likewise a splendid copy of it in the Radcliffe library, Oxford, which belonged formerly to Sale, the translator of the Korán. The copies of the "Mattmah" are not so common, and we only know of a very indifferent one in the British Museum (Add. MSS. No. 9580.). Some valuable extracts from the "Kaláyid" have

by Hebrew abbreviation Hareph ("), which signifies Harab Jitzchack Phes (the Rabbi Isaac Fez). He was born in the year of the world, according to the Jewish computation, 4773 (A. D. 1013), at a village called Kelaa Chamad (D), not far from Fez in Africa, whence he derived his surname (Alphesi), the Alfezite. After passing a long life in his native country, where he was employed until the age of seventy-five in teaching the Talmudic institutions and traditions to his Hebrew countrymen, and foreign Jews, who flocked from all parts to the city of Fez to benefit by his instruction, he was constrained by the intrigues of an adversary called Calpha ben Allaagab, and to the great grief of his numerous disciples and friends, to forsake his native land, and to seek a new home. Crossing the Straits of Gibraltar, he landed in Spain, and travelled to the city of Cordova, then the capital of the Moorish kingdom of Cordova, and the great seat of Jewish learning, where he arrived A. M. 4848 (A. D. 1088). He was received with great honour by Rabbi Joseph ben Meir ben Sartamigas, who was at that time Resh Gelutha (prince of the captivity, or head of the Jewish nation and synagogue in that city). Here he continued for some time, lecturing on the various books of the Talmud. He attracted a crowd of admiring disciples, but his superior talents also excited envy. In order to enjoy that tranquillity in search of which he had already abandoned his country, he removed from Cordova to the neighbouring town of Alusina, most probably the modern Luçena, where he established a college and synagogue. The fame of his great learning attracted disciples from all parts of the Peninsula. Here he continued to lecture on the oral law of the Jews for nearly sixteen years, and here he closed his long and laborious life, in the year A. M. 4863 (A.D. 1103), having attained the age of ninety years. According to Abraham ben Dior, this event took place on a sabbath day in the month Nisan (March); but at the end of the third volume of the folio edition of his works printed at Venice, A.D. 1521, his death is thus recorded: "The Holy Ark, the great Master (Rab), the Prince of the Captivity, Ariel, our Master Isaac Alfesi of blessed memory, was veiled or hidden on the sabbath day the eleventh of the month Ijar (April), in the town of Alusina, in the year of the Creation 4863." After this follows his epitaph, which is translated in the Latin version of the "Tzemach David," by Vorstius, p. 133., but more correctly rendered by Carpzovius in his notes to Shickard's "Jus Regium Hebræorum," cap. 2. p. 88.

To do justice to the great reputation of Isaac Alfez, and the high estimation in which he has always been held by his nation, without fatiguing the reader with the endless eulogiums of almost all the Jewish writers

by whom he is mentioned, we here insert a short extract from the Nomologia of R. Immanuel Aboab, who thus speaks of Alfez and his great work :— "The most excellent Rabbi Isaac Alphesi, who came over from Fez into Spain in the year 4848, being of the age of seventy-five, by whose arrival the academy of Cordova became more illustrious, which at that time was famous for its learned men, and especially for four of his own name, Isaac. . . . The Señor Rabbi Isaac Alphesi above-named we commonly call Rab Alfez, and we study his works in our schools (Jeshiboth) universally. In the perfection of pure doctrine, and in everything conformable to the Talmud, he resolves every question with clearness and decision, omitting those things we do not make use of in our captivity, as those precepts which concern the Temple, the holy sacrifices, and other like matters, and treating on those things of which we do make use with marvellous perfection, embracing, discussing all which the " Geonim" and wise men his predecessors have declared concerning them so fully, that his books are called the Lesser Talmud, and he is, therefore, the one among our doctors whom we most consult and study. This excellent and holy man lived ninety years, at the end of which he departed to enjoy eternal glory, in the year four thousand eight hundred and sixty-three of the Creation, in the town which is now called Luçena, distant from Cordova ten leagues, on the sabbath day, the eleventh of the month Yiar."

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The great work of Rab Alfez, which is also called the "Lesser Talmud " by Abraham ben Dior in the " Sepher Hakkabbala," is sometimes called simply “ Alphesi” (“The Alphesite"), sometimes "Hilcuth or Halacoth Rab Alfez (" The Institutions of Rab Alfez"), and in some editions" Sepher Rab Alfez " ("The Book of Rab Alfez"). It may be considered as a compendious abbreviation of the Talmud, omitting only those portions which are inapplicable to the present political state of the Jews. This work of Rab Alfez was read and taught in all the synagogues and schools of the Jews in Spain, who were prohibited by the Catholic kings from reading the Talmud. It thus soon came to the hands of R. Solomon Jarchi, who was contemporary with Alfez, and who immediately wrote a commentary on it.

The "Sepher Rab Alfez" was first printed at Constantinople A. M. 5269 (A.D. 1509) in folio, and is very rare. The edition of A. M. 5254 (A. D. 1494), cited by Wolff and other bibliographers, is spurious, as is proved by De Rossi in his "Annali Ebreo-Tipogr. del Secolo xv." The second edition was printed at Venice, three large folio volumes in one, by Daniel Bomberg; vol. i. A. M. 5281 (A. D. 1521), and vols. ii. and iii. A. M. 5282 (A. D. 1522). The First volume contains, in a large square Hebrew letter, the Mishna