Chapter VII: Front Matter (7)

BEKKER, AUGUST IMMANUEL (1785-1871), German philologist and critic, was born on the 21st of May 1785. He completed his classical education at the university of Halle under F.A. Wolf, who considered him as his most promising pupil. In 1810 he was appointed professor of philosophy in the university of Berlin. For several years, between 1810 and 1821, he travelled in France, Italy, England and parts of Germany, examining classical manuscripts and gathering materials for his great editorial labours. He died at Berlin on the 7th of June 1871. Some detached fruits of his researches were given in the _Anecdota Graeca_, 1814-1821; but the full result of his unwearied industry and ability is to be found in the enormous array of classical authors edited by him. Anything like a complete list of his works would occupy too much space, but it may be said that his industry extended to nearly the whole of Greek literature with the exception of the tragedians and lyric poets. His best known editions are: Plato (1816-1823), Oratores Attici (1823-1824), Aristotle (1831-1836), Aristophanes (1829), and twenty-five volumes of the Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. The only Latin authors edited by him were Livy (1829-1830) and Tacitus (1831). Bekker confined himself entirely to textual recension and criticism, in which he relied solely upon the MSS., and contributed little to the extension of general scholarship.

See Sauppe, _Zur Erinnerung an Meineke und Bekker_ (1872); Haupt,
"Gedachtnisrede auf Meineke und Bekker," in his _Opuscula_, iii.; E.I.
Bekker, "Zur Erinnerung an meinen Vater," in the _Preussisches
Jahrbuch_, xxix.

BEKKER, BALTHASAR (1634-1698), Dutch divine, was born in Friesland in 1634, and educated at Groningen, under Jacob Alting, and at Franeker. He was pastor at Franeker, and from 1679, at Amsterdam. An enthusiastic disciple of Descartes, he wrote several works in philosophy and theology, which by their freedom of thought aroused considerable hostility. His best known work _Die Betooverde Wereld_ (1691), or _The World Bewitched_ (1695; one volume of an English translation from a French copy), in which he examined critically the phenomena generally ascribed to spiritual agency, and attacked the belief in sorcery and "possession" by the devil, whose very existence he questioned. The book is interesting as an early study in comparative religion, but its publication in 1692 led to Bekker's deposition from the ministry. He died at Amsterdam.

BEKKER (or WOLFF), ELIZABETH (1738-1804), Dutch novelist, was married to Adrian Wolff, a Reformed clergyman, but is always known under her maiden name. After the death of her husband in 1777, she resided for some time in France, with her close friend, Agatha Deken. She was exposed to some of the dangers of the French Revolution, and, it is said, escaped the guillotine only by her great presence of mind. In 1795 she returned to Holland, and resided at the Hague till her death. Her novels were written in conjunction with Agatha Deken, and it is somewhat difficult to determine the exact qualities contributed by each. The _Historie van William Levend_ (1785), _Historie van Sara Burgerhart_ (1790), _Abraham Blankaart_ (1787), _Cornelie Wildschut_ (1793-1796), were extremely popular.

BEL, the name of a chief deity in Babylonian religion, the counterpart of the Phoenician Baal (q.v.) ideographically written as En-lil. Since Bel signifies the "lord" or "master" _par excellence_, it is, therefore, a title rather than a genuine name, and must have been given to a deity who had acquired a position at the head of a pantheon. The real name is accordingly to be sought in En-lil, of which the first element again has the force of "lord" and the second presumably "might," "power," and the like, though this cannot be regarded as certain. En-lil is associated with the ancient city of Nippur, and since En-lil with the determinative for "land" or "district" is a common method of writing the name of the city, it follows, apart from other evidence, that En-lil was originally the patron deity of Nippur. At a very early period--prior to 3000 B.C.--Nippur had become the centre of a political district of considerable extent, and it is to this early period that the designation of En-lil as Bel or "the lord" reverts. Inscriptions found at Nippur, where extensive excavations were carried on during 1888-1900 by Messrs Peters and Haynes, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, show that Bel of Nippur was in fact regarded as the head of an extensive pantheon. Among the titles accorded to him are "king of lands," "king of heaven and earth" and "father of the gods." His chief temple at Nippur was known as E-Kur, signifying "mountain house," and such was the sanctity acquired by this edifice that Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, down to the latest days, vied with one another in embellishing and restoring Bel's seat of worship, and the name itself became the designation of a temple in general. Grouped around the main sanctuary there arose temples and chapels to the gods and goddesses who formed his court, so that E-Kur became the name for an entire sacred precinct in the city of Nippur. The name "mountain house" suggests a lofty structure and was perhaps the designation originally of the staged tower at Nippur, built in imitation of a mountain, with the sacred shrine of the god on the top. The tower, however, also had its special designation of "Im-Khar-sag," the elements of which, signifying "storm" and "mountain," confirm the conclusion drawn from other evidence that En-lil was originally a storm-god having his seat on the top of a mountain. Since the Euphrates valley has no mountains, En-lil would appear to be a god whose worship was carried into Babylonia by a wave of migration from a mountainous country--in all probability from Elam to the east.

When, with the political rise of Babylon as the centre of a great empire, Nippur yielded its prerogatives to the city over which Marduk presided, the attributes and the titles of En-lil were transferred to Marduk, who becomes the "lord" or Bel of later days. The older Bel did not, however, entirely lose his standing. Nippur continued to be a sacred city after it ceased to have any considerable political importance, while in addition the rise of the doctrine of a triad of gods symbolizing the three divisions--heavens, earth and water--assured to Bel, to whom the earth was assigned as his province, his place in the religious system. The disassociation from his local origin involved in this doctrine of the triad gave to Bel a rank independent of political changes, and we, accordingly, find Bel as a factor in the religion of Babylonia and Assyria to the latest days. It was no doubt owing to his position as the second figure of the triad that enabled him to survive the political eclipse of Nippur and made his sanctuary a place of pilgrimage to which Assyrian kings down to the days of Assur-baui-pal paid their homage equally with Babylonian rulers.

See also BELIT and BAAL. For the apocryphal book of the Bible, _Bel
and the Dragon_, see DANIEL: _Additions to Daniel_. (M. Ja.)

BELA III. (d. 1196), king of Hungary, was the second son of King Geza II. Educated at the Byzantine court, where he had been compelled to seek refuge, he was fortunate enough to win the friendship of the brilliant emperor Manuel who, before the birth of his own son Alexius, intended to make Bela his successor and betrothed him to his daughter. Subsequently, however, he married the handsome and promising youth to Agnes of Chatilion, duchess of Antioch, and in 1173 placed him, by force of arms, on the Hungarian throne, first expelling Bela's younger brother Geza, who was supported by the Catholic party. Initiated from childhood in all the arts of diplomacy at what was then the focus of civilization, and as much a warrior by nature as his imperial kinsman Manuel, Bela showed himself from the first fully equal to all the difficulties of his peculiar position. He began by adopting Catholicism and boldly seeking the assistance of Rome. He then made what had hitherto been an elective a hereditary throne by crowning his infant son Emerich his successor. In the beginning of his reign he adopted a prudent policy of amity with his two most powerful neighbours, the emperors of the East and West, but the death of Manuel in 1180 gave Hungary once more a free hand in the affairs of the Balkan Peninsula, her natural sphere of influence. The attempt to recover Dalmatia, which involved Bela in two bloody wars with Venice (1181-88 and 1190-91), was only partially successful. But he assisted the Rascians or Serbs (see HUNGARY: _History_) to throw off the Greek yoke and establish a native dynasty, and attempted to made Galicia an appanage of his younger son Andrew. It was in Bela's reign that the emperor Frederick I., in the spring of 1189, traversed Hungary with 100,000 crusaders, on which occasion the country was so well policed that no harm was done to it and the inhabitants profited largely from their commerce with the German host. In his last years Bela assisted the Greek emperor Isaac II. Angelus against the Bulgarians. His first wife bore Bela two sons, Emerich and Andrew. On her death he married Margaret of France, sister of King Philip Augustus. Bela was in every sense of the word a great statesman, and his court was accounted one of the most brilliant in Europe.

For an account of his internal reforms see HUNGARY. Though the poet
Ede Szigligeti has immortalized his memory in the play _Bela III_., we
have no historical monograph of him, but in Ignacz Acsady, _History of
the Hungarian Realm_ (Hung.), i. 2 (Budapest, 1903), there is an
excellent account of his reign. (R. N. B.)

BELA IV. (1206-1270), king of Hungary, was the son of Andrew II., whom he succeeded in 1235. During his father's lifetime he had greatly distinguished himself by his administration of Transylvania, then a wilderness, which, with incredible patience and energy, he colonized and christianized. He repaired as far as possible the ruinous effects of his father's wastefulness, but on his accession found everything in the utmost confusion, "the great lords," to cite the old chronicler Rogerius (c. 1223-1266), "having so greatly enriched themselves that the king was brought to naught." The whole land was full of violence, the very bishops storming rich monasteries at the head of armed retainers. Bela resolutely put down all disorder. He increased the dignity of the crown by introducing a stricter court etiquette, and its wealth by recovering those of the royal domains which the magnates had appropriated during the troubles of the last reign. The pope, naturally on the side of order, staunchly supported this regenerator of the realm, and in his own brother Coloman, who administered the district of the Drave, Bela also found a loyal and intelligent co-operator. He also largely employed Jews and Ishmaelites,[1] the financial specialists of the day, whom he rewarded with lands and titles. The salient event of Bela's reign was the terrible Tatar invasion which reduced three-quarters of Hungary to ashes. The terror of their name had long preceded them, and Bela, in 1235 or 1236, sent the Dominican monk Julian, by way of Constantinople, to Russia, to collect information about them from the "ancient Magyars" settled there, possibly the Volgan Bulgarians. He returned to Hungary with the tidings that the Tatars contemplated the immediate conquest of Europe. Bela did his utmost to place his kingdom in a state of defence, and appealed betimes to the pope, the duke of Austria and the emperor for assistance; but in February and March 1241 the Tatars burst through the Carpathian passes; in April Bela himself, after a gallant stand, was routed on the banks of the Sajo and fled to the islands of Dalmatia; and for the next twelve months the kingdom of Hungary was merely a geographical expression. The last twenty-eight years of Bela's reign were mainly devoted to the reconstruction of his realm, which he accomplished with a single-minded thoroughness which has covered his name with glory. (See HUNGARY: _History_.)

Perhaps the most difficult part of his task was the recovery of the western portions of the kingdom (which had suffered least) from the hands of Frederick of Austria, who had seized them as the price of assistance which had been promised but never given. First Bela solicited the aid of the pope, but was compelled finally to resort to arms, and crossing the Leitha on the 15th of June 1246, routed Frederick, who was seriously wounded and trampled to death by his own horsemen. With him was extinguished the male line of the house of Babenberg. In the south Bela was less successful. In 1243 he was obliged to cede to Venice, Zara, a perpetual apple of discord between the two states; but he kept his hold upon Spalato and his other Dalmatian possessions, and his wise policy of religious tolerance in Bosnia enabled Hungary to rule that province peaceably for many years. The new Servian kingdom of the Nemanides, on the other hand, gave him much trouble and was the occasion of many bloody wars. In 1261 the Tatars under Nogai Khan invaded Hungary for the second time, but were defeated by Bela and lost 50,000 men. Bela reached the apogee of his political greatness in 1264 when, shortly after his crushing defeat of the Servian king, Stephen Urosh, he entertained at his court, at Kalocsa, the ambassadors of the newly restored Greek emperor, of the kings of France, Bulgaria and Bohemia and three Tatar _mirzas_. For a time Bela was equally fortunate in the north-west, where the ambitious and enterprising Poemyslidae had erected a new Bohemian empire which absorbed the territories of the old Babenbergers and was very menacing to Hungary. With Ottakar II. in particular, Bela was almost constantly at war for the possession of Styria, which ultimately fell to the Bohemians. The last years of Bela's life were embittered by the ingratitude of his son Stephen, who rebelled continuously against his father and ultimately compelled him to divide the kingdom with him, the younger prince setting up a capital of his own at Sarospatak, and following a foreign policy directly contrary to that of his father. Bela died on the 3rd of May 1270 in his sixty-fourth year. With the people at large he was popular to the last; his services to his country had been inestimable. He married, while still crown-prince, Maria, daughter of the Nicaean emperor, Theodore Lascaris, whom his own father brought home with him from his crusade. She bore him, besides his two sons Stephen and Bela, seven daughters, of whom St Margaret was the most famous.

No special monograph for the whole reign exists. For the Tatar
invasion see the contemporary Rogerius, _Epistolae super destructione
Regni Hungarias per Tartaros facta_ (Budapest, 1885). A vivid but
somewhat chauvinistic history of Bela's reign will be found in
Acsady's _History of the Hungarian Realm_ (Hung.), i. 2 (Budapest,
1903). (R. N. B.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Mahommedan itinerant chapmen, from the Volga.

BELA, LAS BELA, or LUS BEYLA, situated in 26 deg. 27' 30" N. lat. and 66 deg. 45' 0" E. long., 350 ft. above sea level, capital of the small independent state of Las Bela to the south of Kalat (Baluchistan), ruled by the Jam (or Cham), who occupies the position of a protected chief under the British Raj. To the east lies Sind, and to the west Makran, and from time immemorial the great trading route between Sind and Persia has passed through Las Bela. The area of Las Bela is 6357 sq. m., and its population in 1901 was 56,109, of which 54,040 were Mussulmans. The low-lying, alluvial, hot and malarial plains of Las Bela, occupying about 6000 sq. m. on the north-east corner of the Arabian Sea, are highly irrigated and fertile--two rivers from the north, the Purali and the Kud, uniting to provide a plentiful water supply. The bay of Sonmiani once extended over most of these plains, where the Purali delta is now growing with measurable strides. The hill ranges to the east, parting the plains from Sind (generally known locally as the Mor and the Kirthar), between which lies the long narrow line of the Hab valley, strike nearly north and south, diminishing in height as they approach the sea and allowing of a route skirting the coast between Karachi and Bela. To the west they are broken into an infinity of minor ridges massing themselves in parallel formation with a strike which curves from south to west till they form the coast barrier of Makran. The Persian route from India, curving somewhat to the north, traverses this waste of barren ridges almost at right angles, but on dropping into the Kolwah valley its difficulty ceases. It then becomes an open road to Kej and Persia, with an easy gradient. This was undoubtedly one of the greatest trade routes of the medieval days of Arab ascendancy in Sind, and it is to this route that Bela owes a place in history which its modern appearance and dimensions hardly seem to justify. Bela is itself rather prettily situated on a rocky site above the banks of the Purali. About four miles to the south are the well-kept gardens which surround the tomb of Sir Robert Sandeman; which is probably destined to become a "ziarat," or place of pilgrimage, of even greater sanctity than that of General Jacob at Jacobabad. The population of the town numbers about 5000. The Jam's retinue consists of about 300 infantry, 50 cavalry, and 4 guns. Liability to assist on active service is the only acknowledgment of the suzerainty which is paid by the Jam to the Khan of Kalat. The Jam, Mir Kamal Khan, succeeded his father, Sir Mir Khan, in 1895, and was formally invested with powers in 1902.

From very early times this remote corner of Baluchistan has held a distinct place in history. There are traces of ancient Arab (possibly Himyaritic) occupation to be found in certain stone ruins at Gondakeha on the Kud river, 10 m. to the north-west of Bela, whilst the Greek name "Arabis" for the Purali is itself indicative of an early prehistoric connexion with races of Asiatic Ethiopians referred to by Herodotus. On the coast, near the village of Sonmiani (a station of the Indo-Persian telegraph line) may be traced the indentation which once formed the bay of Morontobara, noted in the voyage of Nearchus; and it was on the borders of Makran that the Turanian town of Rhambakia was situated, which was once the centre of the trade in "bdellium." In the 7th century A.D. Las Bela was governed by a Buddhist priest, at which time all the province of Gandava was Buddhist, and Sind was ruled by the Brahman, Chach. Buddhist caves are to be found excavated in the conglomerate cliffs near Gondakeha, at a place called Gondrani, or Shahr-i-Rogan. With the influx of Arabs into Makran, Bela, under the name of Armel (or Armabel), rose to importance as a link in the great chain of trading towns between Persia and Sind; and then there existed in the delta such places as Yusli (near the modern Uthal) and Kambali (which may possibly be recognized in the ruins at Khairokot), and many smaller towns, each of which possessed its citadel, its caravanserai and bazaar, which are not only recorded but actually mapped by one of the medieval Arab geographers, Ibn Haukal. It is probable that Karia Pir, 1-1/2 m. to the east of the modern city, represents the site of the Armabel which was destroyed by Mahommed Kasim in his victorious march to Sind in 710. There is another old site 5 m. to the west of the modern town. The ruins at Karia Pir, like those of Tijarra Pir and Khairokot, contain Arab pottery, seals, and other medieval relics. The Lumris, or Lasis, who originate the name Las as a prefix to that of Bela, are the dominant tribe in the province. They are comparatively recent arrivals who displaced the earlier Tajik and Brahui occupants. It is probable that this influx of Rajput population was coincident with the displacement of the Arab dynasties in Sind by the Mahommedan Rajputs in the 11th century A.D. Some authorities connect the Lumris with the Sumras.

There are no published accounts of Bela, excepting those of the Indian
government reports and gazetteers. This article is compiled from
unpublished notes by the author and by Mr Wainwright, of the Indian
Survey department. (T. H. H.*)

BELA, a town of British India, administrative headquarters of the Partabgarh district of the United Provinces, with a railway station 80 m. from Benares. Pop. (1901) 8041. It adjoins the village of Partabgarh proper, and the civil station sometimes known as Andrewganj. Bela, which was founded in 1802 as a cantonment, became a district headquarters after the mutiny. It has trade in agricultural produce. There is a well-known hospital for women here.

BELAY (from the same O. Eng. origin as "lay"; cf. Dutch _beleggen_), a nautical term for making ropes fast round a pin. In earlier days the word was synonymous with "waylay" or "surround."

BELCHER, SIR EDWARD (1799-1877), British naval officer, entered the navy in 1812. In 1825 he accompanied Frederick William Beechey's expedition to the Pacific and Bering Strait, as a surveyor. He subsequently commanded a surveying ship on the north and west coasts of Africa and in the British seas, and in 1836 took up the work which Beechey left unfinished on the Pacific coast of South America. This was on board the "Sulphur," which was ordered to return to England in 1839 by the Trans-Pacific route. Belcher made various observations at a number of islands which he visited, was delayed by being despatched to take part in the war in China in 1840-1841, and reached home only in 1842. In 1843 he was knighted, and was now engaged in the "Samarang," in surveying work in the East Indies, the Philippines, &c., until 1847. In 1852 he was given command of the government Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. This was unsuccessful; Belcher's inability to render himself popular with his subordinates was peculiarly unfortunate in an Arctic voyage, and he was not wholly suited to command vessels among ice. This was his last active service, but he became K.C.B. in 1867 and an admiral in 1872. He published a _Treatise on Nautical Surveying_ (1835), _Narrative of a Voyage round the World performed in H.M.S. "Sulphur," 1836-1842_ (1843), _Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. "Samarang" during 1843-1846_ (1848; the _Zoology of the Voyage_ was separately dealt with by some of his colleagues, 1850), and _The Last of the Arctic Voyages_ (1855); besides minor works, including a novel, _Horatio Howard Brenton_ (1856), a story of the navy. He died in London on the 18th of March 1877.

BELDAM (like "belsire," grandfather, from the Fr. _bel_, good, expressing relationship; cf. the Fr. _belle-mere_, mother-in-law, and _dame_, in Eng. form "dam," mother), strictly a grandmother or remote ancestress, and so an old woman; generally used contemptuously as meaning an old hag.

BELESME, ROBERT OF (fl. 1100), earl of Shrewsbury. From his mother Mabel Talvas he inherited the fief of Belesme, and from his father, the Conqueror's companion, that of Shrewsbury. Both were march-fiefs, the one guarding Normandy from Maine, and the other England from the Welsh; consequently their lord was peculiarly powerful and independent. Robert is the typical feudal noble of the time, circumspect and politic, persuasive and eloquent, impetuous and daring in battle, and an able military engineer; in person, tall and strong; greedy for land, an oppressor of the weak, a systematic rebel and traitor, and savagely cruel. He first appears as a supporter of Robert's rebellion against the Conqueror (1077); then as an accomplice in the English conspiracy of 1088 against Rufus. Later he served Rufus in Normandy, and was allowed to succeed his brother Hugh in the earldom of Shrewsbury (1098). But at the height of his power, he revolted against Henry I (1102). He was banished and deprived of his English estate; for sometime after he remained at large in Normandy, defying the authority of Robert and Henry alike. He betrayed Robert's cause at Tinchebrai; but in 1112 was imprisoned for life by Henry I.

See E.A. Freeman's _William Rufus_ and his _Norman Conquest_, vol.
iv.; and J.M. Lappenberg's _History of England under the Norman
Kings_, trans. B. Thorpe (1857).

BELFAST, a city, county and parliamentary borough, the capital of the province of Ulster, and county town of county Antrim, Ireland. Pop. (1901) 349,180. It is a seaport of the first rank, situated at the entrance of the river Lagan into Belfast Lough, 112-3/4 m. north of Dublin by rail, on the north-east coast of the island. It is an important railway centre, with terminal stations of the Great Northern, Northern Counties (Midland of England), and Belfast & County Down railways, and has regular passenger communication by sea with Liverpool, Fleetwood, Heysham, Glasgow, and other ports of Great Britain. It is built on alluvial deposit and reclaimed land, mostly not exceeding 6 ft. above high water mark, and was thus for a long period subject to inundation and epidemics, and only careful drainage rendered the site healthy. The appearance of the city plainly demonstrates the modern growth of its importance, and evidence is not wanting that for a considerable period architectural improvement was unable to keep pace with commercial development. Many squalid districts, however, have been improved away to make room for new thoroughfares and handsome buildings. One thoroughfare thus constructed at the close of the 19th century is the finest in Belfast--Royal Avenue. It contains, among several notable buildings, the post office, and the free public library, opened in 1888 and comprising a collection of over 40,000 volumes, as well as an art gallery and a museum of antiquities especially rich in remains of the Neolithic period. The architect was Mr W.H. Lynn. The magnificent city hall, from designs of Mr (afterwards Sir) Brumwell Thomas, was opened in 1906. The principal streets, such as York Street, Donegall Street, North Street, High Street, are traversed by tramways. Four bridges cross the Lagan; the Queen's Bridge (1844, widened in 1886) is the finest, while the Albert Bridge (1889) replaces a former one which collapsed. Other principal public buildings, nearly all to be included in modern schemes of development, are the city hall, occupying the site of the old Linen Hall, in Donegall Square, estimated to cost L300,000; the commercial buildings (1820) in Waring Street, the customhouse and inland revenue office on Donegall Quay, the architect of which, as of the court house, was Sir Charles Lanyon, and some of the numerous banks, especially the Ulster Bank. The Campbell College in the suburb of Belmont was founded in 1892 in accordance with the will of Mr W.J. Campbell, a Belfast merchant, who left L200,000 for the building and endowment of a public school. Other educational establishments are Queen's University, replacing the old Queen's College (1849) under the Irish Universities