ABDALRAH`MAN, the Moorish governor of Spain, defeated by Charles
Martel at Tours in 732.


ABDALS (lit. servants of Allah), a set of Moslem fanatics in
Persia.


ABD-EL-KA`DIR, an Arab emir, who for fifteen years waged war against
the French in N. Africa, but at length surrendered prisoner to them in
1847. On his release in 1852 he became a faithful friend of France
(1807-1883).


ABDE`RA, a town in ancient Thrace, proverbial for the stupidity of
its inhabitants.


ABDICATIONS, of which the most celebrated are those of the Roman
Dictator Sylla, who in 70 B.C. retired to Puteoli; of Diocletian, who in
A.D. 305 retired to Salone; of Charles V., who in 1556 retired to the
monastery St. Yuste; of Christina of Sweden, who in 1654 retired to Rome,
after passing some time in France; of Napoleon, who in 1814 and 1815
retired first to Elba and then died at St. Helena; of Charles X. in 1830,
who died at Goritz, in Austria; and of Louis Philippe, who in 1848
retired to end his days in England.


ABDIEL, one of the seraphim, who withstood Satan in his revolt