Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Anatomy-Astronomy

AST
Astabat much reduced in extent, existed as an independent, state for
II a considerable period after Esarhaddon. Hales, following
-stern. Syncellus, gives as his successor a prince called Ninus (b.c.
667), who was succeeded (b.c. 608), by Nebuchodonosor, for
the transactions of whose reign Hales relies on the apocry¬
phal book of Judith, the authority of which, however, is very
questionable. The last monarch was Saruc, (called also Sar-
danapalus,) in whose reign Cyaxares king of Media, and Na-
bopolassar viceroy of Babylon, besieged and took Nineveh,
(b.c. 606). W hat remained of the empire was divided be¬
tween the two victorious powers, and Assyria Proper be¬
came a province of Media.
Modern The greater part of the country which formed Assyria
Assyria. Proper is now under the nominal sway of the Turks, who
compose a considerable proportion of the population of the
and ^irffer villages, filling nearly all public offices, and
diffeiing in nothing from other Osmanlis. The pasha of
Mosul is noqffnated by the Porte, but is subject to the pasha
of Baghdad ; there is also a pasha at Solymaneah and Akra;
a bey at Arbil, a mussellim at Kirkook,’ See. But the abo-
riginal inhabitants of the country, and of the whole moun¬
tain-tract that here divides Turkey from Persia, are the
Kurds, the Carduchii of the Greeks; from them a chain
of these mountains was anciently called the Carduchian or
Gordya^an, and from them the country is now designated
Kurdistan. Klaproth, in his Asia Polyglotta, derives the
name from the Persian root kurd, i. e. strong, brave. They
ai e still, as of old, a barbarous and warlike 1’ace, occasionally
yielding a formal allegiance, on the west, to the Turks, and,
on the east, to the I ersians, but never wholly subdued; in¬
deed, some of the more powerful tribes, such as the Hak-
kary, have maintained an entire independence. Some of
them aie stationary in villages, while others roam far and
wide, beyond the limits of their own country, as nomadic
shepherds \ but they are all more or less addicted to pre¬
datory habits, and are regarded with great dread by their
more peaceful neighbours. They profess the faith of Islam,
and are of the Soonee sect. See Nineveh.
AS f ABAT, a small town of Persian Armenia, near the
river Aras, 20 miles south-east of Nakschivan. The neigh¬
bouring country is fertile, and produces good wine. There
is a. root peculiar to this country, called ronas, used for
dyeing red, great quantities of which are exported to India.
Long. 46. 30. E. Eat. 39. N.
AS 1 Ah FORT, a town of France, capital of a canton in
the department of Lot and Garonne, arrondissement of A«-en.
Pop. 1318. &
AS FELL,^ Mary, an English authoress, born at New-
castle-upon-1 yne in 1668. She was instructed by her uncle,
a clergyman, in Latin and French, logic, mathematics, and
natural philosophy. Having spent 20 years of her life in
Newcastle, she went to London, where she continued her
studies; and, deeply affected with the general ignorance of
her sex, she published in 1697 a work entitled A Serious
1 roposal to the Ladies, wherein a Method is offered for the
J mprovement of their Minds. Her most finished performance
was, 7 he Christian Religion, as professed by a Dauyhter of
the Ch urch of England, published in 1705. She died in 1731.
• ASTELL S Island, one of the English Companv’s
is andh, at the north-west part of the Gulf of Carpentaria,
o model ate height, and wooded. Iron ore is found here.
Lat. 11. 55. S.
ASTEROIDS (from aarfp and eiSos), a name given by
llerschel to the new planets discovered between the orbits
ot Mars and Jupiter.
AEJ FRISK, a mark in form of a star (*), placed over a
ore oi sentence, to refer the reader to the margin, or else¬
where, for a quotation, explanation, or the like.
ASTERISM, any small cluster of stars.
A-SIERN, a sea phrase, used to signify anything at
AST
some distance behind the ship; being the opposite of A-head,
which signifies the space before her.
AS 11, a province of the duchy of Piedmont, in the con¬
tinental dominions of the king of Sardinia. It is bounded
on the north-east and east by Alessandria, on the south¬
east by Aqui, on the south-west by Alba, and on the west
and north-west by Turin. It extends over 268 geographi¬
cal square miles. It is a gently undulating plain, watered bv
the Tanaro and the Po; fruitful in all the productions of Italy,
especially in corn, wine, and silk. Pop. in 1848, 136,065.
Asti, (the ancient Asta) the capital of the province, is a
large and well-built town, on the left bank of the Tanaro.
It is the see of a bishop ; and lias a cathedral, a college, many
churches and monastical institutions, with 24,000 inhabi¬
tants, who carry on a considerable trade in corn, wine, and
silk, which is not a little promoted by the situation of the
town on the high road from Alessandria to Turin and Coni.
In the middle ages Asti was a great commercial city. Al-
fieri the poet Avas born here.
ASFLE, Thomas, a well-known antiquary, was born in
Staffordshire in 1734. His reputation, from his papers in
the Archceologia, procured him in 1770 the parliamentary
appointment of superintendent of the printing of the ancient
records of the kingdom, which occupied him till 1775 ; when
he was made keeper of the records in the Tower. His
principal work is the essay on The Origin and Progress of
Writing, published in 1784. He died 1st Dec. 1803.
ASTOMOUS (a and oto/xo., i. e., without a mouth), a
term used in zoology and in botany.
ASIORGA, a city of Spain, in the province of Leon,
on a plain near the River Tuerto, and having the appella¬
tion of a marquisate, which title it confers on a noble family.
It is surrounded with ancient fortifications, and has near it a
castle in ruins. It has a cathedral, being the see of a bishop
under the church of Compostella; and was called “ the city
of priests,” from the great numbers of that profession for¬
merly resident within its walls. Pop. 4000. Lons. 6. 9
53. W. Lat. 42. 27. 9. N.
ASTORIA, a settlement in the territory of Oregon, about
12 miles fiom the mouth of the Columbia River, named after
Mr Astor, its founder, who had designed it for an extensive
fur depot. In 1813 it was taken possession of, in the name
of Great Britain, by Captain Black of the Raccoon, who
changed its name to Fort George ; but at the close of the
v ar it was restored to the United States. It now consists
of only a few log-houses. It possesses a good harbour, which
is chiefly used by the shipping of the North West Company,
to whom Mr Astor sold the property. “
ASTRABAD, or Asterabad, a small province of Persia,
bounded on the north by the Caspian Sea and the desert,’
on the south by the Elburz Mountains, west by Mazan-
deran, and east by the River Gourgan. The country, al¬
though mountainous, and interspersed with deep forests, in
which it is scarcely possible to travel, possesses beautiful
and fertile valleys, producing rice, wheat, and other grains
in abundance, or spread out in a boundless expanse of ver¬
dure, the pasturage of numerous flocks and herds. Fraser,
who travelled through Persia in 1822, extols in the most
lavish tei ms the appearance of the country. The soil, with
little culture, is exceedingly productive, owing to the abun¬
dance of water which irrigates and fertilizes it. But while the
province in many parts presents a landscape of luxuriant
beauty, it is a prey to the ravages of disease, and the fre¬
quent incursions of the surrounding tribes. The heavy tor¬
rents which fall in the rainy season stagnate in the forests,
forming morasses which, in the heats of summer and autumn,
exhale a pestilential vapour, from the decomposition of the
vegetable matter they contain. From these seats of noxi¬
ous effluvia the wandering tribes of shepherds fly beyond the
Gourgan or the Attruck, and live on the verge of the burn-
779
Asti
II
Astrabad.