73 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA Aramaic Language Ararat

Aranda, too, at the outset won apostolic favor, and was even advanced to the office of prothonotary; but on account of his wealth he soon fell a victim to the cupidity of the pope. He was arraigned for having taken food before mass and for having dese-crated, by scratching, a crucifix and other holy images. Moreover, a delegation of seven Maranos from Portugal happened to be in Rome at the time for the avowed purpose of purchasing for their con-stituents the good-will of the pope and his advisers. They had managed to win the favorable considera-tion of the papal court, but their efforts were reso-lutely opposed by Garcilaso, the ambassador of Fer-dinand and Isabella. Observing the pope's resolve to imprison Aranda, Garcilaso pointed out the sus-picion that was likely to arise in the popular mind

to the Hungarian Diet. The German family name is Aufrecht. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Szinuyci Magyar Irbk Tara, i.; Orszdgyti-lesi Almanach, 1897.

s. M. W. ARARAT : A district in eastern Armenia lying

between the lakes Van and Urmia and the river Araxes. The Biblical name corresponds to the Assyr-ian Urartu, a land invaded and partially conquered by Asshurnazir-pal and Shalmaneser II. The Assyrian cuneiform characters were introduced into the land of Urartu as early as the ninth century B.C., and many monumental inscriptions have been discovered within its boundaries. About the middle of the ninth cen-tury a strong native dynasty was established, and con-

MOUNT ARARAT. (From a photograph taken by special permission of the Russian government.)

from the anomalous incarceration of Aranda while the Marano delegates, indubitable heretics, were granted favor and freedom. As a consequence, Aranda and five of the Maranos were arrested and thrown into prison; Pedro Essecuator and Aleman Eljurado, the two leading members of the delega-tion, succeeded in escaping (April 20, 1497). Thus bereft of his worldly and ecclesiastic estate, Aranda ended his days at the San Angelo. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Gratz, Gesch. dcr Juden, 3d ed., viii. 318, 385.

G. H. G. E. ABANYI, MIKS A : Hungarian writer; born

at Trencsen, May 13, 1858. He graduated from the university in Budapest, and was sent to Paris by the secretary of state for education to finish his studies. He returned to Budapest in 1884, where he edited the " Gazette de Hongrie " till 1887. He translated several economic works from Hungarian into French, and up to the year 1901 was deputy

tinued to rule until the Assyrian power was revived by Tiglath-pileser III., about 740 B.C. For a genera-tion Urartu was invaded by Assyrian armies, until at last it again attained independence. This it retained until it was overrun by the Scythians about the end of the seventh century. Thus from the ninth to the sixth century B.C., the land of Urartu or Ararat oc-cupied a prominent place among the minor states of southwestern Asia, and is referred to four times in the Biblical narrative. In II Kings xix. 37 (= Isa. xxxvii. 38) the fact is recorded that the assassins of the Assyrian king Sennacherib fled to the land of Ararat, where they found refuge with the reigning king Erimenas. In Jer. li. 27, Ararat is mentioned first among the hostile nations which are called upon to advance from the north and overthrow the power of Babylon. The most familiar reference, however, is that of Gen. viii. 4: "In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat."

Ararat Arba' Kaufot THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA 74

In the older Babylonian story of the flood the ark (or " ship ") is represented as resting on a peak of " the mountain of Nizir," situated east of the land of As-syria. Berosus, the Chaldean priest, in his history fixes the site in " the mountain of the KordysBans " or Kurds, northeast of Mosul, in the direction of Urumiah (Josephus, "Ant." i. 3, 6); and Nicolaus of Damascus states that the ark rested on a great mountain in Armenia, somewhere near the boundary between that land and Kurdistan. The principle de-termining these various identifications seems to have been that the ark rested on the highest point on the earth, which was, therefore, the first to emerge from the waters of the flood. Thus the peoples living between the Tigris and the Euphrates naturally de-cided that it was on the lofty mountains to the north-east in the land of the Kurds. This belief of the Babylonians, quoted by Josephus, is still held by the Nestorians and Moslems. The Biblical reference is indefinite; but of all the mountains in the ancient land of Ararat, the lofty peak which towers 14,000 feet above the encircling plain, reaching a total height of 17,000 feet above sea-level, is without a rival. Its steepness emphasizes its great elevation, and may well have impressed upon the minds of travelers of antiquity the fact that it was higher than the Kurdish mountains two hundred miles away. It may also explain why the writer in Genesis appar-ently abandoned the older conflicting Babylonian traditions and fixed upon this imposing, solitary peak far to the northwest.

The mountain itself is known as Ararat only among Occidental geographers. The Armenians call it Massis, the Turks Aghri Dagh, and the Per-sians Koh i Nuh, or " the mountain of Noah." Thus far it has been impossible to trace back to an early date an independent native tradition. Apparently the local legends which have clothed it with mys-tery, and which would place upon it the remains of the original ark, are based upon the passage in Gen-esis, and have been largely induced in comparatively recent times by the influence of Western Christianity. Superstitious fear and natural difficulties prevent the natives from attempting the ascent of the moun-tain ; but its top has repeatedly been reached by Eu-ropeans, and its geological peculiarities have been noted. Its cone is the crater of an extinct volcano, and because of its great height it is snow-capped throughout the year. BIBLIOGRAPHY : For the geography ol Urartu see Sayce, Cunei-form Inscriptions of Van, in Journal Royal Asiatic Society,

vol. xiv.; Schrader, C. I. O. 2\, Index, s.v.; idem, K. G.P., Index, S.D. J. JR. C. F. K. ARARAT.A City of Refuge: A proposed

city planned by MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH in 1825. The reactionary policy adopted by many European governments after the battle of Waterloo led to the reimposition in many places of Jewish disabilities; and Jews laboring under them turned eagerly to emigration for relief. Mordecai M. Noah, in his jour-neys to and from his post of United States consul at Tunis, had occasion to familiarize himself with the conditions of Jews in various parts of Europe and Africa; and he could not refrain from contrasting the civil and political restrictions placed on the Jews

abroad with the equality of rights and opportuni-ties for enterprise and worldly success accorded to them in America. The consequence was that, in 1825, less than a decade after his return to New York, he conceived and published a plan for the establishment of "a city of refuge for the Jews," on a site which he selected upon Grand Island, in the Niagara river, near Niagara Falls, not far from Buffalo, N. Y. To this proposed city he gave the name "Ararat," thereby linking it with his own name and personality, and at the same time suggest-ing the nature of his scheme.

At that time Noah was perhaps the most distin-guished Jewish resident of America; and his success-ful and varied activities as lawyer and editor, poli-tician and playwright, diplomat and sheriff of New York, lent to his project considerable importance. Accordingly, he induced a wealthy Christian friend to purchase several thousand acres of land on Grand Island for this purpose. The tract was chosen with particular reference to its promising commercial prospects (being close to the Great Lakes and oppo-site the newly constructed Erie Canal); and Noah deemed it "preeminently calculated to become, in time, the greatest trading and commercial depot in the new and better world." Buffalo, at that time, had not grown to its present commercial importance, and Noah, in sober earnest, anticipated Carlyle's sa-tirical prediction by describing the Falls of Niagara as "affording the greatest water-power in the world for manufacturing purposes." After heralding this project for some time in his own newspaper and in the press, religious and secular, generally, Noah

Foundation-Stone of the Proposed City ot Ararat. selected Sept. 2, 1825, as the date for laying the foundation-stone of the new city. According to plan, impressive ceremonies, ushered in by the firing of cannon, were held, and participated in by state and federal officials, Christian clergymen, Ma-sonic officers, and even American Indians, whom Noah identified as the " lost tribes " of Israel, and who were also to find refuge at this new "Ararat."

Circumstances made it inconvenient to hold the exercises on Grand Island; so they were held in-stead in an Episcopal church at Buffalo. Noah was naturally the central figure; and, after having ap-pointed himself " judge and governor " of Israel, he issued a " proclamation " in that official capacity. In this " state paper," he announced the restoration of a Jewish state on Grand Island, preliminarily to a restoration of a Palestinian state; commanded that a census of the Jews be taken throughout the world; levied a poll-tax of three shekels in silver per an-num, to be paid into his treasury by Jews every-where ; graciously permitted such Jews as wished to