[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 against the Most High.
[Abdul-Aziz], sultan of Turkey from 1861, in succession to Abdul-Medjid (1830-1876).
[Abdul-Aziz], sultan of Morocco, was only fourteen at his accession; b. 1880.
[Abdul-Ha`mid II.], sultan of Turkey in 1876, brother to Abdul-Aziz, and his successor; under him Turkey has suffered serious dismemberment, and the Christian subjects in Armenia and Crete been cruelly massacred; b. 1842.
[Abd-ul-Med`jid], sultan, father of the two preceding, in whose defence against Russia England and France undertook the Crimean war (1823-1861).
[Abdur-Rah`man], the ameer of Afghanistan, subsidised by the English; b. 1830.
[À'Becket, Gilbert], an English humourist, who contributed to Punch and other organs; wrote the "Comic Blackstone" and comic histories of England and Rome (1811-1856).