BAINDIR (anc. Caystrus), a town in Asiatic Turkey in the Aidin vilayet, situated in the valley of the Kuchuk Menderes. Pop. under 10,000, nearly half Christian. It is connected with Smyrna by a branch of the Aidin railway, and has a trade in cotton, figs, raisins and tobacco.
BAINES, EDWARD (1774-1848), English newspaper-proprietor and politician, was born in 1774 at Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, Lancashire. He was educated at the grammar schools of Hawkshead and Preston, and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to a printer in the latter town. After remaining there four years and a half he removed to Leeds, finished his apprenticeship, and at once started in business for himself. He was always a most assiduous student, and quickly became known as a man of great practical shrewdness and ability, who took a keen interest in political and social movements. His political opinions led him to sympathize with nonconformity and he soon joined the Independents. In 1801 the assistance of party friends enabled him to buy the Leeds Mercury. Provincial newspapers did not at that time possess much influence; it was no part of the editor's duty to supply what are now called "leading articles," and the system of reporting was defective. In both respects Baines made a complete change in the Mercury. His able political articles gradually made the paper the organ of Liberal opinion in Leeds, and the connexion of the Baines family with the paper made their influence powerful for many years in this direction. Baines soon began to take a prominent part in politics; he was an ardent advocate of parliamentary reform, and it was mainly by his influence that Macaulay was returned for Leeds in 1832; and in 1834 he succeeded Macaulay as member. He was re-elected in 1835 and 1837, but resigned in 1841. In parliament he supported the Liberal party, but with independent views. Like his son Edward after him, he strongly advocated the separation of church and state, and opposed government interference in national education. His letters to Lord John Russell on the latter question (1846) had a powerful influence in determining the action of the government. He died in 1848. His best-known writings are:—The History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County of York; History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County of Lancaster; History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster. He was also the author of a History of the Wars of Napoleon, which was continued under the title of A History of the Reign of George III.
His Life (1861) has been written by his son, Sir Edward Baines (1800-1890), who was editor and afterwards proprietor of the Leeds Mercury, M.P. for Leeds (1859-1874), and was knighted in 1880; his History of the Cotton Manufacture (1835) was long a standard authority. An elder son, Matthew Talbot Baines (1790-1860), went to the bar, and became recorder of Hull (1837). He became M.P. for Hull in 1847, and in 1849 president of the Poor Law Board. In 1852 he was returned for Leeds, and again became president of the Poor Law Board (till 1855). In 1856 he entered the cabinet as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster.
BAINI, GIUSEPPE (1775-1844), Italian priest, musical critic and composer of church music, was born at Rome on the 21st of October 1775. He was instructed in composition by his uncle, Lorenzo Baini, and afterwards by G. Jannaconi. In 1814 he was appointed musical director to the choir of the pontifical chapel, to which he had as early as 1802 gained admission in virtue of his fine bass voice. His compositions, of which very few have been published, were very favourable specimens of the severe ecclesiastical style; one in particular, a ten-part Miserere, composed for Holy Week in 1821 by order of Pope Pius VII., has taken a permanent place in the services of the Sistine chapel during Passion Week. Baini held a higher place, however, as a musical critic and historian than as a composer, and his Life of Palestrina (Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, 1828) ranks as one of the best works of its class. The phrase Il Principe della Musica, which has become finally associated with the name of Palestrina, originates with this biography. Giuseppe Baini died on the 21st of May 1844 in Rome.
BAIRAM, a Perso-Turkish word meaning "festival," applied in Turkish to the two principal festivals of Islam. The first of these, according to the calendar, is the "Lesser Festival," called by the Turks Kütshük Bairām ("Lesser Bairam"), or Sheker Bairām ("Sugar Bairam"), and by Arabic-speaking Moslems ‛Īd al-Fitr ("Festival of Fast-breaking"), or Al-‛īd aṣ-ṣaghīr ("Lesser Festival"). It follows immediately the ninth or the fasting-month, Ramaḍān, occupying the first three days of the tenth month, Shawwāl. It is, therefore, also called by Turks Ramazān Bairām, and exhibits more outward signs of rejoicing than the technically "Greater Festival." Official receptions are held on it, and private visits paid; friends congratulate one another, and presents are given; new clothes
are put on, and the graves of relatives are visited. The second, or "Greater Festival," is called by the Turks Qurbān Bairām, "Sacrifice Bairam," and by Arabic speakers Al-‛īd al-kabīr, "Greater Festival," or ‛Īḍ al-aḍḥā, "Festival of Sacrifice." It falls on the tenth, and two or three following days, of the last month, Dhū-l-ḥijja, when the pilgrims each slay a ram, a he-goat, a cow or a camel in the valley of Mina in commemoration of the ransom of Ishmael with a ram. Similarly throughout the Moslem world, all who can afford it sacrifice at this time a legal animal, and either consume the flesh themselves or give it to the poor. Otherwise it is celebrated like the "Lesser Festival," but with less ardour. Both festivals, of course, belong to a lunar calendar, and move through the solar year every thirty-two years.
See Lane's Modern Egyptians, chap. xxv.; Michell, Egyptian Calendar; Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, pp. 192 ff.; Sir R. Burton, Pilgrimage, chaps. vii., xxx.
(D. B. Ma.)
BAIRD, SIR DAVID (1757-1829), British general, was born at Newbyth in Aberdeenshire in December 1757. He entered the British army in 1773, and was sent to India in 1779 with the 73rd (afterwards 71st) Highlanders, in which he was a captain. Immediately on his arrival, Baird was attached to the force commanded by Sir Hector Munro, which was sent forward to assist the detachment of Colonel Baillie, threatened by Hyder Ali. In the action which followed the whole force was destroyed, and Baird, severely wounded, fell into the hands of the Mysore chief. The prisoners, who were most barbarously treated, remained captive for over four years. Baird's mother, on hearing that her son and other prisoners were in fetters, is said to have remarked, "God help the chiel chained to poor Davie." The bullet was not extracted from Baird's wound until his release. He became major in 1787, visited England in 1789, and purchased a lieutenant-colonelcy in 1790, returning to India in the following year. He held a brigade command in the war against Tippoo, and served under Cornwallis in the Seringapatam operations of 1792, being promoted colonel in 1795. Baird served also at the Cape of Good Hope as a brigadier-general, and he returned to India as a major-general in 1798. In the last war against Tippoo in 1799 Baird was appointed to the senior brigade command in the army. At the successful assault of Seringapatam Baird led the storming party, and was soon a master of the stronghold in which he had long been a prisoner. He had been disappointed that the command of the large contingent of the nizam was given to Colonel Arthur Wellesley; and when after the capture of the fortress the same officer obtained the governorship, Baird judged himself to have been treated with injustice and disrespect. He afterwards received the thanks of parliament and of the East India Company for his gallant bearing on that important day, and a pension was offered to him by the Company, which he declined, apparently from the hope of receiving the order of the Bath from the government. General Baird commanded the Indian army which was sent in 1801 to co-operate with Abercromby in the expulsion of the French from Egypt. Wellesley was appointed second in command, but owing to ill-health did not accompany the expedition. Baird landed at Kosseir, conducted his army across the desert to Kena on the Nile, and thence to Cairo. He arrived before Alexandria in time for the final operations. On his return to India in 1802, he was employed against Sindhia, but being irritated at another appointment given to Wellesley he relinquished his command and returned to Europe. In 1804 he was knighted, and in 1805-1806, being by now a lieutenant-general, he commanded the expedition against the Cape of Good Hope with complete success, capturing Cape Town and forcing the Dutch general Janssens to surrender. But here again his usual ill luck attended him. Commodore Sir Home Popham persuaded Sir David to lend him troops for an expedition against Buenos Aires; the successive failures of operations against this place involved the recall of Baird, though on his return home he was quickly re-employed as a divisional general in the Copenhagen expedition of 1807. During the bombardment of Copenhagen Baird was wounded. Shortly after his return, he was sent out to the Peninsular War in command of a considerable force which was sent to Spain to co-operate with Sir John Moore, to whom he was appointed second in command. It was Baird's misfortune that he was junior by a few days both to Moore and to Lord Cavan, under whom he had served at Alexandria, and thus never had an opportunity of a chief command in the field. At the battle of Corunna he succeeded to the supreme command after Moore's fall, but shortly afterwards his left arm was shattered, and the command passed to Sir John Hope. He again obtained the thanks of parliament for his gallant services, and was made a K.B. and a baronet. Sir David married Miss Campbell-Preston, a Perthshire heiress, in 1810. He was not employed again in the field, and personal and political enmities caused him to be neglected and repeatedly passed over. He was not given the full rank of general until 1814, and his governorship of Kinsale was given five years later. In 1820 he was appointed commander-in-chief in Ireland, but the command was soon reduced, and he resigned in 1822. He died on the 18th of August 1829.
See Theodore Hook's Life of Sir David Baird.