Assouan (a˙s-sō-a˙n´), or Aswan (Syēnē), a town of Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, below the first cataract, opposite the Island of Elephantine. The granite quarries of the Pharaohs are here. Pop. 15,000.
Assouan Dam, a great dam constructed across the Nile in Upper Egypt, near Assouan, at the foot of the first cataract. It is about a mile and a quarter long, and is provided with a large number of sluices in two tiers. It was originally built to a height of about 96 feet between 1898 and 1902, and raised to a height of 112 feet above bed-rock between 1907 and 1911. It is intended to regulate the supply of water for irrigation purposes to the country lower down, the water being stored up at the time when the river is high, and allowed to escape when it is required for the crops. When the reservoir is full it forms a lake about 130 miles long. The dam was planned by Sir William Willcocks, and the work carried out under Sir William Garstin and Sir Benjamin Baker, at a cost of £5,000,000 (Egyptian).
Assump´sit, in English law, an action to recover compensation for the non-performance of a parole promise; that is, a promise not contained in a deed under seal. Assumpsits are of two kinds, express and implied. The former are where the contracts are actually made in word or writing; the latter are such as the law implies from the justice of the case; e.g. employment to do work implies a promise to pay.
Assumption. See Asuncion.
Assumption, Feast of, the ecclesiastical festival celebrating the miraculous ascent into Heaven of the Virgin Mary's body as well as her soul, kept on the 15th of August. The legend first appeared in the third or fourth century, and the festival was instituted some three centuries later.
Assurance. See Insurance.
Assyr´ia (the Asshur of the Hebrews, Athurâ of the ancient Persians), an ancient monarchy in Asia, intersected by the upper course of the Tigris, and having the Armenian Mountains on the north and Babylonia on the south; area, about 50,000 sq. miles; surface partly mountainous, hilly, or undulating, partly a portion of the fertile Mesopotamian plain. The numerous remains of ancient habitations show how thickly this vast flat must have once been
peopled; now, for the most part, it is a mere wilderness. Geographically and historically, however, Assyria and Babylonia are interdependent, and the Assyrians and Babylonians are ethnographically and linguistically the same race. Whereas, however, the classical authors speak of Assyria to the exclusion of Babylonia, the decipherment of the inscriptions has proved that Babylonia was the mother-country, and that Assyria, except during a period of eight centuries, was a dependency of the former. This discovery coincides with the contents of the tenth chapter of Genesis. See Babylonia.
Ast, Georg Anton Friedrich, German philosopher, 1776-1841. He wrote on æsthetics and the history of philosophy, but is best known as an editor of Plato, whose works he published with a Latin translation and commentary.