Arad (o'rod), a town of the former kingdom of Hungary, on the Maros, 30 miles north of Temeswar, divided by the river into O (Old) Arad and Uj (New) Arad, connected by a bridge; it has a fortress, and is an important railway centre, with a large trade and manufactures. The town is now within the confines of Roumania, Uj Arad being called Arodul Neo. Population of Old and New Arad together, 63,166.
Ar´adus (now Ruad), an inlet about a mile in circumference lying 2 miles off the Syrian coast, 35 miles N. of Tripolis; the site of the Phœnician stronghold Arvad, a city second only to Tyre and Sidon; now occupied by about 3000 people, mainly fishermen.
Arafat´, or Jebel er Rahmeh ('Mountain of Mercy'), a hill in Arabia, about 200 feet high, with stone steps reaching to the summit, 15 miles south-east of Mecca; one of the principal objects of pilgrimage among Mahommedans, who
say that it was the place where Adam first received his wife Eve after they had been expelled from Paradise and separated from each other 120 years. A sermon delivered on the mount constitutes one great ceremony of the Hajj; or pilgrimage to Mecca, and entitles the hearer to the name and privileges of a Hajji or pilgrim.
Ar´ago, Dominique François, a French physicist, born in 1786, died at Paris in 1853. After studying in the Polytechnic School at Paris, he was appointed a secretary of the Bureau des Longitudes. In 1806 he was associated with Biot in completing in Spain the measurements of Delambre and Méchain to obtain an arc of the meridian. Before he got back to France he had been shipwrecked and narrowly escaped being enslaved at Algiers. In 1809 he was elected to the Academy of Sciences and appointed a professor at the Polytechnic School. He distinguished himself by his researches in the polarization of light, galvanism, magnetism, astronomy, &c. His discovery of the magnetic properties of substances devoid of iron, made known to the Academy of Sciences in 1824, procured him the Copley medal of the Royal Society of London in 1825. A further consideration of the same subject led to the equally remarkable discovery of the production of magnetism by electricity. He took part in the revolution of 1848, and held the office of Minister of War and Marine in the provisional Government. At the coup d'état of Dec., 1852, he refused to take the oath to the Government of Louis Napoleon, but the oath was not pressed. His works, which were posthumously collected and published, consist, besides his Astronomie Populaire, chiefly of contributions to learned societies, and biographical notices (éloges) of deceased members of the Academy of Sciences.
Arago, Emmanuel, son of Dominique François, French advocate and politician, was born at Paris in 1812; called to the bar 1837; took part in the revolution of 1848; renounced politics after the coup d'état of Dec., 1852, but continued to practise at the bar. After the fall of the Empire he again took a prominent part in public affairs, and held several important offices. He is author of a volume of poems and many theatrical pieces. He died in 1896.
Arago, Étienne, brother of Dominique Arago, born 1802, died 1892. He founded the journals La Réforme and Le Figaro; was director of the Théâtre du Vaudeville, 1829; took part in the revolution of 1848; was condemned to transportation, 1849; fled from France, but returned in 1859; was mayor of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war, and appointed archivist to the École des Beaux Arts, 1878. He was author of upwards of 100 dramas, La Vie de Molière, Les Bleus et les Blancs, and other works.
Aragon´, Kingdom of, a former province or kingdom of Spain, now divided into three provinces of Teruel, Huesca, and Saragossa; bounded on the N. by the Pyrenees, N.W. by Navarre, W. by Castile, S. by Valencia, and E. by Catalonia; length about 190 miles, average breadth 90 miles; area, 18,298 sq. miles. It was governed by its own monarchs until the union with Castile on the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella (1469).
Arago´na, a town in Sicily, 8 miles N.N.E. of Girgenti. Pop. 16,000. In the neighbourhood is the mud volcano of Macculuba.
Aragonite, a mineral formed of calcium carbonate crystallized in the rhombic system; specific gravity 2.94 (compare Calcite). Aragonite passes into calcite in the course of geological time, but is important as the mineral precipitated to form the oolitic limestones of warm seas, and from being the material of most molluscan shells. It was first found in Aragon.