Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Part 18 (1/2)

When the Sudan War broke out, Baker, hastening with 3500 men to relieve Tokar, encountered the enemy under Osman Digna at El Teb. His men became panic-stricken at the first rush and allowed themselves to be slaughtered like sheep. Baker himself with a few of his officers succeeded by hard fighting in cutting a way out, but his force was annihilated. British troops soon afterwards arrived at Suakin, and Sir Gerald Graham took the offensive. Baker Pasha accompanied the British force, and guided it in its march to the scene of his defeat, and at the desperately-fought second battle of El Teb he was wounded. He remained in command of the Egyptian police until his death in 1887. Amongst his works may be mentioned _Our National Defences_ (1860), _War in Bulgaria, a Narrative of Personal Experience_ (London, 1879), _Clouds in the East_ (London, 1876).

BAKER CITY, a city and the county-seat of Baker county, Oregon, U.S.A., about 337 m. E. by S. of Portland. Pop. (1890) [v.03 p.0229] 2604; (1900) 6663 (1017 foreign-born); (1910) 6742. The city is served by the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, and by the Sumpter Valley railway, a short line (62 m.) extending from Baker City to Austin, Oregon. Baker City lies in the valley of Powder river, at the base of the Blue Mountains, and has an elevation of about 3440 ft. above the sea. It is the largest city in eastern Oregon, and is the centre of important mining, lumber, farming and live-stock interests. It was laid out as a town in 1865, became the county-seat in 1868, and was chartered as a city in 1874. The county and the city were named in honour of Edward d.i.c.kinson Baker (1811-1861), a political leader, orator and soldier, who was born in London, England, was taken to the United States in 1815, was a representative in Congress from Illinois in 1845-1846 and 1849-1851, served in the Mexican War as a colonel (1846-1847), became a prominent lawyer in California and later in Oregon, was a Republican member of the United States Senate in 1860-1861 and was killed at Ball's Bluff, Virginia, on the 21st of October in 1861, while serving as a colonel in the Federal army.

BAKEWELL, ROBERT (1725-1795) English agriculturist, was born at Dishley, Leicesters.h.i.+re, in 1725. His father, a farmer at the same place, died in 1760, and Robert Bakewell then took over the management of the estate. By visiting a large number of farms all over the country, he had already acquired a wide theoretical knowledge of agriculture and stock-breeding; and this knowledge he now put to practical use at Dishley. His main object was to improve the breed of sheep and oxen, and in this he was highly successful, his new Leicesters.h.i.+re breed of sheep attaining within little more than half a century an international reputation, while the Dishley cattle (also known as the new Leicesters.h.i.+re long-horn) became almost as famous. He extended his breeding experiments to horses, producing a new and particularly useful type of farm-horse. He was the first to establish the trade in ram-letting on a large scale, and founded the Dishley Society, the object of which was to ensure purity of breed. The value of his own stock was quickly recognized, and in one year he made 1200 guineas from the letting of a single ram. Bakewell's agricultural experiments were not confined to stock-breeding. His reputation stood high in every detail of farm-management, and as an improver of gra.s.s land by systematic irrigation he had no rival. He died on the 1st of October 1795.

BAKEWELL, ROBERT (1768-1843), English geologist, was born in 1768. He was an able observer, and deserving of mention as one of the earliest teachers of general and practical geology. His _Introduction to Geology_ (1813) contained much sound information, and reached a fifth edition in 1838. The second edition was translated and published in Germany, and the third and fourth editions were reprinted in America by Professor Silliman of Yale College. Bakewell as author also of an _Introduction to Mineralogy_ (1819), and of _Travels comprising Observations made during a Residence in the Tarentaise_, &c. (2 vols., 1823). He died at Hampstead on the 15th of August 1843.

BAKEWELL, a market-town in the western parliamentary division of Derbys.h.i.+re, England, on the river Wye, 25 m. N.N.W. of Derby, on the Midland railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2850. The church of All Saints is mentioned in Domesday, and tradition ascribes the building of its nave to King John, while the western side of the tower must be older still.

Within are some admirable specimens of encaustic tiles, and several monuments of the Vernon and Manners families; while an ancient runic rood-stone stands in the churchyard. Zinc and marble are worked in the neighbourhood. The cotton manufacture was established in the town by Sir Richard Arkwright. Bakewell is noted for a chalybeate spring, of use in cases of chronic rheumatism, and there are baths attached to it. A kind of jam-cake, called a ”Bakewell pudding,” gives another sort of fame to the place. The almshouses, known as St John's hospital, were founded in 1602; and in 1637 a free grammar school was endowed by Lady Grace Manners. Among modern buildings may be mentioned the Bakewell and High Peak Inst.i.tute, and the town hall and museum. On Castle Hill, in the vicinity, are the remains of an earthwork, said to have been raised by Edward the Elder in 924.

Within the parish are included the mansions of Burton Closes and Castle Hill. Two miles from the town, amidst beautiful gardens and meadows, is Haddon Hall. To the east lies the magnificent domain of Chatsworth. The scenery of the neighbourhood, in both the Wye and the Derwent valleys, is very beautiful; the village of Eyam (p.r.o.nounced Eem) near the Derwent may be noticed as specially picturesque. The plague of 1665, carried hither from London, almost depopulated this village, and the name of the rector, William Mompesson, attracted wide notice on account of his brave attempts to combat the outbreak.

BAKHCHI-SARAI (Turk. for ”garden-palace”), a town of Russia, in the government of Taurida, situated in a narrow gorge in the Crimea, 20 m. by rail S.S.W. of Simferopol. From the close of the 15th century down to 1783 it was the residence of the Tatar khans of the Crimea; and its streets wear a decidedly oriental look. The princ.i.p.al building, the palace, or _Khan-sarai_, was originally erected in 1519 by Abdul-Sahal-Ghirai, destroyed in 1736, and restored at Potemkin's command for the reception of Catherine II. Attached to it is a mausoleum, which contains the tombs of many of the khans. There are in the place no fewer then thirty-six mosques.

The population consists for the most part of Tatars. Bakhchi-sarai manufactures morocco, sheepskin cloaks, agricultural implements, sabres and cutlery. Pop. (1897) 12,955. Two and a half miles to the east is Chufut-Kaleh (or Jews' city), formerly the chief seat of the Karaite Jews of the Crimea, situated on lofty and almost inaccessible cliffs; it is now deserted except by the rabbi. Between Bakhchi-sarai and Chufut-kaleh is the Uspenskiy monastery, clinging like a swallow's nest to the face of the cliffs, and the scene of a great pilgrimage on the 15th (29th) of August every year.

BAKHMUT, a town of Russia, in the government of Ekaterinoslav, near the river from which it derives its name, 136 m. E. of the town of Ekaterinoslav. It owed its origin in the latter half of the 17th century to the discovery of salt-springs, and now produces coal, salt, alabaster and quicksilver, and manufactures steel rails. Pop. (1897) 19,416.

BAKHTIaRI, one of the great nomad tribes of Persia, whose camping-grounds are in the hilly district, known as the Bakhtiari province. This province extends from Chaharmahal (west of Isfahan) in the E., to near Shushter in the W., and separated from Luristan in the N. by the Dizful river (Ab i Diz), and in the S touches Behbahan and Ram Hormuz. The Bakhtiari are divided into the two great divisions Haft-lang and Chahar-lang, and a number of branches and clans, and were known until the 15th century as the ”Great Lurs,” the ”Little Lurs” being the tribes settled in the district now known as Luristan, with Khorremabad as capital. According to popular tradition the Lurs originally came from Syria in the 10th century, but it is now held that they were in Persia long, perhaps fifteen centuries, before. They speak the Lur language, a Persian dialect. The Bakhtiari number about 38,000 or 40,000 families, under 200,000 souls, while the area of the district occupied by them is about 25,000 sq. m. In the middle of the 19th century they could put 20,000 well-equipped hors.e.m.e.n into the field, but in consequence of misrule and long-lasting feuds between the different branches, which the government often fostered, or even instigated, the district has become poor, and it would now be difficult to find 4000 hors.e.m.e.n. The province is under the governor-general of Arabistan, and pays a yearly tribute of about 5000. The chiefs of the Bakhtiari in 1897, having obtained the shah's permission for improving the road between Shushter or Ahvaz and Isfahan, an iron suspension bridge with a span of 120 ft. was erected over the Karun river at Gudar i Bulutek; another, with a span of 70 ft., over the Bazuft river at Pul i Amarat; and a stone bridge over the Karun at Do-pu-lan.

For accounts of the Bakhtiari see Mrs Bishop (Isabella Bird), _Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan_ (London, 1893); C. de Bode, _Travels in Luristan_ (London, 1841); Lord Curzon, _Persia and the Persian Question_, vol. ii.

283-303 (London, 1892); Sir H. Layard, _Early Adventures in Persia_ (London, 1894).

(A. H.-S.)

BAKING, the action of the verb ”to bake,” a word, in various forms, common to Teutonic languages (cf. Ger. _backen_), meaning to cook by dry heat.

”Baking” is thus primarily applied to [v.03 p.0230] the process of preparing bread, and is also applied to the hardening by heat or ”firing”

of pottery, earthenware or bricks. (See BREAD; CERAMICS and BRICK.)

BAKIS (_i.e._ ”speaker,” from [Greek: bazo]), a general name for the inspired prophets and dispensers of oracles who flourished in Greece from the 8th to the 6th century B.C. Suidas mentions three: a Boeotian, an Arcadian and an Athenian. The first, who was the most famous, was said to have been inspired by the nymphs of the Corycian cave. His oracles, of which specimens are extant in Herodotus and Pausanias, were written in hexameter verse, and were considered to have been strikingly fulfilled. The Arcadian was said to have cured the women of Sparta of a fit of madness.

Many of the oracles which were current under his name have been attributed to Onomacritus.

Herodotus viii. 20, 77, ix. 43; Pausanias iv. 27, ix. 17, x. 12; Schol.

Aristoph. _Pax_, 1070; see Gottling, _Opuscula Academica_ (1869).

BAKoCZ, TAMaS, CARDINAL (1442-1521), Hungarian ecclesiastic and statesman, was the son of a wagoner, adopted by his uncle, who trained him for the priesthood and whom he succeeded as rector of Tetel (1480). Shortly afterwards he became one of the secretaries of King Matthias I., who made him bishop of Gyor and a member of the royal council (1490). Under Wladislaus II. (1490-1516) he became successively bishop of Eger, the richest of the Hungarian sees, archbishop of Esztergom (1497), cardinal (1500), and t.i.tular patriarch of Constantinople (1510). From 1490 to his death in 1521 he was the leading statesman of Hungary and mainly responsible for her foreign policy. It was solely through his efforts that Hungary did not accede to the league of Cambrai, was consistently friendly with Venice, and formed a family compact with the Habsburgs. He was also the only Magyar prelate who seriously aspired to the papal throne. In 1513, on the death of Julius II., he went to Rome for the express purpose of bringing about his own election as pope. He was received with more than princely pomp, and all but succeeded in his design, thanks to his extraordinary adroitness and the command of an almost unlimited bribing-fund. But Venice and the emperor played him false, and he failed.

He returned to Hungary as papal legate, bringing with him the bull of Leo X. proclaiming a fresh crusade against the Turks. But the crusade degenerated into a _jacquerie_ which ravaged the whole kingdom, and much discredited Bakocz. He lost some of his influence at first after the death of Wladislaus, but continued to be the guiding spirit at court, till age and infirmity confined him almost entirely to his house in the last three years of his life. Bakocz was a man of great ability but of no moral principle whatever. His whole life was a tissue of treachery. He was false to his benefactor Matthias, false to Matthias's son Janos Corvinus (_q.v._), whom he chicaned out of the throne, and false to his accomplice in that transaction, Queen Beatrice. His rapacity disgusted even an age in which every one could be bought and sold. His attempt to incorporate the wealthy diocese of Transylvania with his own primatial province was one of the princ.i.p.al causes of the spread of the Reformation in Hungary. He left a fortune of many millions. His one redeeming feature was a love of art; his own cathedral was a veritable Pantheon.

See Vilmos Fraknoi, _Tamas Bakocz_ (Hung.) (Budapest, 1889).

(R. N. B.)

BAKRI [Ab[=u] 'Ubaid 'Abdallah ibn 'Abd ul-'Az[=i]z ul-Bakr[=i]], (1040-1094), Arabian geographer, was born at Cordova. His best-known work is the dictionary of geographical names which occur in the poets, with an introduction on the seats of the Arabian tribes. This has been edited by F.

Wustenfeld (Gottingen, 1876-1877). Another of his works was a general geography of the world, which exists in ma.n.u.script. The part referring to North Africa was edited by McG. de Slane (Algiers, 1857).

See C. Brockelmann's _Gesch. der Arab. Litteratur_ (Weimar, 1898), vol. i.

p. 476.

BAKU, a government of Russian Transcaucasia, stretching along the west coast of the Caspian Sea from 41 50' to 38 30' N. lat., and bounded on the W. by the government of Elisavetpol and the province of Daghestan, and on the S. by Persia. It includes the Kuba plain on the north-east slope of the Caucasus; the eastern extremity of that range from the Shad-dagh (13,960 ft.) and the Bazardyuz (14,727 ft.) to the Caspian, where it terminates in the Apsheron peninsula; the steppes of the lower Kura and Aras on the south of the Caucasus, and a narrow coast-belt between the Anti-Caucasus and the Caspian. The last-mentioned region lies partly round the Kizil-agach Bay, opening to the south. Area of government, 15,172 sq.

m. Both slopes of the Caucasus are very fertile and well irrigated, with fine forests, fields of rice and other cereals, and flouris.h.i.+ng gardens.

The steppes of the Kura are also fertile, but require artificial irrigation, especially for cotton. In addition to agriculture and cattle-breeding, the vine and mulberry are extensively grown. The Apsheron peninsula is dry and bare of vegetation; but within it are situated the famous petroleum wells of Baku. These, which go down to depths of 700 to 1700 ft., yield crude naphtha, from which the petroleum or kerosene is distilled; while the heavier residue (_mazut_) is used as lubricating oil and for fuel, for instance in the locomotives of the Transcaspian railway.