de Moivre, Abraham: see Moivre, Abraham de.

Whipple, Abraham, 1733-1819, American Revolutionary naval officer, b. Providence, R.I. In 1759-60, as captain of the privateer Game Cock in the French and Indian Wars, he captured numerous prizes. Whipple commanded the party of Rhode Islanders that captured and burned the British revenue cutter Gaspee in Narragansett Bay in 1772, one of the most provocative instances of resistance to the British in the pre-Revolutionary period. At the beginning of the American Revolution he was made commodore of Rhode Island's small fleet and then became fourth-ranking captain in the Continental navy. With the Columbus in 1776 he fought the first sea fight of the war. In 1778, Whipple, commanding the Providence, evaded the British blockade of Narragansett Bay and carried important government dispatches to France. His most daring exploit occurred in 1779 when, as commander of several vessels, he encountered the large, well-protected British Jamaica fleet. Whipple, concealing the guns of his flagship, the Providence, hoisted the British flag and fell in with the fleet for several days. Each night he cut out one of the merchant ships, manned it from his own crew, and sent it to an American port. Eight of the 11 captured ships reached port, making this one of the richest hauls of the war. In 1780 he was charged with the naval defense of Charleston, S.C.; the city fell and Whipple was captured and held prisoner for the rest of the war.

Werner, Abraham Gottlob, 1750-1817, German geologist. In 1775 he became inspector and teacher in the mining academy at Freiberg, which through his efforts became one of the leading schools in Germany. In the last part of the 18th cent. he was the most notable figure in the investigation of rocks and minerals; he called the new science geognosy and defined it as the study of the layers of mineral matter. He was the first to classify minerals systematically. According to his theory of neptunism, the earth was originally an ocean of water from which were precipitated the solid rocks now forming most of the dry land. Although much of his theory has been rejected, geology is indebted to him for the application of chronology to rock formations as well as for his precise definitions.

Waksman, Selman Abraham, 1888-1973, American microbiologist, b. Priluka, Russia, grad. Rutgers (B.S. 1915), Ph.D. Univ. of California, 1918. He went to the United States in 1910 and was naturalized in 1916. He taught at Rutgers from 1918 and was a professor there from 1930. At the New Jersey State Agricultural Experiment station, where he became microbiologist in 1921, Waksman and his associates made studies of the decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms, of the origin and nature of humus, and of the production of substances detrimental to certain bacteria. For his discovery of the antibiotic streptomycin and of its value in treating tuberculosis, he was awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In addition to many scientific papers Waksman wrote Enzymes (with W. C Davison, 1926); Principles of Soil Microbiology (1927); The Soil and the Microbe (with R. L. Starkey, 1931); Humus (1936); Microbial Antagonisms and Antibiotic Substances (1945); The Conquest of Tuberculosis (1964); and The Actinomycetes (1967).

Tucker, Abraham, 1705-74, English philosopher, b. London. He studied law at Merton College, Oxford, and later devoted himself to independent study. He advanced the ethical view that each man seeks his own interests and that the will of God blends these into a public good. This position is similar to that of the subsequent utilitarianism. Tucker's major work, The Light of Nature Pursued (7 vol., 1768-78), was published in part under the pseudonym Edward Search.

Rydberg, Abraham Viktor, 1828-95, Swedish philosopher and writer. Singoalla (1857), a romantic and mystical story of medieval times, was his first major work. His polemical novel The Last Athenian (1859, tr. 1869) contrasted Hellenic tolerance and humanism with Christian dogmatism and bigotry. In The Teaching of the Bible about Christ (1862), he opposed fundamentalist Christian views. Rydberg's verse is distinguished for its majestic lyricism and for its sense of the mystery of human existence.

Ruef, Abraham (Abe Ruef), 1864-1936, American political boss, b. San Francisco. He practiced law in San Francisco after 1886 and became a familiar figure in San Francisco ward politics. He was active in the local Republican party and later became the leader of the Union Labor party. After securing the election (1901) of Eugene Schmitz, a musician, as mayor of San Francisco, Ruef gained political control of the city and directed it with shocking corruption until he was indicted in 1906. In a sensational trial—Prosecutor Francis J. Heney was shot in the courtroom and replaced by Hiram Johnson—Ruef was convicted (1908) of bribery and was sentenced to a 14-year prison term. He was released on parole in 1915.

Plains of Abraham: see Abraham, Plains of.

Ortelius, Abraham, 1527-98, Flemish geographer, of German origin. Next to his contemporary Mercator, he is the most renowned of the 16th-century Flemish school of geography. He traveled with Mercator in 1560 and was thus inspired to begin his chief work, Theatrum orbis terrarum (1570), the first modern atlas of the world. The first edition of this atlas contained 53 maps, in part compiled from maps of 87 cartographers; the 1587 edition had 103 maps. Ortelius was made geographer to Philip II of Spain in 1575. He produced a number of other geographic works, such as the Thesaurus geographicus (1587).

Moivre, Abraham de, 1667-1754, French-English mathematician. He fled to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was called upon by the Royal Society to help decide the issue between Newton and Leibniz on the priority of the invention of the differential calculus. De Moivre made important contributions to trigonometry and to the theory of probabilities, on which he published Doctrine of Chances (1718). There are three mathematical theorems which bear his name.

Michelson, Albert Abraham, 1852-1931, American physicist, b. Strelno, Prussia, grad. Annapolis, 1873, and studied at Berlin, Heidelberg, and Paris. He was professor of physics at Clark Univ. (1889-92) and later was head of the department of physics at the Univ. of Chicago (1892-1931). He is known especially for his determinations of the speed of light; in some of his earliest work he tested the data of Foucault's experiments and, then and later, with apparatus (including the interferometer) that he designed and built himself, measured the speed of light to an unequaled degree of accuracy. He measured (1892-93) the length of the standard meter in Paris in terms of the wave length of the red line of the cadmium spectrum, using his interferometer method. The wave length thus provided an absolute and exactly reproducible standard of length. With E. W. Morley he conducted the Michelson-Morley experiment (1887), which failed to detect any difference in the speed of light caused by the motion of the earth through space. That led to the refutation of the ether hypothesis and contributed to the development of Einstein's theory of relativity. Michelson was the first to measure the diameter of a distant star. He also demonstrated that the earth as a whole is rigid, not molten. Awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Physics, he was the first American scientist to receive the honor. His major writings include Velocity of Light (1902) and Studies in Optics (1927).

Maslow, Abraham Harold, 1908-70, American psychologist, b. Brooklyn, New York, Ph.D. Univ. of Wisconsin (1934). He taught at Brooklyn College from 1937, then became head of the psychology department at Brandeis Univ. (1951-69). A leader in the school of humanistic psychology, Maslow is best known for his theory of human motivation, which led to a therapeutic technique known as self-actualization. His influential works include Motivation and Personality (1954) and Toward a Psychology of Being (1964).

Mapu, Abraham, 1808-67, Lithuanian novelist who wrote in Hebrew. For many years an impoverished, itinerant schoolmaster, Mapu gained financial security when he was appointed teacher in a government school for Jewish children. Mapu is considered the creator of the Hebrew novel. Influenced by French romantic literature, he wrote heavily plotted novels about life in ancient Palestine, which he contrasted favorably with 19th-century Jewish life. His style is fresh and poetic, almost biblical in its simple grandeur. Among his novels are Ayit Zanua [the hypocrite] (1858) and Ahavat Zion (1853; tr. Amonon, Prince and Peasant, 1887).

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-65, 16th President of the United States (1861-65).

Early Life

Born on Feb. 12, 1809, in a log cabin in backwoods Hardin co., Ky. (now Larue co.), he grew up on newly broken pioneer farms of the frontier. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was a migratory carpenter and farmer, nearly always poverty-stricken. Little is known of his mother, Nancy Hanks, who died in 1818, not long after the family had settled in the wilds of what is now Spencer co., Ind. Thomas Lincoln soon afterward married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow; she was a kind and affectionate stepmother to the boy. Abraham had almost no formal schooling—the scattered weeks of school attendance in Kentucky and Indiana amounted to less than a year; but he taught himself, reading and rereading a small stock of books. His first glimpse of the wider world came in a voyage downriver to New Orleans on a flatboat in 1828, but little is known of that journey. In 1830 the Lincolns moved once more, this time to Macon co., Ill.

After another visit to New Orleans, the young Lincoln settled in 1831 in the village of New Salem, Ill., not far from Springfield. There he began by working in a store and managing a mill. By this time a tall (6 ft 4 in./190 cm), rawboned young man, he won much popularity among the inhabitants of the frontier town by his great strength and his flair for storytelling, but most of all by his strength of character. His sincerity and capability won respect that was strengthened by his ability to hold his own in the roughest society. He was chosen captain of a volunteer company gathered for the Black Hawk War (1832), but the company did not see battle.

Returning to New Salem, Lincoln was a partner in a grocery store that failed, leaving him with a heavy burden of debt. He became a surveyor for a time, was village postmaster, and did various odd jobs, including rail splitting. All the while he sought to improve his education and studied law. The story of a brief love affair with Ann Rutledge, which supposedly occurred at this time, is now discredited.

Early Political Career

In 1834, Lincoln was elected to the state legislature, in which he served four successive terms (until 1841) and achieved prominence as a Whig. In 1836 he obtained his license as an attorney, and the next year he moved to Springfield, where he became a law partner of John T. Stuart. Lincoln's practice steadily increased. That first partnership was succeeded by others, with Stephen T. Logan and then with William H. Herndon, who was later to be Lincoln's biographer. Lincoln displayed great ability in law, a ready grasp of argument, and sincerity, color, and lucidity of speech.

In 1842 he married Mary Todd (see Lincoln, Mary Todd) after a troubled courtship. He continued his interest in politics and entered on the national scene by serving one term in Congress (1847-49). He remained obscure, however, and his attacks as a Whig on the motives behind the Mexican War (though he voted for war supplies) seemed unpatriotic to his constituents, so he lost popularity at home. Lincoln worked hard for the election of the Whig candidate, Zachary Taylor, in 1848, but when he was not rewarded with the office he desired—Commissioner of the General Land Office—he decided to retire from politics and return to the practice of law.

Slavery and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The prairie lawyer emerged again into politics in 1854, when he was caught up in the rising quarrel over slavery. He stoutly opposed the policy of Stephen A. Douglas and particularly the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In a speech at Springfield, repeated at Peoria, he attacked the compromises concerning the question of slavery in the territories and invoked the democratic ideals contained in the Declaration of Independence. In 1855 he sought to become a Senator but failed.

He had already realized that his sentiments were leading him away from the Whigs and toward the new Republican party, and in 1856 he became a Republican. He quickly came to the fore in the party as a moderate opponent of slavery who could win both the abolitionists and the conservative free-staters, and at the Republican national convention of 1856 he was prominent as a possible vice presidential candidate. Two years later he was nominated by the Republican party to oppose Douglas in the Illinois senatorial race.

Accepting the nomination (in a speech delivered at Springfield on June 16), Lincoln gave a ringing declaration in support of the Union: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." The campaign that followed was impressive. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates (seven were held), in which he delivered masterful addresses for the Union and for the democratic idea. He was not an abolitionist, but he regarded slavery as an injustice and an evil, and uncompromisingly opposed its extension.

Presidency

Though Douglas won the senatorial election, Lincoln had made his mark by the debates; he was now a potential presidential candidate. His first appearance in the East was in Feb., 1860, when he spoke at Cooper Union in New York City. He gained a large following in the antislavery states, but his nomination for President by the Republican convention in Chicago (May, 1860) was as much due to the opposition to William H. Seward, the leading contender, as to Lincoln's own appeal. He was nominated on the third ballot. In the election the Democratic party split; Lincoln was opposed by Douglas (Northern Democrat), John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democrat), and John Bell (Constitutional Unionist). Lincoln was elected with a minority of the popular vote.

To the South, Lincoln's election was the signal for secession. All compromise plans, such as that proposed by John J. Crittenden, failed, and by the time of Lincoln's inauguration seven states had seceded. The new President, determined to preserve the Union at all costs, condemned secession but promised that he would not initiate the use of force. After a slight delay, however, he did order the provisioning of Fort Sumter, and the South chose to regard this as an act of war. On Apr. 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired upon, and the Civil War began.

Although various criticisms have been leveled against him, it is generally agreed that Lincoln attacked the vast problems of the war with vigor and surpassing skill. He immediately issued a summons to the militia (an act that precipitated the secession of four more Southern states), ordered a blockade of Confederate ports, and suspended habeas corpus. The last action provoked much criticism, but Lincoln adhered to it, ignoring a circuit court ruling against him in the Merryman Case (see Merryman, ex parte). In the course of the war, Lincoln further extended his executive powers, but in general he exercised those powers with restraint. He was beset not only by the difficulties of the war, but by opposition from men on his own side. His cabinet was rent by internal jealousies and hatred; radical abolitionists condemned him as too mild; conservatives were gloomy over the prospects of success in the war.

In the midst of all this strife, Lincoln continued his course, sometimes almost alone, with wisdom and patience. The progress of battle went against the North at first. Lincoln himself made some bad military decisions (e.g., in ordering the direct advance into Virginia that resulted in the Union defeat at the first battle of Bull Run), and he ran through a succession of commanders in chief before he found Ulysses S. Grant. In the early stages of the war Lincoln revoked orders by John C. Frémont and David Hunter freeing the slaves in their military departments. However, the Union victory at Antietam gave him a position of strength from which to issue his own Emancipation Proclamation.

The restoration and preservation of the Union were still the main tenets of Lincoln's war aims. The sorrows of war and its rigorous necessity afflicted him; he expressed both in one of the noblest public speeches ever made, the Gettysburg Address, made at the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery at Gettysburg in 1863. For a time Lincoln was threatened by the desertion of the Republican leaders as well as by a strong opposition party in the presidential election that loomed ahead in the dark days of 1864; but a turn for the better took place before the election, a turn brought about to some extent by a change of military fortune after Grant became commander and particularly after William T. Sherman took Atlanta.

Lincoln was reelected over George B. McClellan by a great majority. His second inaugural address, delivered when the war was drawing to its close, was a plea for the new country that would arise from the ashes of the South. His own view was one of forgiveness, as shown in his memorable phrase "With malice toward none; with charity for all." He lived to see the end of the war, but he was to have no chance to implement his plans for Reconstruction. On the night of Apr. 14, 1865, when attending a performance at Ford's Theater, he was shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth. The next morning Lincoln died. His death was an occasion for grief even among those who had been his opponents, and many considered him a martyr.

The Lincoln Legend

As time passed Lincoln became more and more the object of adulation; a full-blown "Lincoln legend" appeared. Yet, even if his faults and mistakes are acknowledged, he stands out as a statesman of noble vision, great humanity, and remarkable political skill. It is not surprising that the Illinois "rail-splitter" is regarded as a foremost symbol of American democracy. Paintings, sculptures, and architectural works memorializing Lincoln are legion; the most famous shrines are his home and tomb in Springfield, Ill., and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Kuyper, Abraham, 1837-1920, Dutch political figure and Calvinist theologian. After holding important pastorates, he became interested in politics and engaged in political and theological controversies. In 1886 he founded the Free Reformed Church. He edited an encyclopedia of sacred theology. Kuyper was first elected to the States-General in 1874 and served a number of terms. He was minister of the interior from 1901 to 1905.

Kook, Abraham Isaac, 1864-1935, Jewish scholar and philosopher, b. Latvia. He settled (1904) in Palestine, where he became the chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in 1921. He attempted to show that Palestine and Zionism were an integral part of Judaism; that those secularist Jews who worked to build up the Jewish homeland were unknowingly doing God's work, which one day would become evident to them; and that nationalism was a necessary step on the way to universalism. He was the author of several books that were influential among Jewish nationalists.

Jacobi, Abraham, 1830-1919, American pediatrician, founder of pediatrics in the United States, b. Westphalia, Germany, M.D. Bonn, 1851. He was imprisoned for participating in the Revolution of 1848, but he escaped and in 1853 came to the United States. He was renowned as a lecturer on pediatrics and as professor of children's diseases at New York Medical College (where in 1860 he opened the first children's clinic in the country) and at Columbia (1870-1902). He was a founder and editor of the American Journal of Obstetrics and author of numerous works. Mary Putnam Jacobi, a physician and the first woman student at L'École de Médicine, Paris, was his wife.

Jackson, Abraham Valentine Williams, 1862-1937, American Orientalist, b. New York City. Teaching at Columbia Univ. (1895-1935), he was a great authority on ancient Persian religion, language, and literature as well as on modern Parsis.

Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir, c.1089-1164, Jewish grammarian, commentator, poet, philosopher, and astronomer, b. Tudela, Spain. He traveled widely and wrote a number of ethical treatises, poems, and other works. Revered in Orthodox Judaism as one of the most important authors of biblical commentary, his interpretations were Neoplatonic and often rationalistic. He was the inspiration for Robert Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra." Aben Ezra is another form of his name.

Heschel, Abraham Joshua, 1907-72, American Jewish philosopher and theologian, b. Warsaw, Poland. He succeeded Martin Buber as director of the Central Organization for Jewish Adult Education in Frankfurt and then taught in Warsaw and London before going to the United States in 1940. He taught philosophy and rabbinics at the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, and in 1945 became professor of Jewish ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where he remained until his death. He developed an influential philosophy and theology that sought to renew the ability to grasp the reality of the relationship between God and humans, and of the holiness of life. He played a significant role in the civil-rights movement and in the Christian-Jewish dialogue. Heschel's major works are Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion (1951), God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (1955), The Prophets (1962), Who Is Man? (1965), Israel: An Echo of Eternity (1969), and A Passion for Truth (1973).

Herrera, Abraham Cohen de, c.1570-1635, Jewish philosopher and kabbalist, also called Alonso Nunez de Herrera and Abraham Irira. Born possibly in Portugal of a Marrano family, his studies of Neoplatonism, as taught in the Florentine Academy according to the interpretation of Marcel Ficino and as found in the Neoplatonic Dialoghi d'Amore of Judah Abravanel, and his studies of Lurianic kabbalah (see Luria, Isaac ben Solomon), prompted him to attempt a synthesis of these two traditions in his Puerta del cielo (n.d.). This work, circulating in the original Spanish manuscript, in Hebrew translation, and Latin abridgment, influenced religious developments in both Jewish and Christian communities, as well as such later philosophers as Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Herrera also wrote Casa de Dios, dealing with angels, and Epítome y compendio de la lógica o dialéctica, a treatise on logic (his only published work, n.d.).

Grierson, Sir George Abraham, 1851-1941, Irish philologist. Besides writing grammars of many modern Indian vernaculars, Grierson directed the compilation of the great Linguistic Survey of India (19 vol., 1894-1927).

Goldfaden, Abraham, 1840-1908, Hebrew and Yiddish playwright, b. Starokonstantinov, Russia. He was the first important Yiddish playwright and a leading figure in Yiddish theater. In 1876 he combined some of his songs and poems to form his first plays, which were initially performed in Jassy, Romania. Russian authorities banned Yiddish theater in 1883, and Goldfaden and his followers founded Yiddish troupes in Paris, London, and New York City. Goldfaden settled in New York in 1903 and opened a drama school. Of his 400 plays the most famous is probably Shulamit (1880).

Geiger, Abraham, 1810-74, German rabbi, Semitic scholar and Orientalist, theologian, and foremost exponent of the Reform movement in Judaism. When he received his doctorate (1833) from the Univ. of Bonn, he was already a rabbi in Wiesbaden. He sought to remove all nationalistic elements from Judaism (particularly the "Chosen People" doctrine) and to emphasize the Jewish "mission" to spread monotheism and moral law. He shortened the prayerbook, permitted instrumental music in the synagogue, abolished the second days of holidays, and advocated prayer in the vernacular. However, he opposed Sunday worship and refused to serve any congregation that broke with the established Jewish community. In 1870 he became chief rabbi of the Berlin congregations and director of the newly established seminary for the scientific study of Judaism. He was a prolific writer. His great work is Urschrift und übersetzungen der Bibel [text and translations of the Bible] (1857).

Flexner, Abraham, 1866-1959, American educator, b. Louisville, Ky., grad. Johns Hopkins Univ., 1886. After 19 years as a secondary school teacher and principal, he took graduate work at Harvard and at the Univ. of Berlin. In 1908 he joined the research staff of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and in 1910 wrote a report, Medical Education in the United States and Canada, which is generally called the Flexner Report. It hastened much-needed reforms in the standards, organization, and curriculums of American medical schools. From 1912 to 1925, Flexner was a member of the General Education Board, serving as secretary after 1917. He was director of the newly organized Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1930 to 1939. His influential works on education range from A Modern School (1916) and The Gary Schools (with F. B. Bachman, 1918) to The Burden of Humanism (the Taylorian Lecture at Oxford, 1928) and his widely known study, Universities: American, English, German (1930). His biography of H. S. Pritchett was published in 1943.

Duquesne, Abraham, 1610-88, French naval officer. In the Fronde outbreaks, he suppressed a revolt at Bordeaux (1650). As commander of the new French fleet, he distinguished himself in the third of the Dutch Wars, engaging Admiral De Ruyter in the Lipari Islands, and sharing in the victory of Palermo (1676). He fought the Barbary pirates (1681) and bombarded Algiers (1682-83) and Genoa (1684). Although a Protestant, he was created marquis (1681) and was exempted from proscription when the Edict of Nantes was revoked (1685).

Diepenbeeck, Abraham van, 1596-1675, Flemish glass painter, book illustrator, and painter. He was active mainly in Antwerp and was strongly influenced by Rubens, who was his teacher.

Cowley, Abraham, 1618-67, one of the English metaphysical poets. He published his first volume of verse, Poetical Blossoms (1633), when he was 15. While a student at Cambridge, Cowley wrote three plays and began the scriptural epic Davideis (1656), in which he developed the use of the couplet as a vehicle for narrative verse. As a result of the Puritan uprising he left Cambridge and in 1656 went to France, where he served as secretary and royalist agent for Queen Henrietta Maria. Cowley's principal works include The Mistress (1647), a love cycle written in the manner of John Donne; Poems (1656), including the Pindaric odes and the elegies on Richard Crashaw and William Hervey; and Verses on Several Occasions (1663), including "To the Royal Society," an ode recalling his earlier prose tract Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy (1661).

Clark, Abraham, 1726-94, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), N.J. After holding several local offices, Clark became, at the beginning of the American Revolution, a member and later secretary of the New Jersey committee of safety. He was a member (1775) of the New Jersey provincial congress, which appointed him (1776) delegate to the Continental Congress. Clark served three terms in Congress (1776-78, 1779-83, 1787-89), and in the interim periods he served in the New Jersey legislature.

Calovius, Abraham, 1612-86, German Lutheran theologian, whose original name was Kalan or Calan. He was (1637-43) a professor of theology at Königsberg, then pastor at Danzig, and after 1650 teacher, general superintendent, and finally dean of the theological faculty at Wittenberg. In his many tracts he defended the strict orthodox party against Catholic, Socinian, Arminian, and other views. He particularly attacked the syncretistic doctrines of Georgius Calixtus.

Cahan, Abraham, 1860-1951, Russian-American journalist, Socialist leader, and author, b. Vilnius, Lithuania. He emigrated to New York City in 1882, entered journalism, and helped found the Jewish Daily Forward (1897); as editor in chief after 1902, he made it the most influential Jewish daily in America. He was a founder of the Social Democratic party in 1897 and after 1902 supported the Socialist party. Active in spreading socialist teachings among Jewish workers, he encouraged the unionization of East Side garment workers and supported them in their strikes. Cahan's writings in English, particularly Yekl: a Tale of the New York Ghetto (1896), The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories (1898), and The Rise of David Levinsky (1917), are recognized for their historical portrayals of the immigrant experience. He also wrote, in Yiddish, Blätter von mein Leben (5 vol., 1926-31), an autobiography.

Brill, Abraham Arden, 1874-1948, American psychiatrist, b. Austria, grad. New York Univ., 1901, M.D. Columbia, 1903. He came to the United States alone at the age of 13. After studies with C. G. Jung in Switzerland, he returned to the United States in 1908 to become one of the earliest and most active exponents of psychoanalysis, being the first to translate into English most of the major works of Freud as well as books by Jung. He taught at New York Univ. and Columbia, was a practicing psychoanalyst, and wrote Psychoanalysis: Its Theories and Practical Application (1912) and Fundamental Conceptions of Psychoanalysis (1921).

Bosse, Abraham, 1602-76, French engraver and painter. He studied art in Paris and became a teacher of perspective in the Académie royale. A prolific and skillful worker, he engraved more than 1,400 pieces. He is best known for his faithful representation of French civil life and costumes during the period of Louis XIII. Bosse wrote several valued treatises on art and perspective. One of his rare paintings, The Foolish Virgins, is in the Cluny Museum, Paris.

Bedaresi or Bedersi, Yedayah ben Abraham, 1270-1340, Jewish poet and philosopher, b. Béziers, France. His most successful poem was the didactic Examination of the World, of which many translations have been made, among them one in English by Rabbi Tobias Goodman (London, 1806).

Beame, Abraham David, 1906-2001, American politician, mayor of New York City (1974-77), b. London. Beame, who grew up on New York's Lower East Side, was city budget director (1952-61). A Democrat, he was elected to two terms as city comptroller (1961, 1969). After defeating John Lindsay in the 1973 mayoral election, Beame faced the worst fiscal crisis in the city's history and spent the bulk of his term attempting to ward off bankruptcy. He slashed the city workforce, froze wages, and restructured the budget, moves that proved insufficient until reinforced by actions from newly created state-sponsored entities and the granting of federal funds.

Baldwin, Abraham, 1754-1807, American political leader, b. Guilford, Conn. After serving as a chaplain in the American Revolution, he studied law and in 1784 was admitted to practice in Georgia. He was a member (1785-88) of the Continental Congress and the leading Georgia delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787. His change of vote in that convention on the issue of the mode of representation in Congress brought about a tie between the large and small states. Baldwin served on the committee appointed to solve this problem. The compromise system of representation that it proposed (by population in the House of Representatives and by states in the Senate) was adopted. Baldwin was elected to the first House of Representatives and served until 1799. He then served in the Senate until his death. He was an industrious member of many committees and supported Jeffersonian policies. Earlier, while in the Georgia assembly, Baldwin wrote the charter of Franklin College, which later developed into the Univ. of Georgia.

Anquetil-Duperron, Abraham Hyacinthe, 1731-1805, French Orientalist. He gave up studying for the priesthood to pursue his deep interest in Eastern languages. In India (1755-61) he learned Persian, Sanskrit, Zend, Avestan, and Pahlavi. After studying with the Parsis, he was forced to return to France as a result of the British conquests in India. He took with him 180 manuscripts, which he gave to the Royal Library. His three-volume translation of the Zend-Avesta (1771) introduced Zoroastrian texts to Europe. Anquetil-Duperron also translated the Upanishads into Latin (1804) and wrote several works on India.

Abraham, Plains of, fairly level field adjoining the upper part of the city of Quebec, Canada. There, in 1759, the English under Gen. James Wolfe defeated the French under Gen. Louis Montcalm. The battle decided the last of the French and Indian Wars and led to British supremacy in Canada. Part of the battle site is now built over, but a part is preserved as a national park.

Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra: see Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir.

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, 117 acres (47 hectares), central Ky., near Hodgenville; est. 1916. Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in this area on Feb. 12, 1809. The exact location of the original cabin has not been conclusively established, but evidence seems to indicate that it was situated on top of the knoll where the memorial building stands. Inside the building is the log cabin traditionally accepted as Lincoln's birthplace. See National Parks and Monuments (table).

Abraham [according to the Book of Genesis, Heb.,=father of many nations] or Abram [Heb.,=exalted father], in the Bible, progenitor of the Hebrews; in the Qur'an, ancestor of the Arabs. As the founder of Judaism, he is said to have instituted the rite of circumcision as a sign of the covenant between God and the Jews, who are descended from Isaac, son of Abraham's old age. Abraham also received the promise of Canaan for his people. In response to divine command, Abraham left Haran, taking his wife Sara and his nephew Lot to Canaan, where God promised him many descendants who would become a great nation. His devotion and trust in God and his promises are exemplified pre-eminently in Abraham's preparedness to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Book of Joshua confesses Abraham as a one-time worshiper of other gods before he entered Canaan.

Muslims believe that Arabs are descended from Abraham and Hagar through their son Ishmael. Abraham is further regarded as an ancestor of Muhammad. According to the Qur'an, Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba in Mecca and instituted pilgrimages there. The Qur'an depicts him destroying the idols of his father and of his clan; hence, Islam is the restoration of the religion of Abraham.

Other Abraham traditions are to be found in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, especially in the Book of Jubilees. See also Josephus' Jewish Antiquities. Modern biblical scholarship has revealed anachronisms in Genesis that cloud attempts to place chronologically Abraham's historical existence.

Abildgaard, Nikolaj Abraham, 1743-1809, Danish painter of the neoclassical school. He was a student of Eckersberg. Among his own pupils was Thorvaldsen, whom he greatly influenced. Abildgaard's work may be seen in the House of Representatives in Copenhagen.

(born Sept. 25, 1750, Wehrau, Saxony—died June 30, 1817, Freiberg) German geologist. In opposition to the Plutonists, or Vulcanists, who argued that granite and many other rocks were of igneous origin, he founded the Neptunist school, which proclaimed that all rocks resulted from precipitation from oceans that had, he theorized, once completely covered the Earth. He rejected uniformitarianism. His brilliant lecturing and personal charm won him many students, who, though many eventually discarded his theories, would not renounce them while Werner lived.

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(born July 22, 1888, Priluka, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died Aug. 16, 1973, Hyannis, Mass., U.S.) Ukrainian-born U.S. biochemist. He became a U.S. citizen in 1916 and spent most of his career at Rutgers University. After the discovery of penicillin, he played a major role in initiating a calculated, systematic search for antibiotics (a term he coined in 1941) among microorganisms. His 1943 discovery of streptomycin, the first specific agent effective in the treatment of tuberculosis, brought him a 1952 Nobel Prize. Waksman also isolated and developed several other antibiotics, including neomycin, that have been used in treating many infectious diseases of humans, domestic animals, and plants.

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(born Jan. 7, 1851, County Dublin, Ire.—died March 9, 1941, Camberley, Surrey, Eng.) Anglo-Irish civil servant and linguist. While holding a succession of British government posts in Bengal (1873–98), Grierson carried out pioneering research on South Asian, particularly Indo-Aryan, languages. In 1898 he began work on the 19-volume Linguistic Survey of India and spent the next 30 years publishing data on hundreds of languages and dialects. His work was of enormous value; nevertheless, his hypothetical linguistic constructs such as “Rajasthani,” “Bihari,” and “Lahnda” misled most nonspecialists.

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(born July 22, 1888, Priluka, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died Aug. 16, 1973, Hyannis, Mass., U.S.) Ukrainian-born U.S. biochemist. He became a U.S. citizen in 1916 and spent most of his career at Rutgers University. After the discovery of penicillin, he played a major role in initiating a calculated, systematic search for antibiotics (a term he coined in 1941) among microorganisms. His 1943 discovery of streptomycin, the first specific agent effective in the treatment of tuberculosis, brought him a 1952 Nobel Prize. Waksman also isolated and developed several other antibiotics, including neomycin, that have been used in treating many infectious diseases of humans, domestic animals, and plants.

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Plateau located west of the old walled city of Quebec, Canada. On Sept. 13, 1759, it was the scene of the decisive battle of the French and Indian War, in which the British under James Wolfe defeated the French under the marquis de Montcalm. U.S. forces held the plateau (1775–76) in their siege of Quebec during the American Revolution. It is now a park within Quebec city limits.

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(born July 10, 1830, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies—died Nov. 13, 1903, Paris, France) West Indian-born French painter. The son of a prosperous Jewish merchant, he moved to Paris in 1855. His earliest canvases are broadly painted figure paintings and landscapes; these show the careful observation of nature that was to remain a characteristic of his art. In 1871 he took a house in Pontoise, in the countryside outside Paris. These surroundings formed the theme of his art for some 30 years. Pissarro's leading motifs during the 1870s and 1880s were houses, factories, trees, haystacks, fields, labouring peasants, and river scenes. In these works, forms do not dissolve but remain firm, and colours are strong; during the latter part of the 1870s his comma-like brushstrokes frequently recorded the sparkling scintillation of light. These works were admired by the Impressionist artists; Pissarro was the only Impressionist painter who participated in all eight of the group's exhibitions. Despite acute eye trouble, his later years were his most prolific.

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(born Dec. 19, 1852, Strelno, Prussia—died May 9, 1931, Pasadena, Calif., U.S.) Prussian-born U.S. physicist. His family immigrated to the U.S. in 1854. He studied at the U.S. Naval Academy and in Europe and later taught principally at the University of Chicago (1892–1931), where he headed the physics department. He invented the interferometer, with which he used light to make extremely precise measurements. He is best remembered for the Michelson-Morley experiment, undertaken with Edward W. Morley (1838–1923), which established that the speed of light is a fundamental constant. Using a more refined interferometer, Michelson measured the diameter of the star Betelgeuse, the first substantially accurate determination of the size of a star. In 1907 he became the first American scientist to receive a Nobel Prize.

Learn more about Michelson, A(lbert) A(braham) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 1, 1908, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died June 8, 1970, Menlo Park, Calif.) U.S. psychologist. He taught at Brooklyn College (1937–51) and Brandeis University (1951–69). A practitioner of humanistic psychology, he is known for his theory of “self-actualization.” In Motivation and Personality (1954) and Toward a Psychology of Being (1962), Maslow argued that each person has a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied, ranging from basic physiological requirements to love, esteem, and, finally, self-actualization. As each need is satisfied, the next higher level in the emotional hierarchy dominates conscious functioning.

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(born Feb. 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Ky., U.S.—died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) 16th president of the U.S. (1861–65). Born in a Kentucky log cabin, he moved to Indiana in 1816 and to Illinois in 1830. After working as a storekeeper, a rail-splitter, a postmaster, and a surveyor, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Black Hawk War (1832) and was elected captain of his company. He taught himself law and, having passed the bar examination, began practicing in Springfield, Ill., in 1836. As a successful circuit-riding lawyer from 1837, he was noted for his shrewdness, common sense, and honesty (earning the nickname “Honest Abe”). From 1834 to 1840 he served in the Illinois state legislature, and in 1847 he was elected as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1856 he joined the Republican Party, which nominated him as its candidate in the 1858 Senate election. In a series of seven debates with Stephen A. Douglas (the Lincoln-Douglas Debates), he argued against the extension of slavery into the territories. Though morally opposed to slavery, he was not an abolitionist; indeed, he attempted to rebut Douglas's charge that he was a dangerous radical, by reassuring audiences that he did not favour political equality for blacks. Despite his loss in the election, the debates brought him national attention. In the 1860 presidential election, he ran against Douglas again and won by a large margin in the electoral college, though he received only two-fifths of the popular vote. The South opposed his position on slavery in the territories, and before his inauguration seven Southern states had seceeded from the Union. The ensuing American Civil War completely consumed Lincoln's administration. He excelled as a wartime leader, creating a high command for directing all the country's energies and resources toward the war effort and combining statecraft and overall command of the armies with what some have called military genius. However, his abrogation of some civil liberties, especially the writ of habeas corpus, and the closing of several newspapers by his generals disturbed both Democrats and Republicans, including some members of his own cabinet. To unite the North and influence foreign opinion, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1863); his Gettysburg Address (1863) further ennobled the war's purpose. The continuing war affected some Northerners' resolve and his reelection was not assured, but strategic battle victories turned the tide, and he easily defeated George B. McClellan in 1864. His platform included passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery (ratified 1865). At his second inaugural, with victory in sight, he spoke of moderation in reconstructing the South and building a harmonious Union. On April 14, five days after the war ended, he was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth.

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(born Oct. 29, 1837, Maassluis, Neth.—died Nov. 8, 1920, The Hague) Dutch theologian and politician. After serving as a pastor (1863–74), he founded a Calvinist-oriented newspaper (1872) and was elected to the national assembly (1874). He formed the Anti-Revolutionary Party, the first organized Dutch political party, and built up a lower-middle-class following with a program that combined orthodox religious positions and a progressive social agenda. To provide Calvinist training for pastors, he founded the Free University at Amsterdam (1880), and in 1892 he founded the Reformed Churches in The Netherlands. As prime minister of The Netherlands (1901–05), he advocated a wider franchise and broader social benefits.

Learn more about Kuyper, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1907, Warsaw, Pol., Russian Empire—died Dec. 23, 1972, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Polish-born U.S. Jewish philosopher and theologian. He studied at the University of Berlin and taught Jewish studies in Germany until he was deported by the Nazis in 1938. After coming to the U.S., he taught at Hebrew Union College and later at Jewish Theological Seminary. His goal was to devise a modern philosophy of religion based on ancient and medieval Judaic traditions, and he emphasized Judaism's prophetic and mystical aspects. Emphasizing social action as an expression of pious ethical concerns, he worked for black civil rights and against the Vietnam War. His writings include Man Is Not Alone (1951) and God in Search of Man (1956).

Learn more about Heschel, Abraham Joshua with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 7, 1851, County Dublin, Ire.—died March 9, 1941, Camberley, Surrey, Eng.) Anglo-Irish civil servant and linguist. While holding a succession of British government posts in Bengal (1873–98), Grierson carried out pioneering research on South Asian, particularly Indo-Aryan, languages. In 1898 he began work on the 19-volume Linguistic Survey of India and spent the next 30 years publishing data on hundreds of languages and dialects. His work was of enormous value; nevertheless, his hypothetical linguistic constructs such as “Rajasthani,” “Bihari,” and “Lahnda” misled most nonspecialists.

Learn more about Grierson, Sir George Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 24, 1810, Frankfurt am Main, Ger.—died Oct. 23, 1874, Berlin) German Jewish theologian. He served as rabbi in Wiesbaden from 1832 and in Breslau 1838–63. He helped found a theological journal in 1835 and served as its editor. Geiger urged the need for simplified ritual, liturgy in one's native language, and emphasis on the prophetic writings as the core of Judaism, and he stressed the process of change and growth in Jewish religious consciousness, a basic idea in Reform Judaism.

Learn more about Geiger, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 29, 1761, Geneva, Switz.—died Aug. 12, 1849, Astoria, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. secretary of the treasury (1801–14). At 19 he immigrated to Pennsylvania, where he became successful in business and finance. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1795, he inaugurated the House Committee on Finance, a forerunner of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. As secretary of the treasury he reduced the national debt by $23 million. He opposed the War of 1812 and was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. After serving as minister to France (1816–23) and to Britain (1826–27), he was president of the National (later Gallatin) Bank in New York City (1831–39).

Learn more about Gallatin, (Abraham Alfonse) Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 13, 1866, Louisville, Ky., U.S.—died Sept. 21, 1959, Falls Church, Va.) U.S. educator. He taught high school for almost 20 years. When the Carnegie Foundation asked him to evaluate the 155 U.S. and Canadian medical colleges, his report (1910) had a sensational impact; many of the colleges he severely criticized closed, and others revised their policies and curricula. Flexner thereafter channeled over half a billion dollars from the Rockefeller Foundation into improving U.S. medical education. In 1930 he founded the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., to which he brought some of the world's outstanding scientists.

Learn more about Flexner, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1618, London—died July 28, 1667, Chertsey, Eng.) British poet and essayist. He was a fellow at the University of Cambridge but was ejected for his political opinions during the English Civil Wars; he joined the queen's court, performing Royalist missions until 1656. In his poetic works—which include The Mistress (1647, 1656), the unfinished epic Davideis (1656), and Pindarique Odes (1656), in which he adapted the Pindaric ode to English verse—he used grossly elaborate, fanciful, poetic language that was more decorative than expressive. In his retirement he wrote sober, reflective essays.

Learn more about Cowley, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 19, 1852, Strelno, Prussia—died May 9, 1931, Pasadena, Calif., U.S.) Prussian-born U.S. physicist. His family immigrated to the U.S. in 1854. He studied at the U.S. Naval Academy and in Europe and later taught principally at the University of Chicago (1892–1931), where he headed the physics department. He invented the interferometer, with which he used light to make extremely precise measurements. He is best remembered for the Michelson-Morley experiment, undertaken with Edward W. Morley (1838–1923), which established that the speed of light is a fundamental constant. Using a more refined interferometer, Michelson measured the diameter of the star Betelgeuse, the first substantially accurate determination of the size of a star. In 1907 he became the first American scientist to receive a Nobel Prize.

Learn more about Michelson, A(lbert) A(braham) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Ky., U.S.—died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) 16th president of the U.S. (1861–65). Born in a Kentucky log cabin, he moved to Indiana in 1816 and to Illinois in 1830. After working as a storekeeper, a rail-splitter, a postmaster, and a surveyor, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Black Hawk War (1832) and was elected captain of his company. He taught himself law and, having passed the bar examination, began practicing in Springfield, Ill., in 1836. As a successful circuit-riding lawyer from 1837, he was noted for his shrewdness, common sense, and honesty (earning the nickname “Honest Abe”). From 1834 to 1840 he served in the Illinois state legislature, and in 1847 he was elected as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1856 he joined the Republican Party, which nominated him as its candidate in the 1858 Senate election. In a series of seven debates with Stephen A. Douglas (the Lincoln-Douglas Debates), he argued against the extension of slavery into the territories. Though morally opposed to slavery, he was not an abolitionist; indeed, he attempted to rebut Douglas's charge that he was a dangerous radical, by reassuring audiences that he did not favour political equality for blacks. Despite his loss in the election, the debates brought him national attention. In the 1860 presidential election, he ran against Douglas again and won by a large margin in the electoral college, though he received only two-fifths of the popular vote. The South opposed his position on slavery in the territories, and before his inauguration seven Southern states had seceeded from the Union. The ensuing American Civil War completely consumed Lincoln's administration. He excelled as a wartime leader, creating a high command for directing all the country's energies and resources toward the war effort and combining statecraft and overall command of the armies with what some have called military genius. However, his abrogation of some civil liberties, especially the writ of habeas corpus, and the closing of several newspapers by his generals disturbed both Democrats and Republicans, including some members of his own cabinet. To unite the North and influence foreign opinion, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1863); his Gettysburg Address (1863) further ennobled the war's purpose. The continuing war affected some Northerners' resolve and his reelection was not assured, but strategic battle victories turned the tide, and he easily defeated George B. McClellan in 1864. His platform included passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery (ratified 1865). At his second inaugural, with victory in sight, he spoke of moderation in reconstructing the South and building a harmonious Union. On April 14, five days after the war ended, he was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth.

Learn more about Lincoln, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 29, 1837, Maassluis, Neth.—died Nov. 8, 1920, The Hague) Dutch theologian and politician. After serving as a pastor (1863–74), he founded a Calvinist-oriented newspaper (1872) and was elected to the national assembly (1874). He formed the Anti-Revolutionary Party, the first organized Dutch political party, and built up a lower-middle-class following with a program that combined orthodox religious positions and a progressive social agenda. To provide Calvinist training for pastors, he founded the Free University at Amsterdam (1880), and in 1892 he founded the Reformed Churches in The Netherlands. As prime minister of The Netherlands (1901–05), he advocated a wider franchise and broader social benefits.

Learn more about Kuyper, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1907, Warsaw, Pol., Russian Empire—died Dec. 23, 1972, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Polish-born U.S. Jewish philosopher and theologian. He studied at the University of Berlin and taught Jewish studies in Germany until he was deported by the Nazis in 1938. After coming to the U.S., he taught at Hebrew Union College and later at Jewish Theological Seminary. His goal was to devise a modern philosophy of religion based on ancient and medieval Judaic traditions, and he emphasized Judaism's prophetic and mystical aspects. Emphasizing social action as an expression of pious ethical concerns, he worked for black civil rights and against the Vietnam War. His writings include Man Is Not Alone (1951) and God in Search of Man (1956).

Learn more about Heschel, Abraham Joshua with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 1, 1908, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died June 8, 1970, Menlo Park, Calif.) U.S. psychologist. He taught at Brooklyn College (1937–51) and Brandeis University (1951–69). A practitioner of humanistic psychology, he is known for his theory of “self-actualization.” In Motivation and Personality (1954) and Toward a Psychology of Being (1962), Maslow argued that each person has a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied, ranging from basic physiological requirements to love, esteem, and, finally, self-actualization. As each need is satisfied, the next higher level in the emotional hierarchy dominates conscious functioning.

Learn more about Maslow, Abraham H(arold) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 25, 1750, Wehrau, Saxony—died June 30, 1817, Freiberg) German geologist. In opposition to the Plutonists, or Vulcanists, who argued that granite and many other rocks were of igneous origin, he founded the Neptunist school, which proclaimed that all rocks resulted from precipitation from oceans that had, he theorized, once completely covered the Earth. He rejected uniformitarianism. His brilliant lecturing and personal charm won him many students, who, though many eventually discarded his theories, would not renounce them while Werner lived.

Learn more about Werner, Abraham Gottlob with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 24, 1810, Frankfurt am Main, Ger.—died Oct. 23, 1874, Berlin) German Jewish theologian. He served as rabbi in Wiesbaden from 1832 and in Breslau 1838–63. He helped found a theological journal in 1835 and served as its editor. Geiger urged the need for simplified ritual, liturgy in one's native language, and emphasis on the prophetic writings as the core of Judaism, and he stressed the process of change and growth in Jewish religious consciousness, a basic idea in Reform Judaism.

Learn more about Geiger, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 13, 1866, Louisville, Ky., U.S.—died Sept. 21, 1959, Falls Church, Va.) U.S. educator. He taught high school for almost 20 years. When the Carnegie Foundation asked him to evaluate the 155 U.S. and Canadian medical colleges, his report (1910) had a sensational impact; many of the colleges he severely criticized closed, and others revised their policies and curricula. Flexner thereafter channeled over half a billion dollars from the Rockefeller Foundation into improving U.S. medical education. In 1930 he founded the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., to which he brought some of the world's outstanding scientists.

Learn more about Flexner, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1618, London—died July 28, 1667, Chertsey, Eng.) British poet and essayist. He was a fellow at the University of Cambridge but was ejected for his political opinions during the English Civil Wars; he joined the queen's court, performing Royalist missions until 1656. In his poetic works—which include The Mistress (1647, 1656), the unfinished epic Davideis (1656), and Pindarique Odes (1656), in which he adapted the Pindaric ode to English verse—he used grossly elaborate, fanciful, poetic language that was more decorative than expressive. In his retirement he wrote sober, reflective essays.

Learn more about Cowley, Abraham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(flourished early 2nd millennium BC) First of the Hebrew patriarchs, revered by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Genesis tells how Abraham, at 75, left Ur with his barren wife, Sarai (later Sarah), and others to found a new nation in Canaan. There God made a covenant with him, promising that his descendants would inherit the land and become a great nation. Abraham fathered Ishmael by Sarah's maidservant Hagar; Sarah herself bore Isaac, who inherited the covenant. Abraham's faith was tested when God ordered him to sacrifice Isaac; he was prepared to obey but God relented. In Judaism he is a model of virtue, in Christianity he is the father of all believers, and in Islam he is an ancestor of Muhammad and a model (in Sufism) of generosity.

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