El

Jadida, El: see El Jadida, Morocco.

Obeid, El: see Al Ubayyid, Sudan.

Greco, El, c.1541-1614, Greek painter in Spain, b. Candia (Iráklion), Crete. His real name was Domenicos Theotocopoulos, of which several Italian and Spanish versions are current.

Trained first in the Byzantine school of icon painting, in 1567 he went to Venice, where he is known to have studied under Titian; thereafter (1570-77) he painted in Rome. By late 1577, El Greco was established in Toledo and at work on the altar of the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo. The center painting of this group, the Assumption, now in the Art Institute of Chicago, shows marked Italian influence. His next great works, El espolio de las vestiduras (cathedral, Toledo) and San Mauricio (Escorial) indicate a rapid development. The second was commissioned by Philip II, but he rejected it.

El Greco remained in Toledo, then an abandoned and rapidly dwindling capital whose proud and recalcitrant nobility were driven wholesale into the church as their only remaining vocation. He has left superb portraits of their ascetic faces, and in the foreground of his famous Burial of the Count Orgaz (Church of San Tomé, Toledo) it is they who are assembled at the funeral of the count, whose soul is seen ascending to Christ in the upper part of the painting. This masterpiece, painted in 1586, was followed by many others in which the artist, then mature, brought into play every resource of his dynamic art to express religious ecstasy. Flamelike lines, accentuated by vivid highlights, elongated and distorted figures, and full vibrant color contrasted with subtle grays all combine to produce a unique art.

Among his many great works of this period are the Baptism, Crucifixion, and Resurrection (Prado); a portrait of the inquisitor Cardinal Don Fernando Niño de Guevara (Metropolitan Mus.); two similar versions of St. Jerome (one in the National Gall., London; one in the Frick Coll., New York City); and a long series of paintings of St. Francis. Indeed, many of El Greco's paintings exist in multiple interpretations of the same subject, each with variations that range from the profound to the subtle. To his last period, a time of deepening mysticism, belong such works as the Assumption (Mus. of San Vicente Anejo, Toledo); Adoration and View of Toledo (Metropolitan Mus.); the Pentecost (Prado); a portrait of Hortensio Felix Paravicino (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston); and the Laocoön (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.).

In his own day his admirers seem to have been intellectuals, such as Fulvio Orsini, the lawyer Lancilotti, and Giulio Clovio. Paravicino, the court preacher, was his friend and apologist. Overshadowed by the more popular masterpieces of Velázquez and Murillo, his work became less and less known, especially outside Spain. At the end of the 19th cent. his paintings started to come under art critical scrutiny, and in the mid-20th cent. El Greco became widely celebrated, largely because his idiosyncratic and intensely expressionistic style (see expressionism), his flickering light and indeterminate space, and his bold and almost abstract use of paint appealed strongly to contemporary tastes. Splendid examples of his vast production exist in many European and American galleries and collections. He is best seen in Toledo, Madrid, and the Escorial. A museum has been devoted to his work in what is said to have been his home in Toledo.

Salvador, El: see El Salvador.

Rashid, El, Syria: see Ar Raqqah.

Beqa, El: see Biqa, Al.

Camino Real, El [Span.,=The Royal Road]. There are Camino Reals in most former Spanish possessions, including four in former Spanish territory in the United States. Probably the best-known American trail of this name, also called the Mission Trail, leads north from San Diego to San Francisco and beyond, running some 530 mi (853 km). The name is most commonly applied to the part of the trail north of Los Angeles. El Camino Real connected California's Franciscan missions and ran through such settlements as Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Juan Capistrano, Carmel, and Sonoma. The missions were mainly founded by two priests, Fr. Junípero Serra and his successor, Fr. Fermín Lasuén, in the period from 1769 to 1803. Together they established 18 of the 21 missions, many of them still extant and some extensively renovated, that flourished until the Mexican government ordered their secularization in 1833. Today, the surviving mission churches are houses of worship, tourist attractions, and icons of Spanish-American architecture. Route 101 follows much of the the old trail's route. The name El Camino Real also designates the 700 mi (1,100 km) New Mexican trail that was pioneered by Juan de Oñate in 1598 and formed the lifeline of Spain's New Mexican colony.

Faiyum, El, or Al Fayyum, region, coextensive with El Faiyum governorate, N Egypt, W of the Nile River, a depression (entirely below sea level) in the Libyan (or Western) Desert. It is an irrigated agricultural area made fertile by Nile water and silt, which are carried there by the canalized Bahr Yusuf River. The irrigation system in El Faiyum makes use of canals originally dug under King Amenemhet III (d.1801 B.C.). Cereals, fruit, and cotton are produced. Lake Karun (known in ancient times as Lake Moeris), located in the western part of the region, is used for fishing. El Faiyum is rich in archaeological finds. These include the remains of a Neolithic farm settlement and many papyri written both in ancient Egyptian and in Arabic. The city of El Faiyum (1986 pop. 213,070), located in the southeastern part of the governorate and its capital, is the region's trade, distribution, manufacturing, and transport center. Industries include cotton ginning, wool and cotton spinning and weaving, dyeing, tanning, and cigarette manufacturing.

Toboso, El, town, Toledo prov., central Spain, in Castile-La Mancha. It is an agricultural center of La Mancha. El Toboso was the birthplace of Dulcinea del Toboso in Cervantes's Don Quixote.

Bika, El: see Biqa, Al.

Lissitzky, El (Eliezer Markovich Lissitzky), 1890-1941, Russian painter, designer, teacher, and architect. Lissitzky studied at Darmstadt and later taught at the Moscow Academy of Arts, collaborating with avant-garde artists and architects. Begun in 1919, his series of abstract geometric paintings entitled Proun (an acronym for "project for the affirmation of the new"), as well as his many prints, were key works in Russia's suprematist movement (see suprematism). Lissitzky left Russia (1921) after Lenin issued an edict against the avant-garde. Living in Germany, he introduced suprematist and constructivist ideas to László Moholy-Nagy and had a significant influence on the Bauhaus movement. Before returning (1928) to the Soviet Union he designed the Russian section of the Cologne Newspaper Exhibition, one of his many severely abstract exhibition designs. Lissitzky was also an important innovator in typography and advertising. His writings about architecture include Russia: The Reconstruction of Architecture in the Soviet Union (1930).

Kantara, El, Egypt: see Qantarah esh Sharqiya.

Cobre, El, town, Santiago de Cuba prov., SE Cuba, in a high valley of the Sierra Maestra. Once famous for rich copper mines (hence the name El Cobre), it is chiefly noted for a shrine to Our Lady of Charity (La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre), Cuba's patron saint.

Misti, El, dormant volcano, c.19,150 ft (5,840 m) high, in the Cordillera Occidental, S Peru, rising over the city of Arequipa. El Misti is flanked by two other volcanos—on the NW by Chachani, 19,960 ft (6,083 m) high, and on the SE by Pichu Pichu, 18,400 ft (5,608 m) high. El Misti, with its perfect snowcapped cone, apparently achieved significance in the Inca religion, and has often figured in Peruvian legends and poetry.

Alamein, El or Al Alamayn, town, N Egypt, on the Mediterranean Sea. It was the site of a decisive British victory in World War II (see North Africa, campaigns in). In preparation for an attack by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel from Libya (begun May 26, 1942) the British forces retreated into Egypt and by June 30 had set up a defense line extending 35 mi (56 km) from Alamein S to the Qattara Depression, a badland which could neither be crossed nor flanked. If this position had fallen, the British might have lost Alexandria and been forced to withdraw from North Africa. In August, Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery took command of the 8th Army. The British offensive opened on Oct. 23 with tremendous air and artillery bombardments. Montgomery's forces cleared the German minefields and on Nov. 1 and 2 burst through the German lines near the sea and forced a swift Axis retreat out of Egypt, across Libya, and into E Tunisia. Egypt was definitely saved, and with the landing on Nov. 7 and 8 of American troops in Algeria the Axis soon suffered (May, 1943) total defeat in North Africa. For his victory Montgomery was made a viscount with the title Montgomery of Alamein.

Largest New World cat. Once found in wooded regions from the U.S.-Mexican border south to Patagonia, the jaguar (Panthera onca) survives, in reduced numbers, only in remote areas of Central and South America; the largest known population is in the Amazon rain forest. The male is 5.5–9 ft (1.7–2.7 m) long, including the 23–35-in. (60–90-cm) tail, and weighs 220–350 lbs (100–160 kg). The coat is typically orange-tan with black spots arranged in rosettes having a black spot in the centre. A solitary predator, the jaguar usually hunts rodents, deer, birds, and fish; it will also take cattle, horses, and dogs.

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Ancient city, Egypt. Located midway between Thebes and Memphis on the Nile River, it was built in the 14th century BC by the Egyptian king (pharaoh) Akhenaton, who moved his subjects there in order to found a new monotheistic religion. Artifacts discovered there in the 19th century included hundreds of cuneiform tablets. Archaeological finds of the late 20th century included sculptures and paintings.

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officially Republic of El Salvador

Country, Central America. Area: 8,124 sq mi (21,042 sq km). Population (2007 est.): 6,857,000. Capital: San Salvador. The majority of the people are mestizos; most of the rest are Indians. Language: Spanish (official). Religion: Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic; also Protestant, other Christians). Currency: U.S. dollar. The smallest and most densely populated Central American country, it is crossed by two volcanic mountain ranges and has a narrow coastal region and a high central plain in the south. The climate ranges from hot and wet in the lowlands to cooler and wetter in the highlands. Cloud forests predominate at the highest elevations. El Salvador has a developing economy based on services, trade, manufacturing, and agriculture, with coffee, sugarcane, and cotton as the major export crops. Remittances from Salvadorans living in the U.S. are, collectively, among the country's largest sources of income. El Salvador is a republic with one legislative house; its chief of state and government is the president. The Spanish arrived in the area in 1524 and subjugated the Pipil Indian kingdom of Cuzcatlán by 1539. The country was divided into two districts, San Salvador and Sonsonate, both attached to Guatemala. When Spanish rule ended in 1821, the Salvadorans opposed incorporation into the Mexican Empire (confronting both Guatemalan and Mexican armies), and, upon its collapse in 1823, Sonsonate and San Salvador combined to form the new state of El Salvador within the United Provinces of Central America. The country attained independence in 1841. From its founding, it experienced a high degree of political turmoil; powerful economic interests controlled the country through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries but were replaced by a military dictatorship that lasted from 1931 to 1979. Elections held in 1982 set up a new government, and, though a new constitution was adopted in 1983, civil war continued throughout the 1980s. Peace accords in 1992 ended the war, but violent crime became a major problem. Despite attempts at economic reform, the country was plagued by inflation and unemployment into the 21st century. In 2006 El Salvador officially entered into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States.

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Spanish Volcán Misti

Volcano, Andes Mountains, southern Peru. It is flanked by Chachani and Pichupichu volcanoes and rises to 19,098 ft (5,821 m) above sea level, towering over the city of Arequipa. Its pristine snowcapped cone is thought to have had religious significance for the Incas, and it has inspired legends and poetry. Now dormant, it last erupted during an earthquake in 1600.

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or El Lisitsky orig. Lazar Markovich Lisitskii

(born Nov. 10, 1890, Pochinok, near Smolensk, Russia—died Dec. 30, 1941, Moscow) Russian painter, typographer, and designer. As a teacher at Marc Chagall's revolutionary art school in Vitebsk, he met Kazimir Malevich, whose influence is seen in a series of abstract paintings that were Lissitzky's major contribution to Constructivism. In 1922, after the Soviet government turned against modern art, he went to Germany. There Theo van Doesburg and László Moholy-Nagy transmitted his ideas to the West through their teaching at the Bauhaus. In 1925 he returned to Russia and devoted himself to devising new techniques of printing, photomontage, and architecture.

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orig. Doménikos Theotokópoulos

(born 1541, Candia, Crete—died April 7, 1614, Toledo, Spain) Cretan-born Spanish painter, the first great master of Spanish painting. Documentation on his early life is limited, but it is known that he was in Venice circa 1566–70 and may have studied in Titian's workshop. In 1572 he was a member of the guild of St. Luke in Rome. His first commission in Spain (1577) was for altarpieces for the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo (1577–79); the paintings for the high altar show the influence of Titian and Michelangelo. In these works he developed his signature style: he chose a method of space elimination that is common to middle and late 16th-century Italian painters known as Mannerists. The elogonated figures in these works were also characteristic of his oeuvre. El Greco's Mannerist method of composition is nowhere more clearly expressed than in his masterpiece, The Burial of the Count de Orgaz (1586–88), where all of the action takes place in the frontal plane. From 1590 until his death his output was prodigious. His major commissions included the complete altar composition for the Hospital de la Caridad at Illescas (1603–05), for which he also worked as architect and sculptor. He excelled as a portraitist. His workshop produced many replicas of his works, but his style was so individual that his only followers were his son and a few forgotten imitators.

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City (pop., 2000: 563,662), western Texas, U.S. Located on the Rio Grande opposite Ciudad Juárez, Mex., it is the largest of the U.S.-Mexican border cities. The area was the site of several missions from the 17th century; the first village was built on the site of El Paso in 1827. It became U.S. territory in 1848, when an army post was erected; the town was laid out in 1859. It grew slowly until 1881, when four railways arrived; in a decade El Paso's population increased more than tenfold. Spanish language and culture distinguish the modern city. The commercial and financial centre for an extensive trade territory, it is the site of the University of Texas at El Paso (1913) and Fort Bliss (home of the U.S. Army Air Defense Center); the White Sands Missile Range is nearby.

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Rock formation and archaeological site, west-central New Mexico, U.S. Established in 1906, it has an area of 2 sq mi (5 sq km). El Morro, or Inscription Rock, is a soft sandstone mesa rising 200 ft (60 m) above the valley floor and covering several acres. Spaniards and Americans left their inscriptions (1605–1906) on the cliff sides of the mesa. El Morro also has a number of pre-Columbian petroglyphs, and on its top lie ruins of Indian pueblos.

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Natural area, west-central New Mexico, U.S. Located at an elevation of 6,400–8,400 ft (1,950–2,560 m), it covers 179 sq mi (464 sq km), including a lava flow area of 133 sq mi (344 sq km). Features include a 17-mi (27-km) lava tube system, a number of ice caves, volcanic cinder cones, one of New Mexico's largest natural arches, and more than 20 gas and lava spatter cones. Designated a national natural landmark with the name McCarty Lava Flow in 1969, it became a national monument in 1987.

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or El Lisitsky orig. Lazar Markovich Lisitskii

(born Nov. 10, 1890, Pochinok, near Smolensk, Russia—died Dec. 30, 1941, Moscow) Russian painter, typographer, and designer. As a teacher at Marc Chagall's revolutionary art school in Vitebsk, he met Kazimir Malevich, whose influence is seen in a series of abstract paintings that were Lissitzky's major contribution to Constructivism. In 1922, after the Soviet government turned against modern art, he went to Germany. There Theo van Doesburg and László Moholy-Nagy transmitted his ideas to the West through their teaching at the Bauhaus. In 1925 he returned to Russia and devoted himself to devising new techniques of printing, photomontage, and architecture.

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Ancient city, Egypt. Located midway between Thebes and Memphis on the Nile River, it was built in the 14th century BC by the Egyptian king (pharaoh) Akhenaton, who moved his subjects there in order to found a new monotheistic religion. Artifacts discovered there in the 19th century included hundreds of cuneiform tablets. Archaeological finds of the late 20th century included sculptures and paintings.

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in full Muhsubdotammad ibn aynAbd al-Karīm al-Khatsubdottsubdotābī

(born 1882, Ajdir, Mor.—died Feb. 6, 1963, Cairo, Egypt) Berber resistance leader against Spanish and French rule in northern Morocco. He was chief Muslim judge for Morocco's Melilla district. He became disillusioned with Spanish policies and eventually led a resistance movement with his brother. He set up the Republic of the Rif in 1921 and became its president. In 1926 he was forced to surrender when faced by a combined French and Spanish army. Exiled to the island of Réunion, in 1947 he received permission to live in France but took asylum in Egypt while en route. When Morocco became independent (1956), Muhammad V invited him to return, but he refused because of the continued presence of French troops in North Africa.

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Abd-al-latif, Abd-el-latif or Abd-ul-Latif (1162 – 1231), also known as al-Baghdadi (Arabic,عبداللطيف البغدادي), born in Baghdad, Iraq, was a celebrated physician, historian, Egyptologist. and traveller, and one of the most voluminous writers of the Near East in his time.

Biography

An interesting memoir of Abdallatif, written by himself, has been preserved with additions by Ibn Abu-Osaiba (Ibn abi Usaibia), a contemporary. From that work we learn that the higher education of the youth of Baghdad consisted principally in a minute and careful study of the rules and principles of grammar, and in their committing to memory the whole of the Qur'an, a treatise or two on philology and jurisprudence, and the choicest Arabic poetry.

After attaining to great proficiency in that kind of learning, Abdallatif applied himself to natural philosophy and medicine. To enjoy the society of the learned, he went first to Mosul (1189), and afterwards to Damascus. With letters of recommendation from Saladin's vizier, he visited Egypt, where he realized his wish to converse with Maimonides, the Eagle of the Doctors.

He afterwards formed one of the circles of learned men whom Saladin gathered around him at Jerusalem. He taught medicine and philosophy at Cairo and at Damascus for a number of years, and afterwards, for a shorter period, at Aleppo.

His love of travel led him to visit different parts of Armenia and Asia Minor in his old age. Also, he was in the process of setting out on a pilgrimage to Mecca when he died at Baghdad.

Account of Egypt

Abdallatif was undoubtedly a man of great knowledge and of an inquisitive and penetrating mind. Of the numerous works (mostly on medicine) which Osaiba ascribes to him, one only, his graphic and detailed Account of Egypt (in two parts), appears to be known in Europe.

Archeology

Abd-al Latif was well aware of the value of ancient monuments and praised Muslim rulers for preserving and protecting pre-Islamic artifacts and monuments. He noted that the preservation of antiquities presented a number of benefits for Muslims:

• "monuments are useful historical evidence for chronologies;"
• "they furnish evidence for Holy Scriptures, since the Qur'an mentions them and their people;"
• "they are reminders of human endurance and fate;"
• "they show, to a degree, the politics and history of ancestors, the richness of their sciences, and the genius of their thought."

While discussing the profession of treasure hunting, he notes that poorer treasure hunters were often sponsored by rich businessmen to go on archeological expeditions. In some cases, an expedition could turn out to be fraud, with the treasure hunter dissappearing with large amounts of money extracted from sponsors. This fraudulent practice continues to the present day, with rich businessmen in Egypt still being deceived by local treasure hunters.

Egyptology

This work was one of the earliest works on Egyptology. It contains a vivid description of a famine caused, during the author's residence in Egypt, by the Nile failing to overflow its banks. He also wrote detailed descriptions on ancient Egyptian monuments.

Autopsy

Al-Baghdadi wrote that during the famine in Egypt in 597 AH (1200 AD), he had the opportunity to observe and examine a large number of skeletons. This was one of the earliest examples of a postmortem autopsy, through which he discovered that Galen was incorrect regarding the formation of the bones of the lower jaw and sacrum.

Translation

The Arabic manuscript was discovered in 1665 by Edward Pococke the orientalist, and preserved in the Bodleian Library. He then published the Arabic manuscript in the 1680s. His son, Edward Pococke the Younger, translated the work into Latin, though he was only able to publish less than half of his work. Thomas Hunt attempted to publish Pococke's complete translation in 1746, though his attempt was unsuccessful. Pococke's complete Latin translation was eventually published by Professor Joseph White of Oxford in 1800. The work was then translated into French, with valuable notes, by Silvestre de Sacy in 1810.

Medical works

Al-Mukhtarat fi al-Tibb

Al-Baghdadi's Mukhtarat fi al-Tibb was one of the earliest works on hirudotherapy. He introduced a more modern use for medicinal leech, stating that leech could be used for cleaning the tissues after surgical operations. He did, however, understand that there is a risk over using leech, and advised patients that leech need to be cleaned before being used and that the dirt or dust "clinging to a leech should be wiped off" before application. He further writes that after the leech has sucked out the blood, salt should be "sprinkled on the affected part of the human body.

Medicine from the Book and the Life of the Prophet

He wrote a book called Al-Tibb min al-Kitab wa-al-Sunna (Medicine from the Book and the Life of the Prophet) describing the Islamic medical practices from the time of Muhammad.

Diabetes

Al-Baghdadi was also the author of a major book dealing with diabetes.

Notes

References