ABDEST, a Persian word, properly signifying the water placed in a basin for washing the hands; but it is used to imply the legal purifications practised by the Mahometans before prayer, entering the mosque, or reading the Alcoran.
ABDIAS or BABYLON, one of the boldest legend-writers, who boasted that he had seen Christ, that he was one of the 70 disciples, had been eye-witness of the actions and prayers of several of the apostles at their deaths, and had followed into Persia St Simon and St Jude, who, he said, made him the first bishop of Babylon. His book, entitled Historia Certaminis Apostolici, was published by Wolfgang Lazius, at Basil, 1551; and has passed through several editions in other places.