son of Abdalmotalleb, and Mahomet's uncle, opposed his nephew with all his power, regarding him as an impostor and traitor to his country; but in the second year of the Hegira, being overcome and made a prisoner at the battle of Beder in 623, a great ransom being demanded for him, he represented to Mahomet, that his paying it would reduce him to beggary, which would bring dishonour on the family. Mahomet, who knew that he had concealed large sums of money, said to him, "Where are the purses of gold that you gave your mother to keep when you left Mecca?" Abbas, who thought this transaction secret, was much surprised, and conceiving that his nephew was really a prophet, embraced his religion. He became one of his principal captains; and saved his life when in imminent danger at the battle of Honain, against the Thakefites, soon after the reduction of Mecca. But besides being a great commander, Abbas was one of the first doctors of Islamism, the whole of whose science consisted in being able to repeat and explain the Koran, and to preserve in their memory certain apocryphal histories. He is said to have read lectures on every chapter of the Koran, as his nephew pretended to receive them from heaven. He died in 652, and his memory is held in the highest veneration among the Mussulmans to this day.

Abul-ABBAS, surnamed Saffah, one of his grandsons, was proclaimed caliph a century after his death; and in him began the dynasty of the