the son of Mirvan, and the 6th caliph of the race of the Ommiades. He surpassed all his predecessors in power and dominion; for in his reign the Indies were conquered in the east, and his armies penetrated Spain in the west: he likewise extended his empire toward the south, by making himself master of Medina and Mecca. Under his reign the Greek language and character were excluded from the accounts of the public revenue. If this change, says Gibbon, was productive of the invention or familiar use of the Arabic or Indian cyphers, which are our present numerals, a regulation of office has promoted the most important discoveries of arithmetic, algebra, and the mathematical sciences. His extreme avarice exposed him to the contempt and derision of his subjects, who gave him the appellation of the sweat of a stone; and his fetid breath, it is said, poisoned the flies which accidentally lighted on his lips, whence he was called the father of flies. He began his reign in the 65th of the Hegira, A.D. 684; reigned 15 years; and four of his sons successively enjoyed the caliphate.

ABDALMULEK, Ben Zohar, an eminent physician, commonly called by the Europeans Avensuar. See AVENZOAR.