Chapter 38 of 50 · 3949 words · ~20 min read

Part 38

HEINECKEN, CHRISTIAN HEINRICH (1721-1725), a child remarkable for precocity of intellect, was born on the 6th of February 1721 at Lubeck, where his father was a painter. Able to speak at the age of ten months, by the time he was one year old he knew by heart the principal incidents in the Pentateuch. At two years of age he had mastered sacred history; at three he was intimately acquainted with history and geography, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, besides being able to speak French and Latin; and in his fourth year he devoted himself to the study of religion and church history. This wonderful precocity was no mere feat of memory, for the youthful savant could reason on and discuss the knowledge he had acquired. Crowds of people flocked to Lubeck to see the wonderful child; and in 1724 he was taken to Copenhagen at the desire of the king of Denmark. On his return to Lubeck he began to learn writing, but his sickly constitution gave way, and he died on the 22nd of June 1725.

_The Life, Deeds, Travels and Death of the Child of Lubeck_ were published in the following year by his tutor Schoneich. See also _Teutsche Bibliothek_, xvii., and _Memoires de Trevoux_ (Jan. 1731).

HEINICKE, SAMUEL (1727-1790), the originator in Germany of systematic education for the deaf and dumb, was born on the 10th of April 1727, at Nautschutz, Germany. Entering the electoral bodyguard at Dresden, he subsequently supported himself by teaching. About 1754 his first deaf and dumb pupil was brought him. His success in teaching this pupil was so great that he determined to devote himself entirely to this work. The outbreak of the Seven Years' War upset his plans for a time. Taken prisoner at Pirna, he was brought to Dresden, but soon made his escape. In 1768, when living in Hamburg, he successfully taught a deaf and dumb boy to talk, following the methods prescribed by Amman in his book _Surdus loquens_, but improving on them. Recalled to his own country by the elector of Saxony, he opened in Leipzig, in 1778, the first deaf and dumb institution in Germany. This school he directed till his death, which took place on the 30th of April 1790. He was the author of a variety of books on the instruction of the deaf and dumb.

HEINSE, JOHANN JAKOB WILHELM (1749-1803), German author, was born at Langewiesen near Ilmenau in Thuringia on the 16th of February 1749. After attending the gymnasium at Schleusingen he studied law at Jena and Erfurt. In Erfurt he became acquainted with Wieland and through him with "Father" Gleim who in 1772 procured him the post of tutor in a family at Quedlinburg. In 1774 he went to Dusseldorf, where he assisted the poet J. G. Jacobi to edit the periodical _Iris_. Here the famous picture gallery inspired him with a passion for art, to the study of which he devoted himself with so much zeal and insight that Jacobi furnished him with funds for a stay in Italy, where he remained for three years (1780-1783), He returned to Dusseldorf in 1784, and in 1786 was appointed reader to the elector Frederick Charles Joseph, archbishop of Mainz, who subsequently made him his librarian at Aschaffenburg, where he died on the 22nd of June 1803.

The work upon which Heinse's fame mainly rests is _Ardinghello und die gluckseligen Inseln_ (1787), a novel which forms the framework for the exposition of his views on art and life, the plot being laid in the Italy of the 16th century. This and his other novels _Laidion, oder die eleusinischen Geheimnisse_ (1774) and _Hildegard von Hohenthal_ (1796) combine the frank voluptuousness of Wieland with the enthusiasm of the "Sturm und Drang." Both as novelist and art critic, Heinse had considerable influence on the romantic school.

Heinse's complete works (_Samtliche Schriften_) were published by H. Laube in 10 vols. (Leipzig, 1838). A new edition by C. Schuddekopf is in course of publication (Leipzig, 1901 sqq.). See H. Prohle, _Lessing, Wieland, Heinse_ (Berlin, 1877), and J. Schober, _Johann Jacob Wilhelm Heinse, sein Leben und seine Werke_ (Leipzig, 1882); also K. D. Jessen, _Heinses Stellung zur bildenden Kunst_ (Berlin, 1903).

HEINSIUS (or HEINS) DANIEL (1580-1655), one of the most famous scholars of the Dutch Renaissance, was born at Ghent on the 9th of June 1580. The troubles of the Spanish war drove his parents to settle first at Veere in Zeeland, then in England, next at Ryswick and lastly at Flushing. In 1594, being already remarkable for his attainments, he was sent to the university of Franeker to perfect himself in Greek under Henricus Schotanus. He stayed at Franeker half a year, and then settled at Leiden for the remaining sixty years of his life. There he studied under Joseph Scaliger, and there he found Marnix de St Aldegonde, Janus Douza, Paulus Merula and others, and was soon taken into the society of these celebrated men as their equal. His proficiency in the classic languages won the praise of all the best scholars of Europe, and offers were made to him, but in vain, to accept honourable positions outside Holland. He soon rose in dignity at the university of Leiden. In 1602 he was made professor of Latin, in 1605 professor of Greek, and at the death of Merula in 1607 he succeeded that illustrious scholar as librarian to the university. The remainder of his life is recorded in a list of his productions. He died at the Hague on the 25th of February 1655. The Dutch poetry of Heinsius is of the school of Roemer Visscher, but attains no very high excellence. It was, however, greatly admired by Martin Opitz, who was the pupil of Heinsius, and who, in translating the poetry of the latter, introduced the German public to the use of the rhyming alexandrine.

He published his original Latin poems in three volumes--_Iambi_ (1602), _Elegiae_ (1603) and _Poemata_ (1605); his _Emblemata amatoria_, poems in Dutch and Latin, were first printed in 1604. In the same year he edited Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, having edited Hesiod in 1603. In 1609 he printed his Latin _Orations_. In 1610 he edited Horace, and in 1611 Aristotle and Seneca. In 1613 appeared in Dutch his tragedy of _The Massacre of the Innocents_; and in 1614 his treatise _De politico sapientia_. In 1616 he collected his original Dutch poems into a volume. He edited Terence in 1618, Livy in 1620, published his oration _De contemptu mortis_ in 1621, and brought out the _Epistles_ of Joseph Scaliger in 1627.

HEINSIUS, NIKOLAES (1620-1681), Dutch scholar, son of Daniel Heinsius, was born at Leiden on the 20th of July 1620. His boyish Latin poem of _Breda expugnata_ was printed in 1637, and attracted much attention. In 1642 he began his wanderings with a visit to England in search of MSS. of the classics; but he met with little courtesy from the English scholars. In 1644 he was sent to Spa to drink the waters; his health restored, he set out once more in search of codices, passing through Louvain, Brussels, Mechlin, Antwerp and so back to Leiden, everywhere collating MSS. and taking philological and textual notes. Almost immediately he set out again, and arriving in Paris was welcomed with open arms by the French savants. After investigating all the classical texts he could lay hands on, he proceeded southwards, and visited on the same quest Lyons, Marseilles, Pisa, Florence (where he paused to issue a new edition of Ovid) and Rome. Next year, 1647, found him in Naples, from which he fled during the reign of Masaniello; he pursued his labours in Leghorn, Bologna, Venice and Padua, at which latter city he published in 1648 his volume of original Latin verse entitled _Italica_. He proceeded to Milan, and worked for a considerable time in the Ambrosian library; he was preparing to explore Switzerland in the same patient manner, when the news of his father's illness recalled him hurriedly to Leiden. He was soon called away to Stockholm at the invitation of Queen Christina, at whose court he waged war with Salmasius, who accused him of having supplied Milton with facts from the life of that great but irritable scholar. Heinsius paid a flying visit to Leiden in 1650, but immediately returned to Stockholm. In 1651 he once more visited Italy; the remainder of his life was divided between Upsala and Holland. He collected his Latin poems into a volume in 1653. His latest labours were the editing of Velleius Paterculus in 1678, and of Valerius Flaccus in 1680. He died at the Hague on the 7th of October 1681. Nikolaes Heinsius was one of the purest and most elegant of Latinists, and if his scholarship was not quite so perfect as that of his father, he displayed higher gifts as an original writer.

His illegitimate son, NIKOLAES HEINSIUS (b. 1655), was the author of _The Delightful Adventures and Wonderful Life of Mirandor_ (1675), the single Dutch romance of the 17th century. He had to flee the country in 1677 for committing a murder in the streets of the Hague, and died in obscurity.

HEIR (Lat. _heres_, from a root meaning to grasp, seen in _herus_ or _erus_, master of a house, Gr. [Greek: cheir], hand, Sans, _harana_, hand), in law, technically one who succeeds, by descent, to an estate of inheritance, in contradistinction to one who succeeds to personal property, i.e. next of kin. The word is now used generally to denote the person who is entitled by law to inherit property, titles, &c., of another. The rules regulating the descent of property to an heir will be found in the articles INHERITANCE, SUCCESSION, &c.

An _heir apparent_ (Lat. _apparens_, manifest) is he whose right of inheritance is indefeasible, provided he outlives the ancestor, e.g. an eldest or only son.

_Heir by custom_, or customary heir, he who inherits by a particular and local custom, as in borough-English, whereby the youngest son inherits, or in gavelkind, whereby all the sons inherit as parceners, and made but one heir.

_Heir general_, or heir at law, he who after the death of his ancestor has, by law, the right to the inheritance.

_Heir presumptive_, one who is next in succession, but whose right is defeasible by the birth of a nearer heir, e.g. a brother or nephew, whose presumptive right may be destroyed by the birth of a child, or a daughter, whose right may be defeated by the birth of a son.

_Special heir_, one not heir at law (i.e. at common law), but by special custom.

_Ultimate heir_, he to whom lands come by escheat on failure of proper heirs. In Scots law the technical use of the word "heir" is not confined to the succession to real property, but includes succession to personal property as well.

HEIRLOOM, strictly so called in English law, a chattel ("loom" meaning originally a tool) which by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate. Any owner of such heirloom may dispose of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away from the estate. If he dies intestate it goes to his heir-at-law, and if he devises the estate it goes to the devisee. At the present time such heirlooms are almost unknown, and the word has acquired a secondary and popular meaning and is applied to furniture, pictures, &c., vested in trustees to hold on trust for the person for the time being entitled to the possession of a settled house. Such things are more properly called settled chattels. An heirloom in the strict sense is made by family custom, not by settlement. A settled chattel may, under the Settled Land

## Act 1882, be sold under the direction of the court, and the money

arising under such sale is capital money. The court will only sanction such a sale if it be shown that it is to the benefit of all parties concerned; and if the article proposed to be sold is of unique or historical character, it will have regard to the intention of the settlor and the wishes of the remainder men (Re _Hope_, _De Cetto_ v. _Hope_, 1899, 2 ch. 679).

HEJAZ (HIJAZ), a Turkish vilayet and a province of Western Arabia, extending along the Red Sea coast from the head of the Gulf of Akaba in 29 deg. 30' N. to the south of Taif in 20 deg. N. It is bounded N. by Syria, E. by the Nafud desert and by Nejd and S. by Asir. Its length is about 750 m. and its greatest breadth from the Harra east of Khaibar to the coast is 200 m. The name Hejaz, which signifies "separating," is sometimes limited to the region extending from Medina in the north to Taif in the south, which separates the island province Nejd from the Tehama (Tihama) or coastal district, but most authorities, both Arab and European, define it in the wider sense. Though physically the most desolate and uninviting province in Arabia, it has a special interest and importance as containing the two sacred cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina (q.v.), respectively the birthplace and burial-place of Mahomet, which are visited yearly by large numbers of Moslem pilgrims from all parts of the world.

Hejaz is divided longitudinally by the Tehama range of mountains into two zones, a narrow littoral and a broader upland. This range attains its greatest height in Jebel Shar, the Mount Seir of scripture, overlooking the Midian coast, which probably reaches 7000 ft., and Jebel Radhwa a little N.E. of Yambu rising to 6000 ft. It is broken through by several valleys which carry off the drainage of the inland zone; the principal of these is the Wadi Hamd, the main source of which is on the Harra east of Khaibar. Its northern tributary the Wadi Jizil drains the Harrat el Awerid and a southern branch comes from the neighbourhood of Medina. Farther south the Wadi es Safra cuts through the mountains and affords the principal access to the valley of Medina from Yambu or Jidda. None of the Hejaz Wadis has a perennial stream, but they are liable to heavy floods after the winter rains, and thick groves of date-palms and occasional settlements are met with along their courses wherever permanent springs are found. The northern part of Hejaz contains but few inhabited sites. Muwela, Damgha and El Wijh are small ports used by coasting craft. The last named was formerly an important station on the Egyptian pilgrim route, and in ancient days was a Roman settlement, and the port of the Nabataean towns of el Hajr 150 m. to the east. Inland the sandstone desert of El Hisma reaches from the Syrian border at Ma'an to Jebel Awerid, where the volcanic tracts known as _harra_ begin, and extend southwards along the western borders of the Nejd plateau as far as the latitude of Mecca. East of Jebel Awerid lies the oasis of Tema, identified with the Biblical Teman, which belongs to the Shammar tribe; its fertility depends on the famous well, known as Bir el Hudaj. Farther south and on the main pilgrim route is El 'Ala, the principal settlement of El Hajr, the Egra of Ptolemy, to whom it was known as an oasis town on the gold and frankincense road. Higher up the same valley are the rock-cut tombs of Medina Salih, similar to those at Petra and shown by the Nabataean coins and inscriptions discovered there by Doughty and Huber to date from the beginning of the Christian era. To the south-east again is the oasis of Khaibar, with some 2500 inhabitants, chiefly negroes, the remnants of an earlier slave population. The citadel, known as the Kasr el Yahudi, preserves the tradition of its former Jewish ownership. With these exceptions there are no settled villages between Ma'an and Medina, the stations on the pilgrim road being merely small fortified posts with reservoirs, at intervals of 30 or 40 m., which are kept up by the Turkish government for the protection of the yearly caravan.

The southern part of the province is more favoured by nature. Medina is a city of 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants, situated in a broad plain between the coast range and the low hills across which lies the road to Nejd. Its altitude above the sea is about 2500 ft. It is well supplied with water and is surrounded by gardens and plantations; barley and wheat are grown, but the staple produce, as in all the cultivated districts of Hejaz, is dates, of which 100 different sorts are said to grow. Yambu' has a certain importance as the port for Medina. The route follows for part of the way along the Wadi es Safra, which contains several small settlements with abundant date groves; from Badr Hunen, the last of these, the route usually taken from Medina to Mecca runs near the coast, passing villages with some cultivation at each stage. The eastern route though more direct is less used; it passes through a barren country described by Burton as a succession of low plains and basins surrounded by rolling hills and intersected by torrent beds; the predominant formation is basalt. Suwerikiya and Es Safina are the only villages of importance on this route.

Mecca and the holy places in its vicinity are described in a separate article; it is about 48 m. from the port of Jidda, the most important trade centre of the Hejaz province. The great majority of pilgrims for Mecca arrive by sea at Jidda. Their transport and the supply of their wants is therefore the chief business of the place; in 1904 the number was 66,500, and the imports amounted in value to L1,400,000.

From the hot lowland in which Mecca is situated the country rises steeply up to the Taif plateau, some 6000 ft. above sea-level, a district resembling in climate and physical character the highlands of Asir and Yemen. Jebel el Kura at the northern edge of the plateau is a fertile well-watered district, producing wheat and barley and fruit. Taif, a day's journey farther south, lies in a sandy plain, surrounded by low mountains. The houses, though small, are well built of stone; the gardens for which it is celebrated lie at a distance of a mile or more to the S.W. at the foot of the mountains.

Hejaz, together with the other provinces of Arabia which on the overthrow of the Bagdad Caliphate in 1258 had fallen under Egyptian domination, became by the conquest of Egypt in 1517 a dependency of the Ottoman empire. Beyond assuming the title of Caliph, neither Salim I. nor his successors interfered much in the government, which remained in the hands of the sharifs of Mecca until the religious upheaval which culminated at the beginning of the 19th century in the pillage of the holy cities by the Wahhabi fanatics. Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt, was entrusted by the sultan with the task of establishing order, and after several arduous campaigns the Wahhabis were routed and their capital Deraiya in Nejd taken by Ibrahim Pasha in 1817. Hejaz remained in Egyptian occupation until 1845, when its administration was taken over directly by Constantinople, and it was constituted a vilayet under a vali or governor-general. The population is estimated at 300,000, about half of which are inhabitants of the towns and the remainder Bedouin, leading a nomad or pastoral life. The principal tribes are the Sherarat, Beni Atiya and Huwetat in the north; the Juhena between Yambu' and Medina, and the various sections of the Harb throughout the centre and south; the Ateba also touch the Mecca border on the south-east. All these tribes receive surra or money payments of large amount from the Turkish government to ensure the safe conduct of the annual pilgrimage, otherwise they are practically independent of the Turkish administration, which is limited to the large towns and garrisons. The troops occupying these latter belong to the 16th (Hejaz) division of the Turkish army.

The Hejaz railway.

The difficulties of communication with his Arabian provinces, and of relieving or reinforcing the garrisons there, induced the sultan Abdul Hamid in 1900 to undertake the construction of a railway directly connecting the Hejaz cities with Damascus without the necessity of leaving Turkish territory at any point, as hitherto required by the Suez Canal. Actual construction was begun in May 1901 and on the 1st of September 1904 the section Damascus-Ma'an (285 m.) was officially opened. The line has a narrow gauge of 1.05 metre = 41 in., the same gauge as that of the Damascus-Beirut line; it has a ruling gradient of 1 in 50 and follows generally the pilgrim track, through a desert country presenting no serious engineering difficulties. The graver difficulties due to the scarcity of water, and the lack of fuel, supplies and labour were successfully overcome; in 1906 the line was completed to El Akhdar, 470 m. from Damascus and 350 from Medina, In time to be used by the pilgrim caravan of that year; and the section to Medina was opened in 1908. Its military value was shown in the previous year, when it conveyed 28 battalions from Damascus to Ma'an, from which station the troops marched to Akaba for embarkation _en route_ to Hodeda. The length of the line from Damascus to Medina is approximately 820 m., and from Medina to Mecca 280 m.; the highest level attained is about 4000 ft. at Dar el Hamra in the section Ma'an-Medina.

AUTHORITIES.--J. L. Burckhardt, _Travels in Arabia_ (London, 1829); 'Ali Bey, _Travels_ (London, 1816); R. F. Burton, _Pilgrimage to Medinah and Mecca_ (1893); _Land of Midian_ (London, 1879); J. S. Hurgronje, _Mekka_ (Hague, 1888); C. M. Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_ (Cambridge, 1888); Auler Pasha, _Die Hedschasbahn_ (Gotha, 1906). (R. A. W.)

HEJIRA,[1] or HEGIRA (Arab. _hijra_, flight, departure from one's country, from _hajara_, to go away), the name of the Mahommedan era. It dates from 622, the year in which Mahomet "fled" from Mecca to Medina to escape the persecution of his kinsmen of the Koreish tribe. The years of this era are distinguished by the initials "A.H." (_anno hegirae_). The Mahommedan year is a lunar one, about 11 days shorter than the Christian; allowance must be made for this in translating _Hegira_ dates into Christian dates; thus A.H. 1321 corresponds roughly to A.D. 1903. The actual date of the "flight" is fixed as 8 Rabia I., i.e. 20th of September 622, by the tradition that Mahomet arrived at Kufa on the Hebrew Day of Atonement. Although Mahomet himself appears to have dated events by his flight, it was not till seventeen years later that the actual era was systematized by Omar, the second caliph (see CALIPHATE), as beginning from the 1st day of Muharram (the first lunar month of the year) which in that year (639) corresponded to July 16. The term _hejira_ is also applied in its more general sense to other "emigrations" of the faithful, e.g. to that to Abyssinia (see MAHOMET), and to that of Mahomet's followers to Medina before the capture of Mecca. These latter are known as _Muhajirun_.

For the problems of Moslem chronology and comparative tables of dates see (beside the articles CALENDAR, CHRONOLOGY and MAHOMET), Wustenfeld, _Vergleichungstabellen der muhammedanischen und christlichen Zeitrechnung_ (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1903); Mas Latrie, _Tresor de chronologie_ (Paris, 1889); Durbaneh, _Universal Calendar_ (Cairo, 1896); Winckler, _Altorientalische Forschungen_, ii. 326-350; D. Nielson, _Die altarabische Mondreligion_ (Strassburg, 1904); Hughes, _Dictionary of Islam_, s.v. "Hijrah."

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The _i_ in the second syllable is short.