BEKES, a market-town of Hungary, formerly a royal free city, and the capital of the county of the same name, situated at the confluence of the White and Black Körös, 14 miles N.N.W. of Gyula, which is now the capital. The inhabitants, principally Calvinists, amount to 22,500, and are chiefly engaged in agriculture and the rearing of cattle. Count Wenkheim has a fine castle in the town, which was at one time strongly fortified. Long. 20° 41' 37" E., lat. 46° 46' 16" N.
BEKKER, Balthazar, a celebrated Dutch divine, was born in Friesland in 1634. He was the author of several works in philosophy and theology, which from their freedom of thought and critical rationalism excited considerable enmity against him. His most celebrated production was the work entitled Die Betooverde Wereld, or The World Bewitched, in which he examined critically the phenomena generally ascribed to spiritual agency, and exposed with much force the many absurdities regarding the power of Satan that had become articles of Christian faith. The odium theologicum was fiercely roused by this book, and Bekker was deposed from the office of the ministry. He resided at Amsterdam till his death in 1698.
BEKKER, or Wolff, Elizabeth, a Dutch novelist, was born in 1738. She was married to Adrian Wolff, a Reformed clergyman, but is always known under her maiden name. After the death of her husband in 1777, she resided for some time in France, with her close friend, Agatha Deken. She was exposed to some of the dangers of the French Revolution, and, it is said, escaped the guillotine only by her great presence of mind. In 1795 she returned to Holland, and resided at the Hague till her death in 1804. Her novels were written in conjunction with Agatha Deken, and it is somewhat difficult to determine the exact qualities contributed by each. The Historie van William Levend (1785), Historie van Sara Burgerhart (1790), Abraham Blankaart (1787), Cornelie Wildschut (1793–96), have been extremely popular. Some of them have been translated into German and French.
BEKKER, Immanuel, a distinguished philologist, was born at Berlin in 1785, and died 7th June 1871. He completed his classical education at the university of Halle under the famous F. A. Wolf, who was accustomed to speak of him as his most promising pupil. In 1810 he was appointed to a professorship in the university of Berlin. For several years, between 1810 and 1821, he travelled in France, Italy, England, and parts of Germany, examining classical manuscripts and gathering materials for his great editorial labours. Some detached fruits of his researches were given in the Anecdota Graeca, 3 vols., 1814–21; but the full result of his unwearied industry and ability is to be found in the enormous array of classical works edited by him. The most famous are Plato, 10 vols., 1814–21; Oratores Attici, 7 vols., 1823; Aristoteles (the Berlin edition), 4 vols., 1831–36 ; Thucydides, 3 vols., 1821; Aristophanes, 3 vols., 1825; Sextus Empiricus, 1842. He also edited 24 volumes of the Byzantine historians. Bekker confined himself entirely to textual recension and criticism, and contributed little to the extension of general scholarship. He was well read in the old French literature, particularly that of Provence, and contributed many papers on it to the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy.
BEL. See Baal.
BEL, or Belius, Matthias, an Hungarian divine and historian, was born in 1684, and was educated partly at Halle. In 1719 he was made rector of the evangelical Lyceum at Presburg, where he remained till his death in 1749. His great work was the History of Hungary (Notitia Hungariæ novæ historico-geographica), 4 vols., 1735–42, which was not completed. Other works devoted to the history of his native country are— Hungariæ antiquæ et novæ prodromus, 1723; Adparatus ad Historiam Hungariæ, 1735–46. He also wrote on the literature of the Hungarians.
BEL AND THE DRAGON, one of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament. See Apocrypha.
BELA, or Beyla, a town of Baluchistan, capital of the province of Lus, on the north-eastern bank of the River Poorally, 293 miles N. of Khelat. Long. 66° 4' E., lat. 26° 1' N. About one-third of the town in the western quarter is encompassed by a mud wall. The streets are narrow; but from the elevated situation of the town, and its rocky site, they are always clean, even in wet weather. The bazaar is very neat. The governor's residence is surrounded by a castellated mud-wall, which also encloses a dome-covered mosque. Population about 5000.
BELBEIS, or Belbeys, a town of Upper Egypt, in the province of Kelyubieh, on the eastern arm of the Nile, 28 miles N.N.E. of Cairo. It was formerly considered the bulwark of the kingdom on that side, and was defended by strong fortifications, but these were suffered to fall into decay till 1798, when Napoleon ordered them to be put in repair. In 1163–4 it was besieged for three months by the Crusaders under Amalric, who at length, in 1168, captured and pillaged it. The present population is not supposed to exceed 5000.
BELFAST, the chief manufacturing and commercial town of Ireland, a municipal and parliamentary borough, the capital of Ulster, and, since 1850, the county town of Antrim, in which, with the exception of the large suburb of Ballymacarret on the other side of the river, it is mainly comprised. It is situated in lat. 54° 36' 8.5" N., and long. 5° 55' 53.7" W., at the mouth of the Lagan, which flows into Belfast Lough (Carrickfergus Bay), and is built on an alluvial deposit and land reclaimed from the sea, the greater portion of which is not more than 6 feet above high-water mark. It was thus for a long period exposed to occasional inundations, and was somewhat subject to epidemics; but its situation, improved by drainage, has become more healthy, while the environs are agreeable and picturesque.
1. Prince's Dock. 2. Clarendon Dock. 3. Queen's Bridge. 4. Albert Bridge. 5. Trinity Church. 6. St Ann's Church. 7. St George's Church. 8. Christ Church. 9. St Malachi's Cathed. 10. Academical Institute. 11. Linen Hall. 12. Commercial Bdgs. 13. Custom House. 14. Town-Hall. 15. Central Rail. Sta.
