73 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aramaic Language
Ararat
Aranda, too, at the outset won apostolic favor,
and was even advanced to the office of prothonotary;
but on account of his wealth he soon fell a victim
to the cupidity of the pope. He was arraigned for
having taken food before mass and for having dese-
crated, by scratching, a crucifix and other holy
images. Moreover, a delegation of seven Maranos
from Portugal happened to be in Rome at the time
for the avowed purpose of purchasing for their con-
stituents the good-will of the pope and his advisers.
They had managed to win the favorable considera-
tion of the papal court, but their efforts were reso-
lutely opposed by Garcilaso, the ambassador of Fer-
dinand and Isabella. Observing the pope's resolve
to imprison Aranda, Garcilaso pointed out the sus-
picion that was likely to arise in the popular mind
to the Hungarian Diet. The German family name is
Aufrecht.
BIBLIOGRAPHY : Szinuyci Magyar Irbk Tara, i.; Orszdgyti-
lesi Almanach, 1897.
s. M. W.
ARARAT : A district in eastern Armenia lying
between the lakes Van and Urmia and the river
Araxes. The Biblical name corresponds to the Assyr-
ian Urartu, a land invaded and partially conquered by
Asshurnazir-pal and Shalmaneser II. The Assyrian
cuneiform characters were introduced into the land of
Urartu as early as the ninth century B.C., and many
monumental inscriptions have been discovered within
its boundaries. About the middle of the ninth cen-
tury a strong native dynasty was established, and con-
MOUNT ARARAT.
(From a photograph taken by special permission of the Russian government.)
from the anomalous incarceration of Aranda while
the Marano delegates, indubitable heretics, were
granted favor and freedom. As a consequence,
Aranda and five of the Maranos were arrested and
thrown into prison; Pedro Essecuator and Aleman
Eljurado, the two leading members of the delega-
tion, succeeded in escaping (April 20, 1497). Thus
bereft of his worldly and ecclesiastic estate, Aranda
ended his days at the San Angelo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY : Gratz, Gesch. dcr Juden, 3d ed., viii. 318, 385.
G. H. G. E.
ABANYI, MIKS A : Hungarian writer; born
at Trencsen, May 13, 1858. He graduated from the
university in Budapest, and was sent to Paris by
the secretary of state for education to finish his
studies. He returned to Budapest in 1884, where
he edited the " Gazette de Hongrie " till 1887. He
translated several economic works from Hungarian
into French, and up to the year 1901 was deputy
tinued to rule until the Assyrian power was revived
by Tiglath-pileser III., about 740 B.C. For a genera-
tion Urartu was invaded by Assyrian armies, until at
last it again attained independence. This it retained
until it was overrun by the Scythians about the end
of the seventh century. Thus from the ninth to the
sixth century B.C., the land of Urartu or Ararat oc-
cupied a prominent place among the minor states of
southwestern Asia, and is referred to four times in
the Biblical narrative. In II Kings xix. 37 (= Isa.
xxxvii. 38) the fact is recorded that the assassins of
the Assyrian king Sennacherib fled to the land of
Ararat, where they found refuge with the reigning
king Erimenas. In Jer. li. 27, Ararat is mentioned
first among the hostile nations which are called upon
to advance from the north and overthrow the power
of Babylon. The most familiar reference, however,
is that of Gen. viii. 4: "In the seventh month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon
the mountains of Ararat."
Ararat
Arba' Kaufot
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA 74
In the older Babylonian story of the flood the ark
(or " ship ") is represented as resting on a peak of " the
mountain of Nizir," situated east of the land of As-
syria. Berosus, the Chaldean priest, in his history
fixes the site in " the mountain of the KordysBans "
or Kurds, northeast of Mosul, in the direction of
Urumiah (Josephus, "Ant." i. 3, 6); and Nicolaus
of Damascus states that the ark rested on a great
mountain in Armenia, somewhere near the boundary
between that land and Kurdistan. The principle de-
termining these various identifications seems to have
been that the ark rested on the highest point on the
earth, which was, therefore, the first to emerge from
the waters of the flood. Thus the peoples living
between the Tigris and the Euphrates naturally de-
cided that it was on the lofty mountains to the north-
east in the land of the Kurds. This belief of the
Babylonians, quoted by Josephus, is still held by
the Nestorians and Moslems. The Biblical reference
is indefinite; but of all the mountains in the ancient
land of Ararat, the lofty peak which towers 14,000
feet above the encircling plain, reaching a total
height of 17,000 feet above sea-level, is without a
rival. Its steepness emphasizes its great elevation,
and may well have impressed upon the minds of
travelers of antiquity the fact that it was higher than
the Kurdish mountains two hundred miles away. It
may also explain why the writer in Genesis appar-
ently abandoned the older conflicting Babylonian
traditions and fixed upon this imposing, solitary peak
far to the northwest.
The mountain itself is known as Ararat only
among Occidental geographers. The Armenians
call it Massis, the Turks Aghri Dagh, and the Per-
sians Koh i Nuh, or " the mountain of Noah." Thus
far it has been impossible to trace back to an early
date an independent native tradition. Apparently
the local legends which have clothed it with mys-
tery, and which would place upon it the remains of
the original ark, are based upon the passage in Gen-
esis, and have been largely induced in comparatively
recent times by the influence of Western Christianity.
Superstitious fear and natural difficulties prevent
the natives from attempting the ascent of the moun-
tain ; but its top has repeatedly been reached by Eu-
ropeans, and its geological peculiarities have been
noted. Its cone is the crater of an extinct volcano,
and because of its great height it is snow-capped
throughout the year.
BIBLIOGRAPHY : For the geography ol Urartu see Sayce, Cunei-
form Inscriptions of Van, in Journal Royal Asiatic Society,
vol. xiv.; Schrader, C. I. O. 2\, Index, s.v.; idem, K. G.P.,
Index, S.D.
J. JR. C. F. K.
ARARAT.A City of Refuge: A proposed
city planned by MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH in 1825.
The reactionary policy adopted by many European
governments after the battle of Waterloo led to the
reimposition in many places of Jewish disabilities;
and Jews laboring under them turned eagerly to
emigration for relief. Mordecai M. Noah, in his jour-
neys to and from his post of United States consul at
Tunis, had occasion to familiarize himself with the
conditions of Jews in various parts of Europe and
Africa; and he could not refrain from contrasting the
civil and political restrictions placed on the Jews
abroad with the equality of rights and opportuni-
ties for enterprise and worldly success accorded to
them in America. The consequence was that, in
1825, less than a decade after his return to New
York, he conceived and published a plan for the
establishment of "a city of refuge for the Jews,"
on a site which he selected upon Grand Island, in
the Niagara river, near Niagara Falls, not far from
Buffalo, N. Y. To this proposed city he gave the
name "Ararat," thereby linking it with his own
name and personality, and at the same time suggest-
ing the nature of his scheme.
At that time Noah was perhaps the most distin-
guished Jewish resident of America; and his success-
ful and varied activities as lawyer and editor, poli-
tician and playwright, diplomat and sheriff of New
York, lent to his project considerable importance.
Accordingly, he induced a wealthy Christian friend
to purchase several thousand acres of land on Grand
Island for this purpose. The tract was chosen with
particular reference to its promising commercial
prospects (being close to the Great Lakes and oppo-
site the newly constructed Erie Canal); and Noah
deemed it "preeminently calculated to become, in
time, the greatest trading and commercial depot in
the new and better world." Buffalo, at that time,
had not grown to its present commercial importance,
and Noah, in sober earnest, anticipated Carlyle's sa-
tirical prediction by describing the Falls of Niagara
as "affording the greatest water-power in the world
for manufacturing purposes." After heralding this
project for some time in his own newspaper and
in the press, religious and secular, generally, Noah
Foundation-Stone of the Proposed City ot Ararat.
selected Sept. 2, 1825, as the date for laying the
foundation-stone of the new city. According to
plan, impressive ceremonies, ushered in by the
firing of cannon, were held, and participated in by
state and federal officials, Christian clergymen, Ma-
sonic officers, and even American Indians, whom
Noah identified as the " lost tribes " of Israel, and
who were also to find refuge at this new "Ararat."
Circumstances made it inconvenient to hold the
exercises on Grand Island; so they were held in-
stead in an Episcopal church at Buffalo. Noah was
naturally the central figure; and, after having ap-
pointed himself " judge and governor " of Israel, he
issued a " proclamation " in that official capacity. In
this " state paper," he announced the restoration of
a Jewish state on Grand Island, preliminarily to a
restoration of a Palestinian state; commanded that
a census of the Jews be taken throughout the world;
levied a poll-tax of three shekels in silver per an-
num, to be paid into his treasury by Jews every-
where ; graciously permitted such Jews as wished to