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exist specimens of about fifteen of the originalnasks. This material, moreover, is supplementedby various passages that have been translated fromthe original Avesta into Pahlavi and are thus preserved ; or by quotations of the Avesta text itselfincorporated into the Pahlavi treatises. All thisbears but a small proportion to the Avesta of Zo

roaster's time, and the remnant is but small in extent when compared with the Hebrew Scriptures.What is still extant is commonly divided into the

following six classes: (1) Yasna, including theGathas, or Zoroastrian Psalms; (2) Vlspered; (3)Yashts; (4) minor tex ts; (5) Vendldad; (6) fragments.

The Yasnaa liturgical work, comprising seventy-two chapterscontains texts used by the dasttir,

or priest, in connection chiefly withThe Extant the sacrifice of haoma. In the

Avesta. midst of the Yasna the Gathas areinserted. These are the Zoroastrian

psalms, and they represent the verses of Zoroaster'sown preaching and teaching, embodying especially

his belief in a new and better life; the coming ofa Messiah, or Saoshyant; the annihilation of Satanand the evil principle, Angro-Mainyush, and theDruj, Falsehood (see AHRIMAN); and the generalrestoration of the world for ever and ever. Fortheologians the Gathas are the most interestingand important part of the Avesta; but at the sametime they are by far the most difficult.

Less characteristic is the short book known asthe Vlspered. It consists of brief invocations andofferings of homage to all the lords ( vlspe ra-tavo ), as the name implies. The Yashts, or Praises,twenty-one in number, contain praises of the angelsor glorification of the spirits, and personified abstractions of the faith. They are generally written in

meter, with some claim to poetic merit. One of themost interesting is the thirteenth, or Farvadln Yasht,on the worship of the spirits ( fravashis ). Thedoctrine of the ancient Persian faith, which thisYasht contains, has been brought by Pau l de La-garde into connection with the Purim festival. Another Yasht (Yt. 19) is in praise of the kingly glory( hvarenah ), the halo, sheen, or majesty whichsurrounds and p rotects the king as a mark of divinefavor (compare Moses' shining face, Ex. xxxiv. 29).The Vendldad, in twenty-two chapters, is an Iranian Pentateuch, and it contains numerous parallelsof interest to the Biblical student.

The real pioneer exegete at the end of the eighteenth century was Anquetil du Perron ; then followed Burnouf and Rask; later came Haug, Wester-gaard, Spiegel, Roth, Hubschmann, De Harlez; ormore recently, West, Mills (a stanch advocate of thePahlavi), and especially Geldner and James Darme-steter. The latte r's theory of the late origin of theAvesta (in Le Zend-Avesta, iii., Introduction, and

Sacred Books of the East, 2d ed., iv., Introduction)can not be said to have found much favor amongspecialists or support among those best qualified tojudge; but he has brought out numerous likenessesbetween the Avesta and the Old Testament.BIBLIOGRAPHY : Darmesteter and Mills in the Sacred Books of

the East 3 vols., 1880-94; or Darmesteter's French version,Le Zend-Avesta Paris, 1892-93; Windischmann, Zoroas-trische Studien Berlin, 1863; Spiegel, Eranischc Alter-

thumskunde 1871-79, i.-iii.; idem, Avesta 3 vols., Leiisic,1852-63; W. Geiger, Ostiranusche Kultur 1882; O. H. Scin He-Haluz 1869, viii. 1-120; Geldner, Awesta-Litteratand Jackson, lranische Religion in the Grundriss der IPhilologie Strasburg, 1896-99; Alex. Kohut, The Zendavcand the First Eleven Chapters of Genesis in J. Q. RK. A. V. W. J.AVIANTJS, HIERONYMTJS : Christian Orien

tal scholar; lived at Leipsic at the end of the sixteenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He devoted himself to Hebrew versification,and published a work in two volumes, entitled,

Clovis Poeseos Sacrse, Trium Principalium Lingua-rum Orientalium, etc., ita Disposita ut Simul LexiciVulgaris Usum Admittat, Exhibens; qua Aperiturvia, etc., Omnis Generis Carmina, etc., Scribendi(Leipsic, 1627).BIBLIOGRAPHY : Steinschneider, Bibliograph. Handbuch p.

T. I. BR.AVICEBRON SOLOMON IBN GABIROL.

See GABIROL.AVICENNA ABTT ALI IBN ABDAL

LAH IBN SINA) : Physician and philosopher

of note; born at Bokhara in 980; died in 1037. Hisworks, which were brought to Spain about one hundred years after their publication, exerted a greatinfluence upon Jewish thought in the Middle Ages.His philosophical investigations are embodied in agreat encyclopedic work entitled Al Shefa' (Healing), a term which in the Latin translation has beencorrupted into Sufficentia. This Latin translation, prepared by the aid of Jew ish interpreters, hasbeen frequently used by Jewish authors, notablySamuel ibn Tibbon in his Y ikka wu ha-Mayyim.It is divided into four parts; namely, logic, physics,mathematics, and metaphysics. In addition to theShefa 1, there is a smaller encyclopedia, Al-Na-

jah, which,'under the title Healing of the Soul,

was, in 1330, translated by Todros Todrosi in Rome.In regard to Avicenna's importance as a philosopher, Maimonides and Shem-Tob Falaquera haveboth expressed their views. Maimonides says: Theworks of Avicenna, although distinguished by tolerable accuracy as well as by subtlety of speculation,are nevertheless inferior to those of Abu-Nasral-Farabi; they are useful, however, and deserve to

be studied. This opinion is sharedHis by Shem-Tob Falaquera, who declares

Importance that Avicenna's works are exact, butas a Phi- incomprehensible to those unfamiliarlosopher. with logic. Of greater importance

are the medical works of Avicenna,and as an author he has been distinguished in this

domain by the honorary title of Prince of Physicians. Hischief medical publication is the Canon, ya complete system of medicine, which, in 1279, wastranslated into Hebrew by Nathan ha-Meati ( ofCento ). Parts of the work were translated also bytwo other Jewish scholars, and numerous commentaries have from time to time been written upon it.In addition to this work, Avicenna has left a smallermedical compendium in ten volumes, and has evengiven expression to his medical knowledge in rime.The last-mentioned publications were likewise perpetuated in Hebrew translations.

The Canon ( El Kanun fi't Tib' ), the greatestliterary production of Avicenna, is a colossal work,

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which for five centuries was accepted as a guide inEurop ean universities, and which was used as a text

Thebook in the universities of Lou vain andMontpellier untilabout 16(i0. t con

Canon. sists of five books, subdivided into fu-niln or fen (sections), tractatus, summa,

and caput. Of these volumes the first and secondtreat of physiology, pathOlogy, and hygiene; thethird and fourth, of the methods of treating disease;and the fifth, of materia medica. The many pointsof excellence possessed by the voluminous work andits admirable literary style make i t possible to un~ e r s t n dreadily the reason for its great popularityboth in the Oriental schools and among the Occidental Arabists of a later date. t was among the latter, rather than in Arabian Spain-where the influence of Averroes was predominant--that Avicenna'sworks attained their greatest popularity.

In some respects the .Canon of Avicenna is notunlike the works of his predecessors Rhazes and.A:li, although excel ling the El- I;rawi (Cont.inens),or Summary, of the former by greater exactnessof method.This power of systematization was due perhapsto his mastery of logic-a domain in which his ac

LogicandMeta

physics.

quirements entitled him to be rankedas one of the principal forerunners ofAlbertus Magnus and his immediatesuccessors, all of whom were compelled to draw their formulas largely

from Avicenna' s works. The logic of Avicenna isdistinguished by great comprehensiveness of scope,and by a scrupulously conscientious endeavor on t hepart of the author-who here evi'dently follows theexample of Al-Farabi-to present the subject clearly,comprehensively, and circumstantially.

As regards the funp.amental t e J ; ~ e t sof his philoso

phy, Avicenna taught that matter, the principle ofindiyiduatl,on, does not directly ~ m n t efrom theGodhead, although it is in its primal origin eternal,and includes within itself all possibilities of development. In other words, he held that while allthings are primarily traceable to the agency of animm\}table Deity, they can not owe their existenceto the immediate influence of such a Deity, inasmuchas the immutable can not itself create substancessubject to the element of change. The first and onlyimmediate product of God, therefore, is the world

soul or world-intelligence, which unwinds an endlesschain of creation throughout all the celestial spheresdown to the earth. The cause that .produces, how-

r ever, must also conserve, for cause and effect are

identical; from which it follows that the world itself,like God, must be eternal.Avicenna's psychological views, expressed in the

sixth volume of his work on physics (the second partof the Shefa' in the so-called Liber Sextus Naturalium ),exerted great influence upon Jewi sh schol-

ars. In his preface to this book thePsy- Latin translator, Johannes Hispalen-

chology. sis, declares. that it contains Quid-1 quid Aristoteles dixit in libro suo de

anima et de sensu et sensato et de intellectu et intellecto. In addition to tliis, Avicenna's principalwork on psychology, he wrote a number of dissertations on the soul, nearly all ot -vhich have been

>translated Hebrew; ahd although in generalbased upon the psychologica.l theories of Aristotle,Avicenna's views are in many respects original. Asan example mention may be made of his division ofthe soul's attributes into four classes; namely, theexternal powers, or five senses; the internal powers;the motive powers, and the intellectual powers.

A vicenna was also the first philosopher after Galento indicate the three cavities of the brain as the seatof the soul's functions; his opinions on this as onother subjects being later adopted by Jewish authors,and more particularly by Shem-'fob Falaquera,who inhis workon psychology shows himself a true adherent of Avicenna. Like the latter, Falaquera proceedsupon the principle, Have cognizance of yourself,and you will have cognizance of your Maker, hereby establishing psychology as an introduction tometaphysics.

The works of A vicenna not i n f ~ q u e n t l ycontainconflicting theories-a fact explained by Averroes(the keenest opponent of the great philosopher) uponthe ground that Avicenna was afraid to avow his

opinions, as he desired to preserve the favor of allparties and to offend none. Indeed, it was earlyasserted that A vicenna's true views were not contained in the Shefa' at all, but were to be foundin the mystical work entitled Oriental Wisdom orPhilosophy - a work which now exists neither inArabic nor in Latin, only a fragment having beenpreserved in a Hebrew manuscript (Steinschneider,

Jlldische Literatur, p. 301).Thus it appears that Avicenna's Neoplatonic the

ory of evolution g radually led him to mysticism, andas. adherent of the new Platonic system the soul ofthe rationalist and that of the mystic were st rangelyblended in him, which caused him to become theoriginator of the ultimately fatal doctrine of the

twofold t ru th-a doctrine focused in the sentenceSecundum fidem verum; secundum rationemfalsum (True according to fai th; false accordingto reason), and later employed in defense of hisown bold opinions by Isaac Albal ag (compare .Joel,I;rasdai Crescas, p. 7).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Steinscbnelder, Hebr Uebers pp. 17-:-20, 677-701 ; Munk Melanges e Phi osophie, pp. 352-1 66; Kauf-mann, Theologie des BaiJya ibn Pakuda pp. 196-201 ; Carrade Vaux-Avicenne (Paris, 1900). K. A. Lo.AVIGDOR, E L I M D ' : Engineer and communal

worker (died in London Feb. 9, 1895); was the eldestson of Count Salamon Henri d' Avigdor and ofRachel, second daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldamid. He was educated a t University College, Lon

don, and the University of London. Having beenarticled to the engineer Hawkshaw, D'Avigdor in1862 went first to Hull, then to Rangoon (Burma)in connection with his professional work. He supervised the construction of railways in Syria and inTransylvania, and of water-works in Vienna. twas D'Avigdor's railway experience added to hisinterest in Palestine as chief of the Chovevi ZionAssociation which led him to contract in railwaywork in Syria and to form the Tyrian Construction Company. Gaining some experience in lite rarywork in connection with Vanity Fair, he boughtthe Examiner. He subsequently brought out apaper called the Yachting Gazette. Under t ~ e

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