Baal \'bal\ God worshiped in many ancient Middle Eastern communi¬ ties, especially among Canaanites, for whom he was a fertility deity. In the mythology of Canaan, he was locked in combat with Mot, the god of death and sterility; depending on the outcome of their struggles, seven- year cycles of fertility or famine would ensue. Baal was also king of gods, having seized the kingship from the sea god, Yamm. Baal worship was popular in Egypt from the later New Kingdom to its end (1400-1075 bc). The Aramaeans used the Babylonian pronunciation Bel; Bel became the Greek Belos, identified with Zeus. The Old Testament often refers to a spe¬ cific local Baal or multiple Baalim.
ba'al shem \bal-'sham\ In Judaism, a title bestowed on men who worked wonders and cures through secret knowledge of the names of God. The practice dates to the 11th century, long before the term was applied to certain rabbis and Kabbalists. They were numerous in 17th- and 18th- century eastern Europe, where they exorcised demons, inscribed amulets, and performed cures using herbs, folk remedies, and the Tetragrammaton. Because they combined faith healing with use of the Kabbala, they clashed with physicians, rabbis, and followers of the Haskala. See also Ba'al Shem Tov.
Ba'al Shem Tov Vbal-'shem-'tovV orig. Israel ben Eliezer (b. c.
1700, probably Tluste, Podolia, Pol.—d. 1760, Medzhibozh) Charismatic founder of Hasidism (c. 1750). An orphan, he worked in synagogues and yeshivas, and when he retired to the Carpathian Mountains to engage in mystical speculation he gained a reputation as a ba'al shem, or healer. From c. 1736 he lived in the village of Medzhibozh and devoted himself to spiritual pursuits. He was widely known as the Besht, an acronym of Ba'al Shem Tov. He rejected the asceticism of older rabbis and focused on communion with God, service of God in everyday tasks, and rescue of the sparks of divinity that, according to the Kabbala, are trapped in the material world. His discourses during Sabbath meals have been preserved; he left no writings of his own. He made a point of conversing with simple
working people. Hasidism brought about a social and religious upheaval in Judaism, establishing a mode of worship marked by new rituals and religious ecstasy.
Baalbeck Vba-ol-.bek, 'bal-,bek\ or Baalbek Arabic Ba'labakk Large archaeological complex, eastern Lebanon. In ancient times it was a great city built on the lower western slope of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Its identification with the worship of Baal, a Semitic sun-god, gave rise to its Greek name, Heliopolis. It was made a Roman colony by the emperor Augustus Caesar. In ad 637 it came under Arab control and was administered by Muslim rulers from Syria until the 20th century. After World War I (1914-18) the French mandatory authorities made it part of Lebanon. The area in and around the city is noted for its exten¬ sive ruins, including temples of Jupiter, Bacchus, and Venus, town walls, Roman mosaics, a mosque, and Arab fortifications. The complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. The modern town (pop. 2002 est.: 29,200) is a regional urban centre.
Baath Party See Ba'th Party
Bab Vbab\, the orig. MIrza ‘All Muhammad of Shiraz (b. Oct. 20, 1819, or Oct. 8, 1820, Shiraz, Iran—d. July 9, 1850, Tabriz) Iranian religious leader who founded the BabI religion and was one of the central figures of Baha’i. The son of a merchant, he was influenced by the ShaykhI school of ShTite Islam. In 1844 he wrote a commentary on the surah of Joseph in the Qur’an and declared himself the Bab (Arabic: “Gateway”) to the hidden imam. Later he would claim to be the imam himself, and finally a divine manifestation. The same year he assembled 18 disciples, who spread the new faith in the various Persian provinces. He had popular support but was opposed by members of the religious class, and he was arrested near Tehran in 1847 and imprisoned. Meeting at Badasht in 1848, his follow¬ ers, the AzalI, formally broke with Islam. The Bab was executed by a fir¬ ing squad at Tabriz in 1850.
Bab el-Mandeb See Mandeb, Strait of
Babbage Vbab-ij\, Charles (b. Dec. 26, 1791, London, Eng.—d. Oct. 18, 1871, London) British mathema¬ tician and inventor. Educated at Cambridge University, he devoted himself from about 1812 to devising machines capable of calculating mathematical tables. His first small calculator could perform certain computations to eight decimals. In 1823 he obtained government sup¬ port for the design of a projected machine with a 20-decimal capacity.
In the 1830s he developed plans for the so-called Analytical Engine, capable of performing any arithmeti¬ cal operation on the basis of instruc¬ tions from punched cards, a memory unit in which to store numbers, sequential control, and most of the other basic elements of the present- day computer. The forerunner of the modern digital computer, the Analyti¬ cal Engine was never completed. In 1991 British scientists built Differ¬ ence Engine No. 2 (accurate to 31 digits) to Babbage’s specifications. His other contributions included establishing the modem postal system in England, compiling the first reliable actuarial tables, and inventing the locomotive cowcatcher.
Babbitt, Milton (Byron) (b. May 10, 1916, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. composer. At Princeton University he studied with composer Roger Sessions and later joined the faculty. He became one of the first U.S. 12-tone composers, and he was (with his Three Compositions for Piano, 1947) perhaps the first composer to write totally serialized music based on ordered structures not only of pitch but of elements such as rhythm and dynamics. The first composer to work with RCA’s Mark II synthesizer, he
Charles Babbage, detail of an oil painting by Samuel Lawrence, 1845; in the National Portrait Gallery, Lon¬ don.
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
144 I Babel ► BabyYar
became one of the first Americans to write electronically synthesized music. He wrote various pieces combining live performers and tape.
Babel \'ba-b y il\, Isaak (Emmanuilovich) (b. July 13,1894, Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire—d. March 17, 1941, Siberia, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Russian short-story writer. Born Jewish in Ukraine, Babel grew up in an atmosphere of persecution that is reflected in his stories. Maksim Gorky encouraged him to travel abroad to expand his horizons. Out of his expe¬ rience as a soldier in the war with Poland came the stories in Red Cavalry (1926). His Odessa Tales (1931) include realistic and humorous sketches of the Jewish ghetto outside Odessa. Initially well regarded in the Soviet Union, in the late 1930s Babel’s writing was found incompatible with offi¬ cial literary doctrine. He was arrested in 1939 and died in a Siberian prison camp. He is one of Russia’s greatest writers of short stories.
Babel Vba-bol, 'ba-baA, Tower of In the Hebrew scriptures, a high tower built in Shinar (Babylonia). According to Genesis 11:1-9, the Baby¬ lonians wanted to build a tower “with its top in the heavens.” Angry at their presumption, God disrupted the enterprise by confusing the lan¬ guages of the workers so that they could no longer understand each other. The tower was left unfinished and the people dispersed over the face of the earth. The myth may have been inspired by a tower temple located north of the Marduk temple and known as Bab-ilu (“Gate of God”).
"The Tower of Babel," oil painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563; in the Kun- sthistorisches Museum, Vienna
COURTESY OF THE KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM, VIENNA
Babenberg Vba-bon-.berkV House of Austrian ruling house in the 10th—13th century. Leopold I of Babenberg became margrave of Austria in 976. The Babenbergs’ power was modest until the 12th century, when they came to dominate the Austrian nobility. With the death of Duke Fre¬ derick II in 1246, the male line ended, and the family’s power declined rapidly.