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E 5C43 8

A NEW AND GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

CAAB, or CAB-BEN-ZOHAIR, a distinguished Ara

bian poet, was one of the rabbis among those Arabians who had embraced Judaism. Mahomet, irritated by a satirical poem which Caab had written against him and his new sect, made war on the Jewish Arabian tribes, in hopes of seizing him and putting him to death. Caab, however, contrived to escape his fury, until Mahomet had made himself master of Arabia, when he had the art to be reconciled to him, turned Mahometan, and altered his poem by inserting the name of Abubeker wherever that of Mahomet occurred; and as these concessions did not seem to effect a complete reconciliation, he wrote a poem in favour of one of his mistresses, which was so successful that Mahomet received him into friendship, and bestowed on him his own mantle, which the caliph Móavias purchased when he came to the throne, and it became the dress of his successors on state occasions. Caab is also said to have had a considerable hand in drawing up the Alcoran. According to Herbelot he died in the first year of the hegira, or A. C. 622. An edition of his poem in praise of Mahomet was published under the title "Caab Ben-Zohair carmen panegyricum in laudem Mohammedis, &c." Leyden, 1748, 4to, with an eloge by Albert Scultens. 1

CABANIS (PETER JOHN GEORGE), a French physician of considerable eminence, the son of Mons. Cabanis, an able agriculturist, was born about 1756; and in his youth 1 D'Herbelot.-Moreri.-Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 103. edit. 4th, 1708, 8vo.

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B

shewed much taste for scientific as well as polite literature, which he pursued with success; although having caught the revolutionary phrensy, his studies became interrupted by his political engagements. He is said, however, to have had no hand in any of the excesses which arose out of the fury of contending parties. He was connected with Mirabeau, and attended him in his professional capacity on his death-bed. He was also one of the Council of Five Hundred; and it was in consequence of a motion made by him, that the Directory was dissolved. His principles, however, do not appear to have been much more steady and consistent than those of his brethren. He published, 1. "Observations sur les Hopitaux," Paris, 1790, 8vo. 2. " Journal de la maladie et de la mort de Mirabeau," ibid. 1791, 8vo. 3. "Travail sur l'education publique," a posthumous work of Mirabeau, edited by Cabanis, 1791, 8vo. 4. "Melanges de Litterature Allemande," 1796, 8vo. 5. "Du degre de certitude de la medecine," 1797, 8vo, republished in 1802, with the addition of the first two articles in this list. 6. "Quelques considerations sur l'organization sociale en generale," &c. 1799, 12mo. 7. "Des rapports du physique et du morale de l'homme," 1803, 2 vols. 8vo, reprinted with additions in 1804. On the merit of this work the French critics are divided; we may, however, form some idea of it from the circumstance of its having been praised by the philosophers, and censured by the divines. 8. "Coup d'œil sur les revolutions et la reforme de la medicine," 1803. 9. "Observations sur les affections Catarrhales," &c. 1807. He wrote also some curious articles in the "Magazin Encyclopedique ;" and in the Moniteur for 1799 are many of his speeches in the legislative body. He was connected, we are told, with a great part of the writers and philosophers who contributed to enlighten the eighteenth century. During his last years. he inhabited a country-house at Auteuil, bequeathed him by his friend madame Helvetius. He died at Meulan, May 5, 1808; and was at the time of his death a member of the institute, of the philomatic society, and of the medical society.'

CABASILAS (NILUS), archbishop of Thessalonica in the fourteenth century, under the empire of the Andronicus's, wrote two treatises against the Latins; the first to prove that the division between the Greek and Latin churches is owing in a great measure to the conduct of the Pope, who

'Dict. Hist.