Hakim Ben-Allah ocBen-Hashem,surnamed JloKAXXA (the veiled) and Sagendk Xaii (moon-intilcr), the founder of an Arabian sect, flourished in the latt r half of the 8th century. He began his career as a co.n- mon soldier, rose to a captaincy, but subsequently be- came the leader of a band of his omi. Having lost one of his eyes by the shot of an arrow, he constantly wore a veil to conceal his ugliness, as unbelievers assert, but, according to the belief of his disciples, to prevent tlie dazzling brightness of his divinely illuminated counte- nance from overpowering the beholder. Hakim is said to have been an adept in legerdemain and natural mag- ic, so as to be able to produce grand and startling tiTects of light and color, in virtue of Avhich he laid claim to miraculous powers, and asserted that he was a god in human form, having been incarnated in the bodies of Adam, Noah, and other celebrated men, and, last of all, in that of Abu Moslem, prince of Khorassan. On one occasion, to the "delight and bewilderment of bis sol- diers," he is said for a whole week to have caused to is- sue from a deep well a moon or moons of such SLirjiass- ing brilliancy as to obscure the real moon. Many flocked to his standard, and be seized several strong places near Nekshib and Kish. The sultan Maliadi marched against him, and finally captured his last stronghold ; but Hakim, " having first poisoned bis sol- diers with the wine of a banquet," had destroyed his body by means of a burning acid, so that only a few hairs remained, in order that his disciples might believe that he had " ascended to heaven alive." Eemnants of the sect still exist on the ohorcs of the Oxus,having for outward badge a white garb in memory of that worn by their founder, and in contrast to the black color adopted by the caliphs of the house of Abbas. The life of Ha- kim has been the subject of many romances, of which " the best known and most brilliant" is the story of "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan" in jMoore's ImUu Pookh. — Chambers, Cijclopa'dia, s. v. ; Hoefer, Kour. Biofi. Generale, i, 82; D'llerbelot, Biblioth. Orientale, s. v. JMocanna. (J.W.M.)
Hak'katan, or rather Katam (Heb. Kaian', X'^'\^i witli the article "|^i?v], the little or junior ; Sept. 'AKKa- rar, Yulg. /■Jccilan), a descendant (or native) of Azgad and father of Johanan, which last retunied with 110 male retainers from Babylon with Ezra (Ezra viii, 12). B.C. ante 459.
Hakkoie. See En-hak-kore.
Hak'koz (1 Chron. xxiv, 10). See Koz.
Haku'pha {Chahupha', XS^pn.crooi-^rf; but, ac- cording to Fiirst, incitement, a Chaldaizing form; Sept. I '\Kov(pd and 'Axi^a), one of the Nethinim whose de- , scendants returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ezra I ii,51; Neh. vii,53). B.C. a'nte 536. I Ha'lah (Hebrew C/*afoc/<', n^rt, signif. iinkiiowni ; i Sept. 'E\«6 and 'A\a£, Vulg. IIula;'h\\t in 1 Chroii. v,
HALACHA
27
HALDANE
26, Sept. Xn\d, A'ulc;. Lahela'), a city or district of Me- dia, upon the river (iozaii, to wliicli, among otlicr ]ilaces, the captives of Israel Avere transplanted by the Assyrian kings (2 Kings xvii, G ; xviii, 1 1 ; 1 Chron. v, iC). Many, after Bochart {Geog. Sacra, iii, 14, p. 220), have con- ceived this Halah or Chalach to be the same with the Calaii or Kclach of (ien. x, 11, the Calacine (KaXn- Kivli) whicli Ptolemy places to the north of Assyria (vi, 1), tlie Calarhcne (Ka\ax)]rii) of Strabo (xi, 530), in the plain of the Tigris around Nineveh. But tliis is proba- bly a ditt'erent place, the modern Kalah-.Shergat. INIa- jor Kennell, identifying the Gozan witli the Kizzil-Ozan, indicates as lying along its banks a district of some ex- tent, and of great beauty and fertility, called Chalchal, having within it a remarkably strong position of the same name, situated on one of the hills adjoining to the mountains which separate it from the province of Ghi- lan {(Jeofj. of Herod, p. 390). The Talmud understands Cholwan, five days' journey from Bagdad (Fiirst, Lvx. s. v.). Ptolemy, hov.'ever, mentions (v, 18) another prov- ince in Meso\)Otamia of a similar name, namely, Chalci- its (XaXidric), which he places between Anthemusia (compare Strabo, xvi, 1,§ 27) and tiauzonitis (Gozan); and this appears to be the true llalah of the Bible. It lay along the banks of the Upper Khabiir, extending from its soiu-ce at Ras el-Ain to its junctioi* with the Jerujer, as the name is thought to remain in the modern Gla, a large moimd on this river, above its junction with the Jerujer (Layard, A'iii. and Jjab. p. 312, note). Halah, Habor, and Gozau were situated close together on the left bank of the Euphrates (Kawlinson, A ncknt Monarchies, i, 246). — Kitto, s. v.
Halacha. See Haggadaii ; Midisash.
Ha'lak (Heb. Ckaluk', p\'^, smooth ; Sept. 'A«X«'k and X£/\x«'\ the name (or, rather, epithet) of a hill (pbnfl "inn, both with the axi. = ihi bare mount) near the territory of Seir, at the southern extremity of Ca- naan, among the conquests of Joshua (Josh, xi, 17 ; xii, 7 ) ; so calletl, doubtless, from its bald appearance, making- it a landmark in that direction. Hence it is used by Joshua, as Beersheba was used by later writers, to mark the southern limit of the country' — " So Joshua took all that land . . . Irom the Mount, llahd; that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad, in the valley of Lebanon, under Mount Hermon." The situation of the mountain is thus pretty definitely indicated. It adjoins Edom, and lay on the southern border of Palestine ; it must, consequently, have been in, or verj' near, the great val- ley of the Arabah. The expression, "that goeth up to Self' ("l"^?b "^^^.'iTi), is worthy of note. Seir is the mountainous province of Edom [see SeirJ; and Mount Halak would seem to have been connected with it, as if running up towards it, or joining it to a lower dis- trict. About ten miles south of the Dead Sea a line of vaked white cliffs, varying in height from oO to 150 feet, runs comjjletely across the Arabah. As seen from the north, the cliffs resemble a ridge of hills (and in this aspect the word "in might perhaps be apjilied to them), shutting in the deep valley, and connecting the moim- tain chain on the west with the mountains of Seir on the east. It is possibly this ridge which is referred to in Numli. xxiv, 3, 4, and Josh, xv, 2, 3, under the name '•Ascent of Akrabbim," and as marking the south-east- ern border of Judah; and it might v.ell be called the bald mountain, vhich ascends to Seir. It was also a nat- ural landmark for the southern boimdary f)f Palestine, as it is near Kedesh-barnea on tlie one side, and the northern ridge of Edom on the other. To this ridge, bounding the land in the valley on the south, is appro- priately opposed on the north, " Baal-gad, in the valleij of Lebanon" (Keil on Joshua xi, 17). The cliffs, and the scenery of the siurounding region, are minutely de- scribed by" Robinson {Bib. Res. ii, 113, 116. 120).— Kit- to, s. V. Still, the peculiar term, " the bald mountain," seems to require some more cUstinctive eminence, per-