Hegira, an Arabic word si<x,miy'mQ flight (Iledshra), now used to designate the epoch from which the Mo- hammedans compute time. The flight of Mohammed from jMecca to IMedina is fixed by the Mohammedans on July 15, A.D. 622. The process of converting the years of the Hegira into the date after the birth of Christ is as follows. Divide the given number by thirty (the quotient expresses the intercalary cycles elapsed smce the Hegira, the remainder represents the number of years elapsed in the current intercalary cj'cle) ; multiply the quotient by 10,631 (the number of days contained in an intercalary cycle), adding to the product the sum of the daj's contained in the elapsed years of the current cycle, the daj's of the elapsed cun-ent months of the current year up to the time of reckoning, and to the re- sult add again 227,015 (the number of days elapsed be- tween Jan. 1 of the j'ear 1, and July 15, 622, the date of the Hegira). The sum of days thus obtained is most readily converted into JuUan years by dividing it by 1461 (the number of daj^s in a Julian intercalary period), then multiplying the quotient by foiu*, and adding to the product the number of whole years contained in the re- mainder of the di\-ision, which is obtained by dividing this remainder by 365. The number of days still re- maining shows the day of the month in the current Ju- lian year. Or else the following proportion may be made use of (T representing any date in the Tiurkish calendar, and C the corresponding date in the Julian cal- endar): C=0.970203 T-l-621.567785, and T = 1.030712 C — 64.65745. If the date is subsequent to the Gregorian reform in the calendar, which can only be the case for modem times, then the Turkish date miust first be con- verted into the Julian, which is then altered to the Gre- gorian by adding ten days to it for the period extending from Oct. 6, 1582, to the end of February', 1700; eleven days after the latter until the end of February, 1800, and twelve days for all subsequent dates. In making this reduction, the difference between the time at wliich the day begins in the Turkish and in the Cliristian calen- dar mu§t be taken into consideration whenever the time of day of the event calculated is known, as it may make a diff'erence in the date of one day more or less. The Turkish year begins at the end of July. The year 1859 A.C. is in their calendar 1275-76. A simpler mode of
HEGIUS
159 HEIDELBERG CATECHISM
reduction, but not strictly accurate, is as follows : The Mohammedan year = a lunar year oi'Sbi days, and there- fore o;> jMohammedan years = 32 Christian. To reduce years of the Ilegira, therefore, to years of the Christian ffira, subtract one from every thirty-three years, and add 622. Thus A.D. 1861 = 1277 of "the Hegira. — Pierer, Universal Lexikvn, viii, 721.
Hegius, Alexander (the name, according to some accounts, being Latinized from the name of his native village, Ilcck), a German humanist of the loth centiu-y, was born within the diocese of Mtlnster about 1433 or 1455 (the exact date is midetermined), and died at De- venter, Holland, in the latter part of 1498. He claims notice here because of his influence in reviving classical learning, especially by means of the celebrated college which he established at Deventer. This school is named by Hallam {Lit. of Europe, i, 109, Harpers' ed.) as one of the three schools thus early established in Western Europe, outside of Italy, for instruction in the classic lan- guages, " from which issued the most conspicuous orna- ments of the next generation." Hegius is said to have been a friend of Kudolph Agricola, and to have himself received intruction in classical literature from Thomas h Kempis. Among his pupils may be named Erasmus, Hermann von dem Busche, INIiu-mellius, and others, ; whose labors and success in literature add lustre to their teacher's fame. Hegius's writings were but few, and those mainly in the form of poetry and brief grammat- ical and philosophical treatises; one of a theological type is found in a miscellaneous collection of writings by him, pubUshed at Deventer, 1530, 4to, and entitled De Incarnationis Mysterio IJialogi duo, quihus (uhUtum de Puschm et Celebratione et inventione. HaUam (/. c. note) attributes to him " a small 4to tract entitled Coujuc/a- iiones Verhorum Grcecce, Daventrice Noviter exfremo la- bore colledm et impressce,'" without date or printer's name, and which he regards as the first book printed this side of the Alps in Greek. — Herzog, Real-EncyUop. xix, 616 ; Hoefcr, Nouv. Bio(j. Generale, xxiii, 763. (J. W. M.)
He-Goat (prop. IIPl?, attud', so called as being adult ; also "i^E^, tsaphir', so called from leaping, 2 Chron. xxix, 21 ; Ezra viii, 35 ; Dan. viii, 5, 8 [Ezra vi, 17] ; dl'n, ta'ijish, a buck. Gen. xxx, 35; xxxii, 14; 2 Chron. xvii, 1 1 ; Prov. xxx, 31). See Goat.
Heidamis, Abraham, professor of theologj' at Ley- den, was born at Frankenthal, in the Palatinate, Aug. ■ 10, 1597. He was educated at Amsterdam and Leyden, and in 1627 was appointed to a pastoral charge in the latter city. In 1647 he became professor in the Uni- versity of Leyden. Heidanus held a mild view of the doctrine of predestination, and adopted the Cartesian philosophy, of which he became a strong advocate. This involved him in various controversies, in which he bore himself admirably. Yet, when nearly eighty years old, he was dismissed from his professorship by the curators of the University. He died at Leyden Oct. 15, 1678. His Corpiis Theoloffice Christiance was posthumously published (1686, 2 vols. 4to). — Bayle, Dictionary, s. v.