AVELLINO

avellino, a city and episcopal see of campania, italy, the capital of the province of avellino, 1150 ft. above sea-level, 28 m. direct and 59 m. by rail e.n.e. of naples, at the foot of monte vergine. pop. (1901) 23,760. there are ruins of the castle constructed in the 9th or 10th century, in which the antipope anacletus ii. crowned count roger ii. king of sicily and apulia. avellino is the junction of lines to benevento and rocchetta s. antonio. the name is derived from the ancient abellinum, the ruins of which lie 2-1/2 m. north-east, close to the village of atripalda, and consist of remains of city walls and an amphitheatre in _opus reticulatum_, _i.e._ of the early imperial period, when abellinum appears to have been the chief place of a tribe, to which belonged also the independent communities of the _abellinates cognomine protropi_ among the hirpini, and the _abellinates cognominati marsi_ among the apulians (nissen, _italische landeskunde_, ii. 822). it lay on the boundary of campania and the territory of the hirpini, at the junction of the roads from nola (and perhaps also from suessula) and salernum to beneventum. the monte vergine (4165 ft.) lies 4 m. to the n.w. of avellino; upon the summit is a sanctuary of the virgin, founded in 1119, which contains a miraculous picture attributed to s. luke (the greatest festival is on the 8th of september). the present church is baroque in style, but contains some works of art of earlier periods. the important archives have been transported to naples. (t. as.) avempace [abu bakr mu[h.]ammad ibn ya[h.]ya, known as ibn b[=a]jja or ibn [s.]a'igh, _i.e._ son of the goldsmith, the name being corrupted by the latins into avempace, avenpace or aben pace], the earliest and one of the most distinguished of the arab philosophers of spain. little is known of the details of his life. he was born probably at saragossa towards the close of the 11th century. according to ibn kh[=a]q[=a]n, a contemporary writer, he became a student of the exact sciences and was also a musician and a poet. but he was a philosopher as well, and apparently a sceptic. he is said to have rejected the koran, to have denied the return to god, and to have regarded death as the end of existence. but even in that orthodox age he became vizier to the amir of murcia. afterwards he went to valencia, then to saragossa. after the fall of saragossa (1119) he went to seville, then to xativa, where he is said to have returned to islam to save his life. finally he retired to the almoravid court at fez, where he was poisoned in 1138. ibn 'usaibi'a gives a list of twenty-five of his works, but few of these remain. he had a distinct influence upon averroes (see arabian philosophy). for his life see mcg. de slane's trans. of ibn khallik[=a]n's _biographical dictionary_ (paris and london, 1842), vol. iii. pp. 130 ff., and ibn 'usaibi'a's biography translated in p. de gayangos' edition of the _history of the mohammedan dynasties in spain_, by al-maqqari (london, 1840), vol. ii., appendix, p. xii. list of extant works in c. brockelmann's _geschichte der arabischen litteratur_, vol. i. p. 460. for his philosophy cf. t. j. de boer's _the history of philosophy in isl[=a]m_ (london, 1903), ch. vi. (g. w. t.)