HAJIPUR

hajipur, a town of british india, in the muzaffarpur district of bengal, on the gandak, just above its confluence with the ganges opposite patna. pop. (1901), 21,398. hajipur figures conspicuously in the history of the struggles between akbar and his rebellious afghan governors of bengal, being twice besieged and captured by the imperial troops, in 1572 and 1574. within the limits of the old fort is a small stone mosque, very plain, but of peculiar architecture, and attributed to haji ilyas, its traditional founder (c. 1350). its command of water traffic in three directions makes the town a place of considerable commercial importance. hajipur has a station on the main line of the bengal and north-western railway. hajj or hadj, the arabic word, meaning literally a "setting out," for the greater pilgrimage of mahommedans to mecca, which takes place from the 8th to the 10th of the twelfth month of the mahommedan year; the lesser pilgrimage, called _umrah_ or _omra_, may be made to the mosque at mecca at any time other than that of the hajj proper, and is also a meritorious act. the term _hajji_ or _hadji_ is given to those who have performed the greater pilgrimage. the word _hajj_ is sometimes loosely used of any mahommedan pilgrimage to a sacred place or shrine, and is also applied to the pilgrimages of christians of the east to the holy sepulchre at jerusalem (see mecca; mahommedan religion). hajji khalifa [in full mustafa ibn 'abdallah katib chelebi hajji khalifa] (ca. 1599-1658), arabic and turkish author, was born at constantinople. he became secretary to the commissariat department of the turkish army in anatolia, was with the army in bagdad in 1625, was present at the siege of erzerum, and returned to constantinople in 1628. in the following year he was again in bagdad and hamadan, and in 1633 at aleppo, whence he made the pilgrimage to mecca (hence his title hajji). the following year he was in erivan and then returned to constantinople. here he obtained a post in the head office of the commissariat department, which afforded him time for study. he seems to have attended the lectures of great teachers up to the time of his death, and made a practice of visiting bookshops and noting the titles and contents of all books he found there. his largest work is the _bibliographical encyclopaedia_ written in arabic. in this work, after five chapters dealing with the sciences generally, the titles of arabian, persian and turkish books written up to his own time are arranged in alphabetical order. with the titles are given, where possible, short notes on the author, his date, and sometimes the introductory words of his work. it was edited by g. flugel with latin translation and a useful appendix (7 vols. leipzig, 1835-1858). the text alone of this edition has been reproduced at constantinople (1893). hajji khalifa also wrote in turkish: a chronological conspectus of general history (translated into italian by g. r. carli, venice, 1697); a history of the turkish empire from 1594 to 1655 (constantinople, 1870); a history of the naval wars of the turks (constantinople, 1729; chapters 1-4 translated by j. mitchell, london, 1831); a general geography published at constantinople, 1732 (latin trans. by m. norberg, london and gotha, 1818; german trans. of part by j. von hammer, vienna, 1812; french trans. of part by v. de st martin in his _geography of asia minor_, vol. 1). for his life see the preface to flugel's edition; list of his works in c. brockelmann's _gesch. d. arabischen literatur_ (berlin, 1902), vol. ii., pp. 428-429. (g. w. t.)