BA`SHAN, a fertile and pastoral district in NE.  Palestine of considerable extent, and at one time densely peopled; the men of it were remarkable for their stature.

BASHAHR, a native hill state in the Punjab, traversed by the Sutlej; tributary to the British Government.

BASHI-BAZOUKS`, irregular, undisciplined troops in the pay of the Sultan; rendered themselves odious by their brutality in the Bulgarian atrocities of 1876, as well as, more or less, in the time of the Crimean war.

BASHKIRS, originally a Finnish nomad race (and still so to some extent) of E. Russia, professing Mohammedanism; they number some 500,000.

BASHKIRTSEFF, MARIE, a precocious Russian young lady of good family, but of delicate constitution, who travelled a good deal with her mother, noted her impressions, and left a journal of her life, which created, when published after her death, an immense sensation from the confessions it contains (1860-1884).

BASIL, ST., THE GREAT, bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, his birthplace; studied at Athens; had Julian the Apostate for a fellow-student; the lifelong friend of Gregory Nazianzen; founded a monastic body, whose rules are followed by different monastic communities; a conspicuous opponent of the Arian heresy, and defender of the Nicene Creed; tried in vain to unite the Churches of the East and West; is represented in Christian art in Greek pontificals, bareheaded, and with an emaciated appearance (326-380).  There were several Basils of eminence in the history of the Church:  Basil, bishop of Ancyra, who flourished in the 4th century; Basil, the mystic, and Basil, the friend of St. Ambrose.

BASIL I., the Macedonian, emperor of the East; though he had raised himself to the throne by a succession of crimes, governed wisely; compiled, along with his son Leo, surnamed the Philosopher, a code of laws that were in force till the fall of the empire; fought successfully against the Saracens; d. 886.

BASILICA, the code of laws, in 60 books, compiled by Basil I., and Leo, his son and successor, first published in 887, and named after the former.

BASILICA, a spacious hall, twice as long as broad, for public business and the administration of justice, originally open to the sky, but eventually covered in, and with the judge’s bench at the end opposite the entrance, in a circular apse added to it.  They were first erected by the Romans, 180 B.C.; afterwards, on the adoption of Christianity, they were converted into churches, the altar being in the apse.

BASILICON DORON (i. e.  Royal Gift), a work written by James I. in 1599, before the union of the crowns, for the instruction of his son, Prince Henry, containing a defence of the royal prerogative.