ALMANSOR ("the invincible"), a title assumed by several Mussulman princes, as by the second caliph of the Abbasside dynasty, named Abou Giafar Abdallah (the invincible, or al mansor).  Also by the famous captain of the Moors in Spain, named Mohammed.  In Africa, Yacoubal-Modjahed was entitled “al mansor,” a royal name of dignity given to the kings of Fez, Morocco, and Algiers.

  The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez, and Sus,
  Marocco and Algiers. 
  Milton, Paradise Lost, xi. 403 (1665).

ALMANZOR, the caliph, wishing to found a city in a certain spot, was told by a hermit named Bag dad that a man called Moclas was destined to be its founder.  “I am that man,” said the caliph, and he then told the hermit how in his boyhood he once stole a bracelet and pawned it, whereupon his nurse ever after called him “Moclas” (thief).  Almanzor founded the city, and called it Bag dad, the name of the hermit.—­Marigny.

Alman’zor, in Dryden’s tragedy of The Conquest of Grana’da.

Alman’zor, lackey of Madelon and her cousin Cathos, the affected fine ladies in Moliere’s comedy of Les Precieuses Ridicules (1659).

ALMAVI’VA, (Count), in The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville by Beaumarchais. The Follies of a Day by T. Holcroft (1745-1809) is borrowed from Beaumarchais.

ALME’RIA, daughter of Manuel king of Grana’da.  While captive of Valentia, prince Alphonso fell in love with her, and being compelled to fight, married her; but on the very day of espousal the ship in which they were sailing was wrecked, and each thought the other had perished.  Both, however, were saved, and met unexpectedly on the coast of Granada, to which Alphonso was brought as a captive.  Here Alphonso, under the assumed name of Osmyn, was imprisoned, but made his escape, and at the head of an army invaded Granada, found Manuel dead, and “the mournful bride” became converted into the joyful wife.—­W.  Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697).

ALMES’BURY (3 syl.).  It was in a sanctuary of Almesbury that queen Guenever took refuge, after her adulterous passion for sir Lancelot was made known to the king.  Here she died, but her body was buried at Glastonbury.

ALMEY’DA, the Portuguese governor of India.  In his engagement with the united fleets of Cambaya and Egypt, he had his legs and thighs shattered by chain-shot, but instead of retreating to the back, he had himself bound to the shipmast, where he “waved his sword to cheer on the combatants,” till he died from loss of blood.

Similar stories are told of admiral Benbow, Cynaegeros brother of the poet AEschylos, Jaafer who carried the sacred banner of “the prophet” in the battle of Muta, and of some others.

  Whirled by the cannons’ rage, in shivers torn,
  His thighs far scattered o’er the waves are borne;
  Bound to the mast the godlike hero stands,
  Waves his proud sword and cheers his woeful hands: 
  Tho’ winds and seas their wonted aid deny,
  To yield he knows not; but he knows to die. 
  Camoens, Lusiad, x. (1569).