AL'LA BREVE. In old music, the breve, as the longest note, was equivalent to our semi-breve, the longest note commonly used in modern music. Consequently, the minims anciently used were equivalent to our crotchets. Music written with four minims in a bar is signed alla breve, which implies that the four minims must be sung as four crotchets. The difference between the two styles of writing is merely formal. Other signs for A. B. time are—}, 2, or E, or ally eapella.
ALIAli (compounded of the article al and ilith—Le., " the worthy to be adored") is the Arabic name of the one God, to whose worship Mohammed pledged his followers ; and the word has passed into all languages wherever the name of Islani has been heard. The notions of the character of this God given by Mohammed in the Koran bear mani fest traces of Jewish and Christian influence, and arc much superior to the national superstitions and impassioned fancies of the orieutals in general. Above all other things, Mohammed inculcated the unity of God in the strictest sense, in, opposition not only to idolatry, but also in some points to the belief of the Jews and Christians, as is seen in the following formula or creed : "There is no God but the God (Allah). This only
true, great, and highest God has his existence of himself, is eternal, not begotten, and begets not, suffices for himself, fills the universe with his infinity, is the center in whom a111 things unite, manifest and concealed, Lord of the corporeal and spiritual worlds, creator and ruler, almighty, all-wise, all-good, merciful, and his decrees are irrevocable." Mohammed has ventured on very bold illustrations of these attributes for popular repre sentation, as in the passage of the Koran where he says : "If all the trees on earth were pens, and if there were seven oceans full of ink, they would not suffice to describe the wonders of the Almighty." The different attributes of God, divided under his 99 names, and connected together in a certain order in a litany, form the rosary of the Mohammedans, which concludes with the name A., as the hundredth, including in itself all the former epithets.