Askabad
the administrative center of the Russian province of Transcaspia, ASPARAGUS Turkestan, on the Trans-Caspian railway, situated in the Akhal Tekke oasis, and occupied by Skobeleff in January, 1881, after the sack of Geok Tepé. Its distance from Merv is 232 miles, from Herat 388 miles. It is of considerable commercial importance. Pop. about 50,000.
ASKJA (ask'ya), a volcano near the center of Iceland, first brought into notice by an eruption in 1875. Its crater is 17 miles in circumference, surrounded by a mountain-ring fron feet high, the height of the mountain by a mountain-ring from 500 to 1,000 of itself being between 4,000 and 5,000 feet.
ASMONEANS (az-mōn-ē'ans), a family of high priests and princes who ruled over the Jews for about 180 years, from 153 B. c., when Jonathan, son of Mattathias, the g great-grandson of Chasmon or Asmonæus, was nominated to the high priesthood. They were also known as the Maccabees.