Early Travels in Palestine Part 12

[204] It is hardly necessary to state that this was the celebrated sultan of Damascus, Aleppo, and Egypt, so well known in the history of the crusades. He reigned from 1145 to 1173.

[205] 2 Kings, v. 12. The ancient Greek name of the river was Chrysorrhoas; in modern Arabic it is called the Barady.

[206] 2 Kings v. 12. It is now called El Faige.

[207] Jerem. xlix. 27; Amos, i. 4.

[208] The earthquake alluded to visited this part of Syria in 1157, at which period Hamah, Antiochia, Emessa, Apamea, Laodicea, and many other cities, were laid in ruins. R. Benjamin calls the river Orontes Jabbok; the Arabians call it Oroad, or Asi. Rieha, or Reiha, is a name still borne by a place and mountain in this part of the road from Damascus to Aleppo. Burckhardt mentions ruins of numerous towns still visible on the mountain, among which we must look for Lamdin, mentioned in our text, but by no other traveller or geographer. The road between Damascus and Aleppo, pursued even by all modern travellers, goes by Homs and Tadmor.

Burckhardt was the first to deviate from this route.

[209] Numb. xxii. 5. Deut. xxiii. 4. It is the Barbarissus of the Romans. Bales was taken by the crusaders under Tancred in 1111.

[210] The Dauses, or Davana, of the Greeks. In the history of the crusades, Kalat (or fort) Jiaber is often mentioned; and the circ.u.mstances alluded to by our author are told at length by Desguignes.

In Abulfeda's time this place was a deserted ruin; but the castle, built on a mound of marl and gypsum, still stands, thirty-five miles below Bir, on the left bank of the Euphrates.

[211] The Callinicus of the Greeks, afterwards called Nicephorium.

[212] The Carrhae of the ancients. The site of the house of Abraham is still pointed out as an object of veneration. Mr. Asher observes that, from Aleppo to Racca, our author, like most modern and ancient travellers, followed the course of the Euphrates; but being probably attracted, like Marco Polo, by the considerable trade then carried on at Mosul, he proceeded thither from Racca, by way of Haran, Nisibis, and Jezireh, a route pointed out as probably used by Alexander on Rennel's map of the retreat of the Ten Thousand.

[213] It appears that the name of a city is omitted here. Our author probably wrote "from thence to Ras-el-Ain," at which place the Khabur becomes a formidable river.

[214] This is of course not the true Ararat. It is called Jebel Judi.

The island is the ancient Bezebde.

[215] See p. 68, note.

[216] The ancient Erbela.

[217] The ancient Cercusium.

[218] All these were celebrated Jewish rabbis in the earlier centuries of the Christian era.

[219] The khalif alluded to by Benjamin was either Moktafi, who died in 1160, or Mostanjeh-abul-Modhaffer, who reigned from his death to 1170.

It is probable that Benjamin was at Bagdad in 1164.

[220] Dar-al-Morabittan in Arabic; literally, abode of those who require being chained, _i. e._ of the raving mad.

[221] The ceremony of consecration, performed by the prince of captivity, consisted in his laying his hands on the heads of the candidates.

[222] The place where the rolls of the Pentateuch are deposited. It is generally elevated above the seats of the congregation.

[223] Gen. x. 12. Ras-al-Ain is the Ressaina of the Romans; it is erroneously identified with Resen.

[224] The name is omitted in all editions.

[225] This tradition of the burning furnace is mentioned by the Arabian geographers, by whom we are further informed that the ashes still remained.

[226] These are also some of the early rabbis concerning whom the Jews possess many legends; the places of burial of others are mentioned further on.

[227] Benjamin here alludes to the Birs Nimrud, which is, however, more than four miles from Hillah. _Al-ajurr_ is the Persian word for these bricks.

[228] Perhaps the Nachaba of Ptolemy. It is not found in modern maps.

[229] This celebrated sepulchre is still a place of pilgrimage to the Jews and Mohammedans in the east.

[230] 2 Kings, xxv. 27. Jerem. lii. 31.

[231] Celebrated on the first and tenth of Thishri (about the end of September or the beginning of October).

[232] 2 Kings, xxiv. 17.

[233] The sites of Ain j.a.phata, and the other places mentioned here, have not yet been traced by modern travellers. Colonel Shiel ('Journal of the Geog. Soc.,' vol. viii. p. 93) found a tomb near Elkoth, east of the Tigris, at the foot of the mountains which border Kurdistan, which the natives described as that of Nahum.

[234] Fasting being prohibited on these days by the Talmud. This proves Niebuhr's supposition, that they were Talmudists, to be correct.

[235] The name of a city appears to be omitted here.

[236] Waset is the ancient Cybate. The Hebrew text reads Naset, which Mr. Asher has rightly corrected.

[237] The name of a city is omitted here; no doubt Kornah, on the Samarra, or ancient Delos. The sepulchre of Ezra is described by various modern travellers; it is still an object of pilgrimage to the Jews of the east.

[238] The exact site of Shushan (Susa) is a subject of some doubt among modern geographers. The old Arabian writers give a variety of legends relating to Daniel's tomb.

[239] Sanjar was a very celebrated and powerful prince. He conquered Samarkand in 1140, and died in 1157, shortly before Benjamin visited the east.

[240] Benjamin's account of the a.s.sa.s.sins, and their residence at Mulehet, coincides very closely with that given by Marco Polo. It has been supposed that the sect of the a.s.sa.s.sins originated in this district of Persia.

[241] That is, probably, in A.D. 1155; for 1165 appears to be about the year in which Benjamin of Tudela visited Persia. The history of David El-Roy, and the scene of his imposture, have been ill.u.s.trated by Major Rawlinson in a memoir communicated to the Geographical Society of London, and printed in its Transactions.

[242] Shem Hamphorash, literally, the explained name, the letters of the word Jehovah in their full explanation, a mystery known but to very few, and by which it is believed wonders may be executed. The wonders performed by Jesus are ascribed in the Talmud to his knowledge of this mystery.

[243] Hamadan, which is now in a state of ruin, is said to stand on or near the site of the ancient Ecbatana. The sepulchre of Mordecai and Esther is still shown there.

[244] This town is conjectured to be Farahabad.

[245] The city of Khiva.

[246] 2 Kings, xvii. 6, and xviii. 11. And the king of a.s.syria did carry away Israel unto a.s.syria, and put them in Halah and in Habor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

[247] Of the tribe of Levi, the descendants of which are divided into Leviim and Khohanim, and are the only Jews who to this day claim the descent from a certain tribe, all others having mixed and become extinct in the course of time.

[248] These were the Ghuzes, a Turkish tribe who emigrated in the twelfth century from the country to the north of the Oxus. The events mentioned in the text seem to have occurred in 1153, when the Ghuzes revolted against the Persians, defeated the sultan, and plundered Mero and Nishabour. The sultan was made a prisoner, and only escaped and returned to his own country in 1156.

[249] A sort of pea. See Lee's Ibn-Batuta, p. 106.

[250] In April.

[251] In October.