MOSQUES.-DAMASCENE FEVER.

389

by torchlight, as mentioned in the Arabian Nights. "He then put a torch in his hands, and said, 'Go and mix with the crowd at the door of the bath.' The doorkeepers, to prevent disorder, kept back all the slaves that carried torches.”

&c., &c., &c.

Many of the mosques of Damascus were built. by the caliphs as mausoleums; they possess courts, porticos, and fountains, and some are overshadowed by a few green trees, among which sacred doves may be heard cooing.

The rides in the middle of the day, now that the weather is cool, are delightful; the autumnal tint is very beautiful, and the leaves are fast falling; but there are so many evergreens in these gardens, the pomegranate, the orange, the lemon, the cypress, &c., that even in the winter, they possess a lively and refreshing green. The great bane of these delicious environs, is the insalubrity of the climate. In the summer and autumn, the intermittent Damascene fever is a terrible disease; when it has once made its attack it pays annual visits, reducing the patient to a skeleton.

The greatest benefit has lately been derived from the introduction of quinine. Mrs. Farren

has been making the most praiseworthy exertions to establish an European physician, and introduce that medicine generally among the inhabitants, for which purpose she has formed a dispensary, and has obtained several contributions for its support.

This fever, and the ophthalmia, are entirely owing to the extensive irrigation and consequent exhalation from the ground; wherever there is water, it is unhealthy in Syria, and where there is no water, generally there are no inhabitants.

The population of Damascus is very difficult to be estimated, as no census is ever taken; from a rough calculation, it has been estimated from 150 to 200,000 inhabitants. Judging from its extent, and the number of houses I should say, at the very lowest computation there must be more than 200,000 inhabitants, but it is perfectly impossible to arrive at any correct estimate in the absence of all registers of births, deaths, and marriages.

A day's journey from Damascus, in a northeasterly direction, are a number of curious grottoes excavated in the rocks, at a place called Malool, said to be inhabited by a few Syrian Christians, who live as hermits; some of them are of very large size, and are said to be of very

GROTTOES IN THE MOUNTAINS.

391

great antiquity; the country around is solitary and desert. Strabo speaks of immense caves excavated in the mountains in the vicinity of Damascus*.

• Ἐν οἷς καὶ σπήλαια ἣν βαθύσομενα, ὧν ἐν καὶ τετραχιλίους αν θρώπους δέξασθαι, δυνάμεθον, &c., &c.-Lib. xvi. p. 1097.

P.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE HISTORY OF DAMASCUS.-ITS ANTIQUITY. ITS RevoLUTIONS. INVASIONS OF SYRIA BY THE SARACENS. - FALL OF BOSRA.-SIEGE OF DAMASCUS.-THE PROWESS OF CALED. -THE SIEGE RAISED.-THE SALLY OF PETER AND PAUL.THE HEROISM OF THE SARACEN WOMEN. THE BATTLE OF AIZNADIN.-DAMASCUS REINVESTED.-THOMAS OF DAMASCUS. THE SARACEN WIDOW.THE SURRENDER TO ABU OBEIDAH.-THE ASSAULT BY CALED.-THE DISPUTE.-THE DAMASCENE FUGITIVES. JONAS AND EUDOCIA. THE

CRUELTY OF THE SARACENS.

DAMASCUS is one of the most venerable cities in

the world for its antiquity. It is supposed to have been founded by Uz, the son of Shem, the third son of Noah, and is known to have existed in the time of Abraham. For the space of three centuries, it was the abode of the Syrian kings, and has experienced in every period of its history numberless vicissitudes. It was coeval with

THE HISTORY OF DAMASCUS.

393

Nineveh, Sodom, and Gomorrah, and was, say the orientals, the birth-place of Dimschak Eliezer, the steward of Abraham's house.

Hecateus, an antient historian of Damascus, states, that "Abram reigned there, being a foreigner who came into the land of Canaan during his prosperity, when his people had become a multitude."*

Its sovereign Hadad, whom Josephus calls the first of its kings, was defeated by David, king of Israel, who made an expedition against Damascus, brought it into subjection, placed garrisons in it, and appointed that they should pay tribute, and he dedicated to God at Jerusalem, the golden quivers, and the armour which the guards of Hadad used to wear.

"When the Syrians of Damascus came to succour Hadadezer, David slew of them two-and-twenty thousand men. Then David put garrisons in Damascus of Syria, and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts."†

In the reign of Ahaz it was taken by Tiglath Pilezer, who slew the king, Rezin, transported the inhabitants into Upper Media, and placed

*Josephus, lib. i. ch. 7.

† 2 Sam. viii. 5, 6.