south of the Dead Sea, formerly belonging to Arabia Petræa, and extended also across the 'Arabah to the west, so as to take in Beersheba and Elusa. This appears to have been at the same time an ecclesiastical division; the three Palestines had each a metropolitan see, at first Cæsarea, Scythopolis, and Petra; and when, at the council of Chalcedon, Jerusalem was erected into a patriarchate, these three provinces were assigned as its territory. Long before this time, therefore, the Christian religion had extended itself throughout the region; and it is indeed to the acts and records of councils in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, and to the ecclesiastical Notitia of the same or a later age, that we are indebted for our chief knowledge of this country during those periods, and for the preservation of the names of many episcopal cities from the oblivion, in which they must otherwise have been engulfed.

2

How far Christianity had spread among the nomadic tribes of the eastern deserts, or whether like those around Sinai, they still retained the worship of the heavenly bodies, we have no means of ascertaining. But before the middle of the seventh century, the religion of the false prophet began to be propagated by the sword; and soon united all the Arab hordes, however distinct in other respects, into one great community of religious zealots. In A. D. 630 the prophet himself pressed forwards. against the Roman border as far as to Tebûk; and this was the signal for several of the Christian communities of Arabia Petræa, to purchase from the conqueror the enjoyment of their privileges by the payment of tribute. Among these was Ailah.3 This example appears to have been generally followed; for four years later (A. D. 634), as the tide of conquest continued to roll on, the see of Bozrah in the north made peace in the same manner with Abu Bekr, after the battle of Yarmûk. In A. D. 636, as we have seen, Jerusalem itself submitted to the Muhammedan sway.

1 This division is first found in a law promulgated in A. D. 409. Leg. III. Cod. Theodos. de erog. milit. Annon. "Limitanei milites et possessorum utilitate conspecta per primam, secundam, et tertiam Palæstinam hujuscemodi norma processit." Reland Palæst. p. 205 sq.-Palæstina Tertia was sometimes also called Salutaris; Reland ib. p. 206.

2 See above, Vol. I. p. 380. This division of Palestine runs through all the ecclesiastical Notitiæ; Reland Pal. pp. 214226. The name Arabia was applied, at this period, to the country north of the third Palestine, including Medaba, Heshbon, Rabbath-Ammon or Philadelphia, Gerasa, Bostra, etc. Reland ib. pp. 217,

4

219, 223, 226. Yet the usage was not constant; and some writers speak of the cities of the third Palestine as still belonging to Arabia; so Sozomen Hist. Ecc. 7. 15. Reland ib. p. 613.

Abulfed. Ann. Muselmit. ed. Alder, 1789. Tom. I. p. 171. See above, Vol. I. p. 170. Abulfeda mentions Ailah and two other places now unknown. There exists a pretended Diploma Securitatis Ailensibus, professing to be a patent of Muhammed himself in favour of the Christians; see Gibbon Chap. L. Note under A. D. 630.

4 Abulfedæ Annal. ib. pp. 223, 243, 245. Ritter Gesch. des. Petr. Arab. 1. c. p. 219.

With this conquest, the commercial importance and prosperity of the former Arabia Petræa, fell into decay. Muhammedan empires arose and flourished in southern Arabia, Syria and Egypt. Lying between all these, this country retained no independent existence; the course of trade became diverted into other channels; the great roads of former communication were abandoned; and the whole region was at length given up to the nomadic hordes of the adjacent deserts, whose descendants still hold it in possession. From the Muhammedan conquest to the time of the crusades, not one ray of historical light falls upon this forgotten land!2

1

The invasion of the crusaders let in, for the moment, a few faint gleams upon the otherwise total darkness. During the twelfth century they penetrated at different times into the regions east and south of the Dead Sea, and held portions of them for a season in possession. At this time the whole land east of the Jordan was known to the crusaders as Arabia; the northern part around Bozrah they called Arabia Prima; the region around Kerak, Arabia Secunda; and that further south, Arabia Tertia or Syria Sobal.3

4

The first expedition took place under Baldwin I, in A. D. 1100. Marching from Hebron around the south end of the Dead Sea and by Segor (Zoar), the forces of the crusaders came in five days through the mountains with great difficulty to Wady Musa, to which they already gave the name "Vallis Moysi.' It does not argue highly for their skill in biblical geography, that they took the adjacent mountain with the tomb of Aaron for Mount Sinai; and the brook which flows down the valley, for the water which came forth when Moses smote the rock.6 From this valley, Albert of Aix relates, that they marched still one day further to a city called Susum; but as neither Fulcher of Chartres who was present, nor any other historian, mentions this further expedition, and the name of such Guibert 7. 36. p. 555. Anon. p. 518. Will, Tyr. 10. 8. Wilken ib. II. p. 88, 89.

1

1 Ritter Gesch. des Petr. Arab. 1. c. p. 209. 2 Unless it be in the two Latin ecclesiastical Notitiæ, which refer apparently to the centuries before the crusades, and in which the name of Petra, the former metropolitan see, is no longer found; Reland Pal. pp. 223, 226.

3 See Jac. de Vitr. c. 96. Also for Arabia Prima, ibid. c. 47; for Arabia Secunda, Will. Tyr. 11. 26. ib. 15. 21; for Arabia Tertia and Syria Sobal, Will. Tyr. 11. 26. ib. 16. 6. Jac. de Vitr. 28. See generally Marin. Sanut. p. 244. Wilken Gesch. der Kreuzz. II. p. 616. III. i. p.

210.

* See generally in the Gesta Dei: Alb. Aq. 7. 41, 42. Fulcher Carn. 23. p. 405.

5 Gesta Dei p. 581. Will. Tyr. 16. 6. 6 Guibert and Fulcher 1. c. Guibert however gives his own opinion, that the mountain is Mount Hor. Fulcher prides himself that at this brook" equos adaquavi meos." The same error however goes back to the time of Eusebius and Jerome; see Onomast. art. Or. Being once adopted by the crusaders, it led them afterwards to take Ailah for Elim with the twelve fountains and seventy palm trees (Will. Tyr. 11. 29); and also compelled them to look for and find the ancient Petra further towards the north, at Kerak.

a city is elsewhere unknown, the testimony of this writer, who was not an eyewitness, seems to be of doubtful authority. Fulcher relates, that after three days spent at Wady Musa, they returned by way of Hebron to Jerusalem.

In the second expedition, which took place under the same king in A. D. 1115, Baldwin appears to have crossed the Jordan and marched through the whole length of Arabia Secunda. He was accompanied only by two hundred knights and four hundred footmen; and with this small force he built up in Arabia Tertia, in eighteen days, a former strong castle upon a steep isolated hill, in the midst of a region fertile in corn, oil, and wine. To this fortress, the first erected by the Latins east of the Jordan, he gave the name of Mons Regalis (Mount Royal). Arabian writers speak of it as Shôbek, which name it bears to the present day.'-In the very next year, A. D. 1116, king Baldwin revisited his fortress with two hundred followers; and advanced afterwards as far as to Ailah on the Red Sea; of which place he appears to have taken possession. He would have proceeded to the convent of Mount Sinai; but was dissuaded at the entreaty of the monks.2

For the space of twenty years, Shôbek continued to be the chief, if not the only fortress of the Latins in this quarter. The lands east of the Dead Sea, around Kerak, had been granted as a fief to the knight Romanus of Puy; who was however again dispossessed of them, as well as his son Rudolph, in consequence of a supposed conspiracy against king Fulco, about A. D. 1132.3 They were now bestowed upon Paganus (Payen), a nobleman who had been the king's cupbearer. Three or four years afterwards, he erected the strong fortress of Kerak, on the site of a former city which was held to be the ancient Petra. This castle and that of Shôbek continued for many years greatly to harass the Saracens ; their possessors plundered the rich caravans which passed on the neighbouring route between Damascus and Egypt or Arabia; and were able to cut off all military communication through the region. They were therefore exposed to repeated assaults from the Saracen armies, both on the side of Syria and that of Egypt.5

1 Alb. Aq. 12. 21. Fulch. Carn. 42. p. 426. Gesta Dei p. 611. Will. Tyr. 11. 26. Jac. de Vitr. 28. Wilken ib. II. p. 402. See too Bohaeddin Vit. Salad. pp. 38, 54. Abulfed. Annal. Musl. ad A. H. 567. Abulf. Tab. Syr. ed. Köhler p. 88. Schulten's Index in Vit. Salad. art. Sjaubachum.

2 Alb. Aq. 12. 21. Fulch. Carn. 43. p. 426. Gesta Dei p. 611. Will. Tyr. 11. 29. Wilken ib. p. 403. See also above, Vol. I. pp. 127, 171.-Albert of

4

About A. D. 1144, in the first year of his reign, king Baldwin III, being yet a minor, made an expedition by way of Hebron to Wady Mûsa, in order to recover a certain castle bearing the name of “Vallis Moysi," which had been seized by the Saracens with the aid of the inhabitants of the region. On the approach of the king, the latter betook themselves into the castle, which was in a strong position. The Franks assailed it with stones and arrows for several days without success. They then began to destroy the numerous olive trees, which constituted the chief produce of the region; to save which the inhabitants immediately surrendered the fortress. I know not what castle this can have been, unless perhaps the one we saw upon the ledge of rocks northeast of Wady Musa.1

1

In A. D. 1182, Rainald of Chatillon, then lord of Kerak, made his unsuccessful expedition against Ailah; and in both the following years, (1183, 1184,) sustained the terrific assaults of Saladin against Kerak itself. Yet that Sultan, the year after his recapture of Jerusalem, became also master (in 1188) both of Kerak and of Shôbek, each after a long siege. Thus terminated the dominion of the Franks over this territory. The fortress of Kerak continued to be a stronghold of the Saracens ; and fifty years later its Emîr David was able to seize for a time upon Jerusalem.*

From that time onward until the present century, thick darkness again rests upon the land of Edom. Volney seems first to have had his attention drawn towards it, by the reports of the Arabs around Gaza, that on the southeast of the Dead Sea, within a space of three days' journey, there were upwards of thirty ruined towns absolutely deserted; in some of which were large edifices with columns.5 In A. D. 1806, Seetzen penetrated from Damascus as far as to Kerak, and thence travelled around the south end of the Dead Sea to Jerusalem; but he did notenter Edom. In March 1807 the same traveller went from Hebron on the road to Wady Mûsa as far as to the hill Madurah not far north of el-Weibeh; and while here, an Arab from eshSherah described to him Wady Mûsa and its remains, and gave

6

1 Will. Tyr. 16. 6. Wilken ib. III. i. 208. See above, p. 128.

2 See above, Vol. I. pp. 161, 171.Will. Tyr. 22. 28-30. Bohaedd. pp. 58, 59. Abulf. Ann. Musl. ad A. H. 580. Wilken ib. III. ii. pp. 236, 246.

6 Zach's Monatl. Corr. XVIII. p. 433 sq. Seetzen heard at Kerak the name Bedra as of a place a day's journey further south; ib. p. 434. But he admits, that this was told him only in reply to a direct inquiry on his part after Petra; and in the absence of all further testimony, no weight can be laid Wil- weight can be laid upon this information. See the remarks on employing leading questions in obtaining information from

Gauf. Vinisauf 1. 15. Bohaedd. pp. 88, 90. Abulf. Annal. ad A. H. 584. Wilken ibid. IV. pp. 244, 245, 247.

4 See above, Vol. I. p. 317.

5 Volney Voyage en Syr. c. 31. Tom. the Arabs, Vol. I. p. 112.

II. p. 317. Par. 1787.

1

him an extensive list of the various towns and ruins in that region. But it was reserved for Burckhardt, first to traverse the country in 1812 from Kerak to the southern Wady Ghüründel, and to explore the wonders of Wady Mûsa. He was followed in the same direction in 1818, by Messrs Bankes, Legh, Irby and Mangles. Ten years later, Laborde and Linant first penetrated in 1828 from 'Akabah to Wady Mûsa; returning by a more easterly route through the mountains.

A few words respecting the ancient towns whose sites have been found in this region, may not be out of place here, preparatory to a more particular notice of the metropolis Petra.

Of Macharus, a fortress of Herod, and the possible identification of it by Seetzen with Mkauer, a ruin on the south side of Zerka Ma'in, I have already spoken.

3

2

South of Wady el-Môjib, and six or eight miles north of Kerak, are the now unimportant ruins called Rabba, about half an hour in circuit, exhibiting the remains of a temple and several Corinthian columns. This unquestionably was the site of the Rabbath Moab of the early centuries, the Areopolis of the Greeks, an episcopal see of the Third Palestine; which after the destruction of Petra became the metropolitan city of that region. In still earlier times it was the Ar of Moab, mentioned in the Old Testament.*

In Kerak itself we have the ancient Kir Moab of the Old Testament; which already in the Chaldee version and the Greek of the Apocrypha, appears in the form Kerakka Moab and Characa.5 Under this latter name, more or less corrupted, it is mentioned by Ptolemy and other writers both ecclesiastical and profane, down to the centuries before the crusades. The crusaders found the name extant, and erected the fortress still known as Kerak. But their knowledge of ancient geography was here also at fault; and as in the west they found the site of Beer

'Zach's Monatl. Corr. XVII. pp. 133

139.

2 See above, Vol. I. p. 570. n. 2.

6

character, see the ecclesiastical Notitiæ, Reland pp. 215, 217, compared with pp. 223, 226. Le Quien Oriens Christ. III. p. 734.

5

3 Seetzen ibid. XVIII. p. 433. Burckhardt p. 377. Irby and Mangles p. 456 sq. Isa. 15, 1. Heb. i ; Chald. [141.] According to Burckhardt, the dis-27; both signifying wall or fortress.-2 Macc. 12, 17, Xápaka.

tance from Kerak is three hours or more.

Irby and Mangles give it at about two hours.

4 Is. 15, 1. Num. 21, 28. Hieron. Comm. in Jes. xv. 1, "Hujus metropolis civitas Ar, quæ hodie ex Hebræo et Græco sermone composita Areopolis nuncupatur," etc. Onomast. art. Moab: "Porro ipsa civitas (Areopolis), quasi proprium vocabulum possidet Rabbath Moab, id est, grandis Moab." So too Steph. Byzant. See Reland Palæst. pp. 577, 957. Gesenius Comm. zu Jesa. xv. 1.-For its episcopal

6 Ptol. 4. 17. Reland Pal. pp. 463, 705. Gesenius Comm. zu Jes. xv. 1.-For the

ecclesiastical Notitiæ, see Reland pp. 215, 217. Of the two later Latin Notitiæ, one has Karach and the other Kara; ib. pp. 223, 226. Burckhardt mistook this last, Kara, for a different name and a distinct place; which he then finds in el-Kerr, a site with ruins south of Wady el-Ahsy; Travels p. 401.