Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

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JOURNAL OF THE PALESTINE ORIENTAL SOCIETY

VOL. Ill


THE PALESTINE ORIENTAL SOCIETY

JERUSALEM

Patrons:

H. E. Field Marshal the Viscount Allenby G.C.M.G.

H. E. THE Right Honourable Sir Herbert Saotel G.B.E.

Board of Directors

The Rev. Pere Dhorme President

Mr. David Yellin Vice-President

Dr. w. F. Albright Vice-President

The Rev. Dr. Herbert Danby Secretary

Dr. Deo Mayer Treasurer

Sir RonAld STORrs Director
Prof. j. &ARSTANG ' Director

De Rev. pere Gaudens Greali Director

Editor of the Journal

The Rev. Dr. Herbert Dahby

Editorial Advisory Board

Hr. w. F. Albright

Le Rev. Pere Dhorme

Hr. Leo Mayer

Mr. w. j. Phythian-Adams

Mr. Hayid YELLIN


THE JOUMAL

OF THE

PALESTINE
ORIENTAL SOCIETY

VOLUME III
1923

JERUSALEM

PUBLISHED BY THE PALESTINE ORIENTAL SOOIETY

1923



PRINTED BY w. DRUGULIN, LEIPZIG


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Albright, w. F. Eliezer Ben Yehudah (18581922). A tribute . . . . 4

The Ephraim of the Old and New Testaments......................36

The Site of Mizpah in Benjamin ...... . . . 110

Canaan, T. Folklore of the Seasons in Palestine.........................21

- Tasit er-Radjfeh (Fear Cup)............................... 122

Dhorme, Rev. Pere. Presidential Address................................. 1

Eitan, Israel. The Bearing of Ethiopic on Biblical Exegesis and Lexicography 136

Eliash, M. Lawn and Sunrise in Arabic..............................13-2

Haddad, E. N. Methods of Education and Correction among the Fellahin . 41

Hatch, w. H. p. The Cursing of the Fig Tree............................. 6

Jaussen, j. a. Le cheikh Sa'ad ad-din et les djinn, a Naplouse . . . . 145

Mayer, L. A. Arabic Inscriptions of Gaza................................69

Phythian-Adams, w. j. The Mizpah of 1 Samuel 7 5 &c.....................13

- On the Date of the Blessing of Moses. (Deut. XXXIII.) . 158
Baffaeli, Samuel *j*. Jewish Coinage and the Date of the Bar-Kokhbah

Bevolt...........................................................193

Stephan, St. H'. Palestinian Animal Stories and Fables..................167

Tolkowsky, s. Gideons Fleece.............................................197

Vincent, L. H. La date des epigraphes D*Ara<1 el Emir ....... 55

- Clermont-Ganneau et larchCologie palestinienne...................88

Voigt, Edwin E. The Site of Nob............................................79

Yellin, Abinoam. Genizah Fragments in tlie Jewish National Library . . 200

Yellin, David. Ben Yehudah and the Bevival of tlie Hebrew Language. -

94/95................................. .

Emek-ha-Bakha: Bekhaim......................................... 191

Notes and Comment.........................................45

BookBeview................................................203

Beport of the Treasurer of the Palestine Oriental Society.................206

Members of the Palestine Oriental Society..................................207




PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

(delivered at the opening Session, January 18, 1923)

REV. PERE DHORME

(JERUSALEM)

Excellence,! Mesdames et Messieurs,

IA Societe Orientale de Palestine entre dans sa quatrieme annee.

A Vous avez bien voulu mappeler en accepter la Presidence
et je vous en remercie, tout en avouant que cet bonneur me decon-
certe. II nest pas aise de succeder a ceux qui, depuis trois ans,
ont exerce cette cbarge. Les noms du pere Lagrange, de Monsieur
Garstang et de Monsieur Albright disent eloquemment dans quelle
largeur dhorizon se ment notre Societe. Leioge des deux premiers
a ete retrace devant vous. Vous ne trouvere.z pas mauvais que je
parle de mon predecesseur immediat. Monsieur Albright. On peut
dire de lui que, comme Abraham, il a passe dOur des Chaldeens
au pays de Canaan, car cest principalement comme assyriologue que
ses publications lavaient fait connaitre et cest comme directeur de
lEcole darcheologie americaine a Jerusalem quil nous a ete donne
de lapprecier personnellement. Plus heureux quAbraham, 'il ne
sest pas arrete au Negeb, mais son ardeu scientifique la promene
a travers tout le monde semitique et meme au royaume des Pharaons
trop souvent ferme -aux semitisants. Je ne vous enumCrerai pas les
nombreuses publications de Monsieui. Albright dispersees a travers
les Revues americaines, anglaises ou franaises. Dans toutes nous
retrouvons lampleur dune ini'ormation qui ne se resigne pas a se
cantonner 'dans le champ trop etroit de sa specialite, mais deborde
i'atalement das les domaines connexes. Avec beaucoup de jeunesse
dame et de tranquille audace, cet assyriologue, double dun parfait
hebralsant, ne craint pas de franchir les frontieres de Babylone et
1 Son Excellence Sir Herbert Samuel, Haut.Cominissaire.

1


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

2

de la Bible pour donnei. a sa vision de !antique Orient plus deten-
due et plus de lumiCre. Nous sommes certains quun jour il syn-
tbetisera tant dobservations nouvelles et sagaces pour donner une
vivante reconstitution dun passe quil connalt si bien.

Car cest toujours lOrient, Mesdames et Messieurs, qui fait
lobjet de nos recbercbes et de nos travaux sur cette terre de
Palestine. Loi.sque fut fondee notre Societe en 1920, daucuns haus-
serent les epaules. Quelle chimCre de vouloir gi.oupei. les archeologues,
pbilologues, numismates, folkloristes, en de platoniques reunions oU
serait laisse a la porte tout ce qui divise OU sCpare, et oU ne serait
admis que t.out ce qui unit OU rapprocbe! Et cela a Jerusalem, la
cite oU la pacification des esprits fut plus souvent un rCve quune
rCalite: La Societe a pourtant continue de vivre. Elle a meme
essaime. Les travaux de ses adherents, portes a travers les deux
mondes par son journal trimestriel, ont suscite des associes nouveaux
et des collaborations trCs efficace.s. Quil me soit permis, a cette
occasion, de rendre hommage a notre secretaire, M-Onsieur Danby,
dont le zeie infatigable a grandement contribue a lextension de
notre champ daction.

La mort vient de nous enlever un des ouvriers de la premiere
heui.e en la personne de Monsieur Eliezer Ben-Yehudah, qui etait
encore notre vice-president en 1922. Ce quil fut dans lordre de
la science philologique, ceux-ia seuls lignorent pour qui lhebreu est
toujours de lhebreu. II setait fait lesclave de son muvre et le
bourreau de ses journees. Rare exemple du travailleur modeste et
acharme, qui sait fermer ses yeux au monde exterieur poui. concentrer
sa vision sur la recherche interieure de sa pensee. Comme dautres'
etudient la vie depuis la cellule primitive jusqua son appai.ition en
etres complexes et organises, il sattacha a suivre a travers les ages
levolution des mots de la langue sacree. La plume lui tomba des
mains au mot nafal, comme si lexistence de louvrier avait ete
rythmee par le mouvement de louvrage.

Laissez-moi maintenant, Mesdames et Messieurs, 1edi1:e la gran-
deur de la tache qui incombe a notre Societe. Ceux qui dans le
monde ne sont seduits que par les jouissances du corps OU par les
distractions de lesprit ne sauraient apprCcier livresse intellectuelle
qu eprouvent parfois ceux qui se consacrent a la recherche de la
veritc. La decouverte dune parcelle de cet'te vCrite est lobjet de


3

DHOBME: Presidential Address

nos reunions. Or, dans les multiples spheres de lhistoire ancienne
de lOrient, la lumiere se fait chaque jour plus intense. De meme
que les astronomes hraquent leurs telescopes sur les etoiles du ciel
profond, nous devons fixer notre rega.rd sur les rayons qui emanent
des profondeurs de Ihistoire humaine. Devolution des peuples, pour
etre plus capricieuse, nest pas moins captivante que les revolutions
des mondes sideraux. Unissons nos efforts pour decouvrir des pheno-
menes -nouveaux ou mieux comprendre les faits deja connus, pour
coordonner les recherches du present avec les acquisitions du passe.
Ainsi notre reuvre collective sera pour chacun un secours, un recon-
1'ort, un encouragement. Toujours plus de lumiere et plus de verite,
telle devrait etre la devise de notre Societe. Cest du moins le vceu
que je formulerai poui. elle, sUr que vous ne me desavouerez pas.


ELIEZER BEN YEHUDAH (18581922)

A TRIBUTE
w. F. ALBRIGHT

(JERUSALEM)

IN the untimely death of Eliezer Ben Yehudah we have all suf;

fered a grievous loss. His contributions to Hebrew lexicography
and his great feat, the resurrection of the Hebi.ew language, have
been ably stressed by others it is not my purpose to repeat tlie
eulogies which they have lavished on his great achievements, but
rather to describe the man himself, as I had the privilege 01' knowing
him during the past few years.

He possessed, to an eminent degree, the virtues of a gentleman
and a scholar. Of him it may well be said that to know him was
to love him. One would like to linger on many phases of that
delightful personality, but the allotted time forbids more than a
glance. Most of all, perhaps, one remembers those times when a
militant enthusiasm would fill his slender form with an unquenchable
fire, when his eyes would light up, and one would feel humble, as in
the presence of' an Israelite seer of old. Or it would be the glow
of a new discovery, that glow which every true scholar knows so well.
Not content with its preeminent achievement, his creative genius
was never tired of producing new ideas, ingenious and often brilliant.
It was always a pleasure to hear him outline his new finds, for he
had that sheer Joy of creation which never f'ails to thrill and interest
others. How we would open dictionaries and run down ref'erences,
or study passages in the Hebrew Bible on such occasions-and very
f'requent they were, too! It comes as a shock when one realizes
that those delightful conferences are gone for evei..

Another quality, as gentle as rare, which he possessed, was
modesty. He was not one of the many who cannot stand fame.


5

Eliezei Ben Yehudal] (18581922)

Possibly it was in part tbe severe discipline of bis early life wbicb
kept him modest, and yet one cannot .but feel that it was tlie self-
effacement of a man who lives for his work that was responsible
1'or this lovable trait of his character. Like other great men who
have surrendered their life for an ideal, his life gained more than
it lost. Ben Yehudah never exhibited the common failing of the
older scholar, a high-priestly attitude toward others. One never
heard him speak ex cathedra. Nor was he ever distant, or supei.-
cilious toward young scholars. He had the same friendly welcome
for all scholars, both old and young, Gentile and Jew. To him it
was sufficient to belong to the freemasonry of scholarship, to have
trodden its arcana, and to have learned to appreciate its mysteries.

His life is indeed an inspiration to all who are contending for an
ideal, against great odds. He came here more than forty years ago,
without health, means, or friends, bent on the quixotic task of
reviving a tongue which had been dead, so far as ordinary social
intercourse is concerned, nearly twenty-five hundred years. And yet
he succeeded, thanks to his unconquerable faith in his vision of a
new nation, united by the bond 01' a common language. Truly a
monumentum aere perennius! Great, however, as this achievement
is, his own remarkable personality is in some respects quite as great.
It will live long, enshrined in the memories of all who knew him.

(A detailed account of the late Elieger Ben Yehudahs lifeiuork uill
he given in the next number of the Journal by Mr. Daria Yellin.
Together uith the English translation 0. Mr. Yellins article it is
proposed to print also the original Hebrew. Many nenbers of the
Society who are acquainted onbg with ancient Hebrew will perhaps
welcorre this opportunity of studying a specimen of the revived language
written by an acknowledged naster of Modern Hebrew style and- the
Editorial Board feel that the inclusion of this sanple of the revived
language will be in itself an additional tribute to the menory of the
Societys l.ate Vice-President.)


THE CURSING OF THE FIG TREE

w. H. p. HATCH

(JERUSALEM)

JEg cursing of the fig tree on te : between Bethany a
Jerusalem and its subsequent withering,, as they are narrated in
the gospels of Matthew and Mark, have caused grave difficulties to
thoughtful readers. These difficulties are philosophical and moral
as well as critical. Is such a thing possible in a world in which
every event seems to have its appro.priate cause? And could a' mere
word, spoken in momentary disappointment or anger, produce such
an effect? If this question be answered in the affirmative, there still
remains another of a different sort, and the latter question may prove
more difficult to answer than the former. Even if Jesus possessed
the power to cause the. fig tree to wither, why did he use it in this
way? Elsewhere in the gospels his hand is stretched out to restore
and not to injure, and he speaks to bless and not to curse. What
had the fig tree done to merit such a fate? Augustine asks in one
of his sermons: Quid arbor fecerat fructum non afferendo? Quae
culpa arboris infecunditas?"! Is is irrational to curse an inanimate
object, such as a fig tree, and Jesus does not elsewhere exhibit
irrationality. Some have also been troubled about the destruction 0'
property involved in the cursing and withering of the fig tree. Did it
not belong to someone? What right had Jesus to do such a thing?2
1 Cf. Migne, p. L, XXXVIII, 592.

2 Apologetic explanations 01' Jesus act have often been given. It is some-
times called an acted parable and classed with certain symbolic acts reCorded
in the Bible. Cf. Gould, Mark in Internal Crit. Com.) p. 212. Lagrange says:
II faut done conclure . que JCsus faisait 'une action symbolique. Cest le
propre de ces actions davoir quelque chose detrange, qui excite la curiosite,
qui fait aussitot soupqonner un mystere (Evangile selon Saint Marc2, p. 275).
It is also frequently pointed out that the destruction 01. things is justified when


7

HATCH: The Cursing of the Fig Tree

We pass over the philosophical and moral difficulties without
furthei' discussion, in order that we may consider the critical questions
which press for solution. The cursing of the fig tree is narrated hy
Matthew and Mark,! but not by Luke. Mark places it just before
the cleansing of the templeon the morning of that day, as Jesus
was returning from Bethany to Jerusalem with the Twelve. Matthew,
however, puts it after the purification of the templeon the morning
of' the next day, as Jesus was coming back to Jerusalem from Bethany.
In Matthew the incident of the fig tree is followed by the saying
about f'aith and its power. Indeed, according to the First Evangelist,
the fig tree withered immediately (7rapax/0'/xa) after Jesus pronounce-
ment concerning it, and the disciples marvelled. In Mark, however,
the cleansing of the temple intervenes between the cursing of the
fig tree and the saying about the power of' faith. According .to the
Second Evangelist, when Jesus and his companions were passing the
spot the following morning, they perceived that the fig tree had
withered. The- withering must have been gradual, for otherwise tliey
would have noticed it at once, as in Matthew. The author of Matthew
heightens the effect of the miracle by making it occur immediately
after Jesus dictum concerning the fig tree, and he no doubt thought
that he was improving Marks nari.ative by bringing this incident
and the saying about faith together.

The words of Jesus concerning the fig tree are transmitted dif-
ferently by the two evangelists. Mark reports the saying thus, using
the optative of a wish in the negative form: May no one ever eat
fruit of thee. In Matthew on the other hand the aorist subjunctive
with ov ixfZTL is employed in the sense of an emphatic future in-
dicative, and Jesus words are given thus: No fi'uit shall ever in any
wise be produced from thee. The author of Matthew has softened
down Marks imprecation into a solemn prophecy of fact, as Allen
says,2 and changed the verb. Jesus used the Aramaic imperfect, which
could be understood either as a future, as in the Matthaean form
of the saying, or as a jussive 01. optative, as in Marks form.3
the purpose is to benefit persons. Cf. Trench, Notes on the Miracles of our
Lord*) p. 436, and. the older writers tliere quoted.

1 Mk. 1112-14 = Mt. 2118-19.

2 Cf. Allen, Matthew in Intent. Crit. Com., p. 224.

3 The saying may have been originally in tliis form:
.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

s

A still more difficult problem remains to be solved. The incident
of the fig tree is placed by both evangelists just before the final
passover. How could Jesus have expected to find figs on the t1.ee in
April? For, if he did not expect to find fruit, the story has no point.i
Early figs (), which were considered a great delicacy in ancient
times, ripen late in May or early in June, and the commoner kind
in the latter part of August or the fore part of September. Mark,
in an explanatory note, tells his Roman readers, who were not familiar
with Palestinian conditions,2 tliat it was not the season of figs. 3
It has sometimes been thought that Jesus hoped to find a few figs
of the previous season that had clung to the branches during the
winter.4 Josephus relates of the region of &ennesaret that it sup-
plies the most royal products, the grape and the fig, continuously
for ten months". 5 This statement seems to the present writer in-
credible. But in any case we must remember that Josephus is
speaking only of Gennesaret, which was noted for its fertility,6 and
not of Palestine in general. The above mentioned explanation is
perhaps possible, but it is certainly not probable. Dr. .Post, who
spent thirty-three years in Syria, says that he had searched and
inquired in vain for figs that had remained on the tree all winter.

1 Augustine, however, thought otherwise. Cf. Quaest. Evang., II, 51 (hligne,
p. L; XXXV, 1362): Non enim dubium est illam inquisitionem non fuisse
veram: quivis enim hominum sciret, si non divinitate, vel tempore, poma iham
arborem non habre. Fictio igitur quae ad aliquam veritatem refertur, figura
est: quae non refertur, mendacium est.

2 Cf. Zahn, Einleitung in das N. P.2, II., p. 250. It is not necessary to regard
these vords as the comment of an early reader which has made its way into
the text (Cheyne in Enc. Bib., II., col. 1522, following Toup).

3 ov (ohu I) yap (oni syr sin) 7)V ( DWOr) Kaipos crkuv ADNWXrn min it vg
syr. sin licl Or yap noupbs ok 7)U avKOju sBLA boh sah pesh.

4 Cf. 0. Holtzmann, Leben Jesu, P.B24. See also tlie note in Whistons trans-
lation of Josephus, Jewish War, III, 10, 8.

5 Josephus, B. j.. Ill, 519. s. j. Holtzmann refers to this passage and says:
Von dorther (i. e. from the Sea of Galilee) aber brachte Jesus seine Erfahrungen
in das keineswegs ebenso paradiesische Judha mit {Die Synoptiker3 in Band-
Commentar zum N. T.

6 Josephus calls it (pikonpiLa TTJS (pvtreoos (p. Ill, 518). Gennesaret was famous
for its t'ruits also in later times. Cf. Berakhoth 44; Pesahim 8b.

Cf. Hastingss D. p., II., p. 6. Hyvernat,' however, says that the late figs
occasionally remain on the tree during tlie winter montlis {Jewish Encyclopedia.
V., p. 382b). But Mr. John E. Hinsmore, a botanist who has lived in Jerusalem
over t.wenty years and studied tlie flora of Palestine carefully, t-01d me that lie




HATCH: The Cursing of the Fig Tree

It has also been suggested that Jesus may have been looking for
gteen figs, which are i'ound in March and April. But certainly a
hungry man, walking along a country road in the early morning,
would not be much displeased or disappointed at not finding a hand-
ful of green figs!1 Finally, to say that in Jesus time there must
have been some variety of figs, now unknown, -that matured at pass-
over, is to beg the question.

Some modern critics have struck out on an entirely different path,
using a method that has worked satisfactorily in other places. Buke,
in the portion of his gospel known as the Great Interpolation, relates
the parable of the unproductive fig tree.2 There is nothing correspond-
ing to this parable either in Matthew or in Mark. Under certain
conditions parabolic teaching is easily converted into histoi.ical fact.
Sir Philip Sidney expressed surprise that some theologians of his day
believed the story of the Good Samaritan to be allegorical3 and the
Inn of the Good Samaritan is still shown on the road to Jericho.
Some scholars think that the parable of the unproductive fig tree
has been transformed by this process into the incident of the cui.sing
of the fig tree.4 The transformation must of course have taken place
before OUI. gospels were written. This theory cannot be rejected off hand3
had never known figs to hang on the trees until spring. FOre Lagrange, also
a resident of Jerusalem, says: II est tout a fait sans exemple dans le pays que
les figues demeurent sur les arbres pendant tout lhiver (op. cit., p. 275).

1 Lagrange says: La figue verte est absolument immangeable (op. cit., p. 275).

2 Lk. 13 c-9.

3 Of. Oheyne in Enc. Bib., II., col. 1521.

4 Of. Hacon: Nothiug remains but to treat vers. 12-14 also as a simple
dramatization of the parable Lk. 13 6-9, whicli in vers. 2025 lias received furtlier
elaboration by tlie attacliment of Q, sayings (The Beginnings of Gospel story,
p. 160). See also j. Weiss, Das alteste Evangelium, p. 3815 Loisy, Les Evangiles
synoptiques, II., p. 2865 Oheyne in Enc. Bib., II., cols. 1521 f. 5 Bacon in Hastings
Diet, of Christ and the Gospels, I., pp. 593f. On the other hand cf. Jiilicher,
Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, II.-, pp. 446f. H. j. Holtzmann recognizes a liasis of
fact in tlie narrative, but continues as follows: Hie Verbindung dieses Gelegen-
lieitswortes mit einem, wenn es niclit Sinnilild ist, sinnlosen. Naturwunder lieruht
wohl auf Umsetzung des Gleichnisses Lc. 13 69 in eine symbolische Handlung
nach Anleitung von Mch. 7 1, Hos. 9 10 (Die Synoptiher3 in op. cit., p. 90). It is
not necessary to discuss liere the t'heories of Nestle and Schwartz. Neither of
tliem has been widely accepted, and to the present writer lioth seem less probalile
than tlie view represented by Bacon. For tlie former see Enc. Bib. s. V. Beth-
pliage, and for the la-tter Z.N.T.W., V. (1904), pp. 80ff.

5 So Blummer, Luke in Internat. Crit. Com., pp. 339ff.


Journal of tlie Palestine Oriental Society

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for it is based upon a principle tbat was undoubtedly at work before
evangelic tradition became fixed. But does this .principle apply in
the present case? The fig tree in the parable of Luke is unrepen-
tant Israel, and the parable clearly teaches tlie forbearance and
severity 'of God in his dealings with his people.i This is diametrically
opposed to the spirit -manifested in the cursing of the fig tree, and
tlie inference to be drawn from the latter is quite unlike the teaching
of the parable. In one case the tree is given a chance to improve
and bring 1orth fruit, whereas in the other it is condemned forthwith
and irretrievably for its barrenness. Therefore, it seems to the present
wi.iter most impi.obable that Lukes parable of the unproductive fig
tree should have given rise to the cursing narrated in Matthew and
Mark. The contrary supposition, viz. that the cursing of the unfruit-
ful tree has been coverted into a parable for apologetic or other
reasons, labours under the same difficulty. Like begets like in the
formation of tradition as well as among living beings.

How, then, can the incident of the fig tree be explained? First,
it is certainly misplaced by Matthew and Mark.2 It could not have
taken place at a time when one could not expect to find edible figs
on the tree. It must have occurred either late in May 01. early in
June, when the fil.st ripe figs mature, or in the latter part of August
or tlie fore part of September, when figs of the commoner kind are
gathered. What, then, probably happened? Jesus came one day to
a fig tree, hoping to find a few figs, for it was the season for them.
But the tree was barren. There were no figs on it. He was not
angry at so trivial a disapointment, and he uttered no imprecation
against the tree. That was not liis custom. He saw tliat the tree
was incapable of bearing figs, and simply remarked, No one will
ever eat fruit of thee. It was a statement of an obvious fact. This
was probably the occasion of Lukes parable of tlie unproductive fig
tree. Turning to his disciples, he drew a lesson from the barren
tree, wliich by reason of its barrenness suggested to him the house
of Israel. As the tree was not producing figs, so his own nation

1 Of. Rom. 11 22.

2 The incident is somewhat loosely connected witli the context in which it
stands, and on this account some think that it was interpolated into the gospel
history hy Mark. Of. Wellhausen, Das Evangelium Marci, P.955 j. Weiss, op.
cit., P.268 Goguel, L'Evangile cle Marc1 pp. 217ff.


HATCH: The Cursing of the Fig Tree 11

was not bringing fortb the fruit of repentance. Tbe fig tree furnishes
the starting point, and from that he proceeds to set forth his view
of Gods dealing with Israel.

If the incident of the fig t1.ee and the parable related by Buke
ai.e connected in the manner here suggested, we are not without an
indication of tlie time at which the words were spoken. It must
have been afte.r the Jews opposition to Jesus preaching had become
pronounced. Nevertheless, he had not lost hope of winning them.
One naturally thinks of the latter part of August or the foi.e part
of September in the last year of his ministry. If, however, the figs
in question were of the first 1ipe variety, the incident should be
placed late in May or early in June.

It is incori.ect to speak of the cursing of the fig tree, foi. there
was no cursing. Jesus used the imperl.ect in reference to the future
of the tree. This was al'terwards interpreted as a jussive or optative,
and it was believed that Jesus had cursed the tree and caused it
to wither. In this way a very striking miracle was produced. Matthew,
as we have seen, heightens the effect of the miracle by making it
take place immediately after Jesus speaks.

It has already been pointed out that both Matthew and Mark
connect the incident of the fig tree with the saying about the power
of faith. In Mark tlie two are separated by the cleansing of the
temple, whereas in Matthew they are brought together. Accoi.ding
to Mai.k Jesus says: Have faith in God. Verily I say unto you,
whosoever shall say to this mountain. Be thou taken up and cast
into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
what he saith cometh to .pass, it shall be so unto him. 1 In Matthew
the connection of the incident with tlie saying is emphasized and
strengthened by a reference to the fig tree in the saying. According
to Matthew Jesus says: Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith
and do not doubt, not only shall do what is done to the fig tree
but even if ye shall say to this mountain. Be thou taken up and
cast into the sea, it shall be done. 2 Mark is obviously more primitive.
He represents a stage in tJie growth of evangelic tradition when the
incident and the saying were less closely connected. Originally they

1 Mk. 11 22 f.

2 Mt. 2121.


12 Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

were distinct.! But it was not unnatural that they should be brought
together. For here was a striking saying about faith, and from the
point of view of the early Christians what better means of producing
wonder-working faith could be imagined than a miracle of this sort?
When Jesus bade his disciples have faith or trust in God, and then
went on to speak of the power of such faith in hyperbolical language,
he was not thinking of wonder-working.

It is not altogether easy to say how the incident 01' the fig tree
came to be placed in the last week of Jesus life. It must have
occupied this position in evangelic tradition before the earliest of
our gospels was written. The history of Passion Week, which was
the culmination of Jesus ministry and the most memorable period
of his life, undoubtedly took shape before the earlier part of the
gospel story and thei.e was probably a tendency at work in the
earliest age to put events and sayings into this last week which did
not really belong there.

If the incident of the fig tree was placed in Passion Week, it
was natural to locate it on the highway between Bethany and Jeru-
salem, foi. Jesus and his disciples passed over this road several
times during this peri0d.2

1 Bacon regards the sequel (Mt.2119c-22=Mk.ll 20-25) as a secondary

attachment on account of both its material and its language (cf. Hastings Diet,
of Christ and the Gospels, I., p. 593). Goguel says: La parole sur la foi ne
parait pas provenir de la mCme source que !episode du figuier. Lallusion qui
y est 1'aite a une montagne au bord de la mer fait penser que cette parole na
pas ete prononcee aux portes de Jerusalem, mais en Galilee. Le lien qui est
etabli entre elle et !episode du figuier est done artificiel et Marc qui les Juxt-
apose simplement est plus ancien que Mathieu qui les coordonne {op. cit.)
pp. 216f.). See also Wellhausen, Einleitung in die drei ersten Evangelien, pp. 55f.
Das EingeUum Marci, op. cit.44. 11 .

2 j. Weiss, however, says: Darum glaube ich, dass die Geschichte vom
Evangelisten nur deswegen hier aufgenommen ist, veil sie in der Uberlieferung
auf dem Wege von Bethanien nacli Jerusalem lokalisiert war {op. cit.) p. 268).


THE MIZPAH OF 1 SAMUEL 7 &c

w. j. PHYTHIAN.ADAMS

(JERUSALEM)

IN addition to a Mizpah or 0;;:::: Gilead or Moab
(Ju. 11 29, 1 Sa. 22 3). and a Mizpah near Mt. He^mon (Josh 11 3,
and 8), two other places of this name are definitely mentioned in the
Old Testament. One of these was either in the maritime plain or
the Shephelah, as it is placed (Josh. 15 38) with towns like Migdal
Gad (Mejdel), Lachish (Tell El Hesy), Beth-dagon (Beit Dejan near
Gaza), etc. and was therefore in or near Philistine territory. The
othei. was a village 01' Benjamin (Josh. 18 26) and is accoi'dingly
found in conjunction with Oplrni (Jifna), Geba (Jeba), Gibeon (El Jib),
Ramah (Er Ram), and Beeroth (Bireh). It is this Benjamite Mizpah
which is the subject of the present note.

Mizpah occurs already in the Book of Judges as the recognised
place of assembly 1'or all Israel, the place at which they consecrate
themselves for some special work and at wJrich tlrey registei. their
solemn vows before the Lord. So, Jephthah, when he has been
chosen as leader against the Ammonites, goes up to Mizpah with the
elders of Gilead and there takes his oath 01' fealty, or, as the Bible
describes it, speaks his words before the Lord (Ju. 11 11). [It is-
after tliis, be it noted, that lie passes ovei. Gilead and Manasseli
and from Mizpah of Gilead . to the children of Ammon) (Ju. 11 29),.
so that tliere is no question 01' a confusion between the two Mizpahsj.
So, when Israel hears of the crime committed by Gibeah, it assembles
unto the Lord at Mizpah (Ju. 2() 1): it is at Mizpah that the case-
is I'ormally heard (Ju. 20 3)5 it is 1'rom tliei.e that Israel issues to.
Benjamin its demand for the surrender of the guilty (20 13)5' it is
there that the people take an oath never to give tlieii. daugjiters to
the men of Benjamin (Ju. 21 1)5 and it is there that they swear a


Journal of tlie Palestine Oriental Society

14

solemn vengeance against any tribe tbat bas not answered tbe national
summons. And the children of Israel said. Who is there among all
the tribes of Israel that came not up.in the assembly unto the Lord?
For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up
unto the Lord to Mizpah, saying, he shall sui.ely be put to death."
(Ju. 21 ).

The years which followed these incidents were years of gloom,
oppression, and disaster, but when the standard of Israel was raised
aloft once more, it was planted by Samuel at Mizpah; and once
again we hear t.he summons of Israel unto the Lord. And Samuel
said, gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I. will pray for you unto the
Lord* And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and
poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there.
We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children
of Israel in Mizpah1) Sa. 7.5). It is surely idle to suggest that
the Mizpali of Judges and the Mizpah of Samuel were.two distinct
places: is it not one of the chief I'eatures of this revolt, that the old
assembly place of Israel with all its hallowed memories is deliberately
chosen by the Prophet-Judge as the rallying point against Philistia?

It will be noticed that as a national place of assembly Mizpah
lent itself naturally to being also a centre for judgment. Samuel,
indeed, used it for this purpose, together with Bethel and Gilgal
(1. Sa. 7 16)5 and,.as such, it seems to liave survived with them the
t'oundation and disruption 01' the Kingdom. Hear this, 0 ye priests,
cries Hosea, and hearken, ye liouse of Israel, and give ear, 0 house
01' the king, for unto you pertaineth the judgment for ye have been
a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor (Ho. 1 ). Wliat.
ever be the correct interpretation of this passagefor it is admittedly
uncertainthe general meaning is clear. Those who have judged
falsely shall now themselves be judged. Blow ye the cornet in Gibeali
and the trumpet in Ramah . Ephraim is oppressed and broken in
judgment because he followed vanity. (Hos. 11 ,8 .) Why Gibeah?
Why Bamah? Because the centre of corruption is at Mizpah of
Benjamin with which these places are so often found in conjunction.
A separate vengeance is pronounced by Hosea and Amos upon
Gilga'l and Beth Aven or Bethel (Hos. 4 15. Amos 4 4: 5 5)5 but it
is only of importance to US here as shewing how this triad of lioly
places retained its sanctity long centuries after the establisliment 01'


15

PHITHIAN-ADAMS: Tile Mizpali of 1 Samuel 7 5 &.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

16

the Temple at Jerusalem. Here again it is surely idle to suggest
that the Mizpah ofHosea is some unknown city or high-place, distinct
from the Mizpah of Samuel.

So far we have found no evidence by which we can fix the' site
of Mizpah within the limits of the tribe of Benjamin yet it would
be untrue to say that we have been left altogether without guidance.
A !.allying place for the nation must be central, convenient, and
accessible. Neither Shiloh nor Bethel fulfils these conditions: Mizpah
apparently did. Accessibility seems, indeed, to have been the chiet'
factor in its selection, for, though Israel assembled at this point, it
had nevertheless to go up to Bethel for the purpose of asking counsel
of the Lord (Ju. 20 18). That it did not assemble there in the first
place, is doubtless due to the remoteness of Bethel from the main
roads: therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Mizpah, on the
contrary, lay on or near them.

We may perhaps learn something also from the behaviour of the
Bhilistines, when they heard that Isi.ael was mustering at Mizpah
(1 Sa. 7). The Philistines, as we know, held the liill country of
Judaea with a chain of garrison forts (notably round Michmasli and
Geba), and relied, for their communications with the maritime plain,
on the principal passes sucli as that of the two Bethhorons. If these
communications were threatened, they must immediately he defended
hut until or unless an enemy drew so dangerously near as to liave
this effect on tliem, that enemy could safely he left to himself: to
hunt him out in some impregnable position far from a main road,
would have been tlie height of folly: the obvious policy for the
Philistines as masters of the country, was to increase their garrisons,
burn a village or two, take hostages, and then wait quietly till the
rebels either emerged from their fastness, when they could be
attacked on some more convenient position, or dispersed to their
homes through sheer inability to provoke a battle in the mountains.
At the risk of over-stressing this argument, let US assume that
Mizpah was, as it is usually assumed to be, at Neby Samwil. Wliat
possible reason could the Philistines have for attacking Israel in so
remote and difficult a region? In the days before long-range artillery,
Neby Samwil was tactically useless, for it controlled no road or
pass in the days before Morse signalling was invented, it would be
futile even as a watch tower. In short, if the Philistines found that


PHYTHIAN-ADAMS: The Mizpah of 1 Samuel 7 7 .0
Israel had assembled at Neby Samwil, they would uever have taken,
the mad step of attacking them there: conversely the fact that they
did attack them at Mizpah is proof that Mizpah was not, like Neby
Samwil, a remote peak, aloof from the main lines of communication,
but that it lay, on the contrary, either upon, 01' so near to, those
lines as to menace tlie security of the whole Philistine position in
Judaea. We have tlius two plausible arguments foi. supposing that
Mizpah was in a central, commanding position on or neai. a main
road; and when we come to its later history, mere probability hardens
into fact.

V11en Baasha king of Israel began to i'ortify Ramah (Er Ram),
he did so (1 Kings 15 17) .that he might not sufi'er any to go out or
come in to Asa king 01' Judah". In other words, he chose a site'
which would control not only the present road fi.om Shechem to
Jerusalem but also the I.oute wilich crossed the Vady Suweinit 1'rom
Michmash to Geba and thence to Ramah and Jerusalem. At
Michmash he layeth up his baggage; they are gone over tJie pass;
they have taken up their lodging at Geba: Ramah trembleth; Gibeah
of Saul is fled (Is. 10 2y). Such is Isaiahs description of this
second road and in the light of it the king of Judahs reply to
Baaslia assumes a new and important interest. Having succeeded in
securing the witlidl.awal 01' the enemy, Asa pulled down tlie hostile
fortress of Ramah and with the materials taken 1.1'om it constructed
two fortresses of his own. rrhe first of these was Geba and his purpose
in selecting it is clear: it was to control this second l.oad at the
pass 01. tlie Wady Suweinit. The second was Mizpah; and it needs
no very great acumen to inl.er that this was to command the first
road, that is the main-road l.rom Shechem to Jerusalem. Now the
Benjamite Mizpah ought, as we have seen, to be on 01. near a main
road, so, wlien we find Asa fortifying a Mizpah in answer to Baashas
challenge, we may assume that this Mizpah was the Mizpah of early
Israelite history, and that it lay somewhei.e north 01' Ramah on t.he
Nablus road. That Asas l.ortress did as a matter of !.act command
this road, we have other evidence to prove. After the removal 01.
Judah into captivity, the king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah
govei'nor of Judaea with his headquarters at Mizpah. Now, not only
do we know tliat this Mizpah lay on tlie Nablus road but we also
know that it was tlie same as that I'ortified by Asa. When Gedaliah


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18

had been murdered at Mizpah by Ishmael son of Nethaniah there
came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria .
with oblations in their hands, to bring them to the house of the
Lord7, or, in other words, pilgrims on theii. way to Jerusalem (Jer.41).
Ishmael decoyed these men inside the town, and, having slain them,
cast them into the pit, which the prophet tells US was the same as
that which Asa the king made for fear of (lit. before the face of7)
Baasha king of Israel. (Jer. 41 9.)

We are now in a position to marshal the evidence at our disposal
together with our inferences and conclusions

1. In the time of Judges, Mizpah of Benjamin is a central place
of assembly, and therefore presumably on or near some main road.
It is also a place of special sanctity, where solemn oatlis are sworn
before the Lord.

2. In the time of Samuel, its religious importance remains the same.
It is used also as a centre for judging. Its tactical position is
important enough to threaten the Philistine communications.

3. In the time of Asa (90s B. c.) its strategic importance over-
shadows its sanctity it is fortified as a stronghold commanding the
Shechem road above Ramah, while the parallel fortress of Geba
commands the eastward route through Michmash.

4. In the time of Hosea (720 B. c.), its religious importance re-
emerges it is still a holy place and also, apparently, a city where
judgments are delivered.

5. In the time of Gedaliah (588 B. c.), it is so central and im-
portant, that it is fixed upon as the headquarters of the new governor.
It lies on the Shechem-Jerusalem road.

There remains now one reference which has to be examined.
What was this pit which Asa the king made for fear of Baasha
king of Israel? To anyone acquainted with Canaanite fortresses
there can be only one answer, and that an obvious one. The strong,
holds of this country wei.e built in ancient times either on isolated
hillocks or, if these were not available, on lofty spurs, inaccessible
on all sides save on that which linked them to the hills behind. All
that was necessary to secure perfect isolation, was to dig a moat
across the connecting saddle of the peninsula and thus sever all
communication with the Mainland. It is cleai. that this normal
precaution was taken by Asa's engineers, and it reveals, as nothing


PHYTHIAN-AD AMS: The Mizpah of 1 Samuel 7 5 ki 19

else could reveal, the nature of the site which he chose for his
frontier stronghold.

We have now only to search along the Nablus road north of
Ramah and discover if a site exists worthy of being associated with
the historic name of Mizpah. The search will not be a lengthy one.
Between Er Ram and Bireh the most prominent object on this road
is the rounded hill on the top of which stands Tell El Nasbeh. This
hill, which in reality forms the end of a spur thrown off to the south
from the Ramallah-Bireh ridge, commands, on either side of it, the
valleys which lead southwards to Jerusalem, and particularly that to
the east, through wliich the present main-road to Nablus passes.
Here the open valley contracts into a narrow and precipitous defile
the road has to bend sharply across a wady, and for a -space runs
actually under the lee of the hill itself. It is not too much to say,
that, for the purposes of ancient warfare. Tell El Nasbeh must have
been the most important strategic position on the northern frontier
of the kingdom of Judah. Tactically, its position is almost unassailable.
It is amply provided with its own water supply, a fact of paramount
importance in a hill fortress it could be easily protected on its
northern side by a dry moat such as we have mentioned it stands
high and clear of its suri.ounding hills and may thus deserve the
title of Watch tower. In other respects it fulfils all tlie requirements
of the Mizpah whose long history we have surveyed: it is prominent,
central, and accessible it directly threatens the communications
between Michmash or Geba and the Bethhoron pass it is suited not
only for a fortress but for an administrative centre. When we add
to this that the pottery found on its surface corroborates its presumed
antiquity, and that its name. Tell El Nasbeh, l.eflects in a curious
manner the Mizpah of aucient days, we are surely compelled to ask
ourselves these two questions':-

Is it possible that so strong a position should have been neglected
by the kings of Judah?

If not, can there be any doubt that this was Mizpah?

The reference ill Jeremiah (41 12) whicli seems to siiew that ]Mizpah lay
west of the great waters in Gibeon is inexplicable on any theory so far
advanced, for, if anytliing is clear to an 'impartial student, it is, that the Mizpah
of tliis context (i. e. the Mizpali of Asa and Gedaliah) was situated on the main
road from Shecliem to Jeiusalem and therefore to tlie east of tlie only known
site of Gibeon (El Jib).


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20

The reference to Mizpah in 1 Macc. 3 46 contains no direct evidence .of its
location. It was over against Jerusalem a phrase too vague to he helpful,
and it was apparently near the Bethhoron pass, since the army of. Judas moved
from it directly to Emmaus, at the exit of the Plain of Ajalon. The most
interesting words in this passage, perhaps, are those which allude to Mizpah as
a place of prayer aforetime for Israel. The spirit of tliese words exactly
reflects t.hat 01' the first references to the place in the Old Testament. There
was only one great Mizpah, and everyone was expected to know where and what
it was: other Mizpahs might bear the names of Moab or Gilead, but the
Benjamite Mizpah needed no such qualification.


FOLKLORE OF THE SEASONS IN PALESTINE

T. CANAAN

(JERUSALEM)

IN the following paper I wish to describe some material concern-
ing the weather rules" ofPalestine, which I have gathered since
the publication of my article "Per Kalender des palestinensischen
Fellachen! and which were therefore not included in it. It may
serve with the papers of Bauer, 2 SonnenS and Stephan 4 as a sup
plement to the Kalender. & In order not to repeat what lias been
already written, many proverbs or sayings will only be given with
translation, without going into details about the weather itself.

Repeated enquiries about the names of the months used in Pales-
tine elicited only the lists mentio-ned in the Kalender. Some months
beai. different names in different places, as is noted -by Stephan and
Bauer (1. c.), but I have never found tivo Adji.ads (as described by
Bauer), one for November and the other for December. The name
Adjrad (December) comes from djarada, to strip, to peel, and
means the bare, stripped without vegetation, like trees stripped
of all their leaves. An expression with this meaning whicli I heai.d
from a woman in Jerusalem is: el-adjrad biydjrid6 es-sadjar min

1 z. D. p. V. XXXVI, pp. 266-300.

2 z. D. p. V. XXXVIII, pp. 5457: Bemerkungen zu Dr. Canaans Der
Kalender etc.

3 Bandwirtschaftliches vom See Genesareth, Das Heilige Land, Heft 1021 ,.

4 The Division of the Year in Palestine, j. p. c. s. pp. 159170.

5 A few details ahout the same subject are found in the following' articles:
Blatter aus Bethlehem, Bauer, Volksleben im Lande der Bibel, pp. 112120.
Canaan, Die Wintersaat in Paiastina, z. D. M. G. 70, pp. 164178. The weather
rules mentioned by Bauer are mostly talien from the Blatter aus Bethlehem.
Sonnen does not give any literature.

0 byudjrud.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

22

ivaraquh u ba(l el-marrat es-seneli min sitah = "December strips tbe
trees of tbeir leaves and sometimes (it strips) tbe year of its (tbe
montbs) rain.1

Tbe Bedonin2 believe tbat those who fall sick in January (el-
asamm) suffer long from tlieir illness. The same belief exists with
respect to animals: fi kaniin el-asamm libauwil el-elimar qeli u clamm
.in January3 the ass urinates pus and bl00d.4

In the safari months (September, October and November) es-
pecially in the last two, the Bedouin take care not to eat much
fatty food 0zdfar), as they are afraid of becoming sick. 5

The name hamis for April denotes the fifth month of the year
(December being the first), Just as hamis, ThursdayG is the fifth day
of the week. I do not think that Bauers supposition that the name
hamis for April comes from its first or second Thursday can be
accepted. The following facts speak against the probability of this
explanation:

1. The 46 special Thursdays do not always fall in this month.

2. In most cases Friday (1cljum (hamis), as will ,be noted later. Only in the case of hamis el-
amwat does the word liamis comes more often tlian djumcah.
In hamis en-nalat both expressions are used equally. In all
others only djumali is known.

3. The different Thursdays are not known in all districts where
liamis is used for April.

4. If the Nebi Musa feast begins,, as Bauer correctly says, eight
days after liamis el-amwdt and 15 days after hamis en-nabdt,
tlien his first statement Seinen (Monats-)Namen hat er von
seinem ersten Donnerstag, etc. can not hold true, since the
Nebi MUsa feast always coincides with the Oreek Easter,, which
changes every yeai..

The various Thursdays, which, as I have already observed, are
called much more often djumcah == Friday, bear other names in the
cities than they do among the fellaliin or Bedouin. The celebration

The latter part is not always included in this saying.

1 Heard from the 'Idw^n tribe (Transjordania).

3 El-asamm the deaf. 4 Heard in Jerusalem.

5 Bedouin. 6 See Muliit el-muJ11t I, 594.

7 Thus a man of *Anata did not know the Bedouin names 01' the months.


23

CANAAN: Folklore of the Seasons in Palestine

of the dayor in some cases only the preparation of the feast
always begins according to Oriental computation with the eve of
the preceding day,1 in our case (Friday) from the eve of Thursday^
and continues all day Friday. These twenty-four hours make up
our Friday. Lelatu-djun1cah (the night of Friday) means the night
between Thursday and Friday.s Ramadan begins with the eve of
the last day of Sacban and ends with the eve of its last day.4
Following are the different Fridays which bear different names
and enjoy special celebration:

Order of Compared Names of Fridays in Jeru- Names among peasants and Bedouin
first 14 days before Good Friday djum et el-Yiadat* - uf etliamls OT d .ncibctt
second 8 days before Good Friday djum'et el-beraqi liamis el-amwdthaniis OT djum.et el-bed
third Good Friday dp eVelemat* dp .Vmaglvn. OT d. el-liaiwandt
fourth 8 days after Good Friday '. er-raglidib or '. el- lialioT ed-dpetftttxul^
fifth 14 days after Good Friday dp el.gkirciba
sixth 21 days after Good Friday ^el-hazana .!

This may account in some cases for the use of Thui.sday.

2 Of course one should not take the word eve too strictly, for many festivals
begin already in the afternoon.

3 Lelat *id es-salib means the eve preceding the feast itsell'.

4 This shows that the criticism on p. 56, § 3 of z. D. p. V. 1915 does not hold.

5 It bears tliis name -because it is announced on this Friday that the Nebi
MUsa feast will begin in eight days.

6 This expression is not applied to the third Friday, which falls with Good
Friday (as by Stephan).

7 Also called cljum en-nazleli (Stephan). The Nebi Musa flag is carried in
great procession from the Omar mosque to the sanctuary.

8 Tlie expression ', el-' eleiym (Stephan) is not much used. See for further
\1 Cun... Aberglaube u. Yolksmedizift i1 Lande tier Bibet.

9 - el-hdmigh falls on the preceding week and not on this Friday.

'Id el-muntdr coincides with this Friday.

10 It used also to be called '. en-nawar, an expression which is at present
unknown.


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24

Many say that the three Fridays following djum'et elJdemat are
known collectively as djumac er-raghayb (the Fridays of desires), the
first hearing this designation par excellence, while the last is known
as d-hdzSbna (the Friday of the sorrowful). According to the people
of Jerusalem only the first Friday bears the name of djumet er-
raghayb (also djum'et el-lialawi, 1 the Friday of the sweets 2). In all
three the peasants buy sweets to be distributed to members of their
families and to others. On the first Friday the members of the
I'amily enjoy the sweets, on the second djum'et elmghuraba (the Friday
of the strangers) strangers, and on the third the sorrowful are
presented with them. By sorrowful are meant xvidows and orphans,
since they have no male support. It is to be noted here that this
exact division, although known, is not preserved everywhere. The
last week used to be called in Jerusalem djum'et en-naivcir (the
Friday of the gypsies), but this expression is no longer known. The
gypsies used to go in a body, dressed in their best clothes, to the
mosque of Omar on this day.

Poor women or those having no male support are said to express
their grief on such a day by the saying:

Jx djum'et erraghaxjb xjaxoel ill djb2ha ghaxjb
On the Friday of the desires woe to the woman whose husband
is absent.

In djumet (also called hamis) en-ndbat the young unmarried girls
go out Thursday afternoon to the fields and gather flowers and sweet-
smelling herbs. In cutting the herbs they ask the plants:
taqE u-its* su daxua er.ras yd Ejercih
Crack and pull out-wlxat is the remedy foi. the head,5 0 little
tree.G These flowers are placed in water and left all night under
the open sky, in 01'der to be acted upon by the stars. This practice 1 2 3 4

1 Ealaivi is a special kind of Oriental sweetmeat. Tlie day bears tliis name
because all peasants buy and eat sweets on tbis occasion.

2 Some call, it also ed-djum'ah et-taioilelim the long Friday (week).

3 TaqS comes from taqaSa (unknown in either Muhit el-muliit. Hava, Kassab
and Hamm^m or Wahrmund) is the sound made by-cracking or breaking a twig
01 an egg against another.

4 Nats is tlie popular name for thistles in general. I think that it is used
here only for the assonance like Sadar madar etc.

I. e. for headaclie, as well as for growth of hair and beauty of complexion.

Heard from a woman of Her Ghass^neh.


25

CANAAN: Folklore of the Seasons in Palestine

is known as tandjk. 1 Witt ttis water they wash their hair on the
following day (Friday) believing that it will grow thicker and longer.
Some mix the water with their bath. They dress themselves after-
wards in their best clothes and go ont into the fields.2 Many think
that performing these acts will hasten their chances of marriage. 3
A corruption of a well known proverb points indirectly to this day:
talati bitamlu el-'nr maspk 'ala ibat4 urukbak 'ala es-sajlnat u

abdak el-banat

Three (things) will prolong thy life: walking on grass, riding on good
horses and taking girls (in marriage).^

In djumcet el-amivat, better known as hamis el-amwat, the women
of Jerusalem go on Thursday afternoon to the cemeteries to visit their
dead. They take with them dyed eggs, sweets and even cooked food
and meat. The greater part is distributed to the poor-who gather
on such a day-as an adjfi (recompence). The meaning is that,
since some help is given to the needy in the name of the deceased,
God will l.eckon such an act in his favoui.. In some villages the
women go before sunrise to the cemetery, believing that a visit after
this time is not so good. Soon after sunrise they go home.9 The
children of the peasants go on -Thursday afternoon to the houses of
their neighbours and beg: alum becja ean amwatbm, give me an
egg in the name of your dead. Those in the house give an egg,
dried figs, raisins or a piece of bread. The children express their
thanks with the words allah yirljtamhum, God be merciful to them.
This day, therefore, bears also the name hamis el-becl (Thursday of eggs).

1 Of. Aberglaube u. Volksmedizin, pp. 96, 126.

2 The above description sliows that only one part of this days' work falls on
Thursday, while the greater part comes on Friday (evening, night and day).

3 A man of Artas assured me that all butter stowed up to tliis day must be
boiled, else it will spoil.

4 This vord is substituted for tabcit (firmly).

5 The word represents a horse st.anding on three feet and toucliing' the
ground lightly with the fourth (Hara 392).

6 The opposite is: Three things will shorten life: walking behind funerals,
going through deserts, and marrying widows (or divorced women).

Not cidjar as Bauer has in Z.D.P. V. XXXVIII, 54. Adjcir == lease, rent
lidjrah == wages, salary adjr (ind allah) == recompense (vith God).

8 As soon as tlie sun rises, the spirits disappear. Compare Gen. 32, 25.

9 In Jerusalem tlie cemetries are visited all day. It is customary for the
relatives of the recently deceased to spend most of the day around liis tomb.


26 Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

In djumcet el-liaiivdnat better known as djum never as Jiamis) the nseful animals 1 (cows, borses, sbeep and goats 2)
are dyed witb red. Tbe frontal portion, between the horns, is the
part chosen for dying, but the horns and the back, especially of
sheep, may also be dyed. All animals enjoy a yearly rest day. They
are not sent to work, and the milk is not sold but used or distributed
to the pool.. Lelatu djunicih and Friday morning the animals are
not milked. This is done about noon.3 In some places even tlie
jars where milk and its products (butter, sour milk, etc.) are stored,
are dyed with mighri. Cattle are .protected on this day against
serpent bites in the following way.4 Living serpents are thro^
into a mixture of boiling oil and water, and all is left foi. some
time to boil. Every animal is touched on different parts with this
solution, which is supposed to contain a prophylactic antitoxin. This
procedure is known by the name haiui el-lialdl.b

Tk dc - eVelicit, dj. el-iiat, dj. eUeracp dj. el-
liamyeh 6 etc.-need no description, since they have been fully described
elsewhere. It is important to note that many local festivals, which
are -connected with a well takes place on the tJlird Friday {dj.

(1:

Beside this division we should note another period which plays
a minor rOle: The mustaqredat (the last three days of February and
the four first of March)7 are thought by some to be ayam el-Jiusum
mentioned in SUrah 69, 7 of the Qordn. As is it thought that every
child which is begotten in these days will be born either undeveloped
or badly developed, all intercourse with women at that time is
stringently forbidden. Even, trees which are pruned during these
days will dry up.9

A variation to the rhyme given in the Kalender, p. 279, relat-
ing what February says to March in these days is

1 hlules and asses are generally not dyed.

2 Sheep and goats are more often dyed than liorses and cows.

3 Heard from a man of .Abwen.

4 Heard from Omar Effendi el-BarghUthi.

5 Hall here means catt.le. It may also stand for wife.

6 These are never called halts.

7 See Kalender, 1. c.

8 Heard from inhabitants of. Jerusalem, as well as f'rom felldliin.

9 Heard from a peasant of Art&s.


27

CANAAN Folklore of the Seasons in Palestine

ibn 'aiax tatateh mmnak u arbcfah minm tanhaXXx lik

igKanirt

March, my cousin, let three days of you and four'of mine (unite in
bringing so much rain) tliat we cause her (the villagers, according
to others the old womans) valley to sing (i. e. much water will flow
through the ivadi). The story relates that the old woman had her
poor hut (JiariiCseh) in the ivacll, and, as she cursed February, tlie
above saying was uttered.

While sawival is also known by the name klir es-sitt aiyam, 01.
sdhr es-sitteh the month of the six days (cf. Stephan), a very rarely
heard name, Radjab is also called sahr es-sitt (the month of the
lady, also a rare appellation) since it is believed that Fatmeh, the
daughter of the Prophet, gave birth to her children in this month.

Regarding Ramadan it is said: inn askr dassar, i. e. if ten days
pass, he (the month) will soon leave (close). Others divide it into
three periods of ten days each:

'asarali maraq cakrah daracjY cakrah liaXaqL.

Ten pass, (the Other) ten (will) go quickly, (and the last) ten shave
(i. e. finish) the month.

Let us now consider the weatlier rules from which the peasant
tries to fortell the weather conditions on which he bases his work.
We shall begin with the latter part of the autumn, which is really
nothing but the period before the winter. The weather begins to
get colder after the Feast.of the Cross2 as illustrated by the i'ollow-
ing rhyme:

ma Xcik sejXydt bcCd es-salyat
You have no summers after the Feast of the Cross.

At the same time any sign of winter at this early period is a good
omen:

11 lirctqat c ala s-salb ma bitgMV
If there is lightning on the Feast of tlie Cross, it (the rain) will

never depart.

V vk Mxilvit elmuhat.

2 14th of Sept., old style (Julian calender).

3 In Bet djala they say barq is-slayyib met bigliayyib. The lightning of the slayyib
will not depart (except with heavy rain), i. e. it foretells good rain. The slayyib
is the mountain to the N. E. of Bet djaia.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

28

Other sayings are:

ft mar XXyas bitbaXXa(! el-ghem

On (about) the Feast of St. Elias 1 tlie clouds begin to be formed.
eiXuX tarajuh bis-ia mabluX
The end of September is wet with rain.

When rain does not fall at its expected time everyone watches
for clouds, which are its forerunners:

Xau biha 1 gXiafmat

If it intended to rain it would have become cloudy.
Murkiness brings rain:

ma bvyifqub el-gbabas xxxa er-rsas
Nothing follows murkiness except sprinkling.

Some Christians believe that if it begins to rain on a Sunday the
downfall will continue, for some time:

Inn Jiaddat maddat, If it (the rain) remains (falling all) Sunday,
it (this condition) will continue.

When the sun shines abnormally hot during the winter season it
is thoughtas this condition is unnaturalthat it will be followed
by rain, and it is called: samsha marliumel This expression means:
Its sun is followed by rahmeh (mercy, an expression used at times
figuratively for rain).2 It may also mean: Its sun is dead. The
Palestinian Arab never speaks of any dead person without adding:
il-marlium flan, N. N. treated with mercy, or ralimet allah caleh,
N. N., the mercy of God be upon him. I incline more to the
first explanation, although both point to the idea that the sun must
be followed by rain.

If the sun shines after a heavy rain it is said: il-liardon bilaib
bintoh, the lizard plays with his daughter. 3 .This saying, which
is used by children, tries to express the idea that reptiles leave
their holes at this time.

Whenever it liails until a white layer of hailstones covers the ground
it may be followed by snow, for il-barad fras it-taldj, the hail is
the bed of the snow. The snow is said to be the salt of the earth: 1

1 20th of July, old style.

2 See also z. D. p. V. XXXVI, 292, note 5.

3 Others say: el-liardon bidjamviz ibnuli) the lizard marries his son.


29

CANAAN: Folklore of the Seasons in Palestine

it-taldj 1)nil}} Hard. Some define such a hail as heing one which is
composed of the smallest grains (ibrim), while hail of larger grains
is known by the term haranza.

It may not he without interest to note the different expressions
foi. different kinds of rain:

naqqatat it drips gently,

rasrasat it drips rapidly,

bahJjat it rains fast with small drops,

zabhat it rains fast with larger drops,

aburali shower falling from a cloud, which passes

away in a short time,

zciuq the same with heavy downpour.

sabb or kabb min ir-rabb very heavy, continuous rain (i'rom the Lord).

When it begins to rain the t'ollowing expressions are used: am-
marat, nizlit (or taliat, rarely) id-dunya, the world is heing renewed
or cultivated, or is pouring. When the rain stops for a short time
the term saliat, for a long time amsakat, and when the rain is over,
aftamat is used.1

The peasants believe that if a l.ainbow stretches north to south it
stops the rain: qds (or qds) liadjdjaz (preventing how), but if it goes
east to west it is a sign of more rain, qds jarrcir = drawing bow
(heard from a woman of Bet dja1a).2

The different degrees of cloudiness are:

ghayyamat it is cloudy,

ghattamat it is somewhat murky from cloudiness,

(!)Siddat Cattamat) \

rahasah it is very dark and the sky is full of thick

clouds.

When violent lightning and thundet. i.ollow each other in rapid
succession it is said to portend heavy rain: 1 2

1 For snowing they use naclafat and barghalat (the last is used when the
snow is in round small grains). The snow itself belongs to one of the following,
categories: raqaqi Kabatil, nafs. For Kabatil some use Kawatil. In Bet djala
I heared also the expression cue (perhaps from I) for large pieces of snow.

2 A weather rule about the rainbow runs as follows:

qos essabtth ctdio -l-faUah
<0 el.mastt dalll es-scifci

"The rainbow 01' the morning is the enemy of the peasant.

The rainbow of the evening is the sign of clearness.


Journal of tlie Palestine Oriental Society

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ida abraqat IT adat

Uam ii mazarfha tartaqat

If it lightens and thunders, know that is gutter-pipes clash.

I have also collected some new sayings about ficl Lydd:\
ft Id Lydd &dd ya faUali &dd
ma biqx la^-sita dd

On the Feast of Lydd yoke (your plough) 0, peasant, yoke, none
will oppose (the coming of) the rain.

d Lydd kiUu Mdadm isidd
u kuUu rammc§1 ihldd^

On the Feast of Lydda let every yoker (of a plough) yoke, and
let every possessor of a mare have her fertilized. 3
It is believed that animals (mares, cows, she-asses) and women
who are fecundated in this day bring t'orth strong and healthy off-
spring. 4 Accordingly we have the agricultural 1ule: annual ekvsumb
la tlium, Do not run about in the first of the seasons.

The first month of the rainy season is divided into th1.ee periods
01' ten days each:

Tlie first ten days are known as itruh 6, falling (with sickness),

second ,, ,, ,, intuli, butting (with horns),

,, third ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, iftuli, opening or beginning (of

good luck),.

After the rains of the first ten days the first grass comes out.
This is believed all over Palestine to be very bad for the cattle.
The inhabitants tliink that the animals get sick if they eat tliis
grass. The disease is known by the name 7. The same word 1

1 November 3, Julian calendar.

2 Tbis meaning of ihidd (from liadda) is not knoavn in classical Arabic (not
1'ound in Muhit el-muhit).

3 Tbis verse is known to the Bedouin (*Azazmeb 01' tlie Negeb, and 'Idv£n
cf. Transjordania).

4 Naxii to ft ad Lydd ubrut at qidd 0 1:\ n d Lydd Hdd at !itidd,
and fa, Hd Lydd uhntt at sidd.

5 For explanation of mdsam s. Nalender.

c tcirih, sick person matruh) sick intarah, be got sick eS-sams tarliatu
be was sun-struck.

7 Tbis word is used in classical Arabic in tbe same meaning (s. Mlihit el-muhit)
I, 261).


31

CANAAN: Folklore of the Seasons in Palestine

is used wrongly by some people for the grass 1 which grows after
the first rain. For this reason it is said when the rain comes late:
mm baht el-halal 11-talrir 00 \ 1 - kck 01 tk ite
and delay (in his work) for the peasant. By intuit they mean that
the seeds will push through the ground better than in the first
period, for the rain of this period is generally stronger than that
of the preceding. The expression imtuh, 3 used by Bauer, is wrong
and should be intuli. As far as I could find this expression is not
used for ktivat 'elmasatili but denotes what has been mentioned.
If during the third period (iftuli) the rainfall is' as good as it was
in the two other periods, tlie year promises to be good.. Of C0u1.se
any of tliese three periods may fail to bring rain.

TJie best rain is supposed to be that which falls when Tureiya
(Pleiades) and Libra are in a north-south line.

Itsm ddab mm ctdjai)

fiVbarr mat u-jll-bahr dahab.4

The season of the Pleiades is a wonder of wonders,

(it brings) on. land wealth and on the sea gold.

Accordingly, this season is everywhere called 5 the season of riches

asm, et-treyam 1 asm, eVmaly

It lias been noted that wlien Suhei (Canopus) rises the cold is so
severe that special care must be taken to protect tlie animals: till
sliel awi6 l-hel,1 Canopus has arisen, shelter tlie liorses.

The weather grows constantly colder and the cold readies its
climax about tlie last part 01' el-acljrad, tlius we are taught
jU-mldeh, Id el-bad e2yadel1,

At Christmas the cold increases greatly.

But soon afterwards it begins to grow warmer: 1 2 4 6 7

1 This is known in classical Arabic as ivcisr, M. el-M. II, 2074.

2 Heard from the TdwUn.

3Z.D.P. V. XXXVIII, 55.

4 Az^zmeh and Tdw^n tribes.

Also mentioned by Bauer.

6 I have also heard instead of dwi sidd and ghatti.

7 hlr. Stephan lias called my attention to tlie song: yd imm el-manddil,
where a part of a verse runs as follows:

naym itgliattci tibu l-mcncazMii
0, sleeper cover yourself; Libra lias arisn."


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32

jll-glitas biguglitus nuss el-bard.v
At Epiphany half of the cold dives (disappea1*s).
Therefore the rule

hen el-ghtas loiVmiladeli la tsajer qa 1
Between Epiphany and Christmas dont journey 0, quiet man!
The rain is generally so heavy in the marVaniyeh that one is
advised:

Between January and February do not sleep in your neighbours

house

;ben Mil u-sbat 'iud djarak la tbdt;.

March iadar) is the stallion of the year (fcilil is-saneh adarhct),
since all agricultural work depends on the quantity of rain which
falls during this month:

adctr fallals atlar mahalha4
March made it i'ertile (i. e. was the stallion),

March made it. sterile.

It is too late at this time of the year to plough or sow any winter
grain:

ft nisan !abb il-.iddeli n-iVfaddan
In April hide the farm tools and the plough.

People consider the 23 of April (St. Georges feast) to be the
boundary between the winter and the summer.^

On the other hand it is now the best time to work in the orchards.
in Mn biddak ilqed iEghir. fi djiiit ilrbecl
If you want the fruits of midsummer work in the week 01' the eggs.
Gradually it grows hotter and most 01' the grass begins to dry up:
ft salir iVliamis Mila ^adralin tabi^

In April every green (plant) begins to dry up. 1 2 3 4 5 * 8 9

1 This rule is not exact.

2 Another similar saying is: ben el-ghtas u-id er-rum Id tsdfir yd madjnun
Between Epiphany and the Greek feast (Christmas) dont journey, 0 fool.

3 Some use falalilid (1'rom fcilal'id) to make prosperous).

4 Heard from tlie Idw^n.

5 BetUnia.

The 1'east of Lydd (also that 01' St. George) is the boundary 01' the winter
and the summer.

According to others ulirut) plough.

8 See explanation given above.

9 Der Ghassa-neh.


33

CANAAN: Folklore the Seasons in Palestine

The following verse rei'ers to the time of the budding of the
leaves of the fruit trees:

rah is.siam Umbarak xi-adja Tul XHdnxneh
auraq Ir-rximi, xi-II-holx x1xttxxex\

Blessed Lent has gone, and Palm Sunday has come-
peaches, pomegranates, and fig trees begin to leaf.

The first cereals which ripen are the horse-beans, and many
believe they can foretell the excellence of the crops by the quality
of the

hud falha mxu (!) ;fxodl;

Take its (the years) omen from its horse-beans.

In August the grapes aVe ripe:

ft db xidhul il-karm xoatd thdb
In August enter the vineyard and dont be al'raid.

At the same time the olives develop, little by little:
fx 'xd XI-' adrd imm XX-XX1T
bysxibb X2-2et jX-2-i/n.

On the feast of the Virgin, the mother of light
Oil pours into the olives.

No sooner are the grapes over, than the vineyaids are deserted:
Ixabbar tt-tlix xi-qfxrqd xtreqoli
rctxidlx XY1natur XxjraqqX Ihleqolx.

The figs are over and their leaves have rustled down.

The watchman goes home to mend his rugs.

The summer approaches its close slowly and one must not be
misled by the hot days of the last third of September, since the
summer of the pomegranates laughs at the naked (those who go
ii m . suvatT dok>y sejl|tt xr-rx1mm&x btxdhdk ttla arlan.

Finally we may give some rules 01. sayings connected with tlie
non-agricultural life 01. the peasants:

kanuxi Id tbx bedak Ijd madyixuix

Dont sell, 1.001, your eggs in Kfinun3 (as eggs are then rare and

expensive). 1 2 *

1 From the Song of Lazarus.

2 Another proverb has (iytfalhd (babies) instead of 0i)fwcdha

December and January.

3


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34

As soon as spring begins and the flowers blossom the cold
decreases markedly and animal life gets more vigorous. The following
saying puts this trutli in the mouth of the liens:
til il-baiun u-ma bydrta
ya la, ya ^azaritna minsalabni
The flowers liave come out, and we have not yet laid eggs.
What a shame, what a rebuke (ve deserve) from our owner!
Christian women order their new summer and festival clothes at
the end of spring:

lid in.nuss fassil u quss \

In the middle Sun.day of Lent fashion and cut out (a dress).2

It is too late to postpone this work much:

ft &, btilbxs 'al.ansaralx bytmut lx)mhassarah.

She who does not dress on Whitsuntide dies of pique (vexation of

spirit).

Another saying, cui.rent amongst Clii.istians as well as among non-
Christians, is:

saf xs-sef ya naclamyt ill (xyixkasci
The summer is in its full power, oh regret of those who have
bought the necessary clotlies, (for the winter is over, and he is not

going to use them).

The summer carpet is wide), (1bsat is-sef uwsi) is an expression
alluding to outdoor life in this period of the year. Vineyards and
orchards are full of life, work is done and meals are eaten in them.

When cliickeDS hatch in the latter part of the summer they will
develop very badly, as they cannot support tlie cold, which is rapidly
drawing near:

sus tain bycikxd XI bxnxn

The chicken 01. October and November eats and weakens.
sus it-txYl bydall (xyynm

The chicken 01' the fig time continues to weaken. 1 2

1 Another variant is:

hadd eu-uuss ill! met qassi iquss

On middle Sunday, every one who has not yet cut out a dress must do it.

2 The t.wo words fassil and quss have, when used in dress-making, nearly
tlie same meaning, qasset badleh) I have bought (cut) the stuff for a suit
fassal badleli) he cut out a suit.


35

CANAAN: Folklore of the Seasons in Palestine

As the days get shorter and the nights longer, evening parties,
which vere not so popular in summer, come into their rights again:'
lad d is-sa/yydeli loen is-sclrah id3d;}(ih
Where are the good watchers (those who stay awake for parties)
after the Feast of the Lady (St. Mary)."

[I take this opportunity to correct some statements in my article
The Division of the Year in Palestine (Vol. II 3).

a) (i) I-ajracl (p. 161) stands for December and not for January.

b) jumit ir-rayayib (p. 165) falls on the Friday following jwn'it
iHiyiayyim and is not anothei. name for it.

c) jwriit in-ndbdt coincides with jam'it il-ymnacla{t) and not with

il(ilcuyyim 01. jilit ir-ragdyib ().iy

St. H. Stephan.]

3*


THE EPHRAIM OP THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

w. F. ALBRIGHT

(JERUSALEM)

MCH :;fortunate conmsion has been caused by he similarity
between the place-names Ophrah and Ephraim, the first written
with cayin, the second with alef. In the first place, they should never
have been identified, for, once such a combination is made, it persists
with the most astonishing tenacity, defying all efforts at dislodgment.
Despite the fact that thei.e is nothing in the biblical allusions to
require the identity of the two places, it has been maintained until
very recently, on the basis of the Onomasticon. Now, however, such
scholars as Thomsen and Outhe have at last seen that the Onomasticon
clearly distinguishes them, and there is no excuse for retaining a
tlieory which obscures the facts.

Ophrah is mentioned twice in the Old Testament, in such a way
as to localize it pretty accurately north 01' Michmash, though not far
north.i Ephraim is mentioned once in the Old Testament, 2 Sam. 13 23,
which relates that Absalom had sheep-shearers in Baal-hazor, beside
Ephraim. Much niore interesting to US, however, is the occurrence
of the name in the New Testament, John 11 54, where we are told
that Jesus, in order to spend a few quiet weeks with his disciples
before the Passover, left Jei'usalem, and went to a place near the
wilderness, to a town named Ephraim. Where was this Ephraim?

Eusebius in the Onomasticon places Ophrah at a village called
Aephra (sic) five miles east of Bethel. This can only be Rammftn or
et-Taiyibeh, and, since Rammfin is the Remmon of the Onomasticon
and the Mosaic 01. Madeba, it must be the other town, a large and
prosperous Christian village on a commanding height five miles
See Jos. IS 23, 1 Sam. 13 17, ancl the commentaries on tlie latter.


ALBRIGHT:. The Ephraim of the Old and New Testaments 37

northeast of Bethel. This is supported by the consistent tradit.ion in
the village tliat the old name of the place was cAfrak Another
Afrah in Transjordania has suffered the same change of name to
et-Taiyibeh, as pointed out by Holscher.i As R. Hartmann has
shown, 2 the name by a name meaning (having a name) of good omen".

The identification of Ophrah with et.Taiyibeh agrees well with all
the Old Testament passages, including one whicli alludes to Eph1on,3
also written with ((Zyin, and presumably identical with Ophrahsince
the endings on these names are practically interchangeable. The Old
Testament reference to Ephraim can be 'forced into agreement with
the same location, but the passage in John cannot be made to agree,
contrary to the general opinion. The village of. et-Taiyibeh lies more
than 2800 feet above sea-level, and is one of the coldest spots in
Palestine during the rainy season. It was emphatically not an .ideal
place for Jesus and his disciples during tlie weeks before Passover,
that is, during February or March, which the Master vas usually
accustomed to spend on the Sea of Galilee, several hundred feet
below sea-level, an altitude assuring warmth at all times of the year.
Tlie Son of Man, wlio said that He had no place in which to lay
His head, did not court the hostility of the elements, nor did He
seek inclement weather in which to test the stamina of the disciples.
Moreover, et-Taiyibeh is too prominent and accessible a point for
one of Christs purposes, to conceal himself temporarily from tlie
liostility of his Jewish foes. We must therefore search elsewhere for
a suitable location.

Eusebius and the Mosaic of Madeba identify tlie Ephraim where
Jesus went with Ephraea or Ephraim (in one place the Onomasticon
offers Ephron by mistake) a very large village twenty miles north
of Aelia (that is, Jerusalem). How Eusebius elsewhere places Remmon
fifteen miles north of Jerusalem, quite correctly, and since et-Taiyibeh
is less than two miles t'urther north, it is clear that he was not

ZDPY 29) 142.

ZDMG , 536-8.

a 2 Chron. 13 19. In tliis passage Abijali is said to have captured the
Israelite towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron from Jeroboam I. Bethel is
Beitin Jeshanah is Burj el-Isaneh, not 'Ain Sinieli (see Bulletin of the American
Schools, no. 9, pp. 7-8). It is, tlierefoi'e, evident tliat et-Taiyibeh suits the
probabilities for the site of Epliron.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

38

thinking of it- when he made his statement regarding Ephraea (sic).
We must go somewhat further to the north. Thomsen and Guthe,
following somewhat similar lines of reasoning, have come to the
conclusion that the second Ephraim of Eusebiusboth avoid biblical
identificationslay to the north of etTaiyibeh, and have suggested
sites west of Tell cAsur (Baalhaz0r).1 As will be shown elsewhere
at length, both sites proposed are quite untenable. St. John, however,
says that Ephraim was situated near the desert, so it must have lain
east of Baal-hazor, near which it is placed by the passage in Samuel.
Moreover, the Talmud locates an Ephraim in a valley not far from
Michmash. We have therefore only 'to find a valley just east of Tell
cAsur, and well stocked with ancient ruins.

In precisely the right spot there is a beautiful valley, lying in
secluded loveliness a thousand feet below Kefr Malik, a village near
the eastern foot of Tell (AsUr. The upper end 01' the Valley of
samieh is only 1400 feet above sea-level, and protected on all sides
by high hills. A splendid fountain, Ain samieh, provides water
enough to irrigate almost the whole of the wide valley, which is,
therefoi.e, one of the richest in Palestine, famous 1'ar and near for its
onions. Here also are ruins in profusion, strangely enough unmentioned
in tire Survey of Western Palestine. In fact the site is rarely visited,
because of its inaccessibility Halman was turned back at the point
of a rifle when he attempted to enter its seclusion. It contains some
of the !.ichest deposits of antiquities in Palestine, which will well
repay a thorough investigation.

It was, in 19067 that the peasants 01' Kefr Malik bega.n pro-
specting for antiquities in the old cemeteries of wadi samieh on
their own account. Discoveries were made on every side scores 01'
ancient tombs were excavated and looted, until finally the Turkish
authorities got wind of it, and suppressed the illegal digging with so
much severity that the villagei.s.still have a bad taste in their mouth,
not effaced even by the wai.. The antiquities objects of pottery,
bronze, and glass, etc.passed into various hands, notably into the
possession of Harvard University, whei.e they still await publication.
Professor Dyon was not content with buying the antiquities found, 1

1 Guthe, MNDPV 1911, 49-56, suggests Hirbet Ghurabeh, a mile and a balf
northwest of Sinjilj Thomsen prefers Han Abu 1-Hajj Faris (Loca Sancta). Both,
identifications are archaeologically untenable.


ALBRIGHT: The Ephraim of the Gld and New Testaments 39

however; he also studied the tombs, measuring and photographing.
So fai only a pi.eliminary account of these investigations has been
published. The tombs are now filled, so we may hope foi. eventual
publication of the results of' the work done by 'the American School
at the time.

In the course of the year 1922 the American School made two
visits to Kefr Malik and Ain samieh, in order to study the valley
and its remains. These two brief' visits have only served to whet
ones appetite for more. On every side there are unrecorded ruins
of interest, representing every period from the Canaanite down to
the Arabic. Above the spring there is a hirbeli belonging, as shown
by the potsherds, to the Late Canaanite. and perhaps to the be-
ginning of the Early Palestinian, that is to a period between about
1600 and 1100 B. c. A remarkable megalithic monument on the
summit suggests tJiat the spot was sacred from a considerably higher
antiquity. The tombs near the sacred spring carry US back for the
most part, as described by Lyon, to the same period as the potsherds
above, but a large number of them belong to the Israelite and
Graeco-Roman periods. The Byzantine and Arab periods are also
well represented by remains, including a fine Greek inscription from
the reign of Justinian, published some years before the war and
now in the National Museum. While the early town is represented,
it would seem, by Hirbet el-Marjameh, the late one is no less clearly
to be located under the debris of Hirbet el-Byadir, a little way
below the spring.

Since a much fuller treatment of the whole questi-on will appear
in the future, suffice it to say that samieh is in every way exactly
the site for the biblical Ephraim. Nearah or Noaran, which Guerin
wished to place here,2 lay at Ain Duq, as we know now, so there
is no other claimant. The warm and lovely wadi samieh was, tlien,
in all probability, the district referred to, John 11 54, where Jesus
spent those precious weeks f'ar f'rom the tumult of Jerusalem. As we
shall see elsewhere, the wadi seems to have played a rOle of great
importance in the dawn of Hebrew history. Erom its name, Ephraim,
we may derive the name of the tribe; the necropolis, moreover,

Cf. RB 1907, 275 f.

2 Samarie, I, 211-13 cf. Guthe, ZDPV 38, 47. Ain Duq has been excavated
in part by Vincent, who has established the identification with Nearah or Noaran.


40 Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

suggests that the original tomb of Rachel, mother of all the Bene
Yosef, lay here, at the true Ephrath, from which the tribe received
it name, hci-Eyhrathi. As will be shown in the detailed paper referred
to, it would seem that we are coming a step nearer the solution of
some of the interesting problems still hovering around the cradle of
the Hebrews. Thanks to the collaboration of archaeology and biblical
research, we may catch a glimpse 01' unexpected episodes in the
childhood of Isi.ael, episodes upon which Ephraim, Ai, Shiloh, and
Bethel are beginning to shed a long-hidden light. The childhood of
Israel already gave promise of a vigorous youth, a promise abundantly
fulfilled in the days of Samuel and Saul.


METHODS OF EDUCATION AND CORRECTION
AMONG THE FELLAuiN

E. N. HADDAD

(JERUSALEM)

WHEN we see the poor Afafn many questions arise n 0;
minds. Have they any aim in^life, or do they leave everythil

our
rything

to fate? Have they any elements of culture? Do they follow definite
rules of social life, and if they have such rules, how do they know
them, and how do they keep them, since most of them are illiterate?

They do have social laws which they keep very strictly and hand
down accurately from one generation to another witliout writing.
I do not wish to discuss the value of their methods, but to describe
some of them as they are. I do not mean here methods of scliool
education, but methods of education and correction in social and
moi.al life.

Here, for example, is an illustration of tJieir methods of teaching
iionesty. The fellahm believe that after a dying person tells liis
relatives about the debts he owes others, he is no longer responsible
for them before God, but his relatives will be responsible if they do
not pay the debts he owes. Hence they see that it is necessary to
pay his debts to the creditors after his death, even if they are
obliged to sell the furniture of their house.

Here is an illustration of how they endeavour to prevent thefts.
Thefts from mosques and welis are considered very unlawflil and
bring severe punishment from heaven. Therefore any one who has
rvood or other things to store, places them in the open air in tire
court of the mosque, where no one dares to steal them.

Should a person prove to be a thief, and has the thing stolen still
in his possession, he must give it back, and must offer atonement by
killing one or more animals and preparing a supper for the notables


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

42

who have negotiated for reconciliation. In some places, where no
mediation takes place it is customary for the thief to restore the
thing stolen fourfold. This is the case when the theft occurs out-
doors. Should the theft occur indoors, he pays in addition 1500
piastres for breaking into the house.i

Where a man insults a woman or a girl, so that she is obliged
to call for. help, it is considei.ed a great disgrace. Her shout is
called call of the victim".2 Such a case leads to a trial among the
fellalvin. The punishment of the guilty one is:

a. Payment of the costs of the food foi. the judges and all others
present. This is called wajalia. 3

b. The guilty one must report at the house of the offended party
bareheaded and barefoot as a token of disgrace, and must apologize.

c. He must besides pay from twenty to thirty pounds as punishment.

It is not easy to settle such a case, for an insult paid to a woman

is considei.ed a great disgrace. Before the trial begins, the guilty one
is asked to take an oath, in the presence of five honourable men 4 of
his family before he is exonerated. The oath taken is as follows:
By the almighty God and by the life of the One who sent the
Holy Book through tlie chief of the Pl.ophets, I have done nothing
and caused no harm to her I did not make any improper proposals
to her". If the five justifiers answer: He is right in what he has
said",6 then his punisliment will be as stated above, but if one
disagrees with the other four, the defendant is sentenced to deatli,
even if the case is simply one of attemjjted assault. The death
sente.iice, however, is modified through the intervention of honourable
men, and a heavy fine is levied instead.

In case of assault, a virgin is killed by her relatives when her
case becomes known, if the act has been committed with her consent.
The cause of this harshness is the great disgrace caused by her.

.
2
. 3

. 4



.

. 6


HADDAD: Methods of Education and Correction among tire Fellahin 43
They believe that if they do not act in this way people will look at
them with contempt and hatred.

An adulterous woman is divorced and sent back at once to her
pai.ents to be punished by tlrem.

The guilty man in this case is punished more severely than if he
were a murd'erer. Owing to the disgraceful nature of the crime its
true name is not employed, during the trial, but the euphemistic
expression, theft", is used instead. The judges know the crime
pei.fectly well, but a case of rape is treated undei* the veil of theft.

Even if the act was performed with the womans consent, it does
not lessen the guilt of the man. In any case, lie is sentenced to
death and a lieavy fine is substituted for the execution.

Tlie punishment for an assault on a woman is to pay a fine
consisting ot' animals, such as camels, horses, cows and donkeys,
mules, etc. A woman or girl has the right to receive as many animals
as can be contained in a row from the place where she calls for
help up to the last point wliere her voice can be heai.d. In the
actual trial, the amount is reduced to a sum within the ability of
the guilty party to pay.

A disloyal man, that is, one who does not submit to justice and
does not accept a trial, loses the security of his possessions as
punishment. His domestic animals may be taken away, his threshing
floors may be burned, liis trees may be cut down, and, if all these
things do not produce any effect, a lieap of stones is piled in front
of his liouse, at niglit, in tlie form of a tomb and two cartridges are
placed on it. When he sees that, he at once knows that his life is
in danger. If he accepts the trial, it is well, it' not, he will be slain.

It is a great disgrace to 'beat a woman, so the person who wounds
her face is punished severely and fined a large sum of money. If
reconciliation takes place, he must offer as atonement a sacrifice of.
two sheep, one basket of rice, a tin of semne (melted butter), five
ratls of coffee, ten ratls of sugar and four garments. To wound a
woman in a place not visible to the eye. is considered a small crime
and the woman is paid for time lost and medical fees, and is asked
for foi.giveness.

Here we may relate the following incident which illustrates the
biblical phrase. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Some time ago a quarrel took place at Lifta between two men.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

44

named Salih JUdi Khashram and Ahmed Hasan Naser. gaiih JUdi,
the youngei. one, wounded Ahmed, the elder, with a knife. Ahmed
refused to accuse him before the law courts. The relatives of Ahmed
asked gaiih if lie were ready to present himself in the native court,
and he accepted the proposal. After the judges had lieen nominated
by both the accuser and tlie accused, and the accused had confessed
his act, he was judged as follows: :Because you have raised your arm
against one who is older than you, you must either be ready for trial,
or you must leave the village for three years, wliile your enemies
have the riglit to do with your property whatever they wish, and no
one in the village will try to defend your rights. He accepted the
tlial at once. Tlie judges were Yasin 'Akle, Ismail Najjar and
Ismail HammUdi. The accused one was asked, Why did you wound
your cousin? He answered, The devil tempted me, so-1 did wrong.
He was sentenced to have his arm amputated. The chief of the
village mediated and the decision was replaced by the sacrifice of
two sheep and a repast for those who were present, as well as a
fine of twenty pounds. Then they took the guilty one to the house
of the injured party and put his hair-robe and his keffiye (liead-
covei.) around his neck as a sign of contempt. Then tliey made him
stand before his opponent and said to him, Arise and avenge
yourself, or if you wish to pardon him, the matter is left to you.
Then Ahmed got up, lifting his sword, and asked him three times,
Do you permit me to cut off the arm which wounded me? He
answered him, Yes, I permit you. Then he said to him, Go, I
have pardoned you. Then the notables of the village said: We
have fined him twenty pounds and the costs of the case.

1 Tlie trial of a murderer is described in tlie article, Blood Bevenge among
tlie Arabs, in tlie first volume of this Journal.


NOTES AND COMMENTS

A PROPOS DU MOT

Mon attention snr lhebreu a ete attii.ee par les deux passages
du livre de Job oil il figure dans !expression .

Le premier de ces passages est XXXIII, 18:

_
1

II ny a pas dhesitation poui. la traduction du ler hemistiche: (til
preserve son ame de la fosse),. La 1'osse est la tombe ou le sbeol.
II sagit simplement de preserver lhomme dune mort prematuree.

Le 2 hemistiche est rigoureusement paralieie au premier. Au
mot (tson dme repond 1 ttsa vivante, cest-a-dire son prin-
cipe de vie. Et il est clair que ? correspond a ^.
Lopinion qui a prOvalu consiste a voil dans le mot une arme
quelconque. Le targum sest contente de transcriie ?. La
version syriaque ti.aduit (tpar la perte, par la mort. (), mais,
les Septante kv !oXefio? et la Vulgate in glcidium ont ete plus precis.
Chez les modernes on sen est tenu a cette interpretation: ttfpour
preserver] sa vie du tranchant du glaive1) Le Sir)] (([pour sauver]
sa vie du trait qui la menace (Renan)') (([afin de garantir] sa vie
des coups du glaive) Jegoncl); et empeche leur vie de succomber
01 (Bible du rabbmat

Il est incontestable que le mot a designe une arme, et cette
arme etait un dard ou un javelot. Le substantit' derive de
(tenvoyer, exactement comme la latin 1nissile *trait, fleche, javelot
derive de missus, qui provient de mittere (tenvoye. Il faut ajouter
que lassyrien possede un verbe Mu *envoyer, lancer, d0U derive
precisement un substantif selu qui est glose sa kakki (ten parlant
dune a1me1. Cette arme selu nest autre que *trait, javelot.

Thureau-Dangin, Revue (VAssyriologie, XI; p. 89.


Journal of tlie Palestine Oriental Society

46

On sait que cette signification de est nettement accusee dans
Nell. IV, 115 IlChron. XXIII, 10.

La question est de savoir si ce sens convient au mot dans
notre passage de Job. Si oui, il faudrait traduire: et [il preserve]
son ame de passer par le trait. Je sais que cette expression pour-
rait se toierer a la rigueur. Mais dans le merne cbapitre nous
trouvons au V. 28:


(til a exempte mon ame de passer pal. la fosse,..

On voit que, dans un contexte litteralement caique sur le V. 18,
le mot ((fosse, tombe, sheol,. remplace

Nous sommes done invites par le texte lui-meme a chercber poui.
un sens analogue a celui de fosse. Or un passage de Joel nous
confirme dans cette opinion. Le cbapitre II de Joel decrit, en
termes vivants, une invasion des guerriers venues du Nord. Le Y. 7
montre les soldats escaladant les murailles dune cite. Ils marcbent
en rangs presses, sans se confondre. Le V. 8 acbeve la premiere
description par ces mots:

, ^

On traduit generalement: et au travers des armes ils se precipitent
sans se rompre ou bien (tet sils tombent par les armes, il ne se
rompent pas.1 Mais !expression ? apparait dans un autre
endroit, oU la signification est cla.ire. Cest dans IIReg. I, 2:

5'

grillagee. Est-ce une reminiscence de ce passage qui a permis a
s. JerOme de traduire le texte de Joel par seel et per fenestras cadent?
Toujours est-il que le mot , da.ns Joel comme dans Job, signifie
lendroit par oU 1on passe, par oU 1on tombe, et non pas 1arme
qui fait tomber.

Or il existe en assyrien un mot gilihtu, dont le sens de ((canal),
semble evident dans la plirase Hliljti sa (nciru) Baniti 1'lira ((creuse
le canal du fleuve Baniti.2 En hebreu, le mot possede une
signification analogue dans Nelli III, 19: (tla piscine du 1

1 Cf. Van Ho.nacker, Les petits prophetes, p. 169.

2 Meissner, Supplement, p. 94; Muss-Arnolt, Handwbrterbuch, p. 1038.


47

Notes and Comments

canal), la piscine de Siloe. Pour indiqner le canal par excellence,
on deforma la forme en ., qui devint en grec, Siloe
en latin. Mais s. Jean nignore pas qne primifivement il sagissait
dun nom commun, dont il donne letymologie, en le rattachant au
verbe 0\ ;)dfi epfivveveTai'
Fideie a ce sens, 1 tradition rabbinique na pas neglige dutiliser
dans une. expression typique: , ponr indiqner un cbamp
qni a besoin de travaux dlrrigation.i

Mais il faut noter qne, cbez les Hebreux comme cbez les Cana-
nCens, le canal pouvait etre C0nu de denx manieres. Tantot, et
cest le cas de Siloe, .il sagit de faire conler 1eau depnis une sourc.e
jusqua nne piscine assez eioignCe. Tantot le canal est un puits
vertical ou oblique, par oU 1on accede au point deau.2

Cest sous ce deuxieme aspect que nous expliquerions le mot
dans le passage de Job qui a servi de point de depart a ces con-
statations; I1 preserve son ame de la fosse et sa vie de passer par
le Puitsw. Le puits est le canal vertical par oU 1on descend a la
tombe ou au sbeol qui est sous notre terre. Passei. par le puits est
un eupbemisme, analogue a celui des Babyloniens qui disaient Hr
nara quil passe le fleuvew (il sagit du fleuve des Enf'ers), pour
demander quon esprit retourne aux enfers.3 !^association de
la Posse)) et de tde PuitS)) devient ainsi toute naturelle. Il
sui'fit, pour sen convaincre, de se reporter a Ps. LV, 24, oil nous
trouvons;

..

Et toi, 0 Dieu, tu les feras descendre au puits de la fosse),.

Ce puits est personnifie dans Ps. LXIX, 16;

" ?

Et que le Puits ne ferme pas sa boucbe sur moi!))

Le texte de Joel devient limpide avec cette interpretation de
. Parmi les assaillants il en est qui tombent par les puits, eest-
a-dire. par les ouvertiires que les assieges ont menage dans le sol,
veritables trappes oU disparaissent les ennemis. V

V lux, Neuliebr. unci Gliald. Worterbucli, 110

2 Incent, Canaan, 1). 26 et p. 27, n. 1.

3 Thureau-Dangin, Revue d'Assyriologie, XVIII, p. 189.


Journal of lie Palestine Oriental Society

48

Le second passage de Job, oU se prCsente le mot est XXXVI,
12, oU nous avons )) $5 Is passent par le Puits),, paralieie a
((ils expirent),. LinterprCtation nest plus douteuse aprCs ce
que nous venons de voir. Passer par le Puits est bien un euphdmisme
pour signifier ((mourir, expirer),.

Jajouterai, en terminant, que la traductipn de $ par ((puits,
tunnel, canal), me parait convenir encore dans expression ^ ((tes
canaux), de Cant. IV, 13. Paul Haupt avait deja propose cette
explication.! II faut bien remarquer que le V. 12 parle dune ((ton-
taine fermee), et dune ((source sceliee),, tandis que le V. 19 signale
la ((Source de jardins),, le ((puits des eaux vives qui coulent du Liban),.
Les canaux interviennent tout naturellement dans la description du
jardin aux eaux abondantes et aux plantes variees.

p. Dhoeme.

LA TEEEE LE LEMNOS CHEZ LES HEBEEUX

Lans son Histoire Naturelle,2 le naturaliste Pline lAncien, pai.lant
des diverses sortes de l'ubriques ou terres rouges, declare que 1une
des plus ceiebres etait la ((terre de Lemnos),: Palmam enim Lemnice
dcibant; mimo proximo. Ixcec est, multum itiqms celebrata, cum insula
in quu nascitur. Nec nisi signata mumdabatur. unde et sphragidem
appellavere: ((Car on donnait la palme a la terre de Lemnos. Elle se
rapprocbe du minium, et elle fut tres vantee par les anciens, comme
1ile dont elle est originaire. On ne la vendait que marquee dun
sceau, d0U on lui donna le nom de spbragis),. Vous reconnaissez
dans le mot sphragis le grec (Tcfrpayis ((Sceau, cachet), et aussi ((terre
sigiliee),, appellation technique de la terre de Lemnos. Les qualites
de cette terre, employee dans la medecine, sont dabord detre rouge
comme le minium, ensuite de netre mise en vente que portant le
cachet de sa provenance. Les anciens medecins, et specialement
Lioscoride et Oalien, insistent sur ce fait que cette teri.e porte
toujours un cachet. Lapres Bioscoride, ce cachet reprCsentait une
chevre. 1

1 Biblische Liebeslieder, p. 90. Lauteur, qui aime leg geng par trop realigteg,
materialige a lexcCg la portee de lexpreggion.

2 Livre XXXY, li 1.


49

Notes and Comments

Dans son fameux ((Livre des simples),, larabe Ibn-el-Beithar a
tout un paragraphe SUI. cette sphi.agis.i II cite les opinions des
anciens et.a soin de nous donnei. le nom arabe: tin maljtiim ((argille
marquee dun sceau>, ou simplement ((terre sigiliee.

Mon attention a ete attiree sur ce produit de 1ile de Lemnos pal.
un passage du livre de Job, oU il ma sembie quon pouvait reconnaitre
une mention de cette tei.re sigiliee. Cest lorsque le Seigneui. deci.it
les merveilles de la natu1e et qul insiste SUI. le level, de 1aui.ore.
La lumiere appai.ait et a ce moment la tei.re change daspect. Le
texte decrit ce phenomene de la fa0n suivante (XXXVIII, 14):
?[§ _ .

Le second hemistiche est intraduisible. Litteralement on inter-
preterait ((et ils se tiennent debout comme un vetement. Mais.
quelles sont ces choses qui se tiennent debout? Et. est-ce la pro-
priete des vCtements de se tenii. debout? Dr nous constatons quau

V. 13 et au V. 19, done dans le vers qui precede et celui qui suit
not!e V. 14, il y a chaque fois un suspendu, cest-1-dire sans doute
ajoute ap1.es coup. Et eest prCcisCment un qui a dispai.u de noti.e
2 .hemisticbe, oil le ve1.be est a lii.e {Beer), du verbe
((teindre. Le sens est alors: ((et elle se teint comine un vCte-
ment01 ., le 1.1 bemisticbe, qui est en paralieiisme avec le 2me?
signifie simplement: ((elle devient comme de 1ai.gile de sceau. On
a ete unanime a cliercber dans cette image une description des
objets qui prendl.aient du l.elief, comme si la teri.e etait marquee
dun sceau. e'est une explication des plus subtiles et qui ne convient
guere a leveil de la nature aux premieres heui.es du joui.. Mais
est rendu dans le Tai.gum pal. et ces deux
mots !.appellent eti.angement le tin maljtum des Arabes. Je ci.ois
que ((largile de sceau)) nest autre que la fameuse terre sigiliee, la
sphragis de Lemnos. Elle est clioisie comme point de comparaison
a cause de sa couleui. l.ouge. Au lever de laurore, la terre ((devient
cojnme de la terre sigiliee, et elle se teint comme un vCtementi.
Tout rougeoie au moment oil le soleil va paraitre. Cest 1auroi.e aux
doigts de lOse qui ouvre les portes de lOrient. Lauteui. du Livre
de Job, qui nest pas seulement un grand poete, mais aussi un 1

1 Edition Leclerc, dang Notices et Extrciits dca manusciitg de la Bibliotheque
Nationale, tome XXV, 1881, p. 421, no. 1488.

4


Journal of fclie Palestine Oriental Society

50

savant, a trouve dans la rubrique ou terre rouge de Lemnos limage
de cette vive coloration. Inutile done de recourii. des subtilites
dexegese pour saisil* le sens de la description.

p. Dhoiie.

THE SITE OE APHEK IN SHARON

Since the appearance of the writers papei. (Journal, Vol. II,
pp. 184189) on the sites of the vai.ious towns called Aphek, some
important new matei.ial has become available, enabling us to fix
the site of Aphek in Sharon with greater precision. It is now ,certain
that this Aphek is represented by the tell on wilieh lies the mediae-
va.1 fortress of Qabat Ras elAn, at the headwatei.s of the Naln.
elAuja Apliek is, therefore, i-dentical with the Roman Antipati.is,
and also, as we shall see, with the Hellenistic Pegae. There are few
towns wliicli have boi.ne so many names in the course of their
history:-Aphek, cil.. 2000300 B. c.; Pegae, cir. 300-20 B.C.;
Antipatris, cil.. 20 B. c._800 A.D.; Qabat R&S el-An, cil.. 1300-.

In two l.ecent visits to R^s el-Ain tlie wi.iter has carefully exa-
mined tlie remains there, as well as the other sites in the Auja
basin. The tell on which Qabat Ras el-Ain lies is situated due west
of the l.ailway station, between it and the head of tlie Auj^, so tliat
the mound is sui.rounded on tlii.ee sides by swamps. It is very
extensive, and the only reason why it appears to be low is tliat the
Ol'iginal settlement was level with the plain, and lacked the usual
liill to give it prominence.

The westei'n part of tlie summit is occupied by a rectangular
-fortress, 01. rathei. foi.tified khan, of unmistakably Ai.abic oi.igin. It
is difficult -to imagine why tlie Sui.vey o.f Western Palestine regards
it as the Crusaders castle of Mirabel, since tlie structure bears no
trace of Ci.usading activity, and the site is not suitable at all foi. a
castle. It is, on the othei. hand, likely enough that the fortress at
Mejdel Yaba represents Miraliel, as l.estoi.ed latei. by the Arabs.
While there are no inscriptions visible at Ras el-Ain, it would seem
tliat tlie fortress was built .by tlie Mamlfik sultan QilawUn (1279


51

Notes and Comments

bis 1290 A. D.), as .mar el-Barghfithl has informed me, basing liis
view on a combination 01' inscriptional data with tradition.

Ras el-Ain was ident'ified with Antipatris independently by
Wilson and Sandreczsky, as well as latei. by (bonder (PEFQS 1874,
184186). After Wilsons paper in PEFQS 1874, 192196, the
correctness 01' this view could hardly be doubted, and every yeai.
has made it more certain, so that now it is generally'taken foi.
granted, and never discussed. The site agrees exactly with Josephuss
description (Ant. XVI, 142), according to which Antipatris, built by
Herod in honor 01' his fathei', lay i'n the Plain of Capharsaba (modern
Kefr stba), in a well-watered spot, suri.ounded by groves (ccA(rovs)
and with a stream running around it. The only stream in this plain
is the Auja, which is thus obviously referred to, and the only
possible site on tlie Auja is Ras el-Ain, which is covered with
Roman and Byzantine potsherds, and formerly possessed broken
pillars and other remains 01' the Graeco-Roman age. The rather
gai.bled statements of the itineraries agree with this site better than
any other conceivable one, and the remark of the Onomasticon, that
Galgoulis (Jiljfilien) lay not quite six miles north 01' Antipatris, is
approximately correct. It is ti.ue that R&S elAin does not appear
on the map to be surrounded by sti.eams, as Joseplius says, but it is
actually enveloped on three sides with swamps, in which innumerable
springs rise, and the swamps, if drained, as they must liave been,
would become streams.

Josephus, however, gives the impression that Antipatris was a
new foundation on Herods part. This is evidently a mistake, since
the mound is much older than the Christian era. Around the edges

01. the tell, and in places on the summit whei.e thei.e have been pits
sunk 1'or some purpose there are numerous Hellenistic potsherds,
quite too numei.ous. to represent only the first two or three generations
of Antipatris. Now, Alt, taking up a suggestion of Isidore Levy,
has sliown that the Hellenistic town of Pegae must have been located
at Ras el-An (ZDPV 1922, 229-223). In our literary soui.ces,
Pegae is mentioned only once, by Josephus, Ant. XIII, ix, 2, but
this reference proves that it was situated in the central mai'itime
plain, northwest of Juda.ea, since John Hyrcanus is said to have
requested the Romans to return this region, taken from the Jews by
Antiochus Sidetes. The I'ollowing towns in tlie district are explicitly

4*


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

52

mentioned: Joppa and tlie harbors (of Azotus and jamnia) with
Gezer and Pegae. since the name TLvyat means Sources, and the
only site in the neighboi'hood of good springs available for comparison
is lias e!-Ain, the combination is only natural, and is rendered
practically certain by the archaeological indications of the site. The
town 01' Pegae was more than an ephemeral settlement, since it is
also mentioned in the Zenon (Gerza) papyri, about 260 B. c., 130 years
before the time of John Hyi.canus. It is very likely tliat the well-
known Greek place-name Pegae was given to the older Apliek
(see below), partly because of the similarity of the names in sound,
as well as because 01' the suitable meaning. A closely parallel case
is known from Transjordania, where the Macedonian military colonists
gave the name 01' their own Pella to the native Pahel (Fahil). Cf. also
modern Jewish cases, such as Hartob, Good Mountain, for Artuf.

On the western side 01' the tell, just above the main spring, the
mound seems to have been artificially scai'ped, since the slope down
from the I'oundations of the qaVdh is too steep to be natural. The
purpose of this was evidently to permit a road to skirt tlie sti.eam
above its source, since the latter is impassable below. The archaeologist
may be grateful 1'or the scai'p, which enables him to study the
stratification of the mound without making a special section. In our
visits we collected a large number 01' sherds, belonging mostly to
the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, though Middle Bronze was
not entirely laclting. The writer also 1'ound an interesting seal
impression in clay, of the pseudo-Egyptian style I'amiliar on seals 01'
the age of Phoenician syncretism (between 1100 and 500 B. c.). The
mixture of periods is naturally to be accounted 1'or in the usual
way at the edge 01' a mound nothing is commoner than to find
heaps 01' debris which have been thrown over the town walls, and
hence represent several periods of occupation.

Now that we positively know that there was an important town
at Has elAin dui.ing the greater part of the second millennium
and the early part of the first, the identification witli Aphek becomes 1

1 Alt (op. laud. p. .221) thinks that XifJLfres may be a corruption of IdfiVELa,
Jamnia. Perhaps it is more natural to assume that the names 01' the harbours
liave dropped out after Xifitves. Our suggestion is tentative the only otlier port
which, could come into consideration is Apollonia, modern Arsfif, whicli was
latei. occupied by Alexander Jannaeus.


53

Notes and Comments

obvious. The Migdal Aphek from which the Jews defied Cestius
received its name from Aphek-Antipatris because the latter was the
nearest town to the tower. The name Mejdel Ydbd, which it now
bears comes, according to an aged fellaJi of Rentis, from the neigh-
boring village 01' Yaba (now called pikerin), as I learn from Omar
el-Barghuthi, who got this information. The othei. name, Mejdel Sddiq,
is derived from an influential sheikh of two generations ago, named
gadiq, who reoccupied the site, then in ruins. All these appellations,
Apliek, Ydbd, Sddiq, are intended to distinguisli this Migdal or
Mejdel from Stratonos Pyrgos, Mejdel near Ashkelon, etc. Eben-ezer,
from which tlie Israelites defied the Philistines, encamped at Aphek,
must then be Mejdel Yaba, for the same reason that the latter
must be identical witli Pyrgos Aphek. Mejdel Yaba occupies the
only strong position for miles along the ed'ge 01' the plain, and is,
moreover, because of its situation, advanced into the plain facing
R^s el-Ain, the only rational point to be held by defenders 01' the
pass into the hills. In Roman times the road from Antipatris to
Gophna and Jerusalem entered the hills just south of Mejdel Yaba.

Recently the view of Sanda, that Aphek was situated at Ras el-
Ain, has been taken up by Alt, who further makes the interesting
suggestion (oral) that the name Aphek may have some connection
with fountain, since the tliree best known Apheks (Aphaca-Afga,
Aphek-Fig, and Aphek-Ras el-An) are all located at important
spring-heads. Since the Hebrew common noun afiq means, according
to the ordinary interpretation, stream, channel for water, this -looks
ver plausible one may also compare Heb. hefk (= Aram, nfq in
the causative) pour out.' The writer is, howevei., inclined to ti.ans-
late the word cifiq quite differently than is ordinarily done, and to
explain the proper name as meaning stronghold. lhe reasons foi.
this rendering will be given, in a paper to appear in JBL.

w. F. Albright.




Printed by w. Deugulin, Leipzig (Germany)








i

SRI

LA DATE DES EPIGRAPHES D(ARAq EL-EMIE

L.H. VINCENT, 0. p.

(JERUSALEM)

Y1c a peu pres exactement un siecle que les explorateurs
anglais Irby et Mangles decouvraieR les enigmatiques ruines
dAr^q elEmir, dans une gorge pittoresque de 1ou. Syr, a quel-
ques beures de marcbe au Nord de Hesban. Depuis lors ces ruines
ont ete decrites a linfini. Le site est devenu familier a tous ceux
qui soccupent darcheologie palestinienne et ses monuments ont ete
^ilgarises par la photograpbie ou le dessin presque a 1egal des
momies ph.araoniques. On sait quil y a, dans un amphitheatre
naturel de ce ravin, une veritable cite rupestre developpant sur une
considerable etendue ses cavernes artificielles et !installation compli-
quee de ses magasins, ecuries, habitations, reduits fortifies, galeries
creusCes dans la roche vive. En contraste- avec ce troglodytisme
savant, quelques edifices segrenaient a travers lesplanade. Un sur-
tout piquait la curiosite par son megalithisme, certaines singularites

5


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

56

de son plan, lanomalie de details ornementaux dinspiration fort
disparate mais dll fini le plus deiicat associes a maint element
execution fruste et comme inachevee.

Les erudits decouvrirent de bonne beure, dans un passage des
Antiquites judaiques de lhistorien Josepbe, une identification tres
judicieuse de cette localite. Josepbe raconte ^ue dans ia premiere
moitie du second siede avant notre ere un certain Hyrkan fils de
Tobie, un ancien fermier general des impOts en Judee pour le compte
des Lagides, ayant rompu avec ses freres, qui detenaient a Jerusalem
les charges sacerdotales et !administration du Temple, setait retire
au deia du Jourdain, dans la region de Hesbfin. II setait fait
construire, en un site appeie Typos une residence fortifiee, /3dpiv Lcrxvpdv,
maniere de palais encbante oU tout avait ete combine pour alliei. le
cont'ort a la securite.i Hyrkan y vecut 7 ans guerroyant sans trCve
contre les Arabes de la region. Si explicites sont quelques traits
caracteristiques dans la narration de Josephe les travaux immenses
dans le roc, le charme enchanteur du site et surtout son nom de
Tvpos a peine modifie et par une attenuation parfaitement normale
dans larticulation arabe e?Syr qui le designe encore, quon ne
pouvait guere hesiter a reconnaitre dans ces ruines les imposants
vestiges de !installation fortifiee du fameux Tobiade. Une courte
epigraphe en vieille ecriture hebreo-arameenne, repetee deux fois a
1entree de deux groupes particulierement importants des habitations
souterraines, venait confirmer le rapprochement etabli. On y lisait
en effet, sous la forme Tobiah, le propre nom patronyjhique de
Hyrkan.

A la verite, ces petits textes lapidaires ne resolvaient pas le
probieme archeologique des ruines, ni meme integralement le probieme
historique de leur origine. Sur le caractere des reduits souterrains
nulle hesitation netait possible. Mais que pouvait etre, au contraire,
le monumental edifice instalie a 1air libre au milieu de lamphitheatre?
Lhypothese dun temple et celle dun palais fortifie trouverent des
partisans egalement doctes, semblait-il, et egalement convaincus. Ce
temple OU ce palais pouvait-il, au meme degre que lensemble des
cavernes dans le roc avoir ete lmuvre de Hyrkan fils de Tobie?
La divergence devenait ici inquietante entre des specialistes tels que 1

1 Josephe, Antiquites jud.) XII, §§ 229-233, ed. Niese.


57

VINCENT: La date des epigraphes djfAraq elEmir

M. de Vogue, concluant a un palais dont il faisait honneur a Hyrkan,
et M. de Saulcy soutenant avec sou brio habituel qull Sagissait dun
tr£s vieux temple ammonite desaffecte au milieu de ces cachettes
troglodytiques faites a souhait pour servir de repaire au Tobiade
fugitif du second siede. Et jusquen cette tbeorie Inscription etait
appeiee en temoignage et precisement en raison de sa physionomie
archaique. Mais au lieu dy reconnaitre le nom de Tobiah, M. de
Saulcy pensait y dCcouvrir la confirmation de son sanctuaire archaique
en linterpretant la roche de Jahvehfc.i

A quelques nuances pres, les interpretations innombrables fournies
jusqua nos jours des .monuments en question se rattachent toutes a
1un ou a lautre des systemes: temple ou palais. La plupart dailleurs
de ces nouveaux dCveloppements archeologiques sont depourvus de
s6rieuse competence et demeurent tributaires des- outrages qui leur
ont ete le plus facilement accessibles. Les epigraphes, au contraire,
ne sauraient plus desormais laisser place au moin.dre doute. Quels
que puissent avoir ete, ou demeurei. a lavenir, les errements d6pi-
graphistes occasionnels trop peu familiarises avec le sujet, voire
m5me les hesitations de savants tres qualifies mais disposant dune
documentation graphique imparfaite, la lecture Cvidente de ces deux
groupes identiques de lettres est Tobiah.1 2 Ce point etait depuis
longtemps acquis par la sagacite des maitres, les de Vogue, les
Clermont-Ganneau, les Noldeke, bien que je ne sois pas en mesure
dhndiquer avec precision a qui revient le merite de lavoir etabli le
premier avec certitude.

On etait moins au clair sur la date de ces epigraphes et sur
lidentite du pei.sonnage ainsi designe. Sans detailler les fondements
de leur conviction, la plupart des specialistes reconnaissaient une
certaine physionomie archa'isante a cette ecriture, -beaucoup plus
voisine encore de larameen lapidaire ancien que de Ihebreu carre.
Le document demeurait toutefois de trop minime importance pour
autorisei. un diagnostic paieographique dont la fermete serait capable
dimposer une attribution allant a lencontre des arguments deduits

1 De Saulcy, Voyage en Terre Saintey I, 21s.; cf. cependant son Memoire sur

les monuments dans Mem. de 1'Inst. de France, XXVI, 83 ss.

2 On sCtonne que M. le Prof. Budde, Zeit d. morg. Ges., 1918, p. 186ss., ait
encore quelque hesitation sur le dechiffrement et quil cherche a lire: .


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

58

de larcheologie et de lhistoire. Au fait, larcheologie elle.meme
nosait risquer aucun verdict suffisamment fonde. Les installations
dans le roc sont en effet toujours quelque peu difficiles a classer
chronologiqnement qnand ne sy rencontrent point de formes trCs
caracteristiques accessoires. Qnant aux monuments a 1air libre,
dans leur etat present ils nautorisaient guCre une interpretation
decisive. Ce que 1oeil le plus exerce et !information technique la
plus etendue pouvaient discernei. en ce chaos permettait seulement
de classer toute cette installation a la periode helienistique, ou selon
les termes de M. de Yogiie, a ((une epoque comprise entre le siede
dAlexandre et le siecle dAuguste.1 II fallait done, en fin de
compte, se rabattre sur ce que 1on estimait une donnCe historique:
la ceiebre narration de Josephe sur les avatars du Tobiade Hyrkan.
Monuments et inscriptions se trouvaient des lors ramenCs dans
lintervalle strictement defini entre les annees 182 a 176/5 avant
notre ere.

Au printemps de 1904 la mission archCologique americaine de
Princeton University que dirigeait M. larchitecte H. c. Butler re-
prenait lexamen d cAraq el-Emir et y pratiquait une serie de sondages,
malheui.eusement trop limites pour fournir toute la lumiCre desirable.
Larchitecte trCs distingue qui se double chez M. Butler dun
archeologue parfaitement averti acquerait limpression que le plus
important edifice du groupe, le Qa?r el-Abd, sinterpreterait beau-
coup mieux comme un temple que sous forme de palais. La synthese
de tous les elements dapparence dabord antinomique observes a
nouveau ou produits pal. les fouilles de la mission eUt suggere quel-
que creation syncretiste dun art unissant le megalithisme phenicien
des temps grecs a des influences esthetiques venues plus ou moins
en droite ligne de la Perse ou Alexandria Cet edectisme hardi
,semblait ne pouvoir comporter quune periode, que Butler reconnais-
saittres finement: celle oU la Palestine fut brillante etprospCre, sous la
domination temporaire des premiers Lagides. II en arrivait meme a
suggerer avec precision le regne de Ptoiemee II dit Philadelphe,
entre 285 et 247 av. J.-C. Mais au terme de son etude, nosant
plus opposer un sentiment esthetique pourtant si motive a ce quil
tenait pour une evidence historique, Butler sacrifiait sa conviction 1

1 Be Vogu^, Le Temple de Jerusalem, p. 41.


VINCENT: La date des epigraphes d,cAraq el-Emir 59

technique a !assertion de JosCphe acceptee dembiee comme une
donnCe infrangible.!

Et la hantise de ce texte fatidique obsedait de meme sorte le
remarquable epigraphiste de la mission, Enno Littmann.2 Tandis
quil scrutait avec sa ininutieuse acribie les deux epigraphes, etait
frappe de leur trouver a son tour une allure archa'isante nettement
accentuee. Devant ce doubl.e groupe a peine nuance de lettres
monumentales, son erudition trCs avertie evoquait, comme termes de
comparaison les plus acceptables, les grands textes arameens dArabie
ou dSgypte, du VI. au IV. siede: steles de Teima, de Saqqarah,
ou celle dite aujourdhui de Carpentras. Mais tout aussitot le prudent
epigraphiste, qui discernait dans les textes deAraq el-Emir une
physionomie generale plus evoluee, sattachait a detailler les nuances
graphiques de nature a comporter une epoque sensiblement plus
basse sans oser la mieux definir. Tout au plus supposait-il que
le lapicide juif aurait adopte une graphie arameenne volontairement
archa'isante. II savait accumulei. de trCs specieux arguments pour
aboutir a la conclusion que les deux petits textes peuvent etre
attribues avec un haut degre de probabilite), a lepoque de Hyrkan
le Tobiade, les indices paieographiques etant declares trop tenus
pour prevaloir contre la donnee historique explicite de Josephe.
En consequence, il datait les epigraphes de 180 environ avant
Jesus-Christ.3

Le sujet en etait reste la. Jusqua leventualite, aujourdhui plus
aieatoire que jamais, dune fouille laborieuse poussee as'sez loin pour
tenter darracher enfin son secret a la ruine de Qasr el-Abd, il est
peu de precisions archeologiques nouvelles a escompter. LCpigraphie
semblait bien avoir livre tout ce que pourront jamais fournir les
deux laconiques inscriptions et comment ne pas taxer de temerite
ja presomption de remettre en cause la conclusion acquise au sujet de
ces textes?

Pour ecarter neanmoins tout reproche de presomption temeraire
il suffit de souligner que cette conclusion des epigraphistes les plus
qualifies ne leur a pas ete imposee par des motifs intrinseques. Bien 1

1 Butler, Syria; Div II: Anc. Arch,; Sect. A I, p. 125.

2 Littmann, Syria; Div. Ill: Inscr, Sect. A I, p. 17. Cf. Dalman, Paldstina-
jahrbuch, XVI, 1921. p. 33-35.

3 Littmann, op. laucl., p. 2.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

60

plutot serait elle en un dCsaccord relatif avec ces suggestions
intrinseques. Pour Bittmann recemment, ou pour Lidzbarski et
Cooke, tout aussi bien que naguCre pour Clermont-Ganneau je
suppose, elle leur est imposee par ce quils estiment une exigence
historique, en 1espe.e la donnee de Josepbe sur Hyrkan et ses
merveilleuses creations dans le ravin de Tyros = Ou. eSyr.

Quand on sest familiarise avec le precieux historien, on est peu
enclin a recevoil. avec une Confiance dispensee de s6rieux contrOle
ses plus categoriques assertions. Josephe vaut, en general, ce que
valaient les sources trCs disparates quil met en ceuvre et ses ouvrages,
inestimables pour nous, requierent pourtant dun bout a lautre une
critique souvent delicate.

Voici de belles annees deja que Wellhausen traitait toute la pe.tite
histoire de notre Hyrkan avec un radicalisme severe, la tenant pour
un roman pueril qui debute par une aventure licencieuse et sencombre
danecdotes plus risibles que merveilleuses, groupees un peu au petit
bonheur dans une trame cbronologique oU saccumule de lourdes
invraisemblances.i BUchler a bien pu sinsurger contre cette severite
outranciere: il na pas reussi a prouver quelle manquait de serieux
fondements.2 On a dassez bons indices que Josephe exploitait ici
une source dorigine samaritaine et brodait, sur un canevas historique
transpose dune ou deux generations un recit qu'il sefforait dadapter
aux circonstances contempo'raines de Pt016m£e y Evergete, ou de
Ptoiemee yi Philometor. On voit de suite combien precaire
deviendrait la conclusion chron.ologique deduite de son recit pour
les monuments et les epigraphes d"Ar&q el-Emir, si parfaite et si
expressive que se reveie sa description du site et de !installation en
cause.

Ecartant done pour un moment son affirmation, essayons de scruter
plus a 1'ond les deux inscriptions pour enregistrer le temoignage
quelles se rendent a elles-mCmes. LenquCte, nCcessairement minutieuse
et aride, est du moins assez breve puisquelle porte sur cinq lettres
seulement, deux fois rCpetCes avec des variations presque imper
ceptibles. 1

1 Wellhausen, Isr. unci jud. Geschichte2, p. 232 cf. Revue biblique, 1920'
p.200, n. 3.

11. Die Tobiaden id die Oniaden . .


VINCENT: La date des epigraphes d fAraq el-Emir 61

En matiere de paleographie semitique, tout ne se compare pas a
nimporte quoi. II est bien evident que, dans la meme phase
d'evolution dune ecriture quelconque, les lettres nauront pas un
galbe de tous points identique si elles sont tracees cursivement au
calame sur les fibres dun papyrus, burinees dans le metal, ou gravees
sur la pierre. Jusque dans un meme procede graphique, la gravure
sur pierre je suppose, la physionomie dun meme texte pourra etre
profondement nuancee selon quil represente le proscyneme inhabile
dun peierin sur la roche ou les murailles dun sanctuaire, lreuvre
exercee dun sculpteur bien outille operant sur une surface propice,
suivant enfin que le texte se restreint a une donnee banale ou
contient quelque emphatique commemoraison officielle destinee a la
plus lointaine posterite. A lentree des cavernes monumentales oU
il est grave avec une si majestueuse ampleur et un soin manifeste,
le nom de Tobiah ne peut marquer que le droit de propriete
individuelle dun personnage influent l'epigraphie orientale ancienne
fournit dautres exemples plus claii.s de cette prise de possession
par un simple nom et lusage en est perpetue sous nos yeux a travei.s
les rues de Jerusalem moderne par les pancartes signalant que tel
magasin est une reserve de la ette publiquew, ou un ((depot de la
Banque X ou ),.

Littmann avait done le sentiment trCs juste des seuls elements
de comparaison a choisir pour ces epigraphes aramaSantes: les
inscriptions arameennes antiques gravees sur des steles avec plus
ou moins de recherche et de virtuosite. On a vu plus haut quil
en alieguait specialement trois: les steles de Teima, de Saqqarah
et de Carpentras. Le premier texte est classe avec une certaine
indetermination aux confins du VI. et du v siede. Le document
dit de Carpentras se place au cours du IV siede, et celui de
Saqqarah porte seul une date explicite equivalent a 482 avant notre
ere, par consequent grave dans le premier quart du V side.

Avec la graphie de la stele de Teima (n. 2), oU se retrouve chaque
lettre des epigraphes d'A1aq el-Emir, la similitude gCnerale laisse
place a de notables divergences tendant a produire dans le texte
palestinien une impression plus rigide et plus anguleuse qui parait
lacheminer, moyennant une evolution deja longue, vers lecriture
carree de lhebreu ult6rieur. Le , encore ouvert dans Teima, est
ferm6. Le garde la haste superieure horizontale fort d£velopp6e


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

62

de ses origines, mais se redresse a la maniere dun daleth hebreu,
tandis que Telia !incline par le bas vers la gauche. Le conserve
les apices superieurs quil presentait dans Telia; toutefois ses hastes
rigides se recoupent a angles droits au lieu de presenter la souplesse
de courbe qui le caracterise dans Telia. Avec le presque identique,
le serait sans contredit la lettre la plus similaire dans les deux
documents, encore quelle soit droite et rigide a cAraq el-Emir, au
lieu dinflechir ses hastes verticales a droite comnie a Teima. La
difference entre le gres mou de la stele dArabie et le calcaire assez
resistant des cavernes moabitiques est apte sans doute a justifier
quelques unes de, ces nuances. II demeui.e neanmoins que le sentiment
des formes nest plus strictement le meme et quon est dans un
stade plus avance de lecriture qui vise a des caracteres de plus
en plus distincts.

Les memes observations sont valables pour la stele de Saqqarah,
(n.s 33a) si voisine de celle de Teima par sa date. II ne sy ren-
contre pourtant aucun teth, qui serait !element le plus ferme de
confrontation, et les autres lettres sy presentent avec de notables
variantes bien de nature a rendre compte de celles qui nuancent le
nom de Tobiah.

Avec la stele de Carpentras (n.s 4-4), oU manque par malheur
a.ussi le teth) les analogies sont certainement plus etroites. Le letlfi)
le waw et le he tendent a la verticalit6 des grandes hastes et aux
recoupements a angle droit. Le iod seul est ici beaucoup moins
developpO et laisse pressentir sa reduction finale a une sorte daccent
circonflexe OU de tres minime ondulation qui en fera le plus petit
caractere de lhebreu carre. On C0n0it que, dans un texte monu-
mental comme le voulait TObiah, la forme antique plus ample et
plus decorative ait ete preferee.

A ces rapprochements, auxquels Littmann bornait ses indications,
dautres plus explicites ap.paremment encore se peuvent ajouter,
empruntes a une categorie de documents analogues.

Un petit texte votif (n. 7), sur une dalle calcaire trouvee a Teima
egalement (CIS. II, n. 114) et que les editeurs classent au IV. siede,
offr.e trois lettres , et pratiquement identiques a celles dAr^q
el-Emir. Le sy trouve cependant avec une variante tres inclinee.
Ce texte ne contient ni , ni .


63

VINCENT: La date des 6pigraphes d,cAraq el-Emir

Dans le titulus funeraire du meme lieu et de meme epoque (n. 115),
la seule lettre commune, le , se compare trait pour trait aux de Tobiah.

Sur le vase de Saqqarah (CIS. II, n. 123), attribuC au ye side,
on constate un term6, un avec dCnergiques apices, mais pas de



3 a.



. 1&\4

5.



m-s

haste inferieure hoi'izontale, presque le meme mais un iod trCs
variable et pas de .

La stele du yatican (CIS. II, n. 142) du IV. siede (n. 6), na
aucun teth. Ses beth et res demeurent plus arrondis. Les iod sont
un petit ou une sorte daccent circonflexe pose verticale-

ment. Les he sont anguleux mais tres inclines.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

64

Un dernier, mais pas le moins prCcieux element de comparaison
est fonrni par les fameuses anses damphores estampiliees an nom
divin, et (n Q). La serie deja connue comprend des exemplaires
dCcouverts a GCzer, a Jericho, a Jerusalem. Des raisons que ce
nest pas le lien de dCvelopper autorisent a penser que ces estampilles
authentiquaient le volume des jarres destinCes aux redevances en
nature que chaque cite devait envoyer a !administration centrale.
A lCpoque finale de la monarchic, YIIeYIe sides, ce tribut devant
aboutir aux magasins royaux de Jerusalem, les recipients officiels
avaient pour marque un timbre indiquant a la fois la destination et
la provenance: .. All roi. Hebron (ou telle autre ville).
AprCs la Restauration, dans la nouvelle organisation thCocratique,
le Temple devenait le centre unique et absolu oU devaient converger
toutes les redevances. Inutile des lors de specifier ni le destinataire,
ni la provenance: le pays entier constituait une Communaute dont
Jahve etait le seul veritable chef. Le nom divin, depourvu de toute
determination superflue, prit, sur les nouveaux recipients usites pour
la collection des redevances, la place de lancienne estampille officielle
pour en garantir le volume.i cest seulement vers la fin de 111 siecle
que de nouvelles conditions politiques et religieuses durent modifier
cet usage. On obtient ainsi une epoque generale IV.IID siedes
pour ces estampilles, dont il ny a pas besoin daccentuer lanalogie
palCographique avec les inscriptions dAraq el-Emir.

Quand on a confronte ainsi chaque element de nos Cpigraphes
avec les textes antiques reproduits dans les excellentes planches
heiiographiques du CorRUS) il se degage une conclusion presque
spontanCe. Du point de vue exclusivement palCographique, et compte
tenu de toutes les similitudes requises dans la nature des textes et
leur gravure, les Cpigraphes dcAraq el.Emir se distinguent des
Ccritures lapidaires aramCennes du Ier side palmyrCnien et
nabatCen par des nuances tout aussi accentuCes que celles qui
ont fait intercaler a peu prCs deux sides devolution entre la stele
de Teima et celles du Vatican ou de Carpentras. Entre ces docu-
ments archa'iques !evolution graphique nest pas trCs malaisCe a
suivre pour chaque lettre. Il nest Cvidemment pas question den
deduire une sorte dCchelle chronologique de cette evolution comme 1

1 Cf. Revue biblique, 1910, p. 412, n. 1.


VINCENT: La date des epigraphes djfAraq el-Emir 65

si elle se fut necessairement poursuivie selon des proportions deter-
minees par la seule dnree dexercice. Une telle rigneur ne sera jamais
de mise en ces matieres. Si les comparaisons paieographiques
gardent neanmoins la valeur dune approximation telle quelle, il
pai.ait simposer de conclure ici que les textes d 'Araq el-Emir
representeraient beaucoup mieux les formes de lecriture arameenne
usitee en Palestine au cours du III siede que vers le milieu du
second avant notre ere.

En dautres terines, la paieographie seule snggererait de remonter
environ dun side la date des epigraphes quon a dates surtout
au nom de lbistoire. Le temoignage epigraphique rejoindrait ainsi
celui de larcheologie independante, qui eUt volontiers assigne le
monument principal dAraq el-Emir a la premiere moitie du
III. siede si elle avait pu se degager de la hantise dune attestation
litteraire paraissant lassigner un side plus bas.

II simposerait daborder maintenant la fatidique narration de
JosCphe et de la soumettre a une critique attentive, en vue de
constater si la precieuse exactitude des details si vivants et si
pittoresques consacres a decrire la forteresse-palais), car le terme
papis transcrivant larameen comporte 1une et lautre significa-
tion de Typos entraine de toute rigueur lauthenticite de son
attribution au Tobiade Hyrkan entre 182 et 175 avant notre ere.
Une dCcouverte recente, parfaitement inattendue, va nous dispenser
de cette tacbe, ou plutot la rendre singulierement facile.

En etudiant avec son admirable competence un lot de papyrus
grecs exbumes naguere au Eayoum et conserves au Musee du Caire,
M. c. Edgar y a reconnu les Archives, dun certain zenon, fonction-
naire de haut rang dans !administration egyptienne de Ptoiemee II.
Ce personnage, investi de toute la confiance du Lagide, parait avoir
joue le rOle considerable de contrOleur du fisc. II apparait soudain
sur les points les plus varies de lempire, jusquau fond des plus
lointaines provinces, se fait rendre compte, regie, ordonne avec une
autorite incontestee, sans negliger, semble-t-il, de traiter a loccasion
certaines affaires dans son propre interet. Dans une periode oU la
Palestine des deux cOtes du Jourdain est passee sous la domination
egyptienne, on na aucune surprise a y trouver le diligent inspecteur
des finances. Peut-etre meme etait-il specialement necessaire de
contrOler le loyalisme de la nouvelle province annexee, ou dy faire


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

66

respecter les exigences du fisc pnisqne le tout puissant agent semble
navoir pas quitte la contrCe durant pres de 2 ans entre 260 et 258
avant notre ere, soit les annCes XXVXXVII du long rCgne de
Ptoiemee II.

Un des documents quil avait eu le soin louable de consigner dans
ses Archives nous le montre, au cours de ses randonnees palestiniennes,
arrete un jour dans la Birtha dAmmonitide, kv /SipTCjL TTJS 1A^avtTtSo,
et troquant pour la miserable somme de 50 drachmes une petite
esclave de sept ans que lui cede un certain Nicanor cierouque de
TObias. Chacun sait que le terme de cierouque designait les colons
miliciens que !administration Lagide installait regulierement dans
les provinces de recente annexion et de preference aux marches de
lBmpire. Be menu fait ne serait done pas digne dexciter notre
curiosite si le theatre oU il saccomplit ne retenait lattention en
evoquant, dans cette region d'Ammonitide oU nous avaient amenes
les epigraphes d"Ar&q el-Emir, le piopre nom de Tobias dans une
fiipTOL singulierement apte a nous expliquer la fiapis de Josephe. II
ny a pas a tourner beaucoup de feuillets des Archives de zenon
pour decouvrir lidentite du Tobias dont relevait le cierouque Nicanor
et ses congenCres dans la Birtha. II se presente nettement comme
un ancien dynaste local eieve en dignite par Ptoiemee quand la
contree fut annexee a lEgypte. Une serie de faciles deductions que
ce nest pas le lieu de developper permet de saisir pourquoi cet
ancien potentat regional, qui netait pas de race autochtone arabe
suivant le langage du temjjs mais israeiite, devenu maintenant
gouverneur de toute la province pour le compte et par la grace de
Ptoiemee II, avait eu de bonnes raisons de sassurer une residence
de toute securite, au milieu de sa colonie de miliciens territoriaux,
alors que le siege officiel de son Gouvernorat fut certainement la
capitale de la province, eest a dire Rabbath Ammon, devenue alors
Philadelphie par une adulation facilement intelligible. Le ruse vieil
ammonite ne pouvait questimer prudent de sepremunir contre quel.que
revirement de fortune.

II sui'fit evidemment davoir signaie en raccourci les suggestions
des nouveaux papyrus concernant cette situation politique de
lAmmonitide en 260 OU 259 avant notre Cre pour que chacun ait
en memoire les nombreux passages de la Bible qui nous font
connaitre la lignee ancestrale du dynaste Tobias et sa descendance.


VINCENT: La date des epigraphes djCAraq el-Emil. 67

depuis le trop fameux Tobias du Ve siecle, ce terrible esclave
ammo.ite), suivant la qualification pejorative et indignee de Nehemie
qui causa des difficultes si graves a la restauration de la comnmnaute
juive au retour de 1Exil, jusqua ces Bene Tobiah qui nous sont
connus pai. quelques unes des plus dramatiques pages des livres des
MacchabCes.

Dans cette perspective, tout devient clair a Araq el-Emir.
Lisraeiite Tobias promu gouverneur de la nouvelle province egyp-
tienne se r6ve1e parfaitement a vise en etablissant son petit poste de
veterans presque au centre de sa province administrative, en un site
a la fois merveilleusement facile a defendre en cas de soudaine
insuri.ection et propice a une installation de cette nature. De
caractere de cette agglomeration rend compte de tous les monuments
et lepoque en justifie la physionomie. Le monumental Qa?r el-Abd
etait le temple de la colonie oU des veterans juifs et perses, se
meiaient a des grecs des lies OU dAsie Mineure, anciens mercenaii.es
de larmee egyptienne; le syncretisme esthetique dont il temoigne
devient naturel sous linfiuence preponderante de 1art alexandrin.
Au milieu de la colonie, Tobias sest reserve, comme un abri 8Ur,
a toute eventualite, les deux plus remarquables groupes des cavernes
en faisant graver son nom sur la paroi. Le nom de Birtha donne
a toute !installation et qui en definit bien la nature est celui meme
qui, peu auparavant, designait, en Egypte, Installation tres analogue
dEephantine. A ce nOm arameen correspondent les epigraphes
aramaisantes qui nous ont conserve le nom de Tobias. Leurs formes
graphiques suggeraient de les atti.ibuer au courant du IIIe siede,
en raison de leur etroite parente avec les documents arameens
dEgypte. La paieographie saccordait l.emarquablement ici avec
larcheologie methodique suggerant, on sen souvient, comme date la
plus vraisemblable du monument central precisement ce regne de
Pt01em6e Pbiladelphe au milieu duquel nous etablit le papyrus de
zenon qui vient de reveler ce Tobias oublie dans cette Birtha dont
les origines demeuraient si difficiles a expliquer dapres le petit
roman de Josephe. Aussi bien netait-il guere 'intelligible que
Hyrkan fugitif se fut trouve soudain en mesure de creer a lui seul
un palais de contes de fees et ses immenses annexes creusees dans
la roche rive, alors quil devait guerroyer sans treve contre les
Arabes, et que son activite en cette region fut limitee dans un


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

68

6tr0it intervalle de 7 ans, ail bout desquels, de guerre lasse, il se
suicida. Loin quil ait ete le createur de la puissante et somptueuse
Baris que Josepbe a dailleurs si bien decrite, Hyrkan le Tobiade
du second siCcle contraint de fuir Jerusalem revenait seulement
cbei.cber un refuge dans le repaire fortifie cree un siede auparavant
par un de ses ancetres, grace a un concours de circonstances
singulierement plus propices et que la legende probablement tendan-
cieuse avait deja deformees quand JosCphe ecrivit sa narration trop
confiante.

A lencontre de son temoignage, on conclura done, -SUI. les indices
arcbeologiques et epigrapbiques si brillamment confirm6s par le
papyrus de Z6n0n, que les monuments d'A1aq el-Emir et leurs
inscriptions ne datent point du second siede, mais furent roeuvre du
JObias qui gouvernait la province vers 260, au milieu du regne de
Ptoiemee II Pbiladelpbe. Dautres diront mieux que moi les conse-
quences pleins dinteret qui en decoulent pour lbistoire biblique et
celle du Judaisme.


ARABIC INSCRIPTIONS OF OAZA

L. A. MAYER

(JERUSALEM)

THE value of historicalinscriptions is normally dependent : the
importance of the individuals and events dealt with. From this
point 01' view the value of the inscriptions of Gaza is small: most of
the people referred to are unknown in history, and the inscriptions
themselves only tell US about the foundation or restoration of buildings
which, with one exception, have not been described by any Oriental
author. On the other hand, many buildings mentione.d in Arabic
sources are untraceable to-day. Gaza had no chronicler of its own,
as had several other towns in Syria and Palestine, e. g. Damascus,
Jerusalem, Aleppo and Beyrouth., though among the natives of Gaza
were such scholars and poets as Hasan al-Ghazzi ash-Shair, etc.

Notwithstanding this, it was for a few centuries the most important
town in Palestine. After the expulsion 01. the Crusadei.s, Palestine
became an annex of Egypt,! the centre of gravity was transferred
to the south, and the first town of larger size on the way from Egypt
to Damascus grew naturally to a place of prime importance. Jerusalem
was the capital of Palestine under the Crusaders as well as under
the Turks, but in the interim it lost all its importance, and Khalil
az-Zahiri reports that it was simply a town in the province of Gaza.2
Discharged officials often used to live in the Holy City waiting for a
new post. This position of Gaza was officially recognized by the Mamlujts
in the 9 century (A. H.), when Gaza became a province (mamlakah),
and its governor later received the official title of kafil, vicei.oy.

Clermont-Ganneau was the first to find an Arabic Gaza inscription
it was a late fragment, discovered at Shaikh Ajlin, in the vicinity of 1

1 Palestine belonged to Egypt already under tbe Faimids, but tliis dependence
was not as strong US under tbe Mamluks.

Zubdat Icasbf cdiamalik £4 d. 0\ atTan.f bU-mustalali

ashsharif by Ibn Fadl-Aliab a!-marl, p. 177. '


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

70

Gaza.1 Yeai.s afterwards Max van Berchem, n his preliminary
studies for a Corpus Inscriptionum Arabiccirum, collected tliem all
during liis repeated visits in the Near East and occasionally referred
to them in his publications, especially in tire Material pour un
Corpus Inscription Arabicarum, Egypte, pp. 222, 224, Syrie flu Sud
Jerusalem, p. 234. He contributed also a brief summary of them to
the History of the City of Gazcf) by M. A. Meyer, New York 1907,
pp. 149ff. But none of them has been published nor commented upon.

It was impossible foi. various technical reasons to ari.ange the
inscriptions in strictly chronological order, 01. even in Brof van
Berchems semichronological" order, i. e.-to arrange tliem according
to the date of the buildings and to present all the inscriptions of
eacli building together, irrespective of their age. starting with tlie
earliest dated inscriptions of Gaza, I hope to f'ollow with several
inscriptions of lesser value, finishing up witli tlie more important ones..
Quranic texts, tombstones, fragments and inscriptions of later than
1516 A. D. are on principle excluded, unless they are of special
interest. They will be given in the final edition, together with'a fuller
discussion of the inscriptions presented here provisionally.

SHAIKH ILYAS

Bounders inscription. 671 A. H. Marble lintel over the entrance
door. Himensions about 111 cmx252 cm. Four lines of crude Ayyubid
naskhi, incised characters, points throughout, many vowels and
differentiating signs. Inscription bordered by an incised frame. To
its right and left sides, an emblem. Plate 1.

1) ;*



2)



3 ; '


)



£ 11 ,Archaeological Researches


Plate 1




71

MAYER: Arabic Inscriptions of Gaza

Quran IX 18 until . Ordered the construction of this
blessed mosquei... Ilyas son of sabiq son of Khidr .. In the
month of gafar of the year 671.

L. 1--2. The spelling of Quranic words is here more correct than
in other inscriptions of Gaza, most of them bearing the same verse.

L. 4. The spelling without an alif is rare in Arabic
epigraphy, althougli occasionally to be found.

The last words are written across the lines 13.

This inscriptionthe earliest one in Gazais of little historical
interest. The founder of the mosque referred to is an unknown
shaikh at least as far as I am aware and the shrine itself seems
never to have been an important one. As there are no traces of a
mosque, in this enclosure, but only a ruined qubbeli with a built up
tomb, it is highly probable that the inscription-like so many others
in Gazahad been detached from the building it was originally
designed for, and brought hither, to be used as a lintel.

The frame of the inscription shows in its four corners a pecuJiar
ornamentation resembling very much the fleur de lis" ornament in
the blazon of. the Amir Shaikhu, on the railing of the scibil of his
Mosque in Cairo. Yacoub Artin Pacha argued that (til nCtait pas
convenable, quelque grand et puissant que fut 1Emir quil inscrivit
son nom ou ses armes sans rappeler ceux du maitre auquel il
appartenait et auquel il tenait sa puissance), and concluded, there-
fore, that the Amir Shaikhu being unable to inscribe the name of the
Sultan on this railing, il entoure son armoire du signe symbolique
que les Sultans paraissent avoir adopte a cette epoche, Ce8t-a-dire
la fleur de lis, et il les place partout autour, de ses armes comme
pour les soutenir? les maintenir et les proteger>,.2

There is no doubt whatever that the ttfleur de lis of the Mamluks
is only an imitation of the Prench one 3 and a good many Amirs
used it as their blazon and Yacoub Artin Pacha is entirely right
when suggesting that its origin dates from the victory over the 1 2 3

1 Following M. van Berchems example I translate masjid by mosque and
jami' by Mosque (witb a capital M).

2 Bulle.tin de lInstitut Egyptien, 4 ser., no. 6, 1905, p. 12.

3 Of. Mrs. R. L. Devonshire in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 35, p. 215.
The Arabic text quoted there is taken from Qalqashandi, Subh al-a'shd, vol. 4,
p. 61, 1. 20 ff..

6


72 Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

Franks, may be in Damietta.1 But tbere is no argument in favour
of calling it the blazon of the Sultans of this epoch, because the
most important Batul-Sultans had various blazons with quite other
emblems, e. g. Baibars: the lion, QalwawUn: the duck, Ketbugha: the
cup.2 Yacoub Artin Bacha himself cannot quote any fleur de lis of
alMalik an-N&?ir Hasan reigning at the time when this saMl was
built (ab. 1355 A. D.) and refers to al-Malik al-Ashraf S11abn who
ascended the throne eight years later (1363). On the other hand
the number of Mamluk Amirs who did not mention in theii. inscriptions
the name of their Sultans is at least equal to those who did, so that
it was apparently quite convenable to omit the name of the rulei..
Moreover there are, among blazons without inscriptions, hardly four
wliich have this special form of support. 3

To all the internal arguments against this theory we must add now
as an external one the evidence of our inscription, made about 86 years
before the scibil of Amir Shaikhu, with almost the same supporting
ornament, but under a Sultan who himself used quite another blazon
in an inscription moi.e than a hundred years earlier than the first
authentic fleur de lis used as an heraldic emblem by a Sultan.

The peculiar mark on both sides of the inscription raises the
question whether it is a wasm or a blazon. No
wasm published in the lists given by Artin Pacha
can be considered as identical with this one,
though no. 346 shows a close resemblance to it.4
But more than that: the wusfim have never been
used to mark anything except camels and horses.
Hence there is little reason to believe these marks
Fig. 1. are wusum.5 But there exists an exact parallel

to this emblem. The Arabic Museum in Cairo
possesses in its collection of national ceramics a unique fragment of
a vase, the bottom of which shows the very same design of our

Op. cit. p. 12.

2 Of. Ahmed Zaki Pachas interesting m.nograph Les Couleurs Nationales de
1^gypte Musulmane, Oairo 1921, p. 26.

3 Two other examples without inscriptions are the blazon of Amir T£z in
his palace in Oairo and the blazon attributed to Sultan Faraj in his sabil.

4 Contributions, p. 206.

5 Personal enquiries in Gaza seem to c.onfirm that there is no wasm of this
design used among, the Beduin of Gaza-district, at least not to-day.


73

MAYER: Arabic Inscriptions of Gaza

inscription, enclosed in a round shield (Fig. 1). Now blazons of the
geometrical classi. e. heraldic emblems which do not represent animals
are always designed on shields, and although the inscription on the
Cairo fragment is broken, the heraldic character of its design is beyond
question. Thus the absence of a shield is the only difficult point in
explaining our emblem straightway as a blazon.

In the list of the earliest known Muhammadan heraldic shields!
(see Appendix 1) we see that tlie earliest blazon shows its emblem
covering the whole field of a round shield. The next step is to
divide the shield, cutting off from, it a chief" and placing the emblem
in the lower part of it. I have no dated examples to prove that
the reverse of this, the point" cut of, with the emblem in the upper
part of the shield, belongs to the same period, but there are several
examples of this kind of blazon known to me in the Arabic Museum
in Cairo. At all events the following badges in our series show a
triple division: a fesse with a chief" and a point. The fesse is
either in plain colour 01. shows the emblem, whilst the chief and
point remain blank. Tliat is the last stage of tlie simple blazon.
The next step leads to the compound one, which we do not discuss
here. The earliest, compound blazon belongs to Jamal ad-din YUsuf
al-8tad&r in a window grille of his Mosque in Cairo.

If we consider this list, we see that the whole difference between
tlie earliest form and Shaikh Ilyas sign consists in the shield. As
the entire series of examples (wliich are not selected but represent
all ve possess) points to increased diversity, we must expect at the
beginning of the series the simplest form possible. This would be
represented by our form, whicli is found later on with its heraldic
shield. It would seem therefore possible to risk the hypothesis that
we have before US the most ancient form preserved of a Muham-
madan blazon whilst the oldest form known from the literature is 1

1 I hope to present, later on, a special monograph on Muhammadan heraldry,
dealing in full with the problems touched upon here. Meanwhile I wisli to
express my best thanks to Dr. Ernst Kiihnel of the Kaispr-Eriedrich-Museum in
Berlin, Mr. It. L. Hobson of the British Museum, and Mr. H. w. Kent of the
New York Metropolitan Museum, for the kindness with which they sent me
photogi'aphs of Muhammadan objects' of a.rt, decorated with blazons. But I feel
very specially indebted to Captain K. A. c. Creswell, one of tlie best scholars of
Muhammadan architecture, who put at my disposal his extraordinary ricli collection
of original photographs, in which I found many of the most important examples.

6*


74 Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

the blazon of an Amir belonging to Saladins army, which Yacoub

Artin Pacha already recognized as the blazon of a polomaster.i

ZAWIYAT AS-SAYYID AHMAD AL-BADAWI

Founders Inscription. 731 A. H. Marble slab over the front
door of a room to the right of entering the hall of the zawiyah.
Dimensions about 125^33 cm. Two lines of Mamluk naskhi. Many
points, a few differentiating signs and ornaments in the intervening
spaces. The inscription slab is sunk into a bevelled frame of local
stone. Plate 2.

1) ;

; 4

2)



. Qur'an XXY, 11. Made this blessed building .. Turuntay
al.Jukandarl.

Hisam ad-din Turuntay was wail of Gaza during the governor-
ship of Tankiz. Whether he was himself a polomaster or only a
freed mamluk of a jukandar is uncertain.2 Another text giving his
biography with more details supjjlies the date of his appointment,
which was the 15th of Ramadan 731 A. H. Dater on Turuntay
was transferred to Ja.bar, which he left for Damascus after the
death of the Amir Shihab ad-din Ahmad b. Baraq. In his new
position as wall of Damascus Turuntay was promoted to the rank
of an Amir of Ten, which he kept apparently until his death. As
it seems unlikely that the manuscript of gafadl will be published,
I give the text in extenso, together wit'h a copy of Turuntays diploma, 3
which may be compared with the draft of a letter of appointment 1

1 Contribution a lEtude du Blason en Orient, p. 132 cf. also St. Lane-B001e:
Saladin etc., London 1898, p. 320, n.

2 Ibn Hajar al-Asqaianl, Kitab ad-durar al-kaminah (MS of al-Azhar-Library)
s. y. . . A modern copy of tbis text m

my possession r.eadS . without..tbe final If this is correct the i'orm
jukandarl would be a relatif formel, cf. CIA, and Jerusalem, p. 218, n. 4.

3 The authencity of this diploma is made more certain by the fact that it
was composed by the author of our biography.


Plate 2




75

MAYER: Arabic Inscriptions of Gaza

for a wail of Gazai and also with the diploma of Sanjar al-jawl,2
who was discharged from the governorship of Gaza a short time
before the appointment of Turuntay.3

Tnrnntays biography: 4

;



.


C .




' .

.






' < 1

1 Qalqashandl, Subh al-atshd) V.J. 12, p. 331.

2 Qalqashandl, op. cit., vol. 12, p. 212. I translate by diploma and
by letter of appointment to distinguish between the two kinds of
documents, though this tra.nslation is quite arbitrary.

3 See his biography later on, under Jamic ash-Sham'ah.

4 Safadi, A'yan aV-asr wa-cfioan an-nasr s. V., after a copy in photograph of
a manuscript in Constantinople, in the possession of the Egyptian Library in
Cairo. I am much indebted to the liberal-minded Director of this library for
the permission to consult this and other manuscripts during a short leave in
Cairo, February 1923.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

76

. .
£
4 P
. £ -
£

£ £

.

£

!) Q
^ . £ £ .
3 0 , £ £

£ . £

£ .

3.

Tombstone. 733 A. H. Built tomb of marble, on a low pedestal,
in tbe courtyard of tbe zawiyak Dimensions 64 cm^46 cm. Six lines
of elegant Mamluk naskbi, points almost throughout, many differ-
entiating signs and ornaments. On both sides of the slab, from top
to bottom, a border consisting of a wavy line with single leaves. On
the two pillars are hei.aldic shields. The tombstone must have
fallen out of the adjoining pillars and been replaced, fastened
by plaster, easily visible in photograph. This gives the impression
that the epitaph has been brought from somewhere else, but a close
examination of the tomb proves that slab and tomb have always
belonged to one another. Plate 3.

1)

2)

3) )

4)

) .

6) '

. . This is the tomb of the Eady . QutlU Khatfin, daughter of
His Excellency the late Bahadur alJukandar . She passed away
Monday the 2nd of Rabi II. of the year 733.


Piate 3




77

MAYEB: Arabic Inscription of Gaza

For the general style of womens epitaphs cf. CIA, I, Index.

L. 3. QutlU is a very common part of Turkish names during the
Mamluk period for both men and women, cf. Ibn IyUs, Index s. V.
CIA, I, Index s. V. Nevertheless I could not find the biography of
this particular woman.

L. 4. Bahadur was an Amir of Forty in Damascus,! and died
723 A. H. ten years before the death of his daughter. The short
biographical note preserved about Bahadur fails to explain the
coming of his daughter to Gaza. Did the fate overwhelm her
during a Journey, like many pilgrims, or had she married an official
of Gaza? And if so, who was he?

Turunfay founded the zawiyah in all probability during his
wilayah, some time after 731. QutlU Khatun died 733. Is there a
possibility of solving our problem by assuming that Turuntay made
his endowment to secure to his wife a mausoleum, orwhat is more
likelythat he buried her on the site of his pious foundation? This
theory is based on an ex silentio argument, but it may be presented
as a possible hypothesis. But there are more important problems
arising from this tomb.

Tliis inscription thiOws a new light on an old problem of
Muhammadan lieraldry. It is generally assumed that a blazon with
office-emblems was used only' by the amir to whom they had been
granted, and there was no archaeological evidence to the contrary.
The only passage which could have raised doubts as to the identity
of a blazon and its bearer, was the statement of Ibn Taghrlbirdi2
quoted by every scholar writing about Muhammadan heraldry since
Quatremere, that the courtesans and other women found the blazon
of Amir AnUk so attractive, that they tattoed it on tlieir wrists.

Taken in its literal meaning this statement must have stultified
all research in Muhammadan heraldry, as it makes any identification
of a blazon, not followed by an histoiical inscription, a !priori
impossible. Moreover there are several blazons of exactly the same
design, belonging according to the accompanying inscriptions to 1 2

1 Ibn Hajar al-Asqaianl, K. ad-durar al-k^minab s. V.

vrr .

2 Alianhal cis-safi s. v. Anuk.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

78

different amirs and epochs.! However, none of the blazons hitherto
published, which have come to my knowledge, nor any of the numerous
unpublished heraldic emblems which I have seen, belong to a person
other than a Lord of the Sword, that is to say, one who could
have been granted that special blazon by the Sultan. The first, and
apparently unique, exception is the blazon of the lady under dis-
cussion. As a woman could not hold any office nor be granted the
emirate, this blazon must belong to someone else. The polo-sticks
show that the bearer was a polomaster and the inscription leaves
no doubt about his relation to QutlU KhatUn: he was her father,
Bahadur the Jukandar. We know that the offices held by a Mamluk
during his public life did not affect his blazon, which was an emblem
of his position in an earlier stage of his career according to
M. van Berchems convincing theoryat the moment he was created
an amir.2 The fact that Bahadur had died ten years before the
erection of the tombstone of his daughter proves from another side
that the heraldic emblem had become a mere symbol, the use of
which evidently could outlive not only the position, but even the
life of the nobleman himself. But if our hypothesis were admissible
and Turuntay regarded as the husband of Qutlu-KhatUn, another
and simpler explanation could be accepted: Turuntay the polomaster,
constructing the tomb of his late consort, adorns it with his own
heraldic shield, as he would have adorned with his blazon his palace,
his own mausoleum or any other monument erected by himselfi 1 2

1 E. g. the blazon of Amir itmish al-Bajashi (Weissbach, Denkm.aier und
Inschriften an der MUndung des Nahr el-Kelb, p. 46 f.) and that of Amir
Gumushbugha (M. van Berchem, Arabische Inschriften, p. 42). This blazon cannot
belong to Sultan BarqUq, as Weissbach attributes it, the Tsherkessian Sultans
having adopted a written blazon in three lines (cf. the inscrip'tion of the Khalif
al-Musta'in in the Main Mosque of Gaza), wliilst this blazon consists of a twice
repeated cup, in the fesse and point, with the chief plain.

2 CIA, Jerusalem, p. 290 and 291.


THE SITE OP NOB

EDWIN E. VOIGT

(JERUSALEM)

The identification of he Ee of Nob h^s in days past been an
exceedingly vexatious question, partly because the literary
references to Nob are not as definite as could be wished, but mostly
because archaeology has failed to give positive 'help. This study is
made not so much tor the purpose of proposing a new site, as of
bringing together the material already dealing with the subject, and
sifting it critically.

In examining the Biblical references to Nob it appears that the
earliest mention of the town is in the Pirst Book of Samuel 1 in
connection with the story of the final outburst of Sauls anger against
David. As the account goes, Jonathan, by the device of shooting
arrows over a lads head, warned David that he should flee from
the neighborhood of Saul. After the lad had returned to the village,
Jonathan and David took a final farewell, and he (David) arose
and departed, and Jonathan entered the city: while David entered
Nob.2 Brom the fact that the city of Saul and Nob are thus
mentioned in the same breath, one could conclude that they were
in the same vicinity. Their proximity seems to be further indicated
in the narrative that follows. While David was at Nob, obtaining
bread and the sword of Goliath from the priest Ahimelech, a certain
Doeg saw him and later reported the fact to Saul. Saul thereupon
summoned the priests of Nob to Gibeah, and pronounced death
sentence on Ahimelech and his house, a sentence which Doeg carried
out so as to include all men, women and children, oxen, asses and
sheep 01' Nob. Now, Ahimelech was called to Gibeah, but in
executing Sauls command to fall upon the priests Doeg slew not 1 2

1 1 Samuel 21 29,11,19 22 .

2 1 Samuel 21 If.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

80

only the priests who were in Gibeah but also all the living beings
of Nob. The women and children might have gone along with the
priests, but one would hardly expect, them to take along their
cattle consequently, the natural assumption is that Coeg, in
executing his kings orders, had no great distance to go to find the
beasts.

Furthermore, David fled to the Philistine city Gath,1 in the
Philistine Plain southwest of Gibeah. Now, there is nothing in the
narrative to indicate that, when David began his flight, Gath was
his objective, but rather that he fled, and in the course of his flight
came to Gath. Consequently, it is probably safe to conclude that
since his flight was hasty it lay in one direction, and that since he
finally halted at Gath his way led southward from Gibeah. Nob,
therefore, on the basis 01' the references in Samuel would seem to
have been south of Gibeah, and not at a great distance.

Nob is also mentioned in Isaiah.2 The text of this passage is
difficult, hut unless one makes very drastic changes it is evident that
the place to which Isaiah alludes is somewhere between Geba and
Jerusalem, and is located on some eminence from which the Assyrian
could shake his hand at the daughter of Zion. Now, the topo-
graphy of the countryside north 01' Jei.usalem is such that Nob must
necessarily have lain near it, for a short distance to the north of
the city is a range of hills of sufficient altitude .to shut off all the
country farther north fi.om view of Zion. So in order to shake his
hand at the city, apparently in dei.ision, effectively he would have to
have a position on a place where the city could be sighted, and
probably somewhere on this line of hills. One should then look for
Nob not far to the north of Jerusalem, and this passage would add
confirmation to the comments made above with reference to the
Samuel passages, for since Gibeah is unquestionably Tell el-FUl,3 the
Nob mentioned in Isaiah should lie south of Gibeah as well as north
of Jerusalem.

Finally, Nob is named in the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah, and
its location in general seems to be in the same region indicated by 1 2 3

1 1 Samuel 21 10.

2 Isaiah 10 32. ,

3 For an exhaustive discussion.of the identification of Gibeah with Tell el-FUl
see Sven Tinders Sauls Gibea (Uppsala 1922).


81

VOIGT: The Site of Nob

Samuel and Isaiali. On the one hand it is mentioned in the census
list with the Benjaminite towns Ramah, Geba, Michmas, Bethel, Ai,
Magbish, Elam the other, Harim, Lod, Hadid, and Ono,1 while in
an other list it is found with Anathoth and Ananiah.2 These last
named places are probably the modern towns Anata and Beit
Hanina;3 so Nob, being listed with them, would seem to be in
southern Benjamin.

Accordingly, the biblical material seems to indicate that Nob was
a priestly city in the southern part of Benjamin, that it was south
of Gibeah, and that it was on some point of vantage from which the
Assyrian general could deride Jei'usalem. If any weight is attached
to this last condition, we must locate it somewliere on the hills that
overlook Jerusalem from the north, or on the Mount of Olives to
the east and northeast, for Jerusalem is completely shut in by these
hills, and all beyond them is hidden from view.

And indeed most of those who have sought for an identification
of the site of Nob have looked to the hills north of Jerusalem as
the most likely place. Josephus states that Titus pitched his camp
north of' the city not over seven stadia distant,* and a number of'
writers think the camp of Titus would also be a logical halting-place
for the Assyrians. Edward Robinson thought that the city of the
priests and Scopus were identical, although he found no remains on
Scopus that indicated ancient occupations Pastor Valentiner, finding
some tombs and cisterns and some heaps of stones on the east end
of the Scopus ridge, known as es.Sadr, and thinking that these
antiquities dated at least from the time of Titus, concluded that
Nob was probably an older settlement on the ,same spot.6 C.W.W1DS0N,
arguing from Isaiah 10 32, held that Scopus would be the logical
halting-place between Geba and Jerusalem, and that, although the
direction of Davids flight was uncertain, still one would expect him
to flee southward, and as a result Nob must be on Sc0pus.7 Driver 1 2 4 6 7

1 Ezra 2 20 = Nell. 7 33.

2 Neh. 11 32.

Of. Buhl, Geography, p. 167, for the site of Ananiah. (Ananiah is probably
Bethany 5 see Bulletin of the American School) No. 9, pp.8-i0.-w. F. A.)

4 Josephus, Irs V, ii, s.

> In Bush, Biblical Researches in Palestine, 14..

6 Pastor Valf.ntiner, z. D. M. G., XII, 161170.

7 Cl. Wilson, p. E. F. Q., 1875, 9496.


Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

82

agrees with these conclusions, though he observes that this site may
he too close to the Jebusite fortress.i In the history of Sauls
activities there is no indication that there was any enmity between
him and the Jebusites, so that a Hebrew settlement on Scopus may
well have been possible, for it must be remembered that the Jebusite
fortress was not as far north as the present Jerusalem, and that
Mount'Zion (Ophel) is at least two miles from Scopus. Consequently,
on the basis of the literary sources Scopus would be a perfectly
possible site, but, at Robinson already noticed in his time, there are
no indications of ancient occupation on Scopus. It is impossible to
date the building stones lying about, and as for the cisterns and
tombs they appear to be Roman, but certainly not older that Jewish
-times. In addition the Scopus ridge is covered with tessarae of a
very fine quality which shows unmistakably that they are of Roman
date. 'However, there is nothing on the hill that is older, and in
view of the absence of early potsherds when every other ancient site
in Palestine has quantities of potsherds scattered about, it becomes
practically impossible to place Nob here.

Conder, on the other hand, thinks that Nob was located where
the modern village Sa'fat stands.2 On the basis of Nehemiah 11 32,
where the towns Anathoth, Nob and Ananiah are named, he thinks
that, since Nob is mentioned between Anathoth and Ananiah, it
should lie between the two, and since they correspond to Anata and
Beit Hanina, Sa'fat, which lies between them, is the logical place
for Nob. He finds further reasons for the identification in his
suggestion that Safat has the same meaning as Nob) while it is in
full sight of Jerusalem, and on the direct route from Geba to
Jerusalem. Geikie also makes the same identification.3 In addition
he looked around in Sa'fat, and found the ruins .of a Moslem shrine
and the remains of a few ancient buildings, which indicated to him
that it might have been an ancient holy place.

Taking up these points. Driver says, with reference to the first,
that thei.e is no etymological basis for thinking that Nob can mean
high place. Further, only some of the highest buildings of Jerusalem
can be seen from Safat, which is almost hidden from view by the 1 2 3

1 s. i Driver, Hastings D. B.j III, 557.

2 C.N.ER, p. E. E. Q., 1875, 183 f.

3 Geikie, Eoly Land and the Bible1 vol. II, p. 158.


83

VOIGT: The Site of Nob

Scopus range. Again as to being on the direct route, it was pointed
out some time ago 1 that there is an ancient road leading from Jeba'
southward west of Hizmeh, and thence southwest, joining the present
Nablus road south of Sa'fat. This is an excellent route, for it avoids
the deep wadis to the southeast of er-Ram, and seems, therefore,
the most probable route for the Assyrian. Consequently, Sa'fat is
not very happily located with reference to it, and the Assyrian
general .would have to l.etrace his route and turn back to the north
in order to make Sa'fat a stopping pla.ce. Also, with reference to
its being a conspicuous point, there are some half a dozen other
points in the immediate neighborhood that are more conspicuous.
And, finally, the same difficulty applies to Sa(fat as to Scopus; it
has no pre-Roman remains.2 The well which Geikie speaks of is
absolutely no proof of antiquity, for the Moslems build new shrines
continually. Hence, the identification of Nob with Sacfat seems
unlikely, even less likely than Scopus because of the fact that Sacfat
lies away from the road.

Smith, Nowack and Holzher in their commentaries on Samuel
all agree that Nob must lie somewhere north 01'Jerusalem, but they
do not make a definite suggestion. Duhm, Marti and Gray in
commenting on Isaiah 10 32 do likewise. As a result, it appears that
there is a considerable group of scholars who, on the basis of the
literary sources, expect Nob to be in the northern vicinity of
Jerusalem. But as has been pointed out, the archaeological evidence
is negative, and all the definite suggestions that have been made
lack this confirmation, needed to carry final conviction.

On. the other hand, there are several writers who look for Nob
in another part of Palestine. Birch suggests that Nob is identical
with Almon, modern Admit, a mile or so northeast of Anata.3 His
reasons are that Nob was a priestly city, whose name was apparently
lost on account of its destruction by Saul. Now there are only two
priestly cities belonging to Benjamin, Gibeon and Almon, and since
it can not have been Gibeon, it must have been Almon. 'Almit is 1 2 3

1 Pere Federlin, R. B.j 1906, 266-273.

2 (The name is not Arabic, and may well be a corruption of *Safat 01 *Bet-
Safdt. That there was a Byzantine town here seems to be shown by the ruins
of a basilica in the village.W. F. A.)

3 w. F. Birch, p. E. F. Q., 1877, 5160.


Journal of 1 Palestine Oriental Society

84

completely hidden from Jerusalem so Birch must have left the
Isaiah reference out of consideration. The site, also, is northeast
01' Giheah, so tliat David when fleeing from Gibeah started northeast-
ward and made a great detoui. before coming to Gath. These con-
siderations, unless one looks for a differe-nt Nob for every Biblical

l.eference, make this identification out of the question.

Moreover, the writer of the article on Nob in the Encyclopedia
Biblica does away with Nob entirely, and combines it with Gibeon.i
He says: (a) that there is no reference to Nob in the lists of the
priestly cities, nor in the Talmud except in one reference tliat cannot
rel'er to a Benjaminite place, nor in modern Palestinia.n topography
(b) that Nehemiah 11 32 is a composition of the cln.onicler suggested
by Isaiah 10 32, in which Nob is a coiruption and does not really
occur (c) that in the accounts in Samuel the occurrence of at the
end of tlie word, where it cannot be in the locative or directive
sense, suggests that tlie word is corrupt, and should be corrected
to or . Consequently, the place is without question
Gibeon, and this in turn explains why the Gibeonites demanded
vengeance from David on the sons of Saul.2 To this theory Gregg
also subscribes.3

Obviously, the Isaiah passage is the storm centre. The Hebrew
reads smoothly enough, and it seems strange that the translator
should have rendered as kv 0. Either there lias been a
corruption in the text or the translator blundered. It is most
probably tlie former, for the fact that the Greek reading is without
the article would indicate a slavishness in translation tliat the
translator of Isaiah does not show elsewhere,4 and the original kv vofio)
has been corrupted into kv 68(0; a most natural corruption after the
second V had been lost by haplography. At any rate the awkward
Greek kv 68(0 indicates that there is something wrong with the Greek
rather than with the Hebrew, and there does not seem to be
sufficient ground to question the M^ssoretic text. Then, with
reference to the use of after Nob, contrary to the opinion of the 1 2 3

1 Enc! Bib.) vol. Ill, col. 3429 f.

2 2 Samuel, ch. 21.

3 A. j. Gregg, p. E. F. Q., 1899, 128.

\ For further indications of the freedom with which the Greek translates
Isaiah see chs. 4515, 44 6ff., 41 9ff


85

VOIGT: The Site of Nob

writer of the article, its use can be considered as directive after ,
for in at least three other instances the writer of Samuel makes use
of the same construction with other place-names. 1 So there seems
to be no need, therefore, for lengthening Nobeh into Gibeon, and the

l.easons for identifying Nob witli Gibeon fall away.

Finally, a number of writers, especially Pere Dhorme2 and
Guerin,3 following Saint Jer0me,4 think tliat Nob is to be found at
the modern town Peit Nuba, which lies in the Shepheleh about
thirteen miles northwest of Jerusalem. Now, of course, if a tradition
in Jeromes time existed, placing Nob at Beit Nuba, it deserves
careful consideration. Or was Jerome misled by the similarity
between the names, and by the fact that there wa.s no place in
southei.n Benjamin that even appi.oximated the name Nob? One
hesitates to sit in judgment on Jeromes reasons for his annotation
concerning Nob. And yet the remains to be found at Beit Nuba
comprise only the ruins of a crusading church and some ancient
stones and cisterns of uncertain age.5 On the basis of these one
can hardly presuppose a town of the antiquity of Nob. Further,
those who follow Jerome create a difficulty by distinguishing Beit
Nuba as the city of the priests whom Saul put to the sword from
the Nob of Isaiah and Ezra-Nehemiah, wliich they regard as another
place north of Jerusalem. As has already been pointed out above,
the biblical sources as they stand seem to imply only one Nob, and
it is only on the word of Jerome, who gives no reasons, that these
scholars seek to place Nob near Lydda. On the whole it seems
that in this instance St. Je10me is at variance with the biblical
material, that Beit Nuba is too far from Gibeah for the incident of
the priests execution to have been narrated as it was, and that it
is in the wrong direction. Consequently one feels some hesitation in
accepting Beit Nuba as the priestly town and in giving up the
problem of finding the other Nob north of Jerusalem.

Thus it appears that none of the sites proposed is free from 2 3 4

\ Cf. 1 Sam. 26 3, 2 Sam. 17 24, 19 16.

2 pere Dhorme, Samuel, p. 192.

3 GuErin, Judee, vol. 1, pp. 285-290, 314f.

4 Si. Jerome, Ep. ad Eustoch 85, and Ep. Pauli

Cf. GuErin, op. cit., and Clermont-Ganneau, Archeological Researches in
Palestine, vol. II, p. 71.


86 Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society

difficulties. Scopus is without signs of pre-Roman habitation. Sa'fat
has no remains of great antiquity nor is it well located topographically
and geographically. The attempts to combine Nob with Almon or
with Gibeon seem to be out of the question entirely. The location
of Nob at Beit Nuba, whde it may conceivably be squared with the
material in Samuel, still leaves the problem only half solved, and
the most difficult part remains.

During my stay in Palestine, 1922-1923, at the American School,
all of this country has again been carefully investigated, and. every
hill from which the Assyrian might conceivably have shaken his hand
at the daughter of Zion, has been carefully examined. The results
were all negative, since the entire neighbourhood is barren of remains
that date from the Early Israelite Period. A further suggestion
may, however, be made, pere Vincent kindly told me that some
twenty-five years ago when the Germans dug the foundations for the
Augusta Viktoria Stiftung, a German Evangelical hospice on the
first crest north of the Mount of Olives, now serving as the Palestine
Government House, they found a cistern, the foundations of a small
building, some pieces of mosaic probably of Christian times, and
some potsherds of the Persian Period.i The fragments of pottery
of the post-exilic period indicate that this is the oldest occupied site
in the neighborhood, four or five hundred years older than the other
places north of Jerusalem that have been referred to above. If this
were Nob it would be contemporaneous with tlie time of Ezra and
Nehemiah, and the occurrence of Nob in these sources would then
be a matter of course. Now, as to the earlier place, that of the
time of Samuel and Isaiah, one is reminded of Davids flight from
Jerusalem at the time of Absaloms rebellion and the narrative:
And it came to pass when David came to the top (of the ascent
of the Mount of Olives) where it was customary to worship God,2
which appears to show that there was a shrine, probably near the
place where the post-exilic potsherds were found. The nomenclature
in Samuel is by no means certain, and the Ascent of Olives may
not necessarily have applied at tliat time only to one crest as in 1 2

1 Pere FedepwLin, in the periodical La Terre Sainte gives a brief description
01' these remains.

2 2 Samuel 15 32.