In A. D. 1182, Rainald of Chatillon, then lord of Kerak, made his unsuccessful expedition against Ailah; and in both the following years, (1183, 1184,) sustained the terrific assaults of Saladin against Kerak itself. Yet that Sultan, the year after his recapture of Jerusalem, became also master (in 1188) both of Kerak and of Shôbek, each after a long siege.2 Thus terminated the dominion of the Franks over this territory. The fortress of Kerak continued to be a stronghold of the Saracens; and fifty years later, its Emîr David was able to seize for a time upon Jerusalem.3

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

1) See above, Vol. I. pp. 237, 252.-Will. Tyr. XXII. 28-30. Bohaedd. pp. 58, 59. Abulf. Ann. Musl. ad A. H. 580. Wilken ib. III. ii. pp. 236, 246.

2) Gauf. VinisaufI. 15. Bohaedd. pp. 88, 90. Abulf. Annal. ad A. H. 584. Wilken ibid. IV. pp. 244, 245,

247.

3) See above, Vol. I. p. 470. 4) Volney Voyage en Syr. c. 31. Tom. II. p. 317. Par. 1787.

5) Zach's Monatl. Corr. XVIII. p. 433, seq. Seetzen heard at Kerak the name Bedra as of a place a day's journey further south; ib. p. 434. But he admits, that this was told him only in reply to a direct inquiry on his part after Petra; and in the absence of all further testimony, no weight can be laid upon this information. See the remarks in Vol. I. p. 165.

6) Ibid. XVII. pp. 133–139.

for Burckhardt, first to traverse the country in 1812 from Kerak to the southern Wady Ghŭrundel, and to explore the wonders of Wady Mûsa. He was followed in the same direction in 1818, by Messrs. Bankes, Legh, Irby and Mangles. Ten years later, Laborde and Linant first penetrated in 1828 from 'Akabah to Wady Mûsa; returning by a more easterly route through the mountains.

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

South of Wady el-Môjib, and six or eight miles N. of Kerak, are the now unimportant ruins called Rabba, about half an hour in circuit, exhibiting the remains of a temple and several Corinthian columns.1 This unquestionably was the site of the Rabbath Moab of the early centuries, the Areopolis of the Greeks, an episcopal see of the Third Palestine; which after the destruction of Petra became the metropolitan city of that region. In still earlier times it was the Ar of Moab, mentioned in the Old Testament.?

In Kerak itself we have the ancient Kir Moab of the Old Testament; which already in the Chaldee version and the Greek of the Apocrypha, appears in the form Kerakka Moab and Characa.3 Under this

1) Seetzen ibid. XVIII. p. 433. Burckhardt p. 377. Irby and Mangles p. 456, seq.-According to Burckhardt, the distance from Kerak is three hours or more. Irby and Mangles give it at about two hours.

2) Isa. xv. 1. Num. xxi. 28. Hieron. Comm. in Jes. xv. 1, “Hujus metropolis civitas Ar, quae hodie ex Hebraeo et Graeco sermone composita Areopolis nuncupatur," etc. Onomast. art. Moab: Porro ipsa civitas (Areopolis),

Xápaxa.
wall or fortress.-2 Macc. xii. 17,
Χάρακα.

latter name, more or less corrupted, it is mentioned by Ptolemy and other writers both ecclesiastical and profane, down to the centuries before the crusades.' The crusaders found the name extant, and erected the fortress still known as Kerak. But their knowledge of ancient geography was here also at fault; and as in the West they found the site of Beersheba at Beit Jibrîn, so here they held Kerak to have been once the ancient capital of Arabia Petraea, and gave it therefore the name of Petra Deserti. They established here in A. D. 1167, a Latin bishopric of Petra, which continued for some years; and the name and title remains in the Greek church until the present day.3

In Tufîleh we may probably recognise the ancient Tophel, once mentioned in the Old Testament in connexion with the 'Arabah. The radical letters and the signification are the same both in Hebrew and Arabic.1

The place el-Busaireh, two hours and three quarters south of Tufîleh, seems to bear in its name decisive tokens of antiquity. It is now a village of about fifty houses situated on a hill, on the top of which is a small castle.5 The Arabic form Busaireh is a diminutive of Busrah, the present Arabic name of Bozrah in Hauran, the Bostra of the Greeks and Romans; which latter has been regarded as a city of the Edo

1) Ptol. IV. 17. Reland Pal. pp. 463, 705. Gesenius Comm. zu Jes. xv. 1.-For the ecclesiastical Notitiae, see Reland pp. 215, 217. Of the two later Latin Notitiae, one has Karach and the other Kara; ib. pp. 223, 226. Burckhardt mistook this last, Kara, for a different name and a distinct place; which he then finds in el-Kerr, a site with ruins south of Wady el-Ahsy; Travels p. 401.

2) Will. Tyr. XI. 26. XV. 21. Jac. de Vitr. c. 96. Comp. above, p. 565, Note 4. This form of the name the crusaders took from the

Vulgate, which in Isa. xvi. 1, reads "Petra deserti,” instead of Sela.

3) Will. Tyr. XX. 3. Jac. de Vitr. c. 56. Le Quien Oriens Christ. III. p. 1305. Burckhardt's Trav. p. 387. See above p. 90.

4) Deut. i. 1. The identity of Tophel and Tuf'ileh affords an easy explanation of this very difficult passage, to which I shall again recur. I am indebted for the suggestion to Prof. Hengstenberg of Berlin.

5) Burckhardt's Travels p. 407. Irby and Mangles p. 443.

mites, though lying far beyond the limits of their territory. But the name el-Busaireh affords reason to that another Bozrah lay here within the prosuppose, per limits of Edom; and was for a time the capital of the country. This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact, that in Scripture, Bozrah is so often coupled with the land of Edom itself; while the prophet Amos speaks of it expressly in connexion with the land of Teman or the South.2 Further, both Eusebius and Jerome mention a Bozrah as existing in their day in the mountains of Idumea, distinct from the northern Bozrah. In this way, as it seems to me, we are relieved from the incongruity, of supposing the chief city of the Edomites to have lain at the distance of several days' journey away from their territories.*

Proceeding further South, we find Ghurundel, the ancient Arindela, as already described.—In Dhâna, a village visited by Burckhardt, on the declivity of a mountain north of Wady el-Ghuweir, we probably have the site of the ancient Thana or Thoana, assigned by Ptolemy to Arabia Petraea, and marked also apparently on the Peutinger Tables.-Shôbek corresponds to no known ancient place; though we find in the Old Testament both Shobach and Shobek as the

1) So Gesenius Comm. zu Jes. xxxiv. 6. Lex. Hebr. art. Rosenmüller Bibl. Geogr. II. ii. p. 23, seq. See Reland Pal. p. 665, Burckhardt 226. seq. P.

2) Isa. xxxiv. 6. lxiii. 1. Jer. xlix. 13, 22. Am. i. 12, "But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah."

3) Onomast. art. Bosor.-The conjecture of Burckhardt, that elBusaireh is the ancient Psora, an episcopal see of the Third Palestine, rests on an error in one of the ecclesiastical Notitiae, which reads "Mamo, Psora," in two words, where all the others read Mamo

psora or Mamapson; Reland p. 217, comp. p. 215, 223, 226. See Burckhardt p. 407.

4) A Bozrah is once mentioned among the cities of Moab; Jer. xlviii. 24. This was not improbably the same; since the possession of particular cities often passed from one hand to another in the wars of adjacent tribes. See 2 Chr. xx. 23. Am. ii. 1. So too Sela, Isa. xvi. 1, comp. 2 K. xiv. 7. See Gesenius 1. c.

5) See p. 496 above.

6) Ptol. V. 17. Reland P. 463. The Peutinger Tables have Thorma, probably a corruption. See Burckhardt p. 410.

names of persons.'-Ma'ân, the well-known town on the route of the Syrian Haj, nearly east of Wady Mûsa, is with good reason assumed as the probable seat of the Maonites mentioned in the Scriptures. Abulfeda describes Ma'ân (from Ibn Haukal) as inhabited by the Ommiades and their vassals.3-About six hours South of Ma'ân and Wady Mûsa, lies Úsdakah, a fine fountain, near which is a hill with extensive ruins of an ancient town, consisting of heaps of hewn stones. Both the name and situation correspond to the Zodocatha of the fifth century; which is also marked in the Peutinger Tables, under the form Zadagatta, at eighteen Roman miles south of Petra.*

One other town in this region, el-Humeiyimeh, is described by Abulfeda (quoting from Ibn Sa'id) as the native place of the Abbassides. Its ruins still remain, and were visited by Laborde, on the plain east of the mountains, considerably south of the southern Wady Ghurundel, and north of the head of Wady el-Ithm. The ruins are very considerable; but without any traces of architectural splendour. There was an aqueduct leading to it for a long distance from the North; and the place itself was full of cisterns, now broken and abandoned in the midst of a desert."

1) Shobach 2 Sam. x. 16, 18. Shobek pi Neh. x. 24.Burckhardt suggests, that Shobek may have been the castle Carcaria of Eusebius and Jerome, one day's journey from Petra. But this notice is too indefinite to bear out the supposition. Onomast. art. Carcar. Burckhardt p. 416. 2) Judg. x. 12

Maonites. 1 Chr. iv. 41, and 2 Chr. xxvi. 7 Mehunims. They are spoken of in connexion with the Amalekites and Arabians. The form Ma'ân has no relation to the name Teman. See Seetzen in Zach ib.

XVIII. p. 381. Burckhardt's Trayels p. 437. Gesenius Lex. Heb. art., and Notes on Burckh. p. 1069. Rosenmüller's Bibl. Geogr. III. p. 83.

3) Abulfed. Tab. Syr. ed. Kohler p. 14.

4) Notit. Dignitat. ed. Panciroli p. 216. Reland Pal. p. 230. See Burckhardt's Travels p. 435.

5) Abulfedae Tab. Syr. p. 14. Laborde writes the name Ameimé; Voyage en Arab. Petr. p. 62.(217.) -The Macbert el-Abid of Laborde is probably the Khurâbet (ruins) el-'Abid of our lists; ibid. p. 63. (218.)