8AMARCAND 



SAMARIA 



131 



schools. A fort and a coast-battery provide defenc 

 for the town. The river is silted up at its mouth 

 but a canal, constructed in 1879, serves as a bar 

 bour. The roadstead is exposed during the wes 

 monsoon. Pop. 69,894. The residency has an area 

 of 1998 sq. ra. and a pop. of 1,376,806, and produce 

 rice, coffee, sugar, tooacco, and timber. 



Samarkand, a city of western Turkestan 

 stands in the valley of the Zerafshan, about 4 miles 

 S. of that river, and amongst the western spurs 

 of the Tian-Shan Mountains, 130 miles E. by S 

 of Bokhara and 150 miles N. by E. of Balkh in 

 Afghanistan. It is the ancient Marcanda, the 

 capital of Sogdiana, which was taken and destroyet 

 by Alexander the Great. It was again captured in 

 712 A.D. by the Arabs, who supplanted the Gneco 

 Bactrian civilisation, of which it was the centre 

 by the creed and customs of Islam. Ever since 

 .that time it has been a sacred city in the eyes 01 

 the Moslems, especially after the conqueror Timur 

 made it the capital of his kingdom in the 14th 

 century. It had, however, suffered terribly from 

 Genghis Khan, who took it (1219) and destroyed 

 three-fourths of its half a million inhabitants. In 

 Timur's time it had a population of 150,000. Its 

 best and handsomest buildings, as the Ulug-beg 

 madraxa or College, the tomb of Timur, the tombs 

 of his wives, the gigantic stone he used as a throne 

 from which to dispense justice, and his audience-hall, 

 date from the reign of the great conqueror or his 

 immediate successors. The Ulug-beg, the graves 

 of Titiiur and his wives, as well as the tomb of one 

 of the Prophet's companions, and two other colleges, 

 the Til la Kari and Sliir dar, both dating from the 

 beginning of the 17th century, are magnificent 

 structures, grandly decorated with arabesques, 

 enamelled tiles of different colours, marble pave- 

 mente, inscriptions in gold, and similar rich orna- 

 mentation. In the 15th century Samarcand was 

 renowned as a school of astronomy and mathe- 

 matics. After the decay of Timur's empire the 

 city had a chequered history, figuring in most of 

 the wars that raged in that region, until at last it 

 fell into the hands of the emirs of Bokhara, from 

 whom it was taken by the Russians in 1868. They 

 have established themselves in the citadel, built 

 on a steep hill 4 miles in circuit, and have laid 

 out a new town, with broad and handsome 

 streets, to the west of it On the other side of 

 the citadel is the old city, walled, with dark and 

 narrow streets, and dirty houses. The ruins of 

 still more ancient Sanmrcands extend for 3 miles 

 or more to the west and north of both the Russian 

 and the native town. Since 1888 Samarcand has 

 been connected by rail with Merv and the Caspian 

 Sea, and by telegraph with Bokhara. Pop. of the 

 ;-ity (1897) 54,900, mostly Tajiks and Uzbegs 

 (Sarts), with a strong garrison of Russians. The 

 people cany on gardening, their gardens being 

 irrigated by water drawn off from tlie Zerafshan, 

 and the manufacture of textiles, harness, gold and 

 silverwares, leather, pottery, boots, &c., and con- 

 duct a brisk trade in cotton, silk, fruits, wheat, 

 -tit, and horses. 



Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom 

 of Israel, after Israel ( the ten tribes ) and Judah 

 became two independent states. It was founded 

 by Oinri, on a commanding site, about 5 miles 

 N W. of Shechem, and near the middle of Palestine. 

 It stood on the long flat summit of an isolated hill 

 (1450 feet), that was reached by a succession of 

 terraces, and itxelf commanded a magnificent view 

 on all sides. Consequently it was easy to make 

 it a place of considerable strength; the Syrians 

 Indeed laid siege to it unsuccessfully more than 

 once during the following reigns. But about 721 

 B.C. it fell before the three years' persistency of 



the Assyrian monarchs, Shalmaneser and Sargon. 

 These potentates carried away nearly all the 

 Hebrew inhabitants of Samaria and the country 

 of the Israelites, to which it had by then given 

 its own name, captive into Babylonia. In their 

 place they sent Assyrian colonists, from Babylon 

 Hamath, Sepharvaim, and Cuthah ; hence the 

 Jews call the Samaritans ' Cuthfeans.' The new 

 settlers, whilst retaining a good deal of their 

 heathen forms of worship, adopted many of the 

 characteristic religious practices and beliefs of 

 the remnant of the Israelites amongst whom they 

 dwelt. When the Jews returned from the Cap- 

 tivity and set about the rebuilding of the temple 

 under the leadership of Ezra, the Samaritans came 

 desiring to participate in the work. But the Jews 

 rejected their assistance, and would not permit 

 them to have any part or share in the revival of 

 the worship of Jehovah, on the ground that they 

 were unorthodox and condoners of idolatry. This 

 of course caused an estrangement between the 

 two sections of the nation, and the Samaritans 

 tried to prevent the Jews from fortifying their new 

 city. TFie breach seems to have grown suddenly 

 wider after the expulsion in 432 B.C. from Jeru- 

 salem of a member of the high priest's family and 

 a son-in-law of Sanballat, the civil governor of the 

 Jews. Not many years later the Samaritans, 

 augmented from time to time by numbers of rene- 

 gade Jews, built (409 B.C.) on Mount Gerizim be- 

 yond Shechem a sanctuary to Jehovah intended 

 as a rival to the temple at Jerusalem. This con- 

 verted them into bitter enemies, so that hencefor- 

 ward, at all events for very many years, the 'Jews 

 had no dealings with the Samaritans,' and the 

 Samaritans none with the Jews. At some time 

 during the growth of this enmity between the two 

 peoples, the Samaritans introduced the revised 

 Pentateuch of Ezra as their religious code-book, 

 and became extremely strict and puritanical in 

 the observance of its laws. Of the prophets and 

 other historical books of the Old Testament they 

 had no knowledge. Thus they began a separate 

 religious development from that of the Jews. In 

 contrast to the Jews, they had no belief in the 

 resurrection or in a Messiah, and gave no tithes 

 to their priests ; but in common with the Jews, 

 especially the Talmudic sects, they practised cir- 

 cumcision, observed the Sabbath, kept up syna- 

 gogues, and entertained beliefs as to the existence 

 of demons and other superstitions. Yet they never 

 made much real headway ; and at the present day 

 there do not survive more than 150 of them, 

 collected at Nablus, the ancient Shechem. The 

 Samaritan language is an archaic Hebrew, or 

 rather Hebrew-Aramaic, dialect ; and in it are 

 written a very ancient version of the Pentateuch 

 see below), certain chronicles, hymns, and books 

 of religious devotion (see Schiirer s Jetcish People). 

 Samaria was taken by Alexander the Great, and 

 :olonised by Macedonians and Hellenised. They 

 'ortified it, and it grew and prospered. Twice it 

 was besieged and taken by the successors of Alex- 

 anderviz, by Ptolemy I. (312), and by Demetrius 

 Poliorcetes ( circa 296 ). The Jewish captain John 

 lyrcanus laid siege to it (circa 110 B.C. ), and at 

 -he end of a year destroyed it utterly. Neverthe- 

 ess the Samaritans joined the Jews in offering 

 ierce resistance to the Romans : they entrenched 

 hemselves on Mount Gerizim, and only submitted 

 after a desperate and bloody siege. Their city was 

 again destroyed ; but the consul Gabinius ordered 

 t to be rebuilt. Augustus gave it to Herod the 

 3reat, who refounded it under the name of Sebaste. 

 !"he Samaritans seem to have been involved in the 

 dispersal ' of the Jews, as they were well kno'./n 

 ,t Byzantium, at Rome, in Egypt, and elsewhere, 

 fet some of them remained in the old city, and in 



