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B E J 



would not allow any other city than Rome, Constantinople, 

 and Berytus, to have professors who should expound the 

 Roman law. (See the second epistle prefixed to the Di- 

 gesta.) The splendour of this school, which preserved in 

 the East the language and jurisprudence of the Romans, 

 may be computed to have lasted from the third to the mid- 

 dle of the sixth century. (Gibbon, ii. 294.) In 551 A.D. 

 Berytus was nearly destroyed by an earthquake. 



When the Saracens overran Syria, Berytus fell into their 

 hands. It was taken from them in 1 1 1 1, by Baldwin, king 

 of Jerusalem, but retaken by Salatlin in 1187. During 

 the Holy Wars it often changed masters, and is the scene 

 of the fabled victory of St. George over the dragon. Till 

 the year 1791 the French had a factory at Beirut, but 

 they were expelled by Djezzar, pasha of Acre, who seized 

 the place from the emir of the Druses, to whom it then be- 

 longed, and placed a Turkish garrison in it. 



Since this time both the town and the adjacent country 

 have been greatly neglected, though it still continues the 

 entrepot of the commerce of the Druses and Maronites, 

 whence they export their cottons and silks, and receive in 

 return rice, tobacco, and money, which they exchange for 

 the com ef the Bekaa and Havuran. As the town was 

 greatly inconvenienced for water, Djezzar cut a canal from 

 the River Beirut, which falls into the bay near the city, 

 and built fountains, in excavating which much of the an- 

 tient remains was discovered. He also built the present 

 walls, after the bombardment of the place by the Russians, 

 but they are very weak. 



Beirut now contains few traces of its former splen- 

 dour: a hath, pieces of granite columns, several of which 

 were still standing when Pi,cocke visited the place, and a 

 few other fragments, are all that now remain. But a great 

 number of granite columns may be seen along the shore 

 beneath the water, and part of the present mole iscomposed 

 of them. From the debris without the present walls, it 

 appears that the antient town occupied a larger space than 

 the modern, which is but a small place. The walls are 

 strengthened by several towers, ami there arc live gates to 

 the city. It receives a copious supply of water from a small 

 river called Nahr Beirut, which rises in Mount Libanus, 

 and Hows into the sea a short distance from the town ; the 

 water is conveyed by the canal before-mentioned, and re- 

 ceived into reservoirs and fountains. The streets are nar- 

 row and dirty, like those of all Turkish towns: the houses 

 are mostly built of stone. The town is commanded by some 

 low hills to the S.E. Its population is estimated at 6000 

 souls, of whom the Turks form one-third. There is a large 

 and well-built mosque in the city, formerly a Christian 

 church, dedicated to St. John, and there was a Capuchin 

 convent. The suburbs of the town are as large as the city 

 itself. 



In point of locality, Beirut is as pleasantly situated as 

 any town in Syria: it stands at the verge of a beautiful 

 plain, varied with small hills, and extending to the foot of 

 Mount Libanus. The surrounding country is covered with 

 kiosks, and enriched with groves of vines, olives, palms, and 

 orange, lemon, and mulberry trees ; behind which rises the 

 lofty chain of Libanus. No corn is produced around the 

 town ; a small red wine is made on Mount Libanus, which 

 is cheap and good : but raw silk is the staple, which, with 

 cotton, olives, and figs, is exported to Cairo, Damascus, and 

 Aleppo. Game is abundant, the beef from Libanus is excel- 

 lent, and supplies of all sorts may be procured good and 

 cheap. 



The bay is lar^, and the anchorage good, though open 

 to the northward ; formerly there was a port, but now there 

 is only a small mole sufficient to shelter boats. The en- 

 trance to the river is too shallow to admit a boat of any size. 

 There is a rise and fall of about two feet, but no regular 

 tide. Beirut i in the pashalik of Acre. It lies in 33 49^ 

 N. lat., 35 27' E. long., 40 miles S.S.YV. of Tripoli, and 

 13 miles N.N.E. of Saide. 



(Pocockes Travels in the East; Volney's Travels in 

 NV'W ; Browne's Travels ; Mangles and Irby ; Purdy's 

 Mediterranean Pilot, <f-c.) 



BEIT is an Arabic word, which properly signifies a tent 

 or hut, but is likewise employed to denote any edifice or 

 abode of men. It is often found as a component part of 

 proper names in the geography, of those countries that have 

 become subject to the Arabs: Beit-al-IIaram, i.e. 'the 

 sacred edifice,' or ' the edifice of the sanctuary,' a designa- 

 tion frequently given to the temple of Mecca; Beit-al- 



Mukaddas, '.the sanctified abode,' i.e. Jerusalem; Beit-al- 

 Fakih, i. e. 'the abode of the jurist,' a town in Yemen, &c. 

 The Hebrew word, corresponding to the Arabic Beit, is 

 Beth, which we find employed in a manner perfectly analo- 

 gous in the Old Testament : in the name Bethlehem (in 

 Arabic Beit-Lahm, or Beit-al-Lahm), i.e. 'the house of 

 bread;' Beth-Togarmah, 'the house of Togarmah,' i. ?. 

 Armenia. The same word, Beth, is in Syriac still more 

 extensively used as a component part of geographical 

 names. In Arabian poetry, Beit signifies a distich. 



BEITH, a small town in the district of Cunningham in 

 Ayrshire, Scotland, eleven miles from Paisley, on the road 

 from Glasgow by Paisley to Irvine, Ayr, and Port- Pat rick. 

 The parish of Beith, a part of which runs into Renfrewshire, 

 is about five miles in length from east to west, and four in 

 breadth. On the north there is a small ridge of hills, from 

 which the land slopes to the south. Its lowest elevation, 

 Kilburnie Loch, is 95 feet above the level of the sea, and its 

 highest, Cuffhill, 652. 



The parish contains in all 11,060 acres, of which 10,560 

 are in Ayrshire and 500 in Renfrewshire. Its total valued 

 rent is 6276/. 0*. Sd., of which the part in Ayrshire makes 

 61 III. 7s. 4rf., and that in Renfrewshire 164/. 13*. 4rf. The 

 town has gradually advanced, from a few houses in the be- 

 ginning of the last century, to its present state, when it hag 

 a good town-house, built by subscription, which serves as a 

 news-room and justice of the peace court, a thread-mill, two 

 lint, and three corn-mills, two branch banks, a parish church 

 with a modern spire, a subscription library, and two meet- 

 ing-houses, belonging to the Relief and Antiburger dfs- 

 senters. The parish of Beith is famed for its dairy produce. 

 The manufactures of the town have several times changed. 

 At the beginning of the last century its chief trade was in 

 liiien cloth ; at one time, between 1777 and 1789, one firm 

 alone employed 270 looms in the manufacture of silk 

 gauze ; at present thread and cotton are the principal ma- 

 nufactures. The population of the parish in 1755 was 2064, 

 and in 1831, 5113. The parish church contains l-.'54 sit- 

 tings ; the United Secession, 498 ; the Relief, 849. The 

 parish schoolmaster has the minimum salary. The stipend 

 of the clergyman is 16 chalder of victual, half meal, half 

 barley, and a glebe of 40 acres. The clergyman's stipend 

 was at that time 79 bolls of meal, and 1 7l. 12*. 6d., and the 

 glebe contained 33 acres, 3 roods. The poor's money is 

 inadi: up of collections at the doors of the parish church ami 

 some of the dissenting meeting-houses ; of part of the dues 

 of marriage proclamations, of the proceeds of an aisle in 

 the parish church set apart for the poor, and of a farm 

 bought with the poors money in 1695; and the deficiency 

 of the poor'* fund is made up by a voluntary assessment on 

 the valued rent of the parish and the rental of the town. 

 There are several fairs held here annually. 



In the parish, there are several quarries of freestone of 

 rather an inferior quality. Coal, though not much wrought, 

 has been found ; and the abundance of limestone, of a very 

 superior quality, has a ready sale, not only in the parish, 

 but in those of Lochwinnoch, Kilbarchan, &c. Rich veins 

 of ironstone have also been discovered. 



(See Sinclair's Account of Scotland, vol. viii., compared 

 with Chambers's Gazetteer, and Carlisle's Topographical 

 Dictionary of Scotland.) ~ 



BE'JA, a comarca or district of Portugal, in the province 

 of Alcntejo, bounded on the north by the districts of Evora 

 and Villaviciosa, on the south by that of Campo de Ourique, 

 on the east by Spanish, and on the west by Portuguese 

 Estremadura. The ramifications of the Serra de Viana 

 cross it in all directions, and the rivers Odiarca and Freijo 

 irrigate its plains, which are the most fertile in Alcntejo. 

 The former of these rivers rises near the capital, Hows first 

 to the north, afterwards to the east, and then to the south- 

 east, and joins the second, which, rising in the mountains 

 near Cuba, Hows southwards : the united stream joins the 

 Guadiana, not far from Os Pedroas. This comarca is so pro- 

 ductive in grain, that, after supplying its inhabitants, many 

 thousand fanegas or bushels are yearly sent to Porto del Rer 

 to be embarked in the Sado, down which they are conveyed 

 to Setubal and Lisbon. The vine, olive, and fruit-trees are 

 also in great abundance. The pasturage is rich, and game 

 is plentiful in the mountains. The extent of the district is 

 about 30 miles from north '.to south, and 60 from cast to 

 west, and its population amounts to 55,310 souls. 



Beja, the capital, is built upon a rock of granite on the 

 south- we stern extremity of the district, and command a 



NO. 22G. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPEDIA.] 



VOL. T 



