March 14, 19 i 8 
Land 8c Water 
15 
Jerusalem and Damascus : By Myra K. Hughes, a.r.e. 
CAN there be two names that conjure up to one's 
imagination more scenes connected with religion, 
romance, and history than Jerusalem and 
Damascus ? Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine 
long before Joshua entered Jericho, is only 133 
miles in a straight line from Damascus, the capital of Syria, 
whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity. Broadly speak- 
ing, these two stand for two leading factors in life — religion 
•and commerce. 
No great advantage of position — geographical or strategical 
— in troublous times gave Jerusalem lier long reign : she, 
"beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth," was 
first known as the City of Salem or Peace. "Pray for the 
peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that love thee," 
came from the warring David, who brought her into far 
more strife than when she was a Jebusite city. One of his 
many wars took him to Damascus, which we read he sub- 
dued and which paid . — ^- 
tithes to him for some 
time. It was in King 
■Solomon's reign that she 
was at the height of her 
prosperity, and her temple 
was the glory of the whole 
world. But trouble was 
brought on Jerusalem and 
Damascus by their various 
treaties with strong allies. 
Egyptians, Philistines, 
Israelites, Moabites, 
Syrians, Assyrians, 
Greeks, Romans, Per- 
sians. Franks, Normans, 
Turks — all in turn have 
•fought against and around 
these great cities. 
Owing to the numerous 
Jews from Jerusalem liv- 
ing in Damascus, Christ- 
ianity first began to 
spread to that city, and 
here one turns for the 
scene of the Conversion of 
St. Paul. That zealous 
Jew, "a Roman citizen," 
hoped to keep Damascus 
out of Christian influence. 
Yet in after days his was 
the great influence which 
helped to make the city a 
Christian one, until she 
fell in 634 into the hands 
of the Mohammedans. 
They swept on, under 
Caliph Omar, to Jerusa- 
lem, which fell in 637. 
Now, alas, for the pic- 
turesque, an irregular 
straggling suburb has 
Es Sinaneyeh, Damascus 
By Myra K. Hughes, A.R.E. 
grown out of Jerusalem, west and north-west chiefly, com- 
posed of hotels, hospices, hospitals, etc., and colonies of 
Jews, Quakers, Russians, French, English, and others have 
€stablished themselves there. No city in the world is so 
well provided with hospitals. Every nation or secj of any 
importance thinks that it must be represented by church, 
school, or hospital ! Anyone who has travelled in Palestine 
and Syria realises the need of "eye service" ; therefore one 
of the best known is the British Ophthalmic Hospital, 
founded by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. This Order, 
of which, in conjunction with the Red Cross Society, we 
hear so much at the present day, wa^ founded in the eleventh 
century for the protection of the pilgrims to the Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre — illustrated on page 2. This church 
was originally built by Constantine, and the Chapel of St. 
Helena — which is under the same roof— by his English 
mother, and both were consecrated in a.d. 336. 
Close by the Jaffa Gate lies the Pool of Hezekiah, which 
in summer has very little water in it, and what is there is 
very dirty. The people in the surrounding houses throw 
their rubbish into it. I saw every variety of debris, from 
orange peel to a dead cat, lying on its surface, while the frogs 
croaked around. The proprietor of one of these houses 
courteously allowed me to step over -the railing on to the 
roof to make a sketch when 1 saw a trap)-door under an 
overhanging window open, and a big can was lowered by a 
long rope into this unclean water below — filled, and pulled 
up again. This occurred several times, so at last I a.sked 
what could such water be wanted for, and was told as if it 
were the most natural thing, " Dat is for de bath" ! 
The chief contrast between Jerusalem and Damascus lies 
in their positions, Jerusalem being away from any great 
caravan route, Damascus being at the centre of three — one 
through Galilee to the Levant, on to Gaza, the door of 
Asia, the outpost of Africa — then on to Egvpt ; another to 
Bagdad ; and the third to Mecca. The last starts from the 
South Gate, knoWn as "the "Gate of God," because the 
pilgriifiages to Mecca leave from it. Thus, from being in a 
centre of great routes, the oldest city in the world gained 
her commercial prosperity in spite of having been at least 
twelve times pillaged and burned.. Think of her standing 
on the banks of Abana 
4,000 years ago. when 
Abraham crossed the 
desert of Hauran. Yet she 
is not old-fashioned. Did 
not Damascus have elec- 
tric light and trams before 
anv other biblical city ? 
.And now her Mohamme- 
dan women have joined a 
leapue in favour of un- 
veiling. To show their 
perverted idea of decorum, 
I relate the following in- 
cident. One day, as I sat 
sketching on a little bridge 
over the Abana, between 
two rows of houses, a 
servant girl, in her cotton 
costume of baggy panta- 
loons and loose over-all 
tunic down to the knees, 
came to draw some water. 
She looked up at me 
smilingly, but when a man 
appeared behind me, her 
one idea was to hide her 
face from him. Witliout 
a thought, she pulled her 
tunic right over her head, 
unconcerned that it ex- 
posed all her back ! 
The swiftly flowing 
Abana, which unites with 
the Pharpar below Damas- 
cus, is taken through the 
city by channels and pipes 
to every part, so that 
every mosque, house, and 
court has its fountain. In 
the houses of the rich the 
fountain is in the centre 
of a court, planted with orange, apricot, and myrtle trees, 
and the court, with its comfortable divans, is both refreshing 
and beautiful. Damascus is in a desert plain, surrounded 
by high hills, and in the middle of an oval of green, is the 
pale golden city, with its hundreds of minarets, domes, and 
huge bazaars. This green ring is not a close forest, but 
cultivated plantations, orcheirds. parks, gardens, and corn- 
fields. The long bazaar, leading from the citadel, ends at 
the mosque Es Sininfiyeh, illustrated here, whose dome is 
covered with blue and green and white glazed tiles. 
The House of Rimmon stood on the site of the Great Mosque 
Omayyades, and later Constantine erected on the same site 
a Christian Church dedicated to St. John the Baptist. When 
Damascus fell into the hands of the Mohammedans the 
church wasi divided between the Christians and Mohamme- 
dans. Seventy years later every Christian trace was oblit- 
erated, and they closed the door the Christians used and 
put up buildings in front of it. A few years ago this mosque 
was burnt to the ground, but the old door escaped. No one 
was more surprised than the Mohammedan himself to read 
over its portal, "Thy kingdom, O Christ, is the kingdom of 
all ages and Thy dominion endureth throughout all genera- 
tions." Many felt superstitiously afraid of tampering with 
the old door, so there the inscription still remains. *• 
