תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

HISTORY OF PENINSULAR TYRE.

371

Some years afterwards we find a community of Christians established in Tyre, whom Paul visited on his return from Macedonia; and in the early ages of Christianity a considerable church existed there; and Isaiah's prediction, that it should return to the knowledge of the Lord, was in some respects verified. Shortly afterwards it became a Christian bishopric, for we read that Cassius, bishop of Tyre, attended the council of Cæsarea about the year of our Lord 200; and in the fourth century St. Jerome mentions Tyre as the most commercial, the noblest, and most splendid of the cities of Phoenicia. In the seventh century it was taken by the Saracens; and retaken in the twelfth by the Crusaders, some remains of whose works are still to be seen. Upon a Latin kingdom being established in Syria, it became the see of an archbishop, the first of whom was William of Tyre, the well-known chronicler of the Crusades. After this, the Venetians became the chief proprietors of Tyre, and in all probability derived their knowledge of the manufacture of glass from it. In 1289, it was again taken by the Memlooks under Alphix, who sacked and still further destroyed it. It passed from the sway of these conquerors, and came under that of the Turks in the year 1516; and in the remainder of the sixteenth, and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries, it is described as a complete ruin. It is mentioned by some of the earliest modern writers in the seventeenth century, Cotovius, Maundrell, Sandys, and Pococke, and even before their time by the Jesuit, Hadreanus Parvillerius, as a Babel of broken walls-the habitation of a few fishermen—and a wall whereon the fisher dries his net.

In 1766, the Metoualies repaired it, but it suffered in common with all the minor cities of this country, under the desolating reign of the Báshas; and some years ago, it was again almost uninhabited. What little remained of its antiquities was removed by Dejezzar Básha, to decorate his famous mosque at Acre. We have thus seen, that it has had no rest not only for itself but for its colonies, which, in Europe, and Africa, in Spain, and other places, seem still to be pursued to the distant parts of the earth. Since its capture in 1825 by Ibrahim Básha, it has risen again, and will, in all probability, become the seaport of Syria, as in days of old, when it occupied a similar position, most probably, to Palmyra. There are no prophetic denunciations, of

372

THE SITE OF PALE TYRUS.

which we are aware, that would prevent its revival, although such marked ones exist against Palæ Tyrus; and Ibrahim Básha is now (1838) repairing the wall and renewing the gates upon the land side.

Thus have we seen, through a period of upwards of 4000 years, prophecy after prophecy respecting Tyre fulfilled-all, except its final restoration, according to the original promise, to the seed of Abraham.

Where stood Palæ Tyrus is a question that has been long asked, but never satisfactorily answered. While at Jerusalem, I became acquainted with Count Jules de Bertou, to whom I stated my conjecture as to the rock of Marshuk. He afterwards visited the place, and has published in the Journal of the Geographical Society of London, many interesting particulars concerning its topography and present state. In this statement, he agrees with the opinion I have advanced on this subject, without, however, offering any proof for Marshuk being the site of ancient Tyre.

This hill, so remarkable an object in the landscape, did not escape the observant eye of Pococke; for, speaking of the aqueduct from Ras-el-Ain, he says, "It takes its course in a different direction, but mostly northward, to a small hill called Smashook," (evidently a corruption of Marshuk,) "on which there is a house and a mosque. This, by some, has been thought to be old Tyre; which," he adds, "is improbable on many accounts, but more particularly, as it is a league from the sea." This renowned traveller has here fallen into an error as to distance, that could even then have been corrected by a reference to Strabo or Pliny; but we learn from this passage, that at an early date some notion existed regarding the real site of Pale Tyrus; and the confirmation of an old opinion will, I feel, with many, have a greater weight than the endeavour to establish a new. In 1616, Sandys says, "We came to a village seated on a little hill in the midst of a plain; the same by all likelihood that was formerly called Palætyrus, or old Tyrus. Now, through this town there passes a ruinous aqueduct, extending a great way toward the south, and through the champaign, seeming oft to climb above this beginning, and from thence proceedeth directly west unto Tyrus, which standeth about two miles and a half below it."

THE ORIGIN OF ITS NAME.

373

My own conviction is, that this rock of Marshuk, which I have already described as crowned by the mosque, and represented at page 358, was the citadel or acropolis of ancient Tyre. I have been led to adopt this opinion from the derivation of the word-its name of Palæ Tyrus-its position—its vicinity to the tombs-and the direction taken by its aqueducts.

Although many conjectures have been set forth, and opinions offered, on the derivation of the word "Tyre," its true meaning is still involved in obscurity. Proper names have in every language a significant etymology, and in none more so than in the Hebrew, where not only words but letters have various and mystical meanings. Hebrew, if it was not the language of Phoenicia, (as is most probable,) is, at all events, the oldest written language that bears upon the subject. The original word was 17%, Tsarar, hence, Tsar, or Tzor, a rock; but 7, or 777, also signifies white or glistening; and in the first mention of Tyre it is spoken of asyn, Mibtsar Tzor, translated by the Septuagint, “The fortified city of the Tyrians," and by the Vulgate, “The wellfortified city Tyre." But, without supposing this to be the site of ancient Tyre, (as I believe it was,) were we to visit it, even now, and not be aware of its name, we should feel disposed to call the place WHITE ROCK, for precisely the same reason that other places are called " Black Rock," "White Cape," "Blue Mountain," &c.

The words, as first used, (¬¬n, Mibtsar Tzor,) may mean a fortified rock; but as the place had a name before it was fortified, we may almost conclude that its primary name was 73 1773, or white rock, a name which afterwards glided into 2, towards which there would be a natural tendency in the sounds, and also by the change in the place itself.

The learned Doctor Adam Clarke gives a correct opinion as to the word Tsor, which signifies a rock; but he falls into the error common to many commentators, in making it referable to Island Tyre, a place which had attracted no notice at the time the Sidonian colony settled on this rock, from which the insular rock is distant nearly a mile and a half. Others have confounded it with the present Arabic name of Sour, which signifies an island; while again, Scott and some other commentators have translated it, merchandise. Dr. Shaw gives to it a double etymology, as Tsor,

374

ETYMOLOGY OF PALE TYRUS.

a rock, and also a purple fish, taking his derivation as the origin of the Greek Tupos, or the Latin, Sar or Sarra.

Volney states, that in the present name Sour, we with difficulty recognise that of Tyre; and then remarks, "but if we recollect that the Y was formerly pronounced OU, and observe, that the Latins have substituted T for the of the Greeks, and that → has the sound of the English TH in the word think, we shall be less surprised at the alteration." It will be seen, that the two last letters in an, (Mibtsar,) are those used to express both white and rock as well as the proper name 7, Tsor, itself, so that we may translate it The white fortified rock. This evidently. became a proper name similar to our own Cashel,—the rock,and of which a thousand instances could be collected in every country. It may be added, that in the rock of Marshuk, now crowned by the mosque, we have exemplified all the significations that have been enumerated.

The name of Pala, which has been generally applied to Old Tyre, means also a well; and the "Tyrus of the Well" is probably that mentioned by Josephus, who tells us, as I mentioned at page 367, on the authority of Menander, that in the days of Eululæus, king of Tyre, Shalmanazar, king of Assyria, besieged Tyre for five years; and on returning to Nineveh, left a part of his army near the rivulets and aqueduct, (perhaps the fountains at Ras-el-Ain,) to cut off the supply of water; and that then "the Tyrians had no other water but what they procured from the wells which they dug ;"-in all likelihood, those which I described as still to be found on the south-eastern side of the rock of Marshuk.

It seems strange, that Volney, who appears to know that this well was in the ancient city, should have placed Palæ Tyrus at the fountains; for he says that, "in order to secure the aqueduct, it was necessary that a number of inhabitants should settle there, and hence the origin of Pale Tyrus."

With regard to its position, Strabo informs us that it was distant thirty stadia, or about three miles, from Insular Tyre; this can only mean from the extreme end of both cities. Pliny says, that the compass of the two was nineteen miles, provided we include the old city-the very town itself taking up twenty-two stadia. Both those authorities wrote in the second century, five hundred

[blocks in formation]

years after Alexander completely obliterated the ruins of the city they allude to, in order to form the famous mole, so often spoken of in the Scriptures; and the city then existing must, therefore, have been Peninsular Tyre. This rock is rather more than a mile and a half from the present village; and if we include the peninsula, and the city that once surrounded the rock, it will be nearly four miles from the point of the island; and as its ruins probably reached to the new city, the statement of Pliny will not appear to be greatly exaggerated. And were I allowed to offer a conjecture, I would add, that on this rock stood the famous temple of Hercules mentioned by Herodotus, and to which Alexander was recommended by the Tyrian ambassadors.

Several proofs from analogy might be cited, that rocks of this description were chosen as the nuclei around which cities were built, from their affording a citadel or place of strength to the inhabitants, under shadow of which they could sit down in safety when the city was attacked, or on which, in time of peace, they could erect temples to their gods. Such natural citadels we see in Mount Sion, the Capitol at Rome, the Acropolis of Athens and of Corinth, and also that at Argos, at Mycenae, at Cairo, and even at Jaffa. The rock that I have described, was the only one on this plain whereon a citadel, which term exactly expresses its name, could be erected.

'the

In confirmation of this view, we have also another proof from prophecy, where it says, that "Tyre shall be utterly destroyed and never rebuilt." This must, surely, apply to the continental city, as that on the peninsula has been often rebuilt, and still partly exists; while, not a single vestige of the original city remains, or can be discovered by the traveller. We can only conjecture its probable site, and see that the prophetic predictions have been fully verified, for it has, indeed, become like to " top of a rock." The expression of "never found again," will not at all interfere with, or invalidate any attempt to fix its probable position: for, perhaps, of no city that history records, has there been so complete an obliteration as that of ancient or Palæ Tyre-the sand now covering the greater part of where it stood. It is remarkable, how frequently this material has been used for thus wiping out cities from the face of the earth;Babylon, Thebes, Memphis, Luxor, Carthage, ancient Alexandria, Jericho, Balbec, and Palmyra, have been all more or less invaded

« הקודםהמשך »