Syria Sentence Examples
He went on his way to occupy Syria and Phoenicia.
Ibn Batuta went by land from Tangier to Cairo, then visited Syria, and performed the pilgrimages to Medina and Mecca.
On his arrival in Syria, Pompey reversed the decision, but, ignoring the charge of bribery brought against Scaurus, left him in command of the district.
The foreign missionary work of the General Assembly had been carried on after 1812 through the (Congregational) American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (organized in 1810) until the separation of 1837, when the Old School Assembly established its own board of foreign missions; the New School continued to work through the American board; after the union of 1869 the separate board was perpetuated and the American board transferred to it, with the contributions made to the American board by the New School churches, the missions in Africa (1833), in Syria (1822), and in Persia (1835).
After the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a considerable number of Jews returned to the city, but we know practically nothing of its history for more than a century until, in 332 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered Syria.
Simon then constructed a new citadel, north of the Temple, to take the place of the Acra, and established in Judaea the Asmonean dynasty, which lasted for nearly a century, when the Roman republic began to make its influence felt in Syria.
But when Artabanus invaded Armenia, Vonones fled to Syria, and the emperor Tiberius thought it prudent to support him no longer.
In 57 Gabinius went as proconsul to Syria.
During his absence in Egypt, whither he had been sent by Pompey, without the consent of the senate, to restore Ptolemy Auletes to his kingdom, Syria had been devastated by robbers, and Alexander, son of Aristobulus, had again taken up arms with the object of depriving Hyrcanus of the high-priesthood.
The knights, who as farmers of the taxes had suffered heavy losses during the disturbances in Syria, were greatly embittered against Gabinius, and, when he appeared in the senate to give an account of his governorship, he was brought to trial on three counts, all involving a capital offence.
AdvertisementSpain, the Gauls, Britain and Africa, leaving to Valens the eastern half of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece, Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor as far as Persia.
The protection of Syria in the meantime claimed all Corbulo's attention.
Amongst Conifers Cedrus is especially noteworthy; it is represented by geographical races in the north-west Himalaya, in Syria, Cyprus and North Africa.
In Asia they held Asia Minor and Syria, had sent expeditions into Arabia, and were acquainted with the more distant countries formerly invaded by Alexander, including Persia, Scythia, Bactria and India.
After this he revisited Syria and Asia Minor, and crossed the Black sea, the desert from Astrakhan to Bokhara, and the Hindu Kush.
AdvertisementHe went to Egypt and Syria, and for the sake of visiting the holy cities became a Mahommedan.
Until then the Venetians held the carrying trade of India, which was brought by the Persian Gulf and Red sea into Syria and Egypt, the Venetians receiving the products of the East at Alexandria and Beirut and distributing them over Europe.
He then made a journey through Persia and Syria to Constantinople, returning to Copenhagen in 1767.
It was defended in 196 B.C. against Antiochus the Great of Syria, after which its inhabitants were received as allies of Rome.
He was Turkish delegate at the Paris conference of 1856; was charged with a mission to Syria in 1860; grand vizier in 1860 and 1861, and also minister of war.
AdvertisementGenerally regarded as the partisan of a pro-English policy, he rendered most valuable service to his country by his able management of the foreign relations of Turkey, and not least by his efficacious settlement of affairs in Syria after the massacres of 1860.
The result of the war was to make Russia supreme at Constantinople; and before long an opportunity of further increasing her influence was created by Mehemet Ali, the ambitious pasha of Egypt, who in November 1831 began a war with his sovereign in Syria, gained a series of victories over the Turkish forces in Asia Minor and threatened Constantinople.
He enlarged and consolidated the kingdom, founded the great city of Nicomedia as the capital, and fought successfully for some time with Antiochus of Syria.
The course leads naturally into either Palestine or Babylonia, and, following the Euphrates, northern Syria is eventually reached.
This age, with its regular maritime intercourse between the Aegean settlements, Phoenicia and the Delta, and with lines of caravans connecting Babylonia, North Syria, Arabia and Egypt, presents a remarkable picture of life and activity, in the centre of which lies Palestine, with here and there Egyptian colonies and some traces of Egyptian cults.
AdvertisementBut by the end of the first quarter of the 13th century B.C. Egypt had recovered its province (precise boundary uncertain), leaving its rivals in possession of Syria.
Towards the close of the 13th century the Egyptian king Merneptah (Mineptah) records a successful campaign in Palestine, and alludes to the defeat of Canaan, Ascalon, Gezer, Yenuam (in Lebanon) and (the people or tribe) Israel.3 Bodies of aliens from the Levantine coast had previously threatened Egypt and Syria, and at the beginning of the 12th century they formed a coalition on land and sea which taxed all the resources of Rameses III.
For a time the fate of Syria and Palestine seems to have been no longer controlled by the great powers.
Moreover, the account of the joint undertaking by Judah (under Jehoshaphat) and Israel against Syria at Ramoth-Gilead at the time of Ahab's death, and again (under Ahaziah) when Jehoram was wounded, shortly before the accession of Jehu, are historical doublets, and they can hardly be harmonized either with the known events of 854 and 842 or with the course of the intervening years.
At this stage it is necessary to notice the fresh invasion of Syria by Hadad (Adad)-nirari, who besieged Mari, king of Damascus, and exacted a heavy tribute (c. Boo B.C.).
The defeat of Syria by Joash (of Israel) was not final.
Syria must have resumed warfare with redoubled energy, and a state of affairs is presupposed which can be pictured with the help of narratives that deal with similar historical situations.
For the understanding of these great wars between Syria and Israel (which the traditional chronology spreads over eighty years), for the significance of the crushing defeats and inspiring victories, and for the alternations of despair and hope, a careful study of all the records of relations between Israel and the north is at least instructive, and it is important to remember that, although the present historical outlines are scanty and incomplete, some - if not all - of the analogous descriptions in their present form are certainly later than the second half of the 9th century B.C., the period in which these great events fa11.4 13.
Hebrew religious institutions can be understood from the biblical evidence studied in the light of comparative religion; and without going afield to Babylonia, Assyria or Egypt, valuable data are furnished by the cults of Phoenicia, Syria and Arabia, and these in turn can be illustrated from excavation and from modern custom.
The disorganized state of Egypt and the uncertain allegiance of the desert tribes left Judah without direct aid; on the other hand, opposition to Assyria among the conflicting interests of Palestine and Syria was rarely unanimous.
He was slain at Megiddo in 608, and Egypt, as in the long-distant past, again held Palestine and Syria.
Megasthenes also describes the Jews as the philosophers of Syria and couples them with the Brahmins of India.
Apollonius, the commander of the Syrian garrison in Jerusalem, and Seron the commander of the army in Syria, came in turn against Judas and his bands and were defeated.
In 162 Demetrius escaped from Rome and got possession of the kingdom of Syria.
Aemilius Scaurus (stepson of Sulla) who had been sent into Syria by Pompey (65 B.C.).
When the Parthians, elated by their victory over Crassus (53 B.C.) advanced upon Syria, Cassius opposed them.
He carried with him the Arabs and the princes of Syria, and through Hyrcanus he was able to transform the hostility of the Egyptian Jews into active friendliness.
Sextus Caesar made him lieutenant-governor of Coele Syria, and only his father restrained him from returning to wreak his revenge upon Hyrcanus.
In 40 B.C. Antony was absent in Egypt or Italy; and the Parthians swept down upon Syria with Antigonus in their train.
Order was restored by Varus the governor of Syria in a campaign which Josephus describes as the most important war between that of Pompey and that of Vespasian.
The first procurator Coponius was accompanied by P. Sulpicius Quirinius, legate of Syria, who came to organize the new Roman province.
Complaint was made to Vitellius, then legate of Syria, and Pilate was sent to Rome to answer for his shedding of innocent blood.
While the matter was still pending, news arrived that the emperor had commanded Publius Petronius, the governor of Syria, to set up his statue in the temple of Jerusalem.
But the quarrel was referred first to the legate of Syria and then to the emperor.
The Jews laid complaint against him, and he complained against the Jews before the governor of Syria, Cestius Gallus, who sent an officer to inquire into the matter.
At length the governor of Syria approached the centre of the disturbance in Jerusalem, but retreated after burning down a suburb.
Jerusalem was rebuilt by Hadrian, orders to this effect being given during the emperor's first journey through Syria in 130, the date of his foundations at.
In 55 Auletes was restored by the proconsul of Syria, Aulus Gabinius.
The portion of Asia west of British India, excluding Arabia and Syria, forms another extensive plateau covering an area as large as that of Tibet, though at a much lower altitude.
The peninsula of Arabia, with Syria, its continuation to the northwest, has some of the characteristics of the hottest and driest parts Arabia.
In northern Syria the mountains of Lebanon rise to about to,000 ft., and with a more copious water supply the country becomes more productive.
In Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia there is little to record of progress in material development beyond the promises held out by the Euphrates Valley railway concession to a A s i a German company.
In the south, in Syria, Arabia and the peninsula of India, none but the oldest rocks are folded, and the Upper Palaeozoic, the Mesozoic and the Tertiary beds lie almost horizontally upon them.
In Afghanistan, Persia, Asia Minor and Syria, winter and spring appear to be the chief seasons of condensation.
The Ethiopian fauna plays but a subordinate part in Asia, intruding only into the south-western corner, and occupying the desert districts of Arabia and Syria, although some of the characteristic species reach still farther into Persia and Sind, and even into western India.
Next in numerical importance to the Mongolians are the races which have been called by Professor Huxley Melanochroic and Xanthochroic. The former includes the dark-haired people of southern Europe, and extends over North Africa, Asia Minor, Syria to south-western Asia, and through Arabia and Persia to India.
Persia, including Syria and Arabia, besides extending into North Africa.
West of the Sutlej the population of Asia may be said to be wholly Mahommedan with the exception of certain relatively small areas in Asia Minor and Syria, where Christians predominate.
The Parthians appear to have been a Turanian tribe who had adopted many Persian customs. They successfully withstood the Romans, and at one time their power extended from India to Syria.
From choice or compulsion large numbers settled in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies, and added an appreciable element to Alexandrine culture, while gradual voluntary emigration established Jewish communities in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, who facilitated the first spread of Christianity.
By dexterous management and large promises he overcame the scruples of the Greek troops against the length and danger of the war; a Spartan fleet of thirty-five triremes sent to Cilicia opened the passes of the Amanus into Syria and conveyed to him a Spartan detachment of 700 men under Cheirisophus.
A new partition of the empire followed, by which Seleucus added to his kingdom Syria, and perhaps some regions of Asia Minor.
The possession of Syria gave him an opening to the Mediterranean, and he immediately founded here the new city of Antioch upon the Orontes as his chief seat of government.
In the interior of Asia Minor Seleucus maintained himself, and when Ptolemy returned to Egypt he recovered Northern Syria and the nearer provinces of Iran.
Antiochus rid himself of Hermeias by assassination and returned to Syria (220).
Since, however, his power was not well enough grounded to allow of his attacking Syria, Antiochus considered that he might leave Achaeus for the present and renew his attempt on Palestine.
Philopator (reigned 187-176), consisted of Syria (now including Cilicia and Palestine), Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Nearer Iran (Media and Persis).
In 166 Antiochus left Syria to attempt the reconquest of the further provinces.
Their subservience to Rome so enraged the Greek cities of Syria that the Roman envoy Graeus Octavius (consul 165 B.C.) was assassinated in Laodicea (162).(162).
At this juncture Demetrius, the son of Seleucus IV., escaped from Rome and was received in Syria as the true king.
An impostor, who claimed to be a son of Antiochus Epiphanes, Alexander Balas (reigned 150-145), was installed as king by Ptolemy Philometor and given Ptolemy's daughter Cleopatra to wife, but Alexander proved to be dissolute and incapable, and when Demetrius, the son of Demetrius I., was brought back to Syria by Cretan condottieri, Ptolemy transferred his support and Cleopatra to the rightful heir.
Sidetes (164129) appeared in Syria, married Cleopatra and crushed Tryphon.
Demetrius (second reign 129-126), who had been allowed by the Parthians to escape, now returned to Syria, but was soon again driven from Antioch by a pretender, Alexander Zabinas, who had the support of the king of Egypt.
In 83 Tigranes, the king of Armenia, invaded Syria, and by 69 his conquest had reached as far as Ptolemais, when he was obliged to evacuate Syria to defend his own kingdom from the Romans.
When Pompey appeared in Syria in 64, Antiochus XIII.
Pompey refused and made Syria a Roman province.
Alexandria had been, since the days of the Ptolemies, a centre for the interchange of ideas between East and West - between Egypt, Syria, Greece and Italy; and, as it had furnished Judaism with an Hellenic philosophy, so it also brought about the alliance of Christianity with Greek philosophy.
Commerce with Egypt, for example, has increased in a marked degree, and Aegean objects or imitations of them are found to have begun to penetrate into Syria, inland Asia Minor, and the central and western Mediterranean lands, e.g.
He repelled attacks upon Syria and Egypt (452), and quelled disturbances on the Armenian frontier (456).
Andrew, who was now with St Louis, interpreted to the king David's message, a real or pretended offer of alliance from the Mongol general Ilchikdai (Ilchikadai), and a proposal of a joint attack upon the Islamic powers for the conquest of Syria.
From Cyprus they went to the port of Antioch in Syria, and thence travelled for a year to the khan's court, going ten leagues a day.
He was the son of Lucius Vitellius, who had been consul and governor of Syria under Tiberius.
These great monoliths were brought as trophies to Venice by Doge Domenico Michieli in 1126, after his victories in Syria.
She now commanded the Adriatic, the Ionian islands, the archipelago, the Sea of Marmora and the Black Sea, the trade route between Constantinople and western Europe, and she had already established herself in the seaports of Syria, and thus held the trade route between Asia Minor and Europe.
The appearance of the Ottoman Turk and the final collapse of the Latin empire in Syria brought about the next campaign between the rival maritime powers.
To the scandal of Christendom, Venice at once entered into treaty with the new masters of Syria and obtained a confirmation of her ancient trading rights.
The discovery of the Cape route saved the breaking of bulk between India and Europe, and saved the dues exacted by the masters of Syria and Egypt.
Persia, Syria, Egypt, Greece, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, reached America in 1846.
There is reason to believe that before the 6th century B.C. the caravans reached Damascus without coming near the oasis of Tadmor; probably, therefore, we may connect the origin of the city with the gradual forward movement of the nomad Arabs which followed on the overthrow of the ancient nationalities of Syria by the Babylonian Empire (6th century B.C.).
The Persians swept victoriously over Asia Minor and North Syria; not however without resistance on the part of Odenathus, who inflicted considerable losses on the bands returning home from the pillage of Antioch.
Under Odenathus Palmyra had extended her sway over Syria and Arabia, perhaps also over Armenia, Cilicia and Cappadocia; but now the troops of Zenobia, numbering it is said 70,000, proceeded to occupy Egypt; the Romans under Probus resisted vigorously but without avail, and by the beginning of A.D.
He approached by way of Cappadocia, where he reduced the Palmyrene garrisons, and thence through Cilicia he entered Syria.
The calendar was the Syro-Macedonian, a solar, as distinct from the primitive lunar, calendar, which Roman influence disseminated throughout Syria; it was practically a reproduction of the Julian calendar.
Sicily was still more the meeting-place of East and West than the kingdom of Jerusalem; and the Arabs of Spain gave more to the culture of Europe than the Arabs of Syria.
Without being intolerant, the Turks were a rougher and ruder race than the Arabs of Egypt whom they displaced; while the wars between the Fatimites of Egypt and the Abbasids of Bagdad, whose cause was represented by the Seljuks, made Syria (one of the natural battle-grounds of history) into a troubled and unquiet region.
The Norman conquest of Sicily may with justice be called a crusade before the Crusades; and it cannot but have given some impulse to that later attempt to wrest Syria from the Mahommedans, in which the virtual leader was Bohemund, a scion of the same house which had conquered Sicily.
The influence of the Italian towns did not make itself greatly felt till after the end of the First Crusade, when it made possible the foundation of a kingdom in Jerusalem, in addition to the three principalities established by Bohemund, Baldwin and Raymond; but during the course of the Crusade itself the Italian ships which hugged the shores of Syria were able to supply the crusaders with provisions and munition of war, and to render help in the sieges of Antioch and Jerusalem.4 Sea-power had thus some influence in determining the victory of the crusaders.
The condition of Asia Minor and Syria in 1097 was almost altogether such as to favour the success of the crusaders.
A new sultan, Barkiyaroq or Barkiarok, ruled in Bagdad (1094-1104); but in Asia Minor Kilij Arslan held sway as the independent sultan of Konia (Iconium), while the whole of Syria was also practically independent.
Not only was Syria thus weakened by being detached from the body of the Seljukian empire; it was divided by dissensions within, and assailed by the Fatimite caliph of Egypt from without.
The crusading princes were well enough aware of the gulf which divided the caliph of Cairo from the Sunnite princes of Syria; and they sought by envoys to put themselves into connexion with him, hoping by his aid to gain Jerusalem (which was then ruled for the Turks by Sokman, the son of the amir Ortok).
When a power arose in Mosul, about 1130, which was able to unify Syria - when, again, in the hands of Saladin, unified Syria was in turn united to Egypt - the cause of Latin Christianity in the East was doomed.
Thus, it would appear, the whole of the expansion of the Latin kingdom (which may be said to have attained its height in 1131, at the death of Baldwin II.) may be shown to have been dictated, at any rate in large part, by economic motives; and thus, too, it would seem that two of the most powerful motives which sway the mind of man - the religious motive and the desire for gain - conspired to elevate the kingdom of Jerusalem (at once the country of Christ, and a natural centre of trade) to a position of supremacy in Latin Syria.
During this process of growth the kingdom stood in relation to two sects of powers - the three Frankish principalities in northern Syria, and the Mahommedan powers both of the Euphrates and the Nile - whose action affected its growth and character.
The disunion between the Mahommedans of northern Syria and the Fatimites of Egypt, and the political disintegration of the former, were both favourable to the success of the Franks; but they had nevertheless to maintain their ground vigorously both in the north and the south against almost incessant attacks.
But the real menace to the Latin kingdom lay in northern Syria; and here a power was eventually destined to rise, which outstripped the kings of Jerusalem in the race for Cairo, and then - with the northern and southern boundaries of Jerusalem in its control - was able to crush the kingdom as it were between the two arms of a vice.
Until 1127, however, the Mahommedans of northern Syria were disunited among themselves.
Before the accession of Zengi, there had been constant fighting, which had led, however, to no definite result, between the various Mahommedan princes and the Franks of northern Syria.
The union of Mardin and Aleppo under the sway of these two amirs, connecting as it did Mesopotamia with Syria, marks an important stage in the revival of Mahommedan power (Stevenson, Crusades in the East, p. 109).
Before we turn to describe the Second Crusade, which the loss of Edessa provoked, and to trace the fall of the kingdom, which the Second Crusade rather hastened than hindered, we may pause at this point to consider the organization of the Frankish colonies in Syria.
The law which is expounded in these assizes is a mixture of Frankish law with the Graeco-Roman law of the Eastern empire which prevailed among the native population of Syria.
Thus was begun the Second Crusade, 1 under auspices still more favourable than those which attended the beginning of the First, seeing that kings now took the place of knights, while the new crusaders would no longer be penetrating into the wilds, but would find a friendly basis of operations ready to their hands in Frankish Syria.
If a religious union had been effected between Egypt and northern Syria, political disunion still remained; and the Franks were safe as long as it lasted.
Damascus he acquired as early as 1174; but Raymund supported the heir of Nureddin in his capital at Aleppo, and it was not until 1183 that Saladin entered the city, and finally brought Egypt and northern Syria under a single rule.
But, with Syria in the hands of the Mahommedans, the attack on Egypt must necessarily be directed by sea; and thus the Crusade henceforth becomes - what the Third Crusade, here as elsewhere the turning-point in crusading history, had already in part been - a maritime enterprise.
Malik-al-Adil, the brother of Saladin, had by 1200 succeeded to his brother's possessions not only in Egypt but also in Syria, and he granted the Christians a series of truces (1198-1203, 1204-1210, 1211-1217).
Difficulties quickly arose when Frederick, in 1231, sent Marshal Richard to Syria as his legate.
The Christians were, however, able to maintain a footing in Syria for forty years after St Louis' departure, not by reason of their own strength, but owing to two powers which checked the advance of the Mamelukes.
In that year Hulagu, the khan of Persia, invaded Syria and captured Damascus.
Two projects of Crusades were started before the final expulsion of the Latins from Syria.
The Franks evacuated Syria altogether, leaving behind them only the ruins of their castles to bear witness, to this very day, of the Crusades they had waged and the kingdom they had founded and lost.
In the autumn of 1365 he sacked Alexandria; in 1367 he ravaged the coast of Syria, and inflicted serious damages on the sultan of Egypt.
Since, however, the steppe edge on the east is somewhat indefinite, some early Moslem and other geographers have included all the Hamad in Syria, making of the latter a blunt-headed triangle with a base some 700 m.
But Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy, as well as the y better Moslem geographers, drew the eastern only under the Graeco-Roman administration that we find a definite district known as Syria, and that was at first restricted to the Orontes basin.
Later, all that we understand by Syria came to be so known officially to the Romans and Byzantines; but the only province called simply Syria, without qualification, remained in the Orontes valley.
Under the present Ottoman distribution " Syria " is the province of Sham or Damascus, exclusive of the vilayets of Aleppo and Beirut and the sanjaks of Lebanon and Jerusalem, which all fall in what is called Syria is the wider geographical sense.
The name Syria is not found in the Hebrew original of the Scriptures; but it was used by the Septuagint to translate Aram.
Syria, however, is probably the Babylonian Suri, used of a north Euphratean district, and a word distinct from Assyria.
Syria happens to lie on the line of least resistance for communication between the early subtropic seats of civilization in the Nile and Euphrates valleys and the civilizations of Europe.
Consequently south Palestine has been continuously " Arabized "; and indeed the whole of Syria has been characterized by racial and religious fusions, and by civilization of a singularly syncretic and derived kind, of which the ancient Phoenician is a sufficient example.
With the exception of the extreme north (Commagene), which is shut off by a barrier of hills and belongs to foreign hydrographic systems, the whole country is roughly a gable-shaped plateau, falling north and south from a medial ridge, which crosses Syria at about its central point.
Geologically, Syria belongs to two distinct regions of the earth's crust, the northern and smaller portion lying within the great belt of folding of southern Europe and central Asia, and the southern and larger portion belonging to the Indo-African area, which, though often faulted, is usually free from crumpling.
The most striking feature in the structure of Syria is the existence of long Graben, or narrow depressions formed by faulting.
Little is known of the part of Syria which lies within the folded belt, and includes the Amanus and Kurd mountains.
Owing to the high barrier which shuts off almost all Syria from the sea, and precipitates vapours mainly on the western slope, little of the land is highly productive without irrigation, except the narrow littoral strip which was the ancient Phoenicia, and the small deltas, such as that of Latakia (Laodicea).
Two distinct floral regions meet in Syria, that of the Mediterranean and that of the west Asian steppe-land.
The mammals of Syria are rather sharply to be distinguished into those which range only north of Mt Carmel, and those which pass that limit.
But this poor average is largely accounted for by the inclusion of the almost uninhabited northern steppe-land; and those parts of Syria, which are settled, show a much higher rate.
The Christians are an important element, constituting probably as much as a fifth of the whole population; the majority of them belong to the Orthodox Greek Church, which has two patriarchs in Syria, at Antioch and Jerusalem.
The mission of the American Presbyterian Church, which has had its centre in Beirut for the last sixty years, has done much for Syria, especially in the spread of popular education; numerous publications issue from its press, and its medical school has been extremely beneficial.
The language throughout southern and middle Syria as high as Killis is Arabic, which has entirely ousted Aramaic and Hebrew from common use, and tends to prevail even over the speech of recent immigrants like the Circassians.
The political status of the country is controlled by the Ottoman Empire, of which Syria makes part, divided into the vilayets of Aleppo, Sham or Syria (Damascus), the Lebanon (q.v.) and Beirut, and the separate sanjaks or mutessarifliks of Zor and Jerusalem.
From the Egyptian and Assyrio-Babylonian monuments we learn that in ancient times one of the principal exports of Syria was timber; this has now entirely ceased.
As regards the cultivation of the soil Syria remains stable; but the soil is becoming relatively poorer, the value of the imports constantly gaining upon that of the exports.
Rude stone monuments (circles and dolmens) and other prehistoric remains show that Syria must have been inhabited from a very early period.
Of the political relations of Syria in the most ancient times we know but little.
In the latter part of the 16th century B.C. all north Syria fell under the Cappadocian Hatti domination.
The south part of Syria was known to Sargon of Akkad (Agade) as Ammon and was visited by his armies.
At a very early period - as early probably as the 16th century B.C.- Syria became the meeting-place of Egyptian and Babylonian elements, resulting in a type of western Asiatic culture peculiar to itself, which through the commerce of the Phoenicians was carried to the western lands of the Mediterranean basin.
Something about the ancient political and geographical relations of Syria can be gleaned from Egyptian sources, especially in connexion with the campaigns of Tethmosis (Thothmes) III.
From these lands the Egyptian kings often derived rich booty, so that in those days Syria must have been civilized and prosperous.
The Tell el-Amarna Letters (15th century B.C.) show Syria held in part by Egyptian viceroys, who are much preoccupied with southward movements in the Buka'a and the rest of the interior beyond their control, due to pressure of Amorite peoples, and of the Mitanni and the Kheta, whose non-Semitic blood was mingled with that of the Aramaeans even in Palestine.
On the latter in Syria, see Hittites.
It need only be said here that this people bulked most largely in the relations of Egypt with Syria from the 16th to the 14th centuries.
With the fall of the Kheta the Aramaeans were the people who held the most important towns of Syria, gradually advancing until at last they occupied the whole country.
That Zobah was situated within Syria is certain, though how far to the west or north of Damascus is not known; in any case it was not far from IIamath (IIamah).
Henceforward the petty states of Syria were at all times subject to one or other of the great world-empires, and were still in dispute between Babylonia and Egypt as late as Necho.
These, however, in spite of more than one revolt, continued to supply fleets to the Persians down to the time of the Macedonia invasion (332 B.C.), and inland Syria remained comparatively peaceful first under its own local governors, and, after Darius, as a satrapy, till its subjugation by Alexander.
The Seleucidae had severe struggles with the Ptolemies for the possession of the southern part of Syria.
In the year 40 B.C. Syria had to endure a sudden but brief invasion by the Parthians.
The high degree of civilization then prevailing in the country is proved by its architectural remains dating from the early Christian centuries; the investigations of De Vogue, Butler and others, have shown that from the 1st to the 7th century there prevailed in north Syria and the Hauran a special style of architecture - partly, no doubt, following Graeco-Roman models, but also showing a great deal of originality in details.
The administrative divisions of Syria during the Roman period varied greatly at different times.
Hadrian made three provinces of it, Syria, Syria Phoenice and Syria Palestina.
Through the kingdom of the Nabataeans Roman influence penetrated from Syria far into northern Arabia.
Under the early caliphs the Arabs divided Syria into the following military districts (gonds).
During the struggles of the Mahommedan dynasties for the possession of Syria the country still enjoyed a considerable degree of prosperity.
Syria suffered severely from the Mongol invasions (1260), and it never recovered its former prosperity.
Its medieval importance as an intermediary of trade between Europe and the East was greatly impaired by the opening of the Red Sea route, and finally abolished by the Suez Canal; and Syria is at present important mainly for the sentimental reason that it contains the holiest places of Judaism and Christianity, and for the strategic reason that it lies on the flank of the greatest traderoute of the eastern hemisphere.
When Trajan, owing to a severe illness, decided to return home from the East, he left Hadrian in command of the army and governor of Syria.
In the spring of 12 9 he visited Asia Minor and Syria, where he invited the kings and princes of the East to a meeting (probably at Samosata).
From Egypt Hadrian returned through Syria to Europe (his movements are obscure), but was obliged to hurry back to Palestine (spring, 133) to give his personal attention (this is denied by some historians) to the revolt of the Jews, which had broken out (autumn, 131, or spring, 132) after he had left Syria.
In the church of St Kosmas are preserved some of the archaic Doric columns of the famous temple of Aphrodite of Cythera, whose worship had been introduced from Syria, and ultimately spread over Greece.
Marash passed with the rest of Syria into Egyptian hands in 1832, and in 1839 received fugitives from the defeat of Nizib, among whom was Moltke.
Thus special parts are reserved for natives of the various provinces of Egypt, of Morocco,Syria, Arabia, India, Turkey, &c. Each student can, FIG.
The materials of the native styles of India, however, did not lend themselves to their utilization as in Syria, Egypt and North Africa, where the columns and capitals formed the substructure of the arcades which surrounded their courts.
The climax of Mahommedan work in India is reached in that of the Mogul emperors at Agra, Delhi and Fatehpur-Sikri, in which there is a very close resemblance in design to the mosques of Syria, Egypt, and Persia; the four-centred arch, which is in the Mogul style, finds general acceptance, and was probably derived from Persian sources.
Osiris and Isis are closely connected with Syria and the Lebanon in legend; the Ded or sacred pillar of Osiris is doubtless really a representation of a great cedar with its horizontally outspreading branches; 8 another of the sacred Egyptian trees is obviously a cypress; corn and wine are traditionally associated with Osiris, and it is probable that corn and wine were first domesticated in Syria, and came thence with the gods Osiris and Re (the sun god of Heliopolis) into the Delta.
Syria in fact is beginning to take shape in our minds as perhaps the most ancient seat of civilization in the world, the common source from which Babylonia and Egypt derived those items of culture in which, in the early period, they resemble one another.
And the question whether the " Armenoid " conquerors of Egypt and founders of the kingdoms there, who came from Syria, were Semites still remains unanswered.
These new probabilities open up considerable possibilities in research with regard to the relations of the early Minoans and other Aegeans with Syria and Egypt and the undoubted fact of the resemblances of Minoan on the one hand to Syrian and Egyptian religions and funerary practices, and on the other hand to those of the Etruscans.
The excavation of Carchemish, lately suspended owing to political uncertainty in Syria, has been very interesting.
The question as to whether copper really was first used in Egypt is not yet resolved, and many arguments can be brought against the theory of Egyptian origin and in favour of one in Syria or further north.26 Egypt has also recently been credited with being the inceptor of the whole " megalithic (or heliolithic, as the fashionable word now is) culture " of mankind, from Britain to China and (literally) Peru or at any rate Mexico via the Pacific Isles.27 The theory is that the achievements of the Egyptians in great stone architecture at the time of the pyramid-builders so impressed their contemporaries that they were imitated in the surrounding lands, by the Libyans and Syrians, that the fame of them was carried by the Phoenicians further afield, and that early Arab and Indian traders passed on the megalithic idea to Farther India, and thence to Polynesia and so on so that both the teocalli of Teotihuacan and Stonehenge are ultimately derived through cromlechs and dolmens innumerable from the stone pyramid of Saqqara, built by Imhotep, the architect of King Zoser, about 3100 B.C. (afterwards deified as the patron of science and architecture).
The new conditions in Palestine should be very favourable to archaeological work there, and it is to be hoped that in Syria the French will give every facility for international work.
Newberry, with whom on early Egyptian connexion with Syria the writer agrees.
In southern Syria, which had been won by the house of Seleucus from the house of Ptolemy in 198, the independent Jewish principality was set up in 143.
Commagene was independent under a king,MithradatesCallinicus, in the earlier part of the last century B.C. Syria itself in the last days of the Seleucid dynasty is seen to be breaking up into petty principalities, Greek or native.
From 83 to 69 is the transient episode of Armenian conquest, and in 64 the last shadow of Seleucid rule vanished, when Syria was made a Roman province by Pompey.
He also found encouragement in Mucianus, the governor of Syria; and although a strict disciplinarian and reformer of abuses, he had a soldiery thoroughly devoted to him.
In 1868 this developed into the Friends' Foreign Mission Association, which now undertakes Missionary work in India (begun 1866), Madagascar (1867), Syria (1869), China (1886),(1886), Ceylon (1896).
Syria, Pontus, Lydia, Galatia, and above all Thrace were sources of supply.
There was a regular importation to Rome of slaves, brought to some extent from Africa, Spain and Gaul, but chiefly from Asiatic countries - Bithynia, Galatia, Cappadocia and Syria.
There most of the negotiations between the powers and Mehemet Ali were conducted; thence started the Egyptian naval expeditions to Crete, the Morea and Syria; and thither sailed the betrayed Ottoman fleet in 1839.
There is no doubt that the disintegration caused by monophysitism largely facilitated the rapid and easy victory of Islam in Syria and Egypt.
They comprise the geographically distinct regions of the Anatolian plateau (Asia Minor), the Armenian and Kurdish highlands, the Mesopotamian lowlands, the hilly and partly mountainous territory of Syria and Palestine and the coast lands of west and north-east Arabia.
This is due partly to the Christian communities, notably the Maronites and others in Syria, the Anatolian and Rumelian Greeks, and the Armenians of the eastern province and of Constantinople.
From 1250 in 1885, of which 903 were in Europe and 347 in Asia, the mileage of railways had increased to some 4440 in 1909, of which 1377 are in Europe, 1810 in Asia Minor, 418 in Syria and 835 fall to the share of the Hejaz railway, including the Ed-Dera-Haifa branch.
Then, to avenge an insult sustained from the ruler of Egypt, Timur marched southwards and devastated Syria, thence turning to Bagdad, which shared the same fate.
In 1481 the sultan was believed to be projecting a campaign against the Circassian rulers of Syria and Egypt, when he died at Gebze.
Egypt, Syria and the Hejaz, the former empire of the Mamelukes, were added to the Ottoman dominions.
They were hampered, moreover, by an insurrection in the Morea, where a Russian expedition under Orlov had stirred up the' Mainotes, and by risings in Syria and Egypt.
After yielding to these hard conditions, Turkey took advantage of her respite to strengthen the frontier defences and to put down the rebellions in Syria and Egypt; some effort was also expended on the hopeless task of reforming the Janissaries.
Nelson's destruction of the French fleet at the battle of the Nile disconcerted Bonaparte's plans; he hoped to pursue his designs through Syria, and laid siege to Acre, which, however, successfully held out.
Meanwhile Mahmud, realizing the impossibility of crushing the Greek revolt unaided, had bent his pride to ask the help of Mehemet Ali, who was to receive as his reward Crete, the Morea and the pashaliks of Syria and Damascus.
The intervention of the powers, based on the convention of London of the i 5th of July 1840, led to the withdrawal of Ibrahim from Syria, and the establishment by the firman of the 13th of February 1841 of Mehemet Ali as hereditary pasha of Egypt under conditions intended to safeguard the sovereign rights of the Ottoman sultan.
But it soon became apparent that the time was scarcely come for liberal measures; and fanatical outbreaks at Jidda (1858) and in Syria (r860) gave proof that the various sections of the population were not yet prepared to act together in harmony.
Bagdad also lies on a natural line of communication between Persia and the west, the ancient caravan route from Khorasan debouching from the mountains at this point, while another natural caravan route led up the Euphrates to Syria and the Mediterranean and still another up the Tigris to Armenia and the Black Sea.
Money is scarce among all classes, and the wages of common labourers are scarcely half what is paid in Syria.
One of these was in Greece, the Ionian, the other was in Magna Graecia; the one of them was from Coele Syria, the other from Egypt; but there were others in the East, one of whom belonged to the Assyrians, but the other was in Palestine, originally a Jew.
They number about 80,000, are found in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and are under the immediate rule of -the patriarch of Damascus and twelve bishops.
His power was reduced in the 6th century, when he was deprived of his authority over the Orient diocese, and became civil governor of Syria Prima, retaining his "respectable" rank.
Syria, and manufactures textiles in silk, cotton and wool, carpets and leather commodities, besides being the centre of a large district growing cereals, pistachios and fruit.
More cholera in 1827 and 18 3 2 and another earthquake in 1830 had left the place a wreck, with only half its former population, when Mehemet Ali of Cairo invaded and took Syria.
Tumults and massacres of Christians occurred in 1850 and 1862, accompanied by great destruction of property; but on the whole, since the - consolidation of Ottoman rule over Syria by Abdul Mejid's ministers, Aleppo has been reviving, although its trade is more local than of old.
By the earlier Greek authors (Herodotus, Thucydides and often in Xenophon) it is rendered by i»rapxos lieutenant, governor," in the documents from Babylonia and Egypt and in Ezra and Nehemiah by pakha, " governor "; and the satrap Mazaeus of Cilicia and Syria in the time of Darius III.
Under the rule of the Abbasids, Bagdad became the centre of scientific thought; physicians and astronomers from India and Syria flocked to their court; Greek and Indian manuscripts were translated (a work commenced by the Caliph Mamun (813-833) and ably continued by his successors); and in about a century the Arabs were placed in possession of the vast stores of Greek and Indian learning.
Between them and the Samaritans on the north and the Edomites on the south there was the most implacable hostility, which would probably be sufficient in itself to keep them from joining in the revolts in which other parts of Syria were involved..
I-II ought undoubtedly to be read in immediate connexion with chap. vii.; it presupposes the alliance of Syria and northern Israel, whose destruction it predicts, though opening a door of hope for a remnant of Israel.
In Palestine and western Syria, the home of pre-Christian Aramaic dialects, the vernacular Semitic speech had under Roman dominion been replaced by Greek for official and literary purposes.
Western Syria, on the contrary, had partaken with Alexandria in the reaction from Nestorianism which finally crystallized in the Monophysite doctrine, that spread so widely through Egypt and Western Asia towards the end of the 5th century.
At the request of the Arab king of Ghassan he was sent on a mission to the East after being consecrated bishop of Edessa; and the rest of his life was spent in organizing the Monophysite Church of eastern Syria.
A very different character from Jacob's was that of Sergius of Ras'ain, one of the best Greek scholars and ablest translators whom Syria has produced.
Fifty years later they were numerous in Syria and Cilicia, according to the Armenian bishops Nerses the Graceful and Nerses of Lambron.
The crusaders found them everywhere in Syria and Palestine, and corrupted their name to Publicani, under which name, often absurdly conjoined with Sadducaei, we find them during the ages following the crusades scattered all over Europe.
They were thus identified with the old party of the Pauliani, condemned at the first council of Nice in 325, and diffused in Syria a century later.
It was instituted in 165 B.C. in commemoration of, and thanksgiving for, the purification of the temple at Jerusalem on this day by Judas Maccabaeus after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, who in 168 B.C. set up a pagan altar to Zeus Olympius.
Nicator to come to their deliverance, although he was much pressed in Syria by the pretender Diodotus Tryphon.
Pliny has so accurately recorded the stages by which a permanent glass was developed that it may be assumed that he had good reason for claiming for Syria the discovery of glass.
Between Egypt and Syria there was frequent intercourse both of conquest and commerce.
The claims of Syria and Egypt are at the present time so equally balanced that it is advisable to regard the question of the birthplace of the glass industry as one that has still to be settled.
Roman technique was to be found in Byzantium and Alexandria, in Syria, in Spain, in Germany, France and Britain.
The Saracenic invasion of Syria and Egypt did not destroy the industry of glass-making.
Dillon has pointed out that the process of enamelling had probably been derived from Syria, with which country Venice had considerable commercial intercourse.
The district is watered by the Geuk Su (Calycadnus and its tributaries), and is covered to a large extent by forests, which still, as of old, supply timber to Egypt and Syria.
Amanus by the Syrian Gate, Beilan Pass, to Antioch and Syria; and another ran northwards through a masonry (Amanian) gate, south of Toprak Kaleh, and crossed Mt.
Both passes are short and easy, and connect Cilicia Pedias geographically and politically with Syria rather than with Asia Minor.
Four times he invaded Syria and Palestine, and spent three years in thoroughly subduing the countries of " the west," and in uniting them with Babylonia " into a single empire."
A cadastral survey seems also to have been instituted, and one of the documents relating to it states that a certain Uru-Malik, whose name appears to indicate his Canaanitish origin, was governor of the land of the Amorites, as Syria and Palestine were called by the Babylonians.
Constant intercourse was kept up between Babylonia and the west, Babylonian officials and troops passing to Syria and Canaan, while " Amorite " colonists were established in Babylonia for the purposes of trade.
Under this foreign dominion, which offers a striking analogy to the contemporary rule of the Hyksos in Egypt, Babylonia lost its empire over western Asia, Syria and Palestine became independent, and the high-priests of Assur made themselves kings of Assyria.
At the very time of Nasir's visit to Cairo, the power of the Egyptian Fatimites was in its zenith; Syria, the Hejaz, Africa, and Sicily obeyed Mostansir's sway, and the utmost order, security and prosperity reigned in Egypt.
So far as the Old Testament goes, therefore, we gather that the Hittites were a considerable people, widely spread in Syria, in part subdued and to some extent assimilated by Israel, but in part out of reach.
Syria, not apparently at Kadesh, but at Carchemish, though they had not been in possession of the latter place long (not in the epoch of Tethmosis I.'s Syrian campaign).
Syria alone are to be counted by hundreds.
Syria and Asia Minor known to us from Egyptian and Assyrian records, the Kheta-Khatti alone appear frequently as leading to war peoples from far beyond Taurus.
C. the Cappadocian Hatti were already in relations, generally more or less hostile, with a rival power in Syria, that of Mitanni; and Subbiluliuma (= Saplel or Saparura), king of these Hatti, a contemporary of Amenophis IV.
The real reference of these stories, however, was forgotten, and it has been reserved to our own generation to rediscover the records of a power and a civilization which once dominated Asia Minor and north Syria and occupied all the continental roads of communication between the East and the West of the ancient world.
The Hatti now pushed southwards in force, overcame the kingdom of Mitanni and proceeded partly to occupy and partly to make tributary both north Syria and western Mesopotamia where some of their congeners were already settled.
Syria called the Hattiland.
It is possible therefore that a change of imperial centre took place after the Hatti had ceased to fear Egypt in north Syria.
A succession of Ninevite armies raided north Syria and even south-east Asia Minor, and gradually reduced the Hatti.
They remained the strongest power in Syria and eastern Asia Minor till well into the first millennium B.C., and their Syrian seat was not lost finally till after the great extension of Assyrian power which took place in the latter part of the 9th century.
A native of Apamea in Syria and a pupil of Panaetius, he spent after his teacher's death many years in travel and scientific researches in Spain (particularly at Gades), Africa, Italy, Gaul, Liguria, Sicily and on the eastern shores of the Adriatic. When he settled as a teacher at Rhodes (hence his surname "the Rhodian") his fame attracted numerous scholars; next to Panaetius he did most, by writings and personal intercourse, to spread Stoicism in the Roman world, and he became well known to many leading men, such as Marius, Rutilius Rufus, Pompey and Cicero.
Ibrahim, the conqueror of Syria, scoffed at the sultan's idea that reform consisted in putting his soldiers into tight trousers and epaulettes."
In 1834 the revolt of Syria against Ibrahim seemed to give him his opportunity.
On his sole initiative, without consulting his ministers or the council of the empire, he sent instructions to Hafiz Pasha, commanding the Ottoman troops concentrated at Bir on the Euphrates, to advance into Syria.
The distinctive Latakia tobacco is produced in the province of Saida in northern Syria.
After his death his doctrines obtained the support of the Empress Eudocia and made considerable progress in Syria.
He invaded Syria and carried the inhabitants of Antioch to his residence, where he built for them a new city near Ctesiphon under the name of Khosrau-Antioch or Chosro-Antioch.
In 57 1 a new war with Rome broke out about Armenia, in which Chosroes conquered the fortress Dara on the Euphrates, invaded Syria and Cappadocia, and returned with large booty.
Chosroes fled to Syria, and persuaded the emperor Maurice to send help. Many leading men and part of the troops acknowledged Chosroes, and in 591 he was brought back to Ctesiphon.
His armies plundered Syria and Asia Minor, and in 608 advanced to Chalcedon.
Returning to Arabia a year later, he visited Oman and the shores of the Persian Gulf, and travelling from Basra through Syria and Palestine he reached Denmark in 1764 after four years' absence.
In their previous travels in Syria they had gained the confidence and friendship of a young sheikh whose family, though long settled at Tadmur, came originally from Nejd, and who was anxious to renew the connexion with his kinsmen by seeking a bride among them.
Three years later the fateful step was taken of appointing Moawiya (Mu'awiyya) governor of Syria.
After the murder of Othman, `Ali (656-661) became caliph, but Moawiya, governor of Syria, soon rebelled on the pretext of avenging the death of Othman.
To this end he expelled the Christians from Nejran and gave them lands in Syria and Irak, where they were allowed to live in peace on payment of tribute.
Syria alone remained loyal to the house of Omayya, and Othman had been advised to take refuge there, but had refused.
Mehemet Ali and his son Ibrahim Pasha were, however, now committed to their conflict with Turkey for Syria and Asia Minor, and had no troops to spare for the thankless task of holding the Arabian deserts; the garrisons were gradually withdrawn, and in 1842 Fesal, who had escaped from his prison at Cairo reappeared and was everywhere recognized as amir.
In many cases the garrisons, Arab troops from Syria, went over to the insurgents.
And when the emperor suppressed the school of Edessa ("the Athens of Syria") in 4 89, and expelled its members, they travelled far afield as eager and successful missionaries of the Gospel.
The Nestorian Church in Eastern Syria and Persia was under the jurisdiction of an archbishop (catholikos), who in 498 assumed the title "Patriarch of the East" and had his seat at SeleuciaCtesiphon on the Tigris, a busy trading city and a fitting centre for the great area over which the evangelizing activity of the Nestorians now extended.
They showed a zeal for evangelization which resulted in the establishment of their influence throughout Asia, as is seen from the bishoprics founded not only in Syria, Armenia, Arabia and Persia, but at Halavan in Media, Mer y in Khorasan, Herat, Tashkent, Samarkand, Baluk, Kashgar, and even at Kambaluk (Pekin) and Singan fu Hsi`en fu in China, and Kaljana and Kranganore in India.
They were used by the inhabitants of Arbela as a place of refuge from the army of Bacchides, general of Demetrius king of Syria, and were the resort of bandits in the reign of Herod the Great.
In the time of Vitruvius "cedars" were growing in Crete, Africa and Syria.
Azriyau of Jaudi, also, in inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser (745-728 B.C.), who was for merly supposed to be Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah, is probably a king of the country in northern Syria known to us from the Zenjirli inscriptions as Ja'di.
Entering Syria at Acre, he crossed Galilee to the Sea of Tiberias; thence returning to Acre he seems to have travelled down the coast to Jaffa, and so up to Jerusalem.
Among other missionary labours of his later years, he helped the Free Church mission on Lake Nyassa, travelled to Syria to inspect a mission at Lebanon, and assisted Lady Aberdeen and Lord Polwarth to establish the Gordon Memorial Mission in Natal.
From that time until his death in 1881 the Aga Khan, while leading the life of a peaceful and peacemaking citizen, under the protection of British rule, continued to discharge his sacerdotal functions, not only among his followers in India, but towards the more numerous communities which acknowledged his religious sway in distant countries, such as Afghanistan, Khorasan, Persia, Arabia, Central Asia, and even distant Syria and Morocco.
In the following sections the Lebanon proper will alone be considered, without reference to Anti-Lebanon, because the peculiar political status of the former range since 1864 has effectually differentiated it; whereas the Anti-Lebanon still forms an integral part of the Ottoman province of Syria (q.v.), and neither its population nor its history is readily distinguishable from those of the surrounding districts.
In the and century, with the inland districts, it constituted a subdivision of the province of Syria, having Emesa (Homs)for its capital.
Antonius offered him the command of the expedition against the Parthians and the province of Syria he changed sides at once.
The roe-buck or roe-deer (Capreolus caprea, or C. capreolus) inhabits southern and temperate Europe as far east as the Caucasus, where, as in Syria, it is probably represented by another race or species.
He prophesied in London as Isaiah prophesied to the little towns of Palestine and Syria, "often with dark foreboding, but seeing through all unrest and convulsion the working out of a sure divine purpose."
In 1717 he was sent to Egypt and Syria to search for valuable MSS., and returned with about 150 very choice ones.
He was titular archbishop of Apamea in Syria, and held several rich prebends in Italy.
He is best known by his masterly detection of the literary imposture of Vella, which claimed to be a history of the Saracens in Syria.
He finds that materials fail for Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt.
He criticizes Harnack's theory that there existed in the East, that is, in Asia Minor, or in Asia Minor and Syria as far back as the beginning of the 2nd century, a Christological instruction (uiOmua) organically related to the second article of the Roman Creed, and formulas which taught that the " One God " was " Creator of heaven and earth," and referred to the holy prophetic spirit, and lasted on till they influenced the course of creed-development in the 4th century.
We find " suffered " in the creed of Milan, " descended into hell " in the creed of Aquileia, the Danubian lands and Syria; the words " God " and " almighty " were shortly added to clause 7 in the Spanish creed; " life everlasting " had stood from an early date in the African creed.
When Abu Bekr resolved to invade Syria, he entrusted `Amr with a high command.
During his march a messenger from Omar arrived with a letter containing directions to return if he should have received it in Syria, but if in Egypt to advance, in which case all needful assistance would be instantly sent to him.
The chronological reckoning of Julius Africanus formed also the basis of the era of Antioch, which was adopted by the Christians of Syria, at the instance of Panodorus, an Egyptian monk, who flourished about the beginning of the 4th century.
At this period, also, under its patesis, Ur-bau and Gudea, Lagash had extensive commercial communications with distant realms. According to his own records, Gudea brought cedars from the Amanus and Lebanon mountains in Syria, diorite or dolorite from eastern Arabia, copper and gold from central and southern Arabia and from Sinai, while his armies, presumably under his over-lord, Ur-Gur, were engaged in battles in Elam on the east.
For ten years he held a commission as military tribune, which took him to many lands far asunder; then he filled important posts in Syria and Spain.
Already by 106 the position of Rome in the East had been materially improved by the peaceful annexation of districts bordering on the province of Syria.
The region of Damascus, hitherto a dependency, and the last remaining fragment of the Jewish kingdom, were incorporated with Syria; Bostra and Petra were permanently occupied, and a great portion of the Nabataean kingdom was organized as the Roman province of Arabia.
The Irak of Persia was overcome by Khalid in a single campaign, and there was also a successful expedition into Syria.
This writer states that when at the papal court in 1145 he met with the bishop of Gabala (Jibal in Syria), who related how "not many years before one John, king and priest (rex et sacerdos), who dwelt in the extreme Orient beyond Persia and Armenia, and was, with his people, a Christian but a Nestorian, had made war against the brother kings of the Persians and Medes, who were called Samiards (or Sanjards), and captured Ecbatana their capital.
Prophecies current among the Christians in Syria of the destruction of Mahomet's sect after six centuries of duration added to the excitement attending these rumours.
The Aramaeans of north Syria were the next to be attacked, and he thrice made his way as far as the sources of the Tigris.
Scarcely ten years passed and the whole of Palestine and Syria was again torn with intrigues.
It is difficult to date the alliance of Syria and Philistia against Israel in Isa.
The biblical evidence does not favour any continued Philistine domination since the time of Rameses III., who indeed, later in his reign, made an expedition, not against the Purasati, but into North Syria, and, as appears from the Papyrus Harris, restored Egyptian supremacy over Palestine and Syria.
Archaeological evidence for their influence has indeed been adduced,' but it is certain that some account must be taken also of the influence by land from North Syria and Asia Minor.
It was at Athens that he seriously began to think of religion, and resolved to seek out the most famous hermit saints in Syria and Arabia, in order to learn from them how to attain to that enthusiastic piety in which he delighted, and how to keep his body under by maceration and other ascetic devices.
Either Egypt or Syria would satisfy this condition, and in favour of Syria is the fact that the presbyterate there was to a late date regarded as a rank rather than an office.
In the addax (Addax nasomaculatus), which is a distinct species common to North Africa and Syria, the ringed horns form an open spiral ascending in the plane of the face, and there is long, shaggy, dark hair on the fore-quarters in winter.
The last section of the true antelopes is the Bubalinae, represented by the hartebeest, Bubalis, blesbok and sassaby (Damaliscus), and the gnu or wildebeest (Connochaetes, also called Catoblepas), all being African with the exception of one or two hartebeests which range into Syria.
After studying at Tubingen and Leipzig and travelling in Egypt and Syria, he entered the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland and was appointed professor of Old Testament subjects in the Free Church College at Glasgow 1892.
In Syria and Egypt the palmist can be seen plying his trade at the cafes; and among the Arabs there are chiromantists who are consulted as to the probable success of enterprises.
At the age of twelve Hood entered the navy, and whilst still a boy saw active service on the north coast of Spain, and afterwards on the coast of Syria.
In Syria too, Turkish was made the official language, and Arabic forbidden in the schools.
German commercial undertakings had been encouraged and assisted by the German Government to acquire immense and valuable interests within Ottoman domains; among them the construction and working of the great line of railway designed to connect Constantinople with Syria, Arabia and Bagdad.
Hundreds of thousands were slaughtered; hundreds of thousands set marching for Syria and Mesopotamia perished on the way by hardship, disease, starvation; those who escaped became fugitives; from first to last at least three-quarters of a million Armenians perished in Asia Minor in a population of less than two millions.
But eventually the British captured Bagdad and overran Mesopotamia from the Persian Gulf to the borders of Syria.
At the end of 1914 a Turkish army from Syria made an attempt to reach the Suez Canal and cut British sea communications with the East.
The result was that Agrippa left Rome, ostensibly to take over the governorship of Syria - a sort of honourable exile; but as a matter of fact he only sent his legate to the East, while he himself remained at Lesbos.
He was appointed governor of Syria a second time (17), where his just and prudent administration won him the respect and good-will of the provincials, especially the Hebrew population.
But Austria and Russia gave him no time for anything but defence, and it was not until the peace of Jassy (1792) that a breathing space was allowed him in Europe, while Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt and Syria soon called for Turkey's strongest efforts and for the time shattered the old-standing French alliance.
In 1400 Timur pillaged it, and in 1517 it passed, with the rest of Syria, to the Ottoman dominion.
Artemidorus (loo B.C.), quoted by Strabo, gives a similar account of the Sabaeans and their capital Mariaba, of their wealth and trade, adding the characteristic feature that each tribe receives the wares and passes them on to its neighbours as far as Syria and Mesopotamia.
In the East the metropolitan baptistery at Constantinople still stands at the side of the mosque which was once the patriarchal church of St Sophia; and many others, in Syria, have been made known to us by recent researches, as also have some belonging to the churches of North Africa.
Rezon, defeated in battle, fled to his capital which was at once invested by the Assyrians, while with another portion of his army Tiglath-Pileser ravaged Syria and overran the kingdom of Samaria.
He also accompanied his father to Syria, and after his death returned to Rome.
The former, besides embodying catechetical instruction in Christian conduct (the "Two Ways"), which goes back in substance to the early apostolic age and is embodied also in "Barnabas," depicts in outline the fundamental usages of church life as practised in some conservative region (probably within Syria) about the last quarter of the 1st century and perhaps even later.
In later times the title of tetrarch is familiar from the New Testament as borne by certain princes of the petty dynasties which the Romans allowed to exercise a dependent sovereignty within the province of Syria.
Since the time when the church of eastern Syria had decided, in opposition to the church of the Empire, to cling to the ancient views of Syrian theologians - therefore also to the teaching and person of Nestorius - her relations were broken off with the church in western Syria and in Greek and Latin countries; but the power of Nestorian, or, as it was termed, Chaldaic Christianity, was not thereby diminished.
Political conditions at the beginning of the middle ages favoured the Nestorian church, and the fact that the Arabs had conquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt, made it possible for her to exert an influence on the Christians in these countries.