DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45582#0007
Division II Section A Part 3
150
deserted ruin appears like a living city, all of black, rising from a grey-white sea.
This ancient ruined city has long been called by the Arabs Umm idj-Djimal, which,
being translated, is “Mother of Camels”. Certain Bible scholars have tried to identify
the place with Beth Gaimtl of the Old Testament.1 It is not definitely known what
the city was called in Roman and early Christian times; but “Mother of Camels” it
is now, and no name could fit it better, especially in the springtime when the Bedawin,
with hundreds of breeding camels, pitch their tents around the walls of the city, and
the new-born camels are sheltered within the ruins against the winds that blow from
Hermon’s snow-capped peak.
Umm idj-Djimal was the central city, and the metropolis, of the once thickly
settled region that lies south of the Djebel Hauran, and which is styled in these pub-
lications, the Southern Hauran. It was certainly one of the largest, if not by all
means the largest, of the cities of the Roman province of Arabia, south of Bostra
and east of Philadelphia. The line betwixt Syria and Arabia today is not very
definitely drawn in this locality; but, if Syria is taken to be part of the Turkish Empire,
and Arabia to be the independent country inhabited solely by the Bedawin, and free
from garrisons, soldiers, taxes and other features of Imperial government, then this is
Arabia still, as it was in the days when it was ruled from Rome and Byzantium.
As it stands today, with all its monuments of the past still recognizable, it is the pre-
Islamic Christian Arabic city par excellence, practically untouched by Roman or Greek
influence, and unchanged by the stream of Islam that swept by it.
This ancient site is not difficult of access for those prepared for desert travel and
willing to entrust their safety to the Bedawin; but the lack of water places restrictions
upon camping among its ruins. A number of explorers have reached Umm idj-Djimal
for a tew hours at a time; but no Europeans had encamped on the spot until January
1905 when the Princeton Expedition pitched its tents beside the old fortress for two
weeks, and were followed, later in the same winter, by Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell3
who spent a night in camp among the ruins. Neither party suffered the slightest in-
convenience from the Bedawin, although travelling without the usual Turkish guard.
The Arabs who were encamped there when the Princeton Expedition arrived, pointed
out to our muleteers a small pool of water about two miles west of the ruins, and
left the place quietly next day, saying there was not sufficient water for them and for
us too. Indeed I may add that unusually heavy falls of snow upon the mountains of
the Hauran, and unwonted showers in the plain, made the winter of 1904—1905 a
singularly opportune season for exploration in this region. I was told by Bedawin
shepherds that the supply of water was more plentiful there than it had been within
their memory, and I could well believe it when I returned to this locality in 1909.
During two weeks of uninterrupted work, we were able thoroughly to explore the ruins.
A survey of the ancient city was made by Mr. Norris, in which the lines of the walls
and all the more important buildings within them, and a church and many tombs out-
side the walls, were located. As a result, two maps are presented herewith, Map No. 1,
which shows the city and its immediate surroundings, and Map No. 2 which gives the
city itself on a much larger scale, and many of its buildings drawn to scale. The
ground plans of a large number of buildings were carefully measured, and these have
1 Jer. XLVIII, 23.
2 The Desert and the Sown, p. 73—77.
150
deserted ruin appears like a living city, all of black, rising from a grey-white sea.
This ancient ruined city has long been called by the Arabs Umm idj-Djimal, which,
being translated, is “Mother of Camels”. Certain Bible scholars have tried to identify
the place with Beth Gaimtl of the Old Testament.1 It is not definitely known what
the city was called in Roman and early Christian times; but “Mother of Camels” it
is now, and no name could fit it better, especially in the springtime when the Bedawin,
with hundreds of breeding camels, pitch their tents around the walls of the city, and
the new-born camels are sheltered within the ruins against the winds that blow from
Hermon’s snow-capped peak.
Umm idj-Djimal was the central city, and the metropolis, of the once thickly
settled region that lies south of the Djebel Hauran, and which is styled in these pub-
lications, the Southern Hauran. It was certainly one of the largest, if not by all
means the largest, of the cities of the Roman province of Arabia, south of Bostra
and east of Philadelphia. The line betwixt Syria and Arabia today is not very
definitely drawn in this locality; but, if Syria is taken to be part of the Turkish Empire,
and Arabia to be the independent country inhabited solely by the Bedawin, and free
from garrisons, soldiers, taxes and other features of Imperial government, then this is
Arabia still, as it was in the days when it was ruled from Rome and Byzantium.
As it stands today, with all its monuments of the past still recognizable, it is the pre-
Islamic Christian Arabic city par excellence, practically untouched by Roman or Greek
influence, and unchanged by the stream of Islam that swept by it.
This ancient site is not difficult of access for those prepared for desert travel and
willing to entrust their safety to the Bedawin; but the lack of water places restrictions
upon camping among its ruins. A number of explorers have reached Umm idj-Djimal
for a tew hours at a time; but no Europeans had encamped on the spot until January
1905 when the Princeton Expedition pitched its tents beside the old fortress for two
weeks, and were followed, later in the same winter, by Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell3
who spent a night in camp among the ruins. Neither party suffered the slightest in-
convenience from the Bedawin, although travelling without the usual Turkish guard.
The Arabs who were encamped there when the Princeton Expedition arrived, pointed
out to our muleteers a small pool of water about two miles west of the ruins, and
left the place quietly next day, saying there was not sufficient water for them and for
us too. Indeed I may add that unusually heavy falls of snow upon the mountains of
the Hauran, and unwonted showers in the plain, made the winter of 1904—1905 a
singularly opportune season for exploration in this region. I was told by Bedawin
shepherds that the supply of water was more plentiful there than it had been within
their memory, and I could well believe it when I returned to this locality in 1909.
During two weeks of uninterrupted work, we were able thoroughly to explore the ruins.
A survey of the ancient city was made by Mr. Norris, in which the lines of the walls
and all the more important buildings within them, and a church and many tombs out-
side the walls, were located. As a result, two maps are presented herewith, Map No. 1,
which shows the city and its immediate surroundings, and Map No. 2 which gives the
city itself on a much larger scale, and many of its buildings drawn to scale. The
ground plans of a large number of buildings were carefully measured, and these have
1 Jer. XLVIII, 23.
2 The Desert and the Sown, p. 73—77.