Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/103

Rh fell into their hands under Jovian, 363, after the retreat and death of the emperor Julian, and resisted all the attempts of the Romans to regain possession of it. S. James, one of the Fathers of the Council of Nice, was present at Nisibis during the last memorable siege of Shapoor; and here in after ages flourished that famous nursery of Nestorianism, the rival of Edessa, which gave birth to those learned and zealous missionaries who carried a knowledge of the Gospel into Tartary, India, and China.

Nisibeen is at present inhabited by 300 families, chiefly Arabs of the Tai tribe, who live in tents pitched amidst the debris of the ancient city, and speak Coordish as well as their own native language. The Christians, who are Jacobites and Armenians, number twelve families, without a church or priest. Of forty Jewish families who resided here a few years ago, four only remain, the rest having been driven by oppression to seek a shelter elsewhere.

The principal relics of antiquity still extant at Nisibeen, are the two solitary marble columns at a short distance from the village, a few ornamental figures, and the so-called Church of S. James. The latter consists of two apartments partly buried in an accumulation of rubbish, which surrounds the whole building. The first, which is of a circular form, is supported by Corinthian pillars, and is in a tolerable state of preservation. The chief entrance faces the east, and this circumstance,10 as well as the internal arrangement of the edifice, leads me to conclude that it was not a church, but a mausoleum erected over the remains of the holy Bishop. The contiguous apartment is destitute of architectural ornament; and from this we descended by a narrow staircase into a sepulchral vault, a subterranean cell measuring 14 ft. by 8 ft. A marble sarcophagus, one side of which has been ruthlessly destroyed, doubtless in hope of finding treasure, marks the traditional grave of S. James. We discovered the following mutilated inscription over the principal entrance, which is now entirely blocked up with rubbish: