Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/122

634–5] and besides it there were, at the time of which we write, fifteen churches in the City and its suburbs, Not long before, Damascus had suffered severely from the alternating fortunes of the Persian war; but had now, in great measure, recovered its prosperity.

Such was the Capital of Syria, "Queen of Cities," which in all its radiance, surrounded far off by lofty mountains tipped with snow, now burst on the gaze of the Arab warriors. Some amongst them may perchance have visited it trading to the north; but as a whole, the army had heard of it only by report; and in beauty, richness, and repose, fancy could hardly have exceeded the scene now stretched before them.

It was on the 16th of Moḥarram of the year 14—fifteen days after the reverse of Merj aṣ-Ṣoffar, that the siege of Damascus began, and it lasted, with variations of fortune, for six months. The Arabs had no skill or experience in the art of besieging walled towns; and Damascus was strongly fortified and, it seems, well provided with the means of resistance. The besiegers, on the other hand, were continually obliged to send out foraging parties to replenish their commissariat, as well as to repel attacks from parties of the enemy who attempted to relieve the City. At last Khālid had to summon to his aid Shuraḥbīl from the Jordan province, and ʿAmr from "Palestine," and it was only as a result of treachery from within that the City was eventually taken.

How little is certainly known about the history of Palestine at this time is shown by the fact that not even the name of the governor of Damascus during this memorable siege is certain. One authority calls him the Bishop, but without naming him; another states that he was Bāhān; whilst a third calls him the patrician Nesṭās (Anastasius).

One of the numerous encounters between the besiegers and the relieving forces took place between Beit Liḥya and Thanīyat al-ʿOḳāb, overlooking the City, some four leagues to the north-east. It was the crag on which Khālid had planted a flag on the occasion of his famous desert march. The relieving force retired by the easterly route, as being safer, to Emesa from which it had come. The Muslims pursued, but on their arrival at Emesa they found that the enemy had fled.