There is a very old mosque at ’Ammân, with round arches and a short minaret. Unfortunately it is without inscription (save for a later scrawl over the door), and whether it is older than the kiosque may be doubtful, but it shows us that the Moslems built in this town at a very early date. From El Mukaddasy we have a Moslem account of the place as old as the tenth century A.D. He speaks of this very mosque as being near the market-place, and he calls the citadel “Goliah’s Castle,” and apparently alludes to the kiosque as a mosque over the tomb of Uriah. Thus the buildings we are discussing clearly existed in 985 A.D. The town appears to have been then prosperous; living was cheap and fruit plentiful; grain and honey are mentioned by the Moslem geographer, where now the only cultivation is that of a few wretched gardens tilled by Circassian exiles living in the theatre.
The Survey was extended only a few miles north of ’Ammân; the region as far as Gerasa I saw in 1882, when accompanying their Royal Highnesses Princes Albert Victor and George of Wales beyond Jordan. The region is extremely picturesque, including the wooded hills of Gilead, the bare heights of ’Ajlûn, and the uplands round Gerasa. It is remarkable that this great city beside its mountain stream seems to have been deserted earlier than ’Ammân, although the country near it now contains villages with a settled population, whereas south of Es Salt there are now no villages beyond Jordan, and the Circassians at ’Ammân are almost the only inhabitants who do not live in tents. To the antiquary this has been an advantage, since Gerasa remains a purely Roman ruin, only equalled by Palmyra. The area within the city walls at Palmyra (500 acres) was indeed greater than that included within the walls of Jerash (170 acres), but in some respects the architectural remains at the latter date are even of greater importance.
Some very interesting Greek inscriptions once belonging to the early church in Gerasa have been copied by De Vogüé, by Rev. R. B. Girdlestone, by Sir Charles Warren, and by myself. They appear to have gradually fallen into decay, so that my own copy is somewhat less complete than those of the text as it existed twenty years before. The longest of these texts is a poem in hexameter, consisting of thirteen lines, of which the eleventh is taken from Homer,[57] and the whole is a Homeric imitation.
The longest inscription that I copied is not written in regular lines, but runs on, the new line of hexameter being in one case divided from the preceding by a well-shaped Greek cross. The forms of the letters, which I very carefully preserved, are those used in Greek Byzantine inscriptions. This text consisted of six lines of poetry, and is written by a certain wrestler, Theodorus, whose soul is in the broad heaven and his body in the earth. The longer text belonged to the church door, and mentions the cross. It may be translated as follows, being one of the most curious of the early Christian inscriptions in Syria:—
“Wonder and awe together the passer-by have encountered.
Clouds of error are gone, and now in place of the darkness
Which was aforetime here, the grace of God is around me.
And when the sound of the groans of the four-footed victims is silenced
Formerly falling here—and dire was the stench that arose,
So that the wayfaring man must stop his nostrils in passing
Yea and strive to escape the evil smell on the breezes
Now on the sweet-smelling plain the wandering travellers journey,
Lifting up as they go the palm of the right to their faces
Making the honoured sign of the cross as a deed that is holy.
And if you farther would ask this also that you may know it,
Æneas to me has given this excellent glory.
Æneas the all-wise priest, well instructed in worship.”
The reference is clearly to the establishment of the Christian ritual, and to the abolition of sacrifices in the Pagan temple.
These inscriptions show us that Gerasa was still inhabited in early Byzantine times, and the church stands just south of the great heathen temple. My visit to Jerash only lasted a day, and it was thus not possible to explore the site very completely, but we found nine inscriptions in all, one of which seems to be new, though unfortunately only a fragment.
On the stylobate of the southern temple is a very boldly carved name, perhaps that of Pertinax, which would give a date towards the end of the second century.[58]
The city stood on the sides of an open mountain-valley, and through the midst flowed a stream, which, running south, breaks in a cascade just by the southern wall. The course is fringed with oleanders, but the hill slopes are bare and stony, though covered, when visited, with corn. The whole course of the city walls is traceable, the masonry lying in heaps, having probably been thrown down by the early Arab invaders from the south. Five gates are distinguishable at the ends of the streets, which were regularly laid out at right angles. The main street ran parallel to the stream on the west, and was flanked throughout, for a length of 700 yards, by columns supporting epistylia. On the south this colonnade ends in a peribolus, which has been supposed to be the forum, just in front of the southern temple. Fifty-eight pillars remain in a single oval 300 feet long, all having Roman Ionic capitals, but not all of equal height.