[193] The name itself is unintelligible.
[194] The Buildings of Justinian (Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society), p. 51.
[195] I would suggest that Ḳal’at ej Jedîd may occupy the site of the Sisaurana of Procopius, which was destroyed by Belisarius. Sisaurana, however, lay three miles from Rhabdium, and even as the crow flies the distance between Ḳ. Ḥâtim Ṭâi and Ḳ. ej Jedîd must be greater. But the important position of Ḳ. ej Jedîd on one of the few passes up from the plain suggests that the spot must have been fortified in ancient times. Sisaurana is no doubt the Sisara of Ammianus Marcellinus: see Ritter, Vol. XI. p. 150 and pp. 400-401.
[196] Though tradition links these foundations with Egypt, it is quite possible that they may have had a yet closer connection with Syria, where in the fourth century monasticism and the solitary life had already taken a strong hold. Duchesne: Histoire de l’Eglise, Vol. II. p. 516.
[197] Kiepert marks a “Gr. Cœnobium von Izala,” which is, I imagine, intended for Mâr Augen, but its position relatively to Ḳ. ej Jedîd and Useh Dereh, as marked in the map, cannot be correct. Mâr Yuhannâ, which lies to the east of Mâr Augen, approaches more nearly to Kiepert’s site. I have published a short account of these and other monasteries and churches of the Ṭûr ’Abdîn in Amida (Strzygowski and Van Berchem).
[198] Kiepert places Mâr Melko too far from Useh Dereh. My itinerary was as follows: Useh Dereh to Mâr Melko, 1 hr.; Mâr Melko to Kharabah ’Aleh, 30 min.; Kharabah ’Aleh to Kernaz, 2 hrs. 15 min.; Kernaz to Deir el ’Amr, 1 hr. 15 min. All these places are marked in the map.
[199] Niebuhr heard that Mâr Melko was famed for the curing of epilepsy: Reisebericht, Vol. II. p. 388. Not having penetrated into the Ṭûr ’Abdîn, he thought that the report that there were seventy monasteries in the hills must be an exaggeration, but I expect that it was not far from the truth.
[200] Deir ’Umar, 5.30; Mezîzakh, 8.15; Midyâd, 9.15.
[201] I visited inside the town Mâr Shim’ûn, which is in process of being rebuilt, and Mâr Barsauma, which has been completely rebuilt. Outside the town is the monastery of Mâr Ibrahîm and Mâr Hôbel. It has recently been repaired, but much of the masonry is ancient. The two churches, dedicated to the two patron saints, belong to the monastic type of Mâr Gabriel; the mouldings round the doors, and the cyma cornice are old. There is also a small chapel, dedicated to the Virgin; it is square in plan and covered by a dome on squinches, but it appeared to me to be of later date. I was shown in this monastery a very remarkable silken vestment. The ground is of green satin covered with a repeated pattern in gold, silver and coloured silks, representing a woman in a red robe seated in a howdah upon the back of a camel. A man naked to the waist is seated upon the ground with his head bowed upon his hands. A variety of animals and floral motives are scattered round the principal figures. The subject is no doubt taken from the story of Leila and Majnûn. The date of this brocade is probably somewhere between 1560 and 1660. A fragment showing a like pattern is in the possession of Dr. Sarre. The monastery possesses besides a small bronze thurible, of which I succeeded in procuring a counterpart. A similar thurible exists in the British Museum (No. 540 in the catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities); it is said to have come from Mâr Musa el Habashi, between Damascus and Palmyra. The Kaiser Friedrich Museum has obtained several in Cairo and Trebizond (Wulff: Altchristliche Bildwerke, Teil I, nos. 967-970). These are ascribed to the sixth and seventh centuries. Mr. Dalton, to whom I owe this information, gives me references to two others, one in the Bargello collection at Florence (No. 241 in the catalogue of the Carraud Collection, published in 1898) and one published in the Echos d’Orient, VII., 1904, p. 148.
[202] I have published photographs and plans of the Jacobite church of the Virgin and the Greek Orthodox church of Mâr Cosmo in Amida: Van Berchem and Strzygowski.