[240] The following is the inscription as copied by Von Kremer, who gives a minute description of this most interesting structure. It is the Septuagint version of Psalm cxiv. 13, with the addition only of the words, O Christ:—
Η. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑ. ΣΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑ. ΠΑΝΤΩΝ. ΤΩΝ ΑΙΟΝΩΝ. ΚΑΙ. Η. ΔΕΣΠΟΤΙΑ. ΣΟΥ. ΕΝ. ΠΑΣΗ. ΓΕΝΕΑΙ
ΚΑΙ ΓΕΝΕΑΙ.
Belâdzori tells us that Muâvia and Abd al Malik both desired to take the portion occupied by the Christians as a church into the Mosque, and offered them any sum they chose to ask in compensation; but they stood by the terms of the capitulation, and refused. It was reserved for Welîd I., son of Abd al Malik, to seize the building. When he summoned masons to demolish the partition-wall, they demurred, saying that whoever touched a church became an idiot. Whereupon Welîd took the pickaxe into his own hand, and commenced the work of demolition. (Belâdzori, p. 125.)
I have given all the particulars I could find in the early and reliable traditions regarding the siege and capitulation. The tales and romances of later days are altogether without foundation.
[241] 1 Samuel xxxi. 7, et seq. Beth-Shan became by contraction Beisân. The classical name was Scythopolis, once a noble city, the seat of a bishop and convents, and the birthplace of Cyril and Basilides. Here Alexander Jannæus had his interview with Cleopatra; and Pompey took it as well as Pella, on his way from Damascus to Judæa. Pella has a special interest for us, as the spot where the Christians took refuge when Titus attacked Judæa. Both cities were at the time of our history populous and flourishing. (See Robinson’s Palestine, pp. 325 et seq.)
[242] ‘The whole plain was now so full of fountains and rivulets as to be in some places almost a marsh.’ (Ibid. pp. 325, 327.)
[243] The Roman army was so shut in, that their blockade is called ‘the first siege in Syria’; the second being that of Damascus. The numbers of the enemy are, no doubt, as elsewhere, exaggerated.
[244] Some accounts place the battle of Fihl at the close of A.H. XIII., and therefore prior to the siege of Damascus, in which city they say that the broken army of the Romans took refuge. But the chronology in Tabari is clearly as I have given it. The sequence of events is governed by the battle of Câdesîya, which took place in October or November, A.H. XIV., after the Irâc contingent had been dismissed from Syria.
[245] It is of Dhirâr that so many marvellous tales are told in the romances of Wâckidy and others.