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| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 310 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | exotic_201304_015_335.jpg |
| Transcript | 3IO PLCTURESQUE PALESTINE. Jebel Serbal, be the Mountain of the Law (our commonly accepted Sinai), it could not be that Moses would have left in his rear a place like Feiran, the most fertile spot in the peninsula, which as such must have been occupied by some colony of Amalekites, besides being probably the most hallowed of their sanctuaries. Even were we to allow that the great battle did not take place at Feiran, but at El Watiyeh in the Wady es Sheikh, it would still be most unnatural that no mention should be made of an encampment at Feiran, marked out naturally to be a camping ground for a host of people—journeying as were the Israelites. And these conventual buildings and the remains of the churches and the hermits' cells —what date shall we assign to them ? There is an old make-up story which tells us that the town of Pharan was converted to Christianity in the middle of the fourth century. When Justinian, in a.d. 527, countenanced the foundation of a convent at Jebel Musa, he did not break new ground. A chapel, ascribed to the Empress Helena, had been built there in years long passed away, and the small conventual establishment attached to it seems to have been regarded as an outpost resting on the church at Pharan for support, and terribly exposed to the attacks of the Saracens. The cause of the decline of Pharan and the growth of the monasteries of Mount Sinai is not very clear, but there is amongst the subscriptions at the council of Constantinople, a.d. 536, the name of Theonas, a presbyter and legate of the holy Mount Sinai, the desert Raithu, and the holy church at Pharan. Of the old monastic establishment on El Maharrad there are the foundations, part of the walls of its church, the remains of a tower, and a few broken columns and entablatures. Amongst the latter Professor Palmer found a stone with a carved representation of a seated man with his arms raised, probably meant to be Moses at the battle of Rephidim. Many of the stones of the church are to be found in the walls of the small houses of roughest construction which rise up on all sides, specially on the other side of the valley. The hill-tops abound with small square nawamis, which may have been hermitages and graves together. In one, opened by Professor Palmer, were traces of a coarse shroud and wooden coffin. Above the body was a flat stone forming a shelf in the upper part of the tomb, but this did not seem to have been used for a second interment. The bodies in these nawamis are buried east and west. The burying-ground of the present little Arab village is beautifully situated, secluded in the palm-grove a little way from the stream. One grave is ornamented with a white marble tombstone carved in a lily pattern, evidently brought from the ruins of the convent church. In the cemetery is the tomb of Sheikh Abu Shebib, the patron saint of the district. It is a small stone building, and on the actual tomb is a cotton pall. To swear by this tomb is considered so solemn an oath as to be clear proof of a man's innocence. Abu Shebib is reported to have appeared to a hunter who broke his leg on Jebel el Benat and to have conveyed him safely to his own home, and further to have demanded bakhshish in the shape ot a white-faced sheep to be offered yearly at his tomb. The Arab regards his patron saint witl) the same reverence which the Neapolitan shows to St. Januarius. In every so-called villag of the Arabs there is a consecrated shittim (acacia) tree, whose branches are not hackee a |