The Shasta courier., 1866-01-06
Damascus.

The city of Damascus was old before Bal
bee and Palmyra were founded, and Balbec
and Palmyra had been in ruins thousand
years when America was discovered Even
Moses gives us no clue to its origin. 1t was
already well known city when Abraham
dwelt in the plains of Mamre. The Patri-
arch's steward was "Elizer of Damascus.
Cotemporaneous with all history, from the
date OF Abraham to the present time, it
stands in this year of grace, 1865, fresh and
young and vigorous, bearing fewer marks of
extreme age than Rome, or even Edinburg.
with torty-five miles and two ranges of
mountains between it and the sea; with the
desert OF Hauran around it; never inhabited
by people of great enterprise; surrounded
by desert tribes of savage habits: without
commerce; without art-for four hundred
years. it has been persistently prosperous.-
Twice it has been the capital of a great en-
pire. Twice it has been swept with the
besom OF destruction, only to reappear with
new vigor. Six different great nationalities
have held 1t IN their power. Five of them have
gone to decay, and the SIXTH is fast going
after them; yet it wears to day the beauty
OF ITS youth, its white house tops, and mar
BILE minarets and cleaning crescents CLAN
eng out from amid the grey of the olive, the
green OF walnut, and tie purple of the pome-
granate, laughing at the ages gone, as its
old fountains laugh at the wasted streams of
the desert. One of its own writers has said:
" Though old as history itself, thou art
fresh as the breath of the spring, blooming
as thine own rose bud, fragrant as thine own
orange flower, 0, Damascus pearl of the
East P'
Shortly after the death of Mohammed the
Saracens took it, and soon made it the cap.
ital of the Moslem empire. Eastward and
westward the strange power grew, till DAM
ascus was the seat of an authority which
reached from the Himalayas to the Atlantic
shore. The sword of Islam ravaged the
world, and brought its trophies hither The
church of John the Baptist was made the
Great Mosque, and decorated with the plum
der of East and West. Wealth hawed in at
the gates and luxury dwelt in the palaces
and marble halls, and inlaid fountains and
divans sparkling with gems. Noureddin
fostered schools. There were libraries, too,
filled with the literature of the khalifs. The
crusaders attacked the city, but were teat-
en- back by Saladin. For four hundred
years the Saracens enjoyed their i'll gotten
wealth but the day Of vengeance came at
last Tamerlane, whom the Arab writers
term Ell Walsh, "the Wild Beast" and
whose motto was. Earth should have
but one master, as there is but one God in,
Heaven" laid seige to the city. 1t surren-
dered, and the conquerer, first receiving re-
demption money from every male citizen,
afterwards gave up the city to his troops,
urging them to indiscriminate slaughter
They needed no urging Their prisoners
we're helpless, and for days these Tartar
savages revelled in deeds of bloodshed and
cruelty. The city soon recovered again. and
in l5i6 was taken by the Turks, who hold
it to this day. 1t is now the head of large
Turkish pashalic, extending from near Alep-
po on the north to Petra on the south, and
from Lebanon on the west to the ruins of
Palmyra on the east, including the vast
plains Of the Aauran.