The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-03
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

am citizen of new city, new state, new country. Birmingham is less than fifty years old, Alabama has just rounded the hundredth mile post and the United States has yet few laps to go before being able to celebrate century and half.
 Up to recently it was generally con ceded that St. Augustine was the oldest white settlement in the United States, and having always been taught that Christopher Columbus discovered Amer ica. I'm going to stand by the elder historians in spite of the claimant newer ehroniclers
 But the honor of being the oldest of all extant cities must be given to Da. mascus. Syria. 1 never dreamed that it had such an interesting claim upon pos terity until I accidentally got interest ed in it by looking through beauti fully illustrated book written by an Arabic scholar, with drawings in color by a noted English artist.
 It's funny how one buys a book and puts it among his collection and leaves it untouched and frequently uncut for years, and then, without. rhyme or req son, sees 1t on a bookshelf and indif- ferently takes it down and while care .essly turning the pages finds some thing which grips him and is soon rac- ing through it's contents. I'll admit the e3lor drawings first arrested by atten- tion, but l soon found the text quite engaging.
 Now, the work is bit too technical and prolix for my purpose in this article, which is set down merely to draw atten- ton to one phase of Damascus and that it's claim to being the oldest of all the world cities. Other cities were built be- fore it. but they have perished or been destroyed, while 1t has lived through fire and sword and today claims a popula- tion larger than the census has just giv- en Birmingham.
 Tyre and Sidon have crumbled on the coasts of Phoenecia; Baalbec is a ruin; Palmyra is buried in the great Syrian desert; Nneveh and Babylon have dis appeared from the Tigris and the Eu- phrates; but Damascus, mentioned in Genesis, remains what it was before the days of Abraham, center of trade and travel, the eye of the east as Julian, the apostate, called it. In the twenti- eth century it stands as a silent wit ness to the fact that while nations rise and fall, history marches on.
 
 One beauty about delving into ancient history comes from the fact that there is little agreement between the his torians, and so man has large liberty in picking among them. 1 only set down my conclusions, but have not enough faith in having guessed right to attempt to dispute with anyone who thinks they have better line on pre-Biblicai, Bib lcal or ye ancient times. The way doc tors disagree seems perfect accord in comparison with the discord among the students of mans doings in the early twilight of history.
 confess that I started out with a wish to try and harmonize the various accounts, but the more authorities l looked into the more confused I became, until at last I gave up all hope or ar irving at the truth and so will be sat-
 sfied if I in any way approximate IL. It has been suggested that the ldlogram by which it is indicated in Babylonian monuments literally means fortress of the Amorites,' and could this be proved it would be valuable testimony to it's antiquity if not to it's origin.
 The city is mentioned in the docu- ments that describe the battle of the four kings against the five kings, in- serted in the book of Genesis (ch xiv); Abram (Abraham) is reported to have
 +. noh north of Damascus (v. 15). The name Of the steward of Abrahams estab- ishment is given in Genesis xv:2 as Dammesek Elizier which is explained in the Aramaic and Syriac versions as "EIizier of Damascus" This reading is adopted by the authorized version Of the Bible, but some critics think there IS here some textual corruption In SUD- port of this I will add that, according to Moslem tradition, Eliezer founded the city and Abraham reigned there for a time
 r Another authority says that Damascus is supposed to have been founded by Uz. elder son of Aram (Gen. x:2S) Now, when you come to Aram, the man, and l Aram, the nation, I'll take the limit of passing up Aram. the person, and will delimit Aram. the land, to that portion which came most in contact with Israel, which gradually absorbed it. but in turn was conquered by the Assyrian under {; Tiglath-P -Pileser Now. I have worked 1 this gentleman in simply to tell that it l was the nickname bestowed on Dr. John Sampey the distinguished O. T. scholar, | by the theological students at the South ern Baptist Theological Seminary. Be- cause he was so insistent on drilling l into them the characters under the old l dispensation he went by the v name of l "Old Tiglath- -Pileser."
 k In the period of Egyptian suzerainty over Palestine in the eighteenth dynasty | (whose name frequently appears in the l Tell el-Amarna tablets) was capital of 1 the small province of Ubi. it's name in l the tabiets being Dimashka. But I can only refer to the overrunning of Pales- 1 tine and Syria by the Khabiri and Suti l the forerunners of the Aramaean immi- grafton. and of the changed conditions ] in language and government, and how i this comes out in an inscription of Assyria I'll take hold with the Syrians
 who in the twelfth century. B. C., were in possession.
 l Damascus stood forth as a rival tc Jerusalem and Samaria through five centuries and was conquered and con 1 nueror by turns. It was David who de. | feated it. but it freed itself of the Jew. ish yoke in the time of Solomon and | became the seat of a new principality but it afterwards fell. in succession l under the power of the Assyrians ant 1 the Persians, and came from the hand of the latter into the hands of tn. Seleucidae. Damascus did not flourish | updor tho Creeks like if did ,luder in,