volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Festival of the Prophet's Birthday. 157
the honour of breakfasting with me at eleven o'clock
at the hotel they would bring them with them. Both
gentlemen appeared at the time stated with my things,
and having paid them the " customary fees " we all
enjoyed our meal, and we parted in a most friendly
manner. As the Mulid an-Nabi, or festival of the
Prophet's birthday, was being celebrated that day, the
town was decorated with flags of all kinds, and the people
were very merry. In the evening they all turned out
to see the fireworks, and the town was very noisy.
I took a guide recommended by the Turkish of&cials
and went round the town. The bazar was not interesting,
but I saw some very curious buildings in the old part
of the town, and several quaint comers where the narrow
streets joined. Berut was a very important town in
the fifteenth century before Christ, and it is mentioned
several times in the Tall al-'Amarnah Tablets.^ It was
practically destroyed during the wars of Antiochus VII
and Tryphon (about B.C. 140), but the Romans rebuilt
it and it became once more a flourishing town with a
theatre and amphitheatre, baths, etc. It was famous
for its Law College, which was removed to Sidon after
the earthquaJce that ruined the town in 551. The Arabs
captured it about 634-36, and Baldwin I in 1125 ; the
successors of the latter kept it for about sixty years.
Salah ad-Din (Saladin) wrested it from the Crusaders^
in 1187, but they regained possession of it ten years
later and kept it till about 1290. The Turks occupied
it at the end of the seventeenth century and have held
it ever since, except for nine years (1832-40), during which
the Egyptians were masters of the city.
I made enquiries with the view of visiting the interior
of the mosque, which is said to have been originally
a church built by the Crusaders, but was told that it
was impossible. I therefore decided to devote the
rest of the day to visiting the sculptures of Egyptian
^ The common forms of the name are {aUi) Biruna "-tff
»-<
^ffl »-^y
and {alu) Binita .-tTf
»-< -^ ^^f.
2 See Yakut, i, p. 785.