volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Importance of Damascus. 171
creepers, and the masses of flowers on them looked like
so many clusters of jewels set in living green, and there
were doves and wood-pigeons everywhere. Paths led
away into luxuriant gardens girt about with groves of
fruit trees, and in all parts of these the pleasing sound
of the trickle of running water could be heard. Many
of the reception rooms that we entered contained
masterpieces of the craft of the carpenter and inlayer.
The roof and walls of some of these were panelled
with cedar, and were wholly covered with intricate
geometrical patterns inlaid in ivory, mother-of-pearl,
some kind of metal which looked like silver, and vivid
vermilion. The frames of the diwins, Kur'an stands,
etc., were made of walnut wood or ebony, and were
inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory ; the coverings of
the diwan cushions were of richly embroidered silk,
shot with silver-gilt threads, and many of the carpets
were of silk and were dated. Mr. Dickson was everywhere
a welcome guest, and his beautiful Arabic and
sympathetic attitude towards the Muslims won their
profound respect and, I sometimes thought, affection.
As there was little I could do to forward my affairs
until I saw Muhammad I devoted the early morning
hours of the 30th to a walk about the city. This was
considerably smaller than I expected. It seemed to
me that there was not then, nor ever could have been,
anything in any of the cities which have successively
occupied the site for the last 4,000 years, that could
account for the great fame and renown which Damascus
has gained in the world. It must always have owed its
importance chiefly to its position on the western edge
of the great Syrian Desert, where from time immemorial
it has formed a fine trading centre and clearing place
for caravans from all parts of Western Asia, Arabia,
Egypt, Persia and Eastern Europe. Nothing is known
about the early history of Damascus and the country
round about it, and when and by whom the first city was
built there is also unknown. Local tradition associates
the founding of the city with Abraham, but that is only
a way of expressing belief in its great antiquity. The