volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

172 The Darb al-Mustaktm or " Straight Street."
Bible calls it " Dammesek " (Gen. xiv, 15), " DummesSk "
(2 Kings xvi, 10), " D'meshek," or " D'mesek " (Amos iii,
12), and " Darmesek "' (i Chron. xviii, 5). The first of
these forms is clearly the oldest, because it is most in
accordance with the Egyptian form of the name,
" T-m[e]s-qu,"^ and with the forms " Dimashqa " and
" Timashgi " which are given in the Tall al-'Amamah
Tablets.' The Assyrians adopted the oldest form,* and
the Muslims likewise, who called the city " Dimeshk,"
or " Dimishk ash-Sham."
The size too of the city was disappointing, for it was
only about 1^ mile long, and little more than half a
mile wide ; and its whole area is quite flat. Apart from
the lower portion of the south wall of the city there
seemed to be little that was ancient in it ; parts of its
eight gates may be old Arab work, but the greater
number of them, and most of the wall, are clearly of
modern building. The one interesting thoroughfare in
the town is the street which is identified with that
" which is called Straight," where Saul of Tarsus lodged
during his temporary blindness (Acts ix, i-ii). It runs
right through the town from east to west, and in one
or two places I was shown the bases of columns which
probably formed parts of the double colonnade that
existed on each side of it in ancient days. The Arabs
still call it " Darb al-Mustakim," i.e., "Straight Street,"*
* This form with an r inserted exists also in Egyptian (B.C. iioo)
*"^ £ 1 fti PS 5«''-^W5-^» = Tar-m[e]s-ki ij ] "^^ ffi' P^
Miiller thinks this Egyptian form is the result of an attempt to
Aramaicize lu\ ^^ (•^s*^'*> P- 234). And in Syriac the form
" Darmasuk " is common.
'
\u\ V '^ occurs in the list (No. 13) of places and peoples
conquered by Thothmes III about B.C. 1550 ; see Mariette, Karnak,
pU. 17-21.
5 {Alu) Di-mash-ka '-t]} ^^ Hf- >=^ ; {alu) Ti-ma-ash-gi
.-::l'f ^]< "tf — "-IT-*^- See Bezold, op. cit., pp. 78, 89.
« Thus we have {alu) Di-ma-ash-ki ^tlJ