volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Marwdn II Excavates a Tomb at Palmyra. 189
the true history of the place and its people. Tudmnr
was, even at the end of the fourteenth century, worth
plundering, for Timur sent a horde of his Tartars there
and they plundered it and all the country round.^
According to Yakut (i, p. 831) Marwan, the last of
the 'Umayyads, made an attempt to excavate one of
the tombs after he conquered Tudmur. His authority
for the information is Isma'il ibn Muhammad, ibn
Khalid, ibn 'Abd Allah al-Kasri who was present and
saw what he narrates. Marwan broke down the walls,
rushed into the town and slew the people, and his
horsemen trampled them imder foot, and made their
horses crush their flesh and bones together under their
the daughter of Hassin, son of Udhaynah, son of Sumayda' , son of
Mazid, son of 'Amalik, son of Lawdh, son of Sam (Shem), son of
Noah. He quotes passages from the works of several poets, mentioning
the size and splendour of the buildings at Tudmur and the beauty of
the sculptures there.
' The first good modern account of the ruins of Tudmur we owe
to Dr. WilHam HaUfax, of C.C.C, Oxford, Chaplain to the Factory
at Aleppo. This divine visited them in October, 1691, and copied
some of the inscriptions there, both in Greek and Palmjrrene, and
wrote a careful account of the temples, etc., which he pubhshed in
Philosophical Transactions, London, 1695, pp. 83-110, 125-137, 138-160.
Some of his copies of inscriptions were omitted from this edition, but
fortunately complete manuscript copies of both text and inscriptions
were in the possession of Mr. Albert Hartshome and Mr. E. G. Western,
and the fuU account was printed in the Quarterly Statement of the
Palestine Exploration Fund for 1890, London, 1891, p. 273 ff. Dr.
HaUfax teUs us that "The Name of Tadmor occurring in Scripture
among y« sumptuous buildings of K. Solomon, and y* acct. of ruines
of an extraordinary Magnificence still remaining there, having bin
brought to Alep° partly by y^ inhabitants of y» countrey and partly
by those who had occasionally passed by y* place, togeth w'h its
vicinity not being s^ to be above .3. or .4. dayes distant from hence,
excited y^ curiosity of some of our Merch**, together w*h D' Huntington,
An° 1678, to make a voy« thither : But these Gentlemen were no
sooner arrived there at Tadmor, but they fell unhappily into y® hands
of a Comp« of Arabian Robbers, comanded by one Melham, to satisfy
whom they were constrained to part w*h their very clothes ; w'^h
great los & y« ffright together so paUd their curiosity y* they staled
not to take a more exact survey of y* ancient ruines, but imediately
returned home & glad to escape so." Dr. Halifax took with him " in all
ffrankes and serv** about 30 men, weU armed."