volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Arak (Aracha). igi
In spite of the kindness of the Ka'im Makam, who
pressed me to stay three days and visit some ancient
buildings which he said lay to the south, I determined
to push on and we left Tudmur at 7 a.m. and began
our journey across the desert to Der az-Zur. We rode a
little out of our way so as to pass the northern end of the
crescent-shaped salt lake called "Mamlahah," and again
when we came near Kasr al-Ahmar, where there were a
few unimportant ruins. We left the warm white fog
behind us soon after we left Tudmur, and we found the
heat of the day very great. We decided not to halt
anywhere, and we pressed on until we reached Arak,
or Arku, at 2 p.m. We pitched our tent at a little
distance from the weU, which in ancient and modern
times has formed the only water supply for the settlement.
A town of considerable size existed here in the
Byzantine period, and was called " Aracha " ;^ its garrison
were natives and were under the control of the Duke
of Euphratensian Syria. It was captured by the Arabs
under Khalid ibn Walid about a.h. 142 == a.d. 635, and
was in the days of Yakut (died 1229) much what it was
when I saw it, "a little town in the desert of Aleppo
near Tudmur with palms and olive trees. "^ Dr. Halifax
calls Arak " Yarecca," and like myself found its excellent
water " a most welcome refreshment in such a thirsty
desert."* There was a small company of Turkish
soldiers in the Kishla, or rest-house fort, a little way up
the hiU, and most obUgingly the ofi&cer delayed quarantine
until the day I left. No question of quarantine
was raised at Tudmur, but though that place is nominally
under a Turkish Ka'im Makam, the natives were
a law unto themselves, and I never heard that they
paid taxes. The shekh of the vUlage, Muhammad ibn
Paris, was an old acquaintance of Muhammad, and
acting under his advice I bought a sheep and invited
' See Notitia Dignitatum, ed. Seeck, Berlin, 1876, p. 70, note 3.
^ Biladhuri, p. no.
' Vol. i, p. 210.
* In his day the natives paid their overlord 300 dollars per annum
see Quarterly Statement for 1890, p. 295.