volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

220 The Town of Sinjdr.
steps. All the houses are substantial constructions
and are built of stone, which is sometimes plastered
they are rectangular in shape, have flat roofs, no
windows, and only one door, that being in the front of
the house. Most of the inhabitants of the town were
Yazidis. Sinjar is a very old town, and it must always
have been an important halting-place for caravans.
The Egyptians claimed to have conquered it in the
sixteenth century B.C., and they certainly imported
horses and perfumed unguents from it.^ A letter from
the King of Alashiya to the King of Egypt, written in the
fifteenth century B.C., mentions the King of Khatte
and the King of Sha-an-kha-ar,^ and some have identified
the latter place with Sinjar. The Romans appear to
have occupied that part of the plain nearest the modern
toAvn and to have maintained a strong garrison there,
but no remains of their forts are to be seen. Sinjar
was captured by the Persians under Sapor, a.d. 360,
and it fell into the hands of the Arabs* when they began
to occupy Northern Mesopotamia. The town has declined
steadily under the rule of the Turks, and a good
deal of the trade which it enjoyed in common with
Al-Hadhr (Hatra) and Takrit has come to an end.
Before we arrived in the town of Sinjar a messenger
» Birch, Select Papyri, plates 96, 98. The Egyptians called the
town"Sangar" ©,,,ffi^ ,
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