The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

;
92 'OMAR [cirAP. XIII.
A.H. 13-14.
privileges and aped the luxurious habits, without the chivalry
or manliness, of the Roman citizen. It was altogether a
civilisation of forced, and of exotic, growth. No sooner was
the western prop removed than the people returned to their
Bedawi life, true sons of the desert ; the chariot and waggon
were banished for the camel ; and nothing left of Roman
rule but columns and peristyles, causeways and aqueducts,
great masses of ruined masonry,—which still startle the
traveller as if belonging to another world. But, at the time
we write of, the age of so-called civilisation was still dominant
there. Such was the beautiful country, strange to the
southern Arab both in natural feature and busy urban life,
which was now traversed by the invading armies, and soon
became the beaten highway between Syria and the Muslim
shrines.
Byzantine The course of MusHm victory in Syria advanced with
faint'in Syria
^^^tlc let or hindrance. Persia's struggle was not for a limb,
but for life itself. Here it was otherwise. Syria, indeed,
contained the Holy Places, and what was dear to the Greeks
as the cradle of their faith. But after all, it was, though fair
and sacred, but an outlying province of which a supine and
selfish Court could without vital injury afford the loss.
There were no such mortal throes in Syria as on the plains
of Chaldeea.
Damascus. Damascus, the most ancient city in the world, has, ever
since the days of Abraham, survived through all vicissitudes,
the Capital of Syria. The great plain on which it stands
is watered by streams issuing from adjoining mountain
ranges ; and the beautiful groves and rich meadows around
have named it (with more reason than the Chaldsean delta)
the "Garden of the world." An entrepot of commerce
between the east and west, it has been from age to age with
varying fortune, ever rich and populous. The city wall,
twenty feet high and fifteen broad, still contains stones of
Cyclopean size that must have been builded in ages before
our era. Over the gates and elsewhere there are turrets
for defence, all of venerable structure. The traveller entering
at the eastern gate may even in the present day pass through
the narrow "street which is called Straight," as did St Paul
1800 years ago. The Cathedral of St John the Baptist still
rears its great Dome, towering above all other buildings