st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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THE MAHOMETAN RULE IN SYRIA. 17
from Mahomet s death, the armies of the new faith
had appeared before Damascus.
The story of the siege and capture of this ancient
and splendid city, the Granada of the East," has
1
been often told, and only the barest outlines of it
need be retraced here. Elated by the conquest of
Bosra, four days march from Damascus, the Saracens,
in 634, pressed on to attack this latter city. After
single combats and deeds of individual heroism,
which made Voltaire draw a parallel between this and
the siege of Troy, the garrison were finally shut up
within the walls. More than one reinforcement, sent
to their aid by Heraclius, was defeated. Werdan,-
the imperial general, who was despatched with an
army of seventy thousand men, was slain, and more
than two-thirds of his force perished with him. Then,
in their despair, Thomas, the Governor of Damascus,
tried the power of religious enthusiasm to rival that
which nerved the besiegers to such efforts. At the
principal gate, in the sight of both armies, a lofty
crucifix was erected ;
the bishop, with his clergy,
accompanied the march, and laid the volume of the
New Testament before the image of Jesus ;
and the
1
The
work ascribed to El-Wakidy, from which Ockley
drew his picturesque account, is now regarded by competent
scholars as only an historical novel, written in the time of the
Crusades. Wakidy s real work is lost. Gibbon (ch. li.)
follows this account in its main particulars. See Porter s "Five
Years in Damascus" (1855), i., p. no.
2
Gibbon, observing how unlike a Greek name this is, suggests
that it may be an anagram for Andrew, caused by the Arabian
scribe writing backwards. But surely this would be to import
the English letter w into the Greek Andreas.
C