holds to the King my Lord from the men of blood. For they have cast him out; and the men of blood have rebelled, and are invaders of the King my Lord. We were obedient to thy yoke, and they have cast out the King my Lord, and all my brethren.”
It appears, from other letters, that the city of this chief was the important town Cumidi, now Kamid, in the southern Lebanon, at the south end of the Baalbek plain, west of Baal Gad. In Abu el Feda’s time this town was the capital of the surrounding district.
189 B. is much broken. It is from Arzana, chief of the city Khazi.[1] He speaks of an attack on Tusulti, by bloody soldiers fighting against the place, and perhaps of the city Bel Gidda (Baal Gad),[2] and mentions a Paka, or Egyptian official, called Aman Khatbi, named after the Egyptian god Amen. The foes are spoiling the valley (of Baalbek) in sight of the Egyptian general, and are attacking Khazi, his city. They had already taken Maguzi,[3] and are spoiling Baal Gad. It seems that he asks the King not to blame his general, and speaks finally of friendly and faithful men.
43 B. M., broken at the top, reads thus:
“. . . his horses and his chariots . . . to men of blood and not . . . As for me, I declare myself for the King my Lord, and a servant to preserve these to the King entirely. Biridasia perceives this, and has betrayed it, and he has secretly passed beyond my city Maramma;[4] and the great pass is open behind me. And he is marching chariots from the city Astarti,[5] and commands them for the men of blood, and does not command them for the King my Lord. Friendly to him is the King of the city Buzruna;[6] and the King of the
- ↑ “Khazi” is evidently Ghazzeh, near the south end of the Baalbek plain, south of the Damascus road.
- ↑ This is doubtful, as the text is broken, and only gives “Belgi . . .” Baal Gad was, as I have attempted recently to show, probably near ’Ain Judeideh, on the north of Hermon, and close to the great pass.
- ↑ “Maguzi,” or Mukhzi, is probably Mekseh, on the Damascus road, west of Stora.
- ↑ May be read “Yanuamma.” It seems to be M’araba, north of Damascus, which agrees with the context. The great pass mentioned here in connection with Damascus was apparently that by which the main road from the west came down the Barada at Abila.
This is the “entering in” to Damascus, which (Gen. xiv. 15) was in the land of Hobah. This agrees with the position of Neboyapiza’s town Kamid, west of Baal Gad, and to the west of the pass. The scribe here wrote “east of me,” and corrected to “behind me.”
- ↑ Probably not Ashtoreth Carnaim, which is mentioned in another letter, but rather Stora, in the Baalbek plain, northwest of Baal Gad. Arzaya’s town seems to have been Mekseh, west of Stora (125 B. M.).
- ↑ “Buzruna” is probably Batruna, on the mountain west of the west end of the pass, and immediately east of Baal Gad (perhaps mentioned again in the fragment 205 B.).
