THE EARTHLY PARADISE
Lebanon. Beyond those low azure hills at the east is the cruel desert. But between the mountains and the desert hills lies the hundred square miles of the Ghûta — the "Garden" of Damascus. No language is too extravagant for the Arabic writers who describe this land of fruits and flowing waters. It is "the most excellent of all the beautiful places of earth," exclaims the learned Abulfeda; and the famous geographer Idrisi says, "There are grown here all sorts of fruits, so that the mind cannot conceive the variety', nor can any comparison show what is the fruitfulness and excellence thereof, for Damascus is the most delightful of God's cities in the whole world." Indeed, this is the place which, among all the habitations of men, comes nearest to the description of the Moslem paradise —
"The people of the Right Hand!
Oh, how happy shall be the people of the Right Hand! …
In extended shade,
And by flowing waters.
And with abundant fruits,
Unfailing, unforbidden …
Gardens beneath whose shades the rivers flow."[1]
The prophet who sang thus of the celestial delights of the Faithful once stood, it Is said, on the summit of this sacred mountain and gazed with won-
- ↑ The Koran, Sura 56:26f; 61:12
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