The New Student's Reference Work/Ascalon

For works with similar titles, see Ascalon.

As'calon or Ashkelon, one of the five chief cities of the ancient Philistines, lying north of Gaza on the Mediterranean. It had a shrine of the Syrian fish-goddess Derketo, and was the birthplace of Herod the Great. In Solomon's time it was subject to the Jews, but later became independent. Under the Romans it was a kind of republic and afterward the seat of a Christian bishop. The Arabs took it in 637, and in 1099 the crusaders, under Godfrey de Bouillon, gained a great victory before its walls. Recaptured by the Moslems, it was retaken after five months' siege in 1157 by Baldwin III. It was dismantled by Saladin in 1191, and completely destroyed in 1270 by Sultan Bibars.