Note [original edition] : And the ark rested on the mountain al Judi;] This mountain is one of those which divide
Armenia, on the south,
from
Mesopotamia, and that part of
Assyria which is inhabited by the
Curds,
from whom the mountains took the name of
Cardu, or
Gardu, by the
Greeks turned
into
Gordyæi, and other names
1.
Mount
al Jûdi, (which name seems to be a
corruption, tho’ it be constantly so written by the
Arabs, for
Jordi, or
Giordi) is also called
Thamanin
2,
probably from a town at the foot of it
3,
so
named from the number of persons saved in the ark, the word
thamanin
signifying
eighty, and overlooks the country of
Diyâr Rabîah, near the cities
of
Mawsel,
Forda, and
Jazîrat Ebn Omar, which last place one affirms to be but
four miles from the place of the ark, and says that a
Mohammedan temple was
built there with the remains of that vessel, by the
Khalif
Omar Ebn
Abd’alaziz, whom he by mistake calls
Omar Ebn al Khattâb
4.
The tradition which affirms the ark to have rested on these mountains,
must have been very ancient, since it is the tradition of the
Chaldeans
themselves
5:
the
Chaldee paraphrasts consent to their opinion
6,
which obtained
very much formerly, especially among the
eastern Christians
7. To confirm it,
we are told that the remainders of the ark were to be seen on the
Gordyæan
mountains:
Berosus and
Abydenus both declare there was such a report in their
time
8;
the first observing that several of the inhabitants thereabouts scraped
the pitch off the planks as a rarity, and carried it about them for an amulet:
and the latter saying that they used the wood of the vessel against many
diseases with wonderful success. The relics of the ark were also to be seen
here in the time of
Epiphanius, if we may believe him
9;
and we are told the
emperor
Heraclius went from the town of
Thamanin up to the mountain
al Jûdi,
and saw the place of the ark
10.
There was also formerly a famous monastery,
called
the monastery of the ark, upon some of these mountains, where the
Nestorians used to celebrate a feast day on the spot where they supposed the
ark rested; but in the year of
Christ 776, that monastery was destroyed by
lightning, with the church, and a numerous congregation in it
11.
Since which
time it seems the credit of this tradition hath declined, and given place to
another, which obtains at present, and according to which the ark rested on
mount
Masis in
Armenia, called by the
Turks Aghir dagh, or
the heavy or
great
mountain, and situate about twelve leagues south east of
Erivan
12.
-
1
See Bochart. Phaleg. l. I, c. 3.
-
2
Geogr. Nub. p. 202.
-
3
V. D’Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 404 & 676, & Agathiam, l. 14, p. 135.
-
4
Benjamin. Itiner. p. 61.
-
5
Berosus, apud Joseph. Antiq. l. 1, c. 4.
-
6
Onkelos & Jonathan, in Gen. viii. 4.
-
7
V. Eutych. Annal. p. 41.
-
8
Berosus, apud Joseph. ubi sup. Abydenus, apud Euseb. Præp. Ev. l. 9, c. 4.
-
9
Epiph. Hæres. 18.
-
10
Elmacin. l. 1, c. 1.
-
11
V. Chronic. Dionysii Patriarch.
Jacobitar. apud Asseman. Bibl. Orient. T. 2, p. 113.
-
12
Al Beidawi.