1858 Palestine - EL HARRAH - ANCIENT BASHAN - with Map

Title: Explorations in the Desert East of the Haurán and in the Ancient Land of Bashan.

Author: GRAHAM, Cyril C.
Publisher: London: Royal Geographical Society, 1858

Notes & Condition: A contemporary firsthand record a meticulous topographical reconnaissance in Palestine and Syria in 1857, during which Graham found inscriptions in the region of El-Harrah, in the Great Desert south-east and east of the Hauran. Accompanied by a detailed map showing routes of exploration between Tell Ozda, Bozrah - ancient city and then capital of Edom, Kerak (Al Karak) and Tabariyyah (Tiberias), and Damascus. The author had been inspired by the accounts of Burckhardt, and descriptions furnished to him by a Reverend Porter who had aspent some time in regions south of Damascus, dispersed with numerous cities of stone and antiquity.

40 pages, plus a full-page colour route map. These are the original pages and map printed in 1858, in excellent condition, crisp and bright, attractively bound booklet style in recent blue paper covers with label.

Hawran, Hauran or Houran [Hebrew,=hollow or cavernous land] is a district, in southwest Syria, and extending into the northwestern corner of modern-day Jordan, largely treeless and marked by conical volcanic peaks, barren lava fields, and rich lava soil. In the northeast are the Druze Mountains, many of whose numerous caverns were once inhabited. Major towns are Dara, Busra ash-Sham, and Izra, which date back to Hellenistic times.

Most of the inhabitants are Druze, who migrated from Lebanon in the 18th and 19th century. The Hawran district belonged, at least in part, to the biblical kingdom of Bashan, which the Israelites conquered. Designated the northeast boundary of the Promised Land, Hawran later became the Roman province of Auranitis. The region was converted to Christianity by the late 2d cent. and prospered until the Arab invasion of the 7th cent. During the Crusades, Muslims who were driven out of Palestine moved to Hawran to make a stand against the Christians. The district has many ancient towns whose buildings and furniture are made entirely of lava; about 300 of these giant cities of Bashan, have been located. Inscriptions in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Sabaean (southern Arabic) abound.