Ὁ. EATON.
PHARPAR (1978, B’Adap¢d, A Φαρφαρά) is named by Naaman, along with the ABANAH (2 K 5%), as one of the rivers of Damascus. Much has been written on the subject, but its identity is still in doubt. The Arab. Version gives Zaurd for Pharpar,
* See Schiirer, ii. 470ff., 491 f.; Edersheim, il, 774 ff.
PHASELIS
but the modern Beirft revision simply transliter- ates Farfar. There is a local belief, for which some antiquity is claimed, that Abanah and Phar- par are represented by Nahr Banids or Abanids, and Nahr Taurd, respectively. In favour of this, Dr. Wm. Wright argues in Nelson’s Bible Treasury (p. 250), lone a the late Dr. Meshaka, one of the most learned of modern Damascenes. The old Arab geographers, however, are unaware of the Posen charms of any two rivers of Damascus.
imashki (c. A.D. 1300) speaks of seven streams
into which the waters of el-Barada are divided, and mentions among the others, with no special commendation, Nahr Thaurah and Nahr Balniyas (or Banas). So also Idrisi (A.D. 1154). But even these names are unknown to Istakhri and Ibn Haukal (A.D. 951-978), who refer to only three canals as branching off from the main stream. It is hard to see why Naaman should have ignored the river itself, flowing towards the city with full refreshing current, to extol two of the canals sup- plied by its waters.
The identity of Pharpar with el-A'waj is main- tained by Thomson (Land and Book, ii. 359, 398, 429), he two main sources of this stream rise on the eastern slopes of Hermon, just under Kagr ‘Antdr; the'Arny to the north, and the Jenndny to the south. Below Sa'sa‘ the latter takes the name Sabirdny, which it retains after conflu- ence with the “Arny, as far as el-Kisweh, on the great hajj road. Thence to the lake it is called el- A'waj (‘the crooked’). In the season of melting snows the volume of water it carries is very great; but later in the year the stream is much attenu- ated. Escaping from the valley, el-A'way waters the south-eastern part of the plain of Damascus, and, splitting up into several streams, falls at last into Bahret el-Hijdneh. In the Wddy Barbar iv is natural to detect an echo of the ancient ‘Phar- par’; but Thomson errs in making this Wdady tributary to the Sabirdny. Such waters as it supplies are carried into the plain north of Jebel oy) πυαα, while the Sabirdny flows to the south. The proposed identification, therefore, loses what support might be derived from similarity of name. It is, however, adopted by G. A. Smith as probable (HGHL 642), and by Baedeker as certain (Pal.* 268, 312). Dr. Wright quotes Dr. Meshaka to the effect that el-A'way ‘is not a river of Damascus at all. It is distant a ride of 3 hours from the city
at the nearest point.’ Against this we have the statement of Dimashki (c. 1300), ‘another river (of Damascus) is called el-A'way,’ and the distance from Bawwabet Ullah to the nearest point is only 6 miles.
It is futile to seek for the Pharpar in the short stream from ‘Ain Fijeh.
Beside el-Barada, with its copious and never- failing supplies, el-A'waj may seem hardly worthy of mention. But during the greater part of the year it carries down no mean volume of water ; and there is no other stream near the city at all deserving the name of river. It should also be remembered that whatever ministered to the fruit- fulness and beauty of any part of the famous pen would bean object of grateful pride to the
Damascene soldier, Lrrzratune.—Thomson, Land and Rook, \ii. 429-452 ; Racdeker,
Pal.3 268, 312; Nelson's Bible T'reasu 250; Guy le Strange,
Pal. under the Moslems, 235, 238, 265, 206. W. ἔνινα.
PHASELIS (#don\is)*.—A city on the eastern ex- tremity of the coast of Lycia near the hese Fy frontier, standing apart, not only geographically,
Φ Sareal wrongly in edd. of 1 Mac 15%), and in some classical authors; but Peers is right, and is now printed in Strabo, p. 666, Paus. lil. 8, 8 (whore older edd. have oxytone), eta Φασυλίς was the name of a kind of vase or utensil in Alexandria,
880 PHASELIS
PHILADELPHIA
but generally even politically, from the rest of the
country. Pliny (Nat. Hist. ν. 36) and Stephanus
Byz. actually assign it to Pamphylia; but this is
erroneous. it was said to be a Dorian colony ; and
it became a city of great importance at a very early time, being one of those which shared in the trade with Egypt under Amasis, B.C. 570-526. It struck a series of coins in the 6th and early 5th cent. with a variety of types, among which the
most noteworthy are the prow and the stern of a
war galley.
These coins, which were struck on the Persian standard, cease about B.c. 466, when the Athenian confederacy became powerful on these coasts ; but Thucydides (ii. 69) mentions that Phaselis was a place of consequence in the Athenian trade with Phenicia and the Levant coasts generally. Its coinage began again about B.c. 400, and during the 4th and 3rd cents. the same types were characteristic. During that period it was a more or less independent city; but while Lycia was under the power of the Ptolemies, B.c. 276- 204, Phaselis was ay under the same in- fluence; and at the end of that time a radiated head, which is conjecturally taken as represent- ing Ptolemy Iv., appears on the prow in the reverse type. When Seleucid power ended in B.c. 190, Phaselis