But though it may be concluded with tolerable cer- tainty that the land which has thus become intimately connected with the name Ararat is to be identified with
Mount Ararat, from the Plain of Eriv;
ARARAT
358
ARARAT
a portion of Armenia, we possess no historical data for fixing on any one mountain in that country as the resting-place of the ark. It probably grounded on some of the lower peaks of the chain of mountains en- circling that region. This supposition best accords with the nature of the circumstances, and does not conflict with the language of the text when properly weighed. See Deluge. If our supposition be cor- rect, then, for any thing that appears to the contrary, the ark did not touch the earth until the waters were abated to a level with the lower valleys or plains, and, consequently, the inmates were not left upon a dreary elevation of 16,000 or 17,000 feet, never till of late deemed accessible to human footsteps, and their safe descent from which, along with all the "living crea- tures" committed to their care, would have been a greater miracle than their deliverance from the flood. By this explanation also we obviate the geological ob- jection against the mountain, now called Ararat, hav- ing been submerged, which would imply a universal deluge, whereas by the " mountains of Ararat" may be understood some lower chain in Armenia, whose height would not be incompatible with the notion of a partial flood. Finally, we on this hypothesis solve the question : If the descendants of Noah settled near the resting-place of the ark in Armenia, how could they be said to approach the plain of Shinar (Gen. xi, 2), or Babylonia, from th-i East? For, as we read the narrative, the precise resting-place of the ark is no- where mentioned ; and though for a time stationary "over" the mountains of Ararat, it may, before the tin il subsidence of the waters, have been carried con- siderably to the east of them. (See Raumer, in the Hertka, 1829, xiii, 333 sq. ; comp. Hoff, Gesch. d. Er- doberjllche, Gotha, 1834, iii, 369.) See Ark.
The ancients, however, attached a peculiar sacred- ness to the tops of high mountains, and hence the be- lief was early propagated that the ark must have rested on some such lofty eminence. The earliest tradition fixed on one of the chain of mountains which separate Armenia on the south from Mesopotamia, and which, as they also enclose Kurdistan, the land of the Kurds, obtained the name of the Kardu or Carduchian range, corrupted into Gordiaean and Cordyajan. This opinion prevailed among the Chaldajans, if we may rely on the testimony of Berosus as quoted by Jose- phus (Ant. i, 3, 6) : " It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cor- dyaaans [ Kopouaiwu^ Koords^\, and that people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which the)- use as amulets." (See Orelli, Suppl. not. ad Nicol. JJamasc. p. 58 ; Rit- tir. Erdk. x, 359 sq.) The same is reported by Aby- denus (in Euseb. Prap. Evang. ix, 4), who says they employed the wood of the vessel against diseases. Hence we are prepared to find the tradition adopted by the Chaldee paraphrasts, as well as by the Syriac translators and commentators, and all the Syrian churches. In the three texts where " Ararat" occurs, the Targum of Onkelos has Wig, Kardu; and. ac- cording to P.uxtorf, the term " Kardyan" was in Chal- d 16 synonymous with " Armenian." At Gen. viii, 4, the Arabic of Erpenius has Jebel eUKarud (the Moun- tain of the Kurds), which is likewise found in the "JBook of Adam" of the Zabaeans. For other proofs that this was the prevalent opinion among the East- ern Churches, the reader may consult Eutvchius (An- nals) and Epiphanius (Hares. 18). It was no doubt from this source that it was borrowed by Mohammed, who in his Koran (xi, 46) says "The ark rested on the mountain Al-.ludi." That name was probably a corruption of Giordi, i. e. Gordiamn (the designation given to the entire range), but afterward applied to the special locality where the ark was supposed to have rested. This is on a mountain a little to the can of Jezirah Ibn < >mar (the ancient Bezabde) on the Tigris. At the foot of the mountain there was a vil- lage called Karya Thaminin, i. e. the Village of the