interprets it as d'^lTiilJ, ^/iXaicec, or "keepers." The hill on which the city was built was, he says, designated Somer, or Somoron t2wju/}p, ^lonvfjior), from a certain Somorou the son of Somer, whom he considers to have been of the stock of the ancient Perizzites or (iirgash- ites, themselves descendants of Canaan and Ham. But, he adds, the inhabitants may have been called Samari- tans from their guarding the land, or (coming down much later in their history) from their guarding the law, as distinguished from the later writings of the Jew- ish canon, which they refused to allow. See Samahitax. The city, along with Nablus, fell into the power of the Moslems during the siege of Jerusalem, A.D. 614; and we hear but little more of it till the time of the Crusades. At what time the city of Herod became deso- late no existing accounts state, but all the notices of the 4th century and later lead to the inference that its de- struction had already taken place. The Crusaders es- tablished a Latin bishopric at Sebaste, and the title was continued in the Romish Church till the 14th century (Le Quien, Orietis Christ, iii, 1290). Saladin marched through it in A.D. 1184, after his repulse from Kerak (Abulfeda, Anna/. A.H. 680). Benjamin of Tudela de- scribes it as having been "formerly a very strong city, and situated on the mount, in a fine country, richly watered, and surrounded by gardens, vineyards, orchards, and olive-groves." He adds that no Jews were living there (Iline': [ed. Asher] p. 66). Phocas and Brocar- dus speak only of the church and tomb of John the Bap- tist, and of the Greek church and monastery on the sum- mit of the hill. Notices of the place occur in the trav- ellers of the 14th, 16th, and 17th centuries; nor are they all so meagre as Dr. Robinson conceives. That of Mori- son, for instance, is full and exact ( Voyaf/e du Mo7it Si- nai, p. 230-233). The description of Sandys, likewise, is quite circumstantial (see Kitto, Phys. Hist, of Palest. p. cxvii sq.). Scarcely any traces of the earlier or later Samaria could then be perceived, the materials having been used by the inhabitants for the construction of their own mean dwellings. The residents were an extremely poor and miserable set of people. In the 18th century the place appears to have been left unexplored, but in the present century it has often been visitecland described. II. Description. — In the territory originally belonging
! to the tribe of Joseph, about six miles to the north-west of Shechem. there is a wide basin-shaped valley, encir-
{ cled with high hills, almost on the edge of the great plain which borders upon the Mediterranean. In the
I centre of this basin, which is on a lower level than the valley of Shechem, lises a less elevated oblong hill, with
I steep yet accessible sides, and a long flat top. The sin-
I gular beauty of the spot may have struck Omri, as it af- terwards struck the tasteful Idumiean (Josephus, War, i,21,2; .4h/.xv, 8, 5). All travellers agree that it would be difficult to find in the whole land a situation of equal strength, fertility, and beauty combined. "In all these particulars," saj's Dr. Robinson, " it has greatly the ad- vantage over Jerusalem" {Bibl. Researches, iii, 146). In the valley there is an abundance of excellent water all the year round, but on the hill itself there is not so much as a single fountain. This is its only and great disad- vantage as a site for a city, and a most serious one it must have been, especially in the time of siege. This was a want which Samaria shared in common with the capital of Judah; but the deficiencj' in both cases was so amply supjilied by cisterns under the houses and else- where that in the severe sieges we never read of either city suffering from a scarcity of water. See Jeh("sale:m. The hill of Samaria itself is of considerable elevation and very regular in form, and the broad deep valley in the midst of which it lies is a continuation of that of Nabliis (Shechem), which here expands into a breadth of five or six miles. Beyonil this valley, which com- pletely isolates the hill, the mountains rise again on every side, forming a complete wall around the city (as referred to in 2 Kings vi, 17), They are terraced to the
SAMARIA
280
SAMARIA
Genei ilNiew ufisebu ti\ch (S ui lu i) 1 in tie lUhei t showiu^ tl i Hu i s , 1 tl t <- lunch tt St Johu to the right. aDd the Teriaces of the Hill to the left. (Fiom a photo^iaph by the Eclitoi.)
tops, sown in grain, and planted with olives and figs, in the midst of which a number of handsome villages ap- pear to great advantage, their white stone cottages con- trasting strikingly with the verdure of the trees. The hill of Samaria itself is cultivated from its base, the ter- raced sides and summit being covered with corn and with olive-trees. About midway up the ascent the hill is surrounded by a narrow terrace of level land, like a belt, below which the roots of the hill spread off' more gradually into the valleys. Higher up, too, are the marks of slight terraces, once occupied, perhaps, by the streets of the ancient city. The ascent of the hill is very steep, and the narrow footpath winds among the mountains through substantial cottages of the modern Sehmdyeh (the Arabic form of Sehaste), which appear to have been constructed to a great extent of ancient materials, very superior in size and quality to anything which could at this day be wrought into an Arab habi- tation. The houses are all of stone, though erected with little or no regard to order and regularity. These, with their inmates, present the same unclean appearance that is met with among all the Felahin of the coiuitry; and the inhabitants are remarkably rude, but more indus- trious than most of their race. Th£,view from the sum- mit is most interesting. Beneath,»to the north and east, lie its own immediate fertile valleys; and, turning west- wardly, the eye wanders over rich plains to Sharon and the blue ^Mediterranean; and even in the present impov- erished state of the couutry the scene fills the mind of the beholder with deli;';ht.