Gaza: A City of Many Battles (from the Family of Noah to the Present Day)

								


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GAZA

GAZA
A CITY OF MANY BATTLES
(FROM THE FAMILY OF NOAH TO THE PRESENT DAY)

  BY
THEODORE EDWARD DOWLING, D.D.
ARCHDEACON IN SYRIA;
CANON OF ST. GEORGE'S COLLEGIATE CHURCH, JERUSALEM;
COMMISSARY FOR EASTERN CHURCH INTERCOURSE WITHIN THE
ANGLICAN BISHOPRIC IN JERUSALEM

  PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE

  LONDON
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET
NEW YORK: E.S. GORHAM
1913

  RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.,
AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

  TO
DONALD A. COLES, M.D.
I DEDICATE THIS BOOKLET
WHICH WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN WRITTEN
WITHOUT HIS ASSISTANCE AND
SYMPATHY

PREFACE

On Tuesday in Easter week, 1912, accompanied by the Rev. J. Khadder,
Assistant Chaplain of St. Luke's Mission, Haifa, I left that town for
El-Kaisâriyeh (Cæsarea), where we were entertained at the Orthodox
Greek rented house belonging to a Bosnian landlord. On reaching Jaffa I
secured a fresh carriage on April 12, for Gaza, reaching that city in
nine and a half hours,--an unusually quick journey. During my visit of
ten days there I was the guest of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Sterling, in
the Church Missionary Society's compound. Nothing could have exceeded
their kind hospitality, and I am greatly indebted to them for valuable
local information. Mrs. Sterling used her typewriter for producing my
Chapter XXI on the "History of the C.M.S. Gaza Mission," 1878-1913.
The aged and scholarly German, Father Gatt, one of the Latin Clergy
attached to the Roman Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem, who came
to Gaza thirty-three years ago from Austria, and ministers to eighty
souls, lent me three printed articles on Gaza, and cheerfully added
to my limited knowledge of the city. He mentioned that a History of
Gaza has been printed by Dr. Martin A. Meyer, and published at New
York in 1907, but I had not the advantage of seeing this book. After
my manuscript was completed early in 1912, I procured a copy, and
have during 1913 taken the liberty of incorporating some additional
information from its contents, for which I am grateful.
Mr. A. A. Knesevich, H.B.M. Consular Agent at Gaza--of Austrian
parentage--lent me five of his official printed Reports, notes from
which are included under the heading of "The Key of Syria," Chapter XIX.
It will be noticed in Chapter XVII that I am also indebted to Mr. Emil
G. Knesevich, for photographs of an "Old Sarcophagus at Gaza," but
unfortunately, they have not proved sufficiently clear for reproduction.
Mr. Habeeb el-Khouri, the C.M.S. Catechist, not only accompanied me to