GAZA [Illustration: FROM GAZA TO ASCALON] 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 the Great Mosque, but supplied me with information. Miss Kate Sandreczka translated articles in German bearing on the history of the city.