Under Syrian Stars Princess Signed Syria Orientalism Rahme Haidar HC 1929 Arab

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (807) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176270373032 Under Syrian Stars Princess Signed Syria Orientalism Rahme Haidar HC 1929 Arab. Baalbek is in a state of decay, and the gorgeous palaces that once sprung from the brilliant foliage of the ancient country are now in ruins. Tracing her lineage back when Troy flourished and there had beer?.

Under Syrian Stars. (Autographed)

by Haidar, Princess Rahme Fair- Signed boldly by the Princess in black ink on the front fly-leaf. Introduction by George H. Young. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs. previous owners label. The binding is speckled and stained. Very good-condition. some foxing throughout; B&W Photographs; 8vo.; 192 pages; Signed by Author.


Rahme Haider or Rahme Haidar (1880s – November 13, 1939), sometimes billed as "Princess" Rahme Haider, was a Syrian-born educator and lecturer based in Los Angeles, California. Early life Rahme Haider was said to be from Baalbek, in the Mount Lebanon region. She attended a Presbyterian mission school in Sidon, and then Denison University in Ohio.[1][2] Other accounts, including her death certificate, gave her hometown as Damascus, and her parents as Joseph Abou Haidar and Younise Abou Haidar.[3][4] She was assigned as a missionary to Syrians in Los Angeles in 1909, by the Northern Baptist Convention.[5] Career Haider started a school for the children of Arabic speakers in Los Angeles.[6] She also ran a Baptist Sunday school for children, and an evening school for young men and women, in the Syrian community there.[7] With some backing from a local Syrian businessman, Phares Behanessey, she raised funds with a 1909 gala event in which Los Angeles society women, dressed in their "picturesque" interpretations of Middle Eastern attire, performed in a pageant.[8] After her mission commitment ended, Haider toured from the mid-1910s to the mid-1930s as "Princess Rahme" (a self-created royal),[9] in the United States and Canada,[10] giving lectures about Syrian history and culture to church and community groups.[11] For many of her travels,[12][13] she traveled with H. Lucille Burgess, who joined her in dramatic and musical portions of her presentation.[10][4] Later in her career, she added a slide show and short film to her presentation. Haider and Burgess sometimes offered acting classes too, and directed local children in Biblical pageants while they were visiting a town for an extended run.[14] Rahme Haider's autobiography and travelogue, Under Syrian Stars, was published in 1929.[15][16] In 1931 she declared her intention to seek American citizenship.[17] One of her last publicized appearances was in Cortland, New York in January 1936.[18] Personal life Haidar and Burgess traveled and worked together for years;[19] Burgess was usually described as Haidar's secretary,[20] assistant, or companion.[21] Rahme Haidar died in 1939, in Philadelphia, in her fifties.[3] Syrian Woman to Addreaa Club On Tuesday afternoon, November 4, Miss Rahme Haider, a native of Syria, will lecture before the- general assembly of the Riverside woman's club, her sub ject beinr "Glimpses of Taleetine and Manners and Customs of the Holy Ijind." She will be costumed in the native dress, which will lend charm to her lecture. Sho opens her lecture with the recital of some ancient Arabic poetry ' with a musical accompaniment. Miss Haider's birthplace in Syria is Baalbek. Baalbek is pleasantly situated on the lowest declivity of Mt. Izelmnon. at the opening of a small valley Into the plain El-Bekaa. It is situated on what In ancient days must have been, the high road of commerce between Tyre, Palmyra and the farther east. After the K of Constantlne the splendid temple of Baalbek was neglect ed and began to decay. This also was the fate of the whole city, which was enriched with stately palaces and adorned . with monuments of ancient times. The city abounded with trees and fountains, and whatever contributed to luxurious enjoyment. Amid these surroundings and this environment. Miss Rahme Haider was reared. She w-as educated at Baalbek and at the American Presbyterian seminary at Sidon. Later she entered Deni-son university, Ohio, remaining there two years. She graduated from the training school at Chicago. Rahme Haider is a young woman of exceptional personal charm, winning her way by her pleasing oriental manner. She possesses rare gifts as a platform speaker. and never fails to hold the attention of her auditors. Her appearance in rich native costume gives her story a unique setting, making an entertainment that will linger long in the mihds of her hearers. I 4 CHARMING TALK BY PRINCESS Syrian Princess Delighted Audience—Will Appear Tonight Standing room was at a premium last night at the First Presbyterian church, when Princess Rahme Haider native of Damascus, in her charming, and unique oriental manner presented the manners and life of the Holy Land as perhaps it has never before been depicted to a Corsicana audience. The speaker has a glowing and charming personality, a most fluent command of the English language, a memory well stored with the historical facts; a clear and logical mind, and the highest attribute of all to a public speaker—a heart overflowing with her subject. She gave a comprehensive survey of the Holy Land, its climate, scenery, productiveness and people, correcting numerous false impressions that seem to be current as to the Syria of today. Princess Rohme will appear again tonight at 8:30 at the First Presbyterian church, presenting her own interpretation of “Naaman, the Leper, ’ based on the old Biblical story. It tells the story of how' Naaman the great Syrian captain, who, at the height of his glory, was stricken with leprosy and his healing by tho prophet Elisha. The first and last scene will bo staged by Miss Burgess andj the princess. Miss Burgess will render the oriental music, both Egyptian and Syrian. Her distinction between Syria and Assyria, separate provinces of the Turkish empires, was indeed interesting. Princess Rahme also brought into light the distinct relationship be tween the Turk, the Mohammedan, and the first people of the holy land; and of the Turkish rule in Syria, embodying a most eloquent plea to the Christian people of this country for the freedom of her ptople. “Standing on a high mountain. It is possible to see the entire Holy Land, and she added that “In spite uf the fact that Palestine occupies a very small area, we have the variety of climate, vegetation and peop'e that you have in vast America. One can take a day’s trip and during that trip will experience cold, warm and medium weather.” Princess Rahme also cpoke of why America Is dear to the Syrian heart, because of what our land has done for its trampled sister-land across the seas. “Of the 70,000 Syrian men women and children scattered through out the United States," she said "of that number 16,000 loyal Syrian boys are in the service of Uncle Sam, some in France, others on the way.” The costume she wore was that of the Syrian woman of the upper class in which red, gold and a wonderful blue were the predominating coloi The blue—Damascus—out rivaled the gold for first place in the color scheme and its sheen was enhanced hv tho lustrous sparkle of gems. An impressive feature was the ren dition of the quaint native music, in the same ancient Syrian language that Christ used, presented by Miss Lucille Burgeiss traveling companion of tho princess. Miss Burgeis an accomplished musician and delighted the audience with her music The costumes of ancient and hi toric Palestine and the unique music, never before presented in America coupled with the charming princess herself made of the occasion one to be treasured In the memory of those who availed themselves of the oppor tunity offered. ♦  REAL PRINCESS IS COMING HERE RAHME HAIDER OF SYRIA TO LECTURE AT M. E. CHURCII NEXT SUNDAY. Imbued wjth the atmosphere of the East, feeling it's aspirations and ideals as only a native can, knowing like an open book the history of her Syria, past and present, Princess Rahme Haider, member of the Syrian House of Amaries (princesses) comes to Pittsburg to tell something of the land from whence our own idea of civilization sprung. PRINCESS RAHME HAIDLER Sunday night at 7:30 o'clock at the First Methodist church, Princess Haider will present her most noted lecture recital, "Under Syrian Stars," giving a clearer insight jnto the inner life of her people the Syrians. Wednesday night at the same church, the princess will give her dramatic interpretation of the old Bible story of "Naaman, the Leper," written by her and giving a vivid picture as the story was first enacted when the great Syrian captain was sent into the land of Israel, at the word of the Hebrey captive, to be healed of his leprosy. Princess Rahme was born in the old city of the Baal, one of the oldest of Biblical cities. Baalbek is in a state of decay, and the gorgeous palaces that once sprung from the brilliant foliage of the ancient country are now in ruins. Tracing her lineage back when Troy flourished and there had beer? no Homer to write of a fall to be. this remarkable young woman, highly educated in her nativ country and the higher institutions of America, is bringing to thousands of American audiences messages of great value, and with much fervor and eloquence, she sketches the history of her people and her love for America, which she now calls her home. Appearing with Princess Haider is her companion and Oriental singer, Miss Lucille Burgess, who interprets in a most charming manner the weird music of the Orient. The princess will wear her native robe of her royal house, fashioned of Damascus blue satin embroidery in gold and jewels, all hand wrought by native girls after the style of her noble ancestors. kn v-vfi Rahme Haidar, also known as Princess Rahme Haidar, was both a missionary and a performer who travelled the United States and Canada with her secretary Louise Burgess from the 1910’s through the 1930’s. She gave lectures and performed short dramas to hundreds perhaps thousands of people in protestant churches. Haidar’s mission was to enlighten her audiences about the true nature of the Holy Land [1]. Born in Baalbek, Syria in 1886, she was educated in a local English school in Baalbek as well as the American Seminary for Girls located in Sidon, Lebanon [2]. Her conversion to Protestant Christianity as well as her missionary school education contributed to her desire to migrate to the United States. Arriving to the U.S. in 1899, Rahme Haidar situated herself as a representative of Eastern culture while also maintaining a western Protestant American identity [3]. Before beginning the lecture circuit in the 1910’s, Rahme continued her education at the Shepardson Preparatory School at Denison University in Ohio and she obtained a Diploma of Public Speaking from the University of Southern California. Her appointment as Superintendent of the Baptist mission in Los Angeles, California in 1909 is what required Rahme to begin travelling to local churches giving speeches. Her speeches promoting the local mission soon turned into lectures on the “Holy Land” and performances such as “ Naaman, the Syrian,” “Ruth and Naomi,” and “Esther, the Queen.” Like many other Arab American performers during the time, Haidar used Edward Said’s notion of orientalism, the positioning of the other, in order to further her message [4]. This is seen not only in her self-designation as Princess, but also in her performances. In her book Under Syrian Stars, Rahme Haidar claimed that her motivation for giving lectures and performances was due to how little “truth” Americans knew about her homeland. While her goal was to break down negative stereotypes and falsehoods concerning the “Holy Land” thereby providing enlightenment, her “self-orientalization” contributed to the notions of East versus West. In her performances, Rahme Haidar positioned herself as a Syrian princess with a 2,000-year lineage dating back to the tribes of Beni-Ghassan who governed the district of Hauran from 85 B.C. to 600 A.D [5]. She wore the “traditional” Syrian dress during her lectures and she often performed orientalised biblical plays she had written. Because of her role as a biblical princess, she constructs the idea of traditional Syrian dress as being extremely modest including a veil [5].This was in stark contrast to the images Americans were experiencing in popular culture of “Arab” belly dancers wearing increasing less clothing. Haidar used clothing as a signifier of orientalism, but in the opposite way of what her audience likely expected at least in terms of female costumes. As American Orientalism increased in the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century belly dancing had increased in popularity and transitioned from an indigenous Middle Eastern dance into an exotic Oriental performance [6]. The belly dancing costumes worn by the Middle Eastern performers included mesh or over-net to cover the stomach region [7]. However, as the commercialization of the Orient increased and as more American women began performing, the belly dancing costumes became more revealing and the image of the “Arab woman” became more sexualized in society. Perhaps because of her own convictions and rural background or perhaps due to the Christian audiences she was addressing, Haidar portrayed the “Holy Land” as even more conservatively dressed than the typical American attire of the early twentieth century.  Figure 2: Scene from Naaman the Leper. A play written by Princess Rahme Haidar. The Sunday Oregonian, October 24,1915, Section 5, page 10.  [8] Figure 2: Scene from Naaman the Leper. A play written by Princess Rahme Haidar. The Sunday Oregonian, October 24,1915, Section 5, page 10. [8] Haidar performed in churches and schools all over the United States and Canada. Often her visits to these places lasted for three days in which she would give a lecture “Under Syrian Stars” and perform one or two of the plays she had written concerning the biblical characters of Naaman, Ruth and Naomi or Esther. After 1929, her performances began to include “Gems of the East” a moving picture show of the “Holy land” that she and her secretary Lucille Burgess filmed during 1928 while sojourning near Baalbek -Haidar’s home. There are many instances where Haidar and Lucille, her secretary, musical assistant, and travelling companion, stayed in an area long enough to offer drama lessons to the local community and perform a play with a local cast. For example, in St. Petersburg Florida, The Evening Independent (February 28, 1935) reported that Haidar was presenting the play of Ruth and Naomi with a cast of over 100 students sponsored by the Order of the Eastern Star [9]. What is unique about Rahme Haidar as a performer is that she often included her would-be audience into her performances. Haidar’s self-orientalisies and constructs herself as an ancient Syrian princess, which causes her cast members from within the community to engage in this orientalism. Her intention to teach and enlighten the American audiences of the “true” nature of the Holy Land merely resulted in a shift to another mistaken one-dimensional perception. Instead of viewing the Holy Land as filled with evil men taking advantage of half naked women, they may have come to view it as a place filled with Christians wearing flowing robes and a landscape lacking any industrial progress. Both images, are thus constructed and at variance with the complex and multi-dimensional realities of the Middle East or “Holy Land” region during the early twentieth century. Figure 3: Princess Rahme Haidar (sixth from the right) rehearsing with a group of girls from the Northrop School in Minneapolis Minnesota, 1926.  [10] Figure 3: Princess Rahme Haidar (sixth from the right) rehearsing with a group of girls from the Northrop School in Minneapolis Minnesota, 1926. [10] A lecturer and performer, Rahme Haidar used her body and her voice to construct herself as a Christian oriental princess. Without access to the scripts to her plays or her moving pictures, it is difficult to know what was actually said during these performances on stage. But, thanks to her popularity on the lecture circuit, she was encouraged to turn her lecture “Under Syrian Stars” into a book. While her autobiography may not be exactly like her lecture, it does provide a representation of how she portrayed herself to her audiences and provides a glimpse into how she viewed her identity using her own words. Arab American literature began at the end of the nineteenth century with the establishment of the first Arabic Newspaper Kawkab Amirka [Planet America] in 1892 [1]. When discussing the origins of Arab American literature names such as Gibran Khalil Gibran, Ameen Rihani, Abraham Rihbany, Mikhail Nai’my and even ‘Afifa Karam spring to mind given their popularity within the early Syrian community and its newspapers. However, the name Rahme Haidar is rarely mentioned even though she was quite well known in lecture circuits throughout the US. Haidar’s autobiography, Under Syrian Stars, was inspired by her time on the lecture circuit and written while she sojourned in Lebanon during 1928. While the work provides more detail about the Holy Land than the life of the Princess, it does exhibit the same self-orientalization and cultural mediation that was common among the Mahjar writers.  Like Gibran, Haidar used American Orientalism in her work although her ideas of homeland and holy land were less blurred than his. She begins her preface as follows: “The motive for writing this book is three-fold; in the first place, I desire to record on the leaves of this tablet an accurate narrative and deeper insight into that mysterious and most wonderful land of the Saviour, to entertain, and to inspire. The experiences of my public life upon the lecture platform have afforded me the tastes and desires of the Western minds. Many requests have come to me to prepare an edition recording my intimate knowledge of the land of my birth, its people, their manners, and customs, ideals and aspirations, from eminent divines, pastors of leading denominations, and outstanding scholars. I have yielded to these requests because I was born, reared and educated in an atmosphere permeated with biblical lore; for it is only by a native that the East can be rightly portrayed [2, emphasis added by author].” In the first two paragraphs, she admits one of her key purposes for writing was to act as a cultural mediator in order to to satisfy the “tastes and desires of the Western minds” concerning the land of her birth- Greater Syria. In claiming “it is only by a native that the East can be rightly portrayed,” Haidar is subscribing to Orientalism by creating a dichotomy between East and West. She positions herself as an educated Christian Oriental when describing how she was raised thus aligning herself with the east meanwhile distancing herself from the non-Western, non-Christian and non-educated Syrians.  Haidar along with other Arab American writers like Rihani and Rihbany used self-orientalization in order to mediate between the two cultures. The way Haidar constructed her discourse shows she intended to align herself as an Eastern Holy Land representative and as an educated Western Protestant Christian. While she never explicitly claims a race for herself, she used Christian identity to align herself with her white audience and used terminology that aligned the native inhabitants of the Holy Land as ‘other’ which was a common trope among early Arab American writers. Figure 2: Under Syrian Stars, Rahme Haidar’s 1929 Autobiography Figure 2: Under Syrian Stars, Rahme Haidar’s 1929 Autobiography Haidar’s intentions of succumbing to American Orientalism are evident, however her intentions concerning the production of her nativity leave room for questioning.  Swati Rana [3] defines immigrant nativity as “the production of belonging by immigrants.” Rana finds that both Rihani and Rihbany use the tradition of “Anglo-American Protestantism and literary transcendentalism” to claim a re-birth in the United States. Haidar also claims a re-birth in the U.S. through education and the protestant religion but this re-birth actually takes place in Syria before migrating to the U.S.  Haidar describes growing up in Baalbek and following the customs of her people until her father developed a friendship with an American missionary-educator who eventually convinced her father to let her go to the American Missionary School in Sidon. She describes her experience once at the American missionary school: “There, for the first time, I came in contact with the Western world, its people and their modes of living. There, after deep and careful study of the Word, and after a long struggle with the burden of my sins, I came face to face with the questions, ‘Where are you going to spend eternity?’ My people sent me there purposely for further education, but there, at the ancient Sidon was revealed to me the highest and deepest meaning of education; namely to increase one’s capacity to know God and to make Him known to others. For after all, is not this the great purpose of education and life? For to know Him and His son, Jesus Christ, is a life eternal. During my course at Sidon, I often pictured the beauties of the new land- not only a land of liberty, but a land of opportunity, and the desire to sail forth to its shores grew keener and keener. I had become enamoured with everything Occidental [2]”. Through this excerpt it becomes clear that Haidar uses her American education and her conversion to Christianity in order to position herself as American. Rana describes this re-birth experience as a way of “going native” and allowing the immigrant to claim the “heir to exceptional promise of America [3]”. Through the excerpt, Haidar transitions from her come-to-Jesus moment in “ancient Sidon” directly into a desire to experience the United States. Figure 3: Princess Rahme Haidar’s signature (Tatler 1926) [4]. Figure 3: Princess Rahme Haidar’s signature (Tatler 1926) [4]. While this clearly aligns her with the US, throughout other parts of her writing Haidar wrestles with the production of belonging. She describes herself as “what we call in America a Methodo-Bapto-Presby-Congregationo [2]” because of her combined experiences in different education systems. She attended Congregationalist services in Baalbek as a child before attending the Presbyterian missionary school in Sidon. Upon migration to the U.S. she obtained a bachelor degree from a Baptist Seminary in Ohio and then finished her schooling with a post-graduate degree in public speaking from the University of Southern California, which had heavy Methodist influence. Each of the identities she referenced are Christian but perhaps the fact that she used “Congregationo” as the base term of her religious identity could highlight her struggle to navigate between her two worlds. She uses communal pronouns like “we”, and “our” to align herself with both the U.S. as well as the Holy Land thus constructing an in-between identity. Like Rihbany, Haidar uses her old world nativity in the Holy Land to navigate the new nativity in the U.S. Not only is she using Orientalism in similar ways as the male Mahjar writers she is also portraying the same struggles with production of nativity. Because of the parallels between Haidar’s Under Syrian Stars and prominent Arab American writers such as Ameen Rihani and Abraham Rihbany, it  becomes evident that Haidar has been overlooked in the early Arab American canon. While she is widely mentioned in local newspapers and she performed in numerous venues, there is little to no mention of her within the Arab American community and no record of Princess Rahme Haidar performing for a specifically Arab American church or social event. Was she overlooked because she was excluded from the Arab American community? Or because she was a female writer and performer in a time when it was not socially acceptable for her to do so?  Or perhaps because she wrote in English instead of Arabic like Afifa? Maybe she has been overlooked because of her obvious yielding to American Orientalism or as Michael Suleiman says her use of religion “as an escape”[5]? It is not clear why she has been given hardly any attention, but it is clear she had similar struggles with migration as other early Arab Americans and her work situates itself among the other early Arab American classic writers.   Baalbek[a] (/ˈbɑːlbɛk, ˈbeɪəlbɛk/;[5] Arabic: بَعْلَبَكّ, romanized: Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about 67 km (42 mi) northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate.[6] In Greek and Roman times, Baalbek was also known as Heliopolis (Ἡλιούπολις, Greek for "Sun City"). In 1998, Baalbek had a population of 82,608, mostly Shia Muslims, followed by Sunni Muslims and Lebanese Arab Christians.[7] It is home to the Baalbek temple complex which includes two of the largest and grandest Roman temple ruins: the Temple of Bacchus and the Temple of Jupiter. It was inscribed in 1984 as an UNESCO World Heritage site. Name A few miles from the swamp from which the Litani (the classical Leontes) and the Asi (the upper Orontes) flow, Baalbek may be the same as the manbaa al-nahrayn ("Source of the Two Rivers"), the abode of El in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle[8] discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation.[9][10] Baalbek was called "Heliopolis" during the Roman Empire, a latinisation of the Greek Hēlioúpolis (Ἡλιούπολις) used during the Hellenistic period,[11] meaning "Sun City"[12] in reference to the solar cult there. The name is attested under the Seleucids and Ptolemies.[13] However, Ammianus Marcellinus notes that earlier "Assyrian" names of Levantine towns continued to be used alongside the official Greek ones imposed by the Diadochi, who were successors of Alexander the Great.[14] In Greek religion, Helios was both the sun in the sky and its personification as a god. The local Semitic god Baʿal Haddu was more often equated with Zeus or Jupiter or simply called the "Great God of Heliopolis",[15][b] but the name may refer to the Egyptians' association of Baʿal with their great god Ra.[13][c] It was sometimes described as Heliopolis in Syria or Coelesyria (Latin: Heliopolis Syriaca or Syriae) to distinguish it from its namesake in Egypt. In Catholicism, its titular see is distinguished as Heliopolis in Phoenicia, from its former Roman province Phoenice. The importance of the solar cult is also attested in the name Biḳāʿ al-ʿAzīz borne by the plateau surrounding Baalbek, as it references an earlier solar deity and not later men, named Aziz. In Greek and Roman antiquity, it was known as Heliopolis. It still possesses some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in Lebanon, including one of the largest temples of the empire. The gods that were worshipped there (Jupiter, Venus, and Bacchus) were equivalents of the Canaanite deities Hadad, Atargatis. Local influences are seen in the planning and layout of the temples, as they vary from the classic Roman design. [18] The name bʿlbk is first attested in the Mishnah, a second-century rabbinic text, as a geographic epithet for a kind of garlic, shum ba'albeki (שום בעלבכי).[19] Two early 5th-century Syriac manuscripts, a c. 411[17] translation of Eusebius's Theophania[20][21] and a c. 435[22] life of Rabbula, bishop of Edessa.[23][17] It was pronounced as Baʿlabakk (Arabic: بَعْلَبَكّ) in Classical Arabic.[24][10] In Modern Standard Arabic, its vowels are marked as Baʿlabak (بَعْلَبَك)[25] or Baʿlabekk.[26] It is Bʿalbik (بْعَلْبِك, is [ˈbʕalbik]) in Lebanese Arabic.[25] The etymology of Baalbek has been debated indecisively[18] since the 18th century.[10] Cook took it to mean "Baʿal (Lord) of the Beka"[17] and Donne as "City of the Sun".[27] Lendering asserts that it is probably a contraction of Baʿal Nebeq ("Lord of the Source" of the Litani River).[12] Steiner proposes a Semitic adaption of "Lord Bacchus", from the classical temple complex.[10] On the basis of its similar name, several 19th-century Biblical archaeologists attempted to connect Baalbek to the "Baalgad" mentioned in the Hebrew Scripture's Book of Joshua,[28] the Baalath listed among Solomon's cities in the First Book of Kings,[29][30] the Baal-hamon where he had a vineyard,[31][3] and the "Plain of Aven" in Amos.[32][33] History Prehistory The hilltop of Tell Baalbek, part of a valley to the east of the northern Beqaa Valley[34] (Latin: Coelesyria),[35] shows signs of almost continual habitation over the last 8–9000 years.[36] It was well-watered both from a stream running from the Rās-el-ʿAin spring SE of the citadel[37] and, during the spring, from numerous rills formed by meltwater from the Anti-Lebanons.[38] Macrobius later credited the site's foundation to a colony of Egyptian or Assyrian priests.[38] The settlement's religious, commercial, and strategic importance was minor enough, however, that it is never mentioned in any known Assyrian or Egyptian record,[39] unless under another name.[3] Its enviable position in a fertile valley, major watershed, and along the route from Tyre to Palmyra should have made it a wealthy and splendid site from an early age.[3][30] During the Canaanite period, the local temples were largely devoted to the Heliopolitan Triad: a male god (Baʿal), his consort (Astarte), and their son (Adon).[40] The site of the present Temple of Jupiter was probably the focus of earlier worship, as its altar was located at the hill's precise summit and the rest of the sanctuary raised to its level. In Islamic mythology, the temple complex was said to have been a palace of Solomon's[41][d] which was put together by djinn[44][45][46] and given as a wedding gift to the Queen of Sheba;[18] its actual Roman origin remained obscured by the citadel's medieval fortifications as late as the 16th-century visit of the Polish prince Radziwiłł.[43][47] Antiquity Reconstruction of Temple of Jupiter/Baalbek Roman Heliopolis and its surroundings in the 2nd and the 3rd century. After Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia in the 330s BC, Baalbek (under its Hellenic name Heliopolis) formed part of the Diadochi kingdoms of Egypt & Syria. It was annexed by the Romans during their eastern wars. The settlers of the Roman colony Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Heliopolitana may have arrived as early as the time of Caesar[3][38] but were more probably the veterans of the 5th and 8th Legions under Augustus,[30][48][17] during which time it hosted a Roman garrison.[3] From 15 BC to AD 193, it formed part of the territory of Berytus. It is mentioned in Josephus,[49] Pliny,[50] Strabo,[51] and Ptolemy[52] and on coins of nearly every emperor from Nerva to Gallienus.[3] The 1st-century Pliny did not number it among the Decapolis, the "Ten Cities" of Coelesyria, while the 2nd-century Ptolemy did.[52] The population likely varied seasonally with market fairs and the schedules of the Indian monsoon and caravans to the coast and interior.[53] Corinthian capitals ornamenting the columns of the Temple of Bacchus During Classical Antiquity, the city's temple to Baʿal Haddu was conflated first with the worship of the Greek sun god Helios[17] and then with the Greek and Roman sky god under the name "Heliopolitan Zeus" or "Jupiter". The present Temple of Jupiter presumably replaced an earlier one using the same foundation;[e] it was constructed during the mid-1st century and probably completed around AD 60.[f][57] His idol was a beardless golden god in the pose of a charioteer, with a whip raised in his right hand and a thunderbolt and stalks of grain in his left;[60] its image appeared on local coinage and it was borne through the streets during several festivals throughout the year.[58] Macrobius compared the rituals to those for Diva Fortuna at Antium and says the bearers were the principal citizens of the town, who prepared for their role with abstinence, chastity, and shaved heads.[58] In bronze statuary attested from Byblos in Phoenicia and Tortosa in Spain, he was encased in a pillarlike term and surrounded (like the Greco-Persian Mithras) by busts representing the sun, moon, and five known planets.[61] In these statues, the bust of Mercury is made particularly prominent; a marble stela at Massilia in Transalpine Gaul shows a similar arrangement but enlarges Mercury into a full figure.[61] Local cults also revered the Baetylia, black conical stones considered sacred to Baʿal.[53] One of these was taken to Rome by the emperor Elagabalus, a former priest "of the sun" at nearby Emesa,[62] who erected a temple for it on the Palatine Hill.[53] Heliopolis was a noted oracle and pilgrimage site, whence the cult spread far afield, with inscriptions to the Heliopolitan god discovered in Athens, Rome, Pannonia, Venetia, Gaul, and near the Wall in Britain.[59] The Roman temple complex grew up from the early part of the reign of Augustus in the late 1st century BC until the rise of Christianity in the 4th century. (The 6th-century chronicles of John Malalas of Antioch, which claimed Baalbek as a "wonder of the world",[62] credited most of the complex to the 2nd-century Antoninus Pius, but it is uncertain how reliable his account is on the point.)[43] By that time, the complex housed three temples on Tell Baalbek: one to Jupiter Heliopolitanus (Baʿal), one to Venus Heliopolitana (Ashtart), and a third to Bacchus. On a nearby hill, a fourth temple was dedicated to the third figure of the Heliopolitan Triad, Mercury (Adon or Seimios[63]). Ultimately, the site vied with Praeneste in Italy as the two largest sanctuaries in the Western world. The emperor Trajan consulted the site's oracle twice. The first time, he requested a written reply to his sealed and unopened question; he was favorably impressed by the god's blank reply as his own paper had been empty.[64] He then inquired whether he would return alive from his wars against Parthia and received in reply a centurion's vine staff, broken to pieces.[65] In AD 193, Septimius Severus granted the city ius Italicum rights.[66][g] His wife Julia Domna and son Caracalla toured Egypt and Syria in AD 215; inscriptions in their honour at the site may date from that occasion; Julia was a Syrian native whose father had been an Emesan priest "of the sun" like Elagabalus.[62] The town became a battleground upon the rise of Christianity.[63][h] Early Christian writers such as Eusebius (from nearby Caesarea) repeatedly execrated the practices of the local pagans in their worship of the Heliopolitan Venus. In AD 297, the actor Gelasinus converted in the middle of a scene mocking baptism; his public profession of faith provoked the audience to drag him from the theater and stone him to death.[63][3] In the early 4th century, the deacon Cyril defaced many of the idols in Heliopolis; he was killed and (allegedly) cannibalised.[63] Around the same time, Constantine, though not yet a Christian, demolished the goddess' temple, raised a basilica in its place, and outlawed the locals' ancient custom of prostituting women before marriage.[63] Bar Hebraeus also credited him with ending the locals' continued practice of polygamy.[69] The enraged locals responded by raping and torturing Christian virgins.[63] They reacted violently again under the freedom permitted to them by Julian the Apostate.[3] The city was so noted for its hostility to the Christians that Alexandrians were banished to it as a special punishment.[3] The Temple of Jupiter, already greatly damaged by earthquakes,[70] was demolished under Theodosius in 379 and replaced by another basilica (now lost), using stones scavenged from the pagan complex.[71] The Easter Chronicle states he was also responsible for destroying all the lesser temples and shrines of the city.[72] Around the year 400, Rabbula, the future bishop of Edessa, attempted to have himself martyred by disrupting the pagans of Baalbek but was only thrown down the temple stairs along with his companion.[71] It became the seat of its own bishop as well.[3] Under the reign of Justinian, eight of the complex's Corinthian columns were disassembled and shipped to Constantinople for incorporation in the rebuilt Hagia Sophia sometime between 532 and 537.[citation needed] Michael the Syrian claimed the golden idol of Heliopolitan Jupiter was still to be seen during the reign of Justin II (560s & 570s),[71] and, up to the time of its conquest by the Muslims, it was renowned for its palaces, monuments, and gardens.[73] Middle Ages The ruins of a Baalbek mosque c. 1900 The probable remains of a medieval mosque in front of some of the Mamluk fortifications Baalbek was occupied by the Muslim army in AD 634 (ah 13),[71] in 636,[16] or under Abu ʿUbaidah following the Byzantine defeat at Yarmouk in 637 (ah 16),[citation needed] either peacefully and by agreement[18] or following a heroic defense and yielding 2,000 oz (57 kg) of gold, 4,000 oz (110 kg) of silver, 2000 silk vests, and 1000 swords.[73] The ruined temple complex was fortified under the name al-Qala' (lit. "The Fortress")[71] but was sacked with great violence by the Damascene caliph Marwan II in 748, at which time it was dismantled and largely depopulated.[73] It formed part of the district of Damascus under the Umayyads and Abbasids before being conquered by Fatimid Egypt in 942.[18] In the mid-10th century, it was said to have "gates of palaces sculptured in marble and lofty columns also of marble" and that it was the most "stupendous" and "considerable" location in the whole of Syria.[16] It was sacked and razed by the Byzantines under John I in 974,[18] raided by Basil II in 1000,[74] and occupied by Salih ibn Mirdas, emir of Aleppo, in 1025.[18] In 1075, it was finally lost to the Fatimids on its conquest by Tutush I, Seljuk emir of Damascus.[18] It was briefly held by Muslim ibn Quraysh, emir of Aleppo, in 1083; after its recovery, it was ruled in the Seljuks' name by the eunuch Gümüshtegin until he was deposed for conspiring against the usurper Toghtekin in 1110.[18] Toghtekin then gave the town to his son Buri. Upon Buri's succession to Damascus on his father's death in 1128, he granted the area to his son Muhammad.[18] After Buri's murder, Muhammad successfully defended himself against the attacks of his brothers Ismaʿil and Mahmud and gave Baalbek to his vizier Unur.[18] In July 1139, Zengi, atabeg of Aleppo and stepfather of Mahmud, besieged Baalbek with 14 catapults. The outer city held until 10 October and the citadel until the 21st,[75] when Unur surrendered upon a promise of safe passage.[76] In December, Zengi negotiated with Muhammad, offering to trade Baalbek or Homs for Damascus, but Unur convinced the atabeg to refuse.[75] Zengi strengthened its fortifications and bestowed the territory on his lieutenant Ayyub, father of Saladin. Upon Zengi's assassination in 1146, Ayyub surrendered the territory to Unur, who was acting as regent for Muhammad's son Abaq. It was granted to the eunuch Ata al-Khadim,[18] who also served as viceroy of Damascus. In December 1151, it was raided by the garrison of Banyas as a reprisal for its role in a Turcoman raid on Banyas.[77] Following Ata's murder, his nephew Dahhak, emir of the Wadi al-Taym, ruled Baalbek. He was forced to relinquish it to Nur ad-Din in 1154[18] after Ayyub had successfully intrigued against Abaq from his estates near Baalbek. Ayyub then administered the area from Damascus on Nur ad-Din's behalf.[78] In the mid-12th century, Idrisi mentioned Baalbek's two temples and the legend of their origin under Solomon;[79] it was visited by the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela in 1170.[43] Baalbek's citadel served as a jail for Crusaders taken by the Zengids as prisoners of war.[80] In 1171, these captives successfully overpowered their guards and took possession of the castle from its garrison. Muslims from the surrounding area gathered, however, and entered the castle through a secret passageway shown to them by a local. The Crusaders were then massacred.[80] Three major earthquakes occurred in the 12th century, in 1139, 1157, and 1170.[73] The one in 1170 ruined Baalbek's walls and, though Nur ad-Din repaired them, his young heir Ismaʿil was made to yield it to Saladin by a 4-month siege in 1174.[18] Having taken control of Damascus on the invitation of its governor Ibn al-Muqaddam, Saladin rewarded him with the emirate of Baalbek following the Ayyubid victory at the Horns of Hama in 1175.[81] Baldwin, the young leper king of Jerusalem, came of age the next year, ending the Crusaders' treaty with Saladin.[82] His former regent, Raymond of Tripoli, raided the Beqaa Valley from the west in the summer, suffering a slight defeat at Ibn al-Muqaddam's hands.[83] He was then joined by the main army, riding north under Baldwin and Humphrey of Toron;[83] they defeated Saladin's elder brother Turan Shah in August at Ayn al-Jarr and plundered Baalbek.[80] Upon the deposition of Turan Shah for neglecting his duties in Damascus, however, he demanded his childhood home[84] of Baalbek as compensation. Ibn al-Muqaddam did not consent and Saladin opted to invest the city in late 1178 to maintain peace within his own family.[85] An attempt to pledge fealty to the Christians at Jerusalem was ignored on behalf of an existing treaty with Saladin.[86] The siege was maintained peacefully through the snows of winter, with Saladin waiting for the "foolish" commander and his garrison of "ignorant scum" to come to terms.[87] Sometime in spring, Ibn al-Muqaddam yielded and Saladin accepted his terms, granting him Baʿrin, Kafr Tab, and al-Maʿarra.[87][88] The generosity quieted unrest among Saladin's vassals through the rest of his reign[85] but led his enemies to attempt to take advantage of his presumed weakness.[87] He did not permit Turan Shah to retain Baalbek very long, though, instructing him to lead the Egyptian troops returning home in 1179 and appointing him to a sinecure in Alexandria.[81] Baalbek was then granted to his nephew Farrukh Shah, whose family ruled it for the next half-century.[81] When Farrukh Shah died three years later, his son Bahram Shah was only a child but he was permitted his inheritance and ruled til 1230.[18] He was followed by al-Ashraf Musa, who was succeeded by his brother as-Salih Ismail,[18] who received it in 1237 as compensation for being deprived of Damascus by their brother al-Kamil.[89] It was seized in 1246 after a year of assaults by as-Salih Ayyub, who bestowed it upon Saʿd al-Din al-Humaidi.[18] When as-Salih Ayyub's successor Turan Shah was murdered in 1250, al-Nasir Yusuf, the sultan of Aleppo, seized Damascus and demanded Baalbek's surrender. Instead, its emir did homage and agreed to regular payments of tribute.[18] The Mongolian general Kitbuqa took Baalbek in 1260 and dismantled its fortifications. Later in the same year, however, Qutuz, the sultan of Egypt, defeated the Mongols and placed Baalbek under the rule of their emir in Damascus.[18] Most of the city's still-extant fine mosque and fortress architecture dates to the reign of the sultan Qalawun in the 1280s.[citation needed] By the early 14th century, Abulfeda the Hamathite was describing the city's "large and strong fortress".[90] The revived settlement was again destroyed by a flood on 10 May 1318, when water from the east and northeast made holes 30 m (98 ft) wide in walls 4 m (13 ft) thick.[91] 194 people were killed and 1500 houses, 131 shops, 44 orchards, 17 ovens, 11 mills, and 4 aqueducts were ruined, along with the town's mosque and 13 other religious and educational buildings.[91] In 1400, Timur pillaged the town,[92] and there was further destruction from a 1459 earthquake.[93] Early modernity Baalbek & environs, c. 1856 In 1516, Baalbek was conquered with the rest of Syria by the Ottoman sultan Selim the Grim.[93] In recognition of their prominence among the Shiites of the Beqaa Valley, the Ottomans awarded the sanjak of Homs and local iltizam concessions to Baalbek's Harfush family. Like the Hamadas, the Harfush emirs were involved on more than one occasion in the selection of Church officials and the running of local monasteries. Tradition holds that many Christians quit the Baalbek region in the eighteenth century for the newer, more secure town of Zahlé on account of the Harfushes' oppression and rapacity, but more critical studies have questioned this interpretation, pointing out that the Harfushes were closely allied to the Orthodox Ma'luf family of Zahlé (where indeed Mustafa Harfush took refuge some years later) and showing that depredations from various quarters as well as Zahlé's growing commercial attractiveness accounted for Baalbek's decline in the eighteenth century. What repression there was did not always target the Christian community per se. The Shiite 'Usayran family, for example, is also said to have left Baalbek in this period to avoid expropriation by the Harfushes, establishing itself as one of the premier commercial households of Sidon and later even serving as consuls of Iran.[94] From the 16th century, European tourists began to visit the colossal and picturesque ruins.[70][95][i] Donne hyperbolised "No ruins of antiquity have attracted more attention than those of Heliopolis, or been more frequently or accurately measured and described."[53] Misunderstanding the temple of Bacchus as the "Temple of the Sun", they considered it the best-preserved Roman temple in the world.[citation needed] The Englishman Robert Wood's 1757 Ruins of Balbec[2] included carefully measured engravings that proved influential on British and Continental Neoclassical architects. For example, details of the Temple of Bacchus's ceiling inspired a bed[119] and ceiling by Robert Adam and its portico inspired that of St George's in Bloomsbury.[120] During the 18th century, the western approaches were covered with attractive groves of walnut trees,[44] but the town itself suffered badly during the 1759 earthquakes, after which it was held by the Metawali, who again feuded with other Lebanese tribes.[citation needed] Their power was broken by Jezzar Pasha, the rebel governor of Acre, in the last half of the 18th century.[citation needed] All the same, Baalbek remained no destination for a traveller unaccompanied by an armed guard.[citation needed] Upon the pasha's death in 1804, chaos ensued until Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt occupied the area in 1831, after which it again passed into the hands of the Harfushes.[93] In 1835, the town's population was barely 200 people.[112] In 1850, the Ottomans finally began direct administration of the area, making Baalbek a kaza under the Damascus Eyalet and its governor a kaymakam.[93] Excavations The largest stone at Baalbek, uncovered in 2014 Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany and his wife passed through Baalbek on 1 November 1898,[70] on their way to Jerusalem. He noted both the magnificence of the Roman remains and the drab condition of the modern settlement.[70] It was expected at the time that natural disasters, winter frosts, and the raiding of building materials by the city's residents would shortly ruin the remaining ruins.[90] The archaeological team he dispatched began work within a month. Despite finding nothing they could date prior to Baalbek's Roman occupation,[121] Otto Puchstein and his associates worked until 1904[70] and produced a meticulously researched and thoroughly illustrated series of volumes.[121] Later excavations under the Roman flagstones in the Great Court unearthed three skeletons and a fragment of Persian pottery dated to the 6th–4th centuries BC. The sherd featured cuneiform letters.[122] In 1977, Jean-Pierre Adam made a brief study suggesting most of the large blocks could have been moved on rollers with machines using capstans and pulley blocks, a process which he theorised could use 512 workers to move a 557 tonnes (614 tons) block.[123][124] "Baalbek, with its colossal structures, is one of the finest examples of Imperial Roman architecture at its apogee", UNESCO reported in making Baalbek a World Heritage Site in 1984.[125] When the committee inscribed the site, it expressed the wish that the protected area include the entire town within the Arab walls, as well as the southwestern extramural quarter between Bastan-al-Khan, the Roman site and the Mameluk mosque of Ras-al-Ain. Lebanon's representative gave assurances that the committee's wish would be honoured. Recent cleaning operations at the Temple of Jupiter discovered the deep trench at its edge, whose study pushed back the date of Tell Baalbek's settlement to the PPNB Neolithic. Finds included pottery sherds including a spout dating to the early Bronze Age.[126] In the summer of 2014, a team from the German Archaeological Institute led by Jeanine Abdul Massih of the Lebanese University discovered a sixth, much larger stone suggested to be the world's largest ancient block. The stone was found underneath and next to the Stone of the Pregnant Woman ("Hajjar al-Hibla") and measures around 19.6 m × 6 m × 5.5 m (64 ft × 20 ft × 18 ft). It is estimated to weigh 1,650 tonnes (1,820 tons).[127] 20th century A detail from a 1911 map of Turkey in Asia, showing Baalbek's former rail connections Baalbek was connected to the DHP, the French-owned railway concession in Ottoman Syria, on 19 June 1902.[128] It formed a station on the standard-gauge line between Riyaq to its south and Aleppo (now in Syria) to its north.[129] This Aleppo Railway connected to the Beirut–Damascus Railway but—because that line was built to a 1.05-meter gauge—all traffic had to be unloaded and reloaded at Riyaq.[129] Just before the First World War, the population was still around 5000, about 2000 each of Sunnis and Shia Mutawalis[93] and 1000 Orthodox and Maronites.[48] The French general Georges Catroux proclaimed the independence of Lebanon in 1941 but colonial rule continued until 1943. Baalbek still has its railway station[129] but service has been discontinued since the 1970s, originally owing to the Lebanese Civil War. The Roman ruins have been the setting for the long running Baalbek International Festival. In March 1974, Musa al-Sadr announced the launching of the "Movement of the Deprived" in front of a large rally in Baalbek. Its objective was to stand up for Lebanon's neglected Shia community. He also announced the setting up of military training camps to train villagers in southern Lebanon to protect their homes from Israeli attacks. These camps led to the creation of the Amal Militia.[130] In 1982, at the height of the Israeli invasion, Amal split into two factions over Nabih Berri's acceptance of the American plan to evacuate Palestinians from West Beirut. A large number of dissidents, led by Amal's military commander Hussein Musawi moved to Baalbek.[131] Once established in the town the group, which was to evolve into Hizbollah, began to work with Iranian Revolutionary Guards, veterans of the Iran Iraq War. The following year the Iranians established their headquarters in the Sheikh Abdullah barracks in Baalbek.[132] Ultimately there were between 1,500 and 2,000 Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon,[133] with outposts further south in the Shia villages, such as Jebchit.[134] On 24/25 June 1999, following elections in Israel and the new administration undecided, the IAF launched two massive air raids across Lebanon. One of the targets was the al Manar radio station’s offices in a four storey building in Baalbek which was completely demolished. The attacks also hit Beirut’s power stations and bridges on the roads to the south. An estimated $52 million damage was caused. Eleven Lebanese were killed as well as two Israelis in Kiryat Shmona. [135] A map of Israeli bombing during the Second Lebanon War. Baalbek was a major target, with more than 70 bombs dropped. 2006 Lebanon War Main article: Operation Sharp and Smooth On the evening of 1 August 2006,[136] hundreds of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers raided Baalbek and the Dar al-Hikma[137] or Hikmeh Hospital[138] in Jamaliyeh[136] to its north ("Operation Sharp and Smooth"). Their mission was to rescue two captured soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were abducted by Hezbollah on 12 July 2006. They were transported by helicopter[136] and supported by Apache helicopters and unmanned drones,[137][136] The IDF was acting on information that Goldwasser and Regev were at the hospital. al-Jazeera and other sources claimed the IDF was attempting to capture senior Hezbollah officials, particularly Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek.[138] The hospital had been empty for four days, the most unwell patients having been transferred and the rest sent home.[137] No Israelis were killed;[136] Five civilians were abducted and interrogated by the Israelis, presumably because one shared his name with Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah;[139] they were released on August 21.[140] Another 9 civilians were killed on 7 August by a strike in the middle of Brital, just south of Baalbek, and by the subsequent attack on the car leaving the scene for the hospital.[141] On 14 August just before the ceasefire took effect, two Lebanese police and five Lebanese soldiers were killed by a drone strike while driving their van around the still-damaged road through Jamaliyeh.[142] Conservation work at Lebanon's historic sites began in October.[143] The ruins at Baalbek were not directly hit but the effects of blasts during the conflict toppled a block of stones at the Roman ruins and existing cracks in the temples of Jupiter and Bacchus were feared to have widened.[143] Frederique Husseini, director-general of Lebanon's Department of Antiquities, requested $550,000 from Europeans to restore Baalbek's souk and another $900,000 for repairs to other damaged structures.[143] Ruins 1911 diagram of the ruins after the Puchstein excavations.[144] (Facing SW, with the Temple of Jupiter labelled "Temple of the Sun") See also: Temple of Jupiter, Baalbek; Temple of Bacchus; Stone of the Pregnant Woman; Temples of the Beqaa Valley; List of Roman monoliths; List of ancient architectural records § Monoliths; and List of largest monoliths in the world The Tell Baalbek temple complex, fortified as the town's citadel during the Middle Ages,[93] was constructed from local stone, mostly white granite and a rough white marble.[45] Over the years, it has suffered from the region's numerous earthquakes, the iconoclasm of Christian and Muslim lords,[53] and the reuse of the temples' stone for fortification and other construction. The nearby Qubbat Duris, a 13th-century Muslim shrine on the old road to Damascus, is built out of granite columns, apparently removed from Baalbek.[45] Further, the jointed columns were once banded together with iron; many were gouged open[145] or toppled by the emirs of Damascus to get at the metal.[45] As late as the 16th century, the Temple of Jupiter still held 27 standing columns[99] out of an original 58;[146] there were only nine before the 1759 earthquakes[2] and six today.[when?] The complex is located on an immense[vague] raised plaza erected 5 m (16 ft) over an earlier T-shaped base consisting of a podium, staircase, and foundation walls.[j] These walls were built from about 24 monoliths, at their lowest level weighing approximately 300 tonnes (330 tons) each. The tallest retaining wall, on the west, has a second course of monoliths containing the famous "Three Stones" (Greek: Τρίλιθον, Trílithon):[37] a row of three stones, each over 19 m (62 ft) long, 4.3 m (14 ft) high, and 3.6 m (12 ft) broad, cut from limestone. They weigh approximately 800 tonnes (880 tons) each.[147] A fourth, still larger stone is called the Stone of the Pregnant Woman: it lies unused in a nearby quarry 800 m (2,600 ft) from the town.[148] Its weight, often exaggerated, is estimated at 1,000 tonnes (1,100 tons).[149] A fifth, still larger stone weighing approximately 1,200 tonnes (1,300 tons)[150] lies in the same quarry. This quarry was slightly higher than the temple complex,[123][151] so no lifting was required to move the stones. Through the foundation there run three enormous passages the size of railway tunnels.[37] The temple complex was entered from the east through the Propylaea (προπύλαιον, propýlaion) or Portico,[53] consisting of a broad staircase rising 20 feet (6.1 m)[152] to an arcade of 12 columns flanked by 2 towers.[70] Most of the columns have been toppled and the stairs were entirely dismantled for use in the nearby later wall,[37][k] but a Latin inscription remains on several of their bases stating that Longinus, a lifeguard of the 1st Parthian Legion, and Septimius, a freedman, gilded their capitals with bronze in gratitude for the safety of Septimius Severus's son Antoninus Caracalla and empress Julia Domna.[153][l] Immediately behind the Propylaeum is a hexagonal forecourt[70] reached through a threefold entrance[73] that was added in the mid-3rd century by the emperor Philip the Arab.[citation needed] Traces remain of the two series of columns which once encircled it, but its original function remains uncertain.[70] Donne reckoned it as the town's forum.[53] Badly preserved coins of the era led some to believe this was a sacred cypress grove, but better specimens show that the coins displayed a single stalk of grain instead.[154] The rectangular Great Court to its west covers around 3 or 4 acres (1.2 or 1.6 ha)[73] and included the main altar for burnt offering, with mosaic-floored lustration basins to its north and south, a subterranean chamber,[155] and three underground passageways 17 ft (5.2 m) wide by 30 ft (9.1 m) high, two of which run east and west and the third connecting them north and south, all bearing inscriptions suggesting their occupation by Roman soldiers.[73] These were surrounded by Corinthian porticoes, one of which was never completed.[155] The columns' bases and capitals were of limestone; the shafts were monoliths of highly polished red Egyptian granite 7.08 m (23.2 ft) high.[155] Six remain standing, out of an original 128.[citation needed] Inscriptions attest that the court was once adorned by portraits of Marcus Aurelius's daughter Sabina, Septimius Severus, Gordian, and Velius Rufus, dedicated by the city's Roman colonists.[155] The entablature was richly decorated but is now mostly ruined.[155] A westward-facing basilica was constructed over the altar during the reign of Theodosius; it was later altered to make it eastward-facing like most Christian churches.[71] The Great Court of ancient Heliopolis's temple complex The Temple of Jupiter—once wrongly credited to Helios[156]—lay at the western end of the Great Court, raised another 7 m (23 ft) on a 47.7 m × 87.75 m (156.5 ft × 287.9 ft) platform reached by a wide staircase.[146] Under the Byzantines, it was also known as the "Trilithon" from the three massive stones in its foundation and, when taken together with the forecourt and Great Court, it is also known as the Great Temple.[144] The Temple of Jupiter proper was circled by a peristyle of 54 unfluted Corinthian columns:[157] 10 in front and back and 19 along each side.[146] The temple was ruined by earthquakes,[70] destroyed and pillaged for stone under Theodosius,[71] and 8 columns were taken to Constantinople (Istanbul) under Justinian for incorporation into the Hagia Sophia.[citation needed] Three fell during the late 18th century.[73] 6 columns, however, remain standing along its south side with their entablature.[146] Their capitals remain nearly perfect on the south side, while the Beqaa's winter winds have worn the northern faces almost bare.[158] The architrave and frieze blocks weigh up to 60 tonnes (66 tons) each, and one corner block over 100 tonnes (110 tons), all of them raised to a height of 19 m (62.34 ft) above the ground.[159] Individual Roman cranes were not capable of lifting stones this heavy. They may have simply been rolled into position along temporary earthen banks from the quarry[158] or multiple cranes may have been used in combination.[citation needed] They may also have alternated sides a little at a time, filling in supports underneath each time.[citation needed] The Julio-Claudian emperors enriched its sanctuary in turn. In the mid-1st century, Nero built the tower-altar opposite the temple. In the early 2nd century, Trajan added the temple's forecourt, with porticos of pink granite shipped from Aswan at the southern end of Egypt.[citation needed] The Temple of Bacchus—once wrongly credited to Jupiter[160][m]—may have been completed under Septimius Severus in the 190s, as his coins are the first to show it beside the Temple of Jupiter.[citation needed] It is the best preserved of the sanctuary's structures, as the other rubble from its ruins protected it.[citation needed] It is enriched by some of the most refined reliefs and sculpture to survive from antiquity.[145] The temple is surrounded by forty-two columns—8 along each end and 15 along each side[161]—nearly 20 m (66 ft) in height.[citation needed] These were probably erected in a rough state and then rounded, polished, and decorated in position.[145][n] The entrance was preserved as late as Pococke[105] and Wood,[2] but the keystone of the lintel had slid 2 ft (1 m) following the 1759 earthquakes; a column of rough masonry was erected in the 1860s or '70s to support it.[161] The 1759 earthquakes also damaged the area around the soffit's famed inscription of an eagle,[95] which was entirely covered by the keystone's supporting column. The area around the inscription of the eagle was greatly damaged by the 1759 earthquake.[95] The interior of the temple is divided into a 98 ft (30 m) nave and a 36 ft (11 m) adytum or sanctuary[161] on a platform raised 5 ft (2 m) above it and fronted by 13 steps.[145] The screen between the two sections once held reliefs of Neptune, Triton, Arion and his dolphin, and other marine figures[104] but these have been lost.[145] The temple was used as a kind of donjon for the medieval Arab and Turkish fortifications,[93] although its eastern steps were lost sometime after 1688.[162] Much of the portico was incorporated into a huge wall directly before its gate, but this was demolished in July 1870 by Barker[who?] on orders from Syria's governor Rashid Pasha.[161] Two spiral staircases in columns on either side of the entrance lead to the roof.[95] The Temple of Venus—also known as the Circular Temple or Nymphaeum[153]—was added under Septimius Severus in the early 3rd century[citation needed] but destroyed under Constantine, who raised a basilica in its place.[95] Jessup considered it the "gem of Baalbek".[153] It lies about 150 yd (140 m) from the southeast corner of the Temple of Bacchus.[153] It was known in the 19th century as El Barbara[153] or Barbarat el-Atikah (St Barbara's), having been used as a Greek Orthodox church into the 18th century.[95][o] The ancient walls of Heliopolis had a circumference of a little less than 4 mi (6 km).[53] Much of the extant fortifications around the complex date to the 13th century[71] reconstruction undertaken by the Mamluk sultan Qalawun following the devastation of the earlier defenses by the Mongol army under Kitbuqa.[18] This includes the great southeast tower.[93] The earliest round of fortifications were two walls to the southwest of the Temples of Jupiter and Bacchus.[93] The original southern gateway with two small towers was filled in and replaced by a new large tower flanked by curtains,[clarification needed] probably under Buri or Zengi.[93] Bahramshah replaced that era's southwest tower with one of his own in 1213 and built another in the northwest in 1224; the west tower was probably strengthened around the same time.[93] An inscription dates the barbican-like strengthening of the southern entrance to around 1240.[93] Qalawun relocated the two western curtains[clarification needed] nearer to the western tower, which was rebuilt with great blocks of stone. The barbican was repaired and more turns added to its approach.[93] From around 1300, no alterations were made to the fortifications apart from repairs such as Sultan Barkuk's restoration of the moat in preparation for Timur's arrival.[93] Material from the ruins is incorporated into a ruined mosque north of downtown[163] and probably also in the Qubbat Duris on the road to Damascus.[163] In the 19th century, a "shell-topped canopy" from the ruins was used nearby as a mihrab, propped up to show locals the direction of Mecca for their daily prayers.[163] Tomb of Husayn's daughter Under a white dome further towards town is the tomb of Khawla, daughter of Hussein and granddaughter of Ali, who died in Baalbek while Husayn's family was being transported as prisoners to Damascus.[164][165] Ecclesiastical history Heliopolis (in Phoenicia; not to be confused with the Egyptian bishopric Heliopolis in Augustamnica) was a bishopric under Roman and Byzantine rule, but it disappeared due to the Islamic rule. In 1701, Eastern Catholics (Byzantine Rite) established anew an Eparchy of Baalbek, which in 1964 was promoted to the present Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Baalbek. Titular see In the Latin rite, the Ancient diocese was only nominally restored (no later than 1876) as Titular archbishopric of Heliopolis (Latin) / Eliopoli (Curiate Italian), demoted in 1925 to Episcopal Titular bishopric, promoted back in 1932, with its name changed (avoiding Egyptian confusion) in 1933 to (non-Metropolitan) Titular archbishopric of Heliopolis in Phoenicia. The title has not been assigned since 1965. It was held by:[166] Titular Archbishop: Luigi Poggi (1876.09.29 – death 1877.01.22) on emeritate (promoted) as former Bishop of Rimini (Italy) (1871.10.27 – 1876.09.29) Titular Archbishop: Mario Mocenni (1877.07.24 – 1893.01.16) as papal diplomat : Apostolic Delegate to Colombia (1877.08.14 – 1882.03.28), Apostolic Delegate to Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras (1877.08.14 – 1882.03.28), Apostolic Delegate to Ecuador (1877.08.14 – 1882.03.28), Apostolic Delegate to Peru and Bolivia (1877.08.14 – 1882.03.28), Apostolic Delegate to Venezuela (1877.08.14 – 1882.03.28), Apostolic Internuncio to Brazil (1882.03.28 – 1882.10.18), created Cardinal-Priest of S. Bartolomeo all'Isola (1893.01.19 – 1894.05.18), promoted Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina (1894.05.18 – death 1904.11.14) Titular Archbishop: Augustinus Accoramboni (1896.06.22 – death 1899.05.17), without prelature Titular Archbishop: Robert John Seton (1903.06.22 – 1927.03.22), without prelature Titular Bishop: Gerald O'Hara (1929.04.26 – 1935.11.26) as Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA) (1929.04.26 – 1935.11.26), later Bishop of Savannah (USA) (1935.11.26 – 1937.01.05), restyled (only) Bishop of Savannah–Atlanta (USA) (1937.01.05 – 1950.07.12), promoted Archbishop-Bishop of Savannah (1950.07.12 – 1959.11.12), also Apostolic Nuncio (papal ambassador) to Ireland (1951.11.27 – 1954.06.08), Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain (1954.06.08 – death 1963.07.16) and Titular Archbishop of Pessinus (1959.11.12 – 1963.07.16) Titular Archbishop: Alcide Marina, C.M. (1936.03.07 – death 1950.09.18), mainly as papal diplomat : Apostolic Delegate to Iran (1936.03.07 – 1945), Apostolic Administrator of Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Constantinople (Turkey) (1945–1947) and Apostolic Delegate to Turkey (1945–1947), Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon (1947 – 1950.09.18) Titular Archbishop: Daniel Rivero Rivero (1951 – death 1960.05.23) (born Bolivia) on emeritate, formerly Titular Bishop of Tlous (1922.05.17 – 1931.03.30) as Coadjutor Bishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) (1922.05.17 – 1931.03.30) succeeding as Bishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (1931.03.30 – 1940.02.03), Metropolitan Archbishop of Sucre (Bolivia) (1940.02.03 – 1951) Titular Archbishop: Raffaele Calabria (1960.07.12 – 1962.01.01) as Coadjutor Archbishop of Benevento (Italy) (1960.07.12 – 1962.01.01), succeeding as Metropolitan Archbishop of Benevento (1962.01.01 – 1982.05.24); previously Titular Archbishop of Soteropolis (1950.05.06 – 1952.07.10) as Coadjutor Archbishop of Otranto (Italy) (1950.05.06 – 1952.07.10), succeeding as Metropolitan Archbishop of Otranto (Italy) (1952.07.10 – 1960.07.12) Titular Archbishop: Ottavio De Liva (1962.04.18 – death 1965.08.23) as papal diplomat : Apostolic Internuncio to Indonesia (1962.04.18 – 1965.08.23). Climate Baalbek has a mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa) with significant continental influences. It is located in one of the drier regions of the country, giving it an average of 450mm of precipitation (compared with 800-850mm in coastal areas) annually, overwhelmingly concentrated in the months from November to April. Baalbek has hot rainless summers with cool (and occasionally snowy) winters. Autumn and spring are mild and fairly rainy. Climate data for Baalbek Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Average high °C (°F) 9.0 (48.2) 9.8 (49.6) 13.7 (56.7) 19.0 (66.2) 24.4 (75.9) 29.6 (85.3) 32.5 (90.5) 33.0 (91.4) 29.0 (84.2) 23.7 (74.7) 16.3 (61.3) 11.1 (52.0) 20.9 (69.7) Daily mean °C (°F) 4.4 (39.9) 5.0 (41.0) 8.2 (46.8) 12.8 (55.0) 17.2 (63.0) 22.0 (71.6) 24.3 (75.7) 25.1 (77.2) 21.0 (69.8) 16.7 (62.1) 10.7 (51.3) 6.3 (43.3) 14.5 (58.1) Average low °C (°F) −0.1 (31.8) 0.3 (32.5) 2.8 (37.0) 6.6 (43.9) 10.1 (50.2) 14.4 (57.9) 16.2 (61.2) 17.2 (63.0) 13.1 (55.6) 9.7 (49.5) 5.2 (41.4) 1.6 (34.9) 8.1 (46.6) Average precipitation mm (inches) 103 (4.1) 86 (3.4) 60 (2.4) 31 (1.2) 17 (0.7) 1 (0.0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (0.1) 16 (0.6) 49 (1.9) 79 (3.1) 444 (17.5) Source: [167] Notable people Saint Barbara (273–306) Callinicus of Heliopolis (c. 600 - c. 680), chemist and inventor Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i (707–774) Qusta ibn Luqa (820–912), mathematician and translator Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (1070s–1162) Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī (1547–1621), Lebanese-Iranian scholar, philosopher, architect, mathematician, astronomer Rahme Haider (born 1886), American lecturer from Baalbek Khalil Mutran (1872–1949), poet and journalist Juliana Awada, former First Lady of Argentina. Harfush dynasty In popular culture Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poetical illustration Wikisource-logo.svg Ruins at Balbec. is on a painting by William Henry Bartlett entitled Six detached pillars of the Great Temple at Balbec, and was published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1839.[168] Ameen Rihani's The Book of Khalid (1911), the first English novel by an Arab-American, is set in Baalbek. The events of the 1984 novel Les fous de Baalbek (SAS, #74) by Gérard de Villiers take place in Baalbek. Twin towns Baalbek is twinned with: Italy Bari, Italy Italy L'Aquila, Italy Greece Thrace, Greece Indonesia Yogyakarta, Indonesia.[169] Gallery The Round Temple and the Temple of the Muses located outside the sanctuary complex The Round Temple and the Temple of the Muses located outside the sanctuary complex   Temple of Bacchus Temple of Bacchus   Remains of the Propylaeum, the eastern entrance to the site Remains of the Propylaeum, the eastern entrance to the site   The Great Court of Temples Complex The Great Court of Temples Complex   Temple of Venus Temple of Venus   Massive columns of the Temple of Jupiter Massive columns of the Temple of Jupiter   An 1873 German map of Asia Minor & Syria, with relief illustrating the Beqaa (El Bekaa) valley An 1873 German map of Asia Minor & Syria, with relief illustrating the Beqaa (El Bekaa) valley   Panorama, around 1870, by Félix Bonfils Panorama, around 1870, by Félix Bonfils   Baalbek in 1910, after the arrival of rail Baalbek in 1910, after the arrival of rail   The ruins of Baalbek facing west from the hexagonal forecourt in the 19th century The ruins of Baalbek facing west from the hexagonal forecourt in the 19th century   The "Stone of the Pregnant Woman" in the early 20th century, the Temple of Jupiter in the background The "Stone of the Pregnant Woman" in the early 20th century, the Temple of Jupiter in the background See also Mount Lebanon (Arabic: جَبَل لُبْنَان, jabal lubnān, Lebanese Arabic pronunciation: [ˈʒabal lɪbˈneːn]; Syriac: ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ṭūr leḇnān, Western Syriac pronunciation: [tˤur lewˈnɔn], ṭūr lewnōn French: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in elevation, with its peak at 3,088 m (10,131 ft). Geography The Mount Lebanon range extends along the entire country for about 170 km (110 mi), parallel to the Mediterranean coast.[1] Their highest peak is Qurnat as Sawda', at 3,088 m (10,131 ft). The range receives a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around 4 m (13 ft) deep.[1] Lebanon has historically been defined by the mountains, which provided protection for the local population. In Lebanon, changes in scenery are related less to geographical distances than to altitudes. The mountains were known for their oak and pine forests. The last remaining old growth groves of the famous Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani var. libanii) are on the high slopes of Mount Lebanon, in the Cedars of God World Heritage Site. The Phoenicians used the forests from Mount Lebanon to build their ship fleet and to trade with their neighbors. The Phoenicians and successor rulers consistently replanted and restocked the range; even as late as the 16th century, its forested area was considerable.[2] Etymology The name Mount Lebanon traces back to the Semitic root LBN, meaning "white", likely a reference to the snow-covered mountains.[3] History Fakhreddine Mosque, in Deir al-Qamar, was built in 1493. Mount Lebanon is mentioned in the Old Testament numerous times. King Hiram I of Tyre sent engineers with cedar wood which was abundant in Mount Lebanon, to build the Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Since then the cedar species known scientifically as Cedrus libani is often associated with Mount Lebanon. The Phoenicians used cedar to build ships in which they sailed the Mediterranean, thus they were the first to establish villages in Mount Lebanon and would live from cutting down Cedars and sending them to the coast.[2] Eusebius records that the Emperor Constantine destroyed a temple of Venus 'on the summit of Mount Lebanon.'[4] After the 5th century AD, Christian monks who were followers of a hermit named Maron, arrived from the Orontes valley in Northern Syria and began preaching their religion to the inhabitants of the northernmost parts of the mountain range.[citation needed] In the late 8th century a group known as the Mardaites (also Jarajima) settled in North Lebanon following the order of the Byzantine Emperor; their mission was to raid Islamic territories in Syria. They merged with the local population, refusing to leave after the emperor struck a deal with the Muslim Caliph of Damascus; thus, they became part of the Maronite society.[citation needed] In 1291 after the fall of Acre, the last crusader outpost in the Levant, the remnants of the European settlers who succeeded in escaping capture by the Mamelukes, settled in the Northern part of Lebanon and become part of the Maronite society.[citation needed] Mount Lebanon was visited and called home by many Muslim ascetics and Sufis since the 7th century, mentioned by many travelers to the region, few of which are known by name such as Shiban al-Muallah and Abbas al-Majnun.[5] In the 10th century, Twelver Shia Muslim communities were likely established in Keserwan and the adjacent area to the north when Shia Islam was in the ascendant in Tripoli and the Islamic world at large.[6] In the 13th century, a significant Shia population dominated Keserwan stretching out as far north as Dinniyeh, where reportedly the Shia feudal lord family, the Hamadas, were entrusted with tax-collecting in 1470.[7] Subject to harsh military campaigns and state policies put-forth by the Mamluks and Ottomans over the centuries, this Shia population decreased over time and was driven to settle in Southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley, becoming a small minority in Mount Lebanon by the 19th century.[8][9] In the 9th century, tribes from the "Jabal el Summaq" area north of Aleppo in Syria began settling the southern half of the mountain range. These tribes were known as the Tanoukhiyoun and in the 11th century they converted to the Druze faith and ruled the areas of Mount Lebanon stretching from Metn in the north to Jezzine in the south. This entire area became known as the 'Jabal ad-Duruz'. In the early 17th century, Emir Fakhr-al-Din II was entrusted as the main tax-collector and land-assigner in the Druze part of the mountains known as the Chouf. In an effort to re-populate the Chouf after the 1585 Ottoman expedition, Fakhreddine opened the door to Christians and in particular the Maronite settlement of the Chouf and Metn.[2] Snow on Mount Lebanon Throughout the 18th century and into the 19th century more and more Maronites settled in the Druze regions of the Mount. The Druze viewed these Maronite settlements as a threat to their power in Mount Lebanon and in a series of clashes in the 1840s and 1860s, a miniature civil war erupted in the area resulting in the massacre of thousands of Christians.[10] The Druze won militarily, but not politically, because European powers (mainly France and Britain) intervened on behalf of the Maronites and divided Mount Lebanon into two areas; Druze and Maronite. Seeing their authority decline in Mount Lebanon, a few Lebanese Druze began migrating to the new Jabal ad-Duruz in southern Syria. In 1861, the "Mount Lebanon" autonomous district was established within the Ottoman system, under an international guarantee.[2] For centuries, the Maronites of the region have been protected by the noble Khazen family, which was endowed the responsibility by Pope Clement X and King Louis XIV and given Cheikh status in return for guarding the princes Fakhr-al-Din II and Younès al-Maani.[11][12][13] The Khazen crest reflects the family's special closeness to Mount Lebanon, with snowy mountains and a cedar tree depicted.[11][14][15] Political term See also: Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate and Mount Lebanon Emirate Armed men from Mount Lebanon, late 19th century. Mount Lebanon also lent its name to two political designations: an semi-autonomous province in Ottoman Syria that was established in 1861 and the central Governorate of modern Lebanon (see Mount Lebanon Governorate). The Mount Lebanon administrative region emerged in a time of rise of nationalism after the civil war of 1860. France intervened on behalf of the local Christian population and Britain on behalf of the Druze after the 1860 massacres in which 10,000 Christians were killed in clashes with the Druze. In 1861, the "Mount Lebanon" autonomous district was established within the Ottoman system, under an international guarantee.[2] The Maronite Catholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.[16] For decades, the Christians pressured the European powers to award them self determination by extending their small Lebanese territory to what they dubbed "Greater Lebanon", referring to a geographic unit comprising Mount Lebanon and its coast, and the Beqaa Valley to its east. After the First World War, France took hold of the formerly Ottoman holdings in the northern Levant, and expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon in 1920 to form Greater Lebanon, which was to be populated by remnants of the Middle Eastern Christian community. The Christians ended up gaining territorially, but the new borders merely ended the demographic dominance of Christians in the newly-created territory of Lebanon.[2] The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a Baptist Christian denomination established in 1907 originally as the Northern Baptist Convention, and from 1950 to 1972 as the American Baptist Convention. It traces its history to the First Baptist Church in America (1638) and the Baptist congregational associations which organized the Triennial Convention in 1814. Headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, ABCUSA is usually considered mainline, although varying theological and mission emphases may be found among its congregations, including modernist, charismatic and evangelical orientations.[1] History Colonial New England Baptists American Baptist Churches USA have their origins in the First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, now the First Baptist Church in America, founded in 1638 by the minister Roger Williams.[2][3] Regarded by the more dogmatic Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a heretic for his religious separatism, Williams was banished into the New England wilderness where he and his followers created the settlement of Providence and later, the colony of Rhode Island. Williams is credited with being the founder of the Baptist movement in America, the founder of the state of Rhode Island, and the first highly visible public leader in America to call for the separation of church and state. The First Baptist Church in America was formed in 1638 in Providence, Rhode Island. Triennial Convention Having a congregational polity, early Baptist churches in America operated independently from one another, following an array of Protestant theological paths, but were often unified in their mission to evangelize. In the 18th century, they sometimes created local congregational associations for support, fellowship, and work (such as the founding of Brown University in 1764). The evangelical mission led to the establishment of the national Triennial Convention in 1814, a collaborative effort by local churches to organize, fund, and deploy missionaries.[4] The ABCUSA descends from this Triennial Convention. Through the Triennial Convention structure a number of mission-oriented societies were formed, including the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (1814), American Baptist Home Mission Society (1832), American Baptist Publication Society (1841), and the American Baptist Education Society (1888). In 1845, a majority of Baptists in the South withdrew support from the Triennial Convention—largely in response to the decision of its delegates to ban slave holders from becoming ordained missionaries—and formed the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).[5] The Triennial Convention was loosely structured, and the SBC offered Baptists a more centralized organizational structure for carrying on missionary and benevolent work. In contrast, however, the Triennial Convention afforded local churches a higher degree of local autonomy, a more traditional characteristic of Baptist polity. The majority of churches in the North continued to work through these separate cooperating societies for missions and benevolence. The societies were united under the umbrella of a unified convention in 1907. Northern Baptist Convention The Northern Baptist Convention was founded in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 1907.[6] Charles Evans Hughes, then Governor of New York and later Chief Justice of the United States, served the body as its first president. The purpose of the Northern Baptist Convention was to bring about a consistent cooperation among the separate Baptist bodies then existing. It was the first step in bringing together Baptists in the North "with ties to the historic American Baptist mission societies in the nineteenth century."[7] These had contributed to establishing many schools for freedmen in the South after the American Civil War, as well as working on issues of health and welfare. Many of their missionaries and members had worked as teachers in the South. In 1911, most of the churches of the Free Will Baptist General Conference merged with it. Due to the development of theological liberalism in some affiliated seminaries, such as Crozer Theological Seminary, conservative seminaries have been founded by convention pastors, including the Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1913 and the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1925. [8] [9] American Baptist Convention Historic Riverside Church (1930) in Upper Manhattan retains its association with ABCUSA. The name of the convention was changed in 1950 to the American Baptist Convention (ABC), and it operated under this name until 1972.[10] It was the second step at bringing together on a national level Baptists with ties to the mission societies. The ABC was characterized from 1950–66 with annual resolutions at its conventions having to do with the civil rights movement and race relations. Without exception, these resolutions were progressive and genuinely encompassing. They addressed both the need for individual change in attitude and action, and the need for broader social change that could only be instituted through political action.[7] As in many cases, the rhetoric of the annual conventions was sometimes ahead of local activity, but the denomination gradually made progress. In 1964, it created the Baptist Action for Racial Brotherhood (BARB), which early the next year produced a pamphlet outlining actions for change in local churches. In 1968, the national convention was challenged by "Black American Baptist Churchmen Speak To the American Baptist Convention," demands that challenged how the denomination had "conducted its business relative to black American Baptists."[7] The black churchmen said the convention had excluded them from decision-making positions, even while working with good intentions on behalf of black American Baptists. The following year, Dr. Thomas Kilgore Jr., pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles, was elected the first black president of the convention. The 1968 convention also voted to create the Study Commission on Denominational Structure (SCODS). Its recommendations changed the denomination in a variety of ways, after being adopted at the 1972 convention.[7] American Baptist Churches USA To reflect its new structure, the convention in 1972 changed its name to the American Baptist Churches USA.[10] Rather than relying on decision-making at the annual Convention by whichever churches happened to send delegates, the SCODS restructuring resulted in the following: A General Board was composed of duly elected representatives from geographically designated districts. Three-fourths of those representatives would be elected by the American Baptist regional bodies; one-fourth would be elected as at-large representatives, or in the official terminology, "Nationally Nominated Representatives." These representatives would be "chosen so as to provide the necessary balance among the Representatives in respect of racial/ethnic inclusiveness, geographic area, age, gender, and desirable skills.[7] Governance The American Baptists Churches USA has a congregationalist polity emphasizing local church autonomy. Local churches are organized into 33 regions; the ABCUSA General Board makes policy for the denomination's national agencies.[11] However, board resolutions are not binding on local congregations. Three-fourths of the representatives to the ABCUSA General Board are nominated and elected by the regions. One-fourth of the representatives are nominated by the ABCUSA Nominating Committee and are elected by the regions. The General Secretary of the ABCUSA executes the policies and decisions of the General Board. Rev. Dr. Lee B. Spitzer was called as ABCUSA General Secretary on May 8, 2017.[12] A substantial portion of the ABCUSA consists of historically and predominantly African American churches that may have joint affiliations with the ABCUSA and historic bodies such as the National Baptist Convention or the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City is one of the many African American churches jointly affiliated with the ABCUSA.[13] Regions The ABCUSA consists of 33 regional associations and conventions: Region Headquarters Area(s) Served Number of Churches Executive Minister Notes American Baptist Churches of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska The state of Alaska 11 Alonzo B. Patterson American Baptist Churches of Connecticut West Hartford, Connecticut The state of Connecticut 120 Rev. Dr. Harry Riggs II American Baptist Churches of Greater Indianapolis Indianapolis, Indiana The Indianapolis Metro Area 39 Rev. Joan C. Friesen American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky Greenwood, Indiana Most of Indiana (except for Indianapolis), and five churches in Kentucky 290 Rev. Mark A Thompson Previously known as: General Association of Baptists in the State of Indiana (1833-64) Indiana State Baptist Convention (1864-96) Indiana Baptist Convention (1896-1987) American Baptist Churches of Indiana (1987-2000) American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky (since 2000) This region's legal name is still the Indiana Baptist Convention. American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles, Southwest, and Hawaii Glendale, California Southern California (including the Los Angeles Metro Area), Hawaii, Arizona, and the Las Vegas Metro Area 151 Andrew Quient American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts Groton, Massachusetts The state of Massachusetts 246 Rev. Mary Miller One of seven ABCUSA regions known to support full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons into Baptist life American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago Chicago, Illinois The Chicago area 57 Rev. David Gregg One of seven ABCUSA regions known to support full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons into Baptist life American Baptist Churches of Metro New York New York City, New York The New York Metropolitan Area 191 Rev. Dr. Cheryl F. Dudley One of seven ABCUSA regions known to support full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons into Baptist life American Baptist Churches of Michigan East Lansing, Michigan The state of Michigan 137 Rev. Brian Johnson Formerly known as the Michigan Baptist Convention American Baptist Churches of Nebraska Omaha, Nebraska The state of Nebraska 63 Rev. Dr. Robin D. Stoops American Baptist Churches of New Jersey Trenton, New Jersey The state of New Jersey 277 Rev. Miriam Mendez American Baptist Churches of New York State Syracuse, New York Most of New York, except for the Rochester-Genesee and Metro NYC areas 282 Rev. Dr. James Kelsey American Baptist Churches of Ohio Granville, Ohio Most of Ohio, except for the Cleveland area 250 Rev. Jane Gibbons Rev. Mark E. Click American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and Delaware Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania Most of Pennsylvania (except for Philadelphia) and all of Delaware 300 Rev. Mark Mahserjian-Smith & Rev. Jeffrey Johnson American Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico Carolina, Puerto Rico Puerto Rico 113 Rev. Edgardo M. Caraballo Known in Spanish as ‘‘Iglesias Bautistas de Puerto Rico’’ American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island Exeter, Rhode Island The state of Rhode Island 69 Rev. Doug Harris American Baptist Churches of the Central Pacific Coast Portland, Oregon Central and Northern California, western Oregon, and two churches in Washington 72 Steve Bils American Baptist Churches of the Central Region Topeka, Kansas Kansas, 14 churches in Oklahoma, one church in Arkansas 205 Gregg Hemmen Formerly known as the Kansas Baptist Convention until 1979 American Baptist Churches of the Dakotas Sioux Falls, South Dakota North Dakota and South Dakota 50 Randall L. Rasmussen American Baptist Churches of the Great Rivers Region Springfield, Illinois Most of Illinois (except for the Chicago area), and all of Missouri 205 Patty King Bilyeu American Baptist Churches of the Rochester/Genesee Region Rochester, New York Mainly the Rochester/Genesee area, but other churches from 11 states affiliate with this region (see notes) 51 Rev. Dr. Sandra L. DeMott Hasenauer One of seven ABCUSA regions known to support full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons into Baptist life. Churches from other states that either left or were removed from their region over the LGBTQ+ issue affiliate with this region. American Baptist Churches of the Rocky Mountains Centennial, Colorado Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming Rev. Dr. Steve Van Ostran American Baptist Churches of the South Woodlawn, Maryland Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia 234 Rev. Dr. James Mitchell Harrison American Baptist Churches of Vermont and New Hampshire West Lebanon, New Hampshire Vermont and New Hampshire 147 Rev. Dale R. Edwards American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin Elm Grove, Wisconsin The state of Wisconsin 61 Rev. Dr. John Jones (interim) One of seven ABCUSA regions known to support full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons into Baptist life Cleveland Baptist Association Cleveland, Ohio The Cleveland metropolitan area 39 Rev. Dr. Yvonne B. Carter District of Columbia Baptist Convention Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. 139 Rev. Trisha Miller Manarin This body has 151 churches total, but only 139 are affiliated with the ABCUSA. This body was dually aligned with the ABCUSA and the Southern Baptist Convention until May 2018. Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches Kent, Washington Washington and portions of Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah 55 Douglas Avilesbernal One of seven ABCUSA regions known to support full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons into Baptist life Growing Healthy Churches Clovis, California Mainly central California, but churches from several states affiliate with this region. 167 Dr. Timothy H. Brown Mid-American Baptist Churches Urbandale, Iowa Iowa and Minnesota 123 Rev. Jacquline Saxon Mission Northwest Post Falls, Idaho Primarily Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Utah, with one church each in Nevada, California, Arizona, and Alaska 156 Dr. Charles E. Revis Philadelphia Baptist Association Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia metropolitan area 121 Rev. Dr. James E. McJunkin, Jr. Oldest continuous association of Baptist churches, established in 1707. One of seven ABCUSA regions known to support full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons into Baptist life West Virginia Baptist Convention Parkersburg, West Virginia The state of West Virginia 345 Dr. Michael Sisson Statistics In 2009, the ABCUSA reported 1,310,505 members in 5,402 churches.[14] Membership remained fairly steady during the 20th century. In 1925, there were just over 1.4 million members. Membership peaked in the early 1980s at around 1.6 million.[14] Since the beginning of the 21st century, membership began to decline and stagnate again, with the ABCUSA reporting 1,145,647 members in 5,057 churches at the end of 2017. According to a denomination census released in 2020, it claimed 5,025 churches and 1,126,527 members.[15] According to the official website for the ABCUSA—in 2022 the denomination experiencing an increase—the members and the churches were approximately, 1,300,000 with 5,000 churches.[16] The majority of its congregations are concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast United States.[17] Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families, such as Rockefeller family, are American Baptists.[18][19] According to a study by the Pew Research Center in 2014, 21% of its members were aged 18-29; 28% 30-49; 32% aged 50-64 and 19% aged 65 and older. While 51% of its membership were Baby Boomers, the Silent Generation, and the Greatest Generation, the remainder were Generation X, older millennials, and younger millennials,[20] making it slightly younger than the National Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention.[21][22] Approximately 40% of its membership were men and 60% were women, and the ABCUSA's churches were 73% non-Hispanic white, 10% Black or African American, 1% Asian, 11% Hispanic or Latino American, and 5% multiracial or other. Theologically, the Pew Research Center's 2014 study determined 83% of the ABCUSA believes in God with absolute certainty, and 15% believed fairly certainly; 73% believed religion was very important and 24% considered it somewhat important. About 42% of members attended churches at least once a week, while 41% attended once or twice a month; 16% seldom or never attend church. An estimated 69% prayed daily, and 19% prayed weekly. Among its membership, 48% read Scripture at least once a week, and 15% once or twice a month; 53% believe the Bible should be taken literally, while 27% believe it is still the Word of God, yet shouldn't be taken completely literally.[20] Doctrine American Baptists share the same theological beliefs with Protestant churches which believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and the final authority in matters of faith.[23] The ABCUSA affirms the Trinity, that the one God exists as three persons in complete unity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord through whom those who believe can have fellowship with God. He died, taking on the sins of the world, and was resurrected, triumphing over sin and death.[24] ABCUSA churches recognize two ordinances: believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is by immersion, and those being baptized must be of an age to understand its significance. Believing in the priesthood of all believers, the ABCUSA avoids using creeds, affirming the freedom of individual Christians and local churches to interpret scripture as the Holy Spirit leads them. The ABCUSA affirms the ordination of women.[24] LGBTQ and same-sex marriages LGBTQ issues have been a point of contention in the ABCUSA since the 1987 Biennial Meeting.[25] In 1992, the ABCUSA General Board adopted a resolution that stated, “We affirm that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” Since 1995, regional conventions of the Convention have carried out excommunications of various churches which have become members of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists founded in 1993, an association favorable to inclusion LGBTQ people, a belief contrary to a resolution adopted by the denomination.[26][27] So far, at least seven regions in the ABCUSA—Evergreen, Wisconsin, Rochester-Genesee, Metro Chicago, Metropolitan New York, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia—support full inclusion of LGBTQ persons into Baptist life.[28] Many ABCUSA churches have also partnered with the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, which formed at the 1993 Biennial Meeting. However, several other ABCUSA regions and churches have opposed affirmation of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender identity. In 2004, the ABC Central Region reaffirmed the 1992 resolution.[29] At its 2005 annual meeting, the West Virginia Baptist Convention, which had a history of proposing resolutions opposing liberal views on LGBTQ inclusion,[25] narrowly rejected a proposal to withdraw from the ABCUSA over its refusal to discipline those regions that have supported LGBTQ-friendly policies.[28] The Indiana-Kentucky region has also proposed a change in the denomination’s bylaws that would prohibit the transfer of churches into another region if removed from the region because of the issue of homosexuality.[28] In 2006, American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest split from the convention due to the convention's laxity with churches on enforcing a 1992 resolution that opposes the inclusion of LGBTQ people and have been renamed Transformation Ministries.[30] The convention responded that it wanted to respect the autonomy of local churches and that it did not want to carry out excommunications. Each local congregation is autonomous and permitted to perform same-sex marriages if they opt to do so.[31] For example, Calvary Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.), affiliated with the ABCUSA, performs same-sex marriages.[32] In 2013, an ABCUSA congregation in Washington, DC, ordained the denomination's first openly transgender pastor.[33] The ABCUSA has consistently allowed each congregation to determine whether or not to perform same-sex marriages, or ordain LGBT clergy.[34] The ABCUSA General Board voted in 2005 to amend the declaration We are American Baptists to define marriage as "between one man and one woman" and maintain that "the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Biblical teaching."[34] However, the denomination has never officially adopted the board's statement, and has also stated "We respect and will continue to respect congregational freedom on this issue".[34] Schools Entrance to Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, affiliated with the Convention. The ABCUSA has 16 affiliated universities and colleges affiliated with it,[35] and a number of home and foreign missionary societies such as the American Baptist Home Mission Society and International Ministries. Among its universities and colleges, some are also dually-affiliated with the National Baptists—a predominantly African American or Black Baptist denomination founded by freedmen and slaves. Additionally, there are 10 seminaries affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA:[36] Andover Newton Theological School, Newton, Massachusetts, part of Yale Divinity from 2018 Berkeley School of Theology (formerly called the American Baptist Seminary of the West), Berkeley, California Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Shawnee, Kansas Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, New York Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico Morehouse School of Religion, Atlanta, Georgia Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lisle, Illinois Palmer Theological Seminary, Wayne, Pennsylvania Shaw University Divinity School, Raleigh, North Carolina Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia Notable members Includes Northern Baptists (1907–1950) and American Baptists (1950–present) Wayland Hoyt (1838–1910), minister and author John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), oil magnate and philanthropist Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), theologian and pastor, key figure of the Social Gospel and single tax movements Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948), 36th Governor of New York, 11th Chief Justice of the United States, and first president of the Northern Baptist Convention John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960), financier and philanthropist Tony Campolo (b. 1935) American sociologist, pastor, author Kamala Harris (b. 1964), Vice President of the United States See also Born again Baptist beliefs Worship service (evangelicalism) Believers' Church Christianity in the United States

  • Condition: Fair
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Language: English
  • Special Attributes: 1st Edition, Inscribed
  • Publisher: Fleming H. Revell
  • Topic: Historical
  • Subject: History
  • Original/Facsimile: Original

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