BOZRAH  . (I) A

capital of Edom (Gen. xxxvi . 33; Amos i . 12; Is. xxxiv . 6, Ixiii . I), doubtfully identified with el-Buseireh, S.E. of the Dead Sea, in the broken country N. of Petra; the ruins here are comparatively unimportant . It is the centre of a pastoral district, and its inhabitants, who number between loo and 200, are all shepherds . (2) A city in the Mishor or plain country of Moab, denounced by Jeremiah (xlviii . 24) . It has been identified (also questionably) with a very extensive collection of ruins of various ages, now called Bosra (the Roman Bostra), situated in the Hauran, about 8o m. south of Damascus . The area within the walls is about 11'- m. in length, and nearly x m. in breadth, while extensive suburbs lie to the east, north and west . The principal buildings which can still be distinguished are a temple, an aqueduct, a large theatre (enclosed by a castle of much more recent workmanship), several baths, a triumphal and other arches, three mosques, and what are known as the church and convent of the monk Boheira .

In A.D. ro6 the city was beautified and perhaps restored from ruin by

Trajan, who made it the capital of the new province of Arabia . In the reign of Alexander Severus it was made a colony, and in 244, a native of the place, Philippus, ascended the imperial throne . By the time of Constantine the Great it seems to have been Christianized, and not long after it was the seat of an extensive bishopric . It was one of the first cities of Syria to be subjected to the Mahommedans, and it successfully resisted all the attempts of the Crusaders to wrest it from their hands . As late as the 14th century it was a populous city, after which it gradually fell into decay . It is now inhabited by thirty or forty families only . Another suggested identification is with Kumar el-Besheir, equidistant (2 m.) from Dibon and Aroer . This is perhaps the same as the Bezer mentioned in Deuteronomy and Joshua as a levitical city and a city of refuge . In x Macc. v . 26 there is mention of Bosor and of Bosora . The latter is probably to be identified with Bosra, the former perhaps with the present ]3usr el-Hariri in the south-east corner of the Leja . (R .

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