BOZRAH. Capital of Edom. It has been identified with El-Busaireh, an undistinguished village in a pastoral area, south east of the Dead sea. (2) A city denounced by Jeremiah, prob ably Busra (Lat. Bostra), a ruined town in the Hauran about 8om. S. of Damascus, once the most famous Roman fortress east of the Jordan. The circumference of its walled area was from 4 to 5 miles. As Bozrah appears to be identical with the Bossora of I. Macc. v. 26 the site was evidently pre-Nabataean. The existing town was beautified and extended by Trajan, took his name on its coins, dated a new era, the "Bostran," from its resurrection (A.D. 1o6) and became the capital of the province of Arabia. It developed rapidly in commercial prosperity and under Alexander Severus (222-235) became a Roman colony. From the time of the emperor Philip (244-249), himself a native of Bostra, it bore the title metropolis. In the period of the Constantines it was made the see of a bishop. In 636 it fell to the Arabs. The crusaders seized but could not retain it. The earthquakes of the 12th century and Turkish misrule were the chief contributors to its downfall. The site, which is practically uninhabited has extensive ruins of buildings dating from the Roman period. Temples, theatres, triumphal arches, aqueducts, reservoirs, churches, mosques, a citadel (13th century) are spread over the site. Jeremiah's Bozrah has also been identified with Kusur el-Busltair, 2m. S.W. of Dibon, the Bezer of Deuteronomy iv. 43, and mentioned in the inscription of King Mesha of Moab.
See R. Dussaud, Topographie historique de la Syrie 346 seq., bibl.