HIERAPOLLS,. a city isSyria. 10 in, s.w. from the junetion of the Euphrates and the Sajur. Besides the natural strength of its position, it was important as lying on the line of intercourse between n. Syria and Mesopotamia, and was always a great trad ing city. Its early history is quite unknown. It is not mentioned during the Assyrian wars in this part of Syria. Abdul Faraz asserts that .Josiah was defeated there by Pharaoh Neeho (611 me.) on his march towards Carchemish; but according to 2 Chrou. xxxv., the took place at 3fegiddo, sonic distance w. of the Jordan, and pro bably Abdul Fardz confounded places altogether different. No proof exists that Hier apolis was an important city before the time of the Seleucidtc, and prof. Sayee suggests that it then succeeded to the trade and name of the older city, Bzunbyee, which had now decayed. The romance of trade by which this name has become naturalized in many European languages deserves a passing notice. As the city lay on the highway to the cast, cotton and silk were important branches of its trade. Probably cotton plantations existed there in old time; and after the cultivation of silk was introduced to w. Asia, in the time of the Sassanian kings, large groves of mulberry-trees surrounded the city. In Asia cotton seems to have been recognized as a distinct article of commerce, and was named after the city which was the chief seat of its manufacture, as muslin is from Mosul. By the crusaders the stuff and the name were carried to Europe, and the latter exists in English in the form of " bombazine." The Syrian goddess Atargatis, called by the Greeks Decerto, a personification of the nature power worshiped under differ ent names over the whole of w. Asia, had one of her most famous temples in the city; and perhaps :Mange may have been a local name for the goddess. Hence in the 3d c. B.C. , when, under the Seleucid kings, Bambyce became a great Greek city and the most important station between Antioch and Seleucia, it was called Hierapolis or Hieropolis.
The latter form is found on coins, the former is used in classical literature. The coin age of Hierapolis begins under the Seleucidm. The autonomous coins, probably for commercial reasons, imitate closely the coins of Antioch. The temple was plundered by Crassus on his Parthian expedition (53 n.c.). Under Diocletian or Constantine, Hierapolis became the capital of the new province of Euphratensis, a name which soon gave place to the older name Commagene. As paganism decayed, Hierapolis ceased to be the sacred city, and recovered its ancient name; at the same time its importance and population declined. In the time of Julian, who concentrated there the Roman troops for the fatal Parthian campaign, it was still one of the greatest cities of Syria; but under Justinian, who made some attempt to restore it, great part of its area was a desert; and the once strong fortifications were so decayed that the place was not defensible against the Parthian king Chosroes. At the Arab conquest it passed into the hands of the caliphs. Haroun-M-Rasehid (786-808) restored it and strengthened its walls, and it is mentioned about 1150 by Edrisi as a strong city. As the empire of the caliphs dwindled, it appeared as Hambedj, a frontier post in the struggle between Christians and Moham medans. and its possession carried with it the rule in this part of Syria. The emperor Romanus Diogenes captured it in his gallant struggle against the Turks (1068). Recap tured by the Seljuk Turks, it soon afterwards fell into the power of the crusaders, until it was stormed by Saladin (1175). It was for some time the head-quarters of the Mongol host under Hnlagn Khan; and, as with many other Syrian cities, its desolation dates from this time. The ruins which still exist, called Kara Bambuche or Bunk have been described by Poeocke and others, and most carefully by Chesney.