'Ayn al-Jarr

'Ayn al-Jarr, an ancient and important site in the Biqa' and an Umayyad residence, bears an Arabic name now pronounced 'Andjar, which corresponds to the Greek Gerrha and the Syriac In Gero. The main source of the Litani rises at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon, not far from the modern road from Beirut to Damascus. For a long time it formed a swampy lake stretching to Karak Nuh, which was only finally drained in the Mamluk period. The remains of a temple, later converted into a small fort, still dominate the modern village of Majdal 'Anjar, and doubtless mark the site of ancient Chalcis of Lebanon, the capital of a state that extended from Coele-Syria to Ituraea before it was annexed to the Roman Empire. ¹

The archaeological remains inside a vast enclosure with towers were identified by J. Sauvaget with the Umayyad town founded about 95-96 AH (714-715) by the caliph al-Walid b. 'Abd al-Malik. It was built with stone from the quarries of Kamid in the Biqa' and by forced labour, as inscriptions and the Aphrodito papyri attest. Hydraulic works contemporary with the ruins suggest that it was an agricultural settlement, but the date of its complete abandonment is not known. The Arabic texts first mention it when Marwan b. Muhammad defeated the troops of Sulayman b. Hisham there in Safar 127 AH (November 744), and they continue to mention it only in passing, without saying what state the old town was in. ²