Gabala

Gabala

A titular see of Syria Prima. Ten bishops of this city are known between 325 and 553, the most famous being St. Hilary, writer and martyr (fourth century), and Severian, first the friend but later the enemy of St. John Chrysostom (see Echos d'Orient, IV, 15-17; IX, 220). Since the sixth century Gabala has been an exempt archdiocese directly dependent on the Patriarch of Antioch. The diocese is again noticed in the tenth century (Echos d'Orient, X, 97 and 140). When the Arabs took possession of the city in 639, they found there a Byzantine fortress, beside which the Caliph Moaviah erected a second. According to the Arabian geographer Yaqout, the Greeks recovered the city from the Mussulmans in 969, who recaptured it in 1081. the crusaders entered Gabala in 1109, and it was henceforth the seat of a Latin diocese. For the Latin titulars see Le Quien, III, 1169; Ducange, "Les familles d'outre-mer", 795-796, and especially Eubel, I, 267; II, 173. Saladin took the city in 1187, and in 1517 it fell into the hands of the Sultan Selim. Gabala, at present called Djebeleh, is a caza of the vilayet of Beirut, and numbers 3000 inhabitants, all of whom are Mussulmans. There are to be seen here a small harbour, numerous ruins, sepulchral chambers, and ancient Christian chapels hewn in the rock, a Roman theatre, baths and mosques, one of which, formerly the cathedral, contains the tomb of the Sultan Ibrahim-Eddem, who died in 778.

S. VAILHÉ