PELUSIUM (
πήλος, mud), a frontier city of Lower
Egypt, situated on the easternmost bank of the Nile, called
the
Ostium Pelusiacum, between the marshes of the delta
and the sea. Its original distance from the Mediterranean
was about 2½ miles ; but, by the gradual deposition of sand
along the coast-line, it is now more than double that dis-
tance inland. It was the Sin of the Hebrews (Ezek. xxx.
15), and the Peremoun or Peromi of the Copts--epithets all
agreeing in origin with the Greek designation, and) with the
modern name Tineh, as “the city of ooze or mud.” It
was celebrated in the time of Pliny for its flax (Linum
Pelusiacum), but its situation as the key of Egypt has gained
for it a yet more noisy fame. Sennacherib and his Assy-
rians had their bow-strings and shield-straps gnawed in
sunder by field-mice while they slept under its walls (B.C.
720—715); Cambyses', the Medo-Persian, won the crown of
the Pharaohs near Pelusium, B.C. 525 ; the Persians re-took
it, B.C. 456; it opened its gates to Alexander the Great,
B.C. 333 ; and it was taken and retained by Antiochus Epi-
phanes, B.C. 173, after routing the forces of Ptolemy Philo-
metor near its gates. The invasion of Egypt by Amrou
in 618 A.D., proved the ruin of Pelusium. After making it their
own, the khalifs neglected its harbours and its industry,
and the city gradually disappeared from history. Its site is
now marked by mounds and a few broken columns. (See
the works of Champollion and Dénon sur L’Egypte ; also,
Murray's Handbook for Egypt, by Sir Gardner Wilkinson.)
Source: The Encyclopaedia britannica،
8th ed.، Volume XVII, 1859
PELUSIUM, an ancient city of Egypt, at the mouth of
the most easterly (Pelusiac) branch of the Nile, was the
key of the land towards Syria and a strong fortress, which,
from the Persian invasion at least, played a great part in
all wars between Egypt and the East. It has not, however,
been satisfactorily identified with any place mentioned in
the hieroglyphic monuments, and the conjecture of Jerome,
who supposes it to be the Sin of Ezekiel xxx, 15, 16,
though admirably suited to the context and certainly
preferable to the Sais of the LXX., cannot be positively
established. Pelusium is the Faramá of the Arabs ; the
neighbouring place still called Tína is hardly to be identified
etymologically with Sin. The country about Pelusium was
noted for the production of flax ; the fame of the Pelusian
linen is, perhaps, still preserved in the word “blouse.”
The whole district has now relapsed into sand and marsh,
and the site has not yielded any important remains.
Source: The Encyclopaedia britannica،
Volume XVIII, 1895
بلوزيام (Pelusium)، باليوناني Πηλούσιον (بلوسويان) من الكلمتين πηλός بالوس/بيلوس بمعنى طين أو وحل.
