CATHERINE TOBIN (1855-1903)
Mount Tabor (575 m -1,886 ft)
Israel (Galilee)
In Mont Tabor, engraving, Israel British Library
The mountain
Mount Tabor (575 m - 1,886 ft), (not to be confused with Mount Thabor int he French Alps) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, 11 miles (18 km) west of the Sea of Galilee. Mount Tabor is a Inselberg : an isolated hill or small mountain rising abruptly from gently sloping or level surrounding land, and is not volcanic.
In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabor between the Israelite army under the leadership of Barak and the army of the Canaanite king of Hazor, Jabin, commanded by Sisera.
In Christian tradition, Mount Tabor is the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus.
Mount Tabor is shaped almost like half a sphere, suddenly rising from rather flat surroundings and dominating the town in the plain below, Kfar Tavor. At the top of the mountain are two Christian monasteries, one Greek Orthodox on the northeast side and one Roman Catholic on the southeast side. The Catholic church at the top is easily visible from afar.
At the base it is almost fully surrounded by the Arab villages of Daburiyya, Shibli, and Umm al-Ghanam. Mount Tabor is located off Highway 65, and its summit is accessible by road via Shibli. A hiking tracks starts from the Bedouin village Shibli and is about five kilometers long. It is part of the Israel National Trail.
The artist
Catherine Tobin (died 1903) was a Victorian era author and artist who travelled with her husband and wrote books around the experiences as well as translator for a book on the area. She married Thomas Tobin on 12 September 1835 and with whom she had one son. However Tobin and her husband shared an interest in travel and antiquities and spent considerable time in the middle and near east. She wrote a number of books due to this interest and travel as well as translating another. At home in Cork, Tobin was a patron of the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospitalfor many years.
George Kelleher has suggested that while Thomas Tobin was an 'antiquarian and curio collector in the spirit of the Victorian age', his wife Catherine, 'was a far more considerable cultural figure'. Her work has served as the basis for a number of studies about the regions.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
