In the Syriac historiographical tradition, both Michael the Syrian and the Chronicon Ad Annum 1234 recorded the destruction of Baalbek and neighboring towns during a devastating earthquake. Writing in the late twelfth century CE at the Monastery of Mar Bar Sauma, Michael the Syrian relates that “Bosrah, Nawa, Derʿat, and Baʿalbek were swallowed up completely,” and that “the water in the springs of Baalbek turned to blood.” He adds that the phenomenon ceased only after the townspeople repented and prayed fervently.

The slightly later Chronicon Ad Annum 1234, composed in a related monastic milieu, repeats this account with more measured language: “At Baalbek much of it collapsed and the sources of water became as though blood were in them.”