The city of Jerusalem

by C. R. Conder

FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER XI

[449] De Vogüé, “Temple de Jérusalem,” 1863, p. 84; see Ḳorân iv. 169, xix. 34–7.

[450] Extracts from Eutychius, “Annales,” bk. ii., in the series of Pal. Pilgrims’ Texts Society, 1895.

[451] Besant and Palmer, “Jerusalem,” 1871, p. 71; Theophanes, “Chronographia” (see Robinson, “Bib. Res.,” i. p. 389); Eutychius “Annales,” ii.

[452] See Suyûti, as quoted by Guy le Strange, “Pal. under Moslems,” 1890, p. 112.

[453] Guy le Strange, “Palestine under the Moslems,” 1890, pp. 138–44.

[454] Ibid., p. 91; Theophanes, “Chronographia”; William of Tyre, I. ii., “Ex opere musaico Arabici idiomatis, literarum vetustissime monumenta quæ illius (Omar) tempore esse credentur.”

[455] “Ceterum in illo famoso loco ubi quondam templum magnifice constructum fuerat, in vicinia muri ab oriente locatum, nunc Saraceni quadrangulam orationis domum quam subrectis tabulis et magnis trabibus super quasdam ruinarum reliquias construentes, vili fabricati sunt opere, ipsi frequentant, que utique domus tria hominum millia simul ut fertur capere potest.”

[456] See my volume, “Heth and Moab,” 1st edit., p. 377; Besant and Palmer, “Jer.,” p. 78; El Y’aḳûbi (c. 874 A. D.).

[457] Ḳorân, xvii. 1.

[458] Arculphus, “Situs quippe ipsius urbis a supercilio aquilonali montis Sion incipiens.”

[459] Prof. Hayter Lewis, “Holy Places of Jer.,” 1888, p. 64. Eutychius is there quoted as saying, “Abdil Maleci Ebn Mervan mittens hic Hierosolyma, templum auxit donec petram in ipsum inferet, hominesque Hierosolyma peregrinari jussit.” Before this the “templum” was the Aḳṣa only.

[460] Ḳorân, cxii., lvii. 2, iv. 169, xix. 34–7, xvii. in. See de Vogüé, “Temple de Jérusalem,” p. 84; Besant and Palmer, “Jerusalem,” pp. 86–8.

[461] De Vogüé, “Temple de Jérusalem,” pl. xxxvii.

[462] Ibid., pp. 91, 92.

[463] Mejîr el Dîn (c. 1520 A. D.). See Guy le Strange, “Pal. under Moslems,” p. 153.

[464] See “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., 1883, pp. 246–50.

[465] Guy le Strange, “Pal. under Moslems,” pp. 91, 144–5, quoting the “Muthîr el Ghirâm,” 1351 A. D., ch. vi.

[466] Guy le Strange, “Pal. under Moslems,” pp. 92, 93, 98.

[467] De Vogüé, “Temple de Jérusalem,” 1863, p. 69.

[468] Prof. Hayter Lewis, “Holy Places of Jer.,” 1888, p. 78; Sir C. Wilson, “Ord. Survey Notes,” 1865, p. 40; El Muḳaddasi (c. 985 A. D.). The account by Nâṣr-i-Khosrau, in 1047 A. D., is unreliable, or at least confused. He makes the length 420 arsh (about 630 feet), and the breadth 150 arsh (about 225 feet), which is quite impossible if referring to the maḳṣurah or roofed building, which measures about 250 feet north and south by 180 feet east and west. He also speaks of 280 marble columns in the masjid, but the Aḳṣa itself has only 76 columns. No traces of any larger building exist.

[469] The present mosque has 3 doors on north, 3 on east, and 3 on west, but El Muḳaddasi speaks of 11 on east and 15 on north—perhaps including double doors, i. e. 6 on east, and 7 on north (for the nave and 6 aisles). Nâṣr-i-Khosrau says 17 gates in all, 7 on north and 10 on east.

[470] Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly, July 1900, p. 225, seq. My own copies were imperfect, and de Vogüé’s appear to be wrong as to a few letters.

[471] Tou ekostou is probably a mistaken spelling for tou ekastou.

[472] De Vogüé, “Temple de Jérusalem,” p. 134. The words are abbreviated: Thes is for Theisa, and As for Astu or for Aisa.

[473] Rohricht, “Regesta Regni Hierosol.,” No. 131.

[474] Arculphus says that pilgrims were buried in Aceldama.

[475] Robinson, “Bib. Res.,” 1838, p. 392; Eginhard, “Vita Car. Magni.,” v.

[476] “Publications de la Société de l’Orient Latin,” Serie Géographique, 1882.

[477] Prof. Hayter Lewis, “Holy Places of Jerusalem,” p. 33; “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” 1883, Jerusalem vol., pp. 248, 249, 307–17; Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly, 1873, p. 155. The beam with the date answering to 913–14 A. D. was found in 1873, on removal of the wooden ceiling put up in 1776 A. D.

[478] Carved slabs from some other building have been used up in this marble casing. One of them bears, in Greek uncial characters, the words “Huper Sotêrias Marias” being evidently Christian. “Ord. Survey Notes,” p. 33, and plates xiii., xiv. A Byzantine tombstone is also re-used in the paving of the floor of the Dome of the Rock. “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., p. 426.

[479] See my volume, “Syrian Stone Lore,” 1st edit. 1886, pp. 352–62. In “Mem. East Pal. Survey,” 1889, pp. 57–63, I have given a full account, with the plans and drawings which I made of the kiosque and mosque in 1881.

[480] Guy le Strange, “Pal. under the Moslems,” 1890, p. 107.

CHAPTER XII
THE TURKS

THE EARLY TURKS

The Turks,[481] or “settlers,” were a branch of that strong Mongol race which first created civilisation in Mesopotamia, and which, through the courage and masterfulness that have always characterised this sturdy people, ruled Western Asia at least a thousand years before Abraham, as Akkadians and Hittites, who, though dominated by the Aryan and Semitic races after 1500 B. C., still clung, under their “tarkhans,” to North Syria as late as the time of Nebuchadnezzar. The Turks proper had penetrated, or had been driven, into Central Asia at some early period, and the home of the tribes—Huns, Uigurs, Khitai, and others—was beyond the Oxus. They were long held at bay by the Byzantines and the Persians, but broke out east into China, and west into Hungary as Huns in the fifth century. Justinian was allied with the Turks, called Khozars, on the Volga. In Turkestan they protected the silk caravans, and about 580 A. D. Dizavul (“the orderer”) sent his ambassadors to Justin II. of Byzantium. The civilisation of the Turks was primitive until they came under the influence of Buddhists from India, of Jews (who established a great trade in Central Asia), and of Chaldean Christians who had churches at Samarkand about 900 A. D. The old Uigur alphabet is evidence of the wide range of the race, which drove a wedge of Yakuts into Siberia. Their letters were those of the Aramean alphabet of Persia, and Uigur texts are found on the banks of the Yenissei; while farther east this alphabet reached Manchuria and China. Farther west the Khozars were converted to Judaism about 750 A. D., and are even said to have been ruled by Jewish kings. More than one empress of Byzantium was a Turkish princess, and the blood of the race thus ran in the veins of the Isaurian dynasty, Constantine VI. being the son of a Khozar mother.

After the death of El Mâmûn, the seventh of the ’Abbaside khalifs, the Arab empire began to crumble away. In his reign Crete and Sicily were conquered, and the power of Islâm extended to the borders of India. But the simple creed of Muḥammad was undermined by philosophy, scepticism, and mysticism in the East, while the Turkish mercenaries who guarded the khalîfah at Baghdâd soon became his masters. To the Turk the civilisation and philosophy of the age were of little value. He understood the Ḳorân, and became a fanatical Moslem on conversion; his influence was reactionary, and where he ruled, civilisation made little progress. Revolts in the provinces were frequent, and the khalifs became mere religious figure-heads. One of the first secret sects in Islâm appeared near Merv in 767 A. D., where El Moḳann’a, the “veiled” prophet, was joined by the Turks. A yet more formidable society was that of El Ḳarmat of Ḳûfa, appearing in 890 A. D. The Ḳarmathians pillaged Mekkah in 929 A. D., and their secret scepticism with exoteric mysticism was the origin of later Druze heresies which affected the history of Jerusalem. For two centuries the power of the Turks continued to increase in the East till Togrul entered Baghdâd in 1055 A. D.

In the West also the employment of Turks as governors led to the disruption of the Arab empire. Ibn Tulûn in Egypt renounced fealty to the khalîfah in 868 A. D., and his family reigned in Syria till 905 A. D. Again in 934 A. D. Ikshîd—also a Turk—revolted, and his successors held Egypt and Palestine till they were conquered by Mu’ezz-li-Dîn-Allah, the fourth of the Fâṭemites of Ḳairwân and the founder of Cairo. Thus in the last year of his reign (969 A. D.) Jerusalem came under the rule of this Egyptian Arab khalîfah, who claimed descent from the prophet’s daughter.

The city, and especially the Ḥaram, are described in this age by El Muḳaddasi (“the man of the very holy city”), who was a native Moslem, and a great admirer of his home. He wrote under El ’Azîz, the fifth Fâṭemite, in 985 A. D. He says that the Syrians lived in fear of the Greeks; for the new Armenian emperor of Byzantium also took advantage of the weakness of Islâm. Nicephorus Phocas had been murdered by Zemisces, who reigned as John I. Nicephorus had recovered Tarsus, Antioch, and Aleppo; and Zemisces took Damascus, and marched nearly to Baghdâd. Antioch, Cilicia, and Cyprus were retained by the Greeks till just before the first Crusade. El Muḳaddasi, as a devout Moslem, was much troubled by the independent manners of Jews and Christians in Jerusalem, but bears witness to the prosperity of the town. The city was celebrated for enormous grapes and incomparable peaches, for excellent apples, bananas, raisins, cheeses, and cotton, almonds, oranges, figs, dates, and nuts, “besides milk in plenty and honey and sugar.” “In Jerusalem there are all manner of learned men and doctors,” yet he adds, “you will not find baths more filthy than those of the Holy City, nor in any town are provisions dearer. Learned men [of Islâm] are few, and the Christians numerous, and the same are unmannerly in public places.... Everywhere the Christians and the Jews have the upper hand, and the mosque is void of either congregation or assembly of learned men.” He refers to El Mâmûn’s work on the Aḳṣa Mosque, and to a “colonnade supported on marble pillars lately erected by ’Abdallah, son of Ṭahir” (that is to say, nephew of El Mâmûn), as also to the fine dome and pitched roof. Cedar doors, covered with bronze, had been sent by the mother of Muḳtadir-bi-Allah—the eighteenth ’Abbaside khalîfah—shortly before the Egyptian conquest, for he reigned (at intervals) till 932 A. D. This writer gives a correct account of the Ḥaram buildings, and of the measurements of the surrounding walls.

EL ḤÂKIM

It was perhaps on account of the growing power and independence of the Christians that the successor of El ’Azîz determined to destroy the Holy Sepulchre Church; but the excuse was that the “holy fire” was a scandalous imposture. El Ḥakim-bi-amr-Allah was the sixth Fâṭemite khalîfah, and acceded in Cairo in 996 A. D. There seems to be no doubt that he was insane—driven mad probably by mysticism—and about 1005 A. D. his eccentricities disgusted all his subjects. He was finally strangled by order of his sister in 1021 A. D., and was succeeded by his son Ed Ḍâher-li-’azaz-Dîn-Allah, who was followed by his son El Mostanṣir-bi-Allah; both these khalifs are connected with Jerusalem history.

The Fâṭemites were not orthodox Moslems, but belonged to the secret sect of the Ism’ailîyeh—one of the heresies which sprang up in Persia under the influence of Indian mysticism; and they held the doctrine of successive Imâms who were incarnations of God in various ages, accompanied by successive incarnations of the Word of God in the persons of successive prophets. The sect was closely connected with that of the Ḳarmathians, and recognised all the Fâṭemites as Imâms or divine incarnations, the founder of the dynasty being the eighth of these mystic personages. Ḥâkim accordingly proclaimed himself divine, but the strangest feature of these systems was that they were not the real beliefs of the higher initiates. ’Abdallah, the founder of the Ism’ailîyeh sect, was a sceptic, and while—like the leaders of many such secret societies back to Ḥasan of Baṣrah, who was hanged by ’Abd el Melek in 704 A. D.—he endeavoured to unite Jews, Christians, and Moslems by teaching the doctrine of successive revelations, which Muḥammad had proclaimed, he in reality renounced all creeds, and sought to rule men by what he regarded as their superstitions. Like all secret societies, these mystics failed in the end, but under the Fâṭemites they had real power, though the Sunnî subjects of Ḥâkim were deeply offended by his blasphemous heresies. He sought to propitiate them by concessions to their orthodoxy, but he did not extend his toleration to Christians, who were persecuted for several years. Finally, in 1010 A. D., as stated by Moslem and Christian accounts alike, the churches of Modestus were burned to the ground.[482]

THE DRUZES

The memory of Ḥâkim is kept alive to the present day in Palestine among the Druzes, who still regard him as having been an incarnation of God, and as destined to appear again in the last days.[483] Neshtakîn ed Derazi, from whom this remarkable sect are named, was a disciple of Ḥamzah Ibn ’Aly, one of the Ism’ailîyeh of Khorasan. He went to Egypt and preached the divinity of Ḥâkim, but being expelled by the orthodox, retired to Hermon, where he gathered disciples, most of whom seem to have been Persians. Ḥamzah himself remained in Cairo till the murder of Ḥâkim, after which he disappeared; for the khalîfah’s son was an orthodox Moslem. It is still the belief of some 100,000 Druzes that Ḥâkim and Ḥamzah, as incarnations of God and of the Word, will return in triumph from China at the end of the world; and this strange idea shows the connection of the Druzes with the Mongol mystics of Central Asia, and with the later school of Buddhism. Yet Ḥamzah himself and his higher initiates had no such belief, and their secret teaching substituted seven laws for the seven taught to the lower grade, including “economy of truth,” mutual aid, the denial of all creeds, separation from others, the unity of God, submission to His will, and resignation to the appointed ḳismah or “lot.”

When this strange episode in Moslem history ended in 1021 A. D., the relations between Christians and Fâṭemites improved. Palestine had been torn by civil wars under Ḥâkim; by riots at Damascus; and by rebellion at Tyre, where a Greek fleet appeared to aid the oppressed Sunnîs, but suffered defeat from the Ḳarmathian governor. The Greek emperor Romanus III. obtained, in 1028 A. D., the consent of Ed Ḍâher, son of Ḥâkim, to the rebuilding of the churches.[484] The news of the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre had spread with returning pilgrims to Europe, and had excited great indignation. Funds were no doubt easily collected for the restoration, but it seems that the new buildings were small and poor, as compared with those that preceded them. They were still standing in 1099 A. D., when the Crusaders arrived, and were included in the new cathedral later. They were complete by 1048 A. D. under El Mustanṣir, but William of Tyre[485] speaks of the Golgotha Chapel as “a very small oratory”; and the Russian abbot Daniel (about 1106 A. D.) says, “This was once a large church, but is now only a small one.”

From these accounts, and that of Sæwulf, we find that several additions were made to the four churches of Modestus. The sepulchre still stood in a rotunda, and south of this were three chapels, while to the north was a fourth, all of which now exist, with apses to the east. The northern one is now the Latin Chapel of Mary Magdalene. The chapel nearest the rotunda on the south, over which the Norman belfry—built later—still rises, was then consecrated to the Trinity, and became the Latin baptistery. South of this was the Chapel of St. John, and the fourth, at the extreme south end of the buildings, was the Chapel of St. Mary, having a great fresco of the Virgin painted outside on its west wall. East of the north side of the rotunda was an arcade of pillars, which may have belonged to the “Paradise” of the seventh-century church. It does not run quite parallel to the axis of the Norman cathedral, and the later piers can still be seen added on the line of the Norman choir. At the end of this arcade, on the east, was the small chapel of the “Prison,” which is now mentioned for the first time. Calvary was a separate chapel on the old site, and another square building stood over the crypt, where the crosses were said to have been found by Helena.

THE ROTUNDA MOSAICS

The rotunda was decorated by the munificence of the Byzantine emperor, Romanus III. The Russian abbot Daniel says that the dome—supported on twelve pillars and six piers—was open to the sky above, as before, and as it continued to be in the Norman cathedral. There were galleries round the building, and the walls of the rotunda were adorned with mosaics, as were those of the Golgotha Chapel. The tomb itself was surmounted by a cupola, on which the Franks afterwards placed a silver statue of Christ, which must have been a grievance to the Greeks. The mosaic design on the east wall of the Golgotha Chapel represented the Crucifixion, the figures being larger than life. But the most remarkable mosaics seem to have been those on the drum just below the dome of the round church.[486] These were still visible as late as 1586, as described by Zuallardo. On the east was a figure of Christ as a child, with the Virgin on one side and the Angel Gabriel on the other (the Annunciation); on the left was Saint Helena, with six prophets holding scrolls on either side, the thirteenth prophet (probably Isaiah) thus facing the Christ, side by side with the archangel Michael, next the apostles. On the right was Constantine enthroned, and flanked by six apostles on either hand. The names were written to these pictures in Greek and in Latin. The new buildings were completed just before the Turks took possession of Jerusalem.

The earthquake of 1016 A. D., which caused the fall of the wooden dome over the Rock, was no doubt regarded by Christians as the revenge of Heaven on those who had destroyed the Holy Sepulchre. But six years later it was restored by Ed Ḍâher, and still stands with its fine Ḳarmathian text beginning, “In the name of God merciful and pitying: truly he who believes in God restores God’s places of prayer.” Another earthquake did damage to the mosque and to the walls of Jerusalem in 1034, and in 1060 the great lantern, hung from the dome and lighting the building with five hundred lamps, fell with a crash on the Ṣakhrah—an omen of new troubles falling on Islâm.[487]

Under El Mustanṣir, in 1047, Jerusalem was visited by the Persian pilgrim Nâṣr-i-Khosrau, who mentions the inscription still extant, giving actual measurements of the length and breadth of the Ḥaram enclosure. He says that there were no buildings along the south wall east of the Aḳṣa. In the city he found “an excellent hospital, which is provided for by considerable sums which were given for the purpose: great numbers of people are here served with draughts and lotions; for there are physicians who receive a fixed stipend to attend at this place for the sick.” This probably was Charlemagne’s Hospice. This Moslem pilgrim also says, “From all the countries of the Greeks, and also from other lands, the Christians and the Jews come up to Jerusalem in great numbers, in order to visit the church and the synagogue that is there.” The Jews prospered under Moslem rule, and the trade of the East was now to a great extent in their hands. In the twelfth century they deserted a Palestine under Christian rulers, but were found farther east in great numbers, wherever the Moslems remained dominant.

THE SELJUKS

In 1077 A. D. Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Seljuk Turks, and was pillaged by Atsiz. The history of this fateful change of masters, which, within a generation, gave cause for the first Crusade, demands a brief notice. The history of Persia and Baktria, since 874 A. D., had been one of constantly reinforced Turkish aggression. The Saman family was said to be descended from the Sassanians, but their forces were Turkish Moslems. Bokhara, under Ism’aîl, in 895 A. D., was the capital of a kingdom stretching from the Tien-shan Mountains to the Persian Gulf, and from ’Irâḳ to the borders of India. It was said to be “the seat of all the sciences.” A century later (in 976) the Samanides were attacked by the Uigurs, and Ilik Khan entered the city in 999 A. D. Ilik (“the prince”) ruled from China to the Caspian in Central Asia, while the great Ghuznî dynasty was founded by Sebuktekin, who sought to aid the Samanides. Ilik, in turn, was attacked by an outlawed general of Bogu Khan (“the stag”), who was named Seljuk, son of Tokmak. It would seem that this family had been converted by the Jews of Central Asia, for among the names of early Seljuks we find those of Moses, Jonah, Israel, and Michael. But they now appeared as devout Moslems. Their tribesmen were still nomads when Togrul (“the slayer”) and Tchakar (“the brilliant”), grandsons of Seljuk, fought Ilik in Bokhara and Boghra Khan in Kashgar. On the death of the great Maḥmûd of Ghuznî in 1030 A. D. they attacked his heir, Mas’aûd, and Tchakar—ruling in Merv—totally defeated him nine years later. The united brothers then conquered Kharezm, and finally defeated the Buyîds, who had ruled in Azerbijân (or South Media) since 935 A. D., and who were all-powerful in Baghdâd. Thus in 1055 A. D. Togrul entered the Moslem capital, and was made “Emîr of Emîrs” as the protector of Kaîm, the twenty-sixth of the Abbaside khalifs. The ambition of the Seljuks aimed at establishing their empire over the whole of West Asia, and they thus at once came into collision with Byzantium.

MELEK SHAH

The great family of the Comneni, who were to play an important part in future history, came from Castamona, on the Euxine, but claimed Roman descent. They were the successors of the Macedonian emperors, Isaac Comnenos being elected by the army in 1057. On his death his brother John declined the throne, and it was given to his friend Constantine XI., Ducas, in 1059. The latter died eight years later, and his widow, Eudocia—left guardian of three sons—married Romanus Diogenes, who became emperor in 1068 A. D. Togrul had already sent an embassy to Byzantium demanding tribute. He died in 1063 at the age of seventy, his brother Tchakar having died five years before. In 1071 A. D. Alp-Arslân (“the brave lion”), the next sultân, son of Tchakar, crossed the Euphrates; and Diogenes, who had just taken Malazkerd, between Erzerûm and Van, was obliged to retreat to Cæsarea in Cappodocia. His army included Frank and Norman mercenaries, and the Byzantines were deserted by these.[488] The Byzantine phalanx was broken by the Turkish archers, and Diogenes was defeated and taken prisoner. He was well treated by Alp-Arslân, and released on promising an annual tribute of 60,000 aurei. But he never regained his throne at Constantinople, and his son Michael was deposed by Nicephorus III., who usurped power in 1078, but who was superseded by Alexius I. (Comnenos) in 1081. Alp-Arslân was fighting in Kharezm as early as 1065, and seven years later, while attacking Bokhara, he was stabbed by a certain Yûsef, whom he had ordered to be crucified. He died when only forty-four years old, and was succeeded by his famous son Melek Shah. This greatest of the Seljuks was at first involved in war with his father-in-law at Samarkand; after 1077 his empire extended from the Oxus to Yemen, and he bestowed Syria and Palestine as a fief on his brother Tutush, having organised eight great provinces under his relations. In 1075 Melek Shah had sent Atsiz, a Kharezmian, against the Fâṭemite khalîfah. He took Damascus, but was defeated near Cairo, and in his retreat he reached Jerusalem, which his mutinous soldiers pillaged. Tutush besieged Aleppo in 1078, gained Damascus by treachery, and—having conquered from Antioch to the borders of Egypt—was humbly received by Atsiz at the gate of the Holy City, but immediately ordered him to be beheaded. In 1083 Jerusalem was given by Tutush to his general Ortok, son of Eksek, and on the death of the latter, in 1091, his sons Elghâzi and Sukmân became rulers, Tutush himself being assassinated at Damascus in 1095. The Turks thus held Jerusalem for about twenty years, during which they greatly oppressed the native Christians and the pilgrims. About 1096, or rather later, when the advance of the Crusaders engaged all the Turkish forces in the north, while Radhwân and Dekak, sons of Tutush, disputed the succession, the Fâṭemite khalîfah El Must’aîla-bi-Allah took advantage of their weakness to seize Jerusalem and Damascus; the Holy City was thus in possession of the Egyptians when the Crusaders appeared before its walls in 1099 A. D., and the Seljuk princes and generals were at discord among themselves.

The great Melek Shah had then been dead seven years, and his kingdom split up—though his son at Baghdâd (Borḳiyaruk, “the very brilliant”) was nominal suzerain of the eight kingdoms, or provinces, which were practically independent. Melek Shah also fell a victim to an assassin, and such a fate appears to have been common in Turkish history. The sect of the Assassins (Ḥashshâshîn, or “hemp smokers”) was, indeed, founded in this reign by Ḥasan el Ḥomeiri, who was a friend of the celebrated poet ’Omar el Khâyyâm (“the tent maker”), and of Nizâm el Mulk, the prime minister of Melek Shah. These three were of the Ism’ailîyeh sect, and the scepticism of that school finds expression in the well-known quatrains of Omar.

“There was a door to which I found no key,

There was a veil past which I could not see,

Some little talk awhile of me and Thee

There seemed—and then no more of Thee and me.”

The friendship of the three sceptics did not long endure. The vizier found out that Ḥasan was bent on supplanting him, and the latter was exiled to Ḳasbîn, near which was the castle of the “Eagle’s Nest,” where—according to Marco Polo—Ḥasan’s earthly Paradise was established, to lure the youths who vowed implicit obedience to his commands. The first victims of the new order were Nizâm el Mulk (who fell into disgrace), and Melek Shah himself. The Assassins organised a huge secret society which, in the twelfth century, spread from Khorasan to Syria, and was feared by Moslem and Christian alike. It was suppressed in 1254 A. D. by Mengku Khan, but yet later the “Sheikh of the Mountain” was powerful in the Lebanon. Saladin and Edward I. alike were marked as victims, and to the present day the Nuṣeirîyeh of Syria retain the mystic beliefs of the order founded by Ḥasan in 1090 A. D.

ITALIAN TRADE

Although we have no pilgrim diaries of the century during which the Turks became rulers of Western Asia, we know that the Latins were visiting the Holy City in ever-increasing numbers. Trade with Asia was carried on by French and Italian merchants.[489] A fair was held annually at Jerusalem on September 15, and the traders of Pisa, Venice, Genoa, and Marseilles bought cloves, nutmeg, and mace brought from India, pepper, ginger, and frankincense from Aden, silk from China—whether by overland caravan or by the Chinese junks[490] which appeared in the Red Sea during the Middle Ages—sugar from Syria, flax from Egypt, with quicksilver, coral, and metals, glass from Tyre, almonds, mastic, saffron, with rich stuffs and weapons, from Damascus. The Jews paid a heavy tax to secure the monopoly as dyers, and Jewish dyers still lived near the Tower of David in 1163 A. D., as mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela. The sugar-cane of Tripoli is noticed by Albert of Aix, and sugar-mills, set up by Moslems and afterwards used by the Franks, still remain in ruins at Jericho. Jerusalem was famous for its sugar as early, indeed, as the tenth century.

Among these traders were the merchants of Amalfi. The little town in the Bay of Salerno, south of Naples, had a port sheltered by the hills from the mighty tramontana—the north wind which blows with almost hurricane force in winter. They kept up the ancient hospital in Jerusalem founded by Charlemagne. They apparently built beside it a monastery for Benedictines in 1048 A. D., and a Benedictine nunnery was added later. These were close to the Church of St. Mary Latin, for the hospice was intended for Latin pilgrims. The patron saint was originally the Egyptian patriarch of the seventh century, St. John Eleemon, but afterwards St. John Baptist when the order of the Hospitallers grew out of the Benedictines as Knights of St. John. They retained the black Benedictine robe, with a white cross. Geraud of Amalfi, the first master of the order, was found presiding at the hospice when the Crusaders arrived.[491] Pope Paschal II. took this institution under his protection on February 15, 1113 A. D., and it is described as “the Hospice of Geraud in the city of Jerusalem, near the Church of St. John Baptist, instituted with all the properties which do or shall belong to the said hospice this side or beyond the sea.” It remained independent of the Latin patriarch down to 1120 A. D., and the order was always specially under the Popes.[492]

It was perhaps on account of the increased facilities for transit, afforded by the Italian fleets, that the numbers of the Latin pilgrims began now to increase so greatly. Europe was still plunged in Gothic ignorance, but the traders brought home tales which fired the imagination of artistic peoples such as the Provençals, the Normans, and the Kelts were by nature. They heard, as they sat in their grim castles frowning down on some walled village, of great cities in the East full of treasure, and brightened with glorious works of art. They contrasted the splendours of the sunny South, in Italy and in Syria, with the gloom of the North. They learned from the palmer, or the Jewish trader, wonderful legends of Indian and Arab origin, and heard of sacred places and miraculous relics. Palestine was a fairy-land to them; Damascus was a city to sack. They learned also that Christians in the East were persecuted, and trade obstructed, by savage Tartars who demanded endless taxes, who danced on the altar of the Holy Sepulchre, and pulled the patriarch by the beard. Their wrath was roused, and they desired to aid the emperor of Byzantium, who was appealing to them for help.

POPE HILDEBRAND

The Church also was recovering from the utter degradation into which it had fallen after the time of Charlemagne. Hildebrand appeared as a great Pope in 1073 A. D.—an Italian probably of Gothic origin, who reformed the Latin episcopacy, and freed himself, by aid of Normans, from the German emperor (whom he brought to his knees at Canossa), yet who died in exile at Salerno in 1085 A. D. The dreamers of dreams are the makers of history. Hildebrand dreamed of an united feudal Europe, under the Pope of Rome as its head. He saw the danger to Christendom of the great Moslem empire under Melek Shah which threatened Byzantium. He was the first to urge on princes the necessity of union, and of a “general passage” beyond the sea for the support of the Greek empire, and for the rescue of the holy places. Appeal had been made to Pope Sylvester II. as early as 1000 A. D., and he had written a letter[493] in favour of the Eastern Christians, but nothing could then be done. The dream of Hildebrand was fulfilled within a generation.

The Latin nations were still half savage, and the masses lived in fear of Hell, of the Last Day, and of the Pope—fears which were alike inculcated by their priests. It was expected that the world would come to an end in the year 1000 after the Nativity,[494] and wills and legal documents of the tenth century begin with the words “Appropinquante etenim mundi termino, et ruinis crescentibus jam certa signa manifestantur, pertimescens tremendi judicii diem.” Though the year passed without fulfilment of these fears, the idea of immediate ending of earthly history continued to be a real motive of action even at the close of the twelfth century, when Geoffrey de Vinsauf says that the world “waxes old.” The pilgrim received remission of his sins at the holy places, and if he died at Jerusalem he was ready to appear in the “Valley of Decision” on the day of doom.

Jerusalem, which then measured nearly a third of a square mile in area, seems a small town to us, but to the pilgrims from the West it must have appeared large and magnificent, though Damascus and Constantinople were much larger. In the middle of the twelfth century Winchester, as the capital of England, under king Stephen, was only a third of the size of the Holy City; and though the beauties of the Ḥaram buildings could not be seen, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with its mosaics, its lamps of gold and silver, and many other gifts of princes, must have impressed the wild Normans with a sense of Oriental wealth. The Norsemen who accompanied Sigurd, soon after Jerusalem was taken by Godfrey, scorned to show their astonishment at the civilisation of Asia, yet even the smaller town of Sidon was a prize, as Halldor Skualldre sang.

“He who for wolves provides a feast

Seized on the city of the East,

The heathen’s nest; and honour drew,

And gold for gifts, from those he slew.”

LATIN PILGRIMS

After the completion of the new churches, in 1048 A. D., crowds of pilgrims came rejoicing to see them, as Roderick Glaber (“the bald”) relates: “And then from all the world an incredible multitude of men entered Jerusalem, with exultation, bringing gifts for the restoration of the house of God.” Yet earlier, in 1033, he says, “An innumerable multitude began to flow together to the Saviour’s tomb at Jerusalem, whom none might hope to number. First the class of the lower people, then the middle class, afterwards the greatest—kings, counts, and nobles—lastly, which had never happened before, many women, noble and poor, arrived there. Many, indeed, desired at heart to die before they went home.”

Among these pilgrims of high rank was Fulk the Black, Count of Anjou, ancestor of a future king of Jerusalem, who came to expiate many deeds of violence. When he returned he built a church at Loche in imitation of the Sepulchre at Jerusalem. He made two more pilgrimages to the Holy City, and died in 1040 at Metz, returning from the last. Robert of Normandy, father of the Conqueror, also went by the land route to Palestine in 1035 A. D. In Asia Minor he met a Norman pilgrim returning home. Robert was sick, and was carried in a litter by Saracens. He bade his subject tell his barons “that you saw me where I was being borne by devils to Paradise.” Before the gate of Jerusalem he found a crowd of poor pilgrims, denied admission by the Egyptian guard because they could not pay the tax of one aureus each. He paid the gold bezant demanded for every one of them. This munificence of the Norman was well appreciated by the Moslem governor, who sent back the money which Robert distributed among the poor. The duke died on his return journey at Nicæa before reaching Byzantium.

The conversion of the Hungarian Mongols to Latin Christianity, in the end of the tenth century, opened a new safe route to Constantinople. Richard, abbot of St. Vitou in Normandy, led a band of seven hundred pilgrims to Jerusalem; and in 1054 the bishop of Cambray was attended by a great host, who were called “the army of the Lord,” but they only got to Laodicæa in Syria, and then returned home. Four other German bishops were accompanied by seven thousand pilgrims, and Ingulphus, the secretary of William the Conqueror, was among the leaders. They are said to have been served on vessels of gold and silver, and the tents of the bishops were hung with costly tapestry. They were attacked by an Arab sheikh at Ramleh, and were for a time in danger of their lives. But bishop Gunther of Bamburg felled the insolent brigand with one blow, and he was seized and bound. The Egyptian governor hurried to their assistance, and declared the sheikh to be an outlaw of whom the settled population were afraid. The bishops presented the governor with 500 gold bezants (or about £250), and were safely escorted to Jerusalem. They saw the holy places, and Ingulphus went back by sea to Italy. Bishop Gunther died in Hungary, and only two thousand out of seven thousand ever saw their homes again. Of his own comrades Ingulphus says “that they sallied from Normandy thirty stout and well-appointed horsemen, but that they repassed the Alps twenty wretched palmers, with staff in hand and wallet on back.”

Such were the pilgrims who explored the way for the Crusaders half a century before Peter the Hermit. Whether they continued to come in equal numbers after the Turks took Jerusalem in 1077 A. D. is not known, but, as we shall now see, the dangers and difficulties of pilgrimage then became far greater, and a cry of wrath and misery echoed from the Holy City over all the Latin world.