The most interesting description of the Holy City under the early Turkish sulṭâns is that of Zuallardo[573] in 1586. He was a Fleming, long resident at Rome, and was made a knight of the papal Order of the Holy Sepulchre in the Church itself, by means of the sword and gilt spurs supposed to have belonged to Godfrey of Bouillon, which are still shown in the Latin Chapel. His work is remarkable for its illustrations, which, though very rough, are of considerable value, as has already been shown. His sketch of the south façade of the cathedral is, however, very inaccurate, as it does not show the windows over the double entrance gates, while the view of the rotunda, showing the mosaics of the eleventh century still remaining on the drum, above the gallery, has been considerably touched up by the engraver. Zuallardo represents the present minaret at the Jaffa Gate, which was probably erected in 1542, but does not show any minaret at the mosque on the summit of Olivet, which had replaced the Church of the Ascension. He speaks of the “House of Herod,” which (as noticed in the first chapter of this book) is not now one of the holy places. His drawings of the House of Caiaphas and House of Annas suggest that they have been altered since his time. The Church of St. John—now called the “Dormition of the Virgin”—which was recently granted to Catholics by the present German emperor, is mentioned. It was not a very early sacred site, though noticed about 1321 A. D. by Marino Sanudo. Zuallardo also speaks of the “Retreat of the Apostles”—the tomb probably of Ananus—and of anchorites in the Kidron Valley. The Jews were in the habit of throwing stones at Absalom’s tomb, and he shows the stone-heaps there, which still remain. The carved lions at the east gate were already there—no doubt since 1542; the old Church of the Spasm was still visible, and the “Chapel of the Mocking” (St. Sophia) in the Antonia citadel is noticed, as well as the extant “Chapel of the Flagellation.” Several other sites, as described or pictured in this account, have been already mentioned, such as the tombs of the Crusader kings, and the Sepulchre itself. The remains of the chapel at Siloam were not yet covered with earth, and are described as those of a church of the Salvatore Illuminatore.
In 1808 occurred the disastrous fire in the cathedral which destroyed much of the twelfth-century work. The dome was again restored about 1860 by the emperor of the French. In 1831 Jerusalem submitted to ’Aly Pasha of Egypt, and a revolt of the Bedawîn against him was quelled in 1834. Six years later the Holy City reverted to the Turkish sulṭân ’Abd el Mejîd. Since that time the most remarkable event has been the large increase of 40,000 Jews to its population, due mainly to the Russian persecutions of 1881.
We have thus traversed the long ages during which Jerusalem has been, for four thousand years, a holy city. It can never be anything else. Whatever be the outcome of the regeneration of the Turkish empire, Jerusalem can never be a very great centre of trade. It will remain what it has been for so many centuries—the Holy City. To the Jew it is the city of David and Solomon, to the Christian the city where our Lord was crucified, to the Moslem also a city sanctified by many traditions, and by the memory of the proud days when it was won for Islâm by Omar and by Saladin. Perhaps, in the distant future, we may learn more of the ancient remains now hidden under the platform of the Ḥaram, or of those beneath the houses of the present town; in these pages all that has been so far discovered of importance has, in the author’s belief, been described, and the very sanctity of the place makes it as yet impossible to explore some of its most interesting remains. But the Holy City may still be described in the words of the Psalmist: “Jerusalem is builded as a city of gathering together to itself; for thither the tribes go up” (Psalm cxxii. 3).
FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER XIV
[548] Schultens’s edition, 1735, in Arabic and Latin, was used by me in annotating the English translation for Pal. Pil. Texts Society in 1897.
[549] Shirkoh died early in Jan., 1169; El ’Adid, Sept. 13, 1171; and Nûr-ed-Dîn on May 15, 1174.
[550] See “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” pp. 146–60.
[551] Quoted in Besant and Palmer’s “Jerusalem,” 1871, p. 356.
[552] The Christian account makes it about 4¼ bezants (30 shillings) and the Moslem account 10 dinars (70 shillings) for a man. They agree that two women or ten children paid the same as one man. Perhaps the 30 shillings was the ransom for a poor man, and 70 shillings for the rich.
[553] De Vogüé, “Temple de Jerusalem,” p. 101.