CHRISTIAN TEXTS
In these tombs there are fifteen inscriptions in Greek uncial characters, which have recently been copied again with great care by Mr. R. A. Stewart Macalister.[470] Their translation has puzzled many scholars, and remains still doubtful in some details; but the following interpretations may perhaps be found more satisfactory than those as yet proposed. The texts begin and sometimes end with Greek crosses, showing their Byzantine character. Five of them read only “of Holy Sion,” and two more “monument of Holy Sion.” These seven seem to mark tombs belonging to priests or monks connected with the ancient Sion Church. Another text in red paint is now illegible, but the remaining seven inscriptions are more important. Pilgrims from the West were numerous in this age: St. Willibald (about 722 A. D.) came from Hampshire, and Bernard the Wise (about 867 A. D.) was a Breton monk from Mont St. Michel; we are therefore not surprised to read over one tomb, “Private monument of Thekla, daughter of Mærwulf the German.” She may have been a pilgrim, or a nun who took this Greek name as her title in religion, and who died in the hospice about to be mentioned; or she may have come from Byzantium, where Teutonic mercenaries were employed, and no doubt married Greeks. The next text is that of “The private monument of Ouroros [perhaps for Auroros] of Holy Sion,” probably a monk, and possibly also a Teuton. Another, inscribed in red paint now much defaced by weather, is that of “The common tomb of the Patriarch’s Hospital,” which was apparently consecrated for pilgrims dying in Justinian’s hospital, or in that which was founded about 800 A. D. by Charlemagne, as will appear immediately. A fourth text is of great value, as giving a date: “Pachomios was buried singly in the year 718” A. D.[471] He was thus not consigned to the “common monument” with other pilgrims. The fifth inscription is also in red paint, over the door of a tomb, and is much defaced. It seems, however, to read, “The private grave of the beloved offspring of holy Sergius, beneath his own coffin.” The sixth text, inside the same tomb, refers to this beloved son, the words “nineteen years” being legible, and no doubt giving his age. It is probable that “holy Sergius” was the Greek patriarch of Jerusalem who died c. 858 A. D., or the second of the name dying 911 A. D. The seventh inscription is boldly cut on the front of the tomb, round a Greek cross,[472] and appears to run thus: “A private monument holding Thekla, abbess of the monastery of Job in the city [or, lot] of George.” De Vogüé (misreading the contracted word thes as seb) supposed this to be the tomb of Thekla Sebastê (or Augusta), the eldest daughter of Theodosius and Theodora, shut up in a convent by her brother Michael III. of Byzantium, and still alive under Basil the Macedonian (867–86 A. D.); but this now seems to be uncertain. If the contracted word As stands for “city,” her monastery must have been in Lydda, the city of St. George; but if it stands for Aisa, “lot” (the diphthongs being often omitted in texts of this age), it is more probable that the grave was in the property of the Church of St. George in Jerusalem. There was more than one Monastery of Job in Palestine, the most famous being that in Bashan, while another (Deir Aiyûb) was on the Jaffa road near the foot of the mountains. There may have been a third at Jerusalem itself, for in 1129 A. D. the “Casale of St. Job” belonged to the Church of the Virgin’s Tomb,[473] and this might be near the “well of Job,” not far East of the tomb. Another possible explanation is that the “Lot of George” was the property of the patriarch George, who died about 807 A. D., before the time of Thekla Augusta. Whatever be the true explanation of this and of the other texts, we see at least that in the eighth and ninth centuries the patriarchs of Jerusalem and the priests and monks of St. Sion held peaceful possession of their properties under the Moslems, and that the pilgrims from the Christian hospitals were buried, not only in a “common tomb” such as the great excavation at Aceldama, which existed[474] for their use at least as early as 680 A. D., but also in “private monuments” hard by.
CHARLEMAGNE
The “golden prime of good Hârûn er Rashîd” brought East and West into friendly intercourse.[475] Charlemagne sent ambassadors to him, and they distributed alms in Jerusalem. The khalîfah received them courteously, and granted their requests in favour of his Christian subjects, sending them back with his own envoys, who bore rich presents of vestments and spices. He made over to the new Emperor of the West the charge of the Holy Sepulchre; and the keys of Jerusalem were sent to him as an emblem of possession of the sacred Christian sites. Hârûn, at Charlemagne’s request, is said to have sent to him the only elephant he possessed, which arrived in Europe in 802 A. D. Alms continued to be sent to the Holy City by Charlemagne, and by his son and grandson, and the famous hospital of Charles the Great was now founded in the centre of Jerusalem. Bernard the Wise in 867 A. D. says, “We were received in the hospital of the most glorious emperor Charles, where are lodged all those who go to that place for devout cause and speak the Roman tongue; near which is a most noble church in honour of St. Mary, having, by the zeal of the aforesaid emperor, a library together with twelve mansions, fields, vineyards, and gardens, in the Valley of Josaphat. Before the hospital itself is the forum (or market) where every one who deals there pays two aurei yearly to him who supplies it.” The hospital therefore faced the bazaar, and occupied apparently the same site where the Benedictines of Amalfi were afterwards found by the Crusaders. It is not clear whether the Church of St. Mary was that built by Modestus south of the Holy Sepulchre rotunda, or—as is more probable—was on the site of St. Mary Latin, built by Amalfi merchants beside their hospice. This church has now become the German Cathedral, and the hospital of the great German emperor was the original foundation which developed into the famous home of the Knights of St. John. The historic fact of this foundation originated the legend according to which Charles the Great himself visited Jerusalem to see the monastery, as we read in the “Chanson du Voyage de Charlemagne,” written in 1075 A. D., of which there is also an Anglo-Saxon version.[476]
| Mult fu liez Charlemagne | Very glad Charlemagne |
| De cel grant beltet | Of this great beauty |
| Vit du clères colurs | Saw in clear colours |
| Le mustier painturet | The monastery painted |
| De Martyrs et de Virgenes | With Martyrs and Virgins |
| Et de Granz Majistez | And the Great Majesty |
| E les curs de la lune | And the moon’s courses |
| E les festes anvels | And annual festivals |
| E les lavacres curre | And running fountains |
| E les peisons par mer. | And fish at sea. |
EL MÂMÛN
The son of Hârûn er Rashîd was the last of the great ’Abbasides and the same Mâmûn (808–833 A. D.) whose name is found in the Dome of the Rock, not only in the Ḳufic text over the arcade, but also on the four fine bronze gates of the outer octagonal wall, where it accompanies his true date, answering to 831 A. D. The beams of the roof above this wall bear a yet later date, answering to 913 A. D., and it seems probable that El Mâmûn built this wall, and that it did not form part of ’Abd el Melek’s original design. It certainly existed in 985 A. D., and is noticed by Ibn el Fâḳîḥ in 902 A. D., but El Y’aḳûbi says that ’Abd el Melek “built a dome over the Ṣakhrah and hung it round with curtains of brocade,” on the occasion when—according to the letter preserved by later writers—this khalîfah desired “to build a dome over the Holy Rock in order to shelter Moslems from the inclemency of the weather.”[477]
The outer wall in question is adorned with fine windows, which were filled with coloured glass in 1528 A. D. It has a parapet with round arches, supported by coupled dwarf pillars, and with recesses under the arches, as was discovered in 1873. These, and the upper part of the wall outside, were covered with glass mosaics of which traces have been found; while the lower part, according to various accounts from the tenth to the twelfth century, was adorned as now with marble.[478] The arcade of the parapet was still visible in 1486 A. D., when Breidenbach made his sketch of the building; but the whole of the upper part of the wall and parapet was covered over later with the beautiful Kishâni tiles, which bear the date 1561 A. D. In its original condition the octagonal wall and the arcaded parapet resembled in style the Sassanian buildings at Ctesiphon and Takht-i-Bostân in Persia; and an exactly similar arcade with recessed panels, under round arches on coupled dwarf pillars, exists in the beautiful kiosque at ’Ammân in Gilead, which—in plan—is similar to the Persian buildings above mentioned. This kiosque is probably Moslem work, and an early mosque exists close by.[479] Thus while the original work of ’Abd el Melek shows the influence of Byzantine art, the additions made by the Baghdâd khalîfah El Mâmûn, in 831 A. D., very naturally show Persian style.
The same Mâmûn also restored the Aḳṣa Mosque and the Ḥaram generally at the same time. Nâṣr-i-Khosrau (in 1047) says[480] that this khalîfah sent from Baghdâd, for the Aḳṣa, a beautiful bronze gate looking like gold, set in “fired silver,” and chased. It thus resembled those which still bear his name in the four porches of the Dome of the Rock. The Ḥaram contained several other small domes which still exist on the platform, and which date back to this great age of Moslem civilisation and prosperity. These include the “Dome of the Prophet” and the “Dome of Gabriel,” to the north-west of the Ṣakhrah chapel; but the “Dome of Spirits,” farther north, is not noticed in early accounts, for the “Dome of Solomon” is probably the building on the east wall of the Ḥaram north of the Golden Gate, now called the “Throne of Solomon,” to which a legend attaches (borrowed from the Talmud) concerning Solomon’s power over demons, and his burial on the spot seated on his throne, so that his death was not perceived by the genii, whom he ruled by aid of his ring, until a worm gnawed the wood of his staff and the corpse fell to the ground. The “Dome of the Roll” in the south-west corner of the platform seems to have disappeared, unless the reference is to the underground chamber at this corner, which in 1873 was inhabited by a Moslem hermit.
MOSLEM LEGENDS