Romans,*

It doth not appear that the Jews had ever the liberty of approaching the city, unless by stealth or by purchase, as long as it continued in subjection to the Greek emperors It continued in subjection to the Greek emperors till this as well as the neighbouring cities and countries, fell under the dominion of the Saracens. Only in the former part of the seventh century after Christ, and in the beginning of the reign of the emperor Heraclius it was taken and plundered by Chosroes king of Persia, and the greatest cruelties were exercised on the inhabitants.+ Ninety thousand Christians are said to have been sold and sacrificed to the malice and revenge of the Jews. But Heraclius soon repelled and routed the Persians, rescued Jerusalem out of their hands, and banished all Jews, forbidding them, under the severest penalties, to come within three miles of the city.

Jerusalem was hardly recovered from the depredations of the Persians, before it was exposed to a worse evil by the conquering arms of the Saracens. It was in the beginning of the same seventh century, that Mohammed himself began to preach and propagate his new religion and this little cloud which was at first no bigger than a man's hand soon overspread and darkened the whole hemisphere. Mohammed himself conquered some parts of Arabia. His successor, Abubeker, broke into Palestine and Syria. Omar, the next caliph, was one of the most rapid conquerors who ever spread desolation upon the face of the earth. His reign was of no longer duration than ten years and a half; and in that time he subdued all Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Egypt. His army invested Jerusalem. He came thither in person; and the Christians after a long siege being reduced to the greatest extremities, in the year of Christ 637, surrendered the city upon capitulation. He granted them honorable conditions; he would not allow any of their churches to be taken from them; but only demanded of the Patriarch, with great modesty, a place where he might build a mosque. The Patriarch showed him Jacob's stone, and the place where the temple of Solomon had been built, which the Christians had filled with ordure in hatred to the Jews. Omar began himself to cleanse

Hieron. in Sophon. i. col. 1655. vol. 3, edit. Benedict.

† Theoph. ad Heracl. p, 252, &c. edit. Paris.; p. 200, &c. edit. Venet. Cedren, ad Heracl. p. 408, edit Paris; p. 322, &c. edit. Venet. Basnage's Hist. of the Jews, b. 6 chap. 18, sect. 7.

+ Elmacini Hist. Saracen. lib. 1, p. 22 & 28, edit, Erpenii. Herbelot. Biblioth. Orientale, p. 687. Basnage's Hist. of the Jews, b. 6, chap 19. sect. 2. Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol. 1, p. 243, &c.

the place, and he was followed in this act of piety by the principal officers of his army; and it was in this place that the first mosque was erected at Jerusalem. Sophronius, the Patriarch, said, upon Omar's taking possession of the city, This is of a truth the abomi nation of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place.'* Omar the conqueror of Jerusalem is by some authors said also to have died there, being stabbed by a slave at morning prayers in the mosque which he had erected. Abdolmelik the son of Merwan, the twelfth caliph, enlarged the mosque at Jerusalem, and ordered the people to go thither on pilgrimage, instead of Mecca, which was then in the hands of the rebe Abdollah ;† and afterwards when the pilgrimage to Mecca was by any accident interrupted, the Mussulmen used to repair to Jerusalem for the same purposes of devotion.

In this manner the holy city was transferred from the possession of the Greek Christians into the dominion of the Arabian Mussulmen, and continued in subjection to the caliphs till the latter part of the eleventh century, that is, above 400 years. At that time the Turks of the Selzuccian race had made themselves masters of Persia, had usurped the government, but submitted to the religion of the country; and being firmly seated there, they extended their conquests as far as Jerusalem, and farther. They drove out the Arabians, and also despoiled the caliphs of their power over it; and they kept possession of it, till being weakened by divisions among themselves, they were ejected by the caliph of Egypt. The caliph of Egypt, perceiving the divisions and weakness of the Turks, adanced to Jerusalem with a great army; and the Turks expecting no succour, presently surrendered it to him. But though it thus changed masters, and passed from the Arabians to the Turks, and from the Turks to the Egyptians, yet the religion professed there was still the same, the Mohammedan being authorized and established, and the Christian only tolerated upon payment of tribute.

The Egyptians enjoyed their conquests but a little while; for, in the same year that they took possession of it, they were dispossessed again by the Franks, as they are generally denominated, or the

· Theophanes, p. 281, edit. Paris.; p. 224. edit. Venet. Basnage, ibid. Ockley,

249.

Elmacin. Hist. Sar. lib. 1. p. 58. Ockley, vol. 2, p. 299.

+ Herbelot Bib. Orient. P. 270.

Elmacini Hist. Sar. lib. 3, p. 267-287

Vers Pocockii. Herbelot, Bib. Orient. p. 269

Abul Pharajii. Hist. Dyn. 9. p. 243.

Latin Christians.*

Peter, the hermit of Amiens in France, went on a pilgrimage to Palestine, and there having seen and shared in the distresses and miseries of the Christians, he represented them at his return in such pathetic terms, that by his preaching and instigation, and by the authority of pope Urban II. and the Council of Clermont, the west was stirred up against the east, Europe against Asia, the Christians against the Mussulmen, for the retaking of Jerusalem, and for the recovery of the holy land out of the hands of the infidels. It was the epidemic madness of the time; and old and young, men and women, priests and soldiers, monks and merchants, peasants and mechanics, all were eager to assume the cross, and to set out for what they thought the holy wars. Some assert that the number of those who went out on this expedition amounted to above a million. They who make the lowest computation affirm, that there were at least three hundred thousand fighting men. After some losses and some victories the army sat down before Jerusalem, and after a siege of five weeks took it by storm, on the fifteenth of July in the year of Christ 1099; and all, who were not Christians, they put to the sword. They massacred above seventy thousand Musselmen; and all the Jews in the place they gathered and burnt together; and the spoil that they found in the mosques was of inestimable value. Godfrey of Boulogne, the general, was chosen king; and there reigned nine kings in succession; and the kingdom subsisted eighty-eight years, till the year of Christ 1187, when the Mussulmen regained their former dominion, and with scarce any interruption have retained it ever since.

At that time the famous Saladin, having subverted the government of the caliphs, had caused himself to be proclaimed sultan of Egypt. Having also subdued Syria and Arabia, he formed the design of besieging Jerusalem, and of putting an end to that kingdom. He marched against it with a powerful and victorious army and took it by capitulation on Friday the 2d of October, after a siege of fourteen days. He compelled the Christians to redeem their lives at the price of ten pieces of gold for a man, five for a woman, and two for a boy or girl. He restored to the oriental Christians the church of the holy sepulchre; but forced the Franks

* Abul-Pharajii Hist. Dyn. 9, p. 243. Vers. Pocockii. Elmacini Hist. Saracen. lib. 3, p. 293. Herbelot. Bib. Orient. p. 269. Savage's Abridg of Knolles and Ricaut vol. 1, p. 12, &c. Voltaire's Hist. of Europe, of the Crusades, Blair's Chronol. Tables.

↑ Elmacin. ibid. p. 293. Abul-Pharaj. ibid. p. 273, 274. Herbelot, ibid. p. 269 et 43. Knolles and Savage, p. 54. Voltaire, ibid. Blair's Chronological Tables.

or western Christians to depart to Tyre or other places, which were in the possession of their countrymen. But though the city was in the hands of the Mussulmen, yet the Christians had still their nominal king of Jerusalem: and for some time Richard I. of England, who was one of the most renowned crusaders, and had eminently distinguished himself in the holy wars, gloried in the empty title. The city however did not remain so assured to the family of Saladin :* but thirty years after his nephew Al Moadham, sultan of Damascus, was obliged to demolish the walls, not being able to keep it himself, and fearing lest the Franks, who were then again become formidable in those parts, should establish themselves again in a place of such strength. Afterwards, in the year 1228, another of Saladin's family,† Al Kamel, the sultan of Egypt, who after the death of his kinsman Al Moadham enjoyed part of his estates, to secure his own kingdom, made a treaty with the Franks, and yielded up Jerusalem to the emperor Frederic II. upon condition that he should not rebuild the walls, and that the mosques should be reserved for the devotions of the Mussulmen. Frederic was accordingly crowned king there, but soon returned into Europe. Not many years intervened, before the Christians broke the truce: ana Melecsalah, sultan of Egypt, being greatly offended, marched di rectly towards Jerusalem, put all the Franks therein to the sword, demolished the castle which they had built, sacked and raised the city, not even sparing the sepulchre of our Saviour, which till that time had never been violated or defiled; and before the end of the same century, the crusaders or European Christians were totally extirpated out of the holy land, having lost in their eastern expeditions, according to some accounts, above two millions of persons.§

Before this time the Mamalucs or the foreign slaves to the Egyptian sultans had usurped the government from their masters: and soon after this Kazan the chan of the Mogul-Tartars made an irruption into Syria, routed Al Naser the Sultan of Egypt, had Damascus surrendered to him, and ordered Jerusalem to be repaired and fortified. But being recalled by great troubles in Persia, he was obliged to quit his new conquests, and the Mamaluc sultan of Egypt soon took possession of them again. In like manner, when

• Herbelot, ibid. p. 269. Knolles and Savage. p. 74. Voltaire, ibid.

+ Abul-Pharajii ibid. p. 305. Herbelot. ibid. p. 269 et 745. Knolles and Savage, A 81. Voltaire, ibid. and Annals of the Empire. Ann. 1229.

Herbelot, ibid. p. 269. Knolles and Savage, p. 83.

Knolles and Savage, p. 95. Voltaire, ibid.

Pocockii Supplem. ad Abul-Pharaj. p. 2. Knolles and Savage, p. 96.

the great Timur or Tamerlane, like a mighty torrent, overwhelmed Asia, and vanquished both the Turkish and Egyptian 'sultans, he went twice in passing and repassing to visit the holy city, gave many presents to the religious persons, and freed the inhabitants from subsidies and garrisons. But the ebb was almost as sudden as the floo He died within a few years, and his sons and grandsons quarrelling about the succession, his vast empire in a little time mouldered away; and Jerusalem with the neighbouring countries reverted to the obedience of the Mamalucs again. It was indeed in a ruined and desolate state, as Chalcocondylas describes it,† and the Christians paid large tribute to the sultans of Egypt for access to the sepulchre of Jesus. And in the same state it continued, with little variation, under the dominion of the Mamalucs, for the space of above 260 years, till at length this with the other territories of the Mamalucs fell a prey to the arms of the Turks of the Othman

race.

It was about the year 1516, that Selim, the ninth emperor of the Turks, turned his arms against Egypt;‡ and having conquered one sultan, and hanged another, he annexed Syria, Egypt, and all the dominions of the Mamalucs, to the Othman empire. In his way to Egypt, he did as Kazan and Tamerlane had done before him; he went to visit the holy city, the seat of so many prophets, and the scene of so many miracles.§ It lay at that time miserable deformed and ruined, according to the account of a contemporary historian, not inhabited by the Jews, who were banished into all the world, but by a few Christians, who paid large tribute to the Egyptian sultans for the possession of the holy sepulchre. Selim of

Chalcocondylas de rebus Turc. lib. 3. Herbelot, p. 877, &c. Knolles and Savage, p. 138, &c.

+ Τον δε τάφον Ιησε κ. τ. λ. Sepulchrum Jesu sub potestate istius regis in Palestina situm est, unde plurimum lucri ei accedit.—Situm in urbe Hierusalem, quæ devastata est cum maritimis regionibus. [The sepulchre of Jesus was situated in Palestine, which was under the dominion of this king, from which he derived much gain. It was situated in the city of Jerusalem, which with the maritime countries was laid waste.] Chalcocond. ibid. p. 75, edit. Paris.; p. 59. edit. Venet.

Pocockii Supplem. ad Abul-Pharaj. p. 29, 30, 49. Herbelot. Bib. Orient. p. 802. Knolles and Savage, p. 240, &c. Prince Cantemir's Hist. of the Othman empire, in Selem 1.

§ Pauli Jovii Hist. lib. 17. Herbelot, ibid. Knolles and Savage, p. 243. Prince Cantemir, ibid. Sect. 21, p. 163.

Paulus Jovius, ibid. Ea tunc miserabili sacrarum ruinarum deformitate inculta atque deserta, non a Judæis veteribus incolis, qui tunc toto orbe extorres in admissi sceleris pænam, nec sedem nec patriam habent. sed a paucis Christianis incolebatur. li cum ignominia et gravi admodum contumelia Christiani nominis, ob concessam venerandi sepulchi possessionem, grave tributum Ægyptiis regibus persolvunt, &a