Early Travels in Palestine: Comprising the Narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell
History
Early Travels in Palestine: Comprising the Narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell
Middle East -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Palestine -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
You must know that this is not the temple that Solomon made, which
lasted only one thousand one hundred and two years. For Titus, the son
of Vespasian, emperor of Rome, had laid siege about Jerusalem to
overcome the Jews, because they put our Lord to death without the
emperor's leave. And when he had won the city, he burnt the temple and
beat it down and all the city, and took the Jews, and put to death one
million one hundred thousand of them; and the others he put in prison,
and sold them to slavery thirty for a penny, because they said they
bought Jesus for thirty pennies; and he sold them cheaper, giving thirty
for one penny. After that, Julian the Apostate, when emperor, gave the
Jews permission to make the temple of Jerusalem, for he hated the
Christians although he had been christened; but he forsook his law, and
became a renegade. And when the Jews had made the temple, an earthquake
came and cast it down (as God would), and destroyed all that they had
made. And after that, Hadrian, who was emperor of Rome, and of the
lineage of Troy, rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple, in the same manner as
Solomon made it. And he would not suffer Jews to dwell there, but only
Christians. For although he was not christened, yet he loved Christians
more than any other nation, except his own. This emperor caused the
church of St. Sepulchre to be inclosed within the city walls; before, it
was without the city. And he would have changed the name of Jerusalem,
and called it Ælia, but that name lasted not long. The Saracens continue
to show much reverence to that temple, and say that the place is very
holy. And when they go in they go barefooted, and kneel many times. And
when my fellows and I saw that, when we came in we took off our shoes,
and entered barefooted, and thought we would do as much worship and
reverence there as any of the misbelieving men, with as great
compunction of heart. This temple is sixty-four cubits wide, and as many
in length, and a hundred and twenty cubits high; and within it has
pillars of marble all round; and in the middle of the temple are many
high stages, fourteen steps high, with good pillars all about, and this
place the Jews call the holy of holies. No man, except the prelate of
the Saracens, who makes their sacrifice, is allowed to come in there.
And the people stand all about, in divers stages, according to their
dignity or rank, so that they may all see the sacrifice. And in that
temple are four entrances, with gates of cypress, well made and
curiously wrought. Within the east gate is the place where our Lord said
"Here is Jerusalem." And on the north side of the temple, within the
gate, there is a well, but it does not run; of this Holy Writ speaks,
and says, "I saw water come out of the temple." And on the other side of
the temple there is a rock which men call Moriah, but after it was
called Bethel, where the ark of God, with relics of Jews, was wont to be
put.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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