From Dan to Beersheba: A Description of the Wonderful Land, with Maps and Engravings and a Prologue by the Author Containing the Latest Explorations and DiscoveriesNewman, John Philip
Religion
From Dan to Beersheba: A Description of the Wonderful Land, with Maps and Engravings and a Prologue by the Author Containing the Latest Explorations and Discoveries
Newman, John Philip
Palestine -- Description and travel
paint, and paper. The bazars are in the most frequented streets, and
are in either a small building or on the ground floor of a dwelling.
The articles for sale are displayed on a shelf in front of the shop,
or around the casement of the door. In addition to the more common
necessaries of life, the principal commodities of traffic are the
several kinds of Persian and Turkish tobacco, the fruits of the country,
some rude silk and cotton fabrics manufactured in the city, together
with beads, trinkets, and jewelry, of which the ladies are very fond.
The commerce of the modern town is not equal to that of the ancient
capital, when the merchants were princes, and when the caravans of the
East brought to her gates the fine linen of Egypt, the steeds of Arabia,
the carpets of Persia, the shawls of Cashmere, and the marvels of
Bagdad.
Illustration: VIEW OF MODERN JERUSALEM FROM THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.
Jerusalem is a cosmopolitan city, where the representatives from all
nations congregate and live. Amounting to 20,000 souls, the present
population is divided into classes according to their religious
opinions, and each sect occupies a separate portion of the town called
“Quarters.” The Turk is now in power, swaying his iron sceptre, which
he has held for more than six hundred years. The city having been
elevated to the dignity of a distinct pashalic, the Pasha is appointed
by the Sultan, and comes from Constantinople. The municipal government
is civil and military. The civil governor is assisted by a delegated
council of Moslems, of which one Jew and one Christian are members by
sufferance, to represent the interests of their respective churches.
Criminal and civil justice is administered by a city judge, called the
“Cadi,” who is judge and jury, and whose decisions are law, whether
the dictates of an impartial judgment or the sentence of a bribed
magistrate. The military department is under Bim-Pasha, the most
dreaded of all the government officials. His troops perform the double
duty of garrison and police, guarding the gates during the day and
patroling the streets at night. Destitute of courtesy and the finer
feelings of our humanity, they are the most brutal class of men on the
globe, who are respected because they are dreaded, and feared because
they are vindictive. The palaces of the civil and military governors of
the city are in the northwest corner of the Haram; the common council
holds its sessions in what was once the hall of the Jewish Sanhedrim,
and the soldiers have their barracks in the Hippic Tower and in the
Tower of Antonia, where is still the city prison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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