The amicable relations between Harûn er-Rashîd, Khalif of Bagdad, and Charlemagne, were of the utmost advantage to the Christians at Jerusalem, and induced the French Monarch to send large gifts thither, A.D. 810, in order to restore the churches, to build hospices, and purchase lands for their endowment. The monk Bernard, who visited Jerusalem in the year 870 A.D., writes as follows[441]: "On our arrival at Jerusalem we were entertained at the hospice of the glorious Emperor Charles, where all are welcomed who visit the place from a devout motive and speak the Latin language. To it is attached a church in honour of S. Mary, with a noble library, due to the care of the same Emperor, with twelve houses, fields, vineyards, and a garden in the valley of Jehoshaphat. In front of the hospice is the market, &c." This establishment was inhabited by Benedictine monks. In the year 1010 A.D., Hakem, Khalif of Egypt, destroyed this building, as it was near the Church of the Resurrection; but when it was rebuilt, another hospice, together with the Church of S. Mary, was also founded. William of Tyre states[442] that "certain merchants of Amalfi, who had obtained the favour of the Governors of the cities of Syria by importing useful and needful goods and by their quiet and peaceable conduct, obtained permission from Belfagar (Abu-'l-Giafar?), Sultan of Egypt, to rebuild a monastery in the Christian quarter to receive pilgrims, minister to the sick, and practise every kind of charity." To this building and the church, which they dedicated to the Virgin Mary, they attached offices for the inmates, together with a public market, in which any one could establish a shop on paying a rent of two pieces of gold to the Patriarch and his clergy. This was opposite to the Church of the Resurrection, and a stone's throw to the south of the Church of the Invention of the Cross, as I have already said[443]. When the buildings were finished these merchants placed in them an Abbot with his attendant monks, and as these performed the service in Latin, while the rest of the clergy in the place followed the rites of the Greek Church, their church obtained the name of S. Mary Latin[444]. Afterwards the monks assigned to an order of nuns a convent which they had founded outside their property to the north, and dedicated to S. Mary Magdalene; giving it the name of S. Mary Latin the Less; but these institutions always bore the name of 'Latin[445].' In course of time the number of pilgrims became larger, so that the monks were obliged to increase their accommodation, and built a hospital and another church to the west, which they dedicated to S. John, Patriarch of Alexandria, called 'the Almsgiver,' from the noble liberality with which he had succoured the Christians who had taken refuge in Egypt, when Palestine was invaded by Chosroes II. This new foundation was supported by abundant alms, collected in Italy by the help of the Amalfi merchants.