Palestine, or, the Holy Land: From the Earliest Period to the Present TimeRussell, Michael
History
Palestine, or, the Holy Land: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time
Russell, Michael
Palestine -- Description and travel; Palestine -- History
Mecca, and was gravely assured by an eminent Moulah, that no such person
could ever incur the hazard of everlasting damnation.
We merely mention the names of Breidenbach of Mentz, and of Martin
Baumgarten, who in the beginning of the sixteenth century achieved a
journey into the Holy Land. The latter of these, while passing through
Egypt, was most barbarously treated by the Saracen boys, who pelted him
with dirt, brickbats, stones, and rotten fruit. At Hebron he was shown the
field "were it is said, or at least guessed, that Adam was made;" but the
reddish earth of which it is composed is now used in the manufacture of
prayer-beads.
The work of Bartholemeo Georgewitz, who travelled in the same century,
gives a melancholy account of the miseries endured by such Christians as
were carried into slavery by the Turks in those evil days. The armies of
that nation were followed by slave-dealers supplied with chains, by means
of which fifty or sixty were bound in a row together, leaving only two
feet between to enable them to walk. The hands were manacled during the
day, and at night the feet also. The sufferings inflicted upon men of
rank, and those belonging to the learned professions, were almost beyond
description; extending not only to the lowest labours of the field, but
even to the work of oxen, being sometimes yoked like these animals in the
plough. Owing to the great rivers and arms of the sea, it was extremely
difficult for those who were sent into Asia to effect their escape;
whence, in many cases, the horrors of captivity had no other limits than
those of the natural life. No wonder that Bartholemeo recommends to every
one visiting those parts to make his will, "like one going not to the
earthly, but to the heavenly Jerusalem."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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