Nine years after this, Jerusalem was taken by Khaled, one of Omar's generals. Omar being apprised of this success of his arms, immediately set out to visit the Holy City. He was attended in his journey by a numerous retinue. He rode upon a red camel, and carried with him two sacks of provision and fruits. Before him he had a leather bottle containing water, and behind him a wooden platter, out of which many of his retinue ate in common with himself. His clothes were made of camels' hair, and were in a very tattered condition; and the figure he made was mean and sordid to the last degree. On the morning after his arrival, he said prayers and preached to his troops. After the conclusion of his sermon, he pitched his tent within sight of the city. There he signed the articles of capitulation; by which the inhabitants were entitled to the free exercise of their religion, the possession of their property, and his protection. It continued under the caliphs of Bagdad till A.D. 868, when it was taken by a Turkish sovereign of Egypt; during the space of two hundred and twenty years it was subject to several masters, Turkish and Saracenic; and in 1099, it was taken by the crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, who was elected king. He was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, who died A.D. 1118, and having no son, his eldest daughter, Melisandra, conveyed the kingdom into her husband's family. In A.D. 1188, Saladin, sultan of the East, captured the city, assisted by Raymond, count of Tripoli, who was found dead in his bed on the morning of the day on which he was to have delivered up the city. It was restored in 1242 to the Latin princes by Salah Ismael, emir of Damascus. They lost it in 1291 to the sultans of Egypt, who held it till 1382. Selim, the Turkish sultan, reduced Egypt and Syria, including Jerusalem, in 1517, and his son Solyman built the present walls in 1534. It continues to the present day under the Turkish dominion, fulfilling the prophecy, that it "should be trodden down of the Gentiles." It is not, therefore, only in the history of Josephus, and in other ancient writers, that we are to look for the accomplishment of Christ's prediction; we see them verified at this moment before our eyes, in the desolate state of this once celebrated city and temple, and in the present condition of the Jewish people; not collected together into any one country, into one political society, and under one form of government, but dispersed into every region of the globe, and everywhere treated with contumely and scorn. We now proceed to give some account of the city, as it now stands, from various travellers who have visited it; confining ourselves, however, almost entirely to what may be called its antiquities. The following particulars in regard to the approach to Jerusalem are from the pen of Mr. Robinson.