Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/423

This page needs to be proofread.

JERUSALEM


361


JERUSALEM


XVII, 1). The description of Arculf, a Frankish bishop who went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the seventh century, written down from his accoimt by Adamnan, monk of lona (d. 704); "De locis terrae sanctie", lib. Ill (P. L., LXXXVIII, 725 sq.), gives us a not unpleasant picture of the conditions of Christians in Palestine in the first period of Moslem rule. The caliphs of Damascus (661-750) were en- lightened and tolerant princes, on quite good terms with their Christian subjects. Many Christians (e. g. St. John Damascene, d. c. 754) held important offices at their court. The Abbaside caliphs at Bagdad (753-1242), as long as they ruled Syria, were also just and tolerant to the Christians. The famous Harun Abu-Ja-'afar (Haroun al-Raschid, 786-809) sent the keys of the Holy Sepulchre to Charles the Great, who built a hospice for Latin pilgrims near the shrine. Revolutions and rival dynasties that tore the union of Islam to pieces then made Syria the battle-ground of the Moslem world; the Christians under new masters began to suffer the oppression that eventually led to the Crusades.

In 891 the sect of the Karamita (Carmathians) under Abu-Said al-jannabi arose in tlae neighbour- hood of Kufa. They defeated the troops of the Caliph Al-Mutazid (Ahmed Abu'l Abbas), entered Syria (903-904) and devastated the province. They seized Mecca and prevented the pilgrims from going there from 929 to 950, when they were finally destroyed. During this time Moslems again began to go in pil- grimage to Jerusalem instead of to the Hijaz. The religious importance that the city thus gained for them was the beginning of intolerance towards the Christians there. It is the invariable result in Islam; the more sacred a place is to Moslems the less they are disposed to tolerate unbelievers in it. The Fatimide dynasty now arose in Africa (90S). About the year 967 they got possession of Egypt. Meanwhile a frontier war with the empire went on always. The Romans took ativantage of the dismemberment of the Moslem world to invade their former provinces. Already in 901, in the reign of Leo VI (886-911), the Roman armies had advanced into Syria as far as Aleppo and had carried off a great number of prison- ers. In 962 Nicephorus Phocas with 100,000 men again came as far as Aleppo and devastated the country. In 96S and 969 the Romans reconquered Antioch. It was inevitable that the Christians of Jerusalem should try to help their fellow-countrymen to reconquer the land that had been Roman and Christian; inevitable, too, that the Moslems should punish such attempts as high treason. In 969 the patriarch, John VII, was put to death for treasonable correspondence with the Romans; many other Chris- tians suffered the same fate, and a number of churches were destroyed. Meanwhile the first wave of the great Turkish race (the Seljuks) was pouring over the caliph's empire. In 934 a Turk, Ikshid, revolted and his successors held Palestine for a few years. In 969 Mu-'ezz-li-Dln-.\llah, the fourth Fatimide Caliph in Egypt, conquered Jerusalem. A Moslem pilgrim, Al-Muqaddasi, wrote a description of the city, espe- cially of the Haram ash-sharif, at this time (quoted by Le Strange, "Palestine under the Moslems," 1890). The infamous Hakim (Al-Hakim bi-amr- Allah, the sixth Egj'ptian Caliph, 996-1021, who be- came the god of the Druses) determined to destroy the Holy Sepulchre. This was really only one inci- dent in his persecution of Christians: his excuse was that the miracle of the holy fire (already practised in his time) was a scandalous imposture. In 1010 the buildings erected by Modestus were burned to the ground. The news of their destruction, brought back by pilgrims, caused a wave of indignation throughout Europe. It was one of the causes of the feeling that eventually brought about the first Crusade. Mean- while funds were collected to rebuild the sanctuary.


The Emperor Constantine IX (1042-1054) persuaded the Caliph Al-Mustansir-bi-llah (1036-1094) to allow the rebuilding on condition of releasing 5000 iMoslem prisoners and of allowing prayer for Al-Mustansir in the mosques in the empire (Lane-Poole, "Hist, of Egypt in the Middle Ages," London, 1901, p. 136). Byzantuie architects were sent to Jerusalem. The rebuilding was finished in 1048. The work of Modes- tus was restored with a few additions, hurriedly and not well (Conder, op. cit., p. 262). The Holy Sepul- chre remained in this state till the crusaders replaced it by the present group of buildings (1140-1149).

In 1030 merchants of Amalfi were able to establish themselves permanently in Jerusalem. They had leave to trade freely with the people of Palestine, built a church (S. Maria Latina), a Benedictine mon- astery, and a hospice for pilgrims. In 1077 the Seljuk Turks became masters of Palestine. From this time the condition of the Christians became unbearable. The Turks forbade Christian services, devastated churches, murdered pilgrims. It was the news of these outrages that provoked the Council of Clermont (1095) and brought the crusaders in 1099. The pa- triarchal succession after Sophronius was: (The see vacant from Sophronius's death to 705. Meanwhile Stephen of Dora acted as papal vicar for Palestine); John V (705-735); John VI (735-760, possibly the same person as John V); Theodore (760 -c. 770); Eusebius (772); Elias II (driven out in 784, d. c. 800); (meanwhile for a time Theodore occupied the see); George of Sergius (800-807); Thomas (807-821); Basil (821-842); Sergius (S42-C. 859); Solomon (C.S59-C. 864); Theodo.sius (c. S64-c. 879); Elias III (c. 879-907); Sergius II (907-911); Leo or Leontius (911-928); AxiastasiusorAthanasius; Nicholas; Chris- topher of Christodorus (d. 937); Agatho; Jolm VII (murdered 969); Christopher II; Thomas II; Joseph II; Alexander; Agapius (986-?); Jeremias or Orestes (banished and murdered c. 1012); Theophilus; Ar- senius (c. 1024) ; Jordanus; Nicephorus; Sophronius II; Mark II; Euthymius II (d. 1099).

Smith, Jerusalem, 2 vols. (Loadon. 1907) — the most exhaus- tive work on the histor\' and topography of the city; Coxder, The City of Jerusalem (London, 1909); Besant .ind P.alhek, Jerusalem (London. 19()S); Wilson, J erusalem, the Holy City (London, 1888); Warren and Conder, Survey of Western Palestine, Jerusalem CLondon, 1884); Quarterly Statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1869-1892), index; Sepp, Jerusalem und das heilige Land (lS73);NutcKjAufbiblischenPfaden (1885),

§p. 488-507: Die Hauptfragen der Topographic Jerusalem's by chick; Zahn, Die dormitio S, Virginis und das Haus des Johannes Markus in the Neue kirchliche Zeitschrift (1S99), pp. 377 sq.: Willis, The architectural history of the Holy Sepulchre; De Vogue, Les eglises de ta Terre Sainte (Paris, 1860) ; Schegg, Die Bauten Konstantin's iiber dem h. Grabe (Freising, 1867); Jeffrey, The Buildings of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. (London, 1888); Momhert, Die h. Grabeskirche zu Jerusalem in ihrem urspriinglichen Zustande (Leipzig, 1898); Fergusson, The Holy Sepulchre and the Temple at Jerusalem (London, 1865): Clermont-Ganneau, Vauthenticite du Saint-Sepulchre (Paris, 1877); Geyer, Itinera hierosolymitana Scec. IV-VII (Vienna, 1898), in Corp. Script, eccl. Latin.; Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems (London. 1890): Vailhe, L'erec- tion du patriarcat de Jerusalem in the Revue de L'Orient chrctien (1899), pp. 44 sq.; Lequien, Oriens Christianus. Ill (Paris, 1740), 110, where the list of patriarchs will be found.

Adrian Fortescue.

III. The L.^tin Ivingdom op jERUi?.vLEM was founded, as a result of the First Crusade, in 1099. De- stroyed afirsttimebySaladin in 11 87, it was re-estab- lished around Saint-Jean d'Acre and maintained until the capture of that city in 1291. During these two centuries it was for Western Europe a genuine centre of colonization. As the common property of Christen- dom, it retained its international character to the end, although the French element predominated among the feudal lords and the government officials, and the Italians acquired the economic preponderance in the cities.

(1) Kings and Succession to the Throne. — Godfrey of Bouillon, elected Lord of Jerusalem, 22 July, 1099, did not assume the royal crown and died IS July,