Arab Historians of the Crusades (Routledge Revivals) by Gabrieli Francesco;

Author:Gabrieli, Francesco;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

CONCERNING THE ORATORY OF DAVID AND OTHER NOBLE SANCTUARIES. THE CHURCHES ARE SUPPRESSED AND ‘MADRASAS’ INSTITUTED

The Oratory of David outside the Masjid al-Aqsa was in a fortified stronghold near the city gate. It was set up on high in a commanding position, and was used by the governor. The Sultan took charge of its restoration and established there an imām, muezzins and guards. It is a centre for the pious, the goal of visitors morning and evening. It was Saladin who gave it new life and beauty and enabled visitors to enjoy it. As well as this, he gave orders for all the mosques to be renovated and all the sanctuaries to be guarded, and for the goals aimed at to be achieved under happy auspices, and for the water to be purified for the benefit of travellers and pilgrims. The place where this fortress was built had been the house of David and Solomon (God’s blessing on both of them), where people went to find them. Al-Malik al-‘Adil had encamped in the Church of Zion and his troops were at its gates. The Sultan’s household, pious scholars and men of virtue, spoke to him about establishing a madrasa for Shafi‘ite lawyers1 and a convent for sufis; he set aside for the use of the madrasa the church dedicated to Saint John near the Gate of the Tribes, and for the convent the Patriarch’s house near the Church of the Resurrection. He endowed both liberally, thus benefiting both these communities. He also set aside sites for madrasas for the various (other) communities, to add to the benefits they had already received. He had the Church of the Resurrection closed to Christian visitors even as a refuge. Many discussions were held with him about its fate; some advised him to demolish it and abolish all trace of it, making it impossible to visit, removing its statutes, driving away its errors, extinguishing its lights, destroying its Testaments, eliminating its false allurements, declaring its affirmations to be lies. ‘When its buildings are destroyed,’ they said, ‘and it is razed to the ground, and its sepulchre opened and destroyed, and its fires spent and extinguished, and its traces rubbed out and removed, and its soil ploughed up, and the Church scattered far and wide, then the people will cease to visit it, and the longings of those destined to damnation will no longer turn to seeing it, whereas if it is left standing the pilgrimage will go on without end.’ But the majority said: ‘Demolishing and destroying it would serve no purpose, nor would it prevent the infidels from visiting it or prevent their having access to it. For it is not the building as it appears to the eyes but the home of the Cross and the Sepulchre that is the object of worship. The various Christian races would still be making pilgrimages here even if the earth had been dug up and thrown into the sky. And when ‘Umar, prince of the

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